Flex Mentallo

Some GAtor fellow is holding this for me - he simply insists that I pay him for it!

I had such trouble getting it down to ten myself I oughto have asked for everyone's top twenty when I kicked off the thread! However with ten, it is possible to get entirely different but fully justified selections. Hence I put Matt Baker at #3, but my nine other choices are different from yours. I'm glad you included Rudi Palais - I've always thought he influenced Steve Ditko's early horror work - both depict mood so wel!

C'mon Josh - you have to make us love him!

Nil points, like Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest!

But where's Buster Crabbe #5? I don't have one. That book is a little tough to find in grade. Besides Alanna had already posted a pretty one. Alanna's books are and yes his Crabbe #5 is Very Nice! I love that book. A couple of books on my infinite want list are Buster Crabbe 5 and Beware 10. Unfortunately I don't think a nice copy of the Beware will pop up any time soon. I used to own a vg copy and that's still the nicest copy I've ever seen! A truly tough book.

But where's Buster Crabbe #5? I don't have one. That book is a little tough to find in grade. Besides Alanna had already posted a pretty one. Alanna's books are and yes his Crabbe #5 is Very Nice! I love that book. Sorry to mislead guys! That Buster Crabbe #5 isnt mine and I had intended to say so (now rectified). I had one once, and one day I'll have another!

But where's Buster Crabbe #5? Dont even ask!

Thank you kindly - I'd love to see your top ten!

So, finally, here is my all time list, including artists up to the present day: 1. Bill Everett 2. Al Williamson 3. Matt Baker 4. Alex Raymond 5. Lou Fine 6. Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson 7. Mark Schultz 8. Frank Frazetta 9. Barry Smith 10. Dave Stevens Honourable mention: John Buscema/Alfredo Alcala Agree/disagree? Of course you disagree! So let's see your choices, and argue the toss!

Then I got to thinking about artists of latter days and which of them might seriously challenge for a spot in my top ten. In the end, four made my list, and one nearly so. Firstly, here are the four who made my all time list: Dave Stevens is one of the most talented artistrs who ever lived. A tragic loss. Barry Smith Mark Schultz The last three issues of Xenozoic Tales contain the best black and white art ever created for a comic book. Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson Quite simply the best penciller/inker team ever - better than Buscema/Palmer, Colan/Palmer, Kirby/Sinnott, all of whom I hugely admire. But Infantino/Anderson were made for each other, and brought out each other's best qualities. I think they were better together than either on their own. Honourable mention! Wrightson? Nope! Steranko? Nope! Adams? Nope! It's- John Buscema/Alfredo Alcala

Here is a story from Menace #4 which may possibly be my favourite story - now this is my kind of woman!

So here is my favourite golden age comic book artist and of all time: 1.Bill Everett The most underrated artist in comics. Why is Big Bill top of the pile for me? The answer is very simple - I enjoy his work more than any other. Explaining why is harder to define. His use of line is wonderfully supple. Although his style is somewhat mannered, it is nevertheless utterly convincing. His splash pages for the short lived Namora were sometimes gorgeous, full of an arabian nights exoticism. Venus is among my very favourite comics, particularly #15 to #19. More on Everett in the next post!

So, before I get to my number one, I just thought I would briefly share the other artists who came close to joining my top ten and on a different day could well do so! Harry Anderson George Evans Can anyone post the two page spread by Evans in When Worlds Collide? I dont presently have a copy, but it is wonderful! Reed Crandall Russ Heath George Herriman Mac Raboy I will be honest and say that if I had any books by Raboy he would probably ease his way into my top ten with no difficulty. But I've never really been interested in golden age super hero books, dont know why. Werner Roth Leonard Starr Ogden Whitney

2. Al Williamson The natural successor to Alex Raymond, Williamson arguably transcended his master to become the most complete artist comics have ever seen. What I love above all is his ability to design a page so that it looks as beautiful as everything in it. His usage of spot blacks is masterful. This one pretty much leaves me speechless!

3. Matt Baker Baker has qualities that set him apart from any other comic artist. In particular his depiction of women is easily the most sympathetic in comicdom. In his heyday as a St John romance artist he came into his own. He does not treat women as objects as most comic depictions do. Yes, his women are beauiful on the outside - but they have complex inner lives, make mistakes, seek redemption, which they dont always achieve. His women have fallen from grace, but he depicts them all the more humanely for it. They live. They breathe the same air as we.

