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Looks at the life and career of comics’ most controversial inker, known for the atmospheric feel he gave his work, and the shortcuts he took. With commentary by Colletta’s friends, family, and co-workers.

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THE NEW

Contents Kirby Goes To Hollywood! OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (the wild, wild West Coast)

ISSUE #55, FALL 2010

INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (Jack speaks in a 1976 interview)

JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 (Mark Evanier discusses the effect of Jack’s move to California) UNEARTHED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 (reviving Kirby’s unpublished animations archives at Ruby-Spears) GALLERY 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 (two words: Roxie’s Raiders!) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . .20 (this time, Sean looks at the villains from Thundarr) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 (several reels on Jack’s Hollywood connections) FOUNDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 (eerie, moody suspense, King-style) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .41 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 (Barry Forshaw dotes on a few of Kirby’s most alarming tales) TAKE TWO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 (a casting call at KingFilms Productions) KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . .52 (Adam McGovern profiles some of Kirby’s “infinite friends”) UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT . . . . . . . .56 (Jack’s cameo on the BOB show, plus comments by Mell Lazarus) INFLUENCEES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 (time Keith Tucker spent with Jack) GALLERY 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 (Hollywood sequels, comicly speaking) ANIMATTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 (Jack Kirby, my Super Friend) STAR WARRING . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 (comparing George Lucas’ SECOND Star Wars trilogy to the Fourth World) EYE SPY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 (Jack Kirby—secret agent?) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .78 PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (admit yourself to the Animal Hospital)

The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 17, No. 55, Fall 2010. Published quarterly(?!) by & ©2010 TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-4490344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $14 postpaid ($18 elsewhere). Fourissue subscriptions: $50 US, $65 Canada, $72 elsewhere. Editorial package ©2010 TwoMorrows Publishing. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is ©2010 Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is ©2010 the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA. ISSN 1932-6912

Front cover inks: PAUL SMITH (from a Kirby pencil animation presentation for Wonder Woman; see Kirby Five-Oh!) Back cover collage: JACK KIRBY Front cover colors: TOM ZIUKO

(above) Jack first conceived the “Tiger 21” concept in the 1940s, and was still finding a home for it in Hollywood as late as 1985.

COPYRIGHTS: Batman, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Barda, Black Racer, Challengers of the Unknown, Dan Turpin, Darkseid, Demon, Desaad, Devilance, Dr. Canus, Dubbilex, Forever People, Granny Goodness, Highfather, In The Days of the Mob, Infinity Man, Jimmy Olsen, Kalibak, Kamandi, Losers, Manhunter, Mark Moonrider, Metron, Mr. Miracle, New Gods, Newsboy Legion, OMAC, Orion, Sandman, Spirit World, Steppenwolf, Superman, Tigra, Vykin, Warden Frye, Wonder Woman TM & ©2010 DC Comics • Ajax, Alicia Masters, Annihilus, Ant-Man, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Bucky, Captain America, Dr. Doom, Enchantress, Eternals, Fantastic Four, Galactus, Gen. Ross, Gorgon, Hela, Hercules, Hogun, Howling Commandos, Hulk, Ikaris, Inhumans, Iron Man, Kang, Karnilla, Ka-Zar, Loki, Maximus, Magneto, Medusa, Modok, Nick Fury/Sgt. Fury, Odin, Pluto, Princess Zanda, Quicksiver, Rawhide Kid, Red Skull, Scarlet Witch, Sersi, Sif, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Spragg, Stranger, Sub-Mariner, Thor, Triton, Two-Gun Kid, Tyrannus, Ulik, Volstagg, Warlock, Wasp, X-Men TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Capt. Victory, Galaxy Green, Sky Masters, Stunt Team, Tiger 21, True Divorce Cases, Valley Girl TM & ©2010 Jack Kirby Estate • Animal Hospital, Gemini, Monster Crime Hunters, Ookla, Power Planet, Roxie’s Raiders, Thundarr, Warriors of Illusion TM & ©2010 2010 Ruby-Spears Productions, Inc. • “Thing in the Fog”, Blue Bolt, Boys’ Ranch, Bulseye, Fighting American, Stuntman, Warfront TM & ©2010 Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estate • The Fly TM & ©2010 Archie Comics • “Brave And The Bold”, White Heat, 2001: A Space Odyssey TM & ©2010 Warner Bros. • Blackmark TM & ©2010 Gil Kane • Death Wish, Island of Lost Souls TM & ©2010 Paramount Pictures • Dr. Phibes TM & ©2010 MGM • King Kong TM & ©1933 RKO Radio Pictures • Bob! TM & ©2010 CBS Television • Momma TM & ©2010 Mell Lazarus • Illuzo, Space Ghost, Space Stars, Super Friends TM & ©2010 Hanna-Barbera Productions • Star Wars and all related characters and concepts TM & ©2010 Lucasfilms Ltd.

(next page) On March 12, 1970, Don and Maggie Thompson rushed out an “Extra” edition of their fanzine Newfangles, announcing Kirby’s departure from Marvel to DC. Note: The address shown is now obsolete, so don’t send any dimes! ©1970 Don and Maggie Thompson

(bottom) Jean (Depelley) and John (Morrow) at the TwoMorrows booth at Comic-Con 2010.

2 2

by John Morrow, editor of TJKC

The Wild,

n the August 1978 issue of The Comics Journal (#41), there’s a short article titled “Kirby Quits Comics”, which basically says that Kirby’s done with comics, for good, and is going to work in the animation industry. (Thankfully it only held true for a couple of years, as Jack came back to comics in 1981 with Captain Victory and helped launch the Direct Market of independent comic book stores.) This wasn’t as momentous of an announcement as the one in the March 12, 1970 “Extra” of Don and Maggie Thompson’s fanzine Newfangles, rushed out with the news that Kirby was leaving Marvel Comics to go to DC. At that point, in his early fifties, he was still at the peak of his creative abilities, and more or less universally popular with fans. By 1978, when Kirby finally, totally “went to Hollywood,” he was in his sixties, with his most commercially successful work behind him (the comics he left behind at 1970s Marvel didn’t play a key role in the company’s mythos until many years after he did finally retire from comics). Still, both announcements are striking in that they signaled a major change in the career of comics’ preeminent creative force— a man who was much older than his contemporaries, but was still striving to create groundbreaking work. So where did an “old guy” like Jack Kirby get the drive to make these big leaps? I’ve never heard anyone really address what kind of impact a move from New York City to Los Angeles would have on someone’s This year’s tacky giveaway at the Marvel psyche, but it had to be profound— Comics booth at Comic-Con: paper especially for a guy like Kirby who’d spent Galactus helmets. Is Kirby Museum curator his whole life in the big city, and rarely Rand Hoppe upset about the cheap traveled. To expect that any creative exploitation of Jack’s costume design, or the fact that he’s turning 50? person wouldn’t be affected by such a dramatic change in surroundings is unrealistic, and it definitely shows in the work that Kirby produced once he hit the West Coast in 1969. Think about it. In ’69, the Kirbys pack up and leave behind the cold winter of the Big Apple for the eternal sunshine of Southern California. Jack’s surrounded for the first time by surfers, Hollywood types, and California girls (we know the Silver Surfer’s roots stem from Jack learning what guys were doing on the West Coast beaches; just look at the newly discovered collage on this issue’s back cover to see what an impact the women had on him!). As change is in the air, the new environment sparks all kinds of notions in his brain, and he does the unthinkable: jumps ship to “his” company’s main competitor in 1970, where he can exercise (albeit limited, as it turned out) creative freedom, the likes of which he hasn’t felt at Marvel for most of the previous decade. New Gods is nothing like Thor, and Forever People’s nothing like Fantastic Four—and it’s not just because Stan Lee wasn’t putting the words in the balloons. These are fundamentally different, very experimental books, and I contend it’s largely due to this 50-something-year-old man finding, for the first time in his life, that there’s more out there than the same old same-old he’s always known. I hope someone out there will be inspired enough to write an exhaustive piece analyzing how major of an impact his move to California had on his work, particularly on the Fourth World series—it’d be a great addition to our upcoming “Immortal Kirby” theme issue. But for this issue, we’re going to take a more breezy look at some of the other material he produced following those two pivotal announcements, and how Hollywood played (and might’ve played) a role in his career. We’ve done—and will continue to do—more in-depth looks at in the individual comics he produced from 1970 till the end of he career, but the goal here is to give a good overview of his “bronze-age” comics (ie. work created with a Southern California tan!). There’s special emphasis here on his animation career, the fruits of which are just now beginning to be fully exploited in Tinsel Town. Suffice to say, Jack’s influence in Hollywood will just keep growing; let’s hope he continues to receive credit where it’s due. Speaking of the West Coast: Part of the nature of running a small publishing house is attending conventions to hawk our wares, and while each con has its own special personality, there’s one I’ve managed to go to every year since 1995: Comic-Con International (or the San Diego Comic-Con, as old-timers still like to call it). As I write this, we just returned from our annual West Coast travels, and it’s got me thinking about how California has affected me, so hang in there. I’ll get to Kirby soon enough; he’s an inevitable presence in any discussion of the SDCC. Comic-Con’s gone through a lot of changes Join the NEW Jack Kirby discussion group, since my first visit there in the pre-Kirby run by the Jack Kirby Museum. Go to: Collector days of 1991 (which, unbeknownst to http://groups.google.com/group/jackkirby me at the time, would set me on the path to New & improved! More closely moderated, becoming a publisher). A lot of people (me and strictly focused on Kirby, Kirby, Kirby! included) have complained that it’s just gotten

Wild West (Coast) too big, and it’s not as much fun as it used to be. Honestly, the last few years, for me it’s been a lot like just another day at work, albeit with much nicer weather. The Kirby Tribute Panel has also suffered. Don’t get me wrong; Mark Evanier still does a superb job moderating it, and the panelists are still top notch every year. But the con has had to cut it from 90 minutes back to 50 minutes because there’s not enough space for all the additional new panels coming in every year. Now, by the time all the intros and announcements are made, there’s not much time for the panelists to actually talk about Jack. (That’s why next issue, you’ll see the last two years’ Kirby panels transcribed; they’re both shorter than normal, so will fit here fine.) But this year, I had more fun than any time since the 1990s, and it’s due largely to Kirby. Here’s why: Our first year as an exhibitor at Comic-Con (1995), we had six issues of the Jack Kirby Collector, and two life-size handmade stand-ups of Kirby characters on display. Humble as it was, our booth was literally mobbed with Kirby fans, most newly discovering this magazine, and all wishing us well. It started an amazing domino effect—we’ve made a lot of friends through TJKC and Comic-Con over the years, and a big part of the fun of the event is getting to see them there every summer. It’s become such a regular occurrence for us, that when someone we hadn’t seen since the previous year walks up to our booth, it’s like no time has passed, and we pick right up where we left off. Alas, over the past few years, the convention has gotten so big and expensive that a lot of those friends have stopped coming back. So why, then, was Comic-Con 2010 so much better than the last few years? The same reason it was so fun in the TwoMorrows’ early years; some key staff photographer Kirby friends were there Chris Ng (some of whom I’ve pictured here). Hanging out with my buddy Rand Hoppe, TwoMorrows’ who curates the Jack Kirby Museum Still, it’s painful to see some staff nutritionist (www.kirbymuseum.org) at our booth is of our comics friends starting to pass on from this life to the Kevin Shaw always a blast. (Happy 50th birthday, next, leaving us behind in the last few years. The great Will Eisner, creator of the buddy!) But this year, I finally got to meet two Kirby friends Spirit and namesake of Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards, passed away on January 3, whom I’ve communicated with regularly via phone and e-mail 2005—the day my youngest daughter Hannah Rose was born. Dave Stevens, since the early days of this mag, but had never met in person. TwoMorrows’ creator of the Rocketeer, died in 2008, leaving a noticeable empty spot in both the The first is “Fantastic” Frank Johnson. Frank’s a staff [sic] infection Comic-Con exhibit hall, and in fans and friends’ hearts. Shel Dorf, founder Tom Stewart huge fan of Simon & Kirby work especially, and has of Comic-Con and a big supporter of TwoMorrows, died in 2009, both (get your tail back contributed numerous times to TJKC. “F.F.” has an proud of and perplexed by how the convention morphed from 300 people to Comic-Con in infectious enthusiasm over the phone, and our 2011; we miss ya!) in a hotel basement in 1970 to the multi-media monster it is today. Also in conversations have always been great—but I had no 2009, Steve Sherman’s brother Gary passed away—a jovial, hilarious guy to idea what he looked like, since I’d never seen a photo of him. I’ve always be around, who always kept the conversations fun and lively. And this year, wanted to meet him in person, and I’m happy to say he didn’t disappoint we lost Dick Giordano—incredible artist, and even more incredible person. me at all. It was a delight to get to talk to you in person for a change, Of course, Jack Kirby passed on in 1994, having long ago predicted that “Fantastic” Frank Frank, and I’m looking forward to seeing you at future cons! Comic-Con would morph into what it is today. I’ve got 16 consecutive years Johnson Then there’s Jean Depelley. I think of Jean as sort of my French twin: of West Coast trips under my belt, and I’m looking forward to at least we’re both roughly the same age, both dig Kirby and are involved in publishing his another 16 of getting to meet more of our Kirby Collector readers. Be it at Comicwork, both have lovely wives the same age, and both have two daughters about the Con, or another event, here’s hoping we’ll cross paths at a convention soon! ★ same ages. But with 3600 miles of distance between us, it seemed like our friendship would always be by e-mail. However, Comic-Con transcends all distances, and Jean was able to attend this year, making it an unforgettable convention for me. We hung out at our booth, went to the Eisner Awards together, and had great conversations about comics, Kirby, and life in general. (It’s a good thing he’s so fluent in English, since “french toast” is as close as I come to speaking his native tongue.) I can’t wait till our family’s planned trip to Europe in 2012 (celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary), when we’ll get together again, this time on his We’ll never forget: Gary Sherman, Shel Dorf, Dave Stevens, Dick Giordano, and Will Eisner home turf and with his wife Noelle and daughters Marie and Mathilde. 3

Innerview (right) Kirby poses with a friend at (near as we can tell) an early 1980s convention. (below and next page) This issue’s cover inker, Paul Smith, also did a bang-up job on this full-pager from Eternals #2 (August 1976). You can see the pencils from this issue’s cover—a Wonder Woman animation concept—on page 155 of Kirby Five-Oh!, our special 50th issue of TJKC. Ajax, Spider-Man, Warlock, Thanos TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

The Day I Spoke With Jack by Kenn Thomas, featuring an interview conducted circa November 1976, and originally published in the fanzine Whizzard #9 (cover shown on next page, bottom left) ©2010 Kenn Thomas (Interviewer’s 2010 Commentary: Strangely enough, the occasion of reprinting the following exchange with Jack Kirby came at the same time an author with a manuscript about the history of comics in the Midwest asked for an interview about my work on the comics fanzine Whizzard, over thirty years ago. Stranger still, an associate professor in Louisiana recently got in touch as well looking to reprint a Whizzard interview with Howard Chaykin from the same time period. Haha! Interest in the work I did as a young comics fan decades ago has begun to eclipse interest in the many books I’ve written since, which I’ve spent a lot of time promoting on the lecture stump and on radio and TV. That’s almost a relief! I remember well the gang at Whizzard, though, a comics fanzine produced locally by an old friend named Marty Klug. Klug, Jerry Durrwachter, Ed Mantels-Seeker, and Bill Lewis formed a kind of nucleus of Midwestern comics fandom activism. It had its social expression in a group called Random Fandom, which had collectors of pop culture of all stripes meet regularly on a local college campus. In print, the gang appeared in Whizzard, a zine primarily produced by Klug but with the rest of us anxious to use it as an excuse to pester comics professionals for interviews. This is how I had my one and only direct encounter with Jack Kirby. The following interview was conducted mostly through the US mails, a method of communication from before the Internet that many people may still remember. Questions were supplied by the Random Fandom gang, as noted. But it did include the follow-up call mentioned in the opening paragraph—the day I spoke with Jack Kirby on the phone. We had a longer conversation than suggested by the intro and some of it is included in the postal Q&A. Unfortunately, the tape did not survive three decades of various moves, marriage, kids and the whole swarm of things that takes over with the onset of later life. I am very happy, however, that this much survives, including the accurate description of my reverent nervousness in talking with Kirby. (Only Bob Dylan has turned me into such soup at a face-to-face. I actually became long-time friends with my other favorite ’60s icon, Tim Leary.) Kirby was as affable as he always is described, however, gently encouraging my interest and providing generous response to my fannish questions. That conversation lasted about twenty minutes—much more time than I would think he’d have for the many fans who must have approached him, again affirming the common Kirby encounter experience. I dropped out of comics heartbroken after Kirby died, but oddly enough did not drop out of the zine world. In the late ’80s I started Steamshovel Press, one of many zines that had long evolved away from fanboy comics interest. They had names like Ganymedean Slime Mold and Dharma Combat, and dealt with just weirdo information, conspiracies, aliens, mind control, stuff that has been amplified to an absurd degree online these days. My specialty became conspiracy theories, what I call parapolitics, and I went on to write many books and travel the world lecturing about it. It has only been relatively recently that I’ve re-incorporated Kirby into my writing, making the case that the various industry abuses he endured, like the deprivation of licensing participation in the Marvel characters he primarily created, constitute “conspiracy as usual” rather than just business as usual as people who defend it might suggest. (My argument for this is set out in a book of mine called Parapolitics!, listed at amazon.com) I’ve even lectured on various parapolitical dimensions of Kirby’s career at an event out in the Mojave Desert, at the Integretron, a hallowed space for UFO believers, who have an obvious natural affinity with Kirby. Whizzard alum Bill Lewis first brought to me a copy of TJKC, reviving my interest, and later I became an onand-off member of the Internet slugfest known as

Kirby-l. I am very pleased that this early encounter with this great artist and man has lasted long enough to bracket my decades-long admiration and affection for him. If only I could find that tape…)

(When I talked to Jack Kirby in early November I choked. One does not speak to the single most important influence on modern American comic art without being taken somewhat aback. I mean, this was His Kirbyness, the creator of the Fantastic Four, Captain America and the New Gods. This man re-structured comics, gave them a new meaning. His accomplishments are awesome. Wow. I called Tom Hof, from whom Whizzard acquired Kirby’s address for the purpose of an interview, the moment I hung up. I meant to call Marty to tell him to stop sweating over the deadline; Kirby mailed the answers back that morning. But I thought it better to call a fellow Kirby freak until I could speak in something other than monosyllables. He would at least understand. There he was, Jesus Kirby, telling me about his recent trip to Italy (“I hadn’t been there since ’44”). There I was, stammering at a half-abuck a minute. Kirby finally did send the interview questions, which were missing a page. Mrs. Kirby called Marty later to apologize for misplacing the page. Our esteemed executive editor just added it to the list of delays that were accumulating daily for Whizzard #9. For the record: Jerry Durrwachter, Thomas Hof, Marty Klug and Kenn Thomas contributed the questions.) WHIZZARD: Could you tell us a little about how you started your career and how working conditions differed from today? JACK KIRBY: In the beginning there were artists, inkers and letterers from adjacent fields running about from one newly formed comic publishing house to another. Small packaging firms began to sprout, creating additional jobs and opportunities for production, editorial and administrative types. Jerry Iger and Will Eisner ran one such firm. The rates were poor, but so was a lot of the work. The atmosphere was not unlike a Mom and Pop store with the entire family on the job. WHIZZARD: To what extent are you committed to Marvel? Could you freelance if you wanted to? KIRBY: I’m under contract to Marvel and am committed to fulfilling my obligations. When I think of other things, they usually turn out to be cigars. WHIZZARD: Will you and Stan Lee be collaborating again in the foreseeable future? KIRBY: That’s possible. WHIZZARD: Stan Lee didn’t actually write any of the Fantastic Four stories, did he? KIRBY: You are truly perceptive. However, I consider everyone involved with the success of the Marvel organization as having made a major contribution. WHIZZARD: Before they died, Charlton had a suit filed against Marvel and DC, in view of the Superman/Spider-Man book. Do you see any validity in this? KIRBY: I know nothing about the suit. WHIZZARD: How much do you feel the Siegel-Shuster Superman lawsuit has affected the industry? Do you feel this has opened the door for you and others who have created valuable property for the corporate comics? KIRBY: Yes. But it is the future artist who will derive the most from a more fluid industrial structure. WHIZZARD: Some critics have stated that your most recent work has little value in consideration of your past accomplishments (the Fantastic Four, New Gods, etc.). Although your present material is some of the best in the business, this undercurrent of thought reasons, you are capable of incomparably superior work, citing these previous masterworks as proof. How do you answer such charges? KIRBY: I do my best in the space allotted to me. Give me a hundred pages more, and I’ll turn out a product as fully potent and dimensional as good literature demands. Comics is the art of the visual word.

Someday, a writer-artist will use the media to turn out an immortal classic in the tradition of epic novelists. WHIZZARD: In Mediascene #15 it was stated: “Kirby’s work naturally has changed over the past five years. He has often eliminated detail, while augmenting the story’s internal dynamics.” Is this a conscious effort on your part? Can you elaborate or clarify this idea? KIRBY: That’s true. I will gladly eliminate a man’s fingernails in order to keep the reader’s eye where it belongs—on the center of what’s happening. I would rather be a good story-teller than be Leonardo Da Vinci. I would rather be an effective artist than weave pointless flowery phrases. I combine the guts of picture and word and tell you in dramatic fashion what you’ve seen. It is then that you know what it was all about. WHIZZARD: Is this apparent artistic decline and replication of plotlines (re: later Fantastic Four and Thor stories) due to your disenchantment with Marvel or your tiredness with the characters? KIRBY: All characters are the lifeblood and secret aspirations of the writer-artist. If he tires of them, he destroys his own ego. He bottles up the good and evil within himself and becomes dehumanized. Try to stop fantasizing completely and you’ll scare the hell out of yourself. WHIZZARD: What is the reason behind your infrequent moves from company to company? Is there any chance in the future of you settling with any one company until your retirement from the field? Have you any plans for retirement? KIRBY: Like anybody else, I’ve somehow gone for the better deal during my 5

(right) DC had Murphy Anderson (and before him, Al Plastino) retouch Kirby’s Superman and Jimmy heads in Jimmy Olsen. This one’s from #145 (Jan. 1972). (below) Barry Windsor-Smith masterfully inked this compelling page from the Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles Treasury Edition (1976). (next page) Page 24 from the 2001: A Space Odyssey Treasury Edition (1976); one of the “best comic magazines ever produced”? You decide!

career. Marvel’s a fine outfit. I’ve made my own niche here. As for retirement, I’ll let the future indicate that. WHIZZARD: How much consideration have you given to working for any of the recent “third companies” (Tower, Seaboard, Red Circle)? KIRBY: None. WHIZZARD: Are you a member of ACBA [the Academy of Comic Book Arts] ? KIRBY: I have an award which guarantees me lifetime membership. WHIZZARD: A high ranking official at DC said that they were almost glad to see you go because you were losing money for them. I find this hard to believe as they advertised your name on covers (“Another Kirby Blockbuster”) at every chance they got. Comment?

KIRBY: That sounds psychotic. Everything I did for DC made money. Perhaps someone was offended by my departure. WHIZZARD: Have you any plans of interrelating your two series, The Eternals and 2001? They are similar in theme. KIRBY: It’s an interesting thought but a highly unlikely project. WHIZZARD: Is the book The Eternals in any way meant as a further exploration of the concepts that you developed in the Fourth World trilogy at DC? KIRBY: The Eternals is a sincere comment on pre-history and a parable concerning our natural reactions to the ultimate crisis. WHIZZARD: How do you feel about the treatment of your characters at National since your departure? KIRBY: They’ve got a right to try. WHIZZARD: Which do you find more enjoyable: Writing and drawing new adventures of old characters (such as Captain America and Black Panther) or on your newest creations? KIRBY: A comic is the natural element for the writer-artist. Whatever he produces will be evidence of his own contentment. WHIZZARD: There’s been a lot of debate of whether or not The Eternals exists in the standard Marvel “Universe”: The realm of Spider-Man, Planet of the Apes, Howard the Duck, the Watcher, and Thor. What is your opinion on this matter? KIRBY: This kind of decision rests on the laps of the readers. If a majority of them feel that the Eternals should integrate with the Marvel universe, it would become an idea to play around with. WHIZZARD: For the record, were The New Gods, Forever People and Mister Miracle canceled as a 6

decision on your part or National’s? Does National’s tendency to cancel seemingly popular titles (such as Green Lantern/Green Arrow) suggest anything to you? KIRBY: National made the move to cancel the aforementioned titles for reasons still obscure to me since the books were money-makers. It was an apparently prevalent policy and I’m certain it was a puzzler to others as well as myself. WHIZZARD: Is it merely coincidental that Marvel acquired the rights to 2001: A Space Odyssey at the exact time of your return to that company and that The Eternals is so similar in theme to this classic film? KIRBY: I am known for doing these kind of things well. So, Marvel just let me do them. WHIZZARD: Did the final product of your 2001 Treasury Edition live up to your personal expectations? Do you think it lived up to your audience’s? KIRBY: In my opinion the Space Odyssey Treasury Edition and the Captain America Bicentennial Edition were the best comic magazines ever produced by the industry. I can only say that the response I received from many levels bore out that contention. WHIZZARD: Jimmy Olsen was one of your best and most innovative works at DC. Was it canceled because you wanted to devote more work to the trilogy or because DC felt you were abusing the Superman legend? KIRBY: Perhaps National was afraid of new attitudes and innovations. Perhaps they prefer continuous static representations. And that’s the strangest notion of all since I’d been specifically hired to revamp the Superman legend. WHIZZARD: Some of the Simon & Kirby work credited as such, as in the latter issues of Boy Commandos, was obviously not by you. Was this studio work, or what? What are your feelings about this happening? KIRBY: It was studio work, done while I was in the service. WHIZZARD: You mentioned in a previous interview that you had never collaborated with Steve Ditko, yet he inked your pencils quite a few times. Did you mean that you had just never actually worked personally firsthand with him? KIRBY: Yes. WHIZZARD: Are you interested in working with new inkers on your material? KIRBY: I’ve settled for Mike Royer. He ranks with the best.

WHIZZARD: What of the new comic talent do you find most promising? KIRBY: The kind that digs for new avenues of creativity and doesn’t grow into dandruff on the shoulders of giants. WHIZZARD: What was your relationship to Barry Smith? Was he your “apprentice”? KIRBY: I haven’t had much contact with Barry. But I find him to be a genuine talent. WHIZZARD: What do you feel has been your best work? KIRBY: Anything I work hard at. And I can tell you that goes for everything.

WHIZZARD: Would you be interested in doing the Silver Surfer again? KIRBY: Certainly. WHIZZARD: Can you tell us about anything you’ve got coming up? KIRBY: No. WHIZZARD: Alright. Is there anything you’d like to add? KIRBY: The writer-artist, in my opinion, is essentially a performer. The interest in my work has been gratifying. And, of course, I thank you humbly for yours. ★ Superman, Dubbilex TM & ©2010 DC Comics. 2001 TM & ©2010 Warner Bros. Captain America TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mark evanier (this page) Kirby’s original pencils for the cover of New Gods #11 (Oct. 1972).

Jack F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby by Mark Evanier

Steve Steinmetz writes to ask... You’ve said several times that when Jack and Roz moved out to Southern California, it was revolutionary. Why? Don’t comic book writers and artists live all over the world?

(next page) On the back of this DC production stat, Vince Colletta (who’d been bumped off New Gods in favor of inker Mike Royer) made a valid point of, ironically, an omission that probably should’ve been made. For more Colletta insights, don’t miss our acclaimed new book The Thin Black Line: Perspectives on Vince Colletta, available now from TwoMorrows.

