Mount Rushmore of Comic Artists 4 4

[PopKulture]

I was just asking elsewhere if you can still invoke the concept of Mount Rushmore? If so, this is my Rushmore of comic artists. Now, these aren't necessarily my favorites, although I do love them all. I am trying to be a little objective about it:

Jack Kirby - nobody comes close in sheer output and influence. Utterly dynamic and a great storyteller. An irresistible force. 

Neal Adams - the greatest delineator ever. Probably the second most influential after Kirby. Do you remember the first time you saw one of Adams' faces, in all its expressive and realistic glory?

Will Eisner - the godfather. Probably the best storyteller ever in comics, and an amazing draftsman. Influential as an artist, art director, editor, studio head...

Carl Barks - we have to remember: the overwhelming majority of comics didn't feature superheroes! He's the most gifted artist, cartoonist, draftsman and storyteller to work outside the narrower world of the men-in-tights. A sheer delight.  

So, what did I get wrong?  

[VintageComics]

I had the same 1st 2 before I clicked on the thread and as soon as I saw Eisner I glowingly agreed.

I just don't know enough about Barks to actually suggest him...and I'm thinking about a 4th as I type this.

Frazetta?

[kav]

You would have to have curt swan-the main artist for decades at the #1 comic company.

Swan
Kirby
Atoms
Romita

[D2]

Eisner

Kirby

Shuster

Frazetta

 

[TrayKnight]

Adams
Kirby
Frazetta
Wood

But you can't go wrong with Bernie Wrightson and John Romita....

[kav]

Just now, D2 said:

Eisner

Kirby

Shuster

Frazetta

 

Eisner - not popular enough.  everyone knows who spider man is, not many know abt the spirit

Kirby

Shuster good one

Frazetta only drew one comic his whole career like a 5 pager so nope

[TrayKnight]

4 minutes ago, kav said:

Eisner - not popular enough.  everyone knows who spider man is, not many know abt the spirit

Kirby

Shuster good one

Frazetta only drew one comic his whole career like a 5 pager so nope

If you could choose to own any original comic art who would be the artist?...

[Mercury Man]

Kirby

Romita

Adams

Perez

[thunsicker]

7 minutes ago, kav said:

Eisner - not popular enough.  everyone knows who spider man is, not many know abt the spirit

As Brian Eno once said

Quote

“I was talking to Lou Reed the other day, and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years. Yet, that was an enormously important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band! So I console myself in thinking that some things generate their rewards in second-hand ways.”

It's not so much that Eisner was a top seller or anything.  But he was such an idol for almost everyone who followed him.

[D2]

7 minutes ago, kav said:

Eisner - not popular enough.  everyone knows who spider man is, not many know abt the spirit

Kirby

Shuster good one

Frazetta only drew one comic his whole career like a 5 pager so nope

I figured in 4 figures that changed the world. 
 

I agree that Eisner is definitely not well known or Frazetta either, in a general public way, but these 4 defined the industry in their moment, either to other creators or their fans, no?

[kav]

3 minutes ago, TrayKnight said:

If you could choose to own any original comic art who would be the artist?...

well if we're doing the rushmore of original comic art frazetta city.

[Mercury Man]

And Bizzaro Rushmore:

 

Romita Jr

Leifeld

Frank Miller

Steve Dillon

[kav]

Curt Swan, who carried the most successful company for decades, and is once again ignored, should be up there for that reason alone.
He never gets anything.

[jsilverjanet]

Mcfarlane

Lee

Liefeld

Larsen

make mine Image!

[Poekaymon]

7 minutes ago, jsilverjanet said:

Mcfarlane

Lee

Liefeld

Larsen

make mine Image!

One of these is not like the others.

[PopKulture]

18 minutes ago, kav said:

Curt Swan, who carried the most successful company for decades, and is once again ignored, should be up there for that reason alone.
He never gets anything.

I love Swan. He'd be in my second or third tier, sort of dubious like NBA second team honors. Murphy Anderson was pretty indispensable to DC silver age as well. Infantino too.  

So many great ones like Steranko, small but influential body of work. The stylist Gil Kane. The reliable Big John Buscema. Wally Wood. And so on. 

[Poekaymon]

My comics, much like my music, come exclusively from the 80s.  So:

McFarlane

Miller

Romita Jr

Lee

[Readcomix]

Kirby gets the Washington head. The rest is just chit chat over beers.

[PopKulture]

41 minutes ago, TrayKnight said:

Adams
Kirby
Frazetta
Wood

But you can't go wrong with Bernie Wrightson and John Romita....

Great artists, Wrightson and Frazetta, but both had a small body of work compared to guys like Reed Crandall or later artists like John Byrne. 

Most of Frazetta's fame came later as a painter, and his earlier body of comic work then came to be held in greater regard. 

Dave Stevens is impressive in much the same way, but the body of work just doesn't justify his place in stone in much the same way.  

[PopKulture]

4 minutes ago, Poekaymon said:

My comics, much like my music, come exclusively from the 80s.  So:

McFarlane

Miller

Romita Jr

Lee

Yeah, I get it. But if they hired you to curate a museum of comic art, would you really say "these are the four creators you need to look at?"  Objectively speaking, could you do that?