Jack Kirby Collector Special Edition

SPECIAL EDITION

C o l l e c t o r

Compiling all the “extras” from Collected Jack Kirby Collector Volumes 1-7

The Demon, Mister Miracle and Orion TM and © DC Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

Silver Surfer, Ikaris, The Thing, and Captain America TM and © Marvel Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Photograph by Susan Skarr. All artwork is © Jack Kirby.

Celebrating the life and career of the King!

Fully Authorized by the Kirby Estate

Battling The Kirby Bug An introduction, by John Morrow hen I was twelve years old, I spent a lot of time hoping I would catch a fatal disease.

Okay, maybe not a really fatal disease; just one semi-fatal enough to make me terribly sick, which would naturally make people feel sorry for me, so I’d get my picture in the local newspaper, which would somehow find its way out to California to Jack Kirby’s house, so Jack would read the article and find out what a big fan of his I was, and he’d feel sorry for me and travel all the way to Alabama to draw a huge mural of all his Fourth World characters on my bedroom wall.

Unfortunately, I grew to adulthood relatively germ-free, and hence, mural-free, too. It’s probably just as well; I could never have moved out of that bedroom – after all, how do you take a whole wall with you? But little did I know I was already the victim of a serious, chronic disease for which there is no known cure.

I call it the Kirby Bug. (No, I’m not talking about the character from New Gods #9-10, although he made a very fitting illustration for this introduction.)

It all started a few months earlier when I’d come down with chicken pox. A couple of days into the horrible itching and scratching, my mailman delivered a huge box of Kirby back issues I’d ordered from The Buyer’s Guide For Comic Fandom. I’d been enjoying Kamandi for awhile, and had heard that the Fourth World – whatever that was – was supposed to be pretty incredible, so I’d taken a gamble with my first mail-order dealer. The timing was opportune, since those books did what no Calamine lotion was able to do; they made me forget how miserable I was, by distracting me with all the mindblowing concepts Jack had laid out in them.

W

By the time I’d reread them five or six times, my chicken pox had cleared up – but I was permanently infected with “the bug.”

The symptoms became apparent pretty quickly: Sweaty palms (from thumbing through back issue boxes), increased heart rate (from finding a long-sought-after Kirby back issue), insomnia (from staying up late reading that back issue), and an insatiable appetite (for more Kirby back issues!).

Try though I might in the years since, I haven’t been able to shake “the bug.” Oh sure, I went into remission for a few years in the late ’80s, when there were no new Kirby comics on the stands. But although my trip to the 1991 San Diego Comic Convention finally gave me a chance to meet Jack, that meeting gave me what now appears to be a permanent relapse.

I’m currently getting treatment for my ailment in the form of The Jack Kirby Collector. By publishing this ’zine every couple of months, I’m in the fortunate position of having other victims of “the bug” send me copies of Kirby art from their collections for publication. I also get the thrill of rubbing shoulders and doing interviews with a lot of my idols from comics, who, as it turns out, have varying degrees of “the bug” themselves. Wonderful folks like Mark Evanier, Greg Theakston, Steve Sherman, Mike Royer, Jim Steranko, Joe Sinnott, Richard Howell, Steve Gerber, Shel Dorf, Tony Isabella, Chic Stone, Dick Ayers, Steve Rude, Jerry Ordway, Barry Windsor-Smith, Mike Thibodeaux, Steve Bissette, Walt Simonson, Terry Austin, Al Williamson, Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Karl Kesel, and so many more have gone out of their way to help make this publication better with each issue.

Maybe the best thing about publishing TJKC is having a support group of several thousand people who all have “the bug.” Just knowing there are others out there with the same affliction makes all the effort worth it – and I won’t kid you; publishing TJKC is really hard work. But I’m not complaining; it’s probably the most fun and rewarding thing I’ve ever done, and I have lots of help. There are plenty of people behind the scenes who deserve all our thanks, beginning with my wife Pamela.

Pam now knows more about Jack Kirby than she ever wanted to (or should have to), but she still continues to volunteer to copy subscription envelopes, fill back issue orders, make trips to the Post Office, proofread, and sit for hours at the TJKC booth at comic conventions.

She may not have “the bug” herself, but her sweetness, warmth and kindness are just as contagious.

Also, big thanks to Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, and Pat Varker: “The Guys” in Raleigh, NC who continually sacrifice their free time to stuff each new issue into envelopes. We couldn’t do it without you!

I want to especially thank Mark Evanier and Greg Theakston, the two people who’ve gone out of their way to help TJKC more than anyone else. Also, special kudos to fellow “bug” sufferers Jon B. Cooke, Mike Gartland, David Hamilton, Chris Harper, Randy Hoppe, Richard Howell, Steve Robertson, Mike Thibodeaux, R.J. Vitone, and Tom Ziuko. Their expertise, support, encouragement, and Kirby art collections are largely responsible for this publication being where it is today.

Finally, let me extend a special thanks to Rosalind Kirby for her support from the very beginning, and her continued indulgence when we occasionally manage to stick our foot in our mouth. If you’ve wondered if all the stories about what a fabulous person she is are true, stop wondering. They are. It’s an honor to know you, Roz. This book is a compilation of the first nine issues of TJKC. Everything I felt was important about those issues is here; I didn’t omit any of the art or articles, only some ads and in-house pages. This made room for a special portfolio section with lots of Kirby pencils we’ve never published (some sneakily scattered throughout the old issues, so you longtime readers would have to rediscover the old stuff!). Plus it gave me a chance to rescan much of the art from the early photocopied issues, and let me tweak the original layouts a bit.

When I started TJKC, I told Pam that if only ten people wanted to get it, it’d be worth doing. It’s a testament to Jack’s genius that it’s gone way beyond that in the last three years; “the bug” continues to spread, and I can see TJKC continuing indefinitely with your help. If you’ve ever had an urge to write something about Jack, send it in! And if you have a piece of Kirby art in your collection, make a photocopy and send it.

But be warned: You’ll probably catch “the bug” too – and once you get it, it’s for life!

John Morrow, Editor Raleigh, NC, 1997

Foreword

by Mark Evanier y one complaint with The Jack Kirby Collector is that it didn’t come out a few years earlier. You love it, I love it, Roz loves it, but it would have been nice if Jack could have seen it, since he would have loved it.

Jack always had a deep, abiding commitment to the record. This is obvious from his work, the creation of which always reminded me of Jimmy Cagney’s classic advice about acting: “Walk out onto the stage, plant your feet and tell the truth.” Jack drew from the gut. Though he toiled in the vineyards of fantasy, he dealt only in honesty. You might find a given story far-fetched or far-afield, but he was never, not for one teensy panel, insincere.

Kirby knew that, if his career was laid open for all to view, he would come off well for it. All he asked was a fair hearing in the court of public opinion. Thanks to folks like John and Pamela Morrow, the jury is returning the only possible verdict: That Jack Kirby was the most brilliant, innovative talent the comic book business has ever seen, and maybe ever will see.

(And let’s be honest: How many of us could have our life’s work subjected to so much scrutiny and fare so well? I’m still telling people that it was some other Mark Evanier who did that lousy run on the eighties New Gods revival.)

This commitment to the truth – to putting it all out there – was one of the two reasons that Jack was always so accessible to his fans, the other being that he was just a very kind, generous man. When I first met him in July of ’69, I could not believe how accommodating he was, how much time he spent with my friends and me answering the same, obvious questions I’m sure everyone put to him on their first meeting.

We were just a bunch of geeky comics fans; he stood to gain nothing from giving us a few hours. And as he was being paid by the page, the four or so hours he spent with us cost him a few bucks, and maybe forced him to stay up late to finish a Fantastic Four. (It was #97 he had on the board that day, and he also allowed us to eavesdrop on his end of a telephonic plotting session with Stan Lee for #98.)

I was elated that he gave us all that time, but I didn’t understand, then, why. Later, when I had the honor of working as his assistant for a time, it became clearer.

It was that devotion to the truth. He figured, the more questions he answered, the more people he talked to, the more accurate the record would be. Later, I saw him at conventions, standing there for hours at a spell, making himself available to anyone who wanted to ask Kirby anything. (One time, a convention advertised Jack’s appearance without his assent and he showed up anyway. When I told him he should have let the con promoter twist in the wind, Jack said, “Yes, but then the kids who showed up to meet me would have been disappointed.”)

On several occasions, Jack called me his Boswell, and said he hoped I would write the definitive story of his life and times. I’m working on that book but, in the meantime, I’m elated not to have to shoulder the whole responsibility by myself.

The many historians who contribute to the Morrows’ periodical are happily sharing the burden, offering different views, delving into areas I’d never thought to explore. A subject as rich and colorful as Kirby ought to be tackled by many – the more, the merrier, just so long as they write the truth and keep this most formidable topic on the table.

Besides, I’m learning stuff. One of the dumber things I’ve briefly believed in my life was that I knew everything important about Kirby. (“Know everything important about Kirby” – now, there’s a stupid notion. You could no more know everything about Kirby than you could about any other force of nature.)

M

A handwritten biography Jack did for the National Cartoonists Society.

John and Pamela have cobbled up a wonderful fanzine which, like all wonderful fanzines, is a labor of love. They’re not kidding with that “Not For Profit” emblem on the cover either, at least insofar as cash is concerned. I suspect they profit in other ways, though – the pride in doing right by the King of the Comics, as well as the joy of meeting Kirby fans and Kirby friends the world over. With fewer exceptions than you’d expect, Kirby readers are like Kirby – witty, wonderfully imaginative, and unfailingly generous. The pages of The Jack Kirby Collector remind us of that every issue.

So I’m delighted to see the publication up and running, and I hope it lasts as long as the work of Jack Kirby is reprinted and revered.

Which is just another way of saying, “forever.”

It’s no secret that, in the oft-unethical world of comics, Kirby did not get as good as he gave; that his bankable rewards were not usually commensurate with his contributions.

That is not to say he was without his prizes. They were formidable, just counting the number of creative folks – in and out of comics – he influenced, the number of fans he made, the vast quantities of fame he achieved.

Jack mattered. And when he left us, he was secure in the knowledge that his work and spirit would remain with us forever, and that it would be passed on to future generations. Deep down, he knew that there would be magazines like this, carrying on his name and creativity...

But still, it would be nice if he’d been able to see it.

Mark Evanier Los Angeles, CA, 1997

(top) Captain America drawing for Marvelmania Magazine. (bottom) Cover of The Comic Reader #100, 1973.

Pages 2 and 3 of Jack’s uninked pencils from Thor #147.

Uninked pencils from Thor #157, page 4 and #166, page 20.

Pages 7 and 10 of Jack’s unpublished Prisoner adaptation. See TJKC #11 for more details.

Page 11 of Jack’s unpublished Prisoner adaptation.

Pencils from page 35 of Jack’s Hunger Dogs Graphic Novel.

Uninked pencils from pages 13 and 41 of the Hunger Dogs Graphic Novel. (See Mike Royer’s original, unaltered inks to these pencils on page 126.)

Uninked pencils from Jack’s new story in the New Gods Reprint #6, pages 9 and 44.

Uninked pencils from the page 40-41 spread in the 1980s New Gods Reprint #6.

Superman visits New Genesis in these pencils from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #147, page 22.

Pencils from page 16 of Jack’s last issue of Jimmy Olsen, #148.

Uninked pencils from Journey Into Mystery #117, page 14.

Jack’s pencils from page 4 of Strange Tales #141.

Two generations of Captain America pencils, from #101, page 4 and #193, page 23.

Uninked pencils from Captain Victory #4, page 8.

Uninked pencils from Captain Victory #9, page 6.

Uninked pencils from Captain Victory #10, page 3.

Pencils from page 2 of the Klavus back-up in Captain Victory #9.

Walk thru many corridors

Enter

F.F. Face doctor doom...

I’ll (tell) You my plan.

I’m ready--

I want black beard’s treasure.

--to take over world...

You’ll get it for me.

Impossible.

Nobody’s seen the treasure...

Jack’s storyboards from “The F.F. Meet Doctor Doom” episode of The New Fantastic Four animated series. More storyboards can be found on page 238 of this book, and in TJKC #11.

F.F. Obey

K I R B Y Says - - ”Don’t Ask!!!”

Just Buy and Read Total “ S u s p e n z a n yi s m !!! ” The Collected

Volume Two

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The House That Jack Built A British Fan’s Visit To The Kirby Home, by Glenn B. Fleming of Manchester, England The following is an account of a personal experience with a genius.

Almost single-handedly, the late Jack Kirby wrote, designed and illustrated the look of the American comic book and from 1937 until 1983, Jack created an multitude of mythical and magical characters, the likes of which had never been seen in the medium. In his half-century career, it is estimated that Jack drew almost 40,000 pages of comic book art—a truly staggering achievement added to the fact that he continually changed his style to produce fresh and exciting work, never equalled to this day.

I was privileged to meet the man and his wife on two separate occasions at his home in California. Upon our first meeting they did not know me but still welcomed me into their home with friendship and openness; but that was typical, because all Jack ever gave was himself.

That he was treated shabbily by others and that his work was jealously guarded—but not for his benefit—is testament to his enormous impact on the world of comic books. His talent was unmatchable and we are strengthened by his life’s work and weakened upon his leaving.

Jack simply gave us everything he had.

Jack Kirby died in February 1994, leaving a legacy that none will ever echo in the comics field. Roz, his lovely wife and partner for fifty years, joined him in December 1997. This tribute is dedicated to them both with deep love and great thanks. first met Jack Kirby in August 1965 when my brother brought home Strange Tales #135, the first appearance of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was hard to miss those funny little credits, so it was the first time I knew who had written and drawn the stories we were reading. As far as I was concerned, Marvel comics were new, better than any of the “Superman” comics around, and definitely worth reading. It was my opinion that DC only had two decent artists then, and I didn’t know their names (they turned out to be Gil Kane and Curt Swan). In the S.H.I.E.L.D. comic, The Man from UNCLE—one of my favorite TV shows—was obviously being ripped off (with a little 007 thrown in) but I didn’t mind. The strip was brilliant, the artwork so powerful and dynamic. At the back of the book was a weirdo called Doctor Strange. That strip had strange artwork too, and even the artist’s name, Ditko, was one I’d never heard of before, anywhere. (How many people do you know called ‘Ditko’?) Despite all this newness—and it did unsettle me somewhat—I was hooked. I searched for other comics that Jack “King” Kirby had drawn and, sure enough, there were many.

As an ten-year-old aspiring comics artist myself, I couldn’t help but be impressed. I was soon drooling over Fantastic Four, Mighty Thor, Captain America, and all the rest. I just couldn’t get enough. I discovered the fabulous work of the above Steve Ditko in Spider-Man (just before he left the strip!) and John Romita and all the others. Stan was the man, of course, if only because he kept on telling me so.

For the next eight years I lived in another universe, usually a Kirby universe, full of bad aliens and good aliens who all behaved like bad humans and good humans. Reaching sixteen, with my mother on my back telling me to “stop reading this junk—get rid of it—it clutters up your bedroom,” I discarded comics.

(Yes, I had all the number ones and sold them. Mine went for a penny each!) Although I would listen to my mother, I got rid of them mainly because I was dissat-

I

(this page and next) Pencils from Strange Tales #141. (following pages) The Prisoner by Kirby.

isfied with the quality then being produced. I could see, even at that tender age, that the best times were gone and the writers and artists that had followed Kirby were no match for him, and appeared to be treading water, even stooping to rehashing Jack’s old stuff. Jack himself had gone off the boil. I lost interest and moved on.

Ten years later, I went into a comics shop and saw that Jack Kirby was still alive and producing comics. The comic in question was Captain Victory.

Though not Jack’s best work, it rekindled a spark in me and I decided to see what had happened in the decade since I’d stopped reading and collecting.

I became aware that Jack Kirby (and others) was fighting to get his original art back from Marvel, with no success. I followed with interest and disgust how they were treating this genius of comics. Surely the artist could have his lousy drawings back! Hadn’t Jack created the whole line with Stan Lee? (No, not really; Stan had created the whole thing, on his own... hmm, I don’t think so. Stan was a master wordsmith, there is no doubt; but the best thing he did was promote Stan Lee and that was obvious to me when I was barely 12 years old. Did Jack and the other “Bullpenners” not contribute anything? As Jack said to me years later, “Stan wrote the credits.” That sums it all up, really.

