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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR FORTY IN THE US

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THE TWOMORROWS LIBRARY NNER! RD WI A W A EISNER

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SEE HOW YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS MAKE A LIVING OUTSIDE COMICS

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CELEBRATING GREAT COMIC BOOK ARTISTS OF ENGLAND

ACTING WITH A PENCIL EFFECTIVE DRAWING FOR COMICS AND ANIMATION

COMICS ABOVE GROUND features top comics pros discussing their inspirations and training, and how they apply it in “Mainstream Media,” including Conceptual Illustration, Video Game Development, Children’s Books, Novels, Design, Illustration, Fine Art, Storyboards, Animation, Movies & more! Written by DURWIN TALON (author of the top-selling PANEL DISCUSSIONS), this book features creators sharing their perspectives and their work in comics and their “other professions,” with career overviews, never-before-seen art, and interviews! Featuring:

Make your drawings come alive with this n ALL-NEW sioof British indispensible guide to creating vtheerichrhistory l Ait celebration of a ig d a animation and comic book art. Cartooning g Comics Artists and their influence on the in w ie v d e and lively figure drawing are explained in a Explore the lives of the partners and wives ’r e US with in-depth interviews and art by: u r o SE • DAVE MCKEAN clear, easily understood prose and demonIf y EABOLLAND as theyn share , PL• BRIAN CAPTAIN ACTION debuted in the wake of of the top names in comics, MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ Top creators discuss all aspects of the An unprecedented assembly of talent tio capersonal strated by HUNDREDS OF DRAWINGS li memories, anecdotes, photos, b u the ’60s Batman TV show, and could is p most prominent and affable personality! DESIGN OF COMICS: drawing NEW autobiographical stories: r!O’NEILL created KEVIN • ALAN DAVISshe h t f especially for this book by two li •• BARRY and never-before-seen art by o With momentos,creators bGIBBONS become 13 different super-heroes. p •u DAVE e • Covers his career as illustrator, inker, and h • WILL EISNER • SCOTT HAMPTON • Barry WINDSOR-SMITH • C.C. BECK t Emmy Award-winning masters of the in comics! m o over 200 toy photos, this trade paperback the top a • BRUCE TIMM r f WINDSOR-SMITH subject: Mike Manley and Bret Blevins of • BRYAN HITCH editor, peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL le • MIKE WIERINGO • WALTER SIMONSON • Sergio ARAGONÉS • Walter SIMONSON p isbook chronicles his history (including comic • BERNIE WRIGHTSON th

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

TOP ARTISTS DISCUSS THE DESIGN OF COMICS

• MIKE MIGNOLA • MARK SCHULTZ • DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI • MIKE CARLIN • DICK GIORDANO • BRIAN STELFREEZE • CHRIS MOELLER • MARK CHIARELLO If you’re serious about creating effective, innovative comics, or just enjoying them from the creator’s perspective, this guide is must-reading! (208-Page Trade Paperback) $26 US

DICK GIORDANO

CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

REFLECTIONS on his career milestones! • Lavishly illustrated with RARE AND NEVER SEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art (includes a color section)! • Extensive index of his published work! • Comments & tributes by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO & others! • With a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS and Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ!

STREETWISE

TOP ARTISTS DRAWING STORIES OF THEIR LIVES

• Brent ANDERSON • Nick CARDY • Roy THOMAS & John SEVERIN • Paul CHADWICK • Rick VEITCH • Murphy ANDERSON • Joe KUBERT • Evan DORKIN • Sam GLANZMAN • Plus Art SPIEGELMAN, Jack KIRBY, more! Cover by RUDE • Foreword by EISNER (160-Page Trade Paperback) $24 US

WARREN COMPANION • A history of the Legion of Super-Heroes, with DAVE COCKRUM, MIKE GRELL, JIM STARLIN, JAMES SHERMAN, PAUL LEVITZ, KEITH GIFFEN, STEVE LIGHTLE, MARK WAID, JIM SHOOTER, JIM MOONEY, AL PLASTINO, and more! • Rare and never-seen Legion art by the above, plus GEORGE PÉREZ, NEAL ADAMS, CURT SWAN, and others! • Unused Cockrum character designs and pages from an UNUSED STORY! • New cover by DAVE COCKRUM and JOE RUBINSTEIN, introduction by JIM SHOOTER, and more! (224-page Trade Paperback) $29 US

GET ALL THREE COLLECTIONS OF MARK EVANIER’S ACCLAIMED POV COLUMNS! Each volume includes new essays, plus new illustrations and new covers by Mark’s GROO collaborator and MAD artist SERGIO ARAGONÉS! 200-page Trade Paperbacks • $17 US EACH

THE LIFE & ART OF

MURPHY ANDERSON R.C. HARVEY’s lavishly illustrated autobiographical memoir of the man whose style defined the DC look for a generation!! • Covers his work on SUPERMAN, HAWKMAN, ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, BUCK ROGERS, and more! • Loaded with ANDERSON ART, plus behind-the-scenes anecdotes about FINE, EISNER, SWAN, KANE, and others! • Includes a deluxe COLOR SECTION showcasing many of Murphy’s finest cover recreations and paintings! (176-page Trade Paperback) $22 US

“I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THIS GUY!”

• ALAN MOORE • WILL EISNER and other gents! • DAVID LLOYD appearances), with historical anecdotes by • STAN LEE • GENE COLAN ED FOR FREE DRAW! magazine! INTEND NOT(192-page Trade Paperback) US is ich the late GIL KANE, JIM SHOOTER, STAN paid wh (160-page Trade Paperback) $24 US you $26 L, • JOE KUBERT •AT JOHN ROMITA or M ER•IA subscriber, TEDKURTZMAN WESTON (co-creator of GI Joe, Captain • HARVEY DAVE you’re a print . If SIM is COPYRIGH our sincere RE hisGreatest ve HE ha W u Action, and Mego’s World’s yo NY , A ite • HOWARD CRUSE • DAN DeCARLO NG NLOADI it at our webs is one. loadmore! Super-Heroes), and others,DO plusW never-seen wnmany • DAVE cations like th e to doand chargCOOPER artwork by GIL KANE, JOE producing publi r website or torrent, odest fee we (208-Page keep$24 e mSTATON, to th us s he Trade Paperback) US ow ot all e t CARMINE INFANTINO, JERRY ORDWAY, suppor from som NSENT, —your thanksIncludes UT OUR CO ded it for free and MURPHY ANDERSON! a ad you downloa lutely 100% DONE WITHO ATERIAL. If If inste color section! Written by MICHAEL EURY! s abso RIGHTED M

COMING IN JULY!

