Atlas TM & ©2011 DC Comics.
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR FIFTY-SEVEN
In The Days Of the Giants--He Was The Migh tiest!
IN THE US
$1095
COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES Each book contains over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!
VOLUME 2
VOLUME 3
VOLUME 4
VOLUME 5
VOLUME 6
VOLUME 7
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #10-12, and a tour of Jack’s home!
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #13-15, plus new art!
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #16-19, plus new art!
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #20-22, plus new art!
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #23-26, plus new art!
Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, plus new art!
(160-page trade paperback) $17.95 ISBN: 9781893905016 Diamond Order Code: MAR042974
(176-page trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905023 Diamond Order Code: APR043058
(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905320 Diamond Order Code: MAY043052
(224-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905573 Diamond Order Code: FEB063353
(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490038 Diamond Order Code: JUN084280
(288-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490120 Diamond Order Code: DEC084286
NEW!
NEW!
Stan Lee & Jack Kirby: THE WONDER YEARS
Celebrate the 50th ANNIVERSARY OF FANTASTIC FOUR #1 with this special squarebound edition (#58) of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, about two pop-culture visionaries who created the Fantastic Four, and a decade in comics that was more tumultuous and awe-inspiring than any before or since. Calling on his years of research, plus new interviews conducted just for this book (with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others), regular Jack Kirby Collector contributor MARK ALEXANDER traces both Lee and Kirby's history at Marvel Comics, and the remarkable series of events and career choices that led them to converge in 1961 to conceive the Fantastic Four. It also documents the evolution of the FF throughout the 1960s, with previously unknown details about Lee and Kirby's working relationship, and their eventual parting of ways in 1970. With a wealth of historical information and amazing Kirby artwork, STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS beautifully examines the first decade of the FF, and the events that put into motion the 1960s era that came to be known as the Marvel Age of Comics! (128-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 (Subscribers: counts as two issues toward your Jack Kirby Collector subscription) ISBN: 9781605490380
SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION
First conceptualized in the 1970s as a movie screenplay, SILVER STAR was too far ahead of its time for Hollywood, so artist JACK KIRBY adapted it as a six-issue mini-series for Pacific Comics in the 1980s, making it his final, great comics series. Now the entire six-issue run is collected here, reproduced from his powerful, uninked PENCIL ART, showing Kirby’s work in its undiluted, raw form! Also included is Kirby’s ILLUSTRATED SILVER STAR MOVIE SCREENPLAY, never-seen SKETCHES, PIN-UPS, and an historical overview to put it all in perspective!
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR SPECIAL EDITION
Compiles the “extra” new material from COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUMES 1-7, in one huge Digital Edition! Includes a fan’s private tour of the Kirbys’ remarkable home, profusely illustrated with photos, and more than 200 pieces of Kirby art not published outside of those volumes. If you already own the individual issues and skipped the collections, or missed them in print form, now you can get caught up!
(160-page trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 9781893905559 Diamond Order Code: JAN063367
SUPERHEROES IN MY PANTS!
MARK EVANIER’S old and new essays on JULIUS SCHWARTZ, bad convention panels, CURT SWAN, cheap comic fans, unfinanced entrepreneurs, stupid mistakes in comics, PAT BOYETTE, and other aspects of the Art Form, profusely illustrated by award-winning MAD cartoonist and GROO collaborator SERGIO ARAGONÉS, including new covers! (200-page trade paperback) $12.95 ISBN: 9781893905351 Diamond Order Code: FEB088013
(120-page Digital Edition) $4.95
JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST GOLD EDITION
Lists in exacting detail EVERY PUBLISHED COMIC featuring Kirby’s work, including dates, story titles, page counts, and inkers. It even CROSS-REFERENCES REPRINTS, and includes an extensive bibliography listing BOOKS, PERIODICALS, PORTFOLIOS, FANZINES, POSTERS, and other obscure pieces with Kirby’s art, plus a detailed list of Jack’s UNPUBLISHED WORK as well. BONUS: Now includes a complete listing of the over 5000-page archive of Kirby’s personal pencil art photocopies, plus dozens of examples of rare and unseen Kirby art! (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 ISBN: 9781605490052 Diamond Order Code: MAR084008
Also available: WALLACE WOOD CHECKLIST
CAPTAIN VICTORY: GRAPHITE EDITION
For the first time, JACK KIRBY’s original CAPTAIN VICTORY GRAPHIC NOVEL is presented as it was created in 1975 (before being broken up and modified for the 1980s Pacific Comics series), reproduced from copies of Kirby’s uninked pencil art! This first “new” Kirby comic in years features page after page of prime pencils, and includes Jack’s unused CAPTAIN VICTORY SCREENPLAY, unseen art, an historical overview to put it in perspective, and more! (52-page comic book) $5.95 • (Digital Edition) $2.95
KIRBY UNLEASHED (REMASTERED)
Reprinting the fabled 1971 KIRBY UNLEASHED PORTFOLIO, completely remastered! Spotlights some of KIRBY’s finest art from all eras of his career, including 1930s pencil work, unused strips, illustrated World War II letters, 1950s pages, unpublished 1960s Marvel pencil pages and sketches, and Fourth World pencil art (done expressly for this portfolio in 1970)! We’ve gone back to the original art to ensure the best reproduction possible, and MARK EVANIER and STEVE SHERMAN have updated the Kirby biography from the original printing, and added a new Foreword explaining how this portfolio came to be! PLUS: We’ve recolored the original color plates, and added EIGHT NEW BLACK-&-WHITE PAGES, plus EIGHT NEW COLOR PAGES, including Jack’s four GODS posters (released separately in 1972), and four extra Kirby color pieces, all at tabloid size! (60-page tabloid with COLOR) $20 • (Digital Edition) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT043208
TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com
Contents
THE NEW
Legendary Kirby! OPenInG SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (the legend continues) BankaBle aRT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 (Kirby’s earliest use of legends?)
ISSUE #57, SUMMER 2011
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JaCk F.a.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (Mark Evanier, 1972) InneRvIew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 (Jack’s first Comic-Con panel, from 1970) GalleRY 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 (Thor & Co. in sketch form) CInemaTIOn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 (a review of the new Thor film) kIRBYTeCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 (old tech vs. new) mYTHCOnCePTIOnS . . . . . . . . . . .24 (let’s build the hammer of the gods) kIRBY OBSCURa . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 (Barry Forshaw’s conjuring up more Black Magic by Kirby) DevIlISHneSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 (a big red dinosaur’s in the Garden of Eden) UneaRTHeD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 ( Satan’s Six layouts, and the scoop on that series by Tony Isabella) kIRBY aS a GenRe . . . . . . . . . . . .34 (Adam McGovern looks at some Kirb-“e”-inspired work) GalleRY 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 (graphic, graphite folklore) CenTeRFOlD: “JeRICHO” . . . . . .40 (a new twist on the Old Testament) J-F-kIRBY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 (how did the Kennedy assassination affect Jack—and when?) FOUnDaTIOnS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 (a man and his god dog) InCIDenTal ICOnOGRaPHY . . . . .59 (Prester John both old and new) InFlUenCeeS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 (Jon B. Cooke continues his look at Kirby’s 1970s work, as he interviews Kobra’s Martin Pasko) GODSTOPPeRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 (answer the Eternal question) mYTHCOnCePTIOnS . . . . . . . . . . .70 (Jerry Boyd on World War god) JaCk kIRBY mUSeUm PaGe . . . .78 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) COlleCTOR COmmenTS . . . . . . .79 PaRTInG SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (a new legend for Cap) Front cover inks: D. BRUCe BeRRY (unpublished Atlas #1 cover) Back cover painting: GeORGIO COmOlO Front cover colors: TOm ZIUkO The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 18, No. 57, Summer 2011. Published quarterly (made it this time!) by and ©2011 TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $14 postpaid ($18 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $50 US, $65 Canada, $72 elsewhere. Editorial package ©2011 TwoMorrows Publishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is ©2011 Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is ©2011 the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA. ISSN 1932-6912
(above) From the mid-1970s sketchbook Kirby drew for his wife Roz, here’s Atlas, a Kirby concept that never got fully realized beyond his one appearance in First Issue Special #1 (April 1975). Atlas TM & ©2011 DC Comics.
