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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR EIGHTY PRESENTS:

OLD

& NEW A Companion to

JACK KIRBY’S by John Morrow with Jon B. Cooke

Old Gods & New A Companion To Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Researched, written, and edited by John Morrow with assistance from Richard Kolkman and Jon B. Cooke Designed by John Morrow, except for pages 75-87 designed by Jon B. Cooke Proofreading by John Morrow Numerous images and artifacts herein were unearthed through the efforts of Rand Hoppe and Tom Kraft at the Jack Kirby Museum Please support them online at www.kirbymuseum.org Softcover ISBN: 978-1-60549-098-4 Limited Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-60549-104-2 First Printing • April 2021 • Printed in China web: www.twomorrows.com • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

Editorial package © TwoMorrows Publishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. New Gods and related characters TM & © DC Comics. Eternals and related characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All other characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All other Kirby artwork (including the 1960s Gods concept drawings) © Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors quoted from.

Acknowledgments Thanks to: Neal Adams, Barry Alfonso, Jim Amash, Nikola Atchine, Jonathan Bacon, D. Bruce Berry, Marc Bigley, Jerry Boyd, Gary Brown, John Buscema, John Byrne, Nicholas Caputo, Dale Coe, Mark Collins, Gerry Conway, Jon B. Cooke, Nick Cuti, J.M. DeMatteis, Jean Depelley, Larry DiTillio, Shel Dorf, Paul Duncan, Yaniv Elancry, Mark Evanier, Dick Giordano, Glen Gold, Gary Groth, Bruce Hamilton, Paul Hock, Rand Hoppe, Carmine Infantino, Tony Isabella, Jenette Kahn, Gil Kane, George Khoury, Jack Kirby, Roz Kirby, Neal Kirby, Lisa Kirby, Jeremy Kirby, Richard Kolkman, Tom Kraft, Peter Kuper, Juanie Lane, Ronald Levitt Lanyi, Stan Lee, Paul Levitz, Jay Maeder, Andrew Mayer, Mike Mignola, Al Milgrom, John Millinder, Charles Murray, G.J. O’Hara, Leonard Pitts, Jr., Dave Proctor, John Romita Sr., Mike Royer, David Rubin, Steve Rude, David Schwartz, Ben Schwartz, Steve Sherman, Mark Sigal, Walter Simonson, Tim Skelly, J. Michael Straczynski, Greg Theakston, Mike Thibodeaux, Roy Thomas, Kenn Thomas, Maggie Thompson, Bruce Timm, Douglas Toole, James Van Hise, Ken Viola, Steve Whitaker, Kendall Whitehouse, Britt Wisenbaker, Marv Wolfman, Ray Wyman, Howard Zimmerman, and Tom Ziuko, who provided materials both directly and indirectly for this book, and inspiration from their own research and writings.

Copyrights Angry Charlie, Aquaman, Atlas, Batman, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Barda, Big Bear, Black Racer, Boom Tube, Brainiac, Bullets Barstow, Challengers of the Unknown, Clark Kent, Dan Turpin, Darkseid, Deadman, Demon, Desaad, Dubbilex, Erin the Armored Man, Esak, Fastbak, Female Furies, Flash, Forager, Forever People, Funky Flashman, Glorious Godfrey, Goody Rickels, Granny Goodness, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Guardian, Hairies, Hawkman, Highfather, Himon, Houseroy, Hunger Dogs, In The Days Of The Mob, Infinity Man, Inter-Gang, Jimmy Olsen, Joker, Justice League, Kalibak, Kamandi, Kanto, Lex Luthor, Lightray, Lois Lane, Magnar, Mantis, Mark Moonrider, Metron, Mister Miracle, Mokkari, Morgan Edge, Mother Box, New Gods, Newsboy Legion, Oberon, Orion, Outsiders, Penguin, Robin, San Diego FiveString Mob, Sandman, Sandy, Scott Free, Secret Society of Super-Villains, Serifan, Shazam, Shilo Norman, Simyan, Super Friends, Super Powers, Superman, Swamp Thing, Thaddeus Brown, The Evil Factory, The Head, The O’Ryan’s Mob, The Project, Tigra, Virman Vundabar, Vykin the Black, Wonder Woman, Yango TM & © DC Comics • Black Bolt, Captain America, Eternals, Fantastic Four, Galactus, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hercules, High Evolutionary, Hulk, Ikaris, Karnilla, Loki, Makkari, Odin, Prester John, Queen Ula, Sersi, Sgt. Muldoon, Silver Surfer, Surtur, Thena, Thor, Thundra, Ulik, Warriors Three, Watcher, Zuras TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Easy Rider TM & © Columbia Pictures • Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Seven Dwarfs TM & © Walt Disney Productions • Lord of Light TM & © Roger Zelazny • Newfangles TM & © Maggie Thompson • Scooby Doo, Thundarr the Barbarian TM & © Hanna-Barbera • Scuba Duba TM & © Bruce Jay Friedman • Star Trek TM & © Paramount • Steranko’s World of Escapes TM & © James Steranko • The New People TM & © ABC Television • Vampirella TM & © Arowana Media Holdings All other characters and art are TM & © The Jack Kirby Estate, including, but not limited to: Argus Flane, Captain Glory, Captain Victory, Silver Star, Collages, Flower Child, Galactic Head, God and Moses illustrations, Gods concept drawings, Incan Visitation, Insectons, Jericho, Julius Caesar costume designs, Kirby Unleashed, Lightning Lady, Satan’s Six, The Ape, The Family, Tribes Trilogy, Wonder Warriors

