JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR FIFTY-THREE
IN THE US
$1095
THE LATEST FROM TWOMORROWS!
ALTER EGO #87
BACK ISSUE #35
DRAW! #18
The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA (FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA), MR. MONSTER, and more!
“Villains!” MIKE ZECK and J.M. DeMATTEIS discuss “Kraven’s Last Hunt” in a “Pro2Pro” interview, the history of the Hobgoblin is exposed, the Joker’s short-lived series, looks back at Secret Society of Super-Villains and Kobra, a Magneto biography, Luthor and Brainiac’s malevolent makeovers, interview with Secret Society artist MIKE VOSBURG, plus contributions from BYRNE, CONWAY, FRENZ, NOVICK, ROMITA JR., STERN, WOLFMAN, and a cover by MIKE ZECK!
Features an in-depth interview and demo by R.M. GUERA (the artist of Vertigo’s Scalped), behind-the-scenes in the Batcave with Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the new hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!
(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Now shipping!
(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Now shipping!
BRICKJOURNAL #6
(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US Ships August 2009
ALL-STAR COMPANION Vol. 4
COMIC BOOK PODCAST COMPANION
MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s
Features: Colossal coverage of the Golden Age ALL-STAR COMICS! Sensational secrets of the JUNIOR JUSTICE SOCIETY! An index of the complete solo adventures of all 18 original JSAers in their own features, from 1940 to 1951! The JSA's earliest imitators (Seven Soldiers of Victory, All Winners Squad, Marvel Family, and Intl. Crime Patrol)! INFINITY, INC. on Earth-Two and after! And the 1980s SECRET ORIGINS series! With rare art by ALEX ROSS, TODD McFARLANE, JERRY ORDWAY, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, GIL KANE, MURPHY ANDERSON, IRWIN HASEN, MORT MESKIN, GENE COLAN, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE TUSKA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON NEWTON, JACK BURNLEY, MIKE MACHLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, DICK DILLIN, and others. Edited by ROY THOMAS.
Comic book podcasts have taken the Internet by storm, so go behind the scenes of ten of today's top comic book podcasts via all-new interviews with the casts of AROUND COMICS, WORD BALLOON, QUIET! PANELOLOGISTS AT WORK, COMIC BOOK QUEERS, iFANBOY, THE CRANKCAST, THE COLLECTED COMICS LIBRARY, THE PIPELINE PODCAST, COMIC GEEK SPEAK, and TwoMorrows’ own TUNE-IN PODCAST! Also featured are new interviews about podcasting and comics on the Internet with creators MATT FRACTION, TIM SEELEY, and GENE COLAN. You'll also find a handy guide of what you’ll need to start your own podcast, an index of more than thirty great comic book podcasts, numerous photos of your favorite podcasters, and original art from COLAN, SEELEY, DC's MIKE NORTON, and many more! By ERIC HOUSTON, with a spectacular new cover by MIKE MANLEY.
This issue-by-issue field guide presents a step-by-step look at how Marvel Comics went from being one of the least creative publishers in a generally moribund industry, to its most dynamic and original in an era when pop-culture emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, follow the company’s first fumbling beginnings as helmed by savvy editor/writer STAN LEE (aided by such artists as JACK KIRBY and STEVE DITKO), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity. With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into four distinct phases, author PIERRE COMTOIS explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and others created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditional elements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of a low brow industry and provided a tapestry of full blown pop culture icons.
(128-page trade paperback) $15.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR094433 ISBN: 9781605490182 • Now shipping!
(224-page trade paperback) $27.95 US Diamond Order Code: MAY091042 ISBN: 9781605490168 • Ships Aug. 2009
(240-page trade paperback) $27.95 US ISBN: 9781605490045 Diamond Order Code: APR091002 Now shipping!
Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95-3.95! Print subscribers get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!
2009 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (with FREE Digital Editions)
Media Mail
Spotlight on CLASSIC SPACE SETS and a look at new ones with LEGO SET DESIGNERS, BRANDON GRIFFITH shows his STAR TREK MODELS, plus take a tour of the DUTCH MOONBASE with MIKE VAN LEEUWEN and MARCO BAAS, coverage of BRICKFEST 2009 and FIRST LEGO LEAGUE'S WORLD FESTIVAL and TOY FAIR NEW YORK photos! (80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US • Now shipping!
BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 3
Compiles the digital-only issues #6-7 (Vol. 1) of BRICKJOURNAL for the first time in printed form! Interviews with builders and JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP (CEO of the LEGO Group, features on LEGO FAN CONVENTIONS, reviews and behind the scenes reports on two LEGO sets, how to create custom minifigures, instructions and techniques, and more! (224-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $34.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490069 Diamond Order Code: JAN094469 • Now shipping!
CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE REVISED 2nd EDITION! CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and more, including his recent return to comics shelves and the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. By MICHAEL EURY. (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Diamond Order Code: APR091003 Now shipping!
1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl. Intl.
VOLUME 21: CHRIS SPROUSE
(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 US ISBN: 97801605490137 Diamond Order Code: NOV084298 Now shipping!
VOLUME 22: MARK BUCKINGHAM (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490144 Diamond Order Code: FEB094473 Ships August 2009
Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!
Digital Only
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)
$50
$60
$60
$84
$136
$15.80
BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)
$44
$60
$70
$105
$115
$17.70
DRAW! (4 issues)
$30
$40
$47
$70
$77
$15.80
ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issues is half-price!
$88
$120
$140
$210
$230
$35.40
BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)
$38
$48
$55
$78
$85
$15.80
For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt
TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com
Contents
THE NEW
The Magic Of LEE & KIRBY, Part ONe! OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (Lee & Kirby together again—and again!)
ISSUE #53, SUMMER 2009
C
o
l
l
e
c
t
o
r
UNDER THE COVERS . . . . . . . . . . . .3 (inking some familiar faces) CRIB NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (a guided tour of Stan and Jack’s New York haunts—be sure to wear your comfortable shoes!) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 (when Jacob met Stanley) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . .11 (you’re not getting older, you’re getting better) THE MAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 (Stan Lee speaks!) GALLERY 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 (a look at Kirby’s incredible inkers during the Marvel Age) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 (Mark Evanier’s on hiatus this ish, so we dug up one of his earliest published works to embarrass him) TRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 (the 2008 Kirby Tribute Panel, featuring Jerry Robinson, and Joe Ruby & Ken Spears) ADAM McGOVERN . . . . . . . . . . . .34 (Jack’s rock ’n’ roll influence) GALLERY 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 (lost and found Fantastic Four pages) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 (Barry Forshaw recommends more things to spend your money on in a down economy) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .55 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) FOUNDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 (a silver bullet for your heart) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 (Stan & Jack’s genre comics, plus comments for the whole blamed Marvel Bullpen about Lee & Kirby) QUESTIONABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 (a game of “What If?”) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .78 PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (Stan and Jack and the Surfer) This issue is dedicated to the very dedicated Jerry Boyd, a man whose energy and devotion to comics history and fandom leaves me in awe. - JM Front cover inks: GEORGE PÉREZ Back cover inks/colors: JOE SINNOTT Front cover color: TOM ZIUKO The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 16, No. 53, Summer 2009. Published quarterly by & ©2009 TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $14 postpaid ($16 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $50 US, $60 Canada, $84 elsewhere. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is ©2009 Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is ©2009 the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA. ISSN 1932-6912
1
(above) They aren’t Stan and Jack, but these two men are responsible for the great Lee/Kirby creations of the 1960s. Who are they? Turn to page 2 to find out! (And then thank these guys!)
