Who are some of the greatest "Western" artists and illustrators

[El_Psy_Congroo]

My foray into the comic world was through manga, and I'm not too familiar with Western artists, be it of the American or Franco-Belgian tradition, except for a few popular indie comics. Obviously there are comic makers all over the world, so if you know of any artists beyond America and France/Belgium, by all means share! I just wanted to broaden my inspiration beyond Japanese artists.

So who are some of your favorites? Pictures would be great =]

[TrustyShamrock]

im not sure where all of these peeps are from (probs mostly america) but some of my favs are olivier coipel and stuart immonen cuz they got super clean and detailed styles but i also like jill thompson cuz shes a beast with water colors and fun character designs

[Menbung]

Fufufufufu, Olivier Coipel is from france and Immonen is from Canada XD. But yeah Psy, what are u really look for?.

Coz there are japanese artists that draw "western style". So are you looking for "western style artists". Or artists born in the "west".

Coz, again, there are also artist from the "west" that draw like the "east".

[AnnaLandin]

HI LET ME IMPART UPON YOU THE GOSPEL OF BLACKSAD

Juanjo Guarnido is a god of watercolours and we should all WISH we were that talented some day, and Juan Diaz Canales writes great, great stories.

Likewise, Enrique Fernandez. I'm unsure of whether his comics are available in English, but you should get them anyway, because his artwork carries the weight of the story so well you sometimes don't even need the dialogue.

Mike Mignola's Hellboy is astonishing, not just for the story it tells, but for the absolutely amazing touch Mignola has for visual pacing and layout.

Linda Medley's Castle Waiting is also a must-read, especially for anyone interested in finding a good inspiration for linework because holy heck does this lady know how to use black and white.

As far as Franco-Belgian stuff goes, you can't go wrong with Moebius (aka: Jean Giraud):

... and of course there's always the classics like Tintin and Asterix and all that. I also want to give a specific shoutout to Derib, who draws both Yakari and Buddy Longway:

I'd also like to recommend Joe Sacco, who does journalistic comics - as in, not auto-bio, but actual journalism, in comic-format.

... that's about all I've got for now; I'll get back to you once I've gone through my comics-shelf. I'm probably leaving TONS out.

[El_Psy_Congroo]

@AnnaLandin
Good lord you're like the kid who loves doing their homework. A++ thank you =]

Enrique Fernandez's coloring is fracking gorgeous.

@Menbung
Just any artists you like that aren't from Japan. Its fine if they're influenced by Japanese art. I'm basically trying to expand my library of artists who's work I can drool over, on those occasions when I feel like spitting on my self-worth as an artist haha

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

Most of my favorite western artists are animators. That's what I draw influence from in my comic.

I'm very fond of the work of Disney's nine old men (Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnson are my favorites of them). Don Bluth is another one. A third one is Aaron Blaise who has a great YouTube channel. I really recommend checking out "Aaron's Art Tips" if you want a more western perspective on these things.

[Ospare]

Can we also feature up and coming artists that are onto something?

[saerel]

ENKI BILAL.

I could stare at each single cell of his comics for hours. Each stroke is masterful.
Also for some reason I'm not managing to upload images, but really, look him up if you dont know him.

On a completelly different style, Hugo Pratt of course with his Corto Maltese, the simplicity and elegance of pure ink lines with a slight ink or watercolor wash.

[Shanny8]

Old school artists: Jack Kirby, George Perez, Walt Simonson, John Byrne

Late 80s/90s artists: Marc Silvestri, Joe Madureira, Jim Lee, J Scott Campbell, Ryan Benjamin, Travis Charest

Early 2000s- now: Ed McGuinness, Mahmud Asrar, Pepe Larraz, Sean Gordon Murphy, Stuart Immonen, Jim Cheung

Tried to add pics to go with, but the thread is not allowing me to upload again...

[Ospare]

In that case I've got some stars to showcase

Declan Shalvey for example, he's got a style that fuses the Jim Lee aesthetic with the french "Ligne claire"

He's currently working on a techno-thriller with Warren "4chan is scared of me" Ellis called INJECTION:


(Sherlock//James Bond//DR Who//Twilight Zone//Hellblazer, on steroids)

Ronald Wimberly (d-pi.tumblr.com) is amazing in terms of composition, exotic color palette and creating very original piece of work (he's got kind of an holistic approach to comics)


Manga culture has a big influence on him (cough..AKIRA, cough, cough, he also did a AOT comics available here: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/12/read-ronald-wimberlys-entire-story-from-the-attack.html)
A panel from his "Prince of Cats" (Hip Hop moves and Samurai battles fused with Romeo And Juliet in Brooklyn setting):

Frazer Irving (frazerirving.tumblr.com/) paints with light.

Frank Quitely (comicvine.gamespot.com/frank-quitely/4040-7369/)
destroys spacial construction

And reconstruct it

And He also drew one of Grant Morrison's best moments.

J H Williams III (jhwilliams3.com/) is pretty freaking neato too:

Panel composition is pretty crazy with him

Julia Gfrörer (It rhymes with despair)
(http://doopliss.tumblr.com/)
TRIGGER WARNING: She draws some graphic stuff (in the violence, abuse, sexual variety)
She has a somber, minimalist style that fuses with her writing in interesting ways:

She works in horror as related to hetero-sexual love and question the normative mascunlinity

Christian Ward (http://www.cjwardart.com/)
doing something to my retinas I can't understand

I got some others like becky cloonan or marco Rudy but I don't want to flood the forum with more pics :/

[thorbjornlyk]

So I haven't read a lot of western comics bu Jamie McKelvie does some pretty sweet stuff.

(All the best pictures I could find was massive spoilers so here take this one)

(This one probably is a massive spoiler but it's one of the things that impressed me to buy the comic from which the above picture comes from)

[KoreanTacos]

Is it cliche for me to say Bill Watterson the creator of Calvin & Hobbes? He is my immediate influence.

[ryoko]

Chuck Jones. He worked for Warner Bros. I loved his style and interpretation of Bugs Bunny and the other greats from WB https://scottygillmer.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/pussyfoot2.jpg

Bill Peet. He worked for Disney and designed characters for 101 Dalmations, The Jungle Book, Sword in the Stone and several others. I loved his children's books when I was growing up https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ca/8e/e7/ca8ee7054ca289182f21405fac53ef26.jpg

Don Bluth. Again, his character designs always had that something 'different' that set him apart. http://iccfilm110.pbworks.com/f/1426806517/tumblr_mqqk19ULqw1rsu354o2_r1_400.jpg