I ended up with more suggestions than there were days in the month, so enjoy a few BONUS installments!

The sixth and FINAL bonus installment is the pick of Mark Irwin, former Creative Services Manager at WildStorm, former Art Director at Heavy Metal Magazine, current Art Director (for the past almost nine years) at Upper Deck Entertainment and longtime inker, mostly at Marvel Comics.

Mark's pick is Dan Panosian!

Dan Panosian got into comics in his early 20s during the early 1990s, working for Marvel and Image Comics.

After a long break from comics for the world of commercial art, Panosian has returned with a vengeance, with some brilliant work for Marvel Comics...

Here he is on a Juggernaut story...

Here he is on a Sabretooth one-shot...

Here he is on a Skaar one-shot...

Here's a design sheet for Snake Eyes by Panosian...

Here's a recent Red Sonja cover...

Finally, here are samples from an upcoming book Panosian has coming out WITH Mark Irwin, called Jack Secret...

See more of Dan's work at his DeviantArt account here!

Thanks to Mark for the pick!

Thanks to all the artists involved!!

31 Comments

• At July 8, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  Eww those first few pages are awful.

  He seems decent now though

• At July 8, 2009, John Cage wrote:

  Re: DanCJ -- the layouts in those first batch of pages are pretty well done, it's just that the characters ...

• At July 8, 2009, SundownMotel wrote:

  I have to admit that he's amazingly talented when allowed to work in his own style, which he is clearly ...

• At July 8, 2009, Mizike wrote:

  Yikes, those first few pages make me cringe but the newer stuff is fantastic. At least the industry is ...

• At July 8, 2009, tk. wrote:

  Yeah, that Liefeld-esque style is pretty hard on the eyes. I really dig the composition and expression on that ...

• At July 8, 2009, T. wrote:

  I remember him being a horrible horrible Liefeld clone, so I thought this was a joke when I saw the ...

• At July 8, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, I believe I did a bit on his first Marvel story in his "comeback" awhile ago, and it was ...

• At July 8, 2009, T. wrote:

  I think the other artist he's reminding me of is Ron Garney. I see some Joe Kubert and Ron ...

• At July 8, 2009, ThiefTMA wrote:

  T. -

  It reminds me a lot of Tony Moore (Walking Dead, Fear Agent), another artist whose work I love.

  I ...

• At July 8, 2009, T. wrote:

  I just Googled Tony Moore's work...yeah, I can see some of him in there for sure.

• At July 8, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  Wow ... I also thought this must be a joke. That new work is really great, though. Thanks, ...

• At July 9, 2009, Mark Irwin wrote:

  Thanks for putting this up Brian! And for the record, I'm not a fan of that old style of rendering ...

• At July 9, 2009, Ryan Cody wrote:

  Dan is insanely talented and one of the nicest guys I have ever met in the business.

• At July 9, 2009, Jeff Parker wrote:

  Wait until you see the art he's done for the Jade Claw story in Agents of Atlas- I had to ...

• At July 9, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Dan has some preview pages up on his deviant art from his Agents of Atlas issues, Jeff, and yeah, they're ...

• At July 9, 2009, T. wrote:

  Kind of related....I asked about Mark Pacella earlier. Well he and Panosian were the two really awful Liefeld clones ...

• At July 9, 2009, Jeff Parker wrote:

  I think in Dan's case, he always had good taste, but the early 90's really, really didn't reward you for ...

• At July 9, 2009, Rev. Dave Johnson wrote:

  Dan hired a very talented artist with all the money he made while at Image to teach him a better ...

• At July 9, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  In fact, Brian used pages from a Pacella Avengers Annual story as an example of one of the worst all-time ...

• At July 9, 2009, Ivan Brandon wrote:

  i liked the old dan better. and by the old dan i mean the one who did bathroom makeovers.

• At July 9, 2009, Jeff Parker wrote:

  No, then he used the old Image style of laying tile, with lots of little lines of grout everywhere.

• At July 9, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I think in Dan’s case, he always had good taste, but the early 90’s really, really didn’t reward you for ...

• At July 10, 2009, Urban Barbarian wrote:

  Hey Brian - thanks so much for the spotlight. Looking at the old Spiderman story makes my head hurt ...

• At July 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  No problema, Dan, thank you for the great work you've been doing - it's been a blast to read!

• At July 10, 2009, T. wrote:

  Oops, it was MC Wyman and Avengers Unplugged that Brian posted. The holy trinity of Liefeld ripoffs of the ...

• At July 10, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Oops, it was MC Wyman and Avengers Unplugged that Brian posted. The holy trinity of Liefeld ripoffs of the era ...

• At July 10, 2009, T. wrote:

  Yeah, it’s not a big deal, I just didn’t want to see Pacella “blamed” for that issue.

  I don't ...

• At July 10, 2009, T. wrote:

  One last point Brian, now that month of art stars is over, this Panosian post gives me an idea for ...

• At July 10, 2009, T. wrote:

  You could also do artists who arguable "evolved" then "devolved" again, like Greg Land, who started out as a wannabe ...

• At July 10, 2009, Urban Barbarian wrote:

  No offense taken T. The work speaks for itself [ sadly! ]. I think a decade of working ...

• At July 10, 2009, Bill Reinhold wrote:

  I'm glad Mark did this. Everyone should know about Dan's work these days!

  It's awesome!!

  -B*

I ended up with more suggestions than there were days in the month, so enjoy a few BONUS installments!

The fifth bonus installment is the pick of Mike Perkins, the great Crossgen and Marvel artist who I featured previously in a Month of Art Stars installment (check it out here)! Check out his website here!

Mike's pick is Steve Yeowell!

I'll let Mike explain it...

Here's a guy who has been illustrating professionally longer than I have and yet he's only known, by the American comic reading public, for a handful of projects. But what a diverse handful! There's Starman, 67 Seconds, The Foot Men, The Invisibles. The Skrull Kill Krew and, my personal favourite, Sebastian O. He's more widely known throughout England for his constantly gorgeous work on 2000ad stories such as Zenith, Red Razors, Maniac 5, Devlin Waugh and recently the Red Seas.He has a beautiful economy of line but doesn't slouch on the detail and is equally at home in B&W or colour. Admittedly, it may be of his own choice to work within the diverse British field of comics and respect must go to him for this decision but don't let that deter you, the reader and purveyor of fine comic book storytelling, from tracking down his wonderful work as most of it can be found in collected form.

Just for a lark, I figured for sample Yeowell work, I'll only show projects that he worked on with writer Grant Morrison!

First, Zenith....

Next, Sebastion O!

Finally, Invisibles!

Yeowell is a fine artist, indeed.

Thanks to Mike for the pick!

6 Comments

• At July 6, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  When in the soddin' 'ell are we North Americans going to see some ZENITH tpbs?

  Would somebody please give Morrison a ...

• At July 6, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  My favorite Morrison/Yeowell team-up is still New Adventures of Hitler.

  But this reminds me: I have to buy Sebastian O.

• At July 6, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I believe the Zenith rights are tied up, Tom; apparently there's a warehouse out there with a bunch of copies ...

• At July 6, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  They should just sell them, and then everyone can argue in court over who gets the actual profits, as opposed ...

