How Do You Compare And Identify Uncredited Artwork Styles?

[Shaqui]

What it says really, but I was curious how other people here identify the styles of uncredited artwork with those that are credited?

Obviously ghosting causes problems, as the recent 'Evi de Bono' from 'Look-In' may have done, but assuming this isn't the case, what gives it away?

[Captain Storm]

Probably not pertinent Shaqui as I don't know a lot of artists,but for instance Esquerra and Solano Lopez stick out for their gritty line drawing.Ron Smith for his clean lines...everything in his world is sparkling Massimo Bellardinelli RIP for his pure insane weirdness! Other artists who I really don't know have peculiar styles that once seen stay in the memory so that when seen again are recognizable.It could be something as small as the way eyes or lips are drawn or how busy the background is or not.Hope that helps with your question.

[colcool007]

For me, it's usually the overall look that does it for me. With Ian Kennedy, it was the clean lines, For Alonso, it was the unusual backgrounds as he put in so much detail. Ian Gibson was easy as he had such an 'elongated look' to people as if you were seeing it in widescreen. Alcantes was due to the darkness that he managed to create in his art. Dave Gibbons was definitely due to the way that he did faces. No-one else can do that effect. Bolland was the theatrical feel to his frames.

I'll stop there as I can go on, but to me, something as little as the stances that can make me realises that this work is from artist X and that art is from artist Y. On the stances example, it was Cam Kennedy's work that I'd always recognise.

[AndyB]

What it says really, but I was curious how other people here identify the styles of uncredited artwork with those that are credited?

Experience!

[Captain Storm]

ooooooohhh

[Kashgar]

Hi Shaqui, Over the years it has become clear to me that artist-spotting is mostly down to an innate talent to do so although, of course, experience does increase one's ability in this regard by expanding one's frames of reference. It's certainly the case that some of the most ardent collectors are not that great at spotting artists styles despite years of collecting.
When it comes to an artist ghosting another artists style the usual giveaway is to look at the incidental characters and the background detail as, by and large, it is there that you'll find the artist in questions own style creeping in.
Re Evi de Bono for me the giveaway with him, and what therefore makes him a relatively easy 'spot', is that his characters invariably have a banana-like curve to them which once you spot it gives the game away.

[Muffy]

It's also interesting to see the artist's style evolving over 20 or 30 years when they become more experienced, and try different things. Look at Steve Dillon's and Ezquera's earlier work for example.

[AndyB]

Even watch Colin MacNeil's development over the years. Rather wow, really. Also, try comparing some of Barrie Appleby's early work (Terror TV, Curly's Commandoes and Pongalongapongo) with his current work - some of the early work is unmistakeably Barryish, but with all the exaggeration of Ian Knox's work.

Evi's artwork is quite noticeable a mile off. It's also things like typical mouths, eyes (in Barrie's case), and so on. Each artist tends to draw their characters in a certain way, and you get to recognise it after a while.

[colcool007]

It's also interesting to see the artist's style evolving over 20 or 30 years when they become more experienced, and try different things. Look at Steve Dillon's and Ezquera's earlier work for example.

I know what you mean about Carlos' work. From his early days of doing Major Eazy and Chained To The Sword to his current work on Judge Dredd. You can see an evolution, but he still maintains a style that is uniquely his.

With Steve, his work has become cleaner over the years and IMHO he has become the Ian Kennedy of current comic artists.

[moose]

i agree on carlos, and i think he had a slightly weaker 'middle period' around the time of his return to dredd on 'the apocalypse war'.

funnily enough, i was checking out all the major eazy stuff, and the penultimate episode isn't carlos, it looks like ron tiner trying to be carlos, much like colin macniel's first four fill-in issues on strontium dog way back when. the one before that is tiner as well, i believe.

i'm guessing it's ron tiner based on the background characters, which look more like rt's normal figures. i also assume he drew school for survivors.

it's all a bit hard work at times. i've been tryiong to identify all the action artists by familiarity with their style and by cross referencing with later issues of battle, where old strips were reprinted with [sometimes inaccurate] credits, old valiants and early 2000ad. ian gibson on death game 1999 was a find...episode 1 was half by him, and the next three episodes were john stokes. you can also spot all the carlos covers, which were many, including dredger on issue 2.

brit artists are normally easier to identify, so many of the european agency artists from that 60s/70s period were very similar in style, although you can pick out massimo on rat pack [very shaky at first] and on stories like green's grudge war and death game 1999.

i think tose who went on to become more widely appreciated will always stand out, it's the lesser known who are more difficult. even brian bolland's first and almost rudimentary work from the early 70s is distinctly bolland. look at powerman, there's the bolland facial expressions everywhere, even if the fine detail isn't quite there yet.

oh...and if you look at the powerman covers, there's carlos as well.