Michael Turner may have been a talented artist, but his Identity Crisis cover drawings are a stain on his record
I recently noticed this comment by Ethan Van Sciver about the late artist Michael Turner of Witchblade and Fathom fame:
Was Turner a gent? I'm sure he had a decent personality. Was he talented and had great character design? Certainly. But if this is to be the subject of the week, I'm afraid no amount of good work he did when he was still around excuses the fact he drew the covers for Brad Meltzer's misogyny-plagued Identity Crisis in 2004, the story that made light of the topic of sexual assault, and was written with a 99.9 percent masculine viewpoint.
Sure, Turner may have only drawn the covers, and not the story inside, which was illustrated by the overrated Rags Morales. That's why Turner may not have to shoulder as much blame as Meltzer/Morales. Nevertheless, Turner's willingness to connect himself with what liberal-leaning Alex Ross was not willing to associate himself with still comes off as a tacit approval of the rancid story inside, and that casts a pall over even the best of his work. Because of this, I've had to take a lot of Turner's past work with a grain of salt.
Of course, Turner's been gone for over a decade now, so it's become a moot point, and reading any better work of his is easier now than it would've been at the time. But it's still a terrible shame Turner had to sully his image by associating with an obnoxious product that flies in the face of the comics he's more famous for. Artists like Van Sciver shouldn't overlook that.
Rarely has there been a kinder and more professional gentleman in comics than Michael Turner. https://t.co/mT3LLphY4g— Ethan Van Sciver (@EthanVanSciver) January 22, 2018
Was Turner a gent? I'm sure he had a decent personality. Was he talented and had great character design? Certainly. But if this is to be the subject of the week, I'm afraid no amount of good work he did when he was still around excuses the fact he drew the covers for Brad Meltzer's misogyny-plagued Identity Crisis in 2004, the story that made light of the topic of sexual assault, and was written with a 99.9 percent masculine viewpoint.
Sure, Turner may have only drawn the covers, and not the story inside, which was illustrated by the overrated Rags Morales. That's why Turner may not have to shoulder as much blame as Meltzer/Morales. Nevertheless, Turner's willingness to connect himself with what liberal-leaning Alex Ross was not willing to associate himself with still comes off as a tacit approval of the rancid story inside, and that casts a pall over even the best of his work. Because of this, I've had to take a lot of Turner's past work with a grain of salt.
Of course, Turner's been gone for over a decade now, so it's become a moot point, and reading any better work of his is easier now than it would've been at the time. But it's still a terrible shame Turner had to sully his image by associating with an obnoxious product that flies in the face of the comics he's more famous for. Artists like Van Sciver shouldn't overlook that.
Labels: dc comics, indie publishers, misogyny and racism, violence, women of dc
