Name the single artist who draws your favorite version of a comic book character or team,the one that you consider definitive.
One rule--no duplications. Knowing this crowd,you all would name John Byrne for everything.

Superman---Curt Swan
Batman------Neal Adams
Flash----Carmine Infantino
Green Lantern----Gil Kane
Hawkman----Joe Kubert
Aquaman-----Nick Cardy
Sub-Mariner-----Bill Everett
Justice League-----Kevin Maguire
Legion of Super-Heroes---Jeff Moy
Spider-Man----Steve Ditko
Captain America-----Jack Kirby
Thor-----Walter Simonson
Iron Man------Bob Layton
Avengers---John Buscema
X-Men------Paul Smith
Daredevil----Frank Miller
The Shadow---Michael Kaluta
Plastic Man-----Jack Cole
Captain Marvel---C.C. Beck
The Spirit---Will Eisner
The Thing---John Byrne

If the rule is no duplicates, then I can't do Batman, Atom, LOSH, etc.

Superman---Curt Swan
Flash----Carmine Infantino
Green Lantern----Gil Kane
Hawkman----Murphy Anderson
Justice League-----Mike Sekowsky
Spider-Man----Steve Ditko
Captain America-----Marcus Kelligrew
Thor-----Walter Simonson
Iron Man------Don Heck
Daredevil-----Wally Wood
Fantastic Four-----Jack Kirby
Superboy-----George Papp
Lois Lane-----Kurt Schaffenberger
Metal Men-----Ross Andru
Doom Patrol-----Bruno Premiani
Justice Society-----Jerry Ordway
Booster Gold-----Dan Jurgens
Archie (all characters)-----Harry Lucey

OH, this looks so hard, and will require much thought...

Hmmm...

Howard the Duck - Gene Colan

Conan The Barbarian - John Buscema

Flash - Carmine Infantino

Spider-Man - John Romita Snr.

Batman - Brian Bolland

Fantastic Four - Jack Kirby

Infinity Inc. - Jerry Ordway

Thor - Ron Frenz

Hulk - Herb Trimpe

Superman - Curt Swan

Iron-Man - George Tuska

Tigra - Marie Severin

Werewolf by Night - Mike Ploog

Moon Knight - Don Perlin

Wonder Woman - George Perez

Man-Thing - Val Mayerik

...I'm sure I'll think of some others.

Wait! What!? I don’t deserve that. Thank you.

Sticking to mostly Silver and Bronze Age for mine:

Batman: Neal Adams
Superman: Curt Swan
Wonder Woman: H. G. Peter
Green Lantern: Gil Kane
Hawkman: Joe Kubert
Green Arrow: Mike Grell
Flash: Carmen Infantino
Batgirl: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
Teen Titans: George Perez
Plastic Man: Jack Cole
The Spirit: Will Eisner
Uncle Scrooge: Carl Barks
Avengers: Sal Buscema
X-Men: John Byrne
Iron Man: Bob Layton
Captain America: Jim Steranko
Spider-Man: John Romita Sr.
Dr. Strange: Steve Ditko
Hulk: Herb Tripe
Namor: Bill Everett
Daredevil: Wally Wood
Thor: John Buscema
Fantastic Four: Jack Kirby
Ant-Man: P. Craig Russell
Conan: Barry Smith
Dracula: Gene Colan

It's hard when you can't reuse the artists. I have to go with second, third or fourth choice.

This turned out to be easier than I thought, really. The hardest character for me to pick was definitely Batman. Adams, Rogers, Aparo, Byrne, Moldoff. So many iconic artists on Bats

I chose Cockrum over Grell for LSH because of the costume redesigns, mainly.

The other thing about thinking about this is just how many other great runs / secondary characters this list of artists is responsible for. I'm not going to do it, but statistically thinking, it's possible that these 20 artists are accountable for 1/4 of all comics in both companies between Showcase #4, and Crisis on Infinite Earths 12, and certainly almost all of the memorable runs on the main titles. 12 titles per month per company times 28 years = 8,064 issues, roughly. And all of these men certainly drew more than 100 issues across all their books in that time. So remove these men, and I'd be curious to see what the best runs left actually are.

Superman - Curt Swan
Batman - Jim Aparo
Justice League of America - Dick Dillin
Green Arrow - Neal Adams
Green Lantern - Gil Kane
Flash - Carmine Infantino
Aquaman - Nick Cardy
Teen Titans - George Perez
Legion of Superheroes - Dave Cockrum
Sgt. Rock - Joe Kubert
Hawkman - Murphy Anderson

Fantastic Four - Jack Kirby
The Avengers - Big John Buscema
Thor - Walt Simonson
Iron Man - Bob Layton
X-men - John Byrne
Daredevil - Frank Miller
Spider-Man - John Romita Sr.
Dr. Strange - Steve Ditko
Conan - Barry Windsor Smith

Hulk
Wonder Woman (Perez or Byrne again?)
Captain America (didn't really like Kirby on him, but can't think of another iconic run)
Atom (this would be Anderson, I think)

It's tricky not repeating artists but it does make you think about it all in a different way.