COPYRIGHTS: Ant-Man, Atlas Monsters, Avengers, Beast, Black Bolt, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Mar-Vell, Cobra, Crystal, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Gabe Jones, Galactus, GiantMan, Goom, Groot, Hate-Monger, Hawkeye, Hercules, Him, Hulk, Human Top, Human Torch, Iron Man, Janus, Ka-Zar, Kid Colt, Loki, Mad Thinker, Magneto, Modok, Mr. Hyde, Nick Fury/Sgt. Fury, Odin, Puppet Master, Rawhide Kid, Red Ghost, Red Skull, Sandman, Scarlet Witch, SHIELD, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Thing, Thor, Trapster, Two-Gun Kid, Wasp, Watcher, Wizard, X-Men, Yellow Claw TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Batman, Boy Commandos, Demon, Forever People, House of Mystery, In The Days Of The Mob, Losers, Orion, Robin TM & ©2009 DC Comics. • Sky Masters TM & ©2009 Jack Kirby Estate. • Black Magic, Fighting American, Win A Prize, Young Romance TM & ©2009 Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estate. • Captain 3-D, Hi-School Romances TM & ©2009 Harvey Comics. • Thundarr the Barbarian, Ookla, Video Rangers TM & ©2009 Ruby-Spears.
Retrospective
When Jacob Met Stanley
by Ger Apeldoorn Compare the timid romance work Kirby did for this cover to Harvey’s Hi-School Romance #54 (Aug. 1956, below, courtesy of Heritage Auctions) to the action-packed splash page for the story “UFO, the Lightning Man” from Yellow Claw #3 (Feb. 1957, next page). Hi-School Romance TM & ©2009 Harvey Comics. Yellow Claw TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
ecently, Marvel made headlines with a romantic comic series about a couple of teenagers who meet each other at a holiday camp and get into serious trouble of the relationship kind. The series by Mark Millar and Terry and Rachel Dodson attracted all that attention because it is set ‘some years ago’ and the main characters are called Ben, Richard, Mary and May, leaving open the possibility that this story is about the parents of Peter Parker, how they met and maybe even how the future Spider-Man was conceived. The story we are about to tell here is just as surprising and fraught with emotion. It is about the parents of the Fantastic Four, how they met and how they conceived an entire universe.
R
Looking For Work Most books on Jack Kirby or his contemporaries make it seems as if the period from 1955 till 1959 was one big step. He
set up his own company with Joe Simon and when that failed he went to Stan Lee. Even Jack himself was guilty of that, putting together all memories of those four years in one big lump. This article is an attempt to pull all those memories apart again and see if a detailed look at the work Jack produced in that period can give us a clue as to what was going on behind the scenes. Some of the stuff I came up with is pure conjecture, but all of it is at its very least not contradicted by what we know of the work, the period and the people involved. We start in 1955, when the collapse of their publishing company Mainline forced Jack Kirby and Joe Simon to break up their 15-year partnership as a creative team. They sold some titles and inventory to Charlton and made a deal to produce at least one issue of From Here To Insanity for them, but that was not enough to live on. Joe Simon found work as an editor for Harvey and Jack Kirby had to find work on his own. He was immediately hired by Joe to produce some covers for the Harvey romance and war lines and some interior work as well as covers for their horror comic Black Cat Mystery. This may have been a part of the deal Harvey made with Joe Simon, or they may have not cared who Simon hired. It is not clear if he did all those covers in one go or if they were ordered a couple each month. True BrideTo-Be Romances #19, published August 1956, has a Kirby cover about a trailer bride which does seem to belong to a story called “Trailer Bride” inside, but it doesn’t fit the story in any way. It could have been drawn before or after the story was written. Same goes for the cover for Warfront #34, published much later in September 1958. It seems to illustrate the story “Tomorrow’s War,” but it has no connection to that story other than the title. So they could have been drawn all at once and assigned to different titles later— which doesn’t answer the question of why a story about a trailer bride would be in a title called True Bride-To-Be Romances, but comics historians can only explain so much. At the same time Kirby went back to Prize and started doing romance stories for them again. Together with Joe Simon he had launched the whole romance trend, but at this point most of the life was pressed out of it by the Comics Code and repetition. Kirby kept doing these stories until the late Fifties, so they formed a reliable part of his income, but he was never challenged by them as he was earlier on, and as a whole they were not very interesting. He also stepped up his efforts to get into the newspaper strip business, starting all sorts of strips with different inkers. None of them were picked up, but it did get him some work, first as a temporary replacement for Johnny Hazard and later on as penciler for Frank Giacoia’s Johnny Reb. Still, that wasn’t enough. Or the Harvey work slowed down. After drawing a full issue of Black Cat Mystery published in September 1956, it took the company a whole year to publish the next issue. Whatever the reason, Jack Kirby decided to go back to Marvel (or Timely, as it was called then).
Inventory Story This can’t have been easy. Joe Simon and he had not left the company in the best of circumstances almost 15 years earlier. After they had found out that they were not getting their full share of the Captain America profits, they secretly made a deal with DC to come and work there. While they were fulfilling their contract at Marvel/Timely, they were starting up the DC work on their lunch breaks. Stan Lee, who was at that moment no more than a young 6
guy doing odd jobs around the office and annoying everyone by playing his recorder, followed them to their secret hideaway. Years later, Kirby loved to tell the tale of how Stan found them out, how he promised not to tell his ‘uncles’ and how he snitched on them anyway. A very unpleasant meeting with the Goodman brothers was the result and that led to their departure and years of bad feelings between Martin Goodman and Joe Simon. To go back to Stan Lee and ask for work, must not have been easy for Jack. He may not have had much reason to hate him after 15 years, but he had no reason to respect him either. But while people of his generation may have had feelings like that, they certainly didn’t dwell on them. So Jack went to Stan. And he may even have had a good excuse to make the situation a little bit easier. This whole article started when someone on the Yahoo Atlas Newsgroup mentioned that the first two stories Kirby did for Atlas (the name given to all Marvel/ Timely titles because that was the name of the distribution company also owned by Goodman) may have been inventory stories from his Harvey run. These stories in Astonishing #56 and Strange Tales Of The Unusual #7 are similar to Jack’s Harvey work in subject and inking style. If Jack had done all his Harvey work in one go, maybe even including those that weren’t published until a year later, he could have walked into Stan’s office with those pages and said something like: “Hey, Stan. I did these for Harvey, but I don’t think they are going to use them. Is there anything in there for you?” That certainly would have made an awkward situation easier.
JOB # K-282 K-651 K-652
KIRBY MID-1950s ATLAS STORIES courtesy Dr. Michael Vassallo ISSUE DATE TITLE Battleground #14 Nov 1956 “Mine Field!” Strange Tales of the Unusual #7 Dec 1956 “Poker Face!” Astonishing #56 Dec 1956 “Afraid to Dream!”
PAGES 5 pages 4 pages 4 pages
K-915 K-663 K-648 K-868
Yellow Claw #2 Yellow Claw #2 Yellow Claw #2 Yellow Claw #2
Dec 1956 Dec 1956 Dec 1956 Dec 1956
“Concentrate on Chaos!” “Mystery in Cabin 361!” “The Yellow Claw!” “Temu-Jal...The Golden Goliath
5 pages 5 pages 4 pages 5 pages
L-67 ? L-68 L-69 L-70
Yellow Claw #3 Yellow Claw #3 Yellow Claw #3 Yellow Claw #3
Feb 1957 Feb 1957 Feb 1957 Feb 1957
“The Microscopic Army!” “The Yellow Claw Captured!” “UFO the Lightning Man!” “Sleeping City!”
