Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow some inking questions for Dave

Hey Dave, I have a couple questions for you about inking:

1. I was just rereading Legion of Super-Heroes #300 the other day (you know, the anniversary issue from the early 80's where you came back and did a few pages). One thing I was curious about is how come your inking style is so different in that issue from how it was in the early 70s? Had you switched pens/brushes? Did you deliberately change your style? Your early 70s inking style seems slicker and smoother, but the 80s style has more of a Kuberty feel to it. I like them both, I'm just curious why it changed, and whether it was conscious or just natural progression.

2. I read this quote in newsarama:

"As an aside, as for Cockrum, who, apart from his initial run on the title illustrated five pages to LSH #300 back in the day, the artist doesn’t look back on his art with too many fond feelings. “I didn't like the way that art looked. I guess I was largely to blame, but also the inking was harsh and the coloring garish."

Anyway, I'm confused. Are you saying you're unhappy with your art on Legion in the early 70s? Or am I misunderstanding? When you say "the inking was harsh" to whom are you referring? Surely not the issues Murphy Anderson inked, and you inked the rest yourself. Is this a misquote, or am I misreading it?

Anyway, thanks for your time. Looking forward to Legion #25, even though I don't think Al Milgrom is the best choice of inker for you...

Cheryl Lad
In the seventies I had great brush control. I could do almost anything I wanted to with a brush. The '80s style was pretty much all pen. By that time I had been losing my ability to control a brush to my satisfaction.

I was not referring to my '70s work. I was quite pleased with that. As for hy 'harsh' comments--I don't know whether it was Legion #300 or another special, but my portion featured Lightning Lad and Lightning Lord (coincidentally, since that's what my segment in Legion #25 involves), and it was harsh and ugly, and the coloring was unnecessarily garisjh. That's what I was referring to.

Dave

As someone who's been struggling with a brush since the late 80's, I can understand how frustrating it must be to be "losing control" of it. It took me 10 YEARS before I really began to be satisfied with what I was doing at all-- and since then I've had to battle with plunging quality standards of brushes, ink that increasingly separates (have to store the bottles upside-down when not in use) and this past year, what my new eye doctor called "the fuzzy forties". (And this doesn't even get into varying paper grades with unpredictable amount of "bleed-in".)

I guess it's no surprise that with the work I've been doing lately, more and more of it involving a growing number of computer programs, INKING is the ONE part of the whole process I'm beginning to enjoy the LEAST. (At least my pencilling keeps improving...)

No wonder Jack Kirby never liked to ink his own stuff! What a pain...

Ah, so it must have been Legion of Super Heroes #45 from 1988. I haven't seen that issue. They really de-contextualized your quote where it is unclear what you are talking about. I don't think I'm the only one who mistakenly thought you were criticizing all your Legion work.

As an amateur cartoonist, I've never been able to do anything with a brush except wreck a perfectly good pencil drawing, so I can understand. So, is the decline of brush control the reason you seldom inked in the 80s, after inking a lot in the early 70s?

That, and the fact that I got paid a lot better to pencil. So why ink, except to satisfy ego?

Dave