Minor HERO pet peeve: Recycled art.

[Yamo]

Any particular reason why you guys chose to reprint the exact same picture of the guy with the funky staff standing on a mountaintop on page 50 of the 5th Edition ruleboook and page 130 of Champions Universe? Or the same picture of the Menagerie character on page 152 of Champions and page 178 of Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks?

Now, I realize that some of the art pieces in HERO 5th products (particularly FREd) are holdovers from previous editions. Fair enough. I just think that it looks a lot better when you refrain from recycling art within the context of different 5th Edition products. In the cases cited above, original art would have been preferable. Failing that, these recycled bits represent so little (less than 1%, I'd wager) of the art in new HERO products, that they could easily be omitted in favor of more text without the layout suffering unduly.

Anyway, I'm just bored and complaining. It's probably not a big deal. Keep up the great work.

[Steve Long]

Sometimes it's because we have space for an illo late in the production process and thus no time to commission a new one.

Sometimes it's because we like an illo so much we find another way to work it in.

Sometimes it's because an image becomes so appealing (as with the illo of Menagerie) that we adopt it for a published character.

Sometimes it's to save money.

Sometimes it's a combo of the above. ;)

[BobGreenwade]

I was going to wait until Steve weighed in before posting my opinion. What he said is about what I expected, and I happen to agree with the decision and all of the reasons for it. :)

My own take is that I happen to find "recycled" art appealing (if it's a good piece of art) in that it provides a link between books. If Hero Games were to publish a book about the Mon'dabi, for example, I wouldn't be at all disappointed if every drawing of a Mon'dabi in TE (and the hunting lizard in HSB, and possibly the two character illos in SH) were to go into the book just for the sense of continuity.

[Captain Obvious]

I don't have a problem with new art showing up in multiple books. Definitely keep the old art in the mix, too. Some of those pics are like old friends at this point in time....

[Fitz]

I'd have to go the other way. Coming across art which is reused from book to book is something I find -- not annoying, that would be too strong a term, but definitely jarring. It feels to me too much like space filling for the sake of it.

Mind you, I'm fairly anal about illustration. I don't even much like having multiple styles of illustration within a book :)

[lemming]

I'm pretty indifferent to reusing old or new art, but I will say I don't like the reusing of art in the same book. Millenium City has the pool table shot used twice.

[Static UK]

Off the top of my head I believe there are two pictures duplicated within the Star Hero book. I must admit I did find that a little irritating, especially when one of them is a NASA image, and there are literally thousands of NASA/ JPL images available!

[Bartman]

Originally posted by lemming
I'm pretty indifferent to reusing old or new art, but I will say I don't like the reusing of art in the same book. Millenium City has the pool table shot used twice.

You know, I didn't even notice. Of course I remember some of the 3rd Ed books where the same art was used on almost every page. In Star Hero both jet pack guy and alien shooting blaster were shown somthing like a dozen times. And in Robot Gladiators the broken bot arm was shown on every third page. Having been raised on this level of recycling, I barely notice it any more.

[Balok]

Anyone remember how many times the smoking, ash-filled book appeared in Paranoia products?

[Bartman]

Originally posted by Balok
Anyone remember how many times the smoking, ash-filled book appeared in Paranoia products?

I don't remember a book, but they had a boot that appeared at least once a section. I think the only graphic that appeared more often was the image of the Computer terminal.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by lemming
I'm pretty indifferent to reusing old or new art, but I will say I don't like the reusing of art in the same book. Millenium City has the pool table shot used twice.
As was a shot of our beloved Dr. Silverback. I like the big ape, but not THAT much. ;)

[lemming]

Originally posted by Balok
Anyone remember how many times the smoking, ash-filled boot appeared in Paranoia products?
Well, that's a bit different, IMHO.

I've seen a few more duplicated picts as well in MC. I think duplicating picts between books is fine, not in the same book though.

This is a minor nitpick though and it's not going to stop me from buying a book. Unless there's like one image repeated 50 times. :)

[Jhamin]

Originally posted by Steve Long
Sometimes it's because we have space for an illo late in the production process and thus no time to commission a new one.

How does your art commissining work? Do you have a few set artists for each book or do you maintain a library of art submissions?

[Jhamin]

Originally posted by Balok
Anyone remember how many times the smoking, ash-filled book appeared in Paranoia products?

Heck, I know of one game company that not only recycled art but actually recycled it's weapons charts in something like 15 different books. They didn't even change the game specific terms between them.

[Nato]

Originally posted by Jhamin
How does your art commissining work? Do you have a few set artists for each book or do you maintain a library of art submissions?

I think they pretty much corral their stable of artists when there's a project coming up and we all raise our hands franticly yelling "pick me, pick me!!!" ;)

[keithcurtis]

Originally posted by Nato
I think they pretty much corral their stable of artists when there's a project coming up and we all raise our hands franticly yelling "pick me, pick me!!!" ;)

Shhh! You're letting everyone in on the Master Plan!!!

Keith "No, pick me, pick me!!!" Curtis

[Steve Long]

How does your art commissining work? Do you have a few set artists for each book or do you maintain a library of art submissions?

When we have a book coming up, we get an art list for it. Typically we try to get that as early as possible, but it depends; some books are easier to art-spec than others.

Once Andy has that list, he goes over it, makes any necessary changes or adaptations, and then sends out word to the All-Star Artist Squadron: "Here's what we've got; who's interested and what can you take?" At times he contacts specific artists about specific pieces or books (since every artist has his particular strengths), and sometimes he adds new artists to the mix.

Meanwhile, I'm working on the book, and by adding or subtracting text may mess up his careful scheme. ;)