X-Men Unlimited 40 splash page 12 feat. Sabretooth by David Finch and John Livesay

Full disclosure : David Finch is not an artist I follow nor care much about anymore. I was excited by his art in his early years when I thought he was Top Cow’s answer to Wildstorm’s Travis Charest.

As I grow older, the artistic school/approach of “more on top of too much” (rendering) does not appeal to me much unless the storytelling (first) and art (second) remains immediately readable and fluid.

To sum it up, I’d rather go Toth than McFarlane 😉

David Finch can certainly draw but I find he is a poor to average/ok storyteller and that his art often suffers from (too many) inconsistencies and lacking anatomy. A better stylist than storyteller.

(I have never met Mr Finch who I heard is generous with his fans and is a kind person. So, my opinion comes from evolving tastes and analysis, not a bitter experience 😉).

So why this page you ask?

First I already owned two pages from that 13 pages short story from my early days of OA collecting for which I have a fondness. Because the plot is simple and enjoyable: Sabretooth, the ultimate savage and merciless hunter becomes the hunted. And it was relatively cheap.

So we begin with an over the top first panel in which the bullet ricochets out of Sabretooth’s skull to hurt the hunter on its way back. This looks like a extract from a 90s Image comics where blood was dripping from the pages (and the characters’ names) and looks more like thick marmalade than an actual fluid liquid.

Of course the hunter is drenched in said marmalade in panel 2.

The money shot, the splashy 3rd open panel is clearly the best. I like how Finch played on proportions between the two antagonists to great effect as the prey becomes the predator. Sabretooth’s pose is cool, complete with flowing hair. I like how he is casually disarming his opponent. Even the blood looks better, mor fluid (à la BWS). No point in going over his anatomy in detail but just look at that overgrown left trapeze, behind which you can still see portion of his back., which does not look right given his stance. I wish Mr Finch would pay better attention to that kind of element. But this may be due to meeting the deadlines 😉

Then we have a set of 4 panels (which make for a fun overall page layout I confess) in which the hunter goes for his second weapon only to be instantly disarmed (again) by the villain. I find that the articulation between the second and third panel is not very clear for instance. We, as seasoned comic readers, will understand that Sabretooth disarmed the guy but there is no gesture of his part to indicate it and the speed lines are not particularly telling. It could have been handled better.

The very last panel offers a vicious shot of Sabretooth. It’ a nice way to end the page even though I find it’s a bit quickly done. Again it could have been handled better for more impact. The fact we see his mug from the pov of the prey is a nice touch.

I’m not convinced by the coloring here. Much too dark for my taste for one and it feels like a generic computed colored job whereas the art shines way better in glorious b&w.

Mention to John’s expert inks, especially on the strong black masses.

I now feel like the grouch ol’ comic store owner, fan of the Studio, to which I was showing my 90s Image comics as a teen, trying to convince him it was not all bad. But he obviously had better tastes than I did (then).

So clearly this is a (very) guilty pleasure of an addition.

And oh…no, it’s NOT for sale 😉