Upcoming stuff...

[gargoylekitty.insanejournal.com]

...from Secret Six and Wonder Woman.

Both from The Source.
First, the cover to Secret Six #16.

For the linkaphobes and uncertain, that's Black Alice.

Then two pages from Wonder Woman #36.

Comments

[ghosty732.insanejournal.com]

That cover is awesome.

[goodfellow_puck.insanejournal.com]

Awesome until you get to the seriously screwed up legs. Her thighs do not connect at her hips and the knees are wrong. The shading makes them look flat too. Holy crap, that neck is too long! That foot is huge!

It looks like the artist either A) Found a chopped up model photo off of Photoshop Disasters (probably footwear?), or B) Did his own cut/paste before his paint-over. This is why you need to not directly copy photos to do your work, kids. :P

At first pass the concept and color is good, he/she just needs to learn some anatomy stat.

[(Anonymous)]

The neck's definitely too long, looks like he referenced the pose in general though the face separately and tried to put them together. Honestly, I was surprised when I first saw covers coming out from him since I first heard of him through an art snark community some months back for his overindulgence in textures and shortcuts in anatomy. I mean he (http://adonihs.deviantart.com/)'s by no means horrible but I really don't see him putting his best foot forward with these Secret Six covers.

[goodfellow_puck.insanejournal.com]

Hooooooly crap. I can't believe you put "he's not horrible" and linked to that page in the same sentence. I had no clue who he was/is and let me say those covers...they look like amateur hour in Photoshop. For high schoolers. Seriously. The above cover is the best of the lot.

I'm not saying he didn't "ref" the pose, I'm saying it's obvious (now even more so with that link) that he uses photos as a crutch for his lack of anatomy/lighting knowledge. So when he picks up ref that's been poorly re-touched, or he chops it up to suit his needs, he's got no clue how wrong everything is. I'm all understanding that unskilled art comes out when you're learning, but this dude is getting paid by a major company. It boggles my mind.

I was always taught to send sequential pages to publishers 'cause they had all the awesome cover artists they ever needed, but this. This reminds me why I question that often.

[(Anonymous)]

You're right. In apology, I can only make it worse.
http://danielluvisiart.blogspot.com/2009/04/faq-for-deviantart.html
As for why he has this job? I'd think this (http://adonihs.deviantart.com/journal/22365368/) was a big part since a month later he started working with DC.

[goodfellow_puck.insanejournal.com]

Hmm, dunno what's so bad about the FAQ other than it being way too long for me to do anything but lightly skim.

I don't see how his post was a big part either. I mean, there might be some explanation if he knew someone inside, but obviously that was not the case. If he went the SDCC route, then GOD HELP US ALL since Marvel/DC only take unsolicts by drop box, from which they choose peeps for reviews. That means they choose him cold call and that's...*sigh*

Yah, okay. Put "do serious cover samples" on my projects to-do list.

[bluejaybirdie.insanejournal.com]

Hey, Black Alice! I love her bomber jacket with the Batman patch. Can't wait to see the solicit for this one.

I still love Giganta's new costume. Fuctional, stylish, and non-panty-flashing, it's a win-win!

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

If it could just lose the leopard print, it'd be perfect. IMO right now it connects her too much to Cheetah for no real reason. (Yes, I know it's supposed to be a callback to her pre-Crisis self, but there's nothing in her post-Crisis incarnation to justify it, so it's sort of like having Kyle carry around a box of matches all the time in case he runs into wood.)

Good to see some pagetime for a rogue who needs it, too. I hope this is more than the incidental namecheck-pummel-dismiss she usually gets. And maybe that it involves Ryan in some way. I miss that dude.

[oddpuppets.insanejournal.com]

And maybe that it involves Ryan in some way. I miss that dude.

So, so much seconded. I miss Ryan. I miss Giganta and Ryan. They should totally have an awkward, uneasy team-up date. It would be glorious.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

"Ummm, Ms. Wonder Woman, could you please not punch out my girlfriend?"

[unknownscribler.insanejournal.com]

And she still has those wonderfully proportionately small breasts! And the shock-absorbers in her shoes.

[cowtasticism.insanejournal.com]

I normally dislike Black Alice but she looks pretty cool there.

[xlineartx.insanejournal.com]

Please tell me that's Black Alice's new costume. It's so fluffy and cute! Normally I dislike skirts in costumes, but magic users don't really need to be practical, and the stylishness makes up for it.

[minarho1.insanejournal.com]

heartily seconded!

[minarho1.insanejournal.com]

I *love* Aaron Lopestri's work! He covers the cleavage! No butt-cracks! Low panty lines. And his work is STILL sexy.

I wish other comicbook artists would take note. Heroines can look sexy and NOT look like a casting call from Rock of Love.

[gargoylekitty.insanejournal.com]

Between that and actually giving the female characters a bit of weight, I tend to like Lopresti's work.

[thebigapricot.insanejournal.com]

Can I just say that Black Alice looks smoking hot there.

What's with the graves -- Scandal and Bane have to bunk up?

I am glad to see Giganta has pants on.

[octopussoir.insanejournal.com]

I think it`s cute. Gail loves to place emphasis on their father-daughter relationship. Bane seems like the type to want to share a grave with Scandal.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

Her face is disturbingly Landish and vapid, but the style and detail on the fishnets is A++++.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

The huge tulle skirt looks like tulle. I'm in love.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

Ugh. Black Alice was such a 'I can do ANYTHING!' character. Hopefully, she's a villain.

