Comic Book Resources

I can generally spot Klaus Janson inks, which have a distinctive mix of hatching and shadow work.

Likewise, Al Williamson is a pretty recognizeable inker.

klaus is definetly recognizable, as is danny miki
and art thibert.

Terry Austin is quite visible, most of the time, too.

What about Terry Austin?

He was quite legendary in his time.

Tom Palmer is recognizeable, no matter whom he's inking. He just plamerizes every penciller. ,)

Other than Klaus Janson, I remember really noticing Kyle Baker years ago inked a couple issues of West Coast Avengers. I didn't know who he was when I read it, but years later I saw The Cowboy Wally Show, and recognized him as the guy who inked WCA in a really different style than I was used to.

Some inkers I generally find easy to spot...

Joe Sinnott, Terry Austin, Klaus Janson, Frank Springer, Vince Colletta, Bill Everett, John Romita, Don Heck, Chic Stone, Murphy Anderson, Alfredo Alcala, Ernie Chan, Tony DeZuniga, Jim Mooney, Bob Layton.

I'd put Dick Giordano up there too, but he's a bit more troublesome since there are a few folks who do a pretty close imitation.

Dan Panosian. Cause it looks like ass.

Is he still working?

Agree with Richard above, for the most part. Sinnot was the first one I thought of, you can usually see him if you look at the sides of people's heads, he does this thing to men's hair (sounds weird, but I swear it's true). Colletta, of course, whose scratchy style I always liked, for the stuff he bothered to do rather than erase. Klaus Janson, who had a vaguely "messy" look that I always liked, as opposed to Josef Rubinstein, who had a "way too messy" look that I couldn't stand.
Bob Layton was always pretty recognizable (hey, anyone remember the whole thing with Byrne claiming that Layton's inks made his men "look gay"?).

And yes, Tom Palmer, too for me.

Scott Williams is east to spot. If it's Jim Lee and it doesn't look like crap, it's Scott Williams.

If it looks like Jim Lee and it's not. It's Scott Williams.

Todd McFarlane inks stick out too. Also:

Scott Hanna
Terry Austin
Art Thibert
Joe Rubenstein
Gene Colan
Dan Green

"hey, anyone remember the whole thing with Byrne claiming that Layton’s inks made his men 'look gay'? "

He said that in the Comics Journal interview he did back in 1980. He referred specifically to a panel in the 1978 Hulk annual which Layton inked over his pencils. In it, the Angel, who has just come out of a swimming pool, introduces himself to another character ("Hi! I'm Warren Worthington!"). Layton put a smirk on his face that Byrne loathed.

When Layton inks someone, all the characters come out looking like they've covered with axle grease.

I'd advise you to pick up any of Gary Martin or Klaus Janson's books on comic book inking. That should give you a better familiarity with various inkers' styles.

But, to give you an idea, different inkers use different tools in different ways. Some use brushes. Some use nibs. Some use pens or even markers. All of these tools make different types of lines on the page. Some use (or used) a lot of zip-a-tone or even duo shade, which put mechanical textures on the page. After a while, you develop an eye for who makes what kind of line & who favors what kind of effects.

Generally speaking, I find Mike Royer, Joe Sinnott, Klaus Janson, Wally Wood, Jerry Ordway, Vince Colleta, Terry Austin, Bob McLeod, Karl Kesel, Kevin Nowlan, Bob Layton & Dick Giordano pretty recognizible in thier styles. But I'm an artist (& Kubert School grad), so it's probably easier for me to pick out individualistic linework than most.

How do I spot inkers? Line weight, brushstrokes vs. pen, solid blacks vs. thinner lines, level of background detail (I'm thinking of Colletta, specifically), comparing pencillers' work with different inkers...

The inkers I have the easiest time spotting (besides artists who usually ink their own pencils, e.g. Ditko, John Cassady) include:

Janson, Murphy Anderson, Sal Buscema, Sienkiewicz, Ernie Chan (especially over John Buscema), Sinnott, Scott Williams (I remember looking at a Pitt cover and knowing it was him instantly despite never seeing him paired with Dale Keown before), Wade von Grawbadger (look at Tony Harris' art before and after being inked by him), Mark Buckingham, Mark Farmer (sooo smooth), Jesse Delperdang (to me, the Kubert bros. work looks distinctly different under his inks), Paul Neary, and Tom Palmer.

He was in John Trumball's list above, but I have to reiterate: Kevin Nowlan!

