How George Perez's Changing Art Style Became a Teen Titans Plot Point

[caj]

Some of us were discussing this a few months ago in another thread, but CBR just printed a story about it. I always found this fascinating how something that seemed planned and deliberate was actually done coincidental and without really thinking about it.

The link below actually shows the artwork transformation:

https://www.cbr.com/teen-titans-geor...-style-trigon/

The iconic comic book superstar, George Perez, was already a star when he launched the New Teen Titans with Marv Wolfman and Romeo Tanghal in 1980, but he was still evolving as an artist.

It would not be until the fourth issue that Ravens' face was finally revealed. However, over time, Perez began to alter his art style and he started to draw characters a bit...perhaps realistically is not the right word, but he definitely started giving everyone in the book a lot more character in their faces.

Well, a reader wrote in and asked if they were now deliberately making Raven look more demonic. That was not the case, but when Perez and Wolfman saw the letter, it made them think, "Hey, yeah, let's do that!"

Perez explained it to Andy Mangels in Comics Interview #50, "When we received a letter from someone saying “Hey, you know, I’ve noticed that the face has been changing, you’re making her look almost demonic, was that deliberate?” It wasn’t, then, but it became that way from that point on! (Laughter.) That’s when we decided to use that scene inside TITANS #1, based on that one letter. It started as something I was doing because I was adapting my style. Then I suddenly decided to use a story element."

The face was changed, but it wasn’t because George Perez style was changing, it was because it was a deliberate change. So it was an accidental deliberate change. Over the next year or so, Perez would then slowly make Ravens' face more and more gaunt. Finally, in the new (Baxter) volume of New Teen Titans #1, the plot point was written specifically into the comic book. And Raven's transition into the daughter of Trigon was complete in the following issue!

[Jim Kelly]

This seems to skirt over the importance of Romeo Tanghal's ink work and DC's production capabilities. A penciller could pencil the whole Sistine Chapel on a page, but just how much of that would come through on a newsprint page depended on the inker (how much of those pencils did he render in black ink) and on the production (how much of the inks were able to be printed on a newsprint using the letter presses at the time). Since Tanghal was also developing as an inker (and probably getting feedback from George), how he inked the pencils may have changed. And this was the time when DC was really doing a lot of experimentation with their production. Once TITANS became a deluxe format comic on Baxter paper with offset printing, there was a lot more detail that you could get on a page. In the late 1970s, inkers had to use very thick ink lines (relatively speaking), because the plastic presses would not print thin lines. Inkers were constantly having to adjust their style to fit the technology.

[Tzigone]

The face was changed, but it wasn’t because George Perez style was changing, it was because it was a deliberate change. So it was an accidental deliberate change. Over the next year or so, Perez would then slowly make Ravens' face more and more gaunt. Finally, in the new (Baxter) volume of New Teen Titans #1, the plot point was written specifically into the comic book. And Raven's transition into the daughter of Trigon was complete in the following issue!

I preferred her earlier look, but it was just sort of insane to me when they said in dialog that a skinny face and changed hair line made one look evil - talk about judging by appearances! The idea that facial features indicate evil - it puts me to a mind of an earlier era - of phrenology or of facial traits indicating personality traits. Of gap-toothed indicating one's oversexed . Or, more recently, of zodiac signs or blood type giving information on personality. I just think it's all ridiculous, but the wording on this one was just so direct about it, I sort of laughed at the absurdity. Though, of course, I know we have cultural norms of what "evil" looks like.

[kjn]

Cool article! It really shows the way that storytelling can happen as an iterative and feedback-driven process, and how little details can be picked up on after the fact and made into important plot points. Stories are not designed, but rather built and sometimes even discovered.

Though I jumped a bit when I came to the frame where Cyborg called Raven "the witch". It struck me as no way to talk about a team mate. It said Cyborg was driven not by concern for a friend but by prejudice against her.

[Tzigone]

Though I jumped a bit when I came to the frame where Cyborg called Raven "the witch". It struck me as no way to talk about a team mate. It said Cyborg was driven not by concern for a friend but by prejudice against her.

Actually, he used that as nickname for her for a while. I think even back when he was the one advocating for her when Wally didn't want to help, early on. Though Wally had good reason not to want to be involved with at that time, since she had used her abilities to manipulate his emotions and make him think he was in love with her - I mean, she did it to save the world, but I can understand that leaving a sour taste in one's mouth.

[Lee Stone]

Actually, he used that as nickname for her for a while. I think even back when he was the one advocating for her when Wally didn't want to help, early on. Though Wally had good reason not to want to be involved with at that time, since she had used her abilities to manipulate his emotions and make him think he was in love with her - I mean, she did it to save the world, but I can understand that leaving a sour taste in one's mouth.

Yeah, nicknames were common for the team, IIRC.

Here's some info from The New Titans Sourcebook put out by Mayfair Games in 1990, which mentions Cyborg's nickname for Raven.

[DrNewGod]

...Though I jumped a bit when I came to the frame where Cyborg called Raven "the witch". It struck me as no way to talk about a team mate. It said Cyborg was driven not by concern for a friend but by prejudice against her.

I always took that in two ways:

1. Two white dudes were trying translate African-American tuff-talk.
2. Cyborg had a lot of anger to work out (ala The Thing, Wolfman has said he was aping Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four in NTT) and it showed up in his smack-talk

It might be disrespectful, but I think there was a purpose to it.

[kjn]

Thanks for the added context!

I can certainly understand if Wolfman and Pérez tried to use the nickname in a non-derogatory way; all I can say is that used in isolation right here in this panel it fell flat and felt duhumanising. A large contributing factor was the Cyborg said "the witch's" instead of "witch's". Nicknames—or names in general—usually don't get articles, and I think Cyborg's pose didn't help.

[kcekada]

It wasn't just the faces that were narrower. He was drawing the characters, especially the females -- much curvier when Titans debuted. He then changes to a leaner 80s look (maybe the 80s fitness craze had something to do with this.). The change is very evident in the Black Widow issues of Marvel Fanfare -- where the interior work was drawn by Perez in the late 70s -- and feature a very zaftig Black Widow. But on the cover -- which he drew early 80s -- she was much leaner.

[caj]

I just remember being completely creeped out when I saw her slow transformation in the Baxter #1 issue. I just knew that something sinister was happening to Raven and I dreaded it.

Then #2 came out and WOW!!!