The only thing Jack Kirby did was rejuvenate the entire comics industry and create an entire line of fresh, beautiful artwork, characters, and stories. Stan wrote the credits. ’Nuff said.)

By now, I was anxious to meet my hero, but where the hell did he live? California, yes, but California is bigger than England, and I bet there were a few Kirbys—and more than one Jack—living there. I remembered an address in one of my comics that you could write to concerning Jack’s work: Thousand Oaks.

That was it; but where the hell was Thousand Oaks? I forgot about it until 1987, when I went on holiday to

Barbados with my ex-partner.

After flying over the Atlantic for nine hours and a thirty-minute cab drive to the hotel, we found our room, dumped the bags, and hit the bar.

The King stands next to his throne. (previous page) Glenn undaunted (?) in the presence of Jack.

There is something about Americans that you cannot miss. Maybe it’s their generosity— loud “hi!”s and “come and join us!” met our ears. We wondered who they were talking to— it turned out to be us. Drinks were ordered and quickly paid for, Bajan dollars landing on the bar followed by “I’ll get those!”. Barely drawing breath, you get the history: Names (“Hi! I’m Bob and this is Suzanne”), places (“We’re from Orange County, California”), and why (“We’re here to get married—tomorrow!”).

I love Americans and I love most things about America. They talked. They talked some more; and then they talked some more. They were good people, warm and affectionate, loving our English accents. Suzanne’s family originally came from England and Bob’s people originally came from Austria—neither were sure when—so really Bob and Suzanne were at least European (according to them anyhow!). Most Americans are, and most Americans love the English or the British. In fact, if the TV news is anything to go by, Americans are the only people who do like us—but that’s another story.

We took to them immediately and the four of us went on a cruise that night. The “Bajan Queen” was the steamer we boarded. Four miles out from Bridgetown into the calm Caribbean sea, it was a beautiful 84º evening. All the evenings in Barbados are beautiful.

The day after their wedding, at which we were Best Man and Matron-of-Honor, Bob and

Suzanne left for California. We swapped addresses as one does and promised to keep in touch. We were sad to see them go and were a little sad for the remainder of the day, but the rest of the holiday went well for us and we had a great time. Then, just as Bob and Suzanne had done ten days earlier, we left the island of Barbados with our deep tans, deeper memories, and headed for home.

Reaching home, we were greeted by a single envelope on the floor. It was a letter from Bob and Suzanne speaking of how they had missed us, and could we fly over to California and stay at their house for a holiday?

You betcha.

We arranged to go to California the following October, and we rang each other and wrote to each other regularly. I asked Suzanne, quite out of the blue, if she knew where a place called Thousand Oaks was. She did; it was about an hour away by car. (Everywhere in California is about an hour away by car.) I explained why I wanted to know that and she told me she’d get Jack’s telephone number for me and send it in the next letter. I said, “Can you do that?” and she replied, “Sure, we can do that for you!”

Americans never say “We’ll try.”

They either do or don’t, but I thought she was joking, or at least she’d forget.

The task was impossible anyway.

There must be more than 25 million people living in California.

Bob and Suzanne wrote back three weeks later (see letter above).

“Jack Kirby from Thousand Oaks says hello and wants you to call him when you’re down. His number is... He lives only one hour and twenty minutes from (where we live). He hopes someday he can draw as well as Glenn!”

I was, of course, dumbstruck.

Surely it was a joke!—and an expensive one. I couldn’t ring that number and find out it was a hoax, so I didn’t.

For weeks after, when I got home from work, I would sit and stare at that letter. One particular evening, feeling a little low, I decided that if it was a joke, all I need do was put the phone down on whomever answered

Pencils from Captain America #193, which heralded Jack’s return to Marvel in the mid-1970s.

and that would be it. Simple as that.

So I rang.

A female voice answered the call and, after identifying myself and the purpose of the call, I was told I was talking to Roz Kirby, the wife of said Jack Kirby, the famous comic book artist! Roz said, “Should I put Jack on?” Gulp!

“I’ll put him on.”

I then spoke to Jack Kirby—Jack “King” Kirby! Bob and Suzanne had come through. I’d had his number for weeks and not called! I spoke to Jack for about 25 minutes, but I can’t remember what I said or what he said. When I put the phone down I couldn’t speak for ages. I was in a daze—talk about hero worship!

Jack and I had traded addresses and we wrote to one another over the next few months. I told him I was coming to the States later in the year, and could I come out and see him? “Sure,” he said.

When we got to California that autumn I rang Jack again and spoke to Roz. We were there in California and when could we come out and see them? “Friday,” said Roz. “About 1:00. Come for lunch.”

Friday! It was Tuesday! I had to wait nearly a whole week!

Bob reassured me that he knew vaguely the area where Jack lived and it wouldn’t be hard to find. We rented a Cadillac for the week and, come Friday, off we went.

We found the street: A beautiful place this, away from the town center; quiet and peaceful. Then, there was Jack’s house, on the steepest hill in California. We pulled onto Jack’s drive and my first glimpse of him was through his kitchen window, a silhouette. Jack was a short compact man and I wondered how all of those enormous ideas came out of such a tiny frame.

Needless to say, I was dumbstruck

(here and next two pages) Pencils from Eternals #4. again as he opened the door and clasped my hand. I first met Jack in the flesh in October 1988, twentythree years after I’d first met him in the pages of Strange Tales.

“Hi, Glenn. Did you find us okay?” The King had spoken. I said that we had and Roz appeared and greeted me warmly. After all the introductions, Bob said that he and Suzanne would be “... off now.

We’ll come back in an hour or so.” I remember thinking that there was no way I was leaving there in an hour or so unless the Kirbys insisted.

Roz told them she had made lunch for six, so they couldn’t go anyway.

We all went into the Kirby home.

It was a day I’ll never forget. Over lunch, I didn’t say much. As you can see in the photograph (at left), I sat almost opposite Jack. My American friends and partner spoke to Jack’s wife Roz like they’d known her all her life. Here I was, eating with the King, not saying anything but “no thanks” and mumbling “I can’t eat this, I’ll never get through this,” and all the while they were laughing and joking.

I felt like an idiot. Here I was, 33 years old achieving one of my greatest dreams, and I felt like a little kid.

Jack was great, though. He leaned over and asked me what my name was over and over again! I don’t know if he’d actually forgotten or was joking, but he kept bringing me back into the conversation.

“I got thrown out of art school in New York because I wouldn’t wait around 30 days to draw a head. They threw me out. I didn’t have time to waste. There was so much to do.”

His audience, gripped by now, listened as Jack took us back through his life. ack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917 in New York, in the mean streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

His parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe and his father was a tailor who later worked in a garment factory. Young Jack, a voracious reader, would hide himself away, digesting the works of Edgar Rice Burrows, H.G. Wells and, later, leading science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Shortly after immersing himself in this literature, Kirby became a fan of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy, Milton Caniff ’s Terry and the Pirates and Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. At the same time, most of Jack’s peers were becoming small-time thugs and thieves in an effort to survive the cauldron of cultures so prevalent of ’20s and ’30s New York.

Jack was Jewish, and this was a good enough reason for him to fall foul of several street gangs who would let him know just what they thought of Jews. At the age of

J

(here and next three pages) Pencils from Captain America #102.

Shy Roz!

eleven, Jack began studying “How to Draw” books from the library. At 14, he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in an effort to learn more about art. The young Kirby never attended. The day before he was due to begin his course, his father lost his job and so couldn’t pay the enrollment fees.

“I did attend the Education Alliance for one day, though. They threw me out for drawing too fast with charcoal!”

Undaunted, Jack landed his first professional art job at the age of 18, working for a small newspaper syndicate. He worked his way through newspaper strips and animation to become the leading light in comic book history—but that was later. After answering an ad in the newspaper, Jack secured a job at the Max Fleischer studios in New York, working on animation as an “in-between” artist. The main artist would draw 1

the beginning and end of a sequence and lesser artists like Jack (!) would draw the “in-betweens” to make the work flow. Jack worked on Popeye and Betty Boop. He didn’t stay at the Fleischer studios long, however.

“I couldn’t keep doing the same drawing over and over. Besides, the place was terrible. We worked on rows of tables 200 yards long. It began to look like the garment factory where my father worked. I didn’t want to work where my father worked. I think the next generation sees things differently and all I could see were long tables and my father at the end of them. I loved my father, but I didn’t want to be him. I was desperate to get out of there, like I was desperate to get out of the ghetto. I was an angry kid. I was scared all the time and wanted to get out of the ghetto.

Anger will save your life. I was angry later, in France, during the war. It probably saved my life.

Gangsters are angry people and there were plenty around me on the Lower East Side; but I couldn’t go that way in respect of my parents. A friend of mine was shot and I saw the way his mother was after that. I loved my parents and couldn’t hurt them that way. I’m just glad they were around for me at that time. Anyway, the Fleischer studios were moving to Florida. I wanted to go, just to get out, but my mother persuaded me not to.

She didn’t want me to go. She was afraid we’d lose touch and, of course, it was the Depression and I was earning. The money was important, too. Anyway, that apart, it’s fortunate that I didn’t go, because soon after they moved, they all went on strike and men were laid off.”

Following the fantastic success of Superman, new heroes were created by any number of publishers. Jack would appear— art folder in hand—at these new publishing houses, eager to work for anyone who would pay him.

Jack met and worked with comics legend Will Eisner and learned, among other things, the discipline needed to create sequential art.

“Will Eisner was so professional and so I became like him in his approach. My motivation was fear. I didn’t want to be left behind, so I had to try and be better than anybody else. There was any number of guys there and we had a great time, but we never fooled around. We had a job to do and had been hungry too often to risk losing it.”

Jack was working for Fox on numerous strips, when in walked the man that would help change

his life. Joe Simon—all six-foot-two of him—had a dramatic impact on the young Kirby. Joe liked Kirby and when the former left Fox for Timely, he took Jack with him.

“Joe would do the talking to the publishers after this. They wouldn’t look at me. Joe was middle class and they saw something that I never had. It didn’t bother me. I got what I wanted from it and it was just another angle we could use.”

Simon & Kirby’s first foray into the new marketplace was the disastrous Red Raven Comics which folded after just one issue. Trying harder, Kirby and Simon came up with the green-hued Vision which proved to be more of a success.

In 1940, with Adolf Hitler making moves across Europe (“Hitler was a disappointed artist—he went into other things!”), publisher Martin Goodman saw the need of an American hero, a flag-waving patriot to combat the evil Axis forces. Thus Goodman, through his publications, effectively declared war on Hitler’s regime a year before the Japanese brought the United States into the war for real with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Kirby and Simon were charged with the creation of the hero. The character they came up with is one of the most enduring heroes in the history of comics: Captain America.

Through their endeavors in the comics medium, Jack and Joe became firm friends. “I tried to compete

with Joe, which I couldn’t do. I tried to beat him at bowling, I tried to be better than him at horse riding. I remember I had to draw standing up for a whole week—my behind was so sore!”

In late 1940, the studio needed an assistant, a “gofer.” Stanley Martin Leiber, Goodman’s cousin-in-law, was hired. Leiber later changed his name to Stan Lee. To Stan’s credit, he saw comic books as a way to entertain older people; he didn’t like the premise that comic books were for kids. He would later become the most famous writer and editor in the history of comics.

As the work increased, Kirby and Simon needed help with the writing and Lee saw his opportunity. Although Lee had come on board as the coffee maker and proofreader, he had really wanted to write.

Captain America Comics hit the stands in March 1941, a full nine months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and was a huge success.

Jack Kirby: “I was selling almost a million copies a month with Captain America. Half the problem was solved before we started. We needed a villain and we had the perfect guy. He was alive and living in Germany at that very moment.”

The character of Captain America was wrapped in the red, white, and blue of the American flag. His creators, of course, made him handsome and gave him the obligatory square chin, but the symbol that worked best for Cap was his shield. Originally designed to be triangular, Kirby and Simon soon changed it and made the shield circular.

It completed the look of the character and because Captain America had no super-powers, his shield became the perfect weapon. Many a villain has felt the wrath of the shield when expertly

Of course, he never did! I had my girl, too. I didn’t want to go and fight.

“I turned off at this point; you had to. I told myself that I had to be stupid. I wasn’t careful about things; if you dwelled on the situation, you died.

The secret was not to give a damn about anything else. I saw things...”

Kirby found himself on the banks of the river Mozel, near Metz, dodging German searchlights and machine gun bullets. “The guys in the platoon knew who I was. They read Captain America. One guy asked me why I didn’t try and get to Paris and draw for Yank. I told him I didn’t want to go Paris, that I wanted to go home.

“My lieutenant came over to me and some of the guys. He told us we were going across the river in a rubber boat—eight of us. It was night time and I was trying to dodge his eye. He came over and said, “Hey, you’re that Kirby guy, aren’t ya? The guy who draws?”

“I told him I was. I thought he was going to take one of the other guys over the river instead of me. “I’ve got a real important job for you, Kirby,” he said.

“We got over the river unseen. We were all scared. We climbed up this hill and looked over. We could see lots of German Tiger tanks; thousands of them! We could see them in the moonlight. We said to the lieutenant, “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

He said, “Kirby, you can draw... take this map and put an ‘X’ where you see a tank.” This was one of the reasons I have so much respect for the Army. They really use their assets!

“I got caught up in the Battle of the Bulge. We’d been fighting what seemed like forever. There were bodies all around and the Germans had surrendered. They were crack SS troops and we were nobodies and we’d beaten them. We were street kids, never playing by the rules. I don’t think the Germans were ready for us. We were sitting there in a daze, smoking and talking; a whole bunch of guys. Then we saw a jeep with four stars on its front drive up real fast.

“It was Patton. He got out and looked around.

There were dead men lying everywhere. He came up to me and I stood there, just glad to be alive.

He walked right up to me, hands on hips, two nice shiny pearl-handled Colts holstered on his belt and a nice shiny helmet. thrown at them by Captain America. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, America suddenly had its own real enemy. It didn’t take Kirby and Simon long to portray Tojo in the pages of their creation.

Yet, despite the success of Captain America, Jack Kirby had his first taste of disappointment while the character was outselling even Superman. According to Joe Simon, the duo had an “unwritten” agreement with publisher Martin Goodman regarding royalties on sales.

The royalties never arrived and Simon left Timely, never to work for them again. Soon after, Kirby followed Simon and the pair went to work for DC where they created Boy Commandos and The Newsboy Legion.

After the United States had entered the war, Kirby himself was enlisted and sent to Europe to fight the Germans. Jack was in Patton’s Third Army—infantry. He was a runner, carrying messages between “holes in the ground.”

“I wasn’t happy about it. I had a good life and was earning good money drawing. One of my friends some years earlier had run home to his mother and told her, “Jack’s got a job drawing. I want to do that.”

“He looked me right in the eye.

“Why aren’t you dead?” he said to me in a real stern voice. “Why aren’t you dead?” he repeated. I couldn’t say anything. I wanted to apologize or make some kind of gesture, like dying on the spot for him.

“He looked around. There was a dead SS officer not ten feet away. “Look at him,” he said. “He was a real soldier.

Look at his uniform. It’s clean. Look at you, muddy and filthy. You’re a disgrace.

Why aren’t you dead?” He was looking into my eyes. I didn’t know what to do.

Then he said, “Well done” and walked away. I nearly did die when he said that!

“We reached one of the death camps. I spoke to the Germans. They didn’t like me. I told them I was Jewish and then they really didn’t like me.

They stopped asking me for cigarettes, which was fine with me. I didn’t have any for them anyhow. I said to one guy, an officer, “Why’d you do all this? I’m Jewish; why’d you kill all these people?”

“He just stared at me for the longest time. Then he said, “We haven’t lost yet.”

“That really scared me, because I believed him. It was Winter when this was going on. We were all frozen out and I ended up in a hospital. My legs were purple and they didn’t know what to do with purple legs. I had 100% disability. At one point they were going to take them off. Thank God they didn’t!

I figured they were going to send me home and I was right. I went to England and then the States. I was the first one to come home and went straight into Boy Commandos.”

