Hulk © Marvel Entertainment, Inc., Four-Armed Terror © DC Comics, Inc.
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A MONSTROUS MELANGE OF MINUTIA ABOUT OUR MAIN MAN! ITEM! The Internet is abuzz with more and more Kirby Kommentary, and the newest outlet for it is alt.comics.jack-kirby (the new Kirby Newsgroup). It’s just been set up by Bodacious BOB HEER, and it serves as a public forum for fans around the world to post questions and comments about Jack and his career (you can pick and choose the subjects that interest you to read). Then there’s the JACK KIRBY MAILING LIST. Send an e-mail message to Magnanimous MATT GORE at mhg@matthew.cumberland.org and ask him to put you on this FREE mailing list, and prepare yourself for a daily deluge of e-mail about Jack from Kirby fans around the world. Next is the TJKC Web Site (maintained by Rascally RANDY HOPPE) located on the World Wide Web at http://www.interactive.net/~thehop/kirby (it’s got bio info on Jack, and samples of art and articles from each issue of TJKC). Or try Charismatic CHRIS HARPER’s Jack Kirby Home Page, located on the Web at http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~ampcon/. And if you just want to send us some e-mail about TJKC, you can send it to twomorrow@aol.com when the mood hits you. Who says this isn’t the Kirby age of digital technology?
Pure Imagination’s The Complete Kirby Vol. 1 (a series reprinting all of Jack’s work from the beginning of his career) is ready to go to press, but 400 people must commit to buying a copy before it can be published. So far, 275 people have committed to it, so we’re getting there! Volume 1 includes Jack’s early work from Blue Bolt, Red Raven, Crash Comics, Jumbo Comics, plus other early comic book and comic strip work (some never published in the US), and a text feature to put it all in perspective. Vol. 1 will be a 164-page softcover in black-&-white with color cover for $25. If you are willing to commit to purchasing a copy when it’s published, write to Greg Theakston, Box 669902, Marietta, GA 30066 or e-mail TJKC at twomorrow@aol.com and we’ll forward requests to him. DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY NOW! You’ll be notified by mail when it’s published. ITEM! We want to thank COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE magazine for their help in spreading the word about TJKC! CBM is known as “The Magazine for Golden Age & Silver Age Collectors,” and Gracious GARY CARTER keeps each monthly issue full of articles and columns to interest serious comics fans (including recent theme issues devoted to the careers of Jaunty JIM STERANKO and Nefarious NEAL ADAMS). CBM is available in comics shops everywhere, and a US subscription is $60. Call 619-437-1996 for more information! ITEM! COMICS REVUE is continuing its reprinting of Jack’s SKY MASTERS daily strips from the 1950s, picking up where PURE IMAGINATION’s original volume left off. There’s an entire month’s worth in each issue starting with #124, and they’re currently up to #127. Look for it in stores, or order directly from Rootin’-Tootin’ RICK NORWOOD at Manuscript Press, PO Box 336, Mountain Home, TN 37684. Subscriptions can include both back issues and future issues, and are $45 for 12 issues or $90 for 25 issues. Don’t miss it! ITEM! TJKC subscriber RICHARD KOLKMAN hopes to have a preliminary version of the updated Kirby Checklist ready soon! When it’s done, we’ll post it on the Internet for free downloading, and send printed copies out at-cost to
JOHN’S JUKEBOX “I’VE CREATED A MONSTER!” That’s how I feel as I look back at our humble, 16-page beginnings, and then gaze at the size of this new issue of TJKC—52 Pages! Our increased circulation—due largely to YOU telling other fans about TJKC—has allowed us to increase our page count without raising our price. And what better issue to inaugurate this monster-size format than our Supernatural Theme Issue, spotlighting Jack’s work over the years on monster, magic, and mystery themes. Since I started TJKC over two years ago, there have been a number of kinda eerie coincidences that occurred while putting each issue together. With this one being #13, I should’ve known it would happen again! Serendipity shined upon Kirbydom when Mirthful MARIE SEVERIN inexplicably happened across photocopies in her files of Jack’s original version of “The Monster” from CHAMBER OF DARKNESS #4. And the same day I completed editing Jon B. Cooke’s article on SPIRIT WORLD (wherein he talks about how Jack would haunt Richard Kyle’s bookstore in the 1970s, looking for work by European comic artists), I get a letter from Richard talking about the same thing! I dunno if Jack’s spirit is hanging around making this stuff happen, but I do know that, as long as you keep contributing to TJKC, we’ll continue publishing it and keeping Jack’s ‘spirit’ alive! Long Live The King!
John Morrow, Editor • 502 Saint Mary’s St. • Raleigh, NC 27605 • (919) 833-8092 • FAX (919) 833-8023 e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com
anyone who’d like to check it for final errors. Then we’ll compile all the final changes, make decisions on any “iffy” entries, and release the completed version on the ’Net and as an at-cost publication. Stay tuned! ITEM! Keep sending letters to: Mr. Terry Stewart, Marvel Comics, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016 asking that Marvel put “Created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby” on books they co-created. (This is in conjunction with MARK MILLER’s ongoing letter-writing campaign. So write already!) ITEM! Gregarious GREG THEAKSTON reports that for Vol. 2 of his COMPLETE KIRBY reprint series, he still needs Famous Funnies #75 & #80. If you know where he can get these in any condition, call him at (770) 433-1468. ITEM! Comics shops around the country are doing their part to keep the Kirby spirit alive!! A group of Northern California comic book retailers purchased one of Jack’s pencils at auction at WonderCon ’95, and it’s now housed in a handsome display case and is on-tour (along with displays of Jack’s original art) at the stores that purchased it. Dubbed the “SWORD OF THE KING” tour, it rotates between A1 COMICS in Sacramento, ATLANTIS FANTASYWORLD in Santa Cruz, DR. COMICS & MR. GAMES in Oakland, FANTASY BOOKS & GAMES in Livermore and Santa Rosa, and LEE’S COMICS in San Mateo and Palo Alto, CA. Stop by and check it out when it’s in your area. And if you’re in the greater Pittsburgh, PA area, be sure to check out one of the PHANTOM OF THE ATTIC comics shops. As a bonus for certain purchase levels, they give out KING BUCKS—paper money redeemable for future purchases. Each one features a classy shot of Jack (in suit and tie) where old George Washington’s mug usually is! ITEM! See our feature on The Jack Kirby Educational Fund on page 48 of this issue!
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KIRBY COLLECTOR CHECKLIST These Issues Of TJKC Are Available – See Page 51 TJKC #1: This 16-page INTRODUCTORY ISSUE! Rare Kirby posters, articles on a 1978 Kirby traveling display and the MARVELMANIA PORTFOLIO, Jack’s original OMAC concept sketch, an unused THOR page, and more! $2.50 ($2.70 Canada/Mexico, $3.70 elsewhere) TJKC #2: A 16-page GENERAL INTEREST issue! Rare 1970s SANDMAN pages, a fan’s phone conversations with Jack, MARVELMANIA PORTFOLIO plates, unpublished FANTASTIC FOUR panels, a page of the Jack Ruby ESQUIRE story, other rare art, and more! $2.50 ($2.70 Canada/Mexico, $3.70 elsewhere) TJKC #3: A 16-page CAPTAIN AMERICA theme issue! JOE SIMON interview, more MARVELMANIA plates, convention sketches, 1960s & 70s CAPTAIN AMERICA pages before they were inked, and more! $2.50 ($2.70 Canada/Mexico, $3.70 elsewhere) TJKC #4: A 16-page GENERAL INTEREST issue! MIKE ROYER interview, more MARVELMANIA plates, THOR pencil pages before being inked, unused ATLAS #1 cover pencils, Euro-Kirby fandom, and more! $2.50 ($2.70 Canada/Mexico, $3.70 elsewhere) TJKC #5: A 16-page GENERAL INTEREST issue! Transcripts of Jack’s 1972 speech at VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, unpublished FANTASTIC FOUR pencils, how Kirby used real people in his comics, essential Kirby collectibles, unpublished KOBRA pencils, and more! $2.50 ($2.70 Canada/Mexico, $3.70 elsewhere) TJKC #6: A 36-page FOURTH WORLD theme issue! Interviews with MARK EVANIER, STEVE SHERMAN and MIKE ROYER, story behind HUNGER DOGS and Jack’s original ending to NEW GODS, NEW GODS portfolio, unpublished art, and FOURTH WORLD pencils before inking! $4.95 ($5.40 Canada/Mexico, $7.40 elsewhere) TJKC #7: A 36-page KID GANG theme issue! Unpublished interview with Kirby, overview of S&K KID GANGS, unpublished art from BOYS’ RANCH, BOY EXPLORERS, JIMMY OLSEN, DINGBATS, X-MEN, & more! $4.95 ($5.40 Canada/Mexico, $7.40 elsewhere) TJKC #8: (Our first full-color cover!) A 36-page all-star CONVENTION theme issue! SAN DIEGO CON ’95 Kirby Panel (with JOE SINNOTT, MIKE ROYER, MARK EVANIER, and TONY ISABELLA), convention memories, essay by JIM STERANKO, CAPTAIN AMERICA pages before they were inked, convention sketches, and more! $4.95 ($5.40 Canada/Mexico, $7.40 elsewhere) TJKC #9: A 44-page FANTASTIC FOUR theme issue with everything you wanted to know about the FF! JOE SINNOTT interview, FF pencil pages before inking, the original version of FF #108, unpublished art, and more! $4.95 ($5.40 Canada/Mexico, $7.40 elsewhere) TJKC #10: A 44-page HUMOR theme issue! ROZ KIRBY interview, STEVE GERBER on DESTROYER DUCK, GOODY RICKELS, FIGHTING AMERICAN, plus JIMMY OLSEN and THOR pages before inking, unpublished art, and more! $4.95 ($5.40 Canada/Mexico, $7.40 elsewhere) TJKC #11: A 44-page HOLLYWOOD theme issue! STUNTMAN, unused movie ideas, BLACK HOLE, LORD OF LIGHT, THE PRISONER adaptation, Jack’s career in ANIMATION, NEW GODS vs. STAR WARS, unpublished art, and more! New Kirby/Steranko and Kirby/Ordway covers. $4.95 ($5.40 Canada/Mexico, $7.40 elsewhere) TJKC #12: A 44-page INTERNATIONAL theme issue! Two KIRBY interviews, JOHN BYRNE interview, Kirby around the world, SAN DIEGO CON ’96 Kirby Panel (with EVANIER, WOLFMAN & STERN), CAPT. AMERICA pencils before inking, and more! New Kirby/Windsor-Smith cover. $4.95 ($5.40 Canada/Mexico, $7.40 elsewhere) TJKC Poster: See page 51. $7 ($8 Canada/Mexico, $10 elsewhere)
(left) A Kirby self-portrait (with modified dialogue!) from Tales of Suspense #25. (below) The Genie - use and date unknown.
Issue #13 Contents: The Kirby Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 (an overview of Jack’s occult themes) The Golden Age Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 (a look at S&K’s supernatural hero) Monsters from Tales of Suspense . . . 11 (relive Jack’s greatest Monster yarns) Were They Prototypes? . . . . . . . . . . . 15 (one collector’s concerns about dealers) Dick Ayers Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 (the veteran Kirby inker speaks) The Demon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 (Jack’s DC horror book explored) The Monster of Moraggia . . . . . . . . 24 (an unpublished 1969 Kirby horror story from Chamber of Darkness #4) Speak of the Devil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 (the oft-maligned Devil Dinosaur) Young Werewolves In Love! . . . . . . . 30 (delve into that old Black Magic) Kirby & Gibson Interview . . . . . . . . 34 (Jack meets the creator of The Shadow) The Secret Origin of the Hulk? . . . . 39 (Scott Shaw! gives us his theory) Spirit World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 (secrets of Jack’s b&w DC magazine) Kirby’s Monster Mash . . . . . . . . . . . 43 (a review of Jimmy Olsen #142-143) Spotlight on: Kirby Costumes . . . . . 44 (here’s a few we bet you’ve never seen) An Audience With The King . . . . . . 46 (a fan’s dual encounters with Jack) Jack’s Back? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 (do you believe in reincarnation?) Contest Winners! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Collector Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 3, No. 13, Dec. 1996. Published bi-monthly by and © TwoMorrows Advertising, 502 Saint Mary’s St., Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092. John Morrow, Editor. Pamela Morrow, Assistant Editor. Single issues: $4.95 US, $5.40 Canada/Mexico, $7.40 outside North America. Sixissue subscriptions: $24.00 US, $32.00 Canada/Mexico, $44.00 outside North America. First printing. All characters are © their respective companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. PRINTED IN CANADA.
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with the mysticism of faith and superstition.” Although that assertion may seem obvious to serious Kirby fans, it would seem that a further investigation of Kirby’s work could reveal just how serious Jack’s mystic interests were, and how in some cases his mysticism was deeper than what he may have realized himself.
The Kirby-Files An Overview of Jack’s Occult and Supernatural Themes, by Chris Knowles
(Note: In today’s idiomatic English, certain terms have taken on meanings ith the millennium fast approaching, there has been a mass revival that vary greatly from their original definition. Apocalypse, for example, does of interest in all things occult or paranormal. The astounding not mean End of the World or Doomsday, it simply means “to be revealed.” success of the TV program The X-Files (strangely foreshadowed by Mysticism has become virtually synonymous with magic or divination but it Kirby as SHIELD’s “File 116” in Captain America) has spawned multiple means “the doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths said to imitators. UFOs, ghosts, ESP and other arcane topics have become transcend ordinary understanding.” Occult is another word whose meaning mainstream media fodder. There is a growing interest in all the various has been distorted. Many people today, particularly the uneducated, think fields of metaphysics, from shopping mall neo-Paganism to conspiracy “occult” means devil-worship or sorcery. But if one takes the time to look up theory newsgroups focused on occult secret societies like the Occult, the term actually means “beyond the range of ordinary knowledge.”) Illuminati. Social scientists have many hypotheses for this phenomenon. Some posit that the dehumanizing effect of the technological revolution has inspired an irrational backlash. Others state the hysteria is caused by the uncertainty of the new millennium and its attendant apocalyptic jitters, even though the year 2000 has no Biblical significance. Followers of the Swiss psychological pioneer Carl Jung theorize that human interest in the paranormal is an expression of subconscious symbols and yearnings. Still others simply see it as a recurring fad. A casual review of Jack Kirby’s enormous output will quickly show that occult, mythological and paranormal themes were featured in his work too. Perhaps someday Jungian scholars will analyze his work and present theories on the deep psychological motivations and repressed subconscious symbols of Jack’s space age mythography. I have no such expertise. If pressed, I would simply guess that Jack recognized that mysticism and the occult have always been the basis for entertaining stories since the time of Gilgamesh, and he saw himself in that hoary tradition. However, glimmers of a deeper interest sometimes peek through. In Ray Wyman’s biography of Jack Kirby, there is a revealing episode that in many ways foreshadowed Jack’s life and career. Wyman recounts how young Jacob Kurtzberg lay dying of pneumonia, a very serious disease in a time where antibiotics were not readily available, and quality health care was not available to poor immigrant families like his own. A group of rabbis were called in to perform an exorcism, in a last ditch effort to save Jacob’s life. They chanted in Hebrew, demanding that the demons leave Jack’s body. In the type of ritual that is recounted in the Gospels, the rabbis demanded the names of the demons, which in classical Jewish exorcisms allowed the rabbis to gain control over the demons. This ritual is the kind of religious custom that modern man scoffs at, of course. The only problem is, it worked. Wyman states quite clearly in The Art of Jack Kirby that “Kirby’s life was filled An early Merlin concept drawing which probably originally fit between pages 21 and 22 of Demon #1.
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these themes wholesale in Star Wars, conveniently renaming “the Source,” “the Force.” The 1970s was the flowering of Jack’s interest in the paranormal. Freed from the restraints of more conservative collaborators, Jack delved into these themes with gusto. Although books like Black Magic and Strange World Of Your Dreams dealt with strange phenomena, and books like Challengers of The Unknown were sprinkled with secret societies and sorcery, his black&-white magazine Spirit World set the stage for his work in the coming decade. In Spirit World, Jack delved into unexplained phenomena like astrology, spontaneous combustion and ESP. With research for Spirit World apparently still fresh in his mind, Jack incorporated a cult story (“The Sect”) and a séance into his Deadman crossover in Forever People, and a witchcraft coven story into Mister Miracle. Soon after the cancellation of the Fourth World, Jack dove head-first into the supernatural with The Demon—but aside from a smattering of stories dealing with witchcraft, Jack used The Demon to retell classic horror stories from his youth, including Frankenstein, The Wolfman and The Phantom of the Opera. Inspired by The Exorcist, Jack incorporated demonic possession with a sci-fi twist in the Kamandi story “The Exorcism.” Jack would revisit this theme a couple of years later with the Argon storyline in Captain America. Jack also developed Satan’s Six around this time, although it didn’t see the light of day until the Topps Kirbyverse campaign in the 1990s. Another common theme in the netherworld of Occult studies is the “secret society.” Jack had utilized the secret society before, most notably A.I.M. and Hydra in the Captain America/SHIELD storylines in the ’60s, but he explored the idea more exuberantly in the ’70s. Modern theories about nefarious secret societies spring from the much-embroidered legend of the This page from the unpublished Spirit World #2 finally saw print in DC’s Weird Mystery Tales #1. Bavarian Illuminati, a group of scholars and aristocrats founded in the 18th cenJack was a universe builder. He was clearly obsessed with the tury by Adam Weishaupt. The Illuminati sought to overthrow the pantheon of ancient mythologies, in particular the Greek and the Norse. monarchies of Europe and replace them with a government of In fact, Thor first appeared in a Golden Age episode of the Sandman. “enlightened ones,” mainly scholars and philosophers, hence the name Jack is also well known for designing pantheons of his own, drawing Illuminati. Although this group was forcibly dissolved two hundred heavily on those classic fables. His Fourth World titles tell us much: New years ago, folk legend has inflated their status immeasurably. Gods, Forever People, Mister Miracle. These stories dealt with a dualistic To contemporary fringe paranoids now, the Illuminati are the pantheon of gods, good and evil locked in eternal combat. Jack seems unseen architects of the coming “One World Government,” and they use to have been deeply influenced here by Manichaeism, an ancient Near the mythical all-seeing “Eye of Osiris” as their emblem. Jack apparently Eastern religion that had a powerful influence on religious thought in encountered these theories and incorporated them into OMAC, with the the West. The Persian faith of Zoroastrianism also professed a dualistic “Global Peace Agency” and the all-seeing “Brother Eye.” Another popbattle between Good and Evil. In this faith, the good or light is repreulist conspiracy theory concerns the threat of a revanchist British sented by Ahura Mazda and Spenta Mainyu and a spirit of evil, Angra monarchy who are using the media as a mind-control tool to reclaim Mainyu. However, Kirby expanded upon these theories, and added an America. Jack appropriated these themes and blended them with George all-encompassing “Source” that was invisible and unapproachable, Orwell’s 1984 for his brilliant “Madbomb” story in Captain America. The much like the Gnostic vision of God, who is ultimately incomprehentheme of a corrupt and conspiratorial aristocracy was also explored in sible, and lords over the lower Archons, the powers of the creation Black Panther with the Collectors. Jack also explored a more benign that Humankind is more familiar with. George Lucas later hijacked version of the Secret Society with his aborted Manhunter revival and 5
ing these elusive artifacts, they engage in scientific black magic. Kirby depicted this modern alchemy in Fantastic Four with the “Him” storyline and in Thor with the “High Evolutionary.” As mentioned before, the nefarious Royalist society developed the Madbomb to advance their ambitions, and the unrepentant Nazi Arnim Zola appeared in all his ghastly splendor in Captain America. The secret society known as New Genesis also seemed to be more scientific than magical with their Boom Tubes and Mother Boxes. And if Arthur C. Clarke is to be credited with inventing a communications satellite simply for writing about one, Kirby should be credited with inventing Virtual Reality, since he first depicted a form of V.R. in Jimmy Olsen, which he named the “Solar Phone.” The Eternals was the book where Kirby said he was trying to get “mystical.” In a 1984 interview in Comics Feature, Kirby recounted that he was trying to explore “where we came from.” The Eternals was a synthesis of past themes, most notably the Thor/New Gods pantheon theme, but it also incorporated then current pseudo-science, and parapsychology. The Bermuda Triangle theme was visited, as well as apocalyptic and genetic engineering themes, but Kirby’s main focus was to explore the themes of ancient alien visitation laid out in Erick Von Daniken’s Chariot of the Gods. In this book, Von Daniken proposed that the ancient gods mentioned in pre-Columbian South American mythology were actually extraterrestrial visitors. Kirby went to town with this idea on the first three issues of The Eternals, depicting vast and complex analogues of Mayan and Aztec art and presenting theories of alien genetic engineering. For reasons unknown, these themes were dropped and The Eternals quickly became standard boilerplate, with a Judgment Day backdrop that was never fully developed. The fact that the Judgement Day angle was never developed was telling. Kirby usually shied away from Judeo-Christian themes in his work. His Bible illustrations were seemingly done for Jack’s own amusement and were only released posthumously. And those images tended to be Eternals type depictions of Biblical stories. One of Jack’s most famous depictions of God showed him turning his back on a pleading yet defiant humanity, almost like a scene from the Book of Job. The Silver Surfer was clearly developed by Jack also used the “eye” symbol in conjunction with the Reincarnators, as shown here from Demon #3. Stan Lee to be a messiah figure, but Jack’s own view of the character was far more ambiguous. the Secret City Saga. The theme of a select group of individuals working Jack seemed to take a dim view of religious extremism, correctly seeing in secret to change the world, whether for good or ill, was obviously a it as another form of fascism personified by Glorious Godfrey and Kirby obsession. Darius Drumm. The former was a servant of Darkseid—Jack’s SatanOccultist and Conspiracy theorists claim the pursuit of holy or magfigure—and the latter became the literal Angel of Death. ical talismans is of supreme importance to these cultish secret societies. Jack was understandably hesitant to discuss his own beliefs. He was Hitler’s obsession with finding the Spear of Destiny, the Holy Grail and interested in sharing ideas, but never proselytized. Whereas all the the Ark of the Covenant was exploited to great effect by George Lucas various phantasmagoria of the occult and supernatural made for in the brilliant Indiana Jones films. Perhaps Lucas was again inspired exciting comics, Jack’s spiritual inclination was probably very intimate by his study of Jungian scholar Joseph Campbell when he made these and personal. He may have come across his personal demarcation films, but based on his successful appropriation of Kirby’s themes for with The Eternals, and backed off a bit. Jack’s main goal was to enterthe Star Wars movies, perhaps he returned to the well for inspiration tain and to sell comics, which is probably why the Bible imagery was and took cues from Kirby’s Black Panther series, since that book dealt not released during his lifetime—but as popular culture continues to almost exclusively with the adventurous search for magical talismans. explore “extreme possibilities,” we can celebrate the work of a man who was out on the edge first. ➌ According to modern folklore, when these secret cults aren’t pursu6
Simon & Kirby’s VISION Of The Golden Age! by R.J. Vitone or years Jack Kirby said that Joe Simon was the major moving business force of their team. Early in 1940, Simon established that rep by finding freelance work for both at multiple comics publishers. Their art and stories appeared in Blue Bolt at Novelty, Champion Comics at Harvey, and Red Raven #1 at Timely. In quick order, S&K began producing more material for Timely, moving over to that publisher’s flagship title. Marvel Mystery #12 (10/’40) features a classic Angel cover by Kirby. (The interior Angel story was by Paul Gustavson, the artist who created the character. Oddly enough, this was the last time The Angel would be cover featured.) Everything was set. Simon & Kirby had arrived. But what would they do? The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner were the stars of the book, and The Angel was also highly rated. Past that, the rest of Marvel Mystery’s 64 pages was filler. Timely had more second- and third-rate heroes than just about any Golden Age publisher, a fact proven by how few were ever given their own titles. With virtually no restrictions, S&K set out to fill the void for a strong new character. The cover of Marvel Mystery #13 (11/’40) featured the Torch, but something new had been added. A strip along the spine showed other featured stars of the book. On top was the legend “Sensational New Feature...The Vision.” With no other fanfare, The Vision’s first story was a slick combo of super-science and the supernatural. The elements are appealing: A famous scientist’s life work to break the dimensional barrier between our world and “the so-called beyond” is interrupted by vengeful gangsters. (Basically, a similar theme would be used in the near future in the first Captain America story, with a Nazi agent doing the damage.) The experiment is a success, as the bridge to other dimensions turns
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out to be simple smoke. Out of the thick swirling mists rises a cloaked, green-skinned figure who calls himself Aarkus, Destroyer of Evil. Pretty heady stuff! Remember, this is 1940. For the most part, there were not many ghostly figures rising out of smoke as avenging angels of death on comics pages! Over at DC in early 1940, More Fun Comics #52 & #53 had begun the long-running Spectre series. In style and appearance, The Vision is quite similar. The Spectre was a grim, humorless hero, who assumed the human identity of police detective Jim Corrigan. As the Spectre, he used a variety of supernatural powers to destroy crime. The body count of early Spectre stories was high, but the house style at DC soon changed, and the grim character softened much over the next few years. If Simon & Kirby had seen and talked about the Spectre strip before creating The Vision, then they distilled the best the DC feature had to offer, and added their own power and style to the mix. For the first time anywhere, here’s a full run-down of the Simon & Kirby classic Vision series: • Marvel Mystery #13 (11/’40, 8 pages, unsigned): The fast-paced origin story opens with a 2⁄3 splash page and weaves a neat path between the scientific aspects and the earth-bound plans of some stock Kirby hoods. The Vision quickly dispatches a few thugs and assumes a “secret identity” as a suit-wearing gent. In no time at all, he throws off the disguise and saves the young daughter of the head scientist, then captures the remaining hoods. (He ties them up in their own pants!) The story ends with the grateful pair wondering if The Vision will return. The art on this first strip is strictly Simon & Kirby, very similar in style to their Blue Bolt work. The layouts are rushed (8 pages, remember?), and their trademark action is in full force. Not the team’s best work of this period, but above average. By the way, The Vision was never called “Aarkus” again.
