Last of the red hot inkers....

[Mighty Hal]

For my money, some of the really, really good comic art is dynamically enhanced because the the right guy did the pencils -- and the right guy did the inks. I was gonna start a thread about the great inkers...and it occurred to me: Is inked OA going away?

 

I haven't been collected penciled pages because they lack a certain pop. Soon, I may not have a choice: A lot of the current artists are abandoning inked pages. Lately, I've seen some nice pages that were only available in pencil. They went from the artist to the computer and nobody knocked on an inker's door.

 

Financially, it makes sense, I guess. I don't like it but I'm starting to believe that the next generation of artists will ALL go to pencils-only. What say you?

 

 

 

 

 

[grandz-migration]

I don't see inked pages going away. Scanning inked pages and making them look clean is much easier than cleaning up penciled pages. Inked pages is still the norm.

 

I've only seen a small handful of non-inked books out there.

 

An artist like Angel Medina's pencils are much better in pencil, than any

inker so far can render.

[Jesusjon]

Keep in mind a lot of artists finish pages with an eye toward selling the page -- to us!! Many know that penciled pages are less desirable, and maintain a process which will keep us (and in turn, them) happy.

 

One interesting example of this is inking a page, while not finishing all the deep blacks. The inker scans the page in, and finishes blacks on the computer for their deadline. Then they come back to the pages when they have more time to finish blacks and prepare the page for sale. The penciller would be ticked if the inker didn't finish blacks on his share, because that would reduce perceived value when trying to sell the page.

 

 

[Pirate]

I really like James Pascoe's and Mark Morales work.

 

Also found out that dynamite cuts inkers whenever possible (red sonja the biggest name) to save cash. I love Mel Rubi's art but can't bring myself to pay full price for a penciled page.

[Pirate]

Keep in mind a lot of artists finish pages with an eye toward selling the page -- to us!! Many know that penciled pages are less desirable, and maintain a process which will keep us (and in turn, them) happy.

 

One interesting example of this is inking a page, while not finishing all the deep blacks. The inker scans the page in, and finishes blacks on the computer for their deadline. Then they come back to the pages when they have more time to finish blacks and prepare the page for sale. The penciller would be ticked if the inker didn't finish blacks on his share, because that would reduce perceived value when trying to sell the page.

 

 

How many modern pages do you think are inked over scans and sold as the OA with the penciled pages sitting somewhere untouched? I'm always curious with the scanning technology out there if the artists even bother sending pages through the mail to be inked anymore. I also wonder how you can tell since some artists sketch with blue pencil.

[LordZarak]

How many modern pages do you think are inked over scans and sold as the OA with the penciled pages sitting somewhere untouched? I'm always curious with the scanning technology out there if the artists even bother sending pages through the mail to be inked anymore. I also wonder how you can tell since some artists sketch with blue pencil.

 

I'd believe this is a growing practice. Especially when you have international artists involved in the creative process.

 

I have two examples of having both pencils and inked counterparts of the same page in my collection. One is very obvious in that the pencils were drawn on smaller paper (A4 size I believe) then blown up to 11x17 when inked. The other is obvious because when the pencils were reproduced to be inked over, some of the original art board markings were reproduced as well.

[Guest]

I would prefer to have great artists like Kirby in raw original pencil untouched by any inker. I can always commission an inker to go over a scan of the original.

[Mighty Hal]

I'd love to think that inked pages will remain the norm. I just don't think so.

 

While browsing for a piece of my comic book past, I came across penciled work from David Beck (Jonah Hex), Rob Liefeld (Onslaught Reborn...I think), Greg Horn (Elektra), Gene Ha (Red Sonja -- so maybe pirate knows the truth about Dynamite), Leinil Yu (New Avengers)...and a lot more.

 

And I came across a couple of pages where the artist just put an "X" on his penciled work to indicate "black" for the computer guy. Talk about killing the magic.

[boomtown]

For my money, some of the really, really good comic art is dynamically enhanced because the the right guy did the pencils -- and the right guy did the inks. I was gonna start a thread about the great inkers...and it occurred to me: Is inked OA going away?

 

I haven't been collected penciled pages because they lack a certain pop. Soon, I may not have a choice: A lot of the current artists are abandoning inked pages. Lately, I've seen some nice pages that were only available in pencil. They went from the artist to the computer and nobody knocked on an inker's door.

 

Financially, it makes sense, I guess. I don't like it but I'm starting to believe that the next generation of artists will ALL go to pencils-only. What say you?

 

I agree 100%. Drives me crazy to go looking for a page & finding out it is pencils only. As someone else mentioned, it's even worse when the black areas are not filled & only contain a bunch of little "x"s. I do think that soon, people won't care one way or another. It drives me crazy that pages no longer have the lettering on them. At one time I refused to buy pages without the word balloons. Over time I've gotten over it to a point that I can buy an un-lettered page.

[Artemaria]

This is a good topic, as great inkers are often overlooked.

 

In my opinion, either the best, or one of the best inkers of all time had to be Terry Austin in his prime. It is not coincidence, that many legendary runs (Byrne X-men; Rogers Detective; Rogers Dr. Strange, etc.) were inked by this gentleman.

 

Indeed in X-men Annual number 3, when Austin inked the hyper detailed George Perez, you got to see what Perez could do with a top inker. And it was dizzyingly breathtaking. It makes you wonder whether if Perez had Austin as his regular inker and Byrne had to work with Sam Grainger or whomever, whether the status of Perez and Byrne in the comic art pantheon would have been different.

 

Another great inker was Alex Garner from Image. He had a clean crisp style that mimiced Austin's, but was somehow more fluid. You don't see too much work from him these days in comics.

 

Current inkers: Danny Miki is incredible, seeing what he can do on David Finch's pencils, or on any pencils really blows the mind, and he has a fairly unique style. Scott Williams, I'm sure, needs no introduction to this group. Jesus Merino does a wonderful job on Carlos Pacheco whenever they work together. I also like Joe Weems at Top Cow, he has done a nice job with some fairly detailed work that's been given him. We also would be remiss if we didn't include the often overlooked, but still amazing Rachel Dodson, who would be in much more demand if she worked with other people.

 

If you want to see what a different inker brings to the table, you might want to check out Gary Martin's book, the Art of Comic Book Inking. In there he shows you pencilled pages, and then shows those pages inked by 5 different people. The results are very interesting.

 

When you have a good inker, there is so much more that comes off the page. When the inking is not so good (and, either intentionally or not, the book features some "average" inkers) the page looks muddied, unfocused, and/or unclear. The book is worth a look just for the comparisons alone.

 

As noted in the prior posts, there is a trend towards "digital inking." This essentially is just using photoshop to darken the pencils for reproduction and clean them up a bit. Sadly, because of economic concerns, this practice probably will become more prevalent. However, I don't love the results of this practice. One, it does not look (at least today's efforts) as clear or as crisp as that sharp line of india ink on the page. Two, it does not allow for the merging of two visions as does the Penciller and Inker art process.

 

Best regards.

 

- A

[Smokinghawk]

Ernie Chan on Buscema was great, but Ernie Chan solo isn't. Rudy Nebres did great inks on Conan, too. Whoever Josh Medors gets to ink his commissions is spectacular.

 

[Mighty Hal]

My wife and I agree with you, Smokinghawk. In fact, my wife has one piece of OA: A Buscema/Chan CONAN splash.

 

Bryan Hitch said this about inkers (in "Artists on Comic Art"): "Traditionally, the role of the inker is to add a particular finish and flourish to the pencils" -- and he feels that his work suffers if the inkers "just trace".

 

And he's right. And Artemaria is right. And it's help me better understand why I like inked pages over penciled ones. if the right inker meets the right guy doing the pencils, the artwork ROCKS.

[Smokinghawk]

My wife and I agree with you, Smokinghawk. In fact, my wife has one piece of OA: A Buscema/Chan CONAN splash.

 

Post it!!