Comments on: Scott's Classic Comics Corner: Underappreciated Artist Spotlight - Joe Staton

By: Rob Postuma

Rob Postuma — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:08:46 +0000

For me, he'll always be the definitive Green Lantern/GL Corps artist. His run of Green Lantern was even better than Gil Kane's in my opinion. I'm sure Gil Kane fans will be all over me for that, but Gil wouldn't care anyways, as he considered that work to be "beneath" him.

By: Jeremy A. Patterson

Jeremy A. Patterson — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:33:07 +0000

Staton also did the first issue of 'Archie's Super-Teens' iin 1994. His style is well-suited for Archie.

He also worked on Bruce Hamilton's line of horror magazines circa-1991!

J.A.P.

By: Rob Postuma

Rob Postuma — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:15:08 +0000

Even though both Liefeld and McFarlane have seemingly fallen out of fandom uber-desires, they did get pretty big at one time. McFarlane's real growth appeared on Spider-Man, where he started to have more imput over where the series went aside from art - to the point where Marvel even created his own Spidey-title ( which at one time was a big deal ). Even in his early days, his art that went wayyyyyyy beyond where the script did, highjacked books like INFINITY INC ( though he did that mostly to sell pages at cons ). Liefeld's input on NEW MUTANTS evolved it into becoming HUGE spin-off X-FORCE, and he is arguably the creator or at least co-creator of CABLE. Getting back to the older guys, Ditko's input into SPider-Man was so huge, that he quit the book in protest of Stan Lee's "evolving" of the Peter Parker in the book was nerd loser into a romantic hero who'd have a redhead and a blonde fight over him. In Ditko's eyes, that was not true to who the character was. Ditko was a guy who obviously wanted more input than just someone drawing a script. Despite his superstar status, he went to Charlton for a MUCH smaller page rate, just so he could do books in his own voice with no interference at all. Long before the IMAGE guys up and left Marvel to make a point, Ditko put his money where his mouth was, and did essentially the same thing.

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:52:24 +0000

Maybe there's something there (and admittedly I didn't have a clue Perez had written anything before Wonder Woman), but I really can't see that applying to Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane

By: Rob Postuma

Rob Postuma — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:54:11 +0000

I think that those "artist/writer" guys, even if they weren't writers initially, had at least some major input into the stories they did - aside from just the visuals. Long before Perez got writing credits on New Teen titans - he had some major input on the stories being written. Hell, even Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko - were essentially artist/writers back when they were "starting up" the Marvel comics age. You are right in that all these people were initially "known" people, as was Staton - which makes sense because comics are essentially a visual medium. What pushed them BEYOND - was the further input they put into their stories beyond the art.

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:14:40 +0000

Probably one of the things that stopped him from becoming much bigger, was the fact that he was an artist and not a artist/writer ( or at least someone who worked closely with the writer ) - which a lot of the â€œup & comingâ€ contemporaries of his at the time were becoming. Neal Adams, John Byrne, Frank Miller, George Perez, Keith Giffen and (later) Todd McFarlane & Rob Liefeld - were all guys that became â€œhotâ€ artists that strayed both sides of the fence.

That sounds doubtful considering that half of those artists became huge before they started writing and Giffen never really became that big as an artist (though personally I love his work).

By: Ajit

Ajit — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:16:55 +0000

Scott, just to clarify, that wasn't just my opinion of issue 70. Here is what Paul Levitz himself wrote in the letter column of issue 74: "A number of readers wrote in about the Strike Force stories, seeing them as fill-in stories. And frankly, in retrospect we have to agree that for a variety of reasons the past four issues of ALL-STAR haven't matched the quality of the earlier ones." When that is a writer's opinion of his own work you know the issues in question are anything but classics. N.B.: I didn't actually get to read the 1970s All Star Comics run until 2006, and issues 70 through 73 really didn't seem all that bad but that could be because of the diminished expectations that come of reading contemporary decompressed comics.

By: stephen cade

stephen cade — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:42:27 +0000

I loved his work on the revamped post Crisis Huntress reboot.

