Every day this month I'm going to feature the work of a great artist, only instead of me picking the artist to feature, they will be picked by their peers, fellow professional comic book artists who are picking out artists (from the past and present) who they think deserve special attention. Do note that most artists I asked about this gave me multiple answers and I picked out one choice out of a number of suggestions, so these are not definitive answers, like "Artist X likes Artist Y and he thinks all other Artists are terrible!" Here is an archive of the artists featured so far!

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!