Penciller-Inker Mismatch

[MichikoS]

There are some fine artists who just aren't good together. I was reminded of this recently when reading the latest BLACK WIDOW mini-series, pencilled by the magnificently talented SEAN PHILLIPS (Sleeper) and inked by the legendary Bill Sinkiewicz. Bad combination. Sinkiewicz simply overwhelmed Phillips, and not in a good way. Big disappointment. Two great talents, serious penciller-inker mismatch, imo.

Here are a few more candidates:

Steve Ditko inked by Dick Ayers
Joe Kubert inked by Murphy Anderson (see Atom & Hawkman #40, 41)
John Buscema inked by Vince Colletta

What are your notable "mismatches"? On the other hand, are there any penciller-inker collaborations you thought would be disasters that ended up being complementary?

Here's one such surprise. It's FRANK ROBBINS inked by P. CRAIG RUSSELL. Very nice, don't you think???

http://www.mycomicshop.com/res/unprocessed/fullsize/BA2R30132.jpg
Michi

[scratchie]

Gene Colan inked by Klaus Janson. Maybe it was just because it came on the heels of the sublime Colan/Leialoha issues, but this particular combination (on Howard the Duck) always grated on my eyes like the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

[Aaron Kashtan]

How about Steve Rude inked by Alfredo Alcala? As far as I know, this collaboration never actually happened, and I think we can all be glad of that.

[Kirayoshi]

I remember a few issues of 'Peter Parker: Spider-Man', pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Bill Sienkiewicz. Not pretty.

During the early days of Image, the company published some of Jack Kirby's last artwork before his death, with various Image artists inking his pages. Some of the pages were better than others. Keith Giffen's were weird(he was in his 'Lobo' mode) and Rob Liefeld's were the worst. Erik Larsen's and Jerry Ordway's pages, OTOH, looked pretty spiffy.

[Mike Kuypers]

Neal Adams and Joe Sinnott. Two greats individually, but when they teamed up on Thor (#180, 181) Neal's art was hardly recognizable.

[Cei-U!]

Neal Adams and Joe Sinnott. Two greats individually, but when they teamed up on Thor (#180, 181) Neal's art was hardly recognizable.

Yet Neal has said in interviews that he loved Joe's inking on those stories (because it "looked like a Marvel comic," or words to that effect). Go figure.

Cei-U!
I summon the enigma!

[Cei-U!]

On the other hand, are there any penciller-inker collaborations you thought would be disasters that ended up being complementary?

There was an issue of Doctor Strange in the mid-70s pencilled by Gene Colan and inked by John Romita. It should've been a disaster but I liked it and said so to both men a few years back. Colan agreed it turned out okay. JR cringed when I mentioned it.

By the way, I rather enjoyed the Kubert/Anderson collaboration.

Cei-U!
I summon the odd couples!

[spoon_jenkins]

I dislike Al Milgrom inked by Joe Sinnott (on both Avengers and West Coast Avengers). Kyle Baker was the guest inker on one issue of WCA, and it was amazing how much better Milgrom's art looked.

I also disliked John Byrne inked by Klaus Janson (on a Wolverine story arc). I don't feel Janson is an "all-purpose" inker; he's more suited to pencilers who match his scratchy style.

[Gingold]

Bill Sienkieviech over Barry Windsor-Smith on Excalibur #27 wasn't pretty.

Al Milgrom killed Walt Simonson's pencils whenever he inked them.

Klaus Janson over Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez in the current JLA:Classified arc is interestesting and it looks professional enough, but I feel it's overpowering so much of what makes Garcia-Lopez's pencils so good.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Klaus Janson over Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez in the current JLA:Classified arc is interestesting and it looks professional enough, but I feel it's overpowering so much of what makes Garcia-Lopez's pencils so good.
It worked a lot better than I'd expected would be the case... but yeah, I'd rather it had been a different inker with a more fluid style.

[Red Oak Kid]

Yet Neal has said in interviews that he loved Joe's inking on those stories (because it "looked like a Marvel comic," or words to that effect). Go figure.

Cei-U!
I summon the enigma!

I think I understand what Neal was saying.

There are two ways that people view art. Some want to see how the artist interprets a character. What is Adams' take on Thor? Others want to see Thor art. Period. The Sinnott inks made it look like the Thor art that regular readers were accustomed to. The Sinnott inks gave Neal's art a continuity with the Kirby art it followed. Nothing wrong with that, IMO.

The most jarring inks on Adams, IMO, were those of George Roussos on the first Deadman story Neal did in Strange Adventures. Not good. Tho no offense to Mr. Roussous who had been in comics from it's inception. I think he had something to do with the inking or coloring on the first appearance of Batman in Detective or his own mag.

Also Adams was inked by John Verpooten in some issues of Amazing Adventures featuring the Inhumans. A tad heavy handed, but Neal has also stated in interview that he was happy with the results. Say what you will about Neal Adams, but he is always complementary to artists who have preceded him in this field. He shows a professional respect to anyone who has made a living drawing comics.

I wasn't real happy with Dan Adkins' inks on Adams in the early GL/GA stories.

Some early pages of a Brave and the Bold(But Bork Can Hurt You) were inked by Vince Colletta. I have read Neal was not happy with these pages, at the time. I have read that he got the uninked pages back from Colletta and had Dick Giordano ink them.

[Reptisaurus!]

Avengers Annual ...13? 14?

John Byrne totally ripped all the Ditko-ness out of Steve Ditko's artwork. (Which is kind of an accomplishment, actually.)

[Red Oak Kid]

Here's one such surprise. It's FRANK ROBBINS inked by P. CRAIG RUSSELL. Very nice, don't you think???

http://www.mycomicshop.com/res/unprocessed/fullsize/BA2R30132.jpg
Michi

Ahh, that Comics Reader cover brings back memories. I had a subscription to it during that time frame.

[JKCarrier]

Bad mismatches:

Joe Sinnott inking Bill Sienkiewicz on Fantastic Four.
Terry Austin inking Howard Chaykin on the Dominic Fortune issue of Marvel Premiere.
Tony DeZuniga inking Walt Simonson on Thor (the '70s run).

Surprisingly good matches:

Craig Russell inking Steve Dikto on Rom.
Alfredo Alcala inking Jack Kirby on Destroyer Duck.

[theflyingfrogunderdog]

John Romita Jr. and Dan Green. I never liked the unfinished look of those mid '80s X-Men comics.

[MWGallaher]

Ahh, that Comics Reader cover brings back memories. I had a subscription to it during that time frame.
Makes ya wonder how people can complain about Robbins when he was capable of such great compositions as that one.

As for mismatches, yeah, I've seen my share in my 30+ years of reading. My favorite artist, Jim Aparo, was saddled routinely with someone I thought was a bad match for him, Mike DeCarlo, for years after Jim stopped inking himself. And then Bill Sinkeiwicz seems to have elected himself as the Aparo inker, and that wasn't a whole lot better. But both of those were better than "new school" inker Danny Miki, who inked what is probably the worst Aparo job ever published, marred by inappropriate script (that played to Aparo's biggest weaknesses), bad inking, poor computer-scanned reproduction (pixelation all over the place!), an incomprehensible script, and a total lack of action or plot (this was a 2-page segment of one of the poorer "Secret Files" DC books). Yech.

For more common-place pairings, I never really liked seeing John Romita inking Gil Kane covers at Marvel. Both artists had such overpowering styles that the collaboration seemed to be in competition with itself. Particularly when there were portions of the drawing significantly redrawn by Romita.

[scratchie]

How about Jack Kirby inked by Murphy Anderson in Jimmy Olsen? There are some truly bizarre panels in there with a classic Anderson "Superman head" atop a classic Kirby body (distorted in mid-jump), or half-hidden behind a giant Kirby paw/hand

[MilkManX]

How about Jack Kirby inked by Murphy Anderson in Jimmy Olsen? There are some truly bizarre panels in there with a classic Anderson "Superman head" atop a classic Kirby body (distorted in mid-jump), or half-hidden behind a giant Kirby paw/hand

That whole thing was a catastrophy.