COPYRIGHTS: Aquaman, Atlas, Atom, Batman, Beautiful Dreamer, Big Bear, Bug, Darkseid, Demon, Desaad, Dr. Fate, Fastbak, Flash, Forever People, Green Lantern, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, Kobra, Lightray, Man—Bat, Mark Moonrider, Morgaine LeFey, New Gods, Newsboy Legion, OMAC, Orion, Serifan, Superman, Vykin TM & ©2011 DC Comics • Balder, Captain America, Devil Dinosaur, Don Blake, Dr. Doom, Eternals, Galactus, Human Torch, Ikaris, Karnilla, Loki, Mercury, Mr. Fantastic, Odin, Pluto, Prester John, Red Skull, The Monster, Thing, Thor, Warriors Three, Watcher, Wyatt Wingfoot TM & ©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Heimdall (from GODS Portfolio), Jericho, Ramses, Satan’s Six TM & ©2011 Jack Kirby Estate • Black Magic, Fighting American TM & ©2011 Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estate • Conan TM & ©2011 Robert E. Howard Estate • “Last Days of Pompeii” TM & ©2011 Classics Illustrated • Roxie’s Raiders, Thundarr TM & ©2011 Ruby-Spears Productions.
Innerview (below) Jack Kirby penciled this Fighting American illo in 1977, and Joe Sinnott inked it 5 or 6 years ago. (next page, top) Kirby speaking to the crowd at the 1970 Comic-Con panel. (next page, bottom) Kirby’s cover for the 1970 Comic-Con program book.
“It’s Not in the Draft [The following panel was conducted at the first, full San Diego Golden State Comic-Con (which is today’s Comic-Con International: San Diego), held August 1-3, 1970 at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. Let’s put the following piece in perspective. Five months prior, in March 1970, it was made public that Jack Kirby was leaving Marvel Comics to work for DC Comics—an unprecedented move by the company’s star storyteller. A one-day mini-con was held on March 21 as a warm-up for the big summer event (that show’s program book is shown below), with Mike Royer as the only guest. At the time Jack is speaking here, comics with an October 1970 cover date were about to be released, which would include Kirby’s first issue of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (#133) for DC, and the very Kirbyesque-looking Conan #1 drawn by Barry Smith for Marvel. John Romita’s first issue of Fantastic Four after Kirby was about to debut, and Neal Adams’ first issue on Thor had just appeared, with Joe Sinnott’s inking. So the comics world hadn’t quite yet gotten to sample Kirby’s Fourth World, Marvel was still reeling from Jack’s departure and trying to make things look as “Kirby” as they could, and fans were wondering where the company would go without him there. The tapes for this panel were given to Mike Towry by Shel Dorf’s old friend Charlie Roberts, who had in turn received them from Shel’s brother, Michael Dorf. The panel was transcribed by John Morrow, with the permission of Mike Towry. Mike has posted the link to the audio at http://www.comicconmemories.com/ 2010/01/08/recordings-of-the-1970-san-diego-comic-con-1-listen-tothem-here/ so you can have the chance to actually hear Jack speaking.]
Fighting American TM & ©2011 Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estate. Comic-Con program art ©2011 Jack Kirby Estate.
MARK HANERFELD: Right now I’m supposed to introduce Jack Kirby. I have no idea really how to do that, except to say he writes a hell of a story, and draws a hell of a story. You really ought to see the new stuff he’s doing, ’cause it’s terrific. Jack, c’mon up here and tell ’em more about it. [applause] JACK KIRBY: I really appreciate being here. I really deeply feel that it’s an honor being among you. It’s one of the reasons I draw people like I do, because I feel that I want to respond to you in some way, and when I do, I find that it’s a great deal of gratification to me. It’s not a question of telling a good story; well, of course it’s a question of telling a good story. The way I know it’s a good story is when you like it, or you hate it, or when you hate me for writing it or like me for writing it, [laughter] because I get some kind of a reaction, see? When I get a reaction from people, even if it’s bad, I feel that somebody’s out there, and I feel that people are living, and they’re analyzing things, and that their minds are in motion, and that life is going on. It’s the one time that I feel people; I don’t feel cars, see? I don’t feel buildings, I don’t feel tanks, I don’t feel guns, I have no respect for them, see? I have no respect for what they are; they’re just not alive. That’s why I ridicule cars, I ridicule guns. You’ll never see me draw a gun the way you’ll actually see a gun. Or you may not see me draw a car the way you’ll actually see a car. It’s my version of a car. I feel I can do anything I want with it. And I feel that’s what we all should do with it. Just try to see the world our way. Those things are made for us. Cars are made for us, and all these immaterial non-living things are made for us to do what we want with. That’s what I do; I try to make my version of it. I try to give a
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smanship. It’s in the Man.” larger than life version to a very mundane object. I feel I’ve made life a little richer for myself. And maybe in a way I’ve done it for you. If I get a question from you, or get some response from you, I feel that I’ve established some kind of a link with you, the people that I’m doing my work for. Somehow I’ve done it; somehow I’ve been quicker living than dying, [laughter] and one of these days I’m just not going to change quick enough, and I won’t be quick enough, and somebody will replace me, and maybe keep telling the kinds of stories that get reactions from you. But right now I’m doing it, and I’m enjoying it, and certainly my best moments come when I can really see you in person, and talk to you face to face, and see that I’ve really understood you in some way. That’s why I say it’s a pleasure for me. It’s a real source of gratification. So if I can do anything better, I’m gonna try it. And if I can do anything weirder, I’m gonna try it. If I can do anything more startling, I’m gonna try it. Or maybe something very, very outrageous, I don’t know. You might clobber me for it, and that’ll be great, because it’ll be a new experience for me, and I’ll enjoy every minute of it. I was once going out of a burlesque theater, and I had a heck of a good time being thrown out. [laughter] It was a great experience. I feel that’s what life is; it’s just a matter of reaction. Reacting to experiences. Sometimes they’re very bad, sometimes they’re traumatic, and sometimes they have a deep effect on us. But that’s okay; I think we should take it, and weather it, we weather it stoically, and take the best thing out of it, and maybe
become real human beings from it. I think if we’re able to react, we’re alive. If we don’t react to anything, I think we’re in some kind of limbo. Those are just my thoughts on things, and that’s the way I draw. That’s what goes into my drawing. My God, I’ve analyzed myself for thirty years, [chuckles] and I think that’s what’s come out of it. So, that’s my thing. I’m giving you my version of the world as I see it, whatever random thoughts come into my head. You’re getting what I think about it. I don’t know what you think about it, but that’s what I think about it. I see it my own way. And I feel, in doing that, I become an individual. If I played piano my own way, I’d be an individual, and I feel that I’d have some enriching quality. And I like that. I like to have some enriching quality. It makes me feel good. Some people don’t like to have enriching qualities. And they just go about doing whatever they’re doing, in business or something else, and they do well at it, and they accept it. But I don’t accept that. In fact, I don’t accept anything. I fight anything that comes along. I like to see it my way, and I like to do it my way. It makes me feel great. Whatever reaction comes my way, I love to handle it. I’ve handled all kinds of reaction, and I’ve had a great time at it, really. There have been times when it just scared the living daylights out of me, but having lived through those times, [chuckles] I can look back at them almost fondly. So you say, “Well, I’ve handled that,” see? I’ve bloodied my axe
