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Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!


RexMundi

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All right true believers let's hear it. Here are the thread Rules. You Get to pick, whom you think is a Good (Great, the Best, Can't live without) comic Writer/Artist Dead or Alive).

 

Then, you get to Pick a Writer/Artist, that you think should be tied to large chunks of Radioactive Iron, and dumped into the Marianas Trench, or Launched into the Sun because they are THAT bad.

 

And finally, You get to pick a set, that Just don't fall into Either category, Or have moments of brilliance, over shadowed with blatant moments of "Uggh what a Turd."

 

Try and follow this Format:

 

1. Writer Good

2. Writer Bad

3. Writer Ugly

 

1. Artist Good

2. Artist BAD

3. Artist Ugly

 

Back your statements, the folks could be living or dead, any Genre of Work (though you must list Genre), and it has to be what would be considered a comic book, aka Graphic Story Telling. Not just comic strip, or a Novel with some illustrations in it.

 

~Rex

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Alright, I'll start just so the first Rocks are thrown this way.

 

1. Writer Good: I'm going with Ed Brubaker on this one. Fantastic Story Teller, that could easily be doing novels. Willing to take what others BREAK, and fix it, then make it better, without wrecking continuity. Considerate of OTHERS work as well. Stunning Work ethic, and capable of writing in a broad depth, from quick and easy pulp (Ingognito), Crime Drama (Crimical), to Hands on PARAGON role model Super Hero (Captain America), and Epic crawl from the depths of darkness Vigilantism (Daredevil, Iron Fist). Even when he DOES change an element of a characters background, he does so with Respect, and in a fashion that Works. Not just, Handwavium Abra cadabra Retcon BS (See, oh, Spider-Man).....

 

2. Writer Bad: Bad is ALWAYS a tough call, because these guys make money, doing something that most of us can not. My call for Bad on this one, is going to Jeph Loeb (With Brian Bendis a close second for many of the same reasons). Mr. Loeb pretty much writes what he wants, and in the past, well Eisner Awards are not easy to get. The last several years though, have been Excruciating for me. His Writing has gotten, Lazy, more Television then comic, and he's fallen into unforgivable habits of LYING to fans within the story, stomping all over continuity, and other peoples work. This guy used to be Really good, and would have been in my top 10 list for sure, but now, I can't bring myself to read anything with his name on it. As I said earlier I would have had Bendis as this pick, but Bendis, didn't try and force feed me the Red Hulk (Which could have been a great story, if not laden with "When writing Mysteries, NEVER do THIS!" *proceeds to do it over and over again*).

 

3. Writer Ugly: Jim Starlin. Starlins work is either, AWE INSPIRING, or Total Drek. There's never anything in the middle with this guy. Kind of reminds me of Phillip K. Dick in a lot of ways. If he's dealing with a character he Likes (Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock, Namor etc), the Story is Always great, spot on, true to itself and things around it. Watch out though if it's a Character he doesn't Seem to Like (Captain Comet), or one that you Really Like, that he just doesn't care about (Hawkman). he's got a bad habit, of Importing stuff from his other work, into stuff he's getting paid to do (Hardcore Station for example), and while that's fine by me, he does it in a way that smashes everything continuity wise aside. He'll then, Add in a bunch of Side characters, So that the now Incompetent hero, has someone to go to for help since they now can't do anything without all the cooler Starlin background characters to help out. STILL, his characters like that, Tend to be VERY cool and nifty (Chief Justice Max, sort of like, Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon meets Judge Dredd). So it's Always back and forth with this guy.

 

1. Artist Good: VERY tough call for me. There are books now, that I buy, just for the Artist. Guys like Tim Sale, Michael Turner, David Finch, George Perez, John Byrne, Etc etc etc etc etc. Still, if I boil it all down, I pick. Martin Nodel. Martins work was simply WAY ahead of it's time. Not only was the guy, one of the golden age greats, he never stopped drawing. I met him at Wizard World just before he died, and he was kicked back in the Life Support Chair, doodling away, and chatting it up with kids that had no clue who he was. Because while certain BIG companies were promoting the new blood, Martin, who was still doing work for them as well off and on, was way way way in the back, in the independent artist row. A friend of mine and myself spent three days talking with the guy. We went through his whole Portfolio, and then, watched him draw out a full comic page in about 15 minutes, Old Golden Age Style. Then, 15 minutes later, you got to see the silver age style. 15 minutes after that, Bronze and Iron Age stuff, styling like the Lee boys. Another 15 minutes, Same Page, Alex Ross. Stunningly skilled man, and probably the most underrated artist in the business.

