As the title implies, this is about who are your favorite artists whetther it’s someone from DC, Marvel, Image or independents.
As for my favorites here’s some:
Alex Ross: The man can do no wrong. Kingdom Come is possibly my favorite DC story ever. JLA art
To me it’s so iconic which suits DC characters perfectly
other art: more JLA, Kingdom Come more KC
Mike Weiringo - IMO, the BEST Spiderman artist out there.
Todd Nauck - Enjoyed his run on Spidey as well, but great wor kon Young Justice
Joe Madd - Was the shit back then…made Xmen raw.
Humberto Ramos - I liked his earlier style (Impulse) much better.
Ed McGuiness - THE BEST SUPERMAN ARTIST Out there!!!
Alex Ross - Legendary in our generation…
Joe Schuster is, hands down, the greatest Superman artist of all time. Sure, his version of the costume looks a little funky and primitive by today’s standards, but the way he drew the character–big but not like a body builder, and with a tough guy grin on his squinting face–is the standard that all other versions ought to be measured against.
Neal Adams defined the look of the Batman for an entire generation. His drawings managed to express the same level of complexity and emotion as flesh and blood actors, yet they were still firmly in keeping with the comic book tradition. What Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore did for the quality of scripting in comics, Neal Adams did for the quality of the artwork.
Speaking of Batman, I’m going to have to throw in Bruce Timm for good measure. He took the visual design of Batman down to its most essential characteristics, and still managed to capture all of the things that make Batman great. He then proceeded to do much the same with just about every other major character (and a boatload of minor ones) in the DCU.
Frank Miller’s Sin City series could be used as a text book on how to appropriately shade magnificent two-tone images. It is astonishing how much detail, atmosphere, and mood he is able to convey through such a simple palette.
Jim Steranko was one of the few guys to wildy experiment with format, long after most of the conventions and cliches of mainstream comics were established. He pushed the medium just about as far as it could go while still being recognized as comics.
But I’d have to say that my all-time favorite comics artist is probably Will Eisner. It’s too easy to point out that most of visual vocabulary of modern comics was invented by him, or that he was one of the first guys to promote comics as legitimate literature. His drawings are downright beautiful. His characters have the emotional realism of Neal Adams and his cityscapes are like Jack Kirby on steroids. To top it off, he was never content to stop experimenting with format. Just look back at the stuff he was doing in the 40s… he was laying groundwork for decades of artists to follow. Way ahead of his time. I cannot think of any other artist who was in the business from the beginning and continues to have the same level of relevance as Eisner does today.
Jim Lee
Alex Ross
Marc Silvestri
Arthur Adams
Alan Davis
Chris Bachalo
Humberto Ramos
Todd Nuack
Alvin Lee
Arnold Tsang
Steve Ditko
Joe Mad
John Romita Jr.
John Romita Sr.
Adam Kubert
Andy Kubert
Frank Cho
Leinel Francis Yu
George Perez
Adam Warren
Frank Perry
Ben Dunn
Omar Dogan
Lesean Thomas
Dave Cockrum (RIP)
And some other people I’m forgetting right now…
If I had to pick a favorite I guess it would be Jim Lee since to me both himself and Todd McFarlane really turned the industry around and changed everything artwise IMHO. McFarlane I don’t list as a favorite because his anatomy is kind of off for my tastes but he does/did have his moments.
In no particular order, and by no means all of them.
Karl Moline (Loners, Route 666, Fray)
David Nakayama (Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, MA: Hulk, City of Heros, Proximity Effect)
Adrian Alphona (Runaways)
Chris Bachalo (X-Men, Gen X, Witching Hour, Death THCL/TYL)
Leinil Yu (New Avengers, Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine)
Francis Manapul (Iron and the Maiden, Necromancer, Witchblade)
john romita Jr–Im biased b/c the spiderman comic i read was drawn by him AND was the debut of the Hobgoblin. Hes one of the few artists who evolved a lot . in the 80’s he used to be simila rot his dad , then became somehwat gritty (man w/o fear 90s spidey), and then and in the 200s added some more cartoony/offbeat elemtns to his work.
Jim Lee-Yes, even a wino looks like a supermodel drawn by him. But to me he draws great detail, clean cut style especially for big superhero teams.
Dave Cockrum- came up witht the designs for alot of the 70s new xmen , nightcrawler. Defined the shiar, space opera and made it cool. His legion stuff was good, but im not that familiar w/it.
Mark Bagley- the licensed face of Spiderman and one of the few spid artists who captures the aerodynamic/sleek nature of spider-man. Only reason i kept up with amazing thru the horrid clone saga.
Salvador LArroca- a personal one for me i loved his xtreme xmen stuff a lot.
Jim aparo- What , u thought id list only marvel centric artists? He drew Batman in the late 80s/early 90’s. His joker imo is one of the best imo.
tom grummett- one of my fav Dc peniclers from the limited DC stuff ive read
Wow, some great post so far. Great choices all around.
Someone else’s work that I love is George Perez, man can he draw. The first Crisis, his runs in Teen Titans and Avengers are legendary. The detail he puts in is amazingJLA/Avengers, Wonder Woman,FF, Superman,Green Lantern and Batman
Alex Ross(C’mon KC? Marvels?)
Joe Mad (Looking foward to Ultimates 3)
Jim Lee
Humberto Ramos
John Romita Sr.
John Romita Jr.
Alvin Lee
Scott McDaniel(Loved him on Nightwing, always will)
David Finch(He just got better after Top Cow IMHO)
Mark Bagley(I’m gonna miss him on USM!)
Ryan Ottley(Invincible rules!)
George Perez
John Cassaday
Brian Hitch
Joe Kubert
Andy Kubert
Adam Kubert
Ed McGuiness
Frank Quitely
Phil Hester
Mike McKone (Teen Titans, Exiles)
Phil Jimenez
George Perez
Riccardo Burchielli(DMZ, amazing art man)
Ethan Van Sciver(Green Lantern)
Ross isn’t bad, but his work is suited towards promotional images. When he works on actual series, his artwork tends to impede the fuck out of the storytelling. McFarlane, however, is lame, and gave rise to a trend of bad 90s artists who placed masturbatory style over substance (cough cough Liefeld cough).
I also think Jim Lee is overrated. His artwork looks very impressive at first glance, but ultimately doesn’t say much about the characters he’s drawing. Remember that the number one purpose of art in comics isn’t to look pretty, it’s to tell the story.
/agree on Jim Lee. I used to love the guy (the first thing I ever traced was his Magneto cover on Xmen #1), but he really tainted Batman for me in Hush. Good point with Ross as well, he is a little weak panel frame-wise, but he’s just too powerful with his single/double page spreads, which often times equate to several pages of panel storytelling anyway.
And while it seems like hating on McFarlane is the cool thing to do these days, the guy is fucking leet, no questions about it. Often imitated, but never duplicated, he revolutionized the way Spidey was drawn (big eye spidey mask), not to mention creating Venom. Image Comics was built largely on the strength of his name and artistic ability alone, the guy is a household name for a reason; give him his dues.
and my favorites of all time:
Joe Mad: (despite being an unreliable, petulant, and indecisive noob about his work)
Chris Bachalo: who’s come SO far since he started with Sandman, and has imo, the best mainstream style in comics today
Humberto Ramos: even though I liked his earlier Crimson stuff more, his over-the-top style mixed with brilliant creativity makes for eye candy all the time.
Alex Ross: god tier spreads; he’s like the Michelangelo of comics.
Charles Vess (i think): The guy who illustrated The Wake arc in Sandman… Too damn good.
Mike Mignola
I’m more of a writers guy. I like a plethora of artists but it really depends on the project. There aren’t any books I pick up just because of the art. Having said that, I think Frank Quietly is great in just about everything, as is Darick Roberston. Ron Lim is my boy from back in the day, and Burchielli is killing it on DMZ.
I tend to not like artists that work too much from photos, like Alex Ross or Greg Land, the exception being Maleev who I thought was perfect for the daredevil stuff.
I was also a fan of Erik Larsen’s Spider-Man and JRJR’s Iron Man.
And of course, I dont even have to mention the masters Matt Wagner and Mr. Lapham.
Joe Mad
It was his art that first captivated me and got me into comics when I was younger. It was the cover of an Astonishing X-Men(AoA) comic that pulled me in. Rogue was standing in the middle, profile-style, clenching her fist. Behind her was her X-Men, most notably AoA Sunfire(even to this day I curse Marvel for not using that design for 616 Sunfire). PSM was awesome back when he was the cover artist. And I loved how every character had razor sharp teeth when they were pissed.
Actually they’ve made the AoA Sunfire the current look for him in the regular Marvel Universe. (after Apocolypse made him a 4 horseman)
He’s on the Ramos cover of X-Men 200 to be exact.
Michael Zulli is actually the artist of The Wake.
Charles Vess is well known for his covers on The Books of Magic series.
Yeah, I still love Ross’ work but I agree about his inflated ego. He has this need of presenting as they were in the Silver Age(SuperFriends). Same thing goes for John Bryne I enjoyed his FF run but his persona sucks ass.
I can’t stand Bachalo’s work now. It looks like a mess IMO. BUt I did enjoy those Death books he did.
That’s cool about AoA sunfire’s design, I always thought it was badass as well… it’s one of the better character designs from that story arc that’s withstood the test of time so far. Too bad the xmen series is so convoluted with garbage that it’s like digging through a 30 foot mound of doodoo to find little gems here and there. The only reason i want anything to do with xmen these days is bachalo’s art… Anyone know exactly when his run started and is going to end?
edit: 4play, are you talking about the ultimate marvel xmen bachalo stuff? i have #19 and yea, it is pretty chaotic. i’m not sure if he consciously pencilled it like that because of the content (crazy reality-warping Legion fucking everything up), or if it was the inker. speaking of inkers… can somebody please explain what good inking is, examples of good inkers and their impact on seminal works of comic book lore?
