I didn't know quite a few of these artists, so I'll ask my local bookshop if I can buy their books (I cross my fingers, it's very hard to find any Fantagraphics comic book in France). I wasn't surprised to see in your list the ones I knew though. Tardi, Moebius/Gir/Giraud, Druillet, Crumb, Boucq, etc. They're all great (lots of artists from the Métal Hurlant era). For some reason, I expected to see Serpieri, Hergé and Uderzo too. I discovered Jaime Hernandez when an American friend of mine told me that I tend to draw like him. I had never heard of Jaime Hernandez before, but I fell in love the moment I saw his work on Love & Rocket, and now I've got almost all of his comic books in my bookshelf... he's great.

An excellent finale!

Can't argue with Jaime! The only big decision I ever made between 2 of these was between Moebius and Corben, and the bonus Blueberry career won out.

Jaime! Agreed! Very happy to see your lists as I've seen your individual videos but now I know your personal preferences among them.

Love Crepax I got 5 volumes of the complete Crepax, need vols 2 and 7

Great video (as always). I am surprised that Sergio Toppi is not included. This is highly subjective, of course, but he is my all time favourite artist :)

One interesting thing that struck me about these lists is how different each one feels: the writer list dominated by Anglophones who work in more commercial genre comics, the pure artist list dominated by Europeans working in genre comics, and this last list leaning a lot more into more idiosyncratic stuff (i could say "alternative" or "literary"), with a fairly even split between Europe and the Americas. As far as my personal tastes go, the first two lists had a lot of people whose comics aren't that interesting to me, whereas this one was full of my favourite creators and people whose work I really want to read. The one absence that really surprised me with this list is Chris Ware. I also thought Adrian Tomine or Michael DeForge might have made the list somewhere, but their absence wasn't a surprise as such. One other guy who I don't recall you ever talking about on your channel, who would certainly be in my top 30, is Igort. His Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks are amazing, as is "5 is the Perfect Number". "Die Lethargie der Sinne" is also well worth reading, with a Mattotti-esque style, and it's easy enough to find for cheap second hand in German.

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

interesting observations... in many ways I bit more off that I could chew with these videos. I felt almost certain enough when I finished the lists before recording, but after doing the actual videos I was much more insecure about the whole project - still thinking that it was worth it, if nothing more it's at least some stage report where I am know (still blatantly ignorant of Kirby, Wood and lots of Mangaka... well even if I like Kirby and Wood for an example: I don't know enough of their works to put them on some particular rank ... and even the division between artists and "auteur artists" seems a lot less convincing now). Chris Ware is just fascinating, his comics are so intricate and well planned that it's stunning... but also reliably depressing, sad and ... in parts ... a chore to read. Adrian Tomine was a close contender, as it was with DeForge (Birds of Maine is really tough to get through as well... I read it almost each evening before sleeping & boy, does the sleep comes quick with these (kind of) one pagers, not my fave book by him to put it mildly) Igort is a cartoonist that I know of (Lethargie der Sinne is a nice one, same with the comic about Fats Waller, I skipped 5.... but yes, that's one cartoonist that is on my never ending "to be panellogized" list.

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

and furthermore: "the writer list dominated by Anglophones who work in more commercial genre comics" ... well, that's because the "industry" approach with division of work, "assembly-line" work is more common in the more mainstream part of US comics. "the pure artist list dominated by Europeans working in genre comics" ... well that's because we have this division of work as well, even though to a lesser degree, I think. But I still think that the artists in Europe have more freedom/liberties/autonomy in comparison, usually they stay on a title for years or decades and are often more exciting than the American artists who work under similar conditions - I am well aware of my terrible generalization here.

@titusbird6101

Жыл бұрын

@@earlgrey862 yeah, the difference makes sense, but it's interesting how pronounced it is. It's almost like the three lists are by three different people - which is a credit to the breadth of your taste! And you're absolutely right that Ware is depressing and can be a bit heavy going - I guess I'm just a sadist and love putting myself through it. In any case, I think these types of list are a great resource - no need to stress about whether they're really definitive or to feel bad about people you left out. As I think I've commented elsewhere, I have your list videos to thank for a bunch of great comics I've read. It's especially cool that the breadth of what you cover on this channel means that you can do some nice cross pollination - someone might come for the classic Franco-Belgian stuff and discover contemporary alternative comics, or come for the alt stuff and get exposed to some interesting Image comics, etc.

Thankless task to compress it to just 30, why not make it 100? 😂. Almost all of the ones you mentioned could make in to my top thirty (Gilbert would be a lot higher, maybe fifth place), but for sure i would add Chris Ware, Carlos Giménez, George Herriman, Charles Schultz, José Carlos Fernandes, Kirby, Otomo, Kurtzman, Lourenço Mutarelli and probably Frank Miller and Will Eisner for the significance in my early comic reading life. The following could easily be in the 20-30 range: Chester Gould, Chirstophe Blain, Tezuka, Luiz Gê, Mazzucchelli, Alex Toth, Tadao Tsuge, Jiro Taniguchi, Deforge, Seth, Michel Rabagliati, Gilbert Shelton, Victor Bello and Paul Chadwick.

@ArchibaldGurnsbach

Жыл бұрын

herriman every day for all.

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

Shelton was on rank 28, I hear you about the others (with the exception of Bello, Ge and Chadwick, because I haven't read their stuff), especially: Gould, Blain, Mazzucchelli. I'm still reading Deforge's "Birds of Maine", somehow fascinating as all his stuff, but tbh a bit of a chore as well... before I'll buy the next Deforge I certainly try to re-read his older books before to see if they still hold up.

Really enjoying these lists, maybe you could do a bonus video on the 'honorable mentions' from part 1? And don't feel too bad about bending the rules, the criteria for 'auteurness' are nebulous at best. Hitchcock was the literal textbook auteur for the Cahiers du Cinema critics, but he never wrote anything on his own. He always had a screenwriter, and sometimes even took credit for their ideas, to their annoyance.

muss unbedingt mehr tardi lesen und wohl meinen vorsatz, was neue anschaffungen angeht, brechen. Vielleicht ja mit dem Erlös aus anderem, seufz. top notch video. wenn die picks auch, je höher das ranking geht, immer vorhersehbarer werden ;D

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

tja, Du kennst mich halt :)

Alex Raymond should be on the other list. Here are the writers who wrote scripts for him to illustrate: Don Moore (Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim), Dashiell Hammett (Secret Agent X-9), Ward Greene (Rip Kirby).

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

well, yes, I knew that Secret Agent X-9 was not written by him... but I took it for granted that Flash & Rip were his stories. My bad! thanks for clearing that up

I really enjoy your artists lists. I discovered some really great creators here. I wish Fantagraphic Books could watch your channel and actually publish and translate some of these gems. It is a shame that Charles Burns (American) refuses to publish any of his recent work in English.😢

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

thanks for the nice comment ... do you know why Burns does that? or is he just hesitant?

@wrestledeep

Жыл бұрын

@@earlgrey862 I am assuming he is getting a better $$ deal overseas. From what i understand he will publish his latest series in English once it is finished...of course the problem is: will u and I be alive to see the completion of this book? ha ha😅

Believe it or not, I would have guessed most of the auteurs in this list. The ones that I wouldn't have guessed are Raymond, Foester and Mignola. I even thought that you would put Mattotti. Anyway, even if he never appears on the writing side he always takes part on the script too, sometimes he is even the main guy behind it. In fact, all Mattotti's works are Mattotti's works, no matter who's the writer, the feel is still there.

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

"all Mattotti's works are Mattotti's works": exactly!

ahh, no Manga artists? (EDIT: NVM, I see this is part 2) My top 5 Artist that write thier own stories, off the top of my head... Miyazaki, Akira Toriyama Kentaro Muira Don Rosa Peyo

....eine sehr würdige Platzverteilung und beim allergrößten Teil hab ich deine Wahl richtig eingeschätzt.😂 Booooaaaah aber als du Grabenkrieg aufgeschlagen hast, hat man gemerkt wie heftig dich das Werk berührt hat. And belive it or not ich hatte auch schon wieder Pippi in den Augen. Definitiv eines der besten Werke aber einen Reread werde ich da nicht so schnell hinbekommen... Sehr schöne Videoreihe, die meinen Feierabend gerettet hat. THX!🤘🏻

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

... und dabei musste ich beim Grabenkrieg schon vorher einmal abbrechen, weil ich da gar kein Wort mehr rausbekommen hatte. Vielen Dank noch einmal dafür, dass Du meine Nase mit sanfter Gewalt in diese Bücher hineingetunkt hast.

