The Eleventh Day of Classic Comics Christmas 2011

[Cei-U!]

Like several other posters, my ranking of my Top 3 is more-or-less arbitrary. On any given day, any of them could be my "favorite." I say this to make it clear that my #2 team is fully worthy of the top spot.

#2. Marie Severin and John Severin

I have a confession to make. I was never a big fan of Marie's work, not even her humor work. I didn't hate it or anything, it just didn't float my boat. That indifference led me to commit a grave injustice towards the Mirthful One: I assumed that it was John who was responsible for all the things I liked about their collaboration on Kull the Conqueror. And then, a decade or so ago, I saw some of Ms. Severin's uninked pages for the title and was blown away. All the nuance, all the details of costume and setting I loved so much were all there in her pencils. Brother John added texture and weight and grit but the magnificent world-building was all Marie. Together the sibs produced the best art ever to grace a sword-and-sorcery comic and one of the best art jobs in American comics, period. So here's hoping this makes up, just a little, for dissing a lovely lady and superb storyteller.

Cei-U!
I summon the apologia!

[shaxper]

My list of favorite Batman penciler/inker teams continues with...


2. Don Newton and Alfredo Alcala

Throughout my doing the Batman review thread, this team has been my long-running favorite. Newton and Alcala added a certain eerily life-like spark to their faces, always making characters look distinct and full of personality (just look at the fire they give to the nameless henchmen in the panels below). Beyond that, the angles were dramatic, the action strong, the framing original, the mood thick, and Alcala's inks always ALWAYS took Newton's art to the next level, never fighting it, never just co-existing with it. He is by far my favorite inker in existence, and I'm quite glad to see him getting so much love here.

I know what you're thinking, Kurt. This wasn't his #1? Then what is?...

[Polar Bear]

"Night of the Stalker," Detective 439, was penciled by one of the least prolific pencilers in the industry--other than this story, he did a few stories for Weird Worlds & World's Finest, and precious little else. He only drew three stories that were 20+ pages in his career.

Amendola was influenced by Neal Adams, no doubt about it--but to me, he outdid his master, creating layouts that weren't just innovative, but truly served the story. Giordano added such depth and texture that virtually every panel became a framable work of art.





On the page below, look at the four-tier layout, the lack of gutters between the images of Batman dropping the car keys, the magnificent way Giordano increases the dramatic tension through the heavy blacks:



Personally, I'm using the Grand Comics Database to create a want list so that I can have a complete set of all of Amendola's American output. I hope he always had an inker as good as Dick Giordano.

[dan bailey]

"Night of the Stalker," Detective 439, was penciled by one of the least prolific pencilers in the industry--other than this story, he did a few stories for Weird Worlds & World's Finest, and precious little else. He only drew three stories that were 20+ pages in his career.

Interesting! I know him mainly by his work on Atlas Seaboard's Phoenix.

[dan bailey]

I have a confession to make. I was never a big fan of Marie's work, not even her humor work. I didn't hate it or anything, it just didn't float my boat.

I ... I don't even know who you are.

*choke*

[The Confessor]

2. Pencils: John Romita Sr., Inks: Jim Mooney


There's a bit of repetition to my #2 pick, since I already chose Romita Sr. as one half of the team in yesterday's thread and I picked Mooney's collaboration with Alan Kupperberg one day last week. But given that I like Romita's pencils and Mooney's inks separately, it stands to reason that there would be a good chance that I would enjoy them when put together...and boy, do I!

I could waste time waxing lyrical about Romita's pencils but let's just say "the guy's incredible" and leave it at that. What I like about Mooney's contribution, however, is that he is able to bring the same strident and dynamic inking to the table that Mike Esposito (his predecessor on Amazing Spider-Man) did, but with bells on! There's just a tad more refinement and subtlety to Mooney's inking than in Esposito's -- just a slightly more refined bent to the shading and a lighter touch to the line work (at least, to my eyes). For that reason, I've placed the Romita/Mooney team just a notch ahead of Romita and Esposito.

Here are some samples...

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

2. Dick Sprang and Charles Paris

--Batman.



