Jack Kirby Collector #83 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

82658 00460

EIGHTY-THREE

SPRING 2022

Fighting American TM & © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estates.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR

$10.95

Contents

THE

FAMOUS FIRSTS! OPENING SHOT Not so famous firsts. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 JACK FAQs The 2020 Kirby Tribute Panel, featuring Alex Ross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

C o l l e c t o r

ISSUE #83, SPRING 2022

KIRBY OBSCURA More monsters and stone men. . . . 22 RE-VIEWS The challenger of the Silver Age. . . 26

Believe It or Don’t!

FOUNDATIONS More unseen Link Thorne. . . . . . . . 32 PUGILISTICAL Kirby’s 1950s feud with DC . . . . . . 40 GALLERY First issue specials. . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 KIRBY KINETICS Jack Kirby intention . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY All Atlas, no Charles. . . . . . . . . . . . 62 RETROSPECTIVE Kirby’s cosmic god concept . . . . . . . 64

The K in g ’s Ea rli

est Work Jack’s FIRST PUBL ISHED ART was in TH E BBR REPORTER (1933-36, the new sletter of his boys’ club The Boys Brotherho Republic). His FIRST od PROFESSIONAL JO in-betweener on PO B was as an PEYE CARTOONS (1935–1937) for the MAX FLEISCHER AN IMATION STUDIO, until Fleischer moved his shop to Florida (Kir by’s mom wouldn’t let young “Jakie” relocat because there were “na e ked women down the re”). IN THE NEWS

COLLECTOR COMMENTS. . . . . . . . 78

At the LINCOLN NE WSPAPER SYNDICA TE in 1936, he used differe nt styles and pseudo nyms on EDITORIAL AND AD VICE CARTOONS (such as “Your Health Comes First!”). The strip SOCKO THE SEAD OG (1936-39, signed “Teddy”) was his FIRST PUBLISH ED CONTINUITY ART (his POPEYE experie nce likely helped him land the job on SOCKO, a knockoff of E.C. Segar’s Spinac h-eating sailor).

Front cover inks: MIKE MACHLAN Front cover colors: TOM ZIUKO COPYRIGHTS: Ant-Man/Henry Pym, Atlas Monsters, Attuma, Avengers, Beast-Killer, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, Bucky, Captain America, Cobra, Cyclops, Devil Dinosaur, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Enchantress, Executioner, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Gabe Jones, Galactus, Hawkeye, Hercules, Howard the Duck, Hulk, Human Torch, Iron Man, Ka-Zar, Kang, Loki, Luke Cage, Mad Thinker, Mandarin, Marvel Stone Men, Medusa, Melter, Mercury, Mole Man, Moonboy, Nick Fury, Odin, Princess Zanda, Quicksilver, Rawhide Kid, Red Skull, Rick Jones, Scarlet Witch, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Super Skrull, Taboo, Thing, Thor, TwoGun Kid, Wizard, X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Aquaman, Arna, Atlas, Batman, Cave Carson, Challengers of the Unknown, Congo Bill, Congorilla, DC Stone Men, Demon, Doom Patrol, Flash, Green Arrow, Inferior Five, Jimmy Olsen, Justice League of America, Kamandi, Kingdom Come, Losers, Metal Men, Metallo, Metamorpho, Negative Man, Penguin, Riddler, Rip Hunter, Robin, Sandman, Sea Devils, Secret Six, Shazam/Captain Marvel, Suicide Squad, Superman, Teen Titans, Titano the Super-Ape TM & © DC Comics • Black Magic, Bulls-Eye, Captain 3-D, Fighting American, Link Thorne, Race for the Moon, Speedboy, Stuntman, Three Rocketeers TM & © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estates • The Fly, Private Strong, Silver Spider TM & © Joe Simon Estate • “Angel,” King Masters, Kirbyverse characters, Sky Masters TM & © Jack Kirby Estate • Cave Carson, Comet Pierce TM & © the respective owner • Thundarr the Barbarian, Ariel TM & © Ruby-Spears Productions or successor in interest • Terminator TM & © Skydance Media • Conan TM & © Conan Properties, a division of Cabinet Entertainment • The Avenger/ Justice Inc. TM & © Condé Nast Entertainment or successor in interest

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Co un t

The British tabloid WA GS #64 (March 20 featured “The Count , 1938) of Monte Cristo”, TH E FIRST FULL-PAGE COMIC BOOK STOR Y BY KIRBY. It later ran in JUMBO COMICS #1 (Sept. 193 8), making it the FIR ST KIRBY ART PUBLISHED IN A U.S . COMIC BOOK.

Take Cover!

CHAMPION COMIC S #9 (July 1940) sported KIRBY’S FIRST CO VER ART.

(above) Believe it or don’t, here’s some fascinating facts about the King of Comics!

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The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 29, No. 83, Spring 2022. Published quarterly (supply-chain permitting!) by and © TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $15 postpaid US ($19 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $49 Economy US, $72 International, $19 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

Opening Shot

s there really such thing as an original idea? Sure, somebody had to come up with it first, but how do we really know that for every person heralded for a novel concept, there weren’t a dozen more who had the same idea earlier, but didn’t get the publicity? Take the recent Marvel film Black Widow. In it, the Red Guardian complains that Captain America got all the fame (and the great costume), while he got bupkis. That immediately made me think of...

not so Famous Firsts Believe It or Don’t! WHAT’S IN A N A M

E RIDER strip E “KIRBY” was his LON ST USE OF THE NAM l RED RAVEN #1 unti t prin in ear Jacob Kurtzberg’s FIR app ’t KIRBY.” “Jack Kirby” didn (1939), signed “LANCE met Pierce” strip. (Aug. 1940) on the “Co lar Legion”, KIRBY” on the art for “So CK y 1940) had “JA e in June 1942.) nam his d CRASH COMICS #1 (Ma nge cha lly lega re publication. (Jack ART but it was removed befo FIRST SUPER-HERO strip (1940) was JACK’S TLE BEE E The BLU ). olas Nich rles Cha (ghosting for

A GUY NAMED

JOE

of comic art was the cover ON’S first PUBLISHED “The Fiery Mask” in Future Partner JOE SIM with g tiein 0, 194 n. S #2 (Ja SILVER STREAK COMIC WN FOR COMICS was #1). His FIRST ART DRA Daring Mystery Comics (Mar. 1940). #10 N MA NG “Ranch Dude” in AMAZI

NINGS SIMON & KIRBY’S BEGIN RATION was

BY COLLABO The FIRST SIMON & KIR work on #1. 1940), after Joe’s solo BLUE BOLT #2 (Ju ly #72 (1942) S MIC CO URE ENT “Sandman” in ADV r WORK, and #73 had thei was the FIRST S&K DC . DIT CRE VER CO R FIRST EVE

SH H CO-STARS & STRIPEr. 1941) was Ma

TAIN AMERICA (#1, S&K’s breakout hit CAP IN COMICS RIOTIC SUPER-HERO PAT H URT FO the actually t three were firs the 2— #4 ture Com ics ics #1, (tie ing with “US A” in Fea Com l iona Nat in ” “Uncle Sam “The Shield” in Pep #1, ster Com ics #11). and “Minute Man” in Ma COMICS WORK ’S FIRST PUBLISHED CAP #3 was STAN LEE S SCRIPT MIC CO ST FIR HIS (a text page) and #5 was ter” feature). (for the “Headline Hun .

SINTGERS MON JUMP OUT AT YOU

S COMICS #1 ics were in ALL WINNER y in The first zombies in com lf was in the “Vision” stor ewo wer t firs the and has (Su mmer 1941), 1941, a story that also n. (Ja #15 S MIC CO above). MARVEL MYSTERY figu re in motion, shown a by der bor el pan a the first violation of

...“Super Khakalovitch” from Simon & Kirby’s Fighting American #6 (February 1955), a Russian super-hero (with terrible body odor) who was jealous of Fighting A’s fabulous suit (which, as one of the nicest super-hero costumes ever designed, was certainly worthy of envy). Did the writers of that film lift that sequence from Jack’s past work? Or did they simply hit on a similar idea themselves? In the 1970s at DC Comics, Kirby even reused several of his own 1957 ideas from Alarming Tales #1 at Harvey Comics. But does evolving The Project from “The Cadmus Seed”, Metron from “Donnegan’s Daffy Chair,” and Kamandi from “The Last Enemy” constitute new

ideas, or just rehashes of old ones? We even think of Captain America as the first patriotic super-hero, but he ain’t even close—that’s largely because of his overwhelming popularity, compared to a few that came before him and have now languished in the history books. Thus, theming this issue “Famous Firsts” is a bit of a misnomer, because for the many great innovations Jack Kirby brought to comics (and modern pop culture, as it’s turned out), there may well have been an unsung entity somewhere who had the idea first. 2

by editor John Morrow

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! We’ve just signed an agreement to produce a Best of Mainline Comics collection, that we’re actively working on now. It’s being lovingly restored by Chris Fama, and of a quality level comparable to the beautiful Simon & Kirby Library collections that Titan produced in the past decade. This new collection will also have an in-depth examination of what occurred historically during that 1954-1956 time period—look for it soon! (And if you have a copy of In Love #3 we can scan, please contact us!)

Kirby has so many accolades to his credit, that we don’t need to invent new ones. So this issue, I’m taking that idea of being “first” and expanding it along the lines of also being “best.” With apologies to cartoonist Robert Ripley, I’m interspersing a bunch of “Believe It or Don’t” strips throughout this issue, in an attempt to bring to light some of the truths and fallacies about Kirby’s legacy. I hope you’ll find them enlightening, and educational. The data presented on them (and much of the research in every issue of TJKC) wouldn’t be possible without the tireless work of Richard Kolkman, who’s been overseeing the Jack Kirby Checklist in all it renditions since the 1990s (working from Ray Wyman’s valuable listing in his Art of Jack Kirby book as a starting point). Richard also compiled a great article on Fourth World influences, which I pilfered (with his permission) for factoids to include in TJKC #80s “Old Gods & New” book, and I’ll be presenting his full article in a future issue. I consider the Fourth World one of Jack’s great “firsts” and deserving of coverage, but space limitations prohibited it from being included here. Prior to that groundbreaking series, Kirby was deeply entrenched in “cosmic” concepts at Marvel Comics in the 1960s, and even earlier. That work likewise was a first for the medium, and Will Murray shows how Jack developed the genre. He also provides a follow-up to his previous article on how influential the Challengers of the Unknown were to kick-starting the budding Silver Age of Comics. This issue, he presents even more conclusive evidence that Kirby’s work may’ve been what started that renaissance of the late 1950s. Add to that Mark Evanier’s 2020 online Kirby Tribute Panel (with Alex Ross as guest, and me as his interviewing sidekick, for lack of a better description), and it got me to thinking an awful lot about Kirby’s 1955-1960 period, about which relatively little has been documented. That led me to my own research work this issue, which will hopefully spark some other historians to dig a little deeper into that less popular era, and crystallize the history that is critical to understanding just how the Marvel Age was formed. That work isn’t as “famous” as what came immediately after it, but we must first understand it, to truly appreciate what it led to. H 3

(above) Fighting American, from Jack’s 1970s Valentine’s Day sketchbook for wife Roz.

Mark Evanier

JACK F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby EVANIER: And there is no one else in the history of comics that you could do 79 issues about without even scratching the surface of all there is to say about the guy. It’s an amazing testimony to how fascinated we all are about Jack, and how much creativity there was there to write about.

The Annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel

from Comic-Con@Home 2020 Posted online on July 24, 2020

(below) The issue that started the Marvel Universe, Fantastic Four #1. Shown on these pages is Alex Ross’ interpretation of that cover, in both pencil (from a 2018 variant cover) and paint (from the 1994 poster of it).

Featuring Alex Ross and John Morrow, and conducted by Mark Evanier Transcribed by Steven Thompson Copy-edited by John Morrow and Mark Evanier [Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Comic-Con International couldn’t take place as an in-person event in 2020, so panels such as this one were featured online at the virtual Comic-Con@Home event. You can view the panel at this link: https://youtu.be/qI0z4tUHe_s]

MARK EVANIER: [above] Good afternoon or whatever time it is where you are. I’m Mark Evanier and this is the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel. Since Jack passed away in February of 1994, I have demanded of every comic convention I’ve attended that I get to do a Jack Kirby tribute panel. This is because, first of all, I was fortunate enough to know Jack and work with him and I feel an obligation to share some of what I observed with the world. And secondly, it’s because when I go to a convention, everybody asks me questions about Jack and I answer some of the same questions over and over. It’s easier and a lot of fun to get everybody who loves Jack’s work together in a big room at some point in the convention, and discuss him. So, we do that every year in San Diego. We can’t do it at San Diego this year so we’re doing it online. So welcome. If you’re interested in Jack Kirby, this is the place you should be. I am joined this year by John Morrow, who is the publisher/editor, person behind The Jack Kirby Collector. It started out as a little newsletter about his favorite artist and now… how many issues is it, John?

We are also joined by Mr. Alex Ross. There’s nothing that Jack liked better than to see new talent emerge in the comic book field, particularly people who brought something new to the game. He was not that impressed by people who showed him imitation Jack Kirby artwork—and he saw a lot of it in his life. He was impressed by someone who came in with a new art style, a new approach, something that had not been seen in

JOHN MORROW: [right] Working on finalizing issue #79 right now. 4

comics before, but who was able to capture the same dynamism that he looked for in his work, the same humanity where humanity was appropriate, the same excitement where excitement was appropriate. And he saw Alex’s early work and loved it! I wish he could’ve seen what you’ve done in the last few years. Did I just say something wrong, Alex? ALEX ROSS: [right] Well, is that…? I wasn’t sure if your memory was accurate. We’ve talked about this before. He did actually see my work? EVANIER: Yes, he saw your work. He saw a replica you did of the cover of Fantastic Four #1. What year did you do that in? ROSS: [laughs] I thought I did it after he died!

high-profile project before his passing in February 1994. Ross’ Fantastic Four #1 poster was released in 1994.]

EVANIER: Well, he saw something of yours. I remember talking about it with him. [Editor’s Note: The publication date of the Marvels miniseries was January–April 1994, so Jack easily could’ve seen that

ROSS: Okay. I know that he died in ’94 and I can’t remember. I thought I did that piece in ’94 after I’d done all the Marvels issues, but my memory might be flawed. EVANIER: I think it is because I remember Jack at the previous San Diego Convention, which would have been in July of ’93… we were in the old Convention Center back then. This may have been the last time we were in the old Convention Center. I remember somebody had a print of that cover and I remember someone showing it to him and I was interested in his reaction to it. And now, having given you a compliment, I’m gonna take a little bit away by saying Jack loved almost every artwork he saw. He was very encouraging to everybody. And he liked creativity. The only two things you could do with your artwork that would have gotten a negative reaction out of him is if it looked like you were just copying somebody else, slavishly, or if you were lazy, if you hadn’t put much effort into it. Those were the two things that got a negative out of Jack. Everything else he praised, including some stuff that I thought was pretty awful, frankly. But he was so giving to new talent. There was no one who didn’t get his attention if they came up and said, “Mr. Kirby, I’d like you to look at my work.” There are some people who I think exploited that a lot, but he was very supportive of new people, in a way that not everybody in the industry was, because some of these guys felt like dinosaurs when the next species was arriving. They felt they were supposed to move aside for them, or be shoved aside, for the new kids coming in. He talked in a very unusual way, with his mind always racing. I tell people the average mind goes from A to B to C to D. Jack would start with A, then do R, then do W, then go back and pick up J, and at some point, he’d have you “on beyond zebra,” as in the Dr. Seuss book—all new letters. He jumped around a lot, and I think a lot of people didn’t always understand him. There were times when Jack said things to me and I would go, “Yeah, Jack! That’s great!” and I would have no idea what he was talking about. Then, a week later, a month later, even a decade later, I’d suddenly go, “Oh! I get it now!” He was taking part of this conversation and part of that conversation and jumping from place to place. And I have this overview of Jack’s work that a lot of his 5

(right) Kingdom Come #2 (1996) wraparound cover painting by Alex. Can you spot Kirby’s 1970s Sandman? (below) Sandman #1 pencils. This gorgeous ornate costume drew the editor’s attention, much the way Fighting American’s did at first glance—is Joe Simon the common link in both those designs? (next page) Classic Simon & Kirby unused Stuntman #3 page.

creativity was a case of putting two things together which no one else would think of combining. He would take this visual image, and this visual image, and merge them, and it didn’t resemble either, but there was an association there that he could see, the same way a lot of authors will read a mystery novel and a western novel and then they’ll write a romance novel. They’ll suddenly take a few words and concepts from the one and a few concepts from that, and all of a sudden, they have something that’s really a brand-new creation, even though the foundation of it was based on something pre-existing. Now, Alex, you have to answer the question for me. What was the first Kirby work that you were very conscious of that excited you? ROSS: I would always say—and I said it in John’s book [Kirby100] that he made a few years ago where we all recounted our first interactions with Jack’s work—the Sandman series that DC made in the early ’70s, I adored! And when I first saw it, it wasn’t even his work. It was Ernie Chan’s work, when he was filling in for Jack. So, I loved the character design, and then I got the issue that Jack… well, actually he drew most of the issues, obviously, but I got an issue that Jack actually drew and it was at that perfect kind of ’70s stage of his work being an abstraction of the human form of life in a way that was becoming much more of a kind of pop art artifact. And I adored it! It connected with me as a young kid. I’m sure I imitated it in a number of cases, but I particularly loved his design, and just [his] graphic sense. I was a Kirby fan from the first time I encountered him. EVANIER: That’s interesting, because Jack hated drawing that comic. And yet, enough Kirby came through anyway to excite you. I mean… that’s amazing. ROSS: It’s a beautiful character design. I mean, that’s a gorgeous costume. And as an adult, I tried to link back this thing I loved from ’75 I think, when it came out, when I was five years old… I was trying to link that with the history of the Sandman historical DC character by putting that same costume into Kingdom Come and saying, “Oh, by the way, the Sandman of the future is Kirby’s Sandman.” So, I was trying to always sort of draw it back in. I wanted it to be part of the DC mainstream in some way that it never got to be. 6

upon… you mentioned Captain America and you mentioned before about his wanting to respond to the times he lived in. When he first worked on Tales of Suspense, with the stories for Cap, right after he did… maybe it was before the revisitation to World War II stories with Bucky, but when he first got on that book, didn’t he automatically take Captain America right away into Vietnam? [Editor’s note: It was in Tales of Suspense #61.] EVANIER: Pretty close, yeah. I think there were lots of discussions whether Captain America should be set in the present day or in the past. During the time Jack was working for Marvel in the late ’70s, I was talking to Mark Gruenwald back then I think it was, and he was saying, “We’re having a problem. Jack’s stuff doesn’t tie in with the present-day Marvel Universe. Is there any way we can get him to tie his stuff in with all the other books?” I said, “No,” and I said, “Listen. Let me give you an idea. Throw this around the office. Why don’t you guys have Jack do a Captain America book set in the ’40s? Because he’d love it! He loved that era and he certainly has enough World War II stories to fill the book forever. And his dialogue wouldn’t bother you as much if the story was set in 1941. That might be a solution.” And nobody liked that idea because they really wanted Jack drawing stuff that they could dialogue. ROSS: Even in the time that he was not supposed to go into a certain subject matter, he actually wanted to approach the crux of our times, the new war we were entering in the 1960s, and he directed to go right there immediately with the character that would seem the most appropriate to do it. And if I remember correctly, he has Captain America go right in to deal with the Viet Cong, and then right in with their lead henchman and take him down in a fight, and he sort of wrote off Captain America solving Vietnam all in one issue.

(above) Courtesy of Heritage Auctions, here are a couple of sketches Kirby did at Comic-Con over the years.

EVANIER: Yeah, well, he also did it in Thor. There was also a Thor sequence set in Vietnam. But there were arguments at Marvel about that. It’s funny. Stan Lee was kind of in the middle. I may have said it, or somebody else may have said it and I quoted it, but at one point Stan’s problem was he was too conservative to work with Kirby and too liberal to work with Ditko. And Stan himself was kinda all over... according to other people, Stan was kind of all over the map, politically, trying to decide where he came down in the Vietnam War thing and who he felt should be President and such. It was like a tug of war going on at some point. Stan and Jack had a lot of fights on the early Sgt. Furys, based on the fact that they had very different views of how World War II should be depicted. Jack was very passionate about certain elements of it. Jack had seen combat. Stan was doing VD pamphlets during that time and such. Not to knock it or anything—he just wasn’t as emotionally invested in that war as Jack was. I don’t think anybody was. But Jack got off the Sgt. Fury book largely because the two of them were fighting too much about the way to depict the Jewish character, and the way to depict war at that time. These comics are a product of their time and they’re products of what the individual writers and artists were going through at that moment frequently, and some of it dates very well and some of it doesn’t. I am delighted with how well some of Jack’s stuff stands up today, whereas a lot of comics that were thought of as very relevant to their time in the ’70s, no one’s buying, no one’s reprinting. There’s no real call for them. There’s something very timeless about what Jack did, which pleases me greatly. You can see shelves behind me, the blue book there is the Kirby Omnibus. I just love that this is now in hardcovers. It’s being bought by a new audience. I kind of like, in a perverse way, the fact that it’s expensive and that people are still shelling out money for it. It’s just wonderful work that stands out. And we are running out of time, believe it or not, gentlemen, and we’ve barely scratched the surface here. ROSS: We’re not going to talk about the Shazam story you revealed to me? EVANIER: Well, okay. If you want to, we’ll go a little over and see if the Convention doesn’t object, okay? ROSS: Okay, I’ll just set it up really fast that I had approached you about whether or not the character of Captain Marvel—the original one—had been something that Jack had an involvement with, with Marvel, and then you said, 18

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.

