Ungoliantschilde

Hello! I'm trying to get to know more about classic comic artists. I've been obsessed with classic artists from Marvel such as John Buscema, John Romita, etc. So my question is who artists are the equivalent of them but for DC comics. The ones who drew classic Superman/Flash/Batman/WW, etc. Thank you in advance!

I’m gonna do my best, but this question could be the reason to create a whole new blog. There are a lot of big names in the history of DC Comics artwork.

Here goes:

Curt Swan is the best Superman artist of all time. I do not say that lightly. He is the artist that everyone else looks to emulate. When you are thinking of a classic Superman image, it’s probably a Curt Swan drawing.

If you don’t already worship Joe Kubert, you should start.

Neal Adams and Dennis O’Neil are largely responsible for the sustained popularity of Batman. They are the reason that the Adam West TV Show is not the definitive take on the caped crusader. Frank Miller explicitly stated that the Dark Knight Returns is his version of the Neal Adams/Dennis O’Neil Batman, just 20+ years older. Don’t stop with Batman though. Neal’s Deadman work is mind blowingly good. His work on Green Lantern with Dennis O’Neil was one of the nails in the coffin of the comics code. The storyline where Speedy/Roy Harper got hooked on smack? The comics code didn’t approve it. DC published it anyways and the code fell soon after. Neal Adams is one of the best artists of all time. Seriously. Dive in.

Nick Cardy rocked. He flat out rocked.

Murphy Anderson was awesome. Absolutely awesome.

It’s hard to pick one artist that got Diana absolutely perfect. George Perez’s reboot after Crisis on Infinite Earths is my personal choice for the definitive artistic take. It’s the one that resonates the most with the current version of Diana of Themyscira. The main villain was Ares.

Gil Kane was the John Buscema of DC Comics. Gil Kane was every bit the equal of Big John, but he worked for both major companies and did amazing work at both of them. John Buscema and Gil Kane are the guys who taught everyone else how to draw heroic anatomy. They are the masters of the genre, make no mistake. John Buscema loved to draw sword and sorcery. The best Green Lantern of all and the Green Lantern corps in general came from Gil Kane. Yes, Hal Jordan is the best Green Lantern. Read more comics 😊.

and I saved the definitive DC Comics artist for last: Carmine Infantino. Carmine was the John Romita of DC Comics. I think he was the Art Director and/or the Editor in Chief for a while too. That caped crusader image was freaking EVERYWHERE in Batman merchandising from its era. And Murphy Anderson inked it too. The Flash Vs. Superman race? Infantino. Spider-Man meets Superman? Infantino layouts. Basically every great piece of Flash artwork was Infantino. Carmine Infantino was awesome.

If I left anybody out, I suggest you go digging and add to this list. Dive in, man. Comics are an ocean of awesome and the waters feel great.

And lastly, I use the tags relentlessly. I have posted many examples of each of the above artists work in the past, so happy hunting and thanks for giving me a chance to show off my nerd cred!