Comic books seem to get more attention for their writers nowadays, a stark contrast to the yesteryear’s when Jack Kirby and George Perez owned the collective geek consciousness. Now it’s all about the mega writers – Johns, Bendis, Kirkman, etc. Sure, artists are acknowledged, but comics are a writer-based industry now. Well, let’s get back to honouring the artists who make comics a reality.

Seeing that there are sooooo many artists working right now, I had to lay down some ground rules myself:

• Be a working professional in a print media.
• Works on interiors. No exclusively cover artists!
• Be a part of at least a relatively popular series.

All that said, there were still a shit ton of artists floating around out there. So instead of using any objective reasoning (hah! Like that was ever possible), here’s my personal Fave Five, to blatantly steal a slogan.

I think there's something in his eyes.

5. Ryan Ottley

If you aren’t reading Invincible, 1) Why the hell not? and 2) start reading it – Now!

Ottley, who took over Invincible from issue 8 onwards, has catapulted the series through the roof visually. It just seems to get better and more outrageous every fucking issue. He keeps finding more gruesome and hilarious (am I a bad person?) ways to show gore and evisceration, all the while keeping it in the context of the Invincible universe.

Beyond the great details, he just draws figures with a fluidity that is rarely matched elsewhere. There’s rarely any stiff, mannequin-like posing here. Best part of all of this? Invincible comes out on time month in and month out!

Gotta admit, this has been one fucked up arc.

4. Steve McNiven

Representing Canada is the outrageously detailed work of Steve McNiven. This man brings cover work level artistry to the interiors, and its a sight to behold. Things just look as if they should. When people die, they look dead. Just look at poor Jubilee’s eyes. Most other artists don’t go that extra mile.

Of course, with insane detail also comes insane delays, and his current series – Wolverine with Mark Millar – feels as if it takes a decade in between each issue. But when you get stuff like this, it almost doesn’t matter. Almost.

Hurry the hell up!

I'd hit 'er. Y'know, if she weren't a drawing.

3. Olivier Coipel

Coipel may not put the most detail into his work. His fighting may not be the most fluid. But y’know something he has that very few others possess? The gift of scope.

With Thor, he’s brought both skill and sheer enormity to the story. He realizes Asgard in a scale so awesome that it makes you feel like the place exists and is currently floating somewhere above Oklahoma. If you live in Oklahoma, could you please check for me?

On top of his talent, Thor also happens to be one of the best written comics on the market.

Supes should really lay off the Cinnabons

2. Frank Quitely

Probably the most unconventional artist on this list. On first glance, Quitely’s work just seems…odd. Things seem to clump together wrong. Anatomy seems a tad bit outrageous. Lines seem to go just slightly askew from where you expected lines to be drawn.

Well, guess what? That’s called being fucking original and Quitely does it quite well (hah, that was a near pun that wasn’t!). His stuff is, above all else, just fun to look at. And while you have fun looking at his work, you realize just how much painstaking effort must of been exerted to get things just right. Definitely check out All-Star Superman to see Quitely shine.

And #1 is…

1. Greg Land!

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Nah, I’m just fucking with you. Land’s a tracing piece of shit hack. The real number one is:

I wish I could grieve this cool. One day.

1. Gary Frank

Probably the most ‘traditional’ artist of the group, Frank’s work hearkens back to a purer form of comic book artistry. No extra frills of overstyle. No bouts of minimalism. Franks just knows how to draw comics and he does it damn well.

There’s almost no overindulgence here.

First with Supreme Power and now with various Superman works, he has set himself up to arguably be the greatest Man of Steel artist of all time.  He absolutely nails the iconic timelessness of superior artists of the past while still feeling absolutely modern.

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Well, that’s my personal list. I know I’ve left out a bunch of fan favourites like Alex Ross, Mark Buckingham, Andy Kubert and John Romita Jr, amongst others, I believe these five stand tall as the best working interior artists right now.

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This is the last time I look this good in this issue.

World of New Krypton #2

Things got interesting last time with Superman essentially becoming a soldier in the Aryan-err, Kryptonian army. So, what manner of wacky hijinks can our adorable Kal-El get himself into this time? None, essentially. The issue revolved around him being all authoritative, and then herding space rhinos or something. But not just any kind of space rhino, but mind altering SUPER space rhino. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that it was still an issue about him herding animals. It ends on an intriguing note, with the workers guild rising up and taking a bunch of rich people hostage, but for some odd reason I doubt this will amount to much next issue.

