I've selected 17 artists from LSH fistory... pick your 2 favorites!


DISCLAIMER: No slight intended if your fave is not included. Some, like Ditko, Starlin and Staton I rejected from inclusion because the bulk of their huge output of work is NOT associated with the Legion. Feel free to choose "other" and write-in any past LSH artist you like.

where's chris sprouse?

6 voters in, and an early leader has emerged with 4 votes.

Yup... my favorite. That was the easy part, voting for him.

What a great list of artists. The Legion has truly been blessed.

I wish we could have voted for four - I hated having to leave Stuart Immonen and Steve Lightle out.

How in the world can we choose?

I thought of one image that came immediately to mind and then weighed each image against the other.

Probably not the best way to evaluate artists... it's hard to separate story or boot from the art and pick solely for visual imagery.

That was hard.

Disclaimer: I do not stand by my own votes and could be easily swayed to change my decisions.

That was very hard, but I just ended up going with the two whose work so impressed me when I first discovered them and the Legion - which was Moy and Coipel.

What a hard choice. By far my fave three are Giffen, Cockrum and Grell and picking two of those difficult enough; having so many other artists whose work showed a genuine love of the characters was even tougher! And 'tough' in the best way

25 votes in, no huge surprises.... lots of 70s support, and the Reboot was blessed with some very good artwork which is also reflected voteswise...

LASH:
I mainly meant to voice my support for Chris Sprouse as the single "Other" vote! I hope I didn't come off as demanding he be represented. I voted for him mainly out of nostalgia purposes: Legionnaires #1 was the first time I read a comic book and thought I should continue reading this series, (I was 11 and it got me into the Legion). Plus, I think his vision of the Legion was just really cool.

And I voted for Copiel. It was incredibly tough to pick from Immonen and Moy (who grew and grew and grew as an artist on Legionnaires) and Kitson... But Copiel's career was launched with Legion, and I actually LIKE his grittiness on Legion of the Damned and Legion Lost, it fit the story! and was so different from Moy that it worked.

My picks do happen to coincide with my preferred eras, but one reason those eras were good *was* the art.

(Moy and Kitson, by the way. Immonen's also good, but sort of good and a little off at the same time.)

I also wish we could have picked more than two but I suspect had we been asked for our top 5 I would have felt bad about leaving off #6 (& 7 & 8 & ...!)

For the record my top two are Cockrum & Grell.

My top 5 would probably have been those two plus Kitson, Swan, & Lightle, though Sherman, Batista & Moy would have gotten heavy consideration. I think Manapul may well move into one of those slots if he's on the book long enough. I don't believe he's had a chance to really establish himself as of yet.

Of course, I would love to see George Perez added to that list but he doesn't belong there (yet) because he's only done some occasional work and so, has never really been a Legion artist. I could well change my mind on that point after Legion of 3 Worlds.

WWWWtRL,

I totally loved Sprouse's Legionnaires work and was torn whether or not to include him (as well as Adam Hughes, Dan Jurgens, etc.)

Hope you didn't miss Sprouse's run on SUPREME with Alan Moore.... it is ablsolutely NOT to be missed!

Giffen was the hard one for me. I loved Annual 1 and the GDS but for me 5YL was spoiled by his artwork. So on balance didn't vote for him

That was insanely hard. I voted without reading the thread first, so I have all sorts of buyer's remorse now about not voting for others.

(Cockrum, for intance. I was never a fan of his figure-work, but he made the best costumes!)

I picked Lightle and Manapul. Why? I'm shallow, they draw the sexiest Legionnaires!

grell beating cockrum and swan???!!!
who knew?

I voted for Giffen and Jason Pearson. This WAS hard because I fell in love with the Legion during Grell's run and still have a certain fondness Plus HE drew the sexiest Legion. I mean c'mon most of them were practically naked! Liked Cockrum, Immonen, Batista(2 very underrated Legion artists IMO), Kitson and would add Gary Frank even though he's never worked on an ACTUAL Legion book. Still, I feel pretty confident in my votes.

Grell and Giffen... because of their excellent character depictions with a major dose of personal nostalgia.

I had to vote fast before I changed my mind.

Next two for me would have been:
Grell and
Other: Calero.

This thread may have made me realize that when all is said and done, Giffen is my favorite Legion artist of all time.

I went with Dave for #2, but that's when it starts to get close...

Cobie, our tastes match up. I too voted for Mister Cockrum and Mister Giffen. Giffen definitely takes it all for me, and seeing his artwork anytime on a legion book is a real treat for me. I love his Great Darkness-era style, the weirdness and distortion of the Omen/Prophet era, the big-lipped, ruffled-shirt 5YL stuff... and his Post-boot issue with DnA kicked nass.

The only Giffen art I've not enjoyed is his Trencher style, which I find too abstract for my taste, and which he did apply to (iirc) a couple of pages (mid-story!!) of one issue of the 5YL LSH.

It was VERY VERY difficult to not vote for Curt Swan, though.

I'm thinking next time, maybe a "best of the rest" poll featuring the artists that didn't make the cut this time, or expanding it to a giant mega-poll "Top 10 choices", so no one will have to leave out an artist they love.

I was a little surprised as well, but then I figure... Grell *did* have a considerable tenure on the book, at a time when it was re-reaching heights of popularity. A lot of those fans that came on-board during his run are still around (like me... though I didn't vote for him!), so it makes sense I guess...

I was flipping through my LSH box the other day and ran across the latter-day DnA issues of "The Legion"... Batista really was a good artist... and then there's a couple of Lightle issues too, plus that Giffen issue, the cool covers on the Simone issues... I think it's past time for a re-read of the entire "THE LEGION" series.

You might be right on that. I remember really liking Batista's art in 52, though I never really gave it a second glance in the Legion. I'm considering an entire reread of the Reboot too to take a second look at Moy's work.

And yeah, Swan's work is so essential to the Legion. I really like John Forte's work a lot too, maybe as much as I like Swan's.

Like you, I like all the versions of Giffen's work. That's actually what tips him into being my #1. He's just been able to change and grow so much over the years. I don't mind the Trencher style, just not on the Legion (Trencher was kind of a cool/weird comic).

Probably Grell is my #3 (though this is where it gets more difficult).

It was really a tough vote for me...lots of very, very good names there! In the end I didn't go with either Cockrum or Grell.

I've read Cockrum's stories, and the costumes were certainly innovative. But I think I didn't go with him because many of the stylistic elements I enjoy about his art didn't really evolve until after his Legion work and specifically on his X-Men stories. I wasn't going to vote for someone whose non-Legion work I preferred. Do most people here feel his Legion work really ranks with his X-Men work?

As for Grell, I simply haven't seen most of his Legion art. From what I have seen, though, he's again likely have gotten my vote due to his post-Legion work. Both he and Cockrum were undeniably excellent on the Legion, but neither was really in the running based on my criteria.

It was still tough, though because I connected a lot with artsits like Copiel, Immonen, Batista, Moy, Pearson, Laroque (I was sad to see he's gotten no votes) and Kitson. Giff was hard, but end the end I decided some of his style choices left me cold, especially during the late Baxter run.

So I went with Lightle and Swan. These are two beautiful timeless styles that I love a lot.

Lightle's run was pretty short, but, combined with his staying on covers a good while, possibly the most gorgeous Legion art I've ever seen.

And Swan...definitely the best of the Silver Age which was so crucial to defining the Legion. Swan's style definitely had that DC "Silver Age" look to it, but simultaneously was ahead of its time. He drew the definitive Superboy and Superman and definitely the definitive classic Legion.

