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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR EIGHTY-EIGHT
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by STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE
BRICKJOURNAL #82
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Celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary in LEGO! Disney Castles with MARTIN HARRIS and DISNEYBRICK, magical builds by JOHN RUDY and editor JOE MENO, instructions to build characters, plus: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!
The story behind BOB CLAMPETT’s Beany & Cecil, western queen DALE EVANS, an interview with Mr. Ed’s ALAN YOUNG, Miami Vice, The Sixties’ Wackiest Robots, Muscle-Maker CHARLES ATLAS, Super Powers Team—Galactic Guardians, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
The Brady Bunch’s FLORENCE HENDERSON, the UNKNOWN COMIC revealed, Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat, a Barbie history, RANKIN/BASS’ Frosty the Snowman, Dell Comics’ Monster SuperHeroes, Slushy Drinks, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
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Presenting MARK CARLSON-GHOST’s stupendous study of the 1940s NOVELTY COMICS GROUP—with heroes like Blue Bolt, Target and the Targeteers, White Streak, Spacehawk, etc., produced by such Golden Age super-stars as JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, BASIL WOLVERTON, et al. Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
BACK ISSUE #148
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BACK ISSUE #150
COMIC BOOK CREATOR #32 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #33
DC SUPER-STARS OF SPACE! Adam Strange in the Bronze Age (with RICHARD BRUNING & ANDY KUBERT), From Beyond the Unknown, the Fabulous World of Krypton, Vartox, a Mongul history, the Omega Men, and more! Featuring CARY BATES, DAVE GIBBONS, DAN JURGENS, CURT SWAN, PETER J. TOMASI, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO & MURPHY ANDERSON!
’80s INDIE HEROES: The American, Aztec Ace, Dynamo Joe, Evangeline, Journey, Megaton Man, Trekker, Whisper, and Zot! Featuring CHUCK DIXON, PHIL FOGLIO, STEVEN GRANT, RICH LARSON, SCOTT McCLOUD, WILLIAM MESSNER-LOEBS, DOUG MOENCH, RON RANDALL, DON SIMPSON, MARK VERHEIDEN, CHRIS WARNER & more superstar creators. Cover by NORM BREYFOGLE!
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Our oversized 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR sesquicentennial edition, featuring BATMEN OF THE 1970s! Exploring the work of Bronze Age Batman artists BOB BROWN, DICK GIORDANO, IRV NOVICK, FRANK ROBBINS, WALTER SIMONSON, ALEX TOTH, & BERNIE WRIGHTSON. Plus: revisit FRANK MILLER’s first Batman story, and more!
WILLIAM STOUT is interviewed about his illustration and comics work, as well as his association with DINOSAURS publisher BYRON PREISS, the visionary packager/ publisher who is also celebrated in this double-header issue. Included is the only comprehensive interview ever conducted with PREISS, plus a huge biographical essay. Also MIKE DEODATO on his early years and FRANK BORTH on Treasure Chest!
STEVE GERBER biographical essay and collaborator insights, MARY SKRENES on co-creating Omega the Unknown and helping develop Howard the Duck, VAL MAYERIK cover and interview about his life with Howard the Duck, ROY THOMAS reveals STAN LEE’s unseen EXCELSIOR! COMICS line, and more of GREG BIGA’s comprehensive chat with artist MIKE DEODATO!
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WORKING WITH DITKO by JACK C. HARRIS
WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! NOW SHIPPING!
Star Guider TM & © Jack C. Harris.
ALTER EGO #185
Known as one of the finest inkers in comics history, the late TOM PALMER was also an accomplished penciler and painter, as you’ll see in an-depth interview with Palmer by ALEX GRAND and JIM THOMPSON. Learn his approach to, and thoughts on, working with NEAL ADAMS, GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, and others who helped define the Marvel Universe. Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
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ALTER EGO #184
Author STEPHAN FRIEDT shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint PACIFIC COMICS, which published such legends as JACK KIRBY, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, STEVE DITKO, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and DAVE STEVENS. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by BILL AND STEVE SCHANES, DAVID SCROGGY, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including THE ROCKETEER, CAPTAIN VICTORY, MS. MYSTIC, GROO THE WANDERER, STARSLAYER, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian JON B. COOKE, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by DAVE STEVENS. NOW SHIPPING!
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THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF
MATT FOX
by ROGER HILL
MATT FOX (1906–1988) first gained notoriety for his jarring cover paintings on the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES from 1943 to 1951. His almost primitive artistry encompassed ghouls, demons, and grotesqueries of all types, evoking a disquieting horror vibe that no one since has ever matched. Fox suffered with chronic pain throughout his life, and that anguish permeated his classic 1950s cover illustrations and his lone story for CHILLING TALES, putting them at the top of all pre-code horror comic enthusiasts’ want lists. He brought his evocative storytelling skills (and an almost BASIL WOLVERTON-esque ink line over other artists) to ATLAS/MARVEL horror comics of the 1950s and ’60s, but since Fox never gave an interview, this unique creator remained largely unheralded—until now! Comic art historian ROGER HILL finally tells Fox’s life story, through an informative biographical essay, augmented with an insightful introduction by FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER also showcases all of the artist’s WEIRD TALES covers and interior illustrations, and a special Atlas Comics gallery with examples of his inking over GIL KANE, LARRY LIEBER, and others. Plus, there’s a wealth of other delightfully disturbing images by this grand master of horror—many previously unpublished and reproduced from his original paintings and art—sure to make an indelible imprint on a new legion of fans. NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2
When I visited the Kirby’s during the 1980s and ’90s, this collage hung above their dining room table. One day, Roz shared with me the collage’s origin. Roz explained that she had purchased an empty frame— I believe she said at a garage sale—and brought it home. Jack saw the frame and said it needed to have something in it. Jack then created the collage to literally fit the frame. From then on, it hung on the dining room wall of their home. When Roz shared this story with me, she was clearly emotional, as it was about a year after Jack’s passing. Since that day, this collage has always been special to me, and I hope you appreciate it as well. – David Schwartz
THE
Contents KIRBY COLLECTORS! OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 GUEST SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 guest curator Glen David Gold on the genius of Kirby JACK FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Mark Evanier’s 2023 WonderCon Kirby Tribute Panel, featuring Marv Wolfman, John Morrow, Paul S. Levine, and Steve Leialoha
ISSUE #88, FALL 2023
C o l l e c t o r
INNERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 more with Marv Wolfman GALLERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 some fan service, mostly in pencil INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY. . . . . 32 Sean Kleefeld casts a spell on Witchboy’s design EU EXHIBIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 a Kirby exhibition in France INNERVIEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 the Simon legacy lives on CUTTIN’ UP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 comic collecting carnage INNERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 the King of monsters speaks FOUNDATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 a Boy Explorers story KIRBY OBSCURA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 splash panels supreme COLLECTOR COMMENTARIES. . . . 58 Mike Mignola, Patrick McDonnell, and others talk collecting Kirby KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Norris Burrough’s artistic journey COLLECTOR COMMENTS. . . . . . . . 78 Front cover inks: MIKE ROYER Front cover color: GLENN WHITMORE COPYRIGHTS: Ant-Man, Avengers, Black Knight, Black Panther, Captain America, Crystal, Cyclops, Devil Dinosaur, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Dragon Man, Eternals, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Galactus, Giant-Man, Hulk, Human Torch, Ikaris, Inhumans, Invisible Girl, Iron Man, Khanata, Krangro, Machine Man, Mad Thinker, Medusa, Moonboy, Mr. Fantastic, Mr. Little, Nick Fury, Nova, Prester John, Princess Zanda, Puppet Master, Rawhide Kid, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Taboo, The Glob, Thing, Thor, Ulik, X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Atlas, Barri-Boy, Demon, Dubbilex, Farley Fairfax, Himon, Jason Blood, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, Losers, Metron, Mister Miracle, Mr. Vince, Newsboy Legion, Professor Volcanum, Rodney Rumpkin, San Diego Five-String Mob, Superman, Virmin Vundabar, Witchboy TM & © DC Comics • Captain Victory, Dream Machine, Friend of Fandom characters, GODS Portfolio, Kirby Unleashed TM & © Jack Kirby Estate • Destroyer Duck TM & © Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby estates • Black Magic, Boy Explorers, Fighting American, Speedboy TM & © Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estates • Private Strong TM & © Archie Comics • Dream-Boat, Roxie’s Raiders TM & © Ruby-Spears Productions • 2001: A Space Odyssey TM & © Warner Bros. • ShieldMaster, Spyder-Fly TM & © Jim Simon.
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[above] Cover pencils for Black Panther #3 (May 1977), featuring the ultimate collector, Mr. Abner Little. The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 30, No. 88, Fall 2023. Published quarterly (collectibly) 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: $53 Economy US, $78 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
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Opening Shot
The Collector’s Impulse by editor John Morrow
“Comic book fans are pussy cats compared to the insatiable collectors who roam this world like predators in search of priceless and forbidden artifacts!” –Jack Kirby, Black Panther #2, March 1977
C
ompulsive hoarding (a.k.a. hoarding disorder) is a known mental condition related to obsessivecompulsive behavior. Whether we’ve been diagnosed with it or not, that urge to acquire “stuff” probably affects all hardcore comics fans in one way or another. From an early age, we felt like we had to get every issue of our favorite comic book, and spent our allowances on back issues, subscriptions (mailed in those horrible brown wrappers and folded in half by the post office!), Slurpee cups with our favorite characters on them, even trading cards (Wacky Packages was my kryptonite for a couple of middle school years). But those were all just gateway drugs that lead some (but not me) to a much more pernicious habit: original art collecting. While I do sometimes regret never taking the plunge collecting original comic art back in the 1980s, my bank account is the better for it (sure, I’d now have art worth much more than I paid for it, but I could only cash in by bringing myself to sell it). Still, I’ve had the honor of getting to know a few collectors who have skin in the game, and one of my favorites is Glen David Gold. So when Glen suggested I do an issue focused on the word “collector” in its title, I roped him into spearheading it by using his own contacts in the art collecting world to get stories behind some of their favorite Kirby art pieces. I hope you’ll be enlightened and entertained by their tales here, even if you’ve never purchased an original art page in your life. I personally own just four Kirby pages (no splashes or covers), acquired years ago for $200 or less each, and that’s probably it for me. The market these days is too rich for my blood. I’m very glad I already have many of the key Kirby comics in my collection, as those aren’t getting any cheaper, either. The other focus of this “collectors” issue is fans who collect comic books. You’ll find more heartwarming (and possibly heartbreaking) accounts of their searches for elusive issues they needed to complete their hoarding... err, collections here.
Jack poses with fans Paul Crafft [left] and John Knighton in 1993 at Comic Relief in Berkeley, California. “What immediately impressed me was the intensity of his gaze, which reminded me of his Lower East Side street origins. No pushover in that regard,” Paul Crafft said. “We walked inside and nobody was ahead of us. I took the bold move of walking first up to Jack and he stood up to shake hands. I quickly introduced John as I was a bit speechless and he and John had a good chat though I didn’t hear much of it and he remembers little nowadays as well. So, no one else crowded our moments there in the store. It was only after getting the photo in question taken that other individuals trickled in and we took our leave.”
Stan Lee undoubtedly did more interviews than Jack, but I’ll bet Jack did more in-person, one-on-one interactions with his fans than Stan did. Instead of appearing on stage in front of large crowds, Jack opted for the personal touch of meeting fans face-toface, whether at a convention booth, a comic book store appearance, or hosting them at his home. But sometimes, letting your fans get a little too close can have negative repercussions. To wit: Shaun Clancy recently sent me this ad [above] from the first issue of The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom, published in 1971—an ad offering up the addresses of popular comic book creators. This struck me as a horrible invasion of privacy, and as Shaun wasn’t sure if this actually got published (I couldn’t find a record of it online, and I wasn’t able to track down advertiser Scott Newberg), I asked our all-knowing regular columnist Mark Evanier, who replied: “As I recall, the Super Address Book was never published. The ad ran in the Buyer’s Guide, several professionals protested, and the Buyer’s Guide contacted the publisher and convinced him to cancel the project— or something like that.” In this day and age, that project may seem a little stalker-ish (“Does one live near you?”), but I think we can chalk up the Super Address Book idea to youthful fan exuberance. We can all get a little (or a lot) obsessive in our collecting hobby, but Kirby routinely had fans visit his home, and lived to tell about it. I suspect that, had social media been around at the time Jack made his Black Panther #2 proclamation above, he might’ve thought twice about it. Thankfully, we’ve got publications like this one where we can all air our opinions (and the occasional grievance) in a civil manner, while paying tribute to the comics greats whose work we all grew up collecting. To quote The King himself, “I thank you for that.” TJKC readers like Glen Gold—and you!—have made my own collecting (and publishing) journey a delight. H
Guest Shot
Genius on Bristol Board by guest curator Glen David Gold
M
y father, an obsessive collector of clocks and watches, has a saying: “There is no substitute for information except money. The reverse is also true.” I have over the last thirty years put together a small, but pretty cool collection of Jack Kirby artwork, mostly with information, sometimes with money. Kirby was the first artist whose work I recognized, and then the first artist whose work was so distinct, I could tell who had inked him. It’s a little tough sometimes to discern if Gene Colan is being inked by Sinnott or Syd Shores—not so tough with Jack’s work. Jack’s was also the first work I saw in person. At the 1973 Berkeley Con, I was nine years old. A dealer had the double-spread from Fantastic Four Annual #1 for the knee-buckling price of $75, roughly the same price as reading copies of FF #51-102. I don’t think I even coveted it—I was more interested in buying all the comics I needed in order to understand the Marvel Universe. And 1973, age nine, what a perfect time to do so—it wasn’t too bonkers yet. The feeling of getting familiar with every crisis every character went through was like researching my own family tree—if my family also had super-powers and some of them ate planets. Many years later, when I was 29, I finally had a job that paid more than minimum wage, and I discovered at my local comics shop three publications that opened a door for me: Comics Buyers Guide, Jerry Weist’s Comic Art Price Guide, and this very magazine. The CBG was great for revealing the current marketplace for artwork, the Guide was educational about Glen’s favorite piece of connecting with dealers, original art is the inked and TJKC was a sign to me version of this Devil that I wasn’t alone in my Dinosaur #4 two-page spread. feeling—still hard to fully describe—that there is just something different about Kirby artwork. The best way I can put it is: a sign of great art is that it’s never finished. We keep needing to discuss it, to pull it out of storage and look at it again to better understand why it speaks to us. I love that Colan art, but there’s a reason there aren’t 88 issues of The Gene Colan Collector. At a certain point, you kind of crack the code. Kirby, though…. And though the desire is encoded in my DNA, I do admit there’s
a curious leap from “Wow, this is good artwork” to “I want to own that artwork.” There are whole dissertations written on the psychological desire to own things (I recommend Werner Muensterberger’s Collecting: An Unruly Passion), but in brief, having Kirby in the room with me means I am belly-up to genius; to immortality. Here is work that will outlive us. Of course, no matter how close my nose gets to the page, I’ll never actually be that genius, nor will I fully understand it. Every once in a while, even decades into it, I get a jolt, as when Erik Larsen explained to me how Kirby’s crazy perspective causes the viewer to get pulled into his scenes. I have written extensively about Jack here, in mainstream magazines like Playboy, and in museum catalogs of his work. But I haven’t ever told tales of Kirby collecting. The process of pursuing, buying, owning, and selling things that have a mysterious meaning to you is a powerful one, and the path to having a trophy on the wall is more roller coaster than scenic drive. When I finally had a little money in the bank, I was thirty—it was 1994, and having a little money was still a viable way of getting artwork. I didn’t intend to make it an open-ended pursuit. No, I was rereading my old comics and figured that it would be fun to own just one page of artwork from my favorite series. So I called a dealer and asked the most inadvertently hilarious question of my collecting career: Did he have any pages from the Galactus Trilogy? Hah-hah-hah. I didn’t know. One of the strange things about collecting Jack’s art, as opposed to almost any other comic artist, is that much of his A+
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artwork is unaccounted for. As I recounted way back in TJKC #19, most of his Silver Age covers before May 1965 have gone missing— at this point, 25 years after I started looking, I’ve come to the bleak conclusion that they really did end up in a landfill. And the interiors to many of his most prized storylines (like FF #1, 2, 4, 48-50, 52, 84-87; Hulk #1 and Avengers #4, to start with) have vanished. Which makes the five-star stuff that has shown up—Journey into Mystery #83 and X-Men #1, for instance—that much more special. The first thing I heard in 1994 was that I should have started ten years beforehand. Prices were outrageous. Good Fantastic Four pages were $1500! Now, the 1990s look like a Golden Age—you could find artwork at comic book shops, conventions, ads in the CBG, and of course at the Kirbys’ house itself, where 1970s books broke up, the pages sent into the biosphere, with frequency. A complete issue of Black Panther or The Eternals was $4200 (only $3800 if it didn’t have a double-splash).
For those of you who wish for a time machine, I have bad news for you: since there were pages everywhere, at all times, you—like all the rest of us—would have passed on a bunch of things, reasoning you could always find a better Silver Surfer Graphic Novel page later. You would have looked at a 1970s Captain America cover at a dealer’s table and put it back, because surely a 1960s cover would eventually shake loose. Or you could be the biggest bonehead of all, like me, and buy a complete 1970s book like Eternals #16, and sell it off piece by piece, like parting out friezes off the Parthenon. Maybe the biggest actual loss between then and now isn’t the price of pages, so much as how you found out about artwork: the grapevine. Sure, there are Internet discussion groups, but it’s not quite the same thing. I’m not alone in thinking the ’net provides a faux intimacy while preserving a distance that makes it feel like we’re poking out heads out of silos, rather than sharing what we know. So right now, I’m sharing stories of how I acquired certain pieces in my collection. Buckle up. JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #72, PAGE 9 (left) 1994. Even though stuff is out there, no one including me wants anything that’s available, and anything I want is either lost or locked away in impregnable collections. Because I realize there’s a lot of cool artwork I’ve never seen, and don’t even know to ask about, I slowly accumulate a complete prehero collection, a mix of mostly reprints and a few original 1960s books. I start inserting Post-its® on the best pages. One page in particular catches my eye. If I could only have just one panel page from a pre-hero story, it would be this one. I have no idea where it is. There’s this ancient archaeological tool called the “telephone,” and it used to be that you could use it to call other collectors or dealers to ask them what they knew—what books were missing, who had stuff, what was coming up at auction. Conrad Eschenberg, Rich Donnelly, Albert Moy, THR Gallery, the Mannarinos, Mitch Itkowitz, and Scott Dunbier all helped me understand the shape of the playing field. Conrad was particularly helpful, telling me where a few things were, and telling me what books he wanted to complete. Among many, many books was Journey into Mystery #73, “When the Spider Strikes.” He was missing two pages. He had no idea where they were. I said, if I found him a page, would he help me find the page I was looking for? “Sure,” he laughed. I’d been in the hobby for, what, a couple of weeks? He’d been looking for those pages for over a decade and hadn’t had any luck. The next San Diego show I’m at, I am joined by a guy whose name I will not mention. Let us call him Kosmic Kid. He is not a collector, more of a cartoonist, but mostly he just hangs out at the local comic shop and talks about how nothing good has happened since Wally Wood left EC. He is trying to make a persona but it isn’t really working, so 4
instead he tends to follow people who have plans. And I had a plan: go talk to every dealer in San Diego and find all the Jack Kirby art they’re secretly holding onto. Kosmic Kid is with me, looking over my shoulder, nodding, not saying much. I go to the booth of dealer...let’s call him “X”... where there’s a big stack of unsorted artwork. I ask if he has any Kirby. “Actually, sure,” what am I looking for? Oh, what the hell. “Pre-hero art.” Dealer X says, “I only brought one page. It’s not much of a page. It’s got a giant spider on it but he’s not doing anything.” There are two giant spider stories. “Is this ‘When the Spider Strikes?’ or ‘Rorgg?’” X doesn’t know. He can’t find the page. I am standing there, heart starting to go nuts. He looks and looks. I leave. I come back. He’s found it. He can’t tell which story it’s from. But I know: it’s Journey #73. It’s a page Conrad is looking for. Holy smokes! I didn’t want to spend money I didn’t have (unless I knew for sure Conrad would trade his page to me). So I asked X to put the page on hold, then walked quickly back to Conrad’s table. “Conrad,” I said, “are you still looking for pages to ‘When the Spider Strikes?’” “Am I? I’d do anything to get another page to that.” “Wow, that’s amazing—Dealer X has a page right over there.” I didn’t say that. The Kosmic Kid said it. I was staring at him with—I don’t think ‘disbelief’ covers it. He brought both hands over his mouth in one of those out-sized expressions of “me and my big mouth.” Conrad all but leaped over his booth to get to Dealer X. A second later, he had the page in his hand, and cash in his other hand. I walked away. Then something weird happened. I walked by again 15 minutes later, and Conrad was still talking to X. 15 minutes after that, he was still talking, but this time to Dealer X and Dealer Y. Then just Dealer Y. Then X and Y. Let us cut to the lesson: this is not a slight to anyone specific, but it’s part of the job description—no dealer in the history of collecting anything has ever been reasonable. Reasonable dealers are left in the dustbin of failure. So it was with Conrad and X. Conrad couldn’t bring himself to offer what the page was worth to him, and since X knew Conrad wanted it, he was unwilling to actually name a price. So he suggested a trade with Dealer Y, who, knowing there was a three-way deal going on, decided to be extraordinarily cagey about what he would or would not trade. Hours later, I walked by Conrad’s table again, and I asked if he had the page. No. He couldn’t work out a deal. I said, “Well, if I could get the page, would he get me the page I wanted?” He couldn’t remember what I was talking about, so I described it very specifically, panel by panel. Maybe? It was to a story he was trying to complete, though. But as he thought about it, he started naming other collectors who had pages to that story, guys who were impossible to deal with, and then he grudgingly came around to the conclusion that yes, yes, if I kicked in another two hundred dollars, he’d do the deal. “Good luck,” he said. I walked the ten feet to Dealer X’s booth. Ten minutes later, I
was walking the Spider page over to Conrad’s table. His expression went from shock (how had I done that?) to excitement (a new page!) to gloomy, and then to real sadness. Wait, I wouldn’t just take cash for it? I really wanted that other page? I did. A month later, that other page (Journey Into Mystery #72, page 9) was on my kitchen wall. Not only is it well drawn, every bit of this page testifies to Jack having fun with the formula. A rampaging statue covered in magic paint eats a turkey. There is no way he drew this without laughing. I put that little guy saying “It is folly to defy him” on my business card. FANTASTIC FOUR #96, COVER (above) 2005. Sometimes you aren’t looking for a piece, but it finds you. At a small comic convention, a dealer took me behind the table to show me a piece of art. He thought it was a 1960s cover, but it had no logo on it. He vaguely recalled Jack had redrawn the image for a reprint book. When I saw it, I said, “How much is this?” He said ten thousand dollars, which was an amount I didn’t have. I said, “Sold,” and I put my hand out to shake. He said, “At least ten thousand dollars.” 5
And there began the most difficult deal I have ever done, for the Fantastic Four #96 cover. Dealer A was reluctant to leave any money on the table, so we started haggling at a table off to the side of the con. At some point, Dealer B walked by, toward the bathrooms, very much not looking our way. I didn’t think anything of it when Dealer A’s cell phone went off. He said a few clipped phrases, then hung up. The conversation was, I would later learn, Dealer B telling him not to make a deal with me until he’d had a chance to make an offer. He didn’t even know what we were looking at—he just knew that if we were off to the side like that, he wanted it. Without that information, I kept trying to get Dealer A to commit to a price, but he wriggled out of it. I agreed to meet him again later, but by then Dealer B had promised him roughly double the amount we’d started at. Dealer A didn’t tell me this, and for weeks I kept ineffectively calling to get a price. Then months went by, and Dealer A came back to me. See, Dealer B was more interested in keeping the cover away from me than in actually living up to his promises, and he never came up with the amount he said he would. But I now had a new bar to clear. There was more pain to come—since I had no cash, it had to be trade, and I traded away a lot. But there are only a few Kirby Silver Age covers in the world, and this felt like the last train leaving the station. Also, let us not underestimate my desire to metaphorically shiv Dealer B. This was not a piece of artwork I’d even thought of before, but in the weeks and months that it was dangling over me, I looked at all of Jack’s later FF covers and realized how interesting this one was.
It is cleaner and more focused than as published. Marvel added a bunch of goofy paste-ups in production—a Marie Severin skyline, and objects scattered around the fallen FF to suggest they were in the middle of everyday activities when taken down. For a depiction of stillness, it throbs with tension, part of it being the slant made by the standing FF’s respective heights, with the machinery behind them pointing at compelling angles. I did some counting. The entire FF appear on the cover of every issue up through #50. After that, the four of them appear as an ensemble less frequently. This was the only time there were two complete FF teams on a cover. The stories this late in the run were frequently terrible singleissue tales with multiple arbitrary splashes. You could feel Jack eyeing the door. But this piece is executed with all the care and precision that the characters demanded. JIMMY OLSEN #133, DOUBLE-SPLASH (below) 2006. I had fallen in love with this image the first time I saw it, in the Art of Jack Kirby book. I wasn’t a Fourth World kid growing up, and had to catch on later, as an adult. I was walking across the floor in San Diego, from booth to booth. Two of the biggest, richest Kirby collectors in the world were chatting at one of them. There was a pile of the dealer’s artwork next to them. I asked if I could look through it. “Sure.” They were in the middle of some very important conversation, very high end, about stuff out of my league. But they had the eyes of collectors, so they just kept talking while looking at what I was going through. Then this double-splash appeared. I asked the dealer how much it was, he gave me a price, I agreed to it, and we shook hands.
