Swipes of Alan Davis' art

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:47 am

Here's Alan's Batman from page 8 of Batman: Full Circle (the link features this art on the cover of a Spanish reprint edition)...

http://www.planetadeagostinicomics.com/ ... sp?id=3356

...and here's Mike Perkins' rendition of Moon Knight from page 19 of the upcoming House of M: Avengers #1.

http://www.newsarama.com/NewJoeFridays/ ... 19_400.jpg

If anyone else has discovered specific swipes of Alan's art, feel free to mention them in this thread.

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 1:14 am

Here's Alan's Rachel from the last page of Excalibur #64...

http://www.alandavis-comicart.com/images/EXCAL64-22.jpg

...and here's Khari Evans' Shanna from Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest #1.

http://www.newsarama.com/NewJoeFridays/ ... 12_col.jpg

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 1:24 am

Here's one discovered by the folks at Adlo!

http://blog.adlo.es/2006/12/swipe_of_th ... davis.html

Paulo Pereira · Post by **Paulo Pereira** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:36 pm

Ilke wrote:Here's Alan's Rachel from the last page of Excalibur #64...

http://www.alandavis-comicart.com/images/EXCAL64-22.jpg

...and here's Khari Evans' Shanna from Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest #1.

http://www.newsarama.com/NewJoeFridays/ ... 12_col.jpg

This one looks kind of iffy to me.

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:34 am

Paulo, the Khari Evans piece isn't as clear-cut (on the surface) as the Mike Perkins one, but despite all the differences between the Evans and Davis drawings, I still think that the pose is a swipe. I don't think Evans sat there and traced Davis' art, but the foundations of the poses (the angle of the face/body, the curve of the waist/hips, the extension of the right arm) are too much alike to be coincidence.

What really gives it away, for me, is that once Evans was locked into this pose, the inappropriateness of this pose from a storytelling perspective comes to light. Shanna is supposed to be addressing the character on the left hand side of the page, but her face is angled away from him. And look at how incongruous Shanna's right hand is in relation to the rest of her body. Again, Evans was locked into this pose, but still had to fit in her right hand, the sword and the other character's head, resulting in a right hand that's much too small for the perspective that her body is presented in. With Alan's Rachel drawing, the right hand is the appropriate size for the perspective presented. Evans' drawing is awkward - the need to fit everything in makes Shanna's right hand and sword handle look as though they're extending from behind her right hip, and is she pointing the sword at the other character or simply striking a cool pose? Yes, Davis' Rachel drawing does strike a cool (and well-proportioned) pose, but that's the whole point of the pose. It seems to me that Evans sacrificed the clarity of the storytelling on that Shanna page just so he could shoehorn in Rachel's pose.

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:13 am

Mariko by Alan Davis, from panel 4, page 31 of Uncanny X-Men Annual #11 (also seen on page 66 of Modern Masters Volume One: Alan Davis)...has had her likeness usurped by Kabuki for the cover of David Mack's Kabuki: Dance of Death #1.

http://cgi.ebay.com/KABUKI-1-DANCE-OF-D ... dZViewItem

(It would have made more sense if he'd signed the cover Davis Mack instead of David Mack!)

Paulo Pereira · Post by **Paulo Pereira** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:02 pm

Fair points, Ilke.

And wow, that Kabuki swipe is almost as obvious as the Green Lantern one.

Here's the original shot of Mariko: http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l111/ ... mariko.jpg

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:26 pm

Greg Land must have had the Davis-drawn issues of Detective Comics handy while working on the first issue of the Nightwing mini-series from 1995. For those who have the issues, compare:

Batman from panel 3, page 11...with Batman from panel 5, page 22 of Detective Comics #571

Batman from panel 4, page 12...with Batman from panel 4, page 15 of Detective Comics #575

Alfred from panel 1, page 16...with Alfred from panel 2, page 10 of Detective Comics #573

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 8:09 am

Once inked, Mike Perkins' swipe of Alan Davis' Batman has undergone some changes.

