Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Who are your favorite comic book artists, and why?

One of my favorite Adams Superman covers has an adult Lex punching baby Supes, with baby Flash and Batman lying in the background...

Director Lad and I got to see Adams, Scott Shaw and Sergio Aragonés square off at this year's "Quick Draw" at San Diego Comic-Con. It was freakin' amazing!

Pollard left the comics industry in the mid-90s, but still does the occassional convention appearance.

I forgot to mention before that Pollard also drew Fantastic Four #200, which wasn't nearly as good as Amazing Spider-Man #200 or Thor #300, but IMO is still pretty good for a post-1968 FF issue. Marv Wolfman's FF run definitely had its moments, even though Wolfman himself doesn't think highly of it.

BUMP



Since this thread was last active, I have actually come to appreciate Big John even more! His Thor and Fantastic Four art may be more erratic than his Avengers and Conan art, but it definitely has some tremendous moments -- FF #113-116, in particular, the Overmind story which Archie Goodwin took over from Stan Lee about halfway through, is utterly splendid IMHO. And I really underrated some of his Silver Surfer issues, too: really, all of the first 11 issues are rarely less than stellar.

I've also added a few other artists to my list of modern-day practitioners of the Big John style -- Greg Capullo, Dan Jurgens, and Mark Bagley.

And, finally, Big John always said that of all his contemporaries, the one he held in the highest esteem was Joe Kubert, whom I thoughtlessly failed to mention in previous posts. I've always liked Joe K, but recently my esteem for him has vaulted to a whole new level for a variety of reasons, one of them being that I can much more readily see similarities to Big John in his style, and vice versa, especially when Big John did his own inks.

Ooh, Mark Bagley, another artist I love the work of, especially after his days on the early Thunderbolts.

Those 50 or so consecutive issues of T-Bolts that Bags drew are the quintessence of post-Image team-book art -- as dynamic as the new school artists, but with the clarity and fluidity of the old school artists.

Bags is also, at least in my view, the last and youngest of the consummate craftsmen -- he almost always meets his deadlines, he's rarely less than solid, and he knows deep down that even though he loves his job, it's still just a job -- another hero of mine, Charles Schulz, once publicly advised aspiring cartoonists/comic book artists to never fool themselves into believing they're creating "art." In middle age, I've come to regard the best comics as "Accidental Art." The less you strain to create something timeless, the more likely it will turn out timeless.

Back to Bags -- his runs on New Warriors and Spider-Man started out rough, but just a little bit into the 2nd year on NW, holy crap! He just exploded! I can't recall his precise turning point on Spidey, though, as the writing on the Spidey books went into a temporary spiral around the time of "Maximum Carnage" and I quickly phased myself out of that franchise.

His brief run at DC may have been a necessary change of pace to recharge his batteries, but sadly, he chose what I regard as a particularly bad time to work at DC. "Trinity" should have been no more frequent than bi-weekly, and lasted no more than 24 issues. JLA by Robinson...sheesh, what a waste of Bags' talent.

There is one DC character I'd love to see Bags draw in a solo, out-of-continuity, done-in-one special: THE FLASH! Bags would KILL on that, I just KNOW it!

This thread brings up a question that has been nagging at my mind, as I remember more of my youth, and less of what happened today.

This is a little something I have wondered about for years.

Some of my favorite comics as a child were Harvey: Casper the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Good Witch, Little Hot Stuff, Spooky the Bad Little Ghost, and his girlfriend ‘Poil’, Little Audrey, Little Lulu, Little Lotta, Little Dot, Baby Huey, Richie Rich.

Stumbo the Giant and Witch Hazel as backups.

About 1950, the artwork changed. It became more consistent, with bolder lines, rounder, more simplified. I find it hard to believe that a single artist produced all those books each month: but if it was a stable of artists, they did a very good job imitating one another’s styles and maintaining consistency across the various magazines.

Being a kid, I never really paid attention to the artists, if they were ever credited, and I never really ‘collected’ them as a youth.

