As a comic book artist Gene Fawcette was pretty bland. He drew in what I like to call the 'generic Aerican realism' style. A bit of poto-realism (without the photos), a bit of Milton Caniff, a bit of Joe Kubert, all put together to be a unobjectionable as possible. But when he drew Our New Age from 1962 to 1975, he was unsurpassed. I don't know what it is i like so much about these Sundays. Maybe it's the unabashed positive view of the world and the possibillities of science, the embodyment of John F, Kennedy's hope for a brighter future. Or maybe it's the way that lines and shadows are used to represent complex machines - the same way Milt Caniff and Noel Sickles shadows and light style can inspire awe, or when the best of the photo-realistic artists (Stan Drake, Leonard Starr, Neal Adams or Dave Sim) find a way to graphically represent reality. The quality of these Sundays is remarkable - especially if you realize he did a two to three image daily version as well!
2 comments:
"I don't know what it is I like so much about these Sundays. Maybe it's the unabashed positive view". I share your sentiment - but I also feel (without trying to overstate it - it's not a painting after all but comic art) so much loving attention and creative enjoyment almost emanating from each panel - the artist appreciating they were a great way for kids to learn! They remind me of a comic book series like "Turok, Son of Stone" with their intermittent dinosaur strips perhaps hoping to interest kids in a career in palaeontology (only these panels here are even more as you would say "remarkable").
You are right. I am considering a modern version of this and these days the way to go would seem to be 3d drawing (possibly with a game design artist). But although many of thos artosts are very good at making fantasy worlds look real, ther is something about this wat of making the real look like art, that is comepletely the opposite.
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