Is Stuart Immonen the most influential artist of the 2010s?

[Hcmarvel]

- This is inspired by a thread in the X-Forums -

In a discussion of the most important X-Line artists of the last decade it was generally agreed that Bachalo and Immonen are the most influential and defining X-Men artists of the decade. This is an interesting duo as they don't immediately seem as famous as previous artists who have defined the X-Men (From Neal Adams to John Byrne to Jim Lee to Joe Mad to John Cassaday).

Anyway, this led to a poster arguing that Immonen is probably the most influential superhero artist of the decade. And at first this did not seem right to me - Immonen, despite duties on Ultimate Spider-Man, All New X-Men, Star Wars, and Amazing Spider-Man never seemed to be the "Top" artist at the big two.

But if you look at the "house" style for Marvel right now...it really seems like Immonen is the guy that people like Silva, Larraz, Schiti are all drawing on for inspiration, especially his All New X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man artwork.

Can you think of a superhero artist who deserves to be considered the superhero artist of the 2010s over Immonen? I mean I think Capullo is probably the biggest name thanks to his Batman/ DC Metal work and Chris Samnee and David Aja had tremendously acclaimed runs on Daredevil and Hawkeye...but don't think those three have had tremendous influence in the way Immonen seems to. This isn't to argue Immonen is the best...he's among the best but everyone is going to have a different answer to that question...but is he the most important?

Am I forgetting someone obvious? Clearly there is no right answer but after giving it some thought it's hard to argue with Immonen's style being the go-to reference for modern superhero artists.

[DrNewGod]

I'm lack aesthetic enough to judge. He does, however, draw a pretty picture.

He's one of the few I enjoy as much as Buschema, Perez, Byrne, and Bagley.

[Snoop Dogg]

yes, affirmative, indeed, and so on

[charliehustle415]

His line work is unravelled, everything was so crisp and clean not only that he is one of the few that made faces look unique.

His expression work is so good

[Killerbee911]

Influential? Probably. Impactful? No .Hilarious someone like Greg Land,JMR or Leinil Francis Yu have had more impact. Immonen retired/move on there was barely a peep but clearly his style became marvel "house" style. Now I struggled to answer this question because the answer is because the answer to this question is never him primarily and the question is "if you have a huge event or your biggest book in time period being talk about which artist do you want on it." The answer is never Immonen for me BUT how modern comic works it would be couple of artist and he is one of the artist I would want on the it. He wouldn't be my first but definitely my second.

Anyway way random list of artists for no reason

Russell Dauterman,Pepe Larraz, Olivier Coipel, Bryan Hitch, Sara Pachelli, Rafael Albuquerque, Esad Ribić, Jerome Opeña, Jamie McKelvie, Chris Bachalo, Kris Anka, Steve McNiven, RB Silva, Frank Quietly, John Cassaday

[Jabare]

please tell me you did not just bring up Greg Land in the conversation for most impactful

[charliehustle415]

please tell me you did not just bring up Greg Land in the conversation for most impactful

LOL, well one can argue he was "impactful" in a negative way

[Killerbee911]

please tell me you did not just bring up Greg Land in the conversation for most impactful

The sheer fact that you have a strong opinion on Greg Land should tell you that is he more impactful to comics. I can make a thread put in the title Greg Land and it would have 5 pages before this even has a solid two. Greg Land "Porno face" is known to more comic fans than anything Immonen has done. They are number of youtube breakdown and website breakdowns of Greg Lands art. Quality isn't need for impact. Good or Bad people remember and have strong opinion that is impact.

The point in bringing up Land in this topic, That putting him on a book would create more of a buzz than Immonen. And something about Immonen lacks the buzz factor, Using sports terms Immonen is Tim Duncan arguably great but not flashy enough to get attention.

[Mike_Murdock]

What way are we defining impactful besides how it influences other artists?

[Zelena]

What way are we defining impactful besides how it influences other artists?

Well, I hope that Gregg Land will never influence any artist…

Yes, it’s not difficult to recognize the style. And it had an impact on me, in the sense I can’t still believe a publisher has let such thing be printed.

Maybe, it’s just a sign of decadence.

[Killerbee911]

Anyway sorry about bring up Land, I don't want talk about him to take over the thread and ruin what is a interesting topic.

[cc008]

yes, affirmative, indeed, and so on

co-signed.

[Hcmarvel]

What way are we defining impactful besides how it influences other artists?

