The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #63

$10.95SUMMER 2014

All characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

THE

C o l l e c t o rISSUE #63, SUMMER 2014

Contents

COPYRIGHTS: Agent 13, AIM, Alicia, Angel, Ant-Man, Avengers, Baron Von Strucker, Beast, Beetle, Betty Ross, Brik, Bucky,Captain America, Crystal, Cyclops, Daredevil, Dr. Droom, Dr. Strange, Dragon Man, Drom, Dum-Dum Dugan, Early Hulk, El Toro,Enchantress, Executioner, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Fin Fang Foom, Fixer, Frightful Four, Galactus, Galp, Giant-Man, Gorgilla,Herbie, Hulk, Human Torch, Hydra, Iceman, Immortus, Infant Terrible, Invisible Girl, Iron Man, Jane Foster, Jasper Sitwell, JuniorJuniper, Ka-Zar, Kang, Loki, Magneto, Marvel Girl, Medusa, Molecule Man, Mr. Fantastic, Nega-Man, Nick Fury, Odin, Plunderer,Plunderer, Princess Python, Professor X, Puppet Master, Quicksilver, Rama Tut, Red Skull, Rick Jones, Sandman, Scarlet Witch,Sentinels, Sgt. Fury, Silver Surfer, Skrulls, Space Phantom, Spider-Man, Stranger, Sub-Mariner, Tales of Asgard, Thing, Dr. Doom,Thor, Titanium Man, Trapster, Triton, Tyr, Tyrannus, Wanderer, Warlock, Warriors Three, Wasp, Watcher, Wizard, Wyatt Wingfoot,X-Men, Yellow Claw TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Darkseid, Demon, Desaad, Flash, Guardian, Highfather, Kalibak, Kamandi,Lex Luthor, Lightray, New Gods, Orion, Superman, Sandman TM & © DC Comics • Mr. Machine TM Ideal Toys • Black Hole TM& © Walt Disney Productions • Captain Victory, Jacob and the Angel, Beast Rider, Captain Glory, Satan's Six TM & ©Jack KirbyEstate • Thundarr TM & © Ruby-Spears Productions • Destroyer Duck, Roxie's Raiders TM & © Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby

The MarvelUniverse!

OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2(let’s put the Stan/Jack issue torest in #66, shall we?)

A UNIVERSE A’BORNING . . . . . . . . .3(the late Mark Alexander gives usan aerial view of Kirby’s MarvelUniverse)

GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37(mega Marvel Universe pencils)

JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .48(visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org)

JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49(in lieu of Mark Evanier’s regularcolumn, here’s his 2008 Big AppleKirby Panel, with Roy Thomas, JoeSinnott, and Stan Goldberg)

KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .64(the horror! the horror! of S&K)

KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67(Norris Burroughs on Thing Kong)

IF WHAT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70(Shane Foley ponders how Jack’sbad guys could’ve been badder)

RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74(a look at key moments in Kirby’slater life and career)

INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . .82(we go “under the sea” with Triton)

CUT ’N’ PASTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84(the lost FF #110 collage)

KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . .86(the return of the return of CaptainVictory)

UNEARTHED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89(the last survivor of Kirby’s MarvelUniverse?)

COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .91

PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96

Cover inks: MIKE ROYERCover color: TOM ZIUKO

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Spider-Man is the one major Marvel character we don’t cover this issue, but here’s a great sketch of Spidey that Jack drew forgranddaughter Tracy Kirby in 1975—one of the few good illos of the character Jack ever produced.

The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 21, No. 63, Summer 2014.Published most quarters by and © TwoMorrows Publishing,10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $14 postpaid($18 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $45 US, $61 Canada,$66 elsewhere. Editorial package © TwoMorrows Publishing, adivision of TwoMorrows Inc. All characters are trademarks oftheir respective companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby Estateunless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respectiveauthors. First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912

Prologue: Conflagration “I was a Scout in the infantry. If somebody wants to kill you, they make you a

Scout. Once while I was on patrol, I entered a street and somebody from a windowstarted calling me all kinds of names in German, and he was laughing. ‘I’m going tokill you,’ he said, ‘I’m going to shoot you right in the face.’”

Jack Kirby interviewed by Ray Wyman Jr., The Jack Kirby Collector #27

Conflagration: a huge, destructive fire [Webster’s New World Dictionary]

fter the war he was afraid of nothing. He trekked halfway around the world and stood face to face with

evil men who wanted to slaughter him—just for his ethos—and he livedto tell about it. What could he possibly fear after that? A Jack Schiff? A

Martin Goodman? A Jim Shooter? They were nothing—less than nothing. War had been hell—hellfire and conflagration. But Kirby, the advance

Scout, had plunged directly into the inferno without a fire mask. The heat wasparalyzing—but he never once flinched. How could he ever fear anything again?

Bigness Right from the start, Jack Kirby was the comic industry’s seminal action-

artist. His intuitive understanding of the action hero as iconography—asopposed to photorealism—brought an unprecedented force and dynamism tohis figures. He knew from the beginning the world depicted in comics was infi-nitely larger than life: as such, lifelike illustration couldn’t begin to do it justice.

Kirby reduced the human body to its basic components: he deconstructedthe human form, then reassembled it in completely new aesthetic proportions.As his sinewy supermen exploded across the page, their bodies defied all

known laws of physics. Their powerful arms, legs, and torsos carved endless arabesques in space—they jackknifed,corkscrewed, twisted, turned, and danced magnificently, in impossible contortions.

Exactly, it was “bigness.” That’s it and that’s all. No other word applies.Immediately, every superhero artist in the industry was copying his style—trying to capture his “bigness”—but

compared to Kirby, everyone else seemed pygmy.

Enter: Stanley Lieber Jack Kirby had fallen from great heights.In the 1940s, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were comics’ most successful duo. The team sold comics of all genres, to a

myriad of publishers. Their creations included Blue Bolt, Marvel Boy, Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos, Sandman,Manhunter, Stuntman, and the Boy Explorers. They did Westerns, crime books, and they invented the romance comic.

While working for Martin Goodman in 1940, Simon and Kirby spawned their most enduring character: CaptainAmerica, paragon of justice, juvenilia, and jingoism. To meet the demands of Captain America’s monthly schedule,Simon and Kirby needed a gofer—a flunky—so Goodman hired his wife’s teenage cousin, Stanley Lieber.

After the 1940s, comics suffered a near-death experience. Plagued by the Wertham crusade, a new entertainmentalternative called television, and a general lull in overall creativity, comic books were definitely in trouble. When theindustry crashed in the mid-’50s, Jack and Joe—whose Mainline Publications had folded—went their separate ways.Darkening clouds of uncertainty began to gather as Kirby’s professional situation and finances began to dwindle. He gota trickle of work from Harvey and Atlas, but nothing substantial.

In 1956, Kirby headed for the greener pastures of National, and began drawing Challengers of the Unknown undermanaging editor Jack Schiff. Meanwhile, trying to get out of comics before he wentdown with them, Kirby co-produced a newspaper strip called Sky Masters (alongwith Dave and Dick Wood, Jack Schiff, and Wally Wood). A dispute over paymentsled Schiff to sue Kirby. After that, the artist felt unwelcome at National and pulledup stakes.

Kirby drew The Double Life of Private Strong for Archie Comics, until National’slawyers decided The Shield’s resemblance to Superman was close enough to promptlitigation. Result: cancellation—such was DC’s power in those days. Kirby also drewa couple of issues of The Fly, but managing editor Richard Goldwater was put off bythe bigness. He thought the artwork was “too creepy.” He wanted a slicker, morepolished look: “Like the DC artists,” he said.

As it happened, both Simon and Kirby had an axe to grind with MartinGoodman. They were piqued at not owning Captain America (Marvel had made asecond attempt at matching its 1940s success in the mid-’50s), and Kirby despised

4

(above) Kirby duringWWII. On his sleeve isthe 1942 Anti-AircraftArtillery patch.

(below) Joe Simon inthe 1940s. ©Joe Simon

(next page, top right)Stan Lee in theTimely offices in themid-1950s.

(next page, bottomright) Splash fromYellow Claw #2 (Dec.1956), one of Kirby’sfirst Atlas jobs.

(throughout) All pencilpin-ups are from theValentine’s Daysketchbook Jackdrew for his wife Rozin the late 1970s.

the company’s nepotism. But now, at age forty-one, Kirby’s prospects were bleak indeed. He wasno longer king of the mountain. A landslide of misfortune had wrenched him down to where hecould no longer even see the mountain’s peak. Compared to the new rising comic artists likeCarmine Infantino (and DC’s slick, homogeneous “house” artists), Kirby’s big-action art suddenlyseemed outmoded. Smallness was in now, as exemplified by Dick Sprang’s tiny-figured, miniaturist-approach to Batman in World’s Finest. No one at National seemed to mind Kirby leaving, and tomake matters worse, Harvey Comics was canceling its action/adventure titles for more lucrativekiddie fare like Little Dot and Casper The Friendly Ghost.

To Kirby, the entire industry must have seemed like a ghost—a ghoulish, rapidly vanishingmedium that offered ever-diminishing options. By this time, it was 1958; his fortunes stood at lowtide, and the industry had basically written him off. With few other prospects, he was forced to goback to work for Martin Goodman—whose comic company everyone knew was doomed.

