There's Scott Williams, Gary Martin, Mark Farmer, Mike Bair, Karl Kesel....Adam Hughes , Frank Cho, and Mark Schultz (though they only ink their own stuff). If you're looking into classic inkers, don't forget Rudy Nebres or Joe Rubinstein.
Scott Williams is particularly influential in that he created what came to be called the "Image Style" of inking, back in the 90's. Don't let that throw you, though; Williams himself did it beautifully, but those who tried to imitate him frequently butchered it.
I was reading the second volume of Grayson the other day, and I was surprised by how mediocre the inking frequently was. The backgrounds were often clearly filled in on computer, and the art, while great in close ups and large figures, frequently fell apart in distance shots. Sad, really.
edited 26th Jun '16 11:22:06 AM by Robbery
Vince Colletta as an inker seems to be a Love or Hate mentality in the comic book industry.
Editors: He brings his work in on time!
Pencillers: He covers over details!
It's interesting how some inkers are relative chameleons, while others have a style that's hard to miss regardless of the penciller. But even more interesting, to my mind, are those pencillers who become so strongly linked to an inker that the latter seems indispensible to the former's work.
For example: this is probably because I was an '80s teenager who largely stopped following comics for a few decades, but John Byrne's art never looked quite right to me without Terry Austin's inks—all his subsequent decades of work feel somehow like that of a Byrne imitator who's lacking something crucial. There are probably fans who feel the same way about Klaus Janson w/r/t Frank Miller, or Murphy Anderson's work with Kane, Infantino, and/or Swan.
I for one have learned that Karl Story's inks were the real key to the Dixon/Mcdaniel Nightwing run. Without story Mcdaniel is just plain ugly, not stylishly ugly.
Does anyone know any influential modern inkers? I know the classic one like Dick Giordano and Terry Austin.