The Archie Sonic's Artwork and his unfairly Undervaluing
When we talk about the art on Archie Sonic series, we can find both good and bad things to talk about. If we talk specifically of the good side, easily Tracy Yardley and Patrick Spaziente are the principal and first names to come to the conversation, but something that a lot people usually ignores is that it was more very good artists, and beyond this, is a fact that a lot of users don’t really know all the names, work and circumstances behind the Artwork in these comics, which ended bring up a lot of disinformation, misunderstands and generalization and easily, the best example of this, as usual, is the case of Ken Penders.
When Penders started to working in the comics, his art style wasn’t really bad, it was also pretty decent, but unfortunately his style started devolve from Knuckles the Echidna’ issues #30-32 onwards (And even if it still looks ugly and weird, I have to say that he never came to the level that it can be seen in his art after leaving the Archie comics).
This devolve came from the new line established by the editor on that time, Justin Gabrie, that just like many others on these times, wanted to take advantage from the Anime & Manga boom in the USA at the end of 90’ and the beginning of the 2000’ years. Brought new artists, and motivated part of the actual crew to try to replicate the Japanese Style.
However, the point here is these users don’t know nothing about this, just like many other don't even bother in check the credits and for that, the people have a big misunderstanding about how his art style is and it was created a large prejudice that assume that Penders was a big constructor in the art style of the comics, and with that, anytime that someone see a strange panel, automatically think it was made by him, just like many others think that Tracy Yardley was the only artist after the issue #160, at least to the issue #200.
So for that, it won’t bad talk a little about the other artists and the bad situation that affect their work, starting with other of the most known names when we talk about bad art:
Ron Lim was an artist who started to work in Archie Sonic series in Sonic Super Special #13, and continued working to the Sonic the Hedgehog #159, ended with 39 contributions. Ron actually is a very well-known artist inside the general comics industry, almost called ‘Lengedary’ for some others, having a long career from 1986 to nowadays, with very acclaimed works in a lot of series from Marvel and DC like Silver Surfer Vol. 3, The Infinity Trilogy, Green Lantern Vol. 3, etc. But If we talk about his work in Archie Sonic, we can find mixed results, being generally many out of context panels which made him have the reputation of being a bad artist on the Sonic Fanbase. How did this happen? The answer summaries in two point:
The First point, and this is the most obvious. It is known that Archie staff came through a lot of complications and abrupt changes that affected the quality of the comics around the end of 90’ and the 2000’. Not only talking about the abrupt changes of editors on 2003, caused a total change in the direction and narrative structure established by Karl Bollers in STH #130-134, but also the case is that the whole company was passed for a bad moment in general, which made that the deadlines and salaries of the workers got extremely tight, which was mentioned by others workers like Al Bigley and Penders itself.
This wasn’t only an Archie thing, but this came principally from a brutal crisis that the American Comic Industry had since the second halt of the 90’, that seriously affected the quality control of many series.
And the second one, that is linked to the first point, is that no matter how old and experienced an artist could be, that’s not mean he could draw everything in any art style like it was not the big deal. Taking in account experiences from different Online Artist and others that I personally know, working with a style which you are not familiar with could be really hard, and in the Lim’s case, he passed from draw human superhero comics to draw simple cartoonist animal, and with the situation previously explain, it makes not surprisingly that his art was some mixed between works, just like happen with other good artists like Al Bigley or Chris Allan. I mean, we even have other examples in the current comics, like Ejikure from Sonic X DC crossover or Clayton Crain from Sonic X Godzilla.
And it is necessary to clarify that he also had good pieces too, as it could see in his first and latest contributions.
I think that in some ways, this point is more known or understood between the big part of the users in contrast to the first one, since it is one of the principal reasons why people like Patrick Spaziance have so much esteem for the community. Patrick is an interesting case here because despite the appreciation that he has today for his cover’s work, the truth is that at the same time, his work is pretty underrated.
Since the beginning of his career, he showed an incredible talent to adapt himself to the characters and replicate the different art styles inside the franchise, from the classic Ukenawa style to others more particular like Sonic CD cutscenes or Sonic X ones.
But believe or not, this also has his negative side, because the special fixation of the fanbase only and exclusive on this works, ended cause that his contributions with his personal art style go extremely unnoticed by an overwhelming part of the fandom, to the point that I could see for myself people confused his art thinking that it was made by Penders, only because “It is not Sonic enough”
Obviously it is important that an artist could adapt to the style of the franchise what he is working for, however, this does not mean the work from an artist who couldn't replicate the art style to 100% is intricately bad. There are nuances here to take in account and one of the primary examples of this is Art Mawhinney.
