Kirby100

100 100 Top Top Creators Creators Celebrate Jack Jack Kirby’s Kirby’s Celebrate Greatest Work Work Greatest

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Tw o M o r r o w s P u b l i s h i n g

Raleigh, North Carolina

A JACK KIRBY CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

100 Top Creators Celebrate Jack Kirby’s Greatest Work

Edited by Jon B. Cooke & John Morrow • Designed by Jon B. Cooke Conceived & Coordinated by John Morrow & Jon B. Cooke Frontispiece Jack Kirby Portrait Painting: ALEX ROSS • Introduction Jack Kirby Portrait Illustration: DREW FRIEDMAN Afterword Jack Kirby Portrait Photography: GREG PRESTON • Proofreaders: ROB SMENTEK and ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON Colorist: TOM ZIUKO • Transcriber: ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON • Cover Artist: JACK KIRBY • Cover Colorist: TOM ZIUKO

Dedication

To the eternal memory of the King of Comics, JACK KIRBY and to the lovely Rozs in our respective lives — BETH COOKE and PAMELA MORROW — who put up with our nutty Kirby obssession as we slave away at all hours of the morning in our own “dungeons” over the last twenty-plus years! — The Editors

Grateful Appreciation and Thanks

To all the Contributors, as well as Harry Mendryk, Tom Kraft, Rand Hoppe, What If Kirby? [whatifkirby.com], The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center [kirbymuseum.org], Heritage Auctions [ha.com], Cory Sedlmeier, Marvel Entertainment, Andrew D. Cooke, Cliff Galbraith/East Coast ComiCon, Paul Levitz, John Ferrante, Wayne Alan Harold, Richard Pini, Mark Sinnott, and especially Drew Friedman, Greg Preston, Bill Sienkiewicz, & Alex Ross!

Trademarks, Copyrights, and Acknowledgments Kirby100 editorial package © 2017 TwoMorrows Publishing & Jon B. Cooke • All testimonials © 2017 the respective contributors • Kirby Timeline © 2017 John Morrow & Jon B. Cooke Frontispiece © 2017 Alex Ross • Introduction illo © 2017 Drew Friedman • Introduction © 2017 John Morrow • Afterword © 2017 Jon B. Cooke • Afterword photo ©2017 Greg Preston Cover art, opening spread illustrations, back cover illos, background imagery, various, design elements, “Jack Kirby” signature, Deities bonus section illustrations, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, Silver Star, “Street Code,” and all related characters and artwork TM & © the Estate of Jack Kirby The Adventures of The Fly, The Double Life of Pvt. Strong © Joseph H. Simon Estate • The Shield TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Atlas, Batgirl, Batman, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Barda, Big Bear, Blue Beetle, Bug!, Captain Storm, Challengers of the Unknown, Darkseid, The Demon, Desaad, The Dingbats of Danger Street, Firestorm, Flower, Forager, The Forever People, The Guardian, In the Days of the Mob, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth, Lightray, Lois Lane, The Losers, Mark Moonrider, Manhunter, Martian Manhunter, Metron, Mister Miracle, The Monkey King, Mr. Freeze, Nightwing, OMAC, Orion, Our Fighting Forces, Pisces, Robin, The Sandman, Serafin, Showcase, Spirit World, Superman, Super Powers, Super Soldier: Man of War, Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Warden Frye, Weird Mystery Tales, Witchboy, Young Gods of Supertown, Young Scott Free, and all related characters are TM & © DC Comics.

Amazing Fantasy, Alicia Masters, Amazing Spider-Man, Angel, Ant-Man, Atlas Monsters, The Avengers, Balder the Brave, Batroc, The Beast, Beta Ray Bill, Betty Ross, Black Bolt, The Black Panther, Bucky Barnes, Bulk, Captain America, Charlie America, Crystal, Cyclops, Devil Dinosaur, Doctor Doom, The Eternals, The Falcon, Fandral, Fantastic Four, Fear, Fin Fang Foom, Fury Force, Galactus, Giant Man, Gorgon, Gruto, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hawkeye, Hela, Hercules, Hogun, Howling Commandos, Hulk, Incredible Hulk, The Human Torch, Iceman, The Inhumans, The Invisible Girl, Iron Man, Karnak, Ka-Zar, The Kree, Lockjaw, Loki, Machine Man, Magneto, Major Victory, Marvel Girl, Medusa, Moomba, MoonBoy, Mr. Fantastic, Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Not Brand Echh, Professor Xavier, Quicksilver, The Rawhide Kid, The Red Skull, Rick Barnes, Ronan the Accuser, Scarlet Witch, Sgt. Fury, Sif, The Silver Surfer, The Skrulls, Sore, Strange Tales, Sub-Mariner, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, Thanos, The Thing, Thor, Triton, Two-Headed Thing, Tyrannus, Vance Astro, Volstagg, The Vision, The Wasp, The Watcher, What If?, Wonder Man,The Wrecker, X the Thing That Lived, The X-Men, Zabu, and all related characters are TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Boys’ Ranch, Captain 3-D, Fighting American, Foxhole, Stuntman, and all related characters TM & © the Estates of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Doofus TM & © Rick Altergott. Flaming Carrot, Young Funnybook Lust TM & © Bob Burden. Savage Dragon TM & © Erik Larsen. Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre TM & © Batton Lash. Jacklactus TM & © Joseph Michael Linsner. The Fabulous Four TM & © Brendan McCarthy. Destroy!!, Understanding Comics, Zot! © Scott McCloud. Echo TM & © Terry Moore. Mister X TM & © Dean Motter. Elfquest TM & © Wendy & Richard Pini. Alien Legion TM & © Carl Potts. The Mad Mummy TM & © Mike Vosburg. Too Much Coffee Man TM & © Shannon Wheeler. Frank TM & © Jim Woodring. Big Blown Baby TM & © William Wray.

Justice, Inc. TM & © Condé Nast. Darth Vader TM & © Lucasfilm, LLC. Conan the Barbarian TM & © Conan Properties, Inc. Alarming Tales, Race for the Moon © Harvey Entertainment. The Jack Kirby Quarterly © Chrissie Harper. Garbage Pail Kids, Mars Attacks! TM & © Topps Chewing Gum Company.

Thundarr the Barbarian TM & © Ruby-Spears. The Incredibles TM & © The Disney Company. Rip Kirby, Prince Valiant TM & © King Features Syndicate.

My Little Pony TM & © Hasbro Inc. Radioactive Man TM & © Bongo Entertainment. Barnacle Boy, Mermaid Man, Ren and Stimpy, SpongeBob Squarepants, and all related characters TM & © Viacom International, Inc. The Prisoner TM & © ITC Entertainment Holdings, Inc.

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com • email: twomorrow@aol.com First Printing • June 2017 • Printed in China Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-079-3 • Softcover ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-078-6

T A B L E Introduction by John Morrow..... 6 THE GOLDEN AGE 1. Paris Cullins: Blue Beetle....... 8 2. Allen Bellman: Captain America Comics #5..... 10 3. Mike Vosburg: Stuntman #2............................. 12 THE 1950s 4. John Workman: Boys’ Ranch #3......................... 14 5. Bill Black: Captain 3-D #1..... 16 6. Trevor Von Eeden: Fighting American #1............... 18 7. Bob Burden: Fighting American.................... 20 8. Ed Piskor: Foxhole #5............. 22 9. Joe Staton: Showcase #6...... 25 10. Michael T. Gilbert: The Fly #1............................... 26 11. Rich Buckler, Sr.: Blue Ribbon Comics #5.......... 28 12. Garry Leach: Race for the Moon #2............ 30 13. Dave Gibbons: Alarming Tales #3.................. 32 THE ATLAS MONSTERS 14. Craig Yoe: Strange Tales #89.................. 34 15. Peter Poplaski: Strange Tales #95.................. 36 16. Dave Sim: Boys’ Ranch........ 39 17. Graham Nolan: Fear #2....... 40 18. John Holmstrom: Strange Tales #100................ 41 19. David Lloyd: Amazing Adventures #6......... 42 THE MARVEL AGE OF COMICS 20. Alan Weiss: The Rawhide Kid #28............. 44 21. Al Gordon: Amazing Fantasy #15............. 46 22. Sal Buscema: Fantastic Four Annual #1....... 48 23. Carl Potts: Sgt. Fury #1........ 52 24. Rick Hoberg: Strange Tales #114................ 54 25. Rick Veitch: Fantastic Four #20.................. 56 26. Tom Mandrake: The Avengers #4.................... 58

O F

27. Kyle Baker: Captain America.................... 60 28. Shannon Wheeler: The X-Men #8........................ 62 29. Larry Hama: Sgt. Fury #13... 64 30. Steve Mitchell: Sgt. Fury #13.......................... 65 31. Fred Hembeck: Fantastic Four #34.................. 66 32. Walter Simonson: Journey Into Mystery #113.... 68 33. Adam Hughes: Tales of Suspense #66........... 70 34. P. Craig Russell: Fantastic Four #40–70........... 72 35. Richard Howell: Fantastic Four #45.................. 74 36. Kelley Jones: Journey Into Mystery/Thor #125–130........ 76 37. John Romita, Sr.: Tales of Suspense #77........... 78 38. Paul Smith: Journey into Mystery #106......................... 81 39. Ladrönn: Fantastic Four #49.................. 82 40. John Byrne: Fantastic Four #51.................. 84 41. Ken Steacy: Fantastic Four #51.................. 86 42. Mark Schultz: Fantastic Four #52................. 90 43. Derf Backderf: Tales to Astonish #82............. 92 44. Barry Windsor-Smith: Thor #134............................... 94 45. Terry Moore: Fantastic Four #59.................. 96 46. Marie Severin: Not Brand Echh #1................. 98 47. Joseph Michael Linsner: Fantastic Four #66 and Thor #159............................. 100 48. Wendy Pini: Fantastic Four Annual #5..... 102 49. Brent Anderson: Fantastic Four #69................ 104 50. Dean Haspiel: Tales of Suspense #85......... 105 51. Peter Kuper: Thor #148...... 106 52. Dan Brereton: Captain America #106......... 108 53. Bob McLeod: Thor #158.... 110

C O N T E N T S 54. José Villarrubia: Captain America #109......... 112 55. Joe Sinnott: Fantastic Four #95................ 114 DC AND THE FOURTH WORLD 56. Jerry Ordway: Mister Miracle #1................ 116 57. Dustin Nguyen: The Forever People #6......... 117 58. Will Meugniot: Mattel Comic Game Cards.... 118 59. Al Milgrom: Jimmy Olsen Adventures........................... 120 60. Cliff Galbraith: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134........ 123 61. Dan Jurgens: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #135........ 124 62. Jim Valentino: The Forever People #6......... 126 63. Scott McCloud: The New Gods #5................ 128 64. Steve Rude: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #136........ 131 65. Jim Starlin: Metron of the New Gods..... 132 66. Jan Duursema: Mister Miracle #5................ 134 67. Mike Royer: The New Gods #6................ 136 68. Tom Scioli: The New Gods #7................ 138 69. Giorgio Comolo: The New Gods #7................ 140 70. Michael Allred: The New Gods #9................ 142 71. George Pratt: Mister Miracle #9................ 144 72. Michael Avon Oeming: Mister Miracle #9................ 146 73. Paul Rivoche: Mister Miracle #9................ 147 74. Bill Morrison: In the Days of the Mob #1............. 148 75. Glen Murakami: Weird Mystery Tales #1....... 150 76. Steve Bissette: The Demon #2...................... 152 77. William Stout: The Demon #15.................... 155 78. Rick Altergott: Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth........... 158 79. Erik Larsen: Kamandi #6.... 160

80. Kevin Eastman: Kamandi #16........................ 162 81. Thomas Yeates: Kamandi #19........................ 164 82. Scott Shaw!: 1st Issue Special #6.............. 166 83. Alan Davis: OMAC #4........ 170 84. B atton Lash: Our Fighting Forces.............. 172 85. Alex Ross: The Sandman #4.................. 174 RETURN TO MARVEL 86. Evan Dorkin: Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles............. 176 87. Bruce Timm: The Eternals #3.................... 178 88. William Wray: What If? #11........................ 182 89. John Paul Leon: The Eternals #7.................... 184 90. Rick Parker: Devil Dinosaur #1................. 186 91. Dean Motter: The Prisoner......................... 188 92. Simon Bisley: Conan ........ 190 93. Bob Budiansky: How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way................... 192 INDEPENDENCE 94. Jeff Zapata: Street Code.... 193 Bonus! Bill Sienkiewicz: Street Code.................. 194 95. J im Woodring: Ruby-Spears work................ 196 96. Paul Karasik: Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #9....... 198 97. Philip Tan: God................... 202 98. Brendan McCarthy: Captain Victory #13.............. 203 99. Rudy Nebres: Silver Star #1....................... 204 100. Keith Giffen: Kenner Super Powers........ 206 100 Years of Kirby: A Chronology of the King’s Reign......................... 208 Alphabetical Index................. 221 Afterword by Jon B. Cooke..... 222

Introduction

Editor, The Jack Kirby Collector Publisher, TwoMorrows Publishing

by John Morrow

Welcome to the Celebration! while fun, was ultimately in vain. The creators who agreed to share their essays for this book needed little help. If you love Kirby, the problem isn’t trying to think of a page that’s meaningful to you; it’s narrowing it down to only one, from the tens of thousands you digested since first discovering the guy’s amazing work.

f you picked up this book by accident, with no idea who Jack Kirby is, you’re probably lost. But what a great place to lose your way — in the imagination of the greatest comic book creator (and now, film conceptualizer) who ever lived.

Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzburg on August 28, 1917. This book is being released exactly one century later, but despite containing over 100 of the top creators in comics and animation — all offering their personal praise for, and critiques of, their favorite Kirby work — it can only begin to scratch the surface of the life and career of the man rightfully dubbed the “King” of comics.

We’ve attempted to assemble this project into some semblance of chronological order, from Jack’s earliest work to his final.

That’s easier said than done, however, since numerous contributors couldn’t contain their comments to just one page, issue, title, or even a single era. So all-encompassing was Jack’s influence on comics, and even mainstream pop culture, that many of the contributions here crossover from talking about their chosen Kirby work, to reference a much earlier — or later — strip to make a point about their favorite. (And, truth to tell, some just wanted to discuss the King in general terms, so we simply assigned a pertinent piece to accompany their testimonial, whether it’s mentioned or not.) Such was Jack’s influence and impact, that just like a Kevin Bacon party game, you can connect nearly any Kirby creation to another, usually in far fewer than six steps.

Before co-editor Jon B. Cooke and I began approaching said creators for their cooperation with this 100th birthday celebration, I spent a solid week poring over every Kirby comic book and reprint volume at my disposal, choosing what I felt were key Kirby pages to discuss, and making notes as to why I picked them — all so we could offer the potential contributors a starting point for making their own choices. After nearly a quarter-century of producing my magazine, The Jack Kirby Collector, preceded by more than three decades of my own Kirby collecting — long before I ever imagined it’d end up being my life’s work! — I’ve amassed a gargantuan collection, but still haven’t read every story Kirby produced (though I’m getting close!).

The selections here are surprisingly varied; we assumed most people would choose perennial favorites like the Fantastic Four and The New Gods, and indeed, many did.

But work as obscure as DC’s 1970s Sandman and Marvel’s Devil Dinosaur also made the

The exhausting task of reviewing that much material,

Top: Jack Kirby, circa 1968. This photo was subsequently color-tinted. Above: The original art for the splash page from “Talent For Trouble,” Boy Explorers Comics #1 [1946], featuring Jack Kirby pencils and Joe Simon inks. The Harvey Comics title lasted for one single issue on the stands (though an ashcan of #2 was sent to subscribers).

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Just in case we had difficulty finding 100 contemporary creators to participate (boy, were we wrong to worry!), we also assembled an even dozen essays from existing interviews with older creators no longer with us, many of whom chose those early DC works as their favorite. (A few years ago, Jerry Robinson told me his personal favorite Kirby art was the cover from Adventure Comics #78, featuring Manhunter and Sandman shooting down enemy aircraft; he acquired the original art for it at DC Comics in the 1940s, and kept it ’til just prior to his death.) But, bolstered by the great response, we chose to keep this book’s text all-new, so no posthumous material was needed. The plethora of Golden Age DC Comics material being reprinted these days likely insures that material will be a favorite of a future generation, even if it’s not included in this book.

The art here gives a representative sample of what Jack spent most of his life doing, and the essays try to analyze some of the intricacies of how he did it. But he was a notoriously difficult interview subject — his mind raced back and forth from one idea to the next at lightning speed (a trait great for creating wild comics concepts, lousy for giving coherent answers to probing questions about how he created it). Kirby worked so instinctively, that trying to precisely explain his approach to comics can be maddening. So glean as much as you can from the analyses herein, but don’t lose sight of the simple fact that Jack drew from the heart, not from the mind. At some point, it’s time to stop beating your head against the Source Wall, and just sit back and enjoy the magic, power, grace, symmetry, flow, and downright fun of Kirby, unleashed.

cut, proving that Jack’s work speaks to different people in different ways. Noticeably absent is Boy Explorers (one of my top choices, should someone have asked me to contribute to a book like this). Likewise under-represented is Jack’s work with partner Joe Simon on 1940s DC Comics characters, like Boy Commandos, Sandman, Manhunter, and the Golden Age Newsboy Legion.

Enjoy, and Happy 100th Birthday, Jack! You’ve made our lives much happier by your work, and your presence.

Above: This portrait of Jack Kirby is by cartoonist/caricaturist/illustrator Drew Friedman, and it appeared originally as the cover art for Friedman’s Heroes of the Comics [2014], published by Fantagraphics Books. The sequel, More Heroes of the Comics, has been nominated for a 2017 Will Eisner Award for “Best Comics-Related Book.” Top inset: The late, great cartoonist and Golden Age comic book artist Jerry Robinson once confessed that he loved this Adventure Comics cover by Simon and Kirby so much that he acquired it back in the ’40s!

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Paris Cullins

Artist/Storyboard Artist Co-Creator, Blue Devil Artist, The Forever People (1988)

The Blue Beetle y mother used to read Captain America to me — this was 1964, ’65 — and she did great Nazi voices.

She showed me that the character was around long before he showed up in the new Marvel. She was a big fan of comics, so I was into comics before I could read. I was heavily into whatever book she was into, and Jack was the main force at Marvel Comics.

necessarily because it actually looks that way. This is the best your mind can perceive it. I always found that fascinating.

When Roz inked Kirby, it looked film noir. It was Kirby, but with what Eisner had at the same time. Whenever someone inks Kirby, they bring a flavor out of Kirby unlike anybody else’s work. Vince Colletta — other than Bill Everett, there was nobody better over Kirby on Thor. Colletta gave it a fabulistic look. It looked nothing like the slick Fantastic Four. Fantastic Four was science-fiction, Thor was fable, and they each looked that way. Syd Shores’ inking on Captain America was amazing. It looked like a 1950s movie!

You could always tell when Stan was making something up or when Jack was making it up in a story, because when Stan did it, it was like the “Menacing Marauder.” What he did, you couldn’t quite figure out. But whatever Jack made up was definitively different, and had a point and a cause. When he came up with something like the Silver Surfer or Metron and the Mobius Chair, it always had reason and purpose, and great connectivity. When he made Thor go on an odyssey in space, he immediately sticks the Recorder with him. What else is a scribe supposed to do but record someone’s adventures? There was always this second, third, fourth level of visualizing a story, and telling it from a perspective. Not to take away from Stan, who did describe it more lyrically, but you could always tell when the idea came from Jack. That was the most important part.

I’ve drawn all of Kirby’s characters in some aspect or another. Whether it was a Who’s Who cover, or Kenner’s Super Powers toy line, or Forever People… that was kind of like The Big Chill for gods. I did six issues of that. It was me, but different — still, very Kirby, very Fourth World, very unlike standard DC. When Kirby did the Fourth World, we never looked at Jimmy Olsen again the same way. All things were possible. And you had the Guardian as mean and badass as he’s ever going to get, and you had Don Rickles in the middle of it! Who would guess? It was nothing but joy working on his characters. You’re trying to recreate something that’s not re-creatable. Because I’m not Kirby.

He was a force. Four pages a day, four comic books a month, plus covers. And most of the time, he wrote all over the page margins, which meant he wrote the story. He cannot be compared. We only strive to be compared to him. He was my first comic book hero. Sal Buscema was my second one. Sal was the workhorse, but Jack was the creator. I’ve been heavily influenced by him from Day One.

I met Kirby twice. He didn’t remember me from the first time. I was a little kid at one of the little Creation Cons in Philadelphia. It was a lot different then. People were just giving away sketches. I didn’t get one from him because he wasn’t doing them at the time. I met him the second time at a convention. I just reached over and shook his hand.

My wife was with me — we’d just gotten married — and she said, “This is your hero, your all-time hero. Why don’t you say something?” I said, “What could I say that everyone else hasn’t already said? I’ll look over to Roz and say hi. There’s nothing else to say.” Of course he’s great. Of course I’m in line to shake his hand. Of course he’s the best in the business. He knows. He knows even if I don’t tell him, because I’m standing in line with dozens of other people. He was the first super-star. I saw lines for other artists back then, but not like the lines for Kirby. Even when he was getting out, he’d just finished The Eternals, he was still the King.

I started out trying to emulate Jack. Then I figured out it was the stress lines. He was putting circles around the stress lines instead of putting the stress lines inside the circle. It’s not like he didn’t draw anatomy, but he was more concerned with the stress and where the wedge of movement was coming from. That carried everything else. When someone says, “That’s cartoony,” I always say that when John Buscema or Jim Steranko draws Galactus, it’s a guy with a tin can on his head with hockey sticks on the side. When Jack Kirby draws Galactus, it’s a force of nature. You don’t believe he’s human. You believe it’s this thing that’s humanoid because you’re looking at it at that moment, and not 8

Color by Tom Ziuko

Above: As “Charles Nicholas,” nascent artist Jacob Kurtzberg (who used a number of pen names before settling on the decidedly Irish-sounding “Jack Kirby”) produced The Blue Beetle syndicated comic strip, his first super-hero work. It was a short-lived assignment, and one that ran in one known newspaper. Previous page: Paris Cullins Blue Beetle commission.

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Allen Bellman

Artist/Newspaper Artist/Photographer Background Artist, Captain America Comics 2007 Comic-Con International: San Diego Inkpot Award Recipient

“Killers of the Bund,” Captain America Comics #5 never met Kirby, but I did make a study of Jack Kirby’s work. There’s a little bit of Kirby influence in me, an admiration. I went back to his early work. We are not born like Michaelangelo. Kirby was as crude as we were when we began, but there’s something in someone that makes them a cut above the others, and that was Jack Kirby. I was highly influenced by some of his work — the movement of Captain America, the construction of a face simplified where just a couple of lines could indicate a face yet still look good. In fact, I’m still learning from the new guys. I’m not ashamed. If they love my work, that’s a compliment in the winter of my years. But he was really a talent above it all, and that’s why they call him the King of Comics.

I owe so much to my late father, who influenced me to go to Timely from an ad in The New York Times. This was Columbus Day, 1942. They wanted someone to do backgrounds for Captain America. My dad said, “Go,” and I said, “They may be closed for the holiday.” I was probably afraid, but he won. I went anyway, and I got the job.

The backgrounds were boring, but after about two weeks they gave me my own strip, “The Patriot.”

Captain America is my whole life. I didn’t create Captain America; that honor belongs to Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. I was so happy to meet Joe Simon. A compliment from him through a third party said he liked my work, and that’s a real tribute coming from another artist.

my father had a bakery store, but I had a friend who was so poor, they would have rye bread and a kosher sour pickle for dinner. I understand the Depression better now than I did as a six-year-old.

One lesson we can learn from Kirby is to keep going.

We’re in the greatest country in the world, and the opportunity is before you. To aspiring artists, I would say don’t copy comic book characters. You will never learn to draw that way. Go to art school; go to the park and draw what you see. Even trace — you can learn from tracing. If you want to be something, don’t let anything stand in your way.

Jack was from the Lower East Side, where I was born. During the Depression, we didn’t feel it because

Inset left: Allen Bellman’s program guide cover for Florida Supercon is, of course, an homage to Simon & Kirby’s Captain American Comics #1 cover. Above: Recent commission by the Golden Age artist. Next page: Original Kirby art from “Killers of the Bund,” in Captain America Comics #5 [1941]. Inks by Joe Simon.

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Mike Vosburg

Artist/Writer/Storyboard Artist/Television Illustrator Creator, Lori Lovecraft, The Mad Mummy 1997 Primetime Emmy Award-winner, Spawn

“The Rescue of Robin Hood,” Stuntman #2, pgs. 1-2 irby was someone I was familiar with mostly from his monster stories at Atlas and later the Marvel superheroes. But while everyone was raving about his work, it didn’t resonate with me emotionally. My preference for his work were a couple of “Newsboy Legion” stories and the brilliant Challengers of the Unknown series (inked by my hero, Wally Wood).

Then my buddy Ronn Foss sent me a copy of a reprint called Thrills of Tomorrow, featuring Simon and Kirby’s Stuntman. I was hooked from page one.

The character was a circus stuntman, Fred Drake, who added a mask and a cape to his outfit to become his vigilante alter-ego.

In the first story, he tracks down the sideshow malcontent who has murdered his trapeze artist partners. Drake’s amazing likeness to actor Don Daring leads to his logical employment as a double for the bumbling actor, constantly saving his skin while Daring gets the credit.

The color palette was very simply: lots of red, yellows, and blues for the characters, and the backgrounds done in more neutral shades. (I didn’t understand this then; I just knew I liked it.) Stuntman himself wasn’t some musclebound stud; he looked like a basketball player — long, lean and athletic. The action leapt off the page. Bodies flew, heroes leapt… and the girls looked glamorous. Stuntman didn’t have super-powers; his success was based on his intelligence and athleticism.

Like Joe Kubert’s “Tor,” Jack would usually introduce the stories with these wonderful double-page spreads that took your breath away. But such was his wizardry as a storyteller, that things didn’t miss a beat when the action returned to the multiple frame pages. There weren’t a lot of close-ups; the camera was always pulled back away from the action so that we could clearly see the mayhem that was happening — and all of this while maintaining a sense of dynamics unparalleled in comics.

While Joe Simon’s inks could be a bit rough at times, they always enhanced the life that Jack Kirby had in his pencils. The blacks were boldly and stylishly laid in, popping the important elements of the picture. Thrills of Tomorrow only reprinted two of the Stuntman stories, but I’ve long since been able to see the entire series and have loved every minute of it. For me, like my other Kirby favorite, Fighting American, it was the consummate in thrills, chills and laughs… all for a dime.

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Left: Kirby-inspired cover of an issue of Mike Vosburg’s creator-owned series, The Mad Mummy [#3, 2014], published by AV Publications.

Above: Jack’s two-page spread from Stuntman #2 [1946]. Artwork restoration and coloring by Harry Mendryk (who cites this as peak Kirby work). The 1946 series, which was published

by Harvey Comics and lasted for three issues, featured the exploits of Fred Drake, movie stuntman by trade (doubling for silver screen star Don Darling) and crimefighter by advocation.

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John Workman

Artist/Writer/Letterer/Editor/Designer Art Director, Heavy Metal, Letterer, Thor, Doom Patrol Three-time Harvey Award winner

“Mother Delilah,” Boys’ Ranch #3, pg. 1 f anyone ever asked me about such a thing, I guess I’d have to say that my favorite place in the whole world (or, at least, that tiny part of it that I’ve visited) would be New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s a world full of wonders in which you can happily lose yourself.

accompanied American soldiers through European terrain during World War II), that person was then standing in front of a large table on which rested foothigh piles of glorious comic books. They were 5¢ each. The 100-page Dell Giants and the 80-page DC Annuals were 10¢ because they offered a lot more pages to read.

But… for a period of time that covered a bit more than a decade, during the days when I was 11 to 25 years old, my favorite place in all the world was a store called Bargain Sales. Initially situated in the neighboring town of Hoquiam, Washington, Bargain Sales had its own wonders to offer.

And that brings us, almost magically, to Jack Kirby. Carmine Infantino, too… and Wally Wood, and Al Williamson, and so many more masters of comics art, but especially Jack Kirby. I was, of course, more than aware of Jack Kirby and his art.

At Bargain Sales, I’d picked up comics from years before that featured the unique work of Jack Kirby. I was familiar with what he’d done for DC on Challengers of the Unknown and the Green Arrow backup feature. I’d seen more contemporary Kirby drawings in my junior high art class when a classmate showed me and allowed me to read a copy of an early issue of Fantastic Four.

There were recordings of music ranging from then-contemporary Rolling Stones albums to Bing Crosby 78s from the 1940s to Edison cylinders that featured the voice of Enrico Caruso. There were tons of magazines, including back issues of Playboy that, within a few years (thanks to the printing of the text of “The Great Comic Book Heroes” in the October 1965 issue) would become a part of my collection.

The fact that I could find comics from the previous decade or even (woweee!) the 1940s at Bargain Sales led me to discover the “intermediate” art of Carmine Infantino, Alex Toth, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, and others that I had known mostly for their thenrecent DC work. Their early days as stylistic acolytes of Milton Caniff gave way to being temporarily forced into a DC “house look,” and then to a time of defiance wherein their individuality and uniqueness blossomed. With the exception of Toth (who somehow always managed to leap from one type of story to another, most of them non-super-hero fare), the DC guys had lately settled into safe harbors of issue-by-issue tales of super-heroes (or, in the case of Kubert, war).

There were paperback books. For 15¢ each, I could enter the world of James Bond, swing through the trees with Tarzan (with the added thrill of cover art by Frank Frazetta and Roy Krenkel), and even do the unthinkable by burning a few books with Ray Bradbury’s Montag. Later, following the advice of my friend Dave Eaton, I plunked down three nickels in exchange for what would become my favorite novel: Edgar Pangborn’s magnificent Davy.

The thing that first enticed me to enter the double doors of Bargain Sales, though, was the reason that I grew to love my near-weekly sojourns to that wonderful place. When a visitor to the store walked past the various recordings (and the means by which to play them) and stood between the wall unit filled with magazines and the spin racks containing paperback books (some of which had

Somehow, though, none of this applied to Jack Kirby. While he didn’t Top inset: Boys’ Ranch #3 [1951] cover by Kirby with Joe Simon inks. Left inset: John Workman pin-up, inked by Joe Sinnott, published in Thor #400 [1989]. Next page: “Mother Delilah” splash page from Boys’ Ranch #3. Art

by Kirby and Simon.

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exactly appear fully-grown as a comics artist in the late 1930s, the dynamic quality of his work was quite clearly there. By the 1950s, his work had reached a level of maturity that allowed him to — again and again and seemingly easily — do something that few comics creators have ever achieved.

Even the finest comics works can be separated into two elements: art and story. Almost always, one of those elements overwhelms the other. Jack Kirby, whether working with Joe Simon or Stan Lee, managed to be an integral part of the creation of seamless comics stories wherein the art and the writing became one thing.

An excellent example of this can be found in the story “Mother Delilah” in Harvey Comics’ Boys’ Ranch #3. If you haven’t read that story, you’ll just have to take my word that it is a stunner, the art working in tandem with the (literally) poetic words to create something of value.

Another time when Kirby pulled off such a miracle was in issue #21 of Tales of Suspense.

I don’t know if it was Stan Lee’s or Jack Kirby’s idea, but one of them decided to ‘steal’ the then-decade-old film The Day the Earth Stood Still and turn it into a comics story. What those two guys did with that idea turned out to be superior to the absolutely wonderful 1951 movie that they had purloined… and, once again, the words and pictures became one steadily-flowing example of great storytelling.

And, of course, Kirby did it again (with perfect contributions from Stan Lee, Artie Simek, and the great Joe Sinnott) in Fantastic Four #51’s “This Man, This Monster.” That oneissue story is another rare example of how good comics can be. That’s probably the right summation of the career of Jack Kirby: “How good comics can be.”

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Bill Black

Artist/Writer/Editor/Publisher/Filmmaker Creator, Femforce, AC Comics universe Editor Emeritus, AC Comics

“Man from the World of D,” Captain 3-D #1, pg. 12 he first Jack Kirby comic I bought was Captain 3-D #1. Wow, whatta comic! It was the most action-packed comic I’d ever seen. Nothing else on the stands in 1953 could compare with Kirby’s dynamic figure work. And the story set down a mythos that stretched back in time 50,000 years, pitting the evil Cat People against the world’s guardians, the Men of D! I was hooked.

The 3-D craze ended and there never was a second issue.

But the artwork was so fantastic that I sought out more like it, hitting pay dirt in Fighting American. In that title, I learned that the creative team was Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who were never credited in the 3-D book.

Captain 3-D cost more than twice what a regular comic book did, but it was a quarter well spent. Frustrated with no second issue, I decided to draw one myself. This was an early effort that launched me on a comic book career that has lasted more than 45 years. In my fanzine days I created a Captain 3-D homage character, Commando D. He continues to this day as a recurring member of the Sentinels of Justice in AC Comics titles. A second similar character, Astron, was the subject of my first professional film. Today I have 30 films in release and have published around a thousand comics. It was Jack Kirby and Captain 3-D that kick-started that career.

Reading Jack’s creations back in the ’50s (Fighting American, Stuntman reprints, Bullseye, Challengers of the Unknown, Yellow Claw, and the Sky Masters newspaper strip) established him as my all-time favorite artist. Marvel Comics were not distributed in Central Florida from 1958 to 1962, so I missed out on the “monster” years. But in 1962 when I went to Florida State University in Tallahassee, I was astonished at what I found that first night at a local drug store comics rack: Fantastic Four! Strange Tales (Human Torch)! Incredible Hulk!

Tales To Astonish (Ant-Man)! Journey Into Mystery (Thor)! and Two-Gun Kid! Incredibly every comic was drawn by Jack Kirby! Now I had discovered a comic book company based on the art of Jack Kirby. I was in comic book heaven.

time, and I never fail to be thrilled by his artistry. It all started with Captain 3-D. In recent years, Jack Kirby Collector magazine editor John Morrow has unearthed the three stories that were penciled for Captain 3-D #2. None were inked, and none were by Kirby. I have retired from AC Comics and in my spare time I have resurrected my old Paragon fanzines, just for the fun of it. The book I’m working on now will feature my attempts to ink a Captain 3-D story drawn by Mort Meskin.

Jack has been a life-long inspiration. I still buy Kirby comics that were from before my Right inset: Captain 3-D #1 art by Kirby. Inks and colors by Bill Black. Top right inset: Captain 3-D #1 cover, pencils by Kirby.

Next page: Kirby original art (likely assisted by Steve Ditko and Mort Meskin) from #1, on multiple layers of acetate that hold the different art for each level of depth in the 3-D process.

Nineteen fifty-three to 2017... more than six decades. I’ve come full circle with Captain 3-D. 16

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Trevor Von Eeden

Co-Creator/Artist, Black Lightning Creator/Writer/Artist, The Original Johnson 2010 Inkwell Award, 2011 Inkpot Recipient

“Break the Spy Ring,” Fighting American #1, pg. 9 ven this early example of the King’s work resonates with all the qualities that make Jack Kirby the most creatively exciting artist in the entire history of comics.

volume, and spatial representation that defined his later, more mature work (i.e., the “legs four feet apart” larger-than-life poses, endlessly inventive impossible machinery/ diverse alien cultures of his Thor/FF comics — notably the immortal Surfer/Galactus trilogy), but they still jump and slide all over the page, literally bursting energetically out of the confines of the panel border itself (as in the final panel) in a restless explosion of uncontrollable creative, narrative, and compositional energy that would subsequently become the hallmark of this singularly unique, and incomparably expressive comics artist.

In Kirby’s world, everything is vibrant and alive — almost crackling with the pure, uninhibited power of a seemingly limitless source of arcane, explosive, creative visual energy.

His bold, violent, dramatic, usually modernistic, and endlessly dynamic universe was one created in broad, sweeping, confident strokes of an ordinary #2 lead pencil, but his was a sense of perspective — and spiritual, cosmic grandeur — never before imagined, much less seen, in the history of sequential art.

Jack’s source of power, energy, and dramatic visual expression seems as primal and ancient as the visual and narrative art of civilizations that existed millenia ago: the beautiful hieroglyphics and ritualistic, totemic carvings of the great ancient Egyptian, Nordic, Mayan, and Incan civilizations and societies that existed at the beginning of recorded history (and which are constantly referenced in his Fourth World and Eternals books, as if to emphasize his affinity with these ancient founts of cosmic mystery, wisdom, and wonder). He seemed to channel, understand, and express spiritual, emotional, and psychological forces of incalculable depth, breadth, and power that have existed deep within the hidden, unacknowledged corners of the human psyche since the beginning of mankind’s consciousness.

Kirby’s sensibilities were more than just larger-than-life; they were cosmic, universal — and intensely primal.

In the field of comics, the name Kirby is synonymous with the words “POWER” and “CREATIVE ENERGY” — and rightly so. His was the energy of one man’s inexhaustible love for his chosen profession and field of self-expression. In Jack’s case, it was also a genuine feeling of love and compassion towards his fellow man — which is rare in any field, individual, or time. With Jack, it permeated everything that he did.

Tense, violent, elegantly slashing lines, abstractly spotted blacks, and shadows created from a realm of visual logic all their own — yet all unerringly and astonishingly effective in heightening the sense of threedimensional solidity and volume of Kirby’s drawings to an uncanny degree of representational expression.

The King’s figures on this particular page are not yet refined to the point of pure abstraction of line, form,

People tend to forget, but Jack Kirby was a man who saw the unimaginable horrors of war, the sheer, inhuman brutality of which his fellow man was capable, firsthand, and up close — yet he never once surrendered his love of life or mankind to them.

He somehow managed to survive World War II with his humanity, and his sense of love and compassion towards his fellow man, intact — which is why I think he became the great artist that he was. He was a great human being first.

Top inset: Before switching to humor, straight-ahead action led the way in Fighting American #1 [1954].

Cover by Kirby and Joe Simon. Right inset: Trevor Von Eeden’s Kirby-esque artistic take on Superman, from World’s Finest Comics #305 [1984]. Next page: Dynamic action page by Kirby (pencils) and Simon (inks), from “Break the Spy Ring,” in Fighting American #1.

Kirby’s storytelling is as brilliantly inventive as his drawing and composi18

tional styles. The restless originality of his “camera’s eye” POV while telling a story is yet another hallmark of his intensely dynamic, extraordinarily expressive comics art. The scene in panels three to five, when the crook gets his head punched through the wall — which we suddenly see bursting out of the wall of the other room in the middle of the sequence — works beautifully, nicely enhanced by that unexpected, and remarkably effective shift in POV. For some reason, that particular panel always makes me think of the scene at the end of Blade Runner, when Rutger Hauer’s replicant character punches a hole in the wall with his head (and later pulls Harrison Ford’s hand through it, breaking his fingers one by one…). I don’t know if that’s coincidental, or just another example of the influence of Kirby’s work, however subliminally, on the creative mind of a filmmaker — such as the blatantly extreme case of inspiration/plagiarization of Kirby Koncepts that is George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy (which I think Ol’ Doom-Vader/ DeathStar-Apokolips Georgie-boy would be the first to admit) — but I do know that, in both cases, Kirby did it first!

And as usual, he did it so well that we’ve not yet really begun to catch up…

Jack Kirby: The most creatively explosive, visually dynamic, and conceptually original artist ever to grace the comics page. He created limitless universes of fantasy, action, adventure, romance, and fun for the rest of us to visit, inhabit, enjoy — and gaze at with awe, and an unending wonder.

Thank you, Jack. Long Live The King!!! ’Nuff said!

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Bob Burden

Artist/Writer Creator, Flaming Carrot, Mystery Men 1998 Eisner Award, “Best Single Issue,” Gumby Summer Fun Special

Fighting American

Energized, Bold, and Really Strange s a young comic collector and future comic artist, I too was fascinated by Jack Kirby’s art. I still have a long box of all the “golden era” 1950s love and crime comics that I accrued at conventions in the 1970s and ’80s. His style and storytelling were so compelling, iconic, and magnetic that we couldn’t help ourselves. And he was so prolific that we all really just took it for granted. Jack Kirby was comic books, the way Sean Connery was James Bond or Picasso was modern art or Bettie Page was the Pin-Up.

A magical “beautiful/grotesque” that stood in a textbook other-end-of-the-spectrum contrast to the delicate, refined, dainty “princess art” of young schoolgirls.

Kirby art was also really strange. Kirby monsters and villains had an instant personality, a visual personality that gave any Kirby a leg-up. Jack’s art was never photo-realistic.

Yet somehow he was able draw the actual energy within a character or a machine or a monster. He somehow gave the panels are very 3-D feel.

I think Jack saw the world differently than many people.

You can see “the strange” lurking in the background in Kirby art, even the love and crime comics, but for the pure, crystalline, uncut strange, you just have to look at his Strange World Of Your Dreams books. Just Google the covers and look: Some of the most surreal, deranged, fantastic stuff to ever appear in comics.

Why? I never thought about it. We took him for granted. If you ask a Kirby fan why he’s so great, they just point and say, “Look!

Look at it!”

When I was in high school and there was so much analysis in English class, I came to the conclusion that “analysis kills.” Dissecting the frog kills the frog. So, I will only make a few observations here. I can only give you my personal observations on Kirby, and hope it makes some sense or provides an insight for the Kirby connoisseur.

Last of all: Kirby’s sense of humor. I was talking to Jack — I think it was a West Palm Beach convention in the mid-’70s — and I asked him what his favorite comic was. Out of the side of my eye I saw him smirk — a tough guy, battlefield veteran smirk.

He was glad to be asked that question. He was smiling to be thinking about his answer:

First of all, Jack Kirby’s style was very energized. The Kirby energy was something that came from deep inside the psyche and the personality. In person, Jack Kirby bristled with an Old School self-confidence and inner roughneck right beneath a smiling, gentlemanly kindness and good-natured warmth.

For me, his inner hooligan was a constant aspect of his art.

He jumped into the drawing itself as he was drawing it, like he was a kid jumping into a Hell’s Kitchen street fight.

“Fighting American.”

Wow. It was my favorite too.

Years later, I created Flaming Carrot and, in my own paltry, meager way, I paid an unintentional or subconscious homage to that very rare, seven-issue, 1950s series that I enjoyed so much as a young comic collector.

Secondly, his style was bold. It was very masculine. If you look at the art of Ben Shahn, you will see what I’m talking about: A style that is chiseled, rough-hewn, and brawny.

Above inset: Featured in his collection, Pandemonium Boulevard, Bob Burden created this humorous pastiche of Kirby’s Young Love #21 [1951] cover. Next page: A mid-1970s Fighting American illo by Kirby, inked by Joseph Rubinstein, with an inset detail from Flaming Carrot #1 [1984], with Burden’s title character striking a distinctly Kirby-like pose.

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Ed Piskor

Artist/Writer/Animation Designer Creator/Artist/Writer, Hip Hop Family Tree 2015 Will Eisner Award winner, “Best Reality-Based Work”

Foxhole #5, unpublished cover hen I think about Kirby as a cartoonist, I really feel a certain kinship because the two most formative things for him to become who he became — and, by “became,” I mean an obsessive cartoonist who turned out more than 100,000 pages’ worth of material, which is ungodly. You have to have something beyond just talent. There has to be an obsession, a kind of mania. There’s a reason for that. George Orwell said about writing books that because of the intense amount of work to put a book together, all authors are running or hiding from something. And I think Kirby, growing up through the Depression and knowing what poverty was, and also being summoned to war and killing people — those are the two scariest things that happened to him as a young man — what could be more peaceful than sitting at a drawing board and drawing all day after you had to kill people when you were still a child yourself?

I think by virtue of being a storyteller, he was able to talk about his experiences in the war. My grandfathers never mentioned one word about the war. Not to make excuses, but both my grandfathers beat their kids — spanked them. They were reasonably abusive, and they were kooks because… I can’t imagine killing somebody. I’m 34, and I definitely couldn’t imagine doing it when my brain was still forming. You hear pain in Kirby’s voice, and certain levels of — I don’t want to call it excuse-making, because he absolutely did what he had to do — but he described, “You’ve got this Nazi coming at you, and he looks like a butcher! My sergeant hit me on the helmet and said, ‘You have to take care of this guy.’ What was I supposed to do?” It’s pretty harrowing, and I think that video is one of the most illuminating documents we have into the guy.

I watched the Greg Theakston video interview. It’s five minutes of Kirby talking about his time in the war, and you hear Kirby use profanity. “It was a f*cking nightmare,” he says, or something like that. We didn’t have knowledge of what these people went through. Both my grandfathers were f’ed-up, and it’s because they had PTSD. I think Kirby had intense undiagnosed Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, which just kept him grinding. He had a family to take care of. He’s been escaping poverty since the ’20s. And that’s the soup that was thrown together to create such a prolific creator.

Kirby didn’t have to do all those comics. He didn’t have to do all those pages. He didn’t have to work so hard in the ’80s. Of course, he was due way more cash by Marvel for all of his creations. Of course he’s due that, but his family was doing fine. There’s something extra that went into it.

Osamu Tezuka didn’t go to war, but he was raised through several depressions. And the idea that Jean Giraud did Blueberry comics from nine to five, and from five to three a.m. he became Moebius — these guys are f*cked up, and I think war and the Great Depression played a huge part on them.

And they became the Mount Rushmore of comics, so there’s something to it. Poverty and violence is a good recipe to stay indoors and keep grinding.

Left: Ed Piskor’s rendition of Lee & Kirby’s Magneto. Above insets: Foxhole #1’s cover includes a Kirby image inspired by Joseph Hirsch’s 1944 World War II painting, “High Visibility Wrap.” Next page: Foxhole #5 unpublished cover art [1955] by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon.

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in the middle of nowhere, here in Pennsylvania, and they open up their basement one or two times a year. They have about 250,000 comics they sell for a dollar down in that basement. It’s two football fields; it’s ridiculous. We made a video several years ago — me and Tom Scioli and Jim Rugg — and we’re spread out, and the video cameras are following us, and we’re all pulling out Kirby comics and talking Kirby. So when I put it together, you hear Kirby’s name a lot.

I read Will Eisner’s Shop Talk book. One of the things that excited me about it was that they were describing Kirby as a star cartoonist even in the late ’30s, early ’40s. And I’m talking even pre-Captain America he was considered a star within the industry. That’s something I hadn’t quite thought about. Of course, from Captain America forward, you can imagine he would be a hot-ticket item, but out of the gate, basically, these people had reverence for him, so he definitely has an X-factor. But beyond that, to make over 100,000 pages of comics, you’re escaping something.

I was in Denmark on Kirby’s birthday two years ago, teaching a workshop for cartooning. We had a party, and someone stopped the party and held a toast for Kirby’s birthday, and everybody was clapping. It almost made me cry, because I was in Denmark. His tentacles expand around the world.

I work constantly, and I have certain demons, so I get it.

I don’t think I’m projecting when I think these thoughts, especially after seeing this video of Kirby telling a couple of war stories. I really don’t want to seem like a downer, because I really am celebrating him. I think there is a richness to him as a person, just with the main motivations being escaping poverty and never going back, and being severely traumatized.

In that interview he did with Gary Groth in the ’80s, you would never think that there was a beta male in existence talking to Kirby. I just wish all the bravado he would display in those interviews, if he only would have used that on some of the people who were signing the checks, maybe the story would be a little different for him.

I think about him every single day. I really do. I think about that work constantly. There’s a huge comic book shop

This page: Clockwise from right, Foxhole #5 [1955] cover, Foxhole # 2 [1954] cover, and unpublished Warfront cover, drawn for the Harvey Comics series. All art by Kirby, probably with Joe Simon inks.

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Joe Staton

Artist/Writer/Art Director Co-Creator, E-Man, The Omega Men 1983 Inkpot Award winner, 2013–15 Harvey Awards, “Best Syndicated Strip”

“Secret of the Sorceror’s Box,” Showcase #6, pg. 2 certainly didn’t know who Jack Kirby was in 1958, but I was really drawn to the initial run of “The Challengers of the Unknown” in Showcase. There was an amazing amount of cool stuff to look at in those stories: Giant robots, totally alien aliens, mysterious mystical sorcerers. But there was something else, something over the top in the art.

Take the second page of the origin story. The guys, who are going to be the Chals, are in a doomed airplane hitting rough weather.

The plane is headed in all sorts of directions, the rain comes from different sides of the panels, the characters are thrown in confusing angles. That’s in just six panels. The plane is headed straight, straight down for the ground.

Those guys are doomed, you bet.

When they survive, it takes no convincing to believe that they are indeed “living on borrowed time.”

Above left inset: Joe Staton got his chance to render Kirby’s co-creation, the Challengers of the Unknown, both on the cover (very small, admittingly!) and on the inside, for Showcase #100 [1978]. Above: Great cinematic work by Kirby, the second page of the Challengers’ origin tale, in Showcase #6 [1957], makes reader feel as if they’re falling. Left: Rare, unpublished pencil panel from Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown #4 [1958].

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Michael T. Gilbert

Artist/Writer/Historian/Columnist Creator, Doc Stearn… Mr. Monster 2014 Inkpot Award winner

“Come into My Parlor,” The Fly #1, pgs. 1-2 wish I were…THE FLY!!

enough for ten comics. You want pathos?

We’ve got pathos!

That’s the phrase young orphan Tommy Troy used when he rubbed his magic ring and turned into one of comics’ most unique heroes. How schmaltzy! In 1959 it was indeed magic to this comic-crazed eight-year-old. I found the first issue of Archie’s The Fly in a box of secondhand comics stashed in a closet by my grandma –– comics to be doled out when little Michael was a good boy. That issue of Simon & Kirby’s The Fly absolutely mesmerized me, and with good reason!

The origin story alone had material

Our story begins with young Tommy Troy living in a decrepit orphanage run by crooked Superintendent Aaron Creacher. He’s been robbing the place blind, leaving the poor kids cold and hungry. Tommy’s scared, but gathers up his courage and begs Creacher to feed his starving friends. But Creacher has other ideas for this troublemaker. He remembers old Ben and Abagail March were looking for a kid to work for them for room and board. They even agreed to pay

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Creacher a cool $15 a week. ”That old house of theirs is supposed to be haunted!” thinks Creacher. “They’re the last of a long line of wizards, according to the stories!” Hey, what could go wrong there?

That night the greedy crook drives Tommy to their spooky mansion, after which the creepy couple proceeds to work him mercilessly. It looks bad for young Tommy Troy. Ah, but then we have the second ingredient in our super-hero stew: Magic!

While exploring a fly-infested attic, Tommy finds a magic ring shaped like a fly. He puts it on and a beam of light bursts out, opening a dimensional doorway to a mysterious Fly World! That’s when we add science-fiction to the mix.

Turan, emissary of the Fly World, emerges and tells the awestruck boy an astounding tale. His was an advanced race that had “developed the science of magic to a degree higher than humans even dream about!” But his people were infected by greed, and most were destroyed. Only a few remained, “…reduced to the insignificant form of life known as the fly.” Wow!

Ah, but there is still hope as Turan looks into Tommy’s heart and finds a soul “pure of heart,” perfect to fight greed and crime. From then on, all Tommy had to do was rub the magic ring to change from a puny ten-year-old to a goggle-eyed six-foot winged muscle-man clad in a bizarre green and yellow costume –– someone powerful enough to battle the forces of evil. And indeed he does, starting with Creacher himself. A swift slug or two and the orphan kids are on their way to a better life.

Though Simon & Kirby only stuck around for four issues (it would be their last major collaboration), their striking double-page spreads, merging of genres, and weird villains (like the evil Spider Spry!) made The Fly one my favorite comics.

Fifty-eight years later, my opinion remains unchanged!

Previous page: At inset top is the cover of The Fly #1 [1959], pencils by Kirby and inks by Joe Simon. At left, is the centerspread from the same issue, touting the debut of the “Wide Angle Scream,” hype that echoes those days of wide-screen “Cinerama” presentations in theaters in competition with TV. Top: Michael T. Gilbert’s 2004 commission features the Blue Beetle (another old Kirby character, albeit updated) helping the Fly battle Spider Spry.

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Rich Buckler, Sr.

Artist/Writer/Editor/Painter Creator/Artist, Deathlok the Demolisher 2015 Inkwell Awards Ambassador

Blue Ribbon Comics #5, cover ack Kirby passed away in 1994 on my birthday, February 6th — a surreal and profound Jungian synchronization to be sure — at least for me, anyway.

looking for.

So that was the bad news. Of course, a bit of a disappointment there, right?

There was no comprehensive critique of the rest of my work. Jack was always a man of few words.

Jack’s influence on me and my art career stretches back to my teen years as a comic book fan, fanzine publisher, and collector. His powerful images and storytelling compelled me to develop my nascent art abilities and pursue a career as a comics illustrator. I wanted to be like Jack Kirby!

But the good news was when he told me that he checked out all of my story pages, and was duly impressed. I recall his exact words to me which were: “Rich, your pencil work is very good.

So, if you’re ever in New York, my advice to you is to go see Stan Lee and tell him I said to give you a job!”

I was without formal art training back then (and still am “self-taught” to this day) — but that was not a significant disadvantage for this fourteen-yearold aspiring comic book pro.

No, not at all. My art school was primarily Marvel Comics and Jack Kirby’s work on Fantastic Four and The Avengers.

So, a personal and very strong recommendation from Jack Kirby himself!

How could you beat that?

Well, I did travel to New York and I did see Stan Lee and Stan did give me a job! And, years later, at Archie/Red Circle, I got to hire Jack Kirby to draw the cover of Blue Ribbon Comics #5 [1984], featuring the Simon and Kirby co-creation Lancelot Strong, the Shield, which I then hired myself to ink!

What stands out in my memory is the first appearance of Captain America in The Avengers, an epic FF Annual featuring the Fantastic Four’s battle with Sub-Mariner and Atlantis, and also the FF’s first encounter with Galactus and the Silver Surfer and first appearance of the Black Panther.

When I was still living in Detroit — this was early in 1969– 70 — I had started making the transition from fanzine/amateur artist to pro. I assembled a portfolio of pencil and ink comic book samples and, on the recommendation of my close friend Shel Dorf, I sent these off to Jack Kirby by mail, in hopes of getting work from Jack as an inker.

Jack had just moved over to DC Comics and had already made his new home on the West Coast and he was scouting for inkers. A surprise long distance call later, I learned that, unfortunately, the sample Thor page I inked on vellum for his consideration was not quite what he was Previous and this page: Kirby’s cover for Blue Ribbon Comics #5 [1984], inked by Rich Buckler, in various stages of development, plus a Kirby tribute featuring the Thing drawn by Buckler. The Shield was revamped by Kirby and Simon in 1959.

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Garry Leach

Artist/Art Director/Publisher Co-Creator/Artist, Warpsmith 1983 Eagle Award for “Marvelman,” 1999 Eisner Award, “Best Single Issue”

Race for the Moon #2 dark conspiratorial times; the proliferating Red Menace schemed to seize the moon, spike it with lethal, nuclear missile silos, and grind the Free World under an iron heel of potential atomic obliteration — ludicrous now, but then, with a sinister Sputnik ominously orbiting overhead, chillingly plausible. Simon, never slow to spot a burgeoning trend, plunged straight in and must have started on Race For The Moon at the tail end of ’57. A hasty issue #1 hit the stands in early ’58, consisting of old reprint sci-fi tales, under a spanking new Kirby cover. Issues #2 and #3 were all-new stories and nearly all magnificently executed Kirby mini-masterpieces.

Race For The Moon #2 was so hot-topically current that the two lead stories were the self-evident “The Thing on Spunik 4” and “Luna Trap,” about Soviet moon bases and inevitable, covert Cold War conflict.

last-Off! I remember the lurid yellow body colour glaring out off the shelf, proudly presenting “The Three Rocketeers” on a cut and crop, Joe Simon, composite Harvey comic cover. All the right ingredients were present, primarily: Jack Kirby art, spacemen, rockets, weird aliens, bug-eyed monsters, space stations, colossal robots, and moon bases. It took a nano-second of decision to slap a whole 10d of my pocket money down and bag that irresistible bad boy as mine. I’d encountered these three spacers a few years earlier in my favourite UK black-&-white 68-pager, Race For The Moon #2, a primo assembly of nigh-on perfect Kirby space tales: Pretty much comic Nirvana for me at the time, and yes, I do still have that read-to-tatters issue cached away.

Over the decades I developed a different perspective on these books, but my reverence had only grown; time had not tarnished them. I’d discovered Race For The Moon was, in fact, another Harvey anthology comic published way, way back in dim, distant 1958, and it was entirely a product of its tense, paranoid era. The Russian Sputnik had launched in October 1957; those devious Commies suddenly beat America to the Cold War/space race punch. These were

The refreshing stance for this series was that it was basically rooted in hard science (for then) and the contemporary view of our solar system and its functioning physics: No rock-jawed heroes here, dishing out solar justice with ray guns and jet packs. Kirby had boned up on the relevant technological books and designs — we’re viewing a universe where space is a real pitiless, hostile environment, where the incautious voyager would be brutally snuffed out in the space of a tremulous heart beat. Kirby’s flair for hardware was given free rein on space stations, interstellar starships, rocket sleds, jet bikes, moon bases, luna crawlers — and contra to the popular illustrative concepts, these spacers weren’t clad in rubberized, hoop-jointed, bulbous vacuum suits, but full, gritty, space armour, like fabulous knights on alien landscapes so tactile you could almost feel the sub-zero luna dust shatter beneath your steel-plated gravity boots. The characters were a volatile concocTop inset: Race for the Moon #2 [1958] cover, pencils

by Kirby, inks by Al Williamson. Left: Garry Leach drew his Viking pal, Karl Aasa, manager of London’s Orbital Comics (recent winner of the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award), and trusty hound Krypto, as beloved Kirby creations. Next page: Contents page of Race for the Moon #2, by Kirby and inker Marvin Stein.

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tion of high-frontier space pilots, grizzled explorers, asteroid prospectors, old school bespectacled boffins, and United Space Fleet personnel, along with the odd gangster and glamourpuss movie starlet. Kirby employed a rare serious mood, disregarding his enforced perspective and sinewy, exaggerated super-hero style for a powerful, brooding, classic visual approach. The icing on the cake, though, is his inspired pairing with EC Comics master penman Al Williamson. His tight Raymondesque fine-line rendering sympathetically tempers Kirby’s harsh chiaroscuro pencil technique, creating greater panel depth, and increasing the general level of reality with subtly enhanced characterization. This was two master craftsmen sparking off each other, and their individual strengths melded flawlessly into a genius whole that looks as if it should have always existed. The page here, from “The Great Moon Mystery,” aptly demonstrates this: Kirby’s boundless imagination is allowed unfettered scope, depicting impossible worlds and tenable cosmic life forms; while Williamson’s exquisite linework imbues them with believable substance. In a single page we’re flung halfway across the universe as we plunge into the depthless gulfs of infinity. Personally, I kind of always loved those creepy rockheads, blooming in the dark desert sands like a monstrous crop of scowling fungi. Incomprehensibly the markets response to RFTM was icy; issue #3 was the abrupt last gasp. Simon & Kirby had misjudged the genre’s zeitgeist, and sales figures make an implacable arbiter. future influence on my artistic development at that nascent point was inestimable.

Blast-Off, published in ’66, was obviously the remaining material from the brusquely cancelled forth issue; the Williamson inks indicate this fact, but the nine-year hiatus hadn’t diminished the strips’ virtues or their robust exuberance. Kirby and Williamson not only stood the test of time, they booted it into the metaphorical gutter.

52 years on, I’m looking at that tatty, frayed cover now, and it still sparks up a grin and fans the initial glow of childish glee. A space rigger jockeys his rocket sled against Jupiter’s massive gravitational pull under the glare of its looming, baleful red eye. If you were ever going to have a rocket sled, it’d be that very one, because it’s the coolest, because it’s pure magic... Kirby magic...

Race For The Moon preceded Kirby’s highly regarded syndicated newspaper strip Sky Masters, which launched in September ’58. It had been like a warm-up trial run, so the essence didn’t quite die — well, not for another couple of years anyway...

Mr. Simon, Mr. Kirby, Mr. Williamson... thankyouthankyouthankyou...

I’d have been a callow ten years old when I discovered RFTM #2, and eleven when I stumbled onto Blast-Off. Their

That’s me, over and out.

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Dave Gibbons

Artist/Writer Co-Creator/Artist, Watchmen, Give Me Liberty Two-time 1987 Jack Kirby Award winner, 1986 Inkpot Award

“The World is Ours” Alarming Tales #3, pg. 1 huge publishing sensation when I was growing up was the books of Erich Von Däniken. Most notable of these was Chariots of the Gods, which posited that our human civilizations were pre-dated on our planet by those of ancient extraterrestrials.

According to Von Däniken, memories of these alien visitors were responsible for mankind’s many legends of heaven-born gods and, furthermore, the mammoth building feats of antiquity that could only be explained by the use of advanced technology.

It’s an unproven further hypothesis of my own to imagine that Von Däniken might have seen the work of Jack Kirby in his youth, particularly the stories that Kirby and Joe Simon produced for Harvey Comics’ Alarming Tales. Here, in highly compressed narratives, they imagined vivid encounters with alien technologies and races, usually with a questioning resolution that left the motives and result of such encounters obscure. Even if the youthful Von Däniken didn’t absorb these powerful glimpses of otherness, the young Dave Gibbons certainly did.

Even in today’s world of conspiracy theories and purported grand schemes to obscure the hidden truths of history, Von Däniken’s theory was a doozy.

Given enough complexity, which the accumulated legends and creations of our history certainly provide, it’s clearly possible to select elements to support almost any scenario. Much though I enjoyed the books at the time, they always seemed to me more redolent of sciencefiction than science-fact.

One of the most vivid was “This World Is Ours,” which ran for only five pages, of which one was an apocalyptic splash page image, showing strangelygarbed victims fleeing a Sodom and Gomorrah scene, fireballs raining down on high tech towers. The story is simple; two survivors of an ancient civilization successfully use their mind powers to control a man who has excavated them from their eons-old slumber in a hidden cave, only to discover they can’t control other humans. As the local small town sheriff explains, their discoverer had previously suffered brain damage and was as compliant as a child. Anyone could control him.

Although I don’t know it for a fact, my assumption always was that Von Däniken had read a lot of science-fiction growing up and had confabulated this with a youthful interest in archaeology to construct his convincingly argued, yet unproven, fantasies. In much the way that people find it hard to believe that hugely significant acts can be carried out by hugely insignificant people, it can be hard to accept that sophisticated construction projects could be executed by relatively primitive technologies.

What makes the admittedly slight story sing in the memory is Kirby’s visualization of the would-be dominators and their world; austere giants in his trademark “science god” outfits, buried in a tomb that manages to be both creepy and hi-tech at the same time.

The story is certainly a perfect evocation of Von Däniken’s colorful theories. Who knows, perhaps it might even be part of their inspiration.

Or perhaps that is just my very own outlandish conjecture after all.

Top inset: During the post-Seduction of the Innocent period, the comics industry was forced to produce innocuous “Code-approved” material, though even under those constraints, comics packager Joe Simon shepherded some intriguing books for Harvey Comics, including fine work from Kirby. Alarming Tales #3 [1958]. Above: In 1997, Dave Gibbons channeled his inner Kirby for a one-shot combining Superman and Captain America. Next page: Alarming Tales #3 splash page by Kirby, with color and art reconstruction by Harry Mendryk.

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Craig Yoe

Cartoonist/Writer/Editor/Publisher/Historian/Art Director Co-Author, The Art of Mickey Mouse 2016 Eisner Award winner, “Best Archival Collection”

“Fin Fang Foom,” Strange Tales #89, pg. 5

Strange (But True) Tales he majority of King Kirby’s loyal subjects agree his most stupendous visual creation is ol’ green-head: Fin Fang Foom! The monster of monsters was green on his inaugural appearance on the cover of Strange Tales #89. He was inexplicably orange on the inside. It’s not easy staying green.

seventy bucks might suddenly show up. Racing down the aisle I bumped straight into… Jack Kirby!

I excitedly showed Jack my purchase. With a cigar clenched in his teeth, he took the art in hand and inquired how much it was. I told him fifty dollars. He whistled, “That’s a lot of money!”

Jack told me he had a page from the story hanging on his wall back home and wanted to know if I would like him to sign mine. Yes! I profusely thanked The Master and trucked on!

More of a conundrum is what’s in the emerald behemoth’s scanties. Kirby’s monsters, while destroying civilization, were nude, but chastely wore underpants! I will reveal here what’s behind the knickers!

Later I invited Dick Ayers over to visit me at my studio and I showed him the art and he, too, kindly signed it.

First, though, I will tell you about my personal experience with Fin Fang Foom.

In the late ’80s, I went to a typical New York comic-con held in a small hotel ballroom.

I was keeping my eye open for treasures and, behold, I spied an iconic page of original art! My eyeballs popped out like a Tex Avery wolf seeing sexy Red Hot Riding Hood! It was the page where Fin Fang Foom came to life! I asked how much the monsterpiece was, fearing the worst.

Indeed, the owner wanted crazy money, way beyond all reasonableness. The robber baron spat out his ridiculous price: “Seventy dollars!”

At his office in L.A., I met with Stan “The Man” Lee and got his John Hancock on the art. As I said, I’m going to reveal to you the mystery of what’s in Fin Fang Foom’s skivvies, but first I’ll tell you the secret origin of his nomenclature.

Stan told me then that the monster’s name was inspired by his friendly neighborhood Chinese take-out!

Okay, I promised to tell you the forbidden knowledge of what I learned was hidden by Fin Fang Foom’s underoos.

WAIT! I see I have just about used up my word count allotment! The astounding fact about FFF’s privates will sadly have to wait for another time.

I retorted, “I’ll give you forty dollars!” boldly flashing two crisp Jacksons. The dealer rejoined, “Hmmph! A guy already promised he’d take it at seventy and would be back soon!” I shot back, “Though it’s way beyond what it’s worth, but out of the goodness of my heart, I’ll pay fifty dollars and, a bird in the hand…”

For now there’s only space to say: “Make Mine Marvel’s Most Magnificent Monster: The Fin, The Fang, The FOOM!” Top inset: Looks like a self-portrait of Craig Yoe before his morning cuppa, replete with his trademark hair style! Left: Jack Kirby’s splash page (with Dick Ayers inks) for Foom’s debut tale in Strange Tales #89 [1961].

Dude bit. I grabbed the art and zoomed off in case my nemesis with his thick bankroll of 34

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Peter Poplaski

Cartoonist/Writer/Editor/Painter Co-Author, The R. Crumb Handbook 1998 Eisner Award winner, “Best Comics-Related Book”

“The Two-Headed Thing,” Strange Tales #95 Misshapen Shapeliness and Shapely Misshapenness: The Heroic Energy of Jack Kirby’s Monster Comics, 1960-63 like Kenneth Clark was making a media reference about the Jack Kirby Marvel monster comics that we loved as kids.

n 1972, I was in college and had just returned from a month in Italy studying renaissance art. By accident, I had stumbled upon the 13-part BBC series Civilisation by Kenneth Clark being replayed on Wisconsin Public Television. I remember my brother, Bill, and I were viewing the second episode, in which Clark quotes St. Bernard of Clairvaux criticizing the Cluniac style of sculpture in monasteries:

For me, St. Bernard’s 12th century commentary using his poetical phrase: “misshapen shapeliness and shapely misshapenness,” also eloquently described and immediately called to mind every Jack Kirby monster character, and it was for this very aesthetical reason we youngsters avidly collected Strange Tales and Tales to Astonish. These magazines weren’t just entertainment, but a reflection of the times in which our youth was staged as well. Of course, we climbed the apple trees in our backyard and played baseball practically every day, but overhead were jet aircraft cracking the sky with sonic booms, practicing no doubt for some possible future conflict with global repercussions. America was living through the Cold War arms race, the race for space, and the Cuban missile crisis. However, all the palpable paranoia and horror of those times — thoughts of possible oblivion — were being transmuted by creative energy and channeled into our favorite distractions; into movies, comic books, and TV. Television was the great com-

“And in the cloisters, under the eyes of the brethren engaged in reading, what business have those ridiculous monstrosities, that misshapen shapeliness and shapely misshapenness?

Those unclean monkeys, those fierce lions, those monstrous centaurs, those semi-human beings. Here you see a quadruped with the tail of a serpent, there a fish with a head of a goat. In short there appears on all sides so rich and amazing a variety of forms that it is more delightful to read the marble than the manuscripts and to spend the whole day in admiring these things, piece by piece, rather than in meditating on the Divine Law.” I commented to my brother then that it sounded to me

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mon denominator and a popular show like The Twilight Zone had the wit to show us every week that reality is not really what we think it is. Reality is actually stranger, scarier, and more dangerous than fantasy.

The Marvel monster comics had similar storylines, but they themselves, as objects for kids, seemed magical and more intimate. They appeared suddenly in 1960 on the weekly racks of new comics for sale on Thursdays at Peters drugstore. There, amidst the clean realistic rendering that underscored integrity on DC Superman and Batman comics by cover artists Curt Swan and Stan Kaye, next to the modern classicism that the Murphy Anderson inking brought to Carmine Infantino’s Flash and Gil Kane’s Green Lantern covers, behind the movie and TV photo covers of Dell Comics, Harvey’s Casper, and various Classics Illustrated and Archie comics, were buried dark grey or blue and brown covers with a primary yellow or red logo surrounding a large heavy orange or green “something” with text captions shouting, “CAN MANKIND SURVIVE?” The lumpy three-fingered alien-creature-monster drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Dick Ayers threatened to reach out aggressively. “NOTHING CAN STOP HIM!” This comic book cover grabbed at us as would a movie poster. We were not just watching a scene, we had become part of one. “THERE’S NO PLACE TO RUN!” My first thought was maybe I shouldn’t be looking at this. Calmly I opened the comic book to the splash page.

What my brother and I saw (I immediately had to show him even though he was four years younger than me) was like a Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animation movie on paper in every issue we came across. The Two-Headed Thing had weight and moved like the Cyclops in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. Zzutak pulled himself off of a giant Aztec flat canvas to breathe and live in three dimensions like King Kong.

The Creature from Krogarr crawled out of the television set. What if the Monster at My Window was at our window?

“THERE’S NO ESCAPE!” Actually, Billy and I didn’t want to escape. We wanted to learn. We picked up pencils and tried to draw monsters and dinosaurs like Jack Kirby. When we were given money to go buy ice cream, we’d excitedly put our nickels together so we could buy a Tales to Astonish

Above: Peter Poplaski relaxes with Strange Tales alongside his epic renderings of the awesome Atlas monsters created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, back when Pete conceived of the characters as a toy line! Below: Printed ridiculously small are those illustrations.

Previous page inset: Strange Tales #95 [1962]. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

featuring Gorgilla, the Monster of Midnight Mountain.

After a few years, the Marvel monsters evolved into the multi-part book-length epics of the Marvel super-heroes burdened with physical and social problems. They were monsters who wanted to be human again. You can witness the transformation in the first five issues of The Fantastic Four

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Above: Peter Poplaski’s sketches of Jack Kirby accompanied by quotes from the King when interviewed by Al Milgrom at a 1984 comic con. Below: At that same gathering, Peter and his brother, Billy, had their Atlas monster comics autographed by the artist, and Billy challenged Kirby to an arm-wrestling bout! Wanna wager who won that contest?

added a unified feeling, a wholeness, as if they were the storyboards of a bigger grander imagined film he was organizing in his mind.

Jack Kirby was truly heroic. Without Kirby’s energy and visuals, the Marvel Age and its future movie studio properties would never have been successfully developed as they were. There are a lot of people now standing on his shoulders, and I am proud to see his name in the movie credits of today’s $200 million movie productions of the old 10¢ comic books of yesteryear along with Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck. It is miraculous what one incredibly talented individual can do with just a pencil and a piece of Strathmore two-ply board and have it still have value and resonance in the world decades later.

In 1984, at the July Chicago ComicCon, my brother, Bill, and I were honored to meet and shake Jack Kirby’s hand, and to attend an afternoon interview session conducted by Al Milgrom. We sat in the second row so I could make a sketch of this great artist and take notes of what Jack Kirby said that afternoon:

and their baptism of fire on Monster Isle, in the Incredible Hulk wreaking special havoc on the Toad Men, the “Mighty Thor” battling the Stone Men from Saturn, the Amazing Spider-Man meeting the terrible Tinkerer, the “Astonishing Ant-Man” being out-sized by the mutated Scarlet Beetle, the “Invincible Iron Man” in conflict with a caveman that was really a… and on, and on. Thus, the Marvel Age of Comics took shape on the drawing board of Jack Kirby. His amazing output and legendary ability to draw three to four large pages of original art per day, gave his “look” to the whole line of books and to the adventure characters in them. It also

On his early days: “I come from the hostile school of art. I love violence for itself. It has a lot to do with being small. When I was a kid I was told artists are bums. My friends were the kid gang stuff. My relatives were the monster books. I never had a nickname. They must have been afraid of me. I did a

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Dave Sim Artist/Writer/Publisher Creator, Cerebus

Boys’ Ranch

never know where my research on The Strange Death of Alex Raymond is going to take me. I’m currently doing Rip Kirby commentaries on “The Caged Songbird” [Sept. 1950], which features “Jack and Joe of Tin Pan Alley”: record producers. Was Ward Greene, Rip Kirby scripter and King Features Syndicate general manager aware of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon? Mmm. Doubtful is my guess. But I did dig into Joe Simon’s book to see what the team had been working on at the time of their “apperance” in Rip Kirby.

Incidentally (Comic Art Metaphysics being what it is, I’d make that “coincidentally”), it was right around the time of the release of Boys’ Ranch and Joe Simon tells a very specific anecdote from September of 1950 about having a “completely out of the blue” visit to their offices by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel (comic-book royalty, as Simon aptly puts it), the punchline of which was Jerry Siegel asking to see what they had been working on — and Joe Simon showing him Boys’ Ranch.

Hitler cartoon once. I know a gangster when I see one.”

On work: “I have been in the business a long time — 42 years! I am a people-oriented guy. I’m an actor person and I’ll try to entertain you. My job is to sell a book. My job is to point to a new direction. I’m a producer/consultant. I’m a statesman now!”

On violence: “Some people tell me that the action in Captain America is impossible. Some people say you can’t fight six guys at the same time. Well, I was in fights like that when I was young.”

On war: “In the war, me and a buddy were running from a German Tiger tank. My buddy picked up an M-16 and makes an impossible shot through the driver’s slit at a thousand yards! I saw it! I was there! He saved our lives!”

And Jerry Siegel telling him he had been working on the exact same title for Ziff-Davis.

On writers: “The truth is, nobody has to tell me anything.”

On bowling: “My bowling average is 150. Joe [Simon] always bowls 200. I could never beat him at bowling.”

On the EC gang: “They came up looking for work. I threw them out of the office and they all became stars.”

You couldn’t make that up.

Later, as Jack Kirby finished autographing several 24– year-old issues of Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense for my brother, Bill asked him why some monsters had three fingers and others had four?

Top left inset: Splash page from “The Two-Headed Thing,” Strange Tales #95 [1962].

Above right inset: Detail from Alex Raymond’s Rip Kirby newspaper comic strip of Sept.

25, 1950, depicting “Jack and Joe of Tin Pan Alley.” Above: The cover of Simon and Kirby’s Boys’ Ranch #1 [1950]. All are TM & © the respective copyright owners.

“Listen,” Kirby explained, “in those days I was drawing so fast I didn’t have time to count fingers!”

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Artist • Co-Creator/Artist, Bane • Artist, The Phantom comic strip

Graham Nolan “X, the Thing that Lived,” Fear #2 ack Kirby scared me!

You have to understand that, in 1970, I was an eightyear-old kid who only knew comics from watching The Adventures of Superman and the Batman TV series. I had a smattering of comics, but I didn’t know one artist from another. It was really more about the characters and stories. Besides, I was more into monsters than super-heroes. Perfect, because that’s when I saw the cover to Marvel’s Fear #2.

The cover featured a man in a sewer running for his life towards us with a massive horned monster breaking through the asphalt reaching out to grab him. What struck that eight-year-old kid (the same way it strikes this 54-year-old man) was the sense of mass and scale of the monster. He was big and thick and scary and strong and he scared the piss out of me!

The first word that comes to mind when you think of Jack’s work is power. He created a visual language of dynamics that is still used today. But it’s his subtle nuances that I find interesting to dissect. There’s no shortage of dynamism on this cover, to be sure.

But a lesser artist might have chosen a birds-eye view to show how small and insignificant the man was compared to the monster. Or they might put the camera low to show the monster’s size from the man’s point of view.

But Jack put his “camera” at the eye level of the man down in the sewer and has the monster, on another plane, come down into view. Why is this genius? Because it puts us, as the viewers, down in the sewer with the man! His fear is now our fear! If that angle isn’t good enough, he also uses the perspective of the pipes to force the viewer into the heart of the image. Brilliant!

The cover of Fear #2 did what a good cover is supposed to. It intrigued me enough to buy it. That book also introduced me to Jack Kirby, Jack Kirby monsters, and Jack Kirby monster underwear (you know what I’m talking about!).

Happy Birthday, Jack. You are missed.

Above left: Graham Nolan’s cover for Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #35 [2008]. Right insets: Although Kirby was at DC Comics in the early 1970s, Marvel continued publishing Jack’s work via reprints in titles such as Fear #2 [1971], which re-introduced “What Was X, the Thing That Lived” from Tales to Astonish #20 [1961]. Next page: Cover and splash page, Strange Tales #100 [1962].

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John Holmstrom

Cartoonist/Writer/Editor/Actor/Publisher Co-Creator & Artist, Nexus Artist, Mister Miracle Special, Founding X-Men: editor, Children PunkofMagazine the Atom Author, Seven-time The Best Eisner of Punk Award Magazine winner

“The Man in the Crazy Maze,” Strange Tales #100 hen I was just eight or nine years old, I always looked forward to getting new shoes because the shoe shop owner would give us free comic books! These weren’t the usual “funny books,” like Hot Stuff or Sad Sack; they were more like The Twilight Zone or Chiller Theater. The “Strange Tale” that affected me the most was the cover story for #100: “The Man in the Crazy Maze.” The poor guy enters the wrong crazy maze at an amusement park, encounters one nightmarish situation after another, until the last panel reveals that he is on a slow descent into Hell.

Wow… I started keeping these comics so I could reread them later.

Soon the super-heroes took over these comic books, and I grew to enjoy them just as much as the Atlas tales’ characters like Fin Fang Foom, Quogg, the Gorilla Man, even Groot. Many years later, I developed a deep appreciation for these comics, since they laid the groundwork for what would become Marvel: Science-fiction, alien beings, apocalyptic storylines, and, of course, amazing artwork.

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David Lloyd

Co-Creator/Artist, V for Vendetta Artist, Doctor Who, Hellblazer, Writer/Artist, Kickback Publisher, Co-Founder, Aces Weekly

“Sserpo,” Amazing Adventures #6, cover ately followed and massively admired, barring the blockbusting introduction of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., in Strange Tales.

y introduction to Jack Kirby came through those “big monster” things that Kirby used to do.

You know the ones: full of running people, and square-jawed, pipe-smoking, scientists, with the big, blocky, hands we can now all recognise as Kirby from streets away, and through a fog. My brother and I loved those. Many were branded “Kirby and Ayers,” and there were lots of them in UK reprints of various comics strips from the U.S. We had no idea who Kirby and Ayers were — they were just a designer label, a trusted brand, from that world of magic, America.

Later still, as my understanding of comics art matured, I came to realize that, despite the maximization of energy that was always apparent in every line he drew, in the actual process of the craft he used in producing it, he was, in fact, a minimalist! And it was that fantastic simplicity of his work that I loved then, as I love it now, and not the later work of his, where, like a body-builder in love with his muscles, he didn’t know when to stop.

Later, when I came to understand who Jack Kirby was, and what Dick Ayers did to enhance their collaborations, it was Kirby I came to appreciate more, of course, and become a great fan of, especially when I began seeing the astonishing Fantastic Four, which is the only strip of his that I passion-

For me, Jack Kirby crystallized the essence of what truly superior comic and cartoon art does in what almost all the most popular and successful examples of it show: minimal effort for maximum effect. The gods never strain to produce miracles.

Top inset: Writer Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s most well-known collaboration, V For Vendetta, was the inspiration for the mask used during the Occupy Wall Street movement of the early ’10s, a mask Lloyd designed, itself based on Guy Fawkes masks worn since the 1600s. Above: Here’s a trio of Kirby/Ayers monster stories, from [left to right] Journey Into Mystery #66 [1961], Tales to Astonish #23 [1961], and Journey Into Mystery #67 [1961]. Next page: Amazing Adventures was, for its brief run, an all-Kirby monster title. Here’s the cover of #6 [1961], the last ish. Inks on this spread are by Dick Ayers.

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Alan Weiss

Artist/Writer Creator/Artist/Writer, Steelgrip Starkey and the All-Purpose Power Tool Co-Creator/Artist/Co-Writer, War Dancer

“The Guns of Jasper Jelko,” The Rawhide Kid #28, pg. 3

Kirby’s Hyperkinetic Cowboy Comics ack Kirby had been illustrating western adventures from early efforts like “Wilton of the West” through early Fifties’ now-classic creations Boys’ Ranch and Bullseye. In the late Fifties and early Sixties, he brought his well-honed, highly-intensified action aesthetics back to Atlas/Marvel for some of the rowdiest, rip-roarinest cowboy comics ever.

The Rawhide Kid was the best, probably because he was in some ways so similar to Jack himself. Rawhide too was a very tough little guy. A somewhat short, red-headed Cagney-like cowboy, he had the quickest draw and fastest fists in the West. It was both inspirational and satisfying to see the bantamweight Kid whup up on a passel of great big galoots!

Rawhide, a misunderstood good bad guy, didn’t want no trouble, and didn’t start none. Always tryin’ his best to keep a low profile, trouble always found him.

But it was his look that sold the character. Rawhide, in his mostly black shield front shirt (with those big buttons) and matching blue-highlighted black pants, was a dark graphic centering all action. This striking image — striding, riding, leaping, fighting, and shooting across those action-packed pages — made The Rawhide Kid the stand-out wild western that it was. Kirby’s cartooning created a hyperreality which accentuated the essence and elements of the western genre. And it was the then-relatively recent Marvel-style unscripted leave-it-up-to-the-artist layouts, allowing Kirby to sequence his action scenes his way, that gave the Rawhide Kid book its signature look. Never have Cowboy Previous page: A dramatic page from The Rawhide Kid #28 [1962]; note how his black costume dominates each panel. Inks Comics been more fun!

by Dick Ayers. Above: Alan Weiss tribute to the Marvel Comics’ western character, drawn in 2013.

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Al Gordon

Artist/Writer/Editor/Actor/Musician Creator/Inker, WildStar Two-time Eisner Award winner

Amazing Fantasy #15, cover mazing Fantasy #15 is one of my fantasies. I’ve never owned it, and still don’t, so it’s a Holy Grail of sorts, and that distance might be what makes it so mythological for me. I never bought it when I was a kid because the 15 clams that Howard Rogofsky and the Grand Book Center were selling it for through the mail, was pretty pricey.

penciled for the cover of AF #15, but more a gymnast or acrobat.

Basically, Spidey started out as a skinny kid that was “blessed” with the powers of a human-sized spider.

Very cool, and kinda spooky if you have arachnophobia… and I figured out, early on, that the very idea of a Spider-Man made the girls all kinda wince without me doing anything special like eating dirt or doing armfarts.

When my girlfriend/wife and I were a new item, she would occasionally question me about my love of comic books, and she could see the passion in my eyes about Spider-Man, and how it changed comics (and the rest of the world) for me.

A few years later, for Christmas, she bought me the Franklin Mint plate of Amazing Fantasy #15. It still hangs proudly in our bedroom.

This was that dark early Marvel thing — kinda creepy in an old EClike way… especially in contrast to the much more colorful DC house style. So, by the time I finally saw the cover of AF #15, I was already familiar with Ditko’s Spidey, and this cover wasn’t much like Steve’s artwork inside or, for that matter, like any of the Spider-Man books. But it was pretty danged awesome.

I started reading comics when I was pretty young, stuff like Dennis the Menace and Space Mouse, and then eventually DC super-hero stuff, and shortly after that I became fairly addicted. Music was an addiction too… The problem was that my family wasn’t exactly wealthy, so my allowance didn’t really cover my four-color and musical “needs.” So I got a paper route and then I could pick up most of the comics and music I wanted, and still have a little money left over for a few candy bars and such.

I always assumed that Steve had drawn the original cover and Stan wasn’t all that excited about it. And I can understand that. As cool as it is, it’s just not all that “mighty.” So I figured they gave Steve’s cover to Jack and told him to fix it because it wasn’t powerful enough. And he sure did.

In a way, it was the best of both worlds for me. Ditko’s style and his Spidey character was a little gangly, uncoordinated, and nicely quirky… and then we had Kirby’s AF #15 cover version that was dramatic, dynamic, and seriously powerful.

The posture and positioning of all the elements, from Spidey and his thunderstruck passenger, to the awesome buildings, are amazingly dramatic. Spidey is incredibly sturdy in that Jack way, but there’s still a tad of teenager there by way of Steve.

The casual way Spidey is holding on to his web is so perfect and natural, like Peter Parker’s been doing it his

So, around a year after Amazing Fantasy #15 was released, comics were still mostly brand new to me, and I was slowly sussing-out what I liked and what I didn’t. I’d just picked-up Amazing Spider-Man #3 before I ever saw AF #15, and Steve Ditko had already figured out a lot of the weaknesses he’d had with Spider-Man’s super-hero dynamics. By #3 Spidey was still a skinny teenager but he was pretty powerful — not the godlike character that Jack 46

entire life. It’s 100% organic — and the costume’s webbing is “correct,” something Jack never really figured out.

This may sound odd, but one of the coolest things to me is Jack’s version of Spidey’s ribcage on the AF #15 cover. It’s really amazing and cool! So powerful and solid… like it’s made of concrete or something very hard and gritty.

It’s the perfect amalgam of Jack and Steve. It has the unbridled power of Jack and the beautifully dark, unconventionally kinky panache of Steve — and it foretold Ditko’s more powerful future Spider-Man. This cover is a perfect primer on how to create comic covers.

It’s the master class on how to dissect drama and dynamics. Suffice it to say, in my mind, it’s one of the very best… period.

If there’s an afterlife and I have the distinct privilege of chatting-up Jack and Steve for all of eternity, I’m gonna have to figure out a word that’s suitable for such creative prowess.

So, while I’m sure Roz will, as usual, offer to make me a “nice salami sandwich,” I’ll say: To me… the word to describe this amazing amalgam of artists… this perfect storm of design and drawing… is… “Cool.”

100%. The very coolest.

Thanx, guys!

Previous page: At top is Steve Ditko’s original cover art for Spidey’s first appearance, rejected for use on Amazing Fantasy #15 [1962]. Below is Al Gordon’s inks over Kirby’s pencils, in a reworking of the opening sequence from The Silver Surfer graphic novel [1978]; Jack poetically began the story with the Surfer emerging from the hand of Galactus, where, in the end, he returned the character. Above: The Kirby-penciled, Ditko-inked cover that launched an icon. Top right: Detail of Kirby’s Marvelmania #5 [1971] cover.

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Sal Buscema

Artist/Actor Co-Creator, Nighthawk, Nomad, Starhawk 2003 Inkpot Award, ’13 Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award

Fantastic Four Annual #1, The Incredible Hulk pin-up wasn’t a huge fan as a kid, but I certainly read comic books, and I didn’t become familiar with Jack Kirby until my oldest brother John got into the business. John was eight years older than I, and he was 20, I believe, when Stan hired him, so I was only 12 at that time, and I wasn’t really familiar with artists.

But, later on, as John became a fixture in the business, I became familiar with Jack Kirby’s stuff.

so I thought it was a good time to make a change.

The beauty of the whole situation was that I was able to stay in Virginia. Marvel was starting to farm work out to people all over the country, so I didn’t have to move to New York.

I went to Marvel with the idea of being an inker. My first love has always been inking. For some reason, I draw better with a brush than I do with a pencil.

One of the first jobs that they gave me was at John’s insistence, because he was not happy with the way he was being inked at the time.

Joe Sinnott was inking John’s Silver Surfer, and Joe is a phenomenal inker, but he wasn’t inking John the way John wanted to be inked.

He knew that I was very familiar with his work, and knew what he wanted, so I was able to give it to him, and he talked Stan into making me the inker on the book.

I got my first job in comics in 1968 when they were expanding the line.

I’m not completely certain about the timeline, but that’s probably when they started with Stan’s concept of very, very loose scripting and leaving the storytelling to the artist. I had a very good job with an art studio in Washington, D.C., known as Design Center. They’re no longer in business — they’ve been gone for many years — but, at the time, they were probably considered the top commercial art studio in the area. We did everything from visual aids to advertising, animation — the works. You name it, we did it. But I always wanted to get into comics, and I wasn’t completely happy with the work I was doing at the studio.

They were interested in supporting animation and filmmaking, and that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to illustrate, and they were moving in another direction,

I wasn’t totally familiar with the body of Jack’s work, but I was certainly familiar with what he was doing for Marvel at the time. Who in the business wouldn’t be familiar with Jack’s work? He was the Babe Ruth of comics! He was phenomenal and, to this day, I think he’s still the greatest comic book illustrator of all time.

I’m not sure John was ever asked to draw like Jack Kirby.

First of all, John would not do that because he had his own style of drawing. And who could draw like Jack Kirby?

Those who have tried to imitate his style of drawing have fallen flat on their faces. I remember a statement from Gil

Top inset: Detail from Sal Buscema’s Hulk illustration in the Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975. Above inset: Character-filled panel from The Incredible Hulk #278 [1982], with pencils by Sal Buscema and inks by Joe Sinnott, repro’d from the original art. Next page: Kirby’s Hulk pin-up in Fantastic Four Annual #1 [1963], with inks possibly by Sol Brodsky.

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Kane, a well-respected artist and a very talented guy in his own right, and I have to paraphrase, but he said essentially, “If you’re trying to do what Jack Kirby is doing, my advice to you is don’t try, because you won’t succeed,” because his style was so much his, so individualistic, it was virtually impossible to emulate. I had to work for about a year before I actually started working for Marvel, to learn how to do comic books, specifically to do them in the Marvel style.

The mistake I made initially was to try to emulate Jack Kirby.

Speaking with John about it, he advised me, “Don’t do that.

This guy is in a class by himself. What he does is all his. Yeah, you want to be influenced by the way he tells a story and the power he puts into every panel, but do it your way.

Don’t try to emulate him.”

That was very good advice, and probably advice everybody should have heeded at the time.

speed. And this was one of the reasons Marvel kept me busy all of the time, because when they needed an emergency job done, they knew that I was there to do it, and I could do it in a pretty quick and competent manner. I think my record was the time I was doing a rush job for them and I did nine pages in one day — that was from morning until night. Normally I would do about three or four pages a day. That was a comfortable day for me.

I couldn’t tell you the exact day Jack quit Marvel, but it was a blow. It really was a blow. Who ever thought Jack would leave Marvel? But he did, and it was unfortunate. But Marvel went on to bigger and better things. A company is not dependent on just one individual. I think this was the proof of that.

I don’t look at Marvel or DC comics very much anymore because they’ve changed so dramatically, but there’s probably not a guy in the industry — at least from my era and several years after — who was not influenced in some way or another by Jack Kirby. He was the pinnacle of the industry as far as telling a comic book story. He will be influencing people in this industry for years to come.

I love the current Marvel movies. As far as I’m concerned, they’re doing the movies the way we used to do comic books 35, 40 years ago.

Look at the Avengers movies — they’re right out of the comic book pages with all the action, the conflict, the bad versus good.

I sent Stan some samples of penciling — which was probably a mistake on my part, because, as I said, I wanted to be an inker. I’d been dealing up to that point with Sol Brodsky, who was the art director and Stan’s righthand man. I had a couple of inking jobs under my belt before I started doing fulltime work for Marvel, when Stan asked me to come to New York for an interview. I got the complete run-down as to what he wanted — the Marvel style of comic books.

It was a very entertaining interview, because he was literally leaping from his chair to his desk and back to the floor again. I thought, “My God, this guy’s out of his mind!” We all know what a colorful guy he is, and this was his method of getting across to the artists exactly what it was he wanted. He literally acted it out for you.

One of the real regrets of my life was that I never met Jack Kirby. It was simply because of the logistics of where I lived and where he lived.

I understand that he was a terrific guy, who would give you the shirt off his back. He was very, very open to helping people trying to get into the business. But unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet him. He was not a giant in the industry, he was the giant in the industry. I think the man bordered on genius, really. His concepts, his ideas, his creativity — everything about him was enormous. There was nothing second-rate about Jack. He was the best, the absolute best, and I’m not the only guy who feels that way. We have a lot to thank him for.

I was very fortunate in that they were pretty happy with what I was doing for them to begin with, but it was a struggle for me. I was not very fast to begin with, and everything I did I was dissatisfied with. I needed some time to really get comfortable with what they wanted from me. It was a very difficult time for me, and to be candid about it, it took me four or five years before I got to a point where I felt really comfortable with what I was doing and was able to pick up

Above inset: Besides extended assignments on Kirby co-creations The Avengers and The Incredible Hulk (the latter which he drew for some ten years!), Sal Buscema also had a nice run as penciler on Captain America during the 1970s, particularly memorable when collaborating with scripter Steve Englehart for the “Secret Empire” story arc. This is Buscema’s cover for #155 (1972], inked by Jim Mooney. Next page: Penciler Kirby and inker Dick Ayer’s Incredible Hulk #5 [1963] splash page.

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Carl Potts

Artist/Writer/Editor/Instructor Creator/Artist, Alien Legion Author, The DC Comics Guide to Creating Comics: Inside the Art of Visual Storytelling

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1, cover n the early 1960s, most of my comics purchases consisted of DC’s war titles. Even as a kid, the work of Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Irv Novick, and others working on those books seemed a cut above the war titles coming out from other publishers.

line of titles. I tried them and, within a month or so, all of my comics purchasing shifted to Marvel, including all of the fantastic super-hero work Kirby was producing.

Somewhere, in a parallel universe, I did not go to the PX with my dad. I did not see Sgt. Fury #1 and I did not get turned on to Jack Kirby and the Marvel Universe. What a boring life that would have led to!

Occasionally, I’d try comics from other publishers, but the vast majority of my purchases were the DC war books.

In 1963, I accompanied my father to the Navy PX, in Alameda, California, and checked out the comics racks.

There, popping out of the rack clutter was the cover of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1. The drawing did not have the rendering polish of most of the DC war titles — but it was so damn dynamic and the bombastic cover copy was exciting.

I plucked down my 12¢ and took it home.

That purchase changed my comics buying habits forever.

The story was a lot of fun and, even though I was not totally enamored with the rendering style of the art, I found myself rereading it, day after day. It became a tattered mess and one of my most cherished possessions.

It wasn’t until I was older that I realized that it was Kirby’s amazing visual storytelling, dynamic action, and compositions that had hooked me.

The house ads for other Marvel titles that were contained in Sgt. Fury #1 turned me on to the rest of Marvel’s

Previous page: Kirby and Stan Lee jump into the war genre with Sgt. Fury. This cover by Kirby and inker Dick Ayers is from the debut issue [1963]. This page: At top is vignette of the otherworldly stars of Carl Potts’ creator-owned property, Alien Legion. Above: Double page spread from Sgt. Fury #1 introducing the crew. Art by Kirby and Ayers.

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Rick Hoberg

Artist/Writer/Editor/Instructor Creator/Artist, Alien Legion, Author, The DC Comics Guide to Creating Comics: Inside the Art of Visual Storytelling

Strange Tales #114, cover

Why Jack Kirby was Important in My Life ow many moments in your life do you vividly remember?

Moments that you recall frequently, as clear as a photograph, and that tremendously impacted everything that came afterwards? For me, one of those moments was my discovery of a particular comic book cover which introduced me to a modern American mythology.

As a child, my family went on a lot of fishing trips. Dad and mom were avid anglers, but fishing bored me to death.

Comics were my antidote to boredom. We often traveled through Bishop, California, on the way to the High Sierras, and Bishop had a bookstore that stocked a big variety of comic books.

I was mainly a DC and Gold Key comics reader, but I also read Archie and Harvey comics. Then, in 1963, as we passed through Bishop on one of those frequent family fishing excursions, my folks stopped at that bookstore to allow me to restock on comics. There weren’t any new issues of my favorites, so I picked up some comics by a new publisher called Marvel. I picked up Amazing Spider-Man #6, Fantastic Four #19, and issues of Tales To Astonish and Journey Into Mystery. By the time I had devoured these comics, I was intrigued — intrigued enough to browbeat my folks into stopping at the same store on the way home from the fishing trip to see what other Marvel comics might be available.

It opened a door to a world much more complexly integrated than DC or Gold Key, with more human characters; characters that had a range of relatable emotions that drove the stories.

Kirby’s incomparable covers and interior storytelling expanded the vista of the adventure genre and added to my love of the media. Character and imagination beyond anything I had seen filled every panel of his tales. Every month brought scenes that uplifted and thrilled. A true passion for comic book stories filled my life. Thus began my yearning to create, to be a cartoonist who could give back to others what Jack had given to me. It has always been less about the fame, and more about the sharing of this joy of storytelling that has driven me. I have been so fortunate to not only succeed in the art world, but to have sustained a career of 40-some years drawing — thanks to Jack for being such an inspiration to create, and to pay it forward.

That moment is still vivid in my mind: My dad parks the car near the bookstore. I jump out and cross the street. I enter and go to the comics. Then, I see that cover, and it was a game-changer. The comic was Strange Tales #114, and the cover, featuring the Human Torch facing off against Captain America, was so dramatically different from other issues on the stands. It portrayed super-heroes that were far more exciting than those I grew up reading.

Previous page: Captain America makes a tentative return to the Marvel Universe in Strange Tales #114 [1963]. This page: Rick Hoberg’s Kirby-inspired work for What If? #10, top, and #5, bottom.

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Rick Veitch

Artist/Writer/Publisher Creator, Bratpack, The Maximortal, The One 2000 Eisner Award winner (shared), “Best Anthology”

“The Mysterious Molecule Man,” Fantastic Four #20

Jack’s Other Negative Zone rowing up where I did, the schools didn’t offer much in terms of art training. Bitten by the creative bug early, I had to look elsewhere to learn the basics of drawing, design, perspective, and anatomy. The place I found them being demonstrated, if not explained, was in comics.

In art, Negative Space is defined as “the space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative Space may be most evident when the space around a subject, not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space occasionally is used to artistic effect as the “real” subject of an image.”

While I was fascinated by all comics, certain artists really got my engines revving. Often I would study a powerful panel and try to understand why it held such an attraction to me. Many of those images were Jack’s. In fact, almost everything Jack Kirby did seemed to posses an underlying vitality that other cartoonists lacked. What was it?

It’s one of the things Jack understood (maybe intuitively?) that made his stuff so much more visually powerful and eccentric than other cartoonists. Blasting out page after page during the Sixties, he was embedding hypnotically effective abstract design elements in every corner of his comics.

Readers experienced all this subliminally, but I think it contributed to their general delight with his work.

“It” was a lot of things, of course, but one of the hidden things jumped out at 14-year-old me while studying FF #20, “The Mysterious Molecule Man.” Jack must have been particularly rushed that issue as his normally highly detailed backgrounds were absent. Many panels were left with completely empty backgrounds, which were only lightly color tinted or left white.

Later, Jack introduced the “Kirby Krackle,” a design trick conveying fiery energy that made Marvel’s competition look instantly obsolete. What’s interesting is that the reader must experience “figure-ground reversal” for the “Kirby Krackle” to work! The eye initially wants to linger on the bazillions of black dots; but only by reversing focus to the Negative Space around them will the reader see Jack’s dancing fractal flames.

Somehow this seemed even more mesmerizing than usual. I kept looking and looking until it dawned on me that the space around Reed, Johnny, Sue, and Ben was incredibly interesting. If I scrunched up my eyes and ignored the line art, the white spaces formed insanely amazing abstracts which, when grouped together, formed bigger structures that bordered on metaphysical. I was seeing Jack’s art (and my own) in a whole new way!

I didn’t have a name for this shift in visual perception when I discovered it in Jack’s work, but now I know it’s called “figure-ground reversal” and is essential to comprehending “Negative Space,” a basic design concept that should be part of everyone’s foundational training in the arts.

Just part of the Kirby magic!

Top inset: Rick Veitch famously worked Jack’s Fourth World characters into Swamp Thing #62 [1987]. This pages features Veitch pencils and inks by Alfredo Alcala. Above: Rick Veitch shares about his son, Kirby: “When I brought little Kirby up and showed Jack his name tag, Jack said ‘Yoiks!’ I think this was 1991 or ’92 at San Diego. Kirby was three. Now, at 28, Kirby is a fantasy illustrator and comics colorist!” Next page: Splash page from Fantastic Four #20 [1963]. Pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Dick Ayers.

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Tom Mandrake

Artist/Book Illustrator Creator, Creeps, Artist, The Spectre, Martian Manhunter Alumnus, Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art

The Avengers #4, cover was born in 1956, so that means I started reading comics right at the beginning of the big Marvel boom in the early ’60s. The first comic book I remember reading was the Avengers issue where Captain America comes back, #4. So, to say that Jack Kirby had an influence on me is obvious. I was right there for that. In fact, I got that comic book, I showed it to my dad, and I said, “Who’s Captain America?” It was so exciting to me, I got all worked up about it, but I didn’t even know who the character was. My dad was a comic book fan, so he explained to me who Captain America was. Fortunately, any questions I had about the history of comics, he was there to explain it to me. He wasn’t a collector necessarily, but he was into it.

When people look at my art, they’ll say, “Your stuff reminds me of Gene Colan,” and I think that’s absolutely true.

When you look at my art, you might see more Colan, but how do you walk away from Colan, or Ditko, or Kirby? Those are the guys who were there when I first started reading comics, so they’re all in the mix for me. Once I discovered them, the next big hit for me was the Warren books that came out in the ’60s, and then I discovered all of the artists who’d worked for EC. It was a backwards trail for me. But, again, Kirby was the first artist whose work really grabbed me.

Above: Tom Mandrake poses with his art from Martian Manhunter #1,000,000 [1998], a spread featuring the titular hero versus Darkseid. Inset below: The Demon guest-starred in Martian Manhunter #28 [2001]. Art by Tom Mandrake. Next page: Penciler Kirby and inker George Roussos’ Avengers #4 [1964] cover.

I was always a huge Captain America fan. There are some characters you love that you want to draw, and there are some that you love, but don’t necessarily want to draw. Captain America I love as a character to read. I’d rather draw Doctor Strange, but I love Captain America. Fantastic Four was always a favorite book of mine to read. I loved the early war books, both Marvel’s and DC’s, so Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos had a big impact on me. I haven’t done a lot of war books except very early in my career, but I like that material, and I like Kirby’s take on it.

with completely different styles and still appreciate both of them, which I’m not sure is something all fans understand, but all artists do. And, again, Kirby’s work was right there to help me along with that idea.

Look at the work Kirby did from the ’40s through the ’50s, the ’60s, the ’70s — his style changed tremendously decade by decade all the way through his life. There’s a huge alteration in how you look at his work. And Joe Kubert’s work is the same way. You can’t look at his work all through his life and say, “That looks the same.”

There’s a huge development. Which to me is fascinating, to see what happened with their work over the years.

I can’t separate myself from that Avengers cover. Like a lot of things in comics, the first thing you get blown away by always sticks with you. “Wow! Captain America’s back! I don’t know who that is, but I love that drawing!” Then there was such interesting development with that character because you went to the Jim Steranko issues.

Those were so unique, and I was fascinated by the style change. I love that change of styles between those two artists, and that really set me off. What that did for me was say, “Look how different you can have things, and they’re both good.” That was a lesson for me that have really great artists

If you had to distill it down to who created more characters — and I’m not going to get into the whole Stan Lee/Jack Kirby thing, but we all know how much of that was actually Jack’s work. And when you start talking about plot-style development, we know how much the artist has influence 58

in that. Obviously he created a great deal of that, and then went on to create his own universes after that. And in the ’40s he was creating other great characters, Fighting American and others. You can’t escape him.

Everywhere you look, there’s Kirby. Even down to little stylistic things. We still call them Kirby dots, or at least I do. I teach at the Kubert School, and sometimes when I say “Kirby dots” a student will ask, “What’s that?”

When I show them, they’ll say, “Oh, those.”

I knew Joe Kubert very well.

I learned a great deal from him about artwork, and how to be a good professional and get your work done, and how to treat other people in a public environment. Joe was a great guy. From what I hear about Jack Kirby, he was a great guy too. Even when you have fans around, you don’t want to behave like you’re somebody special just because you’re lucky enough to do this kind of work. I can’t speak for Jack, but I know the Depression had an impact on Joe. He was working in the industry when he was 13.

He did what he was able to do, starting off by sweeping floors, and he gave his paycheck to his mother when he got home. I think that kind of work ethic translated into the fact that they would sit and do their job, and they didn’t consider themselves to be stars. People around them considered them to be stars, but they didn’t act that way around other people.

So much of what we have in terms of the iconic heroes at Marvel certainly, and to some extent at DC, Kirby had at least a hand in creating. I don’t know how you could escape the idea that the industry owes Jack a debt of gratitude.

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Kyle Baker

Cartoonist, Artist/Writer, and Animator Creator, The Bakers, Why I Hate Saturn, Nat Turner Winner of nine Eisner Awards and seven Harvey Awards

Captain America ack Kirby is Marvel Comics.

That’s the first thing I learned: the Jack Kirby style. When I went to Marvel, that was pretty much the house style back in 1982. Jim Shooter was in charge, and he would show you Kirby pages — and I was very young, so I didn’t know anything — and he would explain why it was the best stuff, and how the stories worked without the dialogue.

Shooter used to tell us, “Your audience is kids.” We were distributed through the candy stores at the time. “You have to assume that a percentage of your audience can’t read.” And he explained that you could flip through an Avengers comic by Kirby and not have to be able to read to understand it. And I still use that instruction today, and I have a big international audience because of that. I still work in the Lee/Kirby style, which is doing the artwork first, and then writing the dialogue.

disappeared to make it more readable — that’s straight out of Kirby.

Shooter used to say, “Keep the cropping to a minimum.” That means, when you’re doing, say, a fight scene, there’s a tendency to show the characters from the waist up. If you’re thinking of an audience of children, how are they going to know the guy’s running if they can’t see his legs? How do they know the character is flying unless there’s air all around the figure? We would look through Fantastic Four comics, and in the fight scenes the camera is far enough back so you can see all the action.

As a kid, the Kirby characters I gravitated to most were the Fantastic Four.

I thought the character work was very good. I always say every issue of Fantastic Four begins like every episode of The A-Team. The first page was always a character interaction. Very often the Human Torch would be teasing the Thing, and that would establish the characters, who they were. Then Mr. Fantastic would break them up on page two, and that established him as the leader. Sue Storm’s function in the story was always as “the wife.” (They weren’t really into women characters at the time.) It was a formula, but within the first two pages you understood the dynamics. You knew in those two pages who the characters were and how they interacted and what their relationship was. The Thing is physical and has a temper. Mr. Fantastic is the peacekeeper and the leader. Then you introduce the villain, then you introduce the conflict. I still use that same kind of structure when I write stories now.

When I did Plastic Man, I drew the whole book first, and then put the dialogue in because it was all sight gags. I did that book for my smallest children, and I kept that in mind all the time. The Bakers, Plastic Man, even You Are Here can be “read” without being able to read. I tried my best to do that with Nat Turner, too. And all that came from Kirby.

I was aware of Kirby as a kid, but I gravitated towards the comedy. I just happened to find myself at Marvel because I’m from New York, and I got an internship there through my school. A lot of the guys I was working with knew Kirby.

At the time I started, Frank Giacoia was in the bullpen, Jack Abel was still there, and so were Marie Severin and John Romita. They would show you Kirby as an example of how to do your work better. As an intern, I was the youngest guy there. I was 17, 18, so they would always show me Kirby, or John Buscema who was aping Kirby. That was our model.

That was the ideal.

Kirby’s art had dynamism. It had movement. It had power to it, which to me is the trademark of Marvel at the time.

There was a big movement for artists’ rights when I was at Marvel. It’s why I do my own work. I learned from the older guys what to do and what not to do. Kirby was important in that regard as an object lesson: Don’t give up your rights.

When I do any book, I try to look at the source material.

When I did Plastic Man, I looked at Jack Cole. So, when I drew Captain America: Truth, I got a bunch of old Captain America comic books out and looked at their layouts and tried to emulate that style. I deliberately tried to draw like Jack Kirby. I even gave him the square fingers, and used the six-panel grids. In a lot of the fight scenes, the backgrounds

There wouldn’t be a Marvel Comics without Jack. And Jack worked so long. When I was a little kid, I found a bunch of my dad’s comic books in my grandma’s basement. The comics were from the ’50s, and a lot of them were Jack Kirby comics. That’s how long he was at it. I can’t imagine comics without Jack Kirby.

Top inset: With writer Robert Morales, artist Kyle Baker created a seven-issue 2003 Marvel series, Truth: Red, White & Black, about a black soldier who is administered the same superserum as Kirby’s Steve Rogers and himself becomes Captain America. Next page: Lovely presentation piece by Kirby, with Don Heck inks, from 1966. Why was this done? Who knows!

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Shannon Wheeler

New Yorker Cartoonist Creator, Too Much Coffee Man 1995, 2011 Will Eisner Award-winner

The Beast pin-up, The X-Men #8 first met Jack Kirby when I was a little kid at a convention in San Francisco that Bob Schreck put on. I bought X-Men #1 for $25 and X-Men #2 for $8, and had him sign them. I think this was 1974, so I was eight. I talked with him for a little bit, but actually I wasn’t a big Kirby fan then because I didn’t think his art was realistic enough.

I was a Neal Adams fan all the way, but I’ve completely flipped, and now Kirby is my absolute hero. Kirby is amazing. The economy, the energy, the exaggeration, the ability to do something wrong but make it right. I think that takes a greater soul. It’s more interesting that he can draw something that’s physically wrong, the perspective is wrong, but you look at a page and it feels right, and everything reads.

You look at it, and it starts bouncing with energy. People are using Google SketchUp now to get their perspectives right, and that’s so boring to me.

I have no interest in making perspective correct.

The change happened when I started drawing comics myself.

I started off trying to do everything correctly — anatomy, perspective, etc., and I’d measure out the three-point perspective. Eventually I thought, “Why am I doing this this?” and I started playing with it more. “I’m going to do perspective, but it will be fisheye.” And that opened up my vision in terms of seeing Kirby for what he was doing and what he was doing really well. It’s like playing music. I heard musician friends say they really liked Prince. I was never a big Prince fan, but then I started playing guitar and all of a sudden I started hearing Prince.

“Oh! This is amazing!” It’s the same thing. I was trying to draw, and it just opened things up. Kirby has a beautiful art style, and I’ve grown to love it more and more.

