Rick, I agree 100 percent with you about Colan. I preferred him on horror, too. That's where the shadowy qualities of his style worked best. On superheroes, they could seem intrusive.
Regarding some of the other artists you mentioned:
Wally Wood on JSA was genius, especially when they were in Camelot and then in that weird futuristic world.
John Byrne, nothing he says can make me stop loving his X-Men, or his Alpha Flight, or the first 3 years of his Fantastic Four.
Dick Dillin -- I'm smiling as I type this. It always makes me happy to learn someone else is a fan of his. He genuinely seemed to enjoy the challenges the JLA gig brought with it, especially on the Annual team ups with the JSA. Nothing against George Pérez, but I wish Dillin had lived long enough to draw the entire JLA/JSA/New Gods team up.
Jan Duursema, I agree on Arion, very underrated run on an underrated character. Her work on the last year or so of Hawkworld almost redeemed the aspects of that series that I disliked.
Leonard Kirk, along with Supergirl and JSA, also drew a sizable portion of Peter David's long-form X-Factor run, which is worth checking out whenever Marvel finally gets around to collecting it in the Omnibus format.
I love that series! I remember getting an issue of it as part of a bundle of random comics ordered from a Christmas catalog when I was a kid!
Glad to hear that, EDE!
I already had some familiarity with Hercules Unbound, because the final 2 issues (11 & 12) were reprinted in the 1989 Art of Walter Simonson trade.
Hmmm...and Simonson's predecessor on the series was none other than Jose Luis Garcia Lopez! Yeah, I'm gonna save up for a whole set of Hercules Unbound.
RIP Sergio Asteriti, one of my favorite Italian Disney artists, active from 1963 to 2017. He was 94.
Asteriti's shadowy, highly atmospheric style had more in common with Gene Colan than the other Disney artists. But he could do brighter, lighter stuff, too, depending on the needs of the story.
According to his Wikipedia Italiano entry, he is the 8th most prolific of the Italian Disney artists.
If I had to pick a favorite Asteriti story, it would have to be the one where Mickey Mouse takes on the mantle of a Zorro-like hero. Mickey ends up inspiring the original to come out of self-imposed exile.