Hey, remember when Axel Alonso said that the creative teams on the Marvel NOW! titles were solid and “85-90% of the time, the artist who draws #1 will be the regular artists on the title”? That last part may be being walked back a little. In last Friday’s Axel-In-Charge at CBR, Alonso addressed the changing art teams on books again:
It’s nothing new. We build all our accelerated-shipping series with a core artist and a complementary swing artist. It’s an inexact science, but we work with the writer to make it as seamless as possible. Speaking from experience, when I edited “Deadpool,” Paco Medina and Carlo Barberi — fantastic artists whose styles were complimentary — were my rotation. It was so fluid I could sometimes split up one arc between them without the readers feeling that the “actors” had changed mid-story. While this is standard operating procedure, I do want to stress that the books are firmly in the hands of one writer, whose long-term vision for the title — and whose involvement in the art assignments — anchors the series. We’re not playing musical chairs. We have faith in our writers.
What happened to the “85-90% of the time” that the original series artists will be the regular artist? It’s possible that he might have forgotten it this time, but also that that’s turning out not to be the case; John Cassaday has already been replaced as Uncanny Avengers regular artist after the first four issues, and when asked about Steve Dillon’s future on Thunderbolts, Alonso says that he “maybe” will come back. Should we be expecting more artistic shake-ups in future announcements?
January 14th, 2013 at 1:10 pm
“Should we be expecting more artistic shake-ups in future announcements?”
yes
January 14th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
While it is admirable that the plan is to have a writer with a long term vision, a long term artist teamed with the writer is much more attractive (to me at least). When reading a story which is more desirable, one cohesive looking book or a mishmash of looks? Loaded question obviously, but there are other factors at play, artist being on the same wavelength as the writer, artist “getting” what the writer is trying put to the page. There are examples of good rotations (the Medina/Barberi is a good one) and the current B. Wood Conan book has some good rotation, but sometimes it doesn’t work (Morrison’s B&R run with the bad Phillip Tan art, Remender’s UXF Otherworld art with bad Tocchini art).
January 14th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Changing artists to save money, meet deadlines, etc. Its a comic writers world, nothing new.
January 14th, 2013 at 3:57 pm
I think Artist rotation is fine, but It does elevate the writer over the artist somewhat, in terms of vision. both are important to the feel of the book.
That said, If marvel keeps the double shipping up, its necessary to make changes, and there could be worse replacements!