[TheBlueMarvel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkToyLord

TBM......aka...spirit crusher....lol

Heh, since when has providing factual information become soul crushing?

I know it's become fashionable to bash JRJR, but I'll not be party to revisionist history. Has there been an abatement of skills due to age, attrition, and general boredom (seemingly so, from an outside perspective...I've no way of truly knowing if he's bored or not)? Without a doubt, JRJR is in decline and has been for some time now. All great artists lose steam in their twilight years; Byrne, Perez, Miller were no different. However, there's a reason why JRJR was on everything from the mid-80s into the late 90s; he was, unequivocally, the man. Nearly every hot title and poignant story arc for nearly a twenty year stretch that has been recalled fondly by masses of fans, has had JRJR's stamp on it at one point or another (some, had multiple stints of his art). Contest of the Champions, Spider-Man, Xmen, Punisher, Daredevil, Thor, Hulk etc. The disparagement of his work that I've seen recently smacks of a faux and disingenuous discernment, almost an attempt to be purposefully contrarian to provide the illusion of 'good taste' in comic art. Make no mistake, JRJR was the artistic pulse of Marvel for a very long time. Trying to discredit his contribution is a fool's errand. lol...oh dear, there I go again! "Did I do that???"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parademon1

I never said Layton was the more popular or had a better body of work I said, IMO, he was the best artist when it came to drawing IM back then. JRJR & his dad are legends, I actually like his dad's pencils better. His Hulk, Conan, Avengers renditions were off the charts! But when JRJR changed his artistic style to what it is now, I was thinking to myself, "why did he do that"? His original art style was awesome. IMO, the best IM artists ever were early JRJR, Perez, Byrne & Layton. They drew him in perfect proportions, build, hgt, etc. IM was never huge when armored up. He never was drawn nowhere near Thor's listed 6'6 hgt. He & Cap were drawn as being the same hgt the vast majority of the time by these 4 artists. Cap is 6'2, that's what Tony's hgt , once in the armor was as well. This magical 4-5 inch increase in size is laughable. The armor was always form fitting to his body. mu 616 Stark was listed as being 6ft so you figure in armor, 6'2 would be right as an inch of boot space & inch of helmet space, but 2-3 inches of space on both boots & helmet is BS. But then again, a lot of you are going by the artistic license todays artist take with the hgts of characters and are fine with it. Hence 7ft Hulk is now close to 9ft tall as is the Thing who was always just 6ft tall but is now drawn Hulk sized.

You're falling back a little there, man....That is not what you said and to complicate matters, you've appropriated elements of what others actually said with a more acceptable (yet, still arguable) spin. This seems like a pretty declarative statement, to me: "I beg to differ on John Jr being better than Layton." For the record - John Romita Jr was/is/will always be a better artist than Bob Layton. That's no blemish on Bob Layton's legacy (if you can call it that) given the stature of JRJR. It's also not a terrible slight to suggest that Bob Layton's inking skills fall short of Janson and Austin considering they might just be the #1 & 2 top inkers of all time. Even when applying the myopic lens of 'just Iron Man art,' the argument doesn't meet muster. JRJR's art on Doomquest alone, makes Layton's entire run look like kid's stuff. Look, I like Bob. I own TPBs of Armor Wars: Prologue, Armor Wars, and both Herc minis. Bob was a great cover-artist, but that was about it. He penciled a great looking Iron Man (and Herc), but everything else looked like poop (or "caca"...to borrow your parlance and keep it "Bori"). Layton could not carry the art for an entire book IMO and I can only imagine that was the reason why he didn't get more work. Not trying to be heavy handed on you, man (don't pay any attention to Dark - he's just kicking up dust )...I just think comparing Layton to JRJR is absurd.

...but we do agree on some things, namely, the legendary status of JRSR and JRJR...