R COPY ow that it wa STING OF OU ILLEGAL PO ould do: sh and it was an u yo at wh think. , here’s see what you that’s the case L ISSUE, and ING and purchase a TA GI DI IS r and READ TH ep it, DO THE RIGHT TH 1) Go ahead int edition at ou it enough to ke website, or purchase the pr local ur yo at r 2) If you enjoy or ou e) d of it from Edition for fre er. legal downloa to the Digital gular paid read h entitles you T SHARE ve you as a re ha website (whic to e lov R and DO NO e’d TE W . PU op M sh CO ok UR YO comic bo OM FR Y, HERE. DELETE IT ST IT ANYW R MATERIAL ILLEGALL 3) Otherwise, IENDS OR PO NG OU wnloadDI do e OA fre IT WITH FR r NL fo W s N’T KEEP DO te issue of all our magazine cide if you want to 4) Finally, DO for you to de fer one comple downloading for free. We of , which should be sufficient enough to keep uce. ite bs ns we tio r blica pu r ing at ou od ou pr joy we en e material rs. If you purchase othe r company by paying for th ou absorb these d canGRAIN: AGAINST them, support ALTER EGO: ckets, anTHE ep po ns MAD ARTIST oration with de and po op—with doze THE CBA COLLECTION rp sh co THE EXTRAORDINARY p” nt gia e om ek “m we a on lly d ra We’re not som WORKS WALLACE WOOD an —lite nyOF Reprints the ALTER EGO flip-sides from the day and night a small compa g away . Weonlove out-of-print COMIC BOOK ARTIST #1-5, losses. We’re Theedefinitive memoir creators, slavin this work ALAN for allbiographical elance MOORE fre on om g ly inc kin re or of r, -w nt ne one of comics' finest artists, 20 years in rd ou ow plus 30 NEW PAGES of features & art: amHIS OWN op of ha maltells mini The British author local comic sh all pretty HERO GETS GIRL! e areclusive ors, and yourthe making! ds, to makSTORY b us of the sm • Special color cover by JOE KUBERT! th ro enOF t au n’ in an extensive series of interviews! rs, do ito e ed as r THE LIFE & ART s. Ple associate BHOB STEWART but ou any • All-new rare and previously-unpublished traces won’t be stay in busines• Former what we do•, Spotlights therewith re career, tion to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER SCRIPTS, blicaSTRIPS, will enlifesuand contribuart by JACK KIRBY, GIL KANE, JOE this puRARE Doing so Wood's income fromARTWORK and PHOTOGRAPHS receiveof. the tions from many artists and writers who KUBERT, WALLY WOOD, FRANK MARK VOGER’s biography of the artist of of compensation we author, most never published load. knew Wood personally, making this a amount wnbefore! ROBBINS, NEAL ADAMS, and others! do LOIS LANE & CAPTAIN MARVEL! to is th e lik comic stories about Moore by: •uc Features ts od at remarkable compendium of art, insights pr d re • STEVE DITKO on the creation of de futu from downloa NEIL GAIMAN, DAVE GIBBONS, SAM • Covers KURT’S LIFE AND CAREER ly be and critical commentary! on SPIDER-MAN, ROY THOMAS on THE ld ou sh ns KIETH, KEVIN O’NEILL, BRIAN io the 1940s to his passing in 2002! at ic • From childhood drawings & early bl pu X-MEN, AVENGERS/KREE-SKRULL s VEITCH, and others, orrowRICK BOLLAND, • Features NEVER-SEEN PHOTOS & TwoM samples to nearly endless comics pages WAR, THE INVADERS, and more!

The ultimate guide to Warren Publishing, the publisher of such mags as CREEPY, EERIE, VAMPIRELLA, BLAZING COMBAT, and others. Reprints COMIC BOOK ARTIST #4 (completely reformatted), plus nearly 200 new pages: • 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 (288-page Limited Edition Hardcover, limited to 1000 copies, signed by JIM WARREN, with custom endleaves, 16 extra pages, plus a WRIGHTSON plate) $57 US

s.com ow orr(many unpublished), this is the most www.twom stunning display of Wood art ever

ILLUSTRATIONS from his files! • Includes recollections by ANDERSON, EISNER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, ALEX ROSS, MORT WALKER and others!

plus an artistic tribute by ALEX ROSS, and a new cover by DAVE MCKEAN! • Includes the RARE MOORE STORIES “Pictopia,” “Lust,” his unseen work on JUDGE DREDD, and more!

(128-page Trade Paperback) $19 US

(208-Page Trade Paperback) $29 US

COMIC BOOKS & OTHER NECESSITIES OF LIFE

First collection includes some of his best essays and commentaries, plus new ones on the state of the art form (as only Mark conveys it), the industry’s leading practitioners (including JACK KIRBY and CARL BARKS), convention-goingm and Mark’s old comic book club (with unforgettable anecdotes)!

WERTHAM WAS RIGHT!

Second collection features many never-before published columns on comic book history, creation, and appreciation, including Mark’s diatribe on comic book numbering, and an essay on comics greatest villain, DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM!

SUPERHEROES IN MY PANTS! (SHIPS IN MAY!)

NEW THIRD COLLECTION about the people who create comics, the people who read them, and why they do these strange things!

READ EXCERPTS & ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com

(160-page Trade Paperback) $20 US

assembled! • BILL PEARSON, executor of the Wood Estate, has contributed rare drawings directly from Wood's own files, while noted art collector ROGER HILL provides a wealth of obscure, previously unpublished Wood drawings and paintings. • Available in SOFTCOVER or LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER with 16 extra full-color pages, plus bonus B&W plates! (336-Page Trade Paperback) $44 US (352-Page Limited Hardcover) $64 US

Lists Wood’s PUBLISHED COMICS WORK in detail, plus FANZINE ART, ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATIONS, UNPUBLISHED WORK, and more. Illustrated with rare and unseen Wood artwork! (68 Pages) $7 US

JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST

Lists all of Jack Kirby’s PUBLISHED COMICS in detail, plus PORTFOLIOS, UNPUBLISHED WORK; even cross-references reprints! Filled with rare Kirby artwork!

• ADAM HUGHES • LOUISE SIMONSON • DAVE DORMAN • GREG RUCKA & MORE! (160-page Trade Paperback) $24 US

G-FORCE: ANIMATED

THE OFFICIAL BATTLE OF THE PLANETS GUIDEBOOK The official compendium to the Japanese animated TV program that revolutionized anime across the globe! Featuring plenty of unseen artwork and designs from the wondrous world of G-FORCE (a.k.a. Science Ninja Team Gatchaman), it presents interviews and behind-the-scenes stories of the pop culture phenomenon that captured the hearts and imagination of Generation X, and spawned the new hit comic series! Cowritten by JASON HOFIUS and GEORGE KHOURY, this FULL-COLOR account is highlighted by a NEW PAINTED COVER from master artist ALEX ROSS! (96-Page Trade Paperback) $20 US

(100 Pages) $7 US

MODERN MASTERS SERIES

please kn (176-Page Trade Paperback) $20 US

(176-pg. Paperback) $24 US

THE LEGION COMPANION

CAPTAIN ACTION

THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE

WALLACE WOOD CHECKLIST

Edited by ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON

FAWCETT COMPANION THE BEST OF FCA Presenting the best of the FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA newsletter! • New JERRY ORDWAY cover! • Index of ALL FAWCETT COMICS! • Looks inside the FAWCETT OFFICES! • Interviews, features, and rare and previously unpublished artwork by C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, MAC RABOY, DAVE BERG, ALEX TOTH, BOB OKSNER, GEORGE EVANS, ALEX ROSS, Foreword by MARC SWAYZE, and more!

A new series of trade paperbacks devoted to the BEST OF TODAY'S COMICS ARTISTS! Each volume contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, plus a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW (including influences and their views on graphic storytelling), DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!

VOL. 1: ALAN DAVIS

(128-Page Trade Paperback) $17 US

VOL. 2: GEORGE PÉREZ

(160-page Trade Paperback) $20 US

(128-Page Trade Paperback) $17 US

CRAZY HIP GROOVY GOGO WAY-OUT MONSTERS

PETE VON SHOLLY’s spoof of monster mags will have you laughing your pants off—right after you soil them from sheer terror! (48 Pages) $8 US

VOL. 3: BRUCE TIMM

(128-Page Trade Paperback) $19 US

MR. MONSTER, VOLUME ZERO • 12 Tales of Mr. Monster, with 30 ALL-NEW pages by MICHAEL T. GILBERT! • Collects hard-to-find stories & the lost NEWSPAPER STRIP! • New 8-page FULL-COLOR STORY by KEITH GIFFEN & MICHAEL T. GILBERT! (136-pg. Paperback) $14 US

N O UROTE A DD N EW BELORESS W!

Prices Include US Postage. Outside the US, Add $2 Per Item Canada, $3 Per Item Surface, $7 Per Item Airmail

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom. TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Dr. • Raleigh, NC 27614 • 919/449-0344 • FAX 919/449-0327 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Contents

THE NEW

OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . .2 (the last ’zine standing) KIRBY NEWS! . . . . . . . . . . . .2 UNDER THE COVERS . . . . . .5 (bi-i-i-i-i-gggg monkeys!) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . .6 (Mark Evanier discusses Kamandi’s origins)

#40, SUMMER 2004

INTERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 (P. Craig Russell wrestles with Kirby) INFLUENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 (Poet Jarret Keene on Artist Jack Kirby) RETROSPECTIVES . . . . . . .17 (a host of articles on Kirby’s Kamandi) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . .28 (Barry Forshaw digs up some more rare gems) GALLERY 1 (KAMANDI) . . .30 KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . .44 (Adam McGovern alerts the media) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . .46 (a new column analyzing Jack’s visual shorthand) TRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 (the 2003 Kirby Tribute Panel, with Mark Evanier, Michael Chabon, Sal Buscema, Larry Lieber, Stan Goldberg, Wendy Pini, Mike Royer, and a special mystery guest!) GALLERY 2 (OMAC) . . . . . .60 VISIONARY . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 (is OMAC’s world here now?) EPILOGUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 (so, whatever did happen to OMAC?) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . .78 (fan favorite letters) PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . .80 (the one that almost got away) Front cover inks: ERIK LARSEN Front cover colors: TOM ZIUKO Back cover inks/colors: REEDMAN 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: Ben Boxer, Big Barda, Brother Eye, Brute, Buddy Blank, Demon, Dr. Canus, Dr. Skuba, Flower, Glob, Justice League and all related characters, Kamandi, Klarion, Misfit, Mister Miracle, Mr. Big, New Gods, Oberon, OMAC, Pyra, Sacker, Sandman, Spirit, Teekl, Tuftan TM & ©2004 DC Comics • Black Panther, Bucky, Captain America, Dakota Kid, Daredevil, Devil Dinosaur, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Ka-Zar, Killraven, Mr. Fantastic, Rawhide Kid, Sif, Sub-Mariner, Thing, Thor, Vision, Wizard, Yellowjacket TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Black Hole TM & ©2004 Walt Disney Productions, Inc. • Escapist TM & ©2004 Michael Chabon • Kamandi of the Caves, Silver Star TM & ©2004 Jack Kirby Estate • Elfquest TM & ©2004 WaRP Graphics • Savage Dragon TM & ©2004 Erik Larsen • Ms. M’Eyes, the Shadow King and Thunk are TM & ©2004 Jack C. Harris and Dick Ayers.

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS: TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Dr. • Raleigh, NC 27614 • 919-449-0344 • FAX 919-449-0327 The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 11, No. 40, Summer 2004. Published quarterly by & ©2004 TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. 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 ©2004 Jack Kirby unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is ©2004 the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA.

Mark evanier

Jack F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby by Mark Evanier (this page and next) The original concept drawings for the Kamandi cast. Notice how many of the early series plot twists were already conceived at this developmental stage. All characters TM & ©2004 DC Comics

can tell you exactly how Kamandi, the Last Boy of Earth, came to be. And while we’re at it, you’re going to have to hear about The Demon and a little about my relationship with Jack Kirby since it’s all one story. It began around September of 1971. Jack was writing and drawing New Gods, Forever People and Mister Miracle for DC and they’d been coming out for almost a year. He was working ahead of schedule so he was finishing the eighth or ninth issues around this time. They were all bi-monthly books so they didn’t fully consume his quota, which called for a minimum of fifteen pages a week. Previously, the overage was occupied by Jimmy Olsen and by the black-and-white magazines (In the Day of the Mob, Spirit World and the ones that never even made it that

Initially, Jack had not expected New Gods and its allied titles to become his main project at DC. When he realized that it was becoming that, he threw himself fully into the endeavor, determined to fashion some kind of masterpiece. But the original idea, at least from his end, was that he’d launch the three comics, then hand them off to others. He had talked of trying to get Wally Wood to draw New Gods, Don Heck or John Romita to draw Forever People and Steve Ditko to draw Mr. Miracle. Steve and I would probably have written some of them under his tutelage and supervision. He also had in mind that the Fourth World would expand into more titles. “You can do a whole book about any of these characters,” he said on several occasions. Actually, Jack thought you could do a whole book about almost any character he’d ever drawn. If you’d pointed to some nameless person he drew once in a crowd scene and asked, “How about a book starring him?,” Jack would have said, “Sure. I could do an epic about that guy.” Given Jack’s endless imagination, I wouldn’t have bet he couldn’t. One of the reasons the Fourth World seemed so crammed full of supporting players in its early issues was that Jack was trying to set up new titles and spin-offs, preferably to be done by others. He wanted to devote his writing/drawing time to new ideas, few of which would have resembled any past Kirby creation... or comic books as we then knew them. Right then, alas, Jack’s ideas for bigger, upscale projects did not fit into DC’s game plan. Around this time, DC Publisher Carmine Infantino was a guest at a Los Angeles comic convention, and a meeting was planned to discuss what would be added to Kirby’s roster of projects. Jack asked Steve and me to sit in on this conference and we did... saying, as I recall, absolutely nothing. No final decision was made but the prevailing idea seemed to be to do at least two of the following three things...

(next page, bottom) One of the few Kamandi of the Caves newspaper strip pencil samples Jack did in the 1950s before abandoning the idea. Other than the name, the two Kamandis share little in common. Kamandi of the Caves TM & ©2004 Jack Kirby Estate.

far) but no longer. To Jack’s general displeasure, the magazine endeavor had been quickly aborted. Then again, to his general pleasure, he no longer had to write and draw the Olsen book. He and DC were trying to decide what he’d add to his workload. Steve Sherman and I were Kirby’s occasional assistants. I say “occasional” because there was never all that much for us to do. Jack was keeping us around partly because he liked the company— we saw him once a week or so—and partly because he was still hoping to change his job description a bit, drawing fewer pages a week and doing some editing of comics he would neither draw nor write. Neither Steve nor I ever counted on this happening but we did want to see Jack get what he wanted. What he wanted, by and large, was to get away from drawing conventional comic books.

1. Up one or two of the ongoing Fourth World books to monthly. New Gods was the keystone book and it seemed to need more room to showcase its hefty cast. Then again, Mister Miracle seemed to be selling a bit better. 2. Add a new book called something like Big Barda and Her Female Furies, based around those characters. 3. Add a new book called Lonar, featuring a new hero who’d appeared in a few back-up stories. This was the idea Jack was pushing for but, as he kept saying over and over, any player in the New Genesis-Apokolips War was worthy of his own comic. Jack asked about the idea of handing some of these titles off to other writers and artists once he had other projects to fill out his quota. Infantino said he was against it at that time. The Fourth World books were Kirby books, and he wasn’t certain how the readers would react to anyone else. He suggested that it would be easier to have Jack edit a book he didn’t write and draw

if it was something new, something outside of the Fourth World mythos. A week or two later, Infantino was back in New York and speaking to Jack on the phone. They got to talking about the movie, The Planet of the Apes, which had come out a few years earlier and had spawned numerous sequels (including a current hit) and quite a merchandising bonanza. As Jack explained it to us a few days after the conversation, Carmine said he’d inquired about doing a comic book based on the property and found the rights either unavailable or prohibitively expensive. There was at the time, a feeling around DC that perhaps super-heroes were on the way out again. Ghost and mystery comics like House of Mystery and Phantom Stranger seemed to be selling, and some felt the next trend was what Joe Orlando, who edited most of them, dubbed “weird adventure” comics. The company had recently launched a comic called Weird War Tales, and was about to introduce a brutal character named Jonah Hex into All-Star Western and rename the book Weird Western Tales. Two comics featuring gothic romance material were also being launched, DC was acquiring Tarzan and Burroughs properties like John Carter of Mars, plus Swamp Thing was beginning to climb out of the ooze and into a regular comic. According to Jack, Infantino thought the time might be right for something like Planet of the Apes, and asked Jack if he could come up with an idea similar enough to attract the Ape fans but not so similar as to attract lawyers. Jack, of course, said yes. One of the great things about Kirby was his unshakeable belief in his own ability to create on any playing field. If you asked him if he could whip up a new western or a new war comic or just about anything, he always said “Sure” and plunged into the task with gusto. I seem to recall that Jack had not then seen any of the Planet of the Apes movies though he certainly knew the premise and he may have read the novel on which the first film had been based. As a starting point for the new comic book feature, he dug into an old art portfolio in the closet where he kept unsold, unused materials. There, he found about a half-dozen samples for an idea he’d once had for a newspaper strip entitled “Kamandi of the Caves.” The concept had been abandoned in the pencil stage but, Jack said, its time had come. He then began to describe the strip he had in mind, incorporating a few ideas that Infantino had said he’d like to see included. I recall thinking that apart from the name, what he was creating had very

little to do with the strip he’d just shown us. As it evolved later, it would move even farther from that premise. Jack may not have recalled it at the time, and I

was unfamiliar with it then, but he had done a story that was not dissimilar from his new idea. It was “Logan’s Next Life,” a short fantasy tale he’d done in 1957 for Harvey’s Amazing Tales comic book, edited by Joe Simon. (Oddly, Kirby’s other stories in that issue all foreshadow later work. “The Cadmus Seed” presents an early version of the cloning factories Jack later depicted in “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and Jimmy Olsen, “The Fourth Dimension is a Many Splattered Thing” antedates the Negative Zone from many issues of Fantastic Four, and the cover story—“Donnegan’s Daffy Chair”—suggests a prototype for the Mobius Chair, an 7

INFLUENCE

The Mythic & Deranged: A Kirby Conducted by Charles Hatfield

(Jarret Keene’s recent collection of poems, Monster Fashion (Manic D Press, 2002), has got to be read to be believed. And even close reading won’t domesticate this fierce, free-ranging sampler of verse: extravagant, sometimes fearsome, often darkly comic poems, full of Pop and fizz, personal and yet never merely autobiographical. Hugely imaginative stuff that occasionally, knowingly, edges toward self-parody, but never, ever smirks. From Janet Leigh in Psycho (“Shower”), to Mad magazine (“The Love Song of Alfred E. Neuman”), to the work of Jack Kirby (“Mother Delilah” and our sidebar poem, “Captain America at Home”), Keene plunders widely, recklessly, from a plethora of sources. But his thefts are marked by deep understanding. Often he gets disarmingly close to the source of a work’s appeal, unearthing in it something startling but absolutely right. The cover of Monster Fashion bears an image that will be familiar to the Kirby Collector faithful: the Barda-esque female warrior from the cover of TJKC #20, inked and painted by Ken Steacy. The following interview will tell you why this image is perfect for the cover of Keene’s book. It will also show you why Keene—a Kirby devotee, and a sometime contributor to the Collector—regards the connection between Kirby and poetry as perfectly natural.) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: Jarret, have you ever done any comics, or cartooning? If so, has that experience shaped your work as a poet? JARRET KEENE: As a child, I drew constantly, mostly copying Kirby fight scenes out of Marvel’s Greatest Superhero Battles. At nine, I attended a “comic book signing” at a specialty shop in Tampa, Florida, where Pat Broderick (who was drawing Firestorm at the time) and Mike Zeck (who was drawing Captain America then) glanced at my “comics” and said I had a little talent. I still have those early drawings, and looking at them today, I see them as pretty talentless. When I turned eleven, my parents enrolled me in a private school and that was the end of my drawing career. It was a very strict Episcopalian day school, and I had no time for anything but homework. I tell people this all the time, and they think I’m joking. I mean, this school had barbed wire and video cameras and caning. We were forced to write in italics with calligraphy pens. It was like out of some Black Magic comic book. Anyway, at twelve, I was reading and writing essays in school on The Iliad and Macbeth, and these were hardly different from my Kirby comics. So in a way, my private schooling was just getting me primed for a later and more informed reintroduction to Kirby’s genius. I think if it wasn’t for my bizarre schooling, I’d just be one of these guys who love Kirby because he used to draw the Fantastic Four. If I’d kept drawing, maybe today I’d be another comic-book artist grossly indebted to Kirby, rehashing and recycling the King’s layouts and ideas and characters and plotlines. Fortunately, that’s not the case. TJKC: So, your schooling made you look at Kirby in a new way? KEENE: Studying all that classical stuff opened my eyes to Kirby’s place in a larger tradition of storytelling. I’m not joking when I say Kirby’s rivals are Homer and Shakespeare. And I’m able to assimilate a lot of his influence into a different medium. I want my poems to read like Kirby comics.

