Jack Kirby Collector #36 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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NO. 36 SUMMER

2002 2002

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Number 8, Summer 2002 • Hype and hullabaloo from the publisher determined to bring new life to comics fandom • Edited by Eric Nolen-Weathington

It’s Time to... Last year we brought you DRAW! and received an incredible response. Now we’re turning our attention to all of you writers out there! You know, an artist can show an editor his work and the editor can evaluate it virtually on the spot. But what qualities are necessary to sell writing? What are editors looking for? What skills are needed, and what other media can these skills be used in? This July, find out in WRITE NOW!, a new quarterly magazine edited by veteran Marvel Comics editor and writer DANNY FINGEROTH! It takes you behind the scenes, into both the creative and business processes that go into writing narrative fiction. Hear from pros ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DESK what it takes to write the stories that readers—and editors—want to read!

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TwoMorrows is proud to present COMIC BOOKS AND OTHER NECESSITIES OF LIFE, a trade paperback collection of MARK EVANIER’s POV columns! It includes Mark’s best essays and commentaries, many NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, about the state of the art form (as only he can convey it), the industry’s LEADING PRACTITIONERS (including Jack Kirby and Carl Barks), CONVENTIONGOING, and Mark’s old COMIC BOOK CLUB (with unforgettable anecdotes)! Featuring a new cover and interior illustrations by Mark’s frequent partner, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, this 200-page trade paperback ships in July!

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The convention season is underway and already we’ve had great shows at the Atlanta s me other ort allow supp and Pittsburgh Comicons. Despite two r free from so R CONSENT, it fonomithanks—your deddidn’t loawe wn WITHOUT OU do If u NE nations (for TJKC and CBA), win a yo DO ad te 0% ins If 10 MATERIAL. D ely lut TE so Can’t find those CBA back issues you’re missing? The GH ab s RI HARVEY but our own ERIC OF OUR COPY that it wa e knowAWARD, G IN ST search is over! In June, simply pick up the COMIC BOOK pleasNOLEN-WEATHINGTON PO L get to be a preld do: was an ILLEGA did u shouby yostopped ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME 2! It reprints the sold-outand itsenter! ’s what Thanks to re everyone who think. se, he the ca see what you CBA #5 (’70s DC) and #6 (’70s Marvel) and includes over that’s our booth (especially if you bought someL ISSUE, and ING and purchase a TA GI DI IS 20 NEW PAGES spotlighting STEVE ENGLEHART and ADusTH REfind E RIGHT TH thing)! Next youd can in Charlotte, NC our d an ahea keep it, DO TH rchase the print edition at to (visit MARSHALL ROGERS’ Batman work, plus DC’s ultra-rare 1) Go ough foryoHeroes Conitonen June 14-16 local , or pu enjoy ite ur u bs yo If at we r 2) or ou SENSE OF WONDER ALTER EGO: e) m info), and CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE! Also included are interit fro ition for fre www.heroesonline.com more al download of for the Digital Ed THE leg reader. CBA you to views with and unpublished art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, paidCOLLECTION Acclaimed historian Bill Schelly gives you les lar tit gu en re the bs biggie—Comicon International: San a h RE A as hic u SH NOTfrom we ite (w to have yo DOflip-sides NEAL ADAMS, JOHN ROMITA SR., and more! andEGO Reprints theRALTER the AN INSIDER’S TOUR of comics fandom of . We’d Diego, August 1-4op (where CBA,lov AE,e and PUTE COM the 1960s & ’70s. The fans, the comicons, comic book sh out-of-print COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-5, FROM YOUR . TE IT RE KIMOTA! ise are,up forLE EISNER AWARDS)! HE the fanzines—they’re all here!! DE W ANY LEGALLY,

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plus 30 NEW PAGES of features L IL & art: ST IT 3) Otherw R MATERIA IENDS OR PO NG OU • Introduction by ROY THOMAS, cover by e downloadIT WITH FR r freKUBERT! • Special color covers by foJOE DOWNLOADI all ou azine EP ag m KE r DICK GIORDANO! T N’ of u want to • All-new rare and de previously-unpublished y, DO IfFin you to contact the TwoMorrows ue allneed if iss e te cid 4) ple m to GIL KANE,yo • Share Bill’s encounters with FREDERIC u KIRBY, e co yo on r r fo When should you tilt or overlap a comics panel? What’s the fe g art by JACK JOE of nt e din cie W loa editors ofou come. want to send a lettersh suffi wn be do ld for fre(or WERTHAM, STEVE DITKO, BOB KANE, ep ke to ich gh WOOD, FRANK KUBERT, WALLY best way to divide a page to convey motion, time, action, r website, wh ment), blications enou NEALwe JIM SHOOTER, and more! e. ucothers! ing attryoue-mail! prodand ial ADAMS, u enjoy our pu for thROBBINS, er yo at quiet? PANEL DISCUSSIONS (our new trade paperback, If m e rs. • Over 150 photos and illustrations by he ot g ase publisher, JACKpaKIRBY • STEVE DITKO on the creation of purch John Morrow, e m ny by payin esKIRBY, DITKO, NEWTON, EISNER, C.C. shipping in June) is the place to find out! It picks the minds co th r rb ou so t or ab SPIDER-MAN, ROY THOMAS on the n pp , su editor (and the one to go d ca an em s, th et COLLECTOR ck BECK, KALUTA, KRENKEL, COCKRUM, po ep of THE INVADERS, and of the industry’s top storytellers, covering all aspects of the more! th dozensSINNOTT, GIL KANE and others! oration with de birthan op—wi rp sh co p” nt to with subscription problems): po gia d e design of comics! Learn from WILL EISNER, MARK “mom(160-page Trade Paperback) weekonUS We’re not som ht and$20 ny—literally a twomorrow@aol.com (216-page Trade Paperback) $20 US SCHULTZ, MIKE MIGNOLA, WALTER SIMONSON, DICK ay day and nig a small compa ors, slaving aw e for all this work. We love losses. We’re at cre e nc ela GIORDANO, MARK CHIARELLO and others as they share fre BOOK ARTIST ount of incom Jon B.rdCooke, COMIC on g ly kin re or r, -w ne COMIC BOOKS & OTHER ow ha of al am shop their hard-learned lessons about the DESIGN of comics! editor: jonbcooke@aol.com a pretty minim ur local comic of the small OF LIFE b usNECESSITIES ro ends, to make our editors, authors, and yo t n’ do e as y , but EGO editor: to stay in business. Ple RoyatThomas, t be an we doALTER wh collection of MARK EVANIER’s POV COLUMNS, there woA n’ is publication so will ensure roydann@ntinet.com featuring a NEW COVER and ILLUSTRATIONS by income from th nsation we receive. Doing pe SERGIO ARAGONÉS! Includes his best essays and nt of com P.C. Hamerlinck, FCA editor: amou wnload. commentaries, plus many never before published on: In August, we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of THOR in ts like this to do fca2001@yahoo.com oaded at future produc nl w do be • The state of the art form (as only Mark conveys it)! ly THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #36! To start things off, there’s on ld ou sh ns Mike Manley, DRAW! w editor: • The industry’s leading practitioners (including JACK s publicatio two incredible color Kirby Thor covers (inked by MIKE ROYER TwoMorro KIRBY and CARL BARKS)! mike@actionplanet.com

Designing? Buy the book!

Verily, ’tis Thor’s 40th year!

and TREVOR VON EEDEN)! Inside, JOE SINNOTT and JOHN ROMITA JR. weigh in on their Thor work with new interviews, and we present a never-published 1969 interview with JACK KIRBY, conducted by SHEL DORF! Plus, we’re featuring 40 pages of Kirby Thor pencils, including an amazing Kirby Art Gallery at TABLOID SIZE, with pin-ups, covers, and more!

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FAWCETT COMPANION THE BEST OF FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck has been delighting fans with his new FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA (FCA) sections in ALTER EGO, and this volume presents the best of the first 59 issues of the FCA newsletter (founded in 1973)! • New JERRY ORDWAY cover! • Index of ALL FAWCETT COMICS published from 1940-1953! • Behind-the-scenes looks inside the GOLDEN AGE FAWCETT OFFICES! • Interviews and features on C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, OTTO BINDER, PETE COSTANZA, ROSCOE FAWCETT, AL ALLARD, WILL LIEBERSON, ROD REED, GINNY PROVISIERO, cast members of the Captain Marvel serial and Shazam! TV show, and others! • Rare and previously unpublished artwork by BECK, SWAYZE, SCHAFFENBERGER, MAC RABOY, DAVE BERG, ALEX TOTH, BOB OKSNER, GEORGE EVANS, A.J. HANLEY, ALEX ROSS, a Foreword by SWAYZE, and more! (160-page Trade Paperback) $20 US

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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!

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Contents OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (all Thor really needed was a pair of ruby slippers)

THE NEW

UNDER THE COVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (Trevor Von Eeden and Mike Royer delineate this issue’s cover inks) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 (regular columnist Mark Evanier answers still more Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby)

#36, SUMMER 2002

INSPIRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 (would’ja believe Thor got his start at Charlton Comics?) THINKIN’ ’BOUT INKIN’ . . . . . . . . . . . .14 (Joe Sinnott outlines his early Thor contributions) KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 (Adam McGovern looks for humor in Kirby-inspired funny books) YOUNG GUNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 (John Romita Jr. talks about his famous father and his Kirby inspirations) GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 (take a trip to Asgard and back in this whopping compilation of Kirby Thor pencils) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 (Mark Alexander’s Quest is to document Jack’s “Tales of Asgard”) NEAR MYTHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 (a quick lesson in Norse Edda-quette) INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 (part one of a never-published 1969 interview with Kirby by Shel Dorf) FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE: PART 7 . . .70 (mighty Mike Gartland is back with his latest installment, looking at Kirby’s long last year at Marvel) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . . . . . .78 (no letters on #35, but still fun reading) PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (Odin, Zeus, Hercules, Thor—Kirby!) Front cover inks: TREVOR VON EEDEN Back cover inks: MIKE ROYER 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: Avengers, Balder, Captain America, Crystal, Destroyer, Dr. Doom, Ego, Enchanters, Falcon, Fandral, Fantastic Four, Frightful Four, Galactus, Heimdall, Hela, Hercules, Him, Hogun, Human Torch, Invaders, Invisible Girl, Jane Foster, Ka-Zar, Karnilla, Kraven the Hunter, Kronin Krask, Loki, Mangog, Medusa, Mephisto, Mr. Fantastic, Odin, Queen Bee, Recorder, Sandman (Villain), Sif, Silver Surfer, Stone Men of Saturn, Sub-Mariner, Tales of Asgard, Thing, Thor, Trapster, Triton, Ulik, Volstagg, Wizard, X-Men, Zeus TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Thorion and all related characters TM & ©2002 DC Comics and Marvel Characters, Inc. • Brute, Glob, Green Arrow, Jed, Mr. Miracle, New Gods, Oberon, Richard Dragon, Sandman TM & ©2002 DC Comics. • Cherries Jubilee, Destroyer Duck, Pablo Parongus, Vanilla Cupcake TM & ©2002 Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby Estate. • "Incredible Walking Stick" and all related characters TM & © Charlton Publications. • Lightning Lady, Sky Masters, Socko the Seadog, True Divorce Cases ©Jack Kirby Estate.

The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 10, No. 36, Summer 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.

f you really stop to think about it, Thor is a little like The Wizard of Oz. Besides the fact that the late John Buscema drew both for Marvel Comics, you’ve got a lot of similarities. Volstagg is the Cowardly Lion. Odin is the Wizard himself, always maneuvering things behind the scenes. Heck, the assorted trolls are the

started as a fairly humdrum strip in the mind-boggling directions it went— —but it wouldn’t have happened if not for Jane Foster, the Dorothy of Jack’s Thor books. Never in the history of comics has such an ever-present character been so quickly shunted away—and completely forgotten about—as Jane Foster. I mean, after more than four years of the typical Stan Lee “Oh, if he only knew how I really felt” ’60s Marvel melodrama, she was eliminated from the strip, and even replaced with a new love interest in the same issue.

Somewhere Over The Rai (this spread, large images) Pages from Thor #136 showing, respectively, how Jane Foster got the boot from the strip, and how she was replaced by Sif, Thor’s new love interest. All characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

(next page, top) Uncredited cover painting, based on the splash page of Journey Into Mystery #83, used on a 1968 British Fantastic Annual, reprinting Thor stories. (next page, bottom) Cover to Thor #172, marking Jane Foster’s brief return to the series. All characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Munchkins, Loki is the Wicked Witch of the West, and... ...okay, it’s not a perfect analogy, but stick with me here; I think there’s a point to this. Here’s a guy (Kirby) from the Lower East Side of New York, about as far removed from Asgard as a human could be. In the same way Dorothy was swept up from her Kansas existence by a tornado to guide the Oz characters down the Yellow Brick Road, Kirby was a former street kid, suddenly using his cyclonic imagination to direct the actions—of all things—of a bunch of Norse gods (or at least his versions of them). Talk about being out of place; it’s amazing Jack was able to steer what

Poof. She’s gone. Didn’t even have to click her heels together. I know most readers consider issue #126 to be the real turning point of the series, in more ways than one. Not only was that when the book changed titles from Journey Into Mystery to Thor, it marked the moment the strip’s emphasis began shifting from mundane earthly conflicts to more Asgardian fare, commencing with the epic Thor/Hercules saga (sort of Thor’s “Galactus Trilogy,” not-so-coincidentally drawn at the same time by Jack). Certainly, Jane Foster was the impetus to get Thor and Herc to duke it out and get that storyline rolling, but ol’ Jane made a more important mark than that. I’m here to say that the real change in the Thor series took place in issue #136, when our Dorothy—Jane Foster—finally got her Asgardian ruby slippers, and discovered that Asgard was no place like home. In that one issue, Jack managed to remove the Thunder God’s last tie to Earth from the series, and hardly a reader complained. From there on it was gods, gods, and more gods. Sure, his adventures took him back to Earth, but for several years it was always some kind of Asgardian menace that was the crux of the storylines, not a standard Marvel villain like the Cobra or Mr. Hyde. Then, during Jack’s final year on Thor, Dorothy woke up from her dream. Making a brief return appearance in Thor #172, Jane Foster—missing for 3 years, except for a brief cameo in #146—heralded a return to those boring, mundane Earth stories that had started the series. Surely it wasn’t Jack’s idea to bring her back, or to rehash dozens of old villains (and plots) from earlier in the series’ run. Just like at the end of The Wizard of Oz, the series was back in Kansas, and the show was over. A few feeble attempts were made to return the focus to Asgard in Kirby’s waning issues, but again, it was pretty much just rehashes of what had gone before. (For that matter, why was Vinnie Colletta replaced as inker? No one would ever call me a Colletta fan, but the strip sure could’ve used his inks to at least maintain a little consistency that final year. The Everett, Klein, and Verpoorten inks just didn’t seem to work for me on this strip, in the same way those two Royer-inked issues of Jimmy Olsen

seemed out of place. Colletta’s inks, for better or worse, became identified with the strip.) Where am I going with all this? Simply put, Jack found—metaphorically, at least—like Dorothy, that once he’d traveled the Yellow Brick Road (Rainbow Bridge) to the Emerald City (Asgard—or maybe Marvel Comics?), you can stay a while, take in the sights, even learn to like it; but sooner or later, you’re going to find the cracks in its foundations, and you’ve got to come back down to Earth—and that’s a long, long way to fall. I feel a little like Dorothy myself now. After learning something about what went on behind the scenes, I’ve discovered that on Thor, the wizard behind the curtain, directing all the action, was just a man after all. Jack used all the pyrotechnics at his disposal, but the more unhappy he got at Marvel, the more the work suffered, and we were plopped right back where we started.

inbow Bridge With that in mind, this issue isn’t meant to really be a standalone Thor issue. TJKC #14 did a pretty dandy job of covering the highs and lows of Jack’s Thor run, I thought, so why rehash a lot of what we already covered there? No, this issue is meant more as a supplement to #14, where we’re showing art, art, and more art, and keeping the text to a few choice areas that we haven’t explored as fully— mainly, the “Tales of Asgard” back-ups. This month is Thor’s 40th anniversary. Let’s celebrate by remembering all the amazing new vistas Kirby explored in his Thor run; and don’t forget that without plain Jane Foster, we wouldn’t have taken nearly as many trips over the rainbow bridge. ★

Under The Covers

esponse to Mike Royer’s inking of some of the Kirby pencils we’ve run in TJKC—ones that Vince Colletta originally inked for publication— has been pretty overwhelming to say the least! Readers have raved about how much more faithful Royer’s inks are, even though they had to be inked by use of a lightbox to trace off the pencils. Most of these pieces were commissioned by Tom Kraft, Kirby fan extraordinaire, who sent us scans of several of the pieces he had Mike create. So for this Thor issue, we couldn’t pass up the chance to run Mike’s inks on the infamous Thor #144 unused cover (which was allegedly rejected because it was too complicated to ink) as our back cover. Mike had this to say about it: “Sometime back, when The Kirby Collector printed the pencils to the Thor cover that Colletta refused to ink, I mentioned to Tom Kraft, in passing, that when I look at a piece of Kirby art like that, I “ache” to ink it. Tom, a very good friend and patron, took my comment to heart and set about re-creating the pencils from the page in TJKC himself, and then commissioned me to ink the cover for him. “He sent me the ‘new’ pencils, done at the older, larger size of the time Kirby originally created this marvelous piece, and I attacked it with GREAT ALACRITY (a friend of W.C. Fields) and got so carried away that I even handinked all the lettering, etc., including the Comics Code seal as well. “Tom and I both had fun. I hope it pleases.” Below you’ll find another version of this same piece, inked by Erik “Savage Dragon” Larsen some months back, around the time he inked the cover of TJKC #33 (our Fantastic Four issue) for us. Since we’ve now got two inkers who managed to put pen to paper over those pencils (and in the much more demanding process of lightboxing), it appears that Thor cover

(previous page) A fan commission, which Trevor Von Eeden inked for this issue’s cover after Trevor sent us his own Thor commission piece (left). Trevor had this to say about inking this piece: “I inked the hammer first, in Fountain Pentel. I beefed up the contour lines to make it ‘pop’ in the foreground. The rest was inked in one sitting, directly over the xerox pencils using a lightbox. I did not repencil the piece first. I wouldn’t dare. I did trace the King’s name in pencil though, just for a thrill.”

wasn’t so impossible to ink after all. Trevor Von Eeden had been after us for quite a while to let him ink a Kirby pencil drawing for our cover; but the dilemma was, what to have him ink? It’s not like he’d ever inked Kirby in print before, and I had some difficulty imagining what the artist of Thriller and some of the best Green Arrow stories I’ve seen would look like over Kirby. (A TJKC Green

(below) Erik Larsen’s inks of this unused Thor #144 cover (we showed the pencils much larger in TJKC #28). Mike Royer’s inked version is on our back cover this issue. Thor TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Arrow cover would seem a logical choice for Trevor, but Kirby GA pencils don’t exactly grow on trees.) As I continually stalled Trevor while trying to figure what to have him ink, he took it upon himself to send me a copy of the Thor commission art shown above. After seeing that, it didn’t take long to convince myself it was worth a shot having him ink the Thunder God. Based on the results of this issue’s front cover (pencils of which are shown on the previous page, and appear to have been done in the early to mid ’70s for a fan named Jerome), I’m glad I did! ★ 5

Mark evanier

Jack F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby by Mark Evanier

dunno if what Kirk Groeneveld sends me are “frequently-asked questions” about Jack Kirby, but he sure has a lot of them— which is fine but I’m only going to answer this column’s worth of his (plus one from Roger Weems) before I give someone else a chance. This time, Kirk starts by asking:

(next page) It appears when the cover for Thor #133 was originally published in Oct. 1966, the face of Ego was altered, as evidenced by this later reprinting in Marvel Spectacular #4 (Nov. 1973). Marvel must’ve had a stat of the original inks on file for the reprint. Thor, Ego, Recorder TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

“Was Jack’s work sometimes truncated? That is, was a page or two eliminated from an issue or two? For example, Fantastic Four #36 seems to end very abruptly, with the escape occurring off-panel and an explosion to cover their escape. Was this planned—or a rush job?” Pretty much everything Jack did throughout his career was a rush job, in that he had to output 3-6 pages a day (occasionally, more) and leap directly from one job to the next. When you look at the pace at which he worked, it’s amazing any of those stories made any sense at all. I have no info about that issue in particular but it was not uncommon for Jack to finish a story and then to suddenly realize he’d miscounted. As I have described elsewhere, he was a page short on Mister Miracle #6 and asked me to figure out where one could be inserted and to write it. The result was the scene in which Big Barda took a bath—a page which you may note, could be completely omitted without affecting the story in any way. The opposite was also sometimes the case: Jack discovering he was a page over on an issue and having to omit one. It would join a pile he kept by his drawing table containing orphaned material. In that stack were pages in various states of completion— some finished, some barely begun, most somewhere between those extremes. Many were whole, multipage sequences that he’d drawn or at least laid-out before deciding to change courses. From time to time, he’d shuffle through the material in that pile, seeing what ideas were triggered. Quite often, he’d find a way to

use a page or pages in another story— sometimes with major alterations, sometimes not. (Anyone who’s interested can do the exacting research and/or speculation on these: Jack once told me that he’d deleted a long sequence with The Watcher from an issue of Fantastic Four and later used it in Thor. Also, when he was planning on relating his origin of the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four, he’d penciled a number of pages before learning that Stan Lee and John Buscema were doing their own origin in the new Silver Surfer comic. Kirby had to drop his plans and he recycled the pages— presumably with many changes—into another story. I have no idea which one.) It also happened that, with Jack’s famouslyfaulty memory, he sometimes just plain forgot some part of a story. My guess would be that it happened in the issue you mentioned; that he handed it in and Stan read it over and said, “Hey, wait a minute... you didn’t include a scene where they escaped.” When that kind of thing happened, Stan and/or Jack had to figure out a way to shoehorn the absent info into the narrative, preferably altering as little of the art as possible. The “Marvel method” of writing a comic has often forced writers to awkwardly insert expository dialogue to compensate for some scene that didn’t get drawn. Then Kirk asks: How did Jack feel about whole pages being removed upon reprinting his Thor and FF adventures when the issue page counts didn’t match due to advertising?

