Marvels - art by Alex Ross

spooydermot

Hey there,

has anyone read 'Marvels' and is it worth the money, saw it in a comic store in dublin the other day and was tempted by the fact that Alex Ross does the art.
any thoughts?

cheers
D

bombidol

Marvels is outstanding, i have all the single issues at home. was it released in TPB?

spooydermot

yeah its for sale in the third place at the moment.
Without spoiling the story, whats the general premise?

bombidol

Roughly its about a reporter doing a newspaper piece on New yorks superheroes and their interaction with regular folk. its really very good.

bombidol

how much is it in there?

TheBatman

bombidol wrote:

Marvels is outstanding, i have all the single issues at home. was it released in TPB?

Have to agree. Strongly. Well worth the read. If even for the art work alone. Something I have a habit of picking up every so often.

spooydermot

i think it was about 20 - 22 euro

might pick it up then, since ye speak so highly of it
i really love alex ross's work

bombidol

yeah he really has taken comic art to the next level. dont get me wrong i love the simplistic approach by people like Steve Dillion etc, really clean and powerful but Ross is an "Artist" in the traditional sense.

Briony Noh

I consider Marvels a valuable addition to my collection. The artwork is quite inspiring and the story, such as it is, gives some much needed background reality to its various sources. The narrative is surprisingly low-key and the whole book has a sustained atmosphere that belies its formulaic, serialised origins. Just to alert you, though, it is a novel in the classic sense of exploring the effects of events on one family, the father of which is a reporter. Ross has no difficulty whatever aging the main characters in a realistic and believable way over the 20-ish years the book explores, though you might find some of his images a littel too pretty. Despite this, and with the addition of some useful descriptive articles, you get a real sense of how he works and, if you are an artist, it will definitely broaden your approach to your work. Others will say that he isn't the best. I say, he doesn't have to be. It isn't only the best you can learn from, and he's still miles better than I or (with respect to his critics and only as a conjecture) they may ever be.

partholon

agreed, ross has greatly influenced my own style. i love the standard stuff we get in comics but ross brings a lovely "shapelessness" to his figures making them look like real people instead of generic geometric shapes slapped together in human form, its nice to see porportions regular too instead of the over done steroid poisend look


dont get me wrong guys like geoff senior jim lee and co are still who i draw more like but ross gave me a lovely insight to shading and lighting. take a look at his earth x stuff. i defy you not to like what he did to cap, its so simple yet so powerfull at the same time

chopperbyrne

His work on the Earth X trilogy is not just his best but the best in comics history in my opinion.

spooydermot

yeah, Earth X is another one that's been temping me , I know the art is great,does the story line stand up?

btw picked up marvels the other day, rellay enjoying it so far, thanks for the opinions guys!

constitutionus

the first earth x story is really good but the art isnt done by ross. he just does the covers and the character designs. that said theres some lovely redesigns on cap , iron man and co and some lovely nod of the heads to the inspiration of the original characters and how they'd look at middle age i.e iron man looking like howard hughes in his mad days. for those who dont know stan lee based tony on howard,peter parker looks more like his uncle ben etc.

my favourite parts involve expanding on galactus's story and finally telling us why he goes about eating worlds and how mutants factor into this. not to mention giving an origin to the "gods" in the marvel universe like thor and hercules and what they really are.

all in all the art will be the biggest letdown, but the story's definently worth it