Years later, I finally started going to San Diego Comic-Con. I was doing comics myself, so this must have been 1993, ’94, and I was walking down the aisle, and I saw a comic that I wanted in my peripheral vision, so I made an abrupt right turn. In San Diego, you’re just doing the fan shuffle.

You can move a little bit, you stop. You move a little bit, you stop. So when you make any abrupt movement invariably you knock into somebody, which I did. I ran into this old man, and I almost knocked him over. His started pinwheeling his arms trying to catch himself, and then his old lady wife catches him and say, “I’ve got you.” I say, “Oh, I’m really sorry. It was stupid of me,” and I look and it’s Jack Kirby.

I really like the Fantastic Four run between where the Inhumans are introduced and where Silver Surfer and Galactus come in. I’ve just started reading the New Gods. I want to reread Destroyer Duck, but I really hated it as a kid. I bought it in support because I thought, “Okay, he’s trying to do this

Above: Though much of his current work appears in The New Yorker, Shannon Wheeler is also creator of the funny super-hero parody, Too Much Coffee Man, and he shared this expert homage to a Captain America vs. Batroc page in Tales of Suspense #85 [see pg. 105]. Top inset: Kirby cover art, unmarred by blurbs, for The X-Men #11 [1965]. Inks by Chic Stone.

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new thing with a small company,” and I really respected that. It was one of the first non-Marvel, non-DC books I ever bought, but I thought it was terrible. I imagine now I’d have a very different point of view on it.

Jack Kirby was full of piss. He was not afraid. He hit his stride after doing comics for 30 years, and that really shows you a lot about the man.

If you look back at the early stuff, it’s Jack Kirby, but it’s not really Jack Kirby. It wasn’t until he was doing Fantastic Four that he’s doing all of this groundbreaking stuff. It shows me that you have to put in the time and put in the work, and the payoff is when you are 50, and that’s when you really start to come forward as an artist.

Kirby’s work ethic is still inspiring, and the fact that he would break rules and make it work.

He made the paper bend to his will. He just had a good energy to him, and that’s completely inspirational. He defined mainstream comics. Now that people are more and more mining his imagination, I think next we’ll start to see the secondary and tertiary books that he created.

We’ll see characters like Black Bolt and the weird god characters he made. I’ll bet the New Gods will come back soon.

In the ’70s and ’80s he was considered kind of a hack, and he was looked down upon, and I was one of those people. So he was outside of the mainstream, but he also defined the mainstream, and I think he’s going to define it more and more as we go forward.

This page: Original art for a playful Kirby pin-up page, sporting Chic Stone inks, featuring the bouncing Beast, from The X-Men #8 [1964].

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Larry Hama

Artist/Writer/Editor/Actor/Musician Creator, Buck O’Hare, Writer, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero 2012 Inkpot Award winner, Comic-Con International: San Diego

“Fighting Side-By-Side…” Sgt. Fury #13, pg. 10 age ten from Sgt. Fury #13 is a textbook lesson in visual storytelling.

Panel one sets up the whole scene for the next two pages. Design tension is created immediately by the tilted horizon. The tiny fragment of shell-torn building on the far left is the only background, but it conveys the location perfectly, along with the twisted bicycle frame in the foreground. The flight path of Cap’s flung shield carries us across the panel where Bucky is established as the guy who’s going to free the pilots. This leaves mopping up the Nazis to Captain America. Note that the soldier with the grenade launcher who figures in panel three is established here, as well.

Panel two. The camera POV is similar to panel one, but zooms in on Cap. Movement is towards camera and to the right, continuing the movement from panel one. Note that Cap’s rotational action here is counter-clockwise, whereas it was clockwise in panel one.

Something else to note are the aesthetically pleasing negative spaces. (The negative space mastery is evident in all the panels here: no clumsy overlaps, tangents, or confusion about where one figure ends and another begins.)

Panel three. Cap turns to deal with the panzergrenadier established in panel one.

Note that the entire background is the horizon line that tilts in the opposite direction from the one in the first panel. The tilt amplifies the action.

Panel four.

Cap takes out the grenadier, and we have the off-panel explosion of the grenade to the left. Note that the blast lines and speed lines are a part of the panel design in every frame.

Panel five. The mopping up. Complicated action

pulled off with élan in relatively small space — and again, the negative space is killer.

Panel six. A quiet panel, but with dynamic figure tension to wrap up the page. Notice that the horizon line is parallel with the bottom panel border.

Above inset: Larry Hama’s greatest claim to fame is doubtless his developing the storylines for the Hasbro G.I. Joe franchise through his long-running stint on the series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, for Marvel. Elements of his work on that title were repurposed from a pitch Hama made for Fury Force, a projected war series to be led

by Sgt. Nick Fury, Jr.! Here’s Hama’s sketch of the group from that 1981 proposal. Top right: Page from Kirby/Ayers’ Sgt. Fury #13 [1964].

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Steve Mitchell

Artist/Production Manager Member of the “Crusty Bunkers” at Continuity Associates Contributing Editor, The Amazing World of DC Comics

Sgt. Fury #13, cover hen you are a kid, some images just sear themselves into your memory forever.

One of those images, for me, was the cover for Sgt. Fury #13. I was a Marvel fan at the time, and bear-clawed every new “Marvel” as my comics collecting buddies called them, from our local “newsstand,” which was actually a luncheonette that carried magazines, paperbacks, and comics. Now, I was a Howlers fan, and I would buy the issue regardless of what was on the cover, but, wow, was I floored when I saw this exciting image of Cap and Bucky fighting alongside Nick Fury and the Howlers. I was a stone-cold Kirby fan, and Cap was, and still is, one of my fave Marvel characters, so this team-up was manna from heaven, and the best guest-star stunt from Marvel, at the time.

It all began with the cover by Jack Kirby, and enhanced with crisp inks by the under-valued Chic Stone. To this day it might contain the greatest single image of Cap in action. It has that trademark Kirby energy: Powerful, yet graceful, a perfect pin-up, but there is storytelling in the body English. Cap is about to lay some wupp-ass on some hapless German soldier, and you know it is gonna hurt.

But for me, the key to this immortal image of Cap is his expression. There is determination, and a bit of madness… Cap is at war, and losing is not an option. Bucky, as well as Nick and the Howlers, clearly will follow Cap into the gates of Hell, and not break a sweat as they do. For me, this was Kirby at his jingoistic best, and Cap was more warrior then patriot… more combatant than hero.

Cap has never been equaled, as a drawing, as a piece of story-telling, and most importantly, as a great piece of comic book “acting.” The “King” was in the zone with this cover, and I’m sure it made quite an impression with the fans back in the day. I loved it. I still do.

I don’t really remember very much about the story inside. I’m sure I enjoyed it. I always did, but this image of

Above inset: Steve Mitchell inks the pencils of Dick Ayers (the interior inker of Sgt. Fury #13 [1964]), for the cover of #104 [1972] of that same title. Top: The cover of Sgt. Fury #13 features the supremely polished ink lines of Chic Stone over Kirby’s spectacular pencils. For whatever it is worth, one of this book’s co-editors fervently believes this is the single best Kirby Marvel comic book every made and he proudly still possesses a battle-worn copy that he actually had autographed by the King of Comics back in the early 1970s.

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Fred Hembeck

Cartoonist Contributor, Marvel Age, Comics Buyer’s Guide Artist/Writer, Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe

“A House Divided,” Fantastic Four #34 ack in 1964, Jack Kirby’s artwork was clearly the face of the emerging Marvel Comics line — and for the most part, he brought inker Chic Stone along for the ride.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking: what about all the classic multi-issue cosmic sagas to come? What about the years and years of Joe Sinnott’s exquisite embellishment over Kirby’s ever increasingly breath-taking pencils? Yeah, what about that anyway?

Consider: Jack was penciling Fantastic Four, Thor, X-Men, Avengers, “Captain America,” some issues of Sgt. Fury, and providing covers for virtually every book Marvel published, save for Spider-Man and Millie the Model! That right there is a clear-cut visual identity: The Kirby/Stone team literally screams 1964 to me, and I love it!

I can’t disagree with the consensus that Sinnott was the best long-term inker Jack ever had — or that a reduced workload beginning in 1965 allowed his artwork (and his imagination) to flower as never before, but I still do love me some 1964 Kirby/Stone art! And as an example, let’s take a look at Fantastic Four #34, “A House Divided,” featuring the menace of Gideon. One and done in a mere twenty pages, Stan and Jack turn their attention to a megalomaniacal billionaire intent on breaking up the FF, using surreptitious means to turn the group’s members against one another.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find myself more likely to identify with the threat posed by a power-mad rich guy (um, especial-

Personally, it was a great year for me, maybe the best of my young life. I was eleven at the time, and had been faithfully following Stan and Jack’s exciting new creations since I had stumbled across FF #4 several years earlier. Things, it seemed, just kept getting better and better, and in a lot of ways, I feel Marvel peaked in ’64.

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ly these days...) than I am with an economy-sized space god lighting down in Times Square, vowing to chow down on our defenseless planet.

Okay, the plot of this one isn’t going to win any awards, but just the sheer change of pace of having our heroes going up against a sports-jacketed baddie — whose most dangerous weapon wielded is a telephone — is enough to grab my attention. And then there’s all the by-now standard — but always delicious — throw-away bits found in every Fantastic Four episode. This one starts with a doozy, right there on the splash page: Ben Grimm is cautiously opening a package sent to him from his perpetually unseen antagonists, The Yancy Street Gang. What nefarious gift did the Yancy Streeters mail to The Thing, you ask?

things with Grimm’s thought balloon: “I wonder how that cornball would look in my Beatles wig?”. Say what you will about me, but I laugh out loud every time I read that line!

A Beatles wig!

A word or two about Chic Stone’s inking. His bold brushstrokes outlining Kirby’s figures gave the art a dynamic look I’d failed to see in the efforts of Jack’s previous two regular embellishers, Dick Ayers and George Roussos. Perhaps even more importantly, there was just something warm and friendly about the way Stone finished up Kirby’s faces. Most everyone — man and woman alike, but especially women — had some variation on a cute little turned up nose. And the eyes?

They appeared more focused than ever, seeming to look directly into the eyes of the reader.

I realize the man had his deficiencies — the background inks are hardly anything to get excited about — and I also realize that my feelings are tinged with a heavy dollop of nostalgia. Heck, Stone eventually came back to ink a few of the Ka-Zar and Inhumans strips Jack did while he had one foot out the door in 1970, and sadly, they just don’t exude the same magic.

1964 was also the year the Fab Four burst onto the scene here in America, and early on, their long locks were unusual enough that folks actually purchased wigs as a novelty before realizing that skipping a few visits to the barber would have essentially the same results. And, I should add, I myself was immediately smitten, going overnight from someone who looked down on rock ’n’ roll with contempt to someone who kept a transistor radio glued to his ear during every waking hour, hoping to hear “She Loves You” for the 753rd time! If there was ever anything that rivaled my love for Marvel Comics, it was my love for The Beatles — and here it was: connecting tissue between the Fabs and the Fantastics, right there in the pages of FF #34! How could I not love that issue?

And after The Thing models his new acquisition on the third page — he confesses to Alicia he’d always wanted to try one — the story kicks off into main gear. But all is not forgotten; after Gideon finally realizes all the stress his dubious activities have caused his wife and young son, the magnate vows to change his ways. Newly reformed, he gives a typically sentimental Stan Lee speech about the true treasures of life, but just as things are getting a wee bit too thick, Lee leavens

But then again, it wasn’t 1964 anymore, was it?

Maybe that wasn’t the year Jack Kirby did his finest work — and maybe Chic Stone wasn’t the best inker Jack ever had — but it was the year the duo put a Beatles wig on the orange noggin of Benjamin J. Grimm, and for that alone, it’s a year I’ll always cherish.

Previous page: Cartoonist Fred Hembeck did not neglect to showcase the contributions of the King for the 25th anniversary of the House of Ideas, in Marvel Age #37 [1986]. Top left: Panel from FF #34, with inks by Chic Stone, featuring a gag about that other FF team, the Fab Four. Inset above: The Thing as mop-top, likely with Kirby inks, from Witzend #1 [’66].

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Walter Simonson

Artist/Writer Creator, Star Slammers, Ragnarok Shazam!, Eisner, and Harvey awards winner

“A World Gone Mad,” Journey Into Mystery #113 n 1965, I read my first Marvel super-hero comic. It was lying around in a college dorm room, a Jack Kirby-penciled Thor story in Journey Into Mystery #113. The splash is a picture of a flying Viking ship with Asgardians hanging all over it, as they headed off to do battle with the “Demon Men of Jotunheim.” The caption admitted that the pictures on the first two pages had nothing to do with the main story.

And they didn’t. But the first caption on the second page says, “We promised ol’ Jack Kirby that we’d let him get a few of these eye-opening battle scenes out of his system, so here they are! Go ahead, enjoy them — there’s no extra charge!”

I had no idea who Jack Kirby was back then. I thought maybe it was some fan who had written to Marvel, and requested some cool battle scenes. Obviously I didn’t register

the credits on the splash. But there was indeed some eye-popping Kirby artwork, inked by Chic Stone. It was rough-hewn, dramatic, full of action, and wonderful in a way I’d never seen in a comic book before. It was completely vital and captivating. And although I didn’t recognize at the time, the future course of my career was set.

It was another 15 years or so before I chanced to reread the comic (the one I’d read in the dorm wasn’t mine) and caught the Jack Kirby reference in the caption. This time I’m pleased to say, I got it. Thanks, Jack.

Above: Walter Simonson’s cover for Thor #350 [1984]. Top inset: While Stan Lee’s dialogue is basically treading water for page two of Journey Into Mystery #113 [1965], the same can’t be said for Kirby’s bombastic battling barbarians. Above right inset: Kirby rendition of the voluminous Volstagg. Next page: With Chic Stone inks, Kirby splash page of JIM #113.

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Adam Hughes

Artist/Writer/Illustrator/RPG Designer Co-Creator, Maze Agency, Artist/Writer, Betty and Veronica 2008 Inkwell Awards Ambassador

“The Origin of the Red Skull,” Tales of Suspense #66 y first comics were handme-downs, given to me when I was 4 or 5, by older cousins who had outgrown them. The first comic I picked out of the box was Fantastic Four #81, where Crystal replaced the pregnant Sue Richards on the team. My first comic… and it was amazing.

The comic was also the first time I’d ever heard about World War II and the Nazis and Adolph Hitler. I thought they were just more cool things invented by Lee and Kirby. They were no more real to a kid than Doctor Doom or Latveria.

Then we started studying history in school.

Imagine my jaw hitting the floor when I learned that WWII was a real thing. The Nazis were real. Adolph Hitler, the Red Skull’s mentor, was real. By the transitive property of kid logic, that must mean the Red Skull was real. Captain America was real.

The second book I pulled out was Tales of Suspense #66. The first half was an Iron Man story

by Don Heck, which was cool. But the other half was a Captain America story set during World War II, with the Red Skull relating his beginnings to his captive Captain America. The Skull gave his origin, punctuating his speech with slaps to Cap’s head and pistol-whips.

Good stuff!

I was ecstatic and Captain America — Kirby’s greatest co-creation to me — remains my favorite super-hero, for this very reason. They seemed real.

When I learned that New York City was a real place, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four became real as well, for a while, ’til adolescence and its accompanying double-edged sword of knowledge and common sense reduced the Red Skull to just another cool comic book character.

The story terrified me.

Kirby’s leering Red Skull was horrific to me as a child. The second panel on page eight of the story, featuring an ominous Red Skull visage superimposed over a destroyed city, gave me nightmares. I dreaded turning the page from the Sea Monkeys and “Grow 2 Living Monsters” ads to that panel. That panel. Kirby’s Skull was terrifying, back when a comic terrifying a kid was just another glorious part of growing up. Comics could be scary. No one wore bike helmets when I was a kid.

But for a while there, Jack Kirby (and Stan) took me on a thrill ride of adventure and terror. The power of comic books took hold of me with that issue, and never let go.

Top: Famous for drawing lovely ladies, Adam Hughes can still render a mean Cap! Above: In an era when the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes played Nazis for laughs on U.S. television screens, Kirby never forgot the serious threat the Third Reich posed to the human race — and to his people specifically — and, being a combat veteran himself, a man who had personally fought German soldiers during World War II, he infused his Captain America with his disgust for Nazism, as shown in Tales of Suspense #66 [1965]. Next page: Inks by Chic Stone.

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P. Craig Russell

Artist/Writer/Illustrator Comics adapter of operas by Mozart, Wagner, and Strauss Eight-time Will Eisner Award winner

Fantastic Four #40-70 he first Kirby comic I saw was the third issue of Fantastic Four. I was visiting some friends, David and Dickie and Tommy Meadows. Tommy was a couple of years older than us and had issues #3-13 of Fantastic Four. That’s the first time I had ever noticed it, and I sat down and started reading one and was sold. There was no looking back after that. I was completely captivated by it.

around issue #29 that I started buying Fantastic Four. There was that interim period where George Roussos was inking it, and I never liked that look. A kid can’t articulate why they do or don’t like something, they just do or don’t, and that inking seemed to me, in retrospect, antithetical to Kirby’s style. I just didn’t care much for it. But then Chic Stone started inking it, and it started having more bounce and was truer to Kirby.

By the time Joe Sinnott came in, that was the Golden Age. I was buying literally every single Marvel comic that came out.

Up to that point, given the age I was, I’d gone from Disney and Harvey comics, and graduated to Archie. Then to see this, the storytelling, the dynamism — and at the time it wasn’t as dynamic as his artwork became in a couple more years, but it was just so compelling. I think it was more the story than the art at first. I was just drawn into those stories, and was at just the right age for them.

I didn’t start buying Kirby comics right away. It was

I followed Kirby to DC. I had all of the Fourth World titles, including Jimmy Olsen. I was still at that stage where everything he did, I picked up — also pretty much everything everyone else did, I picked up. You could do that then. You could buy all the Marvels and DCs and not go bankrupt, and know exactly what was going on in those parallel universes.

Kirby was an artist I can’t say I was ever influenced by.

I would look at Alex Raymond or Steve Ditko and want to draw just like them, and I would copy their drawings. I never did that with Kirby, but I think I held him in higher esteem than anyone else. Sometimes I think we just recognize ourselves in some artists, and those are the ones we copy and are influenced by, and others we are simply bowled over by how great they are, and that’s good enough.

My favorite Kirby period is from issues #40 to the mid#70s of Fantastic Four. I’m not exactly sure which issue they changed the paper size, but I think that impacted the work of a lot of artists because they were drawing smaller and there was less chance for detail. I think that mid-period, not only of Fantastic Four but of Kirby’s entire career, was a high point both for his work and comics in general.

Some artists evolve styles over the years, and others keep the same style throughout their entire career. If you look at John Severin in 1951 and 1991, it’s almost impossible to tell which era it came from. He maintained that high quality at all times, but it didn’t particularly evolve. But if you look at Kirby in 1942, ’52, ’62, and ’72, it’s immediately recognizAbove inset: Cover of Fantastic Four #55 by Kirby and Joe Sinnott. Left: 1987/2013 commission by P. Craig Russell, featuring one of Kirby’s greatest creations, the Silver Surfer.

Next page: In 2012, this epic page from FF #55 by Kirby and Sinnott, was sold on the Heritage Auction site for an astonishing $155,350.

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able as coming from those different periods — although if you go from month to month, you can’t tell any difference. It’s a constant, glacial evolution that reveals itself over decades. Carl Barks was another one who is always fascinating to look at. The early Kirby was very long curves, almost feminine, and the very end Kirby was all of these squares and blocks, and brutal. The middle period in the ’60s seemed to be those two extremes in perfect equilibrium. It had all this power, but there was grace with it at the same time — and I really liked seeing that balance between the two sides.

I only met the man once, so I can’t speak for him, but I don’t think he ever considered himself a capital-A artist. I could be wrong about that. I don’t think he was aware that “I’m making art,” so much as, “I’m making a living and exercising my imagination.” We were pretty much totally ignored by the capital-A art world until very recently, and even then it would be an ironic take on this low form of art. I think he is a unique artist, and maybe that’s why I could never be influenced by him, because you could only draw “like” him. Very few people have been able to assimilate his style and make it their own.

I think Bruce Timm has. I think Steve Rude has elements of Kirby’s work — but it’s like being influenced by Picasso.

His voice is so unique that it’s hard to integrate it into your own work seamlessly.

An awful lot of artists have schools of artists who come after them who produce quality work. Frazetta has a lot of people who you can see, “Oh, you came from Frazetta,” and they do high quality, beautiful work. They will never top Frazetta, but you can still be influenced by someone, and even work in their style, and produce good work. So I’m not saying anyone influenced by Kirby didn’t produce notable work. Kirby and Neal Adams both spawned hordes of imitators, whereas with other artists like Gil Kane and Steve Ditko have very few schools built around them. The reason that is, I’m not sure. Wally Wood has had a lot of imitators. When you’re starting out, you pick an artist and say, “That’s the guy I want to be.” Bill Sienkiewicz started out doing Neal Adams, and then grew into Bill Sienkiewicz. Artists like Mark Schultz and Bernie Wrightson have all taken the styles of one or maybe a

handful of artists and made them into themselves, and transcended it in the sense that they became something unique on their own.

I met Kirby once at a San Diego Comic-Con. Our tables were close together, and someone introduced us. We had no conversation much beyond my expressing my admiration of his work and what it meant to me. I knew he was busy, so I said, “Thank you, nice meeting you,” and that was it.

There’s a quote: “Jack Kirby has no place in comics. Jack Kirby is comics.” Certainly for that era, his influence is phenomenal. There’s no one bigger.

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Richard Howell

Artist/Writer/Editor/Musician Creator/Artist/Writer, Deadbeats Editor, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark; Vampirella

“Among Us Hide the Inhumans,” Fantastic Four #45 pose of a dreamer just awakening. Then, in the stunning second panel, Johnny sees a vision: Crystal, who — for indeterminate reasons — is affecting a glamor-girl pose among the squalor. (This makes no real sense, but I was a young boy when I read this, and I didn’t care!)

As Johnny moves towards Crystal in panel three, his entire head is seen only in silhouette, to accentuate that our hero is moving into the illumination of the streetlight. Crystal’s pose is particularly interesting, as she appears to draw back, as if being menaced, but her right arm is poised for combat. (Also, it’s positioned in a specifically feminine manner.) The clash itself occurs in panel four, as the gusts of Crystal’s elemental winds reduce Johnny to a sweeping backdrop for the dislodged detritus. By panel five, Crystal is gone — and Johnny is dazed and confused. The fact that he was overcome (in more than one way, as we all witness later) is emphasized by the main figure’s solid, diagonal composition. Finally, in panel six, a stillprone but obviously intrigued Johnny is seen in the (only) large face-shot on the page, which powerfully depicts his anguish (a skill that the combination of Kirby’s emotion-rich pencil work and Joe Sinnott’s precise inking could present as could few others — individuals or teams).

o much of what is written about (and observed) in Jack Kirby’s work tends to lean towards his amazing confluence of expertise — such as his command of super-action scenes and his unparalleled inventiveness, both visually and conceptually — that some of the more subtle aspects of his approach sometimes get lost in a tidal wave of cosmic dots.

By contrast, a not-so-random page from Fantastic Four #45 [1965] could be utilized towards underscoring that specific point. On it, a dejected Johnny Storm encounters Crystal, princess of the Inhumans, for the first time. As is to be expected, the storytelling is rock-solid, with a firm grasp of which story-beats would be most effective. The composition of each panel is also excellent. More than these qualities, though, are the attitudes of the two principals and how they change — meaningfully — from panel to panel. At the outset, Johnny finds himself lost (in as close to a grimy slum as could reasonably be produced by Kirby and Joe Sinnott). His head is slightly tilted, in confusion at his location, and his hands are in the

It might also be noted that not one of the panels on this page employed anything resembling the same structural composition as any of the others, yet the sequence moves flawlessly, without any splashiness or flashiness.

What’s particularly significant about this example (although we-the-reader don’t immediately realize it) is that it’s the beginning of a long love story for Johnny Storm, a cornerstone character — and even though this page appeared in Marvel’s highly-regarded adventure title Fantastic Four, it nevertheless drew heavily on Kirby’s long familiarity with the love comics genre (of which he was the co-creator).

It features all the dramatic posing, the depictions of yearning, the suggestion of obstacles — pretty much everything that makes an emotional story successful, if done right.

Even though Jack Kirby, by this time, had established himself as “The King” of super-hero comics, he never quite relinquished the crown of being the King of Romance Comics.

Previous page: This sequence in FF #45 sequence owes a huge debt to Kirby’s years creating romance comics in the 1940s. Left: Richard Howell’s tribute to Jack and Roz’s own lasting romance, for their 50th anniversary, on May 23, 1992. Top inset: FF #45 cover.

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Kelley Jones

Artist Creator, The Hammer, Co-Creator, The Crusades Artist, Deadman, Batman, Swamp Thing, Aliens

Journey Into Mystery/Thor #125–130 won’t go into the nuts and bolts of Kirby’s work. I’m sure there are others much better qualified than me who can do that.

“Cross the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard, Where the booming heavens roar, You’ll behold in breathless wonder, The god of Thunder, Mighty Thor!”

I won’t go into Kirby’s obvious impact on the industry; this book is proof of that.

The story was amazing: Thor fought Hercules over Jane Foster, and lost, and then later went to Hell to save the guy who humiliated him.

The art though... it blew me away! Not animated with moving figures as traditional cartoons did, but static images taken from the comic itself!

But I can speak of the magic of Jack’s work. We all have those stories and this is mine: Jack Kirby capturing my heart did not occur from the pages his comic books. I discovered him on television, and his spell was cast without me knowing his name.

I was knocked out by Kirby’s art, though I didn’t know his name.

Asgard and Hades were amazing!

Thor so regal and Hercules arrogant!

The monsters and the Gods so incredibly cool! And the action… oh, the action!

When years ago I was coming home from elementary school, I went through the ritual of fixing a snack and watching afternoon kids’ shows (homework would have to wait if it was done at all!): Reruns of The Munsters and Gilligan’s Island, as well as Warner Brothers cartoons and such.

Those images stuck in my mind for days.

I knew there was a guy at a flea market my mom went to who sold old comics (no comic book stores in the Pleistocene age, kids!). I asked him if he had the comics that the show was based on, and after a quick description, he dug them out.

That particular day was special, because a new UHF station was premiering (for those reading this born in the age of cable, UHF stations were local independent TV stations that usually had wild programming, old movies, and bizarre old TV shows long since cancelled, because they couldn’t afford anything new).

I was in awe.

Issues #125–130 of a comic called Journey Into Mystery ; it couldn’t have been a better title for these magical stories.

I turned on the TV to the new channel 31, where a program titled Solid Gold Heroes was debuting, as it was to run the old Flash Gordon serials. I was so excited to finally see them!

I pulled out my wallet and bought four of the six (good old Mom picked up the last two issues for me — thanks, Mom!).

Today, I cannot remember my reaction to Flash, or Ming, or anyone else from Mongo, though. Before it came on I had to sit through a cartoon show I had never seen, one that must have not cost the new television station all that much.

I opened the book to see who drew it.

It said ‘Brilliantly drawn by Jack Kirby’ in the credits…

Boy, wasn’t it!

And after all these years, it still is.

The Marvel Super-Heroes TV show from 1966 came on. The theme song played.

Above inset: Kelley Jones’ redesign of Mr. Freeze, from Batman #535, in part inspired by Jack Kirby. Top inset: The 1966 Marvel Super-Heroes cartoon show used actual Kirby art to create the animation cels. Jack didn’t get compensated for his art’s re-use, but it did introduce a generation of fans to his work, like the Thor/Hercules epic in Thor #126 [1966]. Next page: The classic cover of that two-fisted slugfest of the gods, Thor #126, the first issue of the renamed title formerly known as Journey Into Mystery.

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John Romita, Sr.

Artist/Art Director/Licensing Ilustrator Co-Creator, The Punisher, Designer, Wolverine Inkpot Award, 2002 Eisner Hall of Fame inductee

“If a Hostage Should Die,” Tales of Suspense #77 In all the other comics, the figures were standing straight up in the same poses on almost every page. Kirby made it a law in his approach that nothing was ever going to be standing straight up stiffly. His stiffest drawing was that first drawing of the costume with the odd-shaped shield. He did that standing straight up, and it was very unnatural for Captain America. Not only was I aware that everything was

first saw Jack Kirby’s work when I was ten years old. I was in the streets of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Everybody assumed, because I could draw chalk super-heroes on the street, I was the authority on art, and I had all of my guys in my neighborhood buying that Captain America book. I remember telling them, “This is no ordinary comic where people are standing still and the dialogue is screaming. The drawing is screaming and the dialogue can’t keep up with it!”

I had never heard of him. I was a Daredevil fan, the one with two different colors; he was my favorite character.

When I saw the first Captain America I grabbed it… I had a copy of #1, and, like a trillion other comic collectors, my mother lost it. I was very aware when Kirby and Simon left the series, and very surprised that theirs was such a short run. I had no idea that Jack couldn’t be tethered down like a horse in the bullpen there. I was so disappointed when Syd Shores, a pretty good artist, took over for Jack.

It just wasn’t the same.

Above left: After Kirby’s departure from Marvel, John Romita Sr. was one artist on Captain America. This vignette of the character is from his work on the Aurora Comic Scenes insert that was included in plastic model kits in the ’70s. Above right: Page from Kirby and Simon’s Captain America Comics #1. Next page: Tales of Suspense # 66 page. Inks by Chic Stone.

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saying I had no style. I was really a magazine illustrator. I studied magazine illustration. I thought I would do comics just until I had a little money in the bank, and then I would become a magazine artist. So I always thought of myself as a generic kind of guy. I always made everyone smile the same, and I never thought I had any style. I was always amazed when someone said, “I noticed your work.” I used to say, “How could you tell it apart from all the other stuff?”

Working over Kirby’s breakdowns was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. He did very, very rough layouts. He didn’t do any fingers, he didn’t do any eyes. He was doing box figures, and sometimes the figure was so square and unrecognizable, he would put the name next to it. “This is Daredevil, and this is the girl, and this is the villain.” It wasn’t like he laid it out in figure form. He did a pacing breakdown, telling me, “This is a close-up, this is a distance shot, and this is an action shot, and this is so-and-so here, and this is so-and-so there.” It was a real challenge, but the point is he paced so beautifully, that it triggered me. I was doing westerns at the time; I wasn’t doing super-heroes.

It broke some of the boundaries around me. It gave me a lift-off that never stopped paying dividends.

After being a fan at ten, I got into comics at 19, and whenever I met fellow comic book artists in the bullpen, or was waiting for Stan Lee or another editor to give us a script, like everyone else I thought comics were going to die in five or six years. This was 1950. I figured by 1955 there wouldn’t be any comics.

Gil Kane and Al Avison, we all used to say, “I wonder how many jobs there are in the commercial art studios?” We were all thinking we were going to have to trudge our way into Manhattan to make a few bucks. I didn’t know anybody who thought there was going to be a future in comics. But after the tragedy of the late ’50s, in 1961, ’62, Jack and Stan revived the industry, and, amazingly, it’s still alive and thriving. So I give Jack and Stan equal credit. I don’t care what Carmine Infantino did with The Flash; Jack and Stan were the ones who pumped life back into the industry.

moving and everything was diagonal and upside-down and twisted — he got the most out of every pose — but I was instinctively believing that this was the way comics should be done.

I did a couple of issues for Young Men and a short run on Captain America Comics in 1953. I struggled. I wanted it to be Kirby himself. I couldn’t do the “Mona Lisa” without making it look like the original painting; it would be silly to put glasses on her. I did everything I could, and it still came out half-me, half-Kirby — and I had no ego at the time. In fact, I was bemoaning myself,

Top: Despite his own trepidation, John Romita Sr. made a remarkable transition in the super-hero realm after the artist had worked for years in the romance genre. Naturally, getting a crash course in the field courtesy of Kirby’s breakdowns helped considerably! Page from Tales of Suspense # 77 [1966]. Above inset: Still, it’s best not to forget that, as a very young artist newly arrived to the field, Romita did an admirable job as an artist on Atlas’ brief Captain America Comics revival in 1954. This is his cover from #77 [1954].

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Paul Smith

Artist Co-Creator/Artist, Leave It to Chance Two-time 1997 Will Eisner Award winner

“Balder the Brave,” Journey Into Mystery #106, pg. 1 his is my first distinct memory of Jack’s work: 11 years old, I’m still an animation junkie. I won’t “discover” Spider-Man for a few more years. Comics were stupid. They didn’t move or breathe, they just sat there. But “this,” this was something else. The front of the book? Yuk! “Too cartoony” (thought the ‘big-foot’ addict. A bit contradictory but, hey, I’m 11 years old, back off).

This, this was… real. I’m too young to yet know about artists having styles. I certainly don’t have a clue what an inker is. I have no idea that it’s Vince Colletta’s work that’s bitten me in the eye, and I stay loyal to ’Toons.

Time passes, I discover Spider-Man. Steve Ditko, literally, changes the course of my life. Comics are still stupid but, Spider-Man… Spider-Man was different. He could move, he could breathe, he was alive. For three months I was in heaven. And then Ditko left! EEK! Now what do I do?

Jonesin’ for a fix, I search the racks. FF, Kirby and Sinnott? No. Captain America, Kirby and Giacoia? No. Nothing bites my eye until… Thor? I remember this. That back story was cool. Hmmm?

By now Vinnie’s inking the whole book and, if he wasn’t, it’s quite possible that would’ve been the end of my brilliant career in comics.

While I end up collecting the FF and Cap, along with other Kirby stuff, one by one I stop… except for Thor.

That’s the one run I keep going.

Then Vinnie left, and so did I. Then Vinnie came back, and so did I. Then Jack and Vin leave for DC (boo), but it’s Jack and Vin, so I go with ’em. And then Vinnie leaves, and so did I.

While I continue to be more and more impressed with Jack’s work, regardless of his partner du jour, Vinnie remains my all-time favorite Kirby inker (although Dick Ayers was his best, and I can prove it, but again, that’s another story.) This is the page that that got me started.

Above: Journey Into Mystery #106 “Tales of Asgard” splash, with Vince Colletta inks.

Left inset: Commission piece by Paul Smith, featuring Hogun the Grim, Thor compatriot and member of the swashbuckling triumvirate, the “Warriors Three.”

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Ladrönn

Artist/Illustrator/Conceptual Designer Artist, The Sons of El Topo 2006 Will Eisner Award winner, “Best Painter/Multimedia Artist”

“If This Be Doomsday,” Fantastic Four #49, pg. 1 t is difficult to choose an image of Kirby’s when you like so many.

His work has always been a source of inspiration for me.

The Fantastic Four is one of my favorite books. There’s a character I’ve enjoyed all my life, “The Thing.” When I was a kid, that was the first comic book character I drew.

I’ve been following Kirby for years — there are images that are difficult to forget — but one day you find one that stays in your mind and creates an invisible, inexplicable connection. I close my eyes and there is an image that reveals before me, a splash page of Ben Grimm standing in the rain. The image is completely static, something unusual, because Kirby was a master of dynamics. At that moment I learned the infinite power of capturing time in an instant. When an image needs no action to express a feeling, I think that the artist’s work is fulfilled — such is art.

That illustration, and of course the story of that episode, have always been one of my favorites.

Above: While Ladrönn chose Fantastic Four #51 as his favorite, a close second was #49 [1966].

Here he recreates that cover in his own inimitable fashion for the second FF Omnibus volume. Inset right: Vignette from FF #51’s cover. Next page: Kirby’s pencils from Fantastic Four #49’s splash page.

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John Byrne

Artist/Writer Creator, Next Men, Founding Creator of Legend imprint 2015 Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee

“This Man, This Monster,” Fantastic Four #51, pg. 1 o not seek reality in the work of Jack Kirby. This was something I learned early on. Kirby created his own reality. Everything was stylized: Hair, cloth, water, rain — which brings us to this, one of my all-time favorite Kirby splash pages. It’s the one I referenced most when I was trying to find my particular interpretation of the Thing. Nothing is real here. Rain doesn’t look like that. Buildings don’t look like that. The Thing, if he was real, would not look like that.

But this is the magic that is Kirby. He creates his own kinds of stylizations, and our eyes translate them into what he wants us to see. Of course that’s rain. Of course those are buildings. And of

course that’s what Bashful Benjamin Grimm would look like.

This is what we all appreciate about Kirby, isn’t it? He can create so much, often using the simplest forms — the “Kirby krackle” effect (or “Kirby dots” as some call it) for instance.

He used it to create fire, smoke, water, cosmic vistas, explosions — even hair! And even though it was the same technique, he somehow was able to compel us to see so many different things. On this piece, vertical slashes become rain.

Elsewhere, they might be ice, or steel, or anything Kirby chose to make them be.

And, I’ll admit, this is why I envy Kirby. I am more of a “realist” than he was, so my work is trapped within the confines of what the world really looks like. Oh, sure, sometime I can stretch the boundaries a bit — usually by borrowing from Kirby! — but Kirby didn’t have to “stretch” anything. He just blew the boundaries to heck — and the result usually looked a lot like this page!!

Top inset: For the 20 th anniversary of Fantastic Four, #236 [1981] featured an all-star group of creators inking Jack’s storyboards for the 1978 Fantastic Four cartoon show to create a “new” Lee/Kirby story. Shown is a detail of John Byrne’s contribution. Above: Byrne’s pin-up of Jack’s FF characters. Next page: Kirby’s moody splash, Fantastic Four #51 [1966].

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Ken Steacy

Artist/Writer/Publisher Co-Creator/Artist, The Sacred & the Profane 2009 Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame inductee

“This Man, This Monster,” Fantastic Four #51 still have my copy of Fantastic Four #51 that I bought off the rack in a drugstore back in the day.

It’s the reason I’m writing this piece, and why I’ve spent over 40 years as an author/ illustrator in this wacky industry. I was a card-carrying (literally) Merry Marvel Marcher, and the Lee/Kirby stories were my absolute faves. “This Man… This Monster” was the best one ever, a dramatic redemption story with great character development and stunning artwork.

But it was that issue’s credits that clicked in my 11-year-old consciousness.

Waitaminit, I thought… my dad’s a fighter pilot, my pal’s dad’s a mechanic, and those are grown-up jobs. So the guys in these credits must be someone’s dad, and making comics must be a real job — that’s for me! From that point on I never wavered, and happily, my parents never tried to dissuade me from such an atypical career path for a military brat — though it wasn’t till I went to college, got married, had kids, and bought a house that they finally started to take seriously what I did for living.

I was so enamored with Jack’s work at the time that I couldn’t imagine anyone else ever doing the FF…except me. I had this elaborate fantasy that one day I would travel to New York, and Fabulous Flo Steinberg would ushRight: Ken Steacy reenacts a pivotal scene in Fantastic Four #51 [1966] in his painterly style. Next page: That same dramatic moment, FF #51, by Kirby & Sinnott.

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someone to channel his energy for the next Doom Patrol, an FF parody issue with a pulse-pounding script by Grapplin’ Grant Morrison. I eagerly replied that not only could I emulate The King, I could even replicate the style of Joltin’ Joe Sinnott, the man I consider the very best inker to ever embellish his pencils. The storyline placed the Doom Patrol in a Marvel-esque universe, and it’s revealed that Automaton, a.k.a. Robotman, has had his brain swapped by a wicked villain who seeks to destroy them. To make a long story somewhat less convoluted, this erstwhile foe is called upon to defeat an awesome evil and save a child’s life, but by doing so sacrifices his own existence — sound familiar?

er me into Stan the Man’s office for an interview. He’d be on the phone with Jolly Jack, who’d come down with a nasty cold and couldn’t do that month’s story. The minute he’d hang up I’d beg Stan for the chance to do a fill-in issue, and he’d stroke his chin and say, “You really think you can do it?” and I’d reply, “You bet, Stan!” He’d show me to a desk in the bullpen, right next to Sturdy Steve Ditko, and Dashing Don Heck, and Jaunty Jim Steranko, and Adorable Artie Simek. I believed that everyone actually worked there, happily kibitzing with one another as they penciled and inked and lettered and colored. I’d knock out 20 pages that make Jack proud, and later he’d say, “Not bad, kid — welcome to the Bullpen!” and my career would be launched.

I could go on at length about the impact Kirby had on making me the artist I am today. A few years ago I was at a con in NYC, and some fans were perusing the originals for that Doom Patrol story, to which I had added plenty of Kirby krackle. They then enthused over some Tempus Fugitive pages, all heavily airbrushed, and I asked what it was about them that they liked. One replied that it’s the way the artwork kinda sparkles, which my wonderful wife Joan immediately picked up on: Kirby krackle, Steacy sparkle. I’d never been so proud!

Of course it didn’t happen that way.

I did bang on Stan’s door in 1974, and he sent me to Jazzy Johnny Romita, who offered me work as an inker, which I declined, deciding to go to art college instead. By doing so I learned one of life’s great lessons; that wanting something and having it are two very different things… but that’s a story for another day.

I eventually did break into comics, and years later got a call from editor Tom Peyer at DC, who asked if I loved King Kirby. He needed

This page: At top are photos taken by Ken Steacy during an early ’80s visit to the Kirby home in California. Ken asked Jack to sign one the following year at the San Diego Comic-Con, and he notes of the bottom photo, “It has watched over my drawing board ever since, a reminder of the heights to which we aspire, and the great man who set the standard for us all.”

Next page: If but to lighten the tone a little after so much discussion of the quite emotional “This Man, This Monster,” here’s Kirby and inker Joe Sinnott’s fun splash, FF #99 [1970].

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Mark Schultz

Artist/Writer Creator, Xenozoic Tales (Cadillacs and Dinosaurs) Five-time Harvey Award winner, Two-time Eisner Award winner

“The Black Panther,” Fantastic Four #52 thing more complicated. Thinking a little deeper, I’d been a fan of African adventure — particularly of Tarzan of the Apes — and the scenario for this story was naturally appealing.

But with what a twist! As opposed to the condescending attitude toward African natives that is unfortunately part and parcel of most, if not all, jungle adventures, Kirby introduced a technologically advanced, culturally contemporary African nation that was treated as an equal. If I said that I, at eleven years old, was aware of any social significance in Kirby’s Wakanda, I’d be lying. At the time, I was only fascinated by the richness of the concept. It was an exciting, engaging take on old genres — jungle, super-science and super-hero — and it was enough to lock me into FF until Kirby moved on.

rowing up in the ’60s, I discovered Jack Kirby via the Fantastic Four, which, equal to the Beatles, was a cultural game-changer for me. I started reading comics a little too late to appreciate Atlas/Marvel’s giant monster comics, and my early allegiances went to Dell/ Gold Key’s classically proportioned grids and DC’s mysteriessolved-by-science. I was aware of the Fantastic Four through friends’ collections and the neighborhood barbershop — I can still remember waiting for a haircut, mesmerized by a cover-less FF #13, chock-full to over-brimming with the Red Ghost, super-powered apes, the Watcher, and the Blue Area on the moon — but there was something in Kirby’s anarchic, emotion-soaked power-visuals that I couldn’t quite digest yet.

So, while I was aware of, and vaguely fascinated by, Kirby’s introduction of the Inhumans, Galactus, and the Silver Surfer, it wasn’t until the Black Panther that I became an every-issue devotee of the FF — and, by extension, the Marvel landscape he created — and a fan of Kirby’s amazing storytelling itself.

Now I can look back in awe at the challenge that Kirby threw at us. Whether he was consciously crafting a message of racial equality, or if he was thinking solely in terms of turning a good story, he did challenge the status quo, and helped us think differently than maybe we were. That’s as good a definition of a real artist as I know.

What was it about Fantastic Four #52 and #53 that did it for me? I don’t know. Maybe I was just at the right age and readiness for some-

I didn’t understand at the time that, beyond his brilliant, expressionistic style and innovative concepts, Kirby was a world-class panel-to-panel storyteller. The man’s sense of flow, and knowledge of just what to show was impeccable. His storytelling drive made everything else work. There is nothing in Kirby’s portfolio that I don’t admire, but the Fantastic Four, and particularly their adventure with T’Challa, happened at the right time for me. For me, that story will always represent the soul of Kirby.

Left inset: Mark Schultz’s current work draws inspiration from such Kirby contemporaries as Frank Frazetta, Wallace Wood, and Al Williamson. Here’s Schultz’s awesome artwork featuring African wildlife and “Pulp Pantera.” Above inset and next page: Kirby’s Black Panther changed considerably from his original conception as the “Coal Tiger” through his first appearance on this unused Fantastic Four #53 [1966] cover, with inks by Joe Sinnott.

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Derf Backderf

Artist/Writer/Editorial Cartoonist Author, My Friend Dahmer, Trashed 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award

“The Power of Iron Man,” Tales to Astonish #82, pg. 3 he one story that absolutely defines Kirby as the greatest ever is “The Power of Iron Man,” in Tales to Astonish #82.

expressionless robot, like most artists drew him. This is a badass Iron Man, possessing both power and humanity.

Is there a better description of Kirby’s work than those two adjectives?

And how the hell did Jack pull off those foreshortened hands and arms?

There’s no way that should work, but it’s an awesome pose. If I had to pick one image to represent the character, this would be the one.

Gene Colan was the regular penciler on both Subby in Astonish and Iron Man in Tales of Suspense. Colan is one of the greats, and one of the most distinctive stylists in comics history.

His “Iron Man” is not often cited, but his three-year run in Suspense, in my opinion, stands as the finest in that character’s history.

I was 10 years old in 1970 when first I discovered this story. I had never been much of a comic book reader, outside of MAD magazine. The spinner rack at Vann’s Drugstore in my hometown didn’t hold much allure. But one summer’s day, on a whim, I grabbed some comic books. As luck would have it, all were Kirby books and one was a fat 25-center, Iron Man King-Size Special #1. Inside was this story from Astonish.

I read it over and over. I couldn’t stop staring at it. I was hooked. Hopelessly, happily hooked.

And Jack completely blew him away with one rush job.

According to Stan’s explanation on the title page, Colan caught the flu and couldn’t finish the story. Since this was the climax of a cross-title storyline, Stan couldn’t swap in a reprint without making a hash out of the continuity and screwing up the following month’s storyline in Tales of Suspense, as well. He needed an emergency fill-in artist. Stan turned, as always, to Kirby. Jack delivered a tour de force!

And with that one impulse buy, my life was lost to comics.

The story starts out with two Colan pages. Gene’s art is like cool jazz, it shimmers and flows. Jack is rock ’n’ roll, and he bursts into the story with one of the greatest super-hero pages ever made. It’s like you were listening to Dave Brubeck and then someone snuck to the stereo and slipped on AC/DC and cranked it up full volume! What follows is a ten-page masterpiece, the quintessential battle issue, with one jaw-dropping panel after another.

Considering the conditions, no other book in his oeuvre demonstrates more succinctly why Jack Kirby was the King.

Just look at that first panel on page three. Kirby announces his arrival by literally giving the reader a face full of repulsor rays! Tony Stark glowers through the eye slits. It’s the smallest detail, but one that conveys so much. This is no This page: Readers were undoubtedly jarred by the transition from Gene Colan’s delicate splash page work, to Kirby’s in-your-face action starting on page three of Tales to Astonish #82 [1966], but who’s going to complain? Certainly not Derf Backderf, who drew this Kirbyinspired Subby illo as a teenager (seen at right). Next page: Kirby page from TTA #82, with inks by Dick Ayers. (Reportedly, Kirby was covering for an ailing Gene Colan.)

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Barry Windsor-Smith

Artist/Writer/Illustrator/Author Creator, BWS: Storyteller Multiple award-winner

“The People-Breeders,” Thor #134, pg. 3 ack Kirby meant a lot to me. When I was young, the new American comics that came to England were mostly DCs, and later Marvel started to happen in the mid-’60s. Beforehand, they were all secondhand comics, which you could buy for a tuppence each at the junk shop. As a child, I was reading black-&-white British and Australian reprints of DC’s Superman, Adventure Comics, and Batman, and that sort of thing. While I was as interested in super-heroes as much as any kid, there came a time around the early to mid-’60s when I started losing interest in comics because they were no longer satisfying to me in any way. The Superman stories were stupid and the artwork was bland. Not that they weren’t before — they had been bland all along — but it’s just my temperament had changed.

If it hadn’t been for Jack Kirby, I would have been one of

those people who outgrew comics and never looked back.

The comic book industry and the movie industry both owe Kirby the greatest debt.

Of course he’s gone. I don’t know if there’s a thriving Kirby family anymore, but whoever’s left should be reaping rewards.

It would be great if Marvel would sponsor a biographical film about Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. A docudrama type thing. There are enough people who know about their creations now because of the movies, that although it wouldn’t be a runaway blockbuster, it might be an art house hit, and they could probably make their money back from it. I’m talking about a biographical film with actual Hollywood actors. I can’t think of anybody who could play Kirby, but give me ten minutes and I could probably come up with half a dozen names. It would be telling the story of the creation of Marvel Comics. I would love people to know the truth. It would be an inspiring picture, with the right screenplay, and the right sort of independent sponsorship. I think that Stan Lee would go for that instantly, and I think he would be gracious enough to say Jack Kirby is the co-star of such a film.

That would be a good way to acknowledge how Jack Kirby changed the comics industry.

Left: Barry Windsor-Smith page from a proposed mini-series starring The Thing. “As the four-part series in incomplete,” he explains, “I should mention that the premise of the work is that Ben is left alone in New York and undergoes something of a personal crisis; a mental breakdown in a way where he questions himself as a man or a monster, and his value (if any) to the Fantastic Four. It’s a comedic look at a serious subject for Ben Grimm.”

Top inset: Kirby Mavelmania poster. Next page: Thor #134, page three, inks by Colletta.

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Terry Moore

Artist/Writer/Publisher Creator/Writer/Artist, Strangers in Paradise, Rachel Rising, Echo 1996 Eisner award winner, Two-time Harvey Award winner

“Doomsday,” Fantastic Four #59, pg. 5 ne of comics most powerful assets is the ability to depict what has never been seen. The Bifrost bridge to Asgard, anti-matter, a silver man surfing the cosmos, a nuts and bolts machine that can destroy the gammaverse, those lovely people who live far below the earth’s surface… none of these familiar Marvel icons were wellknown visuals before Jack Kirby.

Art history is defined, not by pretty, but by firsts. The legacy of great artists is what they were the first to accomplish. Before Jack Kirby, sci-fi visuals were defined by old comic strips and low-budget Hollywood serials. After Kirby, all the mythical machinery, tech, demigods, unnatural phenomenon, and galactic landscapes… it all stands on the shoulders of what Jack Kirby conceived and depicted during a post-war era of dial phones and black-&-white TV. Jack Kirby is the Leonardo da Vinci of comics, and that makes Jack Kirby our King.

In this scene, the mighty Silver Surfer is visually submissive, literally on his knees, as Doctor Doom does what he always does with these minor victories: gloat. But fear and submission are not on the Silver Surfer’s face. He answers Doom with truth and judgment. Doom wants personal gain, the Surfer wants justice, and you can see it in the art, the body language, the Surfer’s struggle, Doom’s cheap shot.

Three panels between two characters sums up the nature of all things: for every action, a reaction; for every positive, a negative; the fight for balance, the never-ending battle for freedom from oppression.

The great stories of Marvel’s Silver Age may have been set in fantasy, but the themes rang true. In the work of Kirby and his peers, all veterans of WWII and Hitler’s horror show, there was such a thing as right and wrong, truth and justice.

The characters who fought for these principles were heroes, those who threatened them were villains. In Kirby’s world, you had to pick a side, you had to fight for what you believed in, even to the last breath as evil gloated and kicked you in the side. In Kirby’s world, you knew the Silver Surfer would get back up, you knew the good guys would win. That was very comforting to a generation of kids who was living in the age of the Cold War. Above right: Terry Moore shares, “This page I drew in Kirby style, in homage. At the end of the series Echo, when I had to start the cataclysmic explosion of a Large Hadron Collider, I went pure Kirby… Krackle and all, because Kirby blew up a lot of planets in his day. He knew how. Replace my characters with Skrulls and Molemen and you have a Kirby page.”

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Marie Severin

Cartoonist/Colorist 1974 Shazam Award winner, “Best Penciler (Humor Division)” 2001 Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee

“The Silver Burper,” Not Brand Echh #1, pg. 6 to make on Jack’s work. It was just the way he worked, and he was successful. I didn’t always know why he asked for changes, but he was over me, so who was I to question?

I didn’t like it when Jack quit, because I thought it would hurt the company. He was a big asset, and I liked Jack. Marvel wouldn’t have been the same without him. Stan would have been a success with someone else, but I don’t think anyone had a grasp of the medium like Jack did.

think Jack Kirby was a genius. His style was funny, but he was a gigantic talent. It just flowed out of him. It was so male, and so powerful. It was astounding.

When he would draw his spaceships and machinery, I loved it. It looked like it worked; it wasn’t just a bunch of nuts and bolts. It had a personality, like if you pressed that button, the whole world would blow up.

A lot of guys could draw machines, but his were so big. He could draw the universe.

I would see him before he moved to California. He was very friendly, very nice. He had a certain kind of class. I was impressed by him. He was King.

Inset left: Marie Severin lampoons Jack Kirby creations for the cover of Not Brand Echh #3 [1967]. Below: At left, Kirby’s rejected cover for Thor #175 [1970], and Marie Severin’s published version.

Previous page: Kirby’s page from “The Silver Burper,” in Not Brand Echh #1 [1967]. Inks by Frank Giacoia.

I accepted the corrections Stan asked us

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Joseph Michael Linsner Artist/Writer Creator, Cry For Dawn, Artist/Writer, Killraven

Fantastic Four #66 & Thor #159

The Radiant Brilliance of Jack Kirby y introduction to the world of Jack Kirby started in October 1973. I was four years old and already a lover of comic books. Batman was my favorite, probably because he was on TV every afternoon. My mom would pick me up a comic book every time I went out shopping with her. If I already had all of the new Batman comics on the stands, I would get something else. One day Marvel’s Greatest Comics #45 grabbed my attention. I couldn’t actually read yet, but through the magic of comics, I could follow the pictures and get the general idea behind the story (I still enjoy European comics this way). MGC #45 reprinted Fantastic Four #62, and featured the introduction of Blastaar.

that was cosmically cool), Reed grabs onto a rock drifting by.

Little does he know that a bunch of aliens have just glued a cocooned figure to the other side of that same rock. They dropped the cocoon off in a hurry and then hightailed it out of there — this had to be one evil guy all wrapped up.

There is a full-page shot of Reed calmly hanging onto that rock without knowing that this malevolent presence was on the other side, mere feet away. That page totally blew my mind. I was already a lover of monster movies, so I could tell that something really bad was gonna erupt soon.

When the bad guy finally did break out, he scared the heck out of me. Blastaar looked genuinely evil! His beady pure white eyes looked demonically feral. He freaked me out — but I loved it! What mind could dream up such a creature?

It was many years before I got to read the next issue where he actually fights the Fantastic Four, and I must confess that confrontation was a bit of a let-down. He really seemed like he would tear the very fabric of reality apart when he first popped out of his cocoon. His introduction and build-up was more impressive than his actual performance.

Our hero, Reed Richards, gets trapped in the Negative Zone, and the rest of the F.F. try to save him. While floating around in space (without a space suit! I remember thinking

The full-page shot where his cocoon is on the other side of the rock that Reed is hanging onto is one of my favorite pieces of Jack Kirby art. It says so much, and really gets the imagination going. It’s the classic Alfred Hitchcock concept that you build suspense by showing the bomb hidden under that table to the audience, while the protagonist is kept clueless. The weight of the figure is so impressive. If you look at it, he seems to be weighing down the whole rock, tilting it off of its axis. The deep gravity of the cocoon lets the reader know that something very intense is about to happen. I love it. I still get chills whenever I look at it.

The total flip side to that page is one of my other favorite Kirby pages, from Thor #159, which I discovered as a teenager. Don Blake needs to leave the confines of Earth and get to Asgard to find out the truth about his identity. Laying down, he closes his eyes… His true self, Thor, leaves his body and becomes light as a feather. This is a brilliant illustration.

It is without a doubt the very best visual invocation I have ever seen of sleep and dreams. Whenever I look at it, I hear a gentle wind — I feel the limitless cosmos open up and embrace me. As I write this, I am looking at the black light poster of that image, which hangs in my studio. It is something I see and love every day.

This and next page: Kirby was a master at using diagonals to convey movement and keep the reader slightly off-balance, as on these full-page splashes from Fantastic Four #66 [1967] and Thor #159 [1968]. Also, “Jacklactus,” a tribute piece by Joseph Michael Linsner, featuring a mash-up of Kirby and one of his greatest creations, Galactus.

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This is the genius of Jack Kirby — his dynamic range.

One minute he could inspire heart-stopping dread and fear; the next he could capture the most delicate thing in the universe, the gossamer veil between being awake and asleep, between this world and the great beyond. It is very interesting that the key angle, the tilt, is the same on both pages, from FF #62 and Thor #159. Was that a conscious thing on Kirby’s part, or did he draw it that way intuitively?

I bet he just shot from the hip. It just felt right.

Throughout most of his career, Jack Kirby was producing pages so fast he didn’t have a chance to over-think them; the work just flowed out of him, a cosmic river of creativity. I have an image in my head of Kirby scribbling out pages and just tossing them over his shoulder while grabbing a fresh piece of paper: No time to look back, there is too much fresh work to do — so much to capture!

Comics was the perfect medium for Jack Kirby. No other form of entertainment could have allowed him to stretch his wings and fully explore every facet of his imagination.

Pre-CGI movies would not have been able to capture his wild visions properly, and prose is too earthbound, too interior.

Animation might come close, but it is far too labor intensive.

Kirby had so much to say, and only one lifetime to say it in.

Monthly comics allowed him that perfect stage. He had a family to support, so being a good patriarch, he wanted to be prolific, which meant doing more pages, more stories, more ideas. I think the comics industry’s massive appetite for new material opened up a door in his psyche. The floodgates exploded, and I am convinced that Jack Kirby reached a higher plateau of consciousness by exposing the deepest reaches of his own mind in order to fulfill the unending need for new ideas and concepts. It could only ever have happened in the world of comics, and Jack Kirby was the perfect comic book creator. The fantastic visions he uncovered, drawn out of his own soul, are his gift to the world.

I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Kirby on my first trip to the San Diego Comic-Con in 1991. He was casually standing in front of a booth, just shaking hands and making small talk with fans, posing for pictures. I remember a fantastic wave of positive energy coming from him: A profound sense of calm. Deep Zen. He was Jack “King”’ Kirby, and he knew it. His calm wasn’t from an inflated ego, but from a transcendence of ego. The fighting was over. The war was won. His body was still on earth, but his spirit was already one with the cosmos. He was radiant.

Brilliant.

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Wendy Pini

Artist/Writer Co-Creator/Writer/Artist, Elfquest 2002 Friends of Lulu Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame inductee

“The Mysterious Triton,” Fantastic Four Annual #5 ut for the occasional, standalone Superboy or Batman, I never had much interest in super-heroes. Then I discovered Marvel Comics and began my journey into that universe with the first Inhumans cycle in The Fantastic Four. The artwork, by one Jack “King” Kirby, didn’t just blow my mind, it expanded it. As a young woman attracted to high levels of stylization, dynamism and drama in cartooning, I drank in Jack’s eye-popping, 3-D effects. His solid-yet-surreal art style, always pushing the envelope, influenced my teen drawings and my own body of work in comics to this day.

Once, while visiting him, I said to Jack, “Lightray is Balder, isn’t he?” Jack looked surprised. “How did you know?”

I explained they had the same energy.

Jack’s knowledge of archetypes was absolutely mythic. My favorite of his, whom he embodied in several characters for both Marvel and DC (Triton, the Inhuman; Balder, the Norse God; Lightray of the New Gods), I like to call the “Loyal Knight.” This is the friend who’s got your back to the end, the faithful, pure-hearted one who accepts his secondary role and honors duty above all. I have a feeling Jack admired friends like that and, from what I hear, he was one himself.

The sheer power of Jack’s action scenes has been praised ad infinitum, so I’d rather focus on his other great strengths: character design and the depiction of characters in relationship.

The Inhumans were a family, as were the Fantastic Four. The two families represented two distinctly different races — one human, the other humanoid with an array of animal-inspired super traits.

To me Jack Kirby was an unwitting mentor and sensei, because he sincerely believed the comics business was not an appropriate career for a young lady.

In fact, he promised to spank me if he ever caught me working in comics. Later, I would tease him about this whenever we connected at a convention. Just like Ben Grimm (tough exterior but all mush inside), Jack would get embarrassed. I never got that spanking.

But nonetheless, the King left his mark on me for life.

Through his wizardry, Jack managed, visually, to convey that green-scaled merman Triton, in looks the most “other” of the royal family, was not human — but orange, rock-skinned Ben Grimm was fully human, despite his monstrous appearance. How did he do that? Mainly through the use of subtle body language and facial expression. Jack had a knack for engaging the reader’s empathy with even his most grotesque creations. He showed us the tender side of the scrapper from Yancy Street and the nobility, even the beauty, of the mysterious messenger from the hidden land of Attilan.

Such powerful characters interacting, fighting and finally befriending was irresistible to me — the best soap opera ever!

Top inset: Fantastic Four Annual #5 [1967]. Right: A character study of Triton by Wendy Pini for “Conscience of the King,” in Bizarre Adventures #28 [1981], and a lighter piece humorously pitting two favorite characters against each other, one her creation. Next page: Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia’s pin-up from Fantastic Four Annual #5.

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Brent Anderson

Artist Co-Creator/Artist, Astro City Multiple Eisner and Harvey awards winner

Fantastic Four #69, cover

ack Kirby’s Thing challenging the Air Force, his friends, and the entire cosmos to fight from atop a way-too-small building on the cover of Fantastic Four #69 was my first glimpse into Kirby’s amazing imagination and powerful storytelling. Coming into the middle act of a three-part story of “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine,” I had no real idea of why Ben Grimm was betraying his friends and colleagues, but I sure wanted to find out. I fervently followed Jack’s co-creations at Marvel, before following him to DC Comics and the auteur universe of his New Gods’ “Fourth World.” His powerful art style, broad paradoxical, often satirical, archetypal characters and mythic oeuvre, defined the power and greatness of the comics medium from his debut, in the late 1930s, until his passing in 1994. Jack Kirby has been called “The King of Comics.” For me, he is more like unto “A God of Comics.”

Left: Brent Anderson pin-up from Marvel Fanfare #10 [1983] featuring Benjamin Grimm, a.k.a. the ever-lovin’, bashful, blue-eyed Thing. Above: The plotline of Fantastic Four #69 [1967] may have been a reshash of previous “Ben betrays the FF” storylines, but the cover, with its King Kong symbolism and exaggerated figure sizes, was a first for the series.

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Dean Haspiel

Artist/Writer Creator, The Red Hook, Billy Dogma, Artist, The Quitter 2010 Emmy Award winner, HBO’s Bored to Death title design

“The Blitzkrieg of Batroc,” Tales of Suspense #85 ack Kirby’s collaboration with Stan Lee on The Fantastic Four is one of the best comic book series ever made. But, even Stan should’ve known better than to spray this epic battle between Captain America and Batroc with his graffiti: a symphony of struggle that needs no score.

Kirby’s infamous knock-down, dragout fisticuffs between men and gods and monsters burned their cosmic brawls into my mind’s eye. Kirby was fascinated with the twilight of the future while honoring the wisdom, heartbreaks, and history of the past.

And, despite some of his outlandish yet ofttimes superprescient concepts (Ego, the Living Planet; the Silver Surfer; Galactus; the Negative Zone; the Power of Him; OMAC; Mother Box; and “The Source”), Jack Kirby knew to entertain while delivering emotional truths.

He didn’t seem concerned with the wiring of plausibility, but with the nuts and bolts of what makes us tick.

Kirby’s fiction was authentic and he cleaned our clocks with his big ideas and made people think in ways that could ignite the atoms of genius, yet melt lesser minds.

Kirby impacted my comix work in a profound way. From my very own Billy Dogma to The Red Hook to War Cry, I can’t imagine creating a super-hero/romance/monster comic without stealing from Jack Kirby’s legacy. He nearly invented the action comics alphabet and abacus. My only

regret is that I never got to shake his hand and say, “Thank you, Jack Kirby.”

Above inset: Dean Haspiel sketch of Kirby’s “Captain America of the Future,” OMAC, the One Man Army Corps. Above: In one page, Kirby, with the aid of inker Frank Giacoia, conveys an entire acrobatic ballet of violence. From “The Blitzkreig of Batroc,” in Tales of Suspense #85 [1967].

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Peter Kuper

Co-Founder/Artist/Writer, World War 3 Illustrated Writer/Artist, Spy vs. Spy, MAD magazine Writer/Artist, Ruins, Sticks and Stones, New York City

“Let There Be Chaos,” Thor #148, pg. 14

I Was Wrecked by Jack Kirby t was 1968 when I walked into Gray’s Drugstore, in Cleveland, Ohio, scanned a wall of comic covers and felt magnetically yanked to this Thor cover. Pounding power, indeed! Who could forget The Wrecker? (I understand he now lives in a retirement community in the Catskills with terrible back trouble.)

This would not be my favorite Kirby work in a future filled with every Kirby book I could get my hands on, but at the time, it launched me to the moon. As my rabid enthusiasm for comics bloomed in the 1970s,

my school year would be formed around a pilgrimage to the New York Comic-Con. It was at one of these cons, at the age of 13, where I got to meet Kirby and, along with my pal Seth Tobocman, interview him for our ’zine. We asked him about everything from the symbolism of the Hulk, to where he learned to draw “super-buildings.” He replied, “I’m sure if you had to draw a building, you’d do it very well if you were a city boy.” Kirby saying I might draw anything well ever made me flush with the possibility. Five years later, I moved to New York and became a “city boy.” I still can’t draw super-buildings like Kirby, but am forever indebted to him for constructing my imagination.

Top: Kirby is heavily altered on the published cover art for Thor #148 [1968]. Left: Peter Kuper’s back cover illo for the post-9/11 anthology, Captain America: Red, White & Blue, his portrait of the sinister Red Skull, Cap’s lifelong nemesis. Next page: From #148.

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Dan Brereton

Artist/Writer Creator, Madman, The Atomics, Red Rocket 2011 AML Special Award in Graphical Narrative

“Cap Goes Wild,” Captain America #106, pg. 1 drawn by an artist I was told was “the greatest.” He sure was.

That book — this artist’s work — changed everything. I can’t and won’t try to explain it. I’d just never experienced anything as wonderful as the work of Jack Kirby.

was eight years old when I was first exposed to comic books in a meaningful way. This was back in ’74. I was an advanced reader, and raided the school and local library regularly. I’m still enamored of a great many children’s book illustrators, and it was my first ambition as an artist to be one. One day a friend of mine invited me over after school. He knew I liked to draw, and showed me his collection of comic books.

Comics became my life, and Kirby was the gateway. I felt I had discovered treasure in those flimsy, stapled newsprint dreamscapes. Jack’s work opened the door and I stepped into an alternate storytelling world my imagination has never wanted to depart. The effect hasn’t been muted in over 40 years.

I had never seen a comic book collection before. I’d seen comics on the racks in stores here and there, but was never encouraged to explore them. If anything, comic books were looked upon as trash in my house.

Inset left: Detail from the cover of Fantasy Masterpieces #3 [1966].

Below: Left is Dan Brereton’s rendition of Cap, and right, Captain America #106 [1968] cover. Giacoia inks. Previous page: Page from same.

Among the books in his box was a bagged issue of Captain America,

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Bob McLeod

Artist/Editor/Instructor Co-Creator/Artist, The New Mutants, Author, Super-hero ABC Keynote Speaker, 2012 Inkwell Awards, Heroes Con

“The Way It Was,” Thor #158 came to Jack Kirby very late. I missed that whole Marvel revolution of the 1960s, when Stan and Jack were creating all those great classic super-heroes. Instead, I was reading MAD magazine, and occasionally Superman and Archie.

George Pérez, and many others were all obviously very influenced by this guy Kirby, and I discovered that he had designed practically all of Marvel’s characters! I was astounded that one man had single-handedly done so much and influenced so many.

But, in 1973, at the urging of a friend who was a big Marvel Comics fan, I moved to New York City to try to start my career as a comic book artist and figured I’d better check out some comics.

I discovered Jack Kirby first in Marvel Spectacular, starring Thor, which was inked by the infamous Vinnie Colletta.

Knowing next to nothing about inking, I was intrigued by Colletta’s scratchy linework, and I was impressed by Kirby’s dynamic, exaggerated style. There were usually only four panels per page, and the drawings looked like they were from a complete, but parallel dimension.

They were unlike anything I had ever seen, but they weren’t really in the direction I wanted to take my own art. I was much more interested in what Neal Adams was doing.

I had chosen John Buscema as my main reference point for how to draw dramatic comics, and Kirby’s influence on him was, of course, blatantly obvious.

So, naturally, I myself was indirectly influenced by Kirby, as well. His influence was basically inescapable if you wanted to draw super-hero comics in the 1970s.

I particularly enjoyed his work on the Fantastic Four, Thor, and later, The Demon, but really you just knew any comic he drew was going to be fun to read.

I’ve inked dozens of different pencilers over the course of my career, but I only got to ink Kirby a couple of times, using a lightbox over Xeroxes of his pencils: once for a commission and once for the cover of the Jack Kirby Quarterly #15. Because he’s so stylized, he’s much more difficult to ink than you might think. There is a lot of knowledge and experience in every line he put down. There’s just no two ways about it: the man was a genius.

Still, everywhere I looked, other artists were trying to do what Kirby was doing. John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Barry Smith, Rich Buckler, Jim Steranko, Jim Starlin, Ron Wilson, Keith Pollard,

Top inset and next page: After the multi-issue “Mangog” storyline, and prior to beginning his “Origin of Galactus” arc, Thor #158 [1968] (perhaps to give Kirby some deadline breathing room) refreshed readers’ memories of Thor’s beginnings with a reprinting of Journey Into Mystery #83 [1962], framed with seven new pages by Kirby — two of which are shown at right. Above: From left, Kirby’s pencils, with Bob McLeod’s inks as published in Jack Kirby Quarterly #15 cover [2008], and the uncolored art of same.

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José Villarrubia

Artist/Colorist/Teacher Author, Voices of the Fire, Mirrors of Love 2007 Comicdom Award, 2011 Harvey Award, “Best Colorist”

Captain America #109, cover over-dated January of 1969, this cover is one of the most iconic images that Jack Kirby ever created, and it fully exemplifies the essence of his first major hero, Captain America. The drawing was penciled by Kirby and inked by one of his best and most sensitive inkers, Syd Shores. He was just three years older than Kirby, so he belonged to the same generation of artists that bridged the Golden Age and Silver Age of comics.

A fine draftsman on his own, Shores could keep the energy of a Kirby line undiluted, and yet add an element of subtle realism, without resulting to redrawing the pencils (like the very fine Sinnott and Wood sometimes did). The three issues of Captain America in which they collaborated at the end of the ’60s are the apexes of their artistic team. And #109, their last teaming, is extraordinary: A retelling of the origin of Captain America. Kirby had done this before, but this version, drawn at the absolute peak of his powers, may be the definitive one.

A special issue like this deserved a special cover, and the art team sure delivered with a little help from the produc-

tion department. The first thing one notices in it is the bold new logo “The Origin of Captain America” created specially for this issue. This logo is perfectly integrated with a great action shot of Captain America, marching forward and creating the illusion of breaking through the very paper of the cover, which is apparently made of a giant newspaper. But, at the top of the cover, we can see that it is not a random newspaper, but the front page of The New York Times from Monday, December 8, 1941, the very same day the United States formally entered World War II! Symbolically this works perfectly. Captain America, the living embodiment of the U.S. Army, is breaking loose from his origin and jumping into the present.

The original art was featured in a publication by the Tate Gallery (Tate Etc. #9: Spring 2007), where it specifies that it is pen and ink with graphite, 21" x 22", an almost square and very large piece of paper, drawn with the intention of being combined with the newspaper stat. Two features that are not visible in the printed version stand out in the original art: There were more shreds of paper and a larger hole behind Cap, and much of the very fine feathering that Shores did in the figure and shield got lost in reproduction. Nevertheless, the figure stands out very clearly in the finished printed and colored version.

In the same article from the Tate Etc., critic John Carlin compares Kirby with William Blake. “Kirby used techniques pioneered by Blake to create a realistic sense of epic action through the combination of muscular figures with exaggerated patterned backgrounds that conveyed the mood of his characters as much as their facial expressions or dialogue.” Oh boy, did he ever! And the results are for us to forever enjoy!

Left: Two Spanish editions of Fantastic Four reprints. Previous page & above: Kirby’s original art for the cover of Captain America #109 [1969] was slightly altered for publication — note there’s more torn paper on the inset opposite — after the Bullpen photostated the figure on top of The New York Times front page, Dec. 8, 1941. We had hoped to include a larger repro of the original art, which hung in London’s Tate Gallery during their “Real Comic Book Heroes” exhibition, in 2007, but nothing bigger than this could be found.

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Joe Sinnott

Artist Inker, The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip 2013 Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee, 2008 Inkwell Special Ambassador

“Tomorrow, World War Three,” Fantastic Four #95, pg. 8 ccasionally, I am asked what would be my favorite page of all the Fantastic Four art that Jack Kirby and I produced over the many years that we worked together on the book.

Ever since I first saw the Kirby penciled full-page art of the Thing holding up the building in Fantastic Four #95 (page eight), it has been my favorite page, for many reasons.

First of all, the detail that Jack put into the art boggles the mind. I just loved inking all the bricks, fire escapes, and I may have added a few cracks to enhance the art. I was fortunate to receive this page back, and I would not trade it for anything — well, almost!

Second, and by no means insignificant, was the great humorous dialogue that Stan added to the page. But, then again, we were all at the top of our game to produce, in my opinion, one of the best all-around pages ever to appear in the Fantastic Four saga, and perhaps in comic book history.

Previous page: Superb artist — and one of the King’s finest inkers — Joe Sinnott tells us that this is his favorite Kirby sequence in Fantastic Four [#95, 1970]. This page: Clockwise from immediate left, Joe Sinnott depicts a perturbed Ben Grimm in a 1999 commission drawing; Kirby (at left) and Sinnott pose for the camera at a 1972 comic convention; and a page from Joe’s earliest Fantastic Four assignment, #5 [1962], inking over Kirby’s pencils.

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Jerry Ordway

Artist/Writer/Painter Co-Creator/Artist, Infinity Squadron 1994 Inkpot Award Recipient

Mister Miracle #1, cover first discovered Marvel Comics in 1967, and was hooked. I loved Thor, and also the Captain America feature that ran in Tales of Suspense, drawn by Jack Kirby at the time. I wasn’t a Fantastic Four fan initially, because my ten-year-old self thought the book was too science- based! I didn’t watch the original Star Trek either.

Jump ahead a few years, when Jack had left Marvel for DC Comics. I saw ads hyping “The King is Coming!” in the back of some DC Comics, but saw nothing at my main comic book haunt, a big newsstand in downtown Milwaukee.

Some time later, at a small off-the-beaten-path drugstore, I discovered a strangely compelling issue of a comic I had never purchased before, Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. The king was here! I was hooked, and anxiously awaited the New Gods, Mister Miracle, and the Forever People. The concept of those titles, interconnected to tell an epic story, made a Kirby fan of me. At that age, I was also very impressed that he was both the writer and artist of his books. It was enough of a rarity to me, in those days, that it stood out as something to aspire to. I’ve always respected people who reached beyond what others might expect. I wrote and drew my own homemade comics, and it gave me hope that a position like that existed in professional comic books — not that I had any idea how a person became a professional comic book author, mind you.

Flash forward a few more years, to a time when I had somehow become a comic book pro, and was lucky enough to meet and break bread with both Jack and his better half, Roz. It happened in the mid-1980s, during and after the Chicago comic convention, when DC Comics arranged a small group dinner to which I was invited. The location was a 1920s speakeasy-themed restaurant called “Knickers,” which must have tickled Jack to no end.

He regaled the group of us with stories of his youth, about gangsters, street gangs, and a bit of advice about dating Molls — “don’t.” Jack had progressed to stories about World War Two, when Roz said, “Jack, they don’t want to hear your old war stories!” We all said, of course we did, and he kept going until they kicked us out of the joint!

I was fortunate to have spent time with Jack and Roz at many San Diego Comic-Cons, and was always impressed at how nicely he treated everyone, fans and fellow professionals alike. On this, what would have been his 100th year, I’d like to celebrate a giant creative talent, whose legacy isn’t only the amazing body of work he left us with, but also the genuinely nice human being he was.

Left inset: For Kirby’s birthday in 2016, Jerry Ordway rendered this battle between Orion and Superman, as part of the “Wake Up and Draw” fundraiser organized by Kirby4Heroes, a charity group spearheaded by Jack’s granddaughter, Jillian.

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Dustin Nguyen

Artist/Toys, Games, and Animation Conceptual Artist Co-Creator/Artist/Co-Writer, Batman: Li’l Gotham 2016 Eisner Award winer, “Best Painter/Multimedia Artist”

“Raid from Apokolips,” The Forever People #6, pg. 1 ery much like every modern comic artist today, Jack Kirby’s work has had a huge influence on my style, whether it can be immediately seen or not. Although Kirby was obviously a master storyteller, I’ve always felt his greatest strength was his sense of design, both graphical and illustrative.

His use of line weight, contrasting patterns of black-&white, and ability to create surface textures from stone to metallic or foliage to furs can be seen in the “Raid From Apokolips” story. It’s my go-to when trying to determine how much detail is too much or too little in a setting.

His pencil work is just as equally bold as if inked; every line put down was always intentional, nothing was there as filler. I believe the greatness of everything Kirby drew was: When in doubt of what something looked like, or unclear of how it would operate, he would just make it up on the spot, and it always worked.

Above: Dustin Nguyen’s rendition of the Bat-family. Right: Reproduced from a Xerox copy, Kirby’s pencils for the first page of The Forever People #6 [1972] “Young Gods of Supertown” back-up story.

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Will Meugniot

Artist/Writer/Storyboard Artist/Animation Director Co-Creator/Artist, Tigra, The DNAgents 1999 International Monitor Award winner, Children’s Programming

Mattel Game Cards In these days of comics printed on good paper and unending quantities of super-hero merchandise, it’s hard to explain the impact of beholding Jack Kirby’s Superman printed on heavy paper with super-bright and dense color, but it was a real wonder at the time.

attel first released its card-based Comic Games in 1971. Each game came in a reusable snap-tight plastic carry case embossed with the Mattel seal and the words “Comic Game,” which was mounted in a colorfully printed backing board with a notch at the top for hanging. There were six of them, one each of The Harlem Globetrotters (based on the then-current Hanna-Barbera cartoon series), Archie, Scooby-Doo, The Lone Ranger, Tarzan, and Superman.

While I’m certain the first three had their fans, the last three had a secret ingredient that pried the cash from my fingers: Jack Kirby!

The art he did for the packaging features Superman (with one of those annoying DC supplied generic heads) flying past Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane. Jimmy holds one of the Comic Game cases while Lois exclaims, “Superman can help us win!” on its front. The back of the board features two panels. The first is a close-up of Supes with a Murphy Anderson-drawn head while the second, larger panel shows our hero with another retouched face actually playing the card game with un-retouched Lois and Jimmy, as surprise guest-star Green Arrow looks on. These are both nice pieces of art, but it’s the card art for the game itself which truly showcases Kirby unleashed.

The King had drawn the Lone Ranger and Tarzan? Amazing! And, while I loved his interpretation of those classic characters, it was his Superman card art that rocked my world. In DC’s long running Jimmy Olsen comic and his newly created Forever People, Jack was already revitalizing Superman with fresh artistic energy and important story concepts, such as the orphaned Kryptonian’s alienation from normal society and his unfulfilled yearning to be with his equals.

The game has four picture puzzles by the King, each assembled from nine playing card pieces printed on heavy

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stock with gorgeous, rich color.

The four puzzle images are: Superman battling a bright red dinosaur as cavemen flee and a pteranodon flies overhead; Superman breaking free of some ultramodern restraints as Lois, Jimmy, and some characters who appear to have stepped out of Supertown look on; Superman lifting Lois out of harm’s way as an evil witch and her gnomes attack; and finally, my favorite: the Man of Steel in outer space, struggling against an organic, rainbow covered goop fired at him by a trio of attacking aliens.

That image said it all.

The printing on good paper with stunning color whispered the future to me. Kirby’s Superman restrained literally by the aliens and figuratively by

DC’s insistence on using a poorly applied corporate-approved non-Kirby face spoke of the comics’ all too-real present. And then, there was the King’s heroic vision triumphing over all opposing its creation.

Previous page: Top inset is Will Meugniot’s rendition of Kirby’s initial Iron Man design. At bottom, completed “secret picture” puzzles featuring Superman and pals as penciled by Kirby and inked by Mike Royer (with affixed Murphy Andersondrawn heads on the Man of Steel). This page: Above is the original art for Meuginot’s favorite image from the set and, at left, printed version of same. Produced by Mattel in 1971, Kirby also illustrated the Lone Ranger and Tarzan “Comic Games.”

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Al Milgrom

Artist/Writer/Editor Co-Creator/Artist, Firestorm 1982 Comics Buyer’s Guide Fan Award winner

Jimmy Olsen Adventures by Jack Kirby Vol. 2, cover

Jack Kirby: The Once and Always King! ack Kirby! What can you say about Jack Kirby that hasn’t already been said a thousand ways and a thousand times — probably more eloquently than I could ever say it. He was an innovator and pacesetter almost from the very start in the early 1940s and somehow maintained that exalted position for some five decades. Along the way he created more characters than anyone in comics ever has or ever will. His output was enormous, but the quality was still first-rate. Somehow the work that flowed out of him was always top-notch. He was geared for speed with no loss of integrity. He was never the greatest draftsman in comics — there were guys who probably, technically, drew better — but the overall package that Kirby presented: Power, speed, majesty, dynamism, scope, innovation sustained over fifty years… my God, it’s staggering!

I think the first time I became, vaguely, aware of Kirby was in the first issue of Archie’s Fly. I didn’t know who the artist was — but something about the character, the way he was drawn, the way he moved, the way the action flowed… it just drew me in. To this day it remains one of my all-time favorite comics. Then again, I noticed Kirby’s work when, briefly, he took over the art chores on “Green Arrow.”

Suddenly, that rather mundane Batman wannabe became fascinating and exciting. Xeen Arrow, indeed!

I noticed his work again when I saw The Incredible Hulk #3 on the spinner rack. The cover looked more or less like any of the monster books Marvel was producing — books which didn’t interest me and I didn’t buy — but I thumbed through this issue and was lured in by the action, the situations, the awesome power with which the Hulk was

Previous page: Kirby’s pencils for the unused Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 [1970] cover, and Al Milgrom’s finished cover for DC’s Jimmy Olsen Adventures collection [2004].

Above: Al’s sketch for the cover of The Avengers #154 [1976], and, at right, Kirby’s final pencil version, which was inked by Al. 121

drawn. I realized it was a sort of borderline super-hero comic, with the raging Hulk being held to the straight-and-narrow by his teen cohort, Rick Jones.

Then Marvel started churning out their new line of super-hero titles and I was well and truly hooked — and I was not alone. We all know that the plethora of characters he and Stan (don’t start!) created not only knocked the comic world on its ear, but now, a couple of decades later, have gone on to become powerhouses of cinema as well. The Marvel Universe, driven by many of

Jack’s creations, are known and loved the world over — racking up billions of dollars in ticket sales along the way.

As for me, key moments in my visceral adoration of Jack’s work include: The first time I ever got to ink him — the cover of Justice Inc. #3, for DC; and the handful of Marvel titles where I did cover sketches for the great man, and also in several cases got to ink him as well.

Certainly when I did the cover for Firestorm #1, I was giving it my best Kirby impression, as I did on the cover of Nova #10.

I was also thrilled to have visited him at his home in California — mostly too awed to speak, though I watched and listened as he and Jim Starlin talked about their perspectives on creating comics and what they were trying to accomplish.

I also have a special place in my heart for the unused Jimmy Olsen cover I acquired (pencils only) from Jack. It was for his first issue of the character that Jack did. It was rejected (I don’t know why) in favor of one with a much bigger, but less interesting, figure of Superman. I had it for some years, but when DC did a couple of reprint editions of Jack’s Olsen issues, I contacted the editor and offered to ink it on a lightbox. He agreed, and so, that was the last time I inked Jack — probably some forty years after the first time.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Jack Kirby or look at some of his work. And, inevitably, I sigh and shake my head, because there’s no more new stuff of his to look forward to. Jack Kirby, the king of comics, he will reign forever… as it should be.

Top inset: Kirby’s pencils, and the published cover inked by Al Milgrom, for DC’s Justice, Inc. #3 [1975]. This series marked one of the rare times at DC in the 1970s, that Kirby worked from someone else’s scripts — in this case, one by Dennis O’Neil. Above: Milgrom channeled his “inner Kirby” for this, the cover of Firestorm #1 [1978].

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Cliff Galbraith

Artist/Writer/Convention Organizer Creator/Artist/Writer, Rat Bastard Proprietor, East Coast Comicon

“The Mountain of Judgment,” Jimmy Olsen #134 with horns and gaping jaws, it appears to be several stories tall and the length of a battleship.

ne of my favorite Kirby images is the spread across pages 16 and 17 of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134: a magnificent monstrous machine of ghoulish green might. It hurtles across the pages and screams “RRREEOOO” in huge orange lettering.

While Jack Kirby was highly influenced by the psychedelic trends around him in the ’60s, he enters the ’70s as a progenitor of imagery that would become acceptable to any fan of heavy metal music. In this piece, the King is completely unbound and his creative force is entirely worthy of a Motörhead or Monster Magnet album cover.

At first glance, it appears to be a satanic locomotive. The smoke coming off the wheels invokes the drive rods of an old train, but on closer inspection, it’s a many-wheeled truck — perhaps the original monster truck. It’s simultaneously horrific and cartoonish, threatening and delightful, and thoroughly entertaining.

Left inset: Does great Star Wars villain Darth Vader owe more than a little inspiration to Kirby? In his 2015 cartoon, Cliff Galbraith seems to think so! Below: Kirby’s awesome super-RV even received mention in a New York Times Sunday magazine feature in 1971, which described “a tribe of technologically sophisticated youths called ‘Hairies,’ who live in a mobile ‘Mountain of Judgment’ as protection against those who would destroy them.” This spread is from Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134 [1970]. Inks by Vince Colletta.

Superman identifies it as “The Mountain of Judgment!” The guy who’s “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive” is dwarfed by this mechanical monstrosity. Replete

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Dan Jurgens

Artist/Writer Creator/Artist/Writer, Booster Gold 1994 National Cartoonists Society Award winner, “Best Comic Book”

“Evil Factory,” Jimmy Olsen #135, pg. 22 irby first made an impact on me with Fantastic Four, right around issues #65-70, a couple of those issues which I remember seeing. But I think where he really made a bigger impact was when he later came to DC Comics and was doing his Fourth World stuff along with Jimmy Olsen. Because that was so unabashedly “Jack Kirby,” it was like, “Here is the soul of Jack Kirby on the page,” I think.

That’s when it really made an impact.

For me, my favorite of those books is a tie between Jimmy Olsen — at that age, I just loved the design of the Whiz Wagon, and all the stuff he was doing with cloning and everything else — and Mister Miracle. Mister Miracle was a little more grounded than The New Gods and The Forever People were, plus for whatever reason — and we have to realize this was back in the day of newsstand comics — I could never find The Forever People or The New Gods. You’d get every fourth issue or something like that, whereas I could find Mister Miracle on a pretty regular basis.

The concept of Mister Miracle spoke to me more than Scott Free himself. It was the mix of characters — Scott Free, Oberon, and Big Barda — as a concept that appealed to me, especially when backed up by the overall weirdness that series had with it. And if you think of the various characters that they ran across and encountered, I think that’s what did it for me. It was all about the concept with me.

At that time I would have been eleven, twelve years old, so the idea that some of the stories of young Scott Free reflected Kirby’s childhood in the Lower East Side wouldn’t have occurred to me. That is something I can look back on as an adult and perhaps see some of that. I was at that age where you’re just in on it for the entertainment value, but one of the things I could recognize was that those books were substantially different than anything else on the stands.

I really was disappointed when those books were cancelled, especially Jimmy Olsen, because it was fun for me to see Jack Kirby doing at that time a very different Superman. I was bummed to see all those books go, but at the same time, I liked Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, as well. Those books might have been cancelled, but he came back very quickly with some other great stuff.

During my first run working on Superman, we certainly used some of that stuff Kirby introduced. We did some stories with the Guardian, Simyan and Mokkari, Morgan Edge, and Cadmus… We kind of did an early to mid-’90s take on it, if you will, while realizing every step of the way that what he had done was so incredibly thorough and complete, it’s not like we were going to improve on it. While we were doing that, you also had Jerry Ordway doing stories with Jimmy and the Whiz Wagon, and all of that. In a way, it really was an homage to the work that Jack had done. We all had our Kirby itch we wanted to scratch, and made sure that some of it found its way into the books somehow.

Jack Kirby probably influenced almost every single artist in comics to a certain degree, and he definitely influenced me. When you start to think about storytelling and try to convey a sense of impact on the page, who better is there to look at? The comic industry absolutely owes a debt of gratitude to Jack, just as we do to a lot of creators. But certainly Kirby, in particular, built cornerstones in this industry that all use yet today.

I met Kirby several times, and he was always incredibly very pleasant and gracious to talk to, both he and Roz. At first, it was me standing there just trying to get words out of my mouth, because you’re standing there with the great Jack Kirby. I remember talking with him about art in general, and, at this point, I don’t know that Jack was looking at a lot of different comics, but I remember him (and this would have been around 1983) encouraging anyone at the table to go out and create their own stuff.

Left: Detail of Captain America #50 [2002] splash page by Dan Jurgens, with inks by Bob Layton. Next page: Legendary artist Joe Kubert is on record as saying, when he saw Jack’s pencils for this single Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #135 [1971] page in the DC Comics offices, in late 1970, he was dying to ink it, but thought better of it, so that the full book would be by the hand of one inker — Vince Colletta.

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Jim Valentino

Artist/Writer/Editor/Publisher Creator, normalman, ShadowHawk Founding member, Image Comics

“The Omega Effect,” The Forever People #6, pg.18 irby did not believe in one-dimensional characters.

His heroes had flaws; his villains, depth and nobility, as shown in this page from The Forever People #6.

kill the youngest of the Forever People, Serifan, as an act of mercy; the magnanimousness of having absolute power at one’s fingertips.

We understand more about these two characters — how they think, what they feel, to what ends they will go — in these four panels than in most writers’ entire books! So, the next time someone says to you that Kirby couldn’t write, show them this page. Explain the subtleties and the nuance, if you must. For just as he drew, Kirby wrote from the gut and from the heart.

Here we see Darkseid (arguably Kirby’s greatest villain, if not his greatest creation) showing a depth of character and conscience rarely, if ever, seen in a comic book super-villain. His regal stance, hands clasped behind his back reflecting his power and position; his slapping the insubordinate Desaad, an act of authority over a subordinate; and his refusal to allow his resident sadist to

Top inset: Vance Astro displays the shield of Captain America to become Major Victory in Jim Valentino’s Guardians of the Galaxy #20 [1992]. Above left: Original art, The Forever People #6 [1972]. Inks by Vince Colletta. Above right: Yes, that’s the late Kung-Fu star David Carradine sitting next to Jack, with Jim Valentino in the background. Previous page: Great characterization by Kirby, such as this from The Forever People #6, has perhaps made Darkseid the most potent villain in the DC universe. Pencils by Kirby and inks by Royer.

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Scott McCloud

Cartoonist/Author/Comics Theorist Creator/Artist/Writer, Zot! 1994 Eisner Award winner, four-time Harvey Award winner

“Spawn,” The New Gods #5, pgs. 2-3 got into comics when I was about 14. My friend Kurt Busiek got me to read a big stack of comics, and I think it was probably within a year or two when I ran into Kirby’s work. Within the first couple of years, with the guidance of Kurt, who was always a little ahead of me in plumbing the history of the stuff, I came to recognize that Kirby had a lot on the ball, and was really the source of some of the stuff I was enjoying from people like John Buscema. The first stuff that I encountered was prime Fantastic Four, the full-bloom of the Joe Sinnott years, and not the earliest stuff. The earliest work to me seemed more primitive; the very early Fantastic Four doesn’t feel to me like he had quite hit his stride, and I wasn’t really ready to enjoy the New Gods era. Things like Devil Dinosaur were an acquired taste later on, but my favorite Kirby periods are still the mature FF issues and work like New Gods, which I think of as the mature, pure, and post-Marvel Kirby.

By the time I was in high school and especially college, I was thinking of it more sort of as an ecology of styles, and I was very interested in going back to the source, and I had come to recognize that Kirby was the trunk of the tree.

Pretty early on I developed a kind of altitude on the form, so it wasn’t that I was a fan of any one artist. I was more just trying to understand how the medium worked. So Kirby, to me, was this avatar of a particular approach to comics that I

Above: Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics detailed Kirby’s wide-reaching influence on super-hero comics. Pages like this 1971 New Gods #5 spread [right] prove him right.

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clear to me. Because I saw that there was an alternative, I realized that it all just came from Kirby. The whole modern super-hero sensibility, the Marvel sensibility, certainly, just flowed right out of Kirby.

I think that many, many generations of artists still walked around with Kirby as their beating heart, and, at a certain point, they were just unaware of it. They thought that because they didn’t draw big, blocky fingers that they weren’t still working inside of Kirby’s framework. But, you know, Kirby built the house. Marvel was the house that Jack built, and just about everybody working within that was working within his structure. Just the use of diagonals, use of overlapping, exaggerated poses, page layouts, depth of field… all of these things were just so fundamental. Later on, when I got How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, I was impressed by how clearly John Buscema was explaining everything, and I thought, “Wow, this is really a great explanation of the way Buscema makes comics.” But now I look at it and I realize, no, it’s just an explanation of the way Kirby made comics. Buscema, a tremendously talented guy, one of the very best, was basically refining the dynamics that Kirby had introduced.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The preceding testimonial was derived from an interview with Scott McCloud and is featured here with his kind permission.

was seeing in contrast to other approaches, and it stayed that way.

Kirby’s significance for me was in his compositional ideas during his prime and the way that everything kind of followed from that. I just saw him as the granddaddy of everything that was out there in the super-hero world — if you plucked him out, the entire phylum and species and genus of that whole evolutionary line would vanish in thin air. Without Kirby, there would have been no Buscema. There would have been no playground for people like Ditko. Gene Colan — as different as he was, was still working in that world. He just started everything in the American super-hero tradition, and because I was getting interested in other kinds of comics, that became more Top left: Students of the University of Wisconsin-Madison “Understanding Comics” English course (devoted to Scott McCloud’s same-titled book) cite this Kirby-penciled page from the Silver Surfer graphic novel [1978] (with Joe Sinnott inks) as an effective example of “aspect-to-aspect” panel transition. Above left inset: McCloud’s own super-hero creation, Zot!, is detailed from the first issue of the character’s Eclipse series [1984]. Above right: McCloud’s own DESTROY!! (with not one, but two exclamation points!!) was a loving parody of Kirby’s best super-hero punch-fests, with 32 tabloid pages of nothing but two characters — a hero and a villain, natch — punching the living daylights out of one another.

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Steve Rude

Artist/Writer Co-Creator/Artist, Nexus, Creator/Writer/Artist, The Moth Seven-time Will Eisner Award winner

“The Saga of the DNAliens,” Jimmy Olsen #136, pg. 5 hen Roz Kirby walked up to me at the San Diego show one year and asked, “Is this one of your letters, Steve?” I was disoriented for a moment. What Roz had just retrieved from her purse was a letter that I had written the Kirbys back in high school. This letter was then almost 20 years old and, sure enough, it was one of mine.

Apparently, the Kirbys thought so highly of the reader comments they received in the mail during the 1970s, they had actually thought to save the damn things, which had to number at least several thousand.

I used to think that these comments sent in by readers were never really taken seriously, beyond the ones that were lucky enough to make it to the letter columns. After maybe holding on to them for a week or so, these letters would surely be thrown out.

But there it was: written on my mom’s 5" x 7" stationary on which I used to write regular letters to Jack, hoping that he might give the Golden Guardian from Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen his own book. The explosive scene featured here is why Kirby, and the way he drew things, made my time in high school so inspired and memorable, channeling my 16-year-old anxieties into a jet-stream of hopes to make comics my life’s work.

This page: Say what you will about the superb rendering of artist Steve Rude, but if any contemporary comic book artist “gets” Kirby, it is the Dude, as he consistently produces exceptional Kirby-inspired material that expertly channels the King. Whether it’s his wonderful Mister Miracle Special [1987] of 30 years ago or his recent Fourth World cover for the TwoMorrows’ magazine, Comic Book Creator [#12, Spring 2016], the guy just nails it! Of note is his Legends of the DC Universe #14 [1999], a new story around Kirby’s concepts in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Inset is a 1998 Steve Rude Orion/Darkseid illustration.

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Jim Starlin

Artist/Writer Creator, Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora Multiple award winner, Recipient, 1986 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award

Metron of the New Gods very person who becomes a comics fan has their gods, whether it’s a writer, an artist, or a character, and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were the head honchos of my particular comic book pantheon. They had it over just about anyone where I was concerned as far as drawing went — Jack because of his power, and Ditko because of his strangeness. They were the ones, more than anyone else, who made me want to become a cartoonist.

Jack really stirred me the most when he was doing his more cosmic adventures on Thor and the Fantastic Four books. They were mostly Earth-based, but a lot of times they would go into strange realms like the Negative Zone, and out into space, and I think that was the thing that got me headed off into my own cosmic direction.

A lot of that was admittedly inspired by what I had read in those early space operas, with a little bit of Jung and other things added in.

The New Gods was my favorite of the Fourth World books. In many ways, my original drawings of Thanos were inspired by Metron and his throne. It was only later on that Thanos got bulked up into the size he eventually became famous for. A lot of people have thought over the years that I was ripping off Darkseid, but if I was ripping off anything, it was Metron of the New Gods.

had created the company, basically, that they were working and benefiting from. I was very upset by that.

My friend Al Milgrom, who I worked with, had met Jack at some convention and, when I moved out to California to the San Francisco area, Al came out for a visit; we went down to Los Angeles, and Jack was kind enough to invite us out to his place. That was really the first time I’d had a chance to chat with him. Folks warn you that you should never meet your heroes because they usually end up having clay feet, and a few of the folks that I met along they way who I’d admired greatly as a kid did let me down; but Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko? Neither one of them were anything other than just as weird and wonderful as I’d expected them to be.

I remember sitting around Jack’s drawing board, and he had this huge picture window next to it. At one point, I commented on what a great view he had, and his response was, “Yeah, it’s kind of nice working here at night. Occasionally the UFOs come by, and you can see off in the distance where the Air Force jets soar out and try to catch them.” It was sort of off-the-cuff, and I had no doubt he wasn’t putting us on. It was just what Jack’s life was like.

All you have to do is check out the top-selling films of the last decade, and at least half of them have characters that Jack and Stan created. Marvel was built on Jack Kirby’s shoulders, and a little bit of DC, also. They owe their very existence to Jack and people like him.

I was enjoying his work even when I was starting up at Marvel. Later on he came back to Marvel to do a number of books that didn’t do as well as his previous incarnations. Occasionally I would come up to the office, and I would be outraged by some of the modified, jury-rigged Xeroxes of some of his work that the editors had hanging on their walls mocking Jack, who

I wish Jack was still here going strong. We could use storytellers like him today. They don’t make imaginations like that all that often, maybe only once every century or so.

Above left: Detail from “Spawn” splash, The New Gods #5 [1971], featuring Kirby’s enigmatic Metron. Inks by Mike Royer. Above inset: Jim Starlin’s rendition of Captain America and Thanos, who was originally inspired not by Darkseid, but by Metron. Next page: Kirby’s Metron drawing from his Valentine’s Day sketchbook for beloved wife Roz. 132

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Jan Duursema

Artist/Advertising Illustrator Co-Creator/Artist, Arion, Lord of Atlantis 1983 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award

“Murder Machine,” Mister Miracle #5, pg.10 did a story with Big Barda and the Demon intended for Legends of the DC Universe, but it never got published. It was my take on Kirby. I never sold any of the pages; I held onto it. I just like it. It was written by, I think, John Ostrander.

The shop I went to as a kid didn’t carry Marvel comics, so I read Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Batman, Richie Rich, and that kind of stuff. My biggest influences were the super-hero comics. I liked to read the cartoony stuff, but it wasn’t really my thing. When I went to the barber shop, we’d look at “Sgt. Rock” in Our Army at War. I always picked up any of Joe Kubert’s comics. Something about his style really appealed to me.

I went to the Kubert School because I wanted to learn storytelling. I’d done four years of college in fine arts, but I always felt like I wanted to do cover paintings or storytelling or illustrations for books. Then I realized it was the same Joe Kubert whose comics I’d read. I hadn’t read comics in a long time. We’d gotten them until I was about thirteen or so, then I fell away from them. After I graduated college, I thought, “Comics — oh yeah, I like those.”

When I went to the Kubert School, Jack Kirby was the name everybody was always talking about. Of course, I had to catch up on my Marvel Jack Kirby. And I don’t remember seeing much of his DC stuff at the shop as a kid. But I started catching up and learning my Jack Kirby history, and I realized a lot of the books I had seen over the years had a lot of Jack Kirby influence in them. It’s only natural; he influenced the entire industry.

I only met Kirby once, in San Diego. He was sitting on a sofa, and we walked by and said hello. I said, “I’m a big fan,” he said thanks, and that was about it. It was fun, but I didn’t want to bother him.

The kind of work ethic he had, getting the work done, always doing a professional job, and maintaining dynamics and a great attitude with his characters — there’s something about that generation. Kirby, Joe Kubert, and many of the guys of that era had this purity of style. They were each very individual artists. Even though there were influences back and forth, there was an individuality in their styles. Everything we’ve become, whether you do Kirby dots, or draw forest jungles like Joe would do them, or metallic surfaces like Kirby would do them, we all have influences from them, I think.

My father was a little older, but my mom was of that same generation, and I can see that same type of mentality, that

do-it-yourself, make it work with what you have kind of mentality. They didn’t really do comics to gain fame and fortune; they did comics because they loved it. I think that was the type of work ethic that was instilled in me by my parents and from reading about people like Jack Kirby. They weren’t in it for the buck. Obviously they wanted to make a living, but they knew they had to do a lot of work to make that living. And they kept doing it. Jack Kirby especially was a machine, but in the best sense. Sometimes I feel that’s the way we need to be too, in order to maintain our art and to keep it going.

I don’t think there could be comics without people like Jack Kirby.

He’s the father, or grandfather, of a lot of the work you see now. A lot of the stuff we have now wouldn’t exist without him.

Top: Artist Jan Duursema holds up a spread featuring The Demon on Apokolips (originally intended for Legends of the DC Universe, but unpublished). Right inset: Big Barda by Jack Kirby. Next page: From Mister Miracle #5 [1971].

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Mike Royer

Artist/Character Designer Inker/Letterer on Jack Kirby’s DC Comics and Marvel Work, 1970–’76 1978 Inkpot Award recipient

“The Glory Boat,” The New Gods #6, pg. 25 can be considered “Heroic.” Honor… courage and valor… unquestioning determination… sacrifice… glory. It’s all here in one magnificent image.

This is the one page, in retirement, that I plan to recreate, frame, and hang in a special place where visitors to my home may see it. When asked about it, I will reply simply, “Evil exists and there are those who will fight, even unto death, for its defeat.”

ush come to shove, for the one page to flow from Jack Kirby’s fertile imagination, forged from his life experiences and belief that there is more to life than meets the eye, I would pick page 25 of the December 1971 New Gods #6, “The Glory Boat.” It was written and drawn by the King 46 years ago and inked and lettered (a genuine privilege) by a small-town country boy, yours truly.

To me, this piece represents Jack Kirby’s importance as a master storyteller. Whether it be cops and robbers, rampaging monsters, young cowboys on the frontier, costumed super-heroes battling the bad guys, mud-splattered soldiers on a wet battlefield, love triangles, etc., he wrote and drew about “Struggle”… to overcome, defeat, resolve… the things life throws in our path. As a wise man once told me, “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.” Jack Kirby was that… a resounding success!

There are plenty of exquisite examples of Jack’s unlimited creative genius and unparalleled excellence as a visual storyteller that one could choose from, and I’m sure that the other fine talents asked to participate in this tribute book (many more articulate than I) have provided their favorite page accompanied by intelligent impressions, observations, reactions, and insights, etc., reflecting on the mind-blowing imagination of the creator that influenced/ inspired them all.

For me, this one brilliant splash page embodies all that

Above inset: Mike Royer’s undated “Desira, Queen of Tropica” pin-up. Left: Kirby’s “Musings” from Ariel, the Book of Fantasy [1978], with Royer inks. Below: Royer inks Orion over Kirby pencils.

Next page: The King mixes Wagnerian opera and comics; you can almost hear “Flight of the Valkyries” playing in this sequence from “The Glory Boat,” in The New Gods #6 [1972].

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Tom Scioli

Artist/Writer/Educator Creator/Artist/Writer, American Barbarian; Co-Creator/Artist, Gødland 1999 Xeric Foundation Grant recipient, “The Myth of 8-Opus”

“The Pact,” The New Gods #7 his is the comic that made me go from being casual fan of Kirby’s work to being a fanatic. It is, in my opinion, the greatest of all time, not just my favorite comic, but my favorite piece of literature, my favorite work of art. Pound for pound, line for line, page for page, I’d put it up against anything.

This comic informed the path of my career. I wanted to make pop art myths like this. I’m at the point where I’m studying this comic on the molecular level.

design sense, brutality, and grandeur of the first year of Flash Gordon comics.

It’s a prequel, but it’s full of genuine surprises. New characters are introduced, like Avia, Steppenwolf, and Darkseid’s Disney-villain mother, Heggra. Established characters reveal hidden depths.

Expectations are turned on their head.

Darkseid, the series’ omnipotent Big Bad, whose planet is covered with cyclopean statues of himself, where he is feared and worshipped by other gods, has not yet ascended to his throne. Here he’s a quiet, sneaky, manipulative introvert hiding in the background, giving people helpful suggestions that lead to their downfall.

The kindly grandfather figure, the manof-peace Highfather, is the warrior god man-at-arms Izaya. Aloof Metron, who is perhaps the most godlike character in the New Gods pantheon, is shown as a work-for-hire mercenary scientist who would bow and scrape and debase himself in the pursuit of transcendent knowledge. The paradise world of New Genesis itself is shown to be built over the bones of the dead, over the ruins of war, with festering bioengineered weaponized mutants crawling under its surface.

Orion is definitively revealed as Darkseid’s son, which was hinted at in prior issues, but fully spelled out here. And the cross-continuity connectiveness is drawn a bit closer in the surprise revelation in this “Comicbook of Revelations” that Mister Miracle is Highfather’s long lost son. The story developments enrich the whole and have ramifications on the present day storyline. It’s a master class.

In the Beginning — the New Gods were formless in image and aimless in deed!!! On each of their two new worlds, their races had sprung up from a survivor of the old!! The living atoms of Balduur gave nobility and strength to one!! — and the shadow planet was saturated with the cunning and evil which was once a sorceress!! For an age these New Gods pursued their own destinies — until the time of the great clash!!! It would start on New Genesis — with these two — Izaya the Inheritor and his wife Avia — and happiness — the first sign of coming tragedy — in an imperfect state!!!

The opening text sounds like the Bible crossed with the opening crawl from Star Wars, and that’s how the whole comic feels. I always note, this comic predates Star Wars by four years.

In the corner of the opening page is a note from the author: From time to time — this kind of segment will supplement the larger tapestry of The New Gods. Thank you .

This is Kirby taking his Kirby aesthetic to its furthest limits. At the time I first read this story, I was not as well-versed in Kirby, so I thought all these squiggly, zig-zaggy M.C. Escher structures were unique to New Genesis and Apokolips culture, but they’re Kirby’s smashable brand, the inimitable way he approached technology, architecture, and costuming. Each character is a walking decal-

— Jack Kirby He did it, sadly, only once more, with this story’s sequel, “Himon,” which is also a contender for greatest of all time.

This is Kirby going back to his Alex Raymond roots, one of the few influences Kirby cites by name. Beyond just the fact that Steppenwolf is a Prince Barin lookalike, it’s got the breakneck world-building, space fantasy

Left inset: If Kirby had drawn The Incredibles or My Little Pony, it would’ve looked a lot like these illustrations by Tom Scioli! Next page: Kirby depicts the horrors of war like no one else — even in a futuristic society. Spread from The New Gods #7 [1972].

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covered race car, adorned with intricate alien signage, symbols, and circuitry. Kirby crackle is in full effect, depicting energy both raging and smoldering, as well as stone, metal, ichor, and flesh. Techno-angels bombard a planet of space demons with a weaponized Ark of the Covenant raining fire from heaven. You could build a religion around this comic.

This is the issue where New Gods lives up to its title and puts the opera in “space opera.”

story to tell, a reason for being.

Kirby called it “an epic for our times.” For all its otherworldly bombast, it’s a commentary on the times Kirby lived in as he saw it. A true epic connects on the emotional level.

The title of this story is “The Pact.” It’s about what the pact means to the men who made it, what they were willing to give up for it, and why.

Far from being a chronicle of the conflict, this is, instead, the story of personal struggles — and the strange forming of THE PACT!

It’s the story of how a man of war becomes a man of peace. It’s the story of the way a despot rises to power, and how to defeat this power — not by fighting back, trading might for might, playing the enemy’s game, but by connecting to the Source. It’s an epic for our times, the times being the late ’60s/early ’70s, the era of non-violent resistance — defeat your enemy with love.

Darkseid: Good! This exchange of heirs will seal the pact!! Izaya wants peace! I – want – time!! – time to re-define power!! – to make this bombed-out waste a meaningful pursuit!!

Every line of dialogue, each caption is pure gold, evocative, visual, emotional, enigmatic and worth contemplating:

Highfather Izaya: ‘Hate’ is no longer a word in this place!! Put down that weapon… this is a place of friends!!

Izaya: [pronounced ‘Isaiah’] In moments like these, wife, the warrior softens – and sees the land is not a mere logistics map!!

Each king surrendered his heir for the peace. To Darkseid, his son was just another pawn in his game. Izaya gave up his beloved son and last connection to Avia. The heirs are the heroes of Kirby’s Fourth World, Orion and Mister Miracle, whose lives are defined by this pact. This is what you want from an ongoing series, that each installment broadens and deepens the story. I wish there were a thousand more stories like this, but unfortunately works of this caliber are the rarest of species.

Avia: Are we made for war, Izaya? You know – I’ve never heard you sing!! Sing, Izaya! Let me hear your voice when it’s not a battle cry!