He probably never knew about it, but as a general rule, like any artist, Jack wanted his work to reach the readers in as un-altered a form as humanly possible. Any changes bothered him, but especially those that altered the story. If you’d told Jack, “We have to make a change here and it means either the artwork will be harmed or the story,” Jack would not have hesitated a moment. He’d have said to sacrifice the art for the story. Every time. Kirk next asks: How did Jack feel about having his covers altered? I assume you’re asking here about those instances where Jack would draw a cover and then, in the office, they’d move figures around or redraw them completely. As you’d expect, any change bothered him, but alterations in stories bothered him more than alterations of artwork. One thing which I believe changed about Jack throughout his career is that his interest in the sheer act of drawing diminished. He had always thought of himself as a storyteller more than an artist but, with each passing year, covers and individual illustrations were of less and less importance to him. He did them, of course, because that was part of his job. Still, his true passion was in plots and stories. I think you can see some of this in an overview of his covers. As huge a fan as I am of Jack, I think his covers got weaker and weaker over the years, and his best ones were generally those where he was working from a rough sketch by another artist. Jack’s brain simply was not into drawing covers because there was no proper time, creatively, for him to do them.

If he was asked to do the cover before he did the corresponding story, he had a problem. Jack often did not know what a given issue would be about until he was well into drawing it. Even when he had it all mapped out in his cranium in advance, he could get partway into a story, have a better idea and begin course-correcting. You may have heard me tell how Jack once told Steve Sherman and myself the plot of the issue of New Gods he was going to start after we left—a fully-conceived, all-figured-out storyline that we thought sounded great. Then we left... and Jack sat down and embarked on what turned out to be a completely different story. What’s more, when we later pointed out the shift, he had no idea how he’d gotten from the tale he’d planned to the one he’d actually drawn. It didn’t work for him to do the cover while he was in the midst of an issue, either. While Jack was writing and drawing a story—or even just plotting and drawing a story—he became utterly immersed in it. At times, it was tough to even have a conversation with him. To stop and do a cover was a needless intrusion. And if he tried to do the cover after the issue was complete... well, that wasn’t a good time, either. The minute a story was over for Kirby, it was over. Outta sight, outta mind. The work schedule usually required him to leap directly from one job to the next. He would finish a Forever People at 1:00 and start a New Gods at 2:00. If, around 5:30 you went to him and asked, “Hey, what was in that issue of Forever People that Roz just mailed off for you?” he would have no idea. He’d have to go fumbling about for his Xeroxes in order to give you an answer.

Okay, now I’m going to fumble for Kirk’s next question: Also, in most of the Marvel Special Editions that reprinted almost complete story arcs for Thor, or at least two at a time, the covers were redrawn or completely different. Why was this done? The power of Jack’s original covers certainly were better sellers and more representative of the action that was within than any of the four covers that I am aware of. Again, why was this done, and how did Jack feel about this? Anything of that sort represented a decision on the part of someone on the editorial staff so you’d have to ask them why it was done, and I doubt they’d recall. Presumably, the answer would be along the lines of, “We thought we could do better” or perhaps a feeling that a new cover would snag some readers who already had the originals. In a few occasions, I know, the stats or film Marvel had available at the time were of poor quality and, rather than print a cover off bad source material, they decided to have a new one drawn. Even on the Masterworks editions they’re doing now as high-ticket hardcovers, they sometimes find they have no film or stats on a cover or story and it has to be painstakingly re-created. As for how Jack felt about it: I doubt he cared much. His mind was forever on the new story, the next story. He didn’t have much interest in reprints. Matter of fact, since throughout most of his career he wasn’t paid for reprints, I think he was happier not to think about them at all. Here’s Kirk again... Also, as Jack returned to Marvel, he would occasionally 7

do covers for the Fantastic Four. How did he feel about doing covers for the characters he created without doing the stories inside? Did he resent this? How did he come up with the concepts, the designs, and so on? Most of those were done from sketches by Marie Severin, Dave Cockrum, John Romita, and other fine folks. To Jack, it was just a job—and not one that particularly interested him. He did them to be cooperative, and perhaps because there was a shade of prestige in being the cover artist... but if he could have gotten out of doing them, he would have. Another question from Guess Who?: How did he feel about returning to Captain America (circa #200) to draw and write that title? Were they considered successful for the time period? Why did that run end?

(right) One of the many covers Kirby did for Fantastic Four in the 1970s, even though he wasn’t drawing the interior of the book. Shown here are pencils from the cover of issue #190.

Being the kind of guy who always looked towards creating something new, Jack was not pleased to find himself back at Marvel in 1975. By the Seventies, he no longer wanted to do comics... or, if he had to, he wanted to do new kinds of comics, going places he had not gone before. He also, of course, had issues with working for Marvel at all. In a few interviews, he tried to put a positive spin on being back on Captain America, saying how delighted he was to be reunited with the hero; but privately, he was not thrilled to again be laboring for a company he felt had wronged him during both his previous

Characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(next page) Kirby’s final Captain America page, from issue #214 (Oct. 1977). Characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

periods of employment, drawing a character he’d done a quarter of a century before. It was frustrating that, after a lifetime of (mostly) success in the industry, he was almost sixty years of age and out of options. If he had a place to work other than DC or Marvel, he didn’t know of it. A few years later, he connected with the animation industry and, despite its many downsides, was much happier in that field 8

than he’d been for some time in comics. But in ’75, his choices seemed to be DC or Marvel, and he felt he was picking the lesser of two bad choices. He later felt he’d made the logical but (ultimately) wrong choice. As for how successful the books were, that seems to depend on who you ask. I did an interview with Archie Goodwin, who was editor-in-chief for much of Kirby’s stay, and he told me, “Some of Jack’s books of the time sold well, some didn’t. Sales were all over the place on a lot of comics and nothing was really solid. It was not uncommon for a book to do well and then to suddenly plunge in sales for no visible reason. I felt that too much of a fuss was made whenever one of Jack’s books wasn’t doing well. Everyone had a few books that weren’t doing well.” That’s what Archie said. The actual sales numbers I have seen from that period would seem to concur. Certainly, some of his books did not sell well, based on what was expected of Jack Kirby, while others did not sell well by any standard. When sales on Captain America hit a certain low level, Jack was told a change had to be made. There are those who worked then at Marvel who say he was removed from the book, and others who say he asked off it. What he told me was that they wanted the book to routinely cross over with other Marvel titles, and for him to work closely with other writers. Jack, for reasons I’ll get to, did not want to work with other writers... so, according to him, he told them to assign it to someone else. My guess is they were happy to do so. It is no secret that Jack had some friction during this period with some members of the Marvel editorial staff and that his work was derided by some in the fan press. In fact, I even said a few less-thanglowing things about Jack’s writing at the time and, in hindsight, I think I was off-base. As I look back at the comics that I liked then, I find a lot of them don’t stand up very well, coming off as all form and no substance. Kirby’s—however rough they may have been around some edges—still work for me. I don’t think it’s his best work but I now think it’s better than a lot of books that were then hailed as fan-favorites. This might be a dandy place to address the question I received from Roger Weems. He writes: It pained me during the Seventies to see some people insulting Jack’s work as lousy and insisting he couldn’t write. I happen to think there was nothing wrong with his writing but I’m wondering what you think the problem was. Would he have had greater success in the Seventies and Eighties if he’d worked with another writer? No, I don’t think so—and let me briefly mention my belief that discussions about Kirby’s writing have too often focused on

the dialogue and not on the other elements of the writing, such as the plot and pacing. Both were of infinitely more importance to Jack. Someone who can generate good, realistic-sounding dialogue— and there have only been a few in comics who I think have—is, at best, good at one portion of the job of writing. I think that Jack’s work in the Seventies represents a talent in major transition... but a talent which was not necessarily able to reach its new destination. The more I study his output, the more I believe that

Kirby’s sensibilities were drifting from the kind of work that had thrilled so many of us the previous decade. At the same time, certain fans and employment situations were trying to shove him back there... and perhaps resenting that he could not be shoved. One of the problems creative talents sometimes have, not just in comics but in any creative field, is that they change. Interests change, skills change and, sometimes, you simply run out of ideas in one area or come to feel you’ve said all you have to say on a topic. This can be a problem because, if you’re success-

ful at something, market forces often press you not to diversify but to continually replicate that success. Many Beatles fans were upset that Lennon and McCartney broke up, and I know some who were disgusted by the sheer existence of their solo albums. It was like, “Why aren’t they back together, doing more Sgt. Pepper, like I want them to?” (John Lennon, in one interview, gave the answer: “Talking about the Beatles getting back together is an illusion. That was ten years ago. The Beatles only exist on film and on record and in people’s minds. You cannot get back together what no longer exists. We are not those four people anymore.”) In the realm of comic books, we see this often. I have a friend (Hi, Dave) who’s always telling me of his dream. His all-time fave comics are the Lee/Ditko Spider-Man tales and he fantasizes that, any day now, Stan and Steve will reunite and begin outputting more of the same. Now, for personal and business-type reasons, that’s not likely to happen... but let’s say it did. Let’s say old differences were somehow rectified and Smilin’ Stan and Sturdy Stevie began producing new tales of ol’ Webhead... I’m sorry. I don’t want to dash Dave’s dream, but it would not be the same. What they produced might be wonderful, but it would not be what he wants: More stories that look and read just like what the two men would have done in ’66 and onward, had they not parted. (This might be a good place to quote Tom Wolfe about how you can’t go home again. If I could find the precise wording, I would.) A lot of folks who didn’t like New Gods, I believe, didn’t like it because it wasn’t what they wanted from Jack Kirby. They wanted him drawing Fantastic Four and Thor and Captain America or something in that vein. Never mind that his last year or two at Marvel in the Sixties, his unhappiness was showing and the grandeur got a little less grand. They wanted Kirby working with Lee, bringing forth more Galactus Trilogies, more new Silver Surfers or Thor epics; or, in the case of a few folks in the business, they wanted 9

(these two pages) Examples of Kirby’s pencils on books he didn’t write. From Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #3 (Aug. 1975), scripted by Denny O’Neil, and (next page) Sandman #6 (Dec. 1975), scripted by Michael Fleisher. Would Jack’s Fourth World be as easily forgotten as these two books if another writer had scripted them? Characters TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

to be the Stan Lee, working with Kirby to bring forth masterpieces like they’d enjoyed as readers. Later, some didn’t like Kamandi and The Demon because they weren’t New Gods... or didn’t like Devil Dinosaur and The Eternals because they weren’t Kamandi and The Demon, and so on. We all had our favorite Kirby project—usually, the first thing we saw him doing—and a lot of us, I think, had a problem with him moving on from whatever we loved. But Jack, as I keep saying here, changed. I mentioned earlier that he became more interested in writing and less in drawing. He also came to shy from collaborative situations and to prefer working at home, largely on his own. Some of this was simple self-defense. Since the dissolution of 10

the Simon & Kirby operation in the mid-Fifties, Jack had not felt secure or comfortable—or sometimes, even welcome—in “company” situations; and he felt that when he collaborated— especially when working “Marvel method”—it invariably led to an inequity of credit and often of money. He said on several occasions, “I found that if I didn’t fill in the balloons, no one ever gave me any credit at all for contributing to the story.” For creative reasons also, he came to not believe in that method as the best possible way for writers and artists to collaborate. But I believe that’s only part of it. I think he was becoming unable to effectively collaborate with others. A few years ago, I attended a lecture about American Musical Theater. The speaker talked of the great songwriting teams—

Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, George and Ira Gershwin... couplings in which one guy wrote words and the other wrote music. Wonderful music, of course, resulted from such teams. And then he spoke of Irving Berlin. Early in his career, Berlin collaborated briefly with others—wrote the lyrics only or wrote the music only; but for 95% of his career, he wrote both and it was said that, after a time, he was unable to separate the two functions. When he composed a song, words and music came to him as one. That was how he had to work. When the lecturer pointed this out, a thought hit me about Kirby—one, I increasingly believe, is on-target. There are obviously a couple of analogies between Berlin and Kirby in their respective fields having to do with invention and popularity and just plain being prolific over a very long time. There are also some striking areas of dissimilarity. (Berlin, for instance, managed to own and control most of what he created.) So this is a parallel that only goes so far... However, I think there’s a similarity in that I don’t think Jack, at least in the latter half of his career, was capable of doing the words without the “music” or vice-versa. I think pictures and words came to him as one, and that was simply how his mind was functioning. It was why it didn’t work for him to collaborate with other writers and why, when he did, it was with great discomfort and inefficiency. It generally meant Jack “wrote” the entire comic in order to draw it, and then left it to someone else to write the final dialogue from his blueprint. Even putting aside the practical considerations of pay and credit, that’s a tough position for someone with the soul of a writer. It’s difficult to write when you know you’re going to be rewritten. So when folks ask me if New Gods would have been better with another writer, I am quite confident of my speculation: It would have been a completely different comic. It would not have been the same stories with different dialogue. The mere presence of another creator in the process would have made it a wholly different creative experience for Kirby. I can’t tell you that it would have been better or worse. I can only tell you that it would have been different... and that Jack would have had a much rougher time of doing whatever part of it he did.

night playing a “What If?” game that went something like this... Suppose a very wealthy benefactor sought you out and offered to hire you to create the comic book of your dreams. You are not to concern yourself with what’s commercial, what the marketplace might want, how it will sell, etc. You will receive a huge salary, regardless of sales. You merely have to produce the book that, down deep in your aorta, you’d most enjoy doing. What would you do? More to the point: What would Jack have done?

This is all speculation, of course, but I am reasonably sure that, in such a circumstance, the Jack Kirby I knew (1969-1984) would not have done any of the major works that he created during that period. He would certainly not have done Kamandi, The Demon, Devil Dinosaur, The Eternals, 2001, Captain America and the Falcon, The Black Panther, Captain Victory, Silver Star or any of those. I don’t even believe he would have done The New Gods and its allied titles or, if he had, they would have looked a lot less like super-hero comics. I believe that in the Seventies—especially, the

Lastly, I do want to get to the subject of subject matters. At a convention a few years ago, a bunch of writers and artists sat around one 11

early Seventies—Jack would have gravitated more towards comic books about the world and current events: Vietnam, Watergate, race, etc. He spent a lot of time thinking about such issues and had a lot to say about them. The Forever People, as originally envisioned, was to have been more about the youth of that period than the book that finally emerged. And in the later period, I think he would have moved more into two areas. One was broad and bizarre humor, as per some of the odder elements that crept into Captain Victory, such as The Goozlebobber. Jack had a manic sense of humor with a tendency to bounce off walls and break them at the same time. He never quite got into a venue where he could let it loose but, if he had, I think it would have been like nothing we ever saw from him... or anyone else. The other area was pure, unabashed autobiography, such as in “Street Code.” That was probably his (and Roz’s) favorite of all the stories Jack did in his last few decades and, unconstrained, he would probably have done a lot of them. Perhaps we would even have enjoyed a series of autobiographical comics like Will Eisner has done, recalling his childhood, his neighborhood, the people he grew up with and so on. Those of you who visited with Jack got to hear some of his anecdotes (he had hundreds) but he never quite found the opportunity to set them down properly on paper... ...or to do so with his war stories. Sam Glanzman wrote and drew a wonderful series of short tales for DC about the U.S.S. Stevens, the ship on which he was stationed during World War II. I wish Kirby had had the chance to do something of the sort. Again, as visitors know, he had an endless stash of reminiscences from his days in combat—some, perhaps, embellished by his imagination over the years but fascinating, nonetheless. Many crept into the war comics he did do, such as “The Losers,” but it would have been wonderful if Jack had been able to chuck the gimmickry of such lead characters. It may have been the area about which he was most passionate—he still literally dreamed about those days— and had the most to say. Imagine if someone had commissioned him to write and draw “The Adventures of Private First Class Jack Kirby.” Alas, no one did. I don’t mean to suggest that Jack didn’t like doing The Eternals or Kamandi or any of the books he did create. He had a wonderful capacity—one I still very much envy—to take any assignment, no matter how bizarre or confining, and build something. Limitations were often a challenge to Jack and only when he was very, very unhappy did he not deliver his best. But I sometimes think of how much more he could have given the field than his third body of Captain America adventures and more super-heroics; how, chief among his contemporaries, he had the vision and capacity to move comics beyond whatever they had been before. And that was the problem: His muse was pulling him in new directions and a lot of his fans and employers were shoving him towards old ones. I think the work he did do in his last decade or two was grand... ...but it still could have been grander. Next question? ★ 12

Mark Evanier welcomes your Kirby Questions (and has answers to many, as well as lots of non-Kirby stuff) over on his website, www.POVonline.com, by e-mail at: me@evanier.com, or you can mail your questions to: 5850 W. 3rd St., #367 Los Angeles, CA 90036 Also: Shipping around the time you read this is Comic Books & Other Necessities of Life, a collection of the best of Mark’s POV columns, plus new ones, complete with illos by Sergio Aragonés. See the TwoMorrows ad in this issue for ordering info!

(below) Splash page from Destroyer Duck #5 (Dec. 1983), the last time Jack worked with someone else handling the scripting (in this case, Steve Gerber). Is this the type of wild humor Jack would’ve gone for if he’d stayed in comics? Destroyer Duck TM & ©2002 Steve Gerber & Jack Kirby.

Inspiration

Journey Into Unusual Tales

or, “Who Came Up With That Gnarled Wooden Stick?!” by Bryan Middleton (this page) Scenes from Charlton’s Unusual Tales #18 (Sept. 1959), which appeared a full three years before Journey Into Mystery #83 (Aug. 1962) with Thor’s debut. See the similarities?

ack in August 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a ground-breaking character by the name of Thor. Well, they didn’t invent him so much as adapt an old Norse mythological character into a modern-day hero. This wasn’t Jack’s first take on Thor. Kirby introduced his first Thor adaptation in Adventure Comics #75 (May 1942) followed by Boy Commandos #7 (Summer 1944) and The Unexpected #16 (August 1957). I was always intrigued by the soap-opera scenarios that Stan Lee came up with in most Marvel comics at the time. Don Blake, as an everyday “Joe,” has obstacles to overcome: Great power and the life of a mortal man. I recently came across a Charlton comic in a 25¢ bin at my local comics shop that has brought some questions to mind over where Stan (or Jack) came up with the idea of incredible power hidden in a stick. As Don Blake put it in Journey Into Mystery #84 (Sept 1962), “I carry within this cane the greatest power ever known to mortal man!” In Unusual Tales #18 (September ’59), hidden near the back of the comic was a six-page story titled “The Incredible Walking Stick” that seemed a little too familiar. Unusual Tales, published by Charlton from Nov. 1955 to March-April 1965, ran 49 issues, changing its title to Blue Beetle (#50-54) and then Ghostly Tales (#55-125). The story began with the caption “Thor, The Mighty Norse God of Thunder, wreaked great havoc when he threw his hammer at foes! But what was his hammer? Of what wondrous metal was it made? Is the hammer in existence today?” Sound Familiar? It should; Lee came up with the magic metal that Thor’s hammer is made of called “Uru” in Journey Into Mystery. Now reading this first page with a really poorly draw caveman version of Thor, I figured the story’s similarities with the Marvel character would end there. Boy was I wrong! The story went as follows: Alvin Johnson, at home with his wife, asked if they had a cane lying around the house. He was complaining about his sprained ankle he injured the night before. After limping into town, Alvin comes across an antique tent in the middle of town. He purchases an old cane for three dollars from a young boy inside the tent. Alvin notices the cane’s light weight and its miraculous healing factors. Soon he can walk perfectly and his leg is healed. Alvin starts to swing the stick around to cut weeds on his walk home and then playfully taps a tree, and the tree is cleanly severed in half. The visual here is similar to Don Blake striking

his “useless” cane against a boulder in the memorable scene from Journey Into Mystery #83. Thor even severs his own tree four pages later! “This cane has some strange power! Like REAL MAGIC!” exclaims Alvin. He then proceeds to knock a barn over with the cane. The scene cuts back to the boy in the tent telling his father about the sale of a cane. The father calls him a careless boy, “You sold him THE cane.” The boy proceeds to exchange the cane, unnoticed by Alvin, and returns to his father. The father says, “I’ll never let that stick out of my sight again! It could be most dangerous in the wrong hands.” Alvin picks up his new stick but is surprised that it has no magic powers. He goes back to where the tent was to find it gone. The final caption reads “Alvin was never to learn that the cane he had owned was fashioned from The Hammer of Thor, The Viking God! This had to be one of the lamest stories ever, with art on which my three-year-old daughter Gabrielle could have done a better job! Even the cover of the comic, drawn by Nicholas Alascia (who?) was poorly drawn—all in all, a regular Charlton comic from the ’50s. The similarities are there. Thor, a magic hammer, a guy with a bad leg, a walking stick, “Hey look at me, I have great power!” Could Stan Lee have seen this story and four years later come up with a similar story without even knowing it? Comics in the ’50s and ’60s clearly swiped stories from other comics. The monster, mystery, romance, and science-fiction comics from this timeline repeated the same stories in numerous comics from different publishers. So it is interesting that the idea of Thor, by Lee and Kirby, could have come from an unknown writer from Charlton. I have another interesting twist to this story. Steve Ditko worked for Charlton at the time this story was created. He was the artist on Unusual Tales #7-11, 14, 15 and 29 while working on covers for #6, 22, 23, 25-27 and 31. Although he didn’t work on issue #18, who knows when the story was commissioned, or if Ditko himself ever saw this particular issue on the newsstands, or at the Charlton offices? Ditko did work on Journey Into Mystery for issues #83 and #84. Kirby and Ditko are each credited with art on these issues. Could he have brought the concept of Thor to Marvel? Should Thor be credited to Steve Ditko? Who knows? Should Unusual Tales #18 go down in comics history as a prototype of Thor? Only Kirby, Lee, Ditko, and an unknown writer can tell. It’s an interesting discovery in comics. If what I have discovered becomes part of Marvel’s history, I hope that a crappy comic such as Unusual Tales #18 doesn’t go up in value. Leave it as an interesting historical note and let the comic stay in the 25¢ bin. ★ 13

Thinkin’ ’bout inkin’

Joe Sinnott: An

Interviewed and transcribed by Jim Amash

(next page, top) Photo of Joe Sinnott at his drawing board in 1961, around the time he would’ve been inking Journey Into Mystery #83.

