Things You Wish Artists Would Remember...

Do you ever find yourself distracted by odd artistic gaffes or oversights in the X-Comics?  This happened with Gambit's oddly normal eyes in the latest issue of X-Men: Legacy and I was wondering if there were other details you wish that artists would remember and get right...  here are some recent ones that have jumped out at me:

- Gambit's eyes
- Frenzy's build/height
- Blink's skin should be greyish/lavender
- Kitty Pryde has naturally curly hair (which is back under Bradshaw's pencils but not everywhere else)
- Anole's ever-changing head and arm design...

In city scenes, you can tell when a writer doesn't mention that it's raining until later in the script when the first few panels have rain, but no one has an umbrella. The umbrellas show up in the panel that finally mentions that it's supposed to be raining.

That's not really a complain, but it's something I've noticed.

Edited by Crawler - 17-Jan-2012 at 10:14pm

I distinctly remember hating when artists in the 90s would mess up Rogue's costume from that era. It was also unbelievably annoying to me when they would forget her white streak... but I was kind of an OCD child, so...

As an artist I can see where they are coming from though. No two artist are the same and everyone wants to be distinctive in their depiction of things. It's why Batman's ears are different sizes throughout the decades. I agree that Beast should at least look like a cat but every artist has a different way of drawing a cat.

Somethings (like Frenzy's build or Gambit's eyes) I think should be consistent. But certain things should be up to the artistic interpretation of the artist. Otherwise what's the point of using different artist, just use one artist to draw everything...

Not a character thing but I hate it when there's a newspaper and the text under the title is gibberish like afvhffdjafnskggsdfshfhsoa, you either have the test blurred enough not to read or you have actual text.

Monet's constant shifts between ethnicities has always bothered me, although I don't think it's been as obnoxious in recent times as it was in the past

The heights of female characters oftentimes bother, but only when they're portrayed as short. Mainly, Emma, Storm, and Psylocke. These women are at least 5 feet and 9 inches tall. Portray them as such, for pity's sake. Also, I really notice when Wolverine's standing at a taller height than people that he shouldn't be. It's a nitpick, but one that does get on my nerve.

Artists should be able to have interpertation on things indeed it is why you pick different one's, for the different styles and such. Though I really think Marvel needs to get back to making sure certain things stay the same. Like allowing that artist on the Astonishing X-Men Exogenesis mini, can't recall the name, give Storm the mohawk just cause he felt like it even though it matched nothing anywhere in canon in the last two decades.

Beast should look cat like, but that can change some. But can't have one artist suddenly make him old ape like beast just cause. Or make sure Psylocke looks Asian and not Caucasian like others mentioned.

I agree with Uncanny, let's have some consistencies. Astonishing was a joke. Storm and her mohawk, Jersey Shore Emma Frost, etc.

And a little less T&A covers would do. I understand they need to happen but sometimes they're just embarrassing that I'd never want anyone to find it lying around in my room. The Avengers vs. X-men: Psylocke/Black Widow promo image was horrible. She was shooting her boob!!

Monet's shifting ethnicity is a huge one. In Gen-X she was always dark skinned and then she got a tad more light and now sometimes, she's actually white. WTF.

Eye color is also a big thing for me. Peter Parker alternates eye colors all the time.

Whoever is on FF(starting at #13) needs to be taken off as that was some of the worst art I've seen in years.

What about Height?  It's not asking too much for tall characters to be drawn that way and short to be drawn short, right?

Using an old example, Michael Turner tended to draw all female characters to look like supermodels.  However he usually drew them to be the right height.  He did a very good job of making characters distinct from each other even though he tended to draw them all with the same figure.

Edited by marhawkman - 19-Jan-2012 at 4:02am

A lot that you guys already mentioned:
Pixie's eye color/wings
Gambit's eyes
Frenzy's height
Monet's skin color
Wolverine's height

but what about
Armor's bio-armor -- sometimes horns, sometimes not, other inconsistencies
Hellion's arms -- should be his AoX arms, which he had in the first arc of WatX but not in X-23 or in the last issue of WatX.
Iceman -- when he ices up, either we can see his trunks/shorts or they ice up too... but choose!
Namor's uniform -- leave the X on dammit, stop taking it off when he appears in FF, Invaders, or whatever else you throw him in. If he's one of the X-Men then he represents in all his appearances (I mean, Wolverine does)!

Edited by Tyler5618 - 19-Jan-2012 at 7:59pm

Well then I stand corrected :) Thanks marhawkman

The visual representatives of telepathy and telekinesis. Such as Psylocke's purple butterfly, Hellion's green TK, Magneto's pink magnetic stuff. Is this purely for our purposes or can the characters see this effect. Sometimes it looks good and it's a nice visualisation such as in Psylocke's case.....but other times such as Magneto's PINK power sugnature I just don't understand.

Originally posted by Cable I never noticed tangents until Chris Eliopoulos starting complaining about them on Twitter. He ruined comics for me lol  See here for what tangents are.

Oh yeh. Tangents are HORRIBLE! I definitely notice them all the time now since I started trying to draw my own comics. Just bad composition in general is an issue of sloppiness for sure.