Views expressed here are those of the respective contributors, and not necessarily those of TwoMorrows Publishing or the Jack Kirby Estate. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication, except for limited review use, may be reproduced in any manner without express permission. All quotes and image reproductions are © the respective owners, and are used here for journalistic commentary, criticism, and scholarly analysis. [title page] Some godly spectators depart in 1973 art for Pro! magazine. [above] Space Head, date unknown. [left] Argonauts vs. The Cyclops, mid-1970s.

ForeWorld

Leave No God Unturned.....................................................................4

The Color-Text Equation....................................................................6

CONTENTS

Introduction

Concept Drawings*

“Orion”...................................................................................7 “Mister Miracle”..................................................................8 “Lightray”..............................................................................9 “Enchantra”........................................................................10 “Space Guardian”.............................................................11 “Green Mantis”.................................................................12 “Black of New Genesis”..................................................13 “Captain Victory/Glory”..................................................14 “Bombast”..........................................................................15

“Black Pharaoh”................................................................16 “Robot Defender”.............................................................17 “Thor/Sigurd”....................................................................18 “Balduur”...........................................................................19 “Heimdall”.........................................................................20 “Honir”................................................................................21 “Metron”.............................................................................22 “Darkseid”..........................................................................23 “Faces of Evil”...................................................................24 Peter Max-inspired concepts.........................................24

* These names were in flux or non-existent at the time the drawings were created, but are listed here to help the identification process in this book.

Pre-Genesis From “Old” To “New” Gods (1940–1970)..............................................................................................................................25

To And From The Source The Four Corners Of The Fourth World...................................................................................................................................49 365 Days Of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, By Jon B. Cooke....................................................................................................75

Buzzing In The Boom Tube First World (Spring 1970–January 1971)...............................................................................................................................88 Interlude One: Biblical Inspirations..........................................................................................................................................93 Second World (February 1971–July 1971)............................................................................................................................98 Interlude Two: The Gods Are No Laughing Matter............................................................................................................104 Third World (August 1971–February 1972).......................................................................................................................106 Interlude Three: The New Gods Were Our Gods................................................................................................................112 Fourth World (March 1972–July 1973)...............................................................................................................................114 Interlude Four: Soldier On The Battlefield..........................................................................................................................125 Fifth World (1974–1981 A.C.)...............................................................................................................................................128 Over In Conway’s Corner..........................................................................................................................................................135 Sixth World (1981–1986).......................................... 136 Post-Apokolips.............................................................. 152

AfterWorld TAARU!............................................................................ 155 Dedication To Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman, for tirelessly documenting Jack Kirby’s life and legacy and to Paul Levitz and Jenette Kahn, for finally making things right Collage used in Jimmy Olsen #138.

DUCTION

INTRO

“ The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, moves on…” Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, by Omar Khayyam

hat quote couldn’t be more apropos to Jack Kirby’s situation in 1970—and indeed, a visual interpretation of it appears in his own New Gods comic, as a flaming hand that writes on the Source Wall [above]. Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who lived in the 11th Century, and his poem espoused the idea of how time only moved forward, and that once something has occurred, it stayed in the past. Kirby, who’d spent the previous decade developing the Marvel Comics Universe, was ready to roll on a new “Epic for our times” that he didn’t feel he could produce at Marvel. His denouement in New Gods #1 that “An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!” meant more than he was leaving Thor and Odin (and Marvel Comics) behind. A seismic shift in his use of gods was taking place, and the behind-the-scenes events that got him there were seismic indeed. While this book will dig deep into that backstory, it goes much earlier than that—and much later. Jack Kirby was never content to just present the status quo in his comics. In his earliest work, he hit upon the idea of incorporating ancient mythology into stories, but with an updated twist. It reached its first apex at Marvel Comics in the 1960s, where Thor explored “old” gods living in today’s world, while sticking to their old god ways. Then came Galactus in Fantastic Four, who was an evolutionary step toward a different type of godly depiction. But despite even Jack’s multi-issue continued story arcs like the “Galactus Trilogy” or

