Monday, June 28, 2010
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A random collection of material from comic artist Kevin Nowlan. Started with the best of intentions, but like most other efforts, doomed to perish from neglect as soon as the novelty wears off.
Twittering again...
Other stuff
The bravest of souls
Have I ever mentioned how much I love Spain?
Blog Archive
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2010
(293)
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June
(13)
- Another Irma sketch
- Batman: Sword of Azrael #2, page 17
- New Mutants #51 hate mail
- New Mutants #51, page 7
- Superman cover roughs
- The Spectre: Ditko pencils, page 13
- Inks for Tom Strong over Alan Weiss
- Dr. Strangefate, page 11
- Dr. Strangefate, page 14
- Batman and Robin pencil preview
- Universal monsters sketch
- Batman family 11 x 17" drawing
- Another Dr. Strange sketch
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June
(13)
Mr Nowlan,
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of your work, and have been so delighted at your blog posts, sharing your black and white art ( and that of another hero Mr Jose Louis Garcia Lopez) has been a treat and I can't say how much I've learned from seeing the original art. This post was nice to see that even someone who's as established and as professional and talented as you has had their critics and taken their lumps. That's probably part of why you've continued to keep growing so much as an artist.
Thanks so much for the many years of wonderful art and for this lovely little blog.
Kelly
after those Mr. Nowlan you should just stop drawing. it's one thing not to like the issue, but a panel by panel breakdown?
ReplyDeletepeace out
I, for one, absolutely loved your New Mutants work. I guess I should have put it in a letter at the time.
ReplyDeleteOkay, well after "that" you have to give us the punchline. "Who" ended up buying all of the original artwork to that issue?
ReplyDeleteOMG, the curious thing is, I actually remember those panels these guys are talking about. They're kind of burned in my mind somehow. But then again, I was a huge fan of those New Mutants up until the time Claremont left.
ReplyDeleteI remember first seeing your NM work and being confused, it was quite jarring and cartoony for the x-books at the time. The first reaction was "what the hell am I looking at?" haha! But I saw your other more rendered art I grew addicted to collecting all of it. There is a unique fidelity and focus to your hand that is inimitable, as badly as many try.
ReplyDeleteClearly, New Mutants fans of 23 years back were all alcoholics. I'd consider what you were doing then as a kind of evolution, gradually helping to show a great number of artists how to step above and beyond the Buscemas and Infantinos and the like of before. Nothing wrong with them, just that things evolve. The universe moves forward.
ReplyDeleteAnd I wonder what those fanboys would think of the big trends in mainstream comics art today!
What a bunch of wankers!!! I love that issue for the art!! I always hoped you would do a NM graphic novel... I'm glad I didn't get that feedback... I may have stopped drawing... but you sir .... are a MODERN MASTER!! (even before Vol 4 came out!!)
ReplyDeleteI take pride to recognize talent fast, and I remember collecting your comic books and the Mignola ones as soon as I saw them for the first time.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually impressed/amazed that you actually KEPT the letters for all this time! I imagine Bill Sienk got much the same critical mail after he took over the title as that was a huge departure from what went before but become much loved. If you had been given a similar run I have no doubt people would be holding your stint on the title in much the same regard. Ah, what might have been! Thank you yet again for sharing such an insight!
ReplyDeleteSomeone at Marvel also told me that a reader ripped up a copy of the book and sent the pieces to the editor without comment.
ReplyDeleteHiroshi's referring to this punchline: Mike Mignola and Arthur Adams bought all the original art. That really felt like vindication to me at the time.
And I have to admit there's a little perverse pleasure in all the negativity. Bad work usually inspires indifference, but this was real hate. I envy Kevin O'Neil's ability to offend the Comics Code so much that they rejected his style outright, not specific pages or panels... his STYLE disturbed them so much that they didn't care WHAT he drew! That's when you know you're really getting through to people.
Hilarious notes. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing those notes... Their intensity is amazing! Of course, there were some of us that had stopped buying the series after Sienkiewicz, left and were thrilled that you were doing an issue, bought it and and loved it... So it all balances itself out...
ReplyDeleteOMG, that's hilarious!
ReplyDeleteJUST IMAGINE if there was internet access back then - I can only imagine the kind of crap Bill Sienkiewicz got after his first issues came out!
Mr. Nowlan, at the time your New Mutants came out in Brazil, I was already familiar with your work from that Man-Bat origin story (publication schedules were really screwy here back then), and I must say that I LOVED how you drew the New Mutants (what pleased me the most was that they actually looked like kids). Been a fan ever since.
Best,
J.
I came to this work backwards too, having leafed through the Comic Price List (no internet) to scare up all your work after the Manbat book. I loved the reduced, angular style and all those crazy inky shadows and clouds. I love the authoritive tone these letters always take. Something about the type-written letter that makes it all the greater/creepier.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think someone pulled out the Encyclopedia Brown dig! Wow....that's a level of hate there.
ReplyDeleteSo really, how did going back to sweeping the hallways work out for you? :)
I would definitely have to agree with the vindication that the artwork was bought by Art Adams and Mignola, that speaks volumes to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the janitor job didn't work out for you and that you were able to put the narrow minded opinions of a select few out your mind.
I love the stripped down style you used on NM 51 and the Manbat Secret Origins story(one of my all-time favorite comics by the way).
In my opinion, your art is wonderful and incomparable. It is interesting how difficult it is to have personality in a business where the fans are so biased and conservative. Your work on new mutants is inspiring.
ReplyDeleteFor me, The New Mutants was never an interesting book UNTIL people like Bill Sienkiewicz, Steve Leialoha, or Kevin Nowlan provided the artwork.
ReplyDeleteKenneth Clark was really ahead of the curve there printing letters with a dot-matrix printer.
Mirage does look pretty pudgy in that panel.
ReplyDeleteI love your work since forever and seeing that even people like you get responses like that, it makes me alot less afraid about getting bad feedback myself. thank you for sharing and thanks for your humor. you're an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteSo these people hated your lovely art yet were okey-dokey with Brett Blevins and his gratuitous hiney shots? That's just incredibly sad.
ReplyDeleteThose were probably from a jealous comic artist! I used to draw comic books and have decided that the entire industry is roughly 93 percent 'sleep deprived insane' people. :D Never accept a drink from a comic artist!
ReplyDeleteIts called stylized. I have this and they are fine, storm, magneto and hellfire club.
ReplyDeleteI hated this art at the time. I was 12 and wanted everything to look like the John Byrne official handbook pictures. Kids can be awful, I was. I did appreciate the pinups in Marvel Fanfare though!
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Nowlin,
ReplyDeleteI hate you. I hate your art. I hate it so much I want to scream and break my pencils. You are so good I hate you. Damn you to hell, Mr. Nolan.
Yours, hatefully,
Jealous Hater