TELL US: Who are the BEST Comic Book/ Comic Strip Artists?

[leigh]

I am surprised to see actual talented artists being listed here.

Here I was expecting to come in here and see fanboy ravings for talentless hacks like Rob Liefeld.

And exactly why is he a “talentless hack”? I’d never heard of him before (I don’t know much about comic art), but after looking at some of his stuff via Google, I’d hardly describe him with such words myself. It would probably be helpful to the thread if you would elaborate a little on your appraisal.

[BillSpradlin]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Tim Bradstreet, phenomenal comic artist and illustrator.

[KolbyJukes]

And exactly why is he a “talentless hack”? I’d never heard of him before (I don’t know much about comic art), but after looking at some of his stuff via Google, I’d hardly describe him with such words myself. It would probably be helpful to the thread if you would elaborate a little on your appraisal.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call Liefeld a talentless hack…but his work really left something to be desired. I remember for awhile there everybody was emulating his style, kinda flavour-of-the-week…then all of a sudden it just died off.

Leigh, check out these articles, they summerize why people have a problem with Liefeld:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/niven/142/talentpo/tp03.html
http://members.aol.com/chrisv82/america.htm

I shudder at thought of Youngblood.

-K.

[leigh]

Thanks for the info, Kwak. As I said, I don’t know much about comic art, so it’s interesting to start learning more about it!

[Art2]

Liefeld… always hated how he designed his guns… and his characters.

Anyway, most have been mentioned already…
Weapon-X, BWSmith
Franquin linky
Joe Quesada (x-factor)
Adam Warren (dirty pair- dark horse)
Chris Claremont (loved his xmen)
Mark Silvestri (xmen, wolverine)

[weasel.acuh5o]

hm, I’d say joe madureira (battle chasers) and chris bachallo (uhm, various comics) are pretty good, so is mike mignola. I prefer comic-like style over lifelike, so you can pretty easily see why I chose them. for manga artists I’d go with masamune shirow (more for his overall work, including the stories and all), yukito kishiro (battleangel alita, great mechanical stuff imho) and, last but not least, inoue takehiko for his work on vagabond. he’s doing an amazing job with the art, let alone the story…

[RobertoOrtiz]

And exactly why is he a “talentless hack”? I’d never heard of him before (I don’t know much about comic art), but after looking at some of his stuff via Google, I’d hardly describe him with such words myself. It would probably be helpful to the thread if you would elaborate a little on your appraisal.

If you want an idea how is seen…
Check out this penny arcade cartoon:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-07-22&res=l

[doodlehead]

Some contemporary comic book artists of good repute: Doug Mahnke (Justice League Elite), Adam Hughes (mostly covers nowadays), Dustin Nguyen, Travis Charest (check out his work on Wildcats), Gene Ha (Top 10, 49ers), John Van Fleet, Tan Eng Huat.

And some cartoonists: Zander Cannon, Ted McKeever, Peter Bagge.

Some of the all time great cartoonists: Al Hirshfeld, Carl Barks, Herge, Walt Kelly, George Herriman.

[erilaz]

Jhonen Vasquez! :buttrock:

[MadMax]

And exactly why is he a “talentless hack”? I’d never heard of him before (I don’t know much about comic art), but after looking at some of his stuff via Google, I’d hardly describe him with such words myself. It would probably be helpful to the thread if you would elaborate a little on your appraisal.

Basically Rob has no originality. He steals everything he does. At staff meetings, Rob would say things like “We need a Captain America” or “We need a Sub Mariner” character. Then they would copy Marvel designs, sometimes blatantly so.

For Example, Sub Mariner.

Marvel Character name Namor. Image Character name Roman. Clever huh?

Marvel character generally wore green speedos with a fishscale patter and gold belt.
Image charachter generally wore green speedos with a fishscale patter and a gold belt.

Both of course wer “Atlantian”.

Both had Pointed ears and arched Eyebrows which made them look like they were from Vulcan.

Rob cannot draw hands, shoulders or feet. This includes ankles.

Hands: look at his characters holding swords or guns. Hand is completely closed, so it couldn;t actually be gripping anything.

Feet: we never really see feet because all of Rob’s characters are conveniently standing behind a rock or ground fog, no matter what the situation.

On the rare occasion you see feet, the ankles are so thin and brittle looking that the character would snap apart.

Shoulders. again, the great unknown. Rob always draws characters with bulky metal should pads that would weigh about 800lbs. His ankles wouldn’t support the costumes.

