Jack Kirby Collector #34 by TwoMorrows Publishing

In The US

9.95

NO. 34 MAR.

2002

THE NEW

C o l l e c t o r

Number 7, Mar.-Apr. 2002 • Hype and hullabaloo from the publisher determined to bring new life to comics fandom • Edited by Eric Nolen-Weathington

Two Legends Return!! XAL-KOR and GRASS GREEN—two blasts from the past! In 1964, the HUMAN CAT debuted in the classic fanzine STAR-STUDDED COMICS, creating a sensation! Now, almost 40 years later, writerartist Grass Green has crafted a fantastic climax to this much-honored series, packed with ROUSING SUPER-HERO ACTION! In it, Xal-Kor awakes from 23 years of suspended animation, to find his arch-enemy QUEEN RODA and her rat legions on the brink of conquering planet Earth. Is there time for Xal-Kor—the intrepid soldier from the cat-planet Felis—to save Earth from becoming a slave planet? Has his great love, the beautiful and sensual FELINA, survived his long absence? Get ready for shock after shock! With inks by ANGEL GABRIELE and RON FONTES, introductory remarks by ROY THOMAS and JEFF GELB, and background on the Xal-Kor series by editor BILL SCHELLY to get new readers “up to speed,” this 100-page trade paperback brings Xal-Kor back with a vengeance! IMPORTANT NOTE: In 2001, Grass Green was diagnosed with lung cancer. All profits from XAL-KOR go to him, so show your support by buying this book in May!

Shipping March The Jack Kirby Collector #34 Alter Ego #13 Comic Book Artist #18 DRAW! #3

Shipping April Alter Ego #14 Comic Book Artist #19 DRAW! #4

Coming Soon!

CBA Sold-Out No More! Can’t find those CBA back issues you’re missing? The search is over! Simply pick up the new COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME 2! It reprints the sold-out CBA #5 (’70s DC) and #6 (’70s Marvel) and includes over 20 NEW PAGES spotlighting STEVE ENGLEHART and MARSHALL ROGERS’ Batman work, plus DC’s ultra-rare CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE! Also included are interviews with and unpublished art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, NEAL ADAMS, JOHN ROMITA SR., MIKE KALUTA, FRANK BRUNNER, P. CRAIG RUSSELL and more for a whopping 208 pages of great reading this May!

Keep Your Eyes on CBA!

Let’s Talk Designing! When should you tilt or overlap a comics panel? What’s the best way to divide a page to convey motion, time, action, quiet? PANEL DISCUSSIONS (our new trade paperback, shipping in June) is the place to find out! It picks the minds of over a dozen of the industry’s top storytellers, covering all aspects of the design of comics, from pacing and word balloon placement, to using color to convey emotion, and how gutters between panels affect the story! Learn from WILL EISNER, MIKE MIGNOLA, MIKE WIERINGO, WALTER SIMONSON, MARK SCHULTZ, DICK GIORDANO, BRIAN STELFREEZE, MIKE CARLIN, MARK CHIARELLO and others as they share their hard-learned lessons about the DESIGN of comics, complete with hundreds of illustrated examples. If you’re serious about creating the most effective, innovative comics possible, or just enjoying them from the creator’s perspective, this in-depth guide is must-reading!

Issue #20 presents a fathers/sons special with the KUBERTS & the ROMITAS, featuring an interview with Marvel men JOHN ROMITA, SR. & JOHN ROMITA, JR. and another with JOE, ADAM & ANDY KUBERT and plenty of UNPUBLISHED and RARELY SEEN ART from both families! Issue #21 will feature ADAM HUGHES and a huge Gallery section of his UNPUBLISHED and IN-PROGRESS work, plus a “DAY IN THE LIFE” of ALEX ROSS! CBA #21 also respectfully gives tribute to the late, great JOHN BUSCEMA! Look for it!

Alter Ego Gives You More JSA! A/E #14 is an ALL-JSA issue covering the history of the team from the ’40s to the ’80s! There’s rare JSA art by JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, JACK KIRBY, GIL KANE, SHELLY MOLDOFF, H.G. PETER, CREIG FLESSEL and others as well as more NEVER-SEEN ART from an UNPUBLISHED 1940s JSA tale! Plus, secrets behind the 1970s All-Star revival, with PAUL LEVITZ, GERRY CONWAY, JOE STATON, and others, plus much more in April!

We’re Hittin’ the Airwaves! THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR appeared on the January 13 broadcast of CBS’s SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD! The segment showed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon at a comic book convention perusing a copy of TJKC #31. And if that’s not cool enough, TWOMORROWS is now the Unofficial Comics History Advisor for the TV game show THE WEAKEST LINK! (Goodbye!)

To get periodic e-mail updates of what’s new from TwoMorrows Publishing, sign up for our mailing list! Go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ twomorrows

COPYRIGHT NOTICES: Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batman, Robin, Deadman, Hawkman, Kid Flash, Green Lantern, Metamorpho, Creeper, Bat Lash, Enemy Ace, Phantom Stranger Justice Society of America TM & ©2002 DC Comics. Hellboy TM & ©2002 Mike Mignola. Xal-Kor TM & ©2002 Grass Green. Lara Croft TM & ©2002 Core Design, Ltd.

The Jack Kirby Collector #35 (May) CBA Collection, Vol. 2 TPB (May) Xal-Kor the Human Cat TPB (May) Comic Book Artist #20 (May) Alter Ego #15 (June) Panel Discussions TPB (June)

Pros and Cons Convention season is gearing up and TWOMORROWS will be there! We’re planning on attending a slew of shows this year starting with the Atlanta Comicon on April 12-14! John and Pam will be there showing off our newest employee, LILY MORROW! Check out www.atlantacomicon.com to get the full scoop on the show. Shortly thereafter we’ll be at the Pittsburgh Comicon (April 2628). MIKE MANLEY will be joining us there, showing off the new issue of DRAW! Log on to www.pittsburghcomicon.com for more info. And as usual, we’ll be returning to Charlotte, NC’s Heroes Con on June 14-16. Hey, it’s one of our favorite cons and it’s right in our backyard! We’re there! Visit www.heroesonline.com to get the skinny! If you need to contact the TwoMorrows editors (or want to send a letter of comment), try e-mail! John Morrow, publisher, JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR editor (and the one to go to with subscription problems): twomorrow@aol.com Jon B. Cooke, COMIC BOOK ARTIST editor: jonbcooke@aol.com Roy Thomas, ALTER EGO editor: roydann@ntinet.com P.C. Hamerlinck, FCA editor: fca2001@yahoo.com Mike Manley, DRAW! editor: mike@actionplanet.com And the TWOMORROWS WEB SITE (where you can read excerpts from our back issues, and order from our secure online store) is at: www.twomorrows.com

Next Issue: Kirby’s Great Escapes!

Contents OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (a salute to the fighting Americans who saved United Flight #93 from terrorists)

THE NEW

UNDER THE COVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (the inimitable Alex Toth drops us a card about this issue’s cover art) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 (Mark Evanier solves a Frequently Asked Question about how inkers were chosen at Marvel in the 1960s)

ISSUE #34, MAR. 2002

R.L. BRYANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 (our semi-regular columnist surveys a certain Scientific American) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 (Keith Hammond takes aim at Kirby’s run on Green Arrow) LOOKING BACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 (Carmine Infantino reminisces about Joe, Jack, and all kinds of heroes) INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 (a brief chat with Jack, circa 1974) BATTLE LINES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 (Kirby’s 12-issue run was a winner for the Losers) OLD PANELING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 (some unseen ’50s Kirby comic strips) GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 (a selection of Captain America’s greatest hits, kicks, and wallops, shown at our giant tabloid size) KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 (Adam McGovern dips into a grab-bag of Kirby homages) INTERNATIONALITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 (French comics legend Philippe Druillet learns that the Kirby influence speaks a universal language) PULPED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 (get your fingers dirty on these torrid, lusty Simon & Kirby illos) SHIELD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 (Spies, Hydra, Intrigue, and Espionage in a Lengthy Dissertation) COLLABORATORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 (Simon says, “Read this article!”) EXTRA! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 (here’s one you’ve NEVER heard of: Big Game Hunter!) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . . . . . .76 (a fantastic forum to discuss last issue’s hits and misses) PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (would’ja believe Abe Lincoln starred in his own Kirby comic? Honest!) Front cover inks: JACK KIRBY Back cover inks: ALEX TOTH Cover color: TOM ZIUKO Photocopies of Jack’s uninked pencils from published comics are reproduced here courtesy of the Kirby Estate, which has our thanks for their continued support. COPYRIGHTS: Boy Explorers, Boys' Ranch, Bullseye, Fighting American, Foxhole, Stuntman ©2002 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. • Big Game Hunter, King Masters, Master Jeremy, Sky Masters, Starman Zero, Surf Hunter, Young Abe Lincoln ©2002 Jack Kirby Estate. • Agent 13/Sharon Carter, A.I.M., Baron Zemo, Black Panther, Bucky, Captain America, Daredevil, Destroyer, Dr. Doom, Dum-Dum Dugan, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Human Torch, Hydra, Invisible Girl, Iron Man, Jasper Sitwell, Magneto, Miss America, Mole Man, Mr. Fantastic, Nick Fury, Professor Xavier, Red Skull, S.H.I.E.L.D., Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner, The Patriot, Thing, Thor TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Adam Strange, Batman, Black Canary, Boy Commandos, Count Dragorin, Deadman, Detective Chimp, Elongated Man, Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Guardian, Jimmy Olsen, Kid Flash, Losers, Lupek, Manhunter, Newsboy Legion, Panama Fattie, Robin, Sandman, Speedy, Superman, Terrible Turpin TM & ©2002 DC Comics. • Charlie Chan ©2002 Crestwood Publications. • Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, Capt. 3-D, Pvt. Strong/The Shield ©2002 Harvey Comics. • Star Wars, Darth Vader TM & ©2002 Lucasfilm Ltd.

The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 10, No. 34, March 2002. Published quarterly by & ©2002 TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092. John Morrow, Editor. Pamela Morrow, Asst. Editor. Eric Nolen-Weathington, Production Assistant. Single issues: $13 postpaid ($15 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $36.00 US, $60.00 Canada, $64.00 elsewhere. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is ©2002 Jack Kirby unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is ©2002 the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA.

Opening Shot my lunch, for Pete’s sake!) I detest hearing them ring in movie theaters, church, and other places where insensitive people forget to switch theirs off. But after learning how cell phones kept those passengers informed that day (not to mention how many victims of the Twin Towers’ collapse were able to share a final farewell with loved ones), I’ve had a definite change of heart. Back to Flight #93. Todd Beamer was one of those brave Americans who took on the hijackers, knowing their chances of survival were negligible. With his final words of “Let’s roll,” he and the others managed to keep that plane from slamming into its intended target. (One can only imagine the upheaval in this country if a large portion of Congress had been killed.) Not to take anything away from the brave police officers and firemen who perished that day, or

Wah-Hoo, Let’s Roll! he events of September 11, 2001 have irrevocably changed the lives of all Americans. Though the death toll at the World Trade Center dropped from initial estimates of more than 5000 to less than 3000 now—some five months after those horrible attacks—and though I didn’t personally know anyone killed there or at the Pentagon, a part of me (and of most Americans from what I can tell) feels like I knew them all; but as powerful as the images from Ground Zero are, it was the wooded area in rural Pennsylvania where United Airlines Flight #93 crashed that sticks uppermost in my mind these days. That flight, like the others that crashed that day, was hijacked and put on a collision course with one of our national symbols of freedom (presumably the Capitol Building in Washington, DC from what investigators have pieced together). Only the actions of a small group of true heroes— “fighting Americans” if you will—kept that from happening. Let me state for the record: I hate cellular phones. I simply don’t want to be interrupted at all hours, any time of the day. (Let me enjoy

(inset) Details of Jack’s various fighting Americans. This page, top to bottom: Jim Bowie, Fighting American, Davy Crockett, and Captain America and Sgt. Fury. Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett ©2002 Harvey Comics. Captain America, Bucky, Sgt. Fury TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. Fighting American TM & ©2002 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.

the untold ordinary citizens who helped others during those dark hours, but those passengers on Flight #93 are, to me, “heroes” in the truest sense of the word. No, the real-life drama of September 11 doesn’t have anything to do with comic books—it even makes comics seem really trivial in the scheme of things—but it got me thinking about how Jack Kirby spent part of his youth fighting his own generation’s Osama Bin Laden in World War II, and spent the rest of his life defeating evil on the comics page against a million cartoon villains, from the Yellow Claw to Darkseid. You just know that if Jack had been on Flight #93, he would have been one of the people heading up the aisle from the back of the plane, with whatever makeshift weapon he could

(top to bottom) The Shield/Pvt. Strong, Sgt. Fury & His Howling Commandos, and the Patriot and Miss America. Pvt. Strong TM & ©2002 Harvey Comics. Sgt. Fury, the Patriot, Miss America TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

find, ready for one last fight scene with the bad guys. (I only hope I can find that kind courage if I’m ever in the same sit-

(above) Jack Dempsey and Betsy Ross entries from Kirby’s 1947 48 Famous Americans J.C. Penney giveaway comic.

uation.) Today, a lot of other Americans are fighting for our country’s security overseas, and here at home, and we all should be thankful that there are “Fighting Americans” willing to put their lives on the line to protect our country, our freedoms, and our way of life—but it’s those passengers of Flight #93 who are the inspiration for this issue, and I respectfully dedicate it to them. Let’s never forget those brave Americans who went down fighting. ★

Under The Covers

hen you get a postcard from Alex Toth, you don’t tend to forget it. In addition to the wealth of information he can cram into such a small space, it’s done in his incredibly beautiful handwriting (as readers of our sister magazine Comic Book Artist will attest, which features a regular Toth column, repro’d directly from his postcards). So when I asked Alex for his permission to run the Toth-inked Boys’ Ranch piece (over Kirby’s pencils, shown at left, from the Masterworks portfolio) as our back cover, his 3" x 5" reply was definitely memorable. “All our sins and flubs come back to haunt us, indeed! Re my inhibited inking of Jack’s pencils! Sure, run it, if you like, w/ the warning to readers/tyros/ “Don’t do this at home”!!! Okay? “1000 years ago, collector/dealer at large, Mitch Itkowitz, approached me to do this, and I wasn’t sure he was serious?! Yup, he was—dunno if it was at “S.D. Con,” in person, or via phone/mail, but I gave it a shot, w/ grave misgivings, as I told Mitch, ’cuz Jack and I were oil ’n’ water, didn’t/wouldn’t/mix! Layering my inks over his pencils’d cancel each other out! “Plus the fact, I’d not want to bury Jack under my secondguessing “corrections”—redrawing or tightening or techniquing it—as other inkers’ve done for many decades, w/ great-tomediocre results—in my old jaded eyes, Jack’s best inker-partner was Joe Simon during their olden-golden-days at NPP/DC in WWII days! “Snappy, clean-lined, sparkly work, as it evolved then—my inks, as it turned out, w/ all these prior examples of “How-to,” and, since, “How-not-to,” w/ rare ongoing exceptions circling me, I chose to just do a line-for-line reading, adding/subtracting nothing, Xerox-like, and sans any axe to grind! Dispassionate’s the word—I timidly/tentatively/matter of factly/made a bad idea worse! As Jack’s fans’ll no doubt agree! I was—simply—literal—in my limning the piece—a so-so work—Jack is best left Jack! As is! As his fans want him! Tricky to ink! No clash of egos to get in the way of it—but, I’m not happy about the result! The whole thing was a mistake! Needed any one of his regular inkers on it, not me! His clean-lined pencils defy inkers to not follow his wants! Dare alter a bit of it—so it’s an enigmatic chore—best to leave it alone! My hunch said to— “Anyhoo—it needs color—he worked for color—open, flat—so, go to it—let’s see how your colors flesh it out, add the proper razzle-dazzle to it—give it life, weight, separation of elements—contrast—and clarity of forms! Okay? ’Nuff said?” Our front cover is said to be an unused Captain America Marvelmania poster, inked by Kirby himself. Apparently it wasn’t used because someone felt there were too many Kirby posters, and wanted to see some different artists do some of them (Steranko eventually did the published Cap poster). But we’re proud to present Jack’s original one, shown here in color for the first time. ★

(left) This interesting curiosity occurred on eBay recently; the full script from Tales of Suspense #71 appeared for sale, autographed by Kirby. It might lead one to believe Jack scripted that issue, but we think this was done as a guide for the letterer after Jack handed in his pencils to this story. The dialogue (on this first page, anyway) is identical to the published story. Captain America TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mark evanier

Jack F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby by Mark Evanier Well, let’s see what’s in the old e-mailbag this month. A couple of folks whose names I’ve mislaid have written to ask: “What was the deal with Fantastic Four #39 and #40, which guest-starred Daredevil? The DD figures in at least #39 are by Wally Wood. What happened there?” Then Chris Colbert writes to ask:

(right) Chic Stone’s sparse but suitable inks from FF #32 (Nov. ’64), complete with Jack’s pencil margin notes. (center) Frank Giacoia inked the book, but Woody altered the DD figures throughout FF #39 to update his costume. (far right) Daredevil’s original costume, by Wally Wood; it appears Jack drew this version in FF #39, and perhaps in #40, requiring touchups when it changed. 6

“How were Kirby’s inkers chosen at Marvel? Why did Joe Sinnott suddenly show up? Why didn’t they get him earlier? And how did Jack feel about Joe’s inking, which I loved?” Two good questions which I think I can answer in one swell foop... he Daredevil comic was not an immediate hit, and Stan Lee was not particularly happy with the early issues drawn by Bill Everett and Joe Orlando. With #5, Wally Wood came aboard and Stan felt he’d found another collaborator with whom he could have the same kind of fertile creative relationship he was enjoying with Kirby and Ditko. To try and bolster the disappointing sales of the new book, Stan and Wally gave Daredevil a new costume in #7 and Stan scheduled the character for a guest appearance in the high-selling Fantastic Four, hoping to familiarize FF readers with the hero. About this time, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man were neck-and-neck as the company’s top sellers and Daredevil had already gueststarred in Spider-Man. (Stan also arranged a cameo in Journey Into Mystery with Thor.) One thing which some folks may not know about comic book production is that different books are done on different timetables. Jack was sometimes drawing the March issue of Fantastic Four at the same time that Steve Ditko was drawing the June issue of Spider-Man—or vice-versa. To further confuse matters, the dates on the covers and in the indicia sometimes varied. For instance, Daredevil #8 went on sale, at least in some parts of the US, on January 26, 1965. This was the April 1965 issue. But the April ’65 issue of Fantastic Four (#37) went on sale in December of ’64. Baffling? All you really need to know is that Jack penciled Fantastic Four #39—with the first part of Daredevil’s guest-shot—before he saw the new costume. It may not even have been designed at the time but, in any case, he drew Daredevil in his old, yellow costume. Chic Stone inked the cover to Fantastic Four #39. No one knows for sure but it looks like the Daredevil figure was later retouched [see above], probably by Wood, to reflect the new costume. (At the time, covers were often done before the inside of the book was finished, and occasionally even before it was begun.) This was one of Stone’s last jobs for Marvel of the period. He decided he was tired of inking other artists and, when offered penciling work elsewhere, chose to take it. Stan assigned the inking of the interior of Fantastic Four #39 to Frank Giacoia and both assumed that he would ink the book regularly from then on. However, the drawings of Daredevil had to be adjusted to match his new look and, to make sure it looked right, Stan wanted Wood to handle that—and while he was at it, Woody inked all the appearances of Matt Murdock, as well. My pal Richard Howell recounts to me a conversation with Giacoia in which the inker told of having to sit in the waiting room at Marvel, waiting for pages, while Wood inked those figures. Giacoia got the pages done but—and this was a recurring problem in his career—he brought them in long past the deadline. They had him ink the cover to #40 and #41, but Stan and his righthand man, Sol Brodsky, decided they couldn’t count on Frank as the regular embellisher of the book. At the time, Marvel was working with a rather small talent pool. Here is a list of everyone who was regularly freelancing for the company at the time (leaving aside books like Modeling With Millie): Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Bob Powell, Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Vince Colletta, Larry Lieber, and Wally Wood. Not a lot of inkers in that roster, you’ll note.

(left) Vinnie Colletta got the nod to ink Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965); it must’ve been a huge rush job, considering the weak linework and lack of spotting blacks. Characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Stan was also not having good luck luring artists away from other companies. The rates he was allowed to pay by the front office were low and a few of the artists who accepted them did not work out for one reason or another. So when it came time to pick a new inker for Fantastic Four, his choices were limited. He knew who he wanted. He wanted Joe Sinnott, who had inked Kirby years earlier, most notably in Fantastic Four #5. That issue was one of the few times that readers had written in to praise the inking on a comic, and Stan never forgot that. Unfortunately, Sinnott was then busy with work for Treasure Chest and for Archie, and Marvel was not paying high-enough rates to lure him away. So the FF job went to Vince Colletta, pretty much by default. He was darn near the only inker coming by the office seeking work. That’s a partial answer to the question about how inkers were chosen. It often had more to do with who was available when a book had to be inked than with any grand editorial vision. To the extent it was feasible, they’d try to keep some consistency—especially on a keystone book like Fantastic Four— but the question of who’d ink Don Heck on “Iron Man” was usually a matter of who needed work when the story came back from the letterer. Most inkers were viewed as more or less interchangeable. In the mid-Sixties, Vince Colletta was not. Though he occasionally did other kinds of stories, he was typed as a romance artist— and mainly as a romance inker. He’d inked for Stan on books like Love Romances (wherein he’d inked several stories by Mr. Kirby) but then Love Romances was cancelled to make room on the schedule for some new book called X-Men. Stan did not then consider Colletta a candidate for the superhero books. In fact, he didn’t even think Colletta was right for the

broader “girls” comics like Millie the Model and Patsy Walker... which meant that Vince went looking elsewhere for work. That was in ’63. At the time, he was getting occasional assignments from DC on their romance books, and was also inking for Charlton and Dell—but Dell paid poorly and Charlton paid worse... and no house would give him as much work as he could handle. Believing that love comics were on their way out—or at the very least, that he should diversify—Vince went to Sol Brodsky and asked what he had to do to get Stan to give him work on superhero comics. Brodsky suggested that Colletta get an assignment

(below) Apparent proof that Jack drew Daredevil’s old costume in Fantastic Four #40 (July 1965). The chopped-off note in Stan Lee’s handwriting on the far left of this page states “costume thruout” (as in “Fix costume thruout”). Characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

(next page) Imagine Colletta inking this power-packed page from FF #72 (March ’68, inked by Joe Sinnott). Would the Silver Surfer have become as popular if Vinnie had stayed on the book? Silver Surfer, Thing TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

for some other company inking something that would prove his versatility to Stan. “I told him his lines were too delicate and that Stan liked more bold blacks and detail. So he got [the editors at Charlton] to give him something other than love stories. Vinnie was in tight with the boys there and they weren’t too discriminating. They paid so poorly that they couldn’t afford to be. He came back a couple months, or maybe it was weeks later with work that didn’t look any different to me, but he was somehow able to use it to convince Stan.” Brodsky did not recall what the Charlton material was but it was probably one of several issues of Konga and Gorgo that Colletta inked around then over pencils by Bill Molno. Whatever it was, his timing was good. Dick Ayers had moved from penciling and inking to mostly penciling, and George Roussos had cut back on his Marvel inking to do more for DC. The Daredevil comic was starting up and Stan had no one to ink Joe Orlando’s pencils... so Colletta got the nod. Recognizing how much work there was at Marvel inking Kirby—at the time, 4-5 comics a month— Colletta reminded Lee that he had experience inking Jack’s pencils. Stan was skeptical but he gave Colletta a fivepage “Tales of Asgard” story to finish [Journey Into Mystery #106] and, when it turned out well, made him the regular inker of the strip. Eventually, Vince would take over embellishment of the lead Thor feature and, a month or two later when Giacoia proved unequal to the deadlines, Colletta was assigned to Fantastic Four, as well. He inked the insides of #40. I don’t know if Kirby penciled Daredevil in his old or his new costume. (Has anyone ever seen any Xeroxes, or any remaining pencil lines on any originals?) It’s possible he drew the old one and Colletta was directed to change it. The unique shading on Daredevil’s costume in that issue does not look particularly Kirbyesque to me, but then there are plenty of known instances of Colletta not following Kirby’s spotting of blacks. It’s also possible Jack drew the new costume but, as was sometimes the case when he drew SpiderMan, he had trouble matching another artist’s rendering of a costume. A few pages

of original art from that issue have turned up on the collectors’ market. They show copious amounts of retouching—probably by Sol Brodsky—on the Daredevil figures. Wally Wood did not ink the Daredevil figures in this issue. Perhaps he was too busy but it’s more likely that he was quarreling with Stan at the time and disinclined to hang around the office. Like Kirby and Ditko, Wood felt that working “Marvel method” required him to contribute more to the storyline than his compensation or credit warranted. He would leave Marvel a few months later. Back at the Fantastic Four: Though Stan was happy with the way Colletta’s linework enhanced Thor, he did not feel the FF looked right. Examining both books today, one sees two different Collettas. Directed to go for a harder, bolder look on FF, he reportedly tried inking more with flexible-tip pens and the results were not satisfactory. The difference may also be a matter of different assistants. Colletta often employed helpers of wildlyvarying skills and he may just have had the wrong guy helping him on Fantastic Four.

