Comic book nerds are likely familiar with the work and controversies surrounding artist and inker, Vince Colletta. He is best known as an inker on Jack Kirby’s The Mighty Thor, other Kirby titles, and other books at Marvel and DC.
But Colletta is not best known for the quality of his work, but rather, how fast he was, how many corners he cut, and how he did a disservice to the artist’s original work in the process. Kirby would submit pencil art with crowds in the background that Colletta would simple remove, or he’d greatly simplify the machinery and technical greeblies in the backgrounds that Kirby was known for. If an image had background characters that needed to be there, Colletta would render them in silhouette rather than ink in the details. Management loved him because he met deadlines. Co-workers liked him because he was pleasant. Artists and generations of fans disparage him, dubbing him “the inker who ruined Jack Kirby’s art.”
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