Favorite comic book artists
 

This is specifically about the drawings and the colouring. Not the writing.

Who are your favorite artists within any area the comic book medium? Show some panels and tell us what about it appeals to you.

I'll post some myself later, but I'm trying to get my scanner working so I can grab something to show directly from my comic book shelves.

I've always been a big fan of Kevin O'Neill's work on 2000AD, especially on Nemesis the Warlock. He's just so the opposite of organic: everything he draws has sharp edges and angles. You can imagine he's actually a robot.
http://johnguycollick.com/wp-content...esisbattle.jpg

I definitely see those sharp edges and angles. It's a very exaggerated way that the characters move and pose.

When I think robotic exactness, I first and foremost think of Roger Leloup's Yoko Tsuno comics. I believe he was an architecht and you see that in the way he illustrates machinery and buildings. His characters have a stiffness about them, but I liked his work a lot despite that.

https://www.bedetheque.com/media/Pla...ncheA_4641.jpg
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AAMZk0PIR...ger-leloup.JPG

No idea how well known Yoko Tsuno is outside of Europe. I grew up with these.

I honestly haven't gotten to the point where I'm following artists. Most of the time it's either a series I'm checking out or a writer. That said some of my favorite art was from Batman comics since he really lends himself to comic book art.

Neal Adams kind of blew my mind when I started reading his Batman stuff from the 70s. Gone was the camp of the 60s Batman show, replaced by a moody, noirish style full of detail and negative space. Basically this was where Batman entered the modern age, and every iteration of him since has been heavily informed by Neal Adams' style.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e4/1e/cc/e...dc219ada6d.jpg



Tim Sale is another artist I found through Batman, specifically the Long Halloween graphic novel, which was the second Batman story I ever read. I've never seen another artist like him tbh. The linework, the colors, the overall approach to drawing a superhero comic. It's just so lush and beautiful to look at.

And hella props to his work on Spider-Man Blue as well.


http://geekandsundry.com/wp-content/...n-10102015.jpg

http://www.shelfabuse.com/wp-content...4899102715.jpg

http://pm1.narvii.com/6270/eaebb36bb...677d755_hq.jpg

The thing about O'Neill is that his art fits the world of Termight (where Nemesis is set: spoiler, it's later revealed to be Earth, wow big surprise!) where everything is harsh and tough and seems mechanised to the max. I of course also (ahem) enjoy Frank Frazetta's work...

@MicShazam - I don't know about the rest of the world, but in America if it's not a superhero comic then just assume we don't know about it.

I hadn't read your posts before I posted mine so for a second I thought we'd both name dropped the same guy. :laughing:

I especially like the first picture in your post. It has a very Will Eisner kind of quality to it, and I just love the way he did urban settings in his Spirit comics.

It looks pretty old to me. 60's?

I like Frazetta too. I'm also a fan of Frank Thorne's work, but most of it is entirely too NSFW for this place.

Will Eisner's another guy who's been on my shortlist for a long time, but I've just not gotten to him yet. The Spirit and A Contract with God will have to be checked out before the year is out.

It's been years, but I used to read a lot of his Spirit comics. They're pretty funny and have some incredible title page illustrations at times.

http://www.djfood.org/wp-content/upl...Life-Below.jpg

I also liked how the stories didn't always follow Spirit himself as a main character. Sometimes they would be these little short stories about various other people of the city.

Literally, the 80s: 1980-1989.
Very true, especially his "warrior women" type ones. And let's not forget our man Vajello....

I've no idea who they were, but whoever drew Abraxas and the Earthman from Epic Comics had real talent for creating the weird...
http://images.tcj.com/2012/08/Mystical.jpg

I've always dug John J Muth:

http://www.allenspiegelfinearts.com/muth_armour.jpg

I have the complete Moonshadow that I bought more for his art than the story.

^Are all the frames done in water color like that?

If so, that's pretty impressive.

