Greg Land

Infobox Comics creator

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Greg Land is an American comic book artist best known for his work on "" and "Ultimate Fantastic Four". He is also known for his comic book cover art.

Biography

Land was born and raised in Indiana, eventually attending Indiana State University. During his junior year, Land began working at a screen printing company, and subsequently worked there for ten years.

Career

Land created a comic art portfolio in the early 1990s. After impressing people with his art at the Mid-Ohio Con comic convention, Land got a job with an independent publisher as the artist for "StormQuest".

DC Comics

With work on "StormQuest" completed, Greg Land went to Chicago and did his first major comic book convention. There he met with DC Comics' editor Pat Garrahy, who liked his work. In 1999, Greg Land was doing covers of "Birds of Prey" based on the sketches of Brian Stelfreeze.

CrossGen

Later, Land began to work at CrossGen Comics, on a series called "Sojourn". The series ran from July 2001 through May 2004, for a total of 34 issues. It could be best described as a classic fantasy epic. The story dealt with the resurrection of an Undead, sigil-bearing Mordath, who had nearly conquered the entire realm centuries before. A woman named Arwyn, an archer whose husband and child died in an onslaught of Mordath's troops, is in search of the 5 shards of a mystical arrow which killed Mordath the first time.

Greg was responsible for the art in all but a few of the issues, which were done by visiting guest artists, often during his annual vacation.

Marvel Comics

Greg Land was able to move on to Marvel Comics, along with his inker and colorist from "Sojourn", after the fall of CrossGen. Originally at Marvel, Land did covers to various series. This led to a collaboration with Greg Pak as the main artist of "". Next, Land became the penciler for "Ultimate Fantastic Four". He did the artwork for a crossover between Marvel's Supremeverse and the Ultimate Universe, entitled "Ultimate Power", which was written by Brian Michael Bendis, J. Michael Straczynski and Jeph Loeb. He is scheduled to draw "Marvel Zombies 3" covers.

Land is currently serving as the artist for Uncanny X-Men, a position he shares with artist Terry Dodson. Land and Dodson will be changing places on the title's regular art duties with Land drawing the first arc and Dodson doing the next one and so on. His first official stint as regular artist began with issue #501.

Controversy

Land's work is often pointed to as being reminiscent of photographic references for which he does not hold the copyright.cite web | title = Greg Land: Tracing, Swiping & Recycling | date = July 01, 2008 | url = http://jimsmashextended.blogspot.com/2008/07/greg-land-tracing-swiping-recycling.html | accessdate = 2008-07-15 ] Beyond the photo referencing claims, he has been accused of simply tracing (or possibly digitally altering) photographs and even drawings by other comic artists. Land acknowledges that he does Google searches for references, but denies that he has ever done any digital manipulations, and says he doesn't have the computer skills to perform them. cite web | title = CN Expo Tie-In: The Mechanics of Greg Land: An Introduction | publisher = Silver Bullet Comics | date = August 17, 2005 | url = http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=667 | accessdate = 2006-11-04 ]

Land contributed a step-by-step lesson showing how he uses photo reference in two separate publications:
* Comic Artist's Photo Reference: People & Poses by Buddy Scalera published by Impact Books
* Wizard's How to Draw by Wizard Entertainment

In one of the lessons, Land demonstrates how he uses photos to find the rough figure and the gesture line.

His critics charge that his poses and facial expressions are stiff, unrealistic and bad at conveying appropriate emotion [ [http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=134443 Greg Land Guessing Game (image intensive)] ] , depending too heavily on photo-referencing and tracing [ [http://iagainstcomics.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-greg-land-experiment-pt-1.html My Greg Land Experiment, Pt. 1] ] (often from pornography), that he recycles the exact same poses in different comics [ [http://www.4thletter.net/2008/03/x-men-with-o-faces/ X-Men with O-Faces, 4thletter.net] ] [ [http://4thletter.net/gregland.gifAnimated GIF] from 4thletter.net] , and that the faces and bodies of his female characters look generic, unrealistic, and inconsistent [ [http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2007/03/superhero_pornf.html davidthompson: Superhero Pornface ] ] .

This [http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=134443] forum page compares many of Lands doodles with those of actual pictures, and even other drawings, some by other artists

Bibliography

* "Birds of Prey" (DC Comics)
* "" #1-6 (Marvel Comics, covers only)
* "Nightwing" (DC Comics)
* "Sojourn" #1-34 (August 2001 - May 2004, CrossGen Comics)
* "StormQuest" #1 (November 1994, Caliber Press)
* "Ultimate Fantastic Four" #21-32 (Marvel Comics)
* "" #1-5 (March 2005 - June 2005, Marvel Comics)
* "", Book 1 #1-6 (Marvel Comics, covers only)
* "", Book 2 #1-6 (Marvel Comics, covers only)
* "", Book 3 #1 (Marvel Comics, covers only)
* "Ultimate Power", #1-9 (Marvel Comics)
* "Uncanny X-Men", #500-503 (Marvel Comics, 2008)
* "Squadron Supreme" vol. 2, #1-3 (Marvel Comics, covers only, 2008)

References

External links

* [http://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=169 Greg Land Art Gallery]
* [http://jimsmashextended.blogspot.com/2008/07/greg-land-tracing-swiping-recycling.html Greg Land Tracing, Swiping, and Recycling Examples]