Comic artists that don't draw comics.

(Is Jordan joking? if not: c'mon, he's done more more recently than anyone else listed. if so: er, I don't get it)

McKean's always done loads more commercial art than comics, plus the music and films and whatnot on the side, I've never really categorised him as a comic book artist. With the DVD of shorts following Mirrormask, I think he's probably going to become "film-maker Dave McKean, former comic-book cover artist" in the minds of TEH POPULACE. Though actually loads of mainstream press do credit him with having drawn all or much of Sandman, because they looked at the covers on Amazon while researching their American Gods article or something.

Miller's done DKSA, yeah, and Man With Pen In Head, and if Batmang doesn't count because he's not drawing the main pages, he's spent the last year talking about how he's writing new Sin City WOT HE WILL DRAW when it's done.

"[Travis Charest] was replaced on the title by Sean Phillips and later left Wildstorm and Homage for french bande dessinee publisher Humanoïdes Associés.

His current project for that publisher, a Metabarons graphic novel, was started in April 2000 and has yet to be completed. His popularity remains high nevertheless, and the artist has maintained a level of approachability through his online groups on both Yahoo! and MSN."

Best thread I could find to revive to throw this AV Club article out for debate:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/reinventing-the-pencil-21-artists-who-changed-main,30528/

fun read - the mcfarlane bit is pretty damn amusing to boot

as is the Liefeld one. Check out the linked to worst 40 ever Liefeld pictures in the comments.

The Ross blurb is pretty much dead on:
Unassuming, modest Alex Ross—still a young man in spite of being one of the most recognizable names in comics—became a superstar artist at a time when many thought that concept was a thing of the past. His visual trademarks (many learned from his mother, a commercial artist) are instantly recognizable: photorealistic drawing finished with painted colors, iconic poses, and a Norman-Rockwell-meets-George-Pérez vibe that grabbed a lot of fans in the 1990s. Ross became one of the richest men in the business, and sparked interest in the comics medium from new fans, which is a wonderful thing; he’s also a flawless draughtsman, and can’t be slighted for his innovative painting style. But as an artist, Ross has been less than the figure of perfection his fans often champion. He’s a pioneer of the dull, unimaginative craze for giving superheroes celebrity faces, and with his shaky layouts and mediocre visual storytelling, he almost seems more interested in product design than comics art—his most celebrated pieces are excessively posed single-shot images. He’s an impeccable craftsman, to be sure, but do people really want their superheroes to look more realistic?

"Hellboy was the most popular independent title of the era, next to Spawn"
^seems like revisionism to me?

yeah, that sounds off

If the actual 2nd most popular title turns out to be cerberus, I heartily endorse this hellboy popularity revisionism.

i think it means, after spawn they also made a crappy movie out of hellboy

but yeah, if we're talking the same 'era' as spawn then obv all of the other early image titles sold way more than hellboy...or cerebus

I was about to decry including Greg Land when the blurb mentions both Hitch and Frank until I read the rest of the blurb. Roffle.

maybe by popularity they are going by number of fan art submissions in wizard magazine.

hahaha liefeld: "How many teeth are in a mouth? Like a billion, right? I’ll just draw a billion, all the same size and shape."

The list works a lot better if you realize it's 21 assorted influential artists, arbitrarily picked, in no particular order.

I've read that Liefeld link before and it's still just as funny as it's ever been.

I guess the point of the list is to establish a codified species of pencillers, even if it's anachronistic, so you can trace individual schools by which artist they're closest to.
Don Heck comes from Tuska, Paul Pope from Mignola, Keith Giffen from Infantino, Gilbert Hernandez from equal parts Barks and DeCarlo...
who doesn't fit the taxonomy and deserves their own branch of the tree?

Though he’s philosophically more in line with the alt-comics community, Chris Ware draws so much media attention, and his books sell so well, that his work is arguably more mainstream than any current superhero title.

Hm? This sounds plausible. Is it?

