JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR SIXTY-EIGHT
SUMMER 2016
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Contents
THE
KEY CHARACTERS! OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (the five keys to Kirby’s character) KEY 1: PATRIOTIC . . . . . . .4 INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 (Jack’s Hour 25 interview) KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 (Norris Burroughs on Sgt. Fury #13)
C o l l e c t o r
ISSUE #68, SUMMER 2016
2016 EISNER AWARDS NOMINEE: BEST COMICS-RELATED PERIODICAL
KEY 2: DEDICATED . . . . .28 SCENERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 (seven panels of incidental brilliance) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 (Stan Lee was dedicated too) EMOTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 (Jack’s romance work, hiding in plain sight) GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 (images of Jack’s character traits) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .45 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) KEY 3: OBSERVANT . . . . .46 INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . .48 (what’s behind the Panther’s mask?) MYTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 (the perfection of Thena) WORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 (decoding the road to Armagetto) KEY 4: INNOVATIVE . . . . .62 ?! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 (what if JHS@M&WtNGi2tMU?) TECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 (Jack Kirby: writing “Machine”) KEY 5: INSPIRATIONAL . .74 KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . .76 (Adam McGovern explores Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (Mark Evanier moderates the 2015 WonderCon Tribute Panel, with Neal Adams, Darwyn Cooke, Len Wein, Crystal Skillman, Fred Van Lente, and Paul Levine) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .92 (cause you can never get too much Hidden Harry) PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 (about that Spidey figure from FF Annual #3...) Cover inks & color: PAUL CHADWICK
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The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 23, No. 68, Summer 2016. Published more or less quarterly by and © TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $14 postpaid US ($18 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $45 Economy US, $58 Expedited US, $67 International. Editorial package © TwoMorrows Publishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912
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COPYRIGHTS: A.I.M., Adventures Into Weird Worlds, Balder, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Black Widow, Blue Diamond, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Mar-Vell, Devil Dinosaur, Dr. Doom, Enchantress, Eternals, Executioner, Fantastic Four, Hawkeye, Herbie, Human Torch, Ikaris, Inhumans, Jimmy Woo, Karkas, Karnilla, Loki, Love Romances, Machine Man, Makarri, Marvel Girl, Maximus, Moon Boy, Moon Girl, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Little, My Own Romance, Nick Fury, Odin, Recorder, Reject, Rick Jones, Sgt. Fury, Sif, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Teen-Age Romance, Ten-For, The Changeling, Thena, Thing, Thor, Warriors Three, Wizard, X-Men, Zuras TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Bekka, Ben Boxer, Big Barda, Black Racer, Brooklyn, Count Dragorin, Dan Turpin, Darkseid, Demon, Desaad, Dr. Bedlam, Dr. Canus, Esak, Fastbak, Flippa Dippa, Forever People, Glorious Godfrey, Granny Goodness, Highfather, Himon, Hunger Dogs, Jimmy Olsen, Kalibak, Kamandi, Lightray, Losers, Mantis, Mark Moonrider, Metron, Mister Miracle, Newsboy Legion, On The Road To Armagetto, Orion, Shilo Norman, Slig, Sonny Sumo, Superman, Ted Brown, Toxl TM & © DC Comics • Captain Victory, Egghead, Klavus, The Ship, The Visitor On Highway Six TM & © Jack Kirby Estate • Futuremen, Harry The Head, Hidden Harry, Turbo Teen TM & © Ruby-Spears Productions • Fighting American TM & © Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estates • Destroyer Duck TM & © Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby Estate • Avenger, Justice Inc. TM & © Street & Smith or successor in interest • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TM & © Mirage Studios • Iron God, Uncle Sam TM & © the respective owner
Innerview
Hour 25 Interview
Jack Kirby interviewed by J. Michael Straczynski and Larry DiTillio on the April 13, 1990 episode of Mike Hodel’s Hour 25 radio show. Transcribed by Rand Hoppe. You can hear the audio of this interview at: http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/effect/2012/06/27/19900413-interview/ (below) The Newsboy Legion (minus Flippa Dippa), from Jack’s sketchbook. (next page) Kirby had an uncanny ability to capture accurate likenesses, even in his iconic cartoony style. Shown here is actor Jimmy Finlayson, who Jack based the character Felix MacFinney on, from these pencils for Jimmy Olsen #144, page 15. (We’re not sure who “Ginny” was based on, but we’re smitten with her!)
J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI: Our guest tonight is someone whose work I’ve been reading since I could read…
you fellows seem to feel the same way toward the medium that I do, so I expect it to develop into a kind of kinship that I really enjoy.
LARRY DiTILLIO: Since you were a toddler, which is a frightening concept.
STRACZYNSKI: We’re looking forward to it. And, let me just start off going into your background a little bit with you. You came out of the Lower East Side originally, is that correct? New York?
STRACZYNSKI: It was like two weeks ago… I looked at the pictures before I could see the words, understand the words, and I began to get the stories behind the words, and that’s Jack Kirby. One of the foremost creators and writers and artists in comic book history, quite frankly, who’s given us such wonderful books as Fantastic Four, Thor, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Sgt. Fury, Captain America, Challengers of the Unknown, the list goes on forever. New Gods. And he’s with us tonight and this is a true pleasure for us to have you here, Mr. Kirby.
