RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Wild, wonderful (and horribly wrong) penciller/inker combinations

Those last two stories with Wrightson and Kaluta combining talents is definitely in the "Wild, wonderful" category.

In the "horribly wrong" category, these Wrightson collaborations, that hide what a great artist Wrightson is:

• SUBMARINER 36 cover, April 1971, Sal Buscema pencils, Wrightson inks
  
  ASTONISHING TALES 31 cover, August 1975 Hannigan pencils, Wrightson inks
  
  DEAD OF NIGHT 11 cover, August 1975. Gil Kane pencils, Wrightson inks.
  
  MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN 18 cover, Sept 1975 Mayerik pencils, Wrightson inks.
  
  MARVEL CHILLERS 3 cover, Feb 1976, Chaykin pencils, Wrightson inks.
  
  WEREWOLF BY NIGHT 35 cover, March 1976, Starlin pencils, Wrightson inks.
  
  CAPTAIN MARVEL 43 cover, March 1976, Milgrom pencils, Wrightson inks.
  
  TOMB OF DRACULA 43 cover, April 1976, Wrightson pencils and inks.

And on interior art:

MORLOCK 2001, issue 3, July 1975 Steve Ditko pencils, Wrightson inks.

The full interior Ditko/Wrightson story:
http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2008/12/lo-there-shall-comeendings-morlock-2001.html


Most of these are pretty average looking pages, but for Wrightson, really substandard. Some are interesting, just to see the way their styles mesh. Others are, well, horribly wrong. And generally in all these examples, unrecognizable as Wrightson.

Back on the wonderful side, I just want to show a really nice Wrightson page for Marvel. Although not a collaboration, this
INCREDIBLE HULK 197 cover, March 1976, definitely qualifies. Wrightson pencils and inks.

From the exact same period. Just to show what Wrightson could really do, when he was fully committed.
The others he probably did to help artist friends meet deadlines, or just have fun.

Another on the "wild, wonderful" side...


HOUSE OF SECRETS 85, "Second Choice", 12 pages, Gil Kane pencils inked by Neal Adams, May 1970.




I mentioned the only other Gil Kane/Neal Adams collaboration on page 1 of the topic, on a Conan story in SAVAGE TALES 4.

Too bad these were the only two stories combining Kane/Adams, because their two art styles mesh vey well.

I have to agree, Mike DeCarlo. He's a clean inker, kind of like Brett Breeding, or Terry Austin, and that just goes completely against the grain of what Aparo's linestyle is about.

That also explains why Aparo inking Byrne looks so horrible.

The worst with Aparo is when they had a Baxter SPECTRE reprint series of Aparo's stories from ADVENTURE 431-440, and two or three new stories inked by DeCarlo. It just completely torched away and sterilized any atmosphere or mood. The perfect wrong inker for the job.

In a 1988 reprint series WRATH OF THE SPECTRE

Then more recently collected again in a WRATH OF THE SPECTRE collected trade a few years ago in 2005.

Looking back at this thread I’m thinking the best Inker for Aparo would’ve been Berni Wrightson

I was thinking a good inker on Aparo would be someone with a more loose and more scratchy linestyle, more like Aparo's style in the 1970's.
Like:
* George Roussous. And before you laugh, if you've seen some of the early 1960's mystery stories by the Mort Meskin/George Roussos team, they actually look quite nice. Reprinted in some of the 100-page HOUSE OF MYSTERY issues.
* Michael Kaluta
* Sheldon Moldoff. He started out doing backgrounds on the Batman stories in DETECTIVE COMICS in 1939-1940, and if you compare those to issue 27 that preceded him, his backgrounding detail adds immensely to the stories, comparable to, say, the similar linestyle of Aparo in PHANTOM STRANGER and BRAVE AND THE BOLD stories. Moldoff's golden age "Black Pirate" series (SENSATION COMICS, and ACTION comics) and golden-age Hawkman stories (FLASH COMICS), are other examples of how nice Moldoff's rendering could be.
* Klaus Janson
* George Pratt
* maybe Nick Cardy

Did Dick Giordano ever ink Aparo? He must have at some point during Aparo's B & B run or elsewhere, but I just can't recall it.
Even the Adams/Aparo collaboration in BRAVE AND THE BOLD 102 is one where it just looked like Aparo and Adams' style was completely eclipsed.

