Yes, Neal Adams’ artwork blew me away, notably in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #89. I have a soft spot for Irv Novick and Bob Brown. Both did excellent work on Batman, but will forever be in the shadow of Adams and Aparo. Marshall Rogers took Batman to another level in 1977. Kirby, of course, is King (and inker Mike Royer certainly aided him dramatically). A lot of us old-timers will always view Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson’s Superman as the definitive version. Wrightson on Swamp Thing, DeZuniga on Jonah Hex, Simonson on Manhunter; oh, man, my list could go on and on.

I like how you grouped Aparo and Sal B. together–I usually do that myself, because I think they filled similar roles at their respective companies, turning out reams of first-class work in the shadow of flashier artists. Aparo and Buscema *are* 70s DC and Marvel for me, how the characters “really” looked.

As for my other favorites, I *will* go on and on: I loved Mike Kaluta on The Shadow, Gene Colan on Dracula, Kubert on Tarzan, Don Newton on anything, Ross Andru’s Spider-Man, Gray Morrow’s western comics for DC, Bill Sienkiewicz’s Moon Knight, Joe Staton’s E-Man, Plastic Man, JSA and Green Lantern, Dave Gibbons’ run on GL, Herb Trimpe inked by John Severin on Hulk, Ramona Fradon on Superfriends and Plastic Man–and verging on the end of the Bronze Age, and slightly away from the mainstream, I dug Michael Gilbert’s Mr. Monster & Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer.

And how could I forget Michael Golden, who for a while, until his productivity drastically declined, seemed like he was destined to be in the same league as Byrne, Simonson, Perez, et al. His Micronauts issues are a Bronze Age high point. Which leads me to Pat Broderick, who did a great job on that series after Golden, as well as Batman and other titles. I loved Jose Garcia-Lopez’s character work as a kid, especially in the tabloids. This really is endless…

It’s faithful 40,000.
Also, ask anyone who knew Frank Miller at the time, and you’ll learn his variety of styles had more to do with his reliance on inkers to finish work he barely started than with what little ingenuity he possesses.

You had me zipping along in total agreement until you got to #1. Words fail to allow me to express how much John Byrne does not deserve the number one slot on your list.

Then I realized you posted this on April 1.

So it’s okay.

Bob:
Thanks for stopping by. Unfortunately, it’s April 2nd and there’s still much love for Byrne’s work here at Comics Bronze Age. He was the artist who first made me pay attention to the credits, and I was a devoted follower of his work for many years. I still make a point to check out his new projects, though I find his work to be more hit and miss over the past decade. Curious, is there something specific about his style you don’t like? Or is it more about some of the “off court” baggage he’s accumulated over the year.
Andrew

Thom.:
Thanks for taking the time to post. I’m pretty sure it’s 50,000; that’s the number I’ve seen in several sources over the years, including Byrne’s own forum (though he jokes the number has dropped to 12). As for Miller, I guess we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that one. I’ve always enjoyed his storytelling more than his rendering, but have also appreciated watching his style change and evolve over the years.
Andrew

Cole:
I agree about Michael Golden. I love his Micronauts and Mister Miracle runs, and his Batman/Ragman team-in in Batman Family #20 remains one of the nicest drawn books in my collection. He was on his way to being a superstar — and then his comic-book output dropped way off. Paul Smith was on the same trajectory for me. As for Broderick, his work was hit or miss for me, often depending on the inker; with the wrong finisher, his work could look too cartoony. And Garcia-Lopez is one of those rock-solid artists like Gil Kane. There’s just no fakery to his work. Oddly, given his output, I wasn’t exposed to his work until Atari Force (another book like Marvel’s Rom that was far better than it had any right to be).

All great names — but how about some love for Don Newton?

Here’s an odd choice, maybe: Frank Robbins. As a kid, I was upset by his style (and downright scared by his Baron Blood in Invaders). It was often grotesque, seemingly off-model, with funhouse mirror anatomy.

But as an adult, with more background on Caniff and his many disciples, it really appeals to me. It has a unique energy and personality–nowhere near as polished and delightful as his earlier work on the Johnny Hazard newspaper strip, but still worthwhile. 7-year-old me was wrong about the guy.

