You know you have at least one-that guy whose art just sets your teeth on edge, or hurts our eyes.
I once had four: Tony Tallarico, Don Heck, Jack Sparling, and Jerry Grandinetti. In recent years, I've looked back at them. It was weird to look at The Essential Avengers and realize that Don Heck could
DRAW! He was as competent as anyone else at Marvel or DC in the mid-60s. It was his later, looser stuff that I disliked. I had seen an old SF story by him, inked by himself, from the '50s that I actually liked. I had forgotten that his early Avengers was nearly as good.
The owner of the comic shop I frequented showed me a comic book, asked me who I though was the artist. I responded that it almost looked like good Tallarico art. It was a series called Geronomo Jones, and it WAS good Tallarico art. I've also seen illustrations for bible stories done by him, and they were good too. It was enlightening.
Jack Sparling did the last few issues to many of my favorite comics. While that earned him no love from me, I just plain didn't like his style. A couple of years back, I was looking for comics that had Sparling art (some of the Harvey super heroes). I looked at his art with new eyes. Now, I had seen two stories from him back in the '60s that had had been inked by someone else: a Captain America story inked by Frank Giacoa, and a Green Lantern story inked by Sid Greene. These were good. Looking at his own inks, I could see he had a decent sense of layout, and could move a story right along. His anatomy was as good as anone else's, and the action sequences were pretty good. He was just a sloppy inker.
Then there was Jerry Grandinetti. I've seen his work inked by Murphy Anderson and Wally Wood; it didn't help. His figures were distorted in a disturbing and unsightly way, and I just COULD NOT STAND IT. So Jerry Grandinetti has been my least favorite artist for many years. And then he surprised me: I saw one of his Dr. drew stories, and I felt sorry for him. To go from Dr. Drew to what he did in The Specter...
Then he surprised me again. I got an issue of Tower Comics Fight the Enemy with a story by Grandinetti in it. It was the same style he had used on The Specter and some stories for Warren comics, BUT IT FIT! It made me wish that he had done more war comics. Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe he liked war comics. While he is still my least favorite artist, I have a respect for him that I didn't before.
alex ross and that rob guy who thinks he's an artist
Rob "No Feet" Leifeld followed closely by Mr. Porno Face Greg Land.
Oh I was going to say Tang en Haut (sp?) but yeah, Greg Land. Guy is in the wrong business. He's been caught stealing a number of times, even from other artists, and he still gets work? If there is a comicbook blacklist, he outta be on it.
Anyone who says Frank Quitely in this thread, I'll meetcha out by the bike shed after school :P
Don Kramer and Michael Ryan, off the top of my head.
I actually dislike Greg Land more than Rob Liefeld, because Land is more or less just a swipe artist and tracer.
My least favorites:
Greg Land
Rob Liefeld
Frank Quitely. So lets go to that shed, Carravaggio. (Though I must admit its mostly his work for Marvel I didn't like)
I wonder how many times we'll see Liefeld's name. He makes my list, as does Frank Quitely (his people are always lumpy and potatoish, which freaks the hell out of me at times.) and, maybe a controversial one this, Frank Miller (I really like his contrast of light and dark in Sin City and that smiling guy in Elektra: Assassin, but The Dark Knight Returns has a near-Quitely level of vegetable bulk).
On the other side of the coin, good artists are Dave McKean, Mark Buckingham, Darick Robertson, Howard Porter, Paul Duffield, Ben Templesmith, Gillen McKelvie and probably plenty of others I've forgotten.
Larry Stroman- His recent run on X-Factor made my eyes hurt. Proportions were off, and everyone looked like a burn victim.
Greg Land- The guy has no ability. All he does is trace. And if I want to see Jenna Jameson, I'll go to my local video store or internet search engine.
Rob Liefield- I mean, c'mon!
Quitely's art is about 50/50 for me.
Larry Stroman
Greg Land
Rob Liefield
Yeah same ones everyone else says. Also I don't like Alex Ross much, but I don't think I'd group him with those three.
