All characters TM & © Simon & Kirby Estates.
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The
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #69 FALL 2016
$10.95
THE
Contents PARTNERS! OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (watch the company you keep) FOUNDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 (Mr. Scarlet, frankly) START-UPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 (who was Jack’s first partner?)
C o l l e c t o r
ISSUE #69, FALL 2016
2016 EISNER AWARDS NOMINEE: BEST COMICS-RELATED PERIODICAL
PROSPEAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 (Steve Sherman, Mike Royer, Joe Sinnott, & Lisa Kirby discuss Jack) KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 (Kirby + Wood = Evolution) FANSPEAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 (a select group of Kirby fans parse the Marvel settlement) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .29 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 (Kirby sees all!) CLASSICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 (a Timely pair of editors are interviewed) RE-PAIRINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 (Marvel-ous cover recreations) GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 (some Kirby odd couplings) INPRINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 (packaging Jack) INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 (Jack & Roz—partners for life) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . .60 (Sandman & Sandy revamped) OPTIKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 (Jack in 3-D Land) SCULPTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 (the Glenn Kolleda incident) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 (Mark Evanier moderates the 2016 Comic-Con Tribute Panel, with Kevin Eastman, Ray Wyman Jr., Scott Dunbier, and Paul Levine) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .92 (as a former jazz bass player, the editor of this mag was blown away by the Sonny Rollins letter...) PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 (never trust a dwarf with a cannon) Cover inks: JOE SINNOTT from Kirby Unleashed Cover color: TOM ZIUKO If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,
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Direct from Roz Kirby’s sketchbook, here’s a team of partners that holds a warm place in our hearts—the Boy Explorers. The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 23, No. 69, Fall 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. Views expressed here are those of the respective authors, and not necessarily those of TwoMorrows Publishing or the Jack Kirby Estate. First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912
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COPYRIGHTS: Blue Bolt, Boy Explorers, Boys' Ranch, Captain 3-D, Fighting American & Speedboy, Race For The Moon, Strange World of Your Dreams, Stuntman TM & © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estates • Incredible Science-Fiction TM & © EC Comics • Space Ghost TM & © Hanna-Barbera • Johnny Reb & Billy Yank TM & © New York Herald Tribune, Inc. • Abdul Jones, Battle For A Three Dimensional World, Beast Rider, Galactic Bounty Hunters, Jacob & The Angel, Lone Rider, Micro-Car, Secret City Saga, Silver Star, Sky Masters, Socko the Seadog • Batman & Robin, Blue Beetle, Boy Commandos, Challengers of the Unknown, Darkseid, Demon, Dingbats of Danger Street, Dubbilex, Flash, Forever People, Goody Rickles, Green Arrow, Guardian, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, OMAC, Mister Miracle, Mr. Scarlet & Pinky, Newsboy Legion, Oberon, Orion, Sandman, Sandman & Sandy, Shazam, Super Friends, Super Powers, Superman, Tales of the Unexpected, The Losers TM & © DC Comics • Avengers, Black Musketeers, Black Panther, Captain America & Bucky, Daredevil, Devil Dinosaur, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Galactus, Giant-Man, Hulk, Hulk, Iron Man, Machine Man, Mad Thinker, Mole Man, Moonboy, Odin, Rawhide Kid, Red Skull, Sandman (villain), SHIELD, Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner, Taboo, The Nightmare, Thing, Thor, Warriors Three, X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.
Opening Shot
The Company You Keep by editor John Morrow
hey saw you’re judged by the company you keep. So this issue, I’m focusing on Jack Kirby’s partners, collaborators, and close associates. While Stan Lee and Joe Simon immediately spring to mind (and both are discussed in this issue), it goes way deeper than that.
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Jack was a solitary creator, preferring to be left alone to let the myriad ideas in his brain materialize through his pencil, onto paper, in collage, and via watercolors. But he was directly or indirectly “partners” with every writer, editor, inker, and publisher he worked for or with. I’ve tried to represent as many of Jack’s artistic collaborators as possible this issue, including Joe Sinnott, Mike Royer, Mark Evanier, Steve Sherman, Dick Ayers, Chic Stone, Stan Goldberg, Mike Thibodeaux, Wallace Wood, Martin Goodman, Frank Giacoia, Ray Wyman Jr., and even daughter Lisa Kirby. Not to be forgotten are Jack’s fans, who through their dedication to Jack and his work, are de facto collaborators. Some have gone on to work with Jack in a professional capacity, both while he was alive, and posthumously. Ray Zone and Glenn Kolleda both worked with Jack on projects near the end of his career, and sadly, both are no longer with us—but we’ve got the stories of their work with Jack here. Fan collaborations continue today, through the work of the Jack Kirby Museum, and this very publication. Jack’s publishers are represented here as well, from Marvel and DC, to Topps and animation studios like DePatie-Freleng and Ruby-Spears. Some of those collaborations went really, really well. Others... well, no partnership’s complete without some drama, and Jack’s sure had their share. While Stan and Joe are probably Jack’s foremost creative collaborators in people’s minds, you can’t sell Roz Kirby’s contributions to Jack’s oeuvre short. Without her, it all would’ve
fallen apart for Jack, and we’re delighted to feature her in an interview this issue too. Throughout this issue, I’ll also endeavor to show plenty of examples of Jack’s characters that were “partners,” from Fighting American & Speedboy (don’t you just love our cover image?), Captain America & the Falcon, Sandman & Sandy, Batman & Robin (don’t forget Super Powers!), the Forever People—and my personal favorites, the Newsboy Legion and the Dingbats of Danger Street! To get started, let’s take a look at the early foundations of Jack’s work, at a company most people don’t think of when considering Kirby’s history: Fawcett Publications. Knowledgeable scholars recognize that Jack drew one of the Big Red Cheese’s first outings in Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (1941, detail at left). But many forget Jack also drew the first appearance of Mr. Scarlet in Wow Comics #1 that same year.
