I'm a relative n00b to the comic book world, and I'm not entirely sure of who does what, but I'm assuming here that artist is the person who draws the stuff and inker is the one who colours them in. These guys together in Tales of Suspense mark the first time I've gone "holy shit, would you look at that art work". Truly great work.

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Wait till you get to Sterenko and a little later Adams. Both step up the game so much...

Which ToS did you first get hit by the better art quality?

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The inker is actually not the person who does the color. The penciler first draws a panel in pencil with the degree of detail ranging from very basic to a complete panel. The inker then goes over the pencils in black ink adding detail if needed. So for example, a penciller might draw spider-man with no webs on his costume and then the inker will ink over the image and add the webs. Coloring at the time was actually handled by the publisher rather than the creative team. In early Marvel, publishing was handled by various third party companies (fun fact: for a while it was actually DC's publishing house that they used) so there was no way for Marvel to credit the colorist(s). Once Marvel created their own publishing house, credits for colorists start showing up in the comics.

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It was ToS #81



Well in that case I'm not sure if I've properly credited everyone responsible, but whoever it was, kudos to them, first time in the order I've noticed the artwork being outstanding.

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Yeah, the inker actually has a huge impact on the final appearance of the page. I initially thought the inker did the colouring as well, since that would make sense.

I remember reading somewhere that one of the editors in chief had a big problem with someone drawing Peter Parker with a really square head, and eventually deciding to talk to the penciller about it (Who he didn't know very well, or get along with) and end up really offending the guy and sabotaging their relationship. He then found out shortly afterwards that it was the inker's fault the whole time, who was actually a good buddy of his. He mentioned it over a beer to the inker and the problem was solved, but he never saw eye to eye with the penciller from that point.

EDIT: It's on this page, if you scroll down there's a light blue box with the story. Not quite as I told it but close.

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/amazing_spider-man_256-258.shtml

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That was pretty interesting

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Well, it is less important how much they cared about continuity and rather if the book as a whole is considered in continuity. In this case Untold IS in continuity and will be in the order. As with other flashback series, it will be closer in to its published order.

Its not because of the difference in art, but rather these later stories changes the intent of the original story lines. While its part of the order and important to read, once you start mixing in "flashback" issues written decades after the originals, you loose all the original intent of the stories when they were published.

(something I polled on a while back and the overwhelming response was to leave them in publish order.)

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