He inked several issues until one day when publisher Martin Goodman asked Stan, “How come our lead book looks like garbage?” (This was Brodsky’s recollection, told to me in an interview— and actually, he didn’t quote Goodman as using the word “garbage.” It was a stronger word—one which TwoMorrows Publishing doesn’t like to print.) According to Brodsky, Stan said, “I can make the book look a lot better if I have a few more dollars a page to work with.” And it probably was only a few dollars—perhaps two or three. Whatever, Goodman agreed, and Stan suddenly had enough money to lure Joe Sinnott to ink approximately one book a month for Marvel—usually, Fantastic Four. A few years later, when the rates went up a little more, Sinnott went full-time. But the 1965 rate increase was key to bolstering the quality of Marvel’s comics. It not only brought Sinnott into the talent pool but, within six months, Stan would also be giving work to Werner Roth, John Severin, Gene Colan, John Romita, and Jack Abel. A couple of those gents might have come over anyway... but it sure didn’t hurt that the pay was a little bit better. (This is not to suggest the money, then or at any time in the Sixties, was anywhere near good. I believe all these folks—yes, even Colletta—were grotesquely underpaid, given the profitability of what they created.) As for how Jack liked Sinnott... well, of course he did. And an interesting topic which should perhaps be discussed in some venue is: To what extent did Sinnott’s approach alter the way Jack penciled? It’s an intriguing question. Jack rarely looked much at the inked or printed comics and when I asked him about this, he said no inker ever made a bit of difference to the way he penciled. That’s probably true on a conscious level but I suspect that what he gleaned of the inked versions had some subconscious impact, particularly on certain textures... like the way he drew the Thing’s rocky epidermis or the way he drew the famous “space crackle” composed of overlapping dots. It is probably not a coincidence that Kirby began employing the device more often after Sinnott began inking his pencils. And, yes, it’s true that during all the years that Sinnott inked Jack’s pencils at Marvel in the Sixties, the two never met. Jack rarely came into the office and Joe went for years without a visit there. They finally met face-to-face at a comic convention in New York in the mid-Seventies. (There are about eight people who claim to have been the person who brought them together and, in a panel discussion published in an earlier issue of this magazine, Joe said he recalled me doing the honors. I wish that were so, for it would easily be my most important contribution to the world of comic art... but I think he’s wrong. I think I brought them together for their second meeting.) Jack, as I mentioned in an earlier column,

Sinnott and Kirby meet for the first time in 1975. 10

never paid a lot of attention to who inked his work. He felt that any professional inker could do an acceptable job and rarely expressed a preference as to who got the job. However, late in his life, he came to really appreciate what Sinnott brought to the work. Asked to name his favorite inker, he gave different answers but most often mentioned Sinnott, Giacoia, Wood, Ayers, and Mike Royer. Personally, I think Sinnott was wonderful. He could certainly have done a lot less and still kept the job and made the same money. I think we all owe Joe an enormous “thank you” for such fine, conscientious work. And while we’re at it, let’s thank Stan Lee for putting him there... and, heck, let’s even thank the late Martin Goodman for kicking in a couple of extra dollars. Lastly: Yes, I know I erred in my last column here. Mike Road was not the voice

of Jonny Quest’s father. That role was played at varying times by Don Messick and John Stephenson, while Road was playing friend “Race” Bannon. I knew this but my typing fingers, for some reason, did not. They have been punished by being forced to work on the latest Groo mini-series. Next question? ★ Got a Kirby-related question you’d like answered? Let Mark Evanier give it a shot! Send your questions to: Jack F.A.Q.s 5850 W. 3rd St., #367 Los Angeles, CA 90036 or e-mail Mark at: me@evanier.com You can read all sorts of articles by Mark—many about Kirby—at his website: www.POVonline.com

Reed Richards, Scientific American

R.L. Bryant

by Robert L. Bryant Jr.

(below) Reed’s sub-space diagram in FF #37 (April 1965) hearkens back to one he used to explain the concept in his unpublished late 1940s comic strip proposal Starman Zero. Reed Richards, Thing TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. Starman Zero ©2002 Jack Kirby.

f Reed Richards said it once, he said it a hundred times: “If I make the slightest miscalculation—we’re dead!” Think of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four, and you think of Reed in his lab, working feverishly over a bank of futuristic equipment, his face streaked with several days’ worth of beard stubble and creepily illuminated by Kirby Krackle as he tries to avert some galactic threat. When Reed Richards don’t shave, you better start praying, brother. In a Marvel Universe of mad scientists, Reed was always the sane one. Kirby, a longtime science-fiction buff, understood the process of science well enough to make the FF’s strange science feel plausible to a reader of the time. And in Reed, Kirby created a leader who led by virtue of his brains, not his muscles—an infinitely flexible man (pun intended) who could bend to any occasion, but never break. His greatest super-power was between his ears. Kirby used Reed as an icon of American science—his tufts of statesman-like gray signaled both knowledge and responsibilities—and Kirby was true to the realities of science, as much as possible. In the FF’s origin issue in 1961, for example, Lee and Kirby were wrong in thinking that “cosmic rays” could cause immediate and extreme mutations. Such rays do exist, but they’re harmless as light rays— cosmic rays are slamming through you and this paper as you read this, and it’s unlikely your hands are turning big, orange and rocky—but there were legitimate worries about space radiation, particularly the Van Allen belts, in the early 1960s, so let’s give the boys a pass on this one. More important was the fact that Reed rarely if ever just reached into a cluttered closet in the Baxter Building and pulled out a ready-made device that was exactly what he needed to resolve a crisis. There were no boxes on the wall labeled: BREAK GLASS IN CASE OF GALACTUS. Reed typically had to work hard to conceive, design and build his inventions, and Kirby typically took pains to show that it was in fact hard, hard work.

Some examples: • In FF #37 (“Behold! A Distant Star!”), Kirby is fully aware of the vast distances involved in star travel— even neighboring stars would be light-years away, and without some sort of “warp” technology that lets you jump many times faster than light, getting there would be like walking from Kansas to Katmandu. So Kirby spells out that the FF are using a space warp to travel to the Skrull galaxy. Stan Lee’s dialogue, presumably based on Kirby’s margin notes: • SUE: “But Reed, darling—they’re so many light-years away! No matter how fast we go, we’ll never—!”

• BEN: “Boy! Give you a piece of chalk an’ a blackboard and there’s no stoppin’ ya!” • In science-fiction terms, this is all perfectly plausible. Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, in development at about this same time, would use a similar principle for the “warp drive” that gets the Enterprise from one star to another; and George Lucas’ Star Wars, more than a decade later, would use the same basic idea—“hyperspace jumps”—to allow for star travel. (Kirby’s “Boom Tube” from the Fourth World comics, for that matter, is basically a portable space warp.) • FF #51 (“This Man, This Monster!”), when Reed explores the Negative Zone/subspace, Kirby draws him wearing his usual FF uniform, but with a space helmet enclosing his head— implying that this weird dimension has Earth-like pressure and temperatures, but little or no atmosphere. It’s a nice touch, and a nod toward realism (but a full space suit would have been even better—and in later Negative Zone visits, even the helmet is omitted. Oh, well...). • In FF #57-60 (Dr. Doom steals the Silver Surfer’s powers), it takes Reed a full four issues to define the threat, conceive a scientific solution, design it and construct it. Kirby depicts him working himself to exhaustion to make a prototype weapon that looks something like a metal bat with delicate electronic wings (“If I make the slightest miscalculation on any of these subminiaturized components, we’ll have had it!”) and even then, Reed’s device is no deus ex machina. It can’t defeat Doom, but only trick him into defeating himself. In this storyline, Kirby makes clear both the limits and the potential of science. • In FF #66-67 (the Him storyline), Kirby illustrates Reed’s genius in figuring out what happened to the missing Alicia by using a “heat-image tracer” that uses some type of latentinfrared photography. Then Kirby shows the sheer hard work it takes for Reed to replicate the circuitry pattern of the teleportation bracelet her abductor used. (“Calibrate all computations to nearest decimal!” Reed notes to himself on a giant wall map of the bracelet’s electronics.) By the time he’s finished, Reed “hasn't eaten—or shut his eyes—in over two days,” and again winds up with a face full of beard stubble—Kirby makes it look like a badge of honor; and, you know... that’s exactly what it is. ★

• REED: “We’re not going through normal space, Sue! Our flight will utilize a space-time warp... If I make the slightest error in my computations, we could be lost forever in the endless abyss of subspace!... Remember Einstein’s theory—that the universe is like a ball? We’re in sub-space now—inside that ‘ball’—ready to break out into the Skrull galaxy!” 11

Retrospective by Keith Hammond

(above) An example of Green Arrow pre-Kirby. (below) At DC’s request, and with the approval of the Kirby estate, Mike Royer took a Bullseye drawing and reworked it for the cover of DC’s new Green Arrow collection (see next page). Green Arrow, Speedy TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

King Meets Queen

n the 1995 film Crimson Tide, Denzel Washington meets up with a pair of sailors in an escalating verbal disagreement. Ever the problem solver, Washington’s character asks the sailors what is causing such an argument. The response was that one of them thought Jack Kirby drew the best Silver Surfer, whereas the other chap steadfastly believed Moebius penned and inked the definitive version of Norrin Radd. This cinematic example illustrates how comic book fans get very opinionated about the best artist on a certain character or feature. Take the long-time DC character Green Arrow. Now ask a group of comics fans “Who was the best Green Arrow artist?” Many folks would say Neal Adams, who won awards for his depiction of the Emerald Archer in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76-89 and Flash #217219. Others might say the best was “Iron” Mike Grell, who penciled the Battling Bowman in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #90-111, Green Arrow: Longbow Hunters, and other issues. Then there’s odd ducks like myself who say the best Green Arrow artist was Jack “King” Kirby. First, a little history of Oliver Queen and Roy Harper needs to be summarized. The Green Arrow and Speedy debuted in More Fun Comics #73 (DC published a Millennium Edition completely reprinting this book in late 2000). When More Fun Comics switched to more comedic stories, Green Arrow moved over to Adventure Comics with #103, where the feature ran until issue #269. In the meanwhile, Green Arrow had also begun running in World’s Finest Comics with issue #7, lasting there until WFC #140. While obviously a back-up strip, Green Arrow was popular enough to be continuously published from the 1940s into the 1960s, a feat achieved by few super-hero strips. This helped lead to the character joining up with the Justice League of America in issue #4 of the original series (sans Speedy—no kid sidekicks in the JLA). Mike Grell and Chuck Dixon did a popular take on the character in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Finally, famed Hollywood director/writer Kevin Smith has brought the Green

Arrow character to new heights of popularity in 2001. The Emerald Archer was clad in a green short-sleeved loose shirt, with green tights, red gloves and boots, a domino mask, and the necessary Robin Hood hat (worn by all comic book archers—that’s how you knew they were archers). Speedy wore the same outfit, with a red and yellow color-scheme. The classic outfit stayed until Neal Adams changed it and added facial hair to the character in the late 1960s. Around the same time, Denny O’Neil added a liberal, combative personality to GA, as well. Green Arrow was often referred to as “Batman with a bow.” He had a young ward and kid partner. He was a wealthy playboy in his secret identity of Oliver Queen. He had an arrowcar, arrowplane, and arrowcave. He was summoned by the police with the arrow-signal. He had a female counterpart named “Miss Arrowette.” All he was missing was a butler and a friend in the commissioner’s office. Needless to say, GA and Speedy found themselves in many scrapes similar to those faced by the Dynamic Duo. Probably, the difference that might have kept the Emerald Archer from attaining the heights of the Darknight Detective (among other things) were the villains; the Clock King and the Red Dart just weren’t in the same league as the Joker and Two-Face. Ah, but in late 1958, the Green Arrow began a series of adventures that took a back seat to no one. In came Jack Kirby. Joe Simon’s 1990 book The Comic Book Makers stated that around January of 1958, DC editor Jack Schiff and a writer named Dave Wood developed a syndicated comic

strip called Sky Masters. They managed to get the legendary Jack Kirby to do the pencils. This is not surprising as this trio had worked together previously, having been associated with Challengers of the Unknown, dating back to Showcase #6 (Jan./Feb. 1957). Kirby was steadily working on Sky Masters and the Challengers during this time period. Schiff also edited World’s Finest Comics and probably swung the Green Arrow assignment for Kirby to make some extra money. However it happened then, Kirby’s Green Arrow then got used also in Mort Weisinger’s Adventure Comics (remember, Green Arrow was regularly featured in both magazines). The Jack Kirby run of Green Arrow stories takes place from Adventure Comics #250-256, and World’s Finest Comics #96-99. I’ve seen several comic book dealers list Adventure Comics #248 and #249 as part of the Jack Kirby run. Not so. I’ve looked at those issues. I’m not good enough to identify who the artist is (my best guess is George Papp—the Millennium Edition Adventure Comics #247 lists him as the artist on that Green Arrow story), but I

know who the artist is not— and it is not Jack Kirby. Ditto for anyone who tells you Jack Kirby drew the GA feature in World’s Finest Comics #94, 95, or 100. It’s not Kirby. My first exposure to the Kirby Green Arrow came in the reprint of Adventure Comics #256 “The Green Arrow’s First Case,” in DC’s oversized trade paperback Secret Origins of the Super DC Heroes. I still remember the sense of wonder, not just from Green Arrow, but all the great stories within that tome. Alas, while Dennis O’Neil was listed as editor, no creator credits were given (with the exception of Mort Weisinger, who created GA), so it was much later that I would find out who that artist was on that exciting story. My next great experience with Kirby’s Green Arrow was DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #23, published in July 1982. It’s a musthave item for the Green Arrow fan. It reprints the Kirby Green Arrow stories from Adventure Comics #250, 252, 253 and World’s Finest Comics #98. This magnificent book also features new cover art by Jim Aparo, and a new framing sequence drawn by Dan Spiegle. The works of Neal Adams, Mike Grell, and Lee Elias (the first Miss Arrowette story!) are all included. This time Kirby received credits (though Dan Spiegle did not). I can’t recommend this book highly enough. In The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told, published by DC in 1990, the Green Arrow stories from Adventure Comics #252 and #253 were reprinted. Kirby was listed as the artist, but no writer was listed. Barring a Bob Kane credit on Batman stories, DC was not known for publishing credits of the creators of the features they published. Thus, guesswork and detective work were often needed to determine some of the creators, particularly in regards to back-up strips like Green Arrow. Some may have thought the writer for Kirby’s Green Arrow was the same writer who had been anonymously writing the strip before Kirby took over the artistic duties. I suspect not, though. I believe it was possibly Dave Wood, or his brother, Dick Wood. Indeed, when the story from Adventure Comics #254, “The Green Arrow’s Last Stand,” is reprinted in SuperTeam Family #9, the writer is credited as Dick Wood. The reasoning is this: the stories were different from previous offerings (and post-Kirby stories). They were different in that someone seemed to be writing for Kirby’s strengths as an artist. Look at the awesome stories in the Adventure Comics run. Adventure #250 takes place in Star City, but has the Green Arrows from other countries (very similar to the Batman from other countries concept done in the Superman-Batman lead story in World’s Finest Comics #89). Adventure #251 includes men from the year 3000 sending futuristic arrows to GA (nice to see that they conquered that Y3K problem). Adventure #252 and #253 send GA and Speedy to another dimension of giants. Adventure #254 takes place on Crow Mountain and features a lost Sioux tribe. Adventure #255 has the setting of Tongi Island and pits the ace archers against Japanese soldiers unaware WWII is over. Adventure #256 takes place on Starfish Island. The point here is that whereas earlier issues (and most later ones) were more or less firmly set in Star City, Kirby’s Green Arrow fought injustice in more exotic, even more cosmic locales. Kirby has long been exalted for his incredible imagination. Examples

include the vastness of the Fourth World concepts, the splendor and majesty of Asgard in Thor, not to mention all those exciting dimensions and machines popping up in the Fantastic Four. In 1958-1959, Jack Kirby brought some of that to Green Arrow. Green Arrow expanded from localized Star City action to become a bigger scale influence throughout the DC Universe. Many think of Jack Kirby and think of the phrase “larger than life.” The King, for that brief time, made Green Arrow larger than life. Suddenly, Green Arrow’s world was occupied by giant mechanical octopi (WFC #97), dirigibles (WFC #99), and giant arrows and giant aliens (AC #252, 253). Green Arrow had always used some outlandish arrows (after Doctor Who figured out how to fit all those rooms and gadgets into a telephone booth, he must have shown Oliver Queen how to get those boxing glove arrows crammed into that small yellow quiver), but Kirby even turned that up a notch. Adventure Comics #251’s “Case of the Super Arrows” was the perfect vehicle for Kirby’s imagination, with him unveiling the freeze arrow (which produced 4 feet of snow), the anti-gravity arrow, and the invisibility arrow among others. “The War That Never Ended” (AC #255) featured the Emerald Archer creating two arrows the size of missiles (big 1960 missiles, not the little ones in use today) to signal passing ships. Yet, even those arrows pale in comparison to the fertile imagination of Kirby. The last thing worth commenting on is Kirby’s depiction of Green Arrow himself. GA looks like a super-hero. He’s huge! The character looks like Kirby’s Thor with short hair. Look at the arms on Green Arrow in World’s Finest Comics #98 (as an example)—he’s been working out! Compare that to the Batman drawn in the lead story. Forget “Batman with a bow”—this Green Arrow is so physically imposing he looks like he could beat the tar out of Batman without half trying! All good things come to an end, though! Joe Simon spun the story in his book about how Jack Schiff took Jack Kirby to court over some details from the Sky Masters strip. This created animosity that

(throughout) Green Arrow had some fancy arrows before Kirby came along, but Jack added to his arsenal. Shown here are some of the wacky, way-out arrows he somehow managed to fit into that tiny quiver. (Interestingly, Jack’s wife Roz Kirby assisted him on inking many of these stories.) All art ©2002 DC Comics.

Is there any Green Arrow fanatic out there who can clue us in as to which of the trick arrows from Kirby’s run were totally original, and which had been used before?

resulted in Kirby leaving DC to work mainly for Stan Lee at Marvel drawing covers on westerns like Kid Colt, and interiors involving Taboos, Gooms and Fin Fang Fooms. Simon noted Kirby never worked for DC until after Jack Schiff had left the company. This is one side of the story, and most people acknowledge there usually is at least one more side than that. Nonetheless, the facts are Jack Kirby started working full-time for Marvel in 1959, and left DC, and the Green Arrow. This brings us full circle. Look for these eleven stories—they are worth the effort! With the originals, as a bonus, you get a neat Superboy story and a Ramona Fradon Aquaman back-up in Adventure Comics, and a Superman and Batman team-up by Sprang or Swan in World’s Finest Comics (with a Tomahawk back-up to boot). Unfortunately, some of the books containing reprints are harder to find and more expensive than the originals! As this is being written, DC has just released all eleven of Kirby’s Green Arrow stories in one Annual-sized book titled, appropriately enough, The Green Arrow by Jack Kirby. Likely this is a bonus resulting from Kevin Smith’s popular interpretation of the character, but, nonetheless, DC has done all Jack Kirby fans a favor. Mark Evanier wrote the introduction, and the writers got proper credit for their works (which, besides the aforementioned Wood brothers included legendary Batman scribe Bill Finger and veteran DC writer Ed Herron). Snatch up copies of this book—you really will be glad that you did! Going back to the earlier example from Crimson Tide—after breaking up that argument with the sailors, Denzel Washington turns to the Jack Kirby fan and says something to the effect of “Besides, we both know Kirby kicks ass!” When looking at Green Arrow in 1958, that pretty much sums it up! See for yourself, though! ★

Index of Kirby’s Green Arrow • Adventure Comics #250 (July 1958) “Green Arrows of the World”—reprinted in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #23: Green Arrow and Speedy host a convention of Green Arrows from around the globe, including the Green Arrow of Mexico, Japan, France (Phantom of France), Bowman of the Bush, Bowman of Britain, and the Polynesian Archer. The villain, Counterfeit Carson, takes the place of one of these archers to get close for an attempt on the life of the American Green Arrow. • Adventure Comics #251 (Aug. 1958) “Case of the Super Arrows”: Gentlemen from the year 3000 send Green Arrow and Speedy a gift of super-arrows, including the freeze arrow, hypnotic arrow, and anti-gravity arrow. Cougar Cain and his mob swipe the super-arrows and embark on a crime spree, which GA and Speedy have to stop with their own 1958 weapons. • Adventure Comics #252 (Sept. 1958) “Mystery of the Giant Arrows”—reprinted in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #23, The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told, Action Comics #449: Part one of this story involves gigantic arrows landing in Star City. After Green Arrow and Speedy neutralize those arrows, they trace their origin to another dimension and go there to investigate. • Adventure Comics #253 (Oct. 1958) “Prisoners of Dimension Zero”—reprinted in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #23, The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told, Action Comics #449 (cuts out one page): Part two of this mini-epic has Green Arrow meeting his Dimension Zero counterpart, Xeen Arrow (and helping him with some timely balloon arrows). Xeen Arrow helps the Battling Bowmen make it back to their own dimension, just prior to the rift between dimensions closing. • Adventure Comics #254 (Nov. 1958) “The Green Arrow’s Last Stand”—reprinted in Super-Team Family #9: Green Arrow and Speedy attempt to rescue some people stranded on Crow Mountain, and get attacked by a lost Sioux tribe. They need every arrow, from the two-way radio arrow to the dry-ice arrow, just to stay alive. • Adventure Comics #255 (Dec. 1958) “The War That Never Ended”: Green Arrow and Speedy encounter on Tongi Island a group of Japanese soldiers stationed there for 13 years, and unknowing that WWII was over. Major Tayako tries to get Green Arrow to aid the Japanese soldiers, but GA creates a novel way to alert passing ships to his problem. • Adventure Comics #256 (Jan. 1959) “The Green Arrow’s First Case”—reprinted in Secret Origins of the Super DC Heroes, DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #9, Secret Origins Special (1961) and its replica edition from 1998: It’s the origin of how playboy Oliver Queen became Green Arrow. GA and Speedy travel to Starfish Island to try and prevent explorers from discovering the diary that reveals GA’s identity. • World’s Finest Comics #96 (Sept. 1958) “Five Clues to Danger”: Professor Anderson creates a formula for creating diamonds, and promptly gets abducted by a gang of criminals. Before the abduction, the Professor leaves five clues for Green Arrow to decipher to locate his whereabouts. • World’s Finest Comics #97 (Oct. 1958) “Menace of the Mechanical Octopus”—reprinted in DC Special Series #23 (World’s Finest Digest): Criminals use a mechanical octopus to rob by land, sea, and air. By use of the aqualung arrows, Green Arrow and Speedy battle the machine undersea, in an effort to disable it and capture the gang.

Bibliography Secret Origins of the Super DC Heroes. Dennis O’Neil, editor. Warner Books, New York, NY, 1976. Simon, Joe and Jim Simon. The Comic Book Makers. Crestwood/II Publications, New York, NY. 1990. The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told. Mike Gold, editor. DC Comics, New York, NY, 1990.

(next page) Before Green Arrow, Kirby got in some archery practice drawing Bullseye for his own company Mainline, but the character didn’t use his bow much. Here’s a page from Bullseye #4 (Jan. 1955). 14

• World’s Finest Comics #98 (Dec. 1958) “The Unmasked Archers”—reprinted in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #23: The guys at Oliver Queen’s club create a prank newspaper with photos showing Oliver Queen and Roy Harper as the Green Arrow and Speedy. Not knowing of the prank, they reveal their identities to the police. Upon revelation of the joke, they then have to capture some crooks, while simultaneously demonstrating such bad bowmanship to again cover up their identities. The balloon arrow plays a key role in this adventure. • World’s Finest Comics #99 (Feb. 1959) “Crimes Under Glass”: A new gang of criminals uses mirrors and prisms to pull off robberies. Green Arrow and Speedy use the ink arrows and siren arrows to capture the criminals. All eleven of these stories are included in DC’s The Green Arrow by Jack Kirby, published November 2001. Green Arrow, Speedy TM & ©2002 DC Comics. All Green Arrow art ©2002 DC Comics. Bullseye ©2002 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.

Looking back

The Incredible Infantino

(Carmine Infantino has done it all in comics. From his early days working for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, through his fondly-remembered DC Comics work of the 1960s (including inaugurating the “new look” Batman, and drawing numerous Flash issues), to his years as publisher of DC, where he successfully lured Kirby away from arch-rival Marvel Comics in 1970. For this interview, we asked Carmine to elaborate on what it was like working with Simon & Kirby in the early days. This interview was conducted at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC on June 16, 2000, and was copy-edited by Carmine.) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: What was your first experience with Simon & Kirby’s work? CARMINE INFANTINO: Oh, Captain America. The first Captain America. Frank Giacoia and I saw it and we were so excited. We had to find them. We went up to the city where they had this office where they worked, Joe and Jack, and they were very sweet. They invited us in, they let us look at their work, talked to us for a while, and Jack was very sweet. He showed us his artwork. We were two kids in those days. TJKC: About how old were you then? CARMINE: Sixteen. It was a nice day we had—they didn’t throw us out. (Jim laughs) They were busy, too—and a kid can be a pain in the ass. TJKC: But they had a studio, right? CARMINE: Tudor City in New York. TJKC: Were a lot of people working for them? CARMINE: No, just Joe and Jack and the letterer— who was the famous letterer they had?

(right) Two Infantino splash pages from Charlie Chan #1, evoking the S&K feel. The Kirby Checklist lists the “Land of the Leopard Men” splash as Kirby art, but considering the Infantino signature (and the lack of telltale Kirby in it), we believe it’s all Infantino. Richard Kolkman, time for another update! ©2002 Crestwood Publications.

(next page, top) Mort Meskin pencils for the never-published Captain 3-D #2 (circa 1954). Note the particularly Kirbyesque panel 3. ©2002 Harvey Comics. (next page, bottom) We’re not sure what the old lady is referring to in this 1942 Boy Commandos sketch. There have been stories that Jack was drawing pages at night during his WWII basic training; perhaps this was a note sent to a DC editor who was waiting for him to finish a couple of BC pages? Boy Commandos TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

TJKC: Howard Ferguson? CARMINE: Ferguson. He was unbelievable. Great letterer. Cranky, very cranky, old guy. You

say hello, he would say, “Go to hell.” (Jim laughs) They were doing the stuff at DC then—The Boy Commandos, “Manhunter,” and what was the other one? TJKC: “Sandman.” CARMINE: And the “Newsboy Legion.” They were churning out stuff like crazy. TJKC: They were fast. So do you count them among your bigger, earlier influences? CARMINE: Yes, extremely. Jack especially, but Joe, too. Joe was a very sharp writer. People don’t give him much credit for that. He wrote most of his stuff; he would take—his idea would be take classics and turn ’em into comic book stories. Remember the Boy Commandos with the Trojan Horse? He did that all the time. He’d take a classic, twist and turn it around, and use it and it would be great. He was very clever. I don’t think he got enough credit in his whole process. But that’s not to take anything away from Jack, obviously—the combination was magic. TJKC: So when you went to meet them early, you saw Jack draw. What was it like to see him draw? CARMINE: What he would do, he never laid anything out. He’d start at the top of the panel and just draw. (laughs) I’d go crazy. I said, “I’ll never be able to do this.” It was incredible. TJKC: How long after that did you start working in comics? CARMINE: About a year or two. In fact, two years later, I went up to Timely Comics. No, no, I met them before, I’m sorry. I met Joe two years before that at Timely. He was the editor of Timely and they were doing Captain America. That was before the studio. But I did not meet Jack then; Joe I met before. I’m confusing this thing, I’m sorry. I did a story

Interview called “Jack Frost” with Frank Giacoia at Timely Comics for Joe Simon, and I said to him, “Can we meet Jack Kirby?” and he said, “He’s busy,” but we met him later at Tudor City. TJKC: How did you know they were at Tudor City? Was that common knowledge? CARMINE: No, someone told me. I don’t know who the guy was that told me, but we tracked ’em down. When you’re a fan, you track down your idols. TJKC: When you started working in the business, did you cross paths with them very often? CARMINE: Let me see... yeah, years later I ran into them at Hillman Comics. When they came out of the Army, they didn’t go back to DC. They worked for Hillman, and so did I. That’s when we met. Then they went to Crestwood and they invited me over to Crestwood to do Charlie Chan for them and I went over there. TJKC: Did you do Charlie Chan directly for them? CARMINE: Yep, for them directly. TJKC: So how did that work? Did you ask for the assignment or did they call you? CARMINE: No, no, Joe called me and he said— and he knows I’m working with DC—“Will you come over here and do Charlie Chan?” I said, “I make a lot more money than you can pay for this thing,” but then I thought about it. I could be there working with Kirby and Mort Meskin. I thought it’d be worth it. I worked for less money and I worked for him for about a year. It was a great learning curve. TJKC: Did you work in the studio? CARMINE: In the studio and I would go home and do DC’s work at night. After a year, I was collapsing, I couldn’t continue. TJKC: What was it like working in the studio with them?

