Jack Kirby Collector #62 by TwoMorrows Publishing

The

$10.95

WINTER 2013

OMAC

KAMANDI

ATLAS

NEW GODS

All characters TM & © DC Comics.

DEMON

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #62

SAVE

THE BEST IN COMICS & LEGO® PUBLICATIONS!

WHE % OR N YOU ONLDER INE!

1994--2013

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: The 1950s

BILL SCHELLY tackles comics of the Atomic Era of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley: EC’s TALES OF THE CRYPT, MAD, CARL BARKS’ Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, re-tooling the FLASH in Showcase #4, return of Timely’s CAPTAIN AMERICA, HUMAN TORCH and SUB-MARINER, FREDRIC WERTHAM’s anti-comics campaign, and more! NOW SHIPPING! (240-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $40.95 (Digital Edition) $12.95 • ISBN: 9781605490540

1965-69

JOHN WELLS covers the transformation of MARVEL COMICS into a pop phenomenon, Wally Wood’s TOWER COMICS, CHARLTON’s Action Heroes, the BATMAN TV SHOW, Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, and Denny O’Neil leading a youth wave in comics, GOLD KEY digests, the Archies and Josie & the Pussycats, and more! SHIPS MARCH 2014

Ambitious new series of FULLCOLOR HARDCOVERS documenting each decade of comic book history!

(224-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 9781605490557

ALSO AVAILABLE NOW:

The 1970s

JASON SACKS & KEITH DALLAS detail the emerging Bronze Age of comics: Relevance with Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’s GREEN LANTERN, Jack Kirby’s FOURTH WORLD saga, Comics Code revisions that opens the floodgates for monsters and the supernatural, Jenette Kahn’s arrival at DC and the subsequent DC IMPLOSION, the coming of Jim Shooter and the DIRECT MARKET, and more!

1960-64: (224-pages) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $11.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-045-8 1980s: (288-pages) $41.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-046-5 COMING SOON: 1930s, 1940-44, 1945-49 and 1990s

(240-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $40.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 • ISBN: 9781605490564 • SHIPS JULY 2014

Our newest mag: Comic Book Creator! ™

No. 3, Fall 2013

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

A Tw o M o r r o w s P u b l i c a t i o n

82658 97073

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #3 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #4

NEAL ADAMS vigorously responds to critics of his BATMAN: ODYSSEY mini-series in an in-depth interview! Plus: SEAN HOWE on his hit book MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY; MARK WAID interview, part one; Harbinger writer JOSHUA DYSART; Part Two of our LES DANIELS remembrance; a new ADAMS cover, and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

O C O M IC B

FEVER houry

rge K

by Jo

it in Catc0h14! 2

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #5

RUSS HEATH career-spanning interview, essay on Heath’s work by S.C. RINGGENBERG (and Heath art gallery), MORT TODD on working with STEVE DITKO, a profile of alt cartoonist DAN GOLDMAN, part two of our MARK WAID interview, DENYS COWAN on his DJANGO series, VIC BLOOM and THE SECRET ORIGIN OF ARCHIE ANDREWS, HEMBECK, new KEVIN NOWLAN cover!

DENIS KITCHEN close-up—from cartoonist, publisher, author, and art agent, to his friendships with HARVEY KURTZMAN, R. CRUMB, WILL EISNER, and many others! Plus we examine the supreme artistry of JOHN ROMITA, JR., BILL EVERETT’s final splash, the nefarious backroom dealings of STOLEN COMIC BOOK ART, and ascend THE GODS OF MT. OLYMPUS (a ‘70s gem by ACHZIGER, STATON and WORKMAN)!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Jan. 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2014

SUBSCRIBE! • Digital Editions: $3.95 each, or save with a digital subscription (digital editions are included FREE with a print subscription)! • All our magazines are now full-color! • Lower international shipping!

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #6: SWAMPMEN! (2014’s double-size Summer Special) SWAMPMEN: MUCK-MONSTERS OF THE COMICS dredges up Swamp Thing, ManThing, The Heap, Lurker of the Swamp, It, Bog Beast, Marvin the Dead Thing and other creepy man-critters of the 1970s bayou, with a stunning line-up of interviews: WRIGHTSON, MOORE, PLOOG, WEIN, BRUNNER, GERBER, BISSETTE, VEITCH, CONWAY, MAYERIK, ORLANDO, PASKO, MOONEY, TOTLEBEN, YEATES, BERGER, SANTOS, USLAN, KALUTA, THOMAS, and many others. New FRANK CHO cover! Ships July 2014 (192-page trade paperback with COLOR) $17.95 • (Digital Edition) $8.95

2013 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (with FREE Digital Editions)

Media Mail

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl. Intl.

Digital Only

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$50

$68

$65

$72

$150

$15.80

BACK ISSUE! (8 issues)

$60

$80

$85

$107

$155

$23.60

DRAW! (4 issues)

$30

$40

$43

$54

$78

$11.80

ALTER EGO (8 issues)

$60

$80

$85

$107

$155

$23.60

COMIC BOOK CREATOR (4 issues w/Special)

$36

$45

$50

$65

$95

$15.80

BRICKJOURNAL (6 issues)

$57

$72

$75

$86

$128

$23.70

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com

Contents

THE COLOR

Kirby AT DC! OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (DC for me!) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (key 1970s DC moments)

ISSUE #62, WINTER 2013

KIRBYLOGUING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 (the return of the X-files) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 (Mark Evanier explains why Jack didn't fit in at DC) GALLERY 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 (fave Fourth World images) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 (Barry Forshaw knows too much) KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 (Norris Burroughs on super soldiers past and future) OVERVUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 (Big Brother meets Captain America in OMAC) BOBBY BRYANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 (Kirby & the Watergate [T]apes) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .38 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) WORKMANSHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 (John Workman takes us behind the scenes at ’70s DC Comics and his Kirby Kobra Konnections) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . .44 (the many beards of Dr. E. Leopold Maas) FOUNDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 (Kirby’s best genres, ’40s vs. ’70s) KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . .56 (Allred and Scioli transform Jack) BOYDISMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 (Jerry Boyd presents Part 2 of Fascism in the Fourth World) THE SOURCE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 (Mike Breen compares the FF and Challengers like never before) GHOST WRITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 (why did Jack draw pages differently for some scripters?) TRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (2013 Kirby Panel with Evanier, Gaiman, Isabella, and Levine) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .91 PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96 Front & back cover inks: MIKE ROYER Front cover color: TOM ZIUKO If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,

PLEASE READ THIS: This is copyrighted material, NOT intended for downloading anywhere except our website. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal download, or a printed copy (which entitles you to the free Digital Edition) at our website or your local comic book shop. Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications enough to download them, please pay for them so we can keep producing ones like this. Our digital editions should ONLY be downloaded at

www.twomorrows.com

Circa 1974 Kirby commission piece, beautifully inked this year by Mike Royer for this issue’s cover. Thanks, Mike! The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 20, No. 62, Winter 2013. Published purt-near quarterly by and © TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $14 postpaid ($18 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $50 US, $65 Canada, $72 elsewhere. Editorial package © TwoMorrows Publishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912

COPYRIGHTS: Alien Thing, Aquaman, Arin, Atlas, Batman, Big Barda, Big Bear, Black Canary, Black Racer, Boy Commandos, Challengers of the Unknown, Clark Kent, Darkseid, Deadman, Demon, Desaad, Dingbats of Danger Street, Dr. E. Leopold Maas, Fastbak, Flash, Forager, Forever People, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Green Team, Guardian, Hawkman, Highfather, House of Secrets, In The Days Of The Mob, Infinity Man, Jimmy Olsen, Kalibak, Kamandi, Kobra, Lightray, Lonar, Losers, Manhunter, Manhunter, Metron, Morgan Edge, Mister Miracle, New Gods, Newsboy Legion, OMAC, Orion, Outsiders, Richard Dragon Kung Fu Fighter, Sandman, Secret Society of Super Villains, Spirit World, Super Powers, Superman, Teekl, Vigilante, Virmin Vundabar, Witchboy, Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics. • Bucky, Captain America, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Inhumans, Loki, Silver Surfer, Thor, What If? TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • The Avenger TM & © Conde Nast • Black Magic, Boy Explorers, Boys' Ranch, Fighting American TM & © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estates • Soul Love, True Divorce Cases TM & © Jack Kirby Estate • Destroyer Duck TM & © Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby Estates • Conan TM & © Conan Properties.

Opening Shot

DC for Me by editor John Morrow

’ve elaborated in these pages before, about how as a pre-teen, I had a fantasy that I’d get sick—just enough that Jack Kirby would hear about it, come to my house, and draw a huge mural of his characters on my bedroom wall. Then, of course, I’d recover (no doubt thanks to the positive energy from meeting Jack) and live happily ever after with my giant Kirby masterpiece. Forget the fact that, at that point in 1973 I was living with my mom in an apartment, and if such a thing had ever happened, we’d have never been able to move, lest I leave that mural behind. (Or I’d simply rip the sheet rock off the wall and take it with me—what does a 12-year-old know about losing security deposits on rental properties?) It’s a moot point, since I never did get sick (other than chicken pox, which have their own Kirby tie I’ve mentioned here before as well), and my mom finally was able to save the down payment on a place of her own. Still, the image of that mural sticks in my imagination to this day. And you know what? There’s not a single Marvel character on it. You can have your Fantastic Fours and Thors, your chrome-plated Surfers and chartreuse behemoths from the House that Jack Built. I ate, drank, and breathed DC. And it wasn’t characters from the first Kirby DC title I saw (which would be Kamandi, specifically issue #12) that had me yearning for a semi-fatal illness. The image in my head was populated exclusively with Jack’s Fourth World characters, a lot like what he eventually created for Who’s Who #16 in 1986 (shown atop next page)—only drawn while he was at the peak of his powers in the early 1970s. In lieu of that mural, over the years I’ve searched high and low for a mini-fix—Fourth World character sketches by Jack— but they were always out of my reach price-wise. A Mark Moonrider sketch I saw for sale at the 1978 Atlanta Fantasy Fair for $50 (as shown in TJKC #3) sold in the 1994 Christie’s auction for a whopping $920 (almost twenty times more; imagine what it’d go for today!). I always seemed to be just behind the curve on being able to afford Jack’s art as it increased in value, so my Fourth World quest remained frustratingly unfulfilled—a sort of paper trail that never led anywhere. Want to know just how obsessed I became with Darkseid and Co.? I even composed a New Gods theme song in my head—melody, harmony, lyrics, the works. I’d sing it in the shower, when I was outside playing, or walking down the street and no one was listening. It’s still in there, and to this day it’ll pop into my mind when I least expect it. It’s the absolute geekiest, cheesiest show tune you could ever imagine (and if you run into me at a comics convention, don’t bother asking; I absolutely will not sing it for you). I blame it all on my Aunt Kim, who was around 18 at the time, and dating a guy who’d just decided to get rid of his comic books. She stopped by our place one night, and dropped a huge paper grocery bag full of them in my lap. In it was New Gods #6, “The Glory Boat.” One look at the mummified figure on the cover, and the two large circles with some guys named “Orion” and “Lightray” in them, and I stopped looking at all the other comics in that sack. I didn’t know Stan Lee even existed at that point, so I couldn’t compare Jack’s operatic dialogue to the arguably more “natural” scripting of “The Man.” All I knew was, I had to get me more of that New Gods stuff. After consuming issue #6, I dug through that assortment of comic hand-me-downs

(next page, bottom right) A fantastic example of a Kirby Fourth World sketch, circa 1972. I wouldn’t have been able to afford it then, but at least I (and you) can enjoy it vicariously through this mag!

lesser extent Sandman and Manhunter—but never the Boy Commandos, for some reason). Still, it was the characters and concepts in the front of those early 1970s DC books that hit the sweet spot for me, and still do. I’m now about three years shy of the age when Jack did, what I think, was his most brilliant work, and I’ve long since given up my dream of owning Kirby sketches of his Fourth World characters, but my obsession continues through scans and xeroxes. I got Mike Royer to ink a scan of the Kirby Orion pencil piece on this issue’s cover, so I now own that. I still hope someday, someone turns up pencil photocopies for New Gods #1-4, so we can see what Vinnie Colletta saw before he inked those books. And somewhere out there is an 81⁄2" x 11" typing paper rough by Jack of the cover to Forever People #8 (I saw it the one time I met Kirby at the 1991 San Diego Comic-Con). Hopefully whoever has it will eventually send me a copy, even if it’s not for publication here. The Fourth World lives on long after Jack left us, and it’s only a matter of time before we see his DC concepts on the big screen. But for me, the real Fourth World exists only on paper. Over forty years later, it’s the one Kirby concept I’ll never tire of—just like at age 12, it’s still DC for me. ★

and happily discovered a copy of New Gods #9, “The Bug.” Something compelled me to take out my scissors and cut out the best figures of Orion and Lightray from both those issues, and use them as my own one-dimensional action figures (or “superhero dolls” as we used to call them) to act out battle scenes—all the while composing my New Gods theme song in my head. In 1995, I finally made restitution for those two issues of New Gods I chopped to pieces; my first original art purchase was a page from issue #9, which contained two of my fave figures by Kirby (right). But as much as I loved getting that page, even better was meeting all the fine friends and family who surrounded him while he drew it—the best perk of this job. The page was already autographed by Jack when I bought it, so I got Roz Kirby, Steve Sherman, Mark Evanier, and Mike Royer to sign it as well, and it’s a treasured keepsake I’ll never part with. And I finally got a semi-fix for my Fourth World sketch mania, when Lisa Kirby loaned me her mom’s fabled “Black Book” Valentine’s sketchbook a few years ago. I naturally spent most of my time poring over the drawings of Orion, Lightray, Beautiful Dreamer, and others related to the Fourth World. It was a thrill finally getting to hold those sketches in my hands as I scanned them for posterity, but even more exciting was the fact that Kirby’s own daughter trusted me with such an expensive heirloom—and even more terrifying was the prospect of it somehow getting damaged or lost before I returned it. (Thankfully, neither happened.) I went on to thoroughly enjoy all of Kirby’s DC work, and there’s not a dog in the bunch. When I forgot to read a book for an in-class book report in high school, I used the Manhunter story from First Issue Special #5 as my source material (I got a “B” on it). I consider OMAC an underappreciated classic, and finding the original unaltered King Kobra #1 pencil xeroxes is still a holy grail of mine. When DC added Golden Age Simon & Kirby reprints to the back of Jack’s 25¢ issues, I quickly developed an appreciation for Kirby classics of the 1940s (especially the Newsboy Legion, and to a 3

Retrospective

Key 1970s DC Moments by John Morrow

ontinuing our look at key moments in Jack’s life and career from TJKC #59 (which covered Marvel in the 1960s), we present this timeline of key moments that affected Kirby’s tenure at DC Comics in the 1970s. Of invaluable help were Rand Hoppe, past research by Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman, and of course, the “X” list of Jack’s DC production numbers (an updated version is shown elsewhere in this issue). This isn’t a complete list of every important date in Kirby’s DC 1970s history, but should hit most of the main ones. Please send us additions and corrections. Next issue, I’ll work on pivotal moments in Jack’s return to Marvel in the 1970s and beyond. My rule of thumb: Cover dates were generally twothree months later than the date the book appeared on the stands, and six months ahead of when Kirby was working on the stories, so I’ve assembled the timeline according to those adjusted dates—not the cover dates—to set it as close as possible to real-time.

(above) Stan says “adios” to Jack in July 1970. (throughout) You can’t say DC didn’t promote “Kirby,” even if some of the ads were vague.

1967 • Kinney National Company buys DC Comics, and Carmine Infantino is appointed Art Director. He initiates the era of “artist as editor,” bringing new talent and ideas in. Also, editor Jack Schiff retires from DC Comics, opening the door for Kirby to possibly return.

1969 • January: The Kirby family moves to California, taking a loan from Martin Goodman. • Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman become acquainted with Kirby through working on Marvelmania projects, and Mike Royer inks his first Kirby piece. • Kirby meets with Carmine Infantino at a Los Angeles hotel to discuss the possibility of joining DC Comics, and Mort Weisinger retires from DC Comics, removing the last obstacle for Kirby returning.

1970 • January: Kirby receives a “onerous” contract from Perfect Film to continue working at Marvel Comics, telling him “take it or leave it.” • February: Carmine Infantino signs Kirby to a DC contract. • Early March: Kirby turns in Fantastic Four #102, his final story for Marvel, and resigns. On March 12, Don and Maggie Thompson publish an “Extra” edition of their fanzine Newfangles announcing Kirby is leaving Marvel. That Spring, Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman become Jack’s official assistants. 4

• May-June: “The Great One Is Coming!” ad (left center) appears in various DC comics, trumpeting “The Boom Tube,” but does not mention Kirby by name. • July (September cover date): The “Stan’s Soapbox” (left) in Marvel’s comics tells of Jack’s resignation from Marvel, and Jimmy Olsen #132’s letter column (bottom left) announces Kirby will start in the following issue.

• Summer: “Kirby is coming” blurb appears in various DC comics. Also, Kirby’s three new core books are mentioned (with bullet art) in the 1970 San Diego Comic-Con program book. • August (October cover date): Jimmy Olsen #133 published with Kirby’s first work for DC Comics. • October (December cover date): “The Magic of Kirby” house ads appear in DC comics, heralding the first issues of Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle. (right) • November (January 1971 cover date): Kirby stories in Amazing Adventures #4 and Tower of Shadows #4 published by Marvel, the same month as Jimmy Olsen #135 at DC Comics. • December (February 1971 cover date): Forever People #1 and New Gods #1 published at DC Comics.

1971 • January (March cover date): Marvel’s Fantastic Four #108 published from Jack’s original rejected FF #102 story, the same month that DC Comics publishes Mister Miracle #1 and Jimmy Olsen #136. • January 31: Kirby and Infantino are interviewed for Comics & Crypt fanzine in the DC offices, during Jack’s trip back to New York City. Around this time, Carmine Infantino is promoted to publisher of DC Comics. • May (July cover date): Lois Lane #111 is published, with a non-Kirby story that used his Fourth World concepts. Also,

• while drawing the end of Mister Miracle #5, Kirby conceives the idea of Stan Lee as “Funky Flashman” for #6. • Mid 1971: After discovering inker Vince Colletta has been showing Fourth World pages around Marvel’s offices before publication, and being shown how Colletta omits details in the inking, Kirby insists on Mike Royer as inker. Mike starts with New Gods #5, Mister Miracle #5, and Forever People #6. • June (August cover date): DC publishes Super DC Giant S-25, with 1950s reprints of Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown, and a new cover and text feature by Kirby. Also, Carmine Infantino raises cover prices to 25¢ and includes Golden Age Simon & Kirby reprints in the back of Kirby’s Fourth World issues. One month after matching the increase, Marvel undercuts DC by dropping their cover prices to 20¢. • June 15 and July 15: In The Days of the Mob #1 and Spirit World #1 published, but receive nebulous ads (left) and spotty distribution. Months later, ads for both books would appear in DC comics, offering unsold copies to readers by mail. • October: Kirby draws his final issue of Jimmy Olsen (#148). Around this time, Kirby conjures up the idea for The Demon to replace Jimmy Olsen on his schedule. • November (January cover date): Mister Miracle #6 published, with unflattering caricatures of Stan Lee as “Funky Flashman” and Roy Thomas as “Houseroy,” burning bridges at Marvel. • December (February cover date): New Gods #7 is published, with the pivotal Fourth World story “The Pact.” • December: Carmine Infantino instructs Kirby to add Deadman to Forever People #9-10, in an attempt to boost sales. The covers of Forever People #9 and New Gods #9 downplay the lead characters, in what seems to be an attempt to make the covers look more like mystery titles, which were selling well.

1972 • January (March cover date): DC runs ads for the Kirby Unleashed portfolio in its comics.

Color guide for the cover of Forever People #9.

• February (April cover date): Jimmy Olsen #148, Kirby’s final issue, is published. • March: Kirby is told by Carmine Infantino that due to underperforming sales, DC will be canceling New Gods and Forever People, and that he must move Mister Miracle away from its Fourth World ties. Kirby hurriedly switches gears and swaps his planned stories for Mister Miracle #9 (“The Mister Miracle To Be”) and #10, so he gets his “Himon” story into print. It’s too late to alter the “next issue” blurb in #8’s letter column (right) to reflect the change. • April: Kirby draws his final issues of New Gods and Forever People. • April (June cover date): Jimmy Olsen #150 is published, with a non-Kirby Newsboy Legion back-up story featuring Angry Charlie. • May-June (July-August cover dates): DC finally gives in to sales pressure, and drops its cover prices to 20¢ to match Marvel Comics. • May (July cover date): Mister Miracle #9 published, with the story “Himon”. Also, Kirby stories planned for the unpublished Spirit World #2 begin appearing in Weird Mystery Tales and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. • June: After Martin Goodman calls in Jack’s 1969 loan, Kirby “under duress” signs a copyright agreement with Marvel. Also, Demon #1 is published. • July (September cover date): Jimmy Olsen #152 is published, with a non-Kirby wrap-up to the Morgan Edge clone saga, and a guest appearance by Darkseid and other Kirby Olsen characters. Also, Mister Miracle #10 is published, in an abrupt departure from the Fourth World. Jack keeps the title “The Mister Miracle To Be”, but the story has nothing to do with Scott Free’s early days. • August (October cover date): New Gods #11 and Forever People #11 (the final issues) and Kamandi #1 are published.

1973 • July (September cover date): Boy Commandos #1 is published, reprinting Golden Age stories. • August: After being notified that Mister Miracle will be cancelled, Kirby draws a final issue that brings back Fourth World characters. 5

• September: Kirby considers returning to Marvel, but can’t get out of his DC contract. • September (November cover date): DC begins publishing reprints of Simon & Kirby’s Black Magic comics of the 1950s, working with Joe Simon as editor. • Fall: Kirby begins work on OMAC #1 (it wouldn’t be published till almost a year later), and Sandman #1, briefly reuniting with Joe Simon. • December (February cover date): Mister Miracle #18, the final issue, is published.

1974 • April: Kirby starts work on the Losers story in Our Fighting Forces #151, the first of a dozen war stories he would chronicle for that title. • May (July cover date): One story (“Murder Inc.”) from the unpublished In The Days Of The Mob #2 appears in Amazing World of DC Comics #1. • May 7: Kirby creates Atlas, who would debut in First Issue Special #1 several months later. • July (September cover date): OMAC #1 published. • September: Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee is published, featuring Stan’s account of the creation of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and Doctor Strange.

1975

Mister Miracle #15 lettercol, lamenting the loss of the Fourth World.

• February (April cover date): First Issue Special #1 is published, featuring Kirby’s Atlas.

• March 24: Kirby signs a contract to return to Marvel Comics, but must continue working for DC to finish out his contract with the company. • April: DC, knowing Jack is leaving, brings in Gerry Conway as editor on Kamandi #34 to indoctrinate him to the series, eventually making him full writer/editor on Kamandi #38-40, Jack’s last three issues. DC would no longer commission covers by Kirby for any further titles he drew from this point on, undoubtedly to lessen readers’ association of Kirby with DC on newsstands. • May (July cover date): Justice Inc. #2 is published, with Kirby art and Denny O’Neil script. • June (August cover date): Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #3 is published, with Kirby art and Denny O’Neil script. Also, First Issue Special #5 is published, with Kirby’s revamped Manhunter, but DC created a cover from Kirby’s flopped splash page, rather than commission a new one. • July 1975: First Issue Special #6 is published, featuring the Dingbats of Danger Street #1 story, a year-and-a-half after Kirby drew it. His completed stories for Dingbats #2 and #3 remain unpublished to this day. • September (November cover date): OMAC #8, the final issue, is published, with a reworked last panel bringing the series to an abrupt end, instead of Kirby’s planned conclusion to the OMAC #7-8 continued story. • October: Son of Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee is published, giving Stan’s accounts of the creation of the X-Men, Iron Man, The Avengers, Daredevil, Nick Fury, the Watcher, and the Silver Surfer. • November (January cover date): Captain America #193 is published, marking Kirby’s return to Marvel. • December (February cover date): Kobra #1 is published by DC, heavily altered, and with an Ernie Chua cover.

1976 • February (April cover date): First Issue Special #13 (right) is published, a non-Kirby “Return of the New Gods” tryout. No mention of Kirby is made in the New Gods history article. This issue was published concurrently with Kamandi #40, Kirby’s final issue and last work for DC in the 1970s. Carmine Infantino is fired as publisher of DC Comics in early 1976, and Jenette Kahn is made publisher. Plans are made to include Kirby’s unpublished Sandman #7 story in Kamandi #60, but that title gets cancelled in the “DC Implosion”, and Sandman #7 is finally published in The Best of DC #22 (1982).

1977 • April (July cover date): New Gods #12 (left) published after a review of sales reports by DC’s new management of the Kirby issues and First Issue Special #13 showed it was a title worth reviving. The cover is drawn by Al Milgrom in a very Kirbyesque style. ★ 6

Kirbyloguing

Return of the X-Files

Original list compiled by Jon B. Cooke, and updated by John Morrow & Rand Hoppe of the Jack Kirby Museum (www.kirbymuseum.org) he following is a fully updated list of Kirby’s DC Comics production numbers for his 1970s work. As editor, Jack was given the prefix “X” since Joe Kubert was already using the “K” prefix. These codes were used for DC’s internal accounting, and printed on the final books. They make an accurate listing of the order in which Kirby produced his 1970s DC material. Reprints in Kirby’s issues also received a code, leaving a fair number already assigned when DC pulled the plug on those 25¢ issues, so those already prepared reprints were likely reassigned, usually to E. Nelson Bridwell’s “B” codes. The few listings in PINK are ones that we are unable to confirm, unless some unpublished artwork surfaces with a number on it (but we’re reasonably sure they fit where we put them). Items in PURPLE are Kirby work for other editors, and we’ve tried our best to place them chronologically within the listing. Reprints are GREYED OUT. While our previous version of this list hinted at the possibility that—like Dingbats— unknown Atlas or Manhunter issues might exist, based on the chronology and the patterns that emerge in Jack’s workflow, it seems unlikely they were produced, even if they were assigned one of the missing “X” numbers. We’ve added a basic timeline of when he produced each issue (which should be accurate within one month either direction), and some interesting details emerge:

(below) Jack drew this pencil cover for a “proposed New Gods tabloid comic” according to the 1979 Jack Kirby Masterworks portfolio. Was it to be for a $1 oversize DC reprint of Fourth World material, or something more elaborate to placate an increasingly restless Kirby in the mid-1970s? No one seems certain:

• The first two issues of New Gods, Forever People, Mister Miracle, and

MARK EVANIER: I am pretty sure it was not done right after New Gods was cancelled. There’s another piece that was. Jack was told that the book publisher New American Library was going to reprint New Gods in paperback—this was at a time when no one did things like that—and that if it sold well, the storyline would continue in that format with new material. He drew up an ad but the project never went forward, and I don’t think Infantino ever told him why.

(above) Kirby traced the photo at top left to create his likeness on this intro page for DC’s Golden Age reprints. (If you lay it on top, it’s an exact match!)

• Jimmy Olsen, plus In The Days Of The Mob #1 and True Divorce Cases #1 were all drawn before Jimmy Olsen #133 was published. • Upon hearing the news that the Fourth World books were being cancelled, Jack quickly swapped the stories he’d assigned for Mister Miracle #9 and #10, so he could get #9’s “Himon” into print. • OMAC replaced Mister Miracle on his work schedule, and most issues didn’t see print for 8-10 months after they were drawn; Jack was fulfilling his contracted page rate by stockpiling issues. • After drawing OMAC #6, Jack drew 7 issues of Kamandi and Our Fighting Forces before drawing OMAC #7. Perhaps he was too far ahead, or perhaps DC was considering cancelling OMAC after #6. DC had him draw Atlas and Manhunter, before resuming work on OMAC #7 ten months later. • After Jack drew three issues of Dingbats (which didn’t see print), DC assigned him Our Fighting Forces to fill out his contract. • After drawing OMAC #8 (the last issue), DC had Jack draw Kobra #1 to fill that slot on his schedule. • Jack apparently drew Kamandi #38-40 after he’d begun working for Marvel again, to finish out his DC contract one month before Captain America #193 hit stands. ★

STEVE SHERMAN: I don’t recall hearing anything about a tabloid size comic. I suppose it’s possible since DC was publishing those oversize editions. Jack would’ve been up for it. Stuff got tossed around a lot that never happened. We’ll keep digging for details!

CODE X-100 X-101 X-102 X-103 X-104 X-105 X-106 X-107 X-108 X-109 X-110 X-111 X-112 X-113 X-114 X-115 X-116 X-117 X-118 X-119 X-120 X-121 X-122 X-123 X-124 X-125 X-126 X-127 X-128 X-129 X-130 X-131 X-132 X-133 X-134 X-135 X-136 X-137 X-138 X-139 X-140 X-141 X-142 X-143 X-144 X-145 X-146 X-147 X-148 X-149 X-150 X-151 X-152 X-153 X-154 X-155 X-156 X-157 X-158 X-159 X-160 X-161 X-162 X-163 X-164 X-165 X-166 X-167 X-168 X-169 X-170 X-171 X-172 X-173 X-174 X-175 X-176 X-177 X-178 X-179 X-180 X-181 X-182 X-183 X-184 X-185 X-186 X-187 X-188

JOB DESCRIPTION PAGES “In Search of a Dream” 24 Cover 1 Cover 1 Cover 1 “The Forever People” pin-up 1 “Beautiful Dreamer vs. Darkseid” pin-up 1 “The Infinity Man” Pin-up 1 “Orion Fights for Earth” 23 “Lightray” Pin-up 1 “Kalibak the Cruel” Pin-up 1 “The Newsboy Legion” 22 Cover (2 versions) 1 “Jack Kirby, Continued” Text 1 “Murder Missile Trap” 22 “The Mountain of Judgement” 22 “Super War” 22 “The Whiz Wagons are Coming” Text 1 “O Deadly Darkseid” 22 “X-Pit” 22 “A Visit with Jack Kirby” (Marvin Wolfman) Text 1 “Welcome to Hell” 41 Cover (no #) 1 “The Breeding Ground” (ME/SS) Text/collage 3 “Funeral for a Florist” (ME/SS) Text/Illo 2 Dillinger poster 1 “Kill Joy Was Here” 1 Table of contents 1 Cover (B-994) 1 “The Kirby That Jack Built” text feature (B-1006) 3 “The Maid” 13 “The Twin” 7 “The Model” (reused for Soul Love) 10 “The Other Woman” 10 “The Babies” photo feature 3 “Hollywood Divorce” article by Evanier & Sherman 2 Table of Contents (collage) 1 Inside Back Cover 1 “The Cheater” 3 “Hairies, Super-race or ...?” Text 1 “Evil Factory” 22 “Life vs. Anti-Life” 22 “The Teacher” 10 “Death is the Black Racer” 23 Cover 1 Cover 1 Cover 1 “The Saga of the D.N.Aliens” 22 “The Newsboy Legion Returns” (ME/SS) Text (likely meant for #136) 1 “Miracle Talk” (ME/SS) Text 1 “Fears of a Go-Go Girl” 10 “Dedicated Nurse” 7 “Paranoid Pill” 22 “Buzzing In The Boom Tube” 1 “To and From the Source” (ME/SS) Text 1 “The Four-Armed Terror” 22 “Diary of the Disappointed Doll” 5 “Kingdom of the Damned” 22 “The Big Boom” 23 Poster (Roberta Flack)• photo and text features 8 “Old Fires” 2 Cover 1 Cover 1 “O’Ryan Gang and the Deep Six” 22 “The Guardian Fights Again” 22 “The Closing Jaws of Death” 22 Cover 1 Cover (2 versions) 1 Cover 1 Cover 1 “The Screaming Woman” 10 Letter column 1 “House of Horror” 12 “Will the Real Don Rickles Panic?” 22 Letter column 1 “Sonny Sumo” 22 “Amazing Predictions” 10 Cover (unpublished) 1 “Cancel His Trip!!! Or the President Must Die!” 10 Cover 1 Cover 1 Cover 1 Cover 1 Letter column 1 “The Man from Transilvane” 22 Letter column 1 “Children of the Flaming Wheel” Text 3 “The Spirit of Vengeance!” Text 3 Table of contents 1 Letter column 1

TITLE The Forever People The Forever People The New Gods Mister Miracle The Forever People The Forever People The Forever People The New Gods The New Gods The New Gods Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen Mister Miracle Jimmy Olsen The Forever People Jimmy Olsen The New Gods Mister Miracle Forever People/New Gods/Mister Miracle In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob Super DC Giant Super DC Giant True Divorce Cases True Divorce Cases True Divorce Cases True Divorce Cases True Divorce Cases True Divorce Cases True Divorce Cases In The Days Of The Mob/Spirit World True Divorce Cases Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen The Forever People Soul Love The New Gods Mister Miracle The New Gods The Forever People Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen Mister Miracle Soul Love Soul Love Mister Miracle The Forever People The New Gods Jimmy Olsen Soul Love The Forever People Jimmy Olsen Soul Love Soul Love Soul Love Jimmy Olsen The New Gods Jimmy Olsen Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Jimmy Olsen The Forever People The New Gods Spirit World The Forever People Spirit World Jimmy Olsen The New Gods The Forever People Spirit World Spirit World Spirit World Jimmy Olsen The New Gods The Forever People Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Jimmy Olsen The Forever People Spirit World Spirit World Spirit World The New Gods

ISSUE 1 1 1 1 4 4 4 1 4 4 133 133 133 1 134 2 134 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 S-25 S-25 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1 n/a 135 135 3 n/a 3 2 2 2 136 141 2 n/a n/a 3 2 2 137 n/a 4 138 ? n/a n/a 137 4 139 4 3 138 3 3 1 3 1 141 3 5 1 1 1 139 4 4 4 3 142 4 1 1 1 4

COVER DATE Mar 1971 Mar 1971 Mar 1971 April 1971 Sept 1971 Sept 1971 Sept 1971 Mar 1971 Aug 1971 Aug 1971 Oct 1970 Oct 1970 Oct 1970 April 1971 Dec 1970 May 1971 Dec 1970 May 1971 June 1971 Mar 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Aug 1971 Aug 1971 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Fall 1971 n/a Jan 1971 Jan 1971 July 1971 n/a July 1971 June 1971 May 1971 May 1971 Mar 1971 Sept 1971 June 1971 n/a n/a Aug 1971 May 1971 May 1971 April 1971 n/a Sept 1971 June 1971 n/a n/a n/a April 1971 Sept 1971 July 1971 Oct 1971 Aug 1971 June 1971 July 1971 July 1971 Fall 1971 July 1971 Fall 1971 Sept 1971 July 1971 Nov 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 July 1971 Sept 1971 Sept 1971 Oct 1971 Aug 1971 Oct 1971 Sept 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Fall 1971 Sept 1971

