Do you like Andrew Wildman's art? One of the main complaints is that his Transformers look far too humanoid. Honestly, I like it, it's really dynamic. (On the other hand, Geoff Senior also pulls off the dynamic feel without looking too humanoid... meh, I still like both.)
Absolutely love Andrew Wildman's art on the Marvel US run. Very detailed, very dynamic and really given the worn look to the TF's surrounding which you'd expect after such a long war and with dwindling resources. For me the highlight artwise of that series. I'd even go so far in saying that it surpasses anything the cartoon has to offer. That shockwave vs Scorponok fight....amazing. Even the Optimus-Megatron fight from the movie pales in comparison imo.
No. I never liked his art. Full of drooling metal humans. Also his linework was thin and overly busy. Very dependent on the inker and colorist to even work. Overcrowded. Geoff Senor was the best artist they had. Wildman did never compare.
I've loved his art ever since I was a kid, in the End of the Road TPB. The drooling was only really a deal when people got the spit punched out of them or when Galvatron II was screaming at something, and I thought it was funny as hell when Grimlock threw that cup at Fangry. It worked really well on Klo too. All in all I prefer Geoff Senior's heavier, blockier style, but Wildman's work was equally as dynamic at times, and his more organic art style sometimes lent itself to much more expressive faces.
Enjoy Wildman when paired with Baskerville. Otherwise, no. War Within 2 was awful in my opinion. Especially coming after the brilliance of WW 1 with Don Figueroa.
He was very good in the early 90s. His art was okay on War Within; I actually think it benefited a little from drawing in the "house style" as he had to try and be a bit more dynamic. I was disappointed with him on ReGen 1. The figures were too static.
One of the things I really enjoy about wildman's art is his use of Easter eggs. In Time Wars there's a kid reading Dragon's Claw (another marvel UK comic). He often used to draw uk style plug sockets on cybertron, there's many more but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
No. Wildman was a step up from the artists on the US run who preceded him, but a huge step down from most of the UK artists.
Wildman, in concert with Baskervlle, on Transformers was okay, and even sometimes great. That being said, I get why people did not take to his art. His other stuff for Marvel was very, very nineties-ized. Way too much cross hatching, and a complete dismissal of story telling for "cool" action. Probably not entirely his fault... his editors were tasked with selling GI Joe or the X-Men cartoon book in a shrinking marketplace ... and there was probably a lot of pressure to draw the way the kids like (lotsa lines and cross hatching and whatnot).
Yeah, there was enormous pressure from editors to fill the void left by the Image founders leaving. I remember talking to Ron Randall -- maybe best known (by me) as an artist on Justice League Europe -- at a convention. He had a really amazing and fluid style that I loved on that book. But by the early '90s working on Spider-books for Marvel, he told me how he was being pressured by editors -- basically forced, if he wanted to keep working -- to attempt a more Image style with all the hatching and whatnot, which imo, was all wrong for him.
I loved his art in Gen 1, But to me he seemed to lose detail and depth later on. As big of a fan as I am of his art on the original run, I didnt like his War Within or Regeneration work. Something was definitely missing.
I like it overall, it has dips and stylistic cues (the drool) I really didn't care for but it was distinct and dynamic, and better than a lot of the previously uninspired jobbers that the US Comic was home to. I would agree though that Senior's far more stylised art was objectively better, and really worked on TFs and remains my fave of the "old school" TF work.
Not really, no. From his work over time in TF and GI Joe in the late 80's early 90's You could really see a love for what he was doing. Honestly I feel like hes lost his enthusiasm for certain genres.
I will give you this, although I'm not sure the extent to which that is a statement on AW's art style or just recognizing the fact that "inkers and colorists matter." I will say that Nel Yomtov's coloring work in G1 seemed to compliment Wildman's pencils a lot more than whoever did colors for ReGeneration One.
Not with every artist they matter as much. Wildman's linework was rather thin with many details and with very little variation in line weights. Without a colorist his panels weren't very readable. In comparison Senior's art looks good even without any coloring. A good test for a penciler is to look at their panels without inking or color applied to them. How good is line weight and balance between whites and blacks.
I was a fan of Wildman, but I fully acknowledge the necessity of Baskerville to make the pencils really work. Wildman drew #69 of the US series and Baskerville didn't ink him, and the art looks fairly awful.
I like it. Is it the best art out there? Hell no. Is it cool, distinct art with it's own dynamic voice? Yeah.
