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T H E U LT I M AT E C O M I C S E X P E R I E N C E !

December

2003

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JLA / AVENGERS THEN & NOW!

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Pencil art by Jack Kirby!

DC’s & Marvel’s Tarzan!

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OFF M Y

DC vs. MARVEL: KIRBY! PÉREZ! KUBERT! BUSCEMA!

N$5o..915

with Carmine Infantino!

BATMAN, FLASH, ROBIN, ORION, SUPERMAN, WONDER WOMAN TM & ©2003 DC COMICS • TARZAN TM & ©2003 ERB INC. CAPTAIN AMERICA, VISION, WASP, THOR, IRON MAN TM & ©2003 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

e g Th e n i t a th br Cele mics of y!

Co da Best ’80s, & To ’70s,

time and experience. Being on the other end when people are now showing you their more amateurish, untrained, underdeveloped stuff, you have to also find that same means of encouraging them to get better. And sometimes, you do have to be a little cruel to be kind.

MW: I had gone to the High School of Art and Design to be an artist and in fact, became an art teacher. My Bachelor’s Degree in college is Bachelor of Fine Arts.

And that was exactly what they did. You would present a drawing and they’d rip it apart—only the parts that are bad because every teacher in Art and Design, unlike most schools, had to have been professional artists. I mean, Bernie Krigstein was one of

who give up “The people ness be in the busi to ve er es d don’t make ever going to n e ’r ey th se becau icism, e you get crit m ti t rs fi e h T it. oodbye.’” if you fold, ‘G man —Marv Wolf

my teachers. That’s the level of craftsmanship at the school at that time. And because of that, they had no patience for ego getting in the way. They know that, certainly, at fifteen, you ain’t got it. (laughs) And they pushed and pushed and pushed, and the people who give up don’t deserve to be in the business because they’re never going to make it. The first time you get criticism, if you fold, “Goodbye.”

GP: For me, it was a bit of a jolt since I never had an art lesson. So other than the rah-rah complimentary cheers of my friends and family, I never really got the critique from a professional artist. I mean, before

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Marv, I guess, I took my stuff to a convention and Neal Adams was the first person to, basically, put me up on the cross. And as Marv pointed out about not letting ego get in the way, when I saw Neal a year after I turned pro, he was the first one to say, “Congratulations. You made it. If you could take what I dish out, then you’ve got, at least, the heart to take the next step further.” Obviously, he can’t predict the amount of improvement in the artist, but [he saw] that I want[ed] to improve as an artist.

MW: Exactly, and that’s the vital part of it all, is the willingness to go back and say, “Okay, either I’m going to show him because he’s an idiot, or I’m going to show him because I can do it.” And either way, it gets the job done. It really doesn’t matter which way you do it (laughs), it gets the job done. And the stuff I remember that was wrong about his work—I mean, George can probably tell you a lot better because it was on his side —the stuff I remember were fairly simple things, like perspective and anatomy. Those were learnable things, and those were the parts that I saw were wrong. It

Marv Wolfman - Man of Characters

wasn’t, “Well, this story is all wrong.” I recall just the

A portrait by George of his frequent collaborator

straightforward things that there are rules for.

shows Marv alongside several icons to which he

AM: Perspective and backgrounds.

helped to give distinctive voice.

GP: That’s it. Like he was probably after me in the

Superman, Titans characters, Omega Men characters, Vigilante, Baron Winters TM & © 2003 DC Comics. Nova, Black Cat TM & © 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. Sable TM & © 2003 Mike Grell.

anatomy of the human body in a perspective shot.

One of the things which I also admire in any person when they show a portfolio is at least to attempt a difficult shot, as opposed to taking the easy one. I might have gotten it wrong, but that, as Marv pointed

A Spooky Little Girl Like You! (left)

out, can be fixed with a simple knowledge of the

Raven billows from a plume of smoke, courtesy of

mechanics of it. But the fact that if you tried for a

this fan-commissioned drawing.

down shot or an up shot, difficult angles, which sometimes are greater than you can achieve as far as your

Raven TM & © 2003 DC Comics

graphic ability at the time, that shows that you’re thinking, you’re telling a story the most dynamic way possible, as Marv said. I mean, I don’t know why it’s

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easy, because it is an instinct with me, but it is something—which I thank Marv and all the other people who pointed out what kept my career glowing— that the art will come, the drawing ability will come.

The storytelling is what makes comic books distinctive from the other art forms.

“No matter w hat is told to you by anyon e else, if you’r e going to be good, yo u have to bel ieve in yourself, and nothing else m atters.”

—George Pér ez

MW: As a fan, before I even knew the first thing about any of that, I looked at the early Barry Smith stuff and could not understand why Marvel was using him (chuckles) until I saw Barry’s pencils at Roy Thomas’ house one day. And I went, “Oh, my God. This is a completely different artist.” They were able to spot why those early Daredevils and such had a professional quality to them.

GP: Yeah, before [Smith] had even started on Conan, there was something there, and there aren’t a lot of people who have that. There are people, every so often, that you look at and you go, “This guy’s going to be phenomenal.” And the only thing that stops them from being phenomenal is themselves because no matter what is told to you by anyone else, if you’re going to be good, you have to believe in yourself, and nothing else matters. And all the editors who put you down, if they actually succeed in putting you down, then you never really wanted it in the first place.

It’s Clobberin’ Time!

George Pérez began to emerge as a fan favorite during his late 1970s stint on Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four TM & © 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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AM: George, I know in many of your early pre-comics

work, you did, for instance, Teen Titans sample pages and things like that. So had you read Marv’s work before?

Did you know him as anything other than just the editor who ripped your work to shreds? (chuckles) GP: Of course. I had read Marv’s work before. And again, when I did the Teen Titans sample pages, I was just drawing for my pleasure because I just drew. So they were never meant as samples to show to anyone as a job interview, just something I enjoyed drawing. And, of course, I remember Marv and Len [Wein] when they were breaking into the industry. I remember I was a big fan of Marv’s [Tomb of] Dracula work later and truth to tell, a lot of the super-hero stuff kind of blurs in my mind because people were kind of jumping around a lot there. But I was quite intimate—I knew as

GP: Oh, God. I’ve got to go into those offices again. (laughs) AM: And he still banks across the street. (laughs) You mentioned the Dracula material and it strikes a chord in my memory that maybe the two of you actually talked about working on some horror material together at some point.

GP: Oh, not formally that I can remember. After we had both started doing the [New Teen] Titans, we had talked about doing something in the supernatural vein as an independent [comic]. But I don’t think Marvel ever really approached us on

far as, like, who the Teen Titans were. I think I might

working on something specifically horrific, or horrible,

have seen one of Marv’s first works, I don’t know.

in the horror genre. I don’t think I was right for it at

MW: It was one of my earlier jobs.

the time. I mean, at that point, I wouldn’t have

GP: Was it? I just remembered the one story. I think it was drawn by Bill Draut.

MW: Yeah, it was.

GP: And it was a bore. These characters got beat easy.

MW: The closest we ever came to talking about anything that had a horror bent to it was a graphic novel

comics, Marv was already established as both a writer

GP: Janus, right.

and an editor. So he definitely was one of the elite, to

MW: And that was, essentially, the closest that we

me. I mean, I was working across the street from DC

had ever discussed that. But that combined horror and

Comics as a bank teller and I think he just wrote articles.

sword-and-sorcery, more than anything.

Allan Asherman came in and he gave me his bank book

AM: Now, beyond editor and artist, you eventually

to make a withdrawal, or whatever, and I said, “Are

worked together on Fantastic Four. What about that,

you the Allan Asherman?” Everyone that worked at

Marv? Did you ask for George as the artist at that point?

GP: He is still at DC? Well, I didn’t know that.

MW: He’s run the library for the last God-knows-howmany years. Fifteen years, maybe more.

s.

Comic

page with ink. (laughs)

which was as much super-hero as horror, called Janus.

MW: Allan’s still working up at DC.

DC 2003

known how to draw a shadowy scene if I spilled my

(laughs) Yeah, but obviously, when I finally got into

comics was a god (laughs), and I reacted that way.

&© sh TM Kid Fla

MW: I have no memory. George might.

GP: At that point, I was already a regular artist on Fantastic Four. I think it was one of those things that they were assigning the annuals and Marv got that particular one. Until DC, that and a short chapter of What If? with Nova was the only time Marv and I ever worked as writer-artist.

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pull you back creatively. And once you start being pulled back, you stop thinking as wildly, and as abstractly, as you would have otherwise. I know that certainly happened to me later on in The Titans when I was no longer the editor. Eventually, George and I—fairly quickly, actually—became the editors of the book.

GP: Right. And to give Marv full credit there, Marv was actually offered editorship of the book, but he didn’t want to be in a situation where instead of being partners, he was my boss. And he offered me the editorship because of that and I always appreciated that incredible feeling of solidarity and friendship that we had during the course of the book, which when you consider the history of comics, is not as common as we’d like it to be.

Beyond the creative, this was a friction-free existence, as partners on the Teen Titans book. Even when I resigned off the book, it was definitely not because of any personal problems, but the fact I needed to go on to other things. Marv was sitting next to me when I announced my resignation from the series.

And I cherish the amount of growth that I had, working with Marv.

MW: Well, thank you. You know, it’s fairly simple when you’re working with someone you both like personally and believe in, in terms of the quality of their work. Maybe it wasn’t common at the time— maybe it’s a little bit more now—but I believed George was a true partner in creating the Titans, as opposed to a partner in name only. Sometimes it takes a while to think past systems that have always been in place to do the right thing. I know the very first time that I

“George so imprinted a physical presence for each character… by the time he was done with the book, nobody else was able to make the Titans actually feel like they were the Titans,” observes Marv Wolfman.

Teen Titans and all associated characters TM & © 2003 DC Comics.

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started to do that was with Ross Andru, where we split the plotting fees later.

AM: And that was on what book?

MW: [The Amazing] Spider-Man. In the old days, the writer would take all the credit and all the money, and I don’t think that’s fair if you’re splitting the workload. If the writer is doing the entire plot, and just submitting it to the artist, that’s different. But if you’re actually working the stories out together, as George and I did, then the money should be split. And therefore, the editing should be split as well. You know, the whole thing should be a partnership, rather than one person calling the shots. If you’re doing it right, and if you’re doing it with the right person...

GP: And thanks to Marv, as Marv said, he would get his plotting fee and give half of it, obviously, to Ross [on Spider-Man], or often to me. Since then, that particular bookkeeping breakdown has been applied in the industry. But Marv did it before there was a structure. And again, as much as this sounds like we’re just two guys, a mutual admiration society here, it is genuine. I mean, Marv did stuff that in this industry,

“If the character’s speaking… and [Marv] can’t see himself saying those words out loud, he doesn’t have him say it,” notes the artist of his New Teen Titans partner.

you don’t hear as much about. Obviously, the negative stuff is always the fun stuff you hear about.

MW: Oh, yeah.

GP: But Marv has been a true mensch in every endeavor I’ve ever worked with him. Even during times we

Teen Titans and all associated characters TM & © 2003 DC Comics.

both had our personal problems because we both had gone through divorces.

MW: Oh, yeah. And painful ones.

GP: And those were the hard times when we stayed friends the entire time.

MW: Yes.

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This section: Avengers and all associated characters TM & © 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. Justice League and all associated characters TM & ©2003 DC Comics.

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The Original JLA/Avengers Crossover

When Titans

Clash! by

It was a Friday evening in 1976,

ry Michael Eu

during my freshman year at East

Carolina University (alma mater of Sandra Bullock and Scream scribe/Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson) in Greenville, North Carolina (go Pirates!).

“Benny” (I’ll call him “Benny” because that’s his name), a dorm buddy from the cockroach-infested campus prison appropriately named Aycock Hall, and I, then known as “Mickey,” traipsed down “the hill” to the nearby Qwik-Pik store. Benny’s mission was clear: Buy a six-pack and par-tay, but my taste buds were craving the week’s latest comics—or at least as many as I could find. Back then, comics shops were a rarity (there was a comics/sci-fi specialty shop in town, a pulpy wonderland owned by Charles Lawrence, but I had yet to locate it), and readers embarked upon weekly scavenger hunts through convenience marts, drugstores, Mom ‘n’ Pop groceries, and newsstands in hopes of finding their four-color favorites. I meticulously examined each row of the Qwik-Pik’s comic-book spin rack, its new releases interspersed between titles from a week or two ago, already dog-eared and mangled by kids and yellowed by sun exposure through a nearby window. As I dug for the latest treasures, Benny found a gold mine of his own—a sale on Pabst Blue Ribbon!—and scanned the magazines while waiting for me to complete my inspection.

r “Hey, Mick, there’s a big funnybook over here,” he called.

I glanced across the aisle to see what he was talking about, and my jaw dropped.

Oh. My.

God.

It was Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man!

This tabloid-sized best-seller co-published by DC and Marvel Comics, cover-

blurbed as “The Greatest Superhero Team-Up of All Time,” was the comics biz’s

first major event, making headlines as it united two fierce publishing rivals and

their two flagship characters. Today, cross-company crossovers are commonplace—we’ve seen Batman/Daredevil, Hulk vs. Superman, Batman/Tarzan, Spider-

Man/Gen13, and JLA/Witchblade, to name just a few (heck, I even co-edited two

© 2003 Marv el Characters,

Dark Horse/DC mini-series, Batman vs. Predator II and Superman vs. Aliens)—but in

Inc. ©2003 DC

Comics.

1976, nothing could top the excitement of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Benny was left to his own devices that evening—I had reading to do!

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Despite the runaway success of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, it took five

years before the companies reconnected. In 1981, Marvel and DC released two

additional crossovers, both published in the same oversized format as the 1976 Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man book: a Superman/Spider-Man sequel handled

by Marvel, and the DC-steered Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk. Both were greeted by

overwhelming commercial and critical acclaim, and DC and Marvel—then editorially helmed by Dick Giordano and Jim Shooter, respectively—launched plans to

do more. The result: Marvel and DC Present, a comic-book-sized, irregularly published series utilizing then-emerging offset printing, providing richer, more vivid

colors on a brighter paper stock. It was agreed that the production of each of the crossovers would alternate between one publisher and the other, with each company appointing a co-editor; the company not producing the given crossover

would distribute the project. Instead of continuing single-character pairings with their next outings, the publishers targeted meetings (and clashes) between their most popular super-teams: the Justice League of America and the Avengers, and the New Teen Titans and the X-Men.

The Only Man for the Job At the time, artist George Pérez had ascended to fan-favorite status through his

d

detailed rendering of DC’s hottest book, The New Teen Titans. He’d gotten his start at Marvel in the 1970s, cutting his teeth on minor strips like “Man-Wolf” in

Creatures on the Loose and “Sons of the Tiger” in The Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu before

graduating to Fantastic Four and The Avengers, the latter of which experienced a renaissance of quality and popularity thanks to George’s enthusiastic pencils. By 1980, Pérez was illustrating DC’s Justice League of America as well as Marvel’s

She-Pow! Panel detail from Pérez’s original JLA/Avengers pencils.

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© 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

19 71

feature

my Olsen Superman, Jim

(micro-sized) iversal Studios’ pletely by Un inhabited com in, 0s: Frankenste e 1930s and ’4 monsters of th e ummy, and th Dracula, the M the Wolfman, ade of Jack’s te should be m like. Special no an’s faces; n’s and Superm version of Olse pretty dang both looking e. fantastic to m redrawn DC had them derson (as

by Murphy An . Which do shown at left) tter? you think is be ays Kirby was alw couldn’t e, and while he ahead of his tim perman’s “S” of drawing Su get the hang drawn as well), ring it to be re ui eq (r l bo m sy pears to be a ized version ap his highly styl Ross used in e version Alex precursor to th e.

Kingdom Com the 1990s hit

TM & © 2003

DC Comics.

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A particularly le energetic batt ly page. This tru volved bizarre issue re ld around a wor

143

John Morrow

JIMMY OLSEN

with

t i m e l i n e s

by

one” Hamilton David “Hamb

t i m e l i n e s

NEW GODS #

Here’s Jack in the late 1970s;

to his right is his one-time assistant

Mark Evanier, and peeking over his head

•

(Photo courtesy of Shel Dorf.)

is Teen Titans scribe Marv Wolfman.

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New Gods TM & © 2003 DC Comics.

19 7 2 Splash page from “The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin” (actually page five of the issue), showcasing one of Jack’s more endearing creations, Lightray (with Orion). This story brought back a lot of humanistic qualities of self-sacrifice and courage—echoing back to Jack and Stan’s (Lee) Fantastic Four #51, “This Man... This Monster,” one of the ten favorite Lee/Kirby stories ever published at the House of Ideas (as often voted upon in fan polls since the 1960s). Jack’s plotting/writing shined like a super-nova when approaching such storylines—with and without the input of others. ‘Nuff said!

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Tarzan, Tarzan and Tarzan:

The Lord of the Jungle’s

long, strange

Journey

by

mic T o m “ T hret C o a w Ste

Through the Jungles of Three Publishers

Problems...

Bob Hodes had a problem. As the representative for Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., Robert M. Hodes oversaw the Burroughs estate and its literary legacies: Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, David Innes, the Moon Men and Red Hawk—the vast galaxy author Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB) left behind him upon his death in 1950. The properties had languished after the passing of the founder, falling prey to pirated copies of the Burroughs originals and unauthorized comics (the first time pirates got the better of Tarzan!). Funny thing was, the very pirated novels that caused the problem helped spur a Burroughs revival. ERB Inc. started tending to business. At the end of the 1960s, the House of Burroughs was back in order, overseeing worldwide rights for movies, books, reprints, comic strips, and, of course, comic books, especially Tarzan comic books.

Since 1912, when Burroughs, a man who had famously failed at almost everything he put a hand to, borrowed someone else’s stationery and wrote Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan had been a phenomenon, and a very valuable property. More books followed, pushing Tarzan into publishing-empire status (before Amazon.com, mind you). Movies both silent and sound, radio, gasoline (well, Tarzan endorsed it), and comic strips all came spilling out to meet the demand—he even got his own town, Tarzana, California. And again, the comic books.

Ah, comics. It was a small, but not unimportant part of ERB Inc. Tarzan was popular all over the world, one of the most recognizable fictional characters in history, and his comics were just as popular. Tarzan comic books started with comic-strip reprints in the 1930s, then in 1947 Tarzan began appearing regularly in new stories written especially for Dell Comics. Tarzan soon got his own title. For years the Dell Tarzans were written by the very prolific Gaylord DuBoise and drawn by Jesse Marsh (the Mike Sekowsky of Tarzan: either you loved him or hated him; or hated him, then loved him). DuBoise and

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Marsh strayed far from Burroughs original (maybe not as far as the “Me, Tarzan” MGM

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movies did), making many Burroughs purists cringe, but they kept the title a popular one right up until Marsh’s retirement in 1965, when artist Russ Manning took over. Manning restored Burroughs source material to the title and helped it regain popularity for the comic book (and newspaper strip, which he later took over, as well), especially in the overseas foreign markets.

This was the problem.

The foreign markets were printing and reprinting all the Tarzan material they had.

Forty years’ worth of comic strips (by Hal Foster, Burne Hogarth, and Rex Maxon) and over twenty years of comic books published

by Dell and later Gold Key Comics, all went to feed the foreign annuals, monthlies, and weeklies, translated and sold all over the world. It was a sweet deal. Gold Key paid the writers, artists, editors, and all the overhead, ERB Inc. kept the negatives of all the stories, sold them for set page rates to

Infantino’s “Perfect Guy”

South America, Europe, Africa, wherever Tarzan was needed and wanted. Sweet. There

DC publisher Carmine Infantino chose Joe Kubert

was only one thing wrong: The reprints were

as his Tarzan artist.

running out. They needed more. Much more.

Tarzan © 2003 ERB Inc.

The Russ Manning stories that Gold Key

was printing were very popular with the overseas publishers—so popular, in fact, that when the art wasn’t coming in fast enough, they hired their own “Russ Mannings” and set them to aping (yes, that was intentional) the Manning style on new pages (something that didn’t make Russ happy, but why would it?). More was needed, and ERB Inc. felt that Western Publishing (owner of Gold Key Comics) should provide it.

Hodes went to Gold Key. At this time, Gold Key wasn’t in the expanding vein. After years of supplying material to Dell Comics, Western split with Dell and entered publishing on its own by putting

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its leg in the water, but only up to the knee. Hodes asked that the publishing be stepped up, and that other Burroughs properties be looked at also (John Carter?). Their schedule was fixed. Tarzan sold well at eight times a year, why change it? Gold Key said no. After two hundred issues, the Gold Key Tarzans ended. ERB Inc. would have to look elsewhere (Western lost the Hanna-Barbera books the same way: not putting out enough issues to satisfy the foreign markets).

But where? Why not ERB Inc. itself? Why not an entire line of wholly owned Burroughs comics, published by the people who knew the properties best? Hodes had it all priced out: so much for scripts, for artists, paper, printing.

All he needed was a distributor.

Tarzan © 2003 ERB Inc.

That was a problem. In the early 1970s, no distributor wanted to take on a new comics publisher, even one waving the flag of Tarzan before him. Comics were seen as a low-profit medium with not a lot of future (even then!). The biggest comics distributor, Independent News Corp. (INC), told Hodes to go down the hall to DC Comics (owner of INC), maybe they could help him. In 1971, going to DC meant going to see Carmine Infantino, former artist, then art director, then editorial director, and, at the time, publisher.

“I Choose Who I Choose” DC Comics under Infantino was willing to try new things. New titles, new takes on old characters, new blood, and Kirby was coming! DC was also no stranger to licensed properties, having had a long run of Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis comics, among others, but would it make sense to take up the Burroughs deal, under the terms that ERB Inc. wanted? To Carmine Infantino, it was about the numbers: “Tarzan was doing well in Europe at the time. In fact, our European publishers talked to me about doing it here in the states, and I said, ‘If the numbers are right.’ We had a meeting with the California people, out there in Tarzana, with Bob Hodes. We worked out the deal. The best things happen simply!”

The numbers were good. Infantino must have thought that a gift had fallen into his lap. Right at the start of comics’ sword-and-sorcery fad, here comes some of the properties that defined the genre: John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, David Innes, and most important, Tarzan, a character more popular in more countries than even that DC flagship hero, Superman. And Infantino had the perfect man for it: Joe Kubert. Carmine reveals, “They wanted their artists on it. But I insisted on Kubert. I think I was right. He was the perfect guy for the strip. I told them, ‘I choose who I

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We never tried to parallel Marvel. Once you copy someone, you’re always second best. I wanted us to be individual, and we were, with the mystery books, and the war books that Joe Kubert did so beautifully.

All characters TM & ©2003 DC Comics.

When he was working at Marvel, Jack Kirby would call me regularly to say hello. We’d talk and kid around. One time when I was in California on business, we went to dinner, and Jack said, “I’d like to show you something.” He showed me three covers: New Gods, Mister Miracle, and Forever People. I said, “They’re wonderful. Good luck.” He said, “No, no, you don’t understand. I want to do them for you. My Marvel contract is up. I want a contract with you.” I said, “I’ve got no problem with that.”

It was as simple as that, and in 1970 Jack Kirby came to DC. Jack wanted the whole Superman line to do. I couldn’t give him that—with that property, you have to be very careful. So I decided to try him out on Jimmy Olsen. But it didn’t work. We later discovered why: Jimmy Olsen was really made for little kids, and Jack made it very sophisticated, which was the wrong thing for that book.

Unfortunately, Forever People, Mister Miracle, and New Gods didn’t sell.

Jack became unhappy because of this. The Demon did fairly well, however, and so did Kamandi. Kirby did one book, The Sandman, with his original partner Joe Simon, and the sales just went through the roof. So I called Jack and asked him to do more books with Joe, but Jack said, “I want to move on.” He went back to Marvel at that point.

Success No “Mystery”

I was in Europe and the Edgar Rice Burroughs people approached me

DC caught Marvel

about DC publishing Tarzan. But they wanted their creative people on the

off guard by “quietly”

project, and I said, “No, no, I want my guys on the book.” I put Joe Kubert

releasing its inventive

on Tarzan. When the Burroughs people saw Kubert’s work, they were

line of mystery titles.

delighted. Joe was made for that character. At first, Tarzan sold very well.

(far right)

Then I went out and got Captain Marvel [for the Shazam!] series and the Quality Comics characters like the Ray and Black Condor [who, with

© 2003 DC Comics.

other heroes, spun out of Justice League of America into their own title, Freedom Fighters]. We started to refurbish the super-hero line.

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Stan Lee and I were fairly friendly. We didn’t see each other very often, but when we did, we were very cordial. We had known each other for years. Stan and I were old friends.

When Superman vs. Spider-Man was proposed, I was opposed to it. The person in charge of Marvel at that time came to DC with the crossover idea. He met with my superior, and they called me upstairs and said, “We want it done.” I thought we’d be enhancing the Marvel line by bridging them with DC, but since I had no choice, I insisted, “Let us do it properly.” I picked the artist I wanted, Ross Andru, and I created and designed the cover. The book was a lot of hard work but it did very well.

DC was privy to Marvel’s numbers. Our distributor would get us copies of their sales reports, and they got copies of our numbers. There were no secrets there. Marvel had been moving ahead by leaps and bounds, but we caught up, because we produced quality comics. There was one year when we won every award possible. I knew we were on the right track then.

Toward my last year at DC, Marvel decided to do to us something that DC had done many years earlier to Western Publishing: They dramatically increased their output, and this threatened to push us off the stands, where the shelf space was limited. I had to combat that, so I met Marvel book to book. I knew it was going to cost us a lot of money, which it did, but it cost them a

Kirby is Here!

fortune. The people upstairs did not appreciate my posture, so it

Jack “King” Kirby, who

was better that we part ways. We did, in 1976, and that was the end of it.

epitomized Marvel’s

My position at DC was a lot of work. I worked long hours and didn’t take a

1960s art style,

vacation in ten years. It’s a tough job if you do it properly.

was hired by

I learned that you’ve got to take chances. Not everything DC did back then

Carmine Infantino in 1970 to work

worked, but we produced some great material. I had some wonderful guys to

his magic at DC.

work with: Kubert, Orlando, Giordano, and of course, the old faithfuls, the terrific Murray Boltinoff and the wonderful Julie Schwartz.

(above and top right)

We had a good group of guys. They meshed well.

Characters TM & © 2003 DC Comics.

We were neck and neck with Marvel when I left DC. We made money and changes. I gave back original art to the artists and raises to all personnel.

Team Supreme!

It was a memorable time.

Murphy Anderson inks over Infantino pencils on a 1960s Mystery In

I highly recommend Mr. Infantino’s lushly illustrated autobiography

Space cover.

(co-written by J. David Spurlock), The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino, published in 2000 by Vanguard Productions. It’s a

(top and right)

captivating read and deserves a place of honor on the bookshelf

Adam Strange TM & © 2003 DC Comics.

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of every comics fan.—Michael

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ry Michael Eu

Jimmy Olsen:

adventures

by Jack Kirby

DC Comics, 2003 • 192 pages, color, $19.95

& © 2003 DC

Comics

Only One Thing Missing from the Kirby Magic Good news for fans of Jack “King” Kirby and his expansive Fourth World: In late July 2003, DC

Superman, Jim my Olsen, Du bbilex TM

collected edition review

by

Comics released Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby, a trade-paperback collection of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 (October 1970) through #139 (July 1971) and #141 (September 1971)—issue #140 was a reprint giant, in case you’re wondering. These landmark stories, written and penciled by Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta, are important for two reasons: They signaled the King’s triumphant return to DC, after months of teasers proclaiming “Kirby is Coming,” and they introduced story elements that would appear in some of Kirby’s other series, as well as in DC’s ongoing continuity for decades to come.

The presentation of these classics is superb. Unlike DC’s earlier black-and-white collections of Kirby’s New Gods, Forever People, and Mister Miracle tales, the Jimmy Olsen stories are reprinted in glorious color (featuring “reconstruction” by David Tanguay), and the cover—by Kirby and “the Dude” Steve Rude, colored by Richard and Tanya Horie—is absolutely wonderful, an eye-catching blend of the King’s raw energy and the Dude’s pristine polish. The Introduction by Kirby protégé and historian Mark Evanier offers valuable insight into his mentor’s migration from Marvel Comics to DC, dispelling some urban

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myths along the way, while designer Peter Hamboussi evokes the 1970s with a vibrant, reader-friendly text layout that warmly embraces shades of orange—the color of Olsen’s hair and a popular hue of the era (remember the kitchen on The Brady Bunch?).

When reading Jimmy Olsen: Adventures

by Jack Kirby, it’s clear that prior to his jump to DC the architect of the Fourth World had felt creatively stifled by Marvel: These Olsen tales explode with a staggering array of new concepts, including, but certainly not limited to, Darkseid and Apokolips, Metropolis’ hightech mob Intergang, the Whiz Wagon (the DC Universe’s first SUV?), and the freakish Four-Armed Terror. Kirby’s fascination with science borders on prophecy, with cloning a common theme throughout, and Jack admirably tries to be hip by peppering his epic with anarchic bikers and contemporary lingo (some of which falls flat: Superman was still too square in 1970 to spout dialogue like “I can’t play by your scene!” and “Something you should dig—but fast!”).

Amid this ocean of new ideas are waves of nostalgia, through the reintroduction of Kirby’s (and Joe Simon’s) Golden Age DC creations the Newsboy Legion and the Guardian and through the inclusion of Jimmy Olsen the DNAlien, a nod to the ubiquitous Olsen mutations of earlier continuity. To top it all off, comedian Don Rickles guest stars in the last two stories of the volume—and for you newbies

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The Cover, Pre-Dude Kirby’s pencils from an unused Jimmy Olsen #145 cover were inked

by Steve Rude for the cover of the Olsen trade.

Superman, Jimmy Olsen, Dubbilex TM & © 2003 DC Comics

who find the notion of a Jimmy Olsen/Don Rickles

Kirby Cuts Loose Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby includes some of the King’s wildest work.

Superman, Jimmy Olsen, Guardian, Newsboy Legion TM & © 2003 DC Comics

crossover puzzling, I can only quote the King’s own gutsy cover blurb: “Don’t Ask! Just Buy It!” Kirby fans are aware that the King’s tenure on Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen was short-lived. Carmine Infantino, DC Comics’ editorial director when Kirby produced these wild tales for DC, postulates in his “Off My Chest” guest editorial in this edition of BACK ISSUE that Jack’s material was too “sophisticated” for DC’s readers of the time, particularly fans of Jimmy Olsen, traditionally the entry-level book of the Superman line. Upon reading Kirby’s stories in this trade paperback—revisiting them for the first time in many years— I stumbled across another possible reason for their commercial failure: The demotion of Olsen to supporting-cast status.

For 16 years prior to Kirby’s coming, the nucleus of the Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen universe was Jimmy himself. Once Jack jumped on board, Jimmy took a back seat in his own magazine to the King’s imagination. This abrupt change presumably unsettled readers accustomed to Jimmy as their accessible “ticket” to Superman’s action-filled world.

That observation aside, Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby is a fun read and a glimpse into the inventive mind of one of comics’ most influential creative forces.

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