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At no moment did the two impressive guys stop talking. Only when my wallet came out did one of them pause, put his fingertips to the page, and look at me. “Wait—when—hold on—was this right here?” Yup. Very satisfying.
trauma, his joy, his sadness. He also reflects mine. I write this at a peculiar moment in art history. I write stuff for a living—currently scripts—and my guild is on strike in part to prove that you can’t rely on machines (what we’re calling A.I. right now—Jack would have probably called it Brother Eye) to make artwork. Simultaneously, there’s a push—some of it organic, some of it clear manipulation—to move past the physical into the digital. NFTs seem to have been a fad, but there’s something else on the other side of them, probably, that will also challenge whether we can find the same value in artwork if there isn’t paper, pencil, ink to engage you. Owning artwork by Jack Kirby is a thumb in the eye of both of these theses. Kirby’s art was fabulous and his worlds entirely imaginary, but in comparison to the dreams of computers resulting in emotionally-engaged artwork, his self-expression on the page was as real as it gets. I’m happy every day I look at it.
DREAM MACHINE (above) 2009. I first saw this in the Art of Jack Kirby book—it’s an incomplete image there, shown in sections. I couldn’t quite figure out what it would look like in person, but it got under my skin almost immediately. This is one of the few pieces of work Jack did for himself, mostly. It started as a black-and-white piece half the size, drawn but unused for Marvelmania, then repurposed for an early portfolio. He ended up expanding and deepening it with color between about 1970 and 1975. There’s a photo of him working on it wearing swim trunks [below], so I’m going to guess he took it out and noodled on it when he felt like it. It took a while to track it down. When I asked the owner if I could buy it, he was surprised. He’d had it for many years but no one had ever asked about it because there were no super-heroes on it. It made me doubly happy to give it a good home. I don’t feel like I own the art—I feel like its guardian. It’s done in marker and so it’s in a padded box and only comes out for display rarely, like when I lend it for museum shows. Jack loved this piece enough to display it in his house—his fairly sunny house. I hope that one day restoration technology catches up to turn back the fading. This might be one of the most pure works of genius Jack ever drew. The fusion of the mechanical and the dream-like abstract is seamless. And the double-edged sword of the title! This is a dream of a machine, but also the kind of machinery that would produce dreams, too. Your eye keeps sweeping across it to make sense of all the surfaces and how they interact. It’s saved from complete abstraction by the face at right, but more importantly, the single white space that floats over the surface and unites everything. My wife, upon seeing it, asked if the white was supposed to be some kind of cosmic sperm on its way to an unimaginable technological egg, and ever since then, I’ve suspected she’s right. This is where everything in the Kirby Universe is born.
Also, some advice: 1. The easiest and hardest way to get something is at public auction. “Easiest” because, well, there it is, right in front of you, and you didn’t have to work to find it, and all the information about its provenance and condition is spelled out. But that means the same thing for everyone else on the planet, which is why it’s also the hardest way to buy something. 2. I have never had the capital to buy the flashy things that everyone knows about. I’ve always had more luck talking to people and finding out what’s not on the market yet. 3. Follow your weirdness! Buy what you love, not what the market says is valuable. 4. Remember why you want things. Owning something won’t make you a better person and it won’t make you feel complete. Being told you’re brilliant because you managed to buy something might feel good for about an hour, but in the middle of the night when you wake up, remember you’re a human being first and collector second. H
I have a few other pieces, and sometimes when people come over, I tell stories about them. I’ve written essays here and elsewhere about certain pages that I think reflect Jack’s temperament, his 7
Mark Evanier
JACK F.A.Q.s
A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby
2023 WonderCon Kirby Tribute Panel Held on Saturday, March 25, 2023 at the Anaheim Convention Center
Featuring (left to right) moderator Mark Evanier, Marv Wolfman, John Morrow, Paul S. Levine, and Steve Leialoha Transcribed by Stefan Dogaru, and copyedited by Mark Evanier and John Morrow. You can view video of the panel at: Part one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YcALjHLFgo Part two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDSi_zFSaRA
[below and throughout] A flurry of photos from the San Diego ComicCon, from Shel Dorf’s archives. Frame 1 shows Marv Wolfman peering over Jack’s head as Mark Evanier looks on. Frame 3 includes (left to right) Steve Leialoha, Marv Wolfman, Jack Kirby, unknown female, Roz Kirby, Len Wein, Mark Evanier, and Marty Pasko. All are from the 1979 Comic-Con, except frame 6 is Jack with Len Wein in 1978.
MARK EVANIER: Jack Kirby was, among other things, someone who never stood on pretenses. They called him “The King,” but he never talked to you like he was a king. He talked to you like an equal, or maybe like you were more important than he was. If you came to the San Diego Con any time before Jack passed away, except for one year when he was in the hospital, he was there at the convention, and he would talk to anyone about anything. And while you were talking to him at his table, he would stand up, because you were standing up. Even though he was much older than you were, if you were standing up, he gave you the courtesy of standing up and talking to you, and he was not a tall man. Unlike certain people who are short, Jack was willing to bend his neck with you. There are certain people you meet who won’t do that. He acknowledged you were tall—and if you were showing him artwork, he treated you like an artist. If you were showing him writing, he treated you like a writer. And if you were just someone who loved his comics, he kept saying, “Thank you, I thank you,” over and over again, because he was very grateful to everyone who loved his work. You could learn a lot being around him and you just felt smarter, and more creative—you might
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not be smarter or more creative, but you felt that way in his presence. He never put people down. Marv has been nodding throughout this, because he knows that was the case. Folks, this is Marv Wolfman. [applause] I guess you know what he’s done. This is John Morrow, publisher of the Jack Kirby Collector. [applause] He has a new book he’ll show you in a moment. This is Paul S. Levine, who has been the attorney for the Jack Kirby Trust, and the Rosalind Kirby Trust, and also— they keep changing the name of it, but he’s a lawyer that I wish Jack had twenty years earlier in his life. [applause] And on the far end is the eminent artist, Mr. Steve Leialoha. [applause] We’re going to talk a bit about Jack and we’ll take questions later. John, why don’t you show them what you brought? JOHN MORROW: Okay. It won’t actually be in stores for about two more months. We got some pre-release copies in just for the show. We originally did a Captain Victory Graphite Edition, which was this nice re-presentation of Jack’s first Captain Victory issues, but reproduced from his pencil art. And a few years later, we did a Silver Star Graphite Edition, which is all six issues of Jack’s Silver Star reproduced from his pencil art. Here to continue the
tradition is—this one’s really fun—a Destroyer Duck Graphite Edition. It’s in hardcover, it’s beautiful, it’s all five issues of Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby’s really fun, crazy and bitingly funny Destroyer Duck series. Mr. Evanier did the introduction for it, which outlines the history of what was going on, and talks about his friend Steve Gerber, who was one of the most unique and creative writers ever in comics. And in an interesting little twist, Mr. Leialoha here, I believe, did some beak corrections on Destroyer Duck in this? [Steve Leialoha laughs]
[below] Jack’s cover pencils for Destroyer Duck #1 (1982), showing the manslaying mallard’s original brass knuckles (well, brass flipper tips, I guess?). This is one of the many revelations you find in TwoMorrows’ new Destroyer Duck Graphite Edition, now shipping and in stores.
STEVE LEIALOHA [left]: Minor adjustments. Probably my major claim to fame is, I put little tiny rivets on the logo. MORROW: Oh, really? Well, good job on the rivets. Those are really nice. [laughter] So we have a few copies of it here at the convention. But [pointing to Evanier] this gentleman clued me in on all kinds of amazing things about Steve Gerber I didn’t know, and I’m just thrilled to death that we were able to get this thing produced, and Mark helped a whole lot on this book, so…. EVANIER: While we’re on the subject, I’d like to clear up something. Mr. Leialoha, did you ink the cover of Destroyer Duck #1? LEIALOHA: I did not. It’s amazing to me that people can’t tell who this is, but there you go. EVANIER: There is a self-proclaimed Jack Kirby expert who claims that Neal Adams did not ink the cover to this comic, even though the publisher Dean Mullaney watched Neal ink it [laughter]—and that Steve Leialoha inked it, and that when Steve or I mention that Neal Adams did it, Steve and I are lying, and we’re covering this up. [laughter] LEIALOHA: I remember— EVANIER: Apparently he also thinks Q’Anon inked it. I don’t understand it. [laughter] LEIALOHA: —Neal also did the color, too. MORROW: And, and if I may, we’ve got Neal’s
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original inked version in here, which is a little different than what was actually published. So somebody—Steve…?
was like as big as a building and all the stuff, and I’m going, “Wow! Wow!” I had no idea because there were no credits, and next time I saw him was in Challengers of The Unknown. Same type of art: “Oh wow, this is unbelievable!” So that was Jack. He was already big, he was already famous, and my friend at the time, Len Wein, called him and said, “Can we come up to see you?” And he said, “Yeah.” I mean, you just don’t do that. We were too stupid to know that you don’t do that, and Jack was wonderful, and said, “Sure! Come on up!” So we get there, we see Jack for a second, and Roz, his wife, said, “You can go down after. First I’m gonna make you lunch.” [laughter] Are you kidding? Lunch was great….
LEIALOHA: Wasn’t me. MORROW: …somebody did some corrections to it. Originally, Destroyer Duck’s flippers had brass knuckles on them, and those got taken out somewhere along the way. But I agree, it’s totally Adams. EVANIER: I asked my friend Marv to be here because Marv knew Jack before any of us on this panel. Tell us about going to Jack Kirby’s house when you were younger. MARV WOLFMAN: Now, Jack was already, even when we were really young, it was Jack Kirby, he was the King. He was the guy, who when I was a kid and reading DC Comics, and was reading the back-up of—which one did Green Arrow appear in?
EVANIER: Roz made good sandwiches. WOLFMAN: We went downstairs and Jack was sitting at his drawing board, drawing the entire time. I have the memory, and I think I’m correct, that either that trip or one of the next couple, we watched him draw some of the Galactus Trilogy, which was like the most mind-bending story we had ever seen in comic books at that particular time. It was unbelievable, and Jack’s talking to us the whole time while he’s drawing. He’d look up occasionally. The thing about Jack’s art which was so amazing to me—if you know his work, and you’re here, so I assume you do—it’s intricate— [a loud bang is heard]
EVANIER: Adventure Comics. But it was also in World’s Finest Comics at the time. WOLFMAN: I was always bored by the Green Arrow stuff, but suddenly one issue, his first issue came and it was this giant arrow that
EVANIER: That was Marv’s cane that fell over. The platform is not coming down. [laughter] WOLFMAN: —it’s incredibly intricate, and you figure he would do a million sketches to make it all work, because it’s all these different levels of depth. He starts in the corner and draws downward without any pre-drawing there. It was all in his head. It was like he was projecting the thing in his head. And we’re just stunned, watching all this happen, and he asked us what we want to do, and I said, “Well, I’m publishing
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a fan magazine, and I want to be an artist.” And he said, “Have you come up with any ideas?” And I said, “Yeah, I have an idea for this character.” I mean, it was awful. And Jack listened to what I said: “Here’s some stuff, here’s some ideas!” He figured out in five minutes how to make that character better, and work better, and it was incredible. It was like, “Oh wow—how? How do you do these things?” And Jack did it, you know—just did it because he saw that there was a struggling writer and he wanted to help him out. I was a kid! You know, I wasn’t 25, I was about 14 or 15. And Jack did that, and then he said, “Would you like a drawing?” [laughter] And I have a beautiful picture of Thor, which I asked for, on my office wall, and it has always been on my office wall no matter where I’m working, or where I’m living at the time, because it always came. That was Jack Kirby—willing to help out a kid, and to make it so that story was going to be publishable. My idea would be good. Incredible. And I miss the sandwiches. [applause]
that way. But I sometimes can’t convey to people that Jack Kirby did not do exactly the same job that John Buscema did. Buscema—I’m using him as an example. His job was to draw a good looking issue based on what the writer gave him, and do the best job he could. Jack always approached every single story he did like, “How do I take this to another level? How do I invent something new in here that other people can build on?” And that’s why his comics are so full of characters that can be spun off. He was always thinking of putting in somebody new. Look at how many characters who got their own series, started in a Jack Kirby comic as a spear carrier, or a background player. Marv, you have had your hand in creating an awful lot of characters and ideas. Is
EVANIER: And you probably thought at that time, “Eventually, I’m going to be this man’s editor-in-chief.” [laughter] WOLFMAN: Sure. I knew that, I knew that—and what dream world do you live in? [laughter] EVANIER: You’re at WonderCon. Anything is possible. I try to explain to people when they say, you know, “I like John Buscema’s Silver Surfer better than Jack Kirby’s.” Which is fine, and Jack would have said, “Great!” And if you told Jack—a kid went up to Jack one time and said, “Mr. Kirby, you’re my favorite comic book artist.” And Jack said, “Thank you,” and the kid said, “Well, after Gil Kane, of course.” [laughter] Now, there were artists who if you said that to, they would deck you. They would just be real insulted. Jack would say, “Gil’s fabulous! Gil’s the best!” He was not competitive 11
[above left] Jack with Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel in 1975, and accepting the Friends of Fandom award that year (for which he drew the illustration below). [previous page] We know the GODS portfolio envelope is a modified Thor page (with Galactus altered). Was this color art (used for the Kirby Unleashed mailing envelope) likewise an unused Thor page that was modified?
that from Jack’s influence?
who wasn’t Jack Kirby. Is that your observation?
WOLFMAN: In a way, yes, it was. One of the thoughts that I had— let me backtrack. When I did the Teen Titans, everyone thought we were doing DC’s version of the X-Men, and I kept saying, “No, we’re doing DC’s version of the Fantastic Four. Because every issue of The Fantastic Four would have a brand new concept.” There’d be all these incredible characters, so many characters came out of it, and he kept coming up with new ones, and new ones, and new ones, and new ones. And that’s what I loved as a fan, and I said, “I’m going to do as best as I can to do the same sort of thing.” I’m not going to only use old characters that DC had. I had to keep coming up with as many new characters as I possibly can. That was 100% the influence of Jack, and Stan, and The Fantastic Four.
WOLFMAN: Yeah, I would agree. I think they wanted Jack because the Marvel stuff was so popular, but they didn’t understand his artwork. Which is surprising to me, because Carmine [Infantino] is a brilliant artist. Totally one of my favorites of all time, but he didn’t get someone else’s art that wasn’t in the Dan Barry style. Dan Barry did the Flash Gordon comic strip, and others. And he was sort of like the god of how to draw the way DC drew at the time. Everybody is dead, so we can say nasty things about them. [laughter] EVANIER: And by the way, we should mention a lovely man named Joe Giella, who passed away last week. A guy who was in comics from about 1945, until I guess 2015 or so. 2010, something like that. As nice a man as you could meet. As nice a man as ever had the function of inking other artists, and preserving their work, and he worked very hard on that stuff.
Murphy Anderson [left] and Jerry Siegel at the 1983 San Diego Con.
WOLFMAN: Can I interrupt you for just a second? About Joe. Having had the success of calling Jack and going to his house, we found out that Joe lived not far away from that, and so we called again, and again, “Yes.” They had us come up; no sandwiches though. [laughter] We got to spend the entire afternoon speaking with Joe about comics and art, and all that stuff. I don’t remember any of it, unfortunately. My memory is bad, but we had a great time and that was—again, here’s somebody letting some kids into their house to talk about comics, which I’m sure he would have much preferred drawing, or watching TV, or something else. EVANIER: In comics, if I learned one thing, it’s that inkers never give you sandwiches. [laughter] WOLFMAN: Why didn’t you tell me? I would have eaten first. [laughter] EVANIER: You and I talked once—in this book I’m actually going to finish about Jack, I have a long quote from you about why DC should not have been changing Jack’s Superman. WOLFMAN: Yeah, I don’t remember what I said, but they shouldn’t have. [laughter]
EVANIER: When Jack was working for DC in the early ’70s, you were one of his few allies on the staff. I think at one point, the only two people that he felt were on his side at the company were you and Nelson Bridwell, defending him when people wanted to change stuff and—.
EVANIER: Marv was one of the few in the office who advocated for leaving it alone—and they didn’t want to leave it alone, they didn’t want to leave anything alone. WOLFMAN: Well, Superman to them, didn’t look like Superman— despite the fact that Gil Kane’s Superman didn’t look like Wayne Boring’s Superman, who didn’t look like Joe Shuster’s Superman. You know, so what?
WOLFMAN: I was the first person at DC to see the first issue of the New Gods, because I was an unpaid intern at the time in summers, so you can tell how long ago it was, because I would not be an unpaid intern ever again. But they let me into their world, and one of my jobs was to open up the mail from the artists—not the fan mail, but the artist mail—and so the package came in from Jack, and I got a chance to open it and just stare at it, because it was just gorgeous pencils. I mean, unbelievable. No inks, just beautiful work.
EVANIER: Well, they weren’t thinking of them as those artists’ renditions, they were thinking of them as the approved DC version that DC Comics created. WOLFMAN: Yeah, every company that I’ve worked for in one way or another, has this term called “On Model.” And certainly in animation, where all the stuff should look the same—it doesn’t matter where you work. Marvel, I have to admit, at the time though, really encouraged individual looks to the different artists, and Stan too— with the different writers, he actually didn’t want people copying his stuff. He wanted them to go off on his, or on her own, and say what they wanted to say.
EVANIER: And do you think it was appreciated in the office for what it was? WOLFMAN: No, because it didn’t look like a DC comic at the time. There was a very clear DC look and it was—Jack’s stuff shouted at you, and the DC stuff of the ’70s, ’60s or ’70s, sort of took you on a trip, but that’s about it. EVANIER: When my friend Steve Sherman and I went to DC the first time, we were there ten minutes before Sol Harrison, who was the head of production there, sat us down and tried to get us to get Jack to draw more like Curt Swan. He thought that was the way comics ought to look, not that Marvel garbage, you know? And I think if not for Marv and Nelson—and not many other people up there—Jack would have been forced to draw more like somebody
EVANIER: Mr. Leialoha, how did you feel when you saw Jack Kirby’s work being redrawn like that? LEIALOHA: Well, as a young fan, I always found it disconcerting that there would be—it went from being inked by Vinnie Colletta, to being a Murphy Anderson face, and they really did not match up. So it’s just weird, and wrong. But just really weird. To me, it stood 12
out like a sore thumb.
the artists did not correct what the production department did, the production department corrected what the artist did. So they gave the books—the first issue of Forever People and the first two Jimmy Olsens—to an artist named Al Plastino, who was not drawing for DC at the time. They had taken him off drawing Superman because they thought his work was old-fashioned. I think he was doing the Batman newspaper strip at that moment-—and so you know, well, “We can’t have Jack Kirby draw Superman, he doesn’t look like this, let’s get the guy who started drawing Superman in 1946 to fix it.” He redrew those three issues, pasted over, or completely wiped out what Jack did, and redrew it. Thereafter, except for the two issues Mike Royer inked, you had some combination of Vince Colletta and Murphy Anderson. Sometimes Murphy fixed the pencils and then Colletta inked it. Sometimes Colletta inked the book and left Superman and Jimmy Olsen heads for Murphy Anderson to ink. Murphy Anderson was the guy who worked in the DC offices—he had a drawing board there, and he was tapped often to do art corrections that were beyond the ability of the production department. I was present at a San Diego Con the first time Murphy Anderson came to one, and he made a point of going to Jack and apologizing for that. Jack did not blame him for doing what he was told to do. Jack certainly knew about people who forced you to do stuff in comics that you didn’t want to do. He had a lot of it in his life, and Anderson was very relieved that Jack didn’t blame him. He said, “If they’d let me ink the whole book, it wouldn’t have jarred so much, and I would have changed your work a lot less than they made me change the Supermans.” He said that, and Murphy was a very nice man. [to Wolfman] You obviously had a lot of interaction with Murphy Anderson.
EVANIER: For those who don’t know about this, the first things Jack did for DC when he went under contract with them, he drew the first issues of New Gods, Forever People, and Mister Miracle, in that order, and then he started on Jimmy Olsen. You always have to remember when you’re talking about comics, they don’t come out always in the order that they were done, and sometimes an issue that was drawn in January, and an issue in July, come out the same time in December. And so, Superman was in the first Forever People, and it didn’t bother them at that point when it came in, and then Jimmy Olsen started coming in with Superman, and suddenly, one day, they said, “These aren’t right, we’ve got to fix this. It looks like a Marvel comic, and we can’t have Superman looking like he’s one of those lousy Marvel comics.” So they had some people in the production department working with Vince Colletta, who was inking the stories, and they did a few pages where they fixed the faces, and they looked at those couple pages and they went, “This is not right, we can’t put that out.” They had done very lifeless, bad imitations of the Curt Swan version, which they didn’t think it was the Curt Swan version, they thought of it as the official version. So, Nelson Bridwell, who was assistant editor on these books, said, “Why don’t we send them back to Jack to redraw?” And that was heresy, because in DC, An unpublished Kirby Jimmy Olsen #147 cover, inked by Murphy Anderson for TJKC #42. Jack’s pencils are shown in that issue. Color by Tom Ziuko.
WOLFMAN: I worked with Murphy. The terrible story was, when I was an assistant editor, we had to make changes over Murphy’s John Carter for some reason. Joe Kubert wanted it differently and redrew the faces on it, and I had to let Murphy know that his faces were changed, and Murphy was one of the biggest John Carter fans in the universe. I mean, he loved all the Edgar Rice Burroughs stuff, and it really was a crushing thing. But back then, they just changed everybody, and they didn’t think of it as negative, that’s just the way it was. EVANIER: John, since we’re on the subject of the Superman heads thing—you’ve been shepherding a lot of articles about that over the years. It is my observation that the tampering with Jack’s work is now pretty universally regarded as an enormous editorial blunder. Is that your opinion too? MORROW: [dramatic pause] Yes. [laughter] I’m sorry, I’m still reeling from the fact that this man sitting next to me was—well, I know Mark saw New Gods #1 in pencil first, but Marv saw New Gods #1 in pencil first before anybody else in the offices, and he also watched Jack draw the Galactus Trilogy. I’m just like… I—I—I’m not worthy. That’s awesome. [laughter] EVANIER: You publish a lot of Jack Kirby’s pencil art in the Jack Kirby Collector. What 13
1983 marker drawing of Captain Victory, done at Comic-Con.
didn’t come out. Roz would panic, and if it was a couple of days before Steve and I came out to work, Jack would say, “Just leave it for the boys, they’ll take care of it.” Steve and I would do surgery, we’d dismantle the machine and try to salvage the page. And one time—now this will horrify you—there’s a beautiful page of New Gods and it’s all shredded, ugly, and terrible, and I went in to Jack, like, “This is all we could do, I’m sorry.” And he—he did not copy it exactly. He drew a new page that had the same information on it, but everything was in different places, and probably a better page. But that happened. MORROW: That’s one of the fascinating things for me as a fan; you can see where he would self-reject a page, right? And redraw the same scene, but from a different perspective, or focus on a little more action in a different panel, or something? It tells the same story, but the redrawn version is much better, and I guess, what—he just couldn’t—“good enough” wasn’t good enough for him, right? EVANIER: Jack made the comment to me, that he wanted to be very proud of what left him, even if he knew it was going to be badly inked or badly colored. He probably objected to the coloring he got at DC more than the inking, and it was important he be satisfied with it. He would every so often hand me a page and say, “Take panel two out,” and I’d erase panel two. I tell people that Jack never really redrew because the drawing was bad, he redrew because the drawing was wrong. He wanted to do it from a different angle, or he wanted something different to happen in the panel. The drawings were all fine themselves. They just maybe didn’t tell the story right, or he thought of something else that could be more exciting in that spot. He was—I hate the term “perfectionist,” because it usually applies to someone who’s really annoying about making you change things their way, but Jack was a perfectionist in that he had to be happy with the work himself. He was always proud of what he handed in, except maybe the last six months at Marvel, when he was really unhappy with the company and how they were treating him. But it’s nice to see John preserve all that stuff.
kind of reactions do you get from people when they see that, and compare it to the inked versions? MORROW: Well, everybody loves Joe Sinnott and Mike Royer. Some people love Vince Coletta, some not so much. Some have grown to have a better appreciation for him, I guess. Back to the whole thing of Murphy changing the faces—that intrigued me at one point, and we had a photocopy of an unpublished Jimmy Olsen cover that Jack did, and I got to thinking. I knew Murphy a little bit—I’m in Raleigh, North Carolina, he’s from Greensboro, which is an hour-and-a-half from us, and he would regale me with stories of growing up in North Carolina—and so I asked him, “Murphy, would you be willing to ink this unpublished Jack Kirby Jimmy Olsen cover, so we can see what it really would’ve looked like if you had inked the whole thing, instead of just the faces?” And he said, “Sure.” It was a beautiful combination. It’s not like anything you’ve seen anywhere else. If anything, it’s maybe a little bit like Kirby with Wally Wood, because Murphy’s style was so dominant, like Wood’s was. But I think in general, people are just so thrilled to, warts and all, see Jack’s pencil art, see little things that did get changed, and they can see them in the original pencil version. To me, that’s the fun of this. When I started this thing, I had no idea that Jack had years and years of pencil photocopies. Of course, Mark and Steve Sherman knew this, because they’d worked with him, and made—I guess you made the copies, right?
MORROW: Speaking of that last six months at Marvel—Jack was not just adored by his fans for his artwork, but by fellow professionals. I know Herb Trimpe and Marie Severin would photocopy his pencils in that same kind of machine you’re talking about. At least once, Trimpe shredded a page and had to get Jack to redraw it. But Marie made copies of one of the last things Jack did at Marvel in 1969, which was a horror story for, what was it? Chamber Of Darkness? [#4, April 1970] It was called “The Monster,” and Marie copied this when it came in because it was so beautiful, and she kept the copies in her own files. A dozen issues into the Jack Kirby Collector, I get a package in the mail one day from Marie Severin, out of the blue. She says, “I thought you might want these.” Now, Mark probably knew about this, and Steve [Sherman], because they’re the insiders, but as a fan I’m like, “I did not know there was an entirely different version of this story.” And I’m sorry; it’s a ten thousand percent better version of the story that Jack turned in, and it was this very heartfelt thing where at the end of the story, Jack and Stan pull these hoods off and you find out it’s them narrating the story the whole way through. With all that was going on at Marvel at the time, that Stan rejected that very sentimental ending, I mean—[to EVANIER] have you ever addressed how much that particular rejection [affected their relationship]? [See TJKC #13 for Jack’s original pencil version]
EVANIER: I made some of those copies, yes. It’s my great contribution to comics, running Jack Kirby’s photostat machine for him. [laughter] And actually, once or twice the machine would jam. Roz would feed pages into it. It was an early machine that did 11" x 17". There were very few on the market at the time, and Jack got one of these things, and you fed the page in, and it went through, around a roller—it actually bent the page around, and sometimes it
EVANIER: This is absolutely true. The second time I ever visited Jack, and the first time Steve Sherman visited him, we went down to his house—he was still living in Irvine at the time—and it was the 14
day after he had redrawn that story. He showed it to us. He showed us the pencil pages for the redraw and he said, “Last night, I sat there and destroyed one of the best stories I ever did.” Roz had urged him—it was a seven-page story, eightpage story; it was a short story, but it was a really offbeat sentimental story with some heart in it. And what happened was that Stan gave him the assignment and Jack came up with the story, and he sent it in, because Stan was insisting on doing the dialogue on this stuff. And Jack asked, “Can I dialogue this one myself? I really love this story, and can I take out that stupid thing you wanted with us wearing hoods in it?” Because Jack did not like being a character in comics, or at least he didn’t like being a character copyrighted by Marvel. Later they were sometimes claiming they owned his image, that they had the right to put a Jack Kirby character in a comic and have him say, “Oh yes, Stan Lee thought of everything.” Anyway, Stan was very busy at that time. He didn’t care about a seven-page, eightpage mystery story, and he said, “Go ahead.” They sent the pages back to Jack, and he dialogued the story, sent it back cross-country again, and then suddenly to his surprise, it came back with notes to revise the ending and change the whole story. Jack was told it was Stan’s decision and Jack hated it. Roz said, “Why don’t you just leave that story alone and draw a new one?” And he said, “No.” And it was almost like to punish himself, he erased a good story, keeping whatever parts of it he could keep. One of the many things that drove Jack away from Marvel in ’69, was how they kept asking him to redraw stuff for which he was not paid. He thought that the changes were gratuitous, and sometimes very stupid. He was drawing an issue of Thor one time that would have led to the origin of Galactus. All of a sudden, someone calls him and says, “Oh, John Buscema is drawing—” no, it was the origin of Silver Surfer. Do I have this Original art for the final page of Fantastic Four #100 (July 1970). right? No, I’m combining two things here. He kept doing the story and they’d MORROW: So that is why it has so many nine-panel tiny pictures? say, “Oh no, we’re working on something else, we’re doing an oriOkay, that makes sense. gin of Galactus in this other comic. We’re doing the origin of the Silver Surfer in this new Silver Surfer book that we didn’t ask you EVANIER: So if Jack is doing a 20-page Fantastic Four story, they to draw.” And he would wind up with pages he had already drawn paid him for 20 pages. If he drew 20 pages, then sent them in, and and couldn’t send in, and therefore couldn’t be paid for, and that they made him draw five more pages to change it around, he was annoyed the hell out of Jack. It happened time and time again, there paid for 20 pages. And this infuriated him many times, and that was were like six different cases in the last two years where he drew the case with that “Monster” story. He had to draw the story—basipages and then somebody told him—Fantastic Four #100 was origcally, draw it twice to get paid for one job, and I remember Jack was inally going to be a 40-page double-size issue, and Jack is halfway really shaken by that. I was with Jack a few times when he was really through the run of a 40-page story, and someone calls him up and very upset, very angry. One of the worst was the time he got the call says, “Uh, no. We’re not going to do it that way, get it down to 20 that they were going to suspend New Gods and Forever People. It’s and two half-pages.” one of the saddest moments of my life, seeing how crushed he was 15
[below] Since Atlas #1 (which was published in 1st Issue Special #1) ended with this villain, we can only assume this would’ve been the cover for Atlas #2, had the series been greenlit, instead of being relegated to DC’s tryout book. On the next page is Steve Leialoha’s inked version, done several years after it was originally drawn.
by that. And then, you know, the next day he draws Kamandi #1, and he’s Jack Kirby again. But I got too close to Jack at times, in ways I just started feeling his pain sometimes, and it was very disturbing. Paul, you dealt with Jack a lot, in contracts. PAUL S. LEVINE [right]: Yes. So, to react to what you said about you wish I had been born twenty years earlier so I could represent Jack twenty years before, I wish that as well. By the time I met Jack, it was 1982 or 1983. I was a brand new lawyer, fresh out of law school, working for a small law firm in Century City. It was my boss Steve Rhode, and me. One day, Steve and Jack come to the door of my little tiny office, and Steve said, “I want you to meet Jack Kirby.” And I looked up from my desk and said, “Who?” [laughter] And Steve said, “Well, Jack is the creator of Captain America, Hulk, Fantastic Four, X-Men,” etc. And I said to Mr. Kirby—I stood up, and of course he was standing too, and I stood up and he looked me up and down, and I said, “Well Mr. Kirby, I have a confession to make. I never read Marvel Comics as a kid, I only read DC Comics.” [laughter] And by then, of course, he had long ago left Marvel and had worked for DC. I had no idea of some of the machinations that
were going on while he was working for DC. Turned out, he had come to the office because DC was about to merchandise a bunch of the characters that he had created, and he needed a lawyer to negotiate the deal with—it turned out to be Paul Levitz at DC Comics. And so, I told him that I had never read a Marvel comic in my life, and he smiled and stuck his hand out and shook mine, and said, “Kid, we’re gonna get along just fine.” [laughter] EVANIER: Do you remember that time that I came in and we had this strange meeting with Jack? We were trying to sort out some things, and Jack kept mentioning—you’ve heard Jack had a bad memory. He really didn’t have a bad memory, he just kind of was operating on another plane at times. He was thinking four notches ahead of himself, and he would say, “Now this character came in Fantastic Four #34.” And I said, “No, that was #32.” And I did this so often, he got kind of pissed at me. LEVINE: But, of course, I had no idea what was going on, because I had just met you as well. At the end of the day, I know that Jack and Roz were especially pleased, because this was the first time that he had ever received not only a percentage of the sales of the merchandise in question, but he got a signing bonus. I got him a nice little, but at the time significant, amount of money just to sign the contract, and that cemented my relationship with Jack and Roz for the rest of my time at that law firm. EVANIER: Yes, Paul is very good at this type of stuff. He represents me now, full disclosure. And just made a great deal we can’t talk about. Steve, let’s get you back into this. You’ve had a couple of occasions to ink Jack’s work over the years. How did he influence you as an artist in general? LEIALOHA: Well, he was a major influence for me getting into comics at all. I mean, I was a young comics fan and I hadn’t really thought seriously that I would end up doing comics, although I sort of fell into it. My first attempt at doing any sort of actual comics was in a fanzine by Marv Wolfman when I was in high school... and I think Marv may have been in high school at the time too, I don’t know. This is, like, 1967. Anyway, as a young comics fan, I was a huge fan of Jack Kirby, and the first convention I ever went to was the San Diego Comic-Con of 1971, because Jack Kirby was going to be there, and I had various interactions with him. I had sent samples of my young fledgling work to DC, and got a response from Carmine Infantino, who told me that Jack Kirby was doing his own comics in southern California, and I should send stuff to him. I mean, this wasn’t actually true, but I did it anyway, and I sent samples off to Jack Kirby, and I got a very nice response from him—as
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in Marvel— LEIALOHA: I think it was ’78. WOLFMAN: —if you were an editor there, you got a name even if you didn’t touch the book. So you got that credit anyway. So, I remember Devil Dinosaur to some degree, also because it’s now a cartoon. Everything back then is a cartoon. Devil Dinosaur is on the Disney Channel— LEIALOHA: Yes. It’s amazing. WOLFMAN: —and it’s pretty weird. [laughter] It’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. LEIALOHA: Yes, yes. Fabulous. Anyway, so I got to ink two of Jack’s covers, which was one of my young fanboy goals, to work with Jack Kirby at least once in real time, as I like to think of it. EVANIER: There are people who, when they had a chance to ink Jack on a one- or two-time basis, you could see that they went and studied Joe Sinnott before they did that. You didn’t look to me like you did that; like you just decided to ink it like Steve Leialoha. LEIALOHA: It took me a few tries before I felt I could reasonably ink Jack’s stuff. It’s a tricky thing trying to figure out what needed fixing, what didn’t, because—well, I can’t really explain the nature of inking in a few sentences, but I just tried to make it look as good as I could without copying Joe Sinnott, and trying to keep as much of Jack in there as I could. EVANIER: Who’s your favorite Jack Kirby inker? LEIALOHA: It tended to vary from period to period. I mean, Jack’s work was constantly evolving. In the ’50s, I love the stuff that Jack inked himself. As a kid, I loved the stuff that Dick Ayers was doing. To my mind, the earliest Fantastic Fours inked by Dick Ayers were fabulous. Then again, when Joe Sinnott took over the inking, that was even better. And at a certain point, I think Jack’s pencils got so stylized that when Mike Royer took over, to my mind, at that point in time, he was the perfect inker for Jack. So it tended to evolve over time, if that makes any sense.
he always did with people, encouraging me to keep it up, and you know, he would say, “Someday you’re going to be better than I am.” And, of course, we all sort of took that with a grain of salt, because we knew that wasn’t going to happen. Anyway, many years later at Marvel, the opportunity to ink a couple of Jack’s covers came up. Getting into dealing with Jack’s relationship with Marvel his, what, second or third time around? Jack wanted to keep all the artwork himself, that the inkers wouldn’t get a percentage of it. So, they offered a thing where you could ink two covers of his, and of course everyone immediately volunteered for this, and I managed to have the opportunity to ink a cover of Machine Man, and a cover of Devil Dinosaur. And one of them was printed, and the other one was considered—I mean, what I heard was Stan just thought it was too weird, so it wasn’t printed. I think Marv might have been the editor of that, because—
EVANIER: John, you wanted to say something. MORROW: I did. Steve, you know, First Issue Special—that first issue was Kirby’s Atlas character, and there’s an unused Atlas image. I’ve seen a copy of the pencils, but there’s an inked version by you. Do you remember—what was that? Was it just a rejected page, or an unused cover, or—? LEIALOHA: That was an unused cover. I can’t remember who —it might have been a Greg Theakston project or something like that— but I inked a copy of that Atlas cover and it was printed somewhere. MORROW: That was done well after it was drawn?
EVANIER: [repeating Leialoha’s comments for Wolfman to hear] He thinks you were the editor of Devil Dinosaur, or the executive editor of Devil Dinosaur. He inked a cover of Jack’s that wasn’t used—
LEIALOHA: Yeah—like I said, it wasn’t done in real time with Jack Kirby. I got to work with Jack three times in real time. The other one was an early WonderCon, actually.
LEIALOHA: —of Machine Man. Not that you would necessarily remember this, but just one cover.
EVANIER: Baycon. LEIALOHA: Baycon. That was it. Baycon from 1977.
WOLFMAN: I think I was probably that. But you know, at that point 17
a graphic novel? I’m doing these books for Simon & Schuster and I can arrange for us to own the copyright on the story, I think.” Jack owed Marvel a certain number of pages on his contract, so he decided to do this in the one-in-a-thousand chance that someone would look at this graphic novel and say, “Hey, that should be the basis of the movie.” And Stan and Jack could sell the movie rights, because they held the copyright on it. The creation of the story was a mess. They fought a lot, Jack was unhappy with the way it came out, because there are all these givens. Stan would say, “Well, for the movie to be a movie, it has to have this in it.” And Jack said, “No, it doesn’t have to have that.” “Yes, we’ve got to put that in.” Which is why you may see a lot of unpublished pages. [See pages 36–37 of this issue!] Again, Jack was drawing pages that weren’t used, and he wasn’t paid for. The story was finished, nobody liked it, movie was not made, but it used up part of Jack’s quota for Marvel. Over here, yes. AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: These personal stories are wonderful, and it’s also really wonderful to hear everyone’s take on Jack’s very distinct voice, and I was curious—if you were casting the movie, who would you cast as Jack and Roz? Past or present, anyone. EVANIER: I would fight to not have that movie made. [laughter] That would be the first point. I don’t know, I keep seeing people mentioned—somebody mentioned Patton Oswalt. [laughter] But I don’t think that anyone would say, “We gotta get someone—who looks like Jack, and talks like Jack?” That’s not how movies work. You know, they don’t necessarily—Michael Keaton played Ray Kroc, looking nothing like Ray Kroc, or sounding nothing like Ray Kroc. They just hire actors because they’re bankable, not because they resemble the subject matter.
[above] Leialoha’s inked cover for 1977’s Baycon program book, and [below] its progress report.
MORROW: Oh, the Ikaris cover? That’s gorgeous. EVANIER: We have time for a question or two. AUDIENCE MEMBER 1: I’m curious about one of the harder to find books that Jack put out—and I think it was the last time he worked with Stan Lee—the Silver Surfer graphic novel. I’m wondering about the origins of that, and why it hasn’t been reprinted. EVANIER: It has been reprinted at least once, I believe, and I don’t think Marvel had the right to do that, actually. Basically, what happened was that Jack was—this is a long story, I’ll try to make it quick. Someone had bought the rights to make a Silver Surfer motion picture, it was a gentleman named Jeff-something. I can’t remember his name, he was Olivia Newton John’s boyfriend, and based on the success of something she’d done, he was able to sell a studio on doing the Silver Surfer movie. They developed a couple of scripts which weren’t working. Stan at some point said, “Hey, maybe I could get a piece of this, or we could do something.” He went to Jack and said, “How about if we do 18
MORROW: So, you’re saying you’d cast Brad Pitt as Jack, then? [laughter] EVANIER: Sure, why not? [laughter] I think the one essence you’d have to have is, you’d have to get a guy who was tough and small, because Jack had a lot of energy in him, and I think it was germane to his attitude that he was not six-foot-three. He was a strong man; physically, very strong. I mean, he was very healthy up until the last couple years of his life, but I don’t know. Anybody ever thought about who, if they have to make a movie of Jack, who they should cast? WOLFMAN: What’s his name, Pesci? He was in Goodfellas—. EVANIER: Joe Pesci. [laughter] Joe Pesci has some of those qualities, yes. Anyway, we’re gonna wrap this up. We’re gonna have another one of these in San Diego. We’re going to have another one of these at every damn convention I go to as long as they’ll let me do these panels. [applause] I feel very privileged that I got to know this man, and I feel obligated to share every single damn thing I observed about him with people, and when I finish this book, you’ll be amazed at some of the things that I observed that are not public knowledge. I think it’s safe now to reveal some of them. Would you thank Mr. Marv Wolfman? John Morrow. Paul Levine. Steve Leialoha. [applause] Okay, thank you all, we’ll see you in San Diego. [applause] H
Innerview
More With Marv Sample Headline
Marv Wolfman interview conducted by e-mail in October 2022 by John Morrow (Thanks to Richard Kolkman for suggesting some of the questions for Marv)
[below] As editor of Marvel’s Nova comic, Marv likely chose Jack to draw the covers of #5 [Jan. 1977, below] and #7 [March 1977, next page]. Jack also drew #4’s cover (bottom).
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Where were you born, and where did you grow up? MARV WOLFMAN: Brooklyn, New York. I lived there until I was 13, then we moved to Flushing, Queens, NY.
MARV: No idea. My parents never really talked about those things. As for ribbing? Kids. Weird name. So, of course—and lots of howling.
TJKC: What is the etymology of your last name? And did you get much ribbing over it as a kid?
TJKC: How’d you and Len Wein first meet? MARV: I had a letter published in Mystery In Space which included my home address. Ron Fradkin, a comics fan who lived in Levittown, Long Island, got my phone number and called, as he felt we lived near each other and thought we could get together. In truth, Flushing and Levittown were nowhere near each other, but due to the power of unbelievable coincidence, my sister lived in Levittown and I was actually going to stay with her while my parents went on vacation. So the next day I took the train to Levittown and met Ron and his close friend, Len.
Photo by Scott Edelman
TJKC: What was your first in-person encounter with Jack Kirby, and was Len there for it as well? MARV: Len had previously met Jack—I don’t remember how—and said he was going to Jack’s house, and did I want to come? I obviously said yes, and afterward we visited Jack either together or separately. It was pretty amazing for a young comics fan to meet someone like Jack. He and Roz could not have been nicer. TJKC: In your essay that ran in New Gods #1 (“A Visit with Jack Kirby”), you stated
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I loved those, and later learned they were written and drawn by Jack Kirby. These stories opened my imagination. Sadly, Jack didn’t do many issues, and the series went back to being dull again. Without knowing who drew the stories, I figured out that the same artist then drew Challengers of The Unknown. I don’t remember how I learned the artist’s name, but I became a huge fan long before I even knew who he was. TJKC: Were you a big fan of Jack’s 1960s Marvel work? MARV: I was already a fan based on his work on Archie Comics’ The Fly and the Double Life of Private Strong. His work on The Fly’s double-page spreads was incredible. I had never seen anything like it before. So yes, I was a long-time fan, long before he did The Fantastic Four. I will say, however, I never bought or read the Marvel monster comics he drew. I’m not even sure I ever saw them. TJKC: Can you describe how you both managed to arrange that first visit to Jack’s East Williston home, and what year was it— 1964? 1965? Did you call ahead, or just ride your bikes over and show up unannounced? MARV: I don’t remember, but I assume Len set it up. Jack and Roz were expecting us. In fact, Roz made a lunch for us before we met with Jack. I also don’t remember how we got there; did we bike over, or did someone drive us, is sadly lost to time. I lean toward riding our bikes. Sorry. TJKC: You’d mentioned that you saw Jack working on a Galactus page; do you recall what Fantastic Four issue/page it was? Or could it have been Thor? MARV: After a thousand years, I can’t remember what specific page he was working on—but as I said in early interviews, where my memories were fresher, we saw Galactus pages for the FF; I assume I was right back then.
that you followed Jack’s work from Boys’ Ranch and Bullseye to “Green Arrow” and Challengers of the Unknown. Since those didn’t always have credits listed, when did you first become aware of Jack by name? MARV: I don’t remember everything, but I do remember always reading, but never much liking, the Green Arrow stories in the back of Adventure Comics. They were quiet, unimportant, unimaginative stories, but I still read them. But then, suddenly, there were several issues in a row where everything changed: Giant fifty-foot arrows. Aliens. Excitement. The art became dynamic and the stories powerful.
TJKC: How many times did you visit the Kirby house in New York? And was it always with Len by your side? MARV: I think we went between 3–6 times over the years, and yes, Len was there, too. I also believe, on occasion, that several other members of TISOS (The Illegitimate Sons of Superman), our comics group, joined as well. [See Alter Ego #143, page 57 for a list of other TISOS members that might’ve visited at one time.] 20
TJKC: What was their house like then? In Thousand Oaks, Roz had Jack’s artwork hanging all over, but was it that way in East Williston? What was his “dungeon” workspace like? MARV: As we were always taken downstairs to his office, I can’t tell you if Jack’s art was framed upstairs. But yes, his work was on display in the basement and on the stairs down to the basement. I do remember seeing a lot of figures that would much later become the New Gods. We asked Jack about them and he started to talk about cloning, a word I had never heard before then. But Jack subscribed to the monthly scientific journals and described it to us. He was really well read on lots of subjects, and seemed to enjoy talking about those. He was way ahead of his time. Please let me say here that after all these years, I may get some of the time periods wrong. This may have happened later, possibly even in Thousand Oaks, but what we saw is correct—possibly not just exactly when. But I distinctly remember him telling us about cloning connected to that art, years before anyone saw the New Gods.
A drawing Jack personalized for young Len Wein. This scene would seem to fit between the end of Fantastic Four #56 and #57, with Doom spying on the Surfer.
TJKC: You mentioned an 8 ft. x 3 ft. collage hanging on the wall; do you recall the subject matter? MARV: I don’t at all remember the size, but it was large. It was one of Jack’s amazing photo montages. He used simpler ones in the comics themselves. As for what they were of, the only description I can give is “cosmic.” TJKC: Did Jack do many sketches for you in the 1960s? You’ve mentioned a large 1960s Thor drawing [see TJKC #73, page 86]. I’ve seen a 1967 sketch of Angel from Boys’ Ranch that I believe Jack did for you [see TJKC #43, page 9]; what’s the story behind that one? MARV: Jack did several drawings for me. I had asked for Angel from Boys’ Ranch, as he was a great character and I loved the book—especially the story “Mother Delilah” in issue #3, which Jack said was his favorite, and that he wrote it. He perfectly recited Virgil’s closing lines of the story which were so amazingly powerful, especially for a comic from 1951. It was so obvious how much he loved that story. The first time we visited, he asked what I’d like him to draw for me. I asked for Thor because I always felt he had the most powerful costume of all the Marvel characters. There was something so regal about the character, and though I may have preferred the FF as a comic, Thor was, for me, easily the best design. TJKC: I know Len spent some time in the hospital in the 1960s, and I’ve seen a couple of sketches Jack did for him at that time. Did Jack and Roz actually visit Len in the hospital? MARV: I believe Len had said he did. TJKC: How well did you get to know the Kirbys during that time? MARV: I got to know him and Roz much better later on. Remember, we were kids. Neither Jack nor Roz ever treated us that way; they talked to us like we were peers—but of course, we weren’t. Later on, once we both moved to California, I got to know them more as adults. And of course, I got to work with Jack at Marvel. I don’t know this firsthand, but I was told when Jack came back to Marvel and had to work with an editor, he asked for me since he knew he could trust me. I would love to know for certain if that was true. My wife and I were very often invited to parties at Jack and Roz’s house. And when I used to hold an after San Diego Con party, they would often join, as they had to drive past my house to get to theirs.
Marv’s fanzine character Black Nova, precursor to Marvel’s Nova.
TJKC: In that New Gods #1 essay, you mentioned how you and Len told Jack about a character you’d created, and he immediately added all kinds of ideas on the spot. The next known publication of a character by you and Len is Black Nova in the fanzine Super Adventures #6 (Spring 1967). Was this the character Jack gave you ideas for, and were some of his suggestions used? Was this character recycled as Nova at Marvel in the 1970s? MARV: No, it wasn’t Nova. It wasn’t a super-hero. It was a dark fantasy set in a dark, real world. I wrote a script which I still have somewhere. The only thing I recycled was the character’s 21
fanzine. The Foob was funny animals/satire and What Th--? was opinions and news.
name: Janus. I later used that name in Tomb of Dracula. As I always wanted to own it, I never did the character in regular comics, but I’m still playing with the underlying story to be a prose novel. What amazed me, even back then, was how he instantly understood not only the character and the world I was setting up, but figured out ways to improve it—in minutes. It was a great lesson on how to understand and develop characters.
TJKC: How’d you first get your foot in the door at DC Comics, and what were your initial responsibilities? MARV: My goal back then was to be an artist, and I went to the High School of Art & Design where many professional artists had gone, too. At the same time, DC was giving tours of the company on Thursdays, and I went on the tours whenever I was able. The folks there knew I was an art student at A&D and asked if I’d be interested in being an unpaid intern in the art department. I said yes. I worked on color separations for their covers, assisted editors, and did whatever else might have been needed. It was an all-around education, and though I wasn’t paid, I was thrilled to be there and to learn from the pros. TJKC: Who gave you your first writing assignment? MARV: I think I can credit that to both Dick Giordano and Joe Orlando. Because I hated the then-current Blackhawk comics—a series I had previously loved—I wrote a spec Blackhawk script that, I believed, would make the Blackhawks great again. Dick bought it at the same time that Joe Orlando, having seen my horror fanzine Stories of Suspense, asked if I’d like to submit plots for House of Mystery. I did, and he bought one. I think I can say that story, although written and drawn, was never published. In retrospect, I think DC might have had a certain amount of money set aside to develop new talent, and that my story might have been good enough to work with, but not yet good enough to actually publish. I kept getting assignments to write other short stories, so I think they were grooming me (and others) to eventually become writers and artists for them.
TJKC: You were heavily involved in fanzines in the 1960s. There’s a Thing model sheet [above] that appeared in either Fandoms Special #3 (March 1965, by Cardoza/Vosburg), Stories of Suspense #2 (1966), or both; were you involved in those two zines? Not having actual copies of those zines, I’m not sure if they are two different ones, or the same. But the figures and heads do not appear in any Marvel comic before 1966. [Editor’s note: Richard Kolkman has checked and confirms they are original drawings—he’s guessing it was done by Kirby for the artists of Strange Tales, since it’s too early for any animation projects.] How did you acquire this Thing art/photostat for publication, and do you recall any other background information on it? MARV: I didn’t publish Fandoms Special, but I did write and draw a story for it. I did publish the fanzine Stories of Suspense, which featured horror stories, and Super Adventures, which was my super-hero
[above] Concept by Kirby for Ruby-Spears animation, and [next page] situations for a Roxie’s Raiders proposed animated series.
