So this is pretty cool: artists Stephen Byrne and Declan Shalvey had an idea to showcase the effect a particular artist has on a comic, so they came up with Project Art Cred. Their idea was to have a comics writer — in this case, Kieron Gillen — write a one-page script, then have different artists interpret it in their own styles.
After 200 artists asked for the script, Gillen said in his email newsletter that 40 artists submitted pages, which have been shared on both Twitter and Tumblr. The artistic styles are impressive in their range and voice, bringing Gillen’s words to life in many different ways.
You can see Gillen’s script on Tumblr — which is pretty fun in and of itself. Some artists stuck to the script pretty faithfully, while others took their own approach, from reducing or expanding the number of panels to swapping the gender of the main character, like in this one by @MysteriousPath:
Contrasted with this one by Shaun Thatcher, whose unique art style made it feel like a completely different story; the superhero is barely seen, giving him a mysterious vibe:
And this one from Alex Bertram-Powell caught my eye, mostly because I dug the title in the first panel … and, of course, because I can only picture Batman with a tie on now:
While the results are fun, the purpose of the project is to highlight the fact that while comics are a team effort, the writer is often seen as the lead creative force — whether that’s by publishing companies, the media or fans themselves. (How many news stories about the upcoming Ex Machina movie adaptation only mentioned the writer? Too many).
It’s an issue that’s existed since comics were invented — or at least since creators have been credited for their work. A lot of times the question of who did what — whether you’re talking about Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s early Marvel work, or even Neil Gaiman’s collaboration with Todd McFarlane on an issue of Spawn that eventually resulted in Thor getting a sister — is really only known by those behind the scenes. (Unless there’s a court case, of course). But projects like this highlight what each bring to the table; comics = story + art, so it’s important that everyone involved gets the credit they deserve.