They do now but it was rare then for anyone to work for the New York companies and to not be within commuting distance of Manhattan. This was even true of someone like Joe Sinnott who resided in upstate NY and went into the Marvel office about once every nine years. There were always exceptions. Dick Sprang, for instance, continued to draw for DC after he moved to Arizona. Pat Boyette did a few jobs for them from Texas. Alex Toth lived up by the Hollywood Bowl next to the Hollywood Freeway. Jim Mooney for some years managed an antiquarian bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard. He had a drawing table there and he’d work on pages for World’s Finest Comics when he wasn’t attending to customers. But there weren’t a lot of exceptions... and most of those guys lived in New York and established themselves as valuable, dependable professionals for years before they relocated elsewhere. I can’t think of too many freelancers who started freelancing from afar. Boyette was one but he broke in at Charlton and that was for Dick Giordano, who did a lot of things that other editors never did. Besides, Charlton paid so poorly that Dick couldn’t afford to turn down any decent artist for geographic considerations. Basil Wolverton, I believe, may have actually begun drawing for New York companies from the West Coast and there are probably a few others but I can’t think of them. When Russ Manning was drawing Tarzan and Magnus, Robot Fighter for Gold Key, he once had a quarrel with them over money and decided to see if he could do better working for DC. He sent off a letter with published samples of his work on those comics... and the reply he received had him fuming for years after. I never saw it but according to Russ, it basically said, “Your work shows promise. If you decide to relocate in New York, we’ll see if we can find some inking for you.” (It is worth adding that at the time, Russ’s Tarzan was one of the best selling comic books being published.) “If you don’t live in New York, you can’t work in comics.” As a kid living in Los Angeles, I read that so many times in fanzine interviews that I shrugged and thought, “Well, I guess I’ll never work in comics.” I believed this even though I was aware that Western Publishing Company had a Los Angeles office and that Gold Key comic books were produced out of it. I have no idea why it didn’t occur to me to take the bus down to their office in a building on Hollywood Boulevard, directly across from the famed Chinese Theater, and try to sell some scripts. But it didn’t. As disclosed in a few columns and articles I’ve written, the first person I ever met who’d ever written or drawn a comic book was a fellow

who’d been out of the business for many years, a guy who’d mainly drawn horror comics in the fifties. He was the father of a classmate of mine in high school and he invited me over so he could tell me how crummy the business was and how all editors were low in ethics and lower in competence. Then I met Jerry Siegel and the third was Bob Kane. I usually say that Kirby was the fourth so I can make the joke: “I met the co-creator of Superman, then the co-creator of Batman, and then the co-creator of everything else!” In truth, there was someone For better or worse, Jack’s proposed Valley Girl comic strip wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t moved to California. else between Kane and Kirby. I met, albeit via telephone, Valley Girl TM & ©2010 Jack Kirby Estate. New Gods TM & ©2010 DC Comics. a somewhat-local fellow whose name should be familiar (Somewhere in there, he also did some work in animation, mainly on the Grantrayto readers of this publication. That name is Mike Royer and this would have been Lawrence Marvel Super-Heroes cartoons... the ones where almost nothing moved.) late 1968. As I later learned, the folks at Western thought Mike was terrific. Above and There was a fellow in my old comic book club named Mark Grossman who beyond the obvious quality of his work, he was super-reliable. I once asked Chase was an avid collector of comic book original art. He didn’t seem to like comic Craig, who was the senior editor there, to name the most dependable, always-onbooks much but he liked the original art from them, partly for investment reasons. time freelancers of the hundreds who’d worked for him. On the writing side, he Somehow, he connected with Mike, who was living in Whittier at the time and named me and a gent named Vic Lockman, who has gone unfairly unheralded in they did or discussed some sort of swap or sale for some pieces. Mark told Mike comic book history. You may have seen reports that the late Paul S. Newman, about me; something about how I knew everything about comics and how we’d who worked a lot for Western’s New York office among other employers, was the get along well. So one Saturday morning, Mike phoned me up and we wound up most prolific comic book writer who has ever lived. He may well have been... but talking for an hour or so about comics and artists and inkers and what little I if he doesn’t hold the title, Lockman probably does. then knew about the business I did not (then) expect to ever be a part of. On the art side, Chase singled out Mike Royer and Dan Spiegle... and I don’t At the time, Mike was a part of it. He had moved to Southern California— think he was naming friends of mine just to please me. (I’ve never met Lockman.) Whittier, to be exact—to assist Russ Manning with his comic book work for One time when Mike was applying for a loan of some kind, he listed Western Western. Since that alone did not yield a living wage, Russ had recommended Mike Publishing as his employer. The bank called Chase to verify employment and to the editors at Chase said something like, “We set our clocks here by Mike Royer.” I learned a lot Western and they from Mike about the importance of meeting deadlines. One of the many ways he gave him work was the ideal inker for Kirby during the years he did that was that he as an inker on just plain kept up with Jack—a feat that many other fine Mickey Mouse inkers in comics simply could not have done. In fact, most and other of them couldn’t have done it even if they hadn’t had to comics in their also letter the books, as Mike did. line. Later, he Mike and I became phone buddies and I remember penciled and him telling me with great excitement (and a certain even wrote a amount of trepidation) that he was about to pencil number of and ink his first story for Warren Publishing—for comics for Creepy, Eerie or perhaps for a new book called them, and Vampirella. The work did not pay well. He made consideralso illusably more bucks per hour inking Mickey Mouse. But he felt he had trated to do it to show the industry who he was and what he could do. some One time—this would have been around May of ’69, I’m coloring guessing—he called me to say that he’d heard from someone who’d books. heard from someone who’d heard from someone who’d heard from someone (etc.) that Jack Kirby had moved to Southern California... to somewhere in Orange County. Had I heard anything about that? I had not. I told Mike I’d ask a few folks and let him know if I heard anything. When I got off the phone, I had a thought. Just to take a wild stab, I called Information, which was what we used to call Directory Assistance. A nice lady (they used to have human beings when you called) told me she had nothing for a “Jack Kirby” in Orange County. “It would be a new listing,” I told her. She searched some sort of New Listing file and came back to report, “Yes, I have a new listing for a Jack Kirby in Anaheim.” I took down the number and called Mike. “You think that might be him?” I asked. “Only one way to find out,” he said. “I’ll call you back.” And he did call me back... about two minutes later to report that he’d upset some poor woman who knew nothing about comic books and whose husband named Jack Kirby had just died. A few weeks later, Mike called to say he’d heard from the Jack Kirby, the one who was alive and drawing comics for Marvel, though not for long. Jack and his family were living in Irvine, a community in Orange County that had everything to do with the university based there. He needed an inker for some projects he was doing for Marvelmania, the L.A.-based firm that was then doing merchandising of the Marvel characters, and had called Alex Toth and asked if he knew any inkers. Alex recommended Mike. 9

(above) DC chose to reletter the first story for the mostly unpublished In The Days of the Mob #2 (circa 1971). Here’s a balloon from the splash page, showing Jack’s pencil art, Royer’s original lettering, and DC’s relettered version as it ran in Amazing World of DC Comics #1 (July 1974). (right) In 2004, Mike Royer recreated the New Gods #11 cover for fan Jim Young, repenciling the cover before attempting the new inks. (next page, bottom) Kirby had this color rough for the cover of Forever People #1 (Feb. 1971) in his files. We assume he prepared this as a guide for DC to use. Forever People, Superman TM & ©2010 DC Comics.

That was how Jack met Mike. In interviews, Mike sometimes says I had something to do with it. I don’t think so. What is worth noting here is that while Mike was obviously a good choice for the job, he was also pretty much the only choice. In 1969, there was simply no one else in the area who did that kind of work. That would change over the next decade. It changed a little just because Jack had relocated. It changed even more a few years later when DC made a deal to have many of its comics drawn for bargain rates in the Philippines. When you’re shipping work

off to Manila, it doesn’t seem quite that foreboding to be sending it to Los Angeles. It changed some more as DC and Marvel got more active in the TV and movie industries, especially with DC being a division of the same company that owned Warner Brothers. DC execs were coming out here often, making L.A. seem even closer. It changed even more as the annual comic convention down in San Diego became a “must-attend” for folks in comics. And it really changed with the advent of things like Federal Express and the ability to deliver work via modem and Internet. In case someone ever writes a scholarly treatise on this, I want my full credit for what may be my crowning achievement in the comic book field: I was the first freelancer to ever deliver work to DC Comics via Federal Express. Everyone else who’s ever done it owes me their undying respect as a pioneer... and also a couple of bucks for imitating my idea. Today, comic book writers and artists can and do live anywhere. Comics can even be edited long-distance. I won’t give Jack credit for inaugurating this trend but having him out here sure didn’t hurt. Someone who writes under the e-mail moniker “Harold2” (Harold Squared, get it?) writes to ask... Do you know who colored Jack’s work for DC in the seventies and did he like the way his work was colored? How did he feel about comic book printing in general? Jack did not like the cheap paper, the cheap printing, the cheap binding... the general cheapness of comic book reproduction. Among the many predictions he made which have come blisteringly true is that he said the best comics would someday be reprinted in hardcover “keeper” editions on fancy paper. One time when I saw him laboring over a tiny background detail I asked him something clumsily worded like, “Why are you spending so much time over something which is not going to be visible in the printed books?” He said, “Someday, this will be reprinted on better paper and then they’ll see it!” I don’t remember what the comic was he was drawing that day but whatever it was, it has been reprinted at least once on better paper with better printing. Not long after, we were at the second of the events now known as Comic-Con International. This one was held on the campus of the University of California at San Diego in 1971. The publisher Russ Cochran had just issued what I believe was the first of his EC Portfolios. These were limited edition black-andwhite folios that reprinted EC stories directly off the original art in a larger page format than the original printings. It was either Cochran’s first or second volume but it was the first I’d seen. I bought one... for I think the then-

lofty price of ten entire dollars, and I showed it to Jack. He was delighted, though he did say, “When they can do this in color, they’ll have something!” He did like color, that Kirby. He liked color and he liked big drawings. That same year, his friend Gil Kane published a graphic novel (I guess you’d call it) called Blackmark in the small, “pocket book” paperback size and he sent one to Jack, then phoned to get Jack’s reaction. Knowing Gil as I later did, I gather he was quite eager to get the Kirby stamp of approval. Jack was, of course, polite and tactful... and he was actually quite pleased that Gil had found a way to do comics without doing them for DC or Marvel and to retain his copyright. All of that trumped the shortcomings Jack saw in the product. Blackmark (example below) evinced just about everything he felt comics should not be. The panels were small. The work was in black-and-white. He found the story, as far as he got in it, incomprehensible and he also disliked the typeset lettering. When Jack did In the Days of the Mob and Spirit World as magazines for DC, the suggestion was made that the balloons be typeset “like in Mad” and Jack recommended against this. I don’t think he was against the whole idea of typeset lettering, per se. I think he just didn’t like the style in Gil’s book and didn’t have a lot of confidence in DC’s production department to come up with something better. He certainly didn’t like what they did when they colored his work. Jack had been generally happy with the coloring at Marvel, especially on covers. It was not the way he would have colored the work but he liked most of it and would often praise Marie Severin and Stan Goldberg for their creativity. (He also assumed incorrectly that they did all of it.) At DC, he butted heads with the production department... and it was an old war rekindled. He hadn’t gotten along with most of the same folks back in the fifties when he’d done Challengers of the Unknown and other work for the company. Jack never had “the DC look” and while he saw that as a plus, others there saw it as a minus and a half. By the time of his return to DC in 1970, the DC look had evolved in many ways, none of them compatible with the Kirby style. It was especially contentious in the area of coloring. He favored brighter, primary colors with a lot of white and tone yellow on the pages. DC colorists did not even have tone yellow in their palette at times. (Tone yellow is pale yellow. It not only looks nice on its own but it gives you a wider range of eye-pleasing colors when “mixed” with other hues.) Jack felt that the DC colorists used too many khaki greens and dark shades. “They color everything like it’s a war comic,” he remarked. Who colored Jack’s DC work? We didn’t know then and I can only guess now. There were no credits back then for colorists and a few years later when I asked someone there to dig into the records and find out, they reported back that the information could not be found. My own bit of detective work suggests a lot of it was done by Tatjana Wood (ex-wife of Wally) and by Jerry Serpe and that a few were handled by Tom Nicolosi or Paul Reinman. I can report that the main color schemes for the characters were for the most part designed by Jack Adler, though Steve Sherman and I devised the color for Mister Miracle’s costume and Len Wein came up with the color scheme of The Demon. Throughout his time there, Jack kept urging DC to lighten the work and leave more white space. Mike Royer did what he could to help with the inks, omitting panel borders at times to (he hoped) induce the colorists to leave backgrounds colorless. This, of course, led to some discussions when the Fourth World and other Kirby works of the period were reprinted, and I was in some of those discussions: Do we reproduce the original coloring or have the work colored anew? A case can be made either way... and indeed, the question has been answered both ways at varying times by various decision-makers.

You can take the position that for good or ill, the material should be reproduced as it originally appeared. Of course, if you took that position to extremes, you should reprint on cheap paper that will yellow before long, and the coloring should be slightly off-register. You might also consider that Wood, Serpe and the other colorists were coloring for the paper stock and the kind of repro we had in 1970. If you’d told them then that it was going to be printed on whiter paper and that a much wider range of colors was possible, as was more gradation and modeling, they would have colored the work in a different way. And you could even toss into the back-and-forth the simple fact that Jack— who was not only the artist of the comic but also its editor—didn’t approve of or like that coloring. The first time DC asked me how I thought Jack would have wanted the work handled in a reprint (this was after Jack passed, obviously), I said, “I usually don’t like to put words in Jack’s mouth but if his ghost is watching, I’m pretty sure he’d be very happy if you hired Marie Severin to recolor it all.” This was not done but I don’t think what they did do was wrong. I can see several sides to this debate and I’m not sure just what I’d do if it were my decision. In a way, I’m glad it’s not. Next question? ★ (Mark Evanier welcomes your visitations to his daily weblog at www.newsfromme.com. There’s a link there you can use to send him questions to answer in this column and to tell him you just bought Superheroes In My Pants, one of the fine TwoMorrows collections of his columns.)

Reviving The Unpublis

Unearthed

(above) Scenes from the Krofft/Ruby-Spears presentation at the 2010 Comic-Con International. (below) You can see the character “Four Arms” in this Kirby proposal of “Power Planet” for Ruby-Spears. L to r: Captain Lightning, Four Arms, Metallum, Lava Man, Crusher, and Tiger Shark. All characters TM & ©2010 Ruby-Spears Productions, Inc.

n April of 2010 the animation team of Joe Ruby and Ken Spears—responsible for such cartoons as Scooby Doo, Where Are You! and Thundaar the Barbarian—announced a new joint venture with television producers Sid and Marty Krofft—the creators of popular children’s shows like H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost—to revive a vast collection of heretofore unseen Jack Kirby creations that have been effectively gathering dust in storage for almost 30 years. Some three months after this new partnership was announced to the press, all four producers assembled together amidst the sturm and drang of the San Diego Comic-Con for a panel called, “Behind the Scenes with Sid & Marty Krofft, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears: A Look at the Past, Present and Future,” wherein attendees were treated to a sneak peek at several potential projects based upon the previously unpublished works of Jack Kirby. Although the majority of the panel focused on the long and colorful careers of both Ruby-Spears and the Kroffts, moderator Bonny Dore (herself a successful TV producer) eventually steered the focus of the discussion towards the Kirby concepts currently in development by the producing team. “Moving from the past to the present and future,” Dore told the enthusiastic crowd, “Sid and Marty Krofft and Ruby-Spears have put together a new partnership on some very exciting properties, and I’m going to show you a videotape first and then have Sid and Marty talk about it.” The videotape screened for the audience turned out to be a promotional film titled “The Unpublished Works of Jack Kirby,” and it included an extended montage of original Jack Kirby artwork interspersed with Marty Krofft personally pitching several of the concepts to prospective partners for future development. “Hi, I’m Marty Krofft,” he began, “and on behalf of Sid and myself and Ruby-Spears, we welcome you to the world of Jack Kirby. Jack came to work for Ruby and Spears in 1981, and worked for them for eight years— and created over 1100 characters, which included superheroes, villains, secondary characters, and vehicles.” The video then showed Krofft surrounded by a vast array of framed Kirby artwork, as the producer went on to note, “The reason that we got excited [about Jack Kirby’s concepts]

shed Works of Jack Kirby

by Mark DiFruscio

is that Sid and myself sold all of our shows on characters… and Ruby-Spears, of course, created great animation. They created Scooby Doo and many others. So enjoy what we’re going to show you today; we’re going to show you as many as we can.” Although numerous original Kirby illustrations can be glimpsed in the background throughout the promo reel, the video largely confined its scope to seven core character concepts. The first of these to be featured was The Gargoids, which might roughly be described as a cross between Kirby’s The Demon and The Fantastic Four. “The Gargoids are four scientists turned into monsters for good,” Krofft explained. This was quickly followed by a more conventionally heroic figure called “Golden Shield, a Mayan hero that’s sent to save us in 2012.” This character instantly seemed to strike a positive chord with the crowd and was notable for being somewhat reminiscent of Grant Morrison’s Aztek: The Ultimate Man series from the 1990s. The next concept, called Micromites, was summed up simply as “miniature superheroes,” but included three separate Kirby concept boards, one of which took the form of a five-panel comic book page. Similarly, Roxie’s Raiders, “an Indiana Jones-style heroine,” was also presented via a series of concept boards, these depicting Roxie as a whip-wielding, fiery redhead who leads a group of circus-trained sidekicks. Immediately after this came another throwback to the Pulp Era with a team of Mandrake-style magicians called Warriors of Illusion, “five characters whose magic is real.” The final two characters featured in the video were a female vigilante named Tempest and a muscle-bound oddity called Four Arms. With respect to Tempest, Krofft defined her as, “A lawyer by day, superhero by night. When she can’t get justice in court, she takes it into her own hands.” Whereas Four Arms was vaguely described as “another great Jack Kirby character.” One also fittingly named, given his extra set of arms. The promo reel then concluded with a quick look at a vast collection of Jack Kirby illustrations adorning a conference room, while Marty Krofft reflected, “Sid and myself always created shows with the character first. That’s what excited us about Jack Kirby. Because with all of the characters he has created, there’s got to be a movie in one of them for one of you. And so you have all the opportunity to bring Jack Kirby to life.”

Following the video presentation, Krofft expanded on this point, recounting, “Joe [Ruby] came to us with this [proposal], and in the last three months we’ve had 20 percent of [the Kirby collection] up at the William Morris Agency, in the vault. And we’ve had just about every successful director, writer, producer, studio, all come by. It’s a little bit mind-boggling for them because we’ve got 690 boards. [Kirby] did this in eight years. All these 1100 characters. And just looking at them, everybody that walks in, the first thing they say is, ‘Wow!’ So what we’re doing with it, it’s too big for us, so we’ve got major entities. A big studio… and we’re going to develop all of this with them. And, you know, this is all new stuff. And if you read, you know, how Marvel sold to Disney… all that’s not clear legally. Because of the way Jack worked [the copyright is in dispute]. But as far as [the Ruby-Spears material], Jack worked for these guys [under a work-for-hire agreement]. And we are all clean [legally]. We’re going to take care of the people we need to. But this is something that’s real exciting for us. And we’re happy to be in business with Joe and Ken. And you’re going to get to see something original. You know, these are all new!” Whether any of these long-forgotten creations are capable of resulting in the same kind of monetary windfall generated by Jack Kirby’s Marvel characters obviously remains to be seen. Yet even Kirby himself would likely have been skeptical if someone had suggested to him back in 1961 that he was on the cusp of a creative explosion that would not only revolutionize the comic book industry for decades to come, but also result in over $2 billion worth of global box office revenues during the first decade of the 21st century. Or as Marty Krofft more philosophically suggested, “I tell people… we had in this room [of Kirby artwork], a sketch of Iron Man, and a sketch of X-Men. And you might say, ‘Well how is that going to be worth a billion dollars?’ Well, you know, I’m not worried about a billion dollars… Because I have this expression, ‘If you want to give God a good laugh, tell him what your plans are.’” While the full extent of any demand for the “Unpublished Works of Jack Kirby” has yet to be determined, the explosive potential therein radiates like Kirby Krackle with the electricity and dynamism so characteristic of “the King.” Welcome to the world of Jack Kirby. The King is dead. Long live the King. ★ 13

Gallery 1

Roxie’s Raiders!

ne of the most promising properties that evolved at Ruby-Spears, other than

O Thundarr the Barbarian, was Roxie’s Raiders. The concept was developed by

Jack Kirby and Steve Gerber (who, of course, also collaborated on Destroyer Duck). According the the trading card set Jack Kirby: The Unpublished Archives (1994), the series is set in the 1930s, and Roxie is a beautiful spy whose cover is managing a traveling circus. Shown below are Kirby’s presentation art for: Roxie in peril

(1—her figure was redrawn by someone other than Kirby), Roxie close-up (2), then sidekicks Buster (3), Big Hands (4), and Toad (5), and a very Raiders of the Lost Ark presentation of Roxie. Her kid brother, Tommy, rounds out the supporting cast. The concept showed such promise that a full issue of a Roxie’s Raiders comic book was penciled by Jack and scripted by Gerber, and we proudly present several pages of that unpublished comic here. More pages are in TJKC #30, 47, and Kirby Five-Oh!

Kirby’s “Extras”

Stole The Show!

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

oday we’re taking a look at the villains from the Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon. The wizard characters, by contrast, stand out remarkably from the backgrounds. The show was conceived by Joe Ruby in anticipation of the still-a-year-out They all feature unusual adornments: irregular piping along their boots, complex belt Conan movie. Once the show was approved, Alex Toth was asked to design the buckles, elaborate headgear, etc. The contrast against the rest of the characters main characters of Thundarr, Ariel and Ookla while David High designed the world from the series is striking and the design elements strongly suggest Kirby’s influence and their environment. Steve Gerber was hired as one of the lead writers. When Toth on all of the villains of the series. Again, Gemini is a prime example with his stylized was unable to continue work on the series, Jack Kirby was brought in to design boot and glove cuffs, tunic design and, unforgettably, his rotating headpiece. most of the villains. It seems as if Kirby’s influence over the show increased as it progressed. Designing characters for animation is a little different than designing them for Towards the end of the first season, notably in the “Battle of the Barbarians” and comics. Jack only needed to draw these characters a few times before passing “Den of the Sleeping Demon” episodes, additional characters show up with typical them off to animators who would create the actual drawings used for the show. But Kirby hallmarks. The heroes-in-training Shara and Merlic look like they would fit in he needed to keep in mind some level of simplicity so that animators could draw quite comfortably on Apokolips, as do all the extras in the tavern where Zolgar is them quickly enough to be used in a Saturday morning cartoon. Interestingly, Jack’s found. That almost indefinable Kirby aesthetic is decidedly more pronounced than in ability to create this incidental iconography for his comic characters which I’ve earlier episodes with each character, no matter how insignificant, looking as if he based this column around proved to be equally useful in animation. had a wealth of stories behind him already. The closing credits of the show cite Alex Toth, Jack Kirby and Jerry Eisenberg The show on the whole takes on a new tone with the second series. While as the character designers. Eisenberg was the show’s producer, and had also the basic premise remains intact, the show largely retires the repetitive plots worked as a layout artist and character designer in animation since the early from the first season, the expository dialogue is integrated into action scenes 1960s. We know Toth did the three protagonists, so we’re forced to guess and the new characters are far more distinctive. who the remaining characters were designed by. In watching the show, The first new episode, “Wizard War”, drops Thundarr into the however, it becomes quite clear where Jack’s fingerprints are. middle of a territorial battle between two sorcerers, both trying The first season’s episodes generally followed a similar to expand their respective power bases. More significantly for story progression. The three heroes would stumble across a this column, the design of the wizard Skullus is essentially group of humans being tormented by a band of mutants/ a giant disembodied head in a jar on wheels, making him savages. Thundarr and his companions would save the as the first significant character that wasn’t presented as humans, who would thank him and tell of the evil wizard a humanoid. It’s hard not to look at Skullus and see Kirby’s who commanded their attackers. Thundarr would take the hand in creating him. The unusual goggles and neck-base fight to the wizard, battle through some more mutants/savages are almost uniquely Kirby; Skullus also has a multi-cleft chin and finally defeat the wizard himself. He’d then return to the not unlike the ones Kirby had given the Skrulls back in humans and be given a warm welcome. Fantastic Four #2. What’s striking here is how often there’s a huge differFurthermore, more interesting and dramatic camera ence between the design styles of the wizards and those of angles are used throughout the story. No longer is everytheir henchmen. The wizards generally have a very Kirbyesque thing seen strictly horizontally from eye level, but there are look about them—they’re dynamic and powerful looking and, not camera tilts and up-shots and generally more dramatic posing infrequently, have some unusual design elements embedded in of the characters overall. As Kirby isn’t credited with storytheir wardrobe. The front of Gemini’s tunic, for example, has a boarding, it’s unclear if he had a direct hand in that aspect of wavy line that is almost unmistakably Kirby. The henchmen, by the show, but the stories become much more akin to what a contrast, are comparatively bland designs and could’ve been dropped reader might find in a Kirby comic. into almost any episode of Scooby-Doo or Jonny Quest without upset. The credits for the show at this point change as well. Gerber The curious exception to the forgettable henchmen in the first is promoted as the only “Story Editor” and Kirby is given the sole season are the monks from “Raiders of the Abyss”. While at first “Character Design” credit. Toth’s name is absent, and Eisenberg is glance, they also appear relatively banal-looking background no longer even listed as the producer. It’s worth noting, too, that characters wearing a simple hooded robe, they reveal a decidedly Kirby, along with other folks who worked on Thundarr such as Kirby influence once their remove their hoods. Each character series writers Mark Evanier and Buzz Dixon, found themselves sports a pair of odd black tattoos each in the shape of a squiggle contributing to Gerber’s Destroyer Duck comic not long after the Kirby’s that runs along the sides of their temple. It looks like a fairly cartoon ended. original design standard Kirby flourish, but the episode’s artists seem to have Back to the character designs, though, the second for Gemini. read it as a specific design element and included it on every one season has some decidedly interesting visuals comThundarr and all of the monk characters, regardless of what angle they were pared, not only to the first season, but to all Saturday related characters shown TM & ©2010 being shown from. morning cartoons for years on either side of Ruby-Spears Productions, Inc. Most of the background human characters, too, seem to Thundarr’s original airing. In “City of Evil” the ruler of wear nondescript outfits. Pants are simply drawn as slacks the miniature pyramid city presents himself as a floating face without folds or seams, and shirts are not decorated in any (not a head, mind you, just a face) with heavy shadows that way. Hairstyles are flat and accouterments are non-existent. almost seem reversed from what one would expect. Gemini, the Again, they could be folded into nearly any other Saturday morning cartoon only villain to appear in more than one episode, shows up in “Last Train to Doomsday” without notice. trying to disrupt a supply shipment. While Gemini’s design had already been 20

(right) Sample daily for a proposed Thundarr newspaper strip. (below) Kirby’s design for Thundarr’s River Pirates. (bottom) Wizardry abounded in Thundarr, and Jack created scenes like this one for the animators to reference. TM & ©2010 Ruby-Spears Productions, Inc.

established, the people seen on the train all wear complex Kirby-fied outfits, highlighting crowd scenes as groups of individuals instead of a generic mass of people. Perhaps the most elaborate episode of all, with regards to character design, is the series finale, “Prophecy of Peril.” The story opens in the midst of a battle between the protagonists and an army of green robots—simple designs, but vaguely reminiscent of Doombots. The wizard Vashtar bursts onto the scene with an outfit that must have frustrated the animators on the show. His arms and legs are both encircled by large bands between which are an irregular series of square and rectangle patterns. Then there are the three women of the titular prophecy. Maya sports an ensemble loosely modeled off an ancient Egyptian priestess and is considerably more intricate than what JoAnna Cameron wore as Isis a few years earlier; Cinda the Barbarian does wear an outfit similar to Shara’s but with much more elaborate gloves, boots, tiara and belt; and Valerie Storm switches from a fashion runway evening dress to a brightly colored tunic that evokes the ancient Greeks. I feel I should point out, too, that Jack did work on about two weeks worth of a Thundarr newspaper strip that was never ultimately published. There’s very little by way of character design—really just a tank gunner—but it’s curious to see his interpretations of the protagonists. Ookla, in particular, looks like almost a different character. But despite the stylistic differences between Toth’s original characters and Kirby’s antagonists, they blended together well, thus only making some of ancillary characters from season one come across as out of place. The main villains in Thundarr, while not actually drawn by Jack on the animation cels, still evoke much of his style. Sitting through and watching the episodes, it’s fairly easy to pick out which characters were his and it’s especially entertaining in the second season when he did so many background characters—characters that most people wouldn’t even bother designing. But I like to envision Jack happily sketching away while Joe Ruby was explaining the basic idea, and then handing over a dozen or so characters before Ruby was even finished. ★ Sean blogs at http://kleefeldoncomics.blogspot.com, and is the author of Comic Book Fanthropology available from www.comicbookfanthropology.com.

ong before radio shock-jock Howard Stern proclaimed himself to be ‘the King of All Media’, Jack Kirby was already there! He was an ‘in-betweener’ animator on the Fleischer brothers’ Popeye cartoons, a movie serial had been based on his Golden Age Captain America, and then his considerable talents and creative outlook saw lots of exposure in comics, cartoons, magazines, books, and TV and radio interviews. Nowadays, cartoons, movies, movies, and more movies are being ‘green-lighted’ in studios eager to capture box-office gold from his conceptual meanderings. Let’s first examine how well the celluloid and television set (no pun intended) captured some of ‘the King’s men’.

Retrospective

cab at the last minute (which, of course, you won’t learn until you see the next exciting chapter). Yes, in other words, related to Kirby’s Cap in name only! Overall, this Republic Pictures enterprise rates a “meh.” Not the worst serial out there, but definitely not as ballsy sadistic as The Adventures of Captain Marvel or as unintentionally hilarious as that campy The Shadow, which featured that insipid-voiced villain The Black Tiger. Recommended for Cap completists only! Mike Aushenker

Reel 1 Captain America (Serial, 1944)

Dick Purcell as Captain America stalks his foes in this still from the serial. Since it was wartime, it would’ve been a natural to have the Red Skull or Fang (Captain America Comics #6) as the chief heavy, but... (right) Cap got his ‘wings’ on his headpiece only in chapter serial posters like this. (far right) The one-and-only season of the Marvel SuperHeroes show in 1966 was a big ratings hit nationwide.

This is the Star-Spangled Avenger as you know and love him… if you can get past the fact that Cap (played by Dick Purcell) goes by the alter ego Grant Gardner, carries a gun instead of a shield, lacks a sidekick à la Bucky or the Falcon, fights the supervillain Scarab instead of the Red Skull and Nazis, and pulls cheap stunts to survive cliffhangers such as escaping a doomed truck before it crashes by merely rolling out of the truck’s

Marvel Super-Heroes (Cartoon, 1966) Marvel was only a few years old at the time, and the MSH (five of the company’s “biggies”—the de-iced Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Sub-Mariner, and the Hulk, shown MondayFriday, respectively) almost promised to leap, jet, and fly out of TV sets in the afternoons following school. Sure, the animation (such as it was—see TJKC #41) was incredibly stiff. Figures often just glided from one place to another, but Grantray-Lawrence knew the appeal of their program was in just bringing that comic mag-based power to animated life, and that they did fairly well with scripts taken mostly word-for-word from Stan’s dialogue and Jack’s power-packed artwork. Other animation cels were derived from the wonderful artistry of George Tuska, Gene Colan, Dick Ayers, Joe Sinnott, Don Heck, John Romita, and Steve Ditko. The music helped make it all work. Soaring and suspenseful, and completely arresting, it was nigh-unto impossible not to get on a personal high after hearing Cap’s, Iron Man’s, or Thor’s themes. Also, the voice talents were perfect. Look closely at one Sub-Mariner episode and you’ll see a truncated version of FF #6 with the X-Men (!) teaming up with Subby as the Baxter Building is hurled into space! (The FF cartoon series was in negotiation with Hanna-Barbera at the time.) The Grantray-Lawrence group was wise enough to see what the Marvel Bullpen had accomplished and altered little. And that’s why these shows, despite their obvious limitations, hold up well today. And on that subject, I must reiterate what Stan Lee once told me, “They’re the purest adaptations of what we did… in the comics.” ’Nuff Said. Jerry Boyd

The Reviews and analyses written by MICHAEL AUSHENKER, DWIGHT BOYD, JERRY BOYD, Fantastic Four and MICHAEL STEWART Anecdotal Kirby research by SCOTT FRESINA, (Cartoon, 1967) STEVE ROBERTSON, and MICHAEL THIBODEAUX Additional writings by DWIGHT BOYD, It was called “Super Saturday” back then, and Saturday morning boasted line-ups of original HannaAlex Toth did some design work for the original FF cartoon Barbera super-heroes like in ’67. Here’s one of his layouts Birdman, the Herculoids, for the show, simplifying the Mighty Mightor, Shazzan, Kirby/Sinnott look. and DC mainstays such as Superman, Aquaman, the Teen Titans, the JLA, and Marvel sensations Spider-Man, and… the Fantastic Four. Put together by the expert team that ruled TV animation at the time (Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera), the show did not disappoint. Occasionally, there were original heavies out to bedevil the world’s most fabulous foursome, but viewers in the know thrilled to see Blastaar, Dr. Doom, Diablo, the Super Skrull, Klaw, Rama-Tut, the Molecule Man, and other menaces in episodes culled from FF #1-63! Bill and Joe were even daring enough to combine FF #48-50 into one incredible outing called simply “Galactus!” Unfortunately, the Black Panther and the Inhumans didn’t make the cut, but a certain Prince “Triton” (a Namor look-alike) stood in as the hero from the ocean depths in one episode taken from FF #33. (Sub-Mariner was in syndication by then with the MSH show.) This series was gold. Great music, great voice talents (Gerald Mohr as Reed really stood out—that same year, Mr. Mohr was over at CBS-TV doing the voice of Green Lantern, also). Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera followed the MSH lead and kept the FF cartoons on a level that Jack and Stan could be proud of… and I’m sure they were. Jerry Boyd

Fantastic Four (Cartoon, 1978) and Fred and Barney Meet The Thing (Cartoon, 1979-80)

JERRY BOYD, and MICHAEL STEWART Produced and directed by JERRY BOYD transformed him into the Thing. But this Thing’s tenure wasn’t as solid as a rock. The show was re-titled Fred And Barney Meet The Schmoo after producers quickly shuffled in Al Capp’s gurgling blob. Both short-lived Saturday morning programs did a pretty good job of bastardizing and cheapening the FF mythos. Neither came a Thing Ring’s throw to capturing the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine as the 1960s HannaBarbera FF cartoon with its infectiously jazzy theme score. Even as an eager, Marvel-loving kid, watching those Bronze Age FF cartoons, you were well aware of all of this… and disappointed! On the King Cartoon report card, these shows rate an “F, F!” Michael Aushenker

The Incredible Hulk (TV Show, 1978-1982) Kirby liked this one and even made a cameo on one episode as a police sketch artist. (Anyone know what happened to that drawing?) Bill Bixby, a veteran performer, who’d scored on My Favorite Martian and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father years before, made a very good “David” Banner. Champion bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno played the title hero-monster. Stripped to its barest bones from the Lee-Kirby origin, villains, and the supporting cast, the Hulk was still a solid hit with lots of viewers. The producers obviously had more faith in emulating The Fugitive, a huge boob tube hit in the 1960s, than they had in even trying to capture the comic’s support system. Banner ambled from town to town, found jobs, got involved in people’s lives, and ‘hulked-out’ when danger threatened. His chartreuse alter ego ran away (no leaping was allowed in those towns) after the bullies and criminals got theirs. Followed by an investigative reporter, he kept two steps ahead of ‘being caught’ (again, like the Fugitive’s private detective pursuer) until the formulaic but likeable program ran out of creative steam. Still, the Hulk was popular enough to warrant a few special TV-movie returns in the years to follow. Let’s try not to talk about the one where he met Thor… okay, let’s. This mess was called The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988). Anyone expecting the classic J.I.M. #112 was out of his tree when this two-hour mishap was broadcast. A scientific acci-

BEHIND THE SCENES In the always excellent English horror film mag Little Shoppe of Horrors (this one being the spotlight on Amicus Pictures: #20, 2008) it was revealed that producer Milton Subotsky had an eye on the MSH group before Grantray-Lawrence. The text reads, “Back in the early ’60s, for example, he was the first film producer to realize the enormous commercial potential in the Marvel Comics’ characters, the Amazing Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and the Fantastic Four, all of which he urged his partner to pursue. Despite expressing tentative interest, (Max) Rosenberg did not go out of his way to discuss the rights with the Marvel Comics Group.” A letter from Subotsky to Rosenberg dated April 27, 1965 is quite revealing. “In order to make the pop comic strip film a really way-out camp picture, it might be an idea to have the script written by Lennie [sic] Bruce and the leading character (particularly if it is Spider-Man) played by Bob Dylan… another possible writer might be the guy who writes the Mad magazine take-offs, Harvey Kunz [sic—he meant Kurtzman]. The Mad magazine approach might be the absolutely best one for this film…” Subotsky later wrote, “I think this is the hottest idea we have had to date and that it is two years ahead of anybody else’s thinking.” His business partner Max Rosenberg was the money man of the group and just wasn’t interested. The pair went on to make many successful horror films, one of them being the EC Comics-inspired Tales of the Crypt in 1972. EC/Mad publisher Bill Gaines reportedly wasn’t big on it, but it was one of Amicus Pictures’ greatest hits. What if… the team had done a solid live-action version of Jack and Stan’s stuff? We can only speculate…. Jerry Boyd

od Connections A scene from the 1978 Fantastic Four cartoon, with Herbie replacing the Torch.

