Turns out the Escorzas completely replaced the art of Kuhn on Last Ronin

[AquaParade]

Oh, definitely. Critiquing art can be tricky, because we all have preferences, but there's no denying the talent, hard work, and skill that it takes to be even one of the less-popular artists. Not to say Kuhn should be labeled as such.

[Powder]

I like Andy's art. It's not a perfect fit for every arc, but he's definitely suited to the brand. His style on a whole reminds me a lot of Mirage's guest era & Tales Vol. 2. Nice guy, too.

I'd just like to know what happened with this project. Very sketchy, & hush-hush, his departure.

[skylord]

Andy's art grew on me and that partially happened after reading Mirage stuff. Conventionally aesthetically pleasing art like that of Santalouco or Campbell is what drew me in initially but given the right arc Kuhn's art fits fantastically. Rereading the series now I have a much better appreciation for his work.

[Maruten]

I like his art too, although after reading this thread I'll be watching Mondo's tail carefully from now on...

His line work is quite rough and sketchy and I think that works well for a TMNT project that leans towards the more mature end of the property's spectrum. With TLR, I prefer what we've seen of his original pages over what we ended up getting, though the final book does look great.

Really though, with TMNT books - any era or publisher - it's "Eastman & Laird" and "everyone else". I'm accustomed to terrible art on TMNT books, or at least artists whose take on the Turtles I dislike a lot. After all these years, it doesn't bother me much. If I hate the art this month, it will probably be more to my liking by the time the next arc starts.

[Sharman]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I also wonder if the Kuhn pages will be included as extras in a trade? Might be interesting to see a full comparison.

Below are the versions of the same page by the different artists. Kuhn above, the Escorzas beneath.

Spoiler:

https://cdn-0.popculthq.com/wp-conte...e-1-scaled.jpghttps://2.bp.blogspot.com/05z0ukVaAp...BspYucHw=s1600

I do think it's really interesting to be able to see different artists' take on the same project. For some reason I thought the layouts would be almost exactly the same, so to see how it actually turned out ...

I can see both pros and cons in both versions of the finished work but, as someone else pointed out, the Mirage era had its fair share of - shall we say - mediocre artists and it appears that both takes of The Last Ronin (regardless of any previous work by the artists) seem to me to be of a higher quality than some previous TMNT artwork.

[frank_one]

Originally Posted by Sharman

the Mirage era had its fair share of - shall we say - mediocre artists

I wouldn't call them mediocre. Their style was just less academic and more personal.

[Sharman]

Originally Posted by frank_one

I wouldn't call them mediocre. Their style was just less academic and more personal.

Fair enough. Personal taste.