KIRBY: Yes, I did. New York’s Lower East Side. I was born on Essex Street and my family moved to 131 Suffolk Street, which wasn’t a big move in those days and was still the Lower East Side. I grew up there, I grew up on Suffolk Street. I went to PS 20 which was one of the schools there. But the only thing that bothered me as I grew up is, I found out I didn’t like the East Side! So, I began to take long walks. I found 42nd Street. I found 44th Street, and I went further uptown and I met the people who turned out the newspapers. I met one reporter who had upended a telephone book, and was shooting golf balls through the book, and I suddenly decided, well, that’s a job for me.
KIRBY: It’s a pleasure for me to be here and certainly,
STRACZYNSKI: [laughs] Now you say that you wanted to get out of there, but certainly in a lot of your books that came later on, the “Newsboy Legion” and Boy Commandos, you used those kinds of characters, rough street kind of characters, a lot, as kids. KIRBY: Well, you’re bound to, because I imagine they become part of what you know, what you grow up with, what life hands to you, and you react that way. And I’m glad, in a way, because later in life I had to use that as kind of an attitude in ways that probably saved my life. STRACZYNSKI: How much of Suffolk is in Yancy Street? KIRBY: Oh, all of it is there. But so is the story. I come from a storytelling family. All of the immigrants on the Lower East Side were storytellers. My family happened to be Austrian immigrants and they told their share of stories. I think the young people were closer to their parents, anyway, at that time, and they absorbed all of this. They absorbed the storytelling. Many of them used it to build a professional life. I don’t mean as writers, exactly. But let’s face it, any businessman has to tell a good story in order to sell his merchandise. And so I think that kind of thing is helpful. STRACZYNSKI: Was it a rough neighborhood? KIRBY It was a rough neighborhood, and the practice would be that, you would stand out in 6
the gutter while the trucks would try to get around you from both sides. You’d look for somebody to fight or somebody to chase, and see how you could stand up against two guys or three guys and how many of your friends you could find that would help out and, of course, that was the routine. We used to do it when we came out of school. I had a brother, he’s passed away now, he was five years younger than I was, but he was 6'1" and a big, heavy, young fellow. I’d come out of school and there was this large leg sticking out from under a pile of guys. I’d have to pull him out. [laughs] The situation would develop along those lines. STRACZYNSKI: While I enjoyed… I found first, the super-hero and horror books and found afterward the “Newsboy Legion” and similar books like that. What always appealed to me about them, was that in most of the comics at that time, the kids were drawn very straight-laced, very well dressed, they were blond and blue-eyed and they were non-threatening, whereas the kids in “Newsboy Legion” and Boy Commandos were kids, these were rough kids with bowler hats and the rest of it… KIRBY: Oh yes, I admit that, that I was a bit showy; I felt that putting on a good show was ideal for any kind of entertainment. I was a moviegoer. My mother took me to the movies when I was very young. And I remained a movie person. I still am a movie person. I’m still an entertainment person. And so, I’ll put on a show. When I draw, that’s what I’m doing. I’m performing. I’m not drawing. I don’t want to be Rembrandt and live forever. I just want to be Jack Kirby having a great time drawing and putting on a good show that might interest others. And so, that’s the kind of thing that’s been my life. It was my life in New York, it’s my life in California, and I enjoy it!
no urge to own a clothing store. I had no urge… oh, I was once smitten with the idea of being a crooked politician. STRACZYNSKI: [laughs] Before it was in vogue! KIRBY: No! It was in vogue! It was a natural way of things where I came from. And the crooked politicians were having a great time, and they were enjoying life! I watched them in the restaurants as I skated by. So, I told my mother many a time, that I wanted to be a crooked politician, and of course, she’d never hear of that! There wasn’t anybody alive in New York at that time, who didn’t listen to their mother. The gangsters would call the cops if you insulted anybody’s mother. And so, mothers were sacred. And what my mother said, was the word! And I said nothing more.
DiTILLIO: I’ve got a question. We’ve heard how the storytelling started. How did the artwork start? How did the drawing start? What’s your background there? KIRBY: Well, the drawing started with the fact that I could do it! I know that anybody can draw, if they want to. All you have to do is want to! Now, anybody can be an atomic physicist if they want to. All you have to do is want to. I had no urge to be an atomic physicist. I had 7
An ongoing examination of Kirby’s art and compositional skills
Sgt. Fury #13 Ultimate Kinetics aptain America was created at a time when Jack Kirby, along with a substantial segment of this country’s citizens, realized that the evils of Nazism had to be dealt with and countered by the forces of democracy. When he returned to the US in 1945 after having served his country in France under the command of George Patton, Kirby had seen firsthand just what it took to defeat the evils that Hitler had wrought. Decades later, in 1963 working with Stan Lee at Timely/ Marvel again, Kirby created Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, a team of soldiers that must have brought him back psychologically and emotionally to his days in the service. In the 13th issue, Kirby featured his super-soldier Captain America in a story that for me represents the epitome of tour de force dynamic storytelling. It is also a very compelling story. Now, some people have said that Sgt. Fury was Burt Lancaster and some have said that he was Ralph Meeker, but we can be certain that he was Jack Kirby, or at least represented Kirby as he idealized himself. The cigar of course is a dead giveaway. So we can essentially think of this story being about Kirby as a soldier in 1940s Nazi-occupied France meeting his creation Captain America, and fighting side-by-side with him. Kirby pours all of his energy into this tale. Not only are his figures exploding with kinetic energy, they are placed for the most part in complex compositions of deep space perspective. In nearly every panel there are multiple planes, consisting of background, mid-ground and foreground, and Kirby uses