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The BIZ: What do you guys think of Simon Bisley's art?
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43 posts in this topic

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http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=168786

 

 

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James Halperin has his collection posted online with terrific quality scans of the originals

 

http://www.jhalpe.com/items/index/page:1/search:simon%20bisley

 

 

BIZ hit American comics with an explosion in 1990. even though people can point to artists like Frazetta or Corben, Sienkiewicz as being influences on his painting his work was really unlike anything else out there at the time

 

I've been looking at a lot of Simon's work again recently. when i first saw his work in Lobo, then Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement on Gotham. I thought he continued to grow and change through those years but even The subject matter, Bisley's lack of subtly, the over the top exaggeration of his figures isn't your cup of tea the quality and craftsmanship of Bisley's drawing and painting through the early 90's is undeniable. What do you guys think of the Simon Bisley's artwork from (what i think) his prime years of 1989-1997 and the changes he's made over the last 15 years or so? Has it hurt his reputation among fans? Is he capable of doing work the quality of those early years again?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Koa
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At first I was going to congratulate you for scoring that Lobo cover ! (which was adamantly not for sale), then I realized where you are going.

 

I'm a Bisley fan, mostly because of nostalgia and how I liked the original Lobo miniseries.

 

Almost all artists evolve. Byrne, Sienkz, JR JR, all their art changes with time. Some people like their earlier stuff, some people like their later stuff, to each their own.

 

I wouldn't call his change a decline. It's just a change. But that is obviously my opinion.

 

Malvin

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At first I was going to congratulate you for scoring that Lobo cover ! (which was adamantly not for sale), then I realized where you are going.

 

I'm a Bisley fan, mostly because of nostalgia and how I liked the original Lobo miniseries.

 

Almost all artists evolve. Byrne, Sienkz, JR JR, all their art changes with time. Some people like their earlier stuff, some people like their later stuff, to each their own.

 

I wouldn't call his change a decline. It's just a change. But that is obviously my opinion.

 

Malvin

 

lol, sorry for unintentional bait and switch! i would love that BIZ cover! It was the first art by BIZ I'd seen and still one of my favorites.

 

I agree that art is very subjective and artists do evolve and sometimes they lose those of us who get "stuck" in a certain era of their work. I could be wrong but I don't feel that's the case with simon, that his work is evolving past my understanding.I think Simon at his best has been one of the most brilliant artists in comics over the last 30 years which is why I find things like the deathstroke cover or this DK3 variant perplexing. I'm not saying he's a bad artist nowHere's his latest batman cover. A DK variant and it's almost like a different artist painted this.

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Koa
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I like the stuff from the early years best as well. The first ten years is usually the best for most comic artists, really. Rare is the guy that gets better with age (shrug)

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I like the stuff from the early years best as well. The first ten years is usually the best for most comic artists, really. Rare is the guy that gets better with age (shrug)

Tend to agree, with Kirby and Romita Jr being two big exceptions imo. Their refined styles (which are what we really know them for today) both came post-first decade. I'm sure there are others...anybody? Almost added Byrne then realized it's really 1978-84 that really hits on all cylinders. Definitely first decade.

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He does have a unique recognizable style, so isn't a cookie cutter artist, which I do like and can appreciate. Not being a hardcore fan, there's some pieces I like better than others, and other pieces not so much at all.

 

As far as reputation with fans beyond the portfolio, I think he's hit and miss as a personality based on who knows what. I recall hearing he profanely said "F' off" to a fan simply asking for an autograph at the Heavy Metal booth at Comic Con a few years ago, yet when he was at the Las Vegas Comic Expo a few years later, he was doing free sketches all day for fans with a friendly disposition.

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I like the stuff from the early years best as well. The first ten years is usually the best for most comic artists, really. Rare is the guy that gets better with age (shrug)

Tend to agree, with Kirby and Romita Jr being two big exceptions imo. Their refined styles (which are what we really know them for today) both came post-first decade. I'm sure there are others...anybody? Almost added Byrne then realized it's really 1978-84 that really hits on all cylinders. Definitely first decade.

 

Barks (48-58 is his peak after starting comics in 43 and having drawn professionally outside comics for 10 years before that). Kubert, for sure, with his best stuff being 60s and early 70s after starting in the 40s, many other 'exceptions that prove the rule' but the point is they are exceptions.

