Artist spotlight : Round 1

Greetings once again Barragers,

I hope you're coming into this post after having a wonderful Christmas and News Years break. My goal is to start putting out some post's about artist that I find to be simply amazing. I'm looking to just do some quick notables about the artist and show off some of their work. I know I've been a bit long winded in my previous posts and I won't promise this one will be any different but it's my goal. :) With that said I figured I'd structure this in a manner that I can repeat long term, thus you all will have some insight as to what can be expected moving forward.

Layout for each to include:

About the artist
My brief thoughts / additional insight
Art samples
Possible Investment pieces

The first comic I list for each artist will be the cover/art work that first drew my attention to them. I have such a deep respect for the talent these people have. Remember I only got back into comics again a few years back so this first issue may not be their oldest, first or best work. Simply how I came to follow them.

Artists to be covered this round:

Jonboy Meyers
Francesco Mattina
Joe Madureira

JONBOY MEYERS ***

Jonboy Meyers is a professional comic book artist and illustrator born in Los Angeles, California on September 1, 1973. Known for his work on major titles for DC and Marvel, he has contributed to Venom, Spider-Man, Batman, Teen Titans Rebirth, and Spawn, often focusing on cover art. He also worked on the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and projects like Generator Rex and Marvel Snap.
Official About / Interviews:
https://jonboymeyers.com/pages/about-jonboy-meyers
https://dccomicsnews.com/2016/09/06/dcn-exclusive-interview-jonboy-meyers/

I've always been drawn to his work, his backgrounds and surrounding effects really make his images pop out. I looked back at his old spawn work and you can deff see these elaborative effects have always been his strength, as his career has progressed his characters have deff become just as stunning. He's got such a great grasp of depth and motion.

NOTABLE KEY BOOKS
Ame-Comi Girls #4 / DC ⋅ 2013
Teen Titans Annual #2 / DC ⋅ 2016
Venom #27 / Error ⋅ Marvel ⋅ 2020
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin #5 / Web Exclusive ⋅ IDW ⋅ 2022
Shadow War: Alpha #1 / DC ⋅ 2022
Cobra Commander #1 / 1:100 (spoiler var) ⋅ Image ⋅ 2024

FRANCESCO MATTINA ***

Francesco Mattina (born May 23, 1979) is a prominent Italian digital cover artist and illustrator known for his cinematic, detailed work for Marvel and DC Comics, including Spawn, Venom, Spider-Man 2099, and Batman. Based in Italy, he has also created promotional art for Marvel Studios films and taught at the Scuola Internazionale di Comics.

Controversies
1) Plagiarism and Tracing Allegations: Over his career, Mattina has been repeatedly accused of tracing the work of other artists, including Ian McDonald, Ji Hung Lee, and others.
2) AI Controversy: In 2024, DC Comics withdrew a cover for Action Comics #1069 after it was found to contain AI-related visual glitches, resulting in the cancellation of his pending work.

One of Mattina's AI GEN Art work OOPS. The lower S has a double end, the bottom of the insignia looks to not be attached to the chest. AI hallucinations: are when a large language model (LLM) perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent, creating nonsensical or inaccurate outputs.

Like him or hate him, given his art being questioned in terms of genuinely being all of his own creation or not. Mattina has been putting out awesome covers for a while now. I mean there is still some level of imagination required to lay out a design for an amazing cover. Tracing others images or using AI, it would be a small portion of the final output BUT deff sketchy when you critique others work and deny said accusations. However you receive this, I figure him being in the news for AI usage and being penalized for his actions lead me to wonder why other artists that I'm pretty sure are using AI generations for thier artwork are still flying under the radar. Seems DC and Marvel have taken hard stances against their artists submitting AI created work.

https://www.firstcomicsnews.com/marvel-and-dc-take-a-united-stand-against-ai-art/

Other artists that I think are totes SUS for using AI. Look at the pink coloration at the flex points, odd dimplege on the elbow.
(DONT HATE ON ME IM JUST SAYIN!!! - prove me wrong): Some details AI generated images just like to add certain details.
I own covers from both these guys so... go compare samples for yourself: https://civitai.com/images?tags=4

Back to Mattina:

NOTABLE KEY BOOKS
Spawn #293 / Image ⋅ 2019
Spawn #309 / Image ⋅ 2020
Spawn #316 / Image ⋅ 2021
Spawn #362 / Image ⋅ 2025
Spider-Man 2099 #4 / Marvel ⋅ 2014
Spider-Man 2099 #5 / Marvel ⋅ 2016
Spider-Man 2099 #23 / Marvel ⋅ 2017
Edge of Venomverse #1 / Marvel ⋅ 2017
Edge of Venomverse #3 / Marvel ⋅ 2019
Star Wars: Darth Vader #6 / Marvel ⋅ 2017
Venomverse: War Stories #1 / Marvel ⋅ 2017

JOE MADUREIRA (My personal favorite of favorites) ***

Joe Madureira (born December 1974), known as "Joe Mad," is an influential American comic book artist and video game designer acclaimed for blending Western style with Japanese manga influences. He gained fame for his work on Marvel's Uncanny X-Men (1994–1997) and his creator-owned series, Battle Chasers. He later co-founded Vigil Games (Darksiders) and Airship Syndicate.

Early Life and Career:

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Madureira began his career as a teenager, securing an internship at Marvel Comics while attending the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. At age 16, he began contributing to Marvel Comics Presents, and by age 17, he was working on Excalibur and Deadpool.

Hands down my favorite artist. When I read a comic book I want to know it's a comic book, make the art too realistic and its more apt to lose some of the reality stretch you can get away with in a comic book. Joe Mad's blend of classic comic art and anime is spot on for me, even better he draws some of the best waifus... I first came across his work when I read his Battle Chasers series. When I was just getting back into collecting I was after early J Scott Campbell stuff and was looking into Cliffhanger titles. Madureira and Ramos being the other 2 main contributors to the Cliffhanger lineup. I then started to see Joe's X-men books etc and I just started picking up his work. When I learned he had games out with his art style... I've been all in playing those. I'm currently in the middle of playing Wayfinder, I was about 3/4 the way through Battle Chasers Nightwar when I made the move from PS4 to PS5 and lost my save data. Red Monika will forever be my comic book crush, being able to play a game that gave some character depth to her and the other Battle Chaser cast was awesome. I deff suggest looking into any of the games he has a hand on (Battle Chasers: Nightwar / Ruined King (very similar), Darksiders, Wayfinder).

https://www.airshipsyndicate.com

Notable mention website for its Joe Mad support! : https://www.joemadart.com

NOTABLE KEY BOOKS
Deadpool: The Circle Chase #1 / Newsstand ⋅ Marvel ⋅ 1993
Battle Chasers #1 / Gold ⋅ Image ⋅ 1998
Marvel Comics Presents #89 / Marvel ⋅ 1991
X-Men: Alpha #1 / Marvel ⋅ 1995
Gargoyles #1 / Marvel ⋅ 1995
Darkstalkers #1 / Foil ⋅ Udon ⋅ 2005
Venom: Dark Origin #3 / Marvel ⋅ 2008
Inhuman #1 / Marvel ⋅ 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy #2 / 1:200 ⋅ Marvel ⋅ 2013 (So dope!)

Nuff said, I hope everyone has gotten off to a wonderful start to the new year!

Respectfully,

DD