4.51 avg rating — 2,570 ratings

"01. JUANJO GUARNIDO
This is the book I think every comic lover should read; hardboiled comics noir with two rogue Disney artists at the helm. An effortless Chandler-esque tone and an outsiders view of American culture that makes none of the cliched missteps so many US writers do. But it's Guarnido's art that elevates this beyond kitsch, & into high art. Seriously. Now read it or fuck off. (I'm half-joking... just fuck off. Jk. But while April 1st is April Fool's Day, the holiday for humiliating employees... April Second is April Fool's Day-SQUARED )"

3.93 avg rating — 14 ratings

"02. MEZZO
Mezzo's art is a perfect chiaroscuro & ligne claire fusion that stands alone in contemporary bande dessinee. and very near the top of the yet-unwritten list of the true unsung masters of the comic-medium: the stylized inking of comic auteurs responsible for the rough layouts, finished pencils, and final inked pages... and often handle the story as well.

The fact that many Marvel/DC-centric fans believe 'The Marvel Method' of comic creation is integral to the creative & financial success of the Big-2 is fucking retarded. The MarMeth gave us: 22-page hack-jobs... alienating the best talents for quick-scribbling no-talents, or forcing talented artists to adopt a sketchy, compromised style; the constant & jarring artistic substitutions in the middle of story-arcs; the complete abomination of monthly deadlines & the comic art assembly-line that made brief moments of artistic adequacy a minor miracle.
It turned artists into sub-contractors or salaried workers - with no more legal right to their own work than a Subway 'Sandwich Artist' has to the foot-long Meatball Marinara she just took out of the microwave - A few names in the ledger of BD brilliance have been signed by artists who eschew the traditional India Ink for their medium of choice... while many albums feature watercolor & gouache, the painted coloring almost always comes after the final inked art is completed. Even when greats like Hermann & Moebius do their own coloring - appeasing traditional fan expectations for color work - The Grand Bibliotheque line of massive, over-sized editions combining limited Tirage Luxe/Tirage de Tete & Integrale formatsAnd Only Charles Burns, Killoffer, Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, Hermann Huppen, Dave Cooper, Francois Schuiten, Jordi Bernet, Andre Juillard, "

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings

"03. EDGAR P. JACOBS
These two volumes reproduce every page of the Blake & Mortimer albums by Edgar P. Jacobs, using new high-resolution scans of the original art that are digitally 'cleaned'. It's not an Artist's Edition, but each 11" x 14", 350-page volume feels huge, with very small - less than a half-inch, top & bottom - margins that give you as much artwork as most 12" x 16" Tirage de Luxe tomes. The paper used is fucking incredible, a very thick, dense archival-grade stock with a very fine grain that retains the sharpest resolution & reproduces the 'moonless-midnight-spelunking-with-dead-batteries-Blackest-Blackety-Black with a vibrancy that makes me happy to see, warming my BibliomaniacThe first 2-album story-line include pencil & charcoal shading that is "

4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings

"03. EDGAR P. JACOBS"

4.08 avg rating — 5,844 ratings

"01. JUANJO GUARNIDO"

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings

"02. MEZZO"

4.29 avg rating — 17,877 ratings

"04. HERGÉ
This 12" x 16" HC, which has been an 'oversize' popular among hardcore BD fans - referred to variously by publishers as a '30x40' (centimeters, Les Humanoides Associes), 'Grand Format' (Casterman, for whom BD might signify 'Big Dog', producing this GF ed. of Tintin & or the size associated with the limited run, often signed & numbered 'Tirage de Luxe' - and until recently, far more common in Europe than the US, Canada & UK. Herge's art looks spectacular at this size, allowing the art to breathe between word-balloons that seem clost to bursting with exposition at the standard 9 x 12-inch format. This was a perfect choice, as well, a perennial fan-favorite."

3.92 avg rating — 74 ratings

"04. HERGÉ"

4.34 avg rating — 47 ratings

"04. HERGÉ"

4.33 avg rating — 42 ratings

"04. HERGÉ"

4.19 avg rating — 3,200 ratings

"05. Jean 'MOEBIUS' Giraud
The French deluxe limited edition is more complete than the Dark Horse English edition, including much of the art that will be featured in the forthcoming The Art of Edena, with both volumes part of the long overdue 'Moebius Library'. This now sold-out French Casterman edition has a slipcase made of clear, one-eighth-of-an-inch-thick hard plastic, with silk-screened titles & text, making for a beautiful & truly unique package. The Edena epic is deserving of the treatment, pure Moebius operating at his creative peak, and the best display of the artist's stream-of-consciousness world-building. It's absolutely crazy that the Edena stories remained uncollected until after the artist's death, scattered about in various French & English editions that are mostly out=of-print. While this Casterman Ltd. Edition is something hardcore Moebius fans will love, Dark Horse has done a fantastic job on the English edition; The World of Edena & The Art of Edena will make up a two-volume set that matches the original French version in terms of quality, & will become the definitive Edena edition by including a considerable amount of art excluded by Casterman. "

