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ISSUE #68, SUMMER 2016

COPYRIGHTS: A.I.M., Adventures Into Weird Worlds, Balder, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Black Widow, Blue Diamond, Bucky,Captain America, Captain Mar-Vell, Devil Dinosaur, Dr. Doom, Enchantress, Eternals, Executioner, Fantastic Four, Hawkeye,Herbie, Human Torch, Ikaris, Inhumans, Jimmy Woo, Karkas, Karnilla, Loki, Love Romances, Machine Man, Makarri, Marvel Girl,Maximus, Moon Boy, Moon Girl, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Little, My Own Romance, Nick Fury, Odin, Recorder, Reject, Rick Jones, Sgt. Fury,Sif, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Teen-Age Romance, Ten-For, The Changeling, Thena, Thing, Thor, Warriors Three,Wizard, X-Men, Zuras TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Bekka, Ben Boxer, Big Barda, Black Racer, Brooklyn, Count Dragorin,Dan Turpin, Darkseid, Demon, Desaad, Dr. Bedlam, Dr. Canus, Esak, Fastbak, Flippa Dippa, Forever People, Glorious Godfrey,Granny Goodness, Highfather, Himon, Hunger Dogs, Jimmy Olsen, Kalibak, Kamandi, Lightray, Losers, Mantis, Mark Moonrider,Metron, Mister Miracle, Newsboy Legion, On The Road To Armagetto, Orion, Shilo Norman, Slig, Sonny Sumo, Superman, TedBrown, Toxl TM & © DC Comics • Captain Victory, Egghead, Klavus, The Ship, The Visitor On Highway Six TM & © Jack KirbyEstate • Futuremen, Harry The Head, Hidden Harry, Turbo Teen TM & © Ruby-Spears Productions • Fighting American TM & ©Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estates • Destroyer Duck TM & © Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby Estate • Avenger, Justice Inc. TM &© Street & Smith or successor in interest • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TM & © Mirage Studios • Iron God, Uncle Sam TM &© the respective owner

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The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 23, No. 68, Summer 2016. Publishedmore or less quarterly by and © TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. JohnMorrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $14 postpaid US ($18elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $45 Economy US, $58Expedited US, $67 International. Editorial package © TwoMorrowsPublishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. All characters are trade-marks of their respective companies. All artwork is © Jack KirbyEstate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respec-tive authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912

Contents

1

Imagine Jack Kirby decided to draw a sketchbook, filled with more than 125 single-page illustrations of all hiskey characters. Now imagine his family letting you borrow it,

to scan for posterity. They were either crazy or far too trusting, but we’re grateful they did!

KEY CHARACTERS!OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2(the five keys to Kirby’s character)

KEY 1: PATRIOTIC . . . . . . .4

INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6(Jack’s Hour 25 interview)

KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24(Norris Burroughs on Sgt. Fury #13)

KEY 2: DEDICATED . . . . .28

SCENERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30(seven panels of incidental brilliance)

KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .34(Stan Lee was dedicated too)

EMOTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36(Jack’s romance work, hiding inplain sight)

GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39(images of Jack’s character traits)

JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .45(visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org)

KEY 3: OBSERVANT . . . . .46

INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . .48(what’s behind the Panther’smask?)

MYTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50(the perfection of Thena)

WORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56(decoding the road to Armagetto)

KEY 4: INNOVATIVE . . . . .62

?! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64(what if JHS@M&WtNGi2tMU?)

TECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70(Jack Kirby: writing “Machine”)

KEY 5: INSPIRATIONAL . .74

KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . .76(Adam McGovern explores MoonGirl and Devil Dinosaur)

JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80(Mark Evanier moderates the 2015WonderCon Tribute Panel, withNeal Adams, Darwyn Cooke, LenWein, Crystal Skillman, Fred VanLente, and Paul Levine)

COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .92(cause you can never get too muchHidden Harry)

PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94(about that Spidey figure from FF Annual #3...)

Cover inks & color: PAUL CHADWICK

C o l l e c t o r

2016 EISNER AWARDS NOMINEE: BEST COMICS-RELATED PERIODICAL

(Below) A late 1930spolitical cartoon by Jack.

(next page, top left)Fighting American, fromJack’s sketchbook.

(next page, far right and bottom) Jack Kirbyduring basic training atCamp Stewart, Georgiaand a clipping from thecamp newspaper, datedOctober 9, 1943. From Jean Depelley, courtesy ofNeal Kirby)

4

PATRI

He presented his readers with his take on a military-industrial complex gone awry in A.I.M., andsecret government conspiracies with Hydra. But hemostly stayed away from politics in his comics, savefor an occasional dalliance—such as the fightbetween pacifist son and hawkish father in “The GloryBoat” in New Gods #6 in the 1970s. That’s as close toa comment on the Vietnam War as he ever made incomics.

(He did indirectly serve his country with the Lordof Light presentation artwork, which was used withouthis knowledge by the CIA, as a cover-story to rescuehostages from Iran in the 1970s, as depicted in theAcademy Award-winning film Argo.)

At his core, Kirby was a believer in justice andfundamental fairness, who stood up for what he feltwas right. Faced with needing to support his familyand a business deal he thought was unfair, he foughteditor Jack Schiff over Sky Masters, even though itcost him work at DC Comics for a decade. In the1980s, when Marvel Comics withheld original art toget him to sign over rights to his work, he again foughtagainst an onerous situation, until it was resolved in amanner in which he could hold his head high. Duringthat dispute, he volunteered his services to help SteveGerber in his own battle against the company overownership of Howard The Duck. The result was thewaterfowl patriot Destroyer Duck, a series that helpedGerber financially, so he could eventually reach hisown settlement with Marvel.

That fighting spirit lives on through his family, andtheir recent dispute over copyrights on the Marvel

characters. Taking the battle all theway to the steps of the SupremeCourt, the Kirbys held out against thecorporate might of Disney/Marvel.Now, Jack’s finally receiving propercredit in comics and film—a patrioticlegacy that Jack and Roz would’vebeen proud of.

Key 1:very comics creator has one key character thatthey will forever be associated with. For Jack, thathas to be Captain America.Cap wasn’t the first patriotic hero in comics (the

Shield claims that designation), but he was definitelythe best, and most long-lasting—and is undoubtedly areflection of his co-creator. Kirby lived the AmericanDream, coming from humble beginnings, to becomethe preeminent figure in his chosen field. It wasn’t aneasy journey, but he stuck with it for the long haul.

Jack was born into an immigrant family, and grewup in early 1900s America, helping his folks work theirway up from poverty. Eschewing a traditional factory ornine-to-five job, he ventured out to earn a living usinghis artistic skills, determination, and hard work. Heenlisted in the Army, and served his country overseasduring World War II, nearly losing his feet to frostbite,and his life in battle.

Jack’s rendition of Captain America was much likethe man himself, with an earnest, unforced sense ofpatriotism. Kirby’s own WWII military service could wellhave jaded him, but instead it greatly shaped the restof his life, and comics became an outlet to vent thenever-ending rage that even combat couldn’t quell.

