Harry wrote:Robb_K wrote:I always wondered why Tony Strobl's drawings based on Carl Barks sketches were so unlike Barks and so much like Strobl.
Just to be sure: not ALL of Barks' JW stories were drawn by Strobl. Many were drawn by Kay Wright.Robb_K wrote:That was especially frustrating when seeing how closely Daan Jippes stayed to Barks' lines and also did Mau Heymans.
I don't agree with you about Heymans. He changed the staging of some panels, and made the story look like a Heymans story.Robb_K wrote:And yet Strobl not only failed to stay anywhere near Barks' lines, but he also even RESTAGED panels!!!
It is the job of an artist to improve on the staging of a script, when he thinks it's necessary. This happens all the time.
At the time of Strobl's work, Barks's sketches were not "sacred" yet. They were just a script like any other script.Robb_K wrote:But what about Strobl?
Have you seen the *scripts* that he made in the 1980s? They are in pencil form and look *much* better than his artwork.
(Strobl wrote some stories before he retired. These stories were (horribly) drawn by the Jaime Diaz studio.)
I tend to think that it's mainly the *inkers* of Strobl stories who make them look stiff and uninspired.
(Strobl hadn't inked a story since the 1950s.)
I agree that the bad drawing we see on those original printings of the Jr. Woodchuck stories was more the fault of the inkers than of Strobl. But, If Strobl had stayed more on Barks' lines (even as I did, I'm sure that even Kay Wright's inferior (stiff) inking would have looked a lot more like Barks' work than it did. Admittedly, poor inkers that have no dynamism and fluidity in their strokes will always have bad-looking art. But Heymans' job on that one story was fine for me. Of course, it is BY FAR, the best drawing he ever did -to my taste. Just as my inking of Barks' panels is by far the best looking any drawing of mine will ever be-even with the horrible inking job.
Daan's restaging of the opening panel to the pristine "green", parlike seen didn't cause a problem in that story. It's "clashing" with the dirty, choking, polluted city, was perfect. It showed that The Jr. Woodchucks are for harmony with nature. They choose to hold their activities in the relatively clean, Black Forest. He was correct in seeing that the high-wire practising would carry more impact with a much higher wire.
Strobl's restaging efforts were ALL bad choices, in my opinion as a fan reader (regardless of Barks' work not being "sacred").