The former show, lasting an unlucky 13 episodes, was notorious for introducing H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot (supposedly so kids wouldn’t try lighting themselves on fire, but later it was revealed that the Human Torch was being saved for a solo cartoon of his own, which never flamed on). The latter show was infamous for introducing the notion that a teenage Ben Grimm, activating his magical “Thing Ring” by shouting, Shazam-style, “Thing Ring, do your thing,” would attract rocks to his corporal self that

(Several reels of excitement examining the King’s comic work adapted to television and film, overseen by Jerry Boyd and friends)

then strapped to that rocket we’re so Some inside news: If this had been successful, familiar it may have been the beginning of a Thor with, which series, some say! he naturally (left) The Hulk and Thor meet on Muscle Beach (??) survives. He and flex and grunt while the baddies get away in this emerges screen capture from ’91. into the modern-day dent bridged the gap between our world and continues his war against the Skull— world and that other one past Bifrost. The who also got himself nicely preserved after the Big Norseman is able to come to the Earth of his someOne’s end. Cap times buddy/sometimes enemy, Dr. Don Blake. (Matt Salinger, (Thor spends some of his spare time pushing Blake who did some around and ignoring his advice on how to get along decent acting by here!) Thor called Hulky a “troll,” Dr. Blake was the way) got the able to lift the hammer (which couldn’t return to its kind-of costume godly owner) and the battles were more like staged Jack and Joe World Wrestling Federation bouts than the excellent Kirby slugfests we’d all accepted as state of the art by then. Both heroes did a lot of flexing and grunting. It wasn’t the actors’ fault, of course—but there was no “lightning and thunder” here, just a light drizzle. Dwight Boyd

BEHIND THE SCENES

Captain America & Captain America II: Death Too Soon (TV Movies, 1979) Late ’70s TV was “the pits” (to use a late ’70s colloquialism) for the most part, and these two Cap movies (starring Reb Brown as the motorcycle riding super patriot— Reb Brown starred as a maybe some exec saw the late ’70s Captain America comics done by Lee and in two uninspired Colan from ’70-’71) television movies. weren’t exactly bright moments. There were no Marvel super-villains, Steve Rogers’ costume was done wrong (so was the shield), and the Star-Spangled Avenger spent a lot of time riding around on his bike and then continually fighting criminals he should’ve been able to knock out and finish off the first time. They got up quickly (like the ones who were tussling with Spider-Man around the same time on his show!) and chased Cap (!) around cheap sets, up ladders, down hills, and through uninspired scripting. The second outing for Cap included the always wonderful Christopher Lee as one of the main villains. That was a plus. Still, Cap deserved better… and so did his fans. Dwight Boyd

Captain America (Movie, 1990) Kirby saw this straight-to-video movie that wisely pushed the shield slinger to his WWII roots, but unwisely made the Red Skull an Italian agent of Mussolini’s (whaaat?!). Sadly, the budget wasn’t set up to get into the Simon and Kirby world of Axis agents, fifth columnists, and so on. Cap is quickly beaten by the Skull at the movie’s beginning and is 24

(above) Matt Salinger as the Star-Spangled Avenger in the direct-to-video Cap movie of 1992.

designed. (The winged motorcycle helmet Reb Brown wore in the ’70s was okay, but not for our Cap!) Rogers also carried the proper type of shield, but the story writing was weak and nothing memorable came out of it. Straight-to-video budgets often get in the way of potential greatness. A wartime C.A. movie doesn’t necessarily need Indiana Jones-type spending, but it wouldn’t hurt. With an ’80s mainstream movie budget, the atmosphere of the ’40s serials added to sound ’70s cinematography and an excellent ’60sstyle screenplay—this ’90s effort might be something

to own and cherish. What did the King think of it? Check out Kirby Collector #38. He gave it a royal two ‘thumbs down.’ Michael Stewart

INTERMISSION ‘Stock footage’ assembled by Dwight and Jerry Boyd Monsters outside of theaters and premieres, unscrupulous grasping producers, gorgeous actresses on sets and locations, a special effects man, a movie murder mystery with Ivan Barloff (Jack’s take on horror great Boris Karloff), and even a giant beetle running amok in a TV station—the King got all of these entertainment world-based scenarios and more into his stupendous-fantastic-colossal (that’s show biz talk) storytelling over the years. Can you figure out which comics these panels come from? You get one point for the original (no reprints…er, re-releases) comic title and another point for the issue number. And your Jack Kirby Checklist: Gold Edition won’t help you ‘cause we cut off the titles and told the super people (well, all but one) they had the day off from filming. Answers are below!

Marvel Action Hour (Cartoon, 1994-1996) Roaming about the Marvel Universe with the ease of a certain silvery sentinel of outer space, this anthology offering would feature the FF against the Mole Man and his “Moloids” (not a bad handle) one week, Iron Man vs. the Mandarin the next, the (new) X-Men the following week, and so on. The stories and vilDr. Doom and Annihilus got lains got their lift-offs from new chances to destroy the Kirby and Lee’s ’60s world’s most fabulous fourstandards, but there the some on episodes from the resemblances ceased. The Marvel Action Hour. scripts were all-new. The style of animation was pedestrian, so very little about the presentation was outstanding unless you were simply dying at that point to see animated versions of Modok, Annihilus, Magneto, the Sentinels, and (yes!) even a revamped Fin Fang Foom! On a good note, Stan Lee was the host and began each show with the wonderful hyperbole that had become his trademark. On a bad note, cartoon violence had been muzzled since the late 1960s, so great battle sequences were out. The episodes starring Spider-Man fared no better. These were probably satisfying to small youngsters who didn’t have the first seasons of Spidey (’67) and the FF (same year) to use as a barometer. To be fair, most H-Wood companies didn’t have a vision of how to properly serve up super-hero situations circa the early ’90s (if ya disagree, let me remind you of the two Swamp Thing flicks and the Spirit TV-movie that even Eisner disowned), so this show was par for the course. And that course was as rocky as Bashful Benjamin’s backside… luckily, better animation and live-action was to come.

SCORE: 4

• 17-20 [A] You’re an A-Lister! Expect a call from a top producer any day now! • 13-16 [B] Not bad. The King would approve of your screen work… • 9-12 [C] Average, but you need to work on your act, kid. • 5- 8 [D] How’d you get into this picture?! • 1- 4 [F] Remember F-Troop? You just signed up with them. Don’t call us, we’ll call you….

(1) Forever People #9 (2) FF #3 (3) Thor #127 (4) Captain America #106 (5) FF #9 (with Sue Storm as the actress) (6) Tales to Astonish #39 (7) Hulk #4 (8) Captain America Comics #3 (9) Thor #151 (10) Journey into Mystery #77

Jerry Boyd

Fantastic Four (Movie, 1994) Legendary producer Roger Corman, master of the exploitation quickie, got on the super-hero bandwagon in the ’90s with this quickie starring the FF. Dr. Doom, looking very bad in his armor, was the main villain. Despite the low budget which put everyone on dimly-lit sets (probably a good thing), the Thing came off fairly well. The others didn’t. Reed’s stretching, Johnny’s flames, and Sue’s invisibility—and the direction and writing—were all lamentable. The FF couldn’t be done at all in the ’60s (special effects just weren’t up to it) and a low budget (no-budget) feature wasn’t even worth trying in the ’90s, really. Finally, sfx has caught up to Kirby in this new millenium! But do yourself a favor and don’t catch up to this ’90s straight-to-video “mess”-sterpiece…. Dwight Boyd

Superman: The Animated Series (Cartoon, 1996-2000) Animation did get better in the 1990s. (Live-action was still getting it all figured out, even though the first two Superman films with Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve were super… even “magical.”) And coincidentally, it was that same Man of Steel, the embodiment of science-fantasy and super heroism, that provided the basis for some of “King” Kirby’s best-actualized characterizations. Superman: TAS was the follow-up to the tremendously acclaimed Batman series done earlier in the decade by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. Paul and Bruce, both comics fans (that actually helps a lot, Hollywood… anyone listening?), took the best or the most memorable components from the Kryptonian’s mythos of almost six decades and distilled it all into a Metropolis where the Toyman, Braniac, the Prankster, and Luthor got their turns at Bats… er, Supes… while Darkseid, Kalibak, and Intergang (led by good ol’ Ugly Mannheim) waited in the wings. Other “Supertowners” and their foes made their way to the established Earth beachhead, all done respectfully and right by the animation team. “Tools of the Trade” was the first Fourth World episode and Timm himself reportedly storyboarded the

(previous page) Kirby got The Red Skull right in 1977 in his final outing on the character (Captain America #212, pencils show here). For behind-the-scenes details of TV shows like Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Wonder Woman , check out TwoMorrows’ new book Age of TV Heroes, now shipping!

(right) Paul Dini and Bruce Timm made super-hero cartoons fun again. Here’s a page layout showing the Man of Steel (which they’d do later as a series) mixing it up with Darkseid. The full version of this beautiful page by Timm was originally presented in Comic Book Artist: Special Edition in 1999. (below) Kirby’s original Dan “Terrible” Turpin didn’t look like Jack, but sure had his spunk. (next page) The Ang Lee Hulk movie’s desert scene may owe a debt of inspiration to this sequence from Eternals #15 (Sept. 1977).

SupermanDarkseid battle. All of these efforts by the creative team garnered the Superman cartoons an Emmy nomination. There were 3 two-part episodes with Fourth World characters in the forefront. Orion (naturally), Granny Goodness (voiced by veteran actor Ed Asner!), Stompa, Lashina, Mad Harriet, and Lightray showed up. Mark Evanier wrote a teleplay that got finished by the late Steve Gerber and the Fourth World was off and boom-tubing their way into our boob tubes. The King might’ve said, “Don’t ask—just watch it!” And it was worth the viewings… Jerry Boyd

BEHIND THE SCENES “Terrible” Turpin (modeled to look like the King) was killed in action by the evil gods (we won’t tell you which one, specifically) and a never-aired funeral sequence for the lawman included Big Barda, Prof. X, the Fantastic Four, Scott Free, Nick Fury, Orion, as well as ‘real-worlders’ Stan Lee, Alex Ross, Mark Evanier, and Mr. Dini. This was a fine tribute… fittingly placed within a fine series. Jerry Boyd

The Silver Surfer (Cartoon, 1998) This short-lived series centered on the quondam Norrin Radd, did feature Kirby-esque cosmic trips and managed to incorporate Galactus; Thanos; Ego, the Living Planet; and the herald Frankie Raye. However, it never really took off and ultimately fell to Earth like the Surfer himself after 13 episodes (largely due to production problems related to Marvel’s bankruptcy at Cosmic awareness ruled the that time). Not a classic, Silver Surfer cartoon series in but if there’s one thing this the late ’90s. Sometimes there cartoon got right that were guest appearances by Galactus. both FF films failed to capitalize on, it’s the Kinginspired art direction, replete with Kirby Krackle and squiggles! Mike Aushenker

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (TV Movie, 1998) Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff wasn’t an ideal Col. Fury, but he wasn’t too bad in this barely satisfying though mostly forgettable television offering at the end of the ’90s. Col. Fury gets lured out of retirement to help put the kibosh on a new terrorist organization called Hydra. Gabe Jones and (Steranko’s) Val are on hand, also. Nick gets back easily into harness and suits up in black spandex while overseeing the weaponry available. Here’s the twist. The daughter of his old enemy, Baron von Strucker (!) is leading Hydra. So it’s a blood feud. The action wasn’t too bad (Gabe was physically much older-looking than his “old boss,” unfortunately) and neither were the production values or the teleplay, but there wasn’t anything particularly special about the Kirby-Lee spy team brought to life. Comparison time: Say what you want about the old Batman show, it had a distinct vision—and it was different. Its success came partially from the filmmakers having and implementing that vision boldly and with good instincts for what their audience required. Kirby’s wonderful sequential art visions just weren’t translated that well in the ’80s and ’90s by Hollywood. There was no grasp on how to take his cosmic (and non-cosmic, in Fury’s case) visions and showcase them properly. Now, as an option (show-biz types love options!), if only the producers had gone instead for a Steranko-overseen animated project (Jim had pitched some animation ideas in the ’60s to the networks) 26

with the SHIELD agents with Steranko-drawn storyboards—now that’s entertainment! Jerry Boyd

Hulk (Movie, 2003) Despite an incredible $62.1 million opening weekend, the first feature film based on Lee and Kirby’s Incredible Hulk comics was a pretentious mess that quickly alienated critics and fans alike, suffering a 60% second-weekend plummet that would’ve rattled the Mole Man’s gold fillings. Eric “Bruce” Bana gave a credible yet unmemorable performance, while director Ang Lee, the brilliant filmmaker behind solid art house fare such as The Wedding Banquet and The Ice Storm, clearly had no feel for comics, employing comic book panels, narrative text, and other condescending devices. Even the CG was miscast, as Hulk looked like Shrek. Hulk was ill-paced and meandering. Only the Hulk’s desert storm, hopping across the Mojave en route to San Francisco, drew a faithful vibe to the Hulk comics. Filmmaker Lee’s attempt to infuse the Hulk mythos with high-falutin’ psychological subtexts involving father-son issues totally overreached, wasting the Absorbing Man’s powers on Nick Nolte’s lame patriarchal character. And the scene where the military catches up with Hulk, calmed by Jennifer Connolly’s Betty, would’ve been the best place to end this feature. Unfortunately, it was just a respite before the laughable third act had Nolte’s father turn into a talking radiation cloud, like a bad outtake from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Unlike the protagonist of his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon epic, Lee should’ve quashed his “green destiny” and passed on this one. Perhaps this clunker should have paraphrased Bill Bixby’s Banner with an urgent plea to its director: “Mr. Ang Lee… Don’t make me, Ang Lee… You wouldn’t like me when I’m Ang Lee.” Mike Aushenker

Fantastic Four (Movie, 2005) They may have gotten the mix of adventure and comedy somewhat right, but while few men would protest seeing Jessica Alba in the Invisible Girl’s skin-tight latex, the actress, an ethnic beauty, is terribly miscast here as Sue Storm, who is strongly ingrained in our consciousness as a blue-eyed Caucasian blonde with chiseled Kirby cheekbones. A silly, boring “origin” flick with lackluster special effects that rewrites the team’s genesis to include Dr. Doom on that fateful rocket ride, this unambitious blockbuster’s biggest crime is that it never reaches Jack Kirby’s cosmic scale. Basically, this middling Marvel movie looks like the Corman Fantastic Four flick with about five more bucks in the budget. Mike Aushenker

Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes (Cartoon, 2006-2007) I had to watch this series (out on DVD) for the purposes of this article and I’m happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised. Manga meets the Baxter Building didn’t sound intriguing at all, but the animation team pulled it off nicely. An origin story was shelved and we’re plunged immediately into the world of our heroes with a pluckier Sue, a Reed more into the shadows (leader-wise, I felt) but just as brilliant science-wise, a cockier Johnny (think Chris Evans with spiky hair and even more mouth), and a cuddlier Ben—who, in a nice touch, wakes up in the morning to an alarm clock which chants, “It’s Clobbering Time, It’s Clobbering Time…” etc. The show depended on its own creative writing

mostly, but Jack and Stan’s Frightful Four, Ronan the Accuser, Diablo, and Dr. Doom (of course) showed up in various episodes. The Skrulls were along for the excitement, also—but since that Secret Invasion series of Marvel’s, you have to suspect they’re everywhere anyway! In the first season, viewers were treated to gueststars like Ant-Man and the Hulk. The second season showcased Namor, Iron Man, and the She-Hulk. Supporting star Alicia Masters was made into a black woman, influenced by the earlier live-action movie. Some of Jack and Stan’s stories got retooled and retold as “Doomed” where Reed and Doc Doom switch bodies (FF #10) and the “World’s Tiniest Heroes”—Reed’s micro-verse experiment causes the 27

as Dr. Doom, erroneously portrayed here as a superfluous, fifth-wheel character lacking the commanding, Darth Vader-esque presence that should befit the monarch of Latveria. Where the comics’ Doc Doom is prone to verbose, majestic speeches, McMahon’s Doom is a laconic wiseass who tosses off lame one-liners and has the gravitas of an annoying gadfly. But you knew this movie would fail to follow through on its promise the moment you saw the what-the-heck-is-that cosmic glob they call Galactus at the film’s start that obviously cut corners and ducked interpreting Kirby’s most complexly designed character. How poorly done was this Galactus? It brought back memories of that horribly animated ramp-up to the Phantom Zone explosion in Superman II! You were glad this Galactus didn’t stick around! Rise is one of those flicks that asks us to suspend disbelief too often. How is it that the U.S. Government military men capture the Surfer without any radiation suits? Then use a syringe of sodium pentothal on him, which presumptuously assumes that our Earth medicine (and our syringe, for that matter) will penetrate the humanoid’s alien anatomy? Gee, the Surfer can survive a supernova blast, but that measly little needle’s going to enter his body, huh? Totally preposterous! This silly sequel, which improves on the original only by virtue of its nicely realized Silver Surfer and some better scenery for Chris Evans’ cocky and funny Human Torch to chew on, still manages to get things wrong. Most amazing of all, as Rise proves, is that Hollywood, with all its sophisticated technology, still can’t reach the epic scale of the King’s seemingly infinite imagination… now that’s fantastic! Michael Aushenker

The Incredible Hulk (Movie, 2008)

team to shrink. H.E.R.B.I.E. (yeah, he was back), thinks they’re vermin, and tries to exterminate them. The Ant-Man helped out in this play on the micro-world of Dr. Doom (FF #16). A new imagining of FF #6, minus Sub-Mariner, featured the Doombots launching the Baxter Building into space. Doom himself used that as a decoy to distract the foursome from his real objective in “Doomsday plus One.” And the Impossible Man (FF #11) got ignored again by the team in another episode. The Mole Man and the Puppet Master were also cast in other perilous scenarios. The program faced erratic scheduling. Originally shown on the cable outlet Cartoon Network in September 2006 (as part of Toonami), it wasn’t seen again until June of ’07, shortly before the second live-action FF movie was released. In any case, if you can catch them now anywhere, they’re worth seeing. Dwight Boyd 28

Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Movie, 2007) First, let’s get one thing out of the way: the trailer for this movie, which captured the Silver Surfer’s arrival, is indeed fantastic and, frankly, more exciting in two minutes than all two hours of the 2005 Fantastic Four feature. The good news: Rise far exceeds the original. The bad news: as a Marvel movie, riddled with lapses of logic, it trailed even behind that summer’s disappointing SpiderMan 3. Continuing in the tradition of the underwhelming original, The CGI-Surfer was voiced Julian McMahon makes nicely by veteran actor his somnabulent return Lawrence Fishburne.

In the Dark Knight–dominated superhero summer of 2008, this film, directed by French filmmaker Louis Leterrier, is the kind of Hulk movie that Ang Lee should have delivered: pulpy comic book fun. This hat-trick-of-a-flick not only stays true to its source material, but successfully cribs the best elements from the 1970s CBS show, all while dispensing with that pesky origin stuff by the opening credits. As the first superhero blockbuster out of the gate, Iron Man ruled the first half of the summer and attracted acclaim from fans and critics alike. Meanwhile, this Hulk saga went truly underrated, despite making a decent mint and the arguable fact that this Marvel movie was overall better structured, leading up to that more-inspired Harlem showdown climax (while Iron Man, after a strong start, sputtered in a final act reminiscent of Robocop 2). The Incredible Hulk’s Rio de Janeiro panoramas and a Banner-on-the-run plotline born from Bourne brought the Hulk back to its Fugitive-inspired TV Hulk roots (not to mention the show’s melancholy

piano riff on the soundtrack), giving the movie’s mechanics an urgency and a contemporary feel. Even this film’s poster got it right, with Ed Norton’s Banner booking it in the shadow of the Hulk, looming large, with his sinewy, shadowy back facing us. Much appreciated was Norton’s Banner, a deft, intense performance benefited by a solid supporting cast that included Liv Tyler as Betty, William Hurt as General Thunderbolt Ross, and Tim Roth as the Abomination. Keeping the gamma ray goliath’s baby talk at a minimum was probably a wise decision to avoid some unintentional camp value. It’s a shanda that Universal has no current plans to lens a sequel, thus depriving Hulk fans of seeing the coming of the Leader, as cleverly set up in this film’s storyline. One minor misstep: a tacked-on scene at the end, featuring that obligatory Tony Stark/Robert Downey, Jr. cameo to set up an Avengers movie, should have been distanced from the story proper with a postclosing credits coda, as in Iron Man. Otherwise, The Incredible Hulk is one of the best Marvel movies to date. Michael Aushenker

Brave And The Bold (Cartoon, 2008-2009)

Atlantic Ocean from the Kirby-esque legion of mutated animals with the help of Dr. Canus. In a finale reminiscent of the cover of Kamandi #1 (not to mention the great cult-cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian and source material Planet of the Apes), the action culminates at the Statue of Liberty, where Batman is due to catch his fleeting time-portal cab home. “Kamandi, check the statue’s left nostril,” Batman shouts as he leaves his newfound post-apocalyptic friend. And that’s when Kamandi, on cue, busts out the big Kirby toys: oversized cannons with gleaming Kirby squiggles. Fans of DC Kirby books will also notice a billboard referencing that famous creepy boxed-woman cover of OMAC #1. The eye-candy Bruce Timm-style designs— that clear-line, minimal retro look—sweeten the visual pot. Aesthetically, this is one of the best animation world Kirby tributes to date. Faring much better than “Day of the Dark Knight!” is another episode featuring Kirby’s gargoyle-esque ’70s supernatural hero. Episode 15 of Cartoon Network’s B and B titled “Trials of The Demon!” showcases the return of The Demon, this time giving Etrigan a meatier part that transcends his “Day” job. In this above-average episode of the series, the Dark Knight Detective travels back to Victorian London and, enlisting the assistance of another pair of celebrated investigators, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, he helps clear occultist Jason Blood, framed for a series of murders committed by James Craddock. The animators go to town pitting Batman and Etrigan against a towering ogre demon. By episode’s end, viewers are treated to Craddock’s transformation into Gentleman Ghost, the Scooby-Doo-esque villain who previously made an appearance opposite Deadman in the B and B series (Episode 7: “Dawn of the Dead Man!”). “Trials of the Demon!” proves to be the biggest and best Kirby tribute yet from the nascent series, which at this writing is still on its first season. Michael Aushenker The management of this theater would like everyone to know: Most of our review team liked the X-Men, Iron Man, and Spider-Man films, but since their storylines and characters owed more to creators other than Jack and his credited ideas, we left them out.

(previous page) FF2: Rise of the Silver Surfer would’ve benefited greatly by showing even one glimpse of Galactus’ face appearing through his “cosmic cloud”, sorta the way Jack showed off the “Big G” in this page from the 1977 Silver Surfer graphic novel. Silver Surfer, Galactus TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

(left) The new Brave and the Bold series is off to a good start, teaming Batman with stars of the DC Universe. The Kirby influence is evident here, as Kamandi, Dr. Canus, and Batman row to safety in this episode. Brave And The Bold TM & ©2010 Warner Bros.

TV/Movie credits for this article: Marvel Super-Heroes cartoon ©1966 Grantray-Lawrence. • Fantastic Four cartoon ©1967 Hanna-Barbera. • Captain America movies, Incredible Hulk TV show, Hulk movies ©2010 Universal. • Captain America movie ©1990 21st Century Film Corp. • Marvel Action Hour, Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes ©1996 Marvel Productions Ltd./Marvel Enterprises. • Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie ©1994 Constantin Film. • Superman: The Animated Series, Brave And The Bold TM & ©2010 Warner Bros. • Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD ©1998 20th Century Fox Television. • Silver Surfer cartoon, Fantastic Four movie, FF2 Rise of the Silver Surfer ©2010 Fox.

Cartoon Network’s Brave And The Bold, the latest Batman animated series to air, is the least pretentious and most beautifully designed. Given the DC team-up theme, it was only a matter of time before Jack Kirby’s ’70s creations would emerge, and halfway through the series’ first season in late 2008-2009, no less than The Demon and Kamandi, Last Boy on Earth were quickly ushered in. Despite the teleplay’s pedigree of J.M. DeMatteis, one of the best writers in comics, “Day of the Dark Knight” doesn’t quite cut it, throwing in a glorified Demon cameo in the middle of a King Arthur and Camelot plot. Sure, there’s the “Rise, Rise, Etrigan…!” chant and a nice little tete-a-tete between the former Jason Blood and the costumed Bruce Wayne. But the Demon, in this story, comes off as something of Morgaine Le Fay’s obedient, emasculated pet. Demon is more or less shoehorned into the Batman/Green Arrow storyline, instead of being the second half of the episode’s team-up. Much stronger, Kirby-wise, is the Kamandi bit that opens “Dawn of the Dead Man!” Granted, the Kamandi opener is an appetizer for an episode that teams up the astral projection of Batman and Deadman against Gentleman Ghost while Green Arrow and Speedy race to unearth Batman’s entombed body. But as appetizers go, this is some high quality finger food, my friends. As is the norm in the lighthearted Brave And The Bold, Batman wisecracks his way through the episode (despite the fact that he’s strolling through bombed-out future shock Manhattan here). Within the episode’s first few minutes, Batman, off of Kamandi’s youthful exuberance, deadpans, “Reminds me of someone back home.” Batman and Kamandi escape on a raft across the 29

Reel 2 (right) Rick Veitch did this illustration for an article in Royal Flush magazine last year, imagining how Kirby might have drawn Frank Zappa as a New God. Courtesy of Rick Veitch and Royal Flush Magazine (www.royalflushmagazine.co m). Be sure to check out Jeff Newelt's interview with Ahmet Zappa about the Frank and Jack connection, which you can find at: http://royalflushmagazine.com/ 2009/10/13/zappa_meets_kirby/

It’s not all about television programs and big movies, folks. Kirby’s stuff had pop music connections, also…

Kirby Rocks! by Scott Fresina

(below right) Spragg’s face made for an impressive Kirby/Ayers cover. This one was done for Journey into Mystery #68, 1961.

(bottom right) Paul McCartney had a lot more fun meeting the King than Jack had meeting Wings, if this picture is a true indicator. That was probably because Paul’s music wasn’t Jack’s cup of tea, but that only figures—Jack was of an earlier generation which had different musical tastes. (Like the man said, “timing is everything.”) For most of us, the Beatles ruled and Wings’ stuff wasn’t bad, either. (below) Bashful Benjamin tries on a Beatle wig! Wonder if John and Paul ever saw this drawing or read Strange Tales #130 where Johnny and Ben “met” the Fab Four?

Frank Zappa I remember on my numerous visits to Jack’s house there were various pictures of Jack with several celebrities hanging on the wall in his study. There was one with (actor) James Darren (of Time Tunnel TV-fame) and the other was Frank Zappa. I asked him about Zappa. I said, “Oh, he’s a fan, eh Jack?” And he said, “Oh yeah, yeah… he was a great guy, but I tell you—he brought over some of his music, and the kind-of music he does and the language he uses on his records… it’d have curled your hair...”; then he glanced at me and added with a smile, “...if it wasn’t already curled!” (Yeah, I had curly hair then.) Roz jumped in and explained that Zappa wrote a song based on one of Jack’s stories or characters. I found out later that it was a song called “Billy the Mountain.” Billy was a mountain that could kick ass or whatever, I guess! Billy was based on JIM #68— the monster was Spragg, the Living Mountain. And it was one of the lyrics that went, “You don’t f*ck with a mountain.” Now Jack was shocked at Frank’s use of profane language in there but thought Zappa was a real interesting artist. I guess it was through his daughters and granddaughters, Lisa and Tracey in particular, which led to his exposure to rock and roll. That’s what I was led to believe.

(Zappa’s own song “Valley Girl” reportedly served as inspiration for Kirby’s unused newspaper strip of the same name. See page 9 of this issue for a wacky example!)

