The Thin Black Line: Perspectives on Vince Colletta

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VINCE OLLETTA C Perspectives On

Comics’ Most Controversial Inker

By Robert L. Bryant, Jr.

THE THIN BLACK LINE: Perspectives on Vince Colletta, Comics’ Most Controversial Inker Written by Robert L. Bryant, Jr. Title page illustration by Michael Netzer Inside front cover: Stan Lee’s note to Sol Brodsky, from a Thor #139 page (1967) Book Design by John Morrow Proofreading by Eric Nolen-Weathington and John Morrow

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Dr. Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com First Printing • July 2010 • Printed in Canada Softcover ISBN: 978-1-60549-028-1

Special thanks to the following whose contributions and research helped make this book possible: Dick Ayers • Rich Buckler • Franklin Colletta • Gerry Conway • Tom DeFalco • José Delbo • Daniel Best blog (www.ohdannyboy.blogspot.com • Hy Eisman • Mark Evanier • Mike Gartland • Mike Grell • Fred Hembeck • Heritage Auctions • Rand Hoppe • iFanboy (www.ifanboy.com) • Richard Howell • Stuart Immonen • Carmine Infantino • Tony Isabella • Jack Kirby Estate • Jack Kirby Museum (www.kirbymuseum.org) • Pete Koch • Tom Kraft • Joe Kubert • Alan Kupperberg • Erik Larsen • Stan Lee • John Lustig • Bob McLeod • Michael Netzer • Michelle Nolan • Trina Robbins • Steve Robertson • Mike Rockwitz • John Romita Sr. • Mike Royer • Jim Salicrup • Arlen Schumer • Steve Sherman • Joe Sinnott • Lada St. Edmund • Joe Staton • Roy Thomas • Herb Trimpe • The Apocolyte (www.theblogattheendoftime.blogspot.com) • The Beat (www.comicsbeat.com) • COPYRIGHTS: “Machine Age”, “Tales of Asgard”, Absorbing Man, Android, Avengers, Balder, Black Knight, Captain America, Captain Mar-Vell, Dazzler, Defenders, Don Blake, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Fandral, Fantastic Four, Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe, Galactus, Ghost Rider, Grey Gargoyle, Guardians of the Galaxy, Him, Hogun, Howard the Duck, Hulk, Human Torch, Illyana, Invaders, Invisible Girl, Kang, Karnilla, Loki, Love Romances, Mad Thinker, Mandarin, Marvel Fumetti Book, Medusa, Mighty Marvel Comic Convention Book, Mr. Fantastic, Odin, Sandman, She-Hulk, Sif, Spider-Man, Storm, SubMariner, Super Skrull, Team America, Thing, Thor, Tigra, Trapster, Volstagg, Wizard, Wrecker, X-Men TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. • All-Star Squadron, Angry Charlie, Aquaman, Batman, Black Lightning, Black Racer, Brainiac, Challengers of the Unknown, Darkseid, Demon, Desaad, Flash, Forever People, Freedom Fighters, Girl’s Love Stories, Glorious Godfrey, Goody Rickels, Guardian, Heart Throbs, In The Days of the Mob, Jimmy Olsen, Mister Miracle, Morgan Edge, New Gods, Newsboy Legion, Orion, Robin, Shazam!, Super Friends, Superman, Warlord, Wonder Woman, Young Romance TM & ©2010 DC Comics. • Little Orphan Annie TM & ©2010 Tribune Media Services. • Soul Love TM & ©2010 Jack Kirby Estate. • “The Precious Years” ©2010 William M. Gaines Agent • G.I. Joe and Transformers TM & ©2010 Hasbro.

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CONTENTS Introduction: THE DEBATERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Chapter 1: THE CONTROVERSY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter 2: LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Chapter 3: INKING ASGARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Chapter 4: RIVETS AND TREES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Chapter 5: THE FOURTH WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Chapter 6: THE GUY ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Chapter 7: “YOU COULD ALWAYS USE VINNIE” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Postscript: FLICKERS ON THE WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Appendix: TWO YEARS IN THE LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 NOTES and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Colletta inks Sal Buscema; detail from Defenders #26 (1975). 3

Vince Colletta’s offici al I.D. card, issued by Cadence Industries, (left) Detail of inks fro one-time parent com m Journey Into Myste pany of Marvel Com ry #123. ics.