It's a tough call without seeing the real thing. An Aparo/Wrightson collaboration could be a sight to behold, or could join the ranks of the horribly wrong.

Some of the other Wrightson collaborations I listed in my above post didn't go as well as you'd have expected them to.

Adams/Wightson and Kaluta/Wrightson are two collaborations that meshed very well together. And Vaughn Bode/Wrightson ("Purple Pictography") also had surprisingly good results.



More at:
http://notasdecine.blogspot.com/2011/07/purple-pictography-by-vaughn-bode-berni.html



Calnan/Aparo in B & B 126 looks pretty good, but Aparo by himself still looks better. (You can compare that with Calnan/McLeod art in B & B 137).

Actually, I did a little searching, and there is an Aparo/Giordano collaboration. Along with a few others.

BATMAN
495 Aparo/Wiacek June 1993
496 Aparo/Rubinstein July 1993
497 Aparo/Giordano Aug 1993
498 Aparo/Rick Burchett Aug 1993
499 Aparo/Scott Hanna Sept 1993
500 Aparo/Austin(part 1), Aparo/Manley(part 2) Oct 1993

If you're talking Aparo in the 1970-1977 era, I think there's a chance an Aparo/Wrightson book could yield some nice results.
If you're talking Aparo in the 1983-1993 period, as demonstrated by the above examples, some of the best inkers in the business, I don't think any inker could have turned those pencils into gold.

I doubt most know these stories even exist, but Frank Miller's first stories for DC in 1978, in WEIRD WAR TALES 64 and 68, have a Frank Miller/Dan Bulanadi art team.

The story from WEIRD WAR 68, Oct 1978, "The Greatest Story Never Told", 6 pages, is actually quite nice. Bulanadi (like Chan or Alcala) generally overpowers the pencils he inks (for example, any issue he inked of MICRONAUTS).
There's also a 2-page story following it in the same issue, "The Day After Doomsday" with Miller/Bob Downs art.
Both are well illustrated and recognizable Miller art, and Miller was lucky to have well-scripted stories to draw. I was surprised to see Miller's style so recognizable in such an early piece.

The story in WEIRD WAR 64, June 1978, "Deliver Me From D-Day", 6 pages is also by the same Miller/Bulanadi art team, but less recognizable as Miller art. If you make the effort, you can see Miller's style there, but not as well preserved as in the inks on the later 2 stories.

Here's Miller's very first published story in Gold Key's THE TWILIGHT ZONE 84, June 1978, "Royal Feast", 3 pages, with an unknown writer, and what appears to be both Frank Miller pencils and inks.

And also by Miller, TWILIGHT ZONE 85, July 1978, "Endless Cloud", 5 pages, with Miller pencils and inks.


Here's Miller's first Marvel story, JOHN CARTER OF MARS 18, November 1978, 17 pages, by Chris Claremont with art by Frank Miller/Bob McLeod, a very impressive first story, Miller was blessed with an outstanding and very compatible inker.


And one more you've probably never seen, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE 51, May 1979 17 pages, a team-up of the Thing with the Avengers, written by Peter Gillis, with art by Frank Miller/Bob McLeod, a great combination, definitely on the "wild, wonderful" side of the spectrum.

I'm feeling kinda early-Millery today, so here's one more you probably never saw, MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 8, September 1980, 17 pages, by Mike W. Barr (a rare story for Marvel), with art by Frank Miller/Bruce Patterson, another really nice combination.

Patterson also inked a lot of other really nice issues over Pat Broderick, in the last 8 or so issues of CAPTAIN MARVEL, issues 55-62 (some also inked by Wiacek and Mcleod) before it was cancelled, and then the series continued in the first 3 issues of MARVEL SPOTLIGHT by Broderick, inked by Patterson on 1 and 2, and Gene Day on 3.

In his defense, I think he spent so much of his career penciling and inking his own work that I don’t think he ever I learned how to be a penciler that someone else might ink.

