Writers:
Greg Rucka- I just read his 'Detective Comics' Batwoman run and was so impressed. He readily handled all kinds of things, including an origin story (such treacherous waters for most writers) of a red-headed lesbian jew without making her a) tied to the holocaust in some silly trying-too- hard way. She's just Jewish, you know, like most other jews. Or b) making her a hooker (Catwoman bit this one HARD, to my everlasting nausea*) or dominatrix or high class call girl who gets involved with the mob and has to become a vigilante to revenge her secret lady-lover who walked in on her servicing the mob boss and got killed for it, or some other dumb ass women-in-comics plot.
*[edit- I just looked up the Catwoman dirty ho thing and - shoulda guessed- it was Frank Miller who wrote her that way. Fuck I hate that guy. And now I know that I've hated him since I was fifteen. If I ever write a 'comic book makers I loathe' list, he is at the very top. Seriously he made CATWOMAN A DIRTY HOOKER. Not dirty like, it's a possibly unhealthy and demeaning profession, dirty like, filthy bedding and curtains with holes and cockroaches running around and including, oh yes, A PIMP. He gave CATWOMAN, one of the most independent, iconoclastic, smart, strong women IN THE BIZ a mothereffing pimp and made her a cheap ass 'ho. Because a woman with that many admirable qualities could OF COURSE only think of one way to survive poverty and achieve upward mobility in life. I haven't read that comic in over ten years and that scene is STILL burned into my brain, so great was my righteous outrage.]
Mike Carey- I've read quite a few of his 'Lucifer' books, and he's one of the only writers I've seen who writes a god-type character in a way that seems... god-ish. When he fights someone, it's not just two guys who can destroy continents hitting each other with their fists. It's always way more interesting than that, and much closer to how I imagine ultra powerful, intelligent and long-lived beings would fight. I also read his Hellblazer book, 'All His Engines' and though I'm not familiar with the Constantine character, I liked his take on it, at least. Again, I liked his sideways approach to magic and god-creatures. It doesn't have to just be fireballs blasting against each other.
Artists:
J.H. Williams- He also participated in that wonderful 'Detective Comics' Batwoman run, and ohmygod can women always be portrayed like this in comics please? Yes she's beautiful and sexy but she never comes across as coquettish or sexually manipulative in the way comic women are drawn so frequently it's practically a default setting. She has a face! With complicated expressions, and body language, and appropriate clothing! Yep, she can be super sexy in lingerie for her lover, but she can also wear sweats without her g-string hanging off of her cocked hips and her shirt falling off of her shoulders while magically also straining against her breasts.
I didn't know this until just now, but apparently Williams also drew the epic 'Promethea', and now that I know I can't believe I didn't put that together sooner.
Hiroaki Samura- Get this: Manga, that most cartoonish of comic art, drawn realistically. What? How is that even possible? Add to that one of the neatest rogues galleries ever created, fight scenes that range from thuggishly brutal to horrifically grotesque to absolutely, lyrically, graceful (pretty much all of Makie's fights, god she's cool). Fighting styles for each of the characters that befits their personality, size, gender and background (what other artist do you know of that puts that amount of thought into it?) AND someone who can draw scenes of repose, recreation, or emotional complexity with the same degree of mastery. Truly a perfect storm of awesome.
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