Thor’s “Ragnarok” (which was threatened so often it became almost meaningless), you always knew those stories would end with the heroes surviving to fight another day, and the villains soon being up to their old mischief again. The long, sordid tale of Kirby’s discontent with Stan Lee and Marvel Comics during those 1960s years is the stuff of comic book legend (you can learn it in detail in my book Kirby & Lee: Stuf’ Said), but suffice it to say, Jack wasn’t happy there by 1969. When DC Comics’ Carmine Infantino came a’knockin’ to lure the top creator in the industry away, Kirby opened that door a crack— and eventually made the move, taking two young guys named Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman away from the Marvelmania Fan Club to be his assistants. Jack was at that time working from the West Coast and mailing in stories to his employer’s New York offices—and what he had planned for DC would require all the help Evanier and Sherman (and eventually, inker Mike Royer) could provide, to pull it off with minimal East Coast interference. As you’ll see herein, I couldn’t have pulled off this book without Mark and Steve’s own lifetimes of quotes and research, for which I and other Fourth World fans are eternally grateful. In 2014, the esteemed Mr. Evanier unknowingly sent me on a fascinating voyage into Kirby’s mind, by pointing out his tendency to put unrelated things together to make unique associations: “...the ‘Stone Men from Saturn’ are in the first Thor story... Jack was very intrigued by the Stone Men of Easter Island, and one of the places he read about them was in the book Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl.” Mark Evanier at the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, held on Sunday, July 27, 2014 at Comic-Con International: San Diego

As you’ll discover from my research, since then I’ve found many other instances of those same kinds of connections happening. Jack worked fast and thought even faster, so it’s difficult to keep up at times. But with some occasional speculation on my part, I’m hopefully going to take you on a journey of discovery to ellucidate the sources of Kirby’s gods in this tome.

Kirby in his home studio and back yard, circa September 1971, with his 1960s Gods concept drawings.

LEAVE NO GOD UNTURNED by John Morrow As cryptic house ads in DC’s 1970 comics heralded “The Great Ultimately, all that inventiveness was to no avail. DC cancelled One Is Coming,” Kirby launched his new “Fourth World” (New Gods, the Fourth World series mid-stream, and their rationale will be disForever People, Mister Miracle, and Jimmy Olsen), where mysteries cussed later in this book. All Kirby knew was that his pride and joy, galore slowly unfolded to create the next step in guest-starring and which he’d poured his full visionary energy into, was being taken shared universes. This was a true epic, taking place not just across a away. In many ways, he never recovered creatively from it, and trio of issues of one comic, but throughout every issue of four interwonever again put quite the effort into his work as he had from 1970ven titles, all inextricably linked. If you missed one, you missed a lot. 1972—although as you’ll see, his mid-1970s work on Eternals and Its eventual climax was poised to end with the death of either the other projects still had a lot of inventiveness put into them. main hero (Orion) or the overarching vilLooking over his entire career, lain (Darkseid). As each new installment you’ll see he covered a broad range Kirby Kirby at at his his hit the newsstands, the puzzle started to of historical traditions in his comics: drawing drawing board, board, with with take shape, and an army of characters and African (Black Panther), Aztec/Mayan/ Steve Steve Sherman Sherman new ideas was introduced. Incan (Eternals), Buddhist (Captain [left], [left], Mark Mark Evanier Evanier (“Army” is not an overstatement. A few America’s Bicentennial Battles), Chinese [right], [right], and and Mike Mike Royer Royer [below], [below], circa circa years ago, my pal Jon B. Cooke curated a blog (The Horde), Egyptian (Rama-Tut), 1969, 1969, and and more more titled 365 Days of the Fourth World, which Greco-Roman recently. recently. spotlighted a different Kirby character or (Hercules and concept each day Zeus), Hindu for a year. Jon (Lord of Light), had no problem Japanese (Sonny filling all the Sumo), Native slots, with plenty American (Wyatt left over. That Wingfoot), and list is included of course, Norse/ here, and Jon’s Germanic (Thor). own extensive Somewhere research into in his output, Kirby’s history he probably has been invalueven snuck in able in my quest some reference to document the to Celtic, Slavic, or Sumerian faiths. events in this book—as has the work of Jack Myths, legends, and ancient religions Kirby Checklist curator Richard Kolkman, were ripe trees to snag fruit from, and and Rand Hoppe and Tom Kraft of the Jack he picked them clean. Kirby Museum.) Jack himself was Jewish, and while his faith may have informed his storyInstead of directly riffing on the old telling, he didn’t let it cloud his stories’ gods as he’d done in Thor, Kirby took it upon outcomes. I’ve got strongly held Christian beliefs of my own, himself to create an entire new pantheon of and I’m the same way with this book; my own faith isn’t relgods, who were in-keeping with the times in evant here—we’re talking about entertainment, not religion. which he was documenting it. Rather than I’m not here to preach to anyone, just to have fun exploring just have Apollo or Ra walk among mankind, Photo by Kendall Whitehouse. the mind and talent of the guy who gave so many people, so he gave us a new kind of sun god in Lightray. much enjoyment through his comics, despite his hardships. Zeus and Odin gave way to Highfather, with a complicated backThis book presents a tale of how commercial considerations story behind his peaceful demeanor. And whereas Ares was a plain and editorial interference can destroy the most personal of creative old God of War, Orion was a Dog of War, calling on Shakespeare, endeavors—and how even corrupted artistic visions can have lasting European customs, and daddy issues to shape him into a whole new value and impact. Jack envisioned his Fourth World series ultimately type of battler. being collected into deluxe volumes, a permanent presentation Something else unprecedented was Kirby’s visual sense. Seeing that elevated the lowly comic book into the realm of literature. His the evolution of his style from his first “Mercury” strip in 1940, prescience is a vitally important point in all this, because as he preto his final Hunger Dogs graphic novel, should be a revelation for dicted, his New Gods saga (as well as Thor, Eternals, and most other Kirby neophytes. Technology became one of his “new” gods as well, Kirby work) has been collected and published just that way, multiple and no one created complex machines like Jack. Also, no one else times since he left comics in 1985. incorporated collage into their comics art the way Kirby did, and If you haven’t already read Kirby’s gods work, especially the for about a decade in the 1960s and ’70s, it became as much a part Fourth World, this book may not be for you. I’m assuming if you of his style as squiggles, Kirby Krackle, and his unique use of color. picked it up, you already have a familiarity with (and likely love for) Despite the printing limitations of the time requiring them to be those epic Kirby series, and want to delve deeper into them. rendered in black-&-white, those collages gave a distinctive look to So, consider this book a mythological shovel—let’s dig in! many a Kirby story, and you’ll see numerous examples of Jack’s John Morrow, February 2021 collage work here, finally shown in full-color. 5

GENESIS

FROM “OLD” TO “NEW” GODS Earliest Myth Adventures

PRE-

(1940–1970)

“I believed in legends and I loved mythological tales. The character of Thor has his origins in these fairy tales. But I wanted to tell them my own way, as adventure comics. The writers of these tales wrote them their way. The tales had a medieval style, a medieval language. My characters capture this language, with understandable English. “I knew many and read lots of these books. My parents believed in demons, like every European migrant who believed in popular tales! The English, the people from Central Europe, they all sat by a fire and repeated these stories. They were telling how Count Draha abducted peasants and their daughters, driving them to his castle which they never escaped from. Perhaps the Count had only had them wash his stables or clean the parquet floor, but the people around the fire kept telling he forced them to do very strange things. That may be the origin of the Dracula myth. Characters, more or less historical, are turned into legends, even if they probably were people like you and I! “I tried to incorporate what I know. My father came from an aristocratic Austrian family and my mother was a peasant. And they told me popular tales, stories very real for these people. At that time, penicillin didn’t exist and people were dying from diseases easily cured by today’s treatments. There were some religious ceremonies where people danced and sang. I could see them with my own eyes. “The Nordic legends about Asgard will live forever, as will our own legends, transmitted by comics, at least the best ones. We are building our own legends right now. What is modern today will become archaic for people in the future, and, for them, our writers will describe the ‘primitive life’ we are currently experiencing.”

ong before the Fourth World was a gleam in Kirby’s eye, he got the first big hit of his comic book career in 1940, at what today is known as Marvel Comics. Martin Goodman was the founder and owner of the company, dating back to the late 1930s when it began as Timely Comics. Goodman built his business on copying whatever trends were popular, and exploiting them with as many copycat comics as he could produce. But when he found himself with an innovator like Jack Kirby on the payroll, he suddenly saw his ragtag company reach new heights of financial success, largely from the popularity of Kirby and partner Joe Simon’s creation Captain America, which took the wartime world by storm. Jack first dipped his toes into the concept of gods in comics at Timely. His earliest use of deities was depicting the Roman god Mercury in Timely’s Red Raven Comics #1 (August 1940), in a story that presented other Roman gods, Jack Kirby interviewed by Nikola Atchine in 1992, in Kirby’s booth at Comic-Con International: San Diego including Jupiter (Mercury’s father), Minerva, Vulcan, and Diana, and even mixed in Greek gods Aeolus, Apollo, and Pluto. Red Raven was immediately cancelled, so Kirby’s unused second story was recycled for a back-up feature in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), renaming the main character Hurricane,

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FIRST WORLD Kirby’s initial tenure on the Fourth World can be broken up into distinct eras, of only a few months each. A lot took place in each short span of time, and the effects reverberated for years afterward, finally culminating in a seismic event more than a decade after it began. Here, Mark Evanier, Steve Sherman, and others (including Jack himself) offer behind-the-scenes recollections of the evolution of the Fourth World series.

