Marvel Comics blabbery

XPOST

They got a comic for the winners in the world
I want a comic when they lose

I'm with bg, Slott gets that even when Spider-Man was in the depths of Ditko-style stories of learning about individual responsibility that he was still *fun* which is something a lot of Spider-Man comics forgot. When I was a kid there seemed like there was an A storyline where Spider-Man had the better creative team but was still becoming increasingly grimdark post-Venom, and the B stories (Spectacular and Web of Spider-Man) where it was just him beating up the Kingpin's goons or family and punching hired thugs with guns

They'll winnow out some of these characters eventually, but now they have:
- Peter, who is an actual adult who can succeed as an intelligent scientist dude. He can build things in his life without perpetually working a myriad of jobs and never getting ahead in a relationship/career after the Doc Ock being a better Parker loophole
- Miles, who is still a kid and has to balance family and school
- Cindy (Silk) who is Peter's age but has no real world experience so she's stringing along jobs and always on the verge of being fired Parker-style

Then there's Spider-Gwen and all the alternate universe shenanigans of Web Warriors

Ward, Cindy and Miles are your losers :)

I guess, TBF once again, I can't really remember any other sadistic moments in Slott's near-decade of writing Spider-Man so it's probably unfair to treat a single panel featuring dead Amazing Friends as a sign of the same mental illness that Geoff Johns demonstrates on the regular.

the best gimmick was visiting the newspaper strip's universe, where nobody could get anything done because they kept halfway resetting and summarizing dialogue from the previous three panels

yeah, slott's consistent efforts to deepen and expand spider-man's supporting cast have been super-welcome, not just through introducing new powered and unpowered characters but through doing new things with existing ones, like jjj becoming mayor or aunt may finding a love interest who isn't a supervillain. it's textbook 'illusion of change' stuff but it really works

Heard that Geoff Johns made some jabs at his fellow creators for being too grimdark in the most recent DC reboot.

GEOFF JOHNS: 'no-one out-dismembers geoff johns!'

*turns over a table, runs out of the room weeping*

Ok! I'm going to check out some more Slott things then.

I was going to see if I could find an image from the issue where Peter Parker retakes his body from Doc Ock and might post it later. It was cheesy at some level but incredibly heartfelt -- Peter returns to consciousness as a gestalt of all his memories that Otto was keeping around. He recognizes that his life has had its ups and terrible downs but that so much of it was *fun*.

Recognizing that he loves being Spider-Man *and* Peter Parker works past all of the darkness of so many years of him neglecting parts of his life or feeling he has to sacrifice in a way that breaks him. That he can embrace the fact that he doesn't shy away from sacrifice without it wrecking that inner joy.

Part of my aversion to that Dr Octopus storyline is the absolute certainty that it inspired lots of disgusting porn.

I just checked to see if there's Trump cartoon porn and indeed there is.

if that's your criteria for consuming media then i think you've basically ensured you'll never watch / read / play anything ever again

(also i really don't mean this unkindly or mean-spiritedly, i promise, but do you realise how often you bring up porn on unrelated threads on ilx?)

he's just keeping us up-to-date

I do realise.

However pure Slott's intentions might be, I'd never be able to shake off the suspicion that he's doing a Claremont, Byrne, Piers Anthony, Jack Chalker thing. Grosses me out.

cool

having actually read the story in question, i'd have to say that if slott is getting his jollies from pushing doc ock into spider-man's unwilling mind he's doing a much better job of hiding his intentions than the guys you mentioned

Slott has had good luck with artists? Didn't he get Humberto Ramos? Not lucky.

Well, I do at least agree with you on that point. I want to set Ramos up with a really nice job that pays him as much as he's currently making but that involves no drawing ever again for the rest of forever.

Land & Ramos Party Planning Inc. has a nice ring to it, I think.

It's okay not to bring up porn in every thread. Really.

ironically though he got yelled at for bringing up porn IN the porn thread, so what can he do at this point

Keep it to TMI?

Land, Ramos, and whoever's coloured JR JR's comics since 2004

98% of comics colorists.

Really disliked that black coat and shades Dr Octopus design Ramos did.

Who are the better artists working for Marvel these days?

(*don't type greg land as a joke, don't type greg land as a joke...*)

Greg Land

I dunno, I kinda prefer the artists that Greg Land traces over.</pornojoke>

I want to do a parody of a Land comic where all of the characters are barely-altered lightboxed illustrations of old-school blow-up dolls.

greg land is beyond parody tbh

I'm not a fan but I'm not sure why people hate his work so much more than other similar artists. I've never read any of his comics. I guess it's the sometimes awkward integration of photo reference into his work? I've mostly seen cover art by him.

http://comicsalliance.com/files/2013/08/Monica.png

It's not just that it looks like it's swiped from a (probably caucasian) porn star, but take a look at the thigh gap. And also, this was an Al Ewing book, and the cast was supposed to be more 'progressive' than other books.

He does the awkward photo reference thing constantly. It's like rotoscoped spank mag fumetti with hastily-sketched masks and capes.

Also he's just bad and lazy.

https://cdn.bleedingcool.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/the-thing.jpg

Just now realized where her neck sits on her torso... That's not healthy.

I'm guessing it's swiped from two different porn stars now.

now i'm wondering whether theres's a porn star who looks like the thing

if only we had a dedicated ilx porn correspondent who could address my question

Maybe he was drawing Monica mid-cabbage patch

First example does like a tad like Mia Khalifa but I doubt I know most of the stuff Greg Land looks at. I don't watch lamestream porn and I don't read lamestream comics. Those panels are pretty bad.

But honestly most of the porn stuff I talk about are things I dislike intensely but I find it interesting in the same way I find right wing trends interesting. Just a lot of morbidly fascinating behaviour that tells you a lot about bigots.

I promise soon I'll be back to blabbing about Art Zoyd, Supersister, Summoning and goth bands.

i wouldn't even mind the photo-reference so much if land could actually tell a decent sequential story using those materials, but he's not talented enough to turn a series of pin-up photos into anything other than a series of pin-up drawings

thanks for the new screenname, rag!

Teehee

Greg Land drew what I thought was a pretty cool rendition of Pixie until I realized she was only supposed to be like, 13

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Land#Critical_reception

he openly admits to using porn as source material!

btw I only mentioned him to clown a certain line of conversation and let's keep him out of our minds

I'm all-too-happy to do so, particularly since I can only seem to envision him drawing pantsless.

This thread has been vomited upon by a moderator

his lower half is suspiciously absent from view in one of the few pictures i could find of him online, lending credence to your theory

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/a/ad/Greg_Land_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070103155707

http://jimsmashextended.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/greg-land-tracing-swiping-recycling.html?m=1

My favourite, not in that collection, was when he traced the #1 GIS for Angry Old Woman.

I guess if you're going to go for it, go bold

I mean, comic book artists have used real models and photo reference for decades (that's Milton Caniff below) so I don't think it's necessarily wrong for Land to use porn as a reference - I'm guessing it's a good way to 'study' the undraped male and female body - just that in his case, the original source is far too obvious and ludicrously, needlessly sexualised (beyond the sexualisation that is an inherent part of all superhero costuming). Also, he's crap.

http://art.cafimg.com/images/Category_2953/subcat_145322/caniffphotodragonlady.jpg

As in Caniff paid a model and photographer to create specific poses for photo reference? That sounds like a lot of work when you can google "sexy woman legs crossed"

I'm waiting for the next level of Greg Land-style work where someone just hunts through pictures of cosplayers at comic conventions against solid color backdrops

I suppose it's to Land's credit that he's never accidentally traced any body fluid spillage.