Paul Pope from Mignola, Keith Giffen from Infantino,

don't see either of these! the earliest Giffen I've read looks like Starlin copying Kirby, all boxy bodies captured in a stiff frozen moment of action, not Infantino's slender elegance and sense of fluid motion inside a panel. and Pope's 93, 94 looks more like the late-80s post-Munoz Giffen than the late-80s Mignola (not much like it, but more)...

otm, early Giffen (late 70's Defenders?) is WEIRD.

Paul Pope reminds me of Tom Sutton and a little bit of Billy Graham. You can tell I'm stuck in 70s's Marvel-land.

> Hm? This sounds plausible. Is it?

You bet! Just ask anyone who Rusty Brown is! Then ask who Spider man is.

Second most popular: uh, TMNT? They were a little earlier, I suppose.

I never used to like Ross much, but I thought some of his Batman R.I.P. covers were incredibly good.

Ross is a great illustrator and not a very good storyteller.

he's not a very good illustrator, unless what you want illustrated is "middle-class white dudes glowing"

generally, that's about all I want illustrated, yes.

lol @ "middle-class white dudes". ilx could squeeze a pejorative "middle-class white dudes" comment into a conversation about the water table.

well who do you think MADE the water table, eh?

I think it's kinda weird that the article is supposed to be about artists who influenced "mainstream comics", when they're really just talking about American comics. If they were to list artists who've influenced mainstream comics as a whole, you'd think people like Hergé, or Ozamu Tezuka, or Moebius, or Hugo Pratt are much more influential than Jim Lee or Greg Land. Even if we're only talking about artists who've influenced American comics, I'd say the way Tezuka changed manga and the way manga has changed American comics makes him more important to American comics than Alex Ross or Chris Ware.

^ more ilx very much in character

I know, but I've simply read too many articles written by Americans, where "comics" = "American comics" (or even = "American superhero comics"), so it gets kinda irritating. Considering that a title like Tintin is much bigger on a global scale than pretty much any superhero comic, and that there are countries where comics sell ten times or more per capita than in the US, this sort of Amerocentrism seems odd to me. And like I said, even if we're just talking about American comics, the (direct or indirect, via their followers) influence of Tezuka or Moebius on American comic art is undeniable, so not including them seems like a case of "didn't do his research".

Tuomas is right insofar as his point goes, but I think the American bias of the American newspaper is understandable... even though they would've done well to say "US Artists only" when dealing with such an aspie topic.

at a uk comic convention many years ago now i heard howard chaykin say, in a massive display of wrongness, that hugo pratt was basically a poor man's alex toth (tho' in fact the american artist pratt has most in common w/ is jesse marsh) - certainly, pratt still means nothing to the vast majority of american comic bk readers/creators, ditto 99% of the other euro greats (franquin, herge, tardi etc etc etc)

Maybe the Euro artists don't mean much to current American comic books readers, but I'm quite sure they've influenced many American comic artists. For example, Miller drops a Corto Maltese reference in Elektra Assassin, so he seems to be a fan of Pratt. I see a lot of Pratt in Miller's "less is more" approach and the way he uses black and white. (Then again, the list didn't even include Miller, which seems quite odd.) Similarly, the inluence of Moebius is pretty evident with many post- McFarlane/Liefeld superhero artists. Not to mention Tezuka or Otomo, and the influence manga has had on American comics...

please point out where the article says these are the 21 pencilers who have been most influential on mainstream comics

basically, these are 21 artists, some influential and some infamous, that have some level of visibility to a mainstream audience and have had interesting things happen to them or done interesting things make for a good blurb in a list article

I think it's kinda weird that the article is supposed to be about artists who influenced "mainstream comics", when they're really just talking about American comics.

how odd that an article in an American magazine should do this!

grr my last post should say "mainstream American audience"

please point out where the article says these are the 21 pencilers who have been most influential on mainstream comics

it is called Reinventing the pencil: 21 artists who changed mainstream comics (for better or worse)

it doesn't say MOST but then neither did Tuomas