e song and on as , y r t e TJKC: Many people assume that poetry and graphic art draw on different kinds of as po hen I w as well this song w ida with ic creativity, that they demand different kinds of discipline. Of course some artists are s u te tm lor urns a says, “I wro f Orlando, F omic book t n e inspired by poetry, and vice versa, but there still seems to be this general view that k ta c e so ne has mandi. Keen offeehouse my favorite exclue e K t the two disciplines are diametrically different. What do you think? c g to n Ka Jarre ing the rs. A tribute r buy the so ed by iz ir r p o s r r in e o KEENE: Well, economically speaking, the most obvious comparison between drawing was and t out monste n preview rs old b a 03 3 comics and writing poems is that these are difficult arenas to make money in. In 1 20 yea folk songs a irby.” You c : = id K to e song& = y b strang And to Jack com. Log on terms of creativity, I see them as being very much the same, because it seems you h c ear . id. php?s . ll u as a k rough Mperia f y have to write a lot of bad poems before you can write a good one. Likewise, I la th m/disp o c . sively ia r imagine you have to draw a bunch of crap before you can draw something good. pe S: LyrIC www.m http:// Then again, I guess that goes for any creative endeavor, really. h t th Ear oy on efore my bir ntrol B t Also, there’s something about the way comics and poetry are both outdated s a L b o di, the s destroyed now have c n a m a mediums. And the way in which they both momentarily stop or “freeze” time: I am K he world wa nd animals l u a t o s e s comics halt the action within panels, and poems halt the action within stanzas. ’Caus run in herd em each a s th n a n e e m c iv u n g a H s TJKC: How does visual thinking (imaging, or visual memory, or observation) ce last ch e ion ha kind’s t first glanc r rightful pla Radiat n a m a u m feed into your poetic practice? o r a a d I n le a nd nc andi, a ight seem u former glory m a KEENE: Poetic practice? Well, comic books—especially Kirby’s—totally K r m I am ission pecies to ou grace m y shaped my creative thinking. I like mythic and deranged stories and m s y dis But eturn m as created a r t s u images, which is to me what Kirby is all about, what Monster Fashion Im re h wn r Natu ide do s p strives to be: mythic and deranged. There’s not much “visual thinking” u Mothe d e d en turn e me aroun e b e n going on when I compose a poem, although clearly imagery is crucial s e a e tK lse lik os hing h 4 Jarre ©200 Everyt e’s no one e es and in zo gh to certain poems. Rather, sound is everything. I follow Edgar Allen g er ou And th re kept in ca n race is thr Poe’s dictum: Make it sound good, and the meaning will follow. a a People s if the hum a s TJKC: How do you go about making things sound good? It look KEENE: I do what I did when I was a child: I imitate in the crudest possible terms. I grab a copy of something like T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land or Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, and then I smash it up against something like Boy Commandos. I study these documents for things like language, rhythm, line breaks, until they eventually inspire me to write something crazy of my own. Sometimes it works. Sound was important to Kirby, too. Sure, a lot of his dialogue—when you break it down—doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But it sounds great. Check out the dialogue in a story like “The Glory Boat.” It’s almost as explosive as the illustrations. It fits perfectly. And that line from Kamandi? “The apes have learned to kill by sound!” That’s me—I’m one of those apes!

TJKC: Turning the question to comics, is there anything about the art or craft of comics that has been an inspiration, a kick in the slats, for 14

centric Interview With Jarret Keene, Poet TJKC: Would you say alternative comix have shaped your approach? KEENE: Although I adore today’s alternative cartoonists like Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware, they don’t impact my writing, because they borrow heavily from the literary realm to tell their stories. I’m going the opposite way. I steal from comics in order to compose a poem.

you as a poet? KEENE: I know very little of the craft and production of comics, but the impulse—at least in the superhero genre—to cram as much action and suspense and imagery into a panel is certainly something I aspire to. I try to pack as much insanity as I can into each stanza. Lots of older, more established, more highbrow poets think I’m juvenile in this impulse, I’m sure. But younger poets totally understand what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. Poetry shouldn’t be boring, but over the years it’s become calcified, because everyone wants to be “serious” all the time. Which is fine, except that merely writing about nature and art and beauty and “lovers of loving love”

doesn’t automatically make you a serious poet. You need to “do” something in a poem. You need to have action and suspense and mayhem and death and all that good stuff. That’s what Homer did. And Kirby. You have to have subject matter that matters, and my preferred subject is popular culture. For instance, the idea of Captain America, of superpatriotism, is pretty serious to me, given the current political climate of this country. For the time being, nature and art and beauty-magical-love have taken a back seat in my aesthetic approach. Pop culture and its influence, good and bad, is my foremost concern right now.

TJKC: How about if we turn the question specifically to Kirby’s craft—not his particular stories, but qualities of his artwork, design sense, or artistic sensibility? How do you think those have influenced your work as a poet, or your interest in poetry? KEENE: What did Gil Kane say about Kirby’s art in general? To paraphrase: “In every panel, there’s a nuclear situation going on.” That’s Kirby’s sensibility for sure. He had an apocalyptic imagination, as did Kurt Cobain and so many other great artists. That impulse to go for broke in every panel, in every story, in every issue, in every title, is just amazing to me. Even when he loses interest in a title, he’s utterly fascinating. He does really strange things to bring about a resolution. No one ever rides off into the sunset. They’re either killed or mutilated or stranded or rendered insane. By the end of my poems, I like to leave the narrators or pop-cultural figures in a similar state. What else? His tough-as-nails women! Yeah, I know this is gonna sound weird, but Kirby totally shaped my sexual tastes. Too much information, I know, but I’m drawn to women who can kick my ass, physically and intellectually. A lot of guys say Kirby drew masculine women, and I just don’t see that at all. They were a little Reubenesque, sure. But masculine? No way. To me Big Barda is the ideal woman. She’s voluptuous, and if you cross her, she’ll redesign your face. There’s something terrifically sexy about that. That’s why I married my wife, who’s a university professor and doesn’t put up with any nonsense. That’s why I’m always writing about women like Ava Gardner and Janet Leigh, because they’re dangerous and infinitely fascinating—just like Big Barda. She rocks! TJKC: You once told me that you weren’t even sure if you “liked” Kirby’s work—then you launched into an admiring monologue about Machine Man and how scary you thought it was! Does Kirby’s work frighten you? KEENE: What I meant was that Kirby’s work is not 15

FROM THIS:

TO THIS!

Incidental Iconography An ongoing analysis of Kirby’s visual shorthand, and how he inadvertently used it to develop his characters, by Sean Kleefeld ack Kirby was a man whose imagination flew faster than he himself could record. While drawing any given comic book page, he likely was laying out the next several in his head, changing plotlines and story directions a million times before he finished the page he was still working on. And because he was such a “high thinker” he often skimmed over details. This is perhaps the primary reason why he needed a strong editor. But in the process of banging out story after story, Jack inadvertently created a visual shorthand for himself. He designed characters that could be visually described very quickly and easily. Details he put in the initial design were interesting to him only at the time he happened to be drawing that image. His preferences might change from issue to issue, from page to page, and sometimes even from panel to panel! “Incidental Iconography” is a new column that seeks to examine some of Jack’s character designs and determine their origins. Why does Giant-Man have a large, black circle in the middle of his chest? When did Captain America’s shield become a concave disc instead of a flat circle? And what the heck was going on with Iron Man’s armor?! With this first installment, though, we will start with the character whose design was the impetus for this column:

