Yeah I audibly yelled "WHAAATT?!" at Jim Lee's placement, but I get your reasoning. Jim Lee got me into wanting to draw though so he holds a special place. Anytime I think of X Men I think of that huge relaunch cover and still think the costumes at that time were the best due to his artwork. Saying his art is corporate I think disses his talent a bit...he was just so super crisp, super clean and super dynamic that you couldn't not pay attention.
I'm a Jim Lee fanboy,his time on X-Men sent the sells into the stratosphere !!! I can only imagine his page rates and royalties on his X-Men run.But,having your own studio,owning the characters you create,forming your comics company and getting 100% of the sales of your comics had to be-GREAT.
I get the reasoning, but 90s Jim Lee was amazing. You couldn't take your eyes off his work, it was beautiful, for most the definitive x-men drawings. No one could draw a panel like Jim Lee, however I do think Marc Silvestri was the better story teller though. More fluid and expressive than Jim Lee and he absorbed a lot of Jim Lee's style to make himself even better. If it's a single panel I'd take Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane as the best, if it's a whole story, Silversti.
From a pure technical standpoint, Silvestri was the better artist of the bunch. He had the best combination of style, draftsmanship and panel to panel storytelling out of all the Image 7. McFarlane was the most visually striking out of all of them. Creatively I would say Portacio had the most creative page layouts out of all of them. And his style was equally as kinetic as Liefeld. Jim Lee was a more polished version of Portacio but also had the better fight choreography out of all the artists. Liefeld has unfocused energy. That's as best as I can describe his art. If he had applied himself better he could have been a way more better visual storyteller. Larsen and Valentino never appealed to me.
For me it’s 1. Jim lee 2. Mcfarlane 3. Portacio. 4. Silvestri 5. Rob liefeld 6. Erik Larsen 7. Jim Valentino. And for me Erik Larsen and jim Valentino aren’t very good at all.
Glad to see Silverstri ranked so highly. I'd say out of all these artists, he's the one who's managed to improve his already titanic skills the most throughout the years. For example, his work in the 2012 Incredible Hulk run and especially his recent Batman & Joker - Deadly Duo series is pure, artgasmic Heaven.
I agree, he has gotten better and better over the years, but is still distinctly himself stylistically. I really liked his return to X-Men with the Messiah Complex event.
@maranidonny1823 I know! Isn’t it sad to see someone have an honest opinion that is just so wrong it’s insulting? Even as a child Liefeld’s absurd anatomy and insulting exaggerations in all the wrong ways just came off as insulting. You want to look at the best artists and here’s this guys somehow popular for drawing like a refined grade schooler.
Exactly. “Who’s they best artist? You can define comics art as before Jim Lee and after Jim Lee. He set the corporate standard for comics.” Clearly, Rob was better because he had *energy* where he lacked in anatomy, detail, and something called “backgrounds in the comics panels”. Meanwhile, shows awesome splash pages, character designs still used to this day 30 years later, and panels with energy from Lee.
For me: 1) Jim Lee 2)Todd McFarlane 3)Marc Silvestri You can give me any reason to interchange anyone in that list and I'd have a hard time disagreeing. But Rob Liefeld over Jim Lee...LOL
I share your love of '90s comics and really enjoy these videos. My list would probably go something like: 1.) Jim Lee 2.) Mark Silvestri 3.) Rob Liefeld 4.) Todd McFarlane 5.) Jim Valentino 6.) Whilce Portacio 7.) Erik Larsen
Silvestri is the MAN! I felt he was overlooked when he was at Marvel and Image because of Jim and Todd. The Darkness was amazing. And Hunter Killer was good too.
Most of those names I remember, but all of them were behind Jim Lee. His lines, anatomy, clean, & as he said a good inker can make you look even better, as he praised his inker at Marvel, I believe. Jim Lee best hands down.
His art is/was prettyuch unassailable in my eyes. When I think of artists like Marc Silvestri, I think dirty and sloppy. But once Jim Lee started his super solid figure work in X-Men #1, I noticed Marc's style get cleaner and more solid toward the Cyber force ongoing.
Agreed. I always felt like Jim Lee was the best artist out of all of the Image Comics founders, too and I'm pretty sure that I've heard Todd McFarlane admit as much in interviews. There's no shame in admitting when someone is better than you! I admit all the time that there are so many different artists who are so much better than I am as an artist( but fortunately, I can still draw and I'm even teaching myself how to paint, too).
Marc silvestri and Jim Lee are he 2 best comic book illustrators in he industry.👍🏻 Now the Best Artist, thats another thing. Probably out of a few 1 is alex Ross. 2 Bill Sienkiewicz. But this is all my opinion, I'm bias 😅 but the thing is the illustrators are just drawing what's on the script, so it's the writer (s) fault if a page is daft, or boring.
I'd say Silvestri is the flat out Best Arist. His Wolverine and Cyber Force is mind-blowingly good Comic Art. Valentino's "Shadowhawk" was always my favorite Image title though. Like you mentioned, it felt like you were reading a gritty, R-Rated early 90''s action movie. It's a fun group of unique Artists to rank as I'm sure everyone has their favorites!
Todd McFarlane blew my mind in the 80s. He has my vote hands down. I loved how he modernized Peter and MJ. It was like every issue of Amazing Spiderman by Todd was a work of art. Jim Lee #2.
Jim Lee. It's just Jim Lee hands down. Even as a kid, I always gravitated towards comics where he was the penciller. The others are also great (even Rob Liefeld... at times) but he's always been my favorite.
John Buscema>John Byrne>Arthur Adams>Jim Lee>Others. Arthur Adams and Jim Lee were heralds and avant-gardes of a new era. It's obvious you don't understand comics. Of course, there were many other worthy artists in between, but the groundbreaking these two opened were like two suns rising on the shoulders of their great predecessors, such as John Buscema and later John Byrne.
