My favs include:
Jim Lee
Marc Silvestri
Alvin Lee
Frank Miller
Steve McNiven
Olivier Copiel
Adam Hughes
Ed Benes
Mike McKeone
Andy and Adam Kubert
Jo Chen( not a regular penciler, but her art for covers are AWESOME!!)
Omar Dogan
Terry Dodson
Leinil Yu
Michael Turner
Frank Quietly
Francis Manupaul
Dale Keown
Joe Benitez
…I think I should stop now. This list can go on for days lololol
Geoff Darrow’s one of the few detail maniacs that I can really stomach, in part because I think there’s a lot of satire in his style. He’s using his super-dense line work to accentuate absurdity, rather than realism. Realistic draftsmanship is overrated, and I think too many modern artists focus on it for no good reason. Darrow at least knows how to use it in service to the story he’s working on.
Interesting post. I agree about Darrow. His work is insane. No one else draws anything like that. It must be too time consuming. I was reading some comics by the late Seth Fisher, though, and his work sort of reminded me of Darrow’s-- maybe a cross between Darrow and Frank Quitely.
Care to elaborate on your comment about realistic draftsmanship?
Moebius is pretty bad ass AND he’s done mainstream Marvel (a 2 issue Silver Surfer mini).
Big fan of Miller’s story telling (from Ronin all the way to Sin City, 300 and whatever else).
George Perez is solid solid solid stuff all around.
Ron Lim.
Jim Lee.
Milo Manara does some hot hot chicks, though he’s never done any mainstream Marvel (european comic artist, some of his stuff is in Heavy Metal).
Mike Wieringo solid story telling + fun art style = Top Tier
Art Adams same as Wieringo.
That’s all I can think of, off the top of my head.
Darwyn Cooke
Will Eisner
Alex Ross
I heard there was going to be a project with Chris Claremont(ugh) involving the female X-men. Yet I have heard nothing since last year. He id do that one issue of Sandman for Vertigo.
NOw so new favs for me: Ron Lim, and Ethan Van Scriver
Artists like Alex Ross, Jim Lee, or the host of Neal Adams imitators (not Adams himself; he knew what he was doing). It’s not that they’re poor artists, because they’re actually amazing. But they strive for photographic detail just for the sake of doing so, just so the images will fly off the page as soon as you open the book.
That kind of style is excellent for promo materials, in a context where the chief goal is to charm the eye and look impressive. But in terms of storytelling, it often impedes the pacing, partially due to the tax that the sheer number of hyper-dense images places on the eye–and partially because the artists are paying too much attention to looking good and not enough to how they’re moving the story forward.
There are exceptions to the rule. The big art book-style comics that Alex Ross did with Paul Dini for DC are superb, and that’s mainly because Dini intentionally wrote spare, basic stories in which Ross’s art would have room to breathe. He wrote for the images, rather than the usual process of the art having to accommodate the writing.
I see. I definitely agree with your points. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. It’s all about the artwork serving the story, baby.
It’s like Greg Land’s art. Looks nice on posters but just takes you out of the story when he does sequential stuff. Very distracting is how I’d describe his stuff.
I never thought of Jim Lee as a “realistic” artist, though. To me, the way he draws people and things is way too flashy and idealized to be true to life.
The people I think of when I think of realistic artists (other than the aforementioned Ross and Adams) are guys like Michael Lark, Bryan Hitch, Dan Spiegle, Paul Chadwick, Tony Harris, Tim Bradstreet, and maybe Jae Lee and Adrian Tomine. Those guys all have different styles from each other, but I feel like it’s not always about being extremely detailed. The sense of realism from reading their comics is what counts to me.
Jim Lee’s art is very stylized, but the way he draws environments, objects, and so forth lend a sense of meta-realism to his work. The images might not strive for total photo-realism, but in my opinion they suffer from similar problems to the other artists mentioned.
lol fool likes to crosshatch everything…he depends alot on crosshatching and shadows rather than drawing it out.
I can’t remember well. I like many artists: Jim Lee, Jae Lee, Alex Ross (best), etc.
I will check comic books with autographs in box, later.