(top) The Vision’s first appearance, from Marvel Mystery #13. (above) MM #13 2/3 splash. 7
• Marvel Mystery #14 (12/’40, 7 pages, unsigned): Another fast-paced story opens with a 2⁄3 splash, with a tormented man accosting an expert on “occult research” at his home. As midnight tolls the man turns into a drooling werewolf. As the two struggle, The Vision rises out of the smoke of the doctor’s pipe. The doctor is dead, the wolf escapes. But The Vision is on his trail. The story becomes a talky showdown between an evil female werewolf and the first werewolf. The Vision arrives in time to kill the worst one and wrap it up. The rushed pace shows in the art, with more Kirby pencils showing through than in the first story. The inks, heavy over the first few pages, lighten
the run. Also note that while “Barney Bailey” could refer to the popular circus, it also is the name of the artist of the DC Spectre strip! • Marvel Mystery #17 (3/’41, 7 pages, 2⁄3 splash, unsigned): At this point the art style of the strip turns sharply downward. Pushing out the new monthly Cap title must have forced Jack to devote much less time to the Vision than before, and this episode shows it! The villain is a stock gangster, intent on taking over the Nationwide Trucking business. The war that ensues draws the Vision who helps the honest truckers defeat the thugs. The climax of the story shows the unheroic image of the Vision chasing the head hood to his doom in a sleek red sports car. In a scene right out of the Spectre, the Vision’s eyes scare the crook off the road to his death. Static and stilted, the art is bare S&K layouts with house inkers doing most of the damage. A sudden low point for the series, right down to a final blurb that calls the Vision the “Master Ghost!” • Marvel Mystery #18 (4/’41, 7 pages, unsigned): The Vision makes his final cover appearance with this issue. He rises from the smoke of a murderer’s gun in a dramatic 2⁄3 splash. The plot creaks: Shifty politicians and greedy hoods bump off a rival and frame a dedicated D.A. Out of the smoke comes our hero, who mops up the mob and vindicates the wrongly accused. Kirby did more in this story than the last, but overall it’s still a weak effort. The layouts are thin and the story offers little chance for dramatic impact. Below average.
• markedly near the end. All in all, an average story. • Marvel Mystery #15 (1/’41, 7 pages, unsigned): The series begins its best streak with this entry. A great 2⁄3 splash signals a deadly conflict between a fake fortune teller and The Vision. A greedy family member plots to steal his aged aunt’s fortune via her belief in the occult. The Vision arrives to stop the plot. A very Captain America-like battle is the result, but The Vision still has to crash a spooky seance to save the day. This is almost pure Kirby. The art and story are wide open and running in every direction. More stock characters show up. You’d recognize the sweet old rich aunt from countless Kirby pages. The young ward is 100% Betty Ross from the Cap strip. And some slick smoke effects that signal the arrival of The Vision are used to fine effect. Above average! • Marvel Mystery #16 (2/’41, 7 pages, unsigned): The cover strip with a Vision logo is used again, and the interior story (with 2⁄3 splash) is the best of the run. The Barney Bailey Circus has a unique new attraction: Living, breathing dinosaurs hatched from eggs found in Siberian ice! Even as the press interviews the promoter, an electrical storm causes the scared giants to bust out. Panic spreads as they destroy the city, and The Vision takes action. He quickly destroys one of the beasts, then brushes aside some petty thugs to toss a case of TNT down the throat of a tyrannosaurus. The Vision exits via the smoke from the blast. This is what Simon & Kirby built their reps on: A superhero battling giant foes that are beyond our wildest dreams. The combination of The Lost World and the rampaging destruction caused by the dinosaurs creates a vivid, unforgettable image. The art is comparable to the first few issues of Captain America (CA #1 was released within a month of this story), with the influence of other inkers clearly showing. But the power of Kirby’s pencils remains, and the rushed drama hits home. This is perhaps the highest point of
• Marvel Mystery #19 (5/’41, 6 pages, unsigned): War fever finally catches up with the strip, as the Vision appears over a Nazi concentration camp in France. The 2⁄3 splash shows a giant Vision menacing tiny germans firing up at him. The story opens fast, as a Nazi executioner is about to cut short the life of a freedom-loving author. The Vision bursts in and his attack sparks the prisoners to rise up. Once again we’re treated to the sight of the Vision at the wheel of a vehicle as he and the author make their escape. They blast their way out and fly off in a stuka. Case closed. Kirby took a vacation on this one, as
(top) MM #13: Classic Kirby humor and swirling smoke! (above) 2/3 splash from MM #15. 8
• crooked contractor. In no time at all, the Vision confronts the villain and forces a confession out of him. The Vision fades into the smoke with the thanks of the investigating Senator. The strain of the team’s output shows in this story. There are Simon layouts, Kirby pencils, possibly some Syd Shores inks, some Avison inks, and evidence of even more hands! Kirby’s work shows in a few panels, mostly in a nicely-realized full-page fight scene. But the message was clear by this time—S&K were on the way elsewhere. • Marvel Mystery #22 (8/’41, 51⁄2 pages, unsigned): Imprisoned in a Wizard’s crystal ball, the Vision kicks off this little story in style! An explorer’s ship vanishes in the antarctic, and the Vision rises from “low-hanging vapors” to investigate. But he is unprepared for Khor, the Black Sorcerer. (For the first time, the Vision meets a foe as powerful as he is!) They battle, and Khor gets the upper hand. His plan? To populate his time-lost world with human slaves. When the Vision attacks, Khor freezes him, and uses him as a bookend! Those low hanging vapors free our hero, and he attacks Khor again. • Case closed again! The story flashes by, and this time Syd Shores adds much to the mix. Working over Kirby layouts, Shores pulled this epic together. Without the rush and confusion of recent issues, the finished result is very pleasing. There’s plenty of action, and Khor is an effective foe. Above average, S&K or not.
Marvel Mystery #15: Ka-Pow!!! Looks like a Captain America brawl! only his barest pencils show through. Some of the stock stuff is there; the Nazis are right out of CA # 5 (“Killers of the Bund”) and the Vision plants a bee-yoo-tee-ful sleeper punch on a guard; but the inks are weak, the story is short, and the action is dull. The idea of the Vision fighting Nazis should have produced better results. • Marvel Mystery #20 (6/’41, 6 pages, unsigned): A major rebound all around, with a return to the earlier sci-fi/horror style. Also a Kirby favorite: This was the strange case of Experiment 36-B, The Killer Weed! From a 2⁄3 splash of the Vision battling an Invisible Man-style foe, the story begins with the discovery of the tenth victim of a vampire-like killer. The Vision seeks clues in a lab, where he finds the journal of a dead scientist. In it is the tale of the creation of a manplant. (If you’ve seen the ’51 film “The Thing,” this may sound familiar. The Vision reads, “He’s growing fast... the first of his species... He shows signs of intelligence... The raw beef makes excellent soil for his nourishment... His young strong roots dig deeply and drain the blood hungrily!”) Now that he knows what he’s looking for, the Vision quickly confronts the leafy horror; a battle, a torch, and the man-plant dies screaming in flames. Neat stuff, and neatly done as well. Kirby put effort into this one. The Vision glides through shadows, set against interesting backgrounds. The man-plant (a much-repeated Kirby creature) is played as something between a classic vampire and a crazed-for-life tormented soul, and the art shines, with solid S&K showing through. All-in-all, above average. • Marvel Mystery #21 (7/’41, 7 pages, unsigned): The S&K work on the strip begins to taper off at this point. The 2⁄3 splash (by Timely staffer Al Avison) kicks off a cluttered story of political corruption and criminal graft. When a school building collapses, the Vision arrives to punish the
• Marvel Mystery #23 (9/’41, 7 pages, unsigned): Meet Kai-Mak, the Shark God! A great 2⁄3 splash has the Vision battling a 12-foot walking shark over a blond sacrifice! Here’s another top entry in the series, the one to own if you want a great example of the run. What else could you ask for; an intelligent shark-monster, a tribe of terrified natives, a scientist and his lovely daughter seeking and menaced by the shark-god, and the Vision. Natives dressed as sharks prepare to toss fresh blood to Kai-Mak when the Vision rises out of the flames to stop them. Captured, he must face the shark-god in its own waterworld. An epic battle, and the “god” is no more. Now the natives worship the “smoke-god,” and two rescued people wonder who it was that saved them. Exciting, fun stuff, with lots of Kirby touches. KaiMak (like the killer weed) is a prototype for many monsters to come off of Jack’s drawing board. The action is first-rate, the full-page battle is fine, and the story ends too fast! Above average! • Marvel Mystery #24 (10/’41, 7 pages, unsigned): Captain America #7 was on sale this month, as well as Young Allies #1, so S&K were on
Marvel Mystery #17: A very “Spectre-like” scene. (But why does the Vision use a car?) 9
the way out of Timely’s bullpen by the time this strip was finished. For the first time, nearly a full-page splash opens the tale. A giant armored invader from a “dust dimension” rises from a wrecked defense plant to battle a flying Vision. Grosso, from the World of War Dust comes to cripple earth’s arsenals so his race can conquer ours. He begins by crushing the helpless plant workers, but the Vision shows up. One twist here is that the two know each other. They battle, but the plant blows up. Disguising himself as a factory worker, the Vision waits to confront the invader again. Needless to say, the Vision fades away victorious in a cloud of smoke. Fast and loose, this story falls flat. A good villain opening up new areas to exploit is “dusted” off in short order. Maybe that’s the way S&K wanted it at this point. Jack’s pencils are evident through the entire story, but an army of inkers covers up the best. Below average. • Marvel Mystery #25 (11/’41, 7 pages, unsigned): A wonderfully symbolic 2⁄3 splash of the Vision confronting a mad school teacher (yes, school teacher) set against a raging thunderstorm. Professor Zagnar, angered by his peers’ rejection of his work, runs off to study black magic to get even. It works. In no time at all he’s tossing thunderbolts into town. The Vision arrives, and a mighty battle rages over 31⁄2 pages. Just as victory seems to be his, Zagnar is blasted by lighting. The Vision wraps it up and fades away. Much tighter, this story features a great battle sequence filled with Kirby-isms: Dynamic layouts, action, stretched limbs, and fiery blasts. It’s too bad Zagnar is so dull. Had this been Grosso, this would have been a great story. As it is, even the tighter Kirby art and outstanding battle still add up to produce an average issue. Note that this is the only Vision story ever reprinted by Marvel in the mid-’60s. • Marvel Mystery #26 (12/’41, 7 pages, unsigned): This should have been called “The Return of the Weed.” A full-page splash shows a frantic Vision ensnared by a giant tree/weed from outer space. A meteor lands in the field of a biology researcher, who promptly plants MM #23 splash: One of the top entries in the Kirby run. The shark’s got a Hitler hairstyle! seeds from it in fertile soil. Results? Killer plants walk to spread death and grow to giant size. The Vision is soon on the Devil himself (“L.S.” to the boys) is a schedule-bound tyrant. An case, and a talk with the researcher puts him on the right track. The agent is sent to the great city, and in no time, riots and crime break plants are destroying a nearby town, and it’s the scientist who saves out! The Vision meets the evil menace head on. Unmasked, the the day. He tells the Vision how to kill the weeds, and the Vision Devil flees, the city patches itself up, and the Vision, for the last time floats away again. Quick and breezy, with lots of sci-fi scares thrown by Kirby, fades away. Plenty of Avison inks do justice to this fine story, in, S&K walked a now-familiar path with which has everything: Plot, art, action, and this tale. The art is steady, and Al Avison a war-time message—Americans must did most of the inks. The result is solid, work together to defeat a common enemy. but overall the story falls flat. Just average. Many nice touches are thrown in, and the final chapter of S&K’s Vision closes on a • Marvel Mystery #27 (1/’42, 7 pages, grand scale. unsigned): The boys were gone from Timely by the time this issue came out, With the next issue, The Vision was but their sense of professional pride handed over to Al Avison. He and fellow shines through here. A great full-page Timely staffers Al Gabriele and Syd Shores splash of the Vision face-to-face with the would handle the strip for nearly two more Devil with the world’s fate in the balance years. The series ended in Marvel Mystery opens the story. A quick tour of Hell #48, and The Vision stayed in limbo until finds the Devil’s angels unhappy; a town Stan Lee and Roy Thomas revamped and in the USA is completely free of evil, and returned him in Avengers #57. He’s still the boss doesn’t like it! S&K’s view of around today; check him out for old times’ Hell is a riot. It’s a well-run office, with sake, but be careful. A giant weed may demons in suits as flunkies, and the show up! ➌ Marvel Mystery #23: That’s one angry Shark-God! 10
Classic Monsters From Tales Of Suspense! by Tony Seybert n late 1958, Jack Kirby moved from DC to Marvel and began collab• The monster must be an alien (although I some times use a broad orating with Stan Lee on, well, everything. Kirby penciled dozens, sense of the term). maybe hundreds, of westerns, war comics, and horror/fantasy tales • The story in which the monster appears must be a ripping good yarn for Marvel in the three years before the first issue of The Fantastic Four (which is why I don’t include the dreary Gor-kill story from TOS #12). appeared in the last half of 1961. • It must be drawn by Jack Kirby. The debut issues of three new horror/fantasy/science-fiction titles coincided rather neatly with Kirby’s return. Strange Worlds #1 was If 4 or 5 of these criteria can be applied to a particular creature, cover-dated December 1958 and the first issues of Tales of Suspense and the lucky beastie can be considered a classic monster! Tales To Astonish appeared soon after with a January 1959 date. All three of the new periodicals were similar in format to the long-running Strange Tales and Journey Into Mystery. Strange Worlds only lasted five How well I remember coming across Tales of Suspense #9 (May ’60) issues and was cancelled the same month as yet another fantasy at a convention in Indianapolis in the series, World of Fantasy. It seems likely that the late ’70s. I was 14 or 15, a big number of weird comics was reduced to four Iron Man fan, looking for so that the prolific but not superearly TOS appearances of human Kirby (who was the Golden Avenger. Iron working on several nonMan was completely forfantasy titles as well) gotten when I discovered... could contribute to every “DIABLO! The Demon issue of the remaining From The Fifth titles. From late 1959 to Dimension!!” (That cover late 1961, Kirby provided has 14 exclamation points, the art for at least one including 6 in a single balstory, sometimes two, to loon of only 7 words!!!) almost every issue of I’m reluctant to say Tales of Suspense, Tales To the cover is one of Kirby’s best Astonish, Strange Tales, and Journey because all of Kirby’s covers are A collection of classic Kirby Into Mystery. He drew all but a handgreat, but it certainly made an impression on monsters. ful of the covers as well. me. Diablo is a horrible creature of dark Characters The ‘classic monsters’ for which © Marvel Entertainment, Inc. smoke, colored black, purthis period is remembered developed ple, and dark blue as he gradually. There were monsters of rises from behind an outone sort or another in many of the cropping of stone and menearliest of the Kirby stories, such aces a search party of four as “The Creature from Planet Kirby stock characters. The X” in Strange Worlds #4, or the city, presumably Diablo’s benevolent luna lizards in eventual target, lies unproTales of Suspense #6. In TOS tected in the distance. The #7, The Molten Man-Thing background is an irresistible appears and scares everybody bright red. I had to have it!! before wandering amiably (Actually, I had seen Diablo back to his volcano. Monstro, before. In Hulk Annual #5, from TOS #8, is the first Kirby Xemnu, The Living Titan—himmonster to be given a proper self a refugee of pre-hero Marvel monname (instead of merely described, ster comics and known originally as The Hulk— like “The Molten Man-Thing”) in the had made replicas of other aliens of pages of Tales of Suspense. However, the period, including Diablo. I Monstro seems to be lacking a certain had long been curious about something as a candidate for classic monthese ancient beings.) ster status; he turns out to be a confused, mutant The narrator is an unnamed octopus who shrinks back to his normal size after a few days and adventurer whose curiosity is aroused by a story overheard in a swims away. It was with Tales of Suspense #9 that the classic monsters Trinidad cafe. The Aztecs of the Sierra Madre mountains have reported began their bi-monthly (soon to be monthly) invasions of Earth. a giant smoke demon lurking near their village. Within days, the In judging monsters, I have a list of characteristics that each must impetuous protagonist has found the village at the same moment as possess before it can be considered a ‘classic monster’: its inhabitants are hurriedly evacuating. The Smoke Demon is coming! • The monster must be the cover feature. The villagers call it Diablo and tell the hero to flee. • The creature must have a proper name (example: Colossus) and not Diablo appears, and through mental telepathy explains that he merely be described in the title (like “The Creature From Nowhere”). has travelled the furthest reaches of space for untold ages, searching for a new planet for his over-populated people. Diablo plans to wipe • It must be a menace to Earth. 11
I
DIABLO
out all mankind and, as he is made up of gas and is thus invulnerable to all three-dimensional weapons, the demon from the Fifth Dimension appears to be perfectly capable of carrying out this threat. Fortunately, our adventurer is a quick thinker. (It also helps that Diablo, for all his power, is a moron.) The hero blows away the smoke caused by a cigarette lighter and convinces Diablo that the smoke demon is similarly at risk. Diablo runs shrieking back to the Fifth Dimension. Earth is saved! The ending is kind of goofy, but what do you expect in 7 pages? I thought it was goofy way back in 1979 when I first read it, but I enjoyed it anyway. I still like it. You get used to endings like that when you read fantasy or suspense anthology comics. It’s far more important for these stories to be creative, inventive, and fun than it is for them to be logical. (And maybe the cigarette lighters of 1960 really did create smoke in a vaguely humanoid shape!) The art is by Kirby and his frequent Marvel collaborator, inker Dick Ayers. Most of the monsters by Kirby and Ayers had a very distinctive thick-lined look that would not be confused with the work of any other artist, but Diablo is the odd exception. As a gaseous smoke creature, Diablo is a swirly blob with only the occasional semblance of a face. Although it looks like a Kirby/Ayers story from the background and the other figures (the Aztecs are notable), the monster, though horrifyingly effective, is not an obvious Kirby creation. I am not criticizing Jack’s work here; I am merely noting the anomaly that is Diablo.
led to a pit of quicksand and, when the scientist tosses his sugar-covered lab coat into the bog, Sporr follows and is quickly consumed. Earth is saved! (Although I have never understood how Sporr could be defeated by quicksand when he is immune to being blown to bits in an explosion.) Okay, so Sporr doesn’t fit all the criteria since he’s not an alien and he’s really not much of a menace to Earth. But, as a whole, it’s too cool not to include it as a classic monster, despite the dumb ending.
ELEKTRO Elektro, from Tales of Suspense #13 (the first monthly issue, dated January 1961), is not an alien either, but he does pose quite a threat to Earth. And if you’re looking for a goofy ending, this tale is notable for that reason alone. Elektro is a gigantic, evil-looking, bluegrey robot. On the cover, he towers over the city, impervious to the missiles being launched against him as the helpless, cowering humans stare fearfully from windows and rooftops. “ELEKTRO! He Held The World In His Iron Grip!”, again drawn by Kirby and inked by Ayers, begins with Wilbur Poole, an electronics expert, admiring his newest creation, the most intelligent computer on Earth. An unexplained accident gives the computer free will, telepathy, and an irresistible power of hypnosis which it uses to enthrall Poole. Forced to obey, the entranced scientist builds a huge, invulnerable robot body (which doesn’t look that much like the metallic monster on the cover) to house the evil artificial intelligence. It names itself Elektro, crashes out of the laboratory, and declares war on mankind. At the end of seven pages of conflict, Elektro is defeated when Poole, after the trance has worn off, stealthily enters a door in Elektro’s foot and removes his batteries! (The text calls the removed part a ‘transistor’ but Stan Lee always uses ‘transistor’ incorrectly, notably in the Iron Man feature in TOS.) Elektro has just enough energy left to bemoan his cruel fate as he collapses into a heap of scrap metal. Earth is saved! I laughed out loud the first time I read this in a ’70s reprint a few years ago (Where Creatures Dwell, Where Monsters Roam, I forget). I laughed when I purchased my own copy of TOS #13 last year and I laughed when I read it again while researching this article. Laughter must count for something in this cruel world.
