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Artwork in the Predators book


Wildcat

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Wondering if anyone else had this book' date=' and what they thought of the artwork.[/quote']

Honestly, bleh to bad for the most part. IMO. Some of it is passable, but just not very exciting.

 

However, the content is really pretty good. Steve did a good job of being consistent with the setting and adding good personality across a lot of characters that due to the boundaries of the genre are very similar mechanically.

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Didn't really look at the "main" character write ups. I did like the appendix in the back that gave you the Cops, thugs, Spec-Ops, etc. I thought that was a very nice thing to include.

 

As to the art work. Well, it stinks. And sadly, if you started to describe the bad guy and then showed me one of the pictures from Predators, I'd just laugh. Those pics don't invoke any type of fear what-so-ever.

 

PS: Is it just me or does the art work in the HERO books seem to, with a few exceptions, be getting noticeably worse instead of better?

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Yes, its been spiraling down.

 

I actually didnt buy DCtAS because the art was so bad.

 

I might pick it up as a pdf, but I doubt it. I dont really need the splat books myself, but I had made a personal commitment to buy them to support the company. However, the quality was so poor I was disgusted by it and gave it a pass.

 

Some other product I may not have cared, but it ill-behooves a book based on the idea of an ANIMATED SERIES -- ie cartoons, a purely visual medium -- to have poor art.

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

The artist that apparently thought men's fashion catalogs would be a good place to find visual inspiration for drawings of terrorists' date=' mercenaries, and killers really shouldn't work in this industry again.[/quote']

 

 

Hey, I will rip artists a new one for being lazy. But I will never rip them for being young and new (as artists, actual age doesn't matter). At least that artist was trying their heart out and took time to research poses in fashion mags.... that is more than I can say for every Ameri-Manga-derivative clone that I see.

 

I think folks would consider my art fairly decent. I consider it fairly decent. Want a laugh? Go check out my first Hero book, Normals Unbound. A great product, but my art is crude, my inking is for feces...but! I was trying hard too.

 

We all have to start somewhere.

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

We all have to start somewhere.

Too bad that "somewhere" can't be somewhere else. Hero's art has gotten so bad, IMO, that I'm to the point where I just flip through the books, shake my head at the crappy art, and put the book on my shelf never to be looked at again [i just added Champions Worldwide to that shelf as well].

 

There comes a point where DoJ's "doing the best we can with what we have" just isn't enough. With each book I buy I feel like I'm rereading Bill Sienkiewicz's New Mutants issues over and over [ok, it's not that bad. It's just really bad manga]. In 7 months DoJ has taken a 24 year love for Hero and turned it into complete disdain. The fans aren't running away from the system. The fans are being pushed away by the choices DoJ is making and the steps they are not taking to give us our money's worth, IMO.

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Too bad that "somewhere" can't be somewhere else. Hero's art has gotten so bad' date=' IMO, that I'm to the point where I just flip through the books, shake my head at the crappy art, and put the book on my shelf never to be looked at again [i just added Champions Worldwide to that shelf as well'].

 

There comes a point where DoJ's "doing the best we can with what we have" just isn't enough. With each book I buy I feel like I'm rereading Bill Sienkiewicz's New Mutants issues over and over [ok, it's not that bad. It's just really bad manga]. In 7 months DoJ has taken a 24 year love for Hero and turned it into complete disdain. The fans aren't running away from the system. The fans are being pushed away by the choices DoJ is making and the steps they are not taking to give us our money's worth, IMO.

Bitter much?

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Bitter much?

Absolutely. When DoJ turns a game I have devoted over half of my life to into a laughing stock in the RPG community [and yes, check some other message boards, they are laughing] then I am bitter. I expect better; but at the very least I expect to get similar quality as to what I'm getting from comparable RPG companies. If this is the best that DoJ can do while producing 12 books a year then they should consider producing 6 books a year. Whatever happened to the phrase "quality over quantity?"

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Hero's art has gotten so bad' date=' IMO, that I'm to the point where I just flip through the books, shake my head at the crappy art, and put the book on my shelf never to be looked at again [i just added Champions Worldwide to that shelf as well']. .

 

That's too bad, because, content-wise, Champions Worldwide is one of their stronger books (tons of characters).

 

There comes a point where DoJ's "doing the best we can with what we have" just isn't enough.

 

I remember the old Hero days when everything was late or didn't come out at all (in hindsight, buying that "lifetime subscription" to the Adventurer's Club magazine may have been a mistake).

 

As long as the written content of the books stays at the current high quality, I'm happy, however, I'd like to see the Champions art move closer to a more "comic book" style look in future products.

 

The one odd thing with the manga artwork in Champions Worldwide is that it's prevalent in the European and Arabic sections, but is completely absent in the Asian section of the book where you'd expect it to be.

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Go check out my first Hero book, Normals Unbound. A great product, but my art is crude, my inking is for feces...but! I was trying hard too.