LOL. I saw the title of the video and thought, well Lee will obviously be first, McFarlane will be second, and Liefeld will be last, but let me see how he rates the rest of them. Saying the artist who drew X-Force #1 is better than the artist that drew X-Men #1 is just wild. I have to assume you only did it for rage clicks and comments.
Stylistically I’ve always loved Todd McFarlane. His work was so dynamic and fluid. I love Jim Lee for his aesthetic physiques with nice proportions. You can see either one of these two on TH-cam doing live sketches and its amazing how naturally they are. Rob Liefield 🤮
Easily Jim Lee, then Marc Silvestri and probably Erik Larsen. McFarlane was okay and Liefeld wasn't worth the paper he drew on without an inker to clean up the mess.
Man it's a close call, silvestri and Jim Lee are just god level art, I like them both. But if you ask me my favourite artist of all time, it would be BARRY WINDSOR SMITH, as a kid his art baffled me, it wasn't easy, it wasn't conventional but it was fluid and moved, as I grew older I just gravitated to his work, and today I think he is a true challenger for what defines movement on a page.
Excellent choice with Barry Windsor Smith. I Was actually just looking at some of his work over the last few days such as Conan, Rune and a lot of his Valiant work, and I would have to agree there's just something about his pencils the hasn't been duplicated.
It's wild to me that you've never even mentioned Sam Keith's work on the Maxx when you're talking about Image comics. Not even when you did the video about the Image Universe! He crossed over with multiple Image characters.
I don't love the story of Savage Dragon but Larsen is amazing that after this many years, he is still writing and illustrating his own book with consistent quality, I really can't think of many other artist besides Dave Sim or Stan Sakai who are that dedicated.
I watched this video and really appreciated the showcases, breakdowns and reasons for why you liked or didn’t like certain artists. Great video All I could think about the whole time is “He really put Jim Lee at 5?! Jim gotta be 2 at least”
Marc Silvestri had a grit and compositional style that was able to be adapted to the flashy “Image” style but it remained grounded and my favorite since his X-men run. Not as SleeK as Lee, Bombastic as Liefeld, or Flashy/Edgy as McFarlane but it was the best.
Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, these two guys were generational talents. Wilce Portacio was just behind them but he was borrowing a lot of Jim's style right from the very beginning. Erik larsen's Savage Dragon though was by far the best written, best scripted, best stories of all the Image books.
I was ready to be mad about your list, and while I would have switched your 1 & 2 spots, your reasonings and breakdown are undeniably well-drawn (yoink!). Good video!
Jim Lee's style is not the corporate style. The corporate style tries to emulate Jim Lee's style. There's a HUGE difference there, and if you can't see that well.. you're just not very intelligent then.
Larsen is so underrated. He has the longest running western comic from a single writer/artist (even Gerhard joined Sim on Cerebus with #65). Larsen is on #268/9 all on his lonesome.
The best artists at the start of Image were Jim, Marc and Todd. Valentino never could capture the excitement of Guardians again. Rob seemed to have gone backwards from New Mutants. Youngblood was absolutely awful. Digital colouring really helped Portacio's art alot, as it quite muddy with heavy line at times. Erik, his Savage Dragon was and still is very cool.
I can't judge solely on art styles. If I go strictly by the phrase "Who is the Best Image artist?" I would say unquestionably SAM KIETH! Every page of THE MAXX series was a BLISSFUL experience to behold! However, THE Image comic I would return to repeatedly is THE SAVAGE DRAGON! ERIK LARSEN loves the comic strip medium and it shows!
Great list. I like how you took into account the dynamic quality of Rob Liefeld's art to rank him, because his technical flaws in anatomy, perspective, etc. lead most artists to just trash his work. I got into reading comics just before Image Comics was created. In fact, the Uncanny X-Men run that introduced Bishop and was drawn by Whilce Portacio was one of the first stories I read. I was known from grade school through high school as the kid that drew superheroes, and even did some art for school t-shirt designs (my middle school mascot was the Gator, so our t-shirt had a hyper-muscular overly cross-hatched anthropomorphic alligator that I just ripped off of a Stephen Platt-drawn Prophet cover). By the end of high school it was the late 90s and I had transitioned my drawing style to more realism, highly influenced by Alex Ross. When I minored in Art Studio in college, I honed my realistic style on still lifes and nude models, but the Image artists were the ones who really got me into drawing. I still have a picture somewhere of myself with Jim Valentino, when he came to a small comic convention in my hometown in 1999.
My two favorite artists, swapping depending on the day of the week, have to be Sam Kieth and Keith Giffen. I know they weren't founders, but very early grabs for Image. Kieth has an otherworldly style made famous by Sandman 1-5 that works beautifully for the world of The Maxx. Giffen's Trencher was one of my favorite books for it's bizarre and detailed style. Each image was almost like a Tetris puzzle of crazy shapes that made one ultimate picture.
I'm gonna have to agree with alot of the commentors here, your presentation is so enjoyable to watch. It's equivalent to a Saturday Morning cartoon with all my fav shows and this being up there with the rest of them.
Another banging episode,Josh,like the way you state what you and how you like it.WELL SAID,I like how you-EXPRESS-yourself.Your video on Rob Liefeld is-GREAT-I go back and watch that video often. Keep'em coming hoss.
Back in 1992, X-books were the rage, so it didn't get any bigger than Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The kids back then LOVED those two artists. The second tier was: McFarlane, Silvestri, Stephen Platt, Whilce Portacio (though, you could easily argue that Whilce was third tier), The third tier were artists like: Brett Booth, J. Scott Campbell, Mark Teixeira ... and so on
Trying to be objective, my list would be: 1) Jim Lee 2) Todd McFarlane 3) Rob Liefeld 4) Marc Silvestri 5) Erik Larsen 6) Whilce Portacio 7) Jim Valentino I say this, given my favorites are 5 & 4
JIm Lee is the top 3 if not top 2 artists based on his influence and for Rob Liefeld to be above Jim Lee is crazy. Being that I was an adult in the 90s I saw Jim Lee's work as top tier. Rob's anatomy was terrible and all over the place along with ton of fanny packs and pouches was too much. Lee, McFarlane and Silvestri were the best but as one who wanted to do comics back in the 90s. I have a different perspective that you do based on my age and perspective. But most people my age would actually favorite more of the golden age Marvel artist from the 60s to the 80s versus the rockstar days of the 90s.
