Okay, so this is my ranked list of everyone who has ever been the regular/frequent artist of a core X-Men title post-Giant Sized X-Men #1 (ie Uncanny X-Men/X-Men (aka New X-Men)/X-Treme X-Men/Astonishing X-Men). I am ranking them on the quality of their work on the X-Men, not their body of work in general. If this was going on body of work, John Romita Jr. would be top 5, but his two runs on Uncanny were only so-so, before he really came into his own. There wasn't any real regular art team during the majority of the Joe Casey and Chuck Austen runs, so I don't count those artists, though I do count the three primary artists of New X-Men. Art Adams has done a significant chunk of memorable X-art, but he never was a regular artist so he does not count.
01 Frank Quitely - Absolutely brilliant. Excellent nuanced storyteller with an amazing gift for body language and uncluttered yet highly detailed page design. If only he could have illustrated all of New X-Men. But he did draw the best bits of the run - E Is For Extinction, the beginning and end of Imperial, and my favorite X-Men storyline of all time, Riot At Xavier's.
02 Paul Smith - Amazing character design and an instantly recognizable aesthetic. His ten issues on Uncanny are lovely and amazing to look at, some of the best superhero artwork ever published.
03 John Cassaday - He's sorta the halfway point between Quitely and Smith, in some ways. Another great storyteller, with a knack for detailed art that still feels open and airy, never ever claustrophobic.
04 John Byrne - Well, he's just a master, isn't he? I think I tend to underrate his art because I'm actually not as into his period on the X-Men as others in spite of it being the seminal X-run and all that. Consistently excellent art, you know the rest.
05 John Romita Jr. - Romita is one of my all-time favorites, but not really for his work on the X-Men. His first run on Uncanny was the work of a guy still learning the ropes, and his second run was an experiment in an awkward style that he has since abandoned. Maybe someday the fully formed JRJR will come over and work some magic on the X-Men, but he's probably better off on Spider-Man since few people other than his dad and Steve Ditko do the character better.
06 Alan Davis - I'm kinda 'eh' on the X-Men stories Davis has done and I'm not way into him, but it's difficult to deny the man's obvious talents, even when he's drawing some pretty dire stories.
07 Carlos Pacheco - He's gotten better since he's left the X-Men, but Pacheco has an appealing, clean and ever so slightly stylized look that was one of the few great things about the X-Men in the 90s.
08 Dave Cockrum - I've found that I appreciate Cockrum's work so much more in black and white, when the big chunky blacks and boldness of the art comes through better. He's great, and his costume designs are totally classic, but I can't help but underrate him because I associate him with periods of Uncanny that I don't really care about.
09 Phil Jiminez - Another very talented guy, though I'm not sure if his Perez-y look was right for the X-Men. I can't get too excited about him, but he did draw Planet X, which is one of my favorite X-Men stories in spite of its flawed pacing.
10 Joe Madureira - Madureira has his flaws, but I appreciate his style - it just looks colorful and fun. I think he was exactly the right guy for the X-Men in the 90s. Very memorable if not terribly substantial.
11 Salvador Larocca - A talented artist who gets choked up by his own excesses. He can turn in good work, but he too often overdraws or underdraws his pages. He has a strange approach to composition that makes a lot of his work difficult to look at/read.
12 Jim Lee - I'm so ambivalent about Lee. To this day, his pages jump from well-drawn panels to hackishness and back again. But his art is memorable and occasionally very nice, so eh.
13 Igor Kordey - Kordey is a very talented guy whose work on the X-Men suffers mainly for being rushed and messy. When he puts the time in, he can shine. Either way, he was never an appropriate choice for the series - he should be doing crime, war, or Vertigo-ish material.
14 Whilce Portacio - Same deal as Jim Lee, though I think Whilce is more solid in drawing the human figure. He had a lot of potential, but leaned too heavy on style.
15 Marc Silvestri - Another very frustrating artist. His work in the 80s was fine, but he's down a few notches for some bordeline incomprehensible art on the NXM Here Comes Tomorrow storyline. He's another guy with some talent, but overstylization and laziness seem to keep him from reaching his full potential.
16 Adam Kubert - Wildly uneven. Occasionally he did some nice work, but he too often was hackish and yielded ugly work.
17 Leinl Yu - Leinl Yu has done better work, but who cares, really? He's not awful, but his work doesn't do anything for me.
18 Chris Bachalo - Bachalo has done some truly great work elsewhere, but all of his artwork on the X-Men has been messy and often incomprehensible. I wish that he would just go back to his style from Death and Shade. He was so wonderful back then.
19 Andy Kubert - Absolutely, positively the worst artist to ever be the regular artist on the X-Men. Atrocious layouts, absysmal storytelling, no comprehension of anatomy. Just hideous work. A pox on him and all of his fans.
― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Wednesday, 13 April 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)