Kirby’s own fighting characters eventually camefull-circle, from Captain America’s WWII patriotism witha simple Nazi foe to destroy, to Izaya of the New Gods,who abandoned his warrior ways in an effort to promotepeace with his enemies. Along the way, Jack createdor worked on a small army of patriotic characters, allin some way a reflection of his own beliefs and real-life battles:

• Fighting American• Captain Victory• Pvt. Strong• Sgt. Fury• Captain Glory

• OMAC• The Losers• Boy Commandos

E

Jack Kirby was

PATRI

OTIC

5

OTIC

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI: Our guest tonight is some-one whose work I’ve been reading since I could read…

LARRY DiTILLIO: Since you were a toddler, which is afrightening concept.

STRACZYNSKI: It was like two weeks ago… I looked atthe pictures before I could see the words, understandthe words, and I began to get the stories behind thewords, and that’s Jack Kirby. One of the foremost creators and writers and artists in comic book history,quite frankly, who’s given us such wonderful books asFantastic Four, Thor, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Sgt. Fury,Captain America, Challengers of the Unknown, the listgoes on forever. New Gods. And he’s with us tonight andthis is a true pleasure for us to have you here, Mr. Kirby.

KIRBY: It’s a pleasure for me to be here and certainly,

you fellows seem to feel thesame way toward the medium that I do, so I expect it todevelop into a kind of kinship that I really enjoy.

STRACZYNSKI:We’re looking forward to it. And, letme just start off going into your background a little bitwith you. You came out of the Lower East Side originally,is that correct? New York?

KIRBY: Yes, I did. New York’s Lower East Side. I was bornon Essex Street and my family moved to 131 SuffolkStreet, which wasn’t a big move in those days and wasstill the Lower East Side. I grew up there, I grew up onSuffolk Street. I went to PS 20 which was one of theschools there. But the only thing that bothered me as Igrew up is, I found out I didn’t like the East Side! So, Ibegan to take long walks. I found 42nd Street. I found

44th Street, and I went further uptown and Imet the people who turned out the newspapers.I met one reporter who had upended a tele-phone book, and was shooting golf ballsthrough the book, and I suddenly decided,well, that’s a job for me.

STRACZYNSKI: [laughs] Now you say that youwanted to get out of there, but certainly in alot of your books that came later on, the“Newsboy Legion” and Boy Commandos, youused those kinds of characters, rough streetkind of characters, a lot, as kids.

KIRBY:Well, you’re bound to, because I imaginethey become part of what you know, what yougrow up with, what life hands to you, and youreact that way. And I’m glad, in a way, becauselater in life I had to use that as kind of an atti-tude in ways that probably saved my life.

STRACZYNSKI: How much of Suffolk is inYancy Street?

KIRBY: Oh, all of it is there. But so is the story.I come from a storytelling family. All of theimmigrants on the Lower East Side were story-tellers. My family happened to be Austrianimmigrants and they told their share of stories.I think the young people were closer to theirparents, anyway, at that time, and they absorbedall of this. They absorbed the storytelling.Many of them used it to build a professionallife. I don’t mean as writers, exactly. But let’sface it, any businessman has to tell a goodstory in order to sell his merchandise. And so Ithink that kind of thing is helpful.

STRACZYNSKI:Was it a rough neighborhood?

KIRBY It was a rough neighborhood, and thepractice would be that, you would stand out in

Hour 25 Interview

6

Innerview

Jack Kirby interviewed by J. Michael Straczynski and Larry DiTillio on the April 13, 1990 episodeof Mike Hodel’s Hour 25 radio show. Transcribed by Rand Hoppe. You can hear the audio of thisinterview at: http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/effect/2012/06/27/19900413-interview/

(below) The NewsboyLegion (minus FlippaDippa), from Jack’ssketchbook.

(next page) Kirby hadan uncanny ability tocapture accurate like-nesses, even in hisiconic cartoony style.Shown here is actorJimmy Finlayson, whoJack based the char-acter Felix MacFinneyon, from these pencilsfor Jimmy Olsen #144,page 15. (We’re notsure who “Ginny” wasbased on, but we’resmitten with her!)

Sgt. Fury #13 Ultimate Kineticsaptain America was created at a time whenJack Kirby, along with a substantial segmentof this country’s citizens, realized that the

evils of Nazism had to be dealt with and coun-tered by the forces of democracy. When hereturned to the US in 1945 after having served

his country in France under the command of George Patton, Kirbyhad seen firsthand just what it took to defeat the evils that Hitler hadwrought. Decades later, in 1963 working with Stan Lee at Timely/Marvel again, Kirby created Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, ateam of soldiers that must have brought him back psychologicallyand emotionally to his days in the service. In the 13th issue, Kirbyfeatured his super-soldier Captain America in a story that for me represents the epitome of tour de force dynamic storytelling. It is alsoa very compelling story. Now, some people have said that Sgt. Furywas Burt Lancaster and some have said that he was Ralph Meeker,but we can be certain that he was Jack Kirby, or at least representedKirby as he idealized himself. The cigar of course is a dead giveaway.So we can essentially think of this story being about Kirby as a soldierin 1940s Nazi-occupied France meeting his creation Captain America,and fighting side-by-side with him.

Kirby pours all of his energy into this tale. Not only are his figuresexploding with kinetic energy, they are placed for the most part incomplex compositions of deep space perspective. In nearly every panelthere are multiple planes, consisting of background, mid-ground andforeground, and Kirby uses elements throughout the space in support of his figures to make them come alive.

Deep space perspective is a subject that artistBurne Hogarth has discussed in his Dynamic Anatomyand Dynamic Figure Drawing volumes. Kirby hadinternalized and utilized these same concepts in hiswork decades ago. Ideally, the figure should bedesigned as a three-dimensional shape/mass movingin the confines of panel space, which must bearranged convincingly in order to be believable.

Hogarth states that the position of the torso is ofprimary importance in the dynamism of the figure inspace. The torso is composed of the rib barrel and thepelvis, and these can move in contrapuntal directionsin relation to each other. The upper and lower por-tions of the torso, moving in opposition, can createmore dynamism in the figure. Also, wherever thereare joints in the body, there is an opportunity to depictmore contrapuntal movement. The pivot points ofthe shoulder and elbow, for instance, can create ellip-tical arcs of motion that increase dynamism.

Kirby, even more than Hogarth, was a master ofthis, particularly when he would also utilize a countermovement of the head. Look at this picture of CaptainAmerica on the cover of Sgt. Fury #13. Notice how theleft side of his rib barrel is twisted forward and to the

24

An ongoing examination of Kirby’s art and compositional skills

C

As the expression goes, Jack worked like a dog.He couldn’t stop creating new characters, even duringtimes of disillusionment at whatever company wasemploying him. Even in his sixties, when other menwere getting a gold watch and a pension check, Jackwas cranking out dozens of new concepts a week foranimation studios—in many ways, a most fitting endto such a creative career.