THE INITIAL VINCE COLLETTA-INKED ISSUES Jimmy Olsen #133-139 New Gods #1-3 Forever People #1-3 Mister Miracle #1-3

The Great One Is Here!

his new series was going to go far beyond anything Jack, or anyone else, had produced in comics up to that point. He was realistic when asked whether he felt the Fourth World would appeal to younger readers, who were as likely to pick up a copy of Little Lulu or Archie as a super-hero comic at their local newsstand: “Of course, it’s a problem. I know I might fail at it, but I’m trying to make it a universal thing if I can. That’s a challenge in itself. It’s a heavy subject—the god stuff always was. I’m trying to put something into it to give it an affinity to the times themselves. I feel these are times when that kind of thing is felt. These are times when we’re all operating on the edge of holocaust, apocalypse, and everybody is living with the bomb. It’s a Strangelove kind of time, so I felt that the characters might reflect that sort of thing. There’s the problem of making all your characters different. There’s the problem of making them reflect everything that is good or bad inside of us— our weaknesses and our strengths, and our potential for good and evil. It’s enormous. I’m trying to get all that across in an entertaining sort of way. Of course I can’t do it all in three or four issues. At Marvel it took five years, and my problem was that I couldn’t do a simple story—I had to create an instant world in each magazine; an instant world with everything in it to get the ball rolling. Say, if I had done a foreign intrigue story—just a story, say, of a stolen diamond 88

Collage used in Jimmy Olsen #134.

or a stolen national secret of some kind—the hero would have to go after it and there would be a lot of gimmickry and a lot of shooting. Yet to have an individual story, you’d establish a single character. You wouldn’t know where he came from, or what he was really like. You might have to wait out an entire series of books until you really knew anything about him. I could’ve gone that route, but I was forced to go the other way. I’m coming in from the other end. I’m coming in with the whole ball of wax, which I have to unravel. I could’ve come in with just one character and developed his friends, but from what I’ve done here, you know everybody. You know where they came from. You don’t know exactly what kind of world it is, but you know it isn’t like Earth. You don’t know what kind of powers they have, but you know they have powers. You know there’s a war going on between good and evil. You’ve got that all in one issue. What I have to do is separate the individual action from the mass action. In other words, there might be an adventure with just Darkseid or one of the Forever People, but you’ll know them. You’ll know what kind of people they are from the first issue.” Jack Kirby interviewed for Train Of Thought #5, 1971

SPRING 1970–JANUARY 1971 (August 1970–May 1971 On-Sale Dates)

By October “Darkseid is a man you will never see; 1970, house Darkseid runs our world. Highfather runs our ads champiworld. These two men run our world; you’ll oning “The never see who they are. I put them together in Magic of two individuals. A part of our society runs this Kirby” were appearing world and they run it for good or evil. The evil across the side will harm us, the good side of it will help DC Comics us. So far, we’ve been skirting in the middle and line, heraldmaking out. ing the first “The New Gods went into my feelings about issues of The Forever the world around me. There’s an element of truth in that.” People, The Jack Kirby interviewed by Leonard Pitts, Jr. circa 1986 for Conversations with the Comic Book Creators New Gods, and Mister Miracle. Superman’s Pal, Jimmy of his past association with Stan Lee. Everything was riding on the Olsen #134 (Jack’s second issue) went on sale that month, featuring Fourth World becoming a hit. the first appearance of the Fourth World’s main villain Darkseid. Unfortunately, things hit a speed bump right out of the gate. In In December, Forever People an attempt to keep the title’s mainstay characters “on-model,” artist #1 and New Gods #1 were pubAl Plastino was utilized to alter Kirby’s depictions of Superman and lished. January 1971 set the Jimmy Olsen throughout Jack’s first stories. Face alterations marred final Fourth World pillar in Kirby’s work throughout his run on the Olsen title (and also within place, when Mister Miracle #1 Forever People #1, which guest-starred the Man of Steel), though it was published the same month was artist Murphy Anderson who later performed the majority of Marvel not so coincidentally head changes. released Fantastic Four #108, 1970’s Newfangles #35 stated, “Al Plastino redrew Superman’s using Kirby’s original rejected face throughout Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen story to make Supie look like Fantastic Four #102 story [left]. the accepted version.” That didn’t go unnoticed throughout fandom. DC, at that early stage, did little to foster Kirby’s original “Jack handed in his first Jimmy Olsen issue and a few others, and I vision for Superman put forth believe [Vince] Colletta inked two Olsens and the first Forever People in Forever People #1. In an unrebefore DC looked at it and said, ‘My God, Superman looks all wrong.’ lated move, the character was So on the first two issues I think, and Forever People #1, Al Plastino depowered by Dennis O’Neil was brought in to repaste things. Thereafter, Colletta inked the book in the Superman book, and we without inking the Olsen or Superman heads, and Murphy Anderson saw no sign of Darkseid and finished them up. Part of the problem company there, or in Action was that Colletta’s style was so different Comics, other than Morgan Edge cameos. Instead, Jack’s Fourth from Anderson’s. If Anderson had inked World ties were relegated to the second-tier Superman titles. In May the whole comic, I don’t think anyone 1971, Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #111 was published, with a would have noticed. Or if Wally Wood, non-Kirby story that included his Jimmy Olsen concepts, showing a who wanted to ink all of Jack’s DC work, little openness to incorporating Kirby’s scheme into the larger DC had inked them, I think it would have universe. Much of the credit for that went to E. Nelson Bridwell. worked. Mike Royer inked a couple of issues and he made some slight adjust“…Nelson Bridwell… was an absolute fount of information. He ments to Jack’s Superman, and DC didn’t was a guy who could remember what was in every issue—that’s why deem it necessary to bring in Anderson. he was the guy who picked the reprints—but he also knew everything Examples of a Plastino Superman face [right] and about everything else... he was one of Jack’s big champions up there…. Anderson’s Jimmy and Clark changes [below]. he saved a lot of Jack’s stuff from being ruined. He’d call Jack, or he’d call me, and say, ‘They want to do this to Jack’s book,’ and I’d alert Jack. Nelson was our spy on the inside. He was the only guy really sympathetic to what Jack was doing up there, who had an integral position at that time.” Mark Evanier at the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, held Sunday, July 27, 2014 at Comic-Con International: San Diego