should-pads and a collar-symbol that bears a close resemblance to a classic Soviet sickle. Needless to say, Johnny and his teammates are able to turn the tables on the Wizard, but in the end, he’s able to escape using a miniaturized anti-grav disc. What is striking in the escape, though, is the close-up shot of the Wizard turning the disc up to full power. The Wizard’s fingers cover both of the side wings of his device as well as one of the control knobs, and the tailfin is rendered entirely in silhouette. It’s worth noting, too, that the perspective and focus of the panel make the disc look unusually large compared to its other appearances throughout the story. So, by casually glancing through the Wizard’s previous appearance, it’s fairly easy to see where Jack got some of the design concepts for the Wizard’s “new” costume. The rakish facial hair and flared shoulders translated Fantastic Four nearly verbatim, and the one close-up of the anti-grav #42 disc was misinterpreted slightly into a disc with a small, triangular chunk removed from it (see FF #42 example). Indeed, the first appearances of the Wizard’s “new” costume still show Jack including the ventilation and the single control knob seen in Dick’s detail panel. One of the Wizard’s appearances prior to this was in Strange Tales #110, also The Wizard’s costume design has long struck me as odd. The oversized drawn by Dick Ayers. In this story, the Wizard dons a head-to-toe suit, covering his helmet perpetually felt like it wanted to knock him off-balance, and his flying discs entire person, except his face. Here we find a number of poses where the suit’s seemed better suited to a maze-based video game. To top that off, the original wrinkles run horizontally across his stomach and chest. It’s also worth noting Kirby designs for the Wizard over in Strange Tales didn’t have a costume at all, so that the entire outfit is colored a solid shade of purple. Although a farther where in his imagination did Jack manage to find this get-up? stretch, certainly, I have to wonder if Jack looked at this appearance of the The Wizard was introduced in Strange Tales #102 Wizard as well for inspiration for the Wizard’s banded chest piece and (top left) as a scientist who wanted to become famous over-sized helmet. It’s not too hard to see a relationship between the by upstaging the Human Torch. It’s a fairly unassuming Wizard’s “new” costume (as in FF #42) and the unitard he wears here. tale and Jack provides a design for the Wizard which is I suspect that Stan Lee wanted to continue using the Wizard and little more than coveralls. The most interesting visual Paste-Pot Pete as villains after Strange Tales became a vehicle for Nick element of the Wizard at this point is a severely elongated Fury, and felt that the two simply could not convincingly become a face, with his eyes placed unusually high on his head. threat against all four members of the Fantastic Four. He developed Dick Ayers soon took over the character, portraying the concept of the Frightful Four, pulling Sandman from his duties him more as a debonair, techno-elitist than Kirby’s longover in Amazing Spiderfaced, mad scientist. But there were few design elements Man, and creating to change. The coveralls and goatee remained, but there was Medusa to duplicate the rs) little else to visually distinguish the Wizard from the likes of ick Aye D y gender ratio of the original (b 0 11 any other prison inmate. He could just as easily have fallen to Tales # FF. In giving the characters to Jack, he Strange the wayside along with the Rabble Rouser and the Acrobat. must have handed over some copies of But, suddenly, in Fantastic Four #36 (top right), the Wizard Strange Tales and Spider-Man for returns to exact revenge, this time accompanied by three accomplices. The team design reference, which Jack used to itself was not terribly surprising, as the Wizard create the “new” Wizard and Paste-Pot had teamed-up with Paste-Pot Pete before and Pete. Glancing through the books the Sandman had already fought the Human quickly, his eye caught what he Torch alongside Spider-Man. What was perhaps considered the highlights and went most striking was the Wizard’s new outfit: he on to do his own thing, creating was fitted with an over-sized helmet and a something that appeared entirely jumpsuit with a Pac-Man-shaped anti-gravity new, although it was in fact based disc affixed to his chest. But, while the design on somewhat mis-remembered is most assuredly Kirby’s, it appears that he Fantastic Four #4 existing material. (I suspect that 2 took some heavy cues from the Wizard’s preSteve Ditko’s Sandman design remained more intact vious illustrator: Dick Ayers. because of its simplicity, rather than any deference Jack may have had for Steve.) Let’s look at the Wizard’s previous s) er Ay I think the Wizard typifies the exemplary talent that was Jack Kirby. By using ck Di y (b 18 appearance in Strange Tales #118. He Strange Tales #1 his own visual shorthand to make the character stand out, he was able to turn an escapes from prison on page 2, using his new “anti-gravity power unit,” otherwise unremarkable villain into one of the Fantastic Four’s stalwart foes. the design of which is merely a disc with two wings, a rectangular ventilation panel In the next installment of Incidental Iconography, I will continue investigating and two, small control knobs. By page three, it seems to have developed a tailfin as the Frightful Four as Paste-Pot Pete becomes the Trapster. ★ well. Once free, the Wizard poses as the Human Torch to set a trap for him, returning to his hideout and donning, for the first time, a new jumpsuit that has flared (See Sean’s website at www.FFPlaza.com)

The Wizard

Tribute

(right) A dashing shot of Jack at the 1988 San Diego Comicon.

2003 Kirby Tribute Panel (Held July 18, 2003 at Comicon International: San Diego, featuring (below, left to right): Michael Chabon, a surprise mystery guest, Sal Buscema, Larry Lieber, Stan Goldberg, Mark Evanier, (bottom row) Wendy Pini, and Mike Royer. The panel was moderated by Mark Evanier, and transcribed by Brian K. Morris.) MARK EVANIER: Jack was so much a part of our lives, and his work is still with us. I never get through a day without, at some point, either being asked about Jack or seeing something where I think, “Oh, Jack told me that. I’m using his advice,” and not always advice related to comics. I’m amazed as I get older and older how much of things that Jack told me in 1971 suddenly apply to my life. I was thinking of a comment somebody made earlier today: One of the reasons I think Jack, sometimes, had enormous problems dealing with the business end of things with people—you all know, he did not get as good as he gave—was that Jack was quickly out of sync with the present day. When he talked to someone, he was always seeing a bigger picture. If he negotiated with somebody about a business deal, they were always looking at how much money this thing was going to make next Tuesday and Jack, in 1963 or ’64, was envisioning the Hulk movie. He knew there was going to be a Hulk movie. He’d knew there would be a multihundred million, whatever it is, dollar thing, and he was negotiating from that standpoint. So he was kind of out of sync with the language of people he was talking to. And in the same way, when he gave advice about life, and relationships, and getting along in the world, even political commentary—you should have heard Jack talk about Richard Nixon. [chuckles] It was

an amazing experience. And the more I read about Nixon, the more I see how right Jack was, and the more I realized where Darkseid’s dialogue came from. [laughs] So we’re going to talk about Jack for a while here. We’ve invited some people who either worked with Jack or, in one case, never met him, but who obviously carried on his tradition greatly. Let me start at the far end here and introduce to you a lady who has a wonderful story to tell, and I’m going to say this as accurately as I can. Every single person who ever went to Jack and showed him the artwork they were doing, got encouragement. You could have done the worst drawing in the world and taken it to Jack and he would have said, “That’s great! Keep at it, work hard,” because he loved the enthusiasm of people that wanted to create. Privately, though, there were a few select people who came to him, who he indicated—if not to them, at least to me—he thought they were a class above the norm of people who came to him with their artwork. And this lady became one of the outstanding illustrators of her time, for her strip Elfquest. This is Wendy Pini, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] Next to Wendy is a gentleman I’ve known since 1969. When I met him, he was inking Russ Manning and Disney comics, and such. Shortly after that, he became, I think, one of Jack’s two greatest inkers of all time. Over the years—I’ve said this before, I’m going to keep saying it every time he talks on one of these panels—I don’t think people realize how hard he worked to be faithful to the pencils. He could have done a lot less and probably collected the same rotten money, but he had a work ethic and a devotion to do the job right that shows in every page of New Gods, and Forever People, Kamandi, and all those books. Those of you who loved those comics, you should be real grateful to Mr. Mike Royer. [applause] I don’t have to tell you about the book this man wrote because probably everyone here has read it, or owns a copy of it and is saving it for that right moment to read. This book kind of took the industry by storm a couple of years ago. Is it two years ago now, or ...? MICHAEL CHABON: Yeah.