So it was a hard choice, but definitely one I feel pretty good about. I wonder what the results would've been had we only been allowed to pick one?

re: Cockrum's LSH work... I do find it on par with his X-stuff (FIRST run only) by the Duo Damsel-starring "War Between the Night & Days". But all-time absolute favorite Cockrum artwork has got to be on X-MEN # 100, possibly the most-beautifully drawn comic book of ALL time.

Didn't care as much for his second run on X, Lash?

It was still Cockrum, but the lines were thicker and less elegant... it may have been the inker or a change in Dave's style... but it was ever-so-slightly DIFFERENT. Blockier.

For me, the last top-level Cockrum art was on FUTURIANS, which I just re-read recently (the graphic novel and issues 1-3 & 0). His stuff from the sexond X-run on was still enjoyable but not in the top-tiers with his Avengers, LSH, first X-Men and Futurians run.

I still, however, count him as my very first FAVORITE artist, and I treasure ALL the comics he drew.

What did you think about it, Lardikens? Other Cockrum fans, too. Am I just seeing things wrong?

Honestly, as a teenager, Cockrum's style on X-Men (which is still my main exposure to him--haven't read his Avengers or Futurians) took some getting used to. I guess in a way it seemed somehow more exaggerated and cartoony than, say, Byrne's style.

Note: I should also mention that I was only recently exposed to Dave's Legion work thru the Archives. Obviously his art is great and really helped transition LSH out of the Silver Age. I do think that the overall low quality and relative insignificance (obviously with some exceptions) of the Cary Bates scripts he drew don't help my view. It's hard for me to extoll a great artist's run when the stories didn't exactly impress me.

As I got older and looked back, Dave was clearly one of the very best X-Men artists, and I feel the style that evolved over both runs was the definitive Cockrum. One signature of this, for me, is that "thicker line" you refer to, I think. Some of my favorite stories of his are the Belasco arc, the Nightcrawler miniseries and anything he did with the Starjammers. I also think his new X-Men, Starjammers and Futurians costumesIare the best he ever did. I think the stylistic flair I associate with him really shine in those stories and designs. To me, they're miles away from his Legion run.

In an odd way, I was introduced to Cockrum's work through various fill-ins (Spectacular Spider-Man and Iron Man I think), and then I first saw his X-Men stuff before the Legion. Which was spectacular, and I loved.

But it wasn't until after I met the LMB online and probably just before Legion World opened that I first saw Cockrum's Legion stories, which (to me) had this whole mystique to them as the Legoin stories I never got to see. And I loved them; these were the issues that made me really 'find' Dave Cockrum and learn about how great he was. I read those X-Men stories first, and maybe it was because I was so pumped on Byrne's run (which I read even before that) that I didn't give them the credit they deserve. But his Legion stuff...many it just blew me away.

His Dream Girl, Tenzil, Cham, even Superboy, all felt so different and fresh to me. And I was reading these in 2002 (in the Archive volume with the majority of his Legoin stuff).

So yeah, I like his Legion work better than his X-Men work. There are a handful of times when I've read an era of the Legion where I really felt like there was suddenly a whole new world to this concept I've been aware of for a very long time. And both Giffen's run with Levitz and Cockrum's run are probably the two most dramatic times I've felt that sense of fresh/grandiose/something just feels really different. Certainly other eras have that, but those in particular.

PS - I've never even opened a Futurians comic before. Suddenly I feel the urge to do so!

PPS - I can understand why some people might pick Copiel for the reasons I stated in my post. To me I think his best work has been all the stuff he's done since. He's been able to take mediocre stories (House of M) and make them look magnificent. I keep hoping JMS will shock me with Thor and give us a writer/artist combo on Thor that will be simply amazing.

In a funny way, I always thought of Cockrum's work on the X-Men almost as if he were still drawing the Legion.

Especially with the Imperial Guard connection.

But the Krakoa issue introducing the All-New, All-Different X-men could easily have been a LSH issue, too.

Sub Saturn Girl for Professor X, make the vignettes introducing the characters occur on different planets, rather than different nations, make Krakoa a living planetoid instead of a living island and it could read like a LSH tale.

