Comic book art in cartoons.

[Mistral]

I recently got Cartoon NetworkHD/ DisneyXD On Demand and began taping shows for my super-hero loving kid.
Ben 10, Young Justice, The Avengers, Ironman, Spiderman(his fav) etc

The other night I taped and watched Spiderman Unlimited.
It rocked me back a bit.
It's a parallel worlds take on Spiderman, for starters, but what got me was the artwork. Particularly on long shots, the art looks like someone animated an old 70s-80s comic book rather than making a cartoon. The shading, accents and colors transported me back to the days of my own youth. In up-close character scenes and stuff involving machinery the obvious Jack Kirby influence also surprised me. The whole thing looks like a moving comic book.
I started thinking about that. I like it, personally. The other cartoon that feels more like a comic book is the Paul Dini Batman series. Also, a Justice League cartoon my boy has (movie) took a very Silver Age approach in presentation. Um, New Frontier, I think its called.
Watching Ironman or The Avengers-the art just looks like a cartoon.

Are there other series with that approach to the animation?

And what do you prefer-the cartoon look or the comic book look?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj26N10Ymlg&playnext=1&list=PL0533136B2344ACB7[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRWeaHkxXwE&feature=related[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBFMKpqtNi0&feature=related[/yt]

 

[Christopher]

Are there other series with that approach to the animation?

The '90s X-Men animated series pretty closely replicated the visual style of the '90s comics. And no, I don't think that's a good approach for animation. The level of detail it involves, all those little lines, makes for rather stiff animation because it limits the characters' range of movement and because it's so time-consuming that the animation itself becomes more limited as a tradeoff. The reason most animated shows employ a simpler, less detailed graphical style is because it works better for animation, allowing more fluid and expressive character movement.

I found the art style and animation on Spider-Man Unlimited rather unappealing myself. The animation quality wasn't particularly good and I didn't care for the color palette.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

The cartoons Dennis posted were the first thing that popped in my mind. For more recent efforts, there are motion comics where issues from a given book are animated on computers. Astonishing X-Men being an example:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O490WDOoiuM[/yt]

 

[Christopher]

Motion comics are so bizarre. They're using modern computer technology to achieve the equivalent of the very crudest early TV cartoons like Clutch Cargo and those Marvel shows mentioned in Dennis's post. What's the point of lowering our standards to such a great degree and calling it progress?

 

[Kirkman1987]

The Fleischer superman cartoons are still pretty much the best superhero animation that's been done. I thought they were pretty accurate to Golden Age superman comics as well.

And although not a actual comic book franchise (until later), The original Jonny Quest series got pretty close to that comic feel at times.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIhEpjnaNlo[/yt]

I don't prefer one style over the other really. It's wrong to say that cartoons need to conform to the way comics are drawn. If the animators want to push it that way and it works, then great. The more cartoony style of something like Brave and the Bold doesn't take away from the show.

 

[Mr Light]

The cartoon that most closely approximated the original comic's art is MTV's The Maxx from the early 90s. It looked amazing. Also a great story. Really blew my teenaged mind

 

[the G-man]

The shading, accents and colors transported me back to the days of my own youth....feels more like a comic book ....

Are there other series with that approach to the animation?

Doug Wildey's Jonny Quest

 

[Thestral]

Motion comics are so bizarre. They're using modern computer technology to achieve the equivalent of the very crudest early TV cartoons like Clutch Cargo and those Marvel shows mentioned in Dennis's post. What's the point of lowering our standards to such a great degree and calling it progress?

I dunno, I kinda liked the one that was posted here. Yeah, it was kinda strange, but I'm not sure I'd call it lowering our standards.

 

[the G-man]

The cartoons Dennis posted were the first thing that popped in my mind. For more recent efforts, there are motion comics where issues from a given book are animated on computers. Astonishing X-Men being an example:

One of the voice actors is "Wayne Grayson"? Sh'yeah.

 

[Christopher]

I don't prefer one style over the other really. It's wrong to say that cartoons need to conform to the way comics are drawn. If the animators want to push it that way and it works, then great. The more cartoony style of something like Brave and the Bold doesn't take away from the show.

Actually, the art style of Batman: The Brave and the Bold is a pretty direct homage to the style of Dick Sprang, who did the art in Batman comics in the '50s and '60s. Also, lots of guest characters on the show are drawn faithfully to their original comics designs, particularly Jack Kirby characters.

One of the voice actors is "Wayne Grayson"? Sh'yeah.

Apparently so, yes. He's quite an active voice actor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Grayson

 

[Mysterion]

I really liked the visual style of Batman - The Animated Series in the early to mid '90s. Really fit the way I see the character and setting.

 

[Kirkman1987]

I don't prefer one style over the other really. It's wrong to say that cartoons need to conform to the way comics are drawn. If the animators want to push it that way and it works, then great. The more cartoony style of something like Brave and the Bold doesn't take away from the show.

Actually, the art style of Batman: The Brave and the Bold is a pretty direct homage to the style of Dick Sprang, who did the art in Batman comics in the '50s and '60s. Also, lots of guest characters on the show are drawn faithfully to their original comics designs, particularly Jack Kirby characters.

One of the voice actors is "Wayne Grayson"? Sh'yeah.

Apparently so, yes. He's quite an active voice actor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Grayson

I know the designs are accurate and based on Sprang, but I don't think the show as a whole looks like a vintage comic. I can't describe it, it just looks too crisp perhaps. I can see it both ways though. Either way, It's my favorite Batman cartoon. I like it even better than BTAS.

 

[A beaker full of death]

[youtube videos]

Exactly what I thought of. I loved those cartoons, even though they were so obviously recreating panels from those seminal comics.

 

[Mistral]

The cartoon that most closely approximated the original comic's art is MTV's The Maxx from the early 90s. It looked amazing. Also a great story. Really blew my teenaged mind

I saw the series and then went out and bought the comics. you are right-it does adhere closely.

Blew my mind, too, btw.

"Julie is the jungle queen and I am her protector..."

B&B Batman is pretty cool and I saw the Kammandi episode. No question that they stay true to the original artist's work.

As for Unlimited's color palette-I really like it, myself-it's part of what I was talking about in my original post.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Motion comics are so bizarre. They're using modern computer technology to achieve the equivalent of the very crudest early TV cartoons like Clutch Cargo and those Marvel shows mentioned in Dennis's post. What's the point of lowering our standards to such a great degree and calling it progress?

There is no point. The fact that they're calling those abominations "motion comics" tells us that they're trying to sell them as "comics... that move!!!", but they're not comics at all, they're cartoons. Terrible, primitive, amateurish cartoons.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Those "motion comics" just look like cut-out animation - done by people with no particular regard for what works and doesn't work in animation. "Hey, I can program an eye-blink cycle. Cool, the characters should blink their eyes a lot, 'cause people do."

South Park's a lot better.

 

[Whofan]

Anime certainly uses a lot of artwork from manga (and often it's animation is fairly limited as well, with some exceptions)

 

[CorporalCaptain]

yt

I'm so glad the Hulk has a bald spot. I didn't know that. I feel better about my hair already.

 

[I Grok Spock]

Space Angel was quite comic-booky (and quite trippy), and with the magic of Synchro-Vox to boot!

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnkVbp9Ic4I[/yt]

Also quite TOS-like, come to think of it.