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Underground > Comic Books >

Favourite Artists

  
  

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Cowboy Scientist
07:53 / 17.07.04
O.K., mine are:

Will Eisner
Jack Kirby
Mike Allred
Paul Pope
Eduardo Risso
Alberto Breccia (he's the father of the guy who does Swamp Thing now)
Bill Sienkiewicz
Brian Bolland
Darwyn Cooke
Dave McKean
Dave Johnson
James Jean
Carlos Nine (a lot of almost unknown comic book work, mostly book illustrations)
Frank Quitely
Paul Grist
Masamune Shirow
Mike Mignola
Moebius
Mike Oeming
Yoshitaka Amano
And the guys I can't remember right now.
 
 
LDones
08:29 / 17.07.04
C'mon, give us a little more than that, don't just list a bunch of names. Why do you like them? What have they worked on & why did you enjoy it?

If you're trying to start a conversation, put a little more into it.
 
 
Dr. Kenneth Noisewater
17:06 / 17.07.04
Frank Quitely, Frank Quitely, Frank Quitely. He's like the Beatles of comic artists, even my second favorite is a very distant second.
 
 
Billuccho!
17:16 / 17.07.04
John Romita Jr, Ladronn, Frank Quitely, and hey, Cam Stewart's getting up there too! I could probably go on, but I'd rather keep it to a select few.
 
 
bigsunnydavros
17:52 / 17.07.04
I'm with LDonnes here -- more info as to why you rate these artists so highly would probably be more conducive to a decent conversation in this thread.

Like most folk around here, I rate Frank Quitely pretty damned highly, and was very interested in some of Morrison's comments on what he and Quitely are going for in their upcomming We3 project.

Said Morrison:

"We're going past the page 'surface' and using the page as a 3-dimensional space."

Long before this quote popped up, people have been discussing how 3D the worlds Quitely draws often look. I remember when issue #126 of New X-Men came out, and just in the first three pages I gained more of a sense of what the inside of one of those big goofy Superdestroyers was supposed to look like than I had in the previous two issues, both of which had spent far more time there.

I once saw someone on another board (I think it was Millarworld) claiming that the reason they didn't like Quitely's artwork was that his POV is always too centred but... I don't get that complaint at all. I always get such a complete sense of what's going on from the way he chooses his POV -- he has a very subtle grasp of composition and space, and also seems to know exactly how much detail to put into a scene to ground it. Certainly his world's feel more real to me than the overly cluttered backdrops that many more "detailed" comic book artists provide, even though there's technically less in them.

There's a real humour to his style that I think is often overlooked -- his figures are often very funny, but not in a way that undermines the script. Rather, it balances against it perfectly (see New X-Men for plenty of excellent examples).

I could also go on about how good his storytelling is, or how neat his feel for human body language is or whatever, but I don't want to be too much of a bore so I think I'll stop for now.

More thoughts on a couple of other artists later -- hopefully I'll keep the wordcount down next time!
 
 
DavidXBrunt
18:26 / 17.07.04
Ah, there are many artists whose work I enjoy but there are two that I think are worthy of praise.

Firstly there's Steve Yeowell, still most famous for his work on Zenith 15 years ago and that's a sad thing to say. His work is consistant, and always well designed. But he also subtly changes his style for each story, to suit the script. He's also, apparantly, a true proffesional who's never missed a deadline for Tharg the mighty.

His Devlin Waugh 26 parter was full of odd designs and great energy, the more recent Red Seas is classicly styled and full of fun, and his current Durham Red art is just perfect for the hard sci-fi and low-tech desert background.

And there's the more recent 2k artist Dom Reardon. Avoiding the urge to be trendy and kewl Doms art is deceptivley sketchy and rough but that betrays the draftsmanship he puts into it. His characters have individual body language and the pages are full of drama and atmosphere. Indeed, a page of his is the only one that's ever made me stop reading a comic and go wow! I own that page now.
 
 
bigsunnydavros
18:28 / 17.07.04
Mike Allred -- elsewhere on this board, I said the following about the Milligan/Allred run on X-Force/X-Statix:

"...this is a total pop comic, and far more straightforward than it appears on first glance. It's a cynical, self-aware soap opera about cynical, self-aware people, and as such, it's perfect."

Allred's art is utterly essential to how "straightforward" the book actually is, in my opinion. His work is both tongue in cheek and yet charged with genuine enthusiasm that both matches and intigrates the mix of satire and soap-opera in the script perfectly.