1) Marc Silvestri (inner-circle all-time great), 2) Jim Lee (cleanest & most readable), 3) Todd McFarlane (incredibly dynamic without sacrificing too much anatomical coherence, the grittiness just doesn't play with me), 4) Whilce Portacio (pretty hit-or-miss, but with enough flashes of undeniable brilliance to juuuust edge out Larsen), 5) Erik Larsen (no real highs or lows, just extremely consistent & workmanlike), 6) Jim Valentino (his art being pretty clean but also indie af is just a weird uncanny valley for me), 7) Rob Liefeld (near McFarlane-level dynamism, but with the technical skill & attention to detail of small, ADHD-riddled child).
Agree with the list overall with the huge exception of Erik Larsen. His art has always been very weak, although better with Savage Dragon than Amazing Spider-Man, and I'll never forgive him for making me stop subscribing ASM when he took over for McFarlane. My top two are also McFarlane then Silvestri. Then Liefeld and Jim L and Whilce. Jim V at the end.
1. Jim Lee 2. Marc Silvestri 3. Whilce Portacio 4. Erik Larsen 5. Todd McFarlane 6. Jim Valentino ... 7. My 02 years old son ... Yeah, I guess this is it for me.
All were good. My favorite was Jim Lee, but Marc, Eric, and Rob are great as well. Todd is Todd, though nuff said. None of the early image artists were bad. Even Jae Lee was awesome.
I used to artistically worship Lee and Silvestri. I still like Lee but his Punisher and Uncanny X Men work is his best to me. Silvestri is awesome still. I liked the late guys at Image. Keith, Charest, Jae Lee, Adam Hughes and Adam Warren did the best art on Gen 13 imo.
First off, there's only one man both DC and Marvel trusted to animate their mutant and core character catalog and that was Jim Lee. He also sold 8 million copies becoming the best selling artist ever in 4th year of his career. His legacy far overshadows everyone on the list and rivals the greats in history. Know your history before you start yapping 💩his volume of work almost triples everyone on the list except Silvestri. Lol
You lost me when you put Rob Liefeld above Jim Lee. I understand that it is just your opinion but I think when you rate an artist, you need to consider parameters related to art like anatomy, perspective, composition and overall storytelling. Jim excels in all of these. His fundamentals are strong and that is why he is still regarded among the best even today. His peers, barring Marc and probably Erik as well), lacked the fundamentals and no matter how much they tried to cover that up by adding details and lines and what not, it still shows. I think it is disrespectful towards Jim's talents to rank him lower just because every other artist tried to emulate his style.
Iwas floored with your placement of Lee, but your explanation, followed immediately by Liefeld made it work. I disagree, but that's how opinions work! Hell yeah!
Ehh… Jim is ranked too low, he belongs in that top 3. He and Silvestri are close in pedigree, consistency and excellence. Todd is arguably number one but he could trade with Lee or Silvestri. Larsen is a solid 4, Portacio 5, Liefeld 6, Valentino 7
Silverstri was on top in the early 90s especially with Wolverine.. his change in style later on didn't do it for me. overall Jim Lee has been consistent so has Todd McFarlane more or less. Rob Liefield was raw and I digged it in the early 90s.. but he didn't get better if anything it feels like he is phoning it in at times. And the rest were good in their prime can't say much about their work now.
For me the list would go: 1. Todd McFarlane I really love McFarlane's Spider-Man and his work on Spawn even more. McFarlane on his A-game looks just incredible. Spawn is the only Image comic that I've ever cared about and that's all down to how great McFarlane's work on that book was. 2. Jim Lee Jim Lee's work is technically superb and looks very neat and clean, but like you said, it's maybe bit too clean, which notches him just behind McFarlane for me. And I think his best work is on Batman which came out later. 3. Marc Silvestri Silvestri is just overall very solid artist. I've always loved his work with the X-Men, and especially on Wolverine. He always draws Wolverine with lot of raw energy that fits the character so well. 4. Eric Larsen I always loved Larsen's cartoonish style on Spider-Man. His Venom in particular looks completely crazy and I love it. 5. Whilce Portacio I've never had strong opinions about Portacio's work, but it's solid enough with nothing really to complain about. 6. Rob Liefeld And then there's Rob Liefeld. I've been reading through early 90s X-Men comics recently and, yeah, Liefeld's work doesn't hold up for me. Like you said, there's certain hyper energy to Liefeld's style, so I can see how it appeals to people who can overlook his shortcomings in other things, but I'm definitely not one of those people. (Never gotten into Valentino's work so I'm not ranking him)
Not a fan of Valentino's art,but,I really liked his writing on GOTG title.The only comic I ever bought for the writing not the art.I bought that entire run.
I think Jim Lee’s art is Peak after Image, Jim’s Work on Batman is my favourite and I think his overall best work, All Star Batman and Robin may be Shit, but at least Jim absolutely shreds every Page, That Book LOOKS awesome, shame it’s maddening to read
Credit goes to Jim Lee's other half in creating art, inker Scott Williams. He just gets Jim Lee's art sometimes even better than Lee himself. Their combined talents lead to a lot of great artwork.
5:49 Beautiful work and he created BISHOP, the first Black X-Man right when I was home on break from going to an HBCU! I still remember seeing the Uncanny X-MEN cover with MALCOLM and RANDALL on the cover with him. I saw it THROUGH THE WINDOW of a "convenience store" in the mall! You want the teens and coeds to come into your store, put the comics rack at the front window and the naughty mags in the back. What are naughty mags? Nevermind. It was 1992.
