Jack Kirby Collector #33 by TwoMorrows Publishing

CELEBRATING THE 40 TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR!

THE NEW

C o l l e c t o r

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Number 5, Nov.-Dec. 2001 • Hype and hullabaloo from the publisher determined to bring new life to comics fandom • Edited by Eric Nolen-Weathington

It’s a Girl!

MAREDITH LILIAN MORROW (you can call her LILY) made her debut appearance August 25th, three weeks ahead of schedule (her future editors love her already). As you can see, she’s been trying to catch up on proud Papa Morrow’s 33 back issues of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, and now she’s all tuckered out. We here at TwoMorrows couldn’t be happier for John and Pam. Congrats, guys! (Now you’d better hurry and catch a quick nap before Lily wakes up!)

Comic Book Artist Goes MONTHLY! That’s right! It’s not a typo— CBA is going (almost) monthly in January! Now you can get JON B. COOKE’s Eisner-award winning magazine ten times a year! And CBA #17 kicks off the new year in fine fashion with its first annual No Theme Issue featuring ARTHUR ADAMS! This issue includes an in-depth ADAMS interview, with rarely-seen art and a complete checklist! Plus, an interview with the late GEORGE EVANS (with unseen artwork), a GEORGE ROUSSOS interview including unpublished work, and an interview with EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER (of Classics Illustrated & Dell fame)! All this and more great surprises await you in this gargantuan grab-bag ish of COMIC BOOK ARTIST!

We Will Remember...

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TwoMorrows should only be downloaded at DRAW! #3 is jam-packed with publications another all-star COPYRIGHT NOTICES: line-up of comics and animation talent. This www.twomorrows.com issue has an interview and step-by-step inking The Fantastic Four, Crystal, Captain America demo by industry legend DICK GIORDANO, ©2001 Marvel Characters, Inc. Blackhawks ©2001 DC Comics. Monkeyman & O’Brien more figure drawing by BRET BLEVINS, 3-D and all related characters ©2001 Arthur computer animation with CHRIS (“Major Adams. Zoot-Suit Heap ©2001 William M. Damage”) BAILEY, a Web comics “how to” Gaines, Agent. DRAW! Girl ©2001 Bret by editor MIKE MANLEY, a new regular Blevins. column by PAUL RIVOCHE, and more!

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Next Issue: Kirby’s Fighting Americans!

Contents OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (a Fantastic Fortieth welcome to this, our second FF theme issue)

THE NEW

UNDER THE COVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (Bruce Timm and Erik Larsen give us the lowdown on this issue’s covers) COMPARISON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 (Mark Alexander shows how Jack approached the same job differently, five years hence)

ISSUE #33, NOV. 2001

JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 (Mark Evanier answers a reader’s Frequently Asked Questions about the many splendored FF cartoon series) CASTING CALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 (R.L. Bryant gives us his dream cast for the inevitable FF movie) MIKE GARTLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 (some not-so-strange tales about a certain Human Torch) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 (Glen Gold owns an amazing artifact from an incredibly forgettable issue of the FF) GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 (ahh, it’s what you bought this issue for anyway—a heapin’ helpin’ of Jack’s FF pencils, at glorious tabloid size!) KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 (Adam McGovern focuses in on Erik Larsen’s Kirby influence in the World’s Greatest Comics Magazine, Savage Dragon, and the Defenders) MINI-INTERVIEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 (here and throughout the issue, we interview nearly every writer and artist who worked on the FF after Kirby) COLLABORATORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 (a Stan Lee interview in TJKC? ’Nuff Said!) ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 (Mark Lerer feels Kirby’s wordsmithing got the editing it deserved during his family reunion on The Inhumans) TECHNIQUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68 (Shane Foley tracks down the origins of Kirby Krackle!) TRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 (what FF issue would be complete without a salute to inker Joe Sinnott?) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . . . . . .76 (even after switching to tabloid size, we’ve got letters wondering why we run the art so small) PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (a special tribute to Lily Morrow, the editor’s new little bundle of joy—she’s the reason this issue’s late, and no, we didn’t name her Jacquelyn!) Front cover inks: ERIK LARSEN Back cover painting: BRUCE TIMM Front cover color: TOM ZIUKO Photocopies of Jack’s uninked pencils from published comics are reproduced here courtesy of the Kirby Estate, which has our thanks for their continued support.

COPYRIGHTS: Justice League of America TM & © DC Comics • Black Bolt, Black Panther, Captain America, Captain Mar-Vell, Crystal, Deathlok, Defenders, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Dragon Man, Fantastic Four, Frightful Four, Galactus, Gorgon, H.E.R.B.I.E., Hulk, Human Torch, Impossible Man, Inhumans, Invisible Girl, Karnak, Luke Cage, Mad Thinker, Marvel Boy, Medusa, Mole Man, Monacle, Mr. Fantastic, Paste-Pot Pete, Psycho-Man, Sandman, Sentry, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, SubMariner, Super-Skrull, Thing, Trapster, Triton, Wizard TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Savage Dragon TM & © Erik Larsen.

(above) 1960s Kirby Marvelmania t-shirt art, recently resurrected (if we’re not mistaken, with a little help by Steve Rude) for a new t-shirt release. © Marvel Characters, Inc. The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 9, No. 33, Nov. 2001. Published quarterly by & © TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092. John Morrow, Editor. Pamela Morrow, Asst. Editor. Eric Nolen-Weathington, Production Assistant. Single issues: $13 postpaid ($15 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Fourissue subscriptions: $36.00 US, $60.00 Canada, $64.00 elsewhere. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA.

Opening Shot I’m not overstating the book’s importance to comics. Stan and Jack’s FF was a veritable primer for would-be (and alreadybeen) comics pros in the 1960s and ’70s. Before FF, there were no “cosmic” concepts in comics, just tired sci-fi rehashes; no real menaces that threatened the Earth (let alone the Universe) the way Galactus did. There were no black heroes in mainstream comics before the Black Panther debuted in FF #52. Villains were never as wickedly clever before Dr. Doom made the scene. Few (if any) married couples went super-heroing together, or had babies, or exuded the sense of family that the FF did. Basically, the FF broadened the thinking of everyone in comics, from fan to pro, reader to publisher, and made them believe that you could stretch the boundaries of comics from covering mundane

(background) Pages from Jack’s last couple of years on the FF. (inset) Details from Jack’s “FF Meet Dr. Doom” animation storyboards, #34 and #37. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Fantastic Forty! by John Morrow, Editor

e ran our first FF theme issue back in TJKC #9, and this one serves as a sequel of sorts, meant to complement (not replace) that issue. FF #1 appeared in November 1961, and I’m proud to have assembled this issue forty years after that seminal event. Since we covered so much in issue #9, we opted to concentrate more on art than text this time out (showing 40— count ’em, 40—pages of Jack’s pencils!); but throughout this issue, you’ll find mini-interviews with nearly every writer and penciler who worked on the Fantastic Four after Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, where George Khoury asked each two questions:

• What Lee/Kirby issue of Fantastic Four is your favorite and why? • How would you say the Lee/Kirby issues influenced your work on the FF? Perhaps it would’ve been more appropriate to track down every artist who worked in comics after 1970 and ask them, “How did the Lee/Kirby FF influence ALL your future work?” (But hey, we still managed to miss tracking down Keith Pollard and Chris Claremont for the original questions, so I don’t think poor George Khoury would’ve been able to find everybody anyway!)

good vs. evil slugfests, into something more intellectual, more emotional, more... fantastic! Some may look at those books in today’s light and call them simplistic, or too melodramatic; but today’s light wouldn’t be as bright if the FF, under Stan and Jack, hadn’t shaped up the way it did. They took comics to another level, and the concepts, drama, and sheer power on those FF pages have influenced several generations of fans since they first appeared, and continue to do so. ★ (Note: Mike Gartland’s new “Failure To Communicate” installment wasn’t ready at presstime, but we’ll have it in an upcoming issue.)