Then again, I was exposed to Grell before Cockrum on the LSH-- though I'm pretty sure I read a couple of Cockrum's issues before getting my hands on GS X-men #1, which I recall buying off the comic rack at a 7-11, as I do remember thinking of Cockrum as a LSH artist... which is a jumbled way of saying that my early comic book reading memories ain't so clear-cut.

47 votes in ,and it looks like the battle of the G's!

I voted for Curt Swan & Jim Sherman. Dave Cockrum & Keith Giffen were a close 3rd & 4th.

I voted for Grell and Coipel. I regretted not voting of Swan, Cockrum, Sherman, Giffen, Lightle, Calero, and Manapul.

This vote was easy for me. Dave Cockrum #1 and Steve Lightle #2.

Wow! At 14 votes apiece we currently have a tie!

(and I didn't vote for any of them :rolleyes: )

#1 for me is easy - Giffen. It was his non-traditional, dark style that drew me to the Legion in the first place with the TMK relaunch. (after Giffen did an issue of "Justice" I bought the "Dr Fate" mini because of his art, then found the Legion) I was also a fan of the other styles he went through (especially during that last Emerald Empress story)

#2 wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be - Coipel. It was maybe the only time I've been more excited about looking at the art when a new issue would come out more than reading the story.

Sprouse is also up there in my mind and I'd also like to throw in for honorable mention someone who I think would've been a huge fan favorite had he worked on the title longer or on more memorable stories -- Terry Shoemaker.

Sherman! Sherman! Sherman!

Greg LaRocque -- Sensuous and sensitive, with women who look like real women. Also had a sense of scale that's been truly unsung.

Dave Cockrum -- The definitive LSH costumes in my opinion; he was the first fan-turned-professional to draw the Legion, and his enthusiasm was in every line.

Pat Broderick was always my favorite.

I chose Swan and Cockrum, but it was really hard to pass up Sherman, Coipel, and Kitson.

Can't BELIEVE so many people are voting for Grell. BLECCCCHHH!

72 votes in, and we have a fairly firmly established top 5, and one that I can actually completely agree with...


order of first LSH work


Swan-- Unforgettable Silver-Age tales, reprinted fairly often in the 70s during the reigns of...

both Cockrum and Grell-- Who were no-doubt key to the title's success in the 1970s.

Giffen-- Indisputably rules the Legion's 1980s era artistically. That 5YL stuff wasn't so bad either.

Coipel-- Instrumental in throwing some much-needed attention toward the Legion after a long period of decline saleswise.

Of course it should be noted there's over 2 weeks of voting left, but I don't see the stats changing too much... (I'm just ASKING for it, aren't I?)

Oh, and that's pretty nice that 60s, 70s 80s AND 90s Legions are represented...

Gif and Lightle (top three would have included Coipel) with Manapul coming up on the outside.

It's interesting that DC is doing so well...I think he only actually drew about 10 Legion stories, and about 6 of them were backups.


He got my vote too FWIW, but I'm surprised he's doing as well as he's doing.


Just out of curiosity...

Does anyone know which artist has actually drawn the most Legion stories?


I think it's between Giffen, Kitson and LaRoque. If you include L.E.G.I.O.N., I believe Kitson has drawn the most Legion stories, in a runaway..if you don't include L.E.G.I.O.N. I think it goes like this:

Giffen
LaRoque
Kitson.


Swan might possibly sneak in there after Giffen...I think he drew about 40 Legion stories.

Curt swan definitely not getting the love he deserves. He's simply one of the best comic artists ever. Probably too many youngsters here, who are not that familiar with his Legion work.

Giffen is an interesting choice. At his his best, he was right up there with the top Legion artists. At his worst, he drove me off the book after following it for almost 20 years. He might score high in a best artist poll as well as a worst artist poll.

I ended up voting for Swan and Grell, if I got to choose a third, it probably would have been Kitson.