Looking back on it all and where they have come since, I'd have to say: 3. McFarlene 2. Lee 1. Silvestri With all of that said, Lee is the one who's set the standard for all pencilers that have followed and really changed a generation of up and coming artist. The best pencilers that were basically bred from Image comics though: Finch, Silvestri and Travis Charest. I know Silvestri was popular before Image, but he came into Image as very good, he then became an icon with the style he defined there.
13:25 No argument on Todd. He was ranked #1 in WIZARD Magazine for years. However, he showed his weakness on his final issue of SPIDER-MAN, when he hastily drew the X-FORCE and JUGGERNAUT. McFarlane is great at cinematic looking, highly detailed scenes; but lacks the ability to draw group shots that JIM LEE, PORTACIO, and MARC SILVESTRI mastered in the X-Titles.
I would've swapped Larsen and Jim Lee. Imo, the artist's main job is to convey the story. I feel like Jim Lee has always provided a great vehicle for stories through his art. I feel like if there's any critique to be made against him, it's really that he falls down as a storyteller, whereas you could definitely make the case that McFarlane draws visceral art, and can tell visceral (if over-the-top) stories. Definitely a good call on Marc Silvestri at #3 though.. definitely an A-Tier artist for sure. Keep up the great work on the channel, btw. Glad to see 90's superhero comics get some love and critical attention!
I don’t agree with this list. At all. However, you have an interesting perspective. This list isn’t what .I would have expected and it was very thoughtful. Thumbs up.
I do love Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Todd Mcfarlane, Marc Silvestri… what about Larry Stroman (Tribe), or Sam Keith (the Maxx), and wasn’t Jae Lee (Hellshock) a part of Image?
They were, but the title says “Image Founders”, which Lee, Portacio, McFarlane, and Silvestri along with Liefeld, Larsen, and Valentino all are and Stroman, Kieth, and Jae Lee aren’t.
Dude. Style point: would be SOOO much better if you commented almost exclusively over footage of their artwork. Listening to you wax lyrical describing an art style while staring at your face is sub optimal. It actually got frustrating.
Of course Todd is number one, he was always a big fish in a small pond. Creating some of the most iconic characters that defined an entire decade of comic books, innovating in his industry. He's a great draftsman with an unmistakable art style and tone to his work. He's not my favorite comic artist but I respect him for different reasons than I would respect other legends like Jack Kirby but Todd is up there just because he's such a driven and inspiring human.
Jim Lee's panels in the new x-men he did the gambit hitting Rouge with the kinetic charged basketball is better than anything the founders have done. I can't respect anyone who says Rob and Todd draw better than Jim Lee.
Incredible video, Josh. I love how whenever you talk about comics you focus a lot on the artists, which is something a lot of other comic book TH-camrs don't do as much imo. I can't get enough of this style of content. Keep it up!
Yeah I audibly yelled "WHAAATT?!" at Jim Lee's placement, but I get your reasoning. Jim Lee got me into wanting to draw though so he holds a special place. Anytime I think of X Men I think of that huge relaunch cover and still think the costumes at that time were the best due to his artwork. Saying his art is corporate I think disses his talent a bit...he was just so super crisp, super clean and super dynamic that you couldn't not pay attention.
I'm a Jim Lee fanboy,his time on X-Men sent the sells into the stratosphere !!! I can only imagine his page rates and royalties on his X-Men run.But,having your own studio,owning the characters you create,forming your comics company and getting 100% of the sales of your comics had to be-GREAT.
I get the reasoning, but 90s Jim Lee was amazing. You couldn't take your eyes off his work, it was beautiful, for most the definitive x-men drawings. No one could draw a panel like Jim Lee, however I do think Marc Silvestri was the better story teller though. More fluid and expressive than Jim Lee and he absorbed a lot of Jim Lee's style to make himself even better. If it's a single panel I'd take Jim Lee or Todd McFarlane as the best, if it's a whole story, Silversti.
eXactly!
Jim Lee's X Men designs are still being used, 30 years later. Plus his Batman work....how many DC artist copied his Batman.
Jim's work is only 'corporate' because everyone else copied it. It's not his fault
Most absurd shit I’ve ever seen is putting rob before Jim Lee
And larsen
Dale keown was mines over him in image
@@PiESONEXTARiQSDale is a super underrated artist. Pitt blew me away back in the day.
From a pure technical standpoint, Silvestri was the better artist of the bunch. He had the best combination of style, draftsmanship and panel to panel storytelling out of all the Image 7.
McFarlane was the most visually striking out of all of them.
Creatively I would say Portacio had the most creative page layouts out of all of them. And his style was equally as kinetic as Liefeld.
Jim Lee was a more polished version of Portacio but also had the better fight choreography out of all the artists.
Liefeld has unfocused energy. That's as best as I can describe his art. If he had applied himself better he could have been a way more better visual storyteller.
Larsen and Valentino never appealed to me.
For me it’s 1. Jim lee 2. Mcfarlane 3. Portacio. 4. Silvestri 5. Rob liefeld 6. Erik Larsen 7. Jim Valentino. And for me Erik Larsen and jim Valentino aren’t very good at all.
Nothing came close too McFarland and Spawn at the time. It jump at you from accross the room and demanded your attention. The art was so captivating.
McFarlane was easily the greatest Spider-Man artist. And he drew the best Mary Jane. He influenced my drawing quite a bit.
same dude also Jim Lee and Silvestri had a great deal too with me
Facts he drew the best Mary Jane
Mark Bagley is a much better artist in all respects.
Nah, put some respect on Mark Bagley’s name😂(in terms of anatomy/technical line skills)
Glad to see Silverstri ranked so highly. I'd say out of all these artists, he's the one who's managed to improve his already titanic skills the most throughout the years. For example, his work in the 2012 Incredible Hulk run and especially his recent Batman & Joker - Deadly Duo series is pure, artgasmic Heaven.
