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TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!
TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com
Contents
THE COLOR
Kirby AT DC! OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 (DC for me!) RETROSPECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 (key 1970s DC moments)
ISSUE #62, WINTER 2013
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KIRBYLOGUING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 (the return of the X-files) JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 (Mark Evanier explains why Jack didn't fit in at DC) GALLERY 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 (fave Fourth World images) KIRBY OBSCURA . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 (Barry Forshaw knows too much) KIRBY KINETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 (Norris Burroughs on super soldiers past and future) OVERVUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 (Big Brother meets Captain America in OMAC) BOBBY BRYANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 (Kirby & the Watergate [T]apes) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . . . .38 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) WORKMANSHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 (John Workman takes us behind the scenes at ’70s DC Comics and his Kirby Kobra Konnections) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . . .44 (the many beards of Dr. E. Leopold Maas) FOUNDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 (Kirby’s best genres, ’40s vs. ’70s) KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . .56 (Allred and Scioli transform Jack) BOYDISMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 (Jerry Boyd presents Part 2 of Fascism in the Fourth World) THE SOURCE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 (Mike Breen compares the FF and Challengers like never before) GHOST WRITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 (why did Jack draw pages differently for some scripters?) TRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 (2013 Kirby Panel with Evanier, Gaiman, Isabella, and Levine) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . .91 PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96 Front & back cover inks: MIKE ROYER Front cover color: TOM ZIUKO If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,
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Circa 1974 Kirby commission piece, beautifully inked this year by Mike Royer for this issue’s cover. Thanks, Mike! The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 20, No. 62, Winter 2013. Published purt-near quarterly by and © 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 © TwoMorrows Publishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912
COPYRIGHTS: Alien Thing, Aquaman, Arin, Atlas, Batman, Big Barda, Big Bear, Black Canary, Black Racer, Boy Commandos, Challengers of the Unknown, Clark Kent, Darkseid, Deadman, Demon, Desaad, Dingbats of Danger Street, Dr. E. Leopold Maas, Fastbak, Flash, Forager, Forever People, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Green Team, Guardian, Hawkman, Highfather, House of Secrets, In The Days Of The Mob, Infinity Man, Jimmy Olsen, Kalibak, Kamandi, Kobra, Lightray, Lonar, Losers, Manhunter, Manhunter, Metron, Morgan Edge, Mister Miracle, New Gods, Newsboy Legion, OMAC, Orion, Outsiders, Richard Dragon Kung Fu Fighter, Sandman, Secret Society of Super Villains, Spirit World, Super Powers, Superman, Teekl, Vigilante, Virmin Vundabar, Witchboy, Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics. • Bucky, Captain America, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Inhumans, Loki, Silver Surfer, Thor, What If? TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • The Avenger TM & © Conde Nast • Black Magic, Boy Explorers, Boys' Ranch, Fighting American TM & © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Estates • Soul Love, True Divorce Cases TM & © Jack Kirby Estate • Destroyer Duck TM & © Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby Estates • Conan TM & © Conan Properties.
Retrospective
Key 1970s DC Moments by John Morrow
ontinuing our look at key moments in Jack’s life and career from TJKC #59 (which covered Marvel in the 1960s), we present this timeline of key moments that affected Kirby’s tenure at DC Comics in the 1970s. Of invaluable help were Rand Hoppe, past research by Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman, and of course, the “X” list of Jack’s DC production numbers (an updated version is shown elsewhere in this issue). This isn’t a complete list of every important date in Kirby’s DC 1970s history, but should hit most of the main ones. Please send us additions and corrections. Next issue, I’ll work on pivotal moments in Jack’s return to Marvel in the 1970s and beyond. My rule of thumb: Cover dates were generally twothree months later than the date the book appeared on the stands, and six months ahead of when Kirby was working on the stories, so I’ve assembled the timeline according to those adjusted dates—not the cover dates—to set it as close as possible to real-time.
© Marvel Characters, Inc.
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(above) Stan says “adios” to Jack in July 1970. (throughout) You can’t say DC didn’t promote “Kirby,” even if some of the ads were vague.
1967 • Kinney National Company buys DC Comics, and Carmine Infantino is appointed Art Director. He initiates the era of “artist as editor,” bringing new talent and ideas in. Also, editor Jack Schiff retires from DC Comics, opening the door for Kirby to possibly return.