(The King went on to tell us more about the war, obviously a major influence on his life. One true story from Jack’s past told in “The Losers” is “The Partisans,” [Our Fighting Forces #155] a story of ghosts in the former Yugoslavia.)

“When Joe came out of the Army we went to work for Al Harvey Productions. The same formula; we went from one place to another doing the same routine.”

Kirby and Simon had a unique way of working. Simon would letter the stories straight onto the page in pencil Uninked pencil page from Our Fighting Forces #159, featuring the Losers. while at the same time work on the laythe most part would just let them get on with it, adding dialogue later.) outs. Kirby would then do the penciling and make any changes that Jack Kirby’s characters leapt off the page. Jack was the first artist were needed. After this, Simon would ink the work and then Kirby to have his players burst through the panels and the first to use a whole would add any inks that he thought would dramatize the strips. page for one frame, and later two pages for one frame. Kirby’s art was “Sometimes I felt that the inking wasn’t bold enough so I would ink dynamic and exciting. over it. Joe didn’t have a problem with it. We were working together.”

“I was brought up on film. When I was a kid, I would sit in the The pages would pass between them at such a rate. “We were busy,” picture house watching everything. They had a tremendous influence says Kirby. “We didn’t care about the credits in those days. We were on me. I would watch some of the films seven or eight times. My too busy.” mother would come and drag me out!

(This method of working would soon become the standard in the “Because I was working so fast, my figures got distorted. This comics industry and wasn’t lost on Stan Lee. It was Lee who later saw became my trademark, my style. It was the way I was. I never wanted that his artists were the real storytellers—in pictures anyway—and for 1

to be a fine artist or painter. I loved comics and I just wanted my work to be better than anybody else’s. I was a tough kid from a tough neighborhood. I got into fights every day. I was producing at a furious rate. We sold a lot of comic books.”

Kirby used his training at the Max Fleischer animation studios to good effect. The distortion employed in his work bears the marks of techniques of animation, exaggerating the action to make it work.

“I was just happy to be home,” he said. “Some of the guys didn’t make it. I did. I was glad to be home.”

There was so much I wanted to ask him, so much I had prepared, but I decided on the way up to his house that I wasn’t going to spend this precious time sitting across a table asking him the same things he’d been asked over and over. I went with the flow and, after lunch, began to relax more. We moved from the kitchen and into the hall to look at the work hanging on “Angel,” originally done for the Lord Of Light presentation. the walls.

First was a color illustration of an angel (shown here)—only this angel had on a jet pack and looked similar to Arishem, boss of the fourth host from the Eternals. He was silently moving over one of those Kirby landscapes that we all know—a masterpiece, but not a patch on what was to follow.

(While we were all marvelling at the drawings, I noticed Jack looked a little put out. Then I realized why. We were taking photos of all this; not specifically of the artwork, but of discussing it. I asked Jack if he minded us taking photos and he said that he did. None of this work had been published and Jack didn’t want it turning up on the cover of some magazine. We felt a little embarrassed and stopped taking photographs.)

Next came a color painting of Captain Victory (shown above) with all that famous “Kirby krackle” around his head. He was peering down at all his buddies from the same series fighting one of those Kirbyesque battle scenes where there appears to be a planet’s entire population crawling over each other.

Counting them we saw there were, in fact, only six. The coloring was mainly reds and blues; a fabulous piece of work. Jack himself conceded that this was one of his best pieces of work and that he would have liked to have done more color work.

Directly opposite were framed pencil drawings of Conan, Hulk, and Captain America (all shown here), among others. This was my first and only look at a Kirby Conan to date and he’s there, looking not unlike Kamandi or Ka-Zar except for the black main. He had chunky legs, muscular arms and was wielding a deadly-looking sword. Next, the Hulk leaped out at you, striding toward you, hand outstretched ready to grab you. I asked Jack if I could ink these drawings for him and he replied, “Yes, of course, sure.”

I looked at him because, of course, I was only joking.

“But not yet!” So was he.

Moving along was a pencil drawing of Captain America (shown at left) leaping out at you with Cap’s arch enemy, The Red Skull, behind and a Stuka dive bomber shooting at Cap’s back. “They always hit you from the rear,” chuckled the King.

Up until the visit, I’d always thought that Jack’s best work had been for Marvel in the mid-’60s: Those glorious Cap centerfold from TJKC #18.

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Captain Victory from TJKC #15.

Conan from TJKC #16 (below) Hulk from TJKC #18.

FFs with the Inhumans, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, Ronan, the Sentry; that beautiful inking by Joe Sinnott, still in my opinion the best inker of Jack’s work, bar none; those Cap stories in Tales of Suspense, with the Black Panther and Zemo, Sharon Carter, the Cosmic Cube; Thor, with Tana Nile and Ulik.

I was wrong. Jack Kirby’s best work hung on the walls of his home.

I’ll never forget the large pencil drawing of Moses set in the lounge, the lines of wisdom etched into his face, the way it peered back into your skull. Turns out, when Jack had finished this particular drawing, it reminded him of his father.

So there you have it: Not only is Jack king of the comics, his father was “king” of the Jews for a while! (This follows; as mentioned previously, Jack was of Jewish descent!)

On another wall was “Joshua at the Walls of Jericho,” only this Joshua was a 300-foot-high alien, similar in appearance to the Sentry, standing abreast of a sonic distrupter that beats all sonic distrupters.

The walls were not “tumbling down” and the people were not “running away.” The walls were literally disintegrating before your eyes, yes, and the people were, as Jack put it, “getting the hell out of there!”

An understatement if there ever was one; as they come toward you on horseback, they were moving, spilling out over you—a truly fabulous piece of work.

Next to this work was a pencil and ink rendering of two

(above) “Joshua at the Walls of Jericho” (below) “Moses” First thoughts went to Michelangelo’s drawing on the Cisteen chapel.

They were sitting on clouds, reaching out to each other. I found the illustration stunning, the inking superb. If, 50 years ago, Jack had decided to be an inker, he’d have been the best around—then and now.

You’ve probably noticed by now that I’m a little biased toward this man’s work. I offer no apology for that. Jack Kirby created the “look” of comics within a short period of time at the beginning of his career and that “look” is still here today. A friend once told me that, because Jack was so brilliant in his time, he actually harmed comics.

What a ridiculous statement! Even though some come close, no one has proven to be as farsighted or innovative as Jack Kirby—period. I can’t condemn a person for giving me the best of something that I, and many others, have ever seen— something, I believe, that will not be bettered.

Not only has he done it all, but by and large, Kirby created it all. n the mid-Fifties, comic books were doing poorly, due mainly to Dr. Frederic Wertham, whose book Seduction of the Innocent, published in 1954, was blaming America’s growing juvenile delinquency on the impact of comic books on the minds of the nation’s young. Publishers were wary, and with good reason. With no censorship to curtail the increasingly graphic violence being published, the eyes of American intellectuals were turned upon them. Something had to give. The United States Senate Subcommittee on the Judiciary held many long hearings on the influence of comic books on the young. The hearings, held in Manhattan, finally introduced the self-regulatory Comics Code Authority, a body of people who would in the future censor all comics material.

Fortunately for the publishers, Wertham’s argument could not be used as a reason for the increase in crime in the United States and his endeavors were not totally successful in getting comics banned. The Code was useful, as some of the comics of the mid-Fifties were a little near to the knuckle.

Wertham did, however, manage to give comics a bad name.

Sales fell dramatically, DC alone dropping from over 10,500,000 per month in 1955 to just over 6,000,000 in 1957. (This author would suggest that television and the popularity of a certain Elvis Presley would have had something to do with that also.) The times, indeed, were a’changing and the so-called Golden Age of Comics was over. Jack, along with co-creator Joe Simon, struggled through the ’50s, and as Marvel was reviving their biggest seller Captain America, Kirby and Simon were producing several other similar characters. They were all short-lived, however, some only surviving three or four issues.

Jack turned his talents to the creation of monster comics. His work appeared in Tales to Astonish, Strange Tales, and Journey Into Mystery.

Joe and Jack separated.

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angels. As before, I can’t stress the illustration’s beauty enough; you’ve never seen angels like these.

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“He went back into advertising. Joe was the best letterer I’ve ever once again at the helm. seen. We both had families to feed. I had to find work. I had produced a The Mighty Thor came next along with The Avengers, X-Men, series called Challengers of the Unknown for DC in the late Fifties. I knew I Ant-Man, Iron Man, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and many othcould expand on it.” ers—all from the pencil of Jack Kirby, almost single-handedly creatDC at this point was experiencing something of a revival in sales ing what became known as The Silver Age of Comics. Kirby drew and was gaining a new generation of fans. most of Marvel’s new books with Lee scripting for the first ten or Jack didn’t mention Marvel Comics much, but when he did, he twelve issues and then, firmly established, other artists and writers told you of how he was a major force in rebuilding the medium, coming were brought in to ease the workload. Even then, many artists worked into publisher Martin Goodman’s offices in the early part of 1961. over Jack’s layouts.

Goodman and Stan Lee were about to stop their publication of comics altogether.

Goodman had a successful line of magazines running and didn’t need anything taking away his profits. When Jack turned up at the Marvel offices, he had with him the first script of a new character he and Joe Simon had worked on, The Silver Spider. Kirby also had a rough outline and some sketches of two new comics which later evolved into the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk. The Silver Spider was passed on to Steve Ditko for a more “realistic” approach to the character, as Jack’s drawings portrayed the protagonist as too heroic. The Silver Spider evolved into, of course, the Amazing Spider-Man, who appeared for the first time in Amazing Fantasy in 1962. “Steve Ditko is a fine artist. I didn’t have a problem with him. His work was excellent.” Jack, however, drew the cover and Ditko inked.

“I did monster books. Anything at all.

I convinced Martin and Stanley that superheroes could be brought back in a very vigorous way. I was right, but I had to fight for them, but I knew I could make them work. I had to regenerate the entire line. Stan Lee was my bridge to Martin Goodman.

“At this time, I began to grow as a storyteller. I had all this experience. I knew how to tell a story and how to tell it dramatically.”

Lee saw the potential, sided with Jack and together they persuaded Goodman to give them the chance.

There have been many arguments as to whom did what in the beginning at Marvel and we will probably never know, but something happened and many people, myself included, believe most of it came from Jack Kirby’s pencil. “I began to intellectualize. I was more mature and so were my characters.”

Lee wouldn’t let Jack put the words in the balloons, so Kirby would draw the stories, plot them, and write notes on the side of the artwork for Lee to script. It is obvious that Lee was a better wordsmith than Kirby, but when one remembers that Lee’s direction to Kirby for FF #48 was “Have them meet God” and Jack came back with the Galactus epic and one of Marvel’s greatest characters—The Silver Surfer—it is not difficult to see in whose hands the genius lay. In 1964, Lee and Kirby reintroduced Captain America in the pages of The Avengers and later Cap Pencils from Thor #155, page 5. (next two pages) Pencils from Thor #143. appeared in Tales of Suspense, with Kirby 1

“The Hulk was a prime example of the way I had matured. Here was this guy, Bruce Banner, a scientist, an intellectual who would turn into a primitive monster. I was borrowing from the classics. The Hulk was my Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The classics are the most powerful stories we have. Everything I do is a variation on a theme. Take Dr. Doom, for instance. Dr. Doom was a perfectionist. He was a scientist and the best-looking guy who ever lived. Then, after an experiment went wrong, he got a scratch on his face. Although he should have been thankful he wasn’t killed in the explosion he caused when his experiment went wrong, he couldn’t handle that scratch and went mad. That was so powerful. I was beginning to understand the other guy. When I could see his point of view, I began to do my best work.”

From 1960 until late 1970, Jack produced over 13,000 pieces of art for Marvel. Jack Kirby reinvented the look of the comic book. Stan Lee would tell his new artists to “draw like Kirby.”

Most of them missed the point. Lee didn’t mean to draw their characters musclebound or bursting with energy; he wanted them to study Jack’s techniques in storytelling. From the mid-Sixties onward, Kirby settled down and drew The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor and Captain America; 55 pages every month, on top of the occasional layout job, not to mention many covers and annuals. Most artists would have not been able to match this output, plus the quality of the artwork, but for Jack it was cinch.

Then in 1970, Jack stunned the comics world and left Marvel. “I wasn’t happy with the way things were going (at Marvel).

I needed a change, a fresh challenge.”

Moving on from the angels, in the corner of the lounge stood an easel with the original cover painting from the New Gods Graphic Novel Hunger Dogs.

Hallucinating now, I wondered whether Greg Theakston had had the gall to actually color the original drawing, but as over lunch, my mouth stopped working. (More on this later.)

Through the hall to Jack’s studio (the neatest studio I’ve ever seen, it must be said), the walls were lined with pencil drawings of characters such as Hulk, Cap, and Thor among others. The work was clear and precise. Inking them would be a joy. It’s all there, right down to the last shadow or ripple of muscle. Another friend of mine once commented that, because of the muscle on muscle on muscle that Kirby had drawn on a particular rendition of Thor, Kirby didn’t know about anatomy.

Wrong. Jack knew all there was to know about anatomy and then some. He applied this knowledge and then embellished it, dramatized it.

Just before the door of the studio was the framed, original cover art from Fantastic Four #100. (Some jerk had ripped it in half at some point, but it looked fine.)

Next we saw the Thing staring at us, looking very “grim”—an early work, just beginning to look like the “teddy bear”

that a certain John Byrne hated so much. Turn right and you saw one of those tremendous collages, similar to the work Kirby rendered in the fabulous “This Man, This Monster” story in FF #51 and the Tana Nile series from Thor. Next to that was a full-color painting of everybody’s favorite Thunder God approaching some “bad guys,” hammer raised.

It must be mentioned here—just to give some idea of the size of these things—they are large paintings somewhere in the region of 40" by 30". Another collage followed Thor.

Roz Kirby, pulling at my arm, took me aside to “someplace I’m sure you’d like to see.” It was the room opposite Jack’s studio.

I walked through the door into Aladdin’s Cave.

There was stack upon stack of Kirby artwork, most of it recently returned from Marvel. Many of the pages were from the ’60s and had

(these two pages) Pencils from Machine Man #6.

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The last time Glenn met Jack, in 1991. lain in the Marvel “warehouse” for almost three decades.

“I was constantly asking them for my originals back,” said Jack, who had by now joined us with the others. “They’d say ‘yeah’. So I’d wait. I was very busy. I worked and worked.

I gave them my best. I’m a professional.”

Even with most of the artwork by now stolen or lost, you could see that Jack wasn’t exaggerating. There it lay, or a portion of it, piled high, some still in large manila envelopes, unopened.

“I just don’t know when (we) will ever get it sorted out,” said Roz. Needless to say, I immediately volunteered for the job. After all, as everybody already knows, I’m the best art sorter in the world!

Roz said, with a twinkle in her eye, “Sure, but we can’t pay you!”

“I’ll pay you!” I wasn’t kidding.

After politely asking if I could root through some of the packets there and then, I sat on the floor and took a deep breath. The first batch I picked up was from DC: New Gods and Mister Miracle—the original pages, from the early ’70s, in my hands. Lightray, Kalibak, Orion, Highfather— Kirby’s best work, some say. Well, I saw it, and held it—in my own hands.

I could quite happily have spent the next six months just looking at every page.

Rawhide Kid was there too, in a shootout with some guy, with little or no scenery in the background (odd, I thought, considering the background detail of Jack’s best work); also Sandman, Nick Fury, Thor, Captain America, and much, much more. On the shelves opposite the only window in the room was a bookcase stacked with binders, in turn filled with a mint edition of every comic Jack has had published.

Who wouldn’t want to own that?

In one pile were a few of the romance books Kirby produced with Joe Simon from the late Forties and early Fifties. I’d never actually seen one before and here I was holding the originals!

Next to one assortment of artwork was a pile of massive prints of the cover of Strange Tales #142. After seeing me eyeing it, Roz asked

me if I would like one. Well, she didn’t need to ask me twice. This print now hangs in my lounge, over my fireplace.

Page after page of Kirby artwork was peered over. If Marvel had gotten their act together and returned to Jack what belonged to him, the room would have been full to the ceiling.

I didn’t want to leave. The thing is, all or most of the art was to be sold off at some point or other. He was keeping his favorite pieces for galleries and such, but most of it would be sold off.

