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 Mike Collins, the longtime British artist who has done a lot of work for 2000 AD and DC Comics over the years (he just recently did some work on Marvel's Captain Britain series). Here's his website.

Mike's pick is Graham Nolan!

Graham Nolan began working in comics for Eclipse in the mid-80s, but it was when he began working for DC Comics in the late 1980s that he really began to make a name for himself.

First, he was the regular penciler on The Power of the Atom...

Then he was the regular penciler on the ongoing Hawkworld comic...

Then he got his biggest gig, drawing Detective Comics for about five/six years, working with Chuck Dixon on the title...

Nolan's style has always had a very classic comic strip feel to it, a sort of throwback to the storytellers of the 1930s. His work is clear, clean and always tells the story of the comic beautifully - so beautifully that it appears almost effortless.

Here are some of Nolan's pages from Detective Comics #700 (a bit of a unfair pick, as that issue was filled with more action than most comics, but I chose this one because I thought he just did such a great job with the bold action of the book)...

In the mid-to-late 90s, Nolan more or less left comic books, choosing to pursue a career in comic strips.

He is the regular artist on Rex Morgan M.D. (and was the artist for the Phantom Sunday strips for six years)...

For more recent Nolan work, here are some pages from a recent issue of Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four that he drew...

Finally, here is a bit of a return to his roots, as he did the origin of Bane (Nolan drew Bane's first appearance) in Countdown to Final Crisis...

Nolan drew one of DC's biggest characters for years, so he obviously can handle top level books. I'd like to see him get the chance again!

Thanks to Mike for the nifty pick!