It's my honest opinion that Dick Sprang was a genius of the comic art form. He wasn't so much a Bob Kane ghost--someone like Sheldon Moldoff could put on the Bob Kane style like it was a second skin. Sprang employed the style for his own ends. The stock poses, the various conceits, the stylistic ear marks of the Bob Kane Batman were available to the artist as a syntax for his visual language.



Take for example the silhouette figure--something many a Batman artist has used--but Dick Sprang could pull back his camera so that Batman's figure appeared like a flea on the page, which allowed Sprang's wide angle shot to take in the greater surrounding landscape of the characters.



Charles Paris fit Sprang's handiwork like a glove. Together they created works of stunning draftsmanship--surreal images of exotic worlds that only existed in the imagination.

[Polar Bear]

Interesting! I know him mainly by his work on Atlas Seaboard's Phoenix.

If you compare Amendola's self-inked pages from Phoenix #2, you'll see that Giordano did a much better job with facial expressions, light/darkness quantities, etc. But Amendola's still great, by far in the upper quartile of 1970s pencilers.

[Chris N]

This is a panel in Amazing Spider-Man #400. Just an amazing panel.



While the look and feel of Spider-Man is due to Ditko, the look and feel of young Peter Parker is due to John Romita (as is the look of any attractive female). But I feel the look and feel of adult Peter Parker is due to John Romita Jr., a legend in his own right in the history of Spider-Man comics.

Any collaboration of theirs always brings me a bit of a tingle.

And they together told the Parker Legacy in Amazing Spider-Man #400 and Spider-Man #57. These issues begin the story of Ben Reilly and lead into the excellent Lost Years saga, with Klaus Janson (also no slouch of an inker) taking John Romita's place on inks.

[Lone Ranger]

2. Al Williamson & Carlos Garzon

Al Williamson was such a terrific and versatile art that it can be tough deciding just which one of his 'styles' is best. Is it his Warren work in the late 60s? Perhaps his work as an inker for Marvel in teh 80s? For me, I am immediately drawn (pun intended) to his partnership with Carlos Garzon. I am a Star Wars kid, so I first encountered them on the Empire Strikes Back adaptation. It was unlike anything else I'd ever seen before; simultaneously organic and ethereal. In 1982, my parents went to some sort of press screnning for Blade Runner and came home with a media kit, which include excerpts of the artwork that would end up in the Marvel adaptation. It was amazing. I only wish they'd done more work together.

[dan bailey]

Alas, LR, with Confessor*as the instigator, Williamson-Garzon has been ruled ineligible.


*Heretofore to be known as "the reason we can't have nice things"

[Cei-U!]

2. Al Williamson & Carlos Garzon

Al Williamson was such a terrific and versatile art that it can be tough deciding just which one of his 'styles' is best. Is it his Warren work in the late 60s? Perhaps his work as an inker for Marvel in teh 80s? For me, I am immediately drawn (pun intended) to his partnership with Carlos Garzon. I am a Star Wars kid, so I first encountered them on the Empire Strikes Back adaptation. It was unlike anything else I'd ever seen before; simultaneously organic and ethereal. In 1982, my parents went to some sort of press screnning for Blade Runner and came home with a media kit, which include excerpts of the artwork that would end up in the Marvel adaptation. It was amazing. I only wish they'd done more work together.

Sorry, Scott, but as noted in yesterday's thread, Williamson and Garzon are ineligible because, while they shared pencilling responsibilities (Al did figures, Carlos backgrounds) each inked his own contributions. It's the same reason Dave Sim and Gerhard would be ineligible.

Cei-U!
I summon the regret!

[hondobrode]

J. H. Williams III & Mick Gray

For those of you that are still following modern comics, Williams should be a familiar name. Mick Gray is a super nice guy and one of the best inkers in the business. I'd crawl through a mile of glass to read anything by these two.

[The Confessor]

Alas, LR, with Confessor*as the instigator, Williamson-Garzon has been ruled ineligible.


*Heretofore to be known as "the reason we can't have nice things"

LOL...You see, this is what life is like, dan. You have a beautiful thing...it gives you joy...and then The Confessor spoils it all and takes it away.

[MDG]

Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson

Unlike my other selections, which focus on story work, this pair makes it for their covers. Infantino is one of the best cover designers to work in comics. Anderson gave them a polish, without losing any of the dynamism.