DC Comic Book Art Connoisseurs, gather round the virtual campfire as we reflect on the Wonder Woman Comic Book Art of the 1990s! With the availability January 22nd of the animated mythic spectacle known as Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, for the next three weeks of a cold winter please join us as we share and discuss!
We of course leave such matters as “plot”, “continuity” and “character development” to the other clubs to consider, but here, here in the private lobby of the DC Comic Book Art Connoisseurs Club, we are committed to diving into the artistic high water marks of the WW 1990s reader experience!
All the '90s WW I’ve read is from '90-‘92, so I haven’t seen most of these artists’ interiors, but as to covers:
Mike Deodato’s art certainly… exists. Seriously, humans are not shaped like that.
Brian Bolland’s art has nice detail, but looks kinda stiff somehow.
Adam Hughes is good, though on his covers I think the colors actually make it pop more than the pencils would on their own.
John Byrne is a great artist. He’s not quite as good as George Perez and I’ve heard that Byrne’s writing was weaker here than on his Superman run (which I liked, at least on average), but he can certainly draw very well. I liked that closeup cover from the “Faces of DC” cover gimmick that somebody posted in the Stark, Single-Color Backgrounds thread.
Chris Marrinan’s work early in the decade is pretty solid.
I’m not much of a fan of Jill Thompson’s style, but she was on the book through much of the end of George Perez’s run and well into William Messner-Loebs’ before Deodato took over (not sure if there was anybody in between).
While he’d stopped doing the interior art in '89, Perez was still doing the covers for most of his run, and as usual for him, they’re incredible. So if Brian Bolland (who also only did covers) counts, then I’m naming Perez as my favorite.
Thanks @JeepersItsTheJamags for an engaging retrospective of Wonder Woman art in the 90s! George Perez did indeed do some covers in the 90s and even some later than the one you show here, so you certainly can point him out as your favorite!
Concerning Deodato, personally I’m more of a fan of what he did in the decades following.
@Meisaj , I enjoy him on group team books like Dark Avengers, etc. Here’s some examples of his later stuff. I like the emotion he displays for his characters, it’s a unique take that I find engaging while reading the comics.
Here’s some Wonder Woman art of the 90s that wasn’t in Wonder Woman but rather in JLA, one of the watermark highs of the 90s as far as series and concept go.
Lots to cover with JLA Wonder Woman illustrations, but it seems appropriate to look at issue 48 that features the battle with Queen of Fables!
@msgtv Wow that Wonder Woman #72 cover does a wonderful job of helping us get the sense of Wonder Woman with her ancient Greek lore background. Now that I think about it, I wonder if she’s supposed to look like she’s from Greece?
Hughes has such a unique style, we’ll allow one from 2000, lol!
The Nail. Are,out in the 90s and Alan Davis got to draw half the DC universe. There’s really not a ton of Wonder Woman action, but I do like his design for her.
So, Benes gets a little less '90s looking later on. I was reading his and Simone’s BoP when they came out. Definitely still larger than life (and more shapely) but the super long limbs kind of goes away