It's a good question. But look at Michael Golden and Art Adams - - I have heard pretty good arguments that the two of them are the true precursors to the Image era. Heck Art Adams most famous creation Longshot has a sparkly eye, wears black leather, and has a bandolier of pouches. You can see a clear line from Golden and Adams work to Todd McFarlane (look at how Spider-Man is drawn in the Longshot miniseries), Liefield, Jim Lee, Erik Larson, etc. But I don't think anyone would argue Michael Golden or Art Adams are the artist of the 1980s.

Bryan Hitch on the other hand...there aren't that many artists that draw like Hitch (Neil Edwards? Steve McNiven?). And yet, I think a pretty good argument could be made he's the most important artist of the 1999-2009 era. He started as a sort of ugly Alan Davis clone but his widescreen approach to comic book storytelling in The Authority and The Ultimates changed how superhero art was done - and had a direct influence on how superhero movies were done I'd argue. Even the subject of this thread Stuart Immonen has been asked to do Bryan Hitch impressions at the tail end of Millar's Fantastic Four run. Where credit for "widescreen" comic storytelling begins and ends with Grant Morrison's JLA run, George Perez on Avengers, Warren Ellis' Stormwatch and Authority, Bryan Hitch, Mark Millar, Frank Quitely etc. could be argued but Hitch is clearly at the forefront of that trend.

I dunno. It's an interesting question to think on. I think I would argue the decades break down like this (again I'm doing superhero artists specifically)

1960s - The easiest decade to define. It's Kirby and Steranko with honorable mentions to Ditko and Buscema. Neal Adams began his X-Men run in 1969 so I'd argue he's more important to the...

1970s - It's Neal Adams, who influenced EVERYONE for the rest of the decade I'd argue. His page layouts alone were something totally new. I think you have to put Byrne here too whose early Uncanny X-Men work clearly laid the foundation for a lot of the artwork we'd see in the 1980s and 1990s. JIm Starlin and Barry Windsor Smith deserve mentioning here probably.

1980s - Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz, and George Perez. Miller brought Will Eisner's sensibilities to superhero comics and redefined how fight scenes could be laid out on the page. He also did more with negative space than a lot of his contemporaries. Sienkiewicz elevated what could be done with superhero artwork, bringing surrealism and collage in a way that hadn't been seen before. He started as a Neal Adams acolyte and went on to define the kind of artwork that would populate almost every Vertigo/mature readers book going forward. And he did it on New Mutants. And George Perez defined what the what the mega crossover should look like with Crisis and raised the stakes of what could be done with a team book with Teen Titans

1990s - Jim Lee, Alex Ross, and Joe Mad - I think Jim Lee was the most copied and most talented of the Image crew. Alex Ross brought a realism to superheroes that many other artists continue to chase. And Joe Mad, more than Ramos/Bachalo/etc. popularized the manga influence to superhero art that defined the late 90s

2000s - I do think it's Bryan Hitch who forced comics into the DVD era (I'm paraphrasing Grant Morrison's introduction to the first Authority trade there). After that it's a bit harder. I would have to mention Frank Quitely, Darwyn Cooke, JH Williams, Steve McNiven, Mike Allred, Tim Sale, Alex Maleev (a lot of artists looked like Alex Maleev circa 2006) and John Cassaday

2010s - As I said I think it's Stuart Immonen but as earlier posts have said, he was never a SUPERSTAR. If Wizard still existed, he would never have been number 1 on their top ten artists list at the back of the magazine. Does that preclude him from being on the list? By that kind of definition its probably Greg Capullo, David Finch, Ivan Reis, Olivier Copiel, or Leinil Francis Yu?


Who am I missing?


P.S. I reread this post and can't deny a true Marvel bias to my picks here. Carmine Infantino (but he's the 1950s yes?), Curt Swan, Jim Aparo, Brian Bolland (Did he do enough work to define a decade?), Dave Gibbons (Did anyone do the 9 panel grid better other than Ditko?), Kevin Macguire (who's work on facial expressions was incredibly groundbreaking), and especially Jose Luiz Garcia Lopez (who defined how DC Comics looked for 20 years) all might merit placement in their respective decades.

[your_name_here]

McNiven was always up there, especially after headlining Civil War.

[Hcmarvel]

McNiven was always up there, especially after headlining Civil War.

Agreed but Civil War is 2007 and Old Man Logan is 2009. In the 2010s I don't think McNiven has been as significant as you might think. 5 issues of Ed Brubaker's Captain America? Uncanny Avengers? Uncanny Inhumans? Parts of Secret Empire? 4 issues of Bendis' GOTG? Death of Wolverine (which is really well drawn mind you). He's a superstar artist but hasn't gotten fortunate to be on another book with nearly the acclaim of his 2005-2009 work.