Who is the greatest living cartoonist?

[Roger Godpleton]

"Cartoonist" meaning any comic artist, and I'm thinking along "what have you done for me lately" lines rather than lifetime bodies of work. Also "greatest" doesn't have to mean "my favourite."

Using the totally-not-arbitrary-and-nebulously-defined axises of "craft" and "imagination" the scrawler who always comes to mind for me would probably be Jim Woodring, as he conjures up incredibly dense work that still retains a lightness of touch. Other people in the Godpletonian mix would be Trondheim, Ware, Mazzuchelli and Jason.



LET'S TALK COMICS.

[locustsofdeath!]

Sergio Aragones. With a body of work that reaches as far back as the early days of MAD magazine, Senor Aragones was an advocate (and in some ways a pioneer) of creator-owned comics. He's published for Marvel, Image and Dark Horse, and his stories are relevant and thought-provoking, and provide commentary on social and political issues - but the best part is that they're funny, and one can just read them for laughs. Brilliant mind, wonderful artist, and a really down-to-earth, friendly guy.

[BPP]

I remember buying loads of Woodring when Frank was being put out by Fantagraphics and then Tundra. Re-reading the stuff its beautifully crafted by incredibly hollow. Maybe its so carved out to allow you to put your own emotions into the reams of symbolism but frankly (sorry for that) I ran out of interest. All in all I'm not too sure it's a clever as it is purported to be. Still, incredible stylist. Ware and Mazzucchelli likewise. Smart stylists, comic literate, totally diffident to their work. Asterious Meh tbh.

I can't say who is the 'greatest living', I'll just say that the one person whose every work I'll pick up immediately it is printed is Tardi. After that there are some artists who I'll always buy regardless of story, Dom Reardon, Milo Manara, Francois Schuiten, Simon Fraser being prime amongst them. Then there are those still living but sadly not able to produce any more, of which there is no finer than Cam Kennedy.

I'll bow to no man in my praise for Pat Mills but even Charlies War is a shadow of a book compared to It Was The War of The Trenches. Tardi is simply leagues ahead of anyone for me. I'd LOVE Tharg to have the balls to get Tardi to do a cover or a one-off. Something like Absalom with Tardi on art duites. Make it happen Tharg, before these greats are no longer with us...

[dracula1]

Will Eisner .... Nuff said! 

[Roger Godpleton]

...









...

[Alski]

Bill Watterson *(living)

Charles Schultz (Dead)

HM: Mad's Don Martin

[The Adventurer]

Will Eisner .... Nuff said! 

Dracula. I have some bad news for you...


As for my choice, I feel I'm not enough of an 'art guy' to really choose one 'greatest' artist and it simply not be me projecting my personal 'favorite'. Which is different.

[Frank]

"Cartoonist" meaning any comic artist, and I'm thinking along "what have you done for me lately" lines rather than lifetime bodies of work. Also "greatest" doesn't have to mean "my favourite."

Using the totally-not-arbitrary-and-nebulously-defined axises of "craft" and "imagination" the scrawler who always comes to mind for me would probably be Jim Woodring, as he conjures up incredibly dense work that still retains a lightness of touch. Other people in the Godpletonian mix would be Trondheim, Ware, Mazzuchelli and Jason. LET'S TALK COMICS.

Sandy Christie, an artistic savant from Edinburgh.

My Mum and her friends met him on a train and he flogged her a couple of his Sandy Meets comics- which, for all I know, is how he spends his days and makes a living.  They read like Dave Shrigley, if he really meant it; and combine the vernacular and concerns of the council scheme (the arrival of the ice cream van) with a fascination with the (semi) iconic figures of genre fiction. Battle Cat from He-Man seems particularly important in his personal mythology.

Like a latter day McGonagall, self-published comics cannot contain his creativity, and he's branched out into painting, poetry and the kind of films Emperor and SBT would consider too polished and mainstream. He accepts commissions. 

[SmallBlueThing]

Adventurer: "Dracula, ive got some bad news for you" is both the funniest and sweetest thing ive read here for an age. I love the idea of the count gently sobbing in his transylvanian castle, after being told on a comic forum that will wisner's dead.

Greatest living cartoonist? Manara? The Mighty Ezquerra? It's too hard.

SBT

[ghostpockets]

Pound for pound it's probably Dan Clowes. Other candidates for me would be Chris Ware, David Mazzuchelli, Craig Thompson, Art Speigelman (he got his powers after he was bitten by a radioactive speigel) and David B.

Notice that none of these were in my favourite artists list on that other thread, that was based upon eye-candy alone. Also the definition of a cartoonist as I understand it necessitates that the creator both writes and draws their work, so most of those guys are disqualified anyway. Clowes et al have created perfect graphic narratives all on their tod and are in fact auteurs.

"The difference between a cartoonist and an illustrator [is] the same as the difference between a comedian and a comedy actor—the former both deliver their own lines and take full responsibility for them, the latter could always hide behind the fact that it was not his entire creation." -Calum MacKenzie

Dan himself wrote an interesting essay an interesting about what it means to be a cartoonist here...

http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=515&Itemid=137

[I, Cosh]

Craig Daley.

[locustsofdeath!]

Craig Daley.

[Alski]

ALso Hunt Emerson

[Spaceghost]

After my big pro-manga rant in the 'artist likes and dislikes' thread, I'll have to say Eichiro Oda who writes and draws One Piece. He has a style all his own, influenced as much by Sergio Aragones as he is Akira Toriyama.

His character designs are breathtaking in their inventive playfulness (playful is a word I used to describe his art in theother thread and it's really apt). I'm constantly amazed that he's able to keep up the barrage of completely off the wall ideas and storylines.

His work on the many fight scenes deserves a mention too as his inventive use of angles and perspective add new dimensions to the action.

The fact that One Piece has now gone past it's 60th volume and is, according to Oda, only halfway to being finished, the fact that the story never gets stale, never repeats itself and never gets boring and the fact that every volume is the most fun you can have reading a comic means that Oda gets my vote and for anyone who doesn't agree, feel the power of my super attack: GUM GUM GATLING GUN!!!

[bluemeanie]

Leo Baxendale

I still regularly get my three Willy the Kid annuals down off the shelf and am amazed with how many brilliant throw away gags fill the backgrounds of every panel.