Frank Miller's covers for Dark Knight III: The Master Race didn't exactly go over as well as the famed creator and publisher DC Comics would have liked. His drawings of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman drew criticism from all over the Web, with more than a few chiming in to say Miller had completely lost his touch.
Artist James Harvey doesn't think that's the case. Rather, he believes Miller's current work is just as great as it's always been. The problem, he argues, is that Miller's artistic style isn't getting the right approach when it comes to color.
In an extensive post on his Tumblr blog, Harvey walks through his approach to recoloring some of Miller's more recent covers in a style that is more flattering to Miller's work.
"I spoke to a couple of editors at DC and the consensus seemed to be that they loved what he (Frank Miller) was turning in," Harvey writes. "So why did every blog I read think it was the worst work he'd ever done? I believed I had the answer: that the color treatment DC's artists were giving to his art was, while technically accomplished, not flattering to the type of work he was doing."
It's hard to argue with Harvey's results. His recolor of Miller's now-infamous Superman cover makes the image exponentially better. The realistic lighting and backgrounds do Miller's work few favors, but a more old-school looking approach like Harvey's makes for a much more visually-appealing and attention-grabbing cover.
Much the same can be said about Harvey's recolor of two different Wonder Woman covers. Harvey's version is on the left, the DC-published version on the right.
"All these images I've posted so far have two things in common — they were all widely dunked on and derided when they first went online, and they all prompted responses of 'WHOA, COOL!' and 'I LOVE THIS!' after I recolored them and circulated them amongst my friends," Harvey writes. "So what happened here is ol' Frank became the butt of everyone's joke when actually, there was nothing wrong with his drawings."
What do you think? Does Harvey's theory ring true? Or is Miller's work simply out of style? Let us know in the comments below.