I have been reading the Essential FF volumes(1-3) by Lee and Kirby latley.

I dont really care for Dick Ayers(maybe on the westerns but not on FF)Chic Stone(not enough spot blacks and too thick brush work) and Vince Colletta(okay on Thor but too scratchy on FF).

[Cei-U!]

I have been reading the Essential FF volumes(1-3) by Lee and Kirby latley.

I dont really care for Dick Ayers(maybe on the westerns but not on FF)Chic Stone(not enough spot blacks and too thick brush work) and Vince Colletta(okay on Thor but too scratchy on FF).

Interesting. Ayers is my favorite FF inker, even above Sinnott. He gave Jack Kirby's pencils weight and depth and texture so that the visuals pop off the page in a way they simply don't under other artists. The first three pages of Fantastic Four Annual #1 are my absolute favorite Kirby art. Unfortunately, their synergy went awry around late '65/early '66 as Jack's art evolved toward the epic bravura of his Fourth World titles.

Cei-U!
I summon the alternate POV!

[Scott Shaw!]

I dont really care for Chic Stone (not enough spot blacks and too thick brush work).

Hmmm...those are two of the reasons why Chic Stone is my favorite Kirby inker! I love the fact that he brings out the cartoony nature of Jack's art. Besides, I can't think of another Kirby inker whose own drawing style merged so well with Jack's.

As for inking mis-matches, how about Vince Colletta over Alex Toth (over Jack Kirby layouts) on X-MEN No. 12? Toth's inking completely difuses what must have been some VERY dynamic and well-designed pencil art. From what I've heard, the abysmal results were what drove Toth away from Marvel for the rest of his career.

As for my personal mis-matches, it had to be the great Chad Grothkoph. His work was wonderful on its own, but when he inked my pencils on CAPTAIN CARROT, he ignored much of my drawing, even substituting bizarre new backgrounds (he once re-did backgrounds in the middle of a subway car sequence as a city street exterior!) On the other hand, my best (at least, favorite) inker has been Al Gordon.

Aloha,

Scott!

[Heraclevs]

My vote is Vince Colletta inking George Perez in The Avengers.

After that, Mike DeCarlo's inks over Perez were really bad, too. Now that I mention it, I don't think I liked DeCarlo's inks anywhere I saw them.

Also, Denis Rodier's inks over a slew of Superman pencillers (Guice, Dwyer, Grummett, et al) looked pretty bad.

- Romans 9

[Hombre]

I remember a few issues of 'Peter Parker: Spider-Man', pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Bill Sienkiewicz. Not pretty.


As a confirmed fan of Sal, and big admirer of Sienkiewicz, I found this very pretty, and always mention it as proof of Sal's versatility and reliability even in his later years as a regular penciler for Marvel.

[Hombre]

Here's one such surprise. It's FRANK ROBBINS inked by P. CRAIG RUSSELL. Very nice, don't you think???



Incidentally, P. Craig Russel also complemented John Buscema's pencils in Thor #370, Easy Money, very well, conveying that nice western ruggedness.

[Scott Shaw!]

In general, the "best" inkers are also solid artists in their own right who don't allow their own style to envelop whoever they're inking. They can pencil, but may be too critical of their own art. They may prefer to not deal with a blank sheet of paper. They may enjoy "plussing" someone else's art rather than inking something they themself has already drawn (that can be really boring!) They may be able to ink faster than they pencil, hence, more money. Or they may just dig the "Alpha state" one can enter during a long stretch of inking.

These people are rarely mismatched inking ANYONE.

Aloha,

Scott!

[Roquefort Raider]

Skipping any match that includes an inker I just don't like:

The aforementioned Excalibur issue by Windsor-Smith and Sienkiewicz was indeed disappointing. Two great artists at the peak of their game do not always a great match make.

I also do not much care for Gil Kane-Ernie Chan matches. Ernie's a master with a brush, but he just drowned Gil's precise and economical linework.

John Byrne-Tom Palmer was not my favorite team either. Yet I like both of these gentlemen's art elsewhere.

Some amazing and unexpected GOOD matches would include Tom Sutton on Gil Kane in an early issue of John Carter; Tom really went for a pure Kane look on that one, and not for the more organic style he uses in his solo art. Another one would be Terry Austin on Howard Chaykin on an Indiana Jones issue (I forget which): I didn't see their Dominic Fortune collaboration, but the Indiana Jones issue looked fantastic. Barry Windsor-Smith on Herb Trimpe (in the Machine Man mini) was also a great match, and maybe not a surprising one since Barry's early work (in SHIELD, for example) looked a lot like Trimpe's.

[scratchie]

Some amazing and unexpected GOOD matches would include Tom Sutton on Gil Kane in an early issue of John Carter; I think there's some of that in an early issue of Warlock, too.


Another one would be Terry Austin on Howard Chaykin on an Indiana Jones issue (I forget which): Is there anyone who would look bad inked by Austin?

[Roquefort Raider]

Is there anyone who would look bad inked by Austin?
Mmmh... Good question! I was surprised at the time because Austin has a very crisp and precise inking style, not a slick one (in the oily sense of the word). I expected him to fit better with pencils that are more line-oriented and less moody.

But he did mesh very well with Chaykin's raw and dynamic pencil strokes, just as he beautifully rendered Frank Miller's pencils in "What if" #35 and Daredevilo #191, despite not doing it like Klaus Janson at all.

[Slam_Bradley]

Neal Adams and Joe Orlando. Not a match that I'd have even been able to have imagined. Then I saw it in House of Mystery # 179 and it worked really well.

[nonhosonno]

There was an issue of Doctor Strange in the mid-70s pencilled by Gene Colan and inked by John Romita. It should've been a disaster but I liked it and said so to both men a few years back. Colan agreed it turned out okay. JR cringed when I mentioned it.

I bet it turned out alright but I'm of the mind set that Gene Colan should only be inked by Gene Colan.

[nonhosonno]

Anybody inked by Carmine Infantino. Bleah.

[Gerry Alanguilan]

A word about the inking of Alfredo Alcala, Ernie Chan, and other Filipino inkers of their generation...

It's definitely true that their inking tends to overpower the penciller's work. Hopefully, I can help shed some light on why that was the case, as it seems to be common to nearly all Filipinos who started work for DC and Marvel in the late 60's and 70's.

Comics, or as it is called in the Philippines, "KOMIKS", has a great tradition over here. It has been around as early as the late 1800s. The first ongoing character debut in 1929, and an industry of regularly published comics began in 1946.

The late 40's and the 50's was when artists like Nestor Redondo, Alfredo Alcala, Tony DeZuniga began to work. All the artists pencilled and inked their own art. The idea of having two people do the art, the pencilling and the inking, was literally an unheard-of concept.

Splitting the art came about only because artists could not cope with the deadlines, and it became a necessity to have someone pencil, and then have another person ink.

But those Filipino artists were FAST. Our comics came out once every two weeks, and later on, weekly. In his prime, Alfredo Alcala worked on as much as 15 pages a week, pencilling, inking and sometimes even lettering. But those are artwork that don't look rushed at all. In fact, they were insanely detailed. Check out this typical art from Alfredo during the 1950's.
http://www.komikero.com/museum/alfredo6.html

These artists were fast because they never pencilled their work tightly. Oftentimes, they only sketched the pencils, and then used the pen, brush and ink to "draw".

It was under those conditions that these artists were trained. When they began working for US companies in the late 60's and early 70's, all of them pretty much pencilled and inked their own work, mostly for mystery, horror, and war stories.

Later, perhaps when editors learned of their unusual way of working, began pairing them with pencillers, perhaps with the full intention of taking advantage of their knack for "drawing with ink", perhaps transforming a sparsely detailed pencilled page into something terrific.

