Michael Rankins returns to my gallery with his 17th commission for me which is actually more of an enhancement job. Brazilian artist Jorge Correa Jr. pencilled & inked this piece for the client’s “Common Elements” gallery of Wonderman (a fave of mine) and Wonder Girl. But Michael asked me to add some more contrast to the image like definition, shadows & texture. While not as time-consuming as fully inking pencil art, this is still a challenge for me since there is a clash of styles from the word “GO”. Jorge uses a beautiful, delicate series of fine line work with bolder contour lines and intentionally a minimum of contrasts. I needed to know when to add and when to not. The background had contrasts and didn’t need anything since we wanted the figures to be dominant. WG, in my opinion, didn’t really need more definition as it would be gratuitous and over-render her so I only added black to the blue shorts and made a couple of lines bolder. WM, however, I had a lot of options with and he was more the concern of the client anyway. I don’t know if I like it since my additions look odd in the mix for me but Michael loved it and THAT’S what really matters! This was my second commission I’ve done with Simon Williams in it (none solo yet) and my 1st time with Donna. I was done with this 11X17 job on 8/24/2007.
About Me
Bob is the inking half of the Sal Velluto art team collaboration on such projects as Marvel’s critically-acclaimed BLACK PANTHER,’99-’02 leading to a 2003 Comicboards “Ooks” Award for “Best Inker” & two “Squiddies” awards for “Best Inker” (2001 along with “Best Creative Team” win and 2002 tied with Mark Farmer and tied for “Best Multi-Part Story”), and many other projects with Sal since 1997 and other artists at Marvel, DC, Acclaim, Malibu, Penny-Farthing Press, Power Comics, IDW, Kingstone, Thrilling Nostalgia Comics, Harris Comics, Topps, Wildstorm, New England Comics, Valiant and several others. While he’s been primarily an ink artist he’s also been a columnist for Sketch magazine and First Comics News. Bob’s a comic book collector and unofficial historian who has acted as a “Master of the Obscure” at the Marvel Appendix site, been a longtime member of the “Jarvis Heads” and a “group expert” at Facebook groups. He’s the founder/director of the official non-profit Inkwell Awards and advocate since 2008. Bob has been credited with “Special Thanks” along with his “Storyteller” colleagues Christopher Priest & Sal Velluto in the record-breaking film BLACK PANTHER (2018) and BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (2022).
Contact Me
180 Park Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
dmralmond@gmail.com