A UK Magazine called Tripwire has been running a feature ranking "The 101 Greatest Comic Book Artists of All Time" for over a year now. What makes this a bit better than most lists (and why it's taking so long) is that they actually do a feature article on each artist with plenty of examples. The downside is that there doesn't seem to be a master list and I can't quite figure out the criteria in terms of ranking these guys.

Whatever you might think of his art, Carmine Infantino had quite a career and bit of influence. He was the top artist and designer for DC comics outside of the Sueprman titles during the 60s, he designed the Barry Allen Flash costume, the yellow oval Batman logo, a great number of the layouts for DC's most memorable covers from the time period, drew some of the most influential stories of the era, and enjoyed so much success that they ultimately made him EIC of the company. So it's a bit of a head scratcher that the likes of Shawn Martinbrough and Michael Zulli would be placed ahead of him of a "greatest" list. They don't seem to be of greater influence than many of the names they're ahead of and they don't really have a lot of star power or big sellers under their belts. I'm a little stumped.

I mean, Sean Philips over Carl Barks? Tarpe Mills ahead of CC Beck and Murphy Anderson? LB Cole ahead of Mac Raboy and Alex Toth? I'm baffled unless the list is solely based on personal taste (i which case, I withdraw any objections.)

Anyway, their most recent entry at #11 is Joe Kubert. Here's what they got so far --

101. Kevin Nowlan
100. Murphy Anderson
99. Jim Aparo
98. Tim Sale
97: Bob Fujitani
96: Syd Shores
95: CC Beck
94: Alan Davis
93: Carmine Infantino
92: Carl Barks
91: Fiona Staples
90: Todd McFarlane
89: Matt Baker
88: Michael Golden
87: George Evans
86: Paul Gustavson
85: Ross Andru
84: Denys Cowan
83: Jim Lee
82: John Paul Leon
81: Marie Severin
80: Dan DeCarlo
79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
78: Sean Phillips
77 Tommy Lee Edwards
76 Gilbert Shelton
75 Dan Zolnerowich
74 Irv Novick
73 JH Williams III
72 Eduardo Risso
71 Tarpe Mills
70 Nestor Redondo
69 Al Feldstein
68 Shawn Martinbrough
67 Bryan Hitch
66 Matt Wagner
65 Nick Cardy
64 Harry Anderson
63 Reed Crandall
62: David Mazzuchelli
61: Brian Bolland
60: Alex Toth
59: John Severin
58: Marshall Rogers
57: Joe Maneely
56: John Romita
55: Michael Zulli
54: Gil Kane
53: Steve Dillon
52: Darwyn Cooke
51: Johnny Craig
50: Mike Ploog
49: Frank Quitely
48: Cary Nord
47: Michael William Kaluta
46: George Perez
45: Gene Colan
44: Daniel Clowes
43: Adam Hughes
42: Mike Zeck
41: Jim Starlin
39: Mac Raboy
38: Robert Crumb
37: Bill Everett
35: LB Cole
34: Burne Hogarth
32: Milt Caniff
31: Creig Flessel
30: Dave Gibbons
29: Moebius
28: Howard Chaykin
27: Basil Wolverton
26: Mike Mignola
25: John Byrne
24: Alex Ross
23: Barry Windsor-Smith
22: Al Williamson
21: Graham Ingels
20: Bernard Krigstein
19: Jack Cole
18: Bill Sienkiewicz
17: Russ Heath
16: Walter Simonson
15: Harvey Kurtzman
14: Alex Raymond
13: Jim Steranko
12: Wally Wood
11. Joe Kubert

I am quite interested in this list, and wish to thank Hanzo for posting it, but some asshole here years ago told me that saying "Interesting, thanks" is rude, so now I'm at a loss.

No Ditko? No Corben?

No Bernie Wrightson?

This thread will turn into a rock and roll hall of fame type of discussion, I'm a-feared.

They still have ten more spots to go, so I think we can definitely expect Kirby and Ditko to be on that list. It'd be nice if Corben and Wrightson made it in, but we'll see.

Sorry, I didn't notice that the list ended at 11. I thought that was the final list. I hadn't even noticed yet that Kirby wasn't there, but I would've been righteously upset when it occurred to me, you can be sure!