(right) Panel fromKamandi #1 (1972): Dr.Canus ended up beingKamandi’s second-bestfriend, after Ben Boxer,who some think was based on Jack’s own big brother Dave. It’sinteresting that Jacknamed the characterBen “Boxer,” since Dr.Canus is obviously of theBoxer breed of dog—sort of like the theorythat Jack added theStone Men of Saturn(basically Tiki statuescome to life) to Thor’sdebut in Journey IntoMystery #83, becausehe had read the bookKon Tiki by Norwegianadventurer ThorHeyerdahl.

(bottom) Kirby spent histwilight years working inthe field of animation—the perfect outlet for his fertile imagination.Shown at right is Jack’s concept sheet used forbackground charactersin the October 22, 1983episode of the animatedMr. T series.© Ruby-Spears Productions.

28

he dedication Kirby putinto his work is easilyspotted by perusing his

prolific output. No other artistin the history of comics comesclose to him in quantity orquality—just browse throughthe Jack Kirby Checklist. Afterpublishing this magazine for22 years and 68 issues (plusbooks, collections, let aloneother publishers’ Kirby projects), we still haven’t runout of interviews with him,and previously unseen Kirby art keeps turning up allthe time.

But he was also a dedicated Family Man, intenton providing for his wife, children, and grandkids. JackKirby was driven (and no we don’t just mean how wifeRoz had to tote him around everywhere, because he’dget too distracted by his imagination to drive a carsafely). To call him a hard worker is putting it mildly.His work ethic was unrivaled.An inveterate nightowl, he’dstay up till the wee hoursdrawing page after page, sleeptill noon, be there when thekids got home from school(and to spend time with thenever-ending stream of fanswho’d stop by), then be backat the drawing board after dinner, doing it all over again,seven days a week.

TKey 2:

DEDICATDEDICATJack Kirby was

his little piece of Kirby appreciation was inspired byone panel in particular in one of Jack Kirby’s leastrespected Fantastic Four issues. Every time I see it I

am in awe of the man who, even when coasting along

and not feeling particularly inspired, could not help butthrow in artistic wonders. A man who couldn’t help butdraw evocative elements into ordinary scenes to inspirea feeling of awe and wonder.

As I thought about this little panel Ithought of six other panels that have inspiredsimilar feelings of wonderment. Not just feel-ings of “Gosh! This guy’s good!” but feelingsof “Why on earth did he bother?” I could havecalled this piece “Unnecessary Brilliance”—because most of what I’ll describe could beleft out of the story and it wouldn’t matter.But then, this sort of brilliance in the inciden-tals of stories is yet another element of whatmade Kirby the standout giant he is. So in thatsense, what I’m describing is not ‘unnecessary,’but they are certainly in the ‘Incidentals’ ofthe drawing. And I don’t know why theseseven panels in particular leap out at me inthis particular way more than most others.But leap out they do.

I think a similar type of wonderment wasdescribed in TJKC #36 (2002) on page 57,where the writer calls our attention toMorduck’s houseplant in Thor #118. Kirby didnot have to include that plant. The storywould not have suffered a whit if he drew ageranium! And a geranium (or some such) isabout what 99% of the most brilliant artistson Earth would have drawn—and who couldblame them? But (usually) not Kirby.

Here are my seven examples. That theyare all from ’60s Marvel books is perhapsbecause the ’60s were the time when Kirbycombined his new approach, which floweredin the ’70s, with his equally powerful yet sodifferent ’50s work. Perhaps. I don’t reallyknow. With my first inspiration left for last,here they are:

THOR #141, ”TALES OF ASGARD,”PAGE 1 (left)

Counting the idol, there are 19 figures onthis page. 19! It would have worked very wellwith only 10! There’s a lot of backgrounddetail too. This panel delightfully surprisesme every time I see it. (We note that this pagewas inked by Vince Colletta, so the questioncould be asked: “Did Kirby actually draw morethan 19 figures?” But surely not! This is greatinking by VC!)

30

T

Scenery Seven Panels ofIncidental Brilliance

by Shane Foley

T

TALKING TOSTAN

Unlike my co-contributorto this journal, Mark Evanier, I

never met Jack Kirby. However Ionce had the opportunity to inter-

view his long-term collaborator and‘frenemy’ Stan Lee (at the time of the

UK release of Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie), and it was soon clear to me that

Lee was both tired and (though thoroughly pro-fessional) somewhat on autopilot in terms of his

responses. In any case, I was far more interested inthe Marvel writer/editor supremo’s pre-super-hero

work (he had discussed Daredevil and Co. a milliontimes in exhaustive detail), and decided to ask him about

the things I really wanted to know about—I already hadenough about the Spider-Man-related things required for theinterview, in any case. Jack Kirby was always on the agenda, of course, but I began

by asking Lee why he still put himself through such punishingschedules (when with the money he was making from theMarvel films he could be sitting on a Californian veranda sip-ping a martini); I asked about his English wife; about nearlyworking with French director Alain Resnais (a comics fan),and several things that he had not been asked before. Leenotably perked up, and I began to get some really fresh andinteresting responses. These included a lengthy discussion ofthe credit wars between himself, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko(half of which I knew I could never put into print!), but I canreport one thing he mentioned concerning his and Kirby’svery different personalities: “Whenever Jack and I would dosome event in public together,” he told me, “a radio interview,for instance, he was always more direct and less diplomaticthan me. I always felt the need to be the friendly public faceof Marvel. I remember one example of his uncompromisingnature—something he once said in an interview we were

doing. When our rivalsat DC Comics werementioned, Jack said,with a hot emphasis,leaning forward: ‘We’rereally going to stick itto those guys!’ I latersaid to him that wastoo aggressive a state-ment—we were rivalswith DC, certainly, but Itried to keep the rivalrylight; and any insults Iused, I tried to makehumorous. That was

my feeling—make the rivalry with thecompetition at least diplomatic. Butthat simply was not in Jack’s nature.And then, ironically he was lured backto DC by Carmine Infantino—the company he had attackedso rigorously.”

I drew something of a blank when I asked Lee about anothercomics subject that most interested me personally: Lee’s Trojanoutput for such legendary Atlas horror comics as Adventuresinto Terror, Menace, Astonishing and (before it became asuper-hero title) Journey into Mystery. Lee was notably lessvoluble on this subject that he had been on others.

THE HORROR, THE HORROR“Actually,” he said, “Publisher Martin Goodman and I didn’t

really do much in the horror comics line before the start ofthe monster books—and then we really hit paydirt with thesuper-hero titles.” What was I to say to this? Lee was obvious-ly being as truthful as one could wish—was this an exampleof memory changing the facts to more suitable proportions? Icertainly wasn’t going to argue with Lee (particularly as wewere getting on so well) and remind him that Atlas had pro-duced more horror comics than any of its rivals (even themarket leaders, the much-acclaimed EC line), and that (alongwith such professionals as Hank Chapman) he had written thecomics equivalent of War and Peace in terms of sheer wordcount. He did, however, admit to me something which I alsoheard from the lips of SF writer Harry Harrison when tellingme about his days at EC (when he was the less talented halfof the Wally Wood/Harry Harrison art duo): he didn’t admit atparties that he wrote for the comics in the days when anti-comics hysteria was at its height—better to admit to being acriminal or terrorist than being one of those creatures whowere corrupting the youth of America (and, at one remove,the youth of Britain—such as this writer, via the sporadicallyavailable material we eagerly consumed in the UK).

