Lit Favourite Comics Art/Artist

Reading a comic book means appreciating both the story and the art. Comics storylines have been a frequent matter of discussion, but what about the art? Which is your favourite Star Wars comic book artist? If you do not remember their names, just mention the comics you think have the best art.

For me, several artists have complemented the story to magnificent results:

• Jan Duursema (Dark Horse's Legacy)
• Stuart Immonen (Marvel's Star Wars #8-12)
• Salvador Larroca (Marvel's Darth Vader and Star Wars)
• Mark Brooks (Marvel's Han Solo and the covers of Kanan)
• Marco Checchetto (Marvel's Shattered Empire and Obi-Wan & Anakin)

 

-Jan Duursema (Legacy) Amazing all-around!
-Colin Wilson (Invasion) Not too realistic but gritty and intense, nevertheless. Works great with the story.
-Mike Mayhew (The Star Wars) Incredibly realistic. It feels like you're reading something that was once filmed.
-Brian Ching (KOTOR) Nice in general and great at handling the expressive characters.

 

My top 10:

1. Douglas Wheatley (Dark Times, Purge - Last Stand of the Jedi, ROTS adaptation, Empire - Darklighter): Without a doubt one of the best comic book artists, and I don't say this lightly.
2. Jan Duursema (Legacy volume 1, Republic, Dawn of the Jedi, Darth Maul, AOTC adaptation): One of the best and most influential Star Wars comic artists, a true master of her craft.
3. Dustin Weaver (KOTOR, Rebellion - Vector): His art is my favourite from KOTOR. I hope he returns for SW!
4. Mark Brooks (Han Solo): Han Solo is probably the best looking SW comic by Marvel so far IMO.
5. Brian Ching (KOTOR, Republic, Empire - Princess...Warrior): A very unique style that I love to look at.
6. Marco Checchetto (Shattered Empire, Obi-Wan & Anakin): One of my favourite artist from the new comics.
7. Stuart Immonen (Star Wars #8-12): Loved his work in the main series, I hope we'll get more from him.
8. Gabriel Hardman (Legacy volume 2): Very old school style of art, with a unique touch that I haven't seen in other comics.
9. Alex Maleev (Lando): A shame he got to work on only one comic so far. Marvel, hire this guy again!
10. Gabriel Guzman (Dark Times - Fire Carrier, Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows): A very interesting blend of cartoony and photo realistic. That's the best way I can describe it, but I like it.

 

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I really liked Carlos Meglia's style in Underworld: The Yavin Vassilika.

And, of course, Al Williamson was always great.

 

Are you reading Invisible Republic spicer? If not, you should consider it.

 

I've heard of the series and did consider it initially, but unfortunately I haven't read it. Due to lack of time and the fact that I'm not made of money I've been reading only SW comics for a while...

 

Well, you've time, trades 1-3 are out covering #1-15 but they're hoping to do a 50-issue run!

 

One artist who nobody save for Excellence and myself seemed to care for was HOON, whose bright and colorful anime-inspired art graced the pages of Jedi: Yoda and a pair of KOTOR covers. I loved his/her work and wished we could have seen more of it. Gallery here, and two of my favourite HOON images that are on the Wook: here and here.

Another artist whose SW work had Japanese anime/manga inspirations was Cynthia Martin, who drew some really gorgeous stuff for the tail end of Marvel's Star Wars run in the mid-eighties, including Luke and Lumiya's breathtaking wordless lightsaber/lightwhip duel. A truly iconic and enduring image of the Expanded Universe. Her work was even highlighted in an article by the A.V. Club as "a highlight of the series' last year." Gallery here, some good selections here here and here.

Kajo Baldisimo is a Filipino artist who did a single issue of Legacy, whose work kind of reminded me of HOON --- no Japanese inspirations here, but the color/brightness aesthetic was slightly reminiscent. It's a style that could easily overwhelm and distract, but I thought that Baldisimo did a great job of it. Gallery here, with two great examples here and here. I would have loved to have seen Baldisimo hired again if Legacy had been allowed to continue, but at the same time I definitely wasn't opposed to seeing Omar Francia do most of the non-Duursema issues. Francia was great.

