Beardguy57 said:
That cover appears to have been inked by Vince Colletta,
who also inked Kirby's work on Thor and The Fantastic Four, back around 1965 - 66.
Yeah Beardguy, that cover is inked by Colletta.
As you say, Colletta inked almost the entire THOR run by Kirby, From about issue 110-177, and 179. Except for a few fill-in inks by Bill Everett and a few others. And it was on THOR that I grew to appreciate Colletta, especially on Kirby.
Colletta also inked almost all of Kirby's earliest 70's DC work, including Kirby's JIMMY OLSEN run (issues 133-139, 141-145, and 148, to be precise). I own a page of original art from issue 148.
In addition, Colletta also inked FOREVER PEOPLE 1-5, NEW GODS 1-4, and MISTER MIRACLE 1-4, before Mike Royer was hired to replace him as Kirby's DC inker.
And SPIRIT WORLD # 1.
And DAYS OF THE MOB # 1.
The machinery border between the images on this SUPER DC GIANT CHALLENGERS cover is similar to the panel layout in the opening pages of MISTER MIRACLE # 2 (introducing Overlord as a character).
And also similar to a giant TV screen shown in FANTASTIC FOUR 62, a double-page spread on pages 2 and 3. This is one I enlarged and had framed, as part of the home-comic-art-museum that is my home.
Colletta inked only a few issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, but they were lavishly detailed, in issues 40-43, and FF ANNUAL 3 (the wedding of Reed and Sue Richards). At his peak, Colletta is one of the best.
Although at some point in the mid-60's Colletta began cutting corners, erasing backgrounds and filling over large areas of detail with black.
Colletta was perhaps the only inker Kirby
requested not ink his work because of this. At least temporarily.
But I guess Colletta shaped up, because he not only began inking Kirby at Marvel again after Kirby had him removed, but he even followed as Kirby's inker in 1970-1971 when Kirby moved to DC.
Sinnott began his inking run on Kirby's FF with issue 44, and stayed as the regular FF inker until the end of Kirby's run with issue 102, and one last issue I don't have, issue 108.
Sinnott remained inker on FANTASTIC FOUR long after Kirby left the series in 1970, staying through John Buscema, Rich Buckler, George Perez, Keith Pollard, an early run by John Byrne, and Bill Sienkiewicz, finally departing as FF inker in 1981, when Byrne fully took over FF as writer/penciller/inker with issue 232. One of the longest runs of any inker on a series. He waxed nostalgic to his death about how much he loved inking Kirby's run, and what a thrill it was to open his mailed pages and see Kirby's new pencils each month, and adding his own contribution to Kirby's.
