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Contents
THE NEW
The Magic Of LEE & KIRBY, Part ONe! OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (Lee & Kirby together again—and again!)
ISSUE #53, SUMMER 2009
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UNDER THE COVERS . . . . . . . . . . . .3 (inking some familiar faces) CRIB NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (a guided tour of Stan and Jack’s New York haunts—be sure to wear your comfortable shoes!) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 (when Jacob met Stanley) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . .11 (you’re not getting older, you’re getting better) THE MAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 (Stan Lee speaks!) GALLERY 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 (a look at Kirby’s incredible inkers during the Marvel Age) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 (Mark Evanier’s on hiatus this ish, so we dug up one of his earliest published works to embarrass him) TRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 (the 2008 Kirby Tribute Panel, featuring Jerry Robinson, and Joe Ruby & Ken Spears) ADAM McGOVERN . . . . . . . . . . . .34 (Jack’s rock ’n’ roll influence) GALLERY 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 (lost and found Fantastic Four pages) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 (Barry Forshaw recommends more things to spend your money on in a down economy) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .55 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) FOUNDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 (a silver bullet for your heart) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 (Stan & Jack’s genre comics, plus comments for the whole blamed Marvel Bullpen about Lee & Kirby) QUESTIONABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 (a game of “What If?”) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .78 PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (Stan and Jack and the Surfer) This issue is dedicated to the very dedicated Jerry Boyd, a man whose energy and devotion to comics history and fandom leaves me in awe. - JM Front cover inks: GEORGE PÉREZ Back cover inks/colors: JOE SINNOTT Front cover color: TOM ZIUKO The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 16, No. 53, Summer 2009. Published quarterly by & ©2009 TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $14 postpaid ($16 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $50 US, $60 Canada, $84 elsewhere. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is ©2009 Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is ©2009 the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA. ISSN 1932-6912
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(above) They aren’t Stan and Jack, but these two men are responsible for the great Lee/Kirby creations of the 1960s. Who are they? Turn to page 2 to find out! (And then thank these guys!)
COPYRIGHTS: Ant-Man, Atlas Monsters, Avengers, Beast, Black Bolt, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Mar-Vell, Cobra, Crystal, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Gabe Jones, Galactus, GiantMan, Goom, Groot, Hate-Monger, Hawkeye, Hercules, Him, Hulk, Human Top, Human Torch, Iron Man, Janus, Ka-Zar, Kid Colt, Loki, Mad Thinker, Magneto, Modok, Mr. Hyde, Nick Fury/Sgt. Fury, Odin, Puppet Master, Rawhide Kid, Red Ghost, Red Skull, Sandman, Scarlet Witch, SHIELD, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Thing, Thor, Trapster, Two-Gun Kid, Wasp, Watcher, Wizard, X-Men, Yellow Claw TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Batman, Boy Commandos, Demon, Forever People, House of Mystery, In The Days Of The Mob, Losers, Orion, Robin TM & ©2009 DC Comics. • Sky Masters TM & ©2009 Jack Kirby Estate. • Black Magic, Fighting American, Win A Prize, Young Romance TM & ©2009 Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estate. • Captain 3-D, Hi-School Romances TM & ©2009 Harvey Comics. • Thundarr the Barbarian, Ookla, Video Rangers TM & ©2009 Ruby-Spears.
Opening Shot
by John Morrow, editor of TJKC
hange of plans! This issue’s theme, “The Magic of Lee & Kirby,” came together nicely with the help of Jerry Boyd, Kirby fan and TwoMorrows Contributor Emeritus. But after assembling all the usual “must-have” pieces for this issue—columns, galleries, Kirby Museum page, and this page, for what it’s worth—the usual problem set in: There just aren’t enough pages to do justice to the theme! So like many of the great Lee & Kirby epics of the 1960s, I’ve decided to make this a two-parter, to be “Continued Next Issue!” (as all those last-page blurbs used to say). I hope you’ll be back for Part Two next time.
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Stan & Jack, Together Again—Twice!
(above) Stan and Jack share a laugh at a 1966 New York comic convention. (below) Both men in the 1970s, after they went their separate ways.
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Now, where do you begin to discuss a creative team as important to the history of comics as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby? At the beginning, I guess. Their first collaboration (if you’d call it that) was when Stan was the office boy at Timely Comics in the 1940s, and wrote a text filler page for Captain America Comics #3. But Jack was already teamed up with Joe Simon, and they both viewed young Stanley Lieber (Stan’s given name) as more of an annoyance than a fellow creator, since Stanley spent a lot of time sitting on desks, playing his ocarina, and distracting Joe and Jack from their work. (Reader Stan Taylor has noted the memorable splash page in Captain America Comics #7, where the Red Skull is causing chaos by playing a flute—he wonders if this was inspired by Stan’s antics.) Simon & Kirby went on to produce a string of hits until the anti-comics backlash spearheaded by Dr. Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent took its toll on the entire industry. Joe and Jack dissolved their partnership in the late 1950s after their company Mainline went under, and Jack was back to freelancing. But due to a dispute with DC Comics editor Jack Schiff over royalties for Jack’s Sky Masters comic strip, he became persona non grata at DC Comics, which left Marvel Comics (then called Atlas, formerly known as Timely) and editor Stan Lee as one of his few avenues for work. (So, here’s a tip of the hat to Mssrs. Wertham and Schiff for inadvertently causing the formation of the Lee & Kirby team; without them, who knows if Stan and Jack would’ve ever crossed paths, let alone created so many classic stories and characters. I’m celebrating both men by featuring their mugs on Page One of this issue!) The Lee & Kirby “team” didn’t really exist the way we as fans were led to believe in the 1960s Marvel Bullpen and letters pages. (For that matter, there wasn’t really a “Bullpen” of Marvel artists and writers, all working together in one big room, the way it was depicted in the comics.) And as the 1960s drug on, the pair had less and less direct involvement, as both men did most of their respective work from their homes. As tends to happen with many creative successful teams, disputes and animosities arose, and we’ve covered some of that in this magazine’s previous issues. But the focus this time out is strictly to celebrate their achievements, rather than expose any hidden underbellies, or get caught up in a “who did what” melee. Without either gent, the end result wouldn’t have been the same, and almost certainly wouldn’t be as successful, or commercially viable some 40+ years later. So sit back and relive some of the triumphs of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, from their earliest collaborations on Marvel’s monster and western yarns, to the creative tour de force that was (and still is) the Marvel Universe. (And thanks to Jerry Boyd for helping me wrap my head around these two issues, right down to this issue’s cover concept.) ★
by John Morrow his issue’s cover is a bit of a “Brady Bunch” riff, utilizing a wide variety of mug shots of various Stan Lee/Jack Kirby characters, all taken from the Valentine’s Day sketchbook Jack did as a gift for Roz Kirby in the late 1970s. While Stan wasn’t involved in the creation of Captain America or the Red Skull, those characters were major players in their 1960s work together, and Stan’s first professional comics work was a text filler page in Simon & Kirby’s Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941). So it seemed only appropriate that Cap got the center “Alice the maid” spot. When it came time to choose an inker for this medley of faces, I naturally tried to think of an artist who’s known for working on books that feature large groups of super-characters. It took about two seconds for the name George Pérez to pop in my mind. George is known for his work on the Avengers, Teen Titans, and of course Crisis on Infinite Earths, which featured practically every DC Comics character ever created. So I figured a mere 23-character cover image would be easy for him to ink. Which reminded me of an e-mail George sent me back in 2008 (presented here to give you an idea of the kind of guy George is): “If there’s ever an opening for someone to ink a really heavily populated Kirby cover, please keep me in mind. It would be a real honor.” The honor’s all mine, George! When he saw the pencils, he even asked whether I thought he should try to correct any of the mistakes Jack made, as he didn’t want to be disrespectful by “fixing” Kirby’s work. And in typical Pérez fashion, he turned around the inks in just a few days. (Special thanks to Mike Manley for “bluelining” the pencils for George to ink over.) Then, colorist Tom Ziuko and I felt that this piece was crying out for a more basic, 1960s-style color treatment, so we chose a “big dot” effect, and I worked up a similar look for photos of Stan & Jack to complete the piece. Our back cover is both inked and colored by Joe Sinnott, who should need no introduction to readers of this publication (but just in case you do, check out our Marvel Inkers Gallery this issue for a brief overview of Joe’s career). In the 1970s, Jack did this “Cisco Thing” drawing for Joe’s son Mark, and Joe added his always-lush inking to it, to produce yet another stellar Kirby/Sinnott collaboration. (As you can see, Joe’s coloring abilities are as amazing as his inking.) Thanks to Mark Sinnott for sending this beauty in! ★
Under The Covers
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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There Goes The Neighborhood
Crib Notes
A tour of Lee & Kirby’s New York, by Martin Bartolomeo
Below: Lower East Side A) 138 Suffolk Street B) 147 Essex Street (Jack’s birthplace) C) 76 Suffolk Street (corner of Delancey Street and Suffolk Street) D) 131 Suffolk Street (at Rivington Street) E) 290 East 3rd Street (Boys’ Brotherhood Republic)
Next Page: Manhattan A) 1600 Broadway (Fleischer studios) B) 202 East 44th Street (Eisner & Iger) C) 480 Lexington Avenue (Victor Fox Studios, where Jack meets Joe Simon; also National Periodical Publications/DC) D) S&K Studio at Tudor City E) Prize Publications (at 1790 Broadway) F) Harvey Comics at 67 West 47th Street G) Timely (later Marvel) at 330 West 42nd Street (the McGraw Hill Building) H) Atlas Comics (Park Avenue and East 47th Street) I) Marvel Comics’ 1960s address (625 Madison Avenue)
(right) Jack at work in the late 1940s at his home studio, 367 Congress Avenue, East Williston, NY. (next page, top) Stan, about age 30, writing at his Long Island terrace home at 226 Richards Lane, Hewlett Harbor, New York.
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ny true fan of Jack Kirby, by now, has seen his 10-page Argosy piece entitled “Street Code,” said to be Jack’s only autobiographical work. The work includes a double-page spread which reflects most street photos taken at the time (circa 1917), that of a busy and noisy street with too many pushcart vendors and crowds of people huddled together. This area is referred to as Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where most immigrants coming to New York found themselves in the early part of the last century. It is roughly bounded by East Broadway to the east and south, East Houston Street to the north, and the Bowery to the west (although historically it included the Bowery, Alphabet City, the East Village, Little Italy, and Chinatown.) The Kirby family’s 1910 Census address was 138 Suffolk Street, but Jack was born at 147 Essex Street on August 28, 1917 (this is the address on Jack’s father’s World War I draft card circa 1917). The family eventually moved two blocks over to 76 Suffolk Street (at the corner of Delancey Street and Suffolk Street, now containing a building under renovation, which is most likely not the original building either). Their 1920 Census address was 131 Suffolk Street (at Rivington Street), indicating a lot of moving about, but always within a few blocks of their previous address. What was life like growing up there? It was rough for Jack and the family. Interviews indicate that Jack lived in the typical apartment house of the time, the notorious “tenement” building. Tenements were mostly constructed, with few building code rules, in the second half of the 19th century. Three quarters of Manhattan residents lived in them (who were mostly of Jewish or Italian descent). Generally speaking, conditions in the tenements were appalling by the standards of the time, and to modern day New Yorkers, almost unimaginable. Many of the tenements had
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no steam heat, hot running water, nor even a toilet. Since bathtubs were placed in kitchens, the lack of privacy tended to make residents go out to the public baths. Rooftops and fire escapes were the only relief from the summer heat. A typical tenement flat was about 350 square feet (three rooms), which is the size of today’s typical one room studio apartment units. Jack, a short and stocky scrapper, was a member of the Suffolk Street gang, one of many kid street gangs that fought every other gang that would come their way, and in one interview Jack expresses the fact that he actually enjoyed the almost daily experience of street fighting. This rough-and-tumble mindset greatly influenced his future writing and artwork. It came through in the Simon & Kirby collaborations of the “Newsboy Legion,” the Boy Commandoes and Boy Explorers and all through the Marvel Age and beyond (don’t forget the one-shot Dingbats of Danger Street!). The streets also figured into the pages of the Fantastic Four (Yancy Street) and the Fourth World (Armagetto). The cinema contributed to this genre, starting in the 1930s with the Dead End Kids, later called the Little Tough Guys, later called the East Side Kids, and finally called the Bowery Boys. Jack did everything he could in order to get himself and his family out of the Lower East Side. His future was in his art. Early on, Jack became part of the Boys Brotherhood Republic, a local club at 290 East 3rd Street which served as a haven to keep kids out of trouble. (The “BBR” exists to this day.) He later worked freelance, and did a relatively short stint at the Max Fleischer Animation offices at 1600 Broadway, as an in-betweener (Jack would draw the in-between motion of the characters while the head animators would draw the extreme poses). Later he worked for Will Eisner, then located at 202 East 44th Street, and then for Victor Fox at Fox Studios (480 Lexington Avenue, Room 912 in the same building as DC Comics at the time), eventually meeting up with artist Joe Simon. The Simon & Kirby team were so prolific that during their lunch hours at the Victor Fox company, they rented a studio in one of the buildings in the East 40s known as Tudor City Place and moonlighted (between 1st and 2nd Avenues and between 41st and 43rd Streets). They produced many innovative titles for different publishers, with the following being each firm’s address during the 1940s: Prize Publications (also known as Crestwood) at 1790 Broadway, Harvey Comics at 67 West 47th Street, and most notably Timely (later Marvel) at 330 West 42nd Street (the McGraw Hill Building). In the second half of the 1950s, Jack did work for National Periodical Publication (DC) at 480 Lexington Avenue (currently at 1700 Broadway). Then Stan Lee came into the picture. Jack first met Stan around 1940, when Martin Goodman, publisher at Timely gave his relative, Stanley Leiber, work as an office “gofer.” Joe Simon was editor at the time, with Jack as art director. Stan started out better—at least in a finer neighborhood—than Jack, having been born on Manhattan’s upper west side. However, the Great Depression forced the family to relocate further north to Washington Heights (upper Manhattan). He attended DeWitt Clinton High School up in the Bronx (at 100 West Mosholu Parkway South and East 205th Street), a school which also graduated Batman co-creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Stan wasn’t a scrapper like Jack, and led his young life a bit of a loner, with his head in the books. He was very active in school, typical of an extrovert, and was part of the law society, chess club, and the public speaking club among others (and was nicknamed Gabby). Stan eventually became a writer by just “being there” at the Timely offices, waiting for his opportunity, and it finally came. He wrote the text pages for early issues of Captain America, the pages that nobody ever reads, which in turn
qualified the comics for a cheaper magazine postage rate. While it has been noted in the biography Stan Lee, by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon, that Stan was mostly an undistinguished writer during his early comic book years, it was not until the early ’60s that he began to shine. The magical collaboration of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee could not be suppressed, signaling the Marvel Age of Comics. Both men contributed greatly to this new style of comics, with Jack as artist/plotter/co-creator, and Stan as a writer/co-creator and pitchman for the product. While it has always been a debate as to “who did what” in coming up with the Marvel line, each needed the other. Without Kirby you would not have had the superb and powerful renderings, and without Lee you would not have had the snappy dialogue, the humor, and the ability to sell it all. While Stan and Jack did not invent comics, the medium itself would be very different today without their work, as it is this particular pairing that made the difference. At the time of their Marvel collaboration, the comics industry was in a funk—charming stuff, in many cases, but kind of humdrum. Lee and Kirby revitalized the medium, bringing in legions of new fans. It appears that sometimes the stars do align, just in time for both of them, and for the artists and writers today who owe their livelihood to the “Lennon and McCartney” of comics.
Special Notes on the Lower East Side Today’s Lower East Side is a different place altogether. Recent rapid gentrification has prompted the National Trust for Historic Preservation to place the neighborhood on their list of “America’s Most Endangered Places.” A great deal of the old tenements have been replaced by chain stores or condominiums. Points of interest include numerous contemporary art galleries, with the 1980s bringing forth about 200 other galleries. Since the neighborhood has been gentrified and is presumably safer at night, these streets now boast nightlife with live music, especially those on Clinton, Rivington, Ludlow and Stanton Streets. Aside from music, there is traditional Jewish food to be found at Katz’s Delicatessen at 205 Houston, Guss’s Pickles at 87 Orchard Street, and Russ & Daughters on Houston Street, just to name a few. Other sights to see are the Grand Street settlement, the Henry Street settlement, The Lower East Side Conservancy, Tompkins Square Park, the East Side Hebrew Institute, and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.
and Sons on Broadway and 27th Street. (I was told that they were the second largest manufacturer of men’s pants — big deal!) I was there for a few months until they very thoughtfully fired me a few days before Christmas. (I’m really not sure of the order of the above three jobs. I might have been an office boy first, then a lunch deliverer and then an usher—or any combo of the same. It’s really hard to remember them chronologically. They were all done within a year or less, and they’ve sort of homogenized in my mind.) “I also worked freelance for a short time writing obits of celebrities who were still alive—and I also did freelance publicity writing for a hospital in Denver (while I lived in NY). “Anyway, then I started with Timely Comics. They were in the McGraw Hill Building on either 34th Street or 42nd Street—on the West Side of Manhattan— somewhere around 8th Avenue, I think. Then Timely moved to the Empire State Building. Then to Park Avenue and 47th Street—a building on the site of the old Hotel Marguery which had been torn down. (We might have been Atlas Publishing by then. I’m not sure.)” Marvel has been successively headquartered in the McGraw-Hill Building on West 42nd Street (where it originated as Timely Comics in 1939); in suite 1401 of the Empire State Building; at 635 Madison Avenue (the actual location, though the comic books’ indicia listed the parent publishingcompany’s address of 625 Madison Avenue); 575 Madison Avenue; 387 Park Avenue South; 10 East 40th Street; and 417 Fifth Avenue.
Stan lived at 226 Richards Lane, Hewlett Harbor, NY from 1952-1980. After World War II, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby bought homes across the street from each other on Brown Street in Mineola, NY, and worked at home for several years. Jack’s son Neal Kirby recalls: “The one address I can remember was the house on Long Island, which I believe they bought in 1949, and lived in until they moved to California in December 1968. The address was 367 Congress Avenue, East Williston, NY.” ★ [Special thanks to Alex Jay for his research that helped to pin down addresses and Kirby’s birthplace, and to Stan Lee and Neal Kirby for their help with addresses and dates.]
Other Addresses of Note In our request for information for this article, Stan Lee noted: “I had a brief spell as an usher at the old Rivoli Theatre in Times Square when I was about 16 or 17. It’s probably no longer there. “Then I worked at a drug store in Radio City called Jack May Pharmacy (I think it was on 50th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, or it might have been 51st Street. Alas, I don’t think it’s there anymore, either). I wasn’t a pharmacist—they had a lunch counter and I was one of the kids who delivered lunches to the offices around Radio City. “I next had a job as office boy for H. Lissner 5
Retrospective
When Jacob Met Stanley
by Ger Apeldoorn Compare the timid romance work Kirby did for this cover to Harvey’s Hi-School Romance #54 (Aug. 1956, below, courtesy of Heritage Auctions) to the action-packed splash page for the story “UFO, the Lightning Man” from Yellow Claw #3 (Feb. 1957, next page). Hi-School Romance TM & ©2009 Harvey Comics. Yellow Claw TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
ecently, Marvel made headlines with a romantic comic series about a couple of teenagers who meet each other at a holiday camp and get into serious trouble of the relationship kind. The series by Mark Millar and Terry and Rachel Dodson attracted all that attention because it is set ‘some years ago’ and the main characters are called Ben, Richard, Mary and May, leaving open the possibility that this story is about the parents of Peter Parker, how they met and maybe even how the future Spider-Man was conceived. The story we are about to tell here is just as surprising and fraught with emotion. It is about the parents of the Fantastic Four, how they met and how they conceived an entire universe.
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Looking For Work Most books on Jack Kirby or his contemporaries make it seems as if the period from 1955 till 1959 was one big step. He
set up his own company with Joe Simon and when that failed he went to Stan Lee. Even Jack himself was guilty of that, putting together all memories of those four years in one big lump. This article is an attempt to pull all those memories apart again and see if a detailed look at the work Jack produced in that period can give us a clue as to what was going on behind the scenes. Some of the stuff I came up with is pure conjecture, but all of it is at its very least not contradicted by what we know of the work, the period and the people involved. We start in 1955, when the collapse of their publishing company Mainline forced Jack Kirby and Joe Simon to break up their 15-year partnership as a creative team. They sold some titles and inventory to Charlton and made a deal to produce at least one issue of From Here To Insanity for them, but that was not enough to live on. Joe Simon found work as an editor for Harvey and Jack Kirby had to find work on his own. He was immediately hired by Joe to produce some covers for the Harvey romance and war lines and some interior work as well as covers for their horror comic Black Cat Mystery. This may have been a part of the deal Harvey made with Joe Simon, or they may have not cared who Simon hired. It is not clear if he did all those covers in one go or if they were ordered a couple each month. True BrideTo-Be Romances #19, published August 1956, has a Kirby cover about a trailer bride which does seem to belong to a story called “Trailer Bride” inside, but it doesn’t fit the story in any way. It could have been drawn before or after the story was written. Same goes for the cover for Warfront #34, published much later in September 1958. It seems to illustrate the story “Tomorrow’s War,” but it has no connection to that story other than the title. So they could have been drawn all at once and assigned to different titles later— which doesn’t answer the question of why a story about a trailer bride would be in a title called True Bride-To-Be Romances, but comics historians can only explain so much. At the same time Kirby went back to Prize and started doing romance stories for them again. Together with Joe Simon he had launched the whole romance trend, but at this point most of the life was pressed out of it by the Comics Code and repetition. Kirby kept doing these stories until the late Fifties, so they formed a reliable part of his income, but he was never challenged by them as he was earlier on, and as a whole they were not very interesting. He also stepped up his efforts to get into the newspaper strip business, starting all sorts of strips with different inkers. None of them were picked up, but it did get him some work, first as a temporary replacement for Johnny Hazard and later on as penciler for Frank Giacoia’s Johnny Reb. Still, that wasn’t enough. Or the Harvey work slowed down. After drawing a full issue of Black Cat Mystery published in September 1956, it took the company a whole year to publish the next issue. Whatever the reason, Jack Kirby decided to go back to Marvel (or Timely, as it was called then).
Inventory Story This can’t have been easy. Joe Simon and he had not left the company in the best of circumstances almost 15 years earlier. After they had found out that they were not getting their full share of the Captain America profits, they secretly made a deal with DC to come and work there. While they were fulfilling their contract at Marvel/Timely, they were starting up the DC work on their lunch breaks. Stan Lee, who was at that moment no more than a young 6
guy doing odd jobs around the office and annoying everyone by playing his recorder, followed them to their secret hideaway. Years later, Kirby loved to tell the tale of how Stan found them out, how he promised not to tell his ‘uncles’ and how he snitched on them anyway. A very unpleasant meeting with the Goodman brothers was the result and that led to their departure and years of bad feelings between Martin Goodman and Joe Simon. To go back to Stan Lee and ask for work, must not have been easy for Jack. He may not have had much reason to hate him after 15 years, but he had no reason to respect him either. But while people of his generation may have had feelings like that, they certainly didn’t dwell on them. So Jack went to Stan. And he may even have had a good excuse to make the situation a little bit easier. This whole article started when someone on the Yahoo Atlas Newsgroup mentioned that the first two stories Kirby did for Atlas (the name given to all Marvel/ Timely titles because that was the name of the distribution company also owned by Goodman) may have been inventory stories from his Harvey run. These stories in Astonishing #56 and Strange Tales Of The Unusual #7 are similar to Jack’s Harvey work in subject and inking style. If Jack had done all his Harvey work in one go, maybe even including those that weren’t published until a year later, he could have walked into Stan’s office with those pages and said something like: “Hey, Stan. I did these for Harvey, but I don’t think they are going to use them. Is there anything in there for you?” That certainly would have made an awkward situation easier.
JOB # K-282 K-651 K-652
KIRBY MID-1950s ATLAS STORIES courtesy Dr. Michael Vassallo ISSUE DATE TITLE Battleground #14 Nov 1956 “Mine Field!” Strange Tales of the Unusual #7 Dec 1956 “Poker Face!” Astonishing #56 Dec 1956 “Afraid to Dream!”
PAGES 5 pages 4 pages 4 pages
K-915 K-663 K-648 K-868
Yellow Claw #2 Yellow Claw #2 Yellow Claw #2 Yellow Claw #2
Dec 1956 Dec 1956 Dec 1956 Dec 1956
“Concentrate on Chaos!” “Mystery in Cabin 361!” “The Yellow Claw!” “Temu-Jal...The Golden Goliath
5 pages 5 pages 4 pages 5 pages
L-67 ? L-68 L-69 L-70
Yellow Claw #3 Yellow Claw #3 Yellow Claw #3 Yellow Claw #3
Feb 1957 Feb 1957 Feb 1957 Feb 1957
“The Microscopic Army!” “The Yellow Claw Captured!” “UFO the Lightning Man!” “Sleeping City!”
5 pages 4 pages 5 pages 5 pages
L-181
Quick-Trigger Western #16
Feb 1957
“The Vengeance of Growling Bear!” 4 pages
L-391 L-392 L-393 L-394
Yellow Claw #4 Yellow Claw #4 Yellow Claw #4 Yellow Claw #4
Apr 1957 Apr 1957 Apr 1957 Apr 1957
“The Living Shadows!” “Five Million Sleep-Walkers!” “The Screemies!” “The Thought Master!”
5 pages 4 pages 5 pages 5 pages
L-907 L-986 M-40
Black Rider Rides Again #1 Black Rider Rides Again #1 Black Rider Rides Again #1
Sept 1957 Sept 1957 Sept 1957
“The Legend of the Black Rider “Duel at Dawn!” “Treachery at Hangman’s Bridge
7 pages 6 pages 6 pages
M-480T
Gunsmoke Western #12
Sept 1957
“No One Can Outdraw Him!”
5 pages
M-526 M-615 M-556 ?
Gunsmoke Western #47 Gunsmoke Western #51 Kid Colt Outlaw #86
July 1958 Mar 1959 Sept 1959
“Trouble in Leadville!” “The Raiders Strike!” “Meeting At Midnight!”
4 pages 5 pages
But is there any hard evidence for this, except for a similarity in style? Well, there always are the job numbers. At Atlas, all stories were given a job title, that can usually be found on the splash page (if the coloring or the printing hasn’t obliterated them). For the first 10,000 or so (actually slightly more) they consisted of four numbers. After that they consist of a letter and three numbers. Not all letters were used and there are some instances known of numbering going over 999, but all in all it is a great way to track the stories for collectors. The numbers were given out by the Atlas staff for keeping track of the payments, of course. They were given out with story assignments to the writers or when they came in, but they give a rough indication in which order certain artists did certain stories as well. So how can we use them to tell us something about the supposedly inventory stories Kirby did for Atlas? Well, if Kirby brought in the two stories together, completely drawn and written, they would have to have consecutive numbers. When asked in the Atlas Newsgroup, Doc Vassallo provided the numbers for all stories Jack Kirby did in his mid-Fifties run at Atlas (above). As you can see, Kirby did quite a bit of work for Stan Lee in a short period. If Kirby was expecting trouble at Atlas, he certainly didn’t get it. Stan Lee knew a good thing when he saw it and gave Kirby a couple of plum assignments. We are now familiar with the idea of Kirby and Lee working together, but it wasn’t all that logical at that point. Kirby had just come from a long period of working together with Joe Simon. He hadn’t had any big successes in a while. Stan Lee had more than enough artists. And still he took Yellow Claw away from his favorite artist, Joe Maneely, and gave it to Jack. When that didn’t work out, he put him at work on a couple of western titles of his own. Stan Lee was a smart man. And he bought two inventory stories and gave them the next two job numbers available: K-651 and K-652. Not only that, he also gave him a war story to do: K-282. This was one of the scripts that was laying on his desk, so the numbering is lower than that of the horror stories, even though they are all published at about the same time. It can’t have taken Jack more than a week to deliver that war story, so that makes sense too. But the job number list tells us more.
The Yellow Claw Two other story numbers are close to the numbers the old Harvey stories got: K-663 “Mystery in Cabin 361!,” which was the second story in Yellow Claw #2, which was published at the same time as Astonishing #56 and Strange Tales Of The 7
Unusual #7 in December 1956; and K-648 “The Yellow Claw!,” the third story from Yellow Claw #2. The second of these two is only three story numbers away from the story in Astonishing #56. It must have landed on Stan’s desk that same day. The first one of the two has a story number slightly higher than that, leaving the possibility that Stan assigned one Yellow Claw story to Jack, to see how it went. The cover for this story had probably already been assigned to Joe Maneely, the original artist on the series. At that point it was still called “The Trap,” but that title wasn’t used in the final version. A week later, when Jack came in to deliver his first work, he got a second story. This must also have been the point where Kirby asked Lee if he could write the rest of the stories himself. Many Kirby fans believe he wrote most of the stories he did for The Yellow Claw himself. How can we let this theory fit the story we are trying to write here about how things really went down between Stan and Jack? By reading all the Yellow Claw stories, we can clearly see that the first and fourth story for Yellow Claw #2 were obviously written by Jack Kirby himself, and the second and third weren’t. The first story can even be seen as a prototype of Professor Xavier with a whole group of telepaths trying to rule the world. The page where the whole world becomes a surreal nightmare is pure Kirby. The fourth story
is about a Goliath that turns out to be a giant robot—even more science-fiction elements in a series that was pure Cold War espionage before Jack took over the writing. There is even some proto-krackle in the splash page of this story, but who wants to bring all that up again? So if these are the first stories Jack Kirby did for Atlas in the Fifties, are they also the first Stan and Jack wrote together? Well, not according to the comic archeologists at the Yahoo Atlas Newsgroup. Apparently, Stan Lee had the habit of signing every story he worked on and he never signed any of these. Doc Vassallo mentioned Don Rico as the most likely writer for the time period. Even the Yellow Claw stories Jack wrote himself probably weren’t touched by Stan. That didn’t happen until a couple of years and tragedies later.
The Atlas Implosion In the year after their first reunion, Kirby and Lee must have met a couple of times. When Yellow Claw didn’t set the American youth running to the newsstand, the title was discontinued and Jack was reassigned to a bunch of western stories, mainly about the Black Rider. It’s not known if he wrote those himself as well, but if you have a look at the job numbers, the most logical conclusion is he didn’t. Jack Kirby usually did more than one story at once and brought them in together. The Yellow Claw stories he wrote himself have consecutive job numbers. All the western stories have job numbers that are more spread out. Actually, they are in two groups: the first group are the Black Rider stories, that are all about 40 job numbers from each other and about 500 job numbers from the last Yellow Claw. The second group is 400 job numbers later, also all about 40 job numbers from each other. When we discussed this in the Atlas Group at Yahoo, Stan Taylor added this, though: “I can tell you that it’s obvious that Kirby supplied elements to the stories, mostly from his and Joe’s Bullseye series. Without pulling them out, the most memorable theft was the amazing horses. They both appeared to the regular world as laughable sway-backed old nags, but at a command from Bullseye/Black Rider, they would straighten up and become sleek, fast as lightnin’ steeds.” Jack was known to change stories around while he was drawing them, but this does not seem like an element that could be grafted on while drawing. Then, in early 1958, the first tragedy struck at Atlas. Having dropped their own distribution chain that gave the company its unofficial name to go with Leader News, their new distributor folded operations. Much has been written about those circumstances here and elsewhere, but to put it in a nutshell: owner Martin Goodman had to find a new distributor, found one through his old golf buddies at National and they asked him (or he offered) to drastically slim 8
down the comics part of his company. The output came down from up to 75 bi-monthly titles (maybe less, because no one knows how many of those were about to be cancelled by a high turnover company such as Atlas) to 17. This meant that all the ordered stories for all the old titles had to be redistributed over the new titles—which meant that, at least for a while, no new stories were needed. Stan had to personally call all the artists to tell them to stop working immediately and deliver whatever they were working on. This was a traumatic moment for Stan Lee, one of the few things he does remember clearly from that time. It was also a traumatic moment for the artists, some of whom never returned to comics when they had to look for work elsewhere. But it also tells us that Stan Lee and Martin Goodman had every intention to come back to the comic business. What comic company in the history of comics has ever stopped operations and told their artists to bring in whatever they had on their tables and get paid for it? We have had a few bankruptcies and restarts in recent history and in all of those cases the artists were left holding the art without any payment whatsoever. We know when this must have been quite clearly, because Joe Sinnott recorded it in his work records. Doc Vassallo says the artist’s records show that work suspended “after April 26th, 1958.” Jack Kirby received a call too. “The Raiders Strike!” (M-615) wasn’t published until Gunsmoke Western #51 in March 1959, and “Meeting At Midnight!” (M-556) until September 1959 in Kid Colt Outlaw #86. How long the suspension of business took is not totally clear. There are indications that new stories for the teen and humor titles were ordered as early as a couple of months after that (in issues appearing on the stands in January 1959). Joe Sinnott didn’t get any new assignments until a year later. Not long after that, tragedy struck again. On June 7th, 1958, Joe Maneely— one of Stan Lee’s main artists and as close a friend as he had among his collaborators—died. Joe Maneely’s life, death and importance to Stan and the company in the Fifties has been the subject of a great article by Doc Vassallo in Alter Ego #28, an issue that no one thinking that the team of Stan and Jack is the beginning and end of all comics should miss. Suffice to say that Stan Lee must have been devastated. Meanwhile, Jack was doing quite well. He had been getting a lot of work from DC. Their higher page rates had allowed him to really work on these stories and they have some of his best artwork for a long period. His efforts to start a newspaper strip had worked out too. He had started work on Sky Masters, which would begin running in papers around America in September 1958. But things were not to last. As soon as Sky Masters was sold, he got into trouble with Jack Schiff, who had arranged the whole thing for him. Jack had agreed to give Schiff a percentage of the profits for this, but now he claimed that he had agreed to that under duress,
because Schiff was also his editor at DC. Trouble was brewing when Stan called Jack to say he was ready to buy some new stories from him. Jack knew he was in danger of losing the whole thing at DC. He also knew Stan had lost one of his prime work horses in Joe Maneely. Maneely’s output throughout the Fifties was almost as great as Kirby’s. The pay at the new Marvel would be low, but there was a lot of work to be had.
When Jacob Met Stanley— The Sequel Now imagine these two people meeting under those circumstances. Date: Probably somewhere in September 1958. Place: The new and very small offices of Stan Lee.
(previous page, top) Sky Masters Sunday strip from Sept. 20, 1959. (previous page, bottom) Jack penned this introduction for a collection of his Atlas monster stories. (below) Page 5 from Tales to Astonish #11 (Sept. 1960). Sky Masters TM & ©2009 Jack Kirby Estate. Astonish characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
9
Later in life, Jack Kirby often told the tale of how he found Stan Lee in a two-by-two office, working out of boxes with almost no furniture. This probably was an exaggeration, but conditions were not optimal for Stan at that point. What Jack Kirby often forgot to mention was, that his own situation wasn’t all that positive as well. He probably offered his condolences for the loss of Stan’s friend Joe Maneely. They may have talked about him for a bit. What was Stan going to do with the newspaper strip Mrs. Lyon’s Cubs he and Joe had just started? Al Hartley had taken over the art, but it probably wouldn’t last. And it didn’t. Jack may have told about the strip he was starting with inker Wallace Wood and writers Dick and Dave Wood. Would he have mentioned to Stan the trouble he was having with Jack Schiff? He might have, if he was trying to explain how he could use some work. Or he may have told Stan that he was more than willing to help Stan out and didn’t mind doing some extra work for him. After all, Stan had helped him out in 1956. In later interviews Jack gave the impression that he “saved” Stan that day. He may have felt he had. But as soon as the deal between them was struck, Jack’s work at DC dwindled and probably stopped altogether in December 1959 when Jack Schiff filed a complaint at court. Whatever was said, Jack Kirby came home with a handful of assignments that day. Most of that would have been covers for the romance, fantasy and western titles. The western covers didn’t appear until a lot later, but the backlog of stories there probably was a lot bigger. Kirby was an experienced cover artist and could whip them up easily. But that was not all that happened that day. Almost from the start the new line-up Stan Lee was setting up had a spark, that certainly had been missing from the titles before the implosion. A great deal of that was due to Stan Lee himself, who took over the scripting for most of the books, probably unpaid. We start to see the irreverent Stan Lee tone in the teen titles immediately. As several posters in The Atlas Group at Yahoo have pointed out, it is here that he introduces three of the main characteristics that made his later hero work so successful: Soap opera plots, crossovers and a sense of fun. But in the fantasy and the later western titles, Jack Kirby’s influence is just as big. The main thing he added was JOB # action. Most pre-implosion fantasy tales T-76 are gimmicky things that are all about T-97 the surprise ending. At DC Jack had been T-115 quite successful at doing stories where T-144 T-153 things happened—not only his Wallace T-165 Wood inked series The Challengers Of The T-168 Unknown, which was having healthy T-198 sales. His short stories for House Of T-226 Mystery, House Of Secrets, My Greatest T-237 Adventure and Tales Of The Unexpected T-299 were rip-roaring tales, where every page T-327 was fun to look at, not just the splash T-353 page and the ending. In fact, as in his T-385 own Black Magic stories from the early T-387 Fifties and his later “monster” stories T-440 with Stan, the ending often was hastily T-463 T-473 done, often no more than a caption in a T-484 small last panel. It is not quite clear how T-501 much of the DC stories were written by T-547 Jack himself. Usually it is assumed that 10
the editors there always worked full-script. But as Ray Wayman pointed out in The Art Of Jack Kirby, at least some of those stories (such as the one about the legendary bird Roc) used the same inspirations as his earlier work. And his stories for “The Green Arrow” and Challengers are full of science-fiction touches similar to those in the Yellow Claw stories Jack wrote himself. Knowing the habit of all DC editors to discuss any plot with the writer before it was written, it could be possible that Jack springboarded a couple of stories himself, maybe talking them through with Jack Schiff. So he wasn’t really stealing anything when he took some of those concepts, and the whole idea of science-fiction rather then magic-based fantasy stories, to Stan. We don’t know how immediate Jack Kirby’s influence on Stan’s storytelling was, but we can imagine that he at least told Stan about the success of the stuff he was doing for DC. Stories about giant birds, strange visitors from outer space, mysterious walking statues from Easter Island... all themes that returned at Marvel in the three years after that. It may seem the “monster” stories were slow in coming, because the unique names Stan (and apparently his brother Larry) thought up for Kirby’s monsters didn’t appear until a year later. It is “Grottu, King Of The Insects” in Strange Tales #73 (Feb. 1960), but the monsters and giant aliens are there from the beginning. In this list provided by Tom Lammers (below), we can trace his origins from “Creatures In The Volcano,” a “Giant (who) Walks The Earth,” “The Menace from the Purple Planet,” “The Great God, Pan,” “Luna Lizards,” and “The Invincible Enemy” to “The Colossus” and “The Molten Man-Thing.” Soon he wasn’t alone anymore, but he was joined by Gorgolla, Diablo, Shagg and all the others. So the monsters were there all along—not only in Jack’s stories, but also in the work Stan was doing with Don Heck and Steve Ditko. As Tom Lammers pointed out, there is even a “monster name” before Grottu: “Xom! The Menace from Outer Space!” in World of Fantasy #18 (Jun 1959). But there is a cover with that story that was drawn by Jack Kirby... and it was probably one of the first things he drew for Atlas. So who knows who started what?
Maybe all that was present at that first meeting. Or maybe not. Maybe Jack Kirby was still waiting to see how his work at DC would go. Maybe Stan Lee had no idea his fantasy line would become such a big part of his company’s output in the next couple of years, or where the collaboration with Jack Kirby would lead to. But after all the awkwardness they did find each other and allowed themselves to be inspired. And so, from the ashes of two careers that were heading nowhere in particular, a new age was born. ★ This story could not have been written without the help and support of the knowledgeable fans at the Yahoo Atlas Group. Special thanks go to Doc Vassallo, Tom Lammers, Stan Taylor and Mike Feldman for their lists and Nick Caputo and Frank Motler for their encouragement. Together they substantiated some of my intuitive guesses with facts and stopped me from making conclusions that weren’t supported buy the facts at all. One interesting sideline discussion about the significance of consecutive job numbers in Jack Kirby’s early Marvel work ended with all of us concluding there were too many unsure factors to come to any worthwhile conclusions. Since I had successfully tried to paste together a picture of Jack Kirby’s visits to Stan Lee in 1956-57, I tried to do so again with the data for the earliest jobs he did for Stan in 1958-59. We compiled a list of all consecutive job numbers for his work, but couldn’t read from them if they would mean that Jack wrote the stories himself and brought them in together, just as we could deduct from the few jobs in 1956-57. Because Jack did so many jobs for Stan and most of them were written by only a couple of writers, it was impossible to distinguish between stories that Jack would have written at home, those he would have plotted with Stan in the office and those that were plotted by Stan for Jack in one evening or afternoon (which would explain the consecutive numbers). One thing did come from that discussion, though. There were quite a few people, who thought that most of Kirby’s stories for Battle in that period were written by himself. The job numbers at least support that theory.
KIRBY ATLAS MONSTER STORIES (courtesy Tom Lammers) ISSUE DATE TITLE Strange Worlds #1 Dec 1958 “I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers!” Strange Tales #67 Feb 1959 “I Was the Invisible Man!” World of Fantasy #16 Feb 1959 “Prison 2000 A.D.” Tales of Suspense #2 Mar 1959 “Invasion from Outer Space” Journey into Mystery #51 Mar 1959 “The Creatures in the Volcano” Journey into Mystery #51 Mar 1959 “Alien on Earth!” Strange Tales #68 Apr 1959 “Test Pilot!” Tales of Suspense #3 May 1959 “The Terrible Time Machine!” Strange Tales #69 Jun 1959 “The World that was Lost!” World of Fantasy #18 Jun 1959 “To Build a Robot!” Strange Tales #70 Aug 1959 “A Giant Walks the Earth!” Tales to Astonish #5 Sep 1959 “I Was Trapped by the Things on Easter Island!” Journey into Mystery #54 Sep 1959 “I Am the Menace from the Purple Planet!” Tales to Astonish #6 Nov 1959 “I Laughed at the Great God, Pan!” Tales of Suspense #6 Nov 1959 “The Luna Lizards Had Me Trapped!” Journey into Mystery #55 Nov 1959 “My Neighbor’s Secret!” Strange Tales #72 Dec 1959 “I Fought the Colossus!” Tales to Astonish #7 Jan 1960 “We Met in The Swamp” Tales of Suspense #7 Jan 1960 “I Fought the Molten Man-Thing!” Journey into Mystery #56 Jan 1960 “I Planted the Seeds of Doom!” Strange Tales #73 Feb 1960 “Grottu, King of the Insects!”
PAGES 7 pages 7 pages 5 pages 5 pages 5 pages 4 pages 5 pages 5 pages 4 pages 4 pages 5 pages 5 pages 5 pages 4 pages 5 pages 4 pages 5 pages 5 pages 5 pages 6 pages 6 pages
Oh How The
Years Go By!
Incidental Iconography An ongoing analysis of Kirby’s visual shorthand, and how he inadvertently used it to develop his characters, by Sean Kleefeld
he first comic book that really got me hooked on them for life was The His other famous self-portrait comes from the pages of Forever People #4 Fantastic Four. Despite it being more than a few years since Jack Kirby had circa 1971 (above). The art isn’t nearly as stylized as the one from just a few years worked on the book, I soon got to know his work through reprints and back issues. before, but that’s probably in large part attributable to different inkers; Mike Royer And, interestingly enough, that’s the first place I saw what he looked like, as Jack on the earlier piece, Vince Colletta on this one. Although Colletta is often maligned had drawn Stan Lee and himself into two different FF stories: #10 and Annual #3. as Kirby’s inker, the softer edges and feathering make this one of the most realistic Of course, those of you familiar with those stories will be quick to point out self-portraits Jack had publicly done in a quarter century. Although only a few that in both of those appearances, Jack drew himself in silhouette so as to obscure years separate these last two images, Jack seems to have aged quite a bit in what he actually looked like. I thought it was an amusing conceit at the time—that those years, judging by the illustrations. The latter piece seems to have the weight he put himself into the books but completely avoided of many years or toiling over Bristol board, while the actually having to draw himself. I assumed at the time former carries a seemingly infinite energy. It’s almost that he wasn’t particularly good at drawing the as if leaving Marvel dropped a burden on Jack, rather likenesses of real people and cheated a bit for the than lifting one. story. (I can only assume I was young enough to have The Kirby that was drawn for Marvelmania is less not known any of the celebrities Jack had drawn into tied to reality, both by the nature of the image, but also FF #9.) in the style of illustration. It’s less of a self-portrait and Of course, now—a few decades and a few more of an iconization. That was the Kirby that everythousand hours poring over Jack’s work later—I know body remembers. “The King” on his throne, scepter in Jack had actually been doing sketches of himself years hand. If presented in black-and-white (with no traces before he started drawing the Thing. It’s an interesting of white in his hair), the image could be representative subject to study for this column for a couple reasons. of Jack from almost any time from the 1950s until the First, unlike most of the characters he drew, Jack aged 1980s, and is only more dated than that by the nature over time. The way he looked in 1942 was markedly of the characters on the page. (Hercules wasn’t a different than what he looked like in 1971. Depending Marvel character until 1965; Black Panther didn’t on what age he wanted to be in his story affected how make his debut until 1966.) he drew himself. Secondly, his drawing style changed There are, of course, other drawings of Jack that over his lifetime. So the linework of Boy Commandos is he’s done over the years. He transformed himself into only vaguely similar to that of “Street Code.” the Thing in an issue of What If? and showed himself Boy Commandos #1 circa 1942 actually has the as a youngster in “Street Code.” He had a more earliest self-portraits of Jack Kirby (shown above) I can comical take in 1967’s “This is a Plot?” and more find. He and then-partner Joe Simon appear as serious sketches from World War II. (One such sketch themselves working on that very issue. At first glance, features Jack sporting a mustache!) But it’s the image the renditions here look like the two men only in the of Jack at his table, characters leaping all about him, broadest sense. You certainly wouldn’t recognize either that remains the most enduring. It doesn’t show Jack man from these drawings. But closer inspection reveals in the context of a story conceit, nor does it tie him to that they are reasonably accurate with the exception of a few years in which he served overseas. It’s Jack’s Jack’s classic Marvelmania self-portrait. Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. their noses. Arguably their real noses are stereolikeness, though not exactly a perfect rendering, but it typically Jewish and, like changing their names, this possibly was an attempt more importantly shows Jack as an icon—the distilled essence of King Kirby at his (conscious or not) to mask their religious backgrounds. drawing table, characters rushing about despite the stillness of his own position— Indeed, less than a year later, after Jack was sent overseas, a self-portrait he a visual metaphor for what was going on in his head that no one else seemed able mailed to Roz shows an uncanny ability to capture his own likeness. Clearly, Jack to see. That the image plays into what fans expected of Jack certainly plays into its had the talent to draw an accurate representation of himself, which might suggest iconography—his wild imagination given form around him. that many self-portraits that were intended for public consumption were altered I don’t doubt that he was very proud of creating the Fantastic Four and the deliberately so he wouldn’t look “too Jewish.” That might also explain his early X-Men and the Avengers and all the other Marvel heroes, but I’m sure he was as cameos in Fantastic Four. proud of Sky Masters and Captain Victory and Silver Star. In 1969, I’m sure he Perhaps his most famous self-portrait came in 1969 when he drew himself, didn’t know that the Marvel characters were going to remain his most popular smoking at his drafting table, surrounded by a host of characters from the Marvel creations years after his death, but they were how he was known at the time. pantheon. The piece was used for Marvelmania and its iconic status stems from Jack, as I’ve noted in previous columns, though, was a how many fans must have thought precisely this when it came to him—working at family man at heart; I’m sure he was most proud of his his table with an endless torrent of four-color heroes literally leaping out of the family. That he’s more often remembered as a phenomenal page he creates. Interestingly, his nose still seems a tad off here, but mainly by comic book creator was incidental, despite the virtue of being a little too squared off, just like the fingers and toes he drew on iconography he developed for himself. (Several of the everyone else in that image. As the likenesses does seem a better comic pieces referenced here can be seen in Mark Evanier’s book representation of him generally, that might suggest that his altered nose is more of Kirby: King of Comics.) ★ a change in illustration style rather than a deliberate attempt to impact viewers’ perceptions of him. Sean blogs at http://kleefeldoncomics.blogspot.com.
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11
The Man
Team Player
scientists in the sci-fi films of the 1950s. Johnny’s a typical rock-and-roll loving, hot rod obsessed youngster. Sue’s the domesticated, Code-approved blonde bombshell, and Ben’s an atomic age monster. Were any of these comparisons in your thinking or Jack’s as you began work on the title? STAN LEE: I can’t speak for Jack, but you hit the nail on the head. Your descriptions are just as I thought of them, and just as I wanted them. On top of Jack’s other incredible talents, I think he was also able to read my mind—and then improve on what little he found there. TJKC: Did the success of the Fantastic Four surprise you? STAN: Yes, but not very much. I personally liked the book so much that I’d have been surprised if it hadn’t been well received. TJKC: I remember you having Reed threaten cornered villains with lines like, “Talk! Or I’ll turn you over to the Thing!!” Sometimes Mr. Fantastic would have to restrain Ben from doing bodily harm (see FF #3 for one example) to a beaten baddie. But by the sixth issue, Ben got a real sense of humor and was becoming more ‘cuddly.’ Did you and Jack feel he had to be toned down a bit? STAN: Yes. (How’s that for exercising verbal restraint?)
Stan the Man talks about the Lee and Kirby super-teams Interview conducted by Jerry Boyd (above) A rarely-seen 1960s photo of Stan Lee, hard at work in his Marvel office. (below) This Astonishing Ant-Man piece was drawn by Jack and Dick Ayers for promotional use in the early 1960s. (bottom center) Custom head shots done by Kirby for the 1970 Marvelmania sticker set. All characters this spread TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
(Stan Lee is considered by many to be comicdom’s greatest editor (and you can add this fanzine contributor to that list of supporters) for not only his sterling work in overseeing the Marvel Age of Comics, but his pure instincts in gathering/nurturing talent as the de facto art director, and his wonderful dialogue and concepts. A hero was a true hero under Lee. Whether it was Kid Colt or the Rawhide Kid seeking to redeem themselves for their youthful indiscretions by taking down the unredeemable outlaws of the Old West, or Peter Parker fighting off his insecurities to launch himself into a battle only Spider-Man could win, Stan taught his readers responsibility, strength through adversity, and triumph over pain and loss. The work wasn’t just entertaining, but also inspiring. With “King” Kirby, Mr. Lee co-created three super-teams (five if you count the Howlers and SHIELD—and this time out, we’ll include them). During the 1960s the Lee and Kirby team (a super-team in and of itself!) would not only invigorate the medium but show all the difficulties possible for driven individuals with supernatural assets (super powers and super problems). Stan’s very busy these days, but he has our thanks for graciously taking time out to do this new questionand-answer session for the Jack Kirby Collector. This interview was conducted by e-mail in March, June, and September of 2008 and transcribed by Irving Forbush.) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: The Fantastic Four came first. At a casual glance, you have Reed Richards who’s all of the tall, square-jawed, pipe smoking
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TJKC: You came up with exceptional supporting characters. Did you look at DC’s Justice League of America, for example, and take note that their supporting casts weren’t very strong and then made sure your line-up provided alternatives? STAN: Truth to tell, I don’t remember ever reading any Justice League comics, although I occasionally thumbed through them to see how the artwork looked. I wouldn’t have had any idea who their supporting characters were. TJKC: The FF truly became a family after Sue and Reed got married, making the Torch and Mr. Fantastic brothers-in-law, and Ben a godfather after little Franklin was born. Before that, there was romantic tension involving Namor—a love triangle. Did you ever consider scrapping the marriage to keep that angle going or marrying Reed and Sue off to other characters? STAN: No. From the beginning I intended for Reed and Sue to marry. But it was fun letting Namor have a crush on her. I even toyed with the idea of Dr. Doom wanting to take her away from Reed, but somehow I never seemed to get around to that.
Meanwhile, At Avengers Mansion... TJKC: The Avengers’ success came out of the individual successes of Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man. Was this title as much fun for you and Kirby to do as the FF ? Or was it more difficult—due to you having to maintain continuity between the Assemblers as a team and as solo acts in their own series? STAN: I can’t speak for Jack, who never seemed to have trouble with anything art-wise or plot-wise, but as for me, I preferred
writing stories about single characters rather than teams because it was easier for me. I have the world’s worst memory and it was easier to remember, plot-wise, where I left off with one character than where I left off with a whole kaboodle of them. TJKC: Between Avengers #1 and #2, Ant-Man became Giant-Man. Were you and Kirby tapped out on doing stories for the ‘little guy’ or was Giant-Man just a better way of handling that hero? STAN: No matter who drew Ant-Man I never felt he looked interesting enough. The artwork never turned out the way I hoped it would. I thought the artists would play around much more with the perspective, but it seems they never had the time and we were so busy with other books that I never got around to sitting down with them and figuring out how to make the panels more visually compelling. So, I took the easy way out, figuring maybe ol’ Hank would look more colorful as a giant than being ant-size. TJKC: Iron Man got a big change in armor from Avengers #2 to #3—the large, cumbersome suit got streamlined, and colored in red and gold. The Hulk quit after the episode with the Space Phantom. Did you and/or Jack feel the line-up was too powerful with Hulky around? STAN: Honestly, I can’t remember why the Hulk was left out after #3. It couldn’t have been because he was too powerful because there are many ways to overcome that problem. In fact, his seeming invulnerability would have made it more fun to write, to figure out ways to get him in trouble. Rather than give you a phony explanation, I’ll just take the Fifth because I can’t simply recall the reason we dropped our Jolly Green Giant. In fact, with my terrible memory, I had forgotten we dropped him until you mentioned it! TJKC: Prince Namor was an all-purpose character. He was heroic at times, a warmonger at other times. You used him effectively. He took on the FF regularly for a while, then the Avengers, and finally against the X-Men. Did you guys thank God Bill Everett created him? STAN: Absolutely. Namor was my favorite type of character to write—a good bad guy (or a bad good guy). As I remember, one of my favorite Sub-Mariner stories was one in which
When The Iron Age Met The Cold War The Golden Avenger and friends vs. the Marvel Super-Commies, by Jerry Boyd irst generation Marvelites may recall that Captain America and Col. Nick Fury weren’t the only super-patriotic heroes to come out of the new House of Ideas. Iron Man was seen by many fans to be (and they suggested this to Lee in the letters columns) the symbol of the US’s technological might and know-how as well as a symbol of the New Frontier’s can-do spirit. In his guise as Anthony Stark, the playboy-swinger (sporting a pencil-thin mustache formerly reserved for Jack and Stan’s conniving Western town bosses) was the first “liberated lover boy” of the Silver Age—or the embodiment of “the man who reads Playboy.” Charming, sophisticated, charismatic, and brilliant, Stark took the early ’60s equivalent of micro-chips (transistors being all the rage then) and equipped his magnificent armored suit with devices his enemies desired to have access to, or wanted to duplicate, or sought to steal. Stark Industries was in the munitions business. It supplied America’s military arsenal with startling new inventions in its battle against Communist aggression. Since Tony was his company’s chief developer, he found himself a target of the Reds. And that led to the tragic accident in a visit to Vietnam that created Iron Man. Like Detroit automakers, Stark improved, streamlined, and added new gadgets and features as time passed. Like Stan, Jack, and Don Heck (who were guiding his inventive zeal), he was exploding with ideas. Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner were also passionately antiMarxist/Leninist but Stark, his armored bodyguard, and his conglomerate were the prizes the Red Chinese, Cubans, and Russians wanted to bring down the most. And why not? In the fight against their “world revolution,” Tony provided a high-tech mansion for the Avengers (as well as a dutiful butler) and weapons for Nick Fury’s SHIELD. He was what a later time would call “a mover and a shaker.” While “King” Kirby only penciled a handful of Iron Man yarns for Tales of Suspense, his affinity for machinery (see TJKC #48 for just a fraction of the sum total!) shone through in an attached iron hammer á lá Thor (in Avengers #2), motorized skates, a transistorized high-frequency radio, and more. The Golden Avenger tackled the Crimson Dynamo, the Black Widow, the Titanium Man, and others from the Soviet Union, but these operatives took their orders from Nikita Khrushchev and his successor, Leonid Brezhnev. Khrushchev was the General Secretary of the Communist Party and Soviet Premier—he famously warned the democracies, “We will bury you!” and his presence (like busts and statues of Darkseid later on in Kirby’s DC works) hovered over Russian schemers in portraits/ paintings in the Kremlin and KGB headquarters. In early Marvel Age stories, Kirby and Lee reminded their young readers of the ever-present menace of Bolshevism by pitting Commie agents against Ant-Man, the FF, the Hulk, and Thor. (Spidey, DD, Col. Fury, Sub-Mariner, the X-Men, and Dr. Strange had other hang-ups.) Before the decade was over, Dr. Doom, the Red Skull, Magneto, and Galactus (among others) would get more accolades from an interested press and Marvel’s ever-growing fan base, but Khrushchev (who should be remembered as one of Marveldom’s foremost antagonists) and his organization of commissars and cronies made for many a dramatic moment for Tony Stark, his super-powered allies, and the foes of tyranny. ★
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I had him fight Daredevil. [Interviewer’s note: The epic Daredevil #7.] I thought it really turned out to be a terrific character study—for both of them. I wish I could have written more Sub-Mariner stories, they were a joy to write. TJKC: I feel that one of your greatest (and unsung) accomplishments as a writer/editor was your villain corps. You weren’t content to let the Avengers just fight Thor’s Executioner and Enchantress, Loki, Radioactive Man, or Giant-Man’s Black Knight or Iron Man’s Melter over and over again. You and/or Jack came up with Kang, Wonder Man, Count Nefaria, Immortus, and others just for the Assemblers. The FF had a great line-up of archcriminals, also. Were you and Kirby just exploding with great ideas for characters, or were you consciously
trying to outdo the competition? STAN: We were always trying to outdo the competition. And we knew that, once the super-hero had been established, it was the villain who brought the readers back. A super-hero story is only as good and exciting as the super-villain. TJKC: A lot of readers may have forgotten this by now, but you (as the editor-in-chief ) really had to fight to keep Captain America around! In the letters columns, many disgruntled readers felt he was “old hat” and they weren’t interested in their “fathers’ super-heroes.” Others objected to his being leader of the Avengers, and still others resented his inclusion in Tales of Suspense, seeing it as an encroachment on Iron Man’s territory. What did you see in ol’ Winghead that made you want to stick with him 13
that I could dream up. TJKC: It’s well known that you have a great love for the Shakespearean tragedies. Many of your characters followed in that vein. Professor X had the most powerful mutant brain in the world, but he was confined to a wheelchair. Cyclops was often troubled by the danger his optic beams created. Did you use any specific Shakespearean figures as a basis for any of these great characters, including Magneto? Richard III has often been compared to Dr. Doom… STAN: Not specifically. But, of course, the most interesting characters are usually those who are flawed, as in the works of Shakespeare and other great writers. So, having done much reading in my life, it was natural for me to favor characters whose powers and assets were always tinged with something of a tragic nature. TJKC: Love triangles were a large and successful component of your plotting. The “soap opera” aspect of your comic magazines kept readers fascinated even when there were no battles going on. In the X-Men, at times Prof. X, Cyclops, and the Angel all had strong feelings for Marvel Girl! Were these romances important for you to maintain? STAN: I guess it’s essentially the same answer as before. Not only does tragedy play a part, whether large or small, in everyone’s life, but so does love—or the lack of it. I find it difficult to write about a character unless I understand that character, and part of such understanding has to do with whether that character is in love, and with whom, and whether or not that love is requited. It’s all part of making the stories and the characters three-dimensional instead of just writing about cardboard figures. TJKC: You and Jack brought back a revamped Ka-Zar in X-Men #10. The original Timely jungle man (from Marvel Mystery Comics) took up a part of the jungle Tarzan didn’t want, apparently. Your Ka-Zar came with dinosaurs, Maa-Gorr (a man-ape evolution forgot about!), and a “hidden land.” What was it about Ka-Zar that made him worth excavating (pun intended) to you and Kirby? STAN: I was a big fan of the Tarzan books. One day I learned that my publisher, Martin Goodman, had produced some pulp magazines about a Tarzan-like character named Ka-Zar. I thought it would be fun to revive Ka-Zar, but to do it differently than Tarzan. He’d be in a prehistoric jungle called “The Hidden Land” and have a pet saber-tooth tiger as a “sidekick.” Also, I knew that Jack could do a magnificent job
until the fans came around? STAN: I always had a soft spot in my heart for Captain America because he was our company’s first popular super-hero. I was determined to make him popular again and to eventually make him the leader of a group of super-heroes.
The X-Factor TJKC: Your mutants, good and evil, were a distinctive minority in the Marvel Universe. The X-Men used their powers to combat the baddies, hoping at the same time their triumphs promote acceptance of their kind. Since you and Jack, being Jewish, were minority members, was that kind of thinking present in your storytelling? Or was it equivalent to tolerance of blacks, Indians, etc.? STAN: I wanted stories that preached tolerance of all people to all people. It was as simple as that. TJKC: The young Marvel Age was full of would-be world conquerors! The FF had the Mole Man, Diablo, and Dr. Doom. The Avengers faced Kang, Baron Zemo, and the Lava Men. In the X-Men, Magneto wanted it all. Did these villains have their prototypes in Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin? STAN: Perhaps subconsciously on my part, but I wasn’t really thinking of any real-life bad guys. I was just trying to create colorful villains who were the biggest, baddest, most colorful 14
depicting the adventures of such a character. It was really just done on a whim. TJKC: The X-Men struggled somewhat after Jack left the art chores. Perhaps one of the title’s flaws was that there was no breakout character, like the Thing of the FF. Did you ever feel that the line-up needed a character of that stature and did you and Jack ever discuss rearranging the team to include/invent such a hero? STAN: Not really. Of course, this is just supposition, but I think the X-Men would have done just fine if Jack remained with the book, but he had other, more pressing projects to work on at that time, as I did shortly thereafter. And, of course, we ourselves would have continually been creating characters for the X-Men as the series went on if we had stayed with the series. After all, we were constantly creating new characters with every series we worked on.
Against The Hordes Of Hydra TJKC: Iron Man, the FF, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Captain America—they all battled Communist agents and super-villains from behind the Iron Curtain and elsewhere. Iron Man’s origin is directly related to the Viet Cong. Why no communist threats in Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. ? STAN: Y’know, it was so long ago that I don’t clearly remember. I’m not even sure we didn’t use Communist threats. However, if there was a reason for us not to use them I really can’t recall what it could have been. Maybe we just didn’t think of it, or maybe we felt it had been overdone in other stories—but I’m just guessing. TJKC: Were you ever bowled over by Jack’s crazy machines, especially in S.H.I.E.L.D. ? STAN: Always! Nobody could create ingenious, original, exciting machine and devices better than Jack—or even as well as Jack. He was the master of dreaming such things up. ★
(previous page, top) Fury’s appearance in FF #21 (Dec. 1963) likely indirectly spawned the S.H.I.E.L.D. feature that came later. (previous page, bottom) Gabe Jones, an example of Stan adding a more realistic ethnic diversity to his comics. Note the message for colorist Stan Goldberg. From Sgt. Fury #2. (left) Kirby art adorned numerous Marvel promotional items like this in the ’60s. (below) Kirby’s preview “pinup” from the end of Avengers #2 (Nov. 1963). Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
Howlers! TJKC: Did you and the King have any specific commando units in mind when you created the Howling Commandos? STAN: I didn’t. Jack may have, but if so he never told me. Personally, I just tried to create an amalgam of every war movie I had ever seen. TJKC: Did Jack ever share any of his war stories with you, with them in turn becoming a basis for the Howlers’ adventures? STAN: Not really. We hardly ever discussed the war. Most of our conversations had to do with comic book stories and art. Our stories were strictly fiction, mainly based on wishful thinking and on all the war movies we had ever seen. TJKC: You desegregated the army in your war mag, putting Gabe Jones in the squad. Why did you feel that was necessary? STAN: I wanted to be as realistic as possible. The army was made up of men (and women) from every race, color, and creed—so why not let that be reflected in our stories? In fact, I was incredibly proud of the fact that we featured an ethnicallymixed platoon, with soldiers who cared for each other and respected each other. TJKC: Did you and/or Jack ever witness any soldierly brawls between guys in service like the ones the Howlers had with Bull McGiveney’s Maulers? STAN: Jack, who was in the infantry, may have. I was in the Signal Corps and never did. TJKC: Of all your great characters, Izzy Cohen was the only Jewish one. Was he special to you because of that? STAN: They were all special to me, but I did have a great fondness for Izzy because, as far as I know, he was the only specifically Jewish character in any major comic book. (Mr. Lee has our gratitude for his continued support.) 15
Gallery 1
Marvel Age of InkERS
by John Morrow
Stan Lee paired Jack Kirby with some exceptional inkers during the 1960s at Marvel, each lending a unique style to his pencils. Here are some of the best. Scans courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
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harles Eber “Chic” Stone (January 4, 1923 – July 28, 2000)
Chic Stone broke into comics in 1939 at age 16, working for comic-book packager Eisner & Iger. In the 1940s, he worked on the original Captain Marvel for Fawcett Comics, and Boy Comics for Lev Gleason Publications. For Timely Comics, he contributed to Blonde Phantom Comics, Joker Comics, All Select Comics, and Kid Komics. He left comics during the 1950s to become an art director for magazines, but returned during the 1960s to work for the American Comics Group (ACG) on Adventures into the Unknown. At Marvel Comics in the 1960s, he inked Kirby on Fantastic Four, X-Men, The Mighty Thor, and numerous covers. Later he freelanced for DC Comics on Batman, occasionally ghosting for artist Bob Kane. He penciled numerous stories for Tower Comics’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, worked on Nemesis in ACG’s Forbidden Worlds and Unknown Worlds, plus did work for Dell Comics, Skywald Publications’ blackand-white horror magazines, and in the late 1970s and 1980s, he worked for Archie Comics, including its “Red Circle” and “Archie Adventure Series” superhero lines. Stone was inking for Marvel as late as The Mighty Thor #321 (July 1982). In the early 1990s, he drew commissioned art in Silver Age Kirby-Stone style for sales through dealers. [source: en.wikipedia.org]
(this page) Journey Into Mystery #106 splash page (July 1964). TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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aul J. Reinman (September 2, 1910 September 27, 1988)
Paul Reinman entered comics in the 1940s at All-American Comics (which later merged into DC Comics) working on such characters as the Golden Age Green Lantern, Wildcat, The Atom, Starman and Wonder Woman. He also worked for MLJ on the Black Hood, the Hangman and the Wizard. Golden Age work for Timely Comics included Human Torch and Sub-Mariner stories in Captain America Comics and elsewhere. He worked in other genres for Marvel’s 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics. In the late-1950s, Reinman became a frequent inker of Kirby’s work in Strange Tales and Journey into Mystery, as well as on the espionage series Yellow Claw. He would eventually ink Kirby on numerous landmark Marvel books, including Incredible Hulk #1, X-Men #1-5, and Avengers #2, 3 and 5. In 1965, Reinman and Jerry Siegel created The Mighty Crusaders for Archie Comics’ short-lived superhero line. He also produced work for the American Comics Group, and remained active through at least the mid1970s, penciling Ka-Zar #1 (Jan. 1974) and assisting John Romita on the pencils of Amazing SpiderMan #132 (May 1974). [source: en.wikipedia.org]
(this page) Journey Into Mystery #102 “Tales of Asgard” splash page (March 1964). TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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eorge Roussos, a.k.a. George Bell (August 20, 1915 – February 19, 2000)
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George Roussos entered comics in 1939 as letterer of the Spanish-language version of the newspaper panel Ripley’s Believe It or Not. In 1940, Bob Kane and Bill Finger hired him to assist inker Jerry Robinson on Batman stories. He and Robinson eventually left the Kane studio to work directly for National (DC Comics) on Batman, Vigilante, Johnny Quick, Superman, Starman, and as penciler of “Air Wave” in Detective Comics. He also did Golden Age work for Timely Comics, Avon Publications, Standard/ Better/Nedor, Fiction House, Hillman, Lev Gleason Publications, and Spark, and worked on numerous newspaper comic strips. Comic book clients during the 1950s included Atlas Comics, Crestwood, EC, and St. John Publications. In the 1960s, Roussos used the pseudonym “George Bell” as Jack Kirby’s inker on landmark early issues of Marvel’s Fantastic Four, and inked Kirby’s return of Captain America in Avengers #4 (March 1964), as well as Kirby’s classic Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. After doing some work for Warren Publishing’s black-and-white horrorcomics magazines in 1970 and 1971, Roussos — who was frequently the uncredited colorist on many Marvel Silver Age comics — became Marvel’s full-time staff colorist. [source: en.wikipedia.org]
(this page) Fantastic Four #21 splash page (Dec. 1963). TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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ichard “Dick” Ayers
R (born April 28, 1924) Dick Ayers entered the comic book field in 1947 for Vin Sullivan of Magazine Enterprises, on the “Funnyman” series. Ayers went on to pencil and ink Western stories in the late 1940s for Magazine Enterprises’ A-1 Comics and Trail Colt, and for Prize Comics’ Prize Comics Western. With writer Ray Krank, Ayers created the horror-themed Western character Ghost Rider in Tim Holt #11 (1949). (After the trademark to the character lapsed, Marvel Comics debuted its own version of the character in Ghost Rider #1 (Feb. 1967), by writers Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich and original Ghost Rider artist Ayers.) In 1952, Ayers began a long freelance run at Atlas Comics, drawing horror stories in various titles, including Journey into Mystery and Strange Tales. He also drew the brief revival of the Golden Age Human Torch in Young Men #21-24 (June 1953 Feb. 1954). During the 1950s, Ayers also drew in a freelance capacity for Charlton Comics, including for the satirical series Eh!. Ayers was probably Kirby’s most prolific inker, as the pair produced hundreds of pages of western and monster stories before the Marvel superhero era began. But while he also inked Kirby on numerous other titles in the 1960s, it’s surely his run on early Fantastic Four issues that will loom the largest of their collaborations. Dick Ayers is still actively working as an artist today, and frequents conventions regularly. [source: en.wikipedia.org]
(this page) Fantastic Four #14 splash page (May 1963). TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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V
incent Joseph Colletta (October 15, 1923 - June 3, 1991)
Vince Colletta entered comics in 1952, freelancing first as a penciler, inking his own work, for Better Comics. In 1953 he began his decades-long collaboration with Marvel (then Atlas) Comics, primarily as a romance comics artist. During the Atlas “implosion” in the late 1950s, Colletta freelanced as a penciler on DC and Charlton Comics’ romance titles. Historians pinpoint Colletta’s first inking of Jack Kirby’s pencils as either the cover of Kid Colt: Outlaw #100 (Sept. 1961) or the cover of Love Romances #98 (March 1962). He inked Kirby’s Fantastic Four #40-43, as well as Fantastic Four Annual #3, featuring the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm. But their most well known collaboration was his six-year run on Kirby’s Thor, begun with the “Tales of Asgard” backup in Journey into Mystery #106 (July 1964). Except for one issue, Colletta inked the lead Thor story from #116-167, picking up again from #176 to Kirby’s final issue, #179 (Aug. 1970). Colletta was regarded as one of the industry’s fastest inkers and a reliable professional to call upon when a comic was in danger of missing a printing deadline. He’s also Kirby’s most controversial inker; while his style suited the mythological setting of Thor well, he would later be criticized for eliminating details Kirby put into his work, both in order to lessen the inking burden and to help meet time constraints. [source: en.wikipedia.org]
(this page) Thor #158, page 18 (Nov. 1968). TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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oe Sinnott (born
J October 16, 1926) Joe Sinnott’s first solo professional art job was the backup feature “Trudi” in the St. John Publications humor comic Mopsy #12 (Sept. 1950). In 1951, Sinnott met with editor Stan Lee at Marvel (then Timely/Atlas) Comics, and picked up work, since he’d already been a ghost artist on a Tom Gill-credited story for the company. Sinnott’s first Atlas assignment was likely the four-page Western filler “The Man Who Wouldn’t Die” in Apache Kid #8 (Sept. 1951). He would go on to draw a multitude of stories in many genres for the company throughout the decade. During a 1957 Atlas “implosion” (when Stan Lee let go most of its staff and freelancers for several months), Sinnott found other work, doing billboards and record covers, ghosting for some DC Comics artists, and a job for Classics Illustrated comics, and began a long association with Treasure Chest comics. After inking Fantastic Four #5 and one page of issue #6, he worked as both penciler and inker at Marvel, until being tapped as the regular inker on Kirby’s Fantastic Four, from #44 through Kirby’s departure with #102, missing only a couple of issues in the run. He’s generally regarded as Kirby’s best inker of the 1960s, due to his slick style and faithfulness to capturing all the detail Kirby included in his pencil art. The pair’s collaboration, more than any other, set the look of the Marvel “house style” of the 1960s and beyond. Joe still actively pencils and inks today. [source: en.wikipedia.org]
(this page) Fantastic Four #53, page 7 (Aug. 1966). TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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rank Giacoia, a.k.a. Frankie Ray (July 6, 1924 - February 4, 1988)
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Frank Giacoia broke into comics penciling “Jack Frost” in USA Comics #3 (Jan. 1942), published by Marvel Comics’ 1940s precursor, Timely Comics. Later in 1941, Giacoia joined comic-book packager Eisner & Iger. His early work included crime for Ace Comics, horror for Avon Comics, and a multitude of characters for National Publications (the primary company that evolved into DC Comics) including the Flash and Batman. Other companies for which Giacoia did art during the 1940s and 1950s include Crestwood, Dell Comics, Eastern Color, Fawcett, Harvey Comics, and Lev Gleason Publications. He and Jack Kirby became friends, and Kirby even ghost-penciled many of Frank’s 1950s Johnny Reb newspaper strips, which Giacoia inked. During the 1960s, Giacoia became best known as a Marvel Comics inker, particularly on Captain America stories penciled by Kirby. One of the company’s preeminent names, he worked on virtually every title at one time or another. He did have trouble meeting deadlines at times, which may explain why his inking career over Kirby didn’t contain many sustained runs on books, but rather more individual issues and covers. Still, when the pair did work together, the end result was always slick and professional. Giacoia went on to work on the Amazing SpiderMan newspaper comic strip from 1978-1981. [source: en.wikipedia.org]
(this page) Tales of Suspense #84 splash page (Dec. 1966). TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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illiam Blake “Bill” Everett (May 18, 1917 – February 27, 1973)
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Bill Everett begin in comics by freelancing for Centaur Publications’ “Skyrocket Steele” strip, and co-created AmazingMan at Centaur, working with company art director Lloyd Jacquet. At Funnies, Inc., Everett created the Sub-Mariner for Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, a planned promotional comic to be given away in movie theaters. The original eight-page story was expanded by four pages for Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), the first publication of what Funnies, Inc.’s client Martin Goodman would dub Timely Comics, the 1940s precursor of Marvel Comics. Everett’s anti-hero quickly became one of Timely’s top three characters, along with Carl Burgos’ Human Torch and Jack Kirby & Joe Simon’s Captain America. After cancellation of the character following World War II, Everett briefly revived the Sub-Mariner feature in Young Men #28 (June 1954). In the 1960s, Everett co-created Daredevil with Stan Lee in Daredevil #1 (April 1964), after Kirby had already drawn the cover of issue #1 and done some amount of design work. Everett also penciled the Hulk in Tales to Astonish (initially over Kirby layouts) and on Doctor Strange in Strange Tales. But despite earlier stints inking Kirby on Marvel monster tales, he’s best remembered by Kirby fans for inking Jack’s Thor work (first on issue #143, then for an extended run from #168-175). Everett eventually returned to writing, penciling and inking Sub-Mariner until his death in 1973. [source: en.wikipedia.org]
(this page) Thor #171 splash page (Dec. 1969). TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Mark evanier (this page) This June 1972 issue of the fanzine Comicscope was edited, and the cover drawn, by one “C.B. Hackworth”; sounds like a pen name to us, but if you’re out there, C.B., drop us a line and let us know for sure! According to the editorial, this was the first issue of Comicscope, and we’re unsure if any others were produced. The indicia says it was published by the International Comic Club in East Point, Georgia, and the associate editors were Steve Higgins, Douglas Parker, and Calvin Walker. Forever People TM & ©2009 DC Comics.
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Jack F.A.Q.s
A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby by Mark Evanier (Editor’s Note: Due to other deadlines, including preparing for his duties with this year’s Comic-Con International: San Diego, Mark Evanier wasn’t able to provide his regular column this issue. However, as anyone who was in attendance at last year’s Comic-Con Kirby Tribute Panel knows, Mark gave an emotional, touching tribute to not only Jack Kirby, but his late friends Dave Stevens and Steve Gerber, both of whom passed away last year. The transcript of that panel is presented in the following pages, and speaks to Jack’s influence as eloquently as any column Mark’s ever written. In lieu of his regular column, I’m presenting a delightful little tidbit from the 1972 fanzine Comicscope: An interview with Jack Kirby, as dictated to none other than Mark Evanier himself! It’s short and sweet, but harks back to Mark’s days as Jack’s assistant along with Steve Sherman, and answers some frequently asked questions about Kirby. Mark is, of course, author of Kirby, King of Comics from Harry N. Abrams, and Superheroes In My Pants! from TwoMorrows, and as always, he welcomes your questions about Jack at his website, www.newsfromme.com where you’ll find a link via which to send them.) ★
Tribute
(below) Left to right, that’s Jerry Robinson, Joe Ruby, and Ken Spears. Photos by the incomparable Chris Ng, who’s always on hand to snap shots for our use; thanks as always, Chris!
2008 Kirby Tribute Panel (Conducted Sunday, July 27, 2008, at 10 a.m. as part of Comic-Con International: San Diego, and featuring comic book legend Jerry Robinson and animation producers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Kirby attorney Paul S. Levine was also present on the panel, but time restrictions limited his input. Moderated by Mark Evanier, and transcribed and edited by John Morrow.) MARK EVANIER: In honor of Jack Kirby, will you all please set your cell phones on “explode.” (laughter) This is the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, so inevitably I’m Mark Evanier. (applause) I’d like to apologize for the hour; I do not make the schedule for this convention, I just live in it. We’re gonna divide this into three chapters. The first part is going to be a brief rambling by me, kind of a “state of Kirby” speech. Then I’m going to have announcements, and if you have a Kirby-related announcement you’d like to make, that’d be the time to do it. The third part is we’re going to be talking to these gentlemen about Jack and their relationship to him. Let me introduce them to you. On my immediate left is one of the great legends of the comic book business. People have been coming up to me for several days at this convention, saying, “I can’t believe I just met the guy who created the Joker, and drew all those neat Batman stories.” When they gave the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award to this man, that’s what it was meant for. When they gave it to me, they made a mockery of it. (laughter) This is Mr. Jerry Robinson, ladies and gentlemen. (applause) As we’ll discuss when we get to Act Three of these proceedings, Jack had a lot of career turmoil in the late 1970s and early
Levine, folks. (applause) I’m going to start this by talking at some length about Jack, and a thought that occurred to me. A lot of people here did not have the opportunity to meet Jack; that’s one of the reasons we do these panels, so those of us who did can pass on that wonderful little glow we got from being near the man. When you met Jack, you might come to him and say, “I want a sketch of the Thing” or “I want an autograph.” What you got that was most valuable—he usually wouldn’t do a sketch for you. He would sometimes autograph, depending on how his drawing hand was at the time. But what you got from Jack, if you were perceptive enough to receive it—which many people were not—was always a philosophical concept. Because the most valuable thing Jack had, even more so than his ability to draw great looking monsters and such, was a perception. You’ve heard me talk or write in the past about how Jack predicted this and that. People have asked me if he had psychic powers. I don’t believe in psychic powers; if I ever did I would believe that Jack had them. I still don’t believe people have psychic powers, but I do believe that some human beings on this planet are just smarter than other people, and some of them are more perceptive than other people, at least in certain areas. Those of us who knew Jack can itemize areas where he was not perceptive; this is a man who could not drive a car because he would drive off the road inevitably. But when it came to grand visions of the future—where something was going—he didn’t know where he was always going, but he always knew where the future was going. One of the concepts Jack gave me to think
1980s. He felt very alienated from the comic book business. He was unhappy in it for a number of reasons—not the least of which was that it was still the comic book business after all those years. He found an escape route; Mister Miracle managed to get out of the comic book business and the prison that it was for him, and worked very happily in animation for many years. He worked very happily for these two gentlemen, who had and still have a very fine animation studio named Ruby-Spears. These are Mr. Joe Ruby and Mr. Ken Spears. (applause) On the far end is the Kirby family attorney. Jack had two wonderful lawyers working for him during the original art battle which you all know about, and some of the other battles he fought. Now this gentleman represents the Kirby Estate and many other people you know, even me. This is Mr. Paul S.
about a lot—he’d throw out new ways of looking at it over the years—was something that might be called “the passing of the torch.” I met Jack in July of 1969; it is scary to me—and one of those thoughts I can’t quite wrap my brain around—that at that point, Jack was younger than I am today, by a couple of years. He seemed old to me; not old in a bad way. He seemed like an adult, an experienced guy with years and years on him, and I was this stupid, geeky kid who knew too damn much about comic books, and look where it’s got me. (laughter) And I don’t feel like I’ve changed, but obviously something has changed. This is my 12th panel of this convention, and I have five in a row today. It dawned on me as I was looking at my schedule— the next panel in this room is a tribute to a man named Dave Stevens. Dave was even younger than I am, and we lost him this 25
Mark Evanier moderated the panel.
year. We also lost a friend of ours—a friend of Jack’s, who we’ll be talking about a little later today, because he worked with Ruby-Spears a lot—named Steve Gerber. It is stunning to me that I am presiding over memorial services for people like this. It’s one thing to post on my weblog that Creig Flessel has left us; Creig Flessel was what, 94? It’s sad when you lose these people, but 94 is not a bad age to go these days. (laughter) In your fifties—Steve Gerber was just barely 60—that’s kind of jarring, especially for those of us who are 56 years old. (laughter) I’m conscious of the fact that Jack was one of the few guys when I got into comics in 1970, who really embraced that idea that it was time for his generation to step aside, and a new generation to take over. There were lots of people in comics who loved the fans, as long as they stayed fans. The unspoken sentiment, or occasionally spoken by a couple of people out loud, was, “You’re not here to replace us, you’re here to appreciate us. You’re here to support us, you’re here to buy our stuff, you’re here to slobber over us. But you’re not going to replace us.” Jack’s attitude to every new kid who came to him was, “Welcome to the business. It’s going to be yours any day now.” One of the comics Jack did at the time I first knew him was a book called The Forever People. Of all the comics that Jack did during our association, where I feel that I have a certain understanding of what he was going for, the one that I think least came out the way he intended was The Forever People. He was having a lot of trouble with New Gods and Mister Miracle, because he was getting all this strange input from different sources, and he had too damn many ideas to cram into too few issues. But in Forever People, what he envisioned was not the comic he did. Forever People—you can see some of this between the panels, and it’s in some of the panels—was a book about the passing of the torch. It was about how the Old Gods had to step aside to make way for the New Gods; not because they wanted to, but because that’s just the way it works. Jack quoted to me one time a line that was, I think, attributed to William F. Buckley, who also just passed away. It said, “The job of a political conservative is to stand astride history and yell ‘Go back in the other direction.’” (laughter) And Jack’s answer was, “What a stupid idea,” (laughter, applause) if for no other reason than that it never works that way. Even 26
if you want it to, it doesn’t work that way. So Jack was very supportive in an amazing way, of the new generation. I met Dave Stevens at Jack’s house around 1971, and Jack was encouraging him. Now, Jack encouraged everybody. You could come to Jack with the worst artwork in the world, and Jack would say, “You’re great! Keep at it! Keep working hard!” (laughter) Because even though he might not believe in your artwork, he believed in energy, and youthful enthusiasm, and human spirit, and he believed that it should never be squashed or discouraged. So there was no way Jack ever discouraged anyone. But Jack had two kinds of encouragement. He had the encouragement he gave to everybody off the street who came to him with stuff scrawled on the back of loose-leaf notebook paper—these bad tracings of Fin Fang Foom. “You’re great! Keep at it!” And he had the encouragement he gave to people with genuine talent—the encouragement he gave to Dave Stevens, the encouragement he gave to Scott Shaw!,
the encouragement he gave to a girl named Wendy Fletcher, who’s now known as Wendy Pini. And it was a different kind of encouragement, in many cases an encouragement not to get into comic books— not to think that inking Spider-Man was a life goal. Jack would say to them in various permutations the phrase, “I’ve done about as well as you can do in comics, and it ain’t all that fabulous.” On one of these panels years ago, Wendy Pini said Jack, when he saw her work, said, “If I catch you working for Marvel, I’m gonna spank you.” (laughter) Because he believed that so many other things were possible. He was very frustrated that, for him, working at DC and Marvel were the only options for so long, until he met people like Joe and Ken here. I have no real finish for this, other than it seemed like an appropriate thing to mention, because after this is over, we’re going to have to sit here and talk about Dave, and Dave was a guy Jack was very proud of. We have in the room a person or two who are
actually related to Jack Kirby, but in a certain sense we are all second cousins and nephews of this guy. You know the reason we do these panels? I like spending an hour with people who are smart enough to appreciate Jack Kirby. (applause) If you want to get applause in a room, you just compliment the audience. (laughter, more applause) Anyway... To the extent that I can leave you with a philosophical concept the way Jack always did—and I’m nowhere near as good at it as he was; nobody is as good at it as he was—if you stay for the Dave Stevens panel, or you have to leave and you can just think about Dave and Steve Gerber and people like that, remember that the future only works in one direction. One of the geniuses of Jack was that he was always running out to get ahead of everybody. He would take you back to World War II gladly, but he didn’t want to live there. It was a cautionary note; World War II was a very important metaphor in Jack’s life, so it couldn’t be forgotten, the way you shouldn’t forget the Holocaust, or you shouldn’t forget things that destroy people’s lives, and their world, and make sure you don’t replicate them—because God knows we don’t want to get into an unnecessary war again. (groans from audience, laughter) The thing that you need to remember, if you think about Jack, was there’s always a bigger picture, and the world keeps expanding, and getting bigger. And the only way to aspire to what Jack did is try to keep getting out in front of it, and being ahead of everybody. In Jack’s case, he sometimes got a little too far ahead of everybody, but that was what I thought I should say today at this panel. Thank you. (applause) We are now going to segue to the Kirby Announcements section; I have a couple. One is that Lisa Kirby, who could not be with us today, wanted you to know that there is another volume of Jack Kirby’s Galactic Bounty Hunters in the works, coming soon to a bookstore near you. We are so happy to see the new work being done in the Kirby tradition and the Kirby name, the Kirby milieu. Last year on this panel I was sitting with Neil Gaiman, and we got to talking about our favorite work, and Neal and I share a mutual love for a book Jack did called “The Losers.” There was a gust of enthusiasm in this room for “The Losers,” and in the back of the room, a man named Bob Wayne hauled out his Blackberry, texted DC and said, “We’ve gotta reprint ‘The Losers’ next.” (laughter) DC is going to reprint “The Losers” next. (applause) I have a prediction I have made—and please understand this is my prediction; it’s not an official announcement— that everything major Jack ever did will be in print within five years. They’re going to get to it, and we’re going to announce a few more before time is out here. The only exceptions might be things like 2001 or Justice Inc. where there were licensing issues involved. I suspect even those will eventually be surmounted. My prediction does not include those, although it would not surprise me if those were out there. He is as commercial as he’s ever been; the books that Jack did that were considered failures at the time are now hits; this is the most amazing legacy to remember about Jack. I am now going to play Oprah here, and segue out into the audience. I’d like you to meet Jack’s grandson Jeremy. (applause)
Jack’s grandson, Jeremy Kirby.
JEREMY KIRBY: Hey, how’s everyone doing? (applause) On behalf of the whole family, I’d just like to thank everyone for being here; it’s great to see the panel growing in size every year. So on behalf of the entire family, including my sister who’s about to give birth, we all say “thank you,” and it’s heartfelt. Really, thank you so much. (applause) Of course, Mark Evanier who puts this on every year, this is just amazing. We love him; he’s just as much a family member as I am to my grandfather, so thank you Mark. (applause) And the other panelists up here, thank you, guys. We appreciate it, and I’m excited to hear everyone speak. (applause)
(previous page) Dave Stevens’ gorgeous inks and colors, which we ran as the centerfold of TJKC #19. (above) Splash page pencils from Our Fighting Forces #154 (April 1975), featuring the Losers. Check out DC’s new Losers hardcover collection for some of Kirby’s best 1970s work. Captain America and Bucky TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. Losers TM & ©2009 DC Comics.
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(below) Chapter splash from Demon #5 (Jan. 1973). We provided other pencil pages like this for DC’s recent Demon hardcover collection —be sure to get a copy! (next page) Page 16 pencils from the still unpublished In The Days Of The Mob #2 (circa 1971). We’ve read the whole unseen issue, and it’s awesome; c’mon, DC, print it already! (And include Dingbats!) Characters TM & ©2009 DC Comics.
MARK: I have this book out called Kirby: King of Comics. (applause) It’s doing phenomenally well. I’ll tell you a secret; I did a book a couple of years ago called Mad Art, about the people from Mad magazine, and I got this call from the publicist of the publisher at some point, saying, ‘“You got a rave review in the New York Times.” And I went, “Oh my God, a rave review in the New York Times?” That’s not a bad thing to get. I picked it up and read it, and what it was, was a rave review for Mad magazine. The person that wrote this review loved Mad magazine, and they went on for paragraph after paragraph about how great Harvey Kurtzman was, and how great Al Feldstein was, and how great Mort Drucker was, and Don Martin, and Sergio, and at the end they said, “And by the way, Mark Evanier’s written a book about them.” (laughter) And I went, “Great. This is easy. I get a pass. I’m coasting on these coattails.” Well, once again I’ve had the fortune—people come up to me and they go, “Boy Mark, that book of yours is full of great art.” Well, as the philosophers would say, “Duh!” (laughter) How could a book about Jack Kirby not be full of great art? How could it not be an exciting book? The only way that it could be, is if the publisher really screwed up. I’d like for you to meet the man that got me to do the book; this is Charlie Kochman from the Harry N. Abrams company. (applause) CHARLIE KOCHMAN: Thank you, and thank you, Mark. That’s the most amazing book I ever had the honor to work on. We wanted to let everyone know Joe Simon couldn’t be here; he’s in New York, but he’s opening up his archives of the Simon & Kirby studio, and all this original art is going to be reproduced in a book called The Art of the Simon & Kirby Studio, which we’ll put out in Spring 2010. It’ll be like the pages of Fighting American in Mark’s book, which are all shot off the original art. It’ll be large, oversized, full original pieces of art, and it’s going to be an amazing book. So Joe wanted us to let you know that. (applause) And thank you for buying the book. (laughter) MARK: Thank you, Charlie. You are all subscribers to the Jack Kirby Collector. I’d like you to meet the gentleman behind the magazine; this is Mr. John Morrow. (applause) JOHN MORROW: I wanted to shamelessly plug something that we’ve worked really hard on for several years. Back in 1998 we did a Jack Kirby Checklist, which was built on the foundation that was in Ray Wyman’s Art of Jack Kirby book. Since then, we’ve had ten years worth of “new” material by Kirby being printed, and ten years worth of additions by various historians who
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added and expanded upon what we did in 1998. So we’ve got the new Gold Edition of the Jack Kirby Checklist; it just came out, and we’ve got it at our booth downstairs, and it’s also available online. We’ve got a PDF version, which is really nice, because you can search for exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re a Kirby buff, trying to find his reprinted material on eBay, or his other stuff, it’s a very invaluable list. So I just wanted to mention that. Thanks. (applause) MARK: This is the curator of the online Kirby Museum; this is Rand Hoppe. (applause) RAND HOPPE: Hello. Thanks Mark. I work with John Morrow on his website as well. John has just completed scanning 6000 pages of xerox pencil art that we’re going to be sharing between TwoMorrows and the Museum, so that’s kind of a nice thing. I don’t know if you’re aware of the Will Eisner documentary that was recently made by Jon and Andy Cooke. We’re also happy to announce that, we’re now working with the Cooke brothers to develop a Jack Kirby documentary. (applause) We are a nonprofit organization, and we’re looking for your contribution to the documentary fund, so please come by the TwoMorrows booth, and we’ll have some flyers and some postcards. Thanks to the support of our members, we’re starting to actually acquire physical art. We’re going to be building a collection of Kirby art so we can develop our traveling retrospective. We’re out there looking for art, so if you have some, contact us. Thank you. (applause) MARK: And not only do they want physical custody of the art, they will settle for scanning Kirby originals. They’re building a library; there’s too much wonderful Kirby art going through this convention hall, that the publishers do not have good copies of in their files. Rand and John are making it possible for future Kirby reprints to be clearer, sharper, and just physically done. Now while I’m segueing back up to the table, I want you to think about something. Bob Wayne, who I mentioned earlier, works at DC, and is the guy who said, “Let’s do ‘The Losers.’” Just before this panel, I was downstairs, and he said, “Poll the room and ask them what they want us to do next at DC.”
So let’s see if I can get a sense of the room so I can tell Bob what you guys want. Nominations are now open! AUDIENCE: Demon! MARK: It’s already in the works. (applause) AUDIENCE: Challengers of the Unknown. MARK: They’ve already done Challengers of the Unknown.
AUDIENCE: Are they going to finish Kamandi? MARK: I think they’re going to finish Kamandi, yes. Let me make some notes here, and we’ll take a show of hands. This is not to say we’re going to get what we want, but it doesn’t hurt. RAND HOPPE: Unpublished Dingbats, Spirit World, In The Days Of The Mob.
AUDIENCE: Sky Masters newspaper strips.
AUDIENCE: 1940s Simon & Kirby. Newsboy Legion, Manhunter, Sandman, and Boy Commandos.
MARK: That’s not DC.
