Welcome to the Multiversity Year in Review for 2022! We’ve got over 25 categories to get through, so make sure you’re checking out all of the articles by using our 2022 Year in Review tag.
Very, very few artists come out of the chute drawing like Mignola or Staples. It takes a long time, and sometimes a long time as a professional, to really find your niche and thrive. The three artists that we are highlighting today may not be new to comics, but they were either new to us, or they leveled up to a place where we felt that they had come into a new category of excellence.3. Lucas Werneck
While Lucas Werneck’s first big Marvel work was in last year’s “The Trail of Magneto” – which he killed on, by the way – it wasn’t until he became the lead artist on “Immortal X-Men” that he really caught my attention. From the first pages of the first issue Werneck came out swinging but not in a Jack Kirby, Walt Simonson way. Instead, he establishes quickly why he was the perfect artist for this book of political intrigue in a superpowered world.
It’s difficult, so difficult, to make a bunch of people sitting around a table interesting. You have to keep things dynamic somehow or you’re liable to lose an audience. Good banter can only get you so far so it’s up to the artist, in this case, Werneck to keep the energy up and boy, oh boy, did he deliver.
He’s got an excellent grasp on how to frame a panel and a page and then place his character within that frame and find the right balance between hyper-dynamic posing and intricate detailing, though his style is better suited to the former than the latter – Terry Moore, he is not. Still, his style is perfect for this new era of X-Men, fitting right in with Valerio Schiti & R. B. Silva, with its mix of detailed realism and cartoony exaggeration.
Speaking of, I LOVE the way he draws Sinister & Destiny in particular. It’s a good thing too because his work on issue 3 of “Immortal X-Men” clinched his place on this list for me. Not only was he able to create a lush past and a fraught present but he was also able to make a future that brought the cosmic and the grotesque together in a way that felt properly grandiose and was consistent, visually, with the rest of the issue. It’s hard to work in so many modes and Werneck makes it look easy. – Elias Rosner
2. Nikola Cizmesija
Artist Nikola Cizmesija took me completely by surprise with his incredible work on the interiors of “Sword of Azrael.” The protagonist of Azrael, Jean-Paul Valley is an incredibly complicated character. Valley was corrupted and turned into an assassin by The Order of St. Dumas. Valley attempts to undo the psychological conditioning in the pages of “Sword of Azrael.” Cizmesija’s art makes the plot behind the story come alive thanks to non-traditional panel framing, slick figures and just a beautiful aesthetic overall. When Valley’s consciousness starts to be conditioned by Dumas’ mind control, Cizmesija harnesses those elements directly on the page. The “Sword of Azrael” series has contained these beautiful stained glass windows that call upon old religious themes in an inspired manner.
When Valley chooses violence over his normal life, Cizmesija changes the visual interpretation of the book to carry as many effects as possible to show Valley’s fractured psyche. Cizmesija shows off his range as an artist in the second chapter of the series as the issue opens with an incredibly violent battle between Azreal and a mysterious, returning DC character before showing him quietly praying on the final panel of the title. Jean-Paul Valley is a really niche character and while writer Dan Watters seems to understand the ins and outs of the hero, it is reassuring to see that Cizmesija seemingly also understands Valley on a deeply connected level. Azrael’s battle with The Satan in issue #4 of “Sword of Azrael” was another tense moment of the series captured with beautiful effects. The way that Cizmesija makes some of the panels black-and-white, removes the background and contains fluid motion is staggering. Cizmesija’s art is as expressive as an indie comic despite the fact that Cizmesija can still draw beautifully rendered characters. I can’t wait to see what Cizmesija will work on in 2023 whether it be more Azrael or something different for the DC Universe.
Continued below1. Sara Alfageeh
Sara Alfageeh caught my attention with “Squire,” my favourite comic of the year, so it came as no surprise to me when the Mutliversity Comics staff selected her as our breakout artist for 2022. I always love a story that makes the most of the medium it’s being told in. In this particular case, Aiza has to pretend to be someone else to fit into a society that hates her and this is represented visually by the tattoo markings on her arm, which she conceals beneath bandages. This detail is ever present, so no matter what’s going on in any scene, the bandages are there, reminding us that she can never let her guard down. If “Squire” were a prose novel, this sort of narrative construction doesn’t have the same power. The text would have to interrupt the emotion of the scene to either remind the reader of Aiza’s bandages or have Aiza feel the pressure of being an outsider. But as a comic, she can forget that for a moment while the reader never can. It is masterfully executed visual tension that can be extremely subtle or overt depending on the needs or a given moment.
Alfageeh also uses the white space of the gutters to represent tension. This first shows up on page four of the book, when Aiza tries to sell an apricot, but loses the sale when the customer realizes Aiza is Ornu. She uses this to great effect in action scenes, but then she also uses it in conversations too, which gives these moments the intensity of battle. When it takes over a page, it makes the panels look like fragments of broken glass. It’s not just that she uses this sort of visual punctuation, but that she uses it consistently throughout the comic, so that its effect becomes more pronounced and precise, and by the ending it can break your heart.
Time and time again, Alfageeh impressed me with her storytelling instincts, with the ways she found to take internal thoughts and feelings and express them externally on the page, especially in instances when “Squire” needs to express an unspoken class distinction.
Oof, that makes “Squire” sound very heavy, doesn’t it? But it is tremendously fun to read. Yes, Aiza faces all kinds of struggles, but it is in the midst of creating powerful bonds with people she cares about and who care about her. This is the engine of the narrative of “Squire”—if the reader doesn’t believe these relationships, the story simply cannot work. And this is where Alfageeh is at her best, nurturing confelicity in her readers. She earns the easy friendship of Aiza and Husni, the warmth when Basem first smiles, and every moment of concern for Aiza from Durok. The moments of joy are felt deeply, and considering where this story goes in the end and what these characters are left with in the wake of it, it is the foundation upon which everything else is built. We are told about famous knights—Juhyn the Shining, Fareed the Sea Master—in a tale that explores what it means to become a story. It is fitting that Aiza’s tale is simply called “Squire,” but that observation is hollow if we do not feel the depth of what she has in place of a title. The ending is nothing without the bonds forged between characters. Aiza is just Aiza, merely Aiza, and that needs to feel triumphant.
And “Squire” is triumphant. – Mark Tweedale