Silverstri did show stopping work. I started getting his marvel comics because of his art.
I agree, he has gotten better and better over the years, but is still distinctly himself stylistically. I really liked his return to X-Men with the Messiah Complex event.
The Todd Father undefeated once again.
There has to be some kind of criminal offense that applies here having Liefeld not only higher than last but higher than Lee. Absolutely absurd
Illegal 😅😅😅😅
@maranidonny1823 I know! Isn’t it sad to see someone have an honest opinion that is just so wrong it’s insulting? Even as a child Liefeld’s absurd anatomy and insulting exaggerations in all the wrong ways just came off as insulting. You want to look at the best artists and here’s this guys somehow popular for drawing like a refined grade schooler.
Exactly. “Who’s they best artist? You can define comics art as before Jim Lee and after Jim Lee. He set the corporate standard for comics.” Clearly, Rob was better because he had *energy* where he lacked in anatomy, detail, and something called “backgrounds in the comics panels”. Meanwhile, shows awesome splash pages, character designs still used to this day 30 years later, and panels with energy from Lee.
For me:
1) Jim Lee
2)Todd McFarlane
3)Marc Silvestri
You can give me any reason to interchange anyone in that list and I'd have a hard time disagreeing.
But Rob Liefeld over Jim Lee...LOL
I share your love of '90s comics and really enjoy these videos. My list would probably go something like:
1.) Jim Lee
2.) Mark Silvestri
3.) Rob Liefeld
4.) Todd McFarlane
5.) Jim Valentino
6.) Whilce Portacio
7.) Erik Larsen
Agree with your 1 and 2.
Easily Marc Silvestri was the best artist
True
Once he hit The Darkness, definitely. On Cyberforce, while it was certainly great work, he hadn't reached his full potential yet.
I loved his X Men run.
Silvestri is the MAN! I felt he was overlooked when he was at Marvel and Image because of Jim and Todd. The Darkness was amazing. And Hunter Killer was good too.
Leifeld deserves to be last.
Most of those names I remember, but all of them were behind Jim Lee. His lines, anatomy, clean, & as he said a good inker can make you look even better, as he praised his inker at Marvel, I believe. Jim Lee best hands down.
His art is/was prettyuch unassailable in my eyes. When I think of artists like Marc Silvestri, I think dirty and sloppy. But once Jim Lee started his super solid figure work in X-Men #1, I noticed Marc's style get cleaner and more solid toward the Cyber force ongoing.
Agreed. I always felt like Jim Lee was the best artist out of all of the Image Comics founders, too and I'm pretty sure that I've heard Todd McFarlane admit as much in interviews. There's no shame in admitting when someone is better than you! I admit all the time that there are so many different artists who are so much better than I am as an artist( but fortunately, I can still draw and I'm even teaching myself how to paint, too).
Marc silvestri and Jim Lee are he 2 best comic book illustrators in he industry.👍🏻 Now the Best Artist, thats another thing. Probably out of a few 1 is alex Ross. 2 Bill Sienkiewicz. But this is all my opinion, I'm bias 😅 but the thing is the illustrators are just drawing what's on the script, so it's the writer (s) fault if a page is daft, or boring.
I'd say Silvestri is the flat out Best Arist. His Wolverine and Cyber Force is mind-blowingly good Comic Art. Valentino's "Shadowhawk" was always my favorite Image title though. Like you mentioned, it felt like you were reading a gritty, R-Rated early 90''s action movie. It's a fun group of unique Artists to rank as I'm sure everyone has their favorites!
Jim Lee has always been my favorite artist when it came to drawing the X-Men and Batman.
Todd McFarlane blew my mind in the 80s. He has my vote hands down. I loved how he modernized Peter and MJ. It was like every issue of Amazing Spiderman by Todd was a work of art. Jim Lee #2.
Jim Lee. It's just Jim Lee hands down. Even as a kid, I always gravitated towards comics where he was the penciller. The others are also great (even Rob Liefeld... at times) but he's always been my favorite.
My fav is still Todd McFarlane, but I like them all, each one for a different reason. Even Rob Liefeld for better or worse.
John Buscema>John Byrne>Arthur Adams>Jim Lee>Others. Arthur Adams and Jim Lee were heralds and avant-gardes of a new era. It's obvious you don't understand comics. Of course, there were many other worthy artists in between, but the groundbreaking these two opened were like two suns rising on the shoulders of their great predecessors, such as John Buscema and later John Byrne.
I was always a Wilce Portacio fan. I loved the Wetwork series.
Whoever was drawing wetworks was great
LOL. I saw the title of the video and thought, well Lee will obviously be first, McFarlane will be second, and Liefeld will be last, but let me see how he rates the rest of them. Saying the artist who drew X-Force #1 is better than the artist that drew X-Men #1 is just wild. I have to assume you only did it for rage clicks and comments.
1- Todd McFarlane
2- Jim Lee
3- Marc Silvestri
4- Whilce Portacio
5- Eric Larsen
6- Rob Liefeld
7- Jim Valentino
I honestly think Josh might be the biggest Rob Liefeld fan in the world.
Statistically speaking, somebody has to
It’s crazy how you put him over Jim Lee. He must not like feet.
Stylistically I’ve always loved Todd McFarlane. His work was so dynamic and fluid. I love Jim Lee for his aesthetic physiques with nice proportions. You can see either one of these two on TH-cam doing live sketches and its amazing how naturally they are. Rob Liefield 🤮
Jim Lee's live sketch is still mind-blowing to me. Todd's live sketch is also great.
I grabbed every first issue of many Image Comics title...these artists all bring something 2 the table. I love them all!
Easily Jim Lee, then Marc Silvestri and probably Erik Larsen. McFarlane was okay and Liefeld wasn't worth the paper he drew on without an inker to clean up the mess.
Man it's a close call, silvestri and Jim Lee are just god level art, I like them both.
