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Top 5 Comic Artists

I previously shared my Top 5 Comic Authors, but who are my Top 5 Comic Artists? Let’s see!

Gabriel Rodriguez

Locke & Key is among my favorite graphic novel series and is penned by Joe Hill (on my Top 5 Authors list) and illustrated by the crazy talented Rodriguez. He brought the supernatural evil that the Locke siblings were fighting to life, and the recent Netflix series tried their best to replicate the amazing world that Rodriguez had created on the page to the screen. He designed a believable world, with each page brimming with detail. This duo is expanding the Locke universe and I am ready for it!

Mike Norton

I first discovered Norton as the illustrator of the eight-volume rural noir series Revival. Norton perfectly captured the inhabitants of a Wisconsin town that get caught up in a supernatural mystery. His line work is excellent and he knows how to capture the essence of characters. I recently read the anthology Superman: Red and Blue and they saved his illustrations for last as it was the best of the bunch. He is also known for his fantasy Battlepug series. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a C2E2 convention I attended a few years back and he was very charming!

Jonas Scharf

I first fell in love with Scharf’s work in the Bone Parish trilogy but also admired the one-and-done Warlords of Appalachia. He captures a gritty realism in characters that few artists can. I will be reading the supernatural trilogy Basilisk soon, another collaboration with Cullen Bunn (found on my Top 5 Authors list), so I can immerse myself again in Scharf’s world-building.

Fiona Staples

Saga would not be Saga with Staples! I noticed on volumes seven-nine that she was given first credit, and I applaud that because in graphic novels it is often the art that makes the story. Staples’ visuals are top-notch and while Vaughn’s storytelling is superb, it would not be the same sci-fi space epic if not for the illustrations. I am thrilled that after a multi-year break, Saga is back at it, and I look forward to admiring the new alien worlds she creates as the second half of the story unfolds.

Wendy Pini- the QUEEN!

ElfQuest is my cornerstone in the comics world. I was introduced to the World of Two Moons by my highschool boyfriend (now my husband!) and I fell immediately in love with this elven tribe. Artist Wendy Pini and her husband Richard Pini began this fantasy series in 1978 and wrapped it up in 2018- 40 years later. When I was introduced to it in the early 1990s, I eagerly read older copies and then kept up with it going forward. There were some experimentations with other artists for some of the branching-off storylines, but it was only Wendy Pini that I would accept as the artist. She defines ElfQuest and despite some good storytelling by her husband, I love ElfQuest solely because of her exquisite work. Long live the Queen of comics!

Honorable mentions: Faith Erin Hicks (but she was in my Top 5 authors, as she is a double threat!) Matthew Roberts (Manifest Destiny), Emily Carroll (Through the Woods, Out of Skin, and Speak), Skottie Young ( I Hate Fairyland) and Jeff Lemire (Roughneck, Essex County and Secret Path).

Who are your favorites, and why???

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Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide

Graciela Iturbide is a famous photographer who was born in Mexico City in 1942. But, she didn’t start out wanting to be one. She wanted to be a writer when she was a girl. However, Graciela was from a wealthy and conservative family, and young girls simply didn’t have careers in the arts. When they grew up, they married, had children, and kept house. Graciela did do that for a time – until her daughter passed away. Then, she turned to the camera and what had before been only a hobby became her life’s work. She travels her home country of Mexico, and abroad to India and the United States, capturing portraits, landscapes, and birds. She looks for symbols, true reality, and death behind her lens. Her work has gone on to receive worldwide recognition and awards… and she’s not done yet.

This is quite an interesting graphic novel. It’s a memoir, a retrospective, a catalog of photographs, and an artist’s biography. Like Iturbide’s photographs, the art is all in black and white. The reason she only photographs black and white is, that’s how she feels reality is captured. Her photographs are a study in value and symbolism. There are a few within the book, and they are marvelous. The artist recreates some in his illustrations, and they are delightfully true to the source material. They are rendered with strong black lines but with gentle washes of grey to give tone.

Iturbide’s work strives toward understanding. Understanding her Mexican culture, the role of women and femininity, the juxtaposition of rural vs. modern life, and much more. Her work is held at many prestigious museums, including the Getty, who published this graphic novel. I hope it is the first of many portraits of modern artists and their work!

– Kathleen

Quintero, Isabel, and Zeke Peña. Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide. 2018.

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