Best Art Ever

September 16th should become some kind of comic national holiday because it’s the birthday of both Mike Mignola and Kurt Busiek, and as far as making quality comics goes, that is one heck of a dynamic duo. Today is Busiek’s 55th birthday, and this month marks the 20th anniversary of Busiek’s ongoing masterpiece with Alex Ross and Brent Anderson; Astro City. In celebration, we’ve compiled a collection of some of Ross’ best covers to showcase how the world of Astro City has changed over the years.

Today is Mike Mignola’s 55th birthday, and that’s the perfect excuse to look back at a comic and illustration career that spans back to the 1980s. There’s a reason Mignola’s art has not only captivated comic readers for years, but also attracted the attention of Hollywood, where his designs and aesthetics have been applied to both animation and live action. Mignola’s style is deceptively simple, but there is a beautiful elegance in that simplicity, even when manifests in the ugliness of some demon or nightmare creature. There is a mastery in every line and scratch he puts on a skull or statue or monster.

With last week’s announcement of Pokémon Go for iOS and Android mobile devices, once and future trainers all over the internet have been given a new reason to be abuzz with excitement about the prospect of once again catching them all. That's why we've put together this gallery of outstanding Pokémon art!

I’ve done a number of these “Best Art Ever” galleries now, and I can say, without hesitation, that this one was the hardest to put together by far. By far. Not because it was difficult scrounging up enough cool art to fill a gallery, but because there was enough amazing art to fill a hundred galleries! I swear, there are people on DeviantArt who draw nothing but Sailor Moon. People who have page after page of fantastic fanart dedicated to ol’ Meatball Head and her friends and enemies. It’s ludicrous how many great takes and redesigns and re-imaginings there are out there, and I know there were probably so, so, so many that I never even saw.

Since it’s debut on Cartoon Network in 2010 (or as a six minute pilot on the Nicktoons network in 2007, if you want to get really “um, actually” about it), Adventure Time with Finn and Jake has shown us just how much fun a human boy and his talking, shapeshifting dog can have. The show's mix of Dungeons & Dragons style fantasy escapades, bizarre surrealism, and low-key, dialogue-driven comedy made it an immediate hit with viewers of all ages. It goes without saying that the show's inseparable best friends go on adventures (at a specific time that has been set aside for it, if the title is to be believed), but the show has proven to be about so much more than just adventure.

In August of 1993, the immortal words “It’s Morphin’ Time!” were first broadcast to an unsuspecting public on the Fox network. More than twenty years later, it is apparently still time to morph, because the Power Rangers are poised on the precipice of another pop-culture explosion thanks to the upcoming comic series and third major movie. To celebrate this enduring pop culture phenomenon, we've compiled a gallery of art inspired by the show’s earliest incarnation, along with some great ideas for redesigns and updates of the classic characters.

Check out this gallery of some of the greats in Terminator comic art (such as Simon Bisley and Paul Gulacy), a few famous Terminator lovers (Dan Hipp and Brandon Graham, to name two) and some incredibly talented fan artists' take on the world of the T-800, the Connors, Skynet and all that other future stuff.

Since her 1941 debut, Wonder Woman has been one of the cornerstones of DC Comics, and of superhero comics in general. In her 74-year-history, scores of artists have put their spin on the character, from subtle changes to her classic red, white, blue and gold costume to the "new" Wonder Woman of the late 1960s to some far more maligned interpretations that featured jackets and long pants. We've compiled a gallery of some of the most iconic Wonder Woman artists of the past seven decades, along with some positively stunning modern designs.

The Game of Thrones season finale delivered another dagger between the ribs to fans of the HBO mega-hit series based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. To mark the occasion, we've collected together what we think is some of the best Jon Snow fan art ever.

It’s never a happy occasion when the worlds of film and pop culture lose an icon as we did yesterday with the passing of Christopher Lee, but there’s also no better time to pay tribute to the man and one of his most famous roles, Dracula!