Art used to be a Storyboarding artist from Sonic SATAM, that’s why his art it looks so similar to the original cartoon, and it worked pretty well for the years before the Adventure Era, when the comics were still being very linked with the series. But it was when we came to the new era with new modern designs, when his art started to be polemic for many, despite that Art tried to adapt to the new direction, unfortunately he couldn’t achieve it and with that, he started to be hardly criticized by the fanbase. Look, I understand the argument that his style had become obsolete, but I don’t think it truly deserves the hate and overreaction comments that some gave it.
Even to see it from an external perspective, the Art’s work in this era was at least pretty decent or even nice in contrast with others like Ron Lim or Al Bigley. He didn’t devolve like Penders, even with the bad situation behind scenes he never lost his quality, or it wasn’t so clashing like Dave Manak, other artist from the classic era.
Art maybe couldn’t adapt to the new Sonic style but his work still had good qualities that make it good, just like the cases on others artists like Jay Axer, Dawn Best, Manny Galan or Jonathan Gary, who used be forget o ridiculized for the same.
This argument of ‘is not Sonic enough’ is valid and doesn't need to be bad if the people who want to talk about this topic did not stay on the surface and really understand the other important factors like the context. You can say you don’t like their work, but insulting and ridiculizing them is another thing.
Returning with the previous issue, if we leave the prejudices aside, we can find that Patrick Spaziante was never the only classic artist with talent to draw Sonic. In Sonic The Hedgehog #61, Steve Butler started to work in the comic, an artist that from the very beginning had a dynamic, detailed and versatile style which he could adapt almost perfectly to the character’s proportions, and it could easily see by the fact that he was the artist with the best transition from the classic to the new modern style.
Unfortunately, faces to his return on the second half of the Adventure Era in Sonic The Hedgehog #111, his work was affecting for the current context of the staff, which it is specially sad because it is for his contributions on this time that people remember him to today (Oh well, “remember” because a big part of his work used to give credit to Penders 🙄)
This change comes from two facts:
The new ‘Animesque’ line established by Justin Gabrie that we talked about before.
Since quality control was more flexible, the artist used to have more creative freedom and knowing that Steve principal worked in Superhero comics, this was the result.
The comments about his work during this time and the Dark Era can condense it ‘he made the characters look weird’ or even ‘This guy was a furry because he sexualized the female characters’.
I can sympathize with the first point. I still remember when I read the Archie Comics for the first time, when I only had as reference the IDW and Post-SGW comics. At that moment, I didn’t think his art was bad but it is true that I found it strange. But the good thing is it never devolve to same level of Penders, it still had all his good qualities and eventually he could prove his talent again on the Modern Era, also known as the Golden Era, when he re-adapt to the character’s bases design with amazing results, show us that he never lost the toque.
Steve Butler Full Timeline
Another case could be James Fry, who started to work in Sonic The Hedgehog #76. He use to be remember for giving weird expressions to the characters, but outside that, is a fact that he was one of the best artists on adapting the Anime style to the comics and with the time, he has one of the most notable evolutions.
And talking about the covers, again, we can find very good exponents outside of Spaziante and Yardley. Like Ryan Jampole, artist from the first MegaMan crossover who is both a good Cover Artist and a Interior artist, or Ben Bates, artist from the Pre-SGW Era who despite not having multiple styles like the previous one, still has an excellent style for his own.
And that way, with could mentioned even more artists ignored by the fanbase despite their good qualities, and that's why I previously made the Artist Spotlight posts about the many good Archie Sonic Artists throught his story, as a recopilation of all the names that deseve being remember at least as a mention. Because...
‘Archie Sonic has a lot of thighs to offer aside of Penders and weird stuff outside the canon’
This is something I said in the past talking about the story, but now I say it in reference to the art and the workers behind it. Of course there is criticable thighs, I don't mean you should not mention it, but that shouldn't change the fact that these comics had a lot of great artists who are memorable for many different good reasons. Not only talking about the veterinarian, but also the rookies who had the opportunity to show their talent and learn with these comics and with that, find their place inside the industry and the fandom, like it was the case of Patrick Spaziante, Jay Axer, Jhonathan Gray, Tracy Yardley, Evan Stanley or Adam Bryce Thomas.
And even if you just want to give your personal opinion about this topic, it wouldn't be bad if you try to investigate a little longer aside from the popular consensus, because many times the circumstances behind and the context could be more complicated than it looks at first.
But in any case, I just want to over this with a little message: ‘You can Hate Penders, You could don’t like Ron Lim art, but in the end, I think we all can be agreed that it will never be a worse artist in the franchise than Manny Hands’
Hey @an0n0, @apontearts , @magicvicky1 & @r0ckyreck ! 👋
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