elements throughout the space in support of his figures to make them come alive. Deep space perspective is a subject that artist Burne Hogarth has discussed in his Dynamic Anatomy and Dynamic Figure Drawing volumes. Kirby had internalized and utilized these same concepts in his work decades ago. Ideally, the figure should be designed as a three-dimensional shape/mass moving in the confines of panel space, which must be arranged convincingly in order to be believable. Hogarth states that the position of the torso is of primary importance in the dynamism of the figure in space. The torso is composed of the rib barrel and the pelvis, and these can move in contrapuntal directions in relation to each other. The upper and lower portions of the torso, moving in opposition, can create more dynamism in the figure. Also, wherever there are joints in the body, there is an opportunity to depict more contrapuntal movement. The pivot points of the shoulder and elbow, for instance, can create elliptical arcs of motion that increase dynamism. Kirby, even more than Hogarth, was a master of this, particularly when he would also utilize a counter movement of the head. Look at this picture of Captain America on the cover of Sgt. Fury #13. Notice how the left side of his rib barrel is twisted forward and to the
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scarcity of other background elements, the positions of the figures of Bucky and the Howlers do give the Cap figure greater forward momentum. After this explosive cover, the book unfolds gradually. One gets the feeling that Kirby wants to take his time developing this particular story, perhaps because he wants to say something about soldiers and heroes as people. We first see Fury and his girlfriend watching a newsreel in a theater. The newsreel film gives us a brief glimpse of Captain America and Bucky in action in order to set the stage for their appearance. Right away, we see that Fury is jealous of Captain America’s fame and sees him as a grandstanding glory hound. Fury and his girl repair to a local pub for a cup of tea and a run-in with Fury’s nemesis Bull McGiveney and a certain Private Steve Rogers. This scene [previous page] at the Pig and Whistle pub is one of the most well balanced panels that I’ve ever seen. It’s not chock full of explosive dynamic Kirby action, but is very effective in establishing a setting for a pivotal moment later in the story. It also shows Kirby’s extraordinary ability to set a plot in motion and establish character in a single panel mise-en-scène. First we see Sgt. Bull McGiveney enter the pub on the left, and his sloping left shoulder leads the eye to the pipe-smoking figure in blue, then down the white hat of the sailor, to finally rest on the seated figure of Pvt. Rogers drinking coffee. Rogers’ right arm and the edge of the white table then lead us to the teasipping Sgt. Fury. The circular composition continues to lead the eye around and back to the left to Pamela Hawley and back to Pvt. Rogers. His unassuming, self-absorbed pose is the focus of the composition. As the story progresses, the readers soon discover that Pvt. Rogers is in reality Captain America, who with his young partner Bucky make their way across the English channel to Nazi-occupied France, where they proceed to interrupt a German firing squad [above]. In this third example, we first see a striking panoramic deep space perspective shot of Nazi soldiers on a street, and then in Panel Two we see Captain America and Bucky perched on a rooftop overlooking them. The panel is powerful, showing Cap’s figure with legs spread
right, with the right arm moving back, while the pelvis is turned directly forward. The left leg is angled back with its knee moving to the right while the right leg is moving forward but with a wide step leftward. The left arm and the shield are forcefully thrusting out of the upper right edge of the frame. Even the head is turned slightly and tilted to the left. The counterpoint arrangement of the figure creates extreme dynamic tension. With this figure placed in the foreground of the page, it appears to be leaping out of the canvas at you. Although this composition doesn’t depict a particularly deep space due to the relative 25
Seven Panels of
Scenery
by Shane Foley
Incidental Brilliance
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his little piece of Kirby appreciation was inspired by one panel in particular in one of Jack Kirby’s least respected Fantastic Four issues. Every time I see it I am in awe of the man who, even when coasting along
and not feeling particularly inspired, could not help but throw in artistic wonders. A man who couldn’t help but draw evocative elements into ordinary scenes to inspire a feeling of awe and wonder. As I thought about this little panel I thought of six other panels that have inspired similar feelings of wonderment. Not just feelings of “Gosh! This guy’s good!” but feelings of “Why on earth did he bother?” I could have called this piece “Unnecessary Brilliance”— because most of what I’ll describe could be left out of the story and it wouldn’t matter. But then, this sort of brilliance in the incidentals of stories is yet another element of what made Kirby the standout giant he is. So in that sense, what I’m describing is not ‘unnecessary,’ but they are certainly in the ‘Incidentals’ of the drawing. And I don’t know why these seven panels in particular leap out at me in this particular way more than most others. But leap out they do. I think a similar type of wonderment was described in TJKC #36 (2002) on page 57, where the writer calls our attention to Morduck’s houseplant in Thor #118. Kirby did not have to include that plant. The story would not have suffered a whit if he drew a geranium! And a geranium (or some such) is about what 99% of the most brilliant artists on Earth would have drawn—and who could blame them? But (usually) not Kirby. Here are my seven examples. That they are all from ’60s Marvel books is perhaps because the ’60s were the time when Kirby combined his new approach, which flowered in the ’70s, with his equally powerful yet so different ’50s work. Perhaps. I don’t really know. With my first inspiration left for last, here they are: THOR #141, ”TALES OF ASGARD,” PAGE 1 (left) Counting the idol, there are 19 figures on this page. 19! It would have worked very well with only 10! There’s a lot of background detail too. This panel delightfully surprises me every time I see it. (We note that this page was inked by Vince Colletta, so the question could be asked: “Did Kirby actually draw more than 19 figures?” But surely not! This is great inking by VC!)