TIMELINE March 1970

April 1970

May 1970

June 1970

July 1970

August 1970

September 1970

October 1970

November 1970

December 1970

January 1971 February 1971

March 1971

April 1971

CODE X-189 X-190 X-191 X-192 X-193 X-194 X-195 X-196 X-197 X-198 X-199 X-200 X-201 X-202 X-203 X-204 X-205 X-206 X-207 X-208 X-209 X-210 X-211 X-212 X-213 X-214 X-215 X-216 X-217 X-218 X-219 X-220 X-221 X-222 X-223 X-224 X-225 X-226 X-227 X-228 X-229 X-230 X-231 X-232 X-233 X-234 X-235 X-236 X-237 X-238 X-239 X-240 X-241 X-242 X-243 X-244 X-245 X-246 X-247 X-248 X-249 X-250 X-251 X-252 X-253 X-254 X-255 X-256 X-257 X-258 X-259 X-260 X-261 X-262 X-263 X-264 X-265 X-266 X-267 X-268 X-269 X-270 X-271 X-272 X-273 X-274 X-275 X-276 X-277

JOB DESCRIPTION “Weird Humor” (Sergio Aragonés) “Spawn” “Souls” poster Cover “Murder Machine” “Genocide Spray” “Kirby’s the Name” self-portrait Letter column “The Big Thing in a Deep Scottish Lake” Cover Cover “Dreams of Gentleman Jack” (rpt. AC#85) “Secret of the Buzzard’s Revenge” (rpt. AC #73) “Coast Guard Reconnaissance” (rpt. ?) Cover 1 reprint AC #73 “Newsboy Legion” (rpt. SSC #7) “The Romance of Rip Carter” (rpt. DC #82) “Crime Carnival” (rpt. AC #84) “Pirate or Patriot?” (rpt. RFC #1) “Scavenger Hunt” (rpt. AC #74) “Last Mile Alley” (rpt. SSC #8) “The Invasion of America” (rpt. DC #76) Cover Cover Cover “The Planned Assassination of Thomas E. Dewey” text feature “A Room For Kid Twist” Letter column “Ladies Of The Gang!” “Hairie Secrets Revealed” “The Alien Thing” “The Torn Photograph” “Rookie Takes the Rap” (rpt. SSC #9) “Kings for a Day” (rpt. SSC#10) “Beware of Mr. Meek” (rpt. AC #75) “The Villain from Valhalla” (rpt. AC #75) “Satan Wears a Swastika” (rpt. BC#1) “The Rocket Lanes of Tomorrow” (rpt. RFC #1) “Paradise Prison” (rpt. SSC#11) “The Legend of the Silent Bear” (rpt. AC #76) “The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep” (rpt. AC #80) “Prevue of Peril” (rpt. SSC #12) Young Gods of Supertown “Fastbak” Young Gods of Supertown “Lonar” Letter column “The Omega Effect” “The Ride” “Murder, Inc.” “The Hollywood Mob” Poster: Robinson & Cagney (may not exist) “Young Scott Free” Letter column “The Glory Boat” “Welcome to the Big House” “Brigadoom” “Crime Can Be Comedy” Index Page collage Letter column Cover Cover Cover Letter column The Young Gods of Supertown “Raid from Apokolips” “The Burners” Cover (several rough versions) “Horoscope Phenomenon” “Funky Flashman” “Young Scott Free” Cover Letter column Cover (rough by Kirby, final by Kirby/Anderson) “I’ll Find You in Yesterday” “Lonar of New Genesis” “Psychic-Blood-Hound” Cover Letter column “Arin the Armored Man” “Homo-Disastrous” The Young Gods of Supertown “Vykin the Black” Letter column “The Pact” Cover Cover “Toxl the World Killer” “They’re Still Up There” text “Special Delivery” Collage Cover (2 versions) Letter column

PAGES 2 22 1 2 22 22 1 1 22 1 1 11 10 3 1 14 11 11 4 9 14 12 1 1 1 ? 8 2 10 2 2 2 14 14 9 11 12 2 14 9 11 13 4 4 1 22 10 10 ? 1 4 1 26 3 24 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 4 10 1 10 24 2 1 1 1 24 2 10 1 1 2 22 2 1 24 1 1 12 2 2 1 1 1

TITLE Spirit World The New Gods Spirit World Jimmy Olsen Mister Miracle Jimmy Olsen Intro page for S&K reprints Mister Miracle Jimmy Olsen The Forever People Mister Miracle The Forever People The New Gods The New Gods The New Gods Jimmy Olsen Mister Miracle The Forever People Mister Miracle The New Gods Jimmy Olsen Mister Miracle The New Gods Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob The Forever People In The Days Of The Mob Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen The New Gods The Forever People Mister Miracle The New Gods Jimmy Olsen The New Gods The Forever People Jimmy Olsen The New Gods The Forever People The New Gods The Forever People In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob Mister Miracle Mister Miracle The New Gods In The Days Of The Mob Jimmy Olsen In The Days Of The Mob In The Days Of The Mob The Forever People The Forever People Jimmy Olsen The New Gods The New Gods The Forever People Spirit World In The Days Of The Mob Spirit World Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Jimmy Olsen The Forever People The Forever People Spirit World The Forever People The Forever People Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen The New Gods The New Gods The New Gods The New Gods Jimmy Olsen Spirit World Spirit World Spirit World Spirit World Mister Miracle Mister Miracle

ISSUE 1 5 1 141 5 143

COVER DATE Fall 1971 Nov 1971 Fall 1971 Sept 1971 Dec 1971 Nov 1971

4 144 5 5 4 4 4 4 141 4 5 4 5 142 5 5 142 143 2 2 5 2 142 143 144 143 144 6 6 6 6 145 7 7 146 5 5 5 6 2 2 2 2 5 5 6 2 145 2 2 6 6 144 6 6 6 2 2 2 6 6 6 6 145 7 7 2 7 7 146 146 7 7 7 7 146 2 2 2 2 7 7

Oct 1971 Dec 1971 Nov 1971 Dec 1971 Sept 1971 Sept 1971 Sept 1971 Sept 1971 Sept 1971 Oct 1971 Nov 1971 Oct 1971 Nov 1971 Oct 1971 Dec 1971 Nov 1971 Oct 1971 Nov 1971 n/a n/a Nov 1971 n/a Oct 1971 Nov 1971 Dec 1971 Nov 1971 Dec 1971 Jan 1972 Jan 1972 Feb 1972 Jan 1972 Jan 1972 Mar 1972 Mar 1972 Feb 1972 Nov 1971 Mar 1972 Nov 1971 Jan 1972 n/a n/a n/a n/a Dec 1971 Dec 1971 Jan 1972 n/a Jan 1972 n/a n/a Jan 1972 Jan 1972 Dec 1971 Jan 1972 Jan 1972 Jan 1972 n/a n/a n/a Feb 1972 Feb 1972 Feb 1972 Feb 1972 Jan 1972 Mar 1972 Mar 1972 n/a Mar 1972 Mar 1972 Feb 1972 Feb 1972 Mar 1972 Mar 1972 Mar 1972 Mar 1972 Feb 1972 n/a n/a n/a n/a April 1972 April 1972

TIMELINE May 1971

June 1971

July 1971

August 1971

September 1971

CODE X-278 X-279 X-280 X-281 X-282 X-283 X-284 X-285 X-286 X-287 X-288 X-289 X-290 X-291 X-292 X-293 X-294 X-295 X-296 X-297 X-298 X-299 X-300 X-301 X-302 X-303 X-304 X-305 X-306 X-307 X-308 X-309 X-310 X-311 X-312 X-313 X-314 X-315 X-316 X-317 X-318 X-319 X-325 X-321 X-322 X-323 X-324 X-320 X-326 X-327 X-328 X-329 X-330 X-331 X-332 X-333 X-334 X-335 X-336 X-337 X-338 X-339 X-340 X-341 X-342 X-343 X-344 X-345 X-346 X-347 X-348 X-349 X-350 X-351 X-352 X-353 X-354 X-355 X-356 X-357 X-358 X-359 X-360 X-361 X-362 X-363 X-364

JOB DESCRIPTION “Apokolips Trap” “Young Scott Free” “The Scoop of Suicide Slum” (rpt. SSC #14) “The Return of Agent Axis” (rpt. BC #3) “Here Come the Robots” (rpt. RFC #2) “The Meanest Man on Earth” (rpt. SSC #14) “The Stone of Vengeance” (rpt. AC #77) “The Commandos are Coming” (rpt. DC #64) “Dreams of Doom” (rpt. AC #77) “Man Who Knew All the Answers” (rpt. AC #74) “The Lady & the Tiger” (rpt. AC #78) “Cobras of the Deep” (rpt. AC #79) (N-825) “The House Where Time Stood Still” (rpt. SSC #21) (N-464) Cover (Anderson/Adams) “A Superman in Supertown” Letter column Cover “The Power” Letter column “The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin” Young Gods of Supertown “Beat the Black Racer” Cover “Monarch of All He Subdues” “Unleash the One Who Waits” “The Battle of the Id” Letter column Cover Cover (Neal Adams) “Genetic Criminal” Letter column “Monster in the Morgue!” Cover Boy Commandos (reprint Detective Comics #65) “Adventure of the Magic Forest” (rpt. WF #6) (N-661) “A Drama in Dreams” (rpt. AC #81) “My Tomb in Castle Branek” “A Time to Build” essay “The Last Boy on Earth” Published Cover Cover Letter column Cover “Himon” Letter column “The Bug” Cover Letter Column (never published) “The Mister Miracle To Be” Cover Cover “The Scavengers” Cover Letter column “Earth, The Doomed Dominion” Cover Letter column “The Time Capsule” essay “Kamandi’s Continent” “Demonology as Heroics” essay “Year of the Rat” “Reincarnators” Letter column “Devilance the Pursuer” Cover Letter column Cover “Darkseid and Sons” Cover Letter column Cover “The Greatest Show Off Earth” “Demonology” text feature (Sherman & Evanier) Cover “The Thing that Grew on the Moon” Cover “The Creature from Beyond” Letter column Cover “The Great Earth Cataclysm Syndrome” essay “Mystivac” Letter column Cover “The Devil’s Arena” Cover Letter column “Merlin’s Word, Demon’s Wrath” Cover

PAGES 22 4 13 11 2 13 9 12 11 11 10 9 12 1 24 1 1 26 1 23 3 1 22 24 26 1 1 1 2 1 26 1 14 10 10 23 1 22 1 1 2 1 26 2 26 1 1 22 1 1 22 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 22 22 1 22 1 2 1 22 1 1 1 22 2 1 22 1 22 1 1 1 22 1 1 22 1 1 23 1

TITLE Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Jimmy Olsen Mister Miracle The New Gods Jimmy Olsen The New Gods Mister Miracle The Forever People The Forever People The New Gods Detective Comics Detective Comics Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen The Forever People The Forever People The Forever People The New Gods The New Gods The New Gods The New Gods Jimmy Olsen The Demon Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Jimmy Olsen Jimmy Olsen The Forever People The Forever People The Forever People 100-Page Super Spectacular Wanted 100-Page Super Spectacular The Demon The Demon Kamandi Mister Miracle The Demon Mister Miracle Kamandi Mister Miracle The New Gods The New Gods The New Gods Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle The Demon The Forever People The Forever People The Forever People The New Gods The New Gods The New Gods Kamandi Kamandi The Demon Kamandi The Demon The Forever People The Forever People Kamandi The New Gods The Forever People The New Gods The New Gods Mister Miracle The Demon Mister Miracle The Demon Mister Miracle Kamandi Kamandi The Demon The Demon The Demon Kamandi Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Kamandi Kamandi The Demon The Demon The Demon

ISSUE 7 7 147 7 7 148 8 8 8 9 9 440 442 147 147 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 148 1 8 8 8 148 148 9 9 9 DC-15 9 DC-15 2 1 1 10 2 10 1 9 9 9 9 9 10 9 1 10 10 10 10 10 10 1 1 2 2 3 11 11 2 11 11 11 11 11 3 11 3 11 3 3 4 4 4 2 12 12 12 4 4 5 5 5

COVER DATE April 1972 April 1972 Mar 1972 April 1972 Mar 1972 April 1972 May 1972 June 1972 May 1972 July 1972 July 1972 April 1974 Aug 1974 Mar 1972 Mar 1972 May 1972 May 1972 May 1972 May 1972 May 1972 May 1972 May 1972 April 1972 Sept 1972 June 1972 June 1972 June 1972 April 1972 April 1972 July 1972 July 1972 July 1972 Mar 1973 Sept 1973 Mar 1973 Oct 1972 Sept 1972 Nov 1972 Oct 1972 Oct 1972 Oct 1972 Nov 1972 Aug 1972 July 1972 July 1972 July 1972 Aug 1972 Oct 1972 Aug 1972 Sept 1972 Sept 1972 Sept 1972 Sept 1972 Sept 1972 Sept 1972 Sept 1972 Nov 1972 Nov 1972 Oct 1972 Jan 1973 Nov 1972 Nov 1972 Nov 1972 Jan 1973 Nov 1972 Nov 1972 Nov 1972 Nov 1972 Dec 1972 Nov 1972 Dec 1972 Nov 1972 Dec 1972 Feb 1973 Feb 1973 Dec 1972 Dec 1972 Dec 1972 Jan 1973 Feb 1973 Feb 1973 Feb 1973 Mar 1973 Mar 1973 Jan 1973 Jan 1973 Jan 1973

TIMELINE October 1971

November 1971

December 1971

January 1972

February 1972

March 1972

April 1972

May 1972

June 1972

July 1972

August 1972

= The point where Jack learned the Fourth World titles were being cancelled. He quickly swapped stories between X-320 and X-325 to get “Himon” into print in Mister Miracle #9.

CODE X-365 X-366 X-367 X-368 X-369 X-370 X-371 X-372 X-373 X-374 X-375 X-376 X-377 X-378 X-379 X-380 X-381 X-382 X-383 X-384 X-385 X-386 X-387 X-388 X-389 X-390 X-391 X-392 X-393 X-394 X-395 X-396 X-397 X-398 X-399 X-400 X-401 X-402 X-403 X-404 X-405 X-406 X-407 X-408 X-409 X-410 X-411 X-412 X-413 X-414 X-415 X-416 X-417 X-418 X-419 X-420 X-421 X-422 X-423 X-424 X-425 X-426 X-427 X-428 X-429 X-430 X-431 X-432 X-433 X-434 X-435 X-436 X-437 X-438 X-439 X-440 X-441 X-442 X-443 X-444 X-445 X-446 X-447 X-448 X-449 X-450 X-451 X-452 X-453

JOB DESCRIPTION “The Howler” Cover Letter column Letter column “The Dictator’s Dungeon” Cover Letter column “The One-Armed Bandit” Letter column Letter column Cover Letter column “Witchboy” Cover “Phantom of the Sewers” Cover Letter column “Flower” Letter column Cover “The Quick and the Dead” Letter column Cover “Whatever Happened to Farley Fairfax?” Letter column Cover “The Thing that Screams” Letter column Cover “The Monster Fetish” Letter column Cover “The Secret Gun” Cover Letter column “Baron Von Evilstein” Cover Letter column “Beyond Reason” Letter column Cover “Tracking Site” Letter column Cover “Rebirth of Evil” Letter column Cover “Shilo Norman, Super Trouble” Letter column Cover “Killer Germ” Letter column Cover “The Night of The Demon” Letter column Cover “The Devil” Letter column Cover “Spirit from the Night” Letter column Cover “Murder Lodge” Letter column Cover “The Devil and Mr. Sacker” Letter column Cover “The One Who Vanished” Letter column Cover “Hell at Hialeah” Letter column Cover “Immortal Enemy” Letter column Cover “Wild, Wild Wedding Guests” Letter column Cover Letter column “Winner Take All” Cover “Brother Eye and Buddy Blank” “OMAC” text feature Cover “The Watergate Secrets” Letter column Cover

PAGES 23 1 1 1 23 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 23 1 23 1 1 23 1 1 23 1 1 23 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 2 1 20 1 1 20 2 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 1 20 1 20 1 1 20 1 1

TITLE The Demon The Demon The Demon Kamandi Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Demon The Demon The Demon The Demon The Demon The Demon Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle The Demon The Demon The Demon The Demon The Demon The Demon Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle The Demon The Demon The Demon Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Demon The Demon The Demon Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Demon The Demon The Demon Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Demon The Demon The Demon Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Demon The Demon The Demon Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Demon The Demon The Demon Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Mister Miracle Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi OMAC OMAC OMAC Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi

ISSUE 6 6 6 3 13 13 13 5 4 5 5 7 7 7 8 8 8 6 6 6 14 14 14 9 9 9 10 10 10 7 7 7 15 15 15 11 11 11 8 8 8 9 9 9 12 12 12 16 16 16 10 10 10 13 13 13 11 11 11 14 14 14 17 17 17 12 12 12 15 15 15 13 13 13 16 16 16 18 18 18 14 14 14 1 1 1 15 15 15

COVER DATE Feb 1973 Feb 1973 Feb 1973 Feb 1973 April 1973 April 1973 April 1973 April 1973 Mar 1973 April 1973 April 1973 Mar 1973 Mar 1973 Mar 1973 April 1973 April 1973 April 1973 June 1973 June 1973 June 1973 July 1973 July 1973 July 1973 June 1973 June 1973 June 1973 July 1973 July 1973 July 1973 July 1973 July 1973 July 1973 Sept 1973 Sept 1973 Sept 1973 Aug 1973 Aug 1973 Aug 1973 Aug 1973 Aug 1973 Aug 1973 Sept 1973 Sept 1973 Sept 1973 Sept 1973 Sept 1973 Sept 1973 Nov 1973 Nov 1973 Nov 1973 Oct 1973 Oct 1973 Oct 1973 Oct 1973 Oct 1973 Oct 1973 Nov 1973 Nov 1973 Nov 1973 Nov 1973 Nov 1973 Nov 1973 Jan 1974 Jan 1974 Jan 1974 Dec 1973 Dec 1973 Dec 1973 Dec 1973 Dec 1973 Dec 1973 Jan 1974 Jan 1974 Jan 1974 Jan 1974 Jan 1974 Jan 1974 Mar 1974 Mar 1974 Mar 1974 Feb 1974 Feb 1974 Feb 1974 Oct 1974 Oct 1974 Oct 1974 Mar 1974 Mar 1974 Mar 1974

TIMELINE September 1972

October 1972

November 1972

December 1972

January 1973

February 1973

March 1973

April 1973

May 1973

June 1973

July 1973

August 1973

September 1973

CODE X-454 X-455 X-456 X-457 X-458 X-459 X-460 X-461 X-462 X-463 X-464 X-465 X-466 X-467 X-468 X-469 X-470 X-471 X-472 X-473 X-474 X-475 X-476 X-477 X-478 X-479 X-480 X-481 X-482 X-483 X-484 X-485 X-486 X-487 X-488 X-489 X-490 X-491 X-492 SK-1 SK-2 X-493 X-494 X-495 X-496 X-497 X-498 X-499 X-500 X-501 X-502 X-503 X-504 X-505 X-506 X-507 X-508 X-509 X-510 X-511 X-512 X-513 X-514 X-515 X-516 X-517 X-518 X-519 X-519+ X-520 X-521 X-522 J-3848 J-3879 X-523 X-524 X-525 J-3888 J-3947 X-526 X-527 X-528 X-529 X-530 X-531 X-532 X-533 X-534 X-535

JOB DESCRIPTION “Blood-Brother Eye” “Eye in the Sky” Text Cover “Dingbats of Danger Street” Text feature (may not exist) Cover “The Hospital” Letter column Cover “Snake Meat” Text feature (may not exist) Cover (may not exist) “The Human Gophers of Ohio” Text Cover “A Hundred Thousand Foes” Letter column Cover “The Eater” Letter column Cover “Birdly Mudd” Text feature (may not exist) Cover (may not exist) “The Last Gang in Chicago” Letter column Cover “The Busting of a Conqueror” Letter column Cover “The Electric Chair” Letter column Cover “New Bodies for Old” Letter column Cover “The Fish” Letter column Cover “The Sandman” Cover (based on Jerry Grandenetti rough) “The Red Baron” Text (SS) Cover “Kill Me with Wagner” Cover (Joe Kubert) “War, My Look and Yours” Text “The Body Bank” Letter column Cover “A Small Place in Hell” Letter column Cover “Kamandi and Goliath” Letter column Cover “The Exorcism” Letter column Cover “Devastator vs. Big Max” “Before the Letters Begin” Text Cover “Freak Show” Letter column Cover “Atlas the Great” (character created May 7, 1974 by Kirby) Text feature (may not exist) Cover Cover “The Heights of Abraham” Letter column Cover “Panic in the Dream Stream” Cover “Mad Marine” Letter column Cover “The Invasion of the Frog Men” Cover “Bushido” Letter column Cover “Enforce the Atlantic Testament” Letter column Cover “The Partisans” Letter column Cover “Mighty One!”

PAGES 20 1 1 19 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 18 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 1 20 1 1 18 1 20 1 1 18 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20 1 1 20

TITLE OMAC OMAC OMAC Dingbats/First Issue Special Dingbats/First Issue Special Dingbats/First Issue Special Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Dingbats of Danger Street Dingbats of Danger Street Dingbats of Danger Street Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi OMAC OMAC OMAC Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Dingbats of Danger Street Dingbats of Danger Street Dingbats of Danger Street Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi OMAC OMAC OMAC Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi OMAC OMAC OMAC Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Sandman The Sandman Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces OMAC OMAC OMAC Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Atlas/First Issue Special Atlas/First Issue Special Atlas/First Issue Special Atlas/First Issue Special Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Sandman The Sandman Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi The Sandman The Sandman Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Kamandi Kamandi Kamandi Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Our Fighting Forces Kamandi

ISSUE 2 2 2 6 6 6 16 16 16 2 2 2 17 17 17 3 3 3 18 18 18 3 3 3 19 19 19 4 4 4 20 20 20 5 5 5 21 21 21 1 1 22 22 22 151 151 151 6 6 6 152 152 152 23 23 23 24 24 24 153 153 153 25 25 25 1 1 1 1 26 26 26 4 2 27 27 27 5 3 154 154 154 28 28 28 155 155 155 29

COVER DATE Dec 1974 Dec 1974 Dec 1974 Sept 1975 Sept 1975 Sept 1975 April 1974 April 1974 April 1974 n/a n/a n/a May 1974 May 1974 May 1974 Feb 1975 Feb 1975 Feb 1975 June 1974 June 1974 June 1974 n/a n/a n/a July 1974 July 1974 July 1974 April 1975 April 1975 April 1975 Aug 1974 Aug 1974 Aug 1974 June 1975 June 1975 June 1975 Sept 1974 Sept 1974 Sept 1974 Winter 1974 Winter 1974 Oct 1974 Oct 1974 Oct 1974 Oct 1974 Oct 1974 Oct 1974 Aug 1975 Aug 1975 Aug 1975 Dec 1974 Dec 1974 Dec 1974 Nov 1974 Nov 1974 Nov 1974 Dec 1974 Dec 1974 Dec 1974 Feb 1975 Feb 1975 Feb 1975 Jan 1975 Jan 1975 Jan 1975 April 1975 April 1975 April 1975 April 1975 Feb 1975 Feb 1975 Feb 1975 Aug 1975 April 1975 Mar 1975 Mar 1975 Mar 1975 Oct 1975 June 1975 April 1975 April 1975 April 1975 April 1975 April 1975 April 1975 May 1975 May 1975 May 1975 May 1975

TIMELINE

October 1973

November 1973

December 1973

January 1974

February 1974

March 1974

April 1974

May 1974

June 1974

July 1974

August 1974

September 1974

October 1974

November 1974

CODE X-536 X-537 J-4003 J-4015 X-538-A X-538 X-539 X-540 X-541-A X-541 X-542 X-543 J-4074 J-4080 X-544 X-545 X-546 X-547 X-548 X-549 X-550 X-551 X-552 Z-270 Z-274 X-553 X-554 X-555 X-556 X-557 X-558 X-559 X-560 X-561 Z-279 X-562 X-563 X-564 X-565 X-566 X-567 X-568 X-569 X-570 X-571 Z-288 Z-291 X-572 X-573 X-574 X-575 X-576 X-577 Z-295 X-578 X-579 X-580 X-581 X-582 X-583 X-584 X-585 X-586 X-587 X-588 X-589 X-590 X-591 X-592 X-593 X-594 X-595 X-596 X-597 X-598 X-599 X-600 X-601 X-602 X-603

JOB DESCRIPTION PAGES TITLE ISSUE COVER DATE TIMELINE Letter column 1 Kamandi 29 May 1975 Cover 1 Kamandi 29 May 1975 Cover 1 The Sandman 4 Aug 1975 “The Plot to Destroy Washington D.C.” 18 The Sandman 6 Dec 1975 Cover 1 Kamandi 30 June 1975 December 1974 “U.F.O., The Wildest Trip Ever” 18 Kamandi 30 June 1975 Letter column 1 Kamandi 30 June 1975 Likely error on Jack’s list for X-538-A (cover for Kamandi #30 would be here) Cover 1 Our Fighting Forces 156 June 1975 “Goodbye Broadway ... Hello Death” 18 Our Fighting Forces 156 June 1975 Letter column 1 Our Fighting Forces 156 June 1975 Likely error on Jack’s list for X-541-A (cover for Our Fighting Forces #156 would be here) Cover 1 The Sandman 5 Oct 1975 “Seal-Men’s War On Santa” (published in Best of DC Digest #22,1982) 18 The Sandman 7 Feb 1976 “The Gulliver Effect” 18 Kamandi 31 July 1975 January 1975 Letter column 1 Kamandi 31 July 1975 Cover 1 Kamandi 31 July 1975 “Manhunter” 18 Manhunter/First Issue Special 5 Aug 1975 “Manhunter ... The Justice Principle” essay 1 Manhunter/First Issue Special 5 Aug 1975 Cover (may not exist) 1 Manhunter/First Issue Special 5 Aug 1975 “Panama Fattie” 18 Our Fighting Forces 157 July 1975 Letter column 1 Our Fighting Forces 157 July 1975 Cover 1 Our Fighting Forces 157 July 1975 “The Skywalker” 18 Justice Inc. 2 July 1975 Cover 1 Justice Inc. 2 July 1975 “Me” 25 Kamandi 32 Aug 1975 February 1975 “Jack Kirby, A Man with a Pencil” (SS) Text/photos 4 Kamandi 32 Aug 1975 Cover 1 Kamandi 32 Aug 1975 “Bombing Out on the Panama Canal” 18 Our Fighting Forces 158 Aug 1975 “The Ocean Stealers” 18 OMAC 7 Oct 1975 Letter column 1 OMAC 7 Oct 1975 Cover 1 OMAC 7 Oct 1975 Letter column 1 Our Fighting Forces 158 Aug 1975 Cover 1 Our Fighting Forces 158 Aug 1975 “The Monster Bug” 18 Justice Inc. 3 Sept 1975 “Blood and Fire” 18 Kamandi 33 Sept 1975 March 1975 Letter column 1 Kamandi 33 Sept 1975 Cover 1 Kamandi 33 Sept 1975 Cover (unused) New Gods tabloid rpt., or Manhunter #2 story “The Hog!”or Atlas #2 story “Leader of Slaves!”assigned this number, but likely never produced “Human Genius vs. Thinking Machine” 18 OMAC 8 Dec 1975 Letter column (L-491) 1 OMAC 8 Dec 1975 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 OMAC 8 Dec 1975 “Mile-A-Minute Jones” 18 Our Fighting Forces 159 Sept 1975 Letter column 1 Our Fighting Forces 159 Sept 1975 Cover 1 Our Fighting Forces 159 Sept 1975 “Claws of the Dragon” 18 Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter 3 Aug 1975 Cover 1 Justice Inc. 3 Sept 1975 “Pretty Pyra” 18 Kamandi 34 Oct 1975 April 1975 Letter column (non-existent) 1 Kamandi 34 Oct 1975 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 Kamandi 34 Oct 1975 “Ivan” 18 Our Fighting Forces 160 Oct 1975 Letter column 1 Our Fighting Forces 160 Oct 1975 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 Our Fighting Forces 160 Oct 1975 “Slay Ride in the Sky” 18 Justice Inc. 4 Nov 1975 “The Soyuz Survivor” 18 Kamandi 35 Nov 1975 May 1975 Letter column (non-existent) 1 Kamandi 35 Nov 1975 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 Kamandi 35 Nov 1975 “The Major’s Dream” 18 Our Fighting Forces 161 Nov 1975 Letter column (non-existent) 1 Our Fighting Forces 161 Nov 1975 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 Our Fighting Forces 161 Nov 1975 “The Hotel” 18 Kamandi 36 Dec 1975 June 1975 Letter column (non-existent) 1 Kamandi 36 Dec 1975 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 Kamandi 36 Dec 1975 “Fangs of the Kobra” 18 Kobra 1 Feb 1976 Text 1 Kobra 1 Feb 1976 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 Kobra 1 Feb 1976 “Santa Fronts For The Mob” (reprint AC #82) in Limited Collector’s Edition C-43 (Feb 1976), or OMAC #9 story “The Walking Dead!” assigned this number, but not produced “Gung Ho” 18 Our Fighting Forces 162 Dec 1975 Letter column (non-existent) 1 Our Fighting Forces 162 Dec 1975 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 Our Fighting Forces 162 Dec 1975 “The Crater People” 18 Kamandi 37 Jan 1976 July 1975 Letter column (non-existent) 1 Kamandi 37 Jan 1976 Cover by Kirby (may not exist) 1 Kamandi 37 Jan 1976 “Pyra Revealed” 18 Kamandi 38 Feb 1976 August 1975 “The Airquarium” 18 Kamandi 39 Mar 1976 September 1975 “The Lizard Lords of Los Lorraine” 18 Kamandi 40 April 1976 October 1975 Cover (Joe Kubert) 1 Our Fighting Forces 160 Oct 1975 Cover (Joe Kubert) 1 Our Fighting Forces 161 Nov 1975 Cover (Joe Kubert) 1 OMAC 8 Nov 1975 Cover (Ernie Chua) 1 Our Fighting Forces 162 Dec 1975

KIRBY ART WITH NO “X” NUMBERS • Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, Forever People, & Mister Miracle bullet art • Big Barda & Her Female Furies concept art (produced prior to March 1971) • Proposal for Uncle Carmine’s Fat City Comix (only a logo was produced)

• Galaxy Green (2 pages for Superworld of Everything) • Story “Leader of Slaves!” • Cover• text feature (if they exist) for Atlas #2 • Story “The Hog!”• Cover• text feature (if they exist) for Manhunter #2 • Story “The Walking Dead!”• Cover• text feature (if they exist) for OMAC #9

• Atlas, Demon, Kamandi, OMAC, Manhunter, Death Fingers/Dingbats concept art • King Kobra concept art (may not exist) • Tarzan (rumored 1971 try-out art)

= The point where Jack signs his contract to return to Marvel Comics. DC subsequently assigns Gerry Conway as editor on his remaining books, and stops commissioning covers from Kirby. Z = Denny O’Neil’s numbers as editor • J = Joe Orlando’s numbers as editor • SK = Simon & Kirby numbers as editors

Mark Evanier

Jack F.A.Q.s A column of Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby

(this page) DC put little effort into integrating Kirby’s Fourth World concepts across their line, relegating nonKirby appearances to several Lois Lane issues from #111-119, for which Nelson Bridwell was editorially involved. The “Morgan Edge Clone” subplot was a nice adjunct to the saga, but once Kirby was off Jimmy Olsen, the tie-ins ended...

he theme of this issue of The Jack Kirby Collector seems like the perfect time to deal with this question from Van Woods...

Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld, frustrated by this, came up with the theory that the readers were obviously confused: They were accidentally buying Marvels when they meant to buy DCs. To rectify this horrible situation, he had them slap those “go-go checks” on all DC covers, the premise being that they’d make DC books more identifiable as DC books. Didn’t help. All those kids who were stupidly buying Fantastic Four when they really wanted Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane kept right on buying the wrong comics by mistake. Now, in fairness, Team Spirit is not uncommon in comics. Just as if you live in San Francisco, you probably think the Giants are better than the Dodgers, there’s a strong rooting interest if you work for Company X to think your employer kicks all butts in the comic shops. But there does come a point when folks carry it so far they lose connection with reality... and it can be jarring when things change. I know folks who practically experienced whiplash when they changed companies and had to start spinning wildly in the opposite direction. So when Jack “King” Kirby was suddenly a DC asset, a lot of people there had trouble shifting gears. It was hard to segue from being glad you didn’t have that primitive art style in your books to embracing it as a key part of your future. It was also a difficult time there. When Carmine Infantino ascended to power at DC, he did something that hadn’t happened in a long time at that company: He started firing people. Previously, it was a very secure place to work. Once you were in, you usually stayed in. It was something the company could offer its people in lieu of good money... and to a staff and talent pool of former kids who’d grown up in the Great Depression, important. Stability—not having to worry about not having a paycheck at all—mattered a lot to those people. If you’d been writing, drawing or editing for DC Comics in 1965, you probably thought you had a job for as long as there were DC Comics... which at the time seemed like forever.

I was intrigued by a comment you made in an article once that Jack never fit in at DC Comics in the Seventies. I’ve always felt that too but never knew quite why I felt that. Could you elaborate? Sure. Jack was never an ideal fit for DC for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that before his arrival, most folks up there had spent a lot of time hating on Marvel. A prevailing sentiment in the offices was that DC’s books were great, Marvel’s sucked and there was some cosmic injustice occurring when a Marvel outsold a DC.

...culminating with a quick Newsboy Legion back-up in Jimmy Olsen #150, and a hasty wrap-up of the Edge clone saga in #152 (next page, top).

