I Did Not Like Georges Jeanty's Buffy/Firefly Comic Art, So I Fixed Them.

BuffyNvrForgets

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I got the pleasure of spending some of my holiday break time finally reading my Firefly Comics, (Legacy edition, not Boom!.) Well, almost pleasure.

The story is kind of silly, and the characters are written terribly. That's a different discussion.

I've never Liked Georges Jeanty's art. He did most of season 8,9,10,11, and 12 for Buffy, and the latter half of the Firefly comics, including "Leaves on the Wind" and "No Power in the 'Verse".

Don't get me wrong, he's a great artist, and in any other random comic book he'd be great, but when you are drawing for a comic book series based on a television series, I expect you to at least try to capture the actor's likenesses. It helps with differentiating characters who might otherwise look alike, and just makes the reading experience better. Cliff Richards (Buffy) and Will Conrad (Firefly/Serenity) did this very well, but Jeanty did not. Zoe looks fine, most of the time, or Mal, but everyone else looks cartoony and dumb, all the girls looking the same. (It caused problems when Kaylee was portrayed wearing River's jumpsuit, and I had to take 5 minutes trying to figure out who I was acually looking at.)

So, what did I, a fellow artist, thoroughly annoyed, do? I got out my free drawing program and my stylus, and re did some panels.


Here is jeanty's artwork beside my redone artwork.
(Note, I just redid the faces. Again, he's a good artist, but he didn't capture the likenesses. I tried to.)

BUFFY:


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Here I simply redid Buffy's face to look more like Sarah Michelle Gellar. I immitated the colors, (I didn't spend too much time on it, so it is a bit sloppy) and put my version over the original background. I also traced his lineart and placed it next to my own for comparison. (The photo I traced from wasn't the highst quality, so it's not the best indicator of his art, but I did what I could)

FIREFLY:

I found River was the worst in the Firefly comics. Her signature style is gone, (more or less "boho" dresses and such) and instead she's dressed like an X wing Fighter pilot. Also, her hair is too short, and, while most of the other characters occasionally look like Jewel Staite, Sean Maher or Morena Baccarin, River never looks like Summer Glau.

So here is a selection of Redone River panels:


BWMtGUM.jpg



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Here I not only redid the original (with longer hair and a slightly more accurate face) I also did an alternate version in the corner where she is dressed more...River-like.


LpncbpL.jpg

Same here, I redid the original, and included an alternate version.



Anyways, this was theraputic for me. Hope you might appreciate it!
 
Good job! Jeanty's Buffy's face is too round and soft, whereas you added some evidence of cheekbones, which is definitely how her face was in the later seasons. I haven't seen Firefly, so can't comment on that, but I can see that you gave the character's face more definition there, too.
 
These are great! I like your style choices. Instead of the softness that kind of look blurry, you added depth and detail.
 
I like the extra forehead height you added to River. Your version of her receding chin line and almost oriental eyes are also closer to reality. You should send a copy to Joss and tell him he has a better illustrator available. Jeanty's style is easy to recognize because of the deviations from reality but your style is a lot better and your characters are a lot more recognizable. The first time I saw a Buffy comic, I couldn't tell Willow from Buffy the artwork was so bad. If you had been the artist, I might have given the comics a try.
 
BuffyNvrForgets
BuffyNvrForgets
Thank you!! I had a lot of fun, and I agree, the original artwork really detracted most of the time. At some point I’d love to try my hand at illustrating some sort or mini comic or something…see how I do…
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