Humanity hates and fears the X-Men in the Marvel Universe. In the real world, the genetically superpowered heroes have enjoyed incredible visual interpretations over the last 50 years. Let’s take a look at the artists who’ve done the most iconic versions of the Children of the Atom.
Neal Adams
Probably best known for his work on Batman, Adams’ stint on X-Men was an important early step on his way to becoming a superstar artist. His run on the teenage mutants made them feel desperate and dynamic in a way that they’d never been rendered before, as well as introducing new characters like Havok and Polaris.
Paul Smith
This master artist gave life to an exceptionally great period of X-Men comics, one where Storm become leader of the subterranean Morlocks and Kitty Pryde became best friends with a pet-sized firebreathing dragon. Smith’s smooth linework proved to be a perfect match for the soap opera elements of the mutant superhero franchise, which were in full bloom during the 1980s.
Dave Cockrum
If you love X-Men like Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm, then you have the late Dave Cockrum to thank. The artist created these characters and many more during his run, which started off with the series’ first major shake-up. Cockrum helped introduce an international line-up that also included Wolverine, Banshee and Thunderbird. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine X-Men as a title that’s ever had a creative slump, but Cockrum was a big part of what helped it find new life.
John Byrne
Classic storylines like the Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past are one of the reasons John Byrne became a comic-book legend. He did more than art, co-plotting the series with longtime writer Chris Claremont and creating characters like Kitty Pryde and Canadian super-team Alpha Flight during his tenure.
Marc Silvestri
There’s something simultaneously gritty and high-energy about Silvestri’s artwork, which fuelled popular arcs like Inferno and Fall of the Mutants. His first tour of duty with the X-Men was in the 1980s and 1990s but he’s peroidically returned for high-profile stints.
Jim Lee
If mutants are supposed to be the next step in human evolution, Jim Lee’s one of the artists that excelled at making them look like advanced, near-perfect lifeforms. His style’s change a bit since his 1990s tenure at Xavier’s but even his early work shows the strong figurework and dramatic staging that would make him a highly sought-after creator for decades to come.
Bill Sienkiewicz
Most famous for a trippy, psychedelic run on New Mutants — which featured younger, inexperienced heroes at the X-Men’s school — Sienkiewicz’s unique style looked like nothing else in superhero comics at the time.
Larry Stroman
Stroman spent time as a portrait artist before his comics career kicked off and his special affinity for capturing the emotions of the human face made a run on X-Factor feel particularly special. During his partnership with writer Peter David, X-Factor felt like a glitzy, quasi-celeb take on what it means to be Homo Superior in the Marvel Universe.
Frank Quitely
Grant Morrison’s bold re-invention of Marvel’s mutant franchise in 2001 simply wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t reunited with frequent partner Frank Quitely. Quitely made Charles Xavier, Scott Summers and the other team members at the time feel like true outsiders, creating a cool, aloof and slightly off-center tone that the long-running series hadn’t enjoyed for decades.
Chris Bachalo
A fan favourite for more than 20 years, Bachalo’s style merges a loopy manga influence with strong inky outlines for an approach that feels funny, manic and threatening all at once. His work on Generation X helped make that series an X-family highlight in the 1990s and he’s returned several times since then to work various mutant-centric titles.
Joe Maduiera
Familiar to video game fans as one of the primary creative forces behind the late, lamented Darksiders series, Madueira helped re-invent the visual style of the entire X-Men universe as one of the chief artists during the Age of Apocalypse crossover. His takes of Cyclops, Wolverine, Bishop, and other characters made the twisted alternate universe feel like must-read material.
Mike Del Mundo
Though his work on the X-Men franchise primarily consists of covers for volume 2 of X-Men Legacy, Del Mundo’s unique visual approach made that book’s brief run stand out from nearly anything else with an X on the front.
Alan Davis
Stints on both the mainline X-Men books and the UK-based Excalibur spin-off endeared Davis to comics readers back in the day. His curvy, rounded figurework always looks attractive, no matter what kind of action or emotion he’s putting across.
John Cassaday
One of the best latter-day runs on Marvel’s mutants came in the form of Astonishing X-Men, written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon and drawn by Cassaday. His art made the drama of resurrected characters, evil emergent AI villains and sci-fi adventures feel relatable for people who can’t shoot lasers out of their eyes.