I could go on and on with Rob indiscretions as well, like how his branch of Image comics stole famous covers of other artists. Rob would call them tributes AFTER he got busted for it, but never made any acknowledgement of the artist in question that he ripped off.

then there is Rob the person, a delightful little a$$wipe if you ever met one. There are few people in the creative world with more hubris and arrogance than Rob.

It was once said that the Image gang wanted to be Marvel badly, and they suceeded.

[Sil3]

yeah, what is that guy up to these days?

 It's like he disappeared. Last I saw he was doing covers for video games and gamer mags.
  
 -K.

Madureira got so into games (besides games cover mags) that some years ago he made he´s own game company, at the same time he was publishing Battle Chasers i think, it went bankruptcy before launching the first title, after that he pretty much disappeared…

[MadMax]

GOOD GOD!!

I should know better. But no, I followed the Liefeld links. I forgot how much that style of art made my skin crawl it was so bad.

[jud]

Alex Ross and Simon Bisley http://www.simonbisleyonline.com/

I’ll second that.

jud

[FloydBishop]

I almost forgot about Walt Kelly.

http://www.lambiek.net/kelly.htm

Fired from Disney after taking part in a strike in 1941.

Creator of Pogo.

[EricUNSL]

I’ve never really understood why there are so many liefeld haters out there. I mean DAMN that’s alota hate!! I really don’t know much of what he did after youngblood tanked but ya gotta give it up to his old marvel, x-factor/x-force days. The guy did design Cable I think? I was one of the kids drawing stuff that mimicked his and jim lee’s stuff. That’s what you do when you’re sixteen, have a passion for drawing and want to learn how to draw comics so you can get a job doing what your idols do. There are alot of guys out there with funky drawing styles. Mcfarlane’s stuff wasn’t exactly anatomically correct either but he was able to pull stuff off with tons of detail lines in every panel. I think maybe if it wasn’t for his personality flaws and reputation for copying designs, Rob would have faded away like other break out sucesses that eventually got out of the biz or took on other roles in the company. I really don’t follow comics anymore but is Rob still doing anything? So much hateration:curious: I thought that comic con 2004 sketch was soooo mean. I laughed for like 2 minutes straight but felt kinda sorry for the guy. I’d be pissed if I were him and not in the game anymore and still had people making fun of me.

[Sil3]

Liefeld got back at Marvel and he´s drawing X-Force again… i took a look at it one of this days when i was “browsing” the Comics at magazine store.

Take a look and judge for yourself:

http://www.marvel.com/catalog/listing.htm?cover_art=ROB%20LIEFELD

[EricUNSL]

Well I don’t wanna come off sounding like I’m defending Rob. It’s nice to know that after all that’s happened, especially with that whole captain america / agent whatever comic that he could still go home again and get work. At the end of the day that’s what matters. I just don’t see his stuff as being completely awful. I mean what is the point of comparison? You can’t exactly put his stuff up against Alex Ross or Adam Hughes and say ok who draws better? However if you look at it, his stuff is consistent. Good or bad it is his style and he really hasn’t deviated from this look… ever. In fact I think he’s improved alot since his old x-factor stuff. Erik Larsen, Jack Kirby, even Frank Miller have some real funky stuff going on when drawing human figures. However these guys are far superior storytellers no doubt. Just trying to say that all of them have unique ways of drawing iconic characters. Some better than others but it all comes down to style unless the artist is drawing direct from photo ref like Ross, Tim Bradstreet and others…

[shy-guy]

Jack Kirby,Frank Miller,Pat Lee and Matt Groening ( i think he counts…)

[Lunatique]

Comic Strips:
Bill Waterson - Calvin and Hobbes.

Manga:
Kitagawa Sho - Complex, BB Fish, 19…etc.

Nishi Keiko - all of her stuff.

Shirow Masamune - His early works (Appleseed, GITS, Orion, Black Magic…etc).

Yamashita Ikuto - Dark Whisper.

Sanctuary - Story by Sho Fumimura, art by Ryoichi Ikegami

Comic Books/Graphic Novels (I don’t think there should be a distinction–it’s only a matter of binding format or being serialized or not, but the craft itself is identical):

Hernandez Brothers - Love and Rockets

Milo Manara - anything he does

Alan Moore - anything he does

Neil Gaiman - anything he does

Jon J Muth - anything he illustrates

[hanzo]

I like a lot of stuff, I can only mansion a few off the top of my head…

Hiroaki Samura
Kia Asamiya
Yoshihiko Ochi
Shirow Masamune
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

Pat Lee
Joe Madureira
John Romita Jr.
Todd McFarlane

and me real soon :twisted: