Ten Most Underrated Artists in Comics

[Mighty Hal]

In THE COMIC BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA, Ron Goulart displays his fanboy enthusiasm, rags on Jim Balent (but I'll save that for another post), and praises the very worthy Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. He writes, "If there were a list of the ten most underrated artists in comics, Garcia-Lopez's name would be near the top."

 

I'd agree that Garcia-Lopez is good...and, somehow, his name almost never comes up in the typical discussion about comic art. For me personally, I'd throw in another name that seems to have just about disappeared from mainstream comics: Norm Breyfogle.

 

He's still working -- small-press stuff and overseas advertising jobs, as I understand it. He deserves to be playing with the big boys. His BATMAN stuff was fantastic and I loved, absolutely loved, his PRIME years.

 

Have you got anybody to add to the list?

[Flaming_Telepath]

The late, great Don Newton.

Steve Epting.

[Jeffro.]

Garcia-Lopez is highly underrated.

 

 

Nick Cardy - I've really come to appreciate his work in the last couple of years. Great stuff

 

Frank Brunner - His Dr Strange work is just amazing to me.

 

Frank Cirocco - I've loved his work since the first Alien Legion series.

 

Luis Dominguez - I think that's how you spell his name anyway. he did a TON of covers for DC in the 70's. Distinctive style. One of his covers (Weird War 33) is among my childhood favorites.

[blowout]

Paul Gulacy.

[malvin]

Chris Sprouse - clean lines. Simplicity is often harder than overly complex images.

[pkveronese]

For modern guys - Dave Johnson. He does some great stuff.

 

Its a shame he's gone to doing just covers due to his slower than normal pace.

[robert frey]

a few from me:

 

sal buscema

 

herb trimpe

 

george tuska

 

don heck

 

keith pollard

 

frank robbins

 

steve epting

 

 

all these guys have done excellent work on books over a long period of time and yet i feel never got the proper due from the fans.

 

robert frey

[Smokinghawk]

Trevor Hairsine can outdraw Jim Lee on Tevor's worst day.

[*paull*]

I agree completely about Norm Breyfogle. He is at the top of my list.

 

Here's another:

 

Dan Adkins - never got any credit for his Doctor Strange

[pkveronese]

I agree completely about Norm Breyfogle. He is at the top of my list.

 

Here's another:

 

Dan Adkins - never got any credit for his Doctor Strange

 

Breyfogle is amazing - I have to go with you on that one. He's super-underated.

[Erato]

I'd add Pat Olliffe. I love his work. Reminds me of the simpler times in comics.

 

Brian

[Jeffro.]

a few from me:

 

sal buscema

 

herb trimpe

 

george tuska

 

don heck

 

keith pollard

 

frank robbins

 

steve epting

 

 

all these guys have done excellent work on books over a long period of time and yet i feel never got the proper due from the fans.

 

robert frey

 

 

herb trimpe

don heck

frank robbins

 

Interesting. I consider those three to be among the worst ever to put pencil to paper.

 

I agree totally about Sal Buscema and Keith Pollard. Pollard especially is proof that you don't need to be flashy and use overabundant cross hatching (like some modern artists) to be good.

[delekkerste]

Have you got anybody to add to the list?

 

Almost any of the Spanish artists in the Warren Magazine stable during the 1970s, but especially:

 

Jose Gonzalez

Esteban Maroto

Auraleon

 

and of the course the great Warren cover artists like Sanjulian and Enrich.

 

Gene

[boomtown]

herb trimpe

don heck

frank robbins

 

Interesting. I consider those three to be among the worst ever to put pencil to paper.

 

I'm not a huge fan of any of those artists either, but each had a period where they stood out. Trimpe, in particular, did some really nice work from the late 60s to the mid 70s. His Hulk run with Severin inks is really nice. Heck's best days were long done by the time the 1970's rolled around, but he was very solid in the 50s/60s. Robbins....well, he's an aquired taste. His Invaders work has grown on me somewhat, over time.

 

Mark

[Jeffro.]

herb trimpe

don heck

frank robbins

 

Interesting. I consider those three to be among the worst ever to put pencil to paper.

 

I'm not a huge fan of any of those artists either, but each had a period where they stood out. Trimpe, in particular, did some really nice work from the late 60s to the mid 70s. His Hulk run with Severin inks is really nice. Heck's best days were long done by the time the 1970's rolled around, but he was very solid in the 50s/60s. Robbins....well, he's an aquired taste. His Invaders work has grown on me somewhat, over time.

 

Mark

 

 

However, Trimpe's work was definitely enhanced by the Severin inks. Trimpe on his own is not very good, imo.

Don Heck (or Don Hack as I prefer to call him) was indeed done in the 70's. Just awful work.

Robbins? I got nothin'. Just can't say anything good about his work.

 

The single worst comic I've ever seen was an issue of Avengers Spotlight from the 80's by the stellar (sarcasm) team of Heck/Milgrom. Just hideous.

[snappahead]

Tough one. It's hard to know who's universally underrated cause every artist has fans. I do think Gary Frank is underrated. That could just be my perception though. Seems like Rudy Nebres needs more love too. Ron Wilson..It'll always depend on who you ask I'd agree on Sal and Herb too, but in the last 5 or 6 years as OA takes off, more and more people are starting to give them alot of props.

[helionaut]

In my mind, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez was always similar to but not as good as George Perez. But I recently got a "Rough Stuff" magazine and there was a feature on him in there. Maybe I just never really looked, or maybe the inker did him an injustice, but there were quite a few uninked pieces from Detective or Batman in there that looked awesome. I've been looking for some of his issues but struck out. But he's definitely on my radar now.

[KingOfRulers]

I think Don Heck and Ayers are two underrated SA artists. And for current artists, I'd say Scott Kolins and Jorge Lucas are underrated.

[TheBrockley]

Salvador Larroca today, Breyfogle, Tom Lyle and Don Heck yesterday.

[robert frey]

Heck's best work was probably not in the 1970s but i understand that the guy had personal problems- his wife died and i remember reading somewhere that it really devastated him... sometimes it is hard to climb back from something like that.

 

Still, his early work on the avengers is terrific and he did every nice work on the early suspense books.

 

to me, trimpe was THE hulk artist- this was before buscema came on board. just consider that the guys i mentioned (from my childhood) stayed on their books for years, never or seldom mising a deadline and doing very solid work.