GA BEST ARTIST SURVIVOR SERIES POLL: RD.12

[Dale Roberts]

GA Best Artist

 

Frazetta is clearly the best. If you want to do a new poll and figure contributions to the medium, then I guess we can sit down and add up pages and multiply that by a factor of importance.

 

I bet most people on this board have never read an Eisner comic, so number of pages really shouldn't have that much to do with it.

 

a little info

 

 

 

WILL EISNER was born William Erwin Eisner on March 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. By the time of his death on January 3, 2005, following complications from open heart surgery, Eisner was recognized internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art, a term he coined.

 

In a career that spanned nearly seventy years and eight decades — from the dawn of the comic book to the advent of digital comics — he truly was the 'Orson Welles of comics' and the 'father of the Graphic Novel'. He broke new ground in the development of visual narrative and the language of comics and was the creator of The Spirit, John Law, Lady Luck, Mr. Mystic, Uncle Sam, Blackhawk, Sheena and countless others.

 

Frank Frazetta was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of eight, at the insistence of his school teachers, Frazetta's parents enrolled him in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts. He attended the academy for eight years under the tutelage of Michael Falanga, an award-winning Italian fine artist. Falanga was struck by Frazetta's significant talent. Frazetta's abilities flourished under Falanga, who dreamed of sending Frazetta to Europe, at his own expense, to further his studies. Unfortunately, Falanga died suddenly in 1944 and with him, his dream. As the school closed about a year after Falanga's passing, Frazetta was forced to find work to earn a living.

 

At 16, Frazetta started drawing for comic books that varied in themes: westerns, fantasy, mysteries, histories and other contemporary themes. Some of his earliest work was in funny animal comics, which he signed as "Fritz". During this period he turned down job offers from giants such as Walt Disney. In the early 1950s, he worked for EC Comics, National Comics (including the superhero feature "Shining Knight"), Avon and several other comic book companies. Much of his work in comic books was done in collaboration with friends Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel.

 

Through the work on the Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies, Frazetta started working with Al Capp on his Li'l Abner comic strip. Frazetta was also producing his own strip, Johnny Comet at this time, as well as assisting Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon daily strip. In 1961, after nine years with Capp, Frazetta returned to regular comics. Having emulated Capp's style for so long, Frazetta's own work during this period looked a bit awkward as his own style struggled to reemerge.

 

Work in comics for Frazetta was hard to find, however. Comics had changed during his period with Capp and his style was deemed antiquated. Eventually he joined Harvey Kurtzman doing the parody strip Little Annie Fanny in Playboy magazine.

 

 

[TheShadowKnows]

Show me some Eisner

 

Andy

 

 

Ask and ye shall receive

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angelo,

You are the king.

Dennis

[FlyingDonut]

 

just a throwaway Frazetta piece.

[Comicdey]

GA Best Artist

 

Frazetta is clearly the best. If you want to do a new poll and figure contributions to the medium, then I guess we can sit down and add up pages and multiply that by a factor of importance.

 

I bet most people on this board have never read an Eisner comic, so number of pages really shouldn't have that much to do with it.

 

a little info

 

 

 

WILL EISNER was born William Erwin Eisner on March 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. By the time of his death on January 3, 2005, following complications from open heart surgery, Eisner was recognized internationally as one of the giants in the field of sequential art, a term he coined.

 

In a career that spanned nearly seventy years and eight decades — from the dawn of the comic book to the advent of digital comics — he truly was the 'Orson Welles of comics' and the 'father of the Graphic Novel'. He broke new ground in the development of visual narrative and the language of comics and was the creator of The Spirit, John Law, Lady Luck, Mr. Mystic, Uncle Sam, Blackhawk, Sheena and countless others.

 

Frank Frazetta was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of eight, at the insistence of his school teachers, Frazetta's parents enrolled him in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts. He attended the academy for eight years under the tutelage of Michael Falanga, an award-winning Italian fine artist. Falanga was struck by Frazetta's significant talent. Frazetta's abilities flourished under Falanga, who dreamed of sending Frazetta to Europe, at his own expense, to further his studies. Unfortunately, Falanga died suddenly in 1944 and with him, his dream. As the school closed about a year after Falanga's passing, Frazetta was forced to find work to earn a living.

 

At 16, Frazetta started drawing for comic books that varied in themes: westerns, fantasy, mysteries, histories and other contemporary themes. Some of his earliest work was in funny animal comics, which he signed as "Fritz". During this period he turned down job offers from giants such as Walt Disney. In the early 1950s, he worked for EC Comics, National Comics (including the superhero feature "Shining Knight"), Avon and several other comic book companies. Much of his work in comic books was done in collaboration with friends Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel.

