Top:

-J Axer
-FRY
-Tania Del Rio (I know we've only seen one issue of her work, but it was AMAZING

Bottom:

-Al Bigley
-Art Mawhinney
-Ron Lim (His art is improving, though. The colourists make a great difference, too.)

Also, I want to point out that I no longer enjoy Steven Butler's art. I think it's not as exciting. Maybe my senses are dulling... haha.

That's my opinion. Well, it changes a lot. ^^

EE

Absolute Best: Dubs (fantastic and fun)
Second Best: Spaz (very vesatile, nearly always beautiful)
Third Best: Fry (also a lot of fun and eye-catchey)

Runners up: Del Rio (Excellent; we need more), Mawhinney (I actually like him a lot), Axer (greatly detailed and cool)

Dead center: Butler (not as good as everyone gives him credit), Best (Started strong, deteriorated a bit)

Runners Down: Lim (Starting to grow on me a little, but still bad), Penders (just awkward-looking)

Third worst: Bigley (Horridly off-model characters)
Second worst: Manak (Not professional-looking enough)
Absolute Worst: Hands (It's a joke, right?)

I actually had no problem with Many Hands. Are you talking about the artist of SSS15, the naugus battle? I liked the art of that issue, personally...

Oh, I completely forgot about Dave Manak. He's probably the #2 worst for me.

EE

He did that story and issue 113's "Cry of the Wolf," both of which were, in my opinion, absolutely terrible, although I found the latter worse.

Top 3:
1. J. Axer (simply incredible, every time.)
2. Many Galan (just something about his style I love)
3. Spaz (his covers aren't always the great works of art they used to be, but the art in the stories he draws has never disappointed me.)

Runners Up: Fry, Best, WB, Butler, Maxwell, Del Rio

Not bad: Art, Manak (on his good days), anyone I forgot.

Not good: Bigley (I have a feeling he's going to improve, though), Chris Alan (and he was so great on TMNTA!), many artists when they first start on the book...

Worst 3:
3. Manak (on his bad days)
2. Lim (he's a good artist, too bad we've only seen hints of it on Sonic)
1. Many Hands (art so bad, no one wants to take credit for it...)

Based on who I've seen and remember (if I don't remember it as being bad, then I didn't find it that bad and if I don't remember it as being great, then I didn't find it that great)...

My Top 3 Period (meaning, I like these the most and are the ones who provide me with the most eye-candy)
1) Axer
2) Spaz
3) Butler

My Top 3 "Extensive" Regulars (meaning they worked for at least one "long" consecutive streak within the comic stories--covers don't count--and provided eye-candy)
1) Butler
2) Fry
3) Galan

My Bottom 3 Period (meaning, I don't want to see their artwork as it might make me cry)
3) Allan
2) Manak
1) Many Hands (personally I felt SSS#15--which I refused to buy due to the art--was worse than STH#113 but they were both horrendous)

My Bottom 3 "Extensive" Regulars (meaning, seeing their artwork for a long period of time makes me cry)
3) Penders
2) Lim
1) Manak

Can this turn into a penciler discussion thread/Top 3 Penciler
thread?

If so, I want to ask:

Do you think artwork of particular artists is evolving/improving? I agree. For example; I can see FRY's Eggman has greatly changed since his #90-95 appearance. His nose has MUCH more detail, yet you can still see FRY's linear style.

What do you think?

Oh, as for what Chronos commented on earlier about Bigley...
I, personally, don't see a change in his art since he started back in the Ant Story, but has it?

I remember when Bigley drew the Eggman/SwatBot story, and everyone enjoyed the art. After #152, he's out of the picture of a favorite artist!

EE

Top Three Fave of ALL times, no hold bars, awesome artwork Neo Yi worships the ground on:
1.) Fry (His art still is sharp today, but my fave moments of him were in the late 80's to 90's issue when he had that sharp, angular feel he was going...which I like).
2.) Jone Gray/WB (FINALLY! Something NOT looking anime)
3.) Tie between Axer and SPAZ. Those two are like dead even.

Close, but no cigar runner-ups, but still eye candy material for me:
*Steven Butler
*Art Mawhinney (although some of his characters are too cute when they don't fit the cute image)
*Manny Galan

Top Three bottom of the barrel, not as fun as a monkeys in a barrel, down below the barrel, Neo Yi's cries at the artwork, barrel down below artworks:
1.) Many Hands (SO...MUCH...DISPORPORTION)
2.) Ron Lim (He's slightly improving, but not by much)
3.) Ken Penders (I'm still irked by those chin muscles he puts on them)

Another runner-up, this time for the bottom dwellers:
*Al Bigley
~Neo

Quote:

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I remember when Bigley drew the Eggman/SwatBot story, and everyone enjoyed the art. After #152, he's out of the picture of a favorite artist!

---

I don't think you can be "out" of the favorite artist category if you were never in it. I can occassionally enjoy artwork by even the artists I deem to be the "worse," still that doesn't mean that they're suddenly a favorite. I can even at times not like the artwork of some of my "favorites," but that doesn't mean I don't like them. Fry would've stood a better chance of challenging Butler for the top 3 if he hadn't changed his style (when he started using very sharp corners instead of smooth ones) to something I didn't like much one point. It was still good work, but it didn't do anything for me.

Favorites in no particular order: Dub, Axer, and Fry.
I don't consider myself to be in a position to pick out a least favorite artist, as they all have their merits in my opinion. (I don't feel that Many Hands counts because I'm fairly confident that a bunch of different artists were assigned to do specific panels in 113, hence the constant shifts in style. Some of the panels were pleasant to look at, others not so much. I'm 99% sure the name was derived from the old saying "Many hands make light work".)

Dave Manak does not bother me since he only does his "off-panels". This approximative draw is adapted to their cartoon style.

Dave Manak used to be a regular before Mawhinney, Galan, Butler, Fry and many others joined the comic. So those of us with earlier issues, know Manak's art well. 😉

I just resaw the "Axer-lent" artworks, he's undoubtably the best of the best, but nobody here likes particularly Gray's so specific style ? What do you think about him ?

but nobody here likes particularly Gray's so specific style ? What do you think about him ?

As I said, his art is my favorite. (WB or as I said, Dubs, is the same person as Jon Gray). I love his unique style and it's just plain fun to look at.

I actually can't remember most of the artists but the ones I still like, the top 3 for me are Galan, Best and Axer. My least favorite are Lim, Many Hands and WB...

Manny Galan, when was the last time his art was featured in a Sonic Comic? I don't even remember!

EE

i think he was last in a knuckles comic.

my faves are
1.Spaz (cmon, he's spaz.)
2.Axer (excellent cover pages, even better comic pages.)
3.Butler ( he's never sloppy and is a regular.)

3 worst artists who should be fired are:
1.Art Mawhinney. (he's a terrible artist that can't get with the times IMO.)
2.Many hands (do i really have to say why?)
3.Dave Manak (Love offpanel but his work in 132 was terrible.)

Knuckles #28 to be exact, I believe, unless you count covers. He did draw some of the covers for the SA adaptation if I recall.

best top 3
1. Spaz ^^
2. J. Axler
3. Jonathan gray (I love his funny style of drawing)

worst top 3
1. Many Hands. the one from #113 -> cry of the wolf 2. Al Bigley
3. Ron Lim (but he's getting better)

My turn!! After not posting anything for over a year n.n;;;;
And by the way.. I'm sure you're able to tell that I'm a lover of the earlier issues x3;;;

top 3:
1) Spaz (duh)
2) Art Mawhinney
3) Dave Manak (nuuu evilness towards me o_o; I really like his old work in the earlier issues...)

bottom 3:
3)Ron Lim
2)Al Bigley
1)Many Hands

I can do a first chart.

I counted 3 points for your best and your worst artist, 2 points for the second, 1 point for the third of your lists.

1. J.Axer: 18 congratulations, but...
2. Spaz: 14 ...you're closely followed !
3. Fry: 6 But nobody can beat you both.

1. Many Hands: 25 whoever you are...
2. Ron Lim: 12 Not the same chance. We can put a head on your name.
3. Bigley: 8 Nothing to add.

My favorite pencilers, past and present:

1. Scott Shaw!
2. Art Mawhinny
3. Patrick Spaziante(usually. When he doesn't go overboard on the detail)
4. Dave Manak(Up unil he tried to emulate the 'Adventure' style.
5. Pam Eklund

I don't really have any 'un-favorite' pencilers. Though, I'm not very fond of the ones that go overboard on the 'anime' style or the ones that draw the characters too skinny or tall.

My faves are Dub and Fry. I dunno...I guess with me it's the more cartoony the better.

Guh. I haven't read an issue since 103...

