Wildstorm / DC Comics hired a new artist to pencil World of Warcraft # 20. His name is Pop Mhan who has worked for various companies such as Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Top Cow, Titan Books, Tokyopop, Dark Horse, and Hasbro—to name a few. Among his past work are Marvel Adventures Spider-man 8: Forces of Nature Digest, Batgirl: Destruction’s Daughter, Marvel Knights 2099, Outsiders 5: The Good Fight, Planet of the Apes, Robin: Unmasked!, and Spyboy.
Not many know, but I’m a frustrated artist graduate who never got to work on the field. However, I got a good eye to see awesome work by others. I don’t usually like to bash artists in public and prefer to keep my opinion to myself—but I have read some feedback on the recent World of Warcraft comic book art, and I have to agree it didn’t capture the WarCraft feeling. Close but no cigar. In short, fans criticized how Garrosh Hellscream looked like the Hulk on steroids—in issue # 18 (If I recall correctly). The WarCraft art shows characters with broad hands, but come on—The Hulk’s kind-of-hands is too exaggerated for an orc. And the bloated chest and shoulders in proportion with the head is definitely a turn off. That fits alright with an ogre, but not an orc.
Enter Pop Mhan, starting with issue # 20. The artist has provided to the public a sneak peek sketch from World of WarCraft # 20—and I can sincerely say it is awesome, and if he stays around long enough it will capture interest in veteran comic book readers, and new-coming WoW-players to this media.
Mhan’s sketch shows his maturity as an artist, the ability with depth and perspective. This sketch shows huge hands like The Hulk but it is proportionate and stylized. The inker has done an amazing job with his sketch with great detail and balance of light and shadow to complement Mhan’s artwork. Strangely, he is not credited on the solicitations. I would definitely want to see more of his work in the World of Warcraft ongoing series.
So far Mike Bowden and Ludo Lullabi have done a great work with the series. It would be hard for me to decide for one or the other. I enjoyed both runs.
I haven’t yet seen World of WarCraft # 20, so it is hard to review something blindly. Nevertheless, if a single image sample is worth a thousand words, Mahn has left me speechless and anxious to see more.
Well, unfortunately, it seems he only made this issue.
Let’s hope he returns somehow and, if he doesn’t, that better artists are in charge.
Let’s hope, too, Blizzard quits changing artists each issue; it’s just annoying.