in some way, and I’ve handled it. So that’s not so bad. Y’know, I don’t know how it was resolved, but it was resolved in some way. I came away from it, the other guy came away from it in some way, but looking back on it, I had a great time, really. Even getting tossed by that bouncer, it was a great experience, because this guy looked like any character that Warner Brothers would dream up, y’know? The guy next to me was making a lot of noise, and being a loser, I was the one who got thrown out. But that was a great experience, although at the time, I couldn’t understand it in its context, I feel that now I do. I really had a good time. So, what I do is, take whatever I feel about all these things, and put it in my drawing, and maybe entertain you in some way. You have to tell me; I can’t. I haven’t got that much of an ego. You have to tell me. And of course, in a way, you do, because the books do well enough, [chuckles] and that’s good enough. I get letters. I go along that way; I live that way. That’s my—well, I suppose you call it a lifestyle. And I’ve never gotten out of the groove. So I’m content with it, and it just about sums me up. If there’s anything you’d like to ask me, possibly about the field itself, about the direction of comics—I can only give you my version of it, and you’re welcome to it. So help yourselves. AUDIENCE: Why did you quit the Fantastic Four? KIRBY: Why’d I quit it? I can’t tell you. [laughter]
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Gallery 1
Immortal Penciling n the late 1970s, Jack Kirby filled a
I sketchbook with pencil drawings of his
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Thor TM & ©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.
characters, and gave it to his wife Roz as a Valentine’s Day present. Presented here are some of the “immortal” characters from Thor included in that sketchbook, scanned directly from the original drawings. Enjoy!
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Odin TM & ©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.
MythConceptionS
Hammer of the Gods
right) The book of mythology young Adrian Day had on his bookshelf.
The Mythology of the Mighty Thor, by Adrian Day
(below) Loki schemes in isolation, in pencils from Thor #147 (Dec. 1967).
oseph Campbell was the greatest proponent of mythology in the 20th Century. He had no religious affiliation but he embraced all religions, often speaking of the common mythic structure that informs them all. Though revered academically and recognized by many as the leading authority on mythology, his views were unavoidably heretical to the devout practitioners of western faith.
(next page, bottom) Adrian’s homemade Mjolnir and Norn Stones. Loki, Thor TM & ©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.
J
For many, “mythology” carries the inference of falsehood, typically associated with pizza and fairy tales. Campbell understood mythology differently. To him, the purpose of any myth was to reveal truths; deep truths—truths than can’t be solved with equations or examined under a microscope. Where most people of faith get in trouble, according to Campbell, is in substituting denotation for connotation. They hold the stories themselves as sacred rather than the truths behind the stories. Jack Kirby and Joseph Campbell, it would seem, had a great deal in common. In the early 1960s, Jack Kirby was just waking up to the power of storytelling as a way to “connote truth.” Said Jack, “I didn’t want to tell fairy tales. I wanted to tell things as they are. But I wanted to tell them in an entertaining way. And I told it in the Fantastic Four and in Sgt. Fury. If I wanted to tell the entire truth about the world, I could do it with Robinson Crusoe, and do Robinson Crusoe for the rest of my life.” While Jack certainly did not confine this realization to traditional mythic figures, the odd mixture of his own Judaic and Germanic origins was a large influence in his propensity for patriarchs and gods. Specifically, Kirby seemed to have a fondness for Norse mythology and Thor in particular. Both had surfaced in his work several times over the course of his career leading up to his association with Stan Lee in the ’60s. While exploring potential characters to expand the Marvel line, he must have dragged them out again. In 1962, Journey Into Mystery was just a monster/sci-fi title with sagging sales. Stan Lee was looking for ideas to infuse it with the same kind of success he was seeing with his newer titles. Superheroes were experiencing a revival and placing a character like Thor as the lead story in a title that was already going down the tubes seemed like little risk. Stan and Jack did not consistently appear as the writing team for Thor until J.I.M. #101, though they were clearly shepherding the book even when not directly involved in the finished product. While Stan has always assumed full credit for the creation of the series, striking similarities between Marvel’s Thor and Jack’s earlier utilization of the character are strong evidence that the character ‘s conception was more Kirby than Lee. At first, as in previous incarnations, the larger aspects of Thor’s Norse heritage were understated. Though Stan and Jack’s own embellishments may have had their roots in the comic book tradition of Captain Marvel, they were equally appropriate within the ethos of its mythic origins. Don Blake 24
fit very well into the framework of what Joseph Campbell calls the “hero’s journey.” Journey Into Mystery #83 sets up the premise of the series. The frail American Dr. Blake is vacationing in Europe where he stumbles upon a potential alien invasion. His flight from the aliens leads him unwittingly to uncover a walking stick that changes into an enchanted hammer while simultaneously transforming its bearer into the Mighty Thor. This initial tale is a classic example of one scenario for the hero’s journey: the unwilling hero, whose actions unintentionally draw him into a path of adventure that ultimately leaves him transformed, in a higher state or consciousness. It is precisely the motif Campbell describes in “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” when he says, “a hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder.” Though several years would pass before the fuller mythological backdrop implied by Thor’s character would be fully exploited, the seeds were being sown very early on with the introduction of two central characters that would ultimately support that mythology. Altered for the sake of continuity with the “Marvel Universe,” they still bore a recognizable resemblance to their classic Norse counterparts. The expansion of these original folk legends would prove critical to the success and appeal of the series. Loki, the God of Mischief, appeared in Journey Into Mystery #85. The story briefly introduced Asgard, the Rainbow Bridge (Bifrost), Heimdall, and even referenced Odin. With J.I.M. #86, Odin made his first appearance, when Thor called on him for help. The presence of these two supporting characters gradually increased until, along with Thor, they formed a triad of mythological archetypes that in combination provided the impetus and character dynamics for story development on an ongoing basis. Odin served as a Mentor. In this role, he gave Thor guidance and kept him humble. The whole Don Blake/Thor relationship was Odin’s device to insure Thor’s humility, something necessary for the wielder of Mjolnir. Loki is easily identifiable as a Trickster. He had a hand in most of the calamities that befell the Thunder God, either directly or through his manipulation of others.
