Or is it? When Trick Jarrett came up with this question over the holiday break, he had to define his terms. So what we're looking for is the artist with the most individual pieces of art. Robert Bliss's Pacifism first appeared in Mirage and has appeared in eight core sets, but it should only count once. On the other hand, we'd like to count alternate art made for promo cards.
So we dove into our internal card database and came back with some comprehensive answers! And then we realized that what we were looking at was a little too comprehensive, because it included all art that had been done, regardless of whether it had been released yet. And we didn't bother changing the art credits for Unhinged, so Pete Venters doesn't get credited for Erase (Not the Urza's Legacy One) because the official artist is Pete "Yes the Urza's Legacy One" Venters.
Okay. So, with those caveats, here's a list of the top Magic artists that we think is mostly correct. It's pretty close.
Artist Credit | Total Count |
Kev Walker | 342 |
Pete Venters | 295 |
John Avon | 280 |
Christopher Moeller | 264 |
Greg Staples | 263 |
Ron Spencer | 243 |
Mark Tedin | 219 |
Carl Critchlow | 214 |
Heather Hudson | 205 |
Rob Alexander | 201 |
Daren Bader | 181 |
Terese Nielsen | 177 |
Matt Cavotta | 175 |
Dan Scott | 169 |
Dan Frazier | 168 |
Randy Gallegos | 155 |
Rebecca Guay | 153 |
Scott M. Fischer | 147 |
Alan Pollack | 143 |
Jim Nelson | 143 |
Steve Prescott | 142 |
Mark Zug | 140 |
Brian Snoddy | 133 |
Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai | 131 |
Christopher Rush | 130 |
Mark Poole | 130 |
Anson Maddocks | 128 |
Adam Rex | 127 |
rk post | 126 |
Karl Kopinski | 125 |
Chippy | 124 |
Douglas Shuler | 124 |
Donato Giancola | 119 |
Dave Kendall | 118 |
Thomas M. Baxa | 118 |
Alex Horley-Orlandelli | 117 |
John Matson | 113 |
Ron Spears | 113 |
Anthony S. Waters | 112 |
Jeff Miracola | 112 |
Wayne England | 112 |
Wayne Reynolds | 111 |
Steven Belledin | 110 |
Edward P. Beard, Jr. | 109 |
Dave Dorman | 106 |
Paolo Parente | 101 |
Nils Hamm | 100 |
Now for some bonus information! This same question was asked in 2005, and answered on March 10. At that time, Pete Venters was number one with 241. Kev Walker's really roared up the list since then!