Comparing Artists - Jack Kirby, Tyler Stout, Bill Sienkiewicz

Today I am going to compare three artists; Jack Kirby, Tyler Stout, Bill Sienkiewicz. I have chosen to compare these artiats because they are all comic book illustrators (and because I'm a complete comic book geek!!!) and they design cinematic posters.

All these artists have done simular projects, working for different companies and industries, but each has their own style.

Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 - February 6, 1994), born Jacob Kutzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor. He entered the comics idustustry in the 1930's. He drew various comic strips under different pen names, ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. He  is a bit of a legend in the world of comic book illustrators. He helped create Captain America in 1941, but his main creations were the characters he created with Stan Lee for Marvel comics in the early 1960s: the Hulk, Thor, the Fantastic 4, the Silver Surfer, the X-Men, the Avengers and many more.

In 1987, Kirby, along with Carl Barks and Will Eisner, was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

This image from http://semantink.com/wordpress/2009/11/22/spotlight-x-men/

In his artwork he uses alot of colour to shade and tone, making his work look very realistic and dramatic.

Tyler Stout was born and raised in Washington State. He uses a limited amount of colours to his artwork  and this helps you to view the intricate - almost etched – detail. Some of its realistic, some of its cartoonish.

This is different from the style Jack kirby uses, because he uses bold colours to build up his pictures, whereas Stout designs are etchy.

He has worked on projects such as; Captain America, Kill Bill, Let The Right One In, Iron Man and my favourite, Star Wars.

This image is taken from http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/01/08/more-fantastic-star-wars-poster-prints-by-tyler-stout/

 

My last artist is Bill Sienkiewicz (born Mat 3, 1958) is an Eisner Award-winning American artist and writer for his comic book work, such as for Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin. He often uses oil painting, collage, mimeograph and other forms uncommon in comic books. Just like his Illustrations, he has a very poster like style of layout.
He has worked for many Hollywood movies and has translated some classic stories into sequential artwork.

This image is taken from http://www.billsienkiewiczart.com/gallery.asp?sc=BSELm&page=1

All these artists has a a simular poster like style layout, but each one has a different way of portraying their outcome.  Out of all the illustrators Kirby has the most realistic and professional style. I particually like Sienkiewicz's work because he uses different techniques to most comic artists, making his work more unique and stand out.

Something that I have noticed which is simular, is Jack Kirby and Tyler Stout have done mostly the same chararcters and taken part in the same projects, but for different companies. A story that is the same they have both taken part in is Captain America and all three artists have all done their own concept of Iron Man, but even though they are the same, each artist has his own unique and individual approach towards the subject. For example, the use of colour and tones and shadows, how the images are drawn - thick and thin lines, cartoony, sketched drawings - and also what techniques they have used. Most comic artists, use inks and pens, this is the same for Jack Kirby and Tyler Stout, but Bill Sienkiewicz uses oil painting, collage, stencils etc.