1 - Posted on 1/15/2023

It's great to get your take on this cool page, F M, and it's hard to argue against your points here...  but this whole thing - story and all - has the feel of being very, very rushed to me.  It feels like they were forced to do the best they could under very tight deadline (and maybe have to shoehorn in a story that should have more than 'x' pages allotted to it...)?

That doesn't absolve the artist of any blame, of course - it's their job to do all they can to make the story work under those real world conditions - but I think this may have been a heavy lift...  although I suppose those conditions are exactly the type of environment which shows what an artist is capable of...?  Hmmm.  I can't seem to make my way out of this one, Fred. :)

While I'd agree that it's clearly not his most consistent work (and it certainly -feels- like it was drawn with deadlines bearing down), Mr. Finch is most definitely a stylist (as you say) whose style I like.  (Same with Mr. Livesay, whose solid inks here help to ground a potential rush job and imbue substance to the images.)  I still think it's a neat page, Fred (especially if you scored it for a song :) ).  Congrats!

1 - Posted on 1/15/2023

Re Jason. I agree with your statements except that they apply to any (comic) artist working in (any) commercial field. They (are supposed to) do the best they can under the conditions they are dealt with, usually a time constraint. We can argue about rush jobs or no rush jobs but ultimately, only the involved parties can truly clear that parameter up. So we are back to squarre one ;)

Except my caveats with his art would still stand regarding a more polished job.

(and to be precise, I was not saying that this job was not his most consistent but that he was not the most consistent artist within his own artistic parameteres, i.e. his own chosen style).

2 - Posted on 1/15/2023

Yes, the storytelling does have some storytelling weaknesses. Very stiff and unimaginative, making it unclear. As you say, you can still figure out what happens, just not quickly enough. Panel three suffers from the exact thing you point out. I initially thought both characters were just facing off in cool poses, only to realize moments later that Sabretooth had smacked the rifle out of the human's hands with a backhand swipe.

There's more, especially the transition from panel five to six, but you've already said more than enough so I'll leave it here except to say that while I'm not familiar with his work from this earlier period of his career, it's nice to see that he didn't over render this page as he would begin to do later on.

1 - Posted on 1/17/2023

Neat!