I would like it if every artist Jason M. prefaced by "No ...?" turns out to be choices 1 through 10, in the order he posted them.

I mean, Milt Caniff behind John Byrne and Alex Ross and most of the rest is fucking bonkers. Every Golden Age guy was influenced by Terry & The Pirates to some degree.

But the ones who get me are the ones who aren't particularly influential, well-known, or have any "important" works under their belt -- Tarpe Mills, Shawn Martinbrough, etc. Why are they ranked ahead of some of the most influential artists ever? I'm totally baffled if this is an earnest attempt to create a good list.

I agree with you- everything should be the way I want it.

Carl Barks #92?

Ah, the failure of people today to forget the splendor of those who came before them.

Well, you've got to admit, he's no Dan Zolnerowich! (at # 75)

Renny going from thread to thread in the Playroom, "Why isn't this cartoonist in the Tripwire LIst?"

It could happen.

"Why isn't David Crosby in the Tripwire LIst?"

Jim Aparo #99 !!??

F*#k dat

I was expecting some recency bias, but this doesn't even seem to be that -- there are Golden Age artists listed ahead of him who don't have the same impact (and truth me told, I never heard of before this).

Honestly, there's a fair number of mediocre artists on that list.

(Some of whom I even like.)

What would be the IMWAN consensus on how to truly rank the greatest Comic Book artists?
We could certainly find some common ground for how to rank the artists, which factors should be taken into consideration,
and how much each of them would count towards an overall score. Once we have criteria like that in place, then we could
reasonably make arguments and prove evidence to support or defeat the claims.

Certainly factors like Influence have to be considered. While I personally prefer Ditko over Kirby, for example, there's little
denying how much more influential Kirby was in the industry with his many imitators.

Likewise, how much should we be influenced by sales numbers? Does the Greatest artist have to have been popular?
Or, for that matter, does it have to be an American comic book? Do foreign publications like Asterix count, might newspaper
strips like Peanuts be taken into consideration even if they haven't appeared in an actual comic book (although Peanuts did)?
What is our definition of Comic Book?

And what would be the minimum requirement for an artist's body of work? Did Frank Frazetta have enough? And so on?

Surely we can agree on something for the actual art, figure study, details, displaying emotions and body language, variety, the
dynamic (or not) nature of the action, designs and the backgrounds, equipment and vehicles, perspective, shadows, and so on.
Are their extra points to be rewarded for also being an excellent inker? Are points lost for doing too much "swiping" of other
people's work and/or photo references. Or pointed added for also coloring or lettering or writing?

Tarpe Mills was one of a very, very few women comic book artists from way back, and Shawn Martinbrough is black. They're presumably trying to keep the list from being all white guys. You see that a lot with contemporary "greatest," "most influential," and "most important" lists. In this case there are quite a few recent female and black artists they could choose from. Tarpe Mills is no doubt being recognized mainly as a pioneer. Shawn Martinbrough, whom I must confess I hadn't heard of before seeing the list and checking his Wikipedia entry just now, seems to be a pretty well-regarded contemporary artist who is appreciated by fans of "noir" art styles. Still doesn't explain a few of the more egregious cases of unquestioned influential masters of the medium being ranked as low as they are.

Why the fantastically obscure Dan Zolnerowich ranks far ahead of Carl Barks (and Barks ranks near the bottom)? Beats me. I'm just glad to see that this isn't one of those lists that's so lacking in historical awareness that guys like Rob Liefeld are among the oldest artists on the list, and Carl Barks and Milt Caniff don't even rate a mention. We see an awful lot of lists like that too. It could be a lot worse.

Hopefully, everyWAN would just pick what they find visually pleasing, enticing, exciting, without concern for whether the artist is mechanically perfect or not.

And I'd also hope there would be no real consensus.

I was about to disagree about there being no consensus...but then I realized I agreed.

I think it'd be interesting to compare everyone's top 101 lists just for fun...but I don't know if I could even think of 101 comic book artists off the top of my head.

Yes, a list of who you find good is better than trying to justify it on grounds that none of us are ever really going to agree on. To go that route is like when the NFL tries to dictate what a "catch" is Once you start trying to put it into words, forget about it. It's art, gosh darn it!