KIRBILL
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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #93
Featuring Kirby’s Best Supporting Players!
Mister Miracle, Big Barda, Kanto TM & © DC Comics.
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances...
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Contents
THE
SUPPORTING PLAYERS!
OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Jack’s support staff ALMOSTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 unpublished supporting players INNERVIEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 a 1987 Kirby phone chat
ISSUE #93, SPRING 2025
C o l l e c t o r
BOYDISMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 best supporting actors KIRBY OBSCURA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 the double life of Kirby swipes CURTAIN CALL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 all the Fourth World’s a stage JACK FAQs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The King and Mark Evanier LETTERERS 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Howard Ferguson GALLERY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 characters who brought up the rear LETTERERS 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Ben Oda INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY. . . . . 56 Oberon stood tall through it all RETROSPECTIVES. . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Ant-Man mysteries FOUNDATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 a never-reprinted S&K crime story MISCAST. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 why did Stan Lee detest Diablo? KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Jack’s brotherhoods and families COLLECTOR COMMENTS. . . . . . . . 78 Cover inks: MIKE ROYER Cover color: GLENN WHITMORE COPYRIGHTS: 1940s Thor, 1950s Thor, Ben Boxer, Big Barda, Boy Commandos, Dan Turpin, Darkseid, Demon, Desaad, Devilance, Elongated Man, Female Furies, Forever People, Funky Flashman, Guardian, Harry Matthews, Houseroy, Infinity Man, Jason Blood, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, Kanto, Losers, Magnar, Mister Miracle, Newsboy Legion, Orion, Professor Volcanum, Randu Singh, Rodney Rumpkin, Sandman, Sandy, Superman, The Head TM & © DC Comics • Abner Little, Ant-Man, Balder, Black Panther, Bucky, Captain America, Diablo, Dr. Faustus, Eternals, Falcon, Franklin Storm, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Kronin Krask, Marvel Boy, Mr. Fantastic, Nick Fury, Red Skull, Tana Nile, The Monacle, Thing, Thor, X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • All unused pitch ideas and characters, Angel Face, Captain Victory, Count Everest, Doctor Death, Frog Prince, Munchkin Leader, No-Brow, Superworld and all associated properties, Us Guys TM & © Jack Kirby Estate • 2001: A Space Odyssey TM & © Warner Bros. • Animation concepts TM & © Ruby-Spears Productions • The Fly TM & © Joe Simon Estate • Boy Explorers, Boys’ Ranch, Duke of Broadway, Fighting American, Fish In A Barrel, Messiah, Night Fighter, Speedboy TM & © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estates • Doctor Diablq, Spider Spry TM & © Archie Publications • Heroes of Kalevala © Mike Royer
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(above) Why would anyone reject this beautiful unpublished Mike Royer-inked cover meant for Mister Miracle #7 (April 1972)? The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 31, No. 93, Late Spring 2025. Produced quarterly 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, $63.80 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 Support Staff
T
Those who kept Kirby kirbying, by John Morrow
his magazine is, of course, all about Jack Kirby and his wondrous • Rodney Rumpkin • Panama Fattie imagination and output. But “no man is an island,” to quote • Flower and Spirit • Oberon seventeenth-century English author John Donne, and Jack had • Ben Boxer • Klik-klak his fair share of assistance in producing all that fabulous work in his • Pretty Pyra • Randu Singh comics. Is there even one of those which So this issue, I thought I’d focus on the “support staff” who doesn’t immediately spark a memory for helped Jack throughout fifty years in comics. I’m talking about the you of a particular storyline or issue of Jack’s DC comics? I didn’t often unsung heroes like letterers, inkers, editors, even publishhave to look up a single one; I know them by heart. ers (yes, they occasionally performed heroically!). Without them, So what was different about his final year at Marvel, vs. his next there’d just be a bunch of amazing Kirby artwork sitting around, five years at DC? Why were those final Marvel characters so bland with no audience to appreciate it. and forgettable? Simple: You can see a definite parallel between how The ones that immediately spring to my mind are Joe Simon well developed a supporting cast is, and how much (or little) sup(an accomplished creator in his own right, but someone who took port Jack is getting at that time in his career. care of business so Jack could take care of storytelling); Mark Mother Delilah from Boys’ Ranch was a high-water mark for Evanier (who, along with Steve Sherman, helped keep Jack on track Jack, at the peak of Simon & Kirby’s success. and on schedule during his 1970s work at DC Comics); and even The army of characters he created from 1961–1965 at Marvel Stan Lee (who, love him or hate him, made sure Jack’s work got out are still popular today, both in comics and movies. His best supto the public to enjoy). But then there’s others, like his two main porting character to become a breakout star is arguably the Silver letterers over the years (Howard Ferguson and Ben Oda, who finally Surfer. But that mid-1960s rush with Galactus, Black Panther, the get their due here, thanks to Todd Klein); Steve Rude (who inked Inhumans, and even the unnamed antagonist in “This Man, This and beautifully finished some of Jack’s key later work when his penMonster” are, to me at least, unforgettable. As his work situation at ciling skills had been diminished by age and health issues); and Greg Marvel became untenable at the end of 1965, the characters dried up. Theakston (who did some of the earliest in-depth historical coverage By nature of its enormous scope—and the newfound freedom of Simon and Kirby’s work, and presented that work to fans, many he had at DC in 1970—the Fourth World quickly became populated of whom were seeing it for the first time). with a resurgence of second-stringers who easily could’ve carried There’s a host of others who’ve already gotten plenty of covertheir own titles. Characters like Himon made a single, unforgettable age in these pages in past issues—Joe Sinnott, Roz Kirby, and Mike and pivotal appearance at another point when Jack was riding high, Royer—but still deserve mention here, even though they’re not during an unbridled period of creativity that brought us the Black largely represented this issue (although I did manage to sneak in a Racer, Esak, Avia, Fastbak, Lonar, Arin the Armored Man, Goody fair amount of fun work by our pal Mike!). Rickels, Count Dragorin, Infinity Man, and Sonny Sumo, just to But beyond real-life, there’s another aspect of what this issue’s scratch the surface. When the rug was pulled out from under him in about: Supporting characters within Kirby’s work. Most comics 1972, we never again saw Jack put quite as much into his supporting creators are known for, at most, one or two crowning achievements; cast, despite some curious outliers like Black Panther’s Mr. Abner Siegel and Shuster for Superman, Bill Everett for Sub-Mariner, and Little (reverse his first and last names, and you’ll see how Jack was Mike Mignola for Hellboy are just a few examples from throughout trying to amuse himself during a down time!). No support at Marvel comics history. Not so with Kirby. Beyond his major creations (and meant no supporting characters of note. that’s a ridiculously long list), the Marvel Universe was built not But enough of my monologuing. Whether it’s the army of backjust on heavyweights like the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and X-Men, ground actors Kirby created, or all the inkers, letterers, colorists, but on bit players who may’ve only been rendered once or twice by and editorial assistants that helped him out, it’s time for me to break Kirby, but have been continuously resurrected long after Jack left the a leg, and let that multitude take center stage as we celebrate them House of (his) Ideas. I thinking of Him (now Warlock), Annihilus, this issue. Enjoy! H Jasper Sitwell, and even Groot. No matter how brief their initial appearances, it seems like even Jack’s lesser characters could stand on their own. A minor or one-shot character can be the central protagonist of a story, whether for good or evil, and Jack knew how to evoke readers’ sympathy for even his bit players. But at the end of the 1960s, we suddenly got such entirely forgettable second bananas as [shown at right] Dr. Faustus in Captain America #107, Kronin Krask in Thor #172, and the Monocle in Fantastic Four #95. (I actually had to look up their names and issue numbers, because they were all so forgettable, I wasn’t sure I had them correct.) Had Jack suddenly lost his ability to make compelling supporting characters? To disprove that notion, let me throw out a few other, later (above) Dr. Faustus (Cap #107, Nov. 1968), Kronin Krask, and the Monocle (Thor #172 and FF #95, Jan.–Feb. 1970). character names that may ring a bell for you: 2
In the Shadows
Almosts
(right) The back cover of the presentation piece for 1971’s Superworld of Everything, featuring a myriad of unpublished characters and ideas, including Kynin the Finn, who’ll be discussed later this issue. (below) Sid Jacobson and Joe Simon at (we believe) the 2006 New York Comic-Con.
