My personal favorite - as everyone is aware - is Jock. His style just speaks to me and tells me what I want to hear. His use of negative space is absolute genius. If I was forced to pick a favorite print of his, it's probably The Thing, Halloween or his Joker portrait from The Black Mirror. I could go on and on about him...
Another guy that
@Wreck mentioned, but no one went into great detail about that I think is worth looking into (and my second favorite) is Jason Edmiston. He does mostly portraits of pop culture/movie icons, but he has started some other projects also. His stuff is SO REALISTIC in hand, but it still has an element of "cartoony-ness" to it. I'm not sure I could narrow his stuff down to even a dozen favourites. I could have my walls lined with his stuff and be cool with it lol. Some notables are: ANY of his horror stuff (Leatherface, etc.), '66 Batman characters, Heath Ledger Joker, The Hateful Eight. Oh, and his Mondo Con '15 Exclusive Halloween print is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!
I think most of the "best" have been mentioned. A few that I haven't seen mentioned that are certainly worth it are:
-Mike Mitchell (He does some quirky, funny stuff along with these super sick portraits of superheroes and other pop culture icons). I really like his "Just Like Us" series.
-Sam Wolfe Connelly (i think that's his name lol) - He has a darker, more "scratchy" style. Similar to Jock in that manner, but completely unique. I really like his Black Swan.
I really think it's just about finding a handful of artists that YOU like. But the list given to you here in this thread is the best place to start.
@dan8885 - Dan, I'm alive, I promise! I'll email you back later this evening or tomorrow morning about everything.