Vince Colletta

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Vince Colletta : biography

October 15, 1923 – June 3, 1991

Biography

Early life and career

Colletta was born in Casteldaccia, Sicily, and later emigrated to the US with his family. at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. October 18, 2011. Educated at the New Jersey Academy of Fine Arts,Bails, Jerry G. and Ware, Hames (ed.s), The Who’s Who of American Comic Books: Volume One, p. 33 (Bails, 1973) Colletta entered comics in 1952, freelancing first as a penciler, inking his own work, for the publisher Better Comics. The following year he began his decades-long collaboration with Marvel, at the company’s 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics. 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). at AtlasTales.com

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

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

Marvel Comics

As an inker for Marvel in the 1960s, Colletta worked on nearly every title, including some of the earliest issues of Daredevil. Notably, he inked Kirby’s Fantastic Four #40-43, as well as The 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 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). 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. 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 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.