The countdown begins now!!!

Here are the first ten artists that you voted as your favorites of all-time (out of roughly 1,040 ballots cast, with 10 points for first place votes, 9 points for second place votes, etc.).

Before we begin, let me note that anyone who didn't expect a whole lot to change in four years, well, do we have a surprise for you (some of the changes were certainly a surprise for me).

NOTE: Don’t be a jerk about creators in the comments section. If you are not a fan of a particular creator, that’s fine, but be respectful about it. No insulting creators or otherwise being a jerk about creators. I’ll be deleting any comments like that and, depending on how jerky the comment was, banning commenters.

50. Paul Pope – 251 points (2 first place votes)

Paul Pope has this bizarrely amazing sense of design. He comes up with these wonderful blending of gritty "realistic" worlds with an off-kilter sense that makes everything stand out. He's been doing it for years on comics such as THB and Heavy Liquid.

Plus, his sense of kinetic movement in his work is outstanding. Check out the opening to his classic work, Batman Year 100...











49. Alex Toth – 252 (1 first place vote)

If thee was a fault of Alex Toth's amazing comic book career, it was that he was sort of born at the wrong time. He was born in 1928. Had he been born seven years earlier, he likely would have been one of the greats of the Golden Age superhero boom, but instead he broke in after superheroes were falling out of favor. He spend the fifties drawing a variety of comic books for a variety of publishers. Eventually, his stunning skills as a kinetic storyteller and designer were given new form when he went to work as a storyboard artist and designer for Hanna Barbara. Throughout the 1960s he created dynamic action characters. His skills were put to use once again in the early 1970s when he designed the Super Friends. All throughout this time, he couldn't stay away from comics - all sorts of kinds. You should see how amazing Toth could draw a Hot Wheels comic book!

Here is reader Wes Carter on why he voted for Toth:

[T]he level of craftsmanship and mastery he brought to the medium is breathtaking. I’m not a fan of the “detailed” artist, I much prefer the less is more school and Toth is the headmaster.

I remember the first time I saw my first Toth comic - White Devil/Yellow Devil (reprint) it burned it’s way into the back of my head! I’ve never had another comics experience quite like it. After I saw that I wanted to be able to draw with the same economy and impact he had - never gonna happen, but I can dream.

Here is the story Wes refers to, White Devil/Yankee Devil from Star Spangled War Stories #164 by Robert Kanigher and Toth...











48. Dave McKean – 254 (4 first place votes)

Dave McKean is probably best known for his cover work, where his mixed-media artwork really stands out. Especially with his connection to the Sandman comics. However, he has done a number of exceptional interior works as well, including probably his most famous work, his re-imagining of the villains of Arkham Asylum in the best-selling graphic novel of the same name...









Go to the next page for #47-44...

47. Jaime Hernandez – 256 poonts (7 first place votes)

Jaime Hernandez has been drawing his characters in the pages of Love and Rockets for over thirty years now. Heavily influenced by the work of the great Dan DeCarlo, Jaime Hernandez's blends that Archie-like artwork with a more realistic setting. More important than his influences, though, are his storytelling. Check out how well he tells these pages...









46. Curt Swan – 260 points (3 first place votes)

Curt Swan was THE face of Superman comics for nearly thirty years, delivering strong work month in and month out for decades.

Swan's biggest strength was always the character work he would do with facial expressions. Check him out in Superman #149, the legendary first "Death of Superman" (in an Imaginary Story, of course)...







He rings every little bit of pathos that he can get out of the scene.

Of course, though, even an imaginary Swan story has to have a SORT of happy ending...



45. Steve McNiven – 263 points (2 first place votes)

McNiven began his comic book career at CrossGen before coming over to Marvel when CrossGen closed. His work had a bit more of a lighter feel at CrossGen, but at Marvel he became one of the most popular depiction of superheroes in the business. His work is filled with bombast and power, but always coming from an air of reliability...









Since Civil War, McNiven has kept busy being used as a sort of specialist, someone you bring in to launch a title (like Guardians of the Galaxy) or draw major projects.

44. Tim Sale – 270 points (3 first place votes)

One of the most distinctive artists in the business, Tim Sale is best known for his striking use of design, colors, negative space and dynamism. Here's a snippet from his classic Batman tale, The Long Halloween (with writer Jeph Loeb)...









Go to the next page for #43-41...

43. Ivan Reis – 272 points (4 first place votes)

In a lot of ways, where McNiven is to Marvel, so too goes Ivan Reis. He is the dynamic artist whose work always manages to stand out, which makes him an excellent choice for major crossovers, like his work here on the Blackest Night...









42. Carl Barks – 273 points (7 first place votes)

For decades, the creditless Donald Duck and later Uncle Scrooge comics written and drawn by Carl Barks would stand out so much compared to the other "Duck" comics that people began to identify his work despite the lack of credits. He became known all over the world as "the good Duck artist." See his skills in action in this sequence from one of his earliest Donald Duck adventure stories...









41. Olivier Coipel – 302 points (10 first place votes)

Olivier Coipel sprang on to the scene with an out of the box approach to the Legion of Super-Heroes, but after polishing off the hard edges a bit, he quickly became one of the most prominent superhero artists working at Marvel. They tend to use him for only big projects. For instance, he just helped launch the Spider-Verse crossover in Amazing Spider-Man.

His first Marvel work was a stint on Avengers with Geoff Johns where he quickly showed how powerful his work can be. The concept is that a deadly virus has been released in Mount Rushmore and the Avengers show up with the United States military...



One husband and wife valiantly try to save their son. The husband dies and the wife drives away with the son covering his face with a cloth. She succumbs to the chemicals and her son seems to be nearing death, as well, when, well, someone shows up...







It practically leaps from the page.

Come back tomorrow for the start of the writers countdown!