Comic Book Resources

That is a fine looking cover.

I'm not 100% about Byrne's work, based on the panels you've shown here.

Splitting the team up is always awesome.

I think that it's not a Byrne cover...

the pages are OK (standard Byrne), but there is always the "scarce" background problem of the Byrne pages...

Wait...so DC's discontinuing the "Classfied" line? Or just this one? Too bad...I had an idea that would've centered on Red Tornado and the girls from Young Justice who weren't Wonder Girl (Empress, Arrowette, Secret) and what they were doing now.

I really wish someone like Byrne would try to stretch his artistic abilities and try a different style every once in a while. His style that was once so iconic now just seems like he is phoning it in. Go out on a limb dude! Try something new!

Roger Stern writes good comics.

That's some of the best Byrne work I've seen in a while.

Definite improvement on his All New Atom work.
Different inkers?

Yeah, this one's by Mark Farmer who I've always thought would do good things for Byrne's pencils. Anyone know if Farmer's inked him before?

I think that it’s not a Byrne cover…

It's a Josh Middleton cover.

Farmer inked Bryne on the 'Superman: True Brit' book a while back... not sure if they've ever worked together other than that, though.

Wait - did someone really complain about there being scarce backgrounds on the art?

Really?

Look at the above pages! Almost every panel has something going on in the background.

It's bizarre; it's like people aren't even looking at the art before they type their complaints. I hate to tell people how to feel, but I'd feel awfully ashamed to make such an embarrassing statement like that. One that can be disproven by just scrolling up the page an inch or so. Do people like that also point at blue things and tell others that they are orange?

It's just bizarre.

Yeah, I agree.

Byrne may not be the force he used to be, by a long shot, but picking on those pages for a lack of background is odd.
Ones a close up on an action scene, and the others an extreme close up.
Background isn't necessary.
(Heck, in most films, or photographs the background wouldn't be visible in those shots, unless a particular lens was used).
Or has modern superhero art gotten to the point that the artist controlling the eye has become a bad thing?

Yeah, I've got to say, there's a lot more going on in the backgrounds than you get in most comparable modern comics artists.

Now, the backgrounds are strictly representational instead of used as parts of the overall layout. It's interesting when artists do the latter but it doesn't seem like it should be a requirements.

Okay...you guys discuss the art...let me play fanboy and ask:

Who do you think the villian is?

"(Heck, in most films, or photographs the background wouldn’t be visible in those shots, unless a particular lens was used)."

Yep. Controlling depth of field is a wonderful thing.

But, please comic artists, don't try to duplicate photographic depth of field by drawing a detailed background and then digitally blurring it after masking out the foreground.

In the comic medium a simplified, schematic, or even blank background is possible and arguably preferable in some situations. In photography, that'd require dragging along a backdrop, so it's easier to set the lens up to blur the background.

But, please comic artists, don’t try to duplicate photographic depth of field by drawing a detailed background and then digitally blurring it after masking out the foreground.

I agree.
I like my comics in High-Definition, thankyouverymuch!

Byrne's artwork is def better with right inker (like most artisits), but he should never ever ink his own work again. And his faces sometimes still grate (second page, panel 5...the Byrne smirk, as I call it). Still, good old-fashioned fun, and what's wrong with that?