The Sherman Brothers and others have talked about this to Kirby Collector readers before, but here’re a few add-ons not previously printed, I believe. Jack got an invitation to see Wings at the (L.A.) Forum. He got free tickets, VIP seats, and backstage passes. I believe this was in the late ’70s. Jack wasn’t a big partygoer or anything—he was always working. So he kind-of discarded it until he found out his daughters were getting really excited about it. “Oh, my God, Dad—this is Paul McCartney and Wings!” That didn’t register with Jack. So she (Lisa) said, “He was with the Beatles!” Jack knew who the Beatles were. “Ohhh….” he told me he said. Kirby liked Big Band stuff. He talked about Tommy Dorsey and all those guys. He brought up Sinatra several times with me;

maybe because I’m Italian, he thought Sinatra was big with me. Sinatra wasn’t big to my generation, and certainly not as important as Jack Kirby! When they all got to the Forum, they were seated in the VIP area and Jack was thrilled because he was seated right next to Kirk Douglas! Later, Jack made the point to me that Kirk was exactly his size! Jack always thought, because of the way he looked on film, that he (Douglas) was a tall, towering guy. Jack said, “He’s no taller than I am… I was shocked!” But still, he was Kirk Douglas and Jack was very impressed just being that close to him. Apparently, Paul McCartney sent out a lot of invitations to various Americans he admired and Kirby probably saw and met some other celebrities, but Kirk was the one who impressed him the most. At some point when Wings was playing “Magneto vs. the Titanium Man”, Paul broke it off and announced that “the man who created these characters was in the audience tonight… a fine artist…”. Jack didn’t really pick up on what Paul was saying, but then this huge spotlight swings down and it’s on him! Jack told me afterwards, “I thought it was meant for Kirk Douglas! Instead, the light’s on me!” (We laughed.) Jack stood up and waved to the crowd a few times after Roz shouted, “Stand up!” Jack was not expecting this at all. When they went backstage after the concert, Roz told me later, “Paul and Linda McCartney were standing around with their kids and Paul had a stack of Marvel Comics for Jack to sign—a well-read stack of comics, at that!” Yeah, he wanted Jack to sign them! Jack told me Paul said, “I’m a huge fan and so are my kids. I’d love to have you sign these…” Wow… A final add-on to the Wings Concert: Jack had a good time. It wasn’t his kind-of music, but he, Roz, and the kids that went had a terrific time. Overall though, Jack was nonplussed. His biggest kick was afterwards when they went to Denny’s or Bob’s Big Boy for food and chocolate cake! I asked him, “How’d you like the concert?” He said, “Look, that’s your guys’ music. It’s not my music.” He knew I was a musician and a fan of Paul’s, so he left it there… he was always nice.

John Lennon And this is an aside that concerns stuff that just I know about—it wasn’t just Paul McCartney. It was John Lennon, also, because I lived with a girl for about 14 months who once worked at Apple Records. She knew John Lennon intimately. She had lived at the Dakotas, in fact. This gal had a lot of cool stuff she was selling and I helped her sell some of it, mostly to Rockaway Records here in L.A. She loved the Beatles’ music but she wasn’t blown away by having Lennon at NYC’s Lady first editions, so those Liberty, 1974. items she could sell ©2010 Bob Gruen. without regret. She knew a lot of famous people. In the days of vinyl, there were a lot of test pressings that ended up in her hands. These were like pre-first editions

before even the first record printings! They’d get put into these plain white sleeves and when I saw them, I noticed these little doodles on the albums’ white jackets. They were done in permanent marker and they were renderings of Captain America, the Human Torch, and some others. I asked her, “So what is this?” She said, “Oh… John was always doodling.” And I knew, like all the fans of Jack Kirby, a ‘Kirby-type face’ from ten feet away. Also, Lennon had copied the shading as well; some of the Cap doodles followed Syd Shores’ style of inking. I could tell that, too! Some of them were Kirby poses all the way. So I had to ask her about that. She said, “Oh yeah, they (the Beatles) were into pop culture. They had comics around. They had TV on all the time. They were sucking up American culture like crazy, they loved it all.” They’d stopped touring as a band by then, she explained. The Apple Studios were like their home and the rooftop provided that last setting for “Let It Be”—you know, their last live concert and public appearance together as a group, of course. So there’s another connection with the Fab Four… and that other ‘Fab Four’—the Fantastic Four!

Reel 3 To Entertain A King! by Steve Robertson and Michael Thibodeaux

because he recommended that I see it. Not that this has much to The King enjoyed tough guy do with the movies Jack liked, Charles Bronson’s Death Wish films. ©2010 Paramount Pictures but every year that I bought Jack a set of movies, I would include a box of Peppermint Patties— Jack’s favorite candy. I also remember Roz hiding the candy from Jack and doling it out to him in small increments throughout the next few months—otherwise Jack would eat it all in one sitting! Roz always watched out for Jack’s health! I also remember giving Jack We’ve all got our closets and bookcases lined with a VHS of my favorite movie, The Magnificent Seven. our favorite VHS, DVD, and blue-ray copies of our He said he enjoyed it, but didn’t elaborate on it. So I favorite films, TV programs, concerts, etc. So what did wasn’t sure if he liked it or was just being polite. the King like to watch? Two of his friends tell us: The only TV show I remember Jack talking about STEVE ROBERTSON: I can’t remember too much was Bonanza. I believe when the show first came on specifically, except that Jack loved the Charles (in 1959?) he would be sure to watch it every Bronson Death Wish movies! I think Mike T. bought Sunday evening. Jack also never missed Laverne and him VHS copies of those. Shirley, because it was Roz’s MIKE THIBODEAUX: Yes, I did buy Jack a set of the favorite TV Death Wish films for his birthday, and followed suit show. That on succeeding birthdays thereafter with: reminds me, I The Clint Eastwood Western Trilogy (some of also remember his favorites): A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars him saying, one More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly—movies time, that he he specifically requested. The following birthday I enjoyed The followed up with a set of James Cagney movies. Jack Carol Burnett loved the ol’ time gangster actors of his era. Show. Not one of (Cagney, Bogart, Robinson…) I remember actually my favorites. I watching The Public Enemy with Jack. He really liked don’t remember that movie. The only if he liked the other movie I remember Hulk TV series, from that set was White but I do rememJames Cagney (left) delivered one Heat. of his finest performances in White ber him saying Upon request from Heat (1948, above) for Warner that he enjoyed Roz Kirby, I bought him Brothers. Kirby loved the Irishmeeting both a set of John Wayne American actor’s films and toughLou Ferrigno and guy persona. movies, but I can’t actuBill Bixby when ally say whether he liked he made his cameo appearance on that show. Oh them or not. I remember yeah… I know he enjoyed the first set of Star Wars Jack really enjoyed the movies. first Predator movie, 31

since he idolized Robinson, a Jewish actor who bore some resemblance to the artist—and who grew up not too far away from the Kurtzberg family in New York (see Kirby Collector #35). “Robinson” got another chance to bedevil a Marvel hero when a Skrull planet full of underworld types who bet on arena battles between aliens taken as slaves (FF #91-93) captured the Thing. Kirby set up a brief exchange with Ben and “Eddie G.” before the Thing’s tussle with Torgo. Again, this had to have the King enjoying himself to no end. The real Robinson was alive and well in 1969 when this last continued FF epic hit the stands and stores, and I wonder sometimes if these magazines were ever brought to the actor’s attention. It would’ve been “the berries” (a ’30s slang term for “too cool”) if Robinson had read and enjoyed them! Somewhat ironically, Robinson’s last role was in a science-fiction flick with Charlton Heston in the well-remembered Soylent Green. Bogart got into the act, also. His famous sad eyes and hound dog expression provided the look for one of the bettors, also in the same FF storyline. Reed, Crystal, and Johnny sliced their way through space to rescue Ben and did so, upsetting the vicious gamesters along the way and inspiring a slave revolt. Kirby would continue to use flashy, distinctive big-city hoods and rural thugs in Intergang, In the Days of the Mob, etc.—and the mob also showed up in FF #101 (!), but none with… Hollywood connections.

Reel 4 Gangsters in Graphite by Dwight Boyd According to wikipedia: “He (the King) ultimately settled on the pen name Jack Kirby because it reminded him of actor James Cagney.”

compiled by Jerry Boyd

of Kirbyland! “King Kirby” went back to the classic film monsters of his youth many times during his career for story ideas. For this “reel,” I’ll let the pictures tell the story. (left) Jack’s take on Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein and the Wolfman was evident in Jimmy Olsen #142-143 in the summer of ’71. Count Dragorin, modeled somewhat after Lugosi’s incredible performance as Dracula, was the ringleader of the Kirby monster rally in those Jimmy Olsen issues. (above right) The Creature from the Black Lagoon got into the act, Kirby-style, in FF #97. (right) Mummies kept on walking in the Comics Code era, since the restrictions didn’t prohibit that type of ‘walking dead’ monster. This impressive Kirby-Ayers splash came from Tales to Astonish #31.

There’s a natural tendency when a person reaches middle age to take fond looks back at the events and things that made him or her happy when growing up. Such was the case with the King, when he incorporated his love for the great Warner Bros.’ films of the 1930s and ’40s (which he grew up on as an adolescent and young man) into his story ideas. There were plenty of bowery toughs to go around in Newsboy Legion and Guardian thrillers for National, but for this issue’s theme, I’ll draw (and not as well as Jack!) specific links between comic hoodlums and movie mobsters. This is not an exhaustive search, but some good examples presented themselves when Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart’s “faces” made their ways onto two gangland chieftains’ mugs that were out to destroy the Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #38. Jack must have had a good time in doing this,

Edward G. Robinson (top left) and Humphrey Bogart (bottom left) turned up as crime bosses out to destroy the Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #38 and the Thing in Fantastic Four #91. Kirby gave members of the Skrull galaxy their look and mannerisms in FF #91. 32

(left) The Hunchback of Notre Dame was one of the silent film era’s greatest successes. Lon Chaney brought the character to life and Joe Simon and Jack used a murderous look-alike for this story from Captain America Comics #3 (reprinted from Fantasy Masterpieces #3).

(top) An ’80s animation concept, with classic monsters as heroes!

(left) Jason Blood looks on as the monstrous creation of Baron Evilstein pleads for mercy from the Baron’s sadistic servant (the Demon #12). Jack had to be inspired by Dwight Frye’s portrayal of the sadistic Fritz that tortured the Karloff creature in the original Frankenstein (1931). (below) King Kong gets ready to grapple with one of Skull Island’s dinosaurs in this production still. Kamandi got the ‘Fay Wray treatment’ in his 12th issue from a gigantic talking (!) ape called Tiny. (left) The King even penciled this nice illo of Vincent Price’s unforgettable monster maestro Dr. Phibes. The good doctor was so successful with audiences at his villainous ways he inspired a sequel. (below) Stan and Jack may have been watching The Late Show the same night and caught Island of Lost Souls, where Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) merged animals and men together. Here are two stills of a leopard man (as Famous Monsters magazine termed him, circa ’74) and a pig man. Tagar (a tiger man, to be exact) and Porga were the High Evolutionary’s trusted animal-men assistants in Thor #135.

And yes, there are lots of others, of course. Check out John P. Alexander’s excellent “The Kirby Version” (TJKC #28) for more of Jack’s film influences from what the late and greatly missed Forrest J Ackerman, editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, aptly called “imagi-movies.” High Evolutionary TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

owner of S-M (Sub-Mariner) Studios. Of course it’s a trap. Subby sets up the three male members of the team for certain destruction while trying to woo Sue. They survive and storm the sea king’s plush office. Sue stops the bigger battle between them before it really starts; Namor pays off what he owes them, and walks slowly into the nearby Pacific. (He even promises them the film will be made, which makes him a better man than a lot of actual producers!) I guess there was enough footage to support an entire movie ’cause it’s a sensation and the FF are back in business. But has anyone besides me ever wondered how quickly Prince Namor had to work (from FF #4-9) to set up, finance, buy shooting lots, and hire casts and crew just to shoot one FF movie?! Awwww, the wonder of Silver Age comic mags…! Jerry Boyd

Reel 6 Kirby’s Heroes & Villains Go To Hollywood!

Thor #128-130

Jack, Joe, and Stan’s creations report to the set by Dwight Boyd, Jerry Boyd, and Michael Stewart

Thrills of Tomorrow and Stuntman Stuntman was the only Hollywood-based superhero Kirby ever created. Fred Drake, an ex-circus acrobat, was hired to be a bodyguard and stand-in (for the action stuff ) for the conceited movie star Don Daring, who fancied himself to be an amateur detective (when he wasn’t acting). (And you had to know there was no way we were going to leave out Stuntman in a Kirby-Hollywood issue!) Daring made it look, to the Metromount Studios (put Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures together…) crew, directors, and beautiful Sylvia Sylvan (his leading lady in lots of productions) that he was doing his own stunts. It was really Drake, who moonlighted as the masked Stuntman when an ambitious actor and his accomplice poisoned a leading man to secure his role (Thrills of Tomorrow #20, 1955) and other dangers showed up on the lot. Simon and Kirby Productions (the guys even called their labors that in their follow-up story in that issue!) had a nice though short-lived hit in Stuntman. Daring’s ‘Hollywood phony’ was still likeable, and laughable as comic relief, and a catalyst for the mystery-solving cases that Drake’s alter-ego completed. Sylvan, levelheaded and lovely, was naturally impressed by the dynamic Stuntman. Drake had the double duty of not only making Daring look good on the set, but ending the criminals’ threat before Don could get even more in over his head… Of course, neither Don nor Sylvia knew (or had a clue) that Fred was Stuntman. Stuntman was somewhat typical of Jack and Joe’s ’50s comics. Their titles didn’t last long but they were marvelous ideas and always well-executed. And as a ‘movie-comic’ (and there were lots of those in the ’50s!), it ranks as a ‘minor classic.’ Michael Stewart

Fantastic Four #9 This Lee-Kirby epic wrapped itself around a FF movie we’ll never get to see. How’d it happen? Reed’s investments went bust, the team lost their equipment, lease, etc. and was evicted (!) from the Baxter Building. (That’s gratitude for ya! They only stopped SubMariner from wrecking NYC a few months prior to this. They also put the brakes on the Puppet Master, the Skrulls, and so on... oh, well.) Luckily, they got an offer from S-M Studios to star in a big-budget production. They thumbed their way to the coast (fantastic, isn’t it?), where they found none other than Prince Namor himself to be their new boss and producer as well as the 34

Picking up in the middle of the stupendous Thor-Hercules story arc, Herc, having ‘beaten’ the Thunder God (in #126), is immediately discovered by a studio talent scout who entices the Olympian god into going to L.A. to do… (you guessed correctly) a big Hollywood production! Egotist that he is, the Prince of Power is easily seduced and the two hop a train headed west. (Stan milked this wonderful storyline for all it was worth. The train stopped en route so that the Hulk could duke it out with Hercules in Astonish #79.) In the City of Angels, the Prince of Power marvels (no pun intended) at the sets and props which so closely resemble his god world. Ahh, but it turns out that the evil Pluto has concocted this scheme to get himself out of the kingdom of the dead with Hercules as his replacement. The Lion of Olympus affixes his thumbprint to the Olympian Contract (which he was probably conned into believing was the standard Hollywood three-picture deal) and Pluto and a vengeful Hippolyta reveal themselves, gloating over his now-hopeless predicament. Herc sweats it out big-time, fails to enlist a single Olympian to battle in his stead (that’s the only way to opt-out of that contract), and gets stripped of his godly might. Thor saves the day, naturally. (In show-biz terms, this was truly “the contract from hell...”) Dwight Boyd

Thor #151 It was Thor’s comic, but Triton of the Inhumans was the star of this ‘almost-made-it-in-the-picturebusiness’ yarn that backed up the ‘thunder-god-faces-peril-again’ opener. It turns out Jack and Stan did this back story along the same lines as their other Inhumans tales—it happened before FF #45. Triton scouted Manhattan to gain knowledge of the humans for his king and cousin, Black Bolt. If the time was right, they may have even considered living among us regular folks. In the second chapter of a threepart adventure, Triton gets netted and seemingly captured by some men aboard a large pleasure yacht. (In Thor #150, the aquatic Inhuman had stumbled onto an undersea shooting of a horror movie with a creature very reminiscent of Universal’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon.) Looking over Triton is one of those untrustworthy, ever-scheming movie producers already consumed with the millions he’ll make by ‘casting’ his find in “a sea monster flick.” (This one always made me think Jack and Stan saw Revenge of the Creature on the Late Show or something. In that sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Gill-Man was captured and taken to a Florida ocean-themed amusement park for the yokels to gawk at.) Triton, however, is amused by the humans more than the enraged Blacky Lagoon was. After he’s

studied their behavior, he makes his escape, marshalling his tremendous strength, and wrecks the boat as well as the filmmaker’s plans. So, no movie with Triton gets produced. Too bad—it would’ve been a lot better (probably) than some of the other flicks that got released in ’68. After hearing his cousin’s report, Black Bolt did his own scouting and finds a suitable location for his brethren—what would one day be called The Great Refuge (see Thor #152). As for the film producer, he ended up with a wrecked vessel and he had to suffer along with his guests and employees in the water…. but, that’s show-biz. Dwight Boyd

Captain America #106 “Cap Goes Wild!” read the cover blurb, and a truer capsule description was never written! Cap had revealed his true identity to the world in Suspense issues prior to this Lee-Kirby-Giacoia triumph, but he’s still shocked to see that some nefarious film people have been using a double of him in a film that showed Steve Rogers shooting a man in cold blood. Naturally outraged, Steve phones the producers and they agree to discuss the matter with him at their studios. (It turns out that one of them made a deal with Red Chinese agents to discredit the Star-Spangled Avenger, and this film is part of a trap to get the shield slinger onto their turf. Why? That way the LMD, whose blueprints were stolen by the Reds, can destroy the real Cap and take his place, disgracing his reputation.) Cap meets the fake Rogers and a great battle (as only the King could direct ’em) ensues. However, the ailing brother of the studio chief can’t bring himself to betray his nation or Cap, and he rushes past his protesting sibling to aid the

weakening Avenger. Cap gets his second wind as the murderous LMD flings the hapless man and (going wild!) pummels and polishes off the android. Its sensors overload and the sophisticated mechanism stumbles off to… for lack of a better word, die. A SHIELD agent explains the loose ends to Rogers and they walk away. A Red Chinese agent appears at the very end of the story as the treacherous, grieving brother kneels near his fallen brother. He stoically awaits the fate that often befalls those individuals who fail to carry out their schemes successfully in the service of vicious criminal combines. Rogers was anticipating new challenges in his life after ‘retiring’ as C.A.—something that didn’t happen at the time because he was still fighting super-villains. But he could’ve turned adventures like these into a screenplay and made some “super dollars.” Jerry Boyd

Jimmy Olsen #142-143 Scientist Dabney Donovan created his own little monster world (based on Hollywood screen monsters) and Jimmy Olsen and Superman went into this micro-sized universe (Kirby’s FF story “Worlds within Worlds” comes to mind here) and fought it out with them since they threatened the world above and even turned Terry Dean into a vampire— almost. Okay, Supes and his best friend didn’t make it to H-Wood technically, but this was an interesting experiment and a nice two-parter. Count Dragorin, based on Dracula, was an impressive lord of the undead. It’s too bad Jack didn’t try and bring him and his pals back around for The Demon. As they say in the casting departments, “They’d have been naturals for the roles.” Michael Stewart

Captain America’s BIcentennial Battles Through a time warp, the shield slinger got to visit his country and countrymen during various times in history. One stop was the Golden Age of Hollywood, which was appropriate since the great and durable films of that time inspired the King ideawise and artwise for decades to come. Through Cap, Kirby got to walk among the sets and extras of a period he loved. Michael Stewart Jack Kirby, like so many of us, fell in love with the celluloid treats that the film factories gave us over the years. Whether they were films made on foreign shores (like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly—which everyone loves) or standard big-star TV shows like Bonanza, or gangster, crime, and monster films like Little Caesar, Death Wish, and Frankenstein, the King would get them—somehow—into his graphic sequences and make the world of comics even more exciting than it was… and sometimes (in different ways) even more exciting than the films that inspired them! ★

Foundations

Masters of Mystery Commentary, art reconstruction, and color by Chris Fama

he Thing In The Fog” was published in Black Magic #7, cover dated October 1951. With the final issue of Boys’ Ranch wrapped, October was a light month for Kirby—producing only this story and one for Young Romance #38; “Family Trouble.” Perhaps that’s how Jack and Joe Simon managed to lavish so much attention on the splash for this story, one of the more famous images from the Black Magic run. Note how the detail of the ship and its ghostly inhabitants are rendered entirely with cross hatching. Was this how Jack penciled it, or did Joe Simon add this flourish all on his own? Of course, your opinions can be submitted to the letters page! Jack is well known for his machinery and space scenes, but I consider him a master of drawing water as well. Take a look at page three and marvel at those forbidding swells, followed by more fabulous fog. Jack had it all on tap.

“T

(Subscribers to the digital edition of this issue can also enjoy the deft use of color on this page and throughout, faithfully reproduced from the original issue.)

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS STORY, DON’T MISS THE

SIMON N AND AND KIR KI KIRBY: RBY: BY: SUPERHERO SSUPERHEROES OES • Thrill to Stuntman, Fighting American, The Black Owl, Captain 3-D, The Fly, Private Strong and many more! • Including never-before seen stories and brilliantly restored masterpieces. • Featuring a brand-new introduction by Neil Gaiman!

THE BEST BEST OF OF SIMON S N AND AND KIRBY KI BY KIR BY • Spans the entire two-decade partnership of The Dream Team. • Covers every genre from Superheroes to Wartime to Horror to Romance. • 240 brilliantly restored full-color pages and deluxe large format.

SIGNED AND AN NUMBERED SIMON AND AND KIRBY KKIRBY BY PRINTS TS Titan Books presents exclusive, high-quality limited edition numbered prints signed by Joe Simon, available at www.titanbooks.com © 2010 Joseph H. Simon and the Estate of Jack Kirby

www.kirbymuseum.org

Comic-Con International: San Diego, by Rand Hoppe Museum Trustee and Kirby Collector publisher John Morrow graciously provided some space in his booth not only for some Museum promotional material, but also my large format scanner. Tom Kraft and I, with the help of Bechara Maalouf and many original art dealers, scanned many pieces of Kirby original art for the Original Art Digital Archive. As always, I enjoyed spending time with John and meeting Kirby fans such as Museum members Jean Depelley, Scott Rowland and Scott Shaw! Mark Evanier’s Kirby Tribute panel was well attended. My wife Lisa and I enjoyed visiting with and talking “Kirby” with Mike Thibodeaux, Steve Robertson, and David Schwartz at Mike’s home the week after the convention.

Newsletter TJKC Edition Fall 2010 The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center is organized exclusively for educational purposes; more specifically, to promote and encourage the study, understanding, preservation and appreciation of the work of Jack Kirby by: • illustrating the scope of Kirby’s multi-faceted career, • communicating the stories, inspirations and influences of Jack Kirby, • celebrating the life of Jack Kirby and his creations, and • building understanding of comic books and comic book creators. To this end, the Museum will sponsor and otherwise support study, teaching, conferences, discussion groups, exhibitions, displays, publications and cinematic, theatrical or multimedia productions.

Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center PO Box 5236 Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA Telephone: (201) 963-4383

Changes to the Board of Trustees Please welcome new Museum Board members David Schwartz and Tom Kraft. A longtime friend of the Kirby family and a Museum member since its founding, David Schwartz has written television cartoons and is currently involved in video production. With the significant contributions David has been making towards maintaining Kirby’s legacy and his professional experience, he is a natural fit for the Board. Tom Kraft has also been a Museum member since its founding, and has been volunteering for the Museum at comic book conventions scanning Kirby original artwork for a few years now. Tom, who has developed the incredible What If Kirby? web site, is partner in a print and interactive design firm. I couldn’t be happier having Tom be part of the Board. Unfortunately, Lisa Kirby has stepped down from the Board. Lisa’s early support for the Museum’s founding by joining the Board and gifting the posters we’ve been offering as Membership premiums was critical. I’m sure the other Board Members join me in thanking Lisa for everything she has done for the Kirby Museum, and wishing her and her family all the best.

The Kirby Museum was proud to sponsor “Jack Kirby: The House That Jack Built”, the first major retrospective of original art by Jack Kirby, which was mounted by the Fumetto International Comics Festival at Lucerne, Switzerland from 1-9 May. Fumetto and curators Dan Nadel and Paul Gravett collected over 150 works spanning from 1942 to 1985. Included were all but two pages from “Whosoever Finds The Evil Eye!” (1966, Fantastic Four #54), the seven-page “City of Ghouls!” (1954, Fighting American #2), the 22-page “Flower” (1973, Kamandi #6), the cover and 16 pages for “Good-Bye Broadway, Hello Death!” (1975, Our Fighting Forces #156) as well as rare sketches and key pages from throughout Kirby’s career. The exhibit was hosted in a building that usually displays the work of Pablo Picasso. Among those lending pieces from their collections were Museum members Tom Morehouse, Tom Kraft and Jonathan Ross. The two Toms, Mary Morehouse and Museum Trustee Rand Hoppe had a lovely time attending the opening weekend. There are video tours more on the Museum’s website at kirbymuseum.org

After having been posting some charming Kirby tidbits on his own for the last five months, I’d like to welcome Rob Steibel’s Kirby Dynamics into the Museum’s fold. There are more Kirby Museum blogs and subsidiary sites in the works, folks. Stay tuned, and please visit the Museum’s New FACEBOOK page and join the NEW Kirby discussion group. New Members Lawrence Maher, Mike Cagle, Noah Butkus, Ben King, Patrick Reed, Peter Shevenell, Richard Siller, Rob Franks, Max Weremchuck Renewals Don Rhoden, Thomas Mott, Kam Tang, David Schwartz, Ray Owens, Antonio Iriarte, Jean Depelley, Jim McPherson, Jeffrye Wilkie, Steve Saffel, Mike Cecchini, Harry Mendryk, Gabriel Perez, Bob Heer, Allan Harvey, David Marshall, Jason Atomic, Andrew McAdams, Steve Robertson, Steve Tenerelli, Ralph Rivard, Matt Webb, Enzo Marcello Crescenzi, Mark Miller, Tom Kraft

Log on to see examples of Kirby pencil pages, and join the Blog news! Museum to get access to even more exclusive, members-only art! Since I feel I don’t do it enough, I’d like to thank and congratulate our Museum bloggers for their amazing work. $ Harry Mendryk just finished an incredible 38 chapter “serial post” titled “Art of Romance,” where he examines all of the Simon and Kirby studio’s romance comics work. (He started in early 2008.) Highly recommended! (Harry’s also been doing the amazing restorations for Titan’s Simon and Kirby library.) Jason Garrattley is offering a Kirby portrait gallery on Kirby-Vision today! Captain America—23” x 29” Strange Tales—23” x 29” Bob Heer’s doing a great job keeping 1941 Captain America—14” x 23” Super Powers—17” x 22” color us up-to-date on what Kirby is coming to the comic shops and bookstores. Buying Kirby from Amazon via links on Bob’s $ Jack Kirby Comics Weblog will put some revenue in the Museum’s coffers! Norris Burroughs’ examinations of the themes and visual language of Kirby’s work in Kirby Kinetics are compelling. Hope you’ve been reading...!

Annual Membership with one of these posters: 40*

Annual Membership with one of these posters: 50*

*Please add $10 for memberships outside the US, to cover additional postage costs. Posters come “as-is” and may not be in mint condition. Marvel—14” x 23”

Galactic Head—18” x 20” color

Incan Visitation—24” x 18” color 41

Barry Forshaw

hat is it that makes a school-age child happy these days? A new mobile phone? A new Playstation game? What about... a comic book? Frankly, I have a suspicion that the last item would be fairly low down the list of priorities for 12-year-olds today, but that certainly wasn’t the case for those of us who grew up in the 1960s. Apart from anything else, mobile phones and video games were the purest science-fiction (along with jet packs and two-way TV), so comics effortlessly assumed pole position as imaginative diversion Numero Uno, and incontrovertibly the premier items for showing off in the school playground. Of course, there were other distractions, in the United Kingdom at least—such as Lucky Bags. Frankly, I’m not sure if American readers of this magazine would have delighted in the US equivalent, but to British schoolkids, these cheap delights were an essential purchase (along with the latest Superman, Batman or a British comic such as The Eagle, featuring that World War II RAF pilot transplanted into the future, Dan Dare). Basically, for the princely sum of three old pennies, Lucky Bags were a tempting (if tooth-rotting) collection of candy in a bag: lollipops, bubble gum, sherbet dabs and other calorific treats. But the real prize to be found by rooting about in these collections was some small plastic or metal toy; a tiny plane, perhaps, or—if you were really lucky—a dinky-sized ray gun or rocket. This ‘Lucky Bag’ concept metaphorically extended to the much cherished British 68-page shilling reprints of American comics material. Whatever the logo (and eye-popping illustration) on the cover, you never really knew what you were getting inside. For instance, the cover might be drawn from a copy of Mystery in Space, customarily sporting some fantastic vision of the Earth about to be split in two (or otherwise terminally damaged), usually drawn by the sublime Gil Kane (but which of us in our short trousers and with our grubby knees had even heard of Gil Kane in those distant days of credits-free comics?). We’d eagerly consume the first four or five stories, which clearly belonged (in visual style and editorial content) to the cover that had caught our eye in the first place. But—wait!—there was even more delectable material to follow; after all, each of these chunky, shilling books boasted 68 pages (as the added strapline always read on these British reprints: ‘Big 68 pages! Don’t Take Less!’).

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

Looking for inexpensive reprints of the stories here? Shocking Tales Digest from Oct. 1981 reprints all of Alarming Tales #1.

Obscura W

HIDDEN DELIGHTS These books were the products of canny British reprint merchants (originally, Leicester-based Thorpe and Porter, who used quality paper with crisp back and white reproduction, or their successor, Alan Class, who conspicuously didn’t). These companies purchased the art plates from such American companies as DC Comics or Atlas, and one might have thought that it would be logical to fill the 68 pages with two consecutive issues or more of the same magazine, wouldn’t it? After all, most of the American originals—from Superboy to Blackhawk—were picked up for UK reprint well into their runs, so there was a lot of catching-up to do. But we never got a run of such books as, say, Mystery in Space, in the UK reprint of that name. There was other, equally striking, non-Julius Schwartz material being used as backup. But what child, in Liverpool or Manchester, reading under the slate-grey British skies, knew the actual source of these delights? It was from America—that was enough. The covers for the backup stories were never reprinted, so British schoolkids had no idea of the provenance of this supplementary material. For instance: let’s look at a UK shilling anthology reprinting Race for the Moon #1. Certainly by accident (nobody at Thorpe and Porter would have noticed), the British reprint turns out to be a Bob Powell showcase. The talented Powell drew the whole of the first RFTM (apart from Kirby’s eye-catching cover showing an astronaut adrift in space), and the UK backup was an issue of the Harvey supernatural anthology, Man in Black—also Powell at his characteristic best. But what do we find at the back of the book, after this fest of Powelliana? It’s a story called “The Cadmus Seed.” The splash panel—drawn in a distinctively different style to the preceding stories—showed an amazing scene. A balding, middle-aged man stands in amazement next to a dwarfish, bearded scientist type. On either side of them are troughs connected to tubes and cylinders. A variety of plants are growing. But these plants are, bizarrely, bare-chested young men, each sporting a distinctive Mohican haircut. What was going on? Certainly, it was clear from this tale and those that followed it (“Donnegan’s Daffy Chair”, “Logan’s Next Life”, “The Last Enemy” and “The Fourth Dimension is a Many Splattered Thing”) that we had in our hands the product of a very rich and strange imagination. This was (literally) fantastic fare drawn by an artist whose style may have seemed unpolished to us, but whose work leapt off the page with its sheer vitality and prodigious invention. Yes, you guessed it—those English schoolboys of many decades ago had discovered the work of Jack Kirby. And the book which was being used as backup was (as I’m sure some readers of this magazine will have recognized) the first issue of Alarming Tales from September 1957, put together by the indefatigable team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Harvey Comics. It would be many years later before English collectors such as myself could pick up the original book and finally see the eye-catching Kirby cover (showing a hapless Donnegan being propelled through the earth in his futuristic armchair as crowds in a city street look on in amazement), but here was the holy grail. MULTI-COLORED PLANT MEN But back to “The Cadmus Seed”. It is a measure of the power of Kirby’s art that (back in the 1960s) I was so transfixed by the splash panel (with the plant men at various stages of growth) that I didn’t notice something was missing. The reprint that British readers saw was, of course, in black and white—and when collectors finally tracked down the American book years later, we could then see that the artificial men were variously blue, green, yellow and purple. But who needed color with writing and illustration as quirky and expressive as this?

