For as long as there have been comic books, there's been a drive to produce them as quickly as possible. This necessitated a streamlining and homogenization of style, to generate enough finished pages of acceptable work to build a decent paycheck. As a result, this field was defined by journeymen, with the rare flashes of true artists in the periphery.
In the early '80s, guys like Sandy Plunkett, Mark Beachum, and Jerome K. Moore were ahead of their peers by quantum leaps, so vastly superior as to appear downright alien in direct comparison. However, the stars that burn brightest do so for the shortest time. In the case of Moore, there's very little sequential comic art out there in the wild, as he quickly focused on covers, and specialized in uncanny but unusually vibrant likenesses on licensed properties. This likely facilitated his shift to animation, where he remains to this day.
The comic book ties still bind though, as he contributed designs for the 2010 direct-to-DVD animated feature Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Among the characters were K'hym J'onzz, the now deceased daughter of J'Onn J'Onzz, who appeared in a flashback sequence. If I recall correctly, it was her first cartoon spot, as the Martian Manhunter's origin story in the Justice League pilot was altered to exclude his family.
I pulled this image off Moore's deviantART gallery, from which it now appears to have been excised, or else I'd offer a link with additional information. I like how Moore gave her femininity without any gender-skewing affectations, and an expression that translates to both meek contentedness and an element of tragic stoicism, as though she knows her tragic fate and is facing it with a dear heart. If anyone knows where I can find similar design art for M'yri'ah, leave a comment!
I really like this one, Frank! I have enjoyed the recent art, but this really captures a sense of emotion. The picture makes me want to reach out and comfort the child.
ReplyDeleteI recall that J'Onn's family appeared in an episode of Justice League where Morgan Le Fay was trying to convince J'Onn that she could restore Mars and gave him illusions of his family. (He had two kids, as I recall in that episode.) Jason Blood (aka the demon Etrigan) said J'Onn handled the temptations that Morgan Le Fay set before him better than he did centuries earlier.
This is a really sweet design: vulnerable and alien at the same time, which takes some skill to produce.
ReplyDeleteI forgot K'hym was in the Crisis on Two Earths movie. And I completely forgot about that Morgan Le Fay episode of JLU, too. Time to rewatch those...
K'hym is on my radar for a commission this year (and actually was last year, but I missed my artist.) Will, thanks for telling me about the Le Fey episode. I doubt that I've ever seen it.
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