He's my problem with Greg Land. He plagiarizes. Traces other artists works, I mean, some people accuse Land of tracing, sure, but quite a few artists do, or seem to, David Mack, Salvador Larroca, Deodato so on, I don't really mind artists who trace, some of them I like, if they use stock images, take their own photos, trace their own art, but we can see and identify where and how Greg Land traces from other professional artists, just not in a way that would get Marvel into legal issues, hence… they are okay with it and its a blurry subject, I mean, lots of artists reference each other, and themselves. Not many people make a bigger deal out of it either… so is it okay? He seems to work fast, which is another plus.
Stylistically? Eh, thats more nuanced, though I am still generally not a fan, tracing from photos isn't a good way to get the illusion of momentum/movement in comics unless you have really good reference material, and because we don't have a lot of photo material of actual super model level pretty super athletic woman flying around with strong confident smiles, Land will have to use other references and then mix, match, cut and paste. Look at the panel with Psylockes legs and the perspective there its… artists who draw more stylistically, even if they use references, they have to use their imaginations and knowledge of proportions and anatomy to use perspective well, in conjunction with how lighting affects that, to give an illusion of speed, movement, momentum and then force and impact. Which helps give characters weight and presence. Makes a panel dynamic despite being a 2D illustration.
What Lands style is generally good for… is comics where… well basically Phoenix Endsong, where you have less action, and a lot of beautiful, sexy, pretty, pouty characters, standing around looking pretty, pouty, distressed, happy, and so on, which there is a lot of photo material of, fashion magazines, guys magazines, art magazines, uh erotic magazines, and because Endsong was basically the characters waxing poetic about life, death, resurrection, friendship, loss, heartbreak, personal connections, jealousy, friendship, and mostly verbal disagreements and talking heads, it played to all of Greg Lands strengths as an artist. He draws big fiery birds really well because you guess it, slap on some flame filters to illustrations of things that have wings and feathers makes those things look really cool and badass.
So I am not here to "hate" on Greg Land, or people who like his art. I loved his art in Endsong. Some of my favorite artists have similar problems with their art, and I like it for other reasons, they might use color better or something. Also, many many artists who I can tell are objectively amazing with their art, their depiction of momentum, their skills to do with anatomy, proportions, or consistency, that I find boring as well. Recognizing skill doesn't necessary make you like an image. Alternatively this book… uh, I do not like the preview. Mostly because of the art. Some cool panels mind you, the punch through windshield, has great momentum and lighting, the last panel go Psylocke, but everything else… makes me to not want to get the book. I am just one person though, I doubt the larger majority shares my position. Still, that why such threads exist right, so we can express our position on such matters. I do miss Simone Bianchi, Clay Mann, the Mike Choi/Sonia Oback combo drawing X-Men books.
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