Top 50 Comic Book artists of all time

Someone posted this idea a while ago on the Usenet (the format was more-or-less his, not mine), and this was my response. There’s more than enough comic book fans on the SDMB to make this interesting here. I’m happy to answer about why I picked someone, and I’d be interested in seeing alternate lists, addtions, subtractions, etc. (Yes, this list is only North American, or I’d certainly add Herge and ummm…can’t spell it but the guy who did Asterix)

Golden Age/EC-era artists

  1. Grahm Ingels
  2. Wally Wood
  3. Al Williamson
  4. Wayne Boring
  5. C.C. Beck
  6. Carl Barks
  7. Will Eisner
  8. Dick Sprang
  9. Jack(?) Cole: Plastic Man
  10. Sheldon Mayer (Dammit DC, I want a Scribbly and the Red Tornado Archive and I want it NOW!)
    Honorable mention: William Moulton-Marston/Harry Peter (Early Wonder Woman…odd drawings style but weirdly imaginative layouts/concepts)

Silver Age
11) Jack Kirby
12) Carmine Infantion
13) Joe Kubert
14) Gil Kane
15) Murphy Anderson
16) Marie Severin
17) Steve Ditko
18) John Romita Sr.
19) Bob (Little Archie) Bolling
20) Neal Adams
Honerable Mention: Jim Steranko (not enough volume to quite qualify)

Underground/Independent/Ground Level, etc
21) R. Crumb
22) Whichever Hernandez Brother did “Mr. X” & Electropolis.
23) Art Spegilman
24) Reed Crandall(??) Omaha The Cat Dancer
25) Vaughn Bode
26) Paul Chadwick (if he belongs here, and not in the 80-90s batch)
27) Dave Sim
28) Scott McCloud
29) Wendi Pini
30) Phil Foglio

70s-80s
31) Gene Colan
32) George Perez
33) Curt Swan (Yeah, he started in the '60s, but he achieved a new level of greatness in the '70s)
34) Bernie Wrightson
35) Jim Starlin
36) P.Craig Russell
37) Frank Miller
38) Marshall Rodgers
39) Michael Golden
40) John Byrne (then, not now)
Honerable Mention: Frank Brunner (whatever happened to him?) and Barry Windsor-Smith

80s-90’s
41) Alex Ross
42) Bill Sienkevetcz (sp)
43) Tom Mandrake
44) Art Adams
45) Matt Wagner
46) Dave Gibbons
47) John Muth
48) Kevin O’Neill
49) Barry Smith
50) Alan Davis

Opinions?

Fenris

I agree with most of those I recognise… (Heh…I’ve never had much of a head for the artists…)

And would like to second Eisner (The Spirit is among the best of the best…) and Foglio (I also like Kaja’s stuff, both with Phil and without, but we’re sticking to comics here…)

I’m afraid that’s all I have to add… ^__^;;;

First, the quibbles with the OP:

And first first: Fenris, you are aware there are comics other than in the super-hero genre, right? Just checking.

  1. Wayne Boring, but not Joe Shuster?

  2. Carmine Infantino Denied! Not "great."

  3. Whichever Hernandez Brother did “Mr. X” & Electropolis. Include the other Hernandez Brothers too or Rand Race gets a rocket up the patootie (“Listen to him! He’ll do what he says!”).

  4. Reed Crandall(??) Omaha The Cat Dancer Reed Waller.

  5. Scott McCloud Scott’s an unqualified genius with some of the best ideas in the history of the medium, but you don’t really think his drawings put him in the top 50, do you? I mean, I love Scott as much as anyone, but this thread’s about the art, right? Otherwise you may as well include Harvey Pekar.

  6. Frank Miller Pardon me while I rolly my eyes in your general direction.

  7. Bill Sienkevetcz (sp) Sienkiewicz.
    I’m surprised you left off Adam Hughes. Not that I think he belongs here, but based on your inclusion of such (yawn!) mainstream inclusions as George Perez I’m surprised you left him off.

But more importantly, here are your shocking omissions, in no particular order as to bestness, age or genre:

Todd Klein, just based on his lettering.

Eddie Freaking Campbell!

Dave McKean.