AUDIENCE: The ’50s stuff: House of Mystery. 29
AUDIENCE: What about all the 1970s one-shots? MARK: They’re scheduled to print Atlas in somebody else’s book at the moment. What we’re gonna do here is vote on eight things. Everybody gets two votes, we’ll say. This is not to say you don’t want to see all of this, but if you have to pick the first two you want, vote for the first two you’d like to nag DC into doing. Let’s see a show of hands, how many would like Kamandi as their first choice? (pause to count) I’m going to say that’s 50 people. All right, the 1970s miscellaneous stuff. (pause) That’s about the same 50 people. In The Days Of The Mob, Spirit World stuff? Same 50 people. (laughter) Newsboy Legion? Same 50 people. (laughter) Okay, Manhunter? Sandman? Boy Commandos? House of Mystery? All right, it’s a tie. (laughter) This is worthwhile to report, so thank you. Whatever they put out, they can say the Kirby fans demanded it. (laughter) Segueing now to the third chapter, I’d like to talk a little bit to these gentlemen. I’m going to talk to Jerry first. Jerry, you were in an interesting position. There was a period of time back in the 1940s where Joe Simon had gone off to war, and Jack was working in the DC offices. One time when we talked, you told me that you were sitting there watching Jack draw, and not believing it. Could you get very close to the microphone and tell us a little about that period? JERRY ROBINSON: I think, looking back, it was really a fantastic time. It was a unique group of artists who happened to land in the DC bullpen at the same time. It was kind of a transitional period. When I first met Jack, he was five years older than me. I started when I was 17, so everybody seemed to be quite middle-aged to me, when you’re 17. I think I met Jack the next year when I started working for DC in their offices. On one side of me was Joe Shuster, and the other side was Jack Kirby. Our boards were literally almost touching each other. On the other side of Jack was Fred Ray, and for a while Bernie Klein, and George Roussos, and Mort Meskin. MARK: Anybody who could draw? (laughter) JERRY: I must say it was a great array of artists, particularly of course Jack. And Fred Ray was a marvelous artist. Mort Meskin was a lifetime partner and collaborator who I thought was really great. It was unique in that we were all working side-by-side, looking at each other’s work, comparing our work, learning from each other, asking each other questions: “How does this look?” “What do you do with this?” And so forth. So I think we all benefited from that unique experience. I know I did, and being the youngest of the group, they all seemed so mature to me, even though they were only four or five years older. Jack was unique. As I recall, he was very quiet, very self-contained, very unassuming. When I looked at his work, I thought, “Where does this come from?” He looked like an ordinary mortal, (laughter) but he did this fantastic work. It seemed like all his inner fires and energies that you didn’t see on the surface, came out on the page. He could take a piece of paper, and make—instead of two 30
dimensions—ten dimensions. Dimensions that didn’t exist, perspectives that you couldn’t imagine; things that were impossible. MARK: Jack at this point was aware that he was going to go into the service. He was trying to get ahead on the books and make some money for his family. How fast was he drawing at this point? JERRY: He was drawing very fast. I thought I was fast until I saw Jack. MARK: How many pages did you do a week? JERRY: I could do about two pages a day finished, pencils and inks. MARK: How many do you think Jack was doing? JERRY: Well, Jack didn’t usually work from start to finish, pencil and ink. He would do all pencil. MARK: How many do you think he was penciling a day? JERRY: He would probably pencil five or six, to every one that I would do.
MARK: So he was doing five or six a day? JERRY: Oh yeah, at least that. Now, they weren’t tight or finished pencils, but it was all there. I could take it, and do a finished ink job over it. But you had to know what he wanted, and know how to finish it. But it was all there; he wouldn’t do it line for line. He was after the movement, the action, the composition—the vitality to keep it looking spontaneous and flowing. He was a master at that, and we all learned from that, one way or another. We didn’t attempt to copy Jack; you couldn’t copy him. But you could learn from him, and I tried to learn what he was doing, why he was doing it, how he was doing it. It expanded the parameters of all our art, to work with him. MARK: All the guys you mentioned were respected by their peers. Mort Meskin had more fans in the industry than you could believe; people thought he was the guy that taught them how to spot blacks and design a page as a page composition. What do you think were the primary things other artists were learning from Jack at that point?
JERRY: I think the vitality; his drawings came alive. They moved; they conveyed emotion. I think that was his enduring contribution, and influence. MARK: Do you think DC appreciated him? JERRY: (chuckles) I don’t think anybody appreciated him as much as they should have at that time, particularly DC in those days. They had a group of very autocratic editors who didn’t know much about art. They came from the pulps mostly, and they gave the artists—Mort Meskin particularly, and some of the writers like Bill Finger—a terrible time. MARK: Jack had a lot of trouble with Mort Weisinger, who was the editor there. Mort didn’t appreciate him, Mort didn’t like a lot of what he did. The day Jack finally had to report for duty, he went down to the Induction Center, which was in the same building DC was located in. A bus pulled up, he got on the bus, and thought, “Well, I’m going off to the service, but at least I’m free of Mort Weisinger.” (laughter) He sat down on the bus, and in comes Mort Weisinger, who was reporting the same day for service. (laughter) JERRY: I think Mort did that on purpose. (laughter) MARK: Do you have any questions for Jerry? AUDIENCE: What did Jack Kirby think of Jerry Robinson’s characters? MARK: Jack Kirby had enormous respect for Jerry Robinson. He thought Jerry was a terrific professional. Jack loved every professional. When you asked Jack who he respected, if you kept him long enough, he’d list everyone in the business, but Jerry’s was one of the first names out of his mouth every time he discussed it. The first guy he’d always mention was Bill Everett, because everybody loved Bill Everett. He mentioned Jerry, Joe Kubert, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck. But Jerry was a guy who Jack felt was the guy who made Batman work, at least on a visual level. Jack had a very odd relationship with Bob Kane, but everybody had a very odd relationship with Bob Kane. (laughter) And one of Jack’s best friends was a guy named George Roussos, who was also instrumental in the look and feel of the early Batman comics. If you asked Jack about Batman, he would say, “Jerry Robinson and George Roussos, those are the guys who made it all work.” And everybody has respect for Jerry, which is not surprising. He’s quite revered. (applause) Because we’re tight on time, I want to segue over here to RubySpears, if I may. Briefly, by way of history, in the 1970s, Jack was not very happy in comics. And to some extent, comics weren’t that happy with Jack. He was working for Marvel on Black Panther, Captain America, 2001, Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur. First of all, he was unhappy that it was still basically the same job he did when he had started out as a kid. He had hoped by that point to either get out of comics, or take comics to another level—new sizes, new forms. And he was back with his old 32-page comics. The Marvel staff at that time sometimes gets a bad rap; people say they all hated him, and they were all subverting his books. That’s not true, but there were a few people there giving him a hard time; a few people giving him enormous stress, trying to push him into a box he did not want to be in. And he was looking to get out of comics. I had a very chilling, memorable dinner with Jack and Roz one night. We all went out to this dreadful restaurant near their house, which for some reason Jack liked, and Roz would go, “Okay, we’ll go there if you want to.” (laughter) And Jack talked about how he didn’t know what he was gonna do, because his
Marvel contract was going to be up for renewal soon, and he didn’t want to sign up for another hitch there. He had no alternative, and about that time, he was fortunate enough that he started getting tapped for animation work. At that time, the animation business basically consisted of four studios: Filmation, Depatie-Freleng, Hanna-Barbera, and Ruby-Spears. Jack never worked for Filmation; in one of the interviews that John printed in [The Jack Kirby Collector], Roz and Jack talked about his days working for Filmation. They were wrong; Jack worked for Depatie-Freleng. He just got confused. But Jack did some work for Hanna-Barbera, and for DepatieFreleng on the Fantastic Four show. At some point there, RubySpears had this giant studio out on Sherman Way, near Vineland, and I was working for them, and a fellow by the name of Steve Gerber was also working for them. Steve started a show called Thundarr the Barbarian, which they were trying to sell to ABC. (applause) The initial character designs were done by a man you all know named Alex Toth. (applause) ABC was on the fence; they had a gentleman there at that time, who was kind of the Vice President of Not Making Up Your Mind. (laughter) They liked Thundarr, they thought it could be very interesting. They said,
(previous page) Mort Meskin (and possibly Jerry Robinson) worked on the never-published Captain 3-D #2 (circa 1953), following Kirby’s work on the first issue. Here’s a page planned for issue #2. (above) “Video Rangers,” an animation concept Kirby pitched in the early 1980s, capitalizing on the video game craze of the time. Captain 3-D TM & ©2009 Harvey Comics. Video Rangers TM & ©2009 RubySpears.
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“We need more artwork. We need to see more of this.” Joe and Ken, will you pick up the story from that moment? (below) Kirby animation artwork for the Thundarr cartoon. Jack produced hundreds, perhaps thousands of smaller pieces like this to guide animators, in addition to larger 20" x 30" presentation boards for show pitches. (next page, top) Jack and Jerry Robinson teamed up for this classic cover from Detective Comics #65 (July 1942). Thundarr, Ookla TM & ©2009 RubySpears. Batman, Robin, Boy Commandos TM & ©2009 DC Comics.
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JOE RUBY: What happened is, we got the pick-up, and all of a sudden, we got money to hire artists and writers. We needed someone to really design all the characters. It was a different show; it was unique, and we wanted to make it a hard-looking show instead of the soft-looking stuff they were doing in animation at that time. I wanted to show things, and be dynamic. I believe it was John Dorman who told me about a guy named Jack Kirby, who I hadn’t heard of, I’m ashamed to say. I was familiar with all his characters; from eight years old, Captain America is the first one I remember. I grew up loving his characters, but I never knew Jack; I never really was familiar with his name, which I certainly became familiar with after he came to work for us. John recommended him, and I believe Steve also recommended him. He came over; he was a giant of a man when I realized the characters he created. But then I saw him, and like Jerry said, he was an unassuming, very friendly, very cordial man. To me he almost seemed humble, and I thought, “Holy cow, this is the man that did all these wonderful characters?” But anyway, I says, “Okay, you’re hired.” He started turning out the characters for Thundarr that blew me away. Jack had a style that was dynamic. The drawings leaped out at you. His action poses were dynamic. That was one of the things I loved for Thundarr. He had a look; Jack wasn’t just any artist, he was a creator from two points of
view. He was a creator with the different characters he created; very distinctive. He also created with a story in mind; he had a story-sense, and he would put story behind his creations. Like Mark said, he had a philosophical view. Where are these characters coming from? That all came out on the paper, besides just drawings. A lot of the guys could draw very well, and were terrific with other people’s creations, let’s say. But there’s not that many that have their own style, their own dynamic, their own creative push behind it. Jack had it; he had it all, and prolific? I was thinking he’d bring in two or three drawings, and like Ken said the other day, he used to file what Jack would bring in to show, and it was a stack like this. [indicates tall stack] He just gave his all, he really did. It was a blessing for our company. So right away, I said, “I’ve gotta put this guy under contract.” So he was under contract for us for six years, exclusive in animation. I had him working in development and everything else. As it went on, he was creating all these characters. I asked for them, and I’d say a certain amount, and I’d get a lot, and I’d get a lot more with it. I said, “How does he do it? This is an amazing thing.” He worked on development, he worked on presentations we did. He made a lot of the presentations that we did. One of the problems I did have that I wasn’t happy with—Jack’s style was what I loved. It was different, it was unique, it was dynamic. We had a lot of other good artists, but they’d go over Jack’s characters, and it didn’t look like Jack anymore. One day I was walking
through this huge building we had with artists, and I see drawings that I know Jack drew because I got them originally, but they didn’t look like Jack. And I told them, “You’ve gotta put it back. Just get Jack’s drawings out and if you have to, tailor it for animation.” There are certain things you have to do for animation to make them work on the screen. Sometimes Jack would draw, and it looked like he started at the top of the page, and when he got down to the bottom, maybe there wasn’t enough room to finish the legs, so the legs sometimes got a little shorter. (laughter) So they’d have to make the legs right, but I didn’t want them to ruin the characters. MARK: My recollection is that Jack came aboard before Thundarr was picked up by ABC. JOE: You might be right there. We also had a development deal with ABC for Thor and Daredevil, and we may have needed some artwork for those. MARK: I remember you had these big boards, and Alfredo Alcala inked the first few of them, and I think Roz inked one of them, and Jack inked one or two of them. And I think John Dorman even inked a couple of them at some point. JOE: When we presented, it was just notes in those days, we didn’t have artists. Especially our company; our one artist I think was Jerry Eisenberg at the time of development. Basically the edict was that Ken and me were to do everything, and contractually that’s what it said. MARK: You got a development deal, and the pick-up came after Jack had done some presentation art. JOE: You’re right; I’ll take it back, because we did Thor and Daredevil. MARK: And they looked at these giant drawings, and they just loved it. Ken, what do you remember from that period?
don’t worry, he’s great, he’s great.” And I’m thinking, how great could he be? But Jack was terrific; a wonderful guy, and all I’ve got to say is, he gave me an opportunity to get a much lower price on our storage fees, because of the volume of work that this guy put out. (laughter) It was absolutely incredible. What I remember about my relationship with Jack is, I’d come out of my office, and there’s a little couch, and Jack and Roz would be sitting there waiting to see Joe. I’d say, “Hi Jack, how are you doing? Roz, how you been?” He was the most wonderful, nicest guy you’d ever meet in the world, as you all know. And I’d go off in the studio and talk to guys, and have a meeting. I’d come back twenty minutes later; they’re still sitting there waiting to see Joe. I’d say, “Can I get you coffee or anything?” and they’d say, “No, fine, we’re good.” I’d go in my office another twenty minutes, and come out, and they’re still sitting there waiting for Joe. Now I’m starting to sweat, thinking we’re going to really piss this guy off, waiting for Joe. But we never did. He was always charming, he was always great, and I’m sure glad we had him for all those years. (applause) MARK: A point that must be made as an historical note here: during the time Jack was working for Ruby-Spears, he had a heart attack. That’s the only year Jack ever missed a San Diego Con. We were told that Jack had been in an auto accident; I knew the truth, but that was the cover story, because Jack and Roz didn’t want Joe and Ken to know he’d had a heart attack, because they were afraid it’d diminish his employment. I don’t know if you knew about it. That’s why he missed a few weeks’ work in there. The heart attack, the hospitalization, the bypass, were all paid for by a health insurance plan he’d gotten because he was working for Ruby-Spears. Jack had never had a health insurance plan before in his life. Shortly after that, I went out to see him, and he made the comment that, “If I wasn’t working for those guys, I would’ve lost the house, because I wouldn’t have been able to afford this.” Jack had a very secure 1980s, that decade; his life was secure, he had a nice house, he had health insurance, he had a steady paycheck he could count on, and he was out of comics, all thanks to Joe and Ken. (applause) The time is going so fast. Paul, is there anything you want to mention? I’ve got about two minutes left here before I have to throw everybody out.
KEN SPEARS: My relationship with Jack was entirely different than Joe’s. Both Joe and I started at Hanna-Barbera in the late 1950s, and we had another relationship with them starting in 1967. We came to work as writers, and we were writers for the next ten years, and developers. When we got a chance to open our studio, because of our relationship at Hanna-Barbera, and we grew up under their system, we decided one of us was going to be a Joe Barbera, and one of us was going to be a Bill Hanna. Joe jumped at this right away and said, “I’ll be Joe Barbera. (laughter) So you can be Bill Hanna.” So that made me now running the studio from a production standpoint, and budgets, and everything else. Deep into this I start looking at the budgets and the costs, and I’m seeing this guy where all this money is going. So I go to Joe and I say, “Who is this guy Jack Kirby, and why is he costing us so much?” (laughter) He goes, “Well, he’s a great artist, and he does all this stuff, and he was a great Marvel artist,” and blah, blah, blah. So I go, “Okay, great. How many weeks is he going to be working for us?” And Joe says, “I’ve got him under contract.” And I going, “Holy... are we Kirby family attorney Paul S. Levine. going to be able to afford this?” “Oh,
PAUL S. LEVINE: Two minutes? MARK: Yeah. We’re giving the lawyer two minutes, folks. (laughter) PAUL: Two things. First of all, my client is always right, so I was pleased to see Mark’s recollection of that work at Ruby-Spears was the accurate one. MARK: Mark’s recollection is actually that he recommend Jack to Ruby-Spears. I think I told Gerber, and Gerber told Dorman. But anyway... PAUL: And I wanted to congratulate Mr. Robinson on the full-page ad in the Thursday daily Variety, celebrating the Joker. (applause) JERRY: I just remembered one thing. I remember now a cover; the only time I think that Jack collaborated with anyone on the creation of a cover, except for Joe Simon. I collaborated with Jack on the cover, I think it was the Boy Commandos. MARK: It was Detective Comics [#65, July 1942] when Boy Commandos joined the book. You drew Batman shaking hands with the Boy Commandos. JERRY: I remember collaborating with Jack, so I was very pleased about that. I did a few collaborations like that; I collaborated with Fred Ray on several Superman/Batman covers, where he would draw Superman, and I would draw Batman. And we did that once with Jack Kirby. MARK: A legendary cover. I wish we had another hour for this; I wish we had time to talk about Steve Gerber a little more. Thank you all for being here; we will do another Jack Kirby Panel next year. (applause) ★ (Look for a more extensive interview with Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in our upcoming issue on Kirby’s work in Hollywood.)
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Adam M cGovern 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
(right) Straight outta Latveria — DOOM rules the dials. (Photo by Cara Pastore)
(next page, top right) It’s not rock ’n’ roll, but this psychedelic mid-’70s Kirby swipe unearthed by TJKC’s own Shane Foley in Australia (from the first issue of Britain’s Science Fiction Monthly tabloid-mag in 1974) provides the perfect blacklightposter accompaniment to this column’s theme. (Artist: Jim Fitzpatrick, after Jack Kirby [and Herb Trimpe!]) (next page, bottom left) Jim Mahfood’s frenzied opening splash for the Kirby Krackle debut disk. (Colors: Justin Stewart) (next page, bottom right) No “Stan & Jack” issue or Kirbyhomage column could be complete without attention paid to the namesake series by TJKC fave Pete Doree, now in GN form from Lulu at www.lulu.com. Join the Man and the King as they breach the fourth wall and the fifth dimension in cosmic metastories about the soul of adventure and the silliness of comics—with in-character and in-style appearances by Steve Ditko, Wally Wood, Gil Kane, Steve Gerber and Vaughn Bode, and a Watcherlike intro cameo by an eerily accurate cartoon doppelganger of TJKC’s own Mark Evanier—all at the hands of a gifted satirist, attentive historian and rising comics star. The four classic issues from a simulated ’70s are collected here in “Essential Showcase” format, the super-creators’ only weakness being some distractingly less-than-highest-res printing from Lulu’s DIY domain. Absolute Essential Showcase, anyone? 34
ome have said that Stan & Jack were the Beatles of comics, revolutionizing 1960s mass-media and signaling the end of the era when they parted ways; the rock band and rap crew are as collaborative as the classic Bullpen, and some artists are making the comparison closer than that. Like the last proud protectors of Poptropolis, the felicitously named Kirby Krackle are keeping the world safe for DIY indie strum-core and quirky post-Beatles homemade hits. Their selftitled debut offers much for fans of the eponymous King and all aficionados of the disposable culture that stays with us forever. Songs like “One of the Guys,” about an undisguised Ben Grimm finding a way to fit in, are like the inner soundtrack to all 102 issues of the first FF run, Kirby’s contentious life, and the misfit outlook of most comics fans. Not every song makes the Kirby connection (or the ties to any one comic) so literal, and most of them work just fine as sensitive, sarcastic, cerebral, lecherous testaments of the timeless outsider sensibility of indie rock, albeit channeled through obsessively omnipresent references to the junk culture that forms everyone’s frame of reference. “Villain Song,” about an archfiend getting tired of his endless schemes and inevitable beatdowns, plays like an uplifting metaphor for kicking an addiction or saying goodbye to bad behavior, then ends up as a kind of murderous love song as he decides to get back in the game ’cuz he misses his unnamed mortal enemy so much. KK are unafraid of and amused by the Hemingwayish homoeroticism (not to mention dysfunctional heteroeroticism) of much of the
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(next page, top left) Kirby Krackle’s Jim Demonakos and Kyle Stevens face off in final blackest secret crisis-war. (Photo by Joshua Stearns)
PULP ROCK
All images ©200 9 the respective
(below) Rap of Ages: Some Rama-Tut resemblances on the CD-cover vault-door to DOOM’s Born Like This. (Art: www.ehquestionmark.com)
As A Genre
genre, and the transitional scene in which the villain rises from a relaxing retirement on the beach to kick sand in some nerd’s face on the way back to the secret hideout shows that this band have read every page — and between every line — of the comics that have piled up through their lives. Then it’s back to the hard-kore Kirby with “Marvelous Girls,” a surreal spin on “California Girls” and “Back in the U.S.S.R.” singing praises to the women of the Marvel Universe’s many made-up locations from Latveria to Wakanda, which treats those fictional countries’ monarchs as the ultimate moms and dads getting in the way. It’s a heartfelt tribute to how real the worlds that Stan & Jack built can seem… and a great lampoon about the kinds of women the stereotypical fanboy finds it easiest to talk to. All of this is pathologically catchy, with state-of-the art indieacoustic passion and an array of multi-instrumental stylistic shapeshifting. Soaring string-sounds drive “Villain Song”; “Up, Up, Down, Down” bounces on a “Penny Lane” trumpet-patch; “Counting on You” lays electronica rhythms and beats over a bed of groaning cello.
Then there’s the calypso of “Teabagged,” which tracks the way that relentless upgrades in youthculture hardware make us grow old fast, as a burnedout, probably 20-ish narrator vows the vulgar title vengeance on the horde of kids who are slaughtering him at videogames. Kirby himself may not loom over all this album, but the sense of history he would bring to it is uppermost in KK’s minds; any reboot-weary comics reader of more than five or so years will relate to the teabagger’s forlorn wish that “when I finally kill one I don’t want them to forget.” A similar negative fan letter is sent in “Another New Crisis,” in which KK get back behind their mad-scientist bank of synthesizers to clone some James Brown Horns for a hilarious screed about event-comics fatigue (with more of that between-the-panels subtext, or at least room for free association, about our real-life appetite for not-so-secret wars and disregard for noncrisis downtime). KK show they take comics the right kind of seriously with the above-mentioned “Counting on You,” a portrait of (an again unnamed) Superman and Batman which is really a picture of the faultlines when we put one golden
guy above us all and hope everything will just turn out okay… and when we put one troubled guy in charge of all our dirtiest work and hope that everything will just turn out okay. The band wraps up with a smart-aleck whistling ukulele stroll through the wasteland of “Zombie Apocalypse,” but nothing ever ends, Adrian, so keep listening as Track 11 eventually materializes; an unlisted ballad about how badly Tony Stark has wounded his friendships and messed up the world by assuming he’s right and going it alone (hmmm). Witty and well-made, this is an album for anyone who thinks Kirby is King or Green Day is God, and believes that the best and biggest accomplishments in pop can still be built on. [www.kirbykracklemusic.com] “He wears a mask so when you dodge his face/each and every race could absorb the bass” — so speaks DOOM, alias MF Doom, the rapper who performs in a version of Victor’s mask and hasn’t heard a word from the Latverian ruler’s clearly-awed lawyers. As that quote suggests, though he counts himself among the “Supervillainz” (a hypnotic track on his latest declaration, Born Like This) and once vowed vengeance “against the industry that so badly deformed him,” this DOOM is not a despot but a deliverer, a masked bandit drawing straws from the chaos of pop culture and giving it back to the masses as oratory gold. He’s been accused of sending doubles out on stage (I ask you, what’s wrong with a few DOOMbots for such a busy man?), and sprinkles his albums with samples from the FF’s and other cartoons, but in all things, from omnivorous soundreprocessing to omniscient insight and flow, he and his accomplices are the real deal. “Gazzillion Ear” is a trance-like verbal twister of ’70s sitcom, commercial and pro-wrestling namechecks; “More Rhymin’” a poetryslammin’ manifesto of world musical conquest without a shot. DOOM works the controls of an immense sound bank, from the austere gate-clanging, alarmbarking rhythm of “Yessir!” to the weeping violin lifeline of “That’s That.” He’s up for verbal violence but mourns its reallife consequences, as
with the adrenalized and now tragically normalized battlefield metaphors of “Rap Ambush”; the sonic minefield behind an apocalyptic Charles Bukowski poem and DOOM’s own
warnings to downwardspiraling youth on “Cellz”; and the mournful swirl of crackling static and tattered old-school soul textures on “Absolutely” (as in, “absolute power corrupts…”). DOOM’s tracks crash a parade of midcentury stereotypes, from the once-accusatory analysis of Batman, Robin and others as super-pervs (“Batty Boyz”) to the vigilante T&A of Charlie’s Angels — on “Angelz,” where guest-rapper Tony Starks (who else?) holds forth over a headlong sample of disco-era string-section cheese. As that track and many others show, DOOM has the charisma to draw allies to his cause, most impressively with Empress Starhh tha Femcee doing acrobatic rhymes around weird muzak-y halfpipes on “Still Dope.” The comic references are actually not too high in the mix on Born Like This and the connection to the Kirby creativity and individualism is more spiritual. There is that mask, though, as a constant reminder. But it’s misleading — this stuff ain’t evil, it’s genius. [www.lexrecords.com] ★ (Adam McGovern blogs on music at ComicCritique.com, and has written on it for the Village Voice, Sonicnet and the MusicHound series of guides. He flunked pizzicato in third-grade violin class, but has refused to let that make him bitter.)
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Gallery 2
n 2008, Marvel Comics released Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure, wherein editor Tom Brevoort brought to fruition his grand plan of getting Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott together to complete all the Kirby pages we’d assembled from Jack’s rejected story, originally planned for FF #102. Parts of it had been rejiggered and sandwiched together with John Buscema art to make FF #108, after Kirby had already left Marvel for DC in 1970. But Tom had seen the pencil page reassembly we’d attempted here in TJKC, and figured it would be cool to present it in finished form for the world to see. Only problem was, try as we might (and believe me, I did!), there were still one full page and random panels missing from Jack’s original story. So Marvel had Ron Frenz draw some bridge artwork to fix the gaps where the missing art went, and with Joe Sinnott’s inks, it held together pretty nicely. I highly recommend you pick up a copy if you haven’t already. But as luck would have it, a short while after Marvel released FF: Lost, the missing pencil page from that story surfaced, and I’m delighted to present it as this issue’s centerfold. And in the spirit of the Thor reassembly we did last issue, I figured it was time to re-present our detective work on this lost issue at larger size than we’ve run it before. Enjoy! If you know the whereabouts of the remaining missing panels of Kirby pencil art, please let us know, so we can eventually get the complete story totally reassembled. ★
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Fantastic Four TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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FF Lost & Found
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
(above) During the period this story was drawn, Marvel Comics had started a money-saving practice of cutting their stories down to only 19 full pages, and using two half-pages to artifically boost it to a 20-page story. So this is the complete page 13 from the story; it was only half a page (as was page 12). (right) A special bonus; here are some of John Buscema’s pencils, used for Fantastic Four #108. When Jack’s original story was chopped up and reused, Buscema created this new art to bridge the gaps between the original Kirby story and the published version. Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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TM & ©2009 DC Comics.
Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
(left) While the final three Kirby panels of the story remain missing, here’s another example of how Marvel incorporated Kirby’s original story with John Buscema bridging art to create the published version of Fantastic Four #108.
Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Obscura
Barry Forshaw A regular column focusing on Kirby’s least known work, by Barry Forshaw
A MUST FOR YOUR KIRBY LIBRARY know times are tough. Most of us live in a heightened nervous state, not sure whether or not we’ll have jobs tomorrow—so we’re perhaps less inclined to splash out on luxury purchases. But even if you have to go without food, any self-respecting Kirby aficionado will need to buy The Best of Simon and Kirby, which has just appeared in a sumptuous hardback from Titan Books. (Actually, the book is reasonably priced—and isn’t really a bank-account-busting item.) This is the first volume in The Official Simon and Kirby Library, the only collected editions authorized by Joe Simon and the estate of Jack Kirby, showcasing the work of the most acclaimed creative team in the checkered history of the comics medium. Painstakingly overseen by Joe Simon himself (and studded with his observations and behind-the-scenes revelations), this bumper-sized, glowingly full-color hardcover boasts some of the most striking stories ever told in the graphic medium, lovingly restored by Simon & Kirby historian Harry Mendryk. Compiled by editor and friend of Joe Simon, Steve Saffel, the collection showcases the team’s groundbreaking work in every genre of comics, including super-heroes, sciencefiction, war and adventure, romance, crime drama, westerns, horror, and humor, and each section is accompanied by a brand new introduction by Kirby Collector’s Mark Evanier (whose own Kirby: King of Comics is a necessary adjunct to this book). The choice of material reprinted here (while mostly exemplary) is open to argument, but more on that later. The Best of S&K sports the duo’s most famous characters, notably Fighting American, Stuntman, and The Fly, along with choice selections from such groundbreaking titles as Black Magic, Justice Traps the Guilty, and the industry’s first romance title, Young Romance. There are also pieces from the team’s years at Timely Comics: “Captain America and the Riddle of the Red Skull” (from Captain America Comics #1, March 1941) and “The Vision” (from Marvel Mystery Comics #14, December 1940), along with two stories from their move to DC Comics: Sandman in “The Villain from Valhalla” (from Adventure Comics #75, June 1942) and “Satan Wears a Swastika” (from Boy Commandos #1, Winter 1942). As you may have noticed from this column, I consider some of Kirby’s finest work to be done for such companies as Harvey in the 1950s, and I’m naturally a little disappointed that the glorious Race for the Moon is represented by only one story—and though “The Thing on Sputnik 4” is excellent, it’s by no means the best work the team did on the title (I’d have sacrificed one or more of the earlier, cruder pieces S&K did in the 1940s—full of energy, but lacking the finesse of their later work). However, the riches here are abundant, and the large format does total justice to the matchless artwork. Even if you
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Looking for inexpensive reprints of the stories featured this issue? Sorry, Win A Prize #1 and #2 (1955) haven't been reprinted, but House of Mystery #85 (April 1959) was reprinted in DC Special #11 (March 1971).
House of Mystery TM & ©2009 DC Comics. Fighting America, Young Romance, Win A Prize TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
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have some of these pieces in the original books or in reprint form, this is an unmissable collection, and a tasty harbinger of delights to follow. WIN A PRIZE! Is there a comic that you have been after for years? One that has always remained tantalisingly out of reach? As a collector of Kirby Obscura (as it tells you by my mugshot above), I spent years tracking down two books. These highly elusive Kirby titles, ironically, were books that in their day were one of the illustrator’s blind alleys, basically a flop title that died after two issues. That’s not to say, of course, that Kirby didn’t produce some of his best work for some barely successful books; look at the short-lived Race for the Moon for Harvey, for instance—this sports some of the artist’s most visionary and inspired work in the science-fiction genre, but the book itself practically died aborning (the three issues it ran to in the States were, of course, prolonged in the British run with other non-Kirby material making up the bulk of the UK continuation). But the highly cherishable flop that we are talking about here are the two issues of Charlton’s Win A Prize comics, a bizarre concept designed to appeal to the (perceived) naked greed of late 1950s adolescents: the strapline read “Win a Prize: 500 Free Prizes! Anyone can win!,” and the left-hand sidebar showed all the goodies that could be yours if you bought the comic: bikes, binoculars, radios, clocks, watches. So why did the book only run to two issues? Clearly Charlton got the mindset of American youth wrong; what they wanted were strong, compelling comics, with gimmicks being less important—and, ironically, that was what they were getting from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in these books. But the gimmick overshadowed the material, and the concept sank without a trace. British readers, of course, never saw the book. BEYOND THE GIMMICK Ironically, this unsuccessful marketing gimmick is what has made the book a real collector’s item half a century later; there are comparatively few around, and those that are available generally fetch very high prices. The two issues of Win A Prize comics are unlikely ever to be reprinted, and are much sought after. But now that the cheapjack gimmick is ancient history, how does Kirby’s work on the book stand up in the 21st Century? The cover of the first issue is nothing to write home about; ‘a great American naval hero’ (as the text reads) is engaged in a cutlass battle with evil-looking pirates, but the work is rushed and hardly shows Kirby at his best. But then turn to the first story; and what do we have here? Yes, it’s another wonderful piece of 1950s Jack Kirby science-fiction art, full of the exuberance and invention that was his hallmark. The splash panel shows a gigantic alien spacecraft hovering above the White House, being ineffectually buzzed by US jets. As usual, Kirby is not content with anybody else’s concept of spaceships from another world, and his design is really striking. But in the following pages, in which initially hostile aliens are revealed to be benign (a stock plot of 1950s comics, and one that Stan Lee was to recycle ad infinitum), the story doesn’t really go anywhere. But, as ever, Kirby’s art leaps off the page—particularly when we get to page 5! The Titanic alien ship lands, and its pilot appears: a truly unspeakable monstrosity, showing all the weird imagination that
Kirby always invested his creatures with. Interestingly, the design is more like the horrors that he came up with for Black Magic comics; despite Kirby’s defensive claim that his horror books where the tamest on the market, he was, of course, the comics industry’s premier creator of grotesque monsters, and the alien abomination in this story is a doozy. When the real, benign alien is revealed, he is one of those simply drawn, almost featureless otherworld beings that Kirby was equally good at, rendering such figures with maximum economy, and in the fewest lines. KIRBY’S SPACE GULLIVER There is another Kirby treat in this first issue of Win A Prize: a striking full-page illustration (printed sideways, landscape fashion) of a gigantic humanoid spaceman lying unconscious on the ground while various Army personnel swarm over him (and tie him down) à lá Gulliver. The design of the spacesuit, never to be seen again (as with so many of Kirby’s casually thrown off concepts) is unlike anything else in American comic books of the day—and might have made a better cover illustration than the workaday cutlass battle that was used. The second issue of Win A Prize comics has, frankly, very little of interest, even though Kirby’s work is all over it. One senses Joe Simon’s usually canny commercial instincts getting his partner toiling over the drawing board in this one—all too little success, financially or artistically. But if you ever chance upon these books—in affordable condition—you should most definitely shell out for them. I should warn you, though—it’s too late to win the bikes or the binoculars. NEED A PLOT? LOOK TO EASTER ISLAND! The wonderfully evocative (some would say sinister) statues on Easter Island have clearly been a long-term source of inspiration for many comics artists and writers—not least Jack Kirby, who did several riffs on the notion that the statues would pull themselves out of the ground and lumber around menacingly. But his definitive treatment of the idea is in “The Stone Sentinels of Giant Island” in his all-too-brief period at DC working for editor Jack Schiff. House of Mystery #85 (April 1959) boasts a Kirby cover for this tale—a cover slightly compromised by its color scheme. The purple trousers of both scientists (and why would scientists color-co-ordinate on what color trousers they’d be wearing each morning?) merge into the purple ground from which an Easter-Island-style stone monstrosity is emerging. But the tale is vintage stuff. After efficient but unexciting pieces by Jim Mooney and Bill Ely, Kirby winds up the issue, and his splash is better than the cover, with a menacing giant stumbling after the scattering protagonists. But, as ever, there are panels scattered through the piece that would make equally impressive splashes: three scientists hiding behind rocks as a giant stone head peers through a gap, and (later in the tale) one of Kirby’s wonderful futuristic cities covered in perspex, discovered on a subterranean trip beneath the island. What distinguishes the tales is its contrast between the lithe men of science (even the older-looking, bearded leader is pretty nimble) and the monumental, inhuman stone monsters with their stiff-armed lumberings. ★ Barry Forshaw is the author of The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction (available from Amazon) and the editor of Crime Time (www.crimetime.co.uk) 53
To celebrate the first title in the definitive Simon & Kirby library, Titan Books presents exclusive, limited edition, numbered lithographs signed by Joe Simon, only available at www.titanbooks.com/simonandkirby
THE BEST OF SIMON AND KIRBY Joe Simon and Jack Kirby • Spans the entire two-decade partnership of The Dream Team • Key stories from Harvey, Prize, Timely/Marvel, DC Comics, and more. • Brand new material by Joe Simon and Mark Evanier • Covers every genre from Superheroes to Wartime to Horror to Romance • 240 brilliantly restored full-colour pages and deluxe large format.
