Well ... no, I don't have a lot of use for swagger.

I'll just remember Mr. Grell fondly as one of the comics artists whose work I liked way, way back in the early 1980s.

Yeah, Jon Sable, Freelance. The writing on that was great, and the art was suitably stylized to obscure the fact that he was previously known as the one Neal Adams wannabe who didn't understand the concept of foreshortening.

Not long ago, I was talking with some friends elsewhere about Grell's GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS, with its lovely painted covers and slick interiors.

When I shared some of the art, they said, "Good lord, did Mike Grell never learn basic anatomy? His characters have these wonky abdomens, ridiculously long legs and tiny dwarf-like arms."

And ... I wish they hadn't said that. Because they were right! And now, I can't look at the cover of the third issue, for example, without noticing that Ollie's right hand seems to be attached to his elbow. Did nobody edit this? It was the frickin' cover!

That's a big part of my concern about his threatening to shoot us. He's probably not familiar enough with anatomy to know where to kill with one shot.

Apparently the latest DC superhero to get the CW uber-gay treatment is Green Arrow. The first issue of the comics adaptation of "Arrow" solicits this month, drawn by... wait for it... MIKE GRELL. Thirty-six years later, Grell is still operating in the same corporate whore capacity drawing the exact same characters. Mike Grell is a total pussy, and that's why I'll never take seriously any threat made by him.

Mike Grell drawing Green Arrow ... again ... 25 years later?

Eh.

I liked THE LONGBOW HUNTERS mini-series back in 1987. But I dunno that I need to see the same old pictures drawn all over again, except this time Ollie is 20-something and Grell is 60-something.

Neal Adams recently showed us, with Batman, why it's maybe better to keep moving forward, not backward.

As has John Byrne.

Some preview for this showed up in my downloads today. Ollie is 22, Speedy is a girl (his sister, I think), his girlfriend Dinah Lance is called "Laurel" for some reason, and the central theme of the story seems to be Daddy Issues. Horrible artwork.

To the extent that "Arrow" is a weak story, I can't blame Grell. He's producing the comic book adaptation of a lame-ass CW show. (Full disclosure: To my chagrin, out of curiosity last week, I watched the pilot episode. It sucked. Spare yourself.)

On the other hand ... he's producing the comic book adaptation of a lame-ass CW show.

I'd rather he wrote and drew his own projects, stuff like JON SABLE from earlier in his career. But he's got bills to pay. I understand.

The art Grell posted on his blog looks OK, though to me, it's pretty much just the same archer-against-an-urban-landscape poses we got in the 1980s with the middle-aged Green Arrow. I dunno. Maybe there's only so many ways to stand there scowling in a hood while you pull back on your bow.

Joe of course will be greatly missed, and was an old school legend of which there are sadly very few left.

Speaking of schools, maybe it would be kinder to say it was a much better fit for the more prosperous late 20th century than for our modern era's economically troubled times.

I went to university practically for free, paying mainly for a few used textbooks (only 15 bucks or less a pop), but that was easy to do back in the good old days. Same thing back then with trade schools (where a couple hundreds bucks used to get you a fairly long way).

But after Reaganomics hit, it became a far different and much more difficult world. So it's really not fair to judge setups like the Kubert School in view of today's crazy downturn levels, since such institutions had their last best chance at significant success many years ago.

Reaganomics makes for a nice segue into this article by Glenn Greenwald:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette


Mentally edit "Margaret Thatcher" and replace with "Joe Kubert."