 

My view has always been that the more the particular artist was relying on structure and technique in their art, the better the art was as they aged. The more they relied on flash/style/ detailed rendering, then generally, the worse it got as they aged.

 

The take away being that you can think art better as you age (if you apply yourself) but the flashy/detailed rendering is a young mans game. The only guy that comes to mind as having gotten more detailed in his rendering with more experience is Kaluta.

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Good stuff Bronty. Travis Charest is a most interesting case. I'm hardly a collector (or even reader of his work) but there's such a dramatic turn from ImageClone to unique voice...I'm amazed. And if the stuff was still in the hundreds, I'd grab a piece or two out of coolness alone.

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Good stuff Bronty. Travis Charest is a most interesting case. I'm hardly a collector (or even reader of his work) but there's such a dramatic turn from ImageClone to unique voice...I'm amazed. And if the stuff was still in the hundreds, I'd grab a piece or two out of coolness alone.

 

I am highly unimpressed with his Star Wars stuff. He is probably the number one artist I don't get the asking prices for his stuff.

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Good stuff Bronty. Travis Charest is a most interesting case. I'm hardly a collector (or even reader of his work) but there's such a dramatic turn from ImageClone to unique voice...I'm amazed. And if the stuff was still in the hundreds, I'd grab a piece or two out of coolness alone.

 

I am highly unimpressed with his Star Wars stuff. He is probably the number one artist I don't get the asking prices for his stuff.

I think the answer is: Europe. They overpay for everything "art".

 

(Mostly j/k, except that on the whole they can and will pay top numbers for top pieces that most Americans just can't see!)

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Good stuff Bronty. Travis Charest is a most interesting case. I'm hardly a collector (or even reader of his work) but there's such a dramatic turn from ImageClone to unique voice...I'm amazed. And if the stuff was still in the hundreds, I'd grab a piece or two out of coolness alone.

 

I am highly unimpressed with his Star Wars stuff. He is probably the number one artist I don't get the asking prices for his stuff.

I think the answer is: Europe. They overpay for everything "art".

 

(Mostly j/k, except that on the whole they can and will pay top numbers for top pieces that most Americans just can't see!)

 

To be honest I don't even know if I have ever even seen them move of the dealers sites I have seen them on...

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This piece has a certain charm..... and I've been a Biz fan since the infamous "elbow" cover. I also found his religious paintings to be very intense. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

 

BISLEY%20%20M.C.%20JACKET%20a.jpg

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I'm a little hesitant to weigh in with this opinion, in case Simon is listening, but oh well. To me, his current work does not bear comparison to the prime period illustrated in the initial posts. As an artist myself (not comics), I'm sort of fascinated with (and terrified by) incidences of what appears to be drastic decline in an artist's gift. Not the more common gradual loss of freshness that we see in lots of artists as they keep grinding out the same sort of pictures on unrelenting deadlines, but the few cases in which it just seems like a gift has been taken away, almost overnight. Bernie Wrightson has been much discussed and himself has, at least to some extent, acknowledged the tragedy, which is what it is. In the contemporary art realm, Masami Teraoka is an artist who appears to have "lost his hand", producing work with the same formal ambition but a complete loss of the pleasure of elegant drawing. It seems to me a rare but real and terrible circumstance.

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I like the stuff from the early years best as well. The first ten years is usually the best for most comic artists, really. Rare is the guy that gets better with age (shrug)

 

How about Jae Lee? The stuff he has put of since 2007ish? His art has grown and matured since the early 1990's when he was drawing more like the Image founders. The work he did on the Dark Tower mini-series starts a new period in his work for me and it is very powerful.

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90s Biz is definitely better than current Biz. There's nothing like vintage Lobo. However, I do Like some of his later pieces.

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Here's a good example of the changes in BIZ more finished acrylics. His color mixing isn't as vibrant and his application is much flatter. Actually it's more like acrylic painting than his earlier work which had almost, but not quite the look of oils.

 

I wonder if there was some kind of medium he added to his paints to keep them fluid and workable longer that's not available anymore. Maybe even the types of paint he used

Edited by Koa
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