Saturday, October 4, 2014

Name! That! Inker!


Who would you say is inking this page from Fantastic Four #219 that's pencilled by artist Bill Sienkiewicz?


Would your guess be:
(A) Pablo Marcos;
(B) Bruce Patterson;
(C) Joe Sinnott; or
(D) Sienkiewicz himself?


My first guess would have been Pablo Marcos. But would you believe:



Joe Sinnott? Really? It doesn't look at all like Joltin' Joe's style. Let's have a look at a few more panels from the issue:




And now let's skip ahead three issues, to a story where Marcos is listed in the credits:




I'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

(By the way, your eyes weren't playing tricks on you--that was indeed the Fantasti-Car, fitting inside the Pogo Plane. And with room to spare. I believe the response you're looking for is: "No. No, that's not possible.")

As for how Sinnott's work would really look, applied to Sienkiewicz's pencils, we can skip ahead a few more issues to see the result:




Much more definitive. Still, I can't quite make the call on whether or not the credits for #219 were in error, because some of the scenes from that issue do indeed have Sinnott's touches on them:




Sienkiewicz would be aboard Fantastic Four just after John Byrne's ten-issue initial stint as artist, taking over while Byrne segued to Captain America; then, about a year later, Byrne would return to ink his own work on the FF for a more extended stay on the book.

Sienkiewicz's work was scripted by Doug Moench (who forever carries the stain of the Zaniac on his résumé), the two of them bringing readers a different take on the FF. You might enjoy this one-year collection of issues, just for the sake of trying something a little different.  And it probably goes without saying that you'll be able to sample a few different inking styles, as well.

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