The Atom - Gil Kane

The Avengers - Alan Weiss

Dr. Strange - Geof Isherwood

X-Men - Neal Adams

Wolverine - Barry Windsor-Smith

Elfquest - Wendy Pini

Red Sonja - Frank Thorne

Captain Carrot - Ross Andru

Thunderbunny - Brian Buniak

That’s a good list. Mine would be very similar.

Yeah, I wanted Gil Kane for The Atom, but I also wanted Gil Kane for Green Lantern.
I might be convinced to go with Joe Staton for Green Lantern to free Kane up for The Atom.

Cochrane for Legion of Superheroes is a good choice. I had already used Grell for Green Arrow, but, in hindsight,
Grell really should be for Warlord. I could give Green Arrow to George Papp.

Nick Cardy for Aquaman works quite well. I can get behind that choice.
That would free up Ramona Fradon for Metamorpho.

And if I move more into modern times, I could give Thor to Walt Simonson, which would free up John Buscema
for The Silver Surfer, which is where he probably should go.

What we really need is just a definitive list of characters. If DC's Bronze-Age Manhunter were on the list, for example,
I might hesitate to give Thor to Walt because who else could you assign to Manhunter? Luckily, though, Manhunter
isn't likely to appear on a definitive list of the top comic book characters.

I'm not sure Staton goes with the spirit of the exercise...saying Joe Staton is the best GL artist when you have Neil Adams and Gil Kane is probably overstating it. So I think you have to make trade offs, so that you're not brining in the 4th or 5th best artist to work on a character

I didn't use Grell for GA or LSH, so he can keep Warlord. Which works.
for Atom, my canon solution is that the Atom / Hawkman team up was regular enough that I can use Murphy Anderson for both

The biggest open challenges for me are Cap and Hulk. Since Kirby and John Buscema are both out, I don't really know where to go with those two. I didn't read enough, and the most famous artist for me on Hulk is Mcfarlane, and I'm not doing that.

I didn't want to list any second choices, so I had to skip a bunch of characters.

The thing is, I really like Staton on Green Lantern. It was the only time really that I regularly bought the title.
As for Neal Adams, it's weird, but I only like his Green Lantern because he was drawing Green Arrow with him,
so I couldn't never pick Neal Adams as a favorite for Green Lantern, but I could for Green Arrow. My first thought
for Neal, though, is to assign him to Batman. Those were some of the first comics I was buying new off the shelf.

But, yes, I understand the problem here with my assignments since several characters share their best, real deal artists.

Perhaps a better approach would be to list the artists and then assign the most real-deal character/team for each of them.
And if instead of characters, we went by comic book title (as shown on the cover), then we could have Green Lantern/Green
Arrow, Atom and Hawkman, etc. together.

You could use Ethan Van Sciver for GL. Jim Steranko, Sal Buscema or Mike Zeck for Cap and Sal, Herb Trimpe or Dale Keown for the Hulk.

Dale Keown would be my Hulk pic.

Lots of us cheated by using team books, and then members in their solo books with other artists. But going by the cover title could also work. I was more concerned about seeing if I could find iconic runs for all the iconic artists

There were a couple of artists where I did them first. Kirby, Adams, Ditko, Byrne. all had multiple iconic runs, while others crop up on lots of different books doing great work, but they never stuck long enough to be iconic.


I get this - it's why some of my favourite books (Kirby's DC run) don't get mentioned. I also kind of intentionally didn't get into characters with relatively short runs. I mean, sure Ramona Fradon was incredible on Metamorpho, but it didn't last long.

So here's a few more:

Hulk - Dale Keown
Nick Fury - Jim Steranko
Captain Marvel - CC Beck
Captain Marvel - Jim Starlin
Tomb of Dracula - Gene Colan
Swamp Thing - Bernie Wrightenson

Yeah, Steranko belongs on Nick Fury, but he was my favorite Captain America artist.
I agree with Jim Starlin for Captain Marvel and C.C.Beck for the real Captain Marvel.

Bernie Wrightson is a good choice for Swamp Thing. I also liked Stephen R. Bissette, John Totleben,
and Nestor Redondo, but I'd assign Redondo to Rima the Jungle Girl, even though it's a short run.
One of the few comic books that I bought solely for the art.

And along those lines, with the Filipino artists, I think Tony DeZuniga for Jonah Hex.

Hulk -- Dale Keown
Daredevil -- John Romita Jr.
Spider-Man -- Todd McFarlane
The Shadow -- Kyle Baker
The FF -- Jack Kirby
Superman -- Jose Luis Garcia Lopez
Batman -- Bruce Timm
Swamp Thing -- John Totleben
The Avengers -- John Buscema
Captain America -- Kieron Dwyer
Iron Man -- Luck McDonnell
New Mutants -- Bill Sienkiewicz
X-Men -- Art Adams

Individual X-people of note ...

Colossus -- Marc Silvestri
Storm -- Dave Cockrum
Nightcrawler -- Alan Davis
Cyclops -- John Byrne
Jean Grey -- John Bolton
Wolverine -- Frank Miller
Rogue -- Jim Lee
Havok -- Neal Adams
Kitty Pryde -- Paul Smith

I give the nod to Michael Kaluta on the Shadow, but I also enjoyed Frank Robbins.