5 pages 4 pages 5 pages 5 pages
L-181
Quick-Trigger Western #16
Feb 1957
“The Vengeance of Growling Bear!” 4 pages
L-391 L-392 L-393 L-394
Yellow Claw #4 Yellow Claw #4 Yellow Claw #4 Yellow Claw #4
Apr 1957 Apr 1957 Apr 1957 Apr 1957
“The Living Shadows!” “Five Million Sleep-Walkers!” “The Screemies!” “The Thought Master!”
5 pages 4 pages 5 pages 5 pages
L-907 L-986 M-40
Black Rider Rides Again #1 Black Rider Rides Again #1 Black Rider Rides Again #1
Sept 1957 Sept 1957 Sept 1957
“The Legend of the Black Rider “Duel at Dawn!” “Treachery at Hangman’s Bridge
7 pages 6 pages 6 pages
M-480T
Gunsmoke Western #12
Sept 1957
“No One Can Outdraw Him!”
5 pages
M-526 M-615 M-556 ?
Gunsmoke Western #47 Gunsmoke Western #51 Kid Colt Outlaw #86
July 1958 Mar 1959 Sept 1959
“Trouble in Leadville!” “The Raiders Strike!” “Meeting At Midnight!”
4 pages 5 pages
But is there any hard evidence for this, except for a similarity in style? Well, there always are the job numbers. At Atlas, all stories were given a job title, that can usually be found on the splash page (if the coloring or the printing hasn’t obliterated them). For the first 10,000 or so (actually slightly more) they consisted of four numbers. After that they consist of a letter and three numbers. Not all letters were used and there are some instances known of numbering going over 999, but all in all it is a great way to track the stories for collectors. The numbers were given out by the Atlas staff for keeping track of the payments, of course. They were given out with story assignments to the writers or when they came in, but they give a rough indication in which order certain artists did certain stories as well. So how can we use them to tell us something about the supposedly inventory stories Kirby did for Atlas? Well, if Kirby brought in the two stories together, completely drawn and written, they would have to have consecutive numbers. When asked in the Atlas Newsgroup, Doc Vassallo provided the numbers for all stories Jack Kirby did in his mid-Fifties run at Atlas (above). As you can see, Kirby did quite a bit of work for Stan Lee in a short period. If Kirby was expecting trouble at Atlas, he certainly didn’t get it. Stan Lee knew a good thing when he saw it and gave Kirby a couple of plum assignments. We are now familiar with the idea of Kirby and Lee working together, but it wasn’t all that logical at that point. Kirby had just come from a long period of working together with Joe Simon. He hadn’t had any big successes in a while. Stan Lee had more than enough artists. And still he took Yellow Claw away from his favorite artist, Joe Maneely, and gave it to Jack. When that didn’t work out, he put him at work on a couple of western titles of his own. Stan Lee was a smart man. And he bought two inventory stories and gave them the next two job numbers available: K-651 and K-652. Not only that, he also gave him a war story to do: K-282. This was one of the scripts that was laying on his desk, so the numbering is lower than that of the horror stories, even though they are all published at about the same time. It can’t have taken Jack more than a week to deliver that war story, so that makes sense too. But the job number list tells us more.
The Yellow Claw Two other story numbers are close to the numbers the old Harvey stories got: K-663 “Mystery in Cabin 361!,” which was the second story in Yellow Claw #2, which was published at the same time as Astonishing #56 and Strange Tales Of The 7
The Man
Team Player
scientists in the sci-fi films of the 1950s. Johnny’s a typical rock-and-roll loving, hot rod obsessed youngster. Sue’s the domesticated, Code-approved blonde bombshell, and Ben’s an atomic age monster. Were any of these comparisons in your thinking or Jack’s as you began work on the title? STAN LEE: I can’t speak for Jack, but you hit the nail on the head. Your descriptions are just as I thought of them, and just as I wanted them. On top of Jack’s other incredible talents, I think he was also able to read my mind—and then improve on what little he found there. TJKC: Did the success of the Fantastic Four surprise you? STAN: Yes, but not very much. I personally liked the book so much that I’d have been surprised if it hadn’t been well received. TJKC: I remember you having Reed threaten cornered villains with lines like, “Talk! Or I’ll turn you over to the Thing!!” Sometimes Mr. Fantastic would have to restrain Ben from doing bodily harm (see FF #3 for one example) to a beaten baddie. But by the sixth issue, Ben got a real sense of humor and was becoming more ‘cuddly.’ Did you and Jack feel he had to be toned down a bit? STAN: Yes. (How’s that for exercising verbal restraint?)
Stan the Man talks about the Lee and Kirby super-teams Interview conducted by Jerry Boyd (above) A rarely-seen 1960s photo of Stan Lee, hard at work in his Marvel office. (below) This Astonishing Ant-Man piece was drawn by Jack and Dick Ayers for promotional use in the early 1960s. (bottom center) Custom head shots done by Kirby for the 1970 Marvelmania sticker set. All characters this spread TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
(Stan Lee is considered by many to be comicdom’s greatest editor (and you can add this fanzine contributor to that list of supporters) for not only his sterling work in overseeing the Marvel Age of Comics, but his pure instincts in gathering/nurturing talent as the de facto art director, and his wonderful dialogue and concepts. A hero was a true hero under Lee. Whether it was Kid Colt or the Rawhide Kid seeking to redeem themselves for their youthful indiscretions by taking down the unredeemable outlaws of the Old West, or Peter Parker fighting off his insecurities to launch himself into a battle only Spider-Man could win, Stan taught his readers responsibility, strength through adversity, and triumph over pain and loss. The work wasn’t just entertaining, but also inspiring. With “King” Kirby, Mr. Lee co-created three super-teams (five if you count the Howlers and SHIELD—and this time out, we’ll include them). During the 1960s the Lee and Kirby team (a super-team in and of itself!) would not only invigorate the medium but show all the difficulties possible for driven individuals with supernatural assets (super powers and super problems). Stan’s very busy these days, but he has our thanks for graciously taking time out to do this new questionand-answer session for the Jack Kirby Collector. This interview was conducted by e-mail in March, June, and September of 2008 and transcribed by Irving Forbush.) THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: The Fantastic Four came first. At a casual glance, you have Reed Richards who’s all of the tall, square-jawed, pipe smoking
12
TJKC: You came up with exceptional supporting characters. Did you look at DC’s Justice League of America, for example, and take note that their supporting casts weren’t very strong and then made sure your line-up provided alternatives? STAN: Truth to tell, I don’t remember ever reading any Justice League comics, although I occasionally thumbed through them to see how the artwork looked. I wouldn’t have had any idea who their supporting characters were. TJKC: The FF truly became a family after Sue and Reed got married, making the Torch and Mr. Fantastic brothers-in-law, and Ben a godfather after little Franklin was born. Before that, there was romantic tension involving Namor—a love triangle. Did you ever consider scrapping the marriage to keep that angle going or marrying Reed and Sue off to other characters? STAN: No. From the beginning I intended for Reed and Sue to marry. But it was fun letting Namor have a crush on her. I even toyed with the idea of Dr. Doom wanting to take her away from Reed, but somehow I never seemed to get around to that.
