Other than Barks, which Disney comic artist do you like best

Santiago Ceballos, William Van Horn, Paul Murry, Don Rosa, etc.

Postby WB » Mon May 01, 2006 10:56 am

Duck Universe Classic:
Carl Barks - If I have to explain this then you've been living under a rock.

Don Rosa - I like detail. I like being able to study the artwork and finding easter eggs, and I love his intricate writing. I can read "Incident at McDuck Tower" and laugh my behind off multiple time. However, I think Mr. Rosa's biggest fault is that sometimes his more technical aspects that enhance his work also can work to his detriment. A balance has to be struck I think, but overall I'm not complaining because....

William Van Horn - Whereas Rosa is tight and technical, Van Horn is loosey-goosey and thirty three different flavors of wild. His work is always good for a laugh and he's the master of the subtle short story. Rosa takes his time to do intricate adventure yarns, but sometimes its those simple character driven stories that are the real gems. And I swear one story he did had to be written just so Donald could say his "I'm napoleon" gag at the end and that just had me weak from laughter.

Mouse Universe Classic:
Floyd Gottfredson - Again: If I have to explain this then you've been living under a rock. Gottfredson IMO is the ONLY Mouse person to date to have ever done Mickey justice from beginning to end IMO.

Paul Murry (EARLY ONLY) - The earlier the Paul Murry material is the better it is. Once you get into late era Murry (post 50's I think) it ALL goes downhill from there. Paul Murry's early style is not anywhere near as stiff, bland, and robotic as his later style is. The backgrounds are gorgeous, both Mickey and Donald are rendered well and some of those early stories (before they all became generic kiddie pap) are funny as heck. i cant say its all his fault because some of those stories he got were obvious out and out stinkers, but when he did good he was the best they had to offer.

Romano Scarpa (EARLY) - The only true successor to Gottfredson. IMO an American writer has yet to tap what Gottfredson did for this character, in Italy, Scarpa came darn close. I'm not so hot on his later works (its still far and out better than others later stuff) but his early stuff channeled Gottfredson so much that it was crazy. Mickey had personality and wasnt one note, Goofy wasnt stupid and childish, Chief O'Hara wasnt a brainless cop, and the stories were actually engaging and had twists.


Things I dont like:

Tony Strobl - Strobl's EARLY DUCK MATERIAL is the ONLY version of his art I can tolerate, and thats in small doses. One of the best stories I think he ever did was a short Donald Duck story entitled Paper Route panic. While he's certainly no Barks, his art is rubbery, somewhat fun to look at, and has character. His late era artwork IMO is atrocious. Stiff as a board, the characters look off model (Uncle Scrooge's beard is reduced to stubble) and I neither like his early OR late Mouse material as I've never read a good Mouse story by him in that era and his Mickey looks just plain off.

Paul Murry (LATE ERA) - I dont like speaking ill of the dead but YUCK. Carl Barks' late material declined in some fashion yet, but at least he learned how to keep in simple things like backgrounds. :P The writing was bad, the artwork was bad, the everything was bad. Total opposite of his early work. Somewhere along the line you can just tell his heart wasnt in it. :(
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Postby Robb_K » Sun May 14, 2006 5:02 pm

WB-I agree with your analyses and likes and dislikes almost to 100% for all the artists and writers other than Rosa. Although there, I do agree that his short gag-driven stories are (usually), by far, his best. I don't like his stiff characters, dark shading and cluttered panels. I don't like his Barks sequel stories and think he has too high a percentage of panels with characters standing around talking.

Otherwise, our tastes in those other artists are spot on.

What do you think of the art in the Duck stories of Frank McSavage, Jack Bradbury, The Scamp artist who introduced Cousin Feathry(forget name), Taliaferro, Dick Moores, Jack Hannah, Carl Buettner (mostly covers), Walt Kelly (mostly covers), Vic Lockman, Kay Wright, The Western artist who drew mostly Warner Bros, comics in '50s, but also drew Disney stories, ..etc,?

And for Mouse stories:Bill Wright, Manny Gonzales, Dick Moores, Daan Jippes (did USA Mouse strip(1981-83 and a couple Dutch stories)?

What do you think of the European artists: Jippes, Freddy Milton, Ben Verhagen, Branca, Vicar, Mau & Bas Heymans, Jan Gulbransson, Volker Reiche, Marc de Jonge, Jules Coenen, Sander Gulien, Michel Nadorp, Flemming Andersen, Massimo De Vita, Santanache, Xavi, Scalabroni, Colomer, etc.?
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Postby WB » Mon May 15, 2006 9:52 pm

WB-I agree with your analyses and likes and dislikes almost to 100% for all the artists and writers other than Rosa. Although there, I do agree that his short gag-driven stories are (usually), by far, his best.