I also love his Madman comics -- there's a knowing quality there for sure, but it never overwhelms the genuine joy and energy of the stories. Like, in one the early issues of the comic, there's this page which is just Madman totally buzzing after being out with his grilfriend, and it's just... so alive and thrilling. Sounds cheesy, but it's true, so fuck it.

Paul Pope -- This man's work is sexy in a way that few comic books really are. I loved the busy, high-cheekboned world of 100%, all mush-faced boxers and sci-fi strip bars -- such a great visual/conceptual setting for a romance comic.

He's also got a few neat storytelling tricks up his sleeve. Like the bartering scene in 100% #1 -- how cool and weird was that? And how the hell did he make one very static, drawn out fight scene in (I think) THB 6a & 6b look so energetic?
 
 
bigsunnydavros
18:30 / 17.07.04
A big thumbs up for Steve Yeowell from me too -- his work isn't as flashy as some, but it's hugely dynamic and exciting, and few modern artists look better in black & white!
 
 
Jack Denfeld
19:56 / 17.07.04
I like Cam and Bond. They both have this cool cartoony thing going on which I dig.
 
 
TroyJ15
20:06 / 17.07.04
Frank Quietly
No artist has been able to depict attitude as well as Frank Quietly. There is a certain self-awareness and sarcasm in his drawings that has served well for his stints on Authority and New X-Men, respectively. The in-your face style is everywhere in his art from the look of disdain on Midknighter’s face to the foliage surrounding Cassandra Nova in South America. Some complain that his artwork on women makes them all look like elderly men, but I do not agree with that sentiment at all…as a matter of fact, The White Queen would not have been perceived as so defiant and sassy if not for the contributions of Quietly’s art to Grant Morrison’s words. If you do not believe me look at the new Emma Frost mini-series. I also agree with all the comments on scope made on this board.

Gary Frank
While I’m not as fond of his work away from, inker, Cam Smith, Gary Frank’s strength lies in the fact that he is equally comfortable drawing believable, simplistic, human details, expressions, and emotions but also he is just as comfortable drawing dynamic over-the-top characters like Super-Heroes, Aliens, Demons, etc. He is possibly the closest artist to John Byrne in that aspect...

(Old) John Byrne
Chances are, if you come across a drawing of the X-Men used by Marvel for advertisements or promotional usage then it was probably art from one of two people: Jim Lee or John Byrne. While Byrne’s later work seems sketched and unkempt, his earlier works (For Example his time spent on Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, or SuperMan) seemed to practically swim off the page. The characters looked liked they were in-motion, ready to leap, run, swing, or fly off the panel. It’s his ability to give you that sense of animation that made his artwork so alive and so memorable.

Salvador Larocca
I never read Extreme X-Men or Namor, the two books which Salvador Larocca’s art is featured in regularly. I look at them but I haven’t enjoyed reading them since the first issue. I hate the writing --- love the art! As far as I can recall Larocca was the artist who started the trend of coloring without inking the artwork at all --- and if he didn’t start it, any other artist who has has not gotten, nearly, as strong as result as Larocca. The artist has found a nice fine line between Eastern and Western penciling influence. His drawing leans, ever slightly, towards Manga but finds the human details more common in American artist. Every panel looks almost floral in how soft and delicate the lines and shading seem. A very gorgeous style and always an awe-inspring pleasure to look at!

I don't have time but I'll get into more detail about these guys later:
Adam Hughes
Jim Lee
Sal Buscema
Mark Bagley
Phil Noto
Josh Middleton
 
 
bigsunnydavros
20:25 / 17.07.04
I'm almost certainly not the first person to suggest this, but wouldn't Frank Quitely be a really good artist for a straight up horror story?

Think about a lot of his work on the first year of New X-Men: all those weird arms and tendrils that Cassandra Nova had going on, the creepy mess that was Prof X's mindscape, the skies turning red above the X-Mansion, windows smashing, etc... he'd be a fucking brilliant horror artist, wouldn't he?
 
 
scottk
23:07 / 17.07.04
Frank Quitely, obviously. For the reasons already stated and for his versatility - he can draw anything and any type of story.

John Byrne (old)
To me, he is the quintensential superhero artist. With his clean lines and dynamic figures, he draws fantastic figures with a sense of reality.

Dave Sim
His caricatures to his characters have endless emotion and expression. And his panel layouts are always inventive.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
23:27 / 17.07.04
I wouldn't say Liefeld was a favorite, but it always makes me kinda smile when I look at his work because it's so absurd. I was looking at an online preview of his new X-Force art and was a little sad. It looks like the fans complained about his work so much that he changed his style up just a lil bit. Like it's still kinda shitty, but not over the top glaring obvious shitty.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
23:28 / 17.07.04
I guess what I'm saying is that now it's shitty with no redeeming shitty qualities.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
23:39 / 17.07.04
Also, can someone explain Jack Kirby's art to me? Is it those giant fingers?
 
