Couple of comments on the art of S102 Posted by Positively MB on October 05, 2001 Hey, since everyone is writing their reviews on the comic, I decided to join the bandwagon. However, since I'm a better artist than a writer, I decided to critique the art rather than the story. I mean, posts have already been made about the story. Time to bring something else to the table. Anyway, here is my rating system: dud --> crap * --> bad ** --> average *** --> good **** --> excellent Now, with the comments. COVER Artists Penciler - Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante Inker - Nelson Ribeiro Colors and Separations - Josh D. Ray Spaz “goes boom” and delivers another simple cover. Not that I’m complaining, but it seems that Archie also shortened the cover deadline. Spaz has been drawing simple, more anime-ish covers since issue number 99. This time around, Sonic flees from a horde of Bombs. There is something that I cannot quite put my finger on with the expression of Sonic. It feels like he is not that scared neither of the Bombs nor at the explosions behind him. Or maybe it’s just me. The Bombs’ sadistic smiles and small eyes are freaky. On the whole, good cover design by Spaz, with Ribeiro once again doing the drawing justice when he inked it. The same thing cannot be said with the coloring though. While the printer was able to print the lightning effects and gradients with great ease, the shadow that covers Sonic looks as if it was printed with a dot-matrix printer. You can see the black and pink dots. The printer probably conflicted with the color that Josh assigned to the shadow. That is my major quarrel with the cover. RATING: > Art: *** (out of ****) > Inking: **** (out of ****) > Colors: *** (out of ****) Sonic Story – Family Dysfunction Or as I call it, the hugging story. What? Artists Penciler – Ron Lim Inker – Andrew Pepoy and Pam Eklund Colorist – Stephanie Vozzo Comments: Page 1, panel 3: Is it just me, or does it seem that Jules is kissing Uncle Chuck? The same problem occurs with Mina and her mother on page 2, panel 1. I guess Ron had a hard time visualizing the panel. However, the problem is fixed by page 5, panel 3 when Antoine hugs his father. Page 5, panel 2: Bunnie looks either very tired, or very old. Or maybe both. Page 7, panel 2: Heavy looks like a trash can. Maybe Oscar is somewhere inside. Well, Ron slightly improved. He addressed the major issues I had with his art in issue 101. Sally looks more on character this time around. Her body is slowly adapting to the furry dimensions and her snout is not as long as in the past two issues. However, Rotor’s head is still too small, and Antoine looks like he is going through anorexia. It seems that Ron is giving him a proportion similar to Sonic: small torso, long legs. I doubt that Sega had Antoine in mind when they redesigned Sonic for his Dreamcast debut. Same thing goes for St. John (or Sinyin, right Dan?), except that the skunk’s face has little resemblance to Art Mawhiney’s original model. Snively still looks odd, but not as bad as Nelson Ribeiro’s design. And what ever happened to Uncle Chuck’s ears? Hopefully Ron is working on expressing emotions during his break. That is the major issue he has right now, since he has almost adapted to the furry dimensions. Inking wise, both inkers did a good job. What we have come to expect from Andrew Pepoy and Pam Eklund. I find it intriguing that Stephanie Vozzo colors the gap left outside the panels. RATING: > Art: ** (out of ****) > Inking: *** + ½ (out of ****) > Colors: *** (out of ****) Knuckles Story – Life’s Realities Artists Pencilers – Dawn Best and Ken Penders Inker –Pam Eklund Colorist – Frank Gagliardo “One of the great frustrations in comics is when editors team-up artists whose styles just don't mix.” – Ken Penders I pulled that quote from Ken’s comments on the first issue of the Knuckles series. This quote has never been more appropriate. While Dawn’s art is as solid as ever, the inking ruined it. Why did Justin Gabrie assigned Pam Eklund in the first place? Why not assign someone else, like Harvo? Pam had her hands full with the Sonic story. True, so did Andrew Pepoy last issue, but since Dawn’s style lies between Manny Galan and Pat Spaziante, he is more compatible with her. Eklund seems to do her best work when she works with people with an American style. As a result, the art looks less polished. Rushed is a verb that comes to mind. Besides the bad inking job, I had some minor issues with Dawn and Ken’s work: Page 2, fourth panel; I got confused with the crater. At first, I thought it was part of the floating island. Page 3, second panel; was Knuckles’ face in the background really necessary? Side note: shades of Mecha-Knuckles on the bottom panel of page 5. Coloring wise, Frank tones down his usual work and does a straight foward job. While it's acceptable, some of the detail gets lost. Especially