(Not much needs to be said to Kirby fans about the credentials of Joe Sinnott. Hailed by many as Jack’s finest inker, Joe is also an accomplished penciler in his own right, and drew many of Thor’s early adventures after Jack got the ball rolling, as well as inking numerous artists who followed Kirby on the strip. Joe kindly consented to discuss

his long tenure with the character for this issue, and this interview was conducted in April 2002 by telephone.) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: You inked Thor’s first appearance in Journey Into Mystery #83. JOE: Yes, I did. I also inked the cover to it and #84, though for years, Dick Ayers has received those credits. The nice thing about

Asgardian Artist inking Jack Kirby was that you got the whole story at once. Most pencilers don’t do that; they give it to you in dribbles and drabs and not always in sequential order. I was extremely impressed by Jack’s splash pages for this book. Jack was great at those. TJKC: Did Stan talk to you about the character before you inked this story? JOE: Nope. Stan would never do that. I never talked to Jack about it. Of course, you know I didn’t have any contact with Jack until the 1975 Marvel convention. I had never even talked to him on the phone and we had been working together since 1961; I inked a couple of things in 1960. I never discussed scripts with Stan or Jack. They figured I was a professional and that I should handle it. Even when I penciled the stories, Stan never called to discuss the scripts—even when the pencils were a little vague (I’m not talking about Jack’s work now), like if a character was supposed to be smiling or sneering or whatever, because there were no captions or dialogue to follow. I’d be left in the dark and had to figure it out myself. TJKC: Do you remember if Kirby wrote margin notes for Stan on the first Thor story? JOE: A lot of times, Stan would write margin notes, too, and Stan’s lettering was very hard to understand sometimes. It’s been a long time, but I don’t remember Jack writing any margin notes on that story. As far as I can remember, Jack never wrote

any margin notes to me. TJKC: Since Larry Lieber wrote the dialogue for this first story, that may explain why there were no margin notes. JOE: It could be. In the early days, Jack was working off of full scripts, so there was no need at the time for Jack to make margin notes. Stan would write notes in the margins sometimes. In those days, I erased my pages so thoroughly, that a lot of those notes disappeared. I know collectors today wish they could read those notes. TJKC: Yeah, but how were you supposed to know it’d be important years later? JOE: Of course. We couldn’t care less back in those days. TJKC: What was your initial reaction to Thor? JOE: I thought he was terrific. I liked the idea of Don Blake stamping his cane on the floor and turning into Thor. It was like Shazam!, the original Captain Marvel. TJKC: I always thought Thor was invented to be Marvel’s answer to Superman. Marvel didn’t have a super-strong, good-looking hero before that. You know, the Thing was ugly and the Hulk was no prize either. Thor had a blue uniform like Superman and also had the red cape, too. JOE: That’s true. Of course, Thor was nothing without his hammer, you know. I never made that connection with Superman, though. TJKC: Thor was the first long-haired super-hero. JOE: He sure was. Jack drew him so well and John Buscema did a great Thor. They did great, well-built superheroes. Jack Kirby and John Buscema were made for Thor much more than they were for Spider-Man. TJKC: Since this was pre-Beatles, did you think the long hair was odd? JOE: No, he had to have long hair, because he was a Viking. TJKC: And with that helmet, he’d have looked funny with short hair. JOE: Right. I think Roy Thomas eliminated the helmet for a while, which to

me was like taking the “S” off of Superman’s chest. The helmet, long hair and cape gave Thor a real flair. I always liked drawing characters with capes. It lends a lot of action to the panel, as does Thor’s long hair and the wings on his helmet. It was a great character design. You know, I’ve done so many characters for Marvel and sometimes, you go a while where you don’t work on a certain character. Well, that character’s costume may change a little over time and if you don’t have recent reference, you may not be aware of the changes. You remember that Thor originally had a “T” on his belt buckle? Well, one time, I was drawing Thor and my son Mark, who knows all about these things, looked at the drawing and said, “Dad, Thor doesn’t have that ‘T’ on the belt buckle anymore. That went out with issue so and so.” [laughs] TJKC: You did a slight bit of work on Journey Into Mystery #84, right? JOE: Right. I inked the cover to #84, though Dick Ayers usually gets the credit. I started to ink the inside story, but had committed myself to a sixtyfour page Treasure Chest story, so I had to send the story back to Stan. I only inked a couple of panels. You know, I never inked the splash page first, even if I had the whole story. I always started with page two and the splash page would always be the last page I’d ink. TJKC: Why was that? JOE: I don’t know. I figured I was on a roll, so to speak. Some people peter out when they’ve got twenty pages or so, but I felt I was getting stronger because I was more into the character. I did the splash last so my strongest work was seen first, and I never start inking at the top of the page. I always start from the bottom up. I read in Draw! magazine where Dick Giordano said he started at panel one and then went to panel two, and so forth. I didn’t do that. Many years ago, I discovered that by inking from the bottom up, you didn’t get the moisture from your hand or arm on the page and smear the pencils. Of course, back in those days, we didn’t have air conditioning and it’d get hot in the room. It was like slave labor back then, Jim. There were times that it was so hot and my studio was upstairs, that I used to take my drawing board outside, under the shade of a big maple tree and ink there. TJKC: It’s funny, but I ink the same way, from the bottom up, though I usually work on two pages at a time. While one is drying, I’m working on another. JOE: So do I. I didn’t so much in the old days but I did in more recent times. 15

TJKC: You did the complete art on five Thor stories (JIM #91, 92, 94-96). How did you get that assignment? JOE: I don’t know. Back in those days, it wasn’t a big deal. Stan was always looking for a new trend. Even when the Fantastic Four came into being, it was just another book being knocked out. I assume it was the same way with Spider-Man and Thor. I’m sure Stan thought they were great. We didn’t expect much from them in regards to newsstand sales. We did them as quickly as we could because we had to make a living. TJKC: Right, but you have Kirby doing all this drawing and co-plotting.... JOE: Well, I wonder if he co-plotted back in those days, though. TJKC: I’ve always been under the impression that he did, except perhaps when he worked with Larry Lieber. But Jack obviously had input into the creation

of Thor and then he leaves the feature. Al Hartley drew one story and you did five of them. JOE: That’s a good question because it wasn’t far from the beginning of the feature. Stan didn’t call me and tell me what was coming. In those days, he’d just send me a full script and I’d draw it. He just sent me a Thor story and I drew it... it wasn’t a big deal, you know. TJKC: I notice Larry Lieber and Robert Bernstein wrote the Thor stories you drew. JOE: Yes, they did, but I didn’t have any contact with them. They wrote full scripts and I drew them. TJKC: Didn’t you find it odd that Loki was the villain in three of the five Thor stories you drew? JOE: I noticed that. I wondered why I was drawing Loki so much. He was a great character, though. TJKC: Well, let’s face it. Lieber and Bernstein were not Jack Kirby.

JOE: Who was? TJKC: One of the villains was Sandu, who was a Merlin type of character. Did you design his costume? JOE: Yes, I did. Stan might have made a note that Sandu was a Merlin type of character, with a dunce cap on top of his head. [laughs] TJKC: As you know, Loki was the half-brother of Thor and it was an unusual concept for comic books to have brothers as enemies. JOE: Yes, it was, but back in those days, I don’t think too many artists really read the stories. We worked so fast that we didn’t get involved with the characters like we did later. That wasn’t the case with Kirby, but it was for many others. I liked everything about Thor. It was a great concept. TJKC: Did you follow the scripts very closely? JOE: Yes, I did, to a great extent. When you have a full script... imagine you have Spider-Man leaping off a fire escape onto three muggers. Well, I could draw that a hundred different ways. Stan wouldn’t tell me how to draw it, he would just set the scene and maybe tell you if it was at night. Everything else was left up to me. I had artistic license to stage scenes as I wanted. TJKC: Did Lieber and Bernstein give you any stage direction or did they write like Stan did? JOE: They didn’t give me any stage direction. I think even Larry kept things to a minimum. Back in those days, scripts were written very simply. TJKC: So you got scripts that gave you the story panel by panel, page by page, with dialogue, but no stage direction? JOE: That’s right, unless it was a very important panel, but that was the exception and not the rule. TJKC: Since you didn’t work in the offices, I take it you never met Robert Bernstein. Did you know Larry Lieber? JOE: I never met Bernstein but I was friends with Larry. I liked his writing. Stan had a real flair in his writing and a good sense of humor. I thought Larry wrote good stories. They were right to the point... no frills. TJKC: I noticed in Journey Into Mystery #96, you actually drew President Kennedy and his press secretary Pierre Salinger. JOE: Well, they were easy to do. TJKC: I thought it was unusual because most artists, like Jack Kirby, didn’t do that. They generally kept faces of Presidents in the shadows or hidden behind a lamp or something. That seems to have been a tradition in comics for the most part, which you broke. JOE: I like drawing real people. You could put President Roosevelt in shadow and show his cigarette holder, so people’d know who he was. But I feel like I do good likeness and actually showing the people adds to the reality of the situation. However, I believe in silhouettes. They were dramatic and lend themselves to certain scenes, as you very well know. Caniff was the best at that. TJKC: When you drew those stories, you gave Thor a long handle on his hammer. Jack did, too, but you seemed to run with the idea. When Jack came back

TJKC: Maybe so, because when Jack came back to Thor, Lee and Kirby started delving further into the mythological aspects of the feature. You didn’t do Thor again until those few “Inhumans” back-up stories. JOE: I only have a vague memory of doing those stories. I didn’t ink Thor again until Neal Adams did a couple of stories. That’s when Jack left Marvel. TJKC: I’ve heard that Neal Adams requested that you ink them.

to the feature, he shortened the length of the hammer. JOE: Jack sure did. It certainly got shorter over the years. I loved the idea of Thor throwing his hammer. It seems like Thor did more with the hammer in the early days than he did later on. My son Mark and I were looking over some of the old stories a while back and I said, “Look how long that hammer is. It looks like a sledgehammer.”

JOE: That could be. Neal’s pencils were beautiful and the pages came from his studio. I noticed there was a difference between the foreground figures and the background figures, so I thought he had help on those stories. The foregrounds were unbelievable... Neal was a tremendous artist and I got a lot of satisfaction inking him. TJKC: His work was a little more photographic than what you were used to inking and you looked great on his work. JOE: You know who else was photographic in his work? Gene Colan. I inked some Captain Americas with Gene and Sol Brodsky called me and said, “You know, Joe, we can’t get over how wonderful Captain America looks. You did a great job on Colan.” I thought he was just pulling my leg and wanted a favor or something. [mutual laughter] Gene’s pencils were a lot finer than his inks. He had a beautiful line.

TJKC: It did, but that long arm made it possible for you to exaggerate the action. JOE: That’s possible. Looking back on some of those stories makes me wish I’d have taken more time on them. But in those days, you had to knock the stuff out in order to make a living. I’d pencil a page in the morning and ink it in the afternoon. After supper, I’d ghost ink a couple of Archie pages for Jon D’Agostino. I did that for a number of years. I was also doing covers for a crossword puzzle magazine publisher. I only had so much time to spend on the Marvel stuff because I couldn’t give up my other assignments. Those people were depending on me, too. I used to juggle a lot of assignments. TJKC: I’ve always been curious about why you added those black triangles to Thor’s wristbands. JOE: I thought they looked good. I thought it added an extra dimension to the costume. TJKC: Do you remember how much you were paid a page for Thor? JOE: Yes, and it’s embarrassing. In 1961, when I inked Fantastic Four #5, I was paid ten dollars a page. TJKC: And Jack was making around twenty-five dollars a page for pencils and plotting. JOE: Oh, I know it. I jumped up to ten dollars and it stayed there for a while. When the books started selling Stan was very good about bumping up my rates. Stan was very generous in that respect. Thor was right after the FF, in 1962, so I got ten dollars a page for inking the first story. When I did the complete art on Thor, I was making $22 a page. I made a little more for doing the covers. TJKC: Do you know why you were taken off of Thor and why Kirby started drawing the feature again? JOE: I can’t imagine why. It probably was because I was so busy doing Treasure Chest and I loved doing those books and they were my main account at the time. Maybe Jack wanted to come back on Thor?

TJKC: It must have been tough in a way because Colan adds a lot of halftones in his pencils that can’t be faithfully inked. JOE: True, but I always liked doing fineline inking. I had a good, steady hand... I still do. I really liked inking Gene Colan.

(previous page) Joe’s inks over Kirby pencils for the “Inhumans” back-up in Thor #152 (May 1968). (above) A trio of Kirby inkers, left to right: Frank Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, and Mike Esposito in 1969. Photo courtesy of Joe Sinnott. (left) Joe got the chance to ink Kirby’s Thor again much later, on this cover to Invaders #32 (Sept. 1978). (below) Immediately after Kirby left Thor, Joe was assigned to ink Neal Adams for his two-issue stay on the title (#180181, Sept.-Oct. 1970). Shown here are Joe’s inks over Neal’s pencils. All characters shown TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

TJKC: Did ever hear anything back about your inks over Neal Adams? JOE: No. TJKC: Then Neal Adams leaves and John Buscema takes over. JOE: He wasn’t a bad replacement. [laughs] His brother Sal was a very good inker on John, you know. I always got great satisfaction out of the work I did, especially when I had good brushes and good pens. As you know, it’s tough to do a good job when you don’t have good equipment. TJKC: I think most of your inks over Adams were brushwork. JOE: Yes, about 85% of it was brushwork. Same with Kirby, but then the paper got bad at Marvel and my pen would pick up paper when I inked. 17

The paper was absorbent and the brushwork would seep in and I’d have to go over it again. The Fantastic Four was my favorite book at Marvel and the Thing, my favorite character, but Thor runs a close second. I liked everybody I inked on Thor. Ron Frenz drew a great Thor. He did some nice foreshortening of figures and told a good story. Ron doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his Thor work. John Buscema did a great Thor. He was tremendous. We did some great stories. TJKC: Compare and contrast Kirby’s and Buscema’s Thor work. JOE: Buscema was always the first to say, “Nobody could tell a story like Jack could.” Jack gave Thor a majestic, mythological essence. It was dynamic. Jack would draw four or five panels on a page and every panel was a splash panel. Everything was dramatic, even if it was only a head shot in a panel. It told the story. Jack’s work was more forceful than Buscema’s. John was really an illustrator. Nobody could draw anatomy like John could. John drew Thor’s physical structure like nobody else. I always felt John drew characters that looked like himself. John had these nostrils that flared and a slight hook in his nose, as did his characters. John looked like one of Michelangelo’s statues. It’s hard to differentiate between the two because nobody did a better Thor than Kirby. Buscema’s Thor stands on its own. TJKC: I thought Buscema took Kirby’s set designs and made them more naturalistic. JOE: Of course. Kirby’s stuff was more comic book-like than Buscema’s. Buscema was so realistic and he’d have been great on Prince Valiant. Buscema was greatly influenced by Hal Foster. When John drew Thor in a tavern with dancing girls, they looked alive. Buscema drew better characters than Kirby did. Kirby’s characters were not as individualistic as Buscema’s. One of my favorite things that I inked over John was the Warriors Three story in Marvel Spotlight #30. There was an old hobo in there and John treated him so well. I had a good brush at that time and did a good job, and John could go from that to Ms. Marvel, which we did together. John did a beautiful Ms. Marvel. He never did a bad job. When he drew the Silver Surfer, his pencils were complete like Kirby’s. Every button was drawn and all the blacks were filled in. Later on, when John’s pencils got looser, he was 18

easy to ink. It’d just be outlines of figures but I knew what he wanted. Everything was constructed. It was no problem for me... I could ink it just as well as when he did full pencils. TJKC: Would you have liked the opportunity to have come back and done the complete art on Thor? JOE: To me, comics were always a business. I never asked for any assignment from Marvel and I could have at any time. The editors told me that. But I was a good company man and I thought I was

helping Marvel by doing whatever they handed me. It never occurred to me to go back and do full stories again. If I had, I would have wanted to ink my pencils. I’m proud of my association with Thor. I was happy to work on him as long as I did. ★ (Be back next issue, when Joe Sinnott and Mike Royer present a first of its kind tutorial; “How To Ink Kirby!”) (below) Sinnott inked penciler John Buscema on an amazing run of Thor stories, such as this one from #186.

Adam M c Govern

As A Genre

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

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

FUN & GAMES

ake light of the King, will you? Well, they do call ’em “funny books” after all, and our sovereign was neither averse to comedy of the intentional kind nor immune to the unintentional variety. Hence, this issue’s compendium of a million laughs (give or take a hundred thousand) at our leader’s service and occasional expense.

Superpower Conflict Two issues ago we spotlighted AC Comics’ satirical Cold War commie-crusher, Fighting Yank. In addition to the Lee/Kirby extravaganzas that title evoked, another hallmark of 1960s media was the “equal time” doctrine, in which any political perspective presented on TV had to be balanced with its opposite. Just in time to be true to period etiquette, we received a package from the ambitious Scotland-based independent Rough Cut Comics previewing their hilarious Freedom Collective, a note-perfect paralleluniverse parody exploring how it would read if Lee and Kirby had produced Avengers #1 in Communist Russia. The book’s humor and homage are equally on target, as the transformer-like MiG-4, the Hulk-ish manimal Mastodon, the Asgard-worthy ice goddess Ajys, the soil-commanding sentient stoneheap Homeland, and the CaptainAmerica-gone-wrong Krimson Kommisar set out against a fortress-like White House and its sinister occupant in a grainy pulp blockbuster you’ll swear Kirby and Ayers knocked out one afternoon when it looked like the U.S. would lose the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the best tradition of Alan Moore-level recombinant pop, the book is a pointed pastiche which is also so thoroughly imagined that it serves as a serious stand-alone creation—though even the creators can be thankful that the Freedom Collective never, um, beat the original. Brought to you by El Sloano, Colin Barr and Dominic Regan, this (hopefully not just) one-shot is available from Rough Cut Comics, www.roughcutcomics.com.

Like a Vermin Homage and gentle irreverence toward the King seem to be a universal language; from Scotland with laughs we go to Italy, and Leo Ortolani’s Rat-Man. In past issues this column and correspondent Stefano Priarone have covered Ortolani’s hapless hero in his encounter with a thinly disguised Fantastic Four and in a hilarious Silver Surfer send-up (the Rodent of Righteousness’ only known misadventure yet translated into English). Ortolani is keeping himself in the Kirby-homage headlines with a multi-part secret origin of Rat-Man modeled after Captain America comics from the 1940s onward—the strongest embodiment yet of Ortolani’s love for the American branch of the artform. The images reproduced here give a taste; now will someone return this compliment with the main 19

course of a Stateside edition?

requisite Simpsons-y Play-Doh/claymation faces, and the King puts in a kind of off-camera cameo with inexplicable high-tech props inscribed “KirbyCo Giant Equipment Rental,” but the real homage was to his circa-’62 storytelling style, segmented into thrilling chapters and straining at its grid-like panel placement (with no small amount of Ditko-ish melodrama and Leeesque soap-opera soliloquies filling things out). Scan the racks and let writer Batton Lash and his rotating co-conspirators bring you decades of enjoyment!

Jack In! Anyone who read a mainstream comic this spring has seen it—an uncannily Kirbyesque ad for a computer game called Freedom Force. At least one correspondent has assumed it was by Kirby (which would make his abilities even more amazing than we thought), but in fact it’s a first-rate homage (the secret identity behind this and scores of other inventive images being Robb Waters, Irrational Games’ designer extraordinaire and TJKC ’s longtime follower). The game is an inspired recombinant pastiche of mid-20th century super-heroes, imaginative in design and witty in concept, stateof-the-art in both elaborate gameplay and Silver Age satire. Click to the website at www.myfreedomforce.com and you’ll find a labor-of-love cache of intricate backstories, pulpy mock pop-up ads that recall the dubious sea-monkey come-ons of yore, and even limited animations straight out of some paralleluniverse season of the early-’60s Marvel cartoons—not to mention downloadable additions galore to the game you actually purchase. A competitor for any archetypal retro comic on the market, and packed with more ideas than many counterparts on either page or screen, Freedom Force is worthy of acclaim and ripe for some enterprising comics licensor. Why should adolescent-at-heart Tomb Raider fans have all the anachronistic fun?