What Lee/Kirby issue of Fantastic Four is your favorite and why? Oh God, there were so many. Whenever Jack’s stuff came to the office, we used to make copies just to keep pinned up. I’ve still got a copy of a page he did. How can you pick your favorite from stuff they did together? I’m sure it was somewhere in the Silver Surfer-Galactus saga but it was almost everything. It’s hard just to pick a favorite because every month a new favorite would come. I’m sorry that I don’t have a clear favorite. I was (Artist on Fantastic Four #103-106) just looking at Captain America stuff last week admiring stuff he did when I was ten years old. He was more than just an idol; he was like “The Original.” I could never pick out a favorite.

4 JOHN ROMITA

How would you say the Lee/Kirby issues influenced your work on the FF? (Laughs) I’ve told this to many people, when I did those three or four issues, I didn’t even think of a panel without having about ten or fifteen of his books in front of me as a guide. I personally felt that nobody should touch the Fantastic Four after Kirby left. If it were me, if I were editor-in-chief, I would close the book down with a “Sorry, but who are we kidding?” I went to Stan Lee and asked him if they were going to drop the book, and he said, “You’re going to do it.” I said, “Are you crazy? I just told you I would drop the book.” (laughs) He asked me to do it and I did it under extreme duress because I felt inadequate. I felt anybody who tried it would be inadequate. It was like trying to raise somebody else’s child. I felt that it had to be an exact copy of Kirby to make it valid. If it didn’t look like Kirby, it wouldn’t look like Fantastic Four. Thank God that John Buscema didn’t get burdened by that kinda stuff. John kept all of Jack’s power and approach but he didn’t feel burdened by doing it exactly like Jack. It’s just my old-fashioned work ethic that felt that if you take over somebody’s book that you had to reproduce it perfectly. All those pages, I just saw them, as Kirby would do them. I tried to emulate him.

Under The Covers

his issue’s front cover is the unpublished pencil cover to Fantastic Four #64. We asked cover inker Erik Larsen to give some background on his inking of this piece, and he kindly obliged: “Inking Jack’s pencils is always a lot of fun, to be sure, but it’s hair-raising as well. My goal here was to try and be as faithful as humanly possible—this isn’t some neophyte whose work was sent my way because the editor desperately wants me to save it—this is Jack Kirby, for cryin’ out loud! Every line committed to paper was done with confidence—every line was deliberate—any wrong move and it takes away from what Jack put down. I know that most of the times when I’m asked to ink something, that those that hired me want me to put my stamp on it—they want to see me—but when inking Jack I just want to get the hell out of the way. I want to hide—my goal is to have it be pure Kirby as much as possible. It’s nervewracking, really. Every line that looks like one of mine stands out to me and drives me nuts. Successfully inking Kirby, to me, is having whoever is looking at it have some question as to who inked it. I’m not sure that I pulled that off—I’m still in there; I can’t hide. Still, I think it’s my most successful ink job yet over Kirby’s pencils. “I was inking on a lightbox rather than over the actual pencils and there can’t help but be something lost in the process, but I’m a better inker now than I was when I got to actually ink Jack’s pencils. I wish that I could have inked like this when I was working over his pencils on Phantom Force–I just ruined that stuff. The nice thing about this is that the pencils still exist out there somewhere—no pencils were destroyed in the making of this cover.”

Our back cover is from a pencil piece first published in the Kirby Masterworks portfolio [see next page]. We’d heard Bruce Timm had previously inked and colored this piece, so we contacted him about allowing us to print it. Bruce wasn’t able to track down the original piece, so he proceeded to create an entirely new version, much to our delight. Bruce comments on the creation of the art: “I’ve always loved seeing two-dimensional super-heroes rendered into ‘threedimensional’ paintings. The first such that I can recall seeing was a TV Guide illustration (by Wally Wood, it turns out) way back in the mid-1960s featuring characters from the then-current crop of super-hero cartoons. I remember thinking, “Yeah, that’s what Iron Man would look like if he were real!” Over the years, What Lee/Kirby issue of Fantastic Four is your favorite and why? They were all masterpieces. Everything that Jack Kirby turned out was a masterpiece. I can’t pick one.

JOHN BUSCEMA

How would you say the Lee/Kirby issues influenced your work (Artist on Fantastic Four #107,109-118, on the FF? 130, 132, 134-141, 160, 170-172, I learned everything about 176-178, 297-309, comics from the books that Annual #11, 20 and 21) Jack did. I devoured them. They were all so fabulous.

(far left) For the published FF #64 cover (July 1967), Jack reworked this original to a reverse-view (probably at Stan’s urging, to at least be showing the FF at a front view). However, as you can see from this stat (above) of the original Joe Sinnott inks, further changes were made after Jack redrew it. Note that the Torch’s flame blast was altered to a fireball, and the blast’s explosion was removed. Also, the title box was given jagged edges to draw more attention to the title. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Bruce Timm’s art for the cover of Justice League Adventures #1 (on sale now), which was “3-D” painted by Alex Ross. © DC Comics. 5

Mark evanier (right) A very simplistic FF rendition, from their 1960s cartoon series. Art © Hanna-Barbera. FF © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(below) Alex Toth’s 1967 model sheet for Dr. Doom. Art © Hanna-Barbera.

(next page) Jack’s storyboards from the 1970s FF series (board #20a and Herbie detail from #36).

Jack F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby by Mark Evanier Our question this time out comes from Kirk Groeneveld of Athens, OH who writes: I recently bought a used VHS copy of Marvel Matinee, Volume One for my daughters. We enjoyed the first feature, “Pryde of the X-Men” very much, but it made an interesting contrast with the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four episodes from circa mid-1980s. (The FF featured Herbie instead of the Human Torch.) None of the voices in the simplistic FF cartoon show sounded right, except for Reed Richard’s voice, who was credited as Mike Roads. I wondered if he was the voice of Mr. Fantastic from the 1960s series also? I noted Ted Cassidy (“Lurch” from The Addams Family) played Ben. Perhaps a column on all the actors who played voice roles in Kirby-drawn/written Marvel Super-Hero cartoons would be of interest? Did Jack have an opinion on the appropriateness of voices used for his creations? Somehow, even though Reed sounded right, he still seemed out of character; unsure, not confident, not insightful, etc. I also noted Jack Kirby received a rather prominent credit for storyboards in the end credits of the FF. How large a role did he play? Did he have to work with Stan Lee much or closely on this project? I find the artwork crude and simplistic, with poorly rendered faces and costumes. (Example: The Sandman’s modern green costume headpiece, which Jack Kirby drew as a thick plastic block strap in FF #61-63, appears as a thin piece of cloth in the cartoon. Even Trapster’s and Wizard’s helmets are too small.)

Characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

irst off, since you mentioned the Fantastic Four cartoon show from 1978, I probably ought to refute one of the great Urban Myths of Comic Book History, namely the claim that they replaced the Human Torch with H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot because they were afraid that the Torch might inspire some kid somewhere to play with fire or set himself ablaze. This is not true. Although the folks in Standards and Practices at the networks have done some bizarre things, the decision on this never got as far as their offices. What happened was that, shortly before that show was launched, Marvel made a deal that licensed a number of their characters to Universal Studios to be developed as live-action TV-movies and potential series. The Incredible Hulk TV show (the one with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno) came out of that deal, as did TV-movies of Dr. Strange and Captain America. The Human Torch was one of the characters that Universal wanted to develop, and a teleplay was written but never produced.

This meant that the television rights to the Torch were encumbered at the time the Fantastic Four show was going into production, and a deal could not be reached to include him. Therefore, he was replaced by a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E., conceived and named by Stan Lee and designed by Jack. This was, of course, the second Fantastic Four cartoon show. The first was produced in 1967 and 1968 by the folks at Hanna-Barbera. It was written primarily by Phil Hahn and Jack Hanrahan (two top comedy writers of the day, and veterans of Mad Magazine) and designed mainly by Alex Toth. The voice cast for this show featured: • Gerald Mohr as Reed Richards. Mohr was a longtime character actor with extensive credits in movies, television and even on radio where he played, at various times, Phillip Marlowe, Johnny Dollar, and even The Lone Ranger. His rich, deep voice often brought him jobs as an announcer/narrator. He filled that post in Disney’s The Reluctant Dragon, for instance. In the Sixties, he did a brief flood of TV commercials and a few animation projects. At the time he was portraying Mr. Fantastic, he was also playing Green Lantern on Filmation’s Superman-Aquaman series over on CBS—two roles that capped a career that dated back to bit roles in Charlie Chan movies of the Thirties. He passed away six months after recording his final episode of the Fantastic Four cartoon show. • Jo Ann Pflug as Sue Storm. Ms. Pflug was then an up-and-coming actress with credits on Beverly Hillbillies, Bracken’s World and several other network shows. Shortly after voicing The Invisible Girl, she would gain fame as the comely Lieutenant Dish in the renowned motion picture of M*A*S*H. • Jack Flounders as Johnny Storm. That’s all I know about him. There are no other known credits for him—at Hanna-Barbera or elsewhere— and it would not surprise me if we’re dealing here with a phony name.

Boris Badenov, Ludwig Von Drake, The Pillsbury Doughboy and hundreds of others. To my knowledge, Jack never commented on the voices on this or any of the cartoon shows based on characters he’d drawn. His feelings about the show itself were pretty basic: He was proud to see that his designs and the storylines of comics he’d done with Stan adapted so well to animation, and pleased to see the brief credit line he and Stan received in the closing credits. He was annoyed, however, that he did not receive a cent for the reuse of his material. 20 episodes of the show were produced over two years—16 the first, and four more to “freshen” the series for the following season. The show was a very modest success and did not do well in syndicated reruns. Nevertheless, in late 1977, Hanna-Barbera decided to take a run at trying to place a revival with some network for a series to commence in September of 1978. As is customary, the “pitch” would involve sample scripts and outlines, as well as large art presentation pieces that might intrigue a buyer. (It is a strange, inexplicable fact of the cartoon business that shows are usually sold with fancy artwork that—everyone knows—will in no way resemble the series.) H-B attempted to engage Toth for this purpose but he was unavailable. So was their second choice, Doug Wildey, who had worked extensively in both comics and animation. Doug was then designing a Godzilla cartoon show that a

• Paul Frees as The Thing and most of the villains. Frees was, of course, one of the great voice actors of his day, notching thousands of commercials, narration jobs, animated cartoons, and film dubbing gigs. A very thick book could and reportedly is currently being written about Frees’ career which included originating the roles of What Lee/Kirby issue of Fantastic Four is your favorite and why? If I go back over it, I would have to say the very first issue, which I really loved. I bought several copies of it—sold one of them at fifty cents—because it was the start of something really different; no costumes, the monster, the human emotion and things to that end. When I look back at it, even though it got much thicker after that, everything was so much there in that issue. While I enjoyed many other issues in-between (Writer of Fantastic Four #119-130, this and that, I can’t say there was really any 132, 156-178) other issue that I enjoyed more than that very first one. It kept getting better and better, and I love the Silver Surfer trilogy as much as anybody, but by then I was working at Marvel so I saw it in a little different light than I would if I had been buying it off the stands. The other thing is not a particular issue, but the very first story of the character Klaw, which had this one page that I remember proofreading at Marvel. I was proofing a page in which Reed picks up this gadget that the Thing wears which is practically

4 ROY THOMAS

covering him and Reed says, “Can you run towards the door?”And the Thing says, “Run towards it? I can’t even see it.” I remember proofing that and laughing out loud, which was something that I would rarely do when reading a super-hero comic. Although it’s not a favorite story, it’s an all-time favorite page of the Fantastic Four even though there’s a tremendous amount of copy on it, because it just goes back and forth, but the dialogue was so nice and so much fun that I liked that page. How would you say the Lee/Kirby issues influenced your work on the FF? Basically it inspired it almost entirely, but in some ways it was very inhibiting. I never really felt that I could improve on what Stan and Jack had done. In glancing at it over the years, nobody has come out as well as when Stan and Jack did it. Nobody has ever improved on it except in certain minor ways of tuning, which can’t always be said of characters that are created by one person or team and then taken over by someone else. In my case, I just kept referring back to those issues and I wanted to find new things to do, and at the same time I felt that it had to fit into this Lee-Kirby framework because anything out of that wasn’t the Fantastic Four. It was a very strong influence. Even though Jack wasn’t there when I did Fantastic Four, the fact remained that those were two long shadows over me. Once in a while a creation is just so perfect that all you do is just keep doing riffs on it and not mess with it too much. 9

Mike Gartland

The “Other” FF (or,

by Mike Gartland

(below) Detail from the Human Torch pin-up in FF #3 (March 1962). Sol Brodsky inks. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

ots of times comic book enthusiasts reflect on their favorite stories, genres, characters, etc. and often agree on one fact: Once you’ve read a new story, the spontaneity and excitement are lost forever. You can go back of course and re-read it, enjoy it, savor it with a nostalgic zeal, but the moment of that first time is never quite the same. So it is (or was) with those of us who grew up ingesting the classic stories of the Kirby/Lee Fantastic Four. If you’ve gone over those 102 issues and six Annuals, then that’s all there’ll ever be as far as the FF are concerned; or is it? There may be another option open, another chance to capture that excitement again, albeit in a diluted form. As all true Marvel historians know, 1961 was the year it all began; but in reality it was 1962 that was the watershed. That was the year many of us not only discovered the existence of the FF, but were introduced to great new characters like Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Thor, the Hulk, and the Human Torch. Wait! That last one can’t be right! The Human Torch wasn’t new; but he was! And why start up all these new guys in existing titles and then put in a character who was not only a throwback, but was already in a relatively new title already? And what about that chance to read some other Kirby/Lee FFs? Well....

