Most Underrated of 2006: Artists


Good RathburnCliff Rathburn

“When you think of comic book artists, you usually think of pencillers. I know I do. The inkers and colorists kind of get forgotten, even though Laura Martin and Dave Stewart are probably just as good as coloring as John Cassaday and Tim Sale are at drawing. Cliff Rathburn provides gray tones for The Walking Dead, and I’ve largely ignored his contribution to the title because it wasn’t terribly obvious where Charlie Adlard’s art ended and Cliff’s began. Then Robert Kirkman decided to run a preview of Charlie Adlard’s art on another project in the back of The Walking Dead. It still looked damn good, but it wasn’t anywhere near the quality of the art in TWD. And from what I could tell, the only difference was that Cliff Rathburn wasn’t doing gray tones on it. The Walking Dead would not be the same book without Cliff, and he deserves a lot of credit that he’s not getting because he’s not the lead artist on the book.”
-Fin Fang Doom

C.P. Smith

“I don’t have a wealth of knowledge of artists that some of the other Doomers have, so this is a bit hard for me. I suppose I have to go with C.P. Smith, who only illustrated two books all year that I know of. Smith did the now-cancelled New Invaders and did the best stand alone issue of 2006 in Wolverine #41. His work is uniquely influenced by computer technology and uses it to make clean, haunting images.”
-Jean-Claude Van Doom

Billy Tan

“Billy Tan’s work is consistent. If only he could make deadline.”
-Doominator

Good EptingSo Underrated We Don’t Even Know Their Names

“Those guys who draw Daredevil [Michael LarkFin] and Captain America [Steve Epting and Mike Perkins] are so underrated they’re my favorite artists of the year and I don’t even know their names.”
-Jim Doom

“Again, I don’t pay attention. I really like Phil Jimenez and the guy who’s drawing “Criminal” [Sean Phillips]. I also dig the art on “Civil War” [Steve McNiven] and “Green Lantern” [probably Ivan Reis]. I don’t know who draws that stuff, nor do I care. It’s pretty to look at. It seems the Civil War guy isn’t earning much praise, so I suppose I should say that he’s the most under-rated. On the other hand, he is drawing the biggest book of the year, so he can’t be that under-rated. I don’t know.”
-Doom DeLuise