Thanks to the assistance of my pal Tom Smith who was now the colorist to the new Avengers title in '98 I was informed earlier that year that the editors of said book were in the process of finding a suitable inker for George Perez's pencils. By contacting the office I was able to receive pencil photocopies of George's work from a three page sequence for an upcoming THUNDERBOLTS annual to be inked by Karl Kesel. Other contenders that I was aware of were Keith Williams, Al Vey, and I think Scott Hanna and perhaps Karl himself. I got word that George preferred the inker to not go changing the art so I played it more conservative than usual. I had the pencil copies converted to non-photo blue lines at a drafting/print shop and then proceeded to ink over the 2 pages in mostly brush(we had the option to ink any 2 out of the 3 given). I found out later that George personally chose from the group and decided on Vey, partially because he added to the art...D'oh!:-P I may have missed out on my much-coveted dream assignment but I can at least say that I was a contender. And at least I would get to ink part of the inker jam cover for the AVENGERS: SUPREME JUSTICE TPB 3 years later, again thanks to the assistance of Tom; I did Thor & Wasp (below right). You can click the pencil & ink thumbnails of the pages.
The Artists' Choice