The tale itself is beautifully economical, with the unlikeable scientist Horace Googer demonstrating to a business associate (the narrator—who makes no secret of his dislike for Googer) how he is cultivating squadrons of artificial men, inspired by the legend of Cadmus, who flung the teeth of a dragon on the ground to the same effect. The narrator, Fisher, is horrified to hear that the unscrupulous Googer is planning to create his own private army—and even considers violence to put a stop to him. But in the second half of the story—and (pay attention!) here comes the spoiler alert—an accidental explosion (never explained) destroys both Googer and his factory. There are, however, survivors—twenty plant men who Fisher trains as (variously) heavyweight champion of the world and unbeatable pro football players. Now, I ask you—is this ethical? I can remember that even at the tender age at which I first encountered the story, I decided that the narrator, Fisher, was something of a hypocrite. Yes, his use of the plant men was less sinister than that planned by their creator, but what chance did ordinary human beings have against these invulnerable creatures in both the boxing and football stakes? Moral qualms aside, the story itself (surely written or plotted by Kirby) was delightfully inventive, with the kind of direct and dramatic cleanlined artwork that was the hallmark of Jack Kirby’s work in the 1950s. As so often in his SF/fantasy work of the period, there is a nicely wry sense of humour in the material (but not enough to send it up or stop it working on the ‘sense of wonder’ level)—in the penultimate panel, Fisher discovers a batch of seed which shows that Googer has succeeded in cloning himself (for some reason, each tiny figure in the Googer batch has the lab coat, trousers and shoes of their creator, unlike the naked human foetuses seen earlier in the story—the latter, of course, were curled up in foetal position to hide any body parts that might have upset the enforcers of the Comics Code, circa 1957). What makes this issue particularly interesting and significant for the Jack Kirby collector, however, is the fact that Alarming Tales #1 is something of a cornucopia of themes that The King was to utilize and develop again and again throughout the course of his career. Kirbyites will have noticed his much-loved ‘Cadmus’ connection in the first tale, but perhaps his most fruitful concept was to turn up in the penultimate offering of the issue—and its best—‘The Last Enemy’. But more of that later. ‘The Cadmus Seed’ is followed by a beautifully-turned two-pager call ‘Logan’s Next Life’, with a reincarnation theme. Then it’s back to the more significant stuff. STRETCHING THINGS To younger readers, when reading books from the Silver Age of comics, certain references might seem a bit obscure. Stan Lee was fond of referencing popular songs of the day (the 1950s) in the titles of his grisly Atlas horror tales, as was Richard Hughes at the American Comics Group. Similarly, Simon & Kirby make a tongue-in-cheek reference to a hit song of the era in the next Alarming Tales piece, “The Fourth Dimension is a Many Splattered Thing” (a spin on the title song from the glossy movie, Love is a Many Splendored Thing). But the inter-dimensional journey in the Kirby outing is one of the strangest and most surrealistic products of his notably surrealistic imagination. The splash panel shows a friend of the protagonist, attempting to pull him back from a strange screen through which his body is passing. But on the other side of the screen, we see that the hero, Eddie, has undergone a truly bizarre transformation—or at least the top half of his body has (he has passed through the screen up to his waist). His head is twisted into a strange, impossible shape while his arms have elongated into monstrosities that would put Jack Cole’s Plastic Man to shame—even his tie has become grotesquely distended, stretching out on the multicolored roadway of the other dimension into which he is passing. The real hallmark of these wonderful Harvey tales of the Simon & Kirby period is their complete economy—everything is nailed down with absolute precision. “The Fourth Dimension is a Many Splattered Thing” begins in the middle of the situation—

two flatmates who share an apartment are looking in dismay at their ransacked apartment. They have been suffering a series of annoying petty thefts at night, and decide to lay in wait for the thief. They are in for a considerable surprise: that night, in the darkened apartment, a strange light begins to flicker, and a weird screen appears with a kaleidoscope of floating colors. Out of it, a dark figure emerges: the thief, who is never seen as more than a sinister black shape—until the end of the story. But as the mysterious thief escapes (after stealing several trivial objects) by plunging back into the screen, the hero follows—and what follows are two of the strangest, most imaginative pages in the whole of Jack Kirby’s canon—the sort of dizzying, nightmare odyssey that he plunged his characters into throughout his career, when all laws of physics are suspended. (Reed Richards and co., for instance, were to subsequently take a few such trips.) The hapless hero, Eddie, finds himself exploring the fourth dimension, which is rendered as a mad, chaotic place that would put the unorthodox imagination of such surrealist painters as Salvador Dali and Yves Tanguy to shame. For the first page of his logic-defying exploration, the hero finds himself in something other than human form: at one time, he is a trapezoid figure, then two connected spheres with spatulate legs. But by the second page, he has assumed human form, although the landscape around him remains as nightmarish as before. Finally, Eddie is surrounded (and brought down by) a series of cylindrical hoops—which turn out to be the thief, and here we discover the wonderful twist in the tale that Kirby has come up with when learn the identity of the cross-dimensional interloper. (So what is the twist? You’ll have to track down the tale itself— you won’t hear the revelation from me!) It is a tendency among writers on comics to make grandiose claims for their subjects— something I admit I’m as prone to as the next man. But I think it’s safe to say (without too much hyperbole) that if Kirby had rendered his grotesque and imaginative visions in oils or acrylics of the pictures mentioned earlier, rather than the limited color palette of a children’s comic, he would be taken far more seriously by pundits in other media. SAVING THE BEST TILL LAST But let’s return to the first issue of Alarming Tales. And Kirby (as he often does) has saved the best (almost) till last: the penultimate piece, “The Last Enemy”, is a wonderfully turned, fast-moving time travel tale with an eye-catching splash panel in which a human protagonist looks in astonishment at a General and two soldiers who tower over him. But the elaborately-clad general is a human-sized bulldog, and the soldiers are (respectively) a bear and a wolf, brandishing a pike and a rifle. Yes, we are being shown a future society in which there has been an amazing reversal: animals, not human beings, now rule the world. Sound familiar? In fact, this brief and exquisite tale is not only a time travel classic, but also a template for the whole of Kirby’s subsequent Kamandi series—and there are other hints of elements that Kirby will develop later; the box-shaped time machine, for instance, is almost identical to the time cube used by the Challengers of the Unknown in their definitive Kirby-created adventure, “The Wizard of Time”. If the issue ended here, readers (both past and present) would certainly have got more than their money’s worth. But there is still the title story, “Donnegan’s Daffy Chair” to come—a whimsically entertaining piece in which a non-too-bright janitor finds himself in possession of an extraterrestrial chair which takes him on a mind-blowing flight (one that leaves him irretrievably altered). It’s a lovely little piece, though perhaps a touch anticlimactic after the issue’s mini-masterpiece, “The Last Enemy”. Leaving aside his artistic skills, the sheer quantity of imagination displayed in this modest ten-cent book demonstrates the power of Kirby’s treasure trove of concepts—concepts he was subsequently to perform ever-more startling riffs upon. Alarming Tales #1 is not that easy to track down these days, but any Kirby fan should mortgage their home and sell their family and their pets to purchase a copy. Come on—you know it makes sense. ★ [Barry Forshaw is the author of The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction (available from Amazon.com) and the editor of Crime Time. He lives in London.]

Take Two

Casting Call At KingFilms Productions Written and compiled by Jerry Boyd

s more and more of the King’s heroes, villains, and supporting stars get made into live-action features, it’s nigh-untoimpossible to try not to cast performers into those exciting roles beforehand. Other contributors to this magazine have done something similar to what I’m attempting as the first FF movie was making headway, but for the purposes of this article and the issue’s subject matter, I decided to leap into the ‘casting department’ whole-hog. My criteria for matching up Jack’s creations and real thespians were fourfold: (1) The actors and actresses chosen had to look like Kirby’s delineations. I know I’m not alone among film buffs when I express disdain for actors who look nothing like the graphic expression. Christopher Reeve’s 0000 : 00 : 00 : 00 : 00 success as Clark Kent/Superman was partly because he was immediately identifiable as those two—no extra work had to be done after the costume/make-up was put on. PRODUCTION Jack Kirby (2) I cast performers whose main body of work is behind them—there are no ‘hot stars’, ‘flavor-of-theJerry Boyd DIRECTOR months,’ or ‘flash in the pans’ here. The reason being is so the readers can agree or disagree with my picks based on similar viewing experiences. (For baby boomers that grew up on these stars, this may prove to CAMERA be a treat.) DATE (3) The performers SCENE TAKE who got the nod were in their heydays as their comic counterparts grew to greatness in their medium. Or more simply put, ’40s (right) Hey, sweetie, it’s a detail of Kirby’s stars got contracted to play S&K ’40s characters, pencils from the prominent ’50s and ’60s TV and movie people got Captain America’s signed up to portray the Marvel crowd, and so on. Bicentennial Battles (4) I cast stars within their racial parameters as Treasury Edition, Jack created ’em—no ‘ultimates’ here. I’m no more 1976! interested in seeing a Polynesian actor play Norse god (next page) Courtesy Thor than I am in seeing Keanu Reeves (for example) of Heritage Auctions, as the Black Panther. (Will Smith, as a Hollywood here’s original art to rumor had it in ’08, playing Captain America, is not a the splash page from possibility on my humble list.) I set them up as Jack, Challengers of the Joe, and Stan made ’em. Unknown #7 (April 1959). Inks by The ‘films’ and ‘TV-shows’ with this mostly all-star Wallace Wood. cast (I threw in a few cult stars just for fun) will never be produced, of course—except perhaps in Valhalla— Captain America TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. but since Jack Kirby had an imagination like few others, Challengers of the Unknown TM & ©2010 DC Comics. let’s indulge our own imaginations and envision the All other images and properties King in charge of casting and production at his own TM & ©2010 their studio; Kingfilms Productions (a fictional lot thrown respective owners; see indicia page for full listing. together just for this article), and see who might’ve snared the coveted parts he created from the late ’30s to the early ’70s….

Golden Age Grabbers!

Spy Smasher serial star Kent Richmond is my choice for Kirby and Simon’s Manhunter.

Hollywood used to have “hero types.” Tall, imposing actors like Tom Tyler (seen here in one of his many westerns) fit that type. He was the first Captain Marvel and later, the Phantom in serials. I see him having no problem portraying Simon & Kirby’s Blue Bolt. A panel from Blue Bolt #7 is next to Tyler’s picture.

Joan Crawford, who began in silent pictures, was one of the greatest of the movie goddesses. With her large, luminous eyes and her fine acting ability, she fits the bill as the Green Sorceress, nemesis of Blue Bolt.

Randolph Scott was a favorite of western and war movie fans during the Big One, and a fave for years afterward, as well. He’d have been a natural to play Captain America. (And Buster Crabbe wouldn’t have been bad, either.) Here, a dapper Randy is flanked by panels of Steve Rogers in military dress from CA Comics #7.

Post-War Favorites!

The unpublished cover to Stuntman #3 stands beside the dashing Tyrone Power, who starred in The Mark of Zorro (1941). Ty would’ve had no problems switching masks for portraying S&K’s Hollywoodbased hero.

Kerwin Mathews, adventure star of the late ’50s and early ’60s, thrilled youngsters in The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad and other films. Put him in the distinctive green and yellow outfit of the Fly, and the cameras are ready to roll!

The ’50s saw Flash Gordon, a creation of the ’30s, make it to the new medium of television. Steve Holland played that courageous spaceman, and it’s a sure bet he’d have had the right stuff for S&K’s Fighting American, as well.

I could only match three of the famed Challengers of the Unknown to actors I liked, so… Eric Fleming (of the TV western Rawhide) is my pick for Ace Morgan, David Hedison (from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) is my Prof. Hale, and Rock Hudson gets the co-starring part of Rocky Davis—and not because of their first names! Rocky could’ve also been nicely portrayed by either Jack Palance or Anthony Quinn.

Jay North, TV’s Dennis the Menace, is my pick for Tommy Troy, the kid who became the Fly. The panel showing Tommy taking charge is from The Fly #1.

Husky, handsome Roger Smith (husband to the sultry Ann-Margret) showed his easygoing charm and toughness on 77 Sunset Strip, so I signed him up as Sky Masters. (He could’ve done Ace Morgan, also.)

Westerners! Hugh O’Brien was a big star in the ’50s, appearing as Wyatt Earp on series television. Strong-jawed and athletic, he’s my choice for Bullseye (or the Two-Gun Kid). Here, Bullseye goes into action in this splash from his sixth issue.

It was a tough decision to make—go with Chuck (The Rifleman) Conners or Steve (The Magnificent Seven) McQueen for Clay Duncan of Boys’ Ranch, so I showcased both of ’em— but I think Conners would be the best-suited for the role. Beside two of their vintage TV Guides covers is a splash from BR #2.

It’s not always hard to make a decision— I’ll let Clayton Moore (the greatest Lone Ranger ever) switch masks and western apparel and fire off those two same Colts as the Two-Gun Kid.

This is my only posthumous selection—since James Dean died before Jack and Stan’s Rawhide Kid was ‘born.’ But the young rebel sensation of the mid1950s would’ve been sensational in the part. Dean, who starred as a ranch hand in Giant, is shown in a studio portrait from the film next to the cover of Rawhide Kid #31. 45

Actors Assemble!

Some critics of The Incredible Hulk TV show claimed it was just a re-hash of The Fugitive, with the new ’70s fugitive, David Banner, turning green and monstrous! Maybe they had a point… Still, I like the original ‘runaway doctor’, David Janssen, as Dr. Banner. Here’s a detail of Bruce from Hulk #4.

Sure, we all know you couldn’t CGI the Hulk back in the sizzling ’60s, so a casting agent would have to get someone like Andre the Giant, the popular French wrestler. You can read his measurements, and only a guy that size could measure up as the Incredible Hulk!

Roy Thinnes, star of the short-lived mid-’60s TV program The Invaders, is my choice for Henry Pym, the Ant-Man (and a young Lee Majors, center, wouldn’t have been bad if Thinnes was unavailable). Sultry Deanna Lund (of TV’s Land of the Giants) would’ve made for a nice Wasp. At left, Pym and Van Dyne talk ‘hero stuff’ over in TTA #45.

Let’s get some European actors involved for Kirby’s European-born mutants. Greece native George Chakiris, most popularly known as Bernardo in West Side Story (for which he won a welldeserved Oscar), is my pick for the fast-moving Quicksilver. Quickie’s not moving so fast in this panel from X-Men #11 because the Iceman had just hit him with a sheet of heavy sleet.

Austrian native and beauty Senta Berger (star of Peckinpah’s Major Dundee and Cross of Iron) works out well for Wanda, the Scarlet Witch.

Rick Jones, the Avengers mascot, required a loyal, sensitive youth. I’d have gotten Johnny Crawford (from TV’s The Rifleman) to do the role. On the right, Rick protects Dr. Banner’s secret yet again in Hulk #4.

Males of Suspense! This next one was my easiest choice of the whole project—Guy Williams (Disney’s Zorro from the late ’50s) had all the dash, good looks, and (as he displayed for the ladies) sex appeal necessary to capture Tony Stark perfectly. But if Iron Man had been made in the 1980s, it’d have been very hard not to cast Magnum, P.I. TV star Tom Selleck (center). Guy trumps Selleck, for my money….

Austrian actor Maximillian Schell was one of the ’60s best character actors and an easy choice to portray the murderous Red Skull. At the right of his studio portrait is a Kirby/Heck panel from Tales of Suspense #80. 46

I went easy on myself for Bucky. Why not just sign up Burt Ward (shown in his Robin mask from ’66)? We already know he looks great in a hero costume!

(above) A 1976 Kirby sketch, apparently drawn for (as well as dedicated to) the late British author, Denis Gifford.

Lyle Waggoner was one of those ‘hero types’ who tried out for Batman in 1965 (test footage still exists). In the ’70s, he got into the army as Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman’s love. Shown here in army uniform, he’d have made a good showing as Captain America (in the late 1960s), I believe. Or let’s take a late ’60s Robert Redford (center, around the time of his Barefoot in the Park and before Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and suit him up as the revived Captain America. Redford, another Oscar winner, had appeal in droves and the type of authoritative command needed for the part. I’ll go with Redford over Waggoner….

Soldiers & Spy Types Needed!

Jack Lord headed a great array of actors on Hawaii Five-O in the 1970s. I can’t quite see him as Sgt. Nick Fury, but Col. Nick Fury—no problem. However, William Smith (center, of lotsa biker movies, Rich Man, Poor Man—as he appeared in the small photo with the eyepatch—and TV’s Laredo) is the top choice for both incarnations of the hard-bitten agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

J.D. Cannon (left) was a wonderful character actor, showing up on The Untouchables and in films like Cool Hand Luke in the ’50s and ’60s. Stern-faced and tough-talking, he’d be a very good ‘Happy’ Sam Sawyer. But the best pick would come from the ’80s with R. Lee Ermey (of Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket) as the ramrod of the Howling Commandos.

Ed Asner, Emmy-winning talent from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, fits into the Army khaki as Bull McGiveney, Fury’s foil, when the Howlers weren’t in battle against the Axis. McGiveney is shown in a panel from Sgt. Fury #5.

Don Mitchell was the cool, collected police aide on TV’s Ironside. He’s my horn-blowing Gabe Jones.

No one (in the ’60s) fit the bill as rugged, massive Dum-Dum Dugan, so just for fun, I included ’80s wrestler Hulk Hogan just to get that comic fave of mine cast.

Brooklyn-born mechanic Izzy Cohen was the only Jewish hero Jack and Stan came up with, so why not cast Jewish actor Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz) as the howler that wrecked Nazi installations with his expertise with explosives?

X-TraOrdinary Talents!

Oscar winner Yul Brynner had the presence and style to make Professor X another one of his cinematic triumphs. This Kirby/Reinman panel comes from X-Men #1.

Teen idol Tommy Kirk (seen here with another teen idol, Annette Funicello) was a Disney favorite and is perfect for Bobby Drake, the Iceman. Bobby gets ready to put the kibosh on Johnny Storm’s fun in this panel from Strange Tales #123.

Beautiful redhead Stephanie Powers (Hart to Hart) starred as The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. in the mid-’60s. She’s my pick for the equally lovely Marvel Girl. Another panel from X-Men #1 provides a closeup of the newest member of the team.

I really tried to find a picture of Teenage Frankenstein and Land of the Giants star Gary Conway wearing sunglasses since it’d be just right for his portrayal of Scott Summers, but I couldn’t locate one, alas. Conway was leader of the ‘little people’ in the Giants show and he’d have made a fine deputy leader of the mutants, as well.

Eddie Applegate, Patty Duke’s bumbling boyfriend from her beloved sitcom, is the only guy I could come up with for Hank McCoy. Here are the two youngsters in a still from one episode of The Patty Duke Show. And Hank is about to discover that you don’t get fresh with a lass with telekinetic powers in this Kirby/Reinman panel from X-Men #1.

Warren Worthington III had a cocky confidence about him and so did early ’60s TV sidekick Edd ‘Kookie’ Byrnes. Byrnes most notably starred on detective show 77 Sunset Strip. Beside my choice for Warren is a close-up detail of Jack’s X-Men page from his personal 1970s sketchbook. 47

Screen Villainy!

The superb Patrick McGoohan (Secret Agent, the Prisoner) was a first choice for James Bond but he turned it down. I’d have hoped he’d have been intrigued at the thought of playing the diabolical young gypsy-turned-arch-villain, Dr. Doom.

By any and all criteria, Richard Burton was one of the 20th century’s finest stage and film thespians. He played Alexander the Great in one ’50s film, so he’d have had no problems as the futuristic conqueror, Kang (shown here in a panel from Thor #140). And he’d have been a decent Dr. Doom, also.

Syrian-born Michael Ansara was unforgettable in the “Soldier” episode of the original Outer Limits. He played Indian warriors on the small screen, and Kang(!) on Star Trek, complete with arched eyebrows. With a muscular, athletic build, he’s my pick for Sub-Mariner, who was more bad than good when Kirby and Lee revived him in the ’60s.

Richard Chamberlain got a legion of female fans going when he played Dr. Kildare on the tube in the early 1960s. A splendid dramatic actor into the ’70s/’80s with The 3 Musketeers, Shogun, and other efforts, he gets the nod for Hulk adversary Tyrannus. Tyrannus is shown in a Kirby/Ayers detail from Hulk #5.

Jaclyn Smith began her acting career in the 1960s, so this stunning brunette of Charlie’s Angels fame goes to the top of the list as the stunning Sif.

You want grim? Try one of filmdom’s most beloved tough guys, Charles Bronson (shown here in Mr. Majestyk, an action-packed offering from the ’70s) for the role of Hogun the Grim. Hogun stands strong for Thor in this cropped panel from Thor #159.

The Enchantress “had beauty enow to stagger a god” and late ’50s/early ’60s blonde bombshell Mamie Van Doren could probably have left some Asgardians breathless, as well! Next to this studio cheesecake shot is a detail of the evil sorceress from Avengers #22.

The Stars Over Asgard!

Lex Barker played Tarzan (as a number of Dell comic covers can attest) and had the Nordic, chiseled looks and athletic build necessary to portray Thor. The Kirby/Ayers detail comes from the splash of Journey Into Mystery #87.

This is a ‘no-brainer’—there’s only one actor who could’ve properly brought All-Father Odin to the screen, and that’s the great thespian Orson Welles. His stentorian tenor, larger-thanlife presence, and size made him the near-perfect embodiment of one of comicdom’s most intriguing supporting characters. In the center, he’s in the Scottish robes of MacBeth (1948) and on the left is a later portrait.

We need romantic longing, treachery, and a woman whose cunning intent is in her every move—see Dynasty’s Joan Collins in action and all that is there. But for our purposes, the lovely Brit is suitable as Karnilla, Queen of the Norns. 48

If you’ve ever seen the great British actor Christopher Plummer in The Fall of the Roman Empire, you’d know how despicable he can be in a villainous part. He’s my Loki. There’s also room for ‘cult stars’ in this selection. Tim Curry (center) brought fine performances to mainstream studio fare, but he made an enduring reputation in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He wouldn’t have been a bad Loki in the ’70s, either.

Jovial John Banner made a splash in Hogan’s Heroes, and he displayed the kind of likeable bluster and girth needed to play Volstagg of Asgard.

James Franciscus, star of The Valley of Gwangi, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and TV’s Longstreet, would’ve been perfect for Dr. Don Blake. You didn’t think we were gonna forget Thor’s alter ego, did you?

Ulik? Nobody in Hollywood looks like Ulik! Let’s move along, shall we…? This impressive Kirby/Colletta splash came from the warrior’s troll debut in Thor #137.

Oscar winner George C. Scott is my choice for Magneto, shown here next to a Kirby/Reinman panel from X-Men #1. If that doesn’t grab you, he’d have made a decent Stranger, as well. Above, the Stranger hovers over Manhattan in this cover detail from X-Men #11.

Looking for someone who can go over the top—and even seem mad? Let’s go with Malcolm McDowell (unforgettable in A Clockwork Orange) or Terence Stamp (Superman: The Movie, Superman II) as Maximus. Here’re the two European actors in ’60s shots near a panel of Black Bolt’s evil brother from Fantastic Four #59.

Modok? Nobody in Hollywood looks like Modok! Give thanks to Odin and continue on to the next section.

Best Supporting Performers!

Who else could play Hercules but the great Steve Reeves, right? They got it right the first time!

I always felt Oscar winner Sidney Poitier was the partial template for the Black Panther, and he’d have been magnificent (as usual) in the part if the case presented itself, but Olympic champion Rafer Johnson (center, from 1960) who also did some acting, presents a fine choice, also. At right is a detail from Black Panther #3.

Tarzan’s popularity gave lots of performers chances to play jungle hero. One of them was Denny Miller, shown here in a pose not far from the King’s cover featuring Ka-Zar, lord of the Savage Land. Denny was what you’d call a ‘natural’ (no pun intended).

There’s only one pick for Gorgon of the Inhumans, and that’s the wonderful Richard Boone, star of Have Gun, Will Travel, Hombre, and The Alamo (1960)— three roles that showcased the actor’s toughness and versatility.

Mia Farrow won the hearts of American television watchers as Allison MacKenzie, the sweet and impressionable young waif from TV’s Peyton Place (the show that made her a star). Such temperament would be well-suited for the part of Alicia Masters.

Gen. ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross is at his swaggering best in this Kirby/Ditko panel from Hulk #2. Lee J. Cobb, the excellent character actor, could have portrayed this supporting character with ease.

Black Bolt has no lines, so whoever looks good in the costume’s got the job! I liked both John Gavin (who tried out for Batman in ’65) and John Phillip Law, who was in one of the best comic-adapted movies ever, Danger—Diabolik!, in the late ’60s.

Gorgeous redhead Tina Louise (God’s Little Acre, Dallas, and Gilligan’s Island) is my choice for Medusa.

Julie Newmar is best known to comics/TV fans as the Catwoman, but she’d have had no problem at all as Hela, Goddess of the Dead over at Asgard-TV if the chance came. And she’d have been a decent selection for Medusa, also!

Here’s another one of those ’60s Tarzans— Ron Ely, from the short-lived television show. Add some... no, a lot of make-up, and you’ve got the Silver Surfer. 49

Fantastic Casting!

Peter Breck of the early ’60s TV smash, The Big Valley, had just the right touch of gruff brashness and likeable appeal to portray Ben Grimm.

I was torn between early ’60s pop sensations Fabian and Ricky Nelson for Johnny Storm. Both teen idols would’ve made it work.

Robert Horton, one of the stars of the hit western, Wagon Train, cut a commanding figure as wagon scout Flint McCullough. As the scientist-spaceman hero (see center picture above) in the late ’60s cult smash, The Green Slime, he was convincing enough to show me he’d have shined as Reed Richards.

A number of pretty, perky blondes from ’60s Hollywood could’ve portrayed Susan Storm Richards, but I settled on lovely Pat Priest (from The Munsters), for her clean-scrubbed beauty and charm. And Elizabeth Montgomery, bewitching in TV’s Bewitched, wouldn’t have been too bad, either. She showed her dramatic chops in The Untouchables, Mrs. Sundance, and other serious fare.

Immortals of the Screen!

“Easy Rider types” were all the rage as the ’70s began. One hit that came out of it was And Then Came Bronson which starred Michael Parks. Parks has been a delight of late in Tarantino pictures, usually starring as southern sheriffs. As Bronson the biker, he displayed the brooding intensity needed to play Orion.

Before he was Bobby Ewing on Dallas for CBS, Patrick Duffy (left) showed his hero chops as The Man from Atlantis. I think he’d be able to handle the part of Mister Miracle, Super Escape Artist. And if he declined the role or was unable to do it, Dark Shadows sensation David Selby (center) would be waiting in the wings.

Another cult choice I had to include was John Lazar (of Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls). He nails Desaad, as far as I’m concerned.

Oscar winner Shelley Winters could’ve brought the scheming Granny Goodness to life in the early ’70s.

I went to TV’s The Mod Squad (late ’60s) and got Michael Cole for my Mark Moonrider.

And since I’m looking over Mod Squad TV stars, howzabout the fabulous Clarence Williams III as Vykin the Black?

Let’s go with Bonanza patriarch Lorne Greene (and he was the ‘big daddy’ for the original Battlestar Galactica, also) as Highfather, leader of the New Genesis faction. Jack saw the older Izaya as a “grandfather type” (see TJKC #38), and Lorne is made for the role.

Japanese action star Sonny Chiba was a cult sensation when martial-arts movies hit big in the 1970s. He’s my Infinity Man. (I always felt Kirby saw Japanese superheroes Starman or Ultraman on the tube when he was conjuring up I.M.)

Barbara Stanwyck was a movie-television queen for the ages as she proved in unforgettable performances in Stella Dallas, the Lady Eve, Double Indemnity, and such small screen fare like The Thornbirds and The Big Valley (pictured here). As Orion’s estranged mother, Tigra, she’d have shined—even in Section Zero.

The ‘logical’ choice is Leonard Nimoy for Metron, but I challenged myself on this one and came up with the always-excellent Martin Landau for the master of the Mobius Chair. He’d have been a good fit for Desaad, also…

For an actor to play the demonic Darkseid, a tall, commanding, menacing presence is an essential as well as a voice, as Infinity Man described it, “like the coming doom of all things.” Glop on the make-up for that blue-granite look and William Marshall, star of the two Blacula films (pictured above) of the early ’70s, has all the aforementioned required. (But Kirby modeled Darkseid on actor Jack Palance, at right.)

Seventies and Eighties Superstars!

Action star Bernie Casey is the man who could’ve brought the Black Racer to life.

Make way for that unforgettable Lynda Carter (shown as TV’s Wonder Woman) to try on a different headpiece and suit up as Big Barda of Apokolips! I figure if she could play one Amazon, she could play another…

Action star Pam Grier drove me up the wall in the seventies and so she was my only consideration for Princess Zanda, sometimes friend and sometimes enemy of the Black Panther.

Beautiful British actress Caroline Munro quickened the hearts of many a male fan in the ’70s with plum parts in horror and sci-fi films—she was also in The Spy Who Loved Me menacing James Bond. I can easily see her as Sersi of the Eternals, and if that doesn’t work for you, howzabout Beautiful Dreamer?

Okay, I’m a biiiig fan of Dark Shadows, so Christopher Pennock, seen in many parts on that great show, is my choice for Ikaris. Pennock had the rough-hewn and brooding qualities to bring out Orion’s best and worst, also.

I’ll go with ’70s teen pop music idol Leif Garrett for the role of the last boy on Earth, Kamandi.

I couldn’t conclude this piece without casting suggestions from Joe Simon, Stan Lee, and finding out which actors the King himself may have had in mind when conjuring up his characters. Mr. Simon declined, but Stan Lee had this to say about the Lee-Ditko SpiderMan: “The only one I can think of— years ago, before I even knew of Tobey McGuire—John Cusack. When he was in his late teens I thought he’d make a terrific Peter Parker.” As far as Jack Kirby is concerned, we’ve heard of some of the performers who influenced his decision making in past issues, but here’s one most fans may not know of. Academy Award winner Broderick Crawford won new audiences in TVland with his ’50s cop show, Highway Patrol. Here’s a picture of him in a typical scene from the popular program. Jack thought of him when conceiving ‘Terrible Turpin’, Scott Fresina told me.