4.83 avg rating — 6 ratings

"05. Jean 'MOEBIUS' Giraud
These five editions reproduce the original black & white art of Jean 'Moebius' Giraud for Blueberry Tomes 24-28, in an over-sized 12-inch x 16-inch format similar to the IDW 'Artist's Editions'.

This was the final 'Blueberry' cycle, created by Giraud alone after the death of the series writer & co-creator, Jean-Michel Charlier. They represent Giraud's best work, along with the last few 'Blueberry' stories created with Charlier, "

4.83 avg rating — 6 ratings

"05. Jean 'MOEBIUS' Giraud"

4.80 avg rating — 5 ratings

"05. Jean 'MOEBIUS' Giraud"

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings

"05. Jean 'MOEBIUS' Giraud"

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings

"05. Jean 'MOEBIUS' Giraud"

4.15 avg rating — 1,465 ratings

"05. Jean 'MOEBIUS' Giraud"

3.91 avg rating — 33 ratings

"06. HERMANN
The first album, 'Red Dust', is a little raw, but Hermann's renderings of the American Southwest are absolutely spectacular, and by the 3rd story, his unique style begins to coalesce... moving from the strong Giraud influence of 'Red Dust' to something closer to the distinctive, ligne-claire evolution of his later work. The stories are entertaining in the same way 'Rawhide' & 'Bonanza' are entertaining; they're a little darker than American comics of the time, but fairly predictable. It follows the adventures of a young woman named Comanche who owns a cattle ranch. It opens with the arrival of Red Dust, who ends up as Comanche's foreman & protector, taking her side against a mystery buyer attempting to force a sale of the all but bankrupt '666' ranch; Red is - of course - the deadliest of gunfighters, but the enigmatic cowboy isn't for sale. He first appears on the road to town after his horse has died, flagging down the stagecoach, which is occupied by Hondo, one of the killers being assembled by the lawyer working on behalf of the unknown party desperate to acquire Comanche's property. Red intervene's when Hondo is set on killing coach driver Sid Bullock, shooting Hondo dead & assuming his identity to get more information about the plot... after discovering the letter that brought him, and learning about Comanche's situation from a grateful Bullock. He then uses this knowledge, along with his bronc-busting & horse-whispering uber-competence, to win over a suspicious Comanche & her grizzled old foreman Ten Gallon. After murdering a few more people, they're able to acquire food & supplies from the townspeople ordered to starve them out, and acquire actual cattle. From the start, Hermann demonstrates his mastery of pictorial story-telling: he renders the landscape, rustic architecture, clothing, pistols, rifles, horses & cattle & the countless details of the post-Civil War Southwest, with a commitment to realism that oftens comes off as stiff, owing to the use of photo-reference. But while he was still struggling with faces in the first two stories, he could do exact countenances as well as anyone. He was experimenting with a stylized approach that he has fucking nailed by Tome 2: that instantly recognizable wide, flat countenance of Hermann characters - i.e. Red Dust: the wide-spaced eyes, heavy brow, thick, expressive lips & rough-hewn nose -
as well as the countless Set Pieces of 'Bonanza', 'Rawhide', and the king of the hard-boiled westerns 'Gunsmoke'."

3.92 avg rating — 26 ratings

"06. HERMANN
The rough spots are gone by Tome 2, and the black & white art, shot from the original art pages, is amazing. It hit me all at once, seeing the gorgeous work of Hermann reproduced with perfect clarity, that Frank Quitely was profoundly influenced by his style. Everything that seemed anomalous about the art of Frank Quitely suddenly made perfect sense; even if he's forgotten about how deeply Hermann shaped his style, Tome 2 of Comanche completely resolved the mystery of Frank Quitely, without in any way affecting my appreciation for his artistry. It was clear reading Shimura & Missionary Man that Quitely was more influenced by BD than most of the 2000AD artists, who came from an astounding UK tradition forged by singular talents like Frank Hampson, Frank Bellamy, Ron Embleton, Don Lawrence, Joe Colquhoun, Brian Bolland, Garry Leach, Alan Davis, Simon Bisley, Jock, et al. But his unique style seemed to have no obvious precedent, and that is a part of what made his work so intriguing for me. I'm late to realizing the genius of Hermann, but these Niffle Editions are an outstanding place to discover or rediscover his art. "

