Life In Four Colors #18: Draw The Line
A Look At The Art Of Inking
Although I thought it was funny when I first saw the movie, and to be quite honest I still have a laugh every time I've seen the film since, inking is much more than just "tracing" over the penciler's artwork. The point that comes up a couple of times in the 1997 Kevin Smith film "Chasing Amy".
Banky Edwards (played by Jason Lee) gets very defensive about not just tracing over Holden McNeil's pencils (Ben Affleck was of course Holden) when fans at a comic book convention keep bringing the fact up.
Like I said, funny in the film.
Not so funny when you are an inker, who may have encountered a fan with the same mindset. Inking is a fine art all its own, but one that seldom gets the attention and praise it deserves. Being an inker on a comic book is in many ways like being the bass player in a rock band.
It's a Catch 22 of sorts, meaning if you do your job right nobody really notices you at all. That is until you're not there and then people start to ask questions.
What's missing?
What's different?
What happened to that other guy?
Over the years there have been some incredible inkers in the comic field, many of which never really got the praise they deserved. Dick Ayers. Jim Mooney. Romeo Tanghal. Pablo Marcos. Joe Rubinstein. Bob McLeod. Bob Wiacek. Mike Gustovich. Just to name a few off the top of my head. There are still some very talented inkers out there today. Danny Miki. Scott Williams. Cam Smith. Mark Farmer. Ande Parks. Jimmy Palmiotti.
All of the above mentioned gentlemen are indeed masters of their craft. Their skill and special talents pouring out literally over thousands upon thousands of comic illustrations drawn by some of the finest comic artists in the business and each of these inkers brought an added element to those same illustrations. This is why I'm such a big fan of the creative process that uses an artist and an inker. There are artists who can ink their own work, but not as well as an established inker would. One of two things happen...the penciler actually slacks off on the pencil end, doing most of the detail work on the page in ink. Or the penciler just (I hate to say it, but it may be true) traces over, or "fills in" his own work The end result often times looks very much like the artist's own pencil work. But in ink.
A classic example that comes to mind is Byrne inking his own work.
A truly talented inker adds something more than that. But it goes without saying that the wrong inker on even the most talented of pencilers can result in disaster.
And there are those inkers out there who just excel in the art of inking. Artists in their own rite who in my mind stand out above the rest. And here are the reasons they do.
- They have the ability to ink several different artists....there are inkers who seem to only be able to ink specific artists, and when they try to ink pencils by somebody else it just doesn't work.
- No matter who the artist is under the ink, the original art never gets lost while at the same time the inker adds something else to the original art to make it just that much more stronger. That's why I also like the word embellisher instead of inker. The art is embellished by this second professional and skilled artist.
- The embellisher has a style all their own that is instantly recognizable.
- When need be these artists can also pencil instead of just ink. Many inkers I will be discussing can do just that. Some took over the main title after the artist left. Others went on to draw books of their own, much like Joe Staton or Herb Trimpe did.
- These inkers/embellishers have developed a well deserved fan base of their own. If they appeared at a convention (unfortunately some of these artist I will be bringing up are no loner with us) they would have a steady stream of fans that would be just as interested in meeting them as they would be meeting the writers and artists at the same event. Not a small feat to achieve.
Let's start off by paying tribute to one of the greatest, Gene Day.
Gene over the extent of a brilliant career that was cut much too short inked some of the most talented artists of Marvel's "Bronze Age" including George Perez over on Marvel Two-In-One and John Byrne on the Avengers. Gene Day is perhaps most well known for his lengthy stay on the Master of Kung Fu book where he inked another very talented artist, Mike Zeck, for a number of years.
Shortly after the 100th issue of Master of Kung Fu, Zeck would leave the book and Gene would step in to both pencil and ink the stories.
I thought the Master of Kung Fu, which had been a really strong and under appreciated book for years, was really firing on all cylinders during this period. Unfortunately Gene Day died when he was only 31 years old, shortly after he started to draw the book.
The Master Of Kung Fu died soon afterwards as well as the book was cancelled. Although it was never really brought up, I think the death of Gene Day really affected writer Doug Moench (who had written the Master of Kung Fu book for the better part of one hundred issues, most of which involved Gene in some capacity). Doug quit the title almost immediately after Day's death. If this played a part in the cancellation of the book I'm not really sure. Perhaps Doug knew the end was coming and he just didn't want to be around to see it.
The legacy of Gene Day lives on in the art of his two sons, David and Dan Day.