Robert Quarry made his name in some memorable roles in horror films in the ’70s, most notably Count Yorga, Vampire. He’s my pick for Warden Frye from In the Days of the Mob.

As the Terminator in the ’80s, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a one-man army! Since he started his acting career in the late ’70s, he’d have been right on schedule to audition for another oneman army, Kirby’s OMAC.

Portraying Jason Blood (a great name!) requires a talent who can do haunted, dangerous personalities—as Blood and the Demon! I like James Storm, another of the superb cast of TV’s Dark Shadows, and one well-versed with ghosts, witches, and… demons.

And just for fun, let’s get a young ’80s Mel Gibson to do the part of Captain Victory!

Above is the explosive, eye-catching cover to New Gods #8. How come I didn’t cast Kalibak? As you might’ve guessed by now, no one in H-Wood looks like Kalibak! (Thank the Source for that….) Leave it to the King when it comes to casting! He got the ‘everyman’—the guy who patrols and keeps the streets safe for us and cast Crawford as that comic character. And those are the types of heroes who do indeed keep many of us safe. ★

(Special thanks go out to the ‘casting department’: Scott Fresina, Al Dixon, Stan Lee, and Michael Aushenker for their suggestions and help.) 51

Adam M cGovern Know of some Kirby-inspired work that should be covered here? Send to: Adam McGovern PO Box 257 Mt. Tabor, NJ 07878 (this spread) Monsterland: Two-Tank Omen’s rollout from American Barbarian, and some Saturday-matinee mayhem from Scioli’s second Space Smith story (a neoretro reroute into Fletcher Hanks Collector territory), forthcoming in Image Comics’ Next Issue Project. (pages 54-55) Epic File: Kirby-Vision crosses art history, from the graphic-noir of Chris Samnee’s sensational Darkseid & Doom anti-pinups, to Isaac BrynjegardBialik’s minimal mosaics of biblical wonders and pulpfable special effects (seen here in a detail from an abstract Burning Bush collaged with Johnny Storm flame textures), to Jim Mehsling’s expressionist examination of Captain America’s character and founding blogger Jason Garrattley’s own post-pop image remixes.

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

KIRBY 2.0 hey saved Kirby’s brainwaves, and coded them into the vast engine of creativity that is the web. This session, while the rest of the issue is concerned with a much bigger screen, we load the first of several profiles of Kirby’s infinite Friends.

Sword and Circuitry Gødland’s Tom Scioli is of course a leading citizen of Kirbyville, having been profiled here many times before—but he keeps on breaching new dimensions that demand another look. He’s now got a thriving colony in cyberspace, the zone that the tech-happy, formally exploratory and fan-accessible Kirby likely would have loved. Scioli’s long-running, visionary cosmic potboiler The Myth of 8-Opus (reframed as “UnMortals”) is there at www.tomscioli.com/unmortals, and the all-new American Barbarian roams at www.ambarb.com. The former is well-known to fans of Scioli, Kirby, and mindexpanding space-pulp; the latter is Tom in full-sail don’t-ask-justbuy-it mode, in the tale of a future America fragmented into fractious tribes of techno-primitives. The homepage synopsis may say it all: “A red-white-and-blue-haired hero must defend a post-postapocalyptic world from the immortal Two-Tank Omen.” Yes, you read that right—Fourth World-ish wordplay is as rampant as a killer supervirus or robot army, and the un-sarcophagused scourge in question is a giant living pharaoh statue who rolls across the countryside with two tanks for feet. Don’t ask, just buy it—though for now you don’t even have to.

Scioli’s fever dream can flash right to your screen free of charge, while he simultaneously inhabits the age of print as Gødland continues and Scioli repopulates one of his graphic homelands as artist on the 1960s-themed issue of the decades-spanning Captain America: Hail Hydra miniseries early next year. Scioli punched in from parts unknown to report the state of his campaigns on several graphic frontiers. THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Explain for our readers how you came to decide to post so much material online—do you find there are truly distinct audiences for the electronic and print comics? Or is it that fan culture is so focused on collectible objects that they may want both? Or will the material that’s online not necessarily be the content you then print? TOM SCIOLI: There’s a number of people who go to comic stores and have been for years. They see what’s in the store, maybe follow [some series]. That’s a very specific demographic. From doing this for a few years, it seems like that number is shrinking. There are a bunch of things you can attribute it to, the top one being the decline of print media in general. There’s the people who live in towns with a good comics store and go there looking for comics. That’s the pool of readers I’ve had to draw from thus far. That pool shrinks every year. Comic stores close, people leave the hobby for various reasons. Then there’s this pool of readers called “the rest of the world” who read and enjoy comics via the internet. It’s a way of reaching another group of people who aren’t familiar with your work, and it’s potentially a much larger audience. The main thing is to have a readership, create things that as many people as possible enjoy. Prior to this, I didn’t see any way of increasing my fanbase beyond the people who are already part of comic book culture. The idea is you want fans. Everything else comes from that. You want people reading and enjoying your work in whatever format works best for them. There’s no reason to restrict yourself to any one format simply based on your own preferences and affection for a specific delivery system.

TJKC: Kirby wasn’t known for shine rather than shadows, yet there was a great Universal Monsters kind of gloomy glitz to his Demon. He wasn’t known for the gritty texture and visceral truth of barbarian books, yet you make a good case that Thor was essentially a sword-andsorcery series (not to mention Atlas). It’s fascinating to see the Barry Windsor-Smithesque grottos and villages run through a Kirby filter very effectively in American Barbarian. Is there any genre

SCIOLI: The idea that different genres have to look a certain way is odd. It seems more like a question of what you expect to see simply out of habit. There was the idea that sci-fi movies had to be slick, clean streamlined, with electronica music. Then Star Wars came around and made a funky, crusty, rough-aroundthe-edges world, with an orchestral musical score. Every aesthetic is just another tool in your toolbox, just another artistic option. I think maybe because I came to Kirby by way of Thundarr, I think of sword-and-sorcery being a perfectly natural fit for his strengths. Kirby could make any genre work. People don’t immediately think of him for sword-and-sorcery, but he drew a lot of it. “Tales of Asgard” and a lot of the more Asgard-centered Thors fit the genre. With Colletta’s inking, Thor had the olden-days texture we associate with S&S, but Atlas had a more streamlined D. Bruce Berry inking, and was from a period when Kirby was more design-focused than representational, yet I think Atlas is an equally valid, if not better approach to the genre. Even Kamandi, though he never brandished a sword, could fit into sword-and-sorcery. He certainly had the long-haired savage appearance of the 1970s barbarian. New Gods is kind of a Phase Two sword-and-sorcery, taking it to the next level. Kirby said as much. That he wondered why 20th century people are creating and reading adventure stories with swords and warhammers, when we are a technological people in a technological age. TJKC: Was it just that Atlas/Kamandi muscle you wanted to flex with AmBarb—the uncharted map of fantasy and peril for the sheer fun of discovery—or does this post-national hero have some of the ties to issues that more common patriotic superheroes do? Is there a funhouse-mirror view of our fracturing national unity to be seen in AmBarb’s panels? SCIOLI: First and foremost, I created it as a fun adventure story. That’s my main goal. Having it set in a future America and so focused on a red-white-and-blue character will give me opportunities to have characters have misconceptions about their own history, our present, which can be humorous and telling. I can’t say that I had a pointed socio-political message that I was trying to get across when I started, but looking at it now, there does seem to be some sort of commentary going on. How does one account for that? Portions of the story are from dreams, and my process in general is very improvisatory, so who’s to

When I started doing comics, the main option was to make your comics at Kinko’s. I drew the way I’d draw anything at that time, a tonal approach, but when you put that through the b&w photocopier, it came out looking like garbage. So at that point I understood why comics pros draw in black. It’s for reproduction. So I knew if I was going to draw in black, I’d do it the Kirby way. The photocopier was a barrier that you had to find a way around. If I were entering comics now for the first time, I’d draw however I want to, scan it, post it in full color or whatever and it would look pretty much like my original. I never would’ve had to learn the very specific skill of drawing for reproduction. Color wasn’t an option. You had to find a way to make a compelling black-and-white image whether you wanted to or not. I’ve been doing things the 2000 way for all these years; it was time for me to think about doing things the 2010 way. I felt like since I’m able to be in control of everything from color to lettering, I should try to work on an approach that takes advantage of what I have at my disposal. As process, I enjoy the noodling, I enjoy making the creeping crawling shadows, the squiggles, all those embellishments. But they can be overwhelming if they’re all in black ink. Now I can spread those decorative embellishments to the color plates. I’m having a great time. TJKC: There’s a sudden change to a washier style as of AmBarb page 33—how many stylistic approaches will you be experimenting with, and how do you see them sitting easily beside each other? SCIOLI: As I said before, there’s no limits. I look at American Barbarian as an opportunity for me to play, to try new things. I expect to throw whatever I can into this—watercolor; expect to see some of the dreaded

TJKC: Your approach to AmBarb’s coloring is very interesting—it’s often a non-outlined additional layer of Kirby’s strange squiggled and blotched shading shapes. An experiment to see just how far and deep these abstract stand-ins for visual reality can be textured? SCIOLI: I’ve been doing comics for 10 years, and when you reach that 10-year mark you can’t help but look back and re-evaluate what you do, why this, why this. I think what initially attracted me to the Kirby style when it came time to draw my own comics, is that Kirby creates an interesting black plate. Most artists I admired seemed to be working against the black plate, finding ways of introducing grays and modeling through cross-hatching techniques, which to me were unattractive, and [it seemed] they were fighting and trying to find ways around the limitations of working in black. By contrast, Kirby seemed to embrace and celebrate the black plate. The textures he created, the dots, the squiggles, the bold lines, didn’t fight the medium, but celebrated, found new ways to really make it sing.

that has a specific visual language, or can the skilled and alert stylist make any kind of story come to life?

say there isn’t some commentary emerging from my subconscious, something I’m not quite fully aware of, or not quite in control of. I’ve given up on the idea of people reading my comics the way I want them to, and rightly so. The reader is as important to the alchemy of comics as the creator. If they have an interpretation that is meaningful to them, even if it’s not the one I intended, it’s every bit as valid. My main interest is in world-building. In fiction, a post-apocalyptic future is an excuse to recreate the world in whatever form you choose. In this case it’s a post-post-apocalypse. It’s an upbeat dystopia. I usually have a bunch of possible story ideas swirling around in my head, then when you finally choose to make one of them, elements from the other ideas tend to latch on to the one you chose. I’d had an idea for a red-white-and-blue superhero story that spanned the various eras of the 20th century, then on into the 21st and forward into the future. I had a separate idea for a post-post-apocalyptic barbarian story. When I settled on the barbarian idea, all those other ideas merged with it in interesting ways. Especially if I get to the point where I get to show the backstory, how our world became American Barbarian’s “Noob Earth.”

TJKC: AmBarb’s segments seem to vary widely in format. Is it done in conventional page layouts carved up for regular posts, or is it formatted with the screen in mind? SCIOLI: The first “book” was created for print and then repurposed for the web. “Book 2” onward were created after I’d made the decision that American Barbarian would be a webcomic. So I’m still creating them with an eye towards an eventual print form, but I’m also thinking of ways to take advantage of the latitude that online distribution gives me. By way of example, one thing I’ve noticed, in print comics, if you want something to be a big surprise, you put it on the top of the evennumbered pages, so the reader doesn’t see it until they turn the page. I’ve found you can use the scroll in a similar way. You can put your surprise moments at the bottom of the image, so that the reader won’t see it until they scroll to the very bottom. TJKC: I’m sure you’re having as much fun with the humor and wordplay in AmBarb as I’m having lol-ing at it—do the wild leaps of imagination and daring required for a comic like that mean one of the realms you can’t be afraid of is farce? SCIOLI: Yeah, at this point I’m interested in a tonal approach to the art and the storytelling. I’m going for radical shifts in tone. My ideal would be to get a range of reactions out of a reader that don’t seem congruent. I really want to sell whatever emotion I’m 54

stories in 8-Opus’ world that don’t necessarily feature 8-Opus?

SCIOLI: At this point when I do it, it feels like instinct, but I remember in college struggling mightily to reverse-engineer the Kirby design theory. I know that groupings of three is a big part of it. Asymmetry, or when something’s symmetrical, it should still have little bits of asymmetry in it. But when you work really hard at something and practice, you get to a point where it flows out effortlessly. The one type of Kirby design that I don’t know if you can figure out is that, as much as we associate him with ornate character design, crazy armors, circuitboards and helmets, when simplicity and elegance was required he’d deliver that, too. I’m really in awe of a design like the Silver Surfer. You can’t get any simpler than that and yet it’s still a unique oneof-a-kind design. It’s really a figure stripped to its very basics. And he transformed a fad, a gimmick, the surfboard, into something totemic and elemental. I don’t know if that kind of thinking can be replicated. I do plan for a day when maybe the ideas don’t come as fast and furiously as they do now. So far I haven’t run out, but I save all my sketches and doodles, so if I ever get to a point where I run out of character designs, I have a backlog I can go to. TJKC: Some fans are confused by the rotating focus of the Fourth World but it always gave me the feeling that we could meet anybody and anything could happen. And The Eternals is one of the only true ensemble superhero series (as opposed to just a set “team” plus hordes of extras) ever made. 8-Opus is certainly the “star” of his books, but is always depending on or seeking out his allies. Does the addition of the “UnMortals” banner open up space for

pective owner.

TJKC: I’m inexhaustibly awed by the Kirby algorithm your characters churn out of—and especially the incidental ones. The endless geometry of functional yet ornamental armor and regalia, even for figures you’ll only use once, is fascinating. Is this sheer design instinct? What place do you go to to know there will always be more when you need them (i.e., for a famous headlining character)?

SCIOLI: I had the idea if I ever did a relaunch of 8-Opus, I’d change the title to UnMortals. When I was building the website that the comic would run on, I was going to name it 8-Opus, but that becomes problematic. It’s hard to remember; people keep calling it Opus-8; is there a “-” or not? You want your website

going for. I’d like to make you cry even if the panel before had you laughing. We’ll see how successful I am in that regard, but it’s something to shoot for.

All images shown

fumetti. I’ve started drawing on super oversized paper. I really like flinging the brush around. The drawing process is so much more fun, but when I do a loose inking style on regular-sized paper, the end product doesn’t look as crisp as I’d like it to. When you work oversized, it shrinks down beautifully. So it’s the best of both worlds, you have fun while you’re making it and the end result looks great.

to be easy to remember. It was the right time to rename it. The cast has grown, the focus does change from segment to segment. There will come a point in the story where 8-Opus dies, and the story, as long as I’m still around to tell it, will go on. 8-Opus was my most deliberate attempt to shoot for something as ambitious as what Kirby was trying with the Fourth World. It’s a lot of work and really intimidating. I see why Kirby had a hard time revisiting those characters. You change as an artist and the same things that fascinated you 10 years ago sometimes don’t hold the same interest today.

TJKC: Is there any condensation or accelerating of the Gødland storyline as it hurtles to its first conclusion, or will it go as many issues as you had in mind for this particular content—or did you and Joe always plot it more intuitively so it takes the shape of whatever spacetime container is available? SCIOLI: There’s going to be a lot of extra-length issues as we count down. We’re so close to being finished it’s driving me crazy. When you see the end in sight like that you just want to get there, but there’s still a lot of pages between me and that end point. It’s making it difficult. Sometimes I’d like to just go for broke, and do a crazy rock ’em sock ’em 24-page issue and do our best to wrap the whole shebang up as quickly as possible. But Gødland had a slow build and it warrants an appropriately paced finale. Since drawing on oversized paper was working so well for American Barbarian, I’ve started using it for Gødland, and now I’m falling in love with Gødland again. So I’m ready for these last four issues. TJKC: How close did you come to killing yourself with the Gødland issue (#32) that was told almost entirely in double-page splashes? The spread can be a formidable vehicle for storytelling—a mural composition that is deceptively simple and singular, but can take in a montaged sweep of events and perspectives it’s actually no easy feat to hold together. This is the most extensive use of the technique I can remember since Steranko’s story in Superman 400. Was Joe possibly able to describe these panoramas in a script? How did it come about and would you ever do it again? :-) SCIOLI: Those double spreads were a result of my frustration with being so close yet so far from the end of Gødland. Drawing these last few issues has really been torture, especially since with American Barbarian I have a new series that’s fresh and exciting for me. I had planned American Barbarian as the project I’d work on after Gødland ends, but I couldn’t help myself. I was anxious to get that rolling. For Gødland #32, I did those double spreads, because it was a way to change things up and get myself excited about the process. It worked well for that issue, because Joe was going for some breaking-the-fourth-wall stuff in the story so it seemed like a good fit. I’m glad you picked up on the Steranko connection. That Superman story was definitely an inspiration, but more so, what I was thinking of was his adaptation of Outland. I’ve been obsessed with it recently. All these great double-spreads broken up in interesting ways. It’s my favorite Steranko work. Getting back to taking full advantage of the tools at one’s disposal, I thought Steranko’s approach to Outland would work great with today’s comics printing.

He created images and colors that look really great on glossy paper with full color. I wanted to try something like that. Once I got into it, you don’t see a lot of Steranko in Gødland 32; the first page, which wasn’t a double-spread, is probably the most overtly Steranko in the composition and shadow placement. And the double spread where Friedrich Nickelhead is waving the flag. TJKC: As a writer-artist, do you have a preference between “Marvel style” and full-script (or maybe some spontaneous collaboration in-between)? Which method are you and Maberry doing the Captain America issue in? SCIOLI: I’ve only ever written my own or worked Marvelstyle, so full script would be a novelty I’d like to try. I haven’t gotten the script yet for the Captain America issue, so it could be anything. I’m looking forward to it. It’s odd, having done DIY for so long, corporate comics look like they’ll be a fun change of pace. TJKC: Every old comic is actually at least two comics— the way it looked then and the way it looks to us now. How will you be approaching the period flavor but the modern perspective on it in your upcoming issue of the Captain America miniseries? SCIOLI: Good question. I’ll make those decisions once I’ve seen the script. I don’t know yet if I’m just penciling, or penciling and inking. I have some ideas now, though. They want it to look Kirby-esque. Even when I try not to draw like Kirby people tell me it looks like Kirby. So I’m not going to “try” to draw like Kirby. Whatever comes out will probably look enough like Kirby to work properly. What I am going to focus on is making the drawing as sound and accomplished as possible. I look at Kirby’s late-’60s Captain America, and it’s just really beautiful, well-rendered artwork. Each panel is an oil painting. The printed books didn’t look that way; they had heavy-handed Syd Shores inking. They looked good, but those pencils are a real spectacle. I’m going to shoot for that level of quality, draftsmanship and heart. Since it’s the ’60s, I’ll probably throw a little Steranko vibe into the mix for good measure.

been told. Every fragment, every excerpted page— and in Kirby’s case, many of the single images—is running strange, simultaneous narratives (Who are these guys? What does that weird machine do, and when’s it gonna go off?). Kirby never did portraits; his dense weave of constant motion and bursting ideas was the fabric of Stuff Happening. That said, I can spend hours at Kirby-Vision, now wisely housed at the online Kirby Museum (http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby-vision/) though containing scarcely a pencil stroke by the King himself. Kirby wanted others to “be like him” by following their own vision, and a multiverse of current artists’ imaginations converges in this unbounded gallery of images inspired by him but blasting out to worlds unknown. They tell many stories, often in a single frame—alternate-history takes of 20th century high gallery style on Kirby concepts, modern cartoon reinterpretations of Kirby’s all-ages mythology, Kirbyfied characters he never drew and ones he didn’t live to see that couldn’t exist without him—and the infinite refractions of personality from the lone spark of Kirby’s mind make this an ongoing visual novel with an expanding cast—on both sides of the screen and drawing board—and an open-ended narrative of a collective imagination whose eagerness to explore can push its own vanishing point ever backward.

Disk Drive Okay, as one of the few remaining bands who actually bring out positive-matter CDs Kirby Krackle don’t have much to do with this column’s specific theme—but their newest disk does have a standalone “e” in the title, and that band-name does serve as a permanent password. On their second CD E for Everyone KK namecheck more comics, games, characters and archetypes than the most chaotic Kirby crowd-scene and shout out to every loyal fan and lonely soul who ever hoped for life to be a little larger. There’s less upfront Kirby content than last time (though The Watcher gets a song to himself), but this high-decibel, good humored indie-pop event album buzzes with the alien energy Kirby meant to keep new ideas ignited and the dreamer’s spirit charged. http://www.kirbykracklemusic.com/ ★

Suitable for Frames It’s not enough to be the misfit kid who lives for comics, I have to be the misfit comics fan who can live without pinups and sketchbooks. I’ll geek out as much as the next fanboy over dazzling art in a story, but single images are seldom what I spend much time on. A strange thing to admit in a magazine devoted to album-sized reproductions of original art and surviving records of concepts-in-progress, but then again, Kirby was notorious for paying the least attention to his covers, which he did last, feeling that the story had already 55

Under The Spotlight (top right) Comedian Bob Newhart. ©2010 respective owner. (middle right) Sergio did some funny gangsterthemed cartoons that appeared in Jack’s In the Days of the Mob. ©2010 DC Comics.

(above) This photo (taken from a Comic-Con program book) shows the dapper Lazarus and Sergio (far left), with Bob Kane and Jack near the center during the taping. (below) Sergio, Paul Coker, and Jack Davis smile for a photo at the CAPS dinner tributes that honored Sergio and Jack. This photo is used by permission of the CAPS organization. (bottom right) Mr. Aragonés did this quick marker sketch of the interviewer reading one of his Groo magazines at the WonderCon in Oakland, California in 1994. ©2010 Sergio Aragonés.

BOB!

Guest-starring Sergio Aragonés, Jack Kirby, and Mell Lazarus Interviews conducted by Jerry Boyd [On January 22, 1993, a special episode of the sitcom Bob hit the television airwaves. The star of the show, Bob Newhart (doing his third sitcom, this time as a cartoonist), receives an invitation/ nomination to a prestigious cartoonists’ award banquet. He reluctantly attends, sure he’s going to lose to a rival, and the event features comic legends Jack Kirby, Sergio Aragonés, Bob Kane, and Mell Lazarus, as well as new sensations Mark Silvestri and Jim Lee, among others. The King did attend, along with Mrs. Kirby, and his name was announced at the awards. (The episode’s title was “You Can’t Win.”) Sergio Aragonés, who made his reputation on Mad Magazine, Groo the Wanderer, House of Mystery, Plop!, and many other projects, graciously consented to talk about that Hollywood event by phone exclusively for TJKC.]

TJKC: How did rehearsals go, or were you all required to do much rehearsing? SERGIO: No, not much. (laughter) I had some dialogue, I remember. I’d been on TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes, Speak Up, America, and LaughIn [Interviewer’s note: the second version, sans Rowan and Martin], so it was not a new experience for me. It was a new experience for most of the others! (laughter) Everyone did well. But Bob Kane kept saying, “Cut!” The director would say, “The only guy who does that stuff is me, Mr. Kane.” (laughter) He (Bob Kane) was so used to doing things his way. If he didn’t like a scene, or the way it was going, he’d just yell, “Cut!” The director would explain, “Mr. Kane, don’t worry about it, we have a lot to cut from!” (laughter) TJKC: Was that okay with you and the others that your parts were so limited, or did any of the artists try to get more lines and into more scenes? SERGIO: (laughs) No, except for Bob Kane, everyone behaved. (laughter) We were at an awards ceremony [Interviewer’s note: In their scenes together]. It was a big party. When the time came, we

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Mr. Aragonés, you did some of the cartoons in DC’s House of Mystery that reprinted Kirby’s late ’50s mystery stories in the early ’70s, and funny gangster cartoons inside In the Days of the Mob, also. Did you meet Jack around that time? SERGIO ARAGONÉS: Yes, I met Jack in New York many, many years ago. I didn’t follow comics that much so I was not aware of his work. I was more into humor. TJKC: Did Kirby request you to do work for In the Days of the Mob or was it assigned by another DC editor? SERGIO: No, whoever was editing the magazine assigned me. The editor wanted some humor. It didn’t come from Jack. TJKC: When the episode featuring you, Jack and Roz, Bob Kane, and others on the Bob show came about, did you talk to Jack about it beforehand? If so, what do you remember the Kirbys saying about it? SERGIO: Not much—he was a very quiet man, not very talkative. I didn’t really chat with Jack that much. He sat with his wife… which was adorable. I talked more to her than Kirby. But it was all small talk, nothing about the show. I had a deadline at the time. The TV set was like a studio, though! (laughter) There was an artist’s drawing board on it [Interviewer’s note: The one Bob Newhart’s character used], so I just brought my work with me. There were some pale light bulbs—props for the show on the set. I got them to change them to stronger lights so I could finish my work. TJKC: Which producers did you work with and how did the producers of the show set it up with the artists? SERGIO: Mark Evanier was involved with the show. An

Australian artist, Paul Power, was also connected to it. [Interviewer’s note: Mark, Sergio, and Paul were and are members of CAPS, a cartoonist group that Kirby also belonged to.] They called a few cartoonists and asked us if we wanted to appear.

just stood up and did our small parts and took our bows. Everyone had a good time… TJKC: You and Mark Evanier worked together on TV’s That’s Incredible in the 1980s. Your cartoons were brought to animated life then and were very enjoyable. Did either of you, being Kirby fans, try to get some of Jack’s artwork shown on that show? SERGIO: No, I don’t think it ever occurred to us, or to Jack. TJKC: What was it like to work with the great comedian Bob Newhart? How would you sum up that experience on the Bob show? SERGIO: He was a very funny man! It was not the best experience of my life, but it… was a lot of fun! It’s not the situation people think. It’s work. You stop, you do something over—you take a break, and so on. It’s a work situation. We enjoyed it. ★ Special thanks to the interviewees for their time, cooperation, and Bill Morrison for contact information.

My Adventure on the “Bob” Show, by Mell Lazarus Mell Lazarus was one of the other cartoonists invited to appear on the episode that featured Sergio and the Kirbys. The man and his work (Momma, Miss Peach) should be regarded as national treasures in the world of newspaper cartoons as much as Sergio and his material are national treasures in the arena of comic magazines. We, as fans of sequential art, are fortunate to have them both. Luckily, I was able to get both of these legendary “funny men” to look back on their time (funny incidents and all) on the Bob episode that gave them a chance to co-star with Jack Kirby. The question was posed (“What happened, Mell?”) and here’s the answer. MELL LAZARUS: The only thing I can clearly remember about the “Bob” show experience is as follows: There was a longish scene during the show, in which I was playing the part of the NCS (National Cartoonists Society) President (which I actually was). From up on the stage, I was supposed to introduce one of our members to an “NCS Reuben audience” comprised of actors and extras. As it happened though, I forgot my lines and started to laugh—a real case of the giggles—for about three minutes. The director yelled “Cut!” and had me start over. Again, I began to laugh and couldn’t deliver my lines. This time, to make it worse, others on the set had begun to laugh. My gaffe was repeated a few times, with everyone laughing hilariously, including the director, himself. Finally, with amazing patience, that estimable gentleman brought everything to a standstill and waited patiently for me to pull myself together. After a few minutes’ break, I tried once again, and finally got my lines out.

(above) The March 6, 1977 issue of the newsprint tabloid publication Modern People included an article on Jack Kirby and Mell Lazarus, including these photos. The centerfold of that issue was a color Captain America illo by Jack, that was actually printed “flopped” (with Cap and Bucky running the other direction from what Jack originally drew). ©2010 Modern People.

Later, I asked the producers if NCS could have a print of just that part so that later in the year NCS could run it, on a continuous “loop,” during the cocktail party preceding our actual Reuben [Interviewer’s note: A prestigious cartooning award]. Ah, but the powers-that-be thought it over and finally decided against letting us do that. P.S. As to Jack and Roz Kirby… yes, I knew them well, long before the show. ★ Momma TM & ©2010 Mell Lazarus.

Influencees

The Time I Spent With Kirby

by Keith Tucker • Keith’s website is at: www.tuckertoons.com ne of the highlights of my animation career happened when I was working at Ruby-Spears and had the opportunity to collaborate with two of my childhood idols, Jack Kirby and Gil Kane. We were in the development unit under the direction of John Dorman, Jim Woodring, and Tom Minton. Our regular staff included Alfredo Alcala, Rick Hoberg, Tim Burgard, Kathy Heineman Alteri, James Gallego, and myself. The writers came up with concepts for new animation series ideas to pitch to the networks. It was our development unit’s responsibility to provide artwork for those pitches. Jack and Gil were the first to take a crack at designing the visuals. They would retire to their home studios and create rough designs that they brought into the office for review. Those days when Jack, his wife Roz, and Gil Kane came in were the most exhilarating! I recall a particularly fun science-fiction concept called Scanners, an “ESP and action hero team”, set in the distant future. Jack had designed these cool mind control devices that the bad guys used to get information and control their captives. Jack’s designs were primal and exuded a wild range of emotions and were exciting to work with. Scanners involved more presentation art boards than anything else Joe Ruby ever asked us to do—something like 37 art boards, roughly triple that of any other Ruby-Spears development project. My job was to make a painting from either the original pencils or an inked version for the final presentation. In contrast to Jack’s powerful and dynamic work was Gil Kane’s equally powerful, yet sleek and lyrical style. Together these two gave us the thrill of a lifetime! Gil would come in and work side-by-side with us on his pieces and I looked forward to his familiar signature greeting, “M’boy”. Jack preferred working at home and kept with the weekly turn-in schedule. We were constantly amazed with the varied directions this man could take a concept. Jack lived to create and he enjoyed this opportunity to continue to embrace his passion. It also entitled him to great union healthcare coverage that kept the Kirbys from losing their home when Jack had a heart attack. For me, having the opportunity to work side-by-side with these titans of our industry, was a special time in my life. It will always be one of my fondest memories. ★

Gallery 2

Hollywood Sequels

e all know how, when Hollywood tries to turn a book into a film, or remake a classic, they always have to change things (and usually not for the better). So this issue, we

W thought it only fitting to take a look at the original 1940s-50s material New York-centric Jack Kirby produced in a variety of genres, and how a much older, more mellow

West Coast Kirby handled the same subject matter in the 1970s. (You’ve got to hand it to DC and Carmine Infantino; they let Jack try every genre he’d ever had success with, from Kid Gangs to Crime, and Romance to War and Mystery, trying to find the record sales Simon & Kirby had in their heyday.) Which is better—the original or the sequel? (this spread) Ahh, romance! But love is rife with pitfalls, such as the “true life” drama of being a carnival girl(?), in this page from True Love Problems #41 (Sept. 1956)—like most 1950s romance stories, this one had a happy ending. Contrast that to Jack’s work on the never-published True Divorce Cases #1 (circa 1971 and originally produced for DC Comics), where the action—and relationship resolution—reach a decidely spicier tone. (pages 60-61) War! And nobody told a war story like Kirby! Whether it’s the 1950s (like this unused Warfront cover, circa 1957) or the 1970s (Our Fighting Forces #152, Dec. 1974), it didn’t matter what coast Jack lived on; it’s non-stop WWII action all the way! (pages 62-63) Oohh, spooky! You can see a 1951 full-story example of Kirby’s Black Magic work elsewhere in this issue, which is much more gripping than this tame cover for Black Cat Mystic #58 (Sept. 1956). But when it came to mystery, the mellow vibe of the West Coast didn’t dull his ability to create creepy, suspenseful images, such as this page drawn for 1971’s Spirit World #2 (and finally published in Weird Mystery Tales #3, Nov. 1972). (pages 64-65) Kids; you gotta love ’em. And while Kirby temporarily took the Newsboy Legion out of Suicide Slum in this page from Star-Spangled Comics #14 (Nov. 1942), this Kid Gang went all Hollywood high-tech with lots of new “gadgets” in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #144 (Dec. 1971). One thing didn’t change over the years, however; Scrapper, the character most like Jack as a boy in New York, is still the comic relief. (pages 66-67) Crime runs rampant in these examples, from the cover of Headline Comics #25 (July 1947), and from the unpublished In The Days Of The Mob #2 (circa 1971). Both show brutal images and beautiful women, and despite being drawn almost 25 years apart, stylistically they’re very similar. (pages 68-69) If Simon & Kirby ruled the 1940s super-hero genre with Sandman (from Adventure Comics #86, May 1943), DC figured they could recapture that popularity by reteaming Joe and Jack for Sandman #1 (Winter 1974). This new version of the character sold well initially (possibly due to a longer period on the stands), but the ongoing series only made it six issues (with a seventh shelved and later finally printed in Best of DC Digest #22 in 1982). 58

Animatters (right) Darrell drew this illo of the 1977 Super Friends lineup for his own amusement. It ended up being used as the show’s official title card!

