As a fellow artist I weep... silently...

If people hadn't figured it out by now, I'm a comic books fan. A dense one, that took a while before she realised what Watchmen were and I grew up on the comics from the mid-90s, what with the Spider-Man Clone Saga (which I liked back then, now I find incredibly silly) and Image Comics' Rob Liefeld.



Needless to say, that last bit has tainted my own drawing style for quite some time, along with the fact that I was more than a bit weaboo between ages 14 to 17. We all act stupid in our teens, amirite?

Seriously though, those interest of mine back in the 90s, as far as comics are concerned, are proving merry Hell to get rid off in my drawing style now. I try to get at a more realistic style, but it still comes out more as a stylised realism than anything else.

This is why I aim to do my research when doing historical portraits of people or characters, say things like Knights Templar and military personnel from WW2.

You can see where this is going, right? I found something I want to bitch about. And I shall, in a bit.

This begins with Jenny Sparks, a Wildstorm/Authority character. I read up on her on Wikipedia, and she seems like a truly engaging character. Intersting character flaws and one of the few decent super heroes to come out of the Dark Age of Comics (i.e. the 1990s). So, no my beef isn't with her.

The beef I have is with the artwork in the mini-series Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority.
The basic premise of the 5-part mini, now available as TPB, is to retell Jenny's 100 year life through the 20th century. She has a few Mary-Sue qualities, what with Einstein being her godfather, which makes little sense what with Einstein being Jewish and all, but what the heck? I'll roll with it, as she also, whilst in Vienna during her early years, meets Adolf Hitler and advices the wannabe Art College-student to ditch the art and take up politics as he has charisma. That's badass. And probably the only time Hitler listened to a woman's advice. So, still Mary-Sueish behaviour.
The alleged Sue-ishness is all cancelled out by Jenny Sparks being one hard-drinking, chain-smoking, foul-mouthed, promiscious bisexual slut with questionable taste in men, though. So, basically a woman entirely to my taste.

In the mini-series she ends up fighting for the British (she's British-born, see. She often wears a Union Jack-top to emphasize this), and gets caught by those pesky Nazis.

Here's where my art-beef comes into the matter.

Now, I mentioned Hitler up there. Here's a scan of how Hitler is portrayed in the comic:


Here's a link to a photo of the bugger on Wikipedia:

Adolf Hitler portrait courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Gotta say that's a pretty damn good ref of Hitler, eh? I mean, John McCrea, the artist of JS:TSHotA, had obviously done his research on Hitler, right? Not so hard, what with only going to your local library and look him up in a history book or more likely, as this was written in 2000, search the Internet!

So, no beef here. My beef comes with another panel.

This one:



That's supposed to be Albert Speer, that Nazi up there. But you wouldn't be able to tell, unless for the fact that the comic tells you that.

Jesus H. Christ, where do I start?

Firstly, he's wearing what looks like a Waffen-SS cap, complete with Totenkopf-insignia, rather than the "eyeball" of most German peaked caps of the time.

Secondly, "Speer" is wearing a Wehrmacht coat (I think) with rank-shoulder boards belonging to a General.

Thirdly, he's not wearing any Nazi-party insignia at all! No arm band, nothing!

Fourthly, and what chafes me the most apart from one last item: Why in the flying FUCK is "Speer" wearing an Iron Cross!? Albert Speer was never in the army! He was exempt from military service on the basis of him being Hitler's personal architect. The Iron Cross was a hard, but not rare, medal to achieve. You had to perform bravely in battle to get it.

Finally, what grates me most is, taking into account the rather good portrait-likeness of Hitler earlier, that this guy looks nothing like Albert Speer at all.

Again, Wikipedia comes to my aid:

Albert Speer during a visit to the Atlantic Wall in 1943

Portrait photo of Speer from the late 1930s

I dunno if it's just sloppy reasearch, but it is still rather annoying.

If you do a comic that is set in an alternate history universe, get your fucking sources right and as an artist do your research on what things look like or else history buffs are going to hack your bollocks off! This is why the movie Valkyrie was up for grabs at the Axis History Forum and publicly ridiculed. It got so many things wrong!
I myself take great care in researching my subject when I draw something out of history, be it Nazis or Knights Templar or goddamn Gustavus Adolphus! This is reinforced by my boy-friend Mercareth, who's a bigger history-buff than me, not shirking from critiqueing me when I do something wrong, for which I'm grateful. It works wonders for my art.

Urgh, that was long-winded. I just got agitated over the fact that the overall feel of a good comic can get dragged down by such "minor" mistakes. That, and that it had Speer in it ;-P


EDIT: Also just noticed something else with that panel (it was late when I originally wrote this). "Speer" is suffering from "Young Bloods-disease"™. You can't see his eyes, though the dialogue clearly implies they should be open. WTF McCrea!?