Spider-man. Possibly the World’s most-loved superhero. Certainly one of the most profitable. With 50 years now under his belt, dozens of series and movies, and a constant barrage of multi-verse titles vying for your money each month, meaning literally hundreds of artists contributing – who has been the one to capture his spirit, his style, his humour, his romance, his dark-side better than any other illustrator? Who has rendered him and his World in a form that outdoes the competition? Well I’ve read a hell of a lot of Spidey in my time (he’s remained my favourite superhero since I was a tiny kid, followed closely by Daredevil) and in the past few months I’ve had reason to indulge in literally years of comics to catch up with his recent exploits and during this spat I’ve fallen in love with artists and struggled with others. So I’ve compiled a list, a very personal list (yes, I appreciate people will lambast me for not including Ditko or Romero Snr. in my list) of my very favourite artists who have tackled the old Wall-Crawler with two examples of their work for your consideration.
Enjoy. I know I have.
01 TODD McFARLANE
Todd McFarlane revolutionised the Spider-man franchise way back in the early 90′s when, after a long and successful stint on Amazing Spider-man, he was given his own timeline and title with the definitely titled – Spider-man. Featuring an older Spidey with more mature, adult problems, a darker atmosphere and some of the finest illustrations ever released in comic book form – McFarlane remains undoubtedly as the pinnacle of Spider-man artists.
04 SARA PICHELLI
Good news – Sara is the current artist on Ultimate Spider-man (the stellar title penned by Bendis) which means that webhead fans get to savour her delicately gorgeous lines every few weeks. NYX, Runaways, X-men; she has worked on some of the most beautiful projects Marvel has put out over the past decade or so and it’s a real pleasure to have her on board what is arguably the companies flagship series. Sharing similarities to LaFuente, he’s pipped to the post be this Italian’s ever so slightly more defined and mature style. Simply gorgeous.
03 DAVID LAFUENTE
From Spain comes Lafuente who may not have worked on many titles but has already proven himself as one of the finest artists working in the comic industry today, or indeed at any time. He has an incredibly confident style with beautiful, strong lines, and a stunning slant on cartoon visuals that creates a living, breathing World making for one of the most believable kid Peter Parker’s ever and certainly some of the most loveable female characters yet seen in a Spidey comic.
04 JOHN ROMITA JR.
Son of the mighty John Romita, Jr. has been one of my favourite comic artists for the past 17 years or so. I fell in love with his work initially on the sublime Daredevil : Man Without Fear run, written by Frank Miller and I’ve followed his work ever since from title-to-title. He has undoubtably pencilled more issues of Spidey than any other artist for the past 30 years or so and he is one of the most consistent, confident, and stylish artists working in the industry. His style isn’t my absolute favourite and it’s not to everyone’s tastes, but it is so grounded, so robustly honest and real, despite it’s chunky, criss-cross lines, that he has owned the franchise of Spider-man in a way few artists ever have. Let’s just hope he never gets bored of pencilling ol’ webhead.
05 HUMBERTO RAMOS
Ah, Ramos. If I see a comic with his name on it – I buy it. He’s one of the golden few who has that much appeal to me. His heavily stylised, cartoonish visuals aren’t for everyone and there’s an ardent anti-Ramos contigent of fans out there as any web search will prove. But for me Ramos is a bit of a genius. His illustrious career began pretty much with his own title Crimson and then he went off to draw some gorgeous X-Men titles and settled into a long stint of Spider-man in the mid-noughties, occasionally still returning for story arcs, covers and specials. He made Spidey his own, giving the book incredible style, character and sex appeal and he even inspired a whole host of copycat artists to surface in his wake. (See later on in this list for one of them).
06 JAVIER PULIDO
Javier hasn’t really done enough Spidey to be allowed any further up this list, and his fragile, european style angers most wall-crawler fans. But personally – I love it. It’s not perfect and I wish he’d been allowed a longer stint on the title to let his style grow and adapt to the character (even McFarlane’s early issues were wildly inconsistent and scrappy compared to his eventually evolution) but instead we’re left with the tantalising issues that showed something old-fashioned, intimate and resolutely ‘realistic’. In fact, the picture he drew of Spidey in hat and ear muffs, web-slinging through the snow is possibly my favourite Spider-man pic of all time.
07 PAOLO RIVERA
Paolo is one of those rare comic artists who paints all of his images and to startling affect. But unlike most of these artists – he doesn’t just do covers, he has done interiors for everyone from X-Men, Hulk, Ghostrider, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Daredevil and indeed – The Amazing Spider-man. His images are timeless, perfectly framed, and hued with a gorgeous palette for colour. His covers are immensely beautiful and stand as some of the strongest imagery I’ve seen in the past couple of decades, regardless of medium.