Then things took a downturn and Infantino became Editorial Director, displacing Donenfeld who’d thought he had a job for life. Being the son of the guy who founded and once owned the company hadn’t saved Irwin... and a lot of other folks went with him. Carmine was charged with shaking up the company, trying to reinvent it and turn things around. As I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t think Infantino did a very good job as Editorial Director and later as Publisher. I also don’t think he had an easy job. The conglomerate that would later be known as Time Warner had recently acquired DC and there were those in that company who thought the wisest thing they could do with its comic book division was scale it way back. There was at least one exec there—and maybe more—who felt they’d gotten what they wanted because they now owned the nation’s leading magazine distributor, Independent News. About DC, there was this suggestion: Get rid of most of the staff, scale things back and just publish a dozen or so comics per month—primarily reprints—to keep Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other licensable characters in print. Other ideas for drastic downsizing were floated. DC’s distribution was then crumbling and the folks at Independent News had little confidence in anything. New books were being started left and right, and a high percentage of them expired after five or six issues... meaning the decision to abort was made based on the sales figures of one or two issues. Joe Simon’s Brother Power, the Geek outdid most of them: It got cancelled before they had any sales figures on #1. So this was the environment Jack walked into: A company full of nervous people who were acutely conscious that their once-guaranteed employment was now on probation and that whatever they were working on might get the ax or be handed over to others at any time. It was, as they say, a brand-new ball game: A lot of longtime DC staffers (including Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff, who’d not-so-long-before been their two most powerful editors) were gone. So were other longtime freelancers like George Papp, Jim Mooney, George Klein and Wayne Boring. And the Marvel/Kirby look, which was once the look DC was proud wasn’t theirs, was now the look of their most important new publications. Some there were horrified. I’m sure I mentioned this before but on our first visit to the DC offices in 1970, Steve Sherman and I were

welcomed as Jack’s assistants. Then Sol Harrison, who ran the production department, sat us down and asked us if maybe we could urge Jack to draw more like Curt Swan. In later years when I encountered Mr. Harrison, I seemed to always find him debating his contention that DC’s output inarguably made all others look sick. Everyone else who wasn’t in the production department and wasn’t Robert Kanigher respected Jack’s contribution to the field, but a lot of them didn’t like that kind of art. And they really didn’t like that their company’s new superstar was not them or some other longtime DC person. It was an outsider. It was like Jack was being rewarded for past service to the enemy. Jack gave it his all. Jack always gave it his all. That was one of

Kirby’s short back-ups had astounding potential. Pencils from Jimmy Olsen #143.

the most impressive things to me about the guy. But the DC he joined was in no position to try any of his ideas for new formats—comics that might draw an entirely new readership to the comic book racks. He spoke of larger comics, fancier comics, comics in full-color slick magazine format, comics in hardcover, comics targeted at older audiences, etc. That was what he believed the industry needed... and I think history has shown he was right. Or if he was wrong, he was just a few years early with the right solution. But it didn’t matter. DC wasn’t about to invest the money necessary to launch entirely new formats, nor did Independent News believe it was worth the gamble. They weren’t going to try to lure in customers who weren’t already reading comics. They were just trying to get kids away from Marvel... with one exception. The single real attempt then for new formats—the grand Kirby idea for slick full-color magazines that got cheapened down to the monochromatic Spirit World and In the Days of the Mob— was an attempt to shanghai the kids buying Warren’s Creepy and Eerie. And even though they owned the most powerful distributor in the magazine business, DC couldn’t get their wares on the stands and they cancelled them faster than you can say “Bat Lash!” (above) Jimmy Olsen #139 pencils vs. DC’s altered Clark Kent head. Note Jack’s reference to “The Fourth Estate,” a nickname often used for print journalism or “the press.” Could this have been an That was the company Jack Kirby was made to inspiration for Kirby’s overarching title of his “Fourth World”? believe he had to “save.” Or not so much “save” as “try to take to the next level.” know what I’d have decided to publish. I think I’d have stuck with Some years back, I got a look at some of the actual sales figures new projects longer, giving them a chance to find an audience, rather from this period. They were closely guarded secrets then but lesser than give up on them if #2 didn’t sell well. Then again, I don’t know secrets later. My takeaway from what I saw was numerical chaos. all the pressures that Infantino was under to produce results. I do Books were up one issue, down the next... there was not a lot of logic believe he did, quite inadvertently and disastrously, create a reputathere and not a lot of connection with what they decided to cancel. tion where kids knew not to fall too in love with anything new from What I saw made very credible a theory some have advanced that DC. The better it was, the more likely it would be gone soon. there was massive affidavit fraud going on in the distribution At the time I was working with Jack in 1970, I thought he might business at the time with sales being dishonestly reported. well revolutionize comics again and do work that would lead DC to If I’d been in charge and looking at all those numbers, I don’t new heights. Looking back now, I see that was probably not possible. Jack could supply content but he was powerless over marketing, distribution and financing—all key elements if you’re going to make a new product viable. I am not suggesting here that if DC had only done everything Jack suggested, they would have thrived. He was far from infallible and he was certainly not an expert in the non-creative aspects of marketing. He could envision a line of comics that might sell very well on college campuses but he had no means of (or ideas about) getting those wares onto college campuses. I don’t think at that point the corporation had the courage (or the belief that there was a potential future in publishing comics) to sink serious money into trying to open up new marketplaces. They talked about wanting to do that but there’s a big difference between talk and actual investment. What they were interested in doing was selling conventional comics... and they believed the conventional comics they were doing were pretty good and certainly better than the concurrent Marvel output, especially with Marvel deprived of Mr. Kirby. A lot of them were. Nelson Bridwell was then on the editorial staff at DC. He was At one point, Kirby was required to submit cover layouts for approval to Carmine one of the few there who really appreciated what Kirby could bring Infantino. Here’s one for the published version of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #138, done after his original idea was rejected.

to the company and, sadly, utterly powerless. He once told me his it’s the other way around. take. It was that DC Management was hoping that the presence of If I do it with DC—if I try to imagine the DC Comics of 1970Kirby would lure Marvel readers over... and while they were sam1975 knowing what to do with Jack Kirby and doing it—well, I have pling Jack’s books, they would also discover how wonderful Detective a harder time with that one. I didn’t feel that way at the time but Comics and The Flash and House of Mystery were. That didn’t happen. knowing what I know now and having the wonderful vantage point It’s difficult for me to look at Jack’s career and not come to the you can get when you stand atop history, I can’t make that one work. conclusion that after he and Joe Simon went their separate ways, he Some fantasies are just too unbelievable. ★ never worked for anyone in or around comics who knew quite what to do with him... or if they did, they lacked the resources to make his Mark Evanier welcomes your Kirby Kwestions (and frequently grander visions into reality. He thought at one point DC did. DC was mentions Jack) at his blog, which was recently named by Time magazine a division of a much larger conglomerate than Marvel and so had as one of the 25 best on the web. It’s at www.newsfromme.com and it’s much deeper pockets than Marvel’s. But as it turned out, there was free of viruses and ads for life insurance. also a greater reticence to invest in the future of comics. In 1970, Jack believed that future was not strictly on paper. He didn’t to my knowledge foresee the Internet and its attendant technology—although my iPhone sure reminds me of a Mother Box in so many ways. He did though see comics merging with TV and movies and these things we had then called records. (You can Google the term if you don’t know what a “record” was.) DC had connections to other media in television, motion pictures and records. Marvel had virtually none of that... and yet it has been Marvel that has generally been more successful in merging their characters. That was one he didn’t see coming... though I’m not sure he would or could have done anything differently if he had. Jack did not leave Marvel in 1970 because he thought DC could make his dreams come true. He left Marvel because the contract he would have had to sign if he stayed was so onerous, he could not stay. He went to DC because it seemed like the only place he could go... and if he wasn’t going to get into a whole ’nother line of work, it probably was. Comics fans like to play “What If?” a lot... like “What If Jack had stayed at DC in the Fifties and never gone to Marvel?” Or “What If Joe Maneely hadn’t died and had been available to draw Marvel superheroes in the Sixties?” I sometimes play “What If the folks for whom Jack worked had really appreciated what he had to offer and had done right by him?” If I do this with Marvel, I imagine that instead of sending him that contract that in turn sent him scurrying to phone Carmine Infantino, they’d offered him a deal that gave him co-credit with Stan on their joint creations, better money on his current work and a small piece (like what beginners get today) on the sales of his co-creations in comics and other media. In this What If?, Jack stays at Marvel, gets rich... and Marvel gets richer. I can even imagine that company getting so big that And here’s Kirby’s original, unused idea for the cover of Jimmy Olsen #138. Beat that, Hollywood! instead of Disney someday acquiring it, 17

Gallery 1

A few of the editor’s favorite Fourth World images

The Fourth World had nearly limitless potential, but DC underutilized it. Any one of these characters could’ve been spun off into their own Kirby series. Instead, Jack only gave us brief glimpses of the tip of his creative ideas through maddeningly short back-up (many only two pages) in his Fourth World books. Lonar and Fastbak at least got two short back-ups each, while poor Infinity Man got forgotten about till the final Forever People issue—but he came back with a vengeance! Arin the Armored Man is somewhere out in the cosmos with Superman’s DNA, while Kirby’s rendition of Deadman is still seeking his killer, whose hook turned out to be on the other hand.

(next page) Kirby introduced Forager, “The Bug” in New Gods #9-10, in a story that seemed to be the pilot episode for some kind of spin-off series, based on the amount of play he got. It was a fine read, but after epics like “The Glory Boat” and “Death Wish of Terrible Turpin”, it left us wishing Jack had concentrated more on Orion and Lightray in those two issues—something he’d probably have done if he’d known sooner that New Gods was nearing cancellation.

Many people recall Forever People as the Fourth World component with the least slam-bang action, due to the main characters’ passive nature. But while they spent their share of time running away (as shown on these pencils from #7 and #8), Jack gave us shocking sequences like the “Happy Land” torture park and the brutal killing of “Billion Dollar Bates”— and Beautiful Dreamer in several cheesecake scenes.

These cover pencils from New Gods #6 and page 21 of New Gods #9 are here for personal reasons, as recounted in this issue’s editorial on page 2.

(previous page) This page from Mister Miracle #7 single-handedly gives almost as much backstory on Darkseid’s rise to power, as “The Pact” in New Gods #7. And check out the two rounds of changes DC made to the cover of Mister Miracle #7 after Royer inked it faithfully (center above).

Barry Forshaw

Obscura foregrounded—they look singularly harmless here, pushed over to the left of the frame.

A regular column focusing on Kirby’s least known work, by Barry Forshaw

KIRBY CURTAIN-RAISER But turn to the first story in the comic, “Forbidden Journey”, and we are in an artistic world some considerable distance from Joe Simon’s likeable but by-the-numbers efforts. It’s classic Kirby. A boy in a futuristic suit holds his hands up in alarm at the sight of a truly surrealistic creature—a thing with six legs, a strange fin-like growth on its neck and three separate sections of leopard-like coverings on its otherwise green, striated back. It’s the kind of absolutely outlandish and unique monster that only Jack Kirby could create, so fecund was his imagination. What’s more, any long-term Kirby aficionado will be well aware that when this creature reappears in the story, it will be shown in a very different fashion—not just because Kirby was careful

REDRESSING THE BALANCE Next up in Titan’s S&K Library series is “Horror” in March 2014, which will include stories from Black Magic and Strange World of Your Dreams published from 1950 to 1954— 320 pages, with more great art reconstruction by Harry Mendryk.

TM & © Harvey Comics.

“Forbidden Journey” had never been reprinted until Titan’s recent S&K Science Fiction volume. “The Cats Who Knew Too Much” was reprinted in Unexpected #127 in 1971.

It’s sometimes hard to discern who did exactly what in certain artistic partnerships. When that artistic partnership bears just a single name (as in the case of Batman’s ‘Bob Kane’—in inverted commas, as the latter was a portmanteau exercise almost from the beginning), it’s not surprising that the unheralded lesser-known silent partner in such job-sharing wants their achievement recognized, however belatedly. In the case of Batman’s joint creators, we now know just how important Jerry Robinson was—in fact, he told us (and we believed him, as we were sceptical of Kane himself), as Robinson was always one of the most articulate historians of the comics genre as well as being one of its most talented practitioners (and it’s thanks to people like Robinson that we are also aware of the undervalued contribution of the legendary comics writer Bill Finger). So how does this compare to the famous partnership of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby? Now that the dust has settled (and now that both men are scribbling away on the great drawing board in the sky), it’s clear to see—if there were any doubt—that Simon was the businessman as well as being an efficient (though journeyman) Illustrator, while Kirby was undoubtedly the stellar talent (something Simon was well aware of, though Kirby was by no means as articulate as his partner—Joe was the chronicler of the partnership, not least in his illuminating writing). And proof of the striking gap between their achievements may be found in a particularly delightful book from March 1958, Harvey’s Alarming Tales #4. The cover is very obviously a workaday Joe Simon effort, with a man reaching into a chest containing rag dolls and looking alarmed as seven other dolls come to ambulatory life and approach him. Okay—it’s a perfectly serviceable cover that does the job (just), but as Jack Kirby is present in this book, it’s impossible not to speculate on how he might have drawn the cover differently, and how much more effective it would have been. Admittedly, within the constraints of the relatively young Comics Code (Alarming Tales is, of course, a post-Code book) the dolls could not be grotesque (it was no longer acceptable to frighten the kiddies), but Kirby certainly would have made them stranger and more disturbing—and the composition would have been more striking, perhaps with the dolls

not to repeat himself (and would always choose a different angle and approach), but simply because he couldn’t help himself. His visual imagination was like a firework, spluttering out bright and startling sparks by the second. There are other elements in this splash panel which are pleasing—for instance, the flying vehicle (a sort of air-sled with a control console) which has brought the boy into the strange land in which the grotesque creature lives; and (I’m sure like most of the writers in this magazine), I find myself marvelling at the simplicity and imagination in even minor details such as the vehicles Kirby was able to create. Take, for instance, the time cube in the classic tale inked by Wally Wood, “The Wizard of Time” for Challengers of the Unknown—absolutely 26

simple in its design but as memorable as any more complex invention by lesser artists. In fact, the story of Alarming Tales’ “Forbidden Journey” itself (in which the young hero yearns desperately to be piloting rockets) is a kind of classic exercise in Kirby’s concept of design.

KEEP IT SIMPLE Take the first panel of the story after the splash panel, in which a father enters a room to see his son wistfully watching rockets zoom into the sky—like the time cubes described above, the elements here are actually simple in concept, but it’s the unerring sense of design that renders this 1950s effort so characteristic (in fact, that concentration on design was the hallmark of his 1950s work; there are more elements of complexity creeping into his later period with Stan Lee at Marvel). But the simplicity does not preclude a terrific sense of drama: the next time the bizarre creature appears, it is shown differently from the splash panel, and, subsequently, its appearance on page 4 of the story, as the ‘cat-thing’ (as it is described) closes in on an exhausted young hero, its body tensed to leap, is quite as impressive as the splash panel—and, truth be told, well over half of the panels in this impeccably drawn tale could be extracted and developed into splash panels, such is Kirby’s throwaway attitude to this kind of work. The rest of the issue is virtually all the work of the talented Doug Wildey. The second piece is an efficient enough story, “Secret Weapon”, as is “The End of a Sinister Man”, while the eponymous rag dolls story is (rather disappointingly) not handled by Kirby, as one might expect. But this is one of those books where he was given the curtain-raiser only. But what a curtainraiser! This piece alone makes the book an essential purchase for any Kirbyite.

BEWARE THE CATS The science-fiction and fantasy titles edited by Jack Schiff for DC in the 1950s (such as House of Mystery and House of Secrets) are always worth investigating, though they can rarely hold a candle to the contemporaneous titles edited by Julie Schwartz, who demanded far more imagination from his writers. But the Schiff books always have plenty to offer: take House of Secrets #8 (from January 1958) with a Ruben Moreira cover (“The Electrified Man!”) showing a yellow and orange glowing figure shooting out bolts of electricity. Actually, to be perfectly frank, there is really nothing in the book that marks it out as being one of the more cherishable items in the era (not even the story which is the reason it is being discussed for this column—and you can guess who that tale was drawn by), but the cumulative effect of four perfectly acceptable tales (drawn respectively by capable craftsmen Bill Ely, George Papp and Ruben Moreira, handling the cover story) makes this an enjoyable snapshot of a particular era in comics publishing when short portmanteau fantasy stories were acceptable fare for youthful comics buyers (as well as the GIs who also consumed the books) before the total domination of the superhero book wiped such titles from the market. Oh, and did I mention that there was another illustrator to be found in this issue—one Jack Kirby? The tale has the Hitchcockian title “The Cats Who Knew Too Much,” and is a very slight piece built around one of the oldest clichés in the fantasy field—the cats who avenge the death of their beloved owner (in this case a wealthy elderly woman) by tormenting the person who murdered her (here, an avaricious butler). And if this clichéd story were not ordinary enough, there is something that makes it even less interesting. Which is—spoiler alert—it is a characteristic trait of many of these early DC mystery books that the apparently supernatural events (here, the avenging cats defying all science and logic as they slowly drive the murderer to distraction) is to be explained away by natural means—everything is being stage-managed (in unlikely fashion) by a friend of the dead woman. But readers of this magazine will still enjoy the tale, not least because of the moody atmospheric art by Mr. Kirby, which is also strikingly coloured; the splash panel has just three colours—the terrifying, vengeful cats in green, the harried butler in yellow, and the beautifully detailed living room in purple (the well-appointed living room, incidentally, is further evidence of how editors always got their money’s worth out of Kirby, with its detailed panels and clocks, as well as a bust in a recess). While hardly one of the King’s best stories, it’s still full of images which are far more striking than any of the other artists in the

book, such as a panel in which the butler chases a yowling cat away—the movement of the animal’s body is actually unlike that of any feline that ever walked the earth, but makes exactly the point that Kirby wanted to make (he was always interested in drama over realism).

HINTS OF HORROR There are also provocative panels that remind one of Kirby’s work on his horror books such as Black Magic: the murderer waking up in his room with just a beam of light passing through the window and three sets of feline eyes glaring at him. Another tactic used by Kirby (and utilised far less often by his fellow artists) is the dramatic lighting of faces in the strip—often from below. None of these felicities are really able to save the tale, but they provide some incidental pleasures and will be more than enough to make Kirby aficionados want to pick up the book. Without a doubt Jack Kirby is best known for his work at Marvel. Given the impact the Marvel heroes have had on popular culture, that’s understandable. But in every way, Kirby’s work with Joe Simon was where he developed the skills, the dynamics, and the power that led him to have such a profound effect.

THE PINNACLE Do comics aficionados realize how lucky they are these days? I mean, do they really? Running my fingers lovingly over this latest addition to Titan’s over-sized hardback Simon and Kirby Library, Science Fiction— quite simply, the very best the series has yet produced—I found myself thinking how long it took me to put together a collection of all the original books containing the art so lovingly restored in the pages of this exemplary volume (it’s another unparalleled job by the Wizard of the Restoration Harry Mendryk). And although I would never part with all the painstakingly tracked-down original comics (apart from the crude Blue Bolt which is, let’s face it, tyro work—good, but hardly the best that the team would do, individually or collectively), none of those comics—if the truth be told— 27

trated without Kirby. (Wally Wood snuck in because of his “Clawfang the Barbarian” collaboration with Al Williamson.) These are our extra gift to the readers. “We had another ulterior motive, as well. Joe had kept the original art for most of the Race For the Moon stories and a bunch of the work produced for the early ’60s Harvey titles like Blast-Off. So we had the unique chance to use more than 80 pages of original artwork produced by Kirby, Williamson, Torres, and Crandall—all of which are reproduced with topquality production standards. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

ever looked anything like as impressive as they do here. And as regular readers of this magazine will know, for me, the exquisite 1950s Harvey period represented here is among the most imaginative work that Jack Kirby ever did (in my view, his best—and it’s nice to see that the talented Dave (Watchmen) Gibbons also agrees with me, as is clear from his enthusiastic introduction). There are stories galore from Alarming Tales and other Harvey gems by the S&K team, but—best of all—there is virtually a complete run here of the legendary Race for the Moon—including such gems as “The Face on Mars” (about which I’ve already written, as I have about Blast-Off, also included here). This Harvey one-shot from 1965 shows exactly what would have happened if Race for the Moon lost all its back-up features and featured only the returning characters who had begun to creep in, the intrepid Three Rocketeers (an archetypal Kirby team matching brawn with brain). In fact, this comic mopped up material originally destined for RftM, and it’s exemplary stuff, if not as assured as its predecessor.

BEWARE THE INTERLOPERS “All of this was Joe’s vision before he passed away. We were fortunate enough to have all of his books in the pipeline before he left us, so that by the end of 2013 we’ll have collections of Simon and Kirby superheroes, crime, science fiction, and horror. We had a romance book planned, but another publisher jumped ahead of us and produced an unauthorized edition from public domain material. That put an end to the official collection, and really hit Joe hard. A similar thing is happening with the horror material. There’s a competing book scheduled for summer that includes a small percentage of their work in that genre. These unauthorized books don’t pay advances or royalties to the Simon and Kirby estates, whereas all of the Titan books are authorized, and directly benefit Joe and Jack’s heirs. “But the greatest difference of all will be the quality of the material. No one else has access to the original artwork, the genius of restorer Harry Mendryk, and the direct impact of Joe Simon’s vision. The Science Fiction collection may be the greatest example of these irreplaceable assets. I can’t imagine a Jack Kirby fan who would dare live without it.”

MORE CLASSIC KIRBY But the Simon and Kirby Science Fiction Library is not the only hardback around at present tempting us to part with our hard-earned shekels. John Morrow (publisher of this very magazine) has inaugurated an intriguing new series entitled The American Comic Book Chronicles, which attempts to set in context the glorious history of the American comic book, decade by decade. Curiously, rather than starting with Superman and the late 1930s, the first entry is The 1960s, specifically 1960 to1964, and it turns out to be a treat. With striking design by David Greenawalt and incisive, enthusiastic text by John Wells, the book touches on many of the areas that will already be familiar to hardcore comics enthusiasts (such as Julie Schwartz moving from such science-fiction books as Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures to inaugurate the Silver Age with such superheroes as The Flash), but also takes in all the other phenomena of the era, from the sitcom adaptation The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis to the Mad-knockoff, Cracked magazine. It goes without saying that Jack Kirby is handsomely represented here, and the section on the giant monster books is fascinating, as is the discussion of the inauguration of the Marvel revolution by Kirby, Lee and Ditko. Perhaps there are no radical new insights here—and long-term fans such as Simon & Kirby myself will be familiar in 1950. with most of the material—but it has been laid out with such skill and enthusiasm here that the result is a really handsome (and all-inclusive) book. ★

TAKE YOUR TIME There is only one problem with this volume—how to read it. Does one consume it eagerly at a few sittings? Here’s my advice: absolutely not! Take your time… this is a book to be savoured and read at intervals— Simon and Kirby’s post-Code Harvey work was a relatively brief endeavour, and needs to be dipped into rather than gulped down too quickly. In fact I was so impressed with the volume that I contacted Lauren Woosey and Sophie Calder at Titan in London to set up an interview with the book’s editor, Steve Saffel (at Titan US) and—as you can see below—I succeeded! “In the 1950s,” Steve told me, “we saw the Boys’ Ranch stories that prepared Jack Kirby for Rawhide Kid and Two-Gun Kid, as well as the Foxhole stories that led him to Battle and Sgt. Fury. His adventures of Fighting American set the stage for his return to Captain America, and when he and Joe Simon developed Challengers of the Unknown, The Fly, and Lancelot Strong, it clearly set the stage for Fantastic Four, The Avengers, and the other Marvel heroes. The science-fiction stories appeared in Race for the Moon, Black Cat Mystic, Alarming Tales, and other titles Joe developed for Harvey Comics in the ’50s and ’60s. These are immediate predecessors to the brilliant work that appeared in Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish. Not only were they wildly imaginative, they began to show the unparalleled polish and sophistication Jack took with him to Marvel. “And there were direct prototypes, such as ‘The Cadmus Seed’ in Alarming Tales #1 (Sept. 1957), which planted the seeds—as it were—for the New Gods. And ‘The Enemy Within’ was a direct precursor to Kamandi. (Both stories appear in our Science Fiction volume.)”

ADDED VALUE

Barry Forshaw is the author of The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction (available from Amazon.com) and the editor of Crime Time (www.crimetime.co.uk). He lives in London.

“It wasn’t all Kirby, either,” Steve continued. “‘King of the Ants’ (in Alarming Tales #6, Nov. 1958) featured a man who became a tiny champion à la Ant-Man, and was illustrated by Al Williamson and Angelo Torres. Williamson, Torres, Reed Crandall, John Severin, Carl Burgos, Doug Wildey, Bob Powell, and Wally Wood all worked for Joe, echoing (and at times exceeding) some of their brilliant work that appeared in the EC and Atlas titles. “The Simon and Kirby Library: Science Fiction focuses predominantly on Joe and Jack, but because Al, Angelo, and Reed inked Jack on some of the stories, we felt entirely justified in including some of the stories they illus28

An ongoing examination of Kirby’s art and compositional skills

(below) Classic Simon & Kirby from Timely’s Captain America Comics #5 (August 1941).

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Captain America exploded on the scene in early 1941, nearly a year before America declared war on the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. Clean limbed and wholesome, a pristine and forthright demi-god, the star-spangled hero represented everything that was good about the ideals of American democracy. Transformed from the scrawny but earnest Steve Rogers into a steel-muscled athlete, Captain America was not a heartless killing machine, but an example of what an American should be in a time when righteousness and moral fiber were as crucial to overcoming evil as was military might. In issue #5 of his magazine, the Captain faced the Nazi threat of the German American Bund, where that organization was engaging in seditious activities on American soil. At the beginning of the 1941 story “Killers of the Bund,” members of the nefarious organization savagely beat a German-American, Heinrich Schmidt, when he refused to join them. The good Captain, standing up for patriotic Americans of all races and creeds, lays waste to the Bund minions in this spectacular page. Sadly, apart from the splash pages beginning the stories, there is very little quality Kirby to be found in the run of Golden Age Captain America #1-10, but this page is a notable exception. The figures here are lithe and muscular, moving in a way that exemplified the sinuous best of early Kirby art. From the three-quarter back twist of Cap’s position in panel one, the eye moves to panel two and then down to the middle wide-angle shot of the hero slamming his adversaries with his arms fully extended. What is also impressive here is the sheer profusion of intricately entwined figures thrown in all directions. For me, the most wonderful figure is Cap’s in panel four. It is an artistic revelation of contrapuntal motion, as our hero, his right leg extended out of the panel and towards us, whips a roundhouse right that torques his body so extremely that much of his torso is obscured. One senses the force of the blow by the prominent cocked left elbow and the fist that emerges below the head. As noted, Kirby abandoned the book after ten issues, and the end of World War II more or less ended Captain America’s reason to exist, with his magazine folding in 1949. Timely’s successor, Atlas Comics, tried briefly to bring Cap back in 1953 as a Commie-smasher, but the idea was ill-conceived and failed quickly. (Later it was determined that this was not the actual Captain America, who had been frozen in suspended animation shortly after the war ended.) In 1954, Kirby, again with Simon, created another

Super Soldiers: Captain America to OMAC ack Kirby, almost from the start of his career, was

fascinated with the idea of a super-soldier, engineered by a high governmental authority to counter the enemies that besieged it from within and without. What changed over the years were not only Kirby’s perceptions of heroism and authority, but obviously the perceptions that society had of these subjects as well. It would be difficult to imagine a time when the world would be more in need of a Super-Soldier than the cataclysm of World War II. Created by the team of

patriotic super-soldier for Prize Comics called Fighting American. Initially a dead serious Cold War hero fighting what was perceived as an insidious Communist menace within the fabric of our nation, Fighting American faced off against an array of spies and saboteurs. Like his star-spangled predecessor, Fighting American’s alter ego, Nelson Flagg, was a physical weakling, but there was an unusual twist in his origin. After his brother Johnny had been murdered, Flagg’s vital essence was scientifically transferred into the former’s revitalized body. One of the stories in the first issue featured a designer of robot bombs in human form. In the story called “Baby Buzz Bombs” the villain is eventually dispatched by his own creation, an explosive female robot. Kirby would use this particular idea two decades later in a series that I will address in this article. For whatever reason, by the third issue Kirby and Simon had had enough of humorless Cold War politicking and began to inject some bizarre humor into the series. Here in this satirical tale of Poison Ivan and Hotsky Trotsky, we are treated to a dazzling array of acrobatic pyrotechnics in a spectacular nine-panel slugfest. Kirby barely changes his point of view in this predominantly action-to-action sequence, except in order to lead the eye through the series of panels. He starts with a framing that will enable us to see the full length of his figures, going from left to right as is customary in reading comics. Fighting American strikes Ivan the Russian who rears back, as his angle and the corona of the blow lead us to panel two, where the figures are turned slightly so that Ivan’s back is to us. In the third panel, Ivan is striking downwards and to the left in order to lead our eye down to panel four. Notice that in that panel, the POV reverses to the other side of the action, so that the Russian can kick Fighting American to the right. Our hero doubles over and his position accentuates the arch of Ivan’s body in the fifth panel as he is lifted into the air by Fighting American’s two-fisted punch. The downward blow in panel six by Fighting American sets us up for the next medium shot from the front, as the villain tries to capture the hero in a leg lock. Fighting American eludes the hold and smashes down and to the right to end the fight sequence.

Perhaps it was the horrors of the anti-Communist witch-hunt and the travesty of the McCarthy hearings that weakened America’s fervor for the Cold War. Fighting American, despite its somewhat satirical best, lasted just seven issues. With the success of their new Marvel Comics brand, in 1964 Jack Kirby and Stan Lee brought Captain America back in Avengers #4. Literally on ice for 15 years, the disoriented Steve Rogers mused continually, realizing that he was a man out of time, an anachronism in the world of 1964. In a particularly poignant and action-filled sequence in Tales of Suspense #82, Cap is given a hypnotic drug by an adversary and imagines that he is back in World War II, even as he realizes that it is impossible. Stan Lee’s dialogue effectively tackles the surreal philosophical thoughts that crowd the hero’s mind as he leaps into action. The first panel is a classic action shot as Cap and Bucky explode from opposing sides of a squad car. The forward motion of the vehicle accentuates the two figures’ sideways leaps to left and right. Kirby left Marvel in 1970, to launch the Fourth World at DC. When the various series of that saga were cancelled, the King again proceeded to explore another angle of the super-soldier concept with OMAC, One Man Army Corps. The story is set in a scenario that Kirby continually describes as, “The World That’s Coming!” It is clearly a dystopian vision of a time that he sets up with his opening paragraph, which reads, “This is the story of a young man in the world that’s coming! In that strange place, the common objects of today… may become the terrors that we never bargained for… like the one below.” The first picture that we see is disturbing and incomprehensible. We do not yet know who or what Lila is, but the image of a deconstructed body very obviously suggests the dehumanization and objectification of her humanity. The paragraph on the following page continues, “This is the time when a hideous moment of man’s abuse of his creations becomes shockingly real… and gives you a hint of the heartbreak the world that’s coming may hold!” Then, on pages 2 and 3, as OMAC rages through an unknown factory, we see that Lila is one of many boxes labeled “Build30

a-Friend.” As OMAC kneels to address Lila on page four, we feel his anguish as he asks the question, “Where does technology stop and humanity begin?” This is surely the vital issue that the series poses and it is a question that still strongly resonates today. Kirby’s nightmarish world is set some time in the future when technology is capable of creating such abominations as destructive artificial life forms. No longer is Kirby’s super-soldier exclusively American. He is now working for the Global Peace Agency. We soon realize that OMAC is raiding an International Crime Cabal facility for the manufacture of mechanical human-bombs. (You may recall that I mentioned this plot point from a story in Fighting American #1. It seems that when Kirby has a good idea, he will re-use it when appropriate.) In OMAC, Kirby again has his super-soldier transformed from a physical weakling by a scientific process, but in this case, the subject in not a willing one, for he is chosen from afar by the agency and has no idea he has been selected. This is an important point, relative to the nature of the society presented, for unlike Steve Rogers and Nelson Flagg, OMAC’s alter ego is not a volunteer. The hero-to-be is a literal nobody with the apt name Buddy Blank who is working for a company called “Pseudo People.” Blank is so alienated, that his only human contact is a girl named Lila that he occasionally sees in the facility. Using a satellite called Brother Eye, the Global Peace Agency sends an energy beam to Buddy Blank. When he enters an unfamiliar section of the factory in search of Lila, he discovers the sinister work being done there. Just as the project’s headmaster is about to kill Blank, the hero-to-be is engulfed by the enhancing satellite energy beam and is transformed in OMAC. Here is another fantastic scene wherein Buddy Blank undergoes a metamorphosis, suffused with Krackle and ignited like a human nuclear device. Then, enraged by discovering that his only friend Lila is actually a killer robot, OMAC destroys the facility. Surely, it is a strange Odyssey we have taken from 1941, in a country at war against an enemy so unequivocally loathsome that there would be no question as to the validity of the conflict, then to a world where the enemy would be perceived as a cancer in the foundations of the culture, and finally

to a world only of Kirby’s imagination, but based on his perceptions of the dangers of misused technology. In Kirby’s mind, “The World That’s Coming” threatened to be one in which the nature of humanity, of Life itself would be under siege and called into question. As the series progressed, OMAC would again be pitted against the Crime Cabal, with their plan to steal bodies that the superrich could transplant their brains into in order to prolong life. Here in this spread from OMAC #5, we see a horrific tableau, wherein rich old folks are harvesting youthful subjects that are being prepared for the bizarre procedure. Kirby’s best compositions are ones such as this, where the arrangement of figures in space create a powerful sense of time elapsing. Thus we first see the procession of captives from the left with the man in the red loincloth to the right of the first text bar. Next, we see the old man with crutches speaking. The centrally positioned diagonal shape of the brown-coated guard breaks the flow and brings the eye out of the viewing screen and to the man describing the action to OMAC. The latter’s Mohawk hairdo brings the viewer back into the frame. OMAC’s gaze is fixated on the whitehaired old man on the right whose gesture takes us up and around to the procession of figures once more.

OMAC’s imaginary setting was not a place where villainy would take a single monolithic form, easily combated by the forces of law and order. Here, those with wealth and power collaborate with the criminal elements that serve them. Today, we can easily contemplate the ascent of an era where technology is so powerful and pervasive that it approaches the realm of the supernatural. In our world today, spy satellites like “Brother Eye” are capable of reading the numbers on your Drivers License from space, and we can be contacted online by artificial intelligences programmed to make us believe they are human. It is no secret that the construction of a lifelike human robot is primary focus for those who develop such technology. We also see the probability of a world increasingly governed by a small minority of super-rich as they consolidate their power over a growing underclass. Even more chilling to contemplate, we currently inhabit a planet where it is possible to have one’s organs stolen for transplantation into another body, usually someone wealthy enough to afford such a procedure and to avoid the consequences of such a heinous criminal act. So we see Kirby, creating a science fiction concept that he imagines is marketable entertainment for a 1975 audience, but his amazing ability to imagine a frightening world that may very well soon manifest is also shockingly clear. ★ 31

Jack Kirby’s OMAC, published in 1974 and 1975, is an overlooked landmark in the evolution of sciencefiction. Though the series lasted only eight issues over the course of a year-and-a-half, it packs far more information into its 176 pages than many comic books that drag on for over a hundred issues. With its full-fledged explorations of man’s total merging with the electric environment, it points the way to the cyberpunk movement a decade later.