Saving Face At that point, Kirby’s professional reputation was resting on proving that his success at Marvel Comics wasn’t a fluke, or because 89

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SECOND WORLD HITTING ITS STRIDE AS ROYER COMES ON BOARD, AND COVER PRICES GO TO 25¢ Jimmy Olsen #141-145 New Gods #4-6 Forever People #4-6 Mister Miracle #4-6

Mrs. Royer’s Boy Mike

ike Royer [right], who broke into comics by assisting Russ Manning at Gold Key Comics, was recommended to Kirby by Alex Toth. He already had experience inking Jack’s illustrations for the Marvelmania fan club, when he started working on the Fourth World books with New Gods #5, Mister Miracle #5, and Forever People #6. Getting that DC job wasn’t easy, or lucrative; Mike started at $15 a page for inking (which was $3-4 less than Vince Colletta received), plus $3 per page for his lettering. “I walked into Carmine Infantino’s office and I said, ‘Hey, I can do it for the same money as Vinnie, and I can make it look better.’ ...They finally gave me the work, but for less money than Colletta... So I had to letter the whole book in two days, and I had to ink three pages a day, to make two-thirds of the money I had made at the low, low rates at Gold Key.” Mike Royer at the Kirby Tribute Panel, held August 4, 2002 at ComicCon International: San Diego

Collage used in New Gods #5.

Royer eventually became widely regarded as one of Kirby’s finest delineators, if not the King’s very best. But it wasn’t always that way. “Roz and I [laughed] about the time when I took over the inking on Jack’s books, how many people wrote “ in and complained because I had replaced Colletta. But then again, they’d never seen ‘Kirby’ before. I did what Jack wanted me to do. 90% of the time I completely submerged my personality and any desires to embellish. If you were to ask Jack privately, he’d say I was the truest inker to his pencils. When he finally retired from comics, he said that I was his favorite inker.” Mike Royer interviewed on February 6, 1995 by John Morrow

Part of the confusion for readers was seeing Colletta’s light, airy penwork on Jimmy Olsen, while at the same time seeing Royer’s bold, dynamic brush strokes on the other three titles. But Royer did finally get to try his hand on Jimmy Olsen in issues #146 and #147, due to an increase in that title’s publication frequency. “The reason Mike finished those two was because Jack’s Jimmy Olsen sold real well, and they upped the book from eight times a year to monthly, but somehow nobody had told Jack to do more issues. All of a sudden, he had to do a bunch of issues in [left] Royer tweaked Kirby’s Superman heads in Jimmy Olsen #146 just enough to pass muster with DC. But when he changed Big Barda in Mister Miracle #5 [next page, center], Jack had Mike cut the faces off his pencil photocopies to restore them.

FEBRUARY 1971–JULY 1971 (June–November 1971 On-Sale Dates) advance, and there was no way to keep Mike busy. When Mike took over the Fourth World books, DC insisted on keeping Colletta on Olsen so they could maintain some control and keep changing the heads and such. Mike was fine with that because he had other work he had to finish up or withdraw from before he could ink Jack full-time. But then Jack suddenly realized one day, ‘I’m doing three Jimmy Olsens in a row, and if I keep sending them back there, Royer will have no work.’ So he called DC and said, ‘Royer’s inking the next Jimmy Olsen whether you like it or not. I’m responsible for Mike’s income.’ Which was another [instance], again, [of] Jack Kirby the Man looking out for his people. Mike did those two issues and soon, Jack was ahead enough so there would be no lull on Mike’s drawing table.”