A pretty bland story overall, with Robinson not really doing much in terms of plot or character development. Kal-el is still altruistic, Zod is still maniacal, Kara is still Kara, etc. And please, stop using the Gary Frank covers! They are so awesome, only to turn the page over and *blam* Pete Woods mediocrity kicks you square in the shin. Woods is a bad, bad artist. He might be awesome elsewhere, but with my sole experience with him on Superman, he’s been nothing but awful.

Rating: 3.9812 out of 12.51

Battle for the Cowl #2

Well, it’s the second issue and it’s already the penultimate chapter in artist turn writer/artist Tony Daniel’s three issue mega event. And it’s still rather disjointed and relatively soulless, and yes, it’s still mindlessly fun. It was pretty much a chapter long Jason Todd (*gasp* SPOILER!) ass kicking marathon. First kicking Grayson’s ass, shooting Damian and then stabbing Tim in the chest.

Badass.

But we all know this badassery isn’t going to last, what with Dick Grayson all but guaranteed to be the next Batman and Damian as his Robin. The art is definitely lacking something compared to Daniels’ previous work on RIP. Maybe splitting his time between both writing and art is taking its toll.

Rating: 4 bloodied batarangs out of 7 killer man-bats.

Green Lantern #39

And here comes the Orange Lantern Corps! And I know I’m going to have a hard time differentiating them from the Sinestro Corps. I mean, just read the Sinestro Corps War and you’ll see the colour palette for the Yellow Lanterns there are virtually indistinguishable from the Orange Lanterns. And now there’s mention of an Indigo Corps? I mean, c’mon, we already have the Sapphires who are practically the same colour.

Anyways, colour bitching aside, the issue was below GL norm.I don’t mind exposition chapters, but when the exposition doesn’t reveal anything compelling, it’s just plain boring. It was nice seeing the Controllers getting torn apart, but that was the only great thing about the issue. I know, it’s just a set up for the next chapter which is almost guaranteed to be badass (Vega system going down, brotha’), but hey, I can complain if I want to.

Rating: 4 turquoise out of 6 navy blues.

My name is Barry Allen, and I just owned you.

If you know me, you know I love The Flash. Because you don’t know me, I just told you so. I love every iteration of the Flash. From rusty ol’ Jay Garrick being all old, to Wally West being all family man, to Bart Allen being all killed. But above all the others, it’s Barry fucking Allen that stands head and shoulders above all else for me. He was the no-nonsense Flash that got shit done and sacrificed himself because that’s what you do. I’ve done it twice, which isn’t to take anything away from Barry.

I’m just saying.

Well here comes Mr. Robo-DC-Writer Geoff Johns, the continuity savant, to bring back one of the most iconic characters in human/CHUD history. We all know, I assume, that Barry came back during the mind fuck that was Final Crisis (Morrison’s masturbatory magnum opus), but even then he didn’t really seem very important until that one panel near the end. Well, Johns will have none of the Barry-marginalization. No, he gives Barry a five issue miniseries to rule all five issue miniseries (I’m looking at YOU Ultimatum).

So, how does issue numero uno (I’m international!) fare? It fares about as well as a 250 pound man beating a handicapped toddler – surprisingly well. Johns does his Johnsing. Every line of dialogue just feels important, and even though nothing really happens until the last two pages that nothing was still damned entertaining. Bendis wishes he could write this well.

(TANGENT: In fact, this is starting to really freak me out. How is it possible that Johns is writing, off the top of my head, four different series and still keep things so smooth and entertaining? I mean, it’s not like a bunch of his issues are just empty action scenes or anything. Just look at Legion of 3 Worlds – there’s more dialogue than pictures. I’m beginning to feel that Geoff Johns isn’t human. Which is too bad, because the day that news gets out I’m hunting you down Johns. Earth ain’t big enough for humans AND Geoff Johns)

The art is gorgeous, the little character bits are fascinating, and all in all Flash Rebirth lives up the hype building into it. I love how Barry just shrugs off the fact that he OUTRAN DEATH, and instead just wants to get right back into it and take down some criminal scum, his family and friends be damned.

Barry Allen is back, and he will stab you in the face (high five, Supernatural fans).

Rating: Two bolts of lightning and a bag of potato chips.