Comic book or graphic novel line artist
The
inker
(sometimes credited as the
finisher
or
embellisher
)
[1]
is one of the two line artists in traditional
comic book
production.
After the
penciller
creates a drawing, the inker interprets this drawing by outlining and embellishing it with a
pencil
, a
pen
or a brush. Inking was necessary in the traditional printing process as presses could not reproduce pencilled drawings. Another specialist, the
letterer
, handles the "inking" of text, while the
colorist
applies color to the final art submitted by the inker.
[2]
Workflow
[
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]
While inking involves tracing pencil lines in a literal sense, it is an act of creative interpretation rather than rote copying. Inkers fine-tune the composition by adding the proper weight to lines, creating visual contrast through
shading
, and making other creative choices. A pencil drawing can have many shades of grey depending on the hardness of the graphite and the pressure applied by the artist, but an ink line generally can be only solid black. Accordingly, the inker has to translate pencil shading into patterns of ink, for example by using closely spaced parallel lines, feathering, or
cross-hatching
. The result is that the final look of a penciller's art can vary enormously depending on the inker.
An experienced inker paired with a novice penciler might also be responsible for correcting anatomical or other mistakes, modifying facial expressions, or changing or improving the artwork in a variety of other ways. Alternatively, an inker may do the basic layout of the page, give the work to another artist to do more detailed pencil work, and then ink the page themself (as
Joe Simon
often did when inking
Jack Kirby
,
[3]
or when
Michael T. Gilbert
collaborated with penciler
P. Craig Russell
on the
Elric of Melnibone series
).
The division between penciller and inker described here is most frequently found where the penciller and inker are hired independently of each other by the publisher. Where an artist instead hires their own assistants, the roles are less structured; an artist might, for example, ink all the faces of the characters while leaving the assistant to ink in the backgrounds, or work with the inker in a more collaborative fashion. Among Neal Adams'
Crusty Bunkers
, one inker may have been responsible for the characters' heads, another doing bodies, and a third embellishing backgrounds.
[4]
The inking duo
Akin
&
Garvey
had a similar arrangement, with one inking the figures and the other the backgrounds.
Digital inking
[
edit
]
One can
ink digitally
using computers, a practice that has started to become more common as inkers learn to use powerful drawing and editing tools such as
Adobe
Illustrator
and
Photoshop
,
Inkscape
,
Corel Painter
, and
Manga Studio
. A
graphics tablet
is the most common tool used to accurately ink digitally, and use of
vector-based
programs precludes
pixelization
due to changes in resolution. However the process is more time-consuming.
As of 2015
[update]
some companies put scanned pencils on an
FTP site
. The inker downloads them, prints them in blue, inks the pages, scans them in and loads the finished pages back on the FTP site for the company to download. While this procedure saves a company time and shipping costs, it requires artists to spend money on computer equipment.
History
[
edit
]
For a long time, inking was considered a minor part of the comics industry, only marginally above
lettering
in the pecking order. In the early days of comic books, many publishers hired "packagers" to produce entire books. Although some "star" creators' names (such as
Simon
and
Kirby
or
Bob Kane
) usually appeared at the beginning of each story, the publisher generally did not care which artists worked on the book. In the early days, the creator of the feature would get credit for as long as they worked on the feature, but when they were replaced by other artists, no name credit would be given to them. Packagers instituted an
assembly line
style method of creating books, using top talents like Kirby to create the look and pace of the story and then handing off the inking, lettering, and coloring to largely anonymous ? and low-paid ? creators to finish it.
Deadline pressures and a desire for consistency in the look of a feature led to having one artist pencil a feature while one or more other artists inked it. At
Marvel Comics
, where the pencil artist was responsible for the frame-by-frame breakdown of the story plot, an artist who was skilled in story-telling would be encouraged to do as many books as possible, maximizing the number of books they could do by leaving the inking to others. By contrast, at other companies where the writer did the frame-by-frame breakdown in script form, more artists inked or even lettered their own work.
Joe Kubert
,
Jim Aparo
and Alex Toth would usually pencil, ink and letter, considering the placing of word balloons as an integral part of the page, and artists such as
Bill Everett
,
Steve Ditko
,
Kurt Schaffenberger
,
Murphy Anderson
, and
Nick Cardy
almost always inked their own work (and sometimes the work of other pencilers as well). Most artists, however ? even experienced inkers of their own work like
Lou Fine
,
Reed Crandall
,
Will Eisner
, and
Alex Toth
? at times hired or allowed other artists to ink their drawings. Some artists could make more money by pencilling more pages and leaving the inking to others; different artists with different working methods might find it more profitable to both pencil and ink, as they could place less information and detail in the pencil drawings if they were inking it themselves and could put that detail in at the inking stage.
Due to the absence of credits on most Golden Age comic books, many inkers of that period are largely forgotten. For those whose names are known, it is difficult to compile resumes. Inkers like
Chic Stone
,
George Papp
, and
Marvin Stein
embellished thousands of pages during that era, most of which are still unidentified.
Crediting
[
edit
]
In the early 1960s, Marvel Comics began giving the inker credit in each of their publications and other publishers began to follow suit. This allowed finishers like
Dick Ayers
,
Joe Sinnott
,
Mike Esposito
,
John Severin
,
Syd Shores
, and
Tom Palmer
to earn a reputation as inkers as well as pencillers. In addition, penciller?inker teams like Kirby and Sinnott,
Curt Swan
and
Murphy Anderson
,
Gene Colan
and Palmer, and
John Byrne
and
Terry Austin
captured the attentions of comic book fandom.
Industry awards
[
edit
]
In 2008 Marvel and DC inker
Bob Almond
founded the
Inkwell Awards
, which is an award established to celebrate the craft of inking and to lift the profile of the art in general. The
Inkwell Awards
has gained much publicity and counts notable inkers such as Joe Sinnott,
Nathan Massengill
and
Tim Townsend
as members and associates.
Notable inkers
[
edit
]
Notable penciller?inker partnerships
[
edit
]
- Curt Swan
/
George Klein
? Worked for decades on DC's
Superman
titles. Commander R. A. Benson, USN (Ret.) wrote "[I]t was Swan with Klein who created the definitive Superman image [that] typified the Silver Age".
[5]
- Curt Swan
/
Murphy Anderson
? Notably on the early 1970s
Superman
titles, the team is often referred to as "Swanderson."
[6]
- Jack Kirby
/
Joe Simon
? possibly the first true tandem, in their heyday they defined
Captain America
,
The Red Skull
,
Sandman
and
Sandy
,
Manhunter
, the
Boy Commandos
, romance comics, and much more.
[3]
- John Severin
/
Will Elder
? EC war and science fiction
- Jack Kirby
/
Dick Ayers
? Ayers probably being Kirby's most prolific partner, the pair produced hundreds of pages of Western and monster stories before the Marvel superhero era began.
[7]
- Jack Kirby
/
Joe Sinnott
? the early years of the
Fantastic Four
- Ross Andru
/
Mike Esposito
? the pair worked together on-and-off for over 40 years, for DC and Marvel, on such titles as
Showcase
,
Wonder Woman,
the
Metal Men
, and
The Amazing Spider-Man
- Dick Ayers
/
John Severin
?
Sgt. Fury
- Gene Colan
/
Syd Shores
? 1960s
Daredevil
- John Buscema
/
Tom Palmer
? 1960s
Avengers
- Neal Adams
/
Tom Palmer
? late 1960s
X-Men
and
Avengers
- Neal Adams
/
Dick Giordano
? late 1960s/early 1970s era
Batman
,
Detective Comics
, and
Green Lantern/Green Arrow
- Gene Colan
/
Tom Palmer
?
Daredevil,
Tomb of Dracula
,
Doctor Strange
- John Byrne
/
Terry Austin
? a run on the
Uncanny X-Men
- Frank Miller
/
Klaus Janson
?
Daredevil
and
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
- George Perez
/
Romeo Tanghal
? the
New Teen Titans
- Ron Frenz
/
Brett Breeding
? many projects but most notably late 1980s
The Amazing Spider-Man
,
Thor
, and late 1990s
Avengers Next
- Stephen R. Bissette
/
John Totleben
? Alan Moore's
Swamp Thing
- Jim Lee
/
Scott Williams
?
Uncanny X-Men
,
WildCATS
, and
All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder
- Joe Quesada
/
Jimmy Palmiotti
? many projects, notably
Ash
and
Daredevil
- Ed McGuinness
/
Dexter Vines
? known as "eDex,"
[8]
they've partnered on (among others)
Civil War
,
Superman/Batman
, and
JLA Classified
- Bryan Hitch
/
Paul Neary
? Known for their run on "
The Ultimates
", written by
Mark Millar
.
- Greg Capullo
/
Danny Miki
? Known for their run on Todd McFarlane's "
Spawn (comics)
" in the mid 1990s.
- Jan Duursema
/
Dan Parsons
? Known for
Dark Horse
Star Wars comics "
Republic
","
Legacy
", and"
Dawn of the Jedi
" in the early 2000s.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Bullpen Bulletins,"
Marvel Two-in-One
#52 (Marvel Comics, June 1979).
- ^
Fox, Margalit
(April 5, 2013).
"Carmine Infantino, Reviver of Batman and Flash, Dies at 87"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
a
b
"The Twenty Greatest Inkers of American Comic Books: #16, Joe Simon," Atlas Comics.
Accessed Feb. 13, 2009.
- ^
Michael Netzer
.
"The Lives and Time of Crusty Bunker," Michael Netzer Online, September 17, 2007
Archived
February 10, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
- ^
Captain Comics forum post
formerly at
[1]
Archived
2020-08-03 at the
Wayback Machine
Last access attempt Oct. 12, 2006.
- ^
Gelbwasser, Mike.
(May. 8, 2020).
Archived
2020-08-03 at the
Wayback Machine
Accessed Feb. 13, 2009.
- ^
"The Twenty Greatest Inkers of American Comic Books: #6, Dick Ayers," Atlas Comics.
Accessed Feb. 13, 2009.
- ^
Redington, James (April 15, 2005).
"Local Convention to Host the Only National Team Appearance of
Superman/Batman
Creative Team"
.
Comics Bulletin
.
External links
[
edit
]