Sep 11th 2009 By: Caleb Goellner
The evolution of Iron Man from his bulky original suit to the current look happened over the course of several redesigns, including a gold version of the original, the "Silver Centurion" armor of the '80s, and Football Pants.
Oh, Sue Storm. I don't know what possessed someone to redesign your costume as a swimsuit with a giant "4" cut out over your cleavage. Oh wait, yes I do. As you might expect, the Invisible Woman's costume reverted back to the bodysuit that Jessica Alba later donned in the movies, and the "4" costume now lives on only in infamy.
By far one of the most absurd costume changes in comics history, Speedball was a happy-go-lucky teen hero who made colorful energy bubbles, until one of his teammates accidentally blew up 612 civilians. He renamed himself Penance, as now dresses in a metal gimp suit with 612 internal spikes that stab him every time he moves. You know, as penance.
In the '90s, Aquaman ditched his original costume in favor of an updated look with long hair, a beard and a hook in place of his left hand, because his Super Friends gear apparently just wasn't piratey enough.
After Bruce Wayne had his back broken by the villain Bane during the 90s, another vigilante took over the mantle of Batman -- while wearing brightly-colored battle armor and excessive yellow pouches. He also eventually started killing people, forcing Wayne to take back the Batman name -- and the costume we know and love.
After his secret identity was revealed in the 90s, Daredevil faked his own death, had a breakdown, became a street hustler, and returned in a mecha-suit with razor shoulderpads. Mercifully, none of this lasted, and he returned to his old identity and costume for reasons that ultimately, don't really matter.
One of the most famous costume changes in comics history, Spider-Man's black suit was actually an alien symbiote that bonded to his body during an intergalactic conflict called the Secret Wars, but we're pretty sure it was really put there because everyone was tired of drawing all those webs on his classic costume. He eventually removed the symbiote and returned to his classic costume, except for a brief period when Aunt May was hospitalized and he decided to dress in a non-symbiotic black costume to express the darkness of his soul.
While a lot of folks (including Jughead) went punk in the '80s, Storm's transformation into mohawked, leather-wearing badass was less about the music and lifestyle and more about going down into the sewer and having knife-fights with super-powered gang-leaders. And THAT is punk as hell.
The biggest major change from Wonder Woman's traditional costume into something with pants coincided with the rise of the Women's Lib movement, but unfortunately involved her losing all of her powers in the process, which is kind of a mixed message. Much like bell-bottoms, her groovy costume soon disappeared in favor of a more classic ensemble.
The X-Men have worn a lot of colorful costumes over the years, but it wasn't until Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely gave the X-Men a more paramilitary-inspired uniform that they actually made sense for the mutant fighters. The more realistic take was also adopted by the movies, where they donned appropriate fitted black uniforms rather than neon spandex.
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Friday 11 September
By kwanzer
I though roughs were called a "NAME." Not a nemu...
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Friday 11 September
By Tony Moore
how long does that hold up before all the days are filled with colors that denote "murder spree" and "locked in a padded cell?"
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Friday 11 September
By preston
It's always amazing to me how much a mainstream manga-ka can accomplish. Take any mangaka for Jump for instance, like One Piece's Eiichiro Oda or Naruto's Masashi Kishimoto.
They have to create about 19 pages a week for the weekly publication, Jump Magazine, and usually a cover page to go with it. Despite the fact that they have assistants to help them out (whose jobs ranges from background drawings to inking depending on how involved the main mangaka is) you have to consider that most of them have to come up with a story, and so write AND draw it at a rate of 18-19 pages a week.
And what makes it seem even more unreal is how over here, most artists can't even meet a deadline of 22 pages a month.
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Saturday 12 September
By Mike Choi
It's a different market over here. The standard of work delivery is a 22 page comic every month or every six weeks or every sixteen weeks or what have you. Forget the "art and inspiration" factor (which I think is almost irrelevant in a commercial industry like mainstream comics, here OR in Japan,) but here the market is built around establishing the product first, and then scheduling its release.
Not saying this is what YOU'RE doing, but I don't think it's fair to imply laziness because of lack of output compared to other individuals, let alone cultures. Is Hollywood lazy because their output quantity-wise is dwarfed by that of Bollywood?
I think the thing to ask is how many American comic artists worked on Labor Day, for example. Or are at their desks right now on a Saturday afternoon. We don't work 19-hour weekdays and 15-hour sundays if we don't have to (but do with regularity) but we still work hard :)
Saturday 12 September
By preston
I was definitely not implying laziness, I'm an artist in training and I completely understand the different philosophies and work ethics. I can respect that even though someone as a commercial artist is expected to deliver pages at a standard rate, that it's fair for him to take as long as he feels is necessary to deliver what he thinks is a high quality work.
I find it unreal that manga artists would push themselves to that type of productivity, to the point where I can't fathom it being possible. It's not a "whoa, how come American artists can't work this hard?" thing but a "how the hell can these Japanese artists do this, this is inhuman" type of thing.
Not to mention of course, which artists/writers feel rushed or have to compromise their styles or quality because of their hectic schedules.
Sunday 13 September
By Whip
Is this just for the artist? Or is the for the Takahashi-types who serve as both writer *and* artist? Crazy, either way.
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Wednesday 30 December
By q
I think this is just for the "art." The "art and story" types usually have storyboarding time cut in. Although, i think they might have more people helping.