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Stemming from thinking about how much I dislike the art of Frank Quitely, what are the elements of a comic artist that you gravitate towards? What turns you off? Obviously certain kinds of art can fit a certain kind of story or writer, so lets take this as a more general question.

For me I tend to like artists with a fairly clean style, who's linework can stand on it's own. Without a big reliance on the coloring. Although as long as there's a good harmony between the elements that's fine.

I'm not a big fan of wobbly lines (that european style), prefering a more stiff look which I feel provides more consistency from panel to panel. Consistency across a book is huge. I initially really liked the sketch look that cropped up in the noir/crime books, but I've become less of a fan.

When it comes to the realism of an artist, I'm not a huge fan of the super-deformed look from artists like Chris Bachelo, and Sam Keith (to go with two different directions of the same idea). Strangely thinking about this Jack Kirby should qualify for this, but I absolutely adore Kirby's work, I'll have to post again when I figure out why.

No artist is good enough to justify a multi-month delay of what is supposed to be a monthly title. Especially if that artists layouts tend to be few large panels of often sparse detail per page. Thankfully companies are seemingly moving past this.

I like it when artists are strong in their own, unique style. If you're, going deformed or cartoony, go all the way. If you're going for realism, be sure you have your anatomy down or it's going to be obvious where your weaknesses are.

I'm also super glad the cross-hatch shading that was so over-done in the 90's is rarely seen anymore. If felt like a lot of artists used it to cover-up their weakness at anatomy.

And Rob F***ing Liefield. I will never understand how that guy got hired.

Art is a big thing to me, and personally it's very hard for me to read books with bad/ugly art, even if I'm in it for the long haul story-wise.

The two who come to my mind immediately are Greg Land and Humberto Ramos. Bad art, tracing, horrible proportions and overall just boring to look at, but they make deadlines so they keep working.

CynicismKills said:

Art is a big thing to me, and personally it's very hard for me to read books with bad/ugly art, even if I'm in it for the long haul story-wise.

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I've found myself a little forgiving of the art in some web comics if I'm really into the story. But seeing some bad art is like nails on the chalkboard for my eyes.

I'm less forgiving when it comes to published comics/artwork. Though they have improved somewhat, the Kubert brothers art always got on my nerves. I was convinced the only reason they were in the industry was from riding their father's coattails.

EDIT: Also, Greg Land just traces photographs. That's not an artist, that's just a tracer.

Simple:

The only artist I ever tolerated waiting for was Travis Charest. But even in his regular comic art he put more detail in than most artists do on covers. He's my favorite comic artist of arrr time. Unfortunately, he's VERY slow.

http://travischarestart.com/

Personally, I prefer artists who can convey great movement and action. I find guys like Land, Liefeld, and even Jim Lee are all artists whose style is very stiff. Alex Ross falls into this category, too, because his style feels more like photographs. Though I do like Ross.

Some of my favourite artists tend to use a minimalistic, yet dynamic style: Sean Phillips, Darwyn Cooke, Cameron Stewart, Scott Kolins, David Aja, Michael Lark, John Cassaday, and of course, Jack Kirby. I don't need realistic art and in fact, I think the closer to realistic, the less dynamic the action looks. One exception to this is Bryan Hitch, whose style works really well for action.

I can't stand when a page is either too busy or the characters are overdesigned - a sin which most of the original Image artists have a problem with. Even though I'm not an artist, I believe in a similar rule about wrestling: don't do once what you're not willing to do every day for the rest of your life. I don't think a lot of artists realize just how stupidly complicated their designs can look, especially guys like Lee or Liefeld. The reason a lot of the classic costumes work is because they're simple and sleek in their design. There was absolutely no need to add stupid yellow streaks going through Flash's costume, for example, or V-neck armour for Superman. Or goddamn dog collars on Wonder Woman and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner's costume before Hal returned). Or the overuse of single or double page spreads. Sometimes, just a well-placed panel works so much better than spreads, which I feel should only be used for big moments where you need to see a larger picture.

I also think certain artists work much better with certain writers. Grant Morrison seems to bring out the best in Frank Quitely (and vice versa). Warren Ellis brings out the best of the John Cassaday. And best example of all, Jeph Loeb brings the best out of Tim Sale (and vice versa). In fact, I don't know any work of Tim Sale's that I enjoyed even remotely as much as his work with Loeb.

All that said, I also think certain artists are needed for certain stories. I also really like Jeff Lemire's work, but it's not a style for, say, superheroes. It works best for character-driven stories like Essex County or Sweet Tooth. Same as Tony Harris on his Starman work. They're not artists suited well for a lot of action.

CynicismKills said:

Art is a big thing to me, and personally it's very hard for me to read books with bad/ugly art, even if I'm in it for the long haul story-wise.

The two who come to my mind immediately are Greg Land and Humberto Ramos. Bad art, tracing, horrible proportions and overall just boring to look at, but they make deadlines so they keep working.

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One of my all time favorite X-stories is the Xtinction Agenda, the story where they get captured by the Genoshan government and Cameron Hodge kills Warlock (I was a HUGE New Mutants fan, and they're extremely prominent in the storyline). Though I have to fight my way through half the issues being drawn by Rob Liefeld (explains itself) and Jon Bogdanove (Who's art at the time was really sloppy, IMO).

I do love me some really stylized art, though, too. Such as Mike Mignola, Joe Maduriera, and Peter David.

Bowielee said:

Peter David.

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But...he's a writer?

ThatNickGuy said:

But...he's a writer?

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Sorry, Larry Stroman. They were the creative team behind the second iteration of X-factor. Sometimes I accidentally swap the writers and the artists