This is more of a "who does the internet sanction people to hate". Seriosly, it is just a continuation of all those Liefeld and Land threads I see elsewhere.
I've had artists I've hated but I never bothered learning their names... there was this one guy who did a lot of work on X-Men and Batman who was incredibly muddy, it was like he spilled ink on his sheet and smudged it into vaguely human shapes.
Frank Miller. The man should be working at Wendy's.
I had this Catwoman comic that had some kind of really plain and weird-looking artwork, but I can't find it so I guess I threw it away. It was stupid.
Everyone in the world can draw better than me though, so I dunno.
Ed Benes
guy's terrible, he's the 2000's version of Rob Liefield, way too much hatching, and everyone looks way too buff, and is built from the same body type, from john stewart to superman to black lightning.
also, i really dislike Robert Crumb and Peter Bragge, and the guy that does Zippy, That art just sickens me for some reason.
Dan Clowes is okay, cause it looks like Allred and the Hernandez Bros. a bit, but Bragge and Crumb just rub me the wrong way.
I've really come to enjoy Tang en Haut (sp?) from his Ghost Rider run. Him, Howard Chaykin and Frank Quitely can make fun comics that are indy looking without going into 'disturbing' territory.
Hmm... had to go and check out that Quietly guy's stuff. I agree that his X-Men stuff wasn't that good. The characters all look constipated. However, for his DC stuff it looks fitting for some reason. Weird.
Quote from: thanoson on May 13, 2009, 03:50:09 PM
Hmm... had to go and check out that Quietly guy's stuff. I agree that his X-Men stuff wasn't that good. The characters all look constipated. However, for his DC stuff it looks fitting for some reason. Weird.
Check out We3 by him, it is incredible. Quietly is one of my favorite artists but his style puts off a lot of people, I think it is because most artists exagerate their characters into sterile barbies and Kens while Quiety exagerates flaws, making his characters seem a little perverted when they are sexy, brutish when they are tough or demented when they are geniuses.
I can't remember this bum's name but I think it might have been something like Howard (Don't think it was Chaykin though). He did a Batman cover within the last year or so and it had the joker's face but the thing was quite elongated and had a bunch of messy looking lines like he did a quick sketch and didn't erase anything before the inker arrived. Anyway I've seen some other stuff by the same guy and it looks pretty similar - messy with tons of lines. Why is it lousy drawing is okay as long as someone pays you for it?
As far as Liefield - I've avoided that guy since the early 90s so I cannot comment on anything recent.
My biggest beef about the art is with the current style of big splash pages where its so busy I can't figure out 1) the order to read the text and/or what the heck is going on! At least with 4 color it was easy to tell where one thing started and another began but with all these gradations- sheesh! How about an arrow every once in a while? Or always sticking with the Western Top to Bottom and Left to Right convention?
Rob Liefeld
Ed Benes
Greg Land
Mike Deodato Jr
Paul Pope - I understand he has a certain something, and his creator written and owned work is said to be amazing, but I cant stand his faces and the way he composes everyone with their heads far too close together all the time. Well, in that one X-Statix filler he did, which is pretty much all I know of him...
Adam Kubert - his early work on Morrison's Batman never did it for me. Actually, I think I'm pretty cold on all the Kuberts.
By the way, Frank Quitely drew my avatar. He's also Scottish. That makes him a god amongst comic artists. Fact! OK, opinion then... :)
Oh and just to be controversial, I'm not a massive fan of Bryan Hitch's. His work's good and all, its just a bit kind of soulless somehow, and together with Millar he gives off this "we're being serious and spandex and superheroes is a bit silly really" vibe. I dont cry when I hear Hitchy's doing the art on anything, but I dont get as excited as most people seem to.
Oh yeah, Jim Lee's another one who doesnt quite float my boat as much as he should. Not hate, just indifference.