The Filipino artists took those pencils and treated them as they had been trained to do. They DREW on them, using the pencils more or less as a guide. There were spectacular results, but it also made a lot of pencillers unhappy, and it resulted in these artists getting the reputation for "overpowering" their pencillers. A few of them became accepted for that, specially Alfredo Alcala, who was hired specially to do his "thing".

Some artists were able to adjust, specially people like Romeo Tanghal, Del Barras and Danny Bulanadi. They were able to hold back just enough and they had long inking careers.

Perhaps it would have been better if they just let those artists ink their own work, because really, that's what they were best at. Looking a stuff like RIMA, KONG, Swamp Thing, Phantom Stranger, and the literally hundreds of short stories for DC and WARREN that they had worked on, they did really good work, and they had to overpower nobody but themselves.

[Mark Wallace]

Tony DeZuniga inking Walt Simonson on Thor (the '70s run).
That's the one I was trying to remember. Awful.

[Reptisaurus!]

The Filipino artists took those pencils and treated them as they had been trained to do. They DREW on them, using the pencils more or less as a guide. There were spectacular results, but it also made a lot of pencillers unhappy, and it resulted in these artists getting the reputation for "overpowering" their pencillers. A few of them became accepted for that, specially Alfredo Alcala, who was hired specially to do his "thing".

Huh. Never thought of it like that. Very nice post.

[Jankenstein]

Every inking job I've ever seen from P. Craig Russell looks absolutely superb!

I remember an Alien comic where Geof Darrow inked some Gary Gianni drawings, and it looked like Darrow instead.

[mgs]

Not sure about bad matches, but everything I've seen that Sandra Hope inks comes out wonderfully, whether dealing with lesser or greater pencillers.

[dan bailey]

Continuing the wavelet of great inking jobs ... Yesterday afternoon at the LCS nearest me I glanced through an old X-Men TPB because I'd noticed on the GCD that it reprinted the first "furry Beast" story from Amazing Adventures, & I was truly taken aback at just how sumptuous the Tom Sutton-Syd Shores combination looked.

I mean, at first glance I might've mistaken the art for Wally Wood's, even. Sutton's pencils (which I disliked as a kid, though I've grown to like him a lot), normally loose to the point of approaching sloppiness at times, were extremely well served by Shores' extremely realistic style.

Shores is a guy I must confess I've never paid much attention to, though I remember saying something similarly glowing a few months ago with respect to another inking job of his (the details of which now escape me). I think I knew him as a kid purely for his inking of Dick Ayers on the first few ishes of Captain Savage, which of course in my eyes was left in the dust by John Severin's subsequent stint on the title. That was unforunate, since given my love for Severin's work he would've left just about anybody in the shadows as far as I'm concerned.

I was quite saddened to see this morning in Shores' Wikipedia entry that in the early '70s he was apparently reduced to driving a cab because he wasn't getting enough work from the powers-that-be. This industry whose products we love is not a very nice one, is it?

[MDG]

I mean, at first glance I might've mistaken the art for Wally Wood's, even. Sutton's pencils (which I disliked as a kid, though I've grown to like him a lot), normally loose to the point of approaching sloppiness at times, were extremely well served by Shores' extremely realistic style.
I had the same feeling about Sutton--I've seen stuff I liked by him and other stuff that I couldn't get through. A lot seems to depend on the inker, but I think I had the most trouble when he inked himslef (on some Charlton horror stories)

[Beria]

Curt Swan inked by Murhy Anderson.
Jack Kirby inked by Alfredo Alcala.
Anyone inked by Bill Sienkievicz.

[Roquefort Raider]

Anyone inked by Bill Sienkievicz.

Bill himself excepted, surely!

[Georgie Roussell]

Not a big fan of Alex Toth inked by either himself or anyone else.

[Cei-U!]

Curt Swan inked by Murhy Anderson.


You don't like Swanderson???

Cei-U!
I summon the hyperventilation!

[Beria]

Bill himself excepted, surely!

Of course. Bill is the man!

As for Swanderson, I understand my view is a controversial one. I like Anderson just fine as penciller (Atomic Knights is a classic), but his inks over Swan never appealed to me.