I can't stand Crime Lab Studios at all. I own two Copiel pages from the same book and due to Crime Lab, they look completely different.

But I started noticing Inkers a while ago and I can't stand when "Inker Parade" occurs on a book. It's hard to like Chris Bachalo, because he gets so close to the line they throw a hundred guys at his pencils. It's a shame cause Tim Townshed is the bomb.

I'm not the first to mention him but Jerry Ordway's inking style has a very distinct look to it, to my eye at least, and I'm not an artist.

How to spot Kalus Janson: If it's on JRJR, it's normally Klaus

Scott Williams is east to spot. If it’s Jim Lee and it doesn’t look like crap, it’s Scott Williams.

If it looks like Jim Lee and it’s not. It’s Scott Williams.

Other people ink Jim Lee? I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm serious. It seems like every time I see Jim Lee work it's always inked by Scott Williams. I've never even seen the guy ink anyone else. I always wonder what he does when he's not inking Jim Lee, especially since Lee works so infrequently. There's no way he can primarily be inking for a living if all he does is wait for Jim Lee to pencil something. Anyone know?

There are many inkers I can recognize, some because I love their stuff, others because I hate it. Vince Colletta, Joe Sinnott, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Sincewiecz (sp?), Scott Hanna, Dan Green, Brett Breeding, DOug Hazelwood, Klaus Janson when inking himself or Miller and others. In the hate category, Klaus Janson when not inking Frank Miller or himself (butchered Garcia-Lopez's pencils on JLA Classified). Josef Rubinstein (I can see why some people would like him, he's just not my cup of tea) and Dan Panosian.

A really underrated inker was Kyle Baker. I'd love to see him do inking-only on a mainstream superhero book like he used to in the 80s. His inking over Marc Silvestri and Mike Harris in Web of Spider-Man or over Jackson Guice in New Mutants I loved to death. In the 80s I'd buy any single book that was inked by Kyle Baker, no matter who it starred or what it was about. He gets a lot of props as a cartoonist, but as just an inker I think he's incredible also.

I can usually spot Danny Miki's inks when I start to dislike the art. Really, I stopped reading Ultimate X-Men when Miki started inking Kubert's pencils. Don't know what it is...

I always liked Janson's inks on Bob Brown, myself. He always had kind of a neo-Wally Wood effect on them. As to JRJR, Al Williamson's done a lot of inking for him too. Al's sleeker than Janson, but still noirish.

I couldn't spot Mike Esposito inks every time out, but I can definitely tell when he inks either Ross Andru or Goerge Perez; the former he enhances, the latter, no so much.

Terry Austin is a superb inker, but I can't necessarily spot him from his inks because he's got such a fine, clean line. The original pencillers are really slickened up by Austin inks, and it's their style I notice when he embellishes them (in every sense of the word). Karl Kesel is similar in that regard, though he's quite visible on rougher pencillers like Luke McDonnell.

I suppose someone should mention Vince Coletta unfavorably in here somewhere, so I'll do it.

Joe Sinnot's also pretty easily spotted -- he tends to enhance the "bigfoot" cartoon elements of anyone he inks, which is why he worked so well on Kirby and later Rich Buckler's best Kirby impression.

Baker does have a very recognizable ink line, true, but I really like his cartooning too much to want him just on inks.

And of course most stylized pencillers tend to be recognizable on those occasions when they ink, be it John Romita, Sr., Sal Buscema, George Perez, or John Byrne. Their inks tend to impart their pencilling style to whomever they work on.

Baker does have a very recognizable ink line, true, but I really like his cartooning too much to want him just on inks.

Oh I don't want him to give up cartooning either. I just think that his ink-only work looks so different from his cartooning that I wish he'd find time to do both.

And of course most stylized pencillers tend to be recognizable on those occasions when they ink, be it John Romita, Sr., Sal Buscema, George Perez, or John Byrne. Their inks tend to impart their pencilling style to whomever they work on.

I'd put Todd McFarlane, Jim Mooney and Joe Sinnott in this category too.

Danny Miki I can almost spot. He gives everything a grim 'n gritty sorta look.

And Joe Kubert too. He does one page of the Neal Adams drawn Brave and the Bold 84, and it's REALLY obvious tha t it's him, even when Neal is already trying to ink Sgt. Rock in a Joe Kubert-y manner.

Laura Depoy Martin and Steve Leialoha. Palmiotti sometimes too.

The easiest inkers to spot are of the "overwhelming" category, where, when they've inked things, you have trouble even identifying the penciller. The ultimate example of that I'd say is Alfredo Alcala.