Quote from: detourne_me on May 13, 2009, 03:19:17 PM
Tang en Haut ...can make fun comics that are indy looking without going into 'disturbing' territory.
I always felt his brief run on JLA crossed that line :unsure:
Besides the obvious (Land, Liefeld), ones that I particularly dislike:
-Frank Quitely
-Larry Stroman
-Juan Bobilo
-Keith Griffen (not really a fan of him as a writer or artist)
-Scott Kollins (though I don't hate his art, just dislike it and often wonder why so many people seem to love it, but there are stuff by him I liked ex. Rogue's Revenge)
-Marcos Martin - people to love this guy but to be honest I don't really like his art.
-Terry Dodson - don't hate it, just something about his style doesn't sit with me)
- Lenil Francis Yu - his more recent art is too sketchy for my tastes
- Howard Chaykin - I don't know why some people have spoken well of him, everything I've seen by him (in recent years) is awful
- Pascal Ferry - can't stand his art.
There might be one or two I forgot but that's a pretty good list for now.
I can't believe people dislike Quitely! I love how detailed his work is, plus the way he conveys movement and motion is amazing. Please read All-Star Superman and We3!
I also thought he was great on The Authority.
Quietly draws lumpy people. People are not supposed to be lumpy.
He'd be fine on an all-alien book or something similar, just stop the man from drawing people!
Quote from: bredon7777 on May 14, 2009, 12:54:57 PM
Quietly draws lumpy people. People are not supposed to be lumpy.
Maybe not in Playboy (which is what most comic artists remind me of) but if you pick up a photo journalism book, you will see plenty of lumpy people...
Quote from: Mystik on May 13, 2009, 05:50:35 AM
alex ross and that rob guy who thinks he's an artist
Wha? :blink:
Hehe, and Lugaru, maybe YOU'RE lumpy. ;)
The only one who really bothers me is Liefeld, but Shawn McManus really rubbed me the wrong way with his work on Aquaman. It wasn't really his fault though, since he was assigned the book despite the fact that his style was completely and totally wrong for that kind of work.
A lot of comic artists do suffer from everyone is beautiful syndrome. Heck just take a gander at anything they draw that isn't superhuman, crowds full of nothing but sexy young hipsters. Quietly... does not do this... not even a little bit...
I personally kinda flip flop on him, sometimes I really disliked his art on The Authority other times I really dug it. I didn't like anything he did X-men side but maybe that was coupled with my indifference of Grant Morrison's X-men run. I thought maybe it was how different his art was compared to how I was used to seeing the X-men, however I loved his work with All Star Superman. Another piece that really completely made me just go... wow... was WE3.
I'm not indifferent on him, I am very bipolar in my feeling on Quietly. Sometimes I just adore his lumpiness but other times I loathe him and his lumpy ways. So yeah, never indifference it is always complete hatred or complete love each time I pick up a book with this artwork.
Also on a side note I had never seen Greg Land's work enough to recognize it, however after googling it... welp porno faces is terrifyingly accurate. I would link some examples it had up but they didn't really feel... acceptable for display here. Still man alive porno faces was dead on accurate for that guy.
There's something about Quitely's style that just absolutely repels me. I wouldn't put him in same category as Rob Liefeld, who is obviously just all-around poor on a technical level. But Quitely's work looks... I dunno, sleazy or slimy or something. It's hard to describe, but it literally makes me ill to look at it.
I've seen Ed Benes on this list, and I can understand. Frankly, he comes off to me, at least, as someone who should be a pin-up artist rather than a comic book artist. Apparently his brother and sister also draw, as well.
Going back to Daglob's original post:
I used to hate Don Heck's art. I look at it now and love it. There was a period when he seemed to (to my young and ignorant eyes) get far too much work at marvel, and all of it on my favourite book, the Avengers.
Now I see a draughtsman, a storyteller, a man with a style as distinctive as Kirby, Ditko or Colan. A man who could tell a story in pictures.