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TJKC: Did Jack give you any advice early in your comics career? MARV: Not specifically. But by coming up with so many ideas for my Janus character, he showed how one should develop character and story. Anything learned was by example, rather than specifically taught.
TJKC: Did you do any work in the animation field with Mark or Jack? MARV: I never worked with Mark and I didn’t directly work with Jack, but when I was at Ruby-Spears animation as showrunner for the CBS Superman cartoon show [in 1988], Joe Ruby asked me to go over a ton of Jack’s designs that he drew over the years for them, and to see if I could build a show around any of them. I can’t remember what they were today, but I remember saying only Jack could keep coming up with so many incredible graphic concepts. He was the brilliant gift that kept on giving, and the rest of us were the people who kept on taking.
TJKC: What was your honest assessment of Jack’s Fourth World work at the time it was coming out? And has your opinion of it changed over time? MARV: At that point, I was working on staff at DC as Joe Kubert’s editorial assistant. I was also asked to help out any other editor who needed me to do whatever. As no editor was assigned to deal with Jack’s material, I was literally the first person at DC to see the New Gods as I opened the packages Jack sent, and processed them through the system. I was totally blown away by Jack’s art and concepts. They were so imaginative and powerful. However, I have to admit I didn’t think the dialogue was as great as all the ideas. Still, the stories were so strong and far beyond what anyone else was doing at the time. I don’t think anyone back then had the imagination to create so many different characters and ideas as Jack did. He was amazing. I haven’t read the series recently, but I’m still blown away by all the concepts Jack kept coming up with. I don’t think anyone else in comics ever had such a fertile mind for creating ideas and characters. I still wish the dialogue was more natural, but truth to tell, it doesn’t bother me any longer. Jack created a language for his books that made it uniquely his. Besides, super-hero comics are about ideas and grandeur, and Jack had that, and so much more.
TJKC: Did you see much of the Kirbys in the 1980s? MARV: Not a lot, but every so often, especially when there was a party, either at their house or someone else’s. Everyone was busy with their own lives and they didn’t always intersect. TJKC: When was your last encounter with Jack? MARV: God, I wish I could remember. Obviously, one doesn’t know that ‘X’ will be the last time you see someone, so you don’t pay specific attention to it. It’s only in retrospect that you wish you knew, so you could ask everything you ever wanted to, or show the other person how loved they are. TJKC: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your association with Jack, either personally or professionally? MARV: Jack worked tirelessly to make sure his family would be well off whenever he passed. Family and friends were his motivation. We do our best because we’re working for those who matter the most. What he taught was for all to understand true priorities and what really mattered. I do wish Jack got to see that his hopes actually came true. On the other hand, considering it’s Jack, I think he somehow knows. H
TJKC: How’d you first meet Mark Evanier? MARV: I’m not sure if it was when he was visiting DC, or if we knew each other through fandom before that, but we became friends pretty quickly. He’s one of the very best people I know, and has helped me out a million times or more. 23
Gallery
FAN SERVICE
[right] Mister Miracle #5, page 15 (Dec. 1976) As Joe Simon said in his interview we ran last issue: “[Steranko] came to my house out in Long Island, opened up his trunk, and a bunch of comic books fell out. It was filled to the top with comic books.” So while we think of him as a top professional, Steranko started as a fan like you and me. Jack heard his tales of days as an escape artist, and at least indirectly formed ideas for Mister Miracle from them. [next page] Our Fighting Forces #153, page 16 (March 1975) As a teenager, Kirby rescued a science-fiction pulp floating toward a sewer drain, and was captivated by the stories in it—but in his tough neighborhood growing up, you’d get beaten up if you were caught reading such things. So we’d assume Rodney Rumpkin is sort of an amalgam of sci-fi and comics fans he’d met over the years, who he felt a kinship with for their being ostracized. [page 26] Demon #7, page 10 (March 1973) See Sean Kleefeld’s “Incidental Iconography” column this issue for details on how Witchboy was based on a comics fan! [page 27] Mister Miracle #9, page 13 (Aug. 1972) While there are superficial similarities in their appearance, I think Himon was more likely based on Shel Dorf because of how he shepherded young comics fans to Jack’s house, while Himon mentored the youth of Apokolips.
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Kirby injecting collectors into his work, with commentary by John Morrow
Twice-told Kirby covers, with commentary by Shane Foley
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26
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[left] Black Panther #9, cover (May 1978) Animation veteran Larry Houston conveyed to fan Carl Taylor that Kirby had based the character Khanata (one of the Black Musketeers in his Black Panther comic book) on Carl. Carl (shown above in a mid-1970s photo) recently recounted the details: “In a previous conversation, I was telling Jack how I was outdriving all the other cars on the freeway on my way down to the San Diego Comic-Con. He (ha!) made Khanata a race car driver... I think he used my image on another character in a back-up feature in Captain Victory, too.”
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[right] 2001: A Space Odyssey #5, cover (April 1977) Harvey Norton, who roleplays as White Zero in Comicsville, is a sort of downtrodden everyman comics fan, in the tradition of Rodney Rumpkin. (A “zero” is someone who has nothing going for them, and using “white” as a double-pejorative might be seen as Jack’s reaction to the industry’s need to name most African-American character as “Black” something.) This character, who has little going on outside his fantasy life, ends up in a real-life adventure, where he rises above his limitations and becomes a true hero. Comicsville is another example of Jack being amazingly prescient. Since 2016, almost two million guests have taken part in The Void’s immersive virtual-reality experiences based on Star Wars, Ghostbusters, The Avengers, and other intellectual properties. Centers operated in California, Florida, London, Dubai, Toronto, Malaysia, and numerous other locales, before the company shut down in 2020. [next page] Captain Victory unused cover (circa 1977) Following the concept’s genesis as a movie screenplay, Jack penciled a 17-page Captain Victory story meant for a new start-up imprint called Kirby Comics. The entrepreneur fans’ funding fell through, and this “Space Arenas of Doctor Deadly” story wasn’t developed for the 1980s Pacific Comics series.
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Which Boy...
...Was WitchBOY?
Incidental Iconography
An ongoing analysis of Kirby’s visual shorthand, and how he inadvertently used it to develop his characters, by Sean Kleefeld
W
ith an entire issue focusing on Jack’s fans, it’s almost mandatory that I utilize this Incidental Iconography column to take a look at Klarion the Witchboy. I debated tackling the character, because I thought the anecdote about Jack using the young fan Barry Alfonso as the visual basis for Klarion to be really well-known. Indeed, Barry was interviewed for this very magazine back in #44. But there are a couple of points that I don’t think are emphasized very much, and the Wikipedia article on Klarion doesn’t mention
Barry at all, so I felt it’s worth doing a little deeper dive here. Barry first met Jack in the fall of 1969, when Shel Dorf took a group—including Barry’s mother—up to visit the Kirby family home in Irvine, California. (This was before they had moved to Thousand Oaks.) Jack used that group of fans as the visual basis for the San Diego Five-String Mob that debuted in Jimmy Olsen #144, with Barry appearing as Barri-Boy. They only appear for a handful of panels, and there’s only one in which you can really see any details for the character [above]. But that group vanishes in short order and Jack never uses them again. However, a few years later, in The Demon #7 from 1973, Barry’s second comic book alter ego appears in the form of Klarion the Witchboy. Beyond his short stature and skinny build, there doesn’t appear to be much similarity between Klarion and Barri-Boy. You likely wouldn’t guess they were based on the same person just by looking at the comics; however, there is an excellent reason for that. There are, as you can calculate, four years between those two characters’ first appearances. And when you consider that Barry had just turned twelve when he first met Jack, a significant difference in appearance begins to make sense. Indeed, there are a number of photos of Barry throughout that entire period floating around (several were published in Mathew Klickstein’s See You at San Diego last year) and the 12-year-old kid who’s not tall enough to see over Jack’s shoulder grows enough, that Jack can barely see over the teenager’s shoulder. Beyond that, Barry’s obviously matured emotionally, and it’s even visible in those photos that he carried himself more confidently by the mid-1970s. It’s not an atypical set of
Witchboy drawing from the mid-1970s Valentine’s Day sketchbook Jack drew for wife Rosalind.
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changes for a 12-year-old becoming a 16-year-old. But why would Jack cast Barry as a “witchboy?” It’s of course possible that there was some conversation between Barry and Jack about witches prior to that story—Barry had visited the Kirby home several more times after 1969, and Barry went at least once specifically to interview Jack for his fanzine Mysticographyl in 1974. (That interview wouldn’t be published until 1975, however.) But one thing that definitely did happen to bring witches into the broader cultural discussion was the publication in early 1974 of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum. While this was certainly not the first book to examine the famous Salem Witch Trials of 1692, it was effectively the first book to be based on actual research and not just anecdotes and hearsay; it completely upended the public perception of what happened, in large part because the authors bothered to check the stories against what could be factually corroborated. One reviewer at the time said “all the previous treatments [of the Salem Witch Trials] can be consigned to the historical lumber-room.” Even if Jack didn’t actually read the book, he almost certainly would’ve heard of it, as it caused a minor media stir. This would naturally set in his mind the historical image of Puritans as those behind the Salem Witch Trials. And while this is something of a reductive view, that would explain why the Demon issue opens with Etrigan battling a Judge in stereotypical Puritan garb, complete with a buckled hat. When Klarion appears a few pages later, he’s essentially wearing the indoor version of the same outfit, just no hat or cloak. (To be clear, though, this was not actually typical dress for 17th century Puritans. The all-black stereotype stems from later paintings and illustrations that deliberately tried to portray the Puritans in a more austere manner.) The bigger difference between
the Judges and Klarion is the latter’s smaller build and stylized hair, which Barry has oft noted was based on how his own hair—longer now as a teenager than when he first met Jack—would curl outward around his ears like horns if he neglected to wash it. In the photos I can find of Barry from 1974, his hair appears pretty clean and straight; the only ones I can find where it does seem to be a little more wildly curling is a couple of pictures from 1973 where he’s sitting at a convention table with Carmine Infantino and Jack. (One is shown atop the previous page.) But returning to Klarion’s outfit, it consists of a simple waistcoat with large cuffs and a reverse-color tab collar. I suspect Jack saw the color switch as a way to suggest that, as a witch, Klarion might be considered the opposite of a priest. While Klarion does not share the same wide belt as the Judge, the large buckles still appear on his shoes. What I find particularly interesting about how Jack drew Klarion throughout The Demon is that the character design remains very consistent; however, the actual depictions change pretty substantially to convey drastic shifts in tenor and tone. While Klarion appears “normally” much of the time, Jack occasionally drops his pupils to present him in a slightly more alien manner. But returning his pupils and casting some heavy shadows under his eyes presents him in a decidedly more threatening manner, while putting virtually his entire face in shadow has him come across as downright sinister. These kind of lighting effects are not uncommon when trying to present a character in different ways, but it’s not a technique that Jack used as frequently as he might have. That he used them more often and in a more pronounced manner on Klarion than, say, Etrigan himself, makes me half-wonder if Jack was responding to the almost stereotypical mood swings of a teenager; he would have seen three of his own kids go through this by 1974, and his youngest, Lisa, would have been just getting to that age. I can’t speak to Barry’s own temperament at that age, but even if he were pretty even-keeled as far as teenagers go, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack still saw elements of that after having raised several kids already. Did Jack take extra care of Klarion’s visuals because they were based on a real person he’d met several times? I considered that it might be just a side effect of having a real-life model to base the character on, but he didn’t seem to adhere as closely to his initial design when working on Big Barda, whom he based on actress Lainie Kazan. (Check out my column in TJKC #49 for details on that!) Although not an overly complex character design, Jack kept Klarion’s visual tight, even after the character returned in The Demon after being absent for most of a year. That’s not something that can be said for most of Jack’s characters, so I have to believe Jack had a little more investment in getting the Witchboy’s visuals just right—and it may have been because of the personal connection he had with Barry. H 33
Jack Kirby & the Marvel Sup
EU Exhibit
[No one has done more to promote Jack’s life and legacy throughout Europe than my good friend Jean Depelley, and this 2021 Kirby exhibition in France is just one more instance of his tireless work curating Kirby’s art for display. Don’t miss his wonderful documentary Kirby At War, now with English subtitles, and available for free viewing on Amazon Prime at: https://www.amazon.com/Kirby-AtWar-Jack/dp/B086M3SMWR]
[throughout] Jean Depelley pictured at the Port Leucate, France Kirby exhibition, and many of the sights attendees were greeted with upon entering the Espace Henry de Monfreid.
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rance seems to have a special connection with Jack Kirby. After a first important Kirby art exhibition in 2015 during the festival of Angoulême (that I co-curated with Frédéric Manzano), a second in Cherbourg and a third in Bayeux in 2019 (curated by Marc Azéma and I), the latest occurred during Summer 2021, offering an opportunity for passing tourists and fans to discover the decisive involvement of the King of comics in the creation of the Marvel universe. From July 10th to August 29th, following a Hergé exhibition five years before, the idyllic seaside resort of Port Leucate (near Narbonne, in the south of France) hosted a Jack Kirby exhibition at the Espace Henry de Monfreid, again curated by Marc Azéma and yours truly. This 500m2 exhibition center near the harbor featured a retrospective of Kirby’s work within Martin Goodman’s publishing house, focusing on the different periods of his collaboration with Marvel, from 1940–41, in 1955–56, from 1958– 1970, and 1975–1978. In addition to the huge and
richly illustrated explanatory panels on the Marvel heroes, and Jack’s biography covering his entire career (notably with a detailed and illustrated explanation on the Marvel Method’s successive steps during the ’60s, with Kirby collaborating with editor and dialogue writer Stan Lee and the various inkers), the exhibition displayed a large number of comic books, with most of the key Kirby issues from the 1940s to the ’70s, among them: • Marvel Mystery Comics #25 • Marvel Tales pulp vol. 2, #2 • Yellow Claw #3 • Amazing Adventures #1 (starring Doctor Droom) • Fantastic Four #1, 5, 46, 49, 51 • Amazing Fantasy #15 (first Spider-Man) • Journey into Mystery #83 (first Thor) • Incredible Hulk #1 • Tales of Suspense #43 (fifth Iron Man) • Tales to Astonish #27 and 35 (Ant-Man) • Strange Tales #101 (first Human Torch) and 135 (first S.H.I.E.L.D.) • Avengers #1 and 4 • X-Men #1 and 4 • Daredevil #1 • Sgt. Fury #1 • Thor #131 • Tales of Suspense #59 (Captain America) • Captain America #100 • Amazing Aventures vol. 2, #1 (the Inhumans) • Astonishing Tales #1 (Ka-Zar) • Silver Surfer #18 with other Western, War, Monster, and Romance titles from the early ’60s, as well as Kirby’s ’70s first issues, including: • 2001 (both Marvel Treasury Edition and the actual comic book) • Machine Man #1 • Black Panther #1 • Eternals #1 • Devil Dinosaur #1 • Captain America #193 • Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles • the Silver Surfer graphic novel and French editions going back to the late Sixties.
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per-Heroes
The Kirby exhibition in Port Leucate, France, documented by Jean Depelley
But the highlight of the exhibition was the presence of two dozen original pages from various French collections (locally chosen to avoid customs fees), and made available to us, for the most part, through the excellent and very dependable 9e Art Gallery in Paris. Let me say that the curator and the fan that I am have not yet completely recovered from the Kirby boost I had then. Imagine yourself watching, in chronological order, some of the most wonderful pages of the King, magically gathered for this special event, and covering the 1960s and ’70s [see next page]. To this were added some beautiful light table inkings by artist Jean-Marie Arnon over photocopy pencils by Kirby (the Watcher, Captain America, and the unused cover for Thor #144). The opportunity to admire all these great pages together, covering a large part of Jack’s career, properly credited on the on-site signs (editor: Stan Lee, script and art: Jack Kirby, dialogue: Stan Lee), to read Kirby’s margin notes, to see his unerased pencils under the inkings... were a totally magical experience.
Visitors could then be photographed full-length among the Marvel heroes created by Kirby and Lee on a life-size frieze that Kirby initially drew for Esquire magazine. The two Kirby documentary films directed by Marc Azéma and I, Kirby at War and The D-Day of Jack Kirby, were also screened in our presence in front of a large and enthusiastic audience, asking many questions about the sometimes forgotten creator of Marvel Comics.
The show turned out to be a success, and was made possible thanks to Marvel/Disney’s and European publisher Panini’s agreement, along with the municipality of Port Leucate, which very professionally helped organize the event, counting 30,000 visitors at the end of the exhibition. These tourists and fans were interested in its didactic aspect, and were absolutely delighted with the presence of period comic books and the marvelous (pun intended!) display of original pages. I am hoping to be able to tour this beautiful exhibition in other cities in France, and very happy to participate in the recognition of the genius of Kirby in my country! H 35
KIRBY ART ON DISPLAY IN PORT LEUCATE: The 1960s • “Krangro” inked by Dick Ayers (Tales of Suspense #30, page 10) • page 6 of “Ant Man” from Tales to Astonish #39, also inked by Ayers • page 10 of “Thor” inked by Chic Stone from Journey into Mystery #110 [below] • page 2 of X-Men #11, also inked by Stone • page 6 of Avengers #16 (Kirby layouts, finished by Dick Ayers) • page 3 of X-Men #12 (with Alex Toth) • page 2 of “Hulk” in Tales to Astonish #76 (Kirby layouts, finished by Mike Esposito) • page 9 of “Captain America” in Tales of Suspense #73 (Kirby layouts, Tuska finishes) • page 11 of Thor #144 inked by Colletta • Fantastic Four #54, page 12 with Prester John • FF #53, page 16 (Black Panther) • FF #54, page 16 (Inhumans) • FF #76, page 20 (Silver Surfer) The 1970s • Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles double-pages 12–13 inked by Herb Trimpe • Captain America #203, page 17 with Royer inks • 2 pages of 2001 Treasury Edition, page 19 • 2001 #4, page 11 • Machine Man #4, page 6 • Eternals #16, page 10 starring the Hulk, inked by Royer • Silver Surfer graphic novel, unpublished double-pager (eventually inked by Royer) [right]
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INNERVIEWs
The Simon Legacy Lives On Joe Simon’s son Jim Simon and grandson Jesse Simon interviewed about their ShieldMaster character
© Jim Simon
[above, left to right] Jim, Joe, and a young Jesse Simon, and [below] Jim and Jesse in front of Joe’s 1998 illo of ShieldMaster, which they used for a variant cover of ShieldMaster #1 [below]. [top right] Variant cover for ShieldMaster #3. Keep up with all the latest on this character by following the ShieldMaster Facebook page, and the Instagram “ShieldMastercomics”.
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: What was the evolution of your ShieldMaster character? JESSE SIMON: ShieldMaster was created in 1998 by my father, Jim Simon. Jim, son of Joe Simon, had the idea, wrote a treatment, and brought it to his father. Jim had previously worked with Joe, helping out with Prez, The Outsiders, Sandman (’70s version), Green Team, Jove The Unborn, as editor of Sick magazine, and so on. Joe loved the idea of ShieldMaster so much that he did some prototype art of the character and proudly hung the prototype of ShieldMaster on his living room wall. That prototype art of ShieldMaster was Joe’s last professional work, previously unpublished until recently. TJKC: Does ShieldMaster tiein at all to Private Strong or any of the Simon and Kirby characters?
JESSE: ShieldMaster is its own property and is completely unrelated to Private Strong or any Simon and/or Kirby characters. Jim has established his own world where ShieldMaster exists, and even a place called Shield Dimension. I have been developing new concepts with my father regarding the ShieldMaster universe, new characters, and a lot of interesting ideas. As all the readers of this publication, I am a massive fan of the Simon and Kirby characters and would love to do a crossover event. I have been working on it for some time now, and have gotten permission from the estates to include everyone’s favorite characters for a one-shot special. I am talking about Fighting American, Bulls-Eye, Stuntman, Boys’ Ranch, and so much more! The Simon estate even gave me permission to use the Fly, who has not been seen in almost thirty years! These characters, as well as Joe and Jack, will be inside the oneshot and contribute to the story. I have recruited legendary artist Joe Rubinstein and have been working with him very closely on a sure to be iconic cover. I do not want to give away more than that, as it should be a genuine surprise for the fans. I am aiming for the one-shot to be released in Fall 2023/Winter 2024, but follow us on social media to be the first to get updates and photos. TJKC: Will this be an ongoing series, and if so, what will its frequency be? JESSE: Yes, I’ve made ShieldMaster a bi-monthly book, coming out the first of every other month. Jim and I are constantly coming up with new ideas and building off of one another. TJKC: This one’s for Jim Simon—do you have any especially fond stories of seeing your dad and Jack Kirby working together, or fraternizing outside of the studio?
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JIM SIMON: I grew up very close with my father, and from a young age, involved with comics. My father used to put new comics he produced in front of me and see which I’d go for. I remember, as a kid, watching Joe and Jack draw in the studio. It was magical to see them turn blank pages into the most dynamic artwork, time and time again. They were always yin and yang with each other; it seemed like they were an extension of one another. Eventually I started posing for my father and then working on Sick magazine. Those memories from my childhood were not just me watching Joe and Jack work on comics. Rather, it was me watching my father and our family friend trying to make a living. Now that they’re both gone, I find myself at times thinking about my father’s career and how amazing they were. Jesse and I have been developing a new book, one very unique that not only talks about the history of comics, Joe’s substantial and often overlooked contributions, but also one with a lot of personal feel to it. We both have such a unique perspective and insight that deserves to be told. I am pleased we are in talks with multiple publishers, and it’ll be something special that I feel the fans haven’t ever received yet. TJKC: Where can readers find the new ShieldMaster series and order it? JESSE: The book is currently being offered on Kickstarter. If you are a new reader to ShieldMaster, we offer past issues as well, so it is easy to get caught up on! The Kickstarter campaign launches on the first of the month. Once the campaign concludes, the book is printed and then shipped. We have all the material ready, so the book can get to the readers in as little time as possible! ShieldMaster is something really unique, a creation starting with my father. He brings it to his father who puts pen and ink to paper to make it come to life. Now, I am working with my father in ways that he used to work with his— three generations of Simon’s all collaborating on one character. I grew up hearing stories of my father and grandfather going to each other, bouncing ideas off one another, creating characters and stories out of thin air; creations that were a product of them both, not the same if one without the other. Now I find myself at times getting a stroke of genius at 10:00 pm running into my father’s room. Instantly we start building ideas off of each other. For me, this is more than just a comic book or even telling great stories. It is much more personal than that. ShieldMaster, its stories and concepts, are a representation of father and son moments spanning multiple generations. H 39
[above] Interior page from ShieldMaster #3, now shipping. [left] French publisher Organic Comix has collaborated with the Simons to produce new adventures of their other character Spyder-Fly, with the Spring 2023 issue of Futura offering a Kirbyesque tribute cover and interior art by Reed Man and Stefano Pavan.
Comic Collecting Carnage
Cuttin’ up
by Will Murray
C [right] Fighting American #3 (Sept. 1954). [below] Tales to Astonish #29 (March 1962). [next page] Marvel Tales Annual #1 (top, 1964) and Double Life of Private Strong #2 (bottom, Aug. 1959).
ollecting comic books has drastically changed since I started back at the end of 1961, during the Christmas school vacation. In those days, back issues were tough to come by. There were no mail order opportunities. You could certainly find older kids who might still have back issues and buy them for a nickel, or do some swapping—but even that was completely random. If you wanted to start collecting back issues of Superman in 1961, you would have a tough time finding anything older than a year or three. There was no systematic way of acquiring older comic books. I remember going into a new barber shop and finding two 1952–53 issues of Captain Marvel Adventures, a 1948 Airboy, and a coverless Fighting American #3 on the reading table with various copies of Life and Look magazines. They were a revelation. I swapped them for new titles with the barber. He was happy to have modern comic books, and I was thrilled to read the adventures of characters that were published around the time I was being born. I remember passing a different barbershop on my way to get my weekly comics and seeing a 1961 issue of Tales to Astonish (#29) in the window. Kirby’s cover to “When the Space Beasts Attack!” caught my eye. I got up my courage and managed to buy it off the barber. He probably thought I was crazy. You see, back in those innocent days, back-issue comic books were not valued. When people sold them, it was usually for a nickel. Nobody thought they were worth anything—or ever would be. And that was why so many were simply thrown out as valueless, or came to almost as sorry fates. 40
Cut It Out!
Brace yourself. I’m going to reveal one of the terrible things that we used to do with our precious comic books in the early 1960s. As Jack Kirby might have put it, it will curl your hair, your toes, and probably curdle your brain. I have a brother named Danny. He and I both read the same comic books. I was more of a collector. He just read them. I bought all the DCs and stored them in order. They were “keepers.” Everything else was disposable junk. I bought as many Marvels as I could find—distribution of Martin Goodman’s comic books even in a big city like Boston was spotty back then—as well as the occasional Charlton and Gold Key title. But I didn’t keep them for long. I don’t really remember how it all began, or where we got the idea, but at some point––and I doubt that I was the first kid of the 1950s or ’60s to do this––I took a pair of scissors to some of my non-keeper comics and cut out the more attractive figures. With these, we would play. Most of these were 1962 to 1964 Marvel Comics. I suspect I did this because the bold figurework of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko made great “cut-outs,” as we called them. By comparison, Charlton titles made for poor cut-outs, unless it was a Steve Ditko-drawn issue of Gorgo, in which case it was happily dismembered. Over a period of a few years, my brother and I accumulated separate cardboard boxes of these colorful cut-outs, with which we would have childish fun. Some of these, like full figures of the Human Torch flaming on, were especially prized as “rare.” In other cases, we struggled with which figures to cut out when equally good ones were printed on opposite sides of the same page—or when two cool super-heroes overlapped. Isolate the complete character? Or take the one behind him so that part of figure #1’s leg was incorporated into figure #2? This proved so hard to decide, that sometimes we would cut both overlapping figures as one image. I remember struggling with a Ditko tangle in Amazing Spider-Man #2, where Spidey and one or two of the Terrible Tinkerer’s green aliens overlapped so much, I had to extract them as a unit; otherwise I would be left with maimed pieces of figures. Need I state the obvious? Cover figures made the best cut-outs.
to buy the usual week of DC releases, and whatever Marvel Comics that would eventually fall victim to a pair of scissors. In those days, you didn’t know it was coming out in advance. So when I walked in and I laid my eyes on the first issue of Marvel Tales Annual #1, reprinting some of the early super-hero origins I had missed, as well Spider-Man Annual #1, without giving it any thought, or making any conscious decision, I ignored all the DCs and bought all the Marvels. From that point forward, I was a Marvelite. Only the week before, I had blithely reduced my copy of Fantastic Four #30 to colorful ribbons. I can tell you the exact date, and not from memory. I still have my copy of Marvel Tales Annual #1 with the on-sale date written in blue ballpoint ink by the druggist. It was June 11, 1964. Fortunately, I knew an older kid who had given up collecting comics, and he sold me some of the issues that I had cut up. And so I began rebuilding my Marvel comics collection, which I had so foolishly squandered in my youngest days. I fervently wished that I could reassemble the many titles I had ruined for the sake of isolating the best-drawn super-hero poses. But all I could do was sift through the disorganized detritus in that cardboard box and mourn my childish indiscretion. I kept my box of comic book cut-outs for several decades, but of course I stopped playing with them. Eventually, they ended up in the basement of the new house into which I moved. When I sold that house eventually, I came upon them. They smelled of mildew, so naturally, I simply threw them out. Probably the contents of the bedraggled cardboard box comprised the remains of many thousands of dollars of vintage Marvel Comics––had they been new. Sad, but true… ...but I kept one. I had cut out the dynamic figure of the Shield from the cover of The Double Life of Private Strong #2. I suspect I held onto this because I wanted a memento of one of the rarest characters of that time, one who was no longer published. Also, Jack Kirby poses made the absolutely best cut-outs. If I could blame anyone other than myself for my youthful folly, it’s Jack. His poses popped right off the page. Many would have made fabulous pin-ups. I sometimes wonder if I had kept that box, what a collector today might pay for it.… H
The Shear Horror Of it
Among the titles that fell victim to my mother’s shears were Fantastic Four #5, 11, Fantastic Four Annual #1, Daredevil #1, and many early Amazing Spider-Mans between #2 and #16—pretty much anything Marvel published from 1962 into early Summer 1964. I remember being especially fond of dismembering issues of Strange Tales with the Human Torch strip. Without the other three partners of the Fantastic Four, the Torch had more room, and Jack Kirby took glorious advantage of it. I remember only two of my early Marvel titles survived that cut-out carnage spree. My father bought a new sofa back in the days of heavy overstuffed sofas, but he wasn’t satisfied with the way the cushions sat. So without asking me, because I was only eight or nine years old, he grabbed a couple of my comics and rolled them up and stuffed them into the cushions to stabilize them. Sixty years later, I distinctly remember the titles. They were Fantastic Four #4 and Incredible Hulk #1. I don’t think I was able to salvage them later for cut-out purposes. I imagine they were simply thrown out at some point. There came a time when I looked with envious eyes on my brother’s collection of cutouts. He had stuff I didn’t have. Eventually, I talked him into giving me his collection, and suddenly I had twice as many.
Not Making The Cut
I stop cutting up my Marvels at the time I transitioned from being a DC collector to a Marvel collector. I still remember that day. And in those days, you would buy your comics at your local drugstore or similar such place. In my immediate neighborhood, there was a drug store that sold comics, and a smoke shop the next block over that also sold them. I purchased from both. One day, the drug store stopped selling comic books. No problem; I still had the smoke shop. Then a year or so later, they also cut comics completely. I do remember becoming friendly with one of the guys who clerked there, and he gave me first crack at the bundles when they came in. These bundles were wrapped in steel wire which, of course, dented any copies at the top and bottom. I have a clear memory of the day that the thick bundle containing the first issues of The Avengers and X-Men came in, and him snapping the wire, and giving me my pick of the most mint copies. Not long after that, that smoke shop gave up on comic books. I have no idea why. I had to search far and wide before I found a drugstore that carried them. In the year or so before they gave up as well, I remember stepping in one day in early June 1964, fully intending 41
INNERVIEW
The King of Monsters Speaks
Interviewed by Glenn Koleeda • Originally published in Comic Book Marketplace #21, Jan.–Feb. 1993. ©1994 Gary M. Carter. Used with permission.
GLENN KOLEEDA: What were the earliest monsters? JACK KIRBY: There were monsters in the pulp magazines that preceded the comics. Before super-heroes, it was straight sciencefiction. They used innovative illustrations (like theatrical monsters) in order to sell magazines. Don’t forget that the idea was not only do first rate artwork and to utilize first rate imaginative ideas, but to sell the magazines! The pulps let us sell our illustrations and the pulp magazine itself. Also, they required only one illustration per story, and, of course, a painted cover.
young heroes, like The Challengers of the Unknown. They were a fighting team. The basis of the art is always the same, it’s storytelling art. That’s what comics are... they allow you to tell an entire story in twenty-some pages. Comics allow you to do a “silent movie”of sorts. I always try to bring the story to an exciting climax. If I insert a monster into that climax, I do it in a variety of ways. Is that monster victorious? Is he defeated? Does he wander off and become a fable? King Kong, for instance, is an undying myth. One sees King Kong ripping up the jungle, aiming his fist at the world. This great ape monster will never die.
GLENN: Why do you think so many collectors and fans think that Fin Fang Foam stands out above the rest? JACK: Fin Fang Foom was a monster with human qualities. When a monster is given these qualities, it acquires equal status with any human character, and therefore becomes interesting in that manner. The interesting part of this is that the reader knows the monster is not human (and can’t be classified as such), yet it is portrayed in a human-like manner. Fin Fan Foom was like this, sort of “semi-human.” He had clothes and was angered by insults. In acknowledging Fin Fang Foom, we acknowledge something that is very fearsome in us. It’s similar to Dracula, who is human too, or semi-human in his own way. We acknowledge him in a human fashion, yet we are frightened of him. It’s our vulnerabilities that sell magazines—because the writer asks himself what we are afraid of, and puts an image in place of that question, and it becomes a monster. If it’s a good one like Dracula, it becomes a classic. It’s always been done that way. Dracula is an excellent case in point. The peasants would sit around the fire and tell the stories. The writers would record the stories, and that’s how the classics were born. We still read these stories today.
GLENN: I know you’re planning some new Kirby monsters for the 1990s. Which monsters do you think will be popular? JACK: I think any one of my monsters that was part of a well written and well told story would work today. Those old monsters sold a lot of comic magazines. Back then, the comic business was a shaky affair at best. Those were the very beginnings of Marvel. There were two dominant publishers, and I bounced between both of them. My new monsters will be drawn in various and different ways in order to maintain interest in the stories. Of course, the public might grow to like one monster more than another; then I will concentrate on him. There’s a million stories left to be told. Monsters have a mystery all their own. You have to interpret that mystery, and that’s the bottom line. H
GLENN: What were the inspirations for some of the monsters you came up with in the Fifties and Sixties? JACK: The initial inspiration was always storytelling and the way the monster frightens us. Readers are always intrigued by the monster’s behavior, like King Kong, which is an eternal classic. We tried to do the same thing with our monsters. There wasn’t a person of that period who didn’t see Godzilla, re-runs of Frankenstein, or all the other great horror classics. GLENN: Was this particular period a time when monsters were popular? JACK: Monsters were always popular! Your best bet in storytelling is to create a new monster, and, if it’s good, nobody will ever forget it. You’ll have readers eternally. GLENN: Do you have any favorite monsters? JACK: I like them all. I like a monster who is well drawn, well written, and well acted. I like a monster whose creator wants to reach out to me, in some fashion. If I’m fascinated with his creation, my reaction will fulfill his ambition. GLENN: Tell me about inker Dick Ayers. JACK: He had a very good, strong line. I rarely did it myself because it took me from my writing and drawing. Others had thin, crisp lines, and Dick had good, strong lines. The inker could sell your work as well as you could, thereby making it as impressive to the reader as possible. GLENN: What about your early Silver Age work at DC? JACK: It was mainly science-fiction concepts. I did a lot of
Another drawing from Roz’s Valentine’s Day sketchbook.
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Foundations
Here’s Simon & Kirby’s Boy Explorers story “The Isle Where Women Rule” from Terry and the Pirates #3 and #4 (April–June 1947). Art restoration and color by Christopher Fama.
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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.
“Nasty Little Man!” and “The Angel of Death” were reprinted in DC Comics’ Black Magic #3 (April-May 1974, below) and The Jack Kirby Omnibus #2 (2013). “The Mysterious Mr. Vince” was reprinted in The Jack Kirby Omnibus #1 (2011).
ness—particularly notable in an artist whose invention was so prodigal that he could hardly bear to repeat himself. But before the Marvel super-hero revolution took off with Fantastic Four, Kirby was clearly running on empty with Fin Fang Foom’s endless progeny. However—and here is the sentence that may get me back into those Kirby fan groups that might have disowned me after the preceding—there is one thing Kirby never stinted on and never lost his inspiration for: his amazing splash panels! Look at any one of them from the beginning to the end of the run of the monster books, and you’ll see that he always delivered the goods in setting up a story.
SPLASH PANELS SUPREME
I am about to make a statement which will probably get me disbarred from every Kirby appreciation group, official or unofficial. I bow to no one in my appreciation of The King, the finest illustrator ever to work in the comics field. But—are you ready for this?—the New York-born Titan was not always able to triumph over indifferent scripts in which cliché took over from inventiveness. Examples of this? You’ll find them frequently in the Kirby monster books, delivered in profusion for Stan Lee’s Atlas/Marvel line. The early tales in such books as Journey into Mystery, Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense did not solely rely on city-crushing gargantuas that were almost invariably brought down by something trivial at the end of the tales—the early stories were inventive and unusual, with a variety of fantasy and sci-fi themes at the center, not just legions of gigantic monsters-for-thedisposal-of. The last time I took a traversal of the entire range, I have to admit that I grew tired of the standard house plots that Stan Lee and his brother Larry Lieber relied upon again and again, as soon those creators ran out of inspiration. And, let’s face it, Kirby’s work, too, began to show a certain repetitive-
BACK TO BLACK (MAGIC)
However, it’s also notable that a similar exhaustion syndrome could be spotted in Kirby’s groundbreaking run on Prize Comics’ Black Magic horror issues. These tales—for which Kirby sometimes drew only the splash panel, leaving the rest of the story to other lesser talents—were usually as well written as anything in the Simon and Kirby library (although there was nothing as well written and sophisticated as the science-fiction stories in the all-toobrief run in the three issues of Race for the Moon). But some Black Magic stories ran out of steam even before their modest seven pages were over. Nevertheless, there were always those terrific splash panels. Take for instance, “The Angel of Death” (from Black Magic #15, Volume 2, #9, August 1952): The splash is taken up entirely by a grotesque insect of a kind that has never existed on this planet, with its multiple mandibles, its vari-faceted face, and transparent wings. This monstrosity is seen against the background of a burning city, and must have whetted the appetite of readers for the following seven pages in which a prehistoric creature is unearthed and releases a plague upon a town. The first panel of the tale is striking, with a purple-faced dying man struggling his life away on a bed while a relative looks on in distress—but from then on as the creature wreaks havoc, it’s very much Kirby on autopilot. Particularly 56
tiresomely—had banal and non-supernatural or non-science-fiction explanations for the fantastic events we’d seen. That’s the case here—Mr. Vince is part of a con to wring money out of the businessmen who are deceived into thinking he is an alien visitor. As in almost every occasion when this happened at DC, it’s disappointing and a considerable letdown. Having said that, “The Mysterious Mr. Vince” is illustrated by Jack Kirby at his best! And we admirers can certainly put up with anything (even disappointing scripts) for that superlative artwork.
A GRIM TAKE ON THE LITTLE PEOPLE
As a variety of well-written tales attests, the Simon/Kirby duo—in their heyday—could produce some top quality writing along with that matchless art, as a tale from Black Magic #18 (November 1952) demonstrates. “Nasty Little Man,” in which a truly malevolent leprechaun wreaks bloody havoc on some railroad bums who upset him, is one of the best examples of a sub-genre: that in which leprechauns are not the amusing supernatural jesters of such things as the musical Finian’s Rainbow, but truly sinister and vengeful spirits. As Jack Kirby’s tale proves, really unpleasant leprechauns are just as effective bogeymen as murderous and sentient ventriloquist dummies (of the kind found in the classic British supernatural film Dead of Night). The other memorable aspect of this fast-moving piece is how it really is a horror story: most of the drawings of the leprechaun (called with typical faux-Oirishness ‘Paddy O’Day’) are Kirby at his most grotesque. And although most of the killings are off-camera, it’s still macabre stuff—there’s one shot of the leprechaun in its natural form with a purple face and antennae. Kirby would repeatedly (and defensively) claim that Black Magic was not really a horror comic in the same vein as EC were producing with such things as Tales from the Crypt, but the mordant little piece that is “Nasty Little Man” would fit smoothly into one of the magazines created by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines. H
disappointing is the final panel in which the hideous insect is disgorged from a sack onto the ground. All we see is its green monstrous head, but rendered in a very flat and uninteresting way—there is no doubt that the artists at the contemporaneous EC comics (such as Reed Crandall and George Evans) would have made much more of this final revelation (the final panel was key at EC), rather thrown away here. Having said that, however, it’s safe to say that Kirby enthusiasts will feel they’ve got their money’s worth from the tale, and we dedicated enthusiasts can surely be objective about our favourite illustrator when he is at his best—or otherwise—can’t we?
SPOILER ALERT
If you’re planning to read DC’s Tales of the Unexpected #21 (January 1958), then perhaps you’d better skip this paragraph, as I’m about to unfurl a revelation about Jack Kirby’s entry (incontrovertibly the best thing in the issue), “The Mysterious Mr. Vince.” Firstly, the good things: this is prime Kirby at DC, with the crisp, clear linework that distinguished his work in this period and gives every panel an impressive gloss. It’s also a piece that will make you think of Dick Sprang’s matchless inking on the Batman tales he did—take, for instance, the first panel after the splash, which shows a car approaching a mansion: everything might be seen as essentially design elements, but design elements which clearly tell the story. And the splash, with the demonic-looking eponymous character, is one of Kirby’s classic sinister faces. In terms of storytelling, every panel is a model of precision and forward movement, which makes the piece move with clockwork precision. A group of businessmen discover that a colleague of theirs appears to have a super-powered alien visitor at his beck and call, and the demonstration of the sinister Mr. Vince’s powers are all perfectly handled. However, the story is a bit of a throwback in terms of the DC ethos of the time— and here comes the spoiler. Early issues of DC’s mystery books (they certainly can’t be called horror) under the Comics Code repeatedly—and 57
Collector:
Mike Mignola
Hellboy’s creator interviewed by Glen Gold
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Do you consider yourself a collector in general? MIKE MIGNOLA: A collector…? Not really, as I’m not really hunting for stuff—or maybe I’m just a really lazy collector. I always wander past art dealers at shows and look over stuff, and there are a couple artists I’m on the lookout for, but that’s it. I’m not actively searching. These days I set aside a lot of my own art to use in trades for other art, so maybe I’m a lazy and cheap collector. TJKC: Do you remember how the first Kirby art you saw in person struck you? MIGNOLA: I don’t remember the first Kirby originals, but I do remember the first time I saw pages from my favorite Kirby story: Fantastic Four #62. It was at some New York Comic-Con and I wandered past somebody, and the way I remember it, they had the whole issue, and the pages were something like $200 each. At the time it was a lot of money, so I figured I could only get one page and I couldn’t decide on which page—they were all so great and it was so much my favorite issue, and I just couldn’t risk getting the
wrong page. So I made the classic mistake. I walked off to think about it, walked once around the room or something, and by the time I came back, they were all gone. Any page from that issue would have been a treasure. That’s the one that got away. That’s the one art buying mistake that still haunts me. TJKC: Tell us about a piece of Kirby art you own—do you have it on display? Is there a story about how you got it? Do you find yourself getting different things out of looking at it over time? MIGNOLA: The Demon #10, page 6 [above]—that insane splash page of that Phantom Of The Opera kind of guy screaming, “My face! It took my face-!” I’ve had that page hanging in my various studios for more than thirty years. I don’t have any memory of buying it. It feels like I’ve always owned it—and even though I do own a couple other Kirby pages, that one I think of as my Kirby page. It’s just so wild, so entirely lacking in subtly. I find it very inspiring. Right now it is hanging over my computer, so I see it every day and I will never ever get tired of it. It’s odd, because 58
I never saw any of the Kirby DC stuff in my comic buying days, so it’s not like the FF pages that got away—I don’t have that gut level “I loved it as a kid” feel—it’s just a spectacular example of Kirby unleashed. I did recently get one of those Kirby stories I did love as a kid—a five-page “Tales Of Asgard” story (I don’t know the issue, but it’s the one that’s basically Jack’s Asgardian version of Little Red Riding Hood). [Editor’s note: It’s Journey into Mystery #114 from 1965, shown above.] It’s inked by Vinnie [Colletta], of course, so it’s actually kind of nasty looking in a bunch of places, but it still has the Kirby power, and it is a whole different feeling, having one that got imprinted into your brain way back when. FF and Thor were the big books for me as a kid.
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TJKC: A girlfriend of mine once asked a really reasonable question: “If you like looking at the art, why not just own a nice giclée?” What is it about having the actual art that thrills you (assuming “thrill” is the right word)? MIGNOLA: Owning that actual piece of art—something that artist actually handled, knowing there is just this one piece of it—that’s the whole thing. I have a zillion Kirby images saved on my computer and all the books—but there is nothing like seeing the real object. It’s like saying, “Why go and have coffee with an old friend when you can actually just look at a photo or an old home movie of them?” One is a real experience, and one is just a picture. H
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• illustrating the scope of Kirby’s multi-faceted career, • communicating the stories, inspirations and influences of Jack Kirby, • celebrating the life of Jack Kirby and his creations, and • building understanding of comic books and comic book creators. To this end, the Museum will sponsor and otherwise support study, teaching, conferences, discussion groups, exhibitions, displays, publications and cinematic, theatrical or multimedia productions.
Captain America—23” x 29” 1941 Captain America—14” x 23”
or this: $70
Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center PO Box 5236 Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA Telephone: (201) 204-0532 Board Of Trustees Tom Kraft: President Ra ndolph Hoppe: Treasurer/Acting Director Mike Cecchini: Secretary All characters TM © their respective owners.
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Fighting American print silkscreened in Switzerland 23” x 19”
*Please add $10 for memberships outside the US, to cover additional postage costs. Posters come “as-is” and may not be in mint condition.
Collector:
Patrick McDonnell
Mutts cartoonist, author, and playwright
Photo by Michael Keel
J
ack Kirby was a conduit for the gods of creativity. His art has a powerful raw energy with strong spiritual underpinnings. It lives, breathes and explodes on the page. It’s incredible to think of all the imaginative characters, costumes, machinery, stories, and concepts that flowed consistently from his pencil. He always gave his all. Collecting his originals is like owning a piece of history, both the world’s and your own. As a fellow artist, holding an original Kirby gives me a feeling of kinship. Seeing his marks become magic on paper is a “Unimind” moment with Jack. My collection leans towards his more abstract pages—the more crackle, motion and gadgets, the better. From afar, these pieces take on the look of an abstract action painting of the 1950s. I was originally mesmerized by the Kirby/ Lee Marvel masterpieces, but really connected to his work from the ’70s when Jack’s imagination had free rein. My collection is largely from that time. Most memorably, as a teenager at a New York comic convention, I had the honor to purchase a New Gods page from Jack himself. H
[above] Cover pencils for Eternals #12 (June 1977). Patrick owns the original art to this piece. Also shown are Jack’s pencil notes for the cover’s blurbs [left]. [next page] Eternals #19 (Jan. 1978), page 1 pencils.
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Collector:
Michael Bennett Animator, character designer, and storyboard artist
I
don’t remember the exact circumstances, but in 1964 when I bought Fantastic Four Annual #3, “magic happened.” It was a Kirby rush job, I’m told, inked by Colletta, but pure Kirby was in command. It was the first Marvel comic I ever laid eyes on, and it spoke to me! Jack’s powerful characters leapt off the page, and there were a lot of ’em—so many, it took me years to collect back issues and read the adventures of every incidental wedding guest in that story (invited or not). I don’t know why, but the aspect of a guy from the future was far-out stuff for this 13-year-old, and when I read Avengers #8, Jack did not let me down. It was Kang’s premiere and I wanted more, but it was Jack’s last outing as a penciler for “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”—damn. While I know he did layouts on Immortus and the other incarnations of the “conqueror” from the 28th century,
I wanted Kirby’s vision. Jack blew me away with his multi-personality psychoanalysis of Rama-Tut, etc. Jack Kirby’s mind was just NOT Michael Bennett! plain awesome. I wish he could have choreographed Kang’s escapades himself—what a masterpiece! For years after, I waited for the Kirby storyline to continue, relishing every time the blue-faced demon re-appeared. What was Jack going to do with him? Think of all the limitless possibilities! I became convinced Kirby saw the 1963 Outer Limits episode “The Sixth Finger” and loosely created his own arrogant evil man of tomorrow. Look at his design [above]: big head, arrogant aloof mannerisms, a zygomatic arch-line down the temple to the cheekbones. And from man’s future, 100,000 years of “evilution.” Forget about the “Hollywood” Kang. Jack was goin’ for the Big One and we Marvel Universe guys knew it. I visited Jack in 1987 with some Ruby-Spears guys. We went to his villa in Thousand Oaks, and when I shook the hand of the mighty Kirby, I was thunderstruck— literally speechless! Others were chatting. I brought $1000 to buy some of his original art, just returned from Marvel. Jack prodded me about my background, of which I could only say I related to his upbringing in a 1920s New York slum. “I grew up across the tracks in Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley, and I wanted to draw as kick-ass as you!” He looked at my art and was encouraging. Then I picked out a Silver Surfer page; a Galactus page; a Thor page; a Captain America page; Jimmy Olsen. He signed my Avengers #8 original page 4, which I got at Comic-Con, and I was inspired, big time! I paid him and said good-bye, and went back to my job at Hanna-Barbera. A month or so later, we met again at Comic-Con—he remembered me and offered the entire last issue original art to Eternals #19. I paid him, and it’s still inspiring me to this moment! Jack is the gift that keeps on giving—thanks, Kirby! H
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Collector:
I
Jonathan Ross
t’s odd, but I can’t remember the first piece of original art by The King that I got to see in the actual flesh. It was probably a page I had bought for my collection when I first became aware that these gems were out there and, if you had the cash, gettable. But I do remember with crystal clarity the first time I saw his art reproduced as it had been created, before the inking and coloring and printing on that pulpy paper that gave comic books their peculiar power. It was at a British comic convention and I was 11 or 12. I would save
British comedian, actor, writer, and producer
the money from my after-school job each week, hoarding every penny, going without treats and snacks and even meals (I would save the dinner money I had to spend for school lunches and put that into the kitty), and would then deliberate and plan and spend that money as wisely as possible at the Conventions—or Marts, as they were known—hoping to fill the gaps in my collection. I only bought comic books—no toys, not sketches, no novels. I lived and breathed for my modest collection of primarily Marvel comic books. But at this one Mart, I saw the oversized Kirby Unleashed portfolio. As I leafed through the pages, my jaw felt slack, my knees weak—well, probably just slacker and weaker, because I was never really a particularly impressive example of boyhood. But the cover— that pantheon of Gods dreamed up by Jack. And then the interior pages—early sketches, reproductions of Golden Age pages, the existence of which I had previously been unaware of. Black Magic, a comic book yet to be reprinted by DC, but now firmly on my wish list. Stuntman! Fighting American! Decades of Jack’s work that I knew nothing about, alongside the Boy Commandos, Challengers of the Unknown, and then, some actual fullsize reproductions of penciled pages. But of course, it wasn’t a comic—and it was expensive! For sale for 2.50 in UK Pounds. I had with me £ 3.50, which represented a whole month of saving. There was no way I could spend almost all my cash on one book, especially as it wasn’t even a comic! But as I wandered around the Mart, it kept calling to me. I returned and browsed again, left it, returned, left it. Finally, helpless and in turmoil and trying my best to walk away again, I pulled the trigger. I had to have it. I had to look at those life-size reproductions of his pencils, I had to read about his pre-comic book stint at the Fleischer Studios, I had to know more about the man whose work had transformed my life. And although I can’t remember the actual comic books I bought with my remaining pennies that day, I still have it, still cherish it, still love it. I guess my love of and desire to 62
collect comics is what turned me into a bonafide collector. I have a lot of comics and a lot of comic-book art. But I also now collect toys, and furniture, and cars, and dogs, and records, and record-players, and video games… but if I had to only keep one collection, it would be the comics and related artwork—and even that I will gladly let go one day. Although I collect, I’ve never really felt the thrill of ownership. It’s more the chance to admire and hold for a brief period. I think of myself more as a curator or caretaker, looking after this precious ephemera for the next generation. I’m lucky enough to be the caretaker of a lot of Kirby pages. I think if I had to choose one which really means a lot, it would be the cover to Kamandi #12 [shown here]. On it, the Last Boy on Earth is struggling to hold onto and rein in Klik-Klak, his giant grasshopper mount. It’s not the best designed cover that Jack produced, although it does rather beautifully showcase the incredible energy and imagination that characterized his work in the 1970s. But the story was powerful and poignant and memorable to me from when I first read it. Spoiler alert: Klik-Klak doesn’t stick around for long, and I think I probably cried over it back in the day. So to own that cover, hanging on my wall right now, is a rather powerful delight. But I have other pages I like to display or just get out and pore over. I have several New Gods covers and interior pages—in fact, I own many pieces from all of his Fourth World Opus, assorted Demon pages and covers, “The Losers,” and a few bits from his 1970s return to Marvel—including a fabulous Devil Dinosaur double-page spread. Got some Golden Age stuff and Silver Age Marvel gems, like the pages from the FF when Black Bolt first opens his mouth and wreaks havoc. And I have some of his character studies that led to the New Gods being sold to DC. If the eleven-year-old were able to see into the future at what surrounds me, he’d be very happy—as am I at age 62.