• At July 7, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  At his best I love Steve Yeowell, though personally I thought Sebastian O was his weakest work. Still a ...

• At July 14, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  His recent stuff on Red Seas is brilliant! Well worth looking out for the trades if you can get ...

I ended up with more suggestions than there were days in the month, so enjoy a few BONUS installments!

The fourth bonus installment is the pick of Alex Robinson, the acclaimed writer/artist of Box Office Poison, Tricked and his most recent work, Too Cool To Be Forgotten. If you've been following this blog at all, you'll notice that Robinson is quite appreciated here. Here is his website.

Alex's pick is Terry Laban.

Laban first came to national attention in the late 80s/early 90s, when his series Unsupervised Existence was published by Fantagraphics.

Laban drew a lot of acclaim, but the book wasn't exactly a huge hit, sales-wise, so he began a new series for Fantagraphics called Cud.

He then took Cud to Dark Horse in the late 90s.

Laban did some writing work on a neat Vertigo mini-series that I don't believe has ever been reprinted, the Unseen Hand.

More recently, he has spent most of his time on his syndicated comic strip, Edge City, which he draws and co-writes with his wife, Patty.

As you can see, Laban has a interesting mix of classic Dan DeCarlo mixed with 70s indie comix sensibilities.

But he's a wonderful storyteller.

He also worked as a political cartoonist for years.

You can see many more samples of his work at his very nice website here.

Thanks to Alex for the pick!

4 Comments

• At July 5, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  I haven't read Laban's other work, but I love Eno & Plum. It's nice to see some folks still doing ...

• At July 5, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I remembered where I had seen Terry Laban's name, GRENDEL TALES: THE DEVIL MAY CARE wher he was the ...

• At July 5, 2009, Jack Norris wrote:

  Man, I miss books like Cud.

  If there were more stuff like this still around, and Love And Rockets wasn't ...

• At July 6, 2009, joecab wrote:

  And Muktuk got a Vertigo miniseries, written by Terry but not drawn by him, as I recall. What a fantastic ...

I ended up with more suggestions than there were days in the month, so enjoy a few BONUS installments!

The third bonus installment is the pick of Val Semeiks, a long time artist who had significant runs on Conan the Barbarian and The Demon, on top of a great number of other works. He recently had a run on She-Hulk and is currently doing work on Amazing Spider-Man Family. Here's his website.

Val's pick is Eduardo Risso.

Eduardo Risso, obviously, is most well known for his work on 100 issues of 100 Bullets.

Here's a vast sampling of his work on the title.

Some pages from the #40s...

Some pages from the #50s...

Some pages from the #60s...

Some pages from the #70s...

Some pages from the #80s...

Some pages from the #90s...

Some pages from the final issue, #100...

He also did a Logan mini-series for Marvel recently - here are some pages...

I can't wait to see what Risso has coming up next - he's amazing! Here's a page where you can buy original art from Risso (that's where the sample pages from above come from).

Thanks to Val for the pick!

9 Comments

• At July 4, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  One FANTASTIC artist!!!

  Talk about the significant OTHER half in the creative team of 100 Bullets.

  I loved reading this series, as ...

• At July 4, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Er...Ginger and Rogers?

  I think you mean Rogers and Aistaire.

  But, yeah, you can't say no to Risso. He's excellent, a master ...

• At July 4, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  ...and I added an extra 'i' to Fred Astaire's last name. Whoops.

• At July 4, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Wasn't there a "Ginger" somewhere? ;-)

  Probably dead by now, at the current rate.

• At July 4, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Ginger is Rogers, as in Ginger Rogers (1911-1995). The lady could dance. And that is some fine pen and ink, ...

• At July 5, 2009, ninjawookie wrote:

  People (Wizard really) talk about Mark Bagley being the master storyteller. Eduardo Risso blows everyone out of the water with ...

• At July 5, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  Risso's amazing - aside from his draftsmanship, he has a great sense of editing: what details to leave in, what ...

• At July 6, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  I love Risso's art. One of the best!

• At July 31, 2009, Vlado Nik. wrote:

  Risso is one of the greatest comic artist !

I ended up with more suggestions than there were days in the month, so enjoy a few BONUS installments!

The second bonus installment is the pick of Goran Sudzuka, who I featured in a previous Month of Art Stars (here). He's a great artist. You can check out his website here.

Goran's pick is Edvin Biukovic.

Edvin Biukovic was well on his way to becoming an extremely notable comic book artist in the industry in the late 1990s when, tragically, the artist died of complications from a brain tumor (that had just been diagnosed weeks earlier) at the far too young age of 30 years old.

He still left behind a strong artistic legacy, most notably in the United States his work on the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series...

and for the first (EXCELLENT) Human Target mini-series by Peter Milligan...

Just recently, Goran did a blog post as a tribute to Edvin, who would have turned 40 on June 22nd of this year.

Goran shared a sampling of Edvin's work in that post, and I thought it made sense to share them here, as well...

We're missing a great artist, and it sounds like a great man, too.

Thanks to Goran for the pick!

15 Comments

• At July 3, 2009, layne wrote:

  A great artist, great choice.

• At July 3, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  Fabulous artist. His Grendel Tales series, Devils and Deaths, is one of my all-time favourites.

• At July 3, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  He would've been a star.

• At July 3, 2009, Brian J. wrote:

  Ditto on praise for his Gendel Tales work. And for his work in general. Thanks for giving him ...

• At July 3, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  An outstanding artist. Put me down as another who loved his Grendel work. His Human Target mini was great as ...

• At July 3, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Lobo/Aliens?!?!?!

  YES PLEASE!!! SOMEBODY DO THIS NOW!!

  I loved his Rogue Squadron stuff..

• At July 3, 2009, goran sudzuka wrote:

  Brian, thanks for posting this.

  It's probably my fault, cause I didn't provide you some scans, but I think Grendel ...

• At July 3, 2009, Niels van Eekelen wrote:

  A great artist, sorely missed. I read his Star Wars work when it came out, and remember being shocked when ...

• At July 3, 2009, adam! wrote:

  I've been waiting for someone to nominate Biukovic. Great great great artist. I wonder if anyone'll nominate Igor Kordey?

• At July 3, 2009, C. Adams wrote:

  The two Grendel Tales stories that he did were the highlight of the series for me. Loved both of ...

• At July 4, 2009, goran sudzuka wrote:

  Well, Parlov and Kordey would be my next choices. Thankfully Cliff chose Parlov already, now we need someone for Igor! ...

• At July 4, 2009, Edo Bosnar wrote:

  Great, great choice. Thanks again, Goran.

  By the way, another great and thoroughly enjoyable source of Biukovic's work is contained a ...

• At July 6, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  Excellent artist.

• At July 6, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I loved his work when it was coming out.

  Such a shame.

• At July 8, 2009, Wednesdays Haul » Gutter Shots #4– On Target wrote:

  [...] CBR’s Comics Should be Good on Edvin Buikovic [...]

I ended up with more suggestions than there were days in the month, so enjoy a few BONUS installments!

The first bonus installment is the pick of Mike Deodato, who draws the most popular ongoing comic book title right now, Dark Avengers. Here's Mike's Deviant Art page.