Izaya: I can’t sing as yet, Avia!! It’s your devotion that feeds my aching spirits!!

It’s perfectly paced, moves fast, but never feels rushed.

No scene outstays its welcome. It’s a comic with an agenda, a

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Giorgio Comolo

Artist/Painter/Advertising Illustrator Cover Artist, Graphic Classics: H.P. Lovecraft

“The Pact,” The New Gods #7, pgs. 6-7 ack Kirby has been one of the great visionaries of the 20th Century; many of his graphic innovations dating back more than 50 years ago seem to have been created... tomorrow!

The first comic drawn by him that I read was the second part of the Galactus trilogy, one of the milestones of comics and of the Master. It was 1973 (in Italy, Marvel super-heroes started being reprinted in 1970) and, as a teenager, I was totally unprepared for the “cosmic grandeur” that the King dispensed with both hands: Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, The Watcher, Galactus! His ability to graphically depict ideas that, for others were vague and nebulous, was extraordinary.

From that moment on, I started collecting the Lee/Kirby issues of Fantastic Four, which I consider to be the greatest super-hero comic book series of all time. I hunted down previous issues and found Dr. Doom, the Skrulls, Sub-Mariner, and many others, always amazingly drawn.

Almost all of my favorite episodes were inked by the formidable Joe Sinnott, who, for me, remains the greatest inker that Kirby has ever had. I also very much admire the inks of Giacoia and Royer (less so Colletta, whom I consider unsuitable for the exceptional dynamism of his works).

A whole pantheon of gods was unveiled before my eyes: Odin, Sif, Balder, Hogun, Frandal, Hela (what an incredible design!), Karnilla, Surtur, the terrible Mangog… but the most disturbing creature of all was certainly Ego, the Living Planet, whose surface was one only Kirby could imagine!

As for Captain America, there were episodes with the Red Skull that impressed me, and in addition to all this (sources of inspiration for decades), I discovered The Avengers, Nick Fury (with the incredible Helicarrier), and The X-Men. Meanwhile, back in the United States, the Master had left Marvel for DC and, in Italy, Kamandi and The New Gods were published: the stories with Orion had a very strong impact on me — New Genesis and Apokolips, Darkseid, the enigmatic Metron, and many very original ideas like Mother Box. In particular, I was impressed with “The Pact” and its double-page splash, which I recreated as a painting. Many years later, Mister Miracle was published in Italy and I also liked it very much, as well as the fantastic Demon.

About his return to Marvel in the mid-1970s, I can only say that The Eternals, with the phantasmagorical rendering of the Celestials, almost made me go literally crazy. I also deeply appreciated Captain America, Machine Man, Black Panther, and his version of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In conclusion, I will always be grateful to Jack Kirby for the positive emotional experience he has given me — one that he continues to give!

With his incredible talent, this wonderful artist has been able to convey the vastness of the cosmos upon a simple sheet of paper on which he drew things that have before never been seen. Although Kirby did not receive all of the rewards he deserved in his life, his example is and will always be a guide for endless generations of cartoonists.

This page and next: See previous two pages for the original sources on which Giorgio Comolo based these paintings (both from The New Gods #7).

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Thank you, King Kirby!

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Michael Allred

Artist/Writer/Publisher Co-Creator, iZombie, Creator, Madman, The Atomics, Red Rocket 2016 Will Eisner Award winner, “Best Single Issue”

“The Bug” The New Gods #9 f push came to shove, I would have to say that my all-time favorite Jack Kirby page would have to be page eight of Fantastic Four #50, which is the climax to my all-time favorite comic book story of all time, the legendary “Galactus Trilogy.” Actually, no pushing or shoving would be required. Reed Richards freaking out Galactus with a little doo-dad called the Ultimate Nullifier (with Silver Surfer in his slam-bang debut swooshing around on the same page) is flat out the coolest!

But the most surprising thing about Bug the Forager is how quickly he was tossed aside — a solid example of Kirby’s unmatched creative output: More ideas than even he knew what to do with. In 1988, Bug’s potential was brilliantly but briefly tapped via Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola in Cosmic Odyssey. There he made a heroic sacrifice that moved me in an incredibly profound way. Batman was similarly moved.

And Orion got some of his bigotry knocked out of him in the process.

So there.

But there’s another story I’m compelled to discuss here since it has haunted and intrigued me from the moment I first saw it. Of all of Jack Kirby’s wonderful creations and contributions to our beloved comic book industry, there is one character that has left me wanting much, much more: Forager… a.k.a. THE BUG!

In casual conversation, when asked if there are any characters I’d like to get my hands on, I look around to see who might be listening so my secret desires don’t get swiped.

I’ve often revealed my enthusiasm for the New Gods, but always bit my tongue about “the Forager from the Insect Empire” when asked for specific details about my intentions.

That is, until now. My “Big Bro,” Lee Allred, and I successfully mined the big dreams of our childhood with our “Bug Pitch” and are now happily playing with many of the toys Jack Kirby built in a new upcoming series in the DC Universe.

Woo-HOO!

From his introduction on the cover of New Gods #9 — “A stranger from the strangest land ever seen…” — you open the issue and are immediately smacked in the face with the killer splash on page one, “The Bug!” It’s so raw and stark and compelling. Kirby builds this incredible scenario with this fella who essentially is simply tasked to forage for food, but quickly establishes great empathy for him and his relationship with his “sire,” Prime One (another amazing throwaway character design), only to witness Prime One’s sacrificial death soon after.

The art always makes me think of the man. I was fortunate to meet Jack Kirby a couple times. And, of course, I gushed and overwhelmed him with my “Kirby-mania.” He remains one of my greatest inspirations, beyond the art, imprinting a template on how to behave as a human being, as well as the example of the supportive and endearing/enduring relationship he had with his wife, Roz — a class act all the way, in every way.

I love everything about Bug/Forager.

The costume design is outrageously fun, wonky, and edgy. His personality leaps off the page as he learns that he is much more than he realized (another inspiration for Luke Skywalker perhaps?), and he stands up to the prejudice of lessthan-perfect heroes Orion and Lightray.

His energy is even a direct inspiration for my Frank “Madman” Einstein creation.

And to state the obvious: what Jack Kirby did for this art form is immeasurable. Whether directly or indirectly, his influence is everywhere.

And we’re all the better for it.

Thanks, Jack!

This page and next: Michael Allred’s current series Bug! follows Forager through Kirby’s Fourth World, with cameos by many of Jack’s 1970s DC characters — a clear indication of the impact Kirby’s The New Gods #9 [1972] had on the artist and brother Lee, the writer of the mini-series. The New Gods cover, splash page pencils by Kirby and inks by Mike Royer.

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George Pratt

Painter/Writer/Photographer/Instructor Artist/Writer, Enemy Ace: War Idyll 2003 Will Eisner Award winner, “Best Painter/Multimedia Artist

“Himon,” Mister Miracle #9, pg. 6 ack Kirby is, beside Charles Schulz, my earliest memory of an artist transcending the characters that I was reading. While other artists later became important to me, Jack Kirby was the first star to which I set my course.

Scott’s uniform, the bright explosions and the golden parademons — primary colors, but muted.

While I bought and enjoyed his work for Marvel, it was his Fourth World and other work at DC that did it for me.

I was beside myself waiting for each new issue of New Gods, Forever People, Mister Miracle, Kamandi, and the Demon.

Yet, there are so many Jack Kirby issues, images, pages, panels, covers, and characters that have blown my mind that I find it incredibly difficult to focus on any one thing. It’s impossible to describe that one cover and not make some attempt to describe Jack’s oeuvre. His work is an emotional roller-coaster ride of thrills, and is powerful on so many levels: His storytelling fluid and kinetic. Explosive action is found on every page, with even quiet moments trembling with anticipated action. He was a master of the reveal from one page to the next. I tried so many times to emulate the raucous energy of his figures — and his machines! I drew versions of them endlessly in my classes to the consternation of my teachers.

The cover to Mister Miracle #9 is one of my favorites of Jack’s. We’re on the planet Apokolips and a young Scott Free hangs on to fence railings while a swarm of flying parademons shoot bolts of energy at him. Rocks are kicked up from the explosions and Scott is obviously hurt, but defiant.

I love the drawing; Scott’s pose is similar to a crucifixion, and Mike Royer’s inks are wonderful here. The color is striking, deep red in the background offsetting the blue of

The beauty of those early thick DC books was not just the current storyline, but the reprints of many of Jack’s early creations: Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos, Sandman, Manhunter. I absolutely loved, and still do, those early works. I love how rubbery his figures were and how endearing they were. There is something so homegrown and immediate about the early work, so unassuming, so passionate and somewhat naive. And they were all bursting with his trademark energy. How incredibly prolific he was! And I’m only talking about the drawing, and not the writing that he did.

I was very thankful to have met Jack at the San Diego Comic-Con one year and thanked him in person for making my childhood a place of wonder and excitement, and for giving me something to do with my life.

The comics industry literally stands on his shoulders.

Left: The cover of Mister Miracle #9 [1972] freezes the moment just before Scott Free has to make a fateful decision: stay or go? Top inset: George Pratt’s own cover for a recent edition of Batman: Shaman, published in 2016, evokes a similar feeling of tension.

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Michael Avon Oeming “Himon,” Mister Miracle #9, pg. 25

Artist/Writer Co-Creator, Powers, Creator, Bulletproof Monk 2001 Will Eisner Award winner, “Best New Series”

henever I see Kirby’s work, I think of the stories he’s told about his childhood, growing up on the tough streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It sounds so much like the worlds he set up in the New Gods — epic street battles that started on the top of buildings down to the garbage-strewn streets, the rightious fight of good guys vs. bad guys, the struggle to climb out of ruin to a better future. I can see that on every page and this is no different. Here, Scott Free is literally climbing out of ruins to reach Earth!

It’s one of the things I love about Kirby besides how bombastic his lines and actions are on the page, but the more I’ve learned about his life, the more I can see it on the page, bold and unapologetic.

Even though he came from the hard-hitting streets of gangs arranged block by block, street vs. street, he was still a dreamer. He had the sensitivity to think about the larger picture, the cosmic picture, to a poetic level. Before the days of “Ancient Aliens” and “Chariots of the Gods,” Kirby was writing about cosmic beings seeding life throughout the universe; the mystery of the cosmos is the capstone to his street-fighting foundation.

Each Kirby page seems to be made of knuckles and stardust.

Above: Kirby’s “epic for our times” was enriched by flashback stories like “The Pact” and “Himon,” detailing motivations for major characters like Scott Free and Darkseid. Page from Mister Miracle #9 [1972]. Top inset: Michael Avon Oeming’s renders mysterious New God Metron for The Fourth World Gallery one-shot [1996]. Colors by Rick Taylor.

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Paul Rivoche

Artist/Writer/Illustrator/Animation Designer Co-Creator/Artist, Mr. X, Illustrator, The Forgotten Man Gold, Silver Award winner, Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles

“Himon,” Mister Miracle #9, pg. 25

What Jack Taught Me here were you when you first came across the incredible work of Jack Kirby? For me, it was Kirby’s Fourth World comics which revolutionized everything. In 1971, I was a mop-­topped kid of twelve, equipped with black spectacles and a voracious appetite for comics, stories, and drawing.

We lived in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and when the New Gods and related titles magically sprouted from the spinner racks, I began a weekly comics pilgrimage to the drugstore to try and amass every last issue of his enthralling, interconnected new epic.

Jack’s stories hit me with incredible force. Somehow, inexplicably, I’d missed his Marvel output, and had become a committed DC reader. But, after a steady diet of far tamer DC fare, I was bludgeoned by the raw power of this new-­to-­me storyteller. Immediately, I noticed that Kirby did something different: He portrayed super-heroes as righteous soldiers in a cosmic war. His characters weren’t just doing ordinary super-hero fisticuffs; their struggles were part of a much larger fabric, one with great meaning. They were soldiering in defense of ideas, of truth, which at times compelled them to savagery and even a fight to the death, such as real soldiers experienced. When Orion battered Slig to death in New Gods #5, it was something different — ­as was the fact that he almost reveled in the violence!

Astonishingly, he predicted and covered many things which have since come to pass or are currently emerging: Nanotechnology, miniaturized computers, genetic engineering, the nature of mob behavior, propaganda, mass brainwashing, state surveillance, and more.

A paramount theme of his, as seen in the pages of Mister Miracle #9 and Scott Free’s struggle to escape the clutches of Apokolips, was the never-­ending cosmic/spiritual struggle between totalitarianism and individual liberty, as he had personally witnessed through World War II and the Holocaust. Kirby told the thrilling story of Scott Free’s decision to escape the rule of the collectivist mob and become himself — a true individual. For an introverted kid unknowingly grappling with that very same thing, as most artistic or sensitive souls do, nothing could have resonated with greater Truth! And what gave it so much strength was Jack Kirby’s sincerity. He truly loved his characters, and truly believed in what he was writing about. It all mattered.

All this was, for me, a turning point. Jack Kirby’s forceful storytelling and astounding vistas inspired me to ever-­greater exertions. And so I continued on, hunched over my little wooden office desk, surplus from the Canadian government, attempting to create my own comics with a stack of bond paper, some fountain pen ink, and a set of scratchy Speedball dip pens. I’m still on that journey.

So, it wasn’t just the dynamic drawing, the much-­lauded ‘Kirby dots’ and squiggly lines, the baroque anatomy, squared fingertips, and gigantic machinery that impressed me so forcefully, as enthralling as those all were. These proved to be merely the surface elements of Kirby’s artistry.

Jack taught me: Be yourself, try to find yourself, even if it means great struggle; resist, at all costs, being an unthinking cog in the collectivist mob. That is the great “miracle” of Mister Miracle: Discover, and defend your unique and God-­given individuality. This is a lesson as vitally necessary now as it was back in 1971.

Lying deeper was the sheer force of his compulsive stream of ideas. Jack Kirby managed to translate quite serious themes into a language that any kid could understand, all in the pages of a newsprint comic book. He took real issues and translated them into his imaginary world, dressed up in a compelling, entertaining package.

Top inset: Detail of Paul Rivoche’s Kirby-esque cover, Iron Man Annual #1 [2014]. Colors by Nolan Woodard. Above: Page from Kirby’s Mister Miracle #9 [1972]. Inks by Mike Royer.

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Bill Morrison

Artist/Writer/Editor/Creative Director/Illustrator Co-Founder, Bongo Comics, Creator, Roswell, Little Green Man 2015 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award winner (shared with wife Kayre)

In the Days of the Mob #1 I also love the concept that holds the individual character studies together, that of Hell operating as a prison, with its administrator Warden Frye doubling as Jack’s version of Uncle Creepy, setting up the stories by introducing the inmates who are imprisoned there for all eternity.

hen Jack Kirby was lured from Marvel to DC in 1970, one of his creative ambitions was to edit a line of full-color adult-oriented comics magazines that would feature artwork by top artists in the comics field. One of the few publications that sprung from this effort happens to be one of my favorite Kirby productions, In the Days of the Mob! This mostly comics anthology mag features gripping tales of real-life gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s such as Al Capone, Ma Barker, and Pretty Boy Floyd. DC ended up publishing it in black-&-white with grey tones and with art not by Wally Wood or Jim Steranko but by Jack himself. To be honest, despite Jack’s original vision for the mag, I think the black-&-white treatment suits the subject matter of ’30s era crime, giving it the feeling of film noir that would have been lost in a color version. And if Jack had been merely the editor and not the artist, we would have been cheated out of one of Kirby’s most authentic, powerful, and well-drawn efforts. All of his storytelling skills are operating at peak performance, and the result is a lush bio-pic on paper.

If you were a young Kirby fan when the first (and only published) issue came out in 1971, you might have thought it was a radical departure from the man who spent the 1960s creating fantastic characters like Thor, the Inhumans, Galactus and the Silver Surfer, and so many other mind-blowing heroes and villains. But Jack was merely polishing up a genre that he’d already conquered when super-heroes were on the outs in the late ’40s and early ’50s in titles like Real Clue Comics, Headline, and Justice Traps the Guilty.

In the Days of the Mob is a great reminder that though Kirby will be best remembered for the creation of mythic super-heroes, he was a brilliant artist and craftsman who could tell wonderful stories in any genre: Romance, science-fiction, western, mystery, war, crime… Jack could do it all!

Above inset: Bill Morrison and fellow artist and buddy Batton Lash collaborate on a Kirby pastiche, featuring Captain America battling Radioactive Man (of The Simpsons fame). Any resemblance to the cover of Tales of Suspense #98 [1968] is purely intentional! Below: Kirby hosts a “Chalk Talk,” drawing a signature gangster in the mid-’70s. Photos courtesy of the late Shel Dorf. Next page: Warden Frye earns his name on the opening page of the second issue of In the Days of the Mob, which remained unpublished until DC’s recent hardcover collection. Kirby’s black-&-white magazine-size comic book did indicate horrific violence, but like Alfred Hitchcock, Kirby kept it off-panel, with no blood visible.

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Glen Murakami

Artist/Animator/Director/Producer Art Director, Superman: The Animated Series 1995 Eisner Award, “Best Single Issue” (shared)

“Horoscope Phenomenon,” Weird Mystery Tales #1 hen I was a kid, I didn’t like Jack Kirby. “Oh, he’s that guy who draws square fingers.” It was around junior high, high school when it started to click, and I started to get it. I started to realize how the different inkers affected the artwork, and I was seeing different phases of his career. When I was only looking at the late ’70s Marvel stuff, I didn’t have any context for any of it. But in any article or interview I would read, people would talk about Kirby, so I began thinking he deserved further investigation, and I started to piece it all together.

I wasn’t a huge comic collector when I was younger, because we couldn’t get our hands on them. We would mostly get comics during summer vacations when we went on a long road trip as something to pass the time while in the car.

I didn’t start collecting seriously until I was in junior high. I remember one year at San Diego Comic-Con someone telling me, “If you want a bunch of Kirby comics, you’re going to have to dig around all the discount boxes on the floor.”

I walked out with a two-foot stack of all the ’70s DC and the later Marvel stuff I rooted out from the quarter bins. That’s when it came together for me.

Jack Kirby. He invented a lot of the language of comics. His page layouts — how dynamic they were. His work is sort of impressionistic, and I think that’s something a lot of people misunderstand about his style. He’s kind of a genius, someone who invented so many things. Where he places the camera when drawing something — there’s a New Gods sequence where Kalibak is fighting Orion, and Kalibak is punching Orion. The camera has to be mounted on Kalibak’s arm to get that angle. Nobody else was doing that. Recently I went back and looked at Tales of Suspense with Captain America fighting all those soldiers. That sequence is pretty amazing, just the fight choreography. There’s an early Fantastic Four sequence where the Thing is charging at a door — all of those drawings are amazing.

Kirby is one of those artists I never get tired of. I can just pick up a stack of comics, it doesn’t matter from which era, and get something new from them every time I look at them. Little things I’m impressed with: there’s an early Hulk sequence where he’s transforming and his shirt is ripping.

How did he know how to do that? There’s a lot of weird, abstract stuff where he just seemed to know how to draw it all.

I think Kirby sets a standard, and you try your best to try

I just think you wouldn’t have modern comics if not for

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to think like him, because the things he did were so innovative. He could be really subtle, too, and a lot of people don’t give him credit for that. People look at the obvious stuff, like the legs spread apart, the fight sequences, the Kirby dots… but what I notice is all the subtlety. How did he know how to draw monsters, or all that fight choreography with a guy fighting with a shield? You look at it and it’s pretty worked out. It’s easy to look at the square fingers or the weird style and superficially say that’s what he is, but when you look at all the anatomy and figure drawing that’s going into, say, that Captain America fight sequence, it’s pretty incredible. And when you think about what his output was, he was just cranking it out all the time.

You’d like to be as good as him, or do things like him, but I can’t touch him. Even the first OMAC story is pretty amazing. The concept behind it is really out-there.

The Devil Dinosaur splash pages are like abstract art.

They’re pop art pieces that are pretty impressive. At the Northridge, California show, they had the original for the two-page splash from Devil Dinosaur #4, and I stared at that for a long time.

I remember being really excited when I found Weird Mystery Tales #1. I’m a big Hela fan, the goddess of Death from Thor. I think that design is amazing, and the Pisces design in Weird Mystery is very similar. I like that design, I like how Kirby draws water, and I think that image of Pisces fishing the telephone out of the water is a cool image. The cover of Thor #150 with Hela is another great image. He came up with really imaginative designs.

I think Jack Kirby is the greatest comic artist ever. No one can touch him. If you remove him from comics, you’d still have comics, but I think they’d be really boring or too literal. His inventiveness — no one could touch him. That’s how I judge it. Yes, Will Eisner is great, but I think someone else would have come up with what he did. And not to take away

from Eisner, but if there were no Jack Kirby, I don’t think anyone would have come close to doing what he came up with.

Recently I watched a YouTube clip of Jack talking about World War II, and you hear what he experienced during the war, and all of it starts to make sense. The life he lived and what he experienced — that’s definitely a guy who lived life and saw things that probably fed into why he drew some of the things he drew.

I was lucky enough to meet Jack a couple of times. I saw him at a comic book store signing when I was in junior high, and again in high school. He was just standing around in the lobby at Comic-Con, and when I think back on that now, it’s like, “Gah! Why didn’t I ask him more questions?” I bought, I think, a ratty copy of the first appearance of the Black Panther, and I got the nerve up to walk up to him. He pulled out a Flair pen and signed it, and was as nice as could be. I’m glad I was going to Comic-Con early enough, the early ’80s, to see him and Roz just walking around the con. You’d think he’d have had a mob around him, but it was just him in his sweater and Roz standing in the lobby of the old San Diego Comic-Con convention center. Maybe he was talking to one other person. I just wish I’d known more so I could have asked him smarter questions.

When we were at Warner Brothers, in Sherman Oaks, Bruce Timm kept saying, “We should go to Kirby’s house.

We should all go over there,” because we’d heard so many stories of people just calling Roz and going over to visit.

We’d just started Superman: The Animated Series, and we kept saying to one another, “Yeah, we should go to Kirby’s house.”

But we never did it, and now we’re all kicking ourselves.

As a kid, I was too dumb to know what to ask him. I didn’t get a full education until later, where I could soak everything in and put it in context. But I would have listened to him talk about anything.

Top inset: Page from Kirby’s “Horoscope Phenomenon or Witch Queen of Ancient Sumeria?,” Weird Mystery Tales #1 [1972], was originally intended for the unpublished Spirit World #2. Previous page: In homage to that tale, a character similar to Kirby’s Pisces character was used in 1995’s Batman Adventures Annual #2 by Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, and Glen Murakami. Pages seen at bottom left. At bottom right is a detail from Kirby’s cover for Thor #150 [1968], featuring the great costume design of Hela, Asgardian goddess of death.

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Steve Bissette

Artist/Writer/Editor/Historian/Publisher Creator/Artist/Writer, Tyrant, Creator/Editor, Taboo Three-time Kirby Award winner, 1993 Eisner Award winner

“My Tomb in Castle Branek,” The Demon #2, pg. 6 It was the summer of ’72; the coming-of-age movie Summer of ’42 was still circulating in Vermont theaters, along with Billy Jack, Mark of the Devil (the vomit bag gimmick movie that was “The First Film Rated ‘V’ for Violence!”), and some great drive-in fare changing twice a week in a plethora of local Vermont open-air passion pits. What did I know about passion, though? I was still a virginal Catholic lad, and I wasn’t just “still reading comic books,” I was drawing my own comics, too, in my sketchbooks, dreaming of being a pro. I was so intoxicated with underground comix at ages 15, 16, and 17 that I’d completely missed Jack’s move to DC Comics from Marvel, and the entire Fourth World run (I caught up with those later, while in college), occasionally browsing newsstands and comics racks

here aren’t many mainstream four-color corporate-owned comic book characters I can actually cite as somehow defining arcs of my personal and professional life, but Jack Kirby’s Etrigan, the Demon, is one of the two of ’em (I’m sure you can guess who the other one is). I was still in high school — well, actually, poised between my junior and senior years, that weird final limbo summer between not-yet-an-adult and better-be-an-adult-fast — when The Demon #1 hit the newsstands. I was making money hand-over-fist, working long hours in my family’s rural grocery store and a part-time highway crew stint as one of the guys with a walkie-talkie holding that sign directing traffic: You know, “Stop.” “Slow.”

Repeat. “Bored sh*tless” doesn’t begin to cover it.

Above: Steve Bissette inks a blueline version of Kirby’s original concept drawing for The Demon. Next page: Splash page from The Demon #2 [1972], with inks by Mike Royer.

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Harry Matthews, Randu Singh, Merlin, and holy hell, Etrigan, along with Morgaine le Fay, Warly the warlock, Ugly Meg, the Iron Duke, the Kamara, the lycanthropic Eric Shiller a.k.a. the Howler, Klarion the Witch Boy — I loved ’em all, and it was the only character in four-color comics I dreamed of one day drawing, “for real” — you know, as a real cartoonist, earning a living at it.

Some dreams come true. Here’s to Jack Kirby; here’s to John Totleben, for agreeing that it would be a good idea to propose a Demon storyline to our Swamp Thing editor Len Wein and writer(s) — first Marty Pasko, who wasn’t on the title long enough to push our concept to, then Alan Moore, who made the most of the opportunity; here’s to Alan Moore, who took our rough plot suggestions and fanned the flames of Hell higher than we’d ever dreamed possible.

When our tangle with DC Comics over the Comics Code Authority prompted we three proposing we leave Swamp Thing but stick together, working on something else sans the Code, it was the Demon we asked to do — but, no, that was taken, and not to be, and DC wanted us to stay right where we were, on Swamp Thing.

The rest is history.

mainly looking for monster magazines (I’d outgrown Famous Monsters of Filmland, and was deep into Castle of Frankenstein, Films & Filming, Cinefantastique, and the relatively new tabloid bi-weekly The Monster Times). I was on my way, alone (I usually went by myself) to one of the Burlington area drive-ins, to see some insane double-feature, and I stopped off at a little mom & pop store on the way to pick up some snacks and beverages to get me through the evening. En route to the coolers, I spotted a comics rack — what the hell, it wasn’t dusk yet, I’d have time to read a comic or two before the movie started. I spun the spinner rack, and that’s when the unlikeliest color combination for a monster character hit me right between the eyes — “Stop” sign red, “Slow” sign yellow — and I first laid eyes on The Demon #1, Summer of ’72.

It was love at first sight, just like in Summer of ’42, only, uh, different.

By sheer coincidence, I recognized where Kirby’s Etrigan came from: I had that badly-recolored hardcover Hal Foster Prince Valiant collection, with the sequence in which Val disguises himself as a “demon” with goose skin, feather quills, and this-and-that. The sheer audacity of Kirby’s leap — yes, of course! Camelot, Merlin, Val’s demon disguise, all tied together into the origin of Etrigan and Jason Blood’s unholy bond! — made me laugh right there at the newsstand, and I had to drop my quarter (“All New Stories/Best in Comics/ Now only 20¢”) and take the comic with me to the drive-in that night. I devoured it cover-to-cover, and stuck with the series through all 16 issues: Jason Blood, Glenda Mark,

I still love to draw Etrigan to this day.

I’ve done hundreds of sketches of him, and they’re all out there in the world, somewhere, hanging on other people’s walls, haunting other people’s sketchbooks.

So here’s to that spinner rack in northern Vermont; and here’s to The Demon; and here’s to those dreams that come true; and here’s to John and Alan and to my pal Rick Veitch, who thought it was a good idea, too; and here’s to history!

But above all, here’s to Jack, and all the houses Jack built.

It was fun to live, for a three-issue story, in one of the rooms in that house.

Above left inset: Bissette’s own creepy interpretation of the Demon and the Monkey King, which — with Alan Moore’s writing and John Totleben’s inking in The Saga of Swamp Thing — completely revitalized interest in the Kirby-created character during the 1980s. Above right inset: Bissette and Totleben’s cover for The Saga of Swamp Thing #27 [1984].

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William Stout

Artist/Illustrator/Muralist/Conceptual Artist Author/Illustrator, Legends of the Blues, The New Dinosaurs Innumerable awards, including 2006 Spectrum Gold Award

“The One Who Vanished,” The Demon #15

I Inked a Demon! ack in 1973, I received a phone call from an old friend of mine, Mike Royer. I was Mike’s successor as Russ Manning’s assistant on the Tarzan of the Apes Sunday and daily newspaper strips, as well as functioning as Russ’ collaborator on three Tarzan graphic novels.

Through no fault of his own, Mike was in a deadline crunch.

He asked if I could help him out by inking an issue of a Jack Kirby comic! I’d always wanted to ink some of Jack’s work, so I was practically in my car and on my way to Mike’s Whittier, California studio before he’d hung up! Mike was inking everything for Jack at the time. He gave me a choice of inking a Kamandi or The Demon. Monster Kid and Demon fan that I am, it was an easy choice.

I loved the way the Demon looked; I’d spotted the Hal Foster influence the first time I laid eyes on him. That distinct visage originated from an early Prince Valiant sequence.

It was part of the story in which Val turns a duck inside out to make himself a demonic mask to scare the hell out of some nasty barbarians, making them think their castle is possessed by a demon.

After arriving at Mike’s studio, I began work almost immediately. It was a peculiar situation for me. In those days I had a reputation as an artistic chameleon. I was kind of a “Rich Little of illustrators” — I could duplicate any art style.

So here was my one chance to ink Jack Kirby — yet I had to make it look as if Mike Royer (not me) had inked Jack.

Mike did not want Jack to know there had been

a slight glitch in his handling of the entire Kirby load, in case it might influence Jack to lighten that load a bit! This wasn’t as painful as it might sound, however. I felt strongly that Mike (along with Joe Sinnott) was Jack’s best inker when it came to being a true interpreter of Jack’s pencils. I also felt (like Mike) that adding any slick illustration techniques or over-rendering Jack’s work tended to dilute Kirby’s essence and power. Our shared goal was to present Jack Kirby’s work as purely and directly as possible. In retrospect, there were a few things I might have done differently, though certainly not enough to make the job anything less than pure pleasure on my part.

I learned a lot. I was amazed at the clean, bold clarity of Kirby’s pencils. In their raw, black-&-white pencil form, the profound simplicity and the truth of his storytelling hit me like a Mack truck. This was the stuff dreams were made of! As I pored over Jack’s raw pages, the memories of his grand Marvel legacy replayed through my mind. I recalled a budding fifteen-year-old artist being swept up by the power and, more importantly, the humanity of Jack’s work. The Thing, the Hulk, the Human Torch, Thor, Sub-Mariner, the X-Men — they were all like old friends who’d returned to visit while I was inking Jack.

Right: On Christmas, 1937, Hal Foster had the hero of his Sunday newspaper comic strip Prince Valiant stretch a goose carcass over his head to scare an antagonist. Kirby always claimed Foster was a major influence and, while on the surface there aren’t many similarities between their work, Jack clearly remembered this sequence when creating the look of The Demon.

I saw that Kirby intensified the power of his legendary action spreads by skillfully using contrast.

Typically those explosions of action were preceded by a tender, quiet moment. I was fascinated by Jack’s ability to make even his most “quiet” scenes interesting and compelling. I think the key to that

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Color by Tom Ziuko

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vention, I figured enough time had passed for me to let Jack in on the fact that I’d inked that book.

“You must have done a good job,” he said. “I couldn’t tell it was yours.”

was Kirby’s extraordinary skill in conveying the humanity of his characters.

I learned from Mike, too. Mike Royer is an amazing inker. I’ve never in my life seen a guy with such machine-like control and precision. In one robotic sweep, Mike could smoothly ink a perfect arc of a line that spanned nearly the entire width of a page. I learned more about dedication and perfectionism from Mike and I picked up more than a few licks from him about lettering, as well. Royer lettered for Russ Manning and continued that task on all of Kirby’s books. Mike also taught me valuable collectors’ tips, like the importance of stocking pristine batches of multiple copies of your own work. We also had a great time listening to Mike’s cassette collection of old radio shows while we worked.

Postscript: At the time I was also creating a series of bootleg record album covers. I usually themed their visual style to whatever artistic passion I had going on at the time.

Right after inking The Demon, I drew a very Kirby-esque cover for an album by The Who. The Who later contacted me and asked for my permission to use my art as the image on their Odds and Sods CD.

My work wasn’t as crisp as Mike would have liked it. He was too much of a gentleman to say so, but the slight winces I caught as he visually scanned each finished page of mine and the occasional whirrrr of the electric eraser over my crudities both served to keep my ego in check. I’d done a pretty decent job, but it wasn’t perfect!

I ended up ghosting nearly all (Mike inked most of the main figures himself) of The Demon #15. Years later, at a conTop: William Stout’s uncredited background inks look solid on this page from The Demon #15 [1973]. Compare it to Jack’s pencil detail for panel two, shown at top right. Right: Stout’s cover art for a bootleg album featuring the British rock band, The Who. Previous page: Stout inks the Demon illo from Jack’s Valentine’s Day sketchbook.

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Rick Altergott

Cartoonist/Illustrator Creator/Artist/Writer, Doofus 2002 Will Eisner Award winner (shared), “Best Anthology”

Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth y most memorable and satisfying experience with the work of Jack Kirby took place during my teen years, when I followed his great Kamandi series with a monthly visit to the local newsstands and candy stores. Those were great times to be a kid into comics, when a dollar could purchase five books (and candy was cheaper then, too!). I could easily expound upon those days and my burgeoning interest in comic books and collecting. It’s easy to look back fondly at a time when there were so many candy shops and newsstands for a kid to frequent, and I can still remember the circuit I traced several times a month to places all gone now. Parental control not being what it is today,

I had relative free rein to make my stops, too — which was a good thing if I didn’t want to miss an issue!

My loyalty was to DC Comics, and mostly I read the mystery and war titles. Even then, I had a resistance to the ongoing story arcs and melodrama of Marvel’s titles, mostly because they imposed a sustained commitment upon the reader and they were invariably of the super-hero variety, in which I was personally less interested.

So, when Jack Kirby moved to DC in the early ’70s, I had only a fleeting familiarity with the artist. Sure, I knew about the Fantastic Four, but there were not a lot of reprints available… though I did have a schoolmate with a solid collection of Marvels, both old and new, which he shared with me when I visited his house. (From a collector’s standpoint, he was probably a lot smarter than me.)

Kirby created brand-new series when he made the switch, and not just with Kamandi, but The Demon, Mister Miracle, and The New Gods. But, for some reason, I only followed Kamandi, and the others only sporadically. (My theory on this later.) The initial hook to Kamandi was its thematic similarity to the Planet of the Apes movies, which were popular at the time with us kids. Of course, there was a lot more going than just that in the series — otherwise Jack may have had some legal issues. In Kamandi, a “Great Disaster” had changed everything on Earth, reversing the dominance of man over the other animals, altering the planet’s very “ecology” (what we now refer to as “the environment”). Familiar reference points still existed, but were often given a new twist, often in an ironic, even satiric way that was fun and frightening, all the while not being too dogmatic or heavy (which would surely be today’s treatment). It was the perfect blend of fun and thought-provoking.

The main character, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, was what I came to recognize as the perfect Kirby protagonist: smart, resourceful, fearless, impetuous, and ready to propel the story in whatever direction it might go next. It was through Top inset: Rick Altergott’s creepy, idiotic character Doofus. Left and next page: When Kirby decided to move back to Marvel in 1975, Gerry Conway was brought in as writer and editor on Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, but Jack stayed on as penciler only. Here are pencils from #38 and #39 [1976], done from Conway scripts.

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following this series where I developed my appreciation of what Jack Kirby was all about. Ensuing years would acquaint me with much more of this master’s work, and my respect and admiration would continue to grow. At the time though, it was exciting enough to follow, in real time, the ongoing adventures of a hero I could relate to (myself being the target audience for a series like this), making my regular trips to the spinner racks to see what would happen next.

As I noted before, I was not a real follower of the continued story arcs and, in fact, I resisted them. Somehow, Kirby was different. Each issue of Kamandi was fast-paced and free-wheeling, with non-stop action that usually culminated in some kind of stunning revelation, and a tease for the next issue. There was a real sense of fun and even playfulness in Kirby’s approach. The way he incorporated current events into his storylines was ingenious and informative for a kid my age just beginning to understand and become curious about the world around him. So we were treated to Day of the Dolphins, Watergate, even The Exorcist playing out in a weird echo on the pages of this comic book, filtered through Kirby’s lens using the distancing effect of the “Great Disaster,” always with ironic results.

To be able to maintain his stunning output, Kirby developed an appealing way to deliver his stories in discreet “chunks” while still keeping a “big picture” continuity intact.

And he was never a slave to that continuity. I believe this might have been a strategy Kirby himself employed to stay fresh and keep interested in the series on a personal level.

I know that, as a reader, it was a welcome format; well-organized and presented, a main topic, and several chapters, then the cliffhanger teasing the next episode. In fact, it kept me following the series for years… that is, until Kirby himself stopped writing and drawing it.

It’s hard to believe that Kirby was also responsible for two other elaborately crafted series each month; he must have had an incredible discipline and talent — a gift, really — to harness this kind of creative energy the way he did. During the run of Kamandi, I learned to appreciate Jack Kirby’s art style, which I cannot separate from his “whiz-bang” approach to comic writing. The trademark two-page spread that appeared in the front of a typical issue was eagerly

anticipated; kind of a gateway to the pages that followed and the non-stop action that was a hallmark of any Kirby comic, before or after.

Kirby’s art became more abstract or maybe stylized during this period too, as you can see if you look through a consecutive group of issues (I have all of mine at hand). The art becomes more expressive, less rooted in realistic observation than previously; more in service to the story, as the phrase goes. It makes for a more dynamic reading experience. It is a matter of personal preference by the reader whether or not this “middle period” Kirby style was more successful compared with his earlier work, or that which appeared simultaneously in his other books from this time.

Both artists who provided inking and lettering for Kirby’s Kamandi pencils — Mike Royer, and later, D. Bruce Berry — were exceedingly faithful to Kirby’s lines, and apparently made it a point of pride to interpret them with consummate skill and taste. Kirby was clearly on fire during this period, a dynamo of creative energy at the top of his form, pushing his own envelope with his artwork — at the same time, cognizant of the commerce end of things, streamlining both his storytelling and drawing style to great effect, with the assistance of a great team; clearly engaged on every level, and delivering a perfect comic book to the newsstands each month, and into this young reader’s eager hands!

One more benefit of those days long ago was that, at a price of 20 cents an issue, it was an easy thing to try out a new title, so I was primed for other Kirby books, like Justice Incorporated, his run on “The Losers,” and even Jimmy Olsen, which I would end up enjoying more as an adult. I was primed for OMAC when it debuted, and still have that first issue as well, and the ones that followed it. Soon, I would go down the path of collecting back issues and furthering my interest in comic books, and then years later to apply myself to writing and drawing my own!

Thanks, Jack Kirby, for all the fun and inspiration. You are truly one of a kind!!

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Erik Larsen

Artist/Writer/Publisher Creator/Artist/Writer, The Savage Dragon Founding member, Image Comics

“Captives of the Lion Men,” Kamandi #6, pg. 21 ack sets up the page beautifully.

touch.

Panel one gives you all you need to know: Flower

Flower’s face in panel four is perfect. Beautiful, even as she dies. Her arms twitch and help sell what she’s going through. As perfect a death as you’re likely to find in comics.

is in trouble and Kamandi is in no position to save her. We get just enough of a background to know where the story takes place without so much that it becomes distracting clutter. Jack is economical. Every line is purposeful. The Pumas look creepy and distorted. Their body language is strange, foreign.

With panel two Jack omits the background entirely, which allows us to focus entirely on the action. This is one of the many tools in Jack’s toolbox.

The closing panel switches angles and our attention goes elsewhere. We understand that Kamandi is in the Puma’s sight, but we don’t actually see that he is.

We don’t have to!

It’s understood.

Jack delivers another powerful page.

A lesser artist would cram the panel with unnecessary and distracting background elements, but Kirby knows when and where to back-off for maximum impact.

This page: Panels from Kamandi #6 [1973], those discussed in Erik Larsen’s testimonial. All inks by Royer. At inset left, Kirby’s influence is all over The Savage Dragon, Larsen’s greatest creation.

Previous page: Kirby’s pencils for Kamandi #6, page 21.

Panel three, again, uses economy. We don’t see the Puma — only the barrel of his gun. Flower’s body language tells us all we need to know and Kamandi’s face punctuates the scene. The tumbling furniture adds just the right 161

Kevin Eastman

Artist/Writer/Editor/Publisher/Patron Co-Creator, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Signatory, The Creator’s Bill of Rights

“The Hospital,” Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #16 y love for comics developed at the usual young age, seven or eight. First, it was about the characters I enjoyed reading about, and then, as my passion to want to draw my own comics grew, the artists themselves became the more important focus.

enough detail to bring you into their world through the story he wanted to tell you.

The artwork was insane. Every panel on every page seemed to literally explode with excitement! The imagination that went into every detail, the splash pages, the two-page spreads — YEEOW! — every issue was a page-turner that would leave you out of breath in the end.

Jack Kirby had been one of a few with whom I identified as an early-on favorite, because of his Marvel Comics work, but, in the early ’70s, when he moved over to DC Comics, the King became my obsession.

I truly loved all the issues, but issue #16, “The Hospital,” was in my Top Ten. I loved the parallel, where Kirby finally leads you deeper into the origins of Kamandi’s world, when you think you’re reading the handwritten diary of a gorilla doctor recording the rebirth of mankind, but you’re actually reading the diary of the human doctor recording the birth of the new animal order.

Perfectly done.

Using every penny of my paper route proceeds and birthday money, I followed all the titles he created — Edited, Written, and Drawn! — but there was a stand-out, my all-time favorite, and still is today…

Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth!

Looking back, I think that growing up in a tiny town in Maine, and Planet of the Apes being the first film I ever saw in the theater, had a hand in the connection, but it ran so much deeper.

As I continue to stand firmly upon the shoulders of the man, and humbly try to walk in his footsteps, I owe him a million lifetimes of thanks for all that he has given me. I am forever grateful to Jack Kirby.

Kamandi was the hero I could relate to and dreamed I could be.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world gone mad, it was an epic adventure filled with action and fantastic characters, who, to me, had real emotions and personal struggles, and they dealt with incredible hardship trying to survive another day!

All centered around a boy, Kamandi, who used his wits and skills to make it through each day, stayed strong, and, true to his beliefs, stood beside his friends at all costs!

For an eleven-year-old kid like me, it clicked on every level.

Back in the real world, Jack Kirby was the hero I dreamed of becoming.

His ideas seemed endless, anything he could imagine; he could create, write, draw all of it. He was the complete storyteller, and this is what appealed to me.

The pacing was fast, but he always left time to breathe life and personality into his characters. The stories never seemed to be over-written — or under-written — with just Right: Kevin Eastman, who sponsored The Art of Jack Kirby, poses with pride in his San Diego studio with a prized personal possession framed on his wall, the original cover art of Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #16 [1974]. Next page: Original cover pencil art for Kamandi #16, from a photocopy in Kirby’s files.

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Thomas Yeates

Artist/Illustrator Artist, Tarzan, Prince Valiant, Zorro 2012 Inkpot Award, Comic-Con International: San Diego

“The Last Gang in Chicago,” Kamandi #19

Kirby’s Kamandi Crime Comic NIMALS RULE THE WORLD!!

This is EARTH A.D.! And if you want to see what happened to humans in a new and scary age… RIDE WITH KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH! So begins Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #19.

Rhett Smart, my running buddy in junior high, showed me my first Jack Kirby, I’m sure of it: a Thor comic book. It was vaguely interesting, but I was not yet sophisticated enough to fully appreciate Jack’s unhinged-from-reality, over-the-top art style of simple dynamic shapes. I couldn’t quite see it, but it did have… something…

A few years later, I was collecting DC mystery comics for the Wrightson art and picked up Kamandi #1, but didn’t read it then. Quite recently, 50 years after Rhett showed me Thor and now a longtime Kirby fan, I picked up two more Kamandi comics, including #19, “The Last Gang in Chicago.” Wow, what a blast! Kirby unleashed, so to speak: Spectacular post-apocalyptic setting with gangland-style gun battles and a classic twist. I love the double-page splash. Planet of the Apes swipe or not, the Kamandi #1 double-page splash is spectacular, too, as are the others in the series I’ve seen.

It is particularly fun for me to see Jack doing this type of work in the early ’70s after leaving Marvel. It is a real adventure story and not the ultra- successful super-hero soap opera formula at all.

To me, the “Last Gang in Chicago” storyline was an excuse for Jack to revisit his bravura days drawing those wonderful crime comics in the ’50s.

The characters and dialogue are terrific — card sharps, hit men, hustlers, tough mugs all, and chorus girls. Their body

language, their faces, and costumes all lovingly depict the Roaring ’20s gangsters.

There is another opinion though. It’s also very likely that Jack’s inspiration for this particular yarn comes from Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek episode “A Piece of the Action.” The Star Trek episode has a Chicago gangland-styled culture on an alien planet and has a Bradbury type hook to it that isn’t apparent in “Last Gang”; however, this reviewer has not read the issue that follows “Last Gang,” so I’m not sure what happens next. Both stories feature prominent poker games, heroes incredulous at what they’ve found, and the strange feeling of a place out of time and out of context. “Last Gang” also has a wonderfully surreal feeling of different dream-like sequences flowing from one to the next.

There are other writer/artists whose work particularly knocks me out from that era: Wallace Wood’s sword-&-sorcery, Russ Manning’s Tarzan newspaper strip, Joe Kubert’s Tarzan comics, and now Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth.

When a great artistic talent gets to write their own scripts, it’s pure unsupervised play.

So I ordered some more issues of Kamandi and they arrived yesterday. I can’t wait to jump into them.

Nowadays, I’m in complete awe of Jack Kirby’s unhinged from reality, over the top art style of simple dynamic shapes.

Above: Kirby’s two-page spread from Kamandi #19 [1974]. Left: Thomas Yeates Ka-Zar and Zabu commission drawing. Next page: Kirby’s pencils from page 16 of Kamandi #19

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Scott Shaw!

Cartoonist, Animator, and Comics Historian Co-Creator/Artist, Captain Carrot & the Amazing Zoo Crew Four-time Emmy Award winner, Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies

“Dingbats of Danger Street,” 1st Issue Special #6 hen I was a kid, I read a ton of comics written and/or drawn by Jack Kirby and, of course, although I rarely saw any credits identifying Jack’s authorship, I loved ’em all. Jack’s stuff was wild, full of kinetic energy, forced perspective, and a “cartoony” style that nevertheless could convey whatever serious story he felt like telling. To me, whoever he was, this guy was a real cartoonist.

But it wasn’t until I read Marvel’s Not Brand Echh #1 [1967] that I began to appreciate Jack’s cartooning when he was actually trying to be funny. Jack had a very unique sense of humor but, by the late ’60s, he rarely drew the sort of stuff he’d drawn for funnybooks in the ’40s — Punch and Judy Comics — or satirical material he’d worked on in the

1950s — From Here to Insanity.

(A few years later, I got a personal taste of Jack’s sense of the absurd when he turned me and my San Diego Comic-Con pals into members of “The San Diego Five String Mob,” a rock band of assassins from Apokolips sent to kill Superman in two issues of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen!) By that time, Jack was blowing minds throughout comicdom with his Fourth World comics… until Carmine Infantino suddenly canceled most of them prematurely.

From that point on, Jack was actively defying type-casting, handling stuff from super-heroes he was famous for (Captain America, Black Panther) to horror (The Demon) to sciencefiction (Kamandi) to warfare (The Losers); from the cosmic (The Eternals) to the… comedic?

In the mid-1970s, DC published a monthly comic with the rather generic-yet-trying-to-appeal-to-a-specific-fan-audience title of 1st Issue Special. It was very much like the publisher’s earlier Showcase and The Brave and the Bold, a comic that would try out a new series concept with every issue.

(Mike Grell’s Warlord was the only original concept that made the leap to its own series.) Its fifth issue introduced an international team of ultra-wealthy pre-adolescents, “The Green Team,” by Jack’s partner in creating comics’ “kid gang” genre, Joe Simon. It was very different from what was appearing in most contemporary mainstream comics, to be sure. As usual, this new feature was as wild and wacky as Mr. Simon was known for with his line of super-hero comics for Harvey a decade earlier. But Joe was trying to appeal to a young audience that, for the most part, didn’t quite “get” his take on contemporary youth culture of 1975. And then, the following month in 1st Issue Special #6…

Above: A reduction in page count caused DC to shrink the two-page spread from Dingbats #1 to a single page when published in 1st Issue Special #6 [1975]; Jack’s unaltered art is on the next page. Right: Kirby with Scott Shaw! in the early 1980s. Next page: Bottom inset shows Kirby crowned as “King” by Scott, Jim Engel, and Chuck Fiala, at San Diego Comic-Con ’77.

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“The Dingbats Of Danger Street” took us all by surprise. Like Joe, Jack had revived their “kid gang” premise, but of course, with Mr. Kurtzberg’s signature sense of humor. The series (he drew two more issues, as yet to be published) was set in the present day in Metropolis’

Suicide Slum. The Dingbats was an urban gang of teenagers that consisted of “Good Looks” (handsome white guy leader, maybe Italian), “Krunch” (quiet white guy pillar of muscle, maybe Norwegian), “Bananas” (nutty wise guy who’s always “on,” maybe Jewish), and “Non-Fat” (skinny kid, maybe black — Jack drew him as black, Mike inked him as black, but the colorist didn’t see him that way). Typically, they’re human trouble-magnets and it’s not long before the Dingbats — aided and abetted by Lt. Terry Mullins of the Metropolis Police Department — run afoul of bizarre super-villains “Jumping’ Jack” and “The Gasser.” It’s weird and frantic and pure Jack Kirby, corny dialogue and all. At the time of its publication, “The Dingbats Of Danger Street“ was far from a hit with the fans I knew. It’s possible that I loved it so much because, by that time, I knew Jack pretty well and, to me, the writing is pure Kirby. But I loved it then and I love it now. I even own the original artwork for the entire story; I bought it from Roz. And the artwork is, in my opinion, the last truly great

work by Jack. I’ve been told — by someone who would know — that Jack really believed that the “Dingbats” would catch on with readers and he really put his heart and soul into the pencils. (It shows.) I was also told that this story was the last thing he drew before he lost his vision in one eye. It’s apparent; there’s absolutely no trace of the unintentional distortions in Jack’s last work. The action is kinetic and the foreshortening is hilariously ridiculous. I know that he wasn’t influenced by Jack Davis, but this entire comic has the vibe of Davis’ famous poster art for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

But, in addition to Jack’s story and pencils, the inking, although attributed solely to Mike Royer, was augmented by D. Bruce Berry. Between Mike’s lush brush lines and DBB’s rather static background linework, the whole thing looks like a 3-D comic… without the special glasses! Chic Stone is my favorite Kirby inker (Mike’s my second-favorite) and the inking in this fine first-issue funnybook feels like “Chic Stone Squared” to me.

Next two pages: Pages from the still-unpublished Dingbats of Danger Street #2 (with Mike Royer inks) and #3 (inked by D. Bruce Berry).

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Alan Davis

Artist/Writer Co-Creator/Artist, D.R. and Quinch, Excalibur, Creator, ClanDestine 1989 Will Eisner Award winner (with Paul Neary), “Best Art Team”

OMAC #4, cover was never a fan of Jack Kirby’s drawing.

It seemed unremarkable to me compared to the highly illustrative work that graced so many of the British publications I had enjoyed before two new comics, Fantastic and Terrific, introduced the UK to black-&-white reprints of the newborn Marvel Universe.

It was 1967 and I was ten years old. Few American comics found their way to my hometown, so I was excited by the arrival of regular publications featuring the early appearances of Thor, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men — most of which just happened to have been drawn by Jack Kirby.

In time I would come to appreciate Kirby’s flawless storytelling and unbridled creativity, but the uncoloured art was so easy to copy that I naively convinced myself I had nothing more to learn. I still aspired to imitate the full-colour strips painted by Britain’s best illustrators such as Frank Bellamy, Ron Embelton, Mike Noble, and John M Burns.

stunned by the Promethean Galaxy splash. I had no money so raced off to find the price of the comic, but by the time I’d scrounged up the cash and returned to the shop, it had been sold. I was gutted. (It would be more than fifteen years before I found a copy of New Gods #5.)

By1974 I had discovered Kamandi and OMAC and was completely hooked on the weird worlds Kirby had created. Every issue was filled with novelty and inspiration, but it was the cover to OMAC #4 that proved to be a revelation.

It’s certainly not a significant image or one of Kirby’s best, but for some reason it struck me in the same way as the Promethean splash. I couldn’t figure out why. It was a single figure and abstracted creature with no background, and it contradicted many of the artistic “rules” I had been exploring; OMAC’s tortured anatomy is defined by lines that indicate movement, strain and energy as much as physical dimensions.

The creature, despite its seemingly random form, creates a real depth within the image. This is a retrospective analysis. At the time I was simply inspired to explore what I had previously overlooked, which helped to coalesce the creeping respect I was developing for Kirby’s drawing style.

Time passed. Fantastic and Terrific merged, then were cancelled, but I was hooked on American comics and actively sought them out. My favourite artists changed with the fickleness of youth but, even as Kirby’s work became more stylised, I still eagerly anticipated every issue of Fantastic Four, Thor, or anything else Kirby had drawn. Dynamic stories and innovation were always guaranteed.

Forty three years later I still look at the OMAC #4 cover and marvel at the depth within its deceptively simple construction.

In 1971 as I cycled past a local newsagent, I spotted New Gods #5 on a spin rack. This was my first awareness that Jack Kirby had moved to DC. When I opened the comic I was

Previous page: Kirby’s original cover art for OMAC #4 [1975]. Inks by D. Bruce Berry. Top inset: Alan Davis’ artistic tribute to Jack’s characters. Left: Original Kirby concept art for the One Man Army Corps.

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Batton Lash

Artist/Writer Creator, Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award, “Best Graphic Novel”

Our Fighting Forces, The Losers

Jack Kirby: Always Surprising Us acob Kurtzberg was born in a New York working-class family. But we know him better as Jack Kirby.

After the creation of the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the Mighty Thor, et al. (and that’s just the ’60s!), Kirby wasn’t through yet.

While others could “coast,” Kirby — well, he was just getting warmed up. In hindsight, the Marvel characters served as a prelude; It was at DC that Kirby ushered in a great unfinished masterpiece: The Fourth World — The

Kirby was a two-fisted individual growing up — but in many ways, he was like that until the day he passed on. As a Jack Kirby fan from being a small boy to a senior citizen (no comments, please!), I am always finding something new in his work — even if I’ve read it a zillion times!

Even though his collaborations with writers like Joe Simon and Stan Lee were classic, Jack’s later stories were his and his alone. In fact, when those writers parted from working with Jack, good as they were, something was lost.

Something was missing. A sine qua non.

And that was Jack Kirby.

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Forever People, The New Gods, Mister Miracle, and Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.

That was followed by The Demon, OMAC, and Kirby’s longest-lasting title, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth.

In the scant six years from 1970 to 1976, a great deal had changed.

While DC was deep in the experimental wave in 1970, that approach had fallen by the wayside by 1976 to return to the tried-and-true approach. So much for what they’d brought in Kirby to do! By the time he got back to Marvel, there was a cosmic Kirby (The Eternals), a prehistoric Kirby (Devil Dinosaur), and a red-white-&-blue super-hero Kirby (Captain America).

Make no mistake, these are fine comics (I guess everyone has the last laugh about Devil Dinosaur!).

