Vince Colletta had regular gigs throughout his career. While it’s true that he was consistently tasked with inking late books with breakdowns by unfamiliar pencilers, he became famous for the romance stories he illustrated and the finishing touches he applied to superhero comics like Thor, Wonder Woman and Submariner. Every now and then a random story inked by Vinnie will present itself. The Star Wars series had regular artists but Number 64 was a one-off, penciled by Joe Brozowski and inked by Vince. It was brought to my attention as part of Marvel’s Star Wars – The Original Years – Volume 4, published in 2019.
This volume contains 18 Star Wars issues. The artists featured are some of the best in the business including Walt Simonson, Tom Palmer, Carmine Infantino, Ron Frenz and Kerry Gammill. The art throughout the book is stellar with one notable exception – the females. #1, other than the Brozowski/Colletta issue, they are wholly unattractive and #2, they look more like cartoon characters than real people.
There was a certain beauty in females which Vince Colletta was able to capture with pencil and pen that no other artist in the realm of comics could match. And it wasn’t just their faces and figures. Vinnie could portray a host of different expressions which added tremendously to what the writers were attempting to convey.
Joe Brozowski had a very angular style. It is notable that Vinnie was able to soften his pencils to such an amazing degree. Turning graphic art into illustrative art is no small feat. As you can clearly see in the example below, the Star Wars finished art bears little resemblance to what the original pencils must have looked like.
Thank you, Marvel, for sending this Star Wars Epic Collection, because had you not conveyed it to me, I would never have seen this exquisite collaboration.
The Most Beautiful Women in Comics? You betcha!