 

2. Artist Bad: Worst Comic artist Ever. Writer bad is always tough. Artist Bad, is actually EASY. Rob Liefeld. Effectively, all I can say is that, Death by being smashed in the face over and over again with a Brick, would be preferable then having to look at ANYTHING, this man has drawn. Still, getting up in his mush at comic-con, was worth the over night stay in county, just to say "Hey Rob!, good going on the Captain America Covers you ****** up, but what the heck, At least the Red Skull's up your Art Alley. No Eyes, No Lips, even you can't make it worse." This guy got lucky off a bad contest and stretched his 15 minutes of fame into a career that jsut Craps all over the industry in general. he's the Uwe Boll, of Comic book Artists, and I feel bad for Uwe, comparing him to Liefeld.

 

3. Artist The Ugly: Hmmmmm. THIS one, is Tough. Ugly is always Tough, but for ME. It's Frank Miller. His work is Either Ground Breaking and Awesome (Sin City), or, What did I just Look at, and can I claw out my Eyes now? Most of his stuff I really Like, Some of it though, feels like I took a 2x4 to the nads. Still though for his work on Sin City, Daredevil, Dark Knight Returns (Not the sequel though uggh), I rate him Highly, then, he goes "LOOK AT THIS!", and I want to run screaming. As always, Ugly is hard to call.

 

~Rex.....makes the First Wave.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

I dont read that many comics anymore so you can take this with a grain of salt.

1. Writer Good: I used to like Roy Thomas when I was a kid. I liked his Earth 2 stories over most others in the field. I felt he got the shaft when DC consolidated their multiverse and then came unglued over how to reset it. Its only now that the JSA is back as a team and treated well but I can't stand to read about them. I liked Ostrander for the same reason. He would go back to some element in his character's past and put a new spin on it.

 

2. Writer Bad: My peeve is endlessly retconning which seems odd considering I liked Thomas, the king of retcons. The thing that has turned me off of comics is the endless rewriting of history for whatever reason. Geoff Johns is a prime example. Superboy is Lex Luthor's kid cause I need that struggle. What is that?

 

3. Writer Ugly: I don't about ugly, but as much as I liked Ostrander, sometimes it would bother me that some of his characters would shift to other books he was writing. When he wrote Firestorm, the professor from the Suicide Squad was on the staff. When he wrote the spectre, Jim Corrigan's confidant was the priest from the Squad.

 

1. Artist Good: George Perez is my favorite artist. I appreciate the detail he puts in every frame.

2. Artist BAD: Liefield.

3. Artist Ugly: Ben Templesmith from Wormwood. That is some mixed media eye hatred there.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

For someone that isn't reading that many comics anymore I have to say that's a good spread. Geoff Johns at one point, I would have had in my bad list. With the Green Lantern material of late, I've moved him to Ugly, with Shades of Good. His main problem is his consistency, and his need to Invent Conflict where none is needed nor desired. Even in the Green lantern material, which is his best work, he does this, by making Abin Sur's Sister, Sinestros Original Love interest. *sigh* So he's still slipping in the WTF? he just does it in smaller bits and pieces.

 

Roy Thomas, was a FANTASTIC writer, and is in my top ten list. I wholeheartedly agree he got the shaft but you can still see his touch even in other peoples handling of the JSA today, it was that good, you just can't break it. Ostrander as well is one of my favorite writers, I've got everything he's put to comic form but much for the same reasons you point out, character over lap and such (a Trait shared by Jim Starlin in my posting), I keep him at the top of my Ugly list. When he's on, it's riveting, Novelesque. When he's off, you kinda go, "I thought Ostrander was writing this?".

 

George Perez, will always be my alternate for a Number one spot as far as Artist goes. That guy turns out gold whenever he touches a pencil. It was a very tough call for me with the artist pick, but Perez is always in my top 5, and like Nodel will always be in the top 5 since I have yet to see anyone that is that consistent and that good on a schedule.