Mike's pick is Rudy Nebres.

Here's Mike making the pitch for Rudy...

Sadly, the comic business seems to be going the way of other industries. Shiny and new is coveted more than sturdy and well-made. Flashy is desired more than experienced. When a friend's 4-year-old water heater broke down, yet his relative's water heater built in 1954 is still working fine, you know something is wrong with the world.

I know of quite a few top-flight comics artists who simply are not getting the attention they should.

Rudy Nebres is every bit as great now as he was in the '70s, yet his assignments are few and far between...and in a market that loves rendering and finesse, he's among the best.

And Mike's right, Rudy Nebres is strikingly consistent for an artist who has been in the business for close to forty years.

Here's some Dr. Strange pages from the mid 1970s...

There's a strong Gene Colan element to this work, and Colan is certainly still a viable comic book artist in the marketplace (if he so chose to pursue it, of course).

Here is some of Nebres' Warren work from Eerie...

And here is some more 1980s, Nebres work, via some covers...

Here is Nebres in the 1990s, via a Vampirella cover (Vampirella is a character he has done a lot of work on)...

Here is Nebres in the 2000s, via a Negation cover...

a pin-up....

and here are some sample pages from a Crossgen Chronicles....

The guy's still got definite chops! With Marvel having 145963059 books released every month, they really ought to give Nebres a shot on some of them!

Thanks to Mike for the pick! Sorry I held you off for awhile, but I figured this would be a strong beginning to the "extra" period!

9 Comments

• At July 2, 2009, Lupin Yonsei wrote:

  Mr. Deodato has just redeemed himself for ~1,000,000 of his superfluous thongs with this suggestion.

• At July 2, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  Man, that's some nice art. It also makes me miss CrossGen; for all its faults, it really was putting ...

• At July 2, 2009, Jean Sinclair wrote:

  Rudy Nebres ALWAYS Rocks.

  Here´s one of the Greatest MASTER in comics.

  Anatomy,composition,lihjt & Shadow,Crosshatching,paintings... Nebres really knows and use on his ...

• At July 2, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  Man, does this bring back memories. I used to love Nebres' work in Marvel's B&W magazine line (esp. the Iron ...

• At July 2, 2009, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

  I remember when Nebres took over Doc Strange, following Gene Colan's 70s stint. I was prepared to be disappointed, but ...

• At July 2, 2009, Movilla wrote:

  Cool...one of the best artists to come from the Philippines. IIRC, his fellow Filipino comic book artist contemporaries were Tony ...

• At July 3, 2009, WM wrote:

  Wow, thanks for that! All those Filipino artists from the seventies were/are great. I'm glad to see that Nebres and ...

• At July 3, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  @Movilla: I'm not sure what you mean by Nebres's "contemporaries," but there were many more than the ones you name ...

• At July 9, 2009, Mark Irwin wrote:

  Rudy's one of the best. I've worked with him and can attest he still has the chops! Wish more folks ...

Today, we have the pick of Aaron Lopresti, longtime Marvel and DC artist who most recently has been the artist on Ms. Marvel for Marvel and is now is currently the regular artist on Wonder Woman for DC Comics. You can check out his website here.

Aaron's pick is Reed Crandall.

Reed Crandall was, to put it simply, one of the best artists of the Golden Age (and considering the company he was in, that's saying a lot).

He first made a name for himself working for Quality Comics, primarily working on Blackhawk stories in a number of titles.

Here's his work on Blackhawk story from Military Comics....

Look at all that detail! And the dynamism! Just awesome line work.

Here's a Blackhawk story from Modern Comics...

Also strong stuff.

He did other Quality Comics work, including a little work on Kid Eternity...

Crandall also did a lot of great work at EC Comics towards the end of their run...

Spooky stuff!

Here's a nice taut depiction of insanity by Crandall...

Crandall basically bummed around various comic book companies for the rest of his career, which ended in the early 1970s (after moving to Wichita to take care of his ailing mother). He actually was working as a janitor and night watchman at a Pizza Hut when he suffered a stroke. He never really recovered and spent the remaining years of his life in a nursing home.

But boy, what an artistic legacy he left behind!

Thanks to Aaron for the pick!

10 Comments

• At July 1, 2009, Mark Irwin wrote:

  Great choice by Aaron; Crandall was really underrated, just beautiful work. Huge influence on Bernie Wrightson as well, who in ...

• At July 1, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  Man, that is some nice looking stuff. Are there any collections of the old school Blackhawk comics? I'd love to ...

• At July 1, 2009, Ajit wrote:

  Jazzbo, DC reprinted the earliest Blackhawk stories in an Archive edition that includes the first story posted above. (And just ...

• At July 1, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Crandall's pencil is all over the the past century of comics, from the Golden Age to the early Bronze Age. ...

• At July 1, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Those Blackhawk pages remind me of Mike McKone.

  And those horror tales! The facial detail! Marvelous. That Vault of Horror twist ...

• At July 2, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  I didn't know there was an Archive edition of any Blackhawks comics. Thanks for the tip, Ajit.

• At July 2, 2009, Lt. Clutch wrote:

  Man, I know the gore in those EC comics is what made the company's name, but Quality sure knew ...

• At July 2, 2009, Edo Bosnar wrote:

  What a great choice - he was definitely one of the best Golden Age artists (if not the best in ...

• At July 2, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  Man, Crandall was awesome.

• At July 2, 2009, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

  A little disappointed to not see his Warren work represented here; it's a whole step up from all this, as ...

Today, we have the pick of Dustin Nguyen, an awesome artist whose work you can currently see in the pages of Batman: Streets of Gotham. Here's his website.

Dustin's pick is Jon J. Muth.

Jon J. Muth's first major comic book work was the epic (in more than one way) series Moonshadow, alongside writer J.M. Dematteis.

Here are all the covers Muth did for the series, to give you an idea of how gorgeous his work was on it (the first 13 images are the original 12 issues plus the trade collection of those issues - the next 14 images are reprints by Vertigo of the original 12 issues with new Muth covers, a "Farewell, Moonshadow" book and "The Compleat Moonshadow")....

Muth was chosen to draw the second to last issue of Sandman!! That's quite cool. Here are some interior pages from that...

Muth also drew an issue of Global Frequency...

More recently, Muth has become one of the most acclaimed children's book illustrator (and even more recently, illustrator AND writer).

Here is some of his absolutely brilliant work on the book Why I Will Never Ever Ever Ever Have Enough Time to Read This Book, written by Remy Charlip and illustrated by Muth...

Simply stunning.

See more of Muth's work at his website here.

Thanks to Dustin for the pick!

16 Comments

• At June 30, 2009, Tim Jarrett wrote:

  Muth's always been a favorite.

  One minor nit--didn't Kent Williams paint the cover of the original Moonshadow #6? Not to take ...

• At June 30, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Muth is awesome. He illustrated one of my favorite comics (The Mystery Play) and wrote and drew one of my ...

• At June 30, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Good call, Tim! My bad - changed it!

• At June 30, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I could never understand why Ellis didn't continue GLOBAL FREQUENCY, that was SUCH a terrific series.