But if you ask me my favourite artist of all time, it would be BARRY WINDSOR SMITH, as a kid his art baffled me, it wasn't easy, it wasn't conventional but it was fluid and moved, as I grew older I just gravitated to his work, and today I think he is a true challenger for what defines movement on a page.
Excellent choice with Barry Windsor Smith. I Was actually just looking at some of his work over the last few days such as Conan, Rune and a lot of his Valiant work, and I would have to agree there's just something about his pencils the hasn't been duplicated.
It’s one thing to say I’m not a huge fan of Jim Lee. But anyone who claims Liefeld is a better artist than Jim Lee needs therapy
Took the words right out of my mouth
It's wild to me that you've never even mentioned Sam Keith's work on the Maxx when you're talking about Image comics.
Not even when you did the video about the Image Universe! He crossed over with multiple Image characters.
Yes!
He moved to Image, but he was not one of the founding members.
Having Rob Liefeld over Jim Lee is certainly... a choice. I get the reasoning, but man... Rob can't even draw basic anatomy.
1. Todd McFarlane
2. Erik Larsen
3. Jim Lee
I don't love the story of Savage Dragon but Larsen is amazing that after this many years, he is still writing and illustrating his own book with consistent quality, I really can't think of many other artist besides Dave Sim or Stan Sakai who are that dedicated.
I watched this video and really appreciated the showcases, breakdowns and reasons for why you liked or didn’t like certain artists. Great video
All I could think about the whole time is “He really put Jim Lee at 5?! Jim gotta be 2 at least”
If Jim Lee or Marc Silvestri is not at the top of this list then it is simply wrong. Factually wrong.
@@RogerioPereiradaSilva77 Bro I’m saying?! Like that’s big Jim Lee we talking about here
not mad at this list. Todd is LITERALLY the reason I started collecting comics in 89.
damn i havent watched one of your videos in a while, you lowkey had a glow up, big W
lol thanks, I think?
Marc Silvestri had a grit and compositional style that was able to be adapted to the flashy “Image” style but it remained grounded and my favorite since his X-men run. Not as SleeK as Lee, Bombastic as Liefeld, or Flashy/Edgy as McFarlane but it was the best.
You list shows just how subjective art is.
Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, these two guys were generational talents. Wilce Portacio was just behind them but he was borrowing a lot of Jim's style right from the very beginning. Erik larsen's Savage Dragon though was by far the best written, best scripted, best stories of all the Image books.
I was ready to be mad about your list, and while I would have switched your 1 & 2 spots, your reasonings and breakdown are undeniably well-drawn (yoink!). Good video!
Jim Lee's style is not the corporate style. The corporate style tries to emulate Jim Lee's style. There's a HUGE difference there, and if you can't see that well.. you're just not very intelligent then.
Larsen is so underrated. He has the longest running western comic from a single writer/artist (even Gerhard joined Sim on Cerebus with #65). Larsen is on #268/9 all on his lonesome.
How did we never get a Shadowhawk/TMNT crossover? That would have been such a great fit.
The best artists at the start of Image were Jim, Marc and Todd.
Valentino never could capture the excitement of Guardians again.
Rob seemed to have gone backwards from New Mutants. Youngblood was absolutely awful.
Digital colouring really helped Portacio's art alot, as it quite muddy with heavy line at times.
Erik, his Savage Dragon was and still is very cool.
I can't judge solely on art styles. If I go strictly by the phrase "Who is the Best Image artist?" I would say unquestionably SAM KIETH! Every page of THE MAXX series was a BLISSFUL experience to behold! However, THE Image comic I would return to repeatedly is THE SAVAGE DRAGON! ERIK LARSEN loves the comic strip medium and it shows!
Great list. I like how you took into account the dynamic quality of Rob Liefeld's art to rank him, because his technical flaws in anatomy, perspective, etc. lead most artists to just trash his work. I got into reading comics just before Image Comics was created. In fact, the Uncanny X-Men run that introduced Bishop and was drawn by Whilce Portacio was one of the first stories I read. I was known from grade school through high school as the kid that drew superheroes, and even did some art for school t-shirt designs (my middle school mascot was the Gator, so our t-shirt had a hyper-muscular overly cross-hatched anthropomorphic alligator that I just ripped off of a Stephen Platt-drawn Prophet cover). By the end of high school it was the late 90s and I had transitioned my drawing style to more realism, highly influenced by Alex Ross. When I minored in Art Studio in college, I honed my realistic style on still lifes and nude models, but the Image artists were the ones who really got me into drawing. I still have a picture somewhere of myself with Jim Valentino, when he came to a small comic convention in my hometown in 1999.
To me, Liefeld is like a passionate karaoke singer. He doesn't hit every note, but he entertains the room.
✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿
Liefield's work to the early 90s was actually better than the latter stuff he did. By the time he returned to marvel his drowsing where lazier.
Agree to disagree but respect that this is your opinion.
Jim Lee is a personal favorite. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
My two favorite artists, swapping depending on the day of the week, have to be Sam Kieth and Keith Giffen. I know they weren't founders, but very early grabs for Image. Kieth has an otherworldly style made famous by Sandman 1-5 that works beautifully for the world of The Maxx. Giffen's Trencher was one of my favorite books for it's bizarre and detailed style. Each image was almost like a Tetris puzzle of crazy shapes that made one ultimate picture.
Jim Lee was the best bar none.
Silvestri all day long, out of the founders only Jim comes close to Marc
I'll definitely take Leifeld's style over the overly toony-looking and anime-looking styles so common today.
Lost me when with Liefield over Lee, but I get it, it’s your list. 1) Lee 2) Mcfarlane 3) Silverstri
I'm gonna have to agree with alot of the commentors here, your presentation is so enjoyable to watch. It's equivalent to a Saturday Morning cartoon with all my fav shows and this being up there with the rest of them.