Overvue

Captain America meets Big Brother Jack Kirby’s OMAC examined, by Robert Guffey

(below) OMAC gets parents in issue #3.

twisted inverse of Kirby’s own archetypal hero Captain America created back in 1941, OMAC is a super-soldier living in a dystopian future. His real identity is named Buddy Blank, an employee of a multinational corporation called Pseudo-People, Inc. Blank is chosen by the Global Peace Agency to undergo an experiment that will transform him into a superhuman One Man Army Corps, OMAC. A scientist named Dr. Myron Forest performs “electronic surgery...! ...a computer hormone operation...” on Mr. Blank, which connects him, body and soul, with a sentient orbiting satellite known as Brother Eye. The intimidating symbol on OMAC’s chest is the all-seeing eye, symbolizing the fact that a target, once chosen, cannot easily escape OMAC’s field of vision. For eight issues OMAC flies around the world at the behest of the Global Peace Agency, attempting to combat “man’s own capacity for self-destruction.” The classic models for futuristic dystopias are, of course, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s Nineteen EightyFour (1949). Such works, and all their illegitimate children, usually feature a main character who’s fully aware he’s trapped in a dystopia and heroically does everything he can to burst free of it. OMAC reverses this cliché completely. OMAC is, without a doubt, trapped in a dystopian world; the signs are all around him. And yet despite the fact that his mind is linked to the most sophisticated artificial intelligence program ever created, he appears not to be aware of his situation at all. This is no oversight on Kirby’s part. This is the point of the whole series. If you were living in a dystopia, a subtle dystopia that dispenses with the “boot-inyour-face” treatment of Nineteen Eighty-Four, would you really be aware of it, or would you be so used to your total lack of freedom that you would simply accept it as a normal way of life? You might, in fact, walk around everyday being very proud of your privilege, despairing the lack of freedom in other parts of the world, as Winston Smith’s neighbor does. OMAC is literally a slave to a fascist police agency that appears to have locked down the entire world except for a few eccentric terrorists hell-bent on creating destruction for destruction’s sake. OMAC’s controllers, those who feed him his missions, never reveal their identities to him. 32

is to wipe out the last remaining free-thinking people on the planet. The hero of the book is actually the aggressor, but he’s not aware of it. Perhaps the genesis of the entire concept behind the series was Kirby’s thinking to himself one day, “How would Captain America be forced to behave if he had been created by a totalitarian society of the future?” This notion seems to be confirmed by Kirby biographer Mark Evanier: “[S]ome of the ideas Jack tossed in OMAC were ideas he’d had six or seven years earlier... ideas for a never-realized version of Captain America set in the future.” The fact that OMAC is a slave is very clear. He’s been surgically altered against his will, his personality buried and replaced with that of a killing machine, and he has absolutely no control over his destiny. When he’s not out blindly doing the bidding of the GPA, he hooks into a Virtual Reality machine and pretends to be the star of fantastic scenarios in which he fights giant, chimerical monsters. When a GPA agent pulls the cord on one particular movie by yanking away the “mind-phones,” OMAC whines about the interruption like a petulant child. The agent replies, “Sorry, OMAC . . . the tapes will always be available.” This petulant child is then given the rank of a “five star” general and told, “Your orders will be obeyed anywhere on this globe.” In the next chapter, he is assigned a new family by the Social Engineering Division and told to love them. Within six panels his “test parents” are calling him “son.” To underscore the fact that OMAC is the reversal of a typical dystopian novel, in the next scene the GPA reveals to OMAC the identity of his next target, a terrorist named “Marshall Kafka... and his army of hired mercenaries!.” Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel The Trial, in most reader’s minds, represents the ultimate nightmare of one man suffering the oppression of the State. The fact that Kirby chooses to name OMAC’s target “Kafka” is, therefore, yet another clue that the story we’re seeing is not to be taken at face value. With wry twists such as this, OMAC distorts Big Brother is alive and well in OMAC #2! Brother Eye runs things behind the scenes, right down to taking away the traditional structure of a superhero OMAC’s past life memories, and making him the conduit for “peaceful” power. comic. We assume that the titular character They hide their faces with “cosmetic spray” that makes them anonymust, by form, be the hero. The people he’s fighting must be the vilmous, symbolizing that they “could be of any nation.” The agents of lains. But in OMAC there are no heroes or villains. After all, it’s hard the GPA repeat “could be of any nation” every few pages, almost as if to feel antipathy toward Marshall Kafka since he’s abducted by a they’re pre-programmed to do so, suggesting they themselves may mindless “god of war” whose very molecules are controlled by an be artificial intelligences as well. They all wear the same bulky uniomnipotent artificial intelligence program orbiting the Earth like a form which renders their identities anonymous even to one another, tireless prison guard. Kafka has taken the precaution of surrounding serving the same function as the scramble suit in Philip K. Dick’s A himself with a hundred thousand guards and weapons, and one Scanner Darkly (1977). OMAC, like A Scanner Darkly, might be called can’t blame him. If freedom means being assigned “test parents” a “mundane dystopia,” in the sense that the people living in the sociand having one’s body transformed by remote control against one’s ety don’t seem to find their oppression to be the least bit disturbing will, then perhaps Kafka is perfectly reasonable to resist OMAC and or extraordinary. (One wonders, in fact, if Philip Dick read OMAC his faceless masters. when the series was first released.) The cover of the first issue alone should be enough of a tip-off It becomes clear as the series progresses that OMAC’s mission that this is no normal super hero comic. Cartoonist Scott Shaw! 33

once called this cover “one of the most disturbing sexual images in running in fear from the terrorist who’s attempting to save him from the history of funnybooks” (Oddball Comics, 10 April 2001). The the oppression of Brother Eye. The terrorist’s main henchman, an ostensible hero of the book, rendered insignificant by a tremendous Aryan strongman named “Apollo,” yells out after Blank, “You can’t amount of negative space, is tossing the severed limbs of a sex toy get away!” Blank disappears from the narrative at that point, almost directly at the reader while the bombastic cover copy asks us if we’re as if he never mattered in the first place. Whether fighting global terready for “the world that’s coming.” Kirby scholar Charles Hatfield rorists for faceless police agents or being “penetrated” by a domihas written that his initial reaction to that question at age nine was neering orbital machine or working as a cog in a multinational cor“Hell no.... This frankly disturbing cover fittingly introduces a comic poration, Blank’s life remains the same. Despite the extraordinary that is chilling, dystopic, and just flat-out bizarre. (I have this fantasy situations he’s experienced since being transformed physically, that OMAC #1 could have been published by Last Gasp [well-known Blank is just as passive and oppressed as he was in issue #1. Truly, for publishing such controversial cartoonists as Robert Crumb] and Buddy Blank never does get away. gone down in history as a great moment in underground comix.)” The omnipresence of virtual reality machines, the dominance [Boyd, Kirby Five-Oh!] of multinational corporations, the effect of genetic engineering on Once we get past the strange cover, the very first image of the human sexuality and covert warfare, the ironic reversal of the heroic book is a female head staring at the reader from between a pair of archetype, and the overall tone of dark satire are all elements that disembodied legs while saying, “Hello... put me together... and I will drove the cyberpunk movement of the 1980s, and yet all of these elebe your friend....” The head belongs to Buddy Blank’s girlfriend, Lila. ments can be found, in vivo, in a relatively obscure Jack Kirby comic When Blank discovers that Lila is nothing more than an artificial sex book of the early 1970s. This highlights the fact that Kirby, as both a toy (an unfaithful one at that), he destroys an entire factory of such writer and an artist, was far more innovative and forward-thinking simulacra. He also discovers that the corporation for which he works than many have given him credit for. builds sex toys to be used as bombs to assassinate unsuspecting targets. As one final bit of evidence for Kirby’s prognosticative talents, When Buddy Blank finds his girlfriend’s dismantled limbs consider this: On the cover of OMAC #1 Kirby asked his readers if stored inside a crate, the final vestiges of his personality disappear, they were ready for “the world that’s coming.” Little did those readand OMAC, the God of War, takes over completely. He then makes it ers know that Kirby’s seemingly impossible dystopia, a world in his mission to track down the head of the multinational corporation which a global military force keeps humanity in check with orbiting responsible for constructing these sentient weapons. The head of the spy satellites, and implacable “‘smart bombs!’... guided by television” corporation, who has his own private military force at his disposal, rain fiery destruction upon their helpless enemies, lay in wait just draws upon his limitless funds to rent an entire town named Electric over a decade in the future. ★ City just to ambush and assassinate OMAC. It’s interesting to note that one character in issue #1, while Robert Guffey lives in Long Beach, California. observing Blank’s interaction with the artificial Lila, observes, “Huh! WORKS CITED She’s more of a person than that company dummy, Blank.” And yet Boyd, Jerry. “50 Best Kirby Covers.” Kirby Five-Oh! Raleigh: TwoMorrows Publishing, at the end of the issue, while staring wistfully at Lila’s jumbled 2008. limbs, OMAC says aloud, “They’ll pay for this, Lila... they’ve done Evanier, Mark. “Introduction.” Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps. New York: more than trifle with human life... they’ve made a mockery of the spirDC Comics, 2008. Kirby, Jack. Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps (1974–75). New York: it....” In the next panel, an extreme close-up, OMAC looks directly at DC Comics, 2008. the reader and declares, “OMAC lives... so that man may live....” Shaw!, Scott. Oddball Comics. 10 April 2001. Perhaps this sentence is meant to be taken literally, for he doesn’t <www.oddballcomics.com/article.php?story=archive2001-04-10&query=omac> even bother to save his girlfriend from the crate, even though the whole building is on fire thanks to him. Instead he rushes off to kill the head of the corporation for creating her in the first place. Though he believes his inaugural mission is based on a sense of justice, it seems instead motivated by misplaced aggression and overwhelming sexual shame. Ironically, however, OMAC immediately replaces one artificial mate with another. Two panels after turning his back on Lila, he weds himself instead to the omnipotent Brother Eye who tells him, “I shall always help you. We are linked by the eye symbol on your chest... We are like brothers....” In the next panel a phallic “beam” emerges from Brother Eye and (as OMAC himself states) “penetrates” his brain in a burst of illumination. Brother Eye successfully keeps OMAC under his thrall from that moment until the last issue of the series. The story ends with the utter destruction of Brother Eye. At first this ending may seem abrupt, but when one shifts one’s focus and realizes that the true arch-nemesis of the book is, in fact, Brother Eye, it no longer seems abrupt at all. Rather than being an unresolved cliffhanger, this is really the only way the book could end happily, and I suspect Kirby knew that when he was forced to wrap up the story with issue #8 in order to leave DC for a better deal at rival company, Marvel Comics. OMAC doesn’t even appear in the final issue, as he’s (previous page) Pencils from OMAC #7, the last time Kirby drew him in action. In #8, OMAC only appears, frozen, on one page, and since Kirby was leaving DC, they ended the series with an obliterated in issue #7, leaving behind a confused and panabrupt paste-up over Kirby’s final panel of #8. Above, we’ve reconstructed that last panel as Kirby icked Buddy Blank. The last time we see Blank is when he’s intended it to lead into his conclusion of the story, in the never-seen OMAC #9.

Bobby Bryant

The Watergate apes by Robert L. Bryant Jr.

nce upon a time, in a city called Washington, there was a scandal called Watergate... This story is about Kamandi, the last kid on Earth, and also Jack Kirby, politics, history and mythology. But to get there, we have to begin with a flashback. Be patient. Go back to August 1999. It was the 25th anniversary of the day that President Richard Nixon boarded his helicopter and flew away from politics, his presidency buried by the Watergate break-in and cover-up. For a newspaper story about the anniversary of Nixon’s resignation, I arranged for a South Carolina high-school teacher to ask her 12thgrade government classes—suburban, middle-class kids from a public school with good SAT scores—to explain Watergate in their own words. The idea was to find out how teenagers viewed the scandal, a generation later. Eighty-one students handed in one-paragraph essays. Some of them understood Watergate perfectly. Some of them came close. But some of them conjured up alternate histories of America: “(Watergate was) a place where a war took place.” “It had something to do with WWII.” “Watergate was an event that happened in the late 1800s.” “Watergate involved the British against the U.S. people. The British didn’t agree with the Constitution and they wanted to abolish it... . This event happened around 1789.” It was good stuff. But the story never ran; it was spiked by an editor who feared embarrassing the students. Still, the teens’ responses provided some disturbing hints that, only 25 years later, even an event as shattering as Watergate was already slipping into the fuzzy category of ancient history, myth, legend for a generation of highschool students. How would people see it 100 years from now? Or 1,000 years from now? Enter Jack Kirby and Kamandi #15. Kirby, by all accounts, was never a fan of Nixon (the Boy from Whittier was an inspiration for megavillain Darkseid). And in any case, Kirby couldn’t have ignored Watergate at that time even if he tried. It was a constant story in the newspapers, magazines and television, and most people had the queasy sense that the scandal was just going to keep growing, getting deeper and darker, until it ate the White House like a black hole. Kamandi’s 15th issue, “The Watergate Secrets,” is cover-dated March 1974. That would put the issue on the stands maybe three months before that—say December 1973. That would put Kirby working on the issue at least a few months earlier—say the fall of 1973. That summer, the scandal had been at full boil. In May of ’73, a Senate panel had begun hearings; in July, the hearings coughed out the revelation that Nixon maintained a secret taping system in the White House. That led to demands for the tapes. That led Nixon to refuse. And so on and so forth. The steady chipping away could not be stopped; Nixon would resign in August 1974. This issue of Kamandi appears, in effect, during the final fall of Nixon, and we can take it, in effect, as Kirby’s commentary on the whole Watergate debacle—or can we?

“The Watergate Secrets” begins as Tuftan, the tiger prince, makes a deal with the entrepreneur snake, Mr. Sacker: the tigers will “find the Watergate tapes” (presumably Sacker wants to sell them?) in exchange for Kamandi’s freedom. They travel up through the postapocalyptic South, stopping at what appears to be the decaying remains of the Virginia State House (tagged “Stakeout” on the Sacker maps). But the place is bugged by a cabal of apes who worship the ancient mystique of the tapes. The cult sends out a “Plumber’s Squad” (this would have amused G. Gordon Liddy if he read comics) that snatches Tuftan and the tigers’ science guru, the genius dog Dr. Canus. The apes haul them to the wreckage of Capitol Hill: “The spirits of Watergate defy all other powers! Take them to the ‘hearings’!” The ape-cultists accuse the captives (correctly!) of planning to steal the “sacred” tapes. “Indict them! Indict them!” howl the apes. Kamandi and the tiger army follow the apes to Washington via an underground railway—the ancient Senate subway system, which the apes have expanded clear to Virginia, Kamandi guesses. (A pretty impressive engineering feat for a bunch of kooky cultists.) Kamandi and the tigers pour in through a press gallery (equipped with what looks like a very comfortable old couch). Meanwhile, Tuftan and Canus are “twisting slowly in the wind” (heh-heh-heh) before a panel of ape cultists. “Blasphemy! Threats!” the apes shout. “At this point in time, the spirits demand that you die!”—a verdict backed up by a literal death warrant, delivered on a pillow. The apes wheel out the “Watergate Sound-Maker,” a sonic torture device that speeds up and amplifies the voices of the taped “spirits” until it reaches a lethal pitch. (Literally, the apes are going to kill our pals with the sound of Richard Nixon’s voice.) Kamandi blasts the machine with his rifle; the tiger army wipes out the Watergateworshiping apes. Finally, mission accomplished: they recover the Watergate tapes from the “Sound-Maker.” We hear a snatch of Nixon proclaiming, “I want to make this perfectly clear.” The end. “The Watergate Secrets” is more satirical than most of the “Kamandi” stories, but not nearly as satirical as it could have been (imagine mutated Republican elephants guarding the tapes, or tiger lieutenants named Woodward and Bernstein). Kirby uses the broad strokes of the scandal in the story, but it’s hard to tell exactly how he felt about the Watergate mess—there’s no real sense of outrage here, no special venom. The ape-cultists don’t seem to be meant as a particular insult to the Nixon administration—they had to be some kind of evolved animal, so Kirby made them apes. (Elephants, Jack! Elephants!) In one scene, Kirby has Kamandi share what he knows of Watergate. “The tapes were part of a political problem before the Great Disaster,” Kamandi says—probably the mildest explanation of the scandal that one can imagine. (What would DC have done if Kirby had Kamandi say, “Watergate involved a paranoid, corrupt leader abusing his office’s power as never before”?) Later, when the tapes are revealed, Kamandi shows little interest in their content: “It doesn’t mean much—now,” he says. At least Kamandi knew more than some of the high-schoolers did. ★

(next page) Pencils from Kamandi #15, featuring Jack’s take on the shenanigans of this guy to the right.

Prototype: Alpha

Newsletter TJKC Edition Winter 2013 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:

Many of you are aware of, and have been generously supporting, our effort to open a storefront on NYC’s Lower East Side for three months near where Jack Kirby was born and raised. Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign by Made in the Lower East Side (miLES), the Kirby Museum received a week’s use of a storefront from November 4-10. Our Prototype: Alpha pop-up museum was a raging success, with coverage all over the web and social media, in Metro NY, AM NY and the New York Times. Arlen Schumer's "Ya'akov Kurtzberg - King of Comics", Pete Friedrich's "Lower East Side Story", Rand Hoppe's conversation with James Romberger, and, of course, our opening event were well attended. (We had to keep people waiting outside for Arlen's talk!) Over a thousand people came to the corner of Delancey and Attorney Street to view the Jack Kirby goodness that Rand and Tom Kraft installed. Will there be a Beta before we pop-up for three months via our Brick and Mortar fund? Stay tuned, and Donate! Join! Volunteer!

Locust Moon Comics Expo

• 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 • 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.

Website Changes

Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center

Above is a screenshot from the beta of our new collections website, thanks to Tom Kraft!

PO Box 5236 Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA Telephone: (201) 963-4383

We thank our new and returning members for their support:

We’d like to thank the fine folks at Locust Moon Comics in Philadelphia for inviting us to participate in their Locust Moon Comics Festival this October. The generosity that extended to sharing some of the donations taken at the entrance is quite appreciated. They also scheduled a Jack Kirby Museum talk at their shop a few blocks from the festival, where a group of interested attendees and Rand talked about Kirby and the Museum’s efforts. The highlight of the shop being, of course, the Kirby display, complete with a handmade puppet of Kamandi riding the grasshopper Klik-lak, made by Ryan Friant. A locust is a grasshopper, you see...

New York Comic Con Thanks again to everyone who stopped by our booth at the Javits Center, where we were right next to TwoMorrows. Rand was there all four days, but couldn’t have done it without the help of Ellen Karl, Lisa RigouxAnnual Memberships Hoppe, Mike with one of these posters: $40* Cecchini, and Richard Bensam!

Clay Fernald, Gary Rudolph Panucci, Jean Depelley, Scott Rowland, Ian Matthews, Douglas Peltier, Brian Puaca, Mark Randolph Hoppe Badger, Steve Roden, Jeff Meade, Patrick Monks, Mark Miller, John rhoppe@kirbymuseum.org Eidiniger, Max Weremchuk, Matt Webb, John Sagness, Ralph David Schwartz Rivard, Robert Shippee, Steve Robertson, Aaron Noble Tom Kraft And... thanks to Bechara Maalouf, Richard Howell, Tod John Morrow Seisser, Joe and Nadia Mannarino, Albert Moy, Steve Coates, twomorrow@aol.com Russell Payne,for their help with conventions and our programs. All characters TM © their respective owners. Of course, Rand thanks fellow Trustees Tom Kraft, John Morrow, and David Schwartz, and the Kirby Estate. *Please add $10 for memberships outside the US, And special thanks to the Florida Supercon to cover additional postage costs. Posters come for comping the museum a booth July 4th “as-is” and may not be in mint condition. in Miami.

Captain America—23” x 29” 1941 Captain America—14” x 23”

Strange Tales—23” x 29” Super Powers—17” x 22” color

Board of Trustees

with one of these posters: $50*

Marvel—14” x 23”

Galactic Head— 18” x 20” color

Incan Visitation—24” x 18” color 38

Panorama by Tom Kraft • Exterior by Dave Elliott

www.kirbymuseum.org

Workmanship

Kirby & Kobra by John Workman © John Workman

Kirby was literally out the door at DC when Kobra #1 hit the stands. DC editorial staffers at the time felt Jack’s final new concept for the company needed a lot of help, and dramatically altered the artwork for publication. Here, John Workman gives us a peek inside DC’s 1970s production department, and shown below is the published splash page, compared to Jack’s version.

ll the people who worked in the DC Comics (or, early on, the National Periodical Publications) Production Department when I was on-staff there in the 1970s were multi-talented individuals who were more than capable of making a piece of comic book art better by way of a tweak of the penciling, the inking, the writing, the lettering, the coloring, or any combination of those things. Sol Harrison and Jack Adler who, in tandem, headed up that part of DC, aside from being master colorists, were also more than capable as inkers and letterers, and their knowledge of printing techniques went beyond the limited range of letterpress and pulp paper. Joe Letterese and Morris Waldinger, both a part of the company for nearly a quarter of a century, were each adept at lettering and art corrections. While Joe was always most proud that it was his sound effects that were such an important part of the hugely successful 1960s Batman TV series, Morris could point to the group of one-page “public-service” features that he had drawn for DC. He’d also received special dispensation that made it possible for him to draw entire stories for Richard Hughes at the American Comics Group, an ostensibly competitor company that had some legal ties

with DC that had nothing to do with the fact that DC (through its Independent News subsidiary) was the distributor for the ACG books. Anthony Tollin and Todd Klein were both completely at home with art and writing. Both of them made solid inroads into writing, respectively, historical prose related to pulp magazines and comics and actual comics material. Of course, Tony also made a name for himself as a colorist and, later, a publisher. Todd became, quite possibly, the greatest letterer in the history of comics. Bob LeRose, then new to DC, was of the same age group as Joe Letterese and Morris Waldinger. I remember that he had such trouble with lettering. He never did master that art, but his knowledge of design and color made him invaluable to the company. Bob also had the

ability to pull together seemingly divergent elements into a rational piece of art. For Heavy Metal, he combined a background made up of a paper towel that had been used to clean the excess dyes from brushes, with a drawing of Arturo Toscanini that he’d done in the early 1950s, into a mind-blowing illustration. Bob had, for years, worked for the Johnstone and Cushing Agency, a job that put him in proximity with some truly great comics artists, including an 18-year-old Neal Adams. He once told me… almost in a whisper… that, at some time in the 1950s, he’d rejected art samples submitted by DC’s publisher (during the early-to-mid-1970s) Carmine Infantino. The sheer talent in multiple areas exemplified by Bill Morse and Steve Mitchell was nearly beyond belief. In addition to handling comics writing, artwork, and lettering, Bill Morse was a singer/songwriter who did quite a bit of radio work and who released numerous music CDs. As an accomplished designer, he created computer icons that are still in use. In addition to his solid comics writing and art, Steve co-wrote and did the second-unit direction for the charming, though ill-named film Chopping Mall (Steve wanted to title it Killbots) that featured tons of references to great (and some not-sogreat) horror, science-fiction, and fantasy films of the past. As for me, this wholesale repudiation of the silly need to categorize people and their abilities and to needlessly “typecast” those who can work well in more than one area of expertise jibed perfectly with some advice given to me by Basil Wolverton during

one of our talks in the previous decade. Basil, in discussing the creation of comics, had advised me to “learn to do everything.” I tried to do so. Of course, doing everything in a situation where, if initially handled correctly, a comic might need only a few minor lettering corrections left each of us demonstrably overqualified and usually unable to show what we could really do in regard to anything beyond those easy-to-do fixes. This situation found us anticipating those rare times when we could stretch our muscles a bit by venturing into other areas of creativity. Such a thing happened one evening in 1977 when I took a closer look at the elements that I’d been given— mostly in the form of photostats of various DC characters—that were to be used in my putting together (as a freelance project) a one-page “coming next issue” ad that was to be used in World’s Finest Comics #245. There were two classic drawings of Batman and Superman, another drawing showing Green Arrow and Black Canary, a Mort Meskin-ish example of The Vigilante, and an absolutely dreadful rendition of Wonder Woman. In the case of the Amazon Princess, the problem wasn’t that the drawing itself was bad. The trouble was a bad photostat. It looked to be at least a sixth-generation ’stat, complete with blurred and indistinct lines that were either too thick or heading toward non-existence. The image was so bad that it could not logically be used for its intended purpose. The problem of the unusable photostat presented the possibility of having a bit of fun. Rather than taking an incomplete ad in to DC the next morning and digging up a suitable image from the art file that I could photostat and place on that ad, I could just go ahead and draw and ink an image of Wonder Woman directly on the Bristol board. If the judgement of my fellow staffers was that the drawing of Wonder Woman was really

You can see Kirby’s original head in panel 3 of this page from Kobra #1. Panels 1 and 2 have completely redrawn heads by Pablo Marcos.

PABLO: Well, Jack and I worked briefly together on a few titles. I don’t remember much, but what I do remember is that he was penciling for Kobra #1 and I was inking for that issue. More than anything I remember that I was astonished by the skill Jack had with his characters. I never met him in person though.

A TheFewfinisher Minutes With Pablo Marcos of Kobra #1 interviewed by Jon B. Cooke THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: When did you first become aware of Jack Kirby’s artwork and what did it mean to you? PABLO MARCOS: I first became aware of Kirby’s artwork around forty years ago when my wife, four kids and I moved from Peru to the USA. The main thing that was on my mind at that point in time was providing for my family. It didn’t matter to me who I was working for. I worked a bit with Jack Kirby after we settled down in the U.S., but little did I realize that I was working with one of the Kings of Comics.

TJKC: Can you please describe your involvement in producing Kobra #1? The original story by Jack Kirby and Steve Sherman was changed considerably and contained many art paste-ups by you. In retrospect, how do you look at the execution of that comic book? PABLO: Working with Jack and Steve was also many years ago and unfortunately I don’t have much of a long term memory. I do remember I did a few paste-ups for them, and I also remember that I was very impressed by Jack’s drawing technique. It influenced my own style a bit back then. I also remember that I was doing paste-ups because there were no computer programs like Photoshop to do it.

TJKC: Do you have any favorite Kirby work? If so, can you describe why it is your favorite? PABLO: I’m a big fan of a lot of Kirby’s work, but I would have to say that my favorite is Kamandi. The story behind this character, and the character himself always fascinated me. A hero in a post-apocalyptic setting being pursued by highly advanced and evolved animals. What could be better? TJKC: Did you ever meet Jack Kirby and do you have any memories to share?

TJKC: What was DC Comics like when you were working there in the 1970s? Did it compare to Marvel? PABLO: DC Comics had a friendly staff and people that were easy to work with. You could say that the structure of Marvel and DC back then were very similar. TJKC: Any memories of working with Kobra editor Gerry Conway and writer Martin Pasko? PABLO: I remember that I liked the story very much. I still do like the original storyline that they made up. Other then that I can’t say I remember much, other than that I never doubted in them or their storyline. TJKC: Did you hope to work over Kirby’s work again and did you get the opportunity? PABLO: I basically did the same thing that I did in the series of Kobra. Unfortunately he passed away in 1994, and I never got the chance to work with him again. But the last time I worked over his lines was for the San Jose ComicCon 2009. I colored one of his Captain America drawings [shown at left]. Steven Morger, the director, had the idea of many artists working over Kirby’s pencils, and to auction them later.

(above) Pablo’s finishes and colors over Kirby pencils for the 2009 San Jose ComicCon. (right) Pablo went on to do ’70s solo work with Kirby’s characters on Secret Society of Super Villains.

TJKC: How do you think Kirby will be considered with the generations to come? Will his work endure or do you think it will fade in time? PABLO: Well, Jack Kirby is one of the greatest comic artists ever. From the Silver Surfer, Thor, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers to XMen and other characters, Jack was one of the most important influences on comics and how they were drawn. I most certainly think his work will endure with time, because although he may have passed away, his fantastic drawings will always be around. He shall remain an inspiration for famous and aspiring artists for years to come. ★

abysmal, it would be an easy thing to replace it with something culled from the art file. When I took the ad in the next morning and gave it to Jack Adler, nothing was said about the drawing that sat on the page in the midst of a group of photostats. I went to my desk and plunged into the minor art and lettering corrections and changes that were to be done for whatever book was at the top of a pile of upcoming DC publications. After a few minutes, Jack—carrying the ad that I’d put together—left his office and went out the door of the Production Department and into the administrative section of the DC offices. He returned shortly, still carrying the ad, but with a couple of 81⁄2" x 11" sheets attached to it, and headed over to my desk. “John,” he said in his unique way. “Would you sign this?” I looked at the two sheets of paper. They were an artist’s contract that DC used for the freelance pencilers and inkers who provided the artwork for the books that they published. The handwritten notations on the form made reference to the Wonder Woman drawing. As I signed and dated the legal document, Jack stood in front of the desk and smiled. I smiled, too, but for a different reason. I felt that, in drawing an image of Wonder Woman that I knew was going to see print, I had finally made a sort of restitution for a really miserable and terrible thing that I’d done a couple of years earlier... something that involved Jack Kirby. I had joined the DC staff in the summer of 1975, which meant that I’d missed the Kirby era. While art passed through my hands that had been drawn by Norman Maurer, Frank Robbins, Kurt Schaffenberger, and John Rosenberger, I always regretted that I didn’t get a look at any new art drawn by C. C. Beck or Jack Kirby. But at some time in the Fall of ’75, Jack Adler handed me a batch of comics pages (some of them, if memory serves, in the form of matte photostats) that, I briefly thought at the time, might change things. What Jack gave me that day was the art for the first issue of a Kirby-created DC comic called Kobra. Jack explained that, in addition to the regular art and lettering corrections—pointed out in nonreproducible blue notations on the originals—this book would need some extra finessing in order to pass muster and be sent on its way to the next stage in the issue’s production. In the Production Department, we’d all heard of Kobra and Jack Kirby’s initial ideas about it. He and assistant Steve Sherman envisioned a continuing story of two twin brothers, both in their sixties, who are total opposites and who fight an ongoing battle of good against evil by way of their younger subordinates, a group that would provide the action (and even the romance) for the series.

There was opposition to Kirby’s ideas, based on the fact that no ready-for-Social-Security characters had ever been the leads in any previous super-hero adventure series. Hearing of the objections to Kirby’s unique creations caused me to think of Martin Goodman’s similar feelings concerning a hero named Spider-Man. When Stan Lee had presented the initial plans for a Spider-Man story to Marvel publisher Goodman, the older man balked at the idea of a teenager as the hero. He also hated the name “Spider-Man” and felt that no comics reader would want to be associated with such creepy, crawling arachnids. Stan seemingly couldn’t have been farther off the mark if he’d proposed a series entitled “The Mighty Snail-boy.” As it worked out, of course, Martin Goodman couldn’t possibly have been more wrong. Jack Kirby’s ideas in regard to Kobra also brought to mind Captain Midnight and the Secret Squadron—an older lead character that oversaw the adventures of a group of people, some of them just a bit above the age level of what was believed to be the average comics reader of the time. It seemed that a bit of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. could be tossed into that mix, too. What Kirby had created 42

(previous page) We’ve removed all the pasted-up dialogue to unveil Kirby’s original wording for page 17. In panel 2, there’s a completely whited-out balloon that says, “He’s a human eel!” (below) More uncovered Kirby art.

D. Bruce Berry, though the page was obviously drawn by Pablo Marcos. There’s a plot credit for Kirby and Steve Sherman. Martin Pasko is listed as the writer. Gerry Conway was the editor. Pages 2 to 7 have a definite look of Kirby... and evidence of diverse hands involved in the writing and the lettering. A word about that lettering: At some time in the early 1970s, a decision was made (supposedly by Carmine Infantino, though I’ve never believed that an artist and designer of his calibre could order such a thing) that kept all balloons floating within the panels. No longer could balloons touch the top of the panel border. The visual result was really ugly, and a continuous assault on the art. Those word balloons needlessly encroached on the drawings in each panel and were horribly designed. When I began actually lettering the interiors of the DC books, the first creative decision that I made was to refuse to go along with such silliness. That ridiculous directive was still in effect when Kobra #1 was lettered, and even if the whole issue had featured glorious art by Jack Kirby, that art would have been severely hampered by a couple of hundred really godawful-looking dialogue balloons. After page 7, the art took a noticeable downward turn and, with the possible exception of parts of pages 8, 9, 12, and 15 (and maybe individual panels on a few others), the decidedly non-Kirby look of the art is predominant throughout the issue. I’ve always felt bad about criticizing the work of any artist, and I imagine that poor Pablo Marcos must have known that he’d been dealt a bad hand when he was assigned to attempt to create art that, for the reader, had to match the already-existing work of Jack Kirby. It’s possible that Marcos worked to some degree from rough layouts that Kirby had made as a part of his proposal for the series. The sad fact, though, is that the non-Kirby elements that make up much of issue #1 of Kobra are, in terms of quality, so far beneath what really amounts to mediocre Kirby work that the effect on the reader is jarring and does severe damage to the combination of writing, art, and storytelling that is supposed to merge into the cohesive whole that is comics. The “finessing” that I was supposed to bring to the project amounted to my putting in some backgrounds and finishing pieces of art that were, for reasons that have escaped my knowledge, left undone, as if the artist had simply put down his brushes and pens and walked away. I also lettered a few balloons and the lousy “next issue” blurb, thus adding to the lack of unity and cohesiveness demonstrated by the other bits of lettering. I felt sorry for everyone involved in the initial issue of Kobra. In the grand scheme of things, the world would probably be a better place if that comic book had never been published. We would be left with what our individual imaginations might make of some rough Jack Kirby sketches and an interesting Kirby idea that never made it to print form. Such a situation would certainly be superior to the reality of Kobra. ★

was unique and interesting, and the few somewhat similar preceding series that had achieved some definite success demonstrated that there were true possibilities to be found in Kirby’s concept. Of course, the accumulated pages that Jack Adler had given to me to prepare for printing were a million miles away from what Kirby had envisioned, and the book that resulted from those combined pages is definitely in the running for the worst publication to ever come out of the DC offices. The cover—drawn by Ernie Chan during the time when his legal name was “Ernie Chua” (it’s a long story concerning bureaucratic bungling)—was wretched, made even worse by the dreadful logo and balloon lettering, all of those done by me. I had developed the logo, most likely based on a rough by either Sol Harrison, Carmine Infantino, or Joe Orlando. It was intended to be a highly “organic” logo, calling to mind the scales of a snake, but it was just hokey and outright awful. The balloon lettering, done before I had really learned which way was up in regard to such things, was incredibly sloppy and amateurish. Page one of that first issue has an art credit for Jack Kirby and 43

Closecropped

...To Bushy!

Incidental Iconography An ongoing analysis of Kirby’s visual shorthand, and how he inadvertently used it to develop his characters, by Sean Kleefeld

ast year, any number of readers got their first look at Jack’s Spirit World stories via the hardcover collection released by DC. The original series those tales were intended for was aborted after the first issue which only got spotty distribution—as noted by fellow columnist Mark Evanier in the reprint edition—and the subsequent stories that Jack had already worked up got thrown in to other magazines more or less as filler. Consequently, very few people saw there was any real connection between these stories until recently. But while there isn’t any underlying theme or overarching story, there is one thing that holds the pieces together: the host Doctor E. Leopold Maas. Especially given his sporadic publishing history, it’s not surprising that he’s often overlooked. He’s not named in “Horoscope Phenomenon” and the art was changed a bit to make Destiny the host, and the host convention is dropped almost entirely for “The PsychicBloodhound.” Nevertheless, Maas is still present throughout the series. Maas introduces himself early in Spirit World #1 as a parapsychologist. He appears fairly professorial, seated behind a desk decorated with old books and pens, and sporting a nondescript suit and glasses. Visually, the most distinctive thing about him is that he wears a closecropped beard and parts his hair on the right. Although it frequently appears to be a full beard, some particular angles denote that it is in fact just an extended goatee, sometimes called a Hollywoodian. It is such a full goatee, though, that this distinction is really only seen in a handful of panels. In terms of development or changes throughout the character’s admittedly short existence, there’s not much to speak of other than noting his glasses changing style pretty regularly, sometimes on the same page. So why would we want to take a look at Maas within the context of this column? The original Spirit World comic came out in 1971, pretty much in concert with the Fourth World saga. This is noteworthy because it’s in this context that we find, only a few months later, the introduction of a very similarly designed character in Mister Miracle #6. Funky Flashman, while very notably based on Stan Lee, bears a pretty striking similarity to Maas. The hair is parted on the opposite side, and the beard is a little fuller, but most of the differences are in their style of speech. We’ve looked at Funky before in the context of

Jack drawing his onetime partner, and the majority of Funky’s design comes from there. (Although it is worth noting, I think, that Lee had stopped wearing a full beard a year or two before Funky’s first appearance. Having just left Marvel, it’s likely Jack would not bother to keep up with Lee’s hairstyle, but just used what he remembered from the last two or three years he was working with him. And it happened that was only those couple years that Lee sported a full beard!) There are those out there who look at various characters and cite them as prototypes for others. Jack’s “The Monster in the Iron Mask” as the prototype for Dr. Doom, for example; Mike Gartland debunked many of these way back in TJKC #13. Now I’m not about to suggest that Maas was a prototype for Funky, by any means. Clearly, Lee himself was the inspiration there. But putting Lee down as a character, two years after Jack left Marvel—even longer since he had likely seen Lee in person, having moved to California before that—seems a curious delay. I’m sure Jack’s anger and frustration with Lee hadn’t subsided, but why choose then to mock him? Here’s my guess. Jack was more than happy churning out new ideas for DC. He’d been holding on to his Fourth World stuff for at least a few years, so he was just cranking along on all these great new ideas DC was letting him try. He started on Spirit World, decided he needed a host character like the old EC books, and designed up Maas as a character that conveyed some sense of authority and gravitas—the look of a learned man, perhaps an academic: Suit, glasses, beard. Then he, or someone who saw his art, realized that Maas looked a little like Lee. Perhaps in “The Calder House” where he grabs a pipe for a few panels, or later loses his glasses. It’s not a spitting image of Lee, but close enough that Jack realized it would be easy to write Lee in as a caricature of the man he still held a grudge against. My evidence, admittedly, is quite slim here. But the timing fits pretty well to start, and the number of bearded characters Jack drew is pretty minimal; to see two of them with similar styles in a period of a few months seems more than just a coincidence. I can’t get into Jack’s head, of course, and I actually doubt that he made a conscious connection to Lee after he designed and drew Maas. But since his mind was going a million miles an hour, it wouldn’t surprise me that he subconsciously realized the design similarity between Maas and Lee, and that started churning ideas for Funky. So while Funky himself would have come very deliberately from Lee’s own visage, the notion of creating Funky in the first place may well have been incidental to a littleseen book many fans had never even heard of until recently. ★

Dr. E. Leopold Maas sported heftier chin shrubbery in some stories than others, in Spirit World #2.

CRIME &

Foundations

The foundation for much of Kirby’s 1970s DC output was work he did with Joe Simon in the 1940s and ’50s. So here’s a look at the “old” Jack magic, compared to his newer takes on familiar genres.

Simon & Kirby’s crime comics weren’t market leaders in the 1940s, but they held their own, despite being toned down compared to others of the time. So when Jack developed In The Days Of The Mob for DC, he hearkened back to the gangsters he grew up with and knew about, such as Ma Barker, who was featured in a 1947 issue of Real Clue Crime Stories. DC’s recent hardcover of Mob includes the full unpublished second issue.

Romance... Joe Simon & Jack Kirby pioneered the entire romance genre in comics, so it made sense to try to rekindle it at DC in 1970. Never one to repeat himself, Jack chose an “anti-romance” concept in True Life Divorce, but it barely got beyond the pencil stage. One story, “The Model” (below) was the springboard for a second proposed title, Soul Love, which got as far as the inking stage before being likewise abandoned. One of those stories, “Old Fires,” is presented on the following pages, with inks by Vince Colletta and color by Tom Ziuko.

SUPER-HEROES... If ever there was a genre fit for a “King”, it was super-heroes for Kirby. His in-yourface action style let him take an existing concept like the Sandman (far left, by Creig Flessel) that was floundering after a conversion to long-underwear superheroics (center, by Paul Norris and Chad Grothkopf), and cause it to explode from the pages of Adventure Comics in the 1940s. In 1974, DC tried to catch lightning in a bottle by reteaming Simon & Kirby on Sandman #1. Sales were apparently outstanding, but the follow-up issues (written by Michael Fleisher and drawn by Kirby from #4-7) were one of Jack’s least favorite projects of his 1970s run at DC. To keep up with his page quota after the Fourth World cancellations, DC had Jack produce several one-shots, and a revamp of S&K’s 1940s Manhunter was one. A solid plot revolving around passing the torch down through

Kirby cover pencils for Sandman #2.

(left) Ed Moore’s “Paul Kirk, Manhunter” concept was tossed out when Simon & Kirby turned him into a super-hero for the 1940s Adventure Comics. (below) Page 8 pencils from Manhunter #1, which finally appeared in First Issue Special #5.

generations of Manhunters came too late in his DC run to extend beyond First Issue Special #5. A nearly simultaneous “Manhunter” back-up series by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson won great acclaim, and had direct ties to S&K’s old series— while Steve Englehart later ran with Jack’s new concept in Justice League.

Kid Gangs... Kid Gangs probably didn’t seem outdated to Jack’s 1970s readers—it’s likely they’d never experienced that popular 1940s genre until Kirby brought back the Newsboy Legion in Jimmy Olsen #133. What resulted was 15 issues unlike anything Kid Gang or Olsen fans had ever seen. But while Simon & Kirby’s Boy Commandos had sold millions of copies during World War II, attempts by both men separately to revive the genre failed to strike a chord with readers.

Kirby drew three full adventures of the wise-cracking Dingbats of Danger Street, with only one seeing print (in First Issue Special #6), while Joe Simon’s Green Team of superrich kids made its only appearance in First Issue Special #2, also leaving two unused stories behind. (left) Pencils from Jimmy Olsen #146. (far right) Splash page from the unpublished Dingbats #2.

(above) Unpublished attempt at a Boy Commandos newspaper strip, done after the height of the comic’s popularity in the mid1940s. Art here looks to be from the S&K bullpen, not Kirby.

Mystery... Kirby’s Black Magic had been a strong seller in the Golden Age, and Spirit World #1 hoped to match that success. But poor distribution for it and In The Days Of The Mob #1 resulted in stacks of unsold copies, and the material prepared for issue #2 being divvied up among DC own mystery comics, then finally reassembled in DC’s recent hardcover collection (left). However, Jack’s own past war experience (in comics and on the battlefield) served him much better commercially in Our Fighting Forces, which reached monthly frequency during his run. ★

(left) Spirit World #2 pencil art.

...& WAR!

(right) Our Fighting Forces #152 pencils.

but Alas, no westerns ...

Adam McGovern

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

(below) More than pops the eye: Scioli’s spectacular promo image for the new crossover series. (next page, top) Belly of the Beast (Hunter): A tense scene for Scioli’s Transformers/G.I. Joe. (next page, bottom) Kirby’s own sense of scale and grand vision (as in Jack’s NFL Pro piece) carry through in Scioli’s Transformers.

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

from each other. That’s one of the principle story puzzles I’m trying to work out. It’s natural that there’d be characters who fear and resist the machining of man, and those that resist the fleshening of machine. There would be those in favor of it, see it as a good thing, a natural next step in our development, a chance at immortality and perfection. The resulting philosophies would naturally find themselves conflict. Whether or not that makes its way into the final story remains to be seen. If it doesn’t organically find its way into the narrative, I don’t want to shoehorn it in. I’m letting this story grow into whatever it needs to be, but there are certain things I’m trying to make work.

Event Horizon Two of Jack Kirby’s most prominent future selves— Tom Scioli of GØDLAND fame and Madman’s Michael Allred—have major statements of Kirby style or revivals of Kirby’s stable coming in 2014: an epic Transformers/G.I. Joe maxiseries for IDW from Scioli starting in summer (with co-writer John Barber) and a new Silver Surfer ongoing from Allred for Marvel in March (with scripter Dan Slott). TJKC sat down with both Tom and Mike to envision things soon to come.

A STEEL AMERICAN HERO THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Kirby’s style hit the ideal midpoint between anatomy and geometry—he perceived the monumental eternity of living things and saw the blend that was underway between humanity and technology. Handling the Transformers may bring you closer to this border than ever in a career very inspired by Kirby, even while your own distinct style is emerging more than ever too. How are you applying that philosophy? TOM SCIOLI: You’re right, Kirby does fuse man and machine all the time in his work, from Silver Surfer onward, maybe even going back to his ’50s hard scifi comics. He describes his human forms and his alien god machines with an overlapping visual vocabulary. Kirby’s work prefigures the day when organic and cybernetic are indistinguishable from each other, the day which is coming soon, if it’s not here already. There will come a day when a Transformer and a G.I. Joe will be indistinguishable

TJKC: The hard-edged look you’re using in the advance cover image brings out more of the G.I. Joe characters’ nature as mechanical life-forms too—that segmented, jointed-toy look. Will this book to some extent depart from the focus of most G.I. Joe comics on the reality imagined around the toys, to give that sense of actual toy-play in some ways? SCIOLI: My goal is still the same as previous series, to create a reality for these characters that is separate from their real world origins as toys. The G.I. Joe toys as we know them, the ’80s incarnation, just barely predate the comic and a lot of the characters, themes and sensibilities were created by Larry Hama and his collaborators from just about day one. I see the Hamaera comics and the Sunbow cartoon as the primary documents that inform my approach to the Joes. In those works they make only passing references and sly winking jokes about the characters’ toy alter egos. I’ve never read a toy-based comic that didn’t at least make some references to the toy aspects of the property: Micronauts, Joe, TF, even in Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” he refers to the then-current Super Powers line of toys. I’m sure that will be the case with my story, too. It’s a tradition. Working on this does feel like I’ve come full circle. There’s a direct line from playing with toys to growing up to work in the narrative arts, be it comic creator or movie director. My earliest storytelling attempts were in that form, whether it was Star Wars, He-Man, G.I. Joe, or Transformers. There is definitely that part of me that relates to characters on some level as action figures. Both properties have a really nice range of designs that appeal to my aesthetic sensibilities. The blocky machine men of the Transformers always appealed to me. Making these things collide and interact with each other will be a lot of fun. I’ve now read enough comics, watched enough movies and cartoons of Transformers and G.I. Joe that 56

allowed myself to do on a project, and that’s just the writing. With American Barbarian, Final Frontier and Satan’s Soldier, I pushed further and further into a rough, lyrical, gestural, and free-form drawing mode. I learned a lot from it. For TvsJ I plan to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction. I plan to put the same degree of discipline and rigor that I’m doing in the writing process, into the drawing phase as well. I want to make beautiful, meticulously-crafted unforgettable story images that are unlike anything I’ve ever done before. TJKC: How will the book’s design progress from other treatments of the characters we’ve seen? Your Transformers in particular have a Celestialslike monumentality that is grander than what I can remember being in a comic about them. What are you bringing out that you feel is essential to the characters (of both franchises) and what may be in this book that we haven’t seen captured (or added) before? SCIOLI: The G.I. Joes, as characters and as operatic visual entities, are more interesting than any of the humans that have interacted with the Transformers in the past. My favorite Transformers stories were the ones that ignored mankind altogether. Now, with the Joes, the humans are holding up their end of the equation, we can see the Transformers through their eyes. The Transformers become that much more impressive. The technology the Joes are armed with makes the balance of power much more equal, much more interesting. There’s also that thing that Kirby would talk about, how as a survival skill growing up, he’d see a bunch of guys bigger than him walking his way and he’d try to figure out in a mental exercise how he’d take them down. He’d apply that same kind of thinking in Captain America and get these great beautifullychoreographed fight scenes with a real grounding in physics. I’m doing a similar kind of thinking. If a gang of angry robotic aliens were charging at you, how would you take them down? There’s always a solution. Kirby said any one of his characters could defeat any other, they just needed to find a way.

my immersion in those worlds has trumped any impression I’d had of them as toys. As I continue to immerse myself in the two mythologies these characters are becoming more and more real to me. The style that I drew that press release image in is one style, but I’m still tinkering, still experimenting to find the perfect style for this project. I also see the scope of what’s developing in the narrative allowing for multiple stylistic approaches. I approached that initial image in a similar, but not identical, way that I approached [Scioli’s webcomic] American Barbarian. It’s the same palette, but I was more rigorous in the execution this time, repeatedly revising it until I felt it was perfect. Stylistically I feel like I can make both sets of characters seem like they inhabit the same world, just on opposite sides of the man-machine spectrum. When it’s appropriate to illustrate the ways in which they contrast, I’d like to render them as differently as possible—when I want the Joes to seem really machine-like, render them with crisp polished lines; when I want the Transformers to act manlike, render them with organic lines. I feel like I’m in a sweet spot. I’m a big fan, have a fondness for the mythology, but most of it is still a fresh discovery. It’s not old hat to me, but I’m not overly reverential either. I’m ready to shake things up, but do it with love and a deep respect for what’s come before. TJKC: This will be the first mainstream big-budget comic you have a writing credit on, though your prolific canon has as much written by you as by any collaborator. How did that come about, and how might this book feel different than others that mass-market readers have seen from you? SCIOLI: Right, any big brand-name thing I’ve worked on, it was on the periphery. No involvement in the writing, just a single issue, not a full run, stuff like that. This is the sort of icon, two icons in this case, that I’d always wanted a crack at to show what I can do on a bigger stage. I kind of want to be like Frank Miller on Daredevil or Dark Knight Returns, Morrison and Quitely on All-Star Superman, to really shake things up, make some bold choices, but in the end create something that becomes the definitive take on these characters. This is the first comic that will have my complete creative attention. I worked a full-time job while I worked on all my other series. This will be my full-time job. I’m currently writing it, spending more time crafting, revising and contemplating than I’ve ever

TJKC: You’re a long-time fan of these properties, and eager to contribute to their canon. You’ve done many more creator-owned books than licensed ones; what is the balance between the existing mythos of these toys and the creative impulse of your own independent ideas? SCIOLI: I watched both cartoons as a kid and had a bunch of the toys. I have a nostalgic attachment to both of them, but this is the first time I really revisited them in a big way. I didn’t read either comic as a kid, and I’m enjoying both of the ’80s Marvel series now, especially G.I. Joe. I’d read a bunch of the IDW G.I. Joes and liked them a lot. I’m anxious to revisit them now that I’m well-versed in the Marvel-era Joes. 57

Transformers comics of the 2000s have always been one of my hamstrung by any established continuity. I have a vast canvas to guilty pleasures. I say “guilty” pleasure because I’d read most of build on and from which to cherry-pick. The bits of each mythology them without really understanding what was going on except on that I feel are best will find their way into this. There’s so much I the most basic surface level. I just enjoy reading stories with like from both mythologies that I don’t see myself changing anyexquisitely-rendered robot combat, even if I don’t quite understand thing unless I can find a way to make it better. who everyone is and what they are doing. The ones that emphasize The reason I’m so excited about this series is that I feel like I physical combat, like Ironhide: Infestation, are the ones I’ve enjoyed can make something really great with this material. There have the most, or Space Opera, which centered around a lot of cosmic been other G.I. Joe/Transformers crossovers, but I feel like this is questing and Joseph Campbell stuff. one of those things where if it’s really great, if you hit the right Now that I’ve been studying Transformers history as part of notes in the right way, people will love it. I’ve read a lot of G.I. Joe my job, I have a much better handle on the TF mythology. I enjoy stories, a lot of Transformers stories. I’ve watched a lot of the the comics more and more on each re-read. It’s like any kind of movies and cartoons, but I’ve never encountered a story that was acculturation, there’s all kinds of information that is invisible or the definitive story. Some are good, some are great, some are not indecipherable to an outsider, but with more and more exposure, so good, but there is no sustained satisfying central narrative that the details begin to emerge and make sense. Every time I reread I’ve read yet. My plan is to make this the definitive central narrative these stories it’s a fuller experience. I’m getting decades’ worth of of both story cycles, a new pivot point along which each rotates. I accumulated story in a relatively short time. keep referring to this project as “Hasbro’s Watchmen.” I’m joking. Transformers has so many different series and permutations, Kind of. This isn’t going to be a dark nihilistic take on these characwhich seems appropriate to a story about metamorphic robots, that ters, it’s going to be fun, but I’m shooting for the same rigor, coheif you’re trying to unify it all into one narrative, it’s a bit overwhelmsion, unity and resonant quality that Watchmen has. Watchmen, but ing. As a writer it really does come down to focusing on the things fun. Alan Moore said he was in a really bad mood when he made that seem essential, and incorporating whatever peripheral eleWatchmen. I was in a really bad mood and made Satan’s Soldier. ments appeal most to you. In working on this series I’ve made the Now I’m in a great mood and I’m ready to make something that is transition from casual reader to fanatic. I feel like I’m in touch with effervescent, an open-armed toast to the world that’s coming. my outsider status just enough to make something that is true to SHINY ANGSTY PEOPLE the mythology, but accessible and enjoyable for someone who’s THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Which sources of the character will never read a Transformers or a G.I. Joe comic. It’s giant living you draw on and which references outside of him? We’ve seen the robots from outer space versus hi-tech super soldiers. It’s someSurfer detached from but seeking his own humanity rather than thing that plays to my strengths, something I’m confident I can hit the faroff stars (Lee & Kirby, Greg Pak, Matt Fraction), we’ve seen a home run with. When I think back, the Transformers, particularly the philosophical Surfer (Lee & Buscema) and the cosmic, selfthe TF animated movie and the season that followed, were formative assured Surfer (Starlin)—what do you consider the essences of influences and were a primer for me when I encountered heavier the character to include, and what hasn’t been done that seems scifi. The Matrix of Leadership, and its accumulation and amalgathematically natural to add? mation of ancestral wisdom and personality, certainly primed the pump for when I’d later encounter Paul Atreides and the Fremen Spice Ritual in Dune. The Matrix of the Primes was my first introduction to the idea of Jungian genetic memory. As much as my story sense and myth-making is informed by the Viking Eddas, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d first encountered the idea of a world made from the corpse of a god from the adventures on and inside Unicron’s skull in the postTransformersanimated-movie season of the cartoon. Since this will be the beginning of a new series, I’m not (above) Allred’s Surfer shoots the cosmic currents in a first-issue cover reminiscent of Kirby’s unused cover for the Silver Surfer GN. (next page) Radd Dude: Allred’s celestial model-sheet for the Surfer and his new mystery companion.

MICHAEL ALLRED: Wow, you could write a book answering that question. Norrin Radd is a very deep character. This allows us to go in any direction, literally, and tell any kind of story. But we’ll focus on the cosmic with undercurrents of philosophy with a priority on having fun. With that, we want to tap into the deepest part of his soul that seeks for happiness and fulfillment. The joy of existence.

ALLRED: I’ve seen Lee & Kirby explore those cultural identities in many of their creations together and separately. I think initially I would lean towards Stan Lee on a preference of intentions, mainly because Stan moved the character in the direction that I grew up with, am familiar with, and established the lexicon. But being that there is little argument that the Silver Surfer was created exclusively by Jack Kirby, even surprising Stan Lee with his first appearance, I often wish that we could have seen where Jack would have taken the character if he had been in charge of the Surfer’s original solo series. It’s one of the biggest “what ifs” for me. I know I wouldn’t like to see the Surfer as a soulless Golem other than what we did see in the original “Galactus Trilogy” where he was essentially Galactus’ Golem and then broke his chains of obedience to help others. It seems we did see a lot of what Kirby intended for the character right out of the box; his “rebellious Adam.” But it would have been great to see him maintain more control of his creations like he later did with his New Gods. One of the great things about the Silver Surfer is that almost anyone, no matter their cultural identity, can relate to him on some level.

TJKC: Sometimes the Silver Surfer has been a Serveer—he started as the rebellious free spirit who has to break from Galactus, but in recent stories he’s gone back and forth as Galactus’ reluctant but stoic attendant again (as seen in Dwayne McDuffie’s insightful Fantastic Four run and elsewhere). Which aspect do you think is most important to his personality? ALLRED: To me, his courageous, rebellious nature is by far the most important, in fact, essential aspect of his personality.

TJKC: Something about what your pencils make possible seems to affect each writer you work with so that the humor and uplifting outlook of your own comics blends into the way your writers perceive and express things— Milligan, Gaiman, Roberson and Fraction have never been more Allredian than when they work with you. Slott has both a playfulness that matches you well and a mischief that might be fruitfully at odds with your positivity—how are you working together, both procedurally (Marvel-style vs. full-script vs. whatever else) and conceptually? ALLRED: Dan and I both share a desire to entertain while provoking thought, even if on a subtle subversive level. And we are both astro-projecting from sheer enthusiasm with this project. So I couldn’t imagine a better starting point for a collaboration. We even have a very detailed game plan with a 25-issue outline. I’ve never worked with the “Marvel method,” always preferring a full-script to get into the writer’s head as much as possible. And so far Dan has given me a full script, but he’s said he’d like to go “method” and I might just be willing to give it a try. Every writer I’ve ever worked with has allowed me to make changes or look for alternate approaches with the storytelling, though I’ve rarely veered from any script. The “Marvel method” seems a little scary to me. But maybe that’s a good thing. ★

TJKC: It may be a paradox that the Surfer is an emblem of optimism (his angelic look, his futuristic perfection, his physical freedom) while he’s often the most pessimistic of characters in himself. It looks like you and Dan Slott may be picking up on the implications of the former for maybe the first time? What can we expect in this balance? ALLRED: We’re determined to move the scales to the optimistic side as he finds deeper and brighter potential in himself. Maybe even surprising himself at his capacity for optimism. Makes me think of a Monty Python song. Heh-heh. TJKC: I’ve wondered if the distinction between Jack’s and Stan’s vision of the Silver Surfer’s origin on some level enacted divergent paths in their cultural identity and how they might relate to Judaism and the context of other beliefs—with Jack’s Surfer being more a rebellious/contentious Adam/Golem figure and Stan’s being a more sacrificial/contemplative Jesus figure. Any thoughts on that? 59

Fascism in the Fourth World

Boydisms

More comparisons between Naziism and Kirby’s godwar, by Jerry Boyd (A continuation of themes from TJKC #22)

(top) Doom and destruction are the legacies of dictators. Apokolips lay in ruins at the end of Kirby’s Hunger Dogs (pencils shown below), and this is the wrecked hall of Hitler’s Chancellory in 1945.

t was said about Adolph Hitler in his days as a homeless, unkempt Vienna street tramp, that despite all the failures he suffered in his youth, his eyes would blaze and his rhetoric would cower any dissenters when politics became the discussion. He had become a voracious reader, concentrating on the Europe of centuries past, with it Caesars, kings, prime ministers, and absolute rulers. It was with the latter that he felt a strange kinship. Absolute authority in the hands of the Nietzschean superman or “ubermensch” found a permanent place in the littered mind of the failed young architect, and shortly after WWI and the chaotic Germany to come, this principle would be part of a tragic doctrine to justify the end for millions of gypsies, Jews, Russians, Slavs, and Poles. If the superman wishes to amuse himself, then the niceties of polite society vanish, according to Friedrich Nietzsche. The rights of the superior man to pursue, exercise, and administer power come first and were even inherent. In this 19th century philosopher’s book, The Will to Power, Nietzsche proclaimed that “A daring and ruler race is building itself up... The aim should be to prepare a transvaluation of values for a particularly strong kind of man, most highly gifted in intellect and will. This man and the elite around him will become the ‘lords of the earth’.” As the Fuehrer’s elite—the S.S.—fanned out over the Nazi-occupied lands, so too did Darkseid’s elite explode through Boom Tubes on Earth in order to become its “lords.” As recounted in TJKC #22, there were more than a few likenesses between National Socialist Germany and the shadow planet, Apokolips. Interestingly, there are more.

Dictator Gods... “Whoever wants to understand National Socialist Germany must know (Richard) Wagner,” Hitler used to say. The Fuehrer adored Wagner’s towering operas, with its heroic myths of German antiquity. The barbaric, pagan Nibelungs and their mystic, heroic world beset by demons, violence, treachery, and blood continued to hold a fascination for the German people even up to the early part of the 20th Century. The twilight of the gods, ‘Goetterdaemmerung’, was another part of the primitive Germanic mythos (and likewise put to music by Wagner) and in it, Valhalla is set on fire by the warrior-god Wotan, in an orgy of selfwilled destruction. Jack Kirby’s Hunger Dogs, while clearly not the last word on the “twilight of the New Gods,” ended up in a scenario resembling Hitler (as Wotan). The incredible destruction Darkseid has visited upon New Genesis (with Micro-Mark) and even at home with his own subjects (the lowlies) is rebounded upon him, his devices, and loyal subjects. Like Hitler in the war’s final days, Darkseid is seen in his headquarters safely positioned below the ground (akin to the Fuehrerbunker). For the first time, Kirby has him refer to himself as an “old” man. Esak calls him an “aging, quaking Darkseid.” Hitler, by this time, was quickly deteriorating. The lack of fresh air (in the bunker), bouts of giddiness (brought on by the bomb attempt on his life in 1944), and the shock of defeats had greatly undermined his health. More and more, reason had given way to 60

2 T R PA

uncontrollable rage hammered with the harsher reality that his dreams of world conquest had eluded him. Kirby keeps Darkseid lucid in the Hunger Dogs. He remains just canny and elusive enough to further frustrate his enemies. (I liked this touch. After all, Jack never allowed Dr. Doom, Magneto, or the Red Skull to ever be completely beaten or captured. It seemed only appropriate that his “ultimate menace” escape to plot and menace anew.) Still, it’s plain that, like Hitler, the master of the holocaust has failed in his attempts to conquer “all.” He doesn’t have the Anti-Life Equation, he’s failed to subdue the warriors of Highfather, and his enemies—Himon, Lightray, and especially Orion—are in his own backyard, taking the war... to him. In Forever People #6, Darkseid slyly praised the New Agers of Supertown, explaining to his chief lieutenant, “The pups have angered me, Desaad! Put me on the defensive! A great feat!” With Orion the fierce decimating his elite guard and destroying his war machinery, he doesn’t even have the time (in the Hunger Dogs) to make that type of brief assessment. There is only time... to run. With his kingdom crumbling around him (and Lightray and Orion making like the invading Russian Army), the lord of the dark planet moves quickly to pay off an old debt... to Himon. His slaying of the great visionary is a final, futile act in a swirling series of events that have gotten out of hand. The larger goals of the war having been denied him, Darkseid seeks a small victory in his final reckoning with Scott Free’s old mentor. In Hitler’s final days, he rarely left the bomb-proof Fuehrerbunker. Fearful of being captured alive by the Russians, wracked with worry and fatigue, and a broken figure to all, the supreme warlord continued to wage war on those he could. The victorious allies were beyond his reach, but after learning that Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler had betrayed him (by assuming all military control of German forces in the west and attempting to negotiate their surrender to Eisenhower), the mad dictator had Himmler’s top S.S. liaison man, Hermann Fegelein, stripped of his rank and shot. (Fegelein was the brother-in-law of Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, but that fact didn’t save him.) The deepseated need to inflict pain and destruction upon others is still paramount in the minds of the two dictators up to the end.

portraying the Axis militarists in as gruesome a fashion as possible. Covers/stories by Kirby, Al Avison, Alex Schomburg, Bill Everett, and others often depicted the enemy as drooling, wild-eyed, sharpfanged caricatures of humanity. Sometimes they were giants or misshapen dwarves. Some reeked with so much evil that they were colored a bloody red (Captain America Comics #5) or even a pale blue (USA Comics #1). Unknowingly, art imitated life. The torture devices and destructive “wonder weapons” dreamed up by the artists weren’t far from the real horrors going on overseas. For Jack’s “new-age gods,” the King (either consciously or unconsciously) reached back into his Forties’ repertoire and some of the denizens of Apokolips would look suspiciously like the baddies of yore. Desaad, Granny Goodness, Kalibak, Dr. Bedlam, and (especially) Virman Vundabar could’ve fit in easily on Simon and Kirby’s old Timely covers. (Jack’s cover for Amazing Heroes #47 incorporates the same type of pulp torture elements as his USA Comics #1.)

...and Monsters During the Golden Age of comics, Timely (more than any other publisher) took great delight in

Look at the Mister Miracle #7 pencils on page 24 of this issue, then view this Hunger Dogs page right after. Though drawn ten years later, this is the logical next step of Darkseid’s oppression.

merging all classes. Class structures were to disappear within Nazi Germany’s borders, and individual worth and merit would be judged not by mothers and fathers, but by the state. The state required men for war, and once war began, returning German soldiers were secretly urged to take advantage of state-sponsored brothels in which willing German women and/or prostitutes with “Nordic characteristics” would bear the next generation of the “master race.” Traditional homes weren’t necessary in this case, as the children were to be taken care of and raised by S.S. matrons, while being molded in the philosophical training of the Fuehrer. (This sordid episode was particularly embarrassing to the Nazis later since the fuehrerprinzip—“leader principle”—claimed to have such boundless worship for the German mother. Most information on the breeding areas was destroyed before war’s end.) But what to do about much-needed men while the war was going on? The Nazis could breed Aryan babies but while they were growing, the S.S. busily recruited those from the occupied lands that they deemed “superior” and therefore worthy to be members of their elite. French, Hungarians, Finns, Dutch, and other Europeans with a disdain for Bolshevism (and sympathetic to Nazi ideals) could and did become black-jacketed S.S. killers. Apokolips likewise provided stations for Darkseid’s elite called the “Special Powers Force.” Out of Granny’s prison/orphanages emerged the very unique persons of Big Barda and the Female Furies. Kalibak asserted that he was a product of that curious program also (in New Gods #8). It can be assumed that Devilance, the Pursuer, was also one. Darkseid, the disciple of total power (like Hitler), desires a corps of powerful, ruthless agents to help him complete his plans. Failures (such as Auralie) are embarrassments and are rooted out for their lack of total commitment to the ambitions of their cruel, warmongering ruler. As they were in Hitler’s Germany, parents are secondary, even invisible figures in evil Darkseid’s world. Boys are rounded up and viciously pressed into military service in the depressed areas near Armaghetto (Mister Miracle #7). The children are to be proud ‘tigers’ of Granny’s. Hitler told his cronies more than once that he wanted a nation of “wolves,” ready to spring upon the helpless, indecisive ‘sheep’ of the spoiled democracies and monarchies of the decadent West.

Orion does the invading Russian Army one better—he not only lays waste to Darkseid’s war capabilities, he also instigates civil war!

The more inhuman (and repulsive) warriors of Apokolips— Mantis, the Deep Six, the Para-Demons, and even the rockhewn Darkseid—announce their bad intentions with their very presence. The Deep Six are aquatic, reptilian mutators, who, like the twisted, sadistic doctors of the Third Reich’s death camps, thrive on torture, intimidation, and death. This terrible group of brothers, along with Kalibak and Desaad, represent Kirby’s take on the doctors employed by Hitler’s S.S., in my opinion. Desaad is provided his victims through his lord and patron; the Deep Six go to work mutating marine life; and the poor, broken unfortunates dominated by the cruel Kalibak are shown briefly (in a pin-up from New Gods #4) in abject suffering. The Doctors’ Trial was conducted in Nuremburg beginning in 1946. The terrors inflicted upon prisoners-of-war and political enemies horrified the world and particularly the international medical community when testimony, reports, and captured journals were revealed. Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death,” became one of the most sought-after Nazi war criminals after evidence and witnesses showed up to incriminate him. He was never apprehended.

Jack Kirby... Influenced? So why did Kirby decide to reuse and revamp the Nazi history in his tetralogy? It could’ve just been an old soldier’s persistent preoccupation with the war he fought in, or sheer, brilliant creativity (which was Jack’s trademark). Or it could’ve been the publication of two books. In 1959, William L. Shirer’s massive (and definitive) histoire, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, was published. Shirer, an American reporter, had lived in Nazi Germany and following the war, had attended the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials while amassing papers and documents the Nazis were unable to destroy. His incredible book was a huge bestseller throughout the Sixties and shed a lot of light on the known and secret maneuverings that went on in that turbulent time. Kirby was pretty busy during that period and may never have read Shirer’s book. Stan Lee, also a Speer in WWII veteran, may not have gotten to 1946. it either, but the Red Skull’s origin (told some years later by the pair) was coopted somewhat from Hitler’s gutter tramp days in Vienna. Jack was great at creating ideas out of nothing, or running with a barely explored scientific concept, or reaching back into mythology/history. In his godwar, he covered all the bases. While

Breeding Adolph Hitler was far less concerned with the happy domesticity of the Aryan home than he was with obedient, athletic, warlike volk (people). The young Hitler had not been part of a closely-knit family and he later took that emptiness and attempted (through sociopolitical means) to make all Austrians and Germans his extended family, proclaiming a brotherhood of peasantry and nobility by 62

the King was working and reworking his magnum opus in the late Sixties, Albert Speer (below, mentioned in TJKC #22) was released from Nuremburg Prison in 1966 after serving a twenty-year sentence for war crimes. (Speer used slave labor to keep the German war machine going.) He had spoken passionately against the (Metronand Esak-like) technology he had helped to usher into the world. Before the international tribunal he stated in ’46, “There is nothing to stop unleashed technology and science from completing its work of destroying man which it has so terribly begun in this war...”. He went on to say, “Therefore, the more technological the world becomes, the more essential will be the demand for individual freedom and the self-awareness of the individual human being as a counterpoise to technology.” This statement, in my opinion (added with the dictatorial will to dominate), is Kirby’s tetralogy in a nutshell. Speer’s memoir, Inside the Third Reich, was published in the U.S. in 1970. In the summer of ’70, Jack left Marvel. With a surplus of fantastic ideas already put down on paper, Jack may have been intrigued by the book or the international celebrity Speer had become. The former Minister of Armaments and Production had not tried to conceal his crimes at Nuremburg and was using his notoriety to further deflate the reputations of Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, and others (including himself ) to enlighten future generations through truthful accounts of the events. Could Kirby not also use this occasion to dismiss Nazi ideology? After all, he’d once risked life and limb to defeat it.

Why not? We may never know how much Jack consciously strove to make his shadow planet the comic book version of “the thousand-year Reich,” but we do know he didn’t just stop with the existing information. As usual, he did his own spin on it, and in his own creative way, made the evils of totalitarianism live in a way they had never been presented before. ★

Beset by Sonny Sumo and the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid counters masterfully with his own awesome powers in Forever People #6.

The Source?

Challenging The Unknown by Mike Breen

(below) Before Lee & Kirby shrunk the Fantastic Four down to size in FF #16 (July 1963), Kirby reduced the Challs to miniscularity in Challengers of the Unknown #7 (April 1959).

Challengers of the Unknown (Showcase #6, February 1957) Four men survive a jet crash and, deciding they are living on borrowed time, band together to face any challenge, however risky, in service to mankind. In short order they find themselves confronting mad scientists, monsters, aliens and criminals, and are faced with time-travel, shrinking and various other physical changes. They adopt single-colour jumpsuits to function as a recognisable unit. Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #1, November 1961) Three men and one woman survive a rocket crash and, using the powers granted them by the accident, band together to face any challenge, however risky, in service to mankind. In short order they find themselves confronting mad scientists, monsters, aliens and criminals, and are faced with time-travel, shrinking and various other physical changes. They adopt single-colour jumpsuits to function as a recognisable unit. And yes, I did cut-and-paste the same paragraph twice with very minor amendments. The summary of these two groups, at least for the FF’s first couple of years, is that similar. robably the single most important area of debate surrounding Jack Kirby’s entire 40-year plus career is the extent to which he created and/or authored the characters that formed the Marvel Universe (and, incidentally, several current series of blockbuster films). The law has weighed in to support the official company

line—Stan Lee created and wrote these stories, with Jack Kirby relegated to the role of nothing more than hired artist. The phrase ‘The law is a ass’ springs instantly to mind, and a significant percentage of TJKC’s audience remain unconvinced. Most people would agree that the debate really starts where the Marvel Universe is recognized as starting—with the Fantastic Four. Who created the FF? A much-touted apocryphal story relates how Publisher Martin Goodman returned from a golf game with a rival ‘high-up’ (damn those Kirby quote-phrases!) from National Periodicals, and tasked Editor Lee with the job of creating something to rival the success of the JLA’s premier appearance in The Brave & The Bold #28. I find this tale dubious in the extreme, given that the two series have very little in common. The only similarity, really, is in the covers to those first issues—the fledgling JLA arrayed around Starro the Conqueror, and the FF similarly surrounding one of the Mole Man’s gargantuan creatures. There the resemblance ends, and maybe it’s true that the cover idea for FF #1 came from just such a notion, but I very much doubt that anything else in that issue did. Stan Lee, with typical self-effacing modesty and a copy of the script for FF #1 (which, even if genuine, might have been written at any stage of the creative process and not necessarily at the beginning), tells how he spent long hours carefully crafting the characters who would become Marvel’s first family. Umm... that would be all well and good, Stan, but perhaps you might also explain how these characters (and the stories that formed the first couple of years of their history), bear such a marked and oft-noted resemblance to National’s previously-published Challengers of the Unknown, a series which Jack Kirby had worked on only a few years before? Jack Kirby, who is accepted as principal author of the Challengers, and who was never shy about recycling his existing ideas into new and [ahem] challenging forms? Even if Stan Lee created and ‘wrote’ the FF, how much of it was plagiarised from the Challengers? Jack Kirby left National because of the now well-documented rift between himself and editor Jack Schiff, and his work on the Challengers was the main casualty. How possible is it that he might recreate those characters and their

(above) Showcase #12, B&B #28, FF #1, and 1997’s Challengers of the Fantastic DC/Marvel crossover. (below) Kirby summed up his feelings about Stan Lee at the end of Mister Miracle #5 (Nov. 1971). Have you ever noticed that Jack chose an alliterative “FF” when naming the “con’s con-man”? Hmmm...

milieu for his new publisher, particularly if it meant he could thumb his nose at his old employer? This last possibility should not be readily dismissed. Although Kirby was usually renowned for his generosity of spirit, he was not shy a decade later in creating a cutting portrayal of Lee and ‘second-in-command’ Roy Thomas (as Funky Flashman and Houseroy in Mister Miracle #6, 1972), when he left Marvel on less than ideal terms to return to what had become DC Comics. The thought that he might create a duplicate Challengers to vex Schiff is, at least to me, entirely plausible. Over the years a lot of similarities have been pointed out between these two series, something which was highlighted in the 1997 DC/Marvel crossover Challengers of the Fantastic, and which I intend to document here. I make no promises, but I will try as much as possible to resist cheap shots at Stan Lee. I’ve said before that I’m not a fan of his, but what follows will hopefully be confined to documenting what can be shown without personal comments—we are going to try not to concern ourselves with who said what, or who (mis)remembers what, and look only at the evidence of the printed pages. Let’s deal with some specifics, starting with the characters themselves.

The Challengers

The Fantastic Four

Ace Morgan: Ace fighter pilot and archetypal hero with sweptback/crew-cut blond hair. Very little else to distinguish him as he has little or no defined personality. One notable trait is his skill at hypnotism—in Showcase #11 (“The Day The Earth Blew Up!”), he hypnotises the alien scientist Garnat, and in Challengers #2 (“The Monster Maker!”) does the same for the arch-criminal Roc. Smokes a pipe1.

Reed Richards: Although apparently originally a rocket scientist, his scientific knowledge very definitely expands to suit the needs of the plot. In the first few issues, to suit the brainy type, he is lean to the point of being gaunt. Around FF #5 (with Sinnott inks), he starts to look more like Ace Morgan—more typically heroic with a sweptback hair style. One notable trait is his skill at hypnotism—in FF #2, he hypnotises the alien Skrulls who are left on Earth. Smokes a pipe.

Prof Haley: Another ‘type’—although billed as an oceanographer, his scientific knowledge seems to expand to suit the needs of the plot. He is obviously skilled in several branches of physics and understands at least one ancient language—Greek, in Showcase #6. To suit the brainy type, he is lean to the point of being gaunt, with a flat fringe plastered to one side of his face.

Ben Grimm: Ace fighter pilot and wannabe champion wrestler (first mentioned as early as FF #15). The ‘bruiser’ of the group, smokes cigars and has a broken nose. Could be Rocky’s twin, especially in the first few FFs, but his hairstyle (when he is not the Thing) seems to evolve to match Prof Haley’s flat, plastered fringe. Johnny Storm: Youthful, reckless, hot-tempered, wants to join circus (at least in FF #15).

Red Ryan: Circus daredevil/acrobat and/or mountaineer (depends which intro you are looking at). When he shows any individual personality, he’s what, youthful and reckless? It would be nice to describe him as hot-tempered but he is no more so than any other challenger when the plot requires.

Sue Storm: Swept-back blond hair (first fourteen issues). Very little else to distinguish her as she has little or no defined personality. Coincidence? Seems to me that we have a selection of very straightforward character traits, many of which can be easily rendered in a visual shorthand (the ‘tough’, the ‘thinker’), and which have been shuffled only slightly to create an apparently new team. Jack Kirby, it seems apparent, was fond of those two character types anyway—remember the Newsboy Legion’s Scrapper and Big Words?

Rocky Davis: Champion wrestler (Olympic champion in at least one intro), explorer2. The ‘bruiser’ of the group, smokes cigars and has a broken nose.

While we’re talking about the characters, I know that much has been made of how obviously the FF can be described in terms of the four elements: Reed’s water-like ductility, Ben’s rock-like exterior, and Johnny = fire and Sue = air. What about the Challengers? Maybe the comparison is not as simple as with the FF, but how about these:

has on any given day, unless his circus daredevil act was being fired out of a cannon). Could it be a case where the obvious comparison between him and Johnny Storm has been made so often that no-one has really thought it through? I don’t really mind—if you switch Red and Ace as the avatars of air and fire, you still have the same four elements which are exemplified by the FF. That was, at the time, a fairly unique theme around which to create a group of characters, even if it’s been over-used now. Another coincidence? Much has also been made of the fact that the FF are not typical super-heroes. They do not patrol the city by night like Spider-Man or Batman, proactively seeking crimes to thwart and criminals to confront, although even back in the Lee/Kirby days they responded to police alarms when required and faced criminals and supervillains. They are presented more as explorers or problem-solvers. What other group has such an atypical modus operandi? Time, I think, to review the Challengers’ adventures and see what themes get re-used... elsewhere.

FIRE: Ace, the jet/rocket pilot, willing to lead bombing raids on alien incursions (as in Showcase #11) EARTH: Rocky, of course AIR: Red, the acrobat (or mountaineer, take your pick), who defies gravity either way WATER: Who else? Prof, the skin diver/oceanographer What, you thought I’d have to go for Ace as Air and Red as the personification of fire? Maybe, but apart from his name and hair color, Red doesn’t really fit. Like I said, he’s not conspicuously hottempered and has no link to fire in his profession (whichever one he

Showcase #6, “The Secrets of the Sorcerer’s Box!”—Morelian, descendant of Merlin and self-professed sorcerer, hires the Challengers as guinea pigs to open an ancient box, which contains awesome dangers and a diamond ring which grants great power. Morelian operates from his ancient castle, shipped from Europe “...stone by stone, and rebuilt!” Fantastic Four #5 “Prisoners of Doctor Doom!”— Dr. Doom, a scientist obsessed with sorcery and black magic, coerces the FF into retrieving an ancient box, Blackbeard’s treasure chest, which contains gems once owned by Merlin3, and which grant great power. Doom operates from his ancient castle, which kind of gets lost once Doom’s Latverian connections are invented. Later stories and writers suggest it is located in America, so it too was presumably shipped from Europe, stone by stone, and rebuilt. Showcase #6, “The Secrets of the Sorcerer’s Box!”—One of the awesome dangers mentioned above is essentially a giant, animated statue which turns out to be a creature of pure thought. Fantastic Four #3, “The Menace of the Miracle Man”—The FF spend most of this issue fighting a giant, animated statue movie exhibit, which turns out to be a hypnotic illusion—in other words, a creature of pure thought. Showcase #11, “The Day the Earth Blew Up!”—Alien invaders, the Tyrans, plan to destabilise Earth’s atmosphere from their base far underground as a prelude to invasion4. Once their plan is thwarted, Ace leads a bombing raid to blow up their base. Fantastic Four #1, “Meet the Mole Man!”—The Mole Man and his legions of monsters plan to destabilise Earth’s atomic powers from their base far underground as a prelude to invasion. Once their plan is thwarted, the Mole Man decides to... blow up his own base. Actually, only the dialogue says it was the Mole Man’s idea—judging just by the artwork and his expression of grim satisfaction in the last panel, it could easily have been intended that Reed Richards was responsible. An early “failure to communicate”? Either that, or the Mole Man’s memory is especially faulty, because when he returns in FF #22 he blames the FF for destroying his island, and trying to destroy him with it. Fantastic Four #2, “Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!”—Alien invaders, which is about the only part of Showcase #11 that got left out of FF #1. Showcase #12, “The Menace of the Ancient Vials!”—International criminal Karnak(?!), and his gang obtain ancient vials containing potions of sorcerous power, which can affect ‘air and water...and even men’ (I would suspect the word ‘alchemy’ was prohibited by the nascent Comics Code, but it shows up in Challengers #8). Oh, and the familiarly-named Karnak wears Batroc the Leaper’s moustache, so by ‘international’ I think they mean ‘European’. The potions’ power “... wears off after a while...” according to one of Karnak’s henchmen, and a final potion reverses the effect of the previous one. Fantastic Four #30, “The Dreaded Diablo!”—International, ancient criminal Diablo, vials of sorcerous power / alchemy, blah, blah, blah... European location and moustache, Diablo is defeated by Ben Grimm when one of his potions “...wore off too soon!” Diablo has a castle too, but apparently he hasn’t been revived long enough to have had it shipped anywhere. 66

Challengers #1, “The Human Pets”—A giant alien child kidnaps the Challs as pets for his own amusement. Ace manages to attract the attention of the child’s parents, who restore the team to Earth and scold the child. Fantastic Four #24, “The Infant Terrible!”—An all-powerful alien child treats the FF and Earth as toys for his own amusement. Reed manages to attract the attention of the child’s parents, who restore order and, presumably, scold the child. Challengers #3, “The Menace of the Invincible Challenger”—A space-flight launched prematurely gifts Rocky with temporary powers of fire and ice, invisibility (“camouflage”), and size-changing abilities to shrink and grow to giant proportions (with, presumably, giant strength). Wow! That sounds familiar. What does that remind you of? Oh, yeah... Fantastic Four #1, “The Fantastic Four”—A space-flight launched prematurely gifts the FF with powers of fire, invisibility, size-changing abilities to shrink and grow to giant proportions, and giant strength (and a curse of looking... ‘rocky’). Challengers #3, “The Menace of the Invincible Challenger”—The super-powered but amnesiac Rocky is led astray by a gang of criminals, who seek to exploit his powers and lack of knowledge as a ticket to easy street in their thieving activities. Fantastic Four #24, “The Infant Terrible!”—The super-powered alien child is led astray by a gang of criminals, who seek to exploit his powers and lack of knowledge as a ticket to easy street in their thieving activities. Challengers #4, “The Wizard of Time!”—The Challengers travel through time in a bid to foil the plans of time-traveller Tiko. Part of the adventure is set in ancient Egypt, where Prof and Red escape on horseback. Rocky escapes from ancient Greeks in a chariot drawn by a pair of horses. Tiko’s outfit bears a marked similarity to Marvel’s ‘Wizard of Time’, Immortus (although I doubt he’d win first prize in any cosplay contest). When the Challengers confront Tiko in the future, he traps them in an anti-gravity ray. Fantastic Four #19, “Prisoners of the Pharaoh!”—The FF travel through time to ancient Egypt and confront the time-traveller Rama-Tut, where Ben (temporarily human), escapes in a chariot drawn by a pair of horses. Rama-Tut, somewhat confusingly (gotta love that continuity!), is thought to be another iteration of Dr. Doom (starting in FF Annual #2), but turns out to actually be the time-traveller Kang the Conqueror, who turns out to be ... Immortus (or at least, that was the case the last time I read any comics. If the situation has changed, I really don’t need to know). Digressing slightly from the FF, when the Avengers first confront time-traveller Kang (in the Lee/Kirby Avengers #8), he traps them in an anti-gravity ray. Challengers #5, “The Riddle of the Star-Stone!”—A combination of meteor fragment and mystic gems gift archaeologist’s assistant Vreedl5 with powers of fire, flight, water and great strength. Fantastic Four #1, “The Fantastic Four”—’Cosmic Rays’ gift the FF with powers of... oh, come on—do I really need to finish this sentence? Challengers #7, “The Isle of No Return!”—Anton Zammer6 threatens the Challengers with the late Professor Macon’s super-scientific devices, one of which shrinks them to toy-size, and they are imprisoned in a parrot’s cage. Fantastic Four #16, “The Micro-World of Doctor Doom!”—Doom threatens the FF by shrinking them to toy-size, and Ben hides in a guinea pig’s cage. Challengers #8, “The Man Who Stole the Future”—Drabny, a man who likes hanging around castles7, steals three ancient alchemist’s boxes containing gifts of great power, and uses advanced science to make himself ruler of a small European nation. Fantastic Four #5 “Prisoners of Doctor Doom!”, Fantastic Four Annual #2, “The Fantastic Origin / Final Victory of Dr. Doom!”— Dr. Doom, a man who likes hanging around castles, seeks an ancient box containing gifts of great power, and uses advanced science to make himself ruler of his small European nation.

Phew. Okay, I got a bit light-headed there, but the essential details are accurate. A great many of the FF’s earlier adventures have basic elements which previously appeared in the Challengers, even down to the FF’s powers, the small European nation Mordania/Latveria, and specific scenes like giant alien children and Ben/Rocky’s chariot

escape while on a time-travel trip, which I would find difficult to believe were duplicated by two different minds and happened entirely by random chance. Advanced super-science, castles and alien races feature heavily as well, and are obviously staples of the FF’s adventures. In fairness there are differences, but not as many as you might 67

think. The FF seemed to hit the ground running with more rounded character development, but you would hardly describe their personalities as very layered and deep— Reed is smart and in love with Sue, Similarities abound between Challengers #1 and FF #24 Johnny is (above) and Challs #4 and FF #19 (below). young and rash, and so on. There is certainly a sense of progress—a forward momentum that is missing from the Challengers, whose adventures could be shuffled and shown in any order without any confusion or disrupted continuity, but the FF after 24 issues are not very different from the way they started out, apart from the softening of Ben’s character (and the fact that he doesn’t start every other word balloon with “Bah!” like he did in #1). Who knows? If Kirby had stayed with the Challengers, would we have seen their personalities develop? I can certainly see a relationship brewing between Rocky and June. In #1’s “The Man Who Tampered With Infinity”, Rocky twice demonstrates anger at the thought of her being kidnapped, and she certainly seems more than platonically concerned for him in #3 when he has amnesia. Alumni of the Marvel Bullpen talk of Lee and Kirby’s story ‘conferences’. Jack Kirby would arrive at the offices and he and Stan would work out future plotlines off the cuff, with Lee re-enacting dramatic scenes to emphasise key points. But just how much of these re-enactments ever made it into the finished artwork? If you put two headstrong people together to work out anything, you will often find them talking at cross-purposes and both will go away thinking their point of view has prevailed. Mark Evanier has mentioned on more than one occasion how he, as Kirby’s assistant, tried to convince him to pursue particular plots and characters in the Fourth World series, only to find shortly after that what had ended up on the drawing board was something completely different. How much did Kirby ever listen to anything that Lee said, or did he just go off and draw the story that had always been in his head regardless? What else was there that garnered so much more attention for the FF in the long run? Was it possibly not the FF themselves, but the notion of Marvel’s shared universe, the sense that all of their characters met and interacted on a regular basis? The Challengers were hidden away in their own little corner of DC’s shared continuity and never met any of DC’s other heroes. The FF, mean-

while, were overwhelmed with guest-stars even before the introduction of the Inhumans, the Surfer and the Black Panther. In their first few years they met the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Dr. Strange, Sgt. Fury, SubMariner and Spider-Man, and probably others I’ve missed. It’s difficult to know who should get the credit for this idea. I’m tempted to think it might have been Stan Lee, who was more likely of the two to recognize a saleable commodity and push it for all its worth. Kirby would have been more inclined to follow his own muse. In later years, he resisted attempts to have the characters he was working on interact with others, but that was to maintain what editorial control he could. In Marvel’s early years he was involved in some way with most of the heroes listed above and was apparently quite willing to team them up. You can’t really say categorically that the credit should go to Lee, as Kirby was quite happy, when left to his own devices, to create a shared Fourth World continuity where Lightray could show up for a cameo in Jimmy Olsen without fanfare, or Mantis move unannounced from the Forever People to the New Gods as featured villain. If that ‘epic for our times’ had not been cut short, who knows where things would have gone? Another noticeable difference between the Challengers and the FF is the villains. Few of the miscreants who appear in Challengers have anything resembling personalities. Like I said, Vreedl and Anton Zammer, from #5 and #7, are indistinguishable by anything other than their names, Drabny from #8 is entirely forgettable, and I would bet that few people could have named them or most of the other villains before refreshing their memories with this article. Compare these one-dimensional baddies with the likes of Doom or the Puppet-Master who contributed so much to subsequent character development. Again, was this Lee or Kirby? It’s hard to say because we don’t know what editorial limitations Kirby had to deal with while at National. Would he, left alone, have developed more rounded villains as he might have done with the Challengers’ personalities? The other point to bear in mind is that Kirby only worked on the Challengers for, what, just over two years? 18 stories crammed into just 12 issues. It’s a tempting ‘What If ’ to speculate on what might have happened had Kirby stayed. Would he have had the editorial freedom and encouragement to expand as subsequently happened at Marvel? Do the FF’s first 12-18 stories really show any more significant development in characterisation than the Challengers? I said I would resist any more disparagement of Lee’s contribution, 68

but maybe his greatest gift was not as writer or creator, but as an editor who had the sense to stand aside and let talents like Kirby do their thing, and the salesmanship to promote their work and a sense of community with the fans. Who created the FF? I’ve seen several letters where John Morrow and this magazine were taken to task for perceived putdowns of Stan Lee, but I can only be honest and side with people who feel that Lee has always enjoyed rather more credit than his contributions deserved. Given what I’ve listed above, I have to say that the bulk of the creativity that went into the FF came directly from the Challengers, and that it was Jack Kirby recycling his existing ideas rather than any plagiarism or originality on Stan Lee’s part. That’s only my humble opinion, and easily dismissed. I hope however, that people will give some consideration to the extensive similarities

I’ve described in this longer than usual rant, and that they will also bear in mind that Kirby’s creativity often manifested itself in reworking themes already visited. Look how often names like Tiger 21 and Kamandi waited for their chance in the spotlight, or the number of times that Kirby used and re-used the theme of gods on Earth— from Mercury in Timely’s early days, through Thor, the New Gods and the Eternals. Who created the FF (and, as a logical extension, a large part of the Marvel Universe)? Who created four characters bound together by fate and friendship to a lifetime spent challenging the unknown? You know my opinion. Now, try to put aside preconceptions, nostalgia, official versions and legal verdicts, and judge for yourself. You know who created the FF. You’re reading a magazine dedicated to his creativity. ★

FOOTNOTES

1 In Showcase #7, there is what looks like a colorist’s error (at least in the 2012 hardback reprint, which I’m guessing duplicated the original colouring—can anyone confirm?). On Page 3, Panel 1, the figure smoking the pipe is coloured as Prof Haley, but his hairstyle is clearly Ace’s, and Panel 2 shows Ace with the pipe and Prof only just entering the room. On Page 5, Panel 1, it’s still Ace with the pipe. Someone was struggling with the artwork for this whole chapter anyway, because Red’s neckwear switches from bowtie to tie and back again several times. The inks are credited to Marvin Stein and one Rosalind Kirby, but was the morphing tie on the original pencils? 2 I don’t think it’s explicitly stated anywhere that Rocky is an explorer, but in the debut Showcase #6, page 4, a newspaper article pictures him with a safari helmet (“Rocky... brings ‘em back alive!” says the caption). On Page 2 of Showcase #7 he’s wrestling an alligator “... any place, any time...” and still has his safari helmet. That intro page is re-used for Showcase #11, and it’s the first one of several that indicate mountaineering is at least a hobby of Red’s (and the last intro page, from Challengers #8, comes right out and calls him a ‘famed mountain climber’ with no mention of the circus). Maybe the intro page from #7 and #11 is not the best guide to their careers as it’s also the one that calls Prof Haley ‘Prof Harrison’, but we go with what we’ve got. Anyway, by the time Challengers #1 rolls around, he’s ‘Prof Hale’. Back to Rocky— Showcase #11, Page 3, and Rocky is wearing the safari helmet around Challenger headquarters. He claims he’s about to go on another expedition, but maybe he just has odd notions about dress-down Fridays. The intro page for Challengers #1 has Rocky in some jungle location fighting a leopard bare-handed. I think ‘explorer’ is a reasonable presumption. You might argue he was intended to be a big-game hunter, but he’s never (to my knowledge) shown shooting any animal, despite being handy with guns. 3 Merlin, it seems to me, held a certain fascination for Jack Kirby, much like the Easter Island statues. He shows up in Journey into Mystery’s early Thor series (#96). Although Kirby was only cover artist, he was known to be creating and/or designing characters for other artists at this time, and the Merlin figure on the cover looks slightly different to the slimmer figure drawn by Joe Sinnott. The Forever People’s Big Bear was mistaken for Merlin on a time-travel trip (just as the Thing was mistaken for Blackbeard on this time-travel trip), and Merlin was a regular character and narrator in the Demon. It is well-known that Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, with its Arthurian mythology, was a major early influence on Kirby. 4 Oh, and Marvel’s next underground menace after the Mole Man is the Hulk’s Tyran... nus? 5 The brilliantly-named Vreedl is bald under Wally Wood’s inks in the interior of this issue, but on the cover, with inks credited to Jack Kirby, he has a receding hair-line. Huh? Several possibilities—(a) Kirby changed his mind (or forgot) between cover and interior how the character looked, and drew him two different ways, (b) an editorial decision added hair to the cover (maybe to prevent a resemblance to Lex Luthor?), or (c) Wood redrew the character in the interior, whether directed to do so or because he felt the change was warranted. If (c) is true, as much as Wally Wood is near the top of anybody’s list of Kirby inkers, one has to ask how much he was imposing his own (considerable) artistic sensibilities over Kirby’s pencils. More relevant to this article is the fact that the Vreedl on the cover looks quite a lot like the FF’s Molecule Man (from FF #20). 6 Anton Zammer and Vreedl (from #5)—separated at birth? Same facial features, including the cleft nose, and it would be hard to convince me that (at least at the artwork stage), they weren’t intended to be the same character (Vreedl returning after a convenient jailbreak). 7 That really is all we ever learn about Drabny—June Robbins’ friend Marie describes him as a man who has “...been snooping around the castle lately...”, and we never get anything else in the way of background or motivation. Speaking of June Robbins (the ‘honorary Challenger’), just who is she, anyway? Showcase #7 introduces her as June Robbins, but in Challengers #1, 2 & 3 she’s June Walker (and her hair has gone from brown to blond), then #5 reverts back to the name Robbins. I have to Kirby took one final shot at the Challengers for DC Comics Presents #84 (1985). assume this is the same person, but was this ever explained, post-Kirby?

Bonus GALLERY

Writing

by John Morrow, with assistance from Norris Burroughs, Denny O’Neil, Mike Royer, and Larry Lieber (below) 1950s Kirby unused pencil splash for Black Magic. Jack used heavy illustration board back when this was produced. His handwriting is identifiable by the way he wrote the letter “E” with the looping lower bar. (next page, top) Stan Lee would add numbered balloons that corresponded to his numbered script. (next page, bottom) Journey Into Mystery #88 was scripted by Larry Lieber, but you can still make out Jack’s handwriting that wasn’t fully erased on the original art pages.

f a tree falls in the woods and no one letters a sound effect, who cut it down? That tortured metaphor makes about as much sense as my efforts to explain something about how Kirby worked from other writers’ scripts. The usual M.O. on books where Kirby is credited as writer, is Jack would indicate word balloons on the pencil art, hand-write the dialogue in pencil, then hand it off to an inker and letterer. It’s the same process he used throughout his career, dating back to the 1940s, and it’s particularly easy to spot Jack’s handwritten lower-case “E”, which had a hooking lower bar. Pretty straightforward, right? But what about those issues where someone else is credited as writer, and Kirby is listed only as artist? For evidence, let’s look at copies of Jack’s pencils from his 1974-75 DC stuff (Justice Inc., Richard Dragon Kung-Fu Fighter, the last three Kamandi issues, and Sandman) where other people wrote

the scripts—Denny O’Neil, Gerry Conway, and Michael Fleisher. On some of those stories, Jack wrote the dialogue on the pencil art (as if he had scripted them), and on others, he didn’t. On the ones where he did, it seems to generally be what ended up as the final dialogue, other than a few minor edits—Jack even underlined the words that needed to be emphasized (ie. bolded). But on Justice Inc. #4’s pencils (mislabeled #5 on the copies), and Jack’s last couple of Kamandi issues (which Gerry Conway scripted), there’s no lettering indicated; just blank areas for dialogue, as you’d expect if he were handed a script to draw from. So if you didn’t know better, you’d think Jack did the scripting on Richard Dragon #3, Justice Inc. #2 and #3, and all his Sandman issues (since the dialogue is written by Jack on the pencil art), and was working from a full script on Justice Inc. #4 and the last three Kamandi issues (since those pencils have no lettering on them). Stylistically though, I’m not convinced Jack had much, if any, input into the writing of those stories. So my conundrum is to understand why Jack would’ve penciled the pages differently (ie. including the words on some, and not on others), if he was working from a full script on all of them. This quandary dates back to Jack’s 1960s Marvel issues which list Larry Lieber as writer. A close examination of original art pages shows Kirby’s hand-written lettering in the balloons under the inks. Lieber feels that Kirby illustrated his full scripts faithfully, rarely deviating from what Larry had written. When asked about Kirby’s lettering in the balloons, he assumed that was Jack’s way to know how much space to leave for the lettering. In other words, Kirby’s handwriting was merely Jack jotting in Lieber’s script verbatim. (Unfortunately, Larry did not have any scripts to compare the final results with.) The problem is, this isn’t consistent with Kirby’s contemporaneous 1960s work with Stan Lee. In the early days before Jack started adding heavy margin notes for Stan, Lee was presumably providing scripts to Jack, and Kirby would leave blank areas for Stan’s dialogue. Even after starting to include margin notes for Stan (when Jack definitely wasn’t working from a script), Jack still left the area for dialogue blank—Stan would scribble numbers in those areas, which corresponded to his numbered dialogue script for the letterer (a common practice among comics writers). If we take a long view of Jack’s working methods, we see he was still leaving blank areas for dialogue on his 1980s full script Destroyer Duck work with Steve Gerber, so it doesn’t make sense that he was trying to determine how much space to leave for the letterer in those earlier stories. That seems like a lot of extra work—copying the scripter’s dialogue onto his pencil pages—unless he was having some input into it. So I’m left questioning just why Jack’s 1970s work is the way it is. I asked inker Mike Royer, when Kirby wrote his own stories, how the pages

pages per month to be drawn. Royer offered one other suggestion for the inconsistencies in the 1970s work: “Could it be that the copy of Justice Inc. #5 [actually #4] pencils was copied before Jack added his words?” That’s certainly a possibility; in the rush to get work out, perhaps he simply made his pencil photocopies before he went back and copied over the writer’s dialogue and captions on the pages. A sure sign would be, if someone turns up a Justice Inc. #4 or Kamandi #38-40 page, and you can spot Jack’s pencil handwriting under the lettering. That would show that he’d xeroxed his pencil art before copying the scripter’s dialogue over. Still, that seems like an awful lot of unnecessary work, if he could just send the script with the pencil pages to the letterer. And if he were running behind, wouldn’t Jack have just had assistant Steve Sherman or wife Roz copy the text over and then xerox the pages, so he could spend his time on another issue? Like with Sandman, Kirby wasn’t as personally invested in the series other people wrote. “Working from other people’s scripts was not what he wanted to do,” recounted Sherman. “By 1975, he was ready to move on.” And shortly thereafter, he did. But the collaboration with other DC writers at least offered some interesting collaborations, even if they aren’t as well remembered as Jack’s solo 1970s work. “I really wish I’d had more interaction with Jack,” added O’Neil. “I missed a chance to consort with one of the greats.” So why would Jack letter the other scripter’s dialogue sometimes, and other times not? We’ll keep searching for answers, but in the meantime, here’s a fantastic gallery of 1970s pages illustrating my quandary. Enjoy! ★

came to him. Mike responded, “Jack always did his dialogue in pencil on the art. I then lettered right over his carbon and erased after the page was completed in ink... I never inked any pages of Jack’s that I didn’t also do all the lettering on.” I asked Royer if he remembered ever lettering Jack’s stories from a typewritten script, instead of directly over Jack’s handwriting. Mike further commented, “I never lettered any Jack Kirby pages from a typed script. And the rare occasion that the lettering on Kirby pages wasn’t mine, it had been re-lettered for some cockamamie reason by the folks at DC.” (An example of this would be Justice Inc. #3; while Mike’s lettering is evident on issue #2 and #4, he’s only credited for inking #3, and the pages look to have been re-lettered by DC.) I asked writer Denny O’Neil about his 1970s work with Kirby, and he stated, “To the best of my recollection, Jack didn’t script any of the stuff we worked on together, especially not Dragon, which, having been adapted from a novel I co-wrote, was my baby. As to why the slight change in procedure... I have no idea. There would certainly be no reason to deny Jack credit. On the contrary. “Possible reason(s) for the anomalies: Jack may have been under time pressure and either skipped the ballooning or, as sometimes happened, we had the copy lettered on separate overlays to be pasted onto the finished art. So we saved a day or two in the production end.” Kirby’s assistant at the time, Steve Sherman, offers this possibility: “My guess is that Jack would read the script all the way through and then forget about it. Since he never worked from an outline (it was all in his head) he probably did the lettering because he changed a lot of it. The ones that he didn’t letter he probably figured the editor would figure it out. Knowing Jack, he broke down the story to fit what he saw, and then it was up to the editor to make the dialogue fit.” Steve’s suggestion rings true for at least one of those 1970s stories attributed to other writers. I’m not that knowledgeable about spotting stylistic signs of O’Neil, Conway, and Fleisher’s writing, but there are a few telltale signs of Kirby scripting on Sandman #1, which Joe Simon is credited for writing. Jack lettered the dialogue on the pencils, and there are some of Jack’s odd placement of “quotation marks” evident, making me believe Jack altered Joe’s script on that one—having written stories in a give-and-take method with Joe in the 1940s and ’50s, Jack likely wouldn’t have hesitated to amp up his old partner’s writing if he felt it was needed. When asked, Mike Royer replied, “Jack may have done some heavy re-writing/editing on Sandman #1. I do remember that Jack wasn’t excited about doing the book, but at the time I don’t think he had a choice,” as he was under contract for a certain number of 71

(left) Justice Inc. #4 (even though it erroneously says #5); no handlettering by Jack, as you’d expect if he were working from a full script. When Gerry Conway took over scripting the last few Kamandis, Jack did the same; he just left it blank.

(above) Richard Dragon was created by Dennis O’Neil and Jim Berry in the 1974 novel Dragon’s Fists, using the pseudonym “Jim Dennis.” Kirby worked with O’Neil on only one issue of the comic book series, and included the title “The Armageddon Beam!” in the next issue blurb at the end of Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #3. The published version ends it with “A Time To Be A Whirlwind!” Was the first title by Denny, or did Jack take it upon himself to create one?

(left) In Justice Inc. #3, the character “Allan Ash” is a pseudonym for Allan Asherman, Denny O’Neil’s assistant editor in the 1970s— so it’s likely Denny would’ve chosen that in-joke. But Jack even bothered to underline the words that needed bolding in #3 and #2 (above), which DC’s letterer followed. (For some reason, DC lettered #3, while Royer inked both issues, and lettered #2.)

(next page) This page from Sandman #1 has Jack’s telltale quotation marks around “nightmare alert”, which alerts us that he likely rewrote Joe Simon’s script for that issue.

(right) Somehow, Jack ended up with copies of his pencils after Mike Royer lettered Sandman #5, but before he inked it. Jack’s handwriting is still underneath. Michael Fleisher scripted this issue, as well as #4 (above) and #6 and #7 (below and right).

(previous page) The quotes around “gang-busters” in panel one of this page from Kamandi #37 is a clear sign Jack wrote this, even though then-editor Gerry Conway made subtle changes like in panel 3: “I’ll have to use this pole like a spear--!” instead of Kirby’s “...with great care!!”

