Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

[Vigil]

Hi All,

 

This is one that I've been thinking of for quite a while...the best artist in comics. Just trying to narrow this one down, in any way, is an almost impossible task. For every choice I'm sure there are a dozen as worthy and, like in all of these polls, I'm sure I neglected some who richly sdeserve to be mentioned. Ah well, nothings perfect, least of all my polls.

 

Anyway, the 10 I've selected (entirely arbitrarily, lol) are:

 

John Byrne: perhaps the definitive artist of the 70's and proably the most stylistically copied artist ever.

 

Neal Adams: the guy that John Byrne copied. Adams revolutionized the medium and di thing with panels that no one had before. Probably the most influential artist of the 60's...

 

Jack Kirby: ..with the exception of this guy who co-created an entire universe and an entirely new approach to graphic art in comics and beyond

 

George Perez: Byrne's rival in the 70's and still today. The other great of the 70's.

 

Mike Mignola: one of the great innnovators in the medium. Has created his own singularly recognizable, distinctive, style and has carved out his own little niche in the comics universe.

 

Todd McFarlane: has a much bigger niche than Mignola (or so I'm told) and has a pair of really expensive balls, too. He also created Spawn and co-founded the greatest comics revolution of the 90's, Image. Easily the wealthiest artist in the medium.

 

Brian Hitch: continues the tradition of Adams/Byrne but perhaps with even greater technical virtuosity. Maybe the best "new" artist working today.

 

Jim Lee: one of the great technical virtuosos, his X-Men recreated and re-energized the team and propelled the industry into it's most prosperous period. Plus, Rob Liefeld used to trace Jim's pages and submit them to editors as his.

 

Frank Miller: make the grim 80's grim with the Dark Knight and much darker, more earthy and even "manga" style of art...way before it was cool. Plus he made ninjas all the rage.

 

John Romita, Jr: did what was almost unthinkable and became as good an artist as his old man. Viewed by many as the greatest Daredevil and Spidey artist ever.

 

So there's the cnadaiadtes. Yes, I know I missed a zillion, including some of my perrenial faves, but hey, I'm trying to be a bit objective. That being said, who is the best comic artist, ever?

 

Vigil

[Sketchpad]

Re: Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

 

Vigil ... you should make this a poll And I think someone did this in the NGD area ... though I'm not sure

[Vigil]

Re: Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

 

Hey Sketchpad,

 

I did try to make this a poll, twice in fact, and each time the poll function locked up and then crashed. In fact, when I last cjecked it didn't even post the text and now there's two iterations of it. I don't know what's happening with the forums tonight but it just doesn't seem to be working.

 

Vigil

[Zeropoint]

Re: Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

 

I notice that you have included only American comic artists in your list. I, as the guy that keeps dragging manga into superhero comics discussions, am going to have to nominate Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, Black Magic, Dominion Tank Police ), Hayao Miyazaki (Nausicca of the Valley of Wind ), and Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal ).

 

There are, of course, artists that I'm leaving out, and I am in fact leaving out the authors of several series that I like, because this is about talent as an artist, and these three have the most distinct and impressive artwork.

 

Also note that Hayao Miyazaki has created much more than Nausicca, but since that's the only one of his works that I've encountered in the manga form, it's the only one I'm including. His films include but are not limited toKiki's Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky: Laputa, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away.

 

Runners-up: Yukito Kishiro (Battle Angel Alita, Aqua Knight), Kenichi Sonada (Gunsmith Cats, Cannon God Exxaxion), Kia Asamiya (Steam Detectives, Martian Successor Nadesico), and Kosuke Fujishima (Oh My Goddess!, You're Under Arrest, Tales of Symphonia (the recent Gamecube RPG) ).

 

In the interest of dragging this back around to American superheroes, Kia Asamiya is the author and artist of Batman: Child of Dreams.

 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion.

 

Zeropoint

[Vigil]

Re: Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

 

Hey Zeropoint,

 

It's true, I did exclude the manga artists...but I can plead ignorance. Willful ignorance, in fact. You see the problem that I have with manga (and I realize that this is a very limited view and not at all reflective of all of the manga art out there) is that most of the manga which I have been exposed to was way over the top cartoony and so generic and house as to make Richie Rich and Archie look like Dave McKean. Now, I realize that there's way more to manga than that. In fact, I quite liked a few anime, including Princess Mononoke and especially Ninja Scroll but I just can't get past my first impression.

 

Beyond the manga artists, though, I also excluded lots of talented Europeans including Moebius and Alan Davis and lots of others, which shows I'm not biased.

 

Sorry about the poll not posting. You can be assured that the webmaster will receive a firmly worded letter.

 

Vigil

[Pegasus]

Re: Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

 

I really think you give Byrne far too much credit. Byrne and Perez rivals?? Contemporaries, yes. Artistic rivals, never. If there was a definitive artist of the seventies, you can make a stronger case for a Buscema, Romita, or Golden.

 

Some notable absences from your list: Art Adams, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, Mark Bagley, Walt Simonson

 

Then there are the controversial ones, the love 'em or hate 'em stylized artists, such as Larry Stroman, Sam Keith, or Bill Sienkiwicz.

[Vigil]

Re: Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

 

Honest, I'd be the last one to give Byrne credit for anything. I think he's the biggest hack working today and has absolutely no respect for the indistry or characterization or history. But, back in the 70's he was the stuff and was probably only rivalled by Perez (who hadn't quite hit his stride but had great promise), Simonson (who did beautiful stuff on Manhunter), Starlin (Warlock, nuff said) and maybe Golden, who did immaculate work especially on the Micronauts but who just never exerted anywhere near the influence Byrne did. As to the absences on the list, it's funny but I actually had Maguire, Hughes and Adams on an earlier list but didn't think they, again, had the kind of pervasive influence others on the list did. If you're wondering who I replaced them with it was JR, Jr.

[zornwil]

Re: Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

 

IMHO, it's no contest...Dave McKean.

 

I'm also fond of Frank Miller and Alex Ross.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Election Day Special - The Best Artist In Comics

 

Greatest of all time...

I'd likely go Kirby. He defined so much about the form of comic book storytelling that it seems almost impossible to imagine what they would look like without his influence (and this from someone who generally doesn't like marvel, expecially classic marvel).

 

Greatest living. Perez hands down.