 

Through the work on the Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies, Frazetta started working with Al Capp on his Li'l Abner comic strip. Frazetta was also producing his own strip, Johnny Comet at this time, as well as assisting Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon daily strip. In 1961, after nine years with Capp, Frazetta returned to regular comics. Having emulated Capp's style for so long, Frazetta's own work during this period looked a bit awkward as his own style struggled to reemerge.

 

Work in comics for Frazetta was hard to find, however. Comics had changed during his period with Capp and his style was deemed antiquated. Eventually he joined Harvey Kurtzman doing the parody strip Little Annie Fanny in Playboy magazine.

 

 

I'm glad you have an opinion.....I like Eisner better....anyway...but that's for the final vote to decide.

[CAP Freak]

Show me some Eisner

 

Andy

 

 

Ask and ye shall receive

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angelo,

You are the king.

Dennis

Sweet Crippen copies

[*paull*]

I love Schomburg and Frazetta, but the reason I'm voting for Eisner is because of his unparalleled storytelling ability. He wins hands down.

[Dale Roberts]

I like both guys, and don't like either as much as I like Neal Adams, but I just happen to think Frazetta was the better artist. I have no problem with the fact that Eisner was probably the most influential artist.

 

I am pretty sure that Eisner is credited with sequential comics in which one story builds on the last one and builds to the next one, instead of just stand alone stories. Basically, the father of continuity.

 

However, if I had to pick a favorite artist to look at, if I only had one more chance, it would be Frazetta over Eisner(given the constraints of this contest).

[tth2]

 

No doubt that Eisner was a fantastic artist, and extremely influential. If nothing else, it's not too hard to see that Steranko among others was heavily influenced by Eisner, as I could easily see the two pieces I've quoted above appearing in a late 60s comic by Steranko.

 

But, although I have no problem with Eisner coming in at #2 (although my own preference would've been Raboy or Fine), I think there is a difference between "genius" and "fantastic", and Frazetta was the genius. So much so that it makes up for the fact that he didn't do that much comic book work. I don't think that it's fair to hold the fact that most of Frazetta's work was in the Atomic Age against him, since "Golden Age" for purposes of this contest was defined to include the Atomic Age. If we had clear rules at the outset that this was "Golden Age" only up to 1950 or so, then I would agree that Frazetta shouldn't make the cut.

[TheShadowKnows]

 

No doubt that Eisner was a fantastic artist, and extremely influential. If nothing else, it's not too hard to see that Steranko among others was heavily influenced by Eisner, as I could easily see the two pieces I've quoted above appearing in a late 60s comic by Steranko.

 

But, although I have no problem with Eisner coming in at #2 (although my own preference would've been Raboy or Fine), I think there is a difference between "genius" and "fantastic", and Frazetta was the genius. So much so that it makes up for the fact that he didn't do that much comic book work. I don't think that it's fair to hold the fact that most of Frazetta's work was in the Atomic Age against him, since "Golden Age" for purposes of this contest was defined to include the Atomic Age. If we had clear rules at the outset that this was "Golden Age" only up to 1950 or so, then I would agree that Frazetta shouldn't make the cut.

Would have to agree with that.

As was said Eisner was the ultimate comic book artist/storyteller.Even moreso when you Angelo awesome Spirit dailies.

But some of the greatest covers ever were Frazetta.His famous Funnie run,Ghost Rider.personal love(interiors)LilAbner he could and did draw it all.Check out that exciting you bought Angelo.Great Frazetta art in Milton Caniff style.

I will be voting Frazetta 1 and Eisner 2.

Dennis

[rza808]

I will be voting Eisner off. Frazetta the best ARTIST, paint or pencil, period in comics. I also would have Neal Adams as best artist but that is a different thread to come.

[adamstrange]

As Bangzoom pointed out, at some point the wording used to be:

 

I believe until this round the instructions at the start of every round was, "VOTE OFF YOUR LEAST FAVORITE ARTISTS."

 

Now it's the Best Artist.

 

I still think that folks should be free to interpret that any way they'd like as story telling and contributions to the medium have to account for a lot -- and I think that's why Eisner is still in the running.

 

Regarding Frazetta's output, I've pointed out on more than one occasion how many companies he worked for, the genres, the stories, and the covers. He has more than enough quantity, IMHO, such that it should not be a factor. If you look at Schomburg he did scores of covers but just a handful of stories and Eisner's total was beefed up by use of assistants, especially during the post WWII period when he was putting out 7 pages a week plus a small quantity of covers.

[adamstrange]

I'm voting out that no good Frazetta guy. What has he done?

 

Show me any one panel and Frazetta's art is the best. But he has so few panels or covers to compare, and both Eisner and Schomburg contributed so much to what we think of as the language of comic books.

 

Frazetta is the better "artist" but "comic book artist"? Eisner! So I agree with MrBedrock. In other words, can anyone say Li'l Abner?