SPORR Tales of Suspense #11 features a more characteristic Kirby creation in the 7-page “I Created SPORR! The Thing That Could Not Die!”, also inked by Ayers. Sporr is a giant, tentacled amoeba, shown on the cover overflowing the walls of a Central European castle and panicking the villagers. On the cover and splash page, Sporr is shown with big, creepy, dead black eyes that never appear in the story, but they sure make the monster amoeba look scary! The narrator is a scientist who has moved into the castle on the forbidden mountain where, according to local legend, Frankenstein gave life to his monster. The scientist is perfecting his growth ray, a device that will put an end to world hunger when it is used to increase the size of livestock and other food supplies. The superstitious villagers, fearing the legend that only evil can emanate from the castle, batter down the door and interrupt an experiment in which a tiny amoeba is being subjected to the growth ray. As a result of the interference, the amoeba is bathed in the light of the growth ray for an extended period of time, grows into a huge, orange blob, and threatens to engulf the town. The villagers try to stop Sporr with dynamite, blowing the monster to bits, but the pieces immediately regroup and Sporr is as big and menacing as ever. The scientist concocts a desperate plan! Realizing the mindless creature is instinctively searching for food, the scientist coats himself with sugar and then attracts Sporr’s attention. Sporr is
COLOSSUS Tales of Suspense #14 features an 18-page epic titled “I Created The COLOSSUS!” The narrator, Boris Petrovski, is a sculptor who lives on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. He is forced by the secret police to create a mammoth, foreboding figure of stone as a totalitarian symbol of power and authority, to show the masses who’s boss. After the statue is finished, Boris is consumed with guilt for his complicity and unable to sleep. A crustaceanlike alien crash-lands nearby and demonstrates his unearthly power by merging with the Colossus, taking over the statue and controlling its movements. The alien is afraid of the new and strange environment of Earth and it has taken over the Colossus to protect itself until it can be rescued by its 12
was intrigued by this strange creature from the very first. The original story, inked by Dick Ayers in Tales of Suspense #15, is one of the best of all the Lee/Kirby monster stories. The cover shows a horrible, ugly, grey monster with wing-like skin flaps uprooting a tree and scattering the tiny Earthlings! With tiny shark eyes and mastodonic teeth, he revels in his extravagant abuse of power! On the inside, Goom looks quite a bit different, more like a giant vermillion bathtoy. (Admittedly, a very sinister bathtoy.) Goom is quite a protean beast, changing subtly from page to page and often from one panel to the next. His eyes grow and shrink; he occasionally displays a nose-like protuberance; in several panels, he seems to be wearing underpants. In the 13-page “GOOM! The Thing From Planet X!”, the narrator, Mark, is an astronomer/psychologist attempting to communicate with extraterrestrial life in order to prove his theory that there are unknown inhabited planets in the solar system. Analyzing radar beams, Mark discovers a planet hidden by Jupiter and calls it ‘Planet X.’ His searching rays have not gone undetected and Earth is soon visited by the alien monster known as Goom! The thing from Planet X runs amok and threatens to enslave the Earth with his advanced mental powers and amazing technology. He demands that all the people of Earth submit to his domination or be annihilated!! Mark, being a brilliant scientist, has a plan. He again uses his apparatus to communicate with Planet X, to entice more aliens to Earth. The other humans think he must have gone insane but his plan works! As a psychologist, Mark has deduced that a race as advanced as Goom’s must have renounced war and violence ages ago and he is correct. Goom is an outcast, a shunned creature, and his people hurry to Earth to put a stop to his tyranny. Goom is dragged away by the interplanetary fuzz of Planet X and Earth is saved! (Of course, in the pre-hero Marvel monster comics, there are also a bunch of highly-advanced alien races that are very nasty! Mark was just lucky that he pegged Goom’s race correctly. Still, this is one of the better endings for this type of tale.) Mark returns in Tales of Suspense #17 in a story titled “Beware Of GOOGAM, Son Of GOOM!!” The first visitor from Planet X left behind an infant son who hid in a cave while waiting for his powers to develop. Googam, in contrast to his sire, stays visually consistent through the story, and he’s definitely wearing underpants! The Googam story is actually a taut suspense thriller, much more restricted than many of the other monster tales. The whole story takes place in and around Mark’s house, nestled in the generic American
own kind. Threatened by the rambunctious government officials, Colossus, under the control of the alien, immediately begins wrecking havoc. Chapter One ends here. Chapter Two is titled “The Colossus Lives!” and begins with the Colossus wrecking a submarine. He generally creates chaos in the ranks of all the various branches of the Red Army for several pages and there are numerous large panels of unhindered destruction, with art by Kirby and Ayers. Chapter Three, “The Power Of The Colossus!”, opens with old stone-face destroying the Air Force. At the end of the story, the alien is rescued by other crab-like aliens and the Colossus is left immobile. Boris tells the worried and fearful government men that the Colossus was guided by a higher power that wanted to punish them for the evil of their totalitarian ways. Thus, the Iron Curtain comes down as the Communist regime gives freedom to its people and makes the first steps in establishing peace with the West. (There’s a note from the editor asking readers to write and express their feelings about full-length stories. Since this appeared only nine months before Fantastic Four #1, I guess the response was positive.) Colossus returned in TOS #20 (August 1961) in a 13-page story titled “Colossus Lives Again!” The aliens from the first story renounce ages of peace and harmony, and, working their crab-like bodies into a frenzy, decide to conquer Earth using the Colossus. The crab-creatures take over the stone figure as it is being shipped to America for public exhibition. Making his way to Southern California, Colossus rises on the beach and threatens the Hollywood community, including Bob, a scenery designer who narrates Part Two. Bob quickly figures out a way to outwit the threat of the aliens and their granite proxy. He organizes a gang of technicians and they build a huge orange monster out of wood and plaster, much larger than Colossus and rigged to explode! When the aliens possessing Colossus encounter the larger creature, they decide to abandon the stone monster and use this seemingly more formidable weapon against the Earthlings. (Isn’t this a lot like one of Aesop’s fables?) They are quickly blown to bits and Earth is saved. Colossus (and Bob) returned for a few issues of Astonishing Tales during the monster craze of the ’70s and was eventually pounded into gravel by the Hulk.
GOOM & SON Of all the Kirby monsters, my favorite is Goom! I first saw him (actually, it was a replica) in the Hulk Annual mentioned above and I 13
wilderness. Mark’s son Billy is home from military school and looking for fun in the mountains near the family home. He explores a cave, finds the son of Goom, and is quickly captured! Googam holds the little family hostage as he waits until his growth and powers are complete, at which time he will take over the family business and enslave mankind! His powers grow as he terrorizes the family and makes his plans. But Billy has a plan of his own. He challenges Googam to a game of ‘Tag’ and then tricks him into running through a convenient nearby pit of quicksand! Googam disappears into the swampy ground as Billy giggles safely from a tree branch. Earth is saved! “Will Googam return?? What, dear reader, do you think??” is written at the bottom of the page. But Googam never returned and we’re all the poorer for his absence.
METALLO & The GREEN THING Tales of Suspense #16 features “The Thing Called METALLO!” about a common criminal who manages to work his way onto the payroll of a top secret government project. An indestructible metal suit, a one-man mini-tank, is being tested and the criminal is chosen as the test subject to wear the suit under various adverse conditions. He realizes the suit is an excellent place to hide from the law. As Metallo, he survives several dangerous tests of the suit’s strength, including a nuclear explosion! Realizing his power and no longer afraid of the law, Metallo defies the government and strikes out on his own, planning to forge a criminal underground kingdom and terrorize the nation. He goes to Alcatraz (which wouldn’t close as a federal penal institution until 1963) to release the prisoners that will be his army. However, he becomes seriously ill with a ‘malignant disease’ (presumably cancer) and is unable to receive treatment unless he exposes himself to capture by climbing out of the suit and relinquishing his Metallo identity. What a dilemma! The story ends without a resolution as the figure of Metallo stands alone in the desert and ponders his fate. “THE GREEN THING!” (TOS #19) fails to meet three of my requirements for classic status: It is an evolved plant, not an alien; it never represents much of a threat to Earth; and since it’s known only as ‘The Green Thing,’ it doesn’t have a proper name (like Plankto, maybe?). I included it anyway because it’s so much fun! The hero is a balding botanist with a theory that plants are intelligent. He develops a serum that will increase the intelligence of plants so he will be recognized by his peers. He then travels to a small island off the coast of Australia to test his theory. He is searching for a specific plant, the rare Ignatius Rex, the most highly-developed of all plant life. Unfortunately, Ignatius Rex proves to be elusive, so the botanist experiments on the nearest available weed. The lucky weed quickly grows to eight feet in height, speaks faltering English, uproots itself, and learns to walk within minutes. The green thing also develops delusions of grandeur and an obsessive thirst for world domination! Trying to gain possession of the growth serum to create an army of obedient plant-soldiers, the green thing chases the botanist, throws boulders, forces him into the ocean, and generally terrorizes the poor guy all over the island. That’s gratitude for you! Exhausted by his exertions, the botanist eventually seeks refuge in a cave where he finds... Ignatius Rex! With nothing to lose, he injects the serum into the tiny crimson plant which grows into a good-hearted, scarlet, entlike creature that promptly beats the sap out of the green thing! Ignatius Rex warns the botanist against tampering with the forces of nature. The botanist departs in a rowboat, leaving the giant Ignatius Rex waving at him from the shore. (How can you not love that story?) ➌
Tales of Suspense #31: Dr. Doom’s beginnings?
Tales of Suspense #32: An early Dr. Strange?
Tales of Suspense #13: Spider-Man’s Electro? 14
Were They Prototypes? by Mike Gartland hose of us who were teenagers in the late ’50s and early ’60s flaming beings, men who grew, etc., and once back at Marvel he began remember well the many great and interesting sci-fi and adventure producing similar stories. Are we to believe that these monster stories tales produced by Marvel. These stories were predominated by introduced prototypes of the superheroes that came later? If we do, then Jack Kirby’s incredible visuals of aliens and—especially—monsters. Not there must be prototypes of these prototypes in the DC stories pubto take away the contributions of other fine artists such as Everett, lished before them, and before them, etc. Jack was merely re-using good Sinnott, Reinman, Colan, Ayers, Heck and Ditko; but it generally was ideas and gimmicks in his latest creations, but he never inferred a conJack’s job to get something visually compelling on those covers every nection because he knew—and we all should know—there wasn’t any. month to get a child’s—and occasionally an adult’s—attention. To this It was fandom—and of course dealers—who inferred a connection end Jack gave many of his creations a special power or ability, a “gimbetween pre-hero and hero Marvel. Fandom merely wanted to bring mick” if you will. One creature would have electrical powers, one was these great Kirby creations into the present-day Marvel Universe, to of fire, one was of mud or water, an alien would resemble a giant spider interact with the superheroes, keep their memory alive, and have some or dragon, giant robots had men inside and so on. It should also be fun. Unfortunately, in an effort to keep fans informed, things got a little noted that none of these spectacular creations appeared in Marvel preout of hand; instead of using pre-hero as a point of reference, a more hero books before Jack’s arrival; a testament to his creative abilities. direct link to the superheroes was being attempted. This is where, I’m In the early 1970s, the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide began to sorry to say, profit became the directive over fact; dealers saw a chance to gain prominence, and when some sharp-eyed fan noticed in Strange increase the value of more books, and this is the problem. Tales #97 that Ditko had drawn an old lady that resembled SpiderLet’s look at some of these prototypes: Man’s Aunt May—and that this issue was There are at least three Dr. Strange protoprinted before Amazing Fantasy #15—the types listed; it appears that anyone who was guide duly noted it. There was nothing a magician or sorcerer at Marvel between wrong with this per se; Overstreet was 1958 and 1961 is a prototype of Dr. Strange, reporting what was reported to them. The whether he resembled him or not. You want book was still part of its run (ie. Strange the prototype to all these guys, plus Dr. Tales #90-100 @ $2.00 ea.) and only this Strange, and many others like DC’s Zatara? small note of information distinguished it Check out Mandrake (Zatara’s got his tux from the others. By the late ’70s interest and Dr. Strange got the mustache). was re-ignited in the market and was, of Look at the Electro prototypes: One is a course, reflected in price. By this time the robot, the other is an alien being composed Aunt May appearance in Strange Tales is of electricity. The alien is reaching enough, separated from its run and is now $4.00 but how does the robot connect with a more; was it nostalgia that sparked these Spider-Man villain?! price increases or something else? This was What about the Spider-Man prototype the beginning of a trend... and a problem. listed in JIM #73—a giant spider that A few years pass again and by the midtalks? This was an inspiration for Spider’80s, a new term appears in the Price Guide Man? C’mon, who ya kiddin’? concerning the pre-hero monsters: “protoIn an interview while discussing Steve type.” A Dr. Strange prototype is listed for Ditko, Jack once chuckled, “Steve’s people Journey Into Mystery #73: A Spider-Man prototype? Strange Tales #79; in Tales of Suspense it lists always looked the same, no matter what #13 as “Electro appearance,” and #16 as “intro Metallo” and #32 lists book he drew.” This is the simplest explanation to the Aunt May and Sazzik the Sorcerer as a Dr. Strange prototype. By 1994 the Price Uncle Ben “prototypes,” but because Ditko drew two characters who Guide lists prototypes in all four of the pre-hero Marvels (Journey Into resembled two more famous characters, this book is now almost $300. Mystery, Tales Of Suspense, Tales To Astonish, and Strange Tales). These As for the Dr. Doom prototype, both books came out at the same time; issues are red-flagged “Prototype Ish,” and include prototypes for (are Kirby simply used the iron mask while he was into it, one on a man, you ready?): Mr. Hyde, The Sandman, Spider-Man, Prof. X, Giantand the other on an alien. Neither is a prototype of the other. I can go Man, Ant-Man, Human Torch, Watcher, Lava Man, Stone Men, Toad on explaining many more of these, but by now you get the idea. Men, Dr, Doom, Ancient One, Magneto, Electro, Iron Man, Aunt The bottom line is this: These monster and alien books were and May, and Xemnu (The Hulk). are great. They should appeal to anyone who enjoys adventure-fantasy Let’s get something straightened out! First of all, none of these and great artwork, and if they are valuable, they should be so on their monsters or creatures or people can honestly be referred to as protoown merits, with respect to the times they were made and the individtypes; it is definitely the wrong term to use. It implies a connection to, uality of each creation. Their uniqueness will be their strength, not in this case, two unrelated things. Anyone who knows the history of cheap (and in many instances downright fraudulent) tie-ins with superMarvel or the works of Jack Kirby knows full well that he has used and heroes to satisfy dealers and speculators. I accuse no one of wrongdoing, re-used his own ideas in his creations throughout the years. For example, but this “prototype” stuff has got to go. It’s not fair to those not yet in Adventure Comics #75 Simon & Kirby introduced a Thor character, knowledgeable of the facts; use another term if you must to show a and later Kirby uses a Thor story in Tales of the Unexpected. Overstreet like-power or ability, but don’t imply a connection... it’s just not right! lists both of these Thor appearances, but in no way tries to imply they One bright note: Strange Tales #89 broke away from its run, and are prototypes of the Thor that Jack created for Marvel in ’62, and price-escalated on its merits alone. It should because it was and is a great well they shouldn’t. This is proper documentation on their part. Kirby monster, and not a prototype! (But I’m surprised no one tried to Before he left DC, Jack did sci-fi stories with alien creatures, connect Fin Fang Foom with Dragon Man... at least, not yet!) ➌
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Dick Ayers Interview Interviewed by James Cassara
Dick Ayers, at the 1996 Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC
To those comic fans first exposed to the work of Jack Kirby during the late 1950s and early 1960s, no name is more synonymous to his than that of Dick Ayers. For a half dozen years, Ayers inked virtually every story Kirby drew for Marvel, from westerns to the so-called monster books—with their bizarre-looking and even more bizarrely-named creatures of fright—to the earliest superhero titles. With his delicate and deft brush work, Ayers, who first broke into the comics field in the late 1940s with the Magazine Enterprise (M.E.) group, gave to Kirby’s work a sense of realism and volume few inkers could. While Kirby’s figures seemed to literally leap off the page with an energy of their own, Ayers inks seemed to maintain that authority while anchoring them firmly to the ground. The two styles complemented one another perfectly, each drawing out the strengths of the other. For all his contributions to the field, Ayers is most proud of his dependability and work ethic. “Jack and I never missed a deadline,” he proudly proclaims. “We had to bust our humps, but the work was turned in on time, and it was done right.” Today Ayers continues to find work as both a pencil and ink artist. While his work is not seen as frequently as it once was (or as some might wish), he nevertheless continues to add to the legacy that is his, rightfully taking his place as a vital and distinctive figure in the history of comics.
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Let’s talk about your early days in comics. Although this magazine is for fans of Jack Kirby, your career has certainly been distinguished. Who influenced you early on? DICK AYERS: Well, I’ve been friends with Burne Hogarth, the famed Tarzan artist, for a long time. (Editor’s note: Sadly, Hogarth passed away shortly after this interview was completed.) He’s my wife’s favorite house guest, he’s been up to our place many times. He can talk on just about any subject; a very knowledgeable man. He loves to talk about the arts, he really knows his stuff. Some people get bored with that, but not me. I really thrive on it!
done one for them while waiting for the Jimmy Durante book to start. That got me going, and from there I did The Calico Kid, who of course became The Ghost Rider. TJKC: In many ways that’s still the strip you’re most closely associated with. AYERS: It was really a break for me. Sullivan was very good to me, an excellent publisher to work for. He put Ghost Rider into the Tim Holt comic, Best Of The West, and Bobby Benson. He gave it very good exposure. I got to do that strip for close to eight years. It started in 1949 as The Calico Kid and became The Ghost Rider in 1950.
TJKC: So he helped you get started? AYERS: He was my teacher in the late 1940s. I was in the first class of the school he started (The School Of Visual Arts). It was stupendous, you really learned. He talked, and you listened, and if you didn’t learn you weren’t paying attention!
TJKC: So it overlapped some of your work for Timely? AYERS: Oh yeah, by 1951 I had started doing horror stories for Stan Lee, about one a week. The next year I started doing Human Torch for the Young Men title. I was still working for M.E., as well as some stuff for Charlton comics at the same time. I did a lot of their horror books, including The Thing, which had Steve Ditko’s first work... I did quite a few of those, mostly shorter stories.
TJKC: You first broke into comics with Magazine Enterprises? AYERS: It didn’t get published, but actually my first introduction into comics was with Western Publishing, Dell. They did the Disneys of course, as well as a lot of westerns and things. I approached them, I had a story written and drawn. They wanted to wrap a book around it... I got into it but Dell decided to scrap the project. So that got me started.
TJKC: What else for them? Any of the Hot Rod books? AYERS: No, but I liked what I did for them, a book called Eh! Dig This Crazy Comic! Humor stuff, that was a good one. I still have the cover for the first issue hanging on my wall; not the original art, which I didn’t get back, but the comic itself. I’m so proud of it.
TJKC: This was an adventure strip? AYERS: It was an adventure thing, boy and girl, the boy wanted to be a trumpet player. The girl kept feeding the jukebox and he’d play along to Harry James or whoever, that sort of thing. It would go over well today, with all the teenagers into music and everything! It didn’t make it but it got me started where I wanted to be in the business.
TJKC: Do you have many of the originals from back then? AYERS: No, they didn’t return them. The only things I got back from the 1950s were Wyatt Earp, from Marvel. TJKC: I know the returning of original art is a real delicate subject for a lot of the Marvel artists. AYERS: Well, when they started returning the pages, a lot of it ended up missing, lost, or accidentally destroyed. We never saw much of it.
TJKC: Your foot in the door, so to speak. AYERS: Right. It was after that I went to Burne Hogarth’s school. While I was there at night Joe Shuster visited the class. I started to go down to Shuster’s studio, which wasn’t far away. Next thing I knew I was penciling a bit here and there. He recommended me to Vince Sullivan, the publisher at M.E., who let me try the Jimmy Durante strip. I submitted my work and got the job.
TJKC: I think you’re being charitable. Sorry to say, I believe many pages were stolen. AYERS: The strange thing is that Marvel never returned entire stories; they were split fifty-fifty between the inker and the penciler. But then I see whole stories being advertised for sale; it just doesn’t add up.
TJKC: So early on you’re doing westerns! AYERS: The humor genre was dying out, so to speak. Westerns were really popular; I had already
TJKC: This brings us up to when you started with Jack. By the time you began inking the monster books for Marvel, you had been in comics for a least a 16
decade. Had you inked Kirby’s pencils prior to that? AYERS: I’ve got it in front of me here; I’m giving you a scoop! The first work I did with Jack was the cover of Wyatt Earp (#25) for Atlas. This was in October of 1959. Stan Lee liked it and sent me another job, “The Martian Who Stole My Body,” for Journey In Mystery (#57), December of that same year. I also began Sky Masters, the newspaper strip Jack did. There is a lot of confusion on this; people think Wally Wood inked them all, because they’re signed Kirby/Wood. But that was Dave Wood, the writer. I began Sky Masters with the thirty-sixth Sunday page: Jack’s pencils, my inks, in September of 1959. I ended the Sundays in January of 1960. I also did the dailies, for a period of almost two years, from September of ’59 to December of ’61. These were complete inks; I was the only one doing it at that time. Of course Wally Wood also worked on that strip, in the beginning, before me.
TJKC: What was your approach to working with Jack? Did you try to leave the pencils as they were, or did you make any changes you thought necessary? AYERS: Stan told me he was hiring me not to trace. I was to add, to embellish. I did do one story just as it was in front of me, a Rawhide Kid. He said, “I didn’t ask for a damn love story. This is a western!” He gave me a long lecture; he told me if there were only two figures in a panel, to add a background. TJKC: He obviously had faith in you. AYERS: This was new to me. For fifteen years I’d inked my own work. This was the first time I’d inked someone else’s pencils. Jack was the first other penciler I’d inked. The first time I left Stan’s office I was a bit perturbed. He hadn’t offered me any more money! I thought,
TJKC: Did you letter these as well? AYERS: No, inks only. Coloring was done by the syndicate. We had nothing to do with that end of it. TJKC: Were you living near Jack at the time? AYERS: No, I was living in White Plains, Jack was out on Long Island. We did everything by mail. Thank heavens [for] the post office, you could depend on them. Every morning at 7:30, the doorbell would ring. It would be a special delivery package with the latest strip. Jack, fortunately, was just like me; a very systematic, punctual person. I could rely on him completely to have the strip to me on time. Never late, never! TJKC: That’s a quality not seen enough today. AYERS: We’d stay on schedule, wouldn’t allow ourselves to get bottled up where we’d have to break our humps to get back on track. We just stayed with it. I even had occasions—this was for Marvel—where the writer would give me half of a synopsis, and sort of disappear. Stan would then tell me, “You finish it!” TJKC: So you did some uncredited scripting? AYERS: No, plotting. I never wrote dialogue; even Stan, he’d get on the phone, and just briefly give me the gist of the story. I would immediately go and plot out my twenty-three pages, then go back and start to draw. Stan would write the words to fit the drawings. TJKC: At this time comics were in a real downspin. Marvel was barely holding on. Eventually things started picking up again, and you were part of it. Did you feel it was a matter of your being in the right place at the right time? AYERS: Well, at the time I was doing Wyatt Earp, that was the only work I had. When that went to bi-monthly it was really tough. That was a real low point. Stan said, “This is it, we’d better just abandon ship.” I went home and got a job in the post office; this was late ’58. I called Stan back and told him I’d done as he said, found another job. He told me to wait, he’d find me more work. And he did; even during the toughest times Stan always found something for me. I did the job, mailed it off. He sent me back a little note, which I’ve kept. It said, “Dick, I love ya!” He really liked my work.
