Because you apparently didn’t phrase the question properly.

You specifically stated: “I can’t understand how anyone could have a preference for Grummett. What do you find in his work that is distinct and good?”

“How anyone” means any of us, not just Greg. So you were addressing us all, whether that was your intention or not..

So I’ll reiterate- a preference for Grummett over whom? Nobody can tell you why they have a preference for one artist’s work over another when they don’t know who they’re supposed to be comparing them to.
Grummett’s a solid “B/B+” artist. He is “good” because when you hire Grummett, you can pretty safely figure the characters will be on model, generally anatomically correct, backgrounds and scenery will be correctly drawn throughout the story, and that he’s going to follow the script.

Now, maybe you think those are givens. That all artists do that much. You’d be wrong. Several artists working at Marvel today don’t draw consistenly on model – half the time they don’t even know what the hell the costume colors are – and you know, it’s kind of hard to set your light / shadow effects on the figures correctly when you don’t know the color scheme!

I’ve seen artists like Jacopo Camagni (MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPERHEROES #9) draw Dr. Strange in one panel and his cape has no gold trim and no Eye of Agamotto, the next panel the Eye is there, but no gold trim, the next the trim is there, but no Eye. If I owned a copy of the comic, I’d scan and post the pages to show you, but I only looked at it on the ride home from the shop – my friend’s the MA nut (gods knows why).

But another MA Artist I can show – Jon Buran (MARVEL ADVENTURES THOR) – Take a look at this:

http://jpm1023.deviantart.com/art/MA-Thor-pg17-116204247

Thor seems to have lost his head… literally.

Now, Grummett’s not flashy, but I’ve never seen him make mistakes like these, either. Some readers might prefer a “generic looking” artist who can actually draw correctly and consistently over a flashier, more stylized artist who makes such mistakes.

New Mutants is promising, more than I would have thought; Wells is beginning to show what he can do. X-Force and Deadpool need new writers, and Dark Wolverine needs to go (or maybe just get a new writer).

I buy Uncanny and Legacy (and CB/MI13), and I read everything else in the store. Pretty good times overall.

“But “generic”? No more so than the Image clones that still permeate the market, or the Ameri-Manga artists.”

And so what? Have I ever said I like those styles?

astonishing x-men with whedon and cassaday was the first time i’ve bought an X-book in years. i really enjoyed it (though i’m biased as a huge joss whedon fan). when they left, and i heard ellis was coming in, i figured it’d be different, but still a good book.

holy crap was i wrong. its terrible. ellis’ story is awful. i completely agree with that assessment of the art. bianchi’s art infuriates me. i’m probably going to get the final issue of this shitty “ghost box” story and then drop this book.

So I think comicdom just hated Iceman.

“(Grummett)’s stuff is just totally bland and generic.”

” I just sincerely don’t understand how someone can have a preference for Grummett’s art. Can you tell me what it is about it that you find distinct and good?”

A preference for Tom Grummett over whom? He’s far from the worst artist Marvel has. I guess I can see why you or Joe Rice might not like the guy – he’s sort of a throwback to the mid to late ’80s style of art – I see a lot of people these days knocking the Byrne / Perez influenced artists, if not knocking Byrne and Perez themselves, and as Grummett is from that school, it doesn’t necessarily surprise me that you might not like his stuff.

And I agree his work can run inconsistent depending on how his inker interprets him. But “generic”? No more so than the Image clones that still permeate the market, or the Ameri-Manga artists.

He was part of a rotating team of artists consisting of Chris Bachalo and Humberto Ramos on Mike Carey’s X-Men maybe two years ago.

That is a really silly thing to say.

Sorry if I hurt your feelings. Honestly, I am. But you shouldn’t take my dislike of an artist personally. I’m just doing the blog-comment thing. You post your opinion, I post mine. I just sincerely don’t understand how someone can have a preference for Grummett’s art. Can you tell me what it is about it that you find distinct and good?

I’d better get on the walkie-talkie and tell Joe about all this. I missed the last hourly update and he gave me ten demerits!

Of all the X-Books I’m only reading Astonishing X-Men but Ellis seems to be phoning it in on that one.

And yeah, that Superboy run with Tom Grummett was really entertaining. It probably holds up well to this day