The next person on my list really needs no introduction, but I'm going to introduce him anyway. Terry Austin. Perhaps the very best "inker" out there. One of the few that have hit the same Comic Related celebrity status as Chris Claremont and John Byrne. It was during the Claremont/Byrne/Austin run on the Uncanny X-Men when Terry's name became widely known, and in the minds of many (including myself) the best choice to ink Byrne's art.
Claremont, Byrne, and Austin also worked together on an incredible Star-Lord story for Marvel's black and white Marvel Preview magazine. One of Claremont's personal favorite projects and well worth your attention if you have never read it. The story was reprinted a few years ago in color and in regular comic book format size. Terry did the cover.
The long years of working with Byrne had paid off. If he wanted to I'm sure Terry could make a living by just doing "knock offs" of John's work.
But Terry would rather make his living inking comics and this is yet another area where he runs at the head of the pack. I don't think anybody can boast of a list that contains as many talented artists that they have worked with as Terry can. He's inked pencils done by not only John Byrne but George Perez, Michael Golden, Daryl Banks, Paul Smith, Art Adams, Marshall Rogers and Frank Miller. All the while never taking away anything from this long list of very different artists, and leaving behind that classic "Terry Austin" touch.
Perhaps the reason Terry has inked the work of so many different high caliber artists is because he's requested by these group of men whenever possible.
Dan Green is another multi-talented inker who many people remember from his work on Amazing Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men where he inked the pencils of equally talented John Romita Jr. on both occasions.
Dan would work on the New Mutants as well inking the work of Rick Leonardi , but I think he floored everybody when he stepped up out of the shadows of a long list of high powered artists that included the likes of Frank Brunner, Gene Colan, Marshall Rogers, Michael Golden, and Paul Smith to become the full time penciler for Doctor Strange.
Green starting drawing the series just as writer Roger Stern was preparing for the final confrontation between Doctor Strange and the Lord of Vampires, Dracula. Dan's version of Strange, Dracula, Hannibal King, Frank Drake, Blade, and even guest stars like the Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) was stunning and left me wanting more, but as far as I know Dan has never penciled a book since then.
Another name that would just have to be on this list is of course Klaus Janson. His bold, powerful and dynamic work has mesmerized me every since I was a kid and he was inking Sal Buscema and later Keith Giffen's work on the Defenders. But without a doubt when you see the name Klaus Janson most people automatically think of Frank Miller.
Klaus and his work with Miller during Miller's long association with the Daredevil book is the stuff true comic legends are made of. Like Byrne and Austin or Perez and Tanghal, or even Jim Lee and Scott Williams the work created by these two just seemed to be a perfect fit. Even Austin's inks on Miller's pencils were not as good, but very close.
And like Gene Day over on the Master of Kung Fu book, Janson would also take on the pencil chores when Miller stopped doing them right before Miller stopped writing the book and left altogether. Klaus would continue to draw the series for a few issues after Miller was gone completely, but not for long.
Later Janson would pair with John Romita Jr. on the original Punisher War Zone series. Some truly stunning stuff as was the Batman/Punisher crossover the two of them worked on together.
Another true "old school" veteran of the detailed practice of embellishing comic art is Tom Palmer. When the name Tom Palmer comes to mind the artist I most associate with Palmer's fluid inks is of course John Buscema.
Tom and John worked together on the Avengers for years, one of the best periods for the title that was being written by Roger Stern at the time. After a while Buscema left the book and new up and coming artist named Steve Epting took over....and in a way so didn't Palmer. Epting was in the early stages of a career that has lasted for years and he has since become one of the best artists working today, quite possibly doing the best work of his career on the Captain America book. But at the time Epting's work was a little rough around the edges. Palmer did what he could to smooth those edges out....and with additional "prodding" from the editorial staff on the book....Palmer used his magic to make Epting's work look very much like Buscema's.
This effort was so successful that there were a lot of fans that didn't even notice that John had left the book at first. As hard as that may be to believe. It's not really a practice I'm fond of, but one that Marvel had used before. A certain inker that we will look at later was told for years by the higher ups over at the House of Ideas to make whatever artist he was working with at the time to "look like Kirby."
When an inker works with an artist as long as Buscema and Palmer, Miller and Janson, Byrne and Austin, and Kirby and the man coming up later, the inker can "mimic" that penciler very well.
As Epting's pencils started to solidify more, Palmer backed off and more and more of Epting's pencil style was evident.
Before working his magic on the pencil work of this talented new comer, Palmer was working his magic over on the Tomb Of Dracula book inking the work of yet another comic legend.
Gene Colan.
Again this was just another classis artistic pairing that worked, and worked very well. I can't think of another inker that looks better on Colan's pencils than Palmer. His style fit Gene's pencils perfectly. An almost sinister combination that worked so well with tales of vampires, and of dark magic. Gene and Tom also worked on the Doctor Strange book together.
What had started out as a crossover between the two books ended up becoming a long term commitment by this penciler and inker team on both books for a very impressive run of several issues.
This next embellisher is one I really like, and one that so very often gets overlooked. I have often mentioned that my own artistic style was influenced by Jim Starlin, but maybe a more correct statement would be I was heavily influenced by Jim's inker during his stellar run on the original Captain Marvel series. That guy's name is Al Milgrom.
Milgrom's work on Captain Marvel was just (got to say it) out of this world. Issue after issue of this book just blew me away, although at the time I thought it was just the writing and the pencils by Jim Starlin but all the while Milgrom's inks had a subliminal effect on me that I can see to this day.
Making a comparison to another "cosmic" hero that Starlin would later be associated with....Starlin was Adam Warlock and Starlin's Motor City Madman and partner in crime , Al Milgrom, was his Pip the Troll.
Again as was often the case, after Starlin left the book guess who stepped in and started to pencil the monthly adventures of good ol' Mar-Vell? You guessed it, good ol' Al Milgrom.
Bet you can't guess who inked his work during that run. I'll give you a clue, his initials are Terry Austin.
Milgrom would later go on to ink Sal Buscema's Rom the Space Knight, during that time he penciled many of those covers. He would also go on to pencil both The Avengers and the West Coast Avengers for a while, as well as Secret Wars II.
Milgrom's pencils never set the comic book world on fire, he was no George Perez. But when coupled with a strong inker he produced some very good stuff. In this regard Milgrom's pencils remind me a lot of my own. I feel we both are stronger inkers who have worked with some incredible pencilers to produce some truly amazing work.
He had Jim Starlin. I have Chris Metzger. Strong inkers can make our pencils look much better as well. He had Terry Austin and (not saying his name yet) and I had Darrel Buffington and Joe Shover.
But when we both decide to pencil and ink our own stuff, we manage to get by as long as we have a good story to work with.
It's amazing to set back and compare Milgrom's pencils and inks to my own. All those years I credited Jim Starlin for being such a strong influence in my work, when truthfully the credit should go to Al.
And seeing how we're in the neighborhood and already talking about Jim Starlin, Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock, and all things cosmic I guess we might as well mention another favorite of mine, Steve Leialoha.
The images that Starlin and Leialoha worked together to create while working on the Warlock series just stun me whenever I see them. They are forever etched into my mind and tattooed on my soul.
Yet another talented team-up that just plain hit it out of the ball park.
Unfortunately we didn't get to see this pairing as long as I would have liked. For some reason I still can't figure out, Adam Warlock was cancelled only six issues after the title was re-launched with issue #9 and with both Jim and Steve on board.
Fortunately that wasn't the last time we saw Steve Leialoha. He would pop up a few years later as the regular penciler of Spider-Woman.
During the time Steve was doing the art on Spider-Woman it was being written by Chris Claremont and the book enjoyed the most popular period of it's fifty issue run. The Claremont/Leialoha issues were in fact the best Spider-Woman stories ever created! You don't believe me you need to check them out for yourself.
Claremont and Leialoha seemed to work very well together, which was also evident with a four part Marvel Team-Up story also written by Chris and illustrated by Steve that featured Spider-Man (duh), Nick Fury ,Master of Kung Fu and Marvel's other "spider-woman" at that time, the Black Widow. Another comic classic worth checking out ( matter of fact I'm going through the long boxes and pulling that story. I'm re-reading that puppy as soon as I finish typing this!)
Steve would go on to co-create the character Coyote with writer Steve Englehart for Marvel's original Epic Comics line, both penciling and inking that book. He would also do some amazing pencil work on Doctor Strange.
That brings us to a guy named Bob Layton, who together with writer Roger Stern and artist John Byrne gave us one of the best one issue stories ever created Incredible Hulk Annual # 7. Man was I glad that book was "double sized" because that thing was mind blowing! Loved Layton's inks on Byrne's pencils, wish I could have seen those two work together more, but I'm not going to complain about the artist that Layton paired up with most often, that being John Romita Jr. over on the Iron Man book.