Check out the alterations on Moon Knight's right leg, left arm and left side of cape from the pencilled version to the inked version.

The pencils...
http://www.newsarama.com/NewJoeFridays/ ... 19_400.jpg

...and with inks...
http://www.marvel.com/globals/view_gene ... 7_full.jpg

And of course, Alan Davis' Batman...
http://www.planetadeagostinicomics.com/ ... sp?id=3356

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 4:52 am

David Mack, part deux!

Excalibur #61...

http://www.alandavis-comicart.com/image ... ibur61.jpg

....and Kabuki: Circle of Blood #1.

http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/b ... 881526%201

A.D.fan · Post by **A.D.fan** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:12 pm

I can understand being influenced but YIKES! that looks traced!

Ilke · Post by **Ilke** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:09 am

David Mack, part trois!

"I'll take 'Davis Swipes' for $1000, Alex."

"These Kabuki tattoos are based on art swipes of this character from this X-Annual."

http://davidmackguide.com/fanworks/tatt ... -large.jpg

http://davidmackguide.com/fanworks/tatt ... -large.jpg

"Who is...Mariko Yashida from Uncanny X-Men Annual #11?"

"Correct!"

Yup - panel 5, page 31 of Uncanny X-Men Annual #11.

I came across the swipe these tattoos are based on while flipping through a Kabuki collected edition featuring reprints of the one-shots Kabuki: Fear the Reaper and Kabuki: Dance of Death. The swipe appears in the section reprinting Kabuki: Fear the Reaper, so it must have first seen print in that book. (By virtue of reprinting Kabuki: Dance of Death, the collected edition also features the swipe of panel 4, page 31 of the same Annual, which appeared on the cover of Dance of Death.)

Icon-UK · Post by **Icon-UK** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:19 pm

There appears to be a great deal of controversy over David Mack's apparent "swiping" of much of the art in his most recent Avengers (#39) including some of Alan's work, from "Wolverine:Bloodlust"

http://img178.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... visvd0.jpg

The original defence offered by Mack was that it was a deliberate attempt to show some characters would, as they turn out to be Skrull's mimicking the characters, only being able to copy, not innovate what the original had done, and so would be drawn in positions which other artists had previously drawn them in.

Doing this without consulting the originating artists seems to be a mite... inconsiderate to say the least (And Allison Sohn, Adam Hughes partner/manager has said that they were not consulted), and Mack has now said that the "Skrull copy" idea was an idea better left in his head, but how it was ever supposed to relate to the fact that poses were taken from comics not even produced by Marvel (There are several swipes of Wildstorms Gen13) is perhaps more open to question. (As is, as someone pointed out, the fact that several buildings must ALSO be Skrulls for this to be the case)

I don't know whether Alan was consulted on the use of his character art, and wouldn't dream of speculating on his reaction to it, but if anyone is interested, there are a couple of long, long, frequently intemperate threads on the topic

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/sh ... p?t=211244

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=147491

I would be interested in hearing Alan's reaction, if he felt it appropriate to do so on this forum, of course.

Alan Davis · Post by **Alan Davis** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:45 pm

I have stated on more than one occasion that comic artists are all part of a continuity, with each generation imitating and learning from their predecessors.

Certain figure positions, lighting effects and such-like become cornerstones of the art-form because they work so well. I even supplied a couple of specific examples I see in my own work in the Modern Masters book I did with Eric Nolen-Weathington.

There is obviously a big difference between being influenced and swiping. But if history repeats itself David Mack will move onto tracing photographs and insist I made him copy my work if anyone should ever remind him of his previous MO

Paulo Pereira · Post by **Paulo Pereira** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:41 pm

A couple of images showing Mack swiping Hughes:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7276 ... andhw8.jpg

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5639/mack1ew2fv6.jpg