The thing about comic book art is that it’s all subjective. For every person who mocks Rob Liefeld’s shortcomings, there is someone who loves his work, ankles be damned. I love the work of Gil Kane, but understand that not everyone does, even though to me, he is the only Hal Jordan artist that matters. (Weellll, maybe early-80s Dave Gibbons.) Likewise, when it comes to the pre-Satellite Justice League of America, it’s all about Mike Sekowsky, whose shaggy-haired, wild-eyed villains all seem to look like Jack Elam, and whose Hawkman is a terrifying creature boring through us with his terrible gaze. Later takes on the League were great, especially the Kevin Maguire days (and, to be honest, New 52 Jim Lee does a good-looking, if somewhat bland and homogenous team), but nothing says JLA like Sekowsky, which leads us to today’s subjective query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) also loves a Curt Swan Superman, which would prove that I’m old if that reference weren’t about ten years older than my actual age, asking: Which artist do you think is the signature artist for your favorite character?
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Jack “The King” Kirby for Cap and the rest of Marvel universe.
Steve Rude will ALWAYS be the signature artist on Nexus. No contest. Simonson’s Thor is pretty definitive as far as I’m concerned.
John Byrne for Fantastic Four and X-Men, Curt Swan for Superman and Simonson for Thor.
Walter Simonson for Thor.
David Mazzucheli on Batman.
I really wish he would have worked longer on the character.
Yeah, truly a shame he didnt make more. Fantastic style, really good fit to Batman
Dave Cockrum on the Legion of Super-Heroes.
The whole JLI/A/E team as drawn by Kevin Maguire. Other artists did the solo characters better, but his ability to take an ensemble cast, give them all unique looks in and out of costume, and match up the best facial expressions to the story text make his work an exemplar.