By: Rob Postuma

Rob Postuma — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:18:31 +0000

Probably one of the things that stopped him from becoming much bigger, was the fact that he was an artist and not a artist/writer ( or at least someone who worked closely with the writer ) - which a lot of the "up & coming" contemporaries of his at the time were becoming. Neal Adams, John Byrne, Frank Miller, George Perez, Keith Giffen and (later) Todd McFarlane & Rob Liefeld - were all guys that became "hot" artists that strayed both sides of the fence. Guys like Jim Aparo, Nick Cardy & Joe Staton were all great artists - but their popularity was undoubtedly linked to whatever writer they were saddled with at the time.

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:21:13 +0000

The favourite artist of my childhood. I always wondered what happened to him.

By: sgt rawk

sgt rawk — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:30:48 +0000

I loved Joe Staton's Huntress back in the day and I loved his Sprang-style Batman but Mlllenium was terrible. Worst. Crossover. Ever.

By: Christopher Mills

Christopher Mills — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:52:09 +0000

For samples of some of Joe's work on the current FEMME NOIR miniseries (which I happen to write), check out the FEMME NOIR website, at http://www.femme-noir.com

The reviews have been very complimentary of Joe's art on the series; it may be his career best.

By: Llordllama

Llordllama — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:32:03 +0000

It was Joe Staton and the Green Lantern Corps that got me into reading comics from the US (and largely DC) as a result. I've always loved his cartoony style, and I agree he drew a fabuloso Guy Gardener. Always enjoyed the detail he put into his work, giving it real character.

By: comb & razor

comb & razor — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:27:06 +0000

i'll add my voice to the chorus singing Staton's Green Lantern work as definitive--i always think of his rendition of Hal Jordan as the "true" Hal and of course, he created the modern image for Guy Gardner.

his run on Huntress in the 90s was great, too... it was cool the way the dark, pointillist inking gave an interesting, noirish cast to his usually cartoony figures.

E-Man will always been his magnum opus, of course.

By: Greg Geren

Greg Geren — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:55:45 +0000

I think the problem with the art on Millenium was more due to Ian Gibson's inks, which aren't bad in other places, but he was a poor match for Joe Staton.

That GL Predator story was fantastic- it looked almost like reprinted panels, but it was all Staton!

I also enjoyed his Legion work-- he came up with Blok you know.

By: Pablo

Pablo — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:43:08 +0000

I think he was at his best during the Englehart run on Green Lantern (with Bruce Patterson at the inks, specially)
There is a terrific issue -the explanation of the whole Predator/Star Shappire/Carol Ferris- where he reproduces the art of previous GL artists like Dave Gibbons and Gil Kane

By: Rob Postuma

Rob Postuma — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:02:00 +0000

Always been a big fan and have always wondered why he wasn't bigger. I think he's just one of those guys like his contemporary Jim Aparo, golden-ager Mort Meskin or the late and great Mike Parobeck - who were professionals and tradesmen rather than guys trying to sell posters of their artwork. His run on Green Lantern was in my opinion "defining" of the character, his JSA stuff incredible and on his short run on Superman he made a Superman that looked like he had power. Unfortunately, I think mainstream books recent trend of moving towards a more "realistic" look rather than cartoony - has left guys like him scrambling for work,.

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:44:23 +0000

I've never noticed anything wrong with Staton's storytelling, but other than that I'm really not fond of his art. When he tries he can be mediocre - when he doesn't he churns out ugly work like on Millenium.

By: fourthworlder

fourthworlder — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:05:42 +0000

I remember recognizing Staton's influence on Byrne right from the start, especially on his women.

By: Cully

Cully — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:20:14 +0000

Joe did some powerful inking on a stretch of the Incredible Hulk from issues #191-209. First inking over the last three Herb Trimpe books, then staying on for the transition to Sal Buscema. You could tell he loved the brush over the pen with beautiful, strong strokes that really complimented Sal's cartoony style and flair. Easily one of Sal's best inkers.