Introduction: THE DEBATERS n May 2007, Eddie Campbell stepped on a thin black line. Campbell, the Scottishborn, Australia-based comics artist behind such works as From Hell, was blogging about his “favourite 1960s inker,” the late Vince Colletta. Campbell was arguing that one reason for Colletta’s tattered reputation among fans was that his inks on the late Jack Kirby’s Thor and other key Silver Age comics never reproduce well in reprint editions—the fine lines either vanish or congeal into each other. You could only see Colletta’s talents in the original comics or in the original art pages, Campbell said. Inkers like “[Joe] Sinnott and [Frank] Giacoia and all the others never suffered in the same way; perhaps they knew how to make their lines indestructible,” Campbell wrote. “All Colletta’s charming qualities, the softening lines and subtle textures, tended to go blank [in the reprints].” A reasonable argument, reasonably presented. Almost immediately, the comments started coming in. “[Colletta] wasn’t that bad an artist when he wanted to be, and when he didn’t have a deadline of two days for an 18-page book,” offered one poster identifying himself as “Danny.” “BobH” weighed in: “You’re right there, no reprint has ever done that work justice. On the other hand, while there is more detail there, I find the detail to be empty noodling, detracting... from the power in Kirby’s art.... There’s just no good excuse for some of the shortcuts [Colletta] takes, cutting out whole characters... taking nicely rendered buildings and turning them into rectangles with some quick hash lines.”

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Chapter 1: THE CONTROVERSY his was Vincent Colletta (1923-1991). He swooped in to save comics publishers on deadline hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times. He raced through the work of artists whom fans say he should have worshiped. He was loved. He was hated. If he had been a character in a Marvel comic, the cover would have screamed, “The MYSTERY of VINCE COL-

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LETTA! HERO or VILLAIN? YOU DECIDE!” This is the Colletta Controversy. A freelancer nearly all his career, he was one of the busiest and quickest inkers the industry had ever seen, and was penciler Jack Kirby’s frequent collaborator during ten of the most amazingly fruitful years of Kirby’s legendary career, the early 1960s to the early 1970s. Fantastic Four, Thor, New Gods, Mister Miracle, Forever People, Kirby’s soupedup version of Superman in the new Jimmy Olsen, his experimental magazines Spirit World and In the Days of the Mob—all passed under Colletta’s fine-tipped pens, which he often preferred to the traditional inkers’ brushes. Our first glimpses of Darkseid, one of comics’ greatest villains? Colletta inked them. The first time we ever saw the modern gods Orion the warrior and Lightray the planner? Colletta. Our first Scott Free, struggling to escape from some eye-popping super-trap? Colletta. Our first looks at fiery Apokolips and sunlit New Genesis? Colletta. He was a midwife for the Fourth World, Kirby’s explosion of characters and concepts that never caught fire with readers in the 1970s, but that now get reprinted in luxurious $50 hardbacks and that now enrich the current DC universe. Yet many, perhaps most, Kirby fans revile Colletta’s work, and comics histories

(left) Colletta inks Kirby on Jimmy Olsen #139 (1971). Ironically, another inker, Murphy Anderson, was commissioned to re-ink the Superman and Jimmy Olsen heads to have them match the “company look.” 9

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Chapter 3: INKING ASGARD mong the gods, Colletta found a home. There are different kinds of stories as well as different kinds of inkers, and Colletta’s softer, moodier style worked well on one kind in particular: fantasy. Timeless fantasy. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Thor was a timeless fantasy (except when its characters sometimes wandered into New York City for a battle between gods or just a quick soda). Its elements were primarily natural elements: Rock, wood, leather, hair, horn, earth, air, fire, water. All the things that the Enchanted Forest is made of. Colletta landed on the title in 1964, as inker on the “Tales of Asgard” feature that ran in the back of Journey into Mystery, which later became The Mighty Thor. By 1965, Colletta was inking the whole book, and he remained the title’s regular inker through 1969 and, more sporadically, into 1970, Kirby’s final year on the book. (Bill Everett handled a string of Thor s in late 1969/early 1970, and Everett’s inks remain a favorite of readers such as Arlen Schumer and Mark Evanier.) It was on “Tales of Asgard” that Colletta’s offbeat style began to grow on readers. It was also on that backup feature, Arlen Schumer argues, that Kirby’s style began to mature, and he really began “giving gravitas to the Thor myth.” “I think that with Thor, Stan Lee wanted a Superman knockoff,” Schumer said. “I think Lee tried to standardize [Thor] with the secret identity and the whole deal.” (Thor strikes his

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(left) Journey Into Mystery #123 detail.