“Dazzling from beginning to end. A monumental piece of comics’ history that is a dream come true for legions of fans.” - Library Journal © 2009 Joseph H. Simon and Simon and Kirby.
TITAN BOOKS A W O R L D O F E N T E R TA I N M E N T
www.kirbymuseum.org The word on the street? Support the Kirby Museum! MoCCA Festival One story that many tell upon meeting Jack Kirby is when asked about the thencurrent incarnation of one of the comic books he created, Kirby would often reply with something like, “Tell your own stories. Make your own characters.” New York City’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, (the Kirby Museum co-sponsored their 2007 “Stan Lee: A Retrospective”) hosts a festival every year devoted to cartoonists/comicbook creators who, albeit unknowingly, follow Kirby’s suggestion. To celebrate the Kirby Museum having at table at this year’s MoCCA festival, Rand Hoppe created a few items to offer for small donations: some Jack Kirby signature/logo stickers and a Kirby NY sticker. Rand and his wife Lisa created a Mother Box to receive the donations. Occasionally, when the donation was placed therein, those behind the table would say “Ping! Ping! Ping!” Also, with Lisa Kirby’s OK, Rand created a mini-comic version of “Street Code” as a membership premium. Greg Theakston recently gifted much of his Kirby papers to the Museum, and Rand noticed photocopies of “Street Code” with Kirby’s penciled handlettering on them. Street Code’s never been published with Kirby’s lettering, so the Museum’s table offered stickers and a mini-comic—as did many tables at the MoCCA Festival. The Festival was a success for the Museum. Harry Mendryk and Steve Saffel spent some time helping Rand and Lisa Hoppe at the table. Harry donated two copies of Titan Book’s The Best of Simon & Kirby, signed by Joe Simon, Harry and Steve, for a raffle each day to anyone who signed up for Museum membership. Greg Theakston came by on Sunday with some copies of the second volume of Ferran Delgado’s Spanish Sky Masters. New Museum member Charles Hatfield presented a chapter from his forthcoming book, “The Burning Hand: The Apocalyptic Vision of Jack Kirby” first thing on Saturday, which Rand videotaped for posterity. We signed up quite a few new members and enjoyed talking Kirby with the MoCCA crowd.
Newsletter TJKC Edition Summer 2009 The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center is organized exclusively for educational purposes; more specifically, to promote and encourage the study, understanding, preservation and appreciation of the work of Jack Kirby by: • illustrating the scope of Kirby’s multi-faceted career, • communicating the stories, inspirations and influences of Jack Kirby, • celebrating the life of Jack Kirby and his creations, and
New Members Charles Hatfield, Steve Saffel, Arlen Schumer, Ken Wong, Nicholas Cacciola, Franklin Stockton, Gabriel Perez, Jeremy Povolny, Jeffrey Lazell, Charles David Viera, Allan Haverholm, David Marshall, Jason Atomic
• building understanding of comic books and comic book creators. To this end, the Museum will sponsor and otherwise support study, teaching, conferences, discussion groups, exhibitions, displays, publications and cinematic, theatrical or multimedia productions.
Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center PO Box 5236 Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA Telephone: (201) 963-4383
Board of Trustees
Annual Membership with one of these posters: $40* Renewals Harry Mendryk, Steve Robertson, Mike Cecchini, John Floyd, Jim McPherson, Jeffrey Wilkie, Antonio Salvador, Steve Tenerelli Special thanks to Tom Morehouse, who has supported the Museum’s efforts from the beginning! Kirby Pencil Art Archives Log on to see numerous examples of Kirby pencil pages and be sure to join the Museum to get access to even more exclusive, members-only art!
Captain America—23” x 29” 1941 Captain America—14” x 23”
Strange Tales—23” x 29” Super Powers—17” x 22” color
Annual Membership with one of these posters: $50*
Randolph Hoppe rhoppe@kirbymuseum.org Lisa Kirby lkirby@kirbymuseum.org John Morrow twomorrow@aol.com All characters TM ©2009 respective owners.
*Please add $10 for memberships outside the US, to cover additional postage costs. Posters come “as-is” and may not be in mint condition.
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Marvel—14” x 23”
Galactic Head—18” x 20” color
Incan Visitation—24” x 18” color 55
Foundations
Black-&-White Magic Art reconstruction, color, and commentary by Chris Fama
n late 1950, Young Romance and Young Love were already very successful monthly titles for Simon & Kirby. But romance comics weren’t the only successful genre on the stands; horror titles like Tales from the Crypt were also making a splash. Simon & Kirby’s Black Magic began publication in late 1950, competing against EC titles later considered some of the best comics ever produced. If you compare this story to Young Romance #30, both cover dated February 1951, the differences are remarkable. While the Young Romance story is very formulaic artistically, “A Silver Bullet For Your Heart” is Simon & Kirby firing on all eight cylinders. All you need do is look at this splash to see two men raising their own artistic bar to new staggering heights. This may also be one of the first uses of Kirby Krackle (see page 7 of the story). ★
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TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
If you enjoy these amazing vintage Simon & Kirby stories, look for many more of them—in full-color—in Titan’s Best of Simon & Kirby (out now), and the subsequent follow-up volumes coming soon. 56
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TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
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TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
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TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
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TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
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TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
Retrospective (below) “Groot,” one of a seemingly endless stream of wouldbe world-conquering monsters from Lee & Kirby. This splash page is from Tales To Astonish #13 (Nov. 1960), with inks by Dick Ayers. Other artists did monster stories, but few did ’em as eye-catching as the King. (next page) Detail of a hard-riding Two-Gun Kid from Kirby’s final issue of the character, #62 (March 1963). Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Genre Comics
An overview of the Lee and Kirby forays into fantasy by Jerry Boyd imon and Kirby had made a commendable effort into selfpublishing, but the comic landscape of the mid-’50s was rapidly changing, and their titles, while memorable and often wonderful, didn’t garner the readership of earlier successes at Timely and National. From Here to Insanity, Fighting American, Black Magic, and others had to fight for exposure on the overcrowded newsstands and spinner racks. Newer readers were taken with EC Comics and the pressure of PTA groups and socio-political watchdogs had been a threat to creativity that made many creative types go into hiding, or advertising… wherever their talents could thrive. Jack Kirby was still determined to go on to new heights in the comic industry. Like other cartoonists, he had to be shaken by the angry backlash that spawned the Comics Code and its (sometimes ridiculous) restrictions, but he’d weathered worse trials. He’d survived the Great Depression, and the combat zones of Western Europe near the end of WWII. He’d get through this.
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The King had to contemplate the stability of his reordered field and decide which company or companies could best serve his needs and that of his growing family. His clients in the latter part of the decade would include Harvey, Atlas, Charlton, and DC, but a conflict with Jack Schiff would eventually exclude the latter. Charlton paid less than any other publishing house and their distribution was shaky. Harvey was marginalizing the type of heroic adventures Jack was keenly adept at, and would come to be dominated by funny animals and funny kids and funnier devils, ghosts, and witches, etc., as time went on. Martin Goodman’s Atlas Comics wasn’t a top payer either, but Goodman had weathered the storm also, so Kirby went to their offices and shook hands with Stan Lee, the sole editor-inchief of the comic line in 1955, and began doing stories. By 1961 it would pay off handsomely in terms of stability and creativity and take both men into a universe neither one could’ve seen in the making at the time they began work together.
Monsters, Aliens, and Robots— Fantasy As You Like It! The moviegoers of America were tantalized by monsters throughout the ’50s, but with television sets becoming more prevalent by the end of the decade, something slightly different was in the air. Television stations were hungry for product to fill the airwaves. Movie studios, finally realizing that TV was here to stay, decided to play ball, and sold their film libraries to these stations and networks. Old movies (and even ones that weren’t that old) got shown on “The Late Show” and “Afternoon Theater.” (In my native North Carolina, a local station from the city of Durham broadcast a “Jungle Theater” in the early ’60s that specialized in any old feature with Tarzan, Jungle Jim, and so on in it.) Others focused on horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films. Their gore-shocks were banned in comics, but welcome to squealing young viewers who’d never seen such cinematic thrills before. Was Stan influenced by any of this? “Of course we were,” he told me by e-mail. “We were influenced by everything that went on around us…” Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense all began as horror and science-fiction anthologies in the 1950s. But if youngsters were running to movie houses to see towering monsters like Godzilla, Konga, and Gorgo (just to name three), then Stan would give ’em towering monsters. Giant creatures were Code-proof. Stan had done them before the comic watchdogs had come around, so it’d be a simple matter to continue them. This time, Lee had the makings of what would be the “founding fathers of Marvel” with him. Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Joe Sinnott, Paul Reinman, Vince Colletta, Larry Lieber, Dick Ayers, and Jack Kirby became the new regulars on these monster books and others. Taking a cinematic cue from “The Late Show,” Kirby drew an astonishing amount of brutish behemoths that came from within the earth’s innermost recesses, beyond the galaxy’s farthest reaches, and wherever else his collaborations with Lee would place them! Martin Goodman’s company once (before the infamous Atlas implosion—see Kirby Collector #18) put out plenty of comic magazines. But the Code, lowered sales, and Goodman’s distribution deal with competitor DC left the line-up depleted. Happily for Jack and Stan, the four aforementioned monster books and additions Amazing Adventures (which began in 1961) and World of Fantasy (1958-59) were there to add to their paychecks. Though letters columns were not de rigeur during the late ’50s at Atlas, Stan noticed that the distinctive styles of Ditko and Kirby were drawing readers in. Kirby got more cover assignments and the two artists often shared space in the same mags. Ditko occasionally inked Kirby’s pencils. This winning combination
was not lost on Stan, who continued this “Marvel team-up” into the ’60s. The formula of the monster books was fairly simple. A formidable creature would, in the course of 6-8 pages (or a expanded multi-parter, if Jack and Stan really wanted to stretch out!) announce his designs on conquering our hapless world. As the tension and action mounted, a tall, lean, pipe smoking (a pipe smoker was automatically believed to be a ‘wise man’ in the ’50s/early ’60s) scientist/doctor/researcher would discover a way to utterly defeat the diabolical giant and restore order. (David and Goliath were at play here.) The gargantuan hulks usually towered way over the Earth people they encountered and were so sure of their eventual triumphs that they gloated with supreme confidence along the way. And then the Lee and Kirby team defeated their aims through their pipe smoking proxy, and often through simple ruses. Stan was so obviously taken with the EC Comics-style “twist ending” that had served Al Feldstein, Bill Gaines, and Johnny Craig so well in their wildly successful horror, crime, and sci-fi yarns years earlier, that he made it a point to end many of his stories the same way. Diablo, for example (Tales of Suspense #9), was a gigantic smoke-thing, seemingly impervious to harm. Though he sent thousands into panic-mode by blanketing large areas with his dark vapors, one imaginative human made him go far away just blowing out the smoke from his cigarette lighter and announcing he’d do the same to Diablo, unless…. “Spragg, Conqueror of the Human Race!” (Journey Into Mystery #68) mass-hypnotized his human slaves into building his mountainous frame a huge platform from which he could move beyond Transylvania (that’s right, Transylvania) and subjugate all of mankind. The hero, putting his pipe aside, was able to fight off the hypnotic powers of his enemy and instead set the platform’s controls to jettison Spragg far out of Earth’s atmosphere forever. Other creatures were similarly outwitted by “puny humans.” Sometimes these yarns became morality plays. Aliens from beyond weren’t always despotic in nature or would-be rulers of earth dwellers. In “A Martian Walks Among Us” (Strange Tales #78), the sinister Martian invasion scout is thwarted by a benevolent Venusian, who just happens to be our unheralded, unseen aide. Tales to Astonish #30’s “The Thing from The Hidden Swamp” told of a plain but pleasant-tempered spinster who does a good deed for an alien stranded in a bog, spacecraft and all. For helping him, er… it, she’s rewarded with beauty to match her selfless compassion for others. Good things happen to good folks. Robots could be good and bad in Stan and Jack’s worlds. “Mr. Morgan’s Monster” (Strange Tales #99) was a sophisticated humanoid created to convince a skeptical populace that robots could still be beneficial to society. Morgan kept his intimidating (but inwardly heroic) creation hidden until the time to unveil him was right. Unfortunately, some of those pesky outer space power seekers came to our world and tried to seize Morgan’s invention to learn its secrets. The creature fought back. He held out long enough for the sleeping townspeople to rally and investigate the noises of the strange battle. The aliens, thwarted, scurried to their starships, escaping without the “monster.” Sadly, Morgan’s girlfriend tells him that since his creation was found in the streets outside of its safe haven (where it was ordered to remain), it has proved its “unreliability.” The monster’s energy fading, its last actions reveal… a lone tear. In just a few pages, Jack and Stan could pull on your heartstrings as well as any team in the business. Other robots, however, were out for themselves. In “Beware! He Isn’t Human!” (Journey Into Mystery #77), an egotistical movie monster maker creates a robot to destroy a woman who’s jilted him. Twist ending—the woman’s a robot, also, and thanks to the movie man, she’s got her ideal mate. The two humanoids edge toward the special effects man until he falls out of an open window. Lee had a ball with the names of his co-creations. Zzutak, Gor-Kill, Titan, Rorgg, Lo-Karr, Orrgo, Fin Fang Foom, the Creature from Krogarr, Trull, Moomba, Groot, Monstrom, Sporr, Kraa, Bruttu, Goom, Oog, and Googam, Son of Goom (!) were all monikers to give readers reason to pause! (Ditko, Heck, Ayers, and
others got their fair share, as well.) Kirby told Comic Scene Spectacular in ’92, “It was the names of the monsters that struck me funny. It would be names like ‘Bazoo.’ It was that kind of time— the 1950s, when the adventure stories weren’t selling. But horror always sells.” Stan recalled, for Marvel Spotlight: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (2006), “I think with the monster stories that I did with Kirby, those crazy titles, I think there I would just say, ‘Jack, get a guy who crawled out from under a rock and he’s 20 feet tall and we’ll call him Gazoom and we’ll…’ and then he did the rest of it, and I put in the dialogue.” Time travelers offered all types of possibilities, also. Some journeyed forward into the future for knowledge or power. Others sought to use their knowledge to dominate the past. Lee sent Heck, Ditko, and Kirby out to visually imagine the variations on that H.G. Wells-type theme. Sorcerers and fantasy tales had to border on the fantastic and away from the realm of vampires, werewolves, and zombies that had helped create the Code. Dr. Druid (born “Droom”), in Amazing Adventures, was somewhat of a precursor to the forthcoming Dr. Strange. With Rod Serling’s exemplary TV hit The Twilight Zone garnering critical and audience applause, Jack and Stan’s variations on the “situations monster-ous” were also worthy of accolades in the early ’60s. The creatures the men conceived of could be formulaic or they could have depth, reason, and angst. The time for one-dimensional ho-hum style storytelling in sequential art could be discarded and improved upon, if only it was executed properly. But how? And in what genre? The monster titles were solid sellers for Atlas, but the Kirby-Lee team grew a little tired of them as the ’50s gave way to the ’60s. Their monsters, aliens, futuristic spacemen, and robots could be good and they could be evil, but there was only so much the guys could do with this particular genre. Any other creative prospects would have to present themselves elsewhere. Still, for the moment, Jack had to be somewhat pleased. Five full years had passed since the Comics Code had transformed the industry, but Jack had found work within its restrictive perimeters and made a new niche for himself. Atlas had solid winners in their monster/mystery line-up, and he was a large part of its success.
Western Gunsmoke Shortly after the end of the American Civil War, a battleweary nation turned its eyes to its western frontier. Many citizens packed what they had left after living through four years of the national conflict and left their war-ravaged regions for a fresh start. Once again the west seemed the place to go, farm, and find riches, and the promise of excitement and adventure co-mingled nicely into that prospect. The frontiersman had been a subject of fascination since Daniel Boone and Andrew Jackson captured their young nation’s attention in the early 19th century. Trailblazers like Kit Carson and Davy Crockett followed. But it was Wild Bill Hickok, who was interviewed in Harper’s Magazine a few years after the war, that sealed the deal. Hickok, a former Union scout and Pony Express Rider, came off like a longhaired, buckskin-wearing superman who’d already mastered the sweeping vistas, wild animals, and warrior Indians of the Great Plains and beyond. The fact that Hickok was also a dangerous gunman only added to his reputation. Wild Bill was the template for the legendary gunfighter where myths, lies, and truth converged in plays, pulps, and Wild West shows eagerly consumed by Americans who wanted to feel good about the promises of their country again. After Hickok, stylish gunmen/gamblers like Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and Wyatt Earp would emerge. And then there were the ‘kids.’ There was a real Texas Kid, a real Apache Kid (Atlas had non-Kirby stories about these two), the Sundance Kid, and the biggest of them all—Billy the Kid. Stan edited or wrote as many gunslinging kids into his western books for Atlas as possible. For the aforementioned special ish of Marvel Spotlight, the Man later recalled, “It’s funny, my publisher, Martin, he loved the word ‘Kid.’ I mean 63
Gun Kid resumed publication after being off the year before. This time he’d be a masked avenger, a defender of prairie town justice (patterned after the wonderful Lone Ranger) and in private life, a soft-spoken, brown-haired Eastern attorney. Matt Hawk was one of those “back-East tenderfeet” that had gone west for his health and prosperity. He stationed himself in Tombstone, Arizona, one of the rowdiest and deadliest mining towns of the 1880s. Jack helped shape his new origin, beginning in Two-Gun Kid #60 and staying on until #62. Dick Ayers, his chief inker during his monster and western period, took over on #63, but the King continued to draw covers off and on afterwards. By this time, the “tragic or flawed hero” motif so famous in Shakespearean tragedies found their way into Stan’s scripts. TwoGun was quickly accepted by the townspeople as a force for good in a community swamped by gun-happy, thieving, and bullying troublemakers (which the real Tombstone was chock full of, also!), but the person who mattered most to him was Miss Nancy Carter, the schoolmarm. She hated the Kid. In Two-Gun Kid #60, she accused the masked adventurer of murdering her only relative—her brother Clem. Clem was one of those thieving, bullying no-goods and Nancy knew this, but loved him despite his faults. When he was killed by a greedy accomplice following a robbery he’d taken part in, the Kid burst into the robbers’ cabin, fought the thieves, and took Clem’s body out of the burning house. Onlookers quickly concluded that the Kid had been responsible for Carter’s death, and Nancy, anguished and grieving, went along with it. How could lawyer Matt Hawk ever reveal his other identity to his new love? How would Miss Nancy feel if she ever learned Matt, her new friend, and the Kid were one and the same? It was a classic Lee plot twist—or a soon-to-be classic Lee plot twist when latterday masked men would come into vogue.
When Monsters Went West!
(above) Splash from Rawhide Kid #25 (Dec. 1961), with Dick Ayers inks. At this early stage of the 1960s, Stan’s name is the only one credited, but artist credits would become a regular addition shortly. Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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all I had to do was come up with a title with the word ‘Kid’ in it, and—you know, we had the Rawhide Kid, the Texas Kid, Kid Colt… I think we had a few others… He was big on the word ‘Kid.’” After Jack got settled in, he got penciling assignments for the (first) Two-Gun Kid—a singing, all-in-black (owing to the movie image of the very popular Hopalong Cassidy), blond gunhawk. Around the same time (in the late ’50s) he began doing covers for Gunsmoke Western and Two-Gun Kid. The King enjoyed the experience overall. Television westerns were all the rage back then and the three networks produced a lot of shows in that genre, since they had lots of old props, sets, costumes, and back lots from the ’30s and ’40s westerns they’d made on hand. Kirby was a big fan of Bonanza, a show that’d prove to be one of the best and most enduring of the pack. In 1993, Jack told me, “I enjoyed them (the western comics). They were a nice change of pace from the monster stories.” Kirby penciled just a few Two-Gun Kid-starring stories (#58 and #59) and some with the same character in Gunsmoke Western, an anthology series starring Kid Colt in one adventure and three supporting tales—some with Two-Gun, Wyatt Earp, and some with no regular Atlas gunman. Kirby would also do a number of covers for Kid Colt’s book, occasionally with interior work, but sadly never on young Blaine Colt’s yarns—that area was artist Jack Keller’s and Lee’s. By 1960, the Kirby and Lee team was confident enough to revamp two of those Timely/Atlas kids to fit their needs. Two-
If you’ve got one successful genre—horror, as Universal Pictures, International had in the 1940s—and the very successful comedy team of Abbott and Costello, then putting the guys in a horror/comedy movie should do well, right? A lot of people threw their brickbats at the idea (including Bud and Lou) but the resulting Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was one of the studio’s biggest hits in years when it premiered in 1948. Stan and/or Jack may have said, “Let’s cross genres, also.” In early 1958, the original Two-Gun Kid rode into a valley that supposedly had a monster nearby! Skeptical, the Kid starts searching for clues to disprove the whole thing. The townsfolk are confused and intimidated. For one, there’s one of those conniving town bosses telling them to shy away from the huge fence-wall the men have erected to keep the monster from town. Also, eyewitnesses have relayed ‘strange tales’ (no pun or plug intended) of the monster’s attacks on them in the hills outside of town. See TwoGun Kid #58 if you wish to find out the rest… In Rawhide Kid #22 (1961), the Kid came face to face with a giant, living and speaking totem after he’d escaped a posse of lawmen. The totem had been trapped deep inside a cavern centuries ago by resourceful Indians, but an unscrupulous mining camp boss (who’d gone down further than he should have) has opened the path for the totem’s return. Rawhide tangles twice with the cruel miner and the huge totem, and… both of these comics were a lot of fun. Wisely, Stan, as editor, didn’t let the western stories devolve into regular shoot-outs with gigantic creatures (and Keller’s Kid Colt met a giant totem, also), but these two Lee and Kirby western/monster efforts were off the beaten trail and truly, tales to astonish. The Rawhide Kid was the team’s other triumphant re-do. This time the Kid would be five feet, four inches tall (according to a description at the end of Rawhide Kid #18), red-haired (not blond as the original), and clothed in black (or a very dark blue if colorist Stan Goldberg wanted it that way). Teenaged Johnny
Bart’s origin was close to Kid Colt’s, an older success story in the Timely/Atlas stable (no pun intended). Uncle Ben Bart (“Uncle Ben,” get it?), a former gunman who’d used his quick-draw and accuracy in the service of others, gets shot and killed by two lowlifes out to gain his reputation. Of course, it takes the two of them and a dirty trick to do it. Johnny mourns but is still clearheaded enough to realize that there had to be two coyotes involved in the killing at least. Also, he knew that only a trick could’ve enabled them to out-gun his uncle. He avenges his relative in a gun duel (naturally) and forces them to confess to the crime. He then leaves the family spread and Rawhide, Texas—to become the Rawhide Kid. Stan and Jack rode the trail with Rawhide from Rawhide Kid #17-32 when assignments surrounding atom-age super-doers and their nemeses would be more pressing. Rawhide was more mobile than Two-Gun. He traveled the West and explored all its adventurous capacities. He worked briefly as a miner (Rawhide Kid #22), encountered bounty hunters, warlike Apaches, stagecoach and bank robbers (at least one wore a mask—the Bat, in Rawhide Kid #25!), conniving town bosses, farmers/ranchers, cowpokes, outlaw gangs, and lots of trigger-happy brutes. Oh, those bad guys! Stan probably had almost as much fun with the “handles” of his antagonists as he’d had with his monsters. There were guys called Grizzly, Ape, Patch (this type came with eye patches, of course), Yak, Blackie, Bull, Moose, Wolf, Yancy, Ace, Crow, and Hunk. Rawhide was close in temperament and deed to Kid Colt, Outlaw, and though he was more compact, he was just as tough with his fists and with his draw. In more than one story, Rawhide is being chased by honest lawmen or a dedicated bounty hunter. The situation gets reversed somewhat when the hunter(s) get captured by an outlaw gang. Hating “tin stars” or “badge toters,” the gangs try to recruit Rawhide while preparing to dispatch the deputy/deputies or bounty men. Rawhide’s better nature surfaces quickly, with him siding with the “doomed jasper,” and proving their worth as true heroes, they fight their way free and defeat the gang. At the story’s end, Rawhide’s “hunters” step away from their goal, realizing that the Kid’s “a man, and not the owlhoot some folks have painted him up to be...”. Stan and Jack weren’t just competing with other gunfighter comics at Charlton, DC, Dell, etc. To a degree their competition included the television medium. The men had to do compelling, more “adult westerns” like the filmmakers who’d brought Shane, Red River, The Searchers, High Noon, and Vera Cruz (among other celluloid triumphs) to life. Did they succeed? Sure as shootin’… One of the Two-Gun Kid’s greatest moments was in his final Kirby issue where a hulking rancher named Moose Morgan and his bullying son have decided that no one is to attend Miss Nancy’s school. No one will swear out a complaint against Morgan to the sheriff, so the law’s hands are tied. Matt gets roughed up by Moose, setting the stage for a return bout and a fine dramatic finish. The Morgan’s have no use for education—all that matters is their farm chores—and the father’s rationale (such as it is) is that if his son is needed on his place to do work, then nobody’s child can go to get learning! Miss Nancy tries to rally some of the men sympathetic to her cause to do something, but at that schoolhouse gathering Moose shows up with a torch in his hand. He denounces education and gets ready to (perhaps?) burn the schoolhouse. Miss Nancy is all that stands in his way as the men move aside for the aggressor. Then the Two-Gun Kid appears! It turns out that Morgan’s been “itching to lock horns” with the Kid, so that others will be more afraid of him than ever after his eventual win. (Sure…) The Kid pulverizes Moose, probably adding a little punishment for the way Moose treated his alter ego, and even sits down and spanks Moose’s son, Cal, after the oversized brat throws a rock at him. (This sequence contained, in my humble opinion, some of Kirby’s most dramatic and underrated panels ever. See Kirby Collector #24 for the fistfight after the gunfight.) After the spanking, the Kid tells the sobbing boy (and this kid is an oversized farm boy, say about 14 or so, just to elaborate) to apologize to Miss Carter. The men of the town are somewhat relieved but cautious. What did all that prove? “’Cept one gunman can be tougher than another!” The Kid’s rebuttal is as sure fire as his gun hands. “Prove? I’ll tell you what it proved! It proved that you can’t ever rely on brute strength alone, because there’s always someone stronger! It’s only through knowledge that a man can ever be really superior to another! The kinda knowledge that yuh find in that little red schoolhouse!” That had to say a lot to kids who read that story (particularly if they’d done it during school hours!). Get your learning, and don’t expect bullying, arrogance, and ignorance to win your big battles for you. For two gentlemen who hadn’t had the opportunity to attend college or a university, Stan and Jack delivered a wonderful tale to youngsters who planned just that.
’Nuff Said? Not quite. As Two-Gun rode away into the night after adding that Cal should continue to respect his father, his thoughts revealed, “I hope they understand—I hope I convinced them! They think of me only as the Two-Gun Kid—a rough and tough brawler! They don’t suspect that I’m also Matt Hawk, attorney and scholar! They’ll never know how important I think education is!” The next day a chastised Cal Morgan not only attends the little schoolhouse but gently hurries the other surprised kids along the way. He respectfully opens the door to the sole classroom for his teacher, Miss Nancy. And how many stories do you get like that nowadays? The western tales by Lee, Kirby, and Ayers were gems. Kirby was somewhat hampered by the “technical drawing” of the genre, however. According to Larry Lieber, who succeeded the King on the Rawhide Kid book (following a brief but impressive run by Jack Davis—see Kirby Collector #38), “Jack said the bullets and the gun belts slowed him down, art-wise. He gave up the westerns. They never sold that well and my brother needed him on the more popular super-hero books. Stan asked me if I wanted to do it (the Rawhide Kid) and I said yes. I could write and draw it myself, also. That was a plus!” Stan was proud of his successful revamps. The two ‘new’ Kids and Kid Colt continued to sell books into the Marvel Age, and Kid Colt (who didn’t require any kind-of trailblazin’ transformation) even made it onto the cover of the Fantastic Four Annual #3 (!) along with most of the new era’s villains and heroes. With the three gunslinging Kids established, it was time for Lee and Kirby to move on….