I don't want to go into a list of inkers I can or cannot recognize, because I was pretty darn good at it back in the day - by which I mean the early '70s till probably sometime in the mid-90s. I just wanted to point out a method for learning inking styles, and a problem with that method nowadays.

The method is that once you start to think you have some ability to recognize the styles of several inkers, try guessing who the inker is before you look at any signature or credits. If you're right, your sense of that inker's style will be reinforced. If you're wrong, you'll get a feel for what part of your "diagnostic" for recognizing that inker is wrong. If you always read credits first, you'll never be able to benefit from that feedback. I think I did this kind of thing intuitively when I was getting into comics.

There are two problems for this method nowadays. First, as veteran inker Bob McCleod has pointed out repeatedly in Rough Stuff, the magazine he edits, pencilers today work much more tightly than folks like John Buscema did in the "old days," and modern inkers tend to follow the penciler's line more slavishly, imposing less of their own style. In this sense, inkers are more like the "tracers" of that "Chasing Amy" joke than they used to be. (McCleod also discusses why this change has occurred.) Second, inkers tend to work more consistently with particular pencilers than they used to - as people have already remarked regarding Scott Williams on Jim Lee. (Plus of course, many pencilers always ink their own stuff. John Cassaday, anybody?) As a result, it's harder to tease the inker's style apart from the penciler's (and vice versa). In part because of the greater dedication companies used to have to making sure comics came out on regular schedules, it used to be that you'd sometimes see several different inkers over the same penciler on a book over a few months. (This was especially true of Marvel in the '70s.) That really highlighted the difference between what was “held constant” (the penciler) and what varied (the inker). For this reason I’m surprised that you say you can recognize Ditko’s inking style – how often has Ditko inked anyone other than Ditko? (There’s his work over Kirby on Marvel’s monster mags and some early Hulks, I suppose. What else?) Besides, I think Ditko actually has several different but related styles: On Spider-Man and Dr. Strange he used multiple fine strokes in delineating, say, the shape of a muscle, but later he tended more toward using one single broad “swoop.”

One other thing: Unless you’re really experienced with inking tools (which I’m not), I don’t think you can tell whether someone’s using a brush or a pen. Because of the looseness and flow of Tom Palmer’s inks, I always thought he was mainly a brush guy. Turns out he used a very flexible pen nib that I’ve heard few other inkers were able to handle.

Incidentally, I’m kind of stunned that Omar has problems recognizing Terry Austin’s inks. The very regular, repeated hatching he used in the heyday of the Claremont/Byrne X-Men was very distinctive – in the Dick Giordano mold (Austin had been Giordano’s assistant) but much neater, if less expressive. Other inkers, like Bob Layton, worked in this same general vein, but gave a different appearance to their surfaces: Layton’s were “shinier,” made everyone and everything look a little metal and mechanical (which is why he worked so well on Iron Man). Nowadays I see Austin’s name, if at all, on cartoony work like Sonic the Hedgehog (not that I read it; I generally just see the credits in Previews). From what little I’ve seen of that work he appears to be using a simpler style, more appropriate to more cartoony art. So that work may not be as distinctive as his old stuff.

Once you see Terry Austin's pencils, you can never miss his inks again.

Second everything "O" said.

line weight, line fluidity, amount of shading, hatching techniques, the ratio of black to white on the whole page...

As "O" said, modern inkers are often a little harder to differentiate because they tend to stick closer to the pencils, which in turn tend to be more detailed, but it's still not impossible. But with most US comics published before the turn of the century, the inker often contributed more of the "style" of the artwork than the penciller.

Does Mike Allred count?

or Kevin Nowlan?

Ones I've have a good chance of spotting are:
Klaus Janson
Dick Giordano
Bill Seinkeiwicz
John Totleben
Kevin Nowlan
George Perez
maybe Alfredo Alcala

Well, not to brag, but I can spot Bob Wiacek.

Here's an idea for practice, MarkAndrew: get a copy of Avengers Annual #10, script by Roger Stern, pencils by Steve Ditko, inks by John Byrne. This is just one that jumps out at you, a very easy place to see exactly how the art of the penciller and the inker intersect. Because you just can't miss Byrne. And you definitely can't miss Ditko. I like the art in this a whole bunch, but you can't tell me those two guys are anything like a natural fit for one another, and it's instructive. If you've read a Stern/Byrne/Rubinstein Captain America, when you see Ditko's Cap inked by Byrne you'll say "heyyy...I recognize those lines around the shoulders...!"

