James Harvey
01-10-2002, 10:38 AM
The website <a href="http://www.countingdown.com">Counting Down</a> recently interviewed artist/painter Alex Ross about his upcoming work for the Oscars, as well as his recent work (Justice League Adventures #1, TV Guide). Below is an excerpt:
CD: In the same vein of television, I know that you did some stuff for the new Justice League animated series on Cartoon Network. Is it kind of nice every once in a while to switch from your really specific painting of what you see into more of an animated style, or is it something that you do less often intentionally?
AR: Ha ha. I think that I get so much out of trying to do things realistically that the only thing that's happening that it's kind of exercising a cartoon arm that I have. Every comic book artist has some element of cartooning in them. I mean, they have to, just to be able to have the ability to create storytelling that's going to be liquid and moving and really flexible and I get exercise out of that whenever I'm imitating Bruce Timm, but I get more out of just being me. I spend too much time trying to do that style, I would be just simply doing another man's style. But I didn't do that much for Justice League. I did, like, one layout for something that wound up getting butchered by another artist anyway. And then the cover that I painted over Bruce Timm was really more on the comic side of things, so I don't know if you can count that as really being a part of the show.
<a href="http://wf.toonzone.net/bbeyond/jladv1.jpg"><img src="http://wf.toonzone.net/bbeyond/jladv1.jpg" vspace=2 hspace=2 border=0 height=210 width=137 align="right"></a>CD: Do you like the depiction of the team on that show?
AR: Uh, only superficially. Sadly, it's one of those things that clearly shows that the writing is not the quality that it had been in the several previous series. And, y'know, I'm pretty much with the fans on that one. I mean, here's the problem: we're all fanboys who love superheroes and seeing them come to life in different mediums. So therefore, we're locked in. They have us, it's like being imprisoned. I don't necessarily like how the show's coming off or not coming off, but they got me. Because, I'm gonna wanna see what happens when they put the Crime Syndicate on TV. Even if it's really bad, I'm gonna want to see it. I guess it's still the fact that there's still some element of Bruce Timm's design that guides it that's really strong. In the case of, say, Marvel's cartoon work in the 90's, I never gave any of that stuff a shot because it always looked cookie cutter to me, and nothing ever stood out as being an exceptional piece. Whereas, Bruce's stuff has been married with really strong writing in the past, so you're always gonna give it more attention because of the intellectual thought that went into it to help to craft that thing. But the problem is that, of course, now that more people are watching than seemingly ever before, which I don't believe is trueÉy'know, the ratings for Justice League have been really good for Cartoon Network, but that's compared to what? When Batman used to be on Fox? I dunno if it really compares. But it's just sad that at this particular point, when they finally got the group of character together that we've been pleading for for the last ten years for them to accomplish, and I knew Bruce did not want to do this show, it's sad that when they finally got to do that, the overall quality of the show was compromised. Because it did not need to be the way.
To read the whole lenghty article, go <a href="http://www.countingdown.com/features/?feature_id=442910">HERE</a>.
CD: In the same vein of television, I know that you did some stuff for the new Justice League animated series on Cartoon Network. Is it kind of nice every once in a while to switch from your really specific painting of what you see into more of an animated style, or is it something that you do less often intentionally?
AR: Ha ha. I think that I get so much out of trying to do things realistically that the only thing that's happening that it's kind of exercising a cartoon arm that I have. Every comic book artist has some element of cartooning in them. I mean, they have to, just to be able to have the ability to create storytelling that's going to be liquid and moving and really flexible and I get exercise out of that whenever I'm imitating Bruce Timm, but I get more out of just being me. I spend too much time trying to do that style, I would be just simply doing another man's style. But I didn't do that much for Justice League. I did, like, one layout for something that wound up getting butchered by another artist anyway. And then the cover that I painted over Bruce Timm was really more on the comic side of things, so I don't know if you can count that as really being a part of the show.
<a href="http://wf.toonzone.net/bbeyond/jladv1.jpg"><img src="http://wf.toonzone.net/bbeyond/jladv1.jpg" vspace=2 hspace=2 border=0 height=210 width=137 align="right"></a>CD: Do you like the depiction of the team on that show?
AR: Uh, only superficially. Sadly, it's one of those things that clearly shows that the writing is not the quality that it had been in the several previous series. And, y'know, I'm pretty much with the fans on that one. I mean, here's the problem: we're all fanboys who love superheroes and seeing them come to life in different mediums. So therefore, we're locked in. They have us, it's like being imprisoned. I don't necessarily like how the show's coming off or not coming off, but they got me. Because, I'm gonna wanna see what happens when they put the Crime Syndicate on TV. Even if it's really bad, I'm gonna want to see it. I guess it's still the fact that there's still some element of Bruce Timm's design that guides it that's really strong. In the case of, say, Marvel's cartoon work in the 90's, I never gave any of that stuff a shot because it always looked cookie cutter to me, and nothing ever stood out as being an exceptional piece. Whereas, Bruce's stuff has been married with really strong writing in the past, so you're always gonna give it more attention because of the intellectual thought that went into it to help to craft that thing. But the problem is that, of course, now that more people are watching than seemingly ever before, which I don't believe is trueÉy'know, the ratings for Justice League have been really good for Cartoon Network, but that's compared to what? When Batman used to be on Fox? I dunno if it really compares. But it's just sad that at this particular point, when they finally got the group of character together that we've been pleading for for the last ten years for them to accomplish, and I knew Bruce did not want to do this show, it's sad that when they finally got to do that, the overall quality of the show was compromised. Because it did not need to be the way.
To read the whole lenghty article, go <a href="http://www.countingdown.com/features/?feature_id=442910">HERE</a>.