I can’t get into it. Sorry.
March 16th, 2008 by david brothersI’m with Hoatzin.
I love the idea of Brubaker and Fraction trading off arcs on Uncanny. I’m a Terry and Rachel Dodson fan. I think that they have an awesome style.
The only wrench in the works is Greg Land for me.
I’m not gonna lie– Land has a seriously sick art style. I used to dig it. His characters are realistic, though his action scenes are kinda stiff, but it’s aesthetically pleasing. Then I started noticing more and more weirdness. Didn’t I see this Storm two issues ago? Wasn’t this Wolverine from…? What’s with these facial expressions?
Land is a hard sell for me right now. Brubaker and Fraction are writing two of my favorite Marvel books and Land is the thing that will make or break it for me. Marvel released his cover for Uncanny 500 and it looks like more of the same.
Solenna, of SolArts.net, feels the same way, but she’s better than I am because she’s got proof and no small amount of skill in creating GIFs. Thanks to our own Hoatzin and FBB’s David Uzumeri in helping her source. Big ups to her for putting in all the leg work, so go to her site and show her some love.
The GIF’s 200-some k. Is that gonna lag anyone out? I figure that we’re all on broadband these days, so we can handle it, right? Direct: http://4thletter.net/gregland.gif
What is with this bringing back Daken crap? Does anyone like this character? Anyone at all? He’s the most embarrassing thing that came out of Marvel in 2007 from one of their most embarrassing books. He’s like a spoof of the 1990s FROM the 1990s that isn’t even funny anymore.
You and Hoatzin and Alanna are doing the Lord’s work here. Bless you.
Has anyone sent this link to Rich Johnston yet?
“I’m not gonna lie– Land has a seriously sick art style. I used to dig it. His characters are realistic, though his action scenes are kinda stiff, but it’s aesthetically pleasing. Then I started noticing more and more weirdness. Didn’t I see this Storm two issues ago? Wasn’t this Wolverine from…? What’s with these facial expressions?”
This is exactly it. It’s the reason why he still keeps getting work: It looks good on the surface. People glance at it and are wowed by how “realistic” and “detailed” the characters look, but once you really start paying attention to it you begin to notice the fakeness. I went through the same thing when I first saw his art on Ultimate Fantastic Four.
It should also be noted that he used to actually draw things himself (way back when he was working for DC). Apparently he noticed he could get away with being lazy.
I actually liked his Birds of Prey run. Seeing this stuff now is a bit painful.
Greg Land wins most talented tracer, 2008.
Once I started reading these things, and noticing the weird o-faces and such, it totally ruined him as an artist for me. When he first came back to Marvel and did Phoenix: End Song he was still drawing a lot of stuff himself, and it looked great. Since then though… more and more awkward (traced) characters.
This is making me nostalgic for the days when I thought Humberto Ramos was the worst the art on X-Men could get.
Oh Jesus, you made LITG.
Dude, where the fuck is Gambit on the Uncanny #500 cover? FAIL :P
That said, I miss old Sojourn!Greg Land. It was 78.3% less porny.
Because of the scattershot cut-n-paste method Land is obviously using here, the image has no sense of direction or flow. It’s like a bad elementary school collage made from magazine clippings glued willy-nilly about the page! C’mon Land — at least make some sort of effort!
Uhm there is a flow to the picture, all the characters are coming from the left, facing right or moving along a right path. That’s flow. I agree that a lot of those are in fact very similar but I can attest to several pieces of my own artwork involving multiple character in the same or nearly the same pose being able to be placed on top of one another. When you draw a particular pose enough times sometimes its faster to just do it that way. I dont know, maybe he did trace, but Im saying give him the benefit of the doubt.
Then again, we’re comic book fans, when are we rational? When DON’T we jump to conclusions?
Dartfin, this is not us jumping to conclusions. This is an artist with a well-documented history of tracing photos from magazines and re-using the same images over and over again. Just try Googling for it and you’ll see.
Also, there is no flow to that picture at all. It’s an assembly of characters in completely randomly decided poses, for absolutely no reason. Some of them are standing still while striking a pose. Some of them are flying upwards. Some of them are flying/running forwards. Some of them are moving off to the right. Some of them are moving off to the left. The entire compostion makes no sense. What are they even doing?
I’m telling you, people, he randomly places characters on backgrounds like a five year old with Colorforms.
Thanks SO much for the info. I am an original art collector and I was going to drop a small fortune to own the original art to this cover from Greg land himself. I only collect x men art so I didnt even know that this was going on with Gregs art as I havent been following him (I dont even read the ultimate stuff). I would have been pretty upset to sell off some of my favorite pieces to own a cover that is 50% or more traced! Thanks again!
[...] the Wizard World LA announcement of the new additions to the Uncanny X-Men creative teams, FBB and FBB followers reacted with similar opinions. We love the writers, but one of the artists makes us shake our [...]
I am really getting sick of the Greg Land bashing. Like its getting stupid. You guys are getting mad because he is copying his own work. And you guys are saying he traced some this work, but looking at the gif, many of the poses are not similar to the original. And then the Cassady one? Like no one can possibly have the same pose?
Don’t get me wrong, some of his stuff is pretty darn traced, like Pixie or Emma. But there are some pieces in that image are not traced, and are more used for referance.
And honestly? I would prefer to see an image with random poses for no purpose then just a whole bunch of characters standing around (Like Avengers: The Iniative). Its a lot more pleasing to the eye then just simple standing.
u mad?