Another banging episode,Josh,like the way you state what you and how you like it.WELL SAID,I like how you-EXPRESS-yourself.Your video on Rob Liefeld is-GREAT-I go back and watch that video often. Keep'em coming hoss.
Jim as 5?! Lost me man
in terms of pure art, Jim Lee is the best artist, not only his 90's art was amazing, but his evolution in his art in 2000 for DC was perfection.
Jim Lee for me.
Jim Lee brought me in. I liked comics but his work with the stories made me love it. I think it was the combination.
Back in 1992, X-books were the rage, so it didn't get any bigger than Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The kids back then LOVED those two artists. The second tier was: McFarlane, Silvestri, Stephen Platt, Whilce Portacio (though, you could easily argue that Whilce was third tier), The third tier were artists like: Brett Booth, J. Scott Campbell, Mark Teixeira ... and so on
Shadow hawk 1 was the one I couldn’t ever find!
yea id say you nailed the top 3 even though i would switch them into different orders depending what comics of theirs we were lookin at
Trying to be objective, my list would be:
1) Jim Lee
2) Todd McFarlane
3) Rob Liefeld
4) Marc Silvestri
5) Erik Larsen
6) Whilce Portacio
7) Jim Valentino
I say this, given my favorites are 5 & 4
JIm Lee is the top 3 if not top 2 artists based on his influence and for Rob Liefeld to be above Jim Lee is crazy. Being that I was an adult in the 90s I saw Jim Lee's work as top tier. Rob's anatomy was terrible and all over the place along with ton of fanny packs and pouches was too much.
Lee, McFarlane and Silvestri were the best but as one who wanted to do comics back in the 90s. I have a different perspective that you do based on my age and perspective. But most people my age would actually favorite more of the golden age Marvel artist from the 60s to the 80s versus the rockstar days of the 90s.
1) Marc Silvestri (inner-circle all-time great), 2) Jim Lee (cleanest & most readable), 3) Todd McFarlane (incredibly dynamic without sacrificing too much anatomical coherence, the grittiness just doesn't play with me), 4) Whilce Portacio (pretty hit-or-miss, but with enough flashes of undeniable brilliance to juuuust edge out Larsen), 5) Erik Larsen (no real highs or lows, just extremely consistent & workmanlike), 6) Jim Valentino (his art being pretty clean but also indie af is just a weird uncanny valley for me), 7) Rob Liefeld (near McFarlane-level dynamism, but with the technical skill & attention to detail of small, ADHD-riddled child).
Agree with the list overall with the huge exception of Erik Larsen. His art has always been very weak, although better with Savage Dragon than Amazing Spider-Man, and I'll never forgive him for making me stop subscribing ASM when he took over for McFarlane. My top two are also McFarlane then Silvestri. Then Liefeld and Jim L and Whilce. Jim V at the end.
1. Jim Lee
2. Marc Silvestri
3. Whilce Portacio
4. Erik Larsen
5. Todd McFarlane
6. Jim Valentino
...
7. My 02 years old son
...
Yeah, I guess this is it for me.
All were good. My favorite was Jim Lee, but Marc, Eric, and Rob are great as well. Todd is Todd, though nuff said. None of the early image artists were bad. Even Jae Lee was awesome.
I used to artistically worship Lee and Silvestri. I still like Lee but his Punisher and Uncanny X Men work is his best to me. Silvestri is awesome still. I liked the late guys at Image. Keith, Charest, Jae Lee, Adam Hughes and Adam Warren did the best art on Gen 13 imo.
Not to forget Dale Keown
First off, there's only one man both DC and Marvel trusted to animate their mutant and core character catalog and that was Jim Lee. He also sold 8 million copies becoming the best selling artist ever in 4th year of his career. His legacy far overshadows everyone on the list and rivals the greats in history. Know your history before you start yapping 💩his volume of work almost triples everyone on the list except Silvestri. Lol
Not even a Jim Lee fan, but ranking Liefeld above him is just silly. Admitting that is no carte blanche.
Jim Lee is the best IMHO by rank
1. Jim Lee
2. Todd McFarlane
3. Wilce Portacio
4. Marc Silvestri
5. Rob Liefield
6. Erik Larsen
7. Jim Valentino
You lost me when you put Rob Liefeld above Jim Lee.
I understand that it is just your opinion but I think when you rate an artist, you need to consider parameters related to art like anatomy, perspective, composition and overall storytelling. Jim excels in all of these. His fundamentals are strong and that is why he is still regarded among the best even today. His peers, barring Marc and probably Erik as well), lacked the fundamentals and no matter how much they tried to cover that up by adding details and lines and what not, it still shows.
I think it is disrespectful towards Jim's talents to rank him lower just because every other artist tried to emulate his style.
Iwas floored with your placement of Lee, but your explanation, followed immediately by Liefeld made it work. I disagree, but that's how opinions work! Hell yeah!
Ehh… Jim is ranked too low, he belongs in that top 3. He and Silvestri are close in pedigree, consistency and excellence. Todd is arguably number one but he could trade with Lee or Silvestri. Larsen is a solid 4, Portacio 5, Liefeld 6, Valentino 7
I would have put Jim Lee as either no.1 or no.2 and pushed everyone else down a slot.
Silverstri was on top in the early 90s especially with Wolverine.. his change in style later on didn't do it for me.
overall Jim Lee has been consistent so has Todd McFarlane more or less.
Rob Liefield was raw and I digged it in the early 90s.. but he didn't get better if anything it feels like he is phoning it in at times.
And the rest were good in their prime can't say much about their work now.
For me the list would go:
1. Todd McFarlane
I really love McFarlane's Spider-Man and his work on Spawn even more. McFarlane on his A-game looks just incredible. Spawn is the only Image comic that I've ever cared about and that's all down to how great McFarlane's work on that book was.
2. Jim Lee
Jim Lee's work is technically superb and looks very neat and clean, but like you said, it's maybe bit too clean, which notches him just behind McFarlane for me. And I think his best work is on Batman which came out later.