PRE-MONSTER DAYSIronically, while Lee is certainly the most influential editor

in comics (closely followed by Julius Schwartz and his workon DC super-heroes and such SF classics as Mystery inSpace and Strange Adventures), I got the impression fromtalking to Lee that he was most proud of his writing skills—and it’s certainly true that they were fully exploited in hisAtlas horror comics days. Admittedly, he never matched theEC team of Feldstein and Gaines in terms of invention andelegance, and many of his scripts were banal and clichéd. But(at his best) he created—along with the matchless team ofartists available to him at Atlas—some of the liveliest andmost gruesomely entertaining comics of the 1950s before thecensorship axe decimated the industry. And my failedattempts to discuss with him the books he worked on backthen were frustrating, particularly as he would swerve ontothe post-Code monster books with Kirby and Ditko, as if theywere far more interesting than the horror titles (despite thepresence of the inestimable Jack and Steve... they weren’t).Certainly, Lee had not the slightest memory of a particularbook that I invoked: Adventures into Weird Worlds #26. It was

34

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

Barry Forshaw

Barry Forshaw is theauthor of British GothicCinema and The RoughGuide to Crime Fiction(available fromAmazon) and the editorof Crime Time(www.crimetime.co.uk).He lives in London.

(below) Stan Lee hard at work in the 1950sTimely offices. LikeJack, he too was a prolific, dedicated worker, responsible foran entire line of comicseach month.

ike a lot of us, I grew up an avid reader of all thingsMarvel Comics—and especially all things JackKirby! After discovering Jack’s super-hero work, I

searched throughout New York City (where I grew up)for everything I could find. I searched out each issue ofThe Mighty Thor, The Fantastic Four, Captain America,

The Incredible Hulk, and everything else by Stan Lee andJack Kirby.

During my travels I found quite a few things that Ihad been previously unaware of. I discovered the pre-hero comics, with all of the incredibly creative monsterswith all those funny names: Fin Fang Foom, Goom,

Metallo, Blip, Gorgilla, Trull, Groot,Googam, and so many more. Thesecomics all had incredible artwork,bursting with Jack’s creative energy.

Shortly after discovering themonster comics, I found Jack’s west-erns. I never cared much for westernson television, but boy, did I loveJack’s western comics. The RawhideKid was a real gem. He was a goodguy being persecuted by just abouteveryone around him and he stillstood up to do the right thing—talkabout integrity. Then there was theTwo-Gun Kid. Jack’s revamp of thatcharacter completely revitalized theseries. It seemed that everythingJack touched was bursting with cre-ativity. So… after years of searchingfor everything Jack was involvedwith at Marvel, I was confident Ihad found it all—that I had seenjust about every comic Jack hadworked on during those years. But Iwas wrong.

It wasn’t until nearly 20 yearsafter my initial searching that I dis-covered Jack had also done a wholegenre of comics I knew nothingabout. These were his romancebooks. Now, I’m not talking aboutthe romance comics he created inthe late 1940s and early 1950s withJoe Simon; I’m talking about hisromance comics of the early 1960sthat were done at Marvel. Somehow,this entire body of work had slippedright by me—it was a whole genreof comics that Jack Kirby and StanLee had been creating at the sametime as their super-heroes!

I don’t know how I’d missedthese comics. During my childhoodI, along with my brother Howard,amassed a pretty good collection ofMarvel comics. Yet neither of ushad seen any of these romancebooks. How was this possible? Wehad gone to conventions… talked todealers… looked through hundreds,if not thousands of back issue boxesfor everything Kirby… and yet wehadn’t a clue that these even existed.

36

LJack Kirby’s Atlas/Marvel Romance work (1960-1963), by David Schwartz

Emotion Hiding In Plain Sight

OBSE

(below) Jack consultshis reference shelf in the1950s.

(right) Though wecould’ve used theWatcher, we felt theRecorder best symbol-ized Jack’s desire todocument what heobserved—in his ownunique way, of course.

Jack Kirby was

46

ack Kirby was a keen observer, perhaps to afault—he couldn’t safely drive a car, because hewas so easily distracted. But through all eras of his

life and career, he took in what was all around him.From mythology books and pulps, to TV and

movies, Kirby would soak it all in, and spit back outconcepts that may’ve had a genesis in something heheard, saw, or read, but would be wholly his own.

The dichotomy is that, Jack was not highly edu-cated, at least in terms of having a college degree. Butwhat he lacked in formal education, he more thanmade up on his own. He was a voracious reader, havingbeen influenced early-on by sci-fi pulps, as well as thepopular comic strip artists of his day like Hal Fosterand Alex Raymond (and he had a garage full of oldNational Geographic magazines he saved for reference).The hours he’d spent chained to his drawing boardafforded him time to become a deep thinker.

He was astutely aware of the times he lived in.His longtime partner Joe Simon taught Jack

to spot trends and exploit themcommercially, but once on hisown, Jack took it a step fur-ther in his work.

Key characters that would

J

Kirby’s World That’s ComingThe King talks in future tense—written and transcribed

by Jerry Boyd

[Some of the most astounding notions about the challengesmankind of the future will face in technology, lifestyle, spacetravel, and alien worlds are present in comics magazines.Inventions once used in ’30s comic strips featuring earlystarblazers Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon (and either mar-veled at or contemptuously dismissed) have become realityor adopted/researched by the nation’s space programs.Concepts explored by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Burroughs,Asimov, Bradbury, and more have found their way intoretooled tales by Thomas, Lee, Feldstein, Moore, Binder,and Kirby, to name a few.

Jack Kirby’s affinity for things pertaining to super-science could be put into a category all its own. And it has.In TJKC #15, a number of the King’s inventive oddities fromtimes and zones futuristic spilled out like so many gadgetsfrom Mr. Fantastic’s storage closet.

Naturally, Jack had opinions on how we’re going outinto the wild blue yonder and its dark, mysterious depthsand what type of mechanisms will aid us in the endeavor.

best convey thisaspect of Jackwould be the BlackPanther (showinghis awareness ofthe Civil Rightsmovement), Atlas(just when wethought he’dmined all themyths he could...),Big Barda (his firstFeminist), theForever People (hisreflection on theYouth Culture ofthe hippie generation)—and The Recorder from Thor,who symbolized Jack’s own thirst for exploration.

Key 3:

OBSE

..his Mask?

What’sBehind...

