What's the best fantasy comic art? (in your opinion)

[NickRocks]

Battlechasers was the biggest dicktease ever, the series starts out and it feels so corny and cliche but then halfway through your used to it then it starts getting interesting then IT'S REALLY ****ING GOOD AND YOU'RE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT




and then theres no more issues

[ssss6eight1]

Berserk has the best art of any fantasy comic I've seen (later on, at least; in the beginning it was good, but it went to a completely different level later on).

It really sucks how there aren't very many great fantasy comics... I mean, like, typically a good fantasy series is very long, so, like, because of how a lot of comics aren't guaranteed to last as long as is needed to make the story good, it's understandable why there aren't many, but still...

[SHAMWOW!]

Battlechasers was the biggest dicktease ever, the series starts out and it feels so corny and cliche but then halfway through your used to it then it starts getting interesting then IT'S REALLY ****ING GOOD AND YOU'RE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT




and then theres no more issues

its so much of a dicktease its amazing joe mad didnt draw smallville.

[Paul M.]

These are all great suggestions so far. Don't be afraid to throw some images in as well! I guess I need to give Berserk a try now.

[Inkthinker]

I think modern Miura/Gaga gives Buscema/Alcala a run for it... it's amazing how much intricate line work either team uses.







...but I agree that that at the top of the game Buscema/Alcala is hard to beat.





the only thing that stops me from recommending Berserk to everyone all the time is that it's a graphically violent horror series at the core, with some seriously disturbing visuals (although it's pretty much all in the service of the plot, and the sad thing is that a lot of it is based on historically accurate methods of torture and depictions of demons). It's fine for mature readers, but definitely NOT for anyone with a shred of innocence left in 'em.

[Inkthinker]

Paul, on the topic of reference there's a book that I've found invaluable when doing designs with any level of realism. It's called Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons and it's pretty much what it says on the cover. It's about 400 pages of line work illustrations that show examples of costumes, weapons and armor from the 14th/15th century based on historical examples.

It's just ridiculously comprehensive, showing all sorts of details and has stuff I don't know where I'd find elsewhere, like period horse tack and barding or essays on how and why people wore their clothing certain ways.

I use it as a basis and then extrapolate on the designs to make 'em more interesting, but that historical starting point helps them feel more realistic.

[ssss6eight1]

Here's a bunch of shit from Berserk:





Linked for some gore

[Johnny Blaque]

I'mma have to check some of these out! I'll throw in...

Ral Grad: It's a pretty straightforward series thats only 4 volumes. It's a spinoff or something from the Blue Dragon rpg videogame that came out a few years back but Takeshi Obata's(Deathnote, Bakuman) art makes the whole thing worth reading. Warning though, it is kind of mysogonist with the main character basically groping practically every lady they meet. But the comic has pretty cool designs and amazing action scenes.



Infinite Kung Fu- It's one giant 464 page tome fantasy comic through a 70's kung fu movie lens. Great brushwork and inkwashs.


Elias the Cursed- It's a more traditional fantasy book but with twists like regular animals don't exist, it's all crazy hybrid things or whatever or everyone has this markings on their face that no one ever acknowledges. I got a Krull(movie) vibe from this book.


Katsuya Terada's The Monkey King- It's Terada's adaptation of Journey to the West but with lots of nudity. Maybe it's in the original, I dunno. Looks awesome though. Vol 2 just came out a few months ago but who knows how long we'll be waiting for the next one.


Marvel's ARES is another great one that I'm sure we've all heard of.

[Inkthinker]

Here's a bunch of shit from Berserk:

Aw, I love that fight! And the architecture during that scene was great (it's based on a real location, The Basilica Cistern in Istanbul). In a nutshell (for everyone else), the fellow with the rapier has lured the hero into a place where he thinks the hero'll be at a disadvantage, because the pillars don't give him room to swing that giant sword around. It doesn't work.

One of the things I love about Berserk is that it's the only series I know of where the main character carries around a stupidly huge sword, and almost everyone he meets comments on how it's a stupidly huge sword that should be entirely useless! And yet Miura wrote in an almost reasonable explanation for how this one character makes it work (short version: training since the age of 2 or 3 years old).

[ajkarp]

I agree with the inclusion of Buscema and Frazetta. How about Barry Windsor Smith's Storyteller?