Breccia used a crow quill pen like a scalpel. He did not outline; he excavated. His lines are nervous, jagged, and layered. Look at any panel of Mort Cinder’s face. The skin seems to be flaking off, revealing the skull beneath. There are no solid boundaries. The ink bleeds into space, creating a universe of perpetual shadow.

The primary reason the search for an is so prevalent among art students is the sheer revolutionary nature of Breccia’s technique. Before Mort Cinder , comics were largely defined by clear lines (the ligne claire of European comics) or the dynamic but clean styles of American adventure strips. Breccia smashed these conventions.