Title with the best Artists 0

[KCOComics]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:09 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Creepy / Eerie

Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Alex Toth, John Severin, Johnny Craig, Gene Colan, Wally Wood, Bernie Wrightson, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Jeff Jones, Tom Sutton, Richard Corben, Jim Starlin, Alex Nino, Mike Ploog, Frank Brunner, Bruce Jones, Russ Heath, Jose Ortiz...

House of Mystery / House of Secrets would be similar, with, from memory; Toth, Wood, Wrightson, Williamson, Heath, Adams, Nino, and Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Mike Kaluta, Nick Cardy, Gil Kane, Jim Aparo, and Michael Golden.

I'll second House of Secrets and Mystery. 

They crossed eras, so you get Wally Wood, Bernard Bailey, Jim Mooney and Jack when they were doing some really incredible work.  But you also get into, what is in my opinion the greatest era of comic artist in the early to mid 70s, with Kaluta, Bernie, Adams, Cardy, Chan and others. 

And while I love the super hero work, I think Adams, Bernie and Kaluta were at their absolute best, doing these BA horror covers! 

 

[Readcomix]

On 7/26/2023 at 1:39 AM, PopKulture said:

I wouldn’t hesitate to add Dan Adkins name to that list.  

Me neither — didn’t he and Palmer work on it together? Maybe Palmer was Adkins’ inker? I did it from memory, didn’t recheck. @Bird also added a few- I flat out forgot Everett, and I did not know/recall Paul Smith’s work on the title. He also added three others I was unfamiliar with, from more recent runs that I have not followed.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Kingdom Come.

[paqart]

On 7/26/2023 at 7:17 AM, KCOComics said:

I'll second House of Secrets and Mystery. 

They crossed eras, so you get Wally Wood, Bernard Bailey, Jim Mooney and Jack when they were doing some really incredible work.  But you also get into, what is in my opinion the greatest era of comic artist in the early to mid 70s, with Kaluta, Bernie, Adams, Cardy, Chan and others. 

And while I love the super hero work, I think Adams, Bernie and Kaluta were at their absolute best, doing these BA horror covers! 

 

Two of my favorites.

[Cat]

Uncanny X-Men in the 90's. You had Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, then fill-ins such as JRJR when he wasn't bad, then Joe Madureira. 

[paqart]

On 7/26/2023 at 10:31 AM, Cat said:

Uncanny X-Men in the 90's. You had Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, then fill-ins such as JRJR when he wasn't bad, then Joe Madureira. 

It's the popularity of Lee, Portacio, and McFarlane tha t cause me to ignore the 1990's completely as a collector. Those artists had their qualities but the artists of the late sixties/early seventies represent, to me, the best illustrators that ever worked in comics. There are plenty of good artists who came later, but I have a hard time seeing them as comparable to the earlier group. EC Comics had another good stable of artists, thanks to editor Harvey Kurtzman, who was an excellent artist himself. The typical popular 90's artist had much less detail than in earlier times but used more lines to describe the objects in their drawings. Few, Lee being an exception, understood anatomy or how to use reference, leading to wasp-waisted women and empty backgrounds.

[Dr. Balls]

I always felt pretty strongly about X-Men, which had runs from Werner Roth, Neal Adams and Don Heck (short ones), Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Paul Smith, JRJR (yeah, I liked his X-Men stuff), Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Andy Kubert, Joe Mad, and beyond.

[Dr. Balls]

On 7/26/2023 at 8:39 AM, paqart said:

wasp-waisted

I'd never heard this term before, and I've heard it twice this morning.

[paqart]

On 7/26/2023 at 10:54 AM, Slayah said:

Are you counting the EC and other artists who worked for Eerie and Creepy at this time? If so, then I might agree.

See the post right before this. Yes, I include the EC artists. Since I have mentioned them, I might as well go all the way and name them:
"illustrators": Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Alex Toth, Jack Davis

"Story-tellers": Harvey Kurtzman, Johnny Craig, John Severin, Bill Elder

Most over-rated: Graham Ingles

[Cat]

On 7/27/2023 at 12:48 AM, Slayah said:

Joe Mad is probably the worst X-Men artist ever imho.

