Ok, new thread.

Not sure where to put this one, it's about artist rather than writers, but since it's book related - here it goes.

We may have had discussions about this before but I thought I'd start again.

What do you like, dislike in your comic book graphic novel art.

You can name names, discuss particular books/parts of books or just talk about styles.

I'm not an artist, I don't think I have an artistic bone in my body - think of a car a six year old would draw - it's better than mine

This means I won't be able to discuss merits in an educated way - feel free to those of you who are studying it. I will simple be able to say what I like and don't like, no analysis from me.

I love Alex Ross and Charles Vess.

I love most of Gaiman's the Wake and hated the Kindly Ones. I found I would enjoy the story and then be snapped out of it by the art - if that makes sense.

I got into comics quite late, and so I prefer the modern look. I like good paper, even if it makes the comics more expensive and I like my art coloured (usually, there are some exceptions). I don't 'get' 1970's comics style. People keep going on about what great art it is, but I can't see it - but feel free to educate me on what I'm missing.

If you have any illustrations that would also be good - as long as it won't get anyone into trouble - GMZoe what are the rules on this? And is this the right place for this thread (It would get more hits in Worlds End, but also burried quicker)

Well, there's a start - what do YOU think.

~~~

JUST what the world's been waiting for. The charge of the trenchcoat brigade.

this is fine, WE would have been fine too (I can move it if you want).

I decribe my favorite artist's styles as details with clean lines. Things like Jeff Smith's Bone, Geoff Darrow's art, Charles Burns, Linda Medley... They get a lot into their pictures, but the lines are very smooth and where details could get burdened with a lot of superfluous ilnes, they don't
(btw, those aren't really my favorite comic artists I listed, but the best examples of what I'm talking about)

I thought you were talking about the magazine... if you can find it, Comic Book Artist is well worth reading... lots of great articles and tons of illustrations (the important stuff).

I don't normally follow artists, but I have a huge amount of respect and affection for the classics: Ditko, Eisner, and the great Jack Kirby.

Ross is okay, though his work on Marvels was a bi stiff. He was perfect for Kingdom Come. Steve Dillon is good when he's with Garth Ennis, and I like Darrick Robinson's work on Transmetropolian. I though Hempel's work on "The Kindly Ones" was neat--it'll grow on you, I think. P. Craig Russel's got a good, unique style. There are other artists who i'm sure i could point them out to you, but I don't really know their names. In the end, though, it all comes down to Kirby.

See you, space cowboy.

~~~~~~~~~

Those who are different must stand united!

"Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased, and thus do we refute entropy."-- Spider Robinson
http://lon.blogspot.com -- Its a slightly less eloquent me.

Yeah, Kirby's the man, though I tend to bounce back and forth between Kirby and Eisner. Daniel Zezelj, who drew that Corinthianeath in Venice story is amazing, and I recently dug the Captain Americaead Men Running mini out of the quarter boxes. It's done by Zezelj and whomever wrote Death in Venice, but I can't remember his name right now. Anyway, it's very well done and I was very pleasantly surprised. Frank Quitely rules, I've loved him ever since Flex Mentallo. Seth Fisher is incredible as well. Old Sienkiwicz (Daredevil and Elektra stuff with Miller) is great, and of course, Dave McKean, who's one of my favorite artists in general. I'm surprised that people don't like Hempel's work on Kindly Ones, overall it's my favorite rendition of the characters, so dark and so unique.

For me Dave McKean is the best pop artist out there, the most unique and creative. His style is unmistakable, tense and simply incredibly well done. "Arkham Asylum" was a revelation for me.

Otherwise I can only say I like artists who know how to support a story with visuals. For example I've heard mny people call "V For Vendetta" ugly. And even though it is not a style I'd usually favourise I still think it is quite appropriate for that very tale. And the portrait of V is just awesome.

Generally I find the dry British style preferable to French or Japanese artists. Matter of taste, n'est-ce pas?

The abyss has become our horizon.

i love alex ross and charles vess. i love the attention to background and detail michael zulli gives to his art. and i love david mack's work. i love dave mckean's visions. i wonder what it's like to be his eyeballs.

I buy anything that John Cassaday puts out. Met him at the first Emerald City Comic Con, here in Seattle a couple of years ago, he was very generous with his time signing and answering questions. Another one of my favorites, Darrick Robertson, was there as well. Also a great guy. Did a special sketch inside the NICK FURY mini-series he worked on. I had simply asked him to autograph it.
I very much like Bryan Hitch, Alex Maleev,Rags Morales,Greg Land,J.G. Jones,Mike Deodato,Bryan Talbot and all Brian Bolland, Michael Zulli and anything that Barry Windor-Smith puts out.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Madoc re~mused,

I really love Dave McKean's work as well...