4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings

"06. HERMANN"

3.50 avg rating — 98 ratings

"07. KILLOFFER
This is my favorite 48 pages of comic art, a display of ligne claire virtuosity that makes me wish Killoffer was far more prolific. "

4.15 avg rating — 102 ratings

"07. KILLOFFER
His magnum opus thus far, another 48-page burst of artistic genius, detailing a surreal & largely silent nightmare of neuroses, narcissism & megalomaniacal conflicts. No one has mastered or balanced ligne claire & chiaroscuro so deftly, not even Mezzo or Charles Burns. There's just not enough of his work, unfortunately."

3.74 avg rating — 3,657 ratings

"08. GEOF DARROW"

3.61 avg rating — 966 ratings

"08. GEOF DARROW"

4.68 avg rating — 72 ratings

"08. GEOF DARROW"

3.02 avg rating — 90 ratings

"09. CHRISTIAN ROSSI
When Charlier & Moebius were having publisher problems with Blueberry, they decided to create another Western title called Jim Cutlass. It was a bit more odd & experimental than Blueberry, with a gambler antihero who indicated the direction both creators were already heading with their massive BD hit. When Jean 'Giraud' Moebius left the title, a young artist named Christian Rossi took the reins, and managed to upstage his mentor & predecessor... the only other time this has happened to Moebius is when Ladronn stepped in to complete Jodorowsky's Final Incal, years after Moebius finished the first volume of 'Apres L'Incal', but decided not to continue... prompting Jodorowsky to retitle & change the story for another Moebius protege in Ladronn, who absolutely nailed every beautifully painted panel. Christian Rossi hasn't reached the same sub-orbital heights of popularity, but Le Coeur des Amazones, with it's monochromatic sepia-colored brush-work, demonstrates that Christian Rossi is one of the greatest artists working in the comics medium, with a unique & instantly recognizable wash, gouache & watercolor application that has lightly impressionistic & slightly stylized realism. This ltd. ed. oversized, 11" x 15" hardcover is well worth the price."

3.62 avg rating — 8 ratings

"09. CHRISTIAN ROSSI"

4.32 avg rating — 138 ratings

"10. ANDRé JUILLARD"

3.97 avg rating — 372 ratings

"11. FRANCOIS SCHUITEN"

4.35 avg rating — 34 ratings

"11. FRANCOIS SCHUITEN"

4.38 avg rating — 61 ratings

"11. FRANCOIS SCHUITEN"

4.17 avg rating — 29 ratings

"11. FRANCOIS SCHUITEN"

3.80 avg rating — 616 ratings

"12. RAFAEL GRAMPá"

3.64 avg rating — 1,121 ratings

"13. LADRöNN"

3.83 avg rating — 1,048 ratings

"14. FREDERIK PEETERS"

4.11 avg rating — 673 ratings

"14. FREDERIK PEETERS"

4.05 avg rating — 521 ratings

"14. FREDERIK PEETERS"

3.86 avg rating — 453 ratings

"14. FREDERIK PEETERS"

4.53 avg rating — 229 ratings

"15. JENS HARDER"

4.35 avg rating — 71 ratings

"15. JENS HARDER"

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 401 ratings

"16. THOMAS OTT"

4.06 avg rating — 1,825 ratings

"16. THOMAS OTT"

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 401 ratings

"16. THOMAS OTT"

3.72 avg rating — 246 ratings

"17. MILO MANARA"

3.72 avg rating — 102 ratings

"17. MILO MANARA"

3.68 avg rating — 119 ratings

"17. MILO MANARA"

4.02 avg rating — 44 ratings

"17. MILO MANARA"

4.09 avg rating — 32 ratings

"17. MILO MANARA"

3.82 avg rating — 17 ratings

"17. MILO MANARA"

4.62 avg rating — 427 ratings

"18. MANU LARCENET"

4.39 avg rating — 807 ratings

"18. MANU LARCENET"

4.50 avg rating — 568 ratings

"18. MANU LARCENET"

4.25 avg rating — 24 ratings

"19. ÉDOUARD COUR"

4.10 avg rating — 150 ratings

"20. PHILIPPE DELABY"

4.12 avg rating — 77 ratings

"20. PHILIPPE DELABY"

3.81 avg rating — 280 ratings

"21. VITTORIO GIARDINO"