on the backgrounds. RATING: > Art: *** + ½ (out of ****) > Inking: * + ½ (out of ****) > Coloring: ** + ½ (out of ****) ------ Posted by BobR : On the whole, good cover design by Spaz, with Ribeiro once again doing the drawing justice when he inked it. The same thing cannot be said with the coloring though. While the printer was able to print the lightning effects and gradients with great ease, the shadow that covers Sonic looks as if it was printed with a dot-matrix printer. You can see the black and pink dots. The printer probably conflicted with the color that Josh assigned to the shadow. That is my major quarrel with the cover. Actually, I don't think so. Looking at the cover, I would say those "dots" were added during the final inking phase. Back in the time BC ("Before Computers") shadows for drawn images were added through the use of a dry transfer stencil. They were big sheets of various sized dots used to simulate levels of grey tones on a black and white image. Early printing presses couldn't print "gray", but could simulate it by spacing various sized black dots. You'd lay this stencil sheet over the area of the drawing you want "greyed", and rub the back with a wooden press stick. The dots would transfer to your drawing, and voila...greys. That's what looks like was done to this cover. The dots were added to the actual inked drawing, rather than to an overlay where they could be removed after the shading process was complete. (Or they were on an overlay, and whoever printed the cover printed the overlay as well, rather than removing it.) You can see a checkerboard pattern in the dots that would be the interference pattern generated between the dot spacing and the scanner's pixel spacing as they go in and out of alignment. I think I'll chalk this one up as an "Oops!" --- I Remember Zip-a-tone (tm) Posted by Daniel J. Drazen I remember it well. One can see the evolution in the technique by comparing the character of FRanklin in "Peanuts" with the cast of Aaron McGruder's "Boondocks." Both Franklin and the Boondocks kids are African American, but whereas Schulz rendered Franklin's skin color using diagonal lines, McGruder uses either a stencil sheet or a computerized version thereof. You can see the kind of "checkerboard" or moire patterns of the different characters you referred to if they're drawn large enough. ------ ------ My issue 102 review type thing. Posted by That guy with the hat we start off with the cover. We see Sonic(looking something more like a blue Knuckles) running from a varitable firestorm and a swarm of insane bombs. The cover never really happens. Sonic and the rest return home with all the chrome folk in tow. Happy happy happy. Mina runs through a panel doing... something. It looks like it's supposed to be that she is rapidly whirling her arms, but it looks like she's doing Tao Magic(a'la Outlaw Star). Well that'll be it for happy as we come across the inreasingly depressing royal family. They're all rather surprised by the fact that the King has been off-model for ages now... NO! That's not it! I mean, they're surprised AND ANGRY because Sally was able to retrieve and use the sword. Let me just note a few things about Sally's outfit, for one thing, it's been looking steadily less Persian since it first appeared. Now it looks almost tribal. Also, notice that when Sally has THIS outfit on, she has a navel. When she has her usual outfit on, the navel dissappears(MAGIC!). Anyway, the King concludes that if Sally is good enough to use it, so is Elias(what a loving father...). The sword seems somewhat reluctant to leave Sally. Elias "tries" but he can't get no. Then sally gives it a shot and the sword zams Antoine's pops back into reality. Robotropolis... I'm getting really tired of Eggman talking like a valley girl(ESPECIALLY in #94.)I don't know if Eggman's actions here are relevant to the current issue, but my guess is nein. Now we see the Secret Service(as small as it is) jivin' down the hallway. Somehow they didn't notice Heavy(who, although he's always been off-model, is now looking even more off-model to the point where he is even off-model for his off-model model. The same can be said for Kirby... I mean Bomb.) and Bomb exchanging rumblings of mutiny. Heavy says "Now Bomb". I have no idea what happens to the original Bomb after this point or why it was even necessary to let Bomb in on the plot. The Royal family is at it again. Arguing amongst their off-model selves. Apparently, Elias can't get no because he don't want no. The secret service walks in and is poisoned or something, by little Bombs with no hands or legs. Just shoes. I don't know how Heavy is making them or what exactly the original Bomb had to do with it so don't ask me. Sonic's...umm... super hearing?... or...sixth sense for danger... or something, alerts him. Chuck asks what's wrong and is drawn in such a way that screams, "I