The Hero Business

Another nice write-up about my artwork (and redesigning teen heroes) at J. Caleb Mozzocco’s“Every Day Is Like Wednesday”:

“Walko’s stripped down, simplified, only-the-necessary-lines approach highlights how strong an awful lot of those costumes are (Tell me Rose Wilson didn’t look cooler back then than she does now!), and even makes the gaudier, more over-adorned ones like Donna’s or Minion’s look pretty cool (of course, he drew Minion in the act of putting on his big, goofy liquid metal battle suit that made him look a bit like the Hulk wearing the Silver Surfer’s skin).

Walko, of course, has the advantage that comes with this amount of distance from the year 1994, but none of his characters suffer from steroidal, tree trunk + Liefeld anatomies, the all look pretty human, if exaggerated to show off the fact that they are idealized humans. Plus, the teens look like teens and their expressions vary to the extend that you can tell that, say, Mirage and Terra have pretty different outlooks on life and being Titans, and that Impulse and Damage probably don’t agree on all that much.

The art boasts a sense of style, of youth, of energy and, well, coolness that was lacking in covers like that of the sole New Titans Annual featuring these characters. Certainly, the art was produced in two different eras, but even in the ’90s, covers like that one were things I had to look past in order to read New Titans; artwork like Walko’s makes me want to read…whatever he’s drawing. ”

Read the whole article here.

Wow, thanks, Caleb!