Todd McFarlane's G.I. Joe 61 vs. Marshall Rogers G.I. Joe 61, Comparing and Contrasting

[@ghrosenb]

This is a cool exercise. I wish there were more examples of this sort of thing in comics. I agree you can tell Rogers was really rushing his pencils. To my eye, Rogers' version just has better, clearer story telling from panel-to-panel, while McFarlane put more work into creating dynamic posing and camera angles. You really want both but if you have to choose, you generally want good story telling first.

[@mikewil117]

I think Two-Gun Kid origin stories take the prize. The hard to find silver age issues #41, #48, and #58 all contain origin stories with the same plot and the same/similar dialog drawn by Maneely, Harley, and Kirby respectively. It is easy to compare artistic styles. Then in issue #60 Lee and Kirby create a new origin and a new costume for the Two-Gun Kid. The Issue #58 story is reprinted in #101 with the Two-Gun Kid redrawn with that new costume! Comparing those two stories is a laugh. Maneely was a premiere artist for Marvel in the early '60s. Comparing his artwork to Kirby's is fascinating.

[@fansform]

This is an ideal use of KZbin. Love it.

[@craigdodge229]

There is always the idea of comparing say a Marvel Conan adaptation, Tower of the Elephant, Frost Giant's Daughter etc, as rendered by Thomas/Barry Windsor- Smith with the same as adapted by Dark Horse, with Busiek/Nord as the creators.

[@chrisrusscomics]

Doctor Strange Annual #1 was drawn by P. Craig Russell in 1976, over 20 years later in 1997, he re-drew and expanded the story for the Doctor Strange What is it That Disturbs You Stephen? one-shot. So you can see how one artist evolved and re-told the same story.

[@craven1927]

I have this comic, never knew Mcfarlane had done a version until the other day. They definitely feel like comics from two different eras. Mcfarlane's feels almost like he's taking shortcuts to tell the same story, while Marshall Rodgers breaks down the scenes in a little more step by step process for the reader to follow

[@jasonlapidus1812]

Love this episode, guys. Thank you for covering this topic and sharing insights.

[@BillShears2010]

"Hey man, thats establishing a scene"! Hahahahahaha. I like the Marshall Rogers issue. The coloring in that Mcfarlane issue is not good. You should have gave a quick flip thru #60, Larry Hama obviously didn't like Mcfarlane's style and didnt want his cherished GIJOE series to be tainted by this subpar art. Side bar : does Hama ever write for Spawn/ or have his own Image comic? Great video.

[@jcoriha]

That coloring is a mark against humanity

[@mattjbatt]

Really interesting to see these two put up next to each other.

[@davideking]

I think I remember an issue of the Alan Moore Supreme run where the issue was drawn by Sprouse but in the back of the comic they printed a section of the same story but drawn by an Extreme Studios Liefeld clone

[@J-G-]

At 19:00 the way I saw it was like old school rpg kind of dungeon searching. The shadow in the door of west room south,north and east. But like you say they were just pulling some shit out to save time and if you have have to stop and figure out what’s going on it didn’t work very well, haha...

[@derekhammeke2531]

This is amazing! Thanks for sharing.

[@mikehailer9353]

Love the insight into the creative process provided here.

[@renuche]

There's a short comic called Reflexões, which has two versions. One drawn by Gabriel Bá and the other drawn by Fábio moon. the two stories were published here in Brazil on 10 pãezinhos: crítica. I don't know if it was ever published in the US

[@RockoJerome]

19:00 The effect there is that the silhouettes are different rooms. Imagine that we're looking overhead. Panels depict rooms with doors opening west, south, north, and east. Hd this book as a kid, always dug this sequence. Also, McFarlane is a hack, etc.

[@euansmith3699]

Blimey, the blue on the McFarlane comic is absolutely savage. I wonder if it looked better on the printed page than on the tablet?

[@zacharyhorvath3615]

Man it’s crazy how much influence McFarlane has had on the way I draw. While I wouldn’t say he was ever my favorite image artist from those early days (I liked Sam Kieth more), his style and mark making is so unique...he’s kind of like the Frazetta of the 90’s or the Slash of comic book artists! Some of his contemporaries were more technically adept, but Todd just has something slick going on, it’s hard to pin down what it is, but you know McFarlane when you see it.

[@seandavidr]

Larry Hama is an illustrator too. I'm pretty sure he includes drawings with his writing and artists often copy what he drew. The images in the two books that are very similar are likely being copying Larry's drawing.

[@jonathanallen3684]

If the McFarlane art is crippled by the coloring, Rogers is decimated by Danny Bulandi's inks. I'd say Rogers provided little more than thumbnail layouts there, and that's a Bulandi comic more than anything else.

[@wholewurrld]

Chuckles is a style icon fr

[@dougderocher1238]

I think if look at ASM 298 and 299 for how heavy the inkers would ink early McFarland. If Marvel had used his pages for G.I. Joe 61 I think the inker would play down the McFarlandisms in the pencil art.

[@legocitybuilder8652]

Not quite the same but Fantastic Four Annual 18 and Avengers Annual 14 have a bunch of pages with the same pencils but different inkers and colourists.

