{reformatted by JB}

Edited by JohnByrne3 on 25 June 2016 at 8:10am

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There was a period in the Seventies and early Eighties when it seemed like Sal was drawing every book Marvel was putting out. He became the go-to guy, because he could turn out the work quickly, on deadline, and while what he produced was not earth shattering, it got the job done. And, occasionally, when someone decided to team him with a good inker, such as Klaus Jansen, the work looked really good.

Unfortunately, this was a "we don't care" period at Marvel, so there was very little effort to make the books look their best. (There was said to be an unofficial policy that good pencilers would be teamed with poor inkers, and vice versa, to "level out" the quality of the product. Sometimes it seemed this was true.)

But under it all, Sal had always been a solid artist, as we got to see when he took over penciling THOR from Walt Simonson, and immediately adapted his style to match what Walt had been doing.

I had the pleasure of working with Sal a couple of times, both with the Hulk, and what he gave me was exactly what I expected, and exactly what I needed. Very different from ego driven artists I've worked with, who wanted to impose their personal "vision" on my story. (Like the guy who took a dramatic story with a humorous punchline, and turned it into a "funny" story.)

Solid, professional, sometimes amazing. That's Sal. And it's a great pleasure for me to have been told one of those Hulk stories is one of his personal favorites to have worked on.

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I will not go off on a rant. I will not go off on a rant. I will not go off on a rant. I will not go off on a rant. I will not go off on a rant.