And it’s the only time that I remember Jack ever saying anything critical. He said, ‘Don’t ever change the faces!’ So I never did after that.”

Mark Evanier, from a San Diego Comic Fest Panel, held Sunday, February 19, 2017

Mike Royer at the The Kirby Tribute Panel, held on July 28, 1995 at the San Diego Comic-Con

Indeed, the change to monthly frequency was noted in the indicia of Jimmy Olsen #142 (published in August 1971). So if Kirby didn’t get the memo till the time of its release (just after he’d finished drawing #145 in July), he’d have needed to hurriedly draw #146–147 in succession in August to get on the new monthly schedule, and have work for Royer while he set the other books aside to get Jimmy Olsen caught up. Since Mike was inking Olsen, he took it upon himself to remedy the situation of the altered faces.

For the remainder of the Fourth World’s initial run, Mike Royer would faithfully ink and letter every issue—a feat that helped make it visually cohesive, and all the more powerful.

“I believe that every man reaches a stage where he’d like to sum up what he’s seen, heard, and read. I believe he does this to find some value in the scars he’s collected on the road to this plateau. Although, packaged in idealism and adventure, the New Genesis/ Apokolips tale, to me, is quite real and a product of my own sincerity.” Jack Kirby interviewed by Jonathan Bacon in Fall of 1973, published in Fantasy Crossroads #1, 1974

“…It really was amazing that [Royer] could do it as long as he did. Both Joe Sinnott and Frank Giacoia told me they could never have inked Jack’s work on that kind of schedule... and that was without also doing the lettering.” Mark Evanier on Facebook, Aug 27, 2020

“Well, I called DC and I said, ‘If you want to change Jack’s Jimmy Olsens and Supes, send me the model sheets and let me refine them so that they’ll please you, but it’s all inked by the same hand.’ And so, on those couple of issues, I did the ‘fixes.’” Mike Royer, from a San Diego Comic Fest Panel, held Sunday, February 19, 2017

Other than that, Mike refrained from embellishing Jack’s pencil work most of the time. But on one rare occasion when he strayed from what Kirby put down in graphite, he quickly learned he could only go so far without getting reprimanded. “The second book that I inked was a Mister Miracle [#5]. And because at that time I was heavily influenced by Leonard Starr, I just had this bug that I was going to try to make Big Barda prettier. Of course, in doing so, it wasn’t Jack’s Barda anymore.

Kirby appeared at the April 1971 Disneyland Comic Convention, bringing his Gods concept drawings with him to help promote his four new DC titles. Assistants Mark Evanier [standing] and Steve Sherman [seated] are behind him. For the event, they produced a limited edition black-&-white portfolio of ten of Jack’s concept drawings, dubbed the “Disneyland Portfolio.”

INTERLUDE TWO:

The Gods Are No Laughing

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Matter

Jack Kirby speaks at the 1972 New York Comic Art Convention Luncheon (originally published in the 1973 Comic Art Convention program book)

“Gods are nothing to laugh at. If we laugh at gods we laugh at dramatic versions of ourselves. Gods are not the objects we think they are. Sure, they’re overpowering, they’re omnipresent, they overwhelm us and they make a lot of noise. Sure they make a lot of noise, because, individually, gods are us, they are our own feelings, the feelings that we never express. Sure, we’d like to have a lot of money, but we never do. We’d like to say a lot of things, but we never say them. And we want to live as an overpowering presence which we’re never going to do, because we’re just average people and we’re going to live average lives. We’re going to live as comfortably as we can, and that’s rational—but inside us are those feelings and we have to express them and they come out as gods.”

“P

eople make a mistake when they think people are taking a passive interest by worshipping these images, which are merely themselves. I think it must have been some Norseman with a rusty helmet and a muddy beard sitting on the bank of a river scratching himself... he looked like nothing, you know, and he knew it, but somehow he wanted to have a better image of himself, and he concocted Odin and Thor and Hercules and Samson and a lot of other figures that stood sky high. And in that reflection he saw himself, and by worshipping that reflection he himself became bigger, and his helmet became shinier and his beard became silkier, and he was able to throw around that thunder and lightning. And I feel it hasn’t changed much, except that we’re sophisticated enough to rationalize it better. We know what they are, at least I think so, and accept them for that. I use them in comics because they are impressive, they are powerful. You don’t have to analyze them, but you can enjoy them by absorbing their exploits. They’re really superb images. And actually those are the things that you’d like to be doing, making a noise bigger than yourself, being an image bigger than yourself. I think people might have seen that in the first Superman. We all live with these ideal images... sometimes bad images. And those are a reflection of ourselves, too. I feel that my character Orion is all of us; the good side and the bad side of us. “Actually we in ourselves are some kind of a grand opera, only in our everyday living, only the writers and artists see it dramatically. We see it dramatically too, but only in our own eyes. So when we see it expressed in a magazine, we relate to it. We sense that it isn’t just Orion and it isn’t just Darkseid, Darkseid and Orion are real somewhere. So the gods, or anything else that we write about, are all reflections on ourselves; what we’d like to be, what we don’t like to be, what we hate, what we love, and what we love and hate at the same time. So, sure the stories are sometimes contrived, sometimes uninspired, but they’re stories; the characters and the cast are real, because whoever’s in that story is a reflection of the guy who buys that comic book. “I’m prone to my own environment and express it in the terms of gods. Maybe I was oriented to some sort of mythology. I speak in terms of mythology. Another man will speak in terms of straight adventure, or in terms of romance. I’m communicating in my own way. And I try to make variations of it from time to time in order to be commercial. I have to make a living; I have a family. I’m oriented in that direction.” [left] The painting used for the cover of 1971’s Kirby Unleashed portfolio.