The Hulk battles Jimmy Olsen’s FourArmed Terror in this pencil drawing from the early 1980s. Thanks to Dick Ayers for inking it for this issue’s cover! (previous page) Rawhide Kid by Ayers. 17
Later on I worked with Gene Colan. TJKC: Jack Keller was a terrific artist, rarely appreciated. AYERS: Absolutely. Loved his work, very meticulous. Very good. TJKC: You also did a great job inking Gene Colan. AYERS: Thanks. I did Captain America in the early 1970s. Gene was very different from Kirby. Jack put a lot in... but Gene tended to put in heavy, unerasable blacks. When he pencils it’s a real dark black; you can imagine what my arm looked like after inking him. I’ve got a couple of those, the originals, framed on my wall. When I walk by and look at them, I think to myself, “Holy cow, those do look pretty good!” TJKC: When the superhero titles took off, the monster books began to take a back seat. Did you prefer one over the other? AYERS: Definitely, I liked the monster books. I never really thought Fantastic Four would take off. AntMan I really got to like. It combined elements of the fantastic with the superhero stuff. For me that was great fun. When I did the very first Ant-Man, it was a horror story. I think I put more technique, shadows, texture type of stuff into the monster books. I really enjoyed the crazy monster stuff, the exotic locales. I never knew what Stan would send me. I’d opened the package to find out I’d be drawing a war in Albania or something. That was quite a challenge, but a great thrill also. TJKC: How about the westerns? AYERS: Well, the one thing Jack couldn’t draw was a six-gun. He couldn’t draw a Colt 45; they were miserable! The handles were always wrong, and I’d have to redraw them. Sometimes I wouldn’t erase the penciled one, and in the printed comic you’d see two, his and mine! Jack was a city boy, whereas I grew up in the country. I enjoyed his westerns, but they never rang quite true for me. TJKC: Jack’s westerns looked like superhero strips set in the Old West. Boys’ Ranch and Bullseye might be exceptions, but the Marvel westerns did not look real. AYERS: The town I grew up in looked like it was Ayers inks over Kirby pencils in this classic monster page from Journey Into Mystery #74. right out of the West; horse-drawn carriages and “What the heck does he want me to do?” But when I sat down and such. It had storefronts that looked like they came from back then. approached it the way Stan suggested, it became a lot more natural for TJKC: You started Fantastic Four with #6? me, a lot more fun. AYERS: Joe Sinnott had done #5, and a few panels of #6, which for some TJKC: Were you at all intimidated by the force of Jack’s pencils? reason he didn’t finish. He had inked Sue Storm, that’s all. I took it AYERS: No, not at all. Sometimes I would change the direction of the over and did it until #20 [Editor’s note: except for #13, inked by Ditko]. light, something Wally Wood also did very well; he would outline TJKC: I never thought the earliest Fantastic Fours were his best work. everything and just erase it. Having inked so much of my own work, AYERS: The monster books were much better, the machinery and stuff and being a penciler, I was able to let my imagination go. That’s why I like that. I used to love doing that stuff. Jack really put his heart into think my work with Jack was a true collaboration. those machines. TJKC: How was it different inking your own pencils rather than someTJKC: Did Jack’s style change much during that time? one else’s? AYERS: Not really. I mean the approach to the characters did someAYERS: With my own pencils, I wouldn’t have to work that completely. what. The Thing became less soft, a more chiseled look I didn’t espeI could leave a lot of it open, which I would then just draw with a brush, cially care for. The Human Torch looked more human, smaller flames, in the inking stage. Inking other’s is very different; you’ve got their lines more like the original Torch which, don’t forget, I had drawn ten years to follow, it’s much more finished. prior, in 1953. TJKC: Were you inking others at this time? TJKC: After a few years you began inking less of Jack’s work and doing AYERS: Sure, I was inking Jack Keller, who did Kid Colt; Don Heck. 18
more of your own pencils. Was this by choice? AYERS: I basically did whatever Stan sent me. As the line grew he needed more pencilers. I guess I just fit the bill. I loved inking Jack’s work, but in truth didn’t particularly miss it; I just didn’t think in those terms. I did miss my westerns, however! The war stories I enjoyed, of course, but not as much as the westerns.
at 6:00 in the morning, go until 5:30, dinner break. In those days I might go until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. Thirteen hour days! TJKC: Two hours a page! That’s amazing! AYERS: Well, that was the target; three hours and I was in trouble. I had four kids, a mother-in-law, and my wife living at home, so the incentive to work hard was certainly there. Page rates weren’t all that great, so you had to produce.
TJKC: Well, you had been primarily a penciler for most of your career. Was there anyone you preferred inking your stuff? AYERS: Johnny Severin was, and is, just great on my pencils; on anything, really. He just gave everything such a sense of realism. It looked completely authentic. If I drew a ribbon or a medal on somebody’s chest, it looked like the real thing. You could identify it as being a good conduct medal or whatever.
TJKC: Were you still freelancing for other companies at this time? AYERS: Sure, I was doing stuff for Joe Simon at Sick magazine. I enjoyed that but couldn’t get enough stories from them. Maybe a story or two for Tower Comics. TJKC: In terms of legacy, how would you like Jack to be remembered? AYERS: First and foremost, a really nice guy. More than anyone he helped build and then save the comics industry. He was the most humble guy around, a true gentleman. ➌
TJKC: Steve Ditko also inked one of those. AYERS: Sgt. Fury #15, I’ve got the splash for that, the original. It’s one of my real favorites. It’s hanging over my drawing table. I sold off the other pages, but couldn’t part with that page!
(Dick is currently penciling and inking Dr. Wonder for Old Town Publishing; the splash page from issue #4 is shown below. Dr. Wonder is available in comics shops, and 6-issue subscriptions are $15.95 ($19.95 outside the US). Single copies (#1-4 currently available) are $2.95 ($3.50 outside the US). Please specify the issue you want your sub to start with.)
TJKC: Did you have much phone contact with Jack? Did you feel a need to talk over a story? AYERS: Jack pretty much had complete confidence in my inks; he never felt the need to explain anything to me. We would call one another up every once in a while, just to let the other know we were around. We meshed so well together, the level of trust was very high. We also did “The Last Days of Pompeii” for Classics Illustrated (#35), sometime around then. Even when working together we rarely saw each other. We’d get together at the Marvel Christmas party, that sort of thing. TJKC: What kind of personal recollections do you have of Jack? AYERS: All good; the man had an incredible work ethic. In 1985 my wife and I visited Jack and Roz. It was a “fly/drive” vacation package; fly to ’Frisco, drive to Los Angeles, and fly home from L.A. The car came with the airline tickets. As we were driving past Thousand Oaks, I phoned Jack, and he said, “Sure, come on down!” I hadn’t seen him in about sixteen years. We spent a day with them. When I did the recreation covers for Sotheby’s, I was supposed to fly out there, have pictures taken of the two of us. Arrangements had been made for all this. Sadly, he passed away before we could get together. I truly regret that not one picture of the two of us exists. TJKC: That’s a real shame. AYERS: Even on that afternoon we were visiting, no one thought to take pictures. There was probably a camera laying around, we just didn’t think of it. Roz was there, but none of us took pictures. TJKC: Are there any qualities that you feel you added to his work, something you’re especially proud of? AYERS: Like Wally Wood, I think I gave his work a reality, lifted up the characters, giving them an earthiness. It was the touch of the brush, the facial expressions. The casting of the lights gave it an almost Flash Gordon-type quality. Once I got that freedom I spoke of, once I felt comfortable with it, it was easy. TJKC: What was a typical work session like? Did you have a set amount of pages you would try to complete each day? AYERS: Inks, I’d go for seven or eight pages a day. About two hours per page. Long hours; start work 19
An examination of The Demon, by Richard Kolkman There came a day when the New Gods died... prodded into a prelaying a lot of subtext mature burial by DC, The Fourth World fell silent: into it about things that were on his mind. “Change! Change, o’ form of man! Release the might from fleshy mire! With Kamandi and Boil the blood in heart of fire! Gone! Gone! — The form of man! The Demon, he was Rise, The Demon Etrigan!!” having fun.” ith these words, Jack Kirby spawned the mythology of The Demon. Demonologist Initially asked by DC to take over Deadman, Jack declined, opting Jason Blood awaits to create a supernatural character of his own (he did end up doing Merlin’s call through a take on Deadman in Forever People #9-10). the centuries by dabAccording to Steve Sherman’s “Demonology” (Demon #6), Jack’s bling in everything initial rendition of his demon-type character was covered with scales, from “poetry to pirahad claws on his hands and feet, and had a human-type face covered cy,” and is aided by with fur (resembling Simyan, from Jack’s Jimmy Olsen). Jack drew the his Gotham City inspiration for his final demon concept from Hal Foster’s Prince friends. First, there is Randu Singh, an ESP practitioner, who is more Valiant. While researching architecture and costuming for King in touch with Jason’s creepy vocation than are Jason’s other friends. Arthur’s era, Jack came across the sequence from December 25, 1937. Next is Glenda Mark, who, upon being introduced, is fascinated by Val drives an ogre and his henchmen from a castle by donning a grueJason. (Of course, his having an apartment filled with priceless historsome mask fashioned from a dead goose, the webbed feet becoming ical artifacts probably helps.) And finally, there’s Harry Matthews. the classic Demon ears. Jack thought it would be funny to tie his mythos Harry has some strange habits; he constantly repeats his full name for of King Arthur, Mordred, and Merlin into Prince Valiant. According his friends’ benefit, and goes jogging in his dress shoes (#3). Jack’s to Steve Sherman, “after the New Gods cancellation, Jack didn’t take irrepressible humor is often reflected through Harry, such as when he these things as seriously as before. New Gods was an epic, and Jack was says that at his advertising firm, “he needs a vacation every five minutes!” Jack’s Demon stories repeatedly drew upon his love of old horror movies. Plots from The Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera, and Frankenstein dominated the title. In “The Howler,” (#6) Jason encounters another poor soul tormented by an age-old possession. In this case, wolf-like ferocity is no match for The Demon. The Howler’s end draws from the phenomenon of exorcism. When a man on the street encounters the crumpled form of the Howler, a spiritual exchange takes place. In the saga of Farley Fairfax (#8-10), Greek mythology meets Phantom of the Opera. Galatea was a woman brought to life by Aphrodite from a statue carved by Pygmalion. Mix this with Phantom of the Opera, add a dash of Dorian Grey, and you have the “Phantom of the Sewers!” The extended story of Dr. Evilstein (#1113) morphs Beauty & the Beast and Frankenstein into a supernatural thriller including ESP, with underpinnings of Dr. Moreau. The monster with the inner beauty and heart of a child cannot be restrained simply and quietly. He must endure Kirby’s veritable fireworks display of blazing electricity and shock waves. Jack always gave readers more than their money’s worth! Being a DC book, Jack’s treatment of horror was surprisingly over-the-top. A perfect example is the murderous Kamara (#4, pg. 10). Initially, The Demon was a wordless fury, striking at Merlin’s magical enemies with a relentless animal ferocity. As the series progressed, he became more sociable, moving one reader to reflect, “The Demon sounds like a taunting linebacker.” Many readers also Perhaps these pencils from Demon #1, page 24 best show Jack’s homage to Hal Foster’s expressed their dismay at Merlin both narrating Prince Valiant. Jack based the look of his Demon on the December 25, 1937 sequence (shown above) and taking part in the stories. Another reader where Prince Valiant donned a mask made from a dead goose to scare evildoers. complained about the classic, action-less 20
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© King Features Syndicate. Reprinted with special permission.
“Some Weirdo With A Thing For Halloween”
dialogue page 14 in issue #6. In a recent interview in Hogan’s Alley #1, Neil Gaiman claimed it’s one of his favorite Kirby pages. According to Gaiman, “usually, when Jack Kirby characters are having a conversation, there’s something going on, even if the characters are merely walking from room to room. You never see characters just sitting around talking. It was quiet moments like that, that made the other stuff work.” Often, Jack’s graphic storytelling abilities are accepted at face value, but at times his abilities truly excel. It’s this difference that separates Jack from most comic artists. Only Jack could condense so much story into a crack in a wall. In issue #9 (pg.13, panel 2), the desperate suspense of the hiding figure is offset by the threat of powerful, militaristic authorities in pursuit. Some other Demon miscellanea of note: • The character Witchboy (#7) was the most popular villain (according to the letters page), hence his comeback in #14-15. Witchboy was based on a Kirby fan named Barry Alfonso. • During the original run of The Demon (Sept. 1972 to Jan. 1974), Jim Aparo drew The Demon’s only outside appearance in The Brave And The Bold #109 (Nov. 1973). Notice how antagonistic Glenda Mark had become under the authorship of Bob Haney.
Demon #9, pg.13, panel 2. • Sometimes flashes of Golden-Age Kirby manifest themselves in The Demon. In #4, pg. 12, Old Meg’s face would easily fit into a Black Magic story. • The Demon notes that “even the Kamara” knows fear. This is ironic, because The Kamara kills its victims with fear. The Demon is not exempt from being frightened himself, as he admits to being scared of the Somnabula in #5. When Alan Moore and Steve Bissette brought The Demon into Saga of Swamp Thing (#25-27) in the ’80s, the Kamara was re-introduced in the guise of The Monkey King. (Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Steve Bissette for inking this issue’s Demon back cover!) • You don’t have to be an expert to use it... because in Glenda Mark’s hand (#16) The Philosopher’s Stone has become the ultimate wish-fulfillment mineral. Shades of the Cosmic Cube! • Caught in a deadline crunch, Mike Royer (also inking Kamandi and Mister Miracle) called upon his friend William Stout to help out on either Kamandi or The Demon. Stout chose The Demon and faithfully matched Royer’s style on virtually all of the backgrounds of #14. Royer inked the main figures. Stout’s ability to mimic Royer’s controlled lines was so accurate, the substitution was not noticed by “the boss” — Jack! • On the cover of #15, there is a very large gap in Witchboy’s speech balloon. Was there something offensive that was removed because of The Comics Code? Or was it a production error? Considering Jack’s experience, he knew what was and wasn’t acceptable, so the omission was most likely a forgotten color overlay. Perhaps we’ll never know what Witchboy said. • As a postscript, Jack’s Demon makes his final appearance on the cover of Action Comics Weekly #638 (Feb. 7, 1989), marking Jack’s final work for DC Comics.
Richard took the title of this article from this page in Demon #7, shown here in pencil form. 21
Jack designed his characters with truth in mind. If a character has this quality, then it becomes a natural for succeeding writers and artists to adapt and evolve. The Demon is still a vital force to be reckoned with in the current DC Comics continuum, and stands as a testament to his ability to create characters that last long beyond his initial involvement with them. ➌
ark Evanier, who left Jack’s employment not long after the cancellation of the Fourth World series, shared an episode involving Kirby’s relentless imagination. “Jack created almost the entirety of the Demon comic while we were having dinner one night at Howard Johnson’s.
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“Literally before we went to dinner, he told us that he was just asked by DC to create a monster character. DC wanted a new superhero/monster thing. He didn’t know what it was. We went to dinner and every one talked around the table except Jack. Jack just sat there. And by the end of the evening, he had the Demon all figured out. He had the name, the visual imagery in his head, and he went home, did up a few sketches. And that was it: The whole comic was right there. “I don’t understand this to this day, but there was some sort of a joke that Jack perceived in [using the mask by Hal Foster as a model for Etrigan’s face]. When he got to his studio that night, he told me that he was looking for a sequence out of Prince Valiant from the Hastings House reprint books, and he found it and used it to do the first sketch of the Demon. There was a joke there that I don’t understand. He was annoyed at DC about the New Gods situation, and — I’m speculating here — he thought, ‘Gee, I gotta do a new comic book for DC, they want me to create everything new, but I’m
Jack’s preliminary drawing of the Demon. Thanks to Steve Bissette for inking this piece for our back cover this issue!
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Demon Over Dinner
gonna show them! All the rest of their books rip off other things, so I’ll rip off something.’ The joke was that Jack was conscious of how many people were taking from him, so he thought it was about time that he took from somebody else. I did not view it as plagiarism, I viewed it as an inside joke. “I think what happened is that that face had stuck in Jack’s mind for years. He just remembered that face and it was haunting him. When he thought of the Demon, that face had just followed with his visualization. ‘This face has been in my
brain for so many years, I’m going to use it someplace.’ I remember him getting out these hardcover reprints books that he had in his studio, and finding that sequence and explaining to me what it was about (because I had not read it) and he did a sketch of the Demon. I don’t know why that face stuck in Jack’s mind after all the many, many years of Prince Valiant.” ➌
you play with! ...You summoned the Demon—now, deal with him—!”
The Demon: Science vs. Magic
• In the next issue, a shape-shifting “Creature From Beyond” looks like a sad-faced spider monkey—until it takes the form of your worst nightmares.
by Robert L. Bryant Jr. he first thing that strikes you about Jack Kirby’s Demon is this: There’s no machinery in sight. It’s all rock and wood instead of metal; monsters rather than aliens; magic rather than technology; superstition rather than science. And ultimately, that was the scariest thing of all about Kirby’s shortlived horror comic for DC. Science was comforting to comic book nerds like me; it gave us a handle on understanding the world. And Kirby, more than most writer/ artists, gloried in his unique, wall-to-wall machinery, his gizmos, his gleaming technological tricks, his embrace of things like DNA research, space travel, time travel, blaster guns and other science tropes. Kirby’s Demon books seemed passing strange in their emphasis on castles, chants, spells and mystic incantations; his demonology, much less comforting than his technology. If Kirby’s Fantastic Four books were plated in blinking lights and shining metal, then his Demon comics were caked in ancient, crumbling bricks. The background of the series is dead simple compared to Kirby’s maddeningly complex Fourth World books: Centuries ago, as Camelot fell (in a stunning double splash page), the wizard Merlin transformed his demon servant, Etrigan, into an immortal human, Jason Blood (red hair tinged with a skunk-like white streak), who has long waited to be called back into action. As the series begins, nap time is over for Mr. Blood. Like the Hulk, the Demon is basically uncontrollable once unleashed; like the Hulk/ Bruce Banner, each side of the Demon’s personality fears the other; like the Hulk, the Demon is (at least initially) a monosyllabic fellow given to screaming things like “Die! Die! Hahahahahahah!” as he pounds his foes. Unlike the Hulk, whose tragedy was brought about by a science bogeyman— gamma radiation—and who answers to no one, the Demon often seemed little more than a supernatural attack dog on Merlin’s chain. For the Demon to stay true to his origins, he had to be wilder and more terrifying than the Comics Code would ever allow; for the Demon to continue as the “hero” of the book, he had to be more noble and heroic than a “demon” could ever be. By the end of the book’s 16-issue run, he was little more than a superhero with horns and a bad case of bloodshot eyes. But even laboring under the see-no-evil restrictions of the Code, and sticking to his own standards of good taste, Kirby managed to bring off some fine scares that still ring in the mind decades later:
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• In Demon #6 (1973), “The Howler” prowls, and Kirby gives us a beautifully-detailed double splash page of horrified faces inside a European country inn: “Someone shut the doors and windows!” You can almost smell the ale in the customers’ mugs. There are even stuffed and mounted goats’ heads on the walls, and a busty barmaid giving us the patented Kirby hand-to-the-face look of fright. And she looks scared. ➌ Bryant is a newspaper copy editor in Columbia, SC
• In Demon #3, there’s a terrific moment when the Demon seems ready to shred Jason’s pal Randu just for reawakening him: “You unleash the Demon, then stay his This unused page from Demon #10 fell between pages 16 & 17 and was cut when DC decreased page counts. hand! How little you know of the forces 23
The Monster Of Moraggia Examining Marvel’s revisions to Jack’s story for Chamber of Darkness #4, by Jon B. Cooke (Editor’s Note: I suggest you read the penciled story on the following pages BEFORE you read this article, to keep from spoiling Jack’s surprise ending!)
pages from the published story and he graciously loaned the originals to TJKC for examination. The differences in the stories were devastating. The sheer inventiveness was diluted out of Jack’s original, its grandiose action reduced to parlor room gunplay, and the finale seemed halfhearted. There was evidence of major revisions, and the final boards showed it. Entire pages were discarded, panels cut and rearranged, and remnants of original pencils could be detected under redrawn panels. Jack’s original submission confirms that Stan Lee was intended to dialogue the story, hopefully with “a touch of less standard pontifical oration” as Jack’s margin note requests. (Jack apparently plotted the initial story since he had to explain to Stan that they were the witches). After being rejected, Jack got the art back and made changes, erasing most panels and rearranging others, even cutting up his art boards. Stan apparently was responsible for the replotting, since the final art’s original — but pasted over — credit box lists Stan Lee as “plotter.” But curiously, Jack did do the dialogue on this version, as proven by his handwriting in the balloons, and his erasing the original margin notes. But the meddling didn’t end there; someone at Marvel redrew the faces of the Monster and the mannequin. The revised pencils were then inked by John Verpoorten, and lettered with Jack’s dialogue. This begs the question: Why were the faces redrawn? According to one of Severin’s initial (but rejected) cover designs, the Monster’s face is shown as Jack’s “Hunchy” version but depicts a scene from the Lee-plotted story of the character walking through the village. (Could the face change have come about in fear of a Comics Code Authority rejection—or was the Monster’s face too similar to another Marvel hunchback character, the CCA-approved villain from the Fantastic Four Annuals, Quasimodo?) With the final revision, someone changed Jack’s already-lettered dialogue in places, and whited out details on the Monster’s face. Changes are not rare in the comics industry. (Severin mentioned one X-Men cover that was recolored five times.) But what ultimately concerns us, as Evanier said, is that Marvel transformed “a story that Jack was very proud of… into something he thought was lousy.” Subjectively, many might agree that Jack’s original was better and this chain of events may indicate more about a strained relationship between collaborators, rather than a substandard comics story. Our investigation, as gratifying as it is to uncover past mysteries of Jack’s career, was not without poignancy. In the original’s final panel, the narrating “witches” (reminiscent of the EC horror comics (continued on page 28)
n what set out to be a standard article — a sidebar, really — on Jack Kirby’s pair of stories for Chamber of Darkness #4 and #5, an interesting mystery unravelled. During an interview that mostly concerned Spirit World, I asked Mark Evanier, longtime Kirby associate, what he knew about those tales. Here the article really begins. Evanier told a story (one he will elaborate on in his forthcoming biography of the King) that related one of several events that might have led Jack to quit Marvel Comics in 1970. When Evanier and Steve Sherman visited Jack in Irvine, California during the summer of ’69, Jack told his guests that “he wrote a story that he was in love with,” Evanier said, “that Roz thought was the best story that he had ever done, and he sent this thing off, and he was very proud of it. He got back a call from some editorial assistant, whose name to this day is unknown, that was very rude, telling him how he felt he should rewrite his story. ‘We don’t like it this way… change this, change this…’ and Jack took the eraser and just destroyed this story he loved, and turned it into the version that they wanted.” That version was “The Monster,” a seven-page horror short from Chamber Of Darkness #4, April, 1970. As printed, it is an unremarkable tale of ugly, misunderstood Andreas Flec (the “Monster”), an arrogant Eastern European nobleman, whose mysterious ways and contemptuous treatment of neighboring villagers provoke the lethal wrath of the townsfolk seeking justice for a perceived abomination. Kirby historian Greg Theakston was contacted in hopes of tracking down photocopies of the unaltered story, and while they couldn’t be found, he remembered seeing copies in the ’70s. “This was one of the best horror jobs I had ever seen him do,” Theakston said, “and yet completely corrupted in print.” In comparing photocopies to the published version, Theakston opined, “It seems remarkable to me that [Marvel] put so much effort into changing what amounted to a perfectly fine story — there’s no reason why it couldn’t have run as it was.” He suggested contacting Marie Severin who worked in the production department at Marvel during the affair, and was cover artist for COD #4. A serendipitous chain of events then took rapid succession: Severin discovered original photocopies, along with her cover designs, and very kindly shared them with TJKC, adding pragmatically that “I was and am in awe of Jack Kirby, but even he was subject to changes and re-writes.” It was then discovered that Mike Thibodeaux was in possession of four
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Here are Marie Severin’s two attempts at a Chamber of Darkness #4 cover layout based on Jack’s story, and her final cover inked by Bill Everett. Marie comments, “There are many stories that have been redrawn, replotted, etc. We made time for these things and Stan was the boss, and he must have been doing something right. So many people have no idea how much there is to produce a comic, and it was possible then for the editor (in this case Stan) to control his product from plot to coloring— and he also was and is a pro.” 24
25 (Editor’s Note: I obscured Jack’s bottom margin notes on this page, so they wouldn’t spoil the surprise ending. The notes are shown on page 28.)
