In another thread we were discussing the merits of "cartoony" artists, like Mike Parobeck, Mike Wieringo, and Bruce Timm. It has been said that there are people who don't appreciate their work as much as some of the more realistic artists.

Who do you like and why?

Most comic book readers are no longer kids----they're grown men in their 20's, 30's, and 40's. I think many associate "cartoony style" with books aimed at kids, and they feel that the action comic books they read just be targetted towards them...adults. That's why you do NOT see Archie comics villified for their artwork because the same people who dislike "toony artwork" feel it is appropriate in a non-action comic book aimed at teens and pre-teens. But God help the artist who draws 'toony style in a mainstream superhero comic book like when Mike Weiringo was drawing Fantastic Four or Ms. Marvel.

I'm 42 and I thought Waid's and Wieringo's run on Fantastic Four was wonderful. Those who can't appreciate cartoony styles need to hear some of the more realistic artists talk about Alex Toth.

Those are 3 of my favorites artists. And I never heard anything bad about Ringo's run on FF, it was raved about on the boards I frequented at the time.

I really like and appreciate all of those artists, although I do think that 'Ringo can be too cartoony for certain books, say the Punisher for instance, a more gritty and realistic character. What I don't like is distorted bizzaro art like Humberto Ramos. It has its place I'm sure, but that place isn't Spider-Man or Wolverine.

Joe Staton, Kurt Shaffenberger (on and off cartoony)

I think some one really stylized and cartoony is perfect for Spidey. Wolverine, not so much.

Go back to the archives of the Fantastic Four message board at Comicboards.com. Most fans there liked Waid and 'Ringo's work. But even there....you read posts from fans who said they could not stand the artwork simply because it was "toony". I suspect you will find similar sentiments at Newsarama.

There is one artist whose caracitures was extremely polarizing. People either loved his work or absolutely hated it. Juan Bobillo. Once I got used to his style, I found his artwork was perfectly suited for Dan Slott's humour. Eventually, he had to leave She-Hulk, but I think it was for personal reasons and not for the complaints of the naysayers. There was one guy who told me he loved Dan Slott's writing, but he was convinced the book would fail because of Bobillo's artwork. But he turned around and he expressed genuine disappointment when it turned out that Bobillo was leaving the book again.

I love Ringo, Parobeck, Darwyn Cooke, Paul Smith, etc. I've recently seen complaints about the artist on Punisher War Journal, Ariel Olivetti, but since one of my favorite Punisher artists is Mike Zeck, I don't have a problem with a cartoony artist on the character.

C.C. Beck. There. I've posted it. Had to get that out of my system.

There are many artists that fall into this category that I love; Mike Parobeck, Bruce Timm, Darwyn Cooke, & Rick Burchett, to name a few. I also liked Joe Staton's work on the JSA in the 1970s, where he was inked by Bob Layton.

I buy almost anything Ringo draws.

I hate, loathe, and despise the work of Humberto Ramos.

I am another comic fan who is not keen on cartoony art. Some I can tolerate like Ringo and to a lesser extent McGuinness but others like Cooke, Timm and Ramos I can respect but take no pleasure from. Others like Mahfood (?) et al should not be working on Superhero comics at all.

I like Mahfood on random issues just for fun, but I agree, I wouldn't want to see him regularly on a superhero comic.

Another artist that comes to mind is Stuart Immomen. He has at least two distinct styles, a more realistic style (see Secret Identity) and a cartoony one (see Nextwave). I actually like both styles a lot.

When I read those three words, I had the mental image of Rogue telling a waiter at a restaurant how she wanted her food cooked...

Love Ringo's artwork. Have since the first time I saw it.

Love Carlo Barberri, Todd Nauck and others who made Impulse and JLU books animated with their styles.

And I think McGuinness draws downright awesome looking Bats/Supes!

I've heard the argument as well that people don't want artists to draw cartoony in comic books.

Seems like an absurd statement to me!

And, I'm halfway through Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier, and I'm digging it!

I forgot about Ty Templeton. And Don Newton got his start as a C.C. Beck assistant.

Though I loved Byrne, Perez, Golden, and Adams in my youth, nowadays I trend more toward cartoonier styles because so many of the up-and-coming artists Quesada is hiring have such a Byrne-Perez vibe, or worse, a geneic photorealistic vibe, that I find myself looking for anyone doing anything original stylistically. That said, I like Bruce Timm, 'Ringo, Frank Quitely, Paul Pope, Kevin O'Neil, Ben Templesmith, Darwyn Cooke, Will Eisner, Jack Cole, P. Craig Russell, Alan Davis, Mike Oeming, Dustin Nguyen, Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, Eric Powell, Casanova's Gabriel Ba, and Godland's Tom Scioli (anybody see the 60 cent issue? Bea-utiful!). All of them are excellent storytellers. And I've always loved design-oriented artwork with overt geometry in its compositions, like Miller's work, Nguyen's work on Wildcats 3.0, and Ba's work on Casanova. I don't mind being reminded that I'm reading a comic book with comic book conventions.

Lies! You must be stopped from spreading such talk.

Good luck!

Anybody ever catch McGuiness' run on Mr Majestic? Awesome stuff!