i am not gonna lie and say that i was a huge fan of Turners work, in fact, i own very little books with Turners art inside, but i really do respect and appreciate what Mike brought to the world of comic books. i don't like Mike's line work, i don't like Mike's anatomy, i always thought he left too much to the colourist, i think the only thing Mike drew very well was still images of beautiful women, BUT i am of the minority. Mike Turner has influenced so many artist it's incredible. Top Cow's 'house style' of art used to be based around the Mark Silvestri look, but soon as the Witchblade comic book (co-created by Turner) took off, all of Top Cows (and a lot of others) shifted their look to try to look a little more like Mike Turner.
last year, at the Toronto Fan Expo (August 2007) i was checking out the stacks of original art on Turners table and was astounded to see just how many covers Mike had done recently for DC and Marvel comics. the stacks were all many inches thick. now to think that every time DC or Marvel put out a book with a Mike Turner cover it would increase sales on that book by the thousands. wow! that is a huge influence on mainstream comic books.
i've met Mike twice and seen him at almost every major convention that i've attended and he was always smiling and super nice, no matter how much pain he was in. last year at the Fan Expo, Turner was walking around in crutches but smiling the whole time. he had the biggest line up of the weekend and he couldn't have been happier to be there.
Whether i am a fan of his art or not, i realize that Michael Turner was this generations Jim Lee. it is truly a huge loss to our comic book world, and considering that we lost another super star in Mike Wieringo last year, i really do hope that this is a trend that does not continue.
Rest in peace , Mike.
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