If it makes you feel better, most comic book art sucks these days. It's really disorienting when a book switches artists from issue to issue too.

The art isn't TERRIBLE, though it's certainly not as nice as Miyazawa.

SMLMJ Art

I know it isn't eaxclty like Takashi's art, but I tried to emmulate and incorporate some of his style into my own, so as not to jar the regular readers. By and large the appoach has been accepted by the majority of the readers who post on the subject. It's too bad you hate it so much, but that's the way it's going to be for awhile. As a matter of fact, I am already shedding the manga style on issue #19. Remember, it's a teen book with Spider-Man, so it doesn't have to look like Tak's work or manga to be compelling. I hope you continue to stick around despite your distaste for my art.

David Hahn
Artist on SMLMJ
www.HahnDynasty.com

Well, it's all subjective, of course, and I am a huge anime/manga fan, so the obvious manga influence is definitely a big part of what I like about his art. But I'm not sure I take your meaning in pointing out that it's a teen drama. Many of my favorite anime and manga are teen dramas (aka "shojo"). If you really only mean that it doesn't "need" a certain style to be compelling, I think that's true of any genre, and goes without saying.

Anyway, looking at the art on your site, I see you do a variety of styles, and some I quite like. So, for what one fan of the series' opinion is worth, I might actually prefer the different style in the upcoming issues. It may also be that the current disuse of standard inking is part of what I don't like, as one way I might describe it is as being too minimalist. (Though as someone who appreciates art but has no capacity for creating it, I don't know if there's actually any relation there.)

Thanks for taking the time to write, especially in response to a random diatribe. Had I thought there was a snowball's chance in hell you'd be reading it, I'd at least have tried to be constructive in my criticism. (Like, everyone's head looks really round.)

I agree that the disuse of standard inking isn't serving my art as well as it did Tak's. From issue #17 onward, instead of reproducing final art directly from the pencils, I am inking it traaditionally. I wrestled with myself quite a bit intrying to figure out how much of my art should please Spider-Man fans and how much should please manga fans. My editor said my style for the book should take its cue from Tak's work, but evolve into my style organically.

As far as the heads looking really round, you are right on the money with that. I am a big fan of Otomo and Tatsuyuki Tanaka, and they both draw roundish heads, so I worked that into my style as well.

Oh, that last post about round heads and all that was me, David Hahn. Forgot to sign my name on the anonymous post.