1969 • January: The Kirby family moves to California, taking a loan from Martin Goodman. • Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman become acquainted with Kirby through working on Marvelmania projects, and Mike Royer inks his first Kirby piece. • Kirby meets with Carmine Infantino at a Los Angeles hotel to discuss the possibility of joining DC Comics, and Mort Weisinger retires from DC Comics, removing the last obstacle for Kirby returning.
1970 • January: Kirby receives a “onerous” contract from Perfect Film to continue working at Marvel Comics, telling him “take it or leave it.” • February: Carmine Infantino signs Kirby to a DC contract. • Early March: Kirby turns in Fantastic Four #102, his final story for Marvel, and resigns. On March 12, Don and Maggie Thompson publish an “Extra” edition of their fanzine Newfangles announcing Kirby is leaving Marvel. That Spring, Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman become Jack’s official assistants. 4
• May-June: “The Great One Is Coming!” ad (left center) appears in various DC comics, trumpeting “The Boom Tube,” but does not mention Kirby by name. • July (September cover date): The “Stan’s Soapbox” (left) in Marvel’s comics tells of Jack’s resignation from Marvel, and Jimmy Olsen #132’s letter column (bottom left) announces Kirby will start in the following issue.
• Summer: “Kirby is coming” blurb appears in various DC comics. Also, Kirby’s three new core books are mentioned (with bullet art) in the 1970 San Diego Comic-Con program book. • August (October cover date): Jimmy Olsen #133 published with Kirby’s first work for DC Comics. • October (December cover date): “The Magic of Kirby” house ads appear in DC comics, heralding the first issues of Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle. (right) • November (January 1971 cover date): Kirby stories in Amazing Adventures #4 and Tower of Shadows #4 published by Marvel, the same month as Jimmy Olsen #135 at DC Comics. • December (February 1971 cover date): Forever People #1 and New Gods #1 published at DC Comics.
1971 • January (March cover date): Marvel’s Fantastic Four #108 published from Jack’s original rejected FF #102 story, the same month that DC Comics publishes Mister Miracle #1 and Jimmy Olsen #136. • January 31: Kirby and Infantino are interviewed for Comics & Crypt fanzine in the DC offices, during Jack’s trip back to New York City. Around this time, Carmine Infantino is promoted to publisher of DC Comics. • May (July cover date): Lois Lane #111 is published, with a non-Kirby story that used his Fourth World concepts. Also,
• while drawing the end of Mister Miracle #5, Kirby conceives the idea of Stan Lee as “Funky Flashman” for #6. • Mid 1971: After discovering inker Vince Colletta has been showing Fourth World pages around Marvel’s offices before publication, and being shown how Colletta omits details in the inking, Kirby insists on Mike Royer as inker. Mike starts with New Gods #5, Mister Miracle #5, and Forever People #6. • June (August cover date): DC publishes Super DC Giant S-25, with 1950s reprints of Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown, and a new cover and text feature by Kirby. Also, Carmine Infantino raises cover prices to 25¢ and includes Golden Age Simon & Kirby reprints in the back of Kirby’s Fourth World issues. One month after matching the increase, Marvel undercuts DC by dropping their cover prices to 20¢. • June 15 and July 15: In The Days of the Mob #1 and Spirit World #1 published, but receive nebulous ads (left) and spotty distribution. Months later, ads for both books would appear in DC comics, offering unsold copies to readers by mail. • October: Kirby draws his final issue of Jimmy Olsen (#148). Around this time, Kirby conjures up the idea for The Demon to replace Jimmy Olsen on his schedule. • November (January cover date): Mister Miracle #6 published, with unflattering caricatures of Stan Lee as “Funky Flashman” and Roy Thomas as “Houseroy,” burning bridges at Marvel. • December (February cover date): New Gods #7 is published, with the pivotal Fourth World story “The Pact.” • December: Carmine Infantino instructs Kirby to add Deadman to Forever People #9-10, in an attempt to boost sales. The covers of Forever People #9 and New Gods #9 downplay the lead characters, in what seems to be an attempt to make the covers look more like mystery titles, which were selling well.
1972 • January (March cover date): DC runs ads for the Kirby Unleashed portfolio in its comics.
Color guide for the cover of Forever People #9.
