Who Is Your Favorite TMNT Artist?
 

Thought about putting this in the comic thread and others, but this is just for general discussion (and its entirely subjective).

Who is your favorite turtle artist. There have been an untold number of artists (pros and non-pros) that have drawn the turtles. It can be anybody from the 2 that started it all, the "guests" @ Mirage, the IDW roster or just some random "nobody" on Deviantart.

Go!

I will say I've always preferred Laird to Eastman in storytelling BUT I prefer Eastman to Laird in pinup drawings and one-off sketches. That said, Laird is my favorite turtle artist of all time.

I also love it when Sophie Campbell draws the less cutesy turtles. She has done some stuff that looks Mirage inspired and, my god, that lady can draw. She's wonderful. Also, the entirety of the Northampton arc @ IDW was fantastic, mostly because Sophie's pencils served the introspective nature of that arc so well. That Leo micro too, my god. OTHER IDW standouts: Santolouco kind of became the definitive IDW TMNT artist there for a while and was great as well. And Dan Duncan was what pulled me in. All that said, my fav. IDW artist is KEN GARING. His TMNT issues and pinups are what I want TMNT to be all the time. The guy who did the Fugitoid micro, Paul McCaffrey took my breath away because his drawings reminded me of the 1990 movie for some reason.

Any time the TMNT are drawn to look realistic or dark (like the 1990 movie) I nearly cry because it's so beautiful.

A lot of the guest era at Mirage was lost on me, but Dooney and Lawson are my favorite.

Chris Allan
 

Chris Allan. He did great work with the Archie Comics.

Ben Bates. Take a look.


I actually likes how he depicts Ray, I don't care if it looks almost nothing like how the other artists draw him, his design is far better.

For the IDW comics I really like Mateus Santoloucu and Sophie Campbell artwork.
I grew up with the Archie Comics Turtles Adventures though, so my favorite would be Chris Allans artwork.
I'm also very fond of Jim Lawsons style when he penciled for the Turtles Adventures.

Peter Laird. I could look at his pin-ups all day.

You and me both, pal. Laird's art makes TMNT what it is for me. Any artist that works in his style is gold in my book!

Laird and Lawson, I just love their art.

I think Lawson is an acquired. Like, you get used to his art because you can't make a serious dive into TMNT comics without looking at his art, but I doubt anyone's first response to seeing it wasn't "Why do the Turtles have horsefaces, rectangular shells and oversized muscles? And why are the humans all made of triangles?"

But wasn't that just Jim early on? I mean... his work by at least 1990 wasn't that. I feel like Lawson became influenced by E & L in the way he started drafting. Look at the 1990 TMNT Movie comic. Lawson drew that... and yeah, it was a collaboration but I think by then the quirkiness that you speak of had, if not faded, at least changed for the better.

Michael Dooney, all the way. His cover for the re-print of vol.1 #4 is THE iconic image of the turtles, at least in my subjective view. Eastman and Laird are right up there, but honestly I prefer the art they worked on together over what they put out in their solo issues, so it seems unfair to give the nod to either of them individally. So call them second and third to be determined by a coin flip. Honorable mentions go out to Jim Lawson, Rick Veitch, and Michael Zulli.

Having stopped to think about this, we are really lucky as a fandom to have had so many truly talented artists work on the comics over the years. I named four more artists than the topic asked for, and still feel like I've been cheated for having to choose.

Both Eastman and Lairds work is neck to neck at the top of the list. Next is Ken Mitchroney's work in the Archie publications.

I'm seeing a lot of people liking Jim Lawsons artwork and I just don't get it. I absolutely hate his style. I heavily considered dropping the later issues of the original Mirage series on multiple occasions (pretty much every time a new issue came out) because I thought the artwork was so bad. I only stayed because I didn't want to miss out on the storyline.

Aside from the obvious Eastman/Laird, early 90s Lawson and Dooney will always have special places in my heart. However AC Farley is gonna have to be my pick, his stuff just has so much soul, it really captures the "funk" I feel classic Turtles embodies

My favorite stuff might be Kevin Eastman's painted pieces from back in the day. They really blow me in comparison to some of his non-painted work tbh. I'll try to link some later.