I was really suprised that I did not like his own comic though.

Steve Dillon on Preacher I always liked as well for it's gritty realism...

Terry Moore has a deightful expressive style as well...

Todd McFarlane turned me off to Spider-Man for quite awhile with the big, white mask eyes, and the super contortionist look he gave Spider-Man.

For the most part, I like artists who draw clean, fairly proportionate characters. John Romita Sr and his run on The Amazing Spider-Man, immediately comes to mind.

I also really liked Dave Mazzuchelli. I don't know what he's doing anymore but two runs he did with Frank Miller have always stood the test of time for me.

The first run being Daredevil 227-233 known in graphic novel format as Born Again.

The second run being Batman Year One.



I'd love to find more of his work if anybody can tell me what else he's done.

Also, Dave McKean's work on Batman:Arkham Asylum really gave me the chills. He is one of the exceptions I have when it comes to character proportions.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mr. Chadtastic,

I usually find that if i really dislike a certain style or artist if i preservere i end up really liking them, that goes for Kindly Ones, hated it and now really like it, makes not much sense, and i enjoy works that may not be conventional, ie the people look a bit funny, and angles are slightly off.

But yeah guess my favourite style is that of Dave McKeans, Bill Skezenwittz (botched the name, but did the delerium story in Endless Nights). Anyway love that blend of artwork drawing and photograhy, has to be done well or it sometimes distracts from the story.

I usually prefer black and white artists.... never really liked painted/photoshopped comics that much... I much prefer Dave McKean's black and white style ("Cages") to his overblown and often lifeless colour work. I agree with Alan Moore - Arkham Asylum is an atrocity. It's a terrible, terrible comic book. Postmodern all-style-and-no-substance at its worst. But then it's probably the most regretable project Dave Mckean was ever involved in - he HAS done some good stuff after that - even in colour. But someone ought to steal his copy of Photoshop.

I just love Chester Brown's art (and he's also one of the greatest writers that ever worked in the comic book medium):







Adrian Tomine's work is just perfect:







Love Stan Sakai too - perfect cartoonish black and white art.... Jeff Smith (BOne) one the other hand often makes art that seems a bit sterile and lifeless (probably his animation background, animators are trained to do a slightly sterile style that can be emulated by other people contributing to the same movie) - but Sakai is a God:

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the Hernandez brothers are some of the greatest black and white artists of all time... it's obvious that their work had a profound influence on the Death comics Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham did with neil Gaiman, particularly their use of body language and facial expressions.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mtxx,

And Hugo Pratt has done some truly classic black and white art too - he's influenced Frank Miller's Sin City stories, and the Nada/Tales in the Sand story from The Sandman/A Dolls House always seemed like it was meant as a Hugo Pratt tribute.:







love his watercolor work too - but that style isn't really suitable for interior comic book work:

quote:

Originally posted by Chad the Lad:
Dave Mazzuchelli....I'd love to find more of his work if anybody can tell me what else he's done.

His Paul Auster adaptation ("City of Glass") has been reprinted recently.

He pretty much left mainstream comics behind after his Frank Miller collaborations and joined the Art Spiegelman/"Raw" crowd. Way to go!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312423608/qid=1109683372/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-6637123-4624915?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Oh, and like most Scandinavians I grew up on Carl Barks Donald Duck stories from the 40's, 50's and 60's. Over here he's considered THE greatest American comic book writer/artist of all time, slightly ahead of Eisner, and FAR ahead of Kirby and Crumb.

And some of those images from the stories I read in my early childhood will be imprintet on my retina forever... I particularly liked those stories where Donald Duck became an expert on something for one episode, usually with a great degree of succes at first, but eventually leading to complete disaster... this plot device (and the general mood of these stories) has been reused for countless Simpsons episodes, usually with Homer starring in Donald's role... Like Spielberg and Lucas and other artists of his generation, Matt Groening grew up on Barks stories.... Barks is fairly unknown to later generations of Americans... But at least his legacy lives on in Scandinavia and other European countries...

some of the stories I remember - the imagry was just mind-blowing to my young mind.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mtxx,

And just to prove that there was an influence - I never really did superhero fan art when I was a teenager... I did Barks influenced drawings instead:

I forgot my favorite black & white artist



Jhonen Vasquez.

Happy noodle boy makes me smile.

I give a copy to anyone who's just been through a messy break-up to spread preverse joy to the world.

quote:

Originally posted by Nelthita:
I give a copy to anyone who's just been through a messy break-up

hello?

Robert Crumb! Wheeee!

Everyone oooh and ahhh with me, for I love Bill Sienkiewicz!