I was wondering which artists are your favourites (not including pin-up artists or artists who have drawn less than 5 issues)?

My top five are as follows:

1) Geoff Senior - UK Comics and Marvel Comics
2) Don Figueroa - DW Comics and IDW Comics
3) Don Perlin - Marvel Comics
4) Frank Springer - Marvel Comics
5) Lee Sullivan - UK Comics

Honorary mentions to William Johnson (#7 & #8 of the Marvel Run) however, he doesn't qualify since he only did two issues. The same may apply to Frank Springer 'cause he only did eight (8) issues (#1-4 & Headmasters). I'm an old school fan of comic artwork so the post-DW stuff doesn't impress me as much as the early stuff.

Before you start asking me what colour is the sky in my world, keep in mind that when I ask who is a good artist; the following should apply:
- good sequentials (most important for me, personally)
- good storytelling (second most imprtant)
- good grasp of transformer anatomy
- good grasp of human anatomy and human expressions
- good backgrounds (ex. do the cities look like real cities?)
- good tf scale relationships (is Omega drawn significantly larger than Bumblebee)
- consistency

 

simon furman (as usal) simon wildman, don figueroa and guidi guido  

 

Crobot:

I'm going to break your rules and vote for William Johnson anyway, because issue no. 7 was the first comic book I ever owned, and his version of Ratchet made me a solid fan of Dr. Party Ambulance.

Geoff Senior is also really good. I like Don Perlin's work, too, and Don Reed's Ultra Magnus. Perlin's little asides and footnotes were a bit of campy comic fun -- why don't we get that stuff any more? The recurrence of Toaster in the UK run were similar -- nice little lighthearted jokes. Nowadays your 'easter eggs' tend to be G1 or pop-culture references, which is fine too, but I like the jokes better. (Grimlock's grunt sequence in TWW was a neat little gag of this type.)

I am also rather fond of Hirofumi Ichikawa's 'Linkage' mini-comic. The storytelling was good, if slightly confusing (to be fair, it was basically an Armada mini-comic!) and he does very fine toy-based art. Don Figueroa is another good artist, too, and pretty handy with cardboard and paper fasteners, to boot.

All the Marvel artists were at least adequate storytellers, and that's something I miss in the newer comics. There is a definite bias toward dramatically posed tableaux rather than seamlessly flowing visual storytelling. I don't wish to start an argument, but I'd hardly object to a Prime with robo-window-breasts if I knew what he was doing and why.

The first few issues of IDW's Infiltration do tell the story fairly well, if a bit slowly. They're good enough to keep reading, though.

 

I'm going to break your rules too, just because the title got me interested.

1. Don Figueroa. By far the best TF artist, IMO.
2. Weewoo. Uncompromising 3D skills. Was way ahead of her time.
3. Makoto Ono. Dude can draw. Not only that, but did some kick ass 3D.

 

geoff senior. amazing flow.

lee sullivan. underrated since ppl confused him for geoff.

william johnson! legendary! dr party ambulance FTW!

also, that dude who did some work in the way of the warrior storyline.

 

A toss-up between Jose Delbo and Pat Lee. They're both just such incredibly talented artists that it's hard to pick between them.

























Naturally, I'm joking.  

 

Don Figueroa hands down.
His artwork is one of the things that got me back into comics to begin with.

 

DON and Guido Guidi

 

Don and Andrew Wildman. (Tho I'd like to give props to Guido if I may.)  

 

Geoff Senior and Don Figueroa, sort of a then and now kind of thing.

And those Wildman and Guidi guys ain't too shabby.  

And Johnson at least gets an honorable mention b/c Marvel #7-8 are friggin' beautiful.

 

not an artist

buh.

Guido Guidi is my favorite TF artist of all time. he doesnt go crazy with alterations to the design, he poses them perfectly, and he's the only person I know of that can draw show accurate TFs from any series.

Andrew Wildman is second. his TFs didnt always look like Tfs, but they were very expressive and his battle scenes rocked.

Don Figueroa is a distant third. I'm not ga-ga over the guy's work like everyone else is. he changes important details a lot, which gets really annoying. has he ever drawn an optimus with a nose? or had megatron's face look at all like megatron's face? he also tries to make the TFs look "bad-ass" no matter what they're doing which is also incredibly annoying.

 

Guido Guidi is probably my fave, because he's got a good balance, and is great at drawing TFs that look like they stepped out of an animated show, except better.

Don F. (please pardon for spelling laziness) Personally, I like him best as a designer as opposed to comic artist.

Derek Yaniger. He managed to bring a new style to TFs in the G2 comics, which worked a lot better than I expected. Too bad so much of the G2 comic ended up in the hands of the hacky Manny Galan (who actually might not have been so bad if he didn't try to emulate Yaniger's style)

I think I'm not too bad either, but I don't really do TF comics.

 

Andy Wildman (especially when inked by Stephen Baskerville), Don, Guido.

 

Thanks for the replies, I was surprised to see some of you agreeing with respect to Geoff Senior; I always felt he was extremely underrated (I guess I was wrong, cool).

Switchblade: dude, you scared me there for a sec, lol!

I always felt that Guido Guidi, Pat Lee, and Joe Ng are awesome "pin-up" artisits but their storytelling and sequential art always fell short of professional standards (surprisingly Pat is working for Marvel these days; his connections must be huge).

My problem with Andrew Wildman is that I felt his transformers were too cartoony and looked too much like humans dressed in tf costumes with "gummy" bolts and wires hanging from "battle damage." That's not to say he's not a good comic artist; I just felt his style did not work well with TF's.

I think E.J. Su has the potential to move up in my personal fav list; however, he hasn't drawn too many bots yet to persuade me. Although, his humans and storytelling are great.

Jose Delbo & Manny Galen are both "hacks" (to quote Feralstorm) and did not deserve to draw TF's. I completely forgot Derek Yaniger's cool interpretation of TF's (you either like 'em or hate 'em).

Hey Primus: do you have any examples or links for the two individuals you mentioned; never heard of 'em...

 

I also forgot to mention that the great comic legend JIM LEE did two awesome covers for TF's for the Marvel run. That picture of a crazy Galvatron is the best cover EVER, IMO!

And I agree with all of you, it would have been awesome if Johnson did more issues; he was the best pound-for-pound. I'm hoping that IDW convinces him to do some work for them...

 

 

i thought derek was o-kay with g2, but then geoff came on board and blew him out of the water.

geoffs rendition of warworld for instance, just...man.

 

Don Figueroa

 

Weewoo=

http://www.ridforever.info/gallery/The-Super-Fire-Convoy-Project

makoto ono=

http://makotron.deviantart.com/

 

DON and Geoff Senior. Somewhat [okay, very] different styles, but both very good.

I also do like Wildman [a lot] and both Guido & Joe NG.

 

Dan Khanna and MACRAPTRON from these boards.