In my folder of questions submitted for me to answer under this heading, I have a number asking me to name the folks I think are the ten — or twenty or some other number — all-time Best Comic Book Artists. I see such lists all over the Internet and most of them strike me as having been made up by folks who think "comic books" are only super-hero and adventure in nature and who couldn't properly place the great illustrators of Disney or "funny animal" comics on such a list because they've never heard of any of them except (maybe) Carl Barks and (even less likely) Warren Kremer. Some of them don't even seem to think that Archie Comics or Harvey Comics or Dell Comics about ducks even qualify as "comic books."
I'll grant you that some of artists who I think are being overlooked did their best work in comics that didn't have credits. The late Harvey Eisenberg was as good at drawing Tom & Jerry or Hanna-Barbera comics (or others) as John Buscema was at drawing Conan or Gil Kane was at drawing the eighty zillion different comics Gil Kane drew. But an awful lot of people reading this don't know who Harvey Eisenberg was.
Or Pete Alvarado or Kay Wright or Owen Fitzgerald or Jack Manning or Howie Post or Dan DeCarlo or Marty Taras or John Carey or…well, it's a long list.
I'm not saying you have to know all those names but don't pretend you're an expert on comics when you're only an expert on some kinds of them. Imagine someone compiling their list of "The Fifty Greatest Sports Athletes of All Time" and it's only baseball players.
The term "comic books" includes books that are comical. When E.C. Comics was at its peak, one Dell comic book — Walt Disney's Comics and Stories — was outselling all the E.C. Comics collectively published in a month and I think there was greatness in its pages.
I have some serialized topics I'm behind on. When I finish them, I'm going to start spotlighting some of those writers and artists on this blog. I know there are a lot of folks out there who feel the same way I do; that you don't have to draw super-heroes to be a great comic book artist. I may invite some of you to assist me.