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Yeesh was Kelley Jones a bad artist. His anatomy was bad on a Liefeld scale. The little head and fists, the huge biceps and shoulders, the 12-pack of abs and elongated ribcage...never see why people like his Batman so much.

Maybe this is just a trick to get us to appreciate the Punisher's Cap outfit before the next HC collection comes out? Seriously, it looks like Cap's outfit is really only good at protecting him from rogue lobster juice at dinner.

so early to start wanking...

Look, it's obviously Winter Soldier. It's also obviously temporary. Brubaker's run has been excellent. For once, let's put a little faith in to the creators and trust them to do a storyline to completion before ragging on them over two preview pictures.

Say what you like about Alex Ross, at least he doesn't use any leg pouches.

Shouldn't there be a picture of Cap and USAgent above the Batman one?

This kind of begs the question, is Brubaker just cribbing from whoever thought of replacing Batman with Jean Paul Valley (exposing my ignorance here, Moench or O'neil or someone else, I really don't know). It's kind of the same story, but we'll have to see if some sort of voodoo wonder twin bring Cap back.

And Jean Paul replacing Bruce wasn't lifted from gru's John walker replacing steve...nosiree bob it wasn't!!!!

Joe Quesada did that Batman redesign, a leopard never changes it spots eh?

Kelley Jones is actually a pretty awesome artist - Red Rain or his Sandman stories in particular - but I don't think he was terribly well suited to draw Super-90s-Extreme-Batman. He's better at creepy-moody stuff.

I dunno, the great thing about the AzBat costume was that if you were 10 when Joe Quesada first drew it, that was the coolest fucking costume ever. I have a hard time thinking anybody would find Alex Ross's costume design half as "fucking awesome" as my prepubescent self did with AzBat.

"And Jean Paul replacing Bruce wasn’t lifted from gru’s John walker replacing steve…nosiree bob it wasn’t!!!!" lol! There really isn't anything new under the (yellow) sun, is there?

I have to give a limited vote of confidence to Kelly Jones too. His art in Dark Joker: The Wild, Red Rain, etc were just pitch perfect to me for the mood of the books. Even some of the Knightquest issues were good, like the issue with Mr. Freeze. He's like Madureira, Bachalo, Liefeld or Sale, if you don't like stylized bodies, you're not going to get them.

Kelly Jones can draw everything from Batman to "Dream of 1,000 Cats" and "Season of the Mist" and make it look good. He can inject mood and drama into his work, and would be one of my first choices to draw a horror comic.

That said, I found some of his mid-90s work ugly as hell, including some Batman. Anyone else read that first Magneto limited series (about Joseph, aka Not Magneto)? Ugh. I think his work varies according to either schedule (his Batman vampire books, released within years of each other, look better than "Knightfall") or, possibly, interest. Straight superheroics do not seem to be his strong suit.

Comparing him to Liefeld, however, is unfair. Liefeld doesn't do stylized anatomy for the sake of mood or to heighten the reader's sense of unreality, he does it because he can't seem to do anything else.

Changing the subject back to Cap, the Byrne Forum has gotta be required reading right now. A near riot is erupting over this new costume.

"But I ain't one to gossip, so you ain't heard that from me."

Kelley Jones is actually a pretty awesome artist - Red Rain or his Sandman stories in particular - but I don’t think he was terribly well suited to draw Super-90s-Extreme-Batman. He’s better at creepy-moody stuff.

I don't think his problem was drawing Super-90s extreme Batman, I think it's drawing people period. His stuff was bad as long as he was drawing a human, I found. His anatomy was off on par with Liefeld: small hands and feet, a million little teeth in a single mouth, biceps bigger than heads, ridiculous sized pecs, huge long thighs, elongated ribcages and muscles on top of muscles where they didn't belong, 12-pack abs...But unlike Liefeld, I admit he was great at drawing SOME things, like monsters and inanimate objects and creepily lit backgrounds.

I think another important differential between Liefeld and Jones is (and it's an important one, as the basis for art in this media) a better storyteller.

His grasp of mood, perspective, narrative structure, etc.... all better than Liefeld.