As for himself, Kirby wasn’t worried. He’d fought his way up from the ghettos of the LowerEast Side, and the war-torn foxholes of Europe. As such, his present obscurity was just one morebattle—and he still had plenty of fight left in him.

It was comics themselves he feared for. Since the crash of the ’50s, it seemed the entire medium was burning out—going up in smoke.

As if an unstoppable, all-consuming fire was blazing out of control, and the comics industry was

standing directly in its path. To save comics, Jack Kirby would have

to plunge—once more—-back into theinferno.

Return To Babylon A fetidness hung over the Marvel

offices. It was a stench and an abomina-tion. It was a smell that had permeated theex-Scout’s lungs before—years ago, on abeach in Normandy awash in humanwreckage. Unmistakably, it was the smellof rigor mortis setting in:

“Marvel was on its ass, literally, when Icame around, they were moving out the furni-ture, they were taking desks out. I says, (sic) goin to Martin and tell him to stop moving thefurniture out, and I’ll see that the books makemoney.”

Jack Kirby, amalgamated from his1990 Comics Journal #134 interview

5

A Universe a’Borning PiN-UPPiN-UP

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Kirby’s anecdote about themovers taking furniture hassince been deemed an exaggera-tion by industry insiders. Yetdespite these blasphemous nay-sayers (and their mindless pre-occupation with facts), one thingis clear: Kirby was desperate toget the company back on track,in order to provide himself asafe haven.

Back in the 1940s whenSimon & Kirby reigned supreme,Kirby had Stan pegged as abothersome, ocarina-playingkid. Ironically, that kid Kirbyfound so irksome was now hisboss. No matter; because he wasthe man he was, the ex-Privateaccepted his lot, and settled downto work.

Carnage “I was given monsters, so I did

them. We had Grottu and Kurrgoand it was a challenge to try to dosomething—anything—with suchridiculous characters. But thesewere, in a way, the forefathers ofthe Marvel super-heroes.”

Jack Kirby interviewed bySteve Sherman, 1975

At this point, bigness hadall but disappeared from comics,and Kirby was determined to

bring it back. He created monsters as if he were Dr. Frankenstein on Benzedrine—monstersby the megaton. They were all Brobdingnagian in scope: hulking, lumbering masses of stoneand earth. Huge blocky creatures, orange-brown or gray-green in hue, with unpronounceablenames like “Kraggoom,” “Rorgg” and “Zzutak.” They’d cast endless, elongated shadows overthe villages they decimated, and the villagers they trampled underfoot. To the ex-Scout, itundoubtedly felt good to be drawing with bigness again.

But he wasn’t just drawing. Kirby soon learned working with Lee wasn’t going to be like his partnership with Simon,

which was based on equal distribution of labor. Knowing Kirby was perfectly capable of con-ceiving his own storylines, Lee abandoned the traditional full-script method of comic bookwriting. He opted to let Kirby (along with kindred spirit Steve Ditko) simply “wing it” after aplot conference, establishing the story-flow with the art, and setting the pace as the artist sawfit. Stan (or his brother Larry Lieber) would later supply the dialogue. This “Marvel method,”as it came to be known, saved Lee time, and boosted his income; free from plotting, he wasnow able to increase his output. Meanwhile, for all this conception, plotting, and pacing,Marvel’s artists never received an extra dime.

It didn’t take long for Kirby to get monsters out of his system. The era passed, as it wasbound to: by now, with the new decade, the artist was ready to take Goodman’s comics linein a new direction:

“I had to do something different. The monster stories have their limitations—you can just do so many of them. There had to be a switch because the times weren’t exactly conducive to good sales.So I felt the idea was to come up with new stuff—in other words, there had to be a blitz.”

Jack Kirby, in The Comics Journal #134

6

The idea that when Marvel superheroes began, Atlasmonsters ended, is misleading. The monster/sci-fi

tales lingered on as back-up filler right up until Talesof Suspense and Tales To Astonish evolved intosuperhero “split books.” This 1962 Annual was

Marvel’s first, released at the time of FF #6. Above isthe original Kirby/Ayers splash from Strange Tales

#89 (Oct. 1961), featuring “Fin Fang Foom.”

Johnny Storm, a radically modernized version of the 1940sHuman Torch, was possibly the first teenager in comics who wasn’t merely a sexually-ambivalent “kid sidekick”—whose mainfunction was to keep the adult hero from talking to himselfthroughout the narrative.

Johnny’s sister—Sue Storm—could dematerialize at will,and was the integrator. Her relationship to the Torch (as sibling)and to Reed (as future bride) was the unifying cord that tied the group together—and this is quite important—as a family.Aside from that, Sue was peripheral, and would pretty much staythat way.

Meanwhile, The Thing was anything but peripheral. Helooked like nothing on Earth: he had craggy orange flesh, and wascast as a bitter malcontent. The deep self-loathing his deformityhad wrought would often turn itself outward, and seek surrogatevictims like The Torch.

Right from the start, Ben Grimm was the one who countedmost. Quite simply, he epitomized—and catalyzed—everythingthat would change in comic books after him. Or more to thepoint, becauseof him. AfterThe Thing, theidea of whatconstituted acomic hero

would expand and complexify—not fractionally, as it had been, but radically and rapidly. Themonster was also Kirby’s first metaphoric self-portrait (the cigar was a dead giveaway). OtherKirby metaphors would follow.

Over time, Ben acquired a blunt sense of humor to counterbalance his angst. But it wasclear his Brooklynesque wisecracks masked a deep-rooted embitterment. His anguish andpathos evoked the reader’s sympathies, and Lee understated the emotionality just enough that Ben’s poignancy never degenerated into bathos.

If any one character holds the key to Marvel’s success, it’s surely The Thing (sorrySpidey-fans). Simply, he’s the seminal-figure and cornerstone of their entire universe. He’s as important as that.

Ironically, despite Lee’s later boasts that he developed The Thing to be “a new breed ofhero, so phantasmagoric he would re-mold the entire comics industry,” the truth—as usual—isprobably more mundane. The writers (and Martin Goodman) were most likely hedging their

bets on a full-fledged1960s superhero revival,and—cautiously—wanted to keep a “monster element” in thestoryline, just in case.

Legends have beenborn from humbler stuff.

A Behemoth Berserk (THE INCREDIBLE HULK, PREMIERE DATE: MAY 1962)

He was the Jack Kirby bigness personified in green.What do you do for an encore after launching The World’s Greatest

Comic Magazine? Kirby’s response was a solo-star who, if anything, pushedthe envelope even further than The Fantastic Four. Verdant, violent, andvital, the Hulk’s adventures had a raw intensity that had been missing fromcomics for years. The plots weren’t much: mostly, they were full-blownexcuses for the monster to perform acts of magnificent destruction andsplendid carnage. Stone walls were toppled, tanks were demolished, andentire army battalions were scattered like bowling pins. No question aboutit, Kirby was drawing big again.

So big in fact, the crowded boroughs of New York—home of the FF—weren’t nearly spacious enough for all this grand-scale devastation.Subsequently, Kirby settled his emerald enormity in the vast painted desertsof New Mexico: and even they were barely big enough to hold him.

The monster’s alter ego—Bruce Banner–-seemed haunted; and given

Benjamin J. Grimm, the heart and soul of Kirby’s universe, was the veritablemissing link between the Atlas Monsters and the Marvel superheroes.

Had the FF never materialized, The Thing might possibly have ended up as just another early ’60s monstrosity.

Verdant, violent and vengeful, The Incredible Hulk was aferocious combustion of indefatigable energy.

He personified Jack Kirby’s rage, terror, and power.

8

the circumstances, it suited him. A bespectacled, neurotic variation of Reed Richards, Bannercame across as nervous wreckage. A nuclear physicist with a penchant for wearing purplepants, Banner seemed enigmatic and full of dark complexities. Indeed, within his frail frametwo beings coexisted—intertwined but incompatible. Obviously, the writers were riffing onR.L. Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.

Banner’s love interest—Betty Ross—was totally bland, and her importance to the story-line was marginal at best. She epitomized vapid, white-bready characterization. Even her namewas unoriginal, having been purloined from a 1940s Simon/Kirby character. Simply put, shedidn’t count.

Rick Jones definitely counted. Intriguingly mysterious from the onset, Jones would soonbreak the bonds of this series to play a larger, more complex role in the Marvel Galaxy—The Nexus. (More on him later.)

As for the Hulk himself, to call him “a different kind of superhero”—besides sounding like a Lee cover blurb—would be a vast understatement. What kind of comics star was feared and vilified by every segment of society? What kind hated his own alter ego? Obviously with

The Hulk, Kirby had gone even furtherdown the line he’d drawn with The Thing.

This time, perhaps, he’d gone too far.

Asgard Discovered (“THE MIGHTY THOR,” PREMIERE

DATE: AUG. 1962) With one blow from his hammer,

all the monsters in Journey Into Mystery’sfirst eighty-two issues were smashed tonothing.

If the Hulk had been grotesque andlooked on with revulsion by all society,Marvel’s next “blitz” would be a hero whowas his diametrical opposite. The Hulk’santithesis would have to be a perfect specimen of humanity—or better yet, averitable god.