• At June 30, 2009, Jason Thibault wrote:

  It seems like it's only once per decade, or era that you see two amazing talents like Jon J. Muth ...

• At June 30, 2009, Aaron wrote:

  Muth's art is beautiful, no doubt. But Moonshadow left me absolutely cold, as a story - I remember very ...

• At June 30, 2009, Rob III wrote:

  I love Muth's work. That Sandman issue he did is amazing. I'm also glad you posted the original Moonshadow covers, ...

• At June 30, 2009, Rob III wrote:

  Bill, can you please tell me what happened at the end of The Mystery Play?

• At June 30, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Which part? The crucifixion? The bit with the coats? No, not really. I can't explain any of it. I think ...

• At July 1, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  Great artist, but if Swamp Thing: Roots is anything to go by, terrible writer.

• At July 1, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Wow, never realised this before, but he managed to take a property from Marvel to DC! Epic to ...

• At July 1, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Ok, sorry, De Matteis and him took Moonshadow to Vertgo... I take it one or both of them owned the ...

• At July 1, 2009, adam! wrote:

  @ Blackjak

  Yeah, they got a pretty nifty creator-owned deal from Archie Goodwin at EPIC, as most (if not all) of ...

• At July 1, 2009, adam! wrote:

  Forgot to mention that Muth's DRACULA was first published as an EPIC GRAPHIC NOVEL before it was published by HEAVY ...

• At July 1, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  About the end of The Mystery Play...

  (SPOILERS!)

  The coats symbolize guilt. Carpenter was identified by the police because of his ...

• At July 2, 2009, BDaly wrote:

  Muth is awesome. He did some great work on the Silver Surfer. But alas, 'twas cancelled.

Today, we have the pick of Dennis Calero, who is a great artist who does a variety of interior work (generally for Marvel Comics) and also a lot of cover work, as well. His most recent comic work was X-Men: Noir. You can check out his website here.

Dennis' pick is Elizabeth Breitweiser.

Elizabeth is the first colorist to appear this month!

Elizabeth is a painter, also, and that certainly comes through in her lush coloring that provides impeccable support for the other artwork in the issue.

Here are some samples of her work...

A Captain America one-shot...

A What If...? Fallen Son one-shot...

Agents of Atlas, where she's the regular colorist...

Skaar, where she's also the regular colorist...

This year's Uncanny X-Men Annual...

A Sub-Mariner one-shot...

Isn't that simply gorgeous stuff?

And as you can see, she works equally well no matter who the artist is, whether they are as different as Ron Lim and Gabriel Hardman.

You can see more of her work (as well as her painting work) at her website here.

Thanks to Dennis for the pick!

3 Comments

• At June 29, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  That is some impressive coloring, indeed. It seems a fair bit of her work is on flashback scenes. I wonder ...

• At June 29, 2009, Adam K wrote:

  I love that Mitch Breitweiser picked someone earlier this month, and now later on, someone's picked his wife.

• At June 30, 2009, Gerimi wrote:

  Wow! Work of that caliber and on two monthly books?! Phenomenal

Today, we have the pick of Bob Fingerman, acclaimed writer/artist of Minimum Wage (which was collected as Beg the Question) from Fantagraphics. Bob just recently released From the Ashes from IDW. Check out his website here.

Bob's pick is Guy Davis.

Guy Davis is a lot like José Luis García-López, in the sense that he is not so much unknown as he is under-appreciated for just how amazing he is.

He is most well known for his work on B.P.R.D.

Here are some sample pages, from a variety of volumes...

As you can see, Davis is adept at both bizarre situations and extremely human ones, as well. In fact, his abilities to convey emotions and characterizations are what makes his action and horror scenes that much more effective, as you really feel that the terror is coming from a "real" person.

Here are some of his non-BPRD works...

From The Zombies That Ate The World...

and from The Phototaker

You can see much more work from the amazing Davis at his website here.

Thanks to Bob for the pick!

11 Comments

• At June 29, 2009, Bright-Raven wrote:

  Nice pick, just wish you'd promoted THE MARQUIS, NEVERMEN, or BAKER STREET - the stuff that he owns / co-owns.

• At June 29, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting the first BPRD page repeated on the places where there should be the ...

• At June 29, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, that was a weird glitch.

  It should be working correctly now.

  Thanks, Pedro!

• At June 29, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Interesting enough, Guy doesn't have preview pages up at his site for those works (Marquis, Nevermen, Baker Street).

• At June 29, 2009, Aaron wrote:

  Davis also did some good work on Sandman Mystery Theatre, which I've been reading in trades recently. I really ...

• At June 29, 2009, Ricardo wrote:

  Actually, he is much more famous for his long run as Steve T. Seagle's partner in crime at Sandman Mystery ...

• At June 29, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  No way!

  BPRD all the way!

• At June 29, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  There's a lot to like and respect about Davis - his design sense, his characterization, the sheer thoroughness of his ...

• At June 29, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  Rereading my comment, I think it might sound like I was calling Davis an "amateur artist." I wasn't - rather, ...

• At June 30, 2009, Scott wrote:

  Guy Davis is a God.

  I was about as big a SMT fan as there was in the 90s. His artwork ...

• At July 1, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  I'm with Ricardo. I knew him first from Sandman Mystery Theatre and also read Nevermen (which I hated, but ...

Today, we have the pick of Pia Guerra, co-creator and main artist of Vertigo's acclaimed Y the Last Man. Most recently, Guerra has done some work with IDW. Here is her website.

Pia's pick is Rebecca Dart.

Rebecca Dart really burst on to the scene with her 2004 graphic novel, Rabbithead, which really showed off her brilliant design sense.

Here are a couple of pages from it...

Here is a short story she did....

And here are some various drawings and sketches she has done...

Check out her live journal here.

Thanks to Pia for the pick!

5 Comments

• At June 28, 2009, JackKing wrote:

  Wow! Great choice!

• At June 28, 2009, Cass wrote:

  Wow. What an incredibly versatile artist! I love the cartoony page at the top with all the insets and at ...

• At June 28, 2009, Tom from West Chester wrote:

  This is a great choice. I've never seen her work before but I love it.

• At June 28, 2009, Aaron wrote:

  I'm glad to see more of her work - I've only read the Rabbit Head excerpt from the Best American ...

• At June 28, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Dart's rendering techniques are truly impressive. Those last four samples especially show a wonderful breadth of style, with the soft, ...

Today, we have the pick of Tom Mandrake, longtime comic book artist, perhaps best known for his work with John Ostrander on Firestorm, Martian Manhunter and, most especially, The Spectre. Tom just recently did work for a Batman and Superman mini-series and the Wildstorm adaptation of the TV series Fringe. Check out Tom's website here.

Tom's pick is Everett Raymond Kinstler.

Kinstler is a particular strange pick for this feature, because he may be one of the most famous comic book artists there ever was - he just isn't really famous FOR his comic book work, but rather his portrait work that he began primarily doing in the late 1950s and has continued to this day, doing official portraits for every United States President from Richard Nixon until Bill Clinton.

So while he has become a legendary artist as a maker of portraits, his early comic book work IS quite good.

Kinstler started working in comics in the early 1940s when he was only sixteen years old.