While he was created by Ed Herron and Kirby, his partner Pinky the Whiz Kid didn’t come along till later (in Wow #4, above). Still, I felt this story perfectly fit the bill for our “Foundations” feature this issue. Special thanks to Harry Mendryk for supplying the raw scans for us—and to you, dear readers, for partnering with us for 23 years and counting. And here’s to my own life partner of thirty years (as of this January 16), my wife Pam. Like Jack’s work, you just get better every year. ★ 2
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Kirby’s Fab Four
PROSPEAK
Close Kirby associates interviewed by Jon B. Cooke
(below) We used the below Superman pencil drawing as the cover of TJKC #31 (our first tabloid-size issue), with inks by Neal Adams. In 2009, Joe Sinnott took a shot at it for a fan. oe says, “I felt Jack made the arms a little short as he ran out of drawing room,” so he slightly altered it. (next page) A stat of the pencils from Jimmy Olsen #139, page 22.
ince this issue focuses on Jack’s partners, collaborators, and close associates, we sought out some reflections from his inkers, an assistant, and even Jack’s own daughter:
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• Joe Sinnott (most acclaimed inker from Jack’s 1960s Marvel era) • Mike Royer (prolific inker who tackled most of Jack’s 1970s DC work) • Steve Sherman (Jack’s assistant at DC Comics in the 1970s) • Lisa Kirby (Jack’s youngest daughter, and executor of the Kirby Estate) Jack was famously known to have the stories virtually “flow” from his pencils. In your experience, was it to the work’s benefit for the King to work in collaboration with someone, or go it solo?
MIKE ROYER: It is my concerted opinion that Jack’s best work happened when he was left to his own creative instincts. Solo! STEVE SHERMAN: I don’t think Jack needed anyone’s help. Given enough time, he could have inked and colored his own work. But with the amount of pages he needed to turn out to make a decent living, other hands were necessary. I know that on Sky Masters, Jack was more than willing to accept the Wood brothers’ input. In fact, he would hunt them down to get the scripts. After a while it became such a chore that writing the strip himself was so much easier, even though the Wood brothers still received credit as writers. I guess it depends on how you look at. If you want pure Kirby, then his ’70s DC work is the best example. If you prefer Jack with a collaborator, then ’60s Marvel is the finest example. JOE SINNOTT: Jack certainly had to work with a good inker, one who was also a good artist, because as great a penciler that Jack was, he really was not a good inker. His work suffered if he were to ink his own pencils. Can you share any specific incidences where your suggestions, direction, or input (creatively or editorially) made it into the stories? ROYER: Hate to disappoint you on this one. I never ever suggested anything to Jack; however, without him being aware of it there were a couple times when I added a word or two so that the meaning was perfectly clear. Example: Jack, Roz and I had lunch at the Copper Penny restaurant that used to be across the street from the Warner Brothers bungalows in Burbank, after I went on staff at Disney. He wanted me to ink Silver Star. At lunch he proceeded to tell me the story of Silver Star. I thought at the time, gawd, this is a hell of a lot of story for
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one issue. I was mistaken. He told me what would be in all six issues of the run. It was all done in his head. So, when he wrote/drew the pages, he and his wife/editor knew the story inside out. Well, I was slightly confused while lettering a couple times and added a word or two here and there to clarify something, and Jack and Roz never noticed. Shoot, they knew the story every which way but loose, so it didn’t stand out that I’d done a couple of minor things when they looked over the completed book. When people say Jack shouldn’t have edited himself, I think they’re off-base. All Jack needed was once in a blue moon for someone to ask, “Did you mean...?”