 

Now Ben Templesmith. That is a good pick for an Ugly. I loved his 30 Days of Night stuff, but for some reason Wormwood didn't work for me. Again he seems to be one of those multmedia back and forth artists, but he does seem to be getting better as he goes on, so he's definitely one to keep an eye on. Much like Tim Bradstreet, if in the right Genre, his Art really pops and grabs you by the eyes.

 

~Rex

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Templesmith, when he's ON, can do some phenomenal photo-realistic stuff.

 

Too many choices for BAD writer. Liefeld is just too easy to point to for BAD artist, so I'm hoping to find a different option if it comes down to it.

 

For GOOD artist, I'll toss Pia Guerra's name into the ring. I looked up her stuff from "Y the Last Man" and was very impressed with it when I found out she was going to be the artist for IDW's "Doctor Who: The Forgotten" miniseries. Unfortunately, real life reared its ugly head and she didn't get to do all the issues there...

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Artist is going to be the toughest one. Folks will point to Liefeld real quick. I singled him out, because he's SO bad, he has to be the first one listed. If I couldn't have picked him, I would have listed Andy Clarke. Technically at the moment, he's in my Ugly list, since I really Liked his 2000AD work, but his style doesn't fit the stuff DC keeps trying to force at me as good, and that's forced so much now, I'm leaning towards dropping titles simply because he's drawing them.

 

Pia Guerra's a great pick. I like Nicola Scott as well, Secret Six being a fun book for me for some unknown reason. I would put her team mate Gail Simone in as an honorable mention for Writer as well. She reminds me of a calm Ostrander.

 

~Rex

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

The problem I have with participating is that I've been following the comic careers of some of these creators for more than three decades. There is no one who has never disappointed me and there is no one who has come up completely dry. Liefeld's early Hawk & Dove wasn't that bad. Kurt Busiek has written some iffy stuff. Even Chuck Austen doesn't completely suck. It took Alan Davis a few issues of Batman & the Outsiders to get used to working in color rather than b&w.

 

Tim Truman seems to have a good idea of where his strengths are as an artist, and he passes on the jobs that wouldn't match up well. So we get Scout, Hawkworld, Grimjack, Ostrander and Lansdale pairings, but Truman would suck on X-Men or Avengers or JLA so he doesn't go there. I'll pick him as my good artist. Maybe Mike Grell also, who has done LSH, Warlord, Jon Sable and Iron Man and knocked all of them out of the park. Maybe Mark Bagley.

 

Bad? I tend not to know the names of bad artists because their participation on a book means I won't pick it up. I'll pick up a book with mediocre art if the writing is top notch. I picked up that Wildstorm universe trial mini series even though Liefeld was drawing it because Alan Moore was writing it.

 

Ugly? I don't care for artists that can't maintain a consistent style through a single issue, where you can just tell that some of the pages were scribbled rather than rendered. I really don't like Alex Ross' interior work but he is a magnificent cover artist, so I guess he can be my "ugly" pick.

 

Good writer? Gail Simone. Lots of options here because I read comics for the writing, so I could include Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, John Ostrander, Kurt Busiek, JMS, Alan Davis, Mike Grell, Brian K Vaughn and others as names that almost assure that I'm going to buy, read and like the book but Gail hasn't let me down yet.

 

Bad? Chuck Austen. Millar. Long list of names that blew an editor to get work. The only mystery is how some of them continue to get work.

 

Ugly? Fabien Nicienza. A man walks the earth responsible for both X-Force and the New Warriors. Crazy.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

OK I'm way behind on y comic reading because basically Didio and Joe Q hate me on a personal level. So some of these will be dated.

 

For degree of Difficulty, I will Not use Leifield or my favorite whippingboy, Mark Millar.

 

Writers: Oddly enough, I never cared about writers in the past, only the art and the characters. If the writer was someone I felt didn't capture the characters as I felt they should, i dropped title. but never really cared who they were. Also I do tend to enjoy creator owned stories/Universes. It's easier to deal with than the classics...

