Thoughts on modern comic artist? Your fav? 6 6

[Laszlo the Mudjar]

On 4/20/2022 at 1:36 PM, CGC Mike said:

Done!

Thanks!

 

And, to everyone else "WOW"  lot's to look at now.  I guess it truly does come down to personal taste, but at least I've got some place to start looking.  Thanks again everyone.  Keep posting!

[SuperBird]

In addition to Felix's site, I'd reccomend checking out https://inkyknuckles.com for an excellent selection of modern art.

Edited April 21, 2022 by SuperBird

[RBerman]

Lots of good pencil work around these days. Mike Mayhew:

Tomas Giorello:

Netho Diaz:

Lori Cross Hanson:

Alex Konat:

Eduardo Pansica:

Jose Luis Soares Pinto:

Nicola Scott:

Jesus Merino:

Ediano Silva: 

[J.Sid]

On 4/20/2022 at 2:35 PM, Flex Mentallo said:

Great book, but..... isn't this series from the mid-80s?

[Flex Mentallo]

On 4/21/2022 at 9:21 PM, J.Sid said:

Great book, but..... isn't this series from the mid-80s?

He keeps promising to complete it - I should live so long!

[babsrocks31]

On 4/20/2022 at 12:31 PM, RBerman said:

Here are a few for now:

Brian K Vaughan and Tony Harris: Ex Machina. A superhero finds himself mayor of NYC. It's part Rocketeer, part The West Wing.

Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra: The Manhattan Projects. A loopy alternate history in which scientists like Einstein, Fermi, and Oppenheimer pursued cross-dimensional technology and must contend with alternate versions of themselves.

Batwoman: Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III

Really, anything by JHWIII is great; he's worked with Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and more. His layouts are second to none.

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely: All-Star Superman. Quitely's distinctive faces are a bit shocking at first, but again his layouts and attention to detail always impress.

Alan Moore and Gene Ha: Top Ten - The Forty Niners: Art recalls Alex Ross's photorealism. Story is about super-powered police fighting vampires.

Jeremy Bastian: Cursed Pirate Girl. Beautiful to read/see. Good luck finding originals to buy!

Some great examples here. All of them, really.

Williams' Batwoman run was incredible and is severely underrated due to the polarizing lead (I'm a fan, though).

[DeadpoolJr.]

There's a lot of newer artists in the hobby who are really skilled and can command good prices despite how new their work is. That's not for all of them of course you still have many skilled and talented artist whose work sells very cheep. With the prices we're seeing in the market lately I think a lot of collectors will be paying attention to and building an appreciation for modern artists where they can get a nice piece for a fraction of what the stuff they use to buy is now going for-Me being one of them. Not to say I didn't buy from them before but think they'll make up a wider representation of my collection than before going forward unless prices for pieces I like start going down. Here are two I bought a while ago direct from artist or their art rep. 

Moon Knight #2 from the title done a few years back by Declan Shalvey and a Variant cover to the Taskmaster limited series done last year by Nick Bradshaw.
 

[Rick2you2]

As a follow-up, I think good art is easy to find. The question you should also ask is whether you want good art that is more likely to appreciate in value or not. If so, your safest bets are to stick to popular characters and books, using them as a screening device for your taste.

[Doc McCoy]

Justin Mason is a great up and coming artist who is now working with Marvel as the series regular on Spider-Punk.

[Laszlo the Mudjar]

On 4/22/2022 at 5:31 AM, Rick2you2 said:

As a follow-up, I think good art is easy to find. The question you should also ask is whether you want good art that is more likely to appreciate in value or not. If so, your safest bets are to stick to popular characters and books, using them as a screening device for your taste.

Looking thru the amazing pencil work above that was my thought exactly.  How popular is Dave Johnson?  I really like this cover:

 

 

[The Voord]

On 4/21/2022 at 8:21 AM, Flex Mentallo said:

Frank Bellamy

 

 

Wouldn't class Bellamy as a modern artist as he's been deceased since 1976.

Wonderful artist; I've had a few hundred Bellamy originals pass through my hands over the years . . . 

[Mighty Hal]

On 4/22/2022 at 4:34 AM, Laszlo the Mudjar said:

How popular is Dave Johnson?

No idea how popular Johnson is, but his covers on 100 BULLETS made me a fan. Like some of the others here, I really enjoy J. H. Williams' artwork. I also think Terry Moore has done wonderful work on STRANGERS IN PARADISE and RACHEL RISING, as well as some other series. He writes, pencils, inks and hand letters every page.

[New School Fool]

On 4/22/2022 at 10:31 AM, Rick2you2 said:

As a follow-up, I think good art is easy to find. The question you should also ask is whether you want good art that is more likely to appreciate in value or not. If so, your safest bets are to stick to popular characters and books, using them as a screening device for your taste.

The best advice I received when collecting art is 'buy what you love, and you can't go wrong'. There's another thread in this forum where someone argued that all buyers of comic art at today's prices are speculators whether they like it or not.

