Perez is one of my favorites when it comes to this aspect of storytelling.  He can draw a page with Captain America and Hawkeye  interacting in civilian garb and the reader can tell which is which without the benefit of dialogue.  I don't think many artists today could do the same.

Speaking of the old masters, I was talking with my roommate the other day (he's an artist) and recounted the discussion on this board about how modern artists rely on the colorist and their figures don't have the "weight" older artists' figures did.  By way of illustration, I showed him a Neal Adams page from the "Half an Evil" story that was posted in the other thread (I think by JB) and one of the things he remarked on was how the positioning of the characters on that page led the reader from panel to panel and even to the next page.  It was a sad reminder to me how so much of that ability has been lost on the current generation of comic artists.

I'm kind of surprised Alex Ross is receiving so much criticism.  His panel to panel transitions may not be the smoothest, but overall the guy has skills. 

Calling him the "worst artist" whether it be comicbook or otherwise is not a fair assessment of his talent. 

If you want to see "worst artists" at work just go to comic art fans and look at some of the cheesecake in the most viewed sections. 

Matthew Turnage wrote: ...Perez is one of my favorites when it comes to this aspect of storytelling.  He can draw a page with Captain America and Hawkeye  interacting in civilian garb and the reader can tell which is which without the benefit of dialogue.  I don't think many artists today could do the same...

Heck, most newer artists can't handle a halfway recognizable Peter Parker. Joe Quesada is drawing a Spider-Man story, which "Wizard" previewed, and I really didn't know the guy in the story was Peter Parker until I read the dialogue.

Back when, such unique artists as John Buscema, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, Don Heck, Neal Adams, JB, George Perez, Dave Cockrum... and on and on, all could draw a Peter Parker that everyone familiar with the character could instantly recognize as being Peter Parker. These artists all had their own styles, so it can't be blamed on that.

Edited: typos.

"That's another thing that's been lost. Many artists can't seemto make the heroes' civilian faces recognizable. Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker keep changing faces. "

And hairstyles from issue to issue.  As noted, you have to check dialogue sometimes to see who is who.  Batman can be confusing due to Tim Drake, Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne.  If done right, the age alone would be obvious, but it is not always the case.

I am reminded once again of Don Thompson's typically condescending response to CBG readers who complained about the casting of Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne. So many different artists had drawn the character, Thompson sneered, that we didn't really know what he looked like. This was not, in fact, true, since the vast majority of those artists had stayed "on model" -- but even if it had been, we certainly knew what Bruce Wayne didn't look like -- no version of him had ever had thinning, curly hair, buck teeth and a receding chin!