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Post by Pól Rua on Dec 17, 2015 2:27:41 GMT -5
Well... someone's already mentioned Dylan Horrocks, so coming in at #9 is my OTHER favourite New Zealand born cartoonist... #9: ROGER LANGRIDGE.Roger Langridge is a one-man, two-dimensional vaudeville show. His influences include (but are most certainly not limited to) E.C. Segar, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, the stars of the silent comedies (most notably Buster Keaton), Hollywood's Golden Age, Lewis Carroll and Silver Age Marvel Comics. For years, he produced odd little eccentric pieces, from 'Frankenstein meets Shirley Temple' where the two leads wander aimlessly indulging in Tom Stoppard-esque philosophical musings, or 'Knuckles, the Malevolent Nun', about a grotesque and homicidally violent, yet still likeable nun being pursued to no avail by a haplessly lovelorn Satan, before releasing the sublime 'Fred the Clown'. A work of uncommon art, 'Fred' combines glorious wordplay, Eisnerian visual flourishes, a Don Martinesque gift for visual comedy with a wonderful sense of the macabre, however at its heart, it's the sheer pathos of Fred, his friendship for Billy, his little wooden ventriloquist's dummy and his doomed, unrequited loves that carries the tale. He's the unholy spawn of Chaplin's Little Tramp and Charles Laughton's Quasimodo, utterly reviled by society, yet with an indestructible spirit which can never be destroyed - and the universe certainly gives it a red hot go! 'Fred the Clown' is quite simply sublime. Since then, he's been given the opportunity to flex his herculean vaudevillian might on Boom! Studios adaption of 'The Muppet Show', produced a loving tribute to E.C. Segar's 'Popeye', written a gorgeous but criminally underappreciated all-ages reboot of Marvel's 'Thor, The Mighty Avenger' with artist Chris Samnee, and created his own all-ages series 'Snarked!' based on the work of Louis Carroll, and casting the Walrus and the Carpenter as a pair of Laurel and Hardy-like confidence tricksters on the make, and 'Abigail and the Snowman', a touching tale of a young girl and her friend, an escaped yeti, among other projects. His work is deft, beautiful to look at, and with the elegant, timeless touch of a master of his craft.   |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 17, 2015 8:28:46 GMT -5
NOTE: Had Alex Raymond written Flash Gordon, he would rank #2 on this list. Same here! (Well, #3 actually, it's the general idea). |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Dec 17, 2015 10:54:45 GMT -5
So, a day late or so, I give you my beloved #9, Nabiel Kanan!   Here, in the center between Gerhard and Dave SimThis picture is especialy fitting as his work feels like a collaboration between Dave Sim and Adrian Tomine. I got intruduced to his first work through a serialisation of Exit through the always reliable Deadline magazine of Tank Girl fame, amongst other things. I was instantly held spell bound by the beautifull clean lines, dark blacks, subtle but strong design and global delicacy. Kanan stories are bittersweet, grounded in reality, yet as eerie as Picnic At Hanging Rock. They convey a sense of suburbian hell, quite pessimistic, but yet enchanting with love often at the core of the stories. It moved me so much that it saw me writing to the author/self-publisher a few times, which ended up having me with my first ever published letter in a comic, right alongside one from Chynna Clugston-Major, the very last and only issue of the series witholding a letter colummn!         Two more I took from the two first issues, ones that really convinced me this was great.   Exit was a real eye opener, a tragedy of youth, political and suspensefull, somewhat how Twin Peaks would have been if produced as a BBC drama. But Kanan had a few more tricks in his sleeve with 3 more graphic novels and a one-shot, mostly published through NBM.       Nabiel Kanan has more or less disappeared from comics of late, and I miss him dearly... |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 17, 2015 13:11:18 GMT -5
Well... someone's already mentioned Dylan Horrocks, so coming in at #9 is my OTHER favourite New Zealand born cartoonist... #9: ROGER LANGRIDGE.Roger Langridge is a one-man, two-dimensional vaudeville show. His influences include (but are most certainly not limited to) E.C. Segar, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, the stars of the silent comedies (most notably Buster Keaton), Hollywood's Golden Age, Lewis Carroll and Silver Age Marvel Comics. For years, he produced odd little eccentric pieces, from 'Frankenstein meets Shirley Temple' where the two leads wander aimlessly indulging in Tom Stoppard-esque philosophical musings, or 'Knuckles, the Malevolent Nun', about a grotesque and homicidally violent, yet still likeable nun being pursued to no avail by a haplessly lovelorn Satan, before releasing the sublime 'Fred the Clown'. A work of uncommon art, 'Fred' combines glorious wordplay, Eisnerian visual flourishes, a Don Martinesque gift for visual comedy with a wonderful sense of the macabre, however at its heart, it's the sheer pathos of Fred, his friendship for Billy, his little wooden ventriloquist's dummy and his doomed, unrequited loves that carries the tale. He's the unholy spawn of Chaplin's Little Tramp and Charles Laughton's Quasimodo, utterly reviled by society, yet with an indestructible spirit which can never be destroyed - and the universe certainly gives it a red hot go! 'Fred the Clown' is quite simply sublime. Oh yeah! Good one! |
