# The best, most awe-inspiring comic artists of all time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962 "2005-04-12T13:31:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/41 "2005-04-13T00:24:11Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > I deeply suspect that’s a minority opinion. No doubt. But it’s mine, and I’m sticking to it. 🙂 Nice **Killing Joke** link, though. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/42 "2005-04-13T00:29:57Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > I deeply suspect that’s a minority opinion. No doubt. But it’s mine, and I’m sticking to it. 🙂 Nice **Killing Joke** link, though. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/43 "2005-04-19T20:23:43Z")
**Paul Gulacy** on _Master of Kung Fu_. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/44 "2005-04-19T20:39:39Z")
Dave McKean Dave Sim/Gerhard (god, the Regency Hotel is just spectacular) Bill Sinkiewicz Robert Crumb Jim Woodring Mike Mignola (I love how he goes through a gallon of black ink for every page. :)) and, yes, Phil Foglio. I have a weak spot for his stuff. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/45 "2005-04-20T00:54:58Z")
Neal Adams. Not only great, but 90% of comic art today owes a debt to him. He invented ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/46 "2005-04-20T01:07:03Z")
> [@Leviosaurus](#): > > Dave Sim on Cerebus. Yeah, Cerebus became horrible junk late in the run, but all the way through Church and State there was nothing better out there. it was clear by the end of Church and State that Cerebus had jumped the Shark. Tragic, really. I presume that we’re discussing artists as the people who do the drawings which is why Gaiman didn’t make the list (I’m aware of only one thing that he drew and it wasn’t that good). I have to stand up for Sim/Gerhard as the greatest ever. They also have to be considered a team as Sim was drawing for Gerhard as much as the other way around. Their inventiveness with the medium is second to none (I think a step beyond Eisner) and I don’t think we’ll see anything close for a long, long time. Even guys like David Mack (who are awesome in their own right) can’t match the sheer beauty of Sim and Ger work. Besides, when’s the next time that we’ll see a 1,000+ page coherent story, much less a solid 6000 pages of work? I’m also going to throw Gene Colan as the most underappreciated of the otherwise mainstream artists. He was stuck in the slightly ghettoized _Tomb of Dracula_ (which was itself a completely underrated series), but when Giordano wasn’t screwing up the inks, the illustrative quality that he brought to the work was unique. Also, Katsuhiro Otomo. His work on _Akira_ really set the standard that I haven’t seen beat in manga. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/47 "2005-04-20T07:33:05Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > I have to stand up for Sim/Gerhard as the greatest ever. They also have to be considered a team as Sim was drawing for Gerhard as much as the other way around. Their inventiveness with the medium is second to none (I think a step beyond Eisner) and I don’t think we’ll see anything close for a long, long time. Even guys like David Mack (who are awesome in their own right) can’t match the sheer beauty of Sim and Ger work. One of my most prized possessions is an original Sim sketch of Cerebus standing on the Wall of Tsi. I remember talking Sim into drawing it on one of his tours, and how remote and almost frustrated he seemed as he quickly pencilled it out. I suspect he wished it were him standing on the wall instead of Cerebus. I know how he felt. As much as I loved Cerebus, and as much as I still reread High Society and Church and State, the bottom line is that Sim drove himself insane creating it. Where the early stories are nuanced, subtle, funny and intelligent, the later stuff is brutally misogynistic, distateful, elitist, badly paced and resembles the ramblings of a schizophrenic. Even more tragic was how the fall of Cerebus paralleled the destruction of Sim’s personal life - his famous falling out with Jeff Smith leaps to mind. Sim’s essays on the worthlessness of women and his own bizarre religious conversions are legendary for their irrationality and hysterical tone. Try as I might, I can’t separate the art from the artist, and I always wince when I think of Cerebus these days. I prefer to simply remember the early years, which were brilliant, and to look at my sketch, imagining myself standing on the wall of Tsi. ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/48 "2005-04-20T09:44:32Z")
I’ve always been a big admirer of the work of [Simon Bisley](http://images.google.com/images?imgsz=small%7Cmedium%7Clarge%7Cxlarge&svnum=20&hl=en&safe=off&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2003-47,GGLD:en&q=Simon+Bisley&spell=1). ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/49 "2005-04-20T11:04:32Z")
From the first image in that link, I can see why. However, my anti-Bisley prejudices have been well-documented. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/50 "2005-04-20T13:07:14Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > Besides, when’s the next time that we’ll see a 1,000+ page coherent story, “Coherent” is an interesting choice of words here. 😉 –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/51 "2005-04-20T14:00:34Z")
> [@Leviosaurus](#): > > One of my most prized possessions is an original Sim sketch of Cerebus standing on the Wall of Tsi. I remember talking Sim into drawing it on one of his tours, and how remote and almost frustrated he seemed as he quickly pencilled it out. I suspect he wished it were him standing on the wall instead of Cerebus. I know how he felt. > > As much as I loved Cerebus, and as much as I still reread High Society and Church and State, the bottom line is that Sim drove himself insane creating it. Where the early stories are nuanced, subtle, funny and intelligent, the later stuff is brutally misogynistic, distateful, elitist, badly paced and resembles the ramblings of a schizophrenic. Even more tragic was how the fall of Cerebus paralleled the destruction of Sim’s personal life - his famous falling out with Jeff Smith leaps to mind. Sim’s essays on the worthlessness of women and his own bizarre religious conversions are legendary for their irrationality and hysterical tone. Try as I might, I can’t separate the art from the artist, and I always wince when I think of Cerebus these days. I prefer to simply remember the early years, which were brilliant, and to look at my sketch, imagining myself standing on the wall of Tsi. I date his mental collapse from his divorce. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/52 "2005-04-20T16:15:26Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > Brian Bolland – static and lacking feeling? The man who did [THE KILLING JOKE?](http://www.jensantarelli.com/cgi-bin/show.cgi?img=bollandgallery/killingjoke/killingjoke.jpg) [A1?]([oops!](http://www.jensantarelli.com/cgi-bin/show.cgi)? url=http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/00718493448.1.GIF) TANK GIRL? POWERMAN? [THE INVISIBLES?](http://www.jensantarelli.com/cgi-bin/show.cgi?img=bollandgallery/invisibles/invisibles-v2-2.jpg) All those ANIMAL MAN, [WONDER WOMAN](http://www.jensantarelli.com/cgi-bin/show.cgi?img=bollandgallery/wonderwoman/wonderwoman-77.jpg) and VERTIGO covers? Why do your links keep cursing at me? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/53 "2005-04-20T16:17:44Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > I have to stand up for Sim/Gerhard as the greatest ever. They also have to be considered a team as Sim was drawing for Gerhard as much as the other way around. The artwork is great, which makes it even more unfortunate that the majority of their work constitutes unreadable paranoid ravings. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962/54 "2005-04-20T16:41:56Z")
Sean Phillips Daniel Zelzej (sp.?) Jock Eduardo Risso Marcelo Frusin John Romita, Jr. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-most-awe-inspiring-comic-artists-of-all-time/298962.md?page=2)