Kirby’s unseen supporting players explored by Richard Kolkman
N
ot everyone gets their shot. The path to the Big Time is littered with the unsung, the unknown. Jack Kirby was so prolific, he found a place for almost every character he created. But in a 50-year career, there are always unused, unpublished supporting characters. Their fates are consigned to concept art or verbal ideas. (Animation characters are ignored here—they are far too plentiful, and mostly unknown.) Like everything Kirby created, it’s a fun list of characters. Finally, today, we get to bring them on stage.
ADVENTURES OF THE FLY (1954 • HARVEY)
In the memorandums between Sid Jacobson and Leon Harvey, Joe Simon’s “Spiderman” had morphed into a concept which finally came to fruition in 1959 at Archie as “The Fly”; “Mr. DDT” was proposed as a villain at that point. It’s just as well he was scrapped—Mr. DDT would have lost his mojo by 1972 after dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane was banned. (NOTE: That chemical name for DDT is the longest word to ever appear in TJKC).
was to be the place Barda and her Furies trained. And finally, in name only is “Phantasmagloria”—my favorite unseen Kirby character. Dreamed up by Mark Evanier, she was a girl with extra-sensory perception (ESP). She would have been fascinating. And yes, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention “Gilotina” from Mister Miracle #8.
ATLAS THE GREAT (1974 • DC)
Kubla the Oppressor is only seen in concept art, as are two future story titles: “The Gorgon Masks” (Army of Zombies, right), and “The War Women of Nefra” (Amazon sea raiders). “The Headless Idol” (defeat it, and you’ll see everything on Earth for one day) and the “Skull Worshippers” are also never seen in a published storyline.
BIG BARDA AND HER FEMALE FURIES (1971 • DC)
CAPTAIN 3-D #2 (1953 • HARVEY)
Incredibly, the unused cover art for issue #2 (Kirby/Simon/Meskin) was found in Harvey Comics’ trash can in the 1980s. “Challenge of the Speed Demon” was never published by Harvey. Two additional villains were never developed, according to Joe Simon: “Solitaire, King of the Crazy Playing Cards” and “Who is Infinity?”—yet both appeared in teaser ads.
A proposed predecessor to Barda’s debut in Mister Miracle #4 includes characters recycled elsewhere: The Lump (in Mister Miracle #8), The Head (left, remnant of a criminal scientist; Mister Miracle #10), and Apollo (a super soldier who later joins Dr. Sandor Skuba and his daughter Seaweed in OMAC #7, sans pacemaker). “Beauty Rock”
CAPTAIN VICTORY AND THE GALACTIC RANGERS (1978 • JACK KIRBY COMICS)
The original introductory story title was “Space Arenas of Doctor Deadly”, later changed in 1981 for Pacific Comics to “Space Arenas of Death”. So what, or 3
Curtain Call
All The (Fourth) World’s A “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts...” As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
I
(above) Almost wicked: Jack’s design from the Nov. 10, 1979 episode of Super Friends. (below) The Duke’s debut: Boy Explorers #1 (June 1946).
n case this issue’s faux-Playbill cover led you to think otherwise, I am a reluctant fan of musical theater. I say “reluctant” because, while I don’t make a point to see every touring company that comes to town, when I do attend a show, I usually have a wonderful time. Conversely, when I see a Broadway show adapted into a film, it very rarely lives up to the source material, let along expands upon it effectively (the recent film adaptation of Wicked aside). There’s something so genuine and visceral about seeing a live stage production, much like there is about reading a comic book (many of which have likewise been turned
18
into films with widely varied levels of success). And both endeavors involve a lot of creative personnel, not the least important of which is the person (or persons) who create the verbiage that conveys the story to the audience. In that spirit, I’m going to attempt to compare and contrast the words that Stan Lee put in the balloons of mid-to-late 1960s Marvel comics pages, to the ones Jack Kirby wrote for his 1970s Fourth World epic. And I’m going to limit it to post-1964 Marvel material, after Stan hit his stride as a wordsmith, as those are the closest chronologically to Jack’s solo DC work as well. What are the parameters of this endeavor to be (or not to be)? Let’s start with what they’re not: “If Shakespeare and Michelangelo were alive today, and if they decided to collaborate on a comic, Shakespeare would write the script and Michelangelo would draw it. How could anybody say that this wouldn’t be as worthwhile an artform as anything on earth?” — Stan Lee This is a gross oversimplification of the creative process on the books Jack and Stan did together, of course, and we’re not approaching the exercise in such a simplistic mindset. Inarguably by the mid-1960s, Jack (who would be “Michelangelo” in Stan’s example) was bringing in fully plotted and drawn stories, with all the sets painted, the props in place, the scenes set, and all three acts already directed—even some of the finished dialogue was indicated in the page margins by Kirby. All that was left was for Stan (“Shakespeare”) to decide what actual words would go into the characters’ mouths—a very important task to be sure, but the bulk of the creative process was already completed before Stan ever touched the work, other than possibly a brief conference up front about the direction of the story (which Stan has admitted was often Jack telling him what the story would be). So let’s not lose sight of the fact that Jack was the creative catalyst in these examples we’re comparing, not Stan. The person coming up with the ideas for these Marvel stories and the person coming up with the ideas for the Fourth World stories were one and the same, and so we’re just
Stage
Kirby’s Showtoons
Comparing Kirby and Lee’s dialogue by John Morrow
comparing how two people interpreted those established ideas through dialogue. By nature of the collaboration, any words Stan chose were being influenced by what Jack produced before his involvement. Even in instances where Lee would do a re-write of Kirby’s characterizations or motivations in a scene, Stan was still following Jack’s foundation for the story from page one, and just steering it into a direction he preferred. The core story remained as Jack established it in almost all cases. In theater terms, both the 1965–69 Kirby/Lee books and Jack’s solo 1970–72 work had the same set designer, artistic director, choreographer, costume designer, lighting coordinator, prop master, stagehand, and director. Beyond that, the missing component was the “book”, which in Broadway parlance is the script and song lyrics of a musical (also called the “libretto” in opera). Here’s a good example of how the “book” evolved in a Kirby/Lee collaboration, again courtesy of Stan: “Silver Surfer really was created by Jack Kirby. After we had decided to do Galactus in a story, when Jack brought the artwork in, I saw there was some funny guy on a flying surfboard. I said, ‘Who’s this?’ Jack said, ‘I figure anybody as important as Galactus ought to have a herald who flies ahead of him and finds planets for him.’ I loved the idea. I don’t remember who made up the name ‘the Silver Surfer,’ whether it was Jack or me, but I loved the idea, and the drawings were so beautiful, he looked so great that I figured I would try to have him talk differently than any other character—get a quasiShakespearean/biblical delivery for him... That was the quality that I gave to him. As he was originally drawn, he was just a powerful guy on a flying surfboard.” 1985: An Interview with Stan Lee by Leonard Pitts Jr. In the 1970s, Jack would work this same way solo: draw out the Fourth World stories first, and add his “book” afterward, just as Stan did in the example above. So the object of this discussion is to simply determine similarities and differences in the final words they both used, once penciled pages were ready for “scripting”.
The Stage is Set
On March 13, 1966, Stan was again quoted, this time in the Sunday Times Advertiser of Trenton, New Jersey: “I really like to do The Mighty Thor. His language is really flamboyant and I pretend I’m Shakespeare.” Here we have Stan again crediting William Shakespeare as his inspiration for the speech patterns of the cast of Thor, as he did for the Silver Surfer’s. Where in Jack’s own prior dialoguing could we find anything similarly Shakespearean to compare Stan’s to? An obvious starting point is to look at Jack’s two versions of Thor, prior to Stan’s involvement. The earliest was Adventure Comics #75’s “The Villain From Valhalla” (June 1942), which may well have been dialogued by Joe Simon as much as by Jack. A representative soliloquy from this Simon & Kirby Thor is: “Rash mortals! The booty lies beyond this iron wall—but Mjolnar will shatter this stubborn barrier!” That’s a pretty typical, sci-fi style exclamation by a character who’s depicted as being above mere humans—it heightens the action, but does
little to distinguish it from other grandiose characters of that time period. The other Kirby solo example is Tales of the Unexpected #16’s “The Magic Hammer” (Aug. 1957, right). There, we get: “I am Thor—and that hammer you bear is mine! At long last, I have found it! I come from a land you know not—and there I rule as master of thunder and lightning...”. Again, Jack 19
With Jack being born and raised in New York City, it was inevitable some stage influences would work their way into Kirby’s life, since Broadway was nearby. Here’s some of the theater connections I’ve uncovered in his life and work.
JOURNEY’S BEGINNING
Jack’s earliest involvement with a stage production is probably Journey’s End, a 1928 dramatic play by English playwright R. C. Sherriff, which revolves around a group of British officers in World War I fighting on the front lines in France. Young “Jackie” Kurtzberg played the part of James “Jimmy” Raleigh in his high school’s stage production, circa 1933. A typewritten script exists with Jack’s pencil drawing of soldiers on its cover. [See TJKC #45]
A UNCOVERED CLUE
Clue Comics Vol. 2, #2 (April 1947) featured the four-page story “On Stage For Murder”. Set behind-the-scenes at a stage production, the tale is about a detective having to solve the murder of its starring actress. His rationale in solving the case is pretty weak, and this was definitely meant as filler for the comic.
BROADWAY ROYALTY
The Duke of Broadway co-opted its name from John Lawrence’s pulp character, the Marquis of Broadway. Both are more about the outside criminal activities along “The Great White Way” than what went on inside its theaters. Starring theatrical producer Dan Dandy as The Duke, it’s got a Simon & Kirby byline, but looks to be heavily (if not exclusively) Joe Simon’s or other studio hands’ work. The character’s first appearance was in a 12-page story in Boy Explorers #1 (June 1946), followed by another 12-pager (with a one-page lead-in featuring Stuntman searching the New York streets to find the Duke) in Stuntman #2 (July 1946). The remaining unused inventory planned when those two titles were cancelled ran in Black Cat Comics #5–7 (May–Sept. 1947).
(below) Infinity Man, in pencils from Forever People #11 (Nov. 1972), Jack’s final issue.
may or may not’ve dialogued this himself, but either way, there’s nothing here that strongly evokes The Bard or the Bible the way Lee would later. Likewise, I’ve not seen margin notes by Jack with much in the way of “thees” and “thous” on any Thor pages. So I’ll give props to Stan for developing Thor’s distinctive patter, which was a critical part of making that comic unlike any that had come before. But Jack was no slouch when it came to creating unique speech patterns, and we have only to turn to the Fourth World for the best examples—and comparisons
to Stan’s dialogue for both featured and lead actors. In that series, Jack was on a mission to prove that he didn’t need anyone else’s involvement to make a successful comic book, often to the chagrin of readers who were already attached to the Kirby/Lee dynamic. To all those who’ve said, “Jack couldn’t write”, let’s see just how different the two playwrights’ actual words were.
The Saviors
SILVER SURFER & INFINITY MAN Neither Handel’s oratorio Messiah, nor Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Jesus Chris Superstar, have any spoken dialogue, but they both tell the same story of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, performed on a stage. So there’s obviously more than one way to tell an epic story, and Jack and Stan both told similar stories, but approached their wording quite differently. In Kirby’s comics, both Infinity Man (dialogued by Kirby) and the Silver Surfer (dialogued by Lee) came along to save the day when all seemed lost, and their respective dialogue— removed from the context of a comic book—has a biblical quality that could fit stylistically in Jesus’ resurrection story. But can you tell which character is speaking in these examples? (Answers are at the bottom of the page) “Power knows no prejudice! The savage wields it as well as the civilized man!” 1 “Earth is but a twinkling dot... a paltry pebble... in the vastness of space!” 2 “This will be a battle worthy of giants! And, on the thrust of these forces of the infinite, I ride to put an end to his madness!” 3 “I was born to soar... to ride the currents of space... not to be confined within a barren structure!” 4 “For a being such as myself, no more cunning prison was ever devised-! A universe to roam and explore, but never to leave!-Because of the barrier!!” 5 “I am free once more—possessed once again of the eternal energy of the cosmos!” 6 “But I call upon powers gained in distant regions—where natural laws do not apply!” 7 “Give battle, you fiend of the deepest pits! Your moment of triumph is not yet ripe!” 8
1 [Infinity Man, Forever People #1, March 1971] 2 [Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four #49, April 1966] [Infinity Man, Forever People #2, May 1971] [Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four #50, May 1966] 4 3
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Take a moment and imagine both heroes saying these lines. I think you’ll find that either could’ve uttered these words and stayed in character.
5 [Infinity Man, Forever People #11, Nov. 1972] 6 [Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four #61, April 1967] [Infinity Man, Forever People #2, May 1971] [Infinity Man, Forever People #2, May 1971] 8 7
The Lighthearted
1950s TELEPLAYS
FANDRAL Fandral made a very brief first appearance (sans dialogue), twirling his mustache, in the “Tales of Asgard” story in Journey Into Mystery #119 (Aug. 1965), so I’d assume he was Jack’s idea, since the visuals came first. He didn’t have a speaking role until three issues later, and his subsequent appearances were as much Shakespeare, as actor Errol Flynn. Compare these two examples: “Unspeakable knave!! Though thou wert twice as good as thy boast, still wouldst thou be but half a match for Fandral!” [Fandral, Thor King-Size Special #2, 1966] “If your wit were as big as your voice, me dear, it’s the great man you’d be by this.” [Errol Flynn in Captain Blood, 1935] Here’s a few more Fandral examples, depicting his willingness to jump straight into battle à la Errol Flynn in Captain Blood or 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood: “Longer yet wilt thou have to wait, bumpkin! What? Only a dozen blades against me? Fie upon thee, knaves!” [Journey Into Mystery #122, Nov. 1965] “To arms! Let it be known we shall sell our lives dearly!” [Journey Into Mystery #125, Feb. 1966] “Thou may not have all the combat to thyself! Fandral would share the exaltation with thee!” [Thor #130, July 1966] “’Twas a zestful skirmish! A pity it must needs come to so untimely an end!” [Thor #132, Sept. 1966] “Have at thee, craven churls!! To live is to fight--and Fandral yields to none!” [Thor King-Size Special #2, 1966] KANTO Kanto has much the same vocal flourish as Fandral or Errol Flynn, but is a more foppish and genteel scoundrel. Even in the midst of battling an adversary, he maintains excellent manners, and never soils his flamboyant costume. To wit: “I’ll take that, my dear!!--While this stungun dampens that fiery spirit of yours!! “I dare say there are tons of weight holding you down, sweet thing!! Why, if you fell on me, I’d fare much worse than that structure!! “Kanto is the name!! Kanto, the weapon-master!! Don’t resist my men, sir!! They’re simply endless in number!! “Men of value do well in any kingdom!!
“Ha ha ha!! Spectacular, dear fellow!! A master showman!!--Chock-full of gimmicks-and the sundry variations of a tricky craft!!-and flavored with the dramatic realism of death!!” [Mister Miracle #7, April 1972] “I never fail, Granny. In his case--I merely decided not to succeed! “Perhaps, Madam! We are what we are-because I’m very good at my trade!” [Mister Miracle #8, June 1972] LIGHTRAY While Kanto always kept a devilish smile on his face, he was still a villain, albeit one with a stringent code of honor. So to balance out the Kirby comparison to Lee’s Fandral, let’s throw in fellow good-guy Lightray. Here, Jack gives the young god a very distinctive repartee.
TV became a dominant force in entertainment in the 1950s, while comics were getting increasingly bad press, thanks to a 1954 double-whammy of Senate subcommittee hearings about comics’ effect on juvenile delinquency, and Fredric Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent. So both Jack and Joe Simon tried their hand at writing teleplays that could double as potential stage productions. Joe said in his Alter Ego #76 interview that he and Jack wrote two screenplays together. One was Fish In A Barrel, written around 1955. It’s a 60-page, three-act script dramatizing how Simon & Kirby had Crestwood’s books audited in the 1950s, and discovered that the publisher was withholding royalties that belonged to them. Jack had a copy of the script in his files, but I’m still unable to track down the book Characters, in which Joe told me it was published. You can see my review of this teleplay in TJKC #52. The other was Messiah, which Joe also mentioned in Alter Ego #76 as “...a story about my mother-in-law... about hat-makers who came up with this ‘halo hat.’” The Feb. 20, 1957 issue of Critical Digest, shown above, references an off-Broadway performance of it taking place. The teleplay for Messiah was reviewed in Chrissie Harper’s Jack Kirby Quarterly #12.
“But, though war is the game of tragedy, I shall live to give it greater meaning!! “Light! Light!--Not to glisten on swordblades!--But light at play with atoms--to make them sing in other ways!! “Rest here, friend--you still have one final moment--to transcend your fate!!!” [New Gods #6, Jan. 1972] “Let me assure you that we are pledged to your well-being!” [New Gods #8, May 1972] “The dawn rises!--And, as always, the stirring of hope! “Let me give my added power where it can hasten all the good things this day may hold for brave Orion! “He sleeps, lady! He rests--! The eternal warrior gets little enough of that! “To know that face, lady--is to be an enemy--and not a friend!! “Your hospitality was a welcome respite, lady! Forgive Orion’s moment of anger! Farewell, lady! You’ve been most gracious!” [New Gods #9, July 1972] So despite lighthearted personalities, all three of these characters have a very distinct voice—even the two Jack scripted. 21
Others were written by Jack alone (so I’d date them from the late 1950s, after Joe and Jack went their separate ways with the 1956 dissolution of their Mainline Publications company): • Frog Prince (above, published in grandson Jeremy Kirby’s book Jack Kirby: A Personal Look, and reviewed in TJKC #64). • Angel Face (which Roz Kirby described as
Letterers 1
Biographies of Simon & Kirby’s main letterers, by Todd Klein
Howard Ferguson
Thanks to Alex Jay for his direction in putting this article together, and to Michael Vassallo for supplying images (far right) Fergusonlettered splash from Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). (right) Howard with his third wife Edith, circa late 1930s. The palm trees suggest a Florida vacation or honeymoon. Per Todd: “Patty Thomas and her siblings never knew their grandfather; he died well before they were born, as did their grandmother. Patty told me that Howard and Edith’s daughter, her mother Elsie, never spoke about Howard or his family.” (below) Science Comics #7 (Aug. 1940); Ferguson lettering and art. (next page) Daring Mystery Comics #6 (Sept. 1940), with Simon art and Ferguson lettering.