(above) JIM #122; Colletta was a good fit for “Tales of Asgard.” 43

(above) From Thor #144, this intricately rendered pencil panel is simplified through shortcuts and silhouetting. The basic feel remains, yet the inks don’t do justice to the art.

and actually giving it a look that I almost think was older. It was most appropriate for Thor in certain ways. It was scratchy; the armor had chinks.” SPURLOCK: “It was almost like Ernie Chua [a.k.a. Ernie Chan] inking Conan. A little roughness, a little antiquity.”

PANELIST DAVID SPURLOCK: “If you look at those Collettas, they look like they’re years older, where the Everetts are really a lot snappier and livelier, because they’re truer to Jack’s pencils, more like what he did on New Gods a couple of years later.” PANELIST MARK EVANIER: “....The editors were very happy with what Colletta did. He didn’t ink those books at gunpoint.... You can’t fault Vince Colletta for inking like Vince Colletta.” AUDIENCE MEMBER: “Talking about Vince Colletta, I think clearly there was an evolution in his inking as time went on.... If you look at the early work he did with Thor when he first came on the book, I think what he was doing was spending more time with it

A few minutes later, another audience member piped up: AUDIENCE MEMBER: “I hope I don’t get stoned for saying this, but I always liked Vince Colletta’s work better than [handpicked Kirby inker] Mike Royer’s.” PANELIST MARV WOLFMAN: “Where are the stones?” [laughter]

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Chapter 4: RIVETS AND TREES ut if Thor was Never-Never Land, Fantastic Four was Circuit City. It was science fiction, not fantasy. (What’s the difference? Recall SF writer Orson Scott Card’s definition: “Fantasy has trees. Science fiction has rivets.”) The FF was filled with the rivets of sci-fi. Except for the orange rocks plating The Thing’s hide, the FF ’s elements were all man-made, machines, plastic, metal, circuitry, electronics; it took place in a real city (New York) in a real time (the 1960s), and Colletta’s fairy-tale style never worked, could never have worked, during his several months on the FF during 1965.

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c in Fantasti for the art le tt li o F. d F s ker on the ackground nd blank b ce was miscast as in a s k in y h thin, scratc kly realized that Vin Colletta’s uic Stan Lee q Four #41. 61

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Chapter 5: THE FOURTH WORLD n 1970, the word was out: Jack Kirby was leaving Marvel and heading to DC. The King was changing kingdoms. New ideas, new books, were right on the horizon, glittering like the spires of Oz. DC ran house ads. They didn’t even need to use Kirby’s name. Fans were excited. So were inkers. “When it came out that Kirby was moving to DC,” Mark Evanier said, “a number of inkers went in and asked for that work.” They included Frank Giacoia, who had recently filled in for Joe Sinnott on Fantastic Four, and Wally Wood, a ’50s legend who had teamed with Kirby on Challengers of the Unknown. But Colletta edged them out. He got all three of Kirby’s new books (New Gods, Forever People, Mister Miracle) and also Kirby’s new take on an old book, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. The new Olsen would often wear military-style jumpsuits and smart-looking windbreakers, not bow ties and plaid pants. And he would no longer be begging Superman for help and frantically pumping his “signal watch,” but adventuring right alongside the Man of Steel. (Kirby’s take on Supes likewise was daring for its time. “He is alone,” Kirby told the fanzine Train of Thought in 1971. “That’s the way I see him. If I were a Superman among two billion people... I’d feel pretty insecure.... Superman faces three billion inferior people—and not only inferior, but Superman has to make sure they don’t feel insecure about the fact that they’re inferior to him.”)

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Four titles’ worth of Kirby art. For an inker, like striking gold... four times over. How did Colletta snag all those jobs? There were several reasons, Evanier said. “One was that he needed work because DC was then cutting back on its romance comics. They canceled a couple of them, and added reprints to the remaining ones, which were also overbought with inventory material. So Colletta went from inking around three love comics a month for DC to more like one.” Another reason: “There were folks up at DC who liked [Colletta] personally and wanted to see him get work,” Evanier said. “[And] there were folks there who felt Kirby’s work needed to be softened to make it less like that Marvel look that they’d long disliked up at DC, and Colletta seemed like a guy who could do that.” And yet another reason: “Jack was getting DC’s top page rate,” Evanier said, “and it seemed like a nice bit of bookkeeping balance to have his work finished by an inker getting the lowest rate. That effectively lowered the budget a little on each book. “Wally Wood and Frank Giacoia, who also sought the assignment of inking Jack, were each getting a few more bucks per page,” Evanier said, “and neither had

(this spread) Vince inked these custom-drawn Kirby masthead art spots, used atop the covers of his Fourth World comics. Above is an unused one for Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.