For a second, I thought that was Cheetah going for a REALLY WIERD STYLE.

[naebler.insanejournal.com]

To be fair... the Six are villains. So if she was their villain then it means she's a Hero...

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

My point was that all-powerful characters (she can take the Spectre's power?!) aren't great for the long term--unless you're writing a very cosmic philosophical story. Sandman, the Spectre series, Miracleman etc. If she's beating them up, it would be awesome (but why would she hero only here?). If she's joining the team, well, I hope she doesn't last long.

[colonel_green.insanejournal.com]

Simone's Atom did by far the most to actually make her a sensical character (not that that in and of itself i saying a whole lot), so hopefully that continues here.

Though when Wondy herself appeared there was this attempt to make Giganta some huge epic rival whose presence can cause Diana to totally go berserk, something not remotely justified by their history; if I had to name one real problem I had with Simone's run it's how she frequently attempts to retroactively impose character history (Etta being her closest friend, for example). Diana and Giganta have met like three times, and she's never been much more than a joke.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Hmmm, black Alice looks like that girl from "firefly" and the "V" reboot.

[lieut_kettch.insanejournal.com]

Diana needs no help with her sexy fight!

[bluejaybirdie.insanejournal.com]

But Paco wishes she does! And he'dd bwring his stick!!@

[long_silence.insanejournal.com]

He'd bring a tree branch to hit her with too.

[pyrotwilight.insanejournal.com]

Black Alice? Hmmm. Good to see Gail will undo the stupid that happened to Lori in Reign in Hell.

At the same time though I kind of fear for her.

Gail brought Tarantula in only to end up killing her and had an arc that had Artemis get tortured (though later freed her and had her bloodying up many a captor). I trust in Gail but I'm wondering what Alice could do with the Six, she doesn't have a connection unless she and Jeanette go at it for some reason.

Not sure how to feel aside from saying that cover is PURTY.

[oddpuppets.insanejournal.com]

It's odd, but because Gail is a woman, a decent writer, and aware of sexism in written narrative, I give her the benefit of my doubt when it comes to brutalizing female characters. All characters, and especially super heroes, should go through the ropes, but Artemis's capture was one of those genuinely scary moments where you fear for the heroine's body. I wonder how s_d would've taken it if a guy had written the exact same scene. It doesn't remove the squickiness, of course. And you think, well, perhaps writers should just stop putting their superheroines in sexually charged danger, but that's not necessarily the right answer either.

I don't care much about Black Alice though so eh.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

I give her the benefit of my doubt when it comes to brutalizing female characters.

It's all about tone. Something like Carol Danvers' torture in MS MARVEL, or Temi's recent rape threat in SECRET SIX, passes the test because of how the supposed victims reacted - specifically, not like victims. There was never any question, to my mind, that no matter what happened to Artemis, much, much worse was going to happen to whoever did it, and she herself wasn't going to be broken by it. She's defiant, calm, and dangerous; there's no trace of fear or helplessness in her, no sense that they have any power over her beyond the simple, very temporary, physical fact of her chains. She reacts like a male character would, and like any hero should, with confidence and control and effective forward action (taunting the guy into hitting her, which stopped him pawing her).

Brutalizing a character is fine. It's required by the genre. It's just that female characters are generally victimized instead, which is not okay. I typically trust Gail to know the difference, which means, yeah, I'm not nearly as skittish about that kind of set-up when she's writing as I would be most other comic authors. It's more about her cred than her gender, though; Rucka's got a good track record too, for example, so I'm not real concerned about Batwoman's apparently unrevealed "tragic past," and I was never skeeved out by Chase's kidnapping or the border abductions in MANHUNTER, so Andreyko gets similar leeway with me.

[darklorelei.insanejournal.com]

The legs! The legs! D:

[petalsinthewind.insanejournal.com]

Oh my God, her legs!

[gargoylekitty.insanejournal.com]

I'm honestly surprised by how long it took people to start saying something.

[petalsinthewind.insanejournal.com]

HER LEGS!

[gargoylekitty.insanejournal.com]

They are clearly the legs she took off some bodies and posed in front of her while standing behind the tombstone, the poofy skirt is to hide this fact.

It's the only way I can begin to understand what's going on there.

[xlineartx.insanejournal.com]

I think it's entirely possible that all this photorealism we were raving about is because this picture is a manip.

Look at it closely. It's choppy! It's just such a good composition (legs aside) that you almost don't notice it.

[goodfellow_puck.insanejournal.com]

DUDE, HE GOT HIS REFERENCE FROM PHOTOSHOP DISASTERS (http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/), I KNOWS IT. D: AND I WEEP.

I wish Anon hadn't linked me to his DA page. It's Epic bad for someone being paid to be a cover artist for a big company. I was enjoying my ignorance.

*Goes to ease the pain with some James Jean covers.*

[mcity.insanejournal.com]

I spent a full five minutes trying to make any sense of 'em.

[unknownscribler.insanejournal.com]

No comment on Bane & Scandal being burried together?

[faile_neume.insanejournal.com]

Isn't Alice supposed to be like, 16? She looks really old here :/

[mcity.insanejournal.com]

>For the linkaphobes and uncertain, that's Black Alice.

For a second, I was hoping it was Abby Scutio.

I was really, really hoping it was Abby Scutio.

[octopussoir.insanejournal.com]

Dude, just noticed the full idol crucifix on Catman's, didn't know Blake is/was Catholic.