But I certainly know just who are the best Archie pencilers.

The Best:
1) Patrick Spaziante
- No straight lines in characters
- Long proportions adding to the "velocity" of characters
- Accurate expressions
- Elonguated perspectives
2) Art Mawhinney
- Captures the overall light-heartedness of the Sonic franchise
- Leans more toward the style of original Sonic box art

You know, with those two around, it's hard for anyone to really compete. But...

3) Steve Butler
- Almost graffiti-like style; jagged curves
- Hearkens more to the Marvel pencilers for The Incredible Hulk (that's good)

You know, I can't really peg who's neccessarily worst here...
I mean, it has been a while...

However, in Spaziante's latest work that I've seen, he seems to be abandoning his former style and taking those long perspectives a little bit too far. Not that this is a bad thing, it's just a little unsettling for the ol' inner child.

1. Tied between Axer and Dub. Axer for the realistic, Dub for the cartoonish. Both have their extreme merits.

3. FRY. I liked that style... glad to see he's back, and he'd better stay.

Worst: 1) Bigley. Yikes. That's just wrong in so many ways.

2) Many Hands. #113 is the second-worst issue ever.

3) Whoever-the-heck was responsible for Sonic 92's main story. (I don't give him enough credit to go check.) He's a freaking plagarist, whoever he is. *See comment in "Worst Issue" topic*

Dishonorable Mention: Lim and Penders. Lim, because although he's gotten better his work still doesn't feel Sonic-y... and Penders for having most characters look weird and for messing with Best's work so many times. I understand that it might have needed touching up, but not THAT much... and her stories could have been delayed if they HAD to, I'm sure. It got to the point where her work didn't look like her work. (Check all of her Knux stories... the ones that look GOOD are all her, like #101 and the first part of Reunification.)

Quote:

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Whoever-the-heck was responsible for Sonic 92's main story.

---

Michael Higgins. 🙂

YES. That was it. Plagarism by him throughout that issue. That just kills it.

Plagiarist of Fry, you mean ?

It's been a while, but...

Personal Fave: Manny Galan.
Second Up: Axer
Third: Spaz

And if you had told me I'd say Galan after his debut (which was, shoot, #28? I can't remember) I'd probably cry. But seriously, but the time Knuckles was into the swing of things, he had the perfect combination. Axer and Spaz do beautiful work, but it's almost too much detail for me sometimes and I'd rather see a pin-up from them and a story by Galan. His work in the latter Knuckles issues was the perfect complement to the series, I think.

Not going to do the worst. Okay, Many Hands.

1) who else,but j.axer
2)steven butler
3) fry

worst-so many to pick from
1)dawn best
2)manny hands
3)ron lim (since he is beginning to improve,I'll cut him some slack.)

best
1. J.Axer
2. Dawn Best
3. Dubs!(jon gray)

worst
1. Many Hands
2. Ron Lim
3. Ken Penders

Best:

1. Spaz
2. Manny Gallan
3. Conor Thomas

Worst (first being worst)

3. Ron Lim
2. Bigley
1. Gray

(2 & 1 did the artwork for issue 152, or the stuff that didn't have Lupe in it, anyway-that artist is actually good. Back to them, I just don't like their style, especially the one who trys to draw in an overly anime-ish style. It just doesn't look good to me at all.)

(La la la... apparently, my temp-ban is over...?)

Best artists: Spaz, FRY & Jon Grey

Worst artists: Al Bigley, Many Hands and the person responsible for that Tails story in SSS8.

EnergyEmerald needs to revise his "bottom" list. I've looked over and over his post, but I don't see Many Hands on the list yet Art Mawhinney is on there. Fair enough if you don't like Art's work, but is he really worse than Many Hands?

teh bestest!!
1. Spaz (I prefer old School, like issue 30 onwards, but his current stuff is still good)
2. Stephen Butler
3. James Fry (it was tough, but I choose him over Art Mawhinney for the third spot)

teh worstest!!
1. Many Hands (it's unanimous really. Somebody send out a samurai to execute ALL of his hands for the crimes he's commited to artwork in general)
2. Al Bigley
3. Ron Lim (well he's gotten a bit better, but the fact that we had to put up with him as the main artist issue after issue for so long made the comic painful to look at.)

I have been glancing at this topic on and off. I won't comment on the best/worst because it would not be appropriate for me to do so (a creator should never speak ill of another creator--it's bad karma--and besides, I haven't seen all the issues, so I'd have nothing to base an opinion on).

