(right) The back cover of the presentation piece for 1971’s Superworld of Everything, featuring a myriad of unpublished characters and ideas, including Kynin the Finn, who’ll be discussed later this issue.
(below) Sid Jacobson and Joe Simon at (we believe) the 2006 New York Comic-Con.
Not everyone gets their shot. The path to the Big Time is littered with the unsung, the unknown. Jack Kirby was so prolific, he found a place for almost every character he created. But in a 50-year career, there are always unused, unpublished supporting characters. Their fates are consigned to concept art or verbal ideas. (Animation characters are ignored here—they are far too plentiful, and mostly unknown.) Like everything Kirby created, it’s a fun list of characters. Finally, today, we get to bring them on stage
ADVENTURES OF THE FLY (1954 • HARVEY)
In the memorandums between Sid Jacobson and Leon Harvey, Joe Simon’s “Spiderman” had morphed into a concept which finally came to fruition in 1959 at Archie as “The Fly”; “Mr. DDT” was proposed as a villain at that point. It’s just as well he was scrapped—Mr. DDT would have lost his mojo by 1972 after dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane was banned (NOTE: That chemical name for DDT is the longest word to ever appear in TJKC).
ATLAS THE GREAT (1974 • DC)
Kubla the Oppressor is only seen in concept art, as are two future story titles: “The Gorgon Masks” (Army of Zombies, right), and “The War Women of Nefra” (Amazon sea raiders). “The Headless Idol” (defeat it, and you’ll see everything on Earth for one day) and the “Skull Worshippers” are also never seen in a published storyline.
Kirby’s unseen supporting players explored by Richard Kolkman
was to be the place Barda and her Furies trained. And finally, in name only is “Phantasmagloria”—my favorite unseen Kirby character. Dreamed up by Mark Evanier, she was a girl with extra-sensory perception (ESP). She would have been fascinating. And yes, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention “Gilotina” from Mister Miracle #8.
BIG BARDA AND HER FEMALE FURIES (1971 • DC)
A proposed predecessor to Barda’s debut in Mister Miracle #4 includes characters recycled elsewhere: The Lump (in Mister Miracle #8), The Head (left, remnant of a criminal scientist; Mister Miracle #10), and Apollo (a super soldier who later joins Dr. Sandor Skuba and his daughter Seaweed in OMAC #7, sans pacemaker). “Beauty Rock”
CAPTAIN 3-D #2 (1953 • HARVEY)
Incredibly, the unused cover art for issue #2 (Kirby/Simon/Meskin) was found in Harvey Comics’ trash can in the 1980s. “Challenge of the Speed Demon” was never published by Harvey. Two additional villains were never developed, according to Joe Simon: “Solitaire, King of the Crazy Playing Cards” and “Who is Infinity?”—yet both appeared in teaser ads.
CAPTAIN VICTORY AND THE GALACTIC RANGERS (1978 • JACK KIRBY COMICS)
The original introductory story title was “Space Arenas of Doctor Deadly”, later changed in 1981 for Pacific Comics to “Space Arenas of Death”. So what, or
InnerviewS Fungus Rodeo
[Greg Theakston—artist, pop culture historian, and friend of Jack and Roz Kirby—gifted many items to the Kirby Museum a few years back. One was a copy of Fungus Rodeo, a ’zine published by Film Threat’s Chris Gore in 1987, which included a transcript of a Theakston/Kirby phone interview. I posted Fungus Rodeo scans in the “Clipping Service” folder of the Kirby Museum’s website back in 2010, and now offer a more readable transcript here.—Rand Hoppe]
[Jack Kirby. He created the Marvel universe along with Stan Lee. He gave birth to characters that are now part of American comic book pop culture: Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The Silver Surfer, The Hulk, The X-Men, and so many others we don’t have the space to list. Fungus Rodeo confronted Jack soon after his 70th birthday and we were not disappointed. Paul Zimmerman, Steve Raymond and myself (Chris Gore) posed the questions while Greg Theakston conducted the interview via phone to Jack’s wonderful home in Thousand Oaks, California.]
GREG THEAKSTON: Hello? Hello… they’re not home! (imitates woman’s voice) “Quick, Jack! Back in the car…!”
ANSWERING MACHINE (in Jack Kirby’s voice): Hi! This is the Kirby residence. We can’t get to the phone right now, so… [noise]
JACK KIRBY: Greg? Greg?
THEAKSTON: Hi, Jack. Listen, I’m doin’ a couple of my friends a favor…
KIRBY: Yeah, yeah. I had to run for the phone, so, ohh, you probably got my… uh—oh, wait, Rozzie, she’ll shut off that thing [answering machine still drones on in the background] so we’ll be able to talk.
THEAKSTON: Good! Alright, I’ve got a big list of questions—well, not a big list of questions. A couple of…
KIRBY: Okay, whatever you like, I’ll try my best to answer.
THEAKSTON: Well, they put this list of questions together, and I think they’re pretty good. The first question is: Who would you most like to get a letter from? If you could have anybody in the world write you a letter, who would you like to hear from?
KIRBY: Anybody in the world! Look, I like people in general. If I get a letter from someone intelligent, that’s good enough for me. Even if it’s unkind, and they’re intelligent, that’s good enough.
THEAKSTON: Alright… what’s your favorite pastime? What do you do to relax?
KIRBY: Speaking to friends. Y’know, what the average guy likes is fine, the ordinary sports and such.
THEAKSTON: What do you watch on TV?
KIRBY: Cops and robbers… I like action shows.
THEAKSTON: What about music? What kind of music do you listen to that might surprise us?
KIRBY: I listen to every kind of music, because, to my mind, there’s only good music, and bad music—you can make good or bad music in any form.
THEAKSTON: Do you know any musicians?
KIRBY: Well, I know Frank Zappa.
(above) How the interview appeared in 1987’s Fungus Rodeo (below) A groovy 1970s discotheque in pencils from Jimmy Olsen #144 (Dec. 1971).
THEAKSTON: How did you meet him?
KIRBY: Zappa contacted me. He sought me out and we became very good friends.
THEAKSTON: What did he have to say?
KIRBY: Well, he says… I know he likes comics as well as I like music. Music, like comics, is a medium. Americans are very fortunate in the fact that they have a variety of media, which includes all sorts of music, art, literature—a wide variety of very good things.
THEAKSTON: Obviously, then you’ve listened to some Frank Zappa music—what other sorts of progressive music do you listen to?
KIRBY: I’ve listened to many types of progressive music… I’ve listened to Prince, people of that sort.
THEAKSTON: When we spoke earlier, you mentioned a fellow who plays music with no melody. Does that ring a note?
KIRBY: Yes, there’s a fellow who merely makes sounds of some kind with an instrument, and I listen to that because… it’s a new approach to music. A new approach to anything kinda fascinates me. It doesn’t necessarily have to be termed ”good” or “bad”—it’s “new”, and then you can judge whether you like it or not.
