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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 20, 2015 18:29:21 GMT -5
#6. Jim DavisWho doesn't love Garfield? Me. Really. I don't get it. Garfield Without Garfield is occasionally funny though. I probably wouldn't have answered...but you did ask. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 20, 2015 19:52:00 GMT -5
#6. Jim DavisWho doesn't love Garfield? Me. Sorry, Pharozonk, but you asked.  |
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Post by foxley on Dec 21, 2015 2:33:06 GMT -5
#5 Joe KubertI’m fudging just a bit here because I haven’t read nearly all that Kubert both wrote and drew. However, between his run on Tarzan for DC, his several runs of Tor and a few odds and ends here and thee, I still feel right about putting him on this list despite the fact that I have yet to read Yossel or Jew Gangster, two of his most famous works as a writer/ artist. I am rectifying my failure to do so by acquiring both ASAP. Like so many others on our lists, little can or must be added to the paeans to Kubert’s abilities. He is one of those immense talents for whom no aspect of creating comics was ever off-limits: writing, drawing, or editing. And Kubert was at home in any genre of comics. Talk about someone whose work beckons to you every time you see it. His covers are masterpieces of design and raw emotion; every word he writes is like every line he draws: absolutely necessary. The characters he created or made his own are notable for their passion, their skillfulness, their reliability, and their intelligence. Joe’s artwork disguised many a flaw in frequent collaborator Robert Kanigher’s stories. Artists can do this far more often than writers can do the opposite, but Kubert did it for Kanigher virtually all the time. He was so good at taking Kanigher’s formulaic plots and raising them to quasi-Hemingway takes on nobility, courage, fatalism and honor that I think he could have made even the adventures of Wonder Tot and Mer-Boy achingly real. He captured ferocity of expression, movement and purpose better than any other artist I can think of. What a style he had! The Internet abounds with Kubert’s work. Google his name and you’ll be lost in admiration for hours. Read about his life and you’ll see that he was every bit as noble and honorable as any of his great characters. Argh! I'd forgotten about Kubert writing Tarzan, and it was one of my favourite interpretations of the character! |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 21, 2015 14:03:33 GMT -5
# 7 Jason for Everything He's Done that's been Translated Into English (Or Didn't Have to Be Translated) One of the funniest, saddest, darkest cartoonists working, and one of the easily translated to English of the French comics creators - because his work is often completely silent, relying on body language and repetition of panels to communicate. I too love his work. FWIW, he's Norwegian But his work is published in French - I coulda made that clearer, though. |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 21, 2015 14:50:39 GMT -5
No biggie. Just FYI
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Post by Pól Rua on Dec 22, 2015 0:37:50 GMT -5
As a kid, I was always aware of the Filipino comics guys. They had that weird, baroque style with the little curlicues and flourishes and all their stuff seemed to be made of just one line looped back over and over again upon itself. Recently, I made some friends in the Philippines and I've been getting more and more into both the more recent stuff like Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldismo's 'Trese' and Paolo Fabregas' 'Filipino Heroes League'... but also older stuff. Like Mars Ravelo who built his own wild Silver Age Universe back in the 60's, or creators like Francisco Coching, Tony DeZuniga, Nestor Redondo or Alex Niño. But amongst all of them, the one who consistently blows my wig to the back of the audotorium is... #6. ALFREDO ALCALABest known in the US for his work on Warren's Horror line and DC's Mystery Comics in the 70's, as well as his inking work with John Buscema on Conan (which is such a gorgeous pairing I can't even believe it) and Don Newton on Batman, his most amazing work was a series he did in the 60s, based on his love of the work of Robert E. Howard, and his interest in Viking sagas. It's easy to look at the glorious rendering, the amazing detail, more reminiscent of Renaissance Woodcuts than anything like anything we'd think of as a comic book, and think that that's all there is to it. But Alcala's eye for composition, for anatomy and layouts, his absolute mastery of his craft shines through. Still... it's hard not to be blown away by the meticulous rendering of his work... I mean, DAMN, how pretty is that?   |
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Post by berkley on Dec 22, 2015 3:18:12 GMT -5
6. Denis SireEnglish-speaking readers of the early issues of Heavy Metal will recognise this name. Of all my 12 choices this year Denis Sire's work is the most overtly erotic, even more than Corben's I would say. His style has changed over the years from a sort of ligne claire in Menace Diabolique to something more lush and nuanced in later works such as Ziblyne et Betty or LÎle des Amazons (the latter written by Dionnet):  but what remains constant is an over-riding concern with elegant curves and shapes, whether of the female form or of vintage race cars. One of my favourite artists, I've sought out as much of his work as I've been able to find, and only wish he was more prolific. BTW, Betty Page fans will want to check out his various "Ziblyne and Betty" books (e.g. Bois Willys, Lisa Bay, Ziblyne et Betty), as his Betty is very obviously based on Miss Page, while Ziblyne is more of an Anita Ekberg type.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,197 
