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Topic: Legends of the Dark Knight - Jim Aparo (

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Gal Schwartz
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Joined: 02 November 2005
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Posted: 22 October 2011 at 5:51am \| IP Logged \| 1

Hi John,

Dare I mention that the Cockrum/DeCarlo closeup shot of Jason Todd
reminded me quite a bit of your own version of Robin ?

Did you ever get inked by Mike DeCarlo or Brett Breeding ?
I'm curious about the results...

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Tony Midyett
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Posted: 22 October 2011 at 6:24am \| IP Logged \| 2

I see absolutely no Cockrum in that art. I guess that inker can honestly say he's no "tracer"...sheesh!

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Gal Schwartz
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Posted: 22 October 2011 at 9:17am \| IP Logged \| 3

Harsh words there.

Might it be possible that Cockrum himself tried to apply a different / "darker" style when he approached BATMAN ?

I agree that Mike DeCarlo's inks are prominent, and that he may have added quite a bit of shadow work,
but I never thought he'd overpowered Aparo when he'd inked him.

In fact, out of the various "Aparo inkers", I felt the DeCarlo kept a lot of Aparo's recognizable traits.

Edited by Gal Schwartz on 22 October 2011 at 9:33am

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John Byrne
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Posted: 22 October 2011 at 9:25am \| IP Logged \| 4

Far and away the best inker for Jim Aparo was Jim Aparo. I could not understand why, in his later years, DC insisted he stop inking his own work. It wasn't as if they were giving him a whole lot more to do. And, in any case, his full pencils were so fastidiously rendered, I am sure they took him just as long, or close to as long, to produced as an inked page.

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Gal Schwartz
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Posted: 22 October 2011 at 10:03am \| IP Logged \| 5

I agree that Aparo is his very own best inker.

I just feel that a time came when Aparo just couldn't ink in the same incredibly high standard as before. May it be age factor, health issues or workload (or all combined), I dunno... It was just missing something (I'm speaking on the ink work alone).

At that time, Mike Decarlo joined in and helped produce some of the most memorable Aparo works of the late '80s / early '90s. "Many Deaths Of Batman", "Ten Nights Of The Beast", "Death In The Family and "A lonely Place Of Dying" all feature the Aparo/DeCarlo team.

Fans easily dismissed DeCarlo contributions as they always compare his work to Aparo's inks at his prime. If you'd compare DeCarlo's inks to Aparo's own inks later in his BATMAN run (around '92-'93), you'd probably look at DeCarlo's work much more favorably.

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Matthew Hansel
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Posted: 22 October 2011 at 1:46pm \| IP Logged \| 6

Fans easily dismissed DeCarlo contributions as they always compare his work to Aparo's inks at his prime. If you'd compare DeCarlo's inks to Aparo's own inks later in his BATMAN run (around '92-'93), you'd probably look at DeCarlo's work much more favorably.

*********
I was NOT a big fan of DeCarlo's inks early on, but in later years, when DC seemed to give anybody who could hold a pen the job of inking Aparo, I came to appreciate Mike's lush lines. Still a bit too "soft" for my liking, though.

I really, really liked Jim's inks in his 12 issues in Detective and Batman in the run-up to Knightfall. We had the lettering, too! Just like in the old days, and the master hand lost none of his touch!

MPH

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Gal Schwartz
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Posted: 06 November 2011 at 6:07am \| IP Logged \| 7

I've looked up the issues you mentioned, and you're right -
they are pretty solid with some great Aparo images.

I guess the only one which felt a bit off were the preludes to KNIGHTFALL,
which I guess were rushed a bit, probably due to them becoming biweekly (!) for the arc.

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