Curt Swan. When I think of Superman, I think of Curt Swan.Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is a close second because of the promotional stuff he did with DC, etc.
Top 5:
1. Curt Swan
2. Jose Garcia-Lopez
3. Dan Jurgens
4. John Byrne
5. Gary Frank
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Curt Swan. When I think of Superman, I think of Curt Swan.Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is a close second because of the promotional stuff he did with DC, etc.
Top 5:
1. Curt Swan
2. Jose Garcia-Lopez
3. Dan Jurgens
4. John Byrne
5. Gary Frank
Mine are influenced by my childhood I guess...
1) Swan - he was Superman's artist, period.
2) Kurt Schaffenberger - not on the list, but he was my favorite often back then, especially for Earth 2 stories (Mr. & Mrs. Superman) and Superboy stories.
3) John Byrne - I loved his art for any character and he redefined Superman in many ways back in the 80's
4) José Luis García-López - great on anything
5) Joe Shuster - the original
Guys like Neal Adams and Alex Ross do great work, but I never see them as the 'defining artist' for any character. I feel each of the 5 I listed has a strong influence on Superman's look/feel and I liked looking at the art as well (Wayne Boring had a ton of influence over Superman's look for years but I really don't care much for his art vs the others).
i just said Frank Quitely as All Star is my favorite Superman story and comic of all time.
I had to give some love to Ed McGuinness. His work on Superman really revitalised my interest in the character after several years of pretty mediocre, lacklustre art.
Frank Quitely for me. The guy is just incredible.
Honourable mentions to Curt Swan (my childhood favourite), John Byrne, Stuart Immonen, Gary Frank and Steve Rude.
Dan Jurgens votes baffle me. The guy is totally professional and always on-model - but at the same time it's consistently bland and devoid of character.
[QUOTE=Jim Kelly;232688]I fail to understand why CBR conducts all these polls. What is the purpose of their study--will it lead to something? They certainly aren't using a scientific method. By predetermining which artists that people vote on they are skewing the results and their study is bound to prove baseless.[/QUOTE]
For fun
[QUOTE=dancj;236268]For fun[/QUOTE]
To me it feels like when a parent introduces some activity for their children, so the kids can have some structured play. Yet the parent fails to observe that the kids are fully capable of playing on their own and having their own fun--they don't need parental interference. Like I said before, this topic comes up all the time on the Superman forum--it's one of the most often posted topics. Superman fans don't need CBR to tell them how to have fun--they're capable of doing that all on their own. And the best thing is that when a fellow poster suggests this topic, she or he takes part in the ongoing discussion. As a parent, CBR never gets down on the floor and plays with us on our level.
Agree too that's a very interesting poll.
Was a very tough choice for me to vote too in who's the greatest Superman artist of all time.
So many wonderful artists to choose from.
I like Curt Swan, John Byrne, Wayne Boring and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.
Can we pick more than one? ;)
man, this was tough. i grew up with Curt Swan. that was the easiest part. i'm a big fan of Ed McG (not of his Elvis cape, but everything was cool) and Tom Grummett, too. John Byrne and Jerry Ordway would round out my top 5.
Lots of people go with Swan, and I see why, he could make the characters emote like nobody's business. My favorite used to be Byrne, but somehow I stopped liking him quite so much as I used to. Not sure why, nor am I totally certain how much of it had to do with the writing as opposed to the art. Jon Bogdanove is fantastic, so is McGuinness, and both Gil Kane and Ross Andru are super underrated, as is Kurt Schaffenberger, who consistently gets left out of polls like these despite being consistently amazing.
That said, my personal favorite of the lot is still Joe Shuster, whose raw energy and youth set him head and shoulders above the rest.
Though not a lot of people seem to agree with me- Swan is far and away leading the poll.
My top 10 favorites.
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(First to newest): Joe Shuster, Fred Ray, Wayne Boring (I prefer Wayne Boring over Curt Swan), Jack Kirby, Neal Adams (I prefer Neal Adams over Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez), Gil Kane, John Byrne, Steve Rude, Darwyn Cooke, and Alex Ross.
It looks like a lot of folks base their favorites on their childhood nostalgia of Superman. If I was basing my favorites purely on my childhood memories then it would be Alex Toth (Super-Friends), Curt Swan, Dick Giordano, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez along with Neal Adams. But I don't consider everything Superman that I had from my childhood the greatest just because it's from my childhood.
[IMG]http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae48/batmankelleyjones/PicMonkeyCollage-2.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Adekis;237994]That said, my personal favorite of the lot is still Joe Shuster, whose raw energy and youth set him head and shoulders above the rest.
Though not a lot of people seem to agree with me- Swan is far and away leading the poll.[/QUOTE]
Revisiting those the Shuster stuff in the Superman Chronicles collections DC put out a little while back gave me a new fondness for his work. You're right on, what it lacked in polish it more than made up for in a brash vitality. The Superman Dailies that IDW is putting out now are giving me a new found respect for Wayne Boring's stuff.
[QUOTE=Mister BoMan;234133]Curt Swan. When I think of Superman, I think of Curt Swan.Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is a close second because of the promotional stuff he did with DC, etc.
[/QUOTE]
I think that's what puts Garcia-Lopez at the top of my list (and with no disrespect to Swan whatsoever.) That promotional stuff, coming out when it did, really cemented his version of Superman in my mind. It was really neat to see him sketching at the Motor City con back in May.
Gotta go with Curt Swan and John Byrne as my favorites. Though I do have alot of nostalgia for Dan Jurgens Superman, since I started consistently reading the Superman titles right around the "Death of Superman" arc and remained for [i]years[/i].
Curt Swan, no contest