4. Alex Raymond Flash Gordon is the very definition of heroism, and the word heroic is a pretty good adjective to apply to Raymond's astonishingly sustained and detailed creation of an alien world, where men are men, women are stunningly beautiful, and the villains are well - merciless. There is no doubting that the storyline creaks in places, and indeed becomes somewhat stagnant towards the end of Raymond's run, but it is the art that carries the story! It is interesting to watch how Raymond matures as an artist through the evolution of his depiction of Flash Gordon. From its early beginnings the style gradually becomes looser and more free flowing... Gradually a more refined and classical style emerges

5. Lou Fine Lightning in a bottle! I have no in-depth knowledge of Fine at all and would be grateful for some help filling the gaps. What strikes me is that he appears to be the first comic book artist to display absolute mastery of line, anatomy and composition (given that Foster and Raymond did newspaper strips). In that respect he seems to be a precursor of Frazetta and Williamson - but also arguably of the expansive style of the Marvel era a generation later. So often you find that an artist will sacrifice detail for the sake of action, or pile on so much detail as to virtually immobilise the art. But Fine never compromised. The details are all there - in service to the composition. In consequence the majority of his covers capture the action in a split second - free flowing, lucid and above all completely alive!

6. Maurice Whitman Joe Doolin and Dan Zolnerwich carried the torch for Fiction House for more than a decade, doing the vast majority of the covers between them. Difficult to imagine anyone exceeding the quality of their output, but Maurice Whitman managed effortlessly to do so. The covers he did are among the most impressive oeuvres in the field. His entrance also coincided with a new printing process which made the covers seem almost painterly - especially vivid in coloration, which had always been a problem for Fiction House to that point. Here are a few of my favourite Whitman covers to illustrate the point:

7. Steve Ditko The king of terror! As I indicated earlier, my knowledge of the golden age came much later than my knowledge of the silver age. One because I lived through the silver age here in the UK (racing my school chums once a month to the local store to get the latest Marvels). Two because evidence that the golden age even existed was only from hints in Silver Age comics. That Steve Ditko (and Richard Ayers for that matter) had a career as a horror artist was something I learned only after the photo journal appeared. I love the stories he did for Charlton in the fifties - but above all I like his covers, which show in no uncertain terms that before he became the king of dynamic movement with Spiderman, he was with Charlton beyond a doubt the king of fear!

8. Frank Frazetta Maker of worlds! My first experience of Frank Frazetta was the covers he did for Warren Magazines, which blew me away. The interiors dissappointed me by comparison with what the covers seem to promise. (His depictions of women are far and away the most erotic.) He created worlds that illustrated stories less resonant than the pictures he made. But he was the perfect artist for Conan. His style is expressionist and painterly rather than classical and linear and therefore perfectly suited to depictions of the horrific. Yet he was the most versatile of artists because he could if needed adapt his style to suit the material. His Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies outdo Alex Raymond at his own game, and are arguably the greatest set of comic covers ever created. I dont own any of these at present but I used to have this one, many years ago (the comic, not the original art!) My single favourite Frazetta cover wont surprise anyone, though I hasten to add this isnt mine and it's years since I owned a copy something I intend to rectify: It also contains a wonderful story by Al Williamson in alliance with Frazetta or George Evans - I cant remember which - but I'm sure someone here will know!

9. Wally Wood When I was young Wally Wood was my favourite artist. I loved the fine detail of the way he drew. But over the years it gradually dawned on me that his style depended heavily on a limited number of rather wooden poses. So he's fallen in my estimation over the years. But I still love this:

10. Joe Doolin It has to be said that Joe Doolin is a rather limited artist, but he knew how to play to his strengths, which included a clean linear style, especially suited to science fiction. He did some wonderful work on Planet Comics. Here are a few examples

So, on to my list. Let me say straight up that while I fully recognise the importance of Jack Kirby's contribution to the field and I'm sure many would place him at the top of the tree, he is not an artist I have ever particularly liked - at least in comparison to those to whom I gave respectful consideration before regretfully deciding there was no room in my top ten for them. These included the largely unsung Lou Cameron, who did sterling work for Ace, as well as many of the brightest luminaries in the field, Jack Cole, LB Cole, Will Eisner, Hal Foster, Charles Biro, Paul Gustavson, Jack Kamen, Alex Schomburg, Syd Shores, Joe Simon, Charles Sultan, and Dan Zolnerowich. So, my goodness, if Kirby, Schomburg and Eisner - who would surely be on any top ten greatest artists list - arent on my list of favourites, who does it leave?!

I imagine this is too obvious not to have been done before - but boards change, different people contribute, so even if this has been done before, let's do it again! Post your top ten favourite Golden Age artists, then your top ten of all time. How many of the golden age artists survive the cut? Include pulp artists if you need to. Also art teams if they are inseparable! Note that I'm asking you to post your personal favourites, not the ones considered greatest by the hobby at large - otherwise we will end up with only one list with minor variations which, let's face it, is rather obvious, and even boring! So dont be afraid to post the artists of your personal choice and exclude the ones orthodoxy says you must acknowledge - even if that excludes Frank Frazetta! Have the courage of your convictions and do your best to respect each others choices! But please let us know why you choose a given artist - illustrate your choices if you can!

Dont you dare!