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GREG LAND Greg Land is an American comic book artist best known for his work on X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong and on Ultimate Fantastic Four. He is also known for his comic book cover art. His work has garnered criticism for relying on tracing of model photographs and other artists' work.
Beginning
Land was born and raised in the Midwestern United States, eventually attending Indiana State University. During his junior year, Land began working at a screen printing company, and subsequently worked there for ten years.
Land created a comic art portfolio in the early 1990s. After impressing people with his art at the Mid-Ohio Con comic convention, Land got a job with an independent publisher as the artist for StormQuest.
DC Comics
With work on StormQuest completed, Greg Land went to Chicago and did his first major comic book convention. There he met with DC Comics' editor Pat Garrahy, who liked his work. In 1999, Greg Land was doing covers of Birds of Prey based on the sketches of Brian Stelfreeze.
Crossgen
Later, Land began to work at Crossgen Comics, on a series called Sojourn. The series ran from July 2001 through May 2004, for a total of 34 issues. It could be best described as a classic fantasy epic. The story dealt with the resurrection of an Undead, sigil-bearing Mordath, who had nearly conquered the entire realm centuries before. A woman named Arwyn, an archer whose husband and child died in an onslaught of Mordath's troops, is in search of the 5 shards of a mystical arrow which killed Mordath the first time.
Greg was responsible for the art in all but a few of the issues, which were done by visiting guest artists, often during his annual vacation.
Marvel Comics
Greg Land was able to move on to Marvel Comics, along with his inker and colorist from Sojourn, after the fall of Crossgen. Originally at Marvel, Land did covers to various series. This led to a collaboration with Greg Pak as the main artist of X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong. Next, Land became the penciler for Ultimate Fantastic Four. His current project is a crossover between Marvel's Supremeverse and the Ultimate Universe, entitled Ultimate Power. Ultimate Power is being written by Brian Michael Bendis, J. Michael Straczynski and Jeph Loeb.
Controversy
Land's fans regard his work as ultra-realistic and commend the beauty of his work. His critics charge that the faces of his female characters look generic and inconsistent, that his poses and facial expressions are stiff and unrealistic, and that he does too much photo-referencing and tracing.
Beyond the photo referencing claims, he has been accused of simply tracing (or possibly digitally altering) photographs and even drawings by other comic artists. Aside from some obvious references such as Hugh Jackman for Wolverine, an Image of Mr. Fantastic merges perfectly with an Image of Topher Grace, and an Image of Magneto putting on his helmet is an exact match for an Image of Brad Pitt doing the same. Land's work often differs so little from his references that they may be located independently. For the cover to Ultimate Power #1, a picture of Spider-Man follows a similar drawing by Travis Charest line for line, with only a slight change in pose. Further criticisms of Land's work include the fact that he endlessly repeats the same facial expressions for the same characters. For example, in Land's run on Ultimate Fantastic Four the same, clearly traced or copied, expression for the Human Torch has been used over 7 times. Land acknowledges that he does Google searches for references, but that has never done any digital manipulations, and doesn't have the computer skills to perform them.
Bibliography
Birds of Prey (DC Comics)
Black Widow: Homecoming #1-6 (Marvel Comics, covers only)
Nightwing (DC Comics)
Sojourn #1-34 (August 2001 - May 2004, Crossgen Comics)
StormQuest #1 (November 1994, Caliber Press)
Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-32 (Marvel Comics)
X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong #1-5 (March 2005 - June 2005, Marvel Comics)
X-Men: The End, Book 1 #1-6 (Marvel Comics, covers only)
X-Men: The End, Book 2 #1-6 (Marvel Comics, covers only)
X-Men: The End, Book 3 #1-6 (Marvel Comics, covers only)
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