• February (April cover date): Jimmy Olsen #148, Kirby’s final issue, is published. • March: Kirby is told by Carmine Infantino that due to underperforming sales, DC will be canceling New Gods and Forever People, and that he must move Mister Miracle away from its Fourth World ties. Kirby hurriedly switches gears and swaps his planned stories for Mister Miracle #9 (“The Mister Miracle To Be”) and #10, so he gets his “Himon” story into print. It’s too late to alter the “next issue” blurb in #8’s letter column (right) to reflect the change. • April: Kirby draws his final issues of New Gods and Forever People. • April (June cover date): Jimmy Olsen #150 is published, with a non-Kirby Newsboy Legion back-up story featuring Angry Charlie. • May-June (July-August cover dates): DC finally gives in to sales pressure, and drops its cover prices to 20¢ to match Marvel Comics. • May (July cover date): Mister Miracle #9 published, with the story “Himon”. Also, Kirby stories planned for the unpublished Spirit World #2 begin appearing in Weird Mystery Tales and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. • June: After Martin Goodman calls in Jack’s 1969 loan, Kirby “under duress” signs a copyright agreement with Marvel. Also, Demon #1 is published. • July (September cover date): Jimmy Olsen #152 is published, with a non-Kirby wrap-up to the Morgan Edge clone saga, and a guest appearance by Darkseid and other Kirby Olsen characters. Also, Mister Miracle #10 is published, in an abrupt departure from the Fourth World. Jack keeps the title “The Mister Miracle To Be”, but the story has nothing to do with Scott Free’s early days. • August (October cover date): New Gods #11 and Forever People #11 (the final issues) and Kamandi #1 are published.
1973 • July (September cover date): Boy Commandos #1 is published, reprinting Golden Age stories. • August: After being notified that Mister Miracle will be cancelled, Kirby draws a final issue that brings back Fourth World characters. 5
Mark Evanier
Jack F.A.Q.s A column of Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby
(this page) DC put little effort into integrating Kirby’s Fourth World concepts across their line, relegating nonKirby appearances to several Lois Lane issues from #111-119, for which Nelson Bridwell was editorially involved. The “Morgan Edge Clone” subplot was a nice adjunct to the saga, but once Kirby was off Jimmy Olsen, the tie-ins ended...
T
he theme of this issue of The Jack Kirby Collector seems like the perfect time to deal with this question from Van Woods...
Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld, frustrated by this, came up with the theory that the readers were obviously confused: They were accidentally buying Marvels when they meant to buy DCs. To rectify this horrible situation, he had them slap those “go-go checks” on all DC covers, the premise being that they’d make DC books more identifiable as DC books. Didn’t help. All those kids who were stupidly buying Fantastic Four when they really wanted Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane kept right on buying the wrong comics by mistake. Now, in fairness, Team Spirit is not uncommon in comics. Just as if you live in San Francisco, you probably think the Giants are better than the Dodgers, there’s a strong rooting interest if you work for Company X to think your employer kicks all butts in the comic shops. But there does come a point when folks carry it so far they lose connection with reality... and it can be jarring when things change. I know folks who practically experienced whiplash when they changed companies and had to start spinning wildly in the opposite direction. So when Jack “King” Kirby was suddenly a DC asset, a lot of people there had trouble shifting gears. It was hard to segue from being glad you didn’t have that primitive art style in your books to embracing it as a key part of your future. It was also a difficult time there. When Carmine Infantino ascended to power at DC, he did something that hadn’t happened in a long time at that company: He started firing people. Previously, it was a very secure place to work. Once you were in, you usually stayed in. It was something the company could offer its people in lieu of good money... and to a staff and talent pool of former kids who’d grown up in the Great Depression, important. Stability—not having to worry about not having a paycheck at all—mattered a lot to those people. If you’d been writing, drawing or editing for DC Comics in 1965, you probably thought you had a job for as long as there were DC Comics... which at the time seemed like forever.
I was intrigued by a comment you made in an article once that Jack never fit in at DC Comics in the Seventies. I’ve always felt that too but never knew quite why I felt that. Could you elaborate? Sure. Jack was never an ideal fit for DC for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that before his arrival, most folks up there had spent a lot of time hating on Marvel. A prevailing sentiment in the offices was that DC’s books were great, Marvel’s sucked and there was some cosmic injustice occurring when a Marvel outsold a DC.
