Every year, we send out a survey to a wide variety of creators and ask them questions about the year in comics. We had an incredible response this year, and got creators from all corners of the comics world to weigh in one what they loved about comics in 2017. Every day this week, we will be sharing a different question from our questionnaire.
Hopefully these inspire you to check out some new books, and to give some other books a second look.
Editor’s Note: We sent out questionnaires to 20+ publishers, seeking responses from their creative talent. Thank you to all the folks who took the time during this busy holiday season to reply.
What creators weren’t on your radar before 2017, that you are aware of/fans of now?
J.K. Woodward (“Star Trek: Mirror Broken,” “Micronauts”): Ray Fawkes. I was not aware of his work until his Image book (“Underwinter”) came out and I glad I came across it.
Fico Ossio (“Revolution,” “Orphan Black”): Magdalene Visaggio, Otto Schmidt, James Harren, Stefano Caselli
Paul Cornell (“Saucer State,” “Vampirella”): I’d never been a fan of “The Shadow” until Si Spurrier found some interesting new angles.
Cavan Scott (“Doctor Who,” “Star Wars Adventures”): Working on “Star Wars Adventures” brought Elsa Charretier’s work to my attention for the first time, and I sought out “The Infinite Loop” from IDW, which is just wonderful. She’s got such a beautiful style. I’m going back and reading all her past work now!
Alan Robert (“Killogy,” “Crawl to Me”): Tristan Jones, Zach Howard
Jon Davis-Hunt (“The Wild Storm,” “Clean Room”): The artwork of Tomas Giorello in “XO-Manowar” absolutely blew me away – it’s incredible! Definitely Fernando Pasarin; I think his stuff is fantastic. I also wasn’t hugely aware of Jorge Jimenez, but his “Super Sons” run has been incredible.
Oh and also Daniel Warren Johnson. He can do no wrong!
Rob Williams (“Suicide Squad,” “2000AD”): Nick Derington. I suspect I’ll buy anything Nick draws going forward. Jorge Jimenez has been terrific on the Superman titles as well.
Christos Gage (“ROM,” “Ninja-K”): I don’t think I specifically became aware of anyone just in 2017. Feels like I knew about them in 2016 or before.
Jeremy Lambert (“Goosebumps: Monsters at Midnight,” “Attack on Titan Anthology”): Chris Fenoglio! I hadn’t followed his work until we met on “Goosebumps” and I was a fool for not seeing his stuff sooner, it’s wonderful and I’m so excited to be collaborating with him.
Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín (“Secret Weapons,” “Wrath of the Eternal Warrior”): Antonio Hitos, Bendik Kaltenborn, and Coke Navarro.
Tazio Bettin (“War Hammer 40,000,” “Independence Day”): Tomm Coker. I had never read anything drawn by him before, and now I’m a big fan. I want to read more titles drawn by him: there is a lot I can learn, and his style greatly inspires me.
Benjamin Percy (“Green Arrow,” “Teen Titans”): I worked with Mirka Andolfo on the ‘Metal’ crossover (in “Teen Titans”), and she has such a twisted, playful, funhouse of a mind. I’m a fan.
Clay McLeod Chapman (“Lazaretto,” “Edge of Venomverse”): This is a total cheat, I know, but… Jey Levang. It wasn’t until our editor, Eric Harburn, suggested them for “Lazaretto” that I got my hands on a copy of their indie-comic HELL(P) and I was totally smitten from that point on. I will follow Jey in whatever they do next and pray we get to work together again. I’m a complete convert.
Rafer Roberts (“Harbinger Renegade,” “A&A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong”): Eliot Rahal. I admit that I hadn’t read any of his stuff before he did a few things for Valiant, but I quite enjoyed everything he’s done for them so far. Plus, he’s a real good guy and I’d like to see more stuff by him.
Alan Quah (“Dark Souls,” “Orphan Black”): Liam Sharp, Sanford Greene, Enrico Marini
Paul Allor (“Monstro Mechanica,” “Clue”): Carlos Magno impressed the hell out of me this year on his “Kong” books. On the writing side, I’ve really enjoyed Leah Williams’ work, and look forward to seeing more of it in 2018. I think Aditya Bidikar’s been around for a bit, but I just became aware of his fantastic lettering work this year.
Tim Rozon (“Wynonna Earp”): Chris Evenhuis, Paul Allor and Sjan Weijers
Caleb Goellner (“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Amazing Adventures,” “Pressure/Sensitivity”): All of the folks I mentioned (in the previous articles), aside from Scioli, Fiffe, Goux, Baker, Norton, and Isayama. I feel like this year was great for discovering new creators.
