Cheers to Tom Fowler

I know comics are a visual medium, but I'm really mainly in it for the writing. Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Neil Gaiman are the names I'm looking for, regardless of the artist. When it comes to art, there's a real short list of artists I'll follow regardless of writer.

The flipside is that there are very few times where the art is bad enough to drive me off a book. Art doesn't generally alter my appreciation for a comic either way.

Well, I suppose to every rule there are exceptions. Allow me to introduce Green Arrow Issue 52, with art by Tom Fowler:




What is up with Flash's face? Is he suddenly Plastic Man? Or did he just get the snot beat out of him (I suppose that would explain the broken neck in the second pic)? Because that does not look like a normal human face, speedy or otherwise.

Now the Judd Winnick writing isn't any great shakes, either. But it's a decent Identity Crisis tie-in, where the chickens really come home to roost. This is the first Green Arrow I've picked up since coming back to comics, but it sure isn't going on my pull list while Fowler's on board. I don't ask for much from the art, but it shouldn't actively distract me with panels like the above.

So cheers to Tom Fowler, for getting me to care about the art.