True, the Human Torch was hardly a new character by 1962. The hero was originally created in 1939 by Carl Burgos. Initially, the Torch was an android that resembled a human male; due to a flaw in its creation, the

android would burst into flame whenever exposed to oxygen. This problem was surmounted by the end of the first story and the character learned to control its ability to flame. The Torch went on to become one of the “Big Three” superheroes in the (then) Timely Comics line, the other 16

two heroes being the Sub-Mariner and Captain America. Editor Stan Lee and publisher Martin Goodman both developed a fondness for the character: Lee’s was based on the uniqueness of the character and the ability to get an exciting story out of him; Goodman’s was based on, naturally, the character’s ability to sell books and turn a profit. By the end of the Forties, super-heroes were done, but Lee wouldn’t forget them for very long. To that extent, by the early Fifties, Lee tried to bring the Big Three back, but the timing was off. Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s anti-comics crusade and the Kefauver hearings on Juvenile Delinquency, plus the fact that a tabloid publication ran a story of a child immolating himself because he wanted to be like the Human Torch, pretty much put an end to the hopeful revival; but still Lee wouldn’t forget, and after cancellations, layoffs and hardships, finally— with the arrival of DC’s new heroes and the return of Jack Kirby—the timing would be perfect. In 1961, when Kirby and Lee were brainstorming over the characters that would eventually become the Fantastic Four, according to Lee it was he who suggested using the Torch in the new group (some have speculated that he wanted to bring back the Big Three at this time, but this is yet to be determined as fact). The Torch came back, but either Lee or Kirby saw to it that it wasn’t the original Torch. During the course of the group’s development, it was determined to make the Torch a true human; and in order to give the group a sense of “family,” have him be related to one of the other members. In this case the female member, the Invisible Girl, would be his sibling. The new Torch was also to be an adolescent, thereby giving the character an air of freshness, humor, and unpredictability, not to mention “teen” appeal. Lee showed his determination and respect to the old guard when, mere months after re-creating the Torch, he brought back the SubMariner, coincidentally at the hands of the Torch; a nostalgic tip of the hat. It didn’t take long after the FF started rolling that it became apparent to Lee that all four characters were developing their respective fans. Remembering the popularity of his Golden Age antecedent, Lee decided to give this new Torch his own series. In an interview Lee said: “We thought the Torch would be the most popular (of the four), and didn’t consider the Thing at that time.” Although the Thing’s popularity with fans would indeed grow fast and eventually eclipse that of the Torch, it was better sense at that time to go with the fiery youngster, as there was that teen audience to tap and Kirby and Lee already had a monster/hero they had just launched, the Hulk. As with most of the new series being premiered, Lee would put the Torch in a previously non-hero title

Not-So-Strange Tales) (due to the publishing restrictions put on Marvel by its thendistributor). It was determined that the Torch series would go into the Strange Tales comic starting with issue #101 and, just as with the other non-hero to hero titles, Lee would see to the initiation of the series with Kirby, then hand over scripting duties to his brother Larry Lieber.

Lieber was the principal scripter for the early issues showcasing not only the Torch, but Thor, the Ant-Man, and Iron-Man as well. Based on plots allegedly given by Lee, Lieber would, in his words, give full scripts to the artists he was working with. It is noted in several instances of viewing the original art, however, that Kirby (at least) leaves visible notations of dialogue and/or captions underneath the areas of the art where the word balloons would be put; this has only been seen on originals where there is an intermediate scripter (ie. Lee’s plot, someone else’s script). It appears to me, having researched many Kirby Marvel originals that, as far as his involvement with the scripters went, the art tells the tale. In stories where there is a definite co-working of plot and story between scripter and artist, there are virtually no notes left by Jack. In stories where he is working with someone else’s plot or script, there are additions or changes made by Kirby as he draws the story, adding his input in dialogue/captions where the balloons would go. In stories where Jack was driving the plots and others would follow up with the scripting afterword in the form of dialogue/captions, there are copious notes left by Jack in the borders. It’s also documented that Kirby almost always was in on the visual design of the characters being created, whether he drew the story or not. Kirby would design the villain or hero while usually doing the cover, thus giving the resident artist a visual template; this clearly

indicates that Jack must have been aware of at least the basic plots to many stories he either didn’t draw, or would later draw under another’s (in this case, Lieber’s) script. Issue #101 established the parameters of the new Torch with new readers. It goes over the origin of the FF and how young Johnny Storm gained his powers. It also introduces the locale of Glenville, a sleepy, allAmerican, WASPish environment where everything is “Happy Days” except for insane super-villains, aliens, dimension warps, etc.—you know, the usual stuff. Johnny lives here with his sister, whom everyone knows is the Invisible Girl, but for some inexplicable reason it’s given that, in this series, the Torch has a secret identity (in this town anyway). It was established early on in the pages of FF that the identities of the Four were known to the general public. Giving the Torch a secret identity may have been a miscommunication between

Lee and Lieber, or it may have been on purpose, as it is spotted early on, but used as an “in” joke on the Torch by his friends and classmates in the town; the secret identity fiasco is eventually dropped within six issues. The first published story (all Torch stories would be anywhere from 12-14 pages in length) involves a masked saboteur named the Destroyer (this was a pre-Thor Destroyer, mind you) who is caught and unmasked à la ScoobyDoo by story’s end. Issue #102 introduces the Wizard, who would become the arch-nemesis of the series, even though he appears only four times in the entire run; and as with many Kirby creations, he never looks as good as he does in that first panel appearance on page two, an acromegalic masterpiece, God help him. Issue #103 is interesting with respect to, not the story which is pretty much standard sciencefiction fare—“Zemu of The Fifth Dimension” (it does give the Torch his first one-on-one with

(left) The Fantastic Four—particularly Sue Storm—made appearances in the Torch’s solo stories. Shown here are panels from Strange Tales #102 (Nov. 1962). Inks by Ayers. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Looking closely at the original art, you can see vestiges of Kirby’s handwriting under the final lettering in the balloons from Strange Tales #108 (May 1963), begging the question: Did Jack simply copy Stan Lee’s and Larry Lieber’s pre-written dialogue onto the artwork (but why?), or did Jack have a hand in writing the dialogue for these stories? © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) Captain America (sort of) returns in Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963). Ayers inks. (below) Bob Powell leaves margin notes in ST #130 like he did on his Astonish GiantMan work. Inks by Chic Stone. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

same month as X-Men #5), but there are aspects of the art that reflect Ayers too, so perhaps they both had a hand in it. This is the last Torch story Kirby would pencil for Strange Tales. Lee and Ayers settle in as the regular team on the Torch stories, and with issue #121 the Plantman returns in a new costume. Issue #122 brings in the Terrible Trio from the pages of FF #23 (they would come back again in issue #129). Issue #123 is notable for the first appearance of the Beetle (the last new villain worth mentioning in the series); the story is drawn by Carl Burgos and inked by Ayers—thereby uniting the two artists who drew the character in the Forties and Fifties respectively—and the Thing joins the Torch as a regular in the series. Apparently sales were slowing with the title and the Thing’s fan popularity was higher than the Torch’s, so why not? Paste-Pot Pete makes his final ST appearance in issue #124; he would go on to join the Sandman and the Wizard in forming the Frightful Four in FF #36 and finally change his name to the Trapster. Sub-Mariner guest-stars in issue #125 for a slobbernocker; issue #126 has the Thinker and the Puppet Master. #127 has a Mystery Villain whom I won’t reveal in case you haven’t read the story. Issue #128 has a great battle involving Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (taking place around the time of XMen #9). Issue #130 brings in the Beatles and Bob Powell as the regular artist. By this time the writing was on the wall for the series and Goodman was urging Lee for a new feature so, as with his turn in Astonish, Powell finished out the run drawing the last five issues. Issue #134 would be the final Torch 22

story, involving Kang the Conqueror; it was inked by Wally Wood. Now as to those “other” FF stories I was referring to: If you haven’t read this series, I’d advise you do, for you might be pleasantly surprised. Throughout almost the entire run you have FF cameos, appearances, and involvement by the other members of the group. It’s far easier to cite the issues where the Torch is completely solo

