Like the title says, who's your favourite Barry Allen artist over the years??
Carmine Infantino
Ross Andru
Irv Novick
Alex Saviuk
Francis Manapul
Scott Kolins
Brett Booth
Howard Porter
Other
Carmine Infantino
Ross Andru
Irv Novick
Alex Saviuk
Francis Manapul
Scott Kolins
Brett Booth
Howard Porter
Other
Like the title says, who's your favourite Barry Allen artist over the years??
Carmine Infantino
Ross Andru
Irv Novick
Alex Saviuk
Francis Manapul
Scott Kolins
Brett Booth
Howard Porter
Other
Last edited by married guy; 03-02-2021 at 01:00 AM.
"My name is Wally West. I'm the fastest man alive!"
I'll try being nicer if you try being smarter.
I have to go with Manapul.
Porter is a close second, but somehow draws Wally "better"? I can't put my finger on it, but it feels that way.
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Carmine Infantino...even in the weird later years during the early 80s. Latter day Infantino was something of an acquired taste, but it suited me.
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Manapul is actually quite possibly my favorite artist for the Flash ever regardless of who's using the title. The guy knows how to evoke motion and kenetic feeling and his paneling is top notch.
My Top (3) Three:
1. Carmine Infantino
2. Francis Manapul
3. Darwyn Cooke
Manapul. Hands down.
But for the pre-New 52 Barry. I just hate the lines on the suit.
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Francis Manapul, especially from the first book Barry had when he came back, with the classic costume.
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Carmine Infantino was, is, and always will be my favourite comic book artist. He's the guy that got me so jazzed about comics that I had to keep buying them for the rest of my life.
Now Francis Manapul is a fellow Canadian and he's an artist whose style I really like. But other than both doing the Flash, it would be unfair to either artist to compare them--because they come from periods of comic book production that are so different they might as well be from two worlds.
In fact, Manapul is one of the mainstream comic book artists who could not exist in any other time prior to now, because the production technique is so sophisticated. It wasn't impossible to do this kind of art in the 1960s, but you would see it in high end magazines like PLAYBOY on Little Annie Fanny by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder with painted pages. I look at Francis Manapul's work and I always try to figure out the production process it had to go through to make it to the page.
Infantino was faced with completely different circumstances. And he probably wished he could have the kind of production available to PLAYBOY and now available to mainstream comics. Carmine was influenced by classy artists like Edgar Degas. His sketches on the page had to be interpreted by a great inker like Joe Giella so they could be properly photographed for the print run. Giella had to impose order on Infantino pencils. Imagine if Manapul could have embellished Infantino!
When it comes to Flash artists, there's Infantino and then there's everyone else. He created the look of Barry and Wally. He designed the city, the villains, the supporting characters. He set the standard for what the Flash is supposed to be.
I went with Irv Novick.
He was the artist for Barry when I first started regularly reading The Flash in the 1970s, and to me his art was perfectly moving. As for Carmine Infantino, as good as his stuff was in the early days, his later work did not suit my tastes (though maybe a different inker might have made a difference).
As a title, the Flash has been blessed with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to creators.
Both with writers AND artists.
And yeah Jim Kelly, you're right. I DID feel bad placing Manapul on the same list as Infantino, Novick, Andru & Saviuk for the exact reasons you listed.
But I also couldn't deny that as artists they had ALL made a pretty big mark on the character and should be there.
"My name is Wally West. I'm the fastest man alive!"
I'll try being nicer if you try being smarter.
Kirby aside, Carmine Infantino is pretty easily my favourite Silver Age artist and his Flash was so, so good. The earlier ones, especially, before his art got blockier.
Still, Francis Manapul's Flash was off the charts so I have to go with him.
Darwyn Cooke is a great call too.
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I never saw what others saw in Alex Saviuk's art. I believe he was just a kid when he came to work in comics--14 or so. And while that was interesting to me, I felt like he was too young and should have used the time to go to art school and improve his skills rather than doing work that he wasn't really prepared to do. For a kid it was okay, but it looked inept next to the pros. I was always conflicted about his work--because I felt sympathy for him, yet I hated his artwork and I never understood why he kept getting so much work. I just don't see what's good about it.