Kirby’s First Partner?
Start-Ups
Bob Farrell’s role in Kirby’s development examined, by Jean Depelley (below) Some of the “teaser” strips Jack did for Lone Rider. (next page, top) Comicscope ad from Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941). Farrell and Victor Fox would’ve gotten this image of Cap and Bucky at least a month before Captain America Comics #1 hit the stands. (next page, bottom) Blue Beetle 1/15/40 strip by Kirby, under the house name “Charles Nicholas.”
e know that between late 1937 and July 1938, while Jack was working for Eisner & Iger’s Universal Phoenix sweat shop, he was also searching for publishers and syndicates—to finally succeed with Associated Features Syndicate in 1939, where he drew The Lone Rider strip. Knowing Jack’s lack of ability to communicate with publishers, how did he end up at Fox in early 1940? It appears someone helped him. After leaving the Max Fleischer Studio in early 1937, Jacob Kurtzberg was still working for the Lincoln Syndicate. In late 1937, he showed his portfolio and got a job at Eisner & Iger’s Universal Phoenix Syndicate, at the corner of Madison Avenue and 40th Street. At Universal Phoenix, while producing Diary of Dr. Hayward, The Count of Monte Cristo and the western Wilton of the West, Jack was to meet a freelance writer who must have had a great impact on him. His name was Bob Farrell. The man was educated, confident, and
determined to be rapidly successful. Our 21-year-old artist was hooked. Born Izzy Katz in 1908, Farrell was a former attorney, as Joe Simon writes in his Comic Book Makers book. Actually, Farrell had to stop his studies in Law, as his father lost his job. He started a new career as a freelance writer, scripting for Eisner & Iger. But he was ambitious enough to consider launching his own syndicate, which he was to do in 1938 with Associated Feature Syndicate (according to Ron Goulart’s The Funnies). And he likely dragged Kirby along with him—probably thanks to his work on Wilton of the West, Jack followed Bob Farrell and left the Eisner & Iger Studio in July 1938. He signed with Associated Features Syndicate and, under the pen name Lance Kirby, started the Lone Rider western series, which was to grace newspapers’ comics sections starting January 3, 1939. The strip was sold to a limited number of newspapers. After six “teaser” strips, it started in earnest on January 8, scripted by Robert W. Farrell (who also wrote the Yankee Girl comic strips for his syndicate). A few weeks later, on February 18, 1939, Jack lost his assignment on Lone Rider, as Farrell preferred young Frank Robbins’ art to his. Robbins would eventually leave the art one month later (the equivalent of 24 strips) to the mediocre Geo Brousek. Jack’s involvement on the Lone Rider could have ended there, but the strips were collected and published six months later (retitled Lightning and the Lone Rider, certainly to avoid problems with The Lone Ranger’s copyright holders) in Easter Color’s Famous Funnies, successfully sold to the comic book publisher by Bob Farrell. The series was published in colors, two pages with four strips per issue, starting with issue #61 (August 1939). Kirby’s daily strips were reprinted up through #66, followed by Robbins’ (but Brousek’s strips seems to have been ignored). It’s worth noting that Famous Funnies publisher Max Gaines had Kirby’s zip-atone removed along with the coloring, damaging the art in the process. Quite surprisingly, Jack was given the opportunity to continue his adventure strip in early 1940, from issue #72-76 of Famous Funnies, with nine full-pages of beautiful new art, having Lightning and the Lone Rider redirected toward science-fiction, with weird Doctor Chuida from an ancient race, one of the first (if not the first) big-headed Kirby characters. Then, with no explanation, the series was discontinued, Jack’s workload at Timely Comics at that time being the most likely cause.
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But let’s go back to early ’39 and to a disappointed Jacob Kurtzberg, dismissed from Lone Rider and still looking for a job… In a 1976 interview in Italy, reprinted in TJKC #48, Jack stated: “I did assist Frank Robbins for a while, doing Scorchy Smith, in which I wrote and drew several sequences.” The Jack Kirby Checklist Gold Edition (p. 86) 10