GETTING TO KNOW ASPEN’S MARCUS TO

[MattBrady]

<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/Aspen/marcus_to/marcus_to.html"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/Aspen/marcus_to/FAKI-01-nologo_t.jpg" Border="0" align=right></a> <i>by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean</i>

Who is Marcus To?

His name’s appeared in various Aspen MLT comics. In an edition of <i>Wizard: The Comics Magazine</i>, President of Aspen MLT and superstar comic book artist Michael Turner said To was like a “sponge” due to his ability to “soak up info well.” According to To, Marvel’s CB Cebulski actually signed him up to a work for hire for the House of Ideas before he joined Aspen but he decided to work for Aspen instead because “CB didn’t have any projects for me yet” at that time. One submissions editor by the name of Scott Elmer commented that his art style had a “nice Jimmy Cheung” feel.

Oh, and to ice hockey fans, he supports Canada’s Vancouver Canucks.

So, really, who is Marcus To?

Newsarama sat down with To to talk about his origin as a comic book artist, his work on the <b>Civil War</b> tie-in issues of <b>Black Panther</b>, the works that he’d done for Aspen, including <b>Fathom: Kiani</b>, which debuts at this coming weekend’s Wizard World: Los Angeles, and not forgetting the webcomics for that currently hot TV series called <i>Heroes</i>...

Click <a href=http://www.newsarama.com/Aspen/marcus_to/marcus_to.html>here</a> for the full story...

[Speedball93]

1st Post!!

This guy will be a big time artist in the next few years. I see him hitting all the icons.

[Ye Olde Iowa]

I'm really digging what I'm seeing here. Those issues of Black Panther were alway sold out at my LCS, so this is the first I've really seen of the interiors and they look really slick and I can't wait to see them in greater detail when the trade drops. To's style definitely fits in with the other Aspen artists, but you can also see influences of other artists like Jim Lee and Joe Mad in there. I've never read any of the Fathom stuff, so it'll be hard for me to pick up the Kiani miniseries, but I'm still really impressed. I look forward to seeing more of To's art in the future.

Plus, at the very least, he is a fellow Canucks fan, so I can't fault him there!

[fjm]

I've been fortunate enough to have seen Marcus' growth. From the first time I saw his work at Aspen to where he is now his art has done more than leaps and bounds.

[Mrsupertight]

I was hoping that he was a marvel artist. I guess I won't be see his work anytime soon.

[Del Gorky]

It sad to see another artist who has very weak page construction and storytelling skills. He seems though to make sure each page has a real beauty shot though so that he can resell each one for more money. Unlike other posters, I actually have the Black Panther issue in question and it's frankly pretty hard to follow due to the way the art is arranged on the page and the fact that one panel doesn't follow from the previous panels very well. This stuff is barely advanced above the pin-up stage. I hope this isn't the next big thing.

Studying Joe Kubert's Sequential Art is a good thing.

[MR2525]

I love Marcus To! His art is simply amazing. Kiani looks really cool. Great pencils, great colors, great characters. I like To's Black Panther sequences better than what I saw in Civil War #7 !!! Great job dude :D

[PoisonElf]

It sad to see another artist who has very weak page construction and storytelling skills. He seems though to make sure each page has a real beauty shot though so that he can resell each one for more money. Unlike other posters, I actually have the Black Panther issue in question and it's frankly pretty hard to follow due to the way the art is arranged on the page and the fact that one panel doesn't follow from the previous panels very well. This stuff is barely advanced above the pin-up stage. I hope this isn't the next big thing.

Studying Joe Kubert's Sequential Art is a good thing.
As someone who has graduated from the Kubert School, I have to say that Marcus has fine storytelling.
In fact, one of the things they taught us there is to have a "money shot" panel on each page if possible.

I think his stuff is really great. Along with Micah, Aspen's got some nice up and coming talent there.

[M. Herbert]

It sad to see another artist who has very weak page construction and storytelling skills. He seems though to make sure each page has a real beauty shot though so that he can resell each one for more money. Unlike other posters, I actually have the Black Panther issue in question and it's frankly pretty hard to follow due to the way the art is arranged on the page and the fact that one panel doesn't follow from the previous panels very well. This stuff is barely advanced above the pin-up stage. I hope this isn't the next big thing.

Studying Joe Kubert's Sequential Art is a good thing.

I liked the art. I thought it flowed nicely. I'm a fan of "breaking panels" in comics, I don't like when everything is saparated into an indivdual panel (that happened a lot in the latest issue of AXM, for example). That said, maybe the script that Marcus had to follow wasn't all that great, just pure speculation though.

[ERoy]

I think, speaking strictly as a fan, I very much enjoy his art. He has that "money shot" as was mentioned earlier on most of his panels, but he still does an excellent job of storytelling. I'll be continuing to pick up his work.

[STL]

Is it me or do the pencils look much much better than the coloured artwork? I say this being a normally a big fan of coloured work. Generally can't get into B & W.