30 Days of Comics I love 8: Words! Words! Hulk is sick of words!

Incredible Hulk #133 

by Thomas, Trimpe and Severin

It's absolutely diabolical how Marvel treated Herb Trimpe in the artist's twilight years. He produced decades of great comics for the company, including a long run on the Incredible Hulk that is still the seminal take on ol' jade jaws, and he was left out in the cold by a company that has frequently shown nothing but disinterest for its own history and the people that created it.

Take any Hulk comic from the 70s, and chances are Trimpe drew it, and chances are he drew the hell of it. Issue #133 is a typical effort from this era, with the Hulk crashing into the world of another petty tyrant, and fucking it all up with his rage and power. It's not saying anything that a thousand other omics aren't saying, but there also aren't a thousand comics with Trimpe's powerful pencils on it, or with the stunning inkwork of John Severin thrown in on top.

Severin is such a precise, exact artist, that even as inker, his faces are clearly his, with that incredible detail and the tightest of lines. Trimpe's art is still powerful and thrusting, but has new delicacies under his collaborator's fine inks, bringing out the best of both artists. There are big open panels, and storytelling that is so clear that even Roy Thomas knows to shut up for a page of Hulk sneaking aboard a ship and keeps it silent. 

This combination of Trimpe's power and Severin's exactness means The Hulk has rarely looked better and while the big guy is still smashing the occasional fascist these days, he isn't doing it with as much style as he did, way back then.