Greetings, Groove-ophiles! We're kicking off a brand new month and a brand new week--so why don't we kick off a brand new department, as well? With
AWESOME, INK! we'll look back on the uber-talented guys who laid the India ink and zip-a-tone so that the powerhouse pencils of our favorite artists would show up for print. The best of 'em had a style of their own, one that was instantly recognizeable and yet allowed the penciler's style to shine through as well. Not an easy task, as you can quickly see by flipping through any random stack of old comics. But when an inker had "it" he had it! Those are the guys we're gonna dig on in the weeks and months to follow. Are ya ready?
Ol' Groove just hadda pick Tom Palmer to kick this department off. Palmer's inks over Adams in
X-Men and
Inhumans (in
Amazing Adventures), as well as his inks over Adams and the Brothers Buscema (John and Sal, natch) in the
Avengers, plus his work on Gene Colan in
Daredevil and
Dr. Strange made Tom my first "favorite inker". His slick, dark, moody style made the Marvel Universe more real to me than any other inker's work during my "formative fan years".
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| Neal Adams pencils from X-Men #57 |
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| That's right--Don Heck pencils, baby! From X-Men #64 |
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| Sal Buscema from Avengers #78 |
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| John Buscema from Avengers #82 |
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| Neal Adams from Avengers #93 |
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| Big John from Avengers #94 |
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| Adams from Amazing Adventures #5 |
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| Gene Colan from Doctor Strange #180 |
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| More Colan from Daredevil #86 |
As the Groovy Age trucked on, Tom found a permanent home on
Tomb of Dracula, working with writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan for what had to be better than 90% of that highly acclaimed mag's run.
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| Gene the Dean from Tomb of Dracula #50 |
Still, he found time to work on a variety of Marvel projects.
Nova, Thor, Conan, Howard the Duck, and even
Star Wars enjoyed some fine Palmer rendering.
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| Our Pal Sal from Nova #4 |
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| Big John from Conan the Barbarian #54 |
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| Howard Chaykin pencils from Star Wars #8 |
According to the Grand Comics Database, Palmer inked somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 stories during the Groovy Age, and he's still going strong. Over 2,200 entries in the GCD with no end in sight! Keep on truckin', Tom!
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