Romita and Layton were on the Iron Man book during Tony's first battle with the "Demon in the Bottle" and Iron Man never looked so good. After JR JR left Iron Man for Spider-Man...Bob Layton did exactly what great inkers do. He started to draw the book and kept the art standard worth it's weight and gold.
During Layton's long comic career he has returned to Iron Man on several occasions playing several different creative roles. At times he would pencil the title, co-plot the title or ink the art work of John Romita Jr. who returned in time for the 150th issue showdown with Doctor Doom in Camelot as well as ink the pencils of Jackson Guice and Ron Lim.
Bob would also go on to write, pencil, and ink one of the very earliest limited series created by Marvel, Hercules Prince of Power. A limited series that was so successful it birthed another four issue limited series a few years later and a Graphic Novel, both of which were written, penciled, and inked by Layton.
Switching gears from a Man of Iron to a Man of Bronze (Conan not Doc Savage, who will have to arm wrestle each other for the right to the title "the original Man of Bronze").
When I think Conan...three names leap out at me with their broadswords drawn and held high.
Roy Thomas
John Buscema
Ernie Chan
Well I guess I should say four names , seeing how inker Ernie Chan sometimes also used the name Ernie Chua (By Crom!)
The very first issue of Conan I ever read was issue # 86. Pages two and three of that book which was a double page layout of Conan and his mystic/swordsman pal, Zula (I loved that Mohawk) standing on a cliff side staring down at the city of Luxur just kept me entranced when I was young. And it wasn't just because I was an easily impressed 10 year old boy. I know that for a fact because those two pages still have the same effect on me 31 years later!
During the time that Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Ernie Chan worked on the Conan book the series was at an all-time high. Comic literary masterpieces in the making.
Chan's inks on Buscema's pencils were so graceful and natural you actually thought the pictures just had to created that way some how. It just seemed impossible to conceive of the notion that there was a point in there somewhere where John's pencils stopped and Ernie's inks began, but you would never know it by looking at the artwork.
It looked more like two dimensional sculptures laid out in comic panels and I tell you truthfully it reeked of sorcery!
Ernie also worked with John's brother Sal Buscema over on the Incredible Hulk. During that time Ernie actually drew several covers for that title. He also illustrated a couple issues of Conan the Barbarian and Doctor Strange.
Finally the last gentleman on this illustrious list of greats. The name I hinted at several times before. Joe Sinnott.
Joe cut his comic teeth by inking King Kirby's pencils on the Fantastic Four. The two worked together for decades becoming very close and Sinnott became one of Kirby's favorite and most trusted finishers.
Believe it or not there were inkers that actually erased Kirby's original pencils thinking they could correct flaws.
Flaws and Kirby are actually two words that should never ever be used in the same sentence. (Oops....let me fix something here... Flaws and are actually two words that should never ever be used in the same sentence. There that's better.)
After Kirby left Marvel to go to ...that other comic book company...Sinnott who had established a "feel" for Kirby's line work was "ordered" to doctor up other artwork to give it that Kirby inspired "Marvel Look". A look that Marvel actually tried to copyright.
Years later Marvel stopped all that nonsense and Sinnott was finally "allowed" to ink other pencil work and allow the true strengths of the illustrator to shine through and allow Sinnott's inking style to mature as well.
Sinnott worked very well another Fantastic Four legend, John Byrne.
He would also quite nicely embellish the pencil work of Sal Buscema over on the Incredible Hulk and later Rom. Sinnott would also collaborate with fellow inker turned illustrator Al Milgrom on both the Avengers and West Coast Avengers.
That's a perfect ten.
Did I leave out any you can think of? As always feel free to let me know what you thought.
In the mean while...I'll be back in fourteen short days and I'll be bringing my very first returning guest with me along with my evil twin!
Until then....SYITFP!
Oh yeah....here's a little something extra for ya! The song that inspired the name of this, the 18th LIFC column...by that little bitty band from Boston! Rock On!
Bill Gladman - Bill is a writer and illustrator and currently working on several different projects including the first issue of an ongoing comic book series (Prodigy), an illustrated fantasy novel (The Book of Noheim), and the first of four illustrated science fiction/fantasy novels (Jack the Rabbit, Living Legend of the Purple Plains) as well as a light-hearted on going mini-comic (Three Wise Men). Bill also pens a column for Comic Related and will be doing a mix of regional convention coverage.
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