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BOOM TUBE

BUZZING IN THE

SIXTH WORLD CAPTAIN VICTORY, HUNGER DOGS, AND SUPER POWERS Captain Victory #1-13 Legion of Super-Heroes #290-294 Super Powers I #1-5 Hunger Dogs graphic novel Super Powers II #1-6

Light From The Darkness

n May 21, 1980, The Empire Strikes Back debuted in movie theaters worldwide, and its climatic father/son reveal had most Kirby fans leaving their local cineplex convinced director George Lucas owed a huge debt to Jack. That influence would continue to be felt on May 25, 1983, when the original Star Wars trilogy ended with Return of the Jedi. Behind the scenes in the early 1980s, Kirby was engaged in a contentious legal battle with Marvel Comics, over the return of his original artwork.

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THE ERA OF RE-GENESIS (1981–1986)

“In my attempt to create a serious novel for our medium, I have chosen that most basic of experiences, one we have all shared at one time or another—survival. If the fate of all mankind were in your hands, what would your decision be? ...As a writer and an artist, I’ve drawn my answer.”

Fearful that soon to expire copyrights on his 1960s Marvel creations would result in him claiming ownership, Marvel withheld thousands of pages of Kirby’s original artwork in their files as leverage, even though they had begun to return artwork to other concurrent 1960s artists. Kirby was singled out for a lengthier release to sign, which included legal language he couldn’t agree to. When word leaked out, a campaign against Marvel began in the fan press (spearheaded largely by The Comics Journal), and a dark era began for Jack, well after he’d left comics for good—or so he thought. Brothers Bill and Steve Schanes had co-founded Pacific Comics in 1971 as a mail-order comics dealer for collectors (at the same time affidavit return fraud was causing the Fourth World’s sales to be under-reported). After successfully opening their own comics shop, they branched out into the non-returnable Direct Market distribution of comics, and reached the point of starting their own independent comics publishing house. They approached Kirby in 1981 with a deal that included royalties, full creative control, and ownership of his original artwork—all things he’d never been

Jack Kirby from a DC Comics’ press release, February 6, 1985

offered working for Marvel or DC. It was enough to make him take a leap of faith on the new publisher, and give comics one more try. Thus, Summer 1981 saw the debut issue of Kirby’s Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, published by Pacific Comics, making it Jack’s first comic published specifically for the Direct Market of comic books stores. That cemented a new distribution model for comics, which is still being used today. But it also afforded an opportunity for Kirby to finally produce an ending to his Fourth World storylines—just not at DC Comics. It was quite a confluence of unrelated events that caused it to happen. Earlier that year, in February 1981, Jenette Kahn [top] became DC’s president following the retirement of Sol Harrison, and Paul Levitz [center] was promoted to executive vice president, with Dick Giordano [bottom] serving as managing editor. Then suddenly, the New Gods characters made a high-profile comeback in 1982 in a storyline titled “The Great Darkness Saga.” Appearing from January– August, and occurring in the Legion of Super-Heroes title (issues #290-294, written by Levitz and drawn by Keith Giffen), it started as a slow burn with hints of who a shadowy 30th Century “Master” villain was who controlled the “Great Darkness.” That all led up to a big reveal: It was Darkseid, who’d somehow managed to survive the ensuing ten centuries, only to threaten the universe once again. I think it’s critical to read “The Great Darkness Saga” in order to fully understand how and why Kirby shaped his New Gods’ future from that point on. In it, both Highfather and Orion were briefly resurrected as clones before perishing in battle with Darkseid at the climax, and that may’ve played a part in Jack’s thinking to follow. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume he took at least some umbrage at DC presenting that story [left] If you had any doubt that Kirby somehow saw all his work as interconnected, this 1981 film premise should lay that to rest. It reads as a combination of New Gods, Eternals, and Captain Victory, and the pin-up on the previous page (from Captain Victory Special #1) may have been done to accompany it, as it matches this concept perfectly.

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Old Gods & New: A Companion To Jack Kirby’s Fourth World