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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 12:02pm | IP Logged | 1
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JB, is there a "most fun" part of creating a new character? Whether it's coming up with the name, the look, the abilities, or how that character is meant to fit into the story, I imagine there's a part you like best.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | 2
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Designing the look of the character, probably.
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 2:49pm | IP Logged | 3
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That's cool! That might be one of the best places to display one's creativity in all of comics; a great design can become iconic pretty readily.
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | 4
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And a poor design can become one that wiseguys will later keep bringing back!
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | 5
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Character design seems like it *should* be easy but man, there are designs that are just crazy-complicated and others that don't age well... and then there are the classics that are timeless.I guess it's one of those "oh jeez" moments when a design that isn't a favorite comes back around.
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | 6
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The industry went through a long period of counterintuitive costume designs, with characters being festooned with all kinds of superfluous straps and buckles and pouches. This before it became cool to don leather coats and jackets over conventional costumes. All come from a drift away from the internal logic of the stories. Writers and artists, embarrassed by what they were doing, trying to make the outfits “realistic “. Something that seeped in from Hollywood. But superhero costumes were never meant to be realistic, any more than were the circus costumes that were their inspiration. They were meant to be bold, dramatic, eye-catching.
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Brian Miller
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | 7
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JB, what do you consider your best design? Your worst?
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Brennan Voboril
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | 8
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I particularly liked the Next Men's alternate costume designs, and those of the team that were a creation of the small creature with the big head (I forget his name). And I really loved the Magneto X-Men team in the Broken Mirror arc in Elsewhen.
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | 9
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The Next Men had good, solid designs-- outfits that gave them a distinct, unified identity but were also practical. And it's a really great point about the visuals of a costume versus "realism" the way some artists were doing it in the '90s and early '00s. Comics have the chance to be more-than-real in ways movies and TV don't; a look at how many comic book costumes are adapted is abundant proof.
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Andrew Bitner
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | 10
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I guess maybe the "acid test" of a design is when another artist draws it, though I'd also guess it gives the creator a moment of "oh man, I hope they don't screw it up."
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Paul Wills
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | 11
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Writers and artists, embarrassed by what they were doing, trying to make the outfits “realistic “. Something that seeped in from Hollywood.---------------------------------------------- I've always thought this. I had wondered why the need to make a fantasy genre more 'realistic'. For me, this took away the element of escapism (and fun!). Recently I saw a post that had a picture of John Buscema's drawing of a character with comic book style boots and a picture of someone's recent drawing of a boot with all of these detailed laces and tread and they made the point this was the reason comics couldn't come out on time - artists spending too much energy on insignificant detail.
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Eric Jansen
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| Posted: 23 May 2023 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | 12
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So, much about art is drawing, painting, sculpting the human body. The old masters did nudes, but comic books figured out from the get-go that you could draw the human form and put some lines at the neck and wrists and the form was no longer nude! Now you could draw the human body AND add bold colors! It was an amazing development in the history of art!
Even in recent years, my favorite hero Captain America was being drawn in his comic to look like the movies somewhat with what looked like a helmet (we're lucky if the wings were even painted on), ski boots, body armor, etc.--no musculature at all! Worst of all, no pirate boots!! And don't get me started on Jim Lee's New 52 redesign of DC's big guns and gave them all mandarin collars and thin body armor lines that conflicted with the muscle lines!! That must have aggravating for all the other artists who had to follow that the next few years.
Now, there's plenty of room in comics for things like Michael Lark doing a realistic take on a detective story or something, and then the artist can revel in the cloth and folds, etc.
But, yeah, don't abandon the beauty of the form because you're embarrassed by what you do.
Edited by Eric Jansen on 23 May 2023 at 11:01pm
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