Stupid Superhuman Tricks For endearing humor it’s also hard to go wrong with Peter Laird, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and he applied it to the Kirby heritage in the short-lived Stupidheroes title from his and Turtles collaborator Kevin

Homeric Accomplishments All connoisseurs of comedy should take a closer look at the “kids” shelf in their local comics shop (or even, wonder of wonders, still many normal newsstands) and check out “Bart Simpson’s Favorite Comic Book” and one of mine, Radioactive Man, from Matt Groening’s own Bongo Comics brand. Every issue offers side-splitting period-piece parodies, from early ’60s DC camp classics to early’70s “relevant” Marvel freakouts and beyond. Sometimes the humor is so on-target it hurts—the current issue #575’s revisitation of the drably grim, better-leftpoly-bagged mid-’80s threatens to be as comainducing as the real thing, but stick with it for subtle laughs as each uninspired yet pretentious sentence goes epically wrong. “Issue #575?” you say—“To survive past issue #6 in this market it must be good!” Well, yes and no—it’s good enough to run past 500 issues, but they’re actually numbered out of sequence in keeping with whatever time period is ready for the torture chamber that month, the styles and trends falling at random off the teetering back-issue heap and into the creative team’s repressed memory like chapters from an even funnier and much less affectionate Tom Strong. Not that a load of affection doesn’t also underlie re-creations this close; as early as the second—excuse me, 88th—issue, the book was honoring Kirby (bittersweetly, in the same month that the company had to run his obituary), with the Silver Age saga “The Molten Menace of Magmo the Lava Man.” The artists worked in as much of Kirby’s squiggling sheen as they could around the

Eastman’s imprint Mirage. The book dealt with geneticallyenhanced superbeings and their technologicallyequipped human competitors in a world where the spandexed “specials” often succumb to a mysterious brain illness which turns them increasingly violent and, yes, stupid—a condition certainly running rampant (with less self-awareness) in many of the comics sharing this one’s late ’80s/early ’90s period. Laird met it with charm, wit, and a healthy dose of irreverence toward the old-fashionedness those descriptions might have entailed at the time. It was all filtered through the

model of Kirby’s style and sensibility; inventive, outsized, and admirably faithful to the original’s classic characteristics and sense of newness. Laird—in this case creating, writing, drawing and inking— paid equal homage to Kirby’s inspirations and his quirks (including the selfconscious, scare-quoted semi-hip jargon and the baroque action-painting patterns of craggy shadows and snakepit squiggles), and while it’s true that the series took itself more seriously as it went on, it would be hard for any creator not to feel growing affection for so fun and creative a storyline and cast of characters. The Mirage stable was part of a short, sidebar golden age well worth tracking down. Follow the trail at www.ninjaturtles.com.

The Vampire Bit Speaking of venerable ’80s icons, another one passes through the Kirbyverse in an issue of Elvira from September 2000. Alongside his guise as the mild-mannered proofreader of the major metropolitan Kirby ’zine you now hold in your hands, Richard Howell fights conformity as the editor of intrepid indie imprint Claypool Comics, where this homage took place. In the midst of a several-issue interdimensional chase sequence, the Mistress of the Dark encounters some suspiciously familiar deities in issue #89. But far from the style and identity of the old New Gods, she and these “Neo-Deos” seem to be trapped in one of the endless string of Fourth World revivals, complete with a trés Paris Cullins-lookin’ Orion stand-in—though there’s a good bit of early Mad too, as the hippie-ish Highfather almostlookalike keeps not noticing his mystic staff undergoing one-panel changes into a classic guitar, traffic light, etc. Some remnants of the real thing are all too recognizable, though, including a celestial tendency to overuse quotation marks that our heroine mistakes for a “speech impediment” (in that case I’m actually quoting). This Farce World fragment can be quested for at www.claypoolcomics.com.

Kirby As a Character Stories featuring cameos or even built around appearances by the King himself have become a subgenre of our Kirby sightings. In an earlier issue we detailed the meeting with a godlike Kirby in an imaginative heaven of his own making in Alan Moore and Rick Veitch’s Supreme #6, and many readers of this magazine will be familiar with the Kirby dead-ringer Dan Turpin in Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s Superman animated series. The earliest entry in the form may be a 1986 one-shot of Ninja Turtle Donatello by Eastman and Laird. The tale recounted the adventurous amphibian’s encounter with a mysterious basement boarder who has found a mystic implement that makes his fanciful drawings come to life. Eventually the pair travel through a modern-day looking glass where the boarder (whose first name seems to be “Kirby”) saves

some never-never-landish inhabitants from the too-real-for-comfort beasties he’d innocently sketched, pushing Donatello back into reality at the end while himself becoming stranded in his world of fantasy—a gentle tribute which, read now, seems more like a poignant epitaph. More recently, a character named King Jack has been appearing in Al Nickerson & friends’ online comic The Arggh!!! Chronicles (www.arggh.com—no exclamation points). The character pops in both to lend a hand with Saving the Space-Time Continuum As We Know It and dispense commentaries like some evil twin of Fred Hembeck. This Kirby comes across like one of the toughguy drill sergeants he spent most of his career satirizing (gently and otherwise). It’s hard to imagine the real world’s inexhaustibly charitable King holding forth on what current comics suck, and for the creator of some of popculture’s most effeminate-and-proudof-it supermen (Thor, Lightray) to rail against “Nancy boys” is something I won’t believe till I hear a supernatural tape recording. But then, the Kirby catalogue is our industry’s Bible, and what’s a sacred text without someone out there making it say what they want it to? ★

Young Guns

John Romita Jr. Speaks Conducted and transcribed by Eric Nolen-Weathington (Being the son of one of the artistic legends of Marvel Comics can be tough shoes to fill, but John Romita Jr. has managed just fine, thank you! After early successes on X-Men and other Marvel strips—including Spider-Man, the one most identified with his father—JR Jr. has become a fan favorite, and recently completed a run on Thor himself. This interview took place by telephone in April 2002.) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: How old were you when you decided to follow in your dad’s footsteps? JOHN ROMITA JR.: You mean as a comic book artist? TJKC: Yeah.

JOHN: That was actually later on. Let’s see... I was in my early teens, but I had been drawing since I was a lot younger than that. I guess I realized I wanted to be a cartoonist when I was about 12 or 13. TJKC: Did you go in to the Marvel offices with your dad much? (above) Recent photo of JR Jr., courtesy of the artist. For more on the artist and his famous father, check out Comic Book Artist #20 (featuring the Romitas and the Kuberts in a special Fathers & Sons issue), on sale now from TwoMorrows.

(right, and next page, top) John Jr.’s pencils from his one-shot DC/Marvel collaboration Thorion, featuring his melding of the Fourth World and Thor mythologies. All characters TM & ©2002 DC Comics and Marvel Characters, Inc.

JOHN: Yeah, during the Summer I’d go up and hang out with him all day and sit and just watch. TJKC: Did you get to meet Kirby before he moved out to California? JOHN: I actually did. It was a brief meeting; I met Stan and Marie Severin and a lot of people up in the office—Herb Trimpe— great, great people. TJKC: You’ve mentioned that your three big influences were your dad, Kirby, and John Buscema—. JOHN: In the comics field, yes, absolutely. TJKC: So what was it about Kirby that you liked so much? What did you get from him? JOHN: I guess it was the complicated machinery and the power of it. My father always admired Kirby’s work. I think in the context of me being an awestruck kid, the three artists—John Romita, John Buscema, and Jack Kirby—I was lucky enough to see those three guys up-

close, artwork-wise. I’d see their pencils, copies of it from my father who would bring it home. So I think the influence may have been just, right off the bat, boom, this is what I saw because my father worked in the business. If I’d seen other guys’ stuff as an impressionable teenager, maybe they would have been impressed upon me. But at first it was because that was there; that’s what my father showed me. And then realizing the quality of the work shortly after—the power of Kirby, the grace of Buscema, and the out-and-out brilliance of my father—it was pretty easy to pick up, even for a non-impressionable kid. TJKC: Was there any particular title that really stood out more than others for you? JOHN: Well, with my father it was the first cover I saw him do with Daredevil, which was Daredevil #12, and that story about Ka-Zar and the Plunderer. That locked me in to the comics industry. When I heard the story—he [Romita Sr.] explained the whole

story to me, and I was very, very young when he was doing that cover—I think I was 8. You know, before that he was doing romance comics. When I saw Daredevil being surrounded by a bunch of guys with guns and then Ka-Zar up in the tree, I asked the questions, “How can he possibly get out of this? What’s going on? Why is he—?” He explained the whole thing to me and I was locked in there. When I started following the comics and he would bring stuff home, then it was the Kirby stuff—Fantastic Four and Thor and Captain America. Specifically I don’t remember which storylines, but later on, I read the whole run of Fantastic Four by Kirby from start to finish—the back issues and then the current issues. After I got them completed and he got off the Fantastic Four, I would read them over again; and Buscema’s stuff on SubMariner and, of course, his further work—and naturally my father’s stuff, which was ever-present, that was easy to follow. Specific storylines I don’t remember because there were so many that I read, but Dr. Doom against the Fantastic Four and then Galactus against the Fantastic Four, that stuff absolutely floored me. TJKC: So you must have been pretty popular as a kid. “Yeah, my dad draws Spider-Man.” JOHN: [laughs] There was a novelty effect; not as big as you might think, because I had a lot of friends who didn’t really pay attention to it at that time. In retrospect they look back and say, “Wow. You were lucky. You did that and you did this.” But it wasn’t a huge—it was enough to be a conversation piece and keep me out of the awkward stage with people. TJKC: When you got started with Thor, you actually did that Amalgam crossover, Thorion of the New Asgods, first. How did you get involved with that? Was it assigned to you or was it something you requested? JOHN: Yeah, somebody asked if I wanted to do it. Simple as that—Tom Brevoort—and then doing that I got the urge to do Thor and I threw my hat into the ring. Simple as that. TJKC: And you did the first two years of the Thor relaunch, right? JOHN: Correct. TJKC: So you were requesting that assignment then? JOHN: Yeah, once there was an opening. It happened to coincide with me

doing Thorion. Yes, I asked to work on it, that’s correct. TJKC: So how was working with Dan Jurgens on that book? JOHN: Oh, it was a blast. He absolutely left me a lot of room to play with and we had a great time. TJKC: Yeah, I noticed you used a lot of big panels and spreads and things. JOHN: Yeah, it was excellent. I think he was as much into that kind of—’cause he’s an artist as well as a writer. I think he envisioned a lot of that, too. TJKC: Were you looking back at the Kirby work, the early Thors? JOHN: Absolutely. A lot of it is reference for style and feeling, because of the two chefs. It helped out. A major amount of it is because of Kirby. TJKC: Did you have any input in the storyline? JOHN: Actually, no. Dan Jurgens gets the credit for all the storyline. TJKC: Did you have any regrets leaving the title? JOHN: Yeah, I do. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it as consistently as I did the first two years, but it was by happenstance and a little bit of bad luck that I got off of it. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it as much as the first two, but I do regret getting off of it after only two. I think I would like to have stayed longer. It’s just I had an opportunity to do something, made that decision, and it fell through, so... it was bad luck. TJKC: It ended up pretty well, because you’re doing Spider-Man. JOHN: Well, I had been doing Spider-Man anyway, but it was a chance to do both titles at the time and people said, “Yes, you can.” It just didn’t work out that way. TJKC: You were a good fit for Thor, because you draw big, solid bodies. JOHN: Right, I lean towards those types of characters. ★ 23

Gallery

Gallery Guide (pages 24-31) Pencil pages from Thor #144 (Sept. 1967). (pages 32-33) Pencil pages from Thor #147 (Dec. 1967). (pages 34-40) Pencil pages from Thor #152 (May 1968). (pages 41-44) Pencil pages from Thor #154 (July 1968). (pages 45-46) Pencil pages from Thor #156 (Sept. 1968). (pages 47-49) Pencil pages from Thor #157 (Oct. 1968). (page 50) Cover pencils from Thor #250 (Aug. 1976) and #251 (Sept. 1976). (this page) Cover pencils from Thor #252 (Oct. 1976) and #255 (Jan. 1977). All characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Retrospective

The Quest! (right) A slightly modified version of the inside cover art from Tales of Asgard #1 (Oct. 1968).

(below) The saga begins (JIM #97, Oct. 1963). Like Harold Foster’s Prince Valiant strip, “ToA”’s absence of dialogue balloons (and Kirby’s bookillustration” style of art) gave the series’ early installments an added visual panache.

the

power and

(next page, top) Before Kirby and Lee returned to Journey Into Mystery with “Tales of Asgard,” the Thor strip lacked the dynamics and intensity it deserved. This panel from Journey Into Mystery #90 (March 1963) shows perhaps the series’ weakest point.

(far right) Page 2 pencils from the “Tales of Asgard” story in Journey Into Mystery #111 (Dec. 1964).

pageantry of

Thor’s eternal homeland

examined (from midgard) by

Mark Alexander!

Prologüe “Beware! The day of Ragnarok draws ever closer!” —Volla, the Prophetess, Thor #127, April 1966

n the Year of Our Lord 1963, readers of Journey Into Mystery should have been wondering why The Mighty Thor, an immortal deity, was wasting his time battling contrived communist stereotypes, and run-of-the-mill gangsters with names like “Thug Thatcher.” When the son of Odin wasn’t busy pursuing small-time hoods (or costumed criminals who were far beneath him), he spent his time pining over a registered nurse. It all seemed rather uninspired. Kirby and Lee, Marvel’s protean creative duo, had pulled out of the series early, leaving the fate of their Thunder God in the hands of various other writers and artists, often with disastrous results. Meanwhile, something odd and wondrous was happening, in Journey Into Mystery’s back pages. Out of nowhere, in issue #97, a Lee/ Kirby back-up series called “Tales of Asgard” appeared. This five-page “featurette” (which often outshone the book’s main feature) would become the key to Thor’s future success. Its unassuming, yet oddly-impressive debut gave hints of its later potential; and if its

creators seemed unsure of where the series was going, where it had come from was notably evident, if one cared to trek back to 1937.

I: In The Days Of King Arthur “The pauper prince captures a horse, constructs his own armor, then sets out to become a knight.” —Harold Foster, Prince Valiant, Feb. 1937 In 1937, Harold Foster, who for six years had produced a daily newspaper strip based on E.R. Burroughs’ Tarzan, switched to a story of his own. Prince Valiant was the tale of a young knight in the time of King Arthur, and it appeared when the comic book was barely a year old. Unlike the comics, which usually told a story with illustrations and elliptical speech-indicators

known as “dialogue balloons,” Foster’s strip employed classically rendered drawings, which were accompanied only by captions (thereby leaving his highly-regarded artwork unmolested). This style of narration lent itself to the quasimythical themes in the subject matter, and gave Foster’s sequences a “once upon a time” quietude and grace. In interviews over the years, both Lee and Kirby have expressed glowing admiration for Foster’s Prince Valiant, and “Tales of Asgard” seems to have its genesis in this elegant, oldworld series. Its influence is reflected in Lee’s absence of word balloons, and Kirby’s attempt at a neo-classic “book-illustration” style of drawing, in “ToA”’s first three installments. This Hal Foster/Prince Valiant approach was to be shortlived. By JIM #100 (Jan. 1964), a new-phase of “ToA” had begun, and the creators decided that traditional dialogue balloons would be necessary after all. Their decision was most likely triggered by two events: A change in “ToA”’s storyline (to “the boyhood of Thor”), and an ingenious stroke of scripting by Stan Lee.

economics of a five-page format didn’t leave room for his usual soap-opera dramatics: nor did the savagery and barbarianism inherent in Kirby’s panels. In a “mini-series” such as this, characterization—by necessity—boiled down to two distinctions: good or evil. In this fabled realm of demigods, temples, and titans, Donald Blake didn’t exist (nor did “Jane-mydarling” Foster). Consequently, Lee broke the bonds of habit, and syrupy melodrama gave way to a highminded tone of writing, which reminded the reader that these were tales of veritable gods, not just costumed crimefighters. With this newfound Shakespearean eloquence (bereft of his usual clichés), Stan had responded effectively to Kirby’s newly-expanded scope and vision. By doing so, Lee had carved a significant niche for himself in Jack Kirby’s Asgard.

III: Jack Kirby’s Asgard: An Artist’s Venue With the advent of this new series (and its new realms), Kirby was called upon to create strange, sprawling vistas, and hordes of bizarre beings never before seen in a comics magazine. The only type of storylines that could do justice to these otherworldly (often-terrifying) terrains were sweeping sagas of mythic proportion; epic battles and heroic quests, with the cosmos themselves as a vast and boundless backdrop. While Journey Into Mystery’s main feature had Thor ensconced in New York, dealing with a secret-identity and a love-struck nurse, Kirby’s back pages wrestled with a concept far beyond anything comics previously had to offer: godhood itself. To effectively render his new Asgardian tableaux,

II: Shakespearean Soliloquizing In A 5-Page Format “You’re wrong, Loki! Merlin lies in a crypt at the museum, dead as a doornail!” —Thor, (as scripted by R. Berns), Journey Into Mystery #96 “I decided that I wanted our hammer-holder to speak like a god. And everyone knows that gods speak with biblical and Shakespearean phraseology.” —Stan Lee, 1991 It’s possible that the finest contribution Stan Lee ever made to Kirby’s artwork was the archaic scripting-style that he developed for Thor, which originated in “Tales Of Asgard.” Replete with “thees” and “thous,” it was usually referred to as “quasi-Biblical” or “neoShakespearean,” and it was ideally-suited for the Realm Eternal. It produced some of the finest pairings of art and dialogue ever rendered on a comics page: “Whate’er befalls, I shall not flinch!” cries the Thunder God. “Strike, thou creatures of darkness—Thor stands ready!” (“ToA,” Dec. 1965). This newly-inspired articulateness was a breath of fresh air from Lee. He realized that the 53

“Damon Runyon never wrote a more colorful character than Vinnie.” —Paul Levitz, Publisher, DC Comics (TJKC #29)

(above) Mystery solved? Is this unused Kirby page (right), first shown in TJKC #13, Kirby’s (early?) spin on Mogul’s “Jini” (seen here in Thor #140)? (below) Thor and his loyal followers quash an insurrection led by the mutinous God of Evil in Journey Into Mystery #122 (Nov. 1965). Kirby’s savage “battlescapes” left no room for Lee’s usual brand of melodramatic dialogue, or introspection. Characterization boiled down to the essence of good or evil. (next page) In “The Quest,” the shipboard scenes had an old-world grandeur and majesty that stole the show. All characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Kirby had to significantly expand the power and scope of his artwork, to equal the immensity of his exploding imagination. Suddenly free from the trappings of Earth, the artist could break the bonds of time, space, and reality to create visions of unprecedented spectacle and wonder. From “Tales of Asgard” sprang some of the most awe-inspiring, panoramic visuals ever to grace a comics page: Celestial scenes of opulent splendor and savage majesty; cataclysmic storms of fire and ice, turbulent winds, and raging seas. The beings that Kirby created to inhabit this timeless dimension were Viking gods and goddesses, trolls, dwarfs, monsters, giants, warriors, enchanters, and demons. The realms they roamed were mythic kingdoms and decadent empires of aeons past; startling in their imagery, distant, dreamlike, and endlessly atmospheric. This was the stuff of legends. Clearly, “Tales of Asgard” was more of an artist’s venue than any other Marvel title (including Thor itself ), and for the first time, Jack Kirby had found a perfect vehicle for his imagination. The only question was: Who would be best suited to ink it?

IV: Colletta (Asgard In Soft Focus) “The most important thing in the comic business was to meet your deadlines; no one did this better than Vince.” —Joe Sinnott (TJKC #28) “I had a saying: If I draw seven trees in a panel, he’ll do one, and erase the others.” —Dick Ayers (TJKC #28)

The initial look of Kirby and Lee’s enchanted realm was, in a word, uneven. This was due to a revolving-door succession of inkers, which Lee allowed to go unchecked for “ToA”’s first ten issues. Their roster was: Roussos (#97), Heck (#98), Roussos (#99), Reinman (#100), Roussos (#101), Reinman (#102), Stone (#103), Heck (#104), Roussos (#105), and (finally) Colletta (#106). It’s my conjecture that Roussos’ admittedly-rushed delineation worked surprising well on this strip; more so than it did on Marvel’s other titles. Reinman had a style that the fans didn’t like, and a good art director would never have kept him on. Heck did his usual job of making Kirby look more like Heck than Kirby, and Stone’s thick, tapered brush lines—which were perfect for “Captain America”—didn’t really fit the “sword and sorcery” motif of “Tales of Asgard.” This game of inkers playing musical chairs finally ended, when Vince Colletta walked through the doors of 625 Madison Avenue. Colletta, generally known as a romance comics artist (and a speed-demon inker who could be counted on to meet “doomsday” deadlines), had a delicate, linear style that was the result of using a fine-tipped pen instead of the conventional sablehair brush. Although Lee had been initially skeptical of Colletta’s abilities, the inker’s trial-run on “Tales of Asgard” made a believer of Stan. Colletta transformed Kirby’s dense pencil lines into thin, delicate feathering, giving Jack’s angular Asgardians a soft-edged grace that evoked Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant. It was just what Lee had been looking for. In later years, however, the underpaid inker adopted a lackadaisical approach (in Thor) to Kirby’s artwork. Consequently, many of Kirby’s detailed backgrounds were skipped over. Colletta took shortcuts, used assistants, and—most horrifically—erased some of the artist’s meticulously-rendered scenes. The price that Colletta paid for this was substantial. He would eventually become the most maligned inker in comics history. His detractors would insinuate that his ascendancy in comics was connected with the fact that he managed a stable of “men’s magazine” models. Rumors of questionable relationships—and favors from unsavory editors—abound. Whatever sins Colletta perpetrated in Thor aren’t nearly as evident in “Tales of Asgard,” where he gave the fabled realm a suitably archaic countenance and a “dreamworld” quality. His feathered figures imbued the artwork with an antiquated, slightly out-of-focus peculiarity. Colletta’s end result was Asgard, through a glass softly. In all likelihood, Vince Colletta’s long (arguably successful) run on Thor is what convinced National to hire him for Kirby’s New Gods project. The powers that be were probably—and wrongly—thinking that the Fourth World was going to be Asgard Revisited. In any event, for better or worse, “Tales of Asgard” had found its inker. Now all it needed to do was find a format.