I am no snob, though. If I didn’t have these originals, I suspect I’d be just as happy with quality reproductions. There is a special frisson that comes from holding a page that you know Jack held; to look at the lines his pencil made before Joe or Mike or (shudder) Vince added the ink. But when the time comes for me to pass the originals on, I’ll happily enjoy staring at reproductions. They were, of course, designed to be enjoyed that way. The collecting of these books and pages is fulfilling in so many different ways. I love the joy of re-uniting pages with their brothers. So assembling a whole book and getting the cover art back in one place is a joyful thing. I love sharing the joy with others and letting fellow fans hold and stare at the originals. I like walking past them every single day. But the downside is I just don’t have enough walls to hang them all up on. H [left] Kirby Unleashed cover painting.
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Collector:
1991
Michael Kenyon
was the year I visited the San Diego Comic-Con for the first time. I have fond memories of that visit. I searched for comics and met so many cool people. I remember buying a copy of Fantastic Four #50 with Jack Kirby’s signature on the inside indicia. My wife Michelle and my best friend Dan came with me from Las Vegas where we lived at the time. On the drive home, I looked closer at the guest list for that SDCC. It shocked me to see Jack Kirby listed as a guest, and I thought, “Why didn’t I meet him while we were there?” I blew my chance! Jack Kirby would later pass away in February of 1994. The King of Comics was gone, and I was crushed. My favorite artist had been a
writer for CFA/APA Fanzine
part of my life since reading my first comic books as a kid. I grew up in New York during the Seventies. I lived and breathed Captain America! The FF and The Fourth World! The Treasuries and old school reprints. Kirby was tops! The truth is, I had no idea Kirby was at SDCC that day. Was he in Artists’ Alley or on a special panel? I realized it didn’t matter. Wherever he was, I had missed my chance to meet my hero. Back then, I had only one mission: to hunt down treasured comic back issues that I couldn’t find back home. SDCC had so many comic dealers from all over the USA. I wasn’t an art collector at that time, so looking back, I was just overwhelmed by the experience of searching through boxes of back issues. It never occurred to me to look for and meet the comic artists. Over the years I would meet many greats like Gene Colan, Bernie Wrightson, Marie Severin, and Jim Mooney. The artists were talented and kind people. Still, Kirby was always on my mind. Pushing against my regrets was a fiery desire to make amends. My obsession to purchase a piece of Kirby art took hold. In those days, Kirby pieces were relatively high—$400–7500. I was still trying to learn from dealer sites, pricing catalogs, and word of mouth, what a reasonable value was for Kirby art, depending on content. In 1997, I laid eyes on an incredibly special piece I found in a mailing catalog from a dealer in Cold Springs, New York. His name was Conrad Eschenberg, and he had a page out of Amazing Spider-Man #8 from 1963 that really spoke to me [left]. It was page 3 of a six-page back-up story in the issue drawn by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. The wow factor of seeing two of my heroes working together on the greatest super-hero ever created, shortcircuited my nervous system. The purchase price was comparable to paying several mortgage payments or buying a car. I had no points of reference, like access to private sales or auction results to feel sure. There were no Google search engines at this time. I called Conrad twice about the page, but it took several months for me to come up with the money. I was a rookie, but every instinct in me said “Just do it.” I sent the money to Conrad and waited patiently until the day a package arrived at my doorstep. Many years later, I set my sights on getting either a Silver Surfer or Captain America page by Kirby. I just loved all the appearances of the Surfer drawn by Kirby and inked by Joe Sinnott in the pages of The Fantastic Four. They were out there, but they were highly desired and competed for. My other favorite was Captain America, and by providence, an auction on eBay offered the cover of Captain America #198 [next page]. I watched that auction all week and had a few serious discussions 64
with my wife. With her backing, I decided to go for the cover. It was nerve-racking, and the auction ended about thirty minutes after my work shift was to begin. Being new on the job, I didn’t feel comfortable being late or calling out sick just to bid on the cover. So on the day-of and with about a half-hour to go, I did something I never do. I placed a fairly large bid with time to spare, and then turned off my computer and drove to work. All day I worried about the auction. My emotions were up and down. On the one hand, I worried about spending too much. “What if I won?” rattled in my brain all day. Or dang it, what if I lost out? When I got home, the computer said I had won the cover! After that day, I worked weekends and seven day weeks as much as possible to afford that cover. Getting hold of a Kirby comic cover was no small feat, especially one from Jack’s inspired return to the character in 1976. I can almost hear you at home asking, “It’s a big move to go from buying comics as a kid to now spending big money on original comic art. What happened?” It’s really simple. There’s nothing more personal than getting your hands on a piece of original art. I started reading magazines like The Jack Kirby Collector and Alter Ego. I also started asking dealers like Mitch Itkowitz from Graphic Collectibles, or Conrad Eschenberg, to send me catalogs. Also, my local comic shop carried The Comic Buyer’s Guide. They had great articles and advertisements for art from all over the country. I learned about every dealer and private collector through the CBG. I was seeing hundreds of examples of Kirby’s original work for the first time. Sometimes it was his supernatural pencil-only pieces. Sometimes it was his finished work. I also began reading so many stories about Jack and Roz in The Jack Kirby Collector that I fell in love with them both. I learned about Jack serving our country during wartime. I learned about Jack Kirby the husband and family man. He was a mythical figure to me as an artist, but having his real-life humanity fleshed out in storied recollections gave me a fuller picture. I will forever have an unexplainable love for Jack and Roz Kirby. The last Kirby piece in my collection was a beautiful miracle to get hold of. Most of Kirby’s artwork had gotten too pricey for me. I had always hoped to get at least an interior Fantastic Four page featuring the Silver Surfer. I never got a published page, but I did get hold of the incredibly special drawing contained within this article. Jack Kirby had successfully completed the Silver Surfer graphic novel in 1978. Jack Kirby and his wife Roz were really good friends with artist Jack Katz and his wife Caroline. Kirby gifted a copy of his graphic novel to his friends. Making it ultra-special was what he did on the inside first page. He crafted a splendid Silver Surfer soaring above the Earth. Jack had started by inscribing “To Caroline and Jack (Gourmets supreme) Jack Kirby.” Then beneath the finished drawing, Kirby writes “To my very good friends” and signs his name once more. I won this stunner at auction [see next page] and beat out some good friends of mine. They let me know about it, but of course
all congratulated me for finally getting a Kirby Surfer. My pursuit of the three Kirby pieces in my collection have nothing to do with investment or bragging rights. It really became my marker for learning about the mythical King of Comics and his prodigious contributions spanning many, many decades. There were seeds planted before getting my first pieces of art in 1996. I was aware of the Sotheby’s auction for Jack Kirby recreation covers, probably from an advertisement in The Overstreet Price Guide. I thought briefly, “That sounds pretty cool,” but thought no more of it. I never even followed up on the auction results. My interest in obtaining original Kirby art was to capture the essence of Kirby—to hold something in my hands that Jack had worked on personally. I imagined him creating on that legendary drawing table of his. When I held that Amazing Spider-Man page in my hand for the first time, my hands trembled. I was happy, but I came close to tears. Kirby and Ditko had both touched the page 65
with their hands, using their artists tools and a lot of heart and soul. I spoke with Conrad after I received the page and he said, “Let me know when you grow tired of the page; we’ll have you trade it in for something new.” “I’m not going to ever get tired of this page.” Conrad laughed and said, “Everybody gets bored and wants to trade for something new.” I never got bored, and as you can see, the page is still in my collection twenty-five years later. There are few words to describe the joy I feel every time I look at what is one of Kirby’s most cleverly constructed and dramatic covers (Captain America #198, 1976). I still have the auction printout that shows I beat out a handful of the top dealers and collectors for this prize. I never met Jack Kirby, but it took several years after his passing to learn all I could about him, and it’s enriched my life. He was a swell human being. When I look at Jack’s work, I feel a sense of love and pride. This is my way of salvaging redemption for thinking too much about the comic books, and not taking the time to read about guests in attendance at that SDCC. I could’ve met the man face-to-face. The King of Comics is gone, but he will never be forgotten. H
Collector:
L
A Singapore Kirby Fan... ...who wishes to remain anonymous
eaving aside the Marvel penchant for alliteration, the fondly remembered description “Jack King Kirby” was one that never rang truer. I might be biased, but an objective view of the matter—not only in terms of quantum of output but (more importantly) the quality thereof—puts Jack Kirby right up there as, indeed, the King of Comics. Growing up in pre-independence Singapore, I was blessed to catch part of the Marvel revolution. It came a little late though. DC comics and the usual English “suspects,” the Dandy and Beano, were what I first grew up with. It was only by a happenstance of watching a copy of the Amazing Spider-Man being passed around in the school bus, that I realized that there was this “new” company that was producing comics that were quite different from any that I had encountered before. That having been said, comics were a luxury then. For the price of a comic, one could have a meal—even a substantial meal. Income levels were also not generally high then. So it took a really long time to save up for even a single issue. And even then, it was read to “death”—little did any of us know how valuable they would be. Ironically, perhaps, our “destruction” of them was— in part at least—necessary to create that scarcity that would result in such value, even as we derived our own “value” from them. I digress, but with the obsession nowadays with encasing vintage comics in plastic cases instead of reading them, and putting them on the altar
of proud display instead of using them in the way they were originally intended, there is a sense in which the idealism and romance of comics has somehow been sullied. But that is another story for another time.
My First Encounter with the King
This essay is about the King and I, and the very first time I encountered his work was serendipitous. It was that rare occasion when my dear mother brought me out downtown on an errand. I was a well-behaved child and was happy to have that occasional outing when I would be treated to a good meal and—yes—possibly a comic or two. That particular occasion was particularly “bountiful.” Comics were usually secured by clothes pegs on plastic or metal clothes lines (so much for mint condition books!). This time around, though, they were on the floor—beside a stack of newspapers. I could not contain my excitement. It must have been evident to my Mum, too, because she allowed me to purchase three books—probably as a result of my evident excitement at encountering Marvel comics for the very first time. I still recall that I was beside myself with joy! Those were, in fact, my very first Marvel books—they were Fantastic Four #44, Daredevil #10, and Avengers #21. Of the latter two, Daredevil #10 had a Wally Wood drawn cover, whilst the Avengers #21 cover had Wood inks over Kirby pencils. Indeed, the 66
by the great Joe Sinnott (to me, Kirby’s best inker ever on the FF). I was not to know till many years later that this was Joe’s first inking work on the FF since issue #5. I also solved the mystery of the inker for the cover several years later as well—I had always assumed that the inker for the cover was the same as for the interior pages. It is often the case, but not this time around—somehow, the inks on the cover seemed, for want of a better word, “thinner,” not having those bold Sinnott strokes one found in the interior pages. When I found out that the inker for the cover of that issue was Vinnie Colletta, the penny dropped. Vince Colletta, whilst a great artist and inker, was reputed not to be the most diligent in the world, although I think that perhaps that criticism was a little exaggerated, because I thought his inking on Kirby in the Thor series was pretty good (for interested readers, I would strongly recommend Robert Bryant’s The Thin Black Line: Perspectives on Vince Colletta, Comics’ Most Controversial Inker, available digitally at www.twomorrows.com). All these random musings came, of course, many years later. To this child, that particular issue of the FF was magic. I had never seen anything like it—heroes, villains, great dialogue, and wonderful images, all melded into one slugfest involving the Dragon Man and Gorgon. What worried me, though, was how to obtain the next issue, when the Inhumans were formally introduced. As mentioned, I did not get out of the house much. To cut a long story short, I somehow managed to obtain copies of the subsequent issues, so I got to find out what happened subsequently. Coincidentally (and most unfortunately), I missed most of the Galactus Trilogy, because after issue #47, my next issue was #50, and then that glorious standalone story in #51 (entitled “This Man … This Monster!”), after which came the Black Panther issues (which I was also fortunate in obtaining and reading). The magic of Kirby back then had a multipronged effect on me. First (and perhaps most obviously), it was the sheer entertainment that brought me into another world altogether (at least for a little while) and which consisted of such wonderful artwork. I also believe that his work assisted—both consciously as well as subconsciously—in fueling my imagination, a process that is so vital, especially when one is young. Secondly, the Stan Lee dialogue was—contrary to current beliefs then in Singapore—actually very educational, as my English vocabulary increased by leaps and bounds (even if one did not know the precise meaning of some “big” words which Stan was apt to use from time to time, one could guess precisely because of the context provided by the artwork and storyline). Thirdly, there was that sense of adventure and realism that DC comics did not possess. All in all, it was a watershed experience for me. I did not even know about original comic art until sometime in the 1990s. By then, Singapore was certainly a more affluent society, but even at prices then, original comic art was extremely expensive. I did purchase a piece or two then, but in the days prior to the Internet, the best pieces were already snapped up by the time my snail mail wended its way to the US. I did try to collect at least a page from my first Marvel issues. That odyssey, which spanned several decades, is Fantastic Four #44, page 15 (Nov. 1965). On the next page is page 6 from that issue. a story in itself. I want to focus on just a part of
interior pages for both these issues were also Wood-centered, as Daredevil #10 had lush Wood inks over Bob Powell pencils (there is still a debate on that too by comics nerds), whilst Avengers #21 had Wood inks over Don Heck pencils (no arguments, I note, on that score). I must honestly confess that I cannot recall whether there was a fourth book (possibly X-Men #14 with Wood inks over Kirby pencils for the cover, and Kirby layouts as well as Werner Roth pencils and Vince Colletta inks for the interior pages), but I am very sure that the aforementioned three books were in fact purchased for me by my mother on that particular occasion. But it is Fantastic Four #44 I would like to talk about here, because it was not only the very first Fantastic Four book I read, but also the very first Kirby artwork I encountered. The cover was striking—a white background with the FF being literally “tied up” by Medusa’s hair as the front perspective presented the Inhuman called Gorgon (back to the reader) stomping his feet, spraying shards of concrete into the air in the process, with the Dragon Man breathing out fire at the back, to boot. It also happened to be inked
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it—my hunt for original art pages from my very first Kirby FF issue. However, before doing that, I would like to briefly recount my second encounter with the King.
My Second Encounter with the King
Comics reading was always considered juvenile in Singapore. It is now no longer the case, as adults and kids alike are au fait with what is now genteelly termed “the graphic novel.” I have to confess that with more pressing events (such as studies and preparing for working life), comics would necessarily take a backseat in any event, and so it was. It was only slightly over a decade later (in the 1980s) that I encountered comics again for a fleeting couple of years, and in the early 1990s, for some reason or other, I was drawn back into the fold once again. One day, I was reading Greg Theakston’s second
volume of The Jack Kirby Treasury when it occurred to me that I might want to send a letter to Jack through Greg—even though it was, literally, decades late. I did send a letter thanking Jack for all his work and for what it meant to me, all without any expectation of any response. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised (perhaps shocked is a better word) when I received an envelope bearing the return address of none other than Jack Kirby himself! I was like a young boy again as I eagerly—albeit gingerly—opened the envelope. In it was another envelope which contained a very nice Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year card. It was written by Roz and was dated December 7, 1992 and read as follows: Jack would like to thank you for your most kind & incisive letter. It is very gratifying to know that he has fans in distant places who appreciate his work. Then followed very kind greetings for the season from her and Jack. Also enclosed was a very nice reproduction of Captain America, personalized to me by Jack himself. Even though it was not, strictly speaking, original art, it is perhaps the most prized part of my entire collection. I was truly touched by Jack’s and Roz’s gesture. Indeed, there is a reference later in an interview by Roz in a magazine to having received a nice letter from Singapore (I think that was a reference to my letter). I am glad that I wrote to Jack in a moment of what I initially thought was an impulsive act of madness. I think that the writers and artists did not fully appreciate just how widely their books had been distributed and, still less, the impact that their work had on impressionable young minds thousands of miles distant. Another indication of this was when Stan Lee was kind enough to personalize a copy of the first volume of the Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus, which I had bid for successfully in a Hero Initiative auction decades later (many thanks to Jim McLaughlin, who kindly arranged for the volume to be signed by Stan); the inscription itself was telling: Who knew? Our comicbooks made it all to way to Singapore? Glad to have been an influence on foreign culture! Excelsior! I could, in fact, continue and write a small volume about not only Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, but also all the other artists (including DC artists!) whose work I enjoyed so very much, but I will need to adhere to my brief, and proceed next to recount briefly my search for original art from my very first FF book.
The Search for Original Art
It is strange, but of all the very first Marvel comics I had read (including the books mentioned earlier, as well as Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos), original art pages from Fantastic Four #44 were—as the proverbial saying goes—as rare as hen’s teeth. Indeed, 68
I am pleased to report that I did manage to obtain at least one original art page from each of the very first Marvel comics I had read as a child, although that is another story (or series of stories) for another time(s). That having been said, I should confess that there were original art pages from one other book that were even rarer—from Daredevil #10 (although the cover, of all things, to that particular issue did surface in a prominent collector’s gallery some years ago). Even then, a flood of pages from DD #10 of sorts did come to the auction block at Heritage some years ago, and that furnished me with the opportunity to finally obtain a page from that particular issue. In truth, therefore, obtaining a page from the Powell/Wood Daredevil book was, in the final analysis, the toughest, but obtaining a page from FF #44 came an extremely close second. As already mentioned, it was not easy purchasing original art from Singapore, as all the best pieces were already snapped up before a letter could be sent. And snail mail—even by air—took what seemed like an eternity. By the turn of the millennium, parity of sorts had been restored for overseas buyers via the Internet. I happened to come across a page from FF #44 in 2005, but by the prices prevailing at that particular point in time, it literally cost a king’s ransom. However, it was doable, and so I contacted a dealer whom I knew well and trusted. His advice, though, was not to proceed, as it was priced far higher than what he thought its market value was at that time. But original art is, by its very nature, one of a kind, and an opportunity once lost might never occur again, or at least for a very long time. I also always believed that if one really wanted something, then there was sense in going for it, as it were. I had scoured the relevant original art landscape for many years as well, and never turned up a page from this particular issue. My first rule is that family must come first; after all, collecting original art was simply a hobby—a luxury, as it were. I looked at our finances. It was, as I said, doable, and so I took the plunge. That was the right decision in retrospect, because it was fully another decade or so when another page from that particular issue finally surfaced on Heritage. As you might have guessed, I made a run for that page. Unfortunately, I was the underbidder. The final hammer price was more than seven times what I had paid for my page. Whilst original art is unique, and it is sometimes difficult to compare the content and quality of pages even within the same issue, the page I had bought ten years earlier was at least comparable, in my (biased!) view. A third page surfaced again on Heritage three years later (although I know of a fourth page, one of the best pages in the book, in a prominent collector’s gallery on the Comicartfans website but, not surprisingly, it is not for sale). I made a run for this page and was surprised when I was successful—and for a significantly lower price than the page I had bid for unsuccessfully three years back. Even then, I paid approximately six times what I had paid for my very first page in 2005. It is true that original art prices had been steadily rising and have shot through the stratosphere since. Even though it was only four years ago, prices have shot up astronomically, and I am, at present, effectively out of the running, so to speak. However, what
matters is that I did obtain a couple of pages from my very first Kirby Fantastic Four book, and that is really something to be very grateful for.
A Coda
As mentioned, I began to lose track of comics, but even then, realized that Jack was not drawing for Marvel after some time. Then one day, I saw an issue of The New Gods and realized that he had moved over to DC to write and draw his Fourth World series. He ultimately returned to Marvel for another (albeit brief) stint but, by that time, I had drifted out of the hobby again. I will end with another Kirby page under my stewardship, which is rather unique. It is a page from a retelling of the first time the Amazing Spider-Man met the Fantastic Four, and was published in Fantastic Four Annual #1. That occasion was, of course, first portrayed artistically by Steve Ditko in Amazing Spider-Man #1. What made this piece unique, in my view, was the combination of Kirby (as penciler) and Ditko (as inker)—which, in a way, was ideal
Fantastic Four Annual #1, page 2 (1963).