Kirby’s early run on Thor (JIM #83-89) never quite lived up to its real poten-tial. As you might expect, Kirby was toopressured, too overworked to sustain thedynamics and intensity the seriesdeserved. On the whole, the book wasplagued by the same type of boring, ludicrous antagonists that proliferated innearly all the 1962 Lee/Kirby superherocomics (FF excluded).

Swimming the untested waters of anew superhero revival, Kirby displayed acautious unwillingness to drop monsterthemes. For all he knew, there might be acore audience out there who still wantedbeings like “the Stone-Men from Saturn”in every issue (see JIM #83).

Almost as a matter of course, Lee’scontributions to the book were ceaselessvariations of hackneyed hoods like “ThugThacher,” and banal battalions of godlessCommies. Mostly, they were downrightdire. Readers who’d waited seven issues tosee what Kirby could do with a superherowho was also a god, finally got their

9

A Universe a’Borning PiN-UPPiN-UP

The HULK

Although Thor possessed the ability to controlweather, in seven initial issues (Journey Into

Mystery #83-89), Kirby didn’t do much else withthis bona fide god. That quickly changed after his

return to the book in #101.

answer: exactly nothing. At the point of JIM #89 (Feb. ’63), Kirbymoved on, and the series degenerated into total stagnation.

From These Small Beginnings (“THE ANT-MAN,” PREMIERE DATE: SEPT. 1962)

Kirby even used “bigness” to create the illusion of smallness. Contrast of course, was the key to The Astonishing Ant-Man,

who premiered in Tales To Astonish #35 (or arguably TTA #27). Whenseen from Henry Pym’s “ant’s-eye” view, his foes seemed to tower overhim like skyscrapers. To induce this optical illusion, Kirby employednauseatingly tilted perspectives, and wildly exaggerated foreshorten-ing. It made Ant-Man’s foes appear gargantuan as he gazed up atthem, and made Pym seem microscopic when they looked down onhim. This skillful exploitation of unusual angles rendered the actionfrom a viewpoint that seemed eerie, surrealistic, and near-hallucina-

tory. When those giant,godless commies liftedtheir colossal, boot-cladfeet to squash the tinyhero, it almost gaveyou vertigo. If youwere a kid, the effectwas mesmeric.

Approximately,Kirby’s Ant-Man wasa re-fried version ofDC’s The Atom.Likewise, Pym’s adventures were endless variations on the theme of smallness. Smallness however,wasn’t in Kirby’s vocabulary. In due course, despite the weird-angle inventiveness of the art-work, the novelty soon wore off. So did the reader’s patience for the book’s ceaseless parade ofone lame villain after another. In Tales To Astonish #39 for example, Pym battled a giant, talking,radioactive beetle. It was monumentally moronic. Kirby packed it in after only six issues (TTA#35-40), leaving the series in less capable hands.

As it turned out, Kirby’s departure would diminish The Ant-Man’s prospects infinitelymore than any amount of reducing serum.

Fire In The Sky (“THE HUMAN TORCH,”

PREMIERE DATE: OCT. 1962)He flew in on a blaze of glory.

The Human Torch’s solo excursion in Strange Tales (ST #101) seemed the logicalencore to Fantastic Four. In theory, the spin-off series sounded like a winning idea.Judging by reader response, The Amazing Spider-Man was already shaping up to be ahit, and Johnny Storm would undoubtedly appeal to Spidey’s core audience: youngadolescent males. It’s hard to argue with demographics.

Perhaps to make Johnny even more swingin’ (in the vernacular of the times),they transplanted him and his sister in Glendale—a “Smallville” type (i.e., fictional)local town. With that done, the premise was set: Johnny was your average kid withsuper powers, living on his own with no nagging parents to answer to—only ablonde-bombshell sister, who was every delectable inch the perfect 1960s deb.Moreover, he drove a Stingray.

What kid wouldn’t relate to that? There was one hitch: It invalidated all the FF’s past history. Disconnected from

Reed, Ben, and New York—then given a secret identity to boot—the new series flewin the face of all existing Fantastic Four story-structure.

Continuity? Lost. Along with the storyline paradoxes, The Torch’s villains were relentless in their

mediocrity: Colorless, one-dimensional losers like The Destroyer, The Sorcerer, andThe Barracuda. They were human flotsam and jetsam—dire enough to make eventhe most bored kid go back to his homework. [Note: One in particular stands out, forall the wrong reasons: “Paste-Pot Pete ,” who carried a huge, sloppy glue bucket everywhere,was perhaps the most mindless figure in all comics. Kirby’s later transformation of Pete (tothe Trapster) may have been prompted—more than anything—by a desire to rid his comic

10

In 1962, Kirby and Lee were on a winning streak in comics. Their “flawed hero” formula was producing miracles, but there was

one “bug” in the system—Ant-Man. Even Kirby’s innovative “bug’s-eye-view” effects didn’t help.

for damage in a hot-pink body stocking, and had the temperament ofa raging storm. Haughty, hot tempered and oozing with aristocraticarrogance, Wanda provided the matrix for most of the group’s dis-cord. Both Magneto and Mastermind lusted for her, which wouldsend her brother Pietro into predictable paroxysms of violence. Pietrohowever, was infinitely less impressive than his seductive sister: asKirby’s most blatant imitation to date, Pietro (a.k.a. Quicksilver) wasThe Flash reborn in green, right down to his diagonal ‘“lightningbolt” chest emblem. Quicksilver’s closest approximation to originalitywas his characterization, which invariably blurred the line betweenhero and villain.

Wanda and Pietro were confused but basically decent characters,who only joined the Brotherhood out of debt. (Magneto had savedWanda from a throng of mob-crazed witch hunters—an early strainof Mutant xenophobia.) Quite simply, they seemed disconnected—they didn’t fit in. [Note: The Mutant siblings would eventually be re-classified as heroes, and in the process would lose their ambivalent flavor.

Fatally, Wanda changed overnight fromhaughty and hot-tempered to naive and ner-vous under the creative control of Lee and DonHeck. After that, the sexy sorceress fell to ruin.She had no vitality left, no substance. In everyway, she was gutless—finished. Like MaeWest, goodness just didn’t agree with her.]

Unwisely overestimating the EvilMutant’s popularity, Kirby featuredMagneto’s miscreants in almost every X-Men story after their inception. After half adozen consecutive appearances, the TrueBelievers had more than enough. By popu-lar demand, The Brotherhood was tomasunder by “The Stranger” in issue #11,and Stan even published an apology in theletters-page, for the group’s overemphasisin the series.

It had been a great run, but by X-Men#11 (the final Kirby-drawn episode), itlooked like the party was definitely over.The Stranger—whom Kirby depicted withmagnificent bigness—had changed theentire tone of the book in one sweep. Heseemed the final annihilator, and issue #11would have been an entirely logical pointto end the series (which by all accounts,wasn’t setting the world on fire in terms ofsales).

But Kirby had one last ace to play forthe Mutants. For now though, he wouldhold it close to his vest.

Lest The Avengers (THE AVENGERS, PREMIERE DATE:

SEPT. 1963) Lest the avenger pursue the slayer and

overtake him. Deuteronomy 19:6

In the beginning, The Avengers was awild ride.

Of all the Marvel Silver Age teams,unquestionably the most anarchic were“Earth’s Mightiest Superheroes.” Unlike

20

A GALLERY OF Kirby’s Vilest Villains!

MAGNETOFirst appearance:X-Men #1

MARVEL UNIVERSE CONTINUITYBYTE #1

(THE INEVITABLE RICK JONES) He was, in a word, unavoidable. He single-handedly took the concept of cross-character continuity

to a whole new level—through the roof, that is. Rick Jones, the teen-enigma who appeared out of nowhere in The Incredible Hulk #1, wasone of the most intriguing characters in Kirby’s universe, if for no otherreason than his ubiquity. He first appeared as a mysterious orphan whowas responsible for the Hulk’s inception. As stated, Jones was a (possi-bly subconscious) reanimation of the Golden Age Bucky Barnes. In Hulk#6, Jones formed The Teen Brigade—a group of ham radio buffs whoused their telecommunications talents to aid the Marvel superheroes.Ironically, Marvel’s only Silver Age “kid gang”—the type which Kirbywas noted for—appears to have been a Lee/Ditko concept.

In March 1963, Jones made his first of countless crossovers,appearing with The Hulk in FF #12. Next, he hopscotched to TheAvengers (Avengers #1) where he would infix himself for the next seven-teen consecutive issues. In December 1964, R.J. pulled double-dutyappearing in Tales To Astonish #62 and Tales Of Suspense #60 simulta-neously, marking the fourth and fifth Marvel titles he’d been featured in.

At the point of Avengers #17 (6/65), Jones got piqued at not beingconsidered for the group’s new line-up. Subsequently, that same month,he moved out of The Avengers directly into Tales To Astonish #68, andonce again became a regular Incredible Hulk supporting cast member.The kid never saw an unemployment check in his life.

In the late ’60s, Roy Thomas recognized the ubiquitous, series-hopping Jones as the undisputable Nexus of the Marvel Universe, andduly employed him as Captain Marvel’s ticket out of The Negative Zone.Later, Roy gave Rick a major role in the early ’70s “Kree/Skull War.” Itwas amazing how much mileage Marvel was getting from this suppos-edly minor Kirby character.