3. Marc Silvestri
Silvestri is just overall very solid artist. I've always loved his work with the X-Men, and especially on Wolverine. He always draws Wolverine with lot of raw energy that fits the character so well.
4. Eric Larsen
I always loved Larsen's cartoonish style on Spider-Man. His Venom in particular looks completely crazy and I love it.
5. Whilce Portacio
I've never had strong opinions about Portacio's work, but it's solid enough with nothing really to complain about.
6. Rob Liefeld
And then there's Rob Liefeld. I've been reading through early 90s X-Men comics recently and, yeah, Liefeld's work doesn't hold up for me. Like you said, there's certain hyper energy to Liefeld's style, so I can see how it appeals to people who can overlook his shortcomings in other things, but I'm definitely not one of those people.
(Never gotten into Valentino's work so I'm not ranking him)
Not a fan of Valentino's art,but,I really liked his writing on GOTG title.The only comic I ever bought for the writing not the art.I bought that entire run.
I think Jim Lee’s art is Peak after Image, Jim’s Work on Batman is my favourite and I think his overall best work, All Star Batman and Robin may be Shit, but at least Jim absolutely shreds every Page, That Book LOOKS awesome, shame it’s maddening to read
Credit goes to Jim Lee's other half in creating art, inker Scott Williams. He just gets Jim Lee's art sometimes even better than Lee himself. Their combined talents lead to a lot of great artwork.
also, how can i give this a like when you totally disrespected jim lee... wtf... i'm actually giving it thumbs down
1.Lee,2. Mcfarlane,3. Silvestre, 4.Liefeld ,5. Whilce, 6. Larson, 7. Jimmy V
Can't wait to start my collection
5:49 Beautiful work and he created BISHOP, the first Black X-Man right when I was home on break from going to an HBCU! I still remember seeing the Uncanny X-MEN cover with MALCOLM and RANDALL on the cover with him. I saw it THROUGH THE WINDOW of a "convenience store" in the mall! You want the teens and coeds to come into your store, put the comics rack at the front window and the naughty mags in the back. What are naughty mags? Nevermind. It was 1992.
Jim Lee was the best artist then and he's the best now
AGREED.
I guess they weren’t founders, idk, but I loved Dale Keown and Sam Keith too.
Looking back on it all and where they have come since, I'd have to say:
3. McFarlene
2. Lee
1. Silvestri
With all of that said, Lee is the one who's set the standard for all pencilers that have followed and really changed a generation of up and coming artist. The best pencilers that were basically bred from Image comics though: Finch, Silvestri and Travis Charest. I know Silvestri was popular before Image, but he came into Image as very good, he then became an icon with the style he defined there.
Erik Larsen gets my vote.
Jim Lee / Todd McFarlane
My list:
1) Todd McFarlane
2) Jim Lee
3) Marc Silvestri
4) Rob Liefeld
5) Erik Larsen
6) Whilce Portacio
7) Jim Valentino
Would love to see a video about the extremely underrated Kubert brothers and their legendary father.
I prefer Andy over Jim Lee, even though Andy owes a lot to Lee
13:25 No argument on Todd. He was ranked #1 in WIZARD Magazine for years. However, he showed his weakness on his final issue of SPIDER-MAN, when he hastily drew the X-FORCE and JUGGERNAUT. McFarlane is great at cinematic looking, highly detailed scenes; but lacks the ability to draw group shots that JIM LEE, PORTACIO, and MARC SILVESTRI mastered in the X-Titles.
I would've swapped Larsen and Jim Lee. Imo, the artist's main job is to convey the story. I feel like Jim Lee has always provided a great vehicle for stories through his art. I feel like if there's any critique to be made against him, it's really that he falls down as a storyteller, whereas you could definitely make the case that McFarlane draws visceral art, and can tell visceral (if over-the-top) stories. Definitely a good call on Marc Silvestri at #3 though.. definitely an A-Tier artist for sure.
Keep up the great work on the channel, btw. Glad to see 90's superhero comics get some love and critical attention!
When you put Jim Lee 3rd to last I made the decision not to watch the entire video and not subscribe.
Without watching one second of this I can say Liefeld is dead last on any artist list. One can barely claim his stuff as art without laughing. Oof!
I don’t agree with this list. At all. However, you have an interesting perspective. This list isn’t what .I would have expected and it was very thoughtful. Thumbs up.
All 7 are fairly close but seeing the various artists on display reveals the importance of inking and colouring.
I do love Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Todd Mcfarlane, Marc Silvestri… what about Larry Stroman (Tribe), or Sam Keith (the Maxx), and wasn’t Jae Lee (Hellshock) a part of Image?
They were, but the title says “Image Founders”, which Lee, Portacio, McFarlane, and Silvestri along with Liefeld, Larsen, and Valentino all are and Stroman, Kieth, and Jae Lee aren’t.
Dude. Style point: would be SOOO much better if you commented almost exclusively over footage of their artwork. Listening to you wax lyrical describing an art style while staring at your face is sub optimal. It actually got frustrating.
Thanks for your interest but I’m not hiring video editors at this time.
Of course Todd is number one, he was always a big fish in a small pond. Creating some of the most iconic characters that defined an entire decade of comic books, innovating in his industry. He's a great draftsman with an unmistakable art style and tone to his work. He's not my favorite comic artist but I respect him for different reasons than I would respect other legends like Jack Kirby but Todd is up there just because he's such a driven and inspiring human.
Jim Lee's panels in the new x-men he did the gambit hitting Rouge with the kinetic charged basketball is better than anything the founders have done. I can't respect anyone who says Rob and Todd draw better than Jim Lee.
all the image founders are very interesting in my opinion.
Incredible video, Josh. I love how whenever you talk about comics you focus a lot on the artists, which is something a lot of other comic book TH-camrs don't do as much imo. I can't get enough of this style of content. Keep it up!