...culminating with a quick Newsboy Legion back-up in Jimmy Olsen #150, and a hasty wrap-up of the Edge clone saga in #152 (next page, top).
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Then things took a downturn and Infantino became Editorial Director, displacing Donenfeld who’d thought he had a job for life. Being the son of the guy who founded and once owned the company hadn’t saved Irwin... and a lot of other folks went with him. Carmine was charged with shaking up the company, trying to reinvent it and turn things around. As I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t think Infantino did a very good job as Editorial Director and later as Publisher. I also don’t think he had an easy job. The conglomerate that would later be known as Time Warner had recently acquired DC and there were those in that company who thought the wisest thing they could do with its comic book division was scale it way back. There was at least one exec there—and maybe more—who felt they’d gotten what they wanted because they now owned the nation’s leading magazine distributor, Independent News. About DC, there was this suggestion: Get rid of most of the staff, scale things back and just publish a dozen or so comics per month—primarily reprints—to keep Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other licensable characters in print. Other ideas for drastic downsizing were floated. DC’s distribution was then crumbling and the folks at Independent News had little confidence in anything. New books were being started left and right, and a high percentage of them expired after five or six issues... meaning the decision to abort was made based on the sales figures of one or two issues. Joe Simon’s Brother Power, the Geek outdid most of them: It got cancelled before they had any sales figures on #1. So this was the environment Jack walked into: A company full of nervous people who were acutely conscious that their once-guaranteed employment was now on probation and that whatever they were working on might get the ax or be handed over to others at any time. It was, as they say, a brand-new ball game: A lot of longtime DC staffers (including Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff, who’d not-so-long-before been their two most powerful editors) were gone. So were other longtime freelancers like George Papp, Jim Mooney, George Klein and Wayne Boring. And the Marvel/Kirby look, which was once the look DC was proud wasn’t theirs, was now the look of their most important new publications. Some there were horrified. I’m sure I mentioned this before but on our first visit to the DC offices in 1970, Steve Sherman and I were
welcomed as Jack’s assistants. Then Sol Harrison, who ran the production department, sat us down and asked us if maybe we could urge Jack to draw more like Curt Swan. In later years when I encountered Mr. Harrison, I seemed to always find him debating his contention that DC’s output inarguably made all others look sick. Everyone else who wasn’t in the production department and wasn’t Robert Kanigher respected Jack’s contribution to the field, but a lot of them didn’t like that kind of art. And they really didn’t like that their company’s new superstar was not them or some other longtime DC person. It was an outsider. It was like Jack was being rewarded for past service to the enemy. Jack gave it his all. Jack always gave it his all. That was one of
Kirby’s short back-ups had astounding potential. Pencils from Jimmy Olsen #143.
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Gallery 1
A few of the editor’s favorite Fourth World images
The Fourth World had nearly limitless potential, but DC underutilized it. Any one of these characters could’ve been spun off into their own Kirby series. Instead, Jack only gave us brief glimpses of the tip of his creative ideas through maddeningly short back-up (many only two pages) in his Fourth World books. Lonar and Fastbak at least got two short back-ups each, while poor Infinity Man got forgotten about till the final Forever People issue—but he came back with a vengeance! Arin the Armored Man is somewhere out in the cosmos with Superman’s DNA, while Kirby’s rendition of Deadman is still seeking his killer, whose hook turned out to be on the other hand.
(next page) Kirby introduced Forager, “The Bug” in New Gods #9-10, in a story that seemed to be the pilot episode for some kind of spin-off series, based on the amount of play he got. It was a fine read, but after epics like “The Glory Boat” and “Death Wish of Terrible Turpin”, it left us wishing Jack had concentrated more on Orion and Lightray in those two issues—something he’d probably have done if he’d known sooner that New Gods was nearing cancellation.
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Jack Kirby’s OMAC, published in 1974 and 1975, is an overlooked landmark in the evolution of sciencefiction. Though the series lasted only eight issues over the course of a year-and-a-half, it packs far more information into its 176 pages than many comic books that drag on for over a hundred issues. With its full-fledged explorations of man’s total merging with the electric environment, it points the way to the cyberpunk movement a decade later.
Overvue
Captain America meets Big Brother Jack Kirby’s OMAC examined, by Robert Guffey
(below) OMAC gets parents in issue #3.
