Is inking an important part of comic book design?

Yes. You only really notice it when you see bad inks ruin a great set of pencils, though. It's the bass player of comic book art.

>>90791922
>It's the bass player of comic book art.
really makes you think

>>90791922
This is a good analogy. You only notice it if. Its really bad or really good

>>90791922
Yup. Perfect.

Good ink can also save fairly average pencils.

>>90791922
I thought it was lettering.

>>90791882
Anon, lemme ask you something. If somebody draws something, and you draw, like, right on top of it without going outside the original designated art, what do you call that?

>>90793974
I'm not a musician. What's lettering? Like the triangle?

>>90791882
Have you ever seen a comic that went straight from pencil to colour? Shit looks really bad.

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>>90794020
The Dark Horse Star Wars comics looked good tho.

>>90791882

Digital artwork via tablets has essentially eliminated the need for inkers entirely. The pencils ARE the inks in that format.

>>90794040
Nah, it doesn't. I'm not saying the penciler isn't talented, but that looks really amateurish, like someone's web comic.

>>90794019
lettering is the roadie who sets up the stage before the show. In the end everything comes out the same but it's a visual element that's constantly there when you're observing it so it's either a great compliment to the main course or a distraction

>>90794019
If inkers are the bassists, letterers are the guys on synths adding little background flourishes to the song that you don't really notice and don't matter on their own but really add depth and layers to the music.

>>90791922

There's a reason only writers and artists receive creator credit and (sometimes) royalties.

Inkers, letterers and colorists are disposable. When an artist changes, you notice. When a writer changes, you notice? When an inker changes? When a letterer changes? Who gives a shit. You might notice a colorist these days thanks to digital coloring styles ranging wildly from what traditional coloring did, but inkers and letterers? Disposable.

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>>90794064
Checkmate. You have shit taste if you think Secret Identity looks like shit.

>>90794040
Not really, it looks extremely washed out.

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Inking can basically ruin a drawing if not done well

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>the guy who edits the censor bars in every panel with a benis or vagoo
>the guy who catches an ortography error at the last second before printing
>the guy who draws the hand and feets but is too humble to be included in the credits

Everyone is a hero in the comic biz

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>>90791882

In this day and age of tablets where the penciller can ink directly onto the "canvas"? No. In the past, though?

Check out this Mike Zech pencil of Hulk with four different inkers taking a stab at it. Really look at Hulk's face. He looks totally different depending on the inker. It's up to the inker to determine which lines to emphasize and which to keep subtle, where to shade and how much, how the line weight should be applied, etc.

When a penciller and an inker really click, you get some great stuff, like John Byrne and Terry Austin.

When the editor is just throwing random inkers on a dude's pencils and changing it up every week, it can make the penciller look like incompetent, inconsistent shit.

This mattered 20 years ago, but like I opened with, tablets have kind of rendered inkers unnecessary these days.

>>90794019
>>90794087
>>90794091
>no respect for lettering
Dave Sim and Stan Sakai can't wait to spin in their graves.

Bad lettering can absolutely ruin a comic too. Faux-cursive is the worst.

>>90794019
Lettering is the tech guy who makes sure you can actually hear the instruments and vocals.

>>90794121
Must be soul crushing to pencil out something amazing. Then your inker fucks up and readers trash your book's art.

>>90794446
>Dave Sim
Hi Dave/Alan.

>>90794497
I'm Neil Gaiman, you dummy.

>>90794446

Moebius said he was appalled with the assembly line method that Americans used to make comics. He always lettered his own work because he considered the lettering to be part of the art.

>>90791882
Yes. Ask Dough Mahnke.

>>90794565
It's symptomatic of the difference between how Americans and Europeans broadly view art. Americans tend to view art more as product to be purchased, while Europeans product to be experienced, enjoyed, read, whatever. So American art production methods tend to be (under the employ of big business) more focused on getting mass quantities over ensuring quality. Now, this doesn't mean quality art can come out of American methods of production, of course it can. But you'll usually find you're digging through a lot more material to find the gems.

>>90794757
How do Europeans manage to both raise families and manage a home and still be able to do art without it being "assembly-line"?

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>>90794016

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>>90794338
>When a penciller and an inker really click, you get some great stuff, like John Byrne and Terry Austin.
But Josef Rubenstein was clearly the superior inker.

>>90794968
I have no idea, some of these French guys put out like 40 or 80 pages a year.

Meanwhile while working on All Star Superman Quietly was worried he was going to lose his house

>>90794968
Typically the split is 50/50 between creators and publishers, they didn't have a model of selling all rights and having to focus on quantity like American or British comcis

>>90794968
They get payed as artists/artisans/craftmen and not simple workers in an assembly chain.

>>90796855
so if you have all the creative rights you have more money per work wich means you can take more time between one project and the next?

sensible

>>90796855
Do tell?

Someone help me out, what's the quote about hand-lettering
>Warm hands liven cold words
something like that?

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>>90797045
Sounds right, perfect example is Comic Sans. It's a typeface based on Gave Gibbons hand lettering from Watchmen

>>90797110
Maybe I'm just blind as fuck, but I don't see how the former inspired the latter.

>>90791882
As a drawfag who pencils, inks and colors his own work: yes, inking is very important to certain works. In a b/w comic, inking has to make up for the lack of color and then you can tell the true inkers from the two-bit tracers.

>>90794121
This has to be the worst inker in comic book history.
Someone post that Batman punching the wall that he inked.

>>90794094
>When an inker changes?
Depending on the penciller and the inker, you can definitely notice.

>>90794094
>When an inker changes? ... Who gives a shit.
Pleb spotted. An inker can totally fuck up an artist pencils, and sometimes can even elevate mediocre art. It is extremely noticeable when you have a single book with a single artist but different inkers.
You obviously just don't know what you're talking about.

>>90794094
>When an inker changes? When a letterer changes? Who gives a shit.

see >>90794121

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>>90794121
>That top inking job.

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Can't find the damn botched Batman inking.

>>90791882
You're a fucking tracer

>>90800621
To be honest here, the inker translated a lot more personality into this and made it feel like a genuine Greek hero mural.

>>90800672
This chucklefuck gets most of it alright but fucks up Spidey's face horrendously.

>>90794064
What webcomics have you been reading that look like that?

>>90794446
>Bad lettering can absolutely ruin a comic too.
Any time a comic isn't in all caps it just looks wrong, fuck who ever started that amateur shit

>>90794446
>Bad lettering can absolutely ruin a comic too

It's really important to mention that often the letterer places the word balloons, so if they're awful they can A. cover up too much art and B. kill the flow of a page

The guy who lettered Chris Claremont deserves a goddamn statue at the Marvel offices

>The guy who lettered Chris Claremont deserves a goddamn statue at the Marvel offices
>>90803172
Oh, do tell? Or show?

>>90803172
>A. cover up too much art

That's typically the artist's fault though, and usually happens when they haven't left enough room or didn't position the characters in speaking order

>>90798390
>An inker can totally fuck up an artist pencils, and sometimes can even elevate mediocre art.
I think good examples of this are basically anyone Terry Austin's worked with like Byrne and Marshall Rogers or Karl Kesel inking Liefeld on Hawk & Dove.