Alex Ross (his take on our old comic heroes has no equal)
Jim Lee (his clean line work and precise anatomy is applauded)
Todd McFarlane (over-the-top Spider-Man pages…)
Mark Silvestri (old X-Men work is top-notch, as well as the dark humor in Savage Dragon)
Erik Larsen (His Spider-Man’s very expressive)
Stephen Platt (made *Moon Knight *and *Prophet *jump off the page!)
Wilce Portacio (*X-Men *work and Wetworks…mmmmm…)
Mark Texeira (classic Ghost Rider were off-the-chain har )
Jae Lee (expressive inkwork)
Michael Turner (Witchblade ftw)
Chris Bachalo (*Gen X *and *Death *artwork = win!)
Frank Miller (you can’t forget about Sin City and the artistic breakthroughs of this series; high-contrast BnW artwork ftw!)
Neal Adams (one of those O.G.‘s that’s always admired for his consistency…gotta’ love his work!)
Adam Kubert (i was always a fan of his work, comparatively to his brother’s…)
WORST comic book artists ever?
I’m really not too keen on this anime-influenced artwork wave in the recent +5 years…
Yeah, exactly. All that hatching all over the place. It gets out of hand. Just because something has hatchmarks covering it doesn’t make it detailed. Sometimes a clean look will suffice. I’m not too down with all those “hot” artists whose stuff is all about scratchiness and tons of hatching with bright digital coloring trying to cover up the deficiencies in sequential storytelling.
I think shadows are okay if they serve some purpose. Like establish a certain mood or something. Haha, this is sort of off topic, but what annoys me is when someone draws a person’s face in shadows JUST so the reader won’t know the character’s identity- even if that character is in a perfectly well-lit room. I just saw this when I read a CW: Frontline TPB the other day.
The thing I don’t like about Jim Lee’s art is the lack of subtlety. I was rereading For Tomorrow the other day, and it was just ridiculous. It’s like Jim Lee’s art only has one tone: BALLS OUT. For Tomorrow has a great script but it’s undermined by the art. Don’t believe me? Just count all the panels where Superman is talking to the priest and Superman has his fists clenched. Why’s Superman always gotta clench his fists? It’s just details like that which kind of drag me out of it. It takes away the verisimilitude of the story and just reminds me that I am reading a comic book.
What’s frustrating is that I know Jim Lee can do exceptional work when he sets his mind to it. Just look at those watercolor sections he did in Hush. Those actually look really good. And I’ve seen a couple of short things from various anthologies, where he tries different techniques, and those are really good, too.
All-Star Batman & Robin doesn’t suck. The script is funny. It’s the artwork that clashes with the tone of the script. That and the fact that it’s shipped 5 issues in 2 years. And Wildcats has shipped 1 issue in 10 months.
I think if Frank Miller had done the drawings for All-Star Batman and Robin himself, it would have been more widely accepted. Thoughts?
I agree completely. People don’t understand that All-Star B&R is supposed to be funny shit. Imagine how good it would be if Miller had drawn it himself, or even a guy like Kyle Baker or someone. Sheesh. Instead, the book is still funny, just not for the right reasons.
Had Miller done the artwork, particularly in the exaggerated cartoony style of DKSA, I think people would have grasped the satire and absurdity a lot more easily. Jim Lee’s artwork is absurd, mind you, but it’s absurd in a gaudy and self-important way, rather than an intentional and humorous way.
I hate ragging on the poor guy so much, because he has enough talent to justify a spot in the industry, but certain projects are for certain artists. Jim Lee’s talents seem to be applied in the wrong places.
(Mind you, I’m not much of a superhero reader–I tend to be very choosy with my funny books, and men in tights are making up less and less of my haul as time goes by–but strictly from what I’ve seen his work in, I can’t get behind Jim Lee as a graphic storyteller.)
Fred Perry
Richard Bartrop
Chris Allen
Richard Moore
Brett Booth
Bay Area JH Williams III fans, he’s gonna be at the Isotope next week. Anyone here gonna go?
http://www.isotopecomics.com/2007/09/isotope-proudly-presents.html
Michael Turner.
Joe Mad.
Adam Hughes.
Todd McFarlane.
Marc Silvestri.
Joe Benitez.
J. Scott Campbell.
Stjepan Sejic.
Pat Lee.
Can’t think of more.
i basically like any artist that good at drawing fighting and come up with cool fighting moves or poses, similar to the way i like a martial art action movie star lol…