I don't necessarily agree with that statement but using your proposed 'screening method' puts you smack bang into the 'speculator' corner and quite distinct from a comic art collector.

[Rick2you2]

On 4/22/2022 at 5:13 PM, New School Fool said:

The best advice I received when collecting art is 'buy what you love, and you can't go wrong'. There's another thread in this forum where someone argued that all buyers of comic art at today's prices are speculators whether they like it or not.

I don't necessarily agree with that statement but using your proposed 'screening method' puts you smack bang into the 'speculator' corner and quite distinct from a comic art collector.

I posed a question to the OP, it is not the advice I follow.

I sometimes buy sh*t that almost no one wants because I usually take a different approach to either of the two you mentioned. I like the technical/evaluative aspects of the hobby. So, I often buy art with the images of the Phantom Stranger (a character I really like) on it for the sake of comparison. I just won a page by Buckler and Tanghal, a very C or even D level page, but as the same general character/ subject matter (generously interpreted) overlaps with other artists I have, you can more clearly appreciate the differences in inking, layout and pencil structure between artists. As a bonus, you get to see how artistic trends and preferences change over time. For example, the page has an image of Wonder Woman’s butt in the middle of a fight. It is so clearly pre-Kim Kardashian, it made me smile because it reflects both a cultural shift and artistic shift in people’s desired physiques. You get the idea. As for value, I never sell so making money or upgrading through speculation never enters into the equation. And yes, I also buy nice art if it is affordable and in my zone of collection interest.

[chrisco37]

Here’s some Risso.  I think he’s a master of lighting/shadows.  His inks are beautiful in person.  Very meticulous.  Even the large black spaces are done with careful strokes.  
 

[chrisco37]

John Cassidy does beautiful work too.  Very clean.  

 

[babsrocks31]

On 4/22/2022 at 3:36 PM, Rick2you2 said:

I posed a question to the OP, it is not the advice I follow.

I sometimes buy sh*t that almost no one wants because I usually take a different approach to either of the two you mentioned. I like the technical/evaluative aspects of the hobby. So, I often buy art with the images of the Phantom Stranger (a character I really like) on it for the sake of comparison. I just won a page by Buckler and Tanghal, a very C or even D level page, but as the same general character/ subject matter (generously interpreted) overlaps with other artists I have, you can more clearly appreciate the differences in inking, layout and pencil structure between artists. As a bonus, you get to see how artistic trends and preferences change over time. For example, the page has an image of Wonder Woman’s butt in the middle of a fight. It is so clearly pre-Kim Kardashian, it made me smile because it reflects both a cultural shift and artistic shift in people’s desired physiques. You get the idea. As for value, I never sell so making money or upgrading through speculation never enters into the equation. And yes, I also buy nice art if it is affordable and in my zone of collection interest.

This is a great post, as is the one by the person you are conversing with. It's refreshing to see posters on any forum having this sort of discussion.

But what I like about your post is that it highlights an even lesser discussed avenue for collecting... lets call it the "comparison" approach, and that is the desire to obtain different styles or takes on a character, series, or book (you get the drift) and sort of compare/organize them.

For example, I am a huge Barbara Gordon fan. Many great artists have drawn Babs, and which one I want displayed on my wall gets rotated depending on my current preference, but I sure do love having so many iterations of the character at my disposal. If they were all the same it wouldn't be nearly as much fun for me. Being able to compare different approaches towards the character is what keeps things interesting, whether that approach is influenced by the artist, the writer, or even social culture like your wonder woman example.

Having iterations that are valuable is a huge bonus, but if that is THE primary focus I'd argue that is closer to investing than collecting. The two can overlap for sure, but I think many people could do well to remember they are not the same thing. 

 

Anyway, to keep things relevant... if Liefeld ever wants to learn how to draw feet he could do worse than studying Mike Perkins.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by babsrocks31

[Xatari]

I’m a massive fan of Filipe Andrade…

[RafaVia]

Filipe is great. I didn’t know him, and a dps caught my eye at auction and won it. I just wanted to see the art upclose to see how he did it with the inkwash and white paint. 

[Laszlo the Mudjar]

On 4/22/2022 at 5:13 PM, New School Fool said:

The best advice I received when collecting art is 'buy what you love, and you can't go wrong'. There's another thread in this forum where someone argued that all buyers of comic art at today's prices are speculators whether they like it or not.

I don't necessarily agree with that statement but using your proposed 'screening method' puts you smack bang into the 'speculator' corner and quite distinct from a comic art collector.

I would agree and disagree with that idea or more succinctly I would refine the idea.  I agree that looking for "popular" modern artists puts one into the spec camp, however, I would argue that there are literally thousands of artists from which to choose so why not find one that a) you like personally AND b) is popular.  Going for only a) is not without merit but I would argue has less chance of holding value.  I would never buy art with the intention of flipping, but I would prefer to buy art that I like AND is from a popular artist.  Not sure if I explained that well, but I tried