However, I do want to demystify something for you. Who is Many Hands?

Well, we'll probably never know because it's never the same hands. When you see the name Many Hands in a comic book, it usually means that deadlines were so loused up that it required many different artists (many hands) to get the job done (often) overnight so the book could go to the printer. That's why the work of Many Hands usually looks so rushed--it's more than one artist working under terrible conditions just to get the book out on time. (I know of one truly excellent inker who used to get a bum rap for his work because it often looked so "bad/rushed." What the readers didn't realize is that he would often ink an entire book overnight to bail out an artist or editor when deadlines were blown. No one, no matter how good they are, is going to do their best work under those circumstances. However, when you prove to an editor you can deliver a rush job, you'll keep getting rush jobs. Very few freelancers can afford to turn down work, and when you're a genuinely nice guy as this inker is, you go out of your way to help your editors/fellow artists.)

I just thought you might like to know...

--Joe Edkin

That's very interesting there, Joe; however, I actually think Many Hands is not bad-I've never seen anything bad about it actually. Since I'm here I'll go ahead and put my list:
Best:
1. Spaz
2. Steven Butler
3. Manny Galan(gone but not forgotten)

Worst:
1. Dave Manak(Ever since I first saw him I thought it was really bad I could probably do better-exaggeration)
2. Ron Lim(although he's not that bad)

Spite, I happened to like Many Hand's art, especially in Naugus Games.

I'm curious as to what you guys think of SAM MAXWELL's art.

Quote:

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Spite, I happened to like Many Hand's art, especially in Naugus Games.

---

Ok then. Well to be honest I didn't mind the first few pages of Naugus Games, but the rest just went downhill. And that was when there actually was artwork and not just pages of snowflakes.

As for Sam Maxwell, I forgot all about him XD. He's not bad either, although he wouldn't have made my top three list... definitely a top ten list. Wouldn't mind seeing more of his work again, as it's been awhile. (Sonic #86-87 from memory).

Best:

1. J. Axer
2. Dub
3. Spaz

Worst:

1. RON LIM (uuuggghhhh)
2. The new Dave Manak. Why, Dave, why!?
3. Many Hands

Best:The ones that pleased our eyes..
J.Axer
Many Galan
Spaz
Art
Sam Maxwell

Worst:The ones that hurt them...

Ron Lim-fist

Ken Penders-He's more of a borederline dude, it was cool until he added those muscles, and that God awful crossover...

Frank Strom- ...no comment..

What crossover are you talking about and who's Frank Strom?

I think he's talking about SSS #7(?) the Sonic/Image crossover, and Frank Storm is apparently the one who drew ish #60.

Frank Strom did the story and art for the majority of the Monkey Khan stories, including Khans first story (Sonic #55). I'd say he created Khan, but considering how involved Spaz was with creating characters behind the scenes I can't be certain of that.

Personally I actually like Stroms artwork. I'd even place him above Ron Lim.

Oh the Image crssover... I didn't like that one at all. I was very confused by all the characters I didn't know and thought the people behind that one were on drugs at the time they were writing the story.

You mean Jim Valentino?

First off, Joe you are the coolest writer I know. It really means a lot to me when a busy writer such as yourself takes the time to talk to his fans and listen to them. As my former Theology teacher and the smartest man I have ever met, Mr. Luis Rubio-Losada would always say "Have yourself a cookie..."

Back to the topic at hand...wow...I could have sworn I had posted my list here...Now, at long last, straight from a small, crapped dorm on the beautiful campus of The University of Saint Thomas, located in the equally beautiful city of Saint Paul, Minnesota...Here is Boston's top/bottom 3 StH artists...

TOP 3 Artists
1) J Axer...what can I say, the man has so much skill, it just blows my mind! His attention to detail, along with his beautifully drawn characters make this man my all time favorite...A Girl Named Hope is my favorite piece of his.

2)Spaz...What can I say...the man has done so many covers, it's unbelievable...I put him up here not only because of his covers, but because of the awesome job he did on Metal Madness...

3)Dawn Best...I liked most of her work on the Knuckles side stories...but "Harbinger" from #145 didn't look right...Sonic looked messed up, almost like he was having an allergic reaction to something...

Runners up
Jon Gray, over time I have truly come to appreciate you style...sometimes a little to overblown with the emotions...but still very good!
Steven Butler...I loved his SA adaption...but like everyone, he has his off days...