Frazetta did Li'l Abner, and his work on the strip was fantastic.

 

Lil Abner wasn't a showcase for his talent like Johnny Comet but Frazetta can work beautifully in any style including bigfoot hillbilly humor.

I think it's even more impressive when an artist has to work within a specific style constraint and yet his talent still shines through, which is what happened when Frazetta worked on Li'l Abner. Having said that, I liked Al Capp's drawings too, so it's not the worst style constraint to have to work under.

 

Lil Abner never looked better than when Frazetta drew it and it is impressive work. I think if you look at a couple of the Buck Rogers covers that he drew that are homages to Wood you'll see he can do all of what Wood can do and then add a Frazetta touch to improve it. He can then crank it up a notch and turn out a cover like Weird Science Fantasy 29 that's untouchable by Wood.

 

Even is his homage to Raymond and Foster are look impressive next to masters.

 

Here's Frazetta inks over Williamson in the Raymond style:

 

 

Here's Frazetta pencils and inks in the Tarzan-era Foster style:

 

 

 

 

[-cryptkeeper-]

Will Eisner

[TupennyConan]

FRAZETTA IS THE BETTER ARTIST. PAGE COUNT OR OTHERWISE.

[Theagenes]

Adam Strange and others have tried to point out the fact that Frazetta did a great deal of work before the Atom Age, but no one seems to be listening. Many people seem to think that Frazetta's work in comics consists of some Buck Rogers covers and a few EC stories (all of which count for purposes of this contest, BTW) but he had a pretty solid output before the Atom Age as well - it just wasn't high-profile stuff (i.e. it wasn't superheroes). But since anecdotal comments don't seem to be enough to shake this misconception of Frazetta as an Atom Age-only artist, I went to GCD and and starting counting.

 

According to GCD:

 

Frazetta is credited as penciler, inker or both on 297 pages BEFORE 1950!

[rza808]

I also feel that Frazetta's art stood the test of time better than Eisner's. If you saw both today with fresh eyes and did not know who drew what, Frazetta would win imo. Eisner's art looks dated somehow although some still look great. Most of Frazetta's feels timeless so perhaps he should be best overall artist rather than just GA artist. :shrug: don't mind me

[Duffman_Comics]

Frazetta or Eisner?

 

Here is the rub (as I see it of course).

 

This is a vote for best artist. Eisner wrote tons of the stuff that he illustrated which gave him a lot more "flexibility" than when he had to work on other's scripts.

 

To my knowledge (and please, I stand to be corrected in this), Frazetta didn't write anything. His work was produced in the "full -script" (non-Marvel method) that was accepted practice back in the day.

 

I admire both artists. However I recognise my support for Eisner is as a result of the combination of his writing and drafting skills. No one could cram as much into an 8 page story so seemingly effortlessly as he could.

 

This is about artists though. What would one prefer on the wall, a Frazetta or Eisner?

 

Just my 12c

[Scrooge]

I also feel that Frazetta's art stood the test of time better than Eisner's. If you saw both today with fresh eyes and did not know who drew what, Frazetta would win imo. Eisner's art looks dated somehow although some still look great. Most of Frazetta's feels timeless so perhaps he should be best overall artist rather than just GA artist. :shrug: don't mind me

 

Could it be that Eisner was illustrating contemporary stories, i.e., his characters and stories are firmly grounded in the 1940's and 1950's which, of course, by now, give them a dated look? In contrast, Frazetta's illustrations we've showcased are stories of the idealized West or a distant future. Either way, they can't be "dated" as much as Eisner's since both genres aren't tied down to a specific time period with its specific issues. There are in fact many GA artists whose art is clearly dated but I would never have put Eisner in that group.

[Ze-man]

And I think that will be the nail in the coffin for whoever you decide to give the boot.

 

Their styles are so different.

 

I personally think Eisner's style epitomizes what a comic book is to me, but I love fantasy and sci fi stuff so much that my personal taste leans towards Frazetta. In the end I am still not sure which side of the fence I am going to fall on.

 

 

Ze-

 

 

[shiverbones]

Adam Strange and others have tried to point out the fact that Frazetta did a great deal of work before the Atom Age, but no one seems to be listening. Many people seem to think that Frazetta's work in comics consists of some Buck Rogers covers and a few EC stories (all of which count for purposes of this contest, BTW) but he had a pretty solid output before the Atom Age as well - it just wasn't high-profile stuff (i.e. it wasn't superheroes). But since anecdotal comments don't seem to be enough to shake this misconception of Frazetta as an Atom Age-only artist, I went to GCD and and starting counting.

 

According to GCD:

 

Frazetta is credited as penciler, inker or both on 297 pages BEFORE 1950!

 

Thanks for doing the research to back it up!