Here is a Hawkman story he did in the mid-40s for DC Comics...

Here, then, are a variety of comics he did for Dell during the 1950s while he was still in his 20s....

A Zane Grey western...

A Zorro story...

A Max Brand western....

and a Luke Short western....

Really impeccable design work and exquisite storytelling ability. Plus, his character work IS quite striking, it's not much of a surprise that he'd be great at drawing portraits.

Check out Kinstler's website here (although I take it that he's mostly retired from the art world nowadays).

Thanks to Tom for the pick!

7 Comments

• At June 26, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Wow! That's beautiful work! Equal parts Alex Raymond and Joe Kubert. I've never even heard of the ...

• At June 26, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  This run of Artists' Artists is really bringing up some wonderful art that I'd never seen or heard of! ...

• At June 26, 2009, T. wrote:

  I was really enjoying that Hawkman story until the "Confucius Say" line. And it's not even the racism that ...

• At June 26, 2009, Scott wrote:

  There's a lot of great Kinstler art in Avon's titles from the early 50s. The Sci-fi books can be ...

• At June 26, 2009, Paul McCall wrote:

  For the past 40 or 50 years Kinstler has been one of the leading portrait artists in the country. He ...

• At June 26, 2009, elbichoemboscado wrote:

  I know it's odd for my part... I know...

  But the horses are absolutely stunning...

  I've never heard his name before but ...

• At September 3, 2009, kyle keith wrote:

  Great Work! Your last comment that Everett Kinstler as far as you know is fairly retired from the art world ...

Today, we have the pick of Steve Lieber, the longtime excellent comic book artist who is seeing the comic book he created with Greg Rucka, Whiteout, being adapted into an upcoming major motion picture. Also, he has a brand new comic book from Image Comics with Jeff Parker called Underground. Here is Steve's website.

Steve's pick is Jonathan Case.

In another slight break from the format, I'll turn the floor over to Steve...

Here's Steve...

The artist I'm most excited about right now is completely under the industry's radar: Jonathan Case.

Jonathan's a member of Periscope Studio, and so far, his only published work has been in the Tori Amos anthology Comic Book Tattoo. But over the past couple of years I've watched him develop a GN that's nearing completion: Sea Freak. Jonathan describes it as "the tale of an atomic sea mutant with a hunger for poetry and human flesh."

His drawing is astounding. He's set up a visual grammar for Sea Freak that's really exciting- he's drawing it in a very stark high contrast black and white and he's able to wring tons of atmosphere out of every page. It's not the one-note monotony of a Sin City. He's playing the whole range. And there's no cheating in his composition- every panel is beautifully composed in both two and three dimensions. That is to say, they all work as flat graphics and as arrangements of forms in space. This is HARD. Case mastered it on his first project.

Jonathan nails the feel of his varied environments and characters, too. He's not just a technician; he's a storyteller. Sea Freak has sunlit chases on horseback and moonlit lovers on beaches, pretty girls in bouffant hairdos, and a giant killer Squid, a grizzled sheriff, an aging beauty, and of course a love-struck man-eating Sea Freak driven crazy by a Greek chorus of crabs. Imagine Fellini directing a drive-in monster movie in the early 60s and you'll have an idea of what Jonathan's got going here.

Jonathan has the first chapter of this still-unpublished work up for viewing at his website here.

I cropped a bunch of pages from it to show to you all (click on the double page spreads to enlarge)...

Thanks to Steve for the pick and thanks to Jonathan for sharing these excellent preview pages with the public!

14 Comments

• At June 25, 2009, Dunc wrote:

  Wow.

• At June 25, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  This guy reminds me of Steve Rude the DUDE!

  Yeah, that's good.

• At June 25, 2009, GarBut wrote:

  Wow. That final panel counts as a Cool Comic Book Moment, as far as I'm concerned.

• At June 25, 2009, Zack Smith wrote:

  Met Jonathan at SPX last fall, and he drew me a real nice sea scene! He's a huge talent, ...

• At June 25, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Here's hoping Sea Freak gets released soon. I look forward to reading that in full.

  Those pages are magnificent.

• At June 25, 2009, Gabriel Hardman wrote:

  Great pick, Steve! These pages look fantastic.

• At June 25, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Wow. That final panel counts as a Cool Comic Book Moment, as far as I’m concerned.

  I'm with you on that ...

• At June 25, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  When can I get mine?

• At June 25, 2009, adam! wrote:

  giant sea monkey!!!

• At June 25, 2009, Periscope Studio » The best artist you’ve never heard of. wrote:

  [...] Comics Should Be Good asked artists “Who’s work do you like?” Steve Lieber answered “Jonathan Case-the best comics artist ...

• At June 25, 2009, David Hahn wrote:

  And this SEA FREAK art is his older stuff. Wait until you see his newer SEA FREAK art. ...

• At June 25, 2009, Corey wrote:

  Those pages are excellent! There's a real elegance and fluidity to his style but still grounded in really solid characters.

  I ...

• At June 26, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  Nice stuff. I'm not a fan of Leiber, but this stuff is good

• At July 9, 2009, Paul Guinan wrote:

  Case is an ACE!

  His painted work is my favorite stuff.

  Supernice guy, handsome dude, does Peace Corp-type work in far away ...

Today, we have the pick of Marko Djurdjevic, star cover artist (and now becoming a star interior artist, as well) at Marvel Comics (all of this on top of his great skills as a character designer). Here's his website.

Marko's pick is Giuseppe Camuncoli.

Giuseppe began his career in the late 90s working in self-publishing. But then he got a gig on Brian K. Vaughan's Swamp Thing and the Big Two haven't given up on him since!

Here's some fairly early mainstream work of his, from Joe Casey's The Intimates...

As you can see, he is extremely stylized and dynamic, but the dynamism never gets in the way of the storytelling. He's really quite marvelous.

He's good at drawing twisted stuff, too. Here's some twisted stuff from an issue of Jonah Hex he drew...

Here's from a recent X-Infernus mini-series he did...

Here's his two latest assignments...

Hellblazer...

and his current book, which comes out this week, Dark Wolverine...

He's very impressive, so it's great to see him getting more and more major books from the Big Two, even if I'd prefer seeing him on books like Hellblazer (his style worked beautifully with Hellblazer).

Thanks to Marko for the pick!

3 Comments

• At June 25, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Sure gets around does he?

  I liked that answer to Norman's question "Do you know what a hero is?" and the ...

• At June 25, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Cammo!

  Right on!

  His slick art was perfect for capturing the youth and modernity of The Intimates. That book definitely suffered without ...

• At June 27, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  This dude's everywhere now.

  I think he's doing at least another arc on Hellblazer.

Today, we have the pick of Paul Gulacy, who is, of course, practically a comic book legend, having been a star artist for the past three decades, ever since he began an acclaimed run on Master of Kung Fu with writer Doug Moench. Here is his website.

Paul's pick is Jesse Marsh.

Like the late, great Carl Barks, Jesse Marsh also got his start working for Walt Disney. Marsh began as an artist working on animating Disney cartoons, but soon moved on to working more as a story writer for Disney, assisting on such classic Disney films as Pinocchio and Fantasia.