In fact, upon reflection, and considering the inking jobs he did on others now and then, I think DC would’ve been better off assigning him to inking toward the end and teaching young up-and-coming pencilers how to add that noir mood to Batman he did so well.

Even when Aparo was inking his own work, it had clearly declined in the 1978-1983 period, and declined even further in the decade after that, for reasons unknown.
It just accellerated the decline when he was pencilling and others like DeCarlo were inking him.

Which is too bad, because Aparo in the 1970's was up there in quality with Adams, Novick, Rogers, Golden, Kubert, Nasser and other greats of the period. And I still treasure the books he left his mark on, like AQUAMAN, PHANTOM STRANGER and BRAVE AND THE BOLD.

I like the Aparo as an inker idea. Except for the UNTOLD LEGEND OF BATMAN miniseries inking Byrne, the only other inking I recall Aparo doing was over Chan in ADVENTURE COMICS (Spectre series), and BRAVE AND THE BOLD occasionally over other artists.

A few I can recall from B & B:

102, July 1972 (Aparo and Adams, apparently Aparo was sick that month, and Adams pencilled 9 pages, (pages 14-22) to help meet deadlines, all 22 pages inked by Aparo. As usual, Aparo's style dominates, you have to strain to see the Adams there.)

126 , Apr 1976 (Calnan/Aparo, a nice combination, but I still prefer Aparo on his own.

137 Oct 1977, Calnan/McLeod (for comparison to 126)

148, March 1979 (Staton/Aparo) I much prefer Staton as an inker. In 1975, Staton was inked Sal Buscema for a year or so on HULK, and it actually looked pretty nice.


__________________

EDIT: I looked up issue 102 on comics.org, the proper credits are Aparo pencils and inks, pages 1-13, Adams p/Giordano inks 14-21, Giordano p and i on p 22. It's nice to finally know the exact breakdown after all these years!

Did Chan ever ink Aparo? That might’ve been interesting.

No, the reverse, Chan pencils with Aparo inks, on several issues in the latter half of Fleisher/Aparo's Spectre run in ADVENTURE COMICS 430-440.

434 is Frank Thorne pencils/Aparo inks

437 is Chan (as Chua)/Aparo
438 Chan (as Chua)/Aparo


Aparo Spectre series in ADVENTURE 431-440.
Aparo stories also in 426-427.

It amazes me that Chan was a cover artist for both Marvel and DC, replacing far superior artists. I mean, he does some good work here and there, but even at his best he's still no Neal Adams, or even Rich Buckler. His huge contribution at DC in 1975-1977, on a number of my formerly favorite titles, is largely what drove me away from DC for about 2 years. Particularly BATMAN and DETECTIVE, but also on titles like FLASH, the Superman titles, and even HOUSE OF MYSTERY. I suspect because he was fast, and cheap.

Here Chan did full art or inks on INCREDIBLE HULK covers, most issues from 210-226
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?tid=83481&pgi=201

The Buckler/Chan ones on 212-214 I think were the best ones.
Some of Chan's solo efforts, on issues like 220 an 224 also are fairly nice.
https://comiconlinefree.com/the-incredible-hulk-1968/issue-224

I think a lot of it had to do with the fact he was prolific. I think he was a good inker, specially on Buscema‘s work, but I thought his cover art was one of the worst decisions DC made in the 70s

I was just visiting this page...

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2016/02/awesome-ink-dave-cockrum.html

...that makes a persuasive case for Dave Cockrum inking over... well... pretty much anyone.

In particular a few I really like are Starlin/Cockrum art in CAPTAIN MARVEL 26.
And Gil Kane/Cockrum in JOHN CARTER WARLORD OF MARS in issues 1 and 2.

Cockrum's inks on AVENGERS I haadn't seen until now. Nice.

I just dug up the only 1970's Neal Adams story I hadn't previously seen, from DRACULA LIVES 10, Jan 1975. A backup story about Lilith the vampire daughter of Dracula, by Steve Gerber, with the unlikely art team of Bob Brown pencils/"Crusty Bunkers" inks.
For those unfamiliar with that pseudonym, "Crusty Bunkers" is Neal Adams at his art/advertising studio Continuity Associates, assisted by whoever was in the office with him that day, doing an artist jam to ink a story. The early "Crusty Bunkers" ink jobs had a lot more Neal Adams, later jobs were increasingly more his assistants.

