Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.59: John Severin

No.59: John Severin

One of the key members of the original EC bullpen, John Severin was an artist who had immense respect from his peers, including Jack Kirby (who gave him his first job at Prize / Crestwood in the late 1940s), for his attention to detail and his virtuoso storytelling techniques. These skills meant that he became one of the most important war and western artists of the 1950s, his work under Bill Gaines and Harvey Kurtzman focusing on books such as Two Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, along with Mad. In many respects his art on the war and western books took you inside the action and period, such was his naturalistic yet clean style. Words: Andrew Colman

Due to differences of opinion between him and Kurtzman, Severin left E.C. in the mid-1950s to join Atlas / Marvel, again specialising on numerous war and western titles, not to mention some horror and humour books. He even did some work for DC in the late 50s. By the 1960s, his main title for Marvel was Sgt Fury, and by the 1970s he gradually moved into other genres for the company, including superhero and sword and sorcery books such as Hulk and Conan, where even his inks brought an otherworldly feel and dynamic.

A highly prolific artist whose work always retained a very high standard, Severin would continue to moonlight at DC in his later years, along with Warren Magazines, a company he had contributed to since its early days in the mid-1960s, again on horror titles such as Creepy and war books such as Blazing Combat. What was also interesting about his post-E.C. career, having been a founding cartoonist on Mad, was his 45 year association with Mad Magazine’s biggest competitor (and some would argue copyist), Cracked Magazine. His outsize and at times faintly surreal artwork proved to be a good fit for humour magazines, to the extent that many non-comic readers would have enjoyed his work over the decades without realizing how significant he was.

Unlike many artists from the pre-Silver Age era, John Severin stuck around, delighting fans for many decades. One of the true greats of the medium.

Here’s links through to the other entries in our 101 Greatest so far as well

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.60: Alex Toth

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.61: Brian Bolland

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.62: David Mazzuchelli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.63 Reed Crandall

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.64 Harry Anderson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.65 Nick Cardy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.66 Matt Wagner

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.67 Bryan Hitch

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.68 Shawn Martinbrough

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.69 Al Feldstein

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.70 Nestor Redondo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.71 Tarpe Mills

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.72 Eduardo Risso

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.73 JH Williams III

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.74 Irv Novick

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.76 Gilbert Shelton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.77 Tommy Lee Edwards

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.78: Sean Phillips

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.80: Dan DeCarlo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.81: Marie Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.82: John Paul Leon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.83: Jim Lee

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.84: Denys Cowan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.85: Ross Andru

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.86: Paul Gustavson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.87: George Evans

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.88: Michael Golden

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.89: Matt Baker

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.90: Todd McFarlane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.91: Fiona Staples

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.92: Carl Barks

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.93: Carmine Infantino

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.94: Alan Davis

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.95: CC Beck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.96: Syd Shores

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.97: Bob Fujitani

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.98: Tim Sale

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.99: Jim Aparo

https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwires-101-greatest-comic-artists-of-all-time-no-100/

https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwires-101-greatest-comic-artists-of-all-time-no-101/