CARMINE: Oh, Jack taught me—tremendous. He was unbelievable. TJKC: When he worked, did he ever make conversation? CARMINE: He’d make conversation. You’d ask him a question and he’d answer you. One time I did a story—it was about these two guys beating up an old lady—and I was drawing it and I was having trouble with it. I said, “Jack, what do I do to get this thing right?” and he says, “Don’t show them hitting her. Have one villain on the couch smiling and watching the shadow of the other villain hitting the old lady. That’ll work in the reader’s mind more than seeing the actual action,” and he was right; little things like that he taught me. TJKC: Your figure drawing is so different than his. I assume the influence is more in terms of storytelling then. CARMINE: No, he was in my drawing for a while; and then he and I did a comic strip together. I drew it and he wrote it—a western. We tried to sell it—a newspaper strip. TJKC: What was the name of it? CARMINE: I can’t remember now, but we couldn’t sell it. TJKC: When, late ’40s? CARMINE: A little later. It was in the ’50s—sometime in the ’50s. TJKC: So you had a relationship ongoing—. CARMINE: Yeah, a long time, and Joe and I and my family were very close. I was close to both of them for many years. 17

(below) When Jack had his personal copies of 1940s Adventure Comics collected into hardbound volumes in the late 1960s, he included this custom pencil drawing of Manhunter. Manhunter TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

TJKC: Your brother Jimmy worked for them, right? CARMINE: He worked for Simon. Joe wanted him to stay in the business, but my brother didn’t want to. He wanted to go into advertising, and he did. TJKC: With Jimmy being your brother, did that help him get in? He’s your younger brother, right? CARMINE: I called Joe and I said, “Joe, my kid brother would like to get a job working in the industry.” And we were friends and Joe said, “Well, send him up.” And then he took to liking him—my brother was very likable and also he was very talented. So Joe called me up, he said, “Hey, I’m taking him on.” I said, “Well, thanks.” He said, “Well don’t thank me, you did me a favor sending him here.” And he was very friendly with him and Mort Meskin and Marv Stein and they used to go bowling at noon. They would have a good time. And then when Jimmy decided to move on, Joe wanted him to stay. He’d say, “But, Jimmy, you’re making a mistake. I think you’d be a hell of a cartoonist”—but he wanted out. TJKC: Did you socialize with them after hours much? CARMINE: No, we didn’t socialize that much. We’d talk every once in a while. Joe used to love to buy and sell houses and build houses. So weekends we’d go out together looking at houses, he’d buy a house. He and my father were very close—my father knew plumbing

and he knew construction—and on weekends we’d go look at houses and if they liked it, they’d get the plans and they’d build it. TJKC: Oh, my gosh. (laughter) CARMINE: Joe is a wonderful guy. TJKC: I remember Jack Kirby telling me that at one point—I think it was on Long Island—he and Joe lived across the street from each other. CARMINE: They did, in Westbury, but actually it was a different— right across the street was over the line. One lived in Nassau, one lived in Queens, and it was one block away. Nice houses, nice. They worked very closely in those days. TJKC: When they had the studio and they had other people there—. CARMINE: You mean in Crestwood. TJKC: Was it a big office? CARMINE: It was fairly big. TJKC: I want to get a sense of the times there. CARMINE: I would say about twenty feet and Jack would be in the corner. Mort Meskin would be next to him. Marv Stein—he’s an inker—he would be there. They’d have Ferguson and two other guys—I can’t remember their names right offhand. TJKC: And where—? CARMINE: I had a spot in the corner. TJKC: You were on the other side of the room. CARMINE: The other side of the room, but once in a while I’d get up and go watch Jack. He was terrific. He always helped. TJKC: Whenever they had a business question, I take it that was all Joe Simon and not Jack then. CARMINE: Yeah, yeah. I wouldn’t have business questions for him. TJKC: I mean in terms of when’s something due or when you need extra time or what pay, that sort of thing. CARMINE: That was done up front at the beginning. TJKC: So who’d you deal with? CARMINE: Joe. Always Joe. Jack never got involved in that. TJKC: Can you gauge—just at that time period, meaning post-war now—their popularity in terms of sales and other professionals? CARMINE: All I know is that Liebowitz was very upset that they didn’t come back to him and do more books for DC. Joe and Jack were getting a piece of the action at Crestwood, but I think he would have given them that, actually. So he was quite upset they didn’t give him a chance to make an offer. He loved ’em. They made a lot of money for DC. Boy Commandos, the “Manhunter”.... TJKC: They were one of the few teams that had their names on the cover of the comic. CARMINE: Sure. They sold well. TJKC: So I’m assuming they and Eisner and Iger were at the top then. CARMINE: Yeah, they were kings in the industry. TJKC: This might be kind of corny, but did you have aspirations of ever wanting to be like them in terms of their level of craft or—? CARMINE: No, I wanted to go into newspaper strips. I wanted a newspaper strip. That was always my ultimate aim. It’s never happened. I could never sell one. I tried them, but they all failed, one after the other.

TJKC: Considering how hard it is getting one off the ground—. CARMINE: It’s the worst. TJKC: I am curious, when you started you were the inker and Giacoia the penciler. Why did that change? CARMINE: I don’t know. I really don’t know why. What happened is we started that way for Simon and then the first time we went to DC—Frank stayed at Timely at that time and I moved on. He remained there on staff, so he became an inker, and I suddenly became a penciler; and that’s how it turned about. So later he became the inker and I was the penciler. TJKC: Why didn’t you ink your own stuff then? CARMINE: Why? TJKC: Yeah, once you became a penciler. CARMINE: They didn’t want me to. DC didn’t want me to do much inking, they wanted the penciling out of me. They’d give me occasional stories. I’d have done fine on my inking if I’d gone on. There was a house style and I was not the house style. TJKC: I love “Detective Chimp.” CARMINE: Well, thank you. That was my favorite strip. But that was John Broome’s writing, a wonderful writer. TJKC: Your inking was extremely expressive. CARMINE: Thank you. I enjoyed doing it, but they didn’t want me to do too much. I had the Batman, I had the Flash, the Batman newspaper strip, licensing ads, I was doing every damn thing in the book. TJKC: So you worked for Simon & Kirby for one year? CARMINE: A little more, I think, but we remained friends; the three of us were very friendly. TJKC: Did you do anything else besides Charlie Chan for them? CARMINE: No. No, at that point I couldn’t do it any more. I said, “Joe, I can’t. I just can’t keep up the pace.” He understood, and we remained friends. TJKC: It isn’t like you suffered afterwards. CARMINE: No, no. I could never appreciate how much Jack taught me.

TJKC: How did you view them personally? Their roles as a team—Jack didn’t do the business, but Joe did everything. He penciled, he inked, he would design covers, and he was the business end as well as the creative end. CARMINE: It probably worked well, because they didn’t seem to have any problems between them. Whatever they did worked beautifully. TJKC: So when they interacted with each other it was about brother and brother? CARMINE: Oh, yes. They were very close, very close. Once in a while, I’d meet ’em on the subway going to work. They used to live in Brooklyn at one point—or Jack lived in Brooklyn. I don’t know where Joe came in from, but they’d meet in the subway. They’d eat and probably sleep together—they had to; they had so much work.

his hand on his shoulder and said, “That’s okay, go see Eisner and Iger.” CARMINE: Oh, boy. That’s funny. TJKC: Well, Dan wasn’t happy at the time, but when he told me it was many years later. CARMINE: I did his strip for him for a few weeks. I did Flash Gordon for three weeks. He called me one night and said he’d fallen behind with the thing, and could I do a couple of weeks? So I banged out about three weeks worth.

TJKC: It’s amazing the amount of work—. CARMINE: Incredible. Jack would pencil, I think, five to six pages a day, and then Joe would outline them and Jack would go back and fill the blacks in. That’s how much work he did: Penciling six and then going back and putting the blacks in.

TJKC: I don’t want to get too gossipy here, but this is something I am curious about. I’ve been in the business for a number of years now, but I don’t know what things were like back in the ’50s, say when Simon & Kirby broke up. Was that considered to be big news? Did you associate with professionals and talk about who was doing what? CARMINE: I never thought about it, actually. Simon was doing a Mad comic book at that point, and Jack was doing something else. Why they broke up, I have no idea. I don’t think anyone knows to this day, and I never asked them, because it was none of my business.

TJKC: Outside of the newspaper strip that you guys tried to do, you never inked Jack? There was never a deadline crunch...? CARMINE: No, no. I never touched his penciling work.

TJKC: Was there camaraderie between other professionals? Would people go around and talk about what so-and-so was doing company-wise? CARMINE: Not that I remember. Jack did Challengers of the Unknown, didn’t he?

TJKC: Would you like to? CARMINE: It would have been interesting. (both laugh) I’d probably be too nervous. (more laughter)

TJKC: Apparently, Joe was involved with the very first story. CARMINE: That’s true. Yeah, they did that. Then Joe went on to do a book like Mad—Sick, that’s it— but I think it was a friendly break-up from what I understood. I don’t think there was any animosity between them.

TJKC: Dan Barry told me a story, when he tried to break in and he went to see Simon & Kirby and Joe just said, “Jack, can I have that?” Jack had almost finished drawing the page, and Joe hands the page to Barry and says, “Here’s a try-out.” CARMINE: Really? TJKC: And Dan Barry was so nervous that he dropped the brush onto the page and it rolled all down the page. CARMINE: Oh, my God.

TJKC: Kirby left DC because he had problems with Jack Schiff. Did you know about that at the time? Was that a common knowledge type of thing? CARMINE: I found out later when I wanted to hire Jack and I thought there was a taboo there. I said, “The hell with that, I’m hiring him anyway.” The problem was a newspaper strip.

TJKC: Joe Simon saw that and he came over and put 19

TJKC: Sky Masters. CARMINE: Yeah, and apparently in the contract they had with each other they were supposed to split three ways: The Wood brothers, Kirby, and Schiff being the what-do-you-call-it—he sold the strip. I think his complaint was that Jack aced him out of the thing. I don’t know the facts. TJKC: There was also a question about the percentage that Schiff would get.

CARMINE: Something like that. Apparently, Jack was not happy and Schiff wasn’t happy about the whole deal and they broke up; but this is all hearsay. I wasn’t there so I can’t comment. TJKC: The reason I’m asking about this is mainly to find out whether these were subjects people were discussing at the times. CARMINE: No, I don’t think so. TJKC: So you just wanted to go in and do your job. CARMINE: We were just worried about making a living. We didn’t worry about this other nonsense. TJKC: What do you think Jack’s greatest contribution to comics was? CARMINE: He was a force. He was an amazing force in this industry. He affected more people in this industry than anybody else, I think. There’s only two other guys, Siegel and Shuster. I think they and Joe and Jack will leave the biggest imprint on this business. That’s personal, now. TJKC: And that’s covering all the creative ends, not just the art? CARMINE: I feel they were terrific, and Stan much later. Simon & Kirby and Siegel and Shuster were the real giants. TJKC: Do you feel Jack’s best work was with Joe Simon overall? Would you make a judgment like that? CARMINE: Yes. I think 100%, yes. Go back and read some of those wonderful stories. Together they were magnificent. This stuff sold like mad. TJKC: Best friends. CARMINE: Best friends. You could smell it. Genius was coming out of every pore. They were and are my heroes! ★

The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino is available from the publisher. Send $37.95 for the Limited Edition Hardback, signed and numbered by Infantino or $19.95 for the softback, plus $3.25 for shipping to: Vanguard Productions • 59A Philhower Rd. • Lebanon, NJ 08833 • Include double shipping for orders outside the US.

A Chat With Jack Kirby

Innerview

Circa 1974, by Russ Maheras n early 1974, at one of the monthly YMCA mini-comic book conventions in downtown Chicago, I overheard another young fan bragging that they had Jack Kirby’s phone number and address in California. Today, it may not seem like such a big deal, but to the average fan in those days, possessing such information was akin to possessing atomic secrets. At the time, I was in the process of putting together the first issue of Maelstrom, a fanzine I have published off and on for the past 26 years. I immediately thought that it would be a great idea to send Kirby a mail interview so I could publish it in my fledgling ’zine. After all, Kirby was one of my favorite comic book artists and I had lots of questions for him about the early days of his career. Pleading and begging, I somehow managed to wheedle the address from my fellow fan, and chortled all the way home with my newfound treasure wrapped in my hot little fist. I typed up what I thought at the time were deep, meaningful questions and mailed them off. Weeks passed with no response. Maelstrom #1 went to press and still there was no Kirby interview. I began to doubt the accuracy of the information I’d been given. After about two months, I couldn’t wait any longer. Using the phone number I’d been given, I decided to call Kirby up. This was no easy task for a wide-eyed fan in the early ’70s.

Long distance calls were primitive by today’s standards—and very expensive. So not only was I calling a total stranger, I was calling another state 2000 miles away. To a young, Midwestern comic book fan at the time, it may as well been another planet. As I dialed, my prehistoric “fight or flight” instincts started to kick in. My heart pounded, my pulse raced and my mouth turned drier than a Death Valley alum factory. As the phone rang, I trembled. Then a woman answered. The shock caused me to relax somewhat. It was Roz Kirby. Jack wasn’t home, so she asked me what I wanted. I stammered something about how I was a fanzine publisher and how I’d sent Jack an interview two months ago, and could he please send it back when it was convenient? There was no hurry, I mumbled, but I was just wondering… Roz cut me off in mid-mumble and said something like, “You mean Jack hasn’t responded and you sent it months ago?” “Uh, yeah, but…” I started to say. “Don’t you worry,” she said. “I’ll make sure he gets to it and sends it out right away.” I mumbled my thank you and hung up. “Oh, geez,” I thought, “I can’t believe I just got Jack Kirby in trouble.” A short time later, the interview arrived in the mail, postmarked May 13, 1974. It was published in Maelstrom #2, November 1974, and follows below:

QUESTION: What were the sizes of the originals for your Captain America strips during the ’40s? JACK KIRBY: 12 inches by 18 inches. Q: Did you pencil and ink most of your Captain America work? JK: I penciled the works and inked a bit too. (above) A shot of Kirby taken August 20, 1973 at the San Diego Con by Clay Geerdes. Courtesy of Richard Kyle.

Q: About how long would you say it took you to do a finished page? JK: A few hours. Q: Was most of your work in the ’40s and ’50s done with a crowquill and #3 sable brush? JK: We used a brush.

Q: Were you responsible for the bright colors used on many of your books during the ’40s and ’50s? JK: I indicated color for special effects—although overall color guides were submitted in many cases. Q: During the ’50s on your Black Magic books, you experimented with different inking techniques. For instance, you used white enamel, or a scratchboard effect. Any special reason? JK: Just experimenting for the sake of variety. Q: What were the pay rates per page during the ’40s? JK: They varied for each artist. Q: No other artist has been able to concoct monsters like the ones you originated for Marvel’s fantasy titles. Do you have any explanation? And did the Comics Code Authority censor their teeth (none of them had any teeth)? JK: No. They occasionally had teeth (at any rate, hard gums). Q: Were the early years at Marvel (1960-64) set in a light-hearted, adventurous atmosphere? JK: I’ve always been light-hearted and adventurous. Q: Have you any idea how many pages you’ve done over your whole career? JK: It’s too mind-boggling. Q: When you and Stan hashed out plots for Marvel in the early ’60s, it seems that you had a lot of fun putting them together. Do you think that writers today tend to stay more down-toearth? Do they worry too much about scientific accuracy instead of entertainment, which is what comics are for? JK: You’re absolutely correct. ★ 21

Battle Lines (below) Detail from the Chapter 2 splash of Our Fighting Forces #161 (Nov. 1975), inked by D. Bruce Berry, and featuring British Major Geoffrey Soames. (next page) Cover pencils from OFF #152 (Dec. 1974). Losers TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

The Losers—Everyman At

by Brian K. Morris magine the surprise of a regular reader of Our Fighting Forces in late 1974. Sure, there was the usual cover by long-time war artist Joe Kubert, as it had been for years and years. But without the Internet or even a regular newsstand magazine dedicated to news of the comic book field, a person expecting the writerartist team of Bob Kanigher and John Severin was in for a shock when they opened up issue #151. Now, they’d find the magazine under the total creative control of Jack Kirby, just as it would be until #162, over a year later. Initially, Kirby had come to DC from Marvel in order to bring his concepts to life under his editorial control. However, he was professional enough to accept other assignments when offered. He’d done it with Jimmy

Olsen and would contribute artwork to other DC comics from other scripters until his eventual return to Marvel Comics—but like with Superman’s Pal, Jack was going to do it his way. Why were these dozen issues so unique? Sure, Jack had worked on War comics before. However, this was the first time this World War II veteran could tell stories of conflict without filtering them through another editor; and since Kirby was a veteran himself and had seen combat time, he would—and did—bring a special perspective to the intensity and brutality of war. He was also at the height of his creative prowess and with near-total control over the content of his product, he set out to do his war book. While the lead characters (Captain Storm, Johnny Cloud, Gunner, and Sarge) looked the same, so much was radically different. Gone was the female “traitor,” Ona, and the subplot of Gunner’s conflicting feelings towards her. The noirish artwork of John Severin was gone as well as Kanigher’s consistent reminders that the four soldiers were hard-luck heroes, bound together by loss and tragedy—and given Captain Storm’s limber nature, as in issue #156, you’d never know he had a wooden leg. In several stories, The Losers took a back seat to some of the supporting characters in

War! their own title. The focus switched easily from the four heroes to the “everymen” in each story. The Losers were four largerthan-life combatants the reader had seen time and time before. It was like Kirby felt there were more important stories to tell than a Navajo flying ace, a one-legged PT commander, and a pair of soldiers from the heart of New York. We learn almost nothing about The Losers but we learn so very much about Major Geoffey Soames, Mile-A-Minute Jones, Panama Fattie, and Ivan. With a new generation of comics fans and creators so continuityconscious, Assistant Editor Steve Sherman made a startling announcement: Sherman hadn’t read a war comic “since DC stopped publishing ‘Enemy Ace.’” In the letter column of issue #154, responding to criticisms of the abrupt abandonment of the Kanigher-Severin storylines and the overall change in tone, Sherman replied “...Jack’s view of war and Bob Kanigher’s view don’t exactly coincide. And in order to get his view across, Jack has to interpret the characters the way he sees them... The biggest commotion, quite naturally, was over the sudden change in storyline. Hopefully, future stories will clear up the inconsistencies, which is just our way of saying that we don’t know what went on before, and it’s up to Jack to decide how he wants to work it out.” It turned out that Jack wound up not deciding during his twelve-issue run—but in fairness, when Kanigher returned in issue #163, he didn’t immediately take up his old storylines either, although Ona did return in #168, several months later. Only occasionally touching on the “even when we win, we lose” concept of the series, Kirby spelled out his take on the series in his first text page: “It seems to me that the Losers is... a ‘people’ thing. A small squad of ‘everymen’ caught up in the crushing tide of events, pushing their ‘know-how’ to the limit in a wild effort to survive.” He further promised that “if they can’t avoid a wound, they will take one. The idea is to make it a true war experience for the reader.” Also, “Speaking for this editor,” Kirby confessed in issue #153, “The Losers are not fictional characters, but bits and pieces of myself and the people who shared the war with me.” Again, in the letter column of Kirby’s penultimate issue, it was stated “...the enormous numbers of people involved in wars tend to make individuals

shrink into insignificance—at least when compared to the long and crowded careers our stars have.” These would be tales of war from the “everyman” point of view, told by someone who’d been there, and made as real as the Comics Code Authority would allow. While Kirby’s stories would startle and shock with their brutality, Kirby’s philosophy was explained in the letter column of issue #161: “While war is exciting... it is also a bit sickening when examined too closely, so we’d rather stick to fictionalized material which can capture the drama and action of war, without concentrating on its horrors.” In Kirby’s first issue, #151, The Losers traveled to occupied France where their mission was to smuggle out Emma Klein, a local concert pianist who had never been photographed. During an attack by Panzers, Gunner was separated from the team and captured by the Nazi commanding officer. Despite brutal treatment, Gunner held out until the other Losers could rescue him and take the unnamed Major’s uncomely maid, secretly Emma Klein, to Britain. The issue opened with a bang—or many of them as the Panzers’ explosions and gunfire flushed out the Losers just before they were led away by the Maquis; but pages seventeen through nineteen featured Allied forces shelling the French town into rubble and decimating the German Army. A particularly chilling sequence occurred at the bottom of page eighteen. In panel three, a German officer recoiled in horror at the sight of something off-panel. The caption read, “Men shout in VAIN [all emphasis

Kirby’s] against the holocaust... there’s NO place to run...” as the next panel was filled with an explosion. The page ended with the sight of the background destroyed and only the officer’s hat remaining to mark his violent passing. This issue’s combination of action, brutal verisimilitude, and delineating of supporting characters set the tone for the next eleven issues. In the next issue (#152), The Losers were mistakenly dropped into the wrong town for a threeday pass, a town thick with German soldiers. The story was one long battle scene as the Americans attempted to fight their way out again. But as The Losers discovered an enemy squad just outside their hiding place, the town was pummeled by American artillery. As The Losers walked away from the battle, they encountered General George Patton, just as infantryman Kirby did back in the Second World War (see The Collected Jack Kirby Collector Volume Two). The General scolded them for their unkempt appearance, thanked them for their help after a fashion, and concluded as he drove away, “Fine boys, but ‘foul-ups.’” In this issue, aside from assuming cover art duties for the next several months, Kirby began a back-up feature that detailed the uniforms and weaponry of military men through the ages. Long accused of not being heavily into artistic research, Jack visibly committed himself to making this series as visually accurate as possible. “...contrary to what many people believe, Kirby is a diligent researcher,” 23

the text page claimed. “Jack has an extensive picture file which he constantly refers to in order to insure accuracy.” Writer Steve Sherman claimed to have recently spent a day helping Kirby assemble reference material and that Jack was “getting into it so much,” he expected to see The King in his old Army uniform. Whenever possible, Kirby would identify the weaponry in the story itself down to its weight and destructive capabilities. Adolf Hitler, General Rommel, and Heinrich Himmler appeared in the first panel of #153. An Allied spy in the German ranks spots “the BIG bad three” but was distracted in his attempt to shoot them when he saw “Big Max,” a massive cannon that could deliver its deadly payload from 38 miles away. It was up to The Losers to locate it. The plan was to bring it out of hiding by spreading rumors of “The Devastator.” PFC Rodney Rumpkin, a major comic book and science-fiction aficionado, was selected to put on an orange, green, and yellow uniform to seemingly pilot “The Devastator,” a garishly-decorated tank that looked as if it was designed for Buck Rogers, but was secretly piloted by The Losers. Out of terror of the Allies’ weapon, the Nazis brought Big Max out of hiding, leaving it vulnerable to “Air Strike Four” and their intense bombing. But even when they won, The Losers lost “The Devastator” to Big Max’s final volley. Rumpkin was inconsolate. “I—I feel like a FRAUD... NOBODY will believe in me, now...”. Johnny Cloud concluded, “Why NOT? THE NAZIS DID!!” Even though the cover promised what could have been a silly story (Johnny Cloud declared that they could stop Big Max “with our secret weapon—

THIS COMIC BOOK!”), Kirby made the destructive power of the massive cannon clear to the reader in just three panels on page 5 and again on pages 8-10. Page 9, with a procession of injured soldiers taken away from the town was particularly effective. Without their saying a word, Kirby managed to convey every ache each wounded man felt. In the letter column in issue #157, Steve Sherman replied to a letter on how well-rounded Rumpkin

seemed to be, and not a source of ridicule or easy comic relief. “What is interesting to note is the fact that Jack was a science-fiction fan way back in the Thirties, Forties, and early Fifties. The story was partly based on his recollection of what is was like to be a fan at a time when science-fiction was considered to be just a few steps above the backs of cereal boxes on the literary scale in the minds of non-SF readers.” Again, Kirby let it be known that OFF is a personal work, not just a Sgt. Fury rehash. OFF #154 spelled out the entire story in the first caption on page five: “MISSION FOR THE LOSERS: diversion tactic of utmost importance... prime objective is Colonel Toshiro Yamashita... details must be carried out at all cost... The Losers are considered expendable...”. The code of Bushido was explored, and exploited, in the story as Yamashita’s pride drew him from his post long enough for American forces to destroy the Japanese installation that was supposed to be under his protection. When faced with capture and disgrace, Yamashita led his men directly into American fire. “Machine guns open up to meet the charge. The last act ends with the song of DEATH.” By now, the letters pages were filling up with comments. An uncredited Steve Sherman

admitted that the mail on Jack’s first issue of the magazine was “divided about 60% favorable to 40% unfavorable.” Sales must have improved since the title was monthly from this point until just after Kirby left. Leave it to Kirby to innovate by mixing genres! Issue #155 had a decidedly spooky atmosphere as Sarge tried to get a severely wounded Gunner to the medics. Separated from Johnny Cloud and Capt. Storm, the Marines ran across a group of silent Partisans who help destroy the Milgar Station arms factory. During the adventure, Sarge was battered by the explosions around him, leaving him almost as badly injured as Gunner. Once The Losers were reunited, the leader of another Partisan unit revealed that only his people were active in the vicinity and the person who the Marines saw was the ghost of the Partisan leader’s dead brother, finishing the mission that killed him. Next issue (#156), a German U-boat hid in the Hudson River, sending a volley of destruction into a docked battleship. The German submarine didn’t know the ship was bait to draw them out for the Coast Guard to attack. Of the survivors, all but their leader, Helmut Steger, were caught. On leave in New York City, The Losers assisted in capturing Steger who was the link to a second submarine, just off Long Island. The second sub was equipped with a glider bomb, one that would be aimed at the heart of Broadway. The Losers boarded the second U-boat, overwhelming the crew, but not before the bomb launched. A desperate shot from Gunner detonated the bomb, finishing the mission. Issues #157 and #158 constituted the only twopart tale of the run. Military supplies were vanishing in Panama so the Navy called in The Losers to investigate. (previous page, top) Cover pencils to Our Fighting Forces #154 (April 1975). (previous page, bottom) This twopager from OFF #160 (Oct. ’75) shows the level of research and detail Jack put into these stories. (this page) Cover pencils, Mike Royer inks, and page detail from issue #157 (July 1975), featuring the unforgettable Panama Fattie. Jack’s original headline caption on the cover read “She was a heavyweight problem that almost changed the course of the war. Meet Panama Fattie!” All characters TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

