My Top 10 Comic Book Artists - Part 2
My Top 10 Favourite Comic Book Artists (Numbers 5 -1)
5) Frazer Irving
Seven Soldiers: Klarion the Witchboy, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Frazer Irving is currently a rising star in the comic book world, and deservedly so considering the amount of work he puts into his art. It's not just the dark gothic tones of his pencils and inks, but the imaginative use of colour that really sets him apart from his contemporaries. While most colourists have moved to the crisp lines of digital formatting, Irving takes a much more old fashioned approach, preferring the solid hues created with real materials on real paper. His experimental use of watercolours and felt tip pens bring flashes of light and iridescence to an otherwise gloomy landscape, and make the pictures seemingly come to life on the page. He uses exaggerated facial expressions to convey real horror and anguish: his open-mouthed screams reminiscent of Gerald Scarfe's famous artwork for Pink Floyd's The Wall. Having begun his career in the seminal 2000 AD, DC comics now trust him with some of their most prized characters.
For me, Irving's real strength lies in being able to fuse the horror and action genres together into a cohesive unit that is greater than the sum of its parts. His dynamic artwork portrays the murky depths of terror and insanity better than any other modern artist I can name, but don't overshadow the energised action sequences. It's not every artist who can be identified by the way they render skin tones, but Irving's style is so well developed that he really stands out amongst the usual technicolour crowd of superhero capes and cowls. Irving is definitely a name to watch out for in the future.
4) Frank Quitely
We3, New X-Men, All-Star Superman, Batman and Robin, JLA: Earth 2
Not only is Frank Quitely one of the most hard working, most sought after comic book artists in the world today, he's also Glaswegian. As if that wasn't good enough, he has a habit of drawing characters drinking a suspiciously orange fluid, and when the mutant city of Genosha was destroyed, an incongruous soft drink advert loomed in the background. Irn Bru silliness aside, Quitely's art is intricate without being cluttered, clean and precise without being clinical, and delivered with an absolute pin point precision that leaves his contemporaries in the shade. Although his illustrations take a notoriously long time to complete, the spectacular result is always worth waiting for. His eye for framing to create maximum impact is second to none, and he often draws superheroes from a low angle so they seem to tower over the viewer with strength and authority. Regularly working with writer and fellow Glasgwegian Grant Morrison, the Dynamic Duo present the world with a continuing masterclass in what makes a comic book work.
I must admit that I was initially a little confused by Quitely's style, as the small eyed, slightly lumpy characters were not the shining, highly polished ultra-humans that I was used to seeing. However I soon realised that this very lack of superficial beauty allows a multitude of subtle emotion to play across a character's face without breaking the overall flow of the story. He can also create a real sense of motion within an otherwise static scene and guide the eye around the page with an ease that appears effortless, but in reality is finely crafted. His experimental use of overlapping or fragmented panels is breathtaking and really bring the unbridled imagination of Morrison to life. Unsurprisingly, Quitely's commitment to quality has garnered him several Eisner and Harvey awards (the Oscars of the comic book world) and amassed a cult following the world over. I personally love the quirky sense of humour that shines through all of his work and brings heart to some otherwise dark and challenging subject matter. Quitely makes me proud to be Scottish.
3) Michael Allred
X-Statix, I Zombie, Wednesday Comics
As I've become increasingly aware while making this list, the positive representation of women in comic books is incredibly important to me. Badly drawn, pointlessly sexual dolly birds with gravity defying cleavage can turn me off a comic so much that I can't even pay attention to the story. That's not to say that comic book women can't, or shouldn't be sexy: Black Canary has explicitly said that she wears leather and a blonde wig to distract men and gain the upper hand when fighting them, and Black Cat's sexual allure is important because it tempted the otherwise clean cut Peter Parker to stray out of his comfort zone. However, of all the comic book artists out there, Michael Allred stands head and shoulders above the rest by actually (gasp!) knowing how to draw women's bodies properly. He is aware that breasts are neither sized nor shaped like beach balls, and that different fabrics flow over them to create different effects. Allred's women have beauty and poise, but are presented as genuine characters rather than objects to be oggled. Such is his appeal to the female viewer that his art was recently featured in a striking advertising campaign for MAC makeup - with Wonder Woman battling monsters in an effort to bring her gift of godly glamour to us mere mortals.
Allred's muted pastel colours and pop art inspired visuals complete the soft, feminine feel of his work, but his women are not just eye candy filling out the background of group shots. While his art contains all the wonderful aspects of drama and escapism that one expects from a comic book, as a woman I'm never left feeling inferior by his creations or yelling at the page that that's not how spandex works. Allred's work also transports me back to the stylised Silver Age of 60's comics where horror themes thrived amidst bright colours rather than shadows, and provides a welcome change from the grittiness and supposed realism of modern comics. Considering my feelings on such matters, the next artist on the list might then come as something of a jarring surprise.