(with respect to the other FF members) then the other way around. Issues #106 and #118 could almost qualify as FF stories, and the covers to #106, #108, #116 and #118 could pass for better FF covers than the ones run in the regular series at

that time. You also have the three major members of the early FF creative team always working on the Torch stories: Ayers, Kirby, and Lee, at one time or another. The Invisible Girl seems to have more active involvement in these stories than in the pages of FF, and later on, when the Thing becomes a regular, he makes the book even more of a FF tie-in series. So go over these stories and enjoy the escapism one more time; it’s not exactly those Kirby/Lee FFs, but it may be as close as you’ll ever get; and if you’ve never read them before, I envy you! ★

Retrospective

The (UN-?) Forgettable FF 15 Lumpy Grey Androids, Monkeys With Matches, and Crystal Baxter Buildings: These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things, by Glen Gold

or those of you who grew up in the late ’60s and early ’70s, the Fantastic Four was just young enough that you could read the current issue (the first one I read was #150), and then find the back issues you needed to explain what the heck was going on. I recall finding issues from the #140s and #130s and feeling like I was slowly unraveling a story that I wouldn’t know all the ramifications of until I finally read my way back to #1. This was the brilliance of continuity and cross-overs; The House of Ideas made sure that kids like me needed to buy everything they’d ever put out so we could follow huge multi-generational stories. This was how I found out that the Hulk, whom I loved, was once grey (as was Iron Man), the Avengers didn’t always have the Vision as a member, and, most importantly, the Fantastic Four used to have a different flavor entirely. The ’70s were a time of socially relevant stories— Reed and Sue almost divorce; Harry Osborne trips on acid; Howard the Duck runs for President. It was a shock to see that in the early ’60s, the Fantastic Four had a lot of fun with their powers, and it was obvious that the people who created them had fun, too. Fantastic Four #15 is a benchmark of loony storytelling; I imagine Stan and Jack plotting it at 3:00 in the morning. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure: Our tale begins in the evening—Johnny Storm has taken “Peggy” to a “quiet lane in Central Park” to neck under the “moon above.” Unfortunately, Mr. Fantastic signals with the flaregun, interrupting the date. (And, by the way, the moment he reveals this, it’s “exactly 12:42 PM”; apparently Johnny’s date went really well.) Mister Fantastic has also interrupted an experiment, something like the spontaneous generation of goldfish in a

(this page and throughout) Scenes from Fantastic Four #15 (June 1963). Inks by Dick Ayers. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Chanel perfume atomizer, because the police department reports that “top mobsters” are flocking to New York. Granted, the illustration is of a car driving away from NYC, but those mobsters are tricky, especially the top ones. They’re doing the bidding of the Mad Thinker! His insane plan is... to proclaim New York an independent state! Fiendishly, he adds, “I shall even appoint ambassadors to other American cities! I will sign treaties with the rest of America and negotiate trade and foreign-aid pacts!” Huh... that’s it? No murder, or theft, or... well, okay. Perhaps this pre-NAFTA, states-rights, Republican-to-the-Max plan lacks some of the panache that, say, Galactus’ plans had, but hey, Galactus didn’t have the Thinker’s “greatest array of thinking machines ever assembled,” with big disks labeled “weather,” “wind velocity,” “tidal pull” and “sun spots.” Woe to the adversary who’s relying on the Farmer’s Almanac. At this point, the story goes from silly to positively giddy. The Thinker tells the gangs about a million dollar heist which succeeded because “I knew a hot dog vender [sic] would pass by at just the right split-second,” and, better yet, “it was part of my plan to know that an organ grinder’s monkey would accidentally start a fire in a deserted shack, thereby burning some valuable papers which contained enough evidence to send me to jail for years!” A lovely touch is that before, during, and after this account, the Thinker is striking Rodin’s “The Thinker” pose. (Though if Rodin believed his Thinker was thinking about an organ grinder’s monkey, I’ll eat my fedora.) The Thinker won’t trust a mere circus animal to defeat the Fantastic Four. Instead, he entrusts the circus itself! Yes, Johnny Storm’s “cousin Bones” shows up, a lanky man in a Curious George-man-with-the-yellow-hat hat, offering Johnny a job with the circus. Never mind that we’ve never heard of cousin Bones before, and will never hear of him again, or that if Johnny’s his cousin, so is Sue, and Bones doesn’t give Sue the time of day (hey, invisible juggling and lion taming would be cool). Johnny, never the most reliable member of the FF, decides to leave town and join the “Bones and Bailey” circus. Nothing so frivolous could get Reed out of the way. General Electronics, Ltd. needs a scientific genius to head their research division, and they find him the way most highlevel recruitment is done. That’s right, a careless janitor leaves a comic book on a desk and Cartright, Van Dorn, and Roger realize Mister Fantastic is the man for the job. (Note to 23

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

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

GREAT RE-CREATIONS Erik Larsen & A Few Hundred Close Friends Rekindle The Lee/Kirby Golden Years his column has been covering the Kirby influence dispersed throughout the comics field; at the dawn of 2001 the Kirby genre reached critical mass as his disciples came together in the most ambitious tribute yet. Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine is a year-long revisitation of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby heyday of that definitive Marvel book on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. Set in the late 1960s between issue #100 and #101 of the original Fantastic Four title, WGCM gives the Lee-Kirby team the grand, frothy send-off it didn’t have in real life as the relationship deteriorated rapidly and Kirby jumped companies by issue #102. The book is masterminded by fan-favorite writer-artist Erik Larsen, who plots each story with Eric Stephenson and lays out every issue while a who’s who of collaborators writes and draws the episodes—one scripter per month but a different pencil-and-ink team every few pages, for a pop-art crazy quilt of artists channeling Kirby’s four-color psychedelia and writers reliving Lee’s consciousness-expanding patois. The roster is a great generational jam-session convening present-day luminaries like Bruce Timm, Jeph Loeb and Kurt Busiek (and frequently Larsen himself), with giants from Marvel’s classic ’60s and ’70s like Joe Sinnott and Keith Giffen, and household-names-tobe from the indie leagues like Tom Scioli (though the whole honor guard goes under a splash page Lee/Kirby alias, with a gotcha-inducing roll call at the end). The loving detail extends right to the background tone of yellowed newsprint on the period-correct letters page. And the Kirby homage is deep and wide—observant (not to mention really, really obsessive) fans of the King will even notice the unidentified time-traveling cameo in issue #5 from the “Cosmic-Powered Hulk” (an android doppleganger for the Grade—a greenskin which was Kirby’s infamous way of conceding to reader demand for Marvel-character crossovers in his better-stood-alone later series The Eternals). Keepin’ the whole blamed spaceship on course is Erik Larsen. Praised in a recent edition of this column for the almost-perfect melding of his and the King’s style on a special Thor issue, when crossing over to Kirby’s style entirely Larsen is freed to do a thoroughlyperfect recreation, paradoxically as fresh as it is faithful. Seldom if ever have both the look and underlying essence of High Kirby been captured at once, this successfully; we’re talking heart, not shell. As the book’s grand finale looms, Larsen shared some observations with TJKC from his front-row seat at the Kirby second coming.

