Favorite Comic Artists

Let's start the ball rolling with an easy one-
name your favorite comic artists.

Here's some of mine:

Richard Corben
Alex Toth
Jack Kirby
Michael Golden
Gene Colan
Steve Ditko
Wally Wood
Robert Crumb
Moebius
Jose Ortiz
Jim Woodring
Rick Geary
Dave Cooper

If asked to name one, I'd pick Colan perhaps.

John Cassaday.

Have to think about the others, not been reading comics a lot recently.

I have some favorites in common with arthurfrayn - here are a few of mine, off the top of my head:

David B
Rick Geary
Gipi (Gianni Pacinotti)
Hergé
Gilbert Hernandez
Jaime Hernandez
George Herriman
Igort
Ben Katchor
Michael Kupperman
Tony Millionaire
Chris Ware
Jim Woodring

Colan's Iron Man or Buscema's Silver Surfer (#4) are absolutely amazing!

Hugo Pratt

Magnus

Igor Kordej

René Goscinny

Hermann

Alberto Breccia

Jordi Bernet

Alex Raymond

Jim Holdaway

She's an interesting artist. I have an X book or two by her that I thought was pretty nicely done...

BTW, dr_Z-did you see the Rick Geary bio strips for the characters in Hellboy: The Art of the Movie? I just opened that book for the first time after getting it from a friend, and they were a pleasant surprise. :)

Man...where to start?

Trying to avoid artists already mentioned:
-Neal Adams
-Barry Smith
-Jim Starlin
-Enki Bilal
-Otomo Katsuhiro
-Claire Wendling
-Vaughn Bode
-Carl Barks
-Carlos Meglia

...and a guy with the innitials "F. F." ...if for nothing else than his "Werewolf" story in Creepy.

Ooops...I forgot Liberatore.

Claire Wendling. She's frighteningly good!

Tough question - I have many and often will get into an artist that I originally liked "in passing" but have added to my favorite list. My absolute favorites:

Carl Barks
Matt Baker
Robert Crumb
Will Eisner
Frank Frazetta (yeah I'm a fanboy, I know)
Mike Kaluta
Walt Kelly
Jack Kirby
Joe Kubert
Russ Manning
Moebius
Alex Raymond
Alex Schomburg
Barry Smith
Jim Steranko
Dave Stevens (RIP)
Alex Toth
Al Williamson
Wally Wood

11> "(yeah I'm a fanboy, I know)"

I don't think you have to be defensive about being a fan of Frazetta -certainly not here. If that's the criteria for being a fanboy I think a lot of us here would have to plead guilty. ;)

I've got Fritz books coming out of my nose...

I'm proud of the label - actually. I only put it in there as it used to be everyone you would meet at a convention was a fan or claimed to be, but in actuality knew very little about his works.

I'm of two minds about adopting the term fanboy to describe myself. When I think of fanboys I think of people who don't like Mike Mignola or Jack Kirby because "they don't put enough lines in". ;)

That's an actual quote I've heard more than once in shops and conventions, BTW.

Having said that, I probably have wayyy too many comics and books about comics to not at least be picked up in a fanboy roundup.

Guy Davis---There's just something about his lines and his design sense. You just want to reach into the book and touch those lines of his. Plus, he's one of the only artists that I've come across who can drawn chubby women and make them look kind of cute.

I'm sure I will forget a few, but here are the main ones off the top of my head:

Michael Kaluta
Charles Vess
Gary Gianni
Mark Schultz
William Stout
P. Craig Russell
Mike Mignola
Paul Chadwick
Stan Sakai
Sergio Aragones
Al Williamson
Hal Foster
Alex Raymond
Roy Krenkel
Bernie Wrightson
Barry Windsor-Smith
Moebius
Francois Schuiten
Frank Cho
Dave Stevens
Jim Steranko
Masamune Shirow
Linda Medley
Rick Geary
Wally Wood
Alex Toth

Like dinoboy says: where do you start? I had to arbitrarily call a halt, since there are so MANY greats. We live in a Golden Age, you know.
Each of these is favorite:

Alex Raymond
Hal Foster
Frank King
Winsor McKay
Roy Crane
Alex Kotzky
Leonard Starr
Milton Caniff
Bill Watterson
Stan Lynde
Saul Steinberg
Mort Drucker
Jack Davis
Jim Holdaway
Gil Kane
Neal Adams
Walt Simonson
Carl Barks
Rene Goscinny
Alex Ross
Dave McKean
Dave Sim/Gerhard
J.J. Muth
Brian Bolland
Dave Gibbons
John Cassaday
J.H. Williams III
Los Bros Hernandez
Mark Schulz
Carla Speed McNeil
Linda Medley
Stan Sakai
Eric Shanower
Jason Lutes
Mark Buckingham

How about:
Travis Charest
Ryan Sook
Kevin Nowlan
P. Craig Russel
and
Sandy Plunkett

