The thin DC line

Carmine Infantino decided how DC comics looked for many years and could be quite the arsehole about it, according to multiple sources. But damn, he knew what made good superhero art. He always knew the covers sold the comic more than anything else, and the designs and artists he put on DC's comics were the most beautiful the company ever produced.

Fan magazines like the consistently excellent Back Issue sometimes show you some of the art he rejected as not ready for prime time, from genuine legends like Neal Adams and Nick Cardy, and I can't help but look at the current crop of talent and wonder what Carmine would make of all those thin noses and tortured physiques.

Needless to say, there are some incredibly talented artists currently working on comics from DC, with idiosyncratic styles that find new ways to put beauty on the page from the likes of Greg Smallwood Mark Buckingham, Eduardo Risso, Cliff Chiang, Amanda Conner, Bruno Redondo, Mike Allred and many, many others.

But there is also a clear house style that shines through - an extremely thin line that is very busy and very detailed. Lacking in sheer weight, but making up for it with flashy effects.

I can't name names, partly because I'm a coward but largely because most of their names don't stick in the brain. It's more of an overall look than any individual decisions.

But there are a crop of artists who aren't even 9th generation Jim Lee clones, they're more like 5th generation Todd Naucks, or 3rd generation Tony Daniels. All that busyness that comes with that kind of influence, with none of the heft of the original artists.

They're obviously influenced by classic action manga, but their stories are not given the room to breathe that the stories they're trying to rip off have ,and just make sit claustrophobic and weird under the heavier weight American comic panels are meant to hold with their bloated narration and endless exposition.

It's not just the shoddy anatomy, and it's more than just being lazy. The art is over-busy, saturated in lighting and coloring effects, but even the glossiest of paper can't hide a myriad of flaws.

It's all just eminently forgettable, no matter how many times the hype on the back of the collected editions assure me that these are superstar artists working on some o DC's greatest characters, so what do I know

I would say it's just a phase, but DC comics have looked like this for decades now, and there are generations of new readers who don't know different, and maybe they're getting more out of this than I ever will.

But the older I get, the more I'm all about the art. And the older I get, the more I become like Carmine.