Vince Colletta

Vincent Colletta (October 15, 1923 – June 3, 1991) was an American comic book artist and art director best known as one of Jack Kirby's frequent inkers during the 1950s-1960s period called the Silver Age of comic books.

This included some significant early issues of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, and a long, celebrated run on the character Thor in Journey into Mystery and The Mighty Thor.

Colletta was born in Casteldaccia, Sicily, the son of Rosa and Francesco "Frank" Colletta, the latter "a pretty high-level Mafioso", according to family lore.

Colletta Sr emigrated from Sicily to escape local law enforcement and served with the US armed forces in World War II, where he provided art on the sides of bombers.

He settled in Brooklyn, New York City, where his wife and child joined him 10 years later.

The family then moved to New Jersey and opened an Italian market, severing any ties to the Mafia.

Colletta was educated at the New Jersey Academy of Fine Arts.

The following year he began his decades-long collaboration with Marvel, at the company's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics.

During an Atlas retrenchment in the late 1950s, Colletta freelanced as a penciler on the DC Comics romance titles Falling in Love, Girls' Love Stories, and Heart Throbs, and Charlton Comics' Love Diary and Teen Confessions.

Colletta's first work as an inker of another artist's pencils is unknown, largely due to credits not being given routinely in 1950s comics.

Colletta entered comics in 1952, freelancing first as a penciler, inking his own work, for the publisher Better Publications, on the titles Intimate Love and Out of the Shadows, and for publisher Youthful Magazines' imprint Pix-Parade, on the title Daring Love.

Primarily a romance comics artist, he drew dozens of stories and covers for the Atlas titles Love Romances, Lovers, My Own Romance, Stories of Romance, and The Romances of Nurse Helen Grant, with his earliest confirmed Atlas romance art the six-page story "My Love for You" in Love Romances #37 (March 1954).

Colletta's work also appeared in such genres as jungle adventure (Jungle Action, Jann of the Jungle, Lorna, the Jungle Girl) and horror/fantasy (Uncanny Tales, Journey into Mystery).

Two possibilities suggested by historians and researchers are the cover of Atlas' Annie Oakley Western Tales #10 (April 1956), co-inking with Sol Brodsky over Brodsky's pencils, and the three-page story "I Met My Love Again", penciled by Matt Baker, in My Own Romance #65 (Sept. 1958).

His last confirmed pencil work for decades was "I Can't Marry Now" in Love Diary #6 (Sept. 1959).

Additionally assigned to ink stories in Atlas' emerging science-fiction/fantasy and giant-monster comics, Colletta entered what fans and historians call "pre-superhero Marvel" with three Baker-penciled stories: "The Green Fog" in Journey into Mystery #50 (Jan. 1959), "I Fell to the Center of the Earth" in Tales to Astonish #2 (March 1959), and "The Brain Picker" in World of Fantasy #17 (April 1959).

Members of artist Wally Wood's studio were among those who assisted or ghosted on Colletta's mid-1960s Charlton stories.

As an inker for Marvel in the 1960s, Colletta worked on nearly every title, including some of the earliest issues of Daredevil.

He inked Kirby's Fantastic Four #40–44, as well as Fantastic Four Annual #3, featuring the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm and guest-starring virtually all the major Marvel Comics characters of the time.

Colletta would also pencil stories in many 1960s issues of Charlton Comics' Teen-Age Love and First Kiss (at least some of which has been credited in reprints as by "Vince Colletta Studio").

He occasionally inked romance stories penciled by Joe Sinnott, and other pencilers on such titles as Charlton's Gunmaster, and Dell Comics' Guerrilla War, Jungle War Stories, and Western series Idaho.

Historians pinpoint Colletta's first inking of Jack Kirby's pencils as either the cover of Kid Colt: Outlaw #100 (Sept. 1961) or (with Colletta's credit confirmed), the cover of Love Romances #98 (March 1962).

Artists who assisted or ghosted through Colletta's own studio included Maurice Whitman in 1964, Hy Eisman from 1960 to 1964, and at various times Matt Baker, Dick Giordano, and Joe Sinnott, as well as Kyle Baker.

Colletta began his six-year run on Kirby's "The Mighty Thor" feature with the "Tales of Asgard" backup in Journey into Mystery #106 (July 1964).

Colletta graduated to the lead feature with #116 (May 1965).

Colletta also inked Journey into Mystery Annual #1 (1965), which introduced Hercules to the Marvel universe, and The Mighty Thor King-Size Annual #2.

Historians and critics consider Colletta's Thor work to be his creative highlight.

Historian Nick Simon said, "For me, the Kirby/Colletta version of Thor is the definitive one."

Author and Silver Age of Comic Books historian Pierre Comtois wrote that,

". . . Colletta's hair-thin, detailed inking style . . . seemed devoid of large areas of black, [which are] used to give figures weight and heft but an artistic concept yet to be fully explored by the time of the Middle Ages, an era whose crude woodcuts most reflected the art style needed by the Thor strip[. It] captured the elusive quality of otherworldly drama that the strip would increasingly demand as [Stan] Lee and [Jack] Kirby took it away from the everyday world of supervillains to a mythic plane where the forces of evil were on a far more gargantuan scale. Despite the serendipity of the two men's styles, Colletta would later be criticized, with good reason, for compromising Kirby's artistic vision by eliminating much of the detail that the artist put into his work. Be that as it may, what Colletta chose to keep, he rendered in such a way that showed off aspects of Kirby's art that no inker before or since has ever been able to reproduce."

He continued through the book's retitling to The Mighty Thor With #126 (March 1966), and — except for one issue (#143) — inked it through #167 (Aug. 1969), picking up again from #176 (May 1970) to Kirby's final issue, #179 (Aug. 1970), inking John Buscema in #178.

In 1970, Colletta — who had been freelancing for DC Comics since 1968 on the romance titles Falling In Love, Girls' Love Stories, Secret Hearts and Young Romance — stepped up his inking for the company following Jack Kirby's move there from Marvel Comics.

Colletta inked Kirby's two black-and-white magazine one-shots, In the Days of the Mob and Spirit World (both Oct. 1971), and the initial issues of Kirby’s Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen and "Fourth World" titles: The Forever People, Mister Miracle and The New Gods.

While Colletta's rates were good and he brought "an innocent Marvel Age look to Jack's new heroes", he was prone to "erasing background characters" and transforming "[b]ustling crowd scenes [into] easier silhouettes".

Kirby confidante Mark Evanier and inker Wally Wood eventually convinced a reluctant Kirby to ask DC Publisher Carmine Infantino to remove Colletta from inking Kirby's titles.

He was replaced by inker Mike Royer, causing some fans to write to DC in complaint, denouncing Kirby for "abandoning the Marvel-style look".

Colletta's frequent assistant Art Cappello did much of the background inking on these comics.

Colletta went on to ink a large array at DC, including a variety of Batman, Superman and Green Lantern titles; the TV tie-in series Isis and Super Friends; and nearly every issue of Wonder Woman from #206 (July 1973) to #270 (Aug. 1980), over pencilers including Don Heck, Dick Dillin, Curt Swan, José Delbo and Michael Netzer (Nasser).

He was named DC's art director in May 1976, resigning the post in May 1979.

His time there included discovering future industry star Frank Miller.