Speaking of Terry Austin, I would say that the Byrne/Austin team in their prime was probably close to being up there with Adams and Giordano.
Yeah, in X-MEN 108-109, and 111-143 the Byrne/Austin team really produced some memorable work.
I wonder if any of these artists imagined 30 years ago their work --then printed on the pulp-equivalent of toilet paper-- would decades later be canonized in expensive Masterworks hardcovers!
And the first Byrne/Austin collaboration was in MARVEL PREVIEW 11, in 1977.
(Reprinted in full color as STARLORD SPECIAL EDITION, in 1982, with a few new framing sequence pages by Michael Golden)
A great book that had both Giordano AND Austin inking Neal Adams was SUPERMAN VS. MUHAMMAD ALI, which was a surprisingly good story, written by Dennis O'Neil. Which was likewise recently released in treasury-size and magazine-size hardcover editions. I think this book has more new Neal Adams pages than any other single Adams story. And seeing the contrast of Austin's and Giordano's inks in a single book is also interesting.
Austin began his career as an uncredited background inker for Giordano, then was suddenly inking two of the best series in the field, Englehart/Rogers' DETECTIVE COMICS and Claremont/Byrne's X-MEN.
