04) Mark McKenna over Wrightson

2012 Inkwell Award winner, Mark McKenna.


I reached out to Mark at a time when he was working hard to meet a deadline on a Halloween special book of his Monkey Tails books. Which if you have small children, you really should check them out because they are really cute and fun stories. He very reasonably asked for a little patience and then caught back up to me when he had the bandwidth. Patience is the one thing I am good with.... and the image you see is definitely worth the wait.


Mark has worked on such a variety of books, I asked him what he enjoyed working on the most. "I like being a chameleon and altering a style to generate a new style. I love being able to do an Archie thing and then do Punisher. I find that liberating. In fact, when I 1st did a job FOR Archie Comics, the boss man told me to start in the back and work my way up to the splash page, mostly because theres always a concern that the inker might not have a grasp on what I call the "big foot" style of inking..."


Mark was kind enough to send through a scan after he had begun and it seemed to have a lighter and cleaner line that the other inker's versions I had gotten. So I asked him if that was the style he was trying to acheive. "I am clean and generally light, I would agree.. I used to be weighty because I used a brush which lends itself to being thicker, but I find myself picking thru Bernie's pencils with a pen, because its easier to make choices with a pen point."


I am just in awe of this whole artistic process and appreciate seeing the talents of the people working in this industry.