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Post by Dr. Hfuhruhurr on Dec 17, 2015 13:30:35 GMT -5
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Dec 17, 2015 14:57:53 GMT -5
9. Tim TrumanI make no claims that the cartoonists Ive chosen are "the Greats" of the field, they're just the ones who have done work that speaks to me. So this week I give you Tim Truman. The first solo work of his I encountered was Eclipse's Scout but the reason to include him here is because of the stellar job he did in finally making Hawkman great. Of course a lot of people know his work from the excellent Jonah Hex books he put out with Joe Lansdale, but he has always has a special place in my heart for being co-creator of Grimjack, the greatest independent book of the 80s.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 17, 2015 15:11:28 GMT -5
9. Tim TrumanI make no claims that the cartoonists Ive chosen are "the Greats" of the field, they're just the ones who have done work that speaks to me. So this week I give you Tim Truman. The first solo work of his I encountered was Eclipse's Scout   I'm a big Tim Truman fan. But I just don't think of him as doing the full chores. And, of course he did on Scout and Guns of the Dragon and Black Lamb and I just didn't think about it. Shame on me. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 17, 2015 15:17:43 GMT -5
I still find his early experiments with the medium more interesting than Maus and what came after.  As I wrote, I was not a Spiegelman fan who then read Maus; I read Maus and was impressed by Spiegelman. My guess is he wasn't as interested in experimenting with the medium in Maus -- even though he bent and shaped it in interesting ways -- as he may have been in other projects, but in telling a complex story. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 17, 2015 15:46:32 GMT -5
This one brings back memories of winter days, sitting on the floor on the living room and reading the "funnies" while my dad read the sports page: the great Hal Foster and the immortal Prince Valiant:    I'm glad to see someone else picked him, he's on my list too! I used to find Prince Valiant boring when I was younger but the art was always fantastic so I'd continually come back to it and I found that the older I got the more and I came to truly appreciate it. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2015 17:54:34 GMT -5
On the Fourth Day of Classic Comics Christmas I give unto thee... Ricardo Delgado
I think it truly speaks to the pure skill in story telling when a creator can tell a whole story with fully expressed, complex emotional struggles...and not use a single word and Delgado has that skill in spades, and even greater he does it with creatures that are not human and he refuses to anthropomorphize them to make their reactions easier to read, but despite that the message is always clear. Great Pick and another talented artist that I like and I totally forgot all about him - Loved his use of colors! |
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Post by benday-dot on Dec 17, 2015 20:01:06 GMT -5
I had Delgado on my list, but alas he yielded to other talents. Still, it is all just more a refelection on my own caprices in forming my list than on Delgado's merit.
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Post by benday-dot on Dec 17, 2015 20:34:58 GMT -5
Kurt knows how to count backwards better than I. So lets just shuffle on to day 5.
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 17, 2015 21:19:36 GMT -5
Wait a second, you listed Richard Corben as your #9 pick on the previous page of this thread. One of us is confused... and I don't think it's me! Cei-U! I summon the double dip! |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 17, 2015 22:54:54 GMT -5
9. Tim TrumanI make no claims that the cartoonists Ive chosen are "the Greats" of the field, they're just the ones who have done work that speaks to me. So this week I give you Tim Truman. The first solo work of his I encountered was Eclipse's Scout but the reason to include him here is because of the stellar job he did in finally making Hawkman great.  Of course a lot of people know his work from the excellent Jonah Hex books he put out with Joe Lansdale, but he has always has a special place in my heart for being co-creator of Grimjack, the greatest independent book of the 80s.   I agree with your exact sentiment of "what speaks to you" and not necessarily "great". It's funny, but over the years, I think I have most of those issues and still haven't read Scout. It looks good though. Totally agree with the rest. Loved Hawkworld, Jonah Hex, and Grimjack as well. Don't forget; he did Starslayer too. Not a great series, but his art was sure nice on it. |
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Post by MDG on Dec 18, 2015 9:53:17 GMT -5
I agree with your exact sentiment of "what speaks to you" and not necessarily "great". It's funny, but over the years, I think I have most of those issues and still haven't read Scout. It looks good though. Totally agree with the rest. Loved Hawkworld, Jonah Hex, and Grimjack as well. Don't forget; he did Starslayer too. Not a great series, but his art was sure nice on it. Wasn't Starslayer Mike Grell? (I only have the two issues w/ the Rocketeer). For a while, it seemed like Truman was doing 75% or Eclipse's output, but I never picked any up (though I was picking up Mr. Monster and a lot of their reprint titles). |
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