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THOR ANNUAL #2, PAGE 14 (above) This page is amazing! It’s a watchtower with a sentry. But what a spectacular and awe-inspiring watchtower with a sentry! No castle turret here. There is nothing like any older visions of Asgard or any period tournament. Actually, there is nothing remotely like any building anywhere, only the hint of an arena. Just spectacular design that goes well beyond what any comic artist was expected to deliver. Mind blowing artistry! (While in Thor’s neck of the woods, I’d like to mention a couple of great Stan Lee moments that always crack me up. In Thor’s first Annual, there’s a brilliant two-page spread by Kirby of Asgard. Most of Lee’s captions are unnecessary and trite—but there, bottom right is an arrow pointing off the page “To Shopping Center.” Pitch perfect to my sense of humor! And in Thor #131, page 12, the Rigellians have captured Thor and are talking in typical grandiose Lee style when one says, “Place the proton cage within the ship, Inspector. The hour grows late!” To which the other replies, “Since we receive no additional compensation for overtime inspecting, you may be assured I will not waste a single galacto-moment!” Ha! I love it! I guess many now, in hindsight, don’t hold this humor in very high regard, but as kids we always wallowed in this stuff. And to my mind, examples like this still hold up well. I find the tongue-in-cheek approach the perfect foil for Kirby’s grand visions. It’s not ‘camp’—like the TV Batman—nor is it playing it for embarrassed laughs, implying it’s all really too ridiculous.) FANTASTIC FOUR #94, PAGE 7, PANEL 1 (top right) Johnny and Ben get to their bedroom in Agatha Harkness’ weird house— and look at the detail Kirby puts into that one panel! He didn’t really need to 31
Myth
The Perfection of Thena by Mr. MacLean (we’re sorry, we don’t know the author’s first name—please contact us for credit!)
(below) Thena from Jack’s sketchbook. (next page) The gang’s all here, led by Thena in Eternals #6 (Dec. 1976). Jack always depicted her as a strong leader, as on the pencils from issue #10, page 12 (shown on page 52).
ack Kirby’s Eternals series, created at Marvel in the mid ’70s, is often seen as one of his lesser efforts, at least in comparison with the multi-title Fourth World epic so unfairly aborted at DC; it has even been referred to as a sort of “Fourth-World-lite,” a relatively uninspired rehash of ideas which he had given a more profound treatment in that earlier set of books. My view is that The Eternals occupies a unique position in the Kirby canon, one at a level equal to that of the Fourth World, with which it does have some interesting parallels, but to which it gives up nothing in terms of depth and resonance. This essay is an attempt to articulate why I
feel this way about the series, via an analysis of one of its most fascinating and overlooked characters, Thena, particularly the three-issue story of which she is the protagonist (Eternals #8, 9, and 10). Thena is for me one of the most attractive and interesting characters ever to appear in Marvel comics. Kirby was quite subtle in his portrayal of her, and since he is usually seen as anything but subtle, it is not too surprising that, in my view, later Eternals writers did not understand or simply didn’t notice what he was doing. In order to give some idea of what I believe Kirby was attempting with this character, it will first be necessary to go into the background of her mythological namesake, Athena.
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Athena The goddess Pallas Athena is in many ways a unique individual among the twelve Olympians of Greek myth. In the very patriarchal ancient Greek culture she was for some reason given special status, often being the only Olympian, with Zeus, to be honored alongside regional gods in the rites dedicated to those local deities. Karl Kerenyi describes her as second only to Zeus in the ancient religion of which the surviving Greek myths are our main source of information [The Gods of the Greeks 7.2]. She often appears with Zeus and a (variant) third god or goddess as part of a trinity of specially honored gods at many locations in the ancient Greco-Roman world. Athena is described by Robert Graves in his exhaustive compilation of Greek myth [The Greek Myths 25.1] as follows: “Although a goddess of war, she gets no pleasure from battle, as Ares and Eris [Strife] do, but rather from settling disputes and upholding the law by pacific means. She bears no arms in time of peace and, if ever she needs any, will borrow a set from Zeus. Her mercy is great… Yet, once engaged in battle she never loses the day… Many gods, Titans, and giants would gladly have married [her], but she has repulsed all advances.” Athena was born from the head of Zeus, fully-grown and clad in armour. She is the only god, besides Zeus himself, who is both capable of and permitted to wield Zeus’s Cyclops-forged thunderbolts. According to one myth, she was the only god to stand her ground before the initial onslaught of the monstrous Typhon; all the rest, Zeus included, fled to Egypt in animal form (incidentally enabling the story to provide an explanation for the 50
theriomorphic appearance of the Egyptian gods). She is described by the notoriously misogynistic Hesiod, who is with Homer one of the prime sources, both for the ancient Greeks and for ourselves, of information about the gods, as equal to her father (Zeus) in strength and intelligence [Theogony 895], and she is the only god never to have been defeated in any battle. In fact the goddess Nike [Victory] is closely associated with her, and may be seen as a personification of one of her aspects. The role of the goddess which is perhaps best known to readers today is that of protectress of mortal heroes such as Heracles, Achilles, Odysseus, and Diomedes. Several of the Twelve Labours of Heracles are accomplished only with her crucial aid, and we see her performing a similar function in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Argonautika, as well as in the exploits of many other famous heroes such as Cadmus, Bellerophon, Tydeus, and Perseus. Finally, Athena is unique in that, while she is the Olympian goddess par excellence, she has strong chthonic associations, as evidenced by the snakes that often appear in her representations, as well as the story of Erichthonios, which will be explored below.
