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Originally Posted by aric
Love it. banks is very underrated IMO. He is wonderful to work with if anyone is considering commissioning him.
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To be honest, I find it kind of belittling whenever I hear people insist -- way, WAY too often -- that he should put back on
Green Lantern. Partly because I think it's a case of pigeonholing an artist into only doing one thing, but also because it's selling him short. It's almost like they're saying he's only good at one thing and shouldn't be doing anything else. I think stuff like this He-Man shows the man has tremendous range, range that not only the industry has overlooked but also a lot of comics fans.
In fact, I think that's been an unofficial thread running through my collection...artists who've never gotten their props. Banks, Emberlin, Steven Butler, Mike McKone, Todd Nauck, and soon Kerry Gammill -- all of them people with talent to burn, but they've either slipped through the cracks or been stuck on the B-list. And looking at many of the artists I still want to get stuff from, they too are in the same boat. I don't know why, but many of the artists I like best are the guys who never became stars, or didn't last in the industry for one reason or another. The major-league superstars tend not to be the ones I gravitate to.
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I actually had Randy ink a piece I had gotten from Ron Lim at SDCC - not only is he a great guy - he does fantastic work - his inks are crisp and clean.
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When he switched from inking Bagley to inking Butler on the Spider-Man books and Larry Mahlstedt became Bagley's inker, I found the switch jarring beyond belief. Not that Mahlstedt is a bad inker by any means, but the difference between his inks and Emberlin's was startling to me. I think Mahlstedt's thinner, sharper inks really emphasized the more angular quality of Bagley's pencils, as opposed to the smoother look Emberlin brought. And seeing the scratchy, messy inks Rob Hunter's slapping on Bagley's stuff these days, it makes one appreciate Emberlin's work with him all the more. I think Bagley's probably the best example of how Emberlin's inks can shape a penciler's work, given how other inkers' efforts on him have had such wildly differing results. By contrast, I don't think Emberlin's inks had quite the same influence on Steven Butler, simply because they had similar styles and they seamlessly meshed together. (That's not a complaint, mind you. I'm a Butler fan and I loved their work together.)
I'll certainly be commissioning Emberlin to ink more stuff for me in the future. I can think of one sketch right off the bat he could probably punch up with no problems, and I can think of a few pencilers who I'd like to see him try his hand at. I'm still impressed by how well he and Banks worked together (so to speak) on this one.
