I have a bone to pick with Teen Titan's artist
By Zdaybreak 6 Comments
The art is an eyesore. I have no clue what DC's management was thinking, letting Teen Titans be drawn by this horrible artist, out of all the potential artists they could've approached..they chose Booth instead...The artwork and design probably turns off some potential readers from the series.
My personal complaint has to mainly do with the character designs. Red Robin's wings seem a bit like a Hawkman or Golden Eagle ripoff. The Spidergirl reminds me of Doc Oc, and I have no clue why her hair is standing out like she gelled it that way, unless of course, she could somehow use her hair as a weapon(like how tarantulas shoot off their bristles/hair to fend off predators). Wally's hair looks like a mohawk sometimes and I don't understand the need to add red to the head of his costume when his hair color is already red. It just doesn't go together.
Bunker...well, his costume could've been better(I just really didn't find luchadore wrestler outfit appealing, especially with those colors), and Superboy...no, just no. Out of all the cool outfits that Brett could've given Superboy, he gave him black tights and a v-cut tank top. Is Superboy supposed to be a male ballerina or something? No? Then why does he look like one?
Also, the way Brett draws faces...I somehow feel that the characters look more like gorrilas(face-wise) than humans. Probably has to do with the way the colorist outlines the nose and the fact that Brett needs to start learning how to facial anatomy, body anatomy and proper perspective. In the cover of Teen Titans #1, despite Spidergirl and Wally being in the front of the group, Superboy's body(and I mean head and everything, not just his super muscled arms) is much larger than Wally's. Wonder girl and Robin, since they are posed to be behind Superboy, should be a bit smaller. Overall, the cover looks like Brett drew every character on individual pieces of paper and then someone did a crappy photoshop job to bring them together. His art just makes just about every panel look a bit awkward and I can't wait for DC to get another artist on the book..and while they're at it, give Superboy to another artist too. The artwork in Superboy just feels..a little too round and all the characters look baby-faced(even the old man who tries to carry out Superboy's "abortion" looks baby-faced). The fault is also with the colorist and how she/he neglected to add shadow angles to everyone's faces; cheekbones and jaw muscles are sorta non-existent in the book.
Anyhow, this is just an observation by an amateur reader, so my opinion counts for little, but after being exposed to the many talented artists in comics(namely Hawkman's artist, Jim Lee, Kenneth Rocafort, Aquaman's artist and more) my criteria and expectations for a comic artist has risen, and seeing such horrible art for Teen Titans really turned me off, which makes me a bit upset/angry, since I loved Lobdell's work in Red Hood and the Outlaws and really wanted to get into his other two series, but the artwork...it just made the reading experience less enjoyable and more painful. I have to try to force myself to like the characters, which I can't, because they look irritating. It's just..the body language, expressions, anatomy...it's horrible when it all comes together. Comics rely on both artwork and writing to tell a story, and when the writing delivers but the art fails then the comic gets an F rating, since it only received a grading of 50%. I'm really sorry for Lobdell, since he got saddled with these two. DC should've given him better artists.