Who were the quintessential DC artists?

[MWGallaher]

It's interesting that one would be able to think of more "quintessential Marvel artists" Marvel had far fewer artists that stayed exclusive to them during the prime years of their career. Romita and the Buscema brothers are the only ones that come to mind when I think of veteran artists that seemed permanently "attached" to Marvel (and Romita attained that stature only after completing a notable stint in the DC Romance department, while the Buscemas both did work for DC late in their careers, but that doesn't change my general impression of them as "Marvel guys"). But DC had Jim Aparo and Murphy Anderson and Joe Kubert and Curt Swan and Dick Dillin and Nick Cardy who rarely (if ever) did significant work for another comics company once they settled in at DC. So when I think of guys whose work I can barely imagine being published by their biggest rival, DC has at least a 2:1 advantage over Marvel for "quintessential artists."

[dan bailey]

So when I think of guys whose work I can barely imagine being published by their biggest rival, DC has at least a 2:1 advantage over Marvel for "quintessential artists."

I thought the same thing when pondering the topic. Of course, one consideration is that DC was publishing quite a few more titles than Marvel for most of the '60s. Another is that Kirby was (or at least, without consulting the GCD or my shelves of Essentials, seems in hindsight to have been) drawing darned near everything for Marvel through, I dunno, '65 or so.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan, and Mike Sekowsky are the ones who come immediately to mind. Apparently DC only exists in the 60s for me.

[MWGallaher]

Oh, yeah, Sekowsky definitely, although he did do a tiny bit of work at Marvel after leaving DC (as did Wayne Boring).
Joe Giella's another quintessential DC artist to my eyes.

[Rob Allen]

First and foremost is Curt Swan.

The only name I thought of that hasn't been mentioned (or I missed it) is Bob Oksner.