But all that came later: going back to the 1960s, when Sterankotook over Captain America, he had Rick warily don Bucky’s old uniformonce again. This time, Cap didn’t go psycho on him like he’d done inAvengers #7. Instead, he finally made Rick his partner. (But probably notfor sheer loyalty—remember, by this point, Jones had sworn allegianceto The Hulk, then to The Avengers, then to Cap, then back to The Hulk,and now back to CA again. “Opportunist” may be the word thatapplies.)

However you choose to label him, Rick Jones played one of themost contrasting and complex roles in The Silver Age—his numerouscross-title appearances were crucial links in Marvel’s vast chain of continuity.

Ironically, in an entirely fitting twist of fate, once Rick began fight-ing side-by-side with Cap in Bucky’s old uniform, he became the livingreincarnation of the Golden Age character who probably spawned himto begin with.

In a strange sense, it was another completing of the circle.

(left column) Hulk #1, Hulk #6 (by Steve Ditko), Fantastic Four #12, Avengers #1.

(right column) Tales To Astonish #62 (by Ditko), Tales of Suspense #60, Avengers #17 (by Don Heck), Tales To Astonish #68, Avengers #7.

21

Gallery

(page 40) Fantastic Four #61, page 10: Panel one is inspired design. Amidst the chaos,all four characters are easily identified by the reader, as his eye is directed throughand around the oval-shaped action. Then, when the reader is ready to move to thenext panel, Reed’s arm near Sue leads the eye directly to Sandman in the secondpanel. Then Sandman’s blast takes the eye directly to Sue’s head in panel three.Superbly clear storytelling. And, amazingly, Jack draws Sue with broken lines, ratherthan leaving that to the inker.

(page 41) Fantastic Four #61, page 13: For years, Kirby enthusiasts thought thatJohn Romita added his Peter Parker and Mary Jane heads to panel two—now wehave proof! Looking at panel three, and seeing the amazing detail there, who wouldguess that Kirby produced at least three pages per day? No corners cut here!

(pages 42-43) Fantastic Four #61, page 14, before and after inking. This pageshows how closely Stan followed Jack’s border notes, often using almost theexact phrasing, while deliberately avoiding others. In panel two, ‘strange beams ofunearthly spectrum’ become ‘spectrum beams’ (to me, Stan’s revision makes lesssense than Jack’s original), while Jack’s ‘something is really cooking’ is muchimproved by Stan and kept in spirit only.

(right) Shown here is a rough photocopy ofJack’s pencils from Strange Tales #141. Thoughhe was generally doing layouts on the series, forthis issue, he produced much tighter pencils forinker Frank Giacoia.

(page 38) A Strange Tales #146 discovery—goread it! Thanks to Pete Von Sholly for alerting us.

Sean Howe, in the course of researching hisrecent book Marvel Comics: The Untold Story,unearthed a nice batch of Fantastic Four #61pencil stats, so let’s dig in:

(page 39) Fantastic Four #61 pencils, from page17: Sandman, visually created by Ditko, had noreal need of a visual upgrade—and indeed somereaders objected to it—but it seems that duringthis prime period in his career, Kirby simplycouldn’t help himself. (Although who knows—maybe Stan asked for the redesign?) But one ofthe practical reasons given for the costume wasto give Sandman extra abilities, courtesy of theWizard—and this stunningly drawn page putsthat idea into action.

37

Commentary by Shane Foley

39

2008 Jack Kirby Tribute PanelHeld November 1, 2008 at the Big Apple Comic-Con in NewYork City. Moderated by Mark Evanier, and featuring RoyThomas, Joe Sinnott and Stan Goldberg. Transcribed by Steven Tice, edited by John Morrow andcopyedited Mark Evanier.

The full video of this panel can be found at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xIyH3rwdCQ&feature=related

MARK EVANIER: I’m always surprised by the numberof people whose lives Jack touched, including people inother lines of work. Right after he died, I got this letterfrom a kid, going on and on about how Jack influencedhis work. The guy was a spot welder. And he actuallysaid that Jack Kirby had encouraged him to be the bestdamned spot welder in the world. I think Jack wouldhave liked that. He would have been proud, probablymuch more proud than if the kid had gotten intocomics. As many times as I am made aware of Jack’simpact, I still continue to be surprised by who I hearfrom, and how many people, and how intense their feel-ings still are towards this man.

We’re now at the point, at the stage, where Jack hasnow been gone for fourteen years, so there are a lot ofpeople who are very heavy into comics who’ve neverhad the chance to meet Jack. How many people heremet Jack? [About a tenth of the room raises its hands]There was a period of time, if you went to a San Diego

convention, and cared enough to wait twentyminutes, you could meet Jack. He was the mostaccessible guy in the world. All these people gotto meet him and shake his hand, and say howmuch they loved his work, and hear some com-pletely incoherent comment from him that theywould pretend was normal. [audience laughter]And then, three years later, they figure it out.“Oh, that’s what he meant.” But we’re now to thepoint where people are coming up to me andsaying, “I never had a chance to meet Jack.”They want to shake my hand because my handshook Jack’s.

You know, I met Groucho Marx, and I feltprivileged that way. I met a lot of very importantpeople who are no longer with us, people whoaffected others’ lives, and it’s the same way withJack. It’s something that we will always carryaround. It doesn’t make us any better. It justmakes people envious. [laughs] And they all say,“What was he like?” He was like Jack. He wasthis sharp little tough guy with a New Yorkaccent whose mind raced from—I tell people,most people’s brains, they start with A, they goto B, and they go to C. Jack would start with C,then he’d do A, then he’d do R, then he’d do W,then he’d be On Beyond Zebra. He would haveall new letters to get to. And at some point it all

made enormous sense. Tothis day I am amazed howmany times I’d be walkingdown the street and sud-denly something Jack saidto me in 1973 pops into my head, and I just suddenlygo, “Oh, yeah, I get it now. It applies now.”

Roy, come on up! You all know Roy Thomas, every-body. [audience applauds as Roy joins panel]

Around 1972 or ’73 Jack said when we were at theSan Diego convention, “Someday the San Diego con-vention, it’s going to take up the entire city of SanDiego, and it’s going to be huge. And it’ll be whereHollywood comes every year to sell the movies theymade last year, and to find all the movies they’ll makenext year.” And that’s what’s happened.

ROY THOMAS: Literally?

EVANIER: He said that. Yes, he did. And you all knowJoe Sinnott, ladies and gentlemen,[applause as Joe and StanGoldberg join panel] andMr. Stan Goldberg.[audience applauds] Cansomebody stick anotherchair up here in case DickAyers shows up?

All right, good afternoon. I’m Mark Evanier. Thatmakes this officially a Jack Kirby panel. [applause]People in the back, if you can’t hear someone, wouldyou wave to me and tell me that you can’t hear?Otherwise, I’m going to presume you hear. I keep doingthese panels at conventions about Jack because—I go toconventions and people talk to me about Jack all thetime. So it’s nice to get everyone together, and all theKirby fans in the building, because we are, after all, theclassiest, smartest ones at the convention. It’s great totalk with some of the people who had the pleasure ofworking with Jack, contributing to his life and hiscareer, and being a part of all that. I think you all knowwhat all of these gentlemen have done over the years.Roy’s going to have to leave early, so I’m going to talk to

Jack F.A.Q.sIn lieu of Mark’s regularcolumn this issue, weproudly present his2008 Kirby TributePanel, featuring threekey players in the earlyMarvel Universe: RoyThomas, Joe Sinnott,and Stan Goldberg.

(right) On the back of astat of his art fromStrange Tales #138(Nov. 1965—sent tohim by Marvel to helphim keep up withissue-to-issue continu-ity), Jack scribbledthese cryptic words inpencil (apparently dur-ing a bout of research).After a bit of detectivework, we discoveredthat these are thenames of four gods ofNorse mythology, whichJack used in ThorAnnual #2 (1966).

(below) Kirby posespoolside at the 1973San Diego Comic-Con.Photo by Shel Dorf.

49

A column of Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby

Mark Evanier

him first, and I’ll tell you a little bit later about some of the new Kirbyprojects that are coming up. If you’re one of those people who feelsthey have to buy everything Jack did, boy, are you going to be spend-ing a lot of money in the next few years. Briefly, the reason I am inNew York is on Monday I am meeting with Joe Simon to finalize thecontents of a book that Harry N. Abrams Publishing is going tobring out, the first volume of Simon and Kirby material. In my bookwe printed a Fighting American story off original art: whiteout,smudges, paste-ups, and all, and they’re putting together a book. It’sgoing to be 350 pages of Simon and Kirby artwork printed off theoriginal art on a little larger page size. Joe has all this stuff in storage,plus I’m borrowing some from collectors. It’s going to be the first ofseveral volumes. Before that, Titan Books is putting out a bookwhich I’m also writing a Foreword to, which is kind of a Simon andKirby story showcase, some of the best Simon and Kirby stories,including stuff they did for DC and Marvel. The book from Abramsis going to be all stuff from Black Magic, Fighting American, all thenon-DC/Marvel stuff, and the Titan book is going to include someDC and Marvel stories and be a history of Joe’s work with Jack, andsome of the stuff that Joe did also on his own, in both cases, and sothere’s this new flurry of books. Everything Jack did is going to getreprinted in the next few years, with the possible exception of some-thing like 2001, where there’s a rights encumbrance. Maybe eventhat will turn up someplace.