(above) Larsen/Sinnott cover to World’s Greatest Comics Magazine #5 (June 2001). © Marvel Characters, Inc. (center) To keep the book looking as consistent and Kirbyesque as possible when dealing with different artists, Erik Larsen provided layouts like this one from issue #9 (Oct. 2001, shown opposite the printed page by penciler Paul Ryan and inker Al Gordon). © Marvel Characters, Inc.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: What’s it been like getting to work with some of the legends who’ve come back to contribute to this book—and how many of them have you actually gotten to meet? ERIK LARSEN: Almost everything has been coordinated through Marvel, but I’ve met most of the folks who’ve worked on the book at some point or other. The only big exception is [definitive FF-era Kirby inker] Joe Sinnott, whom I’ve never met, but I’m extremely grateful that he has been able to contribute as much as he has. Getting to have him ink pages over my pencils was a real thrill. TJKC: Speaking of more recent legends, Bruce Timm has been heavily involved, even though his too-modest opinion of his work on Avengers 1 1⁄ 2 made him vow not to attempt Kirby again. How did you lure him back? ERIK: It wasn’t hard—he’s as big a Kirby buff as they get! Trying to pencil dead-on Jack was giving him grief so he opted to ink stuff in every issue and help make folks’ work look more like Kirby/Sinnott. He’s really put a lot of work into this stuff and I think he’s done a great job. TJKC: You handle all the book’s layouts, and this is certainly one of the most dynamically and resourcefully composed comics in recent memory. Was it a challenge to channel Kirby’s design sense like that, or is it a natural power you temper in your other books and were able to cut loose with here?

ERIK: The thing about Jack is that, other than a few repeated patterns like big close-ups that he’d typically crop a certain way, there are no regular patterns to his work! Even anatomy stuff changes from page to page and panel to panel! Jack didn’t fall into the trap of repeating the same positions over and over, so I tend to just try and think dynamic and straightforward and hope for the best. I’m not sitting here with a mess of books open—generally I’ll look at a string of issues and then put them away. The thing is, it would be easy to just sit here and swipe poses but that’s not what Jack would do, and as much as possible I’ve tried to do it as Jack would. TJKC: Related to that last question, Marie Severin has proudly stated that Kirby almost never changed any cover layout she designed for him, and says she just tried to figure out how he thinks. You’ve been giving that feeling too. How does one go about thinking like the King? ERIK: Jack’s primary goal is to tell the story in a clear fashion; he may dress things up quite a bit but the essence of it is to tell the story well. Jack’s way of cutting corners—and if there ever was an oxymoron, that’s it—was to keep the characters moving from one location to another. Jack wasn’t big on referencing a specific room and keeping it consistent. He’d draw a different kitchen every time it appeared; draw a different lab; draw a different city. Going back and researching what he drew something like before would only slow Jack down, so he tended to blaze ahead rather than dwell on what he’d done in the past. Jack was concerned with the details but not the specific details—Galactus would always have the same silhouette but not necessarily the same costume. Generally I’ve tried, then, to do much the same—have the characters keep on the move. Vary the camera angles as much as possible while picking the shots that best tell the story. It’s a challenge, to be sure. TJKC: In addition to the big names of past and present who’ve jumped at the chance to work on this book, WGCM has given a spotlight to a number of emerging talents. Is it important for you to give a leg up to the next wave of creators like that, and

how did you assemble your team—by putting out a general “casting call” or just getting in touch with up-and-comers you’d admired? ERIK: My primary goal was to find guys who can pull What Lee/Kirby issue of Fantastic Four it off. New guys are less likely to have settled is your favorite and why? into a rut and are more able to be Jack Kirby. Despite all the brilliant work that The problem a lot of people have, myself came after, FF #5 will always be included, is that we’ve developed our own my favorite. Apart from being visual shorthand to solve problems and the first one I read, it was a it’s tough to shake that and do things a time travel story—always a different way. Jack often did fairly bizarre personal favorite! things to the human figure in problemsolving, and it’s tough to sit there and How would you say the intentionally draw something that looks (Writer and Artist on Fantastic Four Lee/Kirby issues influenced wrong to you in order to make it look like #209-218, 220-221, 232-294, your work on the FF? somebody else. There can also be a tendency Annual #13, 17-19) The latter could not exist without to compound the problem by adding another the former. That is the only way to artists’ shortcomings to your own, you know? It’s say it. like, geez, now the knees are big and round and the

4 JOHN BYRNE

Collaborators (center oval) A stat sent to Jack for reference by Marvel production manager Sol Brodsky, at Stan’s request. Stan obviously knew readers would spot differences in Johnny’s hot rod issue-toissue, right down to the “F4NY” license plate number. From FF #65 (Aug. ’67). © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(below) Stan’s synopsis for FF #1. For a full discussion of it (including Stan’s annotations), get the Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection trade paperback from TwoMorrows.

Stan Lee Interview

Conducted by Jon B. Cooke on October 11, 2001 (When I was a 15-year-old smart-ass kid, I attended a lecture given by Stan Lee held at a local college. I asked “The Man” what he thought of Jack Kirby’s not-so-nice satirical jab at him in the pages of Mister Miracle casting Stan in the guise of huckster Funky Flashman. “Oh, that Jack,” diplomat Stan said, quickly dismissing me, “he was always a kidder.” Now, 27 years later, this is my second chance to ask questions of the founding father of Marvel Comics. This interview was transcribed by John Morrow, and copyedited by Stan.— Jon B. Cooke) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Was the Fantastic Four a fun strip to work on? STAN LEE: Sure, I loved it. TJKC: Do you remember when the Marvel Method started? [Editor’s Note: See Sidebar.] STAN: No, not really. I think it was even before the Fantastic Four. It might have been when Jack and I were doing monster stories. I’d give him an idea for a monster story, he would draw it, and I’d do the dialogue. Or it might even have been before that time. Memory-wise, I’m not much of a super-hero. TJKC: Did Kirby ever ask for a writing co-credit because of the Marvel Method, feeling he did part of the writer’s job? STAN: Kirby never asked me for co-writing credit. It was he who originally suggested the “By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby” credit, and as far as I knew he was quite contented with that. TJKC: In 1957, there was the problem with Atlas’ distributor American News collapsing. Did the Marvel Method grow out of that, because you were the single writer for what was then Atlas Comics? STAN: Well, it did grow out of the fact that I didn’t have time to write all the stories I had to write, and that was the quickest way to do it. TJKC: What was your relationship with Martin Goodman like? STAN: In the beginning I had a good relationship with him. Toward the end it soured a bit. TJKC: Do you remember the first time you met Joe Simon and Jack Kirby? STAN: Yeah, when I first came to work at the company Joe was the editor, the guy who hired me. Jack was the artist, and I was their assistant. TJKC: Do you recall how Jack got into Atlas later?

