Artist spotlight : Round 2

Greetings Barragers!

I hope everyone is doing well and the year has been kind to you thus far. It can be a bit lacking some months when you're looking for that next title that catches your eye. Seems like a lot of books are trying to take on the funky anime like titles for their stories to try and ride the manga bandwagon without having to convert mediums. Sadly many of them are falling short. So that's when I fall back to artist scraping and get the covers of my favorite artist no matter the title. More times than not I've been pleased with the purchase but as you see I didn't say always Oo. That said let's jump into a few of my fav's.

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:

JeehYung Lee
Stéphanie Hans
Jeff Dekal

JEEHYUNG LEE ***

No, not Jim, not Jae and not Inhyuk.... Jeehyung. Sadly the same way I use to confuse Jim Lee and Jae Lee back in the day ( Funny enough TL;DR was already a thing, I use to wonder if Jae was Jim's son lol ), I did the same with Jeehyung and Inhyuk.... You think I would have paid better attention when I was asking myself why his art style could change so much. Anyway, I have no issues with Inhyuk at all but Jeehyung is hands down my fav of the Lee's. His detail and ability to capture movement with his art drew me in immediately.

Jeehyung is a comic and video game illustrator born and raised in South Korea. He was the former Art Director and Concept Artist at Netmarble. Netmarble being the creator of big mobile games like Seven Knights and Marvel Future Fights. The later being the birth place of original characters Luna Snow and Sharon Rogers. On his site you can find his original series GUMAA.

NOTABLE KEY BOOKS
Monsters Unleashed #2-5 / Marvel ⋅ 2017 ⋅ Did a 1:25 ratio for each issue. HTF
Gumaa: Beginning of Her #1 / Titan ⋅ 2023 ⋅ His personal title

STEPHANIE HANS ***

In her own words: "Over a decade ago now I specialized myself in comic books cover art. I have worked for all maintream comic books publishers at one point or another but my longuest partnership is with Marvel that I consider a bit like a family. I have stopped counting years ago, when I passed 200. Here are most of them even though I have to admit I took a few out. Every cover has a story, every cover is a story. I can remember most of the places, situations, feelings associated to the creation of each cover. Some are more meaningful than others but I love them all. and I hope you will too."
Official About / Interviews:
https://stephaniehansart.com/index.php/portfolio-comics/

Hans originally started with cover art for French prose literature. Hans attributes her cover for Firestar #1 in 2010 as the work that allowed her to break into the comics market. I don't exactly remember if that Firestar issue was the one that grabbed my attention, but I do own it. :). Something about her colors, kinda water color like, almost like some blur to her art but so clean. Her faces are what got me hooked.

NOTABLE KEY BOOKS
Black Widow #2 / Marvel ⋅ 2010 ⋅ 1:20 HTF
Journey Into Mystery #633,#642 / Marvel ⋅ 2012 ⋅ 1:50 / 1:20 VHTF
Die #1 / Image ⋅ 2018 ⋅ Her personal title

JEFF DEKAL ***

Jeff Dekal is a freelance illustrator who was born and raised in South Florida. Drawing since childhood, the introduction to graffiti while in high school gave the first serious meaning to Jeff’s art and is also where he adopted the alias, Dekal. After being educated about art history in college he was launched into an obsession centered around figurative work. Jeff then began working as an illustrator, drawing album covers for indie musicians and illustrating editorial articles for local newspapers and magazines. He slowly worked his way into the comic industry and has now become a prominent Cover Artist for over a decade. Jeff’s clients include Marvel, DC, Image, BOOM!, AWA and many other independent publishers.
Official About / Interviews:
https://jeffdekal.com

I met Jeff at Heroes Con one year. I had a couple of his books to have him sign and he was just a very chill laid back guy. He didn't have a lot of people around his table so I think he's deff one to watch. His art is so clean, he uses a similar blurred yet detailed feel you get from some of Hans art. Maybe it's my style but his work isn't just a comic cover it's also art. Really fricken impressive.

NOTABLE KEY BOOKS
Forgive me father #2 / Creature Entertainment ⋅ 2016 ⋅ HTF Var
Killmonger #2 / Marvel ⋅ 2018 ⋅ 1:25 HTF
Something is killing the children #8 / BOOM!⋅ 2020 ⋅ 1:25 VHTF
Catwoman #44 / DC ⋅ 2022 ⋅ 1st App of Red Claw

Nuff Said, I hope you'll look into these artists. Buying their work is the only way we ensure they stay around! :)

Cheers!

DD