2) Frank Miller
Sin City, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, 300
I'll probably get kicked out of feminist club for saying this, but I absolutely love Frank Miller. Despite his seemingly crude style and frequently violent subject matter, I personally find Miller's artwork the most iconic and cinematic of any comic era. The absolute master of minimalism, Miller needs only a few black and white lines on a page to convey the soul of a character. His women are hugely exaggerated caricatures - reduced to walking lips and tits, tottering on high heels. Many find this hugely offensive, and it's true that Miller seems to only be able to write and draw one sort of character. He may be a one trick pony, but I don't care because, by God, that trick is good. Miller's women use their sexuality as weapons to survive in a hostile world, and have no time for softness. Likewise, their male counterparts are drawn with giant square jaws dominating their faces - obscuring their emotions - and their huge knuckles dragging on the ground as they square up their squat bodies for a fight. Hugely influenced by Kazuo Koiki and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub manga series, Miller creates an unforgiving, dog-eat-dog world where a man is only as good as his skills in combat, yet were it's also possible for one good man to triumph over the giant adversary of the repressive social status quo.
The simplicity of Miller's artwork belies the scope of its visual accomplishments. He experiments with hugely dramatic camera angles, drawing his creations from above, in close up and in glorious widescreen with the ease of a Holywood director. Panels are stuffed to the gunnels with electrifying spectacle and the pace is always fast and furious. Miller doesn't just go plain old over the top, he jumps over the parapet, charges across the maelstrom of no-man's land and comes screaming straight for you with a bayonette aimed right out of the page. Yet alongside those sensational, showy images are dozens of smaller, intricately designed panels that are crafted with the same ethos and skill level that show a master storyteller at work. Miller's art is not simple because he can't draw, it's simple because he has stripped away all the unnecessary components and been left with the pure elements of what make a comic work. I always find his work exciting to read and exhilarating to look at: he simply blows me away every time. I honestly considered making him number 1, but in the end my ultimate favourite comic book artist is...
1) J. H. Williams III
Batwoman
Promethea
There can be only one, and it's J.H. Williams III. He takes Allred's elegance and mixes it with Robertson's unflinching eye for violence. He takes the simple black, white and red of Miller and fuses it with the detailed complexity of Quitely. Like Hewlett and Vasquez, he fills every page with an intricate feast for the eyes of anarchic imagery and riotous splashes of colour. But by far and away the element that makes his work so outstanding is his mastery - bordering on complete reinvention - of what a comic book page looks like and is capable of. Williams is not the first to play with panel shape or layout, but his ability to present a story face on, sideways, upside down and inside down all at once rivals Cubist artists such as Picasso and Braque. Consider Batwoman crashing through a stained glass window: the jagged, fractured panels mimicking the shattered glass, while she strides between their boundaries, kicking several bad guys at once in a physically impossible ballet of brutality. Or Promethea, walking around the peremiter of a Möbius strip, where the dialogue reads right to left, on its head and in a circle, mirroring the lack of direction in the text and the confusing, shifting dream world that the heroine inhabits. When artwork can rival - and in my opinion, occasionally outshine - the magnificent prose of Alan Moore (widely regarded as the greatest comic book writer of this or any generation) then you know you're seeing something really special.
Williams' women come in a refreshing variety of shapes and sizes, and not all of them are conventionally beautiful. Kate Kane's punky style hides an introverted, slightly plain looking army girl, but that is all eclipsed when she unleashes the raw power of Batwoman. Subtlety of expression and a soft focus bring character to the overall picture and a rounded view of Kate as a person. Perhaps that is Williams' real talent: to mix the big with the small and attach equal importance to both. Flashy, in your face images do not overshadow the delicate elements of his art, but the flowing, intricate details are brought to life by the bold, innovative gestures of style. I love his work because it has left a lasting impression on my imagination, and completely changed the way I look at comic books. I honestly cannot think of a single criticism to give him; I previously said that I find interest in flaws but William's work is perfection without pretension. I never thought anyone could replace Batman, my favourite hero of all time, but Williams gave it to me with Batwoman, and for that I am eternally grateful. Batwoman will return on the 14th of September as part of the DC reboot, and I honestly couldn't be more excited.
