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NO. 35 SPRING 2002

BIGGER AND BETTER TWOMORROWS JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR

It’s the great Kirby

84 PAGES $9.95

“BUSTOUT!! ”

BIGGER AND BETTER

TRADE PAPERBACKS NOW SHIPPING FROM TWOMORROWS!

Number 8, Summer 2002 • Hype and hullabaloo from the publisher determined to bring new life to comics fandom • Edited by Eric Nolen-Weathington

It’s Time to... Last year we brought you DRAW! and received an incredible response. Now we’re turning our attention to all of you writers out there! You know, an artist can show an editor his work and the editor can evaluate it virtually on the spot. But what qualities are necessary to sell writing? What are editors looking for? What skills are needed, and what other media can these skills be used in? This July, find out in WRITE NOW!, a new quarterly magazine edited by veteran Marvel Comics editor and writer DANNY FINGEROTH! It takes you behind the scenes, into both the creative and business processes that go into writing narrative fiction. Hear from pros ON BOTH SIDES OF THE DESK what it takes to write the stories that readers—and editors—want to read!

In the premiere issue, top professional writers discuss the practical aspects of their craft. You'll get tips and insights from interviews with: BRAIN MICHAEL BENDIS, the writer of Ultimate Spider-Man, Alias, Powers and so many more; JOE QUESADA, editor in chief of Marvel Comics, and co-writer of Ash and writer of Iron Man—he's the guy setting the writing standards at the House of Ideas today; JOSS WHEDON, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the comic Fray, and the upcoming Firefly TV series; J.M. DeMATTEIS, writer of SpiderMan, the Spectre, Man-Thing and Moonshadow; and to get an artist’s perspective on comics scripts, MARK BAGLEY, penciler of Ultimate Spider-Man, New Warriors and Amazing Spider-Man. Plus there’s an interview with STAN (THE MAN) LEE! ('Nuff said.)

The VIPs of POV TwoMorrows is proud to present COMIC BOOKS AND OTHER NECESSITIES OF LIFE, a trade paperback collection of MARK EVANIER’s POV columns! It includes Mark’s best essays and commentaries, many NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, about the state of the art form (as only he can convey it), the industry’s LEADING PRACTITIONERS (including Jack Kirby and Carl Barks), CONVENTIONGOING, and Mark’s old COMIC BOOK CLUB (with unforgettable anecdotes)! Featuring a new cover and interior illustrations by Mark’s frequent partner, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, this 200-page trade paperback ships in July!

CBA Sold-Out No More!

Find out how their better halves live! Will Eisner does what? Dave Sim is really like that? This August, see what its been like living with comic book creators over the past 60 years, with the people who know them best! This trade paperback explores the lives of the partners and wives of WILL EISNER, ALAN MOORE, STAN LEE, JOE KUBERT, HARVEY KURTZMAN, JOHN ROMITA, GENE COLAN, DAN DECARLO, ARCHIE GOODWIN, and more! In addition to sharing memories and anecdotes you’ll find nowhere else, their better halves have opened up private files to unearth personal photos, momentos, and never-before-seen art by the top creators in comics!

Can’t find those CBA back issues you’re missing? The search is over! In June, simply pick up the COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME 2! It reprints the sold-out CBA #5 (’70s DC) and #6 (’70s Marvel) and includes over 20 NEW PAGES spotlighting STEVE ENGLEHART and MARSHALL ROGERS’ Batman work, plus DC’s ultra-rare CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE! Also included are interviews with and unpublished art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, NEAL ADAMS, JOHN ROMITA SR., and more!

Designing? Buy the book! When should you tilt or overlap a comics panel? What’s the best way to divide a page to convey motion, time, action, quiet? PANEL DISCUSSIONS (our new trade paperback, shipping in June) is the place to find out! It picks the minds of the industry’s top storytellers, covering all aspects of the design of comics! Learn from WILL EISNER, MARK SCHULTZ, MIKE MIGNOLA, WALTER SIMONSON, DICK GIORDANO, MARK CHIARELLO and others as they share their hard-learned lessons about the DESIGN of comics!

Verily, ’tis Thor’s 40th year! In August, we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of THOR in THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #36! To start things off, there’s two incredible color Kirby Thor covers (inked by MIKE ROYER and TREVOR VON EEDEN)! Inside, JOE SINNOTT and JOHN ROMITA JR. weigh in on their Thor work with new interviews, and we present a never-published 1969 interview with JACK KIRBY, conducted by SHEL DORF! Plus, we’re featuring 40 pages of Kirby Thor pencils, including an amazing Kirby Art Gallery at TABLOID SIZE, with pin-ups, covers, and more!

To get periodic e-mail updates of what’s new from TwoMorrows Publishing, sign up for our mailing list! Go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ twomorrows

Now Shipping! The Jack Kirby Collector #34 Alter Ego #15 Comic Book Artist #18 DRAW! #3 Xal-Kor the Human Cat

Coming This Summer!

! RYFT! R HU LE FEW

! RYFT! R HU LE FEW ALL-STAR COMPANION

STREETWISE

CELEBRATING THE JSA’S 60TH ANNIVERSARY

ROY THOMAS has assembled the most thorough look ever taken at All-Star Comics:

TOP ARTISTS DRAWING STORIES OF THEIR LIVES An unprecedented assembly of talent drawing NEW autobiographical stories:

• Covers by MURPHY ANDERSON! • Barry WINDSOR-SMITH • C.C. BECK The Jack Kirby Collector #35 (June) • Issue-by-issue coverage of ALL–STAR • Sergio ARAGONÉS • Walter SIMONSON Comic Book Artist #19 (June) COMICS #1–57, the original JLA–JSA • Brent ANDERSON • Nick CARDY DRAW! #4 (June) teamups, & the ’70s ALL–STAR REVIVAL! • Roy THOMAS & John SEVERIN • Art from an unpublished 1945 JSA story! • Paul CHADWICK • Rick VEITCH CBA Collection, Vol. 2 TPB (June) • Looks at FOUR “LOST” ALL–STAR issues! • Murphy ANDERSON • Joe KUBERT Panel Discussions TPB (June) • Rare art by BURNLEY, DILLIN, KIRBY, • Evan DORKIN • Sam GLANZMAN Alter Ego #16 (July) INFANTINO, KANE, KUBERT, ORDWAY, • Plus Art SPIEGELMAN, Jack KIRBY, more! Comic Books & Other Necessities Of ROSS, WOOD and more!! Cover by RUDE • Foreword by EISNER Life TPB (July) (208-page Trade Paperback) $24 US (160-Page Trade Paperback) $24 US EE Write Now! #1 (July) R FR TENDED FO Comic Book Artist #20 (July) ich is NOT IN paidEISNER AWARD WINNER! u wh yo L, or IA r, ER be bscri MAT GHTE Comic Book Artist #21D(August) u’re a print su PYRI is CO his ve our sincere WHERE. If yo NY(August) NG A The Jack Kirby Collector #36 website, you ha e this one. DOWNLOADI arge to download it at our ns lik tio ca bli pu I HaveesTo Live With This Guy TPB ch ing we e ep produc or torrent, the mod t fe (August) allows us to ke e from some other website NSENT, your support

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COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL. 3 Third volume in the series, reprinting TJKC #13-15, with an intro by STEVE BISSETTE, plus 30 PIECES of unpublished Kirby art! (176-page Trade Paperback) $21 US

JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST

(100-pages) Lists all published work, portfolios, unpublished work, cross-references reprints, & more! A must-have for eBay shoppers! $7 US

THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOL. ONE

HIS BOOKS OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE, VOL. ZERO

MR. MONSTER

Reprints the Eisner Award-winning COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-3, plus over 50 NEW PAGES of features and art:

MR. MONSTER is back with a new book collection featuring TWELVE TWISTED TALES of Forbidden Knowledge, featuring:

• An unpublished story by JACK KIRBY! • An interview with NEAL ADAMS about his SUPERMAN VS. MUHAMMAD ALI book (including unused art)! • Unpublished BERNIE WRIGHTSON art! • An unused story by JEFFREY JONES! • Extensive new ALAN WEISS interview (including unpublished art), & more!