[DDM]

John Romita Jr. and Dan Green. I never liked the unfinished look of those mid '80s X-Men comics.

I think John Romita Jr. was still trying for develop his style when he penciled Uncanny X-Men the first time. He found his style by the time he worked with Ann Nocenti on Daredevil, although Al Williamson's inks complimented John Romita Jr's pencils.

[DDM]

Arthur Adams (pencils) & Barry Windsor-Smith (inks) for the Uncanny X-Men #214 (cover):

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/97792366288.214.GIF

Barry's inks completely overwhelm Arthur Adams' pencils that I can distinquish one from the other.

[Aaron Kashtan]

If I hadn't been told that BWS only inked that cover and didn't pencil it, I'd never have guessed. (There, try to sort out all the double negatives in that sentence!)

[DDM]

If I hadn't been told that BWS only inked that cover and didn't pencil it, I'd never have guessed. (There, try to sort out all the double negatives in that sentence!)

I looked at Arthur Adams pencils of Uncanny X-Men #214 in Modern Masters: Arthur Adams. Previously, the cover never looked right to me. But I couldn't put my finger on what was "wrong" with it. Nothing was wrong per se, but something seemed off about the cover.

[spoon_jenkins]

Is there anyone who would look bad inked by Austin?
Kieron Dwyer. Austin inked Dwyer on supplemental pages added to the original stories in Classic X-Men. The art had an unappealing scratchy look (pardon the pun). Dwyer's art look significantly better when he moved on to Captain America with other inkers.

[benday-dot]

.
Jack Kirby inked by Alfredo Alcala.


You are talking about Destroyer Duck right? I was just looking at those issues the other day as I was going through some of my Gerber stuff.

Yes, Alcala is rather overpowering with all those lines, but I actually didn't mind it. I always love seeing how Kirby turns out with all these different hands at work. And we'll always have Royer.

[Norrin Radd]

John Byrne inked by John Byrne.

To me it has a "rushed" feel to it when he does it himself. This was noticeable to me even in the old FF issues.

[Ventura]

Swan inked by Abel (in some Adventure LSH stories in the late 60s) looked really strange to me...Klein was the definitive Swan inker, IMO.

[prince hal]

Back in the halcyon days, a letters-page controversy raged over who was the definitive Hawkman artist, Murphy Anderson or Joe Kubert.

The inevitable happened; a story pencilled by Kubert and inked by Murph. I remeber thinking I was seeing an historic moment occur as I paged through the pages of Atom-Hawkman 41 to read it. I also remember being distinctly unimpressed, as Anderson's tight style just didn't suit Kubert's loose pencils.

Plus the story was in the vein of Fox's pseudo-science mysteries, the kind Anderson often did, not the kind of outer space adventure, with the looming darkness that Kubert excelled at. Still, I always hoped they'd publish an Anderson-pencilled, Kubert-inked story just for the fun of it.

[JKCarrier]

I also remember being distinctly unimpressed, as Anderson's tight style just didn't suit Kubert's loose pencils.

I haven't seen that issue, but that does sound like an odd combination. Do you think it might've worked better the other way around (Kubert inking Anderson)?

[prince hal]

I haven't seen that issue, but that does sound like an odd combination. Do you think it might've worked better the other way around (Kubert inking Anderson)?

You know, I don't recall seeing Kubert ink anybody but himself. (Maybe he did at times in the Golden Age.) I don't know , but my gut says that Anderson's pencils were probably pretty detailed and complete, which wouldn't have made it easy for Joe to "Kubertize" them.

Oh and there wer eactually two stories, one in 40, the other in 41. I'd forgotten about the first one.

[MDG]

You know, I don't recall seeing Kubert ink anybody but himself. (Maybe he did at times in the Golden Age.) I don't know , but my gut says that Anderson's pencils were probably pretty detailed and complete, which wouldn't have made it easy for Joe to "Kubertize" them.

He inked Infantino on the first appearance of The Flash, but that was before his style became as totally distinctive as it would later become.

The Kubert/Anderson story looks a little odd in places, but, because of who these two guys are, there's nothing "wrong" or "bad" about it.

