Worse art?
jack
Some muy helpful links:
Annie: http://www.comicspage.com/annie/index.html
Mark: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/mark.asp
axlq in California
They are different styles. You can't say one is "worse" unless you
have some personal problem with one of the styles.
At the extreme, you could compare the art of Prince Valiant with
Peanuts. Which is worse? Neither. Both are good for their strip.
-A
OhSojourner
I don't know much about the history of "Mark Trail", but IMO when a
successor artist draws a strip with a "history", they should be at
least as good as the art was when the strip was in its prime (by its
original creator). "Annie's" artist not only doesn't measure up to
the original, but it seems the "artist" can't even draw... "Mark
Trail's" artist seems to be trained in wildlife clip-art illustration
(or is using actual wildlife clip art) while having no sense of
knowing how to draw anything else with confidence...
As for the "style" excuse, that's a cop-out. Of course there's more
to it than just knowing how to draw "realistically" -- it's also
knowing how to create a good graphic design; knowing how to stage
your characters, convey acting, etc. True -- "Peanuts" is a
drastically different style than a more realistically-drawn strip like
"Prince Valiant", but Schulz at least knew how to make his characters
look graphically appealing as well as utilize good acting, timing and
staging. The economical style also matched the humor and tone of the
strip. OTOH I don't find either the present-day "Annie" or "Mark
Trail" to be very well-designed at all.
(FWIW, did the artist of "Mark Trail" also draw a family strip [which
I've occasionally seen when visiting the folks out-of-state]? The
style looks similar.)
KrohmDohm
>From: ohsoj...@aol.com (OhSojourner)
>Date: 5/9/04 6:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time
>Message-id: <ce660175.04050...@posting.google.com>
>
>(FWIW, did the artist of "Mark Trail" also draw a family strip [which
>I've occasionally seen when visiting the folks out-of-state]? The
>style looks similar.)
>
He drew The Ryatts. Can't remember much about it except they had a kid named
Winky. Any further info on the Ryatts would be appreciated
jack
> have some personal problem with one of the styles.
>
> At the extreme, you could compare the art of Prince Valiant with
> Peanuts. Which is worse? Neither. Both are good for their strip.
>
The situation is quite the opposite. The premise is: both are bad
(awful, d*mn sorry, your choice), which is worse? Go.
Czaerana
>successor artist draws a strip with a "history", they should be at
>least as good as the art was when the strip was in its prime (by its
>original creator).
Apt. 3-G's successor artist is NOWHERE as good as the original. Margo looks
like a hag compared to her original self.
Cynthia
DD DEGG CO
>I don't know much about the history of "Mark Trail", but IMO when a
>successor artist draws a strip with a "history", they should be at
>least as good as the art was when the strip was in its prime (by its
>original creator).
>(FWIW, did the artist of "Mark Trail" also draw a family strip [which
>I've occasionally seen when visiting the folks out-of-state]? The
>style looks similar.)
Jack Elrod (born March 29, 1924) has been a part of the "Mark Trail"
crew since 1950. That is when he joined the strip's creator Ed Dodd
and Dodd's animal artist (Tom Hill) as an assisant. Dodd was a very
good comic strip artist; as well as, at one time or another, a forest
ranger, mule driver, gym teacher, rancher, guide, and an advertising
agent. Dodd had no problem drawing the human face or figure and
his characters didn't all look the same or stiff. Tom Hill, the man he
hired to draw animals for the strip was a wonder with wildlife and was
the one that created the Mark Trail Sunday page motif.
Giving him due these days for his age, Elrod has never been the artist
Dodd was, nor could he hope to be the wildlife artist Hill had been.
KFS, when they added the Sunday page to their weekly package,
should have gone with the Hill pages. I would give KFS credit for
going with Elrod if he saw a penny of the profits from the weekly
reprints, but I seriously doubt he sees any recompense from those.
It wouldn't surprise me to find out that Elrod was swiping from old
Hill art to get his animal art in the strip, as his anmals look better
than his human drawing. That is merely conjecture and rather
mean-spirited conjecture at that.
Jack Elrod took over "Mark Trail" in 1978, when Hill died and Dodd
retired.
(As an aside: the famous MAD artist and caricaturist Jack Davis
assisted Dodd for a summer in the 1940s as an inker.)
That other Elrod strip you were thinking of was "The Ryatts", also
known as "Winky Ryatt". Created by Cal Alley, of the famous
Tennessee Alley family, "The Ryatts" began in 1954 and Alley left
the strip to Elrod in 1965.
I also have Gene Fawcett (of "Our Space Age") drawing the strip
from circa 1962 to 1973. Maybe he did the Sunday page?
"The Ryatts" ended in 1994.
Both "Mark Trail" and "The Ryatts" followed the same syndicate
path: Hall to Publishers-Hall to Field to News America to North
America. When Murdoch (yes that Rupert one) bought Field he
changed the name to News America; when KFS bought News
America they changed the name to North America.
(An excellent short pice on syndicates in the current Hogan's Alley)
D.D.Degg (some other time remind about Harold Gray versus the
the other post Gray artists including Alan Kupperberg.
It will give me a chance to mention my favorite post-
Gray Annie artist, the much despised David Lettick.)
jack
> Apt. 3-G's successor artist is NOWHERE as good as the original. Margo looks
> like a hag compared to her original self.
>
You got THAT right! Kotsky's 3-G was actually--in my opinion--one of
the best-looking strips of its type. I was saddened when I saw the
current version a few months back.
Len-L
Was that the artist who had one or more of the girls in their underwear
in one scene of every story?
Len-L
Default User
> It wouldn't surprise me to find out that Elrod was swiping from old
> Hill art to get his animal art in the strip, as his anmals look better
> than his human drawing. That is merely conjecture and rather
> mean-spirited conjecture at that.
Compare his wildlife animals to others, such as cats. Cats that are
barely recognizable as felines.
Brian Rodenborn
rich tintera
I remember the Ryatts- sickeningly sweet. The artist always had the
kids saying th' instead of the. I tried it- it's impossible to shorten
the sound of the.
OhSojourner
...or the pig in a strip from a couple weeks ago, which looked like its legs
were growing out of its jawbone.
Oh well, apparently the guy's 80 years old now... maybe his eyesight just isn't
what it used to be.
OhSojourner
>>(FWIW, did the artist of "Mark Trail" also draw a family strip [which
>>I've occasionally seen when visiting the folks out-of-state]? The
>>style looks similar.)
>>
>
>He drew The Ryatts. Can't remember much about it except they had a kid named
>Winky. Any further info on the Ryatts would be appreciated
Yes, that's it. As I recall, the kid looked a lot like the boys in the recent
"Mark Trail" strip.