Let me ask each of these people a couple questions, briefly. Let’sstart with Roy, here. Roy, you were witness to an enormous part ofMarvel history, and were there when Jack and Stan were doing whatis arguably their finest work together. What can you tell us aboutwhat went on in that office when those guys were plotting stufftogether? Sol Brodsky used to claim that Stan would actually jumpup on the desks and strike poses. Is this true?

THOMAS: I myself never saw Stan jump upon a desk, but Sal Buscema saw him, and alot of other people did. Maybe StanGoldberg, he can tell you. I mean, he wouldbe very agitated and go around. He was get-ting a little older by this stage, so it mighthave been a couple years after I got there—he was only in his forties—but he jumpedup, he clicked his heels with his wife at a din-ner, and he terribly sprained an ankle or

something. He was walking around on crutches for a couple ofweeks. But, you know, he was kind of irrepressible. I don’t think Iever really witnessed Stan and Jack talk about a story—or not atlength; maybe a few words here and there. They’d typically do that incars on the way home, or over the phone. I used to have to sit downin a couple of meetings with Romita and so forth, but not so much

with Jack—maybe a couple of times. I was there for one of the moreinfamous things that ever happened to Stan and Jack—the reporterfor the Herald Tribune article that time, I was there for a lot of that,and I saw Jack just sitting there being Jack and not doing anything,and Stan just being agitated, but not jumping on any tables orbelittling Jack. When the article came out a week or two later, Stanwas almost as livid as Jack—especially once Jack let him knowhow livid he was, understandably, I think—because it made itlook like Stan was the prince and Jack was this clown, and that’snot what Stan intended or what actually I think was there. Thisreporter was trying so hard to make Stan and Marvel look goodthat Jack—you know, the idea of thinking of Jack as somebodywho just stood there not contributing anything, it just showshow little the guy knew, right? He obviously couldn’t see any-thing past what he wanted to see. So I don’t know if I’m happy or

sad to have witnessed that, because I consider it one of the real nailsin the coffin of their relationship.

But it was such a thrill that I’d occasionally get lucky enough tobe at a lunch with Stan, and Jack, and Romita, and Sol Brodsky, fiveor six of us. I wasn’t at many of those. I do remember one thing Jacksaid at one of them that came back to remind me later. I think hewas talking to Romita or Sol, and he was saying, “I know this. One ofthe next big things when somebody turns around and really revolu-tionizes comics, it’s not going to be Marvel, or it’s not going to beDC. It’s going to be a couple of guys in a garage somewhere thatcome up with an idea.” I thought of that when the Ninja Turtlesbecame so big. That was almost a classic case of what Jack was talkingabout. He was not an organized thinker, I don’t think, but he was avisionary, and you had to make all the allowances for crazy genius,you know, that you made for anybody; well, you had to make themall for Jack. Stan was sort of a genius in his own way, but he wasorganized. The two of them together, I think, were even better thanthe two of them apart, and that was pretty formidable.

50

Sol Brodsky (we assume) vents his frustrationon the original art to Thor #146 (Nov. 1967); it appears Jack had a tendency to leave thewrong amount of space for the indicia on

splash pages.

few times he deviated from that, he wasn’t veryhappy. It didn’t work for him creatively.

Joe, I think you’ve answered this question manytimes: would you take us through the process—again, because people are interested in this. You go toyour mailbox, the man hands you a package. Youopen it up and there’s the new Fantastic Four. What’sthe first thing you do? It’s all penciled, it’s all lettered.What do you do?

SINNOTT: Well, the first thing, every page I ever gotfrom Jack I was in awe of, especially when I didFantastic Four #5. I couldn’t believe it. I had neverseen the book. I didn’t even know they existed. And Isaid, “Gee, there’s something special here.” See, backin those days Stan was always trying something new,and we never expected anything. Spider-Man, wenever expected things to materialize like they did,and even the Fantastic Four, I’m sure—when I sawthose characters, I said, “Gee, this is really somethingspecial.” At that time we were so used to doing themonster books and whatever, that Stan, as you know,was always looking for a new trend to make somemoney for Marvel. But when I saw Fantastic Four #5,especially Jack’s—I had done a few little things withJack previous to that, a couple of monster books, Ithink. But, in any case, the characters were so great, Ijust couldn’t wait to get into inking the story in #5. Ithad Doctor Doom, of course, and it was just terrific.But, Mark, every time that I got Jack’s pages, evenright up to the time he left the Fantastic Four, I wasalways in awe, and you couldn’t wait to open up hispackages. And once in a great while there were littlethings that I had to change, but that was only nor-mal. And Stan expected it. Stan called me one time.He said, “Joe, whatever you’re doing, keep doing it,”he said. “We like what you’re doing on the FantasticFour.” So I would add a little bit here and there, butthat was early on. Then it got to the point where Isaid to myself, “You know, that’s not being fair toJack.” So I started inking Jack more like Jack had pen-ciled. You know, originally I’d say to myself, “Gee,Jack doesn’t know how to draw ears. I’ll give themAlex Raymond ears, you know, how ears should reallylook.” But, of course, then it wasn’t Kirby. Kirby hada way as we know, with his muscles, they didn’t existthe way he drew them, but it certainly told the story. And everythingJack did was so dynamic that you didn’t have to change a bit, actually.Although we couldn’t help but change a little bit here, a little bitthere. Add a little bit here and a little bit there. And I think, all thosethings that I did with Jack, if I did anything, I enhanced Jack’s work alittle bit, made it a little slicker. And a lot of people liked the periodthat I was working with Jack, [Fantastic Four issues in] the 40s, 50s,60s, 70s. But, then again, they were great characters. I mean, theSilver Surfer, the Inhumans. That was a great period that Stan waswriting and creating these great characters. So it was a great periodto be working with Jack, and I’m glad I was part of it, really.

THOMAS: I just want to say one other thing before I leave. I don’tthink that many people, at least, that went through that period,thought that anybody except Joe Sinnott was the best inker that Jackhad for almost anything. There was only one other person, I think,who could have perhaps wrangled him, and whose work I likedabout as much whenever I saw it, but there was very little of it. Thatwas Giacoia, who when he would do those few Captain Americasthey did, it was different. It was probably a little closer to Jack. The

only problem was that—if Frank had been able to ink more, a littlebit, he could have done the books that Joe didn’t do. But, unfortu-nately, he was just never organized enough to do that. So we werereally lucky in having such wonderful inkers. But even Vinnie Collettathat everybody dumps on, the readers just loved it. Of course, it wasJack, but somehow or other that had a different approach and thatlooked great. But Joe and Frank were the guys.

EVANIER: I think there was one other guy. Bill Everett.

THOMAS: Yeah. Gil always thought he was one of the best. He did acouple of Thors, Bill Everett, yeah.

EVANIER: Would you thank Roy Thomas for spending this time withus? [applause, Roy leaves]

I’m going to go to questions from the audience in a moment,but first, Joe, I want you to tell me now, you get a package of Jack’s inthe mail. You open it up. It’s an issue of Fantastic Four. What is thevery first thing you do? Do you read the story first?

SINNOTT: Never. I never read a Fantastic Four story. Can you believe

58

Above is Stan Lee’s plot synopsis for what became late 1966 Marvel releases. First is Thor #134-135 (Nov.-Dec. 1966), followed by Fantastic Four #57-60 (Dec. 1966-March 1967), and finally the Captain Americafeature in Tales of Suspense #82-84 (Oct.-Dec. 1966). You have to assume this was given to Jack, prior tohim beginning work on any of these stories, and it’s fascinating to see how he took these basic ideas, and

built multi-issue arcs out of them—great stories, but they aren’t regarded as his most pivotal work.

Interestingly, these immediately follow Jack’s most epic creative bursts on each series: FF #44-52 (endingJuly 1966) with all the new character introductions; Thor #125-130 (ending July 1966) with Thor and

Hercules battling Pluto in Hades; and TOS #79-81 (starting July 1966), with Cap vs. the Red Skull over theCosmic Cube. So July 1966 issues would seem to point to some kind of a creative turning point here.

Jack was a “pack rat” who saved everything, but very few of these synopses have surfaced. What does thelack of ones for earlier issues indicate about Lee and Kirby’s working relationship, both before and after

these late 1966 issues? We’ll have a greater examination of this theme in TJKC #66 next summer.

THE SIMON &KIRBY LIBRARY:HORROR!

I don’t care if your roof hascollapsed or that the ground floor of

your house is devastated by floods. Idon’t care if your younger brother needs

money spending to help cure his drughabit. I don’t care that there is an expensive

new restaurant you want to try. Here’s what youshould spend your money on: the latest, amazing

addition to the Simon & Kirby library (following thedeluxe edition of the science-fiction stories), Simon

and Kirby: Horror! Put together by the same elite team asthat volume (Steve Saffel and Harry Mendryk), it is not only

a relatively inexpensive way to acquire a conflation of severalpricey books, but the restoration (in larger format and withperfect color placings by Mendryk) has the artwork lookingbetter than it ever did on the stories in the original issues.