 

Its really REALLY hard not to say Jan Duursema is not my favorite, because she is...

Phil Noto and Alex Ross (he did covers for Dark Horse's self titled Star Wars in DH final days) are pretty great too but I feel like that is probably a popular opinion.

 

Doug Wheatley. He is my favorite comic artist, hands down. His run on Dark Times is just amazing.

 

Oh, and Dave Ross. His work on Dark Times and Legacy was severely underrated. With the former he suffered from having to follow Doug Wheatley's act, but I thought his art was good enough that they should have kept him on full-time when it became apparent that Wheatley couldn't deliver more than two pages every three years. There's a scene from the opening of Dark Times's sixth issue of Bomo waking up that unfortunately isn't on the Wook, but it was a fantastically-drawn and emotional scene which demonstrated right from the get-go that Ross was a worthy successor to Wheatley. Some great Ross images that are on the Wook are this one, this one, and this one.

 

John Cassaday is not only the best artist to do Star Wars stuff, but among the best artists for comics ever.

 

I'd have to say Jan Duursema. When I think of what I'd call the Golden Age of Star Wars comics (Starting from Republic in 1999 and ending in 2011 with Kotor and Legacy), no one comes to mind faster than the dynamic duo of John and Jan. From Quinlan Vos to Cade Skywalker, Jan has brought so many iconic Star Wars characters to life, drawing upon prominent prequel characters like Obi-Wan and Anakin, as well as blending in their own characters in a way that let you know this was a shared universe. In fact, two weeks ago I picked up a copy of the original AOTC trade paperback solely for her artwork (that, and it's so rare to find DH comics these days after Disney purged them). Personally, it was Duursema's artwork that brought me back into the EU with Legacy ( which will always be my favourite Star Wars comic) and it;s a tragedy to lose both Duursema and Ostrander after the license change and the Disneyverse.

Runner ups include Brian Ching and Doug Wheatley, who both made their respective flagship comics (KOTOR and Dark Times respectively) a massive hit.

 

Truth has been spoken. I also sorely miss John and Jan and was actually hopeful in the initial months of Marvel's takeover in 2015 that they would be brought back, but alas...

 

Yeah I agree, Republic, Kotor, and Legacy are three of my favourite comics.

My favourite artists are Pepe Larraz, Stuart Immonen, and Marco Checchetto.

 

Jan Duursema and Doug Wheatley are the obvious perpetual favorites, and they were both great. But I've also got to highlight Al Williamson, Dustin Weaver, Davide Fabbri, John Nadeau, Edvin Biukovic, and Steve Crespo. Williamson, who worked on the newspaper comic strip and the Marvel adaptations of TESB and ROTJ, was a master of gorgeous, fantastical art rich in detail and with a "realistic" style similar to the way Duursema and Wheatley draw. The others all practice different variations of a more comic-booky style, and are among some of the best at producing stylized art that doesn't feel cartoony. Weaver's best known for KOTOR, where he was easily the best artist working on the series. Fabbri did fantastic work for Empire and Republic mostly, but also did most of the first arc of Agent of the Empire. He did the Janek Sunber arcs of Empire, and, in my mind, was one of the most underrated artists of Dark Horse's golden age. Nadeau, Biukovic, and Crespo are mainly known for their work on the X-wing comics. Biukovic did The Phantom Affair and the adaptation of The Last Command, and just had a really great style. Crespo's work on The Making of Baron Fel and Mandatory Retirement is some of my favorite work on the series. And Nadeau did just about every arc, with fantastic fighter combat scenes. When people talk about great comic art, great DH artists, I think the stuff before Republic tends to get a little bit forgotten, but X-wing had some fantastic art.

Al Williamson:



Dustin Weaver:



Davide Fabbri:



John Nadeau:



Edvin Biukovic:



Steve Crespo:

 

Alas, poor Edvin.

 

Brandon Badeaux. His work on Nomad and the first five issues of Rebellion was gorgeous. The scene he drew of the TIE Fighter crashing over Tank's head was IMO some of the best few comic panels that have ever appeared in SW. Everyone in Rebellion was a bit too muscular, sure, but I'll happily overlook that if it means I get to enjoy his art. Here's the gallery of what the Wook has by him.