• Over 30 pages of ALL-NEW Mr. Monster art and stories by MICHAEL T. GILBERT! • Collects the hard-to-find MR. MONSTER stories from A-1, CRACK-A-BOOM! and DARK HORSE PRESENTS! • The lost Mr. Monster NEWSPAPER STRIP! • New 8-page FULL-COLOR STORY by KEITH GIFFEN & MICHAEL T. GILBERT!

(228-page Trade Paperback) $26 US

(136-page Trade Paperback) $20 US

WARREN COMPANION

KIMOTA! THE MIRACLEMAN COMPANION

for fre thanks— UT OUR CO downloaded it IAL. If DONE WITHO If instead you solutely 100% R COPYRIGHTED MATER ab s wa it at OU OF G IN please know th ST ILLEGAL PO ould do: and it was an ’s what you sh , here at you think. The season is underway and ’s the case thatconvention E, and see wh d purchase a GITAL ISSU an DI G IS already we’ve had greatRE shows at the Atlanta IN TH TH D T A E RIGH d and Despite ition at our Go aheaComicons. ep it, DO TH 1) Pittsburgh and twoke nomiough to ase the print ed ur local en rch it pu joy or , en ite u bs yo at we r nations (for TJKC and CBA), we didn’t win a 2) If yo or ou e) m fre r fro d of it ition fo loaour downbut er. legal HARVEY AWARD, own ERICyou to the Digital Ed titles gular paid read en re a h as hic u (w yo ite ve NOT SHARE NOLEN-WEATHINGTON did gete’d to be webs to ha lova epreTER and DO .W PU op M sh CO ok bo UR ic m to everyone who stopped YO senter!coThanks by OM FR IT . TE RE LEbought Y, erwise, DE our3)booth if you someIT ANYWHE Oth(especially L ILLEGALL S OR POST R MATERIA ITHcanFR thing)!IT Next findIEusND in Charlotte, NCNLOADING OU Wyou free downloadr fo W s ine DO az EP ag KE(visit N’T want to DO of all our m for4) Heroes Con June 14-16 y, on Finall decide if you complete issue ALTER SENSE OF WONDER r you toEGO: r oneinfo), cient fo www.heroesonline.com forfemore and downloading ld be suffiTHE for free. We of ep ou ke sh to ich CBA COLLECTION gh wh ou , Acclaimed historian Bill Schelly gives you en ite bs ns we tio r ca the biggie—Comicon International: San ou bli e. at pu ing produc ial we u enjoy our aterEGO If yo Reprints ALTER flip-sides from the AN INSIDER’S TOUR of comics fandom of em others. Diego, August 1-4e (where CBA, AE, and for ththe payingout-of-print the 1960s purchas COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-5, these& ’70s. The fans, the comicons, r company by ou t or KIMOTA! are up for EISNER AWARDS)! n absorb pp the fanzines—they’re all here!! su , d an them plus de PAGES & art: cketofs,features ca ep po zens th 30 NEW do wi th wi ion — at or op rp sh • Introduction by ROY THOMAS, cover by giant co d pobyp” color JOE KUBERT! ancover “mom week-GIORDANO! a• Special e’re not some Wto rare and previously-unpublished d night and on DICK pany—literally • All-new If you need contact theall TwoMorrows m an y co da ay sm a e aw • Share Bill’s encounters with FREDERIC e g We’r rk. We lov ses.want JACK KIRBY,all GILthKANE, los(or is woJOE creators, slavin art byom editors to send a letternc ofe comWERTHAM, e for WOOD, ly on STEVE DITKO, BOB KANE, inc WALLY FRANK -working freela inimal amount ofKUBERT, hard op owner, reJIM of try ment), e-mail! ic sh SHOOTER, and more! m m co ty al et loc all pr ROBBINS, NEAL ADAMS, and others! a ur e e sm150 d yo th an of s, us or b • Over photos and illustrations by th ro ends, to mak t au n’ of itors, e do • STEVE creation asthe our ed s. Pleon John Morrow, publisher,t JACK KIRBY any DITKO, NEWTON, EISNER, C.C. sinesDITKO t beKIRBY, n’ wo e what we do, bu publication to stay in buSPIDER-MAN, er ROY THOMAS on the th ensure willINVADERS, COLLECTOReeditor (and BECK, KALUTA, KRENKEL, COCKRUM, this the one to go ceive. Doing birth so of THE and more! incom from problems): SINNOTT, GIL KANE and others! nsation we re to with subscription d. ount of compe $20 US (160-page Trade Paperback) loa am wn twomorrow@aol.com (216-page Trade Paperback) $20 US ts like this to do at d de oa future produc nl w Jon B. Cooke, COMIC BOOK ARTIST ld only be do PRIME8: CREATION #1 ou sh ns io s publicat editor: jonbcooke@aol.com TwoMorrow

Pros and Cons

A new comic book created by COMIC BOOK orrows.com ARTIST editor Jon B. Cooke, featuring:

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Roy Thomas, ALTER EGO editor: roydann@ntinet.com P.C. Hamerlinck, FCA editor: fca2001@yahoo.com Mike Manley, DRAW! editor: mike@actionplanet.com

And the TWOMORROWS WEB SITE (where you can read excerpts from our back issues, and order from our secure online store) is at: www.twomorrows.com

NEXT ISSUE: It’s Thor’s 40th Anniversary!

• NEW wraparound color cover by NEAL ADAMS! • NEW Prime8 pin-ups by SERGIO ARAGONÉS, WALTER SIMONSON, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, and BRUCE TIMM! • Featuring story by JON B. COOKE & ANDREW D. COOKE, and art by CHRIS KNOWLES, GEORGE FREEMAN, AL MILGROM, and BOB WIACEK! (64-page comic book) $6 US

FAWCETT COMPANION THE BEST OF FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck has been delighting fans with his new FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA (FCA) sections in ALTER EGO, and this volume presents the best of the first 59 issues of the FCA newsletter (founded in 1973)! • New JERRY ORDWAY cover! • Index of ALL FAWCETT COMICS published from 1940-1953! • Behind-the-scenes looks inside the GOLDEN AGE FAWCETT OFFICES! • Interviews and features on C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, OTTO BINDER, PETE COSTANZA, ROSCOE FAWCETT, AL ALLARD, WILL LIEBERSON, ROD REED, GINNY PROVISIERO, cast members of the Captain Marvel serial and Shazam! TV show, and others! • Rare and previously unpublished artwork by BECK, SWAYZE, SCHAFFENBERGER, MAC RABOY, DAVE BERG, ALEX TOTH, BOB OKSNER, GEORGE EVANS, A.J. HANLEY, ALEX ROSS, a Foreword by SWAYZE, and more! (160-page Trade Paperback) $20 US

THE ULTIMATE REFERENCE GUIDE TO WARREN PUBLISHING

Editor JON B. COOKE has joined forces with historian DAVID ROACH to compile the definitive book on the black-&-white world of Warren Publishing, the publisher who created such magazines as CREEPY, EERIE, VAMPIRELLA, BLAZING COMBAT, and others. This book reprints the contents of the Eisner Award-winning magazine COMIC BOOK ARTIST #4 (completely reformatted), plus nearly 200 new pages:

Learn the behind-the-scenes secrets of ALAN MOORE’S MIRACLEMAN, from his beginnings as Marvelman, to the legal and creative hurdles during the 24-issue Eclipse Comics series, and why you never saw the final NEIL GAIMAN-scripted issue!