In the late 1940s, Marsh got a gig that he would do for basically the rest of his life, taking on the ongoing comic book based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic adventure character, Tarzan. Besides Hal Foster (and Rex Mason on the Sunday strips), Marsh became the first artist to draw Tarzan regularly. Marsh would do the book from 1948 until 1965, staying with the title when it went from Western Publishing distributing Dell to when Western did their own comics (Gold Key).

Here are some pages from Tarzan #1 by Marsh...

As you can see, Marsh was an excellent storyteller who also put an unbelievable amount of detail into his work for a guy who produced a vast amount of work (in his early days as a freelance comic book artist, he even maintained his gig at Disney!!!).

He was also, as Gulacy notes, particularly known for how well he drew animals. Here's a great dynamic pin-up from #1 that shows off as much...

Sadly, Marsh died from complications due to diabetes in the mid-1960s (he was succeeded on the title by his friend, the great Russ Manning). In the later issues (particularly the Gold Key issues), Marsh clearly was not the same artist, but Marsh at 80% was still better than most other artists at 100%.

Here are some of his Tarzan issues from that period...

and...

and...

To give you a better idea of what Marsh was like in his prime, though, here are some pages from Gene Autry Comics (a title that Marsh also did for many years, and was actually the first comic book project he did, even before Tarzan)...

and John Carter of Mars (another Burroughs character)...

I especially love how naturalistic Marsh makes aliens look!

Marsh passed away in 1966, just shy of the age of 60, from complications from diabetes. He was sorely missed.

Here's a fan site devoted to Marsh.

Thanks to Paul for the pick!

5 Comments

• At June 23, 2009, Andrew Collins wrote:

  I've been reading the Jesse Marsh Tarzan collections that Dark Horse is putting out and they're just stunning work. I ...

• At June 24, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  I can't see the appeal here - sorry. But then I can't see the appeal of Paul Gulacy's art ...

• At June 25, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Marsh was underrated in the pantheon of Tarzan artists. Sometimes, it's easy to see why. He was, after all situated ...

• At June 25, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Marsh was actually on multiple artists' lists.

• At July 7, 2009, David Haynes wrote:

  Thanks Brian,

  And thanks to Paul as well for pointing towards the consummate mastery of Jesse Marsh.

  I have ...

Today, we have the pick of Norm Breyfogle, who is one of the most notable artists Batman has ever had, drawing the book during one of the peak periods in Batman's popularity (late 1980s/early 1990s). Breyfogle also helped create the flagship title of the Ultraverse, Prime. He's still hard at work doing comics - just check out his website here to learn more!

Norm's pick is Alan Weiss.

Alan Weiss broke in at DC Comics in the early 70s, but soon moved to Marvel, where he did work on a number of titles.

Here are some of them...

Captain America...

Amazing Spider-Man...

Iron Man...

For Epic, he wrote and drew Steelgrip Starkey...

He worked with Jim Shooter at Defiant Comics, doing the art on The Good Guys and creating his own title, War Dancer...

The most recent work I saw from Weiss in comics was some Young Tom Strong stories in the Tom Strong spin-off Tom Strong's Terrific Tales...

Weiss is now, and has always been, a very strong storyteller, as these pages clearly show. He also has a nice, detailed style to boot.

Here's his website.

Thanks to Norm for the pick!

11 Comments

• At June 22, 2009, Graeme Burk wrote:

  I'm surprised Brian-- you didn't mention one of the more significant (and/or infamous) achievements of Weiss-- he was drafted ...

• At June 22, 2009, yep wrote:

  Whenever I hear Alan Weiss mentioned I'm reminded of this Avengers cover, which disturbed me greatly as a kid:

  http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=36014&zoom=4

  There are ...

• At June 22, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Weiss did some crackerjack work on the 1968 volume of Sub-Mariner. It's a tough act to fill in for Bill ...

• At June 22, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  Alan Weiss. There's a name out of the past I hadn't heard for a while. His work didn't show up ...

• At June 22, 2009, FGSuperman wrote:

  Thanks for this post, Brian. I've been a Weiss fan since whenever it was I first saw his work. Like ...

• At June 23, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  Sorry - not feeling the love on this one. I remember finding his art on Tom Strong really ugly. ...

• At June 23, 2009, kaleb the hammer wrote:

  I loved his work on Avengers as well (two issues with the Silver Surfer). His covers were glorious, too ...

• At June 23, 2009, kaleb the hammer wrote:

  Oops, should have looked at the links, both the Shazam AND Avengers are mentioned. Sorry, guys

• At June 23, 2009, Bill wrote:

  There is a looseness and detail to his figures that has always reminded me a little of Don Newton (a ...

• At June 24, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  I'd make an "All-Purpose Power Tool" joke, but I'm sure they were all made 20+ years ago.

  And I can't imagine ...

• At October 17, 2009, Rick Limacher wrote:

  I collected comics featuring Alan Weiss art as a kid in the 70s. He was all over working with the ...

Today, we have the pick of Cliff Chiang, the awesome artist who was most recently the regular artist for Green Arrow/Black Canary. Recently, besides commission work and convention appearances, he did some work in Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology. You can check his website out here.

Cliff's pick is Goran Parlov.

Goran Parlov is from Croatia, and he has been drawing comics in Europe since the early 1990s.

Earlier this decade, Parlov began doing American comics, first at Vertigo (where he finished Jamie Delano's Outlaw Nation series for Goran Sudzuka and did some fill-in work at Y the Last Man) and then at Marvel MAX.

It was at Marvel MAX that Parlov found a book that he worked perfectly on, Garth Ennis' Punisher, where Parlov's expressive but almost, in a weird way, FUN artwork really shined.

He's such an awesome storyteller that he can tell the story on these pages without even really needing the dialogue (more on that later)...

But, of course, dialogue works for him, too...

Recently, he's returned to Punisher sans Ennis, with the current Punisher storyline written by Victor Gischler.

And Parlov is right back in his element, drawing bizarre scenes of violence while keeping everything just expressive enough that you can really feel for the characters stuck in these sick pieces of violence (which is an Ennis trademark - make you care enough about the characters for the sick stuff to have real impact - Gischler got off to a good start with his take on that style here)...

Again, look at that storytelling!!!

Thanks to Cliff for the pick!

10 Comments

• At June 21, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I really enjoyed Goran's run on the Punisher MAX with Ennis.

  Now, if somebody would pick that other artist ...

• At June 21, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  There's a wonderful flow to Parlov's lines. His work's fluid without being too lose. His use of solid blacks helps ...

• At June 21, 2009, Edo Bosnar wrote:

  Out of all those artists from Croatia who made their way into the American comics scene since the early 1990s, ...

• At June 21, 2009, Dean wrote:

  What is great about is that his art doesn't scream at you, so the violence has an impact

• At June 21, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  When he first came onto Punisher MAX, I thought he was a considerable departure from the art style they'd set ...

• At June 21, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  I bought a couple of Punisher MAX tpbs after seeing Parlov's work in the online previews (I can't stand the ...

• At June 22, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  I like this guy. His work has a bit of a European comics meets Alex Toth style about it ...