There's just something about his short stuff that is seriously fun (Incident at McDuck Tower, The Master Landscapist, Oolated Luck, Metaphorically Spanking, etc), but I get the feeling that he himself actually relishes in doing the longer stuff which is actually a bit of a shame. I dunno, maybe its a bit of a double edged sword. The thing about Rosa is that in short stories, when he wants to be funny he can be absolutely biting. The levels of Donald abuse are high from him, but even with Barks its pretty much the same thing when Gladstone is around (coincidentally when I first began reading Disney Comics I despised Gladstone to no end, but couldnt stop laughing at how miserable he'd make Donald. Stories where Donald would never win after trying time and time again are infuriating but oh so hilarious in that you dont want to laugh at poor Donald and you feel bad for doing so but you just cant help it. ^_^ Anyways I digress...)

Rosa shorts have a stark difference from Van Horn shorts IMO because rather than build upon surrealist insanity or deal with absurd moments like Van Horn, he seems to kinda build upon gag after gag after gag until he can no longer top himself - which isn't bad, just a different way of a telling story.

I don't like his stiff characters, dark shading and cluttered panels.

I must admit. If theres one thing about Rosa that irks me to no end its the use of musculature on his characters. Part of what makes Donald, Scrooge, Mickey, and Goofy appealing is that they dont have that "furry" muscular look. Don Rosa (albeit subtly) has given definition to Don's chest when shirtless or given muscles to the characters here and there (nothing SERIOUSLY odd or out of place mind you, just weird looking in general) - and its the one thing I can really pinpoint I dont like about his artwork.

Yes, Mickey, Goofy, and Donald no longer have "pipe-cleaner" limbs but at the same time I think that if you're going to use musculature on a character it needs to maybe be for the sake of a gag perhaps. Donald, Mickey, and Scrooge's bodies should be....I don't want to say "cuddly" because thats not what I mean...but I guess maybe the phrase I'm looking for is that they should feel cartoony, but not look like generic "furry art". Does that make sense?

As far as the dark shading goes, I have to admit I have a bad penchant for this myself and have to force myself out of this habit. When you're drawing for material that will be shown in color, its different as opposed to material that will be shown in black and white. EARLY Rosa's detail seemed to be a better balance to CURRENT Rosa's detail. I think that some of the same effects can be achieved with hatching as opposed to crosshatching (something I've seen Rosa do and I myself have been guilty of). Thing is, its like a switch. You have to know when to tone down the detail and give the "illusion" of detail without "being" detailed. I think Carl Barks succeeded greatly in doing this - the prime example being Ancient Persia which was just printed by Gemstone. There are serious details by Barks in that story which make the atmosphere gorgeous, but he also knows where and when to turn it off at just those right times so the art doesnt look like its on *constant* detail. Thats something that I'm not sure if Rosa can do or has done before and I think that maybe his extreme detail comes from the fact that he's still thinking in terms of black and white as opposed to leaving some detail for the colorist. I dunno...its not a major complaint on my end but I see where you are coming from.


I don't like his Barks sequel stories and think he has too high a percentage of panels with characters standing around talking.

I must recant again here and point out one final thing that irks me: Rosa's second major fault can be his "verbose-ness." Guardians Of The Lost Library in particular is one story that I can immediately pinpoint where all of that extraneous text wasnt necessary and probably needed a really good editing job. It felt more like a history lesson than a duck story. Dont get me wrong - I LIKE bits of history in my Duck treasure hunts, it makes them interesting. But when thats all the story is, I think that something gets lost along the way and thats where the editor should come in and steer it in the right direction.

Otherwise, our tastes in those other artists are spot on.

Nice to know. :)

What do you think of the art in the Duck stories of Frank McSavage,

I have only ever seen two stories by him but I really wish I could find more artwork. Of all of the classic artists his style is just so very distinct and well rendered. Granted the two things I've seen - often reprinted Grandma Duck stories - are short, but his work just has this really enchanting fun look about it and I prefer him to a lot of the side artists of the western era. Its a shame that there isn't more of it available.

Jack Bradbury,

I used to prefer Bradbury to Murry - now I really don't. It took me a while before I realized why and what changed that was gaining access to early Murry work which I have since centered on. Bradbury is as close to Rosa detail as you'll get among old school artists, but Bradbury is also REALLY stiff. Moreso than any stiffness Rosa has done IMO. He renders the mouse characters fairly well and his style is distinct BUUUUUUUUUUT....

I dunno. The quality of the stories hurts him a lot PLUS I dont think his style is exactly the best thing. Plus, his later art really takes a nosedive. Theres something about his work that I cant pinpoint that irks me. Maybe I'll figure it out later.