Worst
1)Ron Lim...if I ever need a reason to cancel my subscription, this is all I need. I've seen so many fan artists who can draw better than him...I might even go as far as saying I'm better than him (that's a really low blow).
2) If I was reading right, Many Hands was the one(s) responsible for the Wolf Pack story, right? If so...wow, no wonder no one took responsibility for it...BURN!
3) Manak...what can I say...yuck

Oh wow. Let's see here.

1. Spaz and Axer are tied. They are just increadible and I can't complain about a thing.
2. Steven Butler and Fry are also tied. I still love their work, but Fry has slipped up a bit.
3.Art Mawhinney. He's just got a very cute style and I love how it reminds me of wht the comic looked like back when it was fairly new.

My least faves:

3. Dawn Best. Although I liked her recent work, she's slipped considerably from the first issue she worked for. I'm hoping she'll correct that soon!
2.Manek. His work is great in Off Panel, but I don't really like seeing it in the main stories. I don't feel like it's a good fit.
1.Many Hands,(SSS 15), and it may be the same guy, but I remember the artist who did the first adaptation of a SatAM
episode in the comic. You know the camping story. Anyhow. It's just... not good. The style is extremely sketchy and messy looking that and he just doesn't seem to be able to draw Sonic well at all!

Honorable mentions for good artists.
Ribiero, Lim(he's improving a bit), and Galan.

No one else stood out enough to mention. =/

First of all, I won't be including Spaz in this since everyone knows how amazing he is. He's great with the covers, consistently good, and I always love when he does stories (Mecha Madness was crAzy).
As for my other best, I'd have to go with:

1) Fry!!! Sooooo glad to have him back. Pure sweetness.
2) Dub!! Woot woot etc. I heard he left though... THAT blows.
3) Butler! Very consistent in the issues I've seen him in recently. He's a good artist to fall back on when you can't get the ones I mentioned above. I like how he's been drawing the characters recently.

Before I dive into the WORST, let me paint you a little picture.
I'd been following Archie Sonic since the SA adaption came around. I looked at any available scans/reviews/summaries of ALL the issues, and I had been lurking at Sonic HQ for quite a while. FINALLY, I figured it was time for me to start getting subscriptions. My first issue: #131. If you have it, open it up to page 1. WTF. Ron Lim's embarassing close-up rendering of Sonic was my first taste of the comic in person.
I could only hope that 132 would be okay, but it was just as awful (art-wise). Even the cover seemed distorted to me. I liked the preview cover much better. ANYWAY:

1) Dave Manak. Stick to the Off-Panel. PLEASE. And don't make any Off-Panel full back-up stories. I'm sorry, but 132 SUCKED. Did you see Rouge in that??? *shudder* Jon Gray's sample art of 132 was MUCHMUCHMUCH more to my liking (check his site)
2) Art Mawhinney or however you spell it. This is an artist used WAY too much lately. I can't stand the way he draws the characters. It makes the comic look like a kindergarden picture book. I've been waiting for him to be phased out ever since I started, but he still continues to exist. I'd be happy if he just stuck to drawing back-up stories, I guess. (You can judge an artist by how he/she draws Rouge hint-hint)
3) Ron Lim. Yes, he is improving a lot lately, but frankly, I don't see how he was given the opportunity to improve. Or even become involved with Sonic. You can't draw for Sonic if you can't even draw Sonic. Don't even get me started on how he draws Hope *cough*hobo-like*cough*

So yeah. I had a rough start in regards with my subscription. I'm still recovering from my exposure to 131, 132, 135, 136, etcetc 150 etcetc. That's probably why I love Butler. He was my saving grace with 133. And why I'm glad to see Fry back.

Top 3:
1.) Spaz (Natch)
2.) Jon Gray (Love his style)
3.) Jim Fry

Bottom 3
1.) Art Mahwinney (Characters look too cute in a bad way. Every time he draws, it's a reminder that I'm reading a children's comic in my 30's.)
2.) Del Rio (I don't like the anime/furry style. This is NOT a furry book.)
3.) Ron Lim (I know he can do alot better than this. I've seen his other work. Thanos looked great! He can draw Shadow and most of the humans pretty good, but why not Sonic? Those horrible side profiles! Those quails that are ten feet long! He seems to do alot better when the character is shown at a slightly off angle (I.E. not straight forward or at it's side.)