If I am lucky, you’ll see a piece of art along with the entry. It depends if I can find any on the Internet. If I do, it will be a panel or so from a “Batman” comic book drawn by Irv Novick.
So, where am I going with this, talking about a long-time comic book artist, who doesn’t get much discussion these days? He was a not a visionary so much as a craftsman, who knew how to draw and how to tell a story clearly. He probably drew, at one time or another, every time of comic out there. Perhaps his longest runs were on war comics, The Flash, and Batman.
When I think of what Batman should look like, I think of Novick’s drawings. When I think of what The Flash should look like, I see Novick’s drawings.
While there are other artists who have done iconic work on these titles — Neal Adams, Frank Miller and Bruce Timm on Batman, and Carmine Infantino or Alex Saviuk or Mike Wieringo on Flash — Novick always sticks out in my mind.
When drawing Batman, Novick did not draw the overly muscled, bulky character that Jim Lee is popular for in recent years. He didn’t make the Dark Knight look like a shadow or a demon like Kelley Jones did.
His Batman was muscled but lean, like a gymnast. His Batman could be a detective or a moody, frightening avenger of the night without losing the consistent thread that he was a man.
He moved with grace, power and ease, but still could hide in the shadows only to emerge at the right time to make evildoers cringe in fear.
Novick always drew the supporting characters with a consistency that is unmatched in recent days. He didn’t decide how he wanted the characters to look. He drew them as they were supposed to be drawn, based on the way the company always presented them.
Commissioner Gordon always looked like Commissioner Gordon, Lucius Fox always looked like Lucius Fox. Villains, too, were consistently on-model for that matter.
I didn’t read that many issues of his Flash, but he handled that character the same way. The Flash was not an over muscled weightlifter, he was a lithe runner. This only makes sense. How fast could The Flash run if he weighed 250 pounds and was muscle bound?
(On a related note: who do some artists insist on making the Sub-Mariner look like a big-time wrestler? The guy is a swimmer for crying out loud!)
Another beef I have with modern artists is they confuse what the human body looks like, and what the human body looks like under clothing. Many modern comic book artists draw as if they have heavily studied the musculoskeletal system and want to show off their knowledge.
They forget that if you put clothes over the body, no matter how form fitting, every little vein and every little sinew won’t show. Oh, and by the way, clothing almost always wrinkles a little around joints.
Look at Novick’s drawings. The characters are still muscular, but not so much they look like their costumes were spray-painted on their bodies.
I wish there were more artists today not necessarily drawing like Novick, but learning some of the lessons he could teach about grounding art in reality and putting some careful thought into character design.
Novick is from a different generation than the modern artists, and in this case, I think many in the current crop could stand to learn a little something from their elders.
So, where am I going with this, talking about a long-time comic book artist, who doesn’t get much discussion these days? He was a not a visionary so much as a craftsman, who knew how to draw and how to tell a story clearly. He probably drew, at one time or another, every time of comic out there. Perhaps his longest runs were on war comics, The Flash, and Batman.
When I think of what Batman should look like, I think of Novick’s drawings. When I think of what The Flash should look like, I see Novick’s drawings.
While there are other artists who have done iconic work on these titles — Neal Adams, Frank Miller and Bruce Timm on Batman, and Carmine Infantino or Alex Saviuk or Mike Wieringo on Flash — Novick always sticks out in my mind.
When drawing Batman, Novick did not draw the overly muscled, bulky character that Jim Lee is popular for in recent years. He didn’t make the Dark Knight look like a shadow or a demon like Kelley Jones did.
His Batman was muscled but lean, like a gymnast. His Batman could be a detective or a moody, frightening avenger of the night without losing the consistent thread that he was a man.
He moved with grace, power and ease, but still could hide in the shadows only to emerge at the right time to make evildoers cringe in fear.
Novick always drew the supporting characters with a consistency that is unmatched in recent days. He didn’t decide how he wanted the characters to look. He drew them as they were supposed to be drawn, based on the way the company always presented them.
Commissioner Gordon always looked like Commissioner Gordon, Lucius Fox always looked like Lucius Fox. Villains, too, were consistently on-model for that matter.
I didn’t read that many issues of his Flash, but he handled that character the same way. The Flash was not an over muscled weightlifter, he was a lithe runner. This only makes sense. How fast could The Flash run if he weighed 250 pounds and was muscle bound?
(On a related note: who do some artists insist on making the Sub-Mariner look like a big-time wrestler? The guy is a swimmer for crying out loud!)
Another beef I have with modern artists is they confuse what the human body looks like, and what the human body looks like under clothing. Many modern comic book artists draw as if they have heavily studied the musculoskeletal system and want to show off their knowledge.
They forget that if you put clothes over the body, no matter how form fitting, every little vein and every little sinew won’t show. Oh, and by the way, clothing almost always wrinkles a little around joints.
Look at Novick’s drawings. The characters are still muscular, but not so much they look like their costumes were spray-painted on their bodies.
I wish there were more artists today not necessarily drawing like Novick, but learning some of the lessons he could teach about grounding art in reality and putting some careful thought into character design.
Novick is from a different generation than the modern artists, and in this case, I think many in the current crop could stand to learn a little something from their elders.
