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Topic: Question For All: Inking Kirby-Sinnott or Royer Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 7:16am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Kirby/Sinnott on "The Fantastic Four" remind me a bit of Byrne/Austin on "The Uncanny X-Men" in the sense that, for me at least, I came to realize late that the respective inkers really contributed to the appeal of the work to a much more considerable degree than I'd first reckoned. When Sinnott inked other FF pencillers (even JB himself), the work maintained a distinct look that truly seemed to fit the characters in a definitive way. I felt the same on those occasions when Terry Austin inked Dave Cockrum covers during JB's tenure. (I also had this reaction about Klaus Janson's inking on Miller's "Daredevil" work.)

As a kid I actually didn't appreciate Joe Sinnott. I'm not sure why. On the FF I enjoyed George (Bell) Roussos, but I especially loved on "Thor" the inking of Colletta. I still do, very much, except that it was and remains painful to know what he did to Kirby's work.
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 7:18am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

A comment about Ditko... no question that nobody did the Thing better than Kirby. But I think I might actually put Ditko's version at #2! (Either Ditko or JB.)
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Marc Cheek
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 7:27am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Of the first 20 issues of FF, Sinnott's #5 is my favorite, with Ditko's #13 a very close second. It would have been interesting to see how the Thing would look today if Ditko's embellishments "stuck".

**

I loved Ditko's inks in that issue (and in Hulk #6). That was a great combo.
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Marc M. Woolman
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 7:29am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Joe Sinnot is my favourite inker for Jack
Kirby, but the few examples I've seen of
Neal Adams inking Kirby are breathtaking
to me! I wish there was more of it.
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Victor Manuel Fernandez Patiño
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 9:06am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

In order
1.- Sinnott
2.- Steve Ditko
3.- Mike Rogers
4.- Dick Ayers
5.- Chic Stone
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 9:07am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

I liked Sinnott the best. Mike Royer seemed pretty loyal to the original art... maybe slightly more than Joe Sinnott? I suppose it depends what you think the inker's job is... to amalgamate pencils and inks, or to be a Kabuki stage hand.

However, I can pretty safely say that from the first time I saw Colletta's inks on Kirby, I never liked his inking. Colletta's inks seemed to soften and even slight obscure whatever art he worked on. I've heard all the stories about his removing or adding art on his own too. It just looked to  me that art that should have been razor sharp was a little mushy. Or as I shared with some of my friends, "What, is this guy using a magic marker to ink?"

Your mileage may vary, of course.
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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

RE: changes to pencils made in the inking stages. Sometimes the penciller could ask the inker to make the changes, and sometimes the editor or writer, and then of course sometimes the inker takes it upon themself to 'improve' (or add things), to keep it fun for themself, yeah that's it...

I have seen some great work by Dick Ayers, and Joe Sinnott on his own doing pencil and ink is a treat. Dan Adkins used to get bashed for his large library of 'references' as a penciller, but his inks were great in that Wood and Russ Manning style. I have some old Galaxy digests he did straight illustration for and they're kind of weak but who knows what deadlines might've been. He seemed able to handle half a monthly comic when he did Dr. Strange, and there was one nice '60s X-Men issue (Jack Sparling did a nice one too).

Mike Royer is closest to Kirby inking himself. Nobody has mentioned Michael Thibodeaux on Kirby who probably added (changed) the most in terms of style. I like the Ditko-Kirby collaborations I've googled... I always liked Ditko inking himself (Konga), and Wood on Ditko (Jungle Jim) was pretty snappy too.
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marios ksidonas
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

It took me years to descover him....the most underrated Jack Kirby inker!When i studied him the only thing i said to myself ?(My own personal opinion of course!)----PERFECT TEN!!!!
Herb Trimpe!!!!! clean , accurate,  stylish  a true artists assistant and not a plane tracer!
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Robert Shepherd
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Since my favorite Kirby page was inked by Mike Royer, he gets my vote.
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Matt Hawes
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Posted: 23 February 2018 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Sinnott for me.
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Paul Greer
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Posted: 24 February 2018 at 6:31am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

I'm a Mike Royer guy. 70's Kirby is my favorite.
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Rod Collins
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Posted: 24 February 2018 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Sinnott over Royer for me.

I also really liked Chic Stone's inks on Thor and when Kirby was inked by artists more known for being the complete penciller/inker package, such as Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Wally Wood and Bill Everett.
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