Good: Dan Slott - Sadly, I only have the briefest of brushes with this guy. He came on as I was leaving the hobby. However, he seems to a) care about the characters, and B) can do light-hearted and serious.

Bad: A nod of the cap to Casualplayer for reminding me. Chuck Austen. Lousy plotting, raging ego, and no concept of what came before him. Everything he touches turns to feces.

Ugly: Harder to do. I mean if they suck you say bad. I'll put Jon Byrne here. I love his art. And enjoyed some of his work. However, he has also penned some storylines that creep me out or offend me.

 

Artist:

 

Good: Bryan Hitch - (spelling?) his work on the original Authority and the Ultimates made my start both titles. I think he has a great grasp of anatomy and a clean style.

 

Bad: John Romata Jr.. God I've always hated his blocky scribbles.

 

Ugly: Hmm...Well there's Erik Larsen who started out with a more traditional style which I liked and then decided that being a bad parody of Todd McFarlane was the way to go. But I'll put in here Jim Lee a guy I loved in the 90's and now I look at his early work and just cringe. He has a great feel but he uses so many damn lines and his character designs don't really hold up IMO.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Artist Good: George Perez. There's almost nothing he can't draw that I don't like...and probably the only person who could have pulled off JLA/Avengers and STILL make it look fantastic.

 

Artist Bad: Bret Blevins. Seriously....he's terrible. All characters drawn by him look like they're supposed to be preteens...with ultra skinny bodies and big heads and eyes. UGH.

 

Artist Ugly: John Romita Jr....great on his early Spider-man work...sub par since....especially when half of his works feels like he never finished it before it went to print.

 

Writer Good: Busiek...Made the Avengers worth reading again...at least for a while...and also pulled off JLA/Avengers without dissing either side....along with Marvels..which was excellent

 

Writer Bad: Mark Millar....wrote Civil War...which was beyond terrible. Nuff said.

 

Writer Ugly: Brian Micheal Bendis...Good ideas executed poorly or ideas that start good and turn to crap(Secret Invasion). Generally..his work has been sub par, but he has glimpses of a good idea once in a while..that just never pans out well...sigh

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Nice to see other people actually KNOW who Gail Simone is, and have actually survived looking at something Bret Blevins has drawn, without the nasty side effect of wanting to tear out your own eyes. The Writer shots, have been exceptionally tough. Right now, I'd have to say as a Team, it would be tough for anyone in the business to beat Busiek and Perez.

 

Some of these guys (Millar is a good example) I just wonder about. Take John Romita Jr. I loved his Spiderman work. Certain Artists seem to excel with certain characters (Walt Simonson doing, Thor or Orion for example), but they should NEVER be allowed to touch something else. Other guys like Chuck Austen, should have been smothered in their crib as a baby, preferably smothered with the beaten corpse of Rob Liefeld but what can I say, that sort of act requires Garth Enis style brutality.

 

I liked the Alex Ross comment there to. The man DOES do excellent covers. But I don't Like his interiors one bit.

 

So don't let, time out of the hobby keep you from sounding off. It also, doesn't have to be the super hero genre. Take a look at Stan Goldberg. Clean shrap work, fun to look at, dynamic, consistent, and something lacking in a lot of guys today, Balanced and proportioned. And we're talking about the guy that draws for the Archie comics. Toss in someone like Masanume Shirow as well, a man that can do backgrounds so detailed that every time you pick up some of his work you see something new in it. So, Genre, or out of the hobby for a long time, doesn't matter. So far a lot of the better picks have come from the folks out of the hobby, heh.

 

~Rex...says Gail Simone is so good She makes Catman cool.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Writer Good: Alan Moore. It's become sort of fashionable to knock Moore, but his appearance on the US comics scene re-vitalised how people looked at comics - both inside and outside the industry. Brilliantly imaginative, astonishingly tight scripts and a very dark sense of humour mark Moore out as the first and best artist to write in the comics medium.

 

Writer Bad: The likes of Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim, Bob Zale and Zeb Wells. Hacks who show no care or consideration for characters who have been developed over 40 years, and wipe them away for the sake of cheap shot short-term sales.

 

Writer Ugly: Frank Miller. I loved his stuff early on, but he became a parody of himself. Dark Knight Strikes Again was appauling.

