Artemaria

Hey Artemis Here is a scan of that Brase piece you mentioned. With the level of detail he puts into his work it would be a miracle for him to finish an interiors gig on a monthly basis. I can see him doing graphic novel work though. Something long term and self contained. Even with everything else I have commissioned over the years this is still the most insanely detailed thing I have ever seen. Hey Chris - Yep, that's the piece. There's no doubt the guy can draw. But there's alot of guys who can draw but can't draw comics either well or consistently. From your post, I don't think we are in any disagreement. Seeing your commission again reminds me how your pieces is far and away the absolutely best thing that I've ever seen come from Braze when considering the layout, concept and execution. While the other cover posted is also nice, I've seen a couple of covers from Braze that could have benefited from a better conceptualization of layout and/or perspective before applying all that mind boggling detail. Best. - A

Great thread. There's a number of very talented artists out there right now, but picking a superstar or superstar-to-be is tough. I'll second the thoughts about Ivan Reis, Jim Cheung, Ethan Van Sciver, David Finch, Ed Benes and J. Scott Campbell being the next gen of great comic art superstars. I actually think that they are considered as comic superstars already. As for up and comers, some great artists to watch out for are Steve McNiven, Francis Manapul, Paolo Rivera, Jason Pearson, Eric Basaldua, Patrick Scherberger, Lee Bermejo and perhaps Andy Braze. Andy's work is sparse, and not particularly consistent. His detail work is unbelievable, but his layouts and poses seem somewhat stiff to me with a decent amount of repetition of poses between covers. I actually think Andy's best piece by far is a commission of the Marvel villain Nightmare (I think it is in Chris Caira's CAF). It is unclear whether Braze can hold down a monthly book, so more exposure is uncertain at this point. Some of the very talented artists mentioned on this thread have a stylistic sense that may be too strong to appeal to a mass market (e.g.: Furlong). While I've seen many of his images, and there is no denying the man's talent, he may be too much of a true artist to enjoy mainstream appeal as a comic artist which often requires artists to commit to a certain level of graphic realism to communicate the story. But on other titles, such as Dr. Strange, Furlong's stylistic imaginings would be fairly amazing. It has been great seeing the thoughts of others on this thread. Best wishes to everyone for a happy holiday season. - A

Wow - that's an outstanding frame job for $58! Or any price for that matter! Congratulations!

Congrats on two beautiful pages!

That's a nice IM page. One of the best Layton/JR JR examples I've seen in a long time (yes I put them in the right order, Layton's inks made that book at that time while JR JR was finding his legs. Also, unless I'm mistaken, Layton - not JR JR was co-plotting with Micheline). Was thinking about it, but had to feed the kids this week. DAMN! Congrats on a fine acquisition. Should you ever tire of it (or if you need to turn it around to get something you like better) let me know!