Oh yes. Boris too. I was studying them when I was in HS just before I got a scholarship for AIC that I ditched for the Army.

Also, not sure if you were aware of how much the music world appreciates Frank:

Eight Memorable Frank Frazetta Album Covers | Houston Press

As far as the questioned posed in the OP, I'll go out on a limb and throw out some love for the cape master, Todd McFarlane.

http://images.tcj.com/2012/08/MFyeartwoweb.jpg

On the other end, I've grown to love hating Rob Liefeld. His art looks like a dumpster fire, but it's hilariously bad with a character that lends itself less to honest derision and more to a drinking game of Find the Feet/Pouches/Asterisk Crotch.

That's pretty amazing. Maybe he just can't draw feet? :laughing:

Love Ian Gibson's work on Judge Dredd,

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...2dae922c3e.png
and Carlos Ezquerra (who also drew him) on Strontium Dog.
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s2/stront3.jpg

****ing brilliant! :laughing:

I really like the style of Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri. His landscapes are pale, often sand coloured and there's an atmosphere of decay to everything. In his Druuna comics, the main character's skin tends to stand out against the surroundings and other characters, as if she's the only thing in this world that isn't diseased and dying. There's a plague at the center of the Druuna comics, which are set in a post apocalyptic setting that becomes increasingly sci-fi along the way.

Huge images ahead...





For anyone who doesn't know the Druuna comics: They're sort of pervy. It's hard to find a full page that isn't at least going into nipple territory.

Another perv I really like is Milo Manara. Here's some of his most imaginative, least pervy work:



I really like his line work. I love drawings where you can really see every line without much done to clean the images up. It's a very common trait of 70's and 80's European comics that they're kind of ehmm... adult oriented, plus they tend to have these very scribbly drawings that forego precision in favor of expressiveness. I can't quite articulate it, but if you've read both a lot of American comics and a lot of European comics, it's clear that there are general differences in the artistry.
There are several pages in this particular book that are flat out gorgeous in a very special way. It was based on a Federico Fellini movie that never got made. Not sure what the English language title is.

You've opened that box: now you have to show us his pervy work! :laughing:

I'd love to, but then I'd have to place black boxes over everything and then where's then fun in it?

Yeah it's softcore porn basically. Not even basically. It just is softcore porn.

He's got three levels of comics in his library:

1 - straight up softcore porn. The "Click!" series, for example.
2 - very sexually explicit at times, but not about it as such. "Borgias" for example.
3 - something resembling a normal comic, but with somewhat of a higher quantity of naked butts and breasts.

This is always welcome.

What is it with Italians and erotic comics anyway?

Italians and the French just as much, really. And Danish comics as well, now that I think about it. Probably German too.
Europeans are just dirty, basically. Except for those boring British folk.

Italians are erotic about everything else, why not comics?

Boring, you say?
http://orig07.deviantart.net/8b2f/f/...ev-d41d5vd.jpg

https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.ne...00/1149535.jpg

Even pizza? I don't really want to know, actually.

You definitely don't. You'll never order an Italian pizza again.

You'll be fine as long as you avoid the alfredo sauce and make sure you know where the pepperoni came from.

I actually thought for a moment that Frank Thorne was British, but I googled it and he's American.
Daniel Schaffer's Dogwitch turns out to be British. Probably the most pervy British comics I have. They're never explicit though, so nothing on the Italians.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d2/b7/15/d...-comic-art.jpghttps://i.pinimg.com/736x/4b/2c/1a/4...omic-books.jpg

And we of course can't forget Dave Gibbons...

80s comic book art is kind of my favorite thing.

Gibbons packs so much into the art of every panel for Watchmen, it's ****ing incredible. I see something new every time I read it. The detail is amazing.

The 80s seemed to be the high point of detailed realism afaic. Then the 90s made detail garish and we've never really gone back to that level of detail for the most part.

More than just a Cartoonist, Writer, Frank Thorne is a hero in me.