Let’s Fall In Love Romance comics had been another one of the King’s triumphs in association with Joe Simon. Most of the comic companies of the late 1940s jumped on the bandwagon as post-war domesticity and the baby boom began almost simultaneously. The latter part of the 1950s saw a decent number of Lee and Kirby stories in titles previously dominated by Jay Scott Pike, Vince Colletta, Al Hartley, and others. The Jack and Stan stories followed suit mostly. They were short, allowing for (usually) three other tales of lovers’ heartbreaks and triumphs. But once again, the Code had sapped the juices of inspired storytelling possibilities from the genre. Kirby and Simon’s tales had pushed the envelope with loose, seductive sirens, religious prejudice between couples and prospective in-laws, and class prejudice, but in the familiar coziness of the Eisenhower era, provocative/controversial material was out. Relaxed conformity was in. Stan and Jack’s single males were mostly good-looking, wavy-haired, pipe smoking (no monsters to bother with, however) junior execs, professors, athletes, doctors, and so on. The gals were often pretty (never wildly sexy or voluptuous) or plain, thin secretaries, shop girls, teachers, cheerleaders, high school debutantes, heiresses, and so on. Stan, editing and writing for My Own Romance, Teen-Age Romance, and Love Romances again turned to EC Comics’ “O. Henry-style” twist endings for his largely female readership that never knew of EC. A young heartbroken lass turns to the boyfriend she’s always leaned on for strength in times of trouble, finally realizing (at the story’s end, natch) that he’s the guy she respects and cares for the most. Happy ending time—’cause it turns out he was waiting for her to realize just that… and he’s been in love with her all along. Girls “too loose” with their kisses (and that’s all they could be loose with under the Comics Code Authority) found out that their dreamboat inevitably stopped taking them seriously. Conniving young minxes either got out-connived by trickier lasses or pushed away by the man of their desires by the end of the stories. Gene Colan, Don Heck, Colletta, and Kirby (among others) provided the visuals for these books. As it turned out, Jack and Stan made sure good things happened to good people. Patient, upstanding girls who studied instead of partied, who worked hard on the job and at home, who went out of their way for others—and who were just so wonderful as to be irresistible—always got the right guy for them before it was over. Doris Wilson (or Nelson) met her dream guy in the form of a comic book artist who drew for one for her favorite romance titles (see Kirby Collector #20 for an analysis of it). Jack drew simple but impressive covers from time to time with pastel colors provided by colorist Stan Goldberg. Often he was inked by Colletta. There wasn’t anything “stunning” done by the Lee-Kirby team, but nothing really great was called for. The girls and women drawn to the love comics enjoyed the tried-andtrue formula of the main female character narrating the story, and either succeeding or failing in her relationship(s). One insecure young damsel worried about her special guy refusing to “pin” her once he saw her in glasses! This was based on a dating standard that stretched from coast-to-coast: “Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses.” Happily for her “He Didn’t Even Notice.” (That was the story title as well as the end result from Teen-Age Romance #86, 1962.) 65
In the domestic ’50s/’60s, this genre was almost a primer for “how-to” and “how-not-to” (with boys)… even if they were produced by happily married middle-aged men. Kirby and Lee would take the ongoing successful ingredients of the romance comic mag, however, and stir it up into the super-hero recipe that was now, in ’63, taking up their foremost interests and time.
Super-Heroes With Super Problems The Fantastic Four began in 1961, inaugurating the Marvel Age of Comics. The proven commodities had spilled over from the 1950s into these characterizations—Reed, the resourceful scientist/ inventor (from the monster books); Ben, the embittered man-monster (also from the monster books); another try at making the Timely-Atlas Human Torch a hit (Johnny Storm, fun-loving youngster, who’s outdone the original Torch in longevity); and his older sister Susan, the loyal and patient pretty blonde flame of the hero scientist (see lots of ’50s sci-fi thrillers). Hank Pym was another direct descendant of the scientists from the monster titles. Narrowly avoiding disaster in Tales to Astonish #27 (“The Man in the Ant Hill!”), he decided to capitalize on his unique relationship with ants via a cybernetic helmet that allowed him limited control over them (hey, they were ants—they probably enjoyed having something different to do!). He battled crime and Commie agents as the Ant-Man for a time, then got his own “flame,” wealthy heiress Janet Van Dyne, to suit-up as his crime-fighting assistant, the Wasp. As these heroes and heroines caught on, Kirby, Lee, and Ditko breathed new life into their stories by using the settings they were familiar with. And they knew New York! The super dramas played out against the World’s Fair (1964-’65) for Spidey and Kraven (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1), Greenwich Village (Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum), the Statue of Liberty (Strange Tales Annual #2), Forest Hills (Spidey, again), Long Island (home of Stark Industries), Carnegie Hall (FF #12), and upstate Westchester County (where the X-Men attended school). Downtown Manhattan saw a number of battles and the Molecule Man lorded it over Times Square for a few tense minutes in his one and only appearance by Jack and Stan (FF #20). New York’s taxis, gray concrete skylines, museums, and various tourist attractions were so much an unassuming but integral part of the Marvel Age that this author, when very young, amused his parents on his first trip to Fun City (1965) when he kept my eyes peeled in hopes of catching a leaping Daredevil, a soaring Fantasti-Car, or a hovering Dr. Strange over the towering buildings. (Yeah, I wasn’t the smartest kid around…) 66
The Hulk was the second and final atomic-age monster to find success (for six issues only at first), but Thor, Iron Man, the Human Torch (flying solo successfully in Strange Tales), and Ant-Man gradually pushed the monsters, aliens, and fantasy yarns out of the books as back-up features, and took the best of that genre and used it as villains, supporting characters, and futuristic worlds all ready for more super dramas. Super-heroes were catching on again… and selling well. Simon and Kirby’s Captain America was successfully revived. The good captain was one of the Timely era’s greatest successes and it only seemed right that Kirby and Lee, who’d both been part of his Golden Age triumphs, be in on his revival. It seems the super-patriotic Axis-buster was frozen in suspended animation after a mission in late 1944. The missile-bomb created by a Nazi scientist named Zemo (created for the ’60s) killed Cap’s young partner, Bucky, and Steve Rogers’ revival by the heroic new team of Avengers (helped along by an also recently revived Sub-Mariner) and his hunt for Zemo gave him a new reason to live… and to fight. Jack had to be delighted with Cap’s return. He said to an interviewer for Comics Scene Spectacular #2 (1992), “Captain America’s costume is the American flag. And the American flag, to my mind, is perpetual. At the time it was created—those times were patriotic. They were before the war was coming on. The times supplied me with my hero and my villain. You couldn’t get a better villain than Hitler.” In Tales of Suspense, the star-spangled Avenger and Bucky Barnes took on Hitler’s agents again and again in WWII-era stories along with modern-day adventures. Some of Joe Simon’s stories were rewritten and redrawn, as well. The X-Men came into the Marvel Age with their powers already nurtured and strengthened by their mysterious wheelchair-bound mentor, Professor Charles Xavier. This group of teens was given distinctive personalities in the writing. Warren was rich and cocky; Scott, serious and brooding; Bobby, fun-loving and flip; Jean, charming and tenacious; and Hank, articulate and scientific. But radioactive accidents were the best ways of getting a costumed hero or bad guy their starts. Jack looked back for Comics Scene Spectacular #2, “The big thing at the time was radiation. What would it do to the human body? Nobody knew anything about it. It was a big mystery. People were concerned. And I knew that’s where the sales were.” The Sandman, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, the Radioactive Man (that figures, right?), and lots more got their powers from all that radiation Kirby and Lee set loose. And all of the Kirby-Lee creations would ooze personality, as well. The greatest of their earliest super-villains was the makeover done for Prince
Namor, the Sub-Mariner. This time he’d sound imperial, haughty, and ever-cognizant of his royal status and power. His sea-spawned powers made him a great match for the FF, the Avengers (and even a solo bout with the Hulk in the Assemblers’ third issue), and the X-Men. The editor and chief writer was determined to not let his new co-creations become cut-outs of the established FF or Ant-Man or Thor. They’d all be unique and be hits or misses on their own. Stan explained to an interviewer (Jay Maeder, for Comics Feature Magazine in 1974), “It (the success of the super-hero formula) was accidental and I did it deliberately. What happened was, like I say, I’d been doing these comics for about 20 years and always thinking it was a temporary job, you know, I’m waiting till I’ve saved up enough money so I can quit and go do something else. And my wife said to me one day, ‘Stan, when are you gonna realize this is permanent? And instead of looking to do something sensational in some other field, why don’t you make something sensational about what you’re doing? I mean, you’re writing, you are creating… do something really good.’” Stan went on to tell the interviewer, “So all three things came together: my wife telling me why don’t you do something good, the fact that I was able to do almost anything because the publisher wasn’t on top of what we were doing, and the fact that he wanted a super-hero team. “So I figured okay, I’ll do it as I’ve always done it, I will do it as he says (Martin Goodman) and give him a super-hero team. Only this time I’m going to make it totally different from anything before. As different as I can make it. I figured, I’m sick of stories where the hero always wins and he’s 100% good and the villain is 100% bad and all that sort of thing. So I figured, this time I’m going to get a team of characters who don’t hew to the mold. Fighting amongst themselves… the Torch wants to quit because he’s not making enough money. The Thing wants to get out because he’s not getting enough glory and he thinks Reed Richards is hogging all the headlines. Occasionally a crook gets away or beats them up. They’re evicted from their skyscraper because they can’t pay the rent because Reed Richards invests all their reward money in stocks and the market takes a nosedive… I tried to do everything I could to take these super-powered characters and in some way to make them realistic and human. To have them react the way normal men might react if those normal men happened to have super powers. “And then I carried it forth with Spider-Man. So he’s got the proportionate power of a spider, or whatever. Isn’t it still conceivable that he might have halitosis or fallen arches or dandruff and acne? Mightn’t he have problems with money? Does it follow that just because he’s Spider-Man all the girls are gonna love him? I tried to figure how many fallible features I could give Spider-Man. Almost all of our characters; Iron Man with his weak heart, and the fact that he’s a munitions maker and a capitalist and people hate him and think he’s a fascist. And Captain America, who felt he was an anachronism because here he is a big patriotic figure at a time when patriotism really isn’t in vogue….” Jack Kirby’s artistic vocabulary was solid in the early 1960s. He’d infuse his particulars over his cocreations with great suggestions and art that reflected
their peculiarities. Fury and Grimm smoked cigars, as did the King. Both came from tough New York neighborhoods. His teenage super-doers pouted, rolled their eyes, knocked over or shattered objects, and ran off when the travails of life—and being a costumed avenger—overwhelmed them. Romance wasn’t always one big “high,” either—Sue, Jean Grey, Lady Dorma, Jane Foster, Betty Ross, and the Wasp lowered their eyes, concealed tears, and despaired when their men ignored them or failed to see the devotion and love in their faces. Jack had always been fast, but now, thanks to the “Marvel Method” and the okay from his editor/coplotter to utilize concepts heretofore unseen in the super-hero genre, his art was energized to meet the scope of his imagination. He told the interviewer for Comics Scene Spectacular #2, “If I busted my gut, I did five pages a day.” The ’60s was his most prolific period. His imagination seemed limitless. In faraway Asgard, the King used his knowledge of Norse mythology to do new takes on the god-legends, sometimes taking from other myths in doing so! Loki had many origins, as a caption read from his “origin story,” but Stan and Jack settled on the one they used, where Odin slays the rebellious giant-king Laufey and his son, the normal-sized baby prince, is accorded the status of an Asgardian prince. That set up troubles to come for centuries to come…. The “biographies-in-depth” (as Stan’s blurbs announced them) of Loki, Balder, Heimdall, and the events that led up to Thor’s obtaining of Odin’s incredible troll-forged hammer were fascinating backup tales that followed Thor’s adventures on Earth. Kirby’s wardrobe for the gods was better than anything the medieval-era Vikings or the Renaissance sculptors had imagined. Odin was rarely seen in the same garb twice once Jack hit his stride. (That only makes sense. He was the king of the Norse gods, after all… and he had to look the part, right?) The team complemented each other. If Kirby had a weakness in his storytelling (and I know that may sound like heresy), Lee made up for it by solid editing, dialogue, and co-plotting. If Lee had a weakness in not being able to come up with an exciting villain or his powers or a sub-plot, Jack was ready. It worked. Readers’ hearts went out for their heroes. The Thing could win one of his greatest battles over Dr. Doom in FF #40, but even though he saved the city from the Latverian’s bomb threat, he’d still be the Thing when it was over. “You can be normal—but not me! You can be married, but not me!! I’m still… the Thing!” he roared at his teammates. And then he quit. With Stan at the helm, everyone quit at one time or another. Tony Stark had flung his armor away a few times in frustration at having to wear his armored chest plate. Thor got his powers taken away for daring to love a mortal girl. He contemplated “retirement.” In his case, however, he’d renounce his godly status. Captain America brooded endlessly over the death of Bucky Barnes. Cap was a man out of his time. He only felt complete in his colorful garb and facing a menace. He left the Avengers at the end of the 22nd issue. Peter Parker stopped being Spider-Man at the end of his 17th issue. Johnny Storm flew briefly out of the team in FF #3. Heroes that quit—and then rediscovered the reason for them being heroes—that was Stan Lee at the top of his game. If his heroes could be deterred, so could we as regular people. But if they could stand up and fight the impossible fight yet again
because the innate nobility in them compelled them to do so, then we had no excuses either.
Bring On The Bad Guys! The popularity of the adult western hero proved that simple genres could be made complex and delight new audiences. The Lee-Kirby team was off to new horizons. Their villains shared the heroes’ angst. Namor was torn between his love for Sue and his hatred of the surface world. The Gargoyle (from Hulk #1) cursed his radioactive-induced ugliness. The Toad got little respect from the X-Men, Magneto, and the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But at the beginning, when the top villainy spots belonged to Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom, Jack and Stan set up “Comrade K” (Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev) as their other chief antago-
(previous page) This bust of the Sub-Mariner was delineated in pencil on the back of a Marvel art page in the 1960s by Jack (at Stan’s request) to help Dick Ayers get the hang of drawing the sea prince. (above) Marvel Method at work; Kirby’s margin notes are clearly visible on this page from Avengers #6 (July 1964). Inks by Chic Stone. Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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(below) This original art (inked by Joe Sinnott) for the cover of Fantastic Four #100 (July 1970) proudly hung in the Kirbys’ home for many years. (next page) Splash page for the SHIELD story in Strange Tales #146 (July 1966), featuring Kirby’s layouts. Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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nist. He set his special agents out to destroy the reputations or lives of Ant-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, the Avengers, and so on. His portrait or picture hung in the background of the Kremlin offices, and he commented from time to time (Darkseidlike) about the failure of his operatives to defeat the Marvel heroes. In some ways, he was Lee and Kirby’s Hitler for the ’60s— omnipresent, dangerous, and behind a behind-the-scenes influence for the Red Ghost, the Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and others. “Dr. Doom,” Jack explained, “just has this little scratch… but he’s a perfectionist, see? And that scratch mars his perfection… and he takes his frustration out on others.” Stan may have felt Victor’s entire face was disfigured after he tried to transport himself to another dimension (and you thought your college days were wild!) but it didn’t really matter. The young gypsy that was Victor von Doom became the 1960s’ greatest arch-criminal in comics, and thanks to the team’s art and editorializing, a solid guest-star and menace to the Avengers, Spider-Man, and Daredevil. He’d never be unceremoniously dragged to jail and laughed at by
the authorities like the Joker, the Penguin, and Lex Luthor. “Doc’s too top-flight to get captured,” my buddies and I would laugh in ’66. “He’s gonna find some way to get away… he doesn’t get locked up.” And though he never quite wiped out Reed Richards and company, he’d had his triumphs along the way. He’d risen from obscurity, cheated and confounded his enemies in his native land, and had, through sheer inventiveness and relentless will, become the feared head of the nation that once nearly destroyed his family. His infamous career actually began before Prof. Richards and crew launched themselves into the heavens. We knew this from a single panel in FF Annual #2 where newspapers proclaimed the armor-clad sovereign a threat to world security. Magneto, the revived Red Skull, Baron Zemo, and others also wanted control of the planet. Kang even ruled in the future… if only he could defeat the Assemblers in the past. Stan and Jack could still deliver cash-strapped bank robbers like Paste-Pot Pete, the Human Top, and the Gray Gargoyle (to name a few) but they were thinking big. Nazi killers like Adolf Eichmann had been captured in South America (where he’d been hiding) in 1960. His capture and trial by Israeli soldiers and their government had shocked the world. So it followed that Bucky Barnes’ killer, one Baron Zemo, was relentlessly pursued by Captain America—whether it was on the Avengers’ agenda or not. In a final battle, Zemo was killed at the end of Avengers #15. The more formidable Red Skull escaped death several times throughout the 1960s after he too had been roused from a 20-year suspended animation slumber. The Skull gathered up those still loyal to the Fuehrer and went about setting up “The Fourth Reich.” Magneto was another would-be world dictator. Not content to wait for mutants to be granted civil rights, he began his quest to subjugate the Homo Sapiens under “Homo Superior” in X-Men #1. By the fourth issue he had a “brotherhood” with him, which consisted of two future super-stars, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Maggie’s goals seemed to end when the Stranger (another great otherworldly Kirby-designed heavy) took him to his world in X-Men #11, but great baddies don’t come around everyday, and so Magneto returned…. and often… and the master of magnetism inevitably solidified his position as the chief arch-enemy of Professor X’s teens. Even as Marvel’s heroes vied for popularity among the company’s ever-growing readership, so did the baddies. Magneto, the Leader, Dr. Doom, the Frightful Four, the Mole Man, Kang, Loki, the Absorbing Man, and the Super Skrull were all top adversaries and Stan made sure they got into as many mags and slugfests with as many heroes as possible. By the end of the decade, some of the aforementioned were top contenders for top villains of the year by the fan press and fan and industry awards. While DC was content to have copies of Superman named Ideal-Man and Future Man running around, Jack was taking super-villainy to a whole new level. He improved on Paste-Pot Pete’s avant-garde artiste get up (which was snazzy in its own kitschy way) for the Trapster’s coming-out in FF #38. The Sandman took a few science classes, and got a new outfit and more dangerous accessories to go with it in FF #61. Loki, Dr. Doom, and others got new, impressive powers/abilities and the flow of incredible arch-criminals never seemed to stop; and neither did the excitement they generated. Jack even made suggestions for villains to Stan in titles he didn’t regularly pencil, and to Stan’s credit he used them. Other editors/writers elsewhere drew the line at artists co-plotting or “improving” on their scripts, but Lee had a veteran team in Kirby, Ditko, Ayers, Carl Burgos, Wally Wood, etc. If they had good ideas, why not use
them? That way they’d have a vested interest in the book’s success, as well as the go-ahead to add/subtract to the endeavor, and to a degree, making the characters truly theirs. However, Goodman wasn’t paying for those “extras,” and that led to problems down the line. Stan was his only editor, and in 1965 (excluding the wonderful summer specials/annuals), he was editing at least 15 titles and writing most of the same. With a workload that included interviewing/hiring new talent, looking over art production/corrections, and reporting to Goodman, it was only sensible that he put together some kind of collaborative system to make his time as effective as possible. Others didn’t see it that way. After a while, they left. “The Marvel Method” wasn’t perfect for all concerned, certainly, but the results were astounding. Stan confirmed some of this when he told the Marvel Spotlight guys, “But the Marvel Method I used exclusively after Fantastic Four, ’cause I had to, ’cause I was doing so many books, there was no way I could have sat down and done a complete script.”
Spies and Soldier Boys Into the burgeoning character boom, Jack and Stan re-fought the tragic struggle against the Axis with uniformed heroes in the service of Uncle Sam. Nick Fury was the hard-hitting ramrod of the special attack force known as “the Howling Commandos.” Commandos had gotten a well-deserved reputation for disrupting enemy activities and destroying their facilities during the war and since. DC had already established the fabled Easy Company with Sgt. Rock. Marvel intended to compete. Kirby and Ayers again provided the sequential art and finishes, and the House of Ideas’ first and best war book had arrived. There was no “battle fatigue” in the Howlers’ barracks. They did it all. They fought in North Africa (Sgt. Fury #6), England (where they and the other Yanks were stationed) in #4, Germany and Italy (of course) and after sales showed positive, they got to Asia (the Burma Road, #23), and even helped out our Russian allies in #73 on the Eastern front—long after the King left the book. Fury presided over an international cast. Pinky, the first addition to the original group, was an Englishman. Dino was an Italian-American actor (based loosely on crooner Dean Martin with a dash of Frank Sinatra’s wartime popularity); Corporal Dugan, representing the Boston Irish; and Izzy Cohen was a Jewish mechanic and bomb expert from Flatbush in Brooklyn (near Kirby’s old neighborhood, maybe?). Gabe was a black jazz horn player from Harlem, Robert “Reb” Ralston was a Southerner from the bluegrass hills of Kentucky, and Junior Juniper—was their first casualty. Later, German Eric Koenig would join up. Lee and Kirby had fun with the Howlers. Fury rarely wore a helmet (that kind of thing slowed him down), and bullets rarely hit him. They’d shred his shirt, however, and his iconic image set by Jack (and later cemented by Ayers and John Severin) usually showed the stogie-chompin’ sarge in a torn rag of a shirt at the end of a mission. Jack was told that he sounded like Ben Grimm and/or Nick Fury. His “voice” had made it into the Marvel dialogue despite Stan doing the wordplay and because of it. The King remembered, “If you
read Ben’s dialogue, that’s me talking.” Jack was adding more and more ideas and his pacing and battle scenarios were opening up new vistas in comic excitement. Even when veteran artists like John Romita and John Buscema returned to the revamped Atlas, they worked over Kirby layouts. No one could deny the unique skills and conceptualizations of the King. And no one wanted to. Fury got into the C.I.A. (we learned in FF #21) and was eventually chosen to head the newlyformed S.H.I.E.L.D. in ’65 (Strange Tales #135). The spy craze generated by James Bond’s film smashes swept pop culture like wildfire and sophisticated gentlemen agents popped up everywhere. Bond author Ian Fleming was invited to the Kennedy White House in the early 1960s, where the young president asked him if he could recommend any special gadgets to use against Cuba’s Castro. Yeah, that’s how influential Bond was! Fury didn’t have the urbane, cultivated sophistication of Bond, the
men from U.N.C.L.E, Derek Flint, and James West. No. He still reeked of his regular army foxhole toughness. Kirby and Lee quickly brought Gabe Jones and Dum Dum Dugan along to help out. “SHIELD” was another showcase for Jack’s incredible concepts. Often, he’d insert an imaginative mechanism from SHIELD’s mechanics branch, made to out-perform those created by A.I.M., Them, Hydra, and other no-good organizations that threatened world security. These added story touches (see Strange Tales #139 for the “Braino-Saur” and #142 for the “Wild Bill” robot, for just two examples) were bonuses for fans caught up in espionage and counter-espionage. Concerning SHIELD, Stan would late note in his Sons of Origins of Marvel Comics (1975), “I was a big fan of Bond, and of UNCLE as well. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that if Nick Fury survived the dangers of WWII—and he was much too tough and ornery to die—I could imagine him 69
ending up heading an organization like UNCLE or the one James Bond belongs to. I knew a strip like SHIELD, which was so dependent upon bigger-than-life machines, weaponry, and murderous menaces, needed an artist like Kirby the way rhythm needs blues.” “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” wasn’t the money-making success the super-hero titles were, but Marvel was on a roll and readers flocked to the strip that preceded Ditko’s Dr. Strange in Strange Tales. Everything Mighty Marvel produced drew more and more readers away from the earnestly made but comparatively boring efforts of the competition.
…In This, The Marvel Age Of Comics! By 1966 and ’67, it was all working together nicely. Goodman’s interest had returned to his comic line-up. And why not? The Marvel Super-Heroes, in less than five years, were on television five days a week. A complete Captain America adventure (taken from either Tales of Suspense or the Avengers) was shown on Monday afternoons, followed by Iron Man, Thor, Sub-Mariner, and the Hulk respectively. I asked Mr. Lee in ’92 if he “watched the FF and SpiderMan cartoons in ’67 on Saturday mornings” or took the opportunity to just sleep in. He answered with a big grin, “I never missed an episode.” Of the MSH cartoons a year earlier, he added, “They were the purest adaptations of our company’s material.” The Inhumans were there in 1966, followed shortly thereafter by the Surfer (renamed the Silver Surfer by Stan after Jack came up with the silvery sky-rider all on his own as the Galactus trilogy took shape). In the late ’80s Kirby told his buddy Scott Fresina, “The surf thing... in California was so popular… it made the Silver Surfer a perfect character… for those times…”. Black comics fans all spread the word that there was an African super-hero as FF #52, 53, and 54 hit the stands in 1966. Jack liked to work from a method of questioning things. He probably asked himself, “Why aren’t there any super-heroes of color?” After T’Challa, a Marvel innovation became a standard everywhere. The Black Panther got a legion of black comic readers to turn to Mighty Marvel more often when it was comics-buying time. The House of Ideas was the place to be for cutting-edge excitement in the genre. College kids likened Dr. Doom to Richard III, and Peter Parker to Hamlet. Magazines, fanzines, and newspapers analyzed the neuroses and characterizations of these “super-heroes with super problems.” There was no slowdown in quality on any of the titles, and the additions of Gene Colan (on Sub-Mariner, Iron Man, and Daredevil), Jim Steranko (on SHIELD), Gil Kane and Herb Trimpe (on the Hulk), Marie Severin (on Not Brand Echh), and other artists were fabulous hiring moves made by Stan. Kirby was no longer the cover artist for most of the titles in ’66/’67, but he kept up his frantic output in the output of t-shirt designs, posters, stationery, and other items highly sought-out now and then. I asked Mr. Lee about the look of what would one day be called the Marvel memorabilia and the artistry on those items. His reply was, “While I was editorin-chief, almost everything that had to do with script and artwork was my decision. I used Kirby and Ditko’s artwork because their artwork was so popular and so recognized that it was the best for those purposes.” Sound thinking…. Lee’s dictum, “Draw like Kirby!” meant finding that dynamic within your own style, and very quickly Romita, Buscema, and others did just that. Their stuff soared. Barry Smith even journeyed from the UK to New York in the late ’60s, penciling as close to the King’s style as he could. Stan happily oversaw a growing empire. Industry observers swore by the power of Kirby’s artistry. Stan “conferred the faith” in his Bullpen Bulletins. Jack was truly the “King”—the first and last word in sequential art expressionism. Stan said in an interview in ’68 for Castle of Frankenstein magazine (#12), “Some artists, of course, need a more detailed plot than others. Some artists, such as Jack Kirby, need no plot at all. I mean I’ll just say to Jack, ‘Let’s make the next villain be Dr. Doom’… or I may not even say that. He may tell me. And he goes home and does it. He’s so good at plots, I’m sure he’s a thousand times better than I. He just about makes up the plots for these stories. All I do is a little editing… I may tell him that he’s gone too far in one direction or another. Of course, occasionally I’ll give him a plot, but we’re both practically the writers on the things.” Between the two, it worked. Stan’s penchant for soap opera and romance was as inviting to as many readers as Jack’s high concepts. Marvel was also a huge party everyone wanted to get invited to. The late, great actor Art Carney 70
Bullpenner Bulletins! A few of those wonderful Marvel Madmen speak about the magic of Lee and Kirby, gathered from various queries sent by Jerry Boyd GEORGE TUSKA • ARTIST/CREATOR I think Jack Kirby was fantastic… I think highly of Stan, as well. It (their accomplishments) was a good inspiration to me. I worked mostly at home and don’t have any stories about the two. But they were wonderful together… and Jack did layouts for me on Captain America and we were a good team, also. LARRY LIEBER • ARTIST/WRITER/ CREATOR It was all matter-of-fact. We didn’t feel anything great was about to happen or take place. I really don’t know much about it. I was never in the room when they were together so I don’t know anything about their working together. I was writing fantasy books for Marvel then. I wrote stories for Jack Kirby. He lived in New Jersey, I believe, at the time. I was beginning to write—I got the plots from my brother, and got them to Kirby—who drew them faster than I could write new ones! Did Kirby come up with Iron Man’s suit? He might have come up with the armor design. I don’t remember for sure. I wasn’t in on the development meeting. I thought their super-heroes were very, very good. They were the “essential” comic book people. Stan wrote as well as you could write for a comic book. If you wrote any better than that, it wouldn’t be a comic book! Y’know what I mean? Same with Kirby. He could draw as well as anyone could for a comic book. If you drew any better than that, it wouldn’t be a comic book. John Buscema was the best artist Marvel ever had back then, but he was illustrative. Jack was a cartoonist. Jack was very, very fast. They knew comics and they knew… had instincts… for what worked. There was something special going on. It was “magic”… in my humble opinion. DICK AYERS • ARTIST/INKER/CREATOR Regarding finishing and inking the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby stories and pencils, I always enjoy working on a Stan Lee script. His dialogue is always terrific and his characters always have names that suggest and create what they look like in my imagination. The titles even always stimulate my imagination! Regarding Kirby’s pencils in the ’50s/’60s, there was a point when I got frustrated inking Kirby’s pencils at the rate I was being paid and I delivered the Rawhide Kid to Stan inked just the way Kirby had drawn it, not adding blacks or shadows as I did with the monster stories. Stan reacted with, “This isn’t a western! It’s a blankety-blank romance story! I want you to add drama to the penciling. Add some shadows and
backgrounds with your brush—I know you’ve done it with the monster stories!” I didn’t think nice thoughts on the way home about Stan I guarantee you, but when I did it on my following stories I found I enjoyed them once again and even took less time to finish inking a page. Stan is a fantastic editor, too!
GENE COLAN • ARTIST/CREATOR I really should know so much about Jack and the industry and the men and their stories, etc. But the truth is—my entire life has been single-mindedly focused on becoming a comic book artist and staying a comic book artist and reading scripts to visually interpret with continuity drawings. But I can talk about Stan. As is pretty well known by now, Stan would dictate a very brief plot over the phone. In those days I sat with a reel-to-reel and a mic. From that plot I’d proceed with a 17-page story. I loved it because I could pace the story to suit what I felt like doing with the visuals. I could play up the action and downplay the talking. I have to say, unlike many of today’s storylines, the super-hero appeared in nearly every page. I loved that. Of course, invariably, I’d run into (problems) pacing the story and would have to cram the balance of the plot into the last few pages. Stan was a peach! He worked around my visuals, laying in the narrative and dialogue. Stan and I were an excellent fit. We appreciated one another and enjoyed working together. We have the same sense of play about our work even today. There was a true affection between the two of us that has lasted to today. When he called me “Gentleman” Gene, the same can be said for him! JOHN ROMITA, SR. • ARTIST/ ART DIRECTOR/CREATOR The collaboration between Jack Kirby and Stan Lee was cosmic… not of this earth. I say this seriously, because the visual impact Jack brought to the Marvel table and the equally amazing, complementing addition of heart and soul to those fabulous images by Stan, has echoed down these many decades. Why else are we caring about all of this? One of my favorite moments in FF lore, is the Agatha Harkness witch/nanny for Franklin Richards where Jack’s take on (an) older character with “glamour and mystique” influenced me so… it made doing Aunt May fun for me! ROY THOMAS • WRITER/ ASSISTANT EDITOR/CREATOR Stan and Jack were one of the great teams in comics history. Stan’s desire to write comics that he himself would like to
read, instead of the juvenile stuff he’d been writing (and editing) for two decades, combined at just the right time with the art and storytelling abilities of Jack Kirby, who had nothing to prove—except perhaps that the editors at National/DC had been crazy to let him be forced out of the company in the late 1950s. Together, they built on what had come before them and they created what fan Rick Weingroff would christen “the Marvel Universe.” It is impossible to imagine Fantastic Four or indeed modern comics ever happening without Stan Lee. It is equally impossible to imagine either entity coming into existence without Jack Kirby. If I had to name one character that would epitomize the Lee/Kirby magic to me, there would be no contest. It would be Benjamin J. Grimm, the ever-lovin’, blueeyed Thing, hands down. His rough-handed approach to super-heroics as orchestrated at least in large part by Stan, and indeed his very visuals as designed by Jack, broke with super-hero tradition in a way that the other three members of the FF did not. Virtually everything that came after—certainly the Hulk, but even the X-Men and, yes, Spider-Man, owed a debt to that orange-skinned monster. He grabbed me with an iron grip in that very first issue—and he’s never let go. The names of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are forever entwined in comics history, whatever the wishes of the pair themselves.