Actually, Byrne's drawn quite a lot of Cap, with a lot of different inkers, even inking himself. Cap, FF, Avengers...go read some! I bet that'll help.

The first inker I ever recognized was Jim Mooney. There's something about the way he inks a character's eyes that just shouts "Mooney"! Unfortunately, I don't like his inks (although, weirdly, I don't mind his pencils). Joe Rubinstein makes everyone (good pencillers and bad pencillers) look average. When he inked everything in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe he made everything look the same bland way. Joe Sinnott was much the same way (although when he combined with Kirby it was magic!) An inker from Marvel in the 80s that just overpowered everyone in such a way that you knew who it was without looking at the credits was Danny Bulanadi. Inkers who I can recognize (but enjoy), include Palmer, Janson, Austin and Ordway. I certainly prefer Layton as an inker to his pencilling, and thought he looked REALLY good over Byrne's pencils. That Hulk Annual has some great stuff in it. It's too bad that Byrne didn't like the work himself. It would have been nice if Marvel had an inker other than Terry Austin in the 70s and 80s who could do justice to Byrne's work.

Generally I can spot:

Klaus Janson- distintctive style
Dick Giordano- same
Terry Austin- especially his later stuff
Danny Miki- oh, the extra little lines
Tom Palmer- a distinctive mix of shadows and brushwork
Kevin Nowlan- it looks like Kevin Nowlan!
Joe Sinnott- heavy, almost overpowering brushwork
George Perez- everything but the figurework looks like
Perez
Paul Neary- I just know when I see Hitch or Davis

One of things to look for I think when trying to identify an inker is the medium. Is it brush, nib, pen or some combination of the three? How do they treat contours? How does their line 'move'? Is it dead (Austin, Perez) or is it 'free' (Janson, Sinnott).

Well, Mike de Carlo comes to mind. For a very long time, what I assumed was just Aparo, was DeCarlo's inks over him.

He can completely overwhelm the penciller, but on the other hand, if the penciller himself is weak or just doing some very rough breakdown, he can deliver amazingly solid finished art. See his inks over Giffen at the tail end of the Levitz run.

I can see Klaus Janson and Terry Austin.

"Dan Panosian. Cause it looks like ass.

Is he still working?"

Andrew,

Yes, he is.

When Panosian debuted back in the nineties, his work was a little...lacking, to be generous. However, the guy has obviously worked really hard on refining his craft, because he's a tremendous illustrator now. I stumbled across his blog last year andwas shocked by how much he's improved. Here he is at: urbnbarbarian.blogspot.com

Richard Isanove is Jae Lee's inker isn't he? I know he did the Gunslinger, but I think he did Inhumans too. He's usually recognizable. Otherwise, I am pretty ignorant of inkers.

The first inker I ever recognized was Jim Mooney. There’s something about the way he inks a character’s eyes that just shouts “Mooney”!

Their eyes look like bums?

joshschr,

Richard Isanove isn't an inker, he colours Jae Lee's art directly from the pencil stage. He also does that on most of the Ultimate covers.

Ah! I exposed my ignorance! Someone cover it up quick!

Thanks Glen. I learn a lot from posts like this.

Inkers I can usually spot: Jerry Ordway, Bob Oskner, Dick Giordano, Klaus Janson, Frank McLaughlin, Wally Wood, John Byrne, Art Thibert, Bob McLeod, Bob Layton, Terry Austin.

Well, Mike de Carlo comes to mind. For a very long time, what I assumed was just Aparo, was DeCarlo’s inks over him.

Whereas I've always looked at DeCarlo inking Aparo and known it was him-- DeCarlo has a very distinct line and he has a peculiar way of rendering eyes and mouths (very noticeable on Perez in New Teen Titans). Admittedly, this is less noticeable with inking Aparo, but I still noticed it (and the difference in line weights)

It's funny, a lot of the inkers I named in the comment above it's about noticing a peculiar habit they have-- kind of like what one commenter said about knowing Terry Austin after seeing his pencilling.

Mooney does these weird eyelashes and lips on all his characters. It really overpowers the penciller's style.

For this reason I’m surprised that you say you can recognize Ditko’s inking style – how often has Ditko inked anyone other than Ditko? (There’s his work over Kirby on Marvel’s monster mags and some early Hulks, I suppose. What else?)

Well, I've been reading a lot of Kirby in my inker ID quest.