to the creation of an entirely different character. In her first appearance (issues #5 and #6) Thena is presented as a calmly forceful personality who, as soon as she is informed of the Deviant invasion, takes charge of a quite serious situation: New York is under siege, and the human forces cannot cope with Deviant military technology. Ikaris, who has characteristically bitten off a little more than he can chew, has been captured and immobilized by the Deviants, and Sersi, hampered by Margo’s presence, has also been captured. Thena at once turns this debacle completely around, attacking and defeating, with Makarri’s aid, a large squadron of the Deviants, and then arranging a truce in which the Deviants agree to cease all hostilities and return all prisoners (Ikaris, Sersi, and Margo), in return for—nothing, really. No one questions her right to act and speak for the Eternals as a whole, and she herself does not defend it or even assert it verbally. She simply does so, and everyone accepts her as the voice of authority in the absence of Zuras. Even Sersi, who behaves to pretty well everyone—Eternal, Deviant, and human alike—in her customary teasing and irreverent manner, is relatively serious when she addresses Thena. In fact, Thena and Zuras are the only two characters with whom she usually drops her otherwise flippant tone. All this indicates that Thena is an object of unusual respect among the Eternals. Note also the manner in which she uses force when necessary (the Deviants have already attacked and must be repulsed), but immediately turns to negotiation as soon as it is possible. Thena is also the only Eternal ever shown sharing counsel with Zuras in his Chamber of Command, as she is doing in her very first appearance when Makarri brings the news of the Deviants’ attack and the capture of Sersi. Thena is also, in striking parallel with her namesake, the only Eternal able to wield the bolts of Zuras, other than Zuras himself of course. The other attributes of Athena—mercy, the characteristic combination of immense power and gentleness, patroness of heroes, and chthonic associations—will be discussed below.
Thena & Athena It is my opinion that Kirby followed his model quite closely when he created Thena. Like the Olympian goddess from whom her name is derived, Thena is a unique (for comics) combination of powerful warrior and gentle mother figure. Her relationship with the Reject and Karkas mirrors in some ways that of Athena with various ancient Greek heroes, and also has interesting parallels to the myth of Athena and Erichthonios. Just as Athena is the only other god who has both the power and the permission to wield Zeus’s thunderbolts, so is Thena the only other Eternal who can use the “bolts of Zuras.” Just as Athena has an especially close relationship with Zeus, and is often referred to as his favourite child, so is Thena specially close to her father Zuras. She is the only Eternal shown at his side in his seat of power on Olympus. She acts as the de facto leader of the Eternals in countering the initial Deviant attack of New York City, defeating the Deviants and setting the terms for the truce.
The Myth of Erichthonios One of the strangest myths involving Athena is the story of Erichthonios: Hephaistos tried to have sexual intercourse with the virgin warrior goddess, who repulsed him without difficulty; his semen fell down to the earth, fertilizing it, so that Gaia gave birth to a half snake/half human creature. When Gaia, and all the other divinities, refused to have anything to do with the monstrosity,
Thena and the Eternals It seems clear to me that Thena, as conceived by Kirby, was unquestionably the pre-eminent Eternal after her father Zuras, both in power and in intelligence; I think those attributes are so much a part of her that any failure to include them in her portrayal amounts 51
WordS
Decoding “The Road” On understanding some of Kirby’s meaning in “On the Road to Armagetto,” by Shane Foley
(throughout) Mike Royer’s original, unaltered inks for “On The Road to Armagetto,” Jack’s original 23- (later 25-) page story that was to be his wrap-up to the New Gods saga, before morphing into the Hunger Dogs graphic novel.
reckon Hunger Dogs has some wonderful and unexpected moments in it. Better still, to my mind, is “On The Road to Armagetto,” that wonderful 25-page piece that ended up being split in two, reorganized and absorbed into Hunger Dogs. How I wish the original plan had been followed—with “Road” left intact and the new Hunger Dogs story following on after it. But again, like so many, and despite my love for the material, I often find Kirby’s scripting grates. At times it is really clunky and unnatural—a ‘tin ear’ Steve Engelhart called it. Other times, it is beautifully poetic and epic in character. These two characteristics can sometimes be found together in the same panel. And there are times, whether he’s at the ‘clunky’ end of the scripting spectrum or at the poetic, or somewhere in-between, where the reader simply goes “Huh? What does that mean?”... ...especially in the ’80s. Mike Royer confessed to this in a 1997 interview, when speaking of working on Silver Star from the same period, saying, “…sometimes, while lettering, I would go, ‘I don’t really understand this!’” (Jack Kirby Quarterly #8, page 10—in an interview with Chrissie Harper) (And while mention has been made of Mike Royer, I want to say that his original lettering on “Road,” and most especially his open, emboldened words, is sheer lettering brilliance!) As I said, I love so much of “Road.” But there is that frustration in the script that sometimes makes me say, “What?” But I want to understand it! So here is a short piece written about trying to make sense of some of “On the Road to Armagetto”’s script.
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“Road,” page 6 is where I begin. (This became Hunger Dogs, page 12.) This page has four captions. The first is great—it speaks of Armagetto: “Did not the Elder Gods, on the eve of their doom, leave the warning of Armagetto behind them?”
Did they? I’m happy to take Kirby’s word for it. It all sounds very philosophical— it has a great ring to it. (In the jettisoned caption from page 4 [HD page 10] which originally preceded this one, Kirby had already introduced the concept of Armagetto and defined it in this way:
“The slum and its inhabitants are a universal concept…on Apokolips, the place called Armagetto shelters the ‘Lowlies’.”..