HERB TRIMPE • ARTIST/INKER/CREATOR When I came on in 1966, Jack and Stan were Marvel’s Dynamic Duo. With all the great talent working for Stan at the time, these two, Jack and Stan, were the essence of what Marvel stood for in those days—innovation, creativeness, and a freshness, setting a precedent which has never been matched—not before and certainly not after—even with the powerful Asian influence and the catchy styles presented by many of today’s artists. Nothing touches the revolution of the ’60s, and it may very well be, that if that hadn’t happened, comics would have died. There has been the discussion of Stan’s importance, of Jack’s importance, who had the idea first, who created this and who created that. Not important. The important thing was, much like Siamese twins, one could not live without the other. When they were finally separated, it became apparent to me, at least, that the whole had been greater than the sum of two parts. Jack was not as good without a good editor, and Stan had no one to visualize his ideas in precisely the same way Jack saw them. In all marriages there are problems, and their relationship was certainly not perfect. But it was perfect enough to cause the most important thing ever to happen in comics. IRVING FORBUSH • FULL-TIME JANITOR The “magic” of Mr. Lee and Mr. Kirby? I don’t know anything about that! All I know is that I could rarely get my floor sweeping and waxing done ’cause both of ’em were always askin’ me for ideas! ★ Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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once said, “Everyone in Hollywood wanted to be on Batman (the live-action show). You had to be the week’s guest-villain on that show...” On Rowan and Martins’ Laugh-In, many of the entertainment world’s “biggies” made guest appearances or cameos. In the comic world, the party was at 625 Madison Avenue. Aspiring young writers and artists like Roy Thomas, Denny O’Neil, Gary Friedrich, Tom Sutton, Sal Buscema, and Dan Adkins joined the Bullpen and became “Marvel Madmen.”
How’d the Lee-Kirby Team Get It So Right? Villains: Stan said that the villain corps strongly helped to make the heroes. Credible heavies were made by repeat performances, added/improved devices and powers, and the stakes of their confrontations with their enemies were raised. The Mighty Crusaders (over at Archie) had decent heroes, for example, but even the most avid fan would be hardpressed to name ten of the Fly-Man’s or the Shield’s best opponents. While Superman was toying with the Toyman, Thor duked it out with Loki, the Executioner, Ulik, Mr. Hyde and the Cobra, Hercules (a supporting character too good not be used later in the Avengers), the Wrecker, the Grey Gargoyle, the Absorbing Man, Ego, the Lava Man, and the Radioactive Man. Stan, using his editor’s prerogative and chief writer clout, bounced his evil people from book to book. Dr. Doom would trade blows with Spidey, DD, and the Avengers. The Sandman tackled the web-spinner first, and then went on to create problems for the Torch, the FF, and the Hulk. SubMariner and the Hulk fought everybody! Magneto got on the X-Men’s nerves, but he found time to tackle Thor and the FF during Jack’s time at Marvel. The Mole Man found his way into the pages of the FF, Iron Man, Hulk, Avengers, and the X-Men! So we readers got to see how the villains we “loved to hate” fared against various opponents… and even other bad guys! Sometimes our heroes would win… but just barely. And sometimes their sinister adversaries would prevail (temporarily, of course), maintaining our awe and respect. The King’s battle choreography (see TJKC #24) was sensational… along with the other Bullpenners’ efforts. The Marvel “misunderstanding” between heroes sometimes provided the “villains” for a particular issue. FF #73 pit Spidey, a weakened Thor, and the Man without Fear as possible Dr. Doom androids, out to defeat the three male members of the famed foursome. The Chameleon-imitated Cap and Iron Man went after the real thing in Suspense #58. The God of Thunder was hypnotized by the Enchantress and fought his fellow Avengers in the team’s seventh issue. This went on and on, but they were great periodic additions written and/or edited by Lee over the years. When Spider-Man leaped out of the sky against the X-Men on Dan Adkins’ beautiful cover for X-Men #35 (“Along Came A Spider…”— the Roy Thomas title still wipes me out), the holder of it was mobbed by my small group playing a sandlot baseball game, and all of us, even the little girls, stopped to look the comic over. Splashes: The King let loose with a stream of jaw-dropping full-page illustrations that bowled
readers over with their unbridled power and composition. Jack often stated, “It was my job to sell magazines. If you could put back a magazine that I did a splash or page in to open the story up with, then I had to feel in some way that I failed…”. (Rarely did he fail with readers!) Sometimes it was Thor pummeling Hercules “to his knees” (Thor #126) with ringing Lee dialogue and similar fight scenes. At other times it was “pomp and circumstance”—the mad Maximus on the throne of Attilan (FF #83), Odin in his royal castle (Thor #151), or the dreaded Pluto in godly raiment (Thor #164), just to cite a few. Sometimes Jack had “a machine” in him that had to get out—a wondrous device or seeing mechanism or vehicle opened the story. Reprints: Stan knew that new fans were coming in throughout the 1960s, and he wisely incorporated the retelling of the main hero/heroes’ origins early on so fans wouldn’t be lost. And they kept on getting retold at appropriate times after that! The reprint comics, Marvel Collector’s Item Classics, Marvel Tales, and Fantasy Masterpieces (cleverly playing on Cap and Bucky’s bygone glory in the ’40s) brought all the continuity together. Jack’s new covers for Marvel’s Greatest Comics (formerly MCIC) and Marvel Super-Heroes (formerly Fantasy Masterpieces) ensured sales among all devout Kirby-heads. Soap Opera: The guys recognized the importance of their characters being in romantic and realistic life entanglements. Their readers felt for Spidey when his money ran out, Foggy Nelson competing for Karen’s love with Matt Murdock, and Goliath being trapped at 10 feet tall. The Thing’s plight was always soul-wrenching, as was Bruce Banner’s. In the romance department, readers fell in love with Agent 13, Sue Storm, Lady Dorma, Sif, Crystal, Betty Ross, Marvel Girl, the Scarlet Witch, and the Wasp just as their men did. Artwork: We can never say enough great things about Kirby’s artistry, but credit Stan (as the art director) for giving his co-worker’s penciling different “sheens” with Frank Giacoia, Ayers, Stone, Sinnott, Reinman, Roussos, Everett, Ditko, Klein, Rule, and Colletta. When my cousin Edward Boyd first showed me his copy of FF #44 with those splendid Sinnott inks in the summer of ’65, I was speechless. The Kirby-Sinnott magic set a new gold standard in art at Marvel. Mr. Sinnott recently told me, “Everything (Jack’s pages) was always mailed to me. Jack sent them to Marvel; Marvel looked them over and then sent them to me. I was two hours out of the city, and I never went to the Bullpen for over 20 years. I went regularly in the ’50s every Friday to get the short story assignments. Stan asked me, ‘Gee Joe, I have nobody to ink the next issue of the Fantastic Four. Would you do it for me?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I was always a good company man. “I was amazed at Kirby’s artwork! When I first accepted the inking job for (FF) #5, I was… I just stopped when I saw the Thing! This was something completely different! I saw Plastic Man (in Mr. Fantastic) and the old Human Torch, of course— but the Thing was just incredible! When I began that run beginning on #44 with Gorgon, it got even more amazing! There were just a number of great characters that followed! I had fun inkin’ them all.” Covers: We covered a lot of this in Kirby Five-Oh!,
but those oh-so-wonderful Kirby delineations, soaked through with magnificent Stan Goldberg and later, Marie Severin reds, purples, blacks, and grays, and blurbs by Rosen and Simek—just made ya say “wowwwww….”. Reflecting later, the King would say of some of his co-creations: the Hulk—“he’s the ruthlessness in all of us,” and Thor, “Thor is an ancient myth, what I did was make him saleable again.” Looking back at the Surfer, “I saw surfers on the beach in California, and I’d never seen anything like it.” By 1968 and through to ’70, Jack had in his thought processes the initial stages of the ultimate genre comic. This would comprise the aforementioned genres of science-fiction, monsters, fantasy, war, romance, and super-doers as good and evil gods. Moreover, they’d include the Bible and Jack’s war stories and philosophies. He wasn’t anxious to share it with the House of Ideas. This time the movie marquee would not read “…by Simon and Kirby” or “…by Lee and Kirby,” but just by… Kirby. A creative restlessness was urging him on. However, the successes of past publishing triumphs of the various genres—eye-catching creatures, heroic scientists, tragic heroes, sinister arch-criminals, and romantic flourishes—all comingled with huge acclaim at Mighty Marvel. The Marvel Universe, as it’d come to be known, knew no boundaries. The expanding Bullpen, pushed forward by the distinctiveness of Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and the other founding members, heard Lee’s cry of “Onward!” and responded. Thanks to Jack and Stan, god worlds existed on Mt. Olympus and Asgard, surrounded by trolls, sprites, centaurs, storm giants, and evil witches and warriors. Deep within the Earth’s surface the Lava Men, Tyrannus, the Mole Man and their subterranean hordes lay ready to strike. Beneath the foaming ocean waves rested the undersea metropolis of Atlantis and the barbarian-occupied outposts of Attuma. From infinity and beyond came Galactus, devourer of worlds, and his glistening herald, the Silver Surfer. The occupants of Sub-Space/the Negative Zone avoided the powers of Blastaar and Annihilus. Nestled deep in the far off Tibetan mountains stood the majestic spires of the Great Refuge of the incomparable Inhumans. Below the Artic wastes was the prehistoric world called the Savage Land. In a micro-world the Psycho-Man ruled. Under the Wakandan jungle the son of T’Chaka, the Black Panther, in a futuristic mechanized jungle, ruled. All of this the wondrous Watcher saw and analyzed in his dazzling museumworkshop on the airless moon. And all of this (and more), as well as our world’s (and New York’s) colorfully-clad “army of characters” as Jack put it, was lovingly lorded over and sagaciously supervised by the most “talked-about team in comics”: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. ★ Special thanks to Scott Fresina and all of the great Marvel men who participated, and particularly to Mr. Stan Lee, who provided comments and pictures of himself and Jack for this piece along with his co-worker Mike Kelly.
(previous page) An imposing Galactus figure from Fantastic Four #75, page 4 (June 1968). Galactus TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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Questionable (below) For grins, we decided to mock-up a possible cover for Silver Surfer #20, had it been published as Craig McNamara imagines. Using page 9 pencils from Thor #166 (July 1969), we commissioned Gødland artist Tom Scioli to modify Thor into Orion, and Him into the Surfer. Tom Ziuko added the lettering blurb, and color for the Digital Edition of this issue.
Orion TM & ©2009 DC Comics. Silver Surfer, Thor, Him TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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What If-?
by Craig McNamara n Marvel’s What If #11 (1978), Jack Kirby (prompted by theneditor-in-chief Roy Thomas) posited the somewhat bizarre question, “What If The Original Marvel Bullpen Became The Fantastic Four?” It was, of course, a frivolous, inconsequential tale, only intermittently entertaining and probably most notable for being the closest Jack would come to creating a new Fantastic Four story during his return to Marvel in the ’70s. But there is a touch of sweet nostalgia in its depiction (however humorously treated) of the bygone years when Jack and Stan Lee were co-creators during
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Marvel’s formative and most imaginative era. It’s no secret that Marvel’s creative apex in the ’60s coincided with Jack’s growing dissatisfaction with Marvel’s editorial and company policies. Feeling inadequately recognized and compensated for his successful co-creations (or, in the case of the Silver Surfer, his sole creation), and creatively stifled as well, Kirby began withholding new ideas, stockpiling them in his mind until he found a more creatively and financially rewarding outlet for his storytelling at DC. That much we know with certainty. But... what if...? What if Kirby hadn’t left Marvel in 1970? What if Stan Lee, realizing the considerable impact Kirby’s departure would have at Marvel, had persuaded Kirby to stay? And what if, along with prevailing on management to better compensate Jack, Stan also promised him more creative control on his books? “What if?” indeed! The mind boggles! Imagine many of the early characters and concepts Jack developed during the first year of his “Fourth World” books for DC instead finding their way into Marvel comics. But which comics? Assuming for this discussion that Kirby would accept nothing less than the full editorial control that DC had promised him, it seems unlikely that he would remain on the mainstays of his work at Marvel, The Fantastic Four and Thor. Although Lee’s writing would begin tapering off over the next few years (due to an attempt at screenplay writing and assuming publisher duties), at this point, he was still very much involved in the books; in any case, it’s hard to believe he would turn over complete control of either of Marvel’s most successful series. Nor does it seem particularly realistic that Kirby would be allowed to create new books for Marvel. By the end of the ’60s, Marvel had finally escaped the restrictions of their distribution deal that had limited the growth of the line; however, the recent failures of several titles made the company gun-shy about introducing new books. (When the next series were introduced, risk was minimized by returning to the old splitbook format and spinning off already established characters.) One could also speculate that, given the media attention Stan was beginning to receive as the innovator of Marvel Comics, he would never have allowed himself to be absent in the creation of a new super-hero-based comic. In all likelihood, Marvel would come to the same solution Jack reportedly did when DC insisted that, in addition to his new series, he also take over an existing title. Just as he chose one of DC’s lowestselling titles, so would Marvel probably insist that Jack be assigned to their most faltering titles. Considering how Stan used to spread Jack’s work around to bolster the whole Marvel line, it would be a natural for him to give Kirby a chance to revitalize a title with low sales. Either sales would go up, or in the event the title continued to fail, Kirby would be proven to be better relegated to art and plotting duties, under the supervision of a more experienced writer and editor. But which titles would be chosen? As fate would have it, during the same time period when he began talking with DC, Marvel was
experiencing a general downturn in sales leading to the cancellation or desperate re-tooling of several of the new series introduced during the big expansion of 1968. Any of these would have been well-served by Kirby’s creativity (indeed, he was instrumental in the genesis of several of them). But let’s start with the most obvious choice. Imagine seeing this entry in the Mighty Marvel Checklist for comics dated October 1970: SILVER SURFER #19: King Kirby takes the Skyrider of the Spaceways in a dazzling new direction! The Silver Surfer finally escapes the barrier imprisoning him on earth and heads out into space for an encounter with—but that would be telling!
Granted, the Silver Surfer was Stan’s most heartfelt work (so much so, it would be over a decade before he’d let any other writer helm a solo Surfer story), but faced with the comic’s cancellation, who’s to say he wouldn’t choose to step away if it would ensure a longer life for his “baby”? The fact that he enlisted Jack to draw the last published issue that upended the status quo of the series proves Stan was willing to make changes to broaden the comic’s appeal. Meanwhile, having lost all creative control of the Silver Surfer when Stan created the series without him, one can easily imagine Kirby demanding the comic, not just for the storytelling possibilities the character suggested to him, but as a way to assert his new status at Marvel and to reclaim the character as his own. As for those storytelling possibilities, Kirby’s fertile mind had already been at work on a magnum opus that could be adjusted to accommodate his new series: SILVER SURFER #20: The Surfer vs. Orion, defender of the planet New Genesis. But is Orion the true enemy—or is there an even deadlier threat lurking in the shadows?
If his differences with Marvel could have been solved, what reason would Kirby have not to use his imagination to its fullest once more and give the series the injection of new ideas it desperately needed? Even better, by removing the Silver Surfer from earth-bound adventures, Jack could ignore all of Stan’s additions to the mythos and treat the Surfer as he originally intended—as a newly sentient being exploring the meaning of life. SILVER SURFER #21: It’s all-out war between the worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips. Will the Surfer get involved—or will victory belong to the deadly Darkseid? A Marvel masterwork!
One can imagine that the Silver Surfer could neatly fill the role that Lightray played in Kirby’s New Gods epic. Like Lightray, the Surfer’s pacifistic nature could be a philosophical and emotional counterpoint to the blunt, savage Orion. Meanwhile, month by month, the story continues to unfold: SILVER SURFER #22: What is the Anti-Life Equation—and why is Darkseid hunting for it on Earth? Plus—the Silver Surfer and Orion battle the Deep Six, savage mutators of the sea!
SILVER SURFER #23: The final showdown with the Deep Six! The Surfer captured! Orion lashes out! It all happens on “The Glory Boat!”
DOCTOR STRANGE #187: They call him Billion Dollar Bates—The Man With The Power! And when he speaks, Doctor Strange must obey!
And so on. But what about Jack’s second monthly book? Let’s consider another Marvel title that was soon to stop publishing new stories:
And if the connections weren’t obvious enough:
X-MEN #67: In the caverns beneath New York, Marvel’s merry mutants discover a sinister new project. What is the secret a strange new race of men will die to protect? A King Kirby shocker!
Although they had no way of knowing how popular the X-Men would become someday, Marvel obviously had some interest at the time in keeping the series alive—after all, instead of simply canceling the book, they converted it to reprints. But since the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams stories had run their course and the title was floundering once more, let’s assume Marvel decided to give Jack a shot at the title he co-created five years earlier. The lighter, youthoriented comic would be a perfect place to employ the story ideas he would develop in DC’s Jimmy Olsen: X-MEN #68: It’s X-Men vs. The Hairies vs. The Outsiders! Plus—more on the mysterious Evil Factory. And wait till you see the Mountain of Judgement! X-MEN #69: Meet Dubbilex, the DNA Alien! The X-Men learn the true purpose of the Evil Factory, while Mokarri and Simyan hatch a new menace for our mutants! X-MEN #70: Can the X-Men stop the Six-Armed Terror before the Evil Factory’s nuclear reactor explodes? Don’t miss “The Big Boom!”
And while it’s hard to imagine Marvel approving a story that takes a thinly-veiled swipe at mass-media evangelists, certain elements of the Forever People’s “Glorious Godfrey” storyline could be acceptable: X-MEN #71: The X-Men visit the vacation spot called Happyland and discover all is not what it seems— especially when it’s run by the diabolical Darkseid!
Elsewhere on the racks, Jack’s third title would begin appearing. The recently cancelled Nick Fury, Agent of Shield and Captain Marvel would both be good candidates for resurrection and either one would provide Jack venues ideally suited for his artwork and sweeping storylines. However, since we’re just conjecturing here, let’s go for a truly offbeat choice: DR. STRANGE #184: Marvel’s Master Of The Mystic Arts is back! Doctor Strange, meet Doctor Bedlam! No mind can resist him! No body can hold him!
Kirby’s ability to work in virtually any genre certainly makes this an intriguing possibility. And when you think about it, many of Kirby’s ideas that showed up in Mister Miracle and The Forever People could have been easily adapted for the dimensionhopping Dr. Strange: DOCTOR STRANGE #185: Doctor Bedlam unleashes the Paranoid Pill! It’s Doctor Strange versus a whole city of mad men! And if he wins—New York dies! DOCTOR STRANGE #186: Doctor Strange investigates the horrors of the place known only as Section Zero and finds himself trapped in the mind of the maniacal monster known as the Lump!
DOCTOR STRANGE #188: Seeking the answer to the Anti-Life Equation, Doctor Strange travels to Darkseid’s world of Apokolips—and runs right into Big Barda and her Female Furies! It’s a sorcery slug-fest!
See a pattern developing? Knowing Kirby’s penchant for epic thinking, it wouldn’t be surprising to discover he was quietly weaving his Fourth World storyline throughout all three of his series and slowly drawing them together. The bigger question is, how closely would Marvel allow these series to overlap and function as one long continuing epic? Remember, this was during a period when Marvel was under orders from its publisher, Martin Goodman, to cut back on multi-issue stories. Since readership was still in decline following the boom years of the Batman TV show, it’s doubtful that sales would rise so dramatically that Lee and Goodman would stay out of Kirby’s way. Rather, fearing a complex continuity that would alienate readers, and bothered that Jack’s writing style wasn’t meshing with Marvel’s (Lee’s) house style, they would probably demand that Jack separate the plotlines of each of his books and bring what he calls his “New Gods” epic in The Silver Surfer to resolution. Frustrated but still attempting to satisfy his employer, Kirby complies, but denied use of his full imagination, the books fall into several months of lackluster stories and sales decline once again. In an attempt to again turn around the books, Marvel pressures Kirby to allow Roy Thomas and Archie Goodwin to script over his plots. Kirby refuses and The Silver Surfer and Doctor Strange are cancelled while The X-Men switches to reprints of earlier stories. Now without a regular title, Kirby fulfills his monthly art commitments by cranking out covers for various Marvel books and illustrating fill-in issues for The Fantastic Four and Thor under Stan’s scripting. Meanwhile, he tries to interest Marvel in a couple of new ideas for comics, Mister Miracle and Infinity Man. Marvel management, still reluctant to take a chance on new characters in a down market, instead offers Jack a new Inhumans series to write and draw in the revived Amazing Adventures book (with instructions to adhere more closely to the Marvel style). What began as a step forward in Kirby’s career now feels like taking two steps back. Kirby grows more and more discontented and when Carmine Infantino calls again, Kirby listens. It seems that Infantino has some new ideas for books that he thinks Kirby would be perfect for. He wants something similar to the Planet Of The Apes movies, which DC had recently missed out on the publishing rights for. He has another idea for a comic starring some kind of demon as a super-hero. And there’s an established character currently in limbo that maybe Kirby could figure out how to make more commercial: Deadman. Well, maybe that’s not how it would all play out if Jack hadn’t left Marvel. But what if? ★ 75
C o l l e c t o r
The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine (edited by JOHN MORROW) celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through INTERVIEWS WITH KIRBY and his contemporaries, FEATURE ARTICLES, RARE AND UNSEEN KIRBY ART, plus regular columns by MARK EVANIER and others, and presentation of KIRBY’S UNINKED PENCILS from the 1960s-80s (from photocopies preserved in the KIRBY ARCHIVES). Now in OVERSIZED TABLOID FORMAT, it showcases Kirby’s amazing art even larger!
Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! 4-ISSUE SUBS: $50 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($60 First Class, $60 Canada, $84 Surface, $136 Airmail).
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KIRBY COLLECTOR #23
KIRBY COLLECTOR #24
KIRBY COLLECTOR #25
KIRBY COLLECTOR #26
Rarely-seen KIRBY INTERVIEW, UNINKED PENCILS from FANTASTIC FOUR #49, comparison of KIRBY’S margin notes to STAN LEE’S words, interview with DENNY O’NEIL, 7th Grade school project by granddaughter TRACY KIRBY (illustrated by her grandpa!), unpublished story from SOUL LOVE, unpublished art, pencil pages before inking, & more! KIRBY/ALEX HORLEY cover!
KIRBY’S GREATEST BATTLES! Interviews with KIRBY and JIM SHOOTER (on Kirby’s art battle with Marvel), comparison of KIRBY’S margin notes to STAN LEE’S words, page-by-page analysis of NEW GODS #6 (“Glory Boat,” including Jack’s pencils), how Kirby’s WWII experiences shaped his super-hero battles, Sgt. Fury, unpublished art, and more! KIRBY/MIGNOLA cover!
SIMON & KIRBY ISSUE! Feature-length interview with JOE SIMON about the S&K shop, KIRBY talks about his Golden Age work with SIMON, interview with JOHN SEVERIN, unpublished BOY EXPLORERS story, the rise and fall of S&K’s MAINLINE COMICS, unpublished art, pencil pages before inking, and more! KIRBY/ADKINS and KIRBY/SEVERIN covers!
KIRBY’s GODS! Interviews with KIRBY (discussing the true nature of God) & WALTER SIMONSON, 8-page color section with NEW GODS CONCEPT DRAWINGS, how Jack was influenced by JUDAISM AND THE BIBLE, examining Kirby’s take on mythology, plus features and art (including uninked pencils) from THOR, MR. MIRACLE, ETERNALS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and more!
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KIRBY COLLECTOR #27
KIRBY COLLECTOR #28
KIRBY COLLECTOR #28
KIRBY COLLECTOR #30
KIRBY COLLECTOR #31
KIRBY COLLECTOR #32
THE KIRBY INFLUENCE! Interviews with KIRBY (on his WWII experiences) and ALEX ROSS, KIRBY FAMILY roundtable discussion, All-Star Tribute Panel (featuring NEIL GAIMAN, DAVE GIBBONS, KURT BUSIEK, JEFF SMITH, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, MARK WAID, and others), color section, features, art (including uninked pencils), and more! KIRBY/BRUCE TIMM cover!
THE KIRBY INFLUENCE, PART TWO! Interviews with more pros influenced by Kirby, including Star Wars’ MARK HAMILL, JOHN KRICFALUSI, MOEBIUS, GARY GIANNI, GEOF DARROW, KARL KESEL, and MIKE ALLRED, interviews with Jack’s grandkids, a look at the career of inker VINCE COLLETTA, and more! KIRBY/MIKE ALLRED wraparound cover!
1970s MARVEL COMICS! Interviews with JACK and ROZ KIRBY, KEITH GIFFEN, and RICH BUCKLER, ’70s MARVEL COVER GALLERY in pencil, a look inside the 1970s MARVEL BULLPEN, Mike Gartland’s A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE on Jack’s layout work, new KIRBY AS A GENRE column, tips for frugal Kirby Collectors, and more! KIRBY/KLAUS JANSON cover!
KIRBY’S TWILIGHT YEARS (1978-94)! Interviews with ALAN MOORE and Kirby Estate co-trustee ROBERT KATZ, comparison of KIRBY’S margin notes to STAN LEE’S words, Jack’s 1980s career in-depth, including pencil art from SILVER STAR, CAPTAIN VICTORY, HUNGER DOGS, an animation art portfolio, FF STORYBOARDS, and lots more! KIRBY/PAUL SMITH cover!
FIRST TABLOID-SIZE ISSUE! MARK EVANIER’s new column, interviews with KURT BUSIEK and JOSÉ LADRONN, NEAL ADAMS on Kirby, Giant-Man overview, Kirby’s best 2-page spreads, 2000 Kirby Tribute Panel (MARK EVANIER, GENE COLAN, MARIE SEVERIN, ROY THOMAS, and TRACY & JEREMY KIRBY), huge Kirby pencils! Wraparound KIRBY/ADAMS cover!
KIRBY’S LEAST-KNOWN WORK! MARK EVANIER on the Fourth World, unfinished THE HORDE novel, long-lost KIRBY INTERVIEW from France, update to the KIRBY CHECKLIST, pencil gallery of Kirby’s leastknown work (including THE PRISONER, BLACK HOLE, IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB, TRUE DIVORCE CASES), westerns, and more! KIRBY/LADRONN cover!
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KIRBY COLLECTOR #33
KIRBY COLLECTOR #34
KIRBY COLLECTOR #35
KIRBY COLLECTOR #36
KIRBY COLLECTOR #37
KIRBY COLLECTOR #38
FANTASTIC FOUR ISSUE! Gallery of FF pencils at tabloid size, MARK EVANIER on the FF Cartoon series, interviews with STAN LEE and ERIK LARSEN, JOE SINNOTT salute, the HUMAN TORCH in STRANGE TALES, origins of Kirby Krackle, interviews with nearly EVERY WRITER AND ARTIST who worked on the FF after Kirby, & more! KIRBY/LARSEN and KIRBY/TIMM covers!
FIGHTING AMERICANS! MARK EVANIER on 1960s Marvel inkers, SHIELD, Losers, and Green Arrow overviews, INFANTINO interview on Simon & Kirby, KIRBY interview, Captain America PENCIL ART GALLERY, PHILIPPE DRUILLET interview, JOE SIMON and ALEX TOTH speak, unseen BIG GAME HUNTER and YOUNG ABE LINCOLN Kirby concepts! KIRBY and KIRBY/TOTH covers!
GREAT ESCAPES! MISTER MIRACLE pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER, MARSHALL ROGERS & MICHAEL CHABON interviews, comparing Kirby and Houdini’s backgrounds, analysis of “Himon,” 2001 Kirby Tribute Panel (WILL EISNER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN ROMITA, MIKE ROYER, & JOHNNY CARSON) & more! KIRBY/MARSHALL ROGERS and KIRBY/STEVE RUDE covers!
THOR ISSUE! Never-seen KIRBY interview, JOE SINNOTT and JOHN ROMITA JR. on their Thor work, MARK EVANIER, extensive THOR and TALES OF ASGARD coverage, a look at the “real” Norse gods, 40 pages of KIRBY THOR PENCILS, including a Kirby Art Gallery at TABLOID SIZE, with pin-ups, covers, and more! KIRBY covers inked by MIKE ROYER and TREVOR VON EEDEN!
“HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY!” MIKE ROYER interview on how he inks Jack’s work, HUGE GALLERY tracing the evolution of Jack’s style, new column on OBSCURE KIRBY WORK, MARK EVANIER, special sections on Jack’s TECHNIQUE AND INFLUENCES, comparing STAN LEE’s writing to JACK’s, and more! Two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!
“HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY!” PART 2: JOE SINNOTT on how he inks Jack’s work, HUGE PENCIL GALLERY, list of the art in the KIRBY ARCHIVES, MARK EVANIER, special sections on Jack’s technique and influences, SPEND A DAY WITH KIRBY (with JACK DAVIS, GULACY, HERNANDEZ BROS., and RUDE) and more! Two UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!
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COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR Volumes 1-7 These colossal trade paperbacks reprint issues #1-30 of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR! Each volume also includes over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including uninked pencils from THE PRISONER, NEW GODS, FANTASTIC FOUR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, HUNGER DOGS, JIMMY OLSEN, SHIELD, and more! Complete your collection today! VOLUME 1 (240 pages) $24.95 VOLUME 2 (160 pages) $17.95 VOLUME 3 (176 pages) $19.95 VOLUME 4 (240 pages) $24.95 VOLUME 5 (224 pages) $24.95 VOLUME 6 (288 pages) $29.95 VOLUME 7 (288 pages) $29.95
DIGITAL EDITIONS OF #1-22 ARE COMING SOON! GO TO www.twomorrows.com FOR UPDATES AND TO ORDER!
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KIRBY COLLECTOR #40
KIRBY COLLECTOR #41
KIRBY COLLECTOR #42
KIRBY COLLECTOR #43
KIRBY COLLECTOR #44
FAN FAVORITES! Covering Kirby’s work on HULK, INHUMANS, and SILVER SURFER, TOP PROS pick favorite Kirby covers, Kirby ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT interview, MARK EVANIER, 2002 Kirby Tribute Panel (DICK AYERS, TODD McFARLANE, PAUL LEVITZ, HERB TRIMPE), pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by MIKE ALLRED and P. CRAIG RUSSELL!
WORLD THAT’S COMING! KAMANDI and OMAC spotlight, 2003 Kirby Tribute Panel (WENDY PINI, MICHAEL CHABON, STAN GOLDBERG, SAL BUSCEMA, LARRY LIEBER, and STAN LEE), P. CRAIG RUSSELL interview, MARK EVANIER, NEW COLUMN analyzing Jack’s visual shorthand, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by ERIK LARSEN and REEDMAN!
1970s MARVEL WORK! Coverage of ’70s work from Captain America to Eternals to Machine Man, DICK GIORDANO & MARK SHULTZ interviews, MARK EVANIER, 2004 Kirby Tribute Panel (STEVE RUDE, DAVE GIBBONS, WALTER SIMONSON, and PAUL RYAN), pencil art gallery, unused 1962 HULK #6 KIRBY PENCILS, and more! Kirby covers inked by GIORDANO and SCHULTZ!
1970s DC WORK! Coverage of Jimmy Olsen, FF movie set visit, overview of all Newsboy Legion stories, KEVIN NOWLAN and MURPHY ANDERSON on inking Jack, never-seen interview with Kirby, MARK EVANIER on Kirby’s covers, Bongo Comics’ Kirby ties, complete ’40s gangster story, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by NOWLAN and ANDERSON!
KIRBY AWARD WINNERS! STEVE SHERMAN and others sharing memories and neverseen art from JACK & ROZ, a never-published 1966 interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER on VINCE COLLETTA, pencils-toSinnott inks comparison of TALES OF SUSPENSE #93, and more! Covers by KIRBY (Jack’s original ’70s SILVER STAR CONCEPT ART) and KIRBY/SINNOTT!
KIRBY’S MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS! Coverage of DEMON, THOR, & GALACTUS, interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER, pencil art galleries of the Demon and other mythological characters, two never-reprinted BLACK MAGIC stories, interview with Kirby Award winner DAVID SCHWARTZ and F4 screenwriter MIKE FRANCE, and more! Kirby cover inked by MATT WAGNER!
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KIRBY COLLECTOR #45
KIRBY COLLECTOR #46
KIRBY COLLECTOR #47
KIRBY COLLECTOR #48
KIRBY COLLECTOR #49
KIRBY COLLECTOR #51
Jack’s vision of PAST AND FUTURE, with a never-seen KIRBY interview, a new interview with son NEAL KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’S column, two pencil galleries, two complete ’50s stories, Jack’s first script, Kirby Tribute Panel (with EVANIER, KATZ, SHAW!, and SHERMAN), plus an unpublished CAPTAIN 3-D cover, inked by BILL BLACK and converted into 3-D by RAY ZONE!