*************************************************************************************
I found it incredibly difficult to compile this list, and there were several artists whose work I greatly admire but nevertheless had to be left off. All of these artists are great in their own way, and they all mean something to me, but for one reason or another they lacked that spark that would have put them on my list. In no particular order, the runners up are:
5) Frazer Irving
Seven Soldiers: Klarion the Witchboy, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Frazer Irving is currently a rising star in the comic book world, and deservedly so considering the amount of work he puts into his art. It's not just the dark gothic tones of his pencils and inks, but the imaginative use of colour that really sets him apart from his contemporaries. While most colourists have moved to the crisp lines of digital formatting, Irving takes a much more old fashioned approach, preferring the solid hues created with real materials on real paper. His experimental use of watercolours and felt tip pens bring flashes of light and iridescence to an otherwise gloomy landscape, and make the pictures seemingly come to life on the page. He uses exaggerated facial expressions to convey real horror and anguish: his open-mouthed screams reminiscent of Gerald Scarfe's famous artwork for Pink Floyd's The Wall. Having begun his career in the seminal 2000 AD, DC comics now trust him with some of their most prized characters.
For me, Irving's real strength lies in being able to fuse the horror and action genres together into a cohesive unit that is greater than the sum of its parts. His dynamic artwork portrays the murky depths of terror and insanity better than any other modern artist I can name, but don't overshadow the energised action sequences. It's not every artist who can be identified by the way they render skin tones, but Irving's style is so well developed that he really stands out amongst the usual technicolour crowd of superhero capes and cowls. Irving is definitely a name to watch out for in the future.
4) Frank Quitely
We3, New X-Men, All-Star Superman, Batman and Robin, JLA: Earth 2
Not only is Frank Quitely one of the most hard working, most sought after comic book artists in the world today, he's also Glaswegian. As if that wasn't good enough, he has a habit of drawing characters drinking a suspiciously orange fluid, and when the mutant city of Genosha was destroyed, an incongruous soft drink advert loomed in the background. Irn Bru silliness aside, Quitely's art is intricate without being cluttered, clean and precise without being clinical, and delivered with an absolute pin point precision that leaves his contemporaries in the shade. Although his illustrations take a notoriously long time to complete, the spectacular result is always worth waiting for. His eye for framing to create maximum impact is second to none, and he often draws superheroes from a low angle so they seem to tower over the viewer with strength and authority. Regularly working with writer and fellow Glasgwegian Grant Morrison, the Dynamic Duo present the world with a continuing masterclass in what makes a comic book work.
I must admit that I was initially a little confused by Quitely's style, as the small eyed, slightly lumpy characters were not the shining, highly polished ultra-humans that I was used to seeing. However I soon realised that this very lack of superficial beauty allows a multitude of subtle emotion to play across a character's face without breaking the overall flow of the story. He can also create a real sense of motion within an otherwise static scene and guide the eye around the page with an ease that appears effortless, but in reality is finely crafted. His experimental use of overlapping or fragmented panels is breathtaking and really bring the unbridled imagination of Morrison to life. Unsurprisingly, Quitely's commitment to quality has garnered him several Eisner and Harvey awards (the Oscars of the comic book world) and amassed a cult following the world over. I personally love the quirky sense of humour that shines through all of his work and brings heart to some otherwise dark and challenging subject matter. Quitely makes me proud to be Scottish.
3) Michael Allred
X-Statix, I Zombie, Wednesday Comics
As I've become increasingly aware while making this list, the positive representation of women in comic books is incredibly important to me. Badly drawn, pointlessly sexual dolly birds with gravity defying cleavage can turn me off a comic so much that I can't even pay attention to the story. That's not to say that comic book women can't, or shouldn't be sexy: Black Canary has explicitly said that she wears leather and a blonde wig to distract men and gain the upper hand when fighting them, and Black Cat's sexual allure is important because it tempted the otherwise clean cut Peter Parker to stray out of his comfort zone. However, of all the comic book artists out there, Michael Allred stands head and shoulders above the rest by actually (gasp!) knowing how to draw women's bodies properly. He is aware that breasts are neither sized nor shaped like beach balls, and that different fabrics flow over them to create different effects. Allred's women have beauty and poise, but are presented as genuine characters rather than objects to be oggled. Such is his appeal to the female viewer that his art was recently featured in a striking advertising campaign for MAC makeup - with Wonder Woman battling monsters in an effort to bring her gift of godly glamour to us mere mortals.
Allred's muted pastel colours and pop art inspired visuals complete the soft, feminine feel of his work, but his women are not just eye candy filling out the background of group shots. While his art contains all the wonderful aspects of drama and escapism that one expects from a comic book, as a woman I'm never left feeling inferior by his creations or yelling at the page that that's not how spandex works. Allred's work also transports me back to the stylised Silver Age of 60's comics where horror themes thrived amidst bright colours rather than shadows, and provides a welcome change from the grittiness and supposed realism of modern comics. Considering my feelings on such matters, the next artist on the list might then come as something of a jarring surprise.
