Curt Swan Inkers...

[Criadoman]

I dunno... Bob Oksner was an awesome inker, but in my opinion he "weighed" down Swan's pencils. BUT I think in a lot of ways he was very similar to Swan.

I can see your point, particularly in the "Who took the Super out of Superman" story.  I believe the imaginary Superman 2001 story to be a much better example of what I'm referring to.  To me, as gorgeous as Swan's art actually is (and it is) often many inkers would flatten his pencils apparently because they didn't know what to do with all the gray-scale inherent in Swan's pencils.  Bob and Murphy, both accomplished artists on their own, could do something about that that worked.  In Bob's case, I really loved those shadow lines he put on the abdomen and shin and wrist areas.  He also bulked out Superman upstairs with incredible detail.

I'm reminded of Norm Breyfogle's comments about inking being the fast food aspect of comic art.  Neither Murphy nor Oksner ever looked like that.  I believe their inked pages look like nicely finished pages of art - integrated so well with the pencils that you know you're not viewing an inked page of pencils, but a complete piece of art onto itself.

Well, that's enough zen this morning.

[davidelliott]

I'm gonna start a new thread on Swan's inkers... look for it somewhere in the forum!!

EDIT:  Great Rao did it for me.. this is the thread!

[Aldous]

I dunno... Bob Oksner was an awesome inker, but in my opinion he "weighed" down Swan's pencils. BUT I think in a lot of ways he was very similar to Swan.

Neither Murphy nor Oksner ever looked like that.  I believe their inked pages look like nicely finished pages of art - integrated so well with the pencils that you know you're not viewing an inked page of pencils, but a complete piece of art onto itself.

Yes, that is quite true. Hence the "Swanderson" name -- and India Ink, with a bit of a wink, used to use the name "Swoksner" if I recall correctly. (It's always worth checking out his old posts on these boards.)

And as you say, both Murphy and Bob were very experienced, great artists in their own right. I like their work very much on its own, particularly Bob's -- he was a top "good girl" artist and as davidelliott said, his women are beautiful; I'll have to add "gorgeous" to that.

[nightwing]

Just want to chime in here and say that I agree Oksner's women were gorgeous.  Overall, I liked that he brought a sort of crispness, for lack of a better word, to Curt's pencils.  Anderson kept them soft (and tended to draw soft, rounded figures in his own pencils), but Oksner gave them a sharpness and clarity, if that makes any sense.  Sort of a Terry Austin-inks-over-Neal Adams-pencils kind of look.  I really liked it.

[davidelliott]

Here's my take... this was going to be the first post for this thread, but Rao incorporated the posts from the "Superman Breaks Loose" thread in "Site Updates" forum...

"I kind of got off topic in the "Superman Breaks Loose" thread in the site updates forum... so I'm starting this thread.

In no order of importance:

My favorite Swan inker is Murphy Anderson... wow, crisp and clear inks. IMHO Swan NEVER looked so good! The Swanderson Superman is the classic and timeless rendition.

Bob Oksner... I feel he weighed Swan down a bit, but still a really great artist himself. I mentioned in the other thread that his Mary Marvel was awesome, in particular. I had a bit of a crush on her back when I was a kid. His Lois Lane (by himself and over Swan) is definitive!

Dave Hunt was a lot like Murph... only his inks looked, well, cartoony for lack of a better word.

George Klein... EXCELLENT and his inks made Superman look realistic. It was a grown up look.

Worst? Vince Colletta. I never like his inks over ANYONE. Very heavy, like he had one pen or brush and used it on everything. "

So there you are!

[Super Monkey]

Oh, I quite agree there; Colletta was awful. I suppose he only got jobs because he worked fast.

some actual quotes about him:

Rodrigo Baeza: "Colletta was appreciated by publishers because of his ability to turn out professional-looking work on a short time. However, in his efforts to meet deadlines, Colletta would frequently erase details from the pencilled pages he received.... Magazines like the Jack Kirby Collector have shown examples of the pencilled pages Colletta received side-by-side with the finished, inked pages, and the differences can be very evident. The end result would still be printable, but costume details would disappear, patterns in buildings would be simplified, and sometimes background objects would be rubbed out".

Mark Evanier: "In 1970 when Steve Sherman and I met Steve Ditko, he asked us about the new Kirby books that were then about to debut at DC. When we told him Colletta was handling the inking, he winced and said that he would probably not look at the comics. Back when he was working for Marvel, Ditko said he'd pick up the latest issues in the office and always check the credits before taking the comics home. If he found Colletta's name — especially as Kirby's embellisher — he would make a point of putting the comic back, or even in a wastebasket. And he'd make sure Stan saw what he was doing and knew the reason why".

Len Wein, on what he enjoyed most about working on Luke Cage: "Getting to work with the wonderful George Tuska, before Vinnie Colletta got his hands on the pencils and ruined them".

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Colletta

[Klar Ken T5477]

Ive always liked George Klein's inks and Jack Abel's as well as Murph's.  I though Oskner's inks were too 'soft'.

Aggh Vinnie Colletta -he aint no Sinnot!

[nightwing]

Put me down as a Klein man all the way.  Though Murph is a close second.

My disdain for Colletta is well documented in other threads here.  Apparently he figured the key was to aim for quantity over quality, to put it nicely.  Somewhat understandable, really, when you consider few old-timers could have imagined the average comic book would "live" longer than the one month it was released.  Why make "art" that'll be out of circulation in a few week's time?

The ultimately irony is that because of Vinnie's mindset, and because it was so in sync with that of the guys in the suits (who only want to get product out, not make it good), Colletta ended up as DC's Art Director for a while.  Talk about irony!  :shock: