Jack Kirby Collector #79 Preview

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ISSUE NO. 79 FALL 2020

KIRBY COLLECTOR

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Hollywood interviewer CHRIS MANN goes behind the scenes of TV’s sexy sitcom THREE’S COMPANY—and NANCY MORGAN RITTER, first wife of JOHN RITTER, shares stories about the TV funnyman. Plus: RICK GOLDSCHMIDT’s making of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, RONNIE SCHELL interview, Sheena Queen of the TV Jungle, Dr. Seuss toys, Popeye cartoons, DOCTOR WHO’s 1960s U.S. invasion, & more fun features!

Exclusive interviews with Lost in Space’s MARK GODDARD and MARTA KRISTEN, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, Hogan’s Heroes’ BOB CRANE, a history of Wham-O’s Frisbee, Twilight Zone and other TV sci-fi anthologies, Who Created Archie Andrews?, oddities from the San Diego Zoo, lava lamps, and more with ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, and SCOTT SHAW! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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THE

Contents The Big Picture!

OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 (Brother Eye beams in) KIRBY EPIPHANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 (Kaluta on Kirby) INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 (a Scarce interview)

C o l l e c t o r

ISSUE #79, FALL 2020

BOYDISMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 (some big costume ideas) FOUNDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 (more early Link Thorne work) GENERATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 (fighting illiteracy with Kirby comics) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . . 24 (who watches the Watcher?)

KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 (Jack’s two-page spreads analyzed) GALLERY 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 (One Man’s Amazing Concepts) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 (monsters and outer space!)

CHANGE-UPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 (some Marvel mysteries) GALLERY 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 (before & after: the Eternals) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 (Jack’s legacy characters) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM . . . . . . . . . 59 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 ( Mark Evanier moderates the 2019 Kirby Tribute Panel, featuring Buzz Dixon, Tracy Kirby, Jeremy Kirby, Paul S. Levine, Kurt Busiek, and Mike Royer) A SPECIAL APPEAL . . . . . . . . . . . 75 COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . . 78 Co ver inks: MIKE ROYER Co ver color: TOM ZIUKO COPYRIGHTS: Big Barda, Brother Eye, Demon, Flash, Global Peace Agency, Guardian, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, Mister Miracle, Newsboy Legion, Oberon, OMAC, Sandman, Superman, Tales of the Unexpected, Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics • Absorbing Man, Ant-Man, Avengers, Batroc, Bucky, Captain America, Daredevil, Dr. Doom, Eternals, Fantastic Four, Frightful Four, Galactus, Hulk, Inhumans, Invisible Girl, Loki, Magneto, Maximus, Odin, Pluto, Sandman, Sentry, Sgt. Fury, Silver Surfer, Skrulls, Strange Tales, Thing, Thor, Trapster, Two-Gun Kid, Vision, Warriors Three, Wasp, Watcher, Wyatt Earp, X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Boys’ Ranch, Bullseye, Fighting American, Hot Box, Link Thorne, Night Fighter TM & © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estates • Captain Victory, Darius Drumm, Silver Star, Sky Masters TM & © Jack Kirby Estates • The Fly TM & © Joe Simon Estate • Destroyer Duck TM & © Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby Estates • A if for Alien, Power Planet, Raven, Roxie’s Raiders, Thundarr the Barbarian, Turbo Teen TM & © Ruby-Spears Productions

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The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 27, No. 79, Fall 2020. Published quarterly (barring worldwide pandemics) by and © TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $12 postpaid US ($18 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $48 Economy US, $70 International, $18 Digital. Editorial package © TwoMorrows Publishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All Kirby artwork is © Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. Views expressed here are those of the respective authors, and not necessarily those of TwoMorrows Publishing or the Jack Kirby Estate. First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912

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Innerview

A SCARCE KIRBY IN Interviewed by Nikola Atchine, translated by Jean Depelley

[A NOTE FROM JEAN DEPELLEY: In 1992, Nikola Atchine interviewed Jack Kirby at his booth at the San Diego Comic-Con. Instead of the resentful and embittered man he expected to meet, Kirby was a sympathetic and funny grandpa. His booth was loaded with superb original art pages for sale. His charming wife Roz was filtering the people around Jack and making sure he was comfortable. When she gave Nikola her approval, he interviewed the Master.

A most incredible aspect of Jack Kirby was his New York City slum accent, an accent you can find in the old crime films starring Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Spencer Tracy. Kirby’s sentences were filled with “You know” and “So I says,” making him even more sympathetic. The man was colorful.

Sometimes he could be a bit absent-minded when he discussed with fans or answered the occasional question in an interview, but his mind was sharp, as if he were only twenty years old. Kirby was extremely warm. If he liked evoking the past, he still lived in the present, with his eyes turned on what was coming.

This interview was originally published in the French comics-related magazine Scarce #31 (Spring 1992). Journalist Nikola Atchine died in 2008 and the transcript was lost. Publisher Xavier Lancel kindly gave his permission to have the interview translated and reprinted in The Jack Kirby Collector. Our thanks to him and to Scarce, the longest-running magazine in its category in France.]

NIKOLA ATCHINE: How did you start in comics?

JACK KIRBY: My mom pushed me to it! That’s true! I was from a very poor part of New York and, in the ’30s, when you were poor, you were really poor. So I was trying to make a little money one way or another, especially by selling newspapers at the corner.

(above) Examples of Kirby’s early strip work, clipped from newspapers and saved

by Jack’s mother! (right) Jack’s own Judo and boxing experience may’ve inspired this 1986 animation idea, Night-Fighter—a name first used in this late 1950s unused concept (below).

ATCHINE: Did you practice any sports?

KIRBY: No, not really. I was interested in boxing and judo, but nothing else, even if I played lots of sports, as all kids do.

ATCHINE: Did your interest in combat sports help you in your career as an artist?

KIRBY: Oh yes, absolutely! But, at the beginning, I first used these sports to fight for real! Sometimes I lost, sometimes I won.

But one thing was sure: When I was after guys, they all came back home with bruises and bumps.

That was my life back then.

ATCHINE: So, drawing comics was considered a decent way to make a living, if your mother 4

anytime...

ATCHINE: With Joe Simon, your drawings had lots of black and cross-hatchings, a typical style no longer visible afterwards. Did Joe Simon’s inking have an influence on your pencils, or did the end of your collaboration start an evolution in your style?

KIRBY: No, it all came from me. You know, the cross-hatchings were very present in my pencils. It was my way of expressing halftones.

ATCHINE: You never tried wash drawing?

KIRBY: No, because it couldn’t reproduce correctly. It wouldn’t print on paper. The drawings had to be black.

We could use cross-hatchings which were okay to print.

ATCHINE: You invented double splash pages. How did it occur?

KIRBY: It certainly comes from my taste for cinema. I am a very cinematographic person. Very often, films had a very sensational opening; the intention was to attract the audience and catch their attention. I also created the principle of double splashes because, when I was drawing a crowd, I needed room. You know, I am a New Yorker and, when I draw people, I draw a lot of them. Moreover, there’s the environment and its complex structures: all my buildings look like they’re built in New York. Once, after drawing a crowd on a double splash, I realized I unconsciously drew my uncle! I remembered him and drew him, lost in the middle of the crowd, because I was drawing real people.

When you’re living in New York, you instinctively draw crowds, buildings, traffic jams, cars...

ATCHINE: Do you ever use photos to draw cars?

KIRBY: To make your comics interesting, you have to draw things as they really are. As far as cars are concerned, I used to draw different models because, in the streets, there are dozens of different brands, but I drew them as I remembered them, adding variations to them. Matter of fact, it’s as if I created my own vehicles. They looked like the ones I could see everyday, limousines, taxis and so on. And that was the same for the people I drew.

ATCHINE: Where did your taste for science-fiction come from? It’s omnipresent in your work.

KIRBY: I believed in legends and I loved mythological tales. The character of Thor has his origins in these fairy tales. But I wanted to tell them my own way, as adventure comics. The writers of these tales wrote them their way. The tales had a medieval style, a medieval language. My characters capture this language, with understandable English.

ATCHINE: Did you read all these legends?

KIRBY: I knew many and read lots of these books.

My parents believed in demons, like every European migrant who believed in popular tales! The English, the people from Central Europe, they all sat by a fire and

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(previous page) First installment of Sky Masters. (above) A Wally Wood sketch drawn for Jack. (below) Dig Count Dragula’s cool Coffin Car for the Turbo Teen animated series!

COSTUMING BY KIRBY BIG

BOYDISMS (right) The malevolent Mogul took over grim Hogun’s homeland and got the same kind of dancers and revelry that marked Cecil B. DeMille’s films. (below) The opulence of DeMille’s King of Kings may have inspired the grandeur of Jack’s crowd scenes. Here, the wealthy and decadent courtesan Mary Magdalene moves haughtily through a crowd in her chariot.

(right) Paramount Pictures’ biggest moneymaker of 1949, Samson and Delilah. (bottom) Harokin is made ready for Valhalla in Thor #133.

A

PICTURES DESIGNS, INC.

s I asserted in a past issue of TJKC, the boys I grew up with and I saw super-heroes as one heck of a “power trip,” though we were, of course, too unsophisticated to articulate it in that fashion.

Jack Kirby’s army of super-doers knew what they were capable of, enjoyed taking to the skies (the Angel, the Human Torch, and the Silver Surfer), praised the achievements of their own tech-weaponry and inventions (Iron Man, the Wingless Wizard, Dr. Doom, Lucifer, Mr. Fantastic), and were quite proud of their own sheer physical strengths (the Hulk, the Thing, SubMariner, Hercules, Giant-Man/Goliath, Thor).

And though my buddies and I had problems at the time reciting poetry assigned to us in our classes, Stan Lee’s liltin’ dialogue and Kirby’s magnificent visuals stuck with us. Jack’s visuals— let me rephrase that, Jack’s ‘suitably impressive visuals’—stuck with us since his costumes and uniforms elevated his splash panels, covers, pin-ups, and posters to a pinnacle no other cartoonist of his day could reach.

The King’s garb for the gods (Balder, Heimdall, Loki, Hela, Pluto—and Odin’s closet saw no end!) or impressive uniforms for the baddies who served Hydra, A.I.M., and the Red Skull never disappointed loyal readers, whose eyes were blown out by the “senses-shattering’’ look of it all. Jack and Stan’s characters were always supremely confident, and their attire matched their status among their own.

Here’s a modest compilation of some of them and the way the master storyteller may have used past storytelling—in this case, from the Biblical spectacles of another master, director Cecil B. DeMille, to invigorate his tales… of Asgard and Midgard.

by Jerry Boyd

courtesan Mary Magdalene in the former, and before Samson’s humiliation before the Philistines in the latter.

DeMille played heavily on his superb composition of these scenes and others with magnificent costuming for all. Jack would do the same for the murderous Mogul (Thor #139) and Zeus (Thor #129), among others. DeMille wasn’t shy about adding scarcelygarbed handmaidens to attend to the main female characters (something some film critics said was too sexy) any more than Jack would do by supplementing his backgrounds and foregrounds with ugly gnomes, ogres, and the like to his super-villains’ celebrations.

For additional information, we’re all fortunate to have Kirby friend Scott Fresina share his memories of Jack. The first anecdote deals with costuming.

GAMES OF THRONES Even seated, in their palatial throne room chambers— or in Harokin the Barbarian’s case, facing death (sheeesh!)— Jack Kirby’s heroes and villains radiated power or menace or majesty in those big pictures we cherish so dearly.

In some cases, à la DeMille’s incredible silent masterpiece King of Kings (1927) and the later Samson and Delilah (1949), dancers would prance about the opulent settings before the wealthy

SCOTT FRESINA: I recall telling Jack I was impressed by the regal throne rooms of Atlantis and the pageantry of Asgard… when I asked where the inspiration came from, he only offered, “I lived at the movies when I was a kid; I’d watch them over and over because they didn’t clear the theaters between showings. My mother would come charging down the aisle at dinner and drag me out of there!” He did 9

Foundations

Here’s our next installment of the complete Link Thorne stories by Simon & Kirby, this one from Airboy Comics V4, #6 (July 1947): “Dynamite.” Art reconstruction and coloring by Chris Fama.

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Generations

(above) Origin page from Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Superteam (2007). (right) Condensed history of the Skrulls, from Fantastic Four: Evil Adversaries (2010). (next page, top) One of Jack’s coolest designs, as highlighted in FF: The World’s Greatest Superteam. (next page, bottom) A Frightful Four recap from FF: The World’s Greatest Superteam. (below) Covers from the easy-reading books for kids. On The Story of the Avengers (2012), only Iron Man’s armor and Wasp’s lack of a helmet deviates from classic versions, while The Story of the X-Men (2013) has an odd mix of costumes from the Silver/Bronze Ages to the early-to-mid 2000s eras.

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ttentively, the class of eight-year-old children sat on the carpet in front of their teacher. “Can anyone tell me the name of the team of super-heroes we were learning about last week? Yes, Euan?”

“The Fantastic Four, Mr. Menzies.”

“Excellent. They are four people who go around helping other people, like when you go, boys and girls, and help someone who has fallen in the playground.

Sometimes the Fantastic Four have to go far away to help people. Do you remember what they travel in? [Hands go up.] Annie?”

“A Quinjet?”

“No, that was the Avengers. We learned about those flying ships when we were looking at the Kree-Skrull War last week.”

“Me! I know, I know!”

“Yes, Ross?”

“A Fantasticar. The first one looked like a bathtub but they all kept their clothes on!” [Children giggle.]

“Yes, it did look funny! But it was good for flying to places quickly and they saved lots of people. Now today we’re going to learn about a new team made up of kind people—the X-Men—and also about the two men who created not only that team but the FF and the Avengers: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.”

of classic Silver and Bronze Age images, some by Kirby, and modern movie tie-ins, with the latter probably featuring more. Of course, super-heroes have a far greater cultural footprint than they had back in Kirby’s day; they’ve almost taken over the global box office, and the characters if not the medium have also undergone something of a rehabilitation in the eyes of adults. In my early twenties I used to joke that it was more socially acceptable to be an alcoholic than a comic reader; at least alcoholism was considered an adult problem. That negativity has been reversed in the last ten years with the superbly made and commercially successful films— not to mention the shirtless antics of Chris Evans and Chris Helmsworth.

However, even as it has become less stigmatized and perhaps even “cool” to be a fan (I’m suspicious of any claims of the latter), there have been consequences, and now the merchandising, and even increasingly the comics themselves, reflect the films more than the classic costuming and storylines. Just as comics were stepping out from the shadows and being embraced by a new mainstream audience, many of the old diehards (of whom I am quite obviously one) were being alienated and started cancelling their standing orders after decades of dedicated purchases. Saturday, sadly, is no

Sounds like the daydreaming of an old fan boy, right? Not exactly. While this scene is not an account of an actual event, I am indeed a primary (elementary) school teacher in Scotland, these reading books do exist, and they’re part of the reading resources in my school.

It has been nearly sixty years since Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others launched the Marvel Age. Now, their creations have been enlisted in the ongoing battle against illiteracy, and this article is going to be a brief investigation into how the classic art of Jack Kirby has found a new life in the field of education.

CULTURAL SHIFT In Scottish schools—and I’m sure in other educational institutions across the world—many of the younger children have Marvel-themed bags, lunch boxes, stationery, and other items. The art used is a mix

longer referred to as Comic Shop Day in my house.

And yet, despite all the success of the Marvel movies, the creators—with the obvious exception of Stan Lee due to his cameos—remain utterly unknown. While the films have generally been reliable in giving credit to

KIRBY KIDS:

FIGHTING ILLITERACY WITH COMICS

by Robert Menzies, with thanks to Roy Thomas, Gerry Turnbull and the contributors to the amazon.com website.

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the original creators, listing their names as cinemagoers wait for the next “hidden” scene embedded in the closing credits, this fleeting mention seems at best inadequate. Kirby co-created most of the major characters upon which the world box office is now dependent, and he is no better known than the guy who fetches Robert Downey Jr.’s latte. Visionary writer-artist Jim Starlin, for instance, watched his character Thanos star in a $2 billion movie in 2018 and he remains as anonymous outside the fanboy community as he was beforehand. Compare his status to, say, JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, who is a beloved celebrity and can’t go out for a loaf of bread in peace. This matter of credit is one that is a constant preoccupation with professional comic creators and hardcore comic book fans, and one that is felt especially by Kirby fans.

To those fans I have to say that, despite my rather despondent opening, this article is a feel-good piece. In ways not generally known or recognized, Kirby’s classic Silver Age Marvel work is being recycled to grab the attention of the young and improve their literacy. It’s a testament to the power of the original work and a wonderful legacy.

And, Kirby himself is being given credit so that even young children hear his name and can (hopefully) use these books as jumping-off points to discover more about him, and other creators.

As you might expect, the majority of the Marvel kids’ books tap into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the books we are going to look at here buck that trend. They are produced by Dorling Kindersley (DK) and Disney. We will discuss the latter first.

WORLD OF READING In the 1960s it was easy to stay on top of every appearance of every Marvel character and even the most popular, top tier heroes were largely confined to their own title. Now—and this is not a criticism or complaint—the marketplace is fractured, with age-specific target audiences. Children can read versions of the Marvel heroes based on various animated series including The Marvel Super-hero Squad, as well as storybooks that adhere to the comic or cinematic incarnations. While most of these books are designed to entertain, excite and amuse, some are purposely created with the aim of raising reading standards.

Marvel Press, a Disney Book Group imprint, have released a series called World of Reading in North America. These books are three-quarters the size of a Silver Age Marvel comic, with dimensions of 15.2cm x 22.9cm. There are four levels in the WoR series: Pre-1 and then levels 1, 2 (both 32 pages) and 3 (48 pages). Pre-1 is for pre-schoolers and emergent readers, and has extremely simple character introductions. Level 1 is composed of more advanced character intros and are entitled “These are...” or “This is...”. Characters in Level 1 include Ant-Man, Black Panther, Black Widow, Falcon, Hawkeye, Hulk, Spider-Man and Thor, all of whom have appeared, not coincidentally, in the Marvel films. The teams include the predictable heavy hitters like the Avengers, FF and X-Men as well as the Guardians of the Galaxy, who also have had success in the world’s cinemas.

Don’t be misled by that connection to the films, however.

Consider the WoR Level 1 book This is Thor. Even though the visual depiction of Asgard and Loki is straight out of the MCU, Thor has the Silver-Bronze Age secret identity of Donald Blake, MD! Even Fin Fang Foom makes an appearance! With the bio of Hulk, the origin story involves Bruce driving out to rescue (an unnamed) Rick Jones from the test site, and by saving him is exposed to the atomic blast

that causes his terrible transformation. Greenskin’s birth ignores all cinematic accounts and reverts to the first ever Hulk story at the dawn of the Marvel Age. These are just two examples of how the vision of Stan and Jack is preserved.

It’s not just in terms of narrative faithfulness, either. There are a number of swipes that can be easily spotted by any comic reader who knows his Vita-rays from his cosmic rays. This is Captain America retells the shield slinger’s origin with deliberate swipes of Kirby panels from Captain America #109 (January 1969). It is a simplified account, edited to eliminate some of the more extreme examples of violence. The murder of Dr. Erskine is absent from Cap’s transformation scene, although this does leave unanswered the question of why there was only one super-soldier. But even reduced as it is, four almost consecutive Kirby panels can clearly be identified as inspiration for images in that book. (Another, more complete version of the same story for older children in The Courageous Captain America reinstates the Nazi spy and the killing of Erskine, although in contrast to the usual comic book account, the saboteur is taken alive and the story’s death toll is exactly one.)

Level 2 is perhaps even more interesting in that it homages several Kirby covers.

The Story of Spider-Man and The Story of the Avengers (both 2012), and The Story of the X-Men (2013), are recreations of the covers to Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962; Ditko inks), Avengers #1 (September 1963; Ayers inks) and X-Men #1 (also September 1963; Sol Brodsky inks). The new covers are—inevitably—inferior to the source material, but it’s nevertheless pleasing to see that the artists were acknowledging the significance of Kirby by creating their own versions of a few of his most iconic covers.

The interior Level 2 stories are potted repeats of the original appearances, and adhere very closely to the comic book version 21

Let’s Watch...

...How He Changes!

INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY An ongoing analysis of Kirby’s visual shorthand, and how he inadvertently used it to develop his characters,

by Sean Kleefeld

W

hen I first started collecting Fantastic Four comics, trade paperback collections were few and far between—which meant that I was picking up mostly original back issues and, thus, obtaining them wildly out of publishing order. So a point of mild confusion I had was when I finally got to read Fantastic Four #13, and found The Watcher looked pretty substantially different than when I had seen him in the Galactus Trilogy. For this issue’s “Incidental Iconography” column, I’ve finally gone through and figured out what happened and when.

The Watcher is an interesting and unique character to study because, despite debuting in Fantastic Four, that wasn’t really treated as his “home” book in the same way as other characters. A year after his first appearance, he’d been migrated over to Tales of Suspense for a back-up feature. A year after that, he started

hopping around in Fantastic Four, Strange Tales, Avengers, and Tales to Astonish. He eventually (and somewhat logically) landed in the Silver Surfer series that started in 1968 before getting dragged over into Thor during Jack’s last days before leaving Marvel for DC. With all that jumping around, he was drawn by a good chunk of the artists at Marvel at the time: Larry Lieber, Don Heck, George Tuska, and Gene Colan 1 to name a few. With all those artists working on the character, and then mostly 1 sporadically, it’s little wonder that The Watcher’s appearance changed rather quickly compared to other characters who were drawn more regularly by a single artist.

WHO WATCHES THE WATCHER? The Watcher’s first appearance is fairly surprising. 2 It occurs about halfway through Fantastic Four #13, after the story has largely been set up as the FF versus the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. The Watcher suddenly appears from the shadows and starts throwing the issue’s villains around.

Jack basically draws him as a variation on his typical “big head” aliens: a relatively gaunt figure with a proportionally over-sized, bald head. He’s given a sort of toga, and a cloak with a high, stiff, and stylized collar. There are only two full-body drawings of The Watcher in this issue, and both have the clothing drawn differently. The idea is the same in both, but almost none of the specifics match.

His appearances in Fantastic Four #20 and #29 feel similar. They’ve got the same general idea, but none of the specifics match anything else, even within a given issue! That isn’t terribly unusual for Jack at this time.

What’s of particular interest during this period, though, is that The Watcher began appearing in the Tales of Suspense back-up feature, “Tales of the Watcher,” drawn by Larry Lieber. The stories as the series began are short EC-style vignettes with The Watcher acting as a host character, so despite appearing every month beginning with ToS #49, we don’t see many full illustrations of him at first, and initially Lieber was largely copying Jack’s drawing from FF #13.

As the series progresses, though, Lieber does try

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KIRBY KINETICS An ongoing examination of Kirby’s art and compositional skills

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W

2

MOTION PICTURES: KIRBY’S CINEMATIC VIEW

hen we think of Jack Kirby, one of the first things we think of is size, as in larger-than-life. Kirby was an avid filmgoer and he instinctively infused his artwork with the characteristics of film, putting the width and depth of a movie screen into his pages. Even his small panels work as dynamic single compositions that often have deep space and scale in them.

As soon as he became successful while working with Joe Simon on Captain America, Kirby began to experiment with page layouts, often using large double-page spreads to achieve his ends. 1 This example from Captain America #9 goes so far as to give us the equivalent of a Coming Attraction feature. Cap and Bucky talk directly to us about the case, and then Kirby uses small inset panels to display an advance view of the story’s highlights.

One of the first things to notice is that Kirby uses a composition that comics scholar Greg Theakston referred to as the “Big O.” Kirby’s visual sweep takes us from Cap and Bucky’s figures to the words and figure of the Black Talon and rightward to the surgical scene. The eye then drops to Cap and Bucky assaulting the Talon, moves next to the strangled head, and finally back left to the file cabinet. The eye continually moves in an oval, hence the Big O. In 1952, Kirby and Simon created Fighting American, which quickly evolved into a satire of their original star-spangled hero. 2 In the fourth issue, Kirby opened the story “Tokyo Runaround” with this tableau, which easily could have been displayed horizontally as a two-page spread. One can clearly see that the figures are running in a circle around the page border.

This is a marvelously complex and comical scene, and we cannot help but be in awe of the juxtaposition of figures and the expressiveness of their postures. One of the things we nearly always see in a Kirby composition is the use of gestures or 27

Gallery 1

ONE MAN’S AMAZING

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Brother Eye, return to comment on some of my chronicler’s work about me and my human brother OMAC. Before Jack Kirby began documenting our exploits for public consumption, he created for his publishers some presentation sheets showing his ideas. I shall analyze the second of these for OMAC first. Like most of these sheets produced during this period, he presented an amazing array of ideas and undeveloped concepts, showcasing possibilities he saw for his work.

That they did not represent any definite planned direction is clear, because many of the ideas were never developed or were used very differently.

In OMAC’s and my case, while Kirby’s ‘brain transplant’ concept gets full treatment in the third storyline, he never chronicled ‘Professor Brainwave’, or anyone else who ‘attacks minds’. Whereas an entire country wasn’t put up for sale, as postulated here, he did instead showcase an entire city up for rent for one evil night. Clearly, Kirby’s mind was in overdrive as he sought to inspire his employers with the potential in the series. He may have chronicled more of these ideas if the series continued beyond its eight issues, but it is also quite possible that once the series took clearer form in his mind, he may never have looked back to these ideas at all.

That the ideas were sparked by Kirby’s reading of the direction that the science and authority of his time were taking is undeniable, and that he foresaw many possibilities that others did not, is as obvious now as it was to me when he wrote them.

Next (page 31) is where I was introduced (OMAC No. 1, page 7). My creator was Myron Forrest (although there are indications my chronicler, Mr. Kirby, had considerable conceptual input) and we know part of his inspiration for me was a then current fictional entity from “2001: A Space Odyssey” named Hal. (This is mentioned by Kirby on his first presentation sheet, not shown here.) Some also think of me as a kind of robotic version of ‘Shazam’, from the old Captain Marvel comic. Others say I was named after George Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’ concept – though I reject that notion, since I see no evidence that my chronicler saw me as anything but totally benevolent in nature, unlike ‘Big Brother.’

Also introduced is the Global Peace Agency (GPA). At the time he wrote, my chronicler’s audience was familiar with the United Nations, so he was sure they would grasp the concept of the GPA, whose agents worked toward world peace, but whose features and nationalities were hidden by ‘cosmetic spray’ (those featureless faces were colored orange originally, but unfortunately, often got colored a Caucasian pink in later issues). My chronicler took the view that the GPA were wise and well intentioned and that their actions were warranted and moral – something many younger comic-book writers following him would never assume, in this series or any other. There is the paradox of a super ‘god of war’,

such as OMAC, being an agent to enforce peace, though there are many instances where Kirby attempted to define that, showing violence was not his normal method. He never addressed the issue of Buddy Blank not being consulted in his melding with me. I wonder if he would have, had the series continued? What he did write, in his editorial in OMAC No. 1, was about advances in technology.

It was very insightful: “We’re too human to stop it. And we’re too human not to abuse it!” he wrote.

Thus was the basis of my chronicler’s intent in this series.

Oh – a quick aside. See the sequence Mr. Kirby drew on page 5 – where OMAC walks calmly away from a massive explosion behind him? How action movies have plundered that scene, ad nauseam, ever since! As always, Kirby was there first!

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CONCEPTS

Commentary by Brother Eye, channeled through Shane Foley

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OBSCURA

Barry Forshaw

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

by Barry Forshaw Barry Forshaw is the author of Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide and American Noir (available from Amazon) and the editor of Crime Time (www.crimetime. co.uk); he lives in London.

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in this area, and the last page—spoiler alert!—has a slight touch of pre-Code horror era in which the price paid by the science-defying hero is a grotesque aging process (one wonders if Lee and Kirby borrowed this notion from Irvin S. Yeaworth’s film of the same year, The 4D Man—the timing seems wrong, but both men were cheerful magpies when it came to re-usable notions of the period). Strange Tales #67 concludes with a quotidian Carl Burgos time travel tale, “The Man who Never Was,” but (as so often) it’s the Dynamic Duo of Kirby and Ditko who are the reason for buying the issue.

PRE-MONSTER KIRBY

For all the controversial responses to his professional work (not least from a disenchanted Jack Kirby), even his detractors would not argue with the fact that Stan Lee was particularly skilled in certain areas. Primarily, of course, this was as an editor, and after various promptings from buck-andtrend-chasing publisher Martin Goodman, Lee would quickly put together a standard package for various issues of the books he was editing.

This package would typically include his star illustrators (Kirby and Ditko) backed up by less spectacular but reliable second-string names in books in which four stories were offered for readers of the late 1950s and early 1960s. These stories had a satisfying range—a wider range, in fact, than would be available once those city-stomping behemoths comprehensively took over the pre-super-hero titles. 1 A good example of this reliable set-up might be Strange Tales #67, published by Atlas/Marvel in February 1959. The unexciting cover by sometime Kirby inker Joe Sinnott shows a man being pulled from a living room into the reaches of space, but hardly hints at the creativity within its pages. The first story is by Steve Ditko, “Trapped Between Two Worlds,” which is full of the bizarre imagination (and interesting panel design) that Ditko would soon lavish upon Dr. Strange. It’s followed by an efficient enough tale by Atlas/Marvel workhorse Don Heck, “I Seek the Sea Serpent,” but it’s the third tale of the issue which will be of most interest to readers of this magazine, in which Jack Kirby allows us a glimpse of a prototype for the Fantastic Four’s Invisible Girl/ Woman: “I Was the Invisible Man.” Strikingly inked by Christopher Rule, this is a perfect example of Kirby’s work of the period, with its anti-hero discovering a way to move at the speed of light (thus making himself invisible to those he’s stealing from).

The dynamism and clarity of the panels is a reminder of just how few equals Kirby had

KIRBY IN SPACE

The very next issue of Strange Tales, #68 (April 1959) is another monster-free issue, this time giving us the opportunity to admire Jack Kirby’s spaceship design, both on the cover for the story “Evacuate Earth!” (not illustrated

by The King in the issue itself), and for his four-page contribution “Test Pilot.” But of the many elements of Kirby’s talent to admire over the years, there is perhaps one that is underestimated, given the all-conquering dynamism of his work—and that is his striking sense of design. 2 The spaceship on the cover which so alarms onlookers is, frankly, a bit unwieldy, with so many cobbled-together

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Change-Ups

(below) Jack also included Crystal in this sequence from FF Annual #5, but she was removed from the page before publication.

U

MARVEL MYSTERIES A SCHEDULING GLITCH?

by Shane Foley

Here are my reasons for thinking this. The first and most obvious hint is the presence of Triton.

1 In Fantastic Four #64, Triton is still staying with the FF after helping them in FF #62. 2 In FF #65, Triton is said to have left (page 4, panel 1).

3 Yet in FF Annual #5 (on sale the month of FF #68), Triton is with the FF when they come to join the other Inhumans. He then stays with the Inhumans at story’s end. It’s a nice, logical piece of detail in the FF’s continuing storyline. But if this is the case, it means Kirby not only produced the Annual between FF #64 and #65, but believed it would be on sale in that order.

4 This also means Kirby would think that the news of the Richards’ baby, announced in the Annual, would be common knowledge starting with FF #65. As pub4 lished, that knowledge wasn’t public until three months later, around the time of #68, when the Annual actually appeared on sale.

Is there any evidence in FF #65, 66 and 67 that Kirby thought news of the baby was known to the readers; evidence that Lee, as scripter, would have to write around carefully?

I believe so. Look at Reed and Sue. 5 In FF #65, Reed and Sue are seen flirting and having an intimate, almost celebratory dinner together. It really seems as though it’s something special for them. Stan scripts it as if it’s just a date (and it reads nicely that way), but if the original pages turn up, I’ll bet that Kirby’s border notes 5 mention that it’s to celebrate

nderstanding how the amazing team of Lee and Kirby worked is endless fascination for most of us who love Kirby’s work. When were there real story conferences? When did Kirby take over as chief architect of the work? Just how much editorial input did Lee have at times in that marvelous decade of the ’60s?

We have anecdotal evidence from other Bullpenners that there were times aplenty when Kirby raced off in a direction that Lee had not anticipated, causing, it seems, more than a little frustration. And we know of other times where it was Lee who annoyed Kirby by altering his story motivations after he’d plotted and drawn his work. Here is one little example of what may be, or may not be, a little glitch in their working relationship.

3 She was supposed to be back at the Baxter Building, taking care of a newly pregnant Sue Storm—not off galavanting with the Inhumans.

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Fantastic Four Annual #5 appeared opposite FF #68, dated November 1967. Yet there are a number of factors that make me (and, I’m sure, others) feel it was produced months earlier than that—between FF #64 and #65 to be precise. This would be no big deal—books were produced out of order all the time—except that this time, it seems to me there was a bit of fall-out.

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A wealth of observations by a trio of Kirby fans

the Annual was not going to be available in the same order that he was producing it. Whereas the plot surprise that the Richards were expecting a child surely can’t have been one that editor/scripter Lee didn’t know was coming—something that momentous simply must have been discussed beforehand—perhaps Kirby, in his impassioned way of forging ahead with storylines, simply forgot the timing of the Annual’s release, and wrote all the FF issues after the Annual as if the baby announcement had already been made, because in his head, it had. We’ve heard many stories of Kirby totally forgetting what he and Stan had discussed for various issues—maybe this is another, tiny example of this happening.

Is this all very important? Not to us as readers, no.

But to Stan Lee and the editorial staff, it would have been quite frustrating, and I’m sure they breathed a sigh of relief when it was realized that it could all be scripted around and no art changes required. If only no one notices Triton... ...and yes—this is definitely trivia!

5 their forthcoming child. The date just seems very ‘special’ to me.

6 Then in FF #67, Reed is suddenly very protective of Sue, “forbidding” her to follow the rest of the FF through the transfer grid to the Beehive. Why? She’s just held her own against the Sentry and plenty of others before that! Could it be because he is concerned she now has a child to think of as well? (Sure, she was 6 present fighting Ronan after their dinner in #65, but she was abducted that time—Reed had no say in it.)

What about Kirby’s schedule?

It fits. Almost perfectly.

Looking at Kirby’s output at the time, we see that he had a fivemonth hiatus from his 10 pages per month assignment of “Captain America,” being Tales of Suspense #87-91, cover-dated March-July 1967. The FF Annual featured around 50 pages of new material, so it is fair to assume that the leave of absence from Captain America was to allow time to produce the Annual. Kirby then is back on Cap in Tales of Suspense #92—the same month that FF #65 appears.

Perfect!

So—if Kirby got the timing wrong, how did this happen?

One possibility is that the Annual was originally to have come on sale earlier, but was then pushed back in the schedule after Kirby had completed it, forcing Lee to write around Kirby’s references to the pregnancy. There’s no evidence for this, for the FF and Spider-Man Annuals—presumably the biggest selling Annuals—had always been the last to appear in the three-month block in which Annuals were released. But if the original plan was for the FF to be first that year, rather than last on the schedule, it would have come out opposite FF #66—very close to where Kirby intended it.

The other possibility is that it was Kirby himself who mucked up the schedule, forgetting that

MYSTERY OF THE FLYING HULK

by Ross Morrison After originating the character, Kirby’s initial Hulk run was a mere five issues (of a total of six), during which the character’s circumstances, speech patterns and personality varied significantly. While it wasn’t unusual for a 7 strip to take time to develop, the Hulk really did seem to be an example of trying out many different ideas to see which 8 Kirby/Lee ones would work best. The result was a strip in constant flux.

7 The third issue’s cover highlights an exciting new development to draw in potential readers. “Look!” cries a soldier who is pointing to the Hulk soaring through the air with a hapless Rick Jones. “Nothing can stop him now! He can fly!”

Two major changes are revealed inside. 8 The first involves a psychic connection to Rick, allowing him to control the creature’s movements and summon him from afar. The second is revealed when, while escaping 43

Gallery 2

BEFORE & AFTER:

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THE ETERNALS

A new feature showing big and small changes made to Kirby’s work, with commentary by John Morrow

(previous page) Eternals #3 cover, and #2 unused cover blurb: Jack’s penchant for exciting cover blurbs at 1970s DC Comics continued when he switched to Marvel, but the Bullpen usually overruled him.

On his pencils from #2’s cover, it says, “The biggest UFO ever seen!

What’s in it? Who’s in it?” The blurbs on the published cover aren’t on Kirby’s pencil art, so were added by Marvel.

And on #3 (shown here but not used), it said, “Would it scare you, if all the strange stories so common in every country’s mythology—were true?” Not a bad teaser in both instances, helping get across the gist of what this new series was about. (this page) Eternals #5 cover: Kirby photocopied his pencils for this cover, then added the unused top blurb “City on a mountain-top! See Olympia!”, and the nifty cityscape at the bottom to justify it. In this case, the blurb didn’t effectively convey what was going on prominently in the artwork, and was respectfully altered to a more commercial grabber, while retaining much of Kirby’s intent.

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Mark Evanier

JACK F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby

about something.

When I was working with Jack in the early ’70s on the Fourth World books, one of the problems that the books had was that they were considered kind of a hostile presence at DC by some people. There were people there who were kind of rooting for them to fail or didn’t see how they could possibly succeed because DC Comics, for years and years and years before there was any notion that Jack might come back there, was the company that considered Marvel comics garbage. “They’re all lousy! Look at the Marvel books! Oh, look how terrible they are!” And they got very frustrated at the idea when they looked and saw that Marvel was outselling them. They knew how Marvel was outselling them because they had the same distributor, the distributor that DC Comics, in effect, owned—Independent News. And there’s the embarrassment. Your own distributor is reporting higher sales figures on your competitor’s products to you. So you can’t really think, “Oh the distributor must be lying.” And around the DC offices, there was this feeling… not unanimous. There were people who loved Jack there, but enough people to kind of influence the attitude in the office that Marvel comics were flawed comics, badly drawn, badly done. And it was kind of jarring, all of a sudden, the announcement that, “We’ve just hired Jack Kirby. He’s coming over here.”

Not that many people could make the jump to, “Oh! He’s good now!” So that was a problem that he had there. And the people at Independent News and the people at the licensing department, and some people at DC’s offices said, “Oh, these things, these New Gods, they’re never gonna sell. They’ll never do well and they’ll especially never be merchandised.” I was there when the guy from the licensing department told Jack to his face there would never be dolls of Darkseid or t-shirts of Orion or anything like that. How many people have seen dolls of Darkseid and t-shirts of Orion? [chuckles from audience] And then people proclaimed the books were failures because they weren’t putting Marvel out of business.

I have in my office a shelf of the hardcover and paperback reprints of The New Gods and I look at it… It’s kind of there because I wrote the Forewords for ’em, but it’s really there

2019 Jack Kirby Tribute Panel Held Sunday, July 21, 2019 at Comic-Con International: San Diego. Featuring (standing, left to right) Buzz Dixon, Tracy Kirby, moderator Mark Evanier, Jeremy Kirby, Paul S. Levine, (seated) Kurt Busiek, and Mike Royer.

Transcribed by Steven Thompson.

Copyedited by Mark Evanier and John Morrow. Photo by Kendall Whitehouse.

(right) Kirby in his California backyard, circa 1971, during his time on the Fourth World series. (below) Jack scribbled these DC job production numbers on the back of his photocopy of Mister Miracle #7, page 15.

MARK EVANIER: Good afternoon, people. Please grab seats. [heavy background chatter] Thank you. This is the annual Jack Kirby tribute panel. That means I must be Mark Evanier. [applause] There’s my name plaque. Oh, wait a minute, that’s the wrong one. I’ve got… [laughter] Let’s see, this one… and this one… and this one, and this one, and this one, and THIS one… [Mark puts out dozens of name plaques from earlier panels at this convention] MIKE ROYER: And that’s all from yesterday! [laughter] MARK: … this one… and this one. You think I do enough panels at this convention, folks? [applause] Let me introduce the people on the panel here. How many people on this panel were ever Jack Kirby’s favorite inker? [laughter] Here’s Mike Royer! [laughter and applause] How many people on this panel are the attorney for the Rosalind Kirby Trust? That’s Paul S. Levine! [applause] How many people on this panel are related to Jack Kirby? Tracy Kirby and Jeremy Kirby! [applause] How many people on this panel ever collaborated with Jack Kirby on Destroyer Duck and worked on Thundarr the Barbarian with him?

Buzz Dixon! [applause] And we may or may not have Kurt Busiek showing up here sometime soon. You know why we gather every year. We love Jack Kirby, we love his memory. I noticed on the way in, the panel in this room after us is “How to Do Comics the Marvel Way.” [light laughter] This is the panel on how to do comics the Marvel way! [laughter and applause] It’s just Jack Kirby.

That system was built around having Jack Kirby. I think the public is beginning to notice that more.

I get alerts on Google all the time when Jack’s name is mentioned, and frequently it’s like a Jack Kirby who’s a judge in some small county in the Berkshires or something.

