Dan's Blog

Dave on inking:

3. Yes, the Gillott 290 pen nib. According to Tom Roberts’ new ALEX RAYMOND HIS LIFE AND ART book, Raymond used them as well. You can get them online at John Neal books somewhere in the Carolinas.

They are time-consuming to use because they don’t have the latitude on either side that the Hunt 102 does. Unless you have both flanges touching the page at the right angle, you aren’t going to get an ink line out of it. So it’s a self-disciplining tool: it makes you pay much closer attention and to be very specific in your touch. As a result when you do get a line out of the 290, it’s a perfect line. But it does mean you have to wash it off and dry it a lot of times without having gotten anything out of it. That’s where Neal calls it an instrument of the devil. You feel like screaming at it, “I do TOO have both flanges on the page!” Uhuhuh. Not EXACTLY both flanges. Not at the proper angle.

But when you get into a groove with it? Lookitme Ma, I’m Neal Adams, I’m Dick Giordano, I’m Al Williamson! Absolute heaven. I used it a lot more on Secret Project One than on glamourpuss because ofthe scheduling thing. If you’re just learning to use it, it’s best for repeating patterns—Berni Wrightson style vertical hatch-lines. Anything you do over and over and over and over because you do get into that groove

4. Pretty much the same with the exception of more thin brush inking. On CEREBUS I’d use the 102 like a brush—hold it a little further back on the penstock and almost level with the page and then pull it alternating the pressure. You can open the flanges up without breaking them or bending them permanently. Ger still maintains that isn’t possible.

Hmmm, interesting.