 

Artist Good; Alan Davis. I love Matt Wagner. The forgotten man Steve Rude. Kirby. Ditko. Barry Windsor-Smith. Frank Bellamy and many more, but Davis can draw anything. In tiny panels. Brilliantly.

 

Artist Bad: Liefield. 'nuff said.

 

Artist Ugly: Jim Lee. urg. Dreadful anatomy. I know everyone loves him, but I just can't stand what he does.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Writer Good: Alan Moore. It's become sort of fashionable to knock Moore, but his appearance on the US comics scene re-vitalised how people looked at comics - both inside and outside the industry. Brilliantly imaginative, astonishingly tight scripts and a very dark sense of humour mark Moore out as the first and best artist to write in the comics medium.

 

Writer Bad: The likes of Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim, Bob Zale and Zeb Wells. Hacks who show no care or consideration for characters who have been developed over 40 years, and wipe them away for the sake of cheap shot short-term sales.

 

Writer Ugly: Frank Miller. I loved his stuff early on, but he became a parody of himself. Dark Knight Strikes Again was appauling.

 

Artist Good; Alan Davis. I love Matt Wagner. The forgotten man Steve Rude. Kirby. Ditko. Barry Windsor-Smith. Frank Bellamy and many more, but Davis can draw anything. In tiny panels. Brilliantly.

 

Artist Bad: Liefield. 'nuff said.

 

Artist Ugly: Jim Lee. urg. Dreadful anatomy. I know everyone loves him, but I just can't stand what he does.

 

:lol:

Well we agree and disagree at the same time. :)

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Artists- Good: Todd Nuack and Mike Weiringo (RIP), cause i like an internally consistent and fun style.

 

Artist-Bad: Steve Uy, cannot believe that he was ever paid to draw a comic, let alone more than one- otherwise loved the Initiative but his art was so bad it almost turned me off the whole series (niot just the issues he drew, which I flat-out would not buy).

 

Artists-Ugly: Yeah, this will upset a few people but George Perez- fantastic artist but all the costume design sense of a blind man that uses an etch a sketch to design his costumes. The man managed to make the Scarlet Witch look horrid with his costume redesign, seems to have some bizarre fascination with yellow banded strips, and whose design of Nightwing's costume was thankfully later redone so as not to make me want to throw Dick Grayson down a flight of stair chained into a wheelchair.

 

Writer-Good: Dan Slott, consistently a good read.

 

Writer-Bad: Geofff Johns, always makes me want to throw HIm down a flight of stairs.

 

Writer-Ugly: Josh Whedon- love the Buffy and Firefly was incredible but his run on X-men was in its own ways worse than Scott Lobdell's who was just consistently bad. I expect dreck from Lbdell but I had high hopee for Whedon that were dashed after burning the one copy of his X-men run that I could force myself to buy.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Artists- Good: Todd Nuack and Mike Weiringo (RIP), cause i like an internally consistent and fun style.

 

Artist-Bad: Steve Uy, cannot believe that he was ever paid to draw a comic, let alone more than one- otherwise loved the Initiative but his art was so bad it almost turned me off the whole series (niot just the issues he drew, which I flat-out would not buy).

 

Artists-Ugly: Yeah, this will upset a few people but George Perez- fantastic artist but all the costume design sense of a blind man that uses an etch a sketch to design his costumes. The man managed to make the Scarlet Witch look horrid with his costume redesign, seems to have some bizarre fascination with yellow banded strips, and whose design of Nightwing's costume was thankfully later redone so as not to make me want to throw Dick Grayson down a flight of stair chained into a wheelchair.

 

Writer-Good: Dan Slott, consistently a good read.

 

Writer-Bad: Geofff Johns, always makes me want to throw HIm down a flight of stairs.

 

Writer-Ugly: Josh Whedon- love the Buffy and Firefly was incredible but his run on X-men was in its own ways worse than Scott Lobdell's who was just consistently bad. I expect dreck from Lbdell but I had high hopee for Whedon that were dashed after burning the one copy of his X-men run that I could force myself to buy.

