Sunday, September 26, 2010

Nothing is purely black and white... except some good comics

Sunday Meskin Measures.

This week's Vigilante story by Mort Meskin was again inked by George Roussos. Even though the scan is not the best imaginable, it does show how well suited Roussos was for Meskin's work. The often worked together all through their career, but I think their sympatico feeling was created here. Roussos' bold use of blacks really gives this story a different feel than the ones from two weeks ago, for instance and inspired Alex Toth to explore the same route years later. On page nine, you can also see Roussos or Meskin use a white brush in a sort of dry brush effect to indicate speed, in the same way only a couple of years later Joe KUbert would adopt of one of his most identifying tricks (at least until he started thinning out his ink line in the sixties).












1 comment:

None said...

It is a little hard to tell from the scan, but I think those speed lines may have been achieved by a method other than a dry brush. It looks like it was done with a razor blade. After inking an area was finished, the inker would apply the corner of a razor blade and drag it across the paper. With the right pressure tiny pieces of paper would tear off leaving small irregular white spots.