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hosts and the then-current trend to have artists narrate tales of terror — all the rage in COD and its sister comic, Tower of Shadows), are unhooded to reveal— surprise!—a cigar-chomping Kirby and his partner, Stan Lee. The team’s appearance hearkens back to happier days of their visits in the pages of Fantastic Four, etc. and shows equal collaborators sharing a story of inspired horror. Obliterated from the final version, what remains in the final panel is an empty, steaming pot on a barren hill. And, after all, wasn’t the true essence of Jack’s original story about a creator, however misshapen, who reveled in his art and simply wanted to be left alone, to create things “to keep my life from being empty,” but who tragically would not be left in solitude by outside, ignorant forces? There is little doubt it took more than Marvel’s gerrymandering of this single story to force Jack to quit the House of Ideas. “It was,” Evanier said, “an example of one of the many fights he had.” Combined with his reluctance to share new characters, and evidence of similar, arbitrary interference with other Marvel stories, there appears a pattern that might prompt anyone, at the peak of their artistic abilities, to seek another outlet that just might be more appreciative. ➌
(top) The left panel shows published dialogue, and the right shows Jack’s original wording, which was whited-out and relettered. (middle) Jack’s margin notes from page 1 which were obscured. (bottom)The original art for page 5 of the published version contained a surprise: Two of Jack’s original pencil panels were preserved under the bottom, pasted-down panel!
convincing man into a life of dependency. Fortunately for us, Devil Dinosaur destroys the Demon Tree and man is free to live by their own wills and ways. Kirby even tells us that the story of the Demon Tree will be told throughout history and each time the tale will have slight differences, so the real story will be lost. #9 was the last issue of the series. In this issue Kirby goes back to his old giant monster days and has Devil go through a time warp and land in the present. You can tell Jack had a lot of fun putting this issue together. On page 21, panel four, one of the men atop an apartment building looks a lot like Mike Royer who was the inker throughout the entire short-lived series. Devil manages to jump back into the time warp just before the military destroys him. Devil rejoins Moon-Boy back in his own time and the last panel says, “thus endeth the chronicle...” I feel that Kirby was not yet finished with the story of Devil Dinosaur and Moon-boy. Were sales too low to keep the comic going? I really find it hard to believe Jack was running out of ideas since he always had ideas swimming in his head. Most likely he felt that he was not appreciated by the modern comics industry. Whatever the case, 1978 was the year that Jack Kirby left comics to do other projects. He would not return until 1981 with a title called Captain Victory for Pacific Comics. My brother and I were very fortunate to meet Jack a couple of times at conventions in Los Angeles. I’m not exaggerating when I say he radiated an awesome vibe of creativity. He was always eager to talk to his fans and treated us with the utmost respect. He always told us to read a lot and that whatever we did, to have fun doing it. Clearly, Devil Dinosaur proved Jack Kirby truly practiced what he preached. ➌
Speak Of The Devil by Josué Menjivar t seems to me that the least respected title Jack ever worked on has to be Devil Dinosaur. Readers must have gotten so spoiled with Kirby’s action-packed superhero titles that many could not take a story about a red dinosaur seriously. It’s really a shame because Devil Dinosaur was an epic story about survival, honor, love, and friendship. This title is really worth searching for. Many of the issues can be found in the three-for-a-dollar boxes at your local comics store or at comic conventions. It has often saddened me to see Kirby’s work in those boxes, but at the same time it gives many of us the chance to enjoy and own these great treasures. Devil Dinosaur #1 is cover-dated April 1978. It is the amazing story of a tyrannosaurus and his companion, a young pre-dawn-of-time human called Moon-Boy who saves Devil from certain death. Upon reading the first issue I think you’ll agree that it has to be one the most endearing origins Kirby ever wrote. At first glance, Devil Dinosaur looks like a kiddie book, but upon further reading you begin to see how much thought and creativity Kirby put into this story. The relationship between Moon-Boy and Devil is similar to that of a boy and his dog. Moon-Boy calls Devil his brother and when he talks to him, Devil understands. They love and protect each other as only true friends can. One special scene in the book has to be in #6, page 30 when MoonBoy is separated from Devil. He is afraid and lost, and as he sits in a small cave tired and hungry, Moon-Boy fears that Devil may be dead. He starts to reminisce about happier times with Devil. The images seem so real that Moon-Boy reaches out to touch them. Only the truly jaded comic reader would not find this scene touching. Jack Kirby loved reinventing myths. Devil Dinosaur was the vehicle for giving his version of what really happened in the land before time. The first three issues were mostly about Moon-Boy and Devil’s struggle for survival and Devil maintaining his rightful place as the king of reptiles. Kirby loved old movies, and you can see how King Kong influenced his look for his prehistoric world. By the fourth issue, Kirby was setting us up for his usual epic. This issue has an alien race from the sky come to expand on Earth; they begin by destroying the immediate landscape. This could be Kirby’s theory on how the dinosaurs were beginning to become extinct. In #6 we see Kirby’s interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve. His characters are Stone-Hand and Eev. Eev is written as a strong woman who is the last of her clan and is also caught in the struggle for survival against the creatures from the sky. Stone-Hand wants her and we see the aggressive male take her as his mate. Eev does put up a good fight and we begin to see that clearly the woman is much more intelligent than the male. Stone-Hand predicts that they shall form a “new folk” and cover the land with their numbers. After Devil has helped in destroying the alien ship, all that remains is the prime computer which resembles a metal tree. The tree speaks to StoneHand and promises him and Eev food and shelter. They call the prime computer “The Demon Tree,” clearly Jack’s version of Satan
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Cover pencils from Devil Dinosaur #8, which were inked by Walt Simonson.
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Young Werewolves In Love! A Look At Simon & Kirby’s Old Black Magic, by R.J. Vitone y the mid-point of 1950, Jack Kirby had reached a position of relamounts of work on the strip. But Black Magic is all but forgotten, even ative comfort in the always rocky comic book industry. Although though Jack contributed some of his most striking art to the title, right DC had testily dispensed with his services early in 1949, he and through 1954. The book was strong enough to continue on without partner Joe Simon had rebounded nicely. Together they gathered a fine Jack and Joe for a few years until it finally ran out of gas in 1961. revolving team of artists, inkers, and writers to package and produce Why Black Magic (and its sister mag The Strange World of Your pages for the still-growing comics market. Business was good. The Dreams) ranks so low to Kirby collectors is open to debate. Maybe it Simon & Kirby name on a title insured sales and earned the respect of a new wave of eager comics pros breaking into a field thirsty for new blood. Successful romance and crime titles flew off the Prize Group’s drawing tables. Kirby’s output, unhurried and enhanced by artists of similar style, was steady and top-notch. Rather than maintain the status quo, why not toss the dice again? Over at Educational Comics, Bill Gaines scrapped the remnants of a publishing company founded by his father (comics pioneer Max Gaines) and began his own titles reflecting his own vision. Early 1950 saw the release of The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, and The Crypt of Terror. No long-underwear heroes here! Just out-and-out oldfashioned blood and gore starring snarling werewolves, ravenous ghouls, dust-encrusted mummies, and assorted monstrosities, but with a huge difference; stories with style and wit! Twist endings with a tongue-in-cheek smirk! A house style that respected the reader’s I.Q.! And the art... oh my, the art! Work was by some of the leading talents of the time, many of whom either had worked with Kirby at some time, or would, or owed him a huge measure of credit for inspiring their careers. Reed Crandall, Al Williamson, John Severin, Joe Orlando, Jack Davis, even Frank Frazetta, all helped establish and create an exciting new genre in comics. Success came swiftly. With success came profits. With both came imitation. And thus came Black Magic. Produced at the peak of S&K’s romance and crime period, Black Magic came out the same month as Boys’ Ranch #1 (Oct. 1950). Boys’ Ranch would run just six issues for Harvey Publications. It stands today as a major point of interest in the Kirby saga, despite the fact An unused Black Magic splash page. The presence of Jack’s handwriting indicates he wrote this story. that Mort Meskin did major 30
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corpses... I didn’t really care what everybody else was doing. I was sure my stuff was good... It was the best I could do and the same goes for Joe. We liked the EC guys. Some of it went beyond what we would have done, but they were a younger generation...” So the house look was set, and the Prize bullpen followed the formula. The basic premise remained in effect well past Simon & Kirby’s run on the book. Mood, visuals, and interesting storytelling were the order of the day, and Jack took the lead and ran. His legendary penciling speed produced a black-&-white avalanche of pages. Just a quick overview reveals some striking efforts. In “The Scorn of the Faceless People”(V1, #2) a dream motif is used as a launch-pad to another time period. Neatly done, as a salesman’s tormenting dream leads to a dramatic reconstruction of a disturbing incident in his past. The story features some familiar “Kirby Kreatures” and some surreal touches. “A Silver Bullet for Your Heart” (or “Young Werewolves in Love” from V1, #3) is a story-driven tale about a young hunter who falls for a mysterious silver-haired beauty. Troubles arise when she turns out to be a “Loup-Garou”—a werewolf. Kirby uses filmic visuals in this one, as doors, windows, and trees frame the action. The script lays it on too, with captions like, “The white wolf struck like a gleaming scythe among the thrashing bodies of its savage companions!” “Voodoo on Tenth Avenue”(V1, #4) rises to sadistic heights, as a true harpy of a wife literally sticks pins into a doll of her tortured husband. Her dark madness grows to monstrous proportions, and the ending is a S&K smash. (This doll/fall sequence turns up at the end of Fantastic Four #8, as the Puppet Master falls to his “doom.” It’s unlikely that Stan Lee scripted the breakdowns in just this way, so here is another supporting argument on Kirby’s side that he, in fact, “created” much of his Marvel-era output, and that Stan “just filled in the words.”) Jack layered extra levels of visuals into “The Thing in the Fog” Black Magic Vol. 1, #3 splash page. was the lack of continuing characters, something Boys’ Ranch certainly had. Maybe it looks anachronistic, especially compared to the horror/ shock EC style. Maybe it just fades into the background with the romance and crime books of the period. Whatever the case, these titles are more than worthy of note. That first issue sported a Kirby cover that had gone through several revisions before seeing print. It was a standard-size book for the time (“52 Big Pages—Don’t Take Less!”), and packed several stories of varied length drawn by Prize Group staffers. (If you’re familiar with pre-hero Atlas/Marvel Silver Age titles like Strange Tales and Journey Into Mystery, then you’ve got the right idea!) As in those later Marvels, Jack would usually do a cover, plus one story or more. Some issues would contain just a two-page Kirby story, or only Kirby layouts finished by the staff. Quite a few of the stories would carry the stamp “Produced by Simon and Kirby.” Jack must have taken that seriously, or at least wanted the publishers to think that they were buying a bonafide S&K product. Apparently he would sometimes flip through the finished art done by the bullpen, pluck out some pages, pick up a brush, and do some embellishment. Splash panels, faces, action scenes, even moody backgrounds show that “Kirby sheen.” (The splash for the second story in Black Magic V2, #7 is a trademark Kirby image. “Visions of Nostradamus” opens with an extreme close-up of the ancient seer’s tortured, staring eyes. It’s also interesting to note that when Jack produced Spirit World magazine for DC in 1971, he updated the Nostradamus legend.) Part of the beauty of Jack’s “horror”output was his refusal to go for the gut with blood-spattered pages. The visceral effect was avoided. Instead, he presented an old-fashioned storytelling approach that built suspense and told a slick, literate tale. Jack’s powerful pencils carried some weak scripts to exciting heights. (Readers had to read these stories. Once again, a S&K package was loaded with tons of captions and dialogue.) The overall look and feel of the comic was intentional, as Jack told comics historian Greg Theakston in 1991, “I couldn’t do rotting
Black Magic #29 cover. 31
An unused pencil from The Strange World Of Your Dreams. Serpent”(V3, #3) is a perfect example. A daring archaeologist thrusts himself into a fantastic adventure in the lost ruins of Hawakeuh. Add a bullwhip and you’ve got Indiana Jones! At one point he’s even entombed in an underground vault with a giant snake! A great base for an on-going series, the idea was left behind. Just another story, just another deadline. As S&K moved towards the middle 1950s, they moved away from Black Magic (and its short-lived sister mag, The Strange World of Your Dreams). Other projects were, as always, on the drawing board, and Kirby would contribute less as time went on. “Lone Shark”, the coverfeatured story in issue #33 (V5, #3, 11/’54) is his last, but is worthy of extra note. For one thing, it may be one of those rare Kirby penciled and inked strips that turn up at times to puzzle collectors. For another thing, it may even be a Kirby script, as it deals with an all-time favorite
(V2, #1). Ostensibly the story of three shipwrecked seamen picked up by an ancient sailing ship, in reality the “thing” is a favorite S&K villain, the Devil. (Someday someone will just have to compile a list of Kirby “Devil” stories!) “Dead Man’s Lode” (V2, #4, 1952) follows a bright young mining engineer as he heads into the desert to find a legendary lost gold mine. Instead he meets a strange old coot who steers him to the mine... and madness. This is top Kirby, done up in fine style. Wade Wallace starts out as a confident, clean-cut, well-meaning guy. By the end of the story he’s a burnt-out, screaming, shell of a man. The mine is a death trap, and the old coot is a ghost who jealously guards it. This period contains the strongest issues of Black Magic. Everything was clicking for the Prize Group, sales were up, life was good, and the stories reflect a casual “we-can-do-no-wrong” attitude. “The Feathered 32
Kirby theme; an animal (in this case, a shark) acquires boosted intelligence. Most of the story is told from the shark’s point of view, via his “thoughts.” There’s a shift to a human point of view when he’s picked up by a scientific research team. (A couple of the sailors are inked in a definite 1946 Kirby style, one of the reasons I think Jack may have inked these pages.) In a touch of typical Kirby irony, the very thing that gives the shark his extra I.Q. gets cut away. Black Magic would continue without Jack and Joe. Credit their faith in true professionals like Bernard Baily, Bob Powell, George Tuska (all artists), and Mort Meskin, Leonard Starr, John Prentice, Bernard Sachs, and George (Bell) Roussous (all artist/inkers). They all worked to build a corner of comics history. They did their best work, and when the “horror”cycle ended, they moved on to the next job, the next trend, the next deadline. Jack was already there, waiting. ➌
(Black Magic and The Strange World of Your Dreams ran through a period between 1950 and 1961. When they were cancelled, their content died with them. DC re-edited and reprinted several top stories when Jack moved over to National in ’72/’73 [Simon was editor on the series]. The stories hold up well, but the art suffers from page compression and re-coloring. However, these are the most accessible examples of Black Magic and can usually be found in most comics stores’ clearance boxes. Good hunting!)
(above) Two unused versions of the cover to Black Magic #1. (bottom left) Cover to Strange World of Your Dreams #4. (bottom right) Unpublished cover to Strange World of Your Dreams #5.
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Jack Kirby & Walter Gibson Interviewed Excerpts from the 1975 Comic Art Convention Awards Luncheon in New York • Original transcription by John Benson • ©1976 Phil Seuling (Editor’s Note: This is an edited—and shortened—version of the transcript that ran in the 1976 Comic Art Convention Program. However, all of Jack’s comments are presented here in their entirety.)
then wasn’t lasers, the big thing then was radio. Remember how many times villains were striking other people with radio rays, and radio patrols would catch them, and radio directional signals would be the means to the solution? I don’t think television ever entered into pulps or comics the way radio did. And now it’s lasers.
PHIL SEULING: I don’t think anybody can doubt that in the fields of the comic book and the pulp, Jack Kirby and Maxwell Grant—I say Maxwell Grant: Walter Gibson—these are the two grand masters. What relationship does the adventure novel or the adventure comic book have to our lives? What relationship is there in, let’s say, the Shadow novel to our lives?
KIRBY: Radio communication rings, the FBI rings, I think they were all part of the radio epic. Because we hadn’t known anything else; we just conjectured about jets and things to come of that sort, but we couldn’t visualize. And radio, I think, was the newest thing in our lives at the time.
WALTER GIBSON: ...I tried to keep the things in tempo with the times, and really make them informative, and I think that gripped the readers and carried them along with it. I know that the comics are a great field for that because there you can actually... the thing is realized in a visual way. I think that now the curious thing is that people are reading the stories for nostalgia. You pick up any of these Shadows that are coming out now, and you read about something happening on the Limited between New York and Savannah, why you’ll find it’s running exactly according to the timetable of 1936 or whenever the story was written. So maybe we’re giving them information of a nostalgic type now. SEULING: Jack, how about it? What meaning does the adventure comic book have for us? JACK KIRBY: Well, we live in a functional world, we see functional things, and reality is a practical part of our lives that of course is necessary, but I believe that we’re kind of a non-static animal; we just can’t remain static on any level. So we have to have something to offset this practical world and I believe that’s why we live this vicarious life in various media; the movies, the dance, concerts, and, of course, comics, which I feel is a very valid part of our cultural media. But what Walter Gibson says is true; I feel that we have to be contemporary at all times. If you look at an old comic book or at a pulp, you’ll find it’s like a time machine. Whatever year it was published, you’ll get a real glimpse of what people were like, how they dressed, the general atmosphere of the time, and the reason it causes nostalgia is that you can get a very accurate picture of what the time looked like through this medium. You’ll see it in the cars, the buildings, and the people themselves. You’ll see the sack dresses, I imagine, and you’ll see the macho machines, the cars of the times, and you’ll get a very good view of that period. But aside from nostalgia, we have this craving for living more flamboyant lives, and comics supplies a lot of that. So if I’ve done an effective job in it, I feel that I’ve maybe contributed to an extra dimension that we all want and we all need. SEULING: Like all literature, the pulps and the comic books broaden our experiences vicariously. ...As I look at the pulps and the comic books—and Pencils from Demon #10, page 12. Interestingly, it’s numbered page 11 here, so Jack must’ve gone back now we’re talking about the 1930s—the big thing and added a page to the story later. (next two pages) Hulk drawings done for fans in the 1970s. 34
SEULING: Jack, have you had any ingredients in your stories come out truer than you expected them to?
...I wouldn’t have wanted to give up those years—they were great. Later after I got through with them I said, “Gee, would I want to go through that pace again?” At my present age I wouldn’t, but I think if I were back then I’d want to get right into it.
KIRBY: Well if they did, I think that all of us would have a pretty hairy time. (laughter) I think my stories may be a little wilder and a little bit more far out. I enjoy that kind of thing, but I inject a lot of elements in those stories from things that are being worked on today—not things that have materialized. I feel that everything we have or see has already been done, and I’m not going to concentrate on what another man worked on. What I do is try to project our own environment a little beyond itself. I take the situations we have, and see what we can get out of them by projection. and I come up with some wild ideas and I think they’re entertaining in their own way. I’ll come up with androids, or machines and B.E.M. [Bug-Eyed Monster] aliens, and I’ll do some bizarre thing like winding them in with Romeo and Juliet, with a classic. I have one story in mind; it might have been Romeo and Juliet, except that it had some bizarre trappings. I had this male android being designed and produced in one factory and a female android being designed and produced in another. And what the professors didn’t realize was that these two androids were communicating together and falling in love by ESP, and when they wanted to meet each other, why they broke out of the factories and they practically wrecked the city trying to get to each other. And everybody was trying to stop them in the process. And of course they had good reason to, but the ways of love are kind of obscure and tragic, and, you know, Romeo and Juliet told that type of story perfectly. When the androids met and touched each other they blew up, because one was made of negative particles and the other was made of positive particles. So I had the Romeo and Juliet classic imbued in this bizarre story. That’s my kind of thing and I know it’s wild, but I have a good time at it. I only trust that people have a good time reading it. From the response I’ve got, it’s always been so, so I stick with that particular kind of formula. There may be other formulas and if they’re done well, you enjoy these too. And basically in comics you can use science-fiction, you can use the classics, you can use sports; so the device isn’t the thing, I think the entertainment is the thing.
SEULING: Jack... all the great producers of material we’ve ever had at the convention, among them Gardner Fox and Otto Binder, never... I guess they didn’t have time to do any record-keeping. Knowing it’s an unanswerable question, I’ll ask if you’ve ever estimated how many comics pages you’ve done in your lifetime. KIRBY: It’s not that it’s unanswerable, but I’d rather not answer it because I feel that if I did find out the truth I’d suddenly feel very tired. (laughter) But frankly I’ve never given it any thought, because being in the comic field has been a natural thing for me. I was practically raised in it, and I just couldn’t consider not being productive. There’d be something that I’d have to do in the comic field, and I’ve really done it on a lot of different levels. I’ve been a writer, and I’ve drawn, I’ve edited, and I’ve even published at one time, so it’s been a field that I’ve thoroughly explored, and I’ve given my life to it. I feel that in a very natural way it’s been a kind of a natural environment. I’ve stayed in it, I’ve studied it, and I respect it and I try to find ways of plumbing its potential, trying to find out where it’s going. As far as fulfillment goes, why I’ve made my peace in the practical world in a way by fulfilling myself in comics, just like any other man would in his job. So, speaking for myself, I feel that I’m fulfilled. But I don’t think that really counts. Of course, it counts for yourself. I feel that there are byproducts, spin-offs, where you find people like Jim Steranko, who came into comics a little later than I did, but is no less enthusiastic. He wants to tell a good story, to draw and write well—and he has. There may be a few of the older fellows left who’ve had the experience, and convey it to the people who need it. I think that’s a very important spin-off of the business, and I know that Jim is thoroughly immersed in the business and contributes to it greatly because he’s a productive guy, but thankfully he doesn’t have to take it in an agonizing way without guidelines like the fellows in the beginning did. And I feel that in that respect I’ve done something good, and a lot of the older fellows among my peer group have too, because they passed on something, perhaps their own form of storytelling.
JIM STERANKO: ...I was wondering if the two of you... have you been fulfilled in the creations that you’ve worked on, that you’ve spent your life on? Are you pleased to be remembered, to see these people talk about your creations?
SEULING: Let me just involve Jim and Jack in the same story. Roy Thomas once said... when Jim was doing Captain America, he turned back a story one Friday. “I can’t finish it by deadline,” when the book had to go out the following week. And they didn’t know what to do, so they called up Jack and said, “Jack, can you do it?” And as Roy tells it, the story was so tough it even stumped Jack. He didn’t get the whole story done until Monday. (laughter) Walter, just for the value of the anecdote, what’s the fastest story you ever produced?
GIBSON: Oh, yes, I got plenty of fulfillment out of the Shadow period. The curious thing is I still don’t know how I managed to turn out that stuff so fast. I just got ahead of it and each story seemed to overlap the other, so I actually got six months ahead of schedule, and I never had to worry about any pressure at all, except that I had to keep driving myself to do it even on days when I didn’t feel too good. 35
GIBSON: In the year I was doing the big batch of stories, getting ahead, there were two or three times I did a story in four days. The stories ran 200 pages and there were about 270 words to a page, so that would be about a 50,000 word story. The earlier ones were 60,000, but they let it down to 50,000 as they went along.
about it; it’s kind of light and airy and romantic. I was trying to say something new about romance and comic books, rather than the old linear Jay Scott Pike kind of line, and if it was or wasn’t a success, in any case it was different. When those pages got to Marvel in color, they looked at them and there were people that were colored yellow and purple and scarlet and blue, and they said, “This can’t be, we’ve gotta change it; but it’s gotta go to the engraver right now,” so there was no time. And it took me a while to realize that if I wanted my pages to go through at Marvel the way they were, complete with my own ideas for whatever they’re worth, the idea was to get them in so late they couldn’t possibly make any changes.
