[Parademon1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBlueMarvel

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???"



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...

outstanding response. I am taking no offense to this at all. Maybe I didn't word my initial response as good as I could have. I loved JRJR's artwork way more in the 70s/80s when he drew in a more realistic sense, if ya know what I mean. Then all of a sudden, he changed his art style to a form that looked lazy & less detailed to me. I 1st noticed it during the "Onslaught" crossover & I saw his pencils on Spidey fighting the 2 Sentinels" I was like "whoa, this is the same JRJR that penciled the classic Ironman stories? What happened? As I stated before, he & his dad are legends in Marvel comics history, I just couldn't get into his altered/changed artwork. I got many comics with his artwork in X-men/Spiderman/WW Hulk, but it was not as pleasing to the eye as his early work on Ironman was.