 
Cowboy Scientist
03:56 / 18.07.04
Okay, why do I like them?... this is gonna be a long answer...

Will Eisner: Great graphic narrative ideas and panel juxtaposition

Jack Kirby: ENERGY!!!

Mike Allred: Complete Pop style goodness (specially in Madman, the stuff that came after looks kinda rushed). Really enjoyable.

Paul Pope: Really kinetical artwork and great use of sound effects.

Eduardo Risso: Easily the best graphic narrator and page designer nowdays. And those points of view!

Alberto Breccia: Have you seen any of his stuff? Look for it. It looks like if Frank Miller drew on LSD. Specially when he started experimenting with collage. You haven't seen a good impressionist-style comic until you see his work.

Bill Sienkiewicz: Exelent design, composition, and use of symbol-like stuff. Really expresive linework.

Brian Bolland: Although he's a great great comic book artist, I put him there because of his great covers, allways full of action.

Darwin Cooke: Really stylish work; and he really knows how to control the passage of time (Specially in his Catwoman work, not so much in DC: The New Frontier)

Dave McKean: This fellow allways amazes me. He never draws the same way twice. In one moment he makes a super-reallistic panel and the next is all reduced to symbols. Aestetically beautiful.

Dave Johnson: Kickass design and coloring.

James Jean: Amazing semi-realistic images. exelent pick colors, too.

Carlos Nine: Dream-like artwork and character designs, weird but appropiate (more like weirdly appropiate) inking; and strange zooms. I always say he would have been the perfect artist for Sandman.

Frank Quitely: Exellent face expresions, care to details, It-looks-like-I-am-there 3d images and "motionless motion"*.

Paul Grist: Best panel posittioning ever. Overlapping of images that not only doesn't screw the graphic storytelling, but improve it to levels rarely matched.

Masamune Shirow: Dynamic images, superb machinery and "virtual world" (In Ghost in the Shell) design, great coloring, exelent use of computer generated graphics.

Mike Mignola: Impressive and innovative shading style, exelent angular synthesis of the images and well-thought pages. The best styling to come in decades.

Moebius: Great design of... well, everything. Machinery, clothing, architecture, you name it. Always years ahead of us simple mortals. Beautiful to look at.

Mike Oeming: He has some of the most innovative tricks in graphic storitelling.

Yoshitaka Amano: Beautiful, fluid and delicate artwork.

*(to see what I speaking about with "motionless motion", check that panel in Earth 2 where Superman breaks throgh the CSA spaceship floor and all those metal pieces and wires explode, it looks as they are moving but at the same time stopped in time; just one of many examples of this effect)

...by the way, and you're all gonna hang me for this, but if I had to rank all the mentioned artists (and I wont, too hard and painful), I think Quitely would be between the last 4 or so. I love all the things I mentioned about him, but is a huge turnoff the lack of crativity in panel distribution and page design; and the excessive use of widescreen panels; it almost kills the graphic narrative. I mean, if you like the widescreen so much, go to the movies!

Also, I forgot Alex Toth. Shame on me!

Said Morrison:

"We're going past the page 'surface' and using the page as a 3-dimensional space."


I did a little bit of experimentation with this (I'm a comic artist and writer) in a weird sci-fi comicbook I'm doing right now, for example:

In a story, two guys are fighting in a really small universe (as small as the page; for convenience this sequence is told mostly in splash pages) when one of the characters tries to punch the other, he dodges it and the image of the arm gets cut by the end of the page. When we flip the page, we discover that the arm continued at the other side and punched the same guy who throw the punch in his own back.

In another story, a hole goes trough all the comic; the characters inside see it as a hole in space-time continuum. When a character puts a stick through the hole, it appears in "the future" (the next page, the other side of it).
 
