Sunday, June 2, 2013

Bracketology: The Best Penciler of the Bronze Age

 


Doug:  The masses have spoken (well, Garett spoke) and we have listened!  After quite some time, against the clamoring of Humanbelly and others, we have decided to take another plunge into the depths of Bracketology.  Some of you who've been around for awhile may recall the logo pictured below -- Karen and I used it for examinations of different pencilers' influence on characters such as the Thing, Spider-Man, Batman, and the Vision.  We're dusting it off to serve as your thought-provoker to begin this tournament's nomination process.


Doug:  As you see from the title of today's post, our voting over the next several weeks will determine (through no scientific method whatsoever) the "best" penciler of the Bronze Age of Comics.  Of course, as we've haggled over in the past, "best" is about as subjective a word as one can find in the English language.  You treat it as you see fit -- if you think you're going to use "master of anatomy" as your measuring stick, by all means...  If storytelling is more important to you, go for it.  Or, if you're like many of us -- when this gets down to the nitty gritty in a few weeks -- you'll probably have the word "favorite" troubling your conscience.

Doug:  Here are some parameters for nomination:
  • The artist must be considered as a penciler.  So a guy like Joe Sinnott is probably out, but a guy like Bob Layton could be in.  Klaus Janson...?
  • The artist must have been active during the period 1970-85 (hey, we had this discussion just the other day).
  • Only original work done by the artist within the boundaries of the Bronze Age should be considered -- Steve Ditko's Spider-Man and Dr. Strange are out, for example.
  • Other merits of your nominee, such as inking or writing, should not be considered.
Doug:  For reference, you can feel free to use the links to the Comic Book Database and the Grand Comics Database found at the top of our main page.  We'll close nominations sometime on Tuesday and I'll try to get a bracket pulled together for next Sunday, when polls will also go up on the sidebar.  As in the past, we'll let the polls run for around three days, and then I can get the next round set up.  During our voting, that's when we'd like you to use the weekly Bracketology post to make comments lobbying for "your guy (or gal -- Ramona Fradon?  Wendy Pini?)" and your favorite work.
Doug:  Above all, have fun with this and treat it like that -- fun!

57 comments:

Rip Jagger said...

Let me open things with two obvious choices.

John Buscema was the premiere penciler at Marvel for the whole of the Bronze Age, his style becoming defacto the "House Style" for most of that time. Buscema was off doing Conan during much of the era, but early he was tapped to replace Kirby on FF and Thor after the initial replacements Romita and Adams respectively tapped out. He was the guy they used to launch books like She-Hulk and Nova to give the books a bit of oomph up front. He might be the best pure artist to ever work at Marvel.

At DC the show was run by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. While his impact on comic books was less direct, working directly on Superman and DC Presents his role as the primary designer of the advertising through much of the later Bronze Age made him the definitive artist of the time. In many ways Garcia-Lopez picked up and refined what Neal Adams had laid down years before.

There are plenty of others worthy, but the first two that leapt to my mind were these guys.

Rip Off

Humanbelly said...

Woo-hoo! Yaaaaaaay-bo!
Bracketology Time, Baby!
Thanks a million, Doug!
(A completely accidental side-track onto your first Bracketology venture is in fact what brought me to this happy blog in the first place. So it has deep sentimental significance for me. . . )

I'm very much liking the broad time-span for this event. '70 to '85 affords us the opportunity to capture some pencilers that we might otherwise associate w/ the Silver Age, y'know? Now, the one parameter aspect I wasn't entirely clear on was, are we looking at a penciler's work on a specific run/title? Or is it simply a straight-up Favorite Penciler-- and then the debate involves citing the supporting works? Either way has plenty of merit-- 'course with the former you end up w/ a potential "Byrne on X-Men vs. Byrne on FF" type of scenario.

But hey, I'll just throw out some favorites to start gettin' the ol' brackets filled up. In fact, I'll go with some lower-profile choices, and let other kind folks speak for the giants, as it were.

