Comments on: Comic Book Legends Revealed #225

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:40:41 +0000

Any more scans?

Thanks.

By: taffysaur

taffysaur — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 10:41:20 +0000

The title of the poem is “A Visit From Saint Nick.”
“‘Twas the night before Christmas” is just the first line, but for some reason, it’s become generally accepted as the name of the poem.
That’s not the title on the original published work, though.

Also, Pogo rules! So smart/funny!

By: Dominic

Dominic — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:12:00 +0000

A giant phallic object called The Stimulator? Really?

By: The Consummate Compendium of the Inventions of Dr. Reed Richards « Drilling Holes in the Wall

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:07:22 +0000

[...] Bibliography Images provided (unwittingly) by fellow scholars. [...]

By: benday-dot

benday-dot — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:21:45 +0000

That was when Kirby’s ego was beginning to get out of control and he wouldn’t want anyone not slavishly devoted to his vision.

What on earth are you basing this charge of unbridled egotism on? I’ve read lots of Kirby history, and encountered most of the criticisms, but never yet I have I heard the him accused of letting his ego get out of control. Does the man who acquiesced to having his Superman heads redone by Plastino and Anderson strike you as a victim of his own ego? Kirby was the consummate company man, and if anything this was the true hold on his creativity for so many years.

By: Philip Frey

Philip Frey — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:47:54 +0000

Wow, that “Panic” material is pretty lousy. No wonder it didn’t last. You can tell that “Panic” didn’t have anyone nearly on the level of Harvey Kurtzman at the wheel just from the covers. One, a sublime piece of genius comedy, the other a nasty, unfunny piece that doesn’t even approach humor. The “Night Before Christmas” story isn’t much better. Lots of visual detail (as one would expect from Elder), but nothing really funny or memorable; just everything and the kitchen sink.

I always liked Colletta’s inks and I’m not surprised that Kirby would get rid of him during his DC period. That was when Kirby’s ego was beginning to get out of control and he wouldn’t want anyone not slavishly devoted to his vision. Kirby is probably the greatest comic book artist of all time, but he needed guidance and editorial control. Once he gained his “freedom”, his work suffered. As for the central issue concerning Colletta, I’ve never yet seen a panel where he omitted something to the detriment of the overall work. He had a good eye for what was needed and what wasn’t. I’ve got a page of original art by Adam Hughes (from Nexus #20) and John Nyberg covered over an entire face and erased an arm from a character. I was interested to see it, but it never occurred to me that I should be outraged. My position is that when you hire an inker, it’s his job to give you the work as they see fit. If anyone at Marvel had a problem with Reed having been removed, it would have been a few minutes work to put him back. (Heck, he’s so small, *I* could do a decent job on it.) The fact that he *wasn’t* put back means that editorial all the way up to Stan Lee didn’t care that he wasn’t there. That’s good enough for me.

By: Comic Book Legends Revealed #225

Comic Book Legends Revealed #225 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:26:48 +0000

[...] here to read [...]

By: MrC

MrC — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:11:36 +0000

Here’s a picture of Kelly from some time in the 1950s…

Are you sure?!
That looks like Ricky Gervais to me!

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:34:32 +0000

Isn’t it so?

Amazing work by Kelly.

By: Nuno

Nuno — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:31:13 +0000

Animal Comics 1, what a beautiful, dynamic and expressive cover!

By: Kevin James

Kevin James — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:53:36 +0000

I believe ya! My opinion, if were talking about the guys later work, would be the same so what context Buscema was using I don’t know. The piling on was pretty coincidental with the erasing stories, I think he erases and changes stuff as the late assignments stuff start hitting the fan later on, mid 1970s maybe.

I strongly disagree that Colletta cut corners at all during the early Marvel superhero era. I mean….the tiny Reed Richards? The missing head? Come on. And beyond that I haven’t seen any more than any other inker might have missed.

By: Dean Kravitz

Dean Kravitz — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:51:04 +0000

It’s a myth that Marvel and Stan were piling work on Colletta. He didn’t do that much for them. Many months, he didn’t ink anything more than Thor for them and sometimes one other book.

Most inkers can comfortably ink two books a month. If the story is true that Marvel was piling work on him, then you should be able to name several months where he inked three or four comics.

Someone on a board a year or two ago did a search on the Grand Comics Database and figured out how much work Colletta did for Marvel. It averaged out to less than two books a month. This was in the era when most artists were like Kirby and Buscema and Colan and were very dependable and rarely late.

Colletta did do a lot of work. He got work from DC mostly on romance comics. He did work for Charlton and Dell. He knocked it all out fast.

I don’t like his inking on Thor. It looks rushed and the faces aren’t as human as the faces in any other Kirby art inked by someone else. If you like it that is your right but there is a reason Joe Sinnott has so many fans and every time someone mentions Colletta on a message forum you see messages like many of those posted here.

John Buscema gave his opinion of Colletta on several panels. The Jack Kirby Collector printed transcripts of some of them. I spoke to him in person at a New York Con and he told me how much he disliked Colletta’s work. You can choose to not believe me if you want but the panels had witnesses and we can’t all be lying.

By: Kevin James

Kevin James — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:17:50 +0000

Wise up. Even if Kirby was never late with THOR, Marvel still dropped a ton of other work on Colletta’s desk every week. So what happens to the stuff that was turned in on time? It goes into the “there’s only so much time in the week” hopper. Therefore, due to Marvel (and Stan’s) piling on, everything else Vinnie was inking HAD to suffer.

One last point-THOR never suffered and one look at any of those issues can’t help but confirm that.

PS: Romita has bad-mouthed Colletta before and I’m not sure it wasn’t personal, Romita got thrown off all of Atlas’ romance titles once Colletta started drawing for them. As far as Buscema goes, I never saw any proof that Big John ever said even one bad word about Vinnie except via rumors.

By: Jim Hammond

Jim Hammond — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:31:58 +0000

Colletta was a hack. Look at his DC work. Look at his ink job on Matt Baker pencils. Hack. Anyone who likes his inks only has taste in their mouths.

By: Dean Kravitz

Dean Kravitz — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:09:32 +0000

It’s sad that the defense of Colletta has sunk to the level of assuming that every job he ever did in his life was bad not because of his lack of skills or devotion but because it was running late. I asked John Romita about this once at a New York Con and he said “Stan and Jack were never late on Thor. Sometimes, that book was six months ahead”. Colletta inked everything overnight regardless of when it was due. The same low quality was there in everything he touched. That was why Neal Adams called him the worst inker in the business, Kirby fired him, Alex Toth threatened to quit if his work went to Colletta and other professionals didn’t want him inking their pencils. You should have heard John Buscema talk about him.

Whether he erased a figure here and there is not important. I would imagine all inkers did that at times. I just find the work generally bad. I’m sure he was a nice guy and that there were times editors were happy to have a guy around who could ink a book overnight. Maybe he even fixed up the work of beginners like Bob Hall was then. I just think that all the major artists never looked worse than when Colletta inked their work.

By: T.

T. — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:11:31 +0000

It was all rushed back then. As several posts have already noted, this stuff had a print deadline that had to be met. Marvel had this really weird distribution system that they were locked into with a company that was controlled by DC IIRC. Kirby was dong multiple books per month and the books had to be ready to meet the delivery dates to the newstands.

Yes, it was all rushed, but it was especially rushed in Coletta’s case because he was the guy who got assignments that were ALREADY running late in the inking process and were in danger of not making the deadline. So the books were rushed to begin with and for some reason on top of that the previously assigned inker drops out or can’t finish, creating an extra rush on top of the original one. That was what Coletta was often working with.

By: Clayton

Clayton — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:16:14 +0000

I don’t see the big deal about the panel. I’m not a fan of Colletta’s work, but removing Reed improves the composition.

By: benday-dot

benday-dot — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:26:56 +0000

Interestingly enough, Twomorrows Publishing is planning upcoming retrospectives on both Vince Colletta and Don Heck, as part of an oft “maligned” creators examination. It will apparently attempt to explain just why these artists are touchstones of controversy, and whether or not all is really deserved.

I look forward to it.

By: Heroid

Heroid — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:23:58 +0000

I never was a big Colletta fan, especially when he was paired with an artist like Gene Colan whose fluid style was not at all complimented by Vince’s etchy inks. BUT his work on Thor was amazing. It’s very clear that Colletta’s deficiencies were caused more by deadlines and workload than by lack of talent.

It’s hard to imagine in these days where months can pass between issues while we wait for the artists to finish pages, but there was a time when putting the book out on time took precidence over almost any other considerations.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:46:04 +0000

“How many other non-Kirby pencil erasures by Colletta have surfaced? I don’t know of any. ”
Eric Larsen complained of a fill-in story he pencilled having erasures.