Meanwhile, At Avengers Mansion... TJKC: The Avengers’ success came out of the individual successes of Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man. Was this title as much fun for you and Kirby to do as the FF ? Or was it more difficult—due to you having to maintain continuity between the Assemblers as a team and as solo acts in their own series? STAN: I can’t speak for Jack, who never seemed to have trouble with anything art-wise or plot-wise, but as for me, I preferred
writing stories about single characters rather than teams because it was easier for me. I have the world’s worst memory and it was easier to remember, plot-wise, where I left off with one character than where I left off with a whole kaboodle of them. TJKC: Between Avengers #1 and #2, Ant-Man became Giant-Man. Were you and Kirby tapped out on doing stories for the ‘little guy’ or was Giant-Man just a better way of handling that hero? STAN: No matter who drew Ant-Man I never felt he looked interesting enough. The artwork never turned out the way I hoped it would. I thought the artists would play around much more with the perspective, but it seems they never had the time and we were so busy with other books that I never got around to sitting down with them and figuring out how to make the panels more visually compelling. So, I took the easy way out, figuring maybe ol’ Hank would look more colorful as a giant than being ant-size. TJKC: Iron Man got a big change in armor from Avengers #2 to #3—the large, cumbersome suit got streamlined, and colored in red and gold. The Hulk quit after the episode with the Space Phantom. Did you and/or Jack feel the line-up was too powerful with Hulky around? STAN: Honestly, I can’t remember why the Hulk was left out after #3. It couldn’t have been because he was too powerful because there are many ways to overcome that problem. In fact, his seeming invulnerability would have made it more fun to write, to figure out ways to get him in trouble. Rather than give you a phony explanation, I’ll just take the Fifth because I can’t simply recall the reason we dropped our Jolly Green Giant. In fact, with my terrible memory, I had forgotten we dropped him until you mentioned it! TJKC: Prince Namor was an all-purpose character. He was heroic at times, a warmonger at other times. You used him effectively. He took on the FF regularly for a while, then the Avengers, and finally against the X-Men. Did you guys thank God Bill Everett created him? STAN: Absolutely. Namor was my favorite type of character to write—a good bad guy (or a bad good guy). As I remember, one of my favorite Sub-Mariner stories was one in which
When The Iron Age Met The Cold War The Golden Avenger and friends vs. the Marvel Super-Commies, by Jerry Boyd irst generation Marvelites may recall that Captain America and Col. Nick Fury weren’t the only super-patriotic heroes to come out of the new House of Ideas. Iron Man was seen by many fans to be (and they suggested this to Lee in the letters columns) the symbol of the US’s technological might and know-how as well as a symbol of the New Frontier’s can-do spirit. In his guise as Anthony Stark, the playboy-swinger (sporting a pencil-thin mustache formerly reserved for Jack and Stan’s conniving Western town bosses) was the first “liberated lover boy” of the Silver Age—or the embodiment of “the man who reads Playboy.” Charming, sophisticated, charismatic, and brilliant, Stark took the early ’60s equivalent of micro-chips (transistors being all the rage then) and equipped his magnificent armored suit with devices his enemies desired to have access to, or wanted to duplicate, or sought to steal. Stark Industries was in the munitions business. It supplied America’s military arsenal with startling new inventions in its battle against Communist aggression. Since Tony was his company’s chief developer, he found himself a target of the Reds. And that led to the tragic accident in a visit to Vietnam that created Iron Man. Like Detroit automakers, Stark improved, streamlined, and added new gadgets and features as time passed. Like Stan, Jack, and Don Heck (who were guiding his inventive zeal), he was exploding with ideas. Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner were also passionately antiMarxist/Leninist but Stark, his armored bodyguard, and his conglomerate were the prizes the Red Chinese, Cubans, and Russians wanted to bring down the most. And why not? In the fight against their “world revolution,” Tony provided a high-tech mansion for the Avengers (as well as a dutiful butler) and weapons for Nick Fury’s SHIELD. He was what a later time would call “a mover and a shaker.” While “King” Kirby only penciled a handful of Iron Man yarns for Tales of Suspense, his affinity for machinery (see TJKC #48 for just a fraction of the sum total!) shone through in an attached iron hammer á lá Thor (in Avengers #2), motorized skates, a transistorized high-frequency radio, and more. The Golden Avenger tackled the Crimson Dynamo, the Black Widow, the Titanium Man, and others from the Soviet Union, but these operatives took their orders from Nikita Khrushchev and his successor, Leonid Brezhnev. Khrushchev was the General Secretary of the Communist Party and Soviet Premier—he famously warned the democracies, “We will bury you!” and his presence (like busts and statues of Darkseid later on in Kirby’s DC works) hovered over Russian schemers in portraits/ paintings in the Kremlin and KGB headquarters. In early Marvel Age stories, Kirby and Lee reminded their young readers of the ever-present menace of Bolshevism by pitting Commie agents against Ant-Man, the FF, the Hulk, and Thor. (Spidey, DD, Col. Fury, Sub-Mariner, the X-Men, and Dr. Strange had other hang-ups.) Before the decade was over, Dr. Doom, the Red Skull, Magneto, and Galactus (among others) would get more accolades from an interested press and Marvel’s ever-growing fan base, but Khrushchev (who should be remembered as one of Marveldom’s foremost antagonists) and his organization of commissars and cronies made for many a dramatic moment for Tony Stark, his super-powered allies, and the foes of tyranny. ★
F
I had him fight Daredevil. [Interviewer’s note: The epic Daredevil #7.] I thought it really turned out to be a terrific character study—for both of them. I wish I could have written more Sub-Mariner stories, they were a joy to write. TJKC: I feel that one of your greatest (and unsung) accomplishments as a writer/editor was your villain corps. You weren’t content to let the Avengers just fight Thor’s Executioner and Enchantress, Loki, Radioactive Man, or Giant-Man’s Black Knight or Iron Man’s Melter over and over again. You and/or Jack came up with Kang, Wonder Man, Count Nefaria, Immortus, and others just for the Assemblers. The FF had a great line-up of archcriminals, also. Were you and Kirby just exploding with great ideas for characters, or were you consciously
trying to outdo the competition? STAN: We were always trying to outdo the competition. And we knew that, once the super-hero had been established, it was the villain who brought the readers back. A super-hero story is only as good and exciting as the super-villain. TJKC: A lot of readers may have forgotten this by now, but you (as the editor-in-chief ) really had to fight to keep Captain America around! In the letters columns, many disgruntled readers felt he was “old hat” and they weren’t interested in their “fathers’ super-heroes.” Others objected to his being leader of the Avengers, and still others resented his inclusion in Tales of Suspense, seeing it as an encroachment on Iron Man’s territory. What did you see in ol’ Winghead that made you want to stick with him 13
Mark evanier (this page) This June 1972 issue of the fanzine Comicscope was edited, and the cover drawn, by one “C.B. Hackworth”; sounds like a pen name to us, but if you’re out there, C.B., drop us a line and let us know for sure! According to the editorial, this was the first issue of Comicscope, and we’re unsure if any others were produced. The indicia says it was published by the International Comic Club in East Point, Georgia, and the associate editors were Steve Higgins, Douglas Parker, and Calvin Walker. Forever People TM & ©2009 DC Comics.
