I hate Gulacy..except during the kung fu and some of his indy stuff. I have learned to appreciate artsist like Cooke after years of liking "hot" artists. I appreciate every aspect of comic art now...framing, pacing, backgrounds, design, line thickness, etc. I used to not like Kirby, but now I understand-sure he was quick, but look at someone like pascual ferry and then look at some of Kirby's work....no contest.Kirby is superior when you break his art down. Everyone has their own taste-if someone likes ferry's art, great. I try to look at technical aspects, but I also still have to like it. It's only in the past 15-20 years that I "discovered" artists like Joe Kubert, Alex toth, Kurt Schaffenberger, Lou Fine, etc. It's hard for me to look at modern artists work now without finding the art distracting to the story...like Gulacy.
Now Balent. His stuff is too angular and rigid. there is no life in his art. I don't like his faces or bodies and I don't like his line depth. I love cheesecake-naturally I should like Balent..I just see that Dave Stevens, Brian Bolland, Adam Hughes, Terry Dodson and several others do it better.
That said I think the Jim Balent of 10 years ago is better than the Balent of Today.