MDG

[Kan-Man]

You know, I don't recall seeing Kubert ink anybody but himself. (Maybe he did at times in the Golden Age.) I don't know , but my gut says that Anderson's pencils were probably pretty detailed and complete, which wouldn't have made it easy for Joe to "Kubertize" them.

Oh and there wer eactually two stories, one in 40, the other in 41. I'd forgotten about the first one.

I seem to recall seeing him ink his sons pencils, maybe on a variant cover perhaps? Not surprisingly, you can definitely see his craftsmanship.

[Reptisaurus!]

You know, I don't recall seeing Kubert ink anybody but himself. (Maybe he did at times in the Golden Age.) I don't know , but my gut says that Anderson's pencils were probably pretty detailed and complete, which wouldn't have made it easy for Joe to "Kubertize" them.

Oh and there wer eactually two stories, one in 40, the other in 41. I'd forgotten about the first one.

I believe his first job was as an Archie inker, and I know he inked some Western Infantino and Toth comics in the forties and fifties.

If I'm remembering right, Kubert inked a couple pages of the first Batman/Sgt. Rock team-up over Neal Adams. And he's not credited, but if he DIDN'T ink over Adams on the cover to Detective 404, it's an almost scary imitation of his style.

[MWGallaher]

Kubert also inked Adams on an Enemy Ace story for Star Spangle War Stories, and he inked Frank Thorne on an issue of Tomahawk.
I recall some controversy in the letters pages when Anderson inked Kubert on those Hawkman stories, and I think someone back then suggested that DC try the art team the other way around! I don't think the book was around long enough for them to try, though--weren't these stories printed in those final few "Atom and Hawkman" issues that combined both series?

[prince hal]

Yes, they were in the Atom/Hawkman title, MW.

I can't believe I forgot the Flash origin! DOH!

I'll have to check which Tomahawk he inked. (Gives me an excuse to dig through one of my all-time favorite titles! Yes, I know I'm weird!)

And that whole Enemy Ace story in Detective was scarily Kubertesque. I wondered then whether Joe had been in on that.

And speaking of the thread title again, was there any artist whose pencils benefited from having Jack Abel ink them? I guess I need my memory jogged.

[MWGallaher]

And speaking of the thread title again, was there any artist whose pencils benefited from having Jack Abel ink them? I guess I need my memory jogged.

I'd nominate Dick Ayers on DC's FREEDOM FIGHTERS. I've got no problem with "raw" Ayers on stuff like Giant-Man or Marvel Westerns or Ghost Rider or It! The Living Colossus, but by the mid-70s, I don't think his work was considered appropriate for such a straight-laced DC super-team. Abel pretty much eradicated the Ayers look on the art, but that probably helped Ayers stay on the book; DC seems to have paired him with overwhelming inkers on his other work of the era like Kamandi and Scalphunter, so I assume they wanted to employ him but didn't especially want the Ayers patina. The Ayers/Abel team on FF was pedestrian, but was slicker than some of the other stuff DC was publishing at the time, and much better looking than the extremely unfortunate pairing of Ramona Fradon and Vince Colletta on earlier issues of FF (Colletta actually worked under a pseudonym on one of those--I still can't guess why that came to be!)

[prince hal]

See, I knew there would be someone Abel's inks did well by!

[dan bailey]

I've got, but haven't yet read (well, not since they were new on the spinner racks), the short entirety of Freedom Fighters, so at some point I'll have to dig those ishes out & look at them. Abel seems to have been a prince of a fellow (at least if Alan Kupperberg's mention of him in his Streetwise reminiscence is any indication), but he's easily gotta be my least favorite inker of all time.

[MDG]

And speaking of the thread title again, was there any artist whose pencils benefited from having Jack Abel ink them? I guess I need my memory jogged.
I had an original Flash page (forgot the penciller--Novick, maybe) that credited Murphy Anderson as inker, but sure didn't look it. I brought it to a show to have Anderson sign it and he said that Jack Abel was sub-contracting some work from him at the time.