SEULING: So that’s 12,500 words a day. GIBSON: Yes. That was fifty pages. And I did that on about three different occasions. And the reason I did that, I’d come back from Street and Smith with a story all set and thinking of it on the train, and l’d do it Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday, because Street and Smith had a paycheck on Friday, and I would grab the train from Philadelphia to New York on Friday and pick up the check. I did that on a couple of occasions. But mostly I would lay out the story in blocks. I regarded forty pages a day as very heavy; that was 10,000 words. So that would have taken five days to do it; that was very heavy. These others were extremely rare. Generally I worked on a six- to seven-day schedule during that period. In later years when I was well ahead I still tried to do it within seven days at the most, but I took a little more time between. There were resting-up periods in there.
SEULING: When I read The Shadow or a Jack Kirby comic book, it’s not the speed that they did it that astonishes me. I know the criteria for good writing; the consistency, the style, the pacing, the vocabulary, keeping a certain tone, all of those things are there. It’s not the speed. These two men sitting here are marvels because of the quality of their work that is produced in such quantity. For the quality and the quantity, I’m amazed. I’m going to read the plaques now. This says, “To Walter Gibson, for the wealth of high adventure material with which you have thrilled and pleased us for year after exciting year.” (applause) And Jack, this says, “To Jack Kirby, for causing us always to have the highest expectations of your work in the field of comic art, and for continually surpassing even such Olympian standards.” (applause)
STERANKO: I’m really amazed at the speed with which these men worked. I remember one time when I first started in the comic book business, I was sharing a cab with the late Eddie Herron, who was a terrific comic book writer who wrote a lot of things in collaboration with Jack. And Jack came up in the conversation as he usually does, and Eddie Herron remembered the time that Jack was turning out nine pages a day! I mean, the most for anybody else is maybe two or three pages tops in a day. And Jack is no slouch; he puts in a page’s worth of work. And this was at the time when there were not five or six panels to a page, there were nine and ten panels to a page in the old Newsboy Legion, the Boy Commandos. This was staggering for a guy like me, because I’m only able on my very best days to turn out two pages a day. Most of the time just one page is enough for me. And I can’t help thinking that part of being a genius, which both of these men are, has to do not only with the kind of material, because if you take your time and you take a year to turn out a single novel, you stand a good chance of turning out a kind of a masterpiece, but if you can do it on four or five days that puts you in a special category all by yourself, and both of these men are in that category. By the way, before I give up the microphone, I want to straighten out that little ‘story’ you told a while ago. I didn’t miss that deadline on that Captain America story. What happened was they were afraid I would miss the deadline and in order to circumvent that they asked Jack to do a story to drop in in place of mine, which he probably did during lunch. It was a magnificent story featuring almost every Captain America villain that there ever was. Now I did make my deadline on time, although it’s no secret I am perennially late with my material. However, I’ve discovered a secret working at Marvel. If you give them a lot of time, they’ll worry about your pages. They’ll begin to noodle away at them. I remember I did a job in a book called Our Love Story, and it was the only love story I ever did, but I did it in a different way because it was a challenge. And I designed it for color, and if you’ve ever seen that story, you know it looks different. And yet it has a nice manner
KIRBY: And of course that kind of thing is what puts a lot of grey hairs on my head, because I can’t find myself doing a simple task, and I end up doing a fairly good complex story. So if I’ve kept you entertained, and I think I’m keeping myself entertained, I think I’m doing a good job and I thank you for giving me the opportunity. My appreciation of this knows no bounds. (applause) STERANKO: Wouldn’t it be fantastic if these two gentlemen collaborated on something? Walter Gibson and Jack Kirby doing a book together. It boggles the mind. I would just like to comment on something that Jack said earlier about the debt I owe him and everybody who worked in comics since the very beginning, the pioneers; but especially in Jack’s case, because I’ve received so much from him. I’ve learned; Jack Kirby is really my school. l never took an art lesson. What I did was I looked at Kirby books; I looked at Bill Everett books; I looked at Wayne Boring books... They agonized in their own way in creating something where nothing was, and it’s a real achievement. They’ve given it all to the rest of us who’ve come along who’ve read their books year after year. I must say that every line I ever made— those forms, those pictures and ideas, all pay tribute to Kirby and all of his peers, because they’re all responsible for them. Not that it wasn’t agonizing and painful a lot of the time, but they were the early pioneers and they should have that particular adulation. Now, does anyone have a question for either of these gentlemen? QUESTION: This is to Jack Kirby. Who is your favorite inker? 36
KIRBY: I’m working for Marvel now, and if I do any more characters, I’m quite sure they’ll be Marvel characters. Marvel’s got an army of good characters and there’s plenty to choose from, and whoever they pick for me to do will contribute to an entertaining story I’m sure. I’m looking forward to doing a lot of good things because good things are so plentiful in that organization. QUESTION: Are you happy with the new National (DC) Shadow series? GIBSON: No, I would rather go back to what I did before. You see, I adapted the Shadow stories into comics, and I’ve just been looking over some of the old ones now. Now artwork and styles and every thing have changed. Some of the earlier artwork was extremely good. It was done by Vernon Greene before he went in the Army; after he came out he later did Bringing Up Father. However, I think a lot of it could be changed, but I still think that the stories ought to follow the same flavor as the magazine. It just happened that it got off onto that particular tangent. I haven’t any criticism against it itself, it was quite adequate. But I do like to synchronize the things and bring them closer together. QUESTION: I’d like to ask Mr. Kirby, what do you think is the one strip you had the most fun doing? KIRBY: Well, I’m afraid there is a strip that I did have a lot more fun doing. There was a thing called Fighting American, which was a satire on the superhero, and somehow I have a weakness for satire and I made the most of this thing, and I think I got a good laugh out of it, just doing it. Of course it was done in the fifties when comics were in trouble, and Fighting American petered out eventually, but I thought that it was a job I did well. I liked doing Fighting American because it was fun, literally. QUESTION: What was the greatest influence on your art style? KIRBY: If you name any of the masters of the thirties; Caniff, Hal Foster, N.C. Wyeth, people like that, even Howard Pyle, a fine illustrator who did the Robin Hood series, I cannibalized them all. There was no such thing as formal training in my life. I think the fellows today should consider themselves fortunate, because they have so many good channels to good art training. My circumstances were rather limited, so I had to cannibalize all these men, take the best features of what they had, and inject all these elements into my own style, which I feel I developed fairly well. But you name any man who they considered good reading back in the thirties, and you’ll find that some of his stuff is in mine.
Uninked pencils from Demon #13, page 4. KIRBY: My favorite inker is any competent man, any man who can do a good job on my stuff and ink it so the reader can appreciate it in some way, and satisfies my standards. It can be anybody you name, but if he’s competent as far as I’m concerned and as far as the company’s concerned, I’ll say that he’s my favorite.
QUESTION: Mr. Gibson, I’ve heard that years ago you wrote an origin story for The Shadow, and I’d like to know if that particular story will ever be available in paperback or comic book form.
QUESTION: After looking at that exhibit over in the parlor, I wonder, don’t you ever get frustrated after doing one of those beautiful complicated pages and finding out that you can’t get it printed?
GIBSON: That’s the one called “The Shadow Unmasks.” I had identified Lamont Cranston as The Shadow very early in the series. Of course the idea is to keep the reader always looking ahead to something else, so in another story it turned out that Cranston was not The Shadow. There was a real Lamont Cranston who went on these various trips and who was abroad so often that The Shadow merely took his place, and I think that story had a very good scene. Lamont Cranston wakes up and sees himself standing at the foot of the bed, and the title of the chapter was “Lamont Cranston Talks to Himself.” And by the time they got through with the discussion, Lamont Cranston figured he’d better go on a long
KIRBY: No, because I have the satisfaction of looking at it myself and knowing that I’ve... I have a little bit of an ego, and I feel that it’s selfsatisfying when I’ve done something good. And whether it’s published or not, if you have it around and you look at it once in awhile, why, I think that’s a good moment. And I can tell you that I can use quite a few of those if I can get them. If you buy the drawing, of course, that’s very gratifying too, and I know that some of that is spread around a little. QUESTION: Are you going to do other characters or go back to Captain America, The Silver Surfer and all that? 37
Lamont Cranston, when Cranston suddenly disappeared, just got out of it very rapidly. Well, this was the time he had to go down to Mexico and come back as himself, as his real self. It turned out that he was a famous aviator named Kent Allard who had flown off to The Yucatan to visit some Mayan ruins and had never come back, and they had been searching for him for all these years. But actually he had landed with an Indian tribe and then come back secretly, because he knew that nobody in the underworld would find out who he really was if he was supposed to be buried down in Yucatan. So he took off to Yucatan in this story and was immediately found there, and came back and had the pleasure of riding up Broadway in a tickertape parade with his friend the Commissioner. But his facial image as Allard was quite different from that of Cranston. So from that time on he had that real identity, but he only used it occasionally. He still played Cranston.
trip because if either one of them was going to be declared an imposter, he would be the one. The Shadow, this imposter, knew more about Lamont Cranston, what his grand-uncle’s dog’s name was and everything else. And the imposter simply said that he had been masquerading as Cranston to knock down crime, and why didn’t Cranston take another trip to Tibet or somewhere. So he did. So that went along perfectly well for about, oh, 6 or 7 years, and then we suddenly decided, let’s give this a new twist. We had The Shadow entering The Cobalt Club as Lamont Cranston, when newsboys rushed up as they did in those days, screaming that there’d been an airplane accident at Wimbledon and some Americans were injured. Fortunately nobody was killed, but the real Lamont Cranston had been in the crash and there was his picture right on the front page. Just then the Police Commissioner was coming out to say hello to The Shadow as
QUESTION: Could you tell us where The Shadow’s funds came from? Was he using Cranston’s funds? STERANKO: Master Charge. (laughter) GIBSON: Well, curiously, we had that pretty well pegged when he started out as Lamont Cranston, because Cranston had a lot of money. That was the purpose of making him a millionaire, so that he would have plenty of funds. But after he turned out not to be Cranston we were in something of a dilemma there, except that nobody really asked. I think we took it for granted that Allard had dug up Inca treasure or various other things at one time or another. We never did delve deeply into his source of funds. STERANKO: In regard to origin stories, there’s a divergence between pulps and comic books. Comics editors always feel compelled to make the first story an origin story and get it over with; you know, how the guy got his cape and mask and powers, which really gets in the way of telling a story as Jack will probably admit, because he’s done more origin stories than any other man alive. But in the pulps they didn’t seem to bother. The first Shadow story is called “The Living Shadow,” and The Shadow is really almost a minor character throughout the book. He didn’t have the form he did five years later when Walter began to develop the various aspects of his character, personality, and all the formula like the sanctums and all the rest of it. But, in many of the books Walter would drop in clues about The Shadow’s background, about who he was, what he did. So it just all has to be amassed and put together. I guess you really have to read all 325 novels and you’ll have the whole picture. QUESTION: Why was the inker on Kamandi changed from Royer to Berry? KIRBY: Well, at that particular period, Royer took on some other job, and I found Bruce Berry, and found that he did a fine job, and it worked out well that way. Later on, Royer, having done his other work, came back and he did a lot of the war stuff for me at that period. Uninked pencils from Demon #10, page 8. Again, the numbering is off; it’s numbered page 7 here. 38
SEULING: I know you’ll all join me in saying thank you to Jack Kirby and Walter Gibson. (applause) ➌
The Secret Origin Of The Original Hulk? by Scott Shaw! (Editor’s Note: The following was written by Scott Shaw! to accompany his contribution to Pure Imagination’s inked version of Jack Kirby’s Heroes & Villains, but it was unfortunately omitted from the book, and is presented here for the first time.) remember the first time I ever saw a comic book drawn by Jack Kirby. It was an early issue of Marvel’s (or “Magazine Management,” or whatever Stan Lee’s uncle Martin Goodman was calling his company that week) Tales Of Suspense, featuring a story titled “I Created SPORR, The Thing That Grew!” The cover, drawn by Kirby and inked by Dick Ayers, depicted a gigantic grey octopoid amoeba that sprawled from a craggy castle set atop a Balkan hilltop. Sporr’s eyes were darkly malevolent, and he seemed to curdle, lava-like, from that cover. In retrospect, “Sporr” probably represented Jack’s take on what was then a fairly recent monster movie, The Blob. (In turn, Classics Illustrated artist Lou Cameron must have seen “Sporr” when he designed the Martians for his adaptation of The War Of The Worlds.) Well, I quickly grabbed that copy of Tales Of Suspense, plunked down my dime and dragged it home from the drug store. But as soon as my mom caught sight of it, she flipped! My parents were usually pretty tolerant of my “funnybook” collecting (especially surprising, considering Dr. Wertham’s anti-comics witchhunt had swept America only a few years before), but this thing had Mom convinced it would give me nightmares for weeks. (Little did my mother suspect that, thirty-five years later, she’d have a grandson named after the man who drew “Sporr!”) I was about seven years old at the time, and it was a pretty damn scary-looking comic—hey, that’ s exactly why I wanted it! In shame, I had to return the offending comic and exchange it for a
I
“more suitable” issue of Walter Lanz’ Space Mouse. Now, I had nothing against funny animals—years later, writing and drawing ’em would help pay my monthly mortgage. But I never forgot “Sporr.” (Years later, Marvel reprinted the story, but it just wasn’t the same.) The “Hulk” shown above (from Journey Into Mystery #66) is another of what’s become known as Marvel’s “Pre-Hero Monsters.” Years later, retro continuity-conscious Roy Thomas re-introduced the character as “Xemnu the Titan” and pitted him against Roy’s super “non-team,” the Defenders. But just as Jack was probably inspired by The Blob, most of his other Pre-Hero Monsters were undoubted spurred by the films of Willis O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen and Godzilla and his clan from Japan. Since Jack had so often acknowledged his love of films, both in interviews and in his work itself, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to theorize that Jack drew his inspiration for this version of “the Hulk” from an entirely different film source than Fin Fang Foom and his ilk. Remember those classic Warner Brothers cartoons that featured a big, hairy, tennis-shoe-wearing monster chasing Bugs Bunny? It’s the same one that creator Chuck Jones has recently taken to calling by the irritatingly cutesy name “Gossamer.” Slap a steel yarmulke on ’im and darned if he and this Hulk don’t look like they were “separated at birth!” I rest my case. In any event, it was a genuine thrill to ink one of Jack’ s drawings, especially since he and his work mean so much to me. I’ve always preferred inkers who added the graceful details of their own style to Jack’s pencils (Joe Sinnott, Wally Wood and Al Williamson) or those who seemed to add the least embellishments (Mike Royer, Chic Stone, John Verpoorten, Frank Giacoia and George Tuska—remember the great job he did on Jack’ s fill-in “scrap-book” issue of Captain America #112?). I guess I fit into the latter group; I’m just too intimidated to add much of my own in the inks. I’ve only inked him once before, unofficially, when I assisted Bill Wray by inking backgrounds and secondary figures in Marvel’s What If? #11: “What If The Marvel Bullpen Were The Fantastic Four?” I hope I’ve done the Hulk—and especially Jack—justice. ➌
(above) Scott’s inks over Jack’s pencils of the original Hulk. (right) A more familiar Hulk, opening a can of beans!
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Spirit World & Other Weird Mysteries by Jon B. Cooke fter feeling stifled at Marvel in the late ’60s, Jack Kirby took on his things.” As with Black Magic, Jack’s interest in the subject area continued new position as editor/writer/artist at DC with great creative to be in suggesting terror of the unknown, rather than the explicit gore energy. “He proposed a whole series of new format comics,” Mark and repulsive horror epitomized in EC Comics. In sharp contrast to the Evanier, former Kirby assistant said. “Big magazines, small magazines, black-&-white Warren books and the garish Terror magazines sharing tabloid-sized magazines, weekly comics, novels. Jack was really at that space on the stands, Spirit World delved into more supernatural point of the belief that comics had to get out of the 32-page format to aspects with its bespectacled and bearded host, Dr. E. Leopold Maas, survive.” paranormalist — it was more X-Files and less Tales from the Crypt. “What Jack wanted to do,” Kirby associate Greg Theakston said, The contents of #1 were mature and provocative, indicating that “as a one-time publisher and a guy who packaged his own books for Jack was reaching out to a more adult audience. The initial story dealt years, was to package different kinds of books.” And now the King had with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but exploited not a receptive publisher and he was pitching ideas hand-over-fist, many of the conspiracy angle, but the reported premonitions of “Lucille M.” them non-superhero concepts. “Jack wanted to do a Dracula book, very and her futile attempts to influence the White House to cancel the similar with what Marvel came out with later [see sidebar],” Evanier tragic Dallas visit. Aided with three pages of Jack’s legendary collage explained. “A couple of characters Jack wanted to buy the rights to — Doc Savage was one of them. Mostly it was a matter of subject material. Jack was highest on the romance as an idea.” While the vampire and pulp material never got beyond the talking stage, DC did give the green light to two of Jack’s ideas: True Divorce Cases and In the Days of the Mob. “He submitted a whole series of concepts, and DC picked what they wanted. They picked out of the dozen or two dozen ideas that he submitted. They picked to do Mob first, Soul Romances (a blaxploitation incarnation of True Divorce Cases that was completed but eventually scrapped), and then DC suggested Spirit World.” Jack advocated a new format for these magazines, one that would later be realized by others in Heavy Metal. “Something slick with upscale advertising for an older audience,” Evanier said. Jack admired the European sophistication in subject matter and their expensive production values, and would haunt the shelves of Graphic Story World—Richard Kyle’s Long Beach, CA comics shop—for international editions. And he certainly envisioned these projects in color, not the one-color tint that eventually saw print. “That was somebody’s idea in New York and Jack didn’t like it,” Evanier said. Unfortunately, DC kept scaling back the projects “into cheaper formats,” Evanier explained. “To my knowledge, Jack never came in and said ‘let’s do black-&-white magazines.’ Jack did not like black-&-white.” In launching the pair of projects, the company inaugurated Hampshire Distribution, “just a fake name that DC set up,” Evanier said. By not labeling the books as published by the nationally-recognized DC Comics, Theakston said, they revealed “how much faith they had.” DC then christened their books the “Speak-Out Series.” “Prophecy! Reincarnation! Haunting! Black Magic!” screamed the cover copy of Spirit World #1 which was published in the Summer of 1971. “Jack did a cover [to Spirit World] that was part collage, part drawing,” Evanier said. “Then they had Neal Adams re-draw the whole thing in New York with a similar layout. They changed a few Pencils from “Toxl, The World Killer,” intended for Spirit World #2. Mark Evanier dialogued this story.