What’s more, once again matte paper has been used sothat the feel of the original books is sensitively reproducedrather than the glossy stock used in many reprint volumes,which makes the colours look garish. The contents? Well ifyou’re reading this magazine, you don’t need me to extol thevirtues of such Jack Kirby masterpieces as Black Magic andits ilk. Not that such considerations have stopped me in thepast—several times in this column you might remember that

I’ve praised this memorable title,which unlike many American horrorcomics of the 1950s enjoyed a rea-sonable run in Great Britain in 68-page black-and-white editions. Andjust as in the States, it was cited invarious attempts at comic censor-ship—and who needs a better reason to read it than that? Ratherthan tell you just how good thesestories are again, I decided to asksenior acquisitions editor SteveSaffel again (who I’d spoken toabout the Simon & Kirby Science-Fiction Library) and art restorationmaestro Harry Mendryk to tell mejust what working on this bookmeant to them. So... Steve? Harry?

Steve Saffel: “The Simon & KirbyLibrary: Horror! may be the mostanticipated volume in the series—for some reason, the material fromBlack Magic inspires some of themost intensely fervent interest

among S&K enthusiasts. Ever sincewe announced the library, people havebeen clamouring for it. And this will bethe only place fans can get all of Joeand Jack’s material from Black Magic, due in large part toJoe Simon’s ability to think ahead. Because Joe copyrightedseveral issues of Black Magic in the Simon and Kirby name,meaning that no one can release it without formal authoriza-tion. These are key issues, too—some of the most influentialstories they produced. All together, this volume includes all ofthe stories Joe and Jack themselves illustrated. In the inter-est of being complete, we even included stories where Jackonly contributed part of the artwork, then handed it off toother guys in the studio. This is the best of the best.

“Black Magic and Strange World of Your Dreams were uniqueon the horror scene of the 1950s, when lurid gore was capturingall of the headlines. Joe and Jack—along with Mort Meskin,Bill Draut, Bruno Premiani (Doom Patrol), George Roussos,Marvin Stein, and the rest of the S&K Studio—favored asubtler, more sophisticated approach. No less frightening, itdidn’t rely on cheap tricks to the degree other comics might.

“That’s likely what causes such loyalty among the fans—the sense that they’re not just reading examples of ’50s hor-ror. They’re reading the best of ’50s horror. I’ve long claimedthat, with stories about the beautiful young woman amongthe freaks, the thing outside of the plane, and the evil livingdoll, Black Magic must have been read by someone whowent on to produce The Twilight Zone—perhaps Rod Serling,perhaps someone on his staff. And even if that’s not thecase, the fact that we can compare Black Magic to TheTwilight Zone shows how high the bar was set.

“This was material that struck dread into the hearts of Joeand Jack, though not in the way you might think.

“Like everyone in the comic book industry, they were gluedto the television in 1954, watching the Kefauver hearings intothe relationship between comics and juvenile delinquency.They watched as, in Joe’s eyes, William Gaines fell apartunder cross-examination. But that was nothing compared tothe moment when a copy of Black Magic #29 was held up—the famous “Beautiful Freak” cover. Though there were nodripping hatchets, or severed heads, or bloodthirsty zom-bies—even though the horror was largely psychological—their work was being condemned on national television.

“Black Magic only lasted four more issues in its originalincarnation. It was revived a couple of times, but never withthe quality presentation it deserved. Until now. Thanks toHarry Mendryk and, of course, Joe Simon himself, fans willbe able to pore over some of the finest comics in the historyof the industry. And wherever he is, Joe will be able to watchas, one more time, he and Jack scare the crap out of us.”

Harry Mendryk: “I originally started doing restorations of theline art of Simon and Kirby covers. This was sometime in themid-to-late ’90s, and even at that date, using bleach toremove the colors from old comic books was financially outof the question. I already had some experience withPhotoshop and so I devised a procedure to digitally bleachscans of the covers. It was by no means perfect and wouldrequire some touching up, again using Photoshop. I finished

64

ObscuraA regular column focusing on Kirby’s leastknown work, by Barry Forshaw

Barry Forshaw

Titan’s S&K “Horror” volume is out now, withstories from BlackMagic and StrangeWorld of Your Dreamspublished from 1950 to 1954—320 pages, with more great artreconstruction by Harry Mendryk.

“Prison 2000 A.D.”was only reprinted inStrange Tales Annual#2. “The Hole In TheSky” has not beenreprinted—so there,Barry Forshaw,there’s still a need for this column!

Thing Kongirby has said on several occasions that he identifieswith the Thing, the grumpy orange-skinned monsterhe co-created with Stan Lee in the first issue of the

Fantastic Four. The son of Austrian Jewish immigrants,Kirby grew up on the mean streets of New York’s LowerEast Side. The area was teeming with rival street gangs,and as the artist details in his “Street Code” story, heoften fought to assert himself or just to survive. Justhow much anger Kirby carried inside him is difficult to

tell, but he certainly channeled itinto his vital and energetic artwork,particularly with combative characterslike the Thing.

In 1933, a film appeared thatmust have exploded like a rush ofprimordial energy in the impression-able brain of the then sixteen-year-old Kirby. The impact of King Kong isdifficult to appreciate today, but suffice it to say thatnothing like it had ever been seen before. The cuttingedge technology of stop-motion animation allowed thefilmmakers to create the illusion of a gargantuan creaturein a primeval lost world, and then see him transportedto 20th century New York City.

King Kong has been analyzed extensively, yieldinginterpretations running the gamut from a metaphor forthe subjugation of man’s primitive instincts, to that ofthe enslavement of African-Americans. What is certainis that Kong’s treatment at the hands of a calloushumanity makes him an extremely sympathetic andtragic figure, and it is easy to identify with his plight.

Since over the years, Kirby has based several storieson the King Kong template, one can easily imagine thatthe film had a profound impact on him. When Kirbyreturned to Martin Goodman’s Atlas line in 1959, heand Stan Lee embarked on a series of monster stories.One of these, appearing in Tales To Astonish #12, bears astriking resemblance to King Kong. In this story,Gorgilla, a giant jungle dwelling primate, is discoveredin a remote location in Borneo. After the requisite battlewith a T-Rex, Gorgilla stows away on a ship and comesto New York. Here (left) in the first panel on the thirdpage of the story, is a powerful image of the creaturemoving towards the vessel that will carry him toAmerica. Unlike Kong, Gorgilla was a willing immi-grant who went seeking some sort of bond with his dis-tant fellow primates, as emphasized in Stan Lee’s text.

Of course, Gorgilla’s intent is completely misun-derstood and he is instead seen as a threat, until thevery end of the story.

Of particular interest is that in the story’s climax,Gorgilla climbs the Statue of Liberty, the symbol ofAmerica’s willingness to embrace the immigrant, inorder to apprehend a villainous saboteur. There is greatpoignancy in the wide panel (shown on next page) wherethe creature is shot while clinging to his perch that is thecrown of the statue. The visual impression is that he isimpaled on the spikes of the crown. As he, like Kong,tragically falls to his death, one can see in panel twothat he mimics the statue’s pose by raising aloft thehand holding the spy. What is even more tragic here isthat the humans harassing Gorgilla have been unaware

67

K

An ongoing examination of Kirby’s art and compositional skills

(below) Gorgilla, fromTales To Astonish #12(Oct. 1960).

n page 44, Mark writes that “Jack and Stan’s strongsuit was creating noble, dignified heroes....”

How true! But then a sentence later, he writes,“Likewise, the duo’s greatest failing was their inability toconcoct the antithesis of these heroes—menacing villains,evildoers and bad guys.”

Failing? I couldn’t disagree more.To my mind, that line should read,

“Likewise, the duo’s similar success was theirability to concoct the greatest villains and evildoers and bad guys ever assembled in onecomic, anywhere.”

Certainly, a huge chunk of the Kirby FF’sstatus in comic book history comes from thatsupporting cast of ‘dignified heroes’ which noother strip came close to matching. And moreoften than not, these, rather than true ‘baddies’,were the antagonists. And why not? Time andagain, Marvel showcased conflicts that weren’talways about ‘good vs evil’, but about misunder-standing, differing perspectives and the like.That’s why the FF fought Sub-Mariner and the

Thing foughtthe Surfer andso on.

But evenif we removeall these won-derful charac-ters—Sub-Mariner,Watcher,Inhumans,Silver Surfer,Black Panther,and perhapsthe Wandererand Him—westill see what Ithink is thegreatest baddieline-up ever.

As ayoung readerin the ’60s,that’s certainlyhow I felt. AndI still do.

Rightfrom the word“go,” when Iwas a youngreader, itseemed thewhole Marvel

Universe, except in Ditko’s books, was filled with villainswith some Kirby DNA. DC couldn’t compare. I likedBatman as a hero, but, to me, his rogues gallery of riddling,giggling, party-dressed buffoons didn’t hold a candle toKirby’s power-charged, thundering super-villains. Thefact that these early Marvel villains have kept beingrehashed and returned to, over and over for the last 40years, surely means there are many others who think ashighly of them as I do. (And yes, I know many think justas highly of Batman’s Rogues Gallery—but not me.)

I’m not only thinking Dr. Doom or Galactus. Theirplace as two of the best villainous creations in comicbook history is certain. It’s the rest of the FF’s baddiesthat concern me.

Why do I love them? A couple of reasons.Many were, by today’s standards, undeveloped

character-wise. Back in the ’60s, who was? But duringthat time, these colorful characters bounced off the pagewith a life that other companies’ baddies didn’t have,and made the Marvel world alive! These were comicsthat made no apology for being comics—yet added justenough humor and characterization to stand out fromthe others. And we loved it!

Lee and Kirby together were dynamite.Stan Lee provided the glib and witty dialogue that

stood head and shoulders above others.But more often than not, it was Kirby who did it for

me! Why? His baddies looked terrific! And they camefrom or lived in an environment that looked terrific!

It was, and still is, the unique and powerful designsthat Kirby gave each of them that screams ‘potential’ to asuperhero reader. Combine this with the evocative placesKirby put many of them in (and sometimes the characterthat arose from the interplay with the FF during theirconflict) and that potential just oozed out!

(A side thought for a moment about Galactus: I wonderif he would have the status he has today if he looked different.What if that wonderful page 2 shot in FF #49 had Galactuslooking very similar to the Watcher—both giants in togas, asshown at left? Would he have returned as often as he has? Orwould someone have tried to create a better character? Afterall, it’s not like the name is anything special—‘Galactus’ is ascorny as ‘Dr. Doom’ or ‘Mr. Fantastic’.)

Most of the best known and most used Kirby FF villains are those that were featured in his ‘cosmic’ era(from about the FF mid-40s up)—either villains thatwere created then, or older villains that Kirby returnedand revamped.

Doom is the greatest example, of course, of an olderbecoming ‘upgraded’. But as the ‘cosmic age’ dawned,others, like the Frightful Four, were right there too.Suddenly, after Galactus, the Surfer, the Wanderer, Klawand the Panther had all been introduced, and when

If What?

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OBy Their Enemies Shall Ye Know Themby Shane Foley

Isn’t it sometimes hard to believe that people can be so passionate about the same subject, yet have such diametricallyopposite views on that same material? Such was obvious as I read Mark Alexander’s “Lee and Kirby: The Wonder Years”in TJKC #58. I think I disagreed with his views almost as often as I agreed with them; entertaining and perplexing at thesame time. One statement of his in particular immediately got my little brain ticking over. Hence, these fannish ramblings, which I’ve entitled:

(below) It’s tough to feara man in a skirt, buteasier than a guy in atoga. Good job, Jack!

ontinuing our look at key moments in Jack’s lifeand career from TJKC #59 (which covered Marvelin the 1960s) and #62 (which covered 1970-1975),

we present this timeline of key moments that affectedKirby’s tenure after he left DC Comics in 1975. Ofinvaluable help were Richard Kolkman (who sent me anextensive list to begin work from), Eric Nolen-Weathington,Ray Wyman, Tom Kraft, Glen Gold, and Rand Hoppe,as well as Mark Evanier’s book KIRBY: King of Comicsand Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.

This isn’t a complete list of every important date inKirby’s later career history, but should hit most of themain ones. Please send us additions and corrections.Next issue, I’ll work on pivotal moments in Jack’s 1940s-1950s career with Joe Simon.

My rule of thumb: Cover dates weregenerally two-three months later than thedate the book appeared on the stands, andsix months ahead of when Kirby was work-ing on the stories, so I’ve assembled thetimeline according to those adjusted dates—not the cover dates—to set it as close as possible to real-time.

Early 1970s• May 30, 1972: Kirby signs an agreement withMarvel, effectively relinquishing any claim hemight have to the copyright on CaptainAmerica. This document is used against JoeSimon’s efforts to secure the copyright onCaptain America Comics #1-10.

• Late 1972: Rocket’s Blast Comic Collector #94features an erroneous newsflash titled “KirbyLeaves DC,” which speculates what mighthappen if Kirby returned to Marvel. The article

creates quite a stir in fandom.

• Summer 1974: Neal Kirbyasks Roy Thomas to meet theKirbys for coffee at the SanDiego Comic-Con, to deter-mine Marvel’s possible inter-est in having Jack return. Roytells Jack he and Stan wouldbe glad to have him back.

1975• Early 1975: It is presumedthat Kirby talks with Stan Leeregarding the possibility ofKirby returning to Marvel.

• February 20: Longtime Marvelletterer Arthur “Artie” Simekdies.

• March 18: Kirby visits theMarvel offices for the firsttime since his departure in1970. The visit takes place onthe Monday before the 1975

• Mighty Marvel Con (March 22–24). Marie Severin spotsKirby going into Stan’s office, and yells down the Marvelhalls, “Kirby’s back!”

• March 24: Kirby signs a three-year contract with Marvel(valid through April 30, 1978), and appears at the MightyMarvel Con held at the Hotel Commodore in New York City.Kirby stuns MMC attendees with the announcement of hisreturn, and in regards to what he will be doing for Marvel,Kirby says, “It’ll electrocute you in the mind!”

• May: Barry Alfonso’s fanzine Mysticogryfil #2 features aninterview with Kirby.

• May 25: Wings’ album Venus and Mars featuring the song“Magneto and Titanium Man,” is released (the cover of the45 rpm single is shown above, which featured repurposednon-Kirby art from Marvel).

• June 2: Menomonee Falls Gazette V4, #181 features aninterview with Kirby.

• July: Mediascene #15 features a preview article entitled“The King Returns.”

• August (October cover date): The Marvel Comics Bullpenpage announces, “The King is Back! ’Nuff said!” and listshis future projects as 2001, Captain America, and a giantSilver Surfer book.

• September (November cover date): New Kirby covers hit thestands: Fantastic Four #164, Invaders #3, Iron Man #80,Ka-Zar #12, Marvel Premiere #26 (featuring Hercules),Marvel Super-Heroes #54 (featuring Hulk), Marvel Two-in-One #12 (guest-starring Iron Man), and Thor #241.

• September: Captain America #192 features a next issuepromo with art by Kirby and Frank Giacoia (next page, top).

• September: FOOM #11 features a preview of 2001: ASpace Odyssey, cover art for Captain America #193 and#194, and “Kirby Speaks,” an interview with Kirby.

• September: Kirby ignores editorial pleas to integrate therest of the Marvel Universe into his Captain America series.

• November (January 1976 cover date): Captain America#193 is published, beginning the “Madbomb” storyline,which is timed to end on America’s bicentennial.

Retrospective

C

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by John Morrow, with Richard Kolkman and friends

Key Late Career Moments

...beinggreen!

It’s noteasy...

An ongoing analysis of Kirby’s visual shorthand, and how he inadvertently used it to develop his characters,

by Sean Kleefeld

IncidentalIconography

ne of the many reasons why Jack’s run on the Fantastic Four isconsidered by some to be his best work, is the ongoinginventiveness he put on display every month for nearly a

decade. New characters and ideas were thrown out on a regularbasis and,considering howmuch was put intoeach issue, it’s awonder Jack was ableto keep track of anyof it! It’s in that lightthat I want to bringup Triton of theInhumans.

Triton was, fromthe start, somethingof an outcast of thegroup, needing hisbody to be almostconstantly submersedin water in order to

survive. As he was also able to breathe underwater, he was oftenused as a scout, using local waterways to access areas others couldnot. So he was frequently at a physical distance from the rest of theInhuman Royal Family—almost as much as Crystal was. Thisseparation seems to have spurred an interesting series of designchanges by Jack that he didn’t apply to the other Inhumans.

Interestingly, Jackdevised a solution toTriton’s hydrationproblem before thecharacter even debuted!When readers first seeTriton in Fantastic Four#45 (top), he is shroudedin what looks like a largecloak. We do see a glimpseof his scaley arm, though,so I think it’s clear thatJack did not design thisoutfit without knowingwhat the character lookedlike underneath. In a fightin the very next issue, infact, Triton’s “sealedmoisture bag” gets tornup, revealing him to be amerman of sorts as he

dives intothe harbor.

Oncethe Seekercaptureshim, we’reable to seesome moredetails,notably hisseaweed-likeeyebrowsand fins onhis arms.(Althoughthe cover ofthe issuedoes some-what spoilthe surpriseof hisappearance.)The follow-ing issueprovides aneven closerlook on theopeningsplash wherewe see his webbed fingers. This seems to be the design Jack intendedfrom the outset, despite not providing a clear image of it until FF #47.

When we see Triton again in FF #54 (left), Maximus has createda circulation system to provide water to Triton’s body without thecumbersome moisture bag. The system consists of cuffs on Triton’sankles and wrists with a hose system running up his arms andshoulders. Strangely, there’s no comparable hose running down hislegs, nor is his new belt, which looks to be a small water pump,connected to anything.

But more tellingly, as far as Jack’s design sensibility goes, Tritonseems to have lost his dorsal and arm fins. Further, his webbed feetare now drawn as scale-covered boots, complete with a distinct heeland sole. This is a Triton now more streamlined for a superherostory, one that does not have to be encumbered with awkwardrunning poses or potentially tricky perspective down his back. Idoubt Jack had those specific issues in mind when he was drawingthose pages, but I think it falls more naturally within his oeuvrewhen those concerns don’t need to be brought up. As I repeatedlytry to point out in this column, Jack’s sense of iconography in his

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he (almost) complete list of Jack Kirby’s published collage art inTJKC #59 is of great help when exploring his innovative cut-and-paste visions (only the cover of Fantastic Four #33—vs. Sub-

Mariner—was overlooked). Which prompts the question: is there onemore undocumented Kirby collage lurking in the Marvel universe?

