Yesterday, TGB posted his strong dislike for the art in Booster Gold #34 on his blog, The Greatest Blog Youve Never Heard Of. His opinion is reflective of that posted earlier on the livejournal blog of erin_starlight, erin-starlight.

All of this outcry has to raise the question: how strong a role does art style play in the success of Booster Gold? Traditionally all super hero comics have been presented in naturalistic detail, and Booster Gold is no exception. Is Giffen's use of caricature such a dramatic departure from the norm as to be offensive to his audience? Or is it just too hard to maintain suspension of disbelief for a costumed melodrama when the adventures are rendered in a cartoonish style? Art appreciation is almost entirely subjective to the viewer, and I suspect that the discord that Giffen has struck in his audience has more to do with expectations than anything else.

These harsh criticisms put me in mind of much, much worse comic book art from the DC Brazilian Explosion of the mid 1990s. (Andrew Prenger just reviewed Extreme Justice on his blogspot blog, Booster Gold Fan Club. That, ladies and gentlemen, was bad art.) But maybe it was a style that was more palatable for its genre than what is found in Booster Gold #34.

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