08 CHRIS BACHELO
Chris Bachelo first caught my eye decades ago when he worked with Neil Gaiman on Sandman and subsequently the Death mini-series. He’s since done some beautiful work on X-Men (like most of the artists on this list) and he lends a satisfyingly round quality to Spidey. Stylish, confident, and bold – his drawings capture a beautiful balance between cartoon and illustration yet sadly he’s not as well known as some other Spider-man artists.
09 SKOTTIE YOUNG
I love Skottie Young. He first emerged to my attention with his cartoony stint on the Anime-inspired Spider-man mini-series Legend of the Spider-clan. It was refreshing, confident, and fun and his lines were a joy to behold. He’s since evolved away from his clean, animated illustrations and now draws some of the most atmospheric, wonderful sketchy Spidey covers ever seen – boasting gloriously dark visuals and pitch-perfect framing. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes next.
10 PETER SCHERBERGER
Love Ramos? Can’t afford him? Then get in one of his host of copycats! And Scherberger has to surely be among the best of them. Arguably more refined, with thinner lines and slightly more complex features, Peter Scherberger is an excellent artist who is only eclipsed by Ramos’ more obvious dazzle. In my opinion, he doesn’t quite have that special extra few percent that make his drawing exquisite like the artists who top this list, but he’s still one of the best.
11 ERIK LARSEN
Try and ignore the horrifically bright colors and just look at the pencil / ink work. Larsen came hot on the heels of McFarlane as he moved off to create his own character Spawn with Image Comics. His style could never live up to the master, so it’s testament to his talents that he managed to find his own verve for the character and that the fans adjusted so quickly and favourably. I was a big fan of his clean lines and confident poses and though it may look a bit dated now – he remains unquestionably one of the wall-crawlers finest pencillers.
12 MARCOS MARTIN
Another European artist here who worked on Batgirl : Year One previously and now has turned up on Amazing Spider-man. I’m new to his work to be honest, but what I’ve seen of it has proved highly impressive merging bold-simple lines with classic renditions of the wall-crawler. A bit of Romita Jr, a pinch of Javier Pulido, a slice of Rivera – it’s a style that works and I’m going to search out more of his issues.
13 JOE MADUREIRA
Mad! remains one of the most famous and accomplished artists ever to work in the comic industry and personally – I’m a huge, huge fan. Early in his career he created the epic and short-lived Battle Chasers and went on to pencil some of the most beautiful X-Men books ever made. Recently he started his own gaming company, releasing the critically acclaimed Darksiders. But despite his undeniable talent – he’s never quite been the best fit with ol’ webhead. Mad! is far more at home with a super-sized, testosterone-fuelled hero such as Wolvie or Hulk and Spidey’s delicate frame and more humble daily life just never quite clicked with his signature style. At least, not as well as one would have hoped.
14 STUART IMMONEN
Stuart would be higher on this list if it wasn’t for Pichelli and Lafuente showing him how it’s done. His style echoes their delicately detailed yet animated style and (arguably) pre-dates it, but despite some gorgeous illustrations, he never quite reaches their levels of artistry. Still, with a massive backlog of superheroes already under his belt (including Superman, Hulk, Thor, Captain America) he’s certainly proven himself to be one of the most reliable artists working today.
15 KAARE ANDREWS
Kaare Andrews hasn’t drawn much Spidey and the main title he did draw was a graphic novel called Reign which featured Peter Parker as a 70-something year old man, forced to re-don the suit. There weren’t many frames of webhead himself to be honest, but the glimpses we get of his fragile, minimalistic approach to the character is enough to prove very exciting indeed. I’d love to see what Kaare would do with the regular titles.
16 ADRIAN ALPHONA
Ah, Alphono. He created the amazing Marvel series Runaways and a few years ago he did this gorgeous variant cover for Spider-man Loves Mary Jane. It’s tantalisingly good and fans have been clamouring for him to have a stab at one of the many Spidey timelines. Sadly, as of 2009 he seems to have left the comic field so we may never know. So yes, I realise technically he shouldn’t even be on this list, but his previous work, plus this teaser picture is enough proof for me! And I have a feeling if he ever did jump on board the Spider-wagon that his name would be in my top three.
17 J. SCOTT CAMPBELL
Campbell is a legend in the comic’s industry for his work on Gen13 and Danger Girl – and mostly for his highly sexualised illustrations of women. He is an undoubtedly brilliant artist, with incredible style, consistency and immense talent, but much like Mad! his beautiful drawings just don’t quite gel with Spidey himself. Sure, he can make Black Cat and MJ look sexier than they’ve ever been, but his Spider-man is lacking any real stamp of his own and Parker just doesn’t quite feel right.
