Sal Trapani "Metamorpho" no. 14, p. 22, 1967

Here's what I wrote about this piece in a talk I gave at the CAA (College Art Association) annual meeting in February. I was using it to discuss how much is lost in the transition from original art to printed comic:

"This is a page of “Metamorpho,” from 1967, penciled by Sal Trapani, and inked by Charles Paris. It has recently been reprinted by DC Comics as part of their “DC Showcase” series, which is usually shot from the original negatives, and as a result is often able to maintain line quality much better than the original printing. However, even that printing does not reveal the slightly more faded, grayish tint of the lines that, for example, i the second panel describe the outline of the Thunderer, compared to the darker black (and different edge quality) of some of the other lines in the picture. That is because those outlines were drawn with a brush, and in this specific panel most probably with a brush that still contained some water, as such diluting the ink somehow; in general, brushes apply thinner layers of ink, allowing the white of the paper to come through more. As opposed to it, the three fine lines at the top of the nose were drawn with a fine dip pen. The same pen, most likely, was used to indicate the outline of the speech balloon, which shows us it is also a flexible pen (as crowquills are)—you can see the inflected line, thinning from the edge of the panel to where it reaches the tail of the balloon. Finally, the borders of the panel were drawn with a technical pen, such as a rapidograph, that lays down a consistent, uninflected line."