You have a higher opinion of Joe Simon's contribution to the team than I do, Poztron. I believe, like Stan Lee, that Simon was an enabler. He made it possible for Kirby to shine. How much he contributed to the actual art is debatable. He spent 15 years training people to ink Jack Kirby like Joe Simon, so it's difficult to tell when it's his inks or a successful student.
Klaus Nordling was, IMHO, a consistent, thoroughly professional journeyman. He did good work, but never left me wanting more - which, I guess, is my personal criteria for a great artist. I've never bought a book because it had Joe Simon in it, nor because it had Klaus Nordling. I've bought dozens, if not hundreds, for Baker or Kirby.
Rudy Palais was originally an inker of or highly influenced by the young Reed Crandall at the Iger Shop. I've always liked his work at Ace in the mid-late '40s where he might have been inked by or influenced by Warren Kremer. By the '50s, his sweating villains had become a mockery for me. I prefer the earlier Palais.
Artists I really enjoy, but are "Great Unknowns" to the majority of comic fans are: Arthur E. Jameson, Ray Willner, Munson Paddock, Harry Anderson, the aforementioned Warren Kremer doing serious stuff, and a half-dozen more whose names I don't even know.
I like Sid Check, but he's too variable and never quite lived up to his (IMHO) potential. Gray Morrow's 1950s work is stupendous and all too often overlooked.
I've never liked to make a "favorites" list because the work of most artists varies over time, like Kremer. I prefer a certain period to others. Matt Baker in 1944 and 1959 is not so great, but Matt Baker in 1950-56 can't be beat. Some, like Al Williamson, brought a verve to anything they did, be it Toby John Wayne stores, EC sf classics, Atlas jungle girls, Charlton quick and dirty westerns or King Flash Gordons. I love it all. It's only when he adopts the John Prentice a la Alex Raymond style that he loses me. The art is great, but the life is missing. Some Maxwell Elkan strips are masterpieces, others mediocre at best. Early, pre-1946 Krigstein is crude beyond belief, but by 1948 he's a master who was never truly recognized later by Gaines and Feldstein and never understood by Kurtzman, the man with whom he SHOULD have had the most in common.
I quite literally woke up one morning circa 1974 and suddenly "GOT" Alex Toth. Up til then, I'd never understood the fuss. I guess I had to grow up. Within a year I'd acquired almost everything he'd done from 1949 to 1960. He and Williamson are passionate favorites.
The list and the rambling go on....
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