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

by Sean Kleefeld

IncidentalIconography

f you’ve read my columnbefore, you’ll know that Iusually take a look at how

Jack would modify characterdesigns on the fly, sometimeschanging them from panel topanel, creating what ultimatelybecome iconic visuals. If you’veread my column before, you’llalso likely be familiar with Jack’soriginal sketch of the BlackPanther: a watercolor design heentitled Coal Tiger. So whywould I spend time-travellingover well-trod ground?

Despite that originalsketch being relatively well-known (including having beenreprinted in this very magazine repeatedly, and again below), I don’tthink many people have really looked at it in comparison to Jack’sevolution of the design. I think people see it and think, “Wow, that’s…yellow!” without going much further. But we have some additional

steps to examine beforegetting to the Panther’s formaldebut in Fantastic Four #52.

We of course start withJack’s original watercolor—anon-atypical Kirby design,although he tended to avoidcapes as a general rule. If Jackhadn’t made the characterdark-skinned (which in 1966was virtually unique) the capeis probably the mostoutstanding design elementfrom Jack’s perspective. Take amoment, though, to picturethe costume without the color.The changes between thisdesign and the final Black

Panther costume are minimal—aside from the mask, the types ofchanges Jack might make absent-mindedly on any design from issueto issue. Really, besides the removal of the stylized “T” on the beltand the vertical stripes on the tunic, the only change to the costumeis in the coloring. Note that, although difficult to see in the finalpublished comics with color, the stripes on Panther’s gloves andboots remain in place.

Now, here’s someinteresting considerations. Wealso have a rejected cover for FF#52 featuring the Panther, nownamed as such, wearingbasically the Coal Tigercostume, minus the stripes plusa half-mask. Since the finalcover features a Panthercostume that completely coversthe character’s face, I think it’ssafe to presume that either StanLee or Martin Goodman made arequest to change to a full maskout of concerns of a potentialbacklash. Again, we’re talkingabout 1966 here, squarely duringthe Civil Rights movement—a

year after the assassination of Malcolm X and two years beforeMartin Luther King, Jr. A good many people were uncomfortablewith Black people getting increasingly equal rights, and those whosupported them sometimes found themselves facing arrest,imprisonment, or worse.

Here’s another consideration, though: Jack usually drew hiscovers last. It wasn’t part of the story he was telling, so he’d dashsomething off after he did the last page because a comic needed acover. Which means that we’ve got a 20-page story featuring the BlackPanther in a half-mask basically done before someone suggested thatmaybe showcasing a Black person on the cover was too risky. Thissuggests to me that it was Goodman’s concern. Wherever you fall onthe who-did-what debate between Lee and Kirby, Stan was certainlyaware of the story being told beforehand, and he would’ve hadample time to mention to Jack that showing a Black man on thecover might be risky if thatwas a concern of his.Goodman was less involvedin the day-to-day operationsand probably only noticedthe cover shortly before thebook was ready to go to press.

But changing thecostume for the coverproduces the additionalproblem of having to adjustthe interior art to match. Ifyou look at the story, you’llnotice that Panther’s mask—

I

48

ack Kirby’s Eternals series, created at Marvel in themid ’70s, is often seen as one of his lesser efforts, atleast in comparison with the multi-title Fourth

World epic so unfairly aborted at DC; it has even beenreferred to as a sort of “Fourth-World-lite,” a relativelyuninspired rehash of ideas which he had given a moreprofound treatment in that earlier set of books. My viewis that The Eternals occupies a unique position in theKirby canon, one at a level equal to that of the FourthWorld, with which it does have some interesting parallels,but to which it gives up nothing in terms of depth andresonance. This essay is an attempt to articulate why I

feel this way about the series, via an analysis of one ofits most fascinating and overlooked characters, Thena,particularly the three-issue story of which she is theprotagonist (Eternals #8, 9, and 10).

Thena is for me one of the most attractive andinteresting characters ever to appear in Marvel comics.Kirby was quite subtle in his portrayal of her, and sincehe is usually seen as anything but subtle, it is not toosurprising that, in my view, later Eternals writers didnot understand or simply didn’t notice what he wasdoing. In order to give some idea of what I believe Kirbywas attempting with this character, it will first be neces-

sary to go into the background of hermythological namesake, Athena.

AthenaThe goddess Pallas Athena is in

many ways a unique individual amongthe twelve Olympians of Greek myth. Inthe very patriarchal ancient Greek cultureshe was for some reason given special status, often being the only Olympian,with Zeus, to be honored alongsideregional gods in the rites dedicated tothose local deities. Karl Kerenyi describesher as second only to Zeus in the ancientreligion of which the surviving Greekmyths are our main source of information[The Gods of the Greeks 7.2]. She oftenappears with Zeus and a (variant) thirdgod or goddess as part of a trinity of spe-cially honored gods at many locations inthe ancient Greco-Roman world.

Athena is described by RobertGraves in his exhaustive compilation ofGreek myth [The Greek Myths 25.1] as follows: “Although a goddess of war, shegets no pleasure from battle, as Ares andEris [Strife] do, but rather from settlingdisputes and upholding the law by pacificmeans. She bears no arms in time ofpeace and, if ever she needs any, will borrow a set from Zeus. Her mercy isgreat… Yet, once engaged in battle shenever loses the day… Many gods, Titans,and giants would gladly have married[her], but she has repulsed all advances.”Athena was born from the head of Zeus,fully-grown and clad in armour. She isthe only god, besides Zeus himself, whois both capable of and permitted to wieldZeus’s Cyclops-forged thunderbolts.According to one myth, she was the onlygod to stand her ground before the initialonslaught of the monstrous Typhon; allthe rest, Zeus included, fled to Egypt inanimal form (incidentally enabling thestory to provide an explanation for the

(below) Thena fromJack’s sketchbook.

(next page) The gang’sall here, led by Thena inEternals #6 (Dec. 1976).Jack always depictedher as a strong leader,as on the pencils fromissue #10, page 12(shown on page 52).

50

Jby Mr. MacLean (we’re sorry, we don’t know the author’s first name—please contact us for credit!)

Myth The Perfection of Thena

reckon Hunger Dogs has some wonderful and unexpected moments in it. Better still, to my mind, is“On The Road to Armagetto,” that wonderful 25-page piece that ended up being split in two, reorganized and absorbed into Hunger Dogs. How I wish the original plan had been followed—with

“Road” left intact and the new Hunger Dogs story following on after it.But again, like so many, and despite my love for the material, I often find Kirby’s scripting grates. At

times it is really clunky and unnatural—a ‘tin ear’ Steve Engelhart called it. Other times, it is beautifullypoetic and epic in character. These two characteristics can sometimes be found together in the samepanel. And there are times, whether he’s at the ‘clunky’ end of the scripting spectrum or at the poetic, orsomewhere in-between, where the reader simply goes “Huh? What does thatmean?”...

...especially in the ’80s.Mike Royer confessed to thisin a 1997 interview, whenspeaking of working on SilverStar from the same period, say-ing, “…sometimes, while lettering,I would go, ‘I don’t really understandthis!’” (Jack Kirby Quarterly #8, page10—in an interview with Chrissie Harper)

(And while mention has been made ofMike Royer, I want to say that his original lettering on “Road,” and most especially hisopen, emboldened words, is sheer letteringbrilliance!)

As I said, I love so much of “Road.”But there is that frustration in the scriptthat sometimes makes me say, “What?”But I want to understand it!

So here is a short piece written abouttrying to make sense of some of “On theRoad to Armagetto”’s script.

“Road,” page 6 is where I begin. (Thisbecame Hunger Dogs, page 12.) This pagehas four captions. The first is great—itspeaks of Armagetto:

“Did not the Elder Gods, on theeve of their doom, leave the warningof Armagetto behind them?”

Did they? I’m happy to take Kirby’sword for it. It all sounds very philosophical—it has a great ring to it. (In the jettisonedcaption from page 4 [HD page 10] whichoriginally preceded this one, Kirby hadalready introduced the concept ofArmagetto and defined it in this way:

“The slum and its inhabitantsare a universal concept…onApokolips, the place calledArmagetto shelters the‘Lowlies’.”..

...but this caption stands withoutneeding it.)

(throughout) MikeRoyer’s original, unal-tered inks for “On TheRoad to Armagetto,”Jack’s original 23- (later25-) page story that wasto be his wrap-up to theNew Gods saga, beforemorphing into theHunger Dogs graphicnovel.

IOn understanding some of Kirby’s meaning in “On the Road to Armagetto,” by Shane Foley

WordS

56

Decoding “The Road”

n innovator does what hasn’t been done before;builds on what others began to create somethingnew; and never dwells on the past. If that doesn’t

describe Kirby, we don’t know what does (his obsessionwith telling World War II stories aside).

Here are a fewof the ways Kirbywas innovative:

• Exploring newformats forcomics (such ashis original plansfor the 1970sDC “Speak-OutSeries”)

• Introducing collages (eventhough printingprocesses of thetime weren’t upto the task ofreproducingthem)

• Developing thefirst over-arcing multi-book epic (TheFourth World)

• Pioneering theRomance andKid Gangcomics genreswith Joe Simon

• Launching the Direct Market of comicsshop distribution with Captain Victory

• Popularizing artistic techniques likebreaking panel borders, using double-page splashes, and others

• Injecting futuristic technology into hisstories as pivotal elements (and evenas characters)

62

A

The Shipby Steve Sherman

The Ship was one of those things we worked onaround the time of Captain Victory and Silver Star. I hadjust read Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama.Wewere trying to find another market for Jack Kirby.When I told Jack about the story, he started to talkabout spaceships and aliens, and pretty soon he’d con-cocted this great multi-episode adventure as a TVseries. We went for a walk up the hill outside of hishouse, all the while Jack puffing on his pipe and comingup with each episode. This was ten years before Flight ofthe Navigator.

I have this vivid picture of a pencil drawing of thisbig mountain with these four figures climbing, and thishuge Kirby spaceship. Now I can’t tell you if Jack actuallydid a drawing like that or not. It’s one of those thingsthat Jack kept in the back of his head for later use!

The other idea he had was for a Twilight Zone typeshow where each week someone would encounter aUFO and it would change their lives in some way—forgood or for bad, depending on the person.

• Taking “nothing” characters like Green Arrow and Jimmy Olsen and making them “something.”

• Helping launch the first syndicated television program (Thundarr the Barbarian, for which he submitted a wealth of concepts and characters that are yet to be mined)

And perhaps his mostinnovative concept:

• The Silver Surfer (upto that point, onlySiegel and Shuster’sSuperman was sounlike whatever hadgone before it—bothchanged the industryforever. The Surferturned “comics” into“cosmic.”)

INNOVAT

Key 4:

INNOVATJack Kirby was

t is 1970. The comics industry is rocked when JackKirby jumps ship, leaving Marvel for DC.

If you’re a regular reader of The Jack KirbyCollector, then you’re probably aware that in the late1960s Jack Kirby became dissatisfied with the recognitionand compensation he was receiving for his work atMarvel. For those of you who don’t know, in the Springof 1968, Jack began decreasing the amount of creativeinput he gave stories, resulting in larger (and thereforefewer) panels, and shorter and less spectacular tales; hislonger stories took on a tendency to ramble at times.

Jack also began holding back his better ideas for astage of his career that would give him what he wanted.The most famous of these is his Fourth World saga,which included New Gods, Mister Miracle, Forever People,and a run in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. So, what ifJack had gotten what he felt he deserved, and stayed atMarvel, rather than departing for DC in 1970? How

would the Fourth World have developed in the Marvel

Universe?

Certainly, it could not have come about as it wasshown in the opening pages of The New Gods, with thedestruction of Asgard and the death of the Norse godsfeatured in Thor. Stan Lee, editor-in-chief at Marvel whohad guided the company to the Number One spot in theindustry, would not have allowed this. So how could theFourth World have developed in a universe of old gods?

Craig McNamara asked this question in TJKC #53(“What If?”), and his answer was both interesting andreasonable. But he overlooked one logical setting for theFourth World: the Inhumans series in Amazing Adventures(Volume 2), which Jack both wrote and drew in 1970.

To re-cap Mr. McNamara’s thesis: Jack Kirbymight have been given books that had failed or werefailing, such as Captain Marvel, The X-Men, Dr. Strange,The Silver Surfer, etc. He posits the saga of the New Godswould fit into the adventures of a space-traveling SilverSurfer, using the Surfer’s ideological similarities to

Lightray; the counter-culture material of JimmyOlsen and The Forever People would dovetail

nicely with the exploits of the teenagedX-Men, while Dr. Strange would pick

up the leftovers of The ForeverPeople and Mister Miracle.

The matching of the X-Mento Jimmy Olsen’s adventuresseems a natural fit—but I thinkthere are better choices for therest of the Fourth World saga.Specifically, the New Gods couldhave been adapted to cover thehistory of the Inhumans, whichStan and Jack had started in theback pages of Thor (#147-152, 1967).They went from the first super-poweredInhuman, Randac, in the first install-ment, to the birth of Black Bolt in thesecond, some twenty-five years beforethe beginning of the Marvel Age. Four

more chapters in the recent past,and the strip was over. That leftlots of room for untold tales,such as the first evil Inhuman.

I have to confess thatthis idea came to me whilereading Shane Foley’s article in TJKC #56.“Subploticus Interruptus?”discussed unfinishedstorylines of Stan andJack in the MU, specificallythat of the Inhumans.Among other things, hepointed out the long and

awkward gap in the “Origin ofthe Inhumans” back-up strip in

Thor, and suggested that this was oneinstance of Jack pulling back, contributing

(below) Cover corner“bullets” for the FourthWorld titles, including anunused one for JimmyOlsen, with inks by VinceColletta.

(next page) GloriousGodfrey, inspired by real-life evangelist BillyGraham, from ForeverPeople #6 (Dec. 1971).

