The Cause

Pool C—Second Round:

1. Jim Lee vs. 8. Dave Stevens: Dave Stevens—master of the pin-up and Good Girl art.  His use of spotted blacks is perfect and his line quality is just superb.  But Jim Lee sneaks by this one.  Lee has been one of the most emulated artists in the history of comic books, and he is also a great artist in his own right.  He takes this match up based upon his amazing sense of design and superlative rendering and detail.  He is the epitome of the Jack Kirby legacy of what makes a great mainstream artist great.  Jim Lee wins this one to advance into the third round.
2. Jim Steranko vs. 7. Mazzuchelli: Steranko, like one or two others on this list, is a sure bet “hall of famer” when it comes to comic book artists.  There is no other artist capable of high contrast chiaroscuro with ink like Steranko.  Ironically enough, Mazzuchelli is also great at deep, naturalistic lighting.  But Steranko is also capable of greater detail than what Mazzuchelli has demonstrated in his (Mazzuchelli’s) award-winning career, and this is why Steranko takes this.
3. Sal Buscema vs. 6.  Mike Mignola: I swear I didn’t rig these pools (even though it may seem like it).  There have been many earth-shaking match-ups in this tournament, and this is another one of those “Clash of the Titans”.  Mignola—the “artist’s artist”.  Expert storyteller and master of spotted blacks.  His minimalistic approach has won him admiration from industry professionals and fans alike.  But he is facing Sal Buscema.  Sal Buscema.  I shouldn’t have to say anything other than that.  His storytelling is superlative—truly.  He has never drawn a page where a reader has to stop and wonder what is happening.  But not only that, his rendering is also wonderful.  He takes this one on sheer page count alone.  There haven’t been too many artists as prolific as Buscema.  Winner: Sal Buscema.
4. Bernie Wrightson vs. 5. Dave McKean: Wow.  While I know that I am probably stomping on some toes here, I have to say it: Dave McKean takes this.  As I have already stated, Bernie Wrightson created some of the greatest inked drawing in the history of inked drawings when illustrating Shelley’s Frankenstein.  No exaggeration.  But his work has never regained that energy and ultimate precision (he probably burned himself out on that project).  Dave Mckean, however, helped to issue forth a new generation of artists—true artists of different disciplines: ink wash, crayon, pastel, watercolor and paint.  He (along with artists like Siekiewicz) gave audiences a look at the visions of contemporary artists unfiltered by the constraints of the ideas and technology of prior generations.  Dave McKean wins this is an upset.

With all of the technical problems I've had lately with the last couple of pages, I thought I actually put the page up last night.  I completely forgot to put up the page before I left the house this morning.  Unfortunately, I won't be back at home until after work tonight, so the page won't be up until after 10 pm.  This one is completely my fault, and I apologize.  I can say that this, hopefully, should be the last break for quite a few weeks.  So, stop back later tonight or tomorrow for the new page.

Ok--the new scanner arrived this weekend.  However, I haven't had the chance to get the latest page up.  I hope to have that up by Wednesday or Thursday.  I'm really disappointed that things have worked out this way.  What's frustrating is that the pages are completed and pretty much ready to go (I just have to do some minor cleaning and letter things appropriately).  Please bear with me.  Hopefully, I'll be back on schedule by Monday.