STAN: Not really. He was a freelancer. Either I called him or he called me, but whoever called who, I said, “Hey, I’ve got some work for you,” and he said, “Okay,” and he came and did it. TJKC: You guys had a good working relationship while you were working together, right? STAN: I think we had the best relationship in the world. TJKC: For a period of time, you wrote almost all the stories that were coming out; your brother Larry Lieber wrote some of them. As the company grew, you got Roy Thomas and a bunch of other people in, but you still remained on the books Jack was drawing. STAN: Well, I tried to stay with the most important stuff for as long as I could. I’d give Jack most of those strips because he was the best. TJKC: How did you work with Jack? Did you say something very simple, and he’d build off of that? STAN: In the beginning, I’d give him written-out plots, like the outline for the first Fantastic Four. After a while, I would just tell him what I thought the story ought to be. Then after a while, I would just give him a few words. He could practically do the whole thing by himself, y’know? Very often I didn’t even know what the hell he was going to give me. I’d get some pages of artwork, and I wrote the copy and turned it into whatever story I wanted it to be. TJKC: In the mid-1960s, right when you guys were hitting your stride, there was a cosmic era, where Galactus came in. It was really a classic time for the Fantastic Four. You’ve said, for instance, that you didn’t even know who the Silver Surfer was when he appeared on the pages for FF #48. STAN: Jack had thrown him in. I told him I wanted a character called Galactus and I described Galactus to him. When he sent me the artwork, there was this oddball on a flying surfboard, and I said, “Who the hell’s this?” He said, “I figured anybody as powerful as Galactus ought to have a herald who would go ahead of him and find planets.” I said, “That’s a great idea!” so I gave him the name “The Silver Surfer.” I liked the way Jack drew him very much; there was a certain nobility to his demeanor, so I tried to write him as though he was a somewhat spiritual guy. To Jack, he was just a herald, that’s all; just a sort of flunky for Galactus. But I thought he looked like much more than

that, so I began to feature him and write him like he was somebody special. TJKC: Correct me if I’m wrong; he became your favorite character at the company, right? STAN: What do you mean?

TJKC: You seemed to have a special place in your heart for the Silver Surfer. STAN: Oh, I misunderstood you! I thought you said “I” became my favorite character. (laughter) Well, I had a special place in my 59

Analysis

The Final C

omic book historians have written about it. The most dedicated Kirby buffs have wrestled with it. It’s the one irony that permeates all Kirby scholarship: How, with all the imagination, skill, and experience at his fingertips, Kirby’s self-edited creations like the Fourth World books never achieved the popularity or the commercial success of Jack’s Silver Age Marvel work. Explanations run from Kirby’s inconsistencies at writing dialogue to fluctuations in the comic book marketplace to ill-treatment on the part of inexperienced editors. Gene Popa’s excellent article “Stan Lee Presents: The Fourth World” (TJKC #26) subtitled “What would a Marvel Comics New Gods have been like?” raised the issue, but gave only passing mention to what I believe is a key to the question. I’d like to bring to light what I consider a comic book archaeological find, the closest existing answer to the question of what a Marvel-published, Kirby-created Fourth World series would be like. The evidence lies in an obscure title Marvel published at the twilight of the Silver Age—a few overlooked episodes of a super-hero strip that didn’t even take up an entire book, but makes for a fascinating moment in the history of comics and particularly in the career of Jack Kirby: That rarest of rare animals, a series that Kirby wrote as well as drew—under the editorship of Stan Lee. Its title was “The Inhumans,” in a book called Amazing Adventures.

The Time And Place (this page) Cover details (inked by John Verpoorten) of the Inhumans’ final Kirby FF appearance in issue #99 (June 1970). Solo stories in Amazing Adventures would begin two months later, so like the Surfer before them, a story in the FF was used to get the ball rolling. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(below) Kirby in 1967. Photo by Mark Hanerfeld.

It was 1970, nearly a decade after the debut of the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. The Marvel style, canon, and universe were all well formed, commercially proven, and easy to crank out. They were also eminently applicable to characters from other media, like Conan the Barbarian, and to genres outside the super-hero vein, like the horror anthologies Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness, and the romance books My Love and Our Love Story, that also premiered that year. Trying out As evidenced by different ideas in hopes of a new hit seemed to be the order of the day. Jack’s notes (right: Two new titles, Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales, revived the “split” format “Black Bolt says ‘The Earth that had been used several years earlier in Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, and Strange Tales, is large--there must be...’”) spotlighting some secondary Marvel characters, presumably to see if they could garner the popand Stan’s insertion of a word ularity to support their own books. Astonishing Tales starred the perennial Tarzan knock-off balloon (far right), they originally Ka-zar and Dr. Doom. Amazing Adventures featured the Black Widow and the Inhumans. planned for Black Bolt to be able to It is on the splash page of the first Inhumans story that we first encounter Jack Kirby speak in his younger days, during being credited as a writer, as well as artist, of a Marvel super-hero series. Unfortunately, these Inhumans stories that ran as we’ll probably never know how this arrangement came about, since Stan Lee is notoriback-ups in Thor #146-152. ous for his bad memory and Kirby is dead. Did Stan, delighted at how well Jack had © Marvel Characters, Inc. been plotting the Fantastic Four and Thor for so many years, ask Jack if he wanted to script a series? Did Kirby petition Stan to let him try his hand at writing? Was Jack so frustrated by his lot at Marvel that he insisted on writing any new books Stan gave him to draw? Whatever the circumstances, we can safely assume that Jack wanted to write. The prospect probably appealed to Stan as well—if Jack could write as dependably as he drew, there would be one less editorial assignment to worry about. A strip in Amazing Adventures or Astonishing Tales would provide the perfect place to give Jack Kirby a shot at it.

Why The Inhumans? Why the Inhumans? Why not Ka-Zar, which Kirby was penciling in Astonishing Tales? Or Dr. Doom, whom Jack had drawn in the Fantastic Four since God was a boy? Probably because the Inhumans were largely Jack’s creation, like that other intriguing Fantastic Four supporting character from 1966, the Silver Surfer. Although the Inhumans had been introduced into the pages of the Fantastic Four individually over the course of a year or two, the emergence of these strange beings as a group—members of a common genetic offshoot of humanity—happened at a time when Jack was doing more and more of the plotting on the Fantastic Four—unlike Doom, who premiered in FF #5. Also, the idea of a race of genetically offbeat people is a theme Jack returns to several times in his career, most notably in The Eternals. In 1968, the “Tales of Asgard” feature that had occupied the last 5 pages of every issue of Thor was dropped in favor of an Inhumans 64

Family Reunion

by Mark Lerer

ten-page Inhumans stories, titled simply “The Inhumans” premiered in Amazing Adventures #1, cover date August 1970.

A Sound Editorial Presence

series, spotlighting their origins. Again, we have no verifiable idea whose initiative this was; we can see, though, because Stan Lee was writing the dialogue and Jack was drawing, that this Inhumans series reads very much like the Fantastic Four and Thor—we have Jack’s tremendous action scenes and cityscapes, and Stan’s noble heroes declaim their intentions with typical Lee-esque drama. I believe Jack probably thought of the Inhumans, like the Surfer, as “his,” and may have actively encouraged Stan to let him write, as well as plot and draw, the Inhumans in a strip of their own. In any case, it came to pass. The first of four

The first, most obvious thing one notices upon reading the ten-page Inhumans stories in Amazing Adventures #1-4 is that the disfluencies that mar Kirby as a scripter in his later, self-edited books are practically nowhere to be found. One would never know from reading these stories that Jack Kirby was as flawed a scripter as his later books would reveal him to be. There are far fewer instances of emphasis on the wrong words. Dialogue is understandable on the first reading. The conversations between characters clarify for the reader whatever may not be evident in the pictures alone, without sounding forced or contrived. The awkwardness is absent. Occasionally there is a triple exclamation point, but they’re rare. Compared with Jack’s DC books, or his post-1976 Marvel work, these stories are much more readable. The immediate conclusion? Obviously, Kirby was being edited here, and being edited carefully. Jack’s scripts read better when edited by Stan Lee than when edited by Jack himself. The plot of the first Inhumans story in Amazing Adventures #1 and #2 is very simple, and like a lot of series openers, involves some popular established characters as guest-stars. Evidence is discovered that the Fantastic Four are attacking the Inhumans. In the very last panel of part one, Black Bolt makes the fateful decision to battle the FF (“War!”). We learn that Maximus is behind the deception, and 65