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because, for all his talent, Jack, with the greatest of respect, never drew a great Spider-Man! In my view, that page was greater than the sum of its parts. I knew that it was a slam dunk of a page to obtain, but the price then was way beyond what I could afford. Fortunately, the seller concerned was kind enough to permit me a really generous time payment plan. Needless to say, I would not be able to afford that page today. As with my very first Fantastic Four page, there was a lesson to be learned—purchase what you love, but always within your financial means. I could go on, but there are constraints of space. I hope to have shown how very important Jack’s work was to me. There is also a
Collector:
lesson there: do not be shy, and thank others before it is too late. Indeed, Jack sadly passed away a little over a year after I had contacted him. I am so thankful that I was not too late. Another lesson is that already mentioned: purchase what you love and do not dawdle, but always within your financial means. Finally, do not lament what you cannot have (especially with such astronomical prices nowadays), but cherish what you have—albeit never above your family, which is irreplaceable. Indeed, that was precisely the approach Jack adopted—despite his genius, his first priority was always to provide for his family. In the process, though, he weaved his magic not only in America, but across the globe. Thank you so much, Mr. Kirby. H
John Whitlock
I
Brooklyn, New York artist and musician, widely recognized for his collage work
met Jack Kirby at a convention back in 1989 or ’90 when I was ten years old. I had a Best of Marvel Comics collection with me that had two Thor stories in it, and I’d sought Jack out in hopes of getting an autograph on one of the splashes. Instead of signing the book, Jack had me pose with him so that Roz could snap a photo of us, telling me he’d send the signed photo later on. Decades later, as an adult, I was able to obtain the original art for the two Thor #171 pages I’d held up in that photo. When I revisit that experience, what I think about most is that it would have been so easy for Jack to sign the book, say thanks, and send me on my way. Instead, he and Roz opted for the more tedious effort: keeping track of names and addresses, getting film developed, attributing individual photos to said names/addresses, signing all of the photos, and mailing them around the country long after the convention had ended. This made an impression on me. I liked collecting older comics when I was a kid. I grew up in that pre-Image era where it seemed like everyone was after some sort of exaggerated hyper-realism. There was something about the more simplistic look of the Silver Age comics that seemed pure to me—like some kids made them by hand. This 70
is definitely how I discovered the work of Jack Kirby; early issues of Thor and The Fantastic Four that donned his “King” title on their opening pages. I don’t think I really knew much about Jack as an artist at that point, aside from the fact that the comics I wanted, the oldest issues, had his name in the front. As a teenager, I pretty much lost interest in super-hero comics. I was exposed to underground comics, and as the early 2000s came around, I had friends that were active in the indie comics scene of the time. Jack Kirby’s name always seemed to come up. Sharing my story with cartoonist friends back then is what always brought me back to Kirby, with a new eye for his work. Around this same time, I started making art more seriously. The thing that amazes me about Kirby the artist, is that as he got older, he seemed to get continuously more sharpened as a practitioner of personal expression. What probably alienated him stylistically from the mainstream comics world at that time—the sort of overwrought, geometric designs, and boxy figuration—is what’s most edgy. It’s what now stands out as the most purely Kirby. Much has been said about Kirby’s work ethic (the way he chose to handle convention autographs is a funny parallel for me). When I think about what might have been going on with him internally as he sat at the drawing board at the age of, say, 60, it’s almost like decades of exercise gave birth to an extremely intuitive and sophisticated artist who happened to be working in pop culture. Square peg, round hole… or the other way around; if you watch clips of Jack drawing later in life, it’s as though there was no sketching or planning. Elaborate compositions flowed directly from his head, through his hand, and onto the paper. I’ve had collage work shown in galleries and published around the world. When I think about Jack Kirby, sitting in his basement, cranking on his thousandth page of his thousandth comic book after decades of labor, I think about the first time he reached for a magazine and some scissors and started making collages. How much of it was about him expanding the medium of comics, and how much of it was about expanding his own mode of expression? In 2017, I mailed a small abstract collage to Steve Ditko. Amazingly, he wrote back with a funny note saying that he didn’t “get abstract art,” but that there was a place in art for everyone. I love Steve for writing back with that, and no knock on him at all, but I always felt like Jack would’ve gotten it. The original art for the pages I’d held up in my photo with Jack had been in a single owner collection for years. According to Glen
David Gold, the complete interiors for Thor #171 (Dec. 1969) were purchased directly from the Kirbys by a friend on a visit to their house in 1994 (four years after my meeting with Jack and Roz). After keeping the book together for some time, the pages were eventually split up. On one random day of www.comicartfans.com procrastination, I came across page 2 in a private collection. A comment was left, DMs were sent back and forth, and a deal was made. To come up with the cash, I’d pack a stack of comics and art that I’d collected over the years, and drive out to suburban New Jersey on a cold Tuesday night to haggle with a well known dealer, who also happens to be a professional poker player and son of Jimmy the Greek. He went easy on me. A few years later, page 1 came up for auction, and I’d complete the spread. Jack Kirby was the King of Comics, but I also think of him as a king of the underdogs. He helped shape a world that later moved away from him because he was so far ahead of it artistically. His creativity seemed confined to an industry that continuously abandoned him. He was a true Artist’s Artist. H 71
Collector:
Steve Kriozere
Television writer and producer
I
met Jack in person only one time, but what a special time that was. It was my first trip to the San Diego Comic-Con. To say I was excited would be a serious understatement. I’d been to comic conventions in the past, but never the big one. My fellow comic book enthusiast friend Alan joined me on the road trip down to San Diego from Los Angeles. We didn’t have tickets to the con, but back then (1993) you could work as a volunteer for two hours, then get in free. Sounded like a great deal to us cheapskates—plus, more money to spend on comics! Stepping foot onto the con floor was electric, sensory overload to the max, in the best way possible. It was the height of Image-mania at SDCC: Huge lines with
rabid fans hoping to get their multiple copies of Spawn or Shadowhawk signed by their favorite ex-Marvel artists. While navigating the packed convention, we eventually found ourselves in a much quieter section of the floor. Finally, some fresh air! Alan and I then strolled past a table where a man sat alone, all by himself. No line. No hoopla. No loud blasting music. No rabid fans. It was none other than the King of Comics himself… Jack Kirby! And suddenly, there were two rabid fans, as Alan and myself, for whatever ridiculous reason, started bowing like Wayne and Garth in Wayne’s World and chanting: “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!” The King smiled. I highly doubt Jack saw the movie, but he got the humor. Glad I brought along my trusty 100 film camera and hadn’t used up all my shots yet. That’s where the photo above is from. Roz was there too, and made it into the shot in the background. And the guy in the Daffy Duck shirt… no clue. But maybe the publication of this photo will uncover their secret identity? [Editor’s note: I’m pretty sure that’s the late Steve Sherman!] Sadly, my first San Diego Comic-Con was Jack’s last, as he passed away the following year. Since then, I have gone to every SDCC. The days of working as a volunteer for two hours to get a free SDCC badge are long gone, but the spirit of Jack Kirby is as alive as ever, in every single direction you look: A con attendee cosplaying as Ego the Living Planet, a standing room only Avengers panel in Hall H, a sweet NM/M copy of 1st Issue Special #6 (The Dingbats of Danger Street) hiding in a back-issue bin, or the original art end page to 2001: A Space Odyssey #8 [left, July 1977), which was the first appearance of X-51, a.k.a. Mister Machine, a.k.a. Machine Man. Thanks for everything, Jack; the world is a better place because you were here. H [See Jack’s pencils to this page in Kirby Five-Oh!] 72
MY ARTISTIC JOURNEY WITH KIRBY rom nearly the first moment that I picked up a pencil, I began to draw sequentially. Some of that inspiration was as a result of seeing N.C. Wyeth’s illustrations from Treasure Island at age four. The fact that there was a story behind each lush painting impressed itself upon my imagination, because each illustration had a caption below describing its intention. From there, it was a logical jump to comic strips. I’m not quite sure which comic strip or magazine I saw first, probably a Dell Disney or Western, but I quickly began to imitate the storytelling continuity of a series of panels. What I am certain of is that the first Kirby story I saw was “Taboo, The Thing From the Murky Swamp” in Strange Tales #75 (June 1960). 1 This page shows very clearly why Kirby’s
F
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style etched itself so profoundly on my nine-year-old brain. We see the creature looming from a tall vertical first panel, while its left arm protrudes into the space of panel two, bringing the reader’s eye rightward to the mud-soaked leg of the narrator. I was quick to notice that Kirby used splashes of mud to move the focus around the page, and leading to the final panel that showed the hero enveloped in mud and yanked violently to the right. I began to haunt my local newsstand, looking for more Kirby comics. I soon found a magazine whose cover was laid out sequentially, something I’d never before seen. It was Rawhide Kid #28 (June 1962), designed with three panels of classic Kirby continuity. 2 Here, we see the artist foreshadow the story by displaying Jelko’s mastery of marksmanship, shooting out a lit match in the first panel, plugging a coin several times in the second, and finally turning his revolver on the Kid. Notice how the hand in panels one and two balance the page by gesturing towards the Rawhide Kid. 73
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transition, captured at a state in-between the two stages of man and beast. A year or so later, I picked up a comic from the local candy store rack. It was the first issue of The Incredible Hulk (May 1962). This was no ordinary monster comic like Strange Tales, nor was it an ordinary monster. This guy was the star of the book. He looked like a cross between Frankenstein and Steve Reeves. I thumbed through the pages and there it was, the full moonlight through the bars on the window, and then the transformation from man to creature, just like a werewolf. 4 The sixth panel following the change was a masterpiece of anatomical posture reflecting attitude, as the Hulk turns his massive shoulder and ragged sleeve framed arm towards the viewer. This sort of transformation sequence, I would discover, was one of Kirby’s most effective and powerful storytelling tools. Again, it was usually done in a single tier of three panels. In studying Kirby’s techniques, I would seek it out again and again. I eagerly sought the following five issues, but could not find anything past issue six, and at that point, the art chores had been taken over by Steve Ditko. Then I spotted the Hulk on the cover of another book. It was Fantastic Four #12, drawn by the same artist. I was hooked again. The Hulk’s solo book was clearly a thing of the past, but now I had a new obsession. I had become a rabid Fantastic Four collector and I had to discover how this diverse and dynamic team had come to be.
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I was instantly hooked, because Kirby consistently used the Kid in some of the most dynamic panel arrangements that he could devise. Many of the stories would focus on the Kid’s status as an outlaw and his alienation, constantly moving from town to town. The “Man walks into a bar” routine was quite common, as the Kid would enter an environment trying hard not to cause trouble, but invariably finding it, despite his reluctance to engage. Eventually, someone would harass the Kid for being a saddle tramp, or his smallish size would be a magnet for bullies, and a fight would ensue. Many of those had fluid action-to-action continuity that closely mimicked the visual perception of motion. 3 This page, also from issue #28, is a wonderful moment-to-moment sequence which perfectly breaks down events that progress over an approximately thirty-second time span. Notice the close-up of the bartender and gunman in the top tier of panels, as the Kid draws closer to the action. Then the camera eye pulls back as the gunman strikes the bar, and then it pulls back even further as the Kid confronts his assailant. Finally, we see Kirby’s fairly standard use of the bottom three panels to complete the action sequence. What also struck me about the next-to-last panel was Kirby’s use of overlapping figures to dramatize action, as here we see only the black silhouette of the Kid’s legs, as well as his left fist and head, while the actual depiction of the blow is blocked and only suggested by force lines. When not drawing, reading comics, and playing ball games, my leisure time was often spent at the movies. In this period of the early Sixties, monster films were quite popular, and one of the most memorable for me was Hammer’s The Curse of the Werewolf. The dramatic transformation scene from man to beast was always a highlight, and there was one particular segment where, as the moonlight shines through his prison window, actor Oliver Reed undergoes a chilling
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I found out that my friend Steve owned Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962), and borrowed it from him. The book looked darker and raw in comparison to the newer issues I had already collected. There was also a good deal more discord among the team members. Young Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, had quit the group, and the angry, resentful Thing had tracked him down. 5 As the Thing closed in on the boy, the creature began to revert back to human form. There it was again—the transformation in the upper tier of four panels. Jack Kirby shows us Ben Grimm’s craggy back in panel one as he advances towards Johnny. Then the focus shifts to the Thing’s head and upper torso as he transforms into Ben Grimm in a cinematic three-panel sequence. At the bottom of the page, the order is reversed, as Ben reverts back to the Thing. For years, I was obsessed with this particular comic book, and even painted a version of its cover for my High School of Music & Art entrance exam. Throughout the early Sixties, Kirby worked with writer/editor Stan Lee to present a rapidly growing fandom with more and more new and dynamic super-heroes. In 1964, Marvel Comics reintroduced Captain America, a 1941 co-creation of Kirby’s along with his then-partner Joe Simon. In the ’60s, the King used Captain America as a primer on composing momentous action sequences. In this mid-1966 issue of Tales of Suspense #83 (Nov. 1966), Kirby supplied a slugfest between the Tumbler and our hero. During this period of development, Kirby’s work would become gradually more explosive and monumental. Panels became larger, with generally not more than five, and sometimes only three per page. Here, as the Tumbler lifts the man he believes to be Captain America, we see Kirby using bold slashes of black to depict muscle and sinew, emphasizing the power and dominance of the villain and the relative helplessness of his victim. 6 In panel three, because of Kirby’s artistic mastery, we sense the weight of the figure crashing
through the wall. In panel four, the Tumbler gloats, not realizing that he has merely defeated an impostor. Then, in the final frame, the actual star-spangled hero bursts through the shattered wall and sends the Tumbler flying. This is the point of Kirby’s career when my own style was most profoundly influenced by his art. Never before and never since, in my opinion, had Kirby’s figures been so boldly rendered, and yet still maintained a degree of agility and elasticity. Kirby’s work was gradually becoming more abstract and expressionistic, while at this point still maintaining a firm foundation in anatomy. He was also still using background elements most effectively to make the composition more balanced. One of the main reasons for this was that the size of his art board had not yet been reduced from 12 ½ x 18 ½ to 10 x 15 inches. I was irresistibly compelled by the energy bursting forth from those pages to attempt to imitate what I was seeing therein. While I tried for the most part not to copy directly, I went for the raw emotion that Kirby was sharing. No other artist before or since has had that effect on me. H
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The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine (edited by JOHN MORROW) celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through INTERVIEWS WITH KIRBY and his contemporaries, FEATURE ARTICLES, RARE AND UNSEEN KIRBY ART, plus regular columns by MARK EVANIER and others, and KIRBY’S UNINKED PENCILS NS from the 1960s-1980s EDITIOABLE IL (from photocopies AVA NLY preserved in the KIRBY ARCHIVES). Now in FULLFOR O 5.99 COLOR, it showcases Kirby’s art even better! $1.99-$
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FATHERS & SONS! Odin/Thor, Zeus/ Hercules, Darkseid/Orion, Captain America/ Bucky, and other dysfunctional relationships, unpublished 1994 interview with GIL KANE eulogizing Kirby, tributes from Jack’s creative “sons” in comics (MUMY, PALMIOTTI, QUESADA, VALENTINO, McFARLANE, GAIMAN, & MILLER), MARK EVANIER, 2018 Kirby Tribute Panel, Kirby pencil art gallery, and more!
MONSTERS & BUGS! Jack’s monster-movie influences in The Demon, Forever People, Black Magic, Fantastic Four, Jimmy Olsen, and Atlas monster stories; Kirby’s work with “B” horror film producer CHARLES BAND; interview with “The Goon” creator ERIC POWELL; Kirby’s use of insect characters (especially as villains); MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, Golden Age Kirby story, and a Kirby pencil art gallery!
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SILVER ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! How Kirby kickstarted the Silver Age and revamped Golden Age characters for the 1960s, the Silver Surfer’s influence, pivotal decisions (good and bad) Jack made throughout his comics career, Kirby pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER and our regular columnists, a classic 1950s story, KIRBY/STEVE RUDE cover (and deluxe silver sleeve) and more! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (DELUXE EDITION w/ silver sleeve) $12.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99
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See “THE BIG PICTURE” of how Kirby fits into the grand scheme of things! His creations’ lasting legacy, how his work fights illiteracy, a RARE KIRBY INTERVIEW, inconsistencies in his 1960s MARVEL WORK, editorial changes in his comics, big concepts in OMAC, best DOUBLE-PAGE SPREADS, MARK EVANIER’s 2019 Kirby Tribute Panel, PENCIL ART GALLERY, and a new cover based on OMAC #1!
“KIRBY: BETA!” Jack’s experimental ideas, characters, and series (Fighting American, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, and others), Kirby interview, inspirations for his many “secret societies” (The Project, Habitat, Wakanda), non-super-hero genres he explored, 2019 Heroes Con panel (with MARK EVANIER, MIKE ROYER, JIM AMASH, and RAND HOPPE), a pencil art gallery, UNUSED JIMMY OLSEN #141 COVER, and more!
“THE MANY WORLDS OF JACK KIRBY!” From Sub-Atomica to outer space, visit Kirby’s work from World War II, the Fourth World, and hidden worlds of Subterranea, Wakanda, Olympia, Lemuria, Atlantis, the Microverse, and others! Plus, a 2021 Kirby panel, featuring JONATHAN ROSS, NEIL GAIMAN, & MARK EVANIER, a Kirby pencil art gallery from MACHINE MAN, 2001, DEVIL DINOSAUR, & more!
FAMOUS FIRSTS! How JACK KIRBY was a pioneer in all areas of comics: Romance Comics genre, Kid Gangs, double-page spreads, Black heroes, new formats, super-hero satire, and others! With MARK EVANIER and our regular columnists, plus a gallery of Jack’s pencil art from CAPTAIN AMERICA, JIMMY OLSEN, CAPTAIN VICTORY, DESTROYER DUCK, BLACK PANTHER, and more!
STEVE SHERMAN TRIBUTE! Kirby family members, friends, comics creators, and the entertainment industry salute Jack’s assistant (and puppeteer on Men in Black, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and others). MARK EVANIER and Steve recall assisting Kirby, Steve discusses Jack’s Speak-Out Series, Kirby memorabilia from his collection, an interview with wife DIANA MERCER, and Steve’s unseen 1974 KIRBY/ROYER cover!
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KIRBY: ANIMATED! How JACK KIRBY and his concepts leaped from celluloid, to paper, and back again! From his 1930s start on Popeye and Betty Boop and his work being used on the 1960s Marvel Super-Heroes show, to Fantastic Four (1967 and 1978), Super Friends/Super Powers, Scooby-Doo, Thundarr the Barbarian, and Ruby-Spears. Plus EVAN DORKIN on his abandoned Kamandi cartoon series, and more!
KIRBY COMPARISONS! Analysis of unused vs. known Kirby covers and art, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH on his stylizations in Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, Kirby’s incorporation of real-life images in his work, WILL MURRAY’s conversations with top pros just after Jack’s passing, unused Mister Miracle cover inked by WALTER SIMONSON, and more! Edited by JOHN MORROW.
LAW & ORDER! Kirby’s lawmen from the Newsboy Legion’s Jim Harper and “Terrible” Turpin, to Western gunfighters, and even future policemen like OMAC and Captain Victory! Also: how a Marvel cop led to the creation of Funky Flashman! Justice Traps The Guilty and Headline Comics! Plus MARK EVANIER moderating 2022’s Kirby Tribute Panel (with Sin City’s FRANK MILLER). MACHLAN cover inks.
Celebrating the 61st Anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1—’cause we kinda blew right past its 60th—plus a sagacious salute to STAN LEE’s 100th birthday, with never-before-seen highlights—and to FF #1 and #2 inker GEORGE KLEIN! Spotlight on Sub-Mariner in the Bowery in FF #4—plus sensational secrets behind FF #1 and #3! Also: FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, a JACK KIRBY cover, and more!
THE KIRBY LEGACY AT DC! Explores Jack Kirby’s post-Fourth World Bronze Age DC characters! Demon, Kamandi, OMAC, Sandman, and Kirby’s Odd Jobs (Atlas, Manhunter, and more). Plus: the SIMON & KIRBY Reunion That Wasn’t! Featuring BISSETTE, BYRNE, CONWAY, GIBBONS, GOLDEN, GRANT, RUCKA, SEMEIKS, THOMAS, TIMM, WAGNER, and more. Demon cover by KIRBY and MIKE ROYER!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
Jack Kirby Books ER EISN RD AWAINEE! NOM
OLD GODS & NEW
For its 80th issue, the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR presents a double-sized 50th anniversary celebration of Kirby’s magnum opus! This companion to that “FOURTH WORLD” series (NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, MISTER MIRACLE, and JIMMY OLSEN) looks back at JACK KIRBY’s own words, as well as those of assistants MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN, inker MIKE ROYER, and publisher CARMINE INFANTINO, to determine how it came about, where it was going, and how Kirby would’ve ended it before it was prematurely cancelled by DC Comics! It also examines Kirby’s use of gods in THOR and other strips prior to the Fourth World, how they influenced his DC epic, and affected later series like THE ETERNALS and CAPTAIN VICTORY. With an overview of hundreds of Kirby’s creations like BIG BARDA, BOOM TUBES and GRANNY GOODNESS, and postKirby uses of his concepts, no Fourth World fan will want to miss it! Compiled, researched, and edited by JOHN MORROW, with contributions by JON B. COOKE. (160-page FULL-COLOR paperback) $26.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-098-4 • NOW SHIPPING!
KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID
This EXPANDED SECOND EDITION of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #75 includes minor corrections, and 16 NEW PAGES of “Stuf’ Said” by the creators of the Marvel Universe! This first-of-its-kind examination, completed just days before STAN LEE’s passing, looks back at KIRBY & LEE’s own words, in chronological order, from fanzine, magazine, radio, and television interviews, to paint the most comprehensive and enlightening picture of their relationship ever done—why it succeeded, where it deteriorated, and when it eventually failed. Also here are recollections from STEVE DITKO, WALLACE WOOD, JOHN ROMITA SR., and more Marvel Bullpen stalwarts who worked with them both. Compiled, researched, and edited by publisher JOHN MORROW. NOW SHIPPING! (176-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $26.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-094-6
JACK KIRBY’s
COLLECTED KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL. 6
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26, plus new art! (288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Diamond Order Code: JUN084280
DINGBAT LOVE
In cooperation with DC COMICS, TwoMorrows compiles a tempestuous trio of never-seen 1970s Kirby projects! These are the final complete, unpublished Jack ER Kirby stories in existence, presented here for the first time! Included are: Two EISN RD AWAINEE! unused DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales (Kirby’s final Kid Gang group, M NO inked by MIKE ROYER and D. BRUCE BERRY, and newly colored for this book)! TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE, the abandoned newsstand magazine that was too hot for its time (reproduced from Jack’s pencil art—and as a bonus, we’ve commissioned MIKE ROYER to ink one of the stories)! And SOUL LOVE, the unseen ’70s romance book so funky, even a jive turkey will dig the unretouched inks by VINCE COLLETTA and TONY DeZUNIGA. PLUS: There’s Kirby historian JOHN MORROW’s in-depth examination of why these projects got left back, concept art and uninked pencils from DINGBATS, and a Foreword and Introduction by ’70s Kirby assistants MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN! NOW SHIPPING! (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $14.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-091-5
COMIC BOOK ARTIST BULLPEN
Collects all seven issues of JON B. COOKE’s little-seen fanzine, published just after the original COMIC BOOK ARTIST ended its TwoMorrows run in 2003. Interviews with GEORGE TUSKA, FRED HEMBECK, TERRY BEATTY, and FRANK BOLLE, an all-star tribute to JACK ABEL, a new feature on JACK KIRBY’s unknown 1960 baseball card art, and a 16-page full-color section! NOW SHIPPING!
COLLECTED KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL. 7
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, plus new art! (288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286
(176-page TRADE PAPERBACK with COLOR) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $8.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-105-9
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Comments
(Collect your thoughts, and send ’em in!)
[Before we get to letters, I wanted to make readers aware of an error I made in the caption for the JIMMY OLSEN splash on page 12 of TJKC #86. I wrote: “Mighty Mike Royer inked and lettered this page from JIMMY OLSEN #139, working from a pencil photocopy from Jack’s files...”. That was incorrect. In 1999, Tom Kraft commissioned and paid Mike to ink Tom’s recreated (lightboxed) version of Jack’s pencils, which Mike completed inking and lettering in 2000. This was done as part of Tom’s “What If Kirby” website which launched in 2001 as the first Kirby-related site on the Internet, featuring before-and-after images of Tom’s recreated pencils, vs. inks by Mike, Joe Sinnott, and Dick Ayers, among others. In 2010, Tom added a gallery of art from the Kirby Museum’s digital archive, and whatifkirby. com became a Kirby social site, with hundreds of members and general fans (including Mark Evanier, Erik Larsen, and others in the industry commenting on the almost 1,300 scans of Jack’s art). As Facebook became the defacto place for comics commentary, Tom took the site down in 2020, almost 20 years after its launch. I’m excited to announce that for our upcoming “What If Kirby...?” issue (TJKC #90), we’ll be including a lengthy feature/interview with Tom, discussing his journey to create and build his wonderful website, and how he teamed with inkers to produce reimagined Kirby artwork for Kirby fans to enjoy. Stay tuned for it in 2024!) I have noticed something strange about TJKC #86; and once seen, cannot be unseen. The cover is great as always (thanks to Kirby, Simonson and Ziuko), however—once again, Kirby draws a scene that looks logical, but if measured against reality, falls apart. The distance from Mister Miracle’s neck to his waist would be around two feet, if we assume he is six feet tall (if he is shorter, the logic problem gets worse). Where his neck and waist lay on the rails is two feet apart—now go back to the width of the oncoming train. That train is as wide as the rails. It would be difficult to ride on a train that is as wide as the width of a person’s shoulders. What would loading and unloading a train this narrow be like… and at what capacity? This also means that the train is only five feet tall—and we can see that both Ted Brown and Barda are shorter than the train! In this scenario, Oberon also shrinks. Isn’t this fun? Obviously, Kirby drew thousands of impossible things. That’s the power of his legacy. What I’m detailing here are some of his art anomalies on a human scale. Two other vivid examples of Kirby’s impossible illusions are: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #120 (Sept. 1965):
The splash page of “With My Hammer In Hand” depicts Thor repairing his hammer in a Pittsburgh foundry. As Thor leans into the blast furnace, his right arm is extended straight, and his left arm is bent at the elbow. Yet the straight arm hand is behind the bent arm hand! Believe it or don’t: It is somewhat possible to do… try it with a broomstick. The painful twist of the shoulders required to achieve this hold is impractical. The unused Amazing Spider-Man Marvelmania poster (1969): Spidey’s body hides the upper part of his left leg. If measured from his hip, his thigh achieves an impossible length where it connects to his knee. Yet the pose looks believable. Kirby was a master illusionist, and perhaps never intended to be. It just came to him naturally. He was more focused on storytelling and the rationale behind his artwork than reality. That crude Spider-Man figure (on bottom of page three of TJKC #86) from Marvel letterhead and redrawn for COMICS GAME book, can both be traced to an earlier original figure from a onepage Kirby house ad that ran in FANTASTIC FOUR #14 and SGT. FURY #1. Richard Kolkman, Fort Wayne, IN In his “Source” article in TJKC #86, Richard Kolkman mentioned a couple of times that he feels the Evil Factory’s Mokkari = ‘Mercury’. While I agree that Makkari of the ETERNALS is certainly ‘Mercury’, I always felt Mokkari was a ‘Mockery’. Maybe a Mockery of a person? No speed involved. Nothing to do with Mercury. Shane Foley, AUSTRALIA Of the three Kirby versions with the runaway train about to run over Mister Miracle, I prefer the one inked by Walter Simonson on your cover. It’s the closest shot of our hero, and has panicked reactions from his friends who, seemingly, are also too close. Trouble is, once we’ve seen him tied to a missile or shackled in a plummeting trunk, we kind of suspect maybe he’s got this under control, too. Whether it’s changing panels, faces, captions, or whatever, the one thing that shouldn’t be arbitrarily altered is the direction of the book. Jack had a better set-up and handle on MISTER MIRACLE in his first nine issues than the second batch where, told to veer away from the Fourth World, he had far less-satisfying stories and characters. DC, in their arrogance, didn’t know better, as the book was cancelled a year later. Still, if nothing else, with the wedding of Scott 78
and Barda, Jack gave it a satisfying ending. I look at the cover to MISTER MIRACLE #16 you printed and wonder how the star can be a guest in his own book! So many of the various changes shown this issue seem needless, arbitrary, or involve rewording captions. Many, such as Thor’s cape length, seem more like minor tinkering. If so, I wonder why it’s only offensive or in need of correction after it’s inked? Couldn’t problems, if there were any, be caught in the pencil stage? Or even whims indulged in that stage? But to take it to finished inks and only then spot something supposedly needing alterations? In this issue, I only saw three changes for the better. X-MEN #1, with a crowd of debuting characters, looked better without the telekinetic bolt and horizon line. More open space. Same for the revision to KAMANDI #29 with the super suit. That was more vital than a back-shot of Ben Boxer. Likewise, the monsters in STRANGE TALES ANNUAL #1. The published version was far more consistent. Sometimes, changes or alterations can be for the worse. The little Spider-Man figure atop the splash page to AMAZING FANTASY #15? Not a prize winner. Steve’s original cover was judged unacceptable, yet this was allowed in? Though quite terse, the Barry WindsorSmith commentary and art samples were quite welcome and thought-provoking. First, Barry said he was told Stan didn’t like what he’d done to Jack’s art. Okay, but that brings up some questions. Why was Stan judging it, rather than Jack in his role as editor? And why was it inked in England and New York, rather than California? Was there some other arrangement? I loved it and wished the whole book could have been inked that way. It reminded me of when other talented artists, such as Wally Wood and Steve Ditko, inked Jack’s work. It became a pleasing combination of styles. True, it didn’t look as slick as when Joe Sinnott or Frank Giacoia inked it more faithfully to the pencils, but still a wonderful one-time novelty. It made me think of Vince Colletta when I saw elements left out of a panel-to-panel comparison. Yet, pleasing, nonetheless. Maybe, because for Barry, it was of limited duration? With Vince, it was a pattern of behavior. Did Barry get the gig to help Herb Trimpe out, or did he just want to see what inking Jack would be like? And did Jack have an opinion? My guess would be—as he told Mike Royer about MISTER MIRACLE #5—he didn’t like anyone to change the faces. But who knows? I liked both photos of Jack you featured this issue: shots of him drawing and in his Sapra Street driveway. Always cool to see new ones. The Source article, though speculative in parts, still was quite intriguing. It noted recurring
themes and earlier uses of elements later utilized in Jack’s Fourth World titles and elsewhere. I see it as more like raw material that was refined in a different way later—or ways, as with insect societies. While I can see a correlation between Crystal and Marilyn Munster, it’s a tougher theory that Klarion was modeled on Wednesday Addams. I haven’t seen the show since 1966. Was she even a witch? I thought the character, at least visually, was based on Barry Alfonso? As far as identity transference, you missed a few: FANTASTIC FOUR #10 (Doom and Reed) and #73 (Reed mistakenly suspecting Daredevil of being Dr. Doom, seemingly forgetting he’d been in the same spot earlier), and THOR #179 (with Thor and Loki trading off because of masks). One additional correction to The Source article in TJKC #86. The Alpha Primitives were minions of Maximus the Inhuman, not Dr. Doom. Finally, I liked all the comments about Jack’s legacy and accomplishments solicited the day after he passed. These seemed deeply heartfelt and spontaneous. What’s nice is that they would likely have been just as positive and enthusiastic had he still been around when asked. I liked your new DESTROYER DUCK book more than the series forty years ago. The backstory was more intriguing than the regular story, and I didn’t have to impatiently wait for the belated next release. I love Jack’s work and some of Steve’s, but this series wasn’t their most captivating. Even Gerber, in his assessment printed here, noted he didn’t have a handle on it. That he didn’t get into the characters. That it seemed, for lack of a better word, ordinary. I agree. Lots of talent, no question, but nothing too consistently inspired as the result. It had moments of entertainment, certainly, and no end of fun and clever dialogue, but didn’t hold together as a cohesive whole. It was the opposite of what a new comic should be: tearing down GodCorp instead of building up the main character and supporting players. A revenge fantasy. I don’t blame them. Both had justification for being aggravated and outraged. But is a comic book, and then a series, really the best outlet? It’s difficult to create sympathetic and admirable characters competing against a shooting range backdrop. I think this had more gunplay than SGT. FURY. The first issue was, comparatively, the best. It had initial moments of fun—all the animals in the bar— and a complete story. Plus, a purpose: subsidizing Steve’s lawsuit. Here’s a tentative list of upcoming themes, so start thinking, and get to writing! SEND US YOUR THEME IDEAS! • #90: WHAT IF KIRBY...?—If things had been different, how would Jack’s career and output have changed? Take a fanciful trip through alternate timelines and see for yourself, and learn about Tom Kraft’s whatifkirby.com website! SPRING 2024!