Thor, of course, serves as the hero archetype. Whether or not it was intentional, Stan and Jack’s addition of Don Blake rings true to another standard mythological theme and one that oddly shows ties to the Christian theme: the God who becomes a man and vice versa. Blake’s mild mannered and unassuming nature compared with the rough and readiness of Thor echoed the biblical flipside Lion of Judah/Lamb of God portrayal of the Christ.
Trails of Asgard While the elements of the Mighty Thor that most readers are familiar with were in place nearly from its inception, much of the tone for the series’ first year and a half was governed by plots that were silly and outrageous. Stories featuring adversaries who hurl national monuments at the protagonist may have been common fare for the day, but this writing style, that holds a certain charm when associated with characters like Jimmy Olsen, retrospectively seems ill suited for Thor. Perhaps this is a testament to how Marvel Comics raised the standard of sophistication among its readers. The beginning of the Mighty Thor that one generally associates with the “Kirby Era,” however, is a trail that leads back to Journey Into Mystery #97. In that issue, only months before the Lee/Kirby team officially assumed the reigns for the series, there appeared a back-up feature called “Tales of Asgard.” It was “Tales of Asgard” that set the tone for the future direction of the book. The first few stories in the “Tales of Asgard” series read almost like a textbook. They covered the “Genesis,” if you will, of Norse Mythology from the beginning of the world to the origin of Odin and the Norse Gods. Ymir, the Frost Giant, and Surtur, the Fire Demon, were also introduced as players who would be there when the world ended. Much like the beginning of the New Gods, ideas must have been building up inside Jack’s head so that his return to the book was like the opening of the floodgates. “Tales of Asgard” offered an introduction, paving the way and preparing readers for the reshaping of the book as a whole. With J.I.M. #101, Jack and Stan assumed a permanent place as the regular creative team for the book. The stories and approach for the book changed literally overnight. Though they continued to use non-mythological characters established previously such as the Tomorrow Man, the Cobra, and Mr. Hyde, the randomness that the earlier stories had suffered from was replaced by a clear continuity and sense of direction.
If I Had a Hammer In 1965, as a 5 year-old, along with 4 other siblings, I was sequestered in a small village called Mastershausen somewhere in Germany. For 5 children with no television and limited knowledge of the German language, we were fairly
isolated. Our creativity had to be at its peak just to escape boredom. That my father was a military officer was a definite boon since he brought home large stacks of comics from the men in his squadron on a regular basis. None of those comic books captured my imagination more than Journey Into Mystery’s “Mighty Thor.” My eldest brother read to me regularly from the pages of Journey Into Mystery. My obvious passion for the character led him to supplement the comics with the original Norse Myths he discovered in a volume of collected children’s stories from the family library. All the petty differences that troubled many a Marvelite in the letters pages, “Thor has red hair and a beard, Odin has one eye,” etc., never bothered me. Mythologically Thor, Odin and Loki were essentially the same characters. Even at the age of 5, this was satisfactorily clear to me. While I can only speculate as to all the reasons these characters affected me so profoundly, I am quite certain of many contributing factors. Living in Germany certainly played a major role. It was, after all, a country whose very origins were tied to Norse Mythology. My village had cobblestone streets, taverns where villagers gathered to socialize and drink ale, a village blacksmith who we visited on occasion, a neighborhood clock and cabinetmaker, and even a castle. “The castle” was located in a clearing just up the road from my home. As a family we would picnic there from time to time. Only its outer walls were still standing. A set of stairs in a tower leading to a second level had all but deteriorated. As a five year-old in these surroundings, there was a thin line between imagination and reality. This wonderland environment gave added resonance to these myths. More than anything else, however, it was Jack’s rendering of Thor himself that lay at the core of my attraction. That fantastic helmet, the long flowing red cape, that wonderful costume with those strange blue dots (Kirby’s Rawhide Kid had them too, leading me to believe they had some kinship), and the amazing Mjolnir were all arresting icons. Thor was just so cool with his long flowing hair. At the time, the world was hollering about the Beatles and their shockingly long locks. I didn’t see what all the fuss was about, myself. Next to Thor, their haircuts never gave me pause for thought. 25
We All Live In Happyland
J-F-Kirby In Kirby’s original splash for New Gods #1 (Feb. 1971, below), why didn’t he leave room for the issue’s indicia? On the opposite page, you can see the published version where the sword behind the goblin’s head doesn’t line up. Otherwise, it was a pretty clever patch-job by DC’s production department. New Gods TM & ©2011 DC Comics.
Jack Kirby and the JFK Assassination, by Robert Guffey
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n the Summer 2006 issue of The Jack Kirby Collector, Jack Kirby biographer Mark Evanier reports an intriguing comment once made by Kirby that has far-reaching implications in regards to reassessing the real world influences Kirby brought to bear on his most challenging works of the 1970s. Let’s begin by quoting Evanier’s reportage in full:
One time, we got to talking about the assassination of President Kennedy. That event had an impact on everyone who was around at the time, at least on their personal life, so I was not surprised to hear Jack say that it had a profound effect on him. My little eyebrows shot up, however, when he said that it had a major impact on his work. That, I had never sensed… and I still am not sure what he meant by that. He was unable to cite an example. He was definitely not referring to the one short story he did for Esquire years later chronicling the events in the life of Jack Ruby after Kennedy was shot. With that in mind, I went back one time and reread everything Kirby had done around the time of the Kennedy assassination. The work that would have been on his drawing table around or after 11/22/63 included the Thing-Hulk battle in Fantastic Four #25-26 and the issues soon after, the coming of The Cobra and Mr. Hyde to the Thor strip, X-Men #5 or 6 and The Avengers #5 or 6. Can you see anything in those stories to suggest one of the creators was deeply moved by the murder of John F. Kennedy? I can’t. Even reading forward a year or two, I don’t get a sense of the turmoil it brought to this nation. There are no storylines dwelling on [that] kind of upheaval. In Fantastic Four, Stan and Jack did a tale called “Death of a Hero” in which the father of Sue Storm was killed. It was a moving story but you’d have to stretch farther than Mr. Fantastic Four to connect it to the death of J.F.K. in any way. And yet, Kirby said what he said and his grief at the death of our 35th president is undeniable. I’m sure he must have put it somewhere into his work. I just can’t figure out where. If I ever do, that may turn out to be my favorite Jack Kirby work. I understand why Evanier’s “little eyebrows” shot up upon hearing this comment. To get to the bottom of this mysterious statement, my initial instinct probably would have been to do what Evanier did: re-read the stories Kirby was working on at the time of the assassination. The fallacy in this approach, however, is to assume that an event as tragic as the assassination of John F. Kennedy would immediately manifest itself in someone’s work. Artists are like anyone else. Sometimes it can take years to even acknowledge that a tragedy has occurred, much less express one’s grief in a meaningful way. Two examples, both referring specifically to the JFK assassination: Richard Matheson, author of the classic novels I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, and What Dreams May Come, among numerous others, once gave an interview in which he discussed the genesis of his classic short story “Duel.” This suspense story, published in the April 1971 issue of Playboy, was subsequently adapted by Matheson into a screenplay that became Steven Spielberg’s first film (and, some contend, one of his best). The film, like the story, is entitled Duel, features Dennis Weaver in his most challenging role, and premiered on ABC television in 1971 to great critical acclaim. Many critics contend it’s one of the finest films ever made for television.