V: Finding A Format (Experimentation & Development: The First 20 Issues) “I knew the Thor legends very well, but I wanted to modernize them.” —Jack Kirby Kirby’s familiarity with Asgardian themes may explain why he (and Stan) chose to explore Nordic myths in Journey Into Mystery, rather than the more popular Greek or Roman fables. The Roman/Greco gods had been exploited ad infinitum in both the classroom and the media, due in part to a series of campy 1960s Hercules movies starring Steve Reeves. Norse mythology, however, was still largely untapped for consumption by the American public. Lee (typically) claims it was his idea to exploit a 54

“god” theme, but considering that Kirby had already done Thor in a comic (Tales of the Unexpected #16, Aug. 1957), Stan’s recollection must be viewed skeptically at best (see sidebar). Whatever the impetus, “ToA” was a letters-page success, and the duo knew they were onto something with these revamped Nordic myths. Other than that, they had little idea what to do next; and so, for the next twenty months, a policy of experimentation and development was implemented. Despite its somewhat rambling narrative, “Tales of Asgard”’s first installment (JIM #97, Oct. 1963) succeeds as a departure from the established milieu. Its art and text was totally antithetical to the approach being used in Thor’s front pages, and thus a step in the right direction. In the premiere, Kirby introduces Ymir and Surtur (gods of ice and fire), whom Odin would vaporize in the following two episodes. “ToA”’s next phase, “the boyhood of Thor,” lasted four issues, after which the strip became an “in-depth biography” of Asgard’s gods and heroes (or as “in-depth” as one could get in the confines of five pages). Heimdall

was its harbinger, then Balder (along with Colletta) appeared. Thematic regression would manifest in the following four issues (#108-111), as “Thor’s boyhood” was resumed. Next, the bios reappeared with “The Coming of Loki,” where we learn that the trickstergod wasn’t born unto Odin after all (which concurs with classical mythology). Later, in a typical spate of absent-mindedness, the writers would reinstate the Luciferic Loki as Odin’s offspring. The blurb in issue #114 announced that the biography series was about to be “interrupted”—as if it had any continuity to begin with—to present “The Golden Apples,” which was “Little-Red-RidingHood” revamped as a Nordic myth, and one of Kirby’s least-impassioned efforts. Whether this was an intentional one-shot oddity, or (more likely), a failed experiment, is unclear. What was clear, was that “ToA”’s writers had nothing that even resembled a stable format at this point. The book’s theme— which had changed six times in eighteen issues— was about to mutate again, but not for the last time. Flying by the seat of his pants, as usual, Kirby

The Quest(-ion) (Once Again: Lee Or Kirby?) “I did an earlier version of Thor for DC in the 1950s before I did him for Marvel. I created Thor at Marvel because I was forever enamored of legends, which is why I knew about Balder, Heimdall, and Odin.” —Jack Kirby “Whence came the notion of making a super-hero out of the Norse god of thunder? I thought you’d never ask! It happened when I was a guest on a New York radio talk show. The interviewer kept referring to our colorful, costumed characters as our generation’s new mythology. Then, when he asked what new creation we were preparing, it all came together! Enter the world of myth! Come up with a god!” —Stan Lee, 1999 When one examines the genesis of almost any Silver Age Marvel character (with the sole exception of the Silver Surfer), it’s almost de rigueur to learn that a conflict of authorship exists between Lee and Kirby. Obviously, the exactness of who did what in these matters can never be ascertained unequivocally. All one can do is examine the facts, then reach their own conclusions. Over the years, both Kirby and Lee have each claimed (individually) that bringing the Norse god of thunder to the Marvel Universe was his idea; however, the aforementioned statement (by Lee) simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny (I digress). The standard Silver Age axiom is that it took (roughly) six months from a book’s conception to its cover date (unless the book was intentionally held back). This can be verified in numerous ways. E.g., this excerpt from “Stan’s Soapbox” appeared in FF #102 (cover date Sept. 1970): “At the time of this writing (early in March), Jack Kirby has unexpectedly announced his resignation...”. With this six-month timeline in mind, let’s assume that in the weeks immediately following Stan’s radio interview, he and Kirby produced JlM #83 (cover date, Aug. 1962). If you trace that cover date back six months (to Feb. 1962), it puts you somewhere right in-between FF #2 and #3, which at the time was a bi-monthly title (and remember, the more time that elapsed between this “radio show” and Thor’s conception, the further back it would place “the interview,” i.e., to the time of FF #1, or even before that). In February 1962—or the weeks thereabouts—Marvel had no (quote) “colorful, costumed characters.” Their only super-heroes at the time— the FF—wore street clothes. Moreover, in early 1962, why would any radio host want to interview Stan Lee? Sales figures from FF #1 were still months away, so why interview a small-time comics creator whose (nameless) operation was just barely solvent? On the other hand, Jack Kirby has given several interviews where he recalls that Norse mythology was ingrained into his formative years (see TJKC #26); conversely, Lee’s never made a single statement to this effect. Finally, when you consider that Kirby exploited “god themes” in comics many times before and after his tenure on Thor, it becomes evident that Kirby was, undoubtedly, the Silver Age thunder god’s chief architect. The fact that Lee has made numerous selfserving statements (like this one) after Kirby’s death is most unfortunate. He should simply admit that he can’t remember most of the details (regarding Marvel’s history) because back then it just didn’t seem important. ★

seemed to be drawing whatever he felt like for Journey Into Mystery’s end pages. Lack of focus continued, with a third (and fourth) installment of Loki’s biography, despite the fact that Heimdall and Balder were only given two-issue treatments. By now (JIM #116, May 1965), the writer’s arbitrariness bordered on ludicrous, and the series’ vagarious predilection seemed to threaten its very chances for survival. Then suddenly, it all came together. The short, simply-worded blurb on the splash page of Journey Into Mystery #117 said it all: “Beginning: one of the greatest sagas of all time!” Fortunately for the series’ sake, this wasn’t just hardsell hucksterism from Stan Lee. Jack Kirby would see to that.

VI: Transcendence And so it came to pass that word went out the length and breadth of Greece, that Jason was looking for shipmates to embark upon a perilous but glamorous adventure. —Jason and the Golden Fleece, Thomas Bulfinch, 1855 The crew has been gathered, and under the watchful eye of lordly Odin, the strangest voyage of all time is about to begin! —“Set Sail!”, Journey Into Mystery #120, Sept. 1965

With the coming of “The Quest,” “Tales of Asgard” seemed to change overnight from a series that was barely limping along (possibly limping into cancellation) to an epic tale of astonishing quality. “ToA”’s transcendence began with JIM #117 (June 1965), and ran until JIM #128 (May 1966). This twelve-issue story-arc (based loosely on the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts) was the apex of the “Tales of Asgard” series, and one of the most startling achievements ever presented in a comic book format. As a story, “The Quest” has everything: Compelling characters, grand settings, drama, humor, sex, and betrayal. All this, plus an ending so powerful in concept, so apocalyptic in scope, that even today’s cinematic special effects couldn’t do it justice. Interwoven into the narrative are elements of Great Literature, The Old Testament, classic mythology, Shakespeare, and even some Wizard of Oz for good measure. The huge “Odinship” (adrift on the raging Sea of Fear) was the perfect backdrop for Kirby’s grand sense of design, and larger-than-life visuals. The shipboard scenes are breathtaking vistas of oldworld majesty and grandeur. Kirby gives “The Quest” a sense of relevance, which transcended everything before it. It was a long way from Prince Valiant. As the saga begins, we witness the dramatic spectacle of the enormous Odinsword: unknown forces of evil have caused the

(previous page) Original art to page 2 of the “ToA” story in Journey Into Mystery #125 (Feb. 1966). (left) Turbulent kingdoms of timeless majesty; decadent empires, savage storms, raging seas. Jack Kirby brings to the comic book page a grandeur that no one had dreamed of before: godhood itself. Shown here is the splash to Journey Into Mystery #123 (Dec. 1965). All characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Morduk’s Houseplant Nothing in Jack Kirby’s Asgard—even its seemingly mundane elements—can be taken for granted. Nothing can be counted on to be what it seems. In JIM #118, we see “Morduk” casually tending to a houseplant (with what appears to be an Asgardian watering device). The composition of the panel moves the reader’s eye down and center (i.e., to Thor), then left to Morduk, then right to the base of the plant. It then moves the viewer’s gaze upward, being drawn vertically to the top of the panel via the plant’s winding, entwining stems. The reader’s eye now comes to rest at Kirby’s focal-point, the plant’s topmost bulb. Only then does one realize that Morduk’s plant has a pair of sinister, humanoid eyes which gaze menacingly over the proceedings! ★ 57

figurehead (like the maiden in The Wreck of the Hesperus). Undaunted by the maelstrom’s lethally-destructive fury, Balder sounds an earth-shattering blast on his gigantic ram’s horn (like Joshua in the Old Testament) and Utgard’s stone pillars (like Jericho’s stone walls) are blasted into nothingness. Meanwhile, the turbulent, torrential maelstrom (like Noah’s rain) subsides, and a new menace appears.

IX: The Queen Bee “Fly! Fly, and take care of those ruby slippers! I want those most of all!” —The Wicked Witch of the West, commanding her flying monkeys, The Wizard of Oz, 1939 “Faster! Faster! We have not found so rich a prize since our last incubation!” —The Queen of Thryheim, commanding her flying trolls, Thor, 1966

great blade to crack, which will trigger Ragnarok, the death-knell of the Asgardian gods. The warriors of the realm must now set sail, to forestall these agents of chaos. Little did they know that the true harbinger of Ragnarok—the Judas of Asgard—was among their very ranks.

VII: A Viper In Their Midst And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. —Book of Genesis, 4:4-5

(top) The Queen Bee’s sultry presence was a welcome element in the male-dominated “Quest.” She may have been the precursor to the Lightning Lady from Jack’s Captain Victory series (pencils from issue #1 shown above). Queen Bee TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. Lightning Lady TM & ©2002 Jack Kirby Estate.

One of “The Quest”’s underlying themes—sibling rivalry—was a re-occurring motif in Kirby’s work (cf. Black Bolt/ Maximus, Prof. X/Cain Marko). In many ways, “The Quest” is a textbook study of the fundamental differences between the two stepbrothers: Thor, the personification of altruism and valor, and Loki, the embodiment of all that is despicable in man or god. It would be Loki, the sinister betrayer, who would ultimately effect the ravages of Ragnarok. The journey is beset by cataclysm and chaos, as Loki and his black-hearted insurgents give the voyage an undercurrent of evil, brewing just below the surface. Twin elements of mutiny and maelstrom erupt simultaneously, in JIM #122. As Odin’s loyal argonauts quell the insurrection led by Thor’s heinous half-brother, Thor’s truer brother—Balder—has his shining moment in the grand tale.

VIII: The Face Of Courage In The Sea Of Fear (Balder the Brave) When the ram’s horn sounds, then the walls of the city will fall down. —Joshua 6:4-5 As the Odinship pulls inexorably toward the perilous Pillars of Utgard, soon to be swept into the deadly Dragon’s Jaws, literary allusions abound. Balder lashes himself to the ship’s huge, demonic

Jack Kirby’s 1960s heroines were generally asexual or maternal creatures, whose genders were functionally irrelevant (my conjecture). Lee’s dialogue rendered them even more impotent, characterizing them as either helpless (early Sue Storm) or empty-headed (Janet Van Dyne); but not so for Kirby’s bad girls. The King’s Silver Age femme fatales could be decidedly haughty and arrogant (e.g., the pre-Avengers Wanda), confident and powerful (the preInhumans Medusa), or—like The Enchantress—oozing with sex. Queen Ula was all these things combined. This wildly-costumed, evil seductress had a headpiece that rivaled Galactus, and a headstrong persona that rivaled Evita Peron. Within minutes of their first meeting, she told Thor: “Say that you will stay by my side—that we will rule together! But dare to refuse, and all who ride the Odinship will die before morning!” Very direct gal. In the final segments of the valorous voyage (issues #124-126), Ula’s fanatical flying trolls kidnap Loki, and detain him in their bizarre beehive of stone, until Thor comes rocketing to his rescue. Only then does the omnipotent Odin summon the crew back to the Golden Realm. Whatever glories the first ten episodes of “The Quest” had promised, the last two would deliver beyond all expectation.

X: The Voyageürs (Landlubbers, Ladies, Leviathans, and Loki’s Lackeys) Let us draw a ship into the sea, and find a crew for her expressly; let us put a hecatomb on board, that we may offer sacrifice and appease the anger of the gods. —Homer, The Iliad To breath life into his voyageur opus, Kirby concocted a cast of characters that most comics creators would’ve been proud to call a lifetime’s achievement. A list of the landlocked-lineup includes: Morduk, the mystic mapmaker, and Braggi the Assassin, who was Loki’s candidate for the ship’s overseer. His candidacy was vetoed (and Braggi was “K.O.’ed”) by Thor. The female ensemble features the unpredictable Ula, Queen of Thryheim (whose lust for Thor would add a sorely-needed heterosexual angle to this testosteronedrenched drama), and Volla the Prophetess. Volla, the augur of approaching apocalypse, was a dead ringer for Mortianna, the odious oracle in the 1991 Robin Hood movie. For balance, Kirby throws in a few non-human entities as well. The Stone Dragon of Utgard and the leviathan-like Midgard Serpent both harken back to Marvel’s pre-super-hero monsters, but on a notably grander scale. Finally, Asgard meets Oz with

THOR: “I see some new volunteers approaching even now!” BALDER: “Yes! I believe they have been recruited by your co-captain Loki! Kroda, the Duelist, and Magrat the Schemer! I trust them not, mighty Thor!” (Hey—whatever would prompt Balder to distrust a guy called “Magrat the Schemer”?) Besides this unintended jest, “The Quest” is rife with deliberate humor as well. The welcome element of hilarity would come waddling (boastfully) into this otherwise deadpan drama, with the debut of one of the most unforgettable Lee/Kirby characters of all time.

XI: Volstagg The Voluminous SHALLOW: “Knight, I shall complain of you to the king: you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge.” FALSTAFF: “But not kissed your wife’s daughter?” —William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor VOLSTAGG: “My body bears a thousand wounds gained in Odin’s service! Always have I been in the fore of every battle for Asgard!” THOR: “’Tis true, good Volstagg—but thou hast eaten too well since then!” —Journey Into Mystery #119 (Aug. 1965)

Queen Ula’s ubiquitous flying trolls (Kirby’s spin on L. Frank Baum’s flying monkeys). Among the Asgardian argonauts are two of Loki’s mutinous miscreants: Kroda, a cyclopean-sociopath, and Magrat (who, by the looks of him, was kin to both maggot and rat). Some unintentional humor creeps in, as Loki’s sinister compatriots board the Odinship:

Enormously obese, this self-proclaimed “Lion of Asgard” provides “ToA” with a component that most super-hero comics sorely lack: comic relief. It was the same element that The Thing provided the FF, but while Ben’s wisecracking masked a deep-rooted self-loathing, the onedimensional Volstagg had no such psychological complexity. He was simply a buffoon. Jovial, gluttonous, and endlessly vainglorious, this garrulous gargantuan would usually run at the first sign of danger; often times vanquishing his foes by knocking them down in an effort to escape them. The waddling warrior had a near-delusional sense of self-importance, and his self-aggrandizing was the element that made him so absurdly comical. The voracious Volstagg was, of course, based on Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff, the Elizabethan wag from Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Also debuting in “The Quest” were Volstagg’s comrade(s)-at-arms, Fandral the Dashing and Hogun the Grim. The foppish, ferociously-fencing Fandral (whose physical features favored Flynn and Fairbanks) was a devil-may-care Dumas-style swashbuckler. This dandified duelist would taunt his opponents— good-naturedly—as he effortlessly outfenced them (usually three at a time), laughing all the while. Hogun the Grim never laughed. Sullen, brooding, and morose, this enigmatic mace-wielding warrior (who hailed from a realm beyond Asgard) had a persona that was diametrically opposite the verbose Volstagg and the fun-loving Fandral (which made him the perfect foil for the two). Hogun’s foreboding demeanor—along with his physical resemblance to Attila the Hun—made

(left) Stat of a Volstagg panel sent to Jack to refer to for future stories. (above) The foppish, funloving, and ferociouslyfencing Fandral the Dashing looked like a cross between Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks, and behaved like a character from an Alexandre Dumas novel (shown here from JIM #122). (lower left) Loki’s sinister compatriots: Kroda the Duelist and Magrat the Schemer. (below) Hogun the Grim, from Thor Annual #2. Characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

one thing clear: Of this truculent trio, Hogun was the last one you’d ever care to cross. Later to be known as the Warriors Three, this exquisitelybalanced triumvirate would become a mainstay in “Tales of Asgard.” The character depictions (and dialogue lines) that Kirby and Lee gave these one-time bit players were so concise and ontarget that they were soon stealing whatever scenes they were in.

XII: Cross-Pollination “There was something about those mighty horn-helmeted Vikings and their tales of Valhalla, of Ragnarok, of the Aesir, the Fire Demons, and eternal Asgard, home of the gods. If ever there was a rich lode of material into which Marvel might dip, it was there—and we would mine it.” —Stan Lee The events unfolding in “Tales of Asgard” had a direct influence on Thor’s “main” storyline, and vice-versa. Odin, Loki, Heimdall, and Balder, who’d all made earlier debuts in “Thor,” would— obviously—play prominent roles in the back-up strip. Conversely, Sif, Heia, and the Warriors Three all premiered in “ToA” before they infiltrated the book’s longer storyline. This rather incestuous cross-fertilization of characters and concatenations was in keeping with the writer’s goal of establishing a cohesive comic book universe. At times, “ToA” seemed like a test site to see how readers would react to Kirby’s tales of godhood, quasi-mythology, and multi-issue storylines. To this end, reader response was positive; so beginning with JIM #116 (May 1965), “The Mighty Thor” became a virtual extension of “Tales of Asgard,” with Colletta assuming the inking chores of the entire book and Asgardian themes taking over in both features. The next issue (#117) would begin the serialization of both storylines, as “Thor” finished “The Trial of the Gods,” and Odin’s warriors prepared for “The Quest.” With this development, the book was no longer friendly terrain for the casual browser. Now only the loyal “True Believers” who followed the title each month would understand its endlessly prolonged, often-wandering narrative. The traditional comicbook storytelling format—the single issue—had proven far too constricting for Kirby’s behemothic imagination. Subsequently, in JIM, Kirby began experimenting with long-running narratives, free-flowing plots, and complex storylines. This continuous chronicle approach—which the artist would soon employ in the FF as well—proved particularly successful in “Tales of Asgard.” Serialization turned Kirby’s five-page “featurette” into an episodic saga worthy of its godly premise. Though it made the series inaccessible to occasional readers, regular fans would find it far more compelling. “ToA”’s early, self-contained stories were quietly forgotten, and the series—finally—found its feet. The wolf Skoll will devour the sun, and his brother Hati will eat the moon, plunging the Earth into darkness. The sea will rear up because Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent, is twisting and writhing in fury, making his way toward the land. —Gods of the North, B. Branston, 1956 Of all the Asgardian themes that were now cross-pollinating in Journey Into Mystery, certainly the most momentous was that of Götterdammerüng, the Twilight of the Gods. This epic clash of absolutes was a theme that would proliferate in “Thor,” after its initial introduction in “ToA” (JIM #119, Aug. 1965). The idea of Asgard’s apocalypse would plant a seed in the mind of Marvel’s brightest flame, and its fruit would ultimately change the face of the entire comic book industry. In the Summer of 1965 however, no one could have possibly foreseen this. No one at the time—with the sole exception of Jack Kirby—could have possibly understood the meaning of Ragnarok.

XIII: The Meaning Of Ragnarok (Asgard Laid To Waste) Thor #127 (April 1966) is Jack Kirby’s apocalyptic nightmare, rendered on a level of artistry unprecedented in comics. Kirby 60

Ragnarok—Setting The Stage For The Fourth World? The “Twilight of the Gods” as a comics concept (which first emerged in “The Quest”) eventually crossed-over to Thor #127, #154-157, and #175-177. Is it possible that Kirby was repeatedly reiterating the idea of Ragnarok (to his legion of readers) to pave the way for his forthcoming “Fourth World”? If so, it wouldn’t have been the first time that the artist employed an indirect (and drawn-out) introduction, to set the stage for an impending new concept. The seeds of SHIELD were sown several months before Strange Tales #135 in The Avengers, and the coming of the Inhumans had been brewing since FF #36 with the debut of Medusa. (Note: Despite opinions to the contrary, I’m convinced that Kirby had designs for Madame Medusa beyond the Frightful Four right from Day One—but that’s another story.) In hindsight, the fact that Kirby employed a “Ragnarok” theme in Thor no less than four times may have been more than mere happenstance, or an uninspired recycling of previous subject matter. ★

stretches his visual sense to a plateau that no one had thought possible, to depict scenes that defy human comprehension: Before the assembled legions of the Golden Realm, Volla the Prophetess peers through the shadowy vapors of time to unveil the grim, foreboding specter of Ragnarok: The day on which even the gods shall perish. Kirby’s catastrophic vision of Judgment Day is an insane phantasmagoria of brutality and chaos, as Loki and his malevolent minions hurl headlong into battle with Asgard. The two forces meet in chaotic confrontation such has not been witnessed since the dawn of time. A torrent of swords, spears, and arrows descend like hailstones on this doomed multitude, in a senseless orgy of savage combat. Driven by a common lust for power, the warring factions engage in a mammoth struggle for supremacy that neither can win. Every page is a paroxysm of power; every panel is an apocalypse in itself, as the Golden Realm is wracked by fire, flood, and the flames of battle. Suddenly, the seas swell, the oceans part, and the Midgard Serpent, a venomous violation of all things holy, rears its hideous head. With the appearance of this final enemy, this ultimate destroyer, Ragnarok is at hand. This writhing, serpentine mass of fury and annihilation is— mercifully— the final carnage that the gods must endure before Asgard is torn asunder by an explosion, which shreds the very fabric of infinity itself; and with this final blow, Asgard is gone forever. It was a long way from “Thug Thatcher.” Here, for the first time—but not the last—Kirby incongruously used the comic book (that supposedly low-priced and low-quality medium) to depict scenes of Biblical magnitude. The sense of importance that the artist invoked in these staggeringly savage vistas was enhanced by the absence of dialogue balloons, which gave Kirby’s carnival of carnage an added visual panaché, and— fittingly—harkened back to “Tales of Asgard”’s first installments. So, in a way, the series had finally come full circle. Maybe it wasn’t such a long way from Prince Valiant after all.