While subsequent issues had their moments— I liked Medea’s mother issues—they mostly had escalating and conflicting strangeness. What I did very much enjoy, however, was seeing this framed in a historical context. The story behind the story. Jack did it, willingly, because he supported Steve’s lawsuit. Steve thought of Jack because he’d met him earlier, at Ruby-Spears, and long knew of his work since his comic fan days. So, two people, on the same page, with a common cause. I was very impressed with Steve’s extensive plot. That must have taken Jack by surprise, as he was used to far skimpier and vague ones. Seems a different way, at that point, for Jack to be working. Yet, he put aside his preference for solo efforts to do it. Laughed at the commentary that, for the money— meaning free—Alfredo Alcala was a good choice as inker. Who would they have preferred, had it been a paying job? Jack’s art, in pencil form, varied. Some was superlative—the aforementioned bar scene—while some seemed pretty raw and unrefined. Was this just after his heart surgery in 1981? Still interesting storytelling; just not as impressively rendered. I hadn’t reread the stories in forty years—an assessment right there—but enjoyed the chance to, once again, especially in the context of seeing how it was produced. Joe Frank, Scottsdale, AZ Working my way through TJKC #86, I really enjoyed Dario Bressaini’s “Spot the Difference” article. I’ve long been fascinated by the subtle cover changes Marvel made between early stats and final published versions. These differences proliferate across early reprints (including non-US books), likely because only the early stats existed in Marvel’s vaults. The blackand-white MARVEL ESSENTIALS books are a great source for viewing early covers. Nowadays, reprints such as FACSIMILE EDITIONS seem to match the published versions, likely due to the use of ‘art restoration’ (i.e. redrawn covers) across the line. I hope you continue to publish this “Spot the Difference” in future TJKCs. FYI, the X-MEN #1 early cover spotlighted in Dario’s article showed up in various places, including the MARVEL MILESTONE edition. My copy, signed by Kirby, is proudly displayed on my office wall, so I view that version daily. I’ve attached a scan, so you can see not only the differences included in the house ad, but also an additional horizon line missing from the published cover. And that early stat was again used on this Johnny Lightning car I stumbled across a while back (photo attached). Jim McCaffery, Newbury Park, CA • #91: 30th ANNIVERSARY!—In Fall 1994, TJKC launched as a modest xeroxed newsletter. Send us ideas for our Diamond anniversary issue! SUMMER 2024! • #92: IN THE NEWS—From the BBR to newspaper clippings with interviews and articles about Jack, the Newsboy Legion, newspaper strip work, unused strip concepts, Headline Comics, and more! FALL 2024!
79
#88 Credits:
John Morrow, Editor/Designer/ Proofreader Glen David Gold, Guest Curator THANKS TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS: Murphy Anderson • Michael Bennett Norris Burroughs • Gary M. Carter Shaun Clancy • Paul Crafft Jean Depelley • Shel Dorf Mark Evanier • Christopher Fama Barry Forshaw • Glen David Gold Michael Kenyon • Sean Kleefeld John Knighton • Glenn Koleeda Richard Kolkman • Steve Kriozere Steve Leialoha • Paul S. Levine Patrick McDonnell • Mike Mignola Will Murray • Jonathan Ross Mike Royer • David Schwartz Jim Simon • Jesse Simon A Singapore Kirby Fan Carl Taylor • John Whitlock Glenn Whitmore • Marv Wolfman and The Jack Kirby Museum (www.kirbymuseum.org) If we forgot anyone, let us know!
Contribute!
The Jack Kirby Collector is put together with submissions from Jack’s fans around the world. We don’t pay for submissions, but if we print art or articles you submit, we’ll send you a free copy of the issue it appears in. Submit art & articles by mail, or e-mail to: twomorrow@aol.com
NEXT ISSUE: KIRBY CONSPIRACIES! We uncover Darkseid’s Fourth World palace intrigue, the too-many attempted overthrows of Odin, Kang contradictions, Simon & Kirby swipes, a never-reprinted S&K story, Mark Evanier’s 2023 Kirby Tribute Panel from Comic-Con International, an extensive Kirby pencil art gallery, and more! TJKC #89 ships Winter 2024!
Spring 2024 (TJKC #90):
WHAT IF KIRBY...?
TwoMorrows 2023 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com
THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S
MAINLINE COMICS
by JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY Introduction by JOHN MORROW
In 1954, industry legends JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY founded MAINLINE PUBLICATIONS to publish their own comics during that turbulent era in comics history. The four titles—BULLSEYE, FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE—looked to build off their reputation as hit makers in the Western, War, Crime, and Romance genres, but the 1950s backlash against comics killed any chance at success, and Mainline closed its doors just two years later. For the first time, TwoMorrows Publishing is compiling the best of Simon & Kirby’s Mainline comics work, including all of the stories with S&K art, as well as key tales with contributions by MORT MESKIN and others. After the company’s dissolution, their partnership ended with Simon leaving comics for advertising, and Kirby taking unused Mainline concepts to both DC and Marvel. This collection bridges the gap between Simon & Kirby’s peak with their 1950s romance comics, and the lows that led to Kirby’s resurgence with CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and the early MARVEL UNIVERSE. With loving art restoration by CHRIS FAMA, and an historical overview by JOHN MORROW to put it all into perspective, the BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S MAINLINE COMICS presents some of the final, and finest, work Joe and Jack ever produced. NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9
DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION
by JACK KIRBY & STEVE GERBER Introduction by MARK EVANIER
All characters TM & © their respective owners.
In the 1980s, writer STEVE GERBER was embroiled in a lawsuit against MARVEL COMICS over ownership of his creation HOWARD THE DUCK. To raise funds for legal fees, Gerber asked JACK KIRBY to contribute to a benefit comic titled DESTROYER DUCK. Without hesitation, Kirby (who was in his own dispute with Marvel at the time) donated his services for the first issue, and the duo took aim at their former employer in an outrageous five-issue run. With biting satire and guns blazing, Duke “Destroyer” Duck battled the thinly veiled Godcorp (whose infamous credo was “Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!”), its evil leader Ned Packer and the (literally) spineless Booster Cogburn, Medea (a parody of Daredevil’s Elektra), and more! Now, all five Gerber/Kirby issues are collected—but relettered and reproduced from JACK’S UNBRIDLED, UNINKED PENCIL ART! Also included are select examples of ALFREDO ALCALA’s unique inking style over Kirby on the original issues, Gerber’s script pages, an historical Introduction by MARK EVANIER (co-editor of the original 1980s issues), and an Afterword by BUZZ DIXON (who continued the series after Gerber)! Discover all the hidden jabs you missed when DESTROYER DUCK was first published, and experience page after page of Kirby’s raw pencil art! NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $31.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-117-2
ALTER EGO COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS
By overwhelming demand, editor ROY THOMAS has compiled all the material on the founders of the Marvel Bullpen from three SOLD-OUT ALTER EGO ISSUES—plus OVER 30 NEW PAGES OF CONTENT! There’s the STEVE DITKO ISSUE (#160 with a rare ’60s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL, biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO, and Ditko tributes)! The STAN LEE ISSUE (#161 with ROY THOMAS on his 50+ year relationship with Stan, art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans)! And the JACK KIRBY ISSUE (#170 with WILL MURRAY on Kirby’s contributions to Iron Man’s creation, Jack’s Captain Marvel/Mr. Scarlet Fawcett work, Kirby in 1960s fanzines, plus STAN LEE and ROY THOMAS on Jack)! Whether you missed these issues, or can’t live without the extensive NEW MATERIAL on DITKO, LEE, and KIRBY, it’s sure to be an AMAZING, ASTONISHING, FANTASTIC tribute to the main men who made Marvel! NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5
CLIFFHANGER!
CINEMATIC SUPER-HEROES OF THE SERIALS: 1941–1952 by CHRISTOPHER IRVING
Hold on tight as historian CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the origins of the first on-screen super-heroes and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life. CLIFFHANGER! touches on the early days of the film serial, to its explosion as a juvenile medium of the 1930s and ‘40s. See how the creation of characters like SUPERMAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, SPY SMASHER, and CAPTAIN MARVEL dovetailed with the early film adaptations. Along the way, you’ll meet the stuntmen, directors (SPENCER BENNETT, WILLIAM WITNEY, producer SAM KATZMAN), comic book creators (SIEGEL & SHUSTER, SIMON & KIRBY, BOB KANE, C.C. BECK, FRANK FRAZETTA, WILL EISNER), and actors (BUSTER CRABBE, GEORGE REEVES, LORNA GRAY, KANE RICHMOND, KIRK ALYN, DAVE O’BRIEN) who brought them to the silver screen—and how that resonates with today’s cinematic super-hero universe. NOW SHIPPING! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6
New from TwoMorrows!
TwoMorrows 2023 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com
THE
PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION
by STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE
BRICKJOURNAL #82
RETROFAN #29
RETROFAN #30
Celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary in LEGO! Disney Castles with MARTIN HARRIS and DISNEYBRICK, magical builds by JOHN RUDY and editor JOE MENO, instructions to build characters, plus: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!
The story behind BOB CLAMPETT’s Beany & Cecil, western queen DALE EVANS, an interview with Mr. Ed’s ALAN YOUNG, Miami Vice, The Sixties’ Wackiest Robots, Muscle-Maker CHARLES ATLAS, Super Powers Team—Galactic Guardians, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
The Brady Bunch’s FLORENCE HENDERSON, the UNKNOWN COMIC revealed, Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat, a Barbie history, RANKIN/BASS’ Frosty the Snowman, Dell Comics’ Monster SuperHeroes, Slushy Drinks, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Dec. 2023
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Dec. 2023
(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-121-9
All characters TM & © their respective owners.
Presenting MARK CARLSON-GHOST’s stupendous study of the 1940s NOVELTY COMICS GROUP—with heroes like Blue Bolt, Target and the Targeteers, White Streak, Spacehawk, etc., produced by such Golden Age super-stars as JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, BASIL WOLVERTON, et al. Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
BACK ISSUE #148
BACK ISSUE #149
BACK ISSUE #150
COMIC BOOK CREATOR #32 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #33
DC SUPER-STARS OF SPACE! Adam Strange in the Bronze Age (with RICHARD BRUNING & ANDY KUBERT), From Beyond the Unknown, the Fabulous World of Krypton, Vartox, a Mongul history, the Omega Men, and more! Featuring CARY BATES, DAVE GIBBONS, DAN JURGENS, CURT SWAN, PETER J. TOMASI, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO & MURPHY ANDERSON!
’80s INDIE HEROES: The American, Aztec Ace, Dynamo Joe, Evangeline, Journey, Megaton Man, Trekker, Whisper, and Zot! Featuring CHUCK DIXON, PHIL FOGLIO, STEVEN GRANT, RICH LARSON, SCOTT McCLOUD, WILLIAM MESSNER-LOEBS, DOUG MOENCH, RON RANDALL, DON SIMPSON, MARK VERHEIDEN, CHRIS WARNER & more superstar creators. Cover by NORM BREYFOGLE!
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Our oversized 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR sesquicentennial edition, featuring BATMEN OF THE 1970s! Exploring the work of Bronze Age Batman artists BOB BROWN, DICK GIORDANO, IRV NOVICK, FRANK ROBBINS, WALTER SIMONSON, ALEX TOTH, & BERNIE WRIGHTSON. Plus: revisit FRANK MILLER’s first Batman story, and more!
WILLIAM STOUT is interviewed about his illustration and comics work, as well as his association with DINOSAURS publisher BYRON PREISS, the visionary packager/ publisher who is also celebrated in this double-header issue. Included is the only comprehensive interview ever conducted with PREISS, plus a huge biographical essay. Also MIKE DEODATO on his early years and FRANK BORTH on Treasure Chest!
STEVE GERBER biographical essay and collaborator insights, MARY SKRENES on co-creating Omega the Unknown and helping develop Howard the Duck, VAL MAYERIK cover and interview about his life with Howard the Duck, ROY THOMAS reveals STAN LEE’s unseen EXCELSIOR! COMICS line, and more of GREG BIGA’s comprehensive chat with artist MIKE DEODATO!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Jan. 2024
(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $12.95 (Digital Edition) $5.99 • Ships March 2024
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Spring 2024
2023 RATES
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Print subscribers get the digital edition free!
Alter Ego (Six print issues) Back Issue (Eight print issues) BrickJournal (Six print issues) Comic Book Creator (Four print issues) Jack Kirby Collector (Four print issues) RetroFan (Six print issues)
Poly mailer, backing board
ECONOMY US
Faster delivery, rigid mailer
PREMIUM US
Non-US orders, rigid mailer
INTERNATIONAL
DIGITAL ONLY
$73 $97 $73 $53 $53 $73
$100 $130 $100 $70 $70 $100
$111 $147 $111 $78 $78 $111
$29 $39 $29 $19 $19 $29
TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History. TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA
No print issue
Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com Don’t miss exclusive sales, limited editions, and new releases! Sign up for our mailing list:
https://groups.io/g/twomorrows
Download our Free Catalog of all our available books and back issues! https://www.twomorrows.com/media/TwoMorrowsCatalog.pdf
WORKING WITH DITKO by JACK C. HARRIS
WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! NOW SHIPPING!
Star Guider TM & © Jack C. Harris.
ALTER EGO #185
Known as one of the finest inkers in comics history, the late TOM PALMER was also an accomplished penciler and painter, as you’ll see in an-depth interview with Palmer by ALEX GRAND and JIM THOMPSON. Learn his approach to, and thoughts on, working with NEAL ADAMS, GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, and others who helped define the Marvel Universe. Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
Shade TM & © DC Comics.
ALTER EGO #184
Author STEPHAN FRIEDT shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint PACIFIC COMICS, which published such legends as JACK KIRBY, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, STEVE DITKO, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and DAVE STEVENS. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by BILL AND STEVE SCHANES, DAVID SCROGGY, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including THE ROCKETEER, CAPTAIN VICTORY, MS. MYSTIC, GROO THE WANDERER, STARSLAYER, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian JON B. COOKE, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by DAVE STEVENS. NOW SHIPPING!
(128-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-122-6
THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF
MATT FOX
by ROGER HILL
MATT FOX (1906–1988) first gained notoriety for his jarring cover paintings on the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES from 1943 to 1951. His almost primitive artistry encompassed ghouls, demons, and grotesqueries of all types, evoking a disquieting horror vibe that no one since has ever matched. Fox suffered with chronic pain throughout his life, and that anguish permeated his classic 1950s cover illustrations and his lone story for CHILLING TALES, putting them at the top of all pre-code horror comic enthusiasts’ want lists. He brought his evocative storytelling skills (and an almost BASIL WOLVERTON-esque ink line over other artists) to ATLAS/MARVEL horror comics of the 1950s and ’60s, but since Fox never gave an interview, this unique creator remained largely unheralded—until now! Comic art historian ROGER HILL finally tells Fox’s life story, through an informative biographical essay, augmented with an insightful introduction by FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER also showcases all of the artist’s WEIRD TALES covers and interior illustrations, and a special Atlas Comics gallery with examples of his inking over GIL KANE, LARRY LIEBER, and others. Plus, there’s a wealth of other delightfully disturbing images by this grand master of horror—many previously unpublished and reproduced from his original paintings and art—sure to make an indelible imprint on a new legion of fans. NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2
When I visited the Kirby’s during the 1980s and ’90s, this collage hung above their dining room table. One day, Roz shared with me the collage’s origin. Roz explained that she had purchased an empty frame— I believe she said at a garage sale—and brought it home. Jack saw the frame and said it needed to have something in it. Jack then created the collage to literally fit the frame. From then on, it hung on the dining room wall of their home. When Roz shared this story with me, she was clearly emotional, as it was about a year after Jack’s passing. Since that day, this collage has always been special to me, and I hope you appreciate it as well. – David Schwartz
New from TwoMorrows!
TwoMorrows 2023 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com
THE
PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION
by STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE
BRICKJOURNAL #82
RETROFAN #29
RETROFAN #30
Celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary in LEGO! Disney Castles with MARTIN HARRIS and DISNEYBRICK, magical builds by JOHN RUDY and editor JOE MENO, instructions to build characters, plus: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!
The story behind BOB CLAMPETT’s Beany & Cecil, western queen DALE EVANS, an interview with Mr. Ed’s ALAN YOUNG, Miami Vice, The Sixties’ Wackiest Robots, Muscle-Maker CHARLES ATLAS, Super Powers Team—Galactic Guardians, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
The Brady Bunch’s FLORENCE HENDERSON, the UNKNOWN COMIC revealed, Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat, a Barbie history, RANKIN/BASS’ Frosty the Snowman, Dell Comics’ Monster SuperHeroes, Slushy Drinks, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Dec. 2023
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Dec. 2023
(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-121-9
All characters TM & © their respective owners.
Presenting MARK CARLSON-GHOST’s stupendous study of the 1940s NOVELTY COMICS GROUP—with heroes like Blue Bolt, Target and the Targeteers, White Streak, Spacehawk, etc., produced by such Golden Age super-stars as JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, BASIL WOLVERTON, et al. Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
BACK ISSUE #148
BACK ISSUE #149
BACK ISSUE #150
COMIC BOOK CREATOR #32 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #33
DC SUPER-STARS OF SPACE! Adam Strange in the Bronze Age (with RICHARD BRUNING & ANDY KUBERT), From Beyond the Unknown, the Fabulous World of Krypton, Vartox, a Mongul history, the Omega Men, and more! Featuring CARY BATES, DAVE GIBBONS, DAN JURGENS, CURT SWAN, PETER J. TOMASI, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO & MURPHY ANDERSON!
’80s INDIE HEROES: The American, Aztec Ace, Dynamo Joe, Evangeline, Journey, Megaton Man, Trekker, Whisper, and Zot! Featuring CHUCK DIXON, PHIL FOGLIO, STEVEN GRANT, RICH LARSON, SCOTT McCLOUD, WILLIAM MESSNER-LOEBS, DOUG MOENCH, RON RANDALL, DON SIMPSON, MARK VERHEIDEN, CHRIS WARNER & more superstar creators. Cover by NORM BREYFOGLE!
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Our oversized 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR sesquicentennial edition, featuring BATMEN OF THE 1970s! Exploring the work of Bronze Age Batman artists BOB BROWN, DICK GIORDANO, IRV NOVICK, FRANK ROBBINS, WALTER SIMONSON, ALEX TOTH, & BERNIE WRIGHTSON. Plus: revisit FRANK MILLER’s first Batman story, and more!
WILLIAM STOUT is interviewed about his illustration and comics work, as well as his association with DINOSAURS publisher BYRON PREISS, the visionary packager/ publisher who is also celebrated in this double-header issue. Included is the only comprehensive interview ever conducted with PREISS, plus a huge biographical essay. Also MIKE DEODATO on his early years and FRANK BORTH on Treasure Chest!
STEVE GERBER biographical essay and collaborator insights, MARY SKRENES on co-creating Omega the Unknown and helping develop Howard the Duck, VAL MAYERIK cover and interview about his life with Howard the Duck, ROY THOMAS reveals STAN LEE’s unseen EXCELSIOR! COMICS line, and more of GREG BIGA’s comprehensive chat with artist MIKE DEODATO!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Jan. 2024
(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $12.95 (Digital Edition) $5.99 • Ships March 2024
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!
(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Spring 2024
2023 RATES
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Print subscribers get the digital edition free!
Alter Ego (Six print issues) Back Issue (Eight print issues) BrickJournal (Six print issues) Comic Book Creator (Four print issues) Jack Kirby Collector (Four print issues) RetroFan (Six print issues)
Poly mailer, backing board
ECONOMY US
Faster delivery, rigid mailer
PREMIUM US
Non-US orders, rigid mailer
INTERNATIONAL
DIGITAL ONLY
$73 $97 $73 $53 $53 $73
$100 $130 $100 $70 $70 $100
$111 $147 $111 $78 $78 $111
$29 $39 $29 $19 $19 $29
TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History. TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA
No print issue
Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com Don’t miss exclusive sales, limited editions, and new releases! Sign up for our mailing list:
https://groups.io/g/twomorrows
Download our Free Catalog of all our available books and back issues! https://www.twomorrows.com/media/TwoMorrowsCatalog.pdf
WORKING WITH DITKO by JACK C. HARRIS
WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! NOW SHIPPING!
Star Guider TM & © Jack C. Harris.
ALTER EGO #185
Known as one of the finest inkers in comics history, the late TOM PALMER was also an accomplished penciler and painter, as you’ll see in an-depth interview with Palmer by ALEX GRAND and JIM THOMPSON. Learn his approach to, and thoughts on, working with NEAL ADAMS, GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, and others who helped define the Marvel Universe. Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
Shade TM & © DC Comics.
ALTER EGO #184
Author STEPHAN FRIEDT shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint PACIFIC COMICS, which published such legends as JACK KIRBY, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, STEVE DITKO, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and DAVE STEVENS. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by BILL AND STEVE SCHANES, DAVID SCROGGY, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including THE ROCKETEER, CAPTAIN VICTORY, MS. MYSTIC, GROO THE WANDERER, STARSLAYER, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian JON B. COOKE, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by DAVE STEVENS. NOW SHIPPING!
(128-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-122-6
THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF
MATT FOX
by ROGER HILL
MATT FOX (1906–1988) first gained notoriety for his jarring cover paintings on the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES from 1943 to 1951. His almost primitive artistry encompassed ghouls, demons, and grotesqueries of all types, evoking a disquieting horror vibe that no one since has ever matched. Fox suffered with chronic pain throughout his life, and that anguish permeated his classic 1950s cover illustrations and his lone story for CHILLING TALES, putting them at the top of all pre-code horror comic enthusiasts’ want lists. He brought his evocative storytelling skills (and an almost BASIL WOLVERTON-esque ink line over other artists) to ATLAS/MARVEL horror comics of the 1950s and ’60s, but since Fox never gave an interview, this unique creator remained largely unheralded—until now! Comic art historian ROGER HILL finally tells Fox’s life story, through an informative biographical essay, augmented with an insightful introduction by FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER also showcases all of the artist’s WEIRD TALES covers and interior illustrations, and a special Atlas Comics gallery with examples of his inking over GIL KANE, LARRY LIEBER, and others. Plus, there’s a wealth of other delightfully disturbing images by this grand master of horror—many previously unpublished and reproduced from his original paintings and art—sure to make an indelible imprint on a new legion of fans. NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2
When I visited the Kirby’s during the 1980s and ’90s, this collage hung above their dining room table. One day, Roz shared with me the collage’s origin. Roz explained that she had purchased an empty frame— I believe she said at a garage sale—and brought it home. Jack saw the frame and said it needed to have something in it. Jack then created the collage to literally fit the frame. From then on, it hung on the dining room wall of their home. When Roz shared this story with me, she was clearly emotional, as it was about a year after Jack’s passing. Since that day, this collage has always been special to me, and I hope you appreciate it as well. – David Schwartz