Take a careful look at Fantastic Four #110; is that an unused Kirbycollage on the (un-numbered) page four? It’s known that a pile of“orphan” pages of unused art by Marvel artists was kept in the produc-tion department of the “House of Ideas.” It’s possible an unused Kirbycollage page intended for Fantastic Four #76 sneaked its way into thispost-Kirby FF comic book. (Note: the FF #110 collage page could alsohave been intended for FF #75, page 12.) While the Fourth World waspowering up and lifting off at National (DC), perhaps the half-story(intended for FF #102) remaindered for FF #108 wasn’t the final originalKirby art to be published in Fantastic Four’s first era.

Whocreated thecollage in FF#110 [shownat left] ? StanLee? JohnRomita? JohnVerpoorten?Joe Sinnott is on record as disliking the collage pages, andJohn Buscema (to my knowledge) never created a collagepage for comics. So it is likely FF #110 features an unusedKirby collage. It even looks like Kirby’s style of collage art.The large, symbolic (carbon molecule) structures and rockyplanetoid surfaces match the art in FF #76. When Reed (andhis dialogue) are replaced with the Silver Surfer’s dialoguefrom FF #76 [page 6, shown on next page] and a tiny (specula-tive) Kirby Surfer figure is photoshopped in, an interestingpage appears [as shown in the large graphic on next page].

Visually, a tiny Surfer in a limitless space (collage) pageportrays freedom. That would have worked better than theclaustrophobic, cluttered page that was published in FF#76. This was at a point where Kirby was discontented atMarvel and was losing control of his creation—the SilverSurfer. Suppose Stan Lee disliked the portrayal of a smallSurfer on the intended collage page in FF #76—especiallysince the heralded roll-out was underway for Silver Surfer #1(Aug. 1968). Maybe Stan asked for a re-draw of page six—requesting a large Surfer. Compare the full-page figure ofthe awkward, akimbo Silver Surfer in FF #76 (right) to theelegant portrait of the Surfer in FF #72 (page 6, above). It’s“goofy” (FF #76) vs. “graceful” (FF #72). The clumsy andclaustrophobic Surfer as published in FF #76 is practicallysaying, “I’m here—but I’m not graceful.” Here, Kirby is defi-nitely filling the page with Surfer (and space clutter) fromcorner to corner! The Surfer’s pose recalls “Silver Burper”from Not Brand Echh.

Kirby’s anger was growing, resulting in disinterestedKirby—and disinterested Kirby always shows. Fantastic Four#76 falls squarely in the four-issue “Microverse” story arcthat was incisively detailed by Glen Gold in TJKC #61(“Where Kirby Stopped”). If it is an unused Kirby art pagein FF #110—was Jack paid for it? And finally; it’s odd thatno readers’ letters about FF #110 were ever printed on the

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Cut ’n’ Paste

T

FF #110: The Lost Collage

(next page, top right)Kirby’s depiction of theMicroverse is a deadringer for the collage inFF #110 (below).

by Richard Kolkman

Victory OrbitJack Kirby may have been the most conceptual of comic

artists—his system of squiggling, krackling texture and tan-gles of monolithic tech being a kind of hieroglyphic of theepic struggle to exist, no matter what surface or characterthey took shape as. And Joe Casey may be comics’ mostvisual writer—his radical rephrasings and visionary ideasbeing like the coordinates of worlds that spring full-blowninto your imagination like gods being summoned or Matrixesfalling away.

It’s a fine event horizon to meet at, and Kirby and Caseyhave come close many times, most famously in the cosmicgospel of Gødland, the co-creation of Casey and artist TomScioli, in which both Kirby’s dynamic way of seeing and hismonumental method of looking at the world (and what’sbeyond it) were taken forward by two creators continuing thetranscendent journey Kirby projected himself on.

More recently Casey has been rewriting the fundamentalformula and revisiting the genetic code of several of the storytelling forms most basic to modern comics—from themacrocosm of The Bounce’s multiple realities to the vividlyfelt close focus of SEX’s dystopian soap-opera of fallen for-mer superheroes (each book a fitting successor to the wayWatchmen messed with the conventions of the form whilefinding new stories to tell), and the visceral, mythic para-bles of power, citizenship and our place in the world (and,again, beyond it) in the trilogy of series that make up

Catalyst Comix.Casey’s first-

ever direct collision with aKirby creation is happeningthis year, as the hyper-imaginative CaptainVictory falls into hishands. Part of theKirbyverse propertiescurrently docked atDynamiteEntertainment, thisadventure of a galac-tic police force willenlist an honor roleof some of comics’most individualis-tic voices to tellit—including theendlessly versa-tile pop-historystyle-channelerJim Rugg, neo-underground

martial-art maestro Ulises

Farinas,auteur scribble-saboteur ConnorWillumsen, fantasy-vérité genius Farel Dalrymple, sketch-and-burn visionary Jim Mahfood, and art-grindhouse sensationNathan Fox, as well as the surreal prophet Michel Fiffe(whose biologic tech does for the organic what Kirby did forthe hard-edged), and the pulp superstar of indie sci-fi andaction, Benjamin Marra.

The series should hit around the time you’re reading this(July 2014), and while the new book’s universe was stillbeing built at the time we went to press, even with no art yet materialized we thought Casey, Marra and Fiffe couldpaint a mental picture that will have you warp-driving to thecomic shop. THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR spoke with themby e-mail from March 11-13, 2014.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: It may be easier to be“Kirbyesque” when you’re working on series Kirby himselfdidn’t do—a book like Gødland extends him whereas pickingup where he left off on one of his own books could repeathim. Is it a matter of instead tapping the same things he was(certain speculative physics and primal sagas) and carryingthose forward in different directions?

Know of some Kirby-inspired workthat should be covered here? Send to:

Adam McGovernPO Box 257

Mt. Tabor, NJ 07878As A Genre

Adam McGovern

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(right) Benjamin Marra’smonumental offering to theNew Gods in this theoreti-cal cover image.

(below) Fiffe’s design iskilling it in this MODOKsketch.

(next page, top) A bit ofJack’s own 1980s CaptainVictory magic.

(next page, bottom)Second-generationKirbytech and female furyfrom Fiffe’s self-publishedphenomenon Copra.

A regular feature examining Kirby-inspired work, by Adam McGovern

wenty years ago, when the first issues of the Kirby Collector came out, John Morrow printed all the obscure Kirby hecould find, and asked if anyone could tell him what it was and where it came from. In issue #3, he printed somegreat images that turned out to be part of the Marvelmania Portfolio, which was printed up when Kirby left Marvel

in 1970. (This is not to be confused with the Gods Portfolio, which will figure in with this story soon enough.) I hadnever seen these amazing images before, and I was hooked—it was my first glimpse of undiscovered Kirby hiding more

or less in plain sight, meaning itwas Out There somewhere, justnot in the comic books I’d read asa kid.

The Marvelmania Portfolioconsisted of a handful of unpub-lished pencil Thor and FF pages,some of them part of the rejectedThermal Man storyline—you’veseen these around, if you payobsessive enough attention—uninked, showing the WarriorsThree in Manhattan (see nextpage). But there were also someother startlingly handsome splashpages: For instance, one of Odin,another of Loki and the NornQueen. These weren’t rejected byMarvel, it turns out. In 1968, Roztold Jack to never give Marvelanother Silver Surfer. Then shestarted pulling pages out of hisfinished books and saying “Theseare too good for Marvel. Kirby,draw something else.” So some of the Marvelmania images werethose he’d withheld from publica-tion.

Now, about that GodsPortfolio. If you’ve seen it, it’s fourAsgardian warriors, redesigned byKirby in 1966 or so to have all thecolors and costuming of FourthWorld characters. The portfoliocover was the inked version of apencil piece found in theMarvelmania Portfolio. It’s in original art dealer Albert Moy’sgallery. It’s an unpublished Thorpage from the storyline whereThor is learning Galactus’ origin.

I’ve been researching Kirby’s1968-69 work at Marvel recently.My articles in the Kirby Collectorhave focused on the weirdness ofFF #74-77 and Thor #158-169, twostorylines that seem to have hadmore stops and starts and detoursthan Beijing traffic. I think Jackturned in stuff that Stan turneddown, Jack learned about theSurfer being co-opted, he tried togive Galactus an origin, Stan shut

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The Lone SurvivorUnearthed

by Glen Gold

(below) Glen Gold’sstunning acquisition;the last remainingKirby Galactus pencilsplash.

T

KIRBY COLLECTOR #63MARVEL UNIVERSE! Featuring MARK ALEXANDER’s pivotalLee/Kirby essay “A Universe A’Borning,” MARK EVANIER inter-views ROY THOMAS, STAN GOLDBERG and JOE SINNOTT, alook at key late-1970s, ’80s, and ’90s events in Kirby’s life andcareer, STAN LEE script pages, unseen Kirby pencils and unusedart from THOR, NICK FURY AGENT OF SHIELD, and FANTAS-TIC FOUR, and more!

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