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Post by MRPs_Missives on Sept 20, 2024 18:48:31 GMT -5
Charles Schulz (no T) and Milton Caniff were on my list. -M Sure were, whoops. The 'T' is embarrassing, since I've been a fan of Peanuts since I was old enough to read. Schultz with a T is the far more common spelling, so its easy to forget to omit the T. I had to double check with Mark Schultz to make sure it was the one with the T when I typed my list. -M |
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 20, 2024 19:38:34 GMT -5
I have so many, I'm only going to list ten of each (in no particular order) and I'm going to stick to books rather than strips.
Writers: Kurt Busiek, Charles Biro, Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Len Wein, Roger Stern, Archie Goodwin, Mark Evanier, Bob Haney, Gaylord DuBois
Artists: Gene Colan, George Perez, Steve Rude, Jerry Ordway, Curt Swan, John Buscema, Wally Wood, Ross Andru, Lou Fine, Don Newton
Writer/Artists: Walt Kelly, Carl Barks, Jack Cole, Jack Kirby, Gilbert Hernandez, Gilbert Shelton, Walt Simonson, Will Eisner, Steve Purcell, George Carlson
Cei-U!
So there!
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Post by nairb73 on Sept 21, 2024 3:13:38 GMT -5
Writers: Len Wein, Gerry Conway, John Byrne, J.M. De Matteis, Peter David.
Artists: Jim Aparo, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez(someone on here always adds 'Praised Be His Name'), George Perez, Gil Kane, Curt Swan, Herb Trimpe.
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Post by Yasotay on Sept 21, 2024 11:36:04 GMT -5
I'd kind of divide my "favorites" into two categories, what was my favorite for their very best work and what was my favorite for a large body of work. By far, I think the best written comic ever was Watchmen, which is the only comic writing I've ever seen that approaches the level of writing found in great novels. That being said, I've tried a bunch of Alan Moore's other comics and none really held my interest so I'm not sure if, overall, I can say he's my "favorite" comic writer. For a little larger body of work, I might pick Brian Michael Bendis, though I haven't read a huge amount of his comics. But from the sampling I have read, he seems to have consistently written the most quality stuff.
Favorite artist is also a difficult one to judge because I think the comics art after some point around the 1990s generally started to show a higher overall quality. I don't know if that's because of superior printing techniques or because artists had more graphic tools to work with. But art over the last 30 years or so just looks a little better to me than in the prior period. But I'd also give more credit to the artists whose work looked good in that earlier period. Of all of them, I think the one who did both the best and most consistent work was George Perez.
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Post by spoon on Sept 21, 2024 14:47:49 GMT -5
This is tough for me to answer as my favourites have usually been fleeting- the quality of a creator's output tends to vary a great deal through their career. So I could say Frank Miller was my favourite writer and artist pre-'99, or Byrne was awesome until about '83. Busiek was great in the late 90s. Klaus Janson's inking is often fascinating to examine, but has gone through better and worse phases. I agree with this to some extent. I definitely have favorites whom I'll list below. But I do think both writers and artists can vary widely over a career, so I might think of someone as a favorite based on one run or one period of their career. I'm also not a completist who will buy everything from particularly creators. Sometimes the variation in quality is due to how well a creator fits with a series or with their collaborators. In my opinion, a lot of artists reach their peak in the first half of their career. My assumption is that this must be because of the impacts of health and aging on the physical act of drawing. For writers, I feel like variation in quality is a consequence of ambition. Some aspects of writing are like craftsmanship: pacing or how to build suspense. But when writers of fiction have lofty goals (making profound statements about human nature, tackling an issue that's partly political, or drawing lessons from a historical event), sometimes they just don't know what they heck they're writing about. I feel similarly about film directors. Even a "genius" has variance in their work despite the snowball effect of critical or popular acclaim over some careers. Writers: Steve Englehart, Chris Claremont, J.M. DeMatteis, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (as a team), Peter David Artists: Jim Aparo, John Byrne, Don Newton, John Buscema, Paul Smith, Gene Colan, Chris Samnee, Jim Lee, Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson (as a team), Steve Lightle, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, George Perez, Rick Leonardi |