THEAKSTON: You’ve always tried to do “new” things, haven’t you?
KIRBY: Always! I’ve tried a new approach to storytelling, new approaches to art, even new approaches to balancing a comic page.
THEAKSTON: If there were one person in all of history you would like to talk to, who would it be?
KIRBY: Probably Noah—Noah was a guy like me. He looked forward to things, he
A 1987 interview with Jack Kirby, originally posted by Rand Hoppe on June 30, 2012 on the Jack Kirby Museum website.
prepared, he forewarned.
THEAKSTON: What do you think about extraterrestrial life?
KIRBY: I think it’s out there, but… who am I to say where it is? I think the universe is a very, very big place!
THEAKSTON: Well, then, what are your views on what that life might be like?
KIRBY: I think that it would be just like it is here. I mean, we can’t tell what an amoeba thinks it might be instinctive life, it might be intelligent life, it might be anything.
THEAKSTON: Well, speaking about E.T.s and U.F.O.s, did you not see a U.F.O. at one time?
KIRBY: I saw something very strange, but I… it might not necessarily have been a U.F.O. I saw a light in the sky. It was very, very bright, like a star. There might have been one or more lights. It was right in front of me, right over the Pacific Ocean it moved forward in a straight line, then it stopped, and then it moved backwards, directly, without varying, just as it had moved forward. It was quite large… it looked like a star—like a cluster.
THEAKSTON: If you had a message for alien beings, what would it be?
KIRBY: [pause] Stay away! [laughs]
THEAKSTON: Why wouldn’t you want aliens to contact us?
KIRBY: Because we can’t… human beings can’t resolve conflicts.
THEAKSTON: So you don’t think we should get any visitors from other planets until we’re more peaceful?
KIRBY: I hope they never come.
THEAKSTON: I suppose one of the downsides would be that they might consider us protein!
KIRBY: Who knows? They could, or they couldn’t. I couldn’t really say.
THEAKSTON: Alright. If you were able to travel back in time and change one thing about your entire life, what would you change?
KIRBY: The point is that I couldn’t. I would be the same type of person I am now, because somewhere in your childhood you’re conditioned by circumstance, and you can’t change that circumstance. I think it’s indifferent to intention.
THEAKSTON: Something that you’ve been doing very well for the past fifty or so years is predicting the future inventions, and what humankind will be up to in the world of tomorrow. Got any projections for what you think the future holds in store for us?
KIRBY: Yes, I have.
THEAKSTON: Would you like to share them with us?
KIRBY: I’d like not to think about them.
THEAKSTON: You think they’re bad?
KIRBY: I just like not to think about them. I think that is good advice for everybody.
THEAKSTON: Has anybody ever commented on your obvious influence on action in modern-day filmmaking, such as in current action films like Commando?
KIRBY: Yes, I’ve discussed that with people, and they seem to feel that there are a lot of films today that operate on my type of formula.
THEAKSTON: Any of those [films] spring to mind, off the top of your head?
KIRBY: No, not necessarily. I wouldn’t want to say which films, because it wouldn’t necessarily be an action film. I’ve done very well
Curtain Call
All The (Fourth) World’s A
(above) Almost wicked: Jack’s design from the Nov. 10, 1979 episode of Super Friends.
(below) The Duke’s debut: Boy Explorers #1 (June 1946)
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts...”
As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
In case this issue’s faux-Playbill cover led you to think otherwise, I am a reluctant fan of musical theater. I say “reluctant” because, while I don’t make a point to see every touring company that comes to town, when I do attend a show, I usually have a wonderful time. Conversely, when I see a Broadway show adapted into a film, it very rarely lives up to the source material, let along expands upon it effectively (the recent film adaptation of Wicked aside). There’s something so genuine and visceral about seeing a live stage production, much like there is about reading a comic book (many of which have likewise been turned
into films with widely varied levels of success). And both endeavors involve a lot of creative personnel, not the least important of which is the person (or persons) who create the verbiage that conveys the story to the audience.
In that spirit, I’m going to attempt to compare and contrast the words that Stan Lee put in the balloons of mid-to-late 1960s Marvel comics pages, to the ones Jack Kirby wrote for his 1970s Fourth World epic. And I’m going to limit it to post-1964 Marvel material, after Stan hit his stride as a wordsmith, as those are the closest chronologically to Jack’s solo DC work as well.
What are the parameters of this endeavor to be (or not to be)? Let’s start with what they’re not:
“If Shakespeare and Michelangelo were alive today, and if they decided to collaborate on a comic, Shakespeare would write the script and Michelangelo would draw it. How could anybody say that this wouldn’t be as worthwhile an artform as anything on earth?”
— Stan Lee
This is a gross oversimplification of the creative process on the books Jack and Stan did together, of course, and we’re not approaching the exercise in such a simplistic mindset. Inarguably by the mid-1960s, Jack (who would be “Michelangelo” in Stan’s example) was bringing in fully plotted and drawn stories, with all the sets painted, the props in place, the scenes set, and all three acts already directed—even some of the finished dialogue was indicated in the page margins by Kirby. All that was left was for Stan (“Shakespeare”) to decide what actual words would go into the characters’ mouths—a very important task to be sure, but the bulk of the creative process was already completed before Stan ever touched the work, other than possibly a brief conference up front about the direction of the story (which Stan has admitted was often Jack telling him what the story would be).
So let’s not lose sight of the fact that Jack was the creative catalyst in these examples we’re comparing, not Stan. The person coming up with the ideas for these Marvel stories and the person coming up with the ideas for the Fourth World stories were one and the same, and so we’re just
Stage
Comparing Kirby and Lee’s dialogue by
John Morrow
comparing how two people interpreted those established ideas through dialogue. By nature of the collaboration, any words Stan chose were being influenced by what Jack produced before his involvement. Even in instances where Lee would do a re-write of Kirby’s characterizations or motivations in a scene, Stan was still following Jack’s foundation for the story from page one, and just steering it into a direction he preferred. The core story remained as Jack established it in almost all cases.
In theater terms, both the 1965–69 Kirby/Lee books and Jack’s solo 1970–72 work had the same set designer, artistic director, choreographer, costume designer, lighting coordinator, prop master, stagehand, and director. Beyond that, the missing component was the “book”, which in Broadway parlance is the script and song lyrics of a musical (also called the “libretto” in opera). Here’s a good example of how the “book” evolved in a Kirby/Lee collaboration, again courtesy of Stan:
“Silver Surfer really was created by Jack Kirby. After we had decided to do Galactus in a story, when Jack brought the artwork in, I saw there was some funny guy on a flying surfboard. I said, ‘Who’s this?’ Jack said, ‘I figure anybody as important as Galactus ought to have a herald who flies ahead of him and finds planets for him.’ I loved the idea. I don’t remember who made up the name ‘the Silver Surfer,’ whether it was Jack or me, but I loved the idea, and the drawings were so beautiful, he looked so great that I figured I would try to have him talk differently than any other character—get a quasiShakespearean/biblical delivery for him... That was the quality that I gave to him. As he was originally drawn, he was just a powerful guy on a flying surfboard.”
1985: An Interview with Stan Lee by Leonard Pitts Jr.
In the 1970s, Jack would work this same way solo: draw out the Fourth World stories first, and add his “book” afterward, just as Stan did in the example above. So the object of this discussion is to simply determine similarities and differences in the final words they both used, once penciled pages were ready for “scripting”.
The Stage is Set
On March 13, 1966, Stan was again quoted, this time in the Sunday Times Advertiser of Trenton, New Jersey:
“I really like to do The Mighty Thor. His language is really flamboyant and I pretend I’m Shakespeare.”
Here we have Stan again crediting William Shakespeare as his inspiration for the speech patterns of the cast of Thor, as he did for the Silver Surfer’s. Where in Jack’s own prior dialoguing could we find anything similarly Shakespearean to compare Stan’s to?
An obvious starting point is to look at Jack’s two versions of Thor, prior to Stan’s involvement. The earliest was Adventure Comics #75’s “The Villain From Valhalla” (June 1942), which may well have been dialogued by Joe Simon as much as by Jack. A representative soliloquy from this Simon & Kirby Thor is: “Rash mortals! The booty lies beyond this iron wall—but Mjolnar will shatter this stubborn barrier!” That’s a pretty typical, sci-fi style exclamation by a character who’s depicted as being above mere humans—it heightens the action, but does
little to distinguish it from other grandiose characters of that time period
The other Kirby solo example is Tales of the Unexpected #16’s “The Magic Hammer” (Aug. 1957, right). There, we get: “I am Thor—and that hammer you bear is mine! At long last, I have found it! I come from a land you know not—and there I rule as master of thunder and lightning...”. Again, Jack
Kirby’s Showtoons
With Jack being born and raised in New York City, it was inevitable some stage influences would work their way into Kirby’s life, since Broadway was nearby. Here’s some of the theater connections I’ve uncovered in his life and work.
JOURNEY’S BEGINNING
Jack’s earliest involvement with a stage production is probably Journey’s End, a 1928 dramatic play by English playwright R. C. Sherriff, which revolves around a group of British officers in World War I fighting on the front lines in France. Young “Jackie” Kurtzberg played the part of James “Jimmy” Raleigh in his high school’s stage production, circa 1933. A typewritten script exists with Jack’s pencil drawing of soldiers on its cover [See TJKC #45]
A UNCOVERED CLUE
Clue Comics Vol. 2, #2 (April 1947) featured the four-page story “On Stage For Murder”. Set behind-the-scenes at a stage production, the tale is about a detective having to solve the murder of its starring actress. His rationale in solving the case is pretty weak, and this was definitely meant as filler for the comic.
BROADWAY ROYALTY
The Duke of Broadway co-opted its name from John Lawrence’s pulp character, the Marquis of Broadway. Both are more about the outside criminal activities along “The Great White Way” than what went on inside its theaters. Starring theatrical producer Dan Dandy as The Duke, it’s got a Simon & Kirby byline, but looks to be heavily (if not exclusively) Joe Simon’s or other studio hands’ work. The character’s first appearance was in a 12-page story in Boy Explorers #1 ( June 1946), followed by another 12-pager (with a one-page lead-in featuring Stuntman searching the New York streets to find the Duke) in Stuntman #2 ( July 1946) The remaining unused inventory planned when those two titles were cancelled ran in Black Cat Comics #5–7 (May–Sept. 1947).
(below) Infinity Man, in pencils from Forever People #11 (Nov. 1972), Jack’s final issue.
may or may not’ve dialogued this himself, but either way, there’s nothing here that strongly evokes The Bard or the Bible the way Lee would later. Likewise, I’ve not seen margin notes by Jack with much in the way of “thees” and “thous” on any Thor pages. So I’ll give props to Stan for developing Thor’s distinctive patter, which was a critical part of making that comic unlike any that had come before.
But Jack was no slouch when it came to creating unique speech patterns, and we have only to turn to the Fourth World for the best examples—and comparisons
to Stan’s dialogue for both featured and lead actors. In that series, Jack was on a mission to prove that he didn’t need anyone else’s involvement to make a successful comic book, often to the chagrin of readers who were already attached to the Kirby/Lee dynamic. To all those who’ve said, “Jack couldn’t write”, let’s see just how different the two playwrights’ actual words were.
The Saviors
SILVER SURFER & INFINITY MAN
Neither Handel’s oratorio Messiah, nor Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Jesus Chris Superstar, have any spoken dialogue, but they both tell the same story of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, performed on a stage So there’s obviously more than one way to tell an epic story, and Jack and Stan both told similar stories, but approached their wording quite differently.
In Kirby’s comics, both Infinity Man (dialogued by Kirby) and the Silver Surfer (dialogued by Lee) came along to save the day when all seemed lost, and their respective dialogue— removed from the context of a comic book—has a biblical quality that could fit stylistically in Jesus’ resurrection story. But can you tell which character is speaking in these examples? (Answers are at the bottom of the page)
“Power knows no prejudice! The savage wields it as well as the civilized man!” 1
“Earth is but a twinkling dot... a paltry pebble... in the vastness of space!” 2
“This will be a battle worthy of giants! And, on the thrust of these forces of the infinite, I ride to put an end to his madness!” 3
“I was born to soar... to ride the currents of space... not to be confined within a barren structure!” 4
“For a being such as myself, no more cunning prison was ever devised-! A universe to roam and explore, but never to leave!-Because of the barrier!!” 5
“I am free once more possessed once again of the eternal energy of the cosmos!” 6
“But I call upon powers gained in distant regions—where natural laws do not apply!” 7
“Give battle, you fiend of the deepest pits! Your moment of triumph is not yet ripe!” 8
Take a moment and imagine both heroes saying these lines. I think you’ll find that either could’ve uttered these words and stayed in character.
Mark Evanier
JACK F.A.Q.s
A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby
(above) Steve Rude did an outstanding job polishing Jack’s pencils on the cover of Amazing Heroes #100 where this interview originally ran. Throughout, we’re presenting numerous recent “Inking tests” by Rude. Steve notes:
“As you have seen, I take many ‘drawing liberties’ with the actual pencil lines on Jack’s finished work, much like Colletta did. Hopefully the impact is still there, and nothing is lessened with these alterations. I can still see much of me coming through, especially on the large face of Tommy on the bottom right of the Newsboy Legion piece.” [next page, top]
The King & I
[I don’t know anyone who has been involved in as many classic and important comic books as has Jack Kirby. In fact, I don’t even know of anyone who finished a close second. If you look at his contribution to the comic form in just the 1940s, that alone warrants huzzahs and honors and special issues of Amazing Heroes. Or, if you look at just what he did in the ’50s, same thing: If that was all he did, we’d still be singing his praises. Amazingly, his third decade (roughly speaking) in comics, his creativity was still fertile. In the first few years of the ’60s, he was involved in the creation of more great comics than most folks are in their whole careers. And then came the ’70s and New Gods and onward...
I’ve now known Jack Kirby for 17 years. I have found him to be the most amazing spawning ground for New Ideas that this business has ever seen.
Everywhere he has gone in comics, he has left behind concepts on which other writers and artists built whole careers. Jack is also easily one of the nicest gents this business has ever seen... amazing since he probably has more right to be arrogant than anyone else. In an industry where the Takers sometimes rise to the top, Kirby has always been a Giver. Frankly, I think he has usually given too much, but I don’t think he knows any other way to live.
When the gents who bring you this magazine phoned and asked if I’d be the one to interview Jack for this issue, I said sure; any excuse to visit Kirby. If I could take him and Roz out to lunch and get [Gary] Groth to pay for it, so much the better. Roz Kirby, by the way, is Proof Positive of the “Behind every great man...” theory. Those of us grateful to Jack for all the wonders he has bestowed upon us owe equal thanks to her.
Jack Kirby, sad to say, is not currently drawing comic books and has no present plans to. He is a Producer/Creative Consultant for the Ruby-Spears animation studio and— having gotten out of comics—he is happier than I’ve known him to be for a long time. Out of respect for its original editor, Len Wein, Jack did agree to do “a few” pages for DC’s current Who’s Who project. But his own creativity tripped him up: Even Jack didn’t imagine how many characters he has contributed to the DC mythos... the “few pages” have turned out to be dozens. His health is perhaps fortunate that he is not working for Marvel at present (and has sworn not to, despite strange combinations of begging, bribery, and threats from some of Marvel’s editorial folks). If Kirby were to draw all the pages of their Marvel Universe Handbook that feature characters he began, their quantity would be staggering. In any event, Kirby says he will not be drawing comic books ever again in the future...
I wouldn’t put money on it.
So one day, dragging this guy named Marv Wolfman
Introduction and interview conducted by Mark Evanier in 1986. Originally published in Amazing Heroes #100 (Aug. 1986).
along for comedy relief, I motored out to the Kirby residence. We took Jack and Roz to lunch (the bill came to $36.50 with tip, Gary) and then, upon our return, the tape recorder went on. I decided to ask the man some call “The King of the Comics”—a handle to which he blushes easily—a deep, incisive, penetrating question to begin...]
MARK EVANIER: Tell me. Who’s stronger... the Thing or the Hulk?
JACK KIRBY: Nobody cares.
EVANIER: Is that the dumbest question you’ve ever been asked in an interview?
KIRBY: It’s up there.
EVANIER: Do you remember the time you were being interviewed on the phone by a fanzine and they asked you “Who created Captain America?” And for some reason, you told them “Mark Evanier” and they printed it? For years, people were
complimenting me on my pre-natal comic book work.
KIRBY: Well, that was because you had as much to do with it as some of the people who’ve claimed they created him.
EVANIER: Now, I know this story but you’ve never told it in print anywhere. Tell us how you got the title, “The King of the Comics.”
KIRBY: [laughing] Oh, well, that started with Victor Fox. Victor Fox was one of the first people I ever worked for. He had a whole bunch of us sitting in this little office, sitting at drawing boards. He was a very vital man... immersed in the business. He had a lot of good people working for him. There was Joe Simon there... there was Eddie Herron there, there was Mort Meskin...
EVANIER: Bill Everett?
KIRBY: Bill Everett was there for a while. The tables were lined against the wall and I grabbed the last desk.
EVANIER: How many pages a day were you doing then?
KIRBY: Oh, I could draw ten pages a day because I was doing illustrations at a minimum. I’d fill a whole panel with a cloud and then put in a tiny airplane, and then I’d write “WOW!” in big letters across the panel. Fox would walk up and down the aisles, watching us work. He was a little guy and he had a big cigar and he’d be walking back and forth saying, “I’m the king of the comics! I’m the king of the comics! Work faster!”
MARV WOLFMAN: How much were you getting paid then?
KIRBY: I think, two dollars a page.
EVANIER: How did you feel about the business back in the Victor Fox days?
KIRBY: I felt it was a terrific job and I was fulfilling an obligation to my mother who insisted I get a job... and keep it. Considering that mothers were scared in those days and completely unassailable, I continued. Otherwise, I might have been an outfielder for the Dodgers.
ROZ KIRBY: She wanted you to be an accountant.
KIRBY: At first, I wanted to go to Hollywood and be an actor. I remember, Edward G. Robinson came from our area and John Garfield... and I said, “I can do the same thing.” I used to act in amateur plays and the scenery fell on me. So I was going to go out to
Biographies of Simon & Kirby’s main letterers, by Todd Klein
Letterers 1 Howard Ferguson
Thanks to Alex Jay for his direction in putting this article together, and to Michael Vassallo for supplying images
(far right) Fergusonlettered splash from Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941).
(right) Howard with his third wife Edith, circa late 1930s. The palm trees suggest a Florida vacation or honeymoon. Per Todd: “Patty Thomas and her siblings never knew their grandfather; he died well before they were born, as did their grandmother. Patty told me that Howard and Edith’s daughter, her mother Elsie, never spoke about Howard or his family.”
(below) Science Comics #7 (Aug. 1940); Ferguson lettering and art. (next page) Daring Mystery Comics #6 (Sept. 1940), with Simon art and Ferguson lettering.
[Acclaimed, multi-Eisner Award-winning letterer Todd Klein has written an exhaustive book about comic book lettering and letterers, and has been previewing the book on his blog, Klein’s Compendium of Calligraphic Knowledge [https:// kleinletters.com/Blog]. He has graciously allowed us to excerpt his biographies of two key Simon & Kirby letterers, Howard Ferguson and Ben Oda. Thanks to Todd, these unsung heroes of comics, and many others, are finally getting their well deserved due.]
In the early days of comics, lettering was often done by the artist himself, but in a few cases, success meant an artist or studio could hire someone just to do the lettering. That was true for the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, which began in 1940, doing work for Fox Publications and then Timely/Marvel Comics, among others. In his autobiography, Joe Simon, My Life In Comics (Titan Books, 2011), Simon puts the date at 1939, but elsewhere he says he began working at Fox in December 1939, where he met Kirby, so 1940 seems more likely. Joe wrote that as they gained clients, they hired Charles Nicholas to work for them as a penciler, inker, and scripter, and soon “…we brought in a letterer, too.
The letterer’s name was Howard Ferguson, and he was the best ever in the business.”
Howard is probably known today (if at all) as the letterer of most of the first ten issues of Captain America Comics. Howard’s balloon lettering developed and grew more confident over his first year with Simon & Kirby, but right from the start he was trying to add extra creative touches: variety in styles, special treatments for the first letter or word of a caption, special caption styles, and more. I call these things “creative extras,” and they were almost always present in his work, except in the last few years. Clearly he wanted his lettering to stand out from the crowd, to be noticed and appreciated, and it certainly was by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
In this article I’ll outline Howard’s entire life and career, with the help of research done by Alex Jay and myself, and information from his granddaughter Patty Thomas, who I recently contacted online.
Ferguson’s Early Life
Howard Grant Ferguson was born July 4, 1895 in Washburn, Wisconsin, to Grant and Minnie (Marion) Ferguson according to his draft cards (his Social Security application has it as 1896). Both Howard’s father and his mother’s father were railway clerks, and lived at the same address in Superior, Wisconsin in 1899. At some point, Howard’s parents divorced, and his father moved to Duluth, Minnesota. Howard and his mother lived with his maternal grandmother Elsie in Superior in the 1905 Wisconsin state census. By 1907, Minnie had married Arba Hawley, and they also were in Duluth. In the 1910 census, when Howard was about 15, he, his mother and step-father, maternal grandmother, and three-year-old step-brother were all at the same address in Duluth: 131 West 3rd Street. Howard graduated from eighth grade at the East End School in 1910, and was a freshman at Duluth Central High School in 1911. That year his family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where they would live for many years.
In the 1914 Detroit city directory, Howard is listed as a student, so he probably graduated from high school there, but by 1916 he was working as a stock clerk in Detroit. That year, at age 21, he married Ida Trombley on December 26.
Howard’s draft card (it’s unlikely he was called up to serve) shows he and his wife Ida and ninemonth-old daughter Virginia living at 148 Chene Street, Detroit. His employer was Dae Health Laboratory, a drug manufacturer of products like Nuxated Iron with questionable health benefits. The back of the draft card described Howard as short, with slender build, blue eyes, and light-colored hair. The 1918 Detroit city directory said he was a shipping clerk. In the 1920 census, he was a telephone company clerk. Up to this time there’s no evidence of Howard being interested in an art career, but in the 1921 city directory, he’s listed as an artist. Perhaps he studied showcard lettering from books, or took a course somewhere. By 1923, he was working for the S.M. Epstein Company, which specialized in jewelry advertising. In 1925 he worked as an artist for the Detroit Ad-Service. He may have worked on print ads and/or store signs for these companies, and his home address changed several times, suggesting he was struggling.
Ferguson’s family life changed in 1927. Divorce from Ida was finalized on April 8, 1927 in Detroit. The cause was “extreme cruelty,” and alimony was granted. His daughter Virginia was nine years old. Eight days later, on April 16, Howard married his second wife, Marjorie V. Crawford, a twenty-yearold from France. This marriage probably didn’t last more than a few years. Meanwhile, his future third wife, Lillian Edith Stanton, married her first husband, Henry Smith Lockwood, on June 27, 1930, in Queens, New York. Again, that marriage must not have lasted long. The 1940 census shows that both Edith (as she was known) and Howard were living in Detroit in 1935, and they must have met there and married some time before 1940. The census of that year has them living with Edith’s parents Arthur and Lillian Stanton and sister Marjorie in Jamaica, Queens, New York at 173-43 103rd Road. Howard’s occupation was “artist doing private work”—in other words, a freelancer. With his advertising background, he was probably getting similar work in Manhattan, and he found more with the newly formed Simon & Kirby studio in 1940. He was about 45 years old, much older than his new employers.
With Simon & Kirby At Fox
the Summer or Fall of 1939. In December 1939, Simon answered an ad for artists at Fox Publications, and not only landed comics work, he was hired as an editor, though never so credited in the books. That would happen a lot; Joe must have come across as knowing what he was doing in comics, even from the start.
Joe Simon was born October 11, 1913 in Rochester, New York to poor parents; his father was a tailor. He showed early artistic talent, and did art for his high school newspaper and yearbook. After graduation, he worked at newspapers in Rochester and Syracuse, and in 1937, moved to Manhattan looking for work as an artist. He got into comics in 1939, first by working at Funnies, Inc.— Lloyd Jacquet’s studio, which packaged comics for publishers who did not produce their own stories, or at least not enough of them. His first story, a six-page western, appeared in Amazing-Man Comics #10 from Centaur dated March 1940. Keep in mind that comic books were always dated about two months later than when they actually went on sale, and often were being created at least two or three months before that, so Simon’s first story might have been drawn in
Another artist working for Fox was Jacob Kurtzberg (later known as Jack Kirby), born August 28, 1917 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, also to a poor family whose father was a tailor. Jack loved to draw and knew he wanted to make a living at it. He was entirely self-taught, studying the newspaper strips he liked, and in 1936 he began working on strips for a small syndicate. He also found work at the Will Eisner and Jerry Iger packaging studio, and by late 1939, he’d taken a staff job with Fox. Simon was impressed with his work when they met there, and especially his drawing speed, and when Jack heard Joe was also doing other comics work on the side, he asked if he could join him. Thus, the Simon & Kirby studio was born. Simon rented a small office near the midtown Manhattan publishers they were working for, and when he and Kirby went there after work hours at Fox, they began turning out new material to sell to other publishers, or to order. Their work was soon in demand, and they never looked back. Both Joe and Jack could do everything, but each had strengths: Joe was good at logos,
Martin Goodman’s wife’s cousin, teenager Stanley Leiber (Stan Lee), was Joe’s office boy and assistant. Howard was soon getting all the lettering work he could handle on a variety of Marvel titles, but he continued to do some work at Fox for a while. In Comics Interview #7 (Jan. 1984, Fictioneer Books), David Anthony Kraft interviewed veteran letterer Joe Rosen about getting his start in comics. Joe said:
“My father had a fruit store in Coney Island. In 1940, one of the customers he was well acquainted with mentioned that her son was an artist for Timely—the company that’s now Marvel Comics. The son, George Mandel, is now a novelist. This was during the Depression. My father asked her if her son could maybe do something for [my brother] Sam. So Mandel introduced Sam to the big letterer of the time, Howard Ferguson, who was working for both Timely and Fox. Fox was Ferguson’s lesser account, and soon he gave it to Sam. Sam got me my first lettering job, at Fox, doing The Blue Beetle.”
This was generous of Howard, but of course, the work assignments were not really his to give. What he could do was coach Sam Rosen to sharpen his lettering skills, and bring him to Fox as a suggested replacement. I see Ferguson lettering at Fox through issues published in the first half of 1941, and one as late as Sept. 1941, but remember the lead time and post-dating. Howard’s last work for Fox may have been in early 1941. Soon after, very similar but somewhat different lettering began appearing, probably by Sam Rosen.
I’ve found a scan of only one page of original art from that original Captain America run by Simon, Kirby, and Ferguson [#5, Aug. 1941, previous page]. I wonder if that’s a Ferguson coffee stain at the top center of it? Surprisingly, Howard did very little lettering on issue #2, and none on #3. My guess is that Simon and Kirby were scrambling to get up to speed with a volume of work they weren’t expecting. Comics were longer then, and each issue had about 50 pages of Cap stories, and a few other features too. They hired more help to get everything done on time, including the lettering. By issue #4, about half the lettering is by Ferguson, and he did all the Cap stories in issues #5–10.
On the above Captain America #10 (Jan. 1942) example, all the regular lettering is slanted to the right, but still has Howard’s creative extras. For a while, Simon and Kirby gave up their own office and did all their work at Timely. Howard may have lettered there, or at home, probably both. Simon and Kirby had signed a lucrative deal that was supposed to include a share of the profits. Captain America Comics #1 sold nearly a million copies, and should have generated lots of profit for everyone, but when royalties were paid,
Joe and Jack got almost nothing, due to creative accounting by Goodman that subtracted the entire cost of running Timely from the book. Simon was disgusted, and he and Kirby secretly went to National/DC Comics in search of a better deal. They found one.
A National Success
DC offered Simon and Kirby a sweet arrangement, more than twice what they were making at Marvel. They continued to work at Marvel for a short time, but when management there heard of the deal, they were fired. Howard may have continued to letter at Marvel for a while, but Simon and Kirby moved on to DC, where at first they tried to come up with new features, but nothing was working. So they agreed to revamp two existing DC properties in their own style, Manhunter and Sandman, each appearing in Adventure Comics. The Simon & Kirby versions began in issue #72 dated March 1942, and were therefore probably produced in the Fall of 1941. Joe and Jack opened a new studio in Tudor City, a large apartment complex on East 42nd Street, Manhattan favored by comics artists. Surprisingly, Howard Ferguson did not letter the earliest DC stories. Perhaps he took some time off.
(previous page, bottom) Weird Comics #7 (Oct. 1940) filler page for Fox, signed by Ferguson—a sure sign he also did the art. This page has lots of creative extras: a creepy title, large open letters in the captions, and smaller ones at the beginning of the text in some. In his book, Joe Simon said of Ferguson: “Howard was a chain smoker who drank coffee all day. When we got his pages, there were always coffee stains and cigarette burns on them. But he was unlike any other letterer in the business. Nobody could do the work that Howard Ferguson did.” (below) Splash from Adventure Comics #87 (Aug. 1943).
Gallery BRING UP THE REAR
[left] Demon #9, page 7 (June 1973)
Randu Singh and Harry Matthews are two supporting characters who appeared in the very first Demon issue and continued in most issues, their last appearance being in #14. Randu was an Eastern mystic and played an important back-up role, with his ESP-type powers fitting perfectly with Jason Blood and the Demon. He even triggered Jason’s transformation into the Demon in an early issue, when Jason was unconscious. Harry was often comic relief, and the guy standing in for the audience, to whom explanations were given (like the companion in Dr. Who). Kirby was very inventive in keeping these guys busy, and the strip would have been very different without them.
A gallery of background players in Jack’s work, with commentary by Shane Foley
Letterers 2 Ben Oda
If you were a reader of comics and newspaper strips from the 1950s through the 1980s, you saw lots of Ben Oda’s lettering, even though most of it was not credited. Ben worked for everyone. He was the lettering star of many comics publishers and newspaper strips, the man they trusted to get things lettered professionally and on time. From his earliest days with the Simon & Kirby studio, to work at EC Comics, through years at Western Publishing, Warren, and DC Comics, Ben worked hard and slept little to meet everyone’s deadlines, while at the same time juggling a half-dozen or more newspaper strips from Prince Valiant to Flash Gordon, Terry and the Pirates to Dondi. In this article I can only scratch the surface of the work he produced while outlining his life and career. I had help with that from my research partner Alex Jay as well as three of Ben’s children—Ken, Marcine, and Barbara—and couldn’t have done it without them.
Thanks again to Alex Jay, and to Ben’s family for research help and images.
Ben Hatsutaro Oda was born to Japanese parents in Florin, California, near Sacramento, on December 21, 1915, the youngest of two children. His parents worked in a basket factory, and Ben’s father had passed by the time he was seven. Ben seemed to have two major interests growing up: art and sports. After high school, he was a student at the Sacramento Junior College, where he and four fellow students won first prize in an art competition among junior colleges across California. As for sports, his son Ken wrote to me:
“He was a very good athlete and competed in several sports when he was younger. He played baseball, basketball and I believe some football. He also was a golfer and had a 180 plus bowling average even into his later years.”
In 1940 at age 25, Ben attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and after graduation was hired by Walt Disney Studios, where he worked on Pinocchio, but he was not there long. In February 1941, Ben was drafted and served in the Army as a medic until 1945. He was also trained as a paratrooper. Some months later the U.S. entered World War II and Ben found himself being transferred all over the country. His Army years provided Ben with an opportunity to further his education, and after a tour of duty in France he found himself attending classes at the University of Illinois at Champaign, and later at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he studied languages. While stationed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois with the First Medic Corps, Ben wrote and drew a comic strip called “Donald Doc” for the camp newspaper, The Fort Sheridan Tower I haven’t found any examples of that, Ben’s first comics work. From the title, it may have been influenced by his Disney experience. Ben continued his sports activities at Fort Sheridan, playing on their baseball team and their basketball team. In a 1980 DC Comics profile, Ben reported his best accomplishment in those days was when the Fort Sheridan basketball team beat rival Camp Grant—just after that team had clobbered the number one college team in the country. Ben recalled:
“It was my biggest thrill. The Camp Grant commander was so proud of his team—he made sure that any professional athletes who got transferred to his command stayed at Camp Grant and played on his teams. We showed him.”
After getting out of the service, Ben moved to New York looking for work. At the home of a friend, he met Michiko Morita, his future wife. They married and were living at 601 West 110th Street, Manhattan in 1948— by coincidence, the same apartment building where DC Comics letterer Ira Schnapp and his family lived in the 1930s and early 1940s. I don’t know if they were there at the same time or met. By then, Ben had begun his busy comics lettering career.
The Simon & Kirby Years
The Simon & Kirby studio was supplying comics stories to publishers like Harvey and Prize after they returned from World War II military service around 1945. Their main letterer was Howard Ferguson, but in
(right) Ben and Michiko Oda about 1947, photo courtesy of Ken Oda.
(center) Ben Oda as a member of the Fort Sheridan All-Stars baseball team, photo courtesy of Ken Oda.
(below) The Simon & Kirby Studio, 1949. Standing left to right: Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bill Draut, Marvin Stein. Seated: Ben Oda. From the 1971 Kirby Unleashed portfolio.
The prolific Kirby letterer, remembered by Todd Klein
early 1946 Ferguson’s wife died, leaving him with a daughter, Elsie, to care for. Some time in 1946, Howard and Elsie returned to Detroit, Michigan to live with Howard’s mother for about two years, and Simon & Kirby needed a new studio letterer. They found one in Ben Oda.
In a 1998 interview with Mark Evanier at the San Diego Comic Con, Joe Simon said: “Howard Ferguson was the greatest letterer and Ben Oda was the second greatest letterer.”
Like Joe and Jack, Ben served in World War II. He was about their age, and he had at least some comics experience. I don’t know how the hiring came about, but it was a great move for everyone, and Ben proved to be a quick study and a hard worker.
I feel the best way to find Ben’s earliest lettering work is to look at what came after Howard Ferguson from the Simon & Kirby studio. Ferguson lettered most of the stories in Headline Comics issues #23–25 dated March to August 1947, but comics were cover-dated about two months ahead of when they were released, and work on them was done two months or more before that, so Howard may have completed his lettering in 1946. There are two stories in issue #25 and two in Headline #26 (Sept.–Oct. 1947) lettered badly by someone else, but the other stories in issue #26 have good lettering in a similar style to Ferguson. I think this is the earliest published lettering by Ben Oda, who was no doubt told to imitate Ferguson as best he could. On this title page from #26 [below], Joe Simon may have lettered or at least penciled the story title; that’s also true of other stories in this and the next few
issues. But the caption lettering in the figure is what I think is all by Ben. It’s a little small, and a bit stiff, but otherwise looks fine. I don’t know how far ahead of the printing schedule Simon and Kirby might have been on Prize stories, but this one may have been lettered in early 1947.
Above is a closer look at two panels from Headline Comics #27 (Nov.–Dec. 1947) that I think are lettered by Oda. It’s done with a wedge-tipped pen on the regular letters, and a thicker roundtipped pen on bold and slanted emphasized words like LOOK OUT! The letters are very even, the lines are very straight—all things Ben would have copied from Howard. There isn’t much here to identify a lettering style; the letters are close to perfect, but in a few places, like the word CAR in the second caption and CONTROL in the bottom left balloon, the letter C seems to lean to the right a bit. That’s the best way I know to identify Ben Oda’s early lettering, and he’s just beginning to do it here. Another tendency of his was to make the bottom leg of the letter E a bit longer than the other two; you can also see hints of that here in a few places. In general, the letter shapes follow the style of Howard Ferguson, though Ben did not imitate two of Howard’s style points: a serif going both ways on the center horizontal of the G, and a small descending serif at the top of the C.
By the time of Headline Comics #31 (Aug.–Sept. 1948), Ben had been lettering for Simon & Kirby about a year, and his work looks more relaxed and confident. Ben had settled in and was turning out fine work on nearly every story from the studio.
Incidental Iconography
An ongoing analysis of Kirby’s visual shorthand, and how he inadvertently used it to develop his characters, by
Sean Kleefeld
aaaaay back in The Jack Kirby Collector #9, Chrissie Harper wrote a quick analysis of the number of “lasting characters” Jack created during his tenure on Fantastic Four Jack’s time on that book is often remembered as a fount of creativity since new characters and concepts seemed to overflow from every issue. But the well seem to dry up almost overnight in the back half 1966, right around the time Jack was starting his sixth year on the title.
Not coincidentally, this lines up closely with the infamous New York Herald-Tribune article where he took exception to how Funky Flashman Stan Lee seemed to somehow take literally all of the responsibility for everything that made Marvel what it was. Harper
pointed out that Annihilus and Agatha Harkness were the only two lasting characters Jack created for the title from that point until he ultimately left for DC. Jack was, as we now know, still coming up with ideas during those final three years on the FF, but held on to them for a new story and entire concept that would become known as the Fourth World.
This is a lot of the reason why the Fourth World titles had an absolute deluge of new characters right from the start. So let’s take a look at Oberon, who was one of those out-of-the-gate supporting characters, appearing for the first time on the initial page of Mister Miracle #1 (March–April 1971).
Now, if you’re only familiar with the character from post-Kirby stories, you might be asking why I would be checking out the visuals of just another character who doesn’t really have a distinctive design. Doesn’t he just wear, you know, clothes? Wasn’t the last column almost exactly the same idea with the focus on Morgan Edge, being just a guy in a business suit? Oberon, however, by virtue of being largely untouched by other pencilers at first, was left to Jack’s designs only; the character didn’t really cross over into other titles the way Edge, who debuted in Jimmy Olsen, almost needed to through that title’s direct connection to Superman. So Jack’s hand on Oberon is more direct and extended than on a character like Edge.
The opening pages of Mister Miracle show Oberon to be a little person with thick, but receding hair and bushy mutton chops. He’s also shown wearing a short tunic with a wide belt, leggings and simple boots. He has wrist bands for the first issue as well, but their style or even if they’re included at all changes from page to page. It’s a relatively simple look with perhaps his hair being his most distinguishing feature. [top center]
In the second issue, Oberon replaces his wrist bands for gloves, and his style of boots changes a bit so they’re more loose towards the opening. Of more interest at the moment, though, is his hair. While the published story shows pretty much the same style as the previous issue, the original art [above] shows that his hairline had extensive re-touching throughout
Retrospectives Ant-Man Mysteries
Ant-Man had many fathers. Editor Stan Lee, script writer Larry Lieber, artist Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers, who told me that when he turned in the ink job to the original 1961 Tales to Astonish #27 story, “The Man in the Ant Hill!,” he suggested to Stan Lee that the character of scientist Henry Pym deserved a return appearance.
(right) Jack’s two Night Fighter concepts from the mid-1950s.
(next page, bottom) Was this splash page Jack’s original concept drawing for Ant-Man in costume? And (inset) was Hanna-Barbera’s 1965 character Atom Ant that company’s way of jumping on the Marvel super-hero craze of the time?
by Will Murray
This eventually happened, but not in the way Ayers intended. By the time Dr. Pym returned, the Marvel super-hero universe was getting off the ground, and Henry Pym was re-imagined as the astonishing Ant-Man, inspired by the high sales numbers of Tales to Astonish #27.
According to job numbers and everything we can piece together, the costumed Ant-Man was launched immediately after Jack Kirby was taken off the abortive Spider-Man feature that was slated for Amazing Fantasy
Steve Ditko remembered that Kirby’s original unused version of Spider-Man’s costume generally resembled Ant-Man’s outfit. So one can safely assume that Ant-Man was created after Spider-Man, and his costume may in fact have been a re-purposing of the never-seen Jack Kirby Spider-Man—with some design changes to reflect the insect theme instead of the arachnid concept, of course.
For one thing, in his first costumed appearance, TTA #35’s “Return of the Ant-Man,” the character sported heavy, thick-soled futuristic boots. Conceivably, these might have been derived from the footgear created for Kirby’s Spider-Man since they suggest an earlier wall-climbing Kirby creation, Night Fighter. He wore thick-soled boots equipped with magnets and/or suction cups that enabled him to walk up walls through mechanical means. Planned for Mainline release in 1954, Night Fighter was abandoned during the severe comic-book retrenchment of that year.
There is some circumstantial evidence to support this theory.
