Your Top, (#1), Favorite Comic Book Artist of all time, and why in 1 sentence

[Geo (RIP)]

I've wrestled with this. So many artists I like: Wood, Williamson, Toth, Evans, blah blah blah. But I think if I had to choose one, it'd be Milton Caniff on the pre-war (1935-1939) Terry and the Pirates. A combination of superb Sickles-influenced art and action-packed stories with great characteris and complex stories were a perfect mix.

Did Caniff ever really do any comic book art, though, rather than reprints of his comic strip work?  (In no way arguing with the quality of his stuff, just wondering if he really qualifies as a "comic BOOK artist".)

Eric I checked with the "Grand Comics Database" and his series was published in Dell, Super Comics, and Popular Comics. So yes Milton Caniff was a comic book artist. I didn't know till I checked either if he was.

Geo

[darkmark (RIP)]

The only ORIGINAL comic book work Caniff did was to write the scripts for Dell's STEVE CANYON books and to draw the heads on the characters.  Ray Bailey did the rest.

[Ami_GFX]

Will Eisner
He took the medium to new heights.


I had to limit myself to the golden age to come up with a quick favorite. Even there there are a lot of greats but few had such a role and impact on the medium as a whole and what other artists were doing with it as Eisner. 

[SuperScrounge]

If I had to pick one, Mike Grell.


I tried to draw as well as he did for 20 plus years, until an editor pointed out that I had a cartoony art style and I started working on developing that.

[crashryan]

You're right. I chose my favorite comics artist, rather than favorite comic book artist. My mistake. All Caniff ever did for comic books was retouch Ray Bailey's Steve Canyon faces in a couple of the Dell one-shots.

[TheCosmicMoth]

Frank Quitely


The man has a way of making superhero comics beautiful and expansive while also capturing their absurdity.

[Poztron]

This is a tough question. I could name different artists for different eras and different genres, but if I had to pick just one, it would John Severin. He was a rock solid draftsman, he never turned in a bad job, he could handle both serious and humorous stories, and I just liked his style!

[fett]

Frazetta here. Everytime I see his comics work it makes me wish he had done more. Powerful!!

[Dave Hayward]

For me it's got to be Jack Burnley, 'cos at a time when some artwork could be best described as woeful, his was crisp, clean and most of all realistic, a real pleasure to look at - just look at his work on Starman in DC's Adventure Comics.

[darkmark (RIP)]

I got to interview Jack.  Really loved him.