64

I(*Jack Had Stayed At Marvel and Worked the New Gods Into the Marvel Universe?) by Jeff Deischer

?! What If... JHS@M&WtNGi2tMU*?

or many, Jack Kirby’s writing might be the bottomof the Living Totem that was his towering legacy:his unbridled imagination. Above all, Kirby was known for his powerful and

distinctive artwork, his ideas and concepts, and his pro-lific output (of course, the very reason you’re readingthis piece in the post-60th issue of The Kirby Collector).While his text and dialogue could be alternately corny,clumsy, naïve, long-in-the-tooth, fatiguing, obvious, andheavy-handed (not to mention peppered with too manyexclamation points!!!), his writing sometimes coalescedperfectly with his blockbuster visuals. Machine Manwas such a series.

In terms of Kirby’s writing and philosophies,

Machine Man best captured several facets of the master:his humor, his hopes and fears regarding technology,his immigrant cloth-cut American patriotism, and hisfaith in humanity, against all odds, despite Kirby’s ownhealthy dose of worry regarding the future of ourspecies. At the risk of overreaching, Kirby (born JacobKurtzberg) may have even intended elements ofMachine Man to resonate as an indirect allegory ofJewish persecution during Nazi-occupied Europe.

Long before Inspector Gadget, there was the seriousversion: the robot X-51, alias Aaron Stack, also knownas Machine Man.

Originally an offshoot character from the short-lived Kirby-does-Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey comics,

this Marvel Comics Group character tookon a life of its own. In the late 1970s,Machine Man lasted 19 issues in a gloriousrun started by Kirby (the first nine) andcompleted by Steve Ditko with writer MarvWolfman. In a letters’ column editorial,Kirby sold Machine Man this way: “He’sjust another dude—who happens to havea body of impenetrable armor, electroniceyes, and a deadly hand-weapons system.”

In the pantheon of Kirby’s post-SilverAge output, the Machine Man series—which blended Kirby tropes from CaptainAmerica, Fantastic Four’s Silver Surfer, andThe Incredible Hulk—may rank just behindhis Fourth World books as his most satis-fying. Like the lone Super-Soldier,Machine Man was the only experimentalspecimen of what were to be many MachineMen (created by Abel Stack) to survive. Aswith the Incredible Hulk, X-51 was wantedby the Government and was hounded byan ersatz Captain Ahab obsessed withdestroying him: the eye-patch-wearingColonel Kragg, playing Gen. “Thunderbolt”Ross to Machine Man’s Hulk. Finally, theemotionless Machine Man, as with hiscosmic counterpart Norrin Radd, was analien among us, at once baffled by human-ity and fighting for it, while awkwardlytrying to find a humanity of his own.

In Machine Man #1 (April 1978),Kirby the writer adeptly kicks off theseries by throwing us into the middle ofthe adventure before launching into theobligatory origin. A rescue of a hiker letsKirby start off our story with an exciting,action-packed prologue that lets himdemonstrate the mechanical capabilitiesof his new hero in the process, as MachineMan shows off his “gravity cancellation”techniques and stretching, mechanical-tentacle arms while retrieving the distressedyoung man. “Look! His arm is extendinglike a ladder!” exclaims a female witness as

(below) Machine Man(a.k.a. Mr. Machine) fromJack’s sketchbook.

(next page) PsychiatristDr. Peter Spalding sportsa pipe, which, in Jack’sday, imbued a characterwith having knowledgeand sophistication.Nowadays, not so much.Pencils from MachineMan #2 (May 1978).

F

Tech Jack Kirby: Writing “Machine”

70

by Michael Aushenker

(bottom right) 1992 outtake photo by SusanSkaar, for Ray Wyman’sArt of Jack Kirby bio.Thanks to Ray for making this photo publicly available!

74

Jack Kirby was

Key 5:

INSPIRATINSPIRAT

ome key charactersJack created or co-created:

AAbner LittleAbominable Snowman Absorbing ManAce MorganActorAdam Warlock (HIM)Agatha HarknessAgent AxisAginarAgonAgronAireoAjakAlicia MastersAmphibionAnelleAnnihilusAnt-ManAresArishem the JudgeArnim ZolaArtemisAthenaAtlasAvengersAviaAwesome Android

BBalderBaron StruckerBaron Zemo

Batroc the LeaperBeastBen BoxerBernadethBetty RossBig BardaBlack BoltBlack PantherBlack RacerBlastaarBlobBolivar TraskBombastBoomerang Bor Boy CommandosBoy ExplorersBrother TodeBrotherhood of Evil MutantsBruno MannheimBruteBuckyBurner

CCaptain 3-DCaptain AmericaCaptain GloryCaptain VictoryCelestialsChallengers of the UnknownCircus of CrimeContemplatorCrazy QuiltCrusaders Crystal Cyclops Cyttorak

DDabney DonovanDan TurpinDanger RoomDarkseidDeep Six DesaadDestroyer DuckDeviants Devil DinosaurDevilanceDiablo

Dingbats of Danger StreetDino ManelliDionysus Doctor BedlamDoctor CanusDoctor DoomDoctor DruidDoctor Faustus Dorrek VIIDoughboy Dragon ManDreaming CelestialDredmund the DruidDromedanDruigDubbilexDum Dum Dugan

EEgghead Ego the Living PlanetElektro Enchantress Enclave Erik JostenEsakEson the SearcherEternals Etrigan the DemonExecutioner

FFafnir FandralFantastic FourFastbakFemale FuriesFenris Wolf Fighting AmericanFighting FetusFin Fang FoomFixer Fly Forager Forbush ManForever PeopleForgotten One Franklin RichardsFranklin StormFrightful FourFunky Flashman

GGabe JonesGalactusGammenon the GathererGargoyle GilotinaGlobGlobal Peace AgencyGlorious GodfreyGolden GirlGoody RickelsGoogamGoomGorgillaGorgonGranny GoodnessGregory GideonGrey GargoyleGrootGrowing ManGuardian

HH.E.R.B.I.E.Hank PymHappy Sam SawyerHargen the MeasurerHate-MongerHeggraHeimdall Hela Hera Hercules Hermes High EvolutionaryHighfatherHimonHippolyta HogunHulk Hulk RobotHuman Torch

IIceman Idunn IkarisImmortusImpossible ManInfinity ManIntergang

S

The Goodguy Dinosaur

N obody can forget Devil Dinosaur—even though most people can’tbelieve it ever happened. One of Kirby’s last works for Marvel in the late

1970s, this gonzo tale of a hominid boy and his pet thunder-lizard was both akid’s fantasy and a folkloric fever-dream. In a series taking place before his-tory began, Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy were trapped in a wild, dreamtimechildhood. In Marvel’s current phase of eccentric, original reinventions ofintriguing second-string characters, two of comics’ most seasoned time-travelers, writer Brandon Montclare and artist Amy Reeder of Rocket Girl fame,were called on to bring Devil to the present day with a new kid partner, pre-cocious science-geek Lunella Lafayette, in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur—this time with Montclare and Reeder as co-writers and Natacha Bustos asthe vibrant artist and Tamra Bonvillain supplying the joyous, cinematic colors.The Collector spoke in-person with Montclare and Reeder in New York onFebruary 27, 2016, and by e-mail with Bustos from Spain on March 6.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Devil Dinosaur is infamously one of Kirby’smost kitschy concepts, but it does hold a fascination for many sophisticatedcreators both in and outside of comics. Was it a series you always enjoyed,or did you just welcome the challenge of updating this crazy idea?