Hmm.

Herb Trimpe on the HULK (through about issue #175).
Jack Kirby on the first 20 issues of KAMANDI.
Gene Colan on HOWARD THE DUCK.
Sal Buscema on THE DEFENDERS.
Sal Buscema on THE HULK.
Sergio Arogones on GROO.
Rick Veitch on SWAMP THING.

Don't know if there are any Cinderellas in that group, but it'd be nice to see them at least invited to the ball, eh?

HB

Redartz said...

HB- I like applaud your nod to some less obvious choices! In that spirit, here is one easy choice and one less so:

John Byrne- this practically goes without saying. Even discounting his X-Men and FF work. He still had many great contributions. Marvel Team-Up, Avengers, and Doomsday +1 are but a few examples.

Kieth Giffen- some very nice issues of Defenders, and of course his great pencils on the Legion. His style evolved notably during the Bronze Age; I enjoy his later and earlier work equally...

Anonymous said...

this is an interesting question. After due deliberation, and considering the great work of such artists as Dick Dillon, Jim Aparo, Starlin, Perez, Kirby (in his latter days, still great),Giffen, Trimpe, Colan, Rich Buckler), it's gotta be the Buscema brothers, no doubt about it. Not to take anything away from these great artists but it's gotta be those brothers, hands down.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to respond to Redartz, to say...I loved Giffen's stuff on the Defenders! That was a great piece of work. He did some cool stuff with Wally Wood on All Star Comics in the 70's.

William Preston said...

I'm glad to see others thought of Giffen.

The people who won't win whom I'd like to invite: Michael Golden, whose work on Micronauts was revolutionary; Walt Simonson, whose work turning Battlestar Galactica into an awesome comic mustn't be ignored; and Ron Wilson, who made Marvel Two-in-One a joy to read, and who always brought great consistency to his work.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, talk about being spoiled for choice! Well, since we're just talking nominations here, how about:

Ross Andru and Gil Kane (for Spider-Man, plus all their other stuff)
Joe Kubert (for all the DC war stuff)
John Romita Jr. (for his early Spidey/X-men work)
Paul Gulacy (Master of Kung Fu etc.)
George Perez (for everything)
Frank Brunner (Doc Strange)
Curt Swan (for that red and blue guy he drew)
Jim Starlin (for all the cosmic stuff)
Howard Chaykin (Star Wars, American Flagg)
Dave Cockrum (X-Men, LSH)
Mike Grell (everything he's ever done)
Butch Guice (Micronauts, Doc Strange, etc.)
Bill Sienkiewicz (for Moon Knoght and all the cool covers)
Jim Aparo (for all the Batman stuff...someone already mentioned him, but I figured I'd second it)

How's that to start with?

Mike W.

Simayl said...

Starlin, Cockrum, Perez, Aparo, Buscema (John and Sal), Simonson, Grell, Brunner, Ploog, Colan, Buckler, Trimpe, Byrne, Dillin, Adams, Windsor-Smith, Miller, Rogers and still at the top: Kane, Kubert and Kirby!

Probably left out loads!

MattComix said...

Garcia Lopez

John Byrne

Neal Adams

John Buscema

Jim Aparo

Gil Kane (for his early 80's Action Comics run)

and I'm gonna put in a longshot candidate of Ross Andru.

Now you guys estabished your parameters pretty well but I would have to wonder where Jack Kirby falls in the rules. His primary claim to fame is Silver Age Marvel but he had important runs and works in the Bronze Age period even though many pros and fans had turned on him by that point.

Humanbelly said...

Heck, I feel like we should almost automatically pull in just about every penciler who did indeed have his own "following", y'know?

