Best Artist

Gavin Hanly: For the moody and cinematic styling of Button Man, I'm going for Frazer Irving and Fiona Staples on Button Man. Given that the work seems "computer painted" I'd be very curious as to how this collaboration worked, since the use of colour was such and important part of the series. But hats off to them both for having to fill the very big shoes of Arthur Ranson, and also managing to completely revitalise the hitman saga along the way.

Adam Crabtree: Can art still be “photo-realistic” when it’s of big, fighty robots? Me no know. What I do know is that Clint Langley’s work on the ABC Warriors looks like it came from another planet, another planet in the distant future, where apes rule and marmosets slave in the underground potassium mines. The graphic equivalent of a subversion tank, you feel like you’re taking in the actual view as stalking “eye-pods” battle Hammerstein ground troops. This is incidental of course, but he also chooses some foxy specimens to model for the female characters...

I’d also like to take this opportunity to shout out the colourists Eva de la Cruz (The 86ers) and Chris Blythe (bloody all-sorts), both of whom bring an extra gravitas to everything they work on.

James Mackay: Clint Langley, by a country mile. Although his humans still fail to convince, a fault inherent in the process of photo-manipulation and probably insuperable, the move to the ABC Warriors has played to his strengths and he’s produced art that has me marvelling over every single detail, tearing open the envelope to see what he’s produced this week, scratching my head to even try to contemplate the hours of work that have gone into every panel. It’d be great to see him on an entirely non-human series: is there any reason that the ABCs have to keep dealing with people all the time? Couldn’t they go to an entirely mechanised universe, or one populated entirely by funky aliens?

Charles Ellis: This is always going to be a tough choice, but I’ll go with Bob Byrne simply because I’m amazed at how he can keep doing stories with so many panels on the page and in total “silence”. Also because of those really creepy monsters! 

Robert Cornell: No contest. It has to be *Clint Langley*. The ABC Warriors started with a jaw-to-floor double spread and has continued throughout both runs. He’s made the strip his own.

Innovative and fun. His robots manage to convey emotion while still looking like robots. And his covers kick ass.

Alex Frith: Ridiculously hard to choose, but no-one has quite caught my breath the way Richard Elson has on Kingdom, particularly the new series begun in Prog 2008. So he's my pick.

Daniel Payne: Based on his story telling, his draftsmanship, and his prime ability to convey emotions in his work, Simon Fraser is the best artist currently working for 2000AD. He will forever be the one artist capable of rendering Dante authentically; it would be nice also to see him illustrating other characters, if scripts to match his talent are available.

Pete McCosh: Despite a ropey Dredd outing, it has to be D’Israeli. From the very first page, back in Prog 2007, Stickleback just blew me away. I hadn’t seen anything as fresh and exciting since, well, since Leviathan by D’Israeli. If I had the time, there are pages I could stare at for hours. The Sistine Chapel of comic strips.

WR Logan: We’ve seen him far too infrequently this year due to being on loan to those thrill-deprived yanks but when his work appears it’s a joy to behold, Henry Flint.

Steven Denton: John Burns painted art has convinced me he’s the artist of the year. You can’t beat a master craftsman at the top of his game and for me that’s where Burns is at the moment. The last 3 pages of Destiny’s child from prog 2008 are as fine a piece of comic art as you are likely to see anywhere produced by any one. Fully painted comics are now a rare treat and one that I for one enjoy. 

Martin Charlton: With Gutsville feeling like a fleshed out Megazine Story, and with the publication of The Frazer Irving Collection & The Simping Detective trades, it’s been a great year for Frazer, before you even factor in Button Man 4.