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Though the story was not actually written until 1970, Matheson came up with the idea on November 22, 1963. If not for Matheson revealing this in the interview, one would never imagine that the subtext of this relentless thriller involved the JFK assassination. Matheson said that he and a friend were at a golf course in Simi Valley, CA when they heard about the President’s assassination. They abandoned the game immediately and drove home in a deep depression. On the way back home, for no apparent reason, a truck began terrorizing them on the freeway. For awhile it seemed as if the driver wasn’t going to let up, then pulled away and vanished as fast as he’d appeared. This disturbing incident, along with the tragic news about the President, combined to create an overall sense of unease in Matheson. Matheson said he grabbed an envelope and on the back of it jotted down an idea about a
man stalked relentlessly by a semi during a road trip, then forgot about it. Only years later did he stumble across the scrap of paper, remember the momentous events surrounding that day, and begin writing the story. The ubiquitous paranoia that pervades both the story and the film, the sudden sense of one’s tidy universe having been turned upside down, stems from the emotions Matheson and the entire world experienced on 11/22/63. But the important point is that it took Matheson seven years to write the story (McBride 199-200). Example the second: Jim Garrison, the District Attorney of New Orleans when Kennedy was assassinated, brought in David Ferrie—a private investigator believed by Garrison to have been involved in the assassination—for questioning on the very day of the murder. Even though there were numerous reasons to follow through on the
investigation of Ferrie, Garrison stood down when the FBI announced publicly that Ferrie was not considered to be a viable suspect (Garrison 10). As dramatized in Oliver Stone’s film JFK, Garrison promptly forgot about the assassination and went about his life as did almost everyone else in America. Not until encouraged by a private conversation with Senator Russell Long, a conversation in which Long expressed great mistrust in the findings of the Warren Commission, did he resume his investigation of Ferrie and his cohorts (Garrison 13-14). The essential point is that even Garrison, a man directly involved in investigating the assassination from the very first day, experienced an emotional delayed reaction that prevented him from seeing the facts of the case until three years after it had occurred. Therefore, it’s logical to suggest that Kirby might not have been emotionally ready to deal with the true implication of the assassination until many years later. The place to look for Kirby’s reaction to the JFK assassination lay not in his Marvel work of the 1960s, but in his most important work for DC Comics in the early 1970s, one year after Garrison’s highly publicized trial of Clay Shaw, the only man ever brought to trial for the assassination of JFK. It’s likely that Kirby was paying attention to Garrison’s much-publicized trial, just as many Americans were at that time. The reason that Kirby was “unable to cite an example” to Evanier is probably because no one specific example existed. Kirby was no doubt referring to an overall tonal change in his work, a veritable paradigm shift that must have been as tumultuous to Kirby’s world as Kennedy’s assassination was to the country. Let’s return to Mark Evanier’s words for a moment: “I don’t get a sense [from his early Marvel work] of the turmoil [the JFK assassination] brought to this nation. There are no storylines dwelling on [that] kind of upheaval.” Turmoil. Upheaval. What Kirby books contain more turmoil and upheaval than his Fourth World stories? The Fourth World is a complex quartet composed of four separate books, The Forever People, The New Gods, Mister Miracle and Jimmy Olsen. The cornerstone book is The New Gods, the first issue of which begins with the apocalyptic sentence, “There came a time when the old gods died!” Just as the subtext of the Matheson story involved our struggle to survive in a world where our sense of order has been tipped over onto its side, the recurrent theme throughout Kirby’s Fourth World stories—a theme not repeated in many other Kirby works—is that of the shallow facade of everyday life being ripped aside to reveal something far darker underneath. Not only does Kirby depict puny human beings trying to maintain their sanity in the face of such sudden life-altering events, but demonstrates that even gods have a hard time adjusting to new realties. David Lynch, another groundbreaking artist fascinated with the JFK assassination (in fact, he once wrote an unproduced screenplay about JFK’s relationship with Marilyn Monroe based on Anthony Summers’s book Goddess), begins his 1986 noir masterpiece Blue Velvet with a defining scene about post-assassination America: We begin with the establishing shot of a picture-perfect front lawn outside a suburban household surrounded by a white picket fence somewhere in the American South, then track downwards through the black soil 51
Influencees (right) A recent portrait of Pasko by Kobra collaborator Michael Netzer (then “Nasser”). (below) Original art from Kobra #1 showing D. Bruce Berry’s lettering of Kirby’s original, unused dialogue, which got covered by pasted-up balloons (see next page). Note the redrawn face (by Pablo Marcos) and the unretouched Kirby face in the last panel. (next page, bottom) Cover to Kobra #2.
Marty Pasko Interview
Conducted by Jon B. Cooke [Martin Pasko was nicknamed “Pesky Pasko” by legendary DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz, for whom he wrote for many years. He is a veteran writer and/or story-editor in a diverse array of media, including nonfiction and television, working on such shows as Roseanne and cult favorites Twilight Zone and Max Headroom. He helped translate many comics to TV animation, including The Tick, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs,”and Batman: The Animated Series, for which he won a 1993 Daytime Emmy® Award. He is also a co-writer of the animated feature Batman: Mask of The Phantasm. Pasko has worked for many comics publishers as well, writing “Superman” in several media, including TV animation, newspaper syndication, and webisodes as well as comics, and co-created the revamp of “Dr. Fate” (shown on next page, from First Issue Special #9) that is the basis of the character’s current, long-lived incarnation. He also got the thankless task of taking over Kirby’s Kobra comic after Kirby left DC, which is the main subject of this interview, which was conducted in May 2011. It was copyedited by Martin, who currently blogs about comics and the entertainment industry at http://martinpasko.blogspot.com/]
Kobra, Dr. Fate TM & ©2011 DC Comics.