A
twisted inverse of Kirby’s own archetypal hero Captain America created back in 1941, OMAC is a super-soldier living in a dystopian future. His real identity is named Buddy Blank, an employee of a multinational corporation called Pseudo-People, Inc. Blank is chosen by the Global Peace Agency to undergo an experiment that will transform him into a superhuman One Man Army Corps, OMAC. A scientist named Dr. Myron Forest performs “electronic surgery...! ...a computer hormone operation...” on Mr. Blank, which connects him, body and soul, with a sentient orbiting satellite known as Brother Eye. The intimidating symbol on OMAC’s chest is the all-seeing eye, symbolizing the fact that a target, once chosen, cannot easily escape OMAC’s field of vision. For eight issues OMAC flies around the world at the behest of the Global Peace Agency, attempting to combat “man’s own capacity for self-destruction.” The classic models for futuristic dystopias are, of course, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s Nineteen EightyFour (1949). Such works, and all their illegitimate children, usually feature a main character who’s fully aware he’s trapped in a dystopia and heroically does everything he can to burst free of it. OMAC reverses this cliché completely. OMAC is, without a doubt, trapped in a dystopian world; the signs are all around him. And yet despite the fact that his mind is linked to the most sophisticated artificial intelligence program ever created, he appears not to be aware of his situation at all. This is no oversight on Kirby’s part. This is the point of the whole series. If you were living in a dystopia, a subtle dystopia that dispenses with the “boot-inyour-face” treatment of Nineteen Eighty-Four, would you really be aware of it, or would you be so used to your total lack of freedom that you would simply accept it as a normal way of life? You might, in fact, walk around everyday being very proud of your privilege, despairing the lack of freedom in other parts of the world, as Winston Smith’s neighbor does. OMAC is literally a slave to a fascist police agency that appears to have locked down the entire world except for a few eccentric terrorists hell-bent on creating destruction for destruction’s sake. OMAC’s controllers, those who feed him his missions, never reveal their identities to him. 32
is to wipe out the last remaining free-thinking people on the planet. The hero of the book is actually the aggressor, but he’s not aware of it. Perhaps the genesis of the entire concept behind the series was Kirby’s thinking to himself one day, “How would Captain America be forced to behave if he had been created by a totalitarian society of the future?” This notion seems to be confirmed by Kirby biographer Mark Evanier: “[S]ome of the ideas Jack tossed in OMAC were ideas he’d had six or seven years earlier... ideas for a never-realized version of Captain America set in the future.” The fact that OMAC is a slave is very clear. He’s been surgically altered against his will, his personality buried and replaced with that of a killing machine, and he has absolutely no control over his destiny. When he’s not out blindly doing the bidding of the GPA, he hooks into a Virtual Reality machine and pretends to be the star of fantastic scenarios in which he fights giant, chimerical monsters. When a GPA agent pulls the cord on one particular movie by yanking away the “mind-phones,” OMAC whines about the interruption like a petulant child. The agent replies, “Sorry, OMAC . . . the tapes will always be available.” This petulant child is then given the rank of a “five star” general and told, “Your orders will be obeyed anywhere on this globe.” In the next chapter, he is assigned a new family by the Social Engineering Division and told to love them. Within six panels his “test parents” are calling him “son.” To underscore the fact that OMAC is the reversal of a typical dystopian novel, in the next scene the GPA reveals to OMAC the identity of his next target, a terrorist named “Marshall Kafka... and his army of hired mercenaries!.” Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel The Trial, in most reader’s minds, represents the ultimate nightmare of one man suffering the oppression of the State. The fact that Kirby chooses to name OMAC’s target “Kafka” is, therefore, yet another clue that the story we’re seeing is not to be taken at face value. With wry twists such as this, OMAC distorts Big Brother is alive and well in OMAC #2! Brother Eye runs things behind the scenes, right down to taking away the traditional structure of a superhero OMAC’s past life memories, and making him the conduit for “peaceful” power. comic. We assume that the titular character They hide their faces with “cosmetic spray” that makes them anonymust, by form, be the hero. The people he’s fighting must be the vilmous, symbolizing that they “could be of any nation.” The agents of lains. But in OMAC there are no heroes or villains. After all, it’s hard the GPA repeat “could be of any nation” every few pages, almost as if to feel antipathy toward