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So, who are your favorite writers and artists in the comic book medium?
I've got a nice little list:
Chris Claremont - his work on X-men was kick ass.
Bill Willingham - Fables is awesome.
Judd Winick - despite his predictability of always putting in a gay character, I've always liked his writing. His run on Green Lantern was really great, and he did a Manhunter story that was one of the best.
Mike Carey - I always enjoyed his Lucifer series for DC. He really captured the essence of the character that Gaiman first wrote.
Walt Simonson - What can I say, as a writer and artist he is almost without peer in my book. His New God work is some of my favorite, but it was his Manhunter stories with Archie Goodwin that are my favorites.
Archie Goodwin - Speaking of, as I said, his Manhunter story is one of the best in comcis history.
Mark Waid - Kingdom Come is, to me, one of the quintessential comic stories. His run on the Flash was great as well, especially his "Return of Barry Allen" storyline.
Alan Moore - He kicks ass.
Marv Wolfman and George Perez - I mention them together because one of my favorites is Crisis on Infinite Earths - the other quintessential comci story.
My favorites span a long perod of time, I started reading comics at around age 4 or so in '73 and have been reading since. (I will limit it to top 5 for each but I have so many more favorites)
Writers:(in no particular order)
-Jim Starlin (his Dreadstar, Metamorphosis Odyssey, Captain Marvel, Warlock, and Avengers/Annual 7/Marvel 2 in 1 Annual 2 are among my favorite comics stories of all time)
-Steve Englehart (Avengers, Captain America, Detective Comics, Silver Surfer, etc. etc.)
-Ed Brubaker (his Gotham Central, Captain America, Daredevil, and Iron Fist stuff is simply amazing)
-Will Eisner (Spirit 'nuff said, but so much more too)
-Alan Moore (Saga of the Swamp Thing, Miracle Man, Killing Joke, League of Extraordinary Gentleman, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, the ABC stuff)
just off the list Neil Gaiman, Roy Thomas, Dennis O'Neil, Archie Goodwin, John Ostrander, James Robinson, Roger Stern
Artists:
-John Buscema (Conan, Avengers, Thor, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, more)
-George Perez (Avengers, New Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, History of the DC Universe, Crisis on Infinite Earths, so much more)
-Barry Windsor Smith (Conan, Avengers, X-Men, Weapon X, so much more)
-Jim Aparo (Phantom Stranger, Batman, Brave & Bold, Aquaman) just a classic professional DC artist.
-Charles Vess (HBallads & Sagas, Sandman, others)
just of the list: Steve Epting, P. Craig Russell, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Paul Smith, Jim Starlin, Mike Wieringo, Moebius, Gene Colan
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So, who are your favorite writers and artists in the comic book medium?
My short and terribly incomplete list consists of the following.
Writers:
Warren Ellis – The Internet Jesus is my hands down favorite. No one should be that talented. Transmet, Black Gas, Planetary, Fell ….
Alan Moore – For all the reasons listed by previous posters. Also, he has a band and he worships a snake god. Gotta give the man love for that.
Bill Willingham – Put another check in the “Fables is awesome” column. Both Fables and the spin-off Jack of Fables are two of the finest comics in print right now.
Neil Gaiman – He wrote Sandman and Marvel:1602. That’s really all he needed to write to corner the market on awesome.
Garth Ennis – I didn’t think he could top Preacher until I started reading The Boys. Damn you Ennis!
Robert Kirkman – Have you seen what he is doing with The Walking Dead? I stand in awe.
Artists:
Humberto Ramos – Probably the best in the business right now.
Tony Moore – Solid. All around solid artist.
Ben Templesmith – Talented artist and nice guy, too.
J. Scott Campbell – Danger Girl, anyone?
Writer/Artists:
Jhonen Vasquez – Love ‘em.
Frank Miller – ‘nuff said
I'll follow along with a Top 5 format, but in no particular order:
Writers:
Brian K. Vaughan (Y: the Last Man; Ex Machina; Doctor Strange: The Oath; The Escapists)
Warren Ellis (Planetary. I don't like everything's he's written, but I adore Planetary.)
Greg Rucka (Queen & Country)
Dwayne McDuffie (Static; Icon; Hardware; Bloody Syndicate)
John Rozum (Xombi; Foundation; Kobalt)
Artists:
Frank Espinosa (Rocketo)
P. Craig Russell (Ring of the Niebelung; Stormbringer)
Carlos Pacheco (Avengers Forever)
Paul Smith (Golden Age; Leave It to Chance)
Ted McKeever (Metropol)
My favorite writers all seem to be the most popular current ones, if we're talking about the Super-Hero genre.
I'm leaving Alan Moore out of it, only because he's in a class by himself.
Brian Michael Bendis. I can see this getting a lot of groans. He never seems to be popular on messageboards. His run on Daredevil is one of my favorite runs ever, and while not all of his Avengers stuff is great, the fact that he's using a bunch of late 70's/early 80's characters makes me want to squeal.
Geoff Johns. I used to hate to DC, especially the older golden age characters that were still around (Jay Garrick Flash, Alan Scott G.L). Johns writes with such conviction I became drawn to them. Old School flair with New School sensibilites. I'd read pretty much anything he writes. I like that on his current Green Lantern run, he's using some of Alan Moore's throw-away lines as story fodder.
Grant Morrison. I don't think anybody right now is writing comics like he does. His JLA and All-Star Superman runs are in my top 5, and that Animal Man run is seminal for a reason. I hope Final Crisis is better than his current Bat-Man, though.
Warren Ellis. I think I read more of him per month than anybody else on the list, and they're all pretty productive. He's a great idea guy, and it's only sometimes that his great ideas are only so-so stories.
I'm not sure who to put for the fifth. I like Ed Brubaker, and Matt Fraction is a rising star on my horizon. I always like Dan Slott more than I think I do. Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-men is second only to Chris Claremonts early days, but he doesn't have that big of a comic presence to add him to this list.
Mark Millar, maybe. I loved his Authority run, and Ultimates 1 & 2 was the greatest action movie I've ever read. Civil War left me underwhelmed, and so does his current FF run. Kick-Ass is hardly that.
Artist wise, I don't think I have that many favorites. Frank Quitely always delivers for me, and I like Alex Maleev's particular style. Bryan Hitch did a solid job on Authority and Ultimates, and John Cassaday always delivers.
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Brian Michael Bendis.Grant Morrison.
Joss Whedon
Mark Millar
I'm almost ashamed that I left these four off my list.
Say what you will about him, but Bendis has put out some amazing comics. He also publishes somewhere around five gazillion issues a month of at least a hundred different titles so, statistically, he is bound to write a few crappy ones now and again. Ultimate Spiderman and Powers have both been consistently good (even if Powers is only published about once a year these days).
Joss Whedon is another one of those "damn impressive" writers. Astonishing X-Men has somehow managed to drag Cyclops out of the douchbag purgatory he's dwelt in since his inception. I don't know how Joss manages to make Cyclops into a total badass but ... bravo.
Mark Millar is tops when it comes to writing an action sequence. Captain America taking down Giant Man in Ultimates #1 was perfect. Also, read the issue of Wolverine he wrote. #34 I think? #42? It was a flashback to Wolverine being interred in a German prison camp during WWII. Probably the best Wolverine story ever written, and he never once whips out his claws.
And Grant Morrison ... well ... he wins at life.
Favorite artist...beyond a shadow of adoubt......Mike Grell!
Favorite artist...beyond a shadow of adoubt......Mike Grell!He draws okay for a floating octopus monster.
What on earth is that suppose to mean Heath? Should I be amused or offended? Let me know so I can decide.
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Favorite artists (in no order):
-Ron Garney for his work on Hulk and Captain America
-John Romita Jr. for Spider-Man and Daredevil
-Alex Ross for Kingdom Come and Marvels
-Daniel Acuña for his covers.
-Adi Granov for his Iron Man work.
-Bryan Hitch for The Ultimates and maybe the Authority
-Carlos Pacheco for Avengers and Arrowsmith.
-Stuart Immonen for ShockRockets, Superman, Hulk
-Sal Buscema for old school Spider-Man
-Cary Nord for Conan
-Walt Simonson for Thor
Writers:
-Mark Waid for various things
-Kurt Busiek for various things, especially Astro City
-Joe Kelly for his early Deadpool work
-Millar for The Ultimates
-Mark Gruenwald for Squadron Supreme
-Jeph Loeb for Long Halloween
There's probably more but I'm blanking right now.
Aint you got the 1st ed. Fiend Folio, blue cover, Keith Giffyanki on the cover? It's got a Grell monstah. I thought you was old skewl.
The only Mike Grell art I'm really familar with is when he did Legion of Super-Heroes in the mid 1970's. He also did Warlord but I thought that art was a little to busy for my taste. I picked him because he really is my favorite Legion artist. I'm still Wowed today by it.
So your telling me he did art in the Fiend Folio? I use to have the book. Which monster? Can you post it here for me Heath, I would love to see it, for old times sake. Regretfully, a long time ago I had to sell my 1st edition D&D collection because of financial difficulties, all except the large quantity of Dragon Magazines I have.
No he didn't. There's a monster called a Grell; I was funnin with ya.
Arrgghhh, taken in by the wolf, I feel so used!
Welcome to the club.
Arrgghhh, taken in by the wolf, I feel so used!
We have a club for this? Wow, Cool. Do we get to wear a special pin, have meeting once a week, play special games together, anything like that?
*sigh* no; just another person for me to apologize to when I get around to it.We have a club for this? Wow, Cool. Do we get to wear a special pin, have meeting once a week, play special games together, anything like that?Welcome to the club.
Arrgghhh, taken in by the wolf, I feel so used!
So when are you going to apologize to me? Now?
How about Now?
Ok, Heath, I'm listening?
Yep, here I am, still waiting?
Anytime time how Heath!
Ok, Heath, now is good, I'm ready and listening!
Hmmmmm......starting to wonder if he meant it!
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So when are you going to apologize to me? Now?*sigh* no; just another person for me to apologize to when I get around to it.We have a club for this? Wow, Cool. Do we get to wear a special pin, have meeting once a week, play special games together, anything like that?Welcome to the club.
Arrgghhh, taken in by the wolf, I feel so used!
For what?
For what?So when are you going to apologize to me? Now?*sigh* no; just another person for me to apologize to when I get around to it.We have a club for this? Wow, Cool. Do we get to wear a special pin, have meeting once a week, play special games together, anything like that?Welcome to the club.
Arrgghhh, taken in by the wolf, I feel so used!
Ummmm....how about apologizing for not serving breakfast in bed.
Of 2015.
No problem, I'll wait, by the way my birthday is in June, so I'll consider it a Birthday present.
Thanks Heathy.
Ha! Take that, Eileen!
;-)
Surely you live up to your name Callous Jack. Perhaps Heath finds your avatar and name a bit intimidating (as compared to mine) so he quickly apologized out of fear. Yea, I betcha that's it. The dog fears your wrath Callous Jack, he knows better than to mess with you.
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Surely you live up to your name Callous Jack. Perhaps Heath finds your avatar and name a bit intimidating (as compared to mine) so he quickly apologized out of fear. Yea, I betcha that's it. The dog fears your wrath Callous Jack, he knows better than to mess with you.
(lol)
Don't worry, Heathy has a history of cracking under pressure.
Fave writers:
Grant Morrison
Neil Gaiman
Simon Furman (bit of old school love)
Fabian Nicieza (Loved his X-men)
Alan Moore
Brian K Vaughn
Alan Davis
Warren Ellis
Peter David
Art:
Jim Lee
Frank Quietly
Kyle Hotz (for Ghostrider 2099)
Marko Djurdjevic
The Kuberts
Bryan Hitch
Travis Charest
There are lots more but these are the ones that popped straight into ones head. :)
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Hmm,
Writers
Peter David: He made the Hulk interesting, and excelled at the twists and overarching plots. Plus the humor.
Marv Wolfman: Countless stuff, but his Avengers reboot had me loving it, and Avengers/JLA is the ultimate crossover. "What a bunch of Squadron Supreme Wannabes!"
Artists:
George Perez Avengers, Future Imperfect, Avengers JLA. I don't know which rocked more, Superman with Cap's Shield and Mjolnir, or the Avengers to the rescue with all the Ultrons. Thor standing there, all battered and torn, yet so calmly "Ultron! We would have words with thee."
Norm Breyfogle. Normally I don't like more abstract art, but the way he drew on detective comics was just perfect for the batman.
HM:
Frank Miller: just for his body of work.
Chris Claremont: for his long and amazing run on X-men
The Kuberts: for their overall body of work.
I've been out of comics for a while (Marvel's gotten too preachy, and outside of the Titans/Bat Family, never really been into DC) So I don't know Bendis or any of the newer ones. Both Secret Invasion and Final Crisis interest me, just for the universe rebooting they're doing.
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Surely you live up to your name Callous Jack. Perhaps Heath finds your avatar and name a bit intimidating (as compared to mine) so he quickly apologized out of fear. Yea, I betcha that's it. The dog fears your wrath Callous Jack, he knows better than to mess with you.(lol)
Don't worry, Heathy has a history of cracking under pressure.
Instigator--just add water.
Hmm,
Writers
Marv Wolfman: Countless stuff, but his Avengers reboot had me loving it, and Avengers/JLA is the ultimate crossover. "What a bunch of Squadron Supreme Wannabes!"
I think yo umight be confusing Wolfman for Kurt Busiek. It was Kurt (of Marvels,Astro City, and Conan fame, most recently on Superman) who worked with Perez on the Avengers relaunch and on the Avengers/JLA cross-over.
Wolfman is a legendary creator in his own right, responsible for great runs on Tomb of Dracula (where he co-created Blade the Vampire Hunter) with Gene Colan, on the New Teen Titans revamp with George Perez, on the original Crisis on Infinite Earths again with Perez, and was even Editor in Chief od Marvel COmics for a short time in the 70's between Stan Lee stepping down and Jim Shooter taking over (Roy Thomas, Marv and Len Wein all had brief tenures as EIC in that time).
Hmm,
Writers
Marv Wolfman: Countless stuff, but his Avengers reboot had me loving it, and Avengers/JLA is the ultimate crossover. "What a bunch of Squadron Supreme Wannabes!"
I think you may be confusing Marv Wolfman with Kurt Busiek.
Kurt (of Astro City, Marvels, Coonan, and Superman fame) is the one who relaunched the Avengers with George Perez and wrote the Avengers/JLA cross-over.
Marv Wolfman is a legendary writer in his own right though, with long runs on Tomb of Dracula with Gene Colan (where they c0creaded Blade the Vampire Hunter), relaunching New Tween Titans with George Perez and also crafting the original Crisis on Infinite Earths with Perez.
Wolfman had some shirt runs on the Avengers inthe 70's when he was with Marvel, even serving briefly as Marvel's Editor in Chief, but has been with DC mostly since the 80's.
Favorite artists:
-John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala for their awesome early Savage Sword of Conan material.
-Bernie Wrightson, kinda surprised he hasn't been mentioned yet. His Swamp Thing stuff is amazing, but his Modern Prometheus (not a comic, I know) is truly awe-inspiring. Kneel before the master!
-Barry Smith: more Conan greatness.
-Mike Grell is an interesting choice. I found his Warlord stuff hit and miss, but his work on Starslayer was outstanding.
Frank Quitely: I've only seen his stuff in WE 3, but it was some of the best storytelling, panelling and atrwork I've ever seen in a comic. Great stuff!
I don't remember the names of nearly as many artists as writers, so I'll focus on the latter; in no particular order.
Alan Moore (Watchmen; V for Vendetta; Swamp Thing; Top 10; Promethea; League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; etc.)
Mike Carey (Lucifer)
Neil Gaiman (Sandman; 1st Books of Magic mini-series; Mythos: The Tour)
Jim Starlin (Metamorphosis Odyssey; Dreadstar; etc.)
Mike Mignola (Hellboy)
Grant Morrison (The Invisibles)
Warren Ellis (Planetary; The Authority)
Books of Magic (had a few writers, and various artists)
Marshall Law (blanking on the writer/artist-- Kevin O'Neill was 1 of them?)
Barry Windsor-Smith's art on most anything; P. Craig Russell & Charles Vess are in this group; Mike Kaluta's Vertigo covers.
Frank Miller (Dark Knight Returns; Ronin; Elektra; etc.)
Kingdom Come by Mark Waid & Alex Ross
Bill Willingham (Elementals; Fables)
Lots of Jack Kirby stuff (New Gods etc.); Buscema's work on Thor & Conan; Walt Simonson's run on Thor; Peter David's run on Hulk; most anyone who did early Silver Surfer work; Nausicaa.
Edited for typo; plus somehow left off Garth Ennis (Preacher)!
Man, there are so many of my favs listed here. These are the ones that I remember actively searching out in shops, garage sales, eBay. Thanks for this question. I had to look up a lot of these on wikipedia and it was good to catch up on these people.
I'm going to go for art first:
Everyone from "The Studio"! Bernie Wrightson/Barry Windsor-Smith/Jeff Jones/Michael Wm. Kaluta
and
Mike Ploog!/Charles Vess!/Bill Willingham!/Neal Adams!/Art Adams!/Alan Davis!/Todd McFarlane(pre-Image)/Dale Keown/Jim Lee (yeah Im a sellout, sue me)/Jim Starlin/Geoff Darrow(Hard Boiled)/Tim Sale/Dave Stevens/Alex Toth/Mike Zeck(Punisher!)/Jim Steranko/Wally Wood/Steve Ditko/Jamie Hewlett(TankGirl)/Chris Bachalo (Death-Sandman-Steampunk)/Paul Gulacy and Gene Day (Master of Kung Fu)/Dave Sim and Gerhard/Rags Morales(Forgotten Realms for DC)/Cam Kennedy (Dark Empire)/Kelley Jones (Aliens for Dark Horse)/Kevin Maguire (JLA-E-I-O-U)/Gary Frank (Hulk)/Mike Mignola!/Frank Brunner/Dave Cockrum/Sam Keith (MAXX)/Zander Cannon (Replacement God)/Cary Nord/Jon J Muth/Brian Pulido (Evil Ernie!)/John Severin and Bill Ward from Cracked mag
writers start with: Alan Moore (I liked V more than Watchmen)/Neil Gaiman/Garth Ennis/Grant Morrison/Mark Waid/Marv Wolfman/Stan Lee/Roy Thomas/Howie Chaykin (especially Big Black Kiss!)/J. M. DeMatteis/D. G. Chichester (Daredevil)/Keith Giffen/Jim Shooter (Valiant was AWESOME...mostly. And the Great Darkness Saga!)/Brian Bendis (till a little ways into Powers)/Christopher Priest/John Ney Rieber/Roger Stern/James Robinson (golden age mini-Starman)/Peter David/Harvey Kurtzman for Mad
Some stuff that is both: Frank Miller/Paul Chadwick (Concrete)/Bob Burden (Flaming Carrot)/Evan Dorkin!(Milk and Cheese ++plus)/Ben Edlund (Tick-SPOON!)/James O'Barr (Crow)/Walt Simonson/Will Eisner/John Byrne (till about NextMen)/and Matt Wagner (more for Grendel than Mage)/David Lapham (Stray Bullets)
And then theres THIS. Any other gear-heads get into CARtoons? Amazing art and funny stuff about cars in the 80's (well, technically since the 60's, but I didnt get into it until the 80's) I think I still have some of those mags with the iron-ons still inside! Shawn Kerri was my fav artist there.