In Support of Vince Colletta

Vince Colletta has never been my favorite comic book artist. But still.

Back here I showed you an "Unwrapping Video" for the hardcover reprint of Jack Kirby's Spirit World that was recently published. The video helped me understand exactly how to take the wrapper off the book and the edition is a wonderful collection of Kirby story and art.

Some of the art in the book is inked by Mike Royer but the majority is inked by Vince Colletta. I don't mind telling you that Royer is my favorite of all the many Kirby inkers through the decades, but Colletta's inks in this volume are thoroughly professional. And Colletta on Kirby's Thor gave that comic a look all its own for many years. Erik Larsen wrote the following in 2008:

Colletta would soften Kirby's often-mannish woman and he would add texture to figures and backgrounds that worked especially well on “Thor.” There was a period where it seemed to click and the work, as printed, looked amazing -- and his inks were ideally suited to the book -- it worked. As much as I liked Joe Sinnott's incredible inks on the “Fantastic Four,” I think that line on “Thor” would have been too slick. Colletta's inks gave it an almost etching-like quality, which suited it perfectly.

So what's my beef, you're wondering? On a closing page of the Spirit World volume, biographies appear of Jack Kirby and Mike Royer. But not one single syllable about Vince Colletta. DC Comics had seen fit to hire Colletta as their Art Director in the mid-1970s but now they can't bring themselves to write a short entry about him for inclusion in this book? It's just not right.