Every week How to Love Comics spotlights a comic book artist that should be on your radar. I present you a gallery of their work and then leave you some reading recommendations if you are starving for more. I’ve cleverly titled this Artist of the Week.
This week’s artist is Becky Cloonan! Her art is beautiful, with clean feminine lines which build fantastic amounts of detail which are combined with solid blacks. At the mention of “feminine” you would assume that she would be doing romance-centric titles, but most of her work has been more genre focused – especially in fantasy. She has recently done a handful of titles for DC Comics, where she was the very first female artist on the main Batman title.
Below is a gallery of her work from various points in her career. Enjoy!
Becky Cloonan Reading Recommendations
If you’ve enjoyed this gallery and want to read some of Becky Cloonan’s work here are 3 comics I highly recommend.
Demo
Written by Brian Wood. Art by Becky Cloonan. Published by Dark Horse Comics.
Demo is a series of single issue stories about young people living with supernatural powers. While each story is different, they all focus on the personal experiences of having these powers.
Demo is one of Cloonan’s early major works but you can see plenty of her signature style and what makes her art great. As each story tells a different story and experience, she gets to mix up her style with different kinds of subject matters, characters and powers.
Demo was recently re-released as a single trade paperback collection or available digitally.
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
Written by Shaun Simon and Gerard Way. Art by Becky Cloonan. Published by Dark Horse Comics.
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is a comic book sequel to the final My Chemical Romance album, Danger Days. Written by Shaun Simon and MCR lead Gerard Way, the series follows a group known as the Killjoys as they take on the evil mega-corporation known as “Better Living Industries.”
In this series we see take her style and put it in a post-apocolyptic setting. While the desert settings can be sparse, as deserts usually are, it’s her characters that really shine. With interesting costumes and full of expression, her characters are treat to look at.
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is available in a single trade paperback or digitally. You can check out a preview of issue #1 here.
Demeter
Written and Art by Becky Cloonan. Self Published.
Demeter is one of three stand-alone stories written and self-published by Becky Cloonan back in 2013. This particular story is one of love, loss and secrets hidden under the sea.
The black, white and grey art is absolutely beautiful. Cloonan has used the limited colour palette to put in tremendous amounts of detail on the page. As you would have seen in the gallery, the way she draws water is phenomenal – showing how powerful and all consuming it is.
You can buy Demeter at her online store or for 99c on Comixology.
Check out previous Artists of the Weeks.
Have Your Say
Did you enjoy Becky Cloonan’s art? If so, will you be checking out any of the comics recommended? You can let me know in the comments below or via Facebook or Twitter.
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