Bought it. Liked it for the most part but read it in like all of 10 minutes.
Jury still out with me but will buy Number 2. And reread this.
You should re-read it again, and this time pay close attention to the artwork, there are tons of little details and plot points happening all over the place, judging by other threads at other boards lots of people missed a whole lot of stuff, since they just read the words and glance at the art.
Honestly, I think McGuiness could've really shined on this one to.
Honestly I think he is a bad artist, period. The only reason fanboys like him is because when there were in Jr High they too drew everyone with super big muscles, but most people get over that phase and move on to create better art, while he never did. He should just jump to Marvel and draw the hulk and get it over with. Nothing wrong with super big muscles if it fits character (see:hulk) but why draw everyone with the same steroid man look? Why draw everyone's face the same so that you can't tell who the heck is who without going by their costumes?
To me he is part of the new age drug addict artists, he draws everyone like they abuse steroids and Michael Turner draws every female like they are crack-sell-outs. They are both terrible and represent the very worst of mainstream comic book art.
So much for that art is objective thing eh? "new age drug addict artists" the heck does that even mean? Because he draws guys with big muscles he's taking drug himself at the drawing board? As for your jr. highschool reference that's more Liefeld than McGuiness. Besides, idealized or even exaggeration of the human form to convey a sense of power is part and parcel with superhero art. Some do it better than others.
I agree with you on Turner but I'm not sure why you brought him up since I made no mention of him in the first place. Since we're on the subject of drawing Superman big, I'd rather have Eds look to Quietlys wrinkled doughboy look. I can't speak for why other people or fanboys like Ed but for me his work has a tremendous amount of energy and it's cartoony in a good way.
As much as the guy gets dissed for having "manga" style (which just shows what most american comicbooks fans actually know about manga) he has many classical influences as well not least of which is Jack Kirby. Ed's no King, but his stuff is vibrant and fun which fits Superman far better than what Quietly is doing IMO.
That's not even to say I completely hate Quietly. I liked his layouts ALOT actually. The backgrounds were pretty good to. But his approach to the figures especially Superman himself is just very lacking. He's wrinkly and puffy. I can tell however that he's going for the Wayne Boring vibe but Wayne didn't have Superman belt sagging like he's got a beergut or have his cape look like a thin dinner cloth draped over his shoulders.
I'm sorry but I think Quieltys art does a disservice to what Grant is writing. I'm not even going to say he's neccesarily a bad artist, just wrong for this project like Yu was wrong for Birthright. Yu was another case where the layouts were great but his scratchy and shadow slathered figures ruined much of it.
In Birthright, there are shots where Superman is supposed to be smiling but his eyes are whited out and his gums are black and his smile is Joker-esque. I guess with writers layouts seems to take priority which I totally understand but you can't just dismiss the figure drawing aspect. You can arrange things on the page ever so artfully and tell your story clearly but if the figures look awful it undercuts the whole thing.
This is why in that one post I said "these can't be the only artists out there that they wanted to work with". I think the editor could have accomplished both finding the artist that's right for the project *and* giving Mark or Grant someone they liked working with.
At the end of the day, this may just be myself and others disagreeing with the writers personal taste in artists. I can also see that if the projects are conceived together *with* that artist in the proposal stage that you wouldn't want to break up a team. It's a tough call.
I won't even say that Quietly should never, ever draw Superman even though his approach aside from his layouts is very off putting to me. I won't say that because I got sick of people saying that about Ed or about anybody who draws with dreaded "cartoony" style. Hey, I don't enjoy every cartoony artist out there. Don't get me started on Meguila.
I just think for this project, it's goals and ultimately who they are trying to reach I feel his figure drawing approach really just does not fit.