Technique

Kracklin’ Kirby

(top) Compare the Surfer’s sense of power in these two covers, from FF #50 (May 1966) and #72 (Mar. 1968). © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Tracing the advent of Kirby Krackle, by Shane Foley ’ve often marvelled at the differences between the Silver Surfer figures on the covers of FF #50 and #72. Both are virtually pinups—both are of the same character and both are by King Kirby. But the first is a lithe, sinuous figure who is strong yet fluid. The second is shiny granite. Somewhere between May 1966 and March 1968—the cover dates of these two issues—Kirby’s way of drawing the human figure had changed. But something else had changed too. One of Kirby’s greatest and most lasting creations/discoveries had appeared—the spectacular and affectionately called “Kirby Krackle.” That cover of FF #72 is alive with it. Galaxies are formed out of it. Energy seething and rising is formed out of it. Little black dots in wonderfully evocative patterns make the cover feel electric! A quick look through the issue shows over half the pages have at least one panel on them using Kirby Krackle to represent anything from space to naked power to smoke to explosions to the energy surrounding teleportation. Kirby obviously loved it and thought it expressed these elements of his story well. I think we all agree there. Go back three years to FF #37. A space adventure with a cross-galactic voyage, the first Marvel age warping through Sub-Space, lots of action and explosions and battles. And something else, noticeable by its absence—not a single use of Kirby Krackle anywhere. So it seems somewhere, in the three years between FFs #37 and #72, Kirby created/discovered the power of simply arranging black spots to achieve an illusion of power even greater than he or anyone else had achieved before. So where did it all begin? Looking at the FF issues subsequent to #37, the first time I see something that begins to look vaguely like Kirby Krackle is during Ben Grimm’s battle with Dr. Doom in FF #40. But it isn’t really the Krackle at all. Common place in comic explosions were the heavy ‘flash’ lines indicating the lines of force and the heavier, ‘smokey’ ends on them. Kirby being Kirby drew them heavier than most others and made the explosions look stronger. There are numerous examples here. Also on page 19 panel 3 we see a semi-silhouetted Thing as he struggles against Doom’s power. Some of his outline is missing, suggestively hidden by Doom’s flashing power, but again, it’s not Kirby Krackle as such. It’s an example of how Kirby rarely if ever used subtle grading in any of his drawings but instead opted for full black or clear white—a characteristic of his that no doubt was foundational in how and why he was able to discover his Krackle. Jan. 1966—FF #46: The FF are full swing into their first meeting with the Inhumans. In it, Black Bolt’s antenna smolders, the Torch blasts through walls, Gorgon thumps things and there’s action everywhere. Lots of flashes and explosions and stress lines. But no Krackle. The concurrent Thor issues have Loki and the Absorbing Man in sequences with huge battles, Asgardian scenes and time travel. No Krackle here either. ‘Smokey’ explosions sure, but no Krackle. But it’s after the fight, on page 16 of FF #46, that we do get the first real hint that I can see that Kirby Krackle isn’t far away. There, in the first panel is Triton in his watery prison. His body is partially obscured in the fluid. How? Not with the usual cross hatching, but with black dots. It’s not much, but perhaps something was sparking the King’s mind. March 1966—FF #48: Page 7 and 8 have the first ever shots of the then-new Silver Surfer. And there, in the space scenes, the smoldering Universe is partially drawn in black dots. Then on page 13, there it is again. Panel 4 shows an explosive Universe behind the Surfer. And in panel 5 (shown at left), we see him ‘surfing’ the Krackling shock waves of the explosion—the first real use of Kirby Krackle, and in such a landmark issue as the first Surfer/Galactus issue. Amazing—Kirby was inspired! The concurrent issue of Thor was #125. (Note: As any true ’60s Marvel fan knew, Thor, the Avengers and a few others were ‘out of sync’ with their cover months. Though Thor #125 was cover dated February, it was opposite FF #48—dated March—in the checklist. This discrepancy wasn’t rectified

(center) The first tentative steps toward Kirby Krackle, not quite fully evolved, from (l to r) FF #40 (July 1965, pg. 19) and #46 (Jan. 1966, pg. 16). © Marvel Characters, Inc. (bottom) From the Reader’s Digest Book of Strange Stories/Amazing Facts, 1975 (page 37), this center image is of Quasar 3C273, the first quasar, discovered in 1963 by Maarten Schmidt. Odds are good Kirby was aware of its existence in the mid1960s; is it the genesis for Kirby Krackle, which appeared fully formed for the first time in this panel from the Surfer’s first appearance in FF #48 (March 1966)? © Marvel Characters, Inc.

(next page) Pencils from FF #75 (June 1968), page 3, showing full-blown Kirby Krackle. Characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

until Nov. 1971; and why my mind keeps such essential details in its memory bank is beyond me.) Did it have any Krackle? Maybe. For the first time, it looks like the space surrounding Asgard in a panel on page 7 is Krackly. April 1966—FF #49: On page 5, black smoke pours off the Torch—probably smoke as it’s always been drawn rather than the new Krackle—but it looks great and full of Kirby power. Page 12 has the first apparent use of the Krackle to show power and energy on a smaller scale than a space backdrop. As Galactus’ machine hums into life, the Krackle dances and flickers around it. Kirby must have realized—it worked great. Page 16 was again a space shot. On the righthand side is swirling galaxy, composed mainly of black dots in Kirby’s new way of representing the cosmos. Top left is another space swirl—but one which has no black dots. This one doesn’t hold a candle to the other and Kirby must have seen this as he drew them less and less as the power of the Krackle took over. I said FF #49 page 12 had the first ‘apparent’ use of Kirby Krackle at ‘small’ level. Why apparent? Because Thor #126—same month (despite the cover)—also has it and maybe this was drawn earlier. Page 3 shows Odin silhouetted with power crackling around him, and page 10 shows Seidring’s hand crackling with energy, Krackle style. For the first time, Kirby Krackle dances and spits around a character’s hand. Kirby still hadn’t fully come to grips with his new toy, though. Every time he employed his Krackle, it was against a shadowed background. When in full light, the Krackle disappeared and energy was shown the old way with wavering, stress and flash lines. Still, April 1966 was a watershed month. The next month, FF #50 takes the concept a little further. On page 2 when Galactus is showered in energy from the Surfer, he is shown awash in Krackling dots. No dark or space background here. When Johnny reappears from the void, he does so in a sea of Krackle out of the darkness. But when Galactus finally departs, he does so amidst flashing lines and some Krackle. Again, it is not dark, but Kirby makes it so for the dramatic effect. The Krackle is coming into the light. Over the next months, it is similar. Thor #127 has a few examples.

Every so often, Kirby uses his new, powerful discovery. As of October 1966, Kirby seems to decide his wonderful Krackle serves his purposes better than any other. The deciding factor is the return of the Silver Surfer in FF #55. Again, the concept of this being of immense power from the stars ignites Kirby’s imagination and his penciling abilities do not let him down. Suddenly, Kirby Krackle is everywhere as the Surfer and his board glow and sputter and seethe and writhe with barely contained energy. It seems as if Kirby was from then on unable, or unwilling, to show any power packed fight scene with anything less than the high octane excitement that his

krackling black dots could create. Kirby’s other books swiftly follow suit. The Red Skull’s use of the cosmic cube in the same month’s Captain America is ably depicted by generous helpings of Kirby Krackle. The following month’s Thor saw Kirby Krackle ‘glowing’ around 69