The protagonist tells us he’s showing off to his girlfriend about his knowledge of art in an art gallery. In fact, he’s doing nothing of the sort: there is no criticism of painterly technique here, just the unpleasant hero trashing the stories that are illustrated in the paintings—and ill-advisedly dissing a portrait of the half-man/half-goat god, Pan. His mistake is not to notice that the museum guard defending Pan’s reputation is actually the god himself, as revealed in the final panel (but more on that later). In fact, despite the story’s brevity, it gives Kirby a chance to explore his abiding interest in mythology, with various demonstrations of Pan’s exploits, such as creating a magic horn that dispatches an invading group of Titans, or later turning the weapons of the Persian army to flowers. For his disrespect,

KUTTING KIRBY

Over my years of writing this column for John Morrow, I’ve often had to use the phrase “spoiler alert”—after all, it’s impossible to discuss panels in particular stories without actually talking about what is in the panels (i.e. Jack Kirby artwork). But my warning has rarely been more appropriate than it is in a discussion of “I Laughed at the Great God, Pan!” from Tales to Astonish #6 (Atlas/Marvel, November 1959). The story is really just a clever wisp of a fantasy idea, wrapped up in a brief four pages, but it’s a good example of the kind of imaginative tale that Kirby and Stan Lee were doing before gigantic monsters virtually took over all their late-fifties books (in fact, the cover of Tales to Astonish #6 demonstrates what is to come with marauding Kirby monsters in “I Saw the Invasion of the Stone Men” illustrating a Steve Ditko story in the issue).

[Editor’s Note: We interrupt this program to bring you an example of yet another re-use of Kirby’s “Stone Men” at Marvel, after first using them at DC Comics in House of Mystery #85. Though Ditko drew the interior story at right, Jack’s cover comes immediately after his own “Easter Island Statue” story in the previous issue of Astonish. Now, back to Barry...]

the bragging protagonist receives a very mild punishment—his mustache (which, we are told, is his pride and joy) disappears—and his hair won’t grow beyond a brief crewcut. Had the story been written in earlier decades, the punishment would undoubtedly have been fatal, but this was, after all, the era of the Comics Code, and such lethal solutions were no longer in the cards. You may have noticed that I called this section “Kutting Kirby,” and there’s a reason for this. British readers such as myself first encountered the story in one of its several reprints in British black-and-white 68-page magazines under various titles. We had no complaints—after all, Kirby’s clean and economical lines, particularly when rendered in Christopher Rule’s perfectly judged inking, worked beautifully in monochrome. What didn’t work, however, was the fact that the US art plates sent to Britain were often reproduced with a little of the artwork shaved off the bottom—absolutely ruinous in the case of “I Laughed at the Great God, Pan!”. The final panel shows the museum guard walking away, with his feet being revealed as Pan’s cloven hooves. (Incidentally, why did nobody in the art

Essentially, the piece focuses on one of Lee’s boastful heroes, about to be taken down a peg or two (something that happens very often in the moralistic stories of this era). 22

Re-Views (next page, top) Original art from Challengers of the Unknown #7, inked by Wallace Wood. (below) The Flash didn’t get his own magazine until the Challs solo mag was up to issue #6.

Challenger of the Silver

n Jack Kirby Collector #78, I made the bold assertion that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s “Challengers of the Unknown,” an unpublished feature that had been orphaned with the 1956 demise of Mainline comics, kickstarted the Silver Age of Comics by demonstrating that a team of adventure heroes could sell. Many before me noticed the obvious: that Kirby’s Fantastic Four was a super-powered version of his Challengers of the Unknown and not simply Marvel’s response to the sales success of the Justice League of America. Both groups took on the challenges of the Space Age— space travel, aliens, monsters, time travel, and advanced technology in the wrong hands––in book-length stories. Their parallel crash-landing origins and similar jumpsuit outfits make this undeniable. However, few picked up on the undeniable fact that the Challengers triggered a significant trend at DC/ National Comics, one that for some reason rival publishers failed to capitalize on. Case in point: I was given advance photocopies of Mark Evanier’s 2008 book, Jack Kirby: King of Comics, before interviewing him on the project. When I came to the section on Challengers of the

Unknown, I was surprised that Mark had placed little importance on the book. When I pointed out to him all the COTU imitators produced at DC in the wake of the title’s debut, Mark quickly saw my point. He was able to make a modest textual change to reflect his new understanding. The sales success of the 1957 Challengers’ Showcase tryout issues [#6, 7, 11, and 12] caused it to leapfrog ahead of The Flash, who had also been sales-tested in the pages of Showcase, so that the Challengers got their own title long before this new incarnation of the Scarlet Speedster was so honored. This takes nothing away from The Flash, or from editor Julie Schwartz, who spearheaded DC’s first successful super-hero revival of the post-Golden Age era. The debut Challengers story came two issues after Showcase #4. But four issues passed before The Flash’s second Showcase tryout. Challengers was the first experiment to appear in two consecutive issues of that title, which quickly began the norm for new features. Later, three consecutive issues became common, and whenever early sales reports were exceptional, a fourth appearance was scheduled––a certain sign that a feature was poised to migrate into a title of its own. But as I pointed out in my TJKC article, “How Simon and Kirby Kickstarted the Silver Age,” The Flash and Green Lantern were relative latecomers in the 1950s DC sales sweepstakes. By the time The Flash got its own title, Challengers of the Unknown was already up to issue #6, and that was after four Flash Showcase tryouts. FOLLOW THE NUMBERS Circulation always dictates a publisher’s decisions in the world of comic book magazines, as it does with any periodical house. Challengers was a breakout concept during a serious sales slump in the comics field, and led to DC duplicating that success with other action teams in their two tryout books, DC having shrugged off the Silent Knight/Viking Prince focus of The Brave and the Bold in 1959 after 24 issues in order to make it a sister to Showcase.

Age

by Will Murray

“Rip Hunter, Time Master” was the first test. It worked. After that came the original Suicide Squad in the first non-historical-hero issue of The Brave and the Bold. “It was done as a fill-in because things were so bad that they had to try three books of a title to see what would catch on,” Suicide Squad inker Mike Esposito told me. “So they’d do three months and that would be it. They put it out with The Brave and the Bold or Showcase under another banner before they’d give it its own title. I remember the one with the dinosaurs––the big monster that attacked Coney Island. We had a lot of fun with it.” Then came “Sea Devils,” followed by “Cave Carson, Adventures Inside the Earth.” No doubt Sea Devils was partially inspired by the high TV ratings of the syndicated Sea Hunt TV show, then in its second season. But in every case, DC was simply re-formulating the Challengers four-man team concept, but with different characters, backgrounds and franchises: Time travelers, skin divers, spelunkers—and a quasi-military scientific quartet of troubleshooters in the Suicide Squad. GOODMAN MISSES BADLY How Martin Goodman failed to pick up on this trend is beyond me. Maybe it was because each of these groups had such different backgrounds. The normally canny copycat publisher failed to realize that a trend had developed. The oft-told tale that during a golf game with DC’s Jack Liebowitz, Goodman learned of their huge circulation success with the Justice League of America comic book, has been fairly well debunked. But for years, it was believed that the Fantastic Four was a direct response to JLA’s soaring sales. A much more likely explanation is that when Jack Kirby pitched the Fantastic Four to Stan Lee, he revealed something that Lee may not have known: that Challengers of the Unknown was a breakout hit, and DC was busy reformulating it any way they could.

It was probably from Kirby, not Lee, that Goodman learned that the Challengers represented a major comic book trend––the adventure team pitted against super-scientific threats.

Kirby made no bones about the Challengers being a precursor to the Fantastic Four. In my previous article, I quoted some of his comments confirming his thinking. Here is another: “They were a team, and Americans think in terms of teams––baseball teams, football teams, hockey teams––and all that is reflected in comics,” Kirby explained. “In comics we have action teams. Now, an action team has a lot more leeway than, say, a hockey team. A hockey team can only play one game; an action team can play any kind of game, with any kind of villain. We have a broader field in which to tell a story and it gives enough room to tell very, very interesting stories...”

Contrary to prior interpretations, the Silver Age was not triggered by The Flash and the other super-hero revivals which followed, but by the Challengers of the Unknown pointing out that action-adventure heroes in general, and not only super-heroes, were in demand by young Baby Boomer readers.

...and book-length stories, which was another Kirby innovation. He had to convince the DC editors, who preferred three shorter stories in each issue.

Beerbohm wrote: “When I was interviewing Irwin Donenfeld, DC publisher 1953– 1968, over the course of 1997–2000, totaling some 18 audio-taped hours, one of the many topics we covered and talked extensively about was his idea of a new tryout comic book dubbed Showcase––and its impacts regarding Flash, Challengers of the Unknown, etc., covering most all the early issues—as well as when Irwin converted Brave and Bold into a similar vehicle. Being groomed by his father Harry Donenfeld to become DC publisher, Irwin was the one––only one––who green-lighted Challs almost right from the git-go.”

GOING HEAD TO HEAD In a legal deposition, Kirby’s son, Neal, recalled: “In discussions with my father, the Fantastic Four basically was a derivative of––from what he told me, basically he came up with the idea just as a derivative from the Challengers of the Unknown that he had done several years earlier.” Jack Kirby was a competitive guy. That he would do this in response to being booted off a book he had co-created and probably well paid for, makes perfect sense. Just as he later left Thor to produce the New Gods, it was Kirby’s instinct to create something that would go head-to-head with his old characters—head-to-head, but one-upping the Challengers by making their successors super-heroes. In my recent article, I was careful to not go overboard. I pointed out the Metal Men might conceivably have been part of this trend, but according to Robert Kanigher, who created them, it was a spur of the moment concept created to fill an unexpected hole in Showcase’s schedule. Kanigher had scripted the “Suicide Squad,” so he probably knew that DC’s action teams were a major trend. However, it turns out that I was being too conservative to limit COTA’s pervasive influence at DC. For the Metal Men project to move forward, someone in authority had to approve it. That person was DC publisher Irwin Donenfeld, who is the key to understanding how the unfolding fates of DC and Marvel Comics were entwined during the 1950s and early 1960s. Donenfeld became National’s de facto editorial director when Whitney Ellsworth, the prior one, transferred to California to verse the new Superman TV show. Posting on Facebook on December 1, 2021, comics historian Robert Beerbohm revealed that Irwin Donenfeld personally told him during numerous taped interviews that the Challengers of the Unknown were central to several critical decisions he made as publisher, which dictated the domino effect leading to what we now call the Silver Age of Comics.

Bob pointed out that Donenfeld had the last word on what DC published and which concepts did not go forward. This included the many experimental Showcase and Brave and the Bold strips. It was Donenfeld who green-lit the revival of the Flash, in spite of editorial reluctance to go in that direction—and who, a decade later, moved Julie Schwartz off his titles to save the faltering Batman line of titles. “From Irwin’s perspective he said to me, it was Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown which showed the way via hard sales for super-heroic revivals to be possible,” Beerbohm revealed. “Jack Kirby had asked Joe Simon if it was okay to use their S&K Studio idea of Challengers of the Unknown. Joe said yes, and what follows next, is history. The real-life published facts ‘on the ground’ bear witness that Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown had some six solo issues before Flash #105 hit the stands in 1959.” Although DC was quick to create spin-offs of the Challengers, Donenfeld was more cautious when it came to the parade of revived and revitalized super-heroes. But when he felt more confident that the public was ready, he plunged ahead, knowing that the risks of a Showcase tryout were much less than launching a solo book, which might sink after three or four issues. In his post, Bob dropped a bombshell:

Foundations

Here’s still more of Simon & Kirby’s Link Thorne work, this time from Airboy Comics V4, #8 (Sept. 1947), with art reconstruction and coloring by Chris Fama. This story wasn’t included in Titan’s S&K reprint volumes. We’ll continue with another installment of the complete Link Thorne stories next issue.

Pugilistical

Don’t Get Mad, Get Even The impact of Kirby’s feud with DC Comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, by John Morrow

(right) Cap and Bucky are, as the title stated, back from the dead in Young Men #24 (Dec. 1953), as drawn by John Romita. (below) Mid-1980s drawing of Fighting American and Speedboy, alongside the duo’s debut in Fighting American #1 (May 1954).

“Yeah, I think anger will save your life. I think anger will give you a drive that will save your life and change it in some manner.” Jack Kirby, from The Spirit magazine #39 (1982)

hen Joe Simon and Jack Kirby saw Marvel (née Timely/Atlas) Comics’ Young Men #24 on newsstands in late 1953, they were livid. It resurrected Captain America, their most popular creation (which publisher Martin Goodman had cheated them out of profits on in the 1940s). So what did they do? They channeled their fury into creating their own new patriotic hero in Fighting American #1, which was drawn right after that rebirth of Cap hit the stands. The idea was to make a better version of the patriotic hero, and use it to hit Goodman where it hurt the most: In the marketplace. I guess you could argue that they got their revenge, since Young Men was cancelled with issue #28 (June 1954), and Timely’s relaunch of Captain America only made it three issues (#76–78, May–September 1954). Fighting American outlasted them both (#7, April 1955, was the final issue). But their gambit was inevitably futile, since by that point, all comics sales were heading South. Parents’ groups and the media were beginning to push back on the most lurid titles being produced, and it was spilling over to S&K’s relatively clean-cut work. Even EC’s successful humor comic Mad (no doubt the impetus for Fighting American switching from serious super-heroics to satire after only one issue) eventually had to move from comicto magazine-format to survive. Kirby’s anger and frustration swelled throughout that decade, following the April 19, 1954 release of Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent (and the subsequent April–June 1954 Senate hearings about comics being the cause of juvenile delinquency), the resulting 1956 demise of his and Joe Simon’s Mainline Comics company—and then, after hustling to get enough work to survive that tumultuous time, he lost a legal dispute with DC Comics editor Jack Schiff [above] over the Sky Masters newspaper strip (which led to his blacklisting at DC at the end of 1958). Regular readers of TJKC know many of the details of these events, but imagine going through all of that in a relatively short span of time—it’s safe to say Kirby was on the ropes at the start of 1959. The comics market was in decline and looked down upon, and Jack was forced to return with his tail between his legs to Marvel Comics and Martin Goodman, just to stay solvent. After reading Will Murray’s and Mark Evanier’s observations of that era in this issue, I felt it was time to examine the sparring that went on between Jack and DC in

