During almost the first full decade of Bongo's life, the editors were fairly strict about the look and feel of the comics in general. This included the characters being on model throughout every story, as well as consistent inking.
It is noticeable that at around issue #70 things began to change with Simpsons Comics. One could argue that this could be attributed to the launch of Futurama and Bart Simpson Comics in late 2000, since that would obviously use even more manpower and worktime to get all the books out on schedule. However, it is really no excuse when it is especially the art that began the decline of Simpsons Comics.
2001 saw the hiring of John Costanza, an apparent newbie to drawing the Simpsons. And it showed. While his first issue "The Yes-Man Who Would Be King" in Simpsons #56 was actually among his best work, it was clearly a fluke since his next two efforts ("Greek To Me", Simpsons #70 and "Laughter is the Worst Medicine", Simpsons #74) were mediocre at best. Bongo appeared not to care about the quality of Costanza's work, and even broke their silent decade-long rule of using only traditional inks when they hired Mike DeCarlo as Phil Ortiz's inker (Ortiz's former inker, Tim Bavington, left in 2002). DeCarlo's work was criticised, since he used a "calligraphy-style" brush that resulted in random lines suddenly becoming thicker and thinner (see "3000's Company", Simpsons #91, for a great example of this). Fortunately DeCarlo's style has now softened, and while he uses the same style inks the thicker lines are not so noticeable.
While the Ortiz and DeCarlo team were pretty much a match made in heaven, Costanza's work was becoming a living hell. His inkers would change nearly every issue, alternating between long-time Bongo artist Steve Steere, Jr., Phyllis Novin and strangely even Mike DeCarlo who was responsible for inking his work between issues #104 and #110 (during this period, Phyllis Novin inked most of Ortiz's work which resulted in incredibly thick lines as members from the No Homers Club would soon refer to as "the force fields"). No matter who was assigned to complete Costanza's work, the result was always the same: off model characters with poorly drawn backgrounds. It wasn't until 2006, an amazing FIVE years after Costanza's first Simpsons work was published, that he finally appeared to have his first perfect stories; "The Flunky!" in Simpsons #119 and "Baby Got Back (At Burns)" in Bart #32. His work over the last year has dramatically improved compared to his early work (and Simpsons Comics in general have had an enormous ascent in terms of overall quality). Simpsons #129 saw his success come to a grinding halt when readers were subjected to 27 pages of an off-model Homer riding around Springfield in a scooter that was drawn far too small for him, and appeared so thin that even Lisa could snap it if she sat on it.
You may be thinking that this entire piece is practically a rant on the flaws of John Costanza's artwork...well, you're right. It just really horrifies me that Bongo has so many great and underused artists such as Jason Ho and Mike Rote, that have obvious talent, yet they opt to use Costanza in all his offmodel glory (really, would it hurt him to learn to draw the characters? Especially when they're supposed to be walking?).
Simpsons #92 was actually the first comic in which I thought to myself "hey, wait a second...eyelashes aren't supposed to be on the SIDES OF THE EYES!". And surprise, surprise, it was drawn by Costanza. My life as a Simpsons Comics art critic had begun.
Summing up Costanza's work in a humorous tone
"Lisa must only ever be drawn with eight spikes. Uh oh, I've drawn all eight and yet there's enough room for two more spikes! I don't want to waste time by erasing them and drawing them bigger, so I'll just draw this line that goes into the back of her ear!"
"Hahaha, I drew Bart and it looks like his eye is about to fall out of his face. I know it doesn't look right, but it made me laugh...so in it stays."
"Oops...I forgot to draw the base of the lampshade. And the side of the couch is diagonal. Oh well, it means I have more pencil to make Marge's hair bigger than it should be!"
"Is it Mr. Burns that has the teeth that make him look evil? Nah, I didn't draw them last week so it can't be him..."
"I'm so unoriginal that I'm going to base the orphanage manager on my dream idol...Comic Book Guy!"
Summing up Costanza's work in an editorial tone
He certainely has his flaws, and there's no one that can make an excuse for that. Even though his last few efforts have pretty much succeeded as far as possible for him, Costanza has a pretty bad track record for Simpsons Comics. Like mentioned above, it really seems that he has never simply practiced how to draw the characters properly. The new Simpsons Handbook (end shameless plug) shows that an easy way to draw the characters is to use a range of circles and squares to build up an outline of them; for Costanza it seems that he just starts drawing from a certain point, and uses no assistance in order to make his work look on model (for an actual example of Lisa's hair not "ending" properly, see Simpsons #104 and #106).
Bongo should also take the time to be responsible and get artists to redo work if it looks as insufficient as a lot of Costanza's early work does. Now, I've worked myself into a corner and cannot think of a reasonable conclusion. In the spirit of Costanza; "oh well, I'll just end it anyway".
Ivan
July 10th 2007
