Artist canon
I was commenting with my nephew his film tastes, and he made a point: there are the movies he considers brilliant, his favourite movies, and then the movies he has seen most. I would like to try his approach on “static visual storytelling” (comics and illustration) — to share my personal art&artist cannon. It might also be interesting to collect an “anti-canon”, from works that I like the least, or that I consider poor… though I believe constructive criticism should be discussed with the author — not in the open arena of Internet. That said, I recommend it as a personal recollection: which works do you like less? Why? Are they really that bad, or maybe one’s personal taste is involved?
My favourite artists
I am distributing my canon into a small set of articles. First, let me start with an appreciation of my favourite comic and illustration artist across the world (which I am afraid it will be biased towards the “western market”, in which I have had the chances to get to know the works of such artists…) Also, I will focus on “modern” visual storytelling (20th and 21st centuries)
(Alphabetical order, grouped by country — in some cases country may not be obvious, maybe an artist was born in a country but has developed her career in another)
Europe
Spain
Paco Alcázar
Pablo Auladell
Azpiri
Asun Balzola
J.M. Beá
Calpurnio
Alex Fito
Carlos Giménez
Ibáñez
Jan
Kim
Magius
Max
Albert Monteys
Javier Olivares
Puño
David Ramirez
Paco Roca
Juanjo Sáez
Antonio Santos
Aitor Saraiba
Carme Solé
Aroha Travé
Ulises Wensell
Javier Zabala
Czech Republic
Štěpán Zavřel
Poland
Józef Wilkoń
Slovenia
Maja Kastelic
France-Belgium
David B.
Émile Bravo
Franquin
Emmanuel Guibert
Hergé
Riad Sattouf
Sempé
Uderzo
Italy
Beatrice Allemagna
Igort
Germany
Hans Jürgen-Press
Ralf König
UK
David McKee
Asia / Oceania
Japan
Moto Hagio
Shotaro Ishinomori
Satoshi Kitamura
Kentaro Miura
Kabi Nagata
Katsuhiro Otomo
Osamu Tezuka
Akira Toriyama
Australia
Shaun Tan
Americas
Argentina
Horacio Altuna
Liniers
Mariana Ruiz Johnson
Quino
Brazil
Carybé
Gabriel Bá
José Francisco Borges
USA
Linda Barry
Allison Bechdel
Ivan Brunetti
Robert Crumb
Jaime Hernandez
Frank King
James Kochalka
Jeph Loebb
Richard McGuire
David Mazzuchelli
Winsor McCay
Frank Miller
Ron Regé Jr
Joe Sacco
Tim Sale
Charles Schultz
Maurice Sendak
Art Spiegelman
Craig Thompson
Chris Ware
Bill Watterson
Canada
Guy Delisle
Jon Klassen