24
Jack F.A.Q.s
A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby by Mark Evanier (Editor’s Note: Due to other deadlines, including preparing for his duties with this year’s Comic-Con International: San Diego, Mark Evanier wasn’t able to provide his regular column this issue. However, as anyone who was in attendance at last year’s Comic-Con Kirby Tribute Panel knows, Mark gave an emotional, touching tribute to not only Jack Kirby, but his late friends Dave Stevens and Steve Gerber, both of whom passed away last year. The transcript of that panel is presented in the following pages, and speaks to Jack’s influence as eloquently as any column Mark’s ever written. In lieu of his regular column, I’m presenting a delightful little tidbit from the 1972 fanzine Comicscope: An interview with Jack Kirby, as dictated to none other than Mark Evanier himself! It’s short and sweet, but harks back to Mark’s days as Jack’s assistant along with Steve Sherman, and answers some frequently asked questions about Kirby. Mark is, of course, author of Kirby, King of Comics from Harry N. Abrams, and Superheroes In My Pants! from TwoMorrows, and as always, he welcomes your questions about Jack at his website, www.newsfromme.com where you’ll find a link via which to send them.) ★
Tribute
(below) Left to right, that’s Jerry Robinson, Joe Ruby, and Ken Spears. Photos by the incomparable Chris Ng, who’s always on hand to snap shots for our use; thanks as always, Chris!
2008 Kirby Tribute Panel (Conducted Sunday, July 27, 2008, at 10 a.m. as part of Comic-Con International: San Diego, and featuring comic book legend Jerry Robinson and animation producers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Kirby attorney Paul S. Levine was also present on the panel, but time restrictions limited his input. Moderated by Mark Evanier, and transcribed and edited by John Morrow.) MARK EVANIER: In honor of Jack Kirby, will you all please set your cell phones on “explode.” (laughter) This is the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, so inevitably I’m Mark Evanier. (applause) I’d like to apologize for the hour; I do not make the schedule for this convention, I just live in it. We’re gonna divide this into three chapters. The first part is going to be a brief rambling by me, kind of a “state of Kirby” speech. Then I’m going to have announcements, and if you have a Kirby-related announcement you’d like to make, that’d be the time to do it. The third part is we’re going to be talking to these gentlemen about Jack and their relationship to him. Let me introduce them to you. On my immediate left is one of the great legends of the comic book business. People have been coming up to me for several days at this convention, saying, “I can’t believe I just met the guy who created the Joker, and drew all those neat Batman stories.” When they gave the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award to this man, that’s what it was meant for. When they gave it to me, they made a mockery of it. (laughter) This is Mr. Jerry Robinson, ladies and gentlemen. (applause) As we’ll discuss when we get to Act Three of these proceedings, Jack had a lot of career turmoil in the late 1970s and early
Levine, folks. (applause) I’m going to start this by talking at some length about Jack, and a thought that occurred to me. A lot of people here did not have the opportunity to meet Jack; that’s one of the reasons we do these panels, so those of us who did can pass on that wonderful little glow we got from being near the man. When you met Jack, you might come to him and say, “I want a sketch of the Thing” or “I want an autograph.” What you got that was most valuable—he usually wouldn’t do a sketch for you. He would sometimes autograph, depending on how his drawing hand was at the time. But what you got from Jack, if you were perceptive enough to receive it—which many people were not—was always a philosophical concept. Because the most valuable thing Jack had, even more so than his ability to draw great looking monsters and such, was a perception. You’ve heard me talk or write in the past about how Jack predicted this and that. People have asked me if he had psychic powers. I don’t believe in psychic powers; if I ever did I would believe that Jack had them. I still don’t believe people have psychic powers, but I do believe that some human beings on this planet are just smarter than other people, and some of them are more perceptive than other people, at least in certain areas. Those of us who knew Jack can itemize areas where he was not perceptive; this is a man who could not drive a car because he would drive off the road inevitably. But when it came to grand visions of the future—where something was going—he didn’t know where he was always going, but he always knew where the future was going. One of the concepts Jack gave me to think
1980s. He felt very alienated from the comic book business. He was unhappy in it for a number of reasons—not the least of which was that it was still the comic book business after all those years. He found an escape route; Mister Miracle managed to get out of the comic book business and the prison that it was for him, and worked very happily in animation for many years. He worked very happily for these two gentlemen, who had and still have a very fine animation studio named Ruby-Spears. These are Mr. Joe Ruby and Mr. Ken Spears. (applause) On the far end is the Kirby family attorney. Jack had two wonderful lawyers working for him during the original art battle which you all know about, and some of the other battles he fought. Now this gentleman represents the Kirby Estate and many other people you know, even me. This is Mr. Paul S.
about a lot—he’d throw out new ways of looking at it over the years—was something that might be called “the passing of the torch.” I met Jack in July of 1969; it is scary to me—and one of those thoughts I can’t quite wrap my brain around—that at that point, Jack was younger than I am today, by a couple of years. He seemed old to me; not old in a bad way. He seemed like an adult, an experienced guy with years and years on him, and I was this stupid, geeky kid who knew too damn much about comic books, and look where it’s got me. (laughter) And I don’t feel like I’ve changed, but obviously something has changed. This is my 12th panel of this convention, and I have five in a row today. It dawned on me as I was looking at my schedule— the next panel in this room is a tribute to a man named Dave Stevens. Dave was even younger than I am, and we lost him this 25
Foundations
Black-&-White Magic Art reconstruction, color, and commentary by Chris Fama
n late 1950, Young Romance and Young Love were already very successful monthly titles for Simon & Kirby. But romance comics weren’t the only successful genre on the stands; horror titles like Tales from the Crypt were also making a splash. Simon & Kirby’s Black Magic began publication in late 1950, competing against EC titles later considered some of the best comics ever produced. If you compare this story to Young Romance #30, both cover dated February 1951, the differences are remarkable. While the Young Romance story is very formulaic artistically, “A Silver Bullet For Your Heart” is Simon & Kirby firing on all eight cylinders. All you need do is look at this splash to see two men raising their own artistic bar to new staggering heights. This may also be one of the first uses of Kirby Krackle (see page 7 of the story). ★
I
TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
If you enjoy these amazing vintage Simon & Kirby stories, look for many more of them—in full-color—in Titan’s Best of Simon & Kirby (out now), and the subsequent follow-up volumes coming soon. 56
57
TM & ©2009 Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estate.
Retrospective (below) “Groot,” one of a seemingly endless stream of wouldbe world-conquering monsters from Lee & Kirby. This splash page is from Tales To Astonish #13 (Nov. 1960), with inks by Dick Ayers. Other artists did monster stories, but few did ’em as eye-catching as the King. (next page) Detail of a hard-riding Two-Gun Kid from Kirby’s final issue of the character, #62 (March 1963). Characters TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
62
Genre Comics
An overview of the Lee and Kirby forays into fantasy by Jerry Boyd imon and Kirby had made a commendable effort into selfpublishing, but the comic landscape of the mid-’50s was rapidly changing, and their titles, while memorable and often wonderful, didn’t garner the readership of earlier successes at Timely and National. From Here to Insanity, Fighting American, Black Magic, and others had to fight for exposure on the overcrowded newsstands and spinner racks. Newer readers were taken with EC Comics and the pressure of PTA groups and socio-political watchdogs had been a threat to creativity that made many creative types go into hiding, or advertising… wherever their talents could thrive. Jack Kirby was still determined to go on to new heights in the comic industry. Like other cartoonists, he had to be shaken by the angry backlash that spawned the Comics Code and its (sometimes ridiculous) restrictions, but he’d weathered worse trials. He’d survived the Great Depression, and the combat zones of Western Europe near the end of WWII. He’d get through this.
