Great comic book artists:

May 7, 2005 3:14 PM

Apart from Jaime Hernandez , David Lloyd and Brian Bolland , who are the worlds greatest comic book artists ?
posted by sgt.serenity to Media & Arts (30 answers total)

Aside from Art Spiegelman and Wil Eisner?
posted by jessamyn at 3:16 PM on May 7, 2005

Response by poster: I think we can safely discount those two from the search.
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:23 PM on May 7, 2005

David Mack.

That's all I've got.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:37 PM on May 7, 2005

I haven't sampled much of his work, but Moebius always shows up in these lists.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 3:38 PM on May 7, 2005

Alex Ross, Steve Rude, Bill Sienkiewicz, Frank Miller, Kyle Baker (because I knew him in high school), ...
posted by nicwolff at 3:44 PM on May 7, 2005

Subjective question. Here's a few of my faves, however:

Hugo Pratt ("Corto Maltese")
Jean "Moebius" Giraud ("Arzach")
Chester Brown ("Yummy Fur")
Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve)
Glenn Barr (illustrator of "Brooklyn Dreams")
Peter Kuper ("Comics Trips", "WWIII Illustrated")
Ruben Pellejero ("Dieter Lumpen")
Stan Mack ("Real Life Funnies", "Story of the Jews")
Seth ("Palookaville")
Adrian Tomine ("Optic Nerve")
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:46 PM on May 7, 2005

Oh yeah: Gregg Boone ("Evol Baby") - because I knew him in college!
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:47 PM on May 7, 2005

The fact that nobody has mentioned Kirby yet is inexcusable.
posted by keswick at 4:00 PM on May 7, 2005

Seriously, the question needs to be clarified. Greatest living/active artists, or greatest ever?
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:08 PM on May 7, 2005

my vote for ashley wood.

although I think it's maybe not so fair to compare artists that paint against ones that only pencil & ink.
posted by juv3nal at 4:19 PM on May 7, 2005

Osamu Tezuka
posted by gnat at 4:51 PM on May 7, 2005

Great question, but that whole business about “the greatest” was a little daunting to me – glad it got cleared up quick! Here are some titles that I really like.

Arn Saba’s “Neil the Horse” comics from the eighties: they’re not that hard to track down and really are worth the effort: funny, weird, light and serious at the same time, all the good stuff.

Dori Seda: “Dori Stories” has all of DS’s work in one place. It’s the most inspired combination of sweet and degenerate and smart that I have ever seen in any kind of art anywhere.

Julie Doucet: my favorite.

I’m also partial to artists like Joe Sacco and Phoebe Gloeckner who mix their comics work up with other genres (in Sacco’s case journalism, in Gloeckner’s prose fiction and medical illustration).
posted by sophieblue at 4:54 PM on May 7, 2005

Joe Sacco, totally.
posted by cmonkey at 5:04 PM on May 7, 2005

Jim Lee's a popular one, though he does better art than he does storytelling.

Rob Liefield. *snerk*

Are you looking for writers/artists, or just artists?
posted by Anonymous at 5:40 PM on May 7, 2005

Chris Ware hasn't been mentioned yet? For shame.
posted by Robot Johnny at 6:02 PM on May 7, 2005

I gotta say my favourite is Moebius. I like how he versatile he is and how he'll vary his style drastically for different works. Plus I love his sense of space and attention to architecture.

Second, Katsuhiro Otomo. I love how he can convey a sense of weight and momentum in his work. When a body hits the ground it really looks like it hurts. Plus his style is completely outside any typical "manga" style. Great buildings and backgrounds too.

Also, I really am impressed by the team of Dave Sim and Gerhard.
posted by bobo123 at 6:04 PM on May 7, 2005

Jeff Smith (Bone) does excellent black and white work. I knew someone who once gave a presentation on the way he used shadows in my art class.
posted by jb at 6:31 PM on May 7, 2005

Response by poster: Pretty much looking for artists , otherwise we'd just be talking about Alan Moore.
I just like a wee reminisce about the golden days of british comics really ....2000ad , Warrior ......there was nothing like them at the time.
Dave Sim is a wonderful artist.
Kevin O'neill (who i credit for the invention of ugg boots) , Garry Leach , Dave Gibbons......those were the days....when the most groundbreaking part of US comics was to be found in the twinkies adverts.....I have to say i still loathe Carlos Ezquerra , i'm sure he's a very nice man though.
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:34 PM on May 7, 2005

Will Eisner
posted by warbaby at 6:41 PM on May 7, 2005

Best answer: Kevin O'neill (who i credit for the invention of ugg boots) , Garry Leach , Dave Gibbons......those were the days....when the most groundbreaking part of US comics was to be found in the twinkies adverts.....

Err, mind if I ask what you seriously hoped to find out by asking this question, besides perhaps seeing how many periods it's humanly possible to stuff into a single comment? It seems you're pretty knowledgeable about comics already, and beyond that, you seem pretty dead set in your convictions as to who the best comics artists ever are (a really subjective question to begin with).

