The countdown continues!

Here are the next three artists that you voted as your favorites of all-time. Click here for the master list of all of the creators listed so far.

6. Sara Pichelli

Sara Pichelli first worked in the field of animation before she met comic book artist David Messina. He sparked an interest in comics and she soon started to do some work with him on some of his various projects (mostly his IDW Star Trek work). She entered a comic book talent competition and was seen by Marvel. She was given a few fill-in assignments before working with Kathryn Immonen on their very short run at the end of the most recent volume of Runaways in 2009 (it is kind of ridiculous that it's been this long since someone tried to reboot Runaways).









The work was clearly strong (although Christina Strain's color work tended to take a bit of a dominant effect on the art, which made sense to make it in keeping with the previous Runaways artists, just noting that the result was something that did not necessarily represent what to expect from Pichelli's later work).

After doing a Pixie mini-series with Immonen, Pichelli was soon on her way to her biggest break, as she did a fill-in issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. This got her a larger stint on Ultimate Spider-Man towards the end of Peter Parker's run on the book. She was then given the chance to launch Miles Morales' time as Ultimate Spider-Man along with writer Brian Michael Bendis.

IF you were to ask me to come up with a formula for comic book superstardom for an artist, I'd tell you that it was impossible, as there is no set rule. However, a pretty darn good formula would be to combine fluid artwork with extremely detailed character work. That right there likely gets you 90% of the way to stardom, as it is such a hard combination to pull off. That right there ALSO pretty much describes Pichelli's artwork to a tee, as seen in this early issue of Ultimate Spider-Man...









It soon became evident to Marvel that they had a star on their hands, and they quickly gave her the assignment of the mini-series where Peter Parker and Miles Morales meet for the first time...





Bendis then brought her over to Guardians of the Galaxy for a stint on that book, including introducing Angela to the team...





Marvel recently dubbed Pichelli as one of their "Young Guns," so expect a lot more from Pichelli at Marvel (not that she needed to be designated a "Young Gun" for that much to be obvious).

5. Emma Rios

Originally planning to be an architect, Emma Rios got involved in the comics scene in her native Spain and soon realized that she was more interested in comic books than architecture. Her first big American work was the mini-series Hexed for Boom! Studios, where she debuted her heavily stylized and dynamic artwork...





Mark Waid (who had been working for Boom! at the time Rios was hired) soon brought her over to Marvel for a Doctor Strange mini-series...





Around this time, she developed her style a bit further, mixing in some striking gritty elements into her already very stylized artwork and the mix became absolutely stunning. It really worked well for the dark mini-series Osborn that she worked on with Kelly Sue DeConnick, the first time the two worked together on a comic...









They worked together again on an issue of Captain Marvel a couple of years later and then, in 2013, they launched the absolutely stunning creator-owned work, Pretty Deadly. Rios manages to be gritty, stylized AND detailed all at once in a visually magnificent comic book...









The craziest thing about Rios is that Pretty Deadly makes it clear that she is still developing as an artist. And we already saw how dramatically impressive her previous evolutions were, so it boggles the mind to think that she could get even better than this!

Go to the next page for #4!

4. Jill Thompson

What's absolutely fascinating to me about Jill Thompson is that she is one of the few artists who have become a star artist using two fairly dramatically different art styles. After graduating from art school in the late 1980s, Thompson first began working on Elementals over at Comico. She eventually made her way to DC Comics in the early 1990s, becoming the regular artist on the tail end of George Perez's acclaimed run on Wonder Woman (I decided to spotlight one of their last issues together, only because it gets to show Thompson drawing Captain Marvel, Batman and Robin as WELL as Wonder Woman)...









As you can see, her work was clean and detailed. It was very sharp stuff.

After she was finished on Wonder Woman (she stayed a little bit after Perez left the book), she did an entire story arc for Neil Gaiman's Sandman, where her expressive artwork (which was a bit looser without Romeo Tanghal on inks any more) worked perfectly for the story of how Morpheus deals with his heart being broken...







However, in an issue right before that story arc, she also debuted the even more stylized "Lil'" versions of the Endless, which gave a hint of the direction Thompson was eventually going to go with her work later in the decade (after stints on a few other Vertigo titles, like Grant Morrison's The Invisibles and the mini-series Finals with Will Pfeiffer)....







Thompson took her stylized work to a whole other level with the painted work on her creator-owned series, Scary Godmother, which won her an Eisner for Best Painted Work...







and her more recent collaboration with Evan Dorkin, the stunning Beasts of Burden, which won her another two Eisners for Best Painter (plus an Eisner for the story overall, as well) and a National Cartoonists Society Award.





It is always cool when great artists re-invent themselves, but when great artists re-invent themselves and get even GREATER? Well, that's a whole other (awesome) story.