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: When did you first encounter Kirby’s work? MARTY PASKO: I first read The Fantastic Four when I was really, really small, and, perhaps because my own family was a bit dysfunctional, the book really turned me off (all that bickering). I was used to the DC approach, which was all very benign, with friends who didn’t argue with each other much. It was unrealistic, but benign. And seeing the Fantastic Four—this was in the first ten issues or so—at that young age… I reacted badly to it. I didn’t like it at all. I really wasn’t that aware of the art. At that age, it was always more a matter of the story to me. I think that’s always been a bias of mine, being a writer. To some extent my attitude has always been ‘a good story can always survive bad art’ but it doesn’t work the other way around. Until I was much older, I wasn’t art literate enough to appreciate Jack’s work—the dynamism and the ways in which he would take liberties with conventional anatomy but make it work. It was also seeing his work in the period in which he was inked by Joe Sinnott that changed my mind. I really got hooked by the imagination at work in that stuff. That’s when I reassessed Fantastic Four, in 1968, when Jack was doing most of the plotting, so it really was his fertile imagination at work that hooked me. A few years later, when he took over Jimmy Olsen, that’s where my real exposure to Kirby as a comics reader (as opposed to writer) happened, because I was primarily a DC reader rather than a Marvel one. TJKC: What was DC like in the mid-’70s? MARTY: I worked primarily for editor Julie Schwartz but I also wrote for Murray Boltinoff, Joe Orlando, and Gerry Conway. I loved working with Gerry, especially on the First Issue Special revamp of Dr. Fate with Walt Simonson. Gerry had a deal that assumed he would write all the titles he edited, but he soon realized he had bitten off a little more than he could chew, I think. And he admitted as much. So that’s why his office became a really great place for younger, less experienced writers to go looking for work: Gerry quickly evolved a system whereby he would do the first issue of something as a writer and then another writer would pick it up. His first issue would function like a “pilot” script. He did that with Man-Bat— he did the first issue with Steve Ditko and then handed it off to me with the second issue, with art by Pablo Marcos. He did that with Freedom Fighters and Metal Men, too. Except for Metal Men, where Walt Simonson stuck around for a few months, those second issues usually didn’t have the same quality of art as they had in the first. Then60
Publisher Carmine Infantino cancelled the Man-Bat title after the second issue, and after that it stated getting harder and harder for Gerry to hang onto artists. They didn’t want to turn down other work and make a commitment to DC because they felt that cancellation was imminent at any moment, often capriciously and without reference to sales figures. By the time Gerry had to do Kobra, Jack had already left the company. It had been planned as a
one-shot for First Issue Special before Carmine cancelled that title, and the 17 pages or so were left over in inventory. Carmine basically threw this thing, originally called King Kobra, at Gerry and said, “Here, do something with this.” Then Carmine scheduled it as a monthly ongoing. Gerry had the feeling that, because it was a Kirby title, it wasn’t going to be long for this world, so he didn’t even bother doing the reworking of the first issue himself. He just handed it off to me and that was as close as I got to working with Jack in comics. It was a collaboration after the fact. Gerry had decided the Corsican Brothers take-off was the only thing that he really wanted to preserve from Jack’s King Kobra. The twin brothers were 65 in the original version and Gerry thought the built-in logical flaw there was that if they had a psychic link like the original Corsican Brothers—one is hurt and the other feels the pain— how has the Scotland Yard detective, who became the Jason Burr character, been unable to locate Kobra all these years? The set-up in the original book was that he had been searching for his twin brother for six decades because he knew his twin brother was evil. We had to contrive a way for that psychic link to have been there for a shorter amount of time, to rationalize the premise that, at the point of attack in that first issue, Jason was learning about Kobra’s existence for the first time, as opposed to having known about it and been trying to find Kobra. I think Jack, in his original concept, modeled Jason Burr (that’s what we called him; he was called something else in the original) on Nayland Smith and was thinking of Kobra as a kind of East Indian version of Fu Manchu. To answer your question about what it was like working at DC, it was very chaotic in those days. This was right after the formation of Warner Communications and right after DC had moved into 75 Rockefeller Plaza, and just about a year or two before Carmine got fired. Kobra was one of the last things done on Carmine’s watch. TJKC: Did you welcome the assignment? And were you given carte blanche to do what you wanted? You obviously had the art… MARTY: Yes, and Gerry ordered some changes to the art, too, but it didn’t match the Kirby art terribly well. Did I relish the assignment? To be honest, at
that point, I was happy to be working on it because Julie couldn’t keep me busy enough, so anytime Gerry threw something my way I was happy to do it. Quite frankly, the alternative was to write another horror mystery anthology script for either Joe Orlando or Murray Boltinoff, whom I didn’t find it particularly easy to work with. And those kinds of jobs were always more labor intensive because, for some reason, those editors required a pitch in the form of a written plot synopsis before committing to the assignment. Whereas, with Julie and Gerry, you could just go in and spitball the story, and after a half-hour you had it, you took your notes home and wrote the script, which was much easier. What Gerry did was hand me Jack’s original art and say, “What can you do with this?” I told him I didn’t think the story made a lot of sense. It was a toss-off. Years later, Jack admitted as much to me. “Oh, that,” he said. “King Kobra. Yeah, I had to fulfill my contract.” He said, “I think I penciled it in two days.” Seventeen or 18 pages in two days—that just astonished me. Anyway, all we did, basically, was have stats made from the foreign edition, because they had already shot the negatives for it, and what they did with the foreign editions would be to opaque out—they don’t do it anymore, as comics haven’t used negatives like that in 20 or 30 years—but at that time, they would opaque out all the lettering for the foreign publishers, and these overseas subcontractors would substitute lettering in the respective foreign languages. So I had stats of those made up, so I wouldn’t be influenced by the script, and I just created a whole new story, retrofitting it to the existing art. We even moved some panels around. The only people hearing this story who have been dismayed by it have been hardcore fans of Jack Kirby’s work, and over the years they’ve said, “You’ve mutilated Kirby’s vision!” And so on and so forth. So I was very, very happy to have caught up with Jack at Ruby-Spears and found out it was okay with him. TJKC: You made an effort not to look at the original dialogue in the story as submitted by Jack? MARTY: Exactly. TJKC: Did you do much shuffling with the story? MARTY: There was stuff that came in from left field in the original story. There was an alien spacecraft. Jack obviously had something in mind to pay off later on in the run, but since there was only the one issue, since Carmine had cut him off after the one issue, we had no idea where it was intended to go, so we devised an entirely new rationale for what it was and why it was there. I don’t think that Gerry believed we would do more than two or three issues. And, in point of fact, Carmine did cancel it after the fourth issue, but then Jenette Kahn came in and the first thing she did was revive it and it was given to Paul Levitz to edit. A lot of the inventory jobs in the mystery titles were done that way. What an inventory job was, was, if a story didn’t work out for some reason, Joe Orlando would shelve it. Once a year, the accountants would come in and have to document the intended write-offs, and Joe and Murray Boltinoff would be under pressure to rework and publish as much of that stuff as possible. So they would often have their assistants write new dialogue to existing 61
Godstoppers
The Eternal Question
by Craig McNamara In the hands of a lesser artist, an actionless debate over the worth of mankind would result in a pretty flat comics reading experience. Kirby, however, imbued such scenes (as in Fantastic Four #49, April 1966, below, or Eternals #6, Dec. 1976, next page) with a sense of spectacle and pageantry that kept readers riveted and engaged in the discussion. All characters TM & ©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.