(this page) When Conway took over as scripter on Kamandi #38-40, Jack no longer wrote any dialogue on his pencil art, since he was working from a full script.

(this page) After Kirby left DC in the 1970s, he only occasionally worked on projects with someone else handling the scripts. He didn’t include Stan Lee’s dialogue on the Silver Surfer Graphic Novel (left) or Steve Gerber’s wording on Destroyer Duck (issue #5 pencil detail shown below). But when he scripted his own work, such as What If? #11 (above), he handwrote his own dialogue on the art boards.

(this page, top left) Jack scripted the final issue of the first Super Powers mini-series himself, and hand-wrote his dialogue on the pencils. Note the editorial changes on the published version (previous page). (above) For the second Super Powers mini, Jack only provided the art for Paul Kupperberg’s script.

TRIBUTE

2013 Kirby Tribute Panel

Held at Comic-Con International: San Diego at 10:00am on July 21st, 2013. Moderated by Mark Evanier, with guests Paul S. Levine, Neil Gaiman, and Tony Isabella. Transcribed by Jon Knutson, and edited by Mark Evanier and John Morrow • Photos by Chris Ng

(this page, top) The Black Racer’s first appearance from the cover of New Gods #3, and (below) Jack’s reimagined version for DC’s Super Powers toy line in the 1980s. (next page) Kirby pitched art for a Big Barda & Her Female Furies series prior to Barda’s first published appearance in Mister Miracle #4. Having based her image on a Playboy feature on actress/singer Lainie Kazan (shown here), Jack may’ve originally had some mildly racy themes in mind for her (Lashina and Gilotina could certainly be considered a little kinky). The character “The Head”, the shirtless “Apollo”, even “Beauty Rock” headquarters (which doesn’t in any way fit how Jack eventually used the concept) don’t seem to be exactly mainstream comics fodder. And who knows where “The Lump” came from, but his visual (colored fleshy pink) could be construed as something more fitting in Galaxy Green than Mister Miracle. Whatever the original idea was before being abandoned, other characters from the concept drawings were also worked into Jack’s strips later (“The Lump” in Mister Miracle #7, “The Head” in Mister Miracle #10, and “Apollo” in OMAC #7).

MARK EVANIER: If you never believe anything I tell you, believe the following: I’m on my way here, I am limping from knee surgery I had three weeks ago, the crowds out there are terrible, I got detained by the Westboro Baptist Church Klingons outside. (laughter) I get to this door, there’s one line of people trying to get in—it’s about an hour line to get in. I go to a door that’s closed, it’s exit only, and the man says, “You can’t come in here.” I said, “I’m a Guest of Honor of the convention.” He says, “You can’t come in here.” I said, “I’ve had knee surgery, I’m limping, I can’t wait.” He says, “You can’t come in here.” I said, “I’m hosting a panel that starts in ten minutes.” He says, “You can’t come in here.” I said, “Please, I’ve got a whole room full of Jack Kirby fans up there waiting to hear this panel,” and he says, “Jack Kirby? Come on in!” (laughter) There are occasional perks to being around Jack. (laughter) I am Mark Evanier, obviously. Who else would be running a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel at this convention? The gentleman to my right, your left, is the Kirby family attorney— full disclosure, he is also my attorney—this is Mr. Paul S. Levine. (applause) For legal reasons, Neil [Gaiman] has every moment of his life videotaped, and I have my attorney constantly at my side. (laughter) Over on the other side there is one of my best friends, one of the top writers in the comic book business; will you welcome Mr. Tony Isabella. (applause) To my left is my friend of lesser years, but still valuable ones. A New York Times best-selling author, Mr. Neil Gaiman. (applause) Let me introduce a few people in the audience; you are all subscribers and dutiful readers of The Jack Kirby Collector, published by Mr. John Morrow. (applause) My partner at the time I worked for Jack Kirby... Steve Sherman, ladies and gentlemen! (applause) Those of you who’ve read of Steve’s problems on Facebook recently will be very pleased to see that he’s here, he looks as healthy as he’s ever looked, even better! You look terrific. (applause) VOICE IN CROWD: Live long and prosper to Steve. MARK: Live long and prosper to Steve. Yes. May you last longer than Star Trek. (laughter) I want Steve to stay healthy for two reasons: one is he’s a hell of a great guy, one of my best friends, and secondly, I need a witness when I tell people some of the things Jack said. They look at me like, “He didn’t say that,” and I have Steve to corroborate most of them, because he was present. Steve was present, I believe, the time that Jack attended the second or third San Diego Comic-Con, and as huge as it was—I think there were a thousand people there— Jack said, “Some day, that convention’s going to take over the city of San Diego.” And, he said—I swear to you, this is almost a direct quote—he said, “It’s going to be the place where Hollywood comes every year to sell what they made last year, and find out what they’re going to make next year.” (laughter) Remember that, Steve? And Steve remembers this too; we gave him a look like, “Yeah, sure, Jack. Is this anything like the Black Racer, a black paraplegic guy on skis?” He was serious about it, and once 80

again, we find ourselves shaking our heads, and going, “We should’ve listened more to the guy.” Is Tracy Kirby here? Tracy is supposed to be on her way here. Who else should I introduce in the audience? Is Rand here? What is your title in the Museum?

job description in his head, and he did it very well. Jack’s job description when he was doing Fantastic Four was, “How do I turn this into a new dynasty? How do I reinvent comics? How do I take Marvel Comics to a new era?” And he approached it that way. He didn’t think of himself as competitive with the Don Hecks, the Gene Colans and so on. He loved those people. He never spoke ill of any of them. Steve, did you ever hear Jack speak ill of another artist?

RANDOLPH HOPPE: I am the director/curator of the Jack Kirby Museum. MARK: This is Rand Hoppe. (applause) Two must-stops in the convention hall are the TwoMorrows table and the Jack Kirby Museum table, which are right near each other. What’s your booth number?

STEVE SHERMAN: Uh... as long as they weren’t a Nazi, no. (laughter) MARK: Okay, that lets out five. (laughter) Let’s take our cue from that. Don’t get angry when someone says that they didn’t like Jack Kirby’s work. Nobody’s work is loved by everyone. Don’t get incensed... yes, there are some very, grandiose, fact-free claims made by some people. There are stupid stories that come to me. Sometimes they’re attributed to me. I’ve Googled myself as we all secretly do on the Internet, and I find someone saying, “Mark Evanier said that Jack Kirby would only eat radishes on a Tuesday,” or something like that. Where did that come from? But there are these twisted, unpleasant stories, people trying to make their case against Jack. Take a look at how other people approach politics on the Internet, how they will make up just about anything to support their cause. Well, people who want to support

JOHN MORROW: 1301.

MARK: 1301, and from there, they can direct you to Rand. If you have any Jack Kirby original art in your possession, even if you don’t have it here, talk to Rand if it’s never been scanned for posterity. He’s doing a wonderful job of it. He’s so good at this. He puts on gloves like he’s doing surgery. He’s got this scanner and he takes such good care of the artwork. He takes better care of the art than anybody at Marvel Comics ever did. (laughter) The thing I want to talk about, just very briefly this year, is this. There’s a lot of arguing going on over the Internet; there’s a lot of people furious, there’s a lot of flame wars going on. There’s a certain amount of people who start belittling Jack, I think partly because it’s an attention-getting device, and partly because they don’t like being told what’s wonderful, and you know, “You have to love this man,” and it’s true. And I want to just impart to you all one thing that I learned from Jack. He was a very selfless man in that regard. If you came up to Jack, as I once saw someone do, and say, “Mr. Kirby, I think you’re the second-best artist in the business. My favorite is Gil Kane,” Jack was not bothered by that at all. He’d go, “Yeah, Gil is great.” He did not feel he was competitive with other artists, for two reasons. One is, other artists in comics didn’t do exactly the same thing Jack Kirby did. Not to belittle them, but when John Buscema sat down to draw his issues of Fantastic Four, he was concerned with drawing a good issue of Fantastic Four, so Stan Lee would say, “Fine, here’s the next one.” John had great pride in his work, he was a lovely (left to right) Paul Levine, Mark Evanier, Tony Isabella, and Neil Gaiman at Comic-Con. man, he was a brilliant and fantastic artist, but that was his 81

the idea that the greatest comic book artist was “fill in the blank,” they can make up sh*t, too. It happens, and don’t let it bother you. Rise above it, you’re a Jack Kirby fan, be proud of it. Anyway... (applause) That is my sermon for this week. Does anyone have a Kirby-related announcement that they think would be appropriate to say in this room? Yes? This is Barry Geller, the gentleman who did the Lord of Light project with Jack. (applause)

MARK: Do you remember that first con where Jack gave his talk? It was a keystone moment in the San Diego Con. It was the first professional addressing the convention, the first Guest of Honor, really, and we had... about how many people, 200 people at that talk, less than that maybe? BILL: Probably less, because we had all these rooms; we had that one room where both the talks and the movies were being shown at the US Grant hotel, and the other room was the exhibitor room... it wasn’t very much in size, maybe about two rooms this size.

BARRY: Everyone knows, I hope, that it was Jack’s drawings and my screenplay that the CIA actually used to get those people out of Iran, and so it’s an occasion where Jack effected saving six people’s lives. So I want to announce I’m coming out with a brand new set of those drawings in a top-of-the-line [package] created by Mr. Tom Kraft, and also in association with the Kirby Museum, in that every sale will make a donation to the Museum. It should be ready in a month or two, with fantastic quality that Tom has done, and we’re really proud of it. (applause)

MARK: It was a very memorable thing, and Jack gets a certain amount of credit. When I walk through that convention hall down there, I see Jack everywhere. It’s not just that there are a lot of people dressed as Captain America or the Thing down there, but I see Jack’s influence all over with the enthusiasm. I see Jack’s influence in a lot of the movies that are not about Kirby characters. I see Jack’s influence in a lot of the drawing styles that do not look exactly like Kirby swipes but they have his energy. That’s one of the things I thought we’d talk about here this year. But let me start by asking our panelists... Tony, I’m going to start with you.

MARK: We actually have in the room a Jack Kirby character. This is Bill Lund, one of the San Diego Five-String Mob, in Jimmy Olsen. (applause) Bill’s one of the founding members of this convention. Bill, did you think it’d get as big as Jack thought it would get? BILL (above right): No. (laughter) We were excited when we went, “Wow, we’ve got 300 attendees” at the first con.

TONY ISABELLA: Okay. I studied, I prepared. (laughter) MARK: Tony was one of the writers who wrote Captain America just before Jack came back to it in 1975, or was it 1976? You wanted to tell us a little bit about that, didn’t you, Tony?

The Falcon lays some ’70s jive talk on his main squeeze, in Captain America #201.

TONY: Yes, well, as you said, between here and other conventions, this must be my fifth or sixth Jack Kirby tribute panel, and so I was trying to find what I could say that I haven’t said at other Jack Kirby tribute panels, because you’ve all read the transcripts in the Jack Kirby Collector. So, I recently read—and I mean really read—Jack’s Captain Americas; you know, after he came back, because... I was writing Daredevil, I was switched to Captain America on a bait-and-switch by my editors. They knew that Jack was coming back, I didn’t know Jack was coming back. So I spent a solid week planning a big bicentennial epic that would’ve run eight issues, and then was told after I’d turned in my third plot, “Jack’s coming back to the book, you’re off it.” I was not at all upset about that from the standpoint of, if you’re going to be knocked off a book... (laughter) it should be by the creator of the book! So that didn’t bother me—the bait-and-switch bothered me—but by that time in my career, I was doing a lot more skimming of comics than actual reading them, because I was dealing with my own deadlines in New York, and getting ready to move back to Ohio; I ran a comic book store there, still skimming comics more than reading them. Recently, Marvel reprinted Jack Kirby’s stuff in the Essential Captain America. So I’m reading my stories, and I get to Jack’s stories, which I’d never really closely read, and just fell in love with them again. I’d always kind of liked them, but until I’d actually sat down and read them, I hadn’t fallen in love with them. And I’ve made some observations, fun things about the Kirby run on Captain America. These days, when I read Marvel Comics, I can only enjoy them by pretending that each individual title is its own universe, because there’s no way you can reconcile those 40 different titles of Wolverine and Spider-Man appearances. (laughter) Jack did that; I mean, Captain America was its own world, you didn’t have to read any other Marvel comic. In the early issues, Marvel editorial would make these pathetic little attempts to try to, you know, rewrite a caption here and there, and try to tie it in with what had gone before; they always seemed like

Barry Windsor-Smith inks Kirby in Cap’s Bicentennial Battles.

I love, because it’s Jack... it doesn’t always read well, if you try to speak it out loud or something. Stan was clearly better at the wordsmithing, and the inspirational stuff... but that Bicentennial book is just wild! All over the history, just tremendous stuff, and just looked so good. NEIL: That’s definitely one of my favorite things that Jack ever did, particularly the Barry Windsor-Smith [story], with Barry inking Jack, it suddenly... it’s something that shouldn’t work, and it does. You suddenly get an idea of what Jack would’ve been like as a pre-Raphaelite. (laughter) TONY: One of the early books Jack did in his run was a Captain America Annual, which had an alien invader which did not mean well for us, and I remember Jack saying at one point that it was insane to put directions to Earth on the probe they sent out to the galaxy—because you know, when a superior culture comes into conflict with a native culture, the superior culture wins. And that respect for, but also fear of, the unknown, is very strong in that Captain America Annual. I’ve got to say, you’ll discover all sorts of great stuff like that, and if you read it in context of the things Jack’s said in his stories and interviews over the years, it’s just a remarkable body of comics.

intrusions. Things that Jack did in that second run, he wrote the Falcon better than anybody else. I’m known for writing AfricanAmerican heroes, and I was just knocked out by how well he wrote the Falcon—proud, angry enough to be realistic, an equal partner of Cap. He wrote Cap more realistically. I’m of the generation that says if Captain America has to fight Galactus, he will win, he will find a way to win. It’s unrealistic, but that’s Captain America the way we see him. Jack made Captain America more human; still a dynamic, inspirational character, but human. It’s in its own universe because, like, Nick Fury’s not around, and Sharon Carter’s not an agent of SHIELD, she’s a bitchy girlfriend. A little jarring that way, but just wonderful, wonderful stuff, inventive ideas, and if you haven’t read that run of Captain America lately, I urge you to read it; read it as if it was the only comic book being published in the Marvel Universe, as if it was its own universe, and you will just delight in it even more than you probably already have. I took my notes, that’s it, you may now listen to the more interesting people on the panel. (laughter and applause)

MARK: Jack’s premise was always these people who were coming at us were going to be Galactus and were going to eat us. (laughter) It’s the underpinning. But oddly enough, there was also a parallel in Jack’s worry about Marvel having a corporate takeover. That’s kind of the story of Galactus, the whole Galactus Trilogy—Jack’s worries because Martin Goodman was thinking of selling the company. Although Jack did not get along with Mr. Goodman, and thought Mr. Goodman was—what’s the technical word?—cheating him, (laughter) he thought, “Well, Martin Goodman is at least a foe we could fight.” But when a big mega-corporation comes in and takes over Marvel... Jack always thought that Marvel was worth a lot more than Goodman did. When Goodman sold it, Jack’s remark was, “Yeah, he got about half the value of Ant-Man for the whole company.” (laughter) And history has shown, again, that Jack was right about that. Marvel is a pretty awesome conglomerate, and now Disney owns it as they will... Eventually all of us will be owned by either Disney or Time-Warner.

NEIL GAIMAN: Do you include Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles as part of that, or view it as a separate...? TONY: Oh, yeah. Jack’s dialogue, which 83

(laughter) And one of these days, either Disney will acquire TimeWarner, or Time-Warner will acquire Disney, and we will all live under Communism.

fourth from the end, in-between the thank you to the public parks that let us photograph there and the caterer: “Special thanks to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby”, that even got Stan’s name above it again. I just got so angry and depressed, I said, “I’m not going to any more of these.” I go to better movies like what Neil works on. (laughter) Neil did a movie based on this property called Coraline, I don’t know if any of you saw this. (applause) I was at a cast and crew screening, and they put me right between the director and Neil, and I discovered at that moment, that regardless of the content on the screen, 3D movies put me to sleep. (laughter) They hypnotize me, I don’t go to them anymore also. I’ll go to one if they give Jack good billing on it, but [not] other than that. I loved the movie, and I wanted to stay awake, because I wanted to see it, but I also didn’t want to fall asleep on Neil’s shoulder. (laughter) I want to talk a little bit about Jack’s influence in other things than Marvel movies. Do you, like me, feel his influence in films that have nothing to do with Marvel properties or comic book properties? You see artwork like I do; this person may not even know who Jack Kirby is, but they were influenced by him.

TONY: On the other hand, we might get better DC movies. (laughter, applause) Somebody asked me the other day how DC could get a good Wonder Woman movie made, and I said they should hire Marvel to make it for them! (laughter) MARK: Okay... (laughter) Neil, how do you feel about the superhero movies coming out based on comic book characters. Do any of them impress you? NEIL: I enjoyed The Avengers. I think I enjoyed The Avengers because it was exactly what it said on the label. Also, it felt “Jack” in many places, and in odd places: Giant, gloriously irrational things; like of course, if you’re going to have a secret base, you need it to be about 30,000 miles up, impeding air traffic. (laughter) And of course, capable of falling. I don’t know, if you asked me, and I had a secret base, I’d put it on the ground, because then if something goes wrong, it can’t fall anywhere. (laughter) But you could sort of see that wonderful Jack quality to something like that, of going, if you’re going to have a secret base, of course it’s going to be way up there, and it’s going to be drawn, and it’s going to have machinery, and people can land on it from every angle.

NEIL: At this point, I definitely feel like one reason why Jack doesn’t get the acknowledgement and acclaim that he should is he’s too big. It’s almost like why people in Times Square fail to notice they’re in America; it’s too big, you don’t notice the hugeness. And in Jack’s case, we’ve now had seventy years of the influence of Jack Kirby on other artists, and on writers. It’s just gotten huger and huger, and there was definitely a point where... so many of the artists we think of as trailblazers in comics nowadays, started off influenced by Jack. I mentioned Barry Windsor-Smith, earlier on. You look at those first few Conans, the first work he did for Marvel, and he’s doing his very best to be a Kirby clone. He rapidly becomes something else, but he’s a Kirby clone. Jim Steranko, again, another visionary, somebody else who took comics to a completely different place, started off as a Kirby clone. And these days, you see things, you see ideas, you see art and you’re reminded of Jack. A few years ago, I was on the set of Hellboy II, and I just remember sitting with Guillermo [del Toro] for half an hour, talking about Jack’s run on The Demon, and we were really talking about just a couple of pages where Jason Blood... it’s the Klarion the Witch Boy sequence, and talking about the way that it’s shot, the way Jack picks his

MARK: It’s more logical to be on the ground, where the thunder god could walk into it, and be realistic. (laughter) How many people here like the superhero movies that they’ve seen lately? (mutters from audience) How many people don’t like them? (more muttering) How many people won’t go see them because they’re sick of the way the credits are written? (laughter) I saw the first X-Men movie. I did not like it as a movie. I thought it was too noisy, and it had reached the point, which a number of movies have, where I don’t believe anything on the screen is anything but CGI. I don’t think there are people up there, I think I’m watching a cartoon passed off as a live-action movie. And I would’ve walked out on it, except I was sitting next to Stan Lee at the screening. (laughter) I was working at that time for Stan Lee Media, a company Stan had for a couple of years. People involved with it are still suing one another. They had a big screening for the entire office. Everybody left the office for the day to attend, because they weren’t doing anything there anyway. (laughter) We watched it, and everybody cheered Stan’s cameo, and when the movie ended, I did what I do at all movies: I stayed and watched all of the credits. I do that in any movie, but I especially wanted to see if anybody would mention Jack. And everybody else had left. I’m sitting in the empty theater, they’re picking up the popcorn boxes around me, and looking oddly at me: “Why are you still here, sir? Don’t you know the movie is over?” And I’m waiting and waiting and waiting, and finally Jack’s name came up, about 84

images, a creepy little sequence where the cops come to check out what’s going on in Klarion the Witch Boy’s apartment, and everybody’s been turned into something. Teekl the weird catwoman is now a cat; it’s a very odd little sequence! And it was at that time I realized how much the way Guillermo del Toro tells stories, image by image, goes back to him being a kid who read Jack, so going and seeing a film like Pacific Rim, on the one hand, yes, it’s giant monsters, it’s the Fin Fang Fooms, and so on, and there’s a level of Jack there; but for me, there’s nothing in Pacific Rim that couldn’t have been a Jack Kirby comic, even down to the gloriously mad idea of, of course you had to have two people in mental sync making these giant robots move around, because that’s weirder and stupider. (laughter) But more importantly, it gives you a story, because it allows you to have the pilot and co-pilot of classic war movies. MARK: I took Sergio Aragonés as my date to the world premiere of Sin City, and we’re sitting in the theater, and there’s one shot in there, maybe you remember the shot, and he just turned to me and went, “Kirby.” (laughter) It was a Kirby scene, a Kirby composition, and Kirby energy, and there was a figure coming right at you with Kirby power in it. And that was not a Kirby story. I can’t think of a kind of story less like what Jack would have written than Sin City. (laughter) He was never even comfortable with Kamandi doing a post-apocalyptic version of the world. He didn’t like the negativity of believing that society would destroy itself, and turn into savages. But there was a Kirby image right in the middle of it, and naturally we talked about it. NEIL: The only comic that I ever saw Jack go bleak on probably was “The Losers.” I got to write the introduction to a collection of The Losers, and read them all again as a block, and they were genuinely bleak, you could see Jack sort of struggling with the idea that there aren’t easy... there were little heartbreaks, each of the Loser comics, each of the good ones has a little heartbreak, something goes bad. The sciencefiction fan who is mocked for reading science-fiction, and having these big dreams of the future, who then (previous page) Marvel alters Kirby’s cover for Giant-Size Conan #5. (above) Pencils from Demon #15. gets to drive around in a fake science-fictional futuristic war machine, and who knows that he’s somehow a I always regret that Jack never had the chance to do what I think fake... it was sad little stories. The bridge is always blown up, but it’s would’ve been the greatest project he ever did if anybody had sugalways with human cost. You can watch Jack sort of jostling with the gested this. There was a series that DC did called “USS Stevens” by idea of losers, and why they’re The Losers, and always coming up Sam Glanzman... who by the way now is the longest running with a good way, which... writer/artist/creator in comics. He’s the oldest person still working MARK: He objected to the title, he inherited the title, he didn’t like in comics, if anybody ever asks you. (applause) Sam did these autobithe title. Actually, he didn’t want to do the book. At that point, DC ographical stories of World War II as he remembered them, and he was forcing him to take on an existing book, “The Losers” wasn’t recently did another one, and I wish somebody had let Jack do this, selling, and he didn’t want to do other people’s characters to begin let him tell World War II without encumbering it with the Losers with. He especially didn’t want to do Robert Kanigher’s characters, characters or the kind of gimmicks that were inherent in the property. because Robert Kanigher had enormous, loudly-expressed contempt But it’s interesting that he probably went bleak because that was war for everybody else in comics, but particularly for Marvel and for to him. Those were my favorite things that Jack did during that period, Jack. And World War II was very special to Jack, in a way. One of the in spite of the fact that I don’t like the lead characters. reasons Jack stopped doing Sgt. Fury was that he and Stan were fightNEIL: What I loved is he’d create background characters, for all of ing over the depiction of World War II. He thought Stan was making the good issues. He did something very odd in those “Losers,” which it too light. Jack had a very fierce vision: “I was there and you is... he took the entirety of places that you could fight during World weren’t.” Stan was in the service, but he was not in combat. Jack did War II, and almost randomly, the Losers could be anywhere, so one see combat, and as everybody knows, it was a life-changing experiissue... there was no continuity, you just had these rather odd four ence that popped up in everything he said and did the rest of his life. 85

really knows who Newsboys are anymore. But the first time I saw one of Jack’s stories about the feisty kids fighting gangsters and everything, it was probably the first time I’d tried to collect a Golden Age comic, and I love those characters to this day. MARK: Yesterday, we did a tribute panel to Joe Kubert, and I forgot to mention on it that when Jack went back to DC in 1970, the main reason he did the Newsboy Legion is Joe Kubert insisted on it. Joe loved the Newsboy Legion, and said, “Oh, Jack’s got to do the Newsboy Legion,” that’s how Newsboy Legion ended up being revived in Jimmy Olsen. And Kubert came out—I’ll tell you the issue, and you can figure out the timetable on this. There’s an issue of Jimmy Olsen [#135, Jan. 1971], the last page of which is the Golden Guardian freed and leaping out at the reader, it’s the last page of the story. Jack had just finished drawing that story, and the story was there in pencil, and Kubert went through it and raved about it. They had a long fight about the paper stock at DC. Jack didn’t like drawing on DC’s paper, and it’d been picked out by Kubert, and Joe was saying, “Just draw it in blue pencil, it’s great for blue pencil,” and Jack said, “I don’t use blue pencil!” Joe said, “Oh, you should draw in blue pencil.” Jack said, “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, Joe, I don’t use blue pencil!” And then there was this giant page with the Guardian leaping out, and Joe wanted to ink it. He said, “Oh, I’ve got to ink that page.” And they had this long discussion, the book already looked like it was done by four different artists anyway, because they were redrawing Superman, and how would it look now if Joe Kubert suddenly turned up on the last page? And they decided not to have him do that. Anyway, that’s moot. The Newsboy Legion was brought back because of Joe Kubert. What else do you remember about Jack Kirby projects?

A sci-fi fan saves the day in the bittersweet Our Fighting Forces #153.

inherited characters from other war titles thrown together. You never really knew who they were or, in my case, was quite clear on where they came from. I picked it up because it was Kirby, I hadn’t been following any DC war titles before that, and I’m sure they really weren’t shipping them over in any particular quantity. But you know, you’d get the Bushido one, and now you’re fighting in the Pacific, in Japan, and the next one they’re in eastern Europe somewhere trying to blow up a bridge, and the next thing, they’re in France, liberating a village, and... It was as if Jack just went, “Okay, World War II, I’m going to tell my World War II stories.” MARK: I wish he’d been able to tell them unencumbered by the gimmickry of Sgt. Fury, or the gimmickry of the Losers, because... how many people here ever heard Jack talk about World War II? He had these wonderful, vivid stories, they were fascinating, and I wish he’d put them on paper, the same way he got to put “Street Code” on paper. [to Tony] You mentioned the Bicentennial issue, what else? What other issues or projects of his come to mind as exceptional?

NEIL: For me, I guess I was lucky in that I got to read... I was about seven years old when they started reprinting Marvel Comics in the UK, in Odham’s Power Comics line, which were Wham, Smash, Power, Fantastic, and Terrific. (laughter) And they were basically reprinting Marvel Comics into black, white, and one color like blue or red, but they were doing it from the beginning. So I remember my first encounter with the X-Men, was Jean Grey turning up at Professor Xavier’s school for gifted, talented and rather peculiar teenagers, and I thought, “Aha, this is good stuff.” Coming at it from the beginning, and then very shortly after being given a box of very contemporary American comics, and just going through that box. I have no idea where it came from, why a kid in Sussex was handed a large cardboard box filled with comics, and one of the last conversations I had with my father before he died, I mentioned that box of comics, and I said, “Where did that box come from?” I was given an amazing box full of DC and Marvel comics, the ’60s... “Oh! I remember that, I’ll tell you about that sometime.” And then he died. (groans, laughter) And I never found out. So, there is a serious box, and it contained a lot of Fantastic Fours, the Silver Surfer/Galactus/Inhumans period of that stuff, which just completely... it turned my head inside out. MARK: A lot of times, when I’ve met people who started reading Kirby or any Marvel comics in different countries, one of the big things they had was they were reading them completely out of the

TONY: “Newsboy Legion” was a real favorite of mine, not that anybody 86

proper sequence, and with X-Men #1 at the same time as FF #1, and the crossovers didn’t match up, and all of a sudden, Daredevil’s got the wrong costume in one book, and his costume would change in another... you experienced that, right?

MARK: Now, I read Marvel Comics off the newsstand in the United States, in sequence. I think the first Fantastic Four I bought was #11. I actually still have the issues I bought off the newsstands in my collection. And one of the appeals of Marvel are from the general coherence of the line, the cohesion of the line, they had all these wonderful Bullpen letter pages, and Stan’s chatter in the books... you didn’t get that. You didn’t get all the clubby stuff.

NEIL: I had some of that, I was very good on... when they were reprinting the stuff, my continuity on the really early Marvels was actually quite good, but it immediately falls apart completely, because... at this point I’d start getting interested in American comics, and rapidly gave up on Marvel, and one reason I rapidly and grumpily gave up on Marvel was because the continuity was impossible to follow. Comics in England came over as ballast in ships; it was how they arrived in the UK, as ballast, and they would be pretty much randomly sent out to news agents across the country, often water damaged. And you discovered that if you picked up a comic, and at the end of it you learned that it will be continued in another comic, you are doomed. (laughter) There are no copies of that other comic. And you’re getting comics that were published six months ago, eight months ago, very very random. So I wound up giving up on Marvel just because I never... I always wanted to find out what happened next, and I never could! Whereas the DC stuff was slightly more pedestrian, but it tended to finish! And even if it didn’t finish, you always felt with DC that characters were in this peculiar state of grace, in which whatever happened, they would return to exactly the state they were in before. So even if Superman was being sent off into the distant future to try and find a cure for Virus X, and was definitely going to die, you were pretty sure that you were going to pick up a comic very soon in which everything would be back as life always was for Superman.

NEIL: When we got the American ones, we did, but it always felt utterly alien. I mean, for a start, you’d be told that you could get something if you just sent in your dollar; I had no dollars. (laughter) I didn’t know how to get dollars. (laughter) Mostly I remember looking at the ads in the back pages, and just envying Americans. (laughter) Apart from anything else, I envied Americans the technological breakthroughs that happened in America, that hadn’t yet filtered across to England; you had X-Ray Spectacles. (laughter and applause) And they were comparatively cheap! (laughter) MARK: The problem is, you could only use them to see into ant farms. (laughter) NEIL: I used to be amazed—Sea-Monkeys! (laughter) What are these things? How did father Sea-Monkeys smoke their pipes underwater? (laughter) And I knew if I just had dollars, I could’ve got this. MARK: That’s when our economy went to hell. NEIL: The point where I realized that Jack was Jack, was when he moved to DC. DC Comics were easier to find, they actually tended to turn up even in sequence slightly more, and I was reading a lot of the DC... I was reading everything I could, but I was reading a lot of the horror comics and things, and suddenly there’s these big announcements saying, “Kirby is Coming!” And you know, I was not somebody who... I was eleven, I wasn’t reading Jimmy Olsen! But that was Jack, there were all these announcements about Jack Kirby drawing it, and I picked one up, and it was nothing like I’d ever imagined any comic could be, it was... MARK: You weren’t going to read Jimmy Olsen because it was too silly for you, too juvenile, or...? What was the negative about Jimmy Olsen? NEIL: I don’t know. There were comics that I just, you know... secondstring Superman titles somehow did not do it for me. I could just about read Superman; he might exist in a state of grace, but you figured at least the adventures are going to be big. And I’d pick up Jimmy Olsen, and you know, we mock the Jimmy Olsen issues in which he was transformed into a Giant Turtle Boy, but... (laughter) those were the good ones! (laughter and applause) MARK: I’m going to now shift gears here a bit, because I want to be sure we get this in. I asked Paul to be here because—and believe it or not, I’m going to finish that damn biography of Jack very soon. I keep coming across things that people don’t know about comics, and Paul was involved with something I think has never been reported anywhere, no one knows anything about this but us, and I thought this should be shared with the world. Paul, you want to...? PAUL LEVINE: Well, I’ve got to put this in context first, and I think I’ve said this before, so if I have, please forgive me for repeating myself. I graduated from law school in ’81 and started working for a very small law firm in Century City in Los Angeles. It was my boss and me. And one day, in about 1984 or so, my boss comes to the door of my little tiny office next to his huge office, and says, “I want you to meet somebody, I want you to meet Jack Kirby,” and I said, “Who?” And he explained to me who Jack was, and I met Jack and his wife Roz, and very quickly developed a relationship, because when they found out that I was basically a stranger in town—I was not from Los Angeles and had no family there—they insisted that I become one of their grandchildren, basically. (laughter)

Sadly, we were never able to get Joe Kubert to ink a TJKC cover before his passing, but imagine what this Jimmy Olsen page would’ve looked like, inked by him?

Anyway, Jack was really interested in credit, that was his main concern. At the point where I met him in the ’80s, money was no longer an issue because what had been done was done with Marvel, so what he was really interested in was credit, and one day we were told that a company called Carolco was going to make a movie based on Spider-Man. Jack wanted me to make sure that in the main credits of the movie, it would say, “Based on characters created by Jack”; he didn’t care who else got credit, but he just wanted to make sure he got credit. So, I started dealing with Carolco, and eventually got them to agree that in the main credits of the movie, just before the “written by” credit, would be “Based on a character created by...”. Cut to, what, 25 years later? Somebody finally comes out with the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie, and I was very pleased to see that my work had paid off, because Sony, to their credit—no pun intended—honored the original agreement, and that agreement, that deal from Carolco probably went through five or six different companies before it ended up at Sony—which is why Spider-Man took so long to come to the screen. But to their credit—and to the legal department’s credit, I actually don’t know who it was, who went through all of the contracts—but to their credit, they found and honored that original agreement that I had made with Carolco back in 1984 or so. (applause)

MARK: So there are different people outside Marvel acknowledging Jack’s contribution to the creation of Spider-Man. PAUL (shown at right): Needless to say, if Marvel had made the movie itself, I wouldn’t be telling this story. MARK: We’ve got a couple of minutes here. Does anyone have a question, or a topic they’d like us to address? Yes, sir. MAN IN AUDIENCE: I saw Jack Kirby at a signing in Berkeley forever ago, and he... everybody was throwing questions out there, he was very excited to tell us about the creation of Black Panther, and I wonder if anybody could speak to... as being one of the first major African-American characters, he seemed very proud of having done that, and I wondered if anybody could speak to that. MARK: That was an extraordinary, brief period at Marvel Comics. You may remember Joe Simon did a line of comics for Harvey Comics in the mid-’60s, and just a couple of one-shots came out. There were just a few characters—Jim Steranko was involved in the creation of some of them—Spyman, B-Man, and Magic Master, and Joe Simon was someone that Marvel was afraid of. He was a very formidable person. He’d been the first editor there, he was widely respected, and there was a brief period where there was this feeling that, “Oh my God, Harvey’s going to put out a line of Joe Simon superheroes,” and they were talking about 12 or 15 titles a month, and Harvey had the distribution to do this when Marvel did not. So Martin Goodman came running down the halls as he rarely did—you rarely saw him—and he went to Stan, he said, “We’ve got to expand, Harvey will drive us off the marketplace—they’ll just crush us.” Because Goodman’s entire attitude with publishing was “crowd the other guy off the newsstand.” That’s one of the reasons, when his distributor collapsed in the ’50s, he made a deal with DC, and was limited to eight titles a month; they occasionally went over it, but they didn’t want to let Martin put out 50 titles, that was the reason for the deal. So, he was limited to the eight or ten titles, I think he might’ve gotten to ten or twelve by then, but he still... he wanted to put out 40 comics a month, and he said, “I’m going to convince the distributor to do this, get ready to add about 10 or 15 titles to the line, Stan.” And Stan turned to Jack, and there was a period of about two or three weeks when the Inhumans were created, the character of Wyatt Wingfoot was created, the Black Panther was created, a whole bunch of characters were all created at once; some of them didn’t appear for a while, some of them never appeared, but Jack came in and said—now, this is Jack’s version I’m telling you; I’m sure Stan has had at least four other versions (laughter)—and he said, “I want to do a black character,” and he had a couple different versions, it went through a few evolutions. One of them exists as a sketch called the Coal Tiger, eventually it became the Black Panther, and when the whole idea collapsed, when they weren’t allowed to expand, and the Harvey line became stillborn, they stuck that stuff in Fantastic Four, to just establish it for possible future use. Anyone want to add anything about that? That’s my understanding. Yes, over there.

