Comic book Inkers - They really DO make a difference!

[Unca Ben]

Here's an article I wrote on the subject:

http://comicrelated.com/news/16012/kavs-tips

Nice article kav (thumbs u

 

Yes. Very nice article. +2

[Unca Ben]

I really like Jack Abel's inks (as Gary Michaels) over Gene Colan pencils on Iron Man in TOS.

Bill Everett over Colan's pencils on TTA Sub-Mariner, and the Black Widow stories in Amazing Adventures is very good, too.

 

Ditko inking his own pencils, as he did in all his ASM work, is sublime.

 

While Wally Wood's inks do tend to overpower the pencils, his skill as an inker and spotting of blacks to balance a page resulted in some beautiful work. Wood over Bob Powell is great.

 

I just reread my early Avengers, and Wood inking over Don Heck is outstanding.

I noticed Wood really spent time on his inks on Avengers #20, the first issue he did. Background and machinery details appear to be all Wood. In the following issues Wood seems to have backed off on his inking contribution, leaving sparser backgrounds and details. Certainly not as pretty.

Just an observation.

[batman_fan]

I prefer comics where all aspects of illustration are handled by one person. And I much prefer if that person is the writer as well.

Those are always the best. Can't think of any good examples right now though

 

I like Breyfogles inks on Breyfogle.

[Prince Namor]

I prefer comics where all aspects of illustration are handled by one person. And I much prefer if that person is the writer as well.

Those are always the best. Can't think of any good examples right now though

 

Chris Ware

Darwyn Cooke

Charles Burns

Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez

Daniel Clowes

Adrian Tomine

Art Spiegelman

Mike Mignola

 

I like all those guys!

Can't wait to see Jaime and Gilbert again at Heroes Con in June...

[kav]

Yeah those guys are great. Wish I had gotten free Clowes drawing in the 80's during his hateball tour-I just ignored him. Clowes sketch worth like a grand now.

[rodan57]

No a blank page is definitely the most difficult. However, drawing with pencil takes less technical skill than inking. Only in the sense of the precision of hand movement required, not anatomy knowledge etc.

 

This is so wrong in so many ways. When faced with such brash reductionism, one cannot even begin to point out the flaws ...

 

Therefore, I will only

Well I'm an artist of 30 years so I'm not just whistling dixie. You can rapidly pencil. You can't rapidly ink.

 

[kav]

[djpinkpanther67]

[chrisco37]

Please see my sig-line:

 

I often hear about Jim Lee giving Scott Williams very rough pencils. Not saying Lee can't draw, just he trusts his inker sometimes, esp. if deadlines are rushing up and maybe Jim is behind a little. I don't know if it is true, but I have heard this more than once.

 

 

 

-slym

 

 

You could ask Scott. He's a boardie, and not just a lurking one. He posts in the OA forum often.

[kav]

I will say you have to be a hell of an inker to mimic another artists style from very rough pencils.....kudos if true

[makeminemego]

I think Romita Sr.'s inks are great. Even makes Jr.'s pencils look good. Or at least acceptable. Obviously, Sr got a lot of work, but I wonder if he would have had even more output if he wasn't saddled with the art director job for so many years. Seems like by the mid 70's he was relegated to the occasional cover and various clean up jobs. It would have been nice to see him have another long run on Spiderman, Cap, or even FF at some point.

 

As several have already mentioned, Tom Palmer's inks are nothing short of terrific. Regardless of who he was working over.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I've never seen this discussed, but has anyone ever noticed the disparity of work inkers have contributed? They mesh well with some pencillers, but horribly with others.

 

Joe Sinnott was without question the BEST inker of the SA, as he finished Kirby's work, but his Starlin finishes were horrible IMO. Starlin did well with Green, Milgrom and even Janson, but Jack Abel destroyed his pencils as well.

 

John Romita Jr.'s best work was on Iron Man with Layton finishing, but with other inkers, his stuff wasn't the greatest.

 

Byrne did well with Austin and McLeod, but Jerry Ordway didn't compliment him well.

 

Anyone else have any opinions/examples?

 

McLeod, Rubinstein, even Jim Sanders III buried McFarlane's pencils. The only inker who ever worked well with McFarlane was McFarlane.

[Logan510]

I've never seen this discussed, but has anyone ever noticed the disparity of work inkers have contributed? They mesh well with some pencillers, but horribly with others.

 

Joe Sinnott was without question the BEST inker of the SA, as he finished Kirby's work, but his Starlin finishes were horrible IMO. Starlin did well with Green, Milgrom and even Janson, but Jack Abel destroyed his pencils as well.

 

John Romita Jr.'s best work was on Iron Man with Layton finishing, but with other inkers, his stuff wasn't the greatest.

 

Byrne did well with Austin and McLeod, but Jerry Ordway didn't compliment him well.

 

Anyone else have any opinions/examples?

 

McLeod, Rubinstein, even Jim Sanders III buried McFarlane's pencils. The only inker who ever worked well with McFarlane was McFarlane.

 

I think McFarlane is a pretty decent inker on other people as well. I think he made Liefeld look better than he had a right to on those New Mutants covers.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I've never seen this discussed, but has anyone ever noticed the disparity of work inkers have contributed? They mesh well with some pencillers, but horribly with others.

 

Joe Sinnott was without question the BEST inker of the SA, as he finished Kirby's work, but his Starlin finishes were horrible IMO. Starlin did well with Green, Milgrom and even Janson, but Jack Abel destroyed his pencils as well.

 

John Romita Jr.'s best work was on Iron Man with Layton finishing, but with other inkers, his stuff wasn't the greatest.

 

Byrne did well with Austin and McLeod, but Jerry Ordway didn't compliment him well.

 

Anyone else have any opinions/examples?

 

McLeod, Rubinstein, even Jim Sanders III buried McFarlane's pencils. The only inker who ever worked well with McFarlane was McFarlane.

 

I think McFarlane is a pretty decent inker on other people as well. I think he made Liefeld look better than he had a right to on those New Mutants covers.

 

He did indeed. McFarlane is an excellent inker over other people's work (see Capulo)

 

But nobody makes McFarlane's pencils look like McFarlane with the possible exception of Art Thibert.

 

And penciler vs. inker - Giffen was fond of doing *very* rough (like stick figures with circles) layouts, for other artists to complete, Maguire being one of them.

 

Penciling is an extremely difficult job, I can't do it. My brain sees the picture, but my hand cannot make the lines. I can ink with fairly decent results, because all I'm doing is going over what already exists, and adding embellishment to it. I cannot work with layouts, because I would muck it up.

 

Oddly enough, I have done design work for homeowners, and I can do that start to finish. I did several valances, with just the blank wall in front of me, which I then designed (including anchoring support), built, hand painted, and installed.

 

Anatomy, perspective...these things are *extremely* difficult, which is how the greatest artists make it look simple. Even Kirby had problems with perspective. Some of his stuff, especially the 70's stuff, looks like you need to be on acid to see it correctly.

 

 

 

 

[Felix1977]

I met Bob McLeod at our local "Ocalacon" last year and I saw how much detail the inks gave his sketch that I got from him, needless to say I truly appreciate the art of inking.

[djpinkpanther67]

 

He did indeed. McFarlane is an excellent inker over other people's work (see Capulo)

 

But nobody makes McFarlane's pencils look like McFarlane with the possible exception of Art Thibert.

 

And penciler vs. inker - Giffen was fond of doing *very* rough (like stick figures with circles) layouts, for other artists to complete, Maguire being one of them.

 

Penciling is an extremely difficult job, I can't do it. My brain sees the picture, but my hand cannot make the lines. I can ink with fairly decent results, because all I'm doing is going over what already exists, and adding embellishment to it. I cannot work with layouts, because I would muck it up.

 

Oddly enough, I have done design work for homeowners, and I can do that start to finish. I did several valances, with just the blank wall in front of me, which I then designed (including anchoring support), built, hand painted, and installed.

 

Anatomy, perspective...these things are *extremely* difficult, which is how the greatest artists make it look simple. Even Kirby had problems with perspective. Some of his stuff, especially the 70's stuff, looks like you need to be on acid to see it correctly.

I remember when Giffen art first became popular back in the early 80's. Larry Mahlstead was his inker IIRC

 

As far as Kirby's perspective, this is one of my favorite covers of all time, and was an excellent example

 

[Maccai3]

Bernie Wrightson inks his own work alot too doesn't he?

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

He did indeed. McFarlane is an excellent inker over other people's work (see Capulo)

 

But nobody makes McFarlane's pencils look like McFarlane with the possible exception of Art Thibert.

 

And penciler vs. inker - Giffen was fond of doing *very* rough (like stick figures with circles) layouts, for other artists to complete, Maguire being one of them.

 

Penciling is an extremely difficult job, I can't do it. My brain sees the picture, but my hand cannot make the lines. I can ink with fairly decent results, because all I'm doing is going over what already exists, and adding embellishment to it. I cannot work with layouts, because I would muck it up.

 

Oddly enough, I have done design work for homeowners, and I can do that start to finish. I did several valances, with just the blank wall in front of me, which I then designed (including anchoring support), built, hand painted, and installed.

 

Anatomy, perspective...these things are *extremely* difficult, which is how the greatest artists make it look simple. Even Kirby had problems with perspective. Some of his stuff, especially the 70's stuff, looks like you need to be on acid to see it correctly.

I remember when Giffen art first became popular back in the early 80's. Larry Mahlstead was his inker IIRC

 

As far as Kirby's perspective, this is one of my favorite covers of all time, and was an excellent example

 

I have that one! Well, not that SPECIFIC one...

 

It's pretty good on perspective, but still has a few flaws (see Reed's left forearm. Is that a bicep? Localized elphantitus?)

 

Here's one that's....not so much:

 

[Captain Canuck]

Has anyone seen the inking jobs over Sinnotts pencils submitted for the Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge? Inking Challenge Each ink job gives you an idea how inks can either enhance or change an artists original pencils.

[Mystafo]

I enjoyed Starlin's pencils/inks/writing on his too-short Strange Tales Warlock run