What? no mention of Jean Giraud (aka.Moebius)... My favorites were always Moebius, Richard Corben, Milo Manara, Caz, and Enki Bilal. Throughout the 1980's Heavy Metal Magazine was the shit, probably because I was a teen/young adult. I think the quality of the magazine began to wane as the years went on. Definitely a seminal influence for me, though. Used to think that Serperei was pretty awesome but just had a look at some of his work and my opinion has mellowed with the years.

Underground Comix (Crumb, Williams, Wilson, Irons, etc.) are/were great, too. Funny that many of the marginalized by genre artists cited have gone on to be Heavy Hitters in the establishment/gallery Fine Art world.