...but this caption stands without needing it.) 56
But then comes the second caption (where in Hunger Dogs, both this caption and the next have mysteriously lost their bold, colored, capital letter): “Is not oblivion forever a dark red line which leads the mighty to the sewers of the contemptible silent?”
Maybe some folks can instantly grasp what the King is meaning here, but I’m not one of them. To me, it’s “Huh?” time! It’s beautiful word play, sounding very ‘deep’. But what on Earth does it mean? My first attempt to reinterpret it was: “Is not death (fiery destruction?) always that dark, (blood filled?) fate that leads the powerful (privileged?) to the same wretched end as the powerless they oppress?” After all, doesn’t ‘a dark red line’ imply connection by blood? Surely the ‘contemptible silent’ are the lowlies, the slum dwellers of Armagetto—and ‘the mighty’ are the gods in power. But ‘the same wretched end’ I first postulated has missed an element. It has ignored the strength of Kirby’s ‘which leads’. Why are they ‘led’ there? Perhaps it would be better to see Kirby as saying the mighty and powerless are not only inseparably connected in this way, but that the threat of extinction actually leads the powerful back to the very ones they oppress and from whom they extract their power. But then, the story context of the caption is that of Darkseid creating his death device in the midst of Armagetto, so maybe that ‘dark red line’ is more about how ‘oblivion’, or something that can create oblivion, is always experimented with and put together amongst the ‘Lowlies’—those who cannot defend themselves to insist such terrors be manufactured elsewhere. So I end up with “Is not the desire to create and control oblivion always done by the rich and powerful amongst those who have no voice or power to refuse?” That the rich and powerful usually get their power by exploiting the lower masses makes sense to me. And more often than not, the downfall of the powerful comes from the uprising amongst the masses who have been put down and pushed under for too long. This certainly fits one theme of the story. (And if we look ahead to a caption that will be discussed shortly, it seems even more certain.) So I think I’ve found Kirby’s meaning. But surely, he could have made his wonderful poetry a little easier to decipher. ‘The sewers of the contemptible silent’? Whew! The third caption contains a problem of a different kind. “What matter if the holocaust is borne on the wings of dragons or flowers as a notion--a small curiosity, brought to the stage of tinkering...”
The early section of this is one of those convoluted passages by Kirby that an objective editor would have corrected by simply rearranging the sentence construction, while losing nothing of its power. Surely it should read: “What does it matter if the notion of holocaust is borne on the wings of dragons or flowers….” Then ‘tinkering’—something being played with. No longer an idea, but something being experimented with in the real world. So the meaning is, “What does it matter where the idea of holocaust comes from—and whether gently or harshly—if it is finally brought to the stage of terrifying reality!” Caption four: “It must take form in an edifice -- a monster’s lair -- a slaughter pit -- or, a placid, faceless structure of common block -- in Armagetto -- always, In Armagetto ---
Edifice—a large building—which could be an obviously dark, evil place or an unassuming ordinary looking building. Then Kirby returns nicely to his former theme—no matter how and in what it occurs, such foul work will always be in Armagetto! One gets the feeling that Kirby really wants us to think deeply about this stuff—he certainly has—but surely it is wrapped too tightly in obscure wordage so that most will simply give up and turn the page. There is a fifth caption that nicely rounds out this thoughtful, if meandering and obscure, philosophical section. It was on the original page 7, but inexplicably, in Hunger Dogs, it is placed 22 pages away on page 57
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What If... JHS@M&WtNGi2tMU*? (*Jack Had Stayed At Marvel and Worked the New Gods Into the Marvel Universe?) by Jeff Deischer
(below) Cover corner “bullets” for the Fourth World titles, including an unused one for Jimmy Olsen, with inks by Vince Colletta. (next page) Glorious Godfrey, inspired by reallife evangelist Billy Graham, from Forever People #6 (Dec. 1971).
t is 1970. The comics industry is rocked when Jack Kirby jumps ship, leaving Marvel for DC. If you’re a regular reader of The Jack Kirby Collector, then you’re probably aware that in the late 1960s Jack Kirby became dissatisfied with the recognition and compensation he was receiving for his work at Marvel. For those of you who don’t know, in the Spring of 1968, Jack began decreasing the amount of creative input he gave stories, resulting in larger (and therefore fewer) panels, and shorter and less spectacular tales; his longer stories took on a tendency to ramble at times. Jack also began holding back his better ideas for a stage of his career that would give him what he wanted. The most famous of these is his Fourth World saga, which included New Gods, Mister Miracle, Forever People, and a run in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. So, what if Jack had gotten what he felt he deserved, and stayed at Marvel, rather than departing for DC in 1970? How would the Fourth World have developed in the Marvel Universe?
Certainly, it could not have come about as it was shown in the opening pages of The New Gods, with the destruction of Asgard and the death of the Norse gods featured in Thor. Stan Lee, editor-in-chief at Marvel who had guided the company to the Number One spot in the industry, would not have allowed this. So how could the Fourth World have developed in a universe of old gods? Craig McNamara asked this question in TJKC #53 (“What If?”), and his answer was both interesting and reasonable. But he overlooked one logical setting for the Fourth World: the Inhumans series in Amazing Adventures (Volume 2), which Jack both wrote and drew in 1970. To re-cap Mr. McNamara’s thesis: Jack Kirby might have been given books that had failed or were failing, such as Captain Marvel, The X-Men, Dr. Strange, The Silver Surfer, etc. He posits the saga of the New Gods would fit into the adventures of a space-traveling Silver Surfer, using the Surfer’s ideological similarities to Lightray; the counter-culture material of Jimmy Olsen and The Forever People would dovetail nicely with the exploits of the teenaged X-Men, while Dr. Strange would pick up the leftovers of The Forever People and Mister Miracle. The matching of the X-Men to Jimmy Olsen’s adventures seems a natural fit—but I think there are better choices for the rest of the Fourth World saga. Specifically, the New Gods could have been adapted to cover the history of the Inhumans, which Stan and Jack had started in the back pages of Thor (#147-152, 1967). They went from the first super-powered Inhuman, Randac, in the first installment, to the birth of Black Bolt in the second, some twenty-five years before the beginning of the Marvel Age. Four more chapters in the recent past, and the strip was over. That left lots of room for untold tales, such as the first evil Inhuman. I have to confess that this idea came to me while reading Shane Foley’s article in TJKC #56. “Subploticus Interruptus?” discussed unfinished storylines of Stan and Jack in the MU, specifically that of the Inhumans. Among other things, he pointed out the long and awkward gap in the “Origin of the Inhumans” back-up strip in Thor, and suggested that this was one instance of Jack pulling back, contributing
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less to the story than he normally did, due to his growing dissatisfaction. He also suggested a number of storylines the series could have explored. I believe the Fourth World saga could have covered these ideas. The New Gods could easily have been portrayed as Inhumans, some millennia ago, with Darkseid as the first evil Inhuman, bent on conquering his own people and mankind besides (he could hardly be a villain in the present, with Maximus fulfilling that role for the royal Inhumans). Perhaps this series would tell the story of the founding of Attilan, the ancient home of the Inhumans. Obviously stories that required a setting in the present—such as “Glory Boat”—would have had to be shunted to other series. If this occurred, then Captain Marvel would be a natural companion series, since the Kree created the Inhumans. It could take the place of Mister Miracle, and perhaps share with The X-Men the elements of The Forever People that didn’t fit the mutant strip, as Mr. McNamara suggested Dr. Strange do. Specifically, characters like Dr. Bedlam could be agents of the Kree, not Darkseid, perhaps working for Yon-Rogg as renegades. Perhaps Yon-Rogg himself could be behind Intergang, using advanced Kree technology. This, of course, would replace—or rather, revive, as there would be no need to introduce another technological-based gang so soon after one—the Organization in Cap’s series. And the Lump, for example, seems made to fight Captain Marvel, with some of the freaky villains he encountered in his early issues such as the Metazoid and Solam. Happyland, as Mr. McNamara suggested, is perfect for The X-Men, as would be a lot of the youth-oriented counter-culture material, such as the Hairies of Habitat. And what about Glorious Godfrey, who would naturally preach against mutants, giving the X-Men a much-needed break from Magneto, who was appearing about every ten or twelve issues? But I’m not so sure about the Evil Factory, introduced in Jimmy Olsen. Here’s why: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD was one of those cancelled books I described earlier. What better strip to tell the story of the Project, the DNAliens and the Evil Factory? Transilvane, a NASA project, would also fit SHIELD’s purview. All these concepts appeared in Jimmy Olsen. And what about Intergang? Nick can’t fight Hydra all the time, after all. So perhaps a better, or at least simplified “conversion” would be “Origins of the Inhumans” (in Amazing Adventures) = The New Gods • The X-Men = The Forever People • Captain Marvel = Mister
Miracle • Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD = Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. The saga would have begun in Captain Marvel #20 (June 1970), with a prologue of sorts, as Intergang is introduced as the re-formed Organization. Then, in Amazing Adventures (v2) #1 (August), the foundation for the Fourth World—a term that would never have come about, I suspect—would begin to be laid with the continuation of “The Origins of the Inhumans” series, which had been started years earlier as a back-up feature in Thor. Rather going into reprints, The X-Men #67 (December) and SHIELD #17 (January) would continue with all-new stories. The biggest problem with my supposition is that the Fourth World would have to be split into two pieces—one involving Darkseid, Orion, Highfather, et al.—set in the distant past, with the 65
Adam McGovern Know of some Kirby-inspired work that should be covered here? Send to: Adam McGovern PO Box 257 Mt. Tabor, NJ 07878
(this page) A dizzying Amy Reeder cover (top right) and dynamic Natacha Bustos page-thumbnail (bottom left) from Moon Girl & DD’s pre- (and re-) historic adventures. (next page) Line and tone art for a kinetic Bustos layout (left) and style-sheet for Moon Girl’s many phases (right). (page 78) Proof of evolution: Moon Girl goes up against the humanoid “Killer Folk” in these three stages of a dramatic Bustos/Bonvillain design. (Do Marvel lifers recognize that orb as the “Omni-Wave Projector” from the original KreeSkrull War?)
As A Genre A regular feature examining Kirby-inspired work, by Adam McGovern
The Goodguy Dinosaur obody can forget Devil Dinosaur—even though most people can’t believe it ever happened. One of Kirby’s last works for Marvel in the late 1970s, this gonzo tale of a hominid boy and his pet thunder-lizard was both a kid’s fantasy and a folkloric fever-dream. In a series taking place before history began, Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy were trapped in a wild, dreamtime childhood. In Marvel’s current phase of eccentric, original reinventions of intriguing second-string characters, two of comics’ most seasoned timetravelers, writer Brandon Montclare and artist Amy Reeder of Rocket Girl fame, were called on to bring Devil to the present day with a new kid partner, precocious science-geek Lunella Lafayette, in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur— this time with Montclare and Reeder as co-writers and Natacha Bustos as the vibrant artist and Tamra Bonvillain supplying the joyous, cinematic colors. The Collector spoke in-person with Montclare and Reeder in New York on February 27, 2016, and by e-mail with Bustos from Spain on March 6.
