Go to the Gil Kane quote on the end of Alex's "best inkers" link.

Possibly. It was early in McFarlane's career. However, even when he started on Amazing, the inker of the first two issues made the work look very un-McFarlane-like. It wouldn't surpise me if people thought the extra pencil lines were mistakes. When his stylized work became more well known it probably made it easier for inkers to see that he was purposely going for that look.

The only pencills I've seen of his are from Spider-man #1 and they looked pretty tight.

It was.

It's been possible to print from pencils for over a century, but that process was harder and therefore more costly back in the day, so comic publishers needed inkers to clarify the pencilled linework for their cheaper printing methods. Even as recent as the '90s, printers charged extra for the halftone process.

But these days, standard methods can easily accommodate pencils.

I'd say every pencil line Mcfarlane has ever made were mistakes.

If he had quit some time around 1982.

Except that he wasn't.

Oh sure, point out the part where I was wrong.

Says the guy who learned to draw by tracing John Byrne comics.

Life would be a lot easier if you'd just accept everything I tell you as true.

Have you even seen my work?

You clearly don't have a fucking clue.