I got a flurry this morning because they made some announcements yesterday about the Eternals movie. Now, let me tell you, I have a feeling of great satisfaction 60

SIX DEGREES OF INDEPENDENT NEWS

by John Morrow, based on research by Richard Kolkman

because I like seeing that shelf and looking at it every so often and going, “Yeah. Failure of a book, huh? Going into its ninth printing?! And the books you thought were hits then? I don’t see them being reprinted!” And I’m not allowed to tell you that there’s another reprinting coming up of all the Fourth World books in about a year, in a fancier format, which they’re doing just to give Mike Royer more money. [laughter] MIKE: Mark, I’m delighted when they reprint, especially The Demon, because every penny of reprint money for inking and lettering will come to me, because they’re all issues I worked on. I always hated to see a book that was one third Vince Colletta and two thirds me because… I wanted all of it. [laughter] Now, I have nothing but good things to say about DC. In the beginning, when Jack had made the decision to leave Marvel and go to DC, I was to be part of the package. I don’t know specific reasons given why they didn’t want me, but after Mark and Steve [Sherman] pointed out to them so many things that Vince was changing, and leaving out in his inking, DC finally said, “Okay, you can use the kid.” And I’m sure they were convinced that I would fail.

MARK: Oh, absolutely.

MIKE: And to their chagrin, I didn’t! And I’m proud of that fact. Yesterday someone from the SYFY Channel said they wanted to interview me.

They’re doing a thing on Jack and they said they wanted to know what it was like working for Jack, and I said, “I don’t know because I had to ink three pages a day, letter a whole book in two days…

(right) House ad from Forever People #7. (left) August 21, 1971 Billboard magazine article.

F

ormer DC Comics publisher Paul Levitz wrote in his 2010 book 75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking, that the reason DC used the name “Hampshire Distributors” in the indicia of Kirby’s In The Days of the Mob #1 and Spirit World #1, was to keep DC’s name off such adult material. But was anything else distributed under the Hampshire moniker?

Take a look inside Forever People #7 or Jimmy Olsen #146. Those February 1972 DC comics contain an ad for two new bi-monthly music magazines: Planet #2 and Words and Music #1. The indicia in W&M states it’s published by “Hampshire Distributors Ltd.”, while Planet is published by “NPP Music Corp.”

(NPP stands for National Periodical Publications, DC’s official name up to that point), and both mags have a December 1971 cover date and the same business address: 909 Third Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY (ie. DC’s address). Also, both W&M #1 and October 1971’s Planet #1 (the issue before the one shown in the ad) contain a special notice to magazine retailers about displaying these mags; it’s from Independent News Corp. Inc., DC and Marvel Comics’ distributor.

There’s another curious connection between Kirby and Independent News’ other clientele.

The back cover of Mob #1 and Spirit World #1 features those mags’ only ads—for a revival of Liberty magazine. This new iteration was nostalgia-oriented, reprinting material from Liberty’s 61

original 1924-1950 run (thus a good fit for promoting in Kirby’s magazine about 1930s gangsters, but not necessarily for one about the supernatural).

This new Liberty was published by Twenty First Century Communications, and its staff included publisher Leonard Mogel and editor Matty Simmons—who had been producing National Lampoon since its debut in April 1970. NatLamp’s New York offices were at 635 Madison Avenue, in the same building as Marvel Comics—and the December 1972 National Lampoon featured Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas appearing semi-nude in its “Foto Funnies” strip. (Marvel’s Crazy later ran a parody of Roy’s risqué strip, and he promises to give me the long and funny story behind it all soon.)

The early 1970s was a tough time for magazines.

Words and Music (which hung on till 1973) was also advertised in June 1972 DC comics, but Planet appears to be gone by then, only lasting three issues.

The new Liberty ended in Fall 1976. But this drive for new mag launches seems to have been the impetus for Kirby pitching other “Speak-Out Series” concepts, like a war-themed mag. (Despite its 1980 copyright, was Jack’s “Stop The Panzers” art originally drawn for it? It fits size-wise.) Would the never-published Demon #17’s vampire story have repurposed art or ideas from Dracula Forever, another Kirby undeveloped magazine idea? For more on Jack’s plans for his “Speak-Out” series, plus all the unpublished Kirby stories for Soul Love and True-Life Divorce, get my new book Jack Kirby’s Dingbat Love, available now.

What I remember is sitting in the Kirby kitchen eating chocolate cake—Roz’s chocolate cake—drinking milk and talking about Warner Brothers movies. Or watching my kids swimming in their pool while my wife visited with Roz and Jack and I would talk comics.” And the guy said, “Oh, I want those stories!”

MARK: I was interviewed for that also the other day. They’re doing a very big documentary on the history of the Fourth World that’ll be released to tie-in with the next Fourth World-related movie that people at DC years ago said would never happen. And Mike is exactly right. They thought he would fail.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, They thought he would fail and they wanted him THE to failLINK because had THIS this CLICK TO they ORDER idea that comics were created in the office.

The attitude that DC Comics had ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! at the time was, “Well, the office makes the comics. The Superman books are great because we take the talents of the talented freelancer Curt Swan and we put the DC touch on it. We do little things here and there. You can’t do a book completely outside our office,” which is essentially what happened once Mike was lettering and inking the books. The books came in ready to go to the printer as opposed to coming in penciled and then needing lettering and such.

That was a loss of control by them and they didn’t like that. They also didn’t like the idea that you could be a professional person if you hadn’t worked for DC before. Mike was an unknown talent to them. He had not been someone they discovered, someone they hired, and they didn’t think that the fact that he’d already been drawing comics for years and been working on newspaper strips and had tons of credits, that that mattered because it wasn’t done for DC. In the same way, they didn’t want Russ Manning. Russ applied for work. #79 MIKE: Well, and one thing I found interesting, KIRBY becauseCOLLECTOR of the deal they had See “THE BIG PICTURE” of how Kirby fits into the grand with Vinnie—who as Alex Toth said, “He keeps bragging thatlasting he legacy, can do scheme of things!

His creations’ howten his work fightsI illiteracy, a RARE KIRBY inconsistencies in pages a day”—I did the three pages a day, kept up.

But oneINTERVIEW, of the regulations his 1960s MARVEL WORK, editorial changes in his comics, when they said, “Okay, use the kid,” wasbigIconcepts had toin accept less money than OMAC, best DOUBLE-PAGE SPREADS, MARK EVANIER’s 2019 Kirby Tribute Panel, PENCIL ART GALLERY, Vinnie. and a new cover based on OMAC #1!

FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 MARK: Which probably made Mike the lowest(84-page paid inker in the history of DC (Digital Edition) $4.99 Comics.

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