@DerReverendMAT

Жыл бұрын

@@earlgrey862 ...immer gerne. Das machst du ja auch nicht anders. ... Und da wären wir schon wieder beim Thema Edition Moderne. Tardi IST "Systemrelevant" und seine Werke sollten dringend weiter und wieder aufgelegt werden. Na, ja, ist ja teils schon bei S&L geschehen, doch wirklich glücklich bin ich aus Gründen damit auch nicht....

thanks for the video, this series is wonderful! wait for the "30 or 100 best comics of all time for you". Will it ever happen?

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

not "best" but "my favourites" :) ... probably ... but not soon.

@harlock24

Жыл бұрын

@@earlgrey862 ye sure, sorry for my bad english heheheh. i wait

who can argue? but of course, let us: did i blink and miss caza? and someone has to mention the aardvark-shaped elephant in the room. dave sim deserves to at least be in the conversation, odious though he may be. strange death of alex raymond was some kind of cockeyed masterpiece

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

I would not argue about Caza, could have been in my top 50 or 100 or whatever... "strange death" annoyed me beyond belief. I have great respect for the living the liners, but can't understand why they haven't called it a day at least after the first third of it, cockeyed? yes!!! masterpiece? never!

@ArchibaldGurnsbach

Жыл бұрын

@@earlgrey862 have you read any cerebus? the first 150 issues are stunning

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

after reading "strange death" I absolutely don't feel inclined to read anything by that man... and that's me who usually can separate work and artist quite well.

@ArchibaldGurnsbach

Жыл бұрын

@@earlgrey862 many people are disinclined to read him, but for entirely different reasons. whatever the reason its a shame. with no hesitation i put his early work up with the best cartooning i've ever seen, and his writing is smart and really funny. loved your words regarding tardi and his ww1 works, such moving and important works right now when our collective memory is failing and revisionists and apologists ride the lands. the angriest most beautifully, righteously terrifying text of any kind that i've read

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

"the angriest most beautifully, righteously terrifying text of any kind that i've read" yes!

wow that Rip Kirby edition looks great. Shame all the IDW stuff of his is out of print!

...And, of course, Ernie Pike was written by Hector Oesterheld.

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

yes, you're right of course... I should have shown "scorpions of the desert" instead, but on the other hand, I'm really impressed with "Ernie Pike"

@ArchibaldGurnsbach

Жыл бұрын

now i must read, did not know that. is it available in english?

@oubapo

Жыл бұрын

@@ArchibaldGurnsbach Unfortunately it is not. Fantagraphics published a couple of books by Oesterheld, but not Ernie Pike.

jonathan looks right expensive am i wrong?

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

expensive? no... not really... in fact you can get some albums for dirt cheap on ebay

what no Jack Kirby?

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

with him it's rather chickening out because I don't know where to put him... and I still have read only one percent of his work. Of course I'm aware of his historic importance and I love his first fantastic 4-stories, otherwise I still have to get into his fourth world stuff and then probably all the rest...

Crepax? Rreally? I could have put money on Crumb and Pratt being on the list, I wouldn't have even considered Crepax to be on your list of top 15 artists.

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

what do you have against him?

@AlucardNoir

Жыл бұрын

@@earlgrey862 It's not that I have something against him, it's more that putting him on this list is similar to putting the Emmanuelle movie on a list of all time greatest movies. Not something I'd consider doing.

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

nope... that's similar to compare kitschy softporn with nouvelle vague

@AlucardNoir

Жыл бұрын

@@earlgrey862 There's nothing softcore about Guido Crepax's art.

@earlgrey862

Жыл бұрын

agreed 100% .... YOU compared Crepax with Emmanuelle!