 

We all have to start somewhere.

 

I have Normals Unbound. The art never bothered me, because I could show a player a picture of someone and not fear that they wouldn't take the character seriously.

 

If I show a player the picture of Buckshot striking a pose, or SNAFU on his knees for some inexplicable reason, I will have completely defanged the character and made them an object of derision rather than fear. That's a very basic failure on the part of the artist that goes beyond inexperience and into incompetence.

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

If this is the best that DoJ can do while producing 12 books a year then they should consider producing 6 books a year. Whatever happened to the phrase "quality over quantity?"

I agree with this statement, but on the other hand I realize that DOJ need to put product out to stay in business. Publish or Perish.

 

But really, if doing one or three fewer books a year meant they had more budget for look & feel on the other products, it might be worth considering.

 

Also, art just for the sake of having art is a waste IMO. Id rather have fewer pieces of good RELEVANT art, than more pieces of so-so RANDOM or POINTLESS art.

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

I've become hardened to the low quality art...if Hero could manage M&M art and Hero content there wouldn't be anyone able to compete.....But sadly, Hero has always had medium or lower quality art.

 

Even when the art is good, its often hard to tell, because its printed so poorly the lines are all blurry....Hero is like having a girlfriend, you just tolerate a few little "quirks"...:)

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

[Wow, looks like I touched a nerve here.

 

As to the art work. Well, it stinks. And sadly, if you started to describe the bad guy and then showed me one of the pictures from Predators, I'd just laugh. Those pics don't invoke any type of fear what-so-ever.

 

I totally agree, and I think that my displeasure in the art here isn’t the whole book, but perhaps in 60-70% of it… it’s not just the quality (not bad really) but the style used to represent the kind of characters

 

If I show a player the picture of Buckshot striking a pose, or SNAFU on his knees for some inexplicable reason, I will have completely defanged the character and made them an object of derision rather than fear. That's a very basic failure on the part of the artist that goes beyond inexperience and into incompetence.

 

My thoughts exactly… and funny enough the 2 characters I was thinking of when I started this thread… and to make matters worse. 4th ed had pics of both of them (BuckShot & SNAFU) that far better represented those two characters. Did anyone else notice way too many of these villains were sitting down?? This is a Game based on ACTION (not solely, but a good percentage) why would you want a picture of your gritty and ruthless villain in a reclining of relaxing pose?

 

What was DOJ thinking when they OKed putting those pic in that kind oif book... I mean this is Predators, not GQ Villians: The Paris Runway

 

WC

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Found the culprit for the worst of the art:

http://www.elfies-world.com/index.php

 

I hearby forward my vote that this artist never ever (ever) be used for another HERO Games supplement again. Ever. Did I mention "EVER"?

 

 

And this brings me to ask the question, who thought it was a good idea to contract out artwork for a bunch of hardened killers to an artist that apparantly is known for their drawings of cutsie elves and faeries? WTH?

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

And this brings me to ask the question' date=' who thought it was a good idea to contract out artwork for a bunch of hardened killers to an artist that apparantly is known for their drawings of cutsie elves and faeries? WTH?[/quote']

I believe the sapient company checkbook is the one who thought it was a good idea. :)

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Found the culprit for the worst of the art:

http://www.elfies-world.com/index.php

 

I hearby forward my vote that this artist never ever (ever) be used for another HERO Games supplement again. Ever. Did I mention "EVER"?

 

 

And this brings me to ask the question, who thought it was a good idea to contract out artwork for a bunch of hardened killers to an artist that apparantly is known for their drawings of cutsie elves and faeries? WTH?

OH my...

Uh...

uh..

 

Yeah.. I second KS on this one.

I mean... she's not a bad artist, but her style is SO totally wrong for most RPG's, much less Dark Superheroic illustrations, a visual; media wityh a pretty long tradition and legacy...

 

*shakes head*

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Re: Artwork in the Predators book

 

Hey, I will rip artists a new one for being lazy. But I will never rip them for being young and new (as artists, actual age doesn't matter). At least that artist was trying their heart out and took time to research poses in fashion mags.... that is more than I can say for every Ameri-Manga-derivative clone that I see.

 

I think folks would consider my art fairly decent. I consider it fairly decent. Want a laugh? Go check out my first Hero book, Normals Unbound. A great product, but my art is crude, my inking is for feces...but! I was trying hard too.

 

We all have to start somewhere.

 

Yeah...

I have to admit I didn't care for you or Albert Deschene when you guys started out, but you got much better with practice, and you got much of that practice with Hero Games work.

 

So I don't wanna be too mean or personal when I don't like an artist's work. It's just that the artwork in DCtAS in particular is quite below your starting level, IMO, and one would think that DOJ had more resources to work with.

 

Predators isn't as bad, and I kinda like the pencil-sketch type things in the first section of the book, but the quality still isn't great overall.

 

JG

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