Who do you think are the most distinctive, least like-everyone-else comic artists? The ones whose styles seem to be the farthest from what 'most people' are or were doing? Kirby and Ditko were towering giants - and then Neal Adams too - whose work influenced everyone to an extent so we'll give them a pass in the sense that my list will feature people who were- imo - least like any of those gentlemen.

My comics golden age was 66-79, and some dipping in after that, but within that timescale I think the ones that best qualify for what I'm talking about here are:

Gene Colan - who else was even trying to draw in that cinematic, subtle style of his?
Jim Steranko - a pop art phenomenon who married surrealism and comic art to produce a really interesting hybrid of the two
Alex Nino - producing a beautiful, fluid impressionistic line
Mike Ploog - whose monster work and work on Planet of the Apes had a gnarly power that few others were even attempting
Mike Mignola - a latecomer to me whose work I found fascinating (and almost fascinatingly ugly) when I discovered it in 1988 or so

Who are your top five?

Is this a stealth Byrne thread?

Frank Miller jumps out at me for this question.

I'd add Gil Kane to that list.

Rob Liefeld, without question.

Bernie Wrightson
Barry Windsor-Smith
Mike Kaluta
P. Craig Russell
Alex Toth

The first artists that I was able to identify by their work. Didn't know there names, but I knew that there was "a guy" that was drawing differently than anyone else...

Kurt Schaffenberger
Wayne Boring
Jack Kirby
Mike Sekowsky
Steve Ditko

Swan is not on the list because he set the house style and had people drawing in his fashion.
Same with CC Beck.

Quitely
Sienkiewicz
Mignola
Jae Lee
Bachalo

Frank Quitely

Sam Kieth

IMO, Junkie understands this question.

Expand on this, please. Curt Swan is one of the artists I would have picked.

Walt Simonson
Joe Kubert
Jock

When I was a little kid, Al Plastino, Jim Mooney, John Forte, and Curt Swan all tried to be drawing the same way. Later on I realized that they were all trying to draw like Swan.

As a kid, Kirby, Ditko, Big John Buscema, Colan, and Byrne. A little later Simonson, Perez, and Miller.

Distinctive?
As in "stands out from the crowd"?
Well, that would be:
Steranko
Gene Colon
Carmine Infantino
and later:
Marshall Rogers
George Perez

Keith Giffen. Especially in the early '90s.

Fletcher Hanks certainly qualifies as distinctive.Not saying he's good,but distinctive.
Basil Wolverton was both distinctive and good.

Yeah, but it's a big difference between them and the real thing.

Frank Robbins is another artist who's definitely distinctive but whose "goodness" might be a matter of some debate.

Not when you're six.

Thanks for the reminder.
Add John Forte to my list.
Always good to see his name listed;
one of the most forgotten back-benchers of the Silver Age.