Kirby, My Friend by Darrell ‘Big D’ McNeil

[To help put the following in the proper context, ‘King’ Kirby worked at Ruby-Spears (a subsidiary company of Hanna-Barbera Productions) from 1978 to 1985. During that time, he did design layout work on various cartoon shows. There he met and was acquainted with Darrell McNeil, a professional animator who began working with H-B in the late 1970s. Luckily for us, Darrell made some copies from Jack’s penciled originals for the conceptual designs from the shows Space Stars (1980) and World’s Greatest Superfriends (1978). Some of these drawings are cut off because the copy machines at the workplace couldn’t accommodate the large original sheets, but we’re glad to have what we have. (And what we have aren’t bad…!) Finally, illustrations shown with the notations ‘Cleaned-up Kirby’ are concepts redrawn by others with Jack’s detailed line work removed for the animation process. The others are pure Kirby. And Darrell McNeil will explain the rest.] ack pretty much left Marvel, came out here (L.A.), and Depatie-Freleng hired him to do storyboards for the Fantastic Four cartoons (see TJKC #47). The problem that Jack had was that he was an expert in drawing comic books but they didn’t translate to animated storyboards well. So he did stuff that went into long pans (a moving of the camera from one area to another) and multiple pans that didn’t work out so well, so the bosses called in a guy named Lou Marshall, who used to work as a H-B producer on the first Super Friends, the Jetsons, and shows like that, and he redrew a lot of Jack’s stuff to make it more comfortable for animation—and if you saw the (animation) cels closely, you’d see Reed Richards with George Jetson’s feet! Lou Marshall’s redrawing… of course. It is kind of ironic because if Cleaned Up Kirby Jack were alive right now, his style would be perfect for it because of the new i-line animation! Kirby, at H-B, designed a village setting for Scooby-Doo, The New Schmoo— he also designed a number of characters for the Thing cartoon. I’d run into Jack every so often at the studio. I’d go and pick up work from the producers of Space Ghost, the Herculoids, Space Mutts, Teen Force, and so on, and Jack was picking up and dropping off work at the same time. I wish I had a copy of this—Jack had one of the neatest concepts I’d ever seen and he showed me a drawing one day when we met in the hallway. He planned to pitch it to Ruby-Spears. It was simple, basic, and full of potential! Jack said, “Hey Black Jack, lemme show ya something…” (I’ll explain ‘Black Jack’ later.) I wanted to show him my idea and he reached for his creator board and I pulled out my model sheet and we both went—I can’t repeat it, but we said, “Ohhhh…” and the rest rhymes with duck. But here was the deal. Mine was called “The Super Circus Squadron” and Jack had come up with a concept about a group of secret agents who disguise themselves as circus people! [Editor’s note: Roxie’s Raiders!] So we came up with a similar idea at the same time! Now, the ‘Black Jack’ nickname came because Jack felt my stuff was, in his complimentary terms, “raw-ly brilliant,” and because I’m black and he liked my constant flow of ideas. So, I was a black version, in animation at least, of himself. I thought it was nice. Kirby wanted to own and develop his own cartoon stuff and he developed a number of ideas through the years. He did the Space Ghost stuff (1980) and the Phantom Cruiser you readers will probably see in this article before it’s over has an interesting story. There was a strike in ’79 and to recoup the network schedule’s losses, they decided to re-launch their old proven successes—Space Ghost, Dino Boy, the Herculoids, and the Impossibles, Cleaned Up Kirby

(above) Batman’s having some real issues here! He’s been made into a savage composite of Superman and himself with Wonder Woman’s lasso tossed in for bad luck! Could this be one of the ‘troll-like’ Super Friends? (right) Here’s a grouping of Kirby’s space people, redrawn by others for the H-B show Space Stars. (bottom) Illuzo was a cartoon offspring-of-sorts descended from X-Men adversary Mastermind and Beautiful Dreamer. This concept illo was probably ‘cleaned-up’ by Lou Marshall, but the Kirby influence is all over it still! (next page, bottom) Malhavoc’s spy kept an eye on the Super Friends in the “Lord of Middle Earth” episode. The King did at least two versions. 70

Woman), Doug Wildey (the Outlaw Kid), and Kirby hobnobbed with up-andcomers like Rick Hoberg, Will Meugniot, and Dave Stevens, who began his animation career on Godzilla and Jann of the Jungle. Some of the designs I’ve gathered here were penciled by Jack for episodes that never aired. The show was called Space Stars. This one-hour show that the viewers saw consisted of two new Space Ghost episodes, a new Herculoids episode, a Teen Force segment, a Space Mutts segment, and a finale that included everyone! The “Space Mystery” segments were 3 minutes long and to solve the mystery, you had to quickly put together the clues, and see if you were correct when they gave you the answer after a short break. Some of the concept drawings I gathered here for this piece hail from the “Space Mystery” segments. On to Super Friends—we went into a Lord of the Rings fetish at the time, so our character, the demon/bad guy Malhavoc came up from the middle of the Earth to the surface with his fantasy monster servants. There were spider people, his spy (and there were at least two penciled versions of his slimy henchman, as I recall), and his dragon. Through magic he turned the Super Friends into trolls! And I’m sorry I don’t have them, but Jack did draw model sheets of Superman, Robin, Batman, Aquaman, and the others as trolls. Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards inspired the (1979) “Lord of Middle Earth” episode. This particular group of Super Friends episodes that Jack and I worked on was a real flight of fancy. We were encouraged—and remember, these concepts all followed the success of Star Wars—to come up with way-out material, and who better than ‘King’ Kirby to be involved? Kirby and I weren’t bosom buddies, but there was mutual respect and the animators (young and old) just loved having Kirby in the offices and chatting with him and looking over those always impressive pencils! I’m proud of the fact that I’m one of the few animators and Kirby fans to actually share screen credits with him on Space Ghost/Space Stars (1980). How kewl is that? ★

These are three studies of the Spider People in pencil, which the King visualized for monsters who’d attack the Super Friends.

among others. They did a tandem show of some of these and they did well. (Fred) Silverman, a network executive, helped develop and bring the original Space Ghost (1966, see Back Issue #30) to the air, so he always had a soft spot for that show and the others during that time period when he was in charge of the ’60s Saturday morning line-up. So he brought them back in the early ’80s and they proved successful again. This Phantom (or Space) Cruiser was more functional than the 1966 original. It had more rooms that were seen and used, for example. There was a brig (jail) on the Cruiser in our series. (And for anyone unfamiliar with SG, that was his ship.) The Anti-Matter Man was a scientist who got his powers after being bombarded by… well, anti-matter particles! Of course, he becomes evil in the process and Space Ghost and friends at some point in the cartoon escort him to a large space prison world. The A-M Man’s pencil design didn’t need any additional work. Jack did mostly character design like the Anti-Matter Man. He wasn’t asked to ‘clean- up’ or redraw his designs. Others did that. The producers wanted Jack to draw like Jack. The new FF show in 1979 didn’t work that well, but Silverman loved the Thing and wondered if they couldn’t continue on in some fashion with just that character. And Doug Wildey (the Jonny Quest creator) was going to produce it. What happened was Kirby designed the new version of the Yancy Street Gang, which was now a bunch of bullying bikers! Ben Grimm, a teenager on the show, had a ‘Thing Ring’, and when it was activated, rocks would fly out of nowhere and attach themselves to him, transforming him into the Thing. He’d announce beforehand, “Thing Ring, do your thing!” It was a fun time to be there. Comics legends like Mike The 1980 Phantom Sekowsky (the Cruiser (Space Ghost’s JLA, Thunder ship) was redrawn by Agents, Wonder Darrell from the

(Production Notes: For anyone confused by DePatie-Freleng’s connection to Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, Kirby, and/or the FF, please see TJKC #30, or the Collected Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 7.)

DVD Extras Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears were sister companies in the late ’70s, both of them having been bought out and then owned by Taft Broadcasting Co. Kirby worked on approximately 11 episodes of Space Stars. The King’s name appeared in the credits of all the shows where he contributed. In addition, Jack worked on eight of the World’s Greatest Superfriends (as it was called in the late 1970s— Super Friends got made into one word following the original two shows, Super Friends [1973] and All-New Super Friends [1977]). According to Darrell, there (unfortunately) were no ‘meetings of the minds’ in the side offices or commissaries between Alex Toth, Mike Sekowsky, and Kirby. Each man did his job, hobnobbed with those he felt close to, and went home. Jack contributed no ideas to the writing staff. He wasn’t a television union writer, and that explains it all, really. It’s too bad, though, because as good as these cartoons were, they may have hit a higher plateau with the King being more involved!

King’s layout. 71

Star Warring (left) Obi-Wan Kenobi was, along with Yoda, Luke Skywalker’s mentor in the first trilogy. (center right) The villainous Boba Fett. (bottom left) Had Hayden Christensen (shown here in his role of Anakin Skywalker) turned in a more complex and compelling performance, the second trilogy may have fared better among reviewers. (bottom right) Powerful warriors collided in New Gods #7 and The Phantom Menace. The sinister Sith killer Darth Maul (Ray Park, shown) crossed light sabers with Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). And (page 74, top) Izaya revenged himself on Steppenwolf in this ‘new’ cover for the New Gods reprint series. (next page, top left) Devilance the Pursuer was a one-shot villain from the Forever People #11 (detail of Kirby’s pencils shown here). He and his powers/ abilities were more fascinating than fellow hunter Boba Fett (shown on this page, right), whose origin was shown in the newer Lucas trilogy. (next page, top right) Darkseid’s appeal to an escaping Scott Free was closely matched several years later by the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. (next page, bottom left) The King ended Mister Miracle #9 and New Gods #11 with declarations of war. Lucas may have done better to have an enraged Darth Vader say his ending lines along the same vein at the end of Revenge of the Sith rather than the calm set-up to “A New Hope.” (next page, bottom right) Orion sets the stage for ‘Last Battle’ at the very end of New Gods #11. This stirring pronouncement beat out Vader and the Emperor’s quiet overseeing of the Death Star’s construction. All images this page, and the Star Wars logo are TM & ©2010 Lucasfilm. Other images next two pages TM & ©2010 DC Comics.

The Source of the Force

The second Star Wars trilogy compared to the Fourth World “tapestry issues” by Michael Stewart e ‘Kirby-heads’ know the “truth”: Jack’s cosmic spectacles laid the foundation for Lucas’s Star Wars years before most wide-eyed filmgoers got hip to it in the summer of ’77. In the very first scene of Star Wars (“A New Hope,” Ch. IV), the space vessels slicing through the dark void of their galaxy were similar to the gigantic star cruisers of Galactus, the Watcher, the Skrulls, the Colonizers, and so on. More similarities are needed, though. Some were pointed out in Kirby Collector #11, but for my purposes, allow me to review briefly (and add a few things worth noting) before going on to the second Lucas trilogy:

MENTORS: Himon and Metron worked together to bring out the real Scott Free, prepping him for his destiny. MENTORS: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda worked in tandem to bring out the real Luke Skywalker, prepping him for his destiny. MENTORS: Not to be outdone on his side of the galactic equation, Highfather prepped Orion for his destiny. The Source, Kirby’s mysterious foundation for the networking of godly circumstances, powers, and wisdom was explained at times in the tapestry issues with almost-religious reverence, as it was with the Force in the first three films that dealt with the re-emergence of the good Jedis. THE SOURCE: “The Source! It lives! It burns! When we reach out and touch it—the core of us is magnified! And we tower as tall as Darkseid!” (Himon in Mister Miracle #9) THE FORCE: “The Force is what gives a Jedi Knight his powers. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us… it binds the galaxy together.” (Obi-Wan Kenobi in “A New Hope”) Luke Skywalker’s innate power slowly increases over the course of the first three films (actually the finale, as Lucas tells us) until he is ready to meet the ultimate villain, Darth Vader (his father). Orion’s ready for his final and biggest challenge after only eleven issues (!), his innate power/fury rising and seemingly increasing after conflicts with Brola, the Deep Six, Mantis and his ‘bugs’, and two city-leveling bouts with Kalibak. After that, he wants to take out his father, Darkseid, the ultimate challenge for men and gods. Onward, as Stan Lee might say. Obi-Wan tells Yoda that, “That boy is our last hope.” “No,” Yoda responds. “There is another.” It turns out that the Princess Leia had the Force within her, also. In Forever People #4, a mysterious caption the King affixed to the pin-up of Beautiful Dreamer explains to us that she may be the deciding factor in the war of the gods. Talk about women’s equality! Now, we can go on to the second trilogy. Lucas, talented though he is, placed himself in the unusual situation of having to work backwards… or in other words, do three Jack Kirby “tapestry issues” along the lines of “The Pact!” and “Himon!”. Audiences going into the theaters knew at least five things had to happen in George Lucas’s new series: 1) Anakin Skywalker starts off a good Jedi knight who somehow becomes the evil Darth Vader and betrays his fellow Jedis. 2) Anakin sires Luke and Leia after marrying royalty. 3) Anakin is mentored and groomed for his post by Obi-Wan Kenobi. 4) The democratic alliance of planets is replaced by the Empire, led by the calculating and brutal (Emperor-to-be) Palpatine. 5) The Rebellion’s ‘seeds’ are created by the crushing nature of the Empire. Freedom fighters will spring up on various planets. Lucas filled in the rest with somewhat fascinating characters (Qui-Gon Jin, Darth Maul, Jar-Jar Binks, Mace Windu) and some bores and snores (Darth Maul and Jar-Jar Binks again, depending on your perspective). To many filmgoers, The Phantom Menace was just as rousing as “A New Hope,” but to many others it was under-acted, underwritten, overblown… and worst of all, predictable. Kirby’s first “tapestry movie” wasn’t. In “The Pact!” we didn’t know what to expect! Discounting the announcement that there was a link—“a shattering secret” that bonds together the origins of Orion and Mister Miracle, we were in the dark(-seid) all the way! Jack didn’t rely on things he’d done in previous Fourth World issues for this one, as Lucas

relied on past tricks to excite his audiences. Kirby gave us new characters (as Lucas did): Avia, Steppenwolf, Izaya, Queen Heggra, but he included enough new twists and turns to stun the readers more than once along the way. We found out there was something called “The Great Clash” (WWI on the worlds of the gods) which unleashed a plethora of world-shattering technology that promised to wipe out the sister planets if not unchecked. (Kirby got a nice message in there….) Steppenwolf (later nicely referred to as “the spirit of slaughter” by the King) is young Darkseid’s intriguing, bestial, uncomplicated uncle. He lives for battle and is indicative of the type of denizens who populate the harsh world of Apokolips. From the beginning of the story, he seems to be in control of his own destiny, but he’s being secretly manipulated by his shrewder nephew until he is of no further use. Metron also returned and was a pivotal figure in The Great Clash. He too, despite his towering intellect, was used by Darkseid. It turns out Highfather is the tortured Izaya! The New Genesis leader loses first his wife, Avia, and then “himself ” on his way to discovering his “inheritance.” And of course, the truths of the fathers-andsons connection is the final stunner. Lucas relied on a father/son connection, also, but… ho-hum... here’re a few of them. Young Anakin’s droids turn out to be R2D2 and C-3PO, which Luke will one day inherit. Anakin even gets

to smash a monstrous device at the end of The Phantom Menace reminiscent of Luke’s destruction of the Death Star at the end of “A New Hope.” “Been there—done that,” the audiences had to be thinking as they left. The ‘thrilling’ pod race was lifted (in some ways) straight out of both Ben-Hur films! And when I say ‘thrilling’, it wasn’t… unless the special effects were all you needed to get into that sequence. We know Anakin has to win the furshlugginer race! He’s got to become a good and accomplished Jedi before he grows up to be an armored Dave Prowse with James Earl Jones’ voice, by Highfather’s staff! Anakin’s triumphs make him cocky and his temper and impatience become his enemies as he grows. The dark side (get it?) of the Force lay in wait. Darth Maul, a Sith apprentice, had an interesting look to him, but if he’d been written better—by someone like a Jack Kirby—he’d have been even more memorable than just a heavily made-up heavy with an impressive double light-saber. The King’s Steppenwolf, on the other hand, is more fascinating than his Sith counterpart. He’s the leader of an awesome Dog Cavalry (can ya picture that in the movies?!), and wielding his electro-axe (not a far cry from a light-saber if you ponder it), he’s a terror to his foes. Adding to his complexity, he’s both a “king” and a “pawn” in the early struggles between the warring planets. His death at Izaya’s hands really means something. That great sequence

where ‘The Risen Dead’ (Izaya’s “new name and rank” after Desaad’s gloves “kills” him in the story’s opening) exacts his revenge, elevates both himself and Darkseid to ruler status. Izaya takes the opportunity to confront Metron with some harsh truths of how the academic god’s played a large part in the rise of Darkseid and the destruction of warriors on both sides. Steppenwolf ’s death has deeper meanings than that! His style of warfare “ends” (symbolically, of course) with the off-panel Darkseid upping-theante from afar. Now, it’s a “techno-cosmic war!” From a comic standpoint, Kirby’s story was pushing past the outmoded horse cavalry charges that doomed Poland (for example) against the more sophisticated tactics and technology of Hitler’s Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht as WWII began. Izaya realizes the dangers and brokers a hard peace (for him personally) after the Source turns his heart away from war (another nice Kirby message). Darth Maul’s death? Just another above-average fight scene. Qui-Gon Jin’s death added nicely to the drama but there’d be heaps of Sith vs. Jedi lightsaber battles to come and it’d keep going fairly predictably until only Darth Vader (the psyched-out Anakin in nasty make-up) and the Emperor (even nastier in his make-up) and Obi-Wan and Yoda are left in a two-versus-two fight to the death. Attack of the Clones continued the floodtide of CGI effects and super combats, but only Padme

Amidala and Anakin (both actors needed to do more acting-wise, in my humble opinion) advanced in complexity and maturity. Master Yoda, Master Mace Windu, and new baddies Count Duuku (Christopher Lee—a fine actor, but not given much to do in the last two films other than be sinister and fight) and General Grievous aren’t fitted out with interesting backstories à la Izaya and Darkseid, so…. Kirby as director, writer, story editor, cinematographer, casting director, and producer got it done correctly in his “tapestry movies.” He got all the emotion necessary out of his stellar cast to show their travails and triumphs in mere panels and pages. It’s all there. With “Himon!” (unfortunately, the King wouldn’t have to a chance to do any more of these incredible back stories), the only thing we knew going in was that we’d be let in on the rest of the secrets of the “Young Scott Free” days, we’d meet Scott’s mentor, Himon, see how he first met Big Barda, view Metron’s take on it all and see his further participation and mentoring, and witness Scott’s “great escape” to Earth. Again, Jack didn’t rely on those items only for thrills. We got a host of interesting if short-lived characters. Wonderful Willik, the district protector, is after Himon, as is all of Apokolips. We got Kreetin (a “disciple” of Himon’s, and a play on Judas, the betrayer, maybe?), the sensitive Auralie, and the

playful Zep. Kirby’s supporting players were better written than Lucas’ people. Jabba the Hut’s okay, but Boba Fett and his old man are complete throwaway entities. They have no memorable lines or instigate anything that significantly alters the larger story. After it’s all said and done, who cares? Devilance (a one-shot hunter/assassin from Forever People #11) means a lot more to me than Boba Fett’s “origin” in the last two Lucas movies. By the time we get to Revenge of the Sith, we’ve got it pretty much figured out. Anakin and Padme are beginning their married lives, she quickly finds she’s expecting, and Anakin’s powers are still growing, but he’s finding himself more and more at odds with the Jedi’s way of doing things. And the Emperor-to-be, still a Senator with ruling powers, is making all the right moves to seduce Anakin and take over the Alliance. The democratic Alliance of planets’ leaders sense the hostile threat to their freedoms but they’re under siege politically and militarily. Count Duuku is killed by Anakin (they’ve got a cannibalistic nature, those good and bad Jedis) and General Grievous is taken out by Obi-Wan. More battles, more CGI… and we get a mutilated Darth Vader, a horribly-disfigured Emperor (their evil intent must match their looks, right?), and lots of dead young Jedis in the end. Padme dies giving birth after Anakin breaks her heart. Obi-Wan and Yoda go into self-exile after failing to prevent the Sith takeover. The last film ends somewhat quietly with “Ben” Kenobi giving the baby named Luke Skywalker to his family on the remote world Tatooine. Also, Darth Vader, a young Grand Moff Tarkin (who’d grow up to be the always wonderful horror star Peter Cushing one day), and the Emperor would stand silently overseeing construction of… the Death Star. Kirby’s ending to the Himon backstory was more of a jolt to me. We know Scott’s escape has to end the tale, but what an escape! He crawls toward the Boom Tube, renouncing what he was “cut out to be,” and leaping toward the “Mister Miracle—to

Beautiful Dreamer holds “the key” to victory in this impressive Kirby/Colletta pin-up from the back of Forever People #4. 74

be!” Darkseid’s stunning “movie cameo” ends with him angrily announcing his intention to “shut down the universe” after facing Orion! It’s a grander, harder-hitting conclusion than Darth Vader quietly looking over the Death Star which we all know will meet its own “death” in “A New Hope.” Lest you readers think I’m being a mite too harsh on the Lucas films, I did get a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of the first Star Wars trilogy and, to a lesser extent (which is obvious in view of what Kirby did) the more recent trilogy. (Kirby enjoyed the ’77 –’83 Star Wars but he and his wife noticed the similarities to the god wars he’d done for DC.) George’s second trilogy is still good stuff. These are not bad movies at all, in fact—they’re quite rousing and good fun. Still, they’re overcooked and undercooked at the same time. Allow me to get off subject for a quick second: Some may argue that “The Hunger Dogs” wasn’t up to standards, since it was “a compromised end” to the god wars. But Jack had to sacrifice his original endings (which we may never know), but still—he didn’t follow the predictable! Tigra is saved, Himon is killed, and Darkseid’s people are in revolt. New Genesis is destroyed! Wow! What would Jack have done if left alone to “produce and direct his last movie?” Maybe Beautiful Dreamer (check that pin-up from Forever People #4 again!), on Orion’s secret orders, would project an illusion

of a seemingly defeated and dying Orion just long enough for the fiercest son of Darkseid to launch a final, crushing blow to his father who thought he’d won the “last battle.” Darkseid dies with a little laugh, ironically figuring out he’s been out-schemed by the son he thought scheming was foreign to… maybe. Since we’ll probably never know for sure, let’s return to the theaters… and to the comics for a final assessment. Jack’s two “tapestry comic movies” still thrill me in ways the last three Star Wars movies never did and never could do. They tied up all the loose ends (Lucas left lots of questions on things I won’t even get into!), created interesting new characters in suspenseful and fateful scenarios important to the continuity of the overall war, and jolted readers in ways no comics ever had before! The Lucasfilms met with mixed reviews because a lot of it had been done already and far better in the ’70s and ’80s… with superior acting, more innovation, and better overall storytelling. In the final analysis, there’s a phrase Jack would favor over the years—“The Pact!” and “Himon!” are still better than a barrel of Ewoks any day. ★ (Special thanks to Al Dixon and Jerry Boyd for research assistance and writing help.)

Eye Spy

Jack Kirby—Secret Agent? by Bruce Younger e’ve all thrilled to the adventures of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., but did you know that Kirby was involved in one of the most dangerous, covert operations ever put together by the CIA? Flash back to 1979. The Ayatollah Khomeini had come into power in Iran, and a tense political situation became severe when gangs of militant protesters crashed the gates of the US Embassy, trapping 52 Americans and creating the well-known hostage crisis that would last over a year. However, most people never knew about a slightly lesser crisis occurring at the same time elsewhere in Tehran. A group of several Americans and a few locals had managed to escape from the consulate building in the embassy compound and make it into the streets of the city, only to find their path to escape blocked at nearly every turn. While the local workers from the consulate were able to blend into the surrounding city, the Americans just barely escaped by taking small side streets until they came to the private apartment of one of the couples in the group. There they huddled together with the door locked, listening to a radio set to a special frequency to pick up transmissions from the embassy. By late afternoon, the only voices speaking on the radio were in Arabic. The embassy compound had been overwhelmed. The five people in the one-bedroom apartment were stranded in the middle of a hostile Tehran with no way out. Over the next few weeks, the refugees moved to different locations, often staying in abandoned homes of the captives at

the embassy. Eventually they were able to contact the Canadian embassy, which had been threatened but not invaded. They managed to make their way to another part of Tehran where Canadian embassy officials lived, and while they were more comfortable, they were also more likely to be discovered as time went by. The Americans were getting more fearful by the day. By now, the CIA had learned that five members of the embassy staff were not amongst the hostages. The assignment came down to their chief of the Graphics and Authentication Division, Tony Mendez, to come up with a plan to free the Americans. Mendez had worked at the agency for years, and was an expert in creating fictional identities and disguises. The problem in Iran was tricky, though; since the revolution had been going on for almost a year, at this point there was no logical reason for most Westerners to be in the country, and those that were in Iran were carefully documented and monitored. If any of the Americans were suspected of being embassy personnel, they would be redirected back to the compound and could be interrogated as spies, possibly even tortured or executed. Mendez worked on coming up with a number of different extraction plans, many of which he scrapped as being unlikely to succeed, a few of which were rejected by superiors in the State Department. Finally, he came up with an idea that was so improbable and visible, it just might work. And this is where Kirby comes in. The plan Mendez finally settled on, and which was approved by his superiors, was fairly simple on the face of it. Tony Mendez would sneak into Iran and rendezvous with the group of Americans at the Canadian ambassador’s residence. Then, using carefully forged Canadian passports indicating the arrival one day before of the escapees, they would pose as a Hollywood film crew scouting locations for a new film project. To make the deceit work, however, Mendez had needed a solid backstory—in other words, he had to set up a film production company, get investors, rent office space, print stationary, advertise in Variety to announce the film project, and—most importantly—he had to have a movie project that would justify scouting locations in Iran. The film project chosen for the mission: none other than Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, the film Kirby had recently done concept drawings for! Jack’s concept art was an important piece of the puzzle, since they gave credence, a certain solidity, to a cover story that would otherwise seem like so much vapor. Armed only with the concept drawings and the prepared phony paperwork for the Americans, Mendez was able to make it into Iran and meet up with the six consulate refugees. Each of the folks leaving the country had to take on a new identity based on the Canadian passports supplied as well as that of a member of Mendez’s ersatz film crew. To familiarize themselves with the film concept, they all studied the cancelled script and Jack’s concept art. Ultimately, the hair-raisingly narrow escapes and subterfuge paid off. Mendez was able to successfully lead all six of the Americans right under the noses of the anti-American mobs and all the authorities watching the airport in Tehran by posing as a film director and his crew, all the while carrying Kirby’s artwork, ready to be whipped out at a moment’s notice as proof that the project was legitimate. So, although Jack himself never went “undercover”, his concept art was instrumental in saving the lives of a group of desperate US citizens trapped in Iran—further proof of the power of the King’s work and his ability to create believable alternate realities. ★ (Some information and data taken from the article “The Great Escape” by Joshua Bearman, Wired Magazine, May 2007.) 75

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine (edited by JOHN MORROW) celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through INTERVIEWS WITH KIRBY and his contemporaries, FEATURE ARTICLES, RARE AND UNSEEN KIRBY ART, plus regular columns by MARK EVANIER and others, and presentation of KIRBY’S UNINKED PENCILS from the 1960s-80s (from photocopies preserved in the KIRBY ARCHIVES). Now in OVERSIZED TABLOID FORMAT, it showcases Kirby’s amazing art even larger!

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! 4-ISSUE SUBS: $50 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($68 First Class, $65 Canada, $72 Surface, $150 Airmail).

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #23

KIRBY COLLECTOR #24

KIRBY COLLECTOR #25

KIRBY COLLECTOR #26

Rarely-seen KIRBY INTERVIEW, UNINKED PENCILS from FANTASTIC FOUR #49, comparison of KIRBY’S margin notes to STAN LEE’S words, interview with DENNY O’NEIL, 7th Grade school project by granddaughter TRACY KIRBY (illustrated by her grandpa!), unpublished story from SOUL LOVE, unpublished art, pencil pages before inking, & more! KIRBY/ALEX HORLEY cover!

KIRBY’S GREATEST BATTLES! Interviews with KIRBY and JIM SHOOTER (on Kirby’s art battle with Marvel), comparison of KIRBY’S margin notes to STAN LEE’S words, page-by-page analysis of NEW GODS #6 (“Glory Boat,” including Jack’s pencils), how Kirby’s WWII experiences shaped his super-hero battles, Sgt. Fury, unpublished art, and more! KIRBY/MIGNOLA cover!

SIMON & KIRBY ISSUE! Feature-length interview with JOE SIMON about the S&K shop, KIRBY talks about his Golden Age work with SIMON, interview with JOHN SEVERIN, unpublished BOY EXPLORERS story, the rise and fall of S&K’s MAINLINE COMICS, unpublished art, pencil pages before inking, and more! KIRBY/ADKINS and KIRBY/SEVERIN covers!

KIRBY’s GODS! Interviews with KIRBY (discussing the true nature of God) & WALTER SIMONSON, 8-page color section with NEW GODS CONCEPT DRAWINGS, how Jack was influenced by JUDAISM AND THE BIBLE, examining Kirby’s take on mythology, plus features and art (including uninked pencils) from THOR, MISTER MIRACLE, ETERNALS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and more!

(68-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 US

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #27

KIRBY COLLECTOR #28

KIRBY COLLECTOR #30

KIRBY COLLECTOR #31

KIRBY COLLECTOR #32

THE KIRBY INFLUENCE! Interviews with KIRBY (on his WWII experiences) and ALEX ROSS, KIRBY FAMILY roundtable discussion, All-Star Tribute Panel (featuring NEIL GAIMAN, DAVE GIBBONS, KURT BUSIEK, JEFF SMITH, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, MARK WAID, and others), color section, features, art (including uninked pencils), and more! KIRBY/BRUCE TIMM cover!

