Quality Inkers

[crashryan]

So who WERE those 1950s Quality inkers who battered everyone from Gene Colan to Charles Nicholas into looking almost the same? They couldn't have all been inked by Chuck Cuidera!

[JVJ (RIP)]

So who were these "Crash Ryan" people wandering around the site asking pertinent questions?

No one knows for certain, Crash, and their dedicated, deliberate sameness just adds to their anonymity. Here are some contenders: Chuck Cuidera, Bill Ward, Leo Morey, Sam Citron, Dick Rockwell, John Forte, Dick Beck, W. G. Hargis - just to name a few. Some you might be capable of recognizing solo, but all good enough to maintain that blandness on quick jobs.

Peace, Jim

[Poztron]

I may be pissing into the wind on this topic, but I like the strong clean brushwork of Quality inkers. That said, I'm not overly thrilled with the anonymous Quality hackery discussed here, but on the whole, I prefer Quality's hackery to a lot of other GA publishers' hackery. And Quality at its best -- Plastic Man, Blackhawk, The Barker, Torchy -- stand up quite well to the best of other publishers. YMMV, I realize. Bold tight brushwork is not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy it.

[JVJ (RIP)]

The strength of the Quality ink line isn't so much what's being bemoaned here, Poz, but just that much of it virtually obliterated the identity of the penciler underneath it. It's not often that artists like Gene Colan, Matt Baker and Harry Anderson become nearly unrecognizable simply by virtue of someone applying inks to their pencils. So, yes, I think CrashRyan and I would agree with you that the Quality surface brushwork style is head and shoulders above that of many lesser GA companies, AND we MOST certainly see guys like Reed Crandall, Jack Cole, and Bill Ward as giants in the field when they're inking their own pencils. But when a latter-day Crandall strip is nearly unrecognizable because Chuck Cuidera basically redrew it with HIS strong, clean brushwork (instead of following Crandall's pencil lines) - that's where we might begin to differ as to the value of his contribution. As you say, YMMV.

Peace, Jim (|:{>