Generations of Hulk creators, final part...

I hope my rambling series on the Hulk has kept you entertained these past couple of weeks. I had fun researching, putting it together, and sharing my thoughts on the best way to present the character. I hope it helps budding writers, and artists think about the approach they take when working on their own stories. I also wished it helped non-Hulk fans understand the appeal of the Jade Giant. He was certainly much more complex than has been presented in the recent Marvel live action films, and television shows. Today I’d like to talk about my favorite artists to work with the character. Let’s pretend that only one living artist allowed to draw the character until they retired. Who would I choose, and in what order?

In the number one spot is Dale Keown. In my opinion he is, and remains the best Hulk artist ever. He’s illustrated countless iconic moments thanks to the writing of Peter David. His sense of scale, proportion, and strength is so great it should be studied by all comic artists. Especially those trying to make memorable strong characters. His style simply works whether the story involves the classic “Savage” Hulk, the street savvy Joe Fixit, the genius Professor Hulk, or the tyrannical Maestro. He is adept at drawing epic battles, horror stories, alien monsters, heroic team-ups, and dramatic arcs equally well. He is additionally good at drawing normal-sized heroes, and villains. This allows him to frame them alongside the Hulk so we get a sense of scale. To me Dale Keown is the standard that every modern Hulk artist is measured against. It is a well deserved honor.

My second choice to draw the Hulk forever, and ever is Arthur Adams. Just about all the same praise I heap on Dale Keown applies to Mr. Adams as well. The major difference between the two is that Art knows monsters better than any other living artist. From the largest kaiju to the smallest imp, from pulp monsters that appeared only once in an obscure book, to the world famous Universal Horror monsters. Mr. Adams has drawn all of them at least once in his career. Drawing monsters is absolutely in his DNA. He has been rendering highly detailed pieces for 40 years, and shows no sign of slowing. The Hulk is one of the greatest monsters he’s ever brought to life, but to say that his greatness is limited to the Hulk would be a disservice to his talents. He is a fantastic pin-up artist, and can arguably be called the best X-Men artist, the best Fantastic Four artist, and the best Avengers artist to ever live. Saying he should only draw the Hulk from this point on would rob the world of a true genius.

My third choice for who should draw the Hulk in perpetuity is relatively new. In fact he did not exist in my rankings until a few weeks ago. The same thing applies to my number five choice. Ryan Ottley is one of those people that was born to draw powerful characters. If the Hulk is the strongest there is, then he deserves an illustrator that knows how to present it. Mr. Ottley’s work on the Starship Hulk arc written by Donny Cates was absolute madness, but in a good way. He is known for drawing gratuitous violence in the Invincible series, and was able to bring that gore into the Hulk but did so sparingly. He has a surprisingly unique take on creature, and monster designs that is unlike his peers. These twisted creations work in the context of the series, especially when the Hulk has to tear through swaths of powerful opponents. Mr. Ottley also knows his supporting characters, and does a great job illustrating the Hulk’s allies, and rivals. I just wish he had gotten more than 14 issues to show off his talent. I would kill to see his take on the Leader, the Abomination, or the Maestro.

The fourth person on my list was previously my number three. I have already sung the praises of Ed McGuinness, and will continue doing so until my dying day. He is one of those people that you want to create a second Hulk book, just so he can have more to draw. I mean if there can be a Spectacular Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, and Ultimate Spider-Man comics all out at the same time then why can’t we have two or more Hulk books going? McGuinness draws the Hulk so well that it hurts thinking I will never be half as good as he is at drawing the character. His rendering of the Hulk uses every synonym of power that you can think of. He has force, might, energy, and intensity. The only limitation for McGuinness is that he is too good at drawing muscular characters. Even the “normal” heroes are swollen. It makes the Hulk have a diminished impact when he shares a panel with characters that have the same physique but are a few feet shorter. But that’s a minor issue for someone that I’ve said was born to draw the character.