[Acclaimed, multi-Eisner Award-winning letterer Todd Klein has written an exhaustive book about comic book lettering and letterers, and has been previewing the book on his blog, Klein’s Compendium of Calligraphic Knowledge [https:// kleinletters.com/Blog]. He has graciously allowed us to excerpt his biographies of two key Simon & Kirby letterers, Howard Ferguson and Ben Oda. Thanks to Todd, these unsung heroes of comics, and many others, are finally getting their well deserved due.]
I
n the early days of comics, lettering was often done by the artist himself, but in a few cases, success meant an artist or studio could hire someone just to do the lettering. That was true for the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, which began in 1940, doing work for Fox Publications and then Timely/Marvel Comics, among others. In his autobiography, Joe Simon, My Life In Comics (Titan Books, 2011), Simon puts the date at 1939, but elsewhere he says he began working at Fox in December 1939, where he met Kirby, so 1940 seems more likely. Joe wrote that as they gained clients, they hired Charles Nicholas to work for them as a penciler, inker, and scripter, and soon “…we brought in a letterer, too. The letterer’s name was Howard Ferguson, and he was the best ever in the business.” Howard is probably known today (if at all) as the letterer of most of the first ten issues of Captain America Comics. Howard’s balloon lettering developed and grew more confident over his first year with Simon & Kirby, but right from the start he was trying to add extra creative touches: variety in styles, special treatments for the first letter or word of a caption, special caption styles, and more. I call these things “creative extras,” and they were almost always present in his work, except in the last few years. Clearly he wanted his lettering to stand out from the crowd, to be noticed and appreciated, and it certainly was by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. In this article I’ll outline Howard’s entire life and career, with the help of research done by Alex Jay and myself, and information from his granddaughter Patty Thomas, who I recently contacted online.
Ferguson’s Early Life
Howard Grant Ferguson was born July 4, 1895 in Washburn, Wisconsin, to Grant and Minnie (Marion) Ferguson according to his draft cards (his Social Security application has it as 1896). Both Howard’s father and his mother’s father were railway clerks, and lived at the same address in Superior, Wisconsin in 1899. At some point, Howard’s parents divorced, and his father moved to Duluth, Minnesota. Howard and his mother lived with his maternal grandmother Elsie in Superior in the 1905 Wisconsin state census. By 1907, Minnie had married Arba Hawley, and they also were in Duluth. In the 1910 census, when Howard was about 15, he, his mother and step-father, maternal grandmother, and three-year-old step-brother were all at the same address in Duluth: 131 West 3rd Street. Howard graduated from eighth grade at the East End School in 1910, and was a freshman at Duluth Central High School in 1911. That year his family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where they would live for many years. 32
In the 1914 Detroit city directory, Howard is listed as a student, so he probably graduated from high school there, but by 1916 he was working as a stock clerk in Detroit. That year, at age 21, he married Ida Trombley on December 26. Howard’s draft card (it’s unlikely he was called up to serve) shows he and his wife Ida and ninemonth-old daughter Virginia living at 148 Chene Street, Detroit. His employer was Dae Health Laboratory, a drug manufacturer of products like Nuxated Iron with questionable health benefits. The back of the draft card described Howard as short, with slender build, blue eyes, and light-colored hair. The 1918 Detroit city directory said he was a shipping clerk. In the 1920 census, he was a telephone company clerk. Up to this time there’s no evidence of Howard being interested in an art career, but in the 1921 city directory, he’s listed as an artist. Perhaps he studied showcard lettering from books, or took a course somewhere. By 1923, he was working for the S.M. Epstein Company, which specialized in jewelry advertising. In 1925 he worked as an artist for the Detroit Ad-Service. He may have worked on print ads and/or store signs for these companies, and his home address changed several times, suggesting he was struggling. Ferguson’s family life changed in 1927. Divorce from Ida was finalized on April 8, 1927 in Detroit. The cause was “extreme cruelty,” and alimony was granted. His daughter Virginia was nine years old. Eight days later, on April 16, Howard married his second wife, Marjorie V. Crawford, a twenty-yearold from France. This marriage probably didn’t last more than a few years. Meanwhile, his future third wife, Lillian Edith Stanton, married her first husband, Henry Smith Lockwood, on June 27, 1930, in Queens, New York. Again, that marriage must not have lasted long. The 1940 census shows that both Edith (as she was known) and Howard were living in Detroit in 1935, and they must have met there and married some time before 1940. The census of that year has them living with Edith’s parents Arthur and Lillian Stanton and sister Marjorie in Jamaica, Queens, New York at 173-43 103rd Road. Howard’s occupation was “artist doing private work”—in other words, a freelancer. With his advertising background, he was probably getting similar work in Manhattan, and he found more with the newly formed Simon & Kirby studio in 1940. He was about 45 years old, much older than his new employers.
