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Post by hondobrode on Dec 21, 2015 20:49:47 GMT -5
7. Frans Masereel - The Passion of a Man. Yet another completely unknown cartoonist. Thank you for this, Berk ! |
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Post by Pól Rua on Dec 22, 2015 0:04:11 GMT -5
Some of my choices so far have been kind of idiosyncratic, but my next selection is one who's already appeared on a bunch of lists, and I'm sure we're not done with him yet. At #7, he is the incomparable... #7: ALEX TOTHIn many ways, Alex Toth is responsible for my love of comics. Growing up in the early 70's as a TV-obsessed kid, I had two great loves. The first were Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation Programs, but the second, was the Hanna-Barbera Superhero shows. 'Birdman and the Galaxy Trio', 'Space Ghost', 'The Herculoids' and 'The Super Friends'. They were my introduction to the idea of superheroes and they changed me from a little kid obsessed with dinosaurs and earthmoving machinery into a little kid obsessed with costumed musclemen and women in a world of aliens, magic, robots, ghosts, mad science, time travel, dinosaurs and why not the occasional bout of earthmoving machinery? Between The Super Friends and the Fantastic Four, for decades, the image I had in my head of all these characters was one drawn by Alex Toth.   Recently, I've been rediscovering his work, which isn't always easy. Toth never really had a long run on any one title, or had any signature character that he was associated with. However, while he's far from an idiosyncratic choice, my reason for including him is VERY idiosyncratic, and it comes down to three magic word - 'Bravo. For. Adventure.' Like many, I'd heard about the adventures of Jesse Bravo for decades with a kind of hushed reverence, but it wasn't until the recent IDW collection that I finally got my greasy mitts on it... and it was simultaneously one of the most glorious and most heartbreaking experiences I've had reading comic books. Glorious because here was a wonderful story... a rich, detailed world full of exciting and nuanced characters, a world fit for dozens... hundreds of mind-blowing adventures! And then, heartbreaking, because after only two adventures, it was all over. In any just world, Alex Toth's Jesse Bravo would be the star of dozens of volumes worth of adventures, from scandal and skullduggery in the Golden Age of Hollywood, through exotic adventures in far ports and mysterious locales, to encountering weird mysteries and uncanny menaces... but nope. That's all we got. It's a damn crime, I tells ya. So, for all the adventures we got, and the wonderment of those magnificent dreams that only ever lived in the fertile mind of their creator, ladies and gents, Mister Alex Toth.  |
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 22, 2015 12:48:47 GMT -5
7. Steve Purcell Sam and Max, Freelance Police might just be the funniest comic I've ever read. Steve Purcell mixes whimsy, adorableness, absurdity, slapstick, awkwardness, parody, observational humor, and so much more into a comic that packs a really broad range of laughs, and does it with a juicy, appealing art style.  I'm not really a fan of "Big Foot" cartooning, especially the more recent practitioners, because I've seen so many artists use the approach to distract from fundamental weaknesses in their work, but Purcell's work is strong and appealing, with depth, detail, richness, and madcap joy. I wish there was a lot more Sam and Max out there in comic book form (Purcell may had considerable success with them in the videogame format, but I miss his line art).
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 22, 2015 13:17:26 GMT -5
7. Steve PurcellSam and Max, Freelance Police might just be the funniest comic I've ever read. Steve Purcell mixes whimsy, adorableness, absurdity, slapstick, awkwardness, parody, observational humor, and so much more into a comic that packs a really broad range of laughs, and does it with a juicy, appealing art style. I'm not really a fan of "Big Foot" cartooning, especially the more recent practitioners, because I've seen so many artists use the approach to distract from fundamental weaknesses in their work, but Purcell's work is strong and appealing, with depth, detail, richness, and madcap joy. I wish there was a lot more Sam and Max out there in comic book form (Purcell may had considerable success with them in the videogame format, but I miss his line art). Good choice! The lower page reminds me of Frank Brunner's work on Howard the Duck. |
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Post by Pól Rua on Dec 22, 2015 20:20:53 GMT -5
I was lucky enough that when I was in San Francisco last year, they had a Steve Purcell exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum.
He's unutterably magnificent.
I have this recollection that, quite a few years ago now, he did a one-shot comic about a bunch of people investigating weird phenomena in the Santa Cruz area... did I just dream this, or is this an actual comic that really exists?
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 23, 2015 12:44:35 GMT -5
I can't think of what that would be.
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zilch
Full Member
Posts: 244 
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Post by zilch on Dec 29, 2015 1:01:23 GMT -5
Day 6 is an unknown (well, uncelebrated anyway) creator and founder... ![]() Jon L. Blummer Who, you might ask? Well, Bails' Who's Who is light on actual information, but he was a very competent artist and writer for the entire run of the Hop Harrigan strip in All-American Comics, pre-dating Green Lantern as its star. Hop was popular enough to have a comic strip (briefly in 1942), a radio show and a movie serial! He also had a club for kids to join, predating ones for Superman and the Justice Society! He was also the artist on the Lone Ranger comic strip, but was at home with the airplane genre of adventure hero. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 29, 2015 12:49:02 GMT -5
Was this the one I didn't do? Anyway...
Charles M. Schulz
Because I was reading the second-to-last Fantagraphics Peanuts collection and it was STILL pretty damn funny.
Because he really changed the scope of pop culture - I can't think of a "sensitive introvert" type to gain such wide exposure pre-Schulz, and you can see Charlie Brown's imprint on dozens of independent films released this year.
Because each character was a vehicle for a different kind of story, a different kind of tone.
Because he gave kid characters depth and dignity.
Because his long form strips were miracles of pacing and payoff.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2015 18:40:17 GMT -5
#7: John Byrne Honestly, this one was a toss up on my list, and could have easily gone to George Perez (whose artwork i enjoy more). .but what noodged the slot to Byrne? his work on "Next Men". .which I enjoyed very much, and was better than any of the things that Perez has written. so yeah. . . Byrne, but not much more to say.  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2015 10:16:34 GMT -5
7. Steve PurcellSam and Max, Freelance Police might just be the funniest comic I've ever read. Steve Purcell mixes whimsy, adorableness, absurdity, slapstick, awkwardness, parody, observational humor, and so much more into a comic that packs a really broad range of laughs, and does it with a juicy, appealing art style. I'm not really a fan of "Big Foot" cartooning, especially the more recent practitioners, because I've seen so many artists use the approach to distract from fundamental weaknesses in their work, but Purcell's work is strong and appealing, with depth, detail, richness, and madcap joy. I wish there was a lot more Sam and Max out there in comic book form (Purcell may had considerable success with them in the videogame format, but I miss his line art). I have seen his work primary in Canada especially in Victoria and I have a couple of his work on hand I wished I had thought of him in the first place - Good Call here and I wanted to let you know that. I love Sam and Max!He is well known in Canada - especially on the Western Side. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2016 12:44:40 GMT -5
Half-way time. Starting as a vaguely targetted political strip in the Guardian newspaper, the advent of the Falklands war set light to the content as Steve Bell's If.... focused his left-wing viewpoint and his razor-sharp wit on the absurdities of the war and the political establishment of the time, and the aftermath of the economic depressions that followed, through the viewpoints of everyman Reg Kipling and assorted menagerie of penguins and viciously lampooned politicians.     |
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 7, 2016 20:51:16 GMT -5
7. Gilbert Shelton
Just doing a post & run to get in under the deadline.
*edit* - now I have time to add the comments. Shelton was the funniest and most consistent of the underground greats, and a wise man. This aphorism remains as true as it was when he wrote it:
"Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope."
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