Favorite Comic Artists

[gameplan.exe]

I was going to limit it to a single choice, but I know most people would just about faint having to choose one! lol

For myself, I'll never forget the immediate infatuation I had when I first saw Joe Madureira's artwork. To this day, the fold-out cover he did for Wizard Mag, featuring Cyke, Beast, and Wolvie facing off against Mags, Juggs, and Sabretooth (which was then used for the Original Energy and Fighting Teamworks in OP), stands as one of my favorite pieces of comicbook artwork of all time.

I aspired to be an artists when I was younger, and he was definitely and inspiration to me. What always stood out to me was how clean his look was. It seemed to be the antithesis of the (IMO) muddled, over-done look of some of his contemporaries, like Todd McFarlane.

Any-whoozle, who are your favorite comic artists, and why?

[TGW]

I always enjoyed the work of Frank Quitely, who plays off Grant Morrison perfectly (We3, All-Star Superman, Flex Mentallo, New X-Men, Batman & Robin, etc).

[KObossy]

Mike Zeck - His covers on the Punisher limited series (1986) are a work of art!

George Perez - With so many bad artists in the 80's his work really stood out.

Todd Mcfarlane - He is the reason all artists after him had to step up their game.

Alex Ross - Kingdom Come...nuff said.

JoeMad is a great artist also but placing Battle Chasers on "indefinite hiatus" was unforgiveable!

[thetrooper27]

TM did force everyone to step it up.  Image comics forced everyone to get with the program.  Marvel messed up bad, whatever they did to lose all those guys.  And Joe Mad should've finished Battle Chasers by now for sure.  No excuses.  Moving on...

Adam Kubert's Wolverine run was beautiful.  He's still great, but different now.  Leinil Yu as well.
I love the way Mike Deodato and Dale Keown draw Hulk.
Romita Jr. is probably the most consistent/reliable artist.  He does everything justice.
Chris Bachalo is quite clean...

But the best?  IMO?

Humberto Ramos.  I love many artists (and dislike many others) but I'm never more excited than when he draws a character I love. 

This list could go on for awhile, and I know everyone has multiple favored artists, but I'll add these others just because this is a fun topic:

Skottie Young, Paco Medina, Carlo Barberi, and Ed McGuinness have come so far in their work.  For me, these guys are almost an immediate sell.

And Alvin Lee, particularly on Street Fighter.  Flawless work.  Would love to see him draw some Xmen.

I'll stop now.  How about an artist we dislike thread!:)

[breadmaster]

bill sienkiewicz

i should see if he has any good pics for the evils set...

[thetrooper27]

bill sienkiewicz

i should see if he has any good pics for the evils set...

I bet there's some Warlock pics for his specials you could dig up if you look hard enough.

[Kal-el]

He's not really my favorite artist I guess, but Superman is my favorite character and Dan Jurgens will always draw the definitive Supes for me.

[steve2275]

the kubertbrothers
ian chirchill
romita jr
richard elson(my most recent)

[Bullio]

Where to start?

Dave Cockrum and John Byrne were a lethal one-two on Uncanny X-Men, but I think I'd give the edge to Cockrum as my favorite UXM artist.  80's UXM art was pretty blah until Jim Lee came around, then it took sunk pretty damn low with Kubert and Madureira.

Jim Lee's X-Men were what I grew up with.  I still love that stuff, but he's really gotten a lot better since then too.  Shame he's tied down to DC.

I'm not entirely sure where they rank in my all-time favorites, but Jerome Opena and Esad Ribic are a couple current artists that are just leagues above everyone else right now.  Opena's work on UXF and Avengers is beautiful, as is Ribic's work on Thor: God of Thunder.  And Stuart Immonen has been rocking it on All-New X-Men.

I'm loving what David Aja's been doing with Fraction's Hawkeye title.  Very stylized and different from the typical Marvel stuff.

Patrick Gleason is the best current Batman artist.  His Death of the Family work is sickening, especially his portrayal of Joker's face.

