💬 Weekly Question: Who's your favorite comic book artist?
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As regular readers of 5AM StoryTalk have probably worked out from my artist-on-artist conversation series, which periodically features some of the biggest names in comic books, I love comics. But I don’t get to talk about them enough here, so let’s do something about that today:
Who’s your favorite comic book artist and why?
I struggle here, as you might. There are so many artists who’ve made huge impacts on my imagination and creative development. Amongst them, Frank Miller, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor Smith, Darwyn Cooke, Alex Ross, Dave Gibbons, John Romita Jr. and Sr., Steve Ditko, Colleen Doran, and Dave McKean. (Yes, I’m aware this is a very masculine list, but 90% of my comic book reading was done before women were really let into the business). But at the end of the day, there can be only one, I suppose - and that one is Jack Kirby, whose illustrations made the infinite seem possible on a single comic book page. He was foundational for me in so many ways, which is why he’s my pick more than any other reason. So, what about you?
By the way, if you want to read some of my chats with comic book artists, check out these:
“Q&A: Comic Book Artist Colleen Doran Did It Her Way”
“Q&A: Comic Book Legend John Romita Sr. Through the Eyes of His Son”
I confess I don’t know a lot of comic book artists by name. But after buying and reading the hardcover of Neil Gaiman’s “Snow, Glass, Apples” with Colleen Doran’s art (and her Notes at the end), I can easily say I was absolutely blown away by her work. That and some of her work in The Sandman series, as well as I’m now following her here on Substack where she shares some of her art, make her my hands down favorite.
Frank Miller. His Daredevil run is still great. I probably read the double-size Bullseye v. Elektra (DD #181) every day for about a month when it came out, and I still flip through pages of his DD omnibus now and then. His early work was so fascinatingly precise and clear yet still expressive and dynamic. I don't have much to say about him post - "Dark Knight Returns" but I'll never not love his classic DD work.
#2 is Walt Simonson (his Thor especially), #3 John Byrne (X-Men / Fantastic Four years). Yeah, I'm pretty much exclusively a Marvel guy.