 

Hmmm. More interesting things. A very good point with Perez there though I feel obligated to toss out the "Product of the times" for Nightwings costume back then, heh. Geoff Johns, as I stated before I used to hate, but when he can focus on ONE thing, he seems to be improving. Now Dan Jurgens, I would happily toss down a flight of stairs.

 

Nice pick on the artists, as I don't think to many people recall Mike Weiringo. Great Artist really died way to young. Loved his Fantastic Four look (was classic and clean), and his Tellos book was a fun perusal as well. Tod Nuack, I think could develop into a huge talent. I liked his Young Justice stuff but wasn't overly impressed with his other material. He's got a thing for big feet, heh. Still I see the potential there as well so good picks. Dan Slott ranks high on my list for a Writer as well. I really get a kick out of Avengers: The Initiative. His MVP storyline was simply twisted, the work of a mad genius for sure.

 

~Rex

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Artists (Good):

I cut my teeth on Epic Illustrated magazine (and the comics line it spawned), so most of my favorite artists were ones who got their start in Epic. These guys did some amazing, ground-breaking work -- the sort of stuff that nobody had ever seen in a comicbook before (or in some cases, since).

 

Jon J. Muth

Bill Seinkowitz

Charles Vess

Kent Williams

Barry Windsor-Smith

Michael William Kaluta

Phillip Craig Russell

 

Those are the guys whose artwork I love -- they are artists who even people who hate comic books can love. For more "traditional" comic book work, these are some of the names that pop out at me:

 

Guy Davis -- I've been following his career since the very beginning, when he was doing a tiny little independent book called The Realm. He moved on from there to another indy title called Baker Street, which was sort of Sherlock Holmes as a british punk rocker chick in the 80s-90s. Sandman Mystery Theatre was brilliant, and I love his work on The Marquis and BPRD currently.

 

Stuart Immonen -- Nextwave: Agents of HATE. 'Nuff said.

 

Chris Sprouse -- The guy who did Legionaires and Tom Strong. Another artist I've been following since his early days. Take a look at Legionaires and compare it to his most recent work -- you'll see the evolution of an artist.

 

Kevin Maguire & Terry Austin -- Who doesn't love their work on JLI? They're both good artists, but put them in the room together and watch the magic happen.

 

Keith Giffen -- loved his work as an artist throughout the 90s (Dr. Fate, LSH, and a number of independent projects). He does more writing now than art, but I'll forever know him as an artist.

 

Mike Mignolia -- Hellboy and its spinoffs. Nuff said. Like Giffen, he's mostly writing these days (and working for Hollywood), but his artwork is beautiful.

 

Eddie Campbell -- one of those "out of left field" picks, I think. I loved his work in Baccus and From Hell, but he's not for everyone.

 

Tim Sale -- Especially his early work, in things like Grendel and The Amazon. I haven't seen much of him recently, but I understand he's still working.

 

Bad artists:

You know, I prefer to remember the good rather than the bad, so my favorites shine out in my mind, while the really awful ones are mercifully forgotten. One bad one that sticks out for me is... oh, gosh, I don't remember his name, but the artist on early issues of the New Avengers. Man, there was a scene where Elekra was revealed to be a Skrull, and I didn't even realize that she had changed. I think it's Francis Yu, but I don't want to dis the guy if it isn't him. Whoever it was, he stunk. :think:

 

Good writers:

So many of my faves have already been mentioned -- Busiek, Dematteis, Giffen (especially working with Dematteis!), and Moore. Here's a few that no one else has mentioned yet:

 

Matt Wagner -- Can't believe no one has mentioned Wagner yet! Grendel, American Flagg, and a ton of mainstream stuff.

 

Grant Morrison -- The king of weird. His All-Star Superman was brilliant, as was his Doom Patrol and The Invisibles. And of course, he's the guy who revitalized the JLA in the 2000s, so there's that. A lot of folks don't like his crazy-on-acid vibe, but he can write anything from Silver Age to Bronze Age to Rusty Iron, and make it all good.

 

Neil Gaimen -- He's moved away from comics and into more mainstream literature, but he'll always be among the best.

 

Bad writers:

Again, the good writers tend to stand out to me much more than the bad ones. Here's the two that come to mind:

 

Chuck Austin -- Possibly the worst writer working in comics today. Hawkeye advising Cap to get girls by slappin' them around? Ug.