The Scamp artist who introduced Cousin Feathry(forget name)

Al Hubbard works best doing Scamp. Certainly no ducks, certainly no mice. He works best rendering characters with more complex structures - dogs, animal-like characters, movie characters who need fluid motion but have different structures. With Scamp he succeeds (I greatly prefer Harvey Eisenberg's Chip N' Dale to his), but with anything else - I'm sorry but no. I think thats also the case of Carl Buettner with Little Bad Wolf and Vivie Risto with Bucky Bug. One thing about early Western/Gold Key - the artists were played for thier strengths with certain characters that they were associated with.

Al Taliaferro

I wish more of his work was available actually. I miss the comic strip run in Donald Duck. :)

I'm kind of curious to see how his late artwork changed so drastically. Outside of Barks he's one of the only major Disney artists (and I do count him just as major as Barks and Gottfredson due to what he's contributed to the Duck portion of the legacy) I know whose early work looks entirely different from his later work which surprises me to no end. I don't think its bad at all, I'm just curious because of the very stark contrast.

Dick Moores

I love The Wonderful Whizzix and Goofy's Mechanical Wizard. In fact I think that they are two extremely charming classic Mouse stories. I think that might have had to do with the fact that he was rumored to have written those. :)

However, The Mardi Gras Mystery and Robert The Robot (the first time I'd seen his duck work) surprisingly left me a bit cold, and I'm not sure why exactly (maybe its because Im not sure if he DID write these). I really like Dick Moores' artwork though. Its been a while since I've seen the stories in question, but I seem to remember that one of the main things was that his mouse characters actually had differing expressions which was always a plus IMO.

Jack Hannah

Havent seen enough of it in comic book form and would like to see more. :(

Either way - in terms of contribution - I think he's to the animated world of Donald Duck what Barks was to the comic world in terms of defining who he is to that specific medium.

Walt Kelly (mostly covers)

Some of his covers are charming and cute. Some of his covers however are off. He's hit or miss I think. just depends on the piece of art in question. DID he do any story work? I don't think he did...

Vic Lockman

Meh. Only think I really like that he contributed to the ducks and mice was Emil Eagle. And thats probably because the first Disney material I was ever exposed to was the "reintroduction" of Emil Eagle in during the Disney Comics run. I havent seen any of his classic appearances but I wasnt so hot on his stories during the Gladstone run to be honest.

Kay Wright

QUINTUPLE MEH. It was this art that turned me off of all the late Gold Key/Whitman era.

The Western artist who drew mostly Warner Bros, comics in '50s, but also drew Disney stories, ..etc,?

I'm guessing you're referring to Harvey Eisenberg?

Bill Wright

You know - there was a time when I really did not like Bill Wrights artwork and I'm wondering if that was a bit unfounded. Bill Wrights work is pretty good - but yet again, he suffers from all Mouse artists of the western era in that his characters are very stiff, and thats my only major turnoff. Reprinting the classic material with better production values has done wonders for my opinions of the artists like him because I was surprised that I liked "World Under The Sea" as much as I did (minus the stiffness). I think Bill Wright's talent was wasted on having to do redraws of various Gottfredson stories. Because now that those amazing Gottfredson stories have come to light, they make his redraws pale baldy by comparison which is a real shame. I'm curious to see some more of his work as he's one of the best alternatives to Paul Murry.

Manny Gonzales

Havent seen enough. :( I know that he did all of the Mickey/Goofy/Ellsworth sundays which I did like but beyond that Which Gottfredson era stories did he have a hand in?

Daan Jippes (did USA Mouse strip(1981-83 and a couple Dutch stories)?

Love him. Consider him one of the modern greats actually. His art style has a strange habit of fluctuating wildly. His Barks style is VERY well done while what I'm guessing is his wilder personal style has more of a flair of Taliaferro in it if I were to compare it to anything...

Freddy Milton

....

I can honestly say that I dont know. Maybe its because I've only seen a small selection of stories. But...I just don't know.

Verhagen

I did not like Verhagen initially, now I miss him. The stories that we've gotten by him in America were fun and were actually not bad at all. the story with the cursed princess doll comes to mind. I can see how some might not like his style but I dont think he's bad and I'm curious to see more.

Branca

In the old Gladstone days and early Disney Comics days I found his stories to be the **ONLY** Egmont stories worth reading. IMO he does Carl Barks' late style BETTER than Barks and turned it into something all his own, and that says a lot.

Vicar

I did not like Vicar at all until Gladtsone Series 2 when they printed Tour Du Jour. After that he became one of my favorites and hasnt stopped since. I realize now that a lot of that had to do not necessarily with his art but with the really subpar stories that he was given to work on. At some point his artwork just all of a sudden became more lively and full of vigor as if it was injected with a much needed dose of fun. His stories in the Disney era however especially are just boring. And I think you can kind of see that in his art. He didnt play with the layouts any, his characters were just kinda "there". And then it all suddenly just changed and he became really good almost overnight. Its so odd.


Mau & Bas Heymans

Wacky. :D

Jan Gulbransson, Volker Reiche, Marc de Jonge, Jules Coenen, Sander Gulien

Never seen it and curious to see it actually :(

Michel Nadorp

Haven't seen enough. :(

Flemming Andersen

Caught me completely off guard. He's one of those artists who's style is all his own - he doesnt copy off Barks or anybody and you know what - I like it. Its so different from what I'm used to seeing. AT FIRST I was off put by it because its such a shocking style, but his work is FUN. And I like that. :)

Massimo De Vita

Dont remember much about De Vita but I do know that I have fallen in love with Massimo Fecchi's work :)

Santanache, Xavi, Scalabroni, Colomer, etc.?

If Santanach is whom I'm thinking of then meh. Xavi is a definate "meh". I just don't like his mouse I'm sorry to say. I commented on Scalabroni elsewhere BUT I LOVE those model sheets Egg posted. :) Dont know much of anything on Colomer. The Spanish Studio artists in general I think are very hit and miss.
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Postby Robb_K » Tue May 16, 2006 9:19 am

Here is a sample of my colleague, Jan Gulbransson's Duck drawings (from a story I wrote and drew storyboards for) from H94215 - "The Greatest Hoax Of All Time":

[img]s77.photobucket.com/albums/j56/Robb_K/JanG.jpg[/imp]
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Postby Robb_K » Tue May 16, 2006 9:22 am

Image
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Postby Robb_K » Tue May 16, 2006 9:24 am

PLEASE let us have an EDIT FUNCTION!!! Here (I hope) is the image:

Image
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Postby Robb_K » Tue May 16, 2006 9:26 am

Can we not upload drawings on this English Forum, as we do on The Dutch Forum???
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Postby Robb_K » Tue May 16, 2006 9:37 am

Well, WB, I may have to direct you to a thread on The Dutch Forum, so I can show you pages of work from the artists whose work you haven't seen, or haven't seen much (or their best).

Walt Kelly drew two comic book stories with Donald (both starring The Three Caballeros. He also drew a Disney regular strip in WDC during WWII ("The Gremlins"). I believe he also drew one or two other stories. I agree with you on your assessment of the other Western Artists except for Frank McSavage. His work is nice, and old fashioned-looking, which makes it interesting. But his Ducks and mice are extremely off model. That makes them look TERRIBLE in my eyes. I can't think of the stories being in The Duck or Mouse Universe.

I can't consider Flemming Andersen's style unique, as it is the MAIN Italian style that ALMOST ALL the Italian artists use nowadays. It was based on the style of a single Italian artist. He wanted to write and draw stories for the Italian books, and was encouraged to emulate that style.
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Postby Robb_K » Tue May 16, 2006 10:11 am

Now I'll try to upload Jan G's page by actually adding the connection reference to his page!!!:

Image
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Postby Robb_K » Tue May 16, 2006 10:17 am

WB: Please go to The Dutch Forum, under the Forum section: "Overige Auteurs", and then on the thread: "Jan Gulbransson", and you will see the page I've been trying very hard to upload here. And also, I hope you'll support me in asking for an EDIT FUNCTION on this forum!!!
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Postby Egg » Tue May 16, 2006 11:10 am

Robb_K wrote:And also, I hope you'll support me in asking for an EDIT FUNCTION on this forum!!!

PLEASE STOP THIS. THERE IS A **"PREVIEW"-FUNCTION**.
AND THERE'S A **TOPIC ABOUT THE MATTER**:
http://bb.mcdrake.nl/engdisney/viewtopic.php?t=17

FYI: ON **DCML** THERE'S NO EDIT-FUNCTION EITHER.

*EDIT* boardlinking updated to McDrake
Last edited by Egg on Sat Feb 10, 2007 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Egg » Tue May 16, 2006 11:13 am

i've been yelling. (sob! sob!) i regret this. please let me edit my posting. (sob! sob!)
and this one as well. (sob! sob!)
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Postby Egg » Tue May 16, 2006 11:17 am


The last slash is too much. That's why the image doesn't load.
It should be: http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j56/Robb_K/JanG.jpg

Image
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Postby Robb_K » Tue May 16, 2006 5:01 pm

Thank you, Egg. But I took the link to the other thread and still have no idea where to find the preview function, and learn how it works. I am sorry that I'm so terrible with technology, but we didn't even have TV when I was young, let alone computers!
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Postby Rockerduck » Wed May 17, 2006 11:16 pm

WB wrote:[Jan Gulbransson, Volker Reiche, Marc de Jonge, Jules Coenen, Sander Gulien]Never seen it and curious to see it actually :(

You can go to the Lambiek Comiclopedia and put in the names of artists you don't know, and see samples of their work.

Here are Jan Gulbransson, Volker Reiche (no Disney work though), Mark de Jonge (with a k instead of a c), Jules Coenen and Sander Gulien.
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