Also available as a Limited Edition Hardcover (limited to 1000 copies) signed by JIM WARREN, with custom endleaves, 16 extra pages, plus a WRIGHTSON plate not in the Trade Paperback.

• New MARK BUCKINGHAM cover! • Intro & back cover by ALEX ROSS! • In-depth interviews with ALAN MOORE, JOHN TOTLEBEN, NEIL GAIMAN, MARK BUCKINGHAM, GARRY LEACH, MICK ANGLO, BEAU SMITH, RICK VEITCH, and others! • UNPUBLISHED ART, UNINKED PENCILS, SKETCHES, & CONCEPT DRAWINGS (including unseen art from the neverpublished #25)! • Special COLOR SECTION! • NEVER-PUBLISHED 8-page Moore/ Totleben story, “Lux Brevis”, and an UNUSED MOORE SCRIPT! • A percentage of profits goes to artist JOHN TOTLEBEN, who is battling the eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa.

(288-page Hardcover) $57 US

(144-page Trade Paperback) $17 US

• New painted cover by ALEX HORLEY! • A definitive WARREN CHECKLIST! • Dozens of NEW FEATURES on CORBEN, FRAZETTA, DITKO and others, and interviews with WRIGHTSON, WARREN, EISNER, ADAMS, COLAN & many more! (272-page Trade Paperback) $35 US

US Prices Include Postage. Outside the US, Add $2 Per Item Canada, $3 Per Item Surface, $7 Per Item Airmail (except Warren Companion Hardcover: add $14 Airmail)

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom.

TwoMorrows Publishing • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Contents OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (why was Kirby always running from something or another?)

THE NEW

UNDER THE COVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (Steve Rude and Marshall Rogers outline their respective covers this issue) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 (regular columnist Mark Evanier answers a pair of Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby)

#35, SPRING 2002

BAD GUISE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 (just who was Kirby’s greatest villain?) WRITER’S BLOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 (author Michael Chabon offers up a few words on Kirby) HOUDINI & KIRBY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 (a brief look at each man’s approach to the artistry of escape) KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 (Adam McGovern finds the Kirby in a few of his favorite things) INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 (Marshall Rogers chats about Mister Miracle, Kirby, and Batman) GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 (death traps, dwarfs, and bathing Bardas, all shown in pencil) TRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 (the 2001 Kirby Tribute Panel, featuring the late John Buscema, John Romita, Mike Royer, Will Eisner, and some guy named Carson) DECONSTRUCTING HIMON . . . . . . . . .58 (three different writers take apart one of Kirby’s finest tales: “Himon”) IN CLOSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 (an examination of Kirby’s second Mister Miracle series) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . . . . . .76 (escape the humdrum letter columns of other mags by perusing these missives about our last issue) PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (on the way out, take a quick look at Jack’s final Mister Miracle page) Front cover inks: MARSHALL ROGERS Back cover pastel art: STEVE RUDE Front cover color: TOM ZIUKO

Photocopies of Jack’s uninked pencils from published comics are reproduced here courtesy of the Kirby Estate, which has our thanks for their continued support. COPYRIGHTS: Batman, Bekka, Ben Boxer, Bernadeth, Big Barda, Bruce Wayne, Darkseid, Female Furies, Forever People, Funky Flashman, Granny Goodness, Himon, Houseroy, In The Days of the Mob, Jimmy Olsen, Joker, Kamandi, Kanto, Komodo, Lashina, Losers, Mad Harriet, Madame Evil Eye, Metron, Mister Miracle, Morgan Edge, Oberon, Orion, Renzi, Scott Free, Shilo Norman, Silver St. Cloud, Stompa, Superman, The Lump, Tigra, Virmin Vundabar, Young Scott Free TM & ©2002 DC Comics. • Annihilus, Black Panther, Captain America, Daredevil, Devil Dinosaur, Eternals, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Galactus, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Jasper Sitwell, Moonboy, Mr. Fantastic, Nick Fury, Dum-Dum Dugan, Silver Surfer, Thing, Thor, Ultron TM & © 2002 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Jacob & The Angel, Jupiter Plaque, Stereon, Street Code TM & ©2002 Jack Kirby Estate.

The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 10, No. 35, Spring 2002. Published quarterly by & ©2002 TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092. John Morrow, Editor. Pamela Morrow, Asst. Editor. Eric Nolen-Weathington, Production Assistant. Single issues: $13 postpaid ($15 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $36.00 US, $60.00 Canada, $64.00 elsewhere. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is ©2002 Jack Kirby unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is ©2002 the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA.

heard a war story or two) can attest—and unlike a stage magician’s act, his death-defying feats were the real thing.

Opening Shot

Escape from a dying industry (1950s). After the end of his Mainline company (and parting ways with Joe Simon) as the comics industry looked to be collapsing, Jack picked up whatever work he could find. He may have seen the writing on

(inset) Convention sketches of Barda and Mister Miracle done for Al Milgrom.

The Great Kirby “Bust J (next page, bottom) The final panels of several comics Jack “ran from” (usually not of his own choice): Eternals, Forever People, Jimmy Olsen, Our Fighting Forces, Captain America (in pencil), and Devil Dinosaur.

(background) A map of New York’s East Village, highlighting where celebrities grew up, including Kirby (as shown below). (top) An artist’s representation of Kirby’s neighborhood (at the corner of Suffolk and Delancy streets) as it stands today; Jack’s home would’ve been to the left, where a parking lot is today.

ack Kirby was running from something all his life. Okay, I know that statement might sound strange to any number of longtime Kirby fans, but bear with me a minute, and I’ll explain what I mean. This issue is all about the theme of “escape” in Jack’s work, and so it naturally will feature lots of Mister Miracle, Kirby’s super escape artist; but while the rest of the issue will deal with some of the “close calls” that character experienced on the comics page, I want to delve into what may have made Jack so inclined to submerge himself in this particular brand of escapism called comic books—what I term “The Great Kirby Bust-Out!” (to borrow a line from the cover of Mister Miracle #9). Escape was a part of Jack’s life, from beginning to end. To demonstrate my point, I’ve compiled a list of what I consider to be Kirby’s top ten biggest real-life escapes, in chronological order:

