Tom Palmer - R.I.P.
 

The legendary inker Tom Palmer has passed away. He was a very highly regarded inker, and is considered by many to be the best inker for Gene Colan's pencil work, inking much of Colan's work on the Tomb of Dracula series.

He also did some great work inking Neal Adams on the X-Men, as well as inking some of the classic Avengers stories (plus a long run in the 80's).

Re: Tom Palmer - R.I.P.
 

Fantastic inker, one of the all-time greats. This has been a terrible year if you are a comic book pro.

Re: Tom Palmer - R.I.P.
 

Heard about this. A legend. RIP.

Re: Tom Palmer - R.I.P.
 

RIP. I met him at a convention about four years ago. He was there with his daughter or daughter-in-law and her husband. Nice guy. When he saw my Captain America shield, he insisted on signing it for me and also signed a few other pieces I had there for free.

Re: Tom Palmer - R.I.P.
 

He was one of the only (if not THE only) inkers to fully crack the code for delineating Colan's lush, but very tricky, pencil work. Their individual styles were fully in synch when put together.
I usually thought he was a little too heavy handed for most other pencilers. I could almost always tell, at a young age, when the art was being inked by Palmer. His voice often subsumed the underlying art.
But in the right circumstances, like with Colan and especially the Dracula work, he could make it sing like no other. It's a testament to his skill that the Dracula material plays just as well in B&W (in the old Essentials) as it does in color. Often it's even moodier and more effective without the chromatic distraction.

He was also good with likenesses. From his earliest Star Wars work in '78, and until Al Williamson arrived with the ESB adaptation, he was was one of the very few getting those characters to look remotely like the actors. When he returned to ink Simonson in the early eighties, I never missed an issue.

I also have to respect how much he sacrificed, monetarily, for his art. He made extensive use of zip-a-tone overlays- which was an expensive addition out of his own pocket.

Re: Tom Palmer - R.I.P.
 

Palmer was fantastic. Both his full art and his inks were fantastic. His inking style wasn't suited to everything but his superhero work on Neal Adams and John Buscema was as top-notch as his moody horror work over Gene Colan. He certainly could ink heavy, as he did on Star Wars, but I think there must have been an editorial edict to bring consistency to the artwork from issue to issue and to retain the likenesses. Regardless, it was great work. He will be missed.