A nice inheritance for his grandchildren. aving already left his native New York for life in the dry climate of California (mainly because of Roz’s and daughter Lisa’s illhealth) a couple of years earlier, Jack had been contacted by then DC Editorial Director Carmine Infantino.

“They wanted me to save Superman, but I couldn’t take work from someone else. I told them to let me have their worst-selling book

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Uninked pencils from Jimmy Olsen #148, Jack’s final issue of the series.

and I guaranteed them I’d turn it around. They let me do what Stan Lee wouldn’t; they let me put the words in the balloons. I believe the man who draws the story should write the story.”

DC gave Jack a contract unprecedented in comics up to that time.

Infantino must take some of the credit. He was breaking all the rules, mainly the unwritten one requiring staff to live in the New York area.

Jack Kirby was the most sought-after talent in comics and, to his credit, Infantino wasn’t going to let 3000 miles stop him from getting his man.

DC gave Jack Jimmy Olsen and true to his word, he produced some of the finest work in comics. “I also wanted and got my own books. I used Jimmy Olsen as an introduction to my Fourth World saga. It worked.

I knew it would.”

Kirby’s characters are all about power and his tour de force, the monumental New Gods, Mister Miracle and Forever People portrayed that and were the best comics around at the time, showing that Kirby was still at his creative best. Jack even had the one and only Superman questioning the meaning of his own existence, when he discovered the “Boom Tube”—a dimensional portal used by the Forever People— and failed to discover its purpose. The acclaimed Star Wars trilogy by filmmaker George Lucas bears all the hallmarks of Kirby’s Fourth World series.

Although the Fourth World stories were brilliantly rendered, Kirby’s work did miss Lee’s dialogue. Similarly, the Marvel strips Kirby had left suffered too, missing Jack’s dynamism and storytelling. Sadly, as early as 1972, DC could see that the sales of Kirby’s stories were on the wane and that no new readers were picking them up. Infantino cancelled

all of Kirby’s Fourth World series apart from Mister Miracle, which carried on for another two years. Jack was heartbroken and threatened to leave DC. Infantino flew out to California to console and placate the demoralized Kirby.

Jack came back with The Demon, but that, too, was cancelled after issue #16.

“I did all sorts for DC at that time.

Kamandi followed and he was followed by other books. Like I said before, I was busy.”

You’ll recall earlier in this piece that I saw the painted cover of the Hunger Dogs Graphic Novel and wondered if Greg Theakston had colored Jack’s original pencils. Well, I found the original pencils among the New Gods artwork. There it was, a little smudged now, bare pencil, the top not fully rendered. When I asked how much this particular piece was worth I was met by a stony silence from the Kirbys. Oops!

Back in Jack’s studio, on one wall hung—a little inconspicuously— some of the original art for the Sky Masters strips that Jack produced in the late ’50s with Wally Wood. Jack wrote, penciled and colored while Wood inked. (Speaking of inking, Roz informed me that she had actually inked some of Jack’s work when he “was up against a real tight deadline.” I am sworn to secrecy on the strip in question!)

Jack was talking all the time, telling us amusing stories from his life.

“This guy rang me up one day. He said he was Paul McCartney’s agent. He said would I like to go to the show tonight? (McCartney and Wings were on a world tour in the summer of 1976 and were playing the Hollywood Bowl. During the show, McCartney asked for the stadium lights to be turned up and Jack took a bow.) My daughter was dumbstruck. When we met them later, he was dumbstruck. So you’ve got me, this dumbstruck singer, this dumbstruck daughter. He said, “I love your work.” I said, “I like yours too,” but I didn’t know any of it. My daughter said later that I shouldn’t talk to him like he was just a guy. I said, ‘Oh, why not? He is just a guy!’”

On another wall we saw the cover art for Comics Scene #2 (March 1982). This depicted Jack (with cigar, which he no longer smoked due to his wife Roz—Roz had been trying to stop Jack’s smoking for the past 50 years) surrounded by his Captain Victory characters.

Roz brought more refreshments and suggested we move out to the pool area at the back of the house. I would rather have stayed inside looking at the artwork, but we did that and we videoed the proceedings.

The girls talked and talked. Bob, Jack and myself began talking about the then-current news. After some hilarious comments about Oliver North and certain politicians that I dare not go into here, the conversation drifted back to life in New York.

“My wife won’t let me drive. One time in New York, I was driving to the Marvel

(above) Jack proudly shows off these pencils for the cover of Action Comics #638, which he’d just completed at the time of Glenn’s visit.

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offices and I was thinking about some story or other and I crashed my car into the back of a police car. Well, the guy got out and walked over to me. I didn’t know what the hell was going on!

He shook his head and said, “I don’t believe you did that. I don’t believe you did that.” Then he went back to his car. I thought he was letting me go, so I started to move off! Well, you should have seen him! He went crazy, jumping up and down so much I thought he was gonna drop dead of a heart attack! Seems he was getting his ticket book. Anyway, he booked me!”

Bob moved over to the girls and I had my first chance to speak to Jack alone. I asked him what he thought of Stan Lee today.

“Stanley? Oh, I feel sorry for him.

I sleep well at night. The only thing Stanley ever wrote was the credits— and Excelsior; but he doesn’t know what that means.” Jack went on to say that, apart from the odd convention, he doesn’t see Lee. There was a slight twinge of bitterness there I felt, but none that would spoil the day, or any other. Jack was not a wealthy man, though he should’ve been. The instances of others reaping what he had sown have been documented elsewhere, and I would refer you to them for the grisly details. He should be as famous and revered as Walt Disney and one day he will be. He is to comic books what Disney is to animation or what Spielberg or Lucas are to film. n 1975, Jack was back at Marvel.

Stan Lee had moved “upstairs” and was now wearing the mantle of publisher. Jim Shooter, Marvel’s then Editor-in-Chief, wanted Jack to return to the Fantastic Four. Kirby declined, but took up the reigns of his beloved Captain America. Over the next three

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Back cover pencils from Jack’s 1984 New Gods reprint #5.

Poolside with Jack and Roz.

years, Kirby was busy again. Apart from several 80-page specials, with the artwork being published at nearly actual size, Jack produced 2001, Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur, and the celebrated Eternals. Despite this last blast of creativity, Jack finally quit comics and moved back into animation, preparing storyboards for Thundarr and Marvel’s new TV show The Fantastic Four. Kirby had returned to his roots.

In the mid-Eighties, DC commissioned Jack to redesign his own Fourth World characters for their Super Powers series so he could share in the profits from the revival of his early ’70s series.

“DC is a fine company to work for. They are very fair.”

The mid-Eighties took their toll on Jack, albeit in a different way. Through the years Jack had requested that Marvel return his original artwork to him. Jack knew the value of his work and the originals were a

very salable commodity. This fact was not lost on the Marvel executives and they withheld all of the originals from the ’60s from all of the artists they had employed in that period. According to copyright law, the publisher only buys first publishing rights, but the physical artwork is the property of the individual who physically produced it. Even reprints should have brought a royalty of some kind. By not returning the artwork to its originators, Marvel did not comply. A bitter wrangle ensued. Marvel even told Jack that he would have to give up all rights he had on the characters he had created. Jack had never mentioned that; he just wanted what he knew was his: His artwork. Even inkers such as Joe Sinnott received Jack’s art that they had inked.

“I’m not saying they shouldn’t get any of the pages, but it really is my work. It was all there. The inkers do good work but basically all they do is make my pencil work legible for the printer. Marvel claims I’m giving them trouble, but I never gave anybody any trouble. I just want what belongs to me.”

Jack was very proud that so much of his work originally covered untouched ground. He simply couldn’t rehash the old work. He forever pushed himself and the limits of the medium.

“I believe that comics are two things. They are an artform and they are American. My stories could have been told in words or film. Some of them have been.” (An obvious reference to the Star Wars trilogy.)

I couldn’t make the trip without the usual request for autographs, photos and the like. What did surprise Jack was me producing some of my own artwork for his opinion. He was very gracious and gave me one of the biggest compliments of my life.

“These are my drawings,” he said. “These are mine. You see what I do.

Be proud of your work.”

I was then and I still am.

We talked some more and I desired a request to return. Jack said that he would see me again, he was sure of that (and he did, in 1991).

We all thanked the Kirbys for their hospitality and an afternoon of their time. More photos were taken and we said our goodbyes. (Roz: “Will you try to smile, Kirby?”)

As we left, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of regret; partly because I was leaving this great man and his work, but mainly because he would probably never work in mainstream comics again. That’s not because he was 71 years old at the time I first met him.

That was because he’d already done it all.★

Cover pencils from Jack’s 1984 New Gods reprint #4. (next page) Pencils from the new story in New Gods reprint #6.

Jack’s original pencils and Mike Royer’s unaltered inks from the Hunger Dogs Graphic Novel.

The first four dailies from a proposed Thundarr The Barbarian newspaper strip.

“Sure, Why Not?” An introduction by Pamela Morrow, Assistant Editor of TJKC

up)! When these things take place I see the hurt in my husband’s eyes and it makes me want to cry. His hurt quickly dissipates though, because somehow he always manages to keep his perspective. The good far, far outweighs the bad, and to get bogged down in a mire of negativity doesn’t serve the King or his fans.

So let me end this introduction on a positive note—because long after TJKC is gone, the true spirit of this magazine will remain, just as the true spirit of Jack remains. The overwhelming generosity, the infectious enthusiasm, and the lasting friendships we have formed are the things that will be remembered (and maybe those few times I couldn’t get John to come to bed because he was transcribing some “kick ass” interview until 3:00 a.m.!). It’s gone way, way beyond the little “pet project” I originally envisioned, but what I have learned about Kirby is that he never did anything in a small way. I guess it only makes sense that TJKC wouldn’t be any different.★

et me preface this article with two very important facts: I am not a writer and I am not a comic book “geek” (and I use that term in the most loving way possible; after all, I am married to one!). I tell you these truths up front out of fear of being criticized for my inability to communicate on paper in an organized and concise fashion, as well as my total lack of knowledge about comics in general.

So why am I writing this introduction, you ask? Well, John (my husband, and Editor of TJKC) has always wanted me to write something for the magazine, so this will be straight from the heart and— pardon my bluntness—straight from the gut. (Before I begin to ramble, my instincts tell me to end this paragraph with “’Nuff said,” but what I do know about comics— at least that of the Kirby variety—is that I would be committing a major faux pas were I to say that! So instead, I’ll be moving right along.)

In February 1994, I came home to find my husband visibly upset. Upon asking what was the matter, I came to find out someone of extreme importance in his life had died. I tried to be sympathetic, but my never having heard of the guy made it a bit difficult. A little more probing led to the description of a super-human being who had greatly influenced his childhood and his view of the world, and who continued to entertain and energize him as an adult. (Gee, what did he need me for?!) I knew I had seen him reading those stinky little books that he insisted on storing in clear plastic bags— meticulously putting them in numerical order, then taking up all of my good closet space with them—but who knew those stinky little books packed such a punch?! (Sorry!)

A couple of months passed and during that time John had gotten out all of his old Jack Kirby comics and reread them. He was pumped. He came to me and said, “Wouldn’t it be neat to do a newsletter about Jack Kirby and his career?”

“Sure, why not?” I thought. “A little pet project, a couple of newsletters; a tribute to his idol.” It seemed harmless enough.

Fast forward twenty issues and two Trade Paperbacks later! This true labor of love has given fans and professionals alike all over the world a forum to praise, critique, analyze, and rekindle the childhood delight of beholding the work of the King; but the best part for me is the joy it brings my husband. He hurries to the mailbox every single day, returning with your letters of gratitude and satisfaction and often times tearjerking accounts of meeting Jack (not to mention pages of way cool art that he can’t wait to share with everyone!). His eyes dance and his heart races. For me, that’s a delight to behold.

However, TJKC has its dark side (sorry about that one, too!) and that is the difficult part for me. Some fans complain they don’t get their issues fast enough. Some get the magazine in hopes of encountering lost or never-before-seen art, yet are unwilling to share the treasures from their own collections (and they actually brag about that!). One critic even described the publication as moribund (I had to look that one John tells me these are Jack’s pencils from Eternals #4, page 11. That Sersi chick rocks!

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The Collected

Volume THREE

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Celebrating the Life and Career of the King!

Introduction

by Steve Bissette

In later years, my passion for the power and absurdity of Kirby’s monsters and horror comics never abated. When I tried to sell a series of short ghost stories to DC for their Secrets of Haunted House title, my intention was to recreate the atmospherics of the Kirby horrors of Spirit World. I had the rare pleasure of working with Alan Moore and my dear friend John Totleben recreating two of my favorite Kirby creations, the Demon and the Monkey King, during our run on The Saga of the Swamp Thing. It was my suggestion to bring the Monkey King into the fray; the creature embodied one of Kirby’s most persistent genre themes, that the most terrible monsters are those we infuse with our own fears.

Like Alan, John, and I, countless comics creators have paid tribute to this aspect of Kirby’s work in their own way. At every opportunity,

he three issues collected in this volume offer in-depth coverage of a trio of Kirby’s genre works (specifically horror, science-fiction, and mythology). Much as I savored Kirby’s work in other genres, these three include a few of my favorite Kirby works.

My personal bent toward all things that go bump in the night was fostered at a tender age by a steady diet of monster movies, monster magazines, and monster comics—preeminent among them, the beloved Marvel monster sagas of Kirby and Lee. The splendors of Goom, Sporr, Sserpo, Fin Fang Foom, and Googam (Son of Goom) were formative influences on my shaky drawing hand, which never seemed skilled enough to capture that absolutely elemental power that fueled even the most ridiculous of Kirby’s creatures. By day, my friends and I would laugh at the blocky fingers, the impossibly-wide gaping maws, the pinprick eyes; by night, I tried time and time again to produce my own feeble copies of them, hoping to figure out why Kirby’s monsters seemed so alive on the page.

Of all the monsters that creeped, crawled, swam, and flew across the pages of comic books, Kirby’s were the most primal.

I later sought out Kirby’s genuine horror comics, from the pre-Code Black Magic to The Demon’s explosive run and the haunting Spirit World (and its remnants, which I scouted out high and low in the DC four-color comics). It wasn’t in Kirby’s nature to revel in the excesses of the genre, but his excursions into the genre had their own unique gravity and atmosphere. One particular Simon & Kirby Black Magic tale—in which a mutant family has genetically divided the tasks of a whole human individual between their members (head, legs, arms, etc.)—sparked numerous imitations, including an Archie Goodwin/ Angelo Torres collaboration in Creepy’s heyday and a recent Charles Band film, Head of the Family.

In fact, I have often been struck by unmistakable eruptions of Kirby’s imagery and concepts in the mainstream pop culture. From Star Wars to The Matrix, surprisingly specific images from Kirby’s visionary science-fiction comics have illuminated cinema and video screens for two generations. When RoboCop removed his faceplate and sat in the squalor of an abandoned factory, pausing to ponder his fate, there sat Machine Man; the kinetics of RoboCop’s showdown with the top-heavy ED-209 and the hair-raising assaults of the “bugs” in Verhoeven’s later Starship Troopers echo Kirby. Charles Band has produced a stream of direct-to-video product drawn from the shadows of Kirby’s career, though none of them can hold a candle to the legacy they so recklessly plunder.

Kirby’s uninked pencils from Demon #1 (August 1972).

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each generation of Marvel hired hands haa taken its turn feeding at the monster trough (right up to last year’s Monster Hunters). Rick Veitch’s work brims over with Kirby-inspired monstrosities; Mike Mignola’s Hellboy is clearly rooted in the dark adventures of Jason Blood and Etrigan; when Jay Stevens rendered a Sgt. Pepper-like cover for one of his early comics, Devil Dinosaur loomed over the crowd of mismatched characters.

I have particularly fond memories of a drinking game Paul Pope and I indulged in at the last direct-market distributors’ trade show in Chicago, sketching our favorite Kamandi creatures from memory and flashing them to each other, testing our abilities to recall even the most arcane of Kamandi’s supporting cast. Everyone around us thought we were crazy, but it added immeasurably to our evening. Paul started with a regal portrait of Prince Tuftan, but we soon degenerated to the likes of Tiny (the talking Kong surrogate), Kliklak, and, in a dizzying exchange of exotica, the jumpsuit-wearing bats, the Misfit, and Morticoccus the Killer Germ—all from one two-part story (Kamandi #9 and 10). Paul was far better at recapturing the Kirby lightning in a bottle than I. While I retreated to the safety of shapeless Kirby critters like the Eater or the Soyuz Survivor, Paul would scrawl one uncannily accurate recreation after another, from the raging telepathic cat-man of “The Curse” (Kamandi #24) to the hilarious nadir of the ludicrous Sid-andMarty-Krofft-like monster that stumbled out of the surf in Kamandi #25 (“Tidal Life!”), which had us both almost falling off our stools.

Ah, we both loved them, and Paul—the brashest and most talented new kid on the scene that year, the most eclectic and European of his generation—could conjure Kamandi’s rogues gallery from his fingertips, despite the wearying day and wee hour of the night. Part of the pleasure,

too, was the unusual common ground we had found that night, in one of Kirby’s most baroque diversions.

There’s some marvelous material on Kirby’s Thor in here, too, but I haven’t much to say about that, especially since Eddie Campbell’s article on Thor in The Jack Kirby Collector #21 did it so well. I’ll defer to Eddie’s mythic chops (earned with his fine Bacchus series) and flare for the resonant phrase (even on my best days, I’d never come up with, “Now the villain reveals himself and Hercules is in the poo”).

Unfortunately, I never felt a strong enough connection with that body of Kirby’s work. The fact is, unlike almost everyone else of my generation, I resisted Kirby’s post-monster era Marvel work as long as possible. I was far more fascinated by the links between the Stone Men in Journey Into Mystery’s first Thor installment and the almost-identical Kirby Easter Island creatures in a crumbling old issue of House of Mystery a neighbor had given me (thankfully analyzed by Richard Kolkman, Rich Morrissey, and others herein), and preferred Fin Fang Foom over Fafnir any day of the week.

Having grown up with the local library’s collection of mythology tomes, the graceful book illustrations of Hungarian Willy Pogany gave definitive shape to the Nordic myths in my imagination. Kirby’s Thor stood in raw opposition to Pogany’s delicate renditions, and Stan Lee’s bombastic dialogue rang hollow. I kept sampling Thor, and even clung to a few scattered issues (I still treasure Bill Everett’s inks on several issues toward the end of Jack’s run), but only the occasional “Tales of Asgard” really grabbed me, and there seemed to be far too few of those. The more personalized epic scope of Kirby’s later New Gods and the entire Fourth World mythos would ring truer for me, and leave an unshakable mark. I wholeheartedly embraced the far freer rein The New Gods gave to Kirby’s expansive imagination, and had an appetite for the occasionally horrific touches (“Mutation! Death! Vengeance!

It’s the way of The Deep Six!”). But The New Gods would not have been possible without Thor before it.

Thankfully, the articles and artwork collected here open my eyes to vital elements of Kirby’s work I turned away from when it was within reach at the spinner rack. Much as I revel in the analysis of the Kirby works I loved and studied and collected, I find myself closely reading and rereading about the Kirby work I shunned or never knew existed.

And that, after all, is the greatest value of this book, and any and all like it.

Among the nuggets of information excavated herein is the odd tabloid story about Jack coming back from the dead to teach a ten-year old how to draw. It’s a tale worthy of his own Spirit World magazine—and who knows?

Whether it’s true that Jack found a way to “come back” or not, he lives again, in these pages. He teaches us all, as a father teaches his son, through the gift of his vision, art, and life.

Read on...

Stephen R. Bissette July, 1999 Mountains of Madness, Vermont

Chapter Two splash page from Amazing Adventures #6 (Nov. 1961), by Kirby/Ayers. This one’s for you, Steve!

Foreword

by Jim Amash—inker, Kirby friend, and TJKC charter subscriber

You’d think all this was enough to drive a man crazy, don’t you?

Well, this is my favorite magazine about my favorite artist, so what else can you expect? Most of John’s readers are Kirby-obsessed just as I am. John’s tapped into the core of all those touched by the genius of Jack’s work in a primal way—and there’s only one solution: We’ve got to keep buying The Jack Kirby Collector.

One last thought. John’s publishing two other titles (shameless plug), Comic Book Artist and Alter Ego. They’re both wonderful magazines—and two more reasons for a professional comics inker to go sleepless. If this keeps up, he’ll make a fan out of me.

Literally.★

hate The Jack Kirby Collector. Why? Because it drives me crazy. Every other month (or a few days later when John gets behind), this great magazine shows up in my mailbox and says, “Read Me!” It doesn’t matter what I’m doing. I have to start looking at the magazine.

Now let’s take the Science-Fiction issue (#15), which is reprinted in this collection. I remember when it came in the mail. I was inking an issue of Looney Tunes for DC Comics. The deadline was tight and the last thing I needed was a distraction.

So what happens? This issue showed up at my doorstep.

I saw the Kirby drawing on the envelope and I knew what was inside. I opened it up, saw the delicious Terry Austin inks, and drooled. I read the content sidebar on the cover and thought, “Man, I’ve got to read this now.” Then I remembered my deadline. I growled and mumbled something too obscene for print here. I knew I’d have to wait to read it.

Here’s where I made my fatal mistake. I took the magazine back into the studio with me. I sat down and worked and for a little while, I forgot about the magazine.

As all artists know, sitting at a drawing board and bending over same causes your back to stiffen somewhat. When that happened to me after a couple of hours or so, I stood up to stretch my back. Gazing through the cigar smoke in my studio, I started staring at the Collector. “No, I won’t take a break and look at it.” Well, that’s what I said anyway.

I figured, “What the hell? I’ll just look at the pencil art and read it in the bathroom later.” So I started thumbing through the issue and what happened? I got interested in the article about Sky Masters and read it. I was part of the way through the Mike Thibodeaux interview when I realized I’d spent too much time reading instead of inking.

This happened again later that day— more than once. I can’t count the times I’ve stayed up later than I should, making up for lost inking time because of The Jack Kirby Collector. This magazine causes me to take breaks from working I normally never take. I just have to read it as soon as it gets here.

The Thor issue wasn’t any better.

John was trying to put together the original version of Thor #169 from existing pencils. I had one of the key pages of the story (page 14, if you’re wondering), and I had it framed on my wall. But John needed it so I took it off the wall and got in my car and drove an hour and a half to John’s studio so he could computer-scan it for the magazine. No inking got done that night. I pulled an all-nighter the next day so I could get my work to Fed Ex on time.

Jim Amash inked this unused Kobra page, which we ran (in pencil form) on the cover of TJKC #5.

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(these two pages) Uninked pencils from Captain America #103 (July 1968).

Uninked pencils from Thor #166 (July 1969).

(this page and next) Pages 2-5 of the story “Diary of the Disappointed Doll” from the never-published 1970 Soul Love black-&-white magazine. Inked by Tony DeZuniga.

Superman, Jimmy, the Guardian, the Newsboy Legion (old and new), Goody Rickels... all within these two pages of uninked pencils from Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #139 (July 1971).

Uninked pencils from Jack’s one issue (#3) of Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter (August 1975).

Uninked pencil pages from one of Jack’s most personal war series—The Losers—in Our Fighting Forces #159 (September 1975).

Pencils from Captain America #210 (June 1977) featuring Cap’s arch nemesis, the Red Skull!

Jack played off the 1970s CB Radio craze by naming a villain “Ten-For” in Machine Man #6 (September 1978).

(these two pages) Uninked pencils from Eternals #4 (October 1976).

A pivotal scene— still in pencil— from Jack’s 1976 adaptation of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Pages 13 and 14 of Jack’s unpublished adaptation of the television series The Prisoner, done for Marvel in the 1970s. Work was stopped on the book before it was fully inked or lettered.

(these two pages) Dailies #5-12 of a proposed Thundarr The Barbarian newspaper strip, circa the early 1980s.

The strip was based on the popular Ruby-Spears animated series Jack also worked on after leaving comics in the late 1970s.

A couple of animation concepts done by Kirby in the late 1970s.

Jack’s pencils for pages 6 and 8 from the new story in the 1980s New Gods reprint series.

late-breaking kirby news!

He flies into the power core and succeeds in stopping the atomic reaction, and then fades out again.

BACK-UP FEATURE: “The Krypton Equation” 2 pgs.

Script, pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Vince Colletta STORY SYNOPSIS: Superman’s electronic file at the Evil Factory goes berserk, halting all machinery and disrupting all electrical activity. Eventually, Mokkari enters the “Healer Code” and normal business resumes.

EXTRA!

Rare Kirby Books Discovered

by Richard Kolkman n the course of compiling the updated Kirby Checklist, I’ve uncovered four previously unknown books featuring Kirby art. All were published between the late 1960s to early ’70s, but various problems kept them from reaching the newsstands.

These books are so rare, you won’t find them in Overstreet’s Price Guide. But they’re not ashcans or reprints; these are full, complete books with new Kirby stories.

Each had extremely low distribution, and in some cases only file copies of each exists, stored in Marvel’s and DC’s vaults.

DC and Marvel have released several file copies of Infinity Man #1 and Captain America And Hulk #1, which will be up for bid at the Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses this year. When the time comes, we’ll have a full report of what these extremely rare collectibles sold for. We’ll feature some of the previously unseen art from these books in our next issue of TJKC.

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Infinity Man #1 (July 1972) Remember how Infinity Man disappeared from Forever People #4, only to turn up again in #11? While many thought Jack had simply forgotten about the character, he actually was saving him for his own comic, which would have been the fifth book in his Fourth World series. #1 was published at the tail end of DC’s 52-page 25¢ books, but was pulled from circulation when the decision was made to drop all their books to 20¢. Some of the material from this issue was recycled and later used in Forever People #11.

“The Bat and the DNA Project” 24 pgs.

Script, pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Mike Royer Faces: Murphy Anderson

STORY SYNOPSIS: After spending months in limbo (a result of being zapped by Darkseid in Forever People #3), Infinity Man temporarily materializes in the DNA Project. He’s confused by his surroundings, and begins destroying everything in sight looking for Darkseid. Jimmy Olsen is there, and in his search for help stumbles across a Batman clone being held in a life preserving solution. After being released by Jimmy, the Batman clone delivers the first blow to Infinity Man. Into this standoff scene stumbles the Golden Guardian and Goody Rickels, who proceeds to taunt and goad Infinity Man into action. They undergo a heated battle, and the resulting chaos endangers the Project’s power core. Darkseid witnesses this scene and comments on the futility of Infinity Man’s search. After everyone escapes, Infinity Man comes to his senses.

Capt. America & Hulk #1 (April 1968) Like Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, this book was a one-shot used to bridge the gap between when Cap left Tales of Suspense for his own mag, and Hulk left Tales to Astonish. Jack provided the cover and Captain

America story (inks by Giacoia), while Herb Trimpe did the art for the Hulk story. A scheduling mixup had this issue shipping AFTER Captain America #100 and Incredible Hulk #102. Since this would have ruined the continuity of the continued stories in the new solo books, at the last minute Marvel pulled it from circulation to avoid confusing readers.

“The Mighty Will Inherit the Moon” 10 pgs.

Co-plot, script: Stan Lee Co-plot, pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Frank Giacoia STORY SYNOPSIS: The Hulk lays is a suspended state in the Leader’s lair on the moon. A highly dangerous Cosmic-Powered Hulk android discarded by the Mad Thinker is found and activated by the Leader.

Through S.H.I.E.L.D.’s powerful telescopes, Captain America witnesses this and travels to the Moon’s surface in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Lunar Transport Missile. Armed with some oxygen pressure capsules from Reed Richards, Cap tracks down the Leader, but does not reach him. Cap engages in a fierce battle with the Cosmic-Powered Hulk. The ensuing carnage awakens the real Hulk, who maddened with being restrained, proceeds to destroy the Leader’s entire installation. The Watcher, witnessing all of this, appears before Cap and vows not to get

STORY SYNOPSIS: After a brief reflection out his castle window, Dr. Doom repairs to his laboratory to confront his newest creation, The Doomsman. To bring him to life, Doom must hook his mind up to that of The Doomsman. After mental transferral to the Id Machine, Doom and Doomsman do battle, until, upon awakening, they find their minds have been switched. Doom (as Doomsman) flees to a missile plane and rockets off into the skies. The Doomsman (as Doom) pursues and shoots down his creator over the hidden land.

Happening upon the wreckage is Ka-zar and Zabu. The story is supposed to be continued, but a second issue never came out, so it ended there.

about Peter’s susceptibility to colds. In the meantime, Spider-Man is waging an incredible 10-page battle with the Sentry in an effort to escape the ship. Spider-Man is almost out of the ship, when he is dealt an incapacitating mind blow by the Kree Supreme Intelligence, who decides that Spider-Man is a just soul who is merely caught up in circumstances beyond his understanding.

Mercifully, the Kree Supreme Intelligence gently transports Spider-Man down onto the street. Upon regaining consciousness, Spider-Man limps his way home, trying to remember the last few hours.

(Note: Although this story pre-dates the first appearance of Captain Mar-Vell, he is mentioned in this story as a “Kree warrior on his way to Earth.”)

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 involved. He then hands Cap a Trans Dimensional Gateway Pod. Cap uses this to transport the battling Hulks into the void of airless space.

On the way back to Earth, Cap retrieves the real Hulk and turns him over to the care of S.H.I.E.L.D. The Cap story ends with a fear-crazed Leader entombed beneath the rubble of his laboratory, muttering revenge and beginning work on a Cosmic-Powered Sentry android (later seen in Fantastic Four #100). The Trimpe Hulk story picks up where Cap turns the Hulk over to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Doctor Doom #1 (September 1969) This was an ill-fated attempt to give Doom his own comic. When Marvel announced this project in 1969, no villain had received his own solo comic before.

Responding to negative publicity from parent’s groups, Marvel destroyed the entire print run. Apparently they forgot Jack had his file copy, which many think is the only copy in existence. Despite its less-than-mint condition, it is complete. This was one of Jack’s final stories before he left Marvel, and the politics surrounding it are said to be a major part of why he left Marvel for DC. Marvel later made Doom a co-feature in Astonishing Tales (in an attempt to pacify parents, they gave Doom second billing to Ka-Zar).

“Doomsman!” 20 pgs.

Script, pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Wally Wood

(Nov. 1967) Many people think Jack never did a very good version of Spider-Man, and apparently someone at Marvel felt the same way. The book was pulled from circulation, since Jack’s Spidey didn’t match the established John Romita look of the character.

“A Web To The Stars” 20 pgs.

Co-plot, script: Stan Lee Co-plot, pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Bill Everett STORY SYNOPSIS: Spider-Man is swinging around the city and is intercepted by the Sentry and brought aboard his spaceship. The Sentry questions Spider-Man about Ronan the Accuser’s defeat. The story cuts quickly to Aunt Mae commenting to herself

A Message From The Editor pril fool (a little early!). Yes, this Special News Supplement is one big joke. A fib. A little white lie (okay, maybe a big white lie). When subscriber Richard Kolkman sent me these great fake Kirby covers for books that never existed, for a few seconds I thought they were real! And for a few seconds, I felt that rush I get when I’m flipping through a box of comics at a convention and find a Kirby comic I’m missing from my collection. It was such a great feeling that I wanted to share it with TJKC subscribers. I hope you enjoyed our little trip through Kirby comics that “might have been”, and that you don’t get too mad at me for pulling your leg. And even though all the comics mentioned here are fakes, feel free to share this April Fool’s joke with a fellow Kirby fan on April 1.

Now let’s just hope none of these comics show up in next year’s Overstreet Price Guide!

John Morrow, Editor Design/Layout: D. Hambone, Machine Wolf Graphics, Ltd.

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The Collected

Volume FOUR

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Celebrating the Life and Career of the King!

F u l ly Au th o r i z e d by T h e K i r by E s tate

Introduction

A Man Amongst Gods, A God Amongst Men

by John Morrow, editor of The Jack Kirby Collector

Foreword by TJKC colorist Tom Ziuko Who is Jack Kirby?

ell, here we are back again, with a fourth collection of sold out issues of The Jack Kirby Collector, the magazine for fans of the King of comics. It’s been awhile since we last issued one of these compilations; Volume Three first appeared back in 1999, containing the last of what I thought of as our “low print run” issues. I figured, after TJKC #15 (the last issue reprinted in Volume Three), we had more or less reached the majority of the hardcore Kirby fans out there, and were ordering enough extra copies to keep in stock as back issues, thus eliminating the need to ever do another of these books.

