Tim O'Neill wrote: ...Did you guys ID artists and writers you liked when you were in your pre-teens and teens?...

Yep, from nearly the beginning of my reading comics. I particualrly enjoyed those comics I saw by two guys named Lee & Kirby (at that point I was reading "Marvel Greatest Superheroes" and other reprints of their work, not the first run, but that didn't bother me a bit). JB was my favorite artist pretty much from the get-go, though, after seeing his work for the first time.

Did you guys ID artists and writers you liked when you were in your pre-teens and teens?...

I was 9 the first time I recognized a change in creative teams on G.I. Joe when Mike Vosburg replaced Herb Trimpe. I didn't like Vosburg as much as Trimpe because I followed G.I. Joe from #1 and Trimpe was the artist until #9. Other titles didn't bother me as much.

Yeah, of course. The art I could ID right away.

When Archie had an artist I didn't like, I thought they had ran out of money that month or I didn't understand why they had published it.

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Definitely! I still recall my joy upon discovering "the guy who draws WONDER WOMAN" working on a new series, METAL MEN. See, WONDER WOMAN was a "girl's book" to my young eyes, so I was not about to "waste" my narrow allotment of comics, severely restricted by my Wertham influenced mother, on WONDER WOMAN when I could be buying something else. Sure did like the art, tho!

It would not be until many years later that I would learn that artist went by the name of Ross Andru, and I would even get to ink one of his jobs during my time as writer on ACTION COMICS. And, of course, since the Universe loves irony, I would eventually find myself the writer and artist on that "girl's book" -- and end up doing more issues than I did of (UNCANNY) X-MEN!

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Yet, the sales just kept going up, and up, and up. . . !!

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As one who has benefitted enormously from the "star system", it may make me something of a hypocrite to say so, but I fully agree with you!!

But art made-or-broke comics a lot for me. I sometimes had trouble
pretending the characters were "real" if I didn't like the art. If I liked the art,
my brain would easily go along as if a legend was being passed on to me. If
the art was questionable, I started to feel like men in an office were trying to
sell me super-hero product. I didn't think in those terms, but that's where I
got my first inklings of the commercial nature of comics -- bad art.

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Shooter summed up Chris' strongest ability as a writer. He said Chris would always make you CARE about the smallest character in a story. No one ever died a cipher, for instance.

Recall the first people killed by the demon in the N'Gari story. I just drew a young couple out looking for a Xmas tree. Chris made it their FIRST Xmas tree, as a couple! Brilliant.

And, of course, I have often told the story of how Danny Rand walking thru his parents' old brownstone and "seeing" ghostly images of his childhood -- well, that brought a tear to my eye when I read the published book, even tho I'D DRAWN IT!!