But, late in the DC era, Kirby did the unexpected. No cosmic, prehistoric, or super-hero high–jinks: just the brutal effect of war. The Losers were a rag-tag team consisting of a Navajo pilot, a peg-leg skipper, a cigar-chomping sarge, and his gunner. In the introduction to the slim reprinting of the stories, author Neil Gaiman said he didn’t care for war comics — but he did care for Kirby comics. And he got it in spades! And so did I: “Little morality plays against a battlefield.”

But aren’t all his stories morality plays? Simple, but packing a wallop.

And I don’t doubt, not for a New York minute, that young Jacob Kurtzberg already had some of those morality plays already taking shape in his mind!

Left: When Mister Miracle’s in a jam, Batton Lash’s Wolff and Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre, can get him out! Previous page: Two-page spread from Our Fighting Forces #157 [1975] and cover detail from #158 [1975]. Above: Our Fighting Forces #153 depicts the Nazi super-cannon [1975].

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Alex Ross

Painter/Artist/Writer Co-Creator/Artist, Marvels, Kingdom Come Multiple Will Eisner and Harvey awards winner

“Panic in the Dream Stream,” The Sandman #4 The deceptively simple cover of The Sandman #4 shows a relatively small hero figure shot compared with the splashier first issue, but the simple Captain America archetype comes through clearly with a particular flourish I loved — that sleeves-attached cape.

The cape made a more puffy, billowing impression with the extra material added over his shoulders. Compared with the wide-cuff buccaneer boots and cuffed gloves, decorated with throwaway Kirby patterns, this whole look resonated with me as a five-year-old beginning reader. I still find it dazzles me forty-plus years later.

he first full awareness I had of the King was his mid-’70s Sandman series. The Sandman: Master of Nightmares! #4 was my first Kirby comic where he did the entire book. My oldest sister had previously given me The Sandman #3, which was illustrated by Ernie Chan (or Chua, as he was listed at that time), and it had a cover by Jack Kirby. I was already attracted to the character design and concept before I saw it completely by Jack’s hand, but the book became all the more a fixture in my mind because of his work.

What I knew already about comic art at age five, was that what I was looking at with Kirby was unique. The other art styles I was seeing seemed more directly representational, and Jack Kirby’s art was turning my young perceptions toward a distinctive vision.

The blockier graphic rendering was immediately appealing and a little bizarre. The comic itself felt a bit less “real” but certainly vivid in its balance of cartooning with gutsy, geometric contours. That’s why on the cover the absurd monstrous nightmares impressed me, as they were like forms of abstract art, and didn’t seem that absurd.

When people write extensively about the importance of Kirby’s DC Fourth World concepts and later ’70s Marvel work, they never consider The Sandman an important part of this period or even that it rates a mention much at all. I think it can be a wonderful part of his legacy when even the least of his efforts can seem to capture a fan’s devotion, and be their particular prism through how they came to adore the King.

I have to think that having Jack’s name emblazoned right on the comic’s cover as a selling point made some kind of impression then to identify him above all of his contemporaries. Growing up in the ’70s, you had a chance to immerse yourself in the best of Kirby, when so much of Jack’s past work for DC and Marvel were sold in new printings right alongside his more recent offerings.

I can say that I’ve gained an education about many more of the great stories, characters, and art that Jack created in his incomparable career, and that there is so much more to point out of importance. Still, you have to prize that image that first hooked you, and, for me, the “Master of Nightmares!” was my introduction to a lifetime of adoring the work and inspiration of Jack Kirby.

Left: Kirby’s pencils for the cover of The Sandman #4 [1975], heralding the King’s return to the inside art for the first time since #1. Top inset: Alex Ross paid tribute to Jack with his painting depicting one of his most inspirational idols surrounded by a number of the man’s creations. The painting was used as the cover of the very first issue of Comic Book Creator [Spring 2013]. Next page: Cover of The Sandman #4, with inks by Mike Royer.

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Evan Dorkin

Artist/Writer/Television Writer Creator, Milk and Cheese, Dork, and Welcome to Eltingville Five-time Eisner Award winner, 2001 Harvey Award winner

Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, pg. 32 was eleven years old when Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles was published in 1976. An oversized, all-new, “King-Size Spectacular,” 82-page Jack Kirby Captain America comic was something a fan like myself just had to have, even with the King-Size Spectacular price tag of $1.50 (for which I could have bought six regular comics).

Still, it was worth every penny. If nothing else, the 10" x 13" treasury format was perfect for Kirby’s visuals. I wished — and still wish — that all Kirby comics could have been printed at this size.

With Kirby, bigger is better.

I can’t see many other cartoonists making this splash work as well as it does. The average super-hero artist would probably focus on the drawing to try to make it sing, rendering the hell out of Cap’s fingers and face, deadening it in the process. Kirby’s style and approach brings this simple page to life and elevates it to a poster-like punch in the face — one he likely gave no more thought to than as a necessary part of the story to get through so he could move on to the next page. Kirby’s energetic style made practically every panel matter, whether it was warring armies or two people talking. Everything pops and flows on this page, emanating from the focal “mystic mark,” to the splayed fingers that lead the eye to Cap’s face, bombarded by bursts of speed lines and an oversized word balloon featuring Kirby’s equally idiosyncratic, semi-hysterical dialogue. Even the lines in Cap’s opened mouth add urgency to the page — I don’t know if that’s supposed to be a stylized effect or actual strings of saliva in there, or both.

Herb Trimpe inked this page, which is appropriate, because in his own comics he went for spit-energy Kirby mouths in a big way, especially on the Hulk. And speaking of inking, I just love those thick, fat, fearless brush lines and spotted blacks locking in Kirby’s pencils.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t spend much time poring over this page as a kid — it reads quickly, there are no background details to study, nobody’s getting punched or kicked or blasted. You can picture Kirby’s plot notes above the panel simply reading, “Cap raises his hand so we see the mystic mark, “Stop! We’re all Americans!”.

As an adult, it’s my favorite page in the comic. It’s still just Cap holding out his hand — but that’s what I love about it. Kirby’s splashes can generally be broken down to action (the punching and blasting stuff), spectacle (the Negative Zone, Asgard, whatever crazy thing Reed Richards built this month), or a focused character moment (Loki plotting on the throne, Dr. Doom at his dining table, Thor… um, drinking a milkshake). This splash is atypical, a single plot point blown up to grand scale, while also making a larger thematic point.

Because, in case you couldn’t tell, Jack Kirby is trying to say something here, practically breaking the fourth wall in the process (Hint: WE’RE ALL AMERICANS! Corny, I guess, but the thing about Kirby is, he meant it. He meant everything he put down on the page, and that’s another reason his comics resonate with so many people).

Everything was on the nose in Kirby’s world, broadly stated in both words and images. The bold and idiosyncratic slashes, squiggles, and blocky masses that made up Kirby’s figures and environments were matched with his equally emphatic approach to narration and dialogue that combined burst upon the eye and inner ear like a blitz bomb. It’s an intensely personal style — heartfelt, uncynical, and skillfully paced with Kirby’s innate sense of energized and engaging storytelling.

I love everything about this splash and what it says about the man who created it.

Right: Evan Dorkin pays tribute to Kirby’s 1961 monster Moomba, originally from Tales to Astonish #23 [1961]. Next page: A patriotic page from the man who gave us the most patriotic super-hero, in Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles [1976].

Long Live The King.

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Bruce Timm

Artist/Writer/Animator/Producer/Director Co-Creator, Harley Quinn, Longtime Producer, DC Animated Universe 1994 and 1995 Will Eisner Award winner, “Best Single Issue”

“The Devil in New York,” The Eternals #3, pgs. 2–3 s a teenager, I remember reading (and presumably enjoying) each issue of The Eternals hot off the spinner rack, but whenever I try to re-read the entire series as an adult, I get hopelessly lost in all the chaotic complexity of Kirby’s grand Cosmic Casserole. Overwhelmed supporting player-slash-audience surrogate Margo Damian sums up my befuddlement when she breaks down and wails, “ETERNALS! DEVIANTS! GODS THAT FLY IN SPACESHIPS! It’s just too much for me, Dad… TOO MUCH!” (And that’s midway through issue #2.)

She ain’t kidding, boys and girls — there’s a whole lot going on in these twenty issues, a multitude of wild characters and concepts hurtling at the reader in such rapid succession, it quickly becomes the ultimate example of “One Damn Thing After Another.” Basically a reboot of Kirby’s Fourth World cosmology, mixed with great big chunks of Erich Von Däniken, Madame Blavatsky, Arthur C. Clarke, Bullfinch’s Mythology, and the Old Testament, all crammed into one monthly funnybook and cranked up to eleven. Seriously, it’s exhausting!

I’ve lost count of how many times the saga has defeated me. I usually get to about issue #4 — and then I start skimming — and then I stop reading altogether and just look at the pretty pictures.

Ah — but what astoundingly pretty pictures they are! It’s 100% “Sense Of Wonder” stuff. Majestic fullpage splashes and double-page spreads abound — enormous byzantine spacecraft and hidden alien cities — gentle gargoyles and beautiful savages and battalions of armored demons….

Looming mysteriously over all, titanic and remote... the inscrutable Celestials. Arishem! Eson! Nezzar!

Gammenon! Who are they? Why are they here? What do they want?

Danged if I know! Maybe I’ll have an answer next time I tackle the series… if my head doesn’t explode….

Above inset: Bruce Timm’s rendition of his favorite female Kirby characters. Right and next page: Double-page spread from The Eternals #3 [1976] with pencils by Kirby and inks by John Verpoorten. Pgs. 198–99: The pencils to same.

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William Wray

Cartoonist/Animator/Painter Artist, The Ren & Stimpy Show, MAD magazine 2005 International Artist Online Competition winner

What If? #11, pg. 10 Diego con talk — his “how to draw abstracted machine backgrounds with a big Capitol letter” was a fun, crowd-pleasing memory. More brief con meetings with the King followed, 1971’s Disneyland Con being a highlight, where I encouraged Scott Shaw to show Jack his parody of a Kirby monster splash, where he had drawn a huge erection on a giant Alien who was declaring assertively to defeated human warriors at his feet: “No Human can beat me off,” convulsing Jack and the group around him to gales of laughter that kept rolling on and on. Jack exaggeratedly turned down Scott’s generous offer of the original to more laughs all around.

irby influence in my life started randomly with reading Fantastic Four #1 in a children’s daycare center on an ocean liner bound for Hong Kong in 1964. As an innocent 9-year-old raised on Disney comics, the experience was as spine-tingling as watching a forbidden horror movie. Mildly traumatized by the excessively sensational Marvel brand, I stayed away from them until Tales to Astonish #82, Superman having cleanly filled in the time between the classic Subby and Iron Man battle and funny animal comics. I now haunted old bookstores in a fever to find older Kirby comics like Thor and FF and built my collection, while discovering Fandom via comic book classifieds.

Soon I was practicing inking over Jack’s pencils from Steranko’s History of Comics and Kirby Unleashed, sending them to Jim, who was kind enough to correct them for me. My gods were Kirby and Wood, and now Steranko joined the list with his coalescing of both styles.

My first brush with Kirby himself was his premiere San

Most likely I got Jack’s phone number from Mark Evanier. I cold-called Kirby, who was warm and friendly and invited me over to meet him at his modest Thousand Oaks home. At 16, it was the farthest I had ever driven the family car from Orange County. Jack spent several hours with me, showing me the now-famous brightly colored personal drawings of his Gods, demonstrating to me how he started a comic page, and was kind about my inking samples. Many questions flowed about his art, and soon he was showing me a mind-boggling Sky Masters original, informing me Wally Wood was his favorite inker. Asking him what he thought about Colletta’s inking, he chuckled, shrugged and joked: “He inked everything like it was made of straw!”

Roz made us lunch; he showed his house and pool, which he was very proud of.

He seemed to remember me at cons after that, but he was so nice to everyone… who knows? Later I got some comic book inking Left: William Wray inked part of What If? #11 [1978], where Kirby depicts himself, Stan Lee, Flo Steinberg, and Sol Brodsky as the FF. Inset above: Wray was a long career in animation, working on John Kricfalusi’s Ren & Stimpy, among others. Today, Wray is renowned as a painter. This is a canvas by the artist featuring the cult cartoon characters.

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on an advertising comic funded by a radio station.

They needed an artist for a Space Girls comic story.

When I suggested Jack, they were floored they could get “King” Kirby! I said they could, but said you better pay him $500 a page... He’s KIRBY! They got him and Jack, pleased with the rate, was kind enough to ask me to ink it. I was pressured to make the girls look “sexier” and reluctantly referred to Wood and Sinnott the best I could.

Around all these memories, Mike Royer had promised me on a visit to his studio (when he was inking the eye-popping “Glory Boat” issue of New Gods) I would assist him soon, but sadly he never came through on that. Later, he said he recommended me to Roy Thomas to ink half of the “What If the Marvel Crew was The Fantastic Four?”. It was an exciting, but daunting task for a green inker who was used to pencils being a bit tighter.

Years later when I was assisting Greg Theakston, I colored half the Hunger Dogs book (all the bright action stuff) and inked one or two of Kirby’s DC Who’s Who entries on overlays. I was a fly on the wall for several warm conversations Greg had then with Jack.

My last tiny contact with him was at one of Greg’s conventions in Detroit. Jack seemed uncharacteristically upset with some convention problem, walking behind Greg saying: “Everybody f*cks with Kirby.” I awkwardly said “hi” to Jack and he smiled and said some quick greeting, and followed Greg, muttering down a hotel corridor.

I paid tribute to Jack with my Dark Horse Series Big Blown Baby in the early ’90s, whick both seemed to make Kirby fans laugh and angered in equal numbers with my R-rated humor, but I promise you it was done with love for Jack and his work now and forever!

Top: The Astrals,” a late 1970s four-pager done for a radio station, which Wray inked after he referred Kirby for the job.

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John Paul Leon

Artist/Character Designer Artist, Earth X, Challengers of the Unknown Style Guide Artist, Superman Returns, Dark Knight

The Eternals #7, cover ’d always been a big Walt Simonson fan — and still am — and there’s a lot of Kirby in his work, so I’ve always been indirectly influenced by Kirby through Walter’s stuff; but I was never a Kirby fan. I never really read his comics or appreciated his work until I started working on Earth X, which was a series done for Marvel almost 20 years ago now, in the late ’90s.

I was asked to draw a bunch of different characters which were designed by Kirby, more specifically the Celestials and Galactus. When I started looking at reference and actually trying to interpret that stuff or even just be faithful to it, I really grew to appreciate just how complex his designs were. Those costumes, especially the Celestials, were just crazy. And the tech that he drew was so abstract. I found it to be a joy to work from.

That was my big contact with Kirby, and it still sort of sticks with me. I don’t really draw otherworldly type stuff that much; I’m never asked to. But the way that he was able to pull off very abstract forms in his own language and make it work to make you believe that it was literally happening, it’s very abstract stuff and it’s great.

You follow some of those lines in the Celestials and their very intricate patterns, it’s like a crazy trip. I’m not sure what his process was. It’s my understanding that he was a stream-of-consciousness type of guy, where he just made the stuff up as he was drawing, but I’m not sure. The designs of the Celestials and Galactus would often change from panel to panel, which led me to think that.

It’s extraordinary stuff.

I’d be hard-pressed to separate “this is genius, and this is not” — I really don’t know.

But knowing that he worked 184

that way is more impressive. There’s a raw creativity that seems to just come out on the page. I also understand he had a tremendous work ethic, which is probably more than fifty percent of why his work is what it is. The virtue of just being in front of it constantly, you can’t underestimate that.

But I don’t think anybody can deny that he’s been a massive presence in comics.

How do you define genius? You can’t deny that Kirby created his own world of storytelling for the form. He sort of made his own rules, and what other artists have done that?

Maybe Moebius, in a completely different way. The tech is a good example. It’s tech; it’s mechanical even if it’s alien, but it’s drawn in such an organic way that you don’t question it.

It’s just an extension of his world. I’m not sure who else you could say did that.

With Earth X, the street-level Marvel characters weren’t as prominent. It was more of a cosmic type of story, so Kirby was everywhere in that story. There was a lot of referencing. Jack Kirby’s spirit is infused in Marvel Comics! It’s in the DNA. Top: The Space Gods return, as depicted by John Paul Leon in his pencils for a spread in Earth X. Left inset: Kirby’s cover for The Eternals #7 [1977], as published, with inks by John Verpoorten. Next page: That same cover in pencil form.

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Rick Parker

Cartoonist/Writer Artist, Beavis and Butt-Head, Creator/Writer/Artist, Deadboy 1978 C.A.P.S. Grant, Comics Buyer’s Guide award, “Best Letterer”

Devil Dinosaur #1 lthough I read comic strips and comic books when I was a kid growing up in Georgia in the 1950s, I don’t think I ever heard the name “Jack Kirby” until I was working in the Marvel Bullpen doing lettering corrections in the mid-’70s.

a scenic landscape or with a skylight overhead, or with beautiful wooden cabinets in which to store their art supplies.

Not Jack Kirby.

He had an ink-stained drawing table down in the basement of his home, with a worn out old chair and a beatup taboret table with a frayed old rag hanging from it with which to wipe his brushes.

The first thing I noticed about Jack’s pages was that they were about twice as big as everyone else’s.

Also his characters were not “realistic,” but iconic — and seemed to exist in some other world. His were not graphic representations of people, they were pure comic characters — perfect for the world they inhabited. At the risk of blasphemy, Kirby was god-like in his ability to create new worlds.

Here was an artist (the word does not do him justice) who did not seek to mimic or recreate reality — he sought to create a new reality; a reality that existed first in his mind, and then on his pages. There was literally no other place you could get The Kirby Experience.

I think that’s because he wasn’t so much interested in looking at things in this world as he was in exploring the worlds inside his own head.

They were incredible, complex worlds, and nothing in this world could ever compare to them.

He was able to put those worlds he saw in his head down in the form of a series of black marks and lines on pages using words and pictures, so that he could share his vision with us mortals.

They don’t call him “The King of Comics” for nothing.

While some artists are great at laying out a series of panels in which the discerning reader can safely sit back and read the story from a comfortable and safe distance, in Jack Kirby’s comics the characters reach out and grab you by the eyeballs.

Someone in the Marvel Bullpen told me that Jack Kirby was different from other artists. Kirby was able to start in the upper lefthand corner of the page and work his way down the page — from top to bottom — and the artwork materialized, fully-formed, “as if by magic,” the guy said.

That invisible window that we look through at the world, which is known as the “picture plane,” is regularly shattered as characters reach out toward us or swing hammers at us or knock villains at us so that we have to literally jump aside to avoid being injured.

This reminded me a little of something I once read about the great Italian sculptor Michelangelo. It was said that he was able to look at a large block of marble and see the figure inside in his mind. Then, for him, sculpting became a simple matter of chipping away at the block until he had removed all the parts of the stone that did not need to be there.

His work may be two-dimensional in that it lies flat on the paper, but there is another dimension: A dimension in which his characters operate in a space off the surface of the page — and indeed, inside your head!

A Jack Kirby story takes you on a magical trip in time and space to a world where nothing is impossible. He introduces us to people we will never meet anywhere else and shows us places and things that can only be seen in that world — and what a world it is…. what a world….what a world….

Perhaps Kirby could see the finished page in his head. Then it became a simple matter of just going over the lines in black and moving on to the next page of the story.

But, actually, Jack Kirby defies explanation.

Top Inset: Rick Parker shares a piece of his Kirby-inspired artwork. Left: Kirby’s pipe stand, photographed in 1997 by David Folkman.

Previous page: A “big” Kirby page from Devil Dinosaur #1 [1978].

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Dean Motter

Artist/Writer/Illustrator/Designer Creator, Mister X, Terminal City, Electropolis Winner of two Juno Awards, 2014 Innie Award “Best Limited Series”

The Prisoner

Kirby’s Visual Story Structure and Me irby’s bold, expressionistic anatomy, visionary environments, constructivist architecture, and technology are all stylistic aspects to be studied, emulated, or simply admired. For me however, Jack’s work has always been about storytelling. I’m not just referring to storyboarding, but to the dynamic structural composition that propels the narrative along in a precise, economical and kinetic way. Whether it is a conversation, a quiet, suspenseful tableau, or an all-out battle majeure, he was a master of image construction. Each panel is not simply a frame within a cinematic sequence, but an entire shot. He arranged images in such a way that an amount of time “passes” within a given panel. And yet there is always a minimalist choice of elements. As such, they are symbolic as well as

literal. Rarely is there anything unnecessary or superfluous.

Everything belongs.

I grew up with comics, cutting my adolescent, aspiring comic book artist eye-teeth on Curt Swan, Wally Wood, Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, Russ Manning, Neal Adams, and Roy Crane among others — copying their works studiously (as well as taking my art classes) in an effort to master the art of drawing comic books. Kirby was another matter. Over the years his style became more and more expressionistic and less “realistic” — and that opened my eyes to his storytelling. Imitating his drawing style was pointless to me; it had become so exaggerated, so idiosyncratic. There were no instructional drawing books that covered that approach.

But that in itself revealed that which I had taken for granted: The judicious and yet intuitive art of not just telling the story with well-drawn pictures, but with the actual composition — of both the panels and of the page.

When I began to study and emulate that aspect of Jack’s work, suddenly the compositions of the other artists that I admired gained a new dimension — made new sense.

Kirby’s work created a new level of appreciation in me for all of my favorite comics artists and cleared the way for more to come.

Sure, Jack’s drawing style is compelling and mighty enjoyable to pore over, but it is his definitive approach to visual story structure that is his true legacy.

Above and next page: Unpublished pages from Kirby’s rejected adaptation of The Prisoner, partially inked by Mike Royer. Dean Motter has produced his own mini-series featuring Number Six, in 1988–89. Top inset: Motter is also renowned for his creator-owned property, Mister X, which has been featured in mini-series over the years. Here is an array of covers.

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Simon Bisley

Artist/Painter Co-Creator/Artist, Bad Boy 1989 Eagle Award, “Favourite Artist,” 1992 Eisner Award, “Best Artist”

Conan pin-up ower. Creativity. Genius. Great inspiration.

That’s what Jack Kirby means to me.

When I was young, I didn’t see Kirby’s work until later on, and I didn’t like it. I thought it was chunky and badly drawn. I liked John Buscema and Barry Windsor-Smith. Not until later on, when I started to draw, did I realize just how good he is. I was a late believer. Then I recognized his great power and his composition — all the things everyone already knew. His design and creativity is incredible. He made the unbelievable believable even to other artists. He was a real craftsman.

What I liked more than anything was his pencils before they were inked. I like looking at those. There’s a consistency, and the sheer power of his lines — tremendous power. It was so easy for him to do. And I really like the Thor covers — great, great images.

I never met Kirby. He died before I started going to conventions. I wish I had. He inspired everyone, didn’t he?

I admire his speed of the line, and how quickly he could get pages done. There aren’t many artists who are similar in that regard.

There’s a lot of Kirby in my work. I see it. Other people see it. I try to have a similar kind of power.

Kirby created all the great characters. He’s the King, no doubt about it. What Muhammad Ali is to boxing, Kirby is to the comic book world.

Top inset: Simon Bisley’s 1995 painting of the great Cimmerian warrior, Conan. Bisley, of course, is well-remembered for his work on Sláne, a barbarian fantasy adventure series that first appeared in the British weekly, 2000 AD. Above: A gallery of Kirby Thor covers, from his stint on the title in the 1960s, work which impressed a young Bisley to no end. Previous page: “Just for the hell of it,” here’s Kirby’s pin-up of Conan the Barbarian, taken from the special Valentine’s Day sketchbook the artist created for his beloved spouse, Roz. 191

Bob Budiansky

Artist/Writer/Editor Creator/Writer, Sleepwalker 2010 Transformers Hall of Fame

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way became aware of Jack Kirby’s work with Fantastic Four #3. One of my neighbors had the book. I was more familiar with DC Comics, and I looked at this and thought, “Boy, this stuff looks really ugly compared to what I’m used to.” I was a little kid at the time, and I didn’t appreciate the storytelling or any of the more nuanced stuff a six- or seven-year-old might not notice. A few years later, as Marvel got a little slicker in its style, a little more polished, I started picking up some of the Marvel books and I became a big fan of Fantastic Four. Certainly, in that era, there was no storyteller more dynamic than Jack Kirby. His work just flew off the page. He made his characters come alive in ways no artist of that generation could manage. I’m not insulting other artists, because they all have their own talents, their own ways of appealing to the comic book fan in me. I have plenty of favorite artists. But Jack was able to enliven his characters in a way nobody of that generation was able to equal.

I dropped out of grad school and started working for Marvel in 1976. I was very familiar with Jack Kirby’s legacy at Marvel and how he influenced those who at that time were Marvel’s mainstay artists: Guys like John Buscema and Herb Trimpe. I would say by that time, the person who influenced me most in terms of how I wanted to be as an artist was John Buscema. But I also knew how John Buscema was trained at the school of Jack Kirby when he first came into the Marvel fold.

Stan literally gave him Jack Kirby layouts to pencil over. I was maybe a generation removed from Kirby in that sense. I was a disciple of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, which John Buscema and Stan Lee wrote together. But what John and Stan were showing in that book, especially about story layout, and how to animate characters and create compositions in panels that were interesting and dynamic, was channeling much of what Jack Kirby had brought to comics originally. In fact, a lot of the ex-

amples shown in that book are Jack Kirby examples of how to layout a page or a panel. I didn’t want to draw like Jack Kirby; I wanted to draw a bit more realistically. But I wanted get my work to have that same kinetic movement he brought to his work.

I soaked Jack Kirby’s work in. I did not go back and look at my old Fantastic Four books because, again, I did not want to draw like him. He had a unique style that was great for what he did, but I did not want to draw characters the way he did. At that time I was looking at John Buscema, Barry Windsor-Smith, Gil Kane, and people like that to draw my inspiration from. I had skipped the entire transition of Jack to DC, and his Fourth World characters. That had no impact whatsoever on me. I was no longer involved in comics then.

I dropped out of reading comics for many years before getting back into them during my last couple of years in college. But I was definitely influenced by the books I grew up with, and the style he created the foundation of when I joined Marvel in ’76.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Jack Kirby. I’ve been in the same room with him at conventions, and I saw him walk by here and there, but I was always a shy guy. I never decided to say, “Hey, Mr. Kirby. I was always a fan of yours. I’d like to say hello to you.” I never did that, and I kind of regret it.

There are many people who pioneered the comic book form, and he is on the Mt. Rushmore of those people. If anybody owes anyone a debt of gratitude, he would be among those people who are owed something. But it’s a business. Do we owe anybody anything? Or do we just owe it to our publisher to produce a comic book that will turn a profit? I don’t know. But I personally owe a lot of what I brought into my own work to the books I read that Jack produced in the 1960s.

Above: Budiansky penciled the cover of Marvel Super Action #11 [1978]. Below: Kirby example from How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way, showing how overinking hurts legibility.

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Jeff Zapata

Writer/Artist/Marketing Director/Filmmaker Co-Director, 30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story

“Street Code” Argosy Vol. 3, #2 rowing up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the early ’70s was full of boiler rooms, rooftops, side alleys, and street corners. My dad at one time was a building “super” before later becoming a successful businessman. And on some occasions, in the winter, he would take me as a small boy down to the boiler room to help him shovel coal into a large firing vat that would heat the entire eight-story building.

Seeing the massive crackling energy of heat inside this enormous metal cave surrounded by a mound of coal, was as if I landed on another planet or in the center of a volcano.

The giant boiler room was a gritty, hot, intense environment with dials, meters, levers, and pipes coming from all directions. To most young kids, this might be a scary or uncomfortable place, but to me… it was Kirby.

Through his art, I recognized the same gritty, dazzling, intense environments, gadgets, and characters I saw in my New York City neighborhood. You can tell, whoever drew these books grew up in old New York! Even when he would draw these fantastic laboratories or gadgets, I could still see my dad’s large boiler room’s generators, meters, and pipes underneath. When he drew rooftops,

Top: Jeff Zapata’s Kirby-influenced work for Topps’ Garbage Pail Kids and Mars Attacks! trading cards. Above: Kirby’s original pencil art for the two-page spread in “Street Code,” his autobiographical comics story about growing up in New York’s Lower East Side, in the 1920s.

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alleys, or street corners, you can almost feel the rough concrete and the time of day. When I saw Kirby’s art, it was all those things. Each character’s arm or leg was like a B-52 fighter plane flying off the panel with guns blazing. And it all seemed I was watching it through my personal shoebox diorama. I grew up marveling and studying his work, trying to read everything he’s ever made. His influence growing up eventually led me to a fulfilling career as an artist/editor in comics and trading cards. Kirby not only helped influence my work and career, but helped make emotional connections with others who were influenced the same way.

It was during the mid- to late ’90s I met writer Jon B. Cooke, who was a contributor to the Jack Kirby Collector, which, to me, was like working for the National Geographic. We were both working and attending the great San Diego Comic-Con. We hit it off right away and decided to take a break from the very crowded convention to walk around the marina park that overlooked the blue cool waters of the bay. It was during that walk that we both shared our childhood connection to Kirby and became so relaxed in telling our emotional stories that it hit a point we both began to literally weep. We couldn’t believe how Kirby got two strangers in San Diego to cry, sharing their love of comics and Kirby. We still laugh about it years later with great nerdy pride.

So being a freelance artist for Topps and other companies these days, the Kirby influence is still there. You can see it on my takes of Garbage Pail Kids and Mars Attacks. Kirby still helps make new friends. But, most importantly, he has taught me to draw and cherish the boiler rooms, rooftops, side alleys, and street corners of my childhood forever.

Above right inset: “Street Code” as first published in Argosy Vol. 3, #2 [1990], but it was drawn circa 1983. Right: As his contribution for this book, artist Bill Sienkiewicz chose to forego an essay, and instead lovingly inked this piece.

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Bill Sienkiewicz

Artist/Writer/Illustrator/Painter Writer/Artist, Stray Toasters, Artist, Elektra: Assassin 2004 Will Eisner Award winner, numerous Eagle Awards

“Street Code” Argosy Vol. 3, #2, centerspread

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Jim Woodring

Cartoonist/Fine Artist/Writer/Toy Designer Creator/Artist/Writer, Frank, The Book of Jim 2014 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize winner

Ruby-Spears presentation work was never a super-hero comics fan as a lad, so when I found myself working in the 1980s with the likes of Gil Kane and Jack Kirby at Ruby-Spears Productions, Inc., I was not dazzled by their pedigrees, but by their astonishing skills and personalities. Ruby-Spears was the studio that gave the world Thundarr the Barbarian, The Mr. T Show, and Turbo Teen, to name but a few classics.

Our work situation in the storyboard department was very relaxed, a reflection of the character of John Dorman, our boss and the man responsible for the hiring of Kirby and Kane. I should mention that John himself was one of the world’s great cartoonists; do a Google Image search of his name.

Jack’s main job for R-S was to create show ideas, which he drew in pencil on half-sheets of Crescent board. During preproduction he brought these in by the armload every week for us to ink and color for presentation. I got to see him draw one of these stunners in the office. He started in the upper left corner and worked his way to the lower right, never blocking or measuring, never erasing or changing. I believe he drew with a lumber pencil, utilizing its thick-and-thin abilities to the utmost.

He was modest in conversation, but there was no doubt he knew he was the real deal, if not the one and only. He seemed to enjoy our playful office atmosphere. He donned

shades and banged away at the office Telecaster, he played reveille on the office trumpet, and he told us wonderful, convoluted, unlikely stories about his experiences. Word on the street was that Jack couldn’t drive because his imagination would overpower reality.

I think that at a certain point Jack began to wonder why he was submitting one boffo show idea after another and none were being developed. The ideas he submitted became more and more whimsical, culminating in the lost, legendary art depicting Heidi Hogan, a lumberjack in a pinafore clutching a double-edged axe and jumping off a cliff... the most masterful piece of unreproachable malicious compliance I have ever had the honor to see.

Left: Kirby concept drawing for the Thundarr episode “Mindok the Mind Menace.” Top: A Kirby space vehicle for Ruby-Spears, after finishing and coloring by studio hands, perhaps including Jim Woodring, who colored presentations at that time. Above inset: Frank, the remarkable, exquisitely-rendered, and trippy strip by Woodring. Next page: Two examples of Kirby concept art for Ruby-Spears, submitted on 30" x 20" illustration board.

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Paul Karasik

Cartoonist/Editor/Author/Teacher Contributor, The New Yorker, Co-Writer, City of Glass graphic novel Editor, Bad News, Associate Editor, RAW

Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #9

Jack Kirby: This Man, This Master…Unleashed fter 40 years of drawing comic book pages, Jack Kirby’s career culminated at Pacific Comics where he would create, among his final works, Silver Star and Captain Victory. Many dismiss this period as minor and insignificant: The final spurts from an aging sensei whose best years were decades earlier. I disagree.

Heresy to most Kirby fans who stand by his earlier super-hero work as quintessential, these days, I find his Fantastic Four a snore and Thor a bore. This is not to say that I did not lap-up each issue as a kid. I did!

This afternoon, I read my three-year-old grandson the same book four times consecutively. Each time I read it, I emphasized different parts, changed the sound effects and the voices, but it was basically the same thing four times in a row… and he loved it. In fact, he demanded it and would have gone for five if the lure of pickles had not beckoned.

He loves pickles more than anything right now.

I understand this passion of repetition completely, and it is a large part of my adoration of comic books as a kid. The formula of a typical Marvel or DC comic from my youth was basically the same. The story arcs all had the similar peaks and valleys. It was these comforting similarities and subtle differences that kept me coming back for more.

And I realize, thinking of how those Pacific Comics make me feel, that they engage me in the same way that I am bizarrely enchanted by the late work of a completely different kind of cartoonist: Frederick Burr Opper.

But tastes change. I probably have hundreds of Kirby comics, most of them from what is considered the Golden Age of Kirby, in my basement in plastic bags that have not been touched by hands or even fresh oxygen in decades.

The ones I return to? Those late Pacific Comics Kirby titles.

As Kirby defined the super-heroic comic book of the mid1900s, Opper defined the “big-foot” gag comic strip of the early 1900s: Lots of differences, but similarities in careers.

They both worked ceaselessly for years until they dropped.

Top inset: Paul Karasik, besides being known for his adaptation of City of Glass (with David Mazzucchelli), compiled two books of comics by Fletcher Hanks, a truly weird Golden Age artist whose Stardust is a legendary oddball strip. Karasik joins with R. Sikoryak to parody the character, in SpongeBob Comics Annual-Size Super-Giant Swimtacular #2. Above: Cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper’s unedited, unrestrained And Her Name was Maud comic strip from around the turn of the last century/late ’20s–early ’30s shines with reckless abandon, not unlike Kirby’s own late-period Captain Victory. This strip is from May 31, 1931. Next page: Splash page from Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #9 [1983].

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And in their final years, there was clearly little editorial supervision.

Like Kirby, Opper was a drawing machine. He drew every day of his adult life (and for much of his adolescence). His final years were spent with his head getting closer and closer to the drawing board as his eyeglasses got thicker and thicker. Those last drawings of Happy Hooligan and Maud the Mule are done by a man who had drawn daily until the mark making became second-nature…or maybe even first-nature.

It is hard to imagine that anyone was giving Opper any type of editorial feedback, as week-after-week characters get abused and re-abused by exploding cigars, buckets of water, and mule kicks as they had for decades. The later Happy Hooligan strips have a jolly devil-may-care graphic quality and the stories are simply nuts. Often they barely make sense and can be seen now almost as postmodern gags about gagmaking.

Kirby’s late production (and, I suspect, the self-assured mastery and total fluency with the comics medium) was in significant ways similar. The Pacific-era Kirby comics are also pretty nutty; not that they’re complex and overwritten, they are just hard to follow — and this from an artist whose purpose in his prime was always to reach the reader, a very specific reader who expected a story about good and evil, conflict, super-powers, often some technology, and lots of smashing. Kirby’s late work is executed with vigor and ded-

ication, but you almost need to be inside Jack Kirby’s head for the plots to really click. Often they barely make sense and can be seen as postmodern super-hero stories about super-hero stories.

These first five pages of Captain Victory #9 illustrate what Kirby himself might have titled, “Jack Kirby Unleashed!” It is noteworthy that no editor is listed in the credits.

On page 1, Captain Victory and his sidekick, Klavus, have entered a “Distortion Zone,” their rugged faces have become bulbously distended. Captain Victory’s hand has morphed to tentacles. Given Kirby’s unique interlocking approach to rendering all things mechanical where all equipment fits together like a jigsaw puzzle but none of its functions are clearly labeled, it is hard to tell if the ship’s interior hardware has also become distorted.

Turning page 1, we are confronted with a double-page spread that could only have been executed by Kirby (with smooth, crisp inking applied by Michael Thibodeaux).

Given that the word balloon emanates from the object on the left, we can surmise that this is Captain Victory’s ship (“The Tiger”) hurtling through what we are told are “different Dimensional Stress Areas.” Kirby gives himself license to kill here: Freeform drawing by a practiced hand. The ship itself is recognizable as a manmade object of some sort, but everything else is a swirl of imaginary spacescape… some things appear to be constructions, some things may be

This page and next: As referenced in Paul Karasik’s testimonial, here are a pair of double-page spreads reproduced from Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #9 [1983].

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natural. Kirby draws these shapes with conviction. He may have understood what he was drawing, but the reader is just meant to gape.

Especially after using two pages of prime real estate to impress us with the vast somethingness of the Dimensional Stress Areas, we anticipate, in turning the page, to return to the ship’s interior and the plight of the distorted passengers.

We expect the story to move forward. Instead we get another two-page spread! Wow! Double-gape!

It’s hard to tell what the spread on pages 4 and 5 has to do with the previous spread. Kirby could have used either spread, but he chose to use both: Again, a combination of natural and constructed objects… yet different. The ship is now moving in the opposite direction, perhaps obeying the forces of the Distortion Zone, rather than the laws of conventional left-to-right comics storytelling.

Why? Why two two-page spreads depicting such similar vistas with very little information to actually move the story forward? Well, why not?

If this had been a Fantastic Four story from the 1960s, you can bet that Kirby would have been reined in here by Stan Lee’s determined cause-and-effect plotting. In Captain Victory, forget the cause, it’s all glorious effect.

As for the rest of Captain Victory #9, it is hard to say exactly what happens. It is episodic without any clearly defined narrative focus. Things happen, characters converse, but

exactly what happens and what the characters say to each other is hard for me to decipher. This is disconcerting and even maddening, but, once you get tuned to his frequency and surrender to the utter lack of traditional story and storytelling, it’s a blast.

Kirby is having fun drawing, basking in the glory of his specifically honed skill set, and on some level that fun is infectious.

The late comics of Kirby are less about sequential storytelling than they are about sequential image-making… less than the formulaic comics of the Marvel Comics Group and more like the Art Comics by the Fort Thunder Group, but without the pretentiousness. Ultimately there is something blunt and honest about them that I find more appealing than anything else he did.

To return to my grandson: As a storyteller he is at the stage where he starts with a setting and a character, and then as he talks, things start to happen to the character without much preconception. My grandson makes up stories on the run, stringing together bits of business and interactions until, suddenly, the story is over and it’s time for a pickle. Like Kirby, it’s improvisational and it’s marvelous.

The Jack Kirby of the Captain Victory era is not a fading star of an artist, but a super-nova going down in blazing glory. This is Jack Kirby rampaging like the Hulk with a pencil.

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Philip Tan

Artist/Writer Artist/Co-Writer, The Outsiders, Savage Hawkman Co-Creator/Artist, Taleweaver

God illustration ack Kirby was not a name I was familiar with when I was in my formative years of getting addicted to comic books.

Kirby’s fingerprints all over it. The influence of his methods and ideas in comics, led to unique and diverse styles that bring visual magic to different genres of story.

Growing up in a Third World country with the Internet in its infancy, the early ’90s was a time where flashy styles captured our attention, and what Mr. Kirby contributed to the art of American comics itself, was not obvious to us then.

I was ignorant of it, embarrassingly. It really wasn’t until the time I was seriously learning, working, and considering a future in the industry, that it all became so clear; that everything I see in comics, every work of artists I admire, has Mr.

I guess what I wanted to say here, is how thankful I am for indirectly becoming a student of Mr. Kirby. That his craft and influences are the main reasons we comic artists are less focused on drawing or painting that perfect picture than doing a better job in bringing the story to life. He was a big part of the enlightenment I needed to realize, finally, that great art in comics is more than how many lines we see per square inch.

Above: For the family ‘s pleasure, Kirby drew his rendition of the Supreme Being, in 1970, the original of which was hung on display in Jack and Roz’s living room.

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Brendan McCarthy

Artist/Writer/Concept Designer Creator, Paradax, Co-Creator, Freakwave Co-Writer/Designer, Mad Max: Fury Road

“Gangs of Space,” Captain Victory #13 ’ve grown to love the post-’60s Marvel Kirby work and consider it his greatest period. To me, this spread from Captain Victory #13 shows the essence of Jack Kirby’s cosmic vision and imaginative reach. Kirby’s character and tech design is also superb and very idiosyncratic. His work is instantly recognizable and has been an enduring influence on my own approach to comics, both in art and concepts.

Top: Brendan McCarthy’s “Fabulous Four” bears a strong resemblance to a certain quartet of Kirby characters. Above: Two-page spread from Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #13 [1984] is one of the last of his career — but what a way to go out!

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Rudy Nebres

Artist/Storyboard Artist Mainstay Artist at Warren, Continuity, Marvel, and Red Circle 2012 Inkpot Award winner

“Silver Star: Homo Geneticus,” Silver Star #1 ack, for me, is a big influence and inspiration. In the Philippines, we received some copies of American comics, and the first illustrations I saw there were by Jack Kirby. Mostly I saw the monster comics.

amazing, an honor. I met one of the best artists on the stage.

That was 1977, ’78, something like that — my first time at the San Diego Comic-Con. I looked at his work for inspiration — the way he was so free. Later on he changed his style, probably to work faster. I like his style. It’s too bad he’s not around anymore.

I had a nice opportunity my first time in San Diego, as an invited guest with Alfredo Alcala and the rest of the guys.

I’d been requested to do a drawing on stage. Afterwards Kirby came up to me and said, “So you are Rudy Nebres.”

And I didn’t realize it was Jack Kirby. I only knew his name.

He said, “You’re so good,” and things like that. He was impressed with my work. I said, “I appreciate that.” When I realized he was Jack Kirby, I was surprised he had come to me and said, “Nice to meet you.” That was

This page: Clockwise from left, printed page 12 from Silver Star #1 [1983], with pencils by Kirby and inks by Mike Royer. Commission sketch of Captain America by Rudy Nebres, 1997. Kirby’s presentation piece to pitch the Silver Star concept, 1975. Next page: Pencils, pg. 12, Silver Star #1.

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Keith Giffen

Artist/Writer Co-Creator/Artist, Rocket Raccoon, Lobo, Creator, Ambush Bug 1991 Inkpot Award winner

Kenner’s Super Powers Action Figure Line hen I was a kid, I used to go to the barbershop, and they always had a pile of comics with the top of the cover ripped off. I found out later that stores would return the tops of the covers of whatever didn’t sell to get reimbursed, and the comics themselves would get sent to a plant to be pulverized. This woman in my neighborhood used to work at the plant, and she would bring some home and give them to the barbershop. I first got exposed to Kirby through Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish — the giant monster stuff. I had no idea who he was then, but those books fascinated me.

And then it was a progression to Fantastic Four and his work at Marvel. If it wasn’t for that woman at the pulping plant, I never would have seen the guy.

had on a hairnet. He lost me there. I didn’t hear anything that was said. I was just fascinated by the work he was showing me. He was telling me, “Here’s Darkseid. Here’s how this works. Here’s how that works.” I got to spend ten minutes with him and that was it. I never got the opportunity to talk with him again.

But seeing those pages… damn. For Mantis, they came to me with a background figure from a Walter Simonson story. “This is what we want Mantis to look like.” So Mantis is the figure I had the most input on. The others were just pure Kirby.

Something about the guy’s work sings to me to this day, and I never lost track of him. Others would come and go. “I used to be into that artist, now I’m not.” Jack was always there.

Storytelling, the approach to the page, the panels — I’d say Kirby’s had more of an effect on me than anyone else in the business. I own no comic books.

None. Not even my own, because I think that’s dangerous.

If you start looking back, and you like what you see, you’re not going to progress forward. My daughter keeps them, but I just throw them away. But what I do have are all the Marvel Masterworks with Fantastic Four and Thor issues that Kirby did.

To this day, they hold up so well. The guy was phenomenal.

I started out with a Kirby affectation in my work. In hindsight, that was really ill-advised, because even Jack Kirby used to say, “Don’t mimic me. Find you own dynamism.” It took a while for me to get that through my head. Find your own pace, and then, if you want to insert little bits of Kirby — the Kirby Krackle, or the forced perspective — go put it in there. Till your own field, then you can play around with what Kirby did. It took me a while to figure that out, but I hope it stuck.

I met Jack Kirby once. He was up at DC when I was pulled in by Joe Orlando, or whoever was in charge then. I walked in, and there’s Jack Kirby, and he has this big portfolio with him. They asked me to do the turnarounds for the first New Gods toys for the DC Super Powers toy line — Darkseid, a parademon, stuff like that. I remember meeting him and he opens up the portfolio, “Here, so you get a better idea.” He had these huge pages of the original drawings of the New Gods. Darkseid, instead of having a helmet,

For keeping comics alive, and for giving us the blueprint for the modern super-hero, there is a lot of gratitude to Kirby. I’ve got more gratitude that his work is still in print, and I can get it. With Kirby, I’m a fan. That’s it. I don’t see him as a fellow professional. I’m just a fan of Jack Kirby. I love his stuff, even when Vinnie Colletta inked him.

Even Kirby’s quieter scenes have a dynamism about them. His writing seemed to be the same way. I’m not a huge fan of his writing simply because, by then, I knew a bit too much. Some of his writing is really on-the-nose stuff, but if you separate the writing from the artwork, he wrote the way he drew. Stan just sanded off the rough edges. With the best writers he worked with, they just smoothed off those rough edges. With Jack Kirby, verbally you got the equivalent of what he was doing in the artwork. It worked, but it didn’t work as well as the art. The dynamism somehow got lost.

I’m doing a Manhunter story right now for DC. I just did an issue of Kamandi Challenge. Every time I pick up a super-hero book, I can feel Kirby in the back of my mind, clawing at it. He went for the big ideas. He was constructing modern myths, and that’s missing right now. I miss that in comics. That’s why, every so often, about once a month or so, I yank out one of those Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volumes and just page through it. No matter what’s happened to me during the day, I can look at that and say, “Yeah, I want to do comics.”

Top inset: Keith Giffen produced this artwork in 1985 for the Kenner Toys’ Super Powers action figure line, featuring Jack Kirby’s Fourth World characters. Giffen worked on character designs, sharing he had the most input on the dramatically redesigned Mantis figure. Next page: Kirby’s opening splash for “Once Upon Tomorrow,” Super Powers #5 [1986].

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One Hundred Years of Kirby

by John Morrow (with Jon B. Cooke)

(Please refer to all those who assisted at the end of this feature.)

A Chronology of the King’s Reign

While this isn’t a complete list of every important date in Kirby’s life and career, it hopefully hits most of the key events and a few we think pertinent. Rule of thumb: Cover dates were generally two or three months later than the date the book appeared on the stands, and six months ahead of when Kirby was working on the stories, so we’ve assembled the timeline according to those adjusted dates — not the cover dates — to set it closer to real-time. — John Morrow.

1916–1930s • August 12, 1916: Kirby’s paresnt Rosie Bernstein and Benj Kurtzberg marry in New York City. On the certificate, Rosie’s father’s given name is Jacob.

1941 • Early 1941: In addition to their Timely assignments, Kirby and Simon (along with several inkers) frantically produce Captain Marvel Adventures #1, the first book devoted solely to Fawcett’s new super-hero sensation (a boy who says the magic word “Shazam” and is transformed into the “World’s Mightiest Mortal”). But, because they believed the book would bomb, Simon and Kirby left their credit lines out of what would soon become one of the biggest selling titles of the decade.

• February: Stan Lee’s first professional writing appears in Kirby and Simon’s Captain America Comics #3, a two-page text piece entitled “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge.” Soon the former Stanley Lieber, who is editor Simon’s office assistant (and relative by marriage to publisher Goodman), will be writing stories for the creative team during their stay at Timely.

• June 5, 1917: Benj Kurtzberg, living at 147 Essex Street, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, registers for the draft during World War I. Jacob is born almost three months later. (Until a birth certificate is discovered — which the family does not have — this is a best guess at Kirby’s birthplace.)

• July: Simon and Kirby’s Young Allies #1 goes on sale, featuring a S&K first for comics: The kid gang.

• August 28, 1917: Jacob Kurtzberg [Jack Kirby] is born on New York City’s Lower East Side. Jack’s younger brother, David, will arrive on January 22, 1922.

• 1920 Federal Census: Bennie, Rose, and Jacob are listed living at 131 Suffolk Street, Manhattan.

• September 25, 1922: Rosalind Goldstein [Roz Kirby] is born, in Brooklyn, New York.

• 1930 Federal Census: Ben, Rose, Jack, and David are living at 172 Delancey Street, Manhattan.

• Early 1930s: Kirby (still Kurtzberg) joins the Boys’ Brotherhood Republic, a selfgoverning youth organization helping to keep kids off the street and remain productive, and he sees his work in print for the first time, in the club newsletter.

He draws a regular feature, Kurtzberg’s Konceptions, between 1933–35.

• Before completing their work on Captain America Comics #10 (cover dated Jan. 1942), Timely’s accountant reveals to Kirby and Simon that they are being cheated out of promised profits from the title as originally negotiated with Goodman. By then, the men are recognized throughout the industry as a top creative team in the field. Clandestinely, the partners contact Jack Liebowitz, co-owner of DC Comics, the industry’s top publisher, and negotiate a deal: $500 every month for the partners in return for 25 pages (extra for any additional work). Secretly preparing their DC stories, Simon and Kirby’s secret deal is uncovered by Goodman and the two, after finishing their last issue of Cap, are fired. Upon their departure, Stan Lee takes over as editor of the comics line.

• December 8: The United States of America enters World War II.

• Mid-1930s: Kirby gets his first professional job as a cel opaquer for Max Fleischer’s animation studio, the producer of Popeye and Betty Boop animated cartoons. He advances to become an assistant animator. With a possible studio strike or relocation looming, he takes a position at Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate, drawing comic strips and one-panel cartoons, such as Laughs from the Day’s News, Cyclone Burke, The Black Buccaneer, and Socko the Seadog.

• September 1938: Jumbo Comics #1, published by Fiction House, appears, reprinting some of Jack’s earlier syndicate strip work. This is the first time his work appears in a U.S. comic book.

• 1939: Kirby joins Victor Fox’s studio as a staff artist.

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1942 • Benjamin Kurtzberg’s draft registration card lists his address at 3142 Coney Island Avenue, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

• Early to mid-1942: The Simon and Kirby team debuts at National (DC Comics) with Adventure Comics #72 (cover date March), their Sandman revamp. Part of their contract with National guaranteed a minimum number of pages, something few creators received at the time. Kirby and Simon then debut more new features: “The Newsboy Legion” (with costumed co-star, the Golden Guardian) in Star Spangled Comics #7 (Apr.); “Manhunter” in Adventure Comics #73 (Apr.); and “The Boy Commandos” in Detective Comics #64 (June).

• May 23: Kirby marries Roz Goldstein.

• 1940 Federal Census: Ben, Rose, Jack, and David are living at 30 Banner 3 Road, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The census also asks where the family lived in 1935, and the Kurtzbergs confirm the same address. rd

• January: The Blue Beetle newspaper strip debuts with uncredited Kirby work.

• Early 1940: Kirby meets Joe Simon in the Fox offices and, in May, Kirby and Joe Simon collaborate for the first time, in Blue Bolt #2. Kirby’s debut work for Timely Comics (the future Marvel Comics) appears in Red Raven Comics #1 (August cover date), with the “Mercury” feature. It is the first time Kirby signs his work by the name Jack Kirby (one of numerous pen names he initially uses, but it is the one that sticks). The team of Simon and Kirby is established. Sometime in late 1939/early 1940, Timely publisher Martin Goodman hires Joe Simon as the comics line’s editor, and, outside the office, Simon and Kirby conceive of Captain America, which they pitch to Goodman, who agrees to share 25% of the profits with the team on top of their rate of $12 per page. Kirby is hired as Timely’s art director for $75 a week.

• Summer: Jack Kirby meets Rosalind “Roz” Goldstein, who lives in the same apartment building. They begin dating.

• Summer: Due to its popularity, the team begins work on a Boy Commandos solo title, which reportedly remains one of the company’s top sellers for years.

• November: Boy Commandos #1 goes on sale. The title lasts for 36 issues, ending in the fall of 1949. Decades later, Simon reveals that DC publisher Liebowitz generously shared profits from the title. Kirby confirms they were treated well by the company.

• Sensing the young men would be drafted, Liebowitz contracts with the team to produce inventory material — on top of their regular assignments — to tide the company over while Simon and Kirby fulfill their military service commitments.

1943 • Early 1943: Joe Simon enlists in the U.S. Coast Guard and serves stateside.

• May 21: Papers are filed to legally change Jack and Roz Kurtzberg’s last name to Kirby, and it becomes effective on June 23.

• June 21: Kirby reports for military duty in the U.S. Army to Camp Stewart, Georgia, where he receives basic training as infantryman and mechanic.

• Fall: Marvel Mystery Comics #13 features the debut of Simon and Kirby’s “The Vision.”

1944 • February 5: Republic Studios releases the first chapter of the 15-chapter movie serial, Captain America. The names of the two men who created the character are not listed in the credits.

• September 25: Kirby proposes marriage to Roz, who accepts.

• December 20: Simon and Kirby’s Captain America Comics #1 goes on sale and reportedly sells nearly half a million copies. Subsequent issues sell upwards of one million copies per issue. The title is an unqualified success and Timely’s biggest seller to date. The series continues until 1949 and the character, with his trusty sidekick, Bucky, also appears in numerous other Timely comics.

• August 17: Private 2nd Class Kirby is shipped to Liverpool, England, to serve among the troops replacing the D-Day invasion force.

• August 23: Private Kirby lands on Omaha Beach, in Normandy, France, and is

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sent to Verdun to join U.S. General George S. Patton’s Third Army on its rapid eastward offensive. Once there, Kirby is assigned to the machine gun platoon of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 11th Regiment, 5th Division of Infantry, 20th Corps of the Third Army. As part of the Lorraine Campaign, the 5th Division is sent to the south of Metz, while the 95th makes its way north, to expunge the town’s German resistance.

•S eptember 8–10: Kirby sees action while 11th Infantry Regiment engages the enemy — the 37th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment — during the liberation of Gorze and Novéant, two villages south of Metz.

• November 14: Kirby, suffering from trench foot, awakens in a French and British field hospital. Patients are categorized into three groups: those receiving a drip, those for whom nothing can be done, and those receiving some whiskey to ease their pain. Kirby falls into the second category. Doctors briefly consider amputating his feet, but decide otherwise.

1945 • January: Kirby returns to the United States. He spends six months at Camp Butner, in Raleigh, North Carolina, fulfilling his military service commitment.

• April: Roz finally obtains a pass to visit her husband, who has not been granted a furlough. Kirby alters an insurance card as a counterfeit pass and leaves camp to see Roz. Kirby, having lost about 45 pounds since being drafted, is barely recognizable to his young bride. Kirby leaves with Roz and the couple are discovered in Richmond, Viginia, a few days later, and desertion is noted on his military record.

• July 20: Despite going AWOL, Kirby receives an honorable discharge from military service as Private First Class and is awarded several military honors, including the Bronze Battle Star.