Don, does “Don Newton on anything” above not cover it? That issue of Infinity Inc. he died working on broke my heart.

Don:
For some reason, Newton has always flown under the radar with me. I’ve liked what I’ve seen, but it’s never been ”let’s go out and get some Newton!” It probably didn’t help his cause with me growing up that he always seemed to follow other artists who I liked better (e.g., Kirby on New Gods, Rogers on Detective).
If I wanted to check out more, is there an issue or two you’d recommend as quintessential Newton?
Andrew

Cole:
Frank Robbins? That’s a brave admission, and one I’ll second. I HATED his work as a kid. I remember picking up an issue of Captain America with his art and just cringing. But I was rereading the Invaders recently and found myself really enjoying the art. Robbins wasn’t a real good fit for most superhero books, but he’s a damn talented artist. I could see his style really working on something like a Ed Brubaker crime comic.

Jim:
As a slightly younger fan, Curt Swan’s art always looked a little old fashion to me. It lacked the sense of power much of the art of the later Bronze period had, and his Superman always reminded me a of someone’s dad. (Of course, I had no problem enjoying Swan’s work in the beat-up, old copies of Adventure Comics I fished out of the quarter boxes; I guess it was OK for those to look old fashion because, well, they were old!) As for DeZuniga, I was never able to appreciate him because my first exposure to his work scarred me for life. I picked up X-Men #110 expecting Byrne and got DeZuniga instead. Young me was mortified! (My next exposure to DeZuniga was his inks over Byrne of Marvel Team-Up #70; that didn’t help much, either.)

I wish Wrightson had produced a bigger body of work. In a recent issue of Glamourpuss, Dave Sim talks about how the time-consuming inking technique that made Wrightson’s work so beautiful was also responsible for his limited output. (If you’re not reading Glamourpuss, you might want to check it out. It’s a damn odd comic, but Sim offers some fantastic insider baseball in its pages.)

While looking for any reviews of John Paul Leon’s Sgt, Fury book and of the Tommy Lee Edwards-illustrated story in Wolverine 73, I came across your site and the “Ten Best Artists” entry. It made my day, though I’m still not certain it isn’t a somewhat strange April Fool’s day gag.

I was amazed to see my name (and good ol’ B. J. Butterfly) among the listed creators and their art, but I have to tell you that I can think of over 100 people who should be there instead.

I have been feeling guilty about not doing much comics art or writing lately. Maybe I’ll start doing some new stuff. We’ll see.

Many thanks.

John Workman

Great list

I concur with your choice -John Byrne is also my choice, followed closely be:

George Perez
JL Garcia Lopez
Jim Aparo – My favourite Batman artist
Frank Miller
Keith Giffen
Gil Kane
Marshall Rogers
Walt Simonson
Paul Smith
Mike Grell
Neal Adams
Howard Chaykin
John Buscema
Paul Gulacy
Gene Colan
Brian Bolan
Curt Swan

the list goes on and on and on…

The Bronze Age was really a great time to be reading comics

Oh

How could I forget

DON NEWTON – My second favourite Batman artist

John:

Thanks for stopping by. It’s no gag, I assure you. Your work was a HUGE influence on me when I was a teen. I first came across a piece or two of yours in old Star*Reach comics, but when your work was collected in Wild Things from Metro, I was hooked. I was a junior in high school when those came out, and I spent the next couple of years in art class turning out John Workman knockoff strips (when I wasn’t doing Jules Feiffer knockoff editorial cartoons, that is!) I briefly pursued a career as a comics writer and layout artist in the early 1990s, and you can still see the Workman influence in those pieces, as well. (Here are a couple pages for your amusement: “The Great Wall” and “The Last Adventures of Stargirl.”) I eventually moved on to a career in journalism, where I had decent success as an editorial cartoonist (at least until newspapers started going belly up!) While my editorial cartooning style isn’t very “comic booky,” the jab-jab-punch pacing and philosophical musings of your early strips still resonates under the surface of much of my work.