that frustrating and historically nebulous period between Mainline Comics ending in 1956, and Jack spearheading the early 1960s Marvel Comics revolution which so defines the Silver Age of comic books. First of all, let me state at the outset (in case it wasn’t obvious): What I’m about to present here involves a fair amount of speculation—but is based on a very thoroughly researched timeline, so I think it’s a credible scenario. This is the kind of exploration that couldn’t be conducted without years of others’ accounts, and history slowly revealing itself. Much like how a conversation with Jack in person sometimes wouldn’t make total sense until much later, this historical analysis pulls together bits and pieces that only come from decades of studying Jack and hearing the remembrances of others (and of the credits offered by the experts at the Grand Comics Database [www.comics.org]). As a rule of thumb, I’m working from a timeline of stories being drawn two months prior (and DC plots formulated three months prior) to the actual publication date, not the cover date. It’s not a perfect system, but close enough for this exercise, I feel. So, how did Kirby’s brawl with DC evolve during the early Silver Age of comics? DOES BERNSTEIN BEAR SCRUTINY? We need to start with a documented account: that writer Robert Bernstein [left] did indeed at times take the train into New York City with Jack while they both worked for DC, and pick his brain for ideas. That prompts the question: Where might those Kirby ideas have appeared? One big pitfall of this speculative approach is that, you could probably sum up anyone else’s comic’s plot in one sentence, and imagine Kirby making a spectacular story from it—he could “plus” just about any basic story idea. Conversely, another writer could easily water down a great Kirby idea into something mundane. So we have to dig deeper to find work with his influence on it. Jack seemed to be physically incapable of not creating something all the time. Even when he wasn’t actively working on a paid project, his mind was racing with ideas, and he was finding any avenue to express them he could, as evidenced by his 1950s TV teleplay ideas, newspaper strip proposals, collages, etc. He literally couldn’t contain his creative energy. A telltale sign of Kirby’s involvement in a comics story is that very act of “creation”—inventing something new that wasn’t there previously. So a major supporting character, a new villain, an origin story—these are what I’d look for to determine if Jack might’ve injected some creative juice into another writer’s work. Kirby had landed on his feet at DC after Mainline collapsed, was already working on Challengers of the Unknown when Robert Bernstein came to prominence at DC, and Jack would soon revamp the “Green Arrow” strip in editor Mort Weisinger’s Adventure Comics, starting with issue #250’s “The Green Arrows Of The World” [below, drawn March 1958]. Weisinger [right] had a reputation for his bad temper and being difficult to get along with, so creators would undoubtedly commiserate about having to work for him. Kirby, having dealt with Mort, would be understandably prone to help out a fellow worker who was in the same boat. Bernstein was retained as the existing Blackhawk writer when Quality Comics’ line was absorbed by DC in 1956, and had worked on DC’s war comics before migrating to Weisinger’s Superman family line, starting with Action Comics #234 [plotted around June 1957]. That first job was a tale entitled “The Robot Animals” in the Congo Bill strip [left].

1956–1958

THE PATH TO DC’S DESTRUCTION

Let’s follow Jack’s tracks at DC in the 1950s, and what led up to his dispute with DC editor Jack Schiff, and his eventual return to Marvel Comics: • November 1956: “Challengers of the Unknown” debuts in Showcase #6, based on an unused Simon & Kirby Mainline idea (the story was drawn Sept. 1956, assuming Jack hadn’t already drawn the first story while Mainline was still in business). • April 1957: Kirby draws Thor and Loki as characters in Tales of the Unexpected #16. • Dec. 1957: Kirby draws Challengers of the Unknown #1, based on the success of the Challengers Showcase tryout issues. • January 1958: Talks begin for the Sky Masters of the Space Force newspaper strip. • April 1958: Kirby has Rocky exposed to cosmic rays in space, endowing him with temporary super-powers (including growing to giant-size, as well as manifesting flame powers and invisibility) as he draws Challengers of the Unknown #3 this month. • April 15, 1958: Kirby signs Schiff’s percentage contract for his involvement in negotiating the Sky Masters syndicate deal. • June 8, 1958: Timely/Atlas artist Joe Maneely dies, leaving Stan Lee without his go-to illustrator. Kirby receives his first Marvel assignments for Strange Worlds #1 and World of Fantasy #15 this month, taking up Maneely’s slack. • July 1958: Jack Schiff requests a higher percentage on Sky Masters, to which Kirby balks. • Sept. 1958: Kirby loses his Adventure Comics “Green Arrow” job after drawing #256 this month (because of the close association between editors Schiff and Mort Weisinger). As the tensions over the Sky Masters arrangement mount, Robert Bernstein’s revamp of “Congo Bill” into “Congorilla” would’ve formulated this month. • September 8, 1958: Sky Masters of the Space Force debuts in newspapers. Also in September, Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island by Thor Heyerdahl is released, detailing the discovery of stone statues on Easter Island. • Oct. 1958: Kirby draws the “Negative Man” this month in House of Mystery #84 (edited by Jack Schiff). He also draws his final “Green Arrow” strip for World’s Finest #99 (Schiff was also the Managing Editor of that magazine). • Nov. 1958: Kirby draws “Stone Men” for Schiff’s House of Mystery #85, influenced by Aku-Aku. • Dec. 1958: If Kirby gave Bernstein the plot idea for Superman villain Metallo in Action Comics #252, it would’ve been here. • Dec. 11, 1958: Jack Schiff sues Kirby, and Kirby counter-sues Schiff, effectively ending his career at DC. He draws his last issue of Challengers of the Unknown (#8, with the story “The Prisoners Of Robot Planet”), and then is blacklisted at the company... ...and as Will Murray documented earlier this issue, in his anger, Jack sets out to “destroy DC.”

(below) Did Kirby feed Bernstein the idea for Congo Bill’s transformation into Congorilla (below from Action Comics #248), basing it on the magic ring from Mainline’s unpublished Silver Spider origin by Jack Oleck and C.C. Beck (right)?

Bernstein, being brought on for only this single story of Congo Bill (a stereotypical pith helmet-wearing character who fought crime in the jungle with his boy sidekick Janu), has the hero battle another hunter who challenges him with robot animals he’s created. That plot’s quite a departure from previous Congo Bill stories, adding a scientific element to jungle adventures. While it could simply be an inventive new writer taking over a moribund character, it does have the ring of a Kirby idea—interjecting something foreign into an established premise, and coming up with a novel idea. Speaking of something having a Kirby ring to it: take “The Amazing Congorilla!” from Action Comics #248 [plotted in August 1958]. Apparently the boring “Congo Bill” strip needed another shot in the arm, so Weisinger brought Bernstein back on board a year later. The result was a major revamp, wherein Congo Bill is gifted a magic ring by an African tribesman, and rubbing it causes Bill’s mind to be swapped with that of the tribe’s legendary Golden Gorilla, Congorilla. At this point, Kirby had already brought one unused Mainline concept to DC (Challengers of the Unknown), and he had other leftovers from the S&K breakup. Which previous concept also used a magic ring? The 1953 Silver Spider project by C.C. Beck and Jack Oleck [above], which Jack would put to good use himself later. Could

he have suggested a new take on Silver Spider’s magic ring idea to Bernstein, as a way to revamp Congo Bill? Either way, Bernstein hit on a unique twist to spice up a dull strip—just like Kirby did for “Green Arrow” during this same period. In fairness, Mort Weisinger himself, with his background as a science-fiction editor, could’ve conceivably come up with this revamp idea, and just assigned it to Bernstein. But if so, it seems like he would’ve kept the great ideas flowing. Instead, Bernstein’s ensuing “Congorilla” stories are lackluster tales with nothing remarkable taking place. It’s odd that after such an auspicious relaunch with Congorilla’s origin, there’s literally no other Bernstein episode worth seeking out. Then there’s Bernstein’s first Aquaman story, “The Copy Cat Creature” in Adventure Comics #244 [devised in August 1957]. The plot? A weird prehistoric beast encased in an iceberg is thawed out of suspended animation, and proceeds to wreak havoc for the King of the Seven Seas. Bernstein’s actual execution of this story (Aquaman names the beast “Myron”) is positively silly, but Jack could’ve taken that same one-line plot idea, assuming it was his, and made a remarkable story from it. (Of course, thawing a character out of an iceberg would be something Kirby became known for a few years later.) After one other (uneventful) Aquaman tale in Adventure Comics #249, Bernstein rebounded with “The Ocean of 1,000,000 B.C.” in #253 [below, plotted May 1958]. This is midway through Kirby’s own stint on his revitalized “Green Arrow” strip in the same issue, hitting a high point with the science-fiction infused “Prisoners of Dimension Zero!” [next page]. Similarly, this Bernstein Aquaman story is another departure from the norm, as the lead character enters an undersea time warp and travels back in time hundreds of centuries to battle dinosaurs and sea serpents. It’s full of nonstop action, with a twist last panel that would fit many Kirby sci-fi stories of this era. Again, there’s no conclusive proof Kirby offered this plot to Bernstein,

Gallery

1st Issue Specials

Commentary on pencil art for some of Kirby’s “first” issues, by Shane Foley

[right] The Demon #1 (Sept. 1972), page 11 A spectacularly plotted and visualized first issue for the Demon saw this stunning design for Morgaine LeFay for this one issue only. As of #2, the design is simplified. Glorious pencil work here. The detail in panel 1 of this page is stunning, yet clarity is never sacrificed, and the reader sees all the characters easily. Notice how the placement of the figures gently forces the eye in an arc from Morgaine around to the serfs below, and then the arc continues directly to the focus of the next panel. [next page] Kamandi #1 (Nov. 1972), page 10 What can we add? Beautiful, complete pencils, with spot-on storytelling and direction. Who would have thought Kirby could produce such stellar work as this, both here and on the Demon, in the midst of the traumatic termination of his Fourth World? Notice how Kirby is so adept at drawing vehicles that look authentic and appear to sit so solidly on the ground.

JACK KIRBY INTENTION t occurred to me at some point that one of the things that made Kirby’s artwork and storytelling so effective was the clear intention of the figures in the panel. Kirby always made sure that his images told the story with powerful visual cues, so it could be read and interpreted even before the addition of dialogue. 1 For instance, if one looks at this page from Rawhide Kid #19 [1960] below, you instantly know from his positioning, that the Kid is in danger and prepar-

ing to defend himself. His posture is tense, but he is centered and balanced. He is a trained gunman and although his back is to his opponent, he is trying to find a way to reposition himself to his advantage. His legs are flexed and set in a wide stance that he can quickly move out of. His hands hang loosely near his guns and his head is cocked slightly over his right shoulder to see his would-be attacker. In contrast, that attacker’s body language indicates that he is a braggart and a bully, shrill and probably a coward. He is off balance and possibly drunk. 1 His arms are lifted as if he is puffing himself up with bluster so that his adrenaline will overcome his fear. Although he seems a threat, you instinctively believe that he could easily lose his nerve. The angle of the Kid’s hat brings the viewer’s eye to the dancers in the upper right quadrant. They all shrink back with the sudden fear of potential violence. On stage, they occupy a realm of their own, but they are not immune. In front of them, two figures move away from the action. The larger figure in the green vest is ready to take off, his head and arms leading his bent legs. If we consider the concept of composition, we can actually suggest that the room itself has intent. The receding hallway behind the Kid is the space/time from which the threat emerges. The Kid is constrained by the boundaries of the room. The space in which the action takes place is an enclosed board upon which the game is played, and the actors within are defined by their place in the composition. We clearly see that the Kid is hemmed in. The edge of a table in front and to his right limits his movement. The curtains hanging at above right crowd him. The edge of the bar and the fallen chair are also barriers. The headline at the top tells us that the Kid must fight or crawl, but we can see that by the images. We are thus pulled into the scene and are anxious to see how it resolves. When considering intent, a figure’s stance is of primary importance, as is its size and positioning within the composition. We need only look at this image of Odin from Journey Into Mystery #123 [1965, next page] to see that he is a figure of supreme authority by his framing in relation to the canvas. Odin is pretty much at dead center of the frame, and we are looking up at his imposing three-quarter front pose. He stares at some distant point in space that only he can see. His stance exudes confidence and 2

Some Heavy...

...face lifting!

Incidental Iconography

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

or this installment, I’ll be looking at the first appearance of a character in the first issue of a title called First Issue Special: Atlas. Despite all the firsts going on here, though, Atlas has a long history in comics. So while I normally focus on just what Jack was doing visually with his characters, I think this particular character and his namesakes warrant a bit of backstory. The original Atlas comes from Greek mythology. He was a Titan who, in retribution/punishment

for his part in the war against the Olympians, was forced by Zeus to hold up the celestial spheres (i.e. the sky) on his shoulders. Centuries later, in 1595, Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator had his book Atlas, Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes De Fabrica Mundi posthumously published; it was a collection of maps not unlike the atlases we know of today. However, it was not named after the Greek Titan, but actually King Atlas of Mauretania, who allegedly made the first celestial globe. This is how the word “atlas” came to be used for collections of maps like this, and many included images of King Atlas on the cover or title page. A century later, however, Dutch merchants had begun using the original Atlas as a sort of patron saint—the Royal Palace in Amsterdam has a statue of him at the roof ’s apex to this day. It was regional map makers here that began including the Greek Atlas in their collections of maps, and a direct association began forming. It was easy, too, to replace the celestial spheres with the Earth to, intentionally or not, confuse the symbolism. This is where Martin Goodman first picked up the name. He began using the name Atlas News Company for his periodical distribution company in 1951 because he wanted to imply that he had a worldwide reach, borrowing the Greek’s celestial-spheres-turned-globe as a logo. While Goodman was forced to shut down Atlas News as a distributor in 1956, the globe logo remained on his comics until he was further forced to use DC’s Independent News beginning in 1957. Meanwhile, comics repeatedly mined classical mythology for their story ideas and Atlas was given the spotlight almost as soon as super-heroes began gaining popularity. He is, of course, directly referenced in Captain Marvel’s origin in Whiz Comics #2 (and indeed, every appearance of the character where the acronym “Shazam” is explained) and Superman begins sharing covers with him as early as Superman #28 circa 1944. (And it’s worth noting that Atlas here, and in most of this era’s comics depictions of him, is carrying the Earth, not the celestial spheres.) Jack himself even drew the legendary Titan into two panels of Journey Into Mystery #124 [next page, top], specifically calling him out by name in his margin notes. With plenty of interpretations of the character both in and out of comics, where does Jack’s First Issue Special version come from visually, and why am I writing about 62

