The Madness of Inking Musical Chairs

Now do not get me wrong, right off the bat, I do not want to draw any comparisons between, say, the problems Bill Loebs is going through and what inkers have to deal with in comics today, because there really is no comparison between the two. I just wish to point out the annoying situations that affect inkers in the comic industry.

In comics today, you basically have three levels of inkers. You have your A+ list inkers, who can pretty much go wherever they want. Then you have your A list inkers, who everyone wants to pair up with, but they still have to find someone to pair up with to get work. And then you have, well, every other single inker in the business.

These distinctions become very important when changes in the industry occur, because whether they are small changes or large ones, the effects are felt throughout the inking ranks like ripples from a stone falling into a lake.

For example, just look at the effect of the modern move towards digitally coloring artist's work, and skipping the inker altogether. This obviously means that there is one more book that does not have an inker. However, it also often means that a high profile inker is without an assignment. In the case of Andy Kubert, when he went to having his art digitally colored, that meant that Matt Ryan was without a partner.

Matt Ryan is an A list inker, so he was not going to last long without a partner, and he found one in Greg Land. This, of course, meant that whoever was partnered with Greg Land was now partner-less. And when THAT inker got a partner, then that meant that THAT penciller's partner was without a gig.

This is the same for smaller changes, like when someone like J.H. Williams decides that he would rather ink his own art, then a notable inker such as Mick Gray is suddenly on the open market, causing disarray in the inking market for both Gray and anyone who he may end up "displacing."

The ripple effect in full force.

It really makes you feel for how annoying it must be to have to stake so much of your career on partnering up with the right penciller.

Take Drew Geraci, for instance. One of the more notable inkers in the business (and one of the nicer folks, too), Geraci partnered up with Greg Land, and they were a popular tandem for awhile. But then John Dell (inker extraordinaire from JLA) made the leap from DC to Crossgen, and Howard Porter offered Geraci Dell's gig. What do you do? Stick with your partner, or make the leap to a higher profile gig paying more money? Geraci understandably took the latter, and was now Porter's partner, and planned to go to Adventures of Superman with Porter after JLA wrapped up. Then, however, circumstances in Porter's life changed, and he was now out of comics, leaving Geraci without a partner. He ended up back with Land over at Crossgen, and then later, after being a inker-of-all-trades at Crossgen (rotating from book to book as needed), he began inking fellow Crossgen alum, Scot Eaton.

Then Scot Eaton got the chance to be inked by the A-List Cam Smith (who was free because the man Smith often inks, Gary Frank, was being inked by another A-Lister, Jon Sibal), so Geraci was without a partner once again.

Ready to ink without a partner...sounds like a country song, doesn't it?

I honestly cannot imagine how maddening the whole thing must be. Musical chairs the GAME bugs me, doing musical chairs as a CAREER? That's rough.