Escape from the Lower East Side (1930s). As a son of Jewish immigrants, Kirby spent his childhood in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York. Daily gang fights were the norm, as few kids on his block had much else to live for; but Kirby surreptitiously kept his imagination and artistic talent alive and flourishing through reading, movies, and drawing, and instead of following in his father’s blue collar footsteps, used his talents to find a way out of the slum. Escaping anti-Semitism (1940s). Early in his career, Jack chose to legally change his name from Kurtzberg to Kirby (much to his parents’ dismay). Although he never turned his back on his faith and ancestry, he opted for the new name for commercial reasons, undoubtedly feeling it could help him avoid any anti-Semitic backlash in his search for work. Escape from death (World War II). After enlisting in the Army, PFC Jack Kirby was assigned to numerous life-threatening situations as an advance scout. The experience would be great fodder for future comics stories, but he barely lived to tell them. After scraping by alive in Patton’s army, he was discharged with frozen feet, and nearly had them amputated. WWII was a profound influence on his life—as anyone who met Jack in person (and

the wall much earlier, because from the late 1940sonward, he was constantly pursuing his dream of landing a coveted syndicated newspaper comic strip. The opportunity finally arose with Sky Masters, and its promise of a better, more secure living and greater prestige; but the strip waned after an impressive start, and Jack found himself trapped back working for a comics page rate just to survive. Arguably, the desperation of the situation led to the development of the Marvel Universe, which in turn helped save a dying industry, but it also propelled Kirby squarely back into it. So in some ways, his escape to newspaper syndication led him right back to a trap of his own making.

Escape from New York (1969). After more than 50 years living in the city of his birth, Kirby uprooted his family and moved to the other side of the country. Jack claimed the California clime was better for his daughter Lisa’s asthma, but no doubt the freedom of being 3000 miles away from an editor made the decision all the easier. The change in scenery appears to have started new ideas brewing in his mind, which would lead to some of his most mind-boggling concepts making their way to the comics page. Escape from Marvel and Stan Lee (1970). Perhaps the biggest career move he ever made, the switch to DC Comics meant he was leaving behind the success of 1960s Marvel Comics, for a chance to prove

himself without a collaborator to share the credit with. From this point on, with rare exceptions, Jack wrote and edited his own stories (usually sending in completely lettered and inked work), and never again worked “Marvel method.” Escaping DC (1975). Although what waited for him back at Marvel ended up no better than what he was leaving behind, Jack chose not to renew his contract at DC Comics when it expired. The failed Fourth World experiment and a string of unsatisfying post-New Gods series left him looking for somewhere, anywhere else to ply his trade. For better or worse, Marvel Comics was the only other game in town, so he jumped ship yet again in hopes of a better situation.

-Out!” Escaping the comics industry entirely (1978). Just when things seemed hopeless in the comics field he helped pioneer four decades earlier, the animation industry came calling. With higher pay, more respect, and much-needed health benefits as he entered his declining years, Jack ironically ended his career where it began; only instead of doing in-betweening for Popeye cartoons, he was a much sought-after concept man (creating thousands of ideas that will likely never be seen by the public), and scoring a major hit with Thundarr the Barbarian. Escaping the “Big Two” (1980s). Jack’s final major foray into comics, rather than for DC and Marvel, wound up being for independent publishers. Freed of the constraints of company-wide continuity and editorial dictates (which he experienced one last time on DC’s 1984 Hunger Dogs Graphic Novel), Kirby produced wild, frenetic work like never before. Some loved it, some hated it, but no one could deny his unchained imagination was working at full speed on such projects as Captain Victory and Silver Star. Escape from obscurity (1990s). After years of no new Kirby work on the stands, and a gradual lessening of attention being paid to Jack (including smaller crowds at conventions, where younger readers flocked to the Image creators), Jack experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1990s. The debut of Phantom Force (with Kirby concepts combined with Image inkers) and the Topps Secret City Saga books, as well as the release of The Art of Jack Kirby (and not one, but two fanzines devoted to Kirby) helped bring him back to the forefront of fans’ minds (although his place in comics history was undoubtedly assured anyway). Is it any wonder then, that Jack was destined to make his mark in a field of escapist entertainment? While he may never have mastered the intricate escape techniques of a prestidigitator like Houdini, he certainly worked his own brand of magic in comics; and the personal chains that encumbered him throughout his life and career were every bit as difficult to surmount as anything David Copperfield and co. have ever dreamed up for their acts. ★

Mark evanier

Jack F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby by Mark Evanier Once again, we attempt the seemingly-impossible: We shall endeavor to answer not one but two Kirby-related queries in one long, rambling reply. The first comes from Kirk Groeneveld, who writes:

“I’m not Jewish, but I wonder how Jack Kirby’s faith interfaced with his continuing theme of hidden races being genetically manipulated. How did he feel about the assignment to “Have the FF meet God” in Fantastic Four #48-50?” And the second comes from someone who signs their e-mail “Washing2000lb,” which I guess means their name or their locale is Washington. Anyway, he, she or it writes: “What’s the deal with Mister Miracle? Everyone says it was based on Steranko but that Big Barda was based on Roz taking care of Kirby. Wouldn’t that make Jack Mister Miracle?” irst, to Kirk: I’ve always been skeptical about that “meet God” anecdote, as I see absolutely nothing in those issues to suggest that Galactus represented a view of the Almighty on the part of either Mr. Lee or Mr. Kirby. Think about it: Galactus was an intergalactic force who created nothing, gave life to no one and left each world he visited a barren, lifeless wasteland. How

(next page, top) Photo of Roy Thomas and Flo Steinberg, circa 1965, shortly after Roy started working at the House of Ideas. The similarities between the Rascally One and Jasper Sitwell (see inset) are pretty evident. Photo courtesy of Flo Steinberg. Jasper Sitwell, Nick Fury, DumDum Dugan TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

does he relate to any interpretation of God that has ever been enshrined in any book, any teaching, any religion? Last I heard—and I doubt this has changed—God was supposed to foster life, not destroy it for his own enrichment. Yes, I know a few “scholarly” essays have sought to read between the panels and make the case, but I remain unconvinced. My suspicion is that Stan said to Jack—or maybe Jack said to Stan—“Let’s have the FF fight someone who’s supremely powerful” and somehow, that suggestion was later recalled as, “Let’s have them meet God.” Obviously, just because a comic book character has awesome might, it does not mean that he in any way corresponds to his authors’ vision of you-know-who. Just what was on Stan’s mind, I can’t say. He does not recall individual issues well and the one time he and I discussed that story arc, he didn’t have much to say about it. Neither did Jack, but I did come up with a theory as to what he was thinking at the time he worked on that little epic. To explain it, I need to detour and answer the question from Washing2000lb.... Almost everything Jack wrote (or plotted) had autobiographical elements. In some cases, they were so obscure and disguised that even he didn’t recognize them in the final mix. But just as an actor utilizes personal sense memories in acting, Jack used his own emotional experiences throughout his work. When he drew a scene that involved anger, he was usually thinking about something that had once angered him, and so forth. In some cases, the reference points are even slightly visible. Here’s one example of many: Last issue in this magazine, there was a mention of Jasper Sitwell, the young, collegeeducated S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, as clearly being based on Dudley Do-Right.

