VINCE COLLETTA is a name which seems to cause controversy whenever it's mentioned these days. Some comicbook fans think he was great, others think he was okay, and then there's another group who think he was the worst inker ever to work in the business.
Some JACK KIRBY fans in particular believe he ruined every page of the King's work he ever touched. Others think he transformed Jack's THOR pages into a tour de force of illustrative brilliance which should grace the Sistine Chapel. Then there are those poor souls who can't see the difference between one page and another, regardless of whoever pencilled or inked it.
While it's true that Vince's inks may not have suited every artist whose pencils he worked on, there are some whose art was definitely enhanced by the touch of his pen and brush. (GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, and FRANK ROBBINS, to name but three.) Jack Kirby was definitely on that list. Vinnie diluted the idiosyncracies and abstractness of Kirby's art, imbuing it with a rugged, realistic quality that perfectly suited the mythical backdrop of Thor's adventures, particularly when set in ASGARD.
I'm not alone in thinking that part of the reason for Colletta's bad rep these days is based on poor quality reprints of his work in various magazines back in the early '70s, printed from proofs in which his fine detailing was lost and clumsily retouched by less skilled hands. (Using a blunt felt marker by the looks of things.)
However, back in the late '60s a British publication called FANTASTIC reprinted Thor's adventures from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, using clear, sharp proofs for near-perfect black and white reproduction. American spellings, colloquialisms and references were changed, creator credits and corner page numbers were deleted, and open case sound-effects were sometimes blacked-in or cross-hatched for greater impact in the b&w format, but the art still looked great.
It gives me great pleasure to present Vince's inking of Jack's pencils more or less the way they would have looked when they were first completed, as opposed to the far inferior reprints which came later. Enjoy.
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