(this page) More of Panama Fattie from OFF #157 (July 1975, inked by Royer). She can be seen as a direct creative descendant of Mother Delilah from Boys’ Ranch #3 (Feb. 1951). All characters TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

While transporting supplies, the team stopped for a heavy-set, flashily dressed woman in distress named Lil. “But the jokers here,” she quipped, “call me ‘PANAMA FATTIE’!” When her men attempted to steal supplies from the back of the truck, they were met and repelled by Gunner and Sarge. While the bullets flew, Capt. Storm urged Lil, “Please, LADY... take cover... you may get hurt!” She leveled her pistol at Storm’s back... but couldn’t pull the trigger. The hijackers were repelled and not knowing she was their leader, The Losers gave Lil a ride back to her nightclub. She gave them a meal but she drugged their food. While The Losers slept it off, Lil concluded a half-million dollar deal with Lt. Nakamura, who took his booty into a warehouse that only his men were permitted to enter. The Losers awoke to find Panama Fattie ready to fly the coop. “Panama Fattie is RICH... and that means a NEW life for her! Whatever I’ve been or done will now DIE

here... with YOU!!” The Losers stared down Lil’s men as they leveled their guns at them, ending the first half of the story. While the Kamikaze forces led by Lt. Nakamura prepared for their attack on the Panama Canal, The Losers made a desperate stab at escape. As they turned the tables on Lil’s men, she got the drop on Capt. Storm again but still couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger. The Losers made their way to the warehouse but when Storm found an opportunity to take a shot at Lil, he found himself no more able to do it than she could to him. Cloud, however, had no such problems and shot out her tires to force her off the road. Panama Fattie ran through the jungle, to the enemy installation. When she’s denied permission to see Nakamura, she shot the soldier blocking her way in cold blood. The other Japanese soldiers avenged their fallen ally, leaving Lil for dead. Sighting the advancing Losers, they sounded the alarm. The Losers battled their way through the compound; they arrived on the beach just as the airplane lifted off for Panama. But Gunner’s machine gun brought down the craft, ending the danger to the canal. If the letter column was any indication, Jack’s version of The Losers was starting to win the fans over. In response to a letter by Kurt Fowler of Jacksonville, Florida, Steve Sherman replied, “It would seem... that #153 really went over big with our readers. While there were ‘cries of anguish’ when Jack began on the book, it now looks as though the majority of readers are satisfied with the way THE LOSERS have been handled.” The theme of the “everyman” was never more in evidence, or better executed, than in #159’s “Mile-A-Minute Jones!,” an obvious parallel to Jesse Owens’ victory at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Jones evaded a German patrol only to be captured by former rival Bruno Borman. However, Jones was rescued by The Losers on their way to capturing a Nazi General and getting him behind Allied lines. 26

Borman helped the General’s staff escape, then found a paratroop patrol returning to the castle. He raced across an open field to bring the soldiers to help recapture the General. The Losers had to stop Borman but couldn’t risk a shot for fear of alerting the paratroopers as to their location. Jones took off in pursuit of his old rival, despite Sarge’s plea to “stay off that field!!” As the pair raced across the open field, Jones saw a white line at his feet. For a moment, Jones traveled back to Berlin, following the track’s white line and glancing at a sternly disapproving Adolf Hitler in the stands. “I’LL SHOW HIM!” thinks Jones. “I’ll show him how a black man can WIN!!” (Who? Borman? Hitler?) On Borman’s heels, Jones made a last-ditch lunge for the soldier, only to miss. Borman reached the paratroopers and pointed out The Losers. While Borman shouted out his triumph over Jones, the field erupted in flame and noise as the paratroopers set off the land mines laid down much earlier. Sarge reached Jones, pointing out that the line the athlete followed was a measure of engineer’s tape to mark out the only safe way across the field. By the time more German reinforcements arrived, The Losers had the General and Jones in the air. Before Jones said farewell to Borman, Kirby stated, “Bruno Borman has crossed the FINAL finish line... the question of ‘WINNING’ is still in doubt... it can only be answered by LIVING men...”. The letter column in that issue showed another insight into Kirby’s creative psyche. Steve Andrews of St. Charles, Missouri, stated that while he was a fan of the King and his other DC books, “I do not enjoy Jack Kirby doing THE LOSERS.” He went on to state, “First of all, Jack is turning out a fine war mag. It is exciting, dramatic, different every issue, and very well done. It is also not the Losers. Under Kirby’s hand, the four heroes in this mag are just that, four heroes. They’re not Capt. Storm, Johnny Cloud, Gunner and Sarge. They’re simply four figures with names,” which was a fairly canny evaluation of how The Losers were portrayed. “The points you’ve brought us,” rebutted Sherman, “are exactly the reasons why Jack very seldom takes over strips done by other people. The best way to look at it, though, is to view it in the same way as you would a TV series when an actor is replaced. The name of the character remains the same, the setting is the same, it’s just portrayed in a different way.” He concluded, “Since

THE LOSERS is now monthly, it seems to have worked.” A Joe Kubert cover began Kirby’s run on OFF as a form of transition from one editorial team to another. With issue #160, Kubert’s artwork graced the cover once more, and would for all but the last issue of the run. Change was in the wind. Even in the letters page, a response to the first missive garnered the response “There are some changes coming up in Our Fighting Forces, which mean that the search for Ona may be resumed yet.” In the following reply, when the letter writer said he’d buy every issue that Kirby wrote and drew, “Well... it looks

as if your collection of The Losers is going to be kind of small, since Jack will only be doing a few more issues of this magazine.” Then, the third letter got this reply: “Jack began on The Losers with #151, and as stated in answer to the previous letter, he will only be doing a few more issues. For a time there it was quite a rocky start, and now that Jack’s version has taken hold, it seems a shame to have to leave it. But that’s comics.” The identity of the succeeding editor was given in the last letter in reply to some ideas given by a reader: “...hopefully, editor Boltinoff will be able to handle your questions,” meaning Murray Boltinoff, who was listed as editor on Kirby’s first few issues of Jimmy Olsen. “Ivan” told a tale of a youthful SS agent whose sideline consisted of fleecing the locals for their valuables in exchange for sanctuary—until the booty ran out, that was. The Losers were in disguise as Nazi soldiers, waiting to deliver a letter to a General Danikov. While Ivan and his mother shook down their captives, they were unaware that The Losers had overheard them and planned to end their scam. After finding Ivan’s “super hock shop,” an SS detail approached to take the captives away, but when the Nazis turned their backs, The Losers filled them with lead. In this story, we had heroes who fought for good but resorted to shooting their foes from behind, and Nazis who mowed down innocent villagers with a machine gun but did it facing their victims. When Ivan investigated the noise, Sarge knocked him out and placed a burp gun in his hand, framing him for the murder of the squad. The story began with the brutal execution of civilians and ended with one, as well—but this time, Ivan was among them, facing the SS machine guns and pleading for his life, but with no more success than his victims’ pleas had with him. In #161, British Major Geoffrey Soames accompanied The Losers to “the Rangoon Perimeter” to establish an observation post, anticipating “the expected Japanese offensive”—but they didn’t realize the Major was haunted by dreams of demons pursuing him in the dark, forcing him into the multiarmed embrace of a marble monster, dreams that began after his regiment was wiped out. Only he and his orderly, Sim, survived the slaughter. When Sim rejoined the group, he warned the Major not to return to the temple, the site of the observation post. “Don’t go back, Major. Temple TAKE your men... NOW, IT TAKE YOU.” After successfully coordinating an attack on a squad of Japanese soldiers, The Losers hid inside the temple; but returning to the site of his greatest loss unhinged Soames. He began firing and screaming, doing little more than alerting the surviving Japanese soldiers of their hiding place. Driven deeper into the temple, Soames becomes totally lost in his psychosis. When he’s found again, he lay dead, crushed beneath a marble statue carved in the same image of his killer in his dreams. An Ernie Chan cover graced #162, Jack’s final issue of Our Fighting Forces. While Storm and Cloud helped grill, albeit unsuccessfully, a German soldier to reveal if the Arranville Point would be the location of a Nazi breakthrough, Gunner trained a quartet of French youths in the Marine way of fighting, much to Sarge’s disapproval—but before the boys could be sent away to safety, the German putsch began. The French defended their territory valiantly but still fell to superior numbers. Before the horrified stares of Sarge and Johnny Cloud, Gunner led his “men” into the heart of battle. The combat was brutal but the Nazis were held in place by the four teens, their battle cry of “Gung Ho!” ringing out loud and clear. When the sound of the last gunshot faded, the eerie silence was replaced by five voices singing the Marine Hymn. While Cloud threatened to lock Gunner up for life, Sarge stated, “Damn fool! I—I can’t believe it! I don’t think the Nazis believe it! They were stopped by a nut and a bunch of KIDS!” “MARINES, Sarge!” Gunner corrected. On the last page, Gunner saluted his men and rejoined the rest of The Losers who drove off beyond the horizon, thus ending Kirby’s year of living dangerously. So what were we left with? A year’s worth of very adult, rather sophisticated writing, drawn by The King at the pinnacle of his creative abilities. This wasn’t a war fought by rival gods or battles beyond the farthest star. These were stories of heroism, of courageous men swept up in circumstances far beyond their control. To convey the violence and courage shown in war, Kirby frequently pulled the spotlight from the lead characters to shine it upon the “everymen” who fought and won or fell in combat. Defying the odds, the “everymen” might not have survived, but their stories did... just like an ex-infantryman whose greatest weapon was a pencil and one of the finest creative minds in the history of comics. ★ 28

The “Everyman” Painter Kirby’s other personal war comic, Foxhole, was produced in 1954-55 for Simon & Kirby’s short-lived comics company Mainline. Jack drew a handful of short stories during its 6-issue run, and although he didn’t contribute any pages to the first issue, he did draw the cover (shown below), based on the World War II watercolor painting “Hi Visibility Wrap” by Joseph Hirsch (shown above). Hirsch was a prominent artist during WWII, having illustrated the conflict’s most widely-produced war bond poster, “Till We Meet Again.” His formal art training included study with George Luks, one of a group of American painters who rejected modernism in favor of depicting scenes of ordinary people and everyday life. Hirsch’s style evolved to focus on this “everyman” approach, which was undoubtedly what appealed to Kirby when he chose the imagery for this cover. ★ Foxhole ©2002 Simon & Kirby. Painting ©2002 Joseph Hirsch.

Old Paneling

Kirby made numerous attempts to sell a syndicated comic strip in the 1950s; here are a few from his files:

Gallery

Cover pencils for the Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles Treasury Edition (1976). In the published version (shown at right), note the nonKirby Colonial soldiers to the left of the main figure, and the addition of a non-Kirby Cap figure in the outer space scene to the right. Captain America TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

(below) Back cover pencils from Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles.

(next four pages) You asked for it, you got it! We’re representing—at tabloid-size—these pencil pages from Captain America #103 (July 1968), previously seen much smaller in past issues of TJKC. Captain America, Red Skull, Agent 13 TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

38 Kirby cover pencils to Captain America #194 (Feb. 1976) and #197 (May 1976). Both were inked by Frank Giacoia. Notice the copy changes to the published version of #197. Captain America, Falcon TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Cover pencils to Captain America #199 (July 1976) and #198 (June 1976), with Giacoia inks on both published versions. (next two pages) The twopage spread from Captain America #208 (April 1977), still in pencil. Captain America, Falcon TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Splash page pencils from Captain America #213 (Sept. 1977). Despite Frank Giacoia’s name being listed as inker in Kirby’s handwriting, Dan Green ended up inking this issue, perhaps because of Giacoia’s difficulty in meeting deadlines. Captain America, Red Skull TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

44 More Kirby cover pencils, from Captain America #205 (Jan. 1977, with Joe Sinnott inks) and #201 (Sept. 1976, with Giacoia inks). Again, notice the copy changes on the cover of #201. Captain America, Falcon TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Cover pencils to Captain America #207 (March 1977) and #214 (Kirby’s final issue, from Oct. 1977). Both feature Giacoia inks, and once again, cover copy changes on #214. Captain America, Falcon, Night Flyer TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Adam M c Govern Know of some Kirby-inspired work that should be covered here? Send to: Adam McGovern PO Box 257 Mt. Tabor, NJ 07878

As A Genre A regular feature examining Kirby-inspired work, by Adam McGovern

READER (AND ARTIST, MUSICIAN, TEACHER, ETC.) MAIL esponse to this column has been so warm and widespread that it’s time to pause in our recent run of theme installments for our first grab-bag of Kirby homages brought to our attention by watchful correspondents. Most of the news comes by way of precincts not often heard from, thus giving us a theme after all, with the classic serendipity of the spontaneous Kirby storyline. So snap on the respirators and rubber gloves and let’s dive into the mailbag.

The Star-Spangled Banana Peel

As this issue’s showcase of patriotic subjects was being prepared and recent national traumas made both our right and ability to laugh at ourselves—or at anything—more crucial than ever, no mailbox arrival could’ve been better timed than the advance galleys of AC Comics’ Fighting Yank, a good-natured spoof of ’50s flag-waving fisticuffs. AC is the keeper of the copyrights on scores of Golden and Silver Age runners-up for super-hero householdnamedom; in their pages you’ll find many characters you’re surprised to know exist (as must have been true of no less a personage than Alan Moore, who used several of them in a Tom Strong two-parter before the lawyers found out that someone else had gotten to the flea-market ahead of him); but AC’s M.O. isn’t as simple as the mere recycling of littleknown icons; the historical blender is set full-blast for books like Fighting Yank. This title poses the pop-cultural question of what would happen if the minuteman-looking ’40s hero had been resuscitated for the super-hero boomlet of the ’50s, and his bullet-proof Colonial cloak “re-woven” into full-body tights suspiciously reminiscent of Simon & Kirby’s Fighting American—the latter itself an after-the-fact parody of the team’s Captain America, while Fighting Yank serves as a satirical foreshadowing of Cap’s early-’60s unfreezing. Like Bongo Comics’ Radioactive Man (which will be touched on in our next installment’s all-humor roundup), FY uses one time period as a springboard into a half-century of pulp send-up, including Kirby giant-monster melodramas in issue #2 and comics’ jungle-hero also-rans in #3. Of overarching interest to readers of this column, of course, several generations of Kirby style are surveyed in the book’s visuals—set in Kirby’s Eisenhower-era wilderness years, it is drawn in the acid-trip/steroid-rush manner of his late-’60s/early-’70s heyday, with a little of Kirby-descendant Bruce Timm’s cartoon broadness thrown in on particular characters. This is accomplished by artist Eric Coile, drawing under the nom-de-pop of “Hack Koilby” and exercising one of the surest eyes for Kirby’s dynamism—and most generous senses of humor toward his operatic excesses—to emerge yet. Coile also writes the scripts, with a keen ear for Kirby’s fevered wordplay and the bizarre imagery it suggests (as with Fighting Yank’s cubic-craniumed Cold War nemesis “The Red Square”). Inked by FY’s original re-creator (and AC honcho) Bill Black under the Marvelesque alias of “Jake Signitt” and mock-credited to author “Stan Demand,” this is one of the “funnest” books that Kirby fans—and connoisseurs of knowing guilty-pleasure pop in any medium—could wish for. Sadly scarce in stores, AC’s whole line is available by mail at: AC Comics, Box 521216, Longwood, FL 327521216, or online at www.accomics.com.

Positively Fourth World One of the more strange and pleasant surprises to arrive in the recent mail was the epic jazz cycle Requiem for Jack Kirby by Gregg Bendian’s Interzone on the Atavistic label. Like the man who inspired it, the disk is cosmic with a common touch, taking awed listeners through compositions which sprawl like aural double-page splashes but leave no sonic inch wasted in their loving details. By turns as pastoral as New Genesis and as martial as Apokolips, the album can evoke the cacophony of a panoramic Kirby battle scene or the smooth sophistication of the master’s presciently sleek blockbuster graphics. Particularly intriguing is “The Mother Box,” whose skewed clockwork rhythms manage to evoke the mysterious patterns and odd impulses of the imaginary artificial intelligence for which it’s titled. Other tracks specifically portray further corners of Kirby’s Fourth World saga, his Marvel output in general, and the Silver Surfer legend in particular, but the disk can be enjoyed for its agile and adventurous musical explorations alone. The packaging itself is a caringly compiled mini-gallery of Kirby images, including an attractive fold-out poster insert which summarizes Kirby’s career and contributions along with celebrity testimonials and amusing Kirby-ized portraits of the band by Duncan Rouleau. There’s no clearer sign of the many worlds into which the King crossed over, and you can visit by contacting the record label at: Atavistic, P.O. Box 578266, Chicago, IL, 60657 or www.atavistic.com.

Jackster While we’re on the subject of music, a clipping from reader John Kioussis provides further evidence of the length of Kirby’s shadow: a feature on the Napster controversy from a recent issue of major British music mag Q, featuring illustrations in spot-on Kirby style depicting the pitched record-companyrobber-barons-versusonline-shoplifters battle in the overblown comic book terms for which it was made. Unfortunately, our clip didn’t come with issue number or artist credits, but in a future column we’ll gladly acknowledge those responsible (and whichever reader is obsessive enough to find out). Meanwhile, check the mag out at major bookstore chains or www.q4music.com, and thanks to the pundits across the pond for recognizing that Kirby’s vitality is as American as consumerism gone mad!

actual choices, Dr. Speck is one of the true alternatives. And come to think of it, individualism like that pays the Kirby spirit more of a compliment than the closest clone. To order comics write to: Geoffrey Grogan, 200 6th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11217; to see what’s available (though no longer from the publishers listed) and stroll a virtual gallery of the paintings (which translate better on a color monitor than in our own glorious blackand-white)

The Kirby School From the realms of fine art and academia came a charming package sent by Geoffrey Grogan, a painter and Assistant Professor of Art & Art History at New York’s Adelphi University. Grogan has mounted a gallery exhibit of witty paintings which, among other subjects, juxtapose jumbled pictures and dialogue from Lee-Kirby Fantastic Four issues with op-art dot patterns and bas-relief outlines of weapons of mass destruction. These have led to impromptu seminars on the Kirby influence for an unfamiliar yet appreciative audience. But Grogan’s most fascinating work is his ostensibly non-Kirbyinspired indie comic, Dr. Speck. The book is a kind of philosophical sitcom about a not-quite-everyman on a spiritual odyssey at the crossroads of art-history, Eastern mysticism, the cut-and-paste psychedelia of Terry Gilliam, the neo-retro hip of Madman, the quaint storybook adventure of Tin Tin, and the jittery sketchiness and sly subversion of underground comix. In a comics industry where, as always, there are many more selections than

log on to (deep breath): http://hometown.aol.com/speck35132/ DrSpeck/DrSpeckHome.html.

Men Who Would Be King Of special note from the aspiring-artist pile is the work of Stefano Pavan, a reader in Italy who sent a stack of speculative Kirbyesque comic book covers. Most expanded on the ideas of TJKC writer Joe Magee for hypothetical Fourth World issues from after the reallife series’ cancellation (TJKC #17). Pavan’s design sense and layout are dazzling, though his execution doesn’t always keep pace with his frenzied flow of ideas. However, what seem to be the two most recent pieces, insanely detailed and vibrantly

energetic spreads of an Asgardian funeral and an Atlantean invasion, should land him squarely on the short-list of any comics company seeking to rejuvenate its super-hero stock. In this space we usually round up the best of Kirby-influenced work already in print, but in Pavan’s case we’ll be happy to confidently predict it’s on its way.

Panther Number Two Our survey of Kirby care-packages from unusual places concludes with an e-mail from the land of mainstream comics that was too good to pass up. Kirby fans look back with either love or hate on the King’s exciting and eye-popping (if somewhat directionless in plot and generic in characterization) mid-’70s run on The Black Panther. Through the magic of sciencefantasy convention and postmodern cartooning, Kirby’s Panther makes an arch reappearance in Christopher Priest’s acclaimed current costumedpolitical-thriller treatment of the title. Readers may already be familiar with the book’s distinctive look by artist Sal Velluto (www.velluto.com) and inker Bob Almond (www.almondink.com); a visceral yet elegant style of heightened heroic realism. In its midst, for the “Enemy of the State II” story arc, comes a “Panther doppelganger” straight from Kirby’s pages, drawn in the gleaming Kirby style while everything around him retains its 2000s grit. This wry comment on comics-history evolution and trends runs for four months, starting in February’s issue #41. ...Which is as good a lead-in as any to our humor round-up next issue; keep smilin’ till then! ★

Internationalities

Philippe Druillet

by Jean Depelley and Etienne Barillier

(above) Photo of Philippe Druillet. (right) Unfinished Bullseye layout by Kirby, probably from the 1960s. Joe Simon has commented that Kirby could never get the bow and arrow drawn correctly, and this is a good example. You try shooting an arrow when you’re holding it like this! (Ouch!) Bullseye ©2002 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. All Druillet art in this article is ©2002 Philippe Druillet unless otherwise noted.

(Philippe Druillet was born in 1944 in Toulouse, France. After a few years as a photographer, he first ventured onto the European comics scene with the character Lone Sloane’s first opus The Mystery of the Abyss (1966), clearly establishing his talent as a visionary artist, strongly influenced by American fantasy literature. In 1970, Druillet revolutionized the medium with the publication of the first episode of “The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane” in the French weekly Pilote. His art literally exploded the classic format with kaleidoscopic storytelling on gigantic splash pages where fabulous worlds and monumental architectures are peopled by Lovecraftian creatures. With its publication as a graphic novel in 1972, comics clearly became a visual art form, with graphic search predominating over linear scripts. In 1975, Druillet collaborated with Jean-Pierre Dionnet, the artist Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Moebius), and Farkas to produce the now classic Métal Hurlant monthly, which would revolutionize comics periodicals. The magazine’s huge success finally resulted in the US publication Heavy Metal that proved to be even more successful. Druillet then explored somber themes after his wife’s untimely death from cancer in 1975, which crystallized in his morbid masterpiece The Night (1976) and in Lone Sloane’s next adventure, the very introspective Gail (1978). As a complete artist, Druillet has adapted to different art forms, from movie posters (Jean Rollin’s films, Star Wars, The Name of the Rose) and book illustrations to Fine Art paintings and sculptures. He has also recently launched into animated graphics with the Wagner tetralogy on CD-ROM. Nevertheless, Druillet is still an authentic fan, always enthusiastic to discuss his passions for fine books and paintings (from the nineteen century, of course!), cinema, or American comics. This interview was conducted by phone in French on September 6, 2000, for the promotion

of his new book Chaos (published by Albin Michel), which marks the long overdue reunion between the author, the comics medium, and his Lone Sloane character after 14 years. We wish to thank Jean-Pierre Dionnet for his precious information, Mona Fathoui (of Albin Michel) for this appointment so important to us as fans, and, of course, Philippe Druillet for his time and kindness. Welcome back aboard, Philippe!)

(Above) Sloane on his “Mobius chair” visiting the cosmos (from Druillet’s The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane, Dargaud, 1972), and (left) Kirby’s unused cover art, supposedly for Black Cat Mystery #59 (Sept. 1957), but more likely for Alarming Tales #1 (also Sept. ’57, which contained the story “Donnegan’s Daffy Chair”). Cover ©2002 Harvey Comics.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Can you tell us how you discovered comic books, and Kirby in particular? PHILIPPE DRUILLET: It was in the 1960s-70s. As a kid, I used to read the Fantastic Four, which is still my favorite Kirby series. My comics knowledge is not phenomenal compared to Jean-Pierre Dionnet’s, for example, but I know this medium pretty well and I’ve always liked it. Here’s a little preamble to settle the point: I am a multicultural man, with a half-caste origin. I was dragged along between Spain and France when I was a kid. I am from a modest family. My mother was a janitor and I couldn’t study. I soon needed to broaden my mind, to grow richer in culture in numerous

art is powerful, extremely strong. The general feeling is that European art is usually done in a more nineteenth-century style, although new technologies using computers are nowadays widely used. The energy in a book is somewhat held back in a way in Europe, whereas it is always loose in US comics, with a kind of craziness and power in creativity not so far from manga. I’ve always been panicked by the small format people are working on at Marvel or DC. That’s completely different for me! I work in a huge format. Still, in the middle of these restricted panels, geniuses like Kirby were able to explode.

domains. I have not only dug Belgian comics that I love, but also American comics, with people like Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, and others that I eventually met. Comic books have always surprised me for different points. I have been interested in their construction, although it is not the way I work—there are sometimes five or six artists involved on a single American book! The last step in their production—embellishment—is really unusual, although it’s also known in Europe. One guy receives your page. As he’s got a fresh eye on the art, he can see if there are too many blacks here or too many whites there. When you’ve been working on a painting or on a page for three weeks in your studio, this guy can tell you: “Hello, Phiphi. Have you seen this big blot here on your picture?” You’ve not seen the blot. You’re so focused you can’t see anything at all. The things that I’ve always loved in comic books are their covers, which are incredible examples of design, with their catchy shots and absolutely astounding talents. I’ve always been fascinated by Kirby’s intelligence. These American artists really invented new ways for design that are really close to manga. It is evident that American comics had partly influenced Japanese artists. The

TJKC: What do you particularly like in Kirby’s work? DRUILLET: The delirious art, with the anatomical multiplication of the characters, the crazy explosions, the extremely violent and strong storytelling. Kirby has always fascinated me with the power, the generosity and strength in his work. It’s astounding! Graphically speaking, there are times when our arts are pretty close. Nevertheless, he’s been a strong influence at times in my life, and that’s not over for me. I’ve memorized everything in a crazy way! Although—believe it or not—I’ve got no Kirby books anymore, since I threw them away! My pity…. TJKC: We had a conversation with Jean-Pierre Dionnet. He said there were similar directions in Kirby’s work and yours in the early Métal Hurlant days. It surprised him, for it was unintentional. Do you think you’re drawing from the same thematic source as Kirby? DRUILLET: I don’t know. There was the Pilote weekly before Métal Hurlant and the events were pretty close for me. When I started Métal Hurlant with Jean-Pierre, Moebius and others, that was another time, a very moving time, because we were opening new tracks. We were then into a kind of frenzy in France. We were receiving American comics and the emerging comix: Zap Comics, works by Moscoso, Griffith, Greg Irons, Vaughn Bodé— whom I eventually met—Crumb or the fabulous Corben. Then, French and US artists were experiencing a stupendous sort of artistic correlation that was to last for five or six years, at a time when fax didn’t exist and TV was the only tool— but that couldn’t compare with the Internet today! Everybody was receiving in his mail Kirby’s latest comics or Druillet’s latest book. It was extremely fascinating to witness such a correlation. Jean-Pierre, who’s the living memory of our medium, was constantly

Jean Pierre Dionnet said: “Kirby is for me one of the real masters of comic books. I think this medium has been forever changed with the publications of FF #53-54 (Aug.-Sept. 1966) and the Thor issue that was published about the same time where he was in Hell (#130, July 1966). These stories completely shocked me… I used to talk about them to my friends Moebius and Druillet. Druillet was first a bit reluctant. He said, ‘Yes, that’s wonderful, but too quickly done.’ In fact, he was annoyed by Kirby’s quickness! One day I told him. ‘Kirby may be different, but you two are definitely from the same planet.’ Then I showed him a Thor cover (#131, Aug. 1966, shown above) in which the Earth was held by four gigantic claws. ‘This is the same page you just finished for your Lone Sloane episode.’ It was incredible. No one could have copied the other. Somewhere, they were inspired by the same source.” Thor TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) 1950s unused, unfinished romance cover by Kirby.

telling me: “How can you do that? You are searching the same domain as Kirby!” What’s our common melting pot? I really don’t know. It must have come from our readings as children. Americans are really intelligent people as far as their cultures of illustration and painting are concerned. You’ve got many references to artists such as Maxfield Parrish in Kirby. There’s also a very important movie influence he must have absorbed then. We grew and finally met in this peculiar melting pot, Kirby and I, sharing a craziness, a dynamic view, a precursory aspect in our respective arts— and that happened between two different cultures, European and American, even though America was first peopled with Europeans. Was our common melting pot Asterix’s magical pot? (laughter)

(left) A Jean Rollin movie poster by Druillet (1972), and (below) Kirby’s own take on vampires, from his original, unaltered pencils to the cover of Jimmy Olsen #142 (Oct. 1971). See TJKC #27 for various inked versions.