Retrospective (next page, top left) Michael Griffith (aka Jack Kirby) does a bang-up early job in Science Comics #4 (May 1940). (next page, top right) A beautiful Mort Meskin penciled splash page for the never-published Captain 3-D #2 (circa 1954). (next page, bottom) A remarkable Kirby illo for Martin Goodman’s pulp magazine Marvel Stories Volume 2, #2 (Nov. 1940).

’ve been New Kirby stories appeared virtually a fan of every week. It was astounding. Jack Kirby Back then, he was simply J. for almost 60 Kirby, for that was all the signature years, ever since Stan Lee allowed him. Soon, Kirby I started reading comic books had a first name and he started at the tail end of 1961. My timtransitioning from monsters and ing was pretty good. I came in aliens to super-heroes. I brought just as the great Kirby Explosion Fantastic Four #4, then Incredible of Cosmic Creativity was about Hulk #1. Soon there was Thor and to commence. It was, let’s face an emerging legion of powerhouse it, the Big Bang of Comics for my protagonists. generation. I read other publishers, of While I don’t clearly recall course: DC. Charlton. Radio my first introduction to Jack Comics. But I never suspected that Kirby’s work other than it had DC’s Challengers of the Unknown to have been on one of Marvel’s had been created by Kirby, who many monster titles, I was able had abandoned it to other hands. to recreate it from memory and Nor did I recognize that emblemon-sale dates. It was “KRAGOOM! atic image of the Fly that decoThe Creature Who Caught an rated his cover logo was a Kirby Astronaut!” in Journey into drawing. Mystery #78, March 1962. Twenty years in the This was a creepy comics business, Jack little 7-pager inked by Kirby had saturated the Steve Ditko, Stan Lee’s field. He was about to favorite Kirby reclaim and re-energize it. inker, and The super-heroes one of mine. came tumbling out. Kirby “Kragoom” was was such a dominant one of the last of figure that even though the “Big Monster” tales he didn’t originate Iron Man, Kirby did. Lee was everyone assumed he did. phasing them In a way, they were corout in favor of rect. Kirby designed the shorter, spookoriginal clunky armor. ier stories. His cover for Daredevil A second #1 smacked of being Kirby tale, a concept sketch, but “The Sorcerer,” how much of the character backed up the design was Kirby and how first. My other favorite Kirby much Bill Everett will probably never be inker, Dick Ayers, embelknown. lished that one. It was a Even Spider-Man, the most un-Kirby by Will Murray perfect example of the type of fantasy tale hero in the growing Marvel firmament, Kirby had specialized turned out to have Kirby roots in a thing called the in since the days he Silver Spider via The Fly. produced Black Magic But the true wonder was not simply the new with Joe Simon (and super-heroes. Kirby had created a young army of them in fact, “Black Magic” in the two decades before the 1960s—although hardly is referenced on the any possessed true super-powers. It was in the expandcover). ing universe which these new Marvel heroes explored. Soon, I discovNot just on Earth and near-space, but in Atlantis and ered the companion Asgard and across other dimensions. Not content titles––Strange Tales, with fighting crime and super-criminals through his Tales to Astonish and super-heroes, Kirby pushed the frontiers of comic book Tales of Suspense. Kirby melodrama out beyond its farthest extensions. led off every issue with Comic books would never be the same again. They haunting tales like “The couldn’t, any more than a supernova could revert to Two-Headed Thing,” being just an ordinary sun. “The Martian Who Stole a City,” and “The I read it all and loved them all. To this day, I still Midnight Monster,” think the best era to grow up reading comic books was which led directly to in the 1960s. Jack Kirby was not the only genius at work The Incredible Hulk. in that incandescent decade, but he was the greatest

COSMIC Kirby & the

GOD Concept

genius. To this day, no other comic book talent created or co-created so many enduring heroes. Over time, my interest in Kirby the artist shifted to Kirby the man. His creativity intrigued me. Who was this guy who executed pages and pages of art at supernormal speeds? What made this creative dynamo tick? From whence sprang his unique genius? I don’t know if the answer will ever be known. Jack Kirby was a cigar-smoking human volcano of inspiration—a prolific absorber and regurgitator of ideas. Give him a weak concept—say, Ant-Man—and Kirby would make it seem inspired, if not brilliant. “An idea can come from anywhere,” he once declared. “The process of creation has no standards. You either think it out by yourself or talk it out with someone else or with a group... but eventually you come up with something. Ideas are everywhere.”

Although I met Jack Kirby a few times and interviewed him twice, I never got to know the man. But others who did know him described a fascinating figure. Artist Chuck Guidera first encountered him in 1940, when he applied to Fox Comics for work and met the newly-minted team of IF who YOUwas ENJOYED THISatPREVIEW, Jack Kirby and partner Joe Simon, art-directing Fox. CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS “Joe Simon hired me right on the spot and he said, ‘You’re ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! going to be my assistant.’ The guy that was sitting in back of him was Jack Kirby. He was doing ‘Cosmic Carson.’ I still remember that. He used to talk to himself quite a bit. Nice guy. Real nice guy. Of course, Jack Kirby and Joe were getting ready to do Captain America.” DC editor Jack Schiff, who worked with the duo in the ’40s and ’50s, told me the following: “I would say that Jack was more creative, but wilder. Joe was the guy who would pull it together. We once had a sort of race in the front office. We had a big artist’s room. Jack and Mort Meskin were sitting next to each other and there was some copy we needed pretty quickly from both of them. Each of them turned out five pages of pencils. Beautifully. It was really something. KIRBY COLLECTOR #83 After a while, people began crowd around FAMOUS FIRSTS!to How JACK KIRBY was a watching. pioneer in all areas of comics: Romance Comics genre, Kid Gangs, double-page And they would both go ahead undisturbed. Meskin spreads, Black heroes, new formats, super-hero satire, and was a more careful artist Kirby,and and where plus others! With than MARK EVANIER ourthat’s regular columnists, a gallery of Jack’s pencil art from CAPTAIN AMERICA, JIMMY Joe Simon came in, in a sense taming or correcting OLSEN, CAPTAIN VICTORY, DESTROYER DUCK, BLACK PANTHER, and more! some of Jack’s stuff.” (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 Gil Kane, who broke in with the Simon & Kirby (Digital Edition) $4.99 studio: “I remember Mort Meskin saying that he just https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_57&products_id=1650