So I've just been getting into Batman comics for the first time in over 40 years, and I have really been enjoying the character. What I've noticed is that the art by Neil Adams and Jim Aparo really stands out from the other artists I've read, and it seems to be the standard by which other Bat artists are judged.

Right now I'm leaning towards Jim Aparo, but Neil Adams' work was stellar. Especially with Dick Giordano inking. It's just a shame that Adams didn't do more. Aparo did a TON of work on Batman, but Adams just did sporadic issues. Adams wasn't exactly known as a workaholic...

But that got me thinking, who are YOUR favorite Batman artists? Is it Adams or Aparo? Miller? Someone else?

I like Aparo the most, as it's the Batman I grew up with but also, his pencils are so clean. Still, I love Garcia-Lopez's Batman. I also like Jim Lee and Scott Williams pre-New 52 Batman, which is the look for the newer generation.

I lean toward the Batman of my childhood by splitting it between Aparo and Adams.

I would probably pick Adams with Giordano inking, but his lack of productivity really knocks him down a peg. I think the longest run he had with any Bat title was 3 issues in a row.

If Adams had done another couple dozen issues between Batman, Detective Comics, and The Brave and the Bold I'd pick Adams. But he didn't, and Aparo's art was outstanding, so that's why I lean towards Aparo.

Now, I haven't seen much of the post mid 80's Batman art, so I couldn't tell you anything about recent Bat artsits.

I am pretty much overjoyed right now to see so many people saying Jim Aparo. That's what I came in to respond with as well (as much as I love Neal Adams' and Alan Davis' work, and even though the Batman I envision by default is Norm Breyfogle's).

Neal Adams and Jim Aparo are my favorite Batman artists. I have all their work in regards to the character but Marshall Roger's version to me is the definitive version. His interpretation of the GA Batman in a modern 70's setting is perfect. I also love Don Newton's version. He was so underrated.

There was an artist named Vin Amendola. She drew Detective #439. She only did the one issue but it was fantastic. It was a cross between Adams and Aparo art styles. Too bad she
only did that one issue with Dick Giordano inking. Worth checking out.

Vin was the wife of Sal Amendola.
Sal was one of the instructors at Kubert and he also did one of my favorite Batman issues.



I grew up buying Neal Adams' and Jim Aparo issues out of the spinner racks, so that was the gold standard I judged all other batman artists by.
However, Sal's work in this one issue was so bizarre and freaky, in some ways even ugly, that I kept coming back to it over and over. Eventually I realized it was just kind of awesome and perfectly fit the character and the story (Batman getting dosed with fear gas and briefly losing his marbles).

Also, as much as a fan I was of A&A, when I saw Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez do an issue of Batman, then just a short while later do the Batman/Hulk team-up treasury, that was it. He had already blown me away with the one Superman book I saw him do a couple years earlier and now the Hulk/Batman work was all kinds of bad ass. He's been my favorite, steadily working, modern comic artist ever since. Not just great figure work, but a fully solid sequential storyteller.
He didn't do a lot of Batman, but what he did was every bit as good as the best that's ever been done.

A bit off topic but speaking of Batman artists did anyone else buy any of the Detective Comics 1000 variants? I had sort of forgot and went browsing on eBay tonight since I don't have a local shop. Picked up the 1940s and 1950s variants. Pain in the ass posting images here now.

I bought all the decades variants (1930 to 2010), Jim Lee regular cover and the Midnight release cover.

Easily Neal Adams. He turned Batman from a cartoony drawing most of the time to a visually slick crimefighter. I actually don't like his Superman as much.

What's funny however is that I always think of Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez's character designs for Batman when imagining the character in my mind. I'm a sucker for his clean lines and classic designs made in DC's early 80's style guide. Those designs were imprinted on my brain at a very impressionable age.

Jim Aparo
Norm Breyfogle
Alan Davis

Aparo
Breyfogle
Mazzucchelli

Aparo
Breyfogle
Lee

1. Jim Lee
His work on Hush and ASB&R was amazing.
2. Kelley Jones
His run with Doug Moench recaptured the atmospheric elements of the earliest Detective Comics stories.
3. Norm Breyfogle
The sleekest, stylized Batman I've ever scene.
4. Dick Sprang
This guy's work was Golden Age perfection.
5. Matt Wagner
The LOTDK "Faces" story, and Grendel/Batman I and II are a pleasure to look at, as well as read. His work has gotten a little flat since then, but he made an impression early on.

And Brian Bolland draws the definitive Batman in my opinion, but he never illustrated a run of Batman comics. He's only done "The Killing Joke", a Batman Black & White story, and I think Batman #400

Sale

Jim Lee

Tim Sale

"Old School" Neal Adams.
Marshall Rogers

Jim Lee