have to worry about plot or pacing. Writing the dialogue for all of the books, brought a cohesiveness to the Marvel Universe. Whether or not it matched Jack’s intentions is a whole ’nother matter. ROYER: From the evidence of Jack’s margin notes that have survived, his work would have retained all of his intent before Stan justified his role as an editor by writing whatever he thought would be cool. Stan was a great “snake oil salesman.” I mean that in the most complimentary way. His “arthur” at selling Marvel to the comic buying
SHERMAN: After all these years it’s hard to remember much. I do know that Mark [Evanier] and I contributed to the Jimmy Olsen stories more than the other books. The infamous(?) Don Rickles issue was from our suggestion. We also did a lot of work on the [Speak-Out Series] magazines. Had they continued, we would have been contributing a lot more. My contribution to Kamandi was Prince Tuftan. There was also King Kobra and the issue of Kamandi about Superman. I’m sure there were some minor suggestions and input on other things, but nothing so important that I can remember. SINNOTT: Early on during our collaboration I added quite a bit to Jack’s art, as I felt he didn’t draw things correctly. Over time, I realized that I was wrong in doing this. I gradually started inking more or less just like Kirby pencilled. He didn’t have to be tampered with, as his style was so unique. LISA KIRBY: I can’t remember if any of my input made it into any of Dad’s stories, but my sister Susan had written a song that made it into an issue of Silver Star. Sue is a talented singer/songwriter. When I was younger she wrote a “Birthday Song” for me. It was really beautiful and touching. Dad loved it and included it in the book. In your estimation, after years of associating with Stan Lee on all the great 1960s Marvel stories, did Jack Kirby ever need collaborators? SHERMAN: No. He didn’t need them. However, I think Stan was able to bring a certain unity to all of the stories because he didn’t 13
FANSPEAK
(below) Leading up to the 2014 settlement, fan support was at a fevered pitch, including this petition at Change.org. You’ll see the “Confirmed Victory” notation that it holds now. (bottom) This year, Marvel celebrated “Jack Kirby Week” at www.marvel.com with a slew of tributes to Jack and his creations.
Kirby Confab “Marvel and the family of Jack Kirby have amicably resolved their legal disputes, and are looking forward to advancing their shared goal of honoring Mr. Kirby’s significant role in Marvel’s history.”
Several prominent Kirby fans corralled by John Morrow
Disney’s bottom line. For the record: the terms of the settlement were private, and I have no firsthand knowledge of the details, other than hearing that the Kirby family was very happy with its outcome. (But since soon thereafter, Jack’s began receiving a creator credit on both comics and films, it’s a safe bet that was part of any agreement.) That doesn’t mean I, like most of fandom, didn’t find it fascinating. Just as interesting to me was how some “civilians,” who knew little to nothing about comics, approached me for feedback. A couple of the dads in my father/daughter YMCA group independently asked me about it. They didn’t specifically realize I was associated with this “Jack Kirby” guy they’d heard about in the news, but both said basically, “I know you’re involved in comic books. What do you think about this court case?” So to get some perspective on its repercussions, I asked a select group of Kirby friends, fans, and TJKC contributors to answer a few questions, to help us all better understand what it meant, and continues to mean, to Jack’s legacy and fans. Contributors were:
eptember 26, 2016 marked the two-year anniversary of that joint statement, and the settlement between Marvel/Disney and the Kirby family over rights to Marvel characters Jack was involved in the creation of. Unsurprisingly, immediately after the news hit back in 2014, the online comics community was abuzz, with rumors of what it would mean to the industry, and wild speculation of how many millions/billions/trillions had been shelled out to keep the Supreme Court from having the chance to issue a ruling that might irreparably hurt
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• Jon B. Cooke (editor of Comic Book Creator magazine, and former associate editor of TJKC) • Adam McGovern (Kirby scholar and the voice behind our “Kirby As A Genre” column) • Steve Robertson (Kirby family friend, and assistant at Genesis West publications) • Norris Burroughs (our “Kirby Kinetics” columnist) • David Schwartz (Kirby family friend ) • Jerry Boyd (regular TJKC contributor)
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• Marty Lasick (Kirby family friend, and occasional inker of Jack’s commissioned work) • Tom Kraft (trustee of the Jack Kirby Museum) I simply asked them to answer a few questions, in as brief or lengthy a manner as they saw fit. In checking the pulse of Kirby fandom, I encountered a few surprises. What was the first Kirby work you ever saw, and did you immediately like it, or did it turn you off? JON B. COOKE: I have a vague memory of seeing “Ant-Man” in Tales to Astonish. I thought his work was somewhat grotesque and not as accessible as the slick work in the DC, Harvey, and Dennis the Menace comics of which I was more accustomed. I believe I was five years old. STEVE ROBERTSON: Honestly, I can’t remember specifically what the first Kirby artwork I ever saw was (I was only seven years old at the time, in 1960), but it immediately made all other comic books obsolete! I can tell you that it was Jack’s pre-hero monster artwork for Marvel, that I saw displayed on the comic book racks at the local grocery store where my Mom shopped. I absolutely loved it! To put this in perspective, I was an early reader, and I had always enjoyed comic books, but my parents forbid me to buy any “Horror” related material—but the furtive glances that I was able to make at Famous Monsters of Filmland at the local store, and Jack’s monster artwork, were so powerful to me, that it changed my life forever! After this, I never had any interest in comic books that weren’t drawn by Kirby (or Ditko)!
remember being totally absorbed by the story and art and sorry I hadn’t been able to read the previous issue, since it was a continued story. Believe it or not, the very next week I checked the same newsstand and they actually had issue #57 in the back of the stack of comics from the month before. I was very excited to get that issue as well!
ADAM McGOVERN: I saw Kirby work so early in life that everything in the rest of the world looked wrong—not seeing puffy clouds with metallic squiggle-lines or people with mouths shaped like trapezoids took some adjusting to. I received subliminal education in the Kirby style by the comics my older brother left around. The first was probably some Thor story or one of the shorts about Cap in WWII (the 1960s ones by Lee & Kirby)—I was always an inside-my-head kinda kid, so the ideal and fearsome abstraction of Kirby’s look appealed to me right away.
JERRY BOYD: I wish I could remember the first time I saw the King’s work! It really kicks me around at times, because I can remember the first time I saw the work of Steranko, Romita Sr., Colan, Sprang, Ditko, and both Buscema brothers, among others. But Kirby became my king at first glance, and the memory’s gone! But I’ll say X-Men #9 and I did love it!
NORRIS BURROUGHS: I’m pretty sure the first Kirby story I saw was a monster comic, Strange Tales #75 with Taboo, the Thing From the Murky Swamp, and it was pretty scary. I was about nine and I thought the art was really intense. The first thing that made me sit up and notice Kirby as an artist, which also inspired me as an artist, was the amazing sequential fight scenes in Rawhide Kid #30. I think the most wonderfully hilarious image was that of the Kid standing on his head shooting the boot heels off an opponent [above right].
MARTY LASICK: I remember first seeing (what I later found out to be) Kirby artwork on The Fly, “Green Arrow”, Challengers of the Unknown, and some sci-fi short stories. I was addicted from the start and looked forward to Kirby on any book I could find. It is something I have never grown out of. Now I look forward to any Kirby reprints to preserve my original comic book collection and Kirby-IDW original artwork books. Jack in any format never gets old to me. TOM KRAFT: The first Kirby work I saw was The Fantastic Four. My best friend handed to me in a stack of FF comic books when I was sixteen. They were random issues from issues in the #60s, 70s and #80s. They immediately blew my mind! The visual language and power simply thrilled me. I never thought a comic book could be like that, and I was hooked from then on.
DAVID SCHWARTZ: I believe the first time I saw a Jack Kirby comic was when my grandmother bought me a copy of Fantastic Four #58. I was eight years old and it was on the stands at a newsstand near my school. My grandmother used to take my brother Howard and me to lunch each week and sometimes she bought us each a comic book. I was immediately grabbed by the cover as it looked really exciting and very grown-up to me at the time. I
How do you feel Kirby’s legacy has changed now, in light of the Marvel/Disney settlement? COOKE: I firmly believe that Jack Kirby will be remembered and appreciated a century from now, if not by the masses, at least by those who appreciate the best cartooning. ROBERTSON: Frankly, it hasn’t changed at all among anyone who was already a comic book fan, and has any knowledge concerning comic book history. My fervent hope is that Jack’s genius will become more widely recognized! It’s up to you, Kirby Museum! 23
A Timely Pair
Classics
An interview with Bonnie and Arnold Hano, by David Laurence Wilson
(right) A recent photo of Bonnie and Arnold Hano. (below) Splash panel detail from Captain America Comics #10 (Jan. 1942), produced by Simon & Kirby just prior to leaving Timely Comics for DC. Though the Hanos worked at Timely in-between Jack’s 1940s and 1950s stints at the company, this interview should give readers a sense of what it was like at the offices there. (next page, bottom) Stan Lee in the 1950s, when Bonnie was his assistant.
[Editor’s Note: The following interview was conducted on December 19, 2013, and submitted to TJKC. While it doesn’t focus specifically on Kirby, I felt it gives a fascinating inside look at the workings of Timely Comics, with commentary about both Stan Lee and Martin Goodman. I have edited it to keep it more germain to topics that would likely interest TJKC readers.]
