23 replies to this topic

[blue]

I noticed some hate comments on Steven Butler's artwork on Sonic issue #240 and 241.
Though some are probably Tracey Yardley, Ben Bates, and Jamal Pepper fanboys, but here is my one sentence statement. If you don't like Steven Butler's artwork, then why did you wait to express it until now.
I want to here your thoughts about it?
Never mind I'll show it to them. Note- I did not type them: I just copy them except the last one.
"I agree Steven Butler is worse artist on the comic."
"Great story, terrible artwork"
"I hate Steven Butler....hate him...hate him, hate him, HATE HIM!!! I want Tracy Yardley!!"
"I want Steven Butler to hit the road"
I" just hate Steven Butler; think of how many times better this issue could've been without him around!"
"Forget about Sally! We need to get rid of Steven Butler!!!"
And that didn't even scratch the surface of this.

[RedAuthar]

Really? And I like the artwork.

[blue]

Really? And I like the artwork.

You should probably check the comments on the videos since I don't know how to show them to this forum. Also, I agree with you. Just type sonic 240 of sonic 241 and you'll find the videos posted by STH15NicoleFan. Oh yeah, don't respond and start a flame war with them because I only want you to see their comments. If that happens then blame me.

[Uncle Ben]

Art work is pretty good

[PuffinGrandeur]

It's not as new a sentiment as you think.

[Teirusu]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAhh...This is the draw style I like so much and Shadow posted it when we were talking about Tails Dolls.

I really like this style of draw, pretty much.

I also want comment some off topics that I'm courious because as you know, I'm new on comic world.

-Why all the people put music on comic video? I mean, I prefer read in silence, not with some sonic unfit music...I know is easy mute it...but still thinking who like hear random music while reading.

-I'm the only who dislike Nicole design? I find it really really weird, so much weird that I don't like her.

[blue]

It's not as new a sentiment as you think.

I know, but I'm still baffled of why they express their hatred now instead of earlier. It's like they didn't know Steven Butler was drawing the comics until now.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAhh...This is the draw style I like so much and Shadow posted it when we were talking about Tails Dolls.

I really like this style of draw, pretty much.

I also want comment some off topics that I'm courious because as you know, I'm new on comic world.

-Why all the people put music on comic video? I mean, I prefer read in silence, not with some sonic unfit music...I know is easy mute it...but still thinking who like hear random music while reading.

-I'm the only who dislike Nicole design? I find it really really weird, so much weird that I don't like her.

I guess the video posters think that the viewers would be bored without music while reading the comics.

[DCC]

I admit I liked his art better when he was doing his own style on the characters; he is one of my favorites then. Since the artist have to have a simliar style now, I like his art less (from what I have seen) but I don't hate it.

[Shadow]

I love Stephen Butlers work.

[zelchias]

As do I.

What I don't get is the lack of elaboration; the lack of reason behind this hatred. I don't see many reasons given as to what is so detestable about Butler's work compared to anyone else working on the comic. What is it about him, exactly, that they don't like?

[Prime]

As do I.

What I don't get is the lack of elaboration; the lack of reason behind this hatred. I don't see many reasons given as to what is so detestable about Butler's work compared to anyone else working on the comic. What is it about him, exactly, that they don't like?

Probably because now the book has a "set" style, with Tracey Yardley and Ben Bate's works looking very much alike, a lot of fans, especially the newer ones being brought in are seeing that style as the definitive one, the style that every issue must have!

Let me just say that I got nothing against Bate's and Yardley's art. It is great stuff, but I like my comics to have different styles here and there and Butler's work is decent, but if a book has one set style which every artist has to draw, it gets visually boring. Dreamwave comics were notorious in their Transformers books because nearly every artist who worked on it were forced to do the Dreamwave "house style" which meant all the artists had to draw it like Pat Lee did. That dick was even getting credited for other artist's work on the book.

Butler's been working on the Sonic title for years now and if he were doing such a terrible job as most fans claim, I doubt he'd be working on it to this day. I would glady take Butler over the likes of other artists who have worked on Archie's Sonic title in the past, like Many Hands, Ron Lim and Jon Gray.

[blue]

OK, I might have jumped to conclusions because I probably didn't pay attention at the comments on SonicComicWorld's video comments if there was past hatred to Steven Butler.

[furrykef]

Let me just say that I got nothing against Bate's and Yardley's art. It is great stuff, but I like my comics to have different styles here and there and Butler's work is decent, but if a book has one set style which every artist has to draw, it gets visually boring. Dreamwave comics were notorious in their Transformers books because nearly every artist who worked on it were forced to do the Dreamwave "house style" which meant all the artists had to draw it like Pat Lee did.

I'm a bit ambivalent about this. Certainly, variety is interesting, but there's also something to be said for consistency. Having the artwork change all the time can be distracting.

John Kricfalusi figured out how to deal with this in his animated cartoons by assessing his artists' strengths and assigning jobs to the artists he thinks would do them best. Too bad that doing this with a comic book isn't a realistic idea... assigning multiple artists to handle the individual panels on a page would involve too much micromanagement.

[Speedy_25]

i like butler's style, just as much as any of the other artists' work on the comic.....why you ppl have to be so hateful about it...

[Prime]

I'm a bit ambivalent about this. Certainly, variety is interesting, but there's also something to be said for consistency. Having the artwork change all the time can be distracting.

John Kricfalusi figured out how to deal with this in his animated cartoons by assessing his artists' strengths and assigning jobs to the artists he thinks would do them best. Too bad that doing this with a comic book isn't a realistic idea... assigning multiple artists to handle the individual panels on a page would involve too much micromanagement.

Yeah, but there's a difference between the animation industry and the comic industry. In Animation it is pretty much the norm for the entire show to have a set style. It's what the art director's job is to make sure the series has consistency. Can you imagine jumping between shots and scenes in an episode and the styles drastically changing? There could be a change in say detail and such between episodes depending on which studio was animating it, but the basic design would always remain.

Comics on the other hand, the artist's have their own style and artists tend to at least work on completing an story arc or so before another artist takes over. If the style was changing drastically all the time in each issue, say four or five artists just doing one story, that would be a headache, but that rarely happens. And it's illogical for x amount of artists to do the pencils for one story because of deadlines and such. The original Sea3on FUS comic did it like that, we had multiple artists working on one issue to help "ease the workload" and yet there were ALWAYS missed deadlines from people,

You can't really have one artist do a 12 issue a year title all by himself at around 20+ pages per issue. Depending on how fast they work, they might not be able to keep up the schedule plus they might want to work on other titles. Don Figueroa, despite his love for Transformers got bored of drawing them all the time for the comics and not doing anything else that for a while he quit drawing TF comics.

And if you make your artist change their style for the sake of having a consistent style through out the series, well you aren't letting them express their art to it's full potential.

[RedAuthar]

Here I have to agree with Prime.

Even Major Comic Companies such as Marvel and DC have an arc long style (sometimes not even the full arc) before changing. And they look good. Even older Sonic issues had changes depending on the artist or Inker (Hence while Sally's hair changes from brown to red so often).

However they have to be real careful. During that "Sonic Angels Arc" back a hundred some issues or so, they switched styles right in the middle of the comic....it was....really weird.

[PuffinGrandeur]

Visual consistency is not a bad thing nor is it "boring", and saying that Butler must be good because they've used him so long doesn't really apply when Ron Lim was the main artist for so long (and they STILL use James Fry!)

[furrykef]

Yeah, but there's a difference between the animation industry and the comic industry. In Animation it is pretty much the norm for the entire show to have a set style. It's what the art director's job is to make sure the series has consistency. Can you imagine jumping between shots and scenes in an episode and the styles drastically changing? There could be a change in say detail and such between episodes depending on which studio was animating it, but the basic design would always remain.

Comics on the other hand, the artist's have their own style and artists tend to at least work on completing an story arc or so before another artist takes over. If the style was changing drastically all the time in each issue, say four or five artists just doing one story, that would be a headache, but that rarely happens. And it's illogical for x amount of artists to do the pencils for one story because of deadlines and such. The original Sea3on FUS comic did it like that, we had multiple artists working on one issue to help "ease the workload" and yet there were ALWAYS missed deadlines from people,

Way to go on about a problem I already indicated awareness of.

[RedAuthar]

Also Marvel Comics sometimes have a different artist pencil in backgrounds then the main artist.

[Prime]

Visual consistency is not a bad thing nor is it "boring", and saying that Butler must be good because they've used him so long doesn't really apply when Ron Lim was the main artist for so long (and they STILL use James Fry!)

Depends on who you ask. Comic titles have been using multiple artists for years, you can't have one artist work on a book for God knows how long and expect every reader to accept and be happy with it. One fan's dream artist is another fan's Devil spawn. Because honestly, if Yardley and Bates did every issue since they had been hired, including all the covers, main stories, back up stories and anything else, and not a single other artist was brought on, I think I would have grown bored of the style sooner or later. Small doses works best, overkill does not.

When it boils down to it, Ron Lim work on the Sonic title was 100% wank. Of all 36 issues he worked on, I can't remember a single issue he did that truely wowed me. Ron probably got hired for the Sonic title because Archie no doubt wanted a big name artist to help sell their book, draw in the Ron Lim fans, especially since around the time he was hired in 2000 the book wasn't selling well. Issues from around that time are hard to come by now and can trade for a hefty sum. Ron probably only became main artist because he was contracted to get X amount of work during his time. They had this "talent" as it were, may as well use him as much as possible.

But by God was his stuff terrible to look at. I remember picking up #110, one of the first issues I ever bought and I was gobsmacked with how poor his work was. And isn't it funny that the last issue he worked on was #159, and with #160, the creative team was changed on a huge scale and Lim hasn't been seen since.

Butler on the other hand has done a total of 67 issues across all the Sonic titles for Archie. Now I'm not saying Butler is good because of how long they have been using him, but to have been using him as an artist on the book since 1998 to this day, a good solid 14 years compared to Ron's 7 years, the man has to be doing something right. The guys in charge of the book are no doubt happy with his work if they keep hiring him.


And if they are still using James Fry, then they gotta be happy with his work too.

Way to go on about a problem I already indicated awareness of.

Be a little bit more clear about it then next time Ponyman.