 
Lord Morgue
06:00 / 18.07.04
Jack Kirby- If you got to ask, why are you reading comics?
Vaughn Bodé- A true drug-fucked genius. His style pretty much created graffiti culture whole. Irreverent and relevant, and sexy too. Kick to da nuts!
Bill Ward- The only thing Cracked ever had going for them was the King of Fetish and his wasp-waisted, pneumatic fem-bots. Argle.
Robert Crumb- Few cartoonists have stripped themselves to the bone on paper as this man has, and fewer yet made it half as good reading. Every neurosis turns into gold on the page...
Frank Miller- You can't ignore the galvanising effect his Daredevil, Dark Knight Returns and Sin City have had on the industry and community. Until Dark Knight Strikes Again, I thought the man could do no wrong- was that the art, or the blotter used to soak up the excess after he inked it with a baseball bat?! And the colouring- did Lynn Varley photoshop it before or after she puked on it? Gah, sorry. Maybe they had a wall fall on them, like Masamune Shirow.
Carl Barks- Respect the Duck Lord!
Fred Perry- Enjoying watching the guy evolve and improve with almost every issue. He's gone from fanboy quality to pro, now he's developing subtleties of characterisation and storytelling, along with a knack for splash panels and eyeball kicks, that frankly, PISS ME OFF! I do so hate talented people.
Hergé- Tintin OWNZ JOO ALL.
Frank Quitely- I had to ask the guy at the comic shop where the hell did Quiteley come from, did Grant Morrison just grow him in a test tube? Another case of I HATE YOU AND I WILL STEAL YOUR R.N.A. AND ABSORB YOUR POWER!
 
 
DavidXBrunt
17:26 / 18.07.04
Oh, Chris Weston! The current Megazine has the most awesome art on the lead Dredd tale. It's just astonishingly detailed and beautiful and just...perfect. The bonus is that it's a bloody good Wagner script with a classic foe but this is art so good that it could be the worst excess of MillarDredd and I'd love it. Stunning, stunning art.
 
 
gridley
12:39 / 19.07.04
David Mack when he does that watercolor stuff along with the tiny scribbles stuff. I would hang any of his pages on my wall as art. Never would have guessed I'd like anything done in watercolors....
 
 
Lord Morgue
02:50 / 20.07.04
Ohhh, Marshall Rogers. His work on Batman was fucking incredible. The stuff with Hugo Strange, with the eerie zip-a-tone artwork? Never understood why he wasn't elevated to minor godhood along with other third-wave legends like Miller, Chaykin, Byrne, Perez, Simonson etc.

Wally Wood, before he self-destructed.

Evan Dorkin. Reading interviews with him, he seems to be, um, ME. Very strange. He's led my life, exactly- I suspect some kind of large-scale cloning Nature/Nuture experiment, like The Boys From Brazil, only instead of cloning Hitler, they're cloning bitter, angry, alienated fanboy cartoonists who constantly self-detruct on the cusp of success. Who knows how many of us are out there?

Akin and Garvey. British team who used to ink Rom, Spaceknight over Sal Buscema. Lush, creamy, metal and wood and stone and flesh textures unmatched till Alan Davis hit his peak.
 
 
uncle retrospective
06:33 / 20.07.04
Tony Harris. This work on Starman was incredable, from the Art Deco of Opal City to the page design he uses. Magic.

Chris Bachalo on Shade was a Master of Art. The way he got the character moments to perfection in one panel and the weirdness the next. Flawless. I can't stand his new look though.
 
 
spacemonkey
13:19 / 20.07.04
I really dig Jae Lee's more recent work, especially FF:1234.
 
 
chaos_15
14:07 / 20.07.04
I love the imagination Quitely brings to his art, and his sense of space is just amazing.

Brian Hitch has drawn some of the best action sequences I've ever seen and his detailed artwork is also great.

John Tottlebeen has some of the most beautifull artwork in comics. Honestly, I loved Chapter 3 of "Miracle Man" specially because of him, and the battle in London wouldn't have had the same powerfull sequences without him.

Eduardo Risso. Please do I have to talk about his storytelling techniques, the shadows or the way he makes each character unique.

darick robertson. I'm like his work on Wolverine, but Transmetropolitan is where he really shines. I loved the way he draw the city giving it th right tone for the series and the madness he brought to Spider was just perfect.
 
 
Billuccho!
14:34 / 20.07.04
Pfah! I love Bachalo's "new style," and don't like his older styles as much, or at all. But that Weapon Plus arc was gorgeous.
 
 
The Natural Way
16:35 / 20.07.04
Shite.

Bachalo's Shade stuff is from God.

Zeitgeist!

That's the thing, I find it really hard to separate my favourite artists from my favourite books. Richard Case is Doom Patrol. Steve Yeowell is Zenith. Hewlett is Tank Girl/Hewligan's Haircut. Ian Gibson is Halo Jones. Brendan McCarthy is Rogan Gosh.

