I agree. He was hot with the Silver Surfer run and the Infinity books but kind of faded away afterwards.

I must strongly disagree with four names on your lists:



After the Infantino revolution, Novick's arguably greatest contribution to comics was his ushering in a dramatic, mature look to Batman that certainly set the natural stage for the Adams era. Novick also saved readers from the grade school scribbling of Moldoff, who did more to prove the criticism that comics used great covers as the lure, only to have terrible interiors.



Easily a star, long before he was known as the "next best" artist to illustrate Batman after Adams. One of the best ever to work at DC.



Underrated master. There was not a genre he could not transform into his own. Even if one limits analysis of his work to Cracked, he was as much a defining force for that magazine as Mort Drucker was for MAD, which comes close to meaning he was the magazine.



Come on. He's one of the greatest of all artists in the medium's history, as penciller, designer, art director and creator. There's almost no end to his historic inventions, additions, revisions and iconic images that played a major role in reshaping and saving the superhero comic (and other genres), and that started with his legendary art.

Especially pre-Marvel Infantino.

Sal Buscema

The "Face" of Marvel for me.  Fine.  Solid Storyteller, but kind of like all steak, no sizzle.  I'm never like "Wow!  Look at that!"  I liked his later Spder-man work the best.  

Rich Buckler

I would probably like him a lot if you guys hadn't told me about all the swipes.  I really liked the Superman vs. Shazam treasury.  

Pat Broderick

I'm not super familiar with his stuff but he's definitely a unique stylist - His style is instantly recognizable.  He kind of reminds me of a self-taught golden age artist.  Kinda weird, but I dig it.


Keith Pollard

I had to look up what he did and I've read a lot of his stuff - just not recently.  He... seems... fine?  Some interesting movement effects.

Paul Ryan

Drew the Avengers, ight?  Kind of in the lost early '90s era where I haven't read much Marvel at all.   Crap I turned off the insert key while spot-editing this post and now I don't know how to turn it back on.  I guess I'll just leave that as "ight" rather than trying to fix it.  

Bob Brown

Had a loooong damn career and I actually like his stuff a lot.  Did some great, freaky, really dark and horror-tinged work on Daredevil with Marv Wolfman.  


Irv Novick
 
Weirdly under-rated, considering how many high profile assignments he had.   Had been working in comics forever by the '70s, but his stuff felt just as dramatic and cool as the younger guys.    

Ron Lim

'90s guy.  Not really my era.  

Paul Pelletier

Heard the name, no idea what he did. 

OK I HAVE READ A BUNCH OF HIS STUFF.  I guess he never had a super-long run on any one book I read regularly.  Looks quite good, actually.  


Brent Anderson

Really good, really good at subtle emotions and quiet moments, which doesn't get you the Neal Adams/Jim Lee kind of accolades I guess.  Did my favorite X-men story ever.  

Jim Aparo?

Ok, can we just talk about how few pencillers could draw Bob Haney's Brave and the Bold which changed characters, tone, and even freaking genre every issue.  Aparo could draw freaking anything, and make it dramatic and cool.  The Haney/Aparo B&B is a top five superhero fun for me.  Way worse when not inking his own stuff.  

Dick Ayers

Seems like a super-nice guy, was a fine replacement for Kirby on a couple books.  Could pace a visual joke, which is a lost art among bronze-age-and-later pencillers.

Marie Severin

Instantly recognizable stylist, freaking amazing, it's a damn shame that cartoonists are not as highly valued among comic geeks as *pah* "artists" like the Image guys.  I wish I could turn the insert key back on, I ended up retyping that three times.  

John Severin

One of the top "texture" artists in the game.  (If that makes any sense.)  Created a sense of immersive realism with everything he did which allowed for more mature and thematically rich stories.  Just so, so good.

Don Heck

Not a great superhero artist, ever, but a very good horror and suspense artist.  Just go back and check out the storytelling in the first Iron Man story in Tales of Suspense # 39.  (Alright, or probably a reprint smartass.)  It's a master class in mounting tension.  

George Tuska

Well, I can recognize his style.  Another guy I'm not sure was a great fit for superheroes.  

Billy Graham

So.  Billy Graham's Black Panther is the most creative and innovative Marvel book of the '70s in terms of storytelling.  He was the closest to an Eisner of his generation at a time when "house style" was the watchword.

Dick Dillan

Sometimes really good... There are a couple times when I'm amazed by the emotional power of his storytelling.  Usually just.. kind of... okay.  Took a bunch of thankless assignments where he had to draw a crap-ton of characters which probably didn't help.  I heard he was better on non-superhero stuff but I haven't read much Blackhawk or the like.

Joe Staton

Another great horror artist.  I'm more familiar with his Charlton work than his DC stuff.  Another guy that never felt like a superhero artist to me.

Ross Andru

Amazingly damn good humor cartoonist.  Not a fan of his superhero stuff unless he had an inker who would take a freaking foot of sandpaper to his rough edges or just go all wacky and weird like Bill Everett did inking that first Defenders story.  Never really liked him with Esposito.  

Carmine Infantino

One of the best of his generation turned the hackiest of hacks.  Kind of sad.  

Ron Frenz

Seemed solid in an old-school sort of way.  Listen, mainstream comics for me kind of stopped in 1979 and stared again about 2001.  He's one of those grey area dudes.  

Bob Hall

Really liked him on Squadron Supreme which I am re-reading. Drew the Saturday Night Live issue of Marvel Team-Up, and did the best drawing of Jane Curtin it is possible to do.  

Don Perlin

*Googles*  Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.   Werewolf By Night.  Noooo.... Opinion.  

Mark Bright

Icon is my favorite superhero book of the '90s.  It's another one of those that took a lot of different storytelling skills to make work, and he pulled it off.  

Adrian Gonzales

*Googles*  Oh yeah, All Star Squadron.  Noooo... Opinion.

Greg Laroque

So did not actually draw any of Suicide Squad, I was wrong.  Did some Marvel Team-Up, which wasn't great.  Did he do some Legion in the meantime?  Anyway, drew Flash in the '90s and had improved a lot.  

Steve Epting ?

Was around for a while and then drew the Ed Brubaker Captain America run.  I am the only person on earth who didn't care for the Ed Brubaker Captain America run.  No opinion.  

Norm Breyfogle ?

Seemed pretty damn good.  I dunno, '80s Batman comics are just not my jam, though. 

Steve Erwin

Freaking who?  Never even heard the name.  *Googles*  Yeah, I guess I read those issues of Grimjack a decade ago. 

Kevin McGuire

Damned fine cartoonist,semed to move away from comics before he turned into a hyuge star.  I love JLA/JLE/JLI.

Tom Grummet

Quite liked his Superboy run. (I DO read some things from the '90s!) A solid dramatic artist and a strong cartoonist.  

  
Mark Bagley

The Sal Buscema of the '90s and '00s, which is a compliment and yet not a compliment. Did the Trinity min-series with Kurt Busiek which is absolutely bonkers and by far my favorite moving-corporate-characters-around thing Busiek ever did, so I'll always be a fan of that.

Greg Capullo ?

Drew Spawn, I less-than-don't-care-about Spawn.  Drew Batman and I was like OH MY GOD!!!!  *Jawdrop*  Great artist, actually.  Weird.  

Steve Dillon ?

None of his stuff ever quite connected with me, although I think he was a great "body language" artist.   Sad he just died.[]

Wow, I think his Marvel stuff is way better.

I left Dan Jurgens off my list because I always felt he was one special project away from being a star. 

I think you can safely toss in any mainstream American comic book artist who (A) never worked on superhero projects and (B) was not one of the core EC artists.