S
The King had to contemplate the stability of his reordered field and decide which company or companies could best serve his needs and that of his growing family. His clients in the latter part of the decade would include Harvey, Atlas, Charlton, and DC, but a conflict with Jack Schiff would eventually exclude the latter. Charlton paid less than any other publishing house and their distribution was shaky. Harvey was marginalizing the type of heroic adventures Jack was keenly adept at, and would come to be dominated by funny animals and funny kids and funnier devils, ghosts, and witches, etc., as time went on. Martin Goodman’s Atlas Comics wasn’t a top payer either, but Goodman had weathered the storm also, so Kirby went to their offices and shook hands with Stan Lee, the sole editor-inchief of the comic line in 1955, and began doing stories. By 1961 it would pay off handsomely in terms of stability and creativity and take both men into a universe neither one could’ve seen in the making at the time they began work together.
Monsters, Aliens, and Robots— Fantasy As You Like It! The moviegoers of America were tantalized by monsters throughout the ’50s, but with television sets becoming more prevalent by the end of the decade, something slightly different was in the air. Television stations were hungry for product to fill the airwaves. Movie studios, finally realizing that TV was here to stay, decided to play ball, and sold their film libraries to these stations and networks. Old movies (and even ones that weren’t that old) got shown on “The Late Show” and “Afternoon Theater.” (In my native North Carolina, a local station from the city of Durham broadcast a “Jungle Theater” in the early ’60s that specialized in any old feature with Tarzan, Jungle Jim, and so on in it.) Others focused on horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films. Their gore-shocks were banned in comics, but welcome to squealing young viewers who’d never seen such cinematic thrills before. Was Stan influenced by any of this? “Of course we were,” he told me by e-mail. “We were influenced by everything that went on around us…” Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense all began as horror and science-fiction anthologies in the 1950s. But if youngsters were running to movie houses to see towering monsters like Godzilla, Konga, and Gorgo (just to name three), then Stan would give ’em towering monsters. Giant creatures were Code-proof. Stan had done them before the comic watchdogs had come around, so it’d be a simple matter to continue them. This time, Lee had the makings of what would be the “founding fathers of Marvel” with him. Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Joe Sinnott, Paul Reinman, Vince Colletta, Larry Lieber, Dick Ayers, and Jack Kirby became the new regulars on these monster books and others. Taking a cinematic cue from “The Late Show,” Kirby drew an astonishing amount of brutish behemoths that came from within the earth’s innermost recesses, beyond the galaxy’s farthest reaches, and wherever else his collaborations with Lee would place them! Martin Goodman’s company once (before the infamous Atlas implosion—see Kirby Collector #18) put out plenty of comic magazines. But the Code, lowered sales, and Goodman’s distribution deal with competitor DC left the line-up depleted. Happily for Jack and Stan, the four aforementioned monster books and additions Amazing Adventures (which began in 1961) and World of Fantasy (1958-59) were there to add to their paychecks. Though letters columns were not de rigeur during the late ’50s at Atlas, Stan noticed that the distinctive styles of Ditko and Kirby were drawing readers in. Kirby got more cover assignments and the two artists often shared space in the same mags. Ditko occasionally inked Kirby’s pencils. This winning combination
was not lost on Stan, who continued this “Marvel team-up” into the ’60s. The formula of the monster books was fairly simple. A formidable creature would, in the course of 6-8 pages (or a expanded multi-parter, if Jack and Stan really wanted to stretch out!) announce his designs on conquering our hapless world. As the tension and action mounted, a tall, lean, pipe smoking (a pipe smoker was automatically believed to be a ‘wise man’ in the ’50s/early ’60s) scientist/doctor/researcher would discover a way to utterly defeat the diabolical giant and restore order. (David and Goliath were at play here.) The gargantuan hulks usually towered way over the Earth people they encountered and were so sure of their eventual triumphs that they gloated with supreme confidence along the way. And then the Lee and Kirby team defeated their aims through their pipe smoking proxy, and often through simple ruses. Stan was so obviously taken with the EC Comics-style “twist ending” that had served Al Feldstein, Bill Gaines, and Johnny Craig so well in their wildly successful horror, crime, and sci-fi yarns years earlier, that he made it a point to end many of his stories the same way. Diablo, for example (Tales of Suspense #9), was a gigantic smoke-thing, seemingly impervious to harm. Though he sent thousands into panic-mode by blanketing large areas with his dark vapors, one imaginative human made him go far away just blowing out the smoke from his cigarette lighter and announcing he’d do the same to Diablo, unless…. “Spragg, Conqueror of the Human Race!” (Journey Into Mystery #68) mass-hypnotized his human slaves into building his mountainous frame a huge platform from which he could move beyond Transylvania (that’s right, Transylvania) and subjugate all of mankind. The hero, putting his pipe aside, was able to fight off the hypnotic powers of his enemy and instead set the platform’s controls to jettison Spragg far out of Earth’s atmosphere forever. Other creatures were similarly outwitted by “puny humans.” Sometimes these yarns became morality plays. Aliens from beyond weren’t always despotic in nature or would-be rulers of earth dwellers. In “A Martian Walks Among Us” (Strange Tales #78), the sinister Martian invasion scout is thwarted by a benevolent Venusian, who just happens to be our unheralded, unseen aide. Tales to Astonish #30’s “The Thing from The Hidden Swamp” told of a plain but pleasant-tempered spinster who does a good deed for an alien stranded in a bog, spacecraft and all. For helping him, er… it, she’s rewarded with beauty to match her selfless compassion for others. Good things happen to good folks. Robots could be good and bad in Stan and Jack’s worlds. “Mr. Morgan’s Monster” (Strange Tales #99) was a sophisticated humanoid created to convince a skeptical populace that robots could still be beneficial to society. Morgan kept his intimidating (but inwardly heroic) creation hidden until the time to unveil him was right. Unfortunately, some of those pesky outer space power seekers came to our world and tried to seize Morgan’s invention to learn its secrets. The creature fought back. He held out long enough for the sleeping townspeople to rally and investigate the noises of the strange battle. The aliens, thwarted, scurried to their starships, escaping without the “monster.” Sadly, Morgan’s girlfriend tells him that since his creation was found in the streets outside of its safe haven (where it was ordered to remain), it has proved its “unreliability.” The monster’s energy fading, its last actions reveal… a lone tear. In just a few pages, Jack and Stan could pull on your heartstrings as well as any team in the business. Other robots, however, were out for themselves. In “Beware! He Isn’t Human!” (Journey Into Mystery #77), an egotistical movie monster maker creates a robot to destroy a woman who’s jilted him. Twist ending—the woman’s a robot, also, and thanks to the movie man, she’s got her ideal mate. The two humanoids edge toward the special effects man until he falls out of an open window. Lee had a ball with the names of his co-creations. Zzutak, Gor-Kill, Titan, Rorgg, Lo-Karr, Orrgo, Fin Fang Foom, the Creature from Krogarr, Trull, Moomba, Groot, Monstrom, Sporr, Kraa, Bruttu, Goom, Oog, and Googam, Son of Goom (!) were all monikers to give readers reason to pause! (Ditko, Heck, Ayers, and
others got their fair share, as well.) Kirby told Comic Scene Spectacular in ’92, “It was the names of the monsters that struck me funny. It would be names like ‘Bazoo.’ It was that kind of time— the 1950s, when the adventure stories weren’t selling. But horror always sells.” Stan recalled, for Marvel Spotlight: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (2006), “I think with the monster stories that I did with Kirby, those crazy titles, I think there I would just say, ‘Jack, get a guy who crawled out from under a rock and he’s 20 feet tall and we’ll call him Gazoom and we’ll…’ and then he did the rest of it, and I put in the dialogue.” Time travelers offered all types of possibilities, also. Some journeyed forward into the future for knowledge or power. Others sought to use their knowledge to dominate the past. Lee sent Heck, Ditko, and Kirby out to visually imagine the variations on that H.G. Wells-type theme. Sorcerers and fantasy tales had to border on the fantastic and away from the realm of vampires, werewolves, and zombies that had helped create the Code. Dr. Druid (born “Droom”), in Amazing Adventures, was somewhat of a precursor to the forthcoming Dr. Strange. With Rod Serling’s exemplary TV hit The Twilight Zone garnering critical and audience applause, Jack and Stan’s variations on the “situations monster-ous” were also worthy of accolades in the early ’60s. The creatures the men conceived of could be formulaic or they could have depth, reason, and angst. The time for one-dimensional ho-hum style storytelling in sequential art could be discarded and improved upon, if only it was executed properly. But how? And in what genre? The monster titles were solid sellers for Atlas, but the Kirby-Lee team grew a little tired of them as the ’50s gave way to the ’60s. Their monsters, aliens, futuristic spacemen, and robots could be good and they could be evil, but there was only so much the guys could do with this particular genre. Any other creative prospects would have to present themselves elsewhere. Still, for the moment, Jack had to be somewhat pleased. Five full years had passed since the Comics Code had transformed the industry, but Jack had found work within its restrictive perimeters and made a new niche for himself. Atlas had solid winners in their monster/mystery line-up, and he was a large part of its success.