 

Jeph Loeb -- I used to like his work. Batman: A Long Halloween was wonderful. But recently, everything he touches turns grim and ugly. I'm willing to give him some slack because of the tragedy in his life, but really, he needs to get some professional therapy. :(

 

Ugly writers:

Writers who are capable of good work, but sometimes put out utter crap? This is the most painful, because you know they're capable of quality work, so when they fall so far short of the mark it just makes your heart ache.

 

Bendis -- Brilliant work on Ultimate Spider-Man. He can write insecure teenagers like no one else. His writing is funny and tragic and heroic by turns. But put him on the Avengers and the magic goes away. Everyone -- EVERYONE -- sounds like a teenager. That's cool when the book is about teens, but when you've got Luke Cage sounding just like a 17 year old, you've got a problem. :no:

 

Millar -- Loved his work on The Ultimates. Hated just about everything else he's done.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

H'mmmm. Lemmeseenow:

 

Good artists - Alex Ross, of course. And I'd like to include Paul Pelletier in there too, plus Bill Sienkiewicz and Joe McFarlane.

Bad artists - tempting as it would be to B****-slap Liefeld again, I'll go for Juan Bobillo instead. His artwork on "She Hulk: Single White Female" left with a severe case of WTF?

Ugly artists - hmmmm. I guess that would be Carlos Ezquerra, from 2000AD.

 

Good writers - Brian Michael Bendis for Powers.

Can't think of bad and ugly writers, though.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

Good writer--Peter David

Bad writer--Mark Millar

Ugly writer--hmm, I'll go with Frank Miller, brilliant in the 80s and early 90s, kinda crap since then.

Good artist--Frank Cho

Bad artist--Liefeld

Ugly artist--John Byrne--1985:"hey, this art is pretty neat!" 1995: "hey, this art looks awfully similar..." 2005:"Hey, this art looks exactly the same as the stuff I saw in the 80s"

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

1. Writer Good: Among current writers, I like Dan Slott. Great sense of humor and a real internal consistency to what he works with.

2. Writer Bad: Well, "bad" is an interesting term. In many cases I'd say the writer writes well enough but their ideas cause me greivous injury. You can be good at writing bad ideas. Like Millar.

3. Writer Ugly: Mmm, Dunno. Don't follow it all closely enough anymore. I've been off the books for about a year, so I'm a little hazy.

 

1. Artist Good: Alex Ross. As much as I enjoy most forms of comic book art, and his is the least "comic-booky", I'm impressed virtually every time he does something. I know lots of people don't like his style but I love Bill Sinkaweicz as well; his style was so different, and now so imitated.

2. Artist BAD: Occasionally I see someone in real life who seems somehow mishapen; Head is big, Butt is oddly oversized... on those days I wonder if Liefeld was guest artist for God that week. On that note, I'd give an "all-time" honorable mention to Frank Robbins, a golden/silver-age artist whose figures always adopted the weirdest poses.

3. Artist Ugly: Tough category again. Being someone who draws things I later hate but liked at the time, I'm not sure I see someone out there who gives me that same cringe moment.

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Re: Comic Writers and Artist: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly!

 

I think a lot of folks would like to see, Celebrity Death Match of the Miller/Millars ......Frank Millar I have noticed, is always great, when he's doing something he's interested in doing, as opposed to doing something he's obligated to do. Mark Millar, I think has a great idea once in awhile, then goes berserk, when folks go, "Dude, uhmm, you need Retalin"....

 

Frank Robbins was a name I haven't seen in a long time, and yeah, he ranks in the Good, borderline Ugly for me because sometimes his work was, WOW, then next time it was "Why aren't they falling over?" I think a lot of that had to do with the fact he was heavily into Comic Strips as well, and those require an exaggerated stance. His work as a Writer though, was pretty good and a lot of his odd stuff seems to be tied directly to his Johnny Hazzard days. I loved his Marvel stuff, especially the Human Fly which remains one of my favorite comics. Batman fans owe the guy some props as well. Still, I can see how he would irk a few folks. Lot of those folks wouldn't care for a Kirby or a Kubert either.

 

~Rex

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