the Summer or Fall of 1939. In December 1939, Simon answered an ad for artists at Fox Publications, and not only landed comics work, he was hired as an editor, though never so credited in the books. That would happen a lot; Joe must have come across as knowing what he was doing in comics, even from the start. Another artist working for Fox was Jacob Kurtzberg (later known as Jack Kirby), born August 28, 1917 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, also to a poor family whose father was a tailor. Jack loved to draw and knew he wanted to make a living at it. He was entirely self-taught, studying the newspaper strips he liked, and in 1936 he began working on strips for a small syndicate. He also found work at the Will Eisner and Jerry Iger packaging studio, and by late 1939, he’d taken a staff job with Fox. Simon was impressed with his work when they met there, and especially his drawing speed, and when Jack heard Joe was also doing other comics work on the side, he asked if he could join him. Thus, the Simon & Kirby studio was born. Simon rented a small office near the midtown Manhattan publishers they were working for, and when he and Kirby went there after work hours at Fox, they began turning out new material to sell to other publishers, or to order. Their work was soon in demand, and they never looked back. Both Joe and Jack could do everything, but each had strengths: Joe was good at logos,
With Simon & Kirby At Fox
Joe Simon was born October 11, 1913 in Rochester, New York to poor parents; his father was a tailor. He showed early artistic talent, and did art for his high school newspaper and yearbook. After graduation, he worked at newspapers in Rochester and Syracuse, and in 1937, moved to Manhattan looking for work as an artist. He got into comics in 1939, first by working at Funnies, Inc.— Lloyd Jacquet’s studio, which packaged comics for publishers who did not produce their own stories, or at least not enough of them. His first story, a six-page western, appeared in Amazing-Man Comics #10 from Centaur dated March 1940. Keep in mind that comic books were always dated about two months later than when they actually went on sale, and often were being created at least two or three months before that, so Simon’s first story might have been drawn in 33
mouth. He came here, he got divorced; he brought his daughter, Elsie, to live with him. I think his wife left him, he said. He was the only letterer I ever heard of that could draw in a straight line without doing the penciled lines. Just like a machine and very, very creative. He was a big part of our effort, of our creativity. He was great with logos and designs, everything. We’d just rough out the stuff and give it to Howard, and he’d give us back beautifully inspired, inked lettering and logos. The only problem was that there’d be coffee stains on every page. [laughter] He’d drink like 30 cups of coffee a day.” In this quote, we see some of the same errors of memory as in Joe’s book, but here he says other nice things about what Howard was able to do for Simon and Kirby. I suspect the amount of coffee Howard drank and the amount of stains continued to grow each time the story was told, as such things do. In the book Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur (TwoMorrows, 2010), Jim Amash asked Infantino about Ferguson: “Yes! He was a crusty, old bastard. [chuckles] He was one hell of a letterer. He was a fat, older, German guy—very tough. Jack used to say, ‘Don’t pay attention to him. He’s all right.’ He smoked cigarettes like a train. He had a daughter to take care of because his wife left him. He had a chip on his shoulder all the time, but he could letter. His logos were the best!” In the Jack Kirby Collector #34, Infantino said to Amash: “Ferguson. He was unbelievable. Great letterer. Cranky, very cranky, old guy. You say hello, he would say, ‘Go to hell…’.” Carmine worked with Simon and Kirby briefly at Marvel in the Captain America days, and again at Prize in the late 1940s, but these memories seem more like Ferguson in the 1950s, or simply retellings of stories from Joe Simon. It’s hard to know at this point. Certainly Howard had reason to be cranky in the ’50s, and Carmine’s description of him as older and fat fits better with that. I found no record of Carmine working with Simon and Kirby in the 1950s when he was very busy at DC, but Infantino might have visited the Simon & Kirby studio then. I wrote an article about Howard’s lettering for Captain America Comics in 2011. I didn’t like his work as much then; I’ve come to appreciate it more, especially after seeing the rest of it. One thing I discussed in that first article, which I haven’t here, was the great house ads he did at Marvel. He also may have done some at other publishers, and designed logos for them as well. It’s harder to pin those things down, but I see suggestions of Howard’s style on logos at Avon and Seaboard, for instance, where Joe Simon was not involved. And of course, he may also have been getting other freelance work in advertising in New York while working in comics. I hope this article will bring a new appreciation to the work we do know, which goes well beyond those Captain America stories, and I feel deserves to be better remembered. H
As for the statements about Howard’s mother, I have no idea about those, but certainly Howard went back to live with her in 1946, so he couldn’t have held that much of a grudge. Howard may have talked about his wife leaving him (one of the first two wives), but if that statement was about Edith, he might have meant she left him by dying, and Simon misunderstood. A bit later in his book, Joe writes: “One time I brought Will Eisner in to see for himself. He came up to the studio. ‘Will, look at this,’ I said. Howard was working on a page, and usually when you letter, you do penciled guidelines first, so your lettering can fit neatly within the lines. But Howard didn’t bother with this extra step. ‘Wow,’ Eisner said. ‘I’ve never seen anybody do that before.’ The lettering was straight as can be.” While this would have saved time, the ability didn’t make Ferguson’s lettering any better. It could have made it worse if his alignment went off track, but if he could do it, more power to him. I certainly never could! I’ve also heard this story about a least one other letterer. At the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con, Joe Simon was interviewed by Mark Evanier. When asked about Ferguson, Joe said:
Thanks again to Alex Jay and Patty Thomas for research help and images. For Todd Klein’s detailed study of Howard Ferguson’s lettering, go to: https://kleinletters.com/Blog/ howard-ferguson-simon-kirbyletterer-part-2/
“Howard Ferguson was the greatest letterer and Ben Oda was the second greatest letterer. Howard Ferguson was a middle-aged man from Detroit, and like everybody else in the business, he was living hand-to-
(top) From Slave Girl Comics #2 (April 1949).
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Gallery
BRING UP THE REAR
A gallery of background players in Jack’s work, with commentary by Shane Foley
[left] Demon #9, page 7 (June 1973) Randu Singh and Harry Matthews are two supporting characters who appeared in the very first Demon issue and continued in most issues, their last appearance being in #14. Randu was an Eastern mystic and played an important back-up role, with his ESP-type powers fitting perfectly with Jason Blood and the Demon. He even triggered Jason’s transformation into the Demon in an early issue, when Jason was unconscious. Harry was often comic relief, and the guy standing in for the audience, to whom explanations were given (like the companion in Dr. Who). Kirby was very inventive in keeping these guys busy, and the strip would have been very different without them.
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[above] Black Panther #1, page 9 (Jan. 1977)
Well, there’s certainly no hillbilly connection—quite the reverse. At first, I thought the name probably just rolled off Kirby’s tongue (or pencil) when he wanted a name that implied “small,” without realizing what it was inspired by, never giving it another thought. But then I was reminded that the story is about “King Solomon’s frog,” the “Six Million Year Man,” “Hatch 22,” etc.—names hijacked from other sources everywhere, but with little or no thematic connection to the character Kirby was interested in. So yes—there’s a very good chance Abner Little DID come from L’il Abner.
Like many of the supporting characters during this period of Kirby’s output, Mr. Abner Little is the one calling the shots and knowing more about what’s going on than the star. The star, meanwhile, was often relegated to a supporting role, being the one who has all the questions and gasps and surprised looks, just providing a bit of super-heroic muscle every now and then before the next cycle begins. I felt the Captain America stories of this time were often similar. And Abner’s name—was it L’il Abner in reverse?
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Letterers 2
Ben Oda
The prolific Kirby letterer, remembered by Todd Klein
I (right) Ben and Michiko Oda about 1947, photo courtesy of Ken Oda. (center) Ben Oda as a member of the Fort Sheridan All-Stars baseball team, photo courtesy of Ken Oda. (below) The Simon & Kirby Studio, 1949. Standing left to right: Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bill Draut, Marvin Stein. Seated: Ben Oda. From the 1971 Kirby Unleashed portfolio. Thanks again to Alex Jay, and to Ben’s family for research help and images.
f you were a reader of comics and newspaper strips from the 1950s through the 1980s, you saw lots of Ben Oda’s lettering, even though most of it was not credited. Ben worked for everyone. He was the lettering star of many comics publishers and newspaper strips, the man they trusted to get things lettered professionally and on time. From his earliest days with the Simon & Kirby studio, to work at EC Comics, through years at Western Publishing, Warren, and DC Comics, Ben worked hard and slept little to meet everyone’s deadlines, while at the same time juggling a half-dozen or more newspaper strips from Prince Valiant to Flash Gordon, Terry and the Pirates to Dondi. In this article I can only scratch the surface of the work he produced while outlining his life and career. I had help with that from my research partner Alex Jay as well as three of Ben’s children—Ken, Marcine, and Barbara—and couldn’t have done it without them. Ben Hatsutaro Oda was born to Japanese parents in Florin, California, near Sacramento, on December 21, 1915, the youngest of two children. His parents worked in a basket factory, and Ben’s father had passed by the time he was seven. Ben seemed to have two major interests growing up: art and sports. After high school, he was a student at the Sacramento Junior College, where he and four fellow students won first prize in an art competition among junior colleges across California. As for sports, his son Ken wrote to me: “He was a very good athlete and competed in several sports when he was younger. He played baseball, basketball and I believe some football. He also was a golfer and had a 180 plus bowling average even into his later years.”
In 1940 at age 25, Ben attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and after graduation was hired by Walt Disney Studios, where he worked on Pinocchio, but he was not there long. In February 1941, Ben was drafted and served in the Army as a medic until 1945. He was also trained as a paratrooper. Some months later the U.S. entered World War II and Ben found himself being transferred all over the country. His Army years provided Ben with an opportunity to further his education, and after a tour of duty in France he found himself attending classes at the University of Illinois at Champaign, and later at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he studied languages. While stationed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois with the First Medic Corps, Ben wrote and drew a comic strip called “Donald Doc” for the camp newspaper, The Fort Sheridan Tower. I haven’t found any examples of that, Ben’s first comics work. From the title, it may have been influenced by his Disney experience. Ben continued his sports activities at Fort Sheridan, playing on their baseball team and their basketball team. In a 1980 DC Comics profile, Ben reported his best accomplishment in those days was when the Fort Sheridan basketball team beat rival Camp Grant—just after that team had clobbered the number one college team in the country. Ben recalled: “It was my biggest thrill. The Camp Grant commander was so proud of his team—he made sure that any professional athletes who got transferred to his command stayed at Camp Grant and played on his teams. We showed him.” After getting out of the service, Ben moved to New York looking for work. At the home of a friend, he met Michiko Morita, his future wife. They married and were living at 601 West 110th Street, Manhattan in 1948— by coincidence, the same apartment building where DC Comics letterer Ira Schnapp and his family lived in the 1930s and early 1940s. I don’t know if they were there at the same time or met. By then, Ben had begun his busy comics lettering career.
The Simon & Kirby Years
The Simon & Kirby studio was supplying comics stories to publishers like Harvey and Prize after they returned from World War II military service around 1945. Their main letterer was Howard Ferguson, but in 47
Retrospectives
Ant-Man Mysteries
by Will Murray
A
nt-Man had many fathers. Editor Stan Lee, script writer Larry Lieber, artist Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers, who told me that when he turned in the ink job to the original 1961 Tales to Astonish #27 story, “The Man in the Ant Hill!,” he suggested to Stan Lee that the character of scientist Henry Pym deserved a return appearance.
(above and below) Tales to Astonish #27 (Jan. 1962) and #35 (Sept. 1962). (right) Jack’s two Night Fighter concepts from the mid-1950s. (next page, bottom) Was this splash page Jack’s original concept drawing for Ant-Man in costume? And (inset) was Hanna-Barbera’s 1965 character Atom Ant that company’s way of jumping on the Marvel super-hero craze of the time?
This eventually happened, but not in the way Ayers intended. By the time Dr. Pym returned, the Marvel super-hero universe was getting off the ground, and Henry Pym was re-imagined as the astonishing Ant-Man, inspired by the high sales numbers of Tales to Astonish #27. According to job numbers and everything we can piece together, the costumed Ant-Man was launched immediately after Jack Kirby was taken off the abortive Spider-Man feature that was slated for Amazing Fantasy. Steve Ditko remembered that Kirby’s original unused version of Spider-Man’s costume generally resembled Ant-Man’s outfit. So one can safely assume that Ant-Man was created after Spider-Man, and his costume may in fact have been a re-purposing of the never-seen Jack Kirby Spider-Man—with some design changes to reflect the insect theme instead of the arachnid concept, of course. There is some circumstantial evidence to support this theory.
For one thing, in his first costumed appearance, TTA #35’s “Return of the Ant-Man,” the character sported heavy, thick-soled futuristic boots. Conceivably, these might have been derived from the footgear created for Kirby’s Spider-Man since they suggest an earlier wall-climbing Kirby creation, Night Fighter. He wore thick-soled boots equipped with magnets and/or suction cups that enabled him to walk up walls through mechanical means. Planned for Mainline release in 1954, Night Fighter was abandoned during the severe comic-book retrenchment of that year. Ditko also recalled that the tunic design on Kirby’s Spider-Man resembled Ant-Man’s stylized ant-body thorax silhouette. No doubt an arachnid motif was used on that prototypal Spider-Man. During his brief run on The Fly, the villain Spider Spry [left] had a spider emblem on the forehead of his hood. There are a number of intriguing oddities about Ant-Man’s first costumed appearance. For one thing, on the opening splash page, his cybernetic helmet has two built-in leads connecting his antennae to the microphone suspended before his mouth. These antennae are depicted as segmented, 58
has been finalized, I imagine that Kirby either forgot the specifics of his character’s design or he decided that it needed streamlining. In Ant-Man’s initial appearance, Kirby drew the tunic design two different ways—with a third variation on the cover! There was another oddity about Ant-Man’s first appearance. His helmet covers the upper half of his face and is equipped with two eyeholes so that it functions as a demi-mask disguising AntMan’s true identity. Now, since Ant-Man is incredibly small when he goes into action, this would seem to be superfluous. And it may not have been as Kirby originally conceived the helmet. On the splash page of Chapter 2 of “Return of the Ant-Man,” Ant-Man is holding his helmet as he communicates with a group of ants. Unless this is an inking mistake, it’s clear that Pym’s face is not partially masked [right]. The angle is not full-on and his glove partially obscures his helmet, but Pym’s exposed brow can be seen clearly. There are no eye holes. When I noticed this, I looked over the story carefully and it seemed to me––I could be wrong about this––that the mask elements of the cybernetic helmet were in fact added after the fact. It’s difficult to say this for certain, but I suspect Kirby designed the helmet to be open-faced. He might not have seen the necessity for Ant-Man to conceal his countenance since he would be so diminutive that no one would be likely to discern the specifics of his features.
suggesting that they are collapsible or retractable, like an old car radio aerial [above]. These features aren’t present in any other depictions. This leads me to wonder if that splash page might not have been the concept art for Ant-Man, and Kirby simplified the helmet when he penciled the story. Ant-Man’s costume, as originally drawn, is not so much a super-hero outfit as it is a pair of workman’s coveralls. Trunks are absent––although subsequent reprintings are sometimes colored to suggest them. The entirety of the outfit is red, except for the black symbolism, which includes stylized ant mandibles on the boots––another decorative element that vanishes after the new origin, along with the heavyweight boots.