becoming an editor at Timely/Atlas. (He later wrote numerous acclaimed books on baseball and westerns.) Bonnie (who married Arnold in 1951), worked alongside Stan Lee in the early 1950s to keep the stories coming from Timely Comics. Those years, 1951-1954, were an industry-wide trough between waves of superheroes, with a wider range of titles, publishers, and readers in the industry than there has been since. Visiting the Hanos at their charming home, on a quiet street two or three blocks from the main thoroughfares of Laguna Beach, California, would clarify what Bonnie Hano had done or didn’t do so many years ago. The couple had not kept up with the comics business. They couldn’t describe “Ultron” if you spotted them two Silver Surfers and a Black Widow. Bonnie said: “Who ever knew that Stan Lee was going to become the big famous deal that he is today?” Both of them were surprised when I showed them hardbound copes of Atlas Comics produced during their tenure, issues that might even contain some of the stories they had written. Neither of them had ever attended a comic book convention. It was not going to be like a conversation with Jack Kirby, who seemed to be familiar with not only the past but the future. First of all, Mrs. Hano had a bone to pick with the scholars of the comics industry:
n the 1950s, Arnold and Bonnie Hano were the power-couple at Martin Goodman’s Magazine Management company at New York’s Empire State Building. It was a dull, gray-suited name for an empire of publications that emanated from Goodman’s equally unassuming office. Goodman was a fellow who played hunches and took gambles but not risks, and if a magazine was unsuccessful, it would be quickly canceled. The company was better known by what you might call its pseudonyms: Timely (now Marvel) Comics; men’s magazines, especially Stag magazine; and Red Circle Books, a sensationalistic line of paperbacks that would soon be revised and renamed as Lion Books, a short-lived but important paperback company. Arnold Hano was born in Manhattan but he grew up in the Bronx. He received a degree from Long Island University and then higher education, as a copy boy at the New York Daily News. After action in World War Two, he worked as Managing Editor at Bantam Books and then Editor-in-Chief at Lion Books in 1949, before
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BONNIE: Do you know what’s so crazy? I looked up something one day, and I found on the Internet that I was Hank Chapman’s first wife. I don’t know where they ever got that. When I met Hank, he was married to Gloria, whom he called Toni, and we knew her as Toni. They became very good friends of ours. So how did I get married to Hank on the Internet? How do things like that happen? Chapman was one of the top writers at Timely, one of the few writers to be credited on many of his stories, receiving credit even before the artists. His best known story may have been “The Nightmare” from Astonishing #4 (June 1951), a story illustrated by Wayne Boring in which a writer for Marvel Tales and Astonishing named Hank Chapman is terrorized by vengeful characters from his stories. 32
the writer and artists in his office, though I think they were always working from full scripts. But there was also always an aspect of shyness with him. If he seemed a little shy, it sounds incongruous, but I don’t think it was. I just really liked him a lot. When Hank Chapman left his job as Production Manager, Lee asked Bonnie if she would like the higher paying position. She worked as Production Manager through 1952 until the end of 1953. It was a period when the number of titles at Timely almost doubled. BONNIE: I don’t ever recall feeling pressured. We always seemed to be busy but I don’t think that any of us felt like we were overworked. DAVID: Did you ever feel that there was a hurry-up atmosphere? ARNOLD: Goodman was really good at that. He would get more out of everybody, and it didn’t seem to diminish the quality. DAVID: Now when you took over as Production Manager, Bonnie, what were your duties? To get the comics out, I guess. Were you managerial or hands-on? BONNIE: It was really a managerial job, because there wasn’t much physical stuff for me to do. My job was to get everything together. To get the stuff done. Then I’d take it into Stan, he’d put the stories in the order he wanted them to go to the printer, and we’d be on to the next one. We had somewhere between eight and ten employees, including letterers and proofreaders. Chris Rule, a big, heavy guy, was on staff, mostly in production and inking. He didn’t do a lot of original artwork. Sol Brodsky was an artist, and a very nice guy. Artie Simek was a letterer. Stan Starkman, and Herbie Cooper, a talented singer who sang and acted in amateur productions—they were our letterers. The thing I remember—I took it when I left—was my x-acto knife. Because one of the things we had to be very careful of, was that “flick” remained “flick.” That’s where the x-acto knife came in, just to erase a little bit of the lettering, when necessary. DAVID: Would you say that any of the people working in production were frustrated artists? BONNIE: If so, they weren’t talking about it. I know we had some inhouse artists. Sol Brodsky was an artist, a really nice guy. What Stan would do, there were in-house writers and he would assign the comics to freelance artists. Sol and Chris Rule might have done some of the artwork. I can’t remember whether they just did corrections and additions or whether they actually did some of the stories.
BONNIE: By 1949, when Arnold went over to Magazine Management, we were an item and I, too, began working for Lion Books. I was reading books to be selected for reprints. About a year later Stan asked me to come over to the Timely Comics division and work with him as his assistant. It was really a better job and it paid more. DAVID LAURENCE WILSON: You already knew Stan? BONNIE: We all knew each other. It was a very compatible office. DAVID: When you were Stan’s assistant, did you work in his office? BONNIE: I can’t remember that. Isn’t that funny? I don’t think so.