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Post by Confessor on Dec 22, 2015 6:50:35 GMT -5
Playing catch up here due to work commitments and social engagements (it's a hard life!). My #6 pick is Chester Gould for his Dick Tracy strip...  As a rule of thumb, I don't really like Golden Age comics. I find their artwork too crude, their stories too simple, and most of the characters utterly unlikable. However, a rare exception to that rule would be the Dick Tracy strips. Tracy and his supporting cast are all great, well defined characters, and the rogues gallery of grotesques that Tracy has to do battle against are wonderful, in terms of their imaginative designs. There's also a grittiness and a genuine sense of menace in many of the '40s and '50s strips that surprised me when I first read them, considering the comic's age. As for Gould's artwork, I'm frequently amazed at how much detail he packs into such tiny and tightly crowded panels, without ever sacrificing the clarity of the strip. Yes, things went off the rails and got a little silly in the '60s with the introduction of Moon Maid etc, but for the most part, Dick Tracy was simply excellent throughout Gould's run on the strip.  |
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Post by benday-dot on Dec 22, 2015 22:13:55 GMT -5
6. Denis SireEnglish-speaking readers of the early issues of Heavy Metal will recognise this name. Of all my 12 choices this year Denis Sire's work is the most overtly erotic, even more than Corben's I would say. His style has changed over the years from a sort of ligne claire in Menace Diaboliquebut what remains constant is an over-riding concern with elegant curves and shapes, whether of the female form or of vintage race cars. One of my favourite artists, I've sought out as much of his work as I've been able to find, and only wish he was more prolific. BTW, Betty Page fans will want to check out his various "Ziblyne and Betty" books (e.g. Bois Willys, Lisa Bay, Ziblyne et Betty), as his Betty is very obviously based on Miss Page, while Ziblyne is more of an Anita Ekberg type. Holy crap berk... I never expected Denis Sire to show up here. What an obscure and inspired choice. Heavily inspired by the pulps and 1940's American comic books (at least in that insane Heavy Metal Planete Diabolique serial), but by the way of the unique elan that was French graphic story-telling in the 70's. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 27, 2015 14:21:20 GMT -5
6. Chris Ware
 One of my Christmas gifts this year was Chris Ware's Building Stories, as shown in the picture above (not my copy!). What Ware has done that no one else has been able to accomplish (at least not as well, or on their own) is to (re)assert the appeal of comics as artifacts. Ware's Acme Novelty Library installments have to be enjoyed in a physically different way than any other comics, which makes them special, fascinating, and, to me, irresistible. It turns out that matters to me far more than I'd ever have expected it to. It pushes buttons in me that I'd forgotten, an intrigue for tiny books, fine print, masses of text to explore...
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zilch
Full Member
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Post by zilch on Dec 29, 2015 1:17:11 GMT -5
Slight turn to the modern for a moment...
Frank Cho
Looking for something my son and i could share comic book wize, we both enjoyed Bone (but it falls off a bit towards the end, i think...) and one or two other things (i think we both dug MST3K equally when we discovered it), but i bought Liberty Meadows because of the weiner-dog and my son was a very precocious child, so i felt just a bit... awkward... giving him such "adult" material at a young age, but he handled it pretty well, i think. He would always ask me when i went to the comic book store on Wednesdays "Any new Liberty Meadows out this week?" and his joy of reading it on the way home whenever it showed up.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2015 18:46:02 GMT -5
Starting to get harder. . but yeah, for my next choice: #6 Charles Schultz his work on Peanuts is pretty much definitive, and although I always wished he would cut Good Old Charlie Brown a break here or there (he never did. .that last strip *should* have shown him kicking the football and flying a kite), he spoke to generations of readers, and the strips still hold up. (something you can't say about every Gary Larson "Far Side" strip, hence him not making my list)  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2016 12:46:18 GMT -5
Covered by others in considerable depth, so for #5 I'll just say Dave Sim for Cerebus, and leave it at that
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 7, 2016 20:54:18 GMT -5
6. Alison Bechdel
Doing a post & run to get in under the deadline.
*edit* - now I have time to add the comments. Before the successes of Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, which are too new for this list, she wrote and drew Dykes to Watch Out For from 1983 to 2008. The strip started as individual, unrelated pieces but soon developed a regular cast whose lives unfolded in front of us. I sure hope I find my copy of The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For soon - it's been a few years since I've seen it and I need to read it again.
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