Ditko also recalled that the tunic design on Kirby’s Spider-Man resembled Ant-Man’s stylized ant-body thorax silhouette. No doubt an arachnid motif was used on that prototypal Spider-Man. During his brief run on The Fly, the villain Spider Spry [left] had a spider emblem on the forehead of his hood.
There are a number of intriguing oddities about Ant-Man’s first costumed appearance. For one thing, on the opening splash page, his cybernetic helmet has two built-in leads connecting his antennae to the microphone suspended before his mouth. These antennae are depicted as segmented,
(above and below) Tales to Astonish #27 (Jan. 1962) and #35 (Sept. 1962).
Foundations
Here’s a never-reprinted Simon & Kirby story “Dead or Alive!” from Headline Comics #35 (June 1949). Art restoration and color by Christopher Fama.
MISCAST Why Did Stan Lee Detest Diablo?
by Will Murray
(below)
(right) Jack had previously drawn a “Diablo” that was “all black and scary and mysterious-looking,” to quote Stan. Splash page original art from
Over the course of his long career, Marvel Comics writer-editor Stan Lee must have given hundreds, if not nearly a thousand, interviews. In those wide-ranging conversations, Lee did his best to project a positive but forceful image of Marvel Comics, and of himself as chief editor-writer and later as publisher, as well as promoting the characters he co-created with the artists and writers who worked with him in building the Marvel Universe.
It’s rare to find a negative Stan Lee quote. He avoided negativity like the plague. If you asked him who his favorite creation was, he sometimes said they all were, or that his favorite changed from time to time. When he was specific, he often cited Spider-Man, but due to the character’s outstanding success, and not necessarily personal preference. Once, he mentioned Daredevil, and on another occasion, Dr. Strange, but I suspect these were only ploys to pump up lagging circulation on lower-selling titles.
But there was this one recurring exception. In 1988, I interviewed Stan and asked, “Did you ever create a character you didn’t like?”
Surprisingly, Lee singled out a Fantastic Four villain named Diablo, who first appeared in issue #30, back in 1964.
“One,” Lee told me. “I needed a villain very quickly for a Fantastic Four, and I came up with the name Diablo, which I thought sounded great. It sounded like the Devil. I said, ‘Gee, Jack, you can draw this guy all black and scary and mysterious-looking.’ And then I realized I didn’t know what to do with him. Jack drew the guy. I couldn’t think what power he had or how to use him. But the book had to be drawn quickly because it was due to go to the engravers in a few days. I don’t even remember what the story is now, but I know I wasn’t too proud of it when I wrote it. And I wish I hadn’t come up with that because that was dumb.”
It sounds as if Lee handed Kirby a hasty verbal plot and wasn’t pleased when the art boards came in, leaving him to make sense of narrative incongruities, such as why a villain with a Spanish name was discovered sealed up in suspended animation in Transylvania.
Perhaps it was as simple as all that—except that in later interviews, Lee invariably returned to the subject, ragging on Diablo mercilessly.
During a 2013 conversation with Chris Hardwick for The Nerdist Podcast, Stan was asked if he had any regrets. Once again he named Diablo, saying that he could never remember who he was or connect with the arch-alchemist and his motivations.
“When you create a character, you should feel you
Detail from Diablo’s debut in Fantastic Four #30 (Sept. 1964).
Tales of Suspense #9 (May 1960).
TwoMorrows needs your help!
DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS
BROTHERHOODS AND FAMILIES
orn on Essex Street in lower Manhattan in 1917, Jack Kirby’s native world was a crowded tenement jungle.
FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY IN JANUARY without paying for our December and January magazines and books, leaving us with enormous losses— and we still have to pay the expenses on those items, and keep producing new ones. Until payments from our new distributors begin in the Fall, we’re staying afloat with WEBSTORE SALES
As a result, his pre-adolescent social orientation was based around the neighborhood street gang. Kirby has spoken several times about fights between his Suffolk Street kid’s gang and rival outfits, that took place in the streets, as well as over the rooftops of the Lower East Side.
Every new order (print or digital) and subscription will help TwoMorrows get through this, and emerge even stronger for 2026. Please download our NEW 74-PAGE 2025 CATALOG and order something if you can: https://shorturl.at/gA9Fv
As a teenager, Kirby found a respite from the rough life by joining the Boys’ Brotherhood Republic. Within this organization, the youths had their own elected government with a court of law, a mayor, and a chief of police. They engaged in a variety of recreational sports, and there the feisty Kirby learned how to box. The Republic also published its own newspaper and Kirby became its editor and cartoonist.
Also, ask your local comics shop to change their orders from Diamond to LUNAR DISTRIBUTION, our new distributor. We’ve had to adjust our release dates for the remainder of 2025 while we wait for orders from our new distributor, so you may see some products ship earlier or later than originally scheduled. We should be back to normal by end of Fall 2025; thanks for your patience!
Years later, when Kirby and creative partner, Joe Simon left Timely Comics for National Periodicals, the King’s experience with youth groups inspired the team to produce several comics based around the theme of Kid Gangs. Kirby and Simon had experimented with the concept earlier at Timely, with The Young Allies, a species of Kid Gang which also included Captain America ’s youthful partner Bucky and the Human Torch’s sidekick Toro. With National in 1942, the two creators produced “The Newsboy Legion” which also featured an adult super-hero called the Guardian.
1 The cover of Star Spangled Comics #7 shows us the dynamic blue and gold clad character who carries a policeman’s badge-shaped shield that instantly reminds us of Captain America. As he explodes off the cover in a favorite Kirby-style forced perspective shot, the Guardian is riding a bright red motorcycle with a sidecar carrying two somewhat scruffy lads, while two better looking boys cling to the hero’s back.
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT!
In the first story, we are introduced to Patrolman Jim Harper, a compassionate policeman who arranges to get custody of a group of delinquent boys. Harper has just begun to assume the identity of The Guardian, a costumed crimefighter whose heroic name signifies that he is the protector of children as well as of the law. Even after Harper’s kindly intervention, the boys continue to attract trouble, from which the Guardian is required to extract them. On the final page, after the criminals are apprehended, the boys, who will become known as The Newsboy Legion, begin to suspect that Jim Harper is also the Guardian.
COLLECTOR #93
As is often the case with Kirby characters, the boys’ personalities are archetypal. The supposed leader, Tommy Tompkins, is stable and authoritative; Big Words is the brainy genius; Gabby is an excitable, talkative
and Scrapper is the tough guy who likes to fight. Kirby as a writer, intrinsically understood the effectiveness of this template, realizing that characters with distinct personalities reacting to one another would make more lively and
kid;
KIRBY
SUPPORTING PLAYERS! Almost-major villains like Kanto the Assassin and Diablo, Rodney Rumpkin, Mr. Little, the Falcon, Randu Singh, and others take center stage! Plus: 1970 interview with Jack by SHEL DORF, MARK EVANIER’s 2024 Kirby Tribute