And surprisingly on this particular story, when the penciller is Bob Brown, the art is actually quite good, in the "wild and wonderful" category.

You can judge for yourself.

DRACULA LIVES 10, Jan 1975, 10 pages.
https://comiconlinefree.com/dracula-lives/issue-10/39

I was looking at the 1976 DETECTIVE COMICS issues with the Calculator, in backups in DETECTIVE 463-467, and concluded in a full length story in 468 (Rogers' first lead Batman story).

The first two Calculator backup stories are Mike Grell/Terry Austin art, 6 pages each.
DETECIVE 463 https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-463/25
DETECTIVE 464 https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-464/25

One issue with Ernie Chan (as Chua)/Austin art (6 pages):
DETECTIVE 465 https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-465/24

Then a huge step up with two Marshall Rogers/Austin 6-page backups:
DETECTIVE 466 (6 pages) https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-466/25
DETECTIVE 467 (6 pages) https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-467/26

And then a full-length conclusion to the Calculator storyline by Rogers/Austin (17 pages) :
DETECTIVE 468 https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-467/1

Then what I think was a lost opportunity in issues 469 and 470, that had a disastrous penciller/inker combination of Simonson/Milgrom art:
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-469/1
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-470/1

And then the series went into the classic Englehart/Rogers/Austin run.

But WHAT IF... issues 469 and 470 had been Simonson pencils with Marshall Rogers inks? That would have perfectly bridged the Calculator and Englehart runs, and potentially done so with a really interesting artist collaboration. Alas, a missed opportunity.

I think people remember the famous Englehart/Rogers run, but despite that the Calculator issues were just a few issues before it, that run is largely forgotten.

And likewise, the O'Neil/Rogers story in DETECTIVE 481 is also largely forgotten.
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-481/1
Often when the other Englehart/Rogers issues have been reprinted (in the 1986 reprint series SHADOW OF THE BATMAN 1-5, and in the BATMAN: STRANGE APPARITIONS trade) only 469-479 are reprinted, and the others not included. That's why I think the others are forgotten, they are treated as less valuable and less important. And not reprinted, they are mostly forgotten despite being nice work.

.

Way in the last pages of this thick GIANT-SIZE DRACULA 5 issue (June 1975), is John Byrne's first professional sale to Marvel, an 8 page story scripted by Tony Isabella, with Byrne pencils, and inked by Rudy Nebres.
https://viewcomiconline.com/giant-size-dracula-5/

It actually looks better than I recalled, but it doesn't look a whole heck of a lot like John Byrne. At all, actually.
The combination really doesn't look like John Byrne OR Rudy Nebres, to me it looks like Alex Nino.
(Compare to this 30-page Nino story in MARVEL TREASURY 19, "People of the Dark" ) :
https://viewcomiconline.com/marvel-treasury-edition-issue-19/

For comparison purposes, here's Byrne's earliest run for Marvel, in MARVEL PREMIERE 25 (Oct 1975), and continued in IRON FIST 1-15 (Nov 1975- Sept 1977),
https://viewcomiconline.com/marvel-premiere-issue-25/
https://viewcomiconline.com/iron-fist-1975-issue-1/

The earlier mentioned John Byrne / Tony Dezuniga story in MARVEL TEAM-UP 70 (June 1978) is another comparable mismatch. (Byrne also penciled 53-55, 59-70, 75 and 79, for comparison).
https://viewcomiconline.com/marvel-team-up-1972-issue-70/

Here also is Byrne inking himself in DOOMSDAY +1 series, issues 1-6 (July 1975-June 1976)
https://viewcomiconline.com/doomsday-1-1975-issue-1/

With updated links, the Adams/Wrightson collaborations are ones well worth preserving.

I left the original links as backups, and for their commentary on the stories.


From WEIRD WESTERN 12, Adams/Wrightson art.