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THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Devil Dinosaur is infamously one of Kirby’s most kitschy concepts, but it does hold a fascination for many sophisticated creators both in and outside of comics. Was it a series you always enjoyed, or did you just welcome the challenge of updating this crazy idea? AMY REEDER: Honestly, our editor Mark Paniccia is a huge Devil Dinosaur fan; he’d been trying for years to bring it back. I guess the timing was right? Hopefully we brought something to it that made them want more, and they approved it. Brandon and I were just looking for a character, and we really wanted to revitalize something, because there’s a lot less pressure in that, and then you can do a lot of creative things. BRANDON MONTCLARE: Amy’s working on another pile of Rocket Girl issues so we can release them in sequence, but we still wanted to have something on the shelf, and we thought it would be nice for Amy to co-write and do covers. Marvel said, “Why don’t you come by and we’ll talk about what you want to do.” Certainly within the first ten minutes, if not the very first thing that was mentioned, was Devil Dinosaur. Which got me excited, ’cuz, “Oh, it’s such a cool, it’s such an oddball thing,” and like Amy says, nobody really bothers you when you’re doing something so obscure. So about another minute after that, [Mark] said, “How about Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,” and then you could do something totally different… the idea being, you bring it to modern times instead of setting it in The Valley of Flames and the dinosaur world… REEDER: I think part of his thinking was also that I would be on the project, because, to be honest, at first when he said Devil Dinosaur I was just like, kinda rolling my eyes… inside [laughs], not outwardly, but then as soon as he said, like, “Girl” I was like, ooooh, that’s fun, because… I wasn’t really a dinosaur person growing up. I mean, they’re interesting enough, but, I did not see the possibilities in that. MONTCLARE: And just the idea that you can do a companion for this dinosaur, and from complete scratch. REEDER: That’s really the part that’s exciting, the fact that the story is really intrinsically about two characters, just those two, and their relationship as it grows. That’s really something special that I think sets it apart from other books for sure. TJKC: I just like the sassiness and outsidery-ness of Lunella—how much of each of you is in that character? It feels very contemporary and very true to a young girl who isn’t the play-with-Barbie type… 76
find examples it doesn’t happen too much, is that they wanted [the book] to be kid-friendly, but also exist inside the Marvel universe—you’ve gotta keep it light, but you’ve also gotta keep it honest, so it was interesting, to pick up that tone. That in itself was different, and then, again, with a character that you’re creating from scratch, you might as well try to make her a bit different.
REEDER: I definitely was, like, an abnormal kid. And very very picked-on, so I guess [it’s] from me, but I wasn’t super-smart, I was just super-weird. [laughter] TJKC: I bet you were already super-talented though. REEDER: I was talented. But I would always give people the question of, like, “What is going on with her?”—seriously, I was like a pariah, people wouldn’t even sit next to me so that they wouldn’t have their reputation ruined. Not that you should be sad about it, because I feel like it formed me as a person, and I think I became better at art, for instance, because I was bored and didn’t have friends [laughs]—so it all works out. I know I can definitely identify with it. I think Brandon was more of a popular sort?
REEDER: “All-New, All-Different,” right? [laughs] You kind of have to, when you do a new series, think, “What is missing?” If you don’t think that way then you’re doing Marvel a disservice. TJKC: I think this book perfectly suits the “Disney Marvel” era that everyone was so afraid of—there’s a real freshness and charm to it but not anything drab or insipid.
MONTCLARE: I wasn’t, though people say that, because everyone in comics has a story like Amy’s [laughs]… maybe I’ve blocked it all out, but I remember having a very average [childhood]—it wasn’t very cliquish, any of my school days...
MONTCLARE: You see a lot of kids’ books, and they’re written so with no teeth at all; it appeals to the parents of the kids, like, “I can buy this for my ten-year-old,” rather than something that my ten-year-old wants to read. You just have to have some heart, and care about it, and have some consequences; not in the realm of going too grotesque with it… not that there’s anything wrong with those types of stories, but I don’t feel that we’re missing anything. REEDER: All my favorite movies of all time have been disturbing children’s movies. MONTCLARE: Every kid’s scared of The Wizard of Oz! People say, “Kirby, it’s hard to work on that stuff,” and in a way it is because Kirby worked on it, but Devil Dinosaur only got nine issues out of Kirby [himself]. That was very much a kids’ book, when he did it, more than a lot of his other stuff. Even though [our story] is in a totally different setting, it occupies the same space. REEDER: We have a few people who feel protective of it, but probably way less than it would have been. Our artist, Natacha Bustos, who I think is just amazing, is very aware of the Kirby legacy, and definitely incorporates a lot
REEDER: Mine was! MONTCLARE: …and I always liked comics, always read stuff, certainly had friends when I was in elementary school and had girlfriends in high school… REEDER: I have Friends now on Facebook who used to pick on me in elementary school. Either they don’t remember, or they just don’t want to… believe it anymore? ’Cuz they’re like, “Oh, I can’t believe my friend is drawing comic books, my childhood friend!” And I’m like, “Really, ‘childhood friend’”! I don’t know how to take it, but… let bygones be bygones. MONTCLARE: But you always put some of yourself in a character in one way or another. It’s also just an opportunity to do something different. It all worked out. One of the things that [Marvel] wanted to do, which was interesting—you hear it and you don’t think it’s unique, but when you try to 77