4.19 avg rating — 47 ratings

"21. VITTORIO GIARDINO "

4.05 avg rating — 56 ratings

"21. VITTORIO GIARDINO"

3.99 avg rating — 337 ratings

"22. JORDI BERNET"

4.04 avg rating — 179 ratings

"22. JORDI BERNET"

4.05 avg rating — 154 ratings

"22. JORDI BERNET"

4.06 avg rating — 116 ratings

"22. JORDI BERNET"

3.84 avg rating — 100 ratings

"22. JORDI BERNET"

3.62 avg rating — 279 ratings

"23. JOOST SWARTE"

4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings

"23. JOOST SWARTE"

3.92 avg rating — 97 ratings

"24. BLANQUET"

4.44 avg rating — 9 ratings

"24. BLANQUET"

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings

"24. BLANQUET"

3.31 avg rating — 102 ratings

"25. BLUTCH"

3.56 avg rating — 534 ratings

"25. BLUTCH"

3.27 avg rating — 159 ratings

"25. BLUTCH"

4.23 avg rating — 2,608 ratings

"26. JACQUES TARDI"

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings

"27. NICOLAS De CRéCY "

3.35 avg rating — 112 ratings

"27. NICOLAS De CRéCY"

3.89 avg rating — 13,812 ratings

"28. DAVID B.
He should probably be ranked higher; David B. is one of the modern greats, and his artwork is instantly recognizable & absolutely stunning. Most of the artists in the Top 30 could easily be bumped into the top 10, and David B. could make the Top 5. This is his magnum opus, a memoir focusing on his brother's severe epilepsy, and the sometimes shocking, always heartbreaking sacrifices his parents made to find a cure for his violent seizures. The subject matter didn't appeal to me in the least, but the artwork & dry, frank honesty overcame my initial resistance immediately, becoming one of my favorites."

3.83 avg rating — 398 ratings

"28. DAVID B.
Pure fucking brilliance."

4.24 avg rating — 119 ratings

"29. FRANK QUITELY
Great Britain is a part of Europe, Brexit & island status notwithstanding, so Quitely's unique style belongs on the Masers of Euro-art list. Even though most of his work is for US comic publishers lately, this book in particular shows off his Hermann-inspired virtuosity as it evolved over the last couple decades. "

4.08 avg rating — 3,601 ratings

"29. FRANK QUITELY"

4.42 avg rating — 430 ratings

"30. SYLVAIN VALLÉE"

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 7 ratings

"31. OMRE ORHUN
This Turkish scratchboard prodigy is one of exactly 4 masters of this difficult medium who have applied it to the painstaking & time-consuming creation of unforgettable comic art... that I know of. Orhun was a protege of Swiss artist Thomas Ott (#16), whose use of the scratchboard to create his wordless, EC-inspired noir & horror tales was a revelation. Another giant of Euro-comics, Jacques Tardi (#26), experimented with scratchboard for titles like 'The Arctic Marauder', but Ott truly perfected the technique. The last scratchboard master is a Canadian illustrator, Scott McKeon"

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings

"31. OMRE ORHUN"

4.11 avg rating — 2,340 ratings

"32. EDUARDO RISSO"

4.16 avg rating — 1,279 ratings

"32. EDUARDO RISSO"

4.21 avg rating — 1,210 ratings

"32. EDUARDO RISSO"

4.08 avg rating — 798 ratings

"32. EDUARDO RISSO"

4.03 avg rating — 728 ratings

"32. EDUARDO RISSO"

3.67 avg rating — 303 ratings

"33. DAS PASTORAS"

4.11 avg rating — 1,957 ratings

"34. WINSHLUSS"

3.68 avg rating — 388 ratings

"35. JOE DALY "

3.80 avg rating — 209 ratings

"35. JOE DALY "

4.03 avg rating — 144 ratings

"35. JOE DALY"

4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings

"36. LUDOVIC DEBEURME"

4.18 avg rating — 40 ratings

"36. LUDOVIC DEBEURME"

4.02 avg rating — 123 ratings

"37. ROMUALD REUTIMANN"

4.44 avg rating — 55 ratings

"37. ROMUALD REUTIMANN"

2.83 avg rating — 6 ratings

"38. SERGIO PONCHIONE"

3.92 avg rating — 223 ratings

"39. FRANCOIS BOUCQ "

3.96 avg rating — 415 ratings

"40. GEORGES BESS"

4.50 avg rating — 10 ratings

"41. ROSINSKI"

4.80 avg rating — 5 ratings

"41. ROSINSKI"