Favorite Comic Artists Countdown #23 - Walt Simonson!

What can you say about Walt Simonson other than his style is fresh and potent and he's proven over the decades to be a reliable storyteller. I fell under Mr. Simonson's sway in an issue of Detective Comics which sought to bring a fresh look and feel to the venerable comic under the editorial guidance of Archie Goodwin. Goodwin was also the writer of the back-up feature, a revival of a classic Simon and Kirby Golden Age hero called Manhunter. This Manhunter though was thoroughly modern is feel and presentation. Simonson was limited in his pages and the story felt at times like reading through a microscope. But it left its mark and Walt Simonson then became a reliable talent at both DC like a story in Sword of Sorcery and Marvel with Battlestar Gallactica, but it was at the latter company that his most famous stroke came when given the reins of the weary Thor comic, he shook up the concept by blasting apart the logo and introducing a new weieder of the Uru Hammer, an alien named Beta Ray Bill of all things. Simonson's run on Thor became rightly legendary and he became the artist most responsible for its success aside from the great Kirby. Simonson then took a project here and there, sometimes as a writer, sometimes as an artist, and often as both. He revived the New Gods yet again but with a real verve. He has become now one of the old beards of the comics art community, but he got there by dint of some mighty fine work. Oh and I love that his signature is also a little dinosaur.

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