Back then I used to think his art too "sketchy", and dull. Now I look at it in black and white, in Essentials, and it doesn't look that way at all. It looks tight and detailed, different to Romita or the Buscema brothers, but as good in its own way.
It's funny how a few decades can make one think again.
Now I don't hate any artist. But by the same token, there are few whose art alone makes me buy something. Starlin, Rude, Cooke for new material, Kirby, Eisner, Ditko, Steranko for reprints.
I've seen a number of comics where I literally cannot tell from the art what is supposed to be happening in the last few years, and where the "show not tell" writing style is even less help than the art. But I don't hate those artists, nor would it bug me or deter me if they were to draw a comic I "follow".
Higher production standards, of paper, printing and colouring, and computerised art assistance mean modern comics often look "better", superficially, to comics from the 40's-80's, which might explain my lack of anti-favourites, or maybe art is better, or maybe I've grown up a little in at least one area.
I join the ranks of those not liking Frank Miller. IMO he is waaaaayyyy over hyped. I was also never a big fan of Kelly Jones. I'm glad he only did the covers of the comics I have with his work. For me RL is rather hit and miss. I don't know his latest stuff (is he still adding a "package" to his male characters?) though.
I would take Liefeld over Larry Stroman any day. Leifeld is bad, but Stroman is simply an assault on my eyes.
I recently read Frank Miller's famous Batman stories and for the ones where he did the art I didn't think it was that good either. But I think a big reason why was because of the hype.
There's actually an inker I really dislike: Dan Green. He inked for JRJr and Silvestri on Uncanny X-Men in the 80s and inked Garney on Busiek's JLA arc, and I've always strongly disliked how the art comes out looking (sketchy and scratchy IMO) when he's inking.
Quote from: Star on May 14, 2009, 10:19:13 AM
I also thought he was great on The Authority.
As a Quietly fan I can honestly say I hated his work on the Authority and was relieved when Art Adams picked up where he left off.
Quote from: AfghanAnt on May 15, 2009, 06:08:43 AM
Quote from: Star on May 14, 2009, 10:19:13 AM
I also thought he was great on The Authority.
As a Quietly fan I can honestly say I hated his work on the Authority and was relieved when Art Adams picked up where he left off.
Likewise. I'd rate Quietly among my top three artists, but you can see on the Authority that he was still making a lot of mistakes and working the bugs out. You compare The Authority to say, JLA E2 and you can see a huge leap in ability and competency.
Y'know...I'm not going to say Rob Liefeld (even thought he is :P). I will say that I loved Larry Stromans stuff back in the 80's (Alien Legion is one of my all time faves) and most of his stuff on Xfactor in the 90's but....WOW....his stuff is TERRIBLE right now. And one of my alltime least faves is Carmine Infantino. I don't hate Quitely's work... I just don't like his work on Authority and XMen. Even though with Xmen I like the overall look of the uniforms. No masks or costumes...just miles and miles of leather and not jumpsuits like those god awful Xmen Movie uniforms. :thumbdown: Igor Kordy is also in my top 5.
Here's a name no one has mentioned:
Neal Adams.
I won't deny he revolutionized comic book art, but some of the sylistic changes he instituted were perfected by later artists (Byrne, Perez, Grell, and Marshal Roger in particular). But I don't think his artwork, except for maybe his Batman, stands up to the hype around him. I own reprints of Deadman, GL/GA, X-Men and Kree-Skrull war. There was a time when I thought when he was a god (the same time when I though Don heck was lousy, and Kirby was overrated). I really want to like his work. But it leaves me cold for the most part. He has a tendency to draw figures really long, but hunches them over alot. He has a lot of awkard poses. The way he drew the beast in particular really bugs me - Typical adams figure with somewhat thicker shoulders and really long feet.
There I said it.
Silver Shocker:
I haven't seen Dan Green much lately, but there was a time he was pretty good. That's pretty much what I said about Don Heck, too.
