The countdown continues! Here are the next four comic book artists that you voted as your favorites of all-time (out of roughly 1,023 ballots cast, with 10 points for first place votes, 9 points for second place votes, etc.).
30. Gil Kane – 326 points (3 first place votes)
For over FIFTY years, Gil Kane's name was synonymous with top rate superhero artwork. If you were reading a Gil Kane comic book, you knew you were almost certainly going to get some great action inside your comic. That's not how he started out, of course, as originally he worked as a support artist as a teenager during the 1940s and worked his way up to becoming of one Julie Schwartz's regulars during the 1950s on DC Comics' science fiction comics. When Schwartz decided to launch new versions of the Golden Age superheros during the late 1950s, Gil Kane was right there to join in, drawing both the new Green Lantern and the new Atom for almost a decade.
In the late 1960s, Kane was wooed by Stan Lee to Marvel Comics. In the early 1970s, Kane began a stint on Amazing Spider-Man, including the death of Gwen Stacy, one of the most famous comic book stories of all-time...
Soon, Kane became essentially Marvel's resident cover artist, as Marvel felt that Kane was so good that his covers would draw readers into picking up books that they might not be normally interested in. He drew the iconic cover for Giant-Size X-Men #1 under this approach, and it was actually Kane who decided to change Wolverine's mask to give him his iconic cowled look. Dave Cockrum, who was inking Kane's cover, liked the change so much that he went back to the interior pages and changed them all to match Kane's re-design.
Kane returned to DC in the 1980s for a strong run on Superman in Action Comics. He then continued to work here and there right until he passed away in 2000.
29. Curt Swan – 354 points (4 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. There is a great piece of work by Swan that shows him depicting multiple emotional reactions of Superman, and he just nails each and every one of them. It's one of the greatest facial expression guides for artists that I've ever seen. 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...
Swan provided pathos and happy endings for Superman in multiple titles every month for DECADES all the way up until Crisis on Infinite Earths (and then a little longer after that).
28. Gene Colan - 357 points (7 first place votes)
Gene Colan became famous at Marvel for his energetic work coupled with his unique panel arrangements on the Iron Man feature in Tales of Suspense (Colan originally drew for Marvel under a pseudonym, which was kind of hilarious, since there were few artists who were more distinctive in their page layouts. It was practically impossible for Colan to hide his identity, style-wise). Colan was a major artist for Marvel on Daredevil and other series. However, I think perhaps his strongest work is the slightly less frenetic Tomb of Dracula with writer Marv Wolfman and inker Tom Palmer.
Here is Colan from the classic twenty-fifth issue where a woman hires a stereotypical private investigator (straight out of a Raymond Chandler story) to find out who murdered her husband (hint - it's Dracula). But is the P.I. who he seems?
What a great reveal and what excellent storytelling by Colan! There are a number of artists who can be dynamic with their work, but it is a rare breed that can take that dynamism and pair it with such compelling storytelling abilities. Colan, too, was exquisite at his use of shadows. His comics would often be like walking pieces of film noir, in comic book form.
Colan moved to DC in the 1980s to work on Batman, Night Force and Wonder Woman.
Colan continued to be a top notch artist right up until his death back in 2011.
27. Greg Capullo – 393 points (5 first place votes)
Greg Capullo made his big break into the mainstream comic book industry in the early 1990s with a run on Quasar with writer Mark Gruenwald. Capullo re-designed Qausar's costume, giving him the great look that he has used ever since (and you know how much comic book companies like to go back to the original costumes for characters, so for a 1991 costume to become THE iconic costume for a superhero is a significant accomplishment for Capullo). Capullo was so good on Quasar that he was quickly picked up for one of the X-titles, X-Force, which Capullo worked on with writer Fabian Nicieza.
Capullo then left Marvel to take over Spawn from his creator, Todd McFarlane. He worked on that series for years while also doing the creator-owned series, Creech. Capullo spent a while working outside of mainstream comics before returning in a big way for Haunt at Image and then Batman with Scott Snyder for DC.
The trademark of Greg Capullo is DYNAMISM. His work is some of the most kinetic out there. Check out this sequence where he just KILLS it with the action...
Capullo's art style is incredibly dynamic and stylized. Here is an action sequence from early in his Batman run....
What's amazing about Capullo is that he is one of the few modern artists who can keep up with this level of energy on a monthly basis. He worked with Snyder on a number of other major projects, including the crossover event, Dark Nights: Metal. He also worked with Snyder on an independent comic book, We Are Demons.