TJKC: Kirby experienced the same kind of feelings when he first discovered your Six Voyages of Lone Sloane book. DRUILLET: I don’t want to look terribly scientific, but maybe there’s a cultural code next to the genetic code. (laughter) Anyway, I prefer this cultural code, though the genetic code is not an insult. You’ve got human families with people alike all over the planet. That may be your answer; Kirby really impressed me. He amazed me. I’ve continued my crazy way and he his. TJKC: There are incredible works on matter in yours and Kirby’s arts. Unfortunately, unlike you, Kirby never jumped the path to sculpting. DRUILLET: Yes, indeed. That’s really interesting. It really upsets me. Kirby’s drawings are sculptures. His way of inking, his renderings of blacks over volumes in his art are really close to bronze and stone. Kirby’s graphic renderings are sometimes very close to sculpture. It’s a pity he never explored this field himself. I don’t want to be tough with Americans, but it is a pity nobody has thought “I’m gonna take this object, that character or construction from a Kirby comic, and sculpt it.” His way of shading-in is really peculiar. His blacks look like bronze.

Druillet’s sculpture Black God (bronze, 1984).

TJKC: Nevertheless, there’s a difference in the respective raw materials you work with. Kirby used bolts of energy, rocks, air, and water; the Alchemy’s four elements. You’d rather work on soft organic matter or on mineral materials, such as bones. DRUILLET: This is something I’ve got in common with my friend Giger. It may have something to do with our European culture; I don’t know. Giger and I started very young. A few years ago, he told me that my books had somewhat influenced him. I was also influenced by some of his pieces. Again, those cultural families—there may be differences between the East and West continents, but there are redundancies nonetheless. The funny thing is the fact it happened on the same planet, at a time when communication tools were different. It’s fascinating to witness such people obsessed with the same artistic trend and with their specific universes. That’s really magical. TJKC: You’re also known to be a great movie fan. You were the French correspondent for the Famous Monsters magazine. DRUILLET: At last, someone remembers! (laughter)

TJKC: You did posters for the first Jean Rollin films. DRUILLET: Movies are my first life. In my latest book, Chaos, Lone Sloane has lived several lives. So have I! That’s my first childhood. I was really crazy for books, art, comics, and cinema. Actually, I was a very weak artist then. I’m afraid it has barely improved nowadays. (laughter) I was a cinema maniac. I knew all those horror movie credits till the fourteenth assistant! I used to go to the Cinémathèque in Paris as a teenager, where I ingested the entire Expressionistic German cinema. For me, the silent films foreshadowed comics, with directors such as Pabst, Paul Leni, Murnau, Fritz Lang…. Then I discovered the American movies, and, above all, the sublime flowering of Hammer films, with Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed who died recently. I grew up with cinema. That finally made me the lunatic I am today! (laughter) I began my artistic career illustrating Lang’s Metropolis from photographs for the bookseller Jean Boullet in Paris. He was paying me in pulp magazines! Then I met Jean Rollin through common friends and eventually

bothers him at 50 meters… I’m really sorry for him. (laughter)

got involved with his first film Le Viol du Vampire [a.k.a. The Rape of the Vampire (1967)]. It was a very cheap production that only cost 200,000 francs (around $40,000). Everybody was so involved! I eventually happened to direct a shot in the film because Jean went for a walk! I fondly remember the climax with the enormous crowd of villagers attacking the castle. In this crowd were Philippe Druillet, the producer Sam Selsky, the photographer in front of his own camera, and two or three friends! Those were extraordinary moments of absolute happiness. Nowadays, this film is a reference! (laughter) TJKC: What about literature? DRUILLET: To have it simply put: the Ancient ones! But before Lovecraft, you’ve got this guy, Stephan Wul. We are talking in the Fifties; I’m a kid and he writes his novels for the French publisher Fleuve Noir. [His books were the basis for the scripts for two French sci-fi cartoons: The Fantastic Planet (René Laloux and Topor, 1974) and The Time Masters (René Laloux and Moebius, 1982).] His books were incredible, a revelation! They were really important for me. Then, I read Lovecraft, Moorcock, Bradbury and Co., Philip K. Dick, John Brunner, Thomas Dish, Catherine L. Moore, Fritz Leiber in the Sixties. Actually, that’s a complicated process, but the two first shocks I experienced were reading the French Stephan Wul—who wrote four books with an “American” quality— and, of course, Lovecraft. TJKC: You began you career adapting Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné. This work is still impossible to find. DRUILLET: It was reprinted in England two years ago [in the Return to Melniboné graphic novel, published by Jayde Design (1997)], but it’s really scarce! The whole story began when I was sixteen or seventeen. I couldn’t speak English then. I was completely into Lovecraft when, that day in my tiny room on the sixth floor in the building where my mother worked as a janitor, came Michel Demuth and Maxime Jackubowski, two real lunatic friends of mine, with the first print of Elric the Necromancer in their hands. I’ll never forget my friends translating me the first pages! It was an incredible shock, something that I had been expecting for years: Heroic Fantasy! I’ve made a first comics version of Elric with Michel Demuth, 15 to 20 pages long, that is highly collected today. I finally reworked several pages to use them in my next books Yragael and Urm le Fou. I eventually happened to meet Michael Moorcock several times. One occasion was during the St. Malo festival I attended 4 or 5 years ago. Michael came. He was a real crazy reveler! We were drunk all the time and we smoked like crazies! I’m worried because I recently learned he had quit drinking; he doesn’t do anything anymore and the smell of cigarette smoke

TJKC: Michael Moorcock talked about a lawsuit concerning this book in a 1983 interview published in the magazine Orbit 6. DRUILLET: This lawsuit didn’t concern Moorcock. One day [in 1973], an editor whose name I forgot [Bill Butler from Unicorn Book Shop] simply published Return to Melniboné with no permission and without paying me! Moreover, it was distributed in France. Can you imagine? The lawsuit was not against Moorcock who had no business in this affair, the poor darling. It was only against that jerk. That was really embarrassing. An identical reprint was published in London [by Jayde Design, 1997] two years ago. This reprint is really nice, nearly the same format as the original art, with a white cover (the first print had a purple cover). The publisher had my permission. I didn’t make big money out of it. That was not the point. That was purely affective and friendly, considering my childhood and Michael’s. That was cool, you know. They told me the book was to be distributed in France but it completely sold out in England! I’ve only got ten copies left. That’s a collector’s item for sure! It was a very limited edition, nothing compared with Astérix. So, there was a lawsuit indeed, but against the first editor and not against Moorcock! [The editor] said in his defense that if Druillet and Demuth took the liberty to adapt Elric, he had the right, in a way, to publish it. As a matter of fact, Demuth and I had Moorcock’s authorization, maybe not the contractual thing, but his friendly support. We were young then, just beginning our career. That was cool. We never made money on it. That’s why I felt crapped on when someone used it that way. I’d like you to write it exactly as I told you. This is much ado about nothing.

Michael Moorcock said: “Elric, Return to Melniboné was originally done as a pirated thing by Druillet the artist without my permission. Bill Butler pirated it back and involved him and me and Druillet in a French legal battle that went on for years. Finally, it was agreed that nobody would ever republish it and that was how it was resolved.” (Orbit 6, 1983) However, Moorcock gave his permission for a limited reprint by Jayde Design (London) in 1997. (left) One page of Elric that was reworked for Yragael. (below) A Lady Centurion, drawn by Kirby in the 1930s.

TJKC: Don’t worry. It’s recorded! DRUILLET: That was a small-range kids’ work. Moorcock is my friend. He’s a wonderful guy and we had a nice time together. TJKC: Do you read the new writers these days? DRUILLET: I had left the new sci-fi literature for 15 years to dedicate myself to nineteenth-century books and authors such as the French

One of the three scarce Conan books illustrated by Druillet (1972). 51

parameters, I am so involved in them—I reworked the end of an unfinished Lone Sloane film I had worked on with Benjamin Legrand. That was it! Some artists like Tardi can build their scripts from page one to page sixty before beginning the art. Not me. I let myself go and constantly change my scripts. Sometime it’s a real A surfing Lone Sloane from Druillet’s Chaos. problem dealing with Sloane’s overwhelming Mirabeau. I am really fond of the books themselves universe. I am lagged behind like a jerk. I have to that I collect, especially the Jules Verne books pubmanage by myself. Lone Sloane can be a character I lished by Hetzel. Curiously, my next Lone Sloane know perfectly and, at the same time, a complete book will be in collaboration with the French sci-fi mystery! It’s a real adventure. writer Serge Lehman, who was recommended to me TJKC: The “Sham” story reminds me of the Magus by the artist Enki Bilal. So, I am returning now to modern sci-fi literature. Sci-fi writers have one dimension more than the artists because they don’t have to draw their backgrounds. They only have to describe them with a cosmic dimension and the proper sense of time: an intergalactic time. Now, I want developed scripts with interconnected events and several levels; only a true writer can do that. Chaos was just a musical and hypnotic trip to find my marks once more with comics. Now, I need someone intelligent, structured and constructive who knows the mechanisms of script. TJKC: Why did you leave comics those past 15 years? DRUILLET: I stopped comics in 1986 after Salammbô because I couldn’t do it anymore. I was tired and thought I couldn’t invent anything new in that medium. That’s the reason why I launched into computer design and other things. I came back to comics in 1996 to work on Chaos. I felt it was the time. I have suffered a lot, because comics is an extremely hard and difficult art form. I do it the classic way; apart from a few collages or direct color paintings, everything is ink. I am happy now with this book and rather proud of it. We’ll see how it will be accepted. TJKC: How did you work on Chaos? DRUILLET: This one was different from the preceding books. I wanted to find my marks. I began with a very linear script, but without a definitive ending. I completely changed the climax four months ago! I followed a specific mood and let myself be carried along in my own universe to find the frenzy and happiness once more. I had no plan for my work. I didn’t want to be stuck. In the meantime, my stories are so twisted and intricate, with so many personal

Druillet’s version of Nosferatu (1989). 52

episodes in Jim Starlin’s “Warlock” series published in the late Strange Tales issues. DRUILLET: I don’t know anything about that series. TJKC: You worked on the first Star Wars film providing illustrations for George Lucas. Lucas himself wrote the introduction in your 30/30 portfolio. Do you know the man personally? DRUILLET: No, I don’t. We only met twice. I’m not sure he remembers. Nevertheless, he knows comics pretty well. Like Spielberg or Ridley Scott, he is on the lookout for everything new in this medium. As a consequence, I have a total respect for the man and his work. He has used me in the past, like other filmmakers. I discovered the fact a short while ago; cinema has always observed and stolen what it could from comics. At the same time, comics have always eyed cinema too. In Chaos, you’ll find homage to the film Lawrence of Arabia, with Sloane on the train. The character Sham looks like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. I was impressed when I first discovered his convex forehead, like a mask in the dark.

Cinema and comics are parallel roads. Between those two graphic universes depending on images, the link is now computer design. Thanks to this new technology, I am about to begin a new career on a TV series and a new Salammbô film production. Computers will technically associate comics and cinema with the new images—live graphics—they can produce. It is only a question of time. It will be done anyway. That’s the future. It has taken us a Druillet art for Star Wars (1977). long time to come to this new technology, but here we are and that’s extraordinary! TJKC: Some original art of yours surfaced at this year’s comics convention in Paris. DRUILLET: Yes. This art belongs to a lot that was sold in 1973. By chance, one of my friends noticed it and we managed to buy the whole stock. Now, I’m trying to gather everything I can—I’ve got a solid network of hunters! So it finally came back to me. The stock will be divided, but, trust me, I’ll keep the best! I have sold approximately 90% of my production since I began working. The fact is that you can’t see my originals since collectors usually keep them, except for two to three pages a year. TJKC: Do you sell directly? What’s the price for a page? DRUILLET: Yes, that’s my job. I’ve only got 12 pages left from the whole 60 of the Chaos book. I’ve sold everything! I usually photocopy my originals for my personal archives before selling them. Concerning the price, it is beginning to cost money; well, you know, I’m 56 now! It is about $3000-4000 a page. The double splashes may go for up to $5000. TJKC: In retrospect, how do you consider your underground period? DRUILLET: Well, I’m rather proud of it! I like those Vuzz and Nosferatu books. My French editor Hervé Desinge [from Albin

Michel] is a real fan, too. They will reprint Yragael and Urm le Fou next January. He’d also like to reprint my Nosferatu in two colors: silver and black. It’s a really good idea but it’s going to cost money. This is really working for me now, you know? The reprints are already sold out. I’m really grateful to my editor for this success. They did a wonderful job on the covers at Albin Michel. It’s a 50/50 job between the artist and his editor. TJKC: Your graphic novel The Night is to be reprinted by Albin Michel in France. Will your introduction be published as it previously was? DRUILLET: Yes, inevitably. This is the key to the book. The publisher has produced a beautiful new presentation on this book too. Some photographs of my wife were changed, but the preface is the foundation of the book and nobody ever thought of changing it. TJKC: Has your vision on life changed since its writing? DRUILLET: No. It’s still the same motto: “Run for your life!” The fact is, cancer research has improved these past years. My wife was crushed by incompetent fools like thousands of other people in the Seventies. Unfortunately, my story is banal. There were too many others, but I didn’t want to conceal it. I told you I am crazy about the nineteenth-century culture. When a similar drama happened in an artist’s life of those days, he expressed it with a sculpture, a painting, anything. It was a first in comics. I perpetuated this tradition on a new medium for the memory of a woman I have loved and still love. I thought I was acting crazy, that the medium would reject me. Not at all; it’s one of my best sellers. Now, this book has a real cult following with hard-rockers, like the Proton Burst band. I had the courage, the unconsciousness, the passion, the pathetic and loving will to do it, because everything I had built before The Night had been done with her. It’s one of the best sellers in my personal universe and that’s wonderful. ★

(previous page) Layouts for what appears to be an unfinished 1950s Kirby science-fiction story page.

(this page, above and below) From the late 1930s, here are some of Kirby’s earliest (and as far as we know, unused) attempts at a comic strip, using the penname “Jack Curtiss,” and centered around Jack’s boyhood love of sci-fi themes.

A Druillet US Bibliography: The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane (NMB/Dark Horse, 1990) Delirius (NMB/Dark Horse, 1991) Nosferatu (Dark Horse, 1991)

Pulped

The Endless Search For Kirby by Jeff Gelb

(right) Uncanny Stories pulp art by Kirby.

’m always on the lookout for obscure Jack Kirby illos. So when I got to San Diego’s 1999 Comic-Con International, I hit the dealers’ room floor running. Two observations:

• Golden Age Kirby comics are getting harder and harder to find in any shape at a reasonable price. A few years ago I decided to concentrate on S&K romance titles because they were prime examples of Kirby’s maturing storytelling abilities. This year, those titles were nearly nonexistent in San Diego! It appears that collectors (like myself ) are hoarding the comics we own. They sure weren’t in San Diego. • On the other hand, Kirby art continues to show up in the darndest of places. I managed to find a couple of items in San Diego that I wanted to share with Kirby Collector readers. I located the rare Uncanny Stories #1 pulp from April 1941. It’s apparently a Timely publication (though listed as being from “Manvis Publications” of Chicago), because its contents page also advertises Marvel Stories. You’ve seen some of this art in a recent Kirby Collector, but here’s the other illos you may not have seen yet. Kirby spot illos in pulps are an exceedingly

Newly Uncovered Kirby Art by Tom Morehouse ere’s something for all of you hardcore Jack Kirby collectors to search for: National Detective Cases V1#1, published by Universal Crime Stories Inc. of Dunellon, NJ with a cover date of March 1941. The editor of this primarily photoillustrated “True” crime magazine is Robert E. Levee and the art director is none other than Joseph Simon. One of a trio of crime mags (Amazing Detective Cases and Complete Detective Cases being the other two) NDC was yet another Timely publication as evidenced by the indicia address of 330 West 42nd St., NY and the one-year run (beginning with ADC #1, Oct./Nov. 1940—two months into Simon & Kirby’s tenure with Martin Goodman) has proven to be a source of some great artwork by a number of the Timely bullpen members including Joe, Al Avison and, of course, Jack Kirby. I’d known for some time about the Kirby art in Complete Detective #4 (July 1941) and after seeing a house ad for the other two titles I began to seek them out. Altogether, to date, I’ve managed to find about half of them (ADC #6, CDC #1, 2, 3, 4, 6, NDC #1, 3). All three titles apparently were edited by Levee & Simon and all followed pretty much the same format: Spicy, suggestive, “Authentic” Detective stories with

(right) Pulp art by Kirby from National Detective Cases #1 (March 1941).

rare treat; according to the great Jack Kirby Checklist, his art only appeared in three pulps total (the other two being issues of Marvel Stories). Another magazine appearance was in Complete Detective Cases from July 1941, listed as being from Postal Publications of New Jersey. But “Joseph Simon” is listed as art director, so this may also be a Timely magazine, though of a larger size and on

slicker paper than Uncanny Tales. In any case, beneath the cover of a racy (for its time) beauty on a window ledge is a buried treasure: a full-page, beautiful illo from Kirby adorning a “true crime” article called “Pennies from Hell.” [See TJKC #26, page 49.]

titles like “I Was the Blonde Lure,” “Cross Me and You Die,” “Case of the Carnal Clogger,” etc., illustrated by photos, many staged, and an occasional inkwash illustration. This particular issue has two such illos by Jack; the skeletal hand on the title page (26) of “The Enigma of the Genuine Forgery” and the full-page (30) splash of “Mystery of the Bashful Bride-Butcher” (see below). In addition, one of the last pages in the mag has a Kirby cartoon with a buxom beauty (see previous page) who could’ve stepped right off the pages of In The Days of The Mob, as does the contents page photo collage. There’s also a “prototype” page design (left) which both Joe and Jack would use many times in the future. In the staged splash page (34) photo for the story “Sex Marauder and the Parked Car Lovers,” Simon has a large background figure looming menacingly over the landscape/scene (in this case model cars and fake shrubbery). The same month he used a variation on this layout for the first time in comic form on the splash to the Red Skull story in Captain America Comics #1 (shown at left)! Not surprisingly, Joe Simon’s tenure as art director on the Amazing/Complete/National Detective Cases line ends with the departure of the—by then—S&K team to National in 1942, but there’s a whole year of bi-monthly issues of all three titles out there to be explored! Happy hunting! ★

Since it’s getting tougher to find Kirby art in comics I either don’t have or can still afford, it looks like I’ll be spending more of my time at future comic conventions searching out more rare Kirby art of this type—which sounds like fun to me! ★

(above) A signed “devil” drawing from Amazing Detective Cases (June 1941), a month prior to another devil which appeared in the “Pennies from Hell” story in Complete Detective Cases (July 1941), and was reprinted in TJKC #26.

(above) First of nine illos shown here that S&K did for the Nov. 1940 issue of Detective Short Stories, as submitted by Tom Morehouse. Tom feels both Joe and Jack had a hand in this twopager, whereas the others were done individually. (left) Some pure Kirby, from the title page of “Blood Is Where You Find It.” (below) “The Case of the Blushing Butcher” featured this all-Kirby art.

(top row) Art for the stories “A Mortgage on the Morgue” and “Death’s Door,” both by Simon. (second row) “Hang Onto Your Gat” title art by Simon, and “A Little Matter of Murder” art by Kirby. (third row) “The Blonde Will Die Daintily,” art by Simon, and “A CityDick Has to Use Science,” art by Kirby.

SHIELD

Spies, Hydra, Intrigue & Esp A Look At Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, by Mark Alexander ack in Marvel’s glory days when Jack and Stan were kicking around the idea of turning Sgt. Fury into a modern-day secret agent, it’s doubtful they had any greater goal than finding a replacement for the failing “Human Torch” or “Giant-Man.” What they couldn’t have known at the time, was that SHIELD (Fury’s not-entirely-original spyring) would become a perennial Pandora’s box that, once opened, would engulf the entire Marvel Universe, taking root in The Avengers, the FF, “Iron Man,” and practically taking over the “Captain America” series. It’s impossible to imagine the mid-1960s Marvel Comics without the presence of SHIELD; it seemed to be everywhere. In The Avengers, the Black Widow was working for Fury undercover in the Far East, while in New York, Iron Man was battling A.I.M. alongside SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell. Somewhere near Latveria, Fury and Dum-Dum were briefing the FF on Dr. Doom’s latest weaponry. Down in the jungles of South America, Captain America was fighting side-by-side with Agent 13, and somewhere in the midst of all this SHIELD fringe-activity, Fury’s agents were blazing into action in the pages of Strange Tales. It got to be very incestuous indeed. Three-and-one-half “SHIELD” stories drawn by Jack Kirby would not warrant an article of this depth. What does, is the immeasurable impact that Fury’s federation had on Jack and Stan’s 1960s Marvel Universe; and to root out the origins of SHIELD, one must go back to the unique character with whom it all began.

(next page, top) One month before SHIELD’s debut in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), readers got their first glimpse of the “new” Fury (by Don Heck) in Avengers #18 (July 1965). (next page, bottom) Fury faces off with Reed Richards in Sgt. Fury #3 (Sept. 1963), and again “25 years later” in Fantastic Four #84 (March 1969). (below) The character that started it all, Sgt. Nick Fury. (background) Excerpts from Strange Tales letter column, complaining about the declining quality of the Human Torch feature. All characters this article TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

A Conflict Of Creation The genesis of Nick Fury’s origin is, like that of the FF’s, clouded by contrasting claims. In the late 1980s Marvel commissioned author Les Daniels to produce a lavish, oversized book called Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics. In it, Stan Lee claims that Sgt. Fury

and his Howling Commandos was born out of a bet between himself and his uncle, publisher Martin Goodman. In late 1962, Lee told his skeptical uncle that Marvel’s newfound success could be attributed to the fact that he and Jack Kirby had created a new comics style which would work in any genre. To prove it, Stan bet they could score a hit even with an outdated war theme and a “horrible title.” Thus, says Stan, Sgt. Fury was born. Jack Kirby, who also contributed to the Daniels book, never went on record to deny this claim; however, in TJKC #25 John Severin made the following statement: “Jack wanted to know if I’d be interested in syndication. He said we could be partners on a script idea he had. The story would be set in Europe during WWII; the hero would be a tough, cigar-smoking Sergeant with a squad of oddball G.I.s—sort of an adult Boy Commandos.” Unlike the dispute over the FF’s origin, which had Lee and Kirby contradicting each other’s claim of authorship, this is a case where a totally neutral third party (Severin) recalls a conversation that he clearly remembers having with Kirby; furthermore, if you check the cover of Boy’s Ranch #1 (in TJKC #25) you’ll find the exclamation “WAHOO!” above the masthead (this of course, became the Howler’s ferocious battle-cry some thirteen years later). You be the judge.

Passing The Torch Whether Sgt. Fury was born out of Kirby’s fertile imagination or born out of a bet between Stan and his uncle is uncertain; what we do know is that “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” was born out of necessity. By mid-1965, the Marvel publication Strange Tales was clearly in trouble. Dr. Strange, who starred in the backup strip, was alive and well; Marvel’s “Master of the Mystic Arts” was an odd and wondrous Lee-Ditko character who traveled through weird dimensions and even the realm of sleep to battle dark, evil lords like Nightmare and The Dread Dormammu. Ditko’s hallucinatory landscapes stole the show, and the stories, although short, were tightly plotted, eerie and downright disturbing. It was arguably Marvel’s most underrated strip. On the other hand, “The Human Torch” series, which claimed the lion’s share of the magazine, had taken a decidedly downward spiral. Right from the start, even with Jack and Stan at the helm, the book seemed like (and was) a second-rate FF spin-off. The Torch and his sister Sue were inexplicably disconnected from the Marvel Universe continuity. They lived a quiet suburban life (in Glendale) apart from Reed and Ben, and maintained secret identities, even though they were known to the world in the Fantastic Four. It made no sense. The stories consisted of colorless battles with one-dimensional foes such as Plant-Man, The Beetle, and (my favorite) Paste-Pot Pete. By today’s standards, these villains would be imbecilic; back then, they were just plain bad. [Note: To Kirby’s credit, he was able to take the worst of the lot, “Paste-Pot Pete,” give him a complete make-over, and voilá, The Trapster, a respectable antagonist, was born.] In any event, even the indefatigable Lee and Kirby, who were enjoying a hot streak unparalleled in

comics history, could barely concoct any worthwhile “Human Torch” stories. Of the ten issues they collaborated on (along with Larry Lieber) only a few, in my opinion, were noteworthy (see ST Annual #2, ST #114 and ST #120). Predictably, as 58

pionage in a Lengthy Dissertation Fury and his Howling Commandos was only four issues old, a modern-day Nick Fury made his debut in FF #21 as a Colonel in the C.I.A. The “Official History of the Marvel Universe” claims that Fury was promoted from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant in Korea, and was later booted up to Colonel after spying for France in Vietnam in the 1950s. [Note: None of this pseudo-biographical information was conceived by Kirby himself.] The story didn’t amount to much; Fury teams up with the FF (having met Reed in Sgt. Fury #3) to defeat a hooded rabblerouser called the Hate Monger, who turned out to be Adolf Hitler. This issue was basically a stepping stone used by Kirby and Lee to move Fury into a more topical context; however, at this juncture (cover date December 1963) it’s unlikely the writers knew what to do with the Colonel, and so for the next twenty months, the modern day Nick Fury would lie fallow.

