I don't get the use of these type of threads: Art is subjective. Some people like some things, other people like others. And that's fine. Don't feel the need to like something because others do.

We can't make you suddenly like Allred's art. There is nothing to get, it's a pop-art, brightly coloured artstyle and it is different than others. That's why some people like it and other's don't.

His figures are stiff and they all have dead eyes.

While I agree with the folks saying "you like what you like" I have to say I don't care for his art either. It just looks off to me, like it's in some kind of uncanny valley, not just between realistic and cartoonish, but also good and bad, and I can't decide which it is. It gives me a weird, uncomfortable feeling.

I was thinking the same thing about the first example, I looked at it with out scrolling down(and I admit without fully reading the post) and I thought, "Oh man, if that's what Allred's gone with for Superman: Spaceage I completely get the complaint...that's so horribly generic!" And then I was shocked more when that was supposed to be the example of something better than Allred.

That's precisely why I love Allred's art, like Bruce Timm, Chris Samnee, Darwyn Cooke and Mike Mignola, there is a definite Toth inspired look to Allred's art that really makes his work shine in my eyes.

I am on the fence with Allred. I like some of it and not others. He is a good storyteller and is able to convey a lot through body language and facial expression A skill a lot of super-hero artists lack).

I did not like the first piece (it looks like all the heroes ate peppers way too high on the Scoville scale and are suffering the aftereffects of it while they pose to look like they are answering a call to action). Putting it in the legacy of artists like Neal Adams evokes the same feeling I got form all those writers in the 90s who tried to write like Alan Moore-the took all the wrong lessons from Moore's work and had nowhere near the talent and the result were grotesque works that looked and read more like parodies of Moore's work than following in his wake. That piece to me looks much the same to me, someone who took all the wrong lessons form Adams style and produces work that seems a grotesque parody of it rather than an outgrowth from it.

Adams developed his own style in the context of what worked commercially. A lot who follow imitate Adams to varying degrees of success to be commercially successful but they skipped the step of developing their own style. Allred has done that, but his motivations seem to be other than following the trends. He did not imitate Adams style, but emulated his journey to find his own style and place within the industry. And I may not be a huge fan of everything he does, I respect he is finding his own way not trying to find a place in the industry aping someone else's success.

-M

Though the top artist unquestionably has talent, it also draws a little too much attention to details which doesn't do him any favors.  Why do Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman all have that same furrow browed/wide opened mouth expression on their faces?  Is this something they've practiced during fight training?  Where are they? Seems like they're leaping from out of an explosion into space, but why does each hero seem to have their own light source behind them?  Batman's behind Superman's light source, Aquaman's behind Cyborg's, Aquaman's in front of Mera's, and so forth.  Why are they so uncoordinated?  None of them seem focused on the same adversary.  Why is Superman wearing armour and what's with all the unnecessary lines on their costumes? There's also nothing about each character which makes me go "THAT's how Superman/Batman/etc. should look!  PERFECT!" I mean, you can delineate every muscle but not remember that Superman's supposed to have a spit-curl? Why does this artwork make me ask so many boring questions?

With Allred however, I can tell that's Superman just from the cocked eyebrow and calm demeanor.  Allred could have just drawn him from the neck up and I would have recognized him.  How?  Because a character holding the Earth as it's being ripped apart without resorting to an expression of panic or "NOOOOOOO!" could only be someone with such intelligence and experience that such an event would be a mystery to be explored rather than a "Time to clench my jaw and tense my muscles" moment.  There are certain little things artists can do - short-hands, I suppose though I don't mean this derogatorily - that I don't think the audience realizes are having an effect upon them.  "Wait - you mean so long as the artist draws a little 'S' over Superman's forward, he's just earned points with you?"  Well... yeah.  It's iconic, but so is the way that Allred places Superman's emblem almost in the center of his panel below (the one with Supes walking towards the viewer) with the calm, relaxed, but perfectly postured gait, and squinty eyes - the eyes sees that iconic emblem, that naturally relaxed nature despite the comet storm behind him (because, as Grant Morrison once noted, Superman shouldn't have to puff out his chest all the time to suggest power - he's Superman, he could sit on a cloud, with his knee tucked under his arm, and you'd still know you're in the presence of greatness), the way he seems settled even though the ice planet around him seems to shake (what with the ice chunks breaking off to the viewer's left), that tells you, "This could only be Superman".

Allred's art makes me ask questions, too - "What is Clark Kent perturbed by in that panel on the left?  What does Pariah seem sad but resigned to? Just what does that cocked eyebrow suggest Superman has already figured out about the threat to Earth and what is still trying to deduce?"  Interesting questions.

And frankly, the art pops!  His male faces are a little too pretty for my liking - I think it's the lips - but I'd frame Allred's work there and put it on my wall whereas if I did that with the guy above I imagine I'd soon forget it was there. 

Not entirely fair that the above artist put a lot of thought into "How would Superman's emblem look from a less common angle than 'dead-on'?  How would it reflect light if it were metal?" (and I do appreciate that) whereas Allred seems to have just placed a pre-existing sticker of the emblem onto his artwork for his piece, but the difference is that Allred seems more concerned with storymanship whereas the other guy is just a little too showy.  

No doubt that the above guy doesn't have a lot of strengths - I just don't think they're all in the right place.  Allred seems to know precisely where the reader's eye will fall though making him feel like he's on my side (and Superman's). 

Ivan Reis can do good work...just not in the image you provided. I much prefer how his art looked in last year's Batman/Superman for instance:


Or anything from his recent stint on Detective Comics. He's great in anything but big splash pages like you posted actually, when he goes for that it just looks way too flat and static but then again I think Perez is really the only artist who's really ever made that kind of image work.