DON'T CARE WHAT'S WRONG!". Sonic says it's trouble with a capital "tee". well, Sonic, you get the idea, but trouble isn't spelled with golf equipment. Sonic runs to the castle where some bomb dealies showed up(how'd they get there... and so fast?) and they explode(one of the two explosions we ever see which, apparently, warrants the "gotta' go boom!" message on the cover.) The blast doesn't rally harm the guards, it just kinda' pushes them. Sonic tells Tails and Roter(this sure ain't Rotor. Look at his head.) to slap together a miracle machine which is, of course, no problem for them. Sonic runs down a bunch of halls and is besieged by a brigade of happy bombs. We cut to the Royal Tribe and hear the explosion from there. Now some more happy bombs walk in and mosey on over to the important people, and do nothing... at all. That might explain why Sally and the others look and act more annoyed than scared. And then they seem to just sort of change the subject. Sonic arrives. Y'know what i like? When some lead character was besieged in an earlier scene and it cuts away, and you think "Oh no! How will he ever escape?!" And then a few scenes later he shows up and he's fine and you think, "WOW! How'd he ever escape?!". And then that character will explain how he heroically ever escaped! Such is not the case. Sonic just shows up, and there is no mention of what happened earlier. Sonic's run-in with the happy Bombs might just as well have never taken place. Meanwhile the Bombs are wisely using their time doing still nothing. Heavy issues an ultimatum which backfires in so many ways. Heavy is now out of action and the Bombs fell asleep, which doesn't really change anything. Now Tails and Roter show up with a ray-gun they would have to have built in about 7 minutes and they... sorry folks, I seriously don't remember what the ray-gun does. St.Joke(who now looks something more like a leaf-tailed gecko) calmly suggests that the Secret Service go to the hospital. Now we see Sonic's family + Tails looking through a bunch of photos of cardboard cut-outs. Then Elias leaves home out of shame and anguish. ...this story might have been better if Ron Lim's art would reveal even the faintest spark of emotion. But it doesn't. except that all the Bombs looked rather mellow. Overall, I'd give this one a 4/10. I hope that when Heavy and Bomb return, they will be drawn on-model for the new on-model models. Knothole village map. Nicely done, but was it really necessary to point out that those wooden bridges you see there on the map are, in fact, wooden bridges? Still, I can't complain, this is a nice map. Here's where the fun begins. The back up story. Knuckles has opted to change the Magistrates ruling on Edmund(sporting a tiny hat. That might be a coloration problem though.) and Dimitri(both of which are suddenly wearing blue in this scene)'s project, using something akin to the force. It works... to a point. It turns out they forgot to carry the 2 and the island plummets rather than slowly descends. Whoops. Knuckles retreats. Ken ties up a couple loose ends from last issue about why backing out always works and why the Echidnopolis was destroyed anyhow when it stayed grounded. The thing about backing out doesn't make much sense, but it doesn't matter this story is fun. Now Knuckles cruises through time to that moment when Edmund was murdered. Knuckles scrapatizes the leginnaire with the blaster, and, in a twist I certainly hadn't considered, is instantly transformed into a very nicely drawn Mecha-Knuckles! Why? Because if Edmund wasn't killed, then there would be no consideration to continue the guardian shebang, leaving them dreadfully susceptible to attack... by ROBOTNIK! This is great. Knuckles manages to pull out in time and Julie-Su is instantly there for him. Dimitri is very perceptive in stating that he could have sworn the world was taken over by Robotnik's empire for a second there. He also suggests that knuckles perhaps try hitting the "forward" button on the toolbar rather than the "back" one. Knuckles is busy adding that advice to his "Favorites". When next we meet with Rad Green, it's Back to the Future! With Lara-Su! This story was just plain fun. And well drawn! 8/10 It's Julie-Su! All the data you could probably want is right here. Note: As of yet, I see no difference between "Soultouch" and good old fashioned "falling in love". The editorial! And off-panel! Woah. JFG is suddenly "kawaii". Yikes. Next issue: The Comic-Con fan art extravaganza! YES! That'll probably include my art! Actually, I saw those clay and Lego deals. Nice! Letters: Ken, I think they mean they don't understand the treknobabble(like those Matrix Conduits). My advice is, when it comes to lengthy names for computer parts, don't read to much into it. Meanwhile, ...NOT ENOUGH ANGST?!?! No one in this comic has been happy for years! And you want more ANGST???!!! Editorials: 7/10