DAVID: Mostly they were inkers, I think, and they would do inhouse corrections. BONNIE: Yes, that’s mostly what I remember. But I don’t think we did any coloring in-house. I have no memory of that at all. The art came in on the heavy paper that artists use, the big pieces of heavy paper. The lettering was done later in our office. You know what was funny about that place, I used to be very good at getting stores to accept returns, and to do other things, situations that had to be straightened
DAVID: As an editor, Stan seemed to have a fairly lax style, in that he was a collaborator and an encourager, rather than someone who was eager to go line by line over a piece of work. BONNIE: Oh, I think that was absolutely true. He was also very creative, too. That’s the thing I most remember. DAVID: So you would be called in when he needed you for something? BONNIE: I don’t really remember what I did for Stan. There was no correspondence for him. I have no idea what I did in that job. I have no idea! ARNOLD: Part of that was that lax style of Stan’s. BONNIE: Well, and besides, not only was it a long time ago, but there was nothing that happened that was memorable. It wasn’t like other jobs. DAVID: By the 1960s, when Stan would work on a story, and give the writer his input, Stan would talk out the story in his office, and people would describe him as being really boisterous; he’d jump up on his desk and act out a fencing scene. BONNIE: Well, he was. He was very lively, very active. I don’t remember him jumping up on a table, but he’d talk over the stories with 33
Re-Pairings
(above) Jack’s illo for the Marvelmania Stationery Kit.
Comics and comic characters were continuing to gain respect and new audiences. Superman and Batman had marked fifty years as worldwide sensations by the late 1980s, and the House of Ideas had logged in 25 impressive years as an industry leader in 1986. Cartoons, live-action films, products, etc., drew the casual observers into the circus tents of the fantastic, and those fans who’d already gotten the 10-40cent wonders and magazines/ fanzines dove wholeheartedly into the last frontier of collecting: original art. The problem was that a lot of those original pieces got less respect in the days when they were first done, and over the years had been parceled out by editors, writers, artists, and company men to friends, neighbors, and (Odin forgive them) dumpsters. So some of these Silver Age covers had to be redone and happily, some of Marvel’s “founding fathers” consented to recreate them. Christie’s East, established 1766, dedicated an entire catalog to Marvel Art and Collectibles with final bidding concluded on Saturday, November 18, 1995. The King’s artwork launched much of the super-hero explosion back then, so it’s only fitting that Kirby’s inkers—Dick Ayers, Chic Stone, Joe Sinnott, and chief early Marvel colorist Stan Goldberg—bring to life anew these Marvel masterworks.
Recreating the Covers Marvel-Ous by Jerry Boyd
(next page, top) Dick Ayers’ recreation of the cover to Avengers #12. Color by Stan Goldberg. (next page, bottom) Chic Stone was not pleased that Dick Ayers chose to recreate covers that Stone had originally inked, such as FF #27. So Chic also did his own recreation, shown here.
n the beginning—and we’re talking TJKC #1 as that beginning—editor/chief writer John Morrow wrote a short article about the then fairly-recent (early ’90s) recreations of classic Marvel covers auctioned off by Sotheby’s. It had taken a while, but Sotheby’s, the venerable collectibles and antiques auction house, had caught on to what private collectors like Russ Cochran, Mark Evanier, Bill Pearson, and Marv Wolfman (among others) had known all along. And that was original comic mag artwork was a wonderful oasis for the discerning art connoisseur in and of itself.
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Dick Ayers & Stan Goldberg Stan Lee was quoted in the catalog, saying, “Dick could do it all, pencil, ink, even letter. I loved his work on our western and war titles. He was such a good penciler, I felt guilty every time I gave him an inking assignment.” 36
Alongside a recreation of Fantastic Four #1’s cover, the catalog mentioned that Mr. Ayers was its original inker (something that today is disputed, with the nod going to George Klein in most historians’ minds). Stan Goldberg was the original colorist and recalled, “Stan (Lee) would never accept a first effort, no matter how much he liked it. Fantastic Four #1 was a perfect example. I remember my first concept, a dramatic night scene with a yellow logo, then a light blue background with a black logo. Stan finally decided on a white background with a red logo.” Ayers and Goldberg teamed up to re-do Kirby’s covers to: FF #1, Strange Tales #101, Journey into Mystery #85, Avengers #11, FF #28, FF #6, Avengers #12, FF #12, JIM #83, and Avengers #1.
