The David Mack thread

Here's how I'd break him down. Since he's a painter by trade, when he does his art in color, he's almost complacent because he feels too comfortable in his native element. He's almost gotten to the point where he's the art equivalent of GYBE and their one-idea knock.

However, when Mack's had to stretch his abilities (as in the the first volume of Kabuki with the black & white inks), the layouts are generally more focused and interesting without being distracting. The parallels and echoes are clearer in Circle of Blood than the other volumes of Kabuki, strangely.

Similarly, the experimentation also spills over into his writing. The story in Circle of Blood actually reads tighter than his others for some reason even though it's considerably non-linear. The poeticism also is subtler, as is the art, almost as though because the b&w art uses the same printing ink as the words, they are in perfect harmony with each other, neither superordinate to the other. This balance gets strained in the later volumes, when prettiness gets foregrounded, his poeticism comes off as blunt, and his plots on the verge of becoming overwrought.

Hey Leeee - you know what happened to Mack's supposed Ultimate X-Men run? Last I heard, he was supposed to follow Bendis on the title, but now Brian K. Vaughn is slated to follow Mr. BMB, and then it's the Bryan Singer movie conglomerate.

BTW, your reading of Mack's work seems quite astute, tho I've only had limited exposure to his stuff. The early bits of Kabuki I read (maybe it was _Circle of Blood_?) was fantastic (in both the writing & art dept.), and worthy of all the superlatives bandied about. However, the Image mini I picked up (w/ Rick Mays art) seemed a bit obvious and overstated (and Mays' hyper-manga stylee wasn't my cup o' tea). And his recent Daredevil arc was way too poetic and complacent and static and ARTISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT and everything bad that could come from Mack's specific MO. It's a nice trick the first couple of times (cf. your OTM GYBE comparison), but it's still just one damn trick.

Checking his official board, there aren't any concrete details, just a number of conflicting rumors.