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JB: Klaus just never seems to get enough credit, does he?

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The middle one isn't bad, I agree, but I still can't believe that's one of the most expensive pages of original American comic book art. Although I guess it benefits from a few of things, Dark Knight Returns being considered a seminal bit of comics history at this point (I won't even discuss my own feelings about it as I don't want to rant this morning), it has Batman on it, and Klaus Janson inked it. Miller's stuff always looked best when inked by Klaus in my opinion. Although I enjoyed FM's stuff on Sin City well enough, Miller and Janson were a perfect pairing.

On the other hand, I was not a big fan of Janson's inks over JB's pencils during their run on Wolverine. It seemed to really bury the art, where as with Frank it seemed like a perfect fit. Personally my favorite inker for Byrne is Byrne, but I was a huge fan of George Perez inking Action Comics #600. And there are others I've enjoyed over the years, like, of course, Terry Austin and Keith Williams, both of whom seemed to be of the tracing variety of inkers who remained faithful to the pencils. 

The fact that this most expensive list doesn't have a Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko or a Joe Kubert piece on it goes to show that there's no accounting for taste or true comics history. Silly wealthy fanboys. 

I also agree with the Chief's assessment of early Image artists. With the exception of Jim Lee and Dale Keown it all seemed to be flash in the pan stuff with lots of meaningless lines and no basic fundamental drawing skills underneath. But the art, although amateurish though it was, was leaps and bounds over the horrid writing and crap knockoffs of established characters. That said, Image seems to have turned things around quite a bit and are putting out some of the best written and drawn creator-owned books on the market these days. With guys like Michael Lark and Sean Phillips doing the art. You know, artists who can actually tell a story, with a grasp on anatomy, composition, and some actual drawing skills.

That said, they still put out their fair share of what I consider crap too like Savage Dragon and Spawn.

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I think Janson works best when the penciller is giving him very loose "breakdowns" (or whatever) to work over. That's what Miller was giving him on their famous DD collaboration. There's probably more Janson in that DD art than there is Miller.

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I think you have that flipped, Joe. I was giving Klaus very loose breakdowns on WOLVERINE. To the best of my knowledge, Frank was doing full pencils on DAREDEVIL.

Mind you, Frank's pencils have always been very lean and "open". The first time I saw them, I assumed they were tight breakdowns, and managed to offend Frank by saying so!

Klaus is a very strong inker, tho, and, especially in those days of yore, his style tended to come very much to the forefront. This can be seen in the AVENGERS of mine he inker, which were full pencils. By the time we got to WOLVERINE, tho, we'd both gone in different directions artistically, and it could be argued that the match was not entirely successful. I have wondered what it might have looked like with full pencils for Klaus to work on. (And, of course, when I was called upon to ink the final issue of that run I tried to match what Klaus had done, so any future collection would be as seamless as possible.)