• At June 22, 2009, goran sudzuka wrote:

  cliff knows how to pick them! : )

  edo, thanks for the compliments, but parlov is about five times better then ...

• At June 23, 2009, Edo Bosnar wrote:

  oh, come on, Goran, to each his/her own, and don't sell yourself so short!

  By the way, thanks for that nice ...

• At June 26, 2009, Declan Shalvey wrote:

  Parlov is incredible. Everything is grounded in reality but he knows when to exaggerate characters when needed. Seeing how ...

Today, we have the pick of Patrick Scherberger, who has been a major artist for Marvel Comics ever since he won the First Annual Comic Book Idol at Comic Book Resources back in 2004, mostly on Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

Patrick's pick is David Williams.

David first broke on to the mainstream comic book scene in the early 1990s, when he was one of the group of mostly young artists to draw one of the !mpact Comic line that DC did licensing Archie's superheroes (an idea that DC revisited when they purchased the characters outright last year).

David drew Jaguar....

Williams' most recent series of interior work was the Power Pack/Hulk mini-series from a couple of years ago...

The series allowed him, in the last issue, to draw basically all the major Marvel heroes versus the Hulk, so I'm sure that was a treat for Williams (click on the second image below to enlarge it)...

But primarily, Williams has become an in demand cover artist for both Marvel, DC and other comic book companies.

As you can tell, he has a real knack for expressions, and that's seen in most of his cover work - also, he has a keen sense of design, which is naturally quite useful for a cover artist.

Here's David's deviantart page.

Thanks to Patrick for the pick!

8 Comments

• At June 20, 2009, Dean wrote:

  Jaguar was a good comic. It is nice to see Williams style evolving.

• At June 20, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Hadn't realized he'd been around that long! I loved !mpact. Loved.

  Also loving that panel where everybody hits Hulk at once.

• At June 21, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Oh, man, I'm glad you dug up those old Robin covers. Those take me back. To a very happy place. ...

• At June 21, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  I've been seeing Williams work on lots of covers lately and knew it was familiar, but I couldn't remember where ...

• At June 21, 2009, Dean wrote:

  So David Williams is the one to blame for that horrible final She-Hulk cover. Good to know.

• At June 30, 2009, Cover browser browse thousands of comic book covers « Alternating Reality Books wrote:

  [...] Month of Art Stars: Artist’s Choice - David Williams (goodcomics.comicbookresources.com) [...]

• At July 1, 2009, Selling Comic Books on Amazon « Alternating Reality Books wrote:

  [...] Month of Art Stars: Artist’s Choice - David Williams (goodcomics.comicbookresources.com) [...]

• At July 5, 2009, Squadron Supreme Hyperion Vs Nighthawk « Alternating Reality Books wrote:

  [...] Month of Art Stars: Artist’s Choice - David Williams (goodcomics.comicbookresources.com) [...]

Today, we have the pick of Chris Bachalo, who has been a star artist for a number of companies, whether it be drawing Death for Vertigo or co-creating Generation X for Marvel, Chris' unique style sets him apart from the rest of the comic book art world. He is currently working on Amazing Spider-Man while doing various other works for Marvel. Here's his website.

Chris' pick is Kelley Jones.

Kelley Jones really is also a unique artist, although his extremely stylized artwork is reminiscent of Bachalo's work, which makes it reasonable that Chris would recommend Kelley.

Like Bachalo, Kelley Jones first got a lot of notice from doing Vertigo work, including a storyline in Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Jones received a great deal of notoriety when he drew Doug Moench's trilogy of Batman as a vamprie stories - Batman and Dracula: Red Rain, Batman: Bloodstorm and Batman: Crimson Mist.

Jones became the cover artist on Batman and ultimately had a significant run with Moench on the title.

Since then, Jones has kept busy with projects for various companies, while writer Steve Niles seems to have really taken a liking to Jones' dark and moody style.

Jones drew parts of Niles' ongoing Criminal Macabre series...

And most recently, he and Niles teamed up for a year-long Batman maxi-series, bringing Jones back to the Batman character...

Jones' dark, stylized art really works well for Batman.

He also did a Conan mini-series...

And even a creator-owned series for Dark Horse that he wrote and drew!!

Thanks to Chris for the pick!

I can't seem to find a website for Kelley. Ah well. Bill Reed picked Kelley as one of his 365 Reasons to Love Comics! You can check that out, at least!

29 Comments

• At June 19, 2009, Aqualad wrote:

  Love Jones. Second only to Breyfogle (and above Neal Adams!) as my favorite Batman artist, and the best ...

• At June 19, 2009, Jeff Ryan wrote:

  There's a Bats cover he did during Knightfall of Batman drowning with rats scarmbling all over his cowl that's just ...

• At June 19, 2009, Mr.Chris wrote:

  Nice! I dig his work big time! I loved his run on Batman.

• At June 19, 2009, Dean wrote:

  Kelley Jones does great horror comics. He did some "Deadman" work with Mike Baron that I loved.

• At June 19, 2009, Si__ wrote:

  I miss The Crusades...

• At June 19, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  The art is very good, make no mistake, but what's up with Batman's ears? Is he storing old-fashioned radio antennae ...

• At June 19, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Kelley was around wayyyyyy before Vertigo. Micronauts: the New Voyages was a beautiful book.

• At June 19, 2009, Stephen wrote:

  Jones' style isn't my personal cup of tea, but I respect the man nevertheless.

• At June 19, 2009, Ryan Day wrote:

  I love his work for "Dream of 1,000 Cats" at the very least, and his Batman was great at times ...

• At June 19, 2009, Matt wrote:

  Love Kelley's Batman look (esp. the gigantic ears). I was very happy to see his style get highlighted in the ...

• At June 19, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  I always like it when the urban legend/horror aspect of Batman comes to the fore, and Jones is a master ...

• At June 19, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Enjoyed his series The HAMMER from Dark Horse.

  Probably one of the best horror-gothic artist there is after Berni Wrightson.

• At June 19, 2009, Michael Rawdon wrote:

  Matt Bird: I still have my run of Micronauts: The New Voyages! Lovers of Mantlo's Micronauts hated it. ...

• At June 19, 2009, joshschr wrote:

  I like Bachalo, I like Jones. I like them both more now!

• At June 19, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Not many artists could pull off a mile-long cape and yard-high bat-ears, but Kelley Jones does, every time.

  When's that Moench/Jones ...

• At June 19, 2009, Richard Pachter wrote:

  The Hammer was awesome. Would love to see more.. Jones wrote it too!

  First became aware of Kelley when he did ...

• At June 19, 2009, Chris Bloom wrote:

  I loved him on SANDMAN, but haven't seen much of his work since. I always thought he was ...

• At June 19, 2009, Adam K wrote:

  Kelley Jones is great. His Batman is so ridiculous that it ends up being one of the best, I think.

• At June 19, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Michael Rawdon, don't ask me to choose between Mantlo and Gillis, they're two of my favorites. On the surface, ...

• At June 19, 2009, Kolya wrote:

  Great design, but Kelly's storytelling leaves a lot to be desired. Much like Bachalo, I guess.

• At June 19, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  What Kolya said.

• At June 19, 2009, T. wrote:

  Sorry but this is the first one in the series I have to disagree with. When it comes to ...

