It's funny because I pointed out how last time the cover he chose and didn't actually draw for Strange Tales was terrible. He chose that image from one of the comics in the anthology and blew it up? It doesn't really capture all the different stories by different artists.
The Bat-Manga book cover isn't that great either. What I come away with from the lecture is the man's ego. He doesn't draw the art he picks images and goes to photoshop. Once again that's why I wish I had his job. I like the Superman cover btw, don't like the awful animated version, though.
He also makes fun of DC who employed him to do the lettering for the logos on the tiles he mocks. This is from the Super Punch article again. "The thing that you need to know about the staff at DC Comics . . . is that they are all to one, overgrown 15-year-olds, mostly men, who breathe through their mouths, and are crazy, and have no taste." Hmmmm, thats pretty much the audience if your going to be realistic. DC don't hire him again if he's going to talk big after things get made.
I just want to go back and state that I think Chip Kidd is a prick. Someone else can easily do his job, which is primarily taking other people's art and putting it into photoshop. On the subject of The Bat Manga he didn't credit the original creator Jiro Kuwata on the cover or spine of the book. Chip has explained that he brought the resources of the book over, but mainly the book is just Jiro Kuwata's manga. Chip explains that there's already more manga he's collected to do a Bat-Manga 2, hopefully he'll have learned to credit the original creator who gave substance to his book by putting his name on the cover instead of his. I'm sure Chip will want his name on the cover, though. If Jiro Kuwata's name isn't on the cover, I'll start a petition to Pantheon the publisher asking for it. I do own the book and I think his manga is excellent and captures the Batman from back then. Not crediting him on the cover
Here's the comments from Super Punch on Chipp. There very negative.
Update: Here's another great little discussion on Kidd's lecture by Bleeding Cool . They don't like what Chip has to say either.
I'm also sad to read how Kevin Tong likes him. I interviewed this up and coming artist and he really has talent and determination, plus he actually does work and doesn't just take images from others and enlarge them. So it's really hard to understand why Kevin likes his work.