XIV: Aftermath (From The Ashes Of Ragnarok) ...By and large, the New Gods was assembled that way. Jack had a concept; one that came to him while doing the “Tales of Asgard” backups at Marvel.

The Forever People, The New Gods, and Mister Miracle—it began with the day that the Old Gods died... Ragnarok. —Mark Evanier (quoted from two separate “sources”) Q: Any opinion about whether the Fourth World came out of the ashes of Ragnarok? A: I have no doubt that’s where it all came from. I’m sure New Genesis and Apokolips are the halves of Asgard. —Walter Simonson (TJKC #14) If you disagree with Evanier’s and Simonson’s views on the Ragnarok/Fourth World connection, then check for yourself: Place the splash pages (and the “explosion” scenes) from “Aftermath” (Thor #128) and New Gods #1, alongside each other. It’s hard to believe they’re not from the same book. Or, you can paraphrase the caption on page four of Thor #128: “A life soon shared by THE young NEW race of GODS which joyously takes domain over all it beholds!” An evolving revisionist opinion among New Gods aficionados is that too much emphasis has been placed on Asgard as being the Fourth World’s thematic progenitor; but even the most obdurate Fourth World fan would agree that “ToA” was a seminal influence on the “DC Kirbyverse,” and that Ragnarok was the nexus point between the “Old” and “New” Gods. Other Fourth World pundits have claimed that Kirby’s “ToA” stories are (by comparison) impoverished in their allegorical content, and therefore lack the resonance and depth of the New Gods lore. However, if one is searching for subtext in “Tales of Asgard,” they’ll find almost as many allusions to the Old Testament in “The Quest” as they will in Kirby’s Fourth World sagas. Moreover, there’s an allegorical tie-in similar to the Apokolips/ Third Reich connection in “ToA”’s Ragnarok. The fact that Kirby participated in modern time’s greatest “battle of absolutes” (World War II) is relevant here:

(previous page, bottom) Splash page from the “Tales of Asgard” story in Thor #127 (April 1966).

(previous page, top) A carnival of chaos reigns as Ragnarok—Asgard’s apocalyptic nightmare, and Jack Kirby’s insane phantasmagoria of carnage and savagery—is depicted in Thor #127.

(below, left) While these “Tales of Asgard” were taking place in the back of Thor, the main story had Goldilocks struggling through his own Asgardian dilemmas.

“I can tell you, I thought I saw God when I was standing on Omaha Beach ten days after D-Day.” —Jack Kirby (TJKC #26) When Kirby arrived at Omaha Beach in 1944 and witnessed “thousands of bodies” strewn across the shore, he felt that he’d 61

(above) Thematically, New Gods #1 picks up right where Thor #128 left off, with cosmic spectacles of brutality and chaos, rendered masterfully by Kirby and Colletta. These scenes (from Thor #128 on the left, and New Gods #1 on the right) reiterate the Asgard/Fourth World connection, and look like they could’ve come from the same issue. Thor TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. New Gods TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

landed in the aftermath of a horrendous apocalypse. Significantly, when Kirby recounted this event to Ray Wyman Jr. (see TJKC #26), he was in the middle of a monologue about the Norse gods. Immediately after his “Omaha Beach” interjection, he went into a dialogue on the New Gods. Ipso facto, one might surmise that the ultimate Axis/Allies confrontation—D-Day—was a metaphor (to Kirby) for Ragnarok; his touchstone between Asgard and the Fourth World. It’s more likely however, that “ToA”’s Ragnarok is simply a straightforward retelling of the Götterdammerüng that Kirby had heard of as a child. The fact that he stuck so unwaveringly close to the events in classic mythology—albeit condensed—concludes this. Simply put, “ToA”’s “Ragnarok/Aftermath” finale doesn’t lend itself to a myriad of interpretations. All the forthcoming allegories, parables, and dualities of premise would be saved for Kirby’s “next gods,” the next decade, and the esoterica of the Fourth World. And so, from the postapocalyptic ashes of Ragnarok, a new

beginning was spawned; a beginning that would have to wait for a new decade to see fruition. It had taken an entire year, and twelve agonizingly brief serialized segments, but the loyal Marvelites who’d faithfully followed “Tales of Asgard” were, at last, duly rewarded. With the climactic “Aftermath”—and five final pages of archetypal power— Kirby finally brought “The Quest” to a dazzling consummation.

XV: There Shall Come A Miracle (The End Of A Series, The End Of An Era) “And in time, the soil shall turn green once more... the grass shall grow, and plants shall sprout above the place where Fafnir fell! For such is the way of life, which can never vanish while faith endures.” —Odin, “There Shall Come a Miracle”, “ToA,” Jan. 1967 In the end, “Tales of Asgard” proved to be one of the most inspired series ever rendered in the leaves of a twelve-cent comic

book. In an odd reversal of circumstance, this “back-up strip” was to breathe new life into the main feature from which it was spawned. The considerable virtues that Kirby and Lee (eventually) instilled in Journey Into Mystery shone brightest in “Tales of Asgard.” After the grand tale of “The Quest,” “ToA” would go on for another seventeen installments (Thor #129-145). Unlike many of Kirby’s post-“ToA” efforts (e.g., both “Inhumans” series and the Fourth World project), “Tales of Asgard” was allowed to expire with an appropriate sense of finality and closure. It didn’t suffer the indignity of epos interruptus (as Mark Evanier so aptly put it).

It’s doubtful that Kirby’s magnum opus, The New Gods, would ever have evolved if not for the seeds sown in Thor’s well-crafted back-up series. Kirby would go on to create other godly-sagas and cosmic spectacles of Olympian scope, but the groundwork for them all was laid in Journey Into Mystery’s five-page featurette. In the final analysis, the gateway to Thor’s—and Kirby’s—future greatness was opened with “Tales of Asgard”; as such, its value in the pantheon of comics history is immeasurable.

Epilogüe As for Thor and the Warriors Three, after “The Quest” they continued to battle for the glory of Asgard, fighting side-by-side (except for the great Volstagg, who preferred to fight a few steps to the rear). In the name of the Eternal Realm, they would ride into battle to challenge (and vanquish) Harokin, Fafnir, the Forty Demons, and Mogul; then they would ride into eternity in “Tales of Asgard”’s final episode in October, Year of Our Lord 1967. That episode was fittingly titled “The End.” ★ Thanks to Rhonda and Paula for typing and endless patience.

(above) The1968 Tales of Asgard “king-size special” was something of an oddity. It wasn’t released during Marvel’s standard “annual month” (November), and it didn’t have a sequel until 1984. Given Marvel’s lack of flair regarding reprints, it’s doubtful that we’ll ever see all 48 installments of “ToA” revised in a cogent, 240-page Masterworks-style volume. This new cover was inked by Frank Giacoia. (left) A 1970s fan commission drawing. Characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Near myths

A Lesson In Proper Edda—

A look at the “real” Norse gods, by Eric Nolen-Weathington (below) Splash page from the “Tales of Asgard” story in Journey Into Mystery #104. Kirby built the entire story around two lines in the Prose Edda. All characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

e all know Jack Kirby liked to use mythological characters and themes in his comic book work, but he usually took only the very basic elements from the myths and then twisted them to his own ends, modernizing them and making them barely recognizable from the source material. Very rarely did he take a myth whole cloth and use it as a comic book story; and yet commencing with issue #97 of Journey Into Mystery he did just that in the new back-up story “Tales of Asgard.” I was an avid reader of mythology as a child. In fact, I had read several Norse myths before ever picking up a Thor comic. Imagine my confusion in seeing a blond, beardless Thor once I finally did.

Flash-forward 10 or 12 years; there in the back-issue bins I find something I’d only heard mentioned before: The Tales of Asgard comic which reprinted the first 10 episodes from the back pages of JIM, comics before my time—which I didn’t have. I was never a big fan of Thor, but this I had to read! I was amazed to see how close many of the episodes were to the actual myths I had enjoyed many years before. Since then I’ve come to the belief that there was more story input from Kirby within “Tales of Asgard” than any other series he did with Stan Lee. Did Kirby suggest “Tales of Asgard” as a back-up? Maybe. Maybe, Stan asked for a back-up featuring stories from Thor’s childhood à la “Superboy,” and “ToA” is what Jack gave him. Who knows, but it certainly feels more “Kirby” than “Stan.” Whoever came up with the idea, it is obvious that they had read some translated version of the Eddas. Written in the late 12th Century and early 13th Century, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda (or the Elder Edda and Younger Edda, respectively) are the only historical text sources of Norse mythology. Interestingly, the author of these texts was not from Norway, but rather from Iceland which shared the same Scandinavian roots. By the time Snorri Sturluson put these legends to paper, Northern Europe was being Christianized and the old ways subverted. (Case in point: In the original tale of Balder, Balder is killed. In the Christianized version he is also resurrected.) Iceland, being quite remote in those days, held on to its traditions much longer, thus the Eddas, a.k.a. the Icelandic Eddas, were true to the oral songs, stories, poems and lays that had been handed down for so many years. The story of Snorri Sturluson is fascinating in its own right, but right now we are concerned only with his Prose Edda and his version of the Poetic Edda, specifically its first book, Gylfaginning, or The Beguiling of Gylfi, Gylfi being a King of Sweeden. (I say “his version” because there was a previous version of the Poetic Edda, a collection of lays and poems, which Snorri used as his guide.) It is here we find the tales of Thor, Loki, Odhinn, and the rest which were so heavily borrowed from in “ToA.” The opening caption of the series openly states they are “based upon highlights of Norse mythology.” The first, third, and most of the second episode are told entirely in captions, giving it a similar feel to the Eddas; and for the most part, they are fairly accurate as well. The minor changes made here are for the betterment of the story. Showing the magic cow, Audhumbla, licking the form of Buri out of the ice might have been a little difficult to show, and Ymir creating the race of frost giants from the sweat of his armpits is just plain gross. Also, Odhinn and his brothers didn’t trap Ymir, they killed him and his flesh became the earth, his blood the seas, and the maggots in his flesh became the dwarves and dark elves and such. His skull became the sky and his brains became storm clouds. No, much better to trap him and use him as a recurring villain later on. As far as Odin’s battle with Surtur, it didn’t happen in the Eddas. Odhinn never fought Surt. Instead, Surt, the ruler of the fire giants of Muspelheim,

—quette just sat there on the border of the worlds waiting for Ragnarok (where he would slay Freya and set fire to Asgard) as shown in the first episode. Again, much better to have a potential recurring villain than a fire giant who just sits there. “The Storm Giants” (#100) was the first of the “young Thor” tales. However, in the original tale, Thor was not even mentioned. Odhinn, Hönir, and Loki are set upon by giants. The giant Pazi captures Loki and makes him promise to bring him the goddess Idunn and her golden apples which keep the gods of Asgard young. Loki does so, but then is forced by the gods to get them back, which he does in the form of a falcon. Pazi follows him in the form of an eagle and is killed by the gods in Asgard. Kirby just lopped off the first part of the story, threw Thor into the mix and left out the death scene and extraneous characters for simplification. The next two tales, however, bear no resemblance to anything in the Eddas. They do introduce several key players such as Balder, Sif, and Hela at least. In JIM #103, the series returns for a time to the source material. “Thor’s Mission to Mirmir” ends with an editor’s note stating the story was “freely translated” from the Norse legends. “Freely” is an understatement! This story mixes two different tales from the Eddas along with plenty of scenes straight out of Kirby’s imagination. The shrinkable ship given to Thor in the first scene is from a tale that starts with Loki cutting off the hair of Thor’s wife Sif. Thor forces Loki to go to the dwarves to have them make golden hair for Sif. While they’re at it, the dwarves also make the ship Skipbladner for Freya and a spear for Odhinn. Loki bets his head that they can’t make two more perfect items. Of course, it’s a

sucker’s bet and the dwarves do him one better by making a perfect golden boar, perfect golden ring, and Mjolnir, which had a slightly too-short shaft due to Loki’s interference. Loki manages to keep his head but ends up with his mouth sewn shut. Personally, I think they should have told this tale; well, except for sewing up Loki’s mouth. It’s a nice irony that Loki is responsible for the creation of Thor’s greatest weapon. As for the creation of Aske and Embla, Odhinn and his brothers simply brought them to life either from two logs they found on the beach or two trees, depending on the translation. Now where’s the dramatic tension in that? Next come two tales featuring Heimdall (#104105). The first describes how he became the guardian of Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge. This story seems to have been created around two lines in the Prose Edda stating how Heimdall can see for 100 leagues in day or night and can hear the wool growing on a sheep’s back. Kirby took two lines and produced a 5-page story that not only stated Heimdall’s abilities, but showed them at work. The second story is taken from the Eddas as well, but it is a giant that tricks his way past Heimdall and not a tiny “air creature.” So why the change? Maybe it just made Heimdall look too bad. I mean, a giant gets past you? JIM #106-107 contain the 2-part story of Balder, one of the best-known tales of Norse mythology. Of course in the Kirby/Lee version, Balder emerges unscathed. In the Eddas, Loki’s schemes succeed and he manipulates Höder into slaying Balder with a dart of mistletoe. The gods petition Hela to return Balder back to life. She agrees on the condition that every living creature mourn for Balder. All mourn save one, a giantess who is actually Loki in disguise. Balder remains in Hel, but Loki is discovered. He is then chained to a rock and a serpent is placed above him which drips poison on his head, causing him great pain and suffering. His wife Sigyn sat by him catching the poison in a cup, but when she went to empty the cup there was nothing to stop it from burning Loki. Do you see a pattern here? With JIM #108 the “ToA” strip begins to get further and further away from the Eddas. “The Secret of Sigurd” in JIM #111 is actually based on one of the Twelve Labors of Hercules. “The Golden Apples” in JIM #114 is based on “Little Red Riding Hood.” At last, in JIM #116, they adapt another lay from the Poetic Edda, but with King Hymer standing in for the giant Hymir and Loki standing in for Tyr, the god of war. Thor and Tyr had gone to Hymir in search of a kettle big enough to brew the ale needed

for the gods’ upcoming feast. The giant did challenge Thor and Thor did catch the Midgard Serpent while fishing. Thor also smashed the enchanted cup, not by hitting a crown, though, but by hitting Hymir’s skull which was harder than anything else. The very next issue saw the beginnings of “The Quest” storyline which would continue for many months to come. This story was ripped not from the Eddas, but from Homer’s The Oddysey with Thor filling in for Jason and the Pillars of Utgard for the Scylla and Charibdis. The term “argonauts” is used no fewer than three times throughout the storyline. (Interestingly enough, Snorri’s Prose Edda gave the implication that Odhinn was a chieftan from Troy who moved north after the Trojan War, marching his army through to Sweeden where he was brought into the fold of the aforementioned King Gylfi. This implication is generally ignored as creative license.) Well, at least the Warriors Three helped it go down smoother. Though they didn’t really have that Norse attitude (being comprised of an Errol Flynn clone, Shakespeare’s Falstaff, and a Genghis Khan lookalike), they sure were fun. With issue #126, the storyline takes a sudden change of direction. Whether they didn’t like where the story was going or whether they realized they were mixing up their mythologies, who knows? But in JIM #127-128, we are shown the last glimpses of the Eddas we will see in “ToA.” Here we are shown the essence of Norse mythology—Ragnarok. In “ToA” it is determined that Loki is to be responsible for the start of Ragnarok. According to the Eddas, he only pilots the ship that brings the bad guys over. The Eddas also mention what happens after Ragnarok. The sons of Thor lead in a new golden age with Mjolnir at their command. Although many experts say this bit of text was created at the time of the writing and was not part of the oral traditions, Kirby probably read this at some time, inspiring the germ of an idea that was first presented in “ToA” and later was expanded in the saga of The New Gods. The “ToA” was far from done, but the influence of the Eddas was over. One episode featured the dark horse of doom (JIM #132)—perhaps a precursor to the Black Racer. Another story arc combined elements from “Alladin and the Magic Lamp” and the epic poem “Xanadu.” Finally, a cheap spell of almost deus ex machina proportions brought the villain and the series to an abrupt halt. At least it was fun while it lasted. ★ (upper left) Bronze Thor from Iceland, 10th Century. Thor was easily the most popular of the Norse gods. (middle left) Loki in chains punished for the slaying of Balder. (lower left) A symbol of Mjolnir which was worn around the neck by the followers of Thor. (inset) Odin slaying and being devoured by Fenris at Ragnarok. (right) Odin was not only the All-Father of the Norse gods, but the god of death, magic, and wisdom as well. Photos from Mythology: An Illustrated Encyclopedia ©1980 Orbis Publishing Ltd, London.

Innerview

“We Create Images, And They Just Continue On.” Part One of an August 1969 Interview with Jack Kirby Conducted by Shel Dorf and Rich Rubenfeld, Transcribed by John Morrow (Shel Dorf and Rich Rubenfeld set out from San Diego to Los Angeles in August 1969, intent on visiting Collector’s Bookstore, and hoping to get interviews with Russ Manning and Jack Kirby. Neither knew where Manning or Kirby lived, but got their phone numbers from Directory Information. After the visit with Russ, they called Jack Kirby, who invited them over. They spent almost two hours at the Kirbys’, and the result was this interview, which is previously unpublished. Our thanks to Shel Dorf for digging out his old reel-to-reel tapes for us, and if you’re curious to hear Russ Manning’s interview, be sure to pick up Comic Book Artist #22 in September, where it appears as part of our retrospective of Gold Key Comics.) SHEL DORF: We’re in Jack’s little studio on the second floor of his new home. Right now he’s digging in the back of his closet and showing us something. What have you got, Jack? JACK KIRBY: This is a presentation I used for Sky Masters when I first sold the strip to the Matthew Adams Syndicate. I colored it myself; I used the dyes on it. Somehow the dyes have a brilliance of their own. I feel that it’s a kind of medium I like to use. It always pleases me; it just appeals to me for some reason, because of its richness. If done right, it can give a drawing a lot of power.

(above) Early 1970s photo of Jack Kirby with Shel Dorf at the San Diego Comicon. Photo courtesy of Shel Dorf.

SHEL: Just to bring us up to date, we’ve been talking to Jack about one of his newest ventures, and that’s collage. Downstairs we just saw some enormous collages with the Jack Kirby approach, and eventually we’ll see them in a museum someday, probably. What made you go into collage work?

(right) 1930s Socko the Seadog panel, by “Teddy” (Kirby’s pseudonym on the strip).

JACK: Basically, I’m an experimenter. I feel that there must be some extension of comics other than the pen and ink, or other materials that we use. I feel I should explore these channels. If a man truly likes comics, or is truly a comic artist, he has to explore all the dimensions of his art, because I feel comics is an art. That’s how I think about it; looking for other ways to extend the medium.

SHEL: This is Jack Kirby 1969. Can we go back to Jack Kirby, about 1920? What was it like in the early days?

(next page) Jack’s cover for the 1971 Disneyland comic convention, (bottom) Jack’s collage from Thor #131.

JACK: [laughs] It was bad, and it was like Warner Bros. said it was. It was John Garfield and James Cagney, and Angels in Dirty Places, and guys in turtleneck sweaters and fellas fighting their father for a nickel, and your mother throwing you out of the house to “go to work, you bum!”, and the fighters that hung around the block, and the gangsters getting shot in the corner candy store, and things like that.

SHEL: It’s a pretty far cry from formal art training. JACK: There was no such thing as formal art training. It seems to me what makes comic art unique is the fact that, like Fahrenheit 451,

each man is a book unto himself. He keeps that book, and he gives that book to the next man. There was no formal school for comic artists. I feel like one man must take from the next. Take the best of what that man has and integrate it into his own style. He gains something; sometimes it’s the fluidity in the figure, sometimes it’s accurate shading. A comic artist has to learn from somewhere, and he can’t learn it at the National Academy of Design. He can utilize the National Academy, but it won’t make him a comic artist. It’s something that he must get from the next man, and take that thing and control it, and express himself with it. SHEL: The earliest published works of Jack Kirby that I’ve seen don’t have any resemblance to any of the well-known cartoonists you mentioned before that influenced you. Did you evolve into your own style before you became published? JACK: I was pressured into it. I feel a man evolves a style when he’s pressured into it, when he has to work constantly; when he has constant experience, and he must meet a constant deadline. He must say, “The hell with it, I’m not Leonardo DiVinci, but I’ll do the best I can,” and he does come up with a style, because in doing that, he begins to tell his own thing, in the only manner he knows: His own manner. That comes through in his style, his personality comes through. I can tell Caniff a mile away. I can tell another man a thousand miles away, because there’s something of that man in the strip. It’s in that style, and it’s an identity. SHEL: What was your first published drawing? JACK: My first published drawing was a thing called Socko the Seadog. Then I went on to editorial cartoons, and I went into comic strips for a small feature syndicate that serviced 700 weekly papers. SHEL: How old were you at that time? JACK: I was about eighteen. SHEL: When you were growing up as a child, did you like to go off in a corner while the other kids were playing on the street, and just draw and draw and draw, or...? JACK: No, I played in the street with the kids, as much as I could. I was no radical departure from any of the others. I got bounced when they got bounced, and I had a good time when they had a good time. I saw an ad in a pulp magazine; you know, “Draw this, and win a free pencil.” I sent away for it, because for some reason it had some basic appeal for me, and I took the bait. I dug up enough money for the first lesson, and that’s all I had. I had a great time with it, a wonderful time with it. I never drew so many comic heads in my life. I really enjoyed it. SHEL: And that was the very beginning of your career, by answering this ad? Did you draw at all?

