Let’s celebrate with some Devil Dinosaur!
Is this the devil, or the Red Skull in a cheap disguise?
The Comics Reporter doesn’t say, but he does have a very comprehensive gallery of Kirby art to celebrate.
Herb Trimpe pencilled the Incredible Hulk from 1968 to 1975, which was an impressive run in those days. Over the course of 80+ issues, he had quite a few inkers, and a comparison of the art they produced over Herb’s pencils is a great example of how an inker can make or break a penciller.
First up, Dan Adkins inks Herb Trimpe in Incredible Hulk 111:
Overall a nice job. The inks don’t get in the way of the action (or that great layout in the middle of the page). Adkins either leaves the inked page as good as he found the pencilled one, or enhances it.
Next up is John Severin inking Trimpe in Incredible Hulk 133 from 1970:
Severin really puts his mark on this one. If you know him from his westerns, you’ll probably recognize him here. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He brings something to the page that most Marvels of the era didn’t have. In my opinion the best inker Trimpe had during his Hulk run.
Next is Sal Trapani in Incredible Hulk 164. This seems like the weakest page of the four on display here:
Trapani seems to emphasize the things I like least about Trimpe. The close up of the Hulk implies that his eyelids have grown to the point that he can’t open his eyes, and the use of force lines seems a bit gratuitous. I think this is the worst combination of the four here. There’s other Trimpe here that seems much better, and I’ve found some pretty cool Trapani pieces here and here. Trapani over Trimpe isn’t horrible, but I think both would have been better served by different partners.
Last up is Jack Abel. He inked a fair number of Hulks, over both Trimpe and Sal Buscema. Abel over Trimpe always seemed like the better pairing. You can really see the stylistic change in the faces on this one:
Abel’s inks have a more workmanlike quality. They don’t take away from the pencils, but they don’t feel like they add as much. I may be biased on Abel though, I never cared for his work over Sal Buscema, and I developed a pretty strong opinion about his inks based on that long before I saw any of his work over Trimpe. That being said, I bet he was a nice guy who rarely missed a deadline. Any love for Jack Abel out there?
So who was the best inker Herb Trimpe had on the Hulk? My vote is for Severin. If you disagree, tell me who was the best in the comments.
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