Focus on NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and DARKSEID! Includes a rare interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’s column, FOURTH WORLD pencil art galleries (including Kirby’s redesigns for SUPER POWERS), two 1950s stories, a new Kirby Darkseid front cover inked by MIKE ROYER, a Kirby Forever People back cover inked by JOHN BYRNE, and more!
KIRBY’S SUPER-TEAMS, from kid gangs and the Challengers, to Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Super Powers, with unseen 1960s Marvel art, a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, author JONATHAN LETHEM on his Kirby influence, interview with JOHN ROMITA, JR. on his Eternals work, and more!
KIRBYTECH ISSUE, spotlighting Jack’s hightech concepts, from Iron Man’s armor and Machine Man, to the Negative Zone and beyond! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, TOM SCIOLI interview, Kirby Tribute Panel (with ADAMS, PÉREZ, and ROMITA), and covers inked by TERRY AUSTIN and TOM SCIOLI!
WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, wraparound Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more!
Bombastic EVERYTHING GOES issue, with a wealth of great submissions that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a “theme” issue! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JIM LEE and ADAM HUGHES, MARK EVANIER’s column, huge pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS, and more!
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KIRBY COLLECTOR #52
KIRBY COLLECTOR #53
KIRBY COLLECTOR #54
Spotlights KIRBY OBSCURA, uncovering some of Jack’s most obscure work! Learn about an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered versions of KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING! Color Kirby covers!
THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! New interview with STAN LEE, a walking tour of where Lee & Kirby lived and worked in NY, re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a new missing page), MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!
STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on LEE & KIRBY, new interview with GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’s approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, Kirby pencil art gallery, complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, plus Kirby cover inked by JOE SINNOTT!
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(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 Ships November 2009
STREETWISE Reprints Kirby’s 10-page story “Street Code”, plus NEW and classic autobiographical comics stories by: • BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH • SERGIO ARAGONÉS • MURPHY ANDERSON • JOE KUBERT • BRENT ANDERSON • NICK CARDY • RICK VEITCH • ROY THOMAS & JOHN SEVERIN • SAM GLANZMAN • PAUL CHADWICK • EVAN DORKIN • C.C. BECK • WALTER SIMONSON • ART SPIEGELMAN • Cover by STEVE RUDE • Foreword by WILL EISNER (160-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905047
JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST: GOLD EDITION The most thorough listing of KIRBY’s work ever published! NEWLY UPDATED GOLD EDITION compiles an additional decade’s worth of corrections and additions by top historians, in a new Trade Paperback format with premium paper for archival durability. It lists in exacting detail EVERY PUBLISHED COMIC featuring Kirby’s work, including dates, story titles, page counts, and inkers. It even CROSS-REFERENCES REPRINTS, and includes an extensive bibliography listing BOOKS, PERIODICALS, PORTFOLIOS, FANZINES, POSTERS, and other obscure pieces with Kirby's art, plus a detailed list of Jack's UNPUBLISHED WORK as well, including a complete listing of the over 5000-page archive of Kirby’s personal pencil art photocopies! (128-page trade paperback, with FREE digital edition) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 (Digital Edition only) $6.95 US
KIRBY FIVE-OH!
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS
A new book covering the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 1938-1987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This TABLOID-SIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Takes the place of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: FEB084186 (Limited Edition Hardcover, with Kirby pencil art plate) $34.95
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Send letters to: THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR c/o TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 E-mail to: twomorrow@aol.com • See back issue excerpts at: www.twomorrows.com Preeesenting: the greatest team in the history of comics! Your letters, and this letter column!
(This letter column is last thing I do each issue. As I write this, it’s Friday, July 3, and I’ve got to have the issue to press over the holiday weekend in order to have copies for our booth at Comic-Con. It’s also 95 degrees outside. And our air conditioning went out last night about 11 P.M. And there’s no chance I’m going to get a repairman here, with parts, over the July 4th weekend. So if you see any sweat stains on the pages this issue, you know why. And y’know what? I really don’t care about the heat too much. Sure, it’s miserable, but working on this mag, even after 15 years, is still enough fun to make me forget a little thing like heat exhaustion and dehydration. That, and the thought of vacation in Southern California in a couple of weeks will hopefully get me through this letter column. So, let’s get to letters on #52 before I melt:) I particularly like your crack at reconstructing THOR #168-170. Jack’s run on THOR is, in my opinion, the greatest of his career. I feel that Jack was very attached to the book too, more so than to the FF, though I realize I may be in danger of heresy here. I love your idea that the Watcher was responsible for creating Galactus. What a great storyline, and one that would, as you suggest, tie together a lot of threads established previously in FF and THOR. Also, I think, typical of the kind of storytelling masterstroke Jack was coming up with on a regular basis at that time. The suggestion that it was his creation of Galactus that caused the Watcher and, perhaps, his entire race, to withdraw from active engagement with the Universe adds a further, and much deeper, dimension to that character too. Your reconstruction of #169 is, obviously, speculative, but it makes sense. As for #170, Jack’s original ending from the previous issue clearly indicates that Thor and Galactus were about to return to Earth together to tackle the Thermal Man and his masters. Now what an epic story that would have been. What a truly cataclysmic conclusion to the whole saga, and what repercussions it would have had in the Marvel Universe. The Thunder God and the Devourer of Worlds fighting side-by-side? How awesome would that have been? Galactus as a good guy? What would that have meant for the fate he had imposed on the Silver Surfer? Would he have removed the barrier that prevented the Surfer from leaving Earth and soaring the spaceways? Would the Big G and his herald even have been reconciled? Given his own plans for the Surfer (issue #5 of SILVER SURFER would have come out about the time Jack was penciling THOR #169), no wonder Stan sunk the idea, although I’m pretty sure Jack would not have permanently transferred Galactus to the good team. He’s just too magnificent as a threat. Alas, we’ll never see the THOR #170 Jack originally planned... unless some more unused pages appear. Incidentally, I finally got hold of the region 1, extended version of the FF movie contain78
ing the “Jack Kirby: Storyteller” documentary and I have now, at last, seen it. It exceeded all my expectations. Brilliant. Wonderful to see Jack finally given the credit he so richly deserves, especially on a product bearing the Marvel logo. The question remains: Why did this superb documentary not appear on the region 2 disks? One last question, John: Who was that handsome young actor they got to play you in the documentary? Philip Shallcrass, UNITED KINGDOM (Glad you liked the issue; that THOR piece is the reason it shipped so late. I spent about 6 weeks, constantly poring over those issues and trying to track down original art pages. So far, nothing’s come in to either verify my hunches or dispute them, but time will tell. And actually, that was Brad Pitt playing me in the DVD documentary. They used some of the BENJAMIN BUTTON special effects tricks to ugly him up, though.) Here are some random comments on #52: Cover: Great to finally see this piece. I don’t think it’s one of Jack’s better designs—or color schemes. Neither is it a good example of how good Don Heck could be on inks. Makes me wonder just what Kirby’s pencils were like. All that loose shading on the torso area seems to me to be unlike how Jack normally would have penciled—yet unlike Heck to have added it there if the pencils were tight. I guess this design was produced after the Coal Tiger/Black Panther. If so, it appears Jack liked that short cape and collar design that quickly vanished from T’challa (though it was Jack that left it off in the first place!). Loved the back cover too. Colored and only half inked, mostly with a felt tip pen. Jack did like doing things a bit differently occasionally, didn’t he? Page 6: Mark mentions Stan’s short plot outlines. I’ve heard a few people say they have one/some of these later, brief pieces (as opposed to the FF #1 and #8 plots we’ve all seen)—yet to my knowledge we’ve NEVER seen one published. I certainly haven’t. Can we see some soon, please? Page 10: Another pencil page where we see Kirby ‘editing’ his own work after he’s finished and copied it off. In the printed book, we see he added more blacks and background in panels 1, 4 and 6. Page 12: Hey—Mike Royer did a Vinnie Colletta! In Panel 1, he’s blackened in the rocks above and to the left of DD, and silhouetted the figures! On the Eternals page following, he did a similar thing with the Celestial’s shadow in panel 4. Artistic choice? Or getting tired? Either way, his choice hasn’t detracted in any way from Kirby’s work here. Another artistic choice of Mike’s is revealed to us by your printing the NEW GODS pencils on page 67. This image (surely one of Kirby’s most classic pages ever!) shows the warrior had blank eyes. Mike added the eye. A good example of how when Mike changed anything, it was entirely consistent with Jack’s
vision. Whether he succeeded in improving the image is probably purely a personal issue, but I doubt he ever detracted from it. Page 16: Reading Barry Forshaw’s nostalgic pieces always reminds me of my experiences growing up in Oz. We were really fortunate here, getting a lot of US material as well as both British reprints AND Australian reprints, where one issue would sometimes put different companies’ material between the same covers. And like him, I know the feeling of longing to have the ‘real’ American stuff, not realizing how well served we were by the reprints we had access to. Page 46: I really like what you ended up with for the THOR reconstruction. All sounds very credible to me. (Of course I like #169— since that’s the order I’ve preferred for years, with those two Thermal Man pages for pages 15 and 19 rounding it out nicely.) As I said during our ‘discussions’ leading up to the article, I reckon the idea that Sean saw of Jack wanting the Watcher to have been the one who created Galactus is perfect! Sounds thoroughly Kirby-like to me! Page 55: You think the Marvelmania Portfolio ‘machine’ came from FF #48? But Jack wasn’t holding back pages back then, surely. I think it has to be from later years. Did you notice it actually has planets INSIDE it? (Top left) That’s why I think it was created around the time of the two Thor/Galactus stories—though did even Galactus ever have a machine THAT big? And where it would have fit in those issues—I dunno. But it’s a cracker of an illustration! (Amazingly well spotted by Tom Scioli, finding Thor on that Galactus page too!!) Page 70: I reckon a nice BIG printing of detailed pics like ‘Science Fiction Land’ would be welcome in a future issue, even tho it was shown before in #11. Stunning work by Jack. Page 79: The ‘Simon/Kirby’ Spiderman pic [right] is lifted straight from the Giant-Man splash in TALES TO ASTONISH #51 [below], produced when the Lee/Ditko Spider-Man was about 12 months old. Makes any claim to being authentic very weak in my book. Shane Foley, AUSTRALIA (Jack may not’ve been withholding pages from Marvel at the time of FF #48, but when using collages like the one that issue, my supposition is that if he decided to toss in a collage in #48, a penciled page might’ve gotten jettisoned to make room for it. Since no one else has a better explanation, I still go with #48. So nyah!)
[The attached layout sketch at right] is on the back of page seven of “When the Thing Runs Amok” from STRANGE TALES #93. The date stamp reads “AUG 4 1961” but it is cover dated Feb. 1962. The elongated figure in the bottom left suggests Mr. Fantastic (possibly) and the flying saucer suggests aliens. The only FANTASTIC FOUR issue with aliens around that time was the Skrulls in #2. FF #2 was cover dated Jan. 1962, so the time frame is about right. Or it could be for the “Pildorr the Plunderer from Outer Space” story in STRANGE TALES #94. I don’t have the issue handy for a comparison. Check out that price! Bret Mixon, Los Angeles, CA (Anyone have any idea what these layouts were for?) The reconstruction of THOR #168-170 was engrossing and fascinating. It makes the journey of Jack’s original FF #108 pale in comparison. The logic of the missing/added pages from both #168-169 seems perfect. I wish there could be a book similar to the recent LOST FF book made of Jack’s version of #168-170 and the Watcher origin as well. Sort of a WHAT IF? version of Galactus’ & Watcher’s origins (ironic, since the Watcher was the host of the WHAT IF? series). Glad you mentioned the missing Kirby cover to issue #169—I guess it really doesn’t exist—like the cover to #179. I wish you had shown the recently discovered page 18 of issue #169 in full size, but I understand the image is degraded. Two things that never seem to be mentioned is why the appearance of Thermal Man was changed and why Heimdall instead of Balder was on the rejected cover to Thor #170. Was Jack so disconcerted over the whole rejection of the original #169 that he forgot what was what, or did he originally feel that in lieu of Galactus being cut from the story, that Thor would call for additional warriors to battle Thermal Man? Mike Kanafani, Plantation, FL Regarding your comments in “The Lost Adventure” about FANTASTIC FOUR #108 being a bit of a mess that didn’t make much sense, I have to say that I think your prejudices are showing. Although it was extremely interesting to see what Jack originally planned for the issue, I have to say that I think Stan was right to make the changes he did. It’s well recognized by now that Jack wasn’t trying too hard in his last few months at Marvel, and the coincidence of a bust of Janus being unearthed at the same time the FF battle a villain of the same name is
just a bit too contrived. Sure, Stan could have diluted this aspect with a clever bit of dialogue, but instead of running with a ‘one-off’ tale, Stan made better use of the character and used the story as a prologue to a two-part adventure in the Negative Zone. Rather than each FF tale seeming like unconnected encounters, Stan, by introducing Janus in issue #107, makes it appear that what happens to the quartet is a seamless, unbroken, sequential unfolding of their adventures. By editing out the twin that Jack introduced, Stan’s clever ‘twist in the tale’ of the ‘brother’ being merely the evil manifestation of Janus himself is more in keeping with the whole concept of the mythological source of the character and results in a better resolution of the episode. Yeah, if only Jack had drawn the complete issue as printed, but John Buscema’s input isn’t too distracting, thanks to Joe Sinnott’s inks. This is not to say that Jack’s original story was bad—merely that Stan’s version was better. This leads me on to the sometimes worrying aspect of your magazine—the almost ‘deification’ of Jack as an artist and storyteller by some fans. You know, the “Jack’s stories should have been printed directly from the pencils (if technology would have allowed at the time), Jack should have written his own dialogue, Jack should have been free from any and all editorial/creative input from Stan (or anybody else),” etc. As great as Jack undoubtedly was, he was even greater when paired with other talented collaborators. Jack’s art was better when inked by artists who diluted his weaknesses and enhanced his strengths— Wally Wood and Joe Sinnott, for example. Art by Jack and Joe (or Wally, or Vince—yes, Vince) was better than art by Jack himself. As interesting and enjoyable as Jack’s stories were, they were even more interesting and enjoyable when dialogued by Stan. Mark Evanier holds the view (if I understand him correctly) that if Jack’s ‘Fourth World’ stories were produced by Marvel and dialogued by Stan, then they would be entirely different comics and therefore it would be unfair to compare what they were with what they might have been. However, it seems to me, with no dis-
respect to Mark, that the first part of his assessment (completely different product) is merely to state the obvious and does not necessarily lend weight to his conclusion. Yes, they would have been different—but they would also have been BETTER. Why? Because Stan had a better ear for dialogue than Jack, and anything Stan worked on was always the better for it—in my humble opinion. It’s a bit of an over-simplification to say that Jack tended to tell his stories in the captions and Stan told his in the dialogue balloons, but there is a lot of truth to this. Although I also enjoy the stuff that Jack dialogued himself, on some pages I was often left with the impression that I was reading text with accompanying illustrations rather than looking at pictures with accompanying dialogue. As an analogy, remember when Sean Connery returned to the role of Bond in NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN? As great as it was to see him reprise the role (and in no way is it my intention to relegate Roger Moore to second-best status with the preceding statement), it served only to prove that in order to make a classic Bond movie, more than Sean Connery was required. It was painfully obvious that what was also needed was the Monty Norman theme tune, the John Barry soundtrack, the Maurice Binder gun barrel logo, the Ken Adam set design—to say nothing of Desmond Llewelyn as ‘Q’, Bernard Lee as ‘M’, and Lois Maxwell as ‘Moneypenny’. NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN limped in at quite a distance behind Roger Moore’s OCTOPUSSY at the box-office. Jack Kirby’s finished product was usually better served at Marvel than it was at DC for the self-same reasons: Stan Lee dialogue and input, Joe Sinnott inking, Artie or Sam lettering, etc. I rest my case. Keep up the good work. Gordon ‘Kid’ Robson, SCOTLAND (Thanks for the thought-provoking letter, Gordon. In the decade-and-a-half I’ve been producing this magazine, I’ve been unjustly accused of having an anti-Stan bias quite a few times, because I’ve run articles and letters by people who are critical of Stan for various things. Recently, someone even accused me of rejecting their book proposal about Marvel Comics because I didn’t want to give Stan Lee any more credit than he’s already gotten for that era—a pretty preposterous claim when you look at all the favorable pieces we’ve run on Stan in our various books and magazines over the years. Mike Gartland’s “A Failure To Communicate” series undoubtedly had a lot to do with the perception that this magazine (and by extension, its editor) is anti-Stan Lee. Mike’s series took Stan to task for a lot of things in his working relationship with Jack, and was pretty hard-hitting. Other contributors have written pieces critical of Stan in some ways, but let me make something clear here; I didn’t write those pieces. Other people did, and sent them in. Yes, I choose which pieces go in this magazine, but I can only choose from what’s submitted to me. I’m not holding back or censoring some big stockpile of submissions favorable to Stan; I run what I think will interest my readers, based on what I have on hand. And if I’ve personally gone on an anti-Stan rant in these pages, please show me where, ’cause I don’t remember it.
Also, let’s not overlook all the favorable pieces we’ve run about Stan, and all the critical pieces we’ve run about Jack. I try to keep it as balanced as possible, but I don’t think anyone wants a magazine that does no more than serve as a cheerleader for either guy. Let’s talk about the work, warts and all, and heighten our appreciation of it all around. I do accept that there’s an anti-Stan sentiment among a certain segment of Kirby fans. I am not one of them. I am, however, a realist when it comes to the Lee/Kirby collaboration. There was a real disconnect between them, starting in the mid-1960s, and coming to a head around 1970 when Jack left Marvel for DC. There were hard feelings from both sides, and some of that still remains. It’s only human, although I think it’s dimmed considerably with the passing of time. This magazine is about Jack Kirby’s life and career, and Stan Lee, for better and worse, was a big part of it. Jack’s biggest successes, and biggest disappointments, were with Stan. As editor, I’m not going to gloss over either one. As long as contributors are civil in their comments, I’m not going to censor anyone’s views. I do stand by my opinion that the FF #108 story was a mess. Stan should’ve just ignored Jack’s unused pages entirely and started from scratch, rather than shoehorn them into a storyline. But he probably viewed having a “new” Kirby FF story appear the same month as NEW GODS #1 a smart commercial move; as a publisher, I’d probably be tempted to do the same. Now, does that last comment make me antiStan? I don’t think so; I think it’s an honest critical assessment of FF #108. But I guess it’s all in your perception. For the record: I don’t begrudge Stan his credit for the Marvel Age; he deserves it all. I just don’t feel Jack has gotten enough credit. Part of my goal with this mag is to help Jack get his fair share. So here’s the deal: I will continue to run articles both pro and con about Stan and Jack, if I think they have merit—including more from Mike Gartland if he decides to write them. If you think our coverage is too biased one way or the other, submit something. Hey, if I print enough pro-Stan articles, maybe pretty soon people will start accusing me of being anti-Kirby...)
#53 Credits: John Morrow, Editor/Designer Lily Morrow, Scanning Eric Nolen-Weathington, Proofreader Rand Hoppe, Webmaster Tom Ziuko, Colorist Chris Fama, Art Restoration SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OUR CONTRIBUTORS: Ger Apeldoorn • Dick Ayers Martin Bartolomeo Jerry Boyd • Gene Colan Mark Evanier • Chris Fama David Folkman • Barry Forshaw Mike Gartland David “Hambone” Hamilton Bruce Hannum Heritage Auctions • Rand Hoppe Sean Kleefeld • Peter Koch Tom Lammers • Stan Lee Paul S. Levine • Adam McGovern Chris Ng • Owen O’Leary George Pérez • Jerry Robinson John Romita Sr. • Joe Ruby Tom Scioli • Kevin Shaw Joe Sinnott • Mark Sinnott Ken Spears • Dave Stevens Mike Thibodeaux • Herb Trimpe George Tuska • Mike Valerio Dr. Michael Vassallo The Yahoo Atlas Newsgroup Tom Ziuko and of course The Kirby Estate If we’ve forgotten anyone, please let us know!
Contribute & Get Free Issues! The Jack Kirby Collector is a notfor-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 the issue it appears in. Here’s a tentative list of upcoming themes, but we treat these themes very loosely, so anything you write may fit somewhere. So get writing, and send us copies of your art! GOT A THEME IDEA? PLEASE WRITE US! #54: STAN & JACK PART TWO! We continue our celebration of the greatest team in the history of comics! #55: KIRBY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD! An issue all about Jack’s career in animation and film! #56: THE IMMORTAL KIRBY! It’s gods, gods, and more gods, from the Fourth World to Eternals and beyond! #57: UNFINISHED SAGAS! All the series, stories, and arcs Jack never got to properly finish.
NEXT ISSUE: #54 presents STAN & JACK PART TWO! There’s more features on the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, plus a new interview (and back cover inks) by Bullpenner GEORGE TUSKA, an examination of the differences between Kirby and Ditko’s approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by JOE SINNOTT! The deadline for contributions is August 30, and look for issue #54 in November!
#58: JACK KIRBY: WRITER! A look at the good, bad, and ugly of the oft-maligned writing skills of the King. Here’s your chance to weigh in! SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Submit artwork as: 1) Color or B&W photocopies. 2) 300ppi TIFF or JPEG scans Submit articles as: 1) E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com 2) ASCII or RTF text files. 3) Typed or laser printed pages. Please include background information whenever possible.
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Parting Shot
David Folkman submitted this wonderful sketch, about which he said: “Jack gave me the Silver Surfer softcover graphic novel he and Stan did together and drew the pencil sketch on the opening blank endpaper. Stan signed it for me when he attended our National Cartoonist Society Los Angeles chapter holiday brunch at the Friars Club in Beverly Hills, 1997.” Silver Surfer TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
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JACK KIRBY BOOKS
JACK KIRBY (1917-1994) stands as comics’ most prolific talent, with a 50-year career wherein he created or co-created such iconic characters as THE FANTASTIC FOUR, SILVER SURFER, THE HULK, X-MEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THE NEW GODS, and a legion of others. These books pay tribute to him and his creations.
COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, VOLUMES 1-7, EDITED BY JOHN MORROW REPRINTING THE FIRST 30 ISSUES OF THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, PLUS NEW MATERIAL
JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST: GOLD EDITION VOLUME 1
VOLUME 2
VOLUME 3
VOLUME 4
This colossal trade paperback reprints issues #1-9 of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, the highly-acclaimed magazine about comics’ most prodigious imagination: JACK KIRBY! Included are the low-distribution early issues, the Fourth World theme issue, and the Fantastic Four theme issue! Also includes over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including uninked pencils from THE PRISONER, NEW GODS, FANTASTIC FOUR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, HUNGER DOGS, JIMMY OLSEN, SHIELD, and more! Features interviews with KIRBY, JOE SIMON, MIKE ROYER, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, STEVE SHERMAN, and other Kirby collaborators, plus an introduction by MARK EVANIER.
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #10-12—the Humor, Hollywood, and International theme issues! Also included is a new special section detailing a fan’s private tour of the Kirbys’ remarkable home, profusely illustrated with photos, and more than 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including Jack’s uninked pencil art from THE PRISONER, NEW GODS, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, HUNGER DOGS, JIMMY OLSEN, SHIELD, MACHINE MAN, THE ETERNALS, and more! Learn more about the King’s career through interviews with JACK AND ROZ KIRBY, JOHN BYRNE, STEVE GERBER, MARK EVANIER, ROGER STERN, MARV WOLFMAN, and others!
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #13-15—the Horror, Thor, and Science-Fiction theme issues! There’s also a NEW special section with 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including uninked pencils from CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, JIMMY OLSEN, THE DEMON, NEW GODS, THE PRISONER, and more! Go behind-the-scenes of Jack’s career through interviews with KIRBY and his collaborators and admirers like DICK AYERS, CHIC STONE, WALTER SIMONSON, AL WILLIAMSON, and MIKE THIBODEAUX, and see page-after-page of rare and unpublished Kirby art! Features a 1960s Kirby cover, and an introduction by STEVE BISSETTE.
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #16-19—the Tough Guys, DC, and Marvel theme issues, and a special issue detailing the intricacies of Jack’s art! Also included is a new special section with over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, featuring Jack’s uninked pencils from NEW GODS, MISTER MIRACLE, FOREVER PEOPLE, JIMMY OLSEN, KAMANDI, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THE SILVER SURFER, OMAC, and more! It features interviews with KIRBY, STAN LEE, FRANK MILLER, WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, nearly the whole MARVEL BULLPEN (including JOHN BUSCEMA and JOHN ROMITA), and others, a Foreword by colorist TOM ZIUKO, and a KIRBY/STEVE RUDE cover!
(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905009 Diamond Order Code: DEC032834
(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905016 Diamond Order Code: MAR042974
(176-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905023 Diamond Order Code: APR043058
(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905320 Diamond Order Code: MAY043052
(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 Now Shipping!
NEW FOR 2009
VOLUME 5
VOLUME 6
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #20-22—the Kirby’s Women, Wackiest Work, and Villains issues, featuring interviews with JACK KIRBY and daughter LISA KIRBY, plus DAVE STEVENS, GIL KANE, BRUCE TIMM, STEVE RUDE, and MIKE “HELLBOY” MIGNOLA! Also features an unpublished Kirby story still in pencil, Jack’s original pencils to FANTASTIC FOUR #49 (from the fabled Galactus trilogy), and over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including Jack’s uninked pencils from THE DEMON, FOREVER PEOPLE, JIMMY OLSEN, KAMANDI, ETERNALS, CAPTAIN AMERICA, BLACK PANTHER, and more, a Foreword by DAVID HAMILTON, plus a KIRBY/DAVE STEVENS cover!
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26—Jack’s “Greatest Battles,” “Gods,” and his Golden Age work with JOE SIMON! Features rare interviews with Kirby himself, plus new ones with comics pros DENNY O’NEIL, JIM SHOOTER, JOHN SEVERIN, and WALTER SIMONSON! PLUS: see a complete ten-page UNPUBLISHED KIRBY STORY! Jack’s ORIGINAL PENCILS to FANTASTIC FOUR #49 (the first appearance of the Silver Surfer)! Kirby’s original concept art for the Fourth World characters! An analysis comparing Kirby’s margin notes to Stan Lee’s dialogue! Plus a NEW special section with over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, and a Foreword by MIKE GARTLAND!
(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905573 Diamond Order Code: FEB063353
(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Now Shipping!
VOLUME 7 (NEW FOR 2009!)
SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, with looks at Jack’s 1970s and ‘80s work, plus a two-part focus on how widespread Kirby’s influence is! Features rare interviews with KIRBY himself, plus Watchmen’s ALAN MOORE and DAVE GIBBONS, NEIL GAIMAN, Bone’s JEFF SMITH, MARK HAMILL, and others! See page after page of rare Kirby art, including a NEW SPECIAL SECTION with over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, and more!
First conceptualized in the 1970s as a movie screenplay, SILVER STAR was too far ahead of its time for Hollywood, so artist JACK KIRBY adapted it as a six-issue mini-series for Pacific Comics in the 1980s, making it his final, great comics series. Image Comics recently collected the printed comics as a full-color hardcover, but now the entire six-issue run is collected here, reproduced from his powerful, uninked PENCIL ART, showing Kirby’s work in its undiluted, raw form! Also included is Kirby’s ILLUSTRATED SILVER STAR MOVIE SCREENPLAY, never-seen SKETCHES, PIN-UPS, and an historical overview to put it all in perspective!
(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490120 Now Shipping!
(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905559 Diamond Order Code: JAN063367
CAPTAIN VICTORY: GRAPHITE EDITION
KIRBY UNLEASHED (REMASTERED)
For the first time, JACK KIRBY’s original CAPTAIN VICTORY GRAPHIC NOVEL is presented as it was created in 1975 (before being broken up and modified for the 1980s Pacific Comics series), reproduced from copies of Kirby’s uninked pencil art! Features page after page of prime pencils, and includes Jack’s unused CAPTAIN VICTORY SCREENPLAY, unseen art, an historical overview to put it in perspective!
Reprinting the fabled 1971 KIRBY UNLEASHED PORTFOLIO, completely remastered! Spotlights some of KIRBY’s finest art from all eras of his career, including 1930s pencil work, unused strips, illustrated World War II letters, 1950s pages, unpublished 1960s Marvel pencil pages and sketches, and Fourth World pencil art (done expressly for this portfolio in 1970)! We’ve gone back to the original art to ensure the best reproduction possible, and MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN have updated the Kirby biography from the original printing, and added a new Foreword explaining how this portfolio came to be! PLUS: We’ve recolored the original color plates, and added EIGHT NEW BLACK-&-WHITE PAGES, plus EIGHT NEW COLOR PAGES, including Jack’s four GODS posters (released separately in 1972), and four extra Kirby color pieces, all at tabloid size!
(52-page comic book) $5.95
The most thorough listing of JACK “KING” KIRBY’s work ever published! Building on the 1998 “Silver Edition”, this NEWLY UPDATED GOLD EDITION compiles an additional decade’s worth of corrections and additions by top historians, in a new Trade Paperback format with premium paper for archival durability. It lists in exacting detail EVERY PUBLISHED COMIC featuring Kirby’s work, including dates, story titles, page counts, and inkers. It even CROSS-REFERENCES REPRINTS, and includes an extensive bibliography listing BOOKS, PERIODICALS, PORTFOLIOS, FANZINES, POSTERS, and other obscure pieces with Kirby's art, plus a detailed list of Jack's UNPUBLISHED WORK as well. BONUS: Now includes a complete listing of the over 5000-page archive of Kirby’s personal pencil art photocopies, plus dozens of examples of rare and unseen Kirby art!
17" x 23" JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR POSTER Only a few left of our TJKC retailer’s poster! $10 US
(60-page tabloid with COLOR) $20 Diamond Order Code: OCT043208
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All characters shown TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
A plea from the publisher of this fine digital periodical: TwoMorrows, we’re on the Honor System with our Digital Editions. We don’t add Digital Rights Management features to them to stop piracy; they’re clunky and cumbersome, and make readers jump through hoops to view content they’ve paid for. And studies show such features don’t do much to stop piracy anyway. So we don’t include DRM in our downloads.
At
However, this is COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, which is NOT INTENDED FOR FREE DOWNLOADING ANYWHERE. If you paid the modest fee we charge to download it at our website, you have our sincere thanks. Your support allows us to keep producing magazines like this one. If instead you downloaded it for free from some other website or torrent, please know that it was absolutely 100% DONE WITHOUT OUR CONSENT. Our website is the only source to legitimately download any TwoMorrows publications. If you found this at another site, it was an ILLEGAL POSTING OF OUR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, and your download is illegal as well. If that’s the case, here’s what I hope you’ll do: GO AHEAD AND READ THIS DIGITAL ISSUE, AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK. If you enjoy it enough to keep it, please DO THE RIGHT THING and go to our site and purchase a legal download of this issue, or purchase the print edition at our website (which entitles you to the Digital Edition for free) or at your local comic book shop. Otherwise, please delete it from your computer, since it hasn’t been paid for. And please DON’T KEEP DOWNLOADING OUR MATERIAL ILLEGALLY, for free. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, support our company by paying for the material we produce. We’re not some giant corporation with deep pockets, and can absorb these losses. We’re a small company—literally a “mom and pop” shop—with dozens of hard working freelance creators, slaving away day and night and on weekends, to make a pretty minimal amount of income for all this hard work. All of our editors and authors, and comic shop owners, rely on income from this publication to continue producing more like it. Every sale we lose to an illegal download hurts, and jeopardizes our future. Please don’t rob us of the small amount of compensation we receive. Doing so helps ensure there won’t be any future products like this to download. And please don’t post this copyrighted material anywhere, or share it with anyone else. Remember: TwoMorrows publications should only be downloaded at
www.twomorrows.com TM
TwoMorrows.Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com