RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Top 5 Batman artists

Yeah, I think the best of the Simonson/Giordano collaborations was BATMAN 300...
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Batman-1940/Issue-300?id=17914

...But even on the best day, they weren't the most compatible art team. I think Giordano tended to clean up Simonson too much, and that interfered with the raw power of Simonson's work. I'm hard pressed to name any inker on Simonson's pencils who did justice to them, other than Simonson himself.

Marshall Rogers/Giordano was slightly better, but still not a perfect fit. I'm thinking of the Rogers/Giordano collaborations on DETECTIVE 478 and 479.
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Detective-Comics-1937/Issue-478?id=5720
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Detective-Comics-1937/Issue-479?id=5721

I always thought it was a damn shame that they almost never put Giordano on Curt Swan’s work.

I think that had to do with the Swan/Anderson collaborations being so good, that Giordano's inking talents were best utilized elsewhere.

But there must be at least one Swan/Giordano issue out there somewhere. George Perez when I spoke to him years ago let on that Curt Swan was a big influence on his work.
And that it was the thrill of his life to script a story and have Swan pencil a chapter (inked by McLeod) in WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL 1 during the Perez run. When he told me, I purchased a copy in the store, and asked Perez to sign it for me, which he was enthusiastic about.

There's also the Swan pencils/Perez inks in SUPERMAN 423, the first half of Moore's "Last Superman story".

I did a little digging, G-man, and in at least one issue your wish for a Swan/Giordano collaboration came true.

SUPERMAN 240, July 1971. A 15-page offering.
And a Super-bonus, a "World of Krypton" backup story by Michael Kaluta!

Here's another Swan/Giordano story, a backup "Private life of Clark Kent" story from SUPERMAN 258, Nov 1972.

https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Superman-1939/Issue-258?id=16086#18

I know he inked Swan a few times but it was few and far between. As for Anderson, while probably the best inker Swan ever had, that team was more or less over by the mid-70s and poor Swan was saddled with inkers like Frank Chiaramonte or (shudder) Tex Blaisdell.

Even at their best, while the Swan/Anderson art team was unbeatable, they were often diminished by consistently mediocre stories to draw. The truly great Swan/Anderson Superman stories, where the art was paired with equally good stories, were sporadic at best.

I have to agree, the inkers who replaced Anderson were less than spectacular.

Making this more Batman-related, Swan did quite a few Superman/Batman stories in WORLD'S FINEST throughout the late 1970's and early 1980's. Although again, even when by the likes of Dennis O'Neil, they were not stories that O'Neil is known for.
The ones in WORLD'S FINEST I liked the best were the "Super Sons" stories, between about WORLD'S FINEST 215 and 264, about 10 stories in all. I know it's fashionable to rip on them as hokey, but they were fun stories, and somehow they worked.

Swan was perfect on Superman and Legion, particularly the Shooter-scripted Legion stories in ADVENTURE 346-380 or so.
Swan Batman... not so much. His version was a bit too Adam West for me, not quite enough avenger-of-the-night in the Adams/Novick/Aparo mold. I see Don Newton having the same problems with Batman.

The one Neal Adams BATMAN page I liked enough to enlarge to original art-size and frame on the wall as part of my home comic book art museum. From BATMAN 234, Aug 1971.

Quintiseential O'Neil/Adams Batman: relentless, calculating, waiting in the shadows for the perfect moment to strike.
The character was never handled better, before or since.