SHIELD, and it featured yet another SHIELD subplot. All in all, it was a very clever and subliminal way to usher SHIELD in through the back door; more important, it would sow the seeds of an ever-evolving Avengers/Cap/ SHIELD triangulation that would soon spill over into other Marvel titles as well; and finally, the stage was set for the coming of SHIELD.

The Man From S.H.I.E.L.D.! “I was intrigued by the idea of having two magazines featuring Nick Fury, one dealing with his exploits during World War II and the other bringing him up to the present—but doing what?”—Stan Lee.

The Avengers Connection

Around the same time that Strange Tales readers were writing to decry “The Human Torch” series, Marvel was getting mail from Sgt. Fury fans asking what had become of Colonel Nick Fury after his appearance in FF #21 (above). At this point, it’s easy to imagine a light bulb flashing on in Stan’s head; but before the story gets ahead of itself, let’s rewind to mid-1963: Stan Lee had always been fond of the old Atlas/Timely super-heroes; he loved bringing them back to the present day (mainly to get some more mileage out of them) and why not? Linking Marvel’s past and present was one more way of showing that the Marvel super-heroes all co-existed in one consistent and unified “Marvel Universe.” They’d already brought back 1940s stalwarts like Sub-Mariner, The Human Torch and Captain America, so why not resurrect their own WWII-era hero, the crusty, cigarchomping Nick Fury? It didn’t take long; when Sgt.

Like most of Marvel’s 1960s angst-ridden characters (whom the New York Herald-Tribune dubbed “super-heroes with super-problems”) Cap had been battling some considerable demons; he blamed himself for Bucky’s death, and considered himself a “frustrated anachronism,” stuck in a world where he didn’t belong. Besides this, Cap had no income; he loathed living in Avengers HQ with Tony Stark footing the bills (hey, isn’t that what they call a “perk”?) and he sought to gain independence by moonlighting for Fury. Three months later in Avengers #18 (July 1965) Cap refers to the letter he’d written to Fury, and for the first time ever, we see the “new” Nick Fury, dressed incongruously in a suit and tie, wearing an eyepatch (later we’d learn that in World War II, a grenade blast damaged the optic nerve in his left eye, which resulted in a gradual loss of vision, as seen in Sgt. Fury #27). The next issue of The Avengers (#19 Aug. 1965) would coincide with the premiere of

Fury Comes Of Age: The FF Connection

Fast forward to early 1965: At some point after FF #21, Jack and Stan developed the concept of Nick Fury as a super-spy, and in a very canny move they laid the groundwork for “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” in two separate issues of The Avengers which pre-dated SHIELD’s debut in Strange Tales #135. First, in Avengers #15 (April 1965) Captain America wrote an “important letter” to Col. Nick Fury (whom he’d first met in Sgt. Fury #13); it read:

The answer came from television, where The Man from U.N.C.L.E. had premiered the previous Fall. The hit TV series featuring Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin was capitalizing on the immense popularity of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels and the movies based on them, which starred Sean Connery as Agent 007. In 1965, the entire western world seemed infatuated with espionage, and Bond’s imitators were everywhere: Our Man Flint, Secret Agent, The Wild, Wild West and The Saint were just a few; The Man from U.N.C.L.E. however, seems to be the premise which Jack and Stan patterned SHIELD after. Both agencies had acronymic names, which (unlike the F.B.I. or C.I.A.) just happened to spell a tangible noun. U.N.C.L.E. meant United Network Command for Law Enforcement, and S.H.I.E.L.D. stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division (well, except for “enforcement” it almost worked). Both agencies assigned numbers to their operatives (Napoleon was number 11, Sharon Carter was Agent 13) and both teams were engaged in perpetual combat against a vast, international terrorism cabal. U.N.C.L.E. battled T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity) while SHIELD was pitted against a fearsome fascist enclave known as HYDRA, which mercifully, wasn’t 59

soon as Kirby pulled out, the series sank like a stone; the stories were dully written (by Stan) and weakly drawn by a succession of lesser artists. In an effort to boost sagging sales, the Thing was brought in as a regular (ST #123) and the Beatles were brought in as guest-stars (ST #130) but neither could help. In the midst of Marvel’s potent, revolutionary new comic titles, “The Human Torch” series (along with “Giant-Man” in Tales to Astonish) stood out like a sore thumb. Marvelites everywhere were writing to say how bad the book had become, and the axe was about to fall.

an acronym for anything. After that the similarities end; Fury, a cantankerous, rough-hewn loudmouth (who always dropped his Gs when speakin’) was the Man from U.N.C.L.E. on steroids; he gave the series a blue-collar New York feel that made a contrasting counterpoint to James Bond and Napoleon Solo’s world of baccarat, martinis, and exotic women. The supporting cast, ex-Howlers Dum-Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones (who were recruited in ST #137) reinforced the idea that SHIELD was spearheaded by grizzled World War II vets; there would be no pencil-necked, tuxedo wearin’ Nancy-boys with names like “Illya” in Fury’s outfit—not on Kirby’s shift! Best of all, the series gave Jack license to create an entire arsenal of hightech miracles that 1960s TV couldn’t possibly compete with: Life Model Decoys; flying sports cars; the gigantic, airborne “heli-carrier HQ”; E.S.P. amplifiers; “Jericho” tubes, and countless more. The fact that Jack would do the book’s layouts for the next eighteen months insured that a cavalcade of Kirbyesque technological marvels would appear with each new issue.

The Tony Stark Connection All of SHIELD’s absurdist technopop arsenal was designed by millionaire-playboy Anthony Stark, the debonair arms-inventor (otherwise know as Iron Man) who spearheaded SHIELD’s special weaponry division. It was Stark who recruited Fury to take over the SHIELD organization, and in the “SHIELD” series, Stark is given a major role as himself, sans his armor-clad alter ego. In the event of Fury’s absence, Stark would take command of SHIELD, and even in these high-profile episodes, no references were made to Iron Man. The explicit SHIELDStark connection, along with the Fury-Captain America tie-in, would bind Marvel’s world closer together than ever before. Continuity and common threads were beginning to appear everywhere.

The Captain America Connection In 1966 when Jack Kirby came back to draw “Captain America” in Tales of Suspense, he brought Nick Fury and SHIELD with him. Almost overnight, Cap’s adventures became irrevocably entwined with 60

SHIELD to a point where Strange Tales and Tales of Suspense seemed like sister publications. This wasn’t a fluke; during Kirby’s nine-month hiatus from “Captain America” (i.e. layouts only) the series had taken a nose-dive with lesser artists and an outdated World War II backdrop. The book was clearly in trouble, so beginning with issue #78 (June 1966) Jack and Stan set out to inject new life into “Captain America” by changing the entire tone of the series, and revamping it as a virtual SHIELD spin-off. In Kirby’s comeback issue, Cap reunites with Fury, whom he hadn’t seen since the war, and a new menace called “THEM” is introduced. (“THEM” would change to “A.I.M.” in the next issue, continuity be damned.) Fury gives Cap an “A-1 Priority” badge, making him a de facto SHIELD agent, and from this point on (in TOS anyway) Cap would be more connected to SHIELD than to the Avengers. Thus, the seeds sown back in Avengers #15 had finally come to fruition; from here on, almost every Kirby-drawn Captain America story (until Jack left Marvel) would have a SHIELD connection, with very few exceptions. Another major Cap-SHIELD tie-in was the introduction of Sharon Carter, Agent 13, in TOS #75. Carter, as it turned out, was the younger sister of a woman with whom Steve Rogers fell in love during World War II. “Agent 13” (shown below) soon became Cap’s beautiful, butt-kickin’ battle companion, fighting alongside him every step of the way and (mercifully) replacing Cap’s outmoded “teenage sidekicks” Bucky Barnes and Rick Jones. Unlike the stereotypical Stan Lee female, Carter’s devotion to duty came first, and her relationship with Rogers often times suffered as a result.

man for Hydra, and when Cap wasn’t squaring off with the armies of A.I.M., he was busy battling one of their insidious innovations like Modok. It all worked. Captain America, affiliate of SHIELD, was far and away more in tune with Marvel’s hip young audience than the Captain America of WWII could ever hope to be. Once rid of the embarrassing teen cohorts and anachronistic 1940s image, the “Captain America” series gained a whole new lease on life; and who better to serve SHIELD than the man whose shield had always served him, in the never-ending war against tyranny? Cap was back, SHIELD was supreme, and King Kirby was on the move!

The Kirby Issues: Strange Tales #135 & #141-143 Lest we forget that SHIELD’s adventures were also seen in Strange Tales, let’s examine the issues that Jack drew:

With Jack’s return to the series, Cap’s antagonists both old and new, suddenly became inextricably linked to the enemies of SHIELD. The Red Skull’s “cosmic cube” was developed by A.I.M., as was the Adaptoid/Super-Adaptoid. Kirby’s spin on Batroc had the felonious Frenchman working as a hench-

During his Silver Age tenure at Marvel, Kirby always did superlative work on premiere issues, and Strange Tales #135 (“The Man for the Job,” Aug. 1965) was no exception. First, the Kirby-Ayers art is exceptional. At some point in 1964, Dick Ayers began to streamline his inking style; he subdued his thickly-brushed “holding-lines” and adopted a clearer,

thin-line technique. This new look, when applied to Kirby’s pencils, would yield beautiful results (see Sgt. Fury #13 and Tales To Astonish #82-83). It’s unfortunate that Ayers was too busy at this point to ink more of Jack’s work. Along with superb art, SHIELD’s debut issue offers a veritable whirlwind of ideas and concepts thrown at the reader in a mere twelve pages: L.M.D.s, the flying Porsche, Hydra and the gigantic heli-carrier (as seen in a great full-page spread) are all introduced. Tony Stark, who would become the brain behind Fury’s brawn, invites the Colonel to become SHIELD’s director/powerhouse operative, and the series is off with a bang. Fast-forward six months: Occasionally, when one of Marvel’s non-Kirby titles was losing focus (i.e. sales) Stan would turn the book over to Jack for a few issues to show the resident or incoming artist how to pace a story via the “Marvel method” (i.e. the Kirby

method). “Giant-Man” and “The Hulk” were both recipients of this treatment (in TTA #49-51 and #68-70) and “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” was given the obligatory three-issue “Kirby fix” as well, in issues #141-143. In these superb stories, we see the end of Hydra (for a while, anyway) and the introduction of two great villains, The Fixer and Mentallo. In ST #143, Kirby drew the first three pages, then Howard Purcell finished the book, penciling over Jack’s layouts.

Fortunately, the last page the King ever drew for “SHIELD” (discounting unpublished work) was a great full-pager with Tony Stark leading SHIELD into battle while high atop a gigantic Kirby “neutralizer.” It was a great parting shot. [Note: ST #141 featured inks by Frank “Ray” Giacoia, while issues #142 and #143 were delineated by Mike “Mickey Demeo” Esposito.]

(previous page, top) Fury teams up with Steve Rogers in Sgt. Fury #13 (Dec. ’64), and again two decades later in Tales of Suspense #78 (June ’66). (previous page, left) Tony Stark (who never became Iron Man in the “SHIELD” series) rides a Kirby neutralizer in ST #143 (April 1966).

(top) The flying sports car: Even James Bond’s “Q” would have been impressed! (above) The massive flying “Heli-Carrier H.Q.”, SHIELD’s airborne version of the Pentagon. From ST #135 (Aug. ’65). (left) Cover art to Strange Tales #142 (March ’66), inked by Mike Esposito.

The Enemies of Nick Fury (The Kirby Connection) Jack Kirby was a man who had been to hell and had somehow lived to tell about it. As an advance scout for the Army in World War II, he had one of the most dangerous jobs in the war. It’s unthinkable to imagine what would have happened to Kirby (a Jew) had the Nazis captured him. It was an experience that baby-boomers who grew up reading his books couldn’t even imagine. There’s a theoretical viewpoint (expounded in TJKC #24) that claims Jack Kirby based the character Nick Fury on himself, circa WWII (both have similar names, habits, and physical features; both served in the E.T.O.). If that’s true, then it’s not much of a leap to guess on whom the enemies of Nick Fury (i.e. Jack Kirby) were based. The hordes of the Hate-Monger were most likely inspired by the hooded, Hebrew-hating Ku Klux Klan, whose Aryan-supremacist and anti-Semitic rantings were old hat to Kirby. It was the same wretched rhetoric spouted by Adolf Hitler to whip his brainwashed followers into a frenzy at Nazi rallies. The ending of FF #21 (where the Hate-Monger is unmasked as Hitler) used to strike me as being trite. I realize now it was purely symbolic: Jack and Stan were saying if hate coalitions which preach racial and religious intolerance are allowed to go unchecked, then the legacy of the Third Reich might once again rear its hideous head, and through these maladjusted minions, the spirit of Adolf Hitler lives on. Unlike the low-brow rabble-rousers of the Hate-Monger, the armies of A.I.M. were a faceless, fascist fraternity of super-scientists whose volatile experiments in genetics and techno-terrorism threatened to destroy the entire planet. Kirby was a visionary; he foresaw a future where sciencegone-mad would wreak unspeakable havoc, and he wrote many stories employing this theme (e.g. the “cosmic cube”). In today’s world where war-crazed Mid-East monarchs tamper with nuclear weapons and chemical/biological warfare, the specter of A.I.M. and subjugation-throughscience looms large indeed. The hosts of Hydra, on the other hand, had a decidedly more imperialistic bent as opposed to A.I.M.’s sinisterscience worldview. There can be little doubt what inspired this hideous horde, or what it represented to Kirby, with its master-race mentality and cult-like worship of its leader, the “Supreme Hydra.” Even their odious oath (“Hail Hydra!

Immortal Hydra! We shall never be destroyed! Cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place!”) was sickeningly similar to another mindless mantra mouthed by the misguided minions of Nazi Germany, twenty-five years earlier. “Hail Hydra” was synonymous with “Heil Hitler,” and Hydra was, in fact, the Third Reich revisited. Jim Steranko (Kirby’s successor to the series) clearly realized this when he unmasked the leader of Hydra as Baron Strucker, Nick’s nefarious Nazi-nemesis from WWII. When pitted in battle against any or all of these loathsome legions, Fury found his situation hadn’t changed since the 1940s. Once again he was fighting a war, and it mattered little if his adversaries wore purple hoods, yellow jumpsuits, or green robes: Underneath them all, you’d find a swastika, and wherever they appeared, Fury would be there, charging into battle with torn shirt, gun in hand, and cigar clamped in his teeth. He’d scout ’em out, then call for reinforcements to mop ’em up, just as his alter ego Kirby had done back in the 1940s. As Jack told his biographer: “You did this sort of thing without asking questions—there was no choice; it was my duty.” Those would have been Nick Fury’s sentiments exactly.

The Twilight of Nick Fury, A.O.S: As a series, “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” has certainly had its ups and downs. Following Kirby’s premiere issue, John Severin tried his hand at pencils over Kirby layouts, then left after only three installments. At that point, the book became a virtual revolving door for any artist who wanted a job: Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, Howard Purcell, Ogden Whitney, Don Heck, Frank Springer, Barry Smith, and Herb Trimpe all gave

(previous page) Kirby’s pencils (to be inked by Frank “Ray” Giacoia) for Strange Tales #141, page 6 (Feb. 1966). (above) Splash page to ST #142 (March 1966, inks by Mike Esposito). (left) Splash page from Strange Tales #136 (Sept. ’65); note how the Kirby look comes through even though Jack only did the layouts for this issue, for John Severin to finish. This splash was shown in a two-page “Public Service Announcement” in Sgt. Fury Annual #1 (1965), which plugged the new SHIELD series for fans of Fury’s WWII adventures.

“SHIELD” a shot (usually a one-shot) during Marvel’s Silver Age. John Buscema’s first Marvel assignment was, in fact, ST #150, where he tried to draw over Kirby’s layouts with disastrous results. According to Big John, “it came out pathetic.” Buscema lasted one issue, and then from out of nowhere (i.e. Harvey Comics) came a young artist with a wildly diverse background: He’d been an escape artist, a carnival barker, a stage magician, a rock musician, and an advertising artist. His name was Jim Steranko, and once he settled in on “SHIELD,” the book exploded beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. Steranko introduced bold innovations in style, layout and design. A master of cinematic staging and montage (check out the four page spread in Strange Tales #167), he employed flashy graphics

and disorienting op-art effects never before seen in comics. His unusual panel arrangements created optical illusions and played tricks with both time and space. Still in his twenties, Steranko had training in modern graphics that no older comics artist had. He drew inspiration from hip New York design trends, pop-art, and the psychedelic fashions of the moment. You couldn’t take your eyes off his work. Best of all, there was plenty of Kirby influence in his art, but the design was pure Steranko. He soon took over the plotting, scripting, and even coloring of his books, resulting in a run of “SHIELD” stories that remain unsurpassed to this day. True to his unpredictable nature Steranko hung around just long enough to produce a couple of dozen masterpieces, then left comics altogether, leaving no imitators in his wake (indeed, he was so far ahead of his field that it would be years before his influence began to infiltrate the work of future artists like Paul Gulacy). [Note: While corresponding with me about this article, Mike Gartland raised an interesting point. It’s curious that Steranko was given a writing credit on “NFAOS” within two months of his Marvel

tenure (making him the first Marvel Silver Age artist to do so) while Kirby and Ditko, who had asked repeatedly, were denied this opportunity until much later (see sidebar).] During Jim Steranko’s tenure (cover date June 1968) “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” got its own title, but soon after Steranko left, it floundered, and finally folded after eighteen issues. Nick Fury, as head of SHIELD, has starred in several series over the years, but none have lasted very long. Today’s readers just aren’t as interested in espionage as they were during the James Bond craze of the 1960s, and subsequent writers have yet to succeed in recapturing the energy and flair that Kirby, Lee, and Steranko gave the series. Moreover, Fury’s WWII roots have posed a definite problem. With each passing decade, it became harder to explain how a 1940s vet could indulge in violent physical action, so at some point, Marvel “solved” this dilemma by declaring that after the war scientists had subjected Fury to an “infinity formula” which has retarded his aging ever since. At one point, Fury decided to “clean house” at SHIELD, and in the process he discovered so much corruption that he ultimately disbanded the entire organization.

Soon after, he was again recruited to operate a smaller, more autonomous version of SHIELD, which then became an acronym for Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate (a.k.a. “the world’s top multinational intelligence agency”). In 1995, the Colonel was supposedly shot dead by The Punisher, but Fury, who has made a career of thwarting death, has since resurfaced. In the final analysis, Nick Fury is a survivor, and as long as there’s a Marvel Universe it’s a safe bet that Fury will be around, cantankerous as ever, wearing ripped-shirts and droppin’ his Gs. Best of all (as those who read this magazine know) every time the Colonel lights a cigar, it’s an idiosyncrasy of the man who created him all those years ago, and through Nick Fury, Jack Kirby lives on. ★

AUTHOR’S ADDENDUM: I’d like to thank my favorite TJKC writer, Mike Gartland, for his support and encouragement of this article, and thanks to Paula “Magic-fingers” Ruffini, who can type faster than I can read. And to Phyllis Chappell for proofreading and final corrections.

(previous page, left) Captain America #104 (Aug. 1968): Steranko is called in to re-draw Fury’s face over Kirby’s pencils, for consistency’s sake, just as Wood and Romita had done in FF #39 and FF #61, respectively. (previous page, center) Page 2 from Strange Tales #142 (March 1966) with Esposito inks. (previous page, bottom left) In the mid-1960s, SHIELD was everywhere: Somewhere near Latveria, Fury and Dugan brief the FF on Dr. Doom’s latest licentiousness, in FF #84 (March 1969). Ironically, Kirby fully penciled Nick Fury more times in the “Captain America” series than he did in “NFAOS.” (previous page, bottom) The indefatigable Jasper Sitwell: This over-eager, Ivy Leaguer SHIELD agent (clearly based on Dudley Do-Right) was created by Kirby, via layouts and margin notes, even though Jack never actually drew him. (above) A veritable Marvel milestone occurred in Sept. 1966 (cover date) when Stan Lee went on vacation, leaving King Kirby to script (and lay out) the “SHIELD” story in ST #148. The result was Jack’s first Silver Age writing credit. As the 9/66 “Bullpen Bulletin” gushed, “you’ll be amazed at learning that the King’s writing style has the same power as his spellbinding artwork!” With that said, it would be fourteen months before Jack would be granted another writing credit in FF Annual #5 (Nov. 1967, “This is a Plot?”, a threepage Not Brand Echh-style Bullpen parody). These two stories, along with four “Inhumans” scripts from Amazing Adventures #1-4 (Aug. 1970-Jan. 1971) and Chamber of Darkness #4-5 (April-June 1970) would comprise Kirby’s entire Silver Age Marvel writing canon. (left) Despite what Big John Buscema thought of this work, his pencils over Kirby’s layouts in Strange Tales #150 (Nov. 1966) were a welcome improvement over a lot of the previous issues. 65

Collaborators

Simon Says

A brief encounter with Kirby’s partner and Captain America’s dad, by Adam McGovern

(top right) A recent photo of Joe Simon.

(right) In 1979, at the request of fan Peter L. Myer (who was trying to track down all the unpublished/ unfinished Boy Explorers stories), Jack drew this cover, which is very reminiscent of the cover of StarSpangled Comics #61 (Oct. 1946, shown above). Boy Explorers ©2002 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Star Spangled Comics, Newsboy Legion, Guardian TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

oe Simon isn’t just the man acknowledged by many as the creator of Captain America—he’s one of the George Washingtons of the whole comics industry. Starting out as one-half of the legendary Simon & Kirby team with this magazine’s namesake, Simon collaborated in the creation, art and writing of some of the most successful and enduring characters and genres in the medium’s history. These included Cap, the wartime number-one-seller Boy Commandos, and the entire “kid gang,” horror comics, and romance comics forms—not to mention comics’ first character revamps, of Manhunter and Sandman, a practice which led to renowned later reinventions of those same series by other hands, and became a cornerstone of the industry. After an amicable mid-century split, Simon solo went on to create the unacknowledged prototype for Spider-Man, and hippie-era heroes—such as Brother Power, the Geek and Prez, America’s First Teen President—which remain touchstones of contemporary comics’ eccentric indie spirit. Simon has soldiered on as a comics historian and standard-bearer for creators’ rights, culminating in his greatest real-life battle: a dispute to wrest the copyright for Captain America from Marvel Comics. The basic claim is that, in the murky prehistory of modern-day copyright law and the infancy of the comics industry, Simon only leased the rights for the character to a company he didn’t work for as anything other than an outside contractor. In a similar suit by Blade creator Marv Wolfman, Marvel won with about as few producible documents as it’s got in Simon’s case, but the might of a corporate giant isn’t the only uphill struggle Simon faces—there’s also the ambivalence of many fans, who

have long understood the Captain to be a Simon & Kirby co-creation. Nonetheless, the fight rages on, through tragedies both memorial and current. Either Simon or Marvel was expected to recapture the copyright by the auspicious date of December 7, 2001, but at press time the legal action remained unsettled—and clearly, the unspeakable events of September 11 weakened neither side’s resolve in this squabble over an American icon; indeed, Simon sees his cause in the light of the liberties at stake. When I asked what kind of hero he would envision to embody the times we live in, after his resonant run of wartime

archetypes like Cap and counterculture personifications like Prez, Simon replied “a comic book creator who owns his creation—some comic book creators who fight for their rights.” Asked how recent events might have affected his adversaries’ attitude, Simon said, “I can’t speak for Marvel. Who is Marvel today?” He had a point, and is far from the first to make it. Marvel’s corporate brass, as distinct from their current creative leadership (who are, in my and many others’ opinion, bringing out the company’s best work in decades), seem to be an elusive bunch—Wolfman claims to have brought the editors a series concept they loved, but couldn’t use due to an edict against hiring Marvel’s courtroom foe handed down from unidentified offices on high. Still, if Simon couldn’t speak for Marvel, in some ways he couldn’t speak for Simon, either—the court case’s unexpected overtime had his lawyer advising silence on the subject. Instead, apologizing for his terseness, Simon faxed me some summary answers to a range of questions, and if I didn’t initially benefit from his full treasure-trove of historical knowledge, I was treated first-hand to his definitive comics-scripter’s concision. In answer to my question of whether Kirby’s oft-stated crediting of a third party for creation of the villainous Red Skull (another character at issue in the lawsuit) weakened Simon’s case or

should just be chalked up to the King’s famously faulty memory, Simon simply triple-underlined “famously faulty memory”—a razor-sharp visual storyteller to the end. Less-is-more was a guiding principle throughout our once-removed exchange; when asked about the S&K team’s presciently minimal super-hero costumes and Cap’s own uncharacteristically busy but impressively cohesive garb, all of which seemed to react against the pop conventions of the day but ended up towering over them, Simon countered, “I look at some of those costumes now and see the flaws—most were too detailed.” Regarding the perennial inspiration of movies upon S&K’s and Simon’s own work—from the Dead End Kids prototype for kid gangs like the Newsboy Legion to the Wild in the Streets variation that was Prez— and whether films still influenced Simon, he answered, “No—I am appalled by all those special effects and computer arts. I love the old animation.” Fair enough; Simon’s been responsible for more than his share of pyrotechnics on the plain printed page. His pithy approach was epitomized in a seemingly offhand remark which actually embodied the eightysomething powerhouse’s philosophy of self-reliance

(above) Final page from one of the S&K stories in Captain 3-D #1 (Dec. 1953) sans 3-D effect. This was scanned from the original art, which consisted of six layers of acetate, each with different parts of the art on them. Captain 3-D ©2002 Harvey Comics.

(this page) Unfinished Kirby crime (top) and romance (bottom) covers from the 1950s. © respective copyright holder.