rom the beginning, Jack Kirby’s The Eternals series (1976) was seen by comic fans and professionals alike as a kind of extension of his uncompleted Fourth World saga. It was a new series, for a different company, and featured allnew characters, but by its very subject matter—gods walking among men—the comparisons were inevitable. That the series putative star, Ikaris, seemed to be an avatar of Orion only strengthened the feeling that this was indeed The New Gods revisited, copyrights be damned.1 Despite the cancellation of the Fourth World titles at DC, Marvel probably felt the concept was a better fit in their comic line, which already boasted a thunder god and a planet-devouring demi-god, among a host of other mythical and cosmic beings. What Jack delivered, though, was as similar to The New Gods as the Hulk is to Superman. The New Gods told of the war between New Genesis and Apokolips, a near-biblical battle between good and evil. The Eternals also had their own diametrically opposed adversaries, the mutated Deviants, but after the first story arc,
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they became a much more passive force in the series. With one exception in the later issues, they all but vanished as antagonists. Instead, Jack used The Eternals to explore the foundations of mythology and legend in the world’s cultures. Using the visitation of strange beings from space as a catalyst, Jack delved into Incan legends, Greek and Roman gods and even biblical history, linking them together with surprising ease. A recurring theme in both series was the human race’s struggle with the idea of otherworldly races and the expanded view of the universe it engendered. But whereas most humans seen in the New Gods seemed more in awe than threatened by this realization, the humans of The Eternals reacted with the kind of fear, suspicion and apprehension that people in the real world would exhibit if suddenly faced with beings of such unimaginable power. In fact, upon closer examination, The Eternals is less a New Gods or even a Thor/Asgard redux than a further exploration of themes first posited in Kirby and Stan Lee’s Galactus stories, particularly in Fantastic Four #48-50 (1966).2 Instead of a mere two- or three-episode arc to work with, here Kirby had an openended series which allowed him to delve more deeply into the responses of humanity prompted by an alien visitation. Similarities occur strongest in three main areas: the premise of each story, the Celestials/Galactus connection, and the human reactions that the events provoked.
I. “My journey is ended! This planet shall sustain me until it has been drained of all elemental life!” Galactus, Fantastic Four #48 “The mission of the gods is now clear. This is the hour of Earth’s trial!” Ajak, The Eternals #3 Consider the cataclysmic event that sets each story line in motion: A monolithic figure from space arrives to pass judgement on Earth, with extinction for the human race in the balance. In The Eternals, that presence was Arishem of the Celestials, extraterrestrial beings who (in Kirby’s backstory) long-ago experimented on apes to create the human race (along with the god-like Eternals and the demonic Deviants).3 Standing motionless upon twin pylons in the Andes Mountains, Arishem was to monitor the planet for fifty years before making his decision on the fate of our race. The alien Galactus, in Fantastic Four #48-504 may seem like less of a judge than an indiscriminate hand of destruction. True, his initial pronouncement left no doubt of both his intentions and his utter disregard of Earth: “This planet shall sustain me until it has been drained of all elemental life.” And over the next two issues, Galactus showed no interest in debating the worthiness of the race his actions would incidentally exterminate. But this arrival of an near-omnipotent figure from above coupled with Kirby’s images of worldwide destruction gave the story biblical overtones, calling to mind nothing less than Judgement Day itself. The link becomes even more explicit when Galactus’ actions are finally checked by the Fantastic Four, who force him to acknowledge humanity’s claim to life. Consider how Galactus’ final words were both a judgement and a caution: “At last I perceive the glint of glory within the race of man! Be ever worthy of glory, humans… be ever mindful of your promise of greatness… for it shall one day lift you beyond the stars… or bury you within the ruins of war!! The choice is yours!!” The similarities continue. As the Silver Surfer played the role of Galactus’s herald, so did Ikaris (and occasionally, other 66
Eternals) presage the Celestials. Though the Silver Surfer would eventually become an ardent advocate of the human race, he began in this story as a cold, dispassionate harbinger. In much the same way, Ikaris and the other Eternals displayed a respectful attitude toward the Celestials, neither cheering or condemning them, but always deferring to their superiority and never questioning their right to stand in judgment of our planet.
II. “He is what he wishes to be. He is Galactus!” The Watcher, Fantastic Four #48 “There’s no way to question the Celestials. What they decide to do… they will do.” Dr. Damian, The Eternals #3 The Celestials’ power was reminiscent of Galactus’ as well, in its virtually unlimited and undefined scope. But in the decade between Fantastic Four #48 and The Eternals #1, Kirby had developed greater ambition and sophistication in his work, his characterizations becoming both subtler and bolder, his art more graphically stylized in the process. These combination of these changes gave rise to a conception of alien beings that was truly one of the high points of Jack’s long and innovative career. Throughout the history of comics, representation of alien races have been almost exclusively based on the human form, though often with the addition of pointed ears, scales or fur, bizarre skin coloring or oversized craniums for an exotic appearance. This was done perhaps less due to a lack of imagination on the part of writers and artists than the desire for antagonists whom the reader could easily grasp (the same reason 99.9% of the extraterrestrial beings encountered in comics are surprisingly fluent in English). Kirby’s ’60s tenure at Marvel is rife with such alien beings— Skrulls, Ovoids, Kurrgo of Planet X, Annihilus, Blastaar, et al.5 With the Celestials, however, Kirby found a way to more truly depict an alien race that was beyond our understanding, while still conforming to some basic visual conventions. Whereas Galactus was clearly humanoid in appearance6 (though gigantic and attired in a masked costume that would look right at home in Kirby’s Asgard), the Celestials were humanoid in shape only. That most fundamental element of human expression—the face—was denied to us.7 The armored shell which encased each of the Celestials was marked by Jack’s familiar graphic symbols for technology and circuits, but even when its arrangement on the head seemed to approximate a face, the expression it suggested was often an aggressive smile or an anguished grimace. Were we truly created in our maker’s image? There is no way to be sure. Coupled with this was Jack’s deliberate decision to allow the Celestials no voice and no thoughts, defining them and their motives only through their
actions and interpretations provided by Ikaris and other Eternals.8 Galactus often spoke of humanity as being no more than ants to him, but his frequent interactions with our race belied that proposition; however, there were no such interaction between human and Celestial. Most of the time, the Celestials went about their business seemingly oblivious to the reactions of the humans around them. In the few instances where a Celestial did involve themselves directly with modern man—The Eternals #7 for one—it was with the clinical detachment of a scientist regarding a petri dish. More than ants, but less than equals, the human race was just one more in a long line of experiments
conducted by the Celestials, and thus deserving of no pronouncements, no apologies and no explanations. While Galactus behaved more like an Old Testament god, with great displays of anger, compassion and ennui, the Celestials remained impassive and introverted, roused to action only to check our occasional acts of aggression against them. Despite the physical presence of Galactus, his narrative power was diminished by every rationalization he made, every mood he indulged and every attack he initiated. But in the creation of the Celestials, Jack stripped away the overheated theatrics of Galactus, leaving beings who were truly unfathomable. That impenetrable air of mystery gave the Celestials 67
Mythconceptions
Godhood’s End (-ings)
Ragnarok, ‘Last Battle’, the Big One, and smaller wars analyzed in Kirby-esque context, by Jerry Boyd (below) Pluto unleashes his madness in this page from the “Mercury” story in Red Raven Comics #1 (Aug. 1940), Kirby’s first work for Timely/Marvel. (next page) A squad of good old American troops tackle Pluto’s Mutates from the future, in these pencils from Thor #164 (May 1969). Go get ’em, fellas! All characters TM & ©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.
or decades, we had “gods” in the field of sequential artwork. Like movie moguls or “film gods/goddesses” in old Hollywood, titans of incredible talent peopled the comic packaging companies of New York City. Graham Ingels, Bernie Wrightson, Gray Morrow, and Tom Sutton (among others) were masters of gothic horror. John Severin, Russ Heath, and Joe Kubert did war stories better than most. Dan DeCarlo, Harry Lucey, Samm Schwartz, Stan Goldberg, and Henry Scarpelli held court when it came to teen humor. Al Williamson, Wally Wood, and Al Feldstein beckoned us to the stars like no three others. But when it came to the gods, there’s only one name—and that’s Jack Kirby. Many times the King professed to a lifelong interest in
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mythology. He told an interviewer for Comics Scene Spectacular (#2, 1992), “Thor is an ancient myth—what I did was to make him saleable once again.” Scott Fresina, one of Jack’s many friends, recalled that, “Kirby certainly read and studied the Germanic and Norse gods as he got along in years, but he told me that he first heard the myths from his Austrian-born grandmother when he was very young. He fell in love with these stories and some of them stayed with him forever.” In sundry myths, there were gods and goddesses of beauty, harvesting, and representatives of the oceans, sun, moon, and stars but (like a typical little boy) Jack was particularly fascinated by the power, grandeur, and supernatural weapons and abilities of the warrior gods. Their lives and triumphs, defeats, and ends would wind their way into his retooled but immensely entertaining modern mythologies.