Dang you Lash, for restricting us to a mere two votes!

I couldn't give Giffen a vote, as I've never been a fan of his artwork (outside of Ambush Bug).

In the end I went with Lightle and Sherman. I'm sure I gave Sherman the vote because he was drawing the book as I first discovered it!

What an awesome caliber of artists to have to choose from!! The Legion has been blessed!

And the winner is.



I just wonder what could have been, If DC gave Dave his creative freedom and his art back.

Adam Hughes! OMG! Fantastic, beautiful, awesome, etc etc.

Great thread Lash and I have to agree that it's SO hard to pick some of these over others. I LOVE Steve's art and Stuart did some incredible work but MY favorite all time (short run) artist on the Legion is Jim Sherman. I've always hated the fact that he was such a perfectionist that he was slow to turn his work. *sigh*

A second pick was almost impossible, I love so many of the Legion artists. Curse Marvel for stealing Dave Cockrum!

Last week to vote!

Coming soon:

Favorite LSH artist: BEST of the REST!

Less than 24 hours to vote!!!!

Giffen
and
Coipel

hard to choose only 2. Grell, Sherman and Immomen are also faves.

Absolute last chance to vote!

All done. Let's observe our final tallies:



John FORTE 2% (2) Forte got some support. I guess his style seems almost primitive when judged against some of todays artists, but if one observes his panels closely, one can spot the most charming stuff going on.


Curt SWAN 19% (16) Our 4th place finisher, and rightfully deserving of top 5 status. I cannot even fathom those classic 60s two-parters drawn by anyone else. Surely Swan is owed a debt of gratitude by all legion fans.


Win MORTIMER 0% (0) This one hurt a little. Mortimer's stuff is A-OK in my book. His art was "groovy"... there is no other word for it.


Dave COCKRUM 35% (29) Our clear 1st place finisher. This is made even more spectacular by the fact that he drew SO FEW pages of LSH stories. His influence lives on to this day.


Mike GRELL 24% (20) Tying for 2nd place with Giffen, Grell enjoyed the post-Cockrum flush of new readers and kept the title growing in popularity.


James SHERMAN 13% (11) Another artist whose tenure was far too short, Sherman's artwork was nonetheless groundbreaking.


Jimmy JANES 0% (0) While I find it a little sad that Janes had zero votes, I don't find it all surprising. Definitely the weakest on this list, for my money.


Keith GIFFEN 24% (20) In a tie for 2nd with Grell, Giffen owns the 80s (and early 90s) just as Cockrum, Grell and Sherman co-owned the 70s.


Steve LIGHTLE 17% (14) Giffen's followup on the LSH teetered very closely to the top 5, finishing in 6th place.


Greg LAROQUE 1% (1) LaRoque's run was strong but lacked the flashier, slicker appeal of Cockrum, Giffen, Grell etc.


Jason PEARSON 2% (2) Pearson's stylized, cartoony work drew some flak at the time but I loved it.


Stuart IMMONEN 1% (1) The anti-Pearson, Immonen seemed to be more from the Adam Hughes school of artistry. I'm surprised he didn't fare better,


Jeff MOY 6% (5) A fair amount of support for this longtime artist.


Olivier COIPEL 18% (15) Our 5th place finisher, I recently re-read Coipel's THE LEGION run, and can state that not since Sherman has the book seen an artist so groundbreaking. In fact, I call Coipel the reboot era's Sherman.


Chris BATISTA 5% (4) Not a bad showing, I remember liking his stuff a lot. I'm about to begin re-reading his run.


Barry KITSON 12% (10) Kitson gets more votes than I would have guessed for such a (IMO) lackluster run. In all fairness, the art was always better than the stories. Could be folks remember that awesome run on L.E.G.I.O.N fondly as well.


Francis MANAPUL 4% (3) The new guy makes a fair splash for a run still in the toddler stage!


But enough of my opinions...how about yours?

I may need to update this poll...