I can understand you not liking his work. To me it's divine and absolutely iconic. Pure beauty on a page. He was responsible for the beginning of the acceptance of anime style art in the West in comic books, a heck of an achievement, and he started when he was only 16. I was just a few years younger than him, so I was right age to soak it all in. 

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/26/2023 at 4:31 PM, Cat said:

I can understand you not liking his work. To me it's divine and absolutely iconic. Pure beauty on a page. He was responsible for the beginning of the acceptance of anime style art in the West in comic books, a heck of an achievement, and he started when he was only 16. I was just a few years younger than him, so I was right age to soak it all in. 

Absolutely right. And, he always seemed distracted by video games, something that led him to disappear into that field for a long time afterwards.

His designs for Darksiders, for example, had pretty much the same exaggerated style.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/26/2023 at 4:15 PM, paqart said:

Most over-rated: Graham Ingles

One artist I rate higher than most is Jack Kamen. A very light style that often disguised some very dark storytelling from Feldstein.

Regardless of what seems to be a more popular opinion, I really like his stuff.

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/26/2023 at 2:21 PM, Slayah said:

BWS sucked back then tho Just a bad Kirby clone at the time.

Which reminded me.

Conan.
 

Main title, Savage Tales and Savage Sword.

A well-drawn title for a very long time.

BWS when he got good, John Buscema, Gil Kane, Jim Starlin, Tom Sutton, Mike Ploog, Neal Adams, Frank Brunner.

Then, the newer material; Cary Nord, Tim Truman, Richard Corben, Ariel Olivetti.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[F For Fake]

Since the EC and Warren books have already been cited, along with Batman and X-Men, I'd also throw in an Honorable Mention vote for Sandman. As far as copper and modern artists go, it's a murderers row:

Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Michael Zulli, Chris Bachalo, Kelley Jones, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, Bryan Talbot, Marc Hempel, Jill Thompson, P. Craig Russell, Mike Allred, just to name a few, and all within those iconic Dave McKean covers. Great stuff.

[solm4st3r]

On 7/26/2023 at 7:40 AM, Dr. Balls said:

I always felt pretty strongly about X-Men, which had runs from Werner Roth, Neal Adams and Don Heck (short ones), Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Paul Smith, JRJR (yeah, I liked his X-Men stuff), Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Andy Kubert, Joe Mad, and beyond.

Uncanny X-Men had a great run of artists. The Lee, Portacio, Kubert era stands out for me as a kid collector in the 90s.

[Dr. Balls]

On 7/26/2023 at 1:17 PM, solm4st3r said:

Uncanny X-Men had a great run of artists. The Lee, Portacio, Kubert era stands out for me as a kid collector in the 90s.

I had a lapse in X-Men from around 235 all the way up until around 280s - and Whilce's cover art got me picking up comics again, and the Bishop storyline hooked me immediately. Then, I found Jim Lee and like every comic book nerd artist out there - I wanted to draw like him. Great era.

[jjonahjameson11]

Dave Sim on Cerebus.  He did just about everything from #1-66.

#67-300 had Gerhard inks, while Dave did everything else.

[Ken Aldred]

Epic Illustrated

John Buscema, Jim Starlin, Arthur Suydam, Craig Russell, Paul Gulacy, Neal Adams, John Bolton, Richard Corben, BWS, Mike Kaluta, Jon J Muth, Kent Williams, Bernie Wrightson, John Byrne, Tim Conrad.

 

[Ken Aldred]

The Spirit

Will Eisner, Jack Cole, Lou Fine, Wally Wood, Darwyn Cooke, Mike Ploog, Paul Smith

[Ken Aldred]

On 7/26/2023 at 9:35 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Dave Sim on Cerebus.  He did just about everything from #1-66.

#67-300 had Gerhard inks, while Dave did everything else.

Got me thinking about another one creator option - Jack Cole on Plastic Man