I remember when Abel was inking Wonder Woman in one of the Dollar Comics and my friend remarked that it looked like he was using a compass to draw her butt.

MDG

[Aaron Kashtan]

I had an original Flash page (forgot the penciller--Novick, maybe) that credited Murphy Anderson as inker, but sure didn't look it. I brought it to a show to have Anderson sign it and he said that Jack Abel was sub-contracting some work from him at the time.

Just out of curiosity, did Murphy sign it or not?

[Cei-U!]

I love Jack Abel's inks myself, though I freely admit there are pencillers his work does not serve well (Curt Swan comes to mind). I especially enjoyed his work as "Gary Michaels" over Gene "Adam Austin" Colan on Tales of Suspense but also liked his inks over Dick Ayers, George Tuska, Paul Gulacy and others. I honestly can't see why people dump on Abel.

Cei-U!
I summon the loneliness!

[dan bailey]

Which is cool. I'm always intrigued when people whose tastes I greatly respect -- a list on which Kurt's name places very high -- love (or hate) the work of someone whose stuff I feel pretty much the opposite about. (See: Robbins, Frank.) Really brings home the subjectivity of it all.

[Kan-Man]

my friend remarked that it looked like he was using a compass to draw her butt.

That's bad, right?

[dan bailey]

Did he depict WW's posterior as so gigantic that it was necessary to distinguish north from south?

[MDG]

Just out of curiosity, did Murphy sign it or not?

Yeah--He inked the main characters, or at least their faces. Abel inked secondary characters and backgrounds.

MDG

[Kan-Man]

Did he depict WW's posterior as so gigantic that it was necessary to distinguish north from south?

Interesting - you're thinking of the directional tool, I was picturing the drafting device we used to have to buy in grade school that was sharp enough to stop a charging rhino.

And I, for one, would not want to be the one to tell Wonder Woman that she has a big tush - Amazonian princesses tend to be real sensitive about that sort of thing.

[dan bailey]

Interesting - you're thinking of the directional tool, I was picturing the drafting device we used to have to buy in grade school that was sharp enough to stop a charging rhino.

And I, for one, would not want to be the one to tell Wonder Woman that she has a big tush - Amazonian princesses tend to be real sensitive about that sort of thing.

Rest assured, I understood your reference. Every now & then (I try to limit myself to days that end in "Y") I can be a tad bit flippant.

[Kan-Man]

Rest assured, I understood your reference. Every now & then (I try to limit myself to days that end in "Y") I can be a tad bit flippant.

Yup, I got that. It just never occurred to me until today that both words are spelled the same. And I'm a writer, by trade (you know there's no way to write that without sounding pompous).

[dan bailey]

(As an editor by trade, yes, I know very well what you mean.)

Otherwise, I guess I wouldn't necessarily have helped matters at all if I had somehow felt compelled to cite Dalek I Love You's first album, from a quarter-century or so ago* ...

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/Compass2.jpg




* Whose first song, "Dalek I Love You" -- work with me ... I'm strugging for some sort of relevance here -- probably only ever appeared in the U.S. market as a cut on the Thru the Back Door compilation, which also included the Tearjerkers' "Comic Book Heroes," which Google tells me one-time BNF Ken Gale used to play as the intro to his old comics-oriented radio show 'Nuff Said. (It would appear from his Web site that Gale is at least as punk-conscious as I am, which is sort of scary.)

[MartinRedmond]

Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend. Awful. Bukingham was horrid too. Mark Pennington was gold. Or hell, any inker except T and B are awesome.

Joe Q and Danny Miki, though I'm glad about that one because I dislike Joe Q so now his art looks super ugly. Allright!

My favorite Kirby inker is Mike Royer, I feel he's the only one who gave Kirby that extra oomph and style. The other guys softened Jack's art way too much.

[Lone Ranger]

I was reading a Jason Barb back-up story in a circa 1972 Detective Comics last night and I was very surprised to find that I really didn't like Murphy Anderson's inks on Don Heck's pencils.

I'm a big fan of both artists - but this seemed unbelievably flat and dull.