Then along came Alex Ross.

You’ve probably heard or him, and seen his amazing painted images of super-heroes. When he offered (free of charge, I might add) to do a painting based on one of Jack’s pencil drawings, how could I resist? His stunning piece graced the cover of TJKC #19 (and is on the back cover of this book), and caused quite a hubbub in the comics industry. The issue literally flew off store shelves, getting Kirby’s work into the hands of new, younger fans who weren’t that familiar with him. #19 sold out quicker than any issue to date, and really helped solidify TJKC as more than just a niche item, but a true medium for documenting comics history.

The other issues in this volume (#16-18) quickly sold out as well, as did our first three Collected volumes, proving to me two things: 1) that we were achieving our goal of exposing new people to the genius of Jack Kirby, and 2) we weren’t printing enough extra copies each issue! So in this, our tenth year of publishing (and the tenth anniversary of Jack’s passing), I’m proud to see these issues back in print, as well as or first three Collected volumes. It’s a great testament to the value of Jack’s amazing legacy.

Long live the King!

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John Morrow, editor Raleigh, NC, June 2004 (right) Kirby’s uninked pencils from New Gods #8 (April 1972).

rom the perspective of the 21st century, looking back through at the 20th, we know that Jack Kirby is without a doubt the single most important and influential creator and artist to have worked in the comic book field. In this uniquely American form of storytelling, with ideas and imagination disseminated on pulp for the masses, Jack Kirby reigned supreme. He created, molded and mastered so many different genres of comics; from super-hero to romance, war and mystery. His artwork and visual style, always evolving, became the virtual template from which super-hero comics in general are forever fashioned.

He helped invent, change and perfect the visual vocabulary we use in comics to this very day. His journeys on paper took us from the icy depths of the oceans to the chilling expanse of outer space; from sub-atomic

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universes to the horrors of man’s inner psyche. He introduced many of us to the worlds of the gods, whether Norse or Greek or cut whole from the fabric of his imagination; his work became infinite and cosmic in scope and execution. Jack Kirby was the foundation upon which all comics that follow him will be built.

Now let us shift our perspective to that of a nine-year-old boy, smack dab in the mid-Sixties, at the height of the Marvel Age of Comics, experiencing that incredible Kirby magic at its crackling zenith. All I knew was that this guy’s comics and drawings were the coolest thing I had ever seen, and more importantly I wanted to know— “How does he get his lines so thick and bold?”

You see, back in those prehistoric days, creator credits in comic books were a fairly new proposition. Oh, you could look at a Batman comic, but it would always say “by Bob Kane,” yet it was clear that

different people had drawn different stories. So over at Marvel, the credits listed the writer, the penciler, the inker and the letterer (but not the colorist). It was obvious to my youthful mind that the penciler had drawn the artwork, so I assumed that the “inks” referred to the printed colors.

Now, when I drew with a pencil, it was a thin, weak and measly line—even if I pressed hard! I wondered how Jack could make the lines of his drawings so dark, so thick and juicy. The blacks practically still looked wet on the paper! I figured he must’ve used one of those big, soft lead pencils that kindergarten kids are issued when they first learn how to write. The pencil seems to be about an inch in diameter, inevitably painted bright red, with an enormous shaft of lead running through the center. That had to be the explanation! (And once you’ve drawn on paper with one of those things, God forbid you should actually touch the paper—the pencil residue would smear all over the place. And your fingers— my God, look at your fingers!! Your hands looked like you had either just come up from a coal mine or had given fingerprints with an ink blotter.) I spent quite a while drawing with one of those until I learned that the “inker” goes over the “pencils” with India Ink and a “colorist” colors the finished artwork.

Cut to the mid-Eighties. By this time, I’d followed my inspiration and was enjoying a career in comics as, ironically enough, a colorist. I’d worked on a number of projects for DC Comics and the occasional job for their Special Projects office. One of those assignments was a toy company presentation drawn by Kirby; and making an all-too-rare trip to New York City was Jack and his wife Roz. I had the honor of meeting the man himself and actually shook the hand that produced the thousands of images and stories that inspired millions around the world. I related the story of how I had grown up on Jack’s artwork and how this inspiration had led to a love of the medium and a career in the comics industry. Roz commented that they had heard the same story, or some slight variation, at least a dozen times that day alone.

So, who is Jack Kirby?

To me, while growing up, Jack Kirby was a better role model and father figure than I ever encountered in my personal life. Through his stories and art he espoused a sense of morality and justice and an outlook on life that you just couldn’t help but aspire to. Jack believed in and looked for the best in all of mankind. So here you have this amazing humanitarian spirit who also happens to be incredibly talented. We’re so lucky that he shared his overflowing imagination and creativity with all of us... but then, he had so many ideas and stories to tell, maybe he couldn’t have contained them even if he tried.

His artwork and spirit will live forever in print, in cyberspace, and on into the infinite.

Thanks again, Jack... ...The King Is Dead, Long Live The King!!!

That pesky Kirby Bug (see Collected TJKC Vol. One) is loose again, in New Gods #9 (June 1972).

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Tom Ziuko Niagara Falls, June 2004

Darkseid’s Omega Effect takes effect in these pencils from Forever People #6, page 17 (Dec. 1971) and #7, page 15 (Feb. 1972).

Mister Miracle pencils, from issue #5, page 14 (Nov. 1971) and #8, page 25 (May 1972).

Kirby tackles Superman in two different eras: Jimmy Olsen #143 (left, Nov. 1971) and Super Powers #5 (right, Nov. 1984).

Examples from two of Jack’s early 1970s experimental black-&-white magazines that never got produced: Soul Love (left, inked by Vince Colletta) and True Divorce Cases (right).

Some of Jack’s most graphic violence was from subjects he knew well: War and gangsters! Pages from (left) In The Days of the Mob #2 (1971, inked by Royer) and (right) Our Fighting Forces #152 (Dec. 1974).

Hard-hitting action in these pencils from OMAC #1 (Sept. 1974) and from the one-shot Manhunter story in First Issue Special #5 (Aug. 1975).

The Dingbats of Danger Street’s only appearance was in First Issue Special #6 (Sept. 1975), but here are pages from two unpublished stories meant for Dingbats #2 (inked by Mike Royer) and #3.

Pencils from Jack’s longest-lived 1970s series Kamandi (#40, page 15, April 1976) and one of his shortest, “Atlas” from First Issue Special #1 (page 14, April 1975).

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If instead you downloaded it for free from some other website or torrent, please know that it was absolutely 100% DONE WITHOUT OUR CONSENT, and it was an ILLEGAL POSTING OF OUR COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. If that’s the case, here’s what you should do: 1) Go ahead and READ THIS DIGITAL ISSUE, and see what you think.

2) If you enjoy it enough to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and purchase a legal download of it from our website, or purchase the print edition at our website (which entitles you to the Digital Edition for free) or at your local comic book shop. We’d love to have you as a regular paid reader.

3) Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER and DO NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. 4) Finally, DON’T KEEP DOWNLOADING OUR MATERIAL ILLEGALLY, for free. We offer one complete issue of all our magazines for free downloading at our website, which should be sufficient for you to decide if you want to purchase others. If you enjoy our publications enough to keep downloading them, support our company by paying for the material we produce.

We’re not some giant corporation with deep pockets, and can absorb these losses. We’re a small company—literally a “mom and pop” shop—with dozens of hard-working freelance creators, slaving away day and night and on weekends, to make a pretty minimal amount of income for all this work. We love what we do, but our editors, authors, and your local comic shop owner, rely on income from this publication to stay in business. Please don’t rob us of the small amount of compensation we receive. Doing so will ensure there won’t be any future products like this to download.

TwoMorrows publications should only be downloaded at

www.twomorrows.com

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After leaving DC Comics in 1975, Jack jumped to Marvel and tackled Black Panther (#3, May 1977) and Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles (1976).

More Marvel pencils, from Captain America #198, page 3 (June 1976) and The Eternals #10, page 14 (April 1977).

It’s pre-history, Kirby-style, in these pencils from Devil Dinosaur #4, page 14 (July 1978), and 2001: A Space Odyssey #4, page 4 (March 1977).

A couple of splendid examples of Jack’s work from the Silver Surfer Graphic Novel (1978).

Two of the many covers Jack penciled for Marvel in the 1970s: Marvel Triple Action #29 (May 1976), and Jack’s cover for What If? #9 (1978)

Some of Kirby’s final work in comics: Destroyer Duck #3, page 15 (June 1983) and Silver Star #3, page 12 (also June 1983).

The Collected

Volume FIVE

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Celebrating the Life and Career of the King!

Introduction

My Encounters With The King!

by John Morrow, editor of The Jack Kirby Collector get continually asked by our readers, “When’s the next TJKC Collection coming out? And when are you going to collect the Tabloid issues?”

Longtime readers will understand they’re referring to issues starting with #31, when I switched this magazine’s format from a standard size up to a whopping 10" x 14" tabloid format, to better show off Jack’s gorgeous pencil art. The bigger size was a big hit with most of our readers, but a few longed for us to go back to the smaller size (the size of the book you’re holding in your hands).

Kirby fans are a very passionate group, and I hate to disappoint a single one, but sometimes you have to make tough choices. Beside the fact that I really like our giant tabloid format, it has been overwhelmingly popular with most readers. So it’s here to stay, as far as I can see into the future.

However, the minority that prefers the smaller size can take heart: this collection re-presents three of those smaller-size issues (#20-22) at their original size, with better reproduction on a lot of the images, and lots of new extras that weren’t in the original issues, and haven’t been published elsewhere.

I hope this compromise can make all the people happy, some of the time (as the saying goes).

As for pleasing fans who want us to collect the tabloid issues in this style of trade paperback? Well, assuming we do more of these Collected volumes (and only continuing sell-outs of TJKC back issues will insure it), at our present rate of one volume every 1-2 years, it’ll be at least 2010 before we’re up to reprinting issue #31. (How to deal with the logistics of assembling a 10" x 14" book is something I think I’ll just worry about when the time comes!)

Long live the King!

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John Morrow, editor Raleigh, NC, March 2006

(above) Drawings Kirby did in David Hamilton’s copy of Kirby Unleashed.

Foreword by David Hamilton

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# Encounter 1 must’ve been all of 17 years of age and—beyond having left the family nest only a handful of times

(Boy Scout trips into the mountains above Los Angeles: Lake Arrow Head, Yellow Stone, and a few near-death hikes by the Pacific Ocean)—this San Diego Comic Convention was, for me, a big deal. On my own... and meeting Jack Kirby, the king of all things comics!

Now, you’ve gotta understand that Jack’s Kirby Unleashed was just published—I’d purchased a copy through the mail a good month prior to the con—and upon leaving for San Diego I hadn’t received my copy yet!

So, here I find myself, standing in a line waiting to meet Mr. Kirby (and with his son Neal, wife Roz, and daughter Barbara) and everyone in this line was buying the hot-off-the-presses stack of Kirby Unleashed—but I wasn’t! Of course, by the time I reached the table and saw that only one lone copy remained, I flip-flopped and purchased it; another “big deal,” because the three or four dollars was big money to a teen (especially paying it twice).

Shortly after, I approached Mr. Kirby and asked him to please sign my copy—but unlike all the other fan copies I’d observed him sign, I wanted mine printed.

As Jack wrote “To David — From...” I stopped him and directed him to please print his name: “Jack Kirby.” I then asked him for a tiny sketch inside the front cover of the Four-Armed Terror vs. the Hulk (see TJKC #13, cover and page 17). Just then, Neal Kirby stepped up and stopped Jack from following through with that sketch! Neal: “You can’t give drawings away, Dad!” or something like that. I was crushed.

Damn you, Kirby’s son! Nevertheless, Kirby did draw two head shots: one of Popeye and one of what I believe is Jack, himself, smoking a cigar. (I even got Barbara Kirby and Neal Kirby to sign the same inner cover.)

# Encounter 2 Twelve months later, I met Jack again at the San Diego Con. Fans were everywhere asking him, well, “fan questions.” But when my moment came, I asked Kirby two questions that (both) went over like stink balloons—to the crowd and to Jack!

I asked why he really left Marvel Comics Group, because I’d heard through comments by various comic pros that he wasn’t happy at Marvel—for quite some time—and that this unhappiness was why he’d moved to the West Coast, then later quit Marvel.

Jack looked me straight in the eyes, with a “how dare you” look on his face, and went on to tell me and all around me that whatever I’d heard was untrue!

“But,” I said, “Steve Englehart said...”

Jack: “Steve doesn’t speak for me!” Well, that didn’t go too well (as all around laser-eyed me with disdain).

# Encounter 3 Probably the juiciest encounter I ever had with Jack was, again, during another San Diego Comic Convention. This one, probably 1973 or 1974, happened during the early morning hours of the third day—a Saturday morning around 2:30 a.m., in fact.

I was wandering around the El Cortez Hotel’s swimming pool area, pretty charged up (as I did inhale during those days) and quite stoned out of my mini-mind. Up walks Jack “King” Kirby—just me and Jack!

My gawd!

You never think that your gods (i.e., favorite artists, writers, painters, actors, novelists, etc.) remember you from any past encounters—and I hoped this was the case (since I’d pissed him off in the past).

We exchanged hellos—then I reached back and asked Kirby an old question: “Why’d you leave Marvel, Jack?” What seemed a half-dozen lifetimes froze in that moment. Then Jack said (in what seemed to me to be in his comic writing style—i.e., wacky, but cool), “...Can’t work in a place that steals!” I simply replied “Huh?” He went on: “Some years ago I was walking around the office [at Marvel] and I was talking up an idea for a new series [no name was given] about a Kree warrior with an Earthly consciousness—just talking in the Bullpen! Months later, they’re publishing Captain Marvel! Can’t work with stealers!”

Wow! Double “wow,” because, for me, Captain Marvel—especially the early episodes by Lee and Colan, Thomas and Colan, and most definitely the Thomas/Kane/Adkins issues (#17-21)—was among my absolute favorites in comics, ever!

Jack then switched gears totally and told me a “war story.” It centered around a personal encounter he’d had; it involved the smell of burning (human) flesh, fire over “the hill,” flames within the pit—cries and death! I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but that didn’t put a dent in the impact of his emotions and words.

Shortly after—probably around 3:15 a.m. by now—we exchanged “good nights.”

# Encounter 10?

Jumping forward quite a few years, I got the guts stirred up enough to actually call Jack Kirby at home. It was quite late—The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was just going off, so it must’ve been 12:30 a.m. (or possibly 1 a.m., because the show used to be 90 minutes long). I dialed Jack and Roz’s phone number. (Don’t ask how I got it.) The two-and-a-half rings seemed to take ages. (Long enough for me to ask myself, “Why are you calling this man—this late—if at all, you fool?!”)

Roz answered, and upon my asking, “Is Jack there?” she replied, “Yes.” Within seconds it was as if I was speaking with one of my best (and most understanding) pals!

The conversation jumped all over the place, from “What are you drawing?” (probably FF storyboards), to “Whatcha watchin’ on TV?”, and so on.

Then I drew back nearly a decade (this was 1981) and revisited my first encounter with Jack—and the “what almost happened” scene/sketch that his son, Neal, had stopped. Jack then asked what this sketch was to’ve been of.

“Your Four-Armed Terror fighting your Hulk, Jack.”

He thought about it, and then said, “Fifty dollars?”

“Wow, sure, no problem.” Three days later I got the titanic clash in graphite at 10"x15" (see above). Hell, he should’ve said $250-plus—I would’ve said the same.

I’ve got about two dozen more Kirby encounters, but hopefully this gives you some idea what the guy this book is about was really like.

Peace!

David Hamilton March 2006 [David Hamilton is a longtime Kirby fan, and an early major supporter of the Jack Kirby Collector.] (above) Kirby drawing done for the 1983 San Diego Comicon. (next page) 1970s Fantastic Four storyboards.

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Mike Royer-inked pages from the unpublished In The Days Of The Mob #2, circa 1971. Look for Richard Howell’s inked version of page 30 elsewhere in this book.