I've decided I can probably tell inkers who (A) I'm REALLY familiar with their pencilled work, and (B) Mostly ink themselves. It WAS an early Essential Hulk volume, BTW. I got it out of the library and the credits page was missing, but I knew it was Ditko.

The method is that once you start to think you have some ability to recognize the styles of several inkers, try guessing who the inker is before you look at any signature or credits.

Back to Kirby - I've been doing this, and I can definitely tell the difference between Joe Sinnott and
Vince Colletta, although I don't think I can distinguish them from anyone else - Sinnott provides more definition, and seems to fix some of Kirby's mistakes.

Actually, of all the Marvel Kirby inkers, Chic Stone seems the most distinctive to me.

pencilers today work much more tightly than folks like John Buscema did in the “old days,” and modern inkers tend to follow the penciler’s line more slavishly, imposing less of their own style.

Hmm. It does seem easier with older material. (And I kinda knew that "penciller" was more demanding now-a-days.) I figure there are some folks I'm just not gonna be able to recognize, ever, and there'll be more of them the later I get.

Tom Palmer has a very distinctive style, I can spot Palmer inks a mile away. He also has a unique way of inking character's hair that always makes his work recognisable.

Kyle Baker and Jackson Guice are also fairly easy to spot, Steve Leialoha, Klaus Janson, Joe Sinnott are a few other names that spring to mind.

A guy I think was a tremendous inker, who you very rarely see mentioned these days, was George Klein - some of his stuff over John Buscema on the Avengers in the 60s was gorgeous to behold.

Oh, and I should also have mentioned Tony DeZuniga....

Well, if being able to tell Sinnott from Colletta isn't a start, I don't know what is.

I alwaye remember what a shock it was to see Byrne's self-inked work after being used to the wonders Terry Austen did for him. I grew to kind of like the raw Byrne stuff, at least on FF, but at first it just looked muddy.

And yeah, Klaus Janson's inks are easy to spot, in a good way.

I can't believe only one person's mentioned John Totleben. He's one of the few inkers I can spot AND whose stuff I like a lot.

Most of my favorite inkers have such clean lines that I have trouble distinguishing them, 'cause they just make everything look good: Terry Austin, Joe Sinnot, Bob Layton.

I can spot Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer, but they're a little too sketchy for my tastes.

Bill Sienkiewicz is cool 'cause it's Bill Sienkiewicz.

Mark Farmer has become fairly easy to spot for me now. Terry Austin, Tom Palmer, & Klaus Jansen too.

I can’t believe only one person’s mentioned John Totleben. He’s one of the few inkers I can spot AND whose stuff I like a lot.

I was surprised too. He is the number one most recognisable inker I can think of (and possibly the best).

Colletta is the most recognizable because he is the most diverse inker. Thin lines, thick lines, shading, cross hatching, bold blacks, well drawn faces, hands, feet. I don't think any of the other inkers mentioned put in as much detail as Colletta did in his earlier work.

Yes, Vinnie Colletta is the most unique of all who have been mentioned. One could probably copy the other men's styles but I doubt if anyone could mimic Colletta.

Vinnie Colletta was very recognizable for me. Wasn't a big fan, but I had thought he softened Kirby's rough edges. But the best inker for Kirby (and maybe the best inker ever) is Joe Sinnott.

Sid Greene was always recognizable for me. He was quite overpowering.... but you could still tell who pencilled it if Greene inked Gil Kane.

the late Jim Mooney was overpowering..... for me i could see more Mooney than the penciller.

Like other fans, I think very highly of Terry Austin. His work with John Byrne and Marshall Rogers was fantastic.

I did not become a John Romita Jr. fan until he worked with inker Scott Hanna. Hanna to me brought out the best in Romita.

Tom Palmer is good. I liked his inks on Romita Jr. and Neal Adams as well.

One of my least favorites is Mike Royer. He made Kirby's work look even rougher.

Jerry from upstate NY

I'm one of those closet Vince Colletta admirers because, let's face it, who needs the grief?

Colletta's inks definitely stand out from other inkers of that era in that his lines were always random and asymmetrical rather than the formulaic approach used by the Sinnotts, Giordanos, Adams, etc. Vince's shading techniques on anatomical features creates a three dimensional look, therefore provides the characters with movement and depth. Most of the other inkers mentioned have a cleaner line but that's the point exactly, where most others used just one or two lines to show a bicep, for instance, Colletta scritch-scratched twenty or thirty small lines to enhance the illustration.