Too may "artiste's" have a "style" that leaves you wondering if they ever actually had art lessons. All artists and inkers have styles: they are a set of techniques and/or tricks they use to solve scertain problems in depicting imaginary people, places, and events in an acceptibly realistic manner, and methods to tell a story using more-or-less sequencial panels of action (or incaction). Now, "realistic" is open to interperatation: relalistic for Jack Kirby isn't the same as realistic for Neal Adams (or Charles Addams). Not all use the same tricks, not all use the same ones all the time. Wally Wood, Steve Rude, Russ Manning, Dave Stevens, Paul Gulacy, and Jim Steranko have a lot in common. I can't even count the ones that have a lot in common with Milt Cannif (Ray Bailey, Mort Mesklin, Romona Fradon, Ross Andru, Frank Springer, and Frank Robbins isn't even a decent start). Sometime compare Joe Kubert war stories to early Steve Ditko SF/monster stories. Speaking of Ditko, he reminds me that artists who's art don't really look all that much alike can have a lot of the same influences and use a lot of the same techniques to solve the same problems. That's why Wally Wood was one of Ditko's best inkers.
Some "styles", though, seem more like excuses NOT to draw. I'm thinking primarily of Kyle Baker on The Shadow and Bill Sinkewitcz (sp?) on whatever X-comic he was working on. Baker's Shadow devolved into blocky outlines like a bad coloring book drawn by a kindegarden class (I originally worte "first grade", but I could draw better than that in the first grade). While not as bad, in my opinion, as Grandinetti, I don't see why the art director at DC let it get by. Sinkewitcz reduced the detail on some things and let the exaggeration of others get out of hand. Things stopped looking like what they were suppose to be. Jae Lee did the same thing. None of it should have gotten past the art director.
Of course, I have run into people who, when I quesitoned something about he spattering of paint or ink they insisted was a well-known comic book character, told me that I had to be an artist to understand it. Sorry, but excrement is excrement, no matter what shape is it. And I don't have to be an artist to know excrement whne I see it.
Sometime look at the Wolverine mini-series by Frank Miller. This was the book that showed me that Miller knew how to use negative pace. For him, the white lines between the panels weren't gutters, they were part of the design. Then he finished up Batman: The Dark Knight with the little postage-stamp panels and gave up design over... something... I don't know what. Look at Chaykan's Scorpion and early Dominic Fortune stories.
Quote from: BWPS on May 13, 2009, 03:16:28 PM
Frank Miller. The man should be working at Wendy's.
I had this Catwoman comic that had some kind of really plain and weird-looking artwork, but I can't find it so I guess I threw it away. It was stupid.
Everyone in the world can draw better than me though, so I dunno.
I never knew what I thought of Frank Miller 'till recently, think I've come to a conclusion.
I like him as an artist, but not as a comic book artist. His work is visually interesting and appealing in the same way a lot of abstract art is, but his style is reader-unfriendly. I haven't read a comic book of his cover-to-cover, simply because they're too difficult to read. Outside of a comic book dimension, though, its really quite enjoyable.
Sadly, I don't have enough knowledge to decide on a worst.
Quote from: Blkcasanova247 on May 15, 2009, 07:35:57 PM
And one of my alltime least faves is Carmine Infantino.
Same here.
Infantino is another guy who's style got looser as time went by. This is not always a good thing. His later stuff from Marvel (Star Wars?) was painful to look at. His early illustrations of The Flash were TIGHT, almost like they were intended to be ink and wash magazine illustrations. I didn't much like his own inking on Elongated Man-like Jack Sparling, it looked like he left in a lot of sketch lines.
Anything hyper/photo realistic is boring and stiff....so Greg Land and anyone like him.
Other artist I'm not too fond of...
Rob Leifeld - Look at me! I've been in the biz 20 years and I still can't draw!
Frank Quietly - Just plain ugly
Leinil Francis Yu - Blech...
On top of my head
Ryan Benjamin
Tom Mandrake
Alex Ross (like his covers though)