Quitely's Batman work was pretty good, not as good as his All-Star Superman work but was leagues better than his terrible New X-Men work, but Chris Burnham's been a better foil than Quitely to Morrison's Batman work.  The two have very similar styles (I actually thought it was the same person doing the art at first), but Burnham's work has an extra level of detail to it that puts him well above Quitely for me (especially his character work).  He's right up there with Gleason as my favorite current Batman artist, but for entirely different reasons.

I love Frank Miller's old work on Daredevil, TDKR, and the Wolverine mini series, but he started to lose me after TDKR.  He started getting blocky and John Romita Jr-esque with his art, and I can't stand JRJR's art.  Sin City is about the only post-TDKR art of his that I can enjoy.

I really like Rob Guillory's work on Chew, and it's really difficult for me to imagine anyone but him drawing that book.  I especially like his character work, which is very lively and expressive.

I could go on all day about comic art, but I'm always hesitant to point to an artist and state blankly that I like his or her work.  I'm definitely more "I really liked soandso's work on whatever" as opposed to "I really like soandso's work" as there are some artists that I really like, but for whatever reason they just don't work out well on certain books (Quitely's aforementioned work on New X-Men, for example).  Or their style changes over time to something I don't like (Miller).

[BasiliskFang]

mcfarlane's venom and spiderman are awesome.

hate: Rob Lifeld
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/laurae55/liefeld-anatomy-captain-america.jpg
WTF!

http://www.progressiveboink.com/2012/4/21/2960508/worst-rob-liefeld-drawings
http://www.progressiveboink.com/2012/6/14/3084348/the-second-40-worst-rob-liefeld-drawings

[KObossy]

mcfarlane's venom and spiderman are awesome.

hate: Rob Lifeld

I couldnt stand Liefield's art either! He had no clue of a persons anatomy and he couldnt draw hands or feet to save his life! He was the anti-Mcfarlane. I saw him at WWCC a few years back and he has got to be one of the orangest guys I've ever seen!

[Bullio]

mcfarlane's venom and spiderman are awesome.

hate: Rob Lifeld

I couldnt stand Liefield's art either! He had no clue of a persons anatomy and he couldnt draw hands or feet to save his life! He was the anti-Mcfarlane. I saw him at WWCC a few years back and he has got to be one of the orangest guys I've ever seen!

[BasiliskFang]

i saw him at a store signing, when a new guest came up, the first thing he said was "WHERE IS YOUR NUMBER?!"

what a dick.

[thetrooper27]

"I could go on all day about comic art, but I'm always hesitant to point to an artist and state blankly that I like his or her work.  I'm definitely more "I really liked soandso's work on whatever" as opposed to "I really like soandso's work" as there are some artists that I really like, but for whatever reason they just don't work out well on certain books (Quitely's aforementioned work on New X-Men, for example).  Or their style changes over time to something I don't like (Miller)."

I have to agree with this statement.  There are some artists that, while amazing in general, just don't seem to fit a book.  I loved Quitely's Xmen covers, but not his interiors.  Just didn't work for my taste.  And where I mentioned that Deodato's Hulk was killer, I didn't think he was a good fit for Spidey... too dark, but that might have just been the finishes that made me feel that way.  His earlier Hulk stuff with Peter David would've fit Spider-Man much better.  Punisher might be a good book for Deodato in the style he draws now.  Even as much as I love Ramos, there is a book out there that I'm sure I would question him drawing, though one doesn't come to mind.  If it's a dramatic story, then a dramatic artist that can set the mood for the story should draw it.  If it's a high octane action story, then someone who can make the action jump off the page should draw it.  People love Alex Ross.  He's an epic artist... so much to the point that to see him do a simple panel is almost overkill.  I'm not really a Ross fan, but that's just because I have a particular style that I enjoy.  He's an incredible artist, he never disappoints, and his talent is clearly evident, but I don't prefer him.

[gameplan.exe]

JoeMad is a great artist also but placing Battle Chasers on "indefinite hiatus" was unforgiveable!

This must be something from my own personal "dark ages" of not reading/following comics... save me a google trip and someone fill me in...