Did you doodle, did you sketch? JACK: Yeah, I doodled on doors and I doodled on walls, and I wrote bad notes to the neighbors. [laughs] I said, “Mrs. McCloskey is a fink,” and things like that, and I’d write it on the fence, and I’d draw some sort of a primitive cartoon, I suppose. SHEL: Great, we isolated that Jack Kirby got his start doing graffiti. [laughs] JACK: It’s a valid form of expression, and in my neighborhood, graffiti was like doing a mural for the Sistine Chapel. [laughs] SHEL: We were talking before about the average person’s approach to comic art, and how it’s sneered upon by the fine artists, but then there’s Liechtenstein, who will take a panel from one of your comics and enlarge it to wall size, and silkscreen it and sell it for a few hundred thousand dollars. What is your opinion of comic art and these phonies who are getting by, if I’m not slanting the question too much? JACK: Well, I don’t know if I’d call them phonies. I think maybe Liechtenstein in his own way is trying to find an extension of what I’m talking about. That might be an extension. I think it’s rather a static thing, and certainly I feel that it must have an appeal to somebody, and must have value to somebody, because somebody is buying it, and they’re paying good money for it. I’m not gonna put down anything that sells well, because if it’s successful, who’s going to argue with success? I never have. 67

SHEL: Do you think comic art will ever be cherished, and put in museums as etchings and fine art are? JACK: Yes, I think that comic art is a kind of a wellspring. Comic art is uniquely American, and it’s kind of a wellspring for possibly new forms of art; forms of art that we just can’t visualize at the moment—but I think the original cartoonists began a new school, and this school is still evolving into many other forms that I certainly look forward to enjoying someday. SHEL: What was your first association with the Marvel group? Let’s go back to the first Golden Age of comics and how you began; I’d like you to name some of the characters you created, and what was behind this creation, and so on. JACK: Well, I think a comic artist’s job is to sell comics, and in those days, when comic magazines began, our job was to sell them. We just took the mood of the day—like Captain America was a rather spontaneous reaction to the patriotic fervor of that day. I did a thing called “The Vision” because it was a mythic sort of character, and I sort of got a feeling in that direction. I loved detective characters, and I did a thing called “Mr. Scarlet,” and I worked with Will Eisner on Weird Stories, which I liked to do, too. Any kind of a subject is a challenge to me, because being a professional, I’m willing to tackle everything and try to do it well. I think that’s a comic artist’s job, and I’ve handled just about any kind of subject you can think about. I began the romance field in comics. I tried to add some polish to the crime comics. SHEL: Let’s take the romance comics—this is very surprising. I would never associate Jack Kirby with the romance comics of today. Did you realize there was a need for this kind of thing? Did you have a sister that was kind of lovesick about movie stars or something? JACK: No, it was an accident. It began with Joe Simon and me doing some work for Joe Cronin, who was an editor for the True Story people, McFadden Publications. We did a book for them called My Date Comics; it was about teenage romances. While we were doing this comic for Joe Cronin, it suddenly dawned on me what this fellow Cronin was sitting on. He was sitting on True Story for comics, a kind of thing that hadn’t been done in comics. It was a logical step to take, from teenage romance to serious romance. It was a virgin market; it was like hitting a mother lode. I feel that there should’ve been romance comics, and I’m glad I did the first one. SHEL: Oftentimes in the field today, it’s very divided; you have your comic writer, your comic penciler, your comic inker and lettering man. However, you’re kind of a one-man operation in regards to story 68

development, and almost the finished kind of penciling; if you could reproduce pencil, you probably wouldn’t even need an inker. Can you give us an idea of how you work? JACK: Well, I feel the kind of things we do for comics are films and movies. I see myself competing with the movie camera, and I see myself creating a movie. I must admit it’s a kind of a John Henry operation; and I’ll talk over a story with Stan Lee, but the plot has to be worked out here. It’s got to be worked out on paper, the gimmicks have to be worked out, and everything has to dovetail. So it’s all worked out here, and I write the captions for the motivation of the story in the margin of the paper. Then it goes to Marvel, and the dialogue is written in, and the story is sent on to the letterer and inker, and processed down to the engraver.

SHEL: Do you know how a story is going to end when you begin it? JACK: Yes. SHEL: You don’t work yourself into a hole like Chester Gould? Gould has often stated that, to make a story interesting, not even he knows how he’s going to get a character out of certain jams. JACK: Oh, there are times when I’ll run into a character like Galactus. When I created Galactus, I suddenly found myself confronted by God, and you can’t make a villain out of God, and you’ve got to ease yourself out of it somehow. I had to treat Galactus, who’s an omnipotent figure, in a manner befitting his stature. So there was a problem: How to get yourself out of that box, where you don’t have a villain, but you’re up against a figure so omnipotent

and so awesome, that you’ve just got to back away from him, and ease away from him, and let him go his own way. That was the first time I found myself where I didn’t have a black and white situation, where there wasn’t a villain to hiss at and degrade and denigrate, or put in jail. I was up against a figure of a different type; an opponent, but not a villain in the accepted style of a villain. SHEL: Did you take any courses in mythology? You seem to be pretty well versed in mythology. JACK: I am, I’m a constant reader. I know mythology, but not as an expert. I’m kind of a man who knows maybe a little about everything, but certainly not a lot about anything. SHEL: Well, you’re trying to masquerade as a “Dead End Kid,” but there’s an intellectual hiding behind it. You’re a poet, you’re a sensitive man; you can see it in your stories, and your manic angles, and your human relations, and your mythology. Jack, I don’t know where all this praise is leading to, but there’s a question here someplace.

JACK: I hear people carping, and giving you direct, simple answers to anything, and semantically I can trap ’em. Semantically I can put them all down, because I feel we’re not here to find answers, but to ask questions. Maybe that’s the most we can do, and maybe somehow try to find answers. I find myself asking questions, and I feel—not that I don’t have an ego, but I feel somehow I’m not qualified to give answers, although I can be pontifical on many things. I still feel that I’m not qualified to give answers, because anyone with half a brain can come around and knock me down and be legitimate about it. So I certainly have no answers, and I feel that nobody has. I can put on any costume and masquerade as any kind of an expert. I still wouldn’t have the answers, and somehow I feel that possibly—in a segment where we are now, if we ask the right questions, we might come up with a few answers, and maybe find our worth. If we come up with a few answers, we’ve already found our worth. SHEL: Have you thought at all about the people who you are influencing; this large audience?

Anyone in a position of influence, of power—and perhaps “influence” is a better word—should have some kind of introspective thoughts upon the subject. You told me yourself there’s been a college course; what was the name of that course that evolved? JACK: “Analysis and Evaluation of Spider-Man and Thor.” It’s at Santa Clara University, and it’s given by two professors, two young men. I forget their names, but I read it somewhere. SHEL: A lot of people say, “It’s not my job to say why people are affected this way; it’s just my job to do it.” Do you feel that way too? Various creators, who have these large audiences—Boris Karloff, for instance, was asked how he felt about people that were affected by the [Frankenstein] monster, and how they interpreted the monster’s personality, and what Karloff thought about it, and so on. JACK: I don’t think Karloff had anything to do with the monster. I think Karloff was Karloff, and not the image. I think the image is what we see, but we never saw Karloff. We never even knew Karloff; Karloff was always a mystery to me. I sure as hell was impressed by the monster, and I think they were two different images. That monster will live forever on the screen; you’re always going to see Frankenstein, but Karloff I think will always remain a mystery. We create images, and they just continue on. SHEL: Musicians are often people that are having a big effect on their audiences today. Someone will come up to them completely moved, and say, “Oh, how did you think this out? How did you do this?” and they don’t know. They don’t know what magic has transpired, they’re just doing their thing, and that’s all they know how to do. They don’t analyze it; they don’t stop to do it. Books have been written, long theses, on the inner thoughts, the psychological aspects of something. And the people that do these oftentimes don’t even understand the terms that are being used. JACK: Yes! I feel in that case these fellows are creating a musical image, and people are labeling it because they have to have some identity for it. These fellows have nothing to do with the image, or nothing to do with the labels. The image is being transmitted, and the labels are being put on the images. The images come from inside these fellows, and these fellows don’t know why it’s coming out that way, why they’re doing it; all they know is they enjoy it. SHEL: Is Jack Kirby one of these people? JACK: It’s possible. I feel that whatever’s coming out of here is a mystery to me. I don’t know why it’s coming out this way, but it’s coming out this way. That’s me. That’s the essence of what I feel is inside me, and I can’t interpret it, I’m not gonna analyze it. I’m just not capable. SHEL: Do you think it’s some higher power that’s guiding you? JACK: I don’t know. That’s another question. Billy Graham might give you an answer, but I can’t. [laughs] (Next issue, we present the second part of this neverpublished interview—conducted just months before Kirby left Marvel for DC Comics—as Jack discusses his working techniques and philosophies.) ★ (previous page) Page from the unpublished True Divorce Cases book, done around 1971. ©2002 Jack Kirby Estate. (left) Thor confronts Galactus in Thor #168 (Sept. 1969), a story drawn just months before this interview took place. Thor, Galactus TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mike Gartland

(above) Detail from Fantastic Four #99 (June 1970), featuring the Inhumans (probably in an effort to reintroduce them to readers before they spun off into Amazing Adventures #1). (next page) Jack’s margin notes from FF #97 (April 1970) show he intended the Lagoon Creature—Jack named him “Eddie”—to speak, but Stan ignored it. (below) Panels from Fantastic Four #100 (July 1970). Reed erroneously states that only the Puppet Master is capable of making such androids, when he should’ve said it was the Thinker. Since they’d just done a Thinker story in FF #96, it’s an even sloppier mistake. Characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

How Could He Not Know?!

“K

irby is leaving Marvel.” Stan Lee passed this information on to the Marvel readership in one of his Bullpen Bulletins editorials, and with his usual glib self-deprecating charm reassured the Marvelites that, although Jack would be seeking his fortunes elsewhere, the best was yet to come. Young readers had no reason to doubt Lee; sales were still going up along much of the Marvel line, and by 1970 the foundation of the “Marvel Zombie” had been laid, as many unsuspecting readers robotically swallowed Lee’s flip preachings. Besides, Lee was still there, and Lee was the man, the creator, the innovator; Lee was Marvel, right? Professionals, hardcore fandom, and industry insiders knew better; they knew that, although Stan was indispensible, this just wasn’t another artist leaving—this was the foundation to the “House of Ideas,” and with a foundation gone, can a “house” stand for long? As we’ve read in previous articles, Jack had reached a point by 1967 where he was fed up with Marvel, particularly with Goodman and Lee. He had seen his concepts and creations exploited and taken credit for by individuals who promised him much but delivered little or nothing. Goodman was becoming even more wealthy on mass marketing and merchandising the Marvel creations; whereas Lee continued to take credit for characters and concepts he had virtually no input on save to dialogue after the lion’s share of the plot and story had been fleshed out

and drawn by the artist. Steve Ditko allegedly left for these selfsame reasons a year before, suggesting to Jack to leave as well, but Jack was still under contract and was still being promised incentives. By the end of ’67, however, Jack realized that outside of an increase in his page rate and contracts that were begun but never finished, he’d been shortchanged again by Goodman and Lee, his contract was coming to an end, and it was time to decide. Stay or go, but if he left, go where? As strange as it seemed, unbeknownst to Jack (or Stan for that matter), television would play an indirect pivotal role in Jack’s decision. By the end of ’67, due to the tremendous success of the Batman TV show, investors began looking to comic book companies as reasonably good investments. Both Marvel and DC had good sales and had been in the business under the same publishers for decades. DC went first, being purchased by Kinney National, then Marvel was sold to Perfect Film and Chemical. In both instances, publishers Goodman and Liebowitz remained temporarily (approximately four years) as publishers to see through a smooth transition and pave the way for their successors. Lee of course was first in line at Marvel, but at DC things were changing that would eventually help smooth the way for Lee to lose his most valuable asset. During the ’67-’68 period many of the “old guard” of DC’s writers and editors were either retiring, looking elsewhere, or simply being let go. The end result would be that the new editorial structure at DC would be composed of their former artists, with one of their premier artists—Carmine Infantino— taking the helm as editorial director. Carmine knew about Marvel what industry insiders knew for years: That it was creatively driven by its artists, and he wanted to bring that to DC. That wasn’t all he wanted to bring to DC. He had heard that Jack wasn’t happy with his present situation, and what better way to dent the competition than to get their main gun and fire it back at them? Meanwhile at Marvel, Jack had heard about the sale of the company (in late ’68) and both welcomed and dreaded it. He’d hoped that this might give him someone other than Goodman to deal with, but these were corporate investors who knew nothing about the comic book industry and even less about Jack. Lee was nervous as well; he now had more than Goodman to please and might have to prove his worth all over again. By this

A Failure To Communicate: Part 7 time Jack’s contract had expired and he was working page-rate, story to story. Despite his attempts to renegotiate for another contract, Jack was either rebuffed or put on hold (indefinitely); he knew he wasn’t going to see any percentage of merchandising or creative control of his work or even proper credit for it, but despite all that, Jack still would’ve stayed with Marvel if they’d only given him the thing that had always been most important to him: A promise of financial security. More than anything else in his life, Jack had the constant need to make sure he could support his family. Family was everything to him; during this very time, Jack began taking steps to move out of New York where he’d lived all his life, and go to live in California (about as far removed from NY living as one could get), all for the sake of his family. Within the Marvel family however, Jack was becoming more and more isolated; Infantino had met with Jack during this time (while Jack was still in New York) and discussions began about Jack joining another kind of family. While all of the aforementioned was going on, Stan was beginning to think of greener pastures. The success of the Marvel line had brought him the notoriety and recognition he so desperately sought during the years before the likes of a Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko came his way. Surprisingly, before his association with Jack and Steve which led to the Marvel successes, he languished for two decades pumping out average, topical, saleable plots and scripts for the Timely/Atlas books—but now by the mid-Sixties, he was being recognized by the general public as the creator of all these great characters and concepts. Contrary to what many may think about Lee hogging credit for himself, this may not have been all of Stan’s doing as it most definitely was in the company’s best interest to have one of their employees recognized as creator of the line, rather than a freelancer who might someday leave and try to take some of the creations with him. With the general—and some of the comic bookreading—public believing all of these great ideas came from Stan, offers began to come his way. Artists and Directors were asking to work with him. Colleges were approaching him to lecture to aspiring students on how to create. Newspapers and magazines were asking him for interviews and articles. Stan was finally reaching the point where he realized that his newfound status might be the ticket out of comics and into the big time. As Stan courted his celebrity, he began to slowly relinquish his scripting chores on various Marvel titles one by one. Shortly before the Marvel purchase by Perfect Film, the title line was expanded; the characters showcased in the “split” books—Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, and Strange Tales—were each given their own respective books, not to mention new titles being created like Captain Marvel, Captain Savage and Combat Kelly, and Not Brand Echh. Lee did the majority of the scripting (towards the end, some editing only) on the split books up until their transition, after which he left virtually all of them, handing the scripting reins over to guys like Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Archie Goodwin, Arnold Drake, and others. He edited only, saving

his scripting hand for Daredevil (which he left in March ’69), Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Thor, and Captain America. Lee also had plans to script the upcoming Spider-Man b-&-w magazine, a mentioned Inhumans book, and of course the Silver Surfer. Of the five titles Lee was still scripting, Kirby was drawing three of them: FF, Cap and Thor. One wonders why Lee never relinquished scripting the titles on which he “collaborated” with Kirby. Some speculated that, since Jack was doing the lion’s share of the work on those books with little or no input from Lee, and all Stan had to do was dialogue and edit an already

fleshed-out story, it was less work for him than with less experienced artists—but the longer they seemed to be working together, Jack grew more and more frustrated with Lee; their collaborations began to become more like grudging co-operations, with each man trying to put their own plotting into stories that were meant to be agreed upon. The new Surfer book was a particularly stinging slap in Jack’s face; since many believe that Jack could’ve asked for and gotten any title in the Marvel line to work on, and this title was not mentioned or offered to him, it was pretty obvious to him that he wasn’t wanted

on it (or his take on the character, at least). Jack had mentioned to Lee his wanting a writing or at least a plotting credit, but getting Lee to give a writing credit to any artist was a difficult task (shockingly, Steranko, a virtual nobody at that time, somehow got Lee to acquiesce after doing only two issues worth of work—another slap in Jack’s face). Jack was situated in California by 1969, even more isolated from Marvel than he had been in previous years, with Stan only talking to him if he had to. The stories Jack worked on that last year for Thor and Fantastic Four (he left Cap in early ’69) were among the most mundane of his run—decent for any other artist, but downright common for Kirby. The lack of collaborating is pretty evident at this stage as there are myriad examples of Stan’s dialogue looking like it makes no sense whatsoever when coupled with Jack’s illustration. Fans thought he and Lee were slipping, but it wasn’t so much slipping on Jack’s part as it was waiting. During his last year on Thor, Jack seemed to be pre-occupied with getting the origin of Galactus in print. He saw what Lee did to his Surfer and didn’t want the same fate to befall his other great cosmic creation. In FF he seems to have his final fun doing a gangster homage in his last four-part storyline. The rest of the year for the respective books feature retreads of old plots and old foes, and some new ones. Thor introduces Kronin Krask, the Crypto Man, and the Thermal Man; Fantastic Four came in with the Monacle and the Lagoon Creature. The fact that Goodman decreed that there be an end to continued stories for a while didn’t help the situation, as suspense and action then had to be crammed in or reduced. Although it wasn’t showing, Jack was arguably at his artistic height and these restrictions didn’t become so apparent until he left (once he got to DC, it’s almost like Jack’s art exploded out of these confines). Some speculate that towards the end of their association, these last new characters were probably from the plots that Kirby got from Lee, because it was reported that Jack was asking Stan to come up with the plots by this time; but upon reviewing original art from these stories, there is nothing to indicate any difference in the way they had always worked, so it’s entirely possible that Jack came up with them. Of the new characters introduced, only one—Agatha Harkness— would be utilized by Lee as a recurring character. By that time one would think that that was not Jack’s intention, however. It would be the last example of Stan using his editorial savvy to get something marketable out of one of Jack’s “throwaway” characters. Still working without a contract or any type of reassurance for job security, Jack was still doing work for Marvel, good work, but it wasn’t his best work. Some thought Jack was burning out; quite the contrary, he was just burning. While Marvel refused to talk to Jack, Carmine was ready to listen. He went to California to continue his quest to lure Kirby from the competition. The fact that

Jack was on the West Coast meant little to either publisher, although it was unusual at that time for any comic book personnel to not work out of the New York area. Only an artist of Jack’s stature could get away with working clear across the country, working by phone and mail almost exclusively. Carmine asked Jack what would it take to get him for DC. Foremost in Jack’s mind was a contract that would ensure continued financial security, but he wasn’t about to leave out the “little things” that Marvel refused to give him: A writing credit (in fact to write his own books), editorial control (remembering what happened to the Surfer and Him—to name only two—Jack wasn’t going to see his creations stolen from him or twisted into something different ever again), and a percentage of any merchandising from any characters he created. This was a hefty request for its day, but Carmine wanted Kirby at DC; it would be the coup of his editorial career, but he had to get the OK from the new bosses. Leibowitz was “old school” and requests like these were usually shot down, just as they were by his contemporary Goodman, but there was one difference: Goodman promised and reneged, and to Jack that was not very nice! While negotiations continued, Jack got a few final surprises from Lee. Jack was asked to do the stories for the Inhumans in a new anthology (split) book, Amazing Adventures. The Inhumans was a book that originally Stan wanted Jack to put out years earlier, but it never

made it to the schedule (some believe that the “Inhumans” back-up stories in Thor were the aforementioned book split-up, with other short “Inhumans” stories added until the back-ups were stopped completely). The surprise was that Jack would get a writing credit for the stories he did. Was this appeasement on Lee’s part, or was this the only way Stan could get Jack to do these stories (in which case, the surprise was on Stan)? Probably the former, as Stan could’ve simply gotten another artist for the book, but unlike the Surfer, Stan wanted Jack’s particular input on the characters he (Jack) created (in a 1968 fanzine, when asked directly, Jack states that he created the Inhumans). Jack also contributed “Ka-Zar” stories for Astonishing Tales, scripted by Roy Thomas, and did what would be the final story/issue for Lee’s failed Surfer comic. Kirby must have looked upon this particular job with mixed emotions to say the least (the last page says it all). The Fantastic Four’s onehundredth issue, alleged to have been scheduled as a giant-sized story, was truncated to a miserable nineteen pages, a sad epitaph for one of Jack’s greatest series. Reportedly Jack finally got those plots he asked Lee for, in the last couple of FF stories. Jack continued to grind ’em out but, with the return of Infantino, Jack would

now, finally (with Marvel anyway), grind to a halt. Jack’s requests were acceptable and it was time to sign. Up to the last minute, Jack waited, hoping he could come to some agreement with Goodman and the new owners at Marvel, but he was just another artist to them. Stan knew his worth, but also knew he wasn’t going to go to bat for him. He was worried enough about his own future with the company, and thought Jack was just disgruntled over the credits and some of the stories; he’d get over it. He was wrong! The day Jack signed his contract with DC he called Stan and told him he had his last work for Marvel. Stan was indeed surprised for, although he knew Jack was unhappy, he never thought he’d leave. The last Thor and FF stories Jack worked on had themes of hope and war in the respective last panels; one can only wonder about the irony of it all. What happened after Jack left has been discussed by many. Kirby was gone but sales continued to rise; was it because the new creative teams produced better stories? Hardly! Sales continued to rise on Spider-Man after Ditko left in ’66 also; sales continued to rise on almost all the Marvel books. Stories had little to do with it; it was impetus fueled by Marvel fanatics if anything. Lee went on without Jack for approximately two years. He stopped scripting Thor one year after Jack’s departure, and finally stopped scripting SpiderMan and Fantastic Four a year after that. Stan went on to become publisher, then president of Marvel, publishing book after book on the Marvel heroes based on his “crazy ideas.” It’s reported that the copies of these books that Jack had were edited by Kirby with a pair of scissors, cutting out falsities, thereby reducing many pages to swiss cheese. Once at a convention, a fan asked Jack if he’d sign one of the Lee books. Seeing that Lee already signed it, Jack said to the fan that he’d sign his name in ratio to his contributions as opposed to Lee’s; Jack’s signature was five times larger.