Cliff Sterret with Polly And Her Pals, great Art Deco work, and true portrayal of the unreasonable demands made on us poor men, and I just love that giant cat. George Herriman, well everything has been tried said about him, he’s still untouchably Crazy. Crumb of course, for his flaked out freaks and dirty old men and those enormous, well, “shelf effects”. Schulz for keeping the adults out. And Mort Drucker of the Mad Magazine movie spoofs, boy could he draw! (Wonder how many how many budding artists on this earth have tried to imitate him at one stage? - I did in our high school magazine.)
And a few the Yanks have missed, like Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy of the Eagle. Hampson with Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future, now was that evil green little Mekon hateable! Bellamy with Churchill in The Happy Warrior, Frazer of Africa, and the first few instalments of the Sword and Sorcery series Heros the Spartan, that was realistic fantasy! I haven’t seen Heros since sometime 40-45 years ago, but I do not think anyone in the genre has outdone Bellamy’s early work on that strip. And there was Victor de la Fuente - he was the good artist in those small English “Ach Die Englender” war comics, the real pro of the real pro's, to compare with Jack Kirby in ability to produce - and maybe he was faster.
Back to the US with Walt Kelly, with his philosophical Pogo, Hank Ketcham with those perfectly curved lines around Dennis, he was really elegant. Noel Sickles, Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff, Frank Robbins, the action adventure artists. They were all good but perhaps I slightly prefer Caniff when combining story and art.

Wow!
Yeah...Frank Bellamy!
Didn't he take over Dan Dare from Hampson?

And I'd really like to see a collection of his Heros of Spartan.
I only have one double page spread from that reproduced in "The Masters of Comic Book Art"

http://www.librarything.com/work/209954/book/595554

...and I got a softcover of his Frazer of Africa.

Yes Bellamy took over Dan Dare eventually, but not directly after Hampson. When I quit buying Eagle some definitely lesser artists were doing the strip. Hampson was then doing the Jesus story, "Road of Courage" I believe was the title. Remember the moneylenders being thrown out of the temple, raging Jesus, and tables, chairs and gold pieces flying!

Anyway, I thought I would link to some of my names:

Cliff Sterret http://www.old-coconino.com/sites_auteurs/sterrett/index.html

George Herriman http://www.old-coconino.com/sites_auteurs/herriman/index.html

Robert Crumb http://www.zubeworld.com/crumbmuseum/

Mort Drucker http://www.adriansinnott.com/mortdrucker.html

Frank Hampson http://www.chrisbeetles.com/gallery/artist.php?art=1903

Frank Bellamy http://www.frankbellamy.com/

Victor de la Fuente (check out the links at right for more): http://victordelafuente.blogspot.com/2006/12/la-race-des-capets2.html

Walt Kelly http://www.pogopossum.com/

Hank Ketcham http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2007/03/art-of-inked-line-hank-ketcham.htm...

Milton Caniff http://www.old-coconino.com/sites_auteurs/caniff/index.html

And to round it up a few masters of the inked line from Coconino World: http://www.old-coconino.com/s_classics_v3/mng_classics.php Not all comic strip artists, but associated.

Some of my personal favorites include:

Guy Davis
Charles Vess
Dave McKean
J.J. Muth
Alec Stevens
Ted McKeever

Also, I'd have to say most of the guys who worked on the old EC lines. When those guys tried to do something other than standard fare they were great. When they just did the norm... well mostly they were just okay.

For some reason I'd never really looked into Frank Hampson's stuff. I just assumed I wouldn't like it as much as Frank Bellamy's.
Then, after reading some of these posts, I went to this site:
http://www.frankhampson.co.uk/
It looks like I've been missing out on some cool stuff.
So I just ordered the "rogue planet" Dan Dare reprint and a couple other things from Amazon.

I'm more familiar with Frank Bellamy's work on Dan Dare as well, probably because I was introduced the same way you were- though that Masters of Comic Book Art book.

Along with Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy, we should mention Don Lawrence!

His artwork on the Trigan Empire is - for me, anyway - a touchstone for Space Opera/Fantasy in comic book form. In America, the reprint books are a little hard to find, but boy are they fun.

The Trigan Empire stories ran from the mid-60's until the mid-70's. Wikipedia says Don Lawrence's "realistic and detailed style...was an inspriration for ...Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons and Chris Weston"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Lawrence

There's a Don Lawrence website, but not much art to see, if you aren't familiar with his stuff. If I can find some examples, I'll post a link

Here's some Don Lawrence pages.

http://www.illustrationartgallery.com/acatalog/Don_Lawrence_s_Trigan_Empire.html

I had not seen this website previously, for the Illustration Art Gallery. Some great stuff for sale, apparently.

http://www.galerielaqua.de/galerielaqua/IMAGES/Original/original%20art/europa/la...