Welcome back to another installment of Marvel Snapshot. Last week I gave a few of Marvel’s writers the spotlight and the poll indicated that people really like Kyle and Yosts’ work. This week I’m going to thrust the illustrators into the line of fire. I’m really picky with artwork so this will be very interesting. Just a side note here; this is a list of current or up and comers just like last week. So lets get it on!
First up is Paul Pelletier (Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, War of Kings). This guy has got to be the top cosmic guy bar none. His work on Guardians and in War of Kings was just right on the money in every issue. His big battle scenes are great and so are the dialogue frames as well. I love his character work and his inanimate objects are unrivaled.
Next we have Mike Choi (X-Force, Uncanny X-Men). Choi does a great job with the hand to hand combat action in X-Force every month. He seems to know exactly just how much blood to splatter without going too far. I love the way he draws Warpath and X-23 especially; these two characters in particular look absolutely menacing. That book has a very dark tone and Choi’s art is nearly flawless on every page of said book. He also did some solid work in Uncanny X-Men from issue #495-499 (Divided We Stand).
The next artist is my favorite cover guy; David Finch (Avengers, Ultimates, New Avengers, Messiah Complex). His interior work is above average but I really enjoy his covers. I find myself feeling that way with him for the most part. He did some Messiah Complex covers that just blew me away. I guess some artists are just better at a one shot deal rather than toiling away at a whole book. It almost sounds like borderline laziness to me, but he does enough great covers that I don’t really care if he is lazy to be honest.
Fourth on my list is Olivier Coipel (Thor). This is one of Marvel’s exclusive artists and for good reason. I’m in and out with buying Thor but the issue I do own with Coipels’ art in them are top notch. He really does a good job with this whole Donald Blake walking around talking to “Ghost Thor.” That is something that I think would be difficult to pull off from one issue to the next. There is a certain way in my opinion that characters of great power and dignity should be drawn and he hits a home run with this in Thor.
Last but not least is Stuart Immonen (Ultimate Spider-Man, Captain Britain & MI13, New Avengers). Immonens’ work on the late Captain Britain series was undeniably great. He has recently done New Avengers and hopefully will take over permanently for that title. I’ve checked out his Ultimate books as well and they are good too. OK so that’s it for my “A” team now the honorable mention squad.
1. Mark Djurdjevic (Thor, Ultimates)
2. Billy Tan (Thor, Uncanny X-Men, X-23)
3. Daniel Acuna (X-Men: Legacy, Nova)
4. Mike Deodato (Wolverine Origins, Dark Avengers)
5. Jim Cheung (Secret Warriors, Illuminati, Marvel exclusive artist)
Now out of that list I must say briefly that Deodato and Cheung are my favorites and could easily be on the other list. They both are accomplished artists with their own strengths, but I like to keep the lists simple so I went with the top five only. Well that’s it for this week, I’ll see you next time and don’t forget to leave me a comment on your favorite Marvel artist!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
Great calls all around man! Although, I’m not sure if Mike Choi does the blood splattering with ‘X-Force’ or if that’s the colorist, Sonia Oback?
My favorite Marvel artists currently working on titles are Mike Choi, Marc Silvestri, and Terry Dodson. Yes, I’m an X-junkie.
I like Oliver Coipel’s work on Thor but there’s something about the way he draws the face thats just weird to me. I’ve tried to explain it to others but they don’t see what I see
@ speech-I know what your talking about. They seem sort of distorted.
@ andy-Hmmm, I wonder, does he draw the splatters and then she colors them or does she just place them all herself.