(previous page, top) Splash page from Astonishing Tales #1 (August 1970). (previous page, bottom) Final panels from Jack’s last issues of Fantastic Four (#102, Sept. 1970) and Thor (#179, August 1970), showing messages of war and hope. (below) Final page from Silver Surfer #18, a book that must’ve been particularly galling for Jack to draw. Kirby was initially snubbed for the art chores on the book, and the series floundered for seventeen issues. Then Stan Lee called in Kirby to try to course-correct the book for inker Herb Trimpe to take over with #19, but the series was cancelled with this issue. Characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

To this day Lee credits his artists as the most creative people he ever worked with; what they created, however, you rarely hear from Stan. As recently as his new autobiography, Stan continues to relate how Marvel came about, always using the collective “we.” He’ll graciously acknowledge the likes of Kirby and Ditko as two of the best artists he ever worked with, but according to Stan, the “ideas” came from him; they only fleshed them out. (At this point I’d recommend subscribing to Robin Snyder’s The Comics where Steve Ditko is giving his side to the Lee/Ditko “collaborations.”) As far as any problems with Jack, in a recently released DVD with Kevin Smith, all Stan can relate is that Jack was unhappy about some form Marvel wanted him to sign to get his originals back (this happened with Jack in the mid-’80s). For some reason Stan believes Jack blamed him for this problem (Jack didn’t), and that’s all Stan would say about any problems with Kirby—no mention of why Jack left Marvel. In a 1977 interview, when asked why he embellishes his answers to the point of not really giving the answer, Stan responded in so many words that the public wasn’t interested in boring tales, even if they were the truth. Since he admired Shakespeare so, I think that the best line that suits Stan would be from Measure for Measure: “It oft falls out, To have what we would have, We speak not what we mean.” So the greatest team in the Silver Age of comics was no more. Jack’s heart left Marvel long before his person; a long last year that stretched out over several. In later years, Jack cited why he felt he had to leave, but just as with Ditko (and Wood for that matter), Stan will tell you how he doesn’t know why Jack left. He knew Jack was unhappy, he knew Jack was working with no contract, he knew Goodman reneged on promises made; but he doesn’t know why Jack left. It seemed any artist who contributed significantly to the creation of the Marvel super-heroes had a failure to communicate and eventual falling-out with Lee, but he doesn’t know why! How could he not know? ★

(previous page) Pencils from Astonishing Tales #166 (July 1969), featuring “Him”; like the Silver Surfer, he was another character Jack felt was changed from the direction he had planned for the character. (above) Kronin Krask, one of the forgettable villains that populated Kirby’s books his last year at Marvel. Was he Jack’s idea or Stan’s? This page is from Thor #172 (Jan. 1970). (Left) While Jack filled in for John Buscema on Silver Surfer #18, Big John took a stab at Thor in issue #178 (July 1970). After Kirby left, Neal Adams drew two issues, and then Buscema became the series’ regular artist. Characters TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Examples of the development of a splash page by Mark Schultz. Note the experimentation with camera angles in the roughs stage to utilize all of his storytelling options, leading to the final published page. Even after tight pencils, figures were added and adjusted. ©2002 Mark Schultz.

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Edited by JOHN MORROW THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through interviews with Kirby and his contemporaries, feature articles, and rare and unseen Kirby artwork. Now in tabloid format, the magazine showcases Kirby’s art at even larger size.

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Send letters to: THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR c/o TwoMorrows • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 E-mail to: twomorrow@aol.com • See back issue excerpts at: www.twomorrows.com

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(Hope you enjoyed this Thor issue. Since we managed to get it to the printer right about the time last issue was shipping, there aren’t any letters on #35 yet. However, we’ve still got a batch of letters on other issues, so let’s get started with this cool pin-up, sent to us by Rik Van Niedek...

...and these comments from cover inker Trevor Von Eeden, which came in at the last minute:) What can I say about a chance to ink the King?! Well, first, about the week it took for the realization to sink in that this was real, not some figment of an overworked imagination. The ground didn’t open up under my feet... no lightning strike... hysterical blindness not yet in evidence... hands reasonably shakefree now... I still can’t believe I get to do this!! I’m not good enough yet! Y’see, Jack Kirby is, to me, what Picasso is to most people: The creative force behind abstract-cubistexpressionistic innovative art. And more, the man could tell a story like no other person on the planet! Jack’s art is primal, mysterious, archetypical, totemic, and most of all, true. Jack forged a connection from the most hidden, deepest regions of the universal human subconscious straight up through the humble instrument held in that remarkable hand and directly into our eternally grateful consciousness. He harnessed the cosmos, just for us! But that, too, is an understatement. He was the best, is all. By the way, I met Jack once. I was 12 or so, at a convention in ’72. He liked the way I looked at his work for some reason (I was astounded!), and came around from behind his table to say hello and ask me my name. Then he shook my hand. I saw the kindest eyes with the darkest circles under them I’d ever seen. He looked right at me and smiled with the most bemused expression I’d ever encountered, then or since. He seemed to be a truly happy man. I’ll never forget that face. I felt blessed for having met that kind of a man once in my life. It wasn’t until I discovered a body of his amazing work 78

a little while later that I realized how much he had already done for me, without even realizing it. I’m glad I met him, if only once, and I’m glad that he was happy. He deserved it, much more than most of us do. But maybe I’m being unfair. I think Jack was happy in life and that’s enuff for me. Trevor Von Eeden I look forward to more JIMMY OLSEN in TJKC (especially Jack’s version of Superman). As a young teenager buying them when they came out I could see that Superman did not seem the same as the rest of the art and it is great to see some of what Jack actually did draw. I would not be surprised if you looked through JIMMY OLSEN again and found that there was more than enough material to fill an issue. Off the top of my head: 1) Jack’s version of Superman. How he saw humanity relating to someone as powerful as Superman and how he gained perspective by visiting and measuring himself against the New Gods. There have been other relaunchings of Superman (most famously John Byrne’s, which is great if you are a fan of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE...) but people forget that there was also a relaunching of sorts when Jack moved to DC (the removal of Kryptonite, Clark Kent becoming a TV reporter and anchorman, etc.) Imagine if Jack had been given the Superman titles to play with. JIMMY OLSEN gives a delicious teaser of what he would and could have done. One of the things that always stood out to me was that Superman was so powerful that it was impossible to find villains powerful enough to give him a fight for more than a couple of panels. Yet Jack successfully stretched Superman in battle without in any way weakening or demeaning the character. People go on about “The Pact” and “Himon” as defining stories in NEW GODS and MISTER MIRACLE but surely Jack’s visit of Superman to New Genesis was also a defining story in JIMMY OLSEN? 2) The successful reworking and relaunching of the Newsboy Legion and the Guardian for a new generation, building on, without undermining, what had gone before. Even now I still remember the shock that the Guardian had been cowardly murdered and was now a clone. (It was a bit like some nutter just walking into a restaurant and randomly shooting Bruce Wayne in the head from behind.) I kept expecting the real Guardian to mysteriously reappear with some reason as to how he had gotten out of it (which shows how new and radical the idea was for its time). Heroes just did not die like this (in fact, heroes just did not die). Then, less than 10 years later, John Lennon died the same way.... So, was the reworking of the Newsboy Legion the “Anatomy Lesson” of its generation? 3) Jack’s reworking of Jimmy Olsen. How often did he need or use the Signal Watch? How often was he used as a well-meaning clutz? Or was he somebody who used his own head and could react and deal with problems himself? How long was it before he realized that Morgan Edge was not what he seemed and was looking for evidence? And how long before Morgan Edge realized this and was looking for a way to discreetly dispose of Jimmy and Clark? The characters changed as the story progressed. They remembered what had happened in preceding issues and so the story was built upon and grew—which is another very good reason for bringing out JIMMY

OLSEN as a graphic novel. 4) The Project and Clones. How far ahead of his time in his thinking was Jack? How relevant to today are his stories and warnings? How close are we now to creating a Project? If Jack had written JIMMY OLSEN as a novel, would we be proclaiming it now as being a visionary classic still ahead of its time today? 5) It may have seemed a bit clichéd using old Universal Monsters, but again how relevant to today is the idea of media influencing societies? The interesting thing about this storyline is that we never meet the person (Dabney Donovan) behind it. It is just something he set up before disappearing and presumably going onto other projects. Shades of today’s media moguls who set up satellite channels as part of their empires! 6) The idea of our own weapons and research being used against us to create a nuclear holocaust. The Four-Armed Terror was one heck of a storyline. Jack creates a monster that is more than a match for Superman (in an era when Supes had no worthwhile adversaries who could make him break into a sweat) and then ups the stakes by dumping hundreds of them into the Project. Talk about rattling along to a climax. A masterpiece of storytelling, methinks. 7) Jack’s dialogue is a revelation in this title. It is without a doubt his most realistic and naturalistic and he was really making an effort to differentiate his characters and create a comic that fit in with the rest of the DC universe. So what happened later on? 8) I am going to stick my neck out here and say that I think Vince Colletta’s inking worked on this title and made the characters more realistic (which was no bad thing considering who they were). Mike Royer was the far better inker on NEW GODS and Jack’s other “Big” titles, but not so on JIMMY OLSEN. Plenty there to look at. Just a few ideas, but I am sure that there are many more. I remember a list you gave of some of the concepts and ideas and characters Jack put into JIMMY OLSEN in one of your earlier editorials and have always been a little bemused that you did not expand on this into a JIMMY OLSEN special issue. I often think that JIMMY OLSEN was the most innovative and creative of the Fourth World titles but, strangely enough, the most overlooked for some reason. Kevin Ainsworth, via e-mail I enjoy your magazine, but I caught an error in the article by Rich Morrissey on the Summer 1944 BOY COMMANDOS #7 story involving Thor. I think it appeared in JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #14. In the article, the author referred to Hitler as a worshipper of Odin and Thor; although this intuitively would seem correct, in fact it isn’t. As Prudence Jones pointed out in her book HISTORY OF PAGAN EUROPE, there is no evidence that the Third Reich was at all sympathetic with Odin-worship. PerDegaton@aol.com I used to be a huge fan of Jack Kirby’s Silver Age Marvel superhero art, but was mostly clueless concerning the balance of his superhuman (how else can one describe Jack’s quality and volume?) creative output. Now all that’s changed (it seems a whole new Kirby world has opened up to me), and all because a friend gave me a copy of TJKC #33 for Christmas. (This of course I could not help but read cover-tocover nonstop, having absolutely no interest in anything else until I finished it the next day.) Words can’t express the value of the privilege of

seeing repros of Jack’s pencils (nor the extent of my gratitude that this is made possible through TJKC), and the articles are great! Now a subscriber with some TJKC back issues in my collection, I’ve learned of so many wonderful Kirby books. Thanks entirely to your magazine (and to its contributors), I’ve since grabbed up a lot of great Kirby art that I never even knew existed. That said, I do have one specific item I’d like to bring forward: One of my favorite articles in TJKC #33 was Shane Foley’s piece on “Tracing the advent of Kirby Krackle.” Jack’s affectation with those little black dots clustered together has all by itself become almost synonymous with comic book art as a genre (yet this is just one of many ways in which the King shaped the comics industry). Nearly every book or advertisement with comics art features the Krackle. It’s everywhere, and when you see it, you know you’re looking at “comic book art.” And it’s Jack who led the way with this exciting technique. Shane’s article conjectures that Jack’s use of “Kirby Krackle” may have been inspired by a 1963 photo of a Quasar, and traces the first foretelling of the Krackle to FF #46, page 16, where Triton is trapped in a tank of water with bubbles melding into Krackly black dots that show his movement in the water. But this Krackle is in water, not in space or emanating from some source of energy, so it’s not quite the same (for expediency, I shall henceforth dub it “water Krackle”). The original appearance of your typical energy-infused Kosmic Kirby Krackle is portrayed in the article as coinciding with the Silver Surfer’s in FF #48. The further refinement and use of the Krackle is then detailed with words and art in the balance of this fine composition. However, due to evidence made available to me since reading TJKC #33 (via reprints I’ve learned of in TJKC), I must humbly but dutifully take exception to Shane’s conclusions as to the origin of the Krackle. Students of Kirby’s art are no doubt aware that he typically used something akin to Krackle to depict the way light glances off the ripples and waves in water. This did not begin in FF #46, but was used by Jack for many years prior. The Green Arrow By Jack Kirby (published in 2001 by DC Comics) has a number of excellent reprinted examples of Jack’s water Krackle from 1958-1959. Also, reprints of Jack’s pre-WWII art show a cruder, less-evolved form of water Krackle. The shapes of the dots used for water Krackle were usually oval, however, rather than round. While the technique of assembling the black dots together in groups is more or less the same, energy Krackle is different from water Krackle in that with energy Krackle the viewer is intended to focus on the negative space left between the black dots. In Kirby’s hands, this forms really cool-looking bolts of potent cosmic energy stuff. So, by rights, we could (and shall) focus our attention on energy Krackle as the definitive Kirby Krackle. Despite the fact that Kirby Krackle proliferated and became an integral part of Jack’s art during the latter half of the 1960s, this technique did not originate in FANTASTIC FOUR, or even in the 1960s. Please allow me to direct you to an excellent early example of Kirby Krackle in the fifth panel of page 4 of “The Mystery of the Giant Arrows,” which originally appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #252, September 1958 (see above). Here, a giant arrow explodes in the sky, with energy Krackling between the exploding arrow and two ensuing fireballs. It’s not Kirby/Sinnott Krackle; still, it’s Krackle just the same. It is possible that an earlier example exists, but the earliest instance of Kirby Krackle I can find is in BLUE BOLT #5 (October 1940, shown below), on page 4 in the last panel. Here Blue Bolt is preparing to travel to the fourth dimension (a world that in the next page looks so much like the nether regions traveled by Steve Ditko’s Dr. Strange that one wonders if Mr. Ditko didn’t swipe his inspirations for that series from here). There is no question

that this is Kirby Krackle, and, as if in prophetic answer to the then unrealized query, the caption reads “The Blue Bolt strides boldly through the cylinder mouth, which is alive with living, crackling energy!” In fact, the Krackle here looks almost exactly like the crackle in the Quasar photograph shown in TJKC #33, leaving one to wonder just how Jack knew about this back in 1940! Had Jack himself been traveling the cosmos in a spaceship from the future, prior to humankind’s ability to photograph such space things as quasars? Be that as it may, one must surely conclude that Jack’s been Krackling since way back. Yet for some reason it wasn’t until the ’60s that Jack fully explored the potential uses for Kirby Krackle, and thereby compelled the rest of the comics industry to follow. Kirby Krackle is just one aspect of Jack’s vision, his genius, and his unmatched influence on comics. My apologies to Mr. Foley for writing this correction, as I greatly admire his original inspiring article in TJKC. By the way, can I get a no-prize for this? Mike Trehus, Lino Lakes, MN After recently reading THE COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY book on Jack Kirby, I had a couple of thoughts: First, Jack’s claim that he had never seen Stan Lee write anything doesn’t sound that ludicrous, given that Jack rarely did more than drop off his art at the Marvel office, and then went home. He wasn’t around much to see Stan do anything. If true, has anyone interviewed letterers like Artie Simek (or even inkers like Joe Sinnott) to see if they ever saw Stan writing the dialogue that eventually became the word balloons? That might clarify this point. Someone must have seen Stan do something. And more to the point, wouldn’t it be interesting to read what the rest of the bullpen thinks about the Lee/Kirby relationship? (Sly hint here.) Second, I’m confused by Jack’s claim that he created SpiderMan. I’ve read somewhere that Stan first gave Spidey to Jack, but his version was too powerful, too Kirbyish to be believable, given that Peter Parker is a bit of a scrawny teenage bookworm. I realize that the definition of “creator” is pretty fuzzy. Jack may well have drawn Spidey first, but it was Ditko’s Parker that fit the mold and became the wellspring for all future versions. So are Ditko and Lee correctly credited as creators in the new SPIDERMAN movie? (And as an aside, was Ditko consulted on the movie? Somehow, I doubt it.) In a generous world, perhaps all three men would be credited. I’m not interested in disrespecting any of these men. But like many fans of comic art, I’d like to know. Got any answers? Brad Shirakawa, Cupertino, CA NEXT ISSUE: It’s called HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY, and it’ll blow the lid off Jack’s storytelling and art secrets! First up, there’s two Kirby covers (one inked and watercolored by Jack himself—and the other’s a BIG surprise)! Inside, JOE SINNOTT and MIKE ROYER show us how to ink Kirby through a pair of tutorial interviews! Also, we present the second part of a never-published 1969 interview with JACK KIRBY, conducted by SHEL DORF, and talking about how he do that thing he do! There’s also a wealth of analysis of every aspect of Kirby’s art, from story flow to leading the eye from panel-to-panel! PLUS: A comparison of JACK’S SOLO WRITING to STAN LEE’s! Regular columnists MARK EVANIER and ADAM McGOVERN! And an astounding KIRBY ART GALLERY at TABLOID SIZE! The issue ships in November, and the submission deadline is 9/10/02.

Classifieds (10¢/word, $1 minimum) AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Original Art Wanted! Any page, any issue! Romita, Ross Andru, Frenz, Ditko, Mooney, etc. Contact: Aaron Sultan, 919-954-7111 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 www.captaincorbie.com. FREE ONLINE COMICS. Amazing online comics using 1/6th scale Action Figures, featuring incredible custom dioramas and movie like special effects. Read "Captain Corbie On The Planet of The Space Vixens." A spoof of all the great classic sci-movies. For all audiences. Published monthly. Grab your mouse and visit" www.captaincorbie.com.

36 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 Jon B. Cooke Shel Dorf Mark Evanier Shane Foley Tony Fornaro Mike Gartland Erik Larsen Adam McGovern Bryan Middleton Eric Nolen-Weathington Mark Poe Gordon Robson John Romita Jr. Mike Royer Rich Rubenfeld Joe Sinnott Trevor Von Eeden Tom Ziuko If we’ve forgotten anyone, please let us know! SPECIAL THANKS TO: Mark Evanier • Adam McGovern Trevor Von Eeden • Mike Royer John Romita, Jr. • Shel Dorf Joe Sinnott • Mike Thibodeaux and of course The Kirby Estate MAILING CREW: Russ Garwood • Glen Musial Ed Stelli • Patrick Varker

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! 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! GOT AN IDEA FOR A TJKC THEME ISSUE? What are you waiting for?! Drop us a line and let us know what you’d like to see! 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

Kirby took one last turn at Thor with a series of covers in the 1970s, and this one from Thor Annual #5 (1976) is perhaps the most reminiscent of his earlier work.

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In this premiere issue, top professional writers discuss the practical aspects of their craft. You'll get tips and insights from interviews with:

And an interview with STAN (THE MAN) LEE! ('Nuff said.)

• BRAIN MICHAEL BENDIS, the writer of Ultimate Spider-Man, Alias, Powers and so many more.

Cover penciled and inked by MARK BAGLEY, featuring those two zany comics creators WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE and LEONARDO DaVINCI as they collaborate on the first issue of MONA, WARRIOR PRINCESS!

• JOE QUESADA, editor in chief of Marvel Comics, and co-writer of Ash and writer of Iron Man. He's the guy setting the writing standards at the House of Ideas today. • JOSS WHEDON, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the comic Fray, and the upcoming Firefly TV series. • J.M. DeMATTEIS writer of Spider-Man, the Spectre, Man-Thing and Moonshadow. • MARK BAGLEY, penciler of Ultimate Spider-Man, New Warriors and Amazing Spider-Man. Find out what one of the field's top artists likes—and doesn't like—in scripts he draws from.

COMIC BOOK ARTIST #20: THE ROMITAS & THE KUBERTS IN A SPECIAL FATHER & SONS ISSUE! Featuring art by and interviews with the top father & son teams in comics: • NEW COVERS by THE KUBERTS & THE ROMITAS! • JOHN ROMITA SR. and JOHN JR. in an extensive conversation about their careers! • A roundtable talk with JOE KUBERT and sons ADAM and ANDY KUBERT! • One-on-one interviews, art galleries, and more! (Edited by JON B. COOKE • 116 pages) Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard, $54 First Class (Canada: $66, Elsewhere: $72 Surface, $96 Airmail).

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The premiere issue gives practical advise and tips from top professionals on both sides of the desk, including:

(Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH • 80 pages) Four-issue subscriptions: $20 Standard, $32 First Class (Canada: $40, Elsewhere: $44 Surface, $60 Airmail).

• STAN LEE (Marvel Comics founder and legend) • BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (Ultimate Spider-Man) • JOE QUESADA (editor in chief of Marvel Comics) • J.M. DeMATTEIS (Spider-Man,Spectre,Moonshadow) • MARK BAGLEY on writing from the artist’s POV!

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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #35: GREAT ESCAPES!

ALTER EGO #16: THE MARVEL BULLPEN & ALEX ROSS!

Featuring pages of KIRBY’s UNINKED MISTER MIRACLE PENCILS shown at TABLOID SIZE, plus: • KIRBY COVER inked by MARSHALL ROGERS, and a color Mister Miracle #1 recreation by STEVE RUDE! • Interviews with MARSHALL ROGERS and Pulitzer Prize-winning author MICHAEL CHABON! • KIRBY TRIBUTE PANEL with BUSCEMA, ROMITA, ROYER, EISNER, and JOHNNY CARSON! • NEW REGULAR COLUMN by MARK EVANIER! • Huge MISTER MIRACLE ART GALLERY, “Himon” examined, KIRBY & HOUDINI compared, & more!

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XAL-KOR THE HUMAN CAT

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

GRASS GREEN’S classic character returns, awakened from suspended animation to find arch-enemy QUEEN RODA and her rat legions on the brink of conquering Earth. Is there time for even Xal-Kor—the intrepid soldier from the cat-planet Felis—to stop Roda from turning Earth into a slave planet? This new comic story features:

• 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!

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