[@belgiumwillconqueru]

Really interesting to see - I don't think I have seen any Rogers work from that late in his career apart from the brilliant but short lived Batman newspaper comic that they started after the first Burton film. I don't think you guys mentioned it but if ppl are looking for better work from Rogers, check out his post-Kirby Mister Miracle stuff and the Batman stuff from the late 70s.

[@cultfilmvideo6936]

Imagine having to sit at a drawing table all day without legally available speed just a drug store away.

[@ehcfilms]

The only other sorta-example I can think of is Liefeld's original Youngblood #1 and Joe Casey's remix (pages reordered; story redialogued) of the issue.

[@doomedhuh]

todd also drew the previous issue g.i. joe #60 which made it to print.

[@russworks2882]

I'd like to see you guys go deeper into Rogers, even though he's in another time zone. He was one of the few to pick up on Walt Simonson's use of lettering as a graphic element and I think some of that carries over to McFarlane. If you look at Rogers inking himself, like on the Eclipse work, you can see some kinship with McFarlane's linework. This G.I. Joe stuff is pretty lackluster: his page compositions could be pretty ornate.

[@RyanBrown314]

Do Laphams Batman story. First issue was actually finished by Sienkiewicz before he quit. Its unpublished but its on the internet now.

[@matthewbrookeart]

theres some amazing car scenes in the manga gunsmith cats deffo worth a look

[@darrylbrian]

Jim Lee did an issue of savage dragon during that month when the image founding members did the artwork for another’s series. But Erik Larson couldn’t stand the fact that there’s an issue of SD that he didn’t draw so he went back and redid the issue himself. That being said, the stories are different. SD teams up with Grifter in Jim’s version but he teams up with Star in Erik’s version.

[@MrQuaazga]

I like the Marshall Rogers issue too. I just preferred the look of the older comic books.

[@Sjsjdbhh]

This was fantastic!!!

[@ryanjavierortega8513]

Man, I love that color that dominates the first couple of pages, but not here...Vampire Purpled, it was Vampire Purpled.

[@robfleming6802]

i'm pretty sure the ending (or close to) of the invisibles was redrawn for the TPB when Grant Morrison didn't like one artists interpretation of the script

[@robfleming6802]

yeah ashley wood drew a couple pages that later got redrawn by cameron stewart

[@williamibanez394]

@@robfleming6802 I had to google it after reading your comment. I can't believe I never noticed! There was some lag time between the singles and the trade which I got post college. Definitely a contender to analyze side by side. Morrison's scripts must have been a real challenge to interpret. I found this on comic vine: comicvine.gamespot.com/the-invisibles-volume-three-2-the-invisible-kingdo/4000-51819/

[@serviettedetable]

Guys you should do that with Tom : 1 scenario, 3 artists ! (maybe something like a 4 pages story)

[@leestevenson80]

Ed don’t know if it carries across the pond, but in the U.K if Todd got tossed off...he probably didn’t care after it happening.

[@russworks2882]

Now we know why people liked to work for Hama.

[@robertjacques6812]

I prefer the McFarlane cover but Rogers interiors

[@bigghoww]

Both layouts have pro's and cons. Tie for me.

[@stanlee5465]

And THIS is why I've been trying to avoid digital comics... It took me a few minutes, but then I realized that the comixology digital cover for Hulk #340 has COMPLETELY different imaging/colouring/shading as the original! I mean, who that that dark blue back ground on EVERY panel was a good artisitc choice?

[@pedrodeabreuribeiro6963]

Cool video! I prefer McFarlane´s! LOL

[@JakobNoone]

I cut my eye-teeth on Marshall Rogers' Batman and Mister Miracle. He was awesome then. This McFarlane job is, overall, better, IMO. More dynamic. More motion. And no major storytelling flaws/gaffes. Rogers wins some points and his experience shows through. But McFarlane's storytelling basics/chops have improved from Infinity, Inc. drastically. I don't see what Hama's major complaint is from a professional standpoint. Personal taste, okay. But professionally I don't see why you'd force a re-do of a whole book in a time crunched manner.

[@THectOrtiz]

That blue is blinding.

[@RobFromTheBeach]

The Haiti Kid and Little Beaver, perhaps.

[@Patrick2480]

i bought Mcfarlane version 1st then bought the original.

[@Raffienco]

Love McFarlane's work here whereas the Marshall Rogers version is less compelling.

[@palchristianandersen9086]

I don't like how McFarlane bunches up the dialogue into bigger word balloons. I always feel like comic book dialogue flows better when you break it up into smaller chunks.

[@CartoonistKayfabe]

He wasn't the letterer.

[@ryanjavierortega8513]

What’s that McFarlane G.I. Joe going for?

[@mattchewhacker6412]

This episode is great👍👍 as a comic fan who grow up in the late 90’s I had never seen the G I joe McFarland issue. So now that I’ve seen it... it’s the WORSED colored marvel book ever?! WTF

[@THectOrtiz]

Typical Marvel with that swiped cover. Spider and all 🤦🏻‍♂️