Western Gunsmoke Shortly after the end of the American Civil War, a battleweary nation turned its eyes to its western frontier. Many citizens packed what they had left after living through four years of the national conflict and left their war-ravaged regions for a fresh start. Once again the west seemed the place to go, farm, and find riches, and the promise of excitement and adventure co-mingled nicely into that prospect. The frontiersman had been a subject of fascination since Daniel Boone and Andrew Jackson captured their young nation’s attention in the early 19th century. Trailblazers like Kit Carson and Davy Crockett followed. But it was Wild Bill Hickok, who was interviewed in Harper’s Magazine a few years after the war, that sealed the deal. Hickok, a former Union scout and Pony Express Rider, came off like a longhaired, buckskin-wearing superman who’d already mastered the sweeping vistas, wild animals, and warrior Indians of the Great Plains and beyond. The fact that Hickok was also a dangerous gunman only added to his reputation. Wild Bill was the template for the legendary gunfighter where myths, lies, and truth converged in plays, pulps, and Wild West shows eagerly consumed by Americans who wanted to feel good about the promises of their country again. After Hickok, stylish gunmen/gamblers like Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and Wyatt Earp would emerge. And then there were the ‘kids.’ There was a real Texas Kid, a real Apache Kid (Atlas had non-Kirby stories about these two), the Sundance Kid, and the biggest of them all—Billy the Kid. Stan edited or wrote as many gunslinging kids into his western books for Atlas as possible. For the aforementioned special ish of Marvel Spotlight, the Man later recalled, “It’s funny, my publisher, Martin, he loved the word ‘Kid.’ I mean 63
Questionable (below) For grins, we decided to mock-up a possible cover for Silver Surfer #20, had it been published as Craig McNamara imagines. Using page 9 pencils from Thor #166 (July 1969), we commissioned Gødland artist Tom Scioli to modify Thor into Orion, and Him into the Surfer. Tom Ziuko added the lettering blurb, and color for the Digital Edition of this issue.
Orion TM & ©2009 DC Comics. Silver Surfer, Thor, Him TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
74
What If-?
by Craig McNamara n Marvel’s What If #11 (1978), Jack Kirby (prompted by theneditor-in-chief Roy Thomas) posited the somewhat bizarre question, “What If The Original Marvel Bullpen Became The Fantastic Four?” It was, of course, a frivolous, inconsequential tale, only intermittently entertaining and probably most notable for being the closest Jack would come to creating a new Fantastic Four story during his return to Marvel in the ’70s. But there is a touch of sweet nostalgia in its depiction (however humorously treated) of the bygone years when Jack and Stan Lee were co-creators during
I
Marvel’s formative and most imaginative era. It’s no secret that Marvel’s creative apex in the ’60s coincided with Jack’s growing dissatisfaction with Marvel’s editorial and company policies. Feeling inadequately recognized and compensated for his successful co-creations (or, in the case of the Silver Surfer, his sole creation), and creatively stifled as well, Kirby began withholding new ideas, stockpiling them in his mind until he found a more creatively and financially rewarding outlet for his storytelling at DC. That much we know with certainty. But... what if...? What if Kirby hadn’t left Marvel in 1970? What if Stan Lee, realizing the considerable impact Kirby’s departure would have at Marvel, had persuaded Kirby to stay? And what if, along with prevailing on management to better compensate Jack, Stan also promised him more creative control on his books? “What if?” indeed! The mind boggles! Imagine many of the early characters and concepts Jack developed during the first year of his “Fourth World” books for DC instead finding their way into Marvel comics. But which comics? Assuming for this discussion that Kirby would accept nothing less than the full editorial control that DC had promised him, it seems unlikely that he would remain on the mainstays of his work at Marvel, The Fantastic Four and Thor. Although Lee’s writing would begin tapering off over the next few years (due to an attempt at screenplay writing and assuming publisher duties), at this point, he was still very much involved in the books; in any case, it’s hard to believe he would turn over complete control of either of Marvel’s most successful series. Nor does it seem particularly realistic that Kirby would be allowed to create new books for Marvel. By the end of the ’60s, Marvel had finally escaped the restrictions of their distribution deal that had limited the growth of the line; however, the recent failures of several titles made the company gun-shy about introducing new books. (When the next series were introduced, risk was minimized by returning to the old splitbook format and spinning off already established characters.) One could also speculate that, given the media attention Stan was beginning to receive as the innovator of Marvel Comics, he would never have allowed himself to be absent in the creation of a new super-hero-based comic. In all likelihood, Marvel would come to the same solution Jack reportedly did when DC insisted that, in addition to his new series, he also take over an existing title. Just as he chose one of DC’s lowestselling titles, so would Marvel probably insist that Jack be assigned to their most faltering titles. Considering how Stan used to spread Jack’s work around to bolster the whole Marvel line, it would be a natural for him to give Kirby a chance to revitalize a title with low sales. Either sales would go up, or in the event the title continued to fail, Kirby would be proven to be better relegated to art and plotting duties, under the supervision of a more experienced writer and editor. But which titles would be chosen? As fate would have it, during the same time period when he began talking with DC, Marvel was
experiencing a general downturn in sales leading to the cancellation or desperate re-tooling of several of the new series introduced during the big expansion of 1968. Any of these would have been well-served by Kirby’s creativity (indeed, he was instrumental in the genesis of several of them). But let’s start with the most obvious choice. Imagine seeing this entry in the Mighty Marvel Checklist for comics dated October 1970: SILVER SURFER #19: King Kirby takes the Skyrider of the Spaceways in a dazzling new direction! The Silver Surfer finally escapes the barrier imprisoning him on earth and heads out into space for an encounter with—but that would be telling!
