favorite comic book artists

[hekawi]

a while back, we had a thread here about our favorite comic book super heroes. got me to thinking about the guys who draw (drew) those characters in the pages of our fondly remembered comics. i have my favorites, most of which are from the mid 60's to the early 70's 'cause those were my prime years for reading comic books:
John Romita:Spider-Man (i came in after the Ditko era)
Jack Kirby: Fantastic Four, Captain America, etc.
Neal Adams: Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow
Barry Smith: Conan
John Buscema: Thor, FF (after Kirby left Marvel)
Curt Swan: Superman
Russ Heath: GI Combat (Haunted Tank), Sgt Rock
Joe Kubert: Sgt Rock, Tarzan
John Severin:Sgt Fury (solo for a while, then inking Dick Ayers pencils)

chime in with your favorites!

[Five Fingers]

I like all the one's you listed. I also really like..Phillipe Druillet: Yragael Urm etc. and Rick Griffin: He was responsible for a lot of Grateful Dead artwork, and "Omo Bob Rides South". Also, some of the Manga art is brilliant.

[cvansickle]

Michael Turner from Top Cow's "Fathom"

Mike Diadatto from "Jade Warriors"

[aunchaki]

Barry Windsor Smith. Very cool Marvel stuff, guested on a lot of books over the years.

Also Matt Wagner & Kevin Nowlin.

[Oster]

Another vote for Barry Windsor Smith. Art Nouveau as barbarian comic!

I also really liked George Perez (JLA, Wonder Woman, New Teen Titans) and John Byrne (X-Men; the really good years) as well as all of the ones listed in your original post.

I don't like the way comics are illustrated these days - I don't like the trickle-down anime influence. I do like some anime - Miyazaki especially - but being a Libra I'm naturally inclined towards there being a balance as opposed to over-saturation of any one thing/style. Or so the stars say...

My favorite period is definitely Silver Age.

[BLACKCAT69]

R. Crumb.

[Captain Simian]

Jack Kirby, Sal Buscema, Gary Frank, Mike Deodato, & Eduardo Risso.

[Seanycaster]

Frank Cho of Liberty Meadows.

[tschommer]

Frank Miller is the the best writer and best artist all in the same guy. I also love Bill Sienkiewicz, he's kind of like Neal Adams on acid, I always thought of him as the Jimi Hendrix of comic books.

[Aen]

Jim Mahfood, does a lot of independant books, including some stuff for clerks

Joe Madureira(X-men, Battle Chasers), though he doesnt really draw any more

Humberto Ramos(Crimson, Wolverine)

Chris Bachalo (Generation X, STeam punk, Xmen)

David Mack (Kabuki) AMAZING

SAm Keith (Old Wolverine, The Maxx)


gee whiz, too many to mention

Alex Ross,

[tahoebob54]

Originally Posted by BLACKCAT69

R. Crumb.

another vote for Robert Crumb, Back in the 80's he was living in Winters, Ca about 10 miles from Davis. he ame into the store I was working at many times and i got the chance to chat with him a few times.

[Flipped Mustang]

I love the early Simon and Kirby stuff like the Captain America Timely covers and stories. There's just something about the way those two guys mixed it up in those days. Shelly doing Hawkman was magic on paper. From the Silver age, I'm a big fan of Steve Ditko and Kirby's work on the early Marvel stuff.

[MojoRex]

Bill Griffith.

About as surrealisticly real as it gets.

Yow! Are we having fun yet?

http://www.zippythepinhead.com

[Tim Bowen]

Wow, cool. I started drawing in '66, and have idolized many of these cats. Haven't been around this stuff in ages, but I'd certainly acknowledge Jack Kirby and Neal Adams. Also, Gil Kane. Barry Smith totally freaked out my eyeballs... his work was so, ehhh, lyrical. Heck, all mentioned are great.

What I really dug though were those Warren pulp comics (Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, The Shadow). Man that stuff was a feast for the eyes. Estaban Maroto had a very unique and interesting style. Bernie Wrightson was great [and also "crossed over" - Swamp Thing (Marvel)]. With his brilliant sheens and rich hues, Richard Corben was among the first true geniuses of the airbrush medium. He also had a knack for purveying absolute and total horror.

In my opinion, the undisputed master of the pulp art medium is the often imitated, never outdone, and one and only -

Frank Frazetta.

Nobody gets a spookier vibe to canvas than Frank.

http://frazettaartgallery.com/ff/index.html

[eddiewagner]

rick griffin and gilbert shelton. i love the freak brothers! that stuff is so funny. too bad there is nothing new coming. i wonder whar gilbert shelton is doing.

[Val-tone]

Berni Wrightson +1

Barry Windsor-Smith +1 -- Those guys are my heroes!

Neil Adams with the '70's Batman stuff

Mike Grell - Warlord

Mike Ploog with '70's Man-thing

More Recent: Mike Mignolia

Alex Ross -- My brother went to a Halloween party at his place a couple of years back--He knows him through a friend of a friend--says is was an absolute blast!

Whoever drew the Batman Year One series--- can't recall his name off the top of my head.

As I get older I appreciate simpler comic art--not that animie look per se, but the not-as-detailed look like Mignolia's work... Maybe it's the "less is more" thing.

[Val-tone]

Originally Posted by tschommer

Frank Miller is the the best writer and best artist all in the same guy. I also love Bill Sienkiewicz, he's kind of like Neal Adams on acid, I always thought of him as the Jimi Hendrix of comic books.

Sienkiewicz +1

The "Stray Toasters" series is cool...

[trag-o-caster]

I became good friends with our own Timbo from Skull Island, until he vanished. He has popped in a couple of times over the last few years, but he disappears again. I never realized until later that he was Tim Truman, a well known artist and cartoonist. He was a great guy, and I really miss his presence on this board. His Skull Island reports were the most hilarious thing I've ever read.

ABBA ABBA TIMBO!

Which way did he go???

[Blazer]

The Americans on this board probably never heard of him but André Franquin 1924-1997 is my all time favorite.


Taking his cues from the american comic Perry Winkle, Franquin re-invented the way European comics are drawn. During the fifties and sixties with his series "Spirou and Fantasio" ("Robbedoes en Kwabbernoot" in Dutch) he took cartooning to a whole new level earning praise from greats like Hergé the artist who did the world famous "tin-tin" comics who called Franquin the greatest cartoonist of all times.

Spirou (the one in the red costume) and Fantasio

But even during his time as the artist for "Spirou and Fantasio", Franquin was already sowing the seeds for something far greater. He once went to the chief of publishing and told him. "Did it ever occur to you that every comicbook hero has a job? All of them seem to have an occupation for them to earn their money, why don't we have a slacker in the cartoon world? Somebody who for example takes a pinnball machine to the office."

And with that conversation the best known character of the Franquin universe was concieved. Gaston Lagaffe ("Guust Flater")

Gaston Lagaffe during the "Spirou and Fantasio" era

Franquin's way of drawing also changed when he dropped "Spirou and Fantasio" to concentrate on Gaston Lagaffe. His way of drawing became wilder, using ticker lines and harder colors, and in doing so influencing even more fellow cartoonists to adopt his style and make it their own.

Gaston Lagaffe after the "Spirou and Fantasio" era

But I guess the best know of all characters that Franquin created was the fantasy beast that Spirou and Fantasio had to capture in the book "The heirdom" a yellow with black spots critter that Franquin later sold the rights to disney.


Prior to his death Franquin expressed his dissatisfaction about what Disney did with the Marsupilami, and he was working on a new album of Gaston Lagaffe until the very last day.

[guitar mike]

Frank Miller (Sin City)