I started reading comics as a kid back in the 1970s, and started collecting not long after. While the quality of the stories varied wildly, I was drawn mostly to the covers and interior artwork. I would pay special attention to the credits, remembering which artists were my favorites. Of course, it was always impossible to follow any artist based on the newsstands and comic book racks alone. Most of us assumed an artist would continue on a certain title for a certain duration.
It was the 1975 Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide that changed everything for me. Now I had a fairly comprehensive listing of comic titles, and issues designated to certain artists. Not only did I have a guide for my favorites: Neal Adams, Bernie (Berni) Wrightson, and Jack Kirby, but I discovered others whose work appealed to me: Nestor Redondo, Jim Steranko, Jim Starlin, etc. I would eventually familiarize myself with most of the artists in Overstreet, and added to my own list of favorites. Through mostly reprints, I began to appreciate the acknowledged masters of past decades: Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, and Alex Toth among others.
In the beginning I perused through comic boxes in used book stores and flea markets, eventually going to the more organized collections of legitimate "comic book stores". In the latter, you always paid a premium for these artist issues, but you could almost always get a fine copy for an affordable price (keep in mind Neal Adams' Avengers #93 in great condition was worth $1.20 back then).
I had a near complete runs of many artists, put then aside during college, and only began collecting again with the advent of Ebay many years later. It allowed me to fill in some gaps in my collection, enough to have a more comprehensive view of an artists' body of work. I was always delighted to find an artist issue with exemplary artwork, such as when I found Alex Toth's
Darby O' Gill and the Little People at a garage sale, but was also disappointed to open up Bernie Wrightson's Batman #265.
Overstreet did an acceptable job identifying which issues were done by certain artists, but there was no indication of page length or quality of the work. The value of an issue was determined by market demand, so the assumption that more expensive = better art was not necessarily true. Additionally, while Overstreet did a great job in researching the listings, there were more than a few inaccuracies. To their credit, they do make corrections every few years, but you'd be surprised how many issues are still mis-attributed (credit given to the wrong artist) or non-attributed (artist work not credited).
Pencil Ink seeks to showcase individual issues by certain artists, providing a little more information than the typical comic book guides: year of publication, story titles, page counts, collaborators, covers and sample pages (enlarged when clicked), and the most difficult to determine of all: quality of the art. After all, this is subjective, and although I try to apply art, art history, and design principles when evaluating, it's still one man's opinion. For completists like myself, the ratings may add more context to the issues.
I'll continue to add improvements, and rewrite older posts when necessary. The blog is nearing 2,0000 posts at this writing, and there are thousands to issues to go. Feel free to make suggestions or corrections, as I welcome constructive feedback. I'll keep Pencil Ink going as long as I can, donations are very much appreciated. I hope this blog serves as a helpful guide to fellow collectors when seeking to complete their own collections.
-Ted
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