More of Jim Mooney's art.

[tormentedartist]

So I found another page of his that is just a text book lesson on how to draw comics. Is it the most dazzing page ever? No, but what it is , is full of lessons on how to move the eye thru a page with placement of black and again lush brush work. Its a bit funny and sad that the Rob Liefields replaced artists like this. I understand why they did

Comments

of all people

[zuma]

this was an odd post to encounter, and an encounter it was. i grew up on the silver age DC stuff, and guys like Mooney were what had me appreciating guys like Curt Swan and Kurt Schaffenberger all the more. but this is where the Ogden Whitney lesson comes in for me; i don't think i'd ever have thought much of Ogden Whitney if it weren't for the Herbie title ACG put out. i wouldn't want to see anyone else doing Herbie. not even Schaffenberger (who did do some Herbie covers i believe, or maybe even a whole story once?)...

nah, mooney was too stiff for me or too i dunno. the eyes always lacked, they were dead or dilated like crazy or something, and his figures awkward, clumsy. i just didn't want to see him work on the superman family titles. Dial H for Hero was something i could bypass but even so, he really needed a title that he fit as well Whitney fit Herbie. with all that said, i appreciated the nudge to google him up and study up on the guy for all the pages and years of his work i bought and read...

but of all people, why him? i know, ya said you like others better, and it *was* nice to say a few kind words about the man, but still... jim mooney??

as far as his use of blacks goes, i'm unfamiliar with his stuff outside of the silver age work (Supergirl, Legion of Superheroes etc.) where he didn't spot blacks. it does help his style some as i see here. but if you really want to study blacks, well, i bet you can write the list as well as i... (eisner, caniff, toth, wood, etc...)

i'm just surprised is all. i found this an interesting and compelling post, maybe *because* it was such a surprise.

don heck, george tuska, herb trimpe... Marvel had a real pantheon of house artists (both experienced and starting out like Trimpe in '68) i'd consider second tier, but DC less so -save for Mooney. but then i'd even consider John Romita and Sal Buscema second tier guys. maybe i'm just picky?? Jerry Grandenetti and Pat Boyette come to mind -jeez, a whole flood of semi-obscure artists are coming to mind. Jim Mooney is starting to look good in comparison...

nope, i definitely *am* picky. when the rob liefields showed up on the scene, i gagged... -i think for me, it's all about anatomy -that's what makes or breaks the suspension of disbelief for me. guys like steranko hovered between knowing what they were doing and not, and in steranko's case, he finally learned proper perspective drawing too late in the game, having relied on 'excitement' too much. a page like Mooney's as you posted was beyond him for years & years. so i'll close on that good note on Jim Mooney... (& i was a rabid steranko fan as a youngun, even to the point of racking up large LD phone bills calling th guy & trying to pick his brain...)

Re: of all people

[tormentedartist]

Well most of my memories of his stuff was from issues of Spider Man that he either inked or penciled. Honestly though I can't really remember an comic that he did, because his stuff was pretty forgetable. But seeing the two pages that I posted made me think" Hey this dude was solid. And that some artist( like myself) could learn something from him. But his stuff doesn't jump out at you like Jim Starlin, Gil Kane or Barry Winsor Smith so you wouldn't think to really pay attention to his stuff. And besides you could learn this type of shit from other artist like Wally Wood, Wrightson etc. The main this is that a lot of these younger artists never see shit like this because they are too busy looking at manga stuff.

But having said all of that they guy had his moments...maybe if he just jazzed it up a bit he would have stuck out more.