• At June 19, 2009, Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources » Month of Art Stars ... | Museum And Art wrote:

  [...] original here: Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources » Month of Art Stars … ...

• At June 21, 2009, Gavin Bell wrote:

  I didn't mind him on Sandman or Red Rain (I think Malcolm Jones was inking him back then?) but Kelly ...

• At June 22, 2009, Busterchops wrote:

  Am I the only one who thinks that his work often looks like a poor man's Sam Keith?

• At June 22, 2009, T. wrote:

  I think that's a great way to look at him: a poor man's Sam Keith mixed with a rich man's ...

• At June 23, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  Hmm... Sam Keith makes me think of Frank Frazetta, but Kelly Jones is more of a Bernie Wrightson style artist ...

• At June 23, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  Bernie Wrightson's two main influences are Graham Ingels and Frank Frazetta, and Kelley Jones is definitely influenced by Wrightson above ...

• At October 13, 2009, Sam Kieth wrote:

  i don't think Kelly's a poor man's 'sam kieth' or ... poor man's 'anybody'.

  I think he's his own guy, ...

Today, we have the pick of Sean Chen, who's drawn tons of big comics for DC and Marvel Comics over the past decade or so. Most recently, Sean has been drawing Dark Reign: Fantastic Four. Here's his studio website.

Sean's pick is his studio mate, John Paul Leon.

This time around, things are a bit different. Sean will be handling the discussion of John Paul and John Paul himself is sharing sample pages with us!

Here's Sean...

John Paul Leon's skill harkens back to the time of the mighty illustrators. He applies that skill along with a complete understanding of the comic art form of storytelling with amazing results.

He is a favorite of many within the comic artist community, probably because only we can truly appreciate how difficult it is to achieve that level of draftsmanship and storytelling. Most readers will
evalute his work based on the superficial "style" and take it or leave it. However, most of what makes him a master of the medium such as storytelling and draftsmanship is less visable to them.

Most artists are only able to achieve realism by piling on surface detail and full tonal gradations. John Paul, however, employs an economy of expressive, gestural lines that manage to accruately capture
a true to life figure.

It's hard to tell which portions were photo-refrenced and which were conjured from scratch since he has an uncanny ability to depict lifelike figure and scenes. Each scene is informed by his ability to
totally recall moments and details he's observed in real life, and capture them with simple india ink and brush.

He's not afraid to build the scene with heavy black areas since he's adept at maintaining clarity, and an expert at leading the eye to the salient portions of a scene through page/panel design.

He swings with ease from very quiet moments to the larger than life explosive action scenes. In fact some of his best stuff are the quite moments before the action builds to a fever pitch.

"The Wintermen" is so thoroughly reasearched that it invites the reader to totally immerse themselves into the Russian culture mileu and completly blurs the line between historical fact and the farther fetched superhero yarn that spins out of it.

If you've ever seen, or are lucky enough to own, one of his convention drawings, you will see that they are far from the ordinary fare. They are one-of-a -kind personal comic vignettes that belong in a frame.

Here is a gallery of John Paul's work, selected by John Paul himself directly from his personal collection!

First, black and white work...

A page from Challengers of the Unknown...

A couple of Ex Machina pages...

A Scalped page...

A page from Tom Strong...

A number of Winter Men pages...

Now some color work...

Three DMZ covers...

A recent Static Shock cover...

And finally, a Die Hard cover for Boom!...

Thanks so much to Sean and John Paul for their time and effort!

And Sean's right, John Paul's work is amazing.

27 Comments

• At June 17, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  JPL is one of the most under appreciated (and, for my money, under appearing) artists in comics today, a guy ...

• At June 17, 2009, Corey wrote:

  Big fan of John Paul Leon!

• At June 17, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  I've loved John Paul Leon's work since Earth X.

• At June 17, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Definitely a GOD among artists.

  I'd take his work over Alex Ross' any day.

  Why in the hell didn't MARVEL have him ...

• At June 17, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  And, one more "John Paul Leon is awesome" comment. :) Challengers of the Unknown was decent with fill-in artists, but ...

• At June 17, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Very much a fan of John Paul Leon. Those inks...! Mmm.

• At June 17, 2009, Rafael Albuquerque wrote:

  This guy kick ass. He is one of the best in the industry.

• At June 17, 2009, C. Adams wrote:

  you know what...I like JPL but I like Sean Chen more...someone ought to choose him.

• At June 18, 2009, Jeff Ryan wrote:

  I first saw JPL with Static. He's never disappointed me. How can someone draw New X-men, Earth X, gritty westerns, ...

• At June 18, 2009, joeschmoe2 wrote:

  I gotta admit I love any artist that knows how to do good photo swiping.

• At June 18, 2009, DanCJ wrote:

  I've always liked his work. Good choice

• At June 18, 2009, Jay Potts wrote:

  Why did you have to post this today? Now you're going to drive up the price of his original ...

• At June 18, 2009, A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. wrote:

  John Paul Leon is one of the few artists whose work I pick up regardless of writer (Mike Mignola, Frank ...

• At June 18, 2009, Duff Mcwhalen wrote:

  Well I'm sure it's more than people going "let's not use John Paul Leon." He has the style and fluidity ...

• At June 18, 2009, Duff Mcwhalen wrote:

  Oh and I'm glad someone mentioned New X-Men, I remember wishing very badly that he did the whole run.

• At June 18, 2009, Ryan Day wrote:

  Why is JPL not on Batman? Or Daredevil Captain America or Wolverine or any of the many books whose quality ...

• At June 18, 2009, Zach H. wrote:

  JPL can have all my money. I wish he worked more in comics, because he is nothing short of amazing. ...

• At June 18, 2009, A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. wrote:

  Ryan Day: That's a fair point. As I said, Wintermen was great, and if he could be on a monthly ...

• At June 18, 2009, Zach H. wrote:

  Big Two books also pay a lot better then most indys.

• At June 18, 2009, Peter Krause wrote:

  JPL....*sigh*

  Wish I could draw that well.

  He's in my personal pantheon of all-timers with Alex Toth, Garcia-Lopez, Jordi Benet, Sean Phillips, ...

• At June 18, 2009, Peter Krause wrote:

  Oops! I mentioned Sean Phillips twice.

  Not a bad thing, tho'.

• At June 18, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Leon blows my mind every time. I keep expecting an announcement that he'll be working with Morrison on something, but ...

• At June 18, 2009, enero wrote:

  JPL is the One-Above-All when it comes to negative space and moody dark shadows. This guy is, I don't ...

• At June 18, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  @Ian A.

  There is a Winterman trade coming out towards the end of the year (December or November on Amazon, I ...

• At June 18, 2009, kalorama wrote:

  Another addition to the list of JPL's greatest hits: Superman Annual # 4: Year One. It's a re-telling of Superman's ...

• At June 19, 2009, Dale wrote:

  The highest point of being at Fanexpo back in 06 was meeting Sean Chen, Tommy Lee Edwards and John ...

• At June 22, 2009, Tom Strong - Radio-People : News, pictures, videos, biography wrote:

  [...] Month of Art Stars: Artist’s Choice - John Paul Leon Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources - ...