Martial Arts Week: Shitty comic, great fights

[kingrockwell]

Chuck Dixon's 2004 Richard Dragon series was lousy, to be sure, but it definitely had one thing going for it. Scott McDaniel's art, while no one is accusing it of being pretty, has an energy and flow that fit the series like a glove and made every fight a joy to read.
As evidence, I bring you the climactic clash between Richard and Lady Shiva.

Thoughts?

Comments

[404glitch.insanejournal.com]

This art style was so perfect for Nightwing.

I liked the series, though I don't like how in the story it's implied that Dragon took a dive at the end instead of Shiva beating him. Of course, he had a legit reason (a protection deal for a kid), but still.

[kingrockwell]

Oh, the ending was an absolute mess, to be sure, but the fight that proceeded it was pretty cool.

[aegof.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

Every time I see Shiva I like her more.

[blakeyrat.insanejournal.com]

Wow, at the top of the third scan, he's knocked Shiva's arm backwards! Or... something, I have no idea what's going on with that arm.

[batgirl11.insanejournal.com]

Yay, Scott McDaniel!

I was scrolling down the pages (I skipped the first paragraph, lol) and kept thinking to myself, "Oh, I hope this is Scott McDaniel, it looks like his work, please let it be him, oh please oh please..." then I saw the tags and I was oh so happy to find out I was right.

There should be a Scott McDaniel Week! And a Jim Lee Week, a Don Kramer Week, an Ethan van Sciver Week, an Andy Kubert Week, a Frank Quitely Week, and so forth... :)

[jedd_the_jedi.insanejournal.com]

I second a Jim Lee week. And oh, a Brian Bolland week too!

[kingrockwell]

I would not be able to get behind a Jim Lee Week, but Artist Spotlights might be cool.

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

See, everyone is always so complimentary of Scott McDaniel's art, and I'm sure he's a great guy. But it just doesn't do it for me. It's too stylised, and I just don't understand why everyone always says there's lots of "energy" in his art -- I just find it all blocky and static, I just don't see any fluidness there at all, to me stuff like this (and his Batman and Nightwing stuff) seems like posed photos one-after-the-other. I just don't get him.

Non-con..in a good way.

[(Anonymous)]

I thought it was a decent story, had issue with trying to portray Richard Dragon as the ultimate Bad Ass who trained the likes of Batman himself.

Pretty much glad recent issues during the reboot put the whole series into Non-con. Then again a lot of staff in the series even before the reboot contridicted a lot of previous history.

Shrugs.

Still no harm no foul now.

Re: Non-con..in a good way.

[kingrockwell]

Oh, actually the top-level-martial-artist and he-even-trained-Batman bits are the only things they didn't change about his character. I took more issue with the guy who was always focused on the spirituality part instead being some angry, uncontrollable asshole, and that his relationship with Shiva was turned romantic boils my blood every time I think about it.

That it didn't take amongst other writers is the only reason I can accept its existence.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

In Nightwing in particular it was the dynamic image-trail effect he used. Sure it's a Frank Miller-ism, and HE I think got it from manga (and the Chinese equivalent whose name escapes me), but he made it work. You can see how someone could move into that position from the one before,

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

You want to see bad McDaniel's art? I got it! Most of the Chichester Daredevil period was drawn by him. The best that can be said is that he loved negative space.

I usually consider it too awful to post here.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Scott McDaniel'. I love his work. The first 25 issues of Nightwing are a masterpiece IMO.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

Argh. I'm sure lots of people like McDaniel, but I can't stand him. I keep trying to get into the early Nightwing issues but his art is like ChrisCross gone wrong.

[gargoylekitty.insanejournal.com]

:D
I don't think it's too horrible, just that it's a style that would, imo anyway, work a lot better in animation than comics. It's flowing but to an extreme that looks weird and broken when looked in a medium that requires movement to be shown in a still frame.

[zippthorn.insanejournal.com]

Where's Richard Dragon's beard? He was born with that beard. His beard could beat up Chuck Norris' beard. WHERE'S HIS BEARD???

[kingrockwell]

He actually didn't have it before his appearance in Question #2, and I almost get the feeling Dixon and McDaniel didn't bother reading anything beyond the old Kung-Fu Fighter series in researching him for this series.

[zippthorn.insanejournal.com]

That's sad. Like I said, Richard was born with that beard. I guess it took him until he got "Zen" to stop shaving it off every 5 seconds. Thing grows fast.