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In terms of comics, the ’90s were ruled by Marvel and DC, although at the beginning of the decade, there was a kind of earthquake in the industry with the appearance of Image Comics. It is striking that most of the artists who marked that decade were those that Marvel had, including those who founded Image. Here is our list of the 12 best comic artists of the 90s.
Despite being a somewhat controversial figure in the world of comics due to his drawing style and some controversial comments, the reality is that Liefeld’s impact on the industry in the 90s cannot be denied, mainly with the creation of characters like Cable, Domino or the one that today is one of the most popular in the industry, Deadpool.
In 1992, he was one of the seven artists who left Marvel to form Image Comics, where he founded his own studio called Extreme Studios (later known as Awesome Comics) with titles like Youngblood.
His training as a painter helped him mark his own drawing style based on painting techniques to give the characters a realistic image. During the 90s, he worked on the most essential Marvel characters, such as Ghost Rider, Hulk, Wolverine, Punisher, Thor, Spiderman, etc.
Perhaps he doesn’t have such a significant legacy compared to other artists on this list, but if you were a comic book fan growing up in the 90s, you certainly knew who Mark Teixeira was.
He is the son of John Romita Sr., one of the most influential comic book artists of all time and one of the definitive Spiderman artists.
Romita Jr. made his own name in the industry with his most classic drawing style with the clear influences of his father or other greats of the environment, such as Jack Kirby. Having worked much of his career in Marvel Comics (about 40 years) and on his main characters, his main works were with Spiderman and Daredevil, where he started to develop his style.
He also had excellent runs with titles such as Punisher and the X-Men.
Dale Keown is an artist whose drawing style uses shading to provide further three-dimensionality while highlighting details of the drawings, giving a sense of realism. He applied this style well with the characters that possibly marked his career, The Hulk. His time with the green Goliath is one of the most important in the character’s history, and many fans view him as the Hulk artist.
Adam, son of Joe Kubert, one of the prominent DC Comics artists during the mid-twentieth century, is also a recognized artist in the world of comics thanks to his participation in what was possibly the best moment of the X-Men, highlighting the work he did with Wolverine. His way of drawing showcases a personality that seems to come alive on the page.
He was one of the seven co-founders of Image Comics at the beginning of the 90s. He is an artist very recognized for his work with different Marvel and DC characters. However, he has a particular relationship with the X-Men, where he had the possibility of creating Bishop. His drawing style is quite detailed, using shading effects to denote the characters’ muscles further and highlight the environments, taking a few cues from Manga.
Another of Joe Kubert’s sons and, logically, Adam’s brother. Like his brother, he is a comic book artist who has become quite prominent due to his work on the X-Men. During the 90s, his most prominent jobs were with X-Men and Captain America. His art combines classic comic drawing techniques, such as the most straightforward image backgrounds, with more modern coloring and shading techniques.
Capullo’s style results from the combination of scenes that, to some extent, can be considered simple with others in which he becomes very detailed, which has helped him work on stories with darker characters like Spawn. At the beginning of the 90’s, he participated well with Quasar in Marvel. Still, his most outstanding work was with Todd McFarlane’s antihero in Image Comics, where he made a name for himself in the industry.
At the beginning of the ’90s, his work with the X-Men and Wolverine was where he became one of the medium’s best and most famous artists. Still, as one of the company’s co-founders, the transition to Image Comics was a critical point in his career, mainly in his work with Cyberforce, Witchblade, and The Darkness. His drawing style is detailed to the point that you can appreciate the textures in his images’ different objects and materials.
He is one of the leading figures in the comic book world, both for his work and his influence on change in the industry. Although he is related chiefly to Spiderman and the creation of Venom, McFarlane was the mastermind behind the founding of Image Comics, which led seven prominent Marvel artists to leave the company in search of independence.
In Image, McFarlane created Spawn, with which he had enormous success and found a new way to take advantage of toys based on comic book characters, taking their level of detail to an unprecedented level to this day.
Another of the significant figures in the history of comics, managing, among other things, to be a world-class artist and co-writer of X-Men Vol. 2 issue #1 in 1991, the comic with the highest number of sales to date.
During his time with the X-Men, Lee was the co-creator of Gambit and was the one who designed the most iconic costumes for characters such as Cyclops, Jean Gray or Strom, among others. Lee was also one of the seven co-founders of Image Comics, where he created his own company, WildStorm Productions, where he developed titles like Wildcats. His drawing style has been a reference for subsequent generations of cartoonists with his excellent use of light and shadow as well as details on the faces and musculature of the characters.
Thanks to his training as a painter and his artistic influences, Alex Ross found a common point between that art style and comics that resulted in that incredibly realistic style that has characterized him throughout his career.
The most striking thing is that even though this way of drawing may seem not very compatible with comics, the reality is that Ross manages to maintain the essence and characteristics of the characters. A great example of this is the excellent mini-series Kingdom Come, published in 1996, where Alex Ross is in charge of giving an epic feel to a story that was already brilliant.
During the 1990s, Ross’s work was focused mainly on DC Comics, with whom he has been associated for much of his career.