But come on, if you seriously think that the best art in 80s US comics came in the form of Twinkie's ads, ignoring names brought up in this thread like Sienkiewicz, Baker, or Miller, then I don't know what to tell you.
posted by jimmy at 7:02 PM on May 7, 2005

After 16 years of visual consumption, the artists i keep coming back to are: Mike Mignola, Milo Manara, Kyle Baker, Frank Quitely, John Cassaday, Art Adams, Masamune Shiro (Orion is my favourite), Duncan Fregredo, Rick Mays, Michael Zulli, Stan Sakai, and Alan Davis.

I think a lot of popular artists who appear interesting and promising while they are evolving fall into the traps of lazy complacency when they become reasonably proficient at pumping the product out (Jim Lee, Chris Bachalo are probably the best examples of this), so their more recent work is technically brilliant, but much less inspired.
posted by elphTeq at 7:10 PM on May 7, 2005

I'm assuming that you mean the actual pencillers/inkers. David Mack's certainly one. Dave McKean [probably best known for his Sandman covers, though he's done work of his own.] Both Mack and McKean have something of a collage look - they seem to be masters of every medium, and they put them all to good use. For somewhat more conventional comics [i.e., comics where there are some images in frames, and the images are mostly pencil/pen and color], I'm unfortunately more familiar with authors than artists [and there are some great series that have had mostly mediocre art.] However, Michael Zulli did some of the most beautiful Sandman issues [the first three in the Wake, I believe.] Really, a bunch of the other Sandman artists are good as well, though I can't recall any other names offhand. Darick Robertson's work for Transmetropolitan was a perfect fit for the subject matter, and also very well done. Frank Quitely has worked on a bunch of more mainstream comics but his work's much more interesting than the average DC or Marvel illustrator. A variety of interesting artists have done work for Global Frequency - a different artist does each issue, so it's a great comic to encounter new artists in. [For example, I really enjoyed "Big Sky", the issue that Jon Muth illustrated.] I'd second Frank Miller. On the indie side, Chris Ware's gotten a lot of attention, and deservedly so. The same goes for Daniel Clowes. Brian Wood has a black-and-white zine aesthetic that I enjoy. I third Joe Sacco. Kim Dietch's style reminds me of '60s underground comics; I quite enjoy it.
posted by ubersturm at 7:33 PM on May 7, 2005

This thread seems to be more about artists people like, rather than the "worlds greatest comic book artists " the Sgt. asked for. I know it's a highly subjective request, but Neil the Horse? A cute little strip, but come on!

I am astonished no one has mentioned R. Crumb. Most of his work for Weirdo in the 80s was awesome

Also, I will buy pretty much anything by:

Jack Kirby (His Fourth World stuff for DC is wild as hell)
Will Eisner (The Spirit, graphic novels Contract with God and The Neighborhood)
Alex Ross (Marvels, Kingdom Come, those huge DC super hero books)
Steve Rude (Nexus, esp. 1st 24 issues)
Frank Miller (300 and Ronan are favorites)
Dan Clowes (Eightball)
Kyle Baker (His run on DC's The Shadow is a delight)
Enki Bilal (The Trapped Woman, from the Balkans, an amazingly talented illustrator)
Howard Chaykin's American Flagg was a brilliant and grown up book fot the first 18 issues or so, hopefully the hardcover anthology will finally see the light of day soon.

while not technically comic book artists, comic strip artists that fit the criteria of "World's Greatest" would include

Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes)
George Herriman (Krazy Kat)
Windsor Mckay (Little Nemo in Slumberland )
posted by Scoo at 8:45 PM on May 7, 2005

Jim Woodring
posted by eyere at 9:42 PM on May 7, 2005

Carl Barks is the world's greatest comic book artist. Just check out these classic moments.
posted by Panfilo at 10:50 PM on May 7, 2005

Lots of good names here... got to agree with Miller, Chaykin, Kirby, Sienkiewicz, Gibbons, Sacco & Baker.

The ones no-one seems to have mentioned yet...

Jim Steranko (his Marvel work in the late 60s was completely groundbreaking, if still heavily influenced by Kirby.)

Chris Weston (just check out "Ministry Of Space")

Brian Talbot (if you only saw the original "Luther Arkwright" stuff but have not seen "Heart Of Empire", you need to take a look.)

Gilbert Hernandez! Come on, the Palomar stuff is better than Maggie & Hopey, you know it's true.
posted by pascal at 11:06 PM on May 7, 2005

Vanessa Davis. Spaniel Rage. You heard it here first.
posted by yellowcandy at 12:18 AM on May 8, 2005

I don't know how he's regarded by people who know comics, but Enrico Marini is my sister's brother-in-law. While here for the wedding he drew on the wipe board on my parent's fridge a doodle of my niece circling in space. I had no idea he was a successful illustrator; I'm a failed one. I'm just glad I didn't look at his doodle and sneer "oh, that's cute".
posted by TimTypeZed at 2:40 AM on May 8, 2005

Response by poster: Err, mind if I ask what you seriously hoped to find out by asking this question, besides perhaps seeing how many periods it's humanly possible to stuff into a single comment?

...............................................................Whats a period ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:40 AM on May 8, 2005

Actually I would say Paul Pope is the greatest ever... It's really worth it to find one of his oversized comics - in the larger format his work explodes. At one time, and this may still be true, he was the only Westerner ever to be hired by a manga publisher to work in Japan (Kodansha). He is also quite aware of European and American traditions. Really incredible stuff.
posted by Slothrop at 6:38 AM on May 8, 2005