Edward P. Beard, Jr. dropped as an artist for Magic.

[Yoshar]

In the past 48 hours, I have personally seen over 100 players at the Orlando, FL, Savior's Prerelease disagree. For those of you who have seen the new card Reki, the History of Kamigawa, this is the continued quality of work that they are removing from the game.

To show your support for Beard's work, either contact Wizards through email or their message boards. Inquest is also doing an article about this poor decision.

[Yoshar]

Wizards of the Coast has decided to no longer use Edward P. Beard, Jr. as an artist for the Magic: The Gathering card game. The reason - "The fans don't like his work."

The artist of famous cards like 4 of the Elder Dragon Legends as well as the infamous Ashnod's Coupon and Psychatog is being given the boot. They claim that this is a decision based on what the fans want.

[chaosof99]

Some other cards are 8th Edition Birds of Paradise, Darwin Castle, Urza Plow Under, Raven Familiar and Onslaughts Shock-a-Tog.

IMHO opinion a mid-range artist with some high profile cards. But relatively nice work.

[extremestan]

This decision is based on what I, a fan of Magic, want. His artwork is subpar in general.

[BTape]

At least he outclasses over half of the artists from Onslaught block. Not saying much, but I enjoy some of his work.

[VinnyB]

I don't see any particular reason to dislike his art - it's not great, but it's not awful, either. There are very few artists that I dislike outright; you can't be too picky with the necessary variety of art.

[Force of Phil]

I agree, extremestan, not the best stuff. I could definitely live without it.

[jroger]

Originally Posted by Yoshar

Wizards of the Coast has decided to no longer use Edward P. Beard, Jr. as an artist for the Magic: The Gathering card game. The reason - "The fans don't like his work."

The artist of famous cards like 4 of the Elder Dragon Legends as well as the infamous Ashnod's Coupon and Psychatog is being given the boot. They claim that this is a decision based on what the fans want.

Source?

[nan]

he is not one of my favorites but it makes me sad because I think his artwork is quite good

[cannon]

im more of a guay and rush fan. it isnt that i dont like his work, i just think that guay and rush are better "magic" artists

[norbert88]

Who really even cares about the art? All of the art looks basically the same, why should you be singling out one specific artist just because you think his art is subpar. Just look at Psychatog and you can see how awesome his work is.

norbert88

[Oddity]

Originally Posted by norbert88

Who really even cares about the art? All of the art looks basically the same, why should you be singling out one specific artist just because you think his art is subpar. Just look at Psychatog and you can see how awesome his work is.

norbert88

I have a feeling people think psychatog's art is awesome because the card is awesome. I wonder how many people would say psychatog's art is awesome if the card sucked.

[Gypsy]

There are, what, like 50+ contributing artists or the such? Many of them are on par or sub-par with Beard's work. In the last 5 years, I haven't heard a single person say, "My god is Artist-X's work terrible! I hope WotC cans him/her!" Now those first few years... well, just take a look at Reverse Polarity , Word of Command and Infernal Denizen. Ya. We've come a long way.

So, I take it that is it now WotC's policy to burn an artist at the stake every 2-3 years to draw attention to the art on the cards? I'm not expecting 600+ Mona Lisas every block. Geez.

I'ld love to see WotC's source for this as well. Where did they have the survey that stated, "Do you hate Ed Beard's work?"

[Tanthalas]

Originally posted by Oddity
I have a feeling people think psychatog's art is awesome because the card is awesome. I wonder how many people would say psychatog's art is awesome if the card sucked.

I got one in the first Odyssey booster I opened, and the first thing that jumped out at me about the card was how cool the art was.

Ed Beard isn't my favourite Magic artist, but I certainly don't think his work is bad enough (or indeed, that he's the worst current artist) that he deserves to be dropped.

EDIT: Gypsy, how could you miss out Giant Strength (the 4th Ed / Legends version). Truly awful.

[crmanriq]

Originally Posted by chaosof99

Some other cards are 8th Edition Birds of Paradise, Darwin Castle, Urza Plow Under, Raven Familiar and Onslaughts Shock-a-Tog.

IMHO opinion a mid-range artist with some high profile cards. But relatively nice work.

I would bet money that the "sub-par" is a smokescreen for something else.

I know Ed was NOT happy with the fact that Wizards changed the art on Birds of Paradise without even notifying him. Look at the difference between 7th edition and in 8th. The most obvious change is that the wingtips were blackened. This is not a color/contrast issue, as there is no black in the 7th edition tips. This was somebody specifically altering the art. My son had Beard sign an 8th birds at GenCon 2 years ago, and it was the first time he had seen the card (no proof sent), and he was ticked off about it.

Remember Wizards previously axed Rebecca Guay, then re-hired her. (I used to like her work, then noticed that every card she does basicly is a self portrait.) Given the widely varying quality of card art (remember Stasis?), sub-par is a b/s reason.