Admittedly, the artwork was extraordinarily simplistic, even childish, but it was part of the charm of the comics. This were books where sometimes objectively terrible things happened-- the main characters were ghosts, witches and demons after all-- but the optimistic, happy-go-lucky storytelling and simple drawings made them very attractive.

Does anyone know anything about these old artists? I am past the point in my life where I can begin collecting 65-to-70-year old children’s comic books.

Yeah, I think he'd do well with a speedster, just from what I remember of how kinetic and fluid he made characters like Jolt, Songbird and Citizen V look. (I think he used Speed Demon a bit later, and actually got to play with one of Marvel's rare speedsters.)

I think Songbird's niche popularity is almost entirely down to his amazing visuals for the character, and it's just amazing that Screaming freaking Mimi could turn into such an interesting and dynamic character!

I've always liked but not loved Bagley's work overall, I'm not sure why. But he is in my mind the best designer working in comics today. No contemporary can create striking and memorable costumes with the seeming ease with which he does it. You talk about poor timing on his DC stint. Can you imagine if they had set him loose on the New 52 redesigns instead of Jim Lee? The mind boggles.

All true, but on the other hand, how many of Bags' designs, no matter how good, would have survived when DC shifted from Nu 52 to Rebirth?

My current Top Ten artists:

1. JOHN BUSCEMA

2. STEVE EPTING

3. LOU FINE

4. JOE KUBERT

5. STEPHEN BISSETTE

6. SARA PICHELLI

7. TOM PALMER

8. JIM APARO

9. RON SMITH

10. WALTER SIMONSON

Honorary Mentions:

11. GIL KANE

12. WALLACE WOOD

13. DON NEWTON

A new thread started by Brain Fall Out Boy, about what comics-related gifts to ourselves we got for Christmas 2018 got me thinking:

My gift to myself was the early 90s OGN, "Conan the Rogue," John Buscema's ultimate statement of the barbarian genre so loved by him; over a period of at least six years, he plotted, penciled, inked and colored it. But Marvel put zero promotional muscle behind it, so it flopped, and became an expensive rarity. And I adore Big John's artwork so much that I spent quite a bit on it. No regrets.

I have also, over the years, acquired original printings of seven of John's movie adaptations from the late 1950s/early 1960s, and original printings of all three of his issues of "Indian Chief," done around that same time.

Among other John Buscema rarities.

I could go on and on, but by now, I'm sure you get the idea.

Question to other Legion Worlders: What are some of the rarities by your favorite comic book artists that you have acquired, or wish to acquire, at any cost?

Jeff Moy. Love his adorable artwork, how well it fit in with the Reboot Legion. And plenty of nostalgia on my part.

I'll second that, Ibby. Jeff Moy may well be the most underrated artist of an era (the mid-to-late 90s) that was noticeably lacking in finesse, cleanliness, and prettiness.

Yeah, I love how his art was just LOVELY, nice to look at, clean.

One old favorite whom I had been neglecting in the last few years is Dale Keown, best know for a 2.5 year run on Incredible Hulk, which coincided with some of the best scripts of Peter Allen David's long stint on the Hulk's book.

Here's some stuff I cut and pasted from my 2015 reviews in the Re-Reads thread:





I probably should have said "believability" instead of "verisimilitude," but otherwise my opinion still stands.

A pity that whatever happened to Keown after he got poached by the Image founders happened, resulting in extended periods of inactivity. In recent years, he's done a lot of variant covers for Marvel, but I think they lack that special spark that his early 90s work had.

More timely, considering the gender wars currently being waged within comics fandom, Keown once said that, back in the late 80s, his drawing samples were rudely rejected by the first editor he approached. This jerk --whom I shall not publicize by revealing his name -- allegedly said to Keown, "I can't use you. You draw like a girl."

30 years on, and, despite a lot of female artists, both cis and trans, now actively working in mainstream comics, things haven't really gotten that much better. Sigh.

Another old favorite I'd been taking for granted until just recently is Bill Sienkiewicz.