Jan was great, but I think we may have gotten... a bit too much of her. Dawn of the Jedi already felt like a rehash of Legacy story- and characterization-wise, but then the characters started looking visually familiar too and it certainly didn't help. I know that characters looking like each other isn't an issue unique to Jan and that other great comic artists suffer from it too (Dustin Weaver's Luke in Rebellion sure looked a lot like Zayne), but if we were to get more Duursema, I'd like to see her on a non-Ostrander project.

It kills me to say that since they've made so much good stuff together, but I feel like as a team they may have already hit all the notes that they can hit. DOTJ was a bad Legacy imitation in terms of plot, characterization, and character design, and Ostrander and Duursema's latest project Hexer Dusk has a protagonist who just looks like the lovechild of Cade and Syn (see below), and I'd bet my lunch that character-wise he's another brooding loner like Quin, Cade, and Xesh. I know they can both still do great work --- Ostrander's Agent of the Empire was a delight --- but when working together they seem to have a single formula, and, well, we've had enough of that formula.

 

Speaking of artists, I got my first issue of Legacy signed by Dan Parsons at Phoenix Comicon.

Also, I concur with much of the people here. Legacy and Republic is the best Star Wars material ever made due to Ostrander and Duursema's involvement. Frankly, I miss having them work on Star Wars. Same goes for Brian Ching and many others with stuff like KotOR and Crimson Empire.

 

Star Wars seems to have been truly blessed with some excellent artists.
Al Williamson set an incredible bar, with Walt Simonson being the follow on who drew one of my favourite stories - Pariah.
Cynthia Martin, whose art did take some getting used to, was clearly learning her craft when she first started on the series, but by the time she got to the duel issue, she was firing on all cylinders and much more confident in her style.

Then you have Dark Horse who had some incredible people.
Doug Wheatley, obviously. And it was good once DH figured out to wait for him to finish a series before releasing it
Edvin really did some amazing work on X-Wing, as did Gary Erskin
Killian Plunket I loved and was so please when he got hired by Lucasfilm for the cartoons
Jan Duursema - produced the art for possibly my favourite run - Legacy. In fact I'm making my way through this at the moment.

There are so many more from the DH days as they had such a long run and I found it interesting that they seemed to start to get a stable of 'go to' artists at times who would return, but then there were others that I expected to join that stable who didn't.

 

When it comes to SW books? Pepe Larraz, Stuart Immonen, and Marco Checchetto consistently have blown me away.

 

I haven't read many since the old days, but Cam Kennedy, Dark Empire - still some of my favorite comic art ever. It's so moody and stylized, and it's not often that the interior art is sharper than the cover art.

Also whoever illustrated the Heir to the Empire adaption. Again, it's somewhat stylized, really sharp and evocative.

 

whoever is drawing and writing the screaming citadel series.
His doctor aphra looks the best.

 

I figured that everyone here would already have said Duursema, Wheatley, and the other usual suspects (not that I have a problem with those at all) so I was actually coming here to say the same X-wing artists that Havac already covered above...guess that's what I get for coming late to the game.

(At the risk of being unpopular, I think that Wheatley is a bit overrated as the Artistic Second Coming, but I do appreciate his work, especially now that Dark Times is over and can be appreciated in retrospect, rather than his work causing months of delays for each issue.)

Instead, I'll say that I really like the work of Terry Dodson, who did the Dark Horse adaptation of Dark Force Rising, as well as the Marvel Princess Leia miniseries. I think he's the only artist to have done internal art for both DH and Marvel. I've only read a few non-SW things he's done, but I really like his style.

For those outside of the box, I'm glad to see that Gabriel Hardman, Carlos Meglia, and of course Cam Kennedy have already been mentioned. Kennedy I feel gets a ton of flack for his Dark Empire art that I feel is completely undeserved. DE is in many ways a more European comic than the Star Wars stuff that came before or after and his art is integral to the sort of tone and thematic feel that he and Veitch went for. Just compare Kennedy's work in DE/DEII with Jim Baikie's stuff from Empire's End, and it's no contest.

Honestly did not expect to see Crimson Empire come up in a thread for favorite SW comics artists.