led to the scenes in the comic wherein Nick Fury and DumDum Dugan would he chatting about past wars, only to hear their pasts itemized by the newly-arrived, verbose Mr. Sitwell. This was not at all a negative caricature. (Jack did a few of those out of pique during his career and subsequently regretted them.) It was also not, by design, a particularly deep or fully-formed portrait of Roy or anyone. Kirby was merely taking an incident from his own life and using a fictionalized version of it to make a story. In the same way, Mister Miracle was born from some stories Jim Steranko had told Kirby about his days as an escape artist, and some magazines he had given him. [Editor’s Note: see sidebar.] From there, Jack went on to extrapolate a whole character who might have been described as, “What would I, Jack Kirby, have done in a similar context?” Other elements, of course, were piled upon that one. Writers, you have to remember, do not generally base their stories wholly on one source of inspiration or concept. They combine many components and most insert at least a smidgen of themselves— sometimes, a very large smidgen—into everything they write. If tomorrow, I had to write about Abraham Lincoln, obviously I’d be writing about his life and times, but it wouldn’t surprise me if, even unconsciously, a little Evanier began creeping in around the edges. So it was that Steranko’s adventures in escape-artistry gave Jack the notion. When he wrote the stories, however, Kirby was writing about what went on in his own head; about

his feelings of imprisonment in the comic book business and his yearning to escape from it. (There’s actually a delightful bit of symmetry there, in Jack projecting himself into Steranko’s role. Earlier, of course, Jack had launched Nick Fury as a blatantly autobiographical character, and Steranko had taken it over. As any creative person would do, he infused the character with his own personal style and allusions.) What I find most autobiographical about Mister Miracle is what Kirby didn’t do. He didn’t, for the most part, resort to tricks. When Jack first told me the concept of Mister Miracle, my mind immediately went to all those great Batman stories—many of them by Bill Finger—in which the Caped Crusader is imprisoned in some death trap and finds the means to break free. In those stories, it is always accomplished by some sort of clever strategy or gimmick. In real life, that is much of what an escape artist does. Part of the craft involves physical endurance and dexterity, but part involves hidden devices and misdirection: Concealed compartments, rigged trap doors, etc. Houdini used to hide lockpicks in his mouth and many of his successors use diversion and outright fibs to make a predicament look vastly more difficult and dangerous than it actually is. Jack knew all this, in part from the books Steranko had left with him. The “misdirection” techniques—making you think a non-lethal stunt is potentially deadly—he summarily rejected for dramatic reasons. In a Kirby comic, danger is danger; it is no hoax. In Jack’s stories, Mister Miracle never gets out of his death traps via a trick, or at least not wholly because of a trick or gimmick. Even when he employs something of the sort, he really gets

Nope. Not in the least. The inspiration for Sitwell was Roy Thomas, who had joined the Marvel staff not long before. Jack recalled how, when he and Bill Everett were visiting in the office, Roy would approach them and tick off facts about their past accomplishments, often employing a vocabulary that sounded, to Kirby and Everett, remarkably well-seasoned for a guy in the funnybook biz. This

Steranko’s World of Escapes For those interested in knowing more about Steranko’s career as an escape artist and stage magician, the most impressive documentation of it I’ve seen to date is in an obscure magazine from October 1964, Genii, The Conjurors’ Magazine (Volume 29, #2). The print run on this issue was fewer than 5000 copies, and it was distributed to magic shops and subscribers (this was, of course, before Steranko got his big break in comics, so few copies would have made it into comics collectors’ hands upon its initial release), so it’s extremely difficult to find a copy. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay author Michael Chabon loaned us his copy for this issue, and he had to pay dearly for it on eBay (thanks again, Michael!). If you can manage to track down a copy, you’ll undoubtedly be as amazed as I was to find the depth of information about the escape trade— and Steranko’s own act—contained therein. There’s photos of Steranko’s personal collection of lockpicks (used in his act, and many of his own invention), techniques for escaping chains and straitjackets, tips on showmanship, a transcript of his “Dynamic Magic” stage show, details of how he executed many of his escapes, and even a section outlining ideas for future escapes, had he stayed in the business (including several early Steranko comic-style drawings showing the proposed escapes, done before he hit it big in comics). Steranko created the cover (shown above) by pasting his own image and some additional type over one of Houdini’s most famous photos (this done in pre-Photoshop days, so not the easiest task to complete convincingly), showing he had a strong grasp of print production techniques long before his comics career began (no doubt learned during his years in advertising). It even includes a copy of the promotional brochure he designed for use in getting bookings for his stage show. Steranko’s career as an escape artist started as early as age 15 when, as detailed in a newspaper clipping reprinted in the issue, he challenged his local police department to lock him in a cell, from which he proceeded to escape, confounding his captors. He went on to have a successful stage act of sleight-of-hand tricks and escapes, pioneering numerous techniques that are undoubtedly still in use today. While Steranko isn’t as well-known an escape artist as Houdini before him—or thanks to television coverage, David Copperfield today—I don’t doubt that the information contained in Genii would inspire and influence future performers of the liberation arts, and make Steranko as widely acknowledged in magic circles as he is in comics. ★ —John Morrow 7

Writer’s Bloc

(next page, top) Dust jacket for the hardback version of Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, featuring his character The Escapist—a character who, according to published reports, is getting his own series from DC Comics soon (gee, maybe they’ll team him up with Mister Miracle!). ©2002 Michael Chabon.

(next page, bottom) Panel from Kirby’s autobiographical story “Street Code,” done in pencil. Kirby fans who’ve never experienced this remarkable 10-page story can read it as part of TwoMorrows’ trade paperback Streetwise, available elsewhere in this issue. ©2002 Jack Kirby Estate.

A Few Words From

(Acclaimed author Michael Chabon was born in 1963, and grew up reading comic books. He’s penned several books, but the one of most interest to Kirby fans is undoubtedly The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel dealing with the Golden Age of Comics and escape artistry as its themes. In the midst of his extremely hectic schedule these days, Michael took time out to conduct the following interview in March 2002, via e-mail.)

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: What were the first Kirby comics you read? Did you read Mister Miracle when Kirby was working on it in the 1970s? MICHAEL CHABON: Absolutely. Mister Miracle was my favorite of the Fourth World books. I was a devoted reader of DC books in the very early ’70s, as a seven- or eight-year-old. I really didn’t care for the Marvel books. I suppose they went over my head.

Michael Chabon They had a frenetic, sweaty quality to them. The DC books were cool and mannered and the values were easy to comprehend. Little kids really do believe in truth and justice and the American way. So I didn’t know from Kirby. Then all of a sudden those banners started appearing in the DC books: “Kirby Is Coming!” and then, finally, “Kirby Is Here!” I had no idea who Kirby was. I thought it might be a character—some vague association chiming in my mind with the Rip Kirby newspaper strip. Then my dad brought me home the first few Kirby Jimmy Olsen books. That was always a book prone to bizarre flights of fancy, but— whoa. I don’t think I knew quite what to make of Kirby at first. The book that really, truly, permanently blew my mind was the issue of Mister Miracle in which he fights the creature from the Id [#8]; a big, pink, comatose but sentient wad of bubblegum. There’s this incredible double-page spread of the Female Furies killing time in their barracks. That panel just completely unhinged me. The dynamic layout, the wealth of figures and the variety of their costumes, the air of violence and sexuality, the bizarrely stilted dialogue. From that point on I was a confirmed Kirbyite. TJKC: Did any characters or scenes from Mister Miracle influence your novel? For instance, could a parallel be drawn between Joe Kavalier’s mentor Bernard Kornblum, and Himon from Mister Miracle? How about between Joe Kavalier’s own escape from Nazi-occupied Prague, and Scott Free’s escape from Apokolips? MICHAEL: There may very well be underpinnings of Mister Miracle in my book. I’m sure there are; but if so, I was totally unaware of them at the time. You could toss in that the ‘fictional’ character of Max Mayflower who trains the Escapist is a bit like Thaddeus Brown, the original Mister Miracle. And I guess that makes Sammy Oberon! The surest connection, and the one that I really was conscious of, was between my guy and Jim Steranko. It was reading about Steranko’s first career as an escape artist that encouraged me to develop the motif of Houdini and escape artistry that was very lightly emphasized in the first few drafts. And Steranko also underlies Mister Miracle. So that’s the strongest link, I think, between my book and JK’s. TJKC: Your novel features a who’s who of Golden Age comics creators making cameo appearances, from Stan Lee, Joe Simon, and Gil Kane to Will Eisner and others; but Kirby seems conspicuous by his absence, not actually appearing as a character in the novel. Was this intentional, and if so, why?