Forever People #6 pencils (Dec. 1971). Do you think Sonny Sumo’s name might’ve been inspired by Sonny Bono’s?

Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #144 pencils (Dec. 1971).

Justice Inc. #4 pencils (Nov. 1975).

(previous page) Dingbats of Danger Street #1 pencil page, eventually published in First Issue Special #6 (Sept. 1975). (this page) Dingbats #2 inks by Mike Royer, and Dingbats #3 pencils, both unpublished.

Demon #12 pencils (Sept. 1973).

Pencils from Kamandi #2 (Dec. 1972).

Devil Dinosaur pencils, from issue #4 (July 1978).

Pencils from Eternals #9 (March 1977).

Captain America pencils from Jack’s first 1970s issue, #193 (Jan. 1976).

The Collected

Volume SIX

Celebrating the Life and Career of the King!

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Introduction

by John Morrow, editor of The Jack Kirby Collector s I write this, it’s been about four months since I wrapped up the colossal, doubletabloid-size monster that was Jack Kirby Collector #50 (released as a book called Kirby Five-Oh! rather than a magazine), and I’m several weeks behind on issue #51, which should’ve already been to the printer by now. Such is my life: the day-to-day operation of my publishing business means never enough time to devote to my labor of love (which started my business), TJKC. My hope is that, delving back into the issues that make up this book collection (#23-26, produced about a decade ago) will get me inspired to crank out the first of another fifty issues.

Not that it takes too much to get me geared up for a new issue; just plop some Kirby pencil art in front of me, and give me a couple of hours to wade through various submissions fans have sent in, and it all starts to come together, both in my head, and on-screen.

The process has been pretty much the same since I started this magazine back in 1994; just swirl it all around in my brain, and some almost mystical force will help me spit it out in (hopefully) a cohesive final product that does justice to the man it’s all about.

If you don’t know Jack Kirby and his work, you’re in for a treat—and an education. If you’ve been a lifelong fan, I’ll still bet there’s art and insights contained here that you’ve never encountered before. The man was just that prolific, and his legacy grows each year as more people (and Hollywood producers—not that those are necessarily mutually exclusive) discover his amazing talent. The X-Men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Captain America, Avengers, Thor, the New Gods... the list of his creations goes on and on.

Hey, just typing these words, I’m getting all inspired for #51.

Long live the King!

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John Morrow, editor Raleigh, NC, August 2008 (right) Kirby’s 1979 cameo as a police sketch artist on the Hulk TV show.

Unconventional Convention Story N Foreword by Mike Gartland

ew York Comic Con 2008: John Morrow: “So, you wanna write the Foreword for this year’s Collected Kirby Collector?”

Mike Gartland: “Sure; whaddaya want me to write about?”

JM: “Whatever you want! How about covering the issues we’re going to include? We got the Simon & Kirby tribute issue and Jack’s Greatest Battles; plus a tribute to Kirby’s ‘Gods’ and an Anything Goes issue, so there’s really something for all Kirby fans in this volume.”

MG: “I’ll think up something Kirby-related. Can I write about spending the weekend at this convention and all the people we met?”

JM: “Sure. [pause] So long as you don’t make fun of anybody.”

MG: “Well, that kills that idea!!”

But all seriousness aside... ...in the Spring/Summer/Autumn of 1989 (I forget) I was in my mid-thirties, married with two small children, and well past my comic convention attending days—or so I thought. I was not reading nor collecting anything comics-related, having sold my collection away (for the second time) when I entered college. But I had read in one of the trade papers that at a New York Con (above) Jack’s cover art for the cover of another New York someone whom I always admired and wanted to comic book convention; this one from 1975. meet would be there. I found that I would be free on one of the afternoons during the con, so I halfheartedly went. I’ve never been a fan of comic-cons for reasons I need not bother anyone with here, but the lure of meeting one of my idols was strong enough to get my lazy ass in gear.

I arrived at the con and began scanning the crowd, the booths, the professionals, looking for him. A cacophony of outrageousness surrounding me as I walked. “How typical” I smugly mused. Little did I dream that this would pale in comparison to the circuses they run today, but anyway....

Finally I came upon a double table set-up; behind the table were a young man and an older woman.

Behind them were easel-like stands, the table held portfolios, and on those stands and on that table were the iconic images I grew up with! The original art was incredible to behold; of the prices, I thought: “What, are you kidding? $500.00 for a splash page—who the hell would pay that much?” (There’ll be a short pause here while you get over your laughter.) I said my hellos to the two attendees as the older woman gestured for me to turn around: “He’s over there” was all she said.

As I turned to look, all I saw was a small crowd of people about twenty feet away, huddled in a circular group with a small opening in the middle. I slowly made my way through the perimeter as I heard this gravelly voice talking. I made it to the center and there was this small man—couldn’t have been more than five-foot-four or -five— telling stories; talking about his adventures during World War II. I looked at him and a numbness began to overtake me as all the thoughts went through my head— this was the man who drew those stories, this was the man who told those stories, this was the man who designed those characters, this was © Universal Pictures 4

the man who created those monsters—one thought after another, almost drowning out what was being spoken. Was this what it was like to be “starstruck” I wondered?

I became one of the crowd and just listened to what he had to say. He talked about the War, about comics, about animation, about movies. I can’t remember everything he said, but I distinctly remember him describing his idea of a city the size of this country and how factions were fighting over a defensive weapon that could protect such a city, but it was the size of your thumbnail. I remember saying to myself, “Stop! You’re giving away good ideas”, remembering how he was uncredited for so much; but I kept quiet (unusual for me). The older woman broke through the crowd with a diet soda, handed it to him and said, “Here, drink!” It then dawned on me how this little fellow was almost like a savant, how his mind was so turned in ways unfamiliar to us that he neglects the simplest acts, like stopping to drink or that he’s been standing for hours. How brilliant he is at devising characters, places and situations, yet how unknowingly dependent he is on those who care for him.

She also reminded him that he had to go review some art portfolios, and before you knew it he was whisked into another room as the crowd broke up.

At first I said to myself, “Well, that’s that, probably won’t get to see him again,” but then I began to realize that this was probably going to be the only time I would see him ever, so I waited, and waited some more, walking around looking at all the things at the con. Running into an old acquaintance I explained the reason he saw me there. We were standing in front of the table of a young professional who was within earshot of our conversation; as I explained whom I came to see and said that ‘I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,’ the professional cut in with a sarcastic “Oh really?” I turned to him and in my usual diplomatic fashion said, “Yeah, and you and this con probably wouldn’t be here either!”

After an hour or so I was back at the table of iconic art and there he was again, this time with only two other people in attendance. I waited my turn….

I finally got to speak with him, to just say thanks for everything. I made it a point to let him know that, slowly but surely, the true stories will come out, the true credit will be acknowledged. I had to let him know that there were those of us who weren’t brainwashed. I asked him if he had anything new coming out; he responded that he was through with comics. I said to him, “You’re not done yet!” and said my goodbyes.

So there you have it, how I met him— probably the same story for about ten thousand other guys.

The young man at the table was Mike Thibodeaux, the older woman was Roz Kirby, and the story teller; well, you know…

Turned out that he wasn’t done yet, and thanks to guys like John Morrow he never will be. Thanks Johnny for lettin’ me write!

Oh yeah, this is a good collected: READ IT ’N’ LEARN! ★ Mike Gartland May 2008

(above) Latter-day Kirby pencil art, for a toy design (above), and for the “Big Barda” entry in DC Comics’ Who’s Who #2 (top, April 1985). TM & ©DC Comics.

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[Mike Gartland is a longtime Kirby fan, historian, and author of the “Failure To Communicate” series of articles in the Jack Kirby Collector.]

(this spread) Kirby’s uninked pencils from New Gods #10 (August 1972).

(this spread) Forever People #8 pencils (April 1972).

(this spread) Mister Miracle #6 pencils (Jan. 1972).

(this spread) Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #143 pencils (Nov. 1971).

(this spread) Demon #2 pencil pages (Oct. 1972).

(this spread) Kamandi #10 pencils (Oct. 1973).

(this spread) Pencils from Captain America #199 (July 1976)).

(this spread) Eternals pencils, from #11 (May 1977).

(this spread) Black Panther pencils, from issue #4 (July 1977).

(this spread) Pencils from Devil Dinosaur #1 (April 1978).

(this spread) Machine Man pencils from issue #2 (May 1978).

The Collected

Volume SEVEN

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Celebrating the Life and Career of the King!

Introduction

by John Morrow, editor of The Jack Kirby Collector t’s a little hard for me to believe, but the issues reprinted in this volume were produced back in 2000, almost a decade ago. An awful lot’s changed for me in that time (and even more since I started the Jack Kirby Collector back in 1994), and big changes seemed to really start hitting right after issue #30 went to press.

As you’ll read in the editorial on page 273, my wife and I participated in an event called Cycle North Carolina back in 2000, where we rode bicycles from one end of our state to the other in seven days, starting in the snowy mountains (it was 19 degrees the first morning we left, and we both nearly gave up about 30 minutes into it), and ending with 70 degree weather when I finally dipped my toe in the Atlantic Ocean (go figure—I got my only flat tire of the week about five minutes from the end of the ride). It was truly a life-altering experience, and one which made me really reconsider what we’d both been doing with our lives up till then. After 14 years of marriage, we decided on that trip it was finally time to pay less attention to our business (which had been our baby since 1991), and start working on an actual family of our own. It was the best decision we’ve ever made: as a result, along came our daughter Lily in 2001, and then Hannah Rose in 2005.

If you have kids, you know what we found out: everything changes (but in a great way)!

When you’re devoting so much time to little ones, something’s gotta give. And as much as I loved (and still love) producing TJKC, the mostly regular schedule I’d maintained on it for its first six years inevitably began to slip a little.

I switched to quarterly instead of bi-monthly frequency with #31, but upped the mag to tabloid-size and 80 pages to lessen the sting a little for readers. This volume compiles the last of those regular-size (and regular-frequency) issues. It (like that bike ride) marks a real turning point for me in many ways, and more than just my schedule has changed since these were first published.

Still, although we don’t have the time or stamina for 500-mile bike tours anymore, I still have the bike that made it so far, and it still runs great. And though TJKC isn’t coming out six times a year anymore, it’s still going strong thanks to Jack’s fans, friends, and family. I’m working on issue #52 at the same time I’m writing this, and there’s no end to TJKC in sight.

(And as for the likelihood of getting the mag back out on a more frequent schedule, my answer is the same as I’d give if you asked me about doing more bike tours: Just wait till my girls are in college in a few years...)

Long live the King! ★

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Foreword

by Rand Hoppe, curator of the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center (www.kirbymuseum.org) ’m fond of the official Mission Statement of The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center:

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The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center is organized exclusively for educational purposes; more specifically, to promote and encourage the study, understanding, preservation and appreciation of the work of Jack Kirby by illustrating the scope of Kirby’s multi-faceted career, communicating the stories, inspirations and influences of Jack Kirby, celebrating the life of Jack Kirby and his creations, and (above) A 1970s Kirby portfolio plate; inks by Mike Royer. building understanding of This served as the cover of Jack Kirby Collector #3 back in 1994. comicbooks and comicbook creators. To this end, the Museum will sponsor and otherwise support study, teaching, conferences, discussion groups, exhibitions, displays, publications and cinematic, theatrical or multimedia productions.

I’ll repeat; good stuff. What it’s meant to me for the past three years since Lisa Kirby (Jack and Roz Kirby’s youngest), John Morrow (editor and publisher of the magazines collected in this book), and I agreed to embark on that mission, is that I’ve met many of Kirby’s family, friends, fans and appreciators, assisted scholars of varying degree and—most visibly—travelled with my large-format scanner to quite a few comic book conventions and collectors’ homes to scan Kirby’s work for our archive.

Can you see some amazing art on the wall of a “Kirby Museum”? First, allow me to digress and provide some background. I currently spend most of my non-Kirby working time developing media, whether print, video or web, for Stevens Institute of Technology, a technological university here in Hoboken, New Jersey. One of Stevens’ guiding principles is Technogenesis.

(Sounds like a word Kirby would use in one of his sci-fi stories, doesn’t it?) Stevens’ Technogenesis involves the cooperation of the University, Government and Private Business in researching and developing new technologies and taking them to market. It’s pretty good stuff, and unique at the undergraduate level.

So there I was one day, editing a video of one of the lectures given on campus by a Stevens graduate who’s running his own multi-million dollar business. His main theme was about avoiding venture capital and bootstrapping your business into existence. The more I listened to him talk, the more I realized that Lisa, John and I have been doing exactly that—bootstrapping the Kirby Museum into existence. Lisa provided the stock of posters we give away to entice membership. John helps with a page in the Kirby Collector to get news out and with booth space at conventions for my scanner and me. And I handle the memberships, website and other Museum projects and communications. So, no, there is not a Kirby Museum in Hoboken where you can see Kirby art on a wall. The Kirby Museum isn’t currently heavily funded or endowed, but thanks to the ongoing support of our members, we are starting to build a small collection of original Kirby art and beginning production of our Kirby documentary.

If you’re interested in helping the Kirby Museum, please become a member and volunteer.

We’ve gotten this far with help from many wonderful people, and with more help, the world will know even more about Jack Kirby. ★ Rand Hoppe, Hoboken, NJ, January 2009 (next page) We’re not sure if this was an animation proposal, or just a joke, but what great art!

4

(this spread) Kirby’s uninked pencils from New Gods #8 (April 1972).

(this spread) Forever People #10 pencils, featuring a guest appearance by Deadman (August 1972).

(this spread) Mister Miracle #7 pencils (March 1972).

(this spread) Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #144 pencils (Dec. 1971).

(this spread) Demon #7 pencil pages (March 1973).

(this spread) Kamandi #2 pencils (Dec. 1972).

(this spread) Pencils from Captain America #195 (March 1976)).

(this spread) Eternals pencils, from #2 (August 1976).

(this spread) Black Panther pencils, from issue #4 (July 1977).

(this spread) Pencils from Devil Dinosaur #1 (April 1978).

KIRBY COLLECTOR #1-5 (DIGITAL SET)

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine (edited by JOHN MORROW) celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through INTERNS VIEWS WITH KIRBY and EDITIO BLE A IL his contemporaries, A AV LY FEATURE ARTICLES, FOR ON .95 3 $ 5 RARE AND UNSEEN $1.9 KIRBY ART, plus regular columns by MARK EVANIER and others, and presentation of KIRBY’S UNINKED PENCILS from the 1960s-80s (from photocopies preserved in the KIRBY ARCHIVES). Now in OVERSIZED TABLOID FORMAT, it showcases Kirby’s amazing art even larger!

Long sold-out in print form, you can now get the first five issues as an 80-page digital set! Includes interviews with JACK KIRBY, JOE SIMON, MIKE ROYER, and others, Marvelmania Portfolio articles, original art auction results, Jack’s original concept sketches, unused pencil pages, published pages BEFORE they were inked, other rare art, photos and more!

DIGITAL

(80-page Digital Edition) $2.95

NEW!

KIRBY COLLECTOR COLOR POSTER

Only a few left of our TJKC retailer’s poster—don’t delay!

(17” x 22” color poster) $10

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with issues at HALF-PRICE!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #6

KIRBY COLLECTOR #7

KIRBY COLLECTOR #8

Special FOURTH WORLD theme issue featuring interviews with MARK EVANIER, STEVE SHERMAN and MIKE ROYER, Jack’s ORIGINAL ENDING FOR NEW GODS, Mister Miracle’s Female Furies, 1971 New Gods portfolio, the HUNGER DOGS you never saw, plus rare and unpublished art from the series, including Jack’s pencils before they were inked, and much more!

KIRBY/SINNOTT cover!

Celebrating Jack’s Kid Gangs! UNSEEN 1987 INTERVIEW with Jack, overview of Simon & Kirby’s Kid Gangs, unpublished Boy Explorers, Dingbats of Danger Street; unsung kid gang the Boy Heroes, Boys’ Ranch unused pencils, Newsboy Legion old and new, unpublished art from X-Men, Jimmy Olsen and others, including Jack’s pencils before they were inked, and much more! KIRBY/STEVENS cover!