Look closely at this page from the Inhumans back-up in Thor #152, and you’ll see there was originally a blank space at bottom for an indicia; this would’ve been the first page of a new series.

MAN: So, I’m a little post-Kirby time, I’m learning about him, but I never got to meet him. What are your thoughts on collaborating? We find all these pages, but I can only find one or two interviews online of Kirby live in person, I

famous people and non-famous people at the same time. Anyway, there are interviews around, and talk to Rand.

never got to see him in person. It’s fantastic to be here and talking about how he linked Galactus with Marvel, etc. Is there an opportunity for found footage of Kirby talking at cons, a place they could be posted so that people like me who never had a chance to meet him, could actually get to see him talk?

TONY: If I could add something as a general commentary: The history of comics, an accurate history of comics, depends on not just Jack, but all creators getting proper credit and proper documentation, and the history of comics, if anybody has—let’s call them “artifacts,” company memos, sketches—anything that’s part of the history of comics, give it to the public, go to the websites that publish this sort of stuff, go to TwoMorrows who does a whole line of books, get these artifacts out before the public so they can be part of the history of this great art form.

RAND: The [Jack Kirby] Museum’s YouTube channel. MARK: Yeah, go down to the Kirby Museum booth and talk to this man, Rand Hoppe. They are gathering together everything they can

MARK: Arlen, do want to say something? ARLEN SCHUMER: Yeah, I just want to say Mark mentioned the Black Panther, and in TwoMorrows’ new issue of Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego [#118], I do a five-page verbal visual essay, and I call it “The origin of Jack Kirby’s Black Panther,” so come and check that out, and you’ll enjoy it. (applause)

Royer-inked art for the 1971 Mattel Superman puzzle card game.

MARK: Neil, you worked in comics in an era when... have you gotten credit for everything you’ve done, would you say? NEIL: Um... yeah, more or less. I had a very expensive, high-profile and long legal case (laughter) in order to establish it at one point. MARK: But even when it came to that, by the time you faced that, you had the financial wherewithal and the documentation to win that case hands-down, it looked to me. If you were broke, you wouldn’t necessarily have been able to assert all your rights there. NEIL: That was the other party’s legal strategy, which was “I am very rich,” (laughter) which apparently worked for him when anyone had come and said, “Hang on, you just changed the rules.” But also I wasn’t rich through comics; it’s an interesting thing. Dave Sim once said something that was very smart and very accurate, which was “No comics publisher is ever going to pay a comics person enough to sue them successfully,” and that was actually completely true. I was able to fight somebody who had gone back on every deal, only because I was a New York Times best-selling author at that point. And absolutely had the financial wherewithal to go, “Yes, you are a rich person and your legal strategy is to go, ‘I am very rich, I will make you spend a lot of money on this legal case until you give up and go away’.” And I won; I’ve got the money. (laughter)

about Jack, that includes video and audio, and they’re putting some stuff online. They’re putting some of my past Kirby tribute panels online, but there is footage of Jack around. There was a period there where Jack was basically willing to sit with anybody who said, “I’m doing a documentary, I’m doing an interview,” and he would talk to anybody, and people would haul out cameras and set them up, and he’d talk for hours and hours and hours, and a lot of that footage was never used for anything, it’s sitting in somebody’s garage somewhere. There’s one guy who made Jack sit for like 12 hours, thinking there was going to be a documentary on his life and times, and this guy just basically sits there with the footage, and wants millions of dollars to let anybody see it, because he thinks he’ll get it someday. There were a couple of guys who went to Jack at this time and said, “Oh, I’ve got this deal for a movie, all I need is some sketches,” and Jack would do these sketches for them for free, thinking he’s going to get involved in the movie, and the guys would take home lovely Jack Kirby art and keep it, and that was the end of it. Jack got screwed by

MARK: Supposing you found yourself—and I know you try not to do this—but say you found yourself in a position, writing comic books, where you’re working for a company that reserved the right to use your name or not use your name on them, as they saw fit; to have your work rewritten; to give it to any artist they chose, and to redraw that artist’s work; you were just going to hand it in, and you have no further control, you’re expected to emotionally turn loose of what they’d do to it... how would that affect you as a writer? NEIL: I would stop doing comics. I wouldn’t do it. MARK: You would not work the way Bill Finger had to work, or John Broome or those guys. Even if you felt the editor was benevolent. NEIL: Even with a benevolent editor. I did a few Future Shocks for 89

2000 AD as a young, starving, not even really a comics writer yet, starting out, and they kind of did that to at least one of them. What came out with my name on it bore very little resemblance to the script I’d given them. So, I stopped doing stuff for 2000 AD, and that was the end of my 2000 AD relationship. I think had DC treated me the way... I came into it very much with my eyes open, but I definitely felt like I was coming... when I came into comics, I was starting to write comics in 1987, and one of the reasons I came in and did stuff for DC and for the other people that I worked for over the years, is because the deal was always at the end of the day, “You leave me alone, I will do my stuff.” I bumped heads with the DC Universe a couple of times in Sandman, and I found myself at the mercy of other people’s continuity. At that point you finish writing a script, and it’s Captain Atom in this Swamp Thing Annual, and you get a phone call saying, “Ahhhhh! Yeah, that was last week. This week, can it be Firestorm? Because everything’s changed, you need to rewrite the Captain Atom script so it’s Firestorm the Nuclear Man.” And you go, “Okay, bring me up to date on his continuity as of four months from now, when this thing is published,” or five months from now, and they do, and then they change it, and when the issue comes out, it’s filled with rather odd word balloons in somebody else’s handwriting. But that was the point where I sort of... particularly for DC, got further and further into Sandman. It was like taking a bus trip a little bit further away from the DC Universe; it was still part of it, but I was very aware that every time I was going to do anything that had the DC Universe in it, it was going to be a headache. There would always be a headache, even in Sandman, at the point where Sandman was this wonderful thing that was selling lots of copies, that everybody really liked. I wanted to do a one-panel moment where Batman and Superman and the Martian Manhunter were at the wake for Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, and they’re all asleep, and basically Batman and Superman are grumbling about the weird stuff that happens when you’re dreaming, that you’re [in] a TV show about your life, and the Martian Manhunter has no idea what they’re talking about. (laughter) But I remember, even in that, just asking the artist to draw Clark Kent standing there in his Clark Kent suit, his cape is coming out at the back of the suit, he’s looking down to try and see that the... I felt if I was Clark Kent, I’d always be having these dreams where I’d put on my suit, but I’d forgotten to take off or pack up the cloak, so the cape would sort of be coming out the back of the suit. I’d be worried that people would look at it, and I was told that was disrespectful, and they rescanned and put in the artwork, just to cut it off below, so you couldn’t see... so it looked just like Clark Kent. And that kind of thing just irritated me, it drove me nuts. I don’t know how Jack did it! MARK: I don’t know how a lot of these guys did it. The more I learn about how comics were done in the ’50s, and the ’60s, and the ’70s, it’s amazing that these guys were able to summon the creative muse, knowing that they’d get a bad inker, knowing they’d get a bad editing job, knowing they’d get a bad artist, whatever it was, and then just turn around and do another story next week. You had to—especially when artists didn’t get their originals back— pour your heart into it, turn it in, and then stop caring about it. It’s very difficult for creative people to think like that. This is a topic we should get into in another panel, because we’re out of time for this one. Would you join me in thanking Mr. Paul S. Levine, Mr. Tony Isabella, and Mr. Neil Gaiman. (applause) ★ (top) Gaiman’s take on the DCU, including Kirby’s 1970s Sandman. (above) Jimmy Olsen #139 pencils, and a panel two detail after DC had Murphy Anderson redraw the heads.

Collector

Send letters to: THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR c/o TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • See back issue excerpts at: www.twomorrows.com

Comments

Send a letter, or I’ll sing you my NEW GODS theme song!

(Boy, this full-color stuff is sure fun and satisfying to produce, but quite challenging to design pages that contain mostly black-&-white art. Still, I relish the challenge, and the better printing and paper show details in Jack’s work that you wouldn’t see on our old uncoated paper and black ink— I’m even trying a new way of printing Jack’s pencil xeroxes, so let me know what you think. This issue was very research-heavy, leading to extensive hours figuring dates for Jack’s DC work, and re-reading a lot of material to find details I missed the first dozen times I read it.

And you can now read this mag through the Jack Kirby Collector app on the Apple App Store, and buy individual digital issues, or a year-long subscription that gives you access to all the issues! But we’ll continue to offer digital editions through our website as always. Finally, we switched e-mail servers right after issue #61 shipped, and unfortunately lost some messages. So if you sent a letter of comment on our new color format or #61 in general, please resend it so we can consider it for publication next issue. Now, to the ones we do have:) I just finished Mark Alexander’s book LEE & KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS (TJKC #58). I wish Alexander were still alive so that I could offer him praise for his well-written, insightful book. I’ve read perhaps 10 books about comics and comic creators, and Alexander’s was easily the most interesting read and most trenchant. I usually give my books to the library once I’ve read them. I’m keeping “The Wonder Years.” Thomas Boyd, via the Internet (Mark’s sadly no longer with us, but he did leave me with his original lengthy piece “A Universe A’borning” which was the impetus for THE WONDER YEARS. That remarkable essay will be featured next issue, so stay tuned!) Imagine my total disgust after waiting all these years for IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB only to get the book and discover that DC RUINED IT! Whose decision was it to muddy up Kirby’s art with an awful brownish tint—so dark that the detail in Kirby’s art is covered up? I mean, come on, the art department at DC didn’t see this? How on Earth was this allowed to go through? It just looks absolutely terrible!

The never before released issue #2 looks absolutely fantastic, the way the entire book should have looked. IN THE DAY OF THE MOB is some of Kirby’s best work and deserves better treatment than this! The hardback cover is excellent—the bigtime major mistake is the awful brownish tint used for issue #1. Joe Mills, via the Internet (Joe, first of all, I’m glad you liked the presentation of the unpublished material meant for MOB #2, since I was responsible for tracking it down and restoring it for DC to publish—with able help from Rand Hoppe, Tom Ziuko, and Tom Kraft. As for the brown color on the #1 material, I assume since DC stayed faithful to the original 1971 edition of SPIRIT WORLD and reprinted it in blue in that recent hardcover collection, somebody up there thought IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB would benefit from an antique “sepia” color. I agree with you that the second half of the book is much more attractive, but it’s still nice to see it all in one collection finally.) Have to congratulate you on the new TJKC! The slick paper and full-color featured in issue #61 were great and a far cry from issue #3 when I first climbed on the bandwagon! Another good assortment of material as usual but I’d like to put my two cents in on FFs #2526. Although Kevin Ainsworth’s interpretation is interesting, I think a better case for the twoparter’s influence can be made by comparing it with the 1950s SF film BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS. Knowing that Jack sometimes used plots taken from TV shows or movies he’d seen, I think it seems more likely that he based part of that tale on BEAST. Consider: the movie follows the title monster as it makes its way from the North Pole to New York City sowing destruction as it pops up here and there on its journey, just as the Hulk does going to NYC from the Arizona desert. In the former, the beast is dogged by a scientist while the Hulk is followed by the Avengers. When the beast reaches New York, he causes destruction until the Army moves in and cordons off a section of the city. In FF #25, the Hulk also arrives in NYC, causes destruction, and the Army cordons off the effected parts of town. Scenes of soldiers hunkered down behind makeshift barricades and TV cameras capturing the action are mirrored in the comics story. Eventually, the Army herds the beast to a crossbeamed roller coaster at Coney Island, while the Hulk is surrounded amid the cross-beams of a skyscraper under construction in the comic. While the Army holds back, the hero scientist and a sniper climb the roller coaster to shoot an irradiated bullet into a vulnerable spot on the Beast, killing it. In FF #26, first the Avengers and FF climb the structure after the Hulk until Rick 91

Jones manages to drop an antigamma radiation pill (or whatever) into the Hulk’s mouth, his only vulnerable spot, forcing him to turn back to Bruce Banner. In both versions the end comes either on the beach or in the water. I’m sure I’ve missed other parallels but I think that’s enough to make my case. Which is not to say Ainsworth’s interpretation doesn’t have validity, because I think that’s what makes these comics so interesting to read and read about; everyone has different opinions of them, making for endless points for discussion! Pierre Comtois, Lowell, MA I’ve just had a chance to look through my copy of TJKC #61, and in scanning Kevin Ainsworth’s article, I noticed he made much of FF #25-26 as striking for being a two-part story. This reminded me of something which I’ve never seen pointed out, and which I’ve been meaning to research for myself, but have not gotten so far as to actually looking into dates and laying out a timeline. As my memory has it, around the same time as FF #25-26 , the comics X-MEN #4-5, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #105106, TALES TO ASTONISH #50-51, as well as the Lee/Ditko AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #11-12, all featured the first two-part stories of Marvel. (I used to think it was over a three-month span, without checking dates.) You could stretch AVENGERS #3-4 in there. I’m not certain what Iron Man, the Human Torch and Dr. Strange were up to at that time (not to mention Millie, Patsy, Rawhide, Two-Gun or Kid Colt). But it did strike me as odd that all those two-parters came up at once, which might be viewed as a risky move back then. Perhaps someone with more time and energy can investigate my recollections. And while Mr. Ditko rightly guards his privacy, he has some times responded to questions about the facts of his career. Perhaps he recalls what led who to do what regarding ASM #11-12 as a two-parter. Earl Geier, Chicago, IL I have mixed feelings about issue #60 of the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR. Granted, I liked all the articles and art but was disappointed about how much (or little as the case may be) was completely devoted to the Fantastic Four. John, I know your intensions were good but more than a few of the articles only briefly mentioned the FF

(if at all). For instance, Mark Evanier’s Jack F.A.Q.s. Even though it had two of the best FANTASTIC FOUR inkers interviewed, much of that interview really didn’t pertain to Jack and his work on the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine. The same can be said for the 2012 Kirby Tribute Panel. Hey, I know it sure sounded like (read like) Mark Evanier had his hands full keeping those guys on subject and getting brief and definite answers out of them. But again, not much of that was focused on the FF. Maybe that article could have waited for another issue. Kirby as a Genre could be placed in almost any other issue; the same goes for the article “Discovery at Snake River.” Which leads me to suggestions for theme issues: 1) an all western issue, 2) a war issue, 3) Jack’s inspiration. Who did he like art-wise, cinematically, etc.? Think about the wide variety of genres and adventures Jack’s must have seen on the silver screen, read, heard about, and lived. That is a very wide scope of inspiration. And lastly, 4) Kirby’s correspondence. Years ago Groucho Marx had a book that featured some of his correspondences called THE GROUCHO LETTERS. In that book were letters to and from Groucho with such people as T.S. Elliot, James Thurber and even Harry Truman. Did Kirby correspond with anyone regularly? Are there copies of those letters? I think this would make for some very interesting and insightful reading. John, don’t get me wrong! I enjoyed reading this issue, really. But when a diehard FF fan like myself sees the promise of another issue being devoted to the Fantastic Four, I guess I was hoping that it would be entirely about that fabulous foursome. Nonetheless, there was some really great information, and observations there. I do wish there was more written on Jack’s What If? #11. New insights into old works are a continual source of enjoyment and enlightenment. I’m like so many of your readers where I’m always amazed about newfound information. Considering how prolific and creative Jack was, I guess we really shouldn’t be too surprised though. For years I always believed that THOR could have had a bigger audience and artistic achievement had better, more caring inkers been assigned to this title. You know, for the longest time I thought it would be spectacular to see Jack’s run on THOR completely re-inked by a worthy embellisher. Although I pretty much knew it was a pipe dream there was always a hope within me that somehow, someone would be willing and able to accomplish this dream. Then I read something that Mark Evanier wrote in this issue that stated that something like this would simply go against Jack’s belief system. Well, I’d still like to see it happen but... it is nice to dream. Oh, well. The old/new format is much easier to file away but when it comes to reproducing Jack’s pencils it is always a joy to see them in a larger format. With Here’s a tentative list of upcoming themes, but we treat these themes very loosely, and anything you write may fit somewhere. So get writing, and send us copies of your art! GOT A THEME IDEA? PLEASE WRITE US! #63: “MARVEL UNIVERSE” We do for the rest of Stan & Jack’s creations what THE WONDER YEARS did for the FF! Features Mark Alexander’s groundbreaking “A Universe A’Borning” essay and more.

Kirby artwork, bigger is better! The evolution of the Thing was a pleasant surprise. You know, you can read all the FFs consecutively and even look for these changes, but it took a diligent eye and a great deal of time and effort to chronicle this character and his physical development/evolution. Not too long ago I was looking though my FF MASTERWORKS for just this thing and could not see a significant change from issue to issue. Then this article appears and clears up the mystery in a page-and-a-half. Well done and greatly appreciated. I did enjoy this issue very much even if it didn’t contain as much info about the FF as I had hoped. I look forward to future issues. Their subjects interest me, especially issue #63. Thanks to everyone for all their hard and dedicated work. The TwoMorrows publications are a joy and allow for some great fun by visiting the past in the comics medium. John Lewandowski, South Boston, VA Regarding my article “That Is Strong Talk...” (TJKC #61) in reference to Jack Kirby being the actual writer of FANTASTIC FOUR #6 (Sept. 1962): When I described the following quote: Page 14, panel 7 - Reed Richards: “Fate has granted you a reprieve, Sub-Mariner!... Now speak... or GIVE BATTLE!” I wrote that “I thought it was a typically aggressive challenge from someone like Orion.” I didn’t realize at the time how accurate I was! From a recent re-reading of Kirby’s Fourth World stuff, I found the following: NEW GODS #3 (July ’71), page 6, panel 1 Orion, brooding: “Trapped... trapped on a world where humans swarm! Here I must stand and GIVE BATTLE!” Page 18, panel 1 - Caption describing Orion (being fierce): “With the savage cry of a warrior GIVING BATTLE...” Now—I know that the UK and the States are often described as two countries separated by a common language, but exactly how common is it for you guys to offer to “GIVE BATTLE”?! I can tell you now that it is not a phrase that you would hear every day in bar-fights on this side of the Pond, and I don’t remember noting it in any other American comics I’ve read from 1960 onwards. Can anybody quote it being used in an unequivocally Stan Leeauthored book? Mike Breen, Dorset, UNITED KINGDOM While looking through some back issues of TJKC, I came across some unseen pieces you could have your staff of sleuths looking to dig up: 1. TJKC #42, page 12 shows the San Diego boys holding up a Captain America drawing by Jack. It looks to be on rather large bristol and would be a great image to finally see. 2. The fantastic head drawing Jack has on his board on the opening page of KIRBY UNLEASHED. Steve Rude #64: “SUPER-SOLDIERS AND S&K” Kirby created an army of fighting men and boys, from Captain America to Fighting American, Sgt. Fury to The Losers, and Pvt. Strong to the Boy Commandos. We cover them all, including a tribute to Simon & Kirby! #65: “ANYTHING GOES AGAIN!” Another potpourri issue, with anything and everything from Jack’s 50-year career!

#62 Credits: John Morrow, Editor/Designer/Proofreader Rand Hoppe, Webmaster Tom Ziuko, Colorist SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OUR CONTRIBUTORS: Mike Allred • Jerry Boyd • Mike Breen Robert L. Bryant Jr. • Norris Burroughs Gerry Conway • Jon B. Cooke • Dave Elliott Mark Evanier • Barry Forshaw • Neil Gaiman Robert Guffey • David “Hambone” Hamilton Rand Hoppe • Tony Isabella • Sean Kleefeld Tom Kraft • Paul S. Levine • Larry Lieber Pablo Marcos • Adam McGovern Harry Mendryk • Denny O'Neil • Mike Royer Steve Saffel • Tom Scioli • Steve Sherman John Workman • Tom Ziuko and of course The Kirby Estate, the Jack Kirby Museum (www.kirbymuseum.org), and whatifkirby.com If we’ve forgotten anyone, please let us know!

Contribute & Get Free Issues! The Jack Kirby Collector is a not-for-profit publication, put together with submissions from Jack’s fans around the world. We don’t pay for submissions, but if we print art or articles you submit, we’ll send you a free copy of the issue it appears in. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Submit artwork as 300ppi TIFF or JPEG scans or Color or B&W photocopies. Submit articles as ASCII or RTF text files, by e-mail to: store@twomorrows.com or as hardcopies. Include background information when possible.

NEXT ISSUE: #63 takes you back inside the creation of the Marvel Universe with the late Mark Alexander, author of issue #58’s LEE & KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS! Mark worked tirelessly on a lengthy Lee/Kirby essay entitled “A Universe A’Borning” before his passing, and we proudly present it here! There’s also a Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, a look at key late-1970s events in Kirby’s life and career, STAN LEE script pages, unseen Kirby pencils and unused art from THOR, NICK FURY, HULK and FANTASTIC FOUR, plus galleries of ETERNALS, BLACK PANTHER, and more, all behind a wraparound cover inked by MIKE ROYER! Complete with our beautiful new color printing, it ships Spring 2013.

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 INTERNS VIEWS WITH KIRBY and EDITIO BLE A IL his contemporaries, AVA NLY FEATURE ARTICLES, FOR O $4.95 RARE AND UNSEEN $1.95— 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).

DIGITAL

Go online for #1-30 as Digital Editions, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #34

KIRBY COLLECTOR #35

KIRBY COLLECTOR #31

KIRBY COLLECTOR #32

KIRBY COLLECTOR #33

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!

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!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #36

KIRBY COLLECTOR #37

KIRBY COLLECTOR #38

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!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #39

KIRBY COLLECTOR #40

KIRBY COLLECTOR #41

KIRBY COLLECTOR #42

KIRBY COLLECTOR #43

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!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #44

KIRBY COLLECTOR #45

KIRBY COLLECTOR #46

KIRBY COLLECTOR #47

KIRBY COLLECTOR #48

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!

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!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

(84-page tabloid magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY FIVE-OH! CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

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! (84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

For its 50th issue, the publication that started TwoMorrows presents KIRBY FIVE-OH!, a BOOK covering the best of everything from Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular KIRBY COLLECTOR columnists 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, the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE 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 TABLOIDSIZED 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 • (Digital Edition) $7.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 • Diamond Order Code: FEB084186

NOTE: THIS IS JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

KIRBY COLLECTOR #55

KIRBY COLLECTOR #51

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

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!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work: an UNUSED THOR STORY, BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby cover inked by DON HECK!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #56

KIRBY COLLECTOR #57

THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! New interview with STAN LEE, walking tour of New York where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a new page that just surfaced), “What If Jack Hadn’t Left Marvel In 1970?,” 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 GEORGE PÉREZ!

STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, final interview (and cover inks) by GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’S approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, plus Kirby back cover inked by JOE SINNOTT!

“Kirby Goes To Hollywood!” SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MELL LAZARUS recall Kirby’s BOB NEWHART TV show cameo, comparing the recent STAR WARS films to New Gods, RUBY & SPEARS interviewed, Jack’s encounters with FRANK ZAPPA, PAUL McCARTNEY, and JOHN LENNON, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a Golden Age Kirby story, and more! Kirby cover inked by PAUL SMITH!

“Unfinished Sagas”—series, stories, and arcs Kirby never finished. TRUE DIVORCE CASES, RAAM THE MAN MOUNTAIN, KOBRA, DINGBATS, a complete story from SOUL LOVE, complete Boy Explorers story, two Kirby Tribute Panels, MARK EVANIER and other regular columnists, pencil art galleries, and more, with Kirby’s “Galaxy Green” cover inked by ROYER, and the unseen cover for SOUL LOVE #1!

“Legendary Kirby”—how Jack put his spin on classic folklore! TONY ISABELLA on SATAN’S SIX (with Kirby’s unseen layouts), Biblical inspirations of DEVIL DINOSAUR, THOR through the eyes of mythologist JOSEPH CAMPBELL, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, rare Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, pencil art from ETERNALS, DEMON, NEW GODS, THOR, and Jack’s ATLAS cover!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

Lee & Kirby: THE WONDER YEARS

Celebrate the 50th ANNIVERSARY OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1 with this special squarebound edition (#58) of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, about two pop-culture visionaries who created the Fantastic Four, and a decade in comics that was more tumultuous and awe-inspiring than any before or since. Calling on his years of research, plus new interviews conducted just for this book (with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others), regular Jack Kirby Collector contributor MARK ALEXANDER traces both Lee and Kirby’s history at Marvel Comics, and the remarkable series of events and career choices that led them to converge in 1961 to conceive the Fantastic Four. It also documents the evolution of the FF throughout the 1960s, with previously unknown details about Lee and Kirby’s working relationship, and their eventual parting of ways in 1970. With a wealth of historical information and amazing Kirby artwork, STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS beautifully examines the first decade of the FF, and the events that put into motion the 1960s era that came to be known as the Marvel Age of Comics!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

JACK KIRBY: WRITER! Examines quirks of Kirby’s wordsmithing, from the FOURTH WORLD to ROMANCE and beyond! Lengthy Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, LARRY LIEBER’s scripting for Jack at 1960s Marvel Comics, RAY ZONE on 3-D work with Kirby, comparing STEVE GERBER’s Destroyer Duck scripts to Jack’s pencils, Kirby’s best promo blurbs, Kirby pencil art gallery, & more!

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $43.95

(104-page magazine with COLOR) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

CAPTAIN VICTORY: GRAPHITE EDITION

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! This first “new” Kirby comic in years 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, and more!

NOTE: THIS IS JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #58!

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES, edited by John Morrow

(52-page comic book) $5.95 • (Digital Edition) $2.95

Each book contains over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!

SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR SPECIAL EDITION

VOLUME 2

VOLUME 3

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #13-15, plus new art!

(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905016 Diamond Order Code: MAR042974

(176-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905023 Diamond Order Code: APR043058

KIRBY COLLECTOR #61

FANTASTIC FOUR FOLLOW-UP to #58’s THE WONDER YEARS! Never-seen FF wraparound cover, interview between FF inkers JOE SINNOTT and DICK AYERS, rare LEE & KIRBY interview, comparison of a Jack and Stan FF story conference to Stan’s final script and Jack’s penciled pages, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, gallery of KIRBY FF ART, pencils from BLACK PANTHER, SILVER SURFER, & more!

(160-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $7.95 ISBN: 9781605490380 • Diamond Order Code: SEP111248

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #10-12, and a tour of Jack’s home!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #60

“Kirby Vault!” Rarities from the “King” of comics: Personal correspondence, private photos, collages, rare Marvelmania art, bootleg album covers, sketches, transcript of a 1969 VISIT TO THE KIRBY HOME (where Jack answers the questions YOU’D ask in ’69), MARK EVANIER, pencil art from the FOURTH WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA, MACHINE MAN, SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL, and more!

Compiles the “extra” new material from COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES 1-7, in one huge Digital Edition! Includes a fan’s private tour of the Kirbys’ remarkable home, profusely illustrated with photos, and more than 200 pieces of Kirby art not published outside of those volumes. If you already own the individual issues and skipped the collections, or missed them in print form, now you can get caught up!

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. 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! (160-page trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $7.95 ISBN: 9781893905559 Diamond Order Code: JAN063367

(120-page Digital Edition) $5.95

KIRBY UNLEASHED (REMASTERED)

KIRBY CHECKLIST

VOLUME 6

VOLUME 7

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, plus new art!

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Diamond Order Code: JUN084280

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286

Lists EVERY KIRBY COMIC, BOOK, UNPUBLISHED WORK and more! (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 Diamond Order Code: MAR084008

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! (60-page tabloid with COLOR) SOLD OUT • (Digital Edition) $5.95

Parting Shot

DC Comics may have forced Jack to incorporate Deadman into Forever People, but he took the synopsis that Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman gave him of the character’s past appearances, and came up with an offbeat, exciting, and downright spooky two-parter. Here’s pencils from issue #9.

NEW ISSUES: THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

FOCUSING ON GOLDEN & SILVER AGE COMICS

C o l l e c t o r

CELEBRATING THE LIFE & CAREER OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

THE PROFESSIONAL “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS, CARTOONING & ANIMATION

THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO® ENTHUSIASTS!

BACK ISSUE #70

KIRBY COLLECTOR #62

DRAW! #26

BRICKJOURNAL #26

BRICKJOURNAL #27

KIRBY AT DC! Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, updated “X-Numbers” list of Kirby’s DC assignments (revealing some surprises), JERRY BOYD’s insights on Kirby’s DC work, a look at KEY 1970s EVENTS IN JACK’S LIFE AND CAREER, Challengers vs. the FF, pencil art galleries from FOREVER PEOPLE, OMAC, and THE DEMON, Kirby cover inked by MIKE ROYER, and more!

JOE JUSKO shows how he creates his amazing fantasy art, JAMAR NICHOLAS interviews artist JIMM RUGG (Street Angel, Afrodisiac, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes and Janes in Love, One Model Nation, and The Guild), new regular contributor JERRY ORDWAY on his behind-the-scenes working process, Comic Art Bootcamp with MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS, reviews of artist materials, and more! Mature readers only.

CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL with builders SEAN and STEPHANIE MAYO (known online as Siercon and Coral), other custom animal models from BrickJournal editor JOE MENO, LEGO DINOSAURS with WILL PUGH, plus more minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

GUY HIMBER takes you to the IRON BUILDER CONTEST, which showcases the top LEGO® builders in the world! Cover by LEGO magazine and comic artist PAUL LEE, amazing custom models by LINO MARTINS, TYLER CLITES, BRUCE LOWELL, COLE BLAQ and others, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, & more!

(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Jan. 2014

BACK ISSUE #71

BACK ISSUE #72

BACK ISSUE #73

BACK ISSUE #74

“Incredible Hulk in the Bronze Age!” Looks into Hulk’s mind, his role as a team player, his TV show and cartoon, merchandising, Hulk newspaper strip, Teen Hulk, villain history of the Abomination, art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, PETER DAVID, KENNETH JOHNSON, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, EARL NOREM, ROGER STERN, HERB TRIMPE, LEN WEIN, new cover by TRIMPE and GERHARD!

“Tryouts, One-Shots, & One-Hit Wonders”! Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Feature, Strange Tales, Showcase, First Issue Special, New Talent Showcase, DC’s Dick Tracy tabloid, Sherlock Holmes, Marvel’s Generic Comic Books, Bat-Squad, Crusader, & Swashbuckler, with BRUNNER, CARDY, COLAN, FRADON, GRELL, PLOOG, TRIMPE, and an ARTHUR ADAMS “Clea” cover!

“Robots” issue! Cyborg, Metal Men, Robotman, Red Tornado, Mister Atom, the Vision, Jocasta, Shogun Warriors, and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, plus the legacy of Brainiac! Featuring the riveting work of DARROW, GERBER, INFANTINO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, MILLER, MOENCH, PEREZ, SIMONSON, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more, behind a Metal Men cover by MICHAEL ALLRED.

“Batman’s Partners!” MIKE W. BARR and ALAN DAVIS on their Detective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, Nightwing flies solo, Man-Bat history, Commissioner Gordon, the last days of World’s Finest, Bat-Mite, the Batmobile, plus Dark Knight’s girl Robin! Featuring work by APARO, BUSIEK, DITKO, KRAFT, MILGROM, MILLER, PÉREZ, WOLFMAN, and more, with a cover by ALAN DAVIS and MARK FARMER.

“Bronze Age Fantastic Four!” The animated FF, the FF radio show of 1975, Human Torch goes solo, Galactus villain history, FF Mego figures… and the Impossible Man! Exploring work by RICH BUCKLER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, GEORGE PÉREZ, KEITH POLLARD, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by KEITH POLLARD and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Jan. 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships March 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2014

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!

ALTER EGO #123

ALTER EGO #124

ALTER EGO #125

ALTER EGO #126

DENNY O’NEIL’s Silver Age career at Marvel, Charlton, and DC—aided and abetted by ADAMS, KALUTA, SEKOWSKY, LEE, GIORDANO, THOMAS, SCHWARTZ, APARO, BOYETTE, DILLIN, SWAN, DITKO, et al. Plus, we begin serializing AMY KISTE NYBERG’s groundbreaking book on the history of the Comics Code, FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY and more!

We spotlight HERB TRIMPE’s work on Hulk, Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D., Ghost Rider, Ant-Man, Silver Surfer, War of the Worlds, Ka-Zar, even Phantom Eagle, and featuring THE SEVERIN SIBLINGS, LEE, FRIEDRICH, THOMAS, GRAINGER, ROTH, AYERS, EVERETT, GILL, BUSCEMA, and others, plus more of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s Comics Code history, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

Golden Age “Air Wave” artist LEE HARRIS discussed by his son JONATHAN LEVEY to interviewer RICHARD J. ARNDT, with rarely-seen 1940s art treasures (including mysterious, never-published art of an alternate version of DC’s Tarantula)! Plus more of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s exposé on the Comics Code, artist SAL AMENDOLA tells the story of the Academy of Comic Book Arts, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

Second big issue on 3-D COMICS OF THE 1950s! KEN QUATTRO looks at the controversy involving JOE KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, BILL GAINES, and AL FELDSTEIN! Plus more fabulous Captain 3-D by SIMON & KIRBY and MORT MESKIN— 3-D thrills from BOB POWELL, HOWARD NOSTRAND, JAY DISBROW and others— the career of Treasure Chest artist VEE QUINTAL, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Feb. 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2014

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2014

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com

Visit us on the Web at twomorrows.com

82658 23978

PRINTED IN CHINA

Jack Kirby’s 1971 Mattel Card Game/ Puzzles. While inked by Mike Royer, DC Comics chose to have the Superman faces redrawn by Murphy Anderson (but left the Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen heads as they were).