(next page, bottom) This text page illo from All-Winners #2 (Fall 1942) may be the only time Kirby, in the Golden Age (and Simon?) illustrated these five Timely favorites together. (The text piece that accompanied it was written by a young Stan Lee, and that issue also features the last of the stillunreprinted S&K Captain America stories.) All characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

and forward motion. Noting how frequently his work has concerned itself with youth, from his kid-gang and counterculture protagonists to his recent collaborations with his son Jim, I asked Simon what he feels the older and younger generations owe each other. “Like, a ham sandwich” was his only reply. Daring to attempt a second act after a punchline like that, I took Simon up on his offer to flesh out some points by phone. He was generous with his time and unsparing in his criticism where he feels it’s due. Interested in knowing who-all has supported his case, I noted the honor roll of writers’ unions and professional organizations which have signed a “friend of the court” brief in his behalf (and you can read the full statement at Simon’s website, www.simoncomics.com), including the Authors Guild, Inc.; the American Society of Journalists and Authors; the National Writers Union; Novelists Inc.; the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association; the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators; and the Text and Academic Authors Association. “So where are the comic book

people?” he asked. “And where’s the Cartoonists Association?” This point made me inquire who else had come forward in Simon’s defense. “It’s not my defense, it’s their defense also,” he replied. “It’s their fight. We really appreciate [the other organizations’ statement], but I’m still waiting for the comics people to stand up for their rights, and back us a little bit; but,” he concluded with a rueful laugh, “I guess all their fight is in the comic books.” Another matter on which I’d hoped for this witness to history to expand was one he’d modestly skimmed over in our electronic exchange. I’d wondered if Simon saw his career as entertainment or art, and if he felt the two even had to be distinguished. He’d only jotted, “It was a living,” but clearly it was more than that to him; in some public statements on his case he’s referred to Captain America almost as one would a son. With further noodging he allowed, “Now it seems to be more than that, but in those days that’s all it was. I’m very proud, as I look back on it now, of what we all did—not just myself, all the comic book makers [the affectionate title of Simon’s memoir of the era]. It’s really a terrific body of work; we had some great tales there, [though] I didn’t think so while we were doing it—but now that I look back I think [the comic form has] really reached a peak in American art and literature that very few

other areas have achieved—and we did it for a living; we never really achieved any financial rewards [equal to other entertainment media]. If you look back 60 years, and see how many creators own any part of their creation, you can do it on one hand. That’s really a sin.” However, at the time of our interviews, some of Simon’s past disappointments were poised to become near-future glories. In addition to an updated edition of The Comic Book Makers, Simon was close to sealing a book deal (though not quite close enough to divulge a publisher; keep watching these pages) for a several-volume Simon & Kirby library along the lines of DC’s lavish Spirit Archives— including long-sought S&K rarities like the lost Stuntman stories, some only finished by Simon for this set. That series, one of the team’s most ambitious and endearing, was also one of its least seen; though Simon considers it Kirby’s best work with him, it coincided with an industry slump which Simon recalls with his usual wry spin: “We really had time to work on the stuff because there was no work around!” The work he did Vanguard will be publishing a revised edition of do is something he’s Simon’s long out of print, autobiographical, eyecome to see the value witness account of the history of the comics, of, and is trying to The Comic Book Makers, scheduled for a Spring convince comics’ 2002 release. corporate goliaths of as well. “I think they’ve held up very well,” Simon says of the stories he, Kirby and their contemporaries created. “The art [quality] was a matter of pride, but we were just trying to make a dollar for our families—and a few million for the publishers.” This conclusion, delivered with a sly smile, is characteristic of a fighter who puts humor before bitterness. Though Simon’s contrast of his current fight to those in comic books was true in more ways than he might have intended, the Captain America case is more ambiguous than most of the struggles the character himself would face. The events at issue are long past, and fragmentarily documented. The claims made by the creator are disputed (Kirby fans might bristle at a Simon-only credit on Cap the way Bill Finger fans do at Bob Kane’s sole credit for Batman), while the moral authority of the corporation is shaky (Marvel’s chief rival DC gave Kirby credit and percentages late in his life and suffered no impediment to its industry supremacy). Even the combatants’ roles and contentions are shaded in gray—Marvel’s corporate hierarchy undermines its credibility while its creative staff advances the artform; Simon protests for the rights of all comic creators to own what they make, while many creators concur in their hatred of work-forhire but pursue outlets at indie companies and write off trying to reform the majors, where they also work. The one thing I was sure about from my encounter with Joe

Where The Simon Suit Stands As compiled from various news reports On December 6, 1999, Joe Simon notified Marvel Comics of his intention to reclaim the Captain America copyright—shortly after Jerry Siegel’s heirs had done so with DC Comics over his co-creation Superman. The precedent for this was a 1978 revision to US copyright law, which says that once a work’s original 56-year copyright (consisting of two 28-year terms) expires, the creator or his estate has five years to reclaim the copyright. Copyright law also says that a creator is not entitled to his creation if he did it as “work for hire”—meaning, if Simon came up with Captain America while he was working for Marvel (then Timely) Comics, it belongs to Marvel forever. In response to Simon’s notice, Marvel filed suit against Simon, claiming exactly that. (According to Simon, Marvel never offered to negotiate a settlement.) Simon claims to have created Captain America by himself while working as a freelancer for Timely. (Around that time, Simon was also a staff editor at Victor Fox Publications.) Simon claims he took his original Cap character sketch to Timely publisher Martin Goodman unsolicited, and Goodman agreed to publish it. Simon has tried before to recapture Captain America’s copyright: In 1966 and 1967, he filed suits in New York courts when the first 28-year term of copyright was expiring, claiming sole authorship of Captain America. He asked the court to rule that he alone had the right to renew the copyright, and that he was entitled to royalties from Marvel’s use of his character. After three years of legal wrangling from both sides, on November 20, 1969, Simon settled with Marvel by signing an agreement, for which he received a $7500 payment in return. In the 1969 settlement, Simon both assigned his rights to the Captain America copyrights over to Marvel, and agreed that he was an employee-for-hire at Marvel when he created the character. Marvel’s attorneys see that document as proof Simon has no claim to the copyright, but Simon’s attorney Ross Charap sees things differently. “You can’t be an employee for hire, and have any rights to assign to anybody,” Charap said, “So, the settlement agreement contradicts itself.” Marvel is claiming that the 1969 agreement with Simon settles the issue, and that he has no right to file this litigation, but the extended copyright renewal terms—as well as the creator’s right to reclaim copyright—didn’t exist until 1978, so that gives Simon’s side some legal leverage. Simon’s lawyer is also counting on the fact that the 1969 agreement wasn’t a court ruling, so may not be binding. Marvel is also claiming Simon intentionally waited until both Kirby and Martin Goodman were dead, so he’d be the only living witness, but Simon claims he simply never considered this action until news of the Jerry Siegel/Superman case broke a few years ago. The transfer of copyright was supposed to occur on December 7, 2001, but the case is currently in legal limbo, awaiting a ruling from a New York court. We’d hoped to have a more extensive interview about the case with Simon this issue, but until the matter is settled, Simon didn’t feel he should comment on the case. We hope to have more with Joe once everything is settled. ★

Simon and my knowledge of his long and fruitful career was that he is a friendly, formidable man of deep creativity and generous wit, who has made indelible contributions to the pop culture that helped form my personal outlook and our national character. And, though vegetarian I may be, he can collect his ham sandwich from me anytime. ★ 69

EXTRA!

Big Game Hunter!

Here’s a previously unknown 1950s concept for a book called Big Game Hunter. As you can see from the art on the next three pages, each issue would feature realistic adventures with well-researched information and tips on dealing with wildlife. This is just one of numerous unrealized projects Jack was involved with in the 1950s; as if his published page count wasn’t staggering enough, the existence of these types of previously unseen books makes his life’s output even more phenomenal.

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Imagine my surprise when The Jack Kirby Collector appeared on one of my favorite television shows, Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood (CBS) recently. The 90-minute nationally-broadcast news magazine does a regular feature on writers titled “In Their Own Words.” The subject on this particular occasion, broadcast on January 13, was writer Michael Chabon. It was Chabon’s love of comics that led him to write The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay which won him, at age 37, the 2001 Pulitzer Prize. At one point in the 10-minute Sunday Morning segment Chabon is shown with his son at a comic book convention looking at a copy of The Jack Kirby Collector #31 (the first oversize issue with Superman on the cover). I expect that the staff at TJKC was aware of this Sunday Morning broadcast. The Chabon segment may be rebroadcast this summer. I was very pleased that TJKC was featured along side the work of a major Pulitzer Prize-winning author. I’m glad to see TJKC is getting the recognition it so richly deserves; it has earned it many times over. Leo Pando, China, Maine (Actually, we didn’t hear about this until the week after it aired. If anyone has a copy of the tape they can send, we’d love to see it!) 76

I have to admit I’ve had some lingering doubts about TJKC this past year. I feared that the “TwoMorrows Expansion” (i.e. a dozen new fanzines and trade paperbacks) would ultimately diminish the quality of TJKC, your flagship magazine. I also thought that the “big” book would prove to be less bang for more bucks, and that Kirby’s most significant penciled pages had already seen the light of day. I was staggeringly wrong on all accounts. TJKC #33 absolutely floored me. It topped issues #22 and #26, which I predicted could never be surpassed, and we should all be fervently grateful to the Kirby Estate for supplying the plethora of FF penciled pages (the two from FF #44 alone were worth the cover price). Anyone who has TJKC #1 (that humble, lovable little 16-page xerox) should hold it next to issue #33, and note the quantum leap of quality that this magazine has taken. Safe to say, it’s exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations. Mark Alexander, B.A.T.B. (Born Again True Believer), Decatur, IL (Thanks for the words of encouragement, Mark. I know that $9.95 is a lot to pay for a “magazine,” but I view TJKC as more than that in its new format. My favorite Kirby collectible is the MASTERWORKS portfolio from the mid-1970s, which I paid about $10 for at the time—a price I still consider to be a bargain. I know I’d jump at the chance to buy a new MASTERWORKS portfolio every few months for that price if it were being published, so I’m trying to make the new TJKC just such an item.)

I just wanted to drop a line to tell you how much I enjoyed the new TJKC—which should come as no surprise, as the Lee/Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR remains my favorite comic book series of all time. There were a couple of personally-specific treats in this issue for me, including the pencils to the cover of the first FF I ever bought, #177, as well as the pencils to the one page of Kirby FF art I own (page 3 from #76, if anybody cares.) Having pulled out my copy of STRANGE TALES #103 and looked it over, I suspect this story may well have been produced before those in #101-102 as conjectured. If nothing else, outside of a word balloon or two, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence in the visuals of the Torch hiding his identity when flamed off, as he would do in the Wizard story. Given that, and the fact that this tale’s science-fiction environment (as opposed to the more pedestrian tales which were fodder for the Torch strip), I suspect that Jack may have plotted this story himself, as a try-out for the Torch as a solo character. Then, once the decision was made to proceed, Stan may have done the first two stories in order to better set up the series, and had Larry Lieber script over #103 to bring it in line with what was going to be established. It wasn’t uncommon for the early Marvel material to sit for a while on a shelf—legend has it that Jack wanted to launch an Iron Man series much earlier, but his concept drawing remained shelved for months because of a lack of faith on the part of Martin Goodman in the character (and then, Don heck ended up drawing the first story, which delayed things further). There also seems to be evidence which suggests that the Iron Man story in TOS #41 was produced before the one in #40. And as long as I’m offering corrections, let me mention one that I’ve been meaning to write about for years, and never got around to—from TJKC #10. In it, in an article about Roy Lichtenstein and his contemporaries stealing their subject matter from Kirby & Co., it’s suggested that the painting Image Duplicator is based on a panel from X-MEN #1. It’s not—the true source of this image is a Bruno Premiani drawing of the Chief of the Doom Patrol from MY GREAT-

(First, a correction: Due to a production error, a sentence in last issue’s Kirby As a Genre column was misprinted. The affected phrase should read, “an android doppleganger for the Grade-A Greenskin.” Now to say the response to last issue was overwhelming is putting it mildly! Let’s dig right in:)

EST ADVENTURE #84. It has the same word balloon and everything (albeit better lettered). Nice to see the feature on WORLD’S GREATEST COMIC MAGAZINE, even if the final product didn’t really live up to anybody’s intentions. No disrespect meant to any of the wonderful creators who produced the final art, but the best part of that series was Erik’s typewriter paper layouts. They really captured the spirit of fun and excitement of that era; I really wish we could have run the whole mess of them somewhere. So it was nice to see the couple of pages you reproduced in that article. Congratulations on the new baby. Having just had my own seven-weeks-early child, I can empathize with the strain this must be putting on your ability to produce on a timely basis. But the rewards certainly outweigh the downsides. Tom Brevoort (I dunno, Tom. Certainly the word balloon proves your point about MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #84 being a source of inspiration, but because of the more straight-on view in Lichtenstein’s painting, and the Magneto-like shape around the eyes, I’m still inclined to think Kirby’s X-MEN panel was involved as well.)

In late 1975, I was listening to the Carole Hemingway talk show from Los Angeles when Stan Lee was the guest plugging his new book Origins of Marvel Comics. A young man called in and asked Stan how he could apply for work at Marvel. Stan graciously stated that the man should send him his work and he would look at it. A few calls later, a older caller named Jack asked Stan the same question, and Stan stated “Jack... is that Jack Kirby?!” Miss Hemingway didn’t know who this Jack was and asked if he was mentioned in Stan’s book. Stan immediately gave Jack credit for being a very talented man and a very hard worker—almost giving Jack the credit he was owed for helping to make Marvel Comics. Stan and Jack ended the call with promises to “do lunch” very soon. Maybe they both talked about Kirby coming back to Marvel. Keith Lee, San Diego, CA

Picked up TJKC #33 the other day and loved it as usual but have to admit sometimes the enthusiasm of true-blue Kirby fans can try my patience! Take for instance, Mark Lerer’s article “The Final Family Reunion.” Now I’m the first one to admit that Kirby’s brief but fun outings with the Inhumans and Ka-Zar in Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales were wonderful, but I would never go so far as some of the hyperbole I encountered from Mark. For instance: regarding Kirby’s “Inhumans” strip, Mark says at one point, “As a result, these stories are appropriate not only for beginning readers who like a good superhero tale, but also for those older readers who liked Marvel comics but who may have outgrown Smilin’ Stan’s soap-opera cutesiness.” My first reaction in reading those lines was, “He’s gotta be kidding!” but as I read on, I began to suspect that indeed, he wasn’t! As much as I like Kirby, this late effort with the Inhumans was extremely weak, sporting all the errors Jack would make later at DC including a complete lack of emotional realism or characterization. Even the plot involving the Inhumans vs. the FF was done in such a way as to completely ignore all past continuity. I mean, how likely was it with all their past associations that the Inhumans would launch a sneak attack on the FF? Like I said, these were fun stories, but a far cry from the sophis-

All the great FANTASTIC FOUR pencil art in the large format that you included in #33 only whets my appetite for more of Jack’s Marvel pencils from the same period. Any chance of devoting a similar issue to THOR, showing as much original art before Colletta got his hands on it as possible? While I recognize the FF as Stan and Jack’s masterwork, in the mid-1960s when I was buying the magazines off the newsstands, THOR was actually my favorite title. Kevin L. Cook, Tuckahoe, NY (TJKC #36 is scheduled to ship in August, which just happens to be the 40th anniversary of Thor’s first appearance in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #83. Did you really think we’d let such an auspicious occasion pass without a special issue for the Thunder God? No soup for you!!) As expected, the FF issue of TJKC was superb! I’m constantly amazed that not only are there so many examples of Kirby pencils in existence, but that there is your magazine available at precisely the right time to showcase so much of it. Who could have guessed that such prime pages as those from FF #44 and #49 exist? It’s unbelievable. If the well from which these came dried up tomorrow, we have to admit we’ve got more than we could have hoped for. (Nevertheless, we hope it has NOT run dry just yet!!) FF #44: It’s almost too good to be true. Pages coming to light that highlight the difference between Kirby’s penciled work and the pages as published, and these show that Kirby wasn’t being unusually lazy or rushed on page 20 (as I’d always assumed)— but that there was some editorial decision going on. But what a mystery that decision is, since the pencils prior to the changes show EXACTLY what the plot/script requires, and the changes are really poor. The FF Annual #5 pages, like those of Thor #147 from around the same time, are amazingly complete. Just mind-boggling, not only in their pacing and creativity, but in their final polish. Virtually no inking changes at all are necessary (and Giacoia was very faithful, if a bit more heavy-handed than Sinnott usu-

ally was), unlike the FF #89 pages, which are much looser and far more often invited “editing,” “smoothing,” “reinterpreting” by the inker. I had always thought Jack in the later ’60s drew the FF more tightly than Thor, then used his looser style when he went to DC in 1970, but these pencils give further proof it just ain’t so. FF #15: What a great find these two pencil panels are. It invites the question though: Why was the left half of panel 5 so thoroughly erased, and not simply covered over like the others? And who would have thought that George Roussos—an almost universally UNpopular FF inker—would be shown to be in many ways a more faithful inker than the great Dick Ayers? The ’70s Covers: It’s hard to believe at times that the same wild yet masterly hand that drew FF Annual #5 was also responsible for these extraordinary and often clumsy pieces. Sometimes, one can feel Jack’s boredom, like when he draws Ben’s face on FFs #173 and #177. Lots of fixing required that was totally unnecessary in the days of the Annual, but one wonders at other editorial goings-on, though. There is often a lot of minor repositioning on some of those covers that seems unnecessary. For example, on #164, the figures are moved up a bit. A lot of work for little benefit, isn’t it? And #177, the figures are all moved a bit to the left. If this sort of thing was deemed necessary, what was the point of getting Jack to draw the covers on boards with preexisting (pasted down?) mastheads? If rejuggling of the whole composition was often necessary, wouldn’t it have been simpler to do if the drawing was done with the masthead area blank? A good example is the cover for #172. (TJKC #29). Jack draws one of his best FF covers under a regular FF masthead. Then the word “Four” is moved,

I think I’ve found the Wally Wood painting Bruce Timm mentioned in your latest issue of TJKC. He said he’d like to see it again so I’ve attached a copy. Also interesting is the accompanying article on the new breed of “ugly” Saturday Morning fare on the networks. The man leading the crusade against the “weirdo” TV super-heroes? Dr. Fredric Wertham, of course. Sean Conlon, Santa Fe, NM

ticated stuff happening in the non-Kirby parts of the Marvel line at the time. It’s true that Stan himself seemed to be on autopilot in these months (but he’d soon be back to full steam) but one need look no farther than the Black Widow half of Amazing with story by Gary Friedrich and art by John Buscema (and Gene Colan in following issues) to get an idea of how woefully out-of-step Kirby was in producing comics that older buyers would want to read. With this in mind, I almost laughed out loud when Mark went on to say that the Inhumans strip was “...done in the tradition of the Fantastic Four and Thor, but looking toward the next level of sophistication.” Hopefully, I was wrong and Mark really was joking! Pierre Comtois, Lowell, MA

the usual FF faces are deleted, and the rocket powered asteroid is repositioned. For what? So that an extra caption box could be fit in? I dunno, seems daft to me. Then we get things like the MARVEL TWO-INONE cover drawing shown this issue, which clearly is of Ben and Deathlok, yet Luke Cage is the masthead figure! Is this an example of Marvel Editorial being impossible for Jack to work with? Or of Jack being uninterested and getting things wrong? Or simply an example of how everything was at Marvel at the time? (On the original boards, how were these mastheads applied? Stuck down? Easy to remove?)

Those fannish bytes of info burnt into my brain immediately twigged that so many details of creatorcredits you listed were wrong. John Buscema certainly DID do FFs #120-129, and he did #173-175, not #170-172 or #176-178—confused with Pérez’s credits, I see! Roy Thomas wrote #119 then #126-132, #156178 (ya got that right), #181 and #303, then some FF Unlimited issues. Marv Wolfman’s credits are weird, largely being confused with Keith Pollard’s penciling credits, because he wrote right through from #196216. And there were errors in the Buckler, Conway, Wein, and Byrne entries as well. My article on Kirby Krackle: Amazing how an error can creep in and yet it not be obvious. Towards the end when I wrote of “old photos” having heavy, black smoke that might have inspired Kirby, the reference was actually to old WAR photos. But somewhere in my editing a line out, all reference to “war” disappeared. Still, it must have made some kind of sense I suppose. A request: We understand that these wonderful pencil photocopies that are being turned up usually require a lot of computer “clean-up” time to get them publishable. Would it be possible to do a page or two with “before and after” images so we can see just what you are presented with? I’m sure a lot of readers would be really interested. So tell us—is the new giant-size format a success? Will it continue? Just because most letters say “we love it!” doesn’t necessarily reflect sales, does it? Shane Foley, AUSTRALIA (I’ll try to do a “before and after” of what Jack’s pencil photocopies look like in an issue or three, so you can all get an idea of what we’re working from, and why some images look so much better than others. As for the new size, yes, we’re going to keep it, at least for a few more issues (through #36 at least, and probably more). Since our size change, sales of TJKC have noticeably increased for the first time in a couple of years—and that’s pretty remarkable in light of the current Recession and terrorist attacks that have hurt sales on many other publications. So it appears the new size has helped expose Kirby’s work to some new readers, which is what the mag is all about.) Let me also weigh in on the new, larger, format. YES!! Seeing Jack’s pencils at almost their original size is a dream come true. After all, the focus of the magazine is Jack’s art. How better to further appreciation of Jack’s work than to show it in its (almost) original size. The extra price is more than justified. I’d say that we’re now getting even more bang for the buck than before. Storage is not a concern. How these mags fit on my bookshelf is not important. How Jack’s art looks when I open the mags is important. I might as well take this opportunity to further stir the hornets' nest. Two things on my wish list: 1) Having Mike Royer re-ink the Colletta hatchet job on Thor (and whatever else he got his hands on), then having it colored and printed on standard comic paper. I love the way actual comics look and hate the MARVEL MASTERWORKS reprintings. This would give us what we should have had way back when. 2) This is the one that oughta’ upset many fans: After having Royer correct Colletta’s art, I’d love to have Stan Lee correct Jack’s English on the Fourth World books, and again, reprint this version on standard comic book paper. Yes, I read the series here on Stan’s going against Jack’s ideas, but I still think Jack needed someone else to do the actual writing. Let’s face it: What Jack was to art, Stan was to words. We’re all lucky that these two teamed up and produced so many wonderful comics. Keep up the good work. Actually, every time I say that, you go beyond what you’ve been doing and you get even better. So, I don’t know what to say to you guys anymore except THANK YOU. Alan Glick, Valrico, FL 77

Congratulations to you and Pam on the birth of Lily, as well as another smashing big KIRBY COLLECTOR! TJKC #33 was worth the wait (as I’m sure Lily was). I really enjoyed Mike Gartland’s STRANGE TALES article, Glen Gold’s hilarious piece on FF #15 and the origins of Kirby Krackle thoroughly chronicled by Shane Foley. On top of all that, the stars of this issue are the exquisite FF pencil pages, particularly the recentlydiscovered stats from ANNUAL #5 (without so much dialogue); they also provided the ideal Parting Shot. Thanks for making the most of the tabloid format and printing these in quantity: there’s no such thing as too many Kirby pencil pages... ...which brings me to Mark Lerer’s “Family Reunion” article. Mark suggests the Inhumans’ appearance in AMAZING ADVENTURES as the answer to Gene Popa’s TJKC #26 question, “What would a Marvel Comics NEW GODS have been like?” Gene’s piece was interesting as a curiosity, but the very idea makes me cringe. I’ll grant that some of the most brilliant moments in comics came out of the Lee/Kirby FF run, but in my opinion Jack’s ’70s DC work (dialogue and all) was better. I don’t agree that Kirby was a flawed scripter (or that his later books were evidence of this); the pencil pages in TJKC #33 show stories springing from his imagination fully-formed, only waiting to be cluttered with dialogue. (I’d love to see this stuff completed as Jack intended, but the unadulterated pencils are the next best thing.) As Mark notes, he wasn’t capable of 78

I wanted to comment on some of the letters about my article “Mighty Marvel Western Gunfighters.” To Clint Brady, I didn’t get into the Black Rider’s costume changes, basically because he made so darn many over the 1950s. His mask alone had been changed several times. I didn’t remark on each change in original artwork in the 1970s as I thought that would make a lengthy index even longer. I just wanted to warn folks you may not be getting the original Kirby artwork in 1970s reprints. But no matter the mask, we all know it’s Stan Lee underneath anyway (I’d love a copy of the Black Rider book where Stan was the model for the photo-cover). In regards to Bill Black’s comments on Black Rider Rides Again #1: I do own a copy (very beat-up, but still complete). The cover has BR all clad in black, while inside he’s colored in what I now see is meant to be black, but looks greyish-blue to my eye (similar to how Superman’s hair often has black patches, and some blue highlights as a contrast to the black). I did err in saying he wore a white hat (likely looking at the multitude of books I did for this article caused my memory of his hat color to fade), but in the interiors of the book, his costume still appears very similar to the Lone Ranger to me. So, I stand by my original comparison. My collection of comics is all the original 1950s copies of KID COLT, GUNSMOKE WESTERN, etc. I actually have very few of the 1970s reprints, which is why I used www.comics.org to track down where some of Kirby’s work had been reprinted. The one exception is that I do not own RAWHIDE KID #1-16. I did depend on the reprints for information there, as well as Will Murray’s article in COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #82 (which has more of an overview of all Atlas/Marvel Westerns); but, while I messed up the original Rawhide Kid’s hair color, scanning the covers of RAWHIDE KID #1-3 in GERBER’S PHOTOJOURNAL, and comparing them with those of ALLAMERICAN WESTERN #103-126, I still think the Rawhide Kid dresses remarkably similar to Johnny Thunder (though not exactly alike, as you said), at my first and second glance. Thanks for the insight, though, Bill. And, I definitely appreciate knowing Bill Everett inked Kirby on the Black Rider stories. I’m horrible at recognizing inkers. Keith Hammond, Covington, KY

the flippant or soap opera approach: “As a writer of dialogue, Kirby is clearly more interested in advancing the story than dazzling the reader with wit.” Not only of advancing the story, but of keeping it moving: Jack was a master of page layout, panel composition and pacing. His own dialogue was unlikely to inhibit the flow of the story. Jack had been honing his storytelling instincts for decades, and the late ’60s were a time of building frustration and resentment during which he withheld his ideas and creations, incubating and fermenting, pending a more favorable situation. When later editing his own books, he wouldn’t subject them to the indignities detailed by Mike Gartland in “A Failure to Communicate”; these things were understandably perceived by Kirby as editorial tyranny on Lee’s part. His inevitable departure from Marvel was The Great Jack Kirby “Bust-Out,” when he refused to stay and allow Stan to complete the destruction of Jack Kirby. For me, what followed was the “brief shining moment” as Mark calls it, when Jack found his rhythm on the Fourth World books—just before cancellation cut him off in his prime. Kirby being made the way he was, rather than act on his hard feelings at Lee (and later Infantino), he could only bottle them up until they boiled out through his pencil. The results were some terrific confrontations: As Scott Free he was there to rescue Houseroy when the House of Ideas went up in flames; as Himon he submitted to another “dying” at the hands of Carmine; as Kamandi he had it out with him in the guise of Tiny the ape. Here’s one of my favorite passages, Kiernan blasting Turpin in New Gods #8: “You’re off the case! As of now! You’ve trained some good men, Turpin! I’m turning this over to one of them! And don’t bring up that bit about ‘knowin’ me when—’! This isn’t just Matt Kiernan, a rookie cop, talking!” This strikes me as the way Jack might have stood up to Stan over the Silver Surfer (Jack having “known Stan when” he was a teenaged office boy). It’s the outcome he would have preferred: Turpin didn’t let the chief take him off the case. In the light of these (and other) examples of Kirby venting vicariously through his characters, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Maximus had a toupée. Mike Hill, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA

Jack’s pencils, the inking examples (particularly Sinnott’s), the layout, the comparison pics, the writing and flow of the entire mag were an absolute pageturner. I could NOT put it down. I spent the entire day with it, from 7:00 a.m. till midnight. (No wonder my earnings are taking a dive, right?) Of particular note was the “Gallery” (pages 26-51), a non-stop string of full-page Kirby pencils. Nobody sells Kirby like Kirby. The sheer graphic power, dynamism and unequalled inventiveness exhibited in these pages is enough for the bragging rights of ten artists! And I’m thinking your full-page reproduction size here must get very close to being 100% of the original pencils, which in itself is thrilling. It’s like looking directly at Kirby boards. Very smart decision to run them like this. I also particularly loved the interview with Stan Lee. Bwah! Stan is Stan, isn’t he? Though you can’t really get mad at him... he IS Funky Flashman, isn’t he? For him, it’s “I can’t remember” when it suits his purpose or gets into territory unflattering to him. Yet he’s surprisingly “specific” when it comes to taking credit. Accept it, Stan is Stan, but he is not without real artistic substance. Stan Lee WAS a great “idea” man, just like Jack, and he WAS an unparallelled storyteller and dialogist, and editor. (Though I’ve gotta laugh at his “art director’s” suggestion to put detailing on Doom’s “buttons” in close-up (pg. 60). An idiotic suggestion. It reveals Stan didn’t “get” Jack’s bold simplified costume designs. The big, blank dots on Thor and Doom clearly function as fantastic, powerful, graphic elements, as powerful as Black Bolt’s costume bolts. Those dots are blank for a reason, Stan. That Lee misses this, hints that he fails to recognize other key aspects of Jack’s genius.) That said, Stan’s genius writing underlines Jack’s artistic genius. It is very clear that his collaborative efforts with Jack were the very definition of synergism. It took BOTH of them to make “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.” I give them equal credit. For once, ALL of the articles in issue #33 were really interesting. So as not to appear so gushy that I lose credibility, I offer a small criticism. In the past I sometimes thought TJKC got bogged down in minutia, many articles very dry with what/when, uninteresting to the general readership; but this one—not so much. I loved ALL the sections, “Analysis,” “Technique” (loved the origins of Kirby Krackle), and “Tribute” (Sinnott, himself a comics god)—so it’s ALL good here. Thank you so much for making me not regret my decision to renew my subscription with this truly fabulous issue. Next time I’m parked in front of a plate of NoodleRoni, I’ll just open to spread 40-41 and I’m sure that dinner will slide down like ambrosia. Mike James, Azimuth Design, Pennsylvania

Our family budget got squeezed a bit this year and I was forced to make some painful cutbacks on personal, “non-essential” expenditures. Among other things I let go of ALL of my periodical subscriptions (save The New Yorker, arguably the best magazine in the world). Along with all my comic book cancellations, I was resolved to also let my TJKC subscription expire; a particularly painful decision since I have collected every issue since Day One, and Jack Kirby is probably the only artist/hero I have. When it got right down to it, I just couldn’t cut loose TJKC. So, I figured it’d be NoodleRoni for dinner for a month, and got on the phone to renew—and I’m soooo glad I did, because a scant 10 days later I received issue #33. Wow!!! Issue #33 is a complete tour-de-force! To my mind your best issue yet; as it were, the “Galactus Trilogy” of TJKC. The large format positively BLASTED to life in this ish! This is a whole new level for you guys; you should be very proud.

Ever since I first saw the unused cover of FF #64, I wondered, “What was wrong with it?” Too bad nobody thought to print it as the back cover! I think any future MARVEL MASTERWORKS should try to include such rare gems if possible. (Hey, why not?) “Simplistic” maybe, but the 1967 FF cartoon (as well as the 1967 SPIDER-MAN cartoon) was what introduced me to Marvel Comics, and was probably the best “advertising” for the book ever. I love the fact that most episodes were based on real Lee-Kirby comics! 16 the first year, 4 the second? AUGH!! Why do those idiots do garbage like that?? (The same thing happened with Filmation’s STAR TREK and Ruby-Spears’ THUNDARR.) And of course it didn’t do well in syndication—with only 20 episodes (SPIDERMAN was a huge success, once they made enough for a “full” syndication package of 52!). COOL “dream cast” pics. James Gandolfini only needs a bit more hair for Ben—the face is perfect!! (One can only wonder if Jack in any way based Reed

some type of perspective. And “yes” I would love to hear what prompted Jack to produce Devil Dinosaur as a potential Saturday Morning Cartoon show! With Stan Lee’s bio less than a year away, I would hope that Mark’s bio on Jack is reaching completion—but honestly I don’t see how he can cram all this information into one volume! The Erik Larsen interview was well done. Nice to see this appearing in TJKC and not Comic Book Artist. Unfortunate that the Kirby Estate is so unwilling to provide Kirby artwork to some of Marvel’s more worthwhile products. I remember Robert Katz’ interview several issues ago regarding his rapport (or lack of) with Marvel, but you know not everyone associated with Marvel is out to take advantage of Jack. The estate should be looking to keep his name in circulation every way possible. The artwork—what can I say that hasn’t already been said?! Astounding at the larger size! From the storyboards (now that’s a collection of work you should look to publish!) to the comic art, it is thoroughly enjoyable! Last but certainly not least—the Stan Lee interview! A major coup just getting him to answer a few questions! To me it’s a nowin situation. You can’t expect to butt heads with the guy about Jack. Stan was gracious and cordial as always. I would say only that if Stan’s bio hits the stands before Mark’s, it’s going to make the Kirby book seem like a rebuttal to Stan’s in some respects. Otherwise, everything Stan said for the most part was consistent to what he has always said about Jack—that the two collaborated and that Jack added a lot to the Marvel product at the time (and continues to do so). Gary Picariello, ITALY (The fact that “not everyone associated with Marvel is out to take advantage of Jack” doesn’t change the fact that Marvel, as a company, refuses to give anyone but Stan Lee credit for their creations. DC does it as a matter of policy, but Marvel still refuses, so I can’t blame the Kirby family for refusing to cooperate with a project like The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine, which, no matter how wellintentioned the artists and writers involved were, allows Marvel to once again profit off of Jack’s hard work, without having to give an official credit line to him. It’s really about credit; the Kirby family regularly supplies us with great Kirby art for TJKC—such as those FF #44 and FF ANNUAL #5 pencil pages last issue—without any expectation of financial compensation for it. The family is doing their part to keep Jack’s name in circulation, through TJKC; they just refuse to do it with a company they feel has in the past, and continues to, take advantage of the Kirby name. Anyway, that’s my take on it, based on conversations with Jack’s family members.)

I had the TV on in the background last night, and stumbled across something interesting. On the Bravo channel, there was a show called First Person, and on this particular episode they were interviewing a former CIA employee who had been an expert in disguise and in developing fictitious scenarios they could use as cover. The part you might find of interest was when he started to talk about developing a scenario to get a group of Americans out of Iran in the ’70s. This particular group had escaped the taking of the US embassy and were hidden in Canada’s. The CIA guy said they created a fake movie production as their cover, with offices, crew, everything, using Lord of Light. They even showed the Kirby presentation pieces on-screen in full color! I was in and out of the room, but the implication was that the whole production was a fiction, just a cover for the purpose of being able to get that group of Americans out of the country before the Iranians found out about them. I don’t know the interview subject’s name, because I came in about a third of the way into the program. If this could be followed up on, it might make a very interesting backstory for Kirby’s Lord of Light presentation pieces. Mark Lewis, Burbank, CA (I talked to Barry Geller, who spearheaded the Lord of Light movie and theme park project (first reported on in TJKC #11), and he knew nothing of the CIA scenario—but we obtained a copy of the show you mentioned, and yes, your description was accurate. Our best guess is the CIA got ahold of a copy of the promotional package Barry put together to get funding for the real film and theme park project, and used it as their cover story to get the Americans out of Iran—but Barry wasn’t involved with the CIA, and was legitimately attempting to get the film and theme park produced.) “Jack FAQs” was a great read! How Mark manages to retain all this info and pass it on to readers is one of the great services being provided by TJKC! I’d love to hear more about Jack’s dealings with Marvel at that time. Not to dredge up dirt on Jack or anyone else at Marvel, but it puts Jack’s work at the time into

NEXT ISSUE: It’s our nail-biting, death-defying “Great Escape” issue! #35 headlines the incomparable MISTER MIRACLE, and starts with covers inked by MARSHALL ROGERS and STEVE RUDE! In addition to extensive coverage of Kirby’s super-escape artist, there’s: Kirby’s escape from New York’s Lower East Side! A look at the escape themes in Michael Chabon’s Kirby-inspired, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY! A comparison of Kirby’s and Harry Houdini’s backgrounds! The 2001 Kirby Tribute Panel (featuring MARK EVANIER, WILL EISNER, the late JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN ROMITA, MIKE ROYER, and—believe it or not—JOHNNY CARSON)! Plus there’s the usual array of uninked Kirby pencils, shown at our huge TABLOID SIZE, and more! The issue ships in late May, and the submission deadline is 3/31/01.

Classifieds (10¢/word, $1 minimum)

LO OK !

In response to David Morris’ critique of my Prof. Reinstein piece in TJKC #27, I refer back to the end of my second paragraph where I stated that he “was PART of a socio-scientific movement,” etc. It’s a given that Cap, Red Raven, etc. were grown men when scientific marvels made them what they were, but the growing notions around the world at that time (and I cited examples) about producing a “better man” was the theme of my article. Eugenics was a starting point, scientifically speaking. The Nazis tried to improve their adult men by the many quack experiments they attempted in their infamous camps. This is not on the opposite side of the spectrum from “Operation Rebirth.” Genetic tampering is a concern these days, making it a viable PART of my piece, and therefore relevant. As for eugenicists “hating” my scenario, offense goes along with interpretation. My contribution was written without bias, presenting the various points of view and facts from the well-respected TIME magazine. Someone else, however, could take “offense” at eugenicists for daring to tamper with nature at all! Jerry Boyd, Palo Alto, CA

on Russell Johnson, who, even before GILLIGAN’S ISLAND, had played a scientist in THIS ISLAND EARTH? John Byrne definitely used Johnson as his model for Reed!) “Maybe Thor just didn’t want to confuse the poor SuperSkrull.” BRILLIANT! You deserve a NO-PRIZE (in the classic Stan Lee tradition). “Do you remember everyone you meet at weddings?” Great stuff. Henry R. Kujawa, Camden, NJ (I’m tickled to have actually received my own official No-Prize, delivered via e-mail personally by Stan “The Man” Lee himself, for our help recently in supplying scans of the various Mighty Marvel Marching Society promotional items from the 1960s, for use in his upcoming biography from Simon and Schuster. Look for it soon!)

HELP!!!!! I need low-grade reading copies, scans, or color/black-&-white xeroxes of the NEWSBOY LEGION stories from STAR SPANGLED COMICS #17, 23, 24 for an article for the KIRBY COLLECTOR! Will pay cash or trade TJKC subs. Contact John Morrow at TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Dr., Raleigh, NC 27605. 919-833-8092. KING-SIZE KIRBY KOLLECTIBLES: Comics, magazines, pins, cards, articles and more. Free list: John Prevosk, P.O. Box, 680770 Orlando, FL 32868. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Original Art Wanted! Any page, any issue! Romita, Ross Andru, Frenz, Ditko, Mooney, etc. Contact: Aaron Sultan, 919-9547111 or e-mail: spiderboop@aol.com ORIGINAL ART Marvel/DC Wanted! 1960s-80s, Spider-Man, FF, Green Lantern, Iron Man, etc. Contact: Aaron Sultan, 919-954-7111 or e-mail: spiderboop@aol.com

34 Credits:

John Morrow, Editor Pamela Morrow, Asst. Editor Eric Nolen-Weathington, Production Assistant Richard Howell, Proofreader TwoMorrows, Design/Layout Tom Ziuko, Colorist Rand Hoppe, Webmaster CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Alexander • Jim Amash Etienne Barillier • Jerry Boyd Robert L. Bryant • Steve Chivers Jon B. Cooke • Vince Davis Stuart Deitcher • Jean Depelley Shel Dorf • Philippe Druillet Mark Evanier • Tony Fornaro Mike Gartland • Jeff Gelb The Estate of Clay Geerdes Keith Hammond • Carmine Infantino • Frank Johnson Tracy Kirby • James Henry Klein Peter Koch • Hans Kosenkranius Richard Kyle • Arthur Lortie Russ Maheras • Adam McGovern Al Milgrom • Mark Miller Tom Morehouse • Brian K. Morris • Peter L. Myer Eric Nolen-Weathington Jerry Ordway • Steve Robertson Tod Seisser • Antonio Serra Joe Simon • Mike Thibodeaux Alex Toth • Dylan Williams Tom Ziuko • If we’ve forgotten anyone, please let us know! SPECIAL THANKS TO: Philippe Druillet • Mark Evanier Carmine Infantino • Joe Simon Mike Thibodeaux • Alex Toth and of course The Kirby Estate MAILING CREW: Russ Garwood • Glen Musial Ed Stelli • Patrick Varker Loston & Carolyn Wallace

Contribute & Get Free Issues! The Jack Kirby Collector is a not-for-profit publication, put together with submissions from Jack’s fans around the world. We don’t pay for submissions, but if 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 themes, to give you ideas of things to write about; but don’t limit yourself to these—we treat these themes very loosely, so anything you write may fit somewhere; and just because we covered a topic once, don’t think we won’t print more about it. So get creative, and get writing; and as always, send us copies of your Kirby art! GREAT ESCAPES! Mister Miracle’s in the spotlight, plus the theme of Escape! THOR’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY! Asgardians assemble—it’s party time! HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY! Focusing on Kirby’s storytelling and art techniques! LEGENDS! Exploring Jack’s use of myths and legendary figures in his comics! FAN FAVORITES! What are your favorite Kirby stories? Plus: Kamandi! The Hulk! SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Submit artwork as: 1) Color or B&W photocopies. 2) 300ppi TIFF or JPEG scans 3) Originals (packed and insured). Submit articles as: 1) Typed or laser printed pages. 2) E-mail to: twomorrow@aol.com 3) ASCII or RTF text files. We’ll pay return postage and insurance for originals—please write or call first. Please include background information whenever possible.

Parting Shot

To wrap up the “fighting Americans” issue, I felt it appropriate to end with this never-before published cover for a Young Abe Lincoln comic, circa the 1950s. In these days of dark, supposedly “gritty” and “adult” comics, this unused 1950s concept seemed like just the thing we’re missing: a series about someone we can actually look up to. It probably wouldn’t stand a chance in today’s comics market, but if anyone could’ve made it an interesting book, Kirby was the guy.

BOOKS & MAGAZINES NOW SHIPPING FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING!

COMIC BOOK ARTIST #17 ARTHUR ADAMS & CO.!

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #33 WITH 40 YEARS OF THE FF!

ALTER EGO #13: THE TITANS OF TIMELY/MARVEL PART 2!

A career-spanning interview of one of modern comics greatest, plus remembrances of legendary artists:

Featuring 40 pages of KIRBY FANTASTIC FOUR PENCILS shown at nearly ACTUAL SIZE, plus:

• NEW COVER by and INTERVIEW with ART ADAMS, plus page after page of RARE AND UNPUBLISHED ART, and an ADAMS CHECKLIST! • Interviews with the late, great GEORGE EVANS, GRAY MORROW and GEORGE ROUSSOS, showcasing their art, along with testimonials from the top names in comics! • Plus EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER interviewed!

• KIRBY FF COVERS inked by ERIK LARSEN and BRUCE TIMM! • New interview with STAN LEE! • Interview with ERIK LARSEN! • NEW REGULAR COLUMN by MARK EVANIER! • We track down nearly EVERY WRITER AND ARTIST who worked on the FF, to find out WHAT THEIR FAVORITE LEE/KIRBY ISSUE WAS and why!

(Edited by JON B. COOKE • 116 pages) Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard, $54 First Class (Canada: $66, Elsewhere: $72 Surface, $96 Airmail).

(Edited by JOHN MORROW • 84 tabloid pages) Four-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard, $52 First Class (Canada: $60, Elsewhere: $64 Surface, $80 Airmail).

• Covers by JOE SIMON and MURPHY ANDERSON! • Silver Age AVENGERS section with JOHN BUSCEMA, DON HECK, GEORGE TUSKA, and ROY THOMAS! • Rare Timely art by SIMON, KIRBY, BILL EVERETT, CARL BURGOS, SYD SHORES, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and others! • Timely’s DANIEL KEYES and DAVE GANTZ interviewed! • A 1974 talk with JOE SIMON, STAN LEE, and FRANK ROBBINS! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, FCA with C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, MIKE MANLEY, & more!

ALL-STAR COMPANION CELEBRATING THE JSA’S 60TH ANNIVERSARY

ROY THOMAS has assembled the most thorough look ever taken at All-Star Comics:

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• Barry WINDSOR-SMITH • C.C. BECK • Sergio ARAGONÉS • Walter SIMONSON • Brent ANDERSON • Nick CARDY • Roy THOMAS & John SEVERIN • Paul CHADWICK • Rick VEITCH • Murphy ANDERSON • Joe KUBERT • Evan DORKIN • Sam GLANZMAN • Plus Art SPIEGELMAN, Jack KIRBY, more! Cover by RUDE • Foreword by EISNER

(208-page Trade Paperback) $24 US

(160-Page Trade Paperback) $24 US

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EISNER AWARD WINNER!

The final issue is a 116-page giant featuring: • BRIAN BOLLAND (Judge Dredd, Batman: The Killing Joke, Heart Throbs) sketchbook & interview! • BRIAN AZZARELLO (100 Bullets, Hellblazer) interview! • BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (Jinx, Ultimate Spider-Man, Fortune and Glory) interview! • BRIAN CLOPPER (Rampage, Brainbomb) interview! (Edited by BRIAN SANER LAMKEN • 100 pages) Back issues: $8 In The US (Canada: $10, Elsewhere: $11 Surface, $15 Airmail).

DRAW! #3, THE HOW-TO MAG ON COMICS & CARTOONING!

Acclaimed historian Bill Schelly gives you AN INSIDER’S TOUR of comics fandom of the 1960s & ’70s. The fans, the comicons, the fanzines—they’re all here!!

• Cover and a new column on the design of comics by Mr. X’s PAUL RIVOCHE! • Inking demonstration and tips by legendary artist DICK GIORDANO! • BRET BLEVINS shows how to draw figures in action! • Web comics how-to by MIKE MANLEY! • Interview with Disney’s CHRIS BAILEY, reviews of the best art supplies, links and more!

216-page Trade Paperback, $20 in the US (Canada: $22, Elsewhere: $23 Surface, $27 Airmail).

(176-page Trade Paperback) $21 US

JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST

(100-pages) Lists all published work, portfolios, unpublished work, cross-references reprints, & more! A must-have for eBay shoppers! $7 US

HIS BOOKS OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE, VOL. ZERO

MR. MONSTER

Reprints the Eisner Award-winning COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-3, plus over 50 NEW PAGES of features and art:

MR. MONSTER is back with a new book collection featuring TWELVE TWISTED TALES of Forbidden Knowledge, featuring:

• An unpublished story by JACK KIRBY! • An interview with NEAL ADAMS about his SUPERMAN VS. MUHAMMAD ALI book (including unused art)! • Unpublished BERNIE WRIGHTSON art! • An unused story by JEFFREY JONES! • Extensive new ALAN WEISS interview (including unpublished art), & more!

• Over 30 pages of ALL-NEW Mr. Monster art and stories by MICHAEL T. GILBERT! • Collects the hard-to-find MR. MONSTER stories from A-1, CRACK-A-BOOM! and DARK HORSE PRESENTS! • The lost Mr. Monster NEWSPAPER STRIP! • New 8-page FULL-COLOR STORY by KEITH GIFFEN & MICHAEL T. GILBERT!

(228-page Trade Paperback) $26 US

(136-page Trade Paperback) $20 US

(Edited by ROY THOMAS • 100 pages) Eight-issue subscriptions: $40 Standard, $64 First Class (Canada: $80, Elsewhere: $88 Surface, $120 Airmail).

SENSE OF WONDER

• Intro by ROY THOMAS, cover by DICK GIORDANO! • Share Bill’s encounters with FREDERIC WERTHAM, STEVE DITKO, BOB KANE, JIM SHOOTER, and more! • Over 150 photos and illustrations by KIRBY, DITKO, NEWTON, EISNER, C.C. BECK, KALUTA, KRENKEL, COCKRUM, SINNOTT, GIL KANE and others!

Third volume in the series, reprinting TJKC #13-15, with an intro by STEVE BISSETTE, plus 30 PIECES of unpublished Kirby art!

THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOL. ONE

COMPANION

Reprints the ALTER EGO flip-sides from the out-of-print COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-5, plus 30 NEW PAGES of features & art:

A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF EARLY FANDOM

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL. 3

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ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION

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STREETWISE

TOP ARTISTS DRAWING STORIES OF THEIR LIVES

(Edited by MIKE MANLEY • 80 pages w/color section) Four-issue subscriptions: $20 Standard, $32 First Class (Canada: $40, Elsewhere: $44 Surface, $60 Airmail).

SENSE OF WONDER Acclaimed historian Bill Schelly gives you AN INSIDER’S TOUR of comics fandom of the 1960s & ’70s. The fans, the comicons, the fanzines—they’re all here!!

FAWCETT COMPANION THE BEST OF FCA

Editor P.C. Hamerlinck has been delighting fans with his new FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA (FCA) sections in • Introduction by ROY THOMAS, cover by ALTER EGO, and this volume presents the • Special color cover by JOE KUBERT! DICK GIORDANO! best of the first 59 issues of the FCA • All-new rare and previously-unpublished • Share Bill’s encounters with FREDERIC newsletter (founded in 1973)! art by JACK KIRBY, GIL KANE, JOE WERTHAM, STEVE DITKO, BOB KANE, KUBERT, WALLY WOOD, FRANK • New JERRY ORDWAY cover! JIM SHOOTER, and more! ROBBINS, NEAL ADAMS, and others! • Index of ALL FAWCETT COMICS • Over 150 photos and illustrations by • STEVE DITKO on the creation of published from 1940-1953! KIRBY, DITKO, NEWTON, EISNER, C.C. SPIDER-MAN, ROY THOMAS on the • Behind-the-scenes looks inside the BECK, KALUTA, KRENKEL, COCKRUM, birth of THE INVADERS, and more! GOLDEN AGE FAWCETT OFFICES! SINNOTT, GIL KANE and others! • Interviews and features on C.C. BECK, (160-page Trade Paperback) $20 US (216-page Trade Paperback) $20 US MARC SWAYZE, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, OTTO BINDER, PETE COSTANZA, PRIME8: CREATION #1 ROSCOE FAWCETT, AL ALLARD, WILL LIEBERSON, ROD REED, GINNY A new comic book created by COMIC BOOK PROVISIERO, cast members of the ARTIST editor Jon B. Cooke, featuring: Captain Marvel serial and Shazam! TV • NEW wraparound color cover by NEAL ADAMS! show, and others! • NEW Prime8 pin-ups by SERGIO ARAGONÉS, • Rare and previously unpublished artwork WALTER SIMONSON, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, by BECK, SWAYZE, SCHAFFENBERGER, and BRUCE TIMM! MAC RABOY, DAVE BERG, ALEX TOTH, • Featuring story by JON B. COOKE & ANDREW BOB OKSNER, GEORGE EVANS, A.J. D. COOKE, and art by CHRIS KNOWLES, HANLEY, ALEX ROSS, a Foreword by GEORGE FREEMAN, AL MILGROM, and BOB SWAYZE, and more! WIACEK! (160-page Trade Paperback) $20 US (64-page comic book) $6 US

WARREN COMPANION THE ULTIMATE REFERENCE GUIDE TO WARREN PUBLISHING

Editor JON B. COOKE has joined forces with historian DAVID ROACH to compile the definitive book on the black-&-white world of Warren Publishing, the publisher who created such magazines as CREEPY, EERIE, VAMPIRELLA, BLAZING COMBAT, and others. This book reprints the contents of the Eisner Award-winning magazine COMIC BOOK ARTIST #4 (completely reformatted), plus nearly 200 new pages:

KIMOTA! THE MIRACLEMAN COMPANION Learn the behind-the-scenes secrets of ALAN MOORE’S MIRACLEMAN, from his beginnings as Marvelman, to the legal and creative hurdles during the 24-issue Eclipse Comics series, and why you never saw the final NEIL GAIMAN-scripted issue!

Also available as a Limited Edition Hardcover (limited to 1000 copies) signed by JIM WARREN, with custom endleaves, 16 extra pages, plus a WRIGHTSON plate not in the Trade Paperback.

• New MARK BUCKINGHAM cover! • Intro & back cover by ALEX ROSS! • In-depth interviews with ALAN MOORE, JOHN TOTLEBEN, NEIL GAIMAN, MARK BUCKINGHAM, GARRY LEACH, MICK ANGLO, BEAU SMITH, RICK VEITCH, and others! • UNPUBLISHED ART, UNINKED PENCILS, SKETCHES, & CONCEPT DRAWINGS (including unseen art from the neverpublished #25)! • Special COLOR SECTION! • NEVER-PUBLISHED 8-page Moore/ Totleben story, “Lux Brevis”, and an UNUSED MOORE SCRIPT! • A percentage of profits goes to artist JOHN TOTLEBEN, who is battling the eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa.

(288-page Hardcover) $57 US

(144-page Trade Paperback) $17 US

• New painted cover by ALEX HORLEY! • A definitive WARREN CHECKLIST! • Dozens of NEW FEATURES on CORBEN, FRAZETTA, DITKO and others, and interviews with WRIGHTSON, WARREN, EISNER, ADAMS, COLAN & many more! (272-page Trade Paperback) $35 US

US Prices Include Postage. Outside the US, Add $2 Per Item Canada, $3 Per Item Surface, $7 Per Item Airmail (except Warren Companion Hardcover: add $14 Airmail)