Produced in association with the SomaCow Media Network (see 
PTG Episode 27 is brought to you by Pocky Men’s Bitter Chocolate. It’s not bad. Really. It won’t qualify as your Manly maow maow maow maow Man! thing of the week to eat some, but can’t hurt, either. If I have no idea what I’m talking about, you haven’t been listening to SomaCow, and shame on you. Go listen to some after this episode by clicking HERE–they’re the ones who are REALLY bringing you PTG, after all.
Fun episode this week–talked about how Dave & Buster’s down in Ft. Lauderdale ain’t what it used to be when I lived down there, how Uncanny X-Men might have been better if only …(see below) and that Astronaut Ice Cream Sandwiches are NASTY. Like, throw-up-in-your-mouth NASTY. Go try one and you’ll see what I mean.
So, after recording Episode 27 I went and did some more research on the man who had been, up until the most recent issue #511, the artist on Uncanny X-Men, the much-maligned Greg Land. After doing that research, I realize that my insight on the problem with Greg Land was misinformed, to say the least. I was under the impression that the originality of his work was in question because he copied images he found on the internet or in other media, but it’s definitely a bigger issue than that, and I apologize to the comic book reading community at large who probably have known this about the man for years and I’m the last one to report about it. According to critics, Greg Land actually TRACES images he finds in other media, photos from films, from lingerie catalogs, from porn (allegedly) from anything floating out there built around stereotypical Western images of beauty (male or female) and turns them into comic book panels and covers. In the show image above is one of the more infamous examples that fans have identified, Pamela Anderson on the right, Marvel Comics’ Satana on the left. [For more 'did he or didn't he' examples, click HERE and check out the JimSmash blog, 'cause he presents a compelling case.] Apparently, and with good reason, a good portion of comic book fandom regards Land with a certain amount of derision for this practice, but it can’t be hurting him that badly, reputation-wise, because he still GETS WORK. PLUS he still gets invited to comic conventions–he was, in fact, in attendance at both MegaCon and FX! International here in Orlando this past year–and you don’t hear about the man being lynched at his public appearances. He must have some following, and I can’t imagine he actually traces when he does sketches for fans at these shows, either.
As I said in the show, that really wasn’t my problem with the art in the “Sisterhood” issues I read, anyway–my problem was that Matt Fraction’s narrative wasn’t served well at all by the art, which was confusing at times due to the number of characters involved and the chaos of the battle sequences taking place. As to the tracing issue, I’m not sure what to think. I certainly don’t feel the same righteous indignation that many comic book readers on the internet seem to feel when it comes to Land’s perceived ‘deception.’ I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and so until I actually see Greg Land at a Con actually whip out a Frederick’s of Hollywood catalog and some tracing paper to do a sketch of Emma Frost, I’m not going to decry the man as a tracer. I will say that I might enjoy his work more on a book with fewer characters and a slower pace of movement.
Stumble It!
