[Batman]

I think the consensus is that folks want to do the "Who would win in a fight?" Showdown next, so I'm getting ahead of myself here. But I'm really looking forward to doing a showdown of comic-book artists. I'm a little concerned that maybe the interest and knowledge level isn't there to support such a thing.

The thing is, though, that if the interest is there, the knowledge level can be fixed. Since it isn't too hard to find gifs of the great comic book artists' best work (or scan things from our collections,) those of us with more knowledge of comic book artists can post cases for our favorites--complete with lots of pretty pictures--all the while this Showdown and the next are going on, so that the knowledge level is higher before we call for nominations.

But there's no point if there isn't a deep enough pool of folks who--even if some are mostly familiar with superheroes via movies and TV--are at least interested enough in participating and/or in the subject of comic book artists that they'd be willing to learn enough about the subject to form an opinion and submit nominees and/or participate in the polls.

So, let me know what you think!

[williamssl]

No knowledge, no interest. Sorry man.

[The Canadian Content]

I'm with Tex. Sorry Serge.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Like I've said before my knowledge comes from cartoons and movies mostly. Maybe you can run a best movie franchise or best movie tourney.

[The Canadian Content]

That's not a bad idea, though the only "franchises" I can think of are Supes, Bats, Spidey, and X-Men. Maybe just an overall "best movie" category? That way Batman Begins doesn't get affected by Batman and Robin.

[williamssl]

Psycho and 'Kid have got a great idea there....it gets my vote for the next "up next"....and (sigh) I'd even be open to running it.

[The Canadian Content]

That's what you get for being a spreadsheet master. Well, that and a pre-emptive exalt.

[Deleted]

I voted for the 8-person tourney. I can probably come up with 4 or 5 of my faves off the top of my head and could find a few more.

[salmonjunkie]

You know what would better for the next showdown? Superhero Ladies. Only Wonder Woman mader our top 16 and she got beat the first round. Let's see what happens when 16 of Marvel and DCs ladies go at each other.

Or 8, if we can't think of 16.

Off the top of my head, let me see if I can think of 8 for each:

Marvel:
Storm
Jean Gray
Psylocke (she sucks, but she'll get on)
She-Hulk
Firestar
Ms. Marvel
Spider-Woman
Black Widow

And there are still Wasp, Rogue, Scarlet Witch... yeah, that's easy

DC:
Wonder Woman
Zatanna
Black Canary
Batgirl
Catwoman
Powergirl
Supergirl
Huntress

and of course, Hawkgirl, Donna Troy, Starfire, Raven...

Let's do this instead of the artists. I've got a lot of knowledge on the artists, but even I have little interest in this. And besides, it will be 4 weeks of OpTard screaming "VOTE GEORGE LOPEZ" out of the top of his lungs, and we don't need to do that to him.

[The Canadian Content]

Sounds good to me.

[Lucky]

I'm cool with Ladies. And I'm cool with doing some kind of TV/Movies thing. If you want to do a "Best Comic Movie", fine, but that seems kind blah to me. A better incarnation strikes me as a more general idea of "Best Media Adaptions." "Batman" includes Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, and the version in all the cartoons. "Spider-Man" is Tobey, that old cartoon, the more recent, and if anyone saw that live action thing way back. "X-Men" would be cartoon and movies. Strikes me as more interesting than just a basic "Best Movie" or "Best Cartoon" thing.

I'd be open to artists thing but I couldn't submit a ballot without an extensive discussion thread. And that runs the high chance of making the vote a formality since Serg and Tard are sure to favor their favorites when "educating" us. To do it fairly we'd need a LOT of time, a LOT of pictures, and a LOT of connections to art we may recognize. ("Who, he drew THAT book? I loved that book!") I'm ALWAYS trying to be more aware of artists and writers and I just never am. So I'd be interested if only to educate me more and get me better at reading the name on the cover and connection things. But I don't know if there are enough folks like me.

If you really want to do I'd suggest goinging and starting a thread right now and filling it with art and names. Do that for a few weeks and see if enough interest spawns out of it to make a vote worthwhile. Because you're going to need one of those threads anyway. If we decide "Yes, we are doing an artists vote" we'd still need to do at least one other vote in the meantime to kill time while educating ourselves (at least presuming we didn't want down time).

[The Canadian Content]

That's a good idea, Lucky. If anyone who's familiar with artists wants to get a thread going, it could spark discussion and wind up leading to a poll. The worst-case scenario would be that anyone who chooses to read the thread would be exposed to some decent art.

[Batman]

All right. I'm going to do it. Since it isn't necessarily going to lead to a Showdown, I'm just going to put it down in the regular Comic Book forum. Even if we never have a "Greatest Comic Book Artists" showdown, the "Great Comic Book Artists" thread could be fun in its own right.

[Batman]

FYI: I posted my first big comic book artist bio, in the non-Showdown part of the comic book forum. Linky.