Colletta’s track record for reliability.” Colletta seems to have been glad to get the work and glad to be teamed with Kirby. Franklin Colletta says his father “loved” Kirby “from day one.” “I think he felt that Kirby was a little nutty, but a genuinely good guy,” Franklin Colletta said. “During the era they grew up, Italians and Jews were treated the same, so they developed a natural bond, I think. Vinnie mentioned Jack often, and always insisted that we look at the stories they did together.” How did Kirby feel about all this? “Jack didn’t care who they assigned,” Mark Evanier said. “In later years, he developed some stronger opinions about how his work should be inked. But at the time, his attitude was that any 75

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Chapter 6: THE GUY ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE ony Isabella couldn’t recall ever discussing with Colletta his ouster from the Fourth World—not unusual, since Colletta rarely seemed to chat about comics colleagues, Isabella said. They were more likely to talk about restaurants, sports, women. Comics professionals of Colletta’s generation “never really discussed each other,” Isabella said, “any more than the guy on the assembly line would discuss the guy three stations down. “These guys didn’t sit there, saying, ‘We’re turning out great art.’ ...They took pride in the craftsmanship, but they never thought they were turning out work for the ages.” In those days, you might see cheap paperback books reprinting a run of comics stories, with the panels chopped up and rearranged to fit the tiny format. Neal Adams’ and Denny O’Neil’s Green Lantern comics had gotten that treatment, in a bright yellow paperback featuring the scene where the cosmic cop gets lectured by an elderly black man: “I been readin’ about you.... How you work for the blue skins... and how on a planet someplace you helped out the orange skins... and you done considerable for the purple skins! Only there’s skins you never bothered with—! The black skins! I

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want to know... How come?!” Paperbacks like this were the publishing industry’s nod to comics that were seen as more adult, more respectable, than, say, Lois Lane’s latest plot to discover Superman’s secret identity. But hardback books reprinting dozens of issues, full size in full color, on slick paper? That was a pipe dream. Never happen. Kirby’s Fourth World, meanwhile, struggled along. It might have had a new inker, but it needed readers. The Fourth World, a spectacular godwar fought on Earth, was proving a tough sell to readers who missed the more fun and accessible Marvel books that Kirby had left behind. You could sell Fantastic Four with a bumper sticker of The Thing shouting, “It’s clobberin’ time!” Try doing that with Orion or Darkseid. Try even explaining Orion or Darkseid in fewer than 100 words. Try explaining a Mother Box: Well, it’s a living computer that’s linked to both you and the infinite, and sometimes it can be as big as a hatbox or as small as a pack of cigarettes, and it can channel your paranormal powers, and it pings like sonar... “In all honesty,” DC’s Infantino said, “the books didn’t sell anyway.” Two of the three Fourth World titles were canceled. “And they blame me for that!” Infantino said. Kirby was left with a dumbed-down version of Mister Miracle (Madame Evil Eyes! Shilo Norman! An issue-long dream sequence! Can you take the excitement?) and the far less ambitious new titles Kamandi and The Demon. The former was about a lost boy wandering a future Earth overrun by intelligent animals and animal-like humans; the latter featured an occult researcher whose body housed the spirit of ancient Merlin’s demonic defender Etrigan. Mike Royer’s inks went well with the slick science-fiction adventure of Kamandi, but The Demon—a horror fantasy rooted in magic, not science—needed the rough-and-tumble Colletta touch. Royer’s focus was too sharp, his “cinematography” too clear for the horror genre, where it’s what you can’t really see that scares you most. What should The Demon have looked like? It should have looked like the two-part vampire story in Jimmy Olsen. It should have looked like Kirby‘s genuinely spooky Spirit World Mike Royer’s Demon continued the faithful magazine, which Colletta inked quite effectively look he established on Kirby’s Fourth a few years earlier. It should have had the thin World. But would Colletta have been a better choice for this moody series? black lines. 89