MICHAEL: Well, I guess I just sort of felt as if this book was, in a way, for Jack Kirby, or of him—as much as, in a very different way, it was for and of my dad (to whom I dedicated it). Having him also appear in it might have seemed like too much, somehow. TJKC: On page 100 of the hardcover edition, it’s revealed that Sammy Clay’s mother fell in love with Sammy’s father in “Kurtzburg’s Saloon” on New York’s Lower East Side in 1919. In what other ways was the novel inspired by Kirby’s own escape from his Lower East Side upbringing? MICHAEL: There was no direct inspiration from Kirby’s life; not really, except insofar as Kirby’s history mirrored so closely the history of my own grandparents and great-grandparents, many of whom settled in the Lower East Side, too. TJKC: An underlying theme of Kavalier & Clay seems to be “Comics are escapism, but there’s no getting away from real life.” Is that an accurate assessment, and is there a message there for comics fans? MICHAEL: I don’t see it that way. I might restate it thus: “Comics are escapism, and thank God, because without escapist art there really would be no getting away from real life.” By the way, I believe that all great literature is, in part, escapist. When you inhabit the life of a fictional character or characters, you are given a taste of what it might feel like to be somebody else—to escape, if only for a moment, the prison of your own consciousness. TJKC: Can you elaborate on the theme of “escape” in the novel? An example that seems to fall under the theme is Joe Kavalier’s journey to Antarctica during the war to escape his past and his brother’s death. MICHAEL: I read this sequence as more in the nature of an escape in itself; that is, Joe is locked away in this great frozen box of death, a trap that kills everyone but him, and he alone escapes; and yet, at the same time, learns that the trap of memory, of guilt and remorse and shame, is one that he cannot escape, not even by taking revenge. TJKC: Another is the Escapist’s secret identity of Tom Mayflower; of course, the Pilgrims escaped persecution on their ship, the Mayflower. MICHAEL: Interesting. I just wanted something that sounded super-WASPy. TJKC: Help us get into your mind as a writer. Are those types of occurrences coincidental or planned? Do you consciously set out to develop these ideas from the start, or do they evolve, and come to you as you write? What are some other areas in the novel that tie into the “escape” theme? MICHAEL: Theme is absolutely the very last thing I consider. I start with a character, a setting, or a story idea; an interesting event or episode or sequence of events. Then I start writing, and I try to use my ability to manipulate language to the utmost, hoping to make these characters, this setting, this story, come 13

INNERVIEW

Marshall Rogers Inte Conducted by Jon B. Cooke, transcribed by LongBox.com Staff (Marshall Rogers burst on the otherwise dull comic book scene of the mid- to late 1970s, and caused a sensation with his work on Batman in Detective Comics, Dr. Strange for Marvel Comics, and others; but it was his 4-issue revival of Mister Miracle that impressed Kirby fans, and is still fondly remembered. This interview took place by telephone in March 2002, and was copyedited by the artist.) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: How far back do you recall Jack Kirby’s work? MARSHALL ROGERS: I grew up with Kirby’s work. He’s probably the reason I wanted to get into comic books. TJKC: What work specifically?

(above) Photo of Marshall Rogers from the late 1970s. (right) Rogers pencils and Terry Austin inks on a page from Detective Comics #468, featuring Bruce Wayne’s encounter with an old Kirby character, Morgan Edge. Morgan Edge, Batman, Bruce Wayne TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

MARSHALL: Everything, but it wasn’t until he started working with Marvel that I knew what the man’s name was. Then, once I realized who the guy was drawing that work, I realized I had probably first read him when he had done either the Shield or the Fly. I don’t remember exactly which of the two, but Jack’s work was so distinctive that even as a young kid, I recognized it: “Hey, this is the same guy that did the Fly.” I went back and I checked it out and looked at the art and realized, yeah, this was the same guy. TJKC: What was it about Jack’s work that was compelling? MARSHALL: The dynamics, I guess, would be the best way to say it. Jack brought the work to life for me. It made it seem more than twodimensional to me. One thing that I remember noticing was when some villain would uproot a building from a New York City block, the pipes and the guts of the building underneath were dangling down, as compared to Superman; when he lifted a building up, it had this nice clean flat surface, you know— as if it was a toy placed

on a chess board or something—but there was always rubble and junk coming out of Jack’s buildings whenever they were lifted up. TJKC: Were you into his Atlas monster work? Did you look at those—like Tales of Suspense, Strange Tales, you know—the preMarvel hero stuff? MARSHALL: A little bit, but I don’t honestly remember seeing it straight off the shelves. I was collecting comic books as a youngster, but I didn’t get right in on the very beginning of Marvel. I ended up running around the neighborhood trading to get back issues, so I don’t remember exactly if I started out with some of the monster books and had seen them, or had picked them up during trades, etc. TJKC: Have you looked at the monster stuff since? Did you find anything of interest in there to this day?

rview MARSHALL: I guess, really, the monster genre was not my favorite genre, but I looked at everything and anything that Jack did at one point, that I could lay my hands on. TJKC: You were born in 1950, right? MARSHALL: That’s right. TJKC: So, generally speaking, you started picking them up around ’62? Were you about 11 or 12 years old? MARSHALL: No, I was reading comic books earlier than that. TJKC: I meant the Marvel stuff specifically. You said you didn’t get in on the ground floor necessarily. MARSHALL: I just missed it because a friend of mine had Amazing Fantasy #15 that Spider-Man first appeared in. Then I ended up buying the second issue of Spider-Man, but it wasn’t like I was hitting the newsstand every week to get them, so it was hit and miss in the beginning. TJKC: Did you find Fantastic Four compelling the minute you encountered it? MARSHALL: Yeah, and actually X-Men was one of my favorite titles. That was the one I think I really glommed onto because I always felt I had large feet and I really related to the Beast. (laughter) I wanted to be able to walk up the sides of a building. That was one of the things about Jack’s work, particularly in the beginning, that I think was the most attractive thing to me. The situations were more downto-earth. They weren’t as fantastic as the DC stuff. It was Jack creating characters that would walk up the side of a building or shrink to the size of an ant. It was more basic fantasy elements rather than the fantastical type of elements. The Fantastic Four was certainly a departure from that, but his other stuff was even more compelling to me, and Thor would not necessarily be included in that. I think the work of his I found most compelling were the simple fantasy elements, like shrinking down to a real small size or being able to swing around a building as if you were on a jungle vine. TJKC: Did you also clue into Stan Lee’s contributions to it? MARSHALL: In the beginning I was attracted to the artwork. I realized Stan’s name from the signatures. When I got a comic book, I would basically flip though the pages just to see the artwork and then go back and read the story later on. Particularly with Jack’s work, you could tell what the story was without having to read the captions.