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Post by rich on Sept 21, 2024 16:17:07 GMT -5
This is tough for me to answer as my favourites have usually been fleeting- the quality of a creator's output tends to vary a great deal through their career. So I could say Frank Miller was my favourite writer and artist pre-'99, or Byrne was awesome until about '83. Busiek was great in the late 90s. Klaus Janson's inking is often fascinating to examine, but has gone through better and worse phases. I agree with this to some extent. I definitely have favorites whom I'll list below. But I do think both writers and artists can vary widely over a career, so I might think of someone as a favorite based on one run or one period of their career. I'm also not a completist who will buy everything from particularly creators. Sometimes the variation in quality is due to how well a creator fits with a series or with their collaborators. In my opinion, a lot of artists reach their peak in the first half of their career. My assumption is that this must be because of the impacts of health and aging on the physical act of drawing. For writers, I feel like variation in quality is a consequence of ambition. Some aspects of writing are like craftsmanship: pacing or how to build suspense. But when writers of fiction have lofty goals (making profound statements about human nature, tackling an issue that's partly political, or drawing lessons from a historical event), sometimes they just don't know what they heck they're writing about. I feel similarly about film directors. Even a "genius" has variance in their work despite the snowball effect of critical or popular acclaim over some careers. Writers: Steve Englehart, Chris Claremont, J.M. DeMatteis, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (as a team), Peter David Artists: Jim Aparo, John Byrne, Don Newton, John Buscema, Paul Smith, Gene Colan, Chris Samnee, Jim Lee, Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson (as a team), Steve Lightle, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, George Perez, Rick Leonardi I agree with you- well said 👍🏼 Here's a proper list of favourites I've had over the years: (and I'll update it as more come to mind) Writer artists: Frank Miller, Darwyn Cooke, Kyle Baker, John Byrne, Mike Mignola, Walt Simonson, Jim Steranko, Moebius, Howard Chaykin, Enki Bilal, Charles Burns, Katsuhiro Otomo Writers: Alan Moore, Kurt Busiek, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Stan Lee, Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont Artists: Jim Lee, Klaus Janson, George Perez, John Romita Jr, Jack Kirby, Sean Phillips, Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, Neal Adams, Tim Sale, Barry Windsor-Smith, David Mazzucchelli, Chris Samnee, Scott McDaniel, John Romita Snr, P. Craig Russell, Dick Giordano, Steve Rude, Dave Gibbons, John Bolton, Kevin Nowlan, Alan Davis, Geoff Darrow, John Cassaday, Georges Bess, Brent Anderson, Todd McFarlane, Ron Garney |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2024 7:06:47 GMT -5
I grew up in the Bronze Age, and most of my favorites come from that era even though I appreciate a lot of great creators from before and after.
I still think George Perez is the greatest illustrator of all time (and YES, I'm a superhero guy, I know there are other genres, I just don't care). Alan Moore hands down gets my #1 writing spot.
For other artists, John Byrne is my runner-up to Perez (and I liked the earlier part of his run on FF as a writer too). Lot of favorites from my beloved Legion books, including Dave Cockrum, Mike Grell, Keith Giffen, and the rather awesome and undercelebrated Steve Lightle. Sherman, Staton, and LaRocque all had nice runs as well. And Larry Mahlstedt as an inker is incredibly underrated, he was the secret sauce for Giffen and LaRocque in particular IMO.
The artist list could go on forever, but let's add Steve Rude and Walt Simonson (also a great writer of course), plus Al Williamson (his Star Wars was amazing to me as a kid) and how about those snazzy Bob Larkin painted covers? Can't leave out Keith Pollard who also doesn't get enough love (some guys think all the great Marvel art happened in the 60's, and it didn't though Ditko was awesome of course). Also can't leave out José Luis García-López or Brian Bolland. And what would Superman be without Curt Swan? Sienkiewicz was also groundbreaking when he got his experimental style really going. And Alex Ross is my more modern favorite.
Terry Austin and Bob Layton are my favorite inkers, plus Joe Sinnott who finally made Kirby look good (sorry, had to be said).
For writers, after Moore I think Mike Baron gets my #2 spot. Wolfman and Perez had great early 80's runs as well. The earlier Frank Miller through Dark Knight Returns and Dave Sim on Cerebus up through about the first half of Church and State are both favorite writer/artists for me. Stan Lee and Jim Shooter through a combination of their writing and editorial direction both were important influences on the books I enjoy much as CCF gets downright silly about both at times (and I'm being polite here). Kurt Busiek on the more modern side.
I'm leaving out plenty, but this gets a lot of my favorites out there.
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Post by rich on Sept 22, 2024 10:26:33 GMT -5
Terry Austin and Bob Layton are my favorite inkers, plus Joe Sinnott who finally made Kirby look good (sorry, had to be said). Sinnott was an outstanding inker- such a beautiful, fluid line. Layton's inks I enjoyed and Austin had some excellent issues with Byrne. They're quite different inkers- as I've got older I've enjoyed Austin's technical pen inks less than brush and crow quill inkers (don't get me started on digital inks). I was always fascinated by the difference inkers could make- even when inking tight pencils you could tell if it was a Janson or McFarlane inking, for example. Austin performed with technical excellence, like a Scott Hanna, but without feeling naturalistic. Scott Williams talked about how he's precise and technical, instead of creating a naturalistic feel that is evident when Jim Lee chooses to ink himself. There's absolutely no right and wrong, which adds to the fun spotting the inker influence :-) |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2024 10:33:01 GMT -5
Terry Austin and Bob Layton are my favorite inkers, plus Joe Sinnott who finally made Kirby look good (sorry, had to be said). Sinnott was an outstanding inker- such a beautiful, fluid line. Layton's inks I enjoyed and Austin had some excellent issues with Byrne. They're quite different inkers- as I've got older I've enjoyed Austin's technical pen inks less than brush and crow quill inkers (don't get me started on digital inks). I was always fascinated by the difference inkers could make- even when inking tight pencils you could tell if it was a Janson or McFarlane inking, for example. Austin performed with technical excellence, like a Scott Hanna, but without feeling naturalistic. Scott Williams talked about how he's precise and technical, instead of creating a naturalistic feel that is evident when Jim Lee chooses to ink himself. There's absolutely no right and wrong, which adds to the fun spotting the inker influence :-) Austin definitely was a great pairing with Byrne, but my all-time favorite single issue in terms of overall art is Terry inking Art Adams on New Mutants Special Edition #1. Art is of course a fantastic penciler period, but something about him with Austin just pushed it over the top for me. I also forgot to mention earlier, the only shame with Layton being an inker at times is that he's such an amazing penciler too! |
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 22, 2024 10:59:42 GMT -5
From over the pond: I've always enjoyed John Wagner's black sense of humor in Judge Dredd and the sense of utter madness and hopelessness he brings to the title. Button Man just adds on top of that with a very gripping story, same for The Last American
Pat Mills leans more into the comedy in some instances (particularly with Accident Man and Marshall Law), but he can do serious VERY well. I greatly enjoyed Finn, Third World War, and Requiem: Vampire Knight
Have the same feelings for Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis. Grant Morrison is, well, it's very Grant Morrison innit?. I enjoyed Doom Patrol, Marvel Boy, and Multiversity, but his other stuff is very take it or leave it. I'm honestly kind of conflicted on his Green Lantern run. Some of it is very brilliant pulp science fiction and the rest is just an acid trip that leads to nowhere
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