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You can see on this finished version how much of the line work on Noman's
chest from the penciled version disappears into a mass of black. Blyberg makes a
good choice to detail the handle of the gun under Noman's fingers, since he is
supposed to be invisible. Perhaps the most fascinating part of these pieces
is how much extra work Ditko does outside the borders. Notice how, in the bottom
left panel, Ditko's pencils show all of the woman's head, but that is gone in
the finished version. Noman's arm in the bottom right panel is penciled outside
the panel, but is erased in the finished version; same with much of the vegetation.
Blyberg should be credited with keeping the fierceness of the tiger-like creature.
Most times, the ruggedness of pencil work will be lost in the inking process, but
Blyberg keeps it sharp, adding the nice touch of darkening the creature's eyes.
DItko must have had an affinity for Noman, as he worked on him in 1966 for Wally Wood, and later, in 1984-86 for Deluxe. The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents are © John Carbonaro, and you can visit his web-site for them at www.thunderagents.com.
Again, many thanks to John for providing some an amazing example of Ditko's pre-inked work.
(It should be noted that I had to stitch these two finished pages together, as is evident
by some of the vegetation in the bottom of the first panel)
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