Other Oddities
When IDW Publishing reprinted the original art to “Return of the Ant-Man” in the oversize format book Jack Kirby’s Marvel Heroes and Monsters, several people noticed that on the splash page [right] Kirby had penciled a continuation of the character’s black torso design running down the front of Pym’s legs. Additionally, the half circle in front of Ant-Man’s belt was intended to be a full circle, representing a stylized segment of an ant’s body. Dick Ayers either did not pick up on these elements, or chose not to ink them. Perhaps, like certain other splash-page design elements, they were not present in the remainder of the story. Similar black bands may have decorated the arms, but Ant-Man’s arm positions do not make this clear one way or the other. Strangely, the cover to Tales of Astonish #35 shows, for the first time, Ant-Man’s costume as it would eventually be finalized: Purple trunks, and slimmer boots matching Ant-Man’s form-fitting gloves. Since covers are usually done after the issue 59
(below) Jack’s Diablo entry in his mid-1970s sketchbook done for wife Roz.
The resulting vapor miniaturizes Private Lancelot Strong and an experimental atomic Army tank Doctor Diablq intends to steal. It’s obviously the same shtick as the FF’s Diablo, and Diablq is only one letter off from Diablo. Like Diablo, Doctor Diablq wears a white scientist’s smock similar to the one Diablo wore in his second appearance, although Diablo’s was padded. More striking still, in two word balloons, the hirsute villain is called Doctor Diablo! The name was obviously changed prior to going to press simply by putting an oblique stroke through the terminal O in Diablo. But production missed two instances, revealing his first-draft name. Doctor Diablq was one of Kirby’s “wild hair” characters. While he was far more bald than Diablo and had a different, much wider face, he belonged to the
sub-genre of hirsute Kirby villains which included the Miracle Man and Paste-Pot Pete. Doctor Diablq’s fate is unclear. He vanishes in the course of a typical Jack Kirby rushed ending that looks as if it was originally two pages cut-and-pasted into one. A word balloon apparently added after the fact has Private Strong state: “The lab is destroyed! No one could live through that!” Strong must have been correct. Doctor Diablq failed to return in the next and final issue. It’s well known that the publishers of Archie’s “Radio Comics” line and Marvel’s Martin Goodman went back to pulp magazine days—Goodman worked for publisher Louis Silberkleit in the early 1930s, and the former friends occasionally got into legal entanglements after parting ways. Could Silberkleit, looking over an issue of Fantastic Four, have recognized Diablo as a not-very-different version of the Kirby bad guy The Shield had vanquished five years previously? Comic book publishers had threatened lawsuits over less obvious recyclings, after all. DC Comics objected to the new Shield over his orphaned-as-a toddler origin and superficial parallels to Superman and his powers, particularly those of unassisted flight. Simon and Kirby’s Captain America, after all, got into trouble for carrying a triangular shield that resembled the bulletproof chest-protector worn by Silberkleit’s pioneering patriotic super-hero, the original Golden Age Shield. I don’t know if there’s anyone alive today who could verify my theory, but I think it might explain why Stan Lee wanted to tear up every issue of what we now consider to be a classic issue of The Fantastic Four. He caught hell from Martin Goodman over it. I imagine Jack Kirby caught some flak, too. As for the detested Diablo, after reverting to his original purple-and-green costume, he has to this day remained essentially true to Jack Kirby’s 1964 design. H SOURCES:
“Stan Lee Looks Back.” Will Murray. Comic Scene 2000. Volume 3, #1 Spring 2000. “Stan Lee Returns.” Chris Hardwick. The Nerdist Podcast, Episode 413, September 27, 2013. “Stan Lee: the Marvel Method.” Mike Bourne. The Stan Lee Universe, TwoMorrows Publishing 2011. 72
BROTHERHOODS AND FAMILIES orn on Essex Street in lower Manhattan in 1917, Jack Kirby’s native world was a crowded tenement jungle. As a result, his pre-adolescent social orientation was based around the neighborhood street gang. Kirby has spoken several times about fights between his Suffolk Street kid’s gang and rival outfits, that took place in the streets, as well as over the rooftops of the Lower East Side. As a teenager, Kirby found a respite from the rough life by joining the Boys’ Brotherhood Republic. Within this organization, the youths had their own elected government with a court of law, a mayor, and a chief of police. They engaged in a variety of recreational sports, and there 2 the feisty Kirby learned how to box. The Republic also published its own newspaper and Kirby became its editor and cartoonist. Years later, when Kirby and creative partner, Joe Simon left Timely Comics for National Periodicals, the King’s experience with youth groups inspired the team to produce several comics based around the theme of Kid Gangs. Kirby and Simon had experimented with the concept earlier at Timely, with The Young Allies, a species of Kid Gang which also included Captain America ’s youthful partner Bucky and the Human Torch’s sidekick Toro. With National in 1942, the two creators produced “The Newsboy Legion” which also featured an adult super-hero called the Guardian. 1 The cover of Star Spangled Comics #7 shows us the dynamic blue and gold clad character who carries a policeman’s badge-shaped shield that instantly reminds us of Captain America. As he explodes off the cover in a favorite Kirby-style forced perspective shot, the Guardian is riding a bright red motorcycle with a sidecar carrying two somewhat scruffy lads, while two better looking boys cling to the hero’s back. In the first story, we are introduced to Patrolman Jim Harper, a compassionate policeman who arranges to get custody of a group of delinquent boys. Harper has just begun to assume the identity of The Guardian, a costumed crimefighter whose heroic name signifies that he is the protector of children as well as of the law. Even after Harper’s kindly intervention, the boys continue to attract trouble, from which the Guardian is required to extract them. On the final page, after the criminals are apprehended, the boys, who will become known as The Newsboy Legion, begin to suspect that Jim Harper is also the Guardian. 2 As is often the case with Kirby characters, the boys’ personalities are archetypal. The supposed leader, Tommy Tompkins, is stable and authoritative; Big Words is the brainy genius; Gabby is an excitable, talkative kid; and Scrapper is the tough guy who likes to fight. Kirby as a writer, intrinsically understood the effectiveness of this template, realizing that characters with distinct personalities reacting to one another would make more lively and
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