Granted, the Silver Surfer was Stan’s most heartfelt work (so much so, it would be over a decade before he’d let any other writer helm a solo Surfer story), but faced with the comic’s cancellation, who’s to say he wouldn’t choose to step away if it would ensure a longer life for his “baby”? The fact that he enlisted Jack to draw the last published issue that upended the status quo of the series proves Stan was willing to make changes to broaden the comic’s appeal. Meanwhile, having lost all creative control of the Silver Surfer when Stan created the series without him, one can easily imagine Kirby demanding the comic, not just for the storytelling possibilities the character suggested to him, but as a way to assert his new status at Marvel and to reclaim the character as his own. As for those storytelling possibilities, Kirby’s fertile mind had already been at work on a magnum opus that could be adjusted to accommodate his new series: SILVER SURFER #20: The Surfer vs. Orion, defender of the planet New Genesis. But is Orion the true enemy—or is there an even deadlier threat lurking in the shadows?
If his differences with Marvel could have been solved, what reason would Kirby have not to use his imagination to its fullest once more and give the series the injection of new ideas it desperately needed? Even better, by removing the Silver Surfer from earth-bound adventures, Jack could ignore all of Stan’s additions to the mythos and treat the Surfer as he originally intended—as a newly sentient being exploring the meaning of life. SILVER SURFER #21: It’s all-out war between the worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips. Will the Surfer get involved—or will victory belong to the deadly Darkseid? A Marvel masterwork!
One can imagine that the Silver Surfer could neatly fill the role that Lightray played in Kirby’s New Gods epic. Like Lightray, the Surfer’s pacifistic nature could be a philosophical and emotional counterpoint to the blunt, savage Orion. Meanwhile, month by month, the story continues to unfold: SILVER SURFER #22: What is the Anti-Life Equation—and why is Darkseid hunting for it on Earth? Plus—the Silver Surfer and Orion battle the Deep Six, savage mutators of the sea!
SILVER SURFER #23: The final showdown with the Deep Six! The Surfer captured! Orion lashes out! It all happens on “The Glory Boat!”
DOCTOR STRANGE #187: They call him Billion Dollar Bates—The Man With The Power! And when he speaks, Doctor Strange must obey!
And so on. But what about Jack’s second monthly book? Let’s consider another Marvel title that was soon to stop publishing new stories:
And if the connections weren’t obvious enough:
X-MEN #67: In the caverns beneath New York, Marvel’s merry mutants discover a sinister new project. What is the secret a strange new race of men will die to protect? A King Kirby shocker!
Although they had no way of knowing how popular the X-Men would become someday, Marvel obviously had some interest at the time in keeping the series alive—after all, instead of simply canceling the book, they converted it to reprints. But since the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams stories had run their course and the title was floundering once more, let’s assume Marvel decided to give Jack a shot at the title he co-created five years earlier. The lighter, youthoriented comic would be a perfect place to employ the story ideas he would develop in DC’s Jimmy Olsen: X-MEN #68: It’s X-Men vs. The Hairies vs. The Outsiders! Plus—more on the mysterious Evil Factory. And wait till you see the Mountain of Judgement! X-MEN #69: Meet Dubbilex, the DNA Alien! The X-Men learn the true purpose of the Evil Factory, while Mokarri and Simyan hatch a new menace for our mutants! X-MEN #70: Can the X-Men stop the Six-Armed Terror before the Evil Factory’s nuclear reactor explodes? Don’t miss “The Big Boom!”
And while it’s hard to imagine Marvel approving a story that takes a thinly-veiled swipe at mass-media evangelists, certain elements of the Forever People’s “Glorious Godfrey” storyline could be acceptable: X-MEN #71: The X-Men visit the vacation spot called Happyland and discover all is not what it seems— especially when it’s run by the diabolical Darkseid!
Elsewhere on the racks, Jack’s third title would begin appearing. The recently cancelled Nick Fury, Agent of Shield and Captain Marvel would both be good candidates for resurrection and either one would provide Jack venues ideally suited for his artwork and sweeping storylines. However, since we’re just conjecturing here, let’s go for a truly offbeat choice: DR. STRANGE #184: Marvel’s Master Of The Mystic Arts is back! Doctor Strange, meet Doctor Bedlam! No mind can resist him! No body can hold him!
Kirby’s ability to work in virtually any genre certainly makes this an intriguing possibility. And when you think about it, many of Kirby’s ideas that showed up in Mister Miracle and The Forever People could have been easily adapted for the dimensionhopping Dr. Strange: DOCTOR STRANGE #185: Doctor Bedlam unleashes the Paranoid Pill! It’s Doctor Strange versus a whole city of mad men! And if he wins—New York dies! DOCTOR STRANGE #186: Doctor Strange investigates the horrors of the place known only as Section Zero and finds himself trapped in the mind of the maniacal monster known as the Lump!
DOCTOR STRANGE #188: Seeking the answer to the Anti-Life Equation, Doctor Strange travels to Darkseid’s world of Apokolips—and runs right into Big Barda and her Female Furies! It’s a sorcery slug-fest!
See a pattern developing? Knowing Kirby’s penchant for epic thinking, it wouldn’t be surprising to discover he was quietly weaving his Fourth World storyline throughout all three of his series and slowly drawing them together. The bigger question is, how closely would Marvel allow these series to overlap and function as one long continuing epic? Remember, this was during a period when Marvel was under orders from its publisher, Martin Goodman, to cut back on multi-issue stories. Since readership was still in decline following the boom years of the Batman TV show, it’s doubtful that sales would rise so dramatically that Lee and Goodman would stay out of Kirby’s way. Rather, fearing a complex continuity that would alienate readers, and bothered that Jack’s writing style wasn’t meshing with Marvel’s (Lee’s) house style, they would probably demand that Jack separate the plotlines of each of his books and bring what he calls his “New Gods” epic in The Silver Surfer to resolution. Frustrated but still attempting to satisfy his employer, Kirby complies, but denied use of his full imagination, the books fall into several months of lackluster stories and sales decline once again. In an attempt to again turn around the books, Marvel pressures Kirby to allow Roy Thomas and Archie Goodwin to script over his plots. Kirby refuses and The Silver Surfer and Doctor Strange are cancelled while The X-Men switches to reprints of earlier stories. Now without a regular title, Kirby fulfills his monthly art commitments by cranking out covers for various Marvel books and illustrating fill-in issues for The Fantastic Four and Thor under Stan’s scripting. Meanwhile, he tries to interest Marvel in a couple of new ideas for comics, Mister Miracle and Infinity Man. Marvel management, still reluctant to take a chance on new characters in a down market, instead offers Jack a new Inhumans series to write and draw in the revived Amazing Adventures book (with instructions to adhere more closely to the Marvel style). What began as a step forward in Kirby’s career now feels like taking two steps back. Kirby grows more and more discontented and when Carmine Infantino calls again, Kirby listens. It seems that Infantino has some new ideas for books that he thinks Kirby would be perfect for. He wants something similar to the Planet Of The Apes movies, which DC had recently missed out on the publishing rights for. He has another idea for a comic starring some kind of demon as a super-hero. And there’s an established character currently in limbo that maybe Kirby could figure out how to make more commercial: Deadman. Well, maybe that’s not how it would all play out if Jack hadn’t left Marvel. But what if? ★ 75