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research went into the next feature, “The Spirit of Vengeance,” a three-page text piece written by the assistants embellished with a Kirby collage. Besides a one-page Sergio Aragonés “Weird Humor” page, the issue is rounded-out with a look at the predictions of Nostradamus, complete with visions of Napoleon’s defeat, Hitler’s warmongering, Khruschev’s pomposity, and an image of Mao superimposed over a mushroom cloud, never mind the final page’s nightmarish collage of Paris as a nuclear wasteland in 1983. Jack’s art, while hindered a bit by Vince Colletta’s underwhelming inks, was big and explosive. Gone were the constraints of panel borders, and if he was disappointed in the onecolor format, the masterful use of his blue ink washes didn’t show it. The King used the larger 81⁄2" x 11" format to give his beloved collages their fullest effect. As good as Spirit World and its sister magazine In the Days of the Mob were, much of the potential audience never got a chance to see them. First, they were difficult to categorize for those stocking the stands. “They were racked nowhere near the comics,” Theakston said. “So no one knew that there was a comics magazine on the newsstand, and the casual person who checked it out didn’t know what to make of it.” But the major problem was poor distribution. Evanier explained, “Independent News [a branch of the same company that owned DC] was one of the biggest distributors in the world at that time, but the comic book division did not control distribution… The first issues [of Mob and SW] got very bad distribution. Steve and I went down to the warehouse in L.A. We never saw an issue on the newsstands in L.A., so we went down to the warehouse to pick up copies. They had not even left the warehouse. DC actually later on sold them in ads in the comics because those issues had not gone out to whole states.” The entire “Speak-Out Series” was cancelled, reportedly before sales figures of the first issue were reviewed by DC. Along with a second issue of Mob, “We turned in Spirit World #2, knowing More “Toxl” pencils. When published, the top of the art was extended to fit the standard comic format. that DC was probably not going to print it. We knew that the book had not gone over well with work, the story’s use of “the damnable click of the rifle bolt” is chilling. them… I don’t think that Jack even did covers for the second issues. Next up, our host Dr. Maas becomes a player in “The House of Horror,” There was [talk of] a possibility of a re-launch,” Evanier said, but beyond as he witnesses ghosts of a mass murder in a standard poltergeist tale. the house ad re-promoting the books (and selling the huge warehouse The third story was something completely different. “Jack was big stock), Jack’s brief foray into the black-&-white field was over. on fumetti [photo-stories resembling comic books, with captions and word But there was a matter of the leftover inventory for Spirit World #2. balloons]. One of the 107 different ideas Jack proposed to DC was a Luckily, most of the contents found their way into various color DC whole fumetti comic. He loved that idea, and it was something he just mystery comics within a short time, and most of that material was never got any response on from New York,” said Evanier. But he and outstanding. Weird Mystery Tales #1 featured seductive personifications Steve Sherman took up the Spirit World assignment with gusto, and of the signs of the Zodiac (including the sensuous Pisces goddess, with Evanier plotting and Sherman photographing, “Children of the revived by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, & Glen Murakami in a recent Flaming Wheel” was a psychedelic trip into “the forbidden rituals of Batman Adventures Special) in “Horoscope Phenomenon.” The second Secret California Cults.” Starring friends of the teenage assistants, the issue of Weird Mystery Tales featured a classic fantasy, “Toxl, the World story is certainly a weirdo artifact from those hippie days. The story Killer,” a parable on the insidious effects of pollution on the environabruptly segues into Jack’s “The Screaming Woman,” a ten-page tourment. The full page of a world’s destruction is superb. de-force featuring reincarnation, semi-nudity and the dreaded “I wrote ‘Toxl,’” Evanier said. “It was a plot we worked on together. Torquemada, chief architect of the Spanish Inquisition. Kirby’s fullIt was very strange: He just threw it at me one day. I wrote an outline, page of the bloody aftermath of Conquistador warfare is awesome. which he didn’t follow, and then he gave it to me to dialogue—it was “We did a lot of research for Jack,” Evanier said of himself and the one time I ever dialogued for Jack over his pencils. I wrote it in his Sherman, “because we wanted to make it authentic.” Part of that style and he changed a few lines here and there.” 41
Next is the obscure Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #6, with the odd “The Psychic-BloodHound,” featuring a rare instance of Mike Royer working over Kirby breakdowns. “Jack wanted very much not to do everything himself,” Evanier said. “We tried an experiment: Could we sneak other artists in by having them work over Kirby layouts? Ultimately, it didn’t work very well, partly because if you’re going to have Royer finishing Kirby art, you might as well have Kirby draw it. Mike really couldn’t bring any of his own skills to the project.” “I did the plot outline for the story,” Evanier continued. “But Jack didn’t use anything I did. The only thing that remains is a movie marquee that says, ‘A Piece of the Action.’ A friend of mine had made an amateur movie with that title.” Finally, in Weird Mystery Tales #3, “The Burners” saw print. It was a bizarre tale about the hapless victims of spontaneous combustion featuring a classic example of a perfect art team: Kirby pencils and Royer inks. Spirit World is proof of Jack’s ability to take a twice-baked concept and invigorate it with original and enticing storytelling. “My feeling was that DC just wasn’t interested in getting into that black-&-white market,” Evanier said. “[Jack’s] plan was a project that didn’t interest them much and when they talked about it, there was not much enthusiasm. You have to remember that sales at that time were very bad and DC was trying a little bit of everything. In a year or two, they tried tabloid-size comics, digest-sized comics — they were trying a much narrower area than Jack was proposing, but they still were trying a number of different things. There was very little enthusiasm for the two black-&-whites, and the minute that there was the slightest negative from the distributors, they decided to give up on the idea.” Regardless of DC’s lackluster support, Jack and his team gave it their all, and Spirit World remains a curious and well-executed project by an artist at the peak of his creative powers. ➌ (right) Jimmy Olsen #143, page 6 pencils. Jack may have used a vampire from Mario Bava’s 1961 film “Black Sunday” as the model for Count Dragorin. (next page) More Jimmy Olsen #143 pencils. before him and make it look like he was imitating them. “He decided at that point to put that vampire thing in Jimmy Olsen. And he did the first issue of the “Transilvane” thing, which Steve [Sherman] and I kind of co-plotted. Apparently at that point there was a Comics Code provision against vampires in color comics. There was a day or two there when Carmine was saying, ‘I don’t know if we can print this, I don’t think the Code will let us.’ A couple of days later the Comics Code was changed, liberalized, and they started allowing vampires in, along with a couple of other things. I don’t know if it was because Carmine put pressure on them or what, but it was literally changed after Jack handed that issue in. Marvel immediately started work on the character Morbius in Spider-Man. Because of the lead time, Jack was way ahead of Jimmy Olsen at that point. Morbius came out a little bit before his Transilvane story. Jack got very upset. He picked up a fanzine one day, and saw someone accuse him of stealing the idea of Morbius, and putting it in Jimmy Olsen.” ➌
Kirby’s Dracula Book Spirit World wasn’t the only horror concept that Kirby worked on at DC in the early 1970s. Mark Evanier said, “When Jack was first at DC, his job was to come up with all these ideas for new books — tons of them. I was typing up outlines, he was pitching them verbally over the phone and doing drawings. One that Jack had come up with was to do a black-&-white horror comic — a Creepy-type thing. Jack had this idea to do a book called Dracula, which he thought was going to be very commercial. His idea was to do Dracula at different time periods, an anthology book. One story might have had him in the present day, one story might have him in the past, another would have him in the future. He made the presentation to DC, and Carmine said, “Yeah, we’ll get to it, we’ll get to it.” Then Marvel announced the same idea [with Dracula Lives!]. Jack got a little paranoid about his ideas being stolen by Marvel, at that point; that Marvel was going to put the stuff out 42
Superman and Jimmy learn the planet’s occupants use coffin-like decompression chambers for traveling to and from their home by reduction transit. Furthermore, Donovan had arranged for a flying Demon Dog to administer a genocide spray, thereby wiping the planet clean for new experiments. As the appointed time of its destruction arrives, our heroes fall victim to Dragorin’s sleeping potion, and Supes awakens to find himself surrounded by nearly all of the Universal Monsters. Once free, Superman stops the Demon Dog and sends the cast back to their planet, but not before changing the movie that determines their lifestyle. (In an inspired comedic turn, Jack has him substitute Oklahoma!) This quirky, offbeat tale demonstrates how Jack could take even the most familiar themes (in this case, the classic vampire legends) and add his own unique twists to them. But I doubt we’ll ever get to take a return trip to Transilvane to see the changes Oklahoma! brought about; I think it’s safe to say only Jack could pull off a tale like that! ➌
Kirby’s Monster Mash by Fivel Elliott niversal Studio’s franchise of classic literature from Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Robert Stevenson, H.G. Wells, and others realized a monstrous success during the 1950s heyday of cinema. So it was inevitable that characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, and others would find their way into comic books’ four-color flights of fantasy. These tales of myth and legend appeared in a plethora of titles, including Dell’s Four-Color, March Of Comics, and Classics Illustrated. In the mid-to-late ’60s, Dell Publishing Co. established a re-launch of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Werewolf in individual titles. As the Silver Age of comics began to fade in the early 1970s, both DC and Marvel gave way to a darkening of creative direction, with features like Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, Son Of Satan, Ghost Rider, and Morbius. Marvel Comics, capitalizing on the popularity of Universal’s monsters, published Tomb Of Dracula, Werewolf By Night, and Monster Of Frankenstein. DC made up for their lack of title properties by taking advantage of their company’s top talent. In a two-issue shift from Fourth World fare, Kirby utilized Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #142-143 to incorporate classic movie monsters into a story— with anything but typical results! “The Man From Transilvane!” in Jimmy Olsen #142 introduces Count Dragorin (Dracula) and his companion Lupek (the Wolfman). Instead of the traditional sucking of blood, Dragorin can transport his vampirism mark via optic-powered beams to his victim miles away, thus changing their body chemistry. But more in keeping with film vampires, Dragorin himself arrives by means of the famous bat transformation number, and unleashes the effects of his Evil Eye on victims. The plot of this two-parter centers around a character named Dabney Donovan who has ties to the NASA Science Research Center (interestingly, Donovan is never actually seen in the story). After an initial confrontation with Dragorin and doing some snooping, Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent learn how the Center once specialized in simulating conditions found on other planets. The story typically leads to Jimmy taking center stage as he fights Lupek, but Kirby allows Clark to shed his three-piece suit and offer some Super-intervention. Jimmy saves the day by finding a photo that reveals a hidden message divulging the destruct date of something called “Bloodmoor.” Recognizing it as the name of a cemetery, our heroes travel there and discover Dragorin’s home turf: A tiny planet orbiting between movie projectors! In “Genocide Spray” (J.O. #143) the reader learns that Donovan used his wealth to create this micro-world, populated by a race of people who pattern their lives on classic horror movies projected on its skies. (This may be Jack taking a subtle poke at subliminal messages hidden in films, telling the audience to purchase more popcorn and soda. These kind of experiments were used around this time.)
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Spotlight On: Kirby Costumes Dress For Success by Gene Popa eaders who picked up Fantastic Four #1 in 1961 could be forgiven for not immediately recognizing it as a superhero book. After all, the cover featured a colossal monstrosity in battle against a quartet with freakish powers (one of whom looked like a lumpy monster himself, and another was little more than a shaft of flame!). The other two wore plain clothing, with only their bizarre powers to signify that they were any different from ordinary folk. The reason why this new super-team had eschewed the traditional cape-and-cowl look was twofold: First, Marvel Comics’ mainstream readership were monster comic fans, so it made good sense to appeal to these fans by downplaying the “childish” superhero stuff and accenting the monster slant. Secondly, and more importantly, Marvel was fearful of risking the wrath of DC. At the time, Marvel was distributed by DC. At the start of their business relationship in the mid-’50s, DC laid down The Law. Marvel was not to compete with DC’s bread-and-butter: Superheroes. Marvel Publisher Martin Goodman, seeing a better profit in monster, western and romance comics, accepted the edict without reservations, and cancelled Marvel’s remaining superhero books, including Captain America. By ’61, however, monster sales were down, and Goodman was eager to tap into the again-booming superhero genre. He turned to Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, and instructed them to create a super-team that had the twin tasks of attracting readers as well as avoiding the ever-watchful eye of DC. To accomplish this, Jack avoided putting the team in distinctive costumes for the book’s first two issues. When DC remained silent on the matter, Kirby decided it was time to put the team in “union suits.” Stealing a march on DC (and ironically, himself ), Jack clad the four in blue jumpsuits based on those worn by his own Challengers of the Unknown. The costumes solidified the team’s identity, and reinforced their tight-knit family image. For the remainder of Jack’s tenure on the book (and for 15 years thereafter), the costumes remained mostly unchanged. However, Jack himself occasionally tinkered with the basic design. For a brief while, the Invisible Girl wore a mini-skirt. And discerning fans of the early stories spotted a unique 3-D trick Jack worked into the art; the shadow behind the chest emblem ‘4’ shifted to suit the viewer’s perspective! Jack ultimately abandoned this arty quirk, either because it proved too time-consuming, or because he simply forgot about it. By the way, Marvel and DC parted distribution company shortly after the debut of Fantastic Four, freeing Jack to design a slew of colorful cos-
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Subscriber Bret Mixon sent the above photo (along with several others), and writes: “As best I can remember, they were taken around May 1990. The Special Effects company I work for had done some effects work on the Captain America movie. I was able to borrow the stuntman’s shield and go over to Jack’s and have him pose with it. As you can tell from the pictures, he really got into it. Unfortunately, he didn’t enjoy the movie quite as much. I remember him being particularly unhappy with the Red Skull being made an Italian rather than a German. Regardless, it was still nice to see his name up on the screen (along with Joe Simon’s) and I am glad to have worked on a movie based on Jack’s work. Still, it would have been nice if they hadn’t screwed it up so badly.” (above right) Jack’s original concept sketch for “The Plunderer” from Daredevil #12. Even though Jack wasn’t penciling every Marvel title, he contributed ideas and designs across the entire line. (right) Around 1972, TJKC subscriber and sculptor Tom Watkins created these Darkseid and Desaad costumes for a New York comic con.
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tumes for dozens of original characters. Still, there’s something powerfully elegant in the plain, utilitarian jumpers he made for the FF. ➌
King Of Design by Ed Grekoski ne of the more subtle reasons I like Jack’s books is the way he designed characters. He linked performance (what it should do) with design (how it should look) in a very well-thought-out manner that resulted in a visual design that made sense. Look at Iron Man’s old yellow armor. Jack seemed to put himself in his characters’ shoes when deciding what capabilities a character should have and how a character should look. There is an antenna on his shoulder for communication, and if you look at the top left panel of Avengers #2, pg. 18, there is a vent on Iron Man’s back. Jack knew the batteries and transistors needed cooling, and thus a vent was necessary. Iron Man’s Repulsor Rays are drawn today as rays of light coming out of his palms, but what are they? If you look at Jack’s drawings, it looks like a grating on the palm to allow high velocity air made by miniature palm fans, that result in a mini-tornado coming out of Iron Man’s palms... I think. The design of the Chem-Man from Tales of Suspense #78 is another example. Different deadly mixtures of chemicals are propelled from Chem-Man’s fingertips. Look at the canisters on Chem Man’s chest. It is necessary for different chemicals to be mixed to form different deadly mixtures, so Jack drew many canisters. The bottom line is Jack took his character design seriously, and his ability to link performance with design resulted in more interesting, believable, and exciting characters that will be appreciated by fans around the world forever. ➌
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(above) Kirby design for the villain Boomerang, from Tales To Astonish #81. (left) An unidentified sketch found on the back of a page of original art from Fantastic Four #100. Was this Jack’s idea for a new costume for Crystal?
(right) A drawing Roy Thomas published in his fanzine Alter Ego #10 in 1969. Roy comments, “...some months before, Jack had responded in his usual generous fashion to a request from a school to design costumes for a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. I have a memory that the student who had been in contact with him for the drawings is the one who gave me the photocopy reproduced in AE #10 while I was in New York; I know I saw a number of other Kirby drawings for the production, and some photographs of the costumes as actually realized by the students. However, I don’t believe I ever had the original of even this one drawing—which, unhappily, perhaps got cropped a bit at the drawing. Everything that shows, however, is Jack’s, including the “SPQR,” and (so far as I know) the inking.” TJKC subscriber Jim Korkis believes this piece was poster art for a stage production at the University of California at Santa Cruz. 45
An Audience With The King by Bruce Younger felt as if I were in a dream. There I was, standing on a porch in front of a house on a hill in Thousand Oaks, California, ringing the doorbell and waiting for Roz Kirby to answer it! It was around 1979, and it seemed like I had wanted to meet Jack Kirby for my entire life. Actually, it was only about half my life. 1963 was a year of awakening for me. I was ten years old, soon to turn eleven. I was becoming aware of the opposite sex and singing along to the Beatles. But more than anything, I remember the thrill of seeing that first Marvel Tales Annual and discovering the art of Jack Kirby. I had always been attracted to comic books, but when, at seven years, I begged my parents to buy me an issue of a horror comic that featured a monster prominently on the cover, they reminded me that I was prone to having nightmares, and gently steered me to Casper, Sad Sack and Richie Rich. I’m convinced that the comic I wanted was one of the Kirby monster comics from Atlas. By 1963, I was reading super hero comics, mostly Superman, Batman and Flash. But the stories in Marvel Tales were something new; action-packed, and most of them drawn in a bold style to match the stories. It didn’t take me long to put the name to the style: Jack Kirby. Soon it was a matter of how many titles I could afford to buy at any given time, and it wasn’t easy deciding between the Avengers, X-Men, Thor, Hulk and Fantastic Four. Shortly after discovering Kirby’s comics, I started creating my own. My early attempts were crude copies of Marvel
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Bruce Younger with Jack at the Kirby home in the late 1970s. heroes–the Laser and the Tank. Eventually, my art got a bit more polished. Of course, that was due in part to the fact that I was swiping 90% of the panels from Kirby. Around 1966, I felt the need for some feedback from my idol. I had just finished my most recent “original” comic, The Blue Legion, a five-member group consisting of a flaming man, a guy who could stretch, a guy who could change his size, a superstrong man, and a guy with the agility of a cat. The story was twenty pages long, done in pencil on 81⁄2" x 11" mimeograph paper, with 4 full-page fight scenes and the cover colored with color pencil. I mailed the original with a note to Jack in care of Marvel Comics in New York and waited. Who knew from SASEs? Finally, early in 1967 I received a mailing tube with a return address from Marvel Comics. I had no idea what could be in it, so imagine my surprise and excitement when I opened it up to find not only my comic returned, but an original drawing of The Thing by Jack! I was in heaven! It was obvious this had been drawn just for me, because the dialogue balloon contained Jack’s personal comment to me about my work: “Bruce, I think your comics are great. However, you should include some backgrounds for your characters. Keep drawing as you are, and you’ll develop your own style of doing things…” I looked at the comic I had sent and thought I understood what he meant; the figures in almost every panel floated in space with no point of reference. I needed to include more backgrounds. I continued drawing comics, striving to make them better, develop my own style and include backgrounds. Eventually, I went to art school, and even did a couple of special projects involving comics. Ultimately, I started getting work as a cartoonist for some local art studios and became a graphic designer. I never lost my love for Kirby’s art and stories. Then, in the late seventies, I took a trip out to the West Coast to visit some friends. In Los Angeles, I stayed with an old high school chum and comic fan, Jeff Gelb. When I arrived, one of the first things he asked me was, “How would you like to meet Jack Kirby?” It turned out that he had met Jack a couple of times at the San Diego Con, and had even been to his house. He knew what a fan I was, so he called the Kirbys and arranged for me to visit. To say I was floored would be the understatement of the century. So there I was, standing on the Kirbys’ porch with Jeff, wondering what I would say. On the way over, I had realized it was Rosh Hoshanah—the Jewish New Year—so we made an emergency stop to buy a small gift. I was trying to figure out what
The drawing Jack did for young Bruce in 1967.
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I would say when the door opened and Roz Kirby ushered us in. Roz graciously accepted the gift and my apology for imposing on them during the holiday, and led us into the large studio near the kitchen where Jack sat perched at his drawing board. Every article written about Jack Kirby mentions what a gentleman he was, how positive an attitude and gentle a demeanor he had—and every word is true. He was all that, and more. I don’t remember most of what we discussed in any detail, only that the memory of that afternoon is wrapped in a golden patina of warmth, good will and friendship. I showed Jack the portfolio I had brought with me, and he had only nice things to say about my work. He showed me some of the collages he had been creating around that time, and a few of the hardbound volumes of his comics that Roz had put together for him, and for which he had created original one-of-a-kind end papers. He discussed how he had become disenchanted with the comics industry and mentioned a little about the film projects he was working on. I had brought my sketch pad, and did a couple of portraits of him as we talked, giving him the best likeness when we left. We probably spent close to two hours with Jack, but it went by like minutes. Even if it had been only minutes, it would have been some of the best time I ever spent with another human being. Years later, casually studying the one Kirby original that proudly adorns my studio wall, the message that had seemed so obvious to me just a few years before suddenly took on a new meaning. “Include some background for your characters.” It suddenly struck me that, as well as drawing floors, walls, trees and buildings, he meant that I needed to flesh out their personalities, give them emotions, motivations, quirks, things that the reader could identify with. That second level of meaning in his comment to me was much like his stories, and perfectly personified by the character in the drawing he sent; a veneer that tells one story, with a different story not far beneath the surface. Not unlike the man himself. ➌
Submit Something-Get Free Issues! he Jack Kirby Collector is a not-for-profit publication, put together with submissions from Kirby fans around the world. Since we’re not-for-profit, we can’t pay you for your efforts, but when we print art or articles you submit, we’ll send you a FREE copy of that issue or extend your subscription by one issue. Here’s a tentative list of upcoming issues, to give you ideas of things to write about. But don’t limit yourself to these ideas—we may run a miscellaneous issue here or there, so anything you write may be published. And as always, send us copies of your Kirby art!
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#14 (Feb. 1997): THO R Issue
Let’s hear from you, Asgard fans! Featuring interviews with—and cover inks by—Chic Stone and Walt Simonson! Deadline: 1/1/97. #15 (Apr. 1997): SCI-FI Issue
Solar Legion, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Machine Man, Sky Masters, Race For The Moon, Starman Zero, Eternals, Jack’s work for pulps, & more. Featuring an interview with—and front cover inks by—Al Williamson! Also, an interview with Mike Thibodeaux! Back cover inks by Terry Austin! Deadline: 2/1/97. #16 (July 1997): To ugh Gu ys Issue
From Foxhole and Our Fighting Forces, Bullseye to Rawhide Kid, Headline to In The Days Of The Mob, the testosterone will fly as we cover cowboys, gangsters, kid gangs, spies, soldiers, and even a little “tough love” in one issue. Deadline: 4/1/97. #17 (O ct. 1997): DC Issue
Kamandi, Atlas, Kung-Fu Fighter, OMAC, Kobra; we’ll cover Jack’s 1970s DC books (plus more on the Fourth World), and go back further into the Golden & Silver Age to cover Challengers Of The Unknown, Green Arrow, Manhunter, Sandman, and more. Cover inks by Mike Royer and Steve Rude! Deadline: 7/1/97. #18 (Dec. 1997): Marvel Issue
We’ll cover Jack’s return to Marvel in the 1970s as we spotlight Captain America, Black Panther, The Silver Surfer Graphic Novel, and more. Then we’ll delve back into the 1960s, with interviews from some surprise Bullpenners! Deadline: 9/1/97. Miscellaneo us IssueS
You never know when we’ll spring one on you, so don’t limit yourself to the topics above. And just because we covered a topic once, don’t think we won’t print more about it. So get creative, and get writing!
Submission Guidelines: When we print something you submit, we’ll send you a FREE copy of that issue or extend your subscription by one issue. We’re looking for: • Rare and unpublished Kirby art • Original articles and essays on Jack’s life and career • Kirby interviews and correspondence • Kirby convention and fanzine art and articles • Photos and personal recollections of Jack • Published and unpublished reviews of Jack’s work, etc. Artwork should be submitted in one of the following forms: 1) Good quality photocopies (color or black-&-white). 2) Scanned images - 300ppi TIFF, JPEG, or GIF file for IBM or Mac. 3) Original materials (carefully packed and insured). Text should be sent in one of the following forms: 1) Typed or laser printed pages with no “fancy” fonts. 2) E-mail via the Internet to: twomorrow@aol.com 3) An ASCII computer file, IBM or Mac format. 4) For previously printed articles, photocopies are OK. We’ll pay return postage and insurance for originals - please write or call first. Please include background info whenever possible.
Jack’s idea of what a Marvel Comics version of Batman might look like, originally published in The Comic Informer, Vol. 1, #7 (Jan. 1983). This version was inked by Greg Theakston in 1994. Notice how much he looks like the character Jack had the Thing creating in Bruce’s drawing in 1967!
Keep TJKC Going—Send Something! 47
Big Kirby Contest Results!! e asked you to tell us what your favorite Kirby story of all time is (chosen from any story Jack worked on, whether as artist or writer). And although we asked you to choose only ONE single issue or story, a few folks couldn’t decide, so they listed a run of issues. With a total of 124 entries, here are the results (we listed story titles only on issues where there was more than one Kirby story in it):
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Top Vote Getter: NEW GODS #7: “The Pact” (13 votes)
Multiple Vote Getters:
© Weekly World News
Mister Miracle #9 (7) Fantastic Four #51 (6) Fantastic Four #4 (3) Fantastic Four #40 (3) Fantastic Four #48-50 (3) Fantastic Four Annual #6 (3) New Gods #6 (3) Thor #126 (3) Avengers #4 (2) Fantastic Four #6 (2) Fantastic Four #25 (2) Fantastic Four #57 (2) Fantastic Four #60 (2) Fantastic Four #71 (2) Forever People #3 (2) Kamandi #14 (2) Silver Surfer Gr. Novel (2) Tales To Astonish #82 (2) Weird Mystery Tales #2 (2)
Jack’s Back? by John Morrow In Comics Interview #41, Jack gave the following exchange:
Single Vote Getters: KIRBY: ...I’m figuring out how not to die. I just figured a way where I could live 200 years, and come back.
Avengers #1 Black Cat Mystic #57 Black Cat Mystic #59
INTERVIEWER: Tell me.
Black Magic #32 Captain America #100 Captain America #209 Demon #4 Eternals #1 Fantastic Four #1 Fantastic Four #5 Fantastic Four #26 Fantastic Four #44-93 Fantastic Four #46 Fantastic Four #49 Fantastic Four #50 Fantastic Four #52 Fantastic Four #54 Fantastic Four #55 Fantastic Four #59 Fantastic Four #62 Fantastic Four #64 Fantastic Four #72 Fantastic Four #73 Fantastic Four #77 Fantastic Four #93 Fantastic Four Annual #1 Fantastic Four Annual #3 Fantastic Four Annual #5 First Issue Special #1 Jimmy Olsen #139 Journey Into Mystery #123 Kamandi #6
Kamandi #16 Kamandi #29 New Gods #1 New Gods #8 New Gods #9 OMAC #1 Our Fighting Forces #152 Rawhide Kid #22 Rawhide Kid #29 (“Little Man Laughs Last”) Showcase #7 Star-Spangled Comics #12 Strange Tales #97 (“When A Planet Dies”) Strange Tales #135 Strange Worlds #1 Tales Of Suspense #79-81 Tales Of Suspense #80 Tales Of Suspense #84 Tales Of Suspense #85 Tales To Astonish #13 Thor #127-130 Thor #134 Thor #157 The Jack Kirby Collector #8 (“Paul McCartney” story) 2001: A Space Odyssey #7 X-Men #10 Young Romance #6
We realize how difficult it was to narrow your favorite down to just one choice, and unlike what many of the entrants thought, we didn’t run this contest just to torture you! We had an ulterior motive: From now on, if a fledgling Kirby fan asks you where they should start in collecting Jack’s work, just show them this “Best Of Kirby” list and tell them to take their pick! As expected, we got an amazing variety of reasons why a story was someone’s favorite. But this one inspired us the most:
KIRBY: No, I’m not gonna tell you! It’s my own thing. I’ll tell your great-grandson! INTERVIEWER: So in the year 2125 we might see a whole different version of The New Gods? KIRBY: Yes, ’cause I’ll be back and nobody’ll know how I did it.
