When Artists Changed Hats

While it's always nice to have a reliable penciller/inker combo when reading your favorite comic, sometimes it's nice when management slips in a guest artist to fill one or both of those slots, just to have a little something new and to see what a different style brings to the character(s). In fact, in those early Silver Age stories, when artist staff was tight and finishers were making the rounds among different titles practically every month, there would occasionally be artist team-ups that were a real treat to find together, even if just to satisfy your curiosity as to how the final product would look.

For instance, in Jack Kirby's last few issues of Mighty Thor, Bill Everett steps in briefly for long-time Thor inker Vince Colletta and turns in some outstanding work that enhanced a lot of nice detail which Colletta generally suppressed:

By the way, did you know Hogun the Grim's mace was enchanted? Wait, it's not? Are you sure??

While Hogun prepares to mercilessly brain another enemy of Asgard, let's look at some other cool combos that gave us some interesting results.



First, John Buscema had a number of finishers on his Avengers work (including, on occasion, himself), and Iron Man penciller George Tuska also had the opportunity to embellish Buscema's pencils:

(Tuska is also listed as inker for issue #54, featuring the Masters of Evil and the Cowled Commander--but judging by the style of the work, I think the credits meant to list George Klein, instead. Would you concur?)

Tuska also inked some of Jack Kirby's Captain America work:

And as long as we've got Cap here, how about the rare combo of Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott?

Some of Gary Michaels' nice work with Gene Colan you've already seen--but since "Gary Michaels" was a pen name, have a look at some other scenes from his brush, this time when you know him by his more familiar name as inker Jack Abel:

And here's an about-face for you: While Dan Adkins inking Doctor Strange is certainly nothing unusual, how about Adkins inking the pencilling of none other than Tom Palmer?

Their styles are quite similar, aren't they? And both clearly seem to have a flair for the abstract.

Marie Severin also put in some hours pencilling Dr. Strange, and just look how nicely Herb Trimpe's inks enhance her work:

Finally, while penciller Don Heck has clocked a good deal of time drawing Captain America, inker Don Heck gives Jack Kirby's pencils some embellishment while leaving Kirby's overall touches and style intact:

Cap didn't fare so well in this battle, but he can have no complaints with his artists.