EVANIER: People I know who don’t read comics, who don’t go to these conventions, called me up and said, “Have you read this extraordinary book? You must read this book,” and such. It really touched an awful lot of people; and of course I’m talking about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a book which has more than a little to do with Jack Kirby and he’ll tell us a little about that. The award-winning Michael Chabon. [applause] When you look at Marvel comics of the Sixties, you look at wonderful artwork. You’ll also look at this man’s work usually because he colored most of Jack’s work in the Sixties. He was Marvel’s Coloring Department for a long time until he got too busy drawing Millie the Model, and things like that, and had to pass some of that work on other people. But I don’t think Jack’s work was ever colored better than when it was in his hands. He made a lot of key decisions; what color will the Thing be, what color would the Fantastic Four’s uniforms

be? He’s now an outstanding illustrator for the Archie Comics Group. We’re going to talk about his work at Marvel in the Sixties, Mr. Stan Goldberg. [applause] We have here a man who never met Jack Kirby, but you wouldn’t know it from his work because he 48

obviously understood what Jack did. He drew every Marvel Comic at one time or another anyway, but drew every book that Jack did at one point. If there was anyone out there who managed to consistently capture what Jack invented in terms of storytelling, and putting energy on the page, and making characters dynamic and interesting—and also having a Kirbyesque work output—it’s this gentleman, Mr. Sal Buscema, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] And now, let me talk about Larry Lieber, the man who wrote “Fin Fang Foom.” [laughs] The man who wrote all those early Marvel monsters—people think Stan wrote all those early Marvel monster comics, out of which the Marvel super-heroes evolved. Actually, Larry wrote them. Larry wrote the first couple of Thor stories, the first couple of Iron Man stories, the first couple of Human Torch stories in Strange Tales; the other writer Jack worked with in this seminal period of Marvel. He later segued over to drawing more, and unfortunately, we lost him to super-hero books for a long time when he was doing westerns and The Rawhide Kid. But he segued back to become the longestrunning Spider-Man artist in the history of mankind, drawing the most widely circulated appearance of Spider-Man, and he’s a hell of a nice guy, Mr. Larry Lieber. [applause] I’d also like to briefly introduce a couple of people in the audience who are with us today. As most of you know, Jack, over the years, had a lot of legal problems. He had a lot of fights with different people. Fortunately, his affairs are now watched over by a couple of people who handle the Jack Kirby Estate, and do a wonderful job of watching out for Jack’s and Roz’s posthumous interests, protecting copyrights and names, and making sure that the Kirby name is kept in front of the world. The gentleman who’s the—is “administrator” the proper title? Whatever it is, when they say the “Kirby Estate,” they mean this gentleman: Roz and Jack’s nephew, Mr. Robert Katz, ladies and gentlemen. [applause]

Another one of Jack’s wonderful inkers, and an enormous friend of the Kirby family who helped with everything, Mr. Mike Thibodeaux, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] You would think with all he did for the family, he’d get a better seat at this panel. [laughs] Also, I’d like to lastly introduce—the Kirby tradition, the Kirby name is carried on by a wonderful publication. The publisher/editor is here, John Morrow of The Jack Kirby Collector. [applause] Let’s start with Wendy. Wendy and I were having lunch at the Magic Castle a couple of weeks ago and she suggested that she should tell her Jack Kirby story to you all. I give you Wendy Pini. WENDY PINI: [laughs] Thank you so much, Mark. Well, actually, I came prepared to tell two Jack Kirby stories in one because I think that they provide a really interesting insight into the man’s personality. My first story happened when I was eighteen or nineteen years old, which is when I first met Jack. Jack was my first mentor in the comics, although he didn’t set out to be or even know that he was. But I had been reading The Fantastic Four for some years and had received strong influences. Just the power of his artwork helped me to incorporate a bit more solidity and masculinity into my own drawing style, and I wanted to let him know how much I appreciated that. So when I met him, I was then working on a college project which was a short animated film, based on the writings of Michael Moorcock, called Stormbringer. I had many backdrops and character model charts, and so forth, for this film. This was the work that I brought to show Jack. This was all highly rendered work, it wasn’t in comic book-style at all. It was in my style of watercolor paintings and was very highly-detailed. Jack went through this, and I’ve got to tell you something about Jack: Jack was not a misogynist. Anybody who could create Big Barda was not a misogynist. [laughs] However, Jack really did believe that comics was no place for women. He really didn’t think that women, you know, could do the artwork. So he went through my portfolio, and he turned to me, and he said, “Kid, if I ever catch ya in comics, I’m gonna spank ya,” [laughs] in his best Ben Grimm voice. [laughs] Shift the scene to some years later. We’re in Houston, Texas now at a big convention, and I have my table, and Jack’s table is catty-corner to mine, and he’s signing autographs, and talking to kids, and looking at their portfolios. And I keep leaning over to Jack and saying, [sweetly] “Jack, I’m still waiting for my spanking.” [laughs] I don’t know how many of you out there ever actually met the man, but yes, he could blush. [laughs] That’s not the end of it, though. Someone had brought me a large bouquet of carnations while I was doing my autographing. While Jack was busy looking at someone’s portfolio, I took one of the carnations and stuck it behind his ear. Now, Jack Kirby was an intensely focused individual. Once he had his attention on something, everything else went away. So Jack did not notice he had a carnation in his ear for fifteen minutes. People were coming up to get their books signed and have him look at their portfolios, and they were giggling, and were looking at each other and snorking. Jack was looking around like, “What’s the matter with these guys?” Finally, I think my husband Richard, who is right over there

in the audience, had mercy on Jack and just sort of pointed. Jack reached up and felt, and he turned, and he whipped around, and he said in his best Ben Grimm voice, “I’ll kill you!” [laughs] He was so much fun. He was a true mythic visualizer and I truly owe so much to him in my drawing style. If there’s any force, power, masculinity, expression that goes over the top in my work, I owe that to him. [applause] EVANIER: Wendy, not to contradict you, but I was always under the impression that when Jack said, “If I catch you in comics, I’ll spank you,” he wasn’t talking about how women shouldn’t be in comics. I was always under the impression that he meant, “Your artwork was so wonderful, I don’t want to see you try to make it look like Marvel Comics.” PINI: I think he did actually mean that, but I was kind of shy about saying anything. [laughs] No, as a matter of fact, he was impressed with my work and he said some wonderful things about it. He just felt that my art style was more Fine Art, rather than comics. You see, I think Jack just looked at comics as really down-anddirty boys’ stuff, you know? Fine Art was, to him, something that was more refined, and so forth. He didn’t realize that I just wanted to get down-and-dirty too. [laughs] EVANIER: This was like 1970, ’71? PINI: I met him in 1969. EVANIER: ’69. At that point, Jack was pretty down on comics as a way to make a living, and I think he felt that anybody who could work in other media, should. I mean, he was telling me constantly, “Don’t get your life in comics.” I think that’s what he was saying to you. I think he was saying, “You could do much more than trap yourself into working for the people I have to work for.” PINI: Well, God love him. I’m glad I didn’t listen to him. [laughs] I don’t think he ever knew how much of an influence he was, as much as I tried to tell him. He was so bashful, you couldn’t compliment Jack. Have you ever noticed that? He was just so bashful about his own greatness and his own mythic vision. I mean, this man was a mythmaker of Joseph Campbell proportions. It’s like Mark said, he always saw the bigger picture. He was seeing Valhalla while the rest of us were seeing Sunset Boulevard. I mean, he wasn’t quite all here. [laughs] EVANIER: For people who don’t know, tell us how you met Richard. PINI: Well, that involves John Buscema, actually. I don’t think Sal knows this. Richard and I had been comic book fans and at the time, I was seventeen, eighteen years old, and I was currently enjoying The Silver Surfer, which was being illustrated by John Buscema very magnificently. So I wrote a letter in, which apparently, back then, was very unusual for women to do. Back in those days, girls just didn’t read comics. So much to my surprise, they published my letter, along with my address—which they don’t do of course nowadays, but back then, they did. I proceeded to get, hmm, five hundred letters [laughs] from boys all over America

