Captainmarvel19557 wrote:

Let's not forget, when mentioning Marvel's inkers, the multiple Shazam! award winning Dan Adkins. Barry Smith's best work on Conan was inked by Adkins. And the team of John and Marie Severin. Great stuff! And, didn't Bill Everett actually pencil some Sub-Mariner issues in the 1960's?
Yeah, Adkins was good too! I remember the Everett Submariner stuff, and John and Marie Severin. More great artists at Marvel!

Davelghry wrote:

Really surprised at the Count's dislike of Infantino and Kubert who were not just artists but artists' artists. Count, when were you first exposed to these guys? During their hey day in the early 60's or later?

Would it really matter? I judge art by seeing it, not by when I see it. Early 60's stuff was my first intro to Infantino, and I didn't care that much for him back then. His cityscapes and backgrounds were good, but his figures always looked awkward to me. His 70's work was just hideous, and seemed to deteriorate by the day.

My first exposure to Kubert was his Hawkman work, then Tarzan. Some of his Hawkman work was passable, but he always had that annoying, scratchy/sketchy style, and weird anatomy/weird pose syndrome. I never could come to really like his art. I much preferred Murphy Anderson doing Hawkman.

I agree, by the way, that Infantino's art declined after the 60's (and rapidly), but back in his Flash/Adam Strange days, he was the one to beat.
He certainly was much better in his early days. I still didn't like him all that much, but there's no argument that his later work sucked compared to his earlier work.

I did want to say that I think our appreciation of certain artists, comic books, etc. is relative, based on our age when we first beheld them. The greatest comic book artist in the world could come along right NOW and I could acknowlege his greatness but ya know what? I still get a bigger thrill from Dick Sprang's WORLDS FINEST issue where Superman and Batman meet the Crimson Avenger. Because that's when I was a kid.

I have always hated the Nostalgia Fallacy as I like to call it. It's used too often as a convenient excuse, but it never really washes with me. I started collecting backwards (started with the 70's and worked my way back). I really got into collecting comics when I was 6 years old, which would be 1971. My first comic book memories are of reading Capt. America #118 (handed down from my uncle) and New Gods #1. This would have been 1970 and 1971. I never did come to like Colan's art (except perhaps on Dracula), despite him being my first exposure to comic art (that I can remember) when he drew Capt. America #118. I loved Kirby's work on New Gods though! I grew up with Sal Buscema, John Buscema, Jim Mooney, and Rich Buckler drawing Thor. I never did come to like John Buscema's art on anything, much less Thor. However, I was then exposed (shortly after starting to collect Thor with #210) to the Thor reprints in Marvel Spectacular, and learned of the glory of Jack Kirby drawing Thor! He became my favorite Thor artist, not the other artists I was exposed to drawing Thor. My first JLA stories were some old handed-down Sekowsky issues. When I later saw Dick Dillin doing JLA, I kinda/sorta liked his work. It was far better than Sekowsky, but still I always wished for a "better" artist. I ended up looking back and realizing I hated Sekowsky art and was much more tolerant of Dillin's. Remember the words I use to describe Dillin, we'll be coming back to him later. Again, this was the early 70's.

As the 70's went on and I got into 7th grade, I was able to go downtown to the comic book store and I started getting lots of 60's and very early 70's back issues. I discovered that Gil Kane was an infinitely better Green Lantern artist than Neal Adams, despite my first exposure to GL being the Neal Adams issues. My first memories of Fantastic Four were the Buckler issues, and I ended up liking the earlier Kirby work better when I was finally exposed to it. When George Perez took over the Avengers, he became my all time favorite Avengers artist (and my overall second favorite artist, outclassed only by The King himself - Kirby!). Again, this was many years after I'd suffered through years of Bob Brown's chicken-scratch art on Avengers, and then tons of Don Heck reprints.

Coming back to JLA, I cried when I found out Dick Dillin died. Perez, my second favorite artist of all time, succeeded him. Then I discovered that it simply did not feel like the JLA anymore. Dillin owned the JLA. His art, which I merely tolerated in the early/mid 70's, I began to really like a lot in the 80's and beyond. He's the definitive JLA artist, and it's hard for me to even read an issue of JLA anymore if it isn;t Dillin drawing it. I prefer him over artists I saw doing JLA before him, and over later artists that I like better than him.

I can't recall who my first Batman artist was. Perhaps Adams, perhaps Sprang or Infantino. It wasn't until much later that Aparo became the best (nay, definitive!) Batman artist of all time in my eyes. And what about Dr. Strange? My first exposure to him was Ditko (mainly in reprint titles), then Colan, then...er...someone else. Can't remember. And yet Brunner became the definitive Dr. Strange artist in my eyes, many, many years later.

I could go on and on. The nostalgia fallacy simply does't cut it.

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted in a profoundly sick society."

- Krishnamurti