2) Frank Miller
Sin City, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, 300
I'll probably get kicked out of feminist club for saying this, but I absolutely love Frank Miller. Despite his seemingly crude style and frequently violent subject matter, I personally find Miller's artwork the most iconic and cinematic of any comic era. The absolute master of minimalism, Miller needs only a few black and white lines on a page to convey the soul of a character. His women are hugely exaggerated caricatures - reduced to walking lips and tits, tottering on high heels. Many find this hugely offensive, and it's true that Miller seems to only be able to write and draw one sort of character. He may be a one trick pony, but I don't care because, by God, that trick is good. Miller's women use their sexuality as weapons to survive in a hostile world, and have no time for softness. Likewise, their male counterparts are drawn with giant square jaws dominating their faces - obscuring their emotions - and their huge knuckles dragging on the ground as they square up their squat bodies for a fight. Hugely influenced by Kazuo Koiki and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub manga series, Miller creates an unforgiving, dog-eat-dog world where a man is only as good as his skills in combat, yet were it's also possible for one good man to triumph over the giant adversary of the repressive social status quo.
The simplicity of Miller's artwork belies the scope of its visual accomplishments. He experiments with hugely dramatic camera angles, drawing his creations from above, in close up and in glorious widescreen with the ease of a Holywood director. Panels are stuffed to the gunnels with electrifying spectacle and the pace is always fast and furious. Miller doesn't just go plain old over the top, he jumps over the parapet, charges across the maelstrom of no-man's land and comes screaming straight for you with a bayonette aimed right out of the page. Yet alongside those sensational, showy images are dozens of smaller, intricately designed panels that are crafted with the same ethos and skill level that show a master storyteller at work. Miller's art is not simple because he can't draw, it's simple because he has stripped away all the unnecessary components and been left with the pure elements of what make a comic work. I always find his work exciting to read and exhilarating to look at: he simply blows me away every time. I honestly considered making him number 1, but in the end my ultimate favourite comic book artist is...
1) J. H. Williams III
Batwoman
Promethea
There can be only one, and it's J.H. Williams III. He takes Allred's elegance and mixes it with Robertson's unflinching eye for violence. He takes the simple black, white and red of Miller and fuses it with the detailed complexity of Quitely. Like Hewlett and Vasquez, he fills every page with an intricate feast for the eyes of anarchic imagery and riotous splashes of colour. But by far and away the element that makes his work so outstanding is his mastery - bordering on complete reinvention - of what a comic book page looks like and is capable of. Williams is not the first to play with panel shape or layout, but his ability to present a story face on, sideways, upside down and inside down all at once rivals Cubist artists such as Picasso and Braque. Consider Batwoman crashing through a stained glass window: the jagged, fractured panels mimicking the shattered glass, while she strides between their boundaries, kicking several bad guys at once in a physically impossible ballet of brutality. Or Promethea, walking around the peremiter of a Möbius strip, where the dialogue reads right to left, on its head and in a circle, mirroring the lack of direction in the text and the confusing, shifting dream world that the heroine inhabits. When artwork can rival - and in my opinion, occasionally outshine - the magnificent prose of Alan Moore (widely regarded as the greatest comic book writer of this or any generation) then you know you're seeing something really special.
Williams' women come in a refreshing variety of shapes and sizes, and not all of them are conventionally beautiful. Kate Kane's punky style hides an introverted, slightly plain looking army girl, but that is all eclipsed when she unleashes the raw power of Batwoman. Subtlety of expression and a soft focus bring character to the overall picture and a rounded view of Kate as a person. Perhaps that is Williams' real talent: to mix the big with the small and attach equal importance to both. Flashy, in your face images do not overshadow the delicate elements of his art, but the flowing, intricate details are brought to life by the bold, innovative gestures of style. I love his work because it has left a lasting impression on my imagination, and completely changed the way I look at comic books. I honestly cannot think of a single criticism to give him; I previously said that I find interest in flaws but William's work is perfection without pretension. I never thought anyone could replace Batman, my favourite hero of all time, but Williams gave it to me with Batwoman, and for that I am eternally grateful. Batwoman will return on the 14th of September as part of the DC reboot, and I honestly couldn't be more excited.
*************************************************************************************
I found it incredibly difficult to compile this list, and there were several artists whose work I greatly admire but nevertheless had to be left off. All of these artists are great in their own way, and they all mean something to me, but for one reason or another they lacked that spark that would have put them on my list. In no particular order, the runners up are:
- Daniel Schaffer - Dogwitch
- Brian Bolland - Batman: The Killing Joke, Animal Man
- Philip Bond - Vimanarama, Kill Your Boyfriend, The Invisibles
- George Pérez - Crisis on Infinite Earths, JLA/Avengers
- Raymond Briggs - The Snowman, Ethel and Ernest, When The Wind Blows
- Melinda Gebbie - Lost Girls
- Dave McKean - The Sandman, Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Jim Lee - Batman: Hush, All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder
- Roman Dirge - Lenore
- Rob Liefeld - For producing everything that is bad and wrong with comic books, but nevertheless giving us all a bloody good laugh in the meantime. :-)
