Some comic book artists go together with characters amazingly well, like salt and vinegar; fish and chips; ice cream and cones; and finally, Vegemite and toast. As a follower of this small endeavour into lunacy, you may recall my love for comic books.
In saying that, and with all due respect to writers, inkers, letterers, colourists, and editors, where would comics be without the artists? They are a pretty visual element to the storytelling, and extremely vital for promoting the style and tone of the comic book.
There have been thousands of comic book characters created over the last 100 years, along with hundreds of different artists; all of which have drawn multiple characters for many different companies, or creator-owned projects.
Over the years, I have read a few comics, so I can appreciate various artists across various genres, like superheroes, horror, science fiction, fantasy; and like the road, the list goes on and on. So because of this, I have subconsciously linked an artist to a character.
What I’m not talking about is linking a famous run or storyline to an artist; what I’m actually talking about is an artist that I believe is synonymous with a particular character. An unrelated example is when I think of Western movies, I think of Clint Eastwood. If I think of rugby, I think of the All Blacks; if I think of dysfunctional families, I think of the Skywalkers.
The comic book artists on this list, are not made up of my favourite artists; though some of them would be. However, that is another blog for another day. No, at least to me, these artists have drawn the best versions of certain characters. In my humble opinion, they are my favourite artists to draw these particular characters. Basically, if I could choose anybody to draw these characters, it would be these artists.
Some of these decisions were extremely difficult, so hopefully I mean no disrespect to any other artists.
I’ve only included 15 characters for the first round, but I promise you, I’ll write several more of these lists! I’ve included heroes and villains to be fair, as well as limiting one artist per character.
Alright then, we are doing this in alphabetical order, so sit back, relax, and away we go!
Some of these artists have died, so out of respect for them, I’ll indicate this with a *
Batman by Tim Sale*
Captain America by George Perez*
Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) by Jim Starlin
Captain Marvel (Shazam!) by Alex Ross
Deadman by Neal Adams*
Doctor Doom by John Byrne
Harley Quinn by Amanda Conner
Hellboy by Mike Mignola
Invincible by Ryan Ottley
Judge Dredd by Ron Smith*
Spawn by Todd McFarlane
Superman by Dan Jurgens
The Joker by José Luis García-López
The Phantom by Sy Barry
The Silver Surfer By Jack Kirby*
As a bonus entry, I’d like to point out that my favourite Star Wars artist is Jan Duursema.
Do you agree with any of my choices? Who’s your favourite Batman, Captain America, or Superman artist? As always, please let me know.
And that concludes another blog; which coincidentally is my 148th blog post. It’s 147 more than I thought I’d do, that’s for sure. Thanks once again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me.
Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, eat some Salt and Vinegar chips, watch some Rugby World Cup games, and I’ll see you next week.
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