Glenn Fabry, just for his covers.

Sergio Aragones.

Steve Rude! I can’t believe you left out the Dude!

Jeff Smith.

Jason Lutes.

Joe Sacco

Chris Ware. What the hell were you thinking, leaving Chris Ware off this list?!

Harvey Kurtzman.

Kyle Baker.

I also agree with the names that I recognize, and I agree with the other names I do know not being on the list (Liefield (sp) especially).

Bill Sienkevetcz, New Mutants 1-11, is probably my favorite run. Of course, it was pretty mean of him to drawn Warlock as the abstract entity he was, and then pass him off for others to try and figure out how to draw.

-Vor

I agree with Fenris on this one. McCloud’s art is gorgeous, and it gets the story across - it does both of the things comic art should do.

YMMV, of course.

Their names are René Goscinny, for the stories and Albert Uderzo for the art. To add a few French/Belgian ones :

Jean Giraud / Moebius / Gir (he draw under these three names)
Philippe Druillet, if you can find them check his books Delirius or Les Six Voyages de Lone Sloane
Peyo, creator of the Schtroumpfs / Smurfs
André Franquin (Spirou et Fantasio, and especially Gaston Lagaffe)

But for suggestions for the North American list

Gilbert Shelton

Jack Davis

Ooops, sorry about the coding.

Brent Anderson. His work on Strikeforce: Moritori alone is enough to earn this honor, much less his current Astro City stuff.

I’m rather fond of Duncan Fegredo. Beautiful, expressive art. I haven’t seen much of his work hit the mainstream, but if anyone rememebers Enigma published by Vertigo (Peter Milligan authored)… ::sigh:: Beautiful, beautiful stuff. I will own a piece of his someday (already have P. Craig Russell). And no Steve Dillon!? Just flat-out, clean straightforward storytelling. No flashy worm’s eye angles for no purpose or weird super-emphasized perspective. And no one roll your eyes at Frank Miller!

That was just a warmup for the Elektra lim ser. - unbelievable.

Also - why is Frank Miller getting eye rolls?

Todd McFarlane’s got to be on that list. Yeah, I know there’s a ton of extra-curricular activity and baggage that goes along with him, but if you eliminate all of that and take a look at his Amazing Spider-Man run from a few years back, well… those are gorgeous books.

I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but David Michelinie wrote a series of issues (when McFarlane was the penciller and inker on ASM) where he went through the best of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery and each month was an absolute treat: you got to not only read a comic book from somebody who absolutely nailed the combat dialogue that makes Peter Parker so special, but also you got to see an interpretation of one of his enemies from McFarlane that just blew everyone else’s away. I’ve still never seen anyone else draw the character of Venom correctly… Venom and McFarlane and George Perez’s Captain America are the only two artist-character combinations I can think of where they are done so well that it inadvertently makes everyone else who tackles the character look bad.
I also agree with Fiver regarding Adam Hughes. I don’t know why I like his style so much – taking a look at his run on JLA, he was able to take a dialogue-driven book, and make it into something that was fantastic to look at without turning it into a bunch of panels consisting of “talking heads.” (And after Kevin Maguire’s run on JLA, I had no problem with more talking heads.) Maybe it’s because his depiction of costumes just looks “right,” without appearing painted on, or because his characters don’t look like laughably unrealistic steroid abusers… Not really sure, but he’s really talented and I’d love to see him tackle another team book.
the Holy Avenger

I nominate former Marvel artist Alan Kupperberg, for no other reason than that he is my first cousin.

Mike Grell belongs on the list somewhere, I think. He did Jon Sable, Freelance in the 1980s. He also did some work on Tarzan, as well as a few James Bond graphic stories, and a few issues of Maggic the Cat.

I’m not much of a comics reader, but Mike Grell’s name on a book as the artist will usually make me take a closer look.

To your 70’s-80’s list I would add Paul Smith.

To 80’s-90’s I would add David Mack.