• December: Daughter Susan Kirby is born. Around this time, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby buy homes across the street from each other on Long Island, New York.

1946 • Tempted by a 50/50 profit-sharing deal offered by friend and comics publisher Alfred Harvey, the Simon and Kirby team re-unite and the pair’s first postwar creations debut at Harvey Comics: Stuntman #1 and Boy Explorers #1.

Unfortunately, the post-war paper glut means too much competition for comics on the newsstands, and both books are soon canceled. The industry is in a state of attrition, with many artists and writers out of work or scrambling for jobs.

1947 • May: My Date #1, from Hillman Periodicals, debuts, a precursor to their successful romance comics to come. (Throughout the year, Kirby and Simon would contribute steadily to Hillman, including the popular Airboy title.) Also, Headline Comics #23 for Prize appears, featuring their first work in the crime genre. Plus, the team dabbles even into the funny animal category with “Lockjaw the Alligator” and “Earl the Rich Rabbit,” in Punch and Judy Comics, for Hillman.

• Summer: The industry’s first true romance comic book, Young Romance #1, created by Simon and Kirby, is published by Crestwood/Prize, launching a highly lucrative — and imitated — new genre in the industry. The crime title Justice Traps the Guilty #1 debuts, also from Prize. Very soon, to keep up with the evergrowing workload, the team takes in a stable of freelance artists and writers.

Crestwood agrees to pay the partners 50% of the Young Romance profits, Simon says, and he and Kirby are each earning $1,000 a month.

• In his pamphlet, Secrets of the Comics, Stan Lee, now editor and chief writer at Timely Comics, states that publisher Martin Goodman was the impetus for the creation of Captain America, and there is no mention of Simon or Kirby.

1948 • Psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham has two articles published, in Collier’s and the American Journal of Psychotherapy, which intensify the growing public concern about the effect of comics on kids, with many believing Wertham’s premise: that reading comics directly leads to juvenile delinquency. Also, the Simon and Kirby team, ever on the lookout for more work, concoct samples for a daily newspaper comic strip, Inky, about an amiable comic strip artist who moonlights as a detective. The effort does not pay off.

• May: Son Neal Kirby is born.

1949 • Enriched by the success of the romance comics line (now expanded to include Young Love), the Kirby family moves to a brand-new home in Mineola, Long Island, New York, which would be the family’s abode for the next 20 years. Jack works in his basement studio, which is nicknamed “The Dungeon.” Simon later says that Young Romance is selling in excess of one million copies per issue.

• May: The last Simon and Kirby work for Boy Commandos appears, in #33. The

title would be canceled three issues later.

• December: Captain America Comics #75 is published, the final issue of its original run (although #74 was the last to feature the Simon and Kirby character).

1950 • August: Boys’ Ranch #1 is published by Harvey Comics. Simon and Kirby’s remarkable western kid gang mash-up would run through #6, in 1951.

• Fall: Black Magic #1 is published by Prize, beginning a long and successful run for the quasi-horror/suspense title, that will end fifty issues later, in late 1960.

1951 • September: Timely publisher Martin Goodman begins using the Atlas News Company logo on his comics line.

• November 30: The remarkable 14-page love story, “Different,”appears in Young Romance #30, which goes on sale on or about this date. The tale is a stand-out because it delves into the effects of anti-semetism on a relationship. The issue is dealt with somewhat obliquely, as the ethnicity of those persecuted is never explicitly stated, but there’s little doubt it was a prejudice of concern to Simon and Kirby, the Jewish writer/artist team who created the story.

1952 • June: Strange World of Your Dreams #1 is published, another quasi-horror title.

• November: Daughter Barbara Kirby is born.

1953 • Captain Marvel artist C. C. Beck, wanting to find work after long-standing employer Fawcett folds its comics line, asks Joe Simon for work, and the unused Silver Spider is the result. This would later be the springboard for The Fly, and presumably for Jack’s original Spider-Man attempt.

• Late 1953: Believing Crestwood is cheating them with royalty payments, Simon and Kirby open Mainline Comics (while still supplying Crestwood, lest their new venture prove unsuccessful), subletting office space from Harvey Publications.

They produce four titles: Bullseye, Foxhole, In Love, and Police Trap.

• September 19: The New York Times announces that a U.S. Senate Subcommittee has been formed to investigate and hold hearings regarding any ill-effects comics may have upon children and young people.

• October: Atlas Comics’ Young Men #24 is published, briefly reviving Captain America. This infuriates Simon and Kirby, due to their past dispute with Goodman over profits on the character, so the duo sets out to create their own new patriotic hero, Fighting American, along with his trusty sidekick, Speedboy.

• October: Jumping on the 3-D comics craze, Simon and Kirby (with the help of Mort Meskin and Steve Ditko) produce Captain 3-D #1, published by Harvey Comics. The fad has already died by the time the issue hits the stands.

1954 • February: Fighting American #1 debuts. It will change course from straight-laced super-heroics to satire in the space of a single issue, with #2, released in April.

• March: Bullseye #1 is published by Mainline, a western with Kirby layouts.

• April: Wertham’s diatribe against the industry, Seduction of the Innocent, is published, culminating a long-festering media storm against comics.

• April 21, 22, and June 4: The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, chaired by U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver, holds hearings on the alleged detrimental effects of comics books on children. Only two witnesses are called: Wertham and E.C. Comics publisher William M. Gaines. Copies of Mainline’s Bullseye and Foxhole are used as exhibits during the nationally televised hearings. The investigation, combined with the unquestioned surmises of Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, prove catastrophic to any publisher whose fare is appealing to a readership over the age of eight. David Hadju’s The TenCent Plague lists 896 comic book workers who would never again find a job in the field after the mid-’50s “purge.” Production is decimated by two-thirds.

• May: Captain America’s short-lived (sans S&K) revival ends with issue #78 of the resurrected title.

• September 7: The Comics Magazine Association of America, representing 26 comics outfits eager to negate the bad publicity, is incorporated to police its own industry. Only the respective publishers of Classics Illustrated and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories decline to join.

• September 16: The CMAA establishes the Comics Code Authority, a selfregulating body, which, only after rigorous review, would allow member publishers to slap their “seal of approval” in covers. The restrictive code effectively forces E.C. Comics out of the business of making comic books.

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• September: Simon and Kirby have Crestwood’s books audited and discover approximately $130,000 in unpaid royalties due the team. Rather than force the publisher out of business and leave the pair with nothing, the two are forced to settle for a reported $10,000.

• September 8: Sky Masters of the Space Force debuts in U.S. newspapers. It will run through February 25, 1961, and appears in some 325 newspapers at its peak.

Overall, some 773 daily strips are produced (with inks by Wallace Wood and, in his absence, Dick Ayers), as well as 53 Sunday installments.

• December: Win a Prize #1 is published by Charlton Comics. The fact that Kirby and Simon don’t self-publish is a clear sign that Mainline is near its end, and the two sell the rest of any unpublished material to Charlton. Kirby takes the team’s final project, Challengers of the Unknown, with him (soon to be sold to DC Comics), while Joe Simon leaves comics and goes into advertising and political work for a period. Though they would interact professionally on projects now and again, after about 15 years, the Simon and Kirby team is essentially dissolved.

• December 11: Kirby learns Schiff is suing him for breach of contract and, in response, Kirby counter-sues Schiff.

1955 • January–May: Final issues of Bullseye, In Love, Foxhole, and Police Trap are released by Charlton (who earlier proposed a Simon & Kirby Comics sub-imprint).

• 1955: Following lean times after the demise of Mainline, Kirby works on titles for Harvey Comics, such as Western Tales, romance titles for Prize, and humor work for Charlton. He also draws random covers and preps several ideas for newspaper strips, in an attempt to leave the moribund comics field. None of these ever got off the ground, though a few would come in handy years later.

• December–January 1959: Kirby’s first work for Atlas’s Strange Tales (#67) and Tales of Suspense (#2) is published, beginning an unbroken association with editor/writer Stan Lee that lasts for a decade. This also begins Kirby’s so-called “Atlas Monster” era, the pre-cursor of the Marvel super-hero universe, perhaps best exemplified by the giant creatures Groot (“The Monster from Planet X” introduced in September 1960 and now renowned in the Guardians of the Galaxy film franchise) and Fin Fang Foom (“The Most Fearful Menace of All,” August 1961). While this subgenre would initially mesh with the nascent super-hero line, it will fade by late 1962. Lee and Kirby create a pantheon of these characters.

1959 • April–June: Once again, Simon and Kirby briefly reunite, this time to create and render The Double Life of Private Strong and The Fly for Archie Comics. The genesis of the latter super-hero is related to the early ’50s development by Simon and Kirby of the Silver Spider pitch, and The Fly will, in Kirby’s recollection, lead to his suggestion to Stan Lee about the concept of Spider-Man.

• February: The final issue of Fighting American, #7, sees print.

• May: EC Comics’ MAD switches from a comic book to a magazine format with #24, giving William Gaines and his company a second chance, one that proves tremendously successful. (By the mid-’60s, MAD will be purchased by the same corporate owner of DC Comics.)

• Late 1950s: Kirby shows fellow artist John Severin, who contributed to Simon and Kirby’s Prize Comics work, an idea that will later become Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos at Marvel (“a sort of an adult Boy Commandos”).

• October 16: The Sky Masters court trial is held in White Plains, New York.

1956

• October: Kirby’s last work for Young Romance is published. (The series and its sister title, Young Love, will be sold to DC Comics by Crestwood in 1963, and continue well into the ’70s, with Joe Simon again serving, for a time, as editor.)

• September: Kirby’s five-page “Mine Field” story is published in Battleground #14, marking his return to Timely, by then called Atlas. This begins an initially sporadic, but ultimately long-running teaming with writer/editor Stan Lee. Kirby follows this with work on The Black Rider, Yellow Claw, and others, and is often reduced to inking his own work or enlisting wife Roz to help with the brush.

• December 3: The New York Supreme Court rules in favor of Jack Schiff in the Sky Masters lawsuit and, on December 21, Kirby is ordered to pay restitution to Schiff, money that is not easily available in the industry’s down market.

• December: Showcase #6 is published at DC, featuring the Challengers of the Unknown. During this period, Kirby will also produce work for DC’s House of Mystery, House of Secrets, and the “Green Arrow” strip in Adventure Comics — again, on occasion, employing Roz and himself as inker.

1960 • June: The first issue of Sick magazine, a MAD knock-off, is published, edited by Joe Simon. Stan Lee and Kirby resurrect and revamp The Rawhide Kid, beginning a lively (albeit short-lived) romp for the team in the western genre, which extended into Gunsmoke Western, Two-Gun Kid, and Kid Colt Outlaw. By 1963, the pair were devoting most of their efforts to the growing super-hero line.

1957 • April–May: A combination of an economic downturn and collapse of his distributor causes Martin Goodman to cancel all but 16 of the Atlas Comics line-up, down from 75, and to stop assigning new jobs for several months until existing inventory is exhausted. This event comes to be known as the “Atlas Implosion,” with the company nearly closing its doors for good, and the sudden loss of assignments greatly affects Kirby. In his notorious 1991 interview in The Comics Journal, Kirby offers an unforgettable (and perhaps exaggerated) image of the imprint’s editor weeping as the furniture is being hauled out of the bullpen.

“I had a family and a house and, all of a sudden, Marvel is coming apart,” Kirby says. “Stan Lee is sitting in a chair crying.… I told him to stop crying. I says, ‘Go to Martin and tell him to stop moving the furniture out and I’ll see that the books make money.’” Bellicose comments such as this are rife in the Q+A with Groth.

• September: Daughter Lisa Kirby is born.

1961 • Marvel sells 18,700,000 copies of its comics over the course of the year.

• Early 1961: Kirby produces work for Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated line, frustrating assignments due to the editors’ meticulous demand for historical accuracy and seemingly endless demands for revisions.

• February 25: Final Sky Masters daily strip sees print.

• April–May: Fantastic Four #1 is conceived by Lee and Kirby, and drawn by Kirby.

There are marked similarities to the respective origins of the Challengers of the Unknown and Marvel’s “first family.” Kirby will remain on the title, his most highly-regarded at Marvel, for 103 consecutive issues, as well as six Annuals.

• July: Alarming Tales #1 is published by Harvey Comics, one of several projects that briefly reunites Joe Simon and Kirby.

1958 • Kirby comes up with newspaper comic strip samples featuring a prehistoric character, Kamandi of the Caves, a name he will put to use in the 1970s.

• Early 1958: An agent from the George Matthew Adams Service asks DC editor Jack Schiff for a science-fiction comic strip for his newspaper feature syndicate.

Schiff brings in Kirby and writers Dick and Dave Wood to create Sky Masters of the Space Force, and Kirby recruits Wallace Wood to ink the strip (who also inks Kirby on Challengers of the Unknown, the title spun-off from Showcase after a multi-issue successful try-out). Dick Ayers will ink future strips after Wood departs.

• January: Race for the Moon #1 is published by Harvey, also by Kirby and Simon.

• April 15: Schiff draws up a formal agreement specifying royalty percentages for each person involved in Sky Masters and, by July, Schiff requests a higher percentage, to which Kirby balks. Schiff subsequently fires Kirby from Challengers of the Unknown (which, as a successful title, lasts for 77 issues in its initial run, ending in 1970, though subsequently revived time and again).

• May: Kirby draws samples for the unrealized Surf Hunter strip, which is inked by Wallace Wood.

• August 8 (November cover date): Fantastic Four #1 goes on sale. The title represents the beginning of the so-called “Marvel Age of Comics,” born in a time when the company is an underdog in the industry (with DC, home of the Superman and Batman franchises, as industry leader) and the FF will ultimately help — with the aid of Spider-Man and other characters — to bring Marvel to sales dominance by the early 1970s.

• September 9 (January 1962 cover date): Tales to Astonish #27 goes on sale. “The Man in the Ant Hill” features the first appearance of Henry Pym, who will soon be developed into insect-sized super-hero Ant-Man, created by Lee and Kirby.

1962 • Marvel sells 19,740,000 copies of its comics throughout 1962. Kirby produces 1,158 published pages (his personal best in a single year).

• February 8 (May cover date): Fantastic Four #4 is on sale, reviving the Golden Age Timely character, the Sub-Mariner, ushering in the so-called Marvel Universe, which interlocks the characters in a shared “world.”

• March 1 (May cover date): The Incredible Hulk #1 goes on sale, introducing the half-monster, half-heroic character. Co-creator Kirby draws five of the six issues of this short-lived series (though the character will thrive in the future).

• June 7: Mainstay Atlas Comics artist Joe Maneely dies suddenly, leaving an opening for Kirby, a similarly prolific and exceptional artist, to return.

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• June 5 (August cover date): Amazing Fantasy #15 hits the spinner racks, featuring the first appearance of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man, after Kirby’s original version was rejected. Ironically, the issue features a Kirby cover after Ditko’s submission was rejected. Kirby later maintains that he brought the notion to the editor/writer — the character conceived by Simon and Kirby in the early 1950s, the Silver Spider, which evolved into The Fly, a property they originated for Archie Comics in 1959. Also, Journey Into Mystery #83 is published, featuring the first appearance of Kirby and Lee’s creation, The Mighty Thor. Kirby will sporadically draw the title (which changes its name to Thor by 1966) at the onset, though soon it will be one of his core jobs at Marvel, an assignment he will continue until departing the company in 1970.

• June 5 (September cover date): Tales to Astonish #35 is on sale, featuring the debut of Henry Pym as the super-hero Ant-Man, a Kirby/Lee creation. Kirby pencils seven of the first 10 issues, as well as many of the feature’s covers. Kirby is the main cover artist for the entire line during the ’60s, regardless of genre (except romance and Millie the Model titles), and his is the Marvel “house style.”

• July 10 (October cover date): Strange Tales #101 is published, beginning an ongoing Human Torch series, spinning the character off from Fantastic Four.

Kirby pencils seven out of the first nine issues. Future issues will regularly costar another Fantastic Four teammate, The Thing.

• November (January 1963 cover date): Fantastic Four #10 appears and it features the first appearance of Lee and Kirby as characters in a comic story. On the letters page, Lee tells readers to drop the formal “Dear Editor” salutation in correspondence and to instead address them to “Dear Stan and Jack.”

• December 10 (March 1963 cover date): Tales of Suspense #39 on sale, featuring the debut of Iron Man, co-designed by Kirby. The artist pencils three of the first five issues and most of the covers. The Incredible Hulk, whose own title is cancelled with #6 (on sale date: January 3, 1963), guest-stars in Fantastic Four #12, which is released on this date, the first bona fide Marvel Comics crossover (and an indication that Lee retains faith in the character despite lackluster sales of the initial series), further expanding the notion that the characters reside in a common universe. The Amazing Spider-Man #1 is also released, featuring Kirby’s cover, and the crossover appearance of the Fantastic Four.

1963 • Marvel sells 22,530,000 copies of its comics over the course of the year.

• March 5 (May cover date): Sgt. Fury #1 is on sale, introducing Nick Fury (future agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and his band of brothers, the Howling Commandos. This World War II-based title, created by Lee and Kirby (though alone envisioned first by the artist in the late ’50s, according to artist John Severin), is an attempt to take that creative team’s increasingly successful approach into the war genre.

The title lasts for 120 issues, into mid-1974. Kirby pencils the first seven issues (plus an exceptional #13, featuring his co-creations Captain America and Bucky).

• July 2 (September cover date): The X-Men #1 is on sale, introducing the mutant super-team. Kirby co-creates the property with Lee, and produces art — the latter issues mostly rough layouts — for 17 issues, as well as many covers. The Avengers #1, another Lee/Kirby conception, teaming together Marvel’s superhero line, is on sale. Kirby draws eight issues (and layouts for several others), plus a steady stream of covers.

• August 1 (October cover date): Journey Into Mystery #97 hits the stands and contains the first of an ongoing series, “Tales of Asgard,” which provides textured background to the main Thor feature. The long-running back-up is an obvious labor of love for Kirby, and one story even contains a rarity: His inks.

• August 8 (November cover date): Strange Tales #114 is available, featuring the seeming return of Kirby’s great co-creation, Captain America, in the Kirby-drawn Human Torch story. The Golden Age super-hero turns out to be counterfeit — merely a villain in disguise. Considering the proximity to when the character is resurrected for real — less than five months hence (in The Avengers #4) — it is tempting to speculate that this appearance may be a test to gauge sales figures and see if the once-popular hero might stand a chance in the swingin’ ’60s. This 18-page tale wins an Alley Award for “Favorite Short Story.”

1964 • Marvel sells 27,709,000 copies of its comics, with an expectation of 32,000,000 for 1965, showing a nearly 50% increase in three years. Kirby’s covers number at 102 published (most in a single year). Martin Goodman becomes worried about Lee’s popularity and the control his nephew-by-marriage has over the Marvel line, and pressures Lee to have other writers handle some stories. The editor/writer develops a “writer’s test,” using four Kirby pages from Fantastic Four Annual #2, with the balloons whited-out to try out candidates. It is unclear as to exactly when the “Marvel Method” is regularly used, but certainly by the mid-’60s, due to the line’s exploding output and demands placed on the triple-threat (as editor, writer, and art director) at the comic book division’s helm, Lee establishes a new production process. Instead of submitting to artists a finished script (the industry norm), Lee gives a bare-bones story outline to the artist, who must visually flesh-

out the story and add incidental sequences for drama and pacing, and then the pages are submitted to the writer who will dialogue and fill captions directly onto the art boards. It has long been questioned whether Kirby received even the simplest of direction and thus was the plotter of any given story.

• January 3 (March cover date): The Avengers #4 goes on sale, featuring the resurrected Captain America, who is promptly integrated into the line-up and eventually leads the team. This issue wins the 1964 Alley Award for “Best Novel.”

• May (July/Summer cover dates): Fantastic Four Annual #2, Fantastic Four #28, and The Avengers #6 are published. Original art for these issues are the earliest pages to show Kirby’s handwriting in the margin notes, but all these issues also feature Chic Stone as the inker for the first time, so it’s unclear if Kirby included notes prior to these, with other inkers simply erasing Jack’s notes when cleaning off the pencil art after inking.

• July (September cover date): Tales to Astonish #59 is released, beginning an ongoing serial reviving the Incredible Hulk. Kirby provides breakdowns for numerous issues.

• September: Tales of Suspense #59 is on sale, beginning an ongoing Captain America series (which wins the 1964 Alley Award for “Best New Strip or Book”), with co-creator Kirby providing pencils for much of the three-plus year run in the title, by the latter ’60s (along with Fantastic Four and Thor) his third core assignment. Also The Addams Family and The Munsters television series debut, which both influence Kirby’s creation of the Inhumans later.

• December (February cover date): Fantastic Four #35 published, with first ad for Merry Marvel Marching Society fan club, using Kirby art to sell $1 memberships and, later, promotional products. Flo Steinberg has said, “Nobody expected the fan-club to be so big. There were thousands of letters and dollar bills flying around all over the place. We were throwing them at each other.”

1965 • Marvel’s reacts to news of an impending Batman TV series, and of new publishers jumping on the super-hero bandwagon due to Marvel’s success, as Martin Goodman tells Lee to add more books, to keep Marvel from getting crowded off newsstands. Soon thereafter, Lee and Kirby develop the Inhumans and Black Panther (originally named Coal Tiger) — both of which feature a character visually similar to Batman — but, in a weird quirk of fate stemming from the near-collapse of Atlas in 1957, DC controls Marvel’s distribution, and will not allow the new books to be added to Marvel’s output. The new characters were eventually introduced in Fantastic Four. Also, “The Origin of the Red Skull,” the Captain America episode in Tales of Suspense #66, wins the 1965 Alley Award for “Best Short Story.”

• January (March cover date): Tales of Suspense #63 publishes the first of several re-workings of 1940s Simon and Kirby Captain America Comics stories (with no mention of Simon). Most of these re-tellings are drawn by Kirby.

• This year and next: Kirby is assigned to do layouts (that is, loose and not finished pencils) for the Hulk series in Tales to Astonish, Captain America in Tales of Suspense, Nick Fury in Strange Tales, for Don Heck in The Avengers, and for Werner Roth in The X-Men. He comes to view this as doing the majority of the storytelling for only a fraction of the pay.

• March (May cover date): Charlton’s Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46 published, featuring Son of Vulcan (influenced by Marvel’s Thor).

• April (June cover date): Charlton begins reprinting Captain Atom adventures in Strange Suspense Stories #75, and renames the title Captain Atom with #78 in October (December 1965 cover date), the first of its Action Hero line.

• June (August cover date): Strange Tales #135 introduces the ongoing series “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” a spy series created by Lee and Kirby, featuring an updating of Sgt. Fury. Kirby draws or provides layouts for 19 episodes. (The Human Torch/Thing series is permanently bumped to make room for Nick Fury.)

Also, the Spider-Man T-shirt is first offered for sale, in Amazing Spider-Man #27.

• Summer: Fantastic Four Annual #3 published, with Lee and Kirby appearing as characters in the story set at the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl.

• August (October cover date): Daredevil #10 is published, wherein Wallace Wood fights for — and receives — writing credit from editor Stan Lee. • September (November cover date): Jack introduces the Inhumans in Fantastic Four #44. Also, jumping on the super-hero bandwagon invigorated by Marvel, Tower Comics’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (featuring art by Wallace Wood), and Archie’s Mighty Crusaders #1, are published. Woody has just left Marvel over creative differences with Lee. Kirby and Wood are contemporaries who were known to speak to each other fairly regularly.

• October (December cover date): Modeling with Millie #44 is on sale, featuring Roy Thomas’ first writing work for the Marvel Comics Group.

• November (January 1966 cover date): Daredevil #12 published, with Kirby assigned to do layouts for John Romita, and to design the villain The Plunderer.

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• December 1965: An interview for New York Herald Tribune feature article takes place, which relates Lee giving art direction to Sol Brodsky about a page from Fantastic Four #50, page eight, which was apparently in production at that time.

address. The artist would be a regular attendee of many, many cons over the years, most reliably at the San Diego Comic-Con, which was first established (under a different name) in 1970 and held typically in late July or early August.

1966

• August (October cover date): Joe Simon releases Fighting American #1 and The Spirit #1 at Harvey Comics, both featuring reprints and new material. Simon also oversees the first of the Harvey Thriller line of new super-hero comics.

• Joe Simon sues Marvel Comics in New York State Court, and then, in 1967, in Federal Court, claiming that Captain America was his creation and that he was entitled to the renewal on the copyright registration. Carl Burgos does likewise over his creation first published by Timely in the late ’30s, The Human Torch.

• August (October cover date): Thor #133 is published, which, at Kirby’s insistence, is the first to include the joint credit “A Stan Lee—Jack Kirby Production” (in the “Tales of Asgard” story) instead of separate credits for Lee as “writer” and Kirby as “artist.” Future Thor issues will continue this arrangement for the main feature, as well. Fantastic Four #55 also sees print, with Marvel T-shirt and poster ads, using Kirby art to sell merchandise (presumably with the artist unpaid).

• January 9: The New York Herald Tribune article appears, which greatly offends Kirby, and probably Ditko. In it, Lee says, “I don’t plot Spider-Man any more.

Steve Ditko, the artist, has been doing the stories. I guess I’ll leave him alone until sales start to slip. Since Spidey got so popular, Ditko thinks he’s the genius of the world. We were arguing so much over plot lines I told him to start making up his own stories. He won’t let anybody else ink his drawings either. He just drops off the finished pages with notes at the margins and I fill in the dialogue. I never know what he’ll come up with next, but it’s interesting to work that way.”

Fantastic Four #48 (March cover date) goes on sale this same month, with the first appearance of Galactus and the Silver Surfer (about which Lee has said he knew nothing about until Kirby turned in the pages featuring the character).

• September 1: Marvel Super-Heroes cartoon debuts, with no payment to Kirby for extensive use of his comics art. Robert Lawrence of Gantray-Lawrence accompanies Stan Lee on a wildly popular college lecture circuit tour to promote the series. An Esquire article mentions Lee speaking at Princeton, Bard, and New York University, and that Marvel had sold 50,000 T-shirts and 30,000 sweatshirts.

• January 12: Batman TV series debuts as a twice-a-week mid-season replacement. The campy show is an instant (and short-lived) sensation and its immediate effect on the comics industry (beside the deliberate infusion of overabundant corniness into the stories) is the instant recognition of the value of licensing their properties, as Batmania afflicts nearly every conceivable product.

• January–February: After months of no direct communication with Lee, Ditko turns in Amazing Spider-Man #38 and resigns. He reportedly asks Kirby to join him on a walkout to pressure Marvel into a better contract and Kirby initially agrees, but backs out due to concerns over supporting his family.

• September (November cover date): Fantastic Four #56 published, with “Produced

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby” credit instead of separate listings for writer and artist.

• October (December cover date): Fantastic Four #57 published, with back cover ad for the Marvel Aurora model kits, featuring Kirby art of Hulk and Captain America (presumably unpaid).

• December (February 1967 cover date): Strange Tales #153 published, with Kirby’s final layouts for another artist — in this case, Jim Steranko.

1967

• February (April cover date): Myron Fass’ Captain Marvel #1 is published (a character who splits apart into pieces to battle crime) and thereby co-opts both the famous 1940s character’s moniker, as well as the name of Martin Goodman’s company, in a possible attempt to cause market confusion. The short-lived series is drawn by Carl Burgos, creator of the Human Torch, and no fan of Marvel.

• April (June cover date): Fantasy Masterpieces #3 is published, featuring the first of a series of Simon and Kirby Captain America Comics reprints, with Joe Simon’s credit line removed.

• May (July cover date): Tales to Astonish #81 published, featuring Kirby’s documented design for the villain Boomerang. Also, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #6 is published by Tower Comics, featuring art by both Wallace Wood and Steve Ditko.

• May (July cover date): Fantastic Four #52 is on sale, with the Black Panther’s debut, and includes an announcement that Ditko is leaving Marvel. The real-life Black Panther organization wouldn’t officially be formed until October 1966, but shortly before this issue went into production, news articles were published (as early as January) about a Black Panther logo being used by an African-American voting rights group in Alabama.

• Sometime during this year, Kirby stops doing most layouts for other artists. This is the point his work begins to reach its 1960s peak, as he has more time to devote to his own stories. Also, Kirby draws the first of his Fourth World concept drawings, which he doesn’t show to Marvel.

• Mid-1966: The Marvel super-hero Lancer paperbacks are released, reprinting Kirby Fantastic Four, Thor, and Hulk stories. (The Fantastic Four collection quotes the 1966 New York Herald Tribune article.) Also, Donruss’ Marvel Super-Heroes set of 66 trading cards are released, using Kirby art. (The artist is presumably not paid for either the paperbacks or bubble gum cards.)

• June: Lee takes a train trip to Florida on his first-ever vacation, and lets Kirby script the S.H.I.E.L.D. story in Strange Tales #148 (September 1966) after plotting the story together. Lee notes in an interview, “I [did] a little editing later, but it was [Kirby’s] story.” Lee also assigned Roy Thomas to script the Tales to Astonish #82 (August 1966) Iron Man/Sub-Mariner fight, but Thomas gives Kirby full credit for the plot.

• Summer: Fantastic Four Special #4 is released, featuring the original Human Torch battling the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch, with the Golden Age character destroyed by the story’s conclusion. Carl Burgos’ daughter sees her father destroy all his old Timely comics, as a reaction to the story (or perhaps because he loses his bid to reclaim the copyright on the Human Torch… or both).

• Kinney National Company (an outfit that will grow one day into the largest media conglomerate in the world, Time Warner) buys DC Comics, and Carmine Infantino is appointed art director. He initiates the era of “artist as editor,” bringing in new talent and fresh ideas. Also, editor Jack Schiff retires from the company, opening the door for a possible Kirby return.

• February (April cover date): Strange Tales #155 is published, with Steranko’s first writing credit.

• July (September cover date): Thor #144 on the stands, without its commissioned Kirby cover, which has been rejected by Lee. This issue’s “Tales of Asgard” installment is entitled “The Beginning of the End.” Lee has often said that Kirby was mostly responsible for these back-up stories, as he undoubtedly was more familiar with the Norse legends than the Marvel editor and main scripter.

• August (October cover date): Fantastic Four #67 published, with last part of “Him” story, with heavy-handed characterization changes to Kirby’s characters

by Lee. (This was the last issue drawn on large-size art.) Also, the final “Tales of Asgard” back-up in Thor #145 is published, titled “The End.” This represents, for all practical purpose, the end of Kirby contributing new characters and concepts to Marvel, with the artist still producing stellar artwork and engaging plots, but instead stockpiling possible new properties for use at a later date… and for a more generous publisher.

• September 9: The first of 20 episodes of Fantastic Four cartoons airs, using Lee/ Kirby Fantastic Four issues as the basis for each story (for which the artist is presumably unpaid). Also, America’s Best TV Comics is published in conjunction with ABC television, featuring reprinted Kirby work (also presumably unpaid).

• September (November cover date): Lee includes the salutation, “Jack, you’re still the greatest” on a pin-up in Fantastic Four Special #5, published shortly after the “Him” story in #66–67, which had upset Kirby. Lee apparently tosses Kirby a bone by letting him write the three-page “This is a Plot?” throw-away story in the issue, and had Kirby draw a solo Silver Surfer/Quasimodo story, as well — perhaps as a peace offering, since Kirby wasn’t happy with how the Surfer was being handled. Inhumans back-ups also begin in Thor #146, replacing “Tales of Asgard,” likely cobbled together from previously-created, unpublished Inhumans stories. (Ironically, both back-up series tie for “Best Regular Short Feature” at the 1967 Alley Awards; “The Inhumans” take the prize solo the year following.)

• October (December cover date): Marvel Super-Heroes #12 is published, with the debut of Marvel’s Captain Marvel (Mar-vell). Kirby said this idea came from an off-hand conversation he’d had in the offices, for which he wasn’t credited.

• New ads are printed that announce a “Nifty New Membership Kit” for the Merry Marvel Marching Society fan club, including new merchandise for sale with Kirby artwork, for which the artist was likely not compensated.

• July: Martin Goodman offers Myron Fass $6,000 for the copyright on his Captain Marvel; Fass refuses.

1968

• July 12: Goodman convinces Kirby to sign a deposition against Joe Simon in the Captain America copyright case, siding with Marvel, with a promise that Kirby will receive the same amount as what Simon personally gets in any settlement.

• Early 1968: Kirby unsuccessfully tries to negotiate a better contract with Marvel publisher Martin Goodman.

• July 23–24: Kirby is guest of the New York ComiCon, and gives the keynote

• March-June (May-August cover dates): Fantastic Four #74–77 published, with

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Kirby leading to a climax and jumping-off point on a Silver Surfer storyline, possibly preparing to work on a solo Silver Surfer book, as plans for such a title (as a giant-size comic book) are in the hopper.

• December: Kirby goes to New York and unsuccessfully negotiates a new deal with Marvel/Perfect Film. He returns with an agreement to write and draw two full-length Inhumans issues, and to draw the first issue of a new Ka-Zar book.

• April (June cover date): Steve Ditko’s The Creeper debuts in Showcase #73, which goes on sale. Though his tenure at DC was not to last long during this period, the presence of the former Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange artist at DC, who had recently resigned from Marvel, proved that DC was now welcoming Marvel stalwarts to combat that competitor’s growing threat.

Importantly, Ditko was both writer (with help) and artist on his books, giving the impression that he was less a hired hand and more an auteur (if you will).

• Late 1969–early 1970: Superman editor Mort Weisinger (who reportedly hates the artist) retires from DC Comics, removing the last obstacle for Kirby’s return. The artist meets with editorial director Carmine Infantino at a Los Angeles hotel to make a New Gods presentation and discuss the possibility of moving over to DC.

1970

• May 22: Kirby borrows $2,000 from Goodman to finance his family’s upcoming move to California, a more suitable climate for his daughter, who suffered from asthma. Around this time, Bill Everett also receives a “loan” from Goodman, a reportedly off-the-record agreement where Everett would not sue for SubMariner copyrights, so as not to hurt the pending sale of Marvel to Perfect Film.

• June (August cover date): Silver Surfer #1 published the same month as Fantastic Four #77: John Buscema is assigned to draw the solo title, apparently without Kirby’s knowledge. Kirby feels his creation has been taken away from him.

• July: During the current corporate merger frenzy seizing Wall Street, the sale of Marvel Comics to Perfect Film is finalized. Perfect Film is “over-running the company” by September 1968, even though Goodman is retained as publisher.

Freed of the DC Comics’ distribution yoke (which had limited Marvel’s output to a set number of title releases a month), the company quickly expands its line, spinning off the super-hero characters into numerous new titles. Kirby focuses on his core books — Captain America, Thor, and Fantastic Four — during this period, his artwork ever-improving but infusing stories with few new concepts.

• Kirby’s Hulk and Spider-Man posters for Marvelmania are replaced with versions

by Herb Trimpe and John Romita, respectively, presumably so that all of the Marvelmania material won’t be dependent on Kirby’s signature style. Also, Jim Steranko, Kirby friend and protegé (and outstanding comics talent in his own right, who made a splash on the scene only a few years prior, in his “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” work in Strange Tales), self-publishes The Steranko History of Comics, Vol. 1. The tabloid-size, saddle-stitched book includes the chapter “The American Idol,” which is devoted to Captain America, with particular emphasis on Kirby. Accompanying the laudatory essay is a spectacular fullpage original illustration by Kirby, all in his indomitable pencils, that features the character and his buddy, Bucky, battling a whole battalion on Nazis.

• January: Kirby receives an “onerous” contract from Perfect Film to continue working at Marvel, basically a document that tells him to “take it or leave it.”

• Late January: Kirby is told to split his two Inhumans issues and one Ka-Zar issue into 10-page installments, which are eventually used in Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales.

• July 6: Jack Kirby is recipient of the Alley Award for “Best Penciler,” announced at the 1968 Phil Seuling Comic Art Convention, held in New York City.

• August 31: Kirby repays half of Goodman’s loan.

• Stan Lee interview with Ted White is published in Castle of Frankenstein #12, wherein Lee says of Kirby, “Some artists, such as Jack Kirby, need no plot at all. I mean I’ll just say to Jack, ‘Let’s let the next villain be Doctor Doom’… or I may not even say that. He may tell me. And then he goes home and does it. He’s so good at plots, I’m sure he’s a thousand times better than I. He just about makes up the plots for these stories. All I do is a little editing… I may tell him that he’s gone too far in one direction or another. Of course, occasionally I’ll give him a plot, but we’re practically both the writers on the things.”

1969 • Marvelmania fan club is established, selling merchandise embellished with Kirby artwork. Still, Kirby is paid to produce new material, including a series of posters, although he reportedly doesn’t receive full payment before Marvelmania goes bankrupt. Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman become acquainted with Kirby through working on Marvelmania projects, and California-based Mike Royer inks his first Kirby piece for that short-lived outfit. Joe Simon settles with Marvel over Captain America for a payment of $3,750. Less than $1,000 is paid personally to Simon, with the remainder being secretly funneled to him through his attorney, per Marvel’s wish. The publisher seemingly does this to shortchange Kirby by paying him only the same smaller amount that Simon directly receives. Perfect Film acquires the Curtis Circulation Company from the publisher of the doomed Saturday Evening Post, giving Marvel access to its own distributor.

• February: Carmine Infantino signs Kirby to a multi-year contract to work for DC (which reportedly stipulates that Kirby is to draw 15 pages a week). Kirby draws Silver Surfer #18, in an attempt to save the book from cancellation with a new direction. Kirby also draws the “Janus” story intended for Fantastic Four #102, but Lee rejects the entire story — it was eventually published, very heavily altered, in Fantastic Four #108, after Kirby had moved to DC. Also this month, Chamber of Darkness #4 is published, with “The Monster” scripted by Kirby.

It originally features Kirby and Lee in cameos, but Lee makes major editorial changes that require extensive redrawing by Kirby.

• Early March: Kirby draws the published version of Fantastic Four #102, his final story for Marvel. After mailing in the pages, he phones Lee and resigns.

• March 12: Don and Maggie Thompson publish an unprecedented “Extra” edition of their fanzine Newfangles announcing Kirby is leaving Marvel after the bombshell news leaks out. Upon learning of the departure — and perhaps as a sign of solidarity — Marvel mainstay Marie Severin pins a Kirby cigar butt to a cork-board in the bullpen. That spring, Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman become Kirby’s official assistants.

• April (June cover date): Chamber of Darkness #5 published, with the story “And Fear Shall Follow” scripted by Kirby.

• May–June: “The Great One is Coming!” full-page house ad appears in various DC titles, elaborately trumpeting “The Boom Tube,” but, teasingly, it does not mention Kirby by name.

• June (August cover date): Amazing Adventures #1 is published from Kirby’s divided solo books, with his art and script for The Inhumans, and featuring Black Bolt out of character with a thought balloon in one panel. Also, Astonishing Tales #1 is published from Kirby’s apportioned solo book, featuring Ka-Zar, with script

by Lee and art by Kirby. It also features a second Doctor Doom solo story, by Wallace Wood, returning to Marvel Comics after a half-decade.

• January: Kirby family moves from New York to California with the help of Goodman’s loan, further distancing Kirby from the Marvel offices.

• March (May cover date): Lee apologizes in his Soapbox that the Inhumans title previously announced was not to be.

• Summer: “Kirby is Coming!” blurbs appear in various DC titles. Also, Kirby’s three new core books are mentioned (with bullet art) in the 1970 San Diego Comic-Con program book. Likely in conjunction with Kirby’s return, DC features reprints of his work in three issues of Challengers of the Unknown (#75–77) before putting the title on hiatus. At the same time, World’s Finest Comics #197 also features a Green Arrow story reprint by Kirby.

• July–September (September–November cover date): Thor #168–170 published, with drastically altered Galactus origin story and other editorial changes. Issue #169, released in August, is missing an inordinate amount of pages drawn by Kirby, suggesting almost an entire issue was rejected by Lee. Kirby withholds full-page splashes from Thor, replacing them with supposedly lesser pages, presumably at wife Roz’s urging (“They’re too good for them…”).

• July (September cover date): Silver Surfer #18 is published, with the Inhumans as guest-stars. With Kirby gone, Marvel cancels the book after this issue. Also, Fantastic Four #102 is published, Kirby’s final issue. Amazing Adventures #2 is also on sale, with Kirby drawing and scripting The Inhumans. “Stan’s Soapbox” in the Marvel line tells of Kirby’s resignation from the company, just as DC’s Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #132 letter column announces Kirby will start in the following issue as both writer and artist.

• August (October cover date): Perhaps as a conciliatory gesture during this stressful period between Marvel and Kirby, Tales of Asgard #1 is published. This one-shot reprints a number of Kirby’s beloved Journey Into Mystery back-up stories, though the gesture is likely empty as payment for reprints was rare.

• November (January 1970 cover date): Kirby withholds his original design for Agatha Harkness in Fantastic Four #94, as it’s too good for them, it seems.

• November (January cover date): Just as relations between Kirby and Marvel reach fever pitch, the publisher debuts Where Monsters Dwell #1, the first of an onslaught of reprint titles that vigorously mine Kirby’s Atlas monster material of the late ’50s/early ’60s, which will effectively put the creator in competition with himself on the magazine racks after his move to DC. At this time, there is no policy in the industry for professionals to receive payment for any reprinted work.

• August 25: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 appears with Kirby’s first ’70s work for DC Comics, and it features the groundwork for the coming Fourth World opus, replete with a veritable explosion of new characters and concepts, including an updated Newsboy Legion, the wondrous Whiz Wagon, the sinister media mogul Morgan Edge, Darkseid-controlled Inter-Gang, and many other wild ideas.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to keep the title’s mainstay characters “on-model,” artist Al Plastino is utilized to alter Superman and Jimmy Olsen throughout.

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Face alterations mar Kirby’s work through his run on the title (also within The Forever People #1, which guest-stars the Man of Steel), though it is artist Murphy Anderson who thereafter performs the majority of head changes.

• August (October cover date): Astonishing Tales #2 is published, featuring KaZar, script by Roy Thomas. (Other than the Iron Man/Sub-Mariner battle in Tales to Astonish #82, this may be the first non-Lee Marvel scripting for the artist.) It includes some major redraws on Ka-Zar figures by another artist.

• September (November cover date): Amazing Adventures #3 is on the stands, with Kirby’s Inhumans.

• October (December cover date): “The Magic of Kirby” house ads appear in DC titles, heralding the first issues of The Forever People, The New Gods, and Mister Miracle.

• October 13: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134, on sale this day, includes the first appearance of the great Fourth World villain, Darkseid, ultimate nemesis of the entire opus, one of the most resonate characters in the super-hero genre, a bad guy who has appeared time and again since, in an endless stream of stories.

• November (January 1971 cover date): Kirby stories in Amazing Adventures #4 and Tower of Shadows #4 published by Marvel, the same month as Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #135 at DC.

company name mentioned in apparently only one other publication: in the indicia of the April 1971 cover-dated Girls’ Love Stories #158, a romance comic book which nonetheless boasts the DC brand on its cover). Months later, ads for both books will appear in DC titles, offering unsold copies to readers by mail.

Other titles for the “Speak-Out Series” are prepared, specifically True Divorce Cases (“[A]n anti-romance comic,” Evanier quips) which is rejected by DC and is transformed into an all-black romance title, Soul Love, and that, too, is not published. (Reportedly, also in the works is a magazine titled Shriek-Out, to be drawn by MAD cartoonist Sergio Aragonés.) Second issues of In the Days of the Mob and Spirit World are completed but left unpublished, with some material from the latter eventually incorporated into DC’s color mystery comics.

• October: Kirby draws his final issue of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (#148), released on this date. Around this time, Kirby conjures up the idea for The Demon to replace Jimmy Olsen on his schedule.

• November (January cover date): Mister Miracle #6 is on the stands, with unflattering caricatures of Stan Lee as “Funky Flashman” and Roy Thomas as “Houseroy,” potentially burning bridges at Marvel.

• December (February cover date): The New Gods #7 hits the spinner racks, with the pivotal Fourth World story “The Pact.”

• December 1: The Forever People #1 is on sale.

• December 22: The New Gods #1 is published by DC Comics. There is evidence that the publisher is initially hesitant to release The New Gods as a regular title, as a Velox subsequently surfaces showing the cover of #1 mocked up as an issue of Showcase, DC’s long-running try-out title. Reportedly, Kirby raises objections, Showcase is instead cancelled, and The New Gods sees print as the creator intended.

1971 • January (March cover date): Marvel’s Fantastic Four #108 is published from Kirby’s original rejected Fantastic Four #102 story, the same month DC publishes Mister Miracle #1 and Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #136.

• January 31: Kirby and Infantino, both in complimentary and jovial moods, are interviewed for Comics & Crypt fanzine in the DC offices, during Kirby’s trip to New York City. About this time, Carmine Infantino is promoted to publisher of DC.

• December: Carmine Infantino insists that Kirby insert the character Deadman into The Forever People #9–10, in an odd bid to stir interest. The covers of The Forever People #9 and The New Gods #9 downplay the lead characters, in what is an apparent attempt to make the covers appear similar to the line’s popular mystery genre comics (any number of which have the world “weird” in their titles), which were reportedly among the line’s top-sellers.

1972 • During this period, Kirby, who is hoping to establish a “DC Comics West,” where he will oversee a line of books being drawn by West Coast artists, also mocksup a sample issue of a oversize comics hybrid — “It was going to be a cross between an underground comic and Rolling Stone,” says Steve Sherman — that was initially named Uncle Carmine’s Fat City Comics and subsequently retitled Super World of Everything. Kirby produces the two-page Galaxy Green strip and enlists Steve Ditko to contribute another strip, Gemini. Plans also include for Marvel cartoonist Marie Severin to participate. DC rejects the proposal.

• January 2: The New York Daily News Sunday magazine features an article on the comic book scene, and reports that producer Stephen Lemberg, who had secured a licensing deal with Marvel, has plans in the works for a Silver Surfer motion picture to star Dennis Wilson, the Beach Boys drummer, and anticipates the movie — a mix of animation and live action — be released in 1973.

• May (July cover date): Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #111 is published, with a non-Kirby story that incorporates his Fourth World concepts, showing some tendency to incorporate Kirby’s scheme into the DC universe. Also, while drawing the end of Mister Miracle #5, Kirby conceives of parodying Stan Lee as the unflattering “Funky Flashman” for the next issue of that title.

• January (March cover date): DC runs ads for the Kirby Unleashed portfolio in its comics.

• May 2: The New York Times Sunday magazine supplement features an article about the current comic book scene, with overall positive coverage of Kirby (which includes a prominent photo of the artist beside his in-ground swimming pool), describing in detail the ongoing Fourth World opus and including an interview with the writer/artist conducted at his California home. Saul Braun’s “Shazam! Here Comes Captain Relevant” also mentions that Kirby had received $35,000 a year from Marvel by the time he left that company.

• February (April cover date): Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #148, Kirby’s final issue, is published.

• March: Kirby is told devastating news by Carmine Infantino: Due to underperforming sales, DC will cancel The New Gods and The Forever People, and that he must shift Mister Miracle away from the Fourth World oeuvre. Kirby hurriedly switches gears and swaps planned stories for Mister Miracle #9 (“The Mister Miracle To Be”) and #10, to get “Himon” into print. It’s too late to alter the “next issue” blurb in #8’s letter column to reflect the switch.

• Mid-1971: After discovering inker Vince Colletta has been showing Fourth World pages around Marvel’s offices before publication, and being enlightened as to how Colletta omits penciling details in the inking, Kirby insists on using young artist and former Russ Manning assistant Mike Royer as his permanent inker.

Royer starts with The New Gods #5, Mister Miracle #5, and The Forever People #6, and quickly will become widely regarded as one of Kirby’s finest delineators (and letterers), if not the King’s very best.

• April: Kirby draws final issues of The New Gods and The Forever People.

• April (June cover date): Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #150 is published, with a non-Kirby Newsboy Legion back-up featuring Kirby character Angry Charlie.

• June (August cover date): As a respectful nod to the artist, DC publishes Super DC Giant #S-25, entirely devoted to 1950s reprints of Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown work, and a new cover and text feature by Kirby. Also, the company raises cover prices to 25¢ and expands page lengths (from 32 to 64 pages) of the entire comics line (due to a circulation war with Marvel and, reportedly, subsequent contracting by DC to secure paper stock, as a shortage looms on the horizon). This expansion enables Kirby’s Fourth World titles to include reprints of the Golden Age Simon and Kirby DC work. Also, Kirby is free to include short stories to enhance his mythological tapestry, as well as add pages at will to the lead stories. One month after matching price and page-count increases, Marvel undercuts DC by dropping their cover prices to 20¢ and reestablishing 32-pages as standard (and offering retailers a higher percentage). DC, having locked in paper supplies, is forced to remain at 25¢ and 64 pages per copy for a year. This begins Marvel’s domination of the industry to a position it will hold for decades.

• June 15 and July 15: In The Days of the Mob #1 and Spirit World #1 published, black-&-white, non-Code approved magazine-sized comics produced by Kirby (dubbed the “Speak-Out Series”), but they receive little publicity and spotty distribution. DC appears to lack faith in the titles, going so far as to not use the “DC Comics” brand identification on the covers, instead marking them as productions of a previously unknown imprint, Hampshire Distributors, Inc. (a

• May-June (July-August cover dates): DC finally gives in and drops its cover prices to 20¢ and page-count back to 32, to match the industry standard.

• May (July cover date): Mister Miracle #9 is published, with the seminal Fourth World epic, “Himon.” Also, Kirby stories and material originally intended for the unpublished Spirit World #2 begin appearing in titles edited by others, Weird Mystery Tales and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion.

• May: The Academy of Comic Book Arts bestows a Shazam Award for “Special Achievement by an Individual” to Jack Kirby, citing his Fourth World titles at DC. • May 30: After Martin Goodman calls in Kirby’s 1969 loan “under duress,” Kirby signs an agreement with Marvel, effectively relinquishing any claim he might have to the copyright on Captain America. This document is used against Joe Simon’s efforts to secure the copyright on Captain America Comics #1–10.

• June: The Demon #1 is on sale.

• July (September cover date): Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #152 is on the stands, with a wrap-up to the Morgan Edge clone saga (not by Kirby), and a guest appearance by Darkseid and other Kirby Olsen characters. Also, Mister Miracle #10 is published, featuring an abrupt departure from the Fourth World. Kirby keeps the title “The Mister Miracle To Be,” but the story has nothing to do with

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Scott Free’s early days.

• August (October cover date): The New Gods #11 and The Forever People #11 (the final issues) and Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #1 are published.

• Late 1972: Rocket’s Blast Comic Collector #94 features an erroneous newsflash titled “Kirby Leaves DC,” leading many to believe Jack did attempt to leave, but couldn’t get out of his DC contract. The article creates quite a stir in fandom.

1973 • July (September cover date): Boy Commandos #1 is published, reprinting Golden Age stories by Simon and Kirby.

• August: After being notified that Mister Miracle will be cancelled, Kirby draws a final issue that reunites the Fourth World characters as wedding guests.

• September: Kirby considers returning to Marvel, but determines he cannot get out of the DC contract.

• September (November cover date): DC begins publishing reprints of Simon and Kirby’s Black Magic comics of the 1950s, installing Joe Simon as editor.

• Fall: Kirby begins work on OMAC #1 (it wouldn’t be published until almost a year later), and Sandman #1, briefly reuniting the artist with Joe Simon.

• December (February cover date): Mister Miracle #18, the final issue by Kirby, is published. It chronicles the marriage between Scott Free and Big Barda.

1974 • April: Kirby starts work on The Losers story in Our Fighting Forces #151, the first of a dozen war stories he would chronicle for that title.

• May (July cover date): One story, “Murder Inc.,” from the unpublished In The Days of the Mob #2 sees print in the DC house prozine, The Amazing World of DC Comics #1.

• May 7: Kirby creates Atlas, who will debut in 1st Issue Special #1 several months later.

• June 24: A disgruntled Martin Goodman, retired from Marvel and annoyed at the corporate owners’ dismissal of his son, opens the doors of a new comics publishing outfit, Atlas/Seaboard, whose main reason for existence appears to be to spite his old company and do it harm. Though Stan Lee’s brother is hired and Kirby-esque artwork is abundant on its Marvel-like cover layouts, by late 1975, the company shuts down for good.

• July (September cover date): OMAC #1 is on the stands.

• Summer 1974: Neal Kirby asks Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas to meet the Kirbys for coffee at the San Diego Comic-Con, to determine any interest Marvel may have in having his father return. Thomas confirms to Jack Kirby that he and publisher Stan Lee would be glad to have him back.

• Early August: Kirby receives the Inkpot Award at San Diego Comic-Con. • September: Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, a book predominately containing reprints of early work by Kirby and others, is published, featuring Lee’s account of the creation of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and Doctor Strange.

1975 • Early 1975: It is presumed that Kirby talks with Lee regarding the possibility of his returning to Marvel.

• February (April cover date): 1st Issue Special #1 is on sale, featuring Kirby’s Atlas.

•M arch 18: Kirby visits the Marvel offices for the first time since his departure in 1970. The visit takes place on the Monday before the 1975 Mighty Marvel Con (held in New York City on March 22–24, where Kirby is a surprise guest). Marie Severin spots the artist going into Lee’s office and yells down the Marvel halls, “Kirby’s back!”

•M arch 24: Kirby signs a three-year contract to return to Marvel (valid through April 30, 1978), but must continue working for DC to finish out his contractual obligation with that company. He appears at the Mighty Marvel Con held at the Hotel Commodore. Kirby stuns convention attendees with the announcement of his return and, in regards to what he will be doing for Marvel, Kirby says, “It’ll electrocute you in the mind!”

•A pril: Knowing Kirby is departing, DC brings in young writer Gerry Conway as editor on Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #34 to become indoctrinated with the series, eventually making him full writer/editor on Kamandi #38–40, Kirby’s last three issues. DC no longer commissions covers by Kirby for any further titles he draws from this point on, likely to lessen readers’ association of Kirby with DC on newsstands.

•M ay (July cover date): Justice, Inc. #2 is on the stands, with Kirby art and script

by Dennis O’Neil.

• May: Jack Kirby is inducted into the Academy of Comic Book Arts Hall of Fame.

Barry Alfonso’s fanzine Mysticogryfil #2 includes an interview with Kirby.

• May 25: The Wings’ album Venus and Mars, featuring the song “Magneto and Titanium Man,” based on Kirby co-creations, is released. The cover of the 45 rpm single features re-purposed non-Kirby art from Marvel.

• June 2: The Menomonee Falls Gazette Vol. 4, #181 features a Kirby interview.

• June (August cover date): Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #3 is published, with Kirby art and Dennis O’Neil script. Also, 1st Issue Special #5 is published, with Kirby’s revamped Manhunter, but DC creates a cover from Kirby’s flopped splash page, rather than commission a new one.

• July: 1st Issue Special #6 is published, featuring the Dingbats of Danger Street #1 story, a year-and-a-half after Kirby produces it. His completed stories for Dingbats #2 and #3 remain unpublished to this day.

• July: Mediascene #15 features a preview article entitled “The King Returns.”

• August (October cover date): The Marvel Comics Bullpen Bulletins hype page announces, “The King is Back! ’Nuff said!” and lists his future projects as a Treasury Edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey, his return to Captain America, and a “gigantic special edition” of The Silver Surfer.

• September (November cover date): OMAC #8, the final issue, is published, with a reworked last panel bringing the series to an abrupt end, instead of Kirby’s planned conclusion to the continued story intended for OMAC #9.