Art Adams
The energy found in Adams’ version of the X-Men set fans on fire when he first started drawing them in the 1980s. Along with his co-creation of breakout character Longshot, his tight pencils, melodramatic poses and unique body types made Cyclops and crew feel totally re-invented.
Stuart Immomen
Drawing characters who debuted in 1963 for a 21st century audience is a tough job. Having them look and feel like the same teenagers created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby is even tougher. But Stuart Immomen’s proven more than capable of doing both, with an excellent, recently ended run on All-New X-Men that brought the original five students of Professor Xavier into the present day.
Olivier Coipel
Copiel’s drawn many of Marvel’s top characters as a mainstay of the Avengers and X-Men creative stables, bringing a highly-honed European comics approach to American superheroics. You can see some of his best stuff — including excellent costume re-designs — in the recent Avengers vs. X-Men crossover.
Clayton Crain
Rarely has an artist’s style felt so appropriate to a book’s tone and subject matter as it did during Clayton Crain’s time on X-Force. This version of X-Force was a secret black ops strike team that sometimes used deadly force and Crain made some of these familiar characters feel darker and more lethal than they ever had before.
Mike Choi
If you’ve ever wanted the X-Men to feel like they have stepped out of a glossy, high-end CGI anime movie or video game, then you’ve probably already seen Mike Choi’s art.
Barry Windsor-Smith
He hasn’t done as long a run as other artists on this list but Windsor-Smith’s draftsmanship and design sense made his early 1980s run on Uncanny X-Men one for the ages. Amongst the best issues are ones featuring a brutal brawl between Sabretooth and Wolverine and the Lifedeath stories which focused on Storm’s crisis of faith after losing her powers. Windsor-Smith’s closest association with the X-Men was the epic-length Weapon X series which detailed Wolverine’s days as a brainwashed killing machine.
Comments
17 responses to “The 20 Best X-Men Artists”
Interesting list, great artists all no doubt. I would add the Kubert brothers Andy & Adam for their various x-works over the last few decades.
I love Adam Kubert…he’s a terrific storyteller.
I also would’ve put Joe Quesada himself on this list. His run on X-Factor written by Peter David was v exciting, especially issue 87. Larry Stroman is great, but I would’ve said Quesada before him.
Chris Bachalo’s would be a ton better if he didn’t do his own colours.
He can be a mess. My favourite of his work is Death with Neil Gaiman.
Clean, easy to read artwork.
And stil very much his own signature style.
He has a really good style, too. Imagine how great his art could be with Marvel if it wasn’t that muddy orange-tinted everything.
It isn’t the colours that hurt his stuff imho, it’s the readability. Sometimes I don’t know what’s going on or which panel is next.
I haven’t read him for a while now, so he could have gone further backwards, this is true.
Good to see Joe Mad made the list.
Im a big fan of Joe Mad (who isnt) but looking back at his work now it feels very 90’s when everything was “extreme and to the max!”
But then again I liked what he did with Savage Wolverine a couple of years ago with Spidey and Elektra.
I havent been reading Inhuman, so I dont know what hes doing there.
His Savage Wolverine stuff was so good, I love those covers.
ALAN DAVIS!
Back in the day, he was definitely my favourite artist. I am rather partial to Olivier Coipel’s style too.
He’s always gonna be my fave superhero artist. Coipel is great.
90’s Jim Lee sums up my experiences with comics. Fond, fond memories.
I feel like at least one of the Kuberts should have made this list…
As soon as I read the title I instantly through of Clayton Crain’s run on X-force.
Every frame was like a dark brooding oil painting. It was artwork perfection. Hat tip to the colourist and inker too.
I loved how everything didn’t have a black outline which stopped the pages looking like comics and more like paintings.
And, although I wasn’t a fan at first, I really like Chris Bachalo current run on Uncanny X-Men. Even though he’s been around for years his style looks very fresh and modern for today’s comics.
Man, I bloody love Mike Del Mundo’s covers, not only are they pretty but they are also weird and visually interesting.
Joe Mad’s art is something I always love seeing, I think his X-men stuff was some of the first comic stuff I really saw and enjoyed looking at.
Bachalo is doing some great stuff on Uncanny X-men at the moment as well.
Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, the Kuberts.
Hmm I would have picked Whilce Portacio over Larry Stroman. Anyway, de gustibus non est disputandum.