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Eric Jansen
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Joined: 27 October 2013
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| Posted: 26 September 2025 at 3:46am | IP Logged | 1
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The Dan Mora thread got me thinking. Every ten years or so, THE hot art style in comics seems to shift (with the top guy of the previous decade sort of passing into "Legend" status)
Who do you think best represents each decade--not just a talented and popular artist at the time but an artist a lot of people tried to emulate--artists that started whole "schools" of imitators and whose contemporaries may have drifted towards. I think the best representatives are--
1940's--Will Eisner, showing us how it's done, on THE SPIRIT.
1950's--I have to lump the EC Comics artists together--Wally Wood, Al Williamson, Jack Kamen, Johnny Craig, even Joe Kubert (who did a few TWO-FISTED TALES war stories for them), Jack Davis, John Severin, etc.--they all had their followers and emulators but the "house style" could be summed up as mature quality.
1960's--Jack Kirby doing FANTASTIC FOUR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR among so many others. (Honorable mention for Steve Ditko.)
1970's--Neal Adams, with BATMAN, GREEN LANTERN, AVENGERS, and X-MEN as the best examples. (Honorable mention for Berni Wrightson and his cohorts.) Adams, of course, really spanned the 60's thru the 80's and beyond. Jim Starlin, with CAPTAIN MARVEL and WARLOCK might be a better representative of the 70's, but I almost have to put him in the category of "influenced" (by Ditko) more than "influencer."
1980's--John Byrne, on everything especially X-MEN, AVENGERS, FANTASTIC FOUR, and SUPERMAN. (Honorable mention for George Perez and Art Adams.)
1990's--Jim Lee on X-MEN, WILDCATS, BATMAN--he and Silvestri, Liefeld, Larson, McFarlane, etc. (though much credit goes to inker Scott Williams) brought Marvel record sales...then almost bankrupted it by leaving.
2000's--Bryan Hitch on ULTIMATES, THE AUTHORITY, AGE OF ULTRON showed the new "in style" costume designs (just as Jim Lee and co. had given everyone pouches and coats a decade earlier). (Honorable mention for Alan Davis. These two guys just got better and better.)
2010's--Noir comics, with art by Michael Lark, Darwyn Cooke, Steve Epting, Butch Guice, Sean Phillips--pretty much anybody working with Ed Brubaker. (Honorable mention for Frank Miller for getting things rolling decades earlier.)
2020's--People like Dan Mora on SHAZAM! and Jorge Jimenez on BATMAN, slightly Manga-inspired, angular, with detail and also open areas for big colorists to do their work in.
Do I have it about right?
Edited by Eric Jansen on 26 September 2025 at 3:51am
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Larry Gil
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Joined: 09 November 2005
Location: Canada
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| Posted: 26 September 2025 at 8:10pm | IP Logged | 2
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I won't nickpick so all good to me . :)
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Peter Hicks
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Joined: 30 April 2004
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| Posted: 26 September 2025 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | 3
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Yeah, I too think this sounds right, even though there are so many giants who are not mentioned (John Buscema, Alex Ross, Dave Gibbons, etc). But maybe these artists were so talented that they were pretty hard to imitate, because imitation usually focuses on surficial finishes.
I think it was someone on these boards years ago that pointed out John Buscema is very hard to imitate because so much of his style is the basic anatomy that he can scribble down in 9 lines in 30 seconds, whereas less talented artists would slave and sweat over the page for an hour to produce something similar.
When I was an aspiring comic book artist, I had a Prof who said part of being great at anything is making it look effortless. I always struggled over every panel, and even I could see that in my finished work. So I went back to school, became an Environmental Engineer, have been at the job for 32 years and intend to retire in 5 more years. Reading how brutal the job of comic book artist is, the deadlines, the lack of benefits, no paid vacations, zero job security, I have no regrets.
But 10 years from now, nobody will be reading and discovering anew all the great engineering reports I wrote. |
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Peter Martin
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Joined: 17 March 2008
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 2:51am | IP Logged | 4
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(At the risk of putting words into your mouth) McFarlane was not imitating/emualting Jim Lee. Lee was a more solid artist, but McFarlane was earlier and at least as big of a superstar in the early 90s as Lee.
I don't think Silvestri was imitating/emulating Lee either. Somehow they all seemed to have similar stylistic influences. Maybe Golden.
I feel McFarlane was the 'original' star out of the image bunch, though (as I say) they all seemed to share some stylistic antecedent.
Edited by Peter Martin on 27 September 2025 at 2:56am
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Dave Kopperman
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 3:09am | IP Logged | 5
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I liked McFarlane when he first came on my radar on Spider-Man. His work struck me as dynamic and fun, and the line was stylish - loopy and almost baroque without ever falling into chaos. I didn’t become a fan, exactly, but I always had respect for what he was able to build. Silvestri I never cared for; it’s entirely possible that his run on X-Men was when I disengaged from the book and then superhero comics in a wider sense.
Generally the 90’s in mainstream comics were not being made for me. At the time, I wondered if I was losing my taste for the medium, but plenty of artists who started working in the aughts caught my eye, and even if I’m not a regular reader, the art on almost any random Marvel or DC title I pick up these days is invariably appealing.
Edited by Dave Kopperman on 27 September 2025 at 3:12am
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James Woodcock
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Joined: 21 September 2007
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 5:46am | IP Logged | 6
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McFarlane hit my radar with THE INCREDIBLE HULK. We had some of his
earlier stuff, but that was where I really started to take notice.
He was vastly different than anything else at the time, and I really thought
he was going to become big. I also really wanted to see where his art went.
He undoubtedly hit his stride with Spider-Man, but then he seemed to
stagnate. Maybe toys and other things got in the way, but it just never
seemed to go anywhere, other than his page design becoming impossible
to follow once he started Spawn.
Jim Lee, again, I liked from first noticing him, possibly PUNISHER WAR
ZONE. I think that was it. His X-MEN were really good, but again, once he
hit Image, he became too complicated and his art suffered through lack of
story clarity.
I’m pretty sure I felt that way about a lot of the Image guys.
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Eric Jansen
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 7:04am | IP Logged | 7
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Yeah, I was really thinking about the "inspiration" part of the criteria. Todd McFarlane was/is a giant in the industry, but I don't really see anybody copying him. Meanwhile, there are a ton of artists who were (and still are) trying to emulate Jim Lee. Likewise, Alex Ross is sort of on his own (I WISH he had more copycats!).
John Buscema was hard to leave off the list, as he clearly inspired his own brother Sal...but that was it. Right now, I've seen two newer artists who look like John Buscema clones--one is Rob de la Torre who is working on new CONAN stuff and the other is Gallego Benito who is working on new TARZAN stuff with Roy Thomas. (I have his SEIS CUERDAS comic and loved it.)
Some may disagree, but I love that, though John Buscema may be gone, his great art style lives on.
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Doug Centers
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | 8
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I feel Jack Cole influenced those artists with a more exaggerated figure line leading away from the mid forties, like maybe Infantino.
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Brian Miller
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | 9
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I don't think Silvestri was imitating/emulating Lee either
*******
Silvestri’s influence from John Buscema is quite clear.
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Vinny Valenti
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | 10
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^ This. Silvestri even started out as an artist on CONAN. That's what I liked about him - he was the one Image founder that actually had storytelling chops.
Edited by Vinny Valenti on 27 September 2025 at 3:12pm
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | 11
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I liked McFarlane when he first came on my radar on Spider-Man. His work struck me as dynamic and fun, and the line was stylish - loopy and almost baroque without ever falling into chaos. I didn’t become a fan, exactly, but I always had respect for what he was able to build. Silvestri I never cared for; it’s entirely possible that his run on X-Men was when I disengaged from the book and then superhero comics in a wider sense.••• If you liked McFarlane but not Sylvestri, your artistic tastes must have been truly facocta!
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Colin Ian Campbell
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| Posted: 27 September 2025 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | 12
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Right now, I've seen two newer artists who look like John Buscema clones--one is Rob de la Torre who is working on new CONAN stuff and the other is Gallego Benito who is working on new TARZAN stuff with Roy Thomas.* I think his name is Benito Gallego.
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