We got both Buscemas.
We have multiple John Byrnes, right?
(And if we want to break him down to individual runs, I'd be all for that-- and would stump mightily to put ALPHA FLIGHT in the running. . .)
Do we have Neal Adams? Or is he really more ensconced in the Silver Age? If his X-MEN run makes it over the cusp, that's clearly in the running.
Mike Ploog for his quirky, moody WEREWOLF BY NIGHT run!
Simonson's THOR, yes?

I'd certainly second everyone in Anonymous' post, above-- citing DEATHLOK as Buckler's particular triumph.

Hmm- how about Jerry Ordway? Or does he really fall on the edge of too late?

Still pondering away--

HB

Anonymous said...

Gotta cheat and say Big John and Gil 'sugar' Kane all the way baby!


- Mike 'only 1? Geez I coulda listed a whole lot of other pencillers!' from Trinidad & Tobago.

Edo Bosnar said...

Fine choices all. I particularly and wholeheartedly second: Byrne, Simonson, Chaykin, the bros. Buscema, Garcia-Lopez, Golden, Buckler, Kane and Aparo.
Here's my nominations for those not yet mentioned (in the comments):
Joe Staton (!!!)
Ramona Fradon (Super Friends, baby!)
P. Craig Russell
Esteban Maroto
Alex Nino
Val Mayerik
Mike Ploog

William Preston said...

I don't suppose you'd really want to (or ought to) do a "worst" bracketology, but a huge part of the comics experience of the Bronze Age was when you picked up an ish of a favorite comic only to find it pencilled by [fill in the blank]. Or a certain artist consistency kept you away from a comic. OR you actually got accustomed to the style of someone whose work you didn't really fancy.

Anyway, I'd sometime like to at least have a stealth conversation about "artists we dreaded seeing."

Garett said...

Yay, I am "the masses"! : )

Many of mine like Aparo and Adams (Batman, GL/GA) have been mentioned already...and I see Barry Smith is on a list, but I'll second him for the awesome "Red Nails". Perez "for everything", like that Mike W. : )

So I'm going to throw in: Mort Drucker. His drawings of faces in the Mad movie spoofs were spot-on (and he drew them from many angles and with expression, not a simple portrait), and also his great dynamism when he drew figures in action (there's an underwater movie
where I can picture the divers he drew), and his perspectives in the scenes. Here's an article with some examples to refresh your memory:
http://illustrationart.blogspot.ca/2005/04/mort-drucker.html
All that, and to make it funny! I think he hit his peak from about '65 to '80, so he's right in with the Bronze age.

Edo Bosnar said...

Actually, William P., I think the subject of "artists we dreaded" has come up a few times in the threads here as a secondary subject, but I have no objection to it appearing as a 'headliner.' However, you're probably right that it wouldn't be a good idea to actually do a "worst" bracketology. In fact, it would be pretty mean-spirited...

Doug said...

Good day, all, and we're off to a fine start.

A couple of things that have come up so far, just to clarify:

We are not considering specific runs on titles (Byrne's FF, for example) per se, but rather an artist's body of work within the period 1970-85. Feel free to discuss those runs in our weekly comments, or even within the comments of a given day's post if inspiration strikes you.

Reprinted material from the Golden or Silver Ages does not count -- we're looking for original material only. For those of you concerned about Kirby, he left quite a footprint in the Bronze Age with his covers alone!

I loved Garett's suggestion of Mort Drucker -- don't be afraid to hit publishers outside the Big Two. If you think your nominee is too obscure, give us a direction to their work in your nomination.

I will try to be as random as possible when I draw up the brackets, but as in the past I make no promises that, for example, John Byrne and Sal Buscema won't face off early. I usually come up with a pattern and follow it. Life is, after all, about tough decisions and not always very fair.

More as I think of it.

Doug

ZIRGAR said...

My personal favorites (in no particular order): Kirby, Perez, Pollard, Adams, John Buscema, Byrne, Cockrum, Trimpe, Starlin. Didn't notice too many others mentioning Keith Pollard, but I've always really loved his work.

Doug said...

Ron Wilson was a great nomination, by the way.

Doug

Karen said...

Most of the artists I would nominate have already been named, but I'd like to throw a shout out to a dark horse: Jim Sherman, who pencilled the Legion for several years after Grell and before Giffen and did a very fine job of it, under a number of inkers.

Steve Does Comics said...

I think pretty much all the people I'd nominate have been mentioned already, so I'll fling in Brian Bolland and Nestor Redondo who haven't.

Unknown said...

Too many artists!

I think all of my favorite artists were active during the Bronze Age to some degree. Wally Wood snuck in with a few issues of All-Star (loved the issues where he was paired with Giffen in particular). Even Will Eisner got a second wind with A Contract with God. Reed Crandall & Lou Fine are the only ones who come to mind that were gone from the field completely by 1970.

Let's throw Marshall Rogers into the mix. I loved his work on Detective & Mr. Miracle.

My one vote however, goes to Neal Adams. First, I love his work on both the silver & bronze ages. Second, he was the single biggest factor in the artistic development of comics during the transition from the silver to the Bronze Age, on my opinion. What artist who came after him in the 70's wasn't influenced by him? His work on GL/GA, Batman, and The Avengers certainly falls within the Bronze Age. And the studio he ran w/ Dick Giordano, Continuity Associates, fostered the careers of a huge number of new artists in the 70's.

I've been working two jobs for the last month, so I've definitely been MIA. It's looking to be a busy summer!

James Chatterton
(Written in a looooong line for a food truck at Off The Grid-SF)

Doug said...

Any love out there for Frank Thorne's Red Sonja?

How about Ernie Chan (Chua) as a penciler?

Doug

Doug said...

As near as I can tell, and I didn't spend a whole lot of time researching, Jerry Ordway's main output in the early 1980's was as an inker.

Doug

Doug said...

Question for our UK readers (and others in Europe who read British comics in the Bronze Age):

Since Alan Davis got some love on the blog over the past two days, do any of you want to nominate him? I believe his "presence" in the U.S. market is after our 1985 stopping point, but doing some research on his career shows me that you all had him up and running since 1981 on Captain Britain, et al.

So while we Americans probably aren't qualified to put his name forth, any of you can feel free to do so!

Doug

William said...

John Byrne... nuff said.

Steve Does Comics said...

Doug, I'll nominate Alan Davis, even though he arrived on the scene very late in the day in Bronze Age terms. I loved his work on Captain Britain and DR & Quinch.

Doug said...

Thank you, Steve. Alan Davis is just too good to be ignored because of a simple thing like geography. I'm sure he won't go all the way, but it's a more complete bracket with his name included.

Doug

Humanbelly said...

Oh yes, Frank Thorne's a definite inclusion, Doug-- good catch. Man, did he ever do ANYTHING other than Red Sonja, though? Looking back, his style seems like a cross between Joe Kubert and bronze-age John Romita, Jr.

I'm already going to go out on a limb (and invite the attention of torch & pitchfork-wielding fellow-posters), and submit that the rightfully-revered Mr. (John) Buscema may not be the shoo-in that seems to be assumed by many folks above. There's certainly one other fellow who could vie for that bronze-age crown, IMO.

Heh-heh--

HB

Kid said...

Big John Buscema - 'nuff said.

Humanbelly said...

Oh, see?
And there ya are, Kid, juat a-drawin' that line RIGHT in the sand! Just a-puttin' that chip RIGHT on yer shoulder-! Just a-placin' those missles RIGHT in Cuba. . . !

HB

Ace Frehley Jr. said...

KIRBY...KIRBY...KIRBY!!!

david_b said...

I'm not really into bracketology contests for rating favorites, which are by nature purely subjective, but will hang around for everyone's comments as always.

Enjoy, y'all.!

Doug said...

David, I'm just curious -- and I mean no offense whatsoever by this question:

Do you vote in civic elections? Because arguing about the merits of John Buscema vs. John Byrne really isn't any different than arguing the merits of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Most of us come to either artist or candidate with preconceived preferences and try to sort out the on-the-fence stuff. Isn't all voting subjective?

Thanks for any insight --

Doug

humanbelly said...

I had exactly the same thought, Doug. Exactly. Hunh.

But I do kind of see a difference simply in that the venue we normally associate "Bracketed" events with is sports-- where the whole purpose is to have objectively verifiable Winners. Buuuuut to my mind the whole enjoyable aspect of this endeavor is that we're pasting a shamelessly subjective "competition" right over the top of this "objective" format. Still, it does just amount to a bunch of successive mini-elections, doesn't it?

HB (for the last time tonight)

david_b said...

HB pretty much sums it up for me..

LOVE everyone's opinions, but it's a totally subjective opinion in a solely objective format. Brackets in sports are based on scores, win/lose. I don't see this similar to the political process at all, quite frankly. Like sports, a candidate wins or loses. The 'winner' is the one with the most votes.

It's always fun to read everyone's thought process. but if another penciler beats out my personal favorite based on my memories or favorite story, my favorite is still my favorite regardless of not making it out of the first or even seventh round, who 'wins out' is kinda diminished simply based on who he was bracked against. For example, having Garcia-Lopez beat Romita in either the 2nd or 5th round is wholly dependent on who he was pit against, or whether he went up against Aparo or not. It's just immaterial to me. It was like the 'Who's the Best Dressed Hero..?', very subjective in the final analysis, against a objective technique of who has the most votes.

Again, I enjoy the banter and love shared as always. I'll vote perhaps once or twice, but will cheer from the sidelines.

Doug said...

Thanks very much, David. I agree with your explanation.

You also gave a solid definition of Washington gridlock in stating:

but if another penciler beats out my personal favorite based on my memories or favorite story, my favorite is still my favorite regardless...

Isn't that partisan politics? :)

Well I certainly do hope you hop into the conversations along the way.

We are at 53 entries right now, and I think I have a brackets site that will allow me to have just about any size "tournament". So we'll see where we are by Tuesday afternoon.

Doug

Anonymous said...

The interesting thing about this conversation is, when I tried to think about every great artist from this period someone else would mention another great artist that I'd momentarily forgotten about...guys like Vietch and Chan...but I gotta mention Gene Colan. That guy was an innovator.

Garett said...

Has Bernie Wrightson been mentioned? His inking drew me to him, but his penciling, storytelling are great too.

I wanted to put in Bill Watterson, but figured he was past the Bronze age with Calvin and Hobbes. Checked--the strip started on Nov 18, 1985! Is 6 weeks enough? Also I don't know if comic strip artists are in this race.

Considering Heavy Metal and Vampirella, guys like Liberatore or Jose Gonzalez... they're good but not quite my favorites enough to nominate. But I throw it out there in case someone else wants to! : )

William said...

I have to go with David B on this one. While it will be interesting to watch, I personally don't need a bracket vote to tell me who the best artist of the Bronze Age was.

If we go by popularity at the time, impact on the medium, consistency, volume of work, longevity and artistic influence, then the list is really pretty short, and would include John Byrne, Frank Miller, and George Perez as the top three. I say this mainly because of the major impact they all had on comic books at the time. Miller with Daredevil and Batman. Perez on Avengers, The New Teen Titans, and Crisis On Infinite Earths. And Byrne on X-Men, Fantastic Four, Superman, The Avengers, Captain America, Marvel Team-Up, Iron Fist, etc.

While John Buscema was a great artist, he just didn't have the star power of those other three. And Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and John Romita Sr. all did their best work in the Silver Age.

As far as I'm concerned, Byrne is definitely the best artist of the Bronze Age. Then I'd put Frank Miller second, and Perez a close third.

I would put Byrne on top because I can remember back in the late 70's and into the 80's he was like comic book royalty, and anything he touched pretty much turned to gold.

Also, in case no one remembers, Byrne's version of Superman made the cover of Time Magazine. I don't think that any other Bronze Age comic book artist ever got that kind of major mainstream media exposure back then.

Heck, even my dad knows who John Byrne is.

Anonymous said...

Nope. Byrne was a great artist, a mediocre writer and a brilliant self-promoter, but he ain't the guy we think about when we think about the 70's. There it is, nuff said.

Humanbelly said...

Well, Anonymous, except we are indeed just looking at folks strictly as pencilers-- inking, writing, editing efforts aren't a consideration at all. I'm just finishing up Byrne's run on WCA right now, and I honestly kind of want to backhand him across his mug multiple times for his HORRENDOUS transgressions writing that series. . . but it doesn't have any bearing on my view of how he was as an artist on it (very high marks, in general).

HB

J.A. Morris said...

I'd probably say Byrne, Perez and Sal Buscema and Miller are my top 4, in that order. I'd probably put John Buscema higher if I'd read any of his Bronze Age Conan stories.

Doug said...

I am going to try to be very objective when voting (we'll see how long that lasts!). For example, I think we need to consider how the artist draws animate and inanimate objects. I'm taken back to that last Tarzan review I did and Joe Kubert's beautiful renderings of the African animals. How about landscapes and cityscapes? Imagination? Facial features -- and this is very important especially when dealing with different "races" (yeah, that's a bogus term according to the Human Genome Project, huh?) or ethnicities?

So personally, if we're going to do this right, I think there's a lot more to it than "I think the All-New X-Men is the best thing everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!"

At least that's how I plan to start out. But like I said, "favorites" will at some point be unavoidable.

One last point: I think everyone who has gone up and down these comments knows there are some prominent (I wouldn't say "heavy hitters") artists whose names haven't been mentioned. Do you want me to add them to the list, or just go with reader-nominations? We are looking for "best", after all.

Doug

Anonymous said...

Big John.

Humanbelly said...

Oh wow-- depends on if you think it's oversight, Doug, or if it's rather that those prominent artists aren't highly regarded. I'm thinking, like, later Don Heck, Don Perlin, Carmine Infantino, Al Milgron, Frank Robbins, Frank Springer, Mike Vosburg--- all capable artists at some point, but maybe not the Pride of the Bronze Age, y'know?

What do you think?

HB

Karen said...

No, NO!!! Not ...them!!! Not Heck and Robbins!! (Waves garlic and cross around frantically)

Marc said...

Some of my favorite Bronze Age artists:

John Byrne, Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., Paul Smith, Mike Zeck & George Perez.

Doug said...

Great call on Mike Zeck, Marc.

Unless someone wants to make a formal declaration on HB's list of artists that I had hinted at, I am not going to add them (under no influence from my talisman-wielding partner). If, however, a statement in the affirmative is set forth, they will of course be added to our list.

Doug

david_b said...

While I know Mr. Infantino will ALWAYS be best-known for his Silver Age greatness and prestige, and while his Bronze Art was perhaps a bit retro in nature (especially on the final Flash years), it's still distinctive and pretty awesome.

I have a few pre-Miller DD's with his pencils and while it's perhaps more credited to the inker, his work was surprising very seamless and vibrant; his style of flowing motion from those years on Flash certainly lended itself to remarkable DD panel work (not as flat as his Star Wars work..).

He was also a welcomed artist on Howard the Duck as well.

Doug said...

Carmine is in.

Thanks for the formal nomination, David.

We are up to 56. I think that is amazing. Certainly all those nominated so far have their merits.

Doug

William said...

Anonymous wrote: "Nope. Byrne was a great artist, a mediocre writer and a brilliant self-promoter, but he ain't the guy we think about when we think about the 70's. There it is, nuff said."

I have to disagree with you on all counts, "Anonymous" (whoever you are).

John Byrne is definitely the guy I think about as the defining artist of "Bronze Age", (which doesn't only encompass the 70's, BTW). In fact, I would say his work as penciler on the X-Men alone would put him in the running as best artist of the era.

This contest isn't about writing ability, but I would in no way call Byrne a "mediocre" writer either. His five year stint as writer and artist on the Fantastic Four is considered (by almost everybody) to be at least the second best run in that book's history. Then DC came along and hired him as the writer and artist to re-imagine, revamp, and relaunch their flagship character, Superman. A period that is considered by many to be one of the best in that character's history as well. I would hardly call that mediocre writing. I could go on, but I think I've made my point.

Finally, your labeling of Byrne as a "self-promoter" is off base as well. Byrne may have had a reputation as being difficult to work with sometimes, but I have never heard anyone really accuse him of being a self-promoter. (Now, Frank Miller, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefield, there are some shameless self-promoters.) In fact, from what I've read Byrne comes off as more of a worker bee and a company man who let his work speak for itself.

I'm well aware that I sound some kind of Byrne fanatic, but I'm really not. I just think that he was a great artist that helped to sell a lot of comics and keep the medium alive, and I think he should get some credit for that.

In case no one remembers, back in the day Byrne was pretty much a rock star in the comics world. In fact, way back before the internet, every year there used to be these ballots in the back of comic books where the fans could vote for their favorite writer, artist, inker, letterer, ongoing title, etc. And if I recall correctly, Byrne won as favorite penciler almost every year running. Nuff said.

Garett said...

Ooh, Dave Stevens! Not only for the Rocketeer, which went it's own way amidst the comic trends of the time, but also for the outstanding covers Stevens drew in the early '80s, almost always with a beautiful pinup girl in it.

Adam Hughes said that Dave Stevens was a major influence on him.

Doug said...

Garett, in regard to Watterson, I think you're right in saying that six weeks just isn't enough "Bronze" to warrant his inclusion.

However, to show that I'm not at all prejudiced against newspaper strip artists, I did take the liberty of adding John Romita, Sr. to the list when I first started compiling everyone's nominations. While his regular storytelling only showed up in the very early '70's, he remained a force on covers (specifically on Spidey Super-Stories) and on the Spider-Man comic strip that I felt his inclusion was warranted.

Doug

Edo Bosnar said...

Garett, good call on Dave Stevens, as well as Bernie Wrightson upthread (in both cases I had one of those "geez! I can't believe I forgot him!" moments).
Doug, you mentioned her in your original post, so I don't know if that means she's automatically nominated, but if not, I think Wendy Pini definitely deserves some consideration here.

Humanbelly said...

Sayyyyyyy, Rudy Nebres started out as a penciler. His name comes immediately to mind when I harken back to that titillating, pneumatic hormone-fest, "1984" (later, "1994"). . . and I believe he also did a good amount of work for Heavy Metal. Hmm- which means an argument could be made for Richard Corben as well, except--- was Corben's work actually drawn w/ a pencil??

Both of those periodicals featured some astonishingly good artists, but the subject matter was on the whole SO transparently sex-driven that it's kind of hard to make a case for it-- especially 1984/94.
But I'd still toss those two gentlemen into the debate, 'cause their talents are first-rate.

HB

Anonymous said...

In retrospect, I think my comments about John Byrne were unfair and unkind. I think the people who have criticized me had some very good points. We don't need any trolls around here and I'm sorry if I acted like one. That's not the guy I wanna be. My apologies. M.P.

Bruce said...

Great idea! Looking forward to following this. A few more possible nominees:

- Keith Pollard
- Ron Wilson (really liked his work on Marvel Two-in-One
- Steve Ditko (yeah, primarily a Silver Age great. But he did some quality work in the Bronze Age, particularly for Charlton and Warren).

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