PARA GUSTOS,

COLLETTA.


Para que luego digamos. Si Vince Colletta (1923-1991) fue uno de los entintadores del comic-book americano más denostados -aunque también tuvo sus fans-, ahora parece que el debate se reabre y hay gente dispuesta a reivindicarle. Para Eddie Campbell, Colletta es su entintador favorito de los 60 y THOR, título que entintó con lápices de Jack Kirby, su comic book preferido de aquel periodo:

Colletta was an anomaly in 1960s New York comic books. Romance was fast going out of fashion which is probably why he found himself converted from illustrator to a full time "Inker" in the mode of the times, which became rapidly more assembly-line driven (and for all we know, his sense of self-worth may have taken a blow here). As such he in time became a standby workhorse who could be depended upon to get a job finished in a very short time. But then again his finishing style was distant from the superhero house styles at both DC (Murphy/Giella) and Marvel (Sinnott/Giacoia). But he was fast and dependable. Ah Fate! An artist's strength becomes his undoing. As always, the biggest mistake one can make is in not seeing far enough ahead and reading all the signs, but let's not dwell on that and attend to the mid-'60s.
As it happened he landed in the job that was perfect for his abilities. THOR is my enduring favourite comic book of the period and I have kept or at least reconstituted a good long run of the title from the five years that Colletta inked over Jack Kirby. Here is an enlarged view of the thumb of Hercules. Look at the inking on this, the rugged hatching with which Colletta models the arm.


Campbell alaba también los contrastes de textura que Colletta aplicaba a los diferentes materiales dibujados, carne, pelo, madera, piel, acero.

Por su parte, Mark Evanier no piensa exactamente lo mismo:

Over on his blog, Eddie Campbell defends the much-maligned Vince Colletta, the late comic book artist whose work is so vilified these days by connoisseurs. I guess I'm one of the main vilifiers and I'd be lying if I said I'm ashamed of that. In fact, I don't think I've ever gotten through a major comic convention without someone coming up to me and bestowing thanks for my role in getting Jack Kirby to dump Colletta as his inker around 1971. It could easily be my greatest contribution to the world of comics...not that it has a whole lot of competition for that distinction.

Jack never thought Colletta did anything but poor work but he also believed that everyone has to make a living. He also felt that inking wasn't all that important. Even a bad inker — and Jack had many — usually retained the essentials of the storytelling, which is what Jack felt comics were all about. Being a Depression-era kid, he required a little urging before he felt at ease about taking away a source of income from someone else.

(...) Kirby got rid of him. Alex Toth and Neal Adams both demanded that he never darken their pencils again. (Adams took the one job of his Colletta inked and personally retouched about 80% of it without compensation.) That was just in the early seventies, at a time when artists rarely demanded such a thing...but what Vinnie did drove Jack, Alex and Neal to break precedent. And Jack, Alex and Neal were arguably the three best artists then working in comics. Steve Ditko and Gil Kane — who may well qualify as the rest of the Top Five — made similar demands.