Adam J. Elkhadem wrote me with two questions. The second one was about the ranks of the Merry Marvel Marching Society and I'll answer that here tomorrow. Here's the first one…
For years, I've read most of my Jack Kirby comics through TPBs, but have finally started reading them in the original staple-bound editions. I am blown away by how the color shows up on newsprint, especially in the Joe Sinnott-inked Fantastic Four issues. I was wondering if you had any information on who colored these issues. In some cases there are lots of forms and values dictated purely by color. Did Kirby and/or Sinnott play a role in these, or was it someone else (as you know, the colorists aren't among the four credited names at the beginnings of these classic comics, and I've never understood why).
Well, first I'll tell you why. The assembly line method via which comic books were created back then made it difficult to credit the colorist. The credits were lettered by, of course, the letterer. At the point in the process when the letterer was working on the pages, the writer and penciler had both done their work so they knew which names to put into the credit box for those functions.
They also knew who would probably be inking the story since that person was the next one to get the pages to work on…so they'd have that person's name lettered-in. At times, the story might wind up going to a different inker, in which case they'd change the inker credit, usually near the end of the process when the completed pages were being proofread and mistakes were being fixed or the editor asked to have some caption or word balloon changed.
But at the time the credit box was being lettered in, the story was several weeks from being assigned to a colorist. Often, they had no idea who'd wind up doing it so they just didn't bother putting in a credit or leaving space for one to be added later. Later on, the unfairness of that began to really bother people and around 1972, they began to add it in, usually during that proofreading phase.
Now then: The earliest Marvel super-hero comics were mainly colored by Stan Goldberg, who otherwise worked for the company drawing books like Millie the Model. He was the guy who decided the Hulk should be green. He colored most of the books there — not just those by Mr. Kirby — but there were occasional jobs by others. Sol Brodsky, who was the production manager then, told me he colored an issue or two of something now and then, and more than a few covers. He didn't remember specific issues and there are no written records so this information is probably lost to the ages.
It is almost certain that Joe Sinnott never colored anything for Marvel. Jack Kirby recalled coloring a few covers when they were in a jam but no one remembered which ones so, again, that info is probably lost. One thing to keep in mind: Marvel paid very little for coloring then so Stan Lee was not reticent, if the coloring on a cover didn't grab him, to say, "Let's have someone take another crack at that." So whatever covers Jack or anyone colored might have been recolored by someone else.
In the years 1961 to 1964, Marvel tried out a number of editorial assistants who didn't last…who worked there a few weeks and then were gone. It's likely that some of those folks colored something while they were around…but probably not lead stories or major books.
Then Marie Severin joined the staff. In interviews, Marie gave several different dates as to when that happened but I think it was late 1964 or early 1965. She probably colored a few comics on a freelance basis before going full-time for Marvel, whereupon she began to color most of what Stan Goldberg couldn't do, and she did most of the covers. She was also heavily involved in the design of the line art for those covers. As Marvel got busier, others eventually did a lot of the work. Some artists like Jim Steranko and Tom Palmer usually colored comics they worked on. Bill Everett did too, and colored a lot of stories he didn't pencil or ink, as well. He colored many of the issues of The Mighty Thor he inked over Kirby…but not all.
So the best answer I can give you is that Kirby's work at Marvel in the sixties was mostly colored by Stan Goldberg until Marie joined the staff, whereupon she handled a lot of it…and there were occasional jobs by Bill Everett, Sol Brodsky and others. And that may also be the best answer anyone will ever be able to give you.
Jack loved the way his work was colored at Marvel and used to cite Marie as the best colorist ever in comics. When he went to work for DC, he missed her and Stan G. And as far as DC's Production Department was concerned, Jack committed an unforgivable act of blasphemy when he told them he didn't like the way they colored his work. They thought the coloring at Marvel sucked and the coloring at DC was the best ever…and Kirby saw it in just the reverse.
Even though Jack was the editor of his DC books, he had trouble finding out who exactly was coloring them. But we know a lot of them were colored by Jerry Serpe, Tom Nicolosi and Tatjana Wood, and at least a few by Paul Reinman. Most of the covers at DC then were colored by Jack Adler, who was the head of DC's coloring squad. I interviewed Adler at Comic-Con in 2004…at least, I think that was the date. This was years after he'd clashed with Kirby and even years after Kirby had passed away but Mr. Adler was still shocked and somewhat angry that Kirby thought Marvel's coloring was better.
