Yeah, the hash marks! Great stuff! And the shapes of some of the rocks and scenery. And the line quality. And the blocky fingers, although that's what fooled me into thinking about Pat Boyette, who did similar hands.

Not exactly primo Toth work, tho. His animation design work, although it was often cartoony, was usually a lot better. I guess following somebody else's designs, and cranking it out over a weekend, didn't really agree with him.

Be sure to floss as well as brush. Otherwise you risk damage to your toth.

If you do damage your toth. Can't you just get some toth paste?

I believe when Allen said "more easily printed" he might have meant "more quickly printed."

With a limited roster of not very many workers, often the only way to get several books out under deadline was to revert to the old assembly line method: Writer plots out the story, editor corrects it and punches up dialogue, penciller sketches it, inker fills in the blacks and sends it to the colors department, and so on.

As to direct raw pencil repros, I've seen many of them (even by greats like Gene Colan) and am generally not impressed. Point being that using pencils is a whole different way of telling a story than more dramatic inks. Works fine as illustrations in some old novels and childrens' fables that are not in too much in a hurry to shock or surprise anyone, but usually looks thicker and sloppier than most competent inking jobs.

BTW, all that earlier stuff on this thread about "Larson Copies Byrne" was total nonsense. Granted, I'm one of the last people to stand up on Larson's behalf, given that for years I've ragged him about compiling his Savage Drag-goon by ripping off the Universal Studios art department and Jack Kirby's green fish dude in The Inhumans.

But Larson tracing or otherwise copying Byrne? No way! I'm a total comics expert - as well as an expert on comics art ripoffs - so I can completely confirm that THIS time Larson is 100% innocent of Montgomery's ridiculous charge.

True, I've often said Larson used Kirby's dragon-like Inhumans character, as I mentioned above, but that statement refers to the character only - and not specifically to the art style of Kirby. It also takes a very good set of chops for one artist to correctly mimic a good artist - chops that Larson doesn't have. I see no significant Kirby - or Byrne - influence in Larson's art whatsoever.

And as to a shlub like Simonson, and an even worse shlub like Staton, to say Larson was heavily influenced by them would be a huge insult to Larson. Staton in particular was so crappy that he was even worse than Byrne!

Okay, that marks the historic first (and maybe only) time I've backed up Larson. You owe me bigtime, Erik baby!


* * *

Regarding the "Top 5" inkers thing, it would only be a fair list if original pencil artists were omitted, so out goes Kirby, Ditko, Colan, Boring, Swan, Infantino, Kurtzman, Eisner, Cole, Wood, Ordway, etc. - all the great creators.

So who does that leave among the "glorified tracers"? Well, from my strictly arbitrary and personal point of view, mainly anyone that did good work on my favorite jazz, including Superman, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and what not. In no particular order:

1. Murphy Anderson
2. Mike Royer
3. Joe Sinnott
4. Chic Stone
5. Terry Austin

Ed Gauthier: "I believe when Allen said "more easily printed" he might have meant "more quickly printed." "

And I belieive I said what I meant. The inking process was invented (way before comic books ever existed) as a method of making drawings printable. It was derived from the previous plate etching and wood block carving methods. It had nothing to do with speed of process. You simply could not print from pencil art.

Ed Gauthier: "But Larson [sic] copying Byrne? No way!"

Then you need to use your eyeballs. Larsen's Kirby-isms are often re-intepretations of Byrne's (and Miller's) interpretations of Kirby's work. If he doesn't actually sit there and copy them, then he's got a really good memory.


Ed Gauthier: "I'm a total comics expert - as well as an expert on comics art ripoffs - so I can completely confirm that THIS time Larson is 100% innocent of Montgomery's ridiculous charge."

You're a "total comics expert?" Like you're an expert at everything else, right?

"You simply could not print from pencil art."

Created in the 1800's, the halftone is a technique that simulates continuous tone imagery by converting the image into dots of various sizes, allowing b&w and grayscale art, from b&w photos, pencil art etc, to be easily and clearly printed.

A duotone however was a pain in the ass.

PRINTING:

Montgomery: "...The inking process was invented (way before comic books ever existed) as a method of making drawings printable. It was derived from the previous plate etching and wood block carving methods. It had nothing to do with speed of process. You simply could not print from pencil art."

Nobody's talking about the dawn of time of the printing process. (Seems like you change the subject to fit your errors quite often.) 20th century presses - the same ones used for newspaper printing on newsprint, also printed comic books on newsprint. Newspapers printed pencil art, paintings, photographs - and anything else that could be reproduced - long before comic books were born.

So they coulda if they felt they shoulda.

But pencils never looked strong enough compared to inks, and remember the first comics were an outgrowth of the popularity of newspaper strips - initially they were mainly compilations of "color Sunday funnies" type material.

LARSON, BYRNE, KIRBY, ETC.:

Montgomery: "...you need to use your eyeballs. Larsen's Kirby-isms are often re-intepretations of Byrne's (and Miller's) interpretations of Kirby's work. If he doesn't actually sit there and copy them, then he's got a really good memory."

Wow, so far you've backtracked from "tracing" to "copying" and now to "good memory." I believe the next step back from that is "don't know what the hell I was babbling about"!

GAUTHIER'S COMICS STREET CRED:

Montgomery: "You're a 'total comics expert?' Like you're an expert at everything else, right?"

No, mostly comics and a few other things deemed by modern society to be "useless" (including poetry, songwriting and goofing around in rock bands). Ask me to do someone's taxes, wire their electricity, stop their plumbing leak or fix their car, though, and you can forget it. Such "real life" stuff I willingly admit I'm far from a "total expert" in. The term "total disaster" would be much more apt.