Top Ten Comic Artists – My List
Over on CBR, and more specifically the Comics Should Be Good blog, they are running a Top 100 countdown of favourite writers and artists. I took my time, deliberated internally, and came up with my two lists. It was a tough one, and I’m sure I’ve missed someone; and I’m equally sure this could change on any given day, but here is the list of my Top 10 artists. I’ll post writers tomorrow. And later I’ll compare my picks and see how they stack up. But now, on with the list.
1 Marko Djurdjevic
A possibly contentious choice for the coveted top spot, Djurdjevic is mostly here for his cover work, I’ll admit. He had a masterful rin of covers on Daredevil during Brubaker’s spot at the helm, and there were some absolutely classic pieces of art. Now he’s does a bunch of other stuff, and always offers up a cover that is dynamic and beautiful. He’s created massive penta-fold covers for different character sets, Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man. They’re just these massively sprawling epics that you can lose day in looking at. He’s a damn good artist and one I’d class as my favourite with no worries at all.
2 Sean Phillips
Now, Sean Phillips does covers and interiors, so I guess he’s my actual fabourite artist on the page. His sheer body of work makes it so I almost have to love him; Sleeper, Criminal, Incognito – do I need anymore reasons. He paces a page well and rarely misses a mark. The fact I have two of his pieces hanging on my walls, and he drew them both for the one piece of writing I have had within the covers of a Marvel comic, does help his chances here. The guy is just class all round.
3 Fabio Moon
Casanova. I think Moon did the better job. There, I said it. He’s got this beautiful style, a fluid storytelling style, and I could look over his pages for days. Daytripper is also an instant classic, both in construction of story and emotion and in its visual choices. Moon is one I’ll continue to watch and thank for his emergence.
4 David Aja
He hasn’t done much, but whatever he does do is pretty damn fine. Immortal Iron Fist is the obvious calling card, but work like his Secret Avengers one shot about Max Fury and his short with Ann Nocenti in the Daredevil anniversary issue were all golden. The guy is a supreme artist, I just wish he was back on an ongoing. He’d be perfect for a 16 page a month gig.
5 Jack Kirby
It’s not cliche if it’s right. Kirby is the King, easily, and I don’t want to hear anyone argue it. His work stands up to time, which is a big ask. Fantastic Four, the Fourth World. He’s the premiere sci-fi artist and just a master of the craft. If he comes in as the global choice for number one I will not be disappointed.
6 Jack Davis
EC Horror and Crime comics. That’s all I need to say. Oh, and Mad Magazine as well. This guy’s artistic style practically defined my childhood. Hyper detailed, able to be hilarious or drippingly gory depending on what was needed, I choose Jack Davis for the massive win because he was intricate, he was just about perfect, and he was so versatile.
7 Darwyn Cooke
You have to hand it to Cooke, he does have a pretty distinctive style. He just washes over you like a wave of nostalgia, his art probably even smells like the 50s. The ultimate rush is easily his Parker graphic novels but look through any of his back catalogue, he’s always had the gift.
8 David Mazzucchelli
If you look back at his Daredevil and Batman work it truly is glorious. The guy had a way of drawing noir that others wouldn’t catch up to for years. He made the panels look sweaty, the faces pained, and the story terse at all times. He really was pushing the medium forward and so to then see him rock out something like Asterios Polyp, which really is a clinic on drawing styles, is wonderful to see. The guy still has it.
9 Gabriel Ba
Much like Moon above, and they are twins, I love Ba just as much. Well, not equally, obviously, for his placement on this list, but he’s still great. I couldn’t pick just one fort the list, but they were separated. To have such talent in the family is sickening but has made for some great comics. I was shocked to find I loved his work on Umbrella Academy so damn much. He’s another amping up to be looked on as a master of the form.
10 Clay Mann
I had to slip in one very personal choice. There were lots of other great names amongst the madding crowd so why not just one little fave? Mann jumped to my attention when he did a fill in on Daredevil, launching the Lady Bullseye arc. He draws a connection between Matt Murdock and Dakota North and
just nails it. He draws one of my favourite pages in comics in that issue and I can’t wait til he’s on an ongoing I actually want to read.
Honourable Mentions
It sucked that I couldn’t fit in everyone and so there are names that come close but just missed out. I’ll only roll call them here, and still no doubt miss some, but these guys are champs too.
Stuart Immonen, Frank Miller, Michael Lark, Dustin Weaver, Wally Wood, Phil Hester, Alex Maleev, Steve Ditko. The list could go on.
Who would you choose for your Top 10 Artists?
Posted on November 25th, 2010 by ryan
Filed under: comics
I really love Tim Sale and Norm Breyfogle myself and they would certainly appear on my own list. Breyfogle always added a wonderful sense of movement, especially with the Batman cape. I also liked how he drew the cowl in pure black, no details, it was a bold choice.
Sale has produced some extraordinarily emotional material which has resulted in some of my favorite panels of all time. I’m still made that Captain America White is still not available.