Who's your favorite Kirby inker and why? 0

[Knightsofold]

I've been partial to the clean and dynamic weighty blacks of Chic Stone, but I know some prefer other inkers.

[alexgross.com]

joe sinnott! still alive and well too, doing sunday spiderman newspaper strip inking at 90. there was a neat article about him a little while back in the NY times. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/nyregion/spider-man-and-his-inker-wrists-still-going-strong-a-half-century-later.html

[KirbyJack]

Both first rate embellishers, and one or the other would win any poll I can imagine.

That said, I'll add Wally Wood, Mike Royer, Steve Ditko, Joe Simon ( he had to have inked Kirby occasionally, right?), Ayers, and Kirby himself! 

I guess The King's my favorite in that group!

[Primetime]

1. Sinnott

2. Ayers

3. Stone 

[Ken Aldred]

Another vote for Chic Stone.

Great work with Kirby over his Thor pencil art for Journey Into Mystery.

Far superior to Vince "The Eraser" Colletta.

 

[jimjum12]

Depends on the title..... it would be Sinnott  on the FF and Colletta on Thor. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Readcomix]

Sinnott, hands down, with all due to respect to Stone and others. 

[Timely]

On 8/11/2017 at 10:46 PM, Readcomix said:

Sinnott, hands down, with all due to respect to Stone and others. 

+1 Sinnott makes all things great!

[chrisco37]

Yeah, Sinnott is in a class by himself.  No contest. 

[Phicks]

Sinnott, followed by Royers.

[Dick Pontoon]

Royer, Sinnott, Stone, Ditko, Ayers, Everett, though not necessarily in that order.

[zhamlau]

Stone, not even a question. Followed by Ayers, Royer, and Sinnott. 

[delekkerste]

Sinnott, not even debatable

Everett is my 2nd pick, though, picking from a smaller body of work (talking Everett over Kirby pages)

Royer was solid and consistent on later Kirby, he gets the last spot on the Kirby inker podium for me

Giacoia, Stone and Shores all had their moments (if you doubt the latter, just look at the OA for the Cap #101 cover...simply astounding in person, wish I had bought it a few years ago)

 

[namisgr]

First mention of Frank Giacoia in the thread, and I'm glad you made it.  While Kirby had a relatively short run on Avengers, I really enjoyed the work inked by Giacoia.

[Drummy]

Joe Sinnott.

[El Toro Rojo]

All love to Royer, then Sinnott - and let's not forget how awesome Romita looked over Jack's pencils!

[chrisco37]

@stinkininkin

Scott - I know you don't venture over in these parts much, but tagging you to see if you've got an opinion here?   Would love to know what a pro thinks on this topic. 

[Dick Pontoon]

19 hours ago, El Toro Rojo said:

All love to Royer, then Sinnott - and let's not forget how awesome Romita looked over Jack's pencils!

Romita? He only inked about a dozen pages of Kirby, pretty much all covers and a lot of those were just partial. I'm not disagreeing that they look nice, but I don't consider him a Kirby Inker.

[conservativeone]

The best:

 Sinnott-especially on the FF and Captain America

Giacoia- one example-FF annual 5 is beautiful-the Thing never looked better- one better than Sinnott

Long tenures but not my favorites:

Stone-everything looked great but the Thing never looked right to me when he inked the FF and I always judged the inking on how good the Thing looked

Ayers-looked like mud on Michelangelo to me

Shores-ditto

Royer-never understood the love-always made Kirby's art appear flat to me

Colletta- the hands of characters never looked right to me-plus the erasing.... but sometimes it seemed a perfect match.

Underrated or Guilty pleasures:

Ditko-gave Kirby an enjoyable quirky hue

D Bruce Berry-enjoyed his Kamandi inks

Dan Adkins-solid inker on Kirby

Abominations:

Reinman and Roussos and Colletta on the FF.

[comick1]

Sinnott gets my vote as the classic Kirby inker, but my fav is the one time (of 2 ever????) that John Severin inked Kirby in Yellow Claw #4. It's one of my favorite Kirbys AND it's one of my favorite Sevs. Totally exquisite. Wish that matchup happened more.

Here's a link with a few samples. The Yellow Claws/Black Knights are not difficult to find in Marvel Essentials reprint form. Here's a link to a few interior examples:

http://fourcolorshadows.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-yellow-claw-jack-kirbyjohn-severin.html

 

Edited August 18, 2017 by comick1