Terry Austin (born August 23, 1952) is an American comic book artist, working primarily as an inker. He is best known for his work embellishing John Byrne's pencils on The Uncanny X-Men from 1977—1981.
Austin grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Wayne State University. He started inking comics as an assistant to Dick Giordano and Neal Adams, doing "Crusty Bunker" work for Adams' Continuity Associates. Austin came to prominence in 1976—1977, inking Marshall Rogers' pencils on a celebrated run of Batman stories for DC's Detective Comics (collaborating with writer Steve Englehart). During this same period, Austin inked Michael Netzer on DC's Martian Manhunter in Adventure Comics and Green Arrow/Black Canary in World's Finest Comics, as well as Al Milgrom on Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel. He later teamed with Rogers again on Marvel's Doctor Strange.
X-Men
In 1977, Austin and penciler John Byrne became the new art team on Uncanny X-Men. With writer Chris Claremont they produced a series of stories ... particularly The Dark Phoenix Saga ... which elevated the title into the top-selling American comic book.
Post X-Men
Austin left Uncanny X-Men in 1981, after learning of Byrne's departure, and has since worked on a variety of titles for both Marvel and DC, including Doctor Strange (over Paul Smith and Dan Green pencils), Superman (over Byrne), Justice League America (over Kevin Maguire) and Green Lantern (over Darryl Banks). Austin was the regular inker of DC's Superman Adventures for more than six years, from 1996—2002. His inking work since 2002 has been sporadic.
Austin's inking ... especially in the 1970s and early 1980s ... is notable for its smooth, precise rendering; heavy outlines; and extremely detailed backgrounds, making his embellishing work easily identifiable. He was known to favor a Hunt 102 crowquill pen for inking figures, and a Rapidograph technical pen for backgrounds. His style has been highly influential on a subsequent generation of inkers such as Andy Lanning, Scott Williams, and Art Thibert.
Austin has also worked as a writer, primarily for Marvel's X-Men titles and a run on the Bill Mantlo/Ed Hannigan-created characters Cloak and Dagger. Austin wrote and inked the Dark Horse Comics' adaptation of Splinter of the Mind's Eye produced in 1995.
His rare penciling jobs can be seen on the covers of Uncanny X-Men nos. 123 and 142, as well as his self-published book, Austin Art: 60 Pages of Drawings by Terry Austin (2003)
Austin's work has gained him frequent and notable recognition over the years, including multiple Eagle Awards for best inker, an Inkpot Award, multiple Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards for Favorite Inker and the Inkwell Awards 2009 Joe Sinnott Award.