Transcripts from the 1995 Kirby Tribute Panel at Comic-Con with SINNOTT, ROYER, EVANIER and ISABELLA, our traveling Kirby Art Show, rare 1975 Kirby interview, a look at Jack’s convention art, 1972 convention panel with KIRBY & TOTH, how Jack met PAUL McCARTNEY, unpublished art including pencils from Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. before they were inked, and much more! KIRBY/RUDE cover!

(36-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

(36-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

(36-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

KIRBY COLLECTOR #9

KIRBY COLLECTOR #10

KIRBY COLLECTOR #11

KIRBY COLLECTOR #12

KIRBY COLLECTOR #13

Fantastic Four theme issue! Interview with veteran Marvel artist and Kirby inker JOE SINNOTT, Black Panther–Role Model for a Generation, The Inhumans–Jack’s Enigmatic Super Group, entirely inconsequential FF Trivia, UNUSED FANTASTIC FOUR #20 COVER, unpublished art including Jack’s FANTASTIC FOUR PENCILS BEFORE THEY WERE INKED, and much more! KIRBY/ SINNOTT cover!

Humor theme issue, exploring the lighter side of Jack! A funny and touching interview with Jack’s wife ROSALIND KIRBY, Fighting American, Goody Rickels, interview with Destroyer Duck creator STEVE GERBER, fans and pros tell Favorite Stories About Jack, unpublished art including Jack’s pencils from JIMMY OLSEN, DESTROYER DUCK and THOR before they were inked, and much more!

Hollywood issue! Stuntman, the Black Hole, Jack and JOHNNY CARSON, why the LORD OF LIGHT never saw the light of day, unfilmed movie ideas, Jack’s adaptation of “The Prisoner”, from Thundarr to Scooby-Doo: Jack’s career in animation, the “King” and a crazy Italian’s epic love story, NEW GODS vs. STAR WARS, unpublished art including Jack’s pencils before they were inked, and much more!

International issue! Two rare 1970s Kirby interviews (one in English for the first time), JOHN BYRNE interview, 1996 Kirby Tribute Panel at Comic-Con featuring MARK EVANIER, ROGER STERN and MARV WOLFMAN, Around The World With Kirby, uninked pencils from Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles and Captain America #101, Jack’s personal sketches, KIRBY/ WINDSOR-SMITH cover!

Supernatural issue! Interview with Jack and Shadow creator WALTER GIBSON, unpublished seven-page mystery story, interview with Kirby inker DICK AYERS, the rhyme and reason behind The Demon, Black Magic, The Vision, Spirit World, 1960s monsters, Kirby costumes, overview of Jack’s Occult and Supernatural themes, Kirby pencils before they were inked, and much more! KIRBY/AYERS cover!

(44-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

(44-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

(44-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

(44-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

(52-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

11

KIRBY COLLECTOR #14

KIRBY COLLECTOR #15

KIRBY COLLECTOR #16

KIRBY COLLECTOR #17

KIRBY COLLECTOR #18

Thor issue! Unpublished Kirby interview, interview with CHIC STONE, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #101 PENCILS before inking, cataloging Jack’s original artwork for the Thor Journey Into Mystery issues, evolution of Thor and the Stone Men, WALTER SIMONSON on Manhunter, Thor & Kirby, examining the real Norse gods, pros and cons of VINCE COLLETTA, linking Thor to the New Gods, KIRBY/STONE cover!

Sci-fi issue! Rare interview with Jack by SHEL DORF, EC Comics legend AL WILLIAMSON interviewed, the story behind Sky Masters, why the Eternals didn’t last, MIKE THIBODEAUX interviewed, features on Machine Man, Captain Victory, 2001, Starman Zero, Silver Surfer Graphic Novel, and others, Jack’s pencils before they were inked, and much more! Cover by KIRBY & TERRY AUSTIN!

Tough Guys issue! Rare Kirby interview, interview with Sin City’s FRANK MILLER, WILL EISNER discusses Kirby, an examination of In The Days Of The Mob, a look at Jack’s tough childhood, features on Bullseye, Link Thorne - Flying Fool, War and Western Comics, 1950s comic strip ideas and others, unpublished art (including Jack’s pencils before they were inked), and more! KIRBY/MILLER cover!

DC issue! Rare 1971 Kirby interview, interviews with NEAL ADAMS, GREG THEAKSTON, and D. BRUCE BERRY, 1997 Kirby Tribute Panel featuring MARK EVANIER, STEVE SHERMAN, MIKE ROYER, MARIE SEVERIN, and AL WILLIAMSON, special features on the Fourth World, Kamandi, Manhunter, Challengers, Green Arrow, Sandman, unpublished art, and more! KIRBY/ROYER cover!

Marvel issue! Rare 1970 Kirby interview, 1975 interview with STAN LEE, interviews with every Bullpenner we could find, including: ROY THOMAS, JOHN ROMITA, JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN, HERB TRIMPE, FLO STEINBERG, & GEORGE ROUSSOS, special features on Ant-Man, The Eternals, Black Panther, and more!

Kirby cover featuring Jack’s unused SPIDER-MAN MARVELMANIA poster art!

(52-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

(52-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

(52-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $1.95

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

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

KIRBY COLLECTOR #19

KIRBY COLLECTOR #20

KIRBY COLLECTOR #21

KIRBY COLLECTOR #22

KIRBY COLLECTOR #23

“Art” issue! JOE KUBERT on Kirby & the Kubert School, an analysis of Jack’s dialogue, a Kirby thesis by GIL KANE, KEVIN EASTMAN discusses Kirby, Jack’s battle with Marvel Comics discussed by KIRBY, FRANK MILLER, MARK EVANIER, STEVE GERBER, and GARY GROTH, collecting Kirby originals, Jack’s stolen art, tribute to Roz Kirby, inker spotlight, “Squiggles” and more! KIRBY/ALEX ROSS cover!

Focus on Kirby’s women! Rare 1975 Kirby interview, interviews with DAVE STEVENS and LISA KIRBY, unpublished ten-page story from TRUE LIFE DIVORCE, a close look at Romance Comics, Jack’s original screenplay for CAPTAIN VICTORY, doublecenterfold of GALAXY GREEN, spotlight on Jack’s Women from the ‘40s to the ‘80s, Kirby pencils before they were inked, and more! KIRBY/KEN STEACY cover!

Kirby’s wackiest work! Unpublished Kirby interview, interviews with GIL KANE and BRUCE TIMM, comparing Kirby’s margin notes to STAN LEE’s words, Kirby’s work at Topps Comics, EDDIE CAMPBELL on Kirby, Jack’s wackiest dialogue and bloopers, special features on Silver Surfer, Black Racer, OMAC, & Goody Rickels, Kirby’s unseen screenplay for Silver Star, unpublished art, and more! KIRBY/WIACEK cover!

Villains issue! Unpublished Kirby interview, interviews with STEVE RUDE and MIKE MIGNOLA, Part Two of our series comparing Kirby’s margin notes to STAN LEE’s words, stunning UNINKED FANTASTIC FOUR #49 PENCILS, special features on Darkseid, Red Skull, Doctor Doom, Atlas Monsters, and Yellow Claw, the genesis of King Kobra, unpublished art, and much more! KIRBY/DAVE STEVENS cover!

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

KIRBY/ALEX HORLEY cover!

(68-pg. magazine w/COLOR) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95

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

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

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

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

KIRBY COLLECTOR #24

KIRBY COLLECTOR #25

KIRBY COLLECTOR #26

KIRBY COLLECTOR #27

KIRBY COLLECTOR #28

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

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

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

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

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

12

KIRBY COLLECTOR #29

KIRBY COLLECTOR #30

KIRBY COLLECTOR #31

KIRBY COLLECTOR #32

KIRBY COLLECTOR #33

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

KIRBY’S TWILIGHT YEARS (1978-94)!

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

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

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

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

KIRBY/LARSEN and KIRBY/TIMM covers!

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

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

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

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

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

KIRBY COLLECTOR #34

KIRBY COLLECTOR #35

KIRBY COLLECTOR #36

KIRBY COLLECTOR #37

KIRBY COLLECTOR #38

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

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

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

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

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

Two UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS!

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

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

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

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

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

KIRBY COLLECTOR #39

KIRBY COLLECTOR #40

KIRBY COLLECTOR #41

KIRBY COLLECTOR #42

KIRBY COLLECTOR #43

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13

KIRBY COLLECTOR #44

KIRBY COLLECTOR #45

KIRBY COLLECTOR #46

KIRBY COLLECTOR #47

KIRBY COLLECTOR #48

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

Kirby cover inked by MATT WAGNER!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(84-page tabloid magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $3.95

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

KIRBY FIVE-OH! CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

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

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

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

For its 50th issue, the publication that started TwoMorrows presents KIRBY FIVE-OH!, a BOOK covering the best of everything from Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular KIRBY COLLECTOR columnists have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 1938-1987! The BEST COVERS from each decade!

Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This TABLOIDSIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Takes the place of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50.

(168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: FEB084186

KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

KIRBY COLLECTOR #55

KIRBY COLLECTOR #51

KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

Bombastic EVERYTHING GOES issue, with a wealth of great submissions that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a “theme” issue!

Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JIM LEE and ADAM HUGHES, MARK EVANIER’s column, huge pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS, and more!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work: an UNUSED THOR STORY, BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, unaltered pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby cover inked by DON HECK!

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

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

KIRBY COLLECTOR #56

KIRBY COLLECTOR #57

THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! New interview with STAN LEE, walking tour of New York where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a new page that just surfaced), “What If Jack Hadn’t Left Marvel In 1970?”, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, final interview (and cover inks) by GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’S approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, plus Kirby back cover inked by JOE SINNOTT!

“Kirby Goes To Hollywood!” SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MELL LAZARUS recall Kirby’s BOB NEWHART TV show cameo, comparing the recent STAR WARS films to New Gods, RUBY & SPEARS interviewed, Jack’s encounters with FRANK ZAPPA, PAUL McCARTNEY, and JOHN LENNON, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a Golden Age Kirby story, and more! Kirby cover inked by PAUL SMITH!

“Unfinished Sagas”—series, stories, and arcs Kirby never finished. TRUE DIVORCE CASES, RAAM THE MAN MOUNTAIN, KOBRA, DINGBATS, a complete story from SOUL LOVE, complete Boy Explorers story, two Kirby Tribute Panels, MARK EVANIER and other regular columnists, pencil art galleries, and more, with Kirby’s “Galaxy Green” cover inked by ROYER, and the unseen cover for SOUL LOVE #1!

“Legendary Kirby”—how Jack put his spin on classic folklore! TONY ISABELLA on SATAN’S SIX (with Kirby’s unseen layouts), Biblical inspirations of DEVIL DINOSAUR, THOR through the eyes of mythologist JOSEPH CAMPBELL, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, rare Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, pencil art from ETERNALS, DEMON, NEW GODS, THOR, and Jack’s ATLAS cover!

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

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

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

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

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

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COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES, edited by John Morrow Each book contains over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!

VOLUME 2

VOLUME 3

VOLUME 4

VOLUME 5

VOLUME 6

VOLUME 7

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #10-12, and a tour of Jack’s home!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #13-15, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #16-19, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #20-22, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26, plus new art!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, plus new art!

(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905016 Diamond Order Code: MAR042974

(176-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905023 Diamond Order Code: APR043058

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905320 Diamond Order Code: MAY043052

(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905573 Diamond Order Code: FEB063353

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Diamond Order Code: JUN084280

(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286

NEW!

NEW!

Stan Lee & Jack Kirby: THE WONDER YEARS

Celebrate the 50th ANNIVERSARY OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1 with this special squarebound edition (#58) of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, about two pop-culture visionaries who created the Fantastic Four, and a decade in comics that was more tumultuous and awe-inspiring than any before or since. Calling on his years of research, plus new interviews conducted just for this book (with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others), regular Jack Kirby Collector contributor MARK ALEXANDER traces both Lee and Kirby's history at Marvel Comics, and the remarkable series of events and career choices that led them to converge in 1961 to conceive the Fantastic Four. It also documents the evolution of the FF throughout the 1960s, with previously unknown details about Lee and Kirby's working relationship, and their eventual parting of ways in 1970. With a wealth of historical information and amazing Kirby artwork, STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS beautifully examines the first decade of the FF, and the events that put into motion the 1960s era that came to be known as the Marvel Age of Comics!

(128-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 (Subscribers: counts as two issues toward your Jack Kirby Collector subscription) ISBN: 9781605490380

SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION

First conceptualized in the 1970s as a movie screenplay, SILVER STAR was too far ahead of its time for Hollywood, so artist JACK KIRBY adapted it as a six-issue mini-series for Pacific Comics in the 1980s, making it his final, great comics series.

Now the entire six-issue run is collected here, reproduced from his powerful, uninked PENCIL ART, showing Kirby’s work in its undiluted, raw form! Also included is Kirby’s ILLUSTRATED SILVER STAR MOVIE SCREENPLAY, never-seen SKETCHES, PIN-UPS, and an historical overview to put it all in perspective!

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR SPECIAL EDITION

Compiles the “extra” new material from COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES 1-7, in one huge Digital Edition! Includes a fan’s private tour of the Kirbys’ remarkable home, profusely illustrated with photos, and more than 200 pieces of Kirby art not published outside of those volumes. If you already own the individual issues and skipped the collections, or missed them in print form, now you can get caught up!

(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781893905559 Diamond Order Code: JAN063367

SUPERHEROES IN MY PANTS!

MARK EVANIER’S old and new essays on JULIUS SCHWARTZ, bad convention panels, CURT SWAN, cheap comic fans, unfinanced entrepreneurs, stupid mistakes in comics, PAT BOYETTE, and other aspects of the Art Form, profusely illustrated by award-winning MAD cartoonist and GROO collaborator SERGIO ARAGONÉS, including new covers!

(200-page trade paperback) $12.95 ISBN: 9781893905351 Diamond Order Code: FEB088013

(120-page Digital Edition) $4.95

JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST GOLD EDITION

Lists in exacting detail EVERY PUBLISHED COMIC featuring Kirby’s work, including dates, story titles, page counts, and inkers. It even CROSS-REFERENCES REPRINTS, and includes an extensive bibliography listing BOOKS, PERIODICALS, PORTFOLIOS, FANZINES, POSTERS, and other obscure pieces with Kirby’s art, plus a detailed list of Jack’s UNPUBLISHED WORK as well.

BONUS: Now includes a complete listing of the over 5000-page archive of Kirby’s personal pencil art photocopies, plus dozens of examples of rare and unseen Kirby art!

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 Diamond Order Code: MAR084008

Also available: WALLACE WOOD CHECKLIST

CAPTAIN VICTORY: GRAPHITE EDITION

For the first time, JACK KIRBY’s original CAPTAIN VICTORY GRAPHIC NOVEL is presented as it was created in 1975 (before being broken up and modified for the 1980s Pacific Comics series), reproduced from copies of Kirby’s uninked pencil art! This first “new” Kirby comic in years features page after page of prime pencils, and includes Jack’s unused CAPTAIN VICTORY SCREENPLAY, unseen art, an historical overview to put it in perspective, and more!

(52-page comic book) $5.95 • (Digital Edition) $2.95

KIRBY UNLEASHED (REMASTERED)

Reprinting the fabled 1971 KIRBY UNLEASHED PORTFOLIO, completely remastered!

Spotlights some of KIRBY’s finest art from all eras of his career, including 1930s pencil work, unused strips, illustrated World War II letters, 1950s pages, unpublished 1960s Marvel pencil pages and sketches, and Fourth World pencil art (done expressly for this portfolio in 1970)! We’ve gone back to the original art to ensure the best reproduction possible, and MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN have updated the Kirby biography from the original printing, and added a new Foreword explaining how this portfolio came to be! PLUS: We’ve recolored the original color plates, and added EIGHT NEW BLACK-&-WHITE PAGES, plus EIGHT NEW COLOR PAGES, including Jack’s four GODS posters (released separately in 1972), and four extra Kirby color pieces, all at tabloid size!

(60-page tabloid with COLOR) $20 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT043208

JOIN THE JACK KIRBY MUSEUM: www.kirbymuseum.org Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center • PO Box 5236 • Hoboken, NJ 07030 USA • Telephone: (201) 963-4383 15