November 19, 2009 1

Speed is a state of mind

By Scott Cederlund in comics

Geoff Johns has talked about ,with the revival of Barry Allen, he wants to write about speed.  His Wally West stories are more about family and life in general but Scott Kolins was fantastic when it came to drawing the Flash running around the city and stopping the rogues.

Ethan Van Sciver is a good artist and I still love his Green Lantern: Rebirth but his artwork hasn’t felt right on Flash: Rebirth.  The problem is, for a book about speed, Van Sciver just doesn’t draw it that well.  When his characters are running at full speed and he’s trying to show it, they barely look like they’re moving.  They’re all posed an might as well be mannequins.


by: Infantino


by: Van Sciver

Let’s just be honest, Van Sciver is no Carmine Infantino.  Maybe it’s the leaning forward (something that runners rarely do,) but there’s a fluidity to Infantino’s Flash that’s just lacking in Van Sciver’s.  It’s hard to believe that Van Sciver’s figures are moving at super-sonic speeds because they feel so heavy and static.  But even when they’re not moving, they’re still posed and wooden.  I feel like I could pluck the character of Barry off of that cover above and he wouldn’t move a bit, like he’s stuck in that pose.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming Blackest Night: Flash and the ongoing Flash series to see what artists like Scott Kolins and Francis Manupul do.  They seem much more in the Infantino school of movement and fluidity.  And if nothing else, I want to see much more of Barry running among the clouds.  Where’s that in Flash: Rebirth?

 

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One Response to “Speed is a state of mind”

  1. Speed Reading: Breathing in Space, the Blur, Casting, EVS vs. Carmine Infantino & More « Speed Force says:
    November 22, 2009 at 6:02 pm

    [...] Secret of Wednesday’s Haul contrasts Ethan Van Sciver and Carmine Infantino in their approaches to conveying [...]

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