The fifth person that I think could carry the Hulk for all time would be Nic Klein. I said previously his style was equal parts Bernie Wrightson, and Mike Deodato Jr. His take on the Hulk oozed strength. The monsters, and demons he draws tap into some primordial fears of humanity. He presents the stuff of nightmares in vivid detail. It’s scary how good he is at bringing the ugly to life. If the Hulk book is only about horror then there is no one else on the list better qualified to draw it. I wanted to see how he would draw other Marvel characters working with, or against the Hulk. I wanted to see if he could render technology, weapons, or battle sequences with the Hulk. But based solely on the few issues he’s released in 2024 I can tell that he is up to the task. The sky is the limit for Mr. Klein, and I look forward to following it.

I want you to think of Joe Madureira as my honorable mention. He is an artist that would have been a top-five in my book, possibly a top-three to carry the Hulk forever. That is of course if only he got a chance. The Hulk is an absolute unit when he draws him. Proportionally landing somewhere in between McGuinness, Ottley, and Klein. The thing is with the exception of some concept sketches, and the occasional cover, he hasn’t really had a chance to show fans what he could do with the character.

Joe Mad’s style of art oozes personality. He comes from a generation of artists that’s much more animated than any other illustrator that made their mark in the ‘90s. Similar to Humberto Ramos, artists in that era were pulling influences from manga, and video games into their comic work. That is to say it looked vastly different than anything else on the shelves. The fact that he drew massive bruisers so well that I was furious that he never seemed to land a run on the Hulk. Worse yet, when he finally got a chance to draw a power character for Marvel it ended up being the Red Hulk.

As a comics fan it felt like I was living in the worst possible timeline. The best artists to never draw the Hulk were finally given a chance by the powers that be. Only to find out that they would be drawing the red clone character instead. If I was upset that Ed McGuinness’ talents were wasted on a 10+ issue run featuring mainly the Red Hulk, I was twice as angry when Joe drew the Red Hulk for a Spider-Man team up. Just to see what it would have looked like I changed the hue on the Red Hulk in Photoshop. It helped me imagine that I was in a better timeline. The constant disappointments with Marvel writers, and editors was one of the reasons why I walked away from comic books for more than a decade.

I pray that someone at Marvel might let Joe Mad, or Ryan Ottley get a chance to draw a proper Hulk arc in the future. It would certainly give me a reason to start collecting again. There were many other artists that could draw a fantastic Hulk. I might talk about them someday. For now I’d like to hear your thoughts. Did you have a favorite artist that drew your favorite characters? Was there an artist that you could imagine would be a great fit for a book if they ever got a chance? I’d like to read about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Generations of Hulk creators, part 6...

When I started this series I talked in broad terms about how the Incredible Hulk was a horror story. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created a modern retelling of Frankenstein. Dr. Bruce Banner was the fill in for Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and the Hulk was his dark shadow, his creation. Not every great Hulk story was about war, and escalation like the classic Kirby / Lee stories. Not every writer could pull off a galactic-spanning adventure like Donny Cates did in his Starship Hulk run. It required a deep understanding of the characters, and canon of the universe in order to pull off. On the other hand suspense, and horror, including body horror, were also major drawing points for the series. It was a format that great writers could use when they wanted to shape a plot. Even new creators unfamiliar with the monster could lean into the horror elements of the Hulk, and know it would fit the character. This was something that didn’t necessarily work with other Marvel characters like Spider-Man, Captain America, or Iron Man. The most significant Hulk story to come out in the past decade was the Immortal Hulk.

The story was written by British author Al Ewing, and illustrated by Brazilian artist Joe Bennett. Among all of the comic book artists hired by Marvel in the past 15-odd years, the work that Mr. Bennett delivered absolutely stood out. He was another one of those artists that you could tell was born to draw the Hulk. He had a sense of scale, and power that was rarely seen by any illustrator. He had essentially recreated the heavy browed monster of Jack Kirby but for a new generation. At the same time he delivered some of the goriest, most twisted panels I had ever seen. I would have ranked him quite high in my personal list of the best Hulk artists, unfortunately he could not avoid controversy. He made bigoted remarks about writer Glen Greenwald, then was accused of Anti-Semitism in one of his story panels. He was let go by Marvel not long after. He went on record to apologize for his comments but it made me sad that such a great horror artist could hold onto hateful stereotypes. I suppose it was a reflection of his insight into the human condition that made him so good at drawing ugly situations. I didn’t think that there would be any other artist to come along that could match that level of horror storytelling. That was until a new team started the Age of Monsters arc in 2024.

Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, and artist Nic Klein were delivering a masterclass on the green monster. They presented a horror tale that was distinctly unlike the Ewing / Bennett run. Theirs was instead pulled from an even older format. They were creating a nod to the mysterious, the weird, and the strange myths that inspired the pulp-era horror stories. They were working on a callback to the classic EC Horror books like Tales From The Crypt, the Haunt of Fear, and the Vault of Horror. Only now Johnson, and Klein were knitting Bruce Banner into the plots, and updating the visuals for the modern world. The first thing that stood out to me about Mr. Klein’s art was how much he drew in the style of Bernie Wrightson. Bernie was greatly influenced by the classic pulp stories of post WWII America. Although he was born too late to be a founder of the movement his art clearly hinted at the greats like Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, Graham “Ghastly” Ingels, Harvey Kurtzman, and Wally Wood.

Comparisons aside Wrightson’s draftsmanship was unparalleled. His Frankenstein book for Marvel was an essential work for all illustrators to study. Wrightson did more for the horror genre in black, and white than any other artist working in the 20th century. On top of everything he also worked on various monster stories for DC, and Marvel, including the respective Swamp Thing, and Man-Thing. His style, rendering techniques, and creature designs, both monsters, and aliens were unlike the regular Hulk artists. These unique elements made him a stand out whenever his art would appear in comic book format. Wrightson was absolutely a great fit for horror stories. Yet he produced less and less comic material as he got older. By the late ‘70s, and early ’80s he wasn’t releasing too many things. His work in the ‘90s was even more sparse. Unless you were familiar with the artist then you had no idea how great he was, and how much we lost when he passed away in 2017.

It had been more than 40 years years since the Wrightson style of art carried a Hulk story. Seeing the art by Nic Klein rekindled all the memories I had as a kid. I hadn’t seen anything similar in a long time. Knowing that Mr. Klein was going to be the lead on a Hulk horror story filled me with joy. Over the past few blogs I had highlighted some of my favorite Hulk artists, however you should know that not every Hulk creator was a good fit for a horror title. Some were great with action sequences, and team ups. Other artists knew how to draw the reluctant hero, or misunderstood monster archetype. Horror stories took an entirely different approach. We would be getting closer to the characters, much more intimate with their fears, and desires. We needed an artist that could render action, but also close in on details when the scene required it. If you don’t know anything about illustrating then let me say that this type of art took an entirely unique set of skills.

I do want to be fair, and give flowers to a Hulk artist that I am haven’t mentioned. Mike Deodato Jr. worked under different writers at Marvel for years, and years. He was, and remains a fantastic Hulk artist. He first got on my radar during the ‘90s. His style was its own unique thing. It was different than Keown, Adams, McGuinness or any other illustrator that I’ve mentioned so far. Mr. Deodato Jr’s style rose to new heights whenever he needed to do a horror story featuring the Hulk such as the covers for the Dead Like Me arc written by Bruce Jones, and Garth Ennis. The regular artists on the series were Doug Braithwaite, and John McCrea. They were great artists as well, however the person that set the tone was Mike, and his cover art. It gave us a glimpse of a Hulk that was much darker, and more twisted than anything we had ever seen.

Mike had a style that worked exceptionally well for a Hulk horror story, dark character like Venom, or gritty vigilantes like the Punisher. His monster proportions were very extreme, even when compared to Keown, or Adams. The Hulk’s torso was as thick, and broad as he was tall. Not unlike the old McFarlane version of the gray Hulk. Except Mike had a better sense of anatomy, and physiology. I hadn’t seen anything similar to that style until Nic Klein began drawing the books. These were almost 20 years after Mike’s last run. Mr. Klein seemed to marry the proportions of Deodato Jr. with the rendering techniques of Mr. Wrightson. This combination of influences was so well done that it made Nic criminally underrated. He would set the standard for the foreseeable future. I had no doubt that kids reading the comics today would become illustrators in the future because of how influential the art was.

Nic was another example of how each generation of artists were refining the style of the masters that came before. With that said where would I rank him against my favorite Hulk artists? I’ll talk about it on the next, and final part of this series. I hope to see you back for that. Did you read the Immortal Hulk arc? Were there any young artists that you thought were underrated? I’d like to read about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!