Chic Stone The late, great Chic Stone was one of Kirby’s finest embellishers. He came to Marvel and from 1963-65 worked on “nearly every Marvel character,” according to Christie’s East. For the catalog Stan Lee commented that, “Chic had one of the best inking styles in the business. I encouraged Chic to use a heavy brush line, and loved the fact that everything stood out clearly. We constantly had to take into consideration the limitations of the printing process and paper. Chic’s work was ideal.” Chic always spoke highly about the work Stan and Jack produced, and especially his fondness for inking the King’s pencils. For the catalog (like Ayers), he even painted a selfportrait of himself and the many Marvel-ous heroes and villains he added ink to during his years at the House of Ideas. Chic also included a portrait of the fabulous Fantastic Four in
full color, done over pen and ink on illustration board. Mr. Stone was aided by Mr. Goldberg in reprising the Kirby/ Stone/Goldberg covers for FF #27, 29, and X-Men #6. Chic did FF #33 and X-Men #7 in black-and-white by himself and X-Men #10’s cover in color.
Joe Sinnott ‘Joltin’ Joe Sinnott blew lots of eyes loose with his meticulous, slick inking over Kirby’s pencils in FF #5. So, can anyone guess one of the covers he was asked to reproduce? FF #5 was recreated by Mr. Sinnott along with FF #57. About the auction and his artwork, Joe recently recalled for me by phone, “Christie’s approached me initially. I got the whole amount from the finished pieces, as I remember, minus the fee I paid Marie Severin to color them for me. I’m sure [Christie’s] got a piece of the ones I did, but it sure didn’t come out of my check! (laughter) “I mailed them down to them. They wanted them either matted or framed and I paid a small amount for the frames, I remember. “I went to New York for the auction itself and we had a very nice time. We took pictures, had lunch, and the Christie’s people treated us very well. “I don’t remember if I saw Dick Ayers there. I never met Chic Stone. He would’ve had to fly up from Florida. Joe Simon was there, along with Stan (Lee), John Romita, Sr., and other Marvel people. I saw other’s stuff, not mine, get auctioned off. Mine went 37
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Packaging Jack
InPrint
by Gary by John Picariello Morrow (below) Original art from Who’s Who #6 (Aug. 1985) of Darkseid, showing an unused pencil panel of the ruler sending troops after the Hunger Dogs. We darkened the top panel to better show the erased pencils.
here’s a great scene in the Jack Kirby graphic novel The Hunger Dogs where Darkseid ponders the techno-wizardry that has replaced the raw power of crowd-control used in simpler times. Comments one of Darkseid’s minions, “It’s packaging, sire! Technology that is easy to produce and easy to create!” They could very well have been talking about comic book reprints instead of nuclear destruction, but the principle is the same: with so many years worth of archived Kirby material, a steady stream of Jack Kirby art has surfaced in the last few years: Repackaged, reformatted, and reintroduced to an eager and interested public, much to the delight of fans and publishing house accountants. Over 20 years since Jack Kirby passed from this world into the great beyond, the sands of time have not dimmed the spotlight that continues to shine on this artist whose career spanned nearly five decades. Kirby’s work is still revered—his output and creativity still the benchmarks of what can be accomplished with a pencil and a simple sheet of Bristol board. But perhaps the true testament to the man is the amount of product that continues to be published so many years after Kirby’s death. Trade paperbacks and hardcovers from Marvel and DC Comics reprinting the chronicles of the New Gods, Jimmy Olsen, Black Panther and Captain American generate healthy sales for both publishers. Add to the mix recent best sellers like the “coffee table” volume Marvel Visionaries or fanzines like the Jack Kirby Collector and it’s evident that there is still a market for the four-color visions of the creator or co-creator of this generations most popular comic creations.
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But what is the criteria for publishers who decide to repackage what is basically old artwork and stories in a way that appeals to the new reader, and not just the hardcore Kirby fan? When it comes to reprinting classic Marvel Comics stories and art, the focus—comments Marvel editor Tom Brevoort—is on the character and not the artist. “The fact that the work is by Jack is secondary”, says Tom. “So when there’s a Fantastic Four movie in the works, you can expect Marvel to produce a lot of FF collections, and certainly most of them will have some percentage of Kirby material in them. Outside of special cases— the Kirby Visionaries, or the Cap Madbomb book—we’re not really marketing to the hardcore Kirby fans.” Tom also feels that when the classic stories are reprinted, the work stands on its own merits: “You work out what you think is the best, most economically sound package for the material you’re printing, and then you go with that. This means that certain stories may end up in black-and-white in an Essentials collection, in color on slick paper in a Masterworks volume, and reprinted in softcover in color as well—FF #51 is one of these. But I don’t feel the need to, say, try to color Jack’s work in the modern 49
Optiks
Jack In 3-D Land by Stan Taylor, with thanks to David Folkman for material assistance