AMY REEDER: Honestly, our editor Mark Paniccia is a huge DevilDinosaur fan; he’d been trying for years to bring it back. I guess the timing was right?Hopefully we brought something to it that made them want more, and they approved it.Brandon and I were just looking for a character, and we really wanted to revitalize something,because there’s a lot less pressure in that, and then you can do a lot of creative things.

BRANDON MONTCLARE: Amy’s working on another pile of Rocket Girl issues so we can releasethem in sequence, but we still wanted to have something on the shelf, and we thought it wouldbe nice for Amy to co-write and do covers. Marvel said, “Why don’t you come by and we’ll talkabout what you want to do.” Certainly within the first ten minutes, if not the very first thing thatwas mentioned, was Devil Dinosaur. Which got me excited, ’cuz, “Oh, it’s such a cool, it’s suchan oddball thing,” and like Amy says, nobody really bothers you when you’re doing something soobscure. So about another minute after that, [Mark] said, “How about Moon Girl and DevilDinosaur,” and then you could do something totally different… the idea being, you bring it tomodern times instead of setting it in The Valley of Flames and thedinosaur world…

REEDER: I think part of his thinking was also that I would be onthe project, because, to be honest, at first when he said DevilDinosaur I was just like, kinda rolling my eyes… inside [laughs],not outwardly, but then as soon as he said, like, “Girl” I waslike, ooooh, that’s fun, because… I wasn’t really a dinosaurperson growing up. I mean, they’re interesting enough, but, I didnot see the possibilities in that.

MONTCLARE: And just the idea that you can do a companion for thisdinosaur, and from complete scratch.

REEDER: That’s really the part that’s exciting, the fact that the story is really intrinsically about twocharacters, just those two, and their relationship as it grows. That’s really something special that Ithink sets it apart from other books for sure.

TJKC: I just like the sassiness and outsidery-ness of Lunella—how much of each of you is in thatcharacter? It feels very contemporary and very true to a young girl who isn’t the play-with-Barbie type…

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

Adam McGovernPO Box 257Mt. Tabor, NJ 07878

As A Genre

Adam McGovern

76

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

(this page) A dizzying AmyReeder cover (top right)and dynamic NatachaBustos page-thumbnail(bottom left) from Moon Girl & DD’s pre- (and re-)historic adventures.

(next page) Line and toneart for a kinetic Bustos layout (left) and style-sheetfor Moon Girl’s many phases (right).

(page 78) Proof of evolution:Moon Girl goes up againstthe humanoid “Killer Folk”in these three stages of adramatic Bustos/Bonvillaindesign. (Do Marvel lifersrecognize that orb as the“Omni-Wave Projector”from the original Kree-Skrull War?)

2015 Kirby WonderCon PanelHeld Sunday, April 5, 2015 at 3:00pm at WonderCon,Anaheim, California. Featuring Neal Adams, Darwyn Cooke,Fred Van Lente, Crystal Skillman, Len Wein, Paul S. Levine,and moderated by Mark Evanier. Transcribed by StevenTice. Edited by John Morrow, copy-edited by Mark Evanier. You can view a video of this panel at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sSZOnoGKM0

MARK EVANIER: Every day of my life I find myselfanswering questions about Jack, thinking about Jack,talking about Jack. And if you ever met Jack, you knowhe had a very odd way of speaking. His mind wouldrace from topic to topic. He would start talking aboutone thing, and then suddenly he’d be talking aboutanother thing, and another thing. And he put strangeassociations together. He would make leaps in his logic.

You know, most people,their minds go from A, toB, to C, to D. Jack wouldstart with A, and then he’ddo R, and then he’d do K,and all of a sudden he would have you On BeyondZebra someplace. His mind would just—and a lot of thegreat concepts that he came up with in comics I believewere a case of him putting together two things no oneelse would have ever thought to put together, makingone coherent better idea that was better than any of thecomponents. So we do these panels to talk about thatand talk about Jack.

Let me introduce the panel as it stands thus far.This is a chair which will be occupied by Neal Adams atsome point, I presume. This is the fine illustrator Mr.Darwyn Cooke. [applause] This is the fine writer Mr. Len

Wein. [applause] These are the fine writersand playwrights Crystal Skillman and FredVan Lente. [applause] This is the fine attorneyPaul Levine. [applause] Paul is here becauseI never go anywhere without my lawyer.[laughter] He’s also the lawyer for—what’sthe exact name of it again? I can’t remember.

PAUL LEVINE: The Rosalind Kirby Trust.

MARK: Thank you, the Rosalind Kirby Trust.When people say “the Kirby estate,” theyprobably mean the Rosalind Kirby Trustwhich Paul has represented for, lo, thesemany years. How long have you been…?

PAUL: I represented Jack from ’81 until ’87,and then when I went solo in ’92, representedhim and the Estate.

MARK: I ran into, what’s his name, your oldlaw partner person? Anyway… so one of thetopics we’re not going to be talking abouthere, because there isn’t that much to sayabout it, is: As you may know, the Jack KirbyEstate—i.e., the Rosalind Kirby Trust—there was this dispute between the MarvelComics people and the Kirbys which in various forms and various shapes went onsince about the day I met Jack, which was inJuly of 1969. And for all that time I felt thatJack was not properly compensated for hiswork and, he was not properly credited forhis work. And I was not the only personwho felt this. Insofar as I could tell, everysingle personwho really knewthe history ofMarvel Comicsand knew whatJack had donefelt this way.And finally, itwas resolved

Jack F.A.Q.s(below) “What’s a‘Brooklyn?’” one ofJack’s basic trainingcompatriots asked inthis issue’s interview—here’s the answer fromJack’s sketchbook.

(next page) Photos ofJack from a circa 1974San Diego Comic-Con,courtesy of Shel Dorf.

(bottom, left to right)Moderator MarkEvanier, and panelists:Neal Adams, DarywnCooke, Len Wein,Crystal Skillman, FredVan Lente, and Paul S.Levine.

A column of Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby

Mark Evanier

80

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81

KIRBY COLLECTOR #68KEY KIRBY CHARACTERS! We go decade-by-decade to exam-ine pivotal characters Jack created throughout his career (includ-ing some that might surprise you)! Plus there’s a look at whatwould’ve happened if Kirby had never left Marvel Comics forDC, how Jack’s work has been repackaged over the decades,MARK EVANIER and other regular columnists, and galleries ofunseen Kirby pencil art!

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