“My vote for favorite Kirby story would be FF #46, “Those Who Would Destroy Us.” My reason is mainly personal. My dad was shot and killed when I was only eight. I won’t delve into the morbid details, but suffice it to say that for the longest time—about 20 years—I was the most painfully shy person you’ve ever met. I never talked unless spoken to. So when I was 15 and encountered Black Bolt, who never uttered a word and yet was imbued with such nobility and majesty... well, words can’t do justice to how much it meant.” David Robbins, Rogue River, OR
I thought Jack was just having some fun with the interviewer, until I saw the April 16, 1996 edition of the Weekly World News (a tabloid trash periodical, found at most supermarket checkouts). Interspersed between stories about extraterrestrial Space Bugs and elephants that were snatched up by UFOs, there was a story about Jack’s ghost teaching a 10-year old in New Jersey to draw just like him! Is this what Jack had in mind in his interview?! The Weekly World News wouldn’t officially respond to requests for more details on the story. But a confidential source tells me the whole thing was just another of the many hoaxes the tabloid invents to sell papers. Still, the article was kind of fun, and paid nice tribute to Jack and his many achievements. Even Roz got a kick out of it! But while we’re all waiting for Jack’s real return, there is something we can do to keep his ‘spirit’ alive. Shortly after his passing, The Jack Kirby Educational Fund was set up at his synagogue. It’s part of an ongoing fundraising campaign to develop a 34,000 square foot Educational Center to benefit over 100 youngsters from kindergarten through 9th Grade in Jack’s community. Based on the total contributions made in Jack’s name upon completion, the Center will memorialize Jack by naming classrooms, a youth lounge, or a library after him. You can send donations in Jack’s name to: The Jack Kirby Educational Fund, Temple Etz Chaim, 1080 Janss Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. ➌
Now for the loot! We randomly drew names to award the following:
Grand Prize Winner: TED LATNER, PORT WASHINGTON, NY Ted wins a GODS Portfolio, 21st Century Archives Kirby Card Set, Italian magazines reprinting the Silver Surfer Graphic Novel, New Gods #1, and Argosy Magazine with Jack’s “Street Code” story. 2ND PRIZE: Wendell Brown III, New Canaan, CT (Kirby Card Set) 3RD PRIZE: Allan Rosenberg, Suffern, NY 4TH PRIZE: Dan St. John, Minneapolis, MN (Italian Magazines reprinting the Silver Surfer Graphic Novel) 5TH PRIZE: Steven Taylor, San Diego, CA (Misc. Kirby comics) Special thanks to Steve Sherman, Jeff Glandt, Andrea Plazzi & Ken Loving for donating the prizes, which are on the way to the winners! Congratulations !
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Collector Comments Send letters to: The Jack Kirby Collector c/o TwoMorrows • 502 Saint Mary’s St. Raleigh, NC 27605 or E-mail to: twomorrow@aol.com (Between Barry Windsor-Smith’s inks and John Byrne’s interview in TJKC #12, we got more than a few people riled up! Here’s a sample of some of their comments:) It will probably come as no surprise that I object to some of John Byrne’s comments in Jon Cooke’s interview. In particular, I find Byrne’s argument about Marvel’s treatment of Kirby disingenuous at best, and his view of Kirby wildly at odds with the picture of Kirby which emerges from the rest of TJKC #12. Byrne misrepresents Kirby’s situation when he claims that Marvel “treated him exactly the same way they treat everyone!” In fact they did NOT treat Kirby the same as everyone. Because of his exceptional contributions to the company, Marvel singled out Kirby for exceptional treatment—exceptionally cool, calculated, and suspicious treatment. Before they would return one iota of Kirby’s original artwork, Marvel insisted that Kirby sign an exceptional statement—an unprecedented statement, byzantine in complexity— which would have denied Kirby, once and for all, any share in the authorship of Marvel characters, and which would have FORBIDDEN him to ever claim any credit for such characters (Captain America, for example, who was erroneously billed in one movie advertisement as a “Stan Lee” creation). This statement, in other words, would have reasserted—in an absolute, binding sense—a claim which, as Byrne would have it, was already understood anyway; that Marvel was in every sense the author of the comics in question, having “bought out” Kirby’s stake. (If this was understood, why did Marvel insist on making it literal and watertight?) As is well-documented, Marvel did NOT approach Kirby as they did everyone else; because of his stature, they tried to preempt any claim, legal or moral, that Kirby might have asserted on his own behalf as creator or co-creator. Note that Kirby never pressed any legal claim to ownership of the characters in question; he simply refused to sign a statement which would have surrendered his ethical right to do so. He refused to be strong-armed into signing his name to a lie; namely, that he had nothing to do with the conception or design of these characters. Byrne also distorts history when he claims that Kirby consistently played the part of “company man,” loyal to the publishers he worked for “right up to the day he no longer worked for them.” Yes, as Mark Evanier points out in the transcript of the San Diego tribute panel, Kirby lived by a “wonderful work ethic” which demanded that his give his best to any assignment for any publisher—in Kirby’s own words, “I gave it all I had.” Yet he did NOT tie his fortunes to the fortunes of any one company. This is a fannish conceit; the company as family, as bullpen, as team, deserving abstract loyalty above and beyond the work you give. On the contrary, Kirby was his own man. When he worked with Joe Simon in the ’40s and ’50s, for example, the two were entrepreneurs, striking out from Fox to freelance, then landing a position with Timely; striking out from Timely to a better deal at National. As he says himself in Nessim Vaturi’s interview, “if another company offered me more, I went, so I leaped around like a fly.” After the war, S&K sought work from Harvey and other publishers, and eventually published their own line, Mainline. “Simon & Kirby” had an identity of its own, as a studio, a shop apart from any publisher, in which Kirby served as de facto art director and Simon negotiated with various clients. Later, after the dissolution of the S&K partnership, Kirby took work where he could find it— National, then Atlas/Marvel—so that he could continue to feed his family by doing what he loved to do. His dedication was to the WORK itself; check out various interviews which reveal just how aloof Kirby was from office politics, and how remote the idea of a “bullpen” was to him. Kirby gave of himself every time he did a job, but he didn’t give himself away. As Marv Wolfman confirms in the
San Diego transcript, Kirby had ideas (e.g., New Gods) which he held in reserve for years, unwilling to give them up to the Marvel universe. He had aspirations, dreams, ambitions which he was unwilling to sacrifice for something as abstract as company loyalty. If Kirby was a “company man,” why did he leave Marvel behind in the early ’70s? Why did he insist on doing his National/DC books his way, without dialoguing or editorial intervention from others? If Kirby was a company loyalist, why did he strike out into the field of “independent” comics with his early ’80s work with Pacific? No, the image of Kirby soldiering for the company, doing his best for the organization, only hides a history of negotiations and compromises, a history effaced by Byrne’s bland assertion that everyone blithely understood the work-for-hire “deal” and went along with it without reservation. Yes, Kirby knowingly worked under this “deal,” in the absence of something better, and no, he wasn’t one of the artists who first rejected or chipped away at this deal—but he wasn’t a company sycophant either, one of those artists who went gently into that good night without so much as a whimper. The point of this is not to insist on the simplistic view that “Kirby equals good” and “Lee equals bad.” I’ve long since gotten past this slavish view, as I suspect most readers of TJKC have. Byrne’s point about the field being “almost totally different” today is well-taken; we should be
Does anyone know where this Hulk pencil was originally used? on guard against anachronistic judgments. But this does not lessen the enormity of Marvel’s failure, professional and moral, in the case of the return of Kirby’s artwork. The right thing was staring them in the face, plain as day, and they didn’t do it. The “everyone knew the deal” argument papers over history, blurring the very real conflicts which artists like Kirby had to deal with week in, week out, for so many years. Company loyalty also obscures that history, breeding endless equivocations and rationalizations on the company’s behalf. Kirby deserves better. Charles Hatfield, Storrs, CT About the Smith-inked cover: It’s hard to see what he was doing. All sorts of “change for change’s sake”. I guess that’s okay for a pin-up (especially as long as the original is preserved and presented), but I’m glad Smith never did much Kirby inking. I read the Byrne interview first (and I guess emphasizing his “Canadian” status was just part of the whole “international issue” thing, but really, we don’t need the shame), since I suspected I’d need the rest of the mag to get the taste out of my mouth. I was right. I suppose some things he said should be corrected for the record. The line that Kirby was treated fairly by Marvel because “they treated him exactly the same way they treat everyone” is wrong on at least three levels. First, it’s hard to believe that someone who mouths off on industry
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topics as often as Byrne does is unaware of the fact that Marvel wanted Kirby to sign an art return contract far longer and (reportedly) more insulting than they required of other artists (and for only a fraction of the art they owed him). Second, it’s a ridiculous notion that treating everyone like dirt is treating them “fairly.” Third, this is Kirby, the primary creator of the Marvel Universe. Damn straight he deserves to be treated better than anyone else! Saying that he doesn’t think Siegel and Shuster were ripped off is also interesting. I can’t think of anyone else who would express that sentiment, including current DC management. Just how can events be interpreted in such a way that a situation where the creators of a character worth millions annually were living in poverty? Bob Heer, Ontario, Canada Byrne has got quite a gall to claim Kirby was treated fairly by Marvel, and it diminishes Kirby’s contribution by implication to suggest that because other artists also got shafted it was okay. It seems to me that Byrne has profited greatly from the struggles of all those who came before him to improve the state of the industry, and he lauds their artistic accomplishments, but for some incomprehensible reason feels free to ridicule them for their criticism of Marvel et al. It comes across as cheap, petty, and ungrateful. If there is a “perceptual” problem, as Byrne states, in putting the problem in perspective, then it is surely his own perspective that bears adjusting. Cartoonists that worked in the newspapers were treated far better than those in the comic book field, and the return of artwork was an issue in both fields for a time. Why was it an issue? Because some of the artists wanted their art back! Whether or not there was a fan response or buyers waiting was immaterial to the artists who wanted it back for their own gratification. In comics there was such an atmosphere of questionable legality or legitimacy that many publishers were afraid to let artists have their originals back. They were afraid that somehow the artist would be able to infringe on their copyright in the absence of contracts. Later, after contracts that would make Fagin proud removed all possibility of that being a problem, some publishers didn’t give back originals because they relished their reputations as hard-hearted bastards. Very few would dispute that that’s exactly what W.R. Hearst was, but he certainly took much better care of the cartoonists in his employ. And to suggest that Kirby’s and Lee’s roles might be reversed if Lee had left Marvel in the ’70s and Kirby had stayed is the worst kind of disingenuous claptrap. For one thing, there was no parity between them at Marvel before Kirby left. Kirby was not the nephew of the publisher, so that was unlikely to change. Second, while I have never heard Kirby claim to have created Conan or Superman, I have definitely seen Lee in print claiming to be the creator of characters like Captain America (who even the most unreasonable of Lee apologists don’t lay claim to as bearing his authorship). In essence, though, Lee did leave Marvel in turn. Where Kirby went on to create even more personal and highly regarded work at DC (ironically now the source from which Byrne borrows), Lee went on to spin his wheels in the morass of Hollywood. Lee made deals that only resulted in a handful of sorry projects that even today prevent better adaptations from being made due to legal entanglements (can there be any doubt that a James Cameron Spider-Man movie would be more than worth trading every previous TV show or movie based on Marvel characters for?). Likewise, where are the Lee masterworks after Kirby left—the first issue of Ms. Marvel? John Byrne proved a long time ago with his infamous “cog in the machine” editorial (I’m embarrassed on his behalf that he wrote it, as he doesn’t seem to have the sense to be embarrassed himself) that his contributions to comics are best served in the form of drawings. After a decade and a half of his “scab” talk, I have no hopes of his ever giving those who called for reform their due. I’m just glad that most professionals in the field are able to see the situation without such smug tunnel vision. Britt Wisenbacker, Aptos, CA
Having finally gotten the time to read the latest TJKC I thought I’d respond to something John Byrne said in his interview on Jack. While I certainly don’t agree with his statements in regards to various companies’ treatment of Jack (and others) I cannot honestly say Byrne's viewpoint offends me. He sees artists as commodities, and the publisher as having no mandate other than profit. I don’t agree, and think it is far more complex than that. What does bother me is his response to the question as to the “significance of Jack Kirby in the world’, his importance “in the bigger scheme of things.?” Byrne’s answer: none. None? NONE? Let me go on record as saying that my life—and I would suspect that of many others—has been profoundly affected by Jack. His creations taught me volumes about good and bad, the ability of ‘the average guy’ to rise above and do great things, and most of all about nobility and staying true to one’s own self. Jack’s comics fired my imagination for the written word,for pictures, and for the way the two interact. My love of art, which resulted in a career as an art teacher, a career that has touched thousands of lives (hopefully for the better) is because of Jack. All those students influenced by me were actually influenced by a man many of them have likely never heard of. It is an insult to say that Jack’s reach is confined to the world of comics, and is not greater than that. True art knows no boundaries, and certainly doesn’t stop at the edge of the page or canvas or stage. John Byrne can never understand that, and that my friends is why his influence will never be more than minimal. James Cassara, Asheville, NC
a light table, while others trace Jack’s pencils onto a separate piece of art board and then ink it. Either way involves a bit of “redrawing,” which allows for more of the inker’s style to seep in; how much is up to the inker, since I don’t put any restrictions on them. I enjoy variety. I suspect if you didn’t have Jack’s pencils to compare the inks to, you’d have enjoyed Barry’s inks more. If you check out the Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles pencils on page 4 of TJKC #12, and compare them to the published version, you’ll see that he took great liberties even in 1976. Everyone’s certainly entitled to their own opinion (and I love to hear them), but I personally found Barry’s TJKC cover to be pretty stunning.) I’m a considerable admirer of Barry Windsor-Smith, and I liked the cover. It is fascinating that inkers make the changes in pencilers’ art that they do—often puzzling ones to a non-artist. I can’t speak of Jack’s opinions of European artists in general—but I do know what he thought of one French artist. Jack and Roz visited my bookstore not long after we opened, probably in the neighborhood of ’73 or ’74. We stocked European comics albums in depth, the first comics store in the country to sell them. Jack briefly glanced through the familiar American comics. Then he began on the titles, European
(One thing readers need to keep in mind is that our cover inkers aren’t inking actual Kirby pencils, but photocopies of them. Some choose to ink on a translucent vellum over
CORRECTIONS FROM PREVIOUS ISSUES: #12: In the interview transcribed from Italian (page 3), Jack confused Wow–What A Magazine (which was printed in 1936, fully 1-1⁄2 years before Jack worked for Will Eisner) with Wow Comics from Fawcett. He also meant “Jerry Iger,” not “Jerry Siegel.” Our apologies to Kevin Andre Shaw, whose name we inadvertently left off the list of contributors in #12. David Spurlock, Ray Owens, Patricio Alberto Cocaro, and “Philippino Fan”; please send us your mailing addresses so we can send your copy of #12! #11: We were mistaken about the three “Johnny Carson” drawings on page 38. Jack’s encounter with Carson did occur in the 1980s, but those drawings were done in the early 1970s at the request of Carmine Infantino, who wanted something to take with him when he appeared on the Virginia Graham talk show (that’s Virginia Graham in the drawings).
Mark Evanier wrote, “To tell you the truth, I really don’t know where the term “Fourth World” came from. Len Wein is the one who claims it was just intended as a one-time cover blurb on the fourth issues. Steve Sherman says that he recalls Jack using the term before that. I think, if I had to pick one version, I would believe that Jack came up with the term and that he stuck it on the cover of one of the books — whichever issue #4 he did first, probably Forever People. Then someone at DC picked up on it and stuck it on the other books. But that’s just a theory.” (I posted that I’d seen a copy of Jack’s pencils to the cover of Demon #3, where it said (as shown here in Jack’s handwriting) “The Fourth World of the Eerie... (logo) DEMON”. This sparked some interesting debate:) Chris Harper wrote, “Carmine probably ordered that it be removed. I guess it just means the Demon was Jack’s horrororiented segment of his “Fourth World,” although it does little to explain what it means or how it came about!” Richard Bensam wrote, “Fascinating. There are several different ways to interpret this. One might be that Jack simply regarded “the Fourth World” as referring to all his DC series, not merely the New Genesis vs. Apokolips stuff. But I find that explanation a bit unsatisfying. Even less the idea that there was some intended connection between The Demon and the proper Fourth World books, which is plainly not the case. Instead, I believe this was simply a bit of salesmanship on Jack’s part—he wanted to suggest that what New Gods et. al. was to gods and epic conflicts, The Demon would be to the occult and horror stories. As if to say, “this is the horror equivalent of the Fourth World!” Which would have been sheer hyperbole, since it was just a darn good occult comic and not anything industry-shaking.”
(Like James, my exposure to Jack’s work got me interested in art, and led to my career in advertising. Mr. Byrne was mistaken when he said there was no return of original art in the advertising field. In fact, many freelance illustrators and photographers require that, in addition to their regular fees, ad agencies pay them a separate “buy-out” fee, or return their original art and photography to them; their regular fee pays for a onetime only use of the art, just like in comics.) I was boggled by how many different countries had seen some form of Marvel work and Kirby art... I couldn’t keep track of it if I tried. The original [TJKC #12 cover] artwork from Kirby shows Cap striding away from Europe southeast across northern Africa... but Barry Smith has altered it to be the eastern coast of the USA complete with Florida’s peninsula hanging out. Why was this done? Kirk Groeneveld, Athens, OH
Internet Notes: (Here’s some of what transpired during a recent Internet discussion of how the term “Fourth World” came about:)
Jack’s pencils to the Demon drawing we printed way back in TJKC #2. looking through them without comment until he came to Phillipe Druillet’s books. He examined the color Lone Sloanes at length, going from page to page. Finally he put them under his arm. “Now, that’s my kind of artist!” Jack exclaimed. By the way, in discussing just what Jack did and what Stan did, no one seems to refer to that SHIELD story in Strange Tales #148, mentioned by the San Diego panel in another connection. In an editorial, Lee mentions specifically that Jack was going to write the story while Stan took a vacation. I recall turning to the story, wondering if it would be different from the regular SHIELD yarns, and being a little surprised that it read the same as the others—which I had believed Lee wrote. Consequently, I wasn’t surprised when Lee’s attempts to write the FF after Jack left were not only poor but completely unlike any of the Fantastic Four stories done under Jack. By that time, I realized that Lee was simply a dialogue writer, not a story writer—much like the “titlewriters” in silent movies, many of whom were extremely talented (and often touched with genius) and highly paid, but whose work was after the fact of the actual creation of the story and filming. Lee also acted as editor—and for the most part, a very good one—but was clearly not the writer of Jack’s stories. Richard Kyle, Long Beach, CA
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(I also doubt Jack planned to tie Demon into New Gods. He might’ve just written it there by habit, since he’d just wrapped up the Fourth World stuff at the time. But see what kind of fun you’re missing out on if you’re not on the Internet? Check page 2 of this issue for details of how to get on the Kirby E-mail List or the Kirby Newsgroup.)
NEXT ISSUE: Asgard comes alive in our special Thor Theme Issue! #14 leads off with a new interview with classic Kirby inker Chic Stone, highlighted by Chic’s new inks on the front cover! Our back cover sports new inks by Walt Simonson, and Walt is interviewed about following in Jack’s footsteps on characters like Thor and Manhunter! Then we’ll examine Jack’s work on Thor, including a look at his earlier use of the character at Marvel and DC, a comparison of Jack’s version of Asgard to the original Norse myths, and an exploration of the links between Thor and New Gods! Plus, we’ll delve into some of the incredible characters and concepts Jack created, like Odin, Loki, Balder, Sif, Ego, The Warriors Three, and many more! And throughout, we’ll show plenty of unpublished Thor art from the Kirby archives and private collections (including unpublished Thor pages, and published pages BEFORE they were inked), and more!
Classifieds (10¢ per word, $1 minimum) ______________________________ GREEN HORNET STRIKES. Jim Steranko signed/limited print. Only $29 plus S/H. Ray Spivey, 512-3384971 evenings, CST. ______________________________ FOR SALE: Captain America Poster (cover to first Golden Age issue). It must be over 20 years old. Mint. $20 postpaid. Kirk Tilander, 42 Leigh St., Warwick, RI 02889. (401)732-4285. ______________________________ WANTED: Good condition issues of Marvel’s Greatest Comics reprinting Fantastic Four #51-100. Will pay reasonable prices. Contact Craig Bogart at (614)251-1861. Leave message. ______________________________ FROM THE GOLDEN AGE to the Modern Age, from Captain America to Captain Flag, from Millie The Model to Millie The Lovable Monster, IT’S A FANZINE covers it all. Now bigger than ever and back on a quarterly schedule.
Current issue #45 features Mary Marvel and Calvin & Hobbes. $3 postpaid. Subscriptions are five issues for $10. Gene Kehoe, 1421 Bertch Ave., Waterloo, IA 50702. ______________________________ COMIC TEST COVERS: Mr. Miracle, Kamandi, others. Limited DC cover approvals $10-$25 each. Ray Spivey, PO Box 27274, Austin, TX 78755, (512)338-4971 CST evenings. ______________________________
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KIRBY UNLEASHED Portfolio original art: “The Forever People.” Framed, matted. As seen in TJKC #1 and THE ART OF JACK KIRBY. $2000. Call Dave, 503-234-1928. ______________________________
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England’s JACK KIRBY QUARTERLY is now available in North America! Published about four times a year, it’s mailed First Class in a sturdy envelope. Each issue is 24 or more pages with plenty of unseen Kirby art, interviews, insightful articles, reviews, commentary, all featuring the King’s work. Mail $16 for a 4 issue subscription, or $4 for a sample issue to: JACK KIRBY QUARTERLY, c /o Montilla Productions, P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892-0204.
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THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #13 A TWOMORROWS ADVERTISING PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE KIRBY ESTATE EDITED BY JOHN MORROW
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Retailers Get 5&40 Discounts and Free Shipping! Call 919-833-8092 To Carry TJKC In Your Store! COPYRIGHTS: Boomerang, Capt. America, Colossus, Crystal, Devil Dinosaur, Diablo, Elektro, Galactus, Googam, Goom, Green Thing, Hulk, Ikaris, Monster in the Iron Mask, Pandora, Plunderer, Rawhide Kid, Sazzik the Sorcerer, Silver Surfer, Sporr, The Monster, The Spider, Thing, Vision, Xemnu the Titan are © Marvel Entertainment, Inc. • Asmodon, Batman, Count Dragorin, Darkseid, Demon, Desaad, Farley Fairfax, Four-Armed Terror, Glenda Mark, Harry Matthews, Jason Blood, Jimmy Olsen, Lupek, Merlin, Mr. Miracle, Orion, Pisces, Randu Singh, Reincarnators, Superman, Toxl are © DC Comics, Inc. • Black Magic, Strange World of Your Dreams, and all associated characters are © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby • Dr. Wonder is © Old Town Publishing • Bat-Guy, Genie, SPQR are © Jack Kirby • Prince Valiant is © King Features Syndicate
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Demon © DC Comics, Inc.