THE KIRBY INFLUENCE, PART TWO! Interviews with more pros influenced by Kirby, including Star Wars’ MARK HAMILL, JOHN KRICFALUSI, MOEBIUS, GARY GIANNI, GEOF DARROW, KARL KESEL, and MIKE ALLRED, interviews with Jack’s grandkids, a look at the career of inker VINCE COLLETTA, and more! KIRBY/MIKE ALLRED wraparound cover!

1970s MARVEL COMICS! Interviews with JACK and ROZ KIRBY, KEITH GIFFEN, and RICH BUCKLER, ’70s MARVEL COVER GALLERY in pencil, a look inside the 1970s MARVEL BULLPEN, Mike Gartland’s A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE on Jack’s layout work, new KIRBY AS A GENRE column, tips for frugal Kirby Collectors, and more! KIRBY/KLAUS JANSON cover!

KIRBY’S TWILIGHT YEARS (1978-94)! Interviews with ALAN MOORE and Kirby Estate co-trustee ROBERT KATZ, comparison of KIRBY’S margin notes to STAN LEE’S words, Jack’s 1980s career in-depth, including pencil art from SILVER STAR, CAPTAIN VICTORY, HUNGER DOGS, an animation art portfolio, FF STORYBOARDS, and lots more! KIRBY/PAUL SMITH cover!

FIRST TABLOID-SIZE ISSUE! MARK EVANIER’s new column, interviews with KURT BUSIEK and JOSÉ LADRONN, NEAL ADAMS on Kirby, Giant-Man overview, Kirby’s best 2-page spreads, 2000 Kirby Tribute Panel (MARK EVANIER, GENE COLAN, MARIE SEVERIN, ROY THOMAS, and TRACY & JEREMY KIRBY), huge Kirby pencils! Wraparound KIRBY/ADAMS cover!

KIRBY’S LEAST-KNOWN WORK! MARK EVANIER on the Fourth World, unfinished THE HORDE novel, long-lost KIRBY INTERVIEW from France, update to the KIRBY CHECKLIST, pencil gallery of Kirby’s leastknown work (including THE PRISONER, BLACK HOLE, IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB, TRUE DIVORCE CASES), westerns, and more! KIRBY/LADRONN cover!

(72-page magazine with COLOR) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 US

(84-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95 US

(68-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95 US

(68-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 US

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 US

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #33

KIRBY COLLECTOR #34

KIRBY COLLECTOR #35

KIRBY COLLECTOR #36

KIRBY COLLECTOR #37

KIRBY COLLECTOR #38

FANTASTIC FOUR ISSUE! Gallery of FF pencils at tabloid size, MARK EVANIER on the FF Cartoon series, interviews with STAN LEE and ERIK LARSEN, JOE SINNOTT salute, the HUMAN TORCH in STRANGE TALES, origins of Kirby Krackle, interviews with nearly EVERY WRITER AND ARTIST who worked on the FF after Kirby, & more! KIRBY/LARSEN and KIRBY/TIMM covers!

FIGHTING AMERICANS! MARK EVANIER on 1960s Marvel inkers, SHIELD, Losers, and Green Arrow overviews, INFANTINO interview on Simon & Kirby, KIRBY interview, Captain America PENCIL ART GALLERY, PHILIPPE DRUILLET interview, JOE SIMON and ALEX TOTH speak, unseen BIG GAME HUNTER and YOUNG ABE LINCOLN Kirby concepts! KIRBY and KIRBY/TOTH covers!

GREAT ESCAPES! MISTER MIRACLE pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER, MARSHALL ROGERS & MICHAEL CHABON interviews, comparing Kirby and Houdini’s backgrounds, analysis of “Himon,” 2001 Kirby Tribute Panel (WILL EISNER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN ROMITA, MIKE ROYER, & JOHNNY CARSON) & more! KIRBY/MARSHALL ROGERS and KIRBY/STEVE RUDE covers!

THOR ISSUE! Never-seen KIRBY interview, JOE SINNOTT and JOHN ROMITA JR. on their Thor work, MARK EVANIER, extensive THOR and TALES OF ASGARD coverage, a look at the “real” Norse gods, 40 pages of KIRBY THOR PENCILS, including a Kirby Art Gallery at TABLOID SIZE, with pin-ups, covers, and more! KIRBY covers inked by MIKE ROYER and TREVOR VON EEDEN!

“HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY!” MIKE ROYER interview on how he inks Jack’s work, HUGE GALLERY tracing the evolution of Jack’s style, new column on OBSCURE KIRBY WORK, MARK EVANIER, special sections on Jack’s TECHNIQUE AND INFLUENCES, comparing STAN LEE’s writing to JACK’s, and more! Two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!

“HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE KIRBY WAY!” PART 2: JOE SINNOTT on how he inks Jack’s work, HUGE PENCIL GALLERY, list of the art in the KIRBY ARCHIVES, MARK EVANIER, special sections on Jack’s technique and influences, SPEND A DAY WITH KIRBY (with JACK DAVIS, GULACY, HERNANDEZ BROS., and RUDE) and more! Two UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 US

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR Volumes 1-7 These colossal trade paperbacks reprint issues #1-30 of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR! Each volume also includes over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including uninked pencils from THE PRISONER, NEW GODS, FANTASTIC FOUR, CAPTAIN AMERICA, THOR, HUNGER DOGS, JIMMY OLSEN, SHIELD, and more! Complete your collection today! VOLUME 1 (240 pages) $24.95 VOLUME 2 (160 pages) $17.95 VOLUME 3 (176 pages) $19.95 VOLUME 4 (240 pages) $24.95 VOLUME 5 (224 pages) $24.95 VOLUME 6 (288 pages) $29.95 VOLUME 7 (288 pages) $29.95

DIGITAL EDITIONS OF #1-22 ARE COMING SOON! GO TO www.twomorrows.com FOR UPDATES AND TO ORDER!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #39

KIRBY COLLECTOR #40

KIRBY COLLECTOR #41

KIRBY COLLECTOR #42

KIRBY COLLECTOR #43

KIRBY COLLECTOR #44

FAN FAVORITES! Covering Kirby’s work on HULK, INHUMANS, and SILVER SURFER, TOP PROS pick favorite Kirby covers, Kirby ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT interview, MARK EVANIER, 2002 Kirby Tribute Panel (DICK AYERS, TODD McFARLANE, PAUL LEVITZ, HERB TRIMPE), pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by MIKE ALLRED and P. CRAIG RUSSELL!

WORLD THAT’S COMING! KAMANDI and OMAC spotlight, 2003 Kirby Tribute Panel (WENDY PINI, MICHAEL CHABON, STAN GOLDBERG, SAL BUSCEMA, LARRY LIEBER, and STAN LEE), P. CRAIG RUSSELL interview, MARK EVANIER, NEW COLUMN analyzing Jack’s visual shorthand, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by ERIK LARSEN and REEDMAN!

1970s MARVEL WORK! Coverage of ’70s work from Captain America to Eternals to Machine Man, DICK GIORDANO & MARK SHULTZ interviews, MARK EVANIER, 2004 Kirby Tribute Panel (STEVE RUDE, DAVE GIBBONS, WALTER SIMONSON, and PAUL RYAN), pencil art gallery, unused 1962 HULK #6 KIRBY PENCILS, and more! Kirby covers inked by GIORDANO and SCHULTZ!

1970s DC WORK! Coverage of Jimmy Olsen, FF movie set visit, overview of all Newsboy Legion stories, KEVIN NOWLAN and MURPHY ANDERSON on inking Jack, never-seen interview with Kirby, MARK EVANIER on Kirby’s covers, Bongo Comics’ Kirby ties, complete ’40s gangster story, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by NOWLAN and ANDERSON!

KIRBY AWARD WINNERS! STEVE SHERMAN and others sharing memories and neverseen art from JACK & ROZ, a never-published 1966 interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER on VINCE COLLETTA, pencils-toSinnott inks comparison of TALES OF SUSPENSE #93, and more! Covers by KIRBY (Jack’s original ’70s SILVER STAR CONCEPT ART) and KIRBY/SINNOTT!

KIRBY’S MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS! Coverage of DEMON, THOR, & GALACTUS, interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER, pencil art galleries of the Demon and other mythological characters, two never-reprinted BLACK MAGIC stories, interview with Kirby Award winner DAVID SCHWARTZ and F4 screenwriter MIKE FRANCE, and more! Kirby cover inked by MATT WAGNER!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #45

KIRBY COLLECTOR #46

KIRBY COLLECTOR #47

KIRBY COLLECTOR #48

KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

KIRBY COLLECTOR #51

Jack’s vision of PAST AND FUTURE, with a never-seen KIRBY interview, a new interview with son NEAL KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’S column, two pencil galleries, two complete ’50s stories, Jack’s first script, Kirby Tribute Panel (with EVANIER, KATZ, SHAW!, and SHERMAN), plus an unpublished CAPTAIN 3-D cover, inked by BILL BLACK and converted into 3-D by RAY ZONE!

Focus on NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and DARKSEID! Includes a rare interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’s column, FOURTH WORLD pencil art galleries (including Kirby’s redesigns for SUPER POWERS), two 1950s stories, a new Kirby Darkseid front cover inked by MIKE ROYER, a Kirby Forever People back cover inked by JOHN BYRNE, and more!

KIRBY’S SUPER-TEAMS, from kid gangs and the Challengers, to Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Super Powers, with unseen 1960s Marvel art, a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, author JONATHAN LETHEM on his Kirby influence, interview with JOHN ROMITA, JR. on his Eternals work, and more!

KIRBYTECH ISSUE, spotlighting Jack’s hightech concepts, from Iron Man’s armor and Machine Man, to the Negative Zone and beyond! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, TOM SCIOLI interview, Kirby Tribute Panel (with ADAMS, PÉREZ, and ROMITA), and covers inked by TERRY AUSTIN and TOM SCIOLI!

WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, wraparound Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more!

Bombastic EVERYTHING GOES issue, with a wealth of great submissions that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a “theme” issue! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JIM LEE and ADAM HUGHES, MARK EVANIER’s column, huge pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS, and more!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 US

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

Spotlights KIRBY OBSCURA, uncovering some of Jack’s most obscure work! Learn about an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered versions of KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING! Color Kirby covers!

THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! New interview with STAN LEE, a walking tour of where Lee & Kirby lived and worked in NY, re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a new missing page), MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on LEE & KIRBY, final interview with GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’s approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, Kirby pencil art gallery, complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, plus Kirby cover inked by GEORGE TUSKA!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 US

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95 US

STREETWISE Reprints Kirby’s 10-page story “Street Code,” plus NEW and classic autobiographical comics stories by: • BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH • SERGIO ARAGONÉS • MURPHY ANDERSON • JOE KUBERT • BRENT ANDERSON • NICK CARDY • RICK VEITCH • ROY THOMAS & JOHN SEVERIN • SAM GLANZMAN • PAUL CHADWICK • EVAN DORKIN • C.C. BECK • WALTER SIMONSON • ART SPIEGELMAN • Cover by STEVE RUDE • Foreword by WILL EISNER (160-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905047

JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST: GOLD EDITION The most thorough listing of KIRBY’s work ever published! NEWLY UPDATED GOLD EDITION compiles an additional decade’s worth of corrections and additions by top historians, in a new Trade Paperback format with premium paper for archival durability. It lists in exacting detail EVERY PUBLISHED COMIC featuring Kirby’s work, including dates, story titles, page counts, and inkers. It even CROSS-REFERENCES REPRINTS, and includes an extensive bibliography listing BOOKS, PERIODICALS, PORTFOLIOS, FANZINES, POSTERS, and other obscure pieces with Kirby’s art, plus a detailed list of Jack’s UNPUBLISHED WORK as well, including a complete listing of the over 5000-page archive of Kirby’s personal pencil art photocopies! (128-page trade paperback, with FREE digital edition) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 (Digital Edition only) $6.95 US

KIRBY FIVE-OH!

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

A new book covering the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 1938-1987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This TABLOID-SIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Takes the place of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: FEB084186 (Limited Edition Hardcover, with Kirby pencil art plate) $34.95

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Send letters to: THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR c/o TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 E-mail to: twomorrow@aol.com • See back issue excerpts at: www.twomorrows.com Your letter may be edited, and completely changed from its original version when we make a movie out of it.

[The “fantastic foursome” above—my family— has embarked on a campaign to visit at least one Wonder of the World each year. Here we are at the Grand Canyon, which was part of our West Coast trip to Comic-Con this summer. We stayed in a one-room, un-air conditioned cabin inside the National Park, took a raft ride through the bottom of the Canyon in the 120 degree heat, and had the time of our lives. It was the best family trip we’ve ever taken, and if you’ve never been, I can’t recommend it enough! My girls, Lily (9) and Hannah Rose (5) are growing too darn fast, so Pam and I try to spend as much time together as a family as we can. Don’t worry; in another 12 years or so, they’ll both be off to college, and I’ll have time to get TJKC out monthly if you want it that often! Before letters on #54, let’s hear from one of the readers of our new book THE THIN BLACK LINE, about inker Vince Colletta:] I was so glad to see someone finally devote a whole volume to the work of Vince Colletta. I commend TwoMorrows for printing something that has to be about as esoteric as any comic-related production could be. I, too, have had a love/hate relationship with Vince’s work for nearly 40 years now. It seemed to be the general consensus of most everyone interviewed for this project that Colletta was indeed talented, but very often kept that talent in reserve for the sake of speed and more productivity. I have to wonder what kind of work he would have turned in if he did not have the overwhelming expense of his Saddle River estate looming over him. I was so glad you were able to interview his son, who understandably defended his father and his comic book inking. For years I blamed Vince for his unnecessarily inferior work, until I realized that it was the editors who kept accepting such work who were responsible. Sure, comics are a business, and getting the product out on time is the bottom line, but sometimes a reprint would have been the better way to go. His command of the brush was as good as any Sinnott, Giacoia, or Royer, especially as evidenced by the splash of Odin on page 46. When he relied on the pen tip, he added many weak, counter-productive, distracting chicken scratchings. This is most puzzling when he erased people and other components on the 78

page in order to save time, then took more time than necessary noodling many poorly reproducible lines that detracted from the work. If these lines—the ones some people rave about when he inked Kirby’s THOR— had been done correctly and constructively, they would have indeed enhanced the pencils. But if hatching and feathering is done properly, those lines wind concentrically around a form (say, for instance, Thor’s muscular arms), re-enforcing the threedimensionality of that form or character. Vince would lay the lines down willy-nilly, some properly, but some indicating a flatness or opposite contour than what reality and common sense would tell is correct. In the case of inking Kirby, Vince (like some others) was trying to ink his very abstract and unconventional pencils in a standard, illustrative style. While I don’t fault any of the inkers who tried this on Kirby’s work, it very rarely worked. Wally Wood could do it, and Giacoia and Sinnott found a balancing middleground, while Royer finally delivered what Kirby apparently desired: someone to reproduce his work nearly verbatim. This made the most sense to me, because let’s face it, Kirby’s penciled pages were complete when they left his drawing table. Your reproduction of thousands of Jack’s photocopies over the past 15 years have made this very clear (not including the times he was doing just layouts for other artists to finish). I wish you could publish Kirby’s entire run on THOR using only the photostats you have, and insert Colletta’s inked pages where a copy of the original can’t be found. If the few pages in your book that are credited solely to Vince are indeed examples of his penciling and inking, then he was definitely a more talented penciler than inker. It’s a shame editors didn’t ask him to do more of it. Unfortunately, with most Colletta work, the truth is not always apparent. I sincerely doubt he inked all those prisoners (from IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB) on page 88. Many times he used assistants who seemed to be more talented than himself. Why he would allow such upstaging we’ll never know. Colletta had many strengths. He inked George Tuska, Curt Swan, Dick Dillin, Jose Delbo and a few others as well as anybody else could. No one can blame him for working hard to meet a deadline, collect a paycheck and provide for his family. I’m glad Jim Shooter made sure he always had work, but I wish he would have talked Vince into slowing down a little and giving his best for every assignment. Stan should have done the same thing years earlier, and if he claims he didn’t know Colletta was erasing and simplifying, then I guess that’s testament to his ability as an art director and editor. DC making him art director? That one still blows my mind after all these years. That

was not one of his strengths, and DC should have realized that. I think they let Colletta ink far more than should have been allowed, but once they gave him the title, what could they expect? The anecdote about Vinnie, Joe Staton, Joe Orlando and their conference to design the Huntress was funny, yet sad. Vince was not interested in creativity, only productivity and meeting the deadline. In any other business, that would be commendable, but comics-as-product not withstanding, there has to be some creativity and care taken in creation of the product or the art form will kill itself. Vince’s pen touched the pencils of more great illustrators than anyone else ever will, for good or ill, but now it’s all in the past. I thought your publication was very fair and unbiased in its presentation. For many of us who grew up enthralled by comic books and the power of their four-colored forays into other worlds and dimensions, the devil was always in the details of the poorly reproduced art that we loved and pored over time and time again. For Vince, the devil was also in the details that he decided to erase. David C. Zimmermann, St. Louis, MO

We’ve moved recently, but luckily DR. SEUSS’S THE 5000 FINGERS OF DR. T (1953) was one of the DVDs I had unpacked already. In a scene about 73 minutes into the movie, the boys have come off the buses and their suitcases are being checked and all toys and comics are being removed. One boy has a Jack Kirby comic in his suitcase: YOUNG ROMANCE #1 from Sept. 1947 of all things (see above). No wonder they blocked off the top half of the comic cover in red! Being able to read “Designed for the more adult readers of comics” would have required a lot of explaining. Even the word ballons and “All True Love Stories” text in the bottom righthand corner are done over in red. One wonders why they went to all this trouble and didn’t simply use a more “boy’s adventure” one. I guess Superman or Batman would have brought up copyright questions. Or was it an insider gag? Max Weremchuk, GERMANY From the article “More Thor To Explore”, reading Jack’s margin notes on that penciled page, I get a VERY different impression of what’s going on there than you guys did. It seems to me that Ego is drawing upon Thor’s mind and memories and making things “real” from them, using his control on his own planetary self to do so. The Recorder remarks on Ego’s ability to do that. And Ego says, “Thor’s mind is yielding a bonanza of excitement”. In other words, Thor seems to be under Ego’s influence and Ego seems to be probing the

mind of his fascinating visitor, possibly even recreating Asgard (a portion of it) for Ego’s edification. This might have even come from Thor’s initial foray to the Living Planet and simply been a Kirby sideroad that was deemed too much for the issue, or too many pages or whatever and had to be cut. It’s not hard to imagine Ego wondering where Thor came from and what his home world was like and then probing Thor’s mind for images and making his own version of Asgard right there—to “play” in (since he joyfully creates a sword and charges gleefully into battle.) I’m sure more will be revealed if you astute fellows continue to examine these issues. Pete Von Sholly, Sunland, CA I’m the 1000th person to say this, right? That unpublished THOR page (which was originally in that MASTERWORKS book) is dated 1967. Thus it’s twice-up. Thus it’s the unpublished THOR #133, page 8. Which, if you look at page 7, fits perfectly. There’s Ego, there’s the Recorder, there’s the “castle” built from Thor’s mind... Glen Gold, San Francisco, CA I was shocked and saddened to read about the death of R.J. “Robert” Vitone. Over the past few years, he and I developed an email and phone friendship based on our mutual love for Kirby and ’60s Marvel. Our Saturday chats by phone, when he wasn’t overwhelmed by customers (in his comic store) were happy ones for the most part. He sometimes complained about his health, saying things like, “You don’t want to know, young man,” and “Things aren’t getting any better, Jerry, I’m sorry to say.” Knowing of his enjoyment of S&K work, I suggested that he give me a few comments concerning his favorite GA Kirby cover. The results were printed in KIRBY FIVE-OH! and was followed up with his onepage compilation of anti-Hitler GA covers in #51, which I suggested he do—and also helped him with. He told me he was happy to contribute to the KIRBY COLLECTOR again. In ’08-’09, R.J. told me he was working on an exhaustive chronicle of the BOY COMMANDOS, but when I called occasionally to chat and the subject came up, he’d laugh and answer, “It just keeps on getting bigger and bigger, Jerry! I can’t seem to finish it!” And we’d both laugh. I explained to him that I always started with an “ending” in mind when I began my articles, so I’d know when to stop. Vitone also wanted to do a comparison of Simon and Kirby’s BLUE BOLT to Alex Raymond’s FLASH GORDON. Most likely, he never got to finish either. Sadder still is that a nice man is gone. Some of his articles on the King’s Golden Age characters for this ’zine were and remain my favorites. I just wanted to share a little information about one of the great Kirby collectors. Jerry Boyd, Torrance, CA

We know that Jack worked on large-size original art boards for most of his career, but Marvel at some point decided to reduce the size of the boards (and possibly the printed physical size of the issues, too). If there’s a master chronology of Jack’s work, then there must be a point running across the FANTASTIC FOUR, THOR, and any other work that Jack was drawing at the time, when the original art was reduced. Do we know which issues in each series this occurred in? Kirk Groeneveld, Athens, OH (Mark Evanier has reported that Jack first moved from “twice-up” to small-size art on TALES OF SUSPENSE #95, cover-dated November 1967. Concurrent work would’ve been THOR #146 and FANTASTIC FOUR #68, and the lettering does look different than the issues prior. Check out David Marshall’s great article on the subject at: http://www.artofthecomicbook.com/history/ art-reduction.htm) On page 11 (TJKC #54), you indicate that the artwork from FF #40 is inked by Vince Colletta except for the Daredevil figures that are inked by Wally Wood. This is wrong. If you look closely at the page, the Daredevil figures are most definitely inked by Colletta. Wood did ink the Daredevil figure on the cover of the book, but not on this page. Jim Long, Annandale, VA (Oops!) Into the ongoing battle for more recognition for Jack as a true co-creator of Marvel’s success, I offer this quote from Stan Lee, as reported in an interview in COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE #61 (July 1998): “I also really liked the great stories in the [THOR] book (which were later called “Tales of Asgard”)... most of those were dreamed up by Jack because he did a lot of research on Norse gods... more than I did.” Excelsior! Craig McNamara, Shoreview, MN I enjoyed “The Lost FF Wrap-Up” in TJKC #54 even if it kinda felt like homework. And, like homework, I didn’t understand it all. Richard A. Scott says, “Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott had 8 panels included” in FF:TLA. But then by my count he lists 10: Page 8: Panels 4,5 and 7 are new Frenz/ Sinnott panels Page 9: Three panels (2-4) of Frenz and Sinnott artwork are utilized. Page 10: Panels 1-3 are new Frenz pencils, new Sinnott inks. Page 19: Panel 5 is original Frenz pencils and Sinnott inks. Teacher, I can’t make the count come out right! Micki St. James, San Jose, CA The Tuska cover and interview were very moving under the sad circumstances of George’s passing—you were right to change your cover. The artist will be sorely missed, especially for his wonderful work on Iron Man, Luke Cage and a lot of other characters. I loved reading the long “Formative FF” article, with its many quotations from Jack and Stan, giving the feeling of having the info firsthand from them! I enjoyed it, knowing how difficult that sort of writing is. Concerning the “Lost FF Wrap-up” article, thanks for the credits to Fred Manzano and I for providing the cover to the Marvel book (especially since Marvel forgot to thank us). Fred, who’s one of the best comic book specialists in Europe and who owns the Déesse comic book shop in Paris (the greatest place for US comic books in France), really deserves the praise for his involvement and generosity on the book.

With “More Thor to Explore?”, you open a new Pandora’s box and it seems unlikely we’ll know the truth about it one day, unless someone finds some THOR photostats of the period. It seems Kirby and Lee had already stopped communicating on the stories as soon as the mid ’60s—Jack telling his own stories and Stan only controlling them with strong editing. I also liked the article on the cover dates. Even if it didn’t explain the whole process, at least it gives some clues. Thanks also for that alternate FF ANNUAL #1 cover, which I haven’t seen before! That’s one of the many things I particularly enjoy with TJKC, along with these wonderful FF pencil pages! Jean Depelley, FRANCE Mr. Srutkowski, you’re not the only one who’s a stickler for details! The fact that 1960s Marvel had two different release dates for books published in the same month has bugged me for decades, ever since that fateful day in late August 1967 when I purchased my first two Marvel Comics: FANTASTIC FOUR #68, coverdated November 1967; and AVENGERS #45, cover-dated October 1967. Even at a tender age I noticed the difference in the months. The same thing happened the next month: the FF was dated three months ahead of the actual month of publication, while the AVENGERS was dated two months ahead. And as I started collecting more Marvel Comics, I realized that the FF, SPIDEY, and the split books—ASTONISH, SUSPENSE and STRANGE TALES—all were dated three months ahead, while the AVENGERS, X-MEN, SGT. FURY, THOR, and DD were dated a mere two months ahead. Boy, did this “inconsistency” bug me! I would guess Marvel’s practice of having two different cover dates for comics published in the month had something to do with the limited amount of monthly titles Marvel was allowed to publish at the time (due to the restrictive distribution deal with Independent News/DC). Perhaps some creative juggling of dates satisfied the monthly quota, hmmm? Anyway, four years later, in 1971, my family and I were on vacation, in a small town in the Catskills. Being in unfamiliar surroundings and away from my friendly neighborhood comic book store, I was worried sick about the logistics of buying that month’s Marvels. I finally came upon a general store that had a spinner rack with a few comics, one of which was AVENGERS #93. Now, this issue was very different from the last AVENGERS comic I’d bought, because AVENGERS #93 was a double-sized issue and it was divided into “chapters,” plus it cost a whopping 25 cents! But I knew it wasn’t the AVENGERS ANNUAL; so what had happened to the normal 15 cent comic? Then the kicker—this issue was coverdated November! But it was August, and I had expected to find the October AVENGERS issue! To this day I still remember the nausea and panic I felt for the rest of that vacation, thinking I had somehow missed an issue! When the vacation was finally over and we returned home (where I could check my AVENGERS collection), I was sooo relieved to see that the previous issue was #92 and that I had not missed an issue, despite there being no October 1971 AVENGERS issue. (As I found out much later on, the one month 25 cent price increase/page increase was part of Martin Goodman’s strategy to undercut DC). As you can see, the great article brought back a lot of vivid memories! As for the rest of TJKC #54: fantastic issue as always. Mike Gartland’s conversation/interview with George Tuska was very touching. That Kirby Namor/Cap in ice from CA #112 (a great rework of Kirby’s own original from AVENGERS #4) is extraordinary in so many ways, I’m so glad you

put it on the cover. Just stunning. Seeing the pencils from FF #90, specifically page 14’s first panel—in which Jack drew Crystal sans her headband, even though she’s sporting it in the rest of that issue—makes me wonder why Sinnott didn’t add it when he inked the page (it’s missing in the printed comic too). Surely he knew what she looked like by then! Sharon Karibian, New York, NY A few notes of #54: FF #102/108: I think Bart is dead on the money about the missing panel for page 8! Can’t agree with Ruud about page 7 though. At best, I think, some of Kirby’s roughness (teeth, etc.) may have been smoothed out by Joe Sinnott, as he often did, but everything else about the page seems pure Kirby to me. But that still leaves the problem that page 9 creates—that is, how come on page 10 the F-car is just arriving? Was this Jack not paying attention? Or is that panel still wrongly placed? If so, where on earth would it go? Bart’s idea of placing it in the middle of the page would be better, since panels 2 and 3 follow page 9 well. But that long panel not only has the F-Car going the wrong way, but the casual stance of Janus is wrong. So it can’t be a shot of the F-car leaving. It definitely feels like Kirby has drawn this as being Reed and Sue’s first arrival. And the border notes alongside panel 2 reinforce this. (Side note: that top, long panel is a BEAUTIFUL piece of art by Jack. Look at the fence and the detail in the houses—all superbly enhanced by Joe S!) I can’t find any other place for that panel to go, so, unless it was meant to be a very quick flashback after page 9 to how Reed was ‘amazed at the mildness of the Prof’ (which I doubt), it seems to me Jack blew it. FF #102/108 redux: Bruce M’s take on page 9 is brilliant! LOL stuff! Wonderful to see the pencil pages of Meskin and John Buscema. You suggested back in TJKC #46 that you had more stats of Don Heck’s pencils from AVENGERS #18. Please find an excuse to run them too. Great decision regarding the cover swap! Shane Foley, AUSTRALIA

#55 Credits: John Morrow, Editor/Designer Lily Morrow, Scanning John Morrow, Proofreader Rand Hoppe, Webmaster Tom Ziuko, Colorist Chris Fama, Art Restoration SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OUR CONTRIBUTORS: Sergio Aragonés Michael Aushenker Jerry Boyd Dwight Boyd Mark DiFruscio Alec Dixon Mark Evanier Chris Fama Barry Forshaw Scott Fresina Merlin Haas Heritage Auctions Rand Hoppe Randy Klauzer Sean Kleefeld Mell Lazarus Stan Lee Darrell McNeil Bill Morrison Steve Robertson Mike Royer Bill Schelly Paul Smith Michael Stewart Mike Thibodeaux Kenn Thomas Maggie Thompson Keith Tucker Rick Veitch Jim Young Bruce Younger Tom Ziuko and of course The Kirby Estate If we’ve forgotten anyone, please let us know!

Contribute & Get Free Issues! The Jack Kirby Collector is a notfor-profit publication, put together with submissions from Jack’s fans around the world. We don’t pay for submissions, but if we print art or articles you submit, we’ll send you a free copy of the issue it appears in. Here’s a tentative list of upcoming themes, but we treat these themes very loosely, so anything you write may fit somewhere. So get writing, and send us copies of your art! GOT A THEME IDEA? PLEASE WRITE US! #57: FF’S 50th ANNIVERSARY! Special issue celebrating the golden anniversary of the comic that started the Marvel Age! #58: THE IMMORTAL KIRBY! It’s gods, gods, and more gods, from Atlas and the Fourth World to Thor, Eternals and beyond! #59: JACK KIRBY: WRITER! A look at the good, bad, and ugly of the oft-maligned writing skills of the King. Here’s your chance to weigh in!

NEXT ISSUE: #56 focuses on “Unfinished Sagas”—series, stories, and arcs Jack never got to properly finish, and concepts that never got off the ground. From TRUE DIVORCE CASES and RAAM to KOBRA and DINGBATS, there’ll be gobs of unused art and text, including a complete story from SOUL LOVE! We’ll also present the rarely-seen 1946 BOY EXPLORERS story “Trip to the Moon”, two Kirby Tribute Panels, plus MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, pencil art galleries, and more! The deadline for contributions is January 1 (Happy New Year!) and it ships in Spring 2011!

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Submit artwork as: 1) Color or B&W photocopies. 2) 300ppi TIFF or JPEG scans Submit articles as: 1) E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com 2) ASCII or RTF text files. 3) Typed or laser printed pages. Please include background information whenever possible.

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Parting Shot

Ruby-Spears apparently had a lot of hope for the idea of Animal Hospital, a concept that Jack contributed to the animation company. In addition to pitching it as an animated TV show, Kirby actually produced a handful of sample daily newspaper strips as well. If comic strips existed in Kamandi’s “Earth After Disaster”, they’d have likely looked a lot like this! Animal Hospital TM & ©2010 Ruby-Spear Productions.

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