his story starts way back in 1954. A young boy about six years old is out with his mother, comes upon a revolving comics rack, and stares in fascination. On the rack are several of those new three-dimensional (3-D) comics. He stares and rifles through the books. He shows his mother and asks if she will buy him one. He already has some comics so it’s not an unusual request. His mother looks and when she sees the EC 3-D horror comic, she blanches. Rather than the crime and gore, she picks out a 3-D comic featuring Mighty Mouse by St. Johns. The kid is spellbound; he had never seen anything like this. The amazing rodent is flying and almost jumping out of the book. This was an excellent choice. Originally created in 1942 as a movie short, Mighty Mouse was a parody of Superman. We have a hit. He went through several mutations—beginning as Super Mouse—before becoming the mouse we all love. Mighty Mouse became the most popular of the many characters in Paul Terry’s studio. Not many could ever forget the stentorian operatic vocals of Mighty Mouse singing, “Hereeee I come to save the dayyyyyy.” Opera and farce played a large part of Mighty’s oeuvre, even the constant villain; Oil Can Harry occasionally breaks into aria. He was a natural for comics with Timely producing a short run in 1946. St. John’s took over the license and started making comics in 1947 with Mighty Mouse soon their top selling book. It was no surprise that this character was chosen for their first 3-D comic. Joe Kubert recalled: “We produced two sample proofs with the 3-D effect, a panel of Tor and one of the Three Stooges. When we showed them to Archer St. John, he flipped over the idea! We went to work on a Mighty Mouse book because St. John felt it would be the best vehicle for 3-D and get the best chance on the newsstands.” The first book sold out. Mighty Mouse later became one of the earliest TV characters in 1955 when the studio was sold to CBS. The 3-D effect left young Ray Zone breathless. Ray’s imagination and wonderment were on fire as he searched out and collected any and every thing he could find relating to 3-D. Hollywood was just beginning to flood the market with 3-D movies. Such great titles like Bwana Devil, It Came From Outer Space, and House of Wax captivated the young man who became obsessed with the concept of 3-D. One of his favorite comics was Captain 3-D by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby—a wondrous example of the 3-D concept. Ray came to this fascination as a consumer, but James Butterfield (below) was deep into the nuts and bolts of the industry. Even as early as the 1950s, he was producing a 3-D TV show in Mexico. He invented several 3-D set-ups
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(above) Get out your 3-D glasses, and you can see Ray Zone in the third dimension! (next page, top) Photo of Jack by Susan Pinsky. He’s working on the pencil art to one of the versions of the 3-D Cosmic Poster. Shown at center is Jack’s first try at it—it was apparently deemed too complicated to convert to 3-D, so an effort was made to simplify it (right) before abandoning it for a new image (see page 64). (bottom) One of Jack’s unused attempts at art for Battle for a ThreeDimensional World’s included 3-D glasses, with inset stereo photo of James Butterfield.
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to improve the quality of 3-D pictures and films. In 1979, he started a new business called 3-D Video Corporation in North Hollywood, ostensibly to transfer ’50s Movies into 3-D films for TV showings, but he also had plans for other 3-D concepts. In 1981, he created 3-D Cosmic Publications, a printing division of the parent 3-D Corp. One of the first things he did was hire David Starkman for his sales team. A week or so later, he hired David’s wife, Susan Pinsky. It was a serendipitous 1976 visit to a garage sale that got their 3-D spark going when they ventured upon an old View-Master. The View-Master was originally invented in the early 1900s and first presented at the New York World’s Fair. It was a self-contained stereo viewing unit containing 7 pairs of stereoscopic pictures in a round reel that produced great 3-D shots of scenic spots and entertainment shows. The 3-D effect amazed them and they were instantly obsessed with the hobby. They joined the Stereo Club of Southern California, they wrote a newsletter, and opened their own retail mail order business selling 3-D paraphernalia to photographers, both amateurs and professionals. At 3-D Video, David was put to work in the sales department selling 3-D glasses and various trinkets to convenience stores and other outlets. But Susan was given another task. Mr. Butterfield asked her to gather and produce a 3-D comic book that could be used as a primer and sales point for the 3-D craze. He wanted this to be the best 3-D comic ever. He envisioned this book to be sold at convenience stores with the accompanying glasses. This daunting task was the first attempt at a 3-D comic in 25-some-odd years and Susan decided she first needed a writer who understood 3-D and possessed a writing style that could captivate the young readers. The young man from 1954 had now grown up into perhaps one of the most knowledgeable people on the concept of 3-D. Ray Zone was working at a large steel company in their art department. On the side he was writing articles about 3-D in various magazines. From a 1989 interview, Ray recalls: “I was writing articles freelance and had a couple of articles on 3-D published. One was in the 11th edition of the Overstreet Price Guide (1981) and another, called “Stereovisions,” was in Fanfare Magazine. And that article was an attempt to create a single historic overview of all forms of 3-D imaging, including photography, comics, holography, 3-D movies, the whole thing. After that article appeared, a lady named Susan Pinsky contacted me. She was employed by 3-D Video Corporation in North Hollywood, the company that was producing anaglyphic conversions of old 3-D movies for television in 1982. She asked me to write a 3-D comic book that would be a graphic history of 3-D and hired me to create an original superhero that would be a vehicle to tell that history. After I hung up the phone talking 63