Maybe that's because, as exceptionally talented as he is, and as impressive as a lot of his stylistic innovations remain, I have to admit I kinda feel he peaked on his controversial year-and-a-half run on New Mutants. He got a bit self-indulgent after that, and he also started doing a lot of crime stories -- not my favorite genre.

Guess I should try to track down affordable copies of the 2 completed Big Numbers issues. I have an old magazine interview with Alan Moore which showcases some very impressive panels from the first issue.

I almost forgot, he also did an adaptation of Moby Dick for First Comics' short lived Classics Illustrated revival. I do have the Count of Monte Cristo adaptation (by Steven Grant & Dan Speigle,) and it's very good. But Sienkiewicz doing Moby Dick sounds iffy. It could be a...incoming pun...washout.

In the end, what matters is that those New Mutants issues hold up pretty damn well. Very few comic book artists, especially those working in mainstream genres, have blended photorealism with neo-expressionism as seamlessly as Bill Sienkiewicz.

Thinking back on Mark Bagley, I just love that long, lean, clean stylized artwork of his, and he really works well with bold colorful costumes that might not 'work' in live-action, but look amazing on the page.

Other artists with that same sort of look, to my eye, are Ron Lim (famous for his Silver Surfer/Infinity Gauntlet work, but also showcased nicely in X-Men 2099) and Brett Booth (lots of amazing Image stuff, and a not-terrible Teen Titans relaunch a few years back that introduced Bunker and the (hopefully) never-to-be-seen again Harvest and Skitter). Both do lean and dynamic figures, and would look great with characters like Spider-Man or Nightcrawler or Nightwing or Timber Wolf, all fast-moving and flexible and acrobatic.

I definitely have a thing for that sort of art.

And bold colors! I remember when Cyberforce came out from Image (from Marc Silvestri), and I couldn't even recognize the artist I'd basically ignored from his run on the X-Men previously, because the rich vibrant colors just made his characters *pop* in ways that the X-Men never had. I feel like, with the same colorist behind him, he could have made an amazing Legion artist, with all those colorful costumes, like Cham and Lu's purple and orange outfits, and the greens and reds on characters like Violet, Jo and Mon.

Mark Bagley and Ron Lim...yes, now that you mention it, Set, I can see some stylistic entwining there! Good catch!

My favorite work of Lim's is a handful of his Silver Surfer issues that start with the one that has the Imperial Guard cameo and climax with the one that has the Tyrant vs Galactus battle. In-yer-face cosmic spectacle at its best!

Neither Brett Booth nor Marc Silvestri have ever done much for me, personally, but when you opined that Silvestri would've made a good Legion artist, that reminded me that one of the few really good things to come out of the Retroboot was that *awesome* batch of variant covers by Jim Lee -- he's one artist that I feel peaked just before he became a super-star (Uncanny X-Men 275, with the climax to the Savage Land arc and the start of the Shi'ar/Skrulls arc,) and has rarely scaled those heights since then. Those Legion covers are one of those times where the old guy showed he still has it -- especially the Saturn Girl one.

Mike Deodato (whom I hear has recently retired from Marvel, and possibly from comics altogether) has an interesting history with me.

Because while today I can appreciate the better 90s art by Jim Lee and the other Image Founders, I vocally hated that look back in the actual 90s. It was just so blasted ubiquitous, and I have always been contrary by nature. And so when Deodato began working for American publishers in a blatant emulation of the Image Founders (especially Jim Lee,) I reeled. Especially because the first two regular series he did were Avengers (on which his predecessor was Steve Epting, one of my personal Top Three artists) and Wonder Woman (whose first Post-Crisis series I'd never cared much for in the first place, but she was still a character I considered completely inappropriate for that over-the-top boobs-and-butts look.)

So when I returned to comics in the mid-2000s, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much more nuanced, understated, fluid, and unique his style had become. Now it was less like Jim Lee and more like an update of the early 70s Marvel House Style (Deodato's inventive use of shadows, in particular, hearkened to Gene Colan in his prime.)