Um…yeah And Fiver, you are aware that Archie, and Uncle Scrooge, and E.C. Comics aren’t in the super-hero genre, right? Just checking. Ever read Scribbly? Even the strips with “The Red Tornado” aren’t super-hero even by the furthest stretch of the imagination. Plastic Man is technically super-hero, as is The Spirit, but they’re hardly traditional super-hero. Cerebus and Elfquest aren’t super-hero. I included them and others. And as I said, the breakdown of the list was done by someone else: I’m following his format and he lumped all the indies together in one group. Personally, I wouldn’t have “ghetto-ized” them and would’ve have spread 'em out into their respective eras.

**

Boring had a better design sense, better story flow and was generally more distinctive to me. Plus his stuff was far more imaginative. Shuster gets points for creating Superman, but for me, when I think of Superman, I either think Curt Swan or Wayne Boring.

**

I completely disagree. Lookit Infantino and Anderson’s Adam Strange stories in Mystery In Space. Hell, look at the first 30 or so issues of the Silver Age Flash. No artist has ever captured motion and fluidity of movement so well. Frankly, I consider him a better (if not more dynamic) storyteller than Kirby.

**

<fanboy admission>
I loved Zot! I put McCloud in for his…30-some issues of Zot! I loved the storyflow, I loved the panel layouts. I loved the character designs. (Remember Dekko? Remember 9Jack9? Remember Butch, in his Devolved form doing the Sgt Fury routine?) I loved McCloud’s ability to covey emotion.

**

Pardon me while I ask “Why?”
Note that I put him in the '80s where his stuff was new, different and exciting. Lookit Marvel Team-Up 51(?) for a look at what he’s capable of.

**

Neither can I. < blink >What the hell was I thinking? If I ever feel like rewriting the list, be assured, he’ll be on (he should be, I’ve loved his stuff since I got Nexus Mag. #2 or #3 (the one with the Flexi-Disk that destroyed the needle on your record player)

Feel free to post your own version (I’m not being nasty, here: I’d like to see alternate versions…being limited to 10 per “era” makes it harder to just toss out names). Other than adding Rude though (probably trading Michael Golden for him), I’ll stand by my list.

Fenris

It sounds like a pretty good list.

And, no fiver, Joe Siegel doesn’t belong on the list. His art was never more than serviceable.

Actually, it’s New Mutants ummm…17-31 or so that Bill did. There was a fantastic advertizement for him coming on board. It was a full page ad showing his weird, creepy version of the New Mutants in a Gil Kane “up the nostrils” shot, Magick is conjuring…something, Wolfsbane finally looked like a werewolf (she looked like a cocker spaniel in the first…15 or so issues) and it had the tag-line: “Don’t call 'em the X-Babies any more!”

I rembember how excited I was when I saw that ad!
Fenris

And seriously, everyone: The idea is to limit it to 50 artists (I cheated with a couple of Honorable Mentions).

Don’t just toss out names, either post your own lists or subtract people from my list when you add new people! If I wasn’t limited to 50, I’d have added a bunch of the names mentioned. (I’m still not sure if I’d cut O’Neill for Vess. Maybe.)

And Gaudere: you own a piece of P.Craig Russell’s art?! I’m so jealous…what’s it from? (And you are reading his Ring of the Neiblungen(sp) series, right?)

Fenris

What? No mention of Liefeld?
(I was kidding. I was kidding. Please don’t hurt me)

I also second Steve Dillon.

And Romita Jr. It’s a family affair.

That’s nice, but it shouldn’t qualify you. I’ve discussed this with an old roomate of mine, who publishes an independant comic. You get a million people applying who can do a beautiful splash page, but few that can do good sequential art. And comics are about sequential art.

Oh yeah, and nominating Jae Lee.

Myrr21:

Fair enough. Who’s your old roommate? I bet he’s a friend of mine, or that I’ve at least met him.

Frank Miller gets the rolleyes because of Sin City, which was praised to the moon but which was really a lame, derivative, underdrawn revenge fantasy. I acknowledge the brilliance of Dark Knight and Batman: Year One while also declaring the comics world has entirely too high an opinion of him, as he also has of himself. Gaudere, I note that Frank Miller was the screenwriter of Robocop 3 and then I once again roll my eyes.

Holy Avenger, please reread my earlier post if you think I was saying Adam Hughes belongs on Fenris’s list.