• September (November cover date): New Kirby covers hit the stands: Fantastic Four #164, The Invaders #3, Iron Man #80, Ka-Zar #12, Marvel Premiere #26 (featuring Hercules), Marvel Super-Heroes #54 (featuring the Hulk), Marvel Twoin-One #12 (guest-starring Iron Man), and Thor #241.

• September: Captain America #192 features a next-issue promo with art by Kirby and Frank Giacoia. FOOM #11, an in-house Marvel prozine, is devoted to “Jack’s Back!,” replete with John Byrne’s caricature on a super-powered Kirby as cover, a preview of 2001: A Space Odyssey, cover art for Captain America #193 and 194, and “Kirby Speaks,” an interview with the artist conducted by Dave Simons.

• September: Kirby reportedly ignores editorial pleas to integrate the rest of the Marvel Universe into his Captain America series.

• October: Son of Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee is published, a book that includes reprints of early Marvel work by Kirby and others, and it gives Lee’s accounts of the creation of the X-Men, Iron Man, The Avengers, Daredevil, Nick Fury, the Watcher, and the Silver Surfer. In it, Lee unequivocally gives Kirby credit for creating the Silver Surfer.

• November (January 1976 cover date): Captain America #193 is published, marking Kirby’s return to Marvel, and beginning the “Madbomb” storyline, which is timed to end on the upcoming national bicentennial celebration.

• November: The Museum of Cartoon art of Greenwich, Conn., hosts the exhibition, “Kirby: A Collection of the Artistry of Jack Kirby.”

• November 15: Kirby completes the first draft of his Silver Star screenplay.

• December: FOOM #12 features preview art for an Ikaris, the Eternal series, later to be renamed The Eternals. A cover mock-up exists of the series being initially named Return of the Gods, perhaps rejected because of a reboot of New Gods entitled Return of the New Gods being readied at DC, which came about after a successful test run in 1st Issue Special #13 (April 1976).

• December (February cover date): Kobra #1, a collaboration between Kirby and his onetime assistant Steve Sherman is published by DC, heavily altered, and with an Ernie Chua cover.

1976 • Kirby is the guest of honor at the Lucca Comic Art Festival, in Italy, his first international comics convention appearance.

• January (March cover date): The Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page features the questioning blurb, “Who Is He?” with an image of Ikaris of The Eternals.

• February (April cover date): Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #40, featuring the last of Kirby’s 1970s published art for DC Comics, sees print.

• February (April cover date): 1st Issue Special #13 is published, a non-Kirby “Return of the New Gods” tryout. No mention of Kirby is made in the New Gods history article therein. This issue is published concurrently with Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #40, Kirby’s final issue and also his last work for DC in the ’70s.

Carmine Infantino is fired as publisher of DC Comics in early 1976, and Jenette Kahn, who is named publisher, will work with DC editor Paul Levitz and will, by the ’80s, successfully reconcile with Kirby regarding DC’s 1970s treatment of him.

• February: The Comic Reader #127, a fanzine, announces a new Marvel series Return of the Gods, which would be renamed The Eternals, along with Kirby’s cover art for the first issue.

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• May (July cover date): Bullpen Bulletins page announces The Prisoner, a comics adaptation of the cult-favorite British TV series starring Patrick McGoohan.

According to Mediascene (Nov.–Dec. 1977), Marvel’s Prisoner series begins as a proposal by editor Marv Wolfman, followed by a Steve Englehart and Gil Kane effort, which is rejected by publisher Stan Lee. Lee then gives the series to Kirby to write and pencil. Kirby pencils one 17-page issue, which is partially inked by Mike Royer, before Lee cancels the project altogether.

• May (July cover date): The Eternals #1 published.

• June (August cover date): Captain America #200 is published, just weeks before the United States of America celebrates its 200th birthday.

• November (January 1978 cover date): The Eternals #19, final issue of the series, is on the stands.

• November 4: The Incredible Hulk TV series premieres on CBS, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. The hour-long program, based on Kirby’s co-creation, lasts five seasons and 82 episodes, last airing in June 1982. A trio of made-for-TV movies produced for NBC followed between 1988–90. The series would peak at 26th in the ratings for its first season, but subsequently not crack the top 30. The 1988 TV movie, The Incredible Hulk Returns, proved a ratings smash for its time slot, according to the Los Angeles Times of May 25, 1988.

• November 19: Longtime Marvel production staffer and occasional Kirby inker John Verpoorten dies suddenly at age 37.

• June 8: Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles Treasury Edition is published.

1978

• June 22: Kirby and his family meet former Beatle Paul McCartney and wife Linda backstage after a Wings concert at the Los Angeles Forum, courtesy of Gary Sherman. Kirby gives McCartney a drawing of Magneto to commemorate the occasion and the legendary musician praises the artist.

• February (April cover date): Machine Man #1 and Devil Dinosaur #1 are published.

• Early 1978: Animation studio DePatie-Freling begins development of a Fantastic Four half-hour cartoon to air in 1979, with Kirby drawing storyboards.

• July (September cover date): The Marvel Bullpen Bulletin page announces that Roy Thomas is to join “Marvel West,” which includes Kirby and Mike Royer.

• Spring: FOOM #21 introduces H.E.R.B.I.E. (earlier named Charlie and Z-Z-1-2-3), a robotic member of the Fantastic Four team designed by Kirby for the DePatieFreling FF cartoon. Rights to the Human Torch character are tied up with another production company, so DePatie-Freling uses the levitating robot as a stand-in.

• July: The Marvel Treasury 2001: A Space Odyssey movie adaptation is released, Kirby’s faithful (and extravagant) comic-book version of Stanley Kubrick’s science-fiction masterpiece.

• August (October cover date): The Incredible Hulk Annual #5 is published. The story features a bevy of Kirby’s Atlas-era monsters, such as Groot, Titan, and Goom, with a new Kirby cover.

• March: Ballantine Books publishes Sorcerers: A Collection of Fantasy Art, featuring an essay by Kirby, showcasing several unpublished pieces of his personal art.

• September (November cover date): Fantastic Four #176 is published featuring a Kirby/Joe Sinnott cover with Impossible Man. Kirby, along with the Marvel Bullpen, appears as a character in the George Pérez-drawn story inside.

• October (December cover date): 2001: A Space Odyssey #1, a new ongoing science-fiction series, is published, with Kirby spinning off from the movie’s alien intelligence/”Monolith” premise.

• November (January 1977 cover date): Black Panther #1 is published. As with his Captain America stories, Kirby isolates his storylines from the rest of the Marvel Universe.

•A pril: The Comics Journal #39, a critical magazine devoted to the field, features the article “From Dinosaurs to Rockets: Kirby Strikes Out Again.” The piece — along with letters printed in the Marvel letters pages and petty cruelty from members of the Marvel Bullpen staff behind his back — adds to Kirby’s growing discontent.

• April 30: Kirby’s contract with Marvel expires, which he has decided not to renew to instead focus on a new, lucrative career in animation.

• L ate Spring: Kirby begins development of Captain Victory and His Galactic Rangers, including concept art and co-writing a screenplay with former assistant Steve Sherman.

• December: FOOM #16 features a preview of the Marvel 1977 Calendar, featuring artwork by Kirby.

• July: Kirby initiates work on concept art for The Lord of Light movie and theme park (based on Roger Zelazny’s novel of the same name). This artwork will later be used as part of a real-life covert operation during the Iranian Revolution by the Central Intelligence Agency to rescue diplomats hiding out in the Canadian Embassy in Tehran, as depicted in the 2012 thriller film Argo.

1977 • January: “Stan’s Soapbox,” on the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins Page, announces The Silver Surfer graphic novel is to be written by Lee and drawn by Kirby.

• February 1: Kirby submits his art for The Prisoner to Marvel.

• March (May cover date): Marvel Two-in-One #27 is released, with a Kirby/Sinnott cover featuring Deathlok, the Demolisher.

• March 14: Kirby hands in concept art and plot concept for The Silver Surfer book-length story to “Stanley” Lee, and Lee begins scripting.

• April (July cover date): The New Gods #12 appears on the stands after a review of sales reports by DC’s new management of the Kirby issues and 1st Issue Special #13 shows it is a title worth reviving. The cover is drawn by Al Milgrom in a very Kirbyesque style.

• May (July cover date): 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 is published, introducing Mister Machine. Ideal Toys, having rights to the name, convinces Marvel to rename the character, and Kirby redubs him “Machine Man” in the spin-off solo series.

• May (July cover date): The Marvel Bullpen Bulletin Page announces an adaptation of the forthcoming Star Wars movie, which would open to general audiences on May 17. Though not known at the time, Star Wars would feature themes and characters remarkably similar to Kirby’s Fourth World series.

• May 12: Star Wars premieres to universal acclaim and box-office mega-success.

• August (October cover date): What If? #11 is published. Written and penciled by Kirby, the charming and affectionate story therein is titled “What if the Fantastic Four Were the Original Marvel Bullpen?” and it features Kirby, Stan Lee, Sol Brodsky, and fabulous Florence Steinberg as the Fantastic Four.

• August: The Comics Journal #41 features the bombshell news bulletin titled “Kirby Quits Comics,” the first public notice of his departure.

• September (November cover date): Fantastic Four #200 is published, the cover of which is Kirby’s final work on the Fantastic Four in the comics realm.

• October (December cover date): Machine Man #9 and Devil Dinosaur #9 are published, Kirby’s last ongoing series work for Marvel.

• Fall: The Silver Surfer graphic novel is published by Simon & Schuster in both hardbound and trade paperback editions. Kirby and Lee share the copyright.

Kirby’s cover art is not used, replaced by a Earl Norem painting that is based in Kirby’s submission. Plans are made at DC Comics to include Kirby’s unpublished Sandman #7 story in Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #61, but that title gets cancelled in the “DC Implosion,” and Sandman #7 is finally published in a comics digest, The Best of DC #22, in 1982.

• May 20: Kirby draws concept art for Devil Dinosaur under the working title Devil Dinosaur of the Phantom Planet. An earlier working title is Reptar, King of the Dinosaurs.

• Late 1978: Development begins on the unrealized “Jack Kirby Comics” line of titles: Bruce Lee; Captain Victory and His Galactic Rangers; Reptar, King of the Dinosaurs; Satan’s Six; Silver Star (based on the existing screenplay co-written with Steve Sherman); and Thunder Foot.

• June (August cover date): The Eternals #14 is on sale, featuring a cosmicpowered Hulk, in a small nod by Kirby to tie the series into the Marvel Universe.

1979 • Kirby produces an unfinished 224-page version of his novel The Horde, which is edited by Janet Berliner.

• July (September cover date): 2001: A Space Odyssey #10 is published, announcing Machine Man will receive its own title.

• T he Jack Kirby Masterworks portfolio is published by Privateer Press.

• August (October cover date): Captain America #214 is published, marking the final issue of Kirby’s run on his co-creation.

• January: The Marvel 1979 Calendar features a Kirby Hulk drawing inked by Joe Sinnott. It is Kirby’s final published artwork for Marvel.

• October: The children’s pop culture magazine published by Marvel, Pizzazz, features a page of Kirby artwork for “2001 Compute-a-Code” in its first issue. It is the only published artwork where artist/writer (and Stan Lee’s brother) Larry Lieber would ink over Kirby pencils.

• January 19: Captain America, a live action TV movie, premieres on CBS. A sequel, Captain America II: Death Too Soon, is broadcast on the same network, on November 23. The character is drastically changed from the Simon and Kirby

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creation, Captain America driving around in a conversion van that is able to launch a high-tech motorcycle (which is equipped with rocket thrust ability).

• December (February 1983 cover date): Silver Star #1 is published by Pacific Comics, based on Kirby’s 1975 concept, which was originally a screenplay.

• Early 1979: Stan Lee options The Silver Surfer graphic novel movie rights to producer Lee Kramer. The film is set to have a $25 million budget, with Olivia Newton-John attached to play the role of Ardina (as related in Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, pg. 215).

• Late 1982–Early 1983: Kirby submits to Kenner Toys his final presentation of Super Powers action figure designs featuring his Fourth World creations.

• March 30: Kirby appears in a cameo role on The Incredible Hulk TV series as a police sketch artist.

• Kirby is commissioned by Richard Kyle to draw the autobiographical story “Street Code.” It is eventually published in Argosy Vol. 3, #2, in 1990.

• June (August cover date): Fantastic Four #209 is published, introducing the Kirbydesigned H.E.R.B.I.E. to comics.

• February: Will Eisner’s “Shop Talk” interview with Kirby is published in The Spirit magazine #39, featuring controversial comments by Kirby.

• September 2 (through January 13, 1980): Kirby’s comic strip adaptation of Walt Disney’s film The Black Hole appears in Sunday newspapers across the United States, and is later translated for foreign publications, as well.

• May 13: The American remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s classic French film, Breathless, is released and it includes numerous references to Kirby’s creation as Richard Gere’s lead character is obsessed with The Silver Surfer comic book.

The cover of Kirby’s single issue of that title is prominently featured.

1983

1980 • Kirby continues working as a storyboard and concept artist in the animation industry, particularly for Ruby-Spears Productions on Thundarr the Barbarian.

Kirby receives some of the best compensation of his career, and for the first time, health insurance benefits.

• October 11: The first episode of Thundarr the Barbarian airs, starting a highly successful syndicated run for the series.

1981 • September (November cover date): Captain Victory and His Galactic Rangers #1 is released to comic book shops and published by Pacific Comics, an independent comics imprint creating titles exclusively for the direct market that services the nation’s growing network of comics shops.

• September (November cover date): Fantastic Four #236, the 20th anniversary issue, is published, and it includes, without his permission, Kirby’s storyboards created for the cartoon show repurposed as a story, with dialogue by Stan Lee and tightened pencils and inks by ten artists. Kirby demands the removal of his name from the cover, citing unauthorized use of his Fantastic Four storyboards inside for nefarious “celebratory purposes.”

• Kirby works with Steve Gerber on the unused Roxie’s Raiders newspaper strip, comic book, and animated series for Ruby-Spears.

1982 • Circa 1982: After striking up a friendship with music virtuoso Frank Zappa, who suggests that Kirby develop a comic strip based on Zappa’s song “Valley Girl” (a pop single featuring daughter Moon Unit Zappa), the artist comes up with samples but, alas, it does not sell.

• Battle for a 3-D World is published, with Kirby pencils, Mike Thibodeaux inks, and 3-D conversion by Ray Zone. The 3-D glasses that come with the comic state “Kirby: King of the Comics,” which is later misconstrued by talk show host Johnny Carson when he uses a pair as a prop on The Tonight Show, and inadvertently insults Kirby on the air. He publicly apologizes to Kirby on-air two weeks later. Pure Imagination publishes the first of two volumes of The Jack Kirby Treasury, which includes early work, photos, and a narrative history. The second volume appears in 1992.

• January (March cover date): Destroyer Duck #1, featuring Kirby pencils, is published in an effort to raise money for Steve Gerber’s lawsuit against Marvel overs the rights to a character he created, Howard the Duck. Kirby also donates the cover art for the FOOG (Friends of Old Gerber) benefit portfolio.

• January (March cover date): Kirby’s unpublished 1975 story for DC’s Sandman #7 is finally published in Best of DC Digest #22. It had previously only appeared, for copyright purposes, in DC’s Summer 1978 in-house ashcan inventory book, Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, of which only 35 xeroxed copies were produced.

• Mid-1982: After beating out Mattel in a bidding war, Kenner Toys strikes a deal with DC Comics to produce an action-figure line titled Super Powers, and DC publisher Jenette Kahn approaches Kirby with a magnanimous gesture for the creator to share in the arrangement during a luncheon meeting in Beverly Hills.

The plan is to include Kirby’s Fourth World characters, to be re-designed by the creator and others, and for DC to thereafter include “Created by Jack Kirby” credit on any comics which feature his characters (and for Kirby to receive quarterly royalties — or as gratuity, as details are unclear — for said use).

Arrangements are also made, after his New Gods run is reprinted in a quality format, for Kirby to produce a graphic novel that will tie-up loose ends that remained with the abrupt cancellation of the title in the early ’70s. Jack and Roz heartily accept the generous offer. Between 1985–87, Kenner will release 11 figures based on Kirby creations, plus vehicle and weapon accessories.

• October 28: Kirby is interviewed on the syndicated popular culture TV show Entertainment Tonight by correspondent Catherine Mann.

• October (December cover date): Destroyer Duck #5 (Kirby’s final issue) is published. Pacific Comics would publish one additional issue, without Kirby art.

• November (January 1984 cover date): Captain Victory #13 and Silver Star #6 (the final issues) are published.

1984 • Mid-’80s: Kirby’s eyesight begins to deteriorate and a noticeable flatness is apparent in his work from here on. The artist is ably helped by Mike Thibodeaux (who first began assisting in 1978 on animation projects) and Greg Theakston (longtime Kirby associate) on inks.

• April (June cover date): New Gods Reprint #1 is published, beginning a full, highquality reprinting of the 11 original New Gods issues. Kirby’s name is emblazoned above the logo.

• May (July cover date): Super Powers #1 is published by DC Comics, a fiveissue mini-series, each featuring a Kirby cover and his plotting; only #5 features Kirby interior art. Kirby agrees to tackle this series, either in appreciation for DC retroactively making him eligible for royalties on the creation of the New Gods characters that appear in the Super Powers toy line, or as part of the aforementioned deal struck in 1982.

• August: Kirby receives a four-page legal document from Marvel Comics, drafted especially for him (everyone else receives a one-page form), that contains excessive stipulations about the possible return of his 1960s artwork, including denying him the ability to sell the artwork, and with no guarantee of how many pages he would receive even if he did sign the document. Kirby refuses to sign and attempts to negotiate behind-the-scenes with Marvel, with no success.

• September (November cover date): New Gods Reprint#6 is published, containing a new story by Kirby, “Even Gods Must Die,” which attempts to bridge the narrative between The New Gods #11 and Kirby’s upcoming graphic novel, The Hunger Dogs.

• September (November cover date): Super Powers #5 is published, the final issue of the first series, featuring Kirby plot, cover, and full pencils.

1985 • Feb 26: The Hunger Dogs (DC Graphic Novel #4) is published, giving Kirby a chance to put a sort-of ending to his New Gods saga.

• February (April cover date): Who’s Who #2 is published by DC, the first of numerous issues to feature single-page illustrations by Kirby, of his DC characters.

• March 6: A Cannon Films ad announcing production of a Captain America film (which is never produced) in Variety magazine erroneously credits Stan Lee as creator of the character. The Kirbys’ attorney contacts Marvel Comics to express consternation about the error.

• June (August cover date): DC Comics Presents #84 is published, featuring a Kirby-drawn story teaming Superman and the Challengers of the Unknown.

• July (September cover date): Super Powers Vol. 2, #1 is published, with pencils (but not scripting) by Kirby.

• July: The Kirbys’ legal dispute with Marvel over ownership of his original artwork plays out in the public arena, and is covered extensively in issues of The Comics Journal, Fantagraphics’ opinion and interview magazine (known for its advocacy journalism), bringing widespread awareness about the conflict. TCJ #105 (February 1986) is pivotal with its partisan pro-Kirby coverage of the situation.

• E arly August: The Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards are presented for the first time at San Diego Comic-Con. Established by Amazing Heroes, a Fantagraphics publication, the Kirbys acknowledge professionals for outstanding achievement in the field. The event is overseen by Amazing Heroes managing editor Dave

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Olbrich and Kirby is on hand to congratulate winners. Also, some time during the San Diego Comic-Con that weekend, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have an encounter at the Marvel Comics 25th Anniversary party being held in a lounge. Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter, was witness to the meeting, and later said, “I’m watching history here. They’re really getting friendly again. They really seemed to be becoming friends. Then Stan says, ‘Ya know, Jack I don’t care who owns [the Marvel character copyrights]. I don’t care who gets the credit. You can own it, you can have the credit. I’d just like to work with you once more.’” Kirby allegedly nods and says, “Well, that will be fine,” but Roz, taking her husband from the conversation, says, “Over my dead body.” Reportedly, Lee is offended.

1989 • Monster Masterworks is published, a trade paperback collection, and features “Monsters of the Shifty Fifties,” a text piece written by Kirby.

• Marvel publishes a hardcover collection of Simon and Kirby’s Fighting American, including a two-page introduction by Kirby.

• Glen Kolleda releases a pewter sculpture based on Kirby’s “Jacob And The Angel” drawing. It comes with a print of Kirby’s illustration; a second sculpture and print was planned, but never produced in any meaningful quantity.

1990

•A ugust 2: Kirby appears on a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con with Jim Starlin, Greg Theakston, and Gary Groth, to discuss the situation about Marvel Comics and their refusal to return his original artwork.

• Joe Simon self-publishes a memoir, The Comic Book Makers, which discusses his partnership with Kirby, as well as the genesis of Silver Spider and The Fly as Spider-Man prototypes, and reveals Kirby’s humiliating legal dispute with DC editor Jack Schiff over Sky Masters of the Space Force.

•D ecember (February 1986 cover date): Super Powers Vol. 2, #6 is published, featuring Kirby’s final penciled story in comics.

1986 • November: New World Pictures, a movie production and distribution corporation, acquires Marvel Comics.

• May 6: Heroes Against Hunger is published by DC Comics to benefit African famine relief efforts, and features a two-page sequence of Superman and Lex Luthor, produced and donated by Kirby.

• February: The Comics Journal #134 is published, featuring a controversial interview with Jack and Roz Kirby conducted by Gary Groth, and it includes unflattering comments about Stan Lee, and Kirby’s own declaration that he, and not Lee and Steve Ditko, created Marvel’s flagship character, Spider-Man. • May: Robin Snyder’s fanzine The Comics Vol. 1, #5 prints a four-page essay/ rebuttal by Steve Ditko entitled “Jack Kirby’s Spider-Man,” giving his recollection of Kirby’s involvement on Spider-Man prior to Ditko taking over the assignment.

The piece includes a Ditko sketch of his memory of Kirby’s character design.

• August: The Comics Journal #110 includes a petition signed by numerous industry professionals, appealing to Marvel Comics to rightfully give Kirby back his original art.

• November: Kirby’s 1983 “Street Code” story finally sees print (sans inks) in Richard Kyle’s Argosy magazine, Vol. 3, #2.

• August 3: Kirby appears on a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con with Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Marv Wolfman, and Gary Groth, to discuss the situation with Marvel Comics and the return of his original artwork. Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter is in the audience and speaks briefly from the floor to clarify Marvel’s position.

• December: Marvel Age #95 is published, featuring “Birth of a Legend,” an interview with Kirby (as well as a separate interview with Joe Simon) to commemorate Captain America’s 50th anniversary.

1987

• December 14: Captain America, a major motion picture adapting the Simon and Kirby creation, premieres in the U.K. The film stars the son of Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger, Matt Salinger, who plays Captain America. According to the Internet Movie Database, the estimated $10 million budgeted movie earns $10,173 at the box office. In the United States, it was a straight-to-video release.

It currently has an eight percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

• Kirby appears on Ken Viola’s Masters of Comic Book Art documentary, offering many fans their first chance to actually hear and see Kirby speak about comics.

Pure Imagination publishes Jack Kirby’s Heroes & Villains, a limited edition hardcover book reprinting the Valentine’s Day pencil sketchbook Kirby drew for wife Roz in the late 1970s.

• Late 1990: Marvel releases the two-volume hardcover slipcase Captain America: The Classic Years, reprinting Kirby and Simon’s stories featuring the super-hero from Captain America Comics #1–10. An obscene image is nefariously sneaked into a color plate by a disgruntled contributor in a story and the $75 set is yanked from distribution.

• January (March cover date): Last of the Viking Heroes #1 is published by Genesis West, featuring a Kirby cover.

1992

• September: Marvel Age Annual #2 is published, reprinting a half-page text piece

by Kirby titled, “Jack Kirby by Jack Kirby,” reprinted from the Merry Marvel Messenger newsletter of 1966.

• January: Marvel publishes a collection of Simon and Kirby’s Boys’ Ranch, including a two-page introduction by Kirby.

• May: Under pressure from comics creators, the fan community, and bad press, Marvel Comics sends Kirby the standard form sent to other artists, and upon Kirby signing it, finally returns approximately 2,100 of the estimated 13,000 pages Kirby drew for the company.

• The Art of Jack Kirby is published, a biography bankrolled by Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and die-hard Kirby fan. Kirby and author Ray Wyman conduct a book tour from Nov. 7–Dec. 12, at five California and Arizona stores.

• Early August: The Jack Kirby Awards are presented for the final time.

Subsequently, due to a controversy involving Fantagraphics and former employee Dave Olbrich, Kirby calls Olbrich and personally asks that the Award be discontinued, a request that is honored.

• Mid-August: San Diego Comic-Con hosts a surprise 75th birthday party for Jack Kirby, hosted by Phil Foglio, featuring Frank Miller as a speaker, and attended by many friends, family, and fans.

• August 7: Kirby is inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame at San Diego Comic-Con. • August 28: During an interview on New York City radio station WBAI honoring his 70th birthday, Kirby gets into a slightly contentious (but mostly cordial) argument with Stan Lee, who calls into the program to wish his former partner a happy birthday. The two debate authorship of the Marvel Comics produced with their bylines. Throughout, Kirby refers to the Marvel publisher as “Stanley.”

• September: Les Daniels’ comprehensive and authorized history of the company, Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics, is published, reportedly financed to use as a catalog of intellectual properties to attract potential buyers of the comics publisher. Perhaps due to corporate interference, the history of Kirby’s departure from the company up to the “art fight” is either glossed over or ignored.

• September 2: Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s debut feature film, Reservoir Dogs, premieres and includes a scene that prominently features a Silver Surfer poster drawn by Jack Kirby. Tarantino is an acknowledged comics fan.

• August (October cover date): Kirby’s half of a jam cover with Murphy Anderson for DC’s Secret Origins #19 sees print.

• November: Marvel begins their hardcover Marvel Masterworks collection, a chronological reprinting of early Marvel titles.

1993 • January 22: Kirby appears as himself in a cameo on the short-lived sitcom Bob. The TV series stars Bob Newhart as an aging comic book artist set in a bustling comics company and the episode revolves around an awards presentation.

1988 • The Belgian fanzine Kirby debuts, lasting until 1996, after 30 issues and one special.

• February (April cover date): Topps Comics begins publishing their “Kirbyverse” titles — Bombast, Captain Glory, Night Glider, and Jack Kirby’s Secret City Saga — all based on unused Kirby concepts from the 1970s. They also publish Satan’s Six #1, which includes a previously unpublished eight-page Kirby sequence from the same era.

• May 22: The Incredible Hulk television series is resurrected, in a fashion, as trio of TV movies aired over the course of three years, all featuring Kirby’s cocreation. This year’s broadcast, The Incredible Hulk Returns, guest-stars the Mighty Thor. The 1989 entry is titled The Trial of the Incredible Hulk and 1990’s is The Death of the Incredible Hulk.

• March 14: Kirby and Ray Wyman appear at Comics & Comix in Palo Alto, California to promote The Art of Jack Kirby. A lengthy fan video of Kirby’s appearance is shot.

• December (February 1989 cover date): Action Comics Weekly #638 is published, featuring a Kirby Demon cover, his last new work for DC.

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1998

• August 20: Kirby receives the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award during the Eisner Award ceremony at San Diego Comic-Con.

• February 7: Superman: The Animated Series features part one of “Apokolips…

Now,” which includes numerous Fourth World characters. Episode co-writer Bruce Timm includes, as homage, the character Detective Dan Turpin, who is visually based on Kirby. The following week’s concluding episode, which features the tragic yet courageous death of “Terrible” Turpin, is dedicated to Jack Kirby.

• September (December cover date): Phantom Force #1 is published by Image Comics, a wildly popular imprint with fans. In a show of solidarity, some Image founders contribute inks to Kirby’s pages for the two-issue series.

• October (January cover date): Monster Menace #2 is published, featuring a halfpage text piece by Kirby (solicited by editor Mort Todd). Titled “Jack Kirby, Atlas Comics and Monsters,” it is Kirby’s final contribution of any kind for Marvel.

2000

• January (April cover date): Phantom Force #2 is published, Kirby’s final comic book work published during his lifetime.

• April 19: Orion #1 is on the stands, Walter Simonson’s take on Kirby’s Fourth World character. In a number of issues, a stellar group of artists contribute to the “Tales of the New Gods” back-up vignettes. Series ends with #25, published on April 24, 2002.

• February 6: Kirby dies at his home in Thousand Oaks, California, at age 77. His passing is internationally acknowledged, including obituaries in The New York Times and British newspaper The Independent.

• July 14: X-Men is released, a major motion picture produced by 20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $296 million.

• March 4: Comics Buyer’s Guide #1059 begins coverage of Kirby’s passing, including the first part of a revealing personal recollection by Mark Evanier.

• September 19: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon is published, which will be awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Numerous characters are based, whole and in part, on real-life comic book creators, including Kirby. In his “Author’s Note,” Chabon writes, “I want to acknowledge the deep debt I owe in this and everything else I’ve ever written to the work of the late Jack Kirby, the King of Comics.”

1994

• March 28: The New Yorker features a two-page illustration by Gary Panter entitled “Homage to Jack Kirby,” which includes Panter’s rendition of Kirby’s character from Thor, The Recorder.

• Dr. Mark Miller initiates an industry petition to persuade Marvel Comics to credit Kirby on his creations. His behind-the-scenes discussions with Marvel Entertainment president Terry Stewart will play a role in Marvel granting a pension to Kirby’s widow, Roz, in September 1995, which lasts until her passing.

• Pure Imagination publishes The Jack Kirby Reader Vol. 1, featuring reprints of Kirby’s work. A second volume follows, in 2004.

• April 6–May 7: Kevin Eastman’s Words & Pictures Museum, Northampton, Mass., hosts a posthumous exhibit called simply “King of Comics,” displaying much of Eastman’s extensive collection of original Kirby art.

• May 2: X2: X-Men United is released, a major motion picture distributed by 20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $407 million.

• June 18: Sotheby’s Auction House auctions Kirby cover recreations produced prior to his death.

• June 20: Hulk is released, a major motion picture distributed by Universal that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $245 million.

2003

• July: A nine-page excerpt from Kirby’s unfinished novel, The Horde, is published in Galaxy magazine #4. To date, two others excerpts have been published: in David Copperfield’s book anthology Tales of the Impossible (1995) and the anthology book Front Lines (2008).

• September 29: Joe Simon settles with Marvel over ownership of the Captain America copyright. Details remain confidential, but later mention is made to Simon receiving royalties for merchandising and licensing.

• July 20: The United States Postal Service releases the DC Comics Super Heroes commemorative stamp series. One of the 39¢ issues include a detail of Kirby Green Arrow artwork inked by Mike Royer.

2004 • April 15: The London Review of Books includes bestselling novelist Jonathan Lethem’s essay, “My Marvel Years,” which discusses the importance of Kirby in the author’s youth and offers often brutally candid assessments of the artist’s abilities. Lethem describes Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as the “Lennon and McCartney” of comics, alluding to the central creative partnership in The Beatles.

• Summer: Chrissie Harper publishes Jack Kirby Quarterly #1 in the United Kingdom, which includes an interview with Kirby.

• September: John Morrow publishes The Jack Kirby Collector #1.

• September 29–October 31: The National Museum of Cartoon Art, London, England, hosts the exhibit, “Jack Kirby: The King of Comic Books.”

• November 10: Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby, a hardcover collection featuring a wide variety of Kirby’s work for the company, is released.

• Kirby’s drawing table and taboret are installed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

2005

1995

• July 8: Fantastic Four is released, a major motion picture distributed by 20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $330 million.

• May 12: Crimson Tide, a submarine action film starring Denzel Washington, is released, and it contains uncredited dialogue written by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino referencing a Kirby creation. Washington’s submarine commander character declares, “Everybody who reads comic books knows that the Kirby Silver Surfer is the only true Silver Surfer. Now, am I right or wrong?” He is right.

• August 28: The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center is established.

1997 • Pure Imagination begins publication of the trade paperback series, The Complete Jack Kirby, an attempt to chronologically reprint the entirety of the artist’s work in the public domain. By 2005, after five volumes, and upon featuring late 1947 material, the project is abandoned.

• January 8: Jack Kirby’s Fourth World #1 is on the stands and runs for 20 issues with lead stories by John Byrne and “Tales of the Gods” back-up stories by Byrne, Walter Simonson, and Ron Wagner in various issues. The title ends with #20, published on August 12, 1998.

• November 20–January 28, 2007: 50 pieces of Kirby work is included, among the work of select other comics greats, for the traveling exhibition “Masters of American Comics,” which is originally hosted by the Hammer Museum/Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angels, and travels to the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Jewish Museum of New York City. A companion hardcover coffee table art book is released prior to the opening, on November 11.

2006 • March 24: Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby, Vol. 2, a second collection of Kirby’s work for the publisher, with reprints ranging from the Golden Age to the ’70s, is published.

• December 1: DC begins a series of black-&-white trade paperback reprintings of Kirby’s Fourth World comics of the early 1970s. The first to appear is Jack Kirby’s New Gods (which receives a Harvey Award for “Best Domestic Reprint Project” and an Eisner Award for “Best Archival Collection”). The four volumes are followed, in 2003, by a two-volume color trade paperback collection of Kirby’s work in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.

• December 22: Roz Kirby dies and is buried next to her husband, in the Valley Oaks Memorial Park Cemetery, Westlake Village, California.

• May 26: X-Men: The Last Stand is released, a major motion picture distributed by 20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $459 million.

2007 • May 2: DC releases the first of the four-volume Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, which reprints Kirby’s early 1970s work chronologically. The final volume is released in March 2008.

• June 15: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is released, a major motion picture distributed by 20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations, as well

219

as his creation, The Silver Surfer. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $289 million.

20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $459 million.

• July 28: The United States Postal Service debuts the Marvel Super Heroes commemorative stamp series. The twenty-piece set of 41¢ stamps includes five characters co-created by Kirby, as well as eight featuring his artwork.

•O ctober 9: Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is published, a history of the company by Sean Howe which reveals behind-the-curtain corporate machinations at the imprint.

• August 26: The New York Times includes an op-ed piece titled, “Jack Kirby, a Comic Book Genius, is Finally Remembered,” by Brent Staples, commenting on the recent release by the USPS of the “Marvel Super Heroes” stamps.

•O ctober 12: Argo, the “Best Picture” Oscar-winning film about the rescue of diplomats during the Iranian hostage crisis, is released and it contains reference to the CIA’s use of Kirby’s Lord of Light pitch as a deceptive cover story. Actor Michael Parks (Then Came Bronson, Kill Bill) makes a brief appearance as Jack Kirby delivering artwork, though in reality, the work had long since been done.

2008 • February 22: Mark Evanier’s hardcover 224-page biography-slash-art book, Kirby: King of Comics is published by Abrams, the first mass-market retrospective on Kirby’s career.

•O ctober 24: Kirby attorney Marc Toberoff argues before the Court of Appeals.

• April: Marvel publishes Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure, which includes Kirby’s rejected Fantastic Four #102 submission, now inked and featuring dialogue by Stan Lee. Kirby’s penciled pages are also included.

• May 3: Iron Man 3 is released, a major motion picture distributed by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $1.2 billion. At its peak, it was the fifth highest-grossing film of all time. It is currently ranked as the 12th.

• May 2: Iron Man is released, a major motion picture distributed by Paramount that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $585 million.

2013

• May 7: DC Comics releases the hardcover collection, The Jack Kirby Omnibus, Vol. 2, with an introduction by John Morrow, editor of The Jack Kirby Collector.

• June 10: Jack Kirby’s O.M.A.C. hardcover collection is released. A trade paperback edition follows on September 3, 2013.

• August 8: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the Kirby Estate had no right to issue notices in 2009 terminating rights to characters Kirby created.

• June 13: The Incredible Hulk is released, a major motion picture distributed by Universal that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $263 million.

• September 24: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres on ABC television, an hour-long action drama infused with Kirby concepts and tied into the Marvel cinematic universe. In 2017, it was renewed for a fifth season. A total of 88 episodes have thus far been broadcast.

• July 2: Jack Kirby’s Galactic Bounty Hunters, Vol. 1, is released, collecting a miniseries guided by Kirby’s youngest daughter, Lisa, and under arrangement with Marvel Comics. The stories feature concepts and characters created by Kirby.

2009

• October 22: The Kirby Estate is denied their petition to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing on whether the estate had the right to issue termination notices to Marvel in 2009 on Kirby’s characters. This reaffirms the 2011 lower court ruling.

• November 4–10: The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center hosts a “popup”museum dedicated to Kirby, on Delancey Street, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the artist spent his childhood.

• August 31: Disney buys Marvel Comics for $4 billion.

• September: In a move planned well before Disney’s acquisition of Marvel, the Kirby Estate exercises its termination rights under the 1976 Copyright Act, in an effort to reclaim rights on characters Kirby created between 1958–63 at Marvel Comics. The Act states that an artist or his heirs can reclaim a copyright that was transferred before 1978, after 56 years, and they have a five-year window to do so. Marvel/Disney publicly claims the family has no rights to terminate, but unsuccessful settlement negotiations reportedly take place through December.

• November 8: Thor: The Dark World is released, a major motion picture produced

by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $644 million.

2014

2010 • January 8: Marvel/Disney sues the Kirbys to invalidate the 45 termination notices in New York instead of in California, to benefit from that state’s more favorable work-for-hire case law.

• May 7: Iron Man 2 is released, a major motion picture distributed by Paramount that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $623 million.

• February 21: The original art for Kirby’s Tales of Suspense #84 cover art sets a Heritage record to date for the artist’s work, as the piece, inked by Frank Giacoia, is auctioned for $167, 300.

• March 21: The Kirbys’ attorney files a petition with the Supreme Court, asserting they have the right to issue termination notices. A response is due from Marvel/ Disney on April 28.

• April 4: Captain America: The Winter Soldier is released, a major motion picture distributed by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $714 million.

2011

• April 24: Marvel/Disney waives its right to respond, feeling there is no likelihood the case will be considered by the Supreme Court.

• May 6: Thor is released, a major motion picture distributed by Paramount that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $449 million.

• May: Dynamite Entertainment launches Kirby: Genesis, an eight-issue mini-series plus companion titles (including Silver Star, Captain Victory, and Dragonsbane), featuring Kirby’s creator-owned characters. The foray concludes in mid-2012.

• July 22: Captain America: The First Avenger is released, a major motion picture distributed by Paramount that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $370 million.

• July 28: Disney wins lower court Summary Judgments in their rights lawsuit.

• August 9: DC releases the hardcover collection The Jack Kirby Omnibus, Vol. 1.

• December 12: Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby by Prof. Charles Hatfield is published by University Press of Mississippi, and is cited as “the first critical exploration of the work of a great comics creator.”

• December 14: Former Kirby partner Joe Simon dies in New York City at age 98.

2012 • May 4: Marvel’s The Avengers is released, a major motion picture distributed

by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $1.5 billion. At its peak, it was the third highest-grossing film of all time; it is now ranked as the fifth.

• June 3: X-Men: First Class is released, a major motion picture distributed by

220

• May 14: To Marvel’s surprise, the Supreme Court agrees to take the case into conference to consider if they will actually hear it. That conference is scheduled for September 29, but is rescheduled to give Marvel/Disney until July 14 to respond.

• May 23: X-Men: Days of Future Past is released, a major motion picture produced by 20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $747 million.

• June: The Kirby family receives support from the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Writers Guild of America, and the Directors Guild of America, among many other organizations and individuals which submit amicus briefs (“friend of the court” briefs filed by those who aren’t part of the case, but have a mutual interest in its outcome and want to advise the Court) to the High Court in favor of having the Kirbys’ petition granted. Of particular weight is one by Bruce Lehman, former director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and chief advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton on intellectual property matters. Other briefs are also submitted by comics industry professionals Mark Evanier and John Morrow.

• July 14: Marvel/Disney respond to the Supreme Court, asking the court to deny the Kirbys’ petition to hear the case.

• May 6: Guardians of the Galaxy is released, a major motion picture distributed

by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $773 million.

• September 26: With a financially damaging verdict against Marvel and huge copyright implications for the entertainment industry hanging in the balance, the two sides settle their dispute. Marvel/Disney and the Kirby family issue a joint statement, saying they have amicably settled their copyright dispute, days before the Supreme Court looked close to hearing the case during its October term. The Kirbys notify the Supreme Court to request their petition be dismissed.

• October: Marvel releases new issues of Fantastic Four and X-Men with a credit line that reads, for the first time, “Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.”

2015 • January 6: Agent Carter debuts on the ABC television network, an hour-long action drama series based on Kirby co-creations. A total of 18 episodes are aired, with the last show broadcast on March 1, 2016.

• May 1: Avengers: Age of Ultron is released, a major motion picture distributed

by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $1.4 billion. At its peak it is ranked as fifth highest-grossing film of all time. It is currently ranked seventh.

• July 17: Ant-Man is released, a major motion picture distributed by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $519 million.

• July 28: Marvel releases King-Size Kirby, a 816-page oversize hardcover (weighing almost 20 lbs.) containing a wealth of reprints from the ’40s to the ’70s.

• August 7: Fantastic Four is released, a major motion picture distributed by 20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $167 million.

• August 24–October 10: The exhibition “Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby,” curated by Prof. Charles Hatfield, is hosted by the California State University at Northridge, and it features dozens of examples of original Kirby artwork.

2016 • May 27: X-Men: Apocalypse is released, a major motion picture distributed by 20th Century Fox that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $543 million.

•M ay 6: Captain America: Civil War is released, a major motion picture distributed

by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of 2017, box office receipts amount to $1.1 billion. At its peak, it was the 12th highest-grossing film of all time.

It is currently ranked as 14th.

• October 3: To mark the upcoming Kirby centennial, DC announces The Kamandi Challenge, a 12-issue mini-series featuring the talents of an array of creators.

2017 • May 16: Monsters Vol. 1: The Marvel Monsterbus by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby is released, an 872-page tome reprinting a plethora of Kirby Atlas monster stories from the late ’50s and early ’60s.

• May 17: DC Comics announces a series of one-shot titles featuring Kirby characters to be published during the month of August, to mark the centennial.

• May 24: As an example of the skyrocketing price now commanded for Kirby original artwork being auctioned, his cover for Thor #136 fetches $101,575, more than twice the $40k estimated by Heritage Auctions.

• May 27: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is released, a major motion picture distributed by Buena Vista that features Kirby co-creations. As of June 2017, box office receipts amount to $779 million.

• Summer: San Diego and the entire comics industry prepare to honor the 100th anniversary of Jack Kirby’s birth with a celebration at Comic-Con International: San Diego. Komics Initiative is preparing to release kirby&me, a homage book including testimonials and artwork from over 100 participants.

• August 28: The centennial of the birth of Jack “King” Kirby.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: We wish to extend our gratitude and appreciation to those who helped with this timeline: Richard Kolkman, Tom Kraft, Rand Hoppe, Ray Wyman, Glen Gold, Mark Evanier, Steve Sherman, Pat Ford, Sean Howe, and Alex Jay.

Alphabetical Index of Kirby100 Contributors Allred, Michael.......................142 Altergott, Rick.........................158 Anderson, Brent.....................104 Backderf, Derf..........................92 Baker, Kyle................................60 Bellman, Allen..........................10 Bisley, Simon..........................190 Bissette, Steve.......................152 Black, Bill..................................16 Brereton, Dan.........................108 Buckler, Rich.............................28 Budiansky, Bob.......................192 Burden, Bob..............................20 Buscema, Sal............................48 Byrne, John...............................84 Comolo, Giorgio......................140 Cooke, Jon B...........................222 Cullins, Paris...............................8 Davis, Alan..............................170 Dorkin, Evan............................176 Duursema, Jan.......................134 Eastman, Kevin.......................162 Galbraith, Cliff.........................123 Gibbons, Dave..........................32 Giffen, Keith............................206 Gilbert, Michael T.....................26

Gordon, Al.................................46 Hama, Larry...............................64 Haspiel, Dean.........................105 Hembeck, Fred.........................66 Hoberg, Rick.............................54 Holmstrom, John......................41 Howell, Richard........................74 Hughes, Adam..........................70 Jones, Kelley............................76 Jurgens, Dan..........................124 Karasik, Paul...........................198 Kuper, Peter............................106 Ladrönn......................................82 Larsen, Erik.............................160 Lash, Batton............................172 Leach, Garry.............................30 Leon, John Paul......................184 Linsner, Joseph Michael.......100 Lloyd, David...............................42 Mandrake, Tom.........................58 McCarthy, Brendan...............203 McCloud, Scott.......................128 McLeod, Bob..........................110 Meugniot, Will........................118 Milgrom, Al..............................120 Mitchell, Steve.........................65

Moore, Terry.............................96 Morrison, Bill..........................148 Morrow, John.............................6 Motter, Dean...........................188 Murakami, Glen......................150 Nebres, Rudy..........................204 Nguyen, Dustin.......................117 Nolan, Graham.........................40 Oeming, Michael Avon..........146 Ordway, Jerry.........................116 Parker, Rick.............................186 Pini, Wendy.............................102 Piskor, Ed...................................22 Poplaski, Peter.........................36 Potts, Carl..................................52 Pratt, George..........................144 Rivoche, Paul..........................147 Romita, Sr., John......................78 Ross, Alex................................174 Royer, Mike.............................136 Rude, Steve.............................131 Russell, P. Craig........................72 Schultz, Mark............................90 Scioli, Tom...............................138 Severin, Marie..........................98 Shaw, Scott.............................166 221

Sienkiewicz, Bill.....................194 Sim, Dave..................................39 Simonson, Walter.....................68 Sinnott, Joe.............................114 Smith, Paul................................81 Starlin, Jim..............................132 Staton, Joe................................25 Steacy, Ken...............................86 Stout, William.........................155 Tan, Philip................................202 Timm, Bruce............................178 Valentino, Jim.........................126 Veitch, Rick...............................56 Villarrubia, José.....................112 Von Eeden, Trevor....................18 Vosburg, Mike...........................12 Weiss, Alan...............................44 Wheeler, Shannon...................62 Windsor-Smith, Barry..............94 Woodring, Jim........................196 Workman, John........................14 Wray, William.........................182 Yeates, Thomas......................164 Yoe, Craig...................................34 Zapata, Jeff.............................193

Afterword

Editor/Writer/Graphic Designer/Art Director Editor/Designer, Comic Book Creator, Comic Book Artist Five-time Eisner Award winner, 2005 Harvey Award winner

by Jon B. Cooke

My Favorite Jack Kirby Story he genesis of this book, for me, began with a dream. Upon a waking moment back in the late 1990s, my imagination impressed on yours truly this vision of me walking the streets of Providence, RI and looking up to notice a huge banner affixed to the convention center, which read “King Con,” and, in my dream state, I knew it marked a fan gathering entirely devoted to the life and work of Jack Kirby. I felt elated that I was about to be with my people, aficionados from the world over, who finally had a place to convene and honor the King of Comics. And then I woke up. But that image never left me and I still have this desire to help organize such a singular event. For now, this book will do the trick, one in which I’m happy to participate.

Y’see, since picking up a copy of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 around 1971 (in, of all places, a London newsagent shop), I had been forever transformed from casual comic book reader to devout fanatic, and I was particularly enthralled with whatever I could find of Kirby’s work, especially his unfolding epic of the Fourth World. Yes, I read the material of other creators, but the man born Jacob Kurtzberg spoke to me as no one else in comics, a vital and authentic voice to which I felt directly and intimately connected. And for him to share with me, a puny, shy, eczema-plagued kid, his remarkable imagination — and with artistry of such power! — instilled in me a comforting solace at a complicated period in my short life. Though we moved around a lot at that time, and I couldn’t get every issue as they were published, getting every issue was of huge importance to this 12-, 13-year-old boy.

the very real World War II was simply mind-blowing. Thus was my true introduction to Kirby’s Marvel Comics work.

To fill in the gaps of the Fourth World and in search of hitherto unknown Cap back issues by the King, my younger brother and I were allowed to attend the July 4th Comic Art Convention held in New York City, and that was another staggering experience for the year 1972, almost too much to take in. Somehow, I gathered my wits, dug through back-issue boxes and found what I had traveled with Andy via Greyhound to Manhattan for: a missing issue of Jimmy Olsen (with Don Rickles — and, just as important, DC’s version of Cap, the Golden Guardian — on the cover!) and the greatest discovery of my burgeoning life as a collector: an ish of Sgt. Fury, guest-starring (you guessed it) the Living Legend of World War II… and Bucky! Plus it takes place during the war! Plus it is an absolute tour de force of Kirby artistry! I still treasure that find, a comic book I had absolutely no idea had ever before existed, and even though (gakk!) I spilled ink on it a few years later, it remains a most prized possession.

But much as Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #141 (for the almost throwaway Lightray appearance, not the Goody Rickels storyline, ya hockey puck!) and Sgt. Fury #13 remain high on my list of beloved Kirby stories, my favorite yarn is one that also materialized at that Phil Seuling show lo those many years ago. It’s an anecdote I often share to whoever is in earshot when the subject is Jack, but it truly is one I hold close to my bosom.

For, y’see, pal o’ mine, the greatest adventure comic book artist of all time was actually a guest of that con, and I had the honor of shaking his hand and having him autograph those comic books I had purchased only minutes earlier. But the real story took place just as the con huckster rooms were closing for the night.

As I was sitting there, cross-legged, on the hallway carpet, engaging in the time-honored tradition of reviewing the day’s bounty, I see the Man Himself heading for the Statler Hilton elevators, no doubt off to retire after a long stretch dealing with us relentlessly demanding fanboys.

When we were back in the States, being a pretty poor family, we’d go to local flea markets in search of cheap eight-track tapes and other necessities, and it was at one where I discovered what I believe is Jack’s greatest character: Captain America. In one giant score, I found well-read copies of Captain America Annual #1 and The Avengers Annual #3, which reprinted Cap’s defrosting in the modern age. Then, as now, I was a history nut, and the concept of a super-hero directly connected to

Above: Jack Kirby’s iconic rendering of his co-creation, an embodiment of what is good and what is right about this nation, from the cover of Fantasy Masterpieces #5 [1966].

222

Who knows how honest memory is at my age, but I do recall an older fan engaging Kirby, doing more talking than listening, and being a bit boorish. Anyway, Jack seemed tired and I waited patiently to pounce if and when the nerd would finally run out of air, which he did. I can’t remember if Jack desperately kept punching the “up” button to escape us lobby-stalking fanatics, but I did manage to catch his eye and I somehow screwed up the courage to approach my idol.

Anyone who has met Jack Kirby will first tell you how nice he was, the type of guy who looks you in the eye and listens to what you say. I can attest to the truth of that. He was, plain and simple, patient and kind. On that Summer evening in a midtown hotel lobby, we chatted for a bit, and I was able to thank him for his work. I had my sketchbook in hand (my aspiration back then was to join the King’s profession) and Jack looked at my pad and then at me, and he asked if I wanted a sketch. My reaction was sincere (and something my greedy self smacks himself for, to this day). At that moment, I was a grateful admirer and appreciative fan (and his humility was apparently catching!). Even though I had been, by then, a rabid Kirby booster for only a year or so, he’d given me so much already, much more than my real (and absent) father had ever shared with me. I said, “No, but could I get your autograph and inscribe it to me?” He smiled, chewed on his pipe stem, and happily complied (even spelling my name right!). Then, upon the “ding” of an arriving elevator car, he handed back the sketch pad, shook my hand, said goodnight, and disappeared. So ends my favorite Jack Kirby story.

I love ya, Jack. I named one dog and one son after you, and I wept when the radio told me that you had died. I was compelled to do something to honor your memory and that search for purpose led to John Morrow, the finest of friends and a great collaborator, and thus I began a new life chronicling comic book history. Thank you, Jack.

I hope this book does your memory some justice.

Right: Greg Preston’s wonderful portrait of Jack Kirby, taken in the King’s home studio in 1992. Above inset: I know, I know: I cheated, but if I were to honestly pick a favorite Kirby story, it would be his superb collaboration with Joe Simon, “Different,” from Young Romance #30 [1951], a thinly-veiled indictment of anti-semetism. Below: Proof that memory does not entirely fail: Jack Kirby’s personally-inscribed autograph really does adorn my sketchbook, likely signed on Friday evening, July 4, 1972, at the Comic Art Con.

Portrait by Greg Preston 223

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

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100 Top Creators Celebrate Jack Kirby’s Greatest Work Born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917, comic book artist Jack Kirby rose from a hardscrabble life in the slums of New York City’s Lower East Side to become one of the most celebrated and revered pop culture artists in U.S. history. From the Golden Age of the ’40s to the artist’s own golden years in the ’90s, Kirby was the premier adventure cartoonist of his day and architect of the modern day super-hero mythology, which is now being played out in grand scale on motion picture screens the world over. Alone or with collaborators, this “King” of comics created Marvel Comics icons Captain America, The Avengers, the X-Men, the Hulk, Mighty Thor, the Silver Surfer, and many other characters, as well as DC Comics’ epic Fourth World mythos and mega-villain Darkseid. This 224-page, full-color book is a celebration of the beloved artist’s centennial anniversary, attended by a pantheon of creators — 100 artists who share memories, mementos, appreciations, and tribute artwork, much of it appearing here for the first time. Join us for the party as we say, “Happy 100th Birthday, Jack Kirby!”

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ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-078-6 $34.95 in the U.S.

Printed in China

MICHAEL ALLREDRICK ALTERGOTTBRENT ANDERSONJOHN BACKDERFKYLE BAKERALLEN BELLMANSIMON BISLEYSTEVE BISSETTE BILL BLACKDAN BRERETONRICH BUCKLERBOB BUDIANSKYBOB BURDENSAL BUSCEMAJOHN BYRNEGIORGIO COMOLO PARIS CULLINSALAN DAVISEVAN DORKINJAN DUURSEMAKEVIN EASTMANCLIFF GALBRAITHDAVE GIBBONSKEITH GIFFEN MICHAEL T. GILBERTAL GORDONLARRY HAMADEAN HASPIELFRED HEMBECKRICK HOBERGJOHN HOLMSTROMRICHARD HOWELL ADAM HUGHESKELLEY JONESDAN JURGENSPAUL KARASIKPETER KUPERLADRÖNNERIK LARSENBATTON LASHGARRY LEACH JOHN PAUL LEONJOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNERDAVID LLOYDTOM MANDRAKEBRENDAN McCARTHYSCOTT McCLOUDBOB McLEOD WILL MEUGNIOTAL MILGROMSTEVE MITCHELLTERRY MOOREBILL MORRISONDEAN MOTTERGLEN MURAKAMIRUDY NEBRES DUSTIN NGUYENGRAHAM NOLANMICHAEL AVON OEMINGJERRY ORDWAYRICK PARKERWENDY PINIED PISKORPETER POPLASKI CARL POTTSGEORGE PRATTPAUL RIVOCHEJOHN ROMITA sr.ALEX ROSSMIKE ROYERSTEVE RUDEMARK SCHULTZTOM SCIOLI MARIE SEVERINSCOTT SHAW!BILL SIENKIEWICZDAVE SIMWALTER SIMONSONJOE SINNOTTPAUL SMITHJIM STARLINJOE STATON KEN STEACYWILLIAM STOUTPHILIP TANBRUCE TIMMJIM VALENTINORICK VEITCHJOSÉ VILLARRUBIATREVOR VON EEDEN MIKE VOSBURGALAN WEISSSHANNON WHEELERBARRY WINDSOR-SMITHJIM WOODRINGJOHN WORKMANWILLIAM WRAY f r o n t i s p i e c e b y ALEX ROSS • e d i t e d b y JON B. COOKE & JOHN MORROW THOMAS YEATESCRAIG YOEJEFF ZAPATA

Art © the estate of Jack Kirby

ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-078-6 ISBN-10: 1-60549-078-4