Sorry to go all fan boy on you. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that I’m from Washington state, so there were all kinds of early Workman treasures to discover, and that fed my habit growing up. (I still have my Seattle Simpleton #1 and “B.J. Butterfly” and “Visit” posters!) I hope you do return to the drawing board at some point; I’ll be first in line for any new projects. And I hope some publisher has the good sense to collect all of your early work into a single volume.

Speaking of your early work, if you ever want to talk about your ’70s and early ’80s strips, know that Comics Bronze Age would love to do a feature interview with you.

Cheers,
Andrew

Dale:
Thanks for stopping by. That’s a great list you offer, as well. As I mentioned in one of the other comments, I’ve never been much of a Swan fan, but all the other artists on your list have either long been favorites or have grown on me over the years. Aparo is probably the best example of an artist who’s grown on me; I seem to like his work more each time I go back to it. What an underrated master! I’m not sure if he’s my favorite Bat-artist yet, but he’s definitely on the short list.
Cheers,
Andrew

Andrew,

While I appreciate your list, your not including Sal Buscema in the top 10 seems like a crime to me. As a kid, I didn’t like his art all that much, but now as an adult, looking back on it… man, the sheer amount of his work all over Marvel during the 70s was just amazing… much of my fondest memories of Marvel mags as a kid contain Sal’s work. His brother gets more acclaim, but for my money it’s Sal who’s the better artist.

As for Byrne, count me in as a fan. I’m reading the Essential Iron Fist now and man, he was good. Unfortunately, much of my good memories of Byrne are overshadowed by both the work that he does now, which is so subpar to what he’s done in the past, and second by how bitter he appears to have become.

Finally, if John Workman is continuing to read, I always appreciated your work. It’s weird that I’m able to recognize your lettering over say, Orzechowski or anyone else, but damn it all, I can and I really think that’s a testement to your skills. Every now and then I’ll be reading through a newer book and think to myself, boy that looks like Workman’s lettering. Flipping to the credits I see I’m right… and I can’t think of another letterer I can do that with so bravo to you for standing out in your craft!

Vince:

Thanks for stopping by. I understand where you’re coming from about Sal Buscema. That’s why he got a special shout out (along with Jim Aparo) in the introduction. I like his work a lot more today than I did as a kid, even if it still hasn’t cracked my top 10. And it’s hard to imagine a Bronze Age without Sal; he was everywhere for Marvel in the ’70s and early ’80s (Rom remains one of my favorites).

As for Byrne, did you check out his recent JLA Classified arc with Roger Stern? It was some of his nicest published work in in a long time (inker Mark Farmer certainly didn’t hurt). Also, Byrne’s done some amazing commission pieces in recent years which can be seen on his Web site.

Cheers,
Andrew

I always feel it’s a shame DC’s Bronze Age horror artists, like E R Cruz, Alex Nino, Alfredo Alcala and a whole bunch of others don’t get more recognition. A lot of their work was beautiful and a million miles from the industry norm.

As for the Frank Robbins debate, I’m really not a fan of his work, except the stuff he did for “The Shadow”, where his style seemed perfect for the material he was drawing.

Spider-Man Reviewed:

I wasn’t that fond of DC’s stable of Filipino artists when I was a kid, with the exception of Alex Niño. But they’re certainly growing on me now. I recently reviewed Rima, the Jungle Girl #1 and found Nestor Redondo’s art to be incredibly lush. And I just picked up an issue of The Shadow with E.R. Cruz art and was surprised by how nice that was. (There was a Frank Robbins Shadow in that batch, too, and it was nice. I thought Robbins was a good fit on The Invaders, too.)

Cheers,
Andrew

Andrew

Last year you and I discussed Don Newton’s run on Batman in the 80s and I urged you to get a run from both Batman and Detective (which featured Gene Colan’s art) I know they are not cheap but they are well woth reading.

Don Newton was like Aparo, brilliant without being flashy.

Dale:

More Newton is still on the want list. I’m just waiting to find a nice run at a convention at a decent price. I doubt he’ll ever crack my top ten Bronze artists list, but then I never expected Aparo to be knocking on that door (and he is!)

Cheers,
Andrew