And, more recently, when I filled in gaps in my collection of Darkstars back issues (don't laugh -- for about 10 months, Darkstars almost fulfilled its potential), I found that even though Deodato's Darkstars covers had been done around the same time as Avengers and Wonder Woman, they seemed somehow...purer, less affected, like Deodato was being much truer to himself. Do a Google Images search, and you'll see what I mean.

Most recent of all, I borrowed the 2016 trade collecting all of Deodato's Wonder Woman issues, and I must admit, as garish and bombastic as they still look, I actually find it...refreshing! Because even though there are several (mostly female-identifying) comics artists who are currently doing exciting and fun things with this art form, I find there is far too much modern comics art that is lazy, flat, stiff, and dull. Whatever else Deodato's 90s work was (and his Avengers work still looks horribly sloppy today,) it wasn't boring!

My personal Top 10 Marvel stories by my personal favorite comic book artist, John Buscema, in order of publication:

- Avengers #49-50 (Versus Magneto and Typhon, featuring a kick-ass one-on-one fight between Hercules and Typhon; also inked by JB himself!)

- Sub-Mariner #4 (Namor vs Attuma, with Dorma indirectly saving her beloved; gorgeous inks by Frank Giacoia)

- Silver Surfer #3 (The first, and best, Surfer vs Mephisto battle; JB's visions of hell, magnificently inked by Joe Sinnott, are worthy of the Night on Bald Mountain sequence from Disney's Fantasia!)

- Captain Marvel #18 (One of the brightest spots of JB's erratic 1969-1970 output, even though he only drew half the issue after default Mar-Vell artist Gil Kane took ill; JB seems genuinely inspired from having to equal Kane's dynamics)

- Avengers #83-84 (Lady Liberators, Enchantress, the return of Arkon; inked by Tom Palmer)

- Fantastic Four #129-130 (Thundra's debut appearances, these issues blow away most of JB's other efforts on F4; Steranko hardcore collectors note, he drew the cover to 130!)

- Conan the Barbarian #59 (The origin of Conan's greatest love, Belit the pirate queen, who had just been introduced in the previous issue)

- Avengers #262 (Hercules vs Namor, but it's all in fun; Captain America then asks his old friend Namor to join the team; inks by Tom Palmer)

- Wolverine #7-8 (Guest-starring the Hulk during his Las Vegas mob thug Mr. Fixit era, and inked by JB himself)

- Conan the Rogue OGN (I've raved about this one in earlier posts in this thread; in brief, it's JB's ultimate statement with his favorite character; imagine if the Conan movie had been directed not by John Milius, but instead by Mario Bava or Sergio Leone)

Thoughts on some of the artists previously named in this thread whom I did not mention nor comment on until now:

Mike Allred: I am finally learning to appreciate him, after resisting for years, just because of my stupid, contrary "he's hip, so he must be overrated" attitude. A lot of it has to do with my appreciation in recent years of his friend, the late, great Darwyn Cooke, who worked in a similar not-retro-but-something-far-richer vein. Also, I find his lifelong commitment to positivity and his can-do spirit about everything to be very inspiring.

Mike Turner: I had a look recently at some of his early art (the Ballistic mini-series that Set mentions,) and I like it. It's very derivative of the Image Founders at this point, but in the best possible way. As for his recurring problem with over-endowing his female characters, hey -- so did Wallace Wood, and that didn't make him any less of a genius.

Alan Davis: I guess I didn't say anything because I've raved about him so much in other threads, both in this forum and the Legion one. His combination of warmth, whimsy, high-octane layouts, and generous (but never excessive) detail has made me a fan since I first saw his work -- Summer 1991, when I was first getting into superhero comics and happened to spot a plug for his return to Excalibur as writer/artist. The rest is history.

Bryan Talbot: Pure, unadulterated brilliance as both artist and writer. Luther Arkwright is one of the few works which could genuinely be said to have reinvented genre fiction in comics. His work on Nemesis the Warlock outdoes even the character's signature artist, Kevin O'Neill -- and not just because Talbot's style is prettier, though that does have a bit to do with it.

More to come...

Alan Davis: I think my first Alan Davis (unless he drew some Doctor Who) was in the Mighty World of Marvel, after the departure of Alan Moore from Captain Britain. I think it was written Jamie Delano, who wrote those excellent early Hellblazer issues. It concerned the aftermath of the Warp and Meggan.

Cap's heroic stature was matched just as well in Davis' work by Meggan's ferocity and her two friends warmth and selflessness. Davis made an instant impression. I probably picked up a few scatterings of his UK work through DR & Quinch in 2000AD and then the reprints of Harry Twenty on the High Rock. I probably caught his X-Men issues before I had the pennies to go hunting for issues of Warrior or his Moore Captain Britain work. One exception would be that big trade paperback they did showing the stories between Alan Moore on Captain Britain and the launch of Excalibur. He gives such a classic look, while still able to provide plenty of emotion and action across any number of settings.

Bryan Talbot: Like my DC reading, there was a large gap between my first issue and the next. With DC, I had to build myself up to spending my pennies on a second issue. 2000AD may have been a case of parental persuasion to replace other titles. While my first DC book would be the one that got me, it was the second 2000AD one that pulled me in, and the cover was by Bryan Talbot.

The story was Nemesis. He was protecting an alternate Victorian Empire against an assassination squad of ABC Warriors. The detail was spectacular, yet not at the cost of any of the action or character. I didn't even realise there was an extra twist with the heroic history of the ABC Warriors, or the dark deeds of Nemesis. Outside 2000AD I got an copy of Near Myths. That contained a chapter of Luther Arkwright and I was caught. Valkyrie Press continued the work and then Dark Horse. My Avatar is a Talbot too Later, we got Heart of Empire, The Tale of One Bat Rat and Alice in Sunderland.

2000AD Cover



Luthor






Mike Allred: I read Madman for ages. I couldn't tell you what the plot was. I couldn't tell you who was in the cast. I just remember it as being a relaxing, quirky fun read. Easily good enough for my pull list.

There is one artist who has done a lot of work I like, but whom I only mentioned once in this thread, and in a disparaging manner:



So consider this post a much-belated corrective.

It does have to be said that Byrne's public persona gets under a lot of people's skins. I am no exception, having gone through extended phases of dismissing even his best work on that basis.

Today, I feel like I have arrived at a place where I can finally separate the art from the artist -- and quite a bit of that art is pretty damn good.

The very first trade paperback I ever bought was Byrne and Chris Claremont's "X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga," at my local Book Stop (anyone remember Book Stop?) in 1991. I looked through it again a couple days ago, and Byrne's art (abetted by Terry Austin's inking and Glynis Oliver's coloring) still holds up beautifully. So pristine yet so rich in detail. So dynamic, yet never bombastic. Equally excellent in both the "loud moments" and the "quiet moments."

I would go so far as to say that, during the late 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, Byrne could do no wrong artistically. I do respect those who feel that he shouldn't have become his own inker and scripter (an opinion I myself held for years,) but I have come to greatly appreciate both his long run on Fantastic Four and his shorter, but still substantial, run on Alpha Flight (characters Byrne created who got the "backdoor pilot" treatment during the Byrne/Claremont X-Men era.)

It's when he moves to DC in the mid-1980s that his work starts to get more problematic for me, but then almost everything about DC from about 1967 on has gotten problematic for me of late. But his end-of-the-decade return to Marvel does nothing positive for me, either. Nor, really, anything Byrne has done since then.

However, since this thread is intended to praise artists, not bury them, I will stop there and let other posters sing the praises of his work from Man of Steel to the semi-retirement of the present day.

Alan Davis, much like Jeff Moy, really captures a sort of child-like innocence and joy and also wide-eyed terror, every feeling writ large on the expressive faces they specialize in. I like that, for certain sorts of books, but don't feel like it works for every story or every character. Art Adams' style isn't quite as 'soft' to my eye, but also goes to that same well, with big (sometimes comically distorted) smiles in the place of wide emotive eyes.