and Canada who wanted to meet a girl who read comic books. [laughs] My parents were quite alarmed, and also interested in this. Every day, my mother would pick me up at high school, and we’d go over to the Post Office to get the mail, and there would be this stack. [laughs] Well, one day, on the top of the stack was a letter whose return address was M.I.T. and my mother’s eyes lit up with dollar signs, [laughs] and she said, “Open that one,” [laughs] and I did, and it happened to be a letter from one Richard Pini. What made this letter so distinctive was that in comparison to all the other letters I got, this one did not tell me what color his eyes were, and how many dimples he had, and what comics he liked to read. This one said, “I really liked what you had to say in your letter in The Silver Surfer. But if you want to know more about me, you have to write to me; and I promise you, surprises await.” [chuckles] Now, that’s how you get a girl interested. [laughs] So I

OMAC: The World That’s Here

VISIONARY

by Daniel Murillo

“Reaching utopia has become more random and reasonably monstrous: Exchanging a body for a machine.” Raymundo Mier, Topodrilo #23, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México. ssembled persons, stolen water, atomic bombs, a peace agency, a watchful brother who can see everything, madness and greed, genetic experiments, nuclear war, new bureaucratic forms of life: That’s the world of tomorrow, and the world Jack Kirby created for us, the readers of OMAC, One Man Army (and later) Corps.

But, in fact, the “World That’s Coming” is not a look into the future, but into the present. Section D and the products of “Build a friend” in OMAC #1 are a reflection of reality, the effects of the globalization on the world economy. Here you can build the femme fatale of your dreams, even if in the real world, you cannot even get close to a woman. The segregation of the Other is present in every adventure of OMAC. The Other are the people who pay taxes; the Other are the people who have feelings. Poor Buddy Blank (OMAC’s alter ego) works in a bureaucracy. The boss can order his people to go to the “psychology section” to get rid of pent-up emotions. There they can cry, destroy, withdraw, or whatever they need to do. “People” do not exist in this office. Human feelings and emotions are behind a limited number of doors. Some could consider this “quality” and efficiency in the workplace. Have you heard something like this at your place of business? Could it be an echo of the quality regulations of the modern world?

Individual or Social Identity in the OMAC Series? In the world that’s coming, individuality is present in all its force, and Jack Kirby permits us to see how globalization works. Individuality is important, not social identity. This is a crucial element in Kirby’s OMAC series. Jack (through Mister Big and Professor Skuba) opposes the loss of social identity via the Global Peace Agency, a multinational group of people with identical physical characteristics that acts anonymously. In this case, Kirby contrasts the loss of individual identity with the gain of a social group identity. The establishment in the world that is coming is very interesting. Actually, globalization plays a double game; it can be seen as an opportunity to coalesce all the inhabitants under one, single ideology, but the danger is that not everyone can play the same game. Some authors say the common citizen is “excluded” but Kirby comes closer to the truth when he describes how economic power can do anything. Mr. Big (in OMAC #2) could not be a better example: The multimillionaire has rented a city for a party, but in fact he is trying to find the secret behind project OMAC to destroy it. Again, economic power and a single person (a magnate) are pitted against social identity because project OMAC is the brainchild of the Global Peace Agency. The degree of social identity is present in the person of OMAC. He is Buddy Blank, but he is also OMAC, transformed with an “electronic surgery! ...A computer hormone operation... Done by remote control!!” as Kirby describes on page 15 of OMAC #1. He is connected to Brother Eye, an all-powerful satellite orbiting the Earth. This re-creation of how a social identity could be understood is interesting. The adversary of the great economic power is a fraternal group that creates a man that has not one but three identities. How can we interpret this? 67

EPILOGUE (previous page) Jack’s original, unaltered final page for OMAC #8, the last issue of the series. As you can see, he’d planned to continue the Dr. Skuba story for one more issue, but when he made the decision to leave DC Comics, management must’ve felt the book’s sales didn’t warrant assigning a new creative team as they did with Kamandi, and simply covered over the “next issue” panel with a hastily constructed finale to the series (right). (below) As editor of Kamandi, Gerry Conway modified some of Jack’s dialogue. Check out the before-and-after from issue #34. All characters TM & ©2004 DC Comics.

Cancelled Kirby Cavalcade

The end of the line for Kamandi and OMAC, by John Morrow ith one hastily-lettered WHAROOM!, so ended OMAC, and Jack Kirby’s 1970s stay at DC Comics. Near the end of his time at DC, he had begun to draw scripts written by others, in Sandman (by Michael Fleisher), plus Justice Inc. and a one-shot issue of Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter (both penned by Denny O’Neil). It was a far cry from the situation he’d anticipated when first coming to DC in 1970, spearheading his own West Coast production office, overseeing new characters and kinds of books that others would write and draw. But even if Jack was just filling his page quota, many fans viewed it as a lull until the inevitable return of the Fourth World, or some even greater Kirby epic. Then came the shocker: Kamandi #34 appeared, wrapped in the first non-Kirby cover of the series. Readers who suspected

something was up had to look no further than that issue’s letters page for the big announcement: Kirby was leaving DC Comics. From the Kirby side of things, it all happened quickly. Basically without warning, Jack told assistant Steve Sherman one day, “My contract at DC is done, I’m going back to Marvel.” To Jack it was obvious there was no future for him at DC. They had been taking books away from him, editing him, and other things that made it clear the illusions he had when first coming to DC were just that: Illusions. Sherman says Jack’s attitude for some time had been, “Just pay my rate, and I’ll fill my page quota.” Jack may not have liked writing from others’ scripts, but as a professional, he fulfilled his contract to the best of his abilities. For his part, Sherman wasn’t that upset when his duties handling the Kamandi letter column were yanked back, to be controlled in New York. He continued working with Jack on ideas for one-shots like Kobra and other script ideas; but with Jack returning to Marvel, it was clear there soon wouldn’t be anything for him to do, so he gave up his career in comics, and began working full-time at Filmation animation.

A New Editor Arrives Gerry Conway, a regular fixture at DC at the time, says Kirby seemed somewhat disengaged as his contract was coming to a close, probably knowing he wouldn’t be staying with the company. Conway was the immediate beneficiary of Jack’s departure, being handed the editor’s slot on Kamandi as of #34. Editing, and later writing Kamandi wasn’t something Gerry sought out—he never particularly liked the series that much— but being a longtime Kirby fan, he was intrigued by the opportunity when Carmine Infantino offered it, seeing it as a great chance to work with an artist he admired. And since, like Jack, he had a

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