TJKC: The X-Men was a title on which he later did quite loose breakdowns. Could you still see the Kirby through the guys who inked and finished the penciled stuff? MARSHALL: I could, and I was able to quickly tell as soon as Jack stopped contributing to it as a ghost, because the layout and dynamics just took a vast turn, and became very different. TJKC: Prior to Marvel, did you collect comics? Did you save them or were you a reader? MARSHALL: I was a reader. TJKC: And once you got bit by the Marvel bug, did you continue to read DC comics or did you pass them by?

MARSHALL: I always went back to Batman, hoping to see that “something” that I’d always wanted to see, but—. TJKC: You didn’t see it. MARSHALL: No, I never did, you’re right. TJKC: So did you remain with Marvel pretty much throughout your teen years? MARSHALL: Well, I don’t know; about 15 or 16 I started getting interested in girls and losing interest in comics. Then once I got into college, I started to take up the interest again. It coincided with a serious interest in getting into the business. TJKC: Were you losing interest in the comics just as Jack was getting into the Galactus trilogy, for 19

Gallery

On the following pages are a plethora of pencils from various Mister Miracle issues, as follows: Issue #5 (pages 26-28), #6 (pages 29-33), #7 (pages 34-37, including a “Young Scott Free” story), and #8 (pages 38-39 and 42-43). Our centerfold (pages 40-41) features the two-page spread from Mister Miracle #11, inked by Mike Royer. All characters TM & ©2002 DC Comics.

TRIBUTE

2001 Kirby Tribute Panel Held at Comicon International: San Diego on July 22, 2001 (Featuring Will Eisner, John Buscema, John Romita, and Mike Royer, moderated by Mark Evanier, transcribed by Brian K. Morris) MARK EVANIER: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Eighth Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, and my eleventh panel of this convention. (applause) I’m probably Mark Evanier and I’ve made a rule that I do not go to any convention that will not let me host a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel. Actually, in some cases, that’s superfluous because we’ve been talking about Jack on half the panels I’ve done here

so far. I just did a Russell Myers panel and we brought him up in there, too. Jack was an amazing gentleman. You all know that, and many of you had the pleasure of knowing him and meeting him. Let me introduce the dais of people we have assembled and I’ll talk to them about Jack for a while, then we’re going to show a videotape that is not one of the happier moments of Jack’s life, unfortunately, but which is part of the historical record. It is a two-part tape, the first part of which is Johnny Carson libeling Jack Kirby, and the second half is Johnny Carson apologizing to Jack Kirby. (applause) Jack liked pretty much everybody in comics. I don’t

WILL EISNER: I hate to tell you what it took to get one. (laughs) JOHN ROMITA: You didn’t know the right people. (laughs) EVANIER: So you’ve finally done work that lives up to the standards of Will Eisner. (laughs) EISNER: I lied about my age. (laughs) EVANIER: And here to my left is a gentleman that Jack handpicked as his favorite inker for the last twenty years of his life. I don’t think people realize how hard this man worked. To ink everything Jack Kirby did, alone... well, a lot of people could not have done that, even badly. To ink it and letter it so well under those time constraints for that rotten money was an amazing achievement. We owe an awful lot of thanks to Mr. Mike Royer. (applause) Let me also introduce in the audience a couple of people very briefly. When I was working for Jack, I had the pleasure of having as my friend and colleague and partner and co-conspirator, a gentleman who did an awful lot of work for Jack personally and professionally, and was a lifelong friend of the family, Mr. Steve Sherman. (applause) And Jack’s other favorite inker in the last decade or two of his life, and a very close member of the Kirby family—I mean “family” in the very best sense of the word because he was practically almost blood over there, Mr. Mike Thibodeaux. (applause) I also do see one other person here. Jack had an amazing ability to get into trouble, usually not of his own making, and he had two attorneys throughout most of the Eighties and Nineties who were dealing with these problems. One was a man by the name of Steve Rohde who is now a high muck-a-muck in the ACLU. He spends one hour a week making money as a lawyer and fifty hours a week protecting civil rights. His former collaborator and partner is now in his own practice and I knew him mostly as a voice on the phone, dealing with all of Jack’s problems, calling me in exasperation at whatever stupid thing Marvel was claiming this week. This is Mr. Paul Levine over here. (applause) I’m going to start with Mr. Eisner—and, by the way, you all bought this, right? (holds up Eisner’s book Shop Talk to wild applause) I know you’ve told this story before but you never told it at one of these panels, about hiring Jack Kirby and his coming to work for your studio—and at some point, you’ve got to tell the towel story. (laughs) Tell us about the operation that Jack came into. EISNER: Well, the company was Eisner and Iger. I former a company with Jerry Iger who’d been formerly the editor of Wow, What A Magazine that collapsed after two issues. We owned a shop producing, or packaging, comics. In those days, the pulp magazines were dying and the publishers who were still trying to survive, were looking for other things to publish. They were publishing comic magazines, as we called them in those days. They weren’t called “comic books.” Then, as it came to pass, into my shop comes this kid named Jacob Kurtzberg. Whatever happened to him, I don’t know. (laughs) He kind of looked like John Garfield to

A French Kirby Exhibition (or nearly)! by Jean Depelley and Philippe Jecker The 2002 Angoulême International Comics Festival (which took place last January 24th-27th) was a nice opportunity for European comics fans to admire a wonderful display of originals from the greatest US comics artists, and the King was not forgotten! The CNBDI (standing for National Center for International Comics) is a one-of-a-kind museum in France, since it presents original comics art only and has been doing so these past twelve years, as well as organizing important thematic exhibitions focused on the nominated artists once every year during the Festival. Although it usually displays a wonderful collection of classic French Belgium “bande dessinée” (including art from Hergé, Jijé, Franquin, and Moebius), US comics are also well-represented, with samples from the Golden Age of comic strips, EC, underground, and mainstream super-hero comics. The 2002 edition celebrated nominated artist Martin Veyron’s sophisticated, Parisian humor, but it was the US artists’ exhibition that definitely caught the public interest. The museum authorities (around Jean-Pierre Mercier and Thierry Groensteen) decided to open their holdings, and displayed a fantastic selection of art “made in the USA,” with a very original scenography created by Marie-Annick Beauvery which occupied two floors of the CNBDI. First, the visitor was introduced to American comics by a comic book store reconstruction (much different than our French shops!), before admiring samples of modern independent artists (featuring art by Jill Thomson, Jeff Smith, Mike Mignola, and others). Then, upstairs began a real feast for the eyes: a wonderful Kirby Torch poster (statted from a Kirby original) welcomed the fan! The tone was set; pages of the greatest artists were showcased under the moody lights of the museum, including George Herriman, Charles M. Schulz, George McManus, Robert Crumb, Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, Burne Hogarth, Joe Kubert, Jack Davis, Barry Smith, Jeff Jones, as well as a special exhibition of Will Eisner’s Spirit! (Will was attending the Festival as guest of honor and, by the way, he likes TJKC! ) In the middle of these treasures, three wonderful Kirby pages, intelligently chosen to show different inkers on Jack’s work, were presented:

remember ever hearing of a writer or artist he didn’t like, the lowest being those people whose books he felt were highly derivative or who he felt were just imitating or tracing other people’s works. That certainly did not apply to any of these gentlemen. He could not mention Johnny Romita without the phrase, “the guy who saved Spider-Man.” When Jack went over to DC, one of the things he very much wanted to do was a very sophisticated romance comic. Eventually, the idea got dumbed down into that True Divorce Cases/Soul Love thing which we did that Jack never really understood. Through it all, he kept mentioning how much he wanted to get this man to work with him. He truly admired his work; Mr. Johnny Romita, ladies and gentlemen. (applause) Another artist for whom Jack never had anything but the highest regard was the gentleman who followed him on the Fantastic Four and Thor. My first question, when we get to him, will be, “Just what’s it like to follow Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four and Thor?” (laughs) Those of us who felt a certain loss when Jack left those books were more than delighted to see the expert handiwork of Marvel’s supreme penciler, Mr. John Buscema. (applause) And if you said to Jack, “Who do you really admire in comics?”, the first two names heard would be Bill Everett or this gentleman, whom he especially admired, not only as an artist but as a role model. I think Will was almost a father figure, in a way. He was in the business about an hour before Jack. (laughs) And we’re going to talk about that a little bit. But actually, this man finally achieved something the other night when he actually won an Eisner Award. (laughs, applause) Is that your first Eisner? I’ve got three of them, and that’s your first?

• Fantastic Four Annual #1, page 28 from the “Sub-Mariner Vs. The Human Race” story, inked by Dick Ayers (from which the Torch art had been swiped for the poster) • Thor #130 page 5, (not too badly) inked by Colletta • Fantastic Four #97, page 4, inked by Frank Giacoia One complaint: the frames made it impossible to read Jack’s margin notes and give a clear shot on the Marvel method, but the art spoke for itself: brilliant, energetic and inspiring! If consideration was proportional to the amount of art displayed, Kirby was really honored in Angoulême as he had as many pages displayed as Foster or Hogarth, and actually more than anyone else!

The Mister Miracle To Be

In Closing

y the time Mister Miracle #10 hit the stands, the winds of change were already blowing hard at DC. I was, as yet, completely unaware that they were pulling the plug on Jack’s Fourth World. Still, something seemed dramatically different in the approach to the book. Something I couldn’t put my finger on was missing. It opened, by all appearances, like any other chapter in the Mister Miracle saga. The only hint that anything was

amiss came from the DC house ad for the upcoming Kamandi series. I remember wondering how Jack could handle another book when he was already writing, drawing and editing four. Whether I realized it then or not, the Mister Miracle I knew was gone, just as surely as if it had shared the fate of its companion series. It would not be inaccurate to state that issue #10 was actually the beginning of Jack’s second Mister Miracle series. Even the story’s title, “The Mister Miracle To Be,” seemed to bear that out. The edict had already come down, unbeknownst to most readers, that Jack’s Fourth World was to go the way of the Dodo. Mister Miracle would remain but with all flights to Apokolips grounded. Future storylines were to be earthbound with no subplots or ongoing themes. All stories would be brought to a firm resolution at the end of each issue. It was essentially a reduction of Kirbyism, which in itself is antithetical. Only now do I begin to appreciate the task that Jack was faced with, what he tried to do, and why it did not and could not work. The good people at DC had reasoned, no doubt, that Mister Miracle had the makings of a successful book without the New Gods connection and in this assertion, they were probably correct. The basic idea of the escape artist/super-hero was a good one and Jack could have gone in fifty different directions with it and had a solid and entertaining premise for a series. The problem was that neither DC nor Jack, with all his talent, could dismiss the previous character development or the expectations already firmly planted in the minds of every reader. To follow up on those previous developments was now forbidden, to deny them impossible, and to ignore them, as nine subsequent issues of Mister Miracle would demonstrate, was problematic to say the least. As I look back on that troublesome issue #10 now, I recognize what eluded me as a twelveyear old. “The Mister Miracle To Be” appeared to contain all the familiar Kirby architecture. “The World Protective League,” “The Head,” the “Tinker’s Shop,” and the “Orbital Plague Bomb” were all reminiscent of the wonderful Kirby concepts so typical of his work since the early Sixties but

for one difference: For the first time, they were presented without any genuine sincerity or commitment. Suddenly with Mister Miracle #10, these elements had become disposable, useful only as props to advance the plot. The complex nature of evil as Jack so skillfully presented it throughout his Fourth World series was replaced by the childish notions of a more adolescent worldview. The story’s villains, in this instance, were quickly repentant after their plans were thwarted, spouting such innocuous dialogue as “I’m going straight after this. I’m not going to waste my second chance.” Mister Miracle #11, while it introduced no new concepts, revisited old ones with similar apathy. Dr. Bedlam returned, but minus the thrill and ingenuity of his first encounter. Mother Box, mentioned throughout the story, seemed equally benign, cut off from her connection to the Source. Indeed, Mother Box, the last Fourth World concept to endure, would not be referenced past issue #11. All future mention of Scott’s escape technology referred to his hood “circuitry.” Even the Female Furies were quietly being “phased out,” to use a Fourth World pun. They would not be seen again after a brief appearance in Mister Miracle #14. The new Mister Miracle went on to face more mundane nemeses such as Mystivac (an alien disguised as a buck-toothed robot), Madame Evil Eyes, and King Komodo. The artwork for the series grew less detailed and compelling as Kirby seemed to fall into a shorthand derivative of his former efforts. All the big visionary concepts that were so characteristic of Kirby’s writing were absent. Even the new escape routines, being strapped to missile projected at a mine or bound to a railroad track, were banal and unimaginative compared with earlier concepts. In point of fact, the whole escape-artist shtick seemed to be reduced to nothing more than Scott Free’s 9-to-5, with his real adventures taking place outside of the context of his special talents. New characters like Shiloh Norman only served to blur the distinction further until there was nothing left in the plots from issue to issue to differentiate them in any way from any other super-hero storyline. With the progressive disintegration of the elements that originally made the series popular, Mister Miracle now faced the one trap he could not possibly escape: Inevitable cancellation. Stripped of his heritage, Mister Miracle quickly dissipated into a one-dimensional shadow of his former self. Big Barda, the once-fiery Special Powers Training Officer,

had also grown unbearably tame. The inability to explore the richness of the characters, as they had been originally conceived, left no room for story interest beyond the most superficial elements and plot conventions. To borrow an old phrase, Mister Miracle was “all dressed up with no place to go.” Consequently, when issue #18 arrived sporting a copious cast of Fourth World characters, no one mistook it for anything other than what it was meant to be: A swan song. Outside of its function as a final farewell, it was one of Kirby’s most uneven offerings

to date. The wedding of Mister Miracle and Big Barda, around which the plot revolved, was unprecedented considering the lack of character development that had plagued the series since its renovation. It was a lackluster ending that had been long expected. Mister Miracle, after defying so many split-second, life-threatening traps had died a slow, agonizing death. By this time, it must have come as something of a relief for Jack. ★