And, TBH, only when a writer's really inside a work (something that perhaps only happens on ongoing runs or where there's a real artistic meshing going on between the guy with the pencil and the guy with the keyoard) do you really get their best stuff. That's when they're feeling the universe and really know the characters. That's when it all comes together.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
17:28 / 20.07.04
Brendan McCarthy - man god of psychadelic punk weirdness. I adore anything he draws, but for me exposure to his artwork on Judge Dredd as an 11 year old blew me out of my shoes. Alongside Mike McMahon, his big booted Dredd remains definitive and no-one nailed the Mega City weirdos as well. Obviously his painted stuff (Paradax, Strange Days, Rogan Gosh..) is beautiful too.

David Mazzuchelli - The best example of dynamic clean line Toth style comics IMHO. Daredevil 'Born Again' was good, and Hell's kitchen never looked so convincing, but Batman Year One takes the biscuit for sheer noir brilliance. Batman looks like a man in a cape for real, but still manages to look as menacing as Miller's script suggests. As I'm a philistine I haven't seen his more obscure comix stuff, but those two works are a perfect example of synergy between write and artist.

Those two for now, but the list is long...
 
 
The Natural Way
17:58 / 20.07.04
McMahox!
 
 
Cowboy Scientist
03:14 / 24.07.04
Y'know, now I'm tempted to add Frank Miller, Alan Davis, Hugo Prat, Milo Manara, Katsuya Terada, Arthur Adams, Dan Clowes, Dave Gibbons, Guy Davis, John Cassaday, Bruce Timm, Geof Darrow, John Romita JR, Neal Adams, and about ten more...
 
 
PatrickMM
16:12 / 24.07.04
Frank Quitely - It's mostly been said above, but I've got to give special props to Invisibles 3.1. Coming in after 58 issues, he completely owns the characters, and treks back through moments in the series, perfectly recreating things that other people had drawn. Plus, he creates this entirely convincing 2012 world. Plus, Flex Mentallo where he bounces between goofy superheroics, and strict real world with equal proclivity.

Chris Weston - He can draw the craziest stuff with no problem. I love the look of his figures, he can do pop sheen, or grime wiht no problem. I actually prefer his work on The Invisibles to Jiminez'.

John Totelben - Miracleman Volume III are the most beautiful comics ever made. Every page seems to be composed perfectly, and his pointilism is just heartbreakingly beautiful. I feel like, if he wasn't in comics, he would have been doing art for museums.

JH Williams III - His work on Promethea is perhaps the greatest use of the storytelling potential of comics I've ever seen. He uses the page in a way that is only possible in the comics form, with absolutely goregous art. The Mobius strip page in Promethea 14 was awe-inspiring.

Steve Dillon - His characters show emotion in a way that I haven't seen from any other artist. In Preacher, he was able to convey emotion through facial expressions in a way that could be both funny and sad. It's true that all his faces look similar, but he still does astonishing work.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
17:39 / 24.07.04
Not being arsey or anything but giving reasons for WHY you consider these artists your favourites makes for more interesting reading Nonexistent Man...
 
 
Cowboy Scientist
03:37 / 25.07.04
The reasons are in my second message on this thread.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
15:34 / 25.07.04
Fair enough - my bad. Didn't notice it was you who'd done that.
 
 
D Terminator XXXIII
16:12 / 25.07.04
Firstly there's Steve Yeowell, still most famous for his work on Zenith 15 years ago and that's a sad thing to say. His work is consistant, and always well designed.

I remember an interview with James Robinson in, I believe, the Comics Journal a handful of years ago, where he stated that Yeowell had lived on practically nothing while he did 67 Seconds. I didn't really like Sebastien O - but some of the stuff, an annual of the Legends of the Dark Knight, the odd Starman, are mighty fine, indeed.

Ashley something, the guy who did Hellspawn, Automatic Kafka, others I can't recall, is the narcotics that I need on a page. I got one issue of Hellspawn in the quarter bin, and it is currently my most prized object at home. He outdoes Bill SiekwhatIcanneverrecallorlearn. Wildly, wildly expressive and moody. Oh yeah.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
16:20 / 25.07.04
Bastard nearly ruined the 2nd to last issue of the Invisibles though. Is he really better than Sienkewicz on Elektra Assassin? I have my doubts, as that's one beautiful, coke-addled, Eighties fun-fest.
 
 
The Natural Way
18:31 / 25.07.04
He doesn't outdo Sienkewicz (back in the day) at all. He can't do action, he's not as confident, blah.... TBH, Wood makes a page very difficult to read, but, if you like him, fair enough.
 
  

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