Mercury... Fights For Earth! Continuity wasn’t a big deal in the Golden Age of Comics, but some Timely creators gave it a real shot. Bill Everett’s early Sub-Mariner adventures were continuing cliffhangers akin to Flash Gordon serials, and Timely writers sometimes explained how the Red Skull and the Black Talon cheated death or escaped when they next resurfaced. The ultimate real-life villain and comics villain at the time was a former Austrian corporal and frustrated artist named Adolf Hitler. Captain America and Bucky fought him under that name, but Mercury, son of Jupiter, knew the dictator as Rudolf Hendler— actually the evil god Pluto in human guise! Hendler was a S&K thing only—elsewhere in Timely Comics, Hitler was Hitler! Mercury is given the task of upsetting Pluto’s plans, and his fleet feet speed him across time and space to our besieged planet, where men and their great war machines collide in wide swaths of destruction. Pluto explains to his cousin Mercury (whose godly gaze easily penetrates his disguise) that he’s “never had so much fun!” An enraged Mercury strangles Hendler but the dictator’s guards intervene. Their earthly weapons have no effect on the handsome young god, and he takes it upon himself to show the leaders and people of the warring nations the paths to peace, much to Pluto’s consternation! (Mercury could’ve been a latter-day Supertowner with an inventive name change—Fastbak, maybe?—and a nifty new costume.) Jack was never like his later commanding officer, Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. who thrived on combat and loved war. Though he’d never return to Mercury (later renamed Hurricane by other Timely stalwarts), Kirby and Simon’s decision to make their fast-moving protagonist fight just as hard to secure a lasting peace as when he’d trade punches, reflects Jack’s affectation for the reluctant but capable warrior, ready to extend the “olive branch of peace” but standing prepared to physically defend the rights and lives of others. Moreover, Jack and Joe couldn’t have allowed Mercury to destroy Pluto then and there. This villain’s evil was eternal and World War II, in which S&K would soon participate as soldiers across France, Belgium, and Asia, had yet to engulf the majority of Americans. The end of the war could not be 70
foretold when Mercury took leave of Hendler/Pluto and the young god wouldn’t be there at its end. At the war’s end, Joe and Jack’s warriors (whether celestial or mortal in nature) could only stand in as idealized embodiments of the millions of Allied servicemen and women (almost 20 million in the States alone!) who’d eventually help break the backs of the Axis coalition.
The Power of the Aesir Jack, aided by Joe Simon and with others, would return to mythological warrior gods off and on throughout the ’40s and ’50s. However, it was the introduction of the Mighty Thor in 1962 and that strip’s ongoing success that cemented Jack’s reputation as the comic gods’ ‘godfather.’ Lordly Odin’s tribesmen, the Aesir, were drawn in spectacular fashion by the King to a grateful comicdom who’d also spent a godly... er, goodly amount of time in theaters with mouths agape at the exploits of Hercules, Maciste, Samson, the Sons of Samson (!), Atlas, and the beloved Jason and the Argonauts (1963). (I saw the latter feature then with older cousins and their friends and we spent a happy afternoon afterward battling in teams as “warriors and skeletons.” But the niceties of having a Journey Into Mystery comic mag was that it could be taken home with you and cherished again and again at your convenience.) Jack and Stan rapidly expanded their JIM cast of characters: Odin, Loki, Heimdall, Surtur, Ymir, Hela, Sif, Mirmir, Geirroddur, Sigurd, and Balder. Lee’s dialogue for the lords of Asgard reflected his love for Shakespeare. He told an interviewer for Comics Scene Spectacular #2 (1992), “If I think about it, I was crazy about Thor. I loved the corny way he would talk. I loved having his father say, ‘So be it!’ and all of those expressions.” The Asgardians and the various rock trolls, flying trolls, storm giants, etc., were wonderfully attired, radiating power. And since none of them owed their unique abilities to radioactivity or advanced scientific breakthroughs, it had to be a little easier for Lee and Kirby to eschew plausibility based on atomic age experimentations and just rush them into battle! But who would the Aesir battle... and why? To their mortal worshipers, the immortals were Vikings writ-large. They invaded enemy strongholds (like the Vikings did), drinking heartily along the way and laughing in combat. They reveled in their powers, taking on their sworn enemies— the dwarves, monsters, and giants who were jealous of the proud Aesir. Thor (Thunor to the ancient Germanic tribes) sometimes depended on help from Loki (they’d been buddy-buddy for centuries before Loki’s imprisonment by the gods), Tyr (the Norse god of war), and the wise Thjalfi. (Thor’s need for allies in his struggles may have accounted for the creative inclusion of Hogun, Fandral, and Volstagg.) The Thunderer was not sadly resigned to his fate—indeed, he relished his missions. He was immensely strong (as he was in the comics), full of enormous vitality and power, and the sole possessor of Mjollnir (the Scandinavian spelling is used here), the single most powerful weapon of his tribe. He
slew the Asgardians’ enemies with thunder and lightning. In some legends, Odin was his father. If he wasn’t, Odin was still regarded as the All-Father, ruler of gods and men, and chief of the sky gods (and the brooding clouds above them were where the Vikings pointed to as they celebrated their gods’ stories). Odin’s vast powers created the solar system as men knew it then, and he spent much of his time choosing earthly champions from among the dead to rally about him to stave off Ragnarok. Heimdall is pretty much the same as he appeared at Marvel. Ever vigilant and courageous, he sits beside the Rainbow Bridge to guard the entrance to the fortress of the gods from the giants and monsters. He rarely needed sleep and had hearing so keen he could detect the growing of grass on our planet.
Stan’s interpretation of Loki was that he was “an evil god,” Kirby saw him as “a tortured person” and both were right! In myth, this adopted son of a giant was both a help and a hindrance to his fellow gods (sometimes in the same story!) and a tortured prisoner of his own evil, eventually shackled to three large flat stones for his treachery against Balder. To some ancient believers, he was the Norse equivalent of the Devil, whose monstrous offspring would one day bring about Ragnarok. Other gods weren’t used much (drat the luck!) by Kirby and Lee. (One can’t blame them, they were kinda busy with Midgard-based heroes at the time, also.) Tyr, the war god, appeared briefly as “the master archer” of Asgard in the story where Odin bestows Balder with the enchantment of invulnerability for 71