Back to Cap for a second, I read the Byrne forum, and people are getting way too het up about the new costume design. So what if Bucky is wearing the Shining Knight's costume? Steve Rogers is going to wake up and realize Agent 13 shot him with rubber bullets so she could draw out Dr. Mindbender and the Red Skrull, and Steve's going to reclaim his mantle.

Now back to Liefeld. I don't mean to hate on him too much. He draws better than I do. I don't even own any of his books except the X-Force books in "X-tinction Agenda". It's just nice to take potshots at him every once in a while.

I like Sam Kieth too, as long as he's not !@#$%ing up Batman. The Maxx is so out of control, it is awesome.

I think the black breaks the color scheme and the way the armor sits on him is very odd. I imagine its one of those Alex Ross designs that works better when another artist draws it. Like Citizen Steel.

I get that the chestplate thing is supposed to look like Cap's original shield, but the design really doesn't work for me at all.

For once, let’s put a little faith in to the creators and trust them to do a storyline to completion before ragging on them over two preview pictures.

Why?

Is it a major crime to make fun of comic books?

Kelley Jones has an exaggerated, non-realistic style. It's a choice. Given Jones's other strengths, it seems unlikely to me that he couldn't produce Neal Adams-style figures on command, were he so inclined. You don't have to like his work, but the problem isn't that he can't draw people; the problem is that he chooses to draw them in a way that you don't like. This is in stark contrast to Rob Liefeld, who pretty obviously draws people -- and, well, everything else -- the way he does because he just doesn't know any better.

I love Kelley Jones' work... which is why he was #257.

Pursuant to Dan's astute observation (which eluded me):
"I get that the chestplate thing is supposed to look like Cap’s original shield..."

What, oh WHAT is Joey Q's chestplate design on Knightquest Bats supposed to look like?

I thought Knightfall, Knightsquest, Knightsend were good.... And T., on your comment from #1: the covers Kelly Jones did for Batman... yeah, the anatomy is really wrong and the pictures suffer greatly for it. But her interiors during the 90s (I read some issues she drew when Doug Moench was writing) were not like the covers and I think, quality, effective work.

While I wish to see more women in comics, to the best of my knowledge, Kelley Jones is a dude. And an extremely talented one too. I used to hate his stuff, and then one day, I read Season of Mists and I totally got it. Now I love his work, even the stuff I didn't like before.

Weird, eh?

I seem to be the only person who see the new Cap costume as some kind of odd ploy to make the 1940s serial a viable commodity again. After all, it's best known for "Cap bustin' a cap".

What, oh WHAT is Joey Q’s chestplate design on Knightquest Bats supposed to look like?

The 90s.

Artists such as Kelly Jones are certainly an acquired taste. His art certainly is unique and distinctive. He always reminded me of an even more stylized Mike Mignola. Kelly Jones was really good on the Thoth Amon mini-series Dark Horse published a while back.

yup you can't please them all. i initially bought kelley jones's batman run during the middle 90's along with writer doug moench, i think they gave him the pencilling duties on the monthly batman book since he was already producing covers for crap like knightfall, knightquest and knightsend. it even had a gimmick cover, jones's 1st batman book on interior art, it was part of the "troika" storyline.

i just bought a few issues, i am not a big fan of his art. his batman has like 9 foot long ears, his cape is like 20 yards, and his teeth is weird. i never knew the reason why dc editiorial gave him the monthly batman book to mess up anyways when there were a lot more artists out there who could really do superhero stuff really well.

with sam kieth its different, love his art, its really out of this world. checkout the maxx.

as for Liefeld, i think his earlier work was a ton better than what he produced during the early years of image. proof of that is just by checking quarter or bargain bins. there's a ton of Liefeld books there. where i buy my comics its like 80% of whats in the bins has his name on it. his creator-owned characters look exactly the same as marvel and dc characters. i mean how many times have you seen cable rip-offs at image? Liefeld also lacks versatility, i mean have you ever imagined him doing a vertigo book for dc? nada.

and the only reason i bought some of his books like Youngblood strikefile was because Jae Lee was doing the art on half of the books that he did, i mean, i couldn't rip it off,liefeld's half of the book. jae lee's art back then was really demented and twisted stuff. really cool than what he's now doing.