Make Comic Book Art Great Again

I'm an old-school guy. As such, I really like and admire old-school art. In this particular case, I'm not talking about Rembrandt or Van Gogh, I'm talking Jack Kirby, John Buscema, and Herb Trimpe. You know, the greats. Old-school comic book art. There have been varying opinions about this. Some say it's because comic artists today are rushed to churn out a certain number of pages/books, and as a result, quality has gone down. Of course, another popular opinion is that over the years art styles and tastes have simply changed. A prime example of this is the comic art of the '90s.

Now, the 90s was a tumultuous time for comics. The comic market was glutted with foil, hologram, and die-cast covers, variants, and all manner of gimmicky storylines like Clone Spider-Man (which I hated), the Death of Superman, and the speculator bubble that eventually burst and nearly collapsed the whole market. And then there was the art. One of the things that defined the 1990s comic market was the hyper-exaggerated art. I realize that superhero comics by nature are hyperbolic but the 90s added an extra dose of hyper. Check out some of this cover art from my personal collection:

Cyber Force #4 from Image Comics. Foil cover, from my personal collection.

Mullet hair? check. Chains and spikes? check. These traits typify comics in the 90s, but perhaps none moreso than the trend of guns, more guns, and pockets with even more pockets. Just look at Cable in the following screenshot:

Cable: All Guns, no Roses...

He's got more pouches than a troop of kangaroos. The biggest gripe about 90's era comics has to be the art. Just check out exhibit 'a' in the opening image. That's the much-maligned Captain America side pose drawn by none other than 90s comic art poster boy Rob Liefeld. Just note the chest musculature, which for the lack of a better word is extremely exaggerated. For years now, there have been many, many, memes online poking fun at Rob Liefeld's particular take on human anatomy; case in point is the image below:

Nope. It doesn't work that way at all. Yet, Liefeld was one of the premier comic artists/creators of the 90s era, creating Youngblood and later the ever-popular Deadpool. But by now I've picked on 90s-era comic art and Rob Liefeld enough. Here we are now in late 2023 and I'm left wondering has comic art really improved? Now don't get me wrong, there are some truly great comic artists out there right now. But at the same time, there are some who have me wondering what they were up to when they were supposed to be drawing these books. My biggest gripe to date has been with the recent Knight Terrors storyline from DC Comics. This comic event features art from several artists, notably Stefano Nesi, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Caspar Wijngaard. Here's a cover shot of Knight Terrors #1:

Cover art from Knight Terrors #1 by DC Comics

I'm not sure what going on with those faces or those awkward anatomically incorrect poses. It's intended to be dramatic I'm sure, but it just makes the viewer feel...uneasy. I don't know; maybe this is an intentional effect, given that the heroes are supposed to have been sucked into a nightmare realm in this particular storyline. I kept looking for the art to improve as the story progressed but it just never did. I mean, look at this panel from Knight Terrors: Night's End

Panel from Knight Terrors: Nights End. What up with Superman's face-or his arms-or his shoulders?

I don't even know what to make of this, except that maybe the nightmare ain't over. But with all this said, I don't want to leave you with the impression that old-school comic art was perfect; far from it. But art from the golden, silver, and even bronze age of comics had a dynamism that in my opinion is lacking in today's art. Just look at this panel below from a bronze-age issue of The Incredible Hulk by artist Herb Trimpe.

Is it a perfectly rendered, proportionally correct drawing? Not really. But the image gives a powerful vibrance that most viewers and long-time comic fans have come to associate with the Hulk and none of the weirdness we see from those Knight Terrors panels or impossible anatomy from the '90s ala Liefeld. or consider the sublime art of John Buscema. Even a simple comic panel by him looks like a frame-worthy museum piece compared to much of the art seen in comics nowadays. Just look at these panels from The Mighty Thor vol. 2, issue 9.

Thor vs Replicus from Mighty Thor vol.2 issue 9. Pencils by John Buscema, inked here by Geof Isherwood. The panels in the original comic are inked by Jerry Ordway.

And I'd be remiss if I failed to cite examples of art from the King himself- Jack Kirby. There are few artists today who manage to capture the raw energy of a panel penciled or penned by the King.

Cap is hammered by a heavy blow.By Jack Kirby

Now don't get me wrong; I don't expect every comic artist today to display the grace and elegance of John Buscema or the raw power and energy of Jack Kirby or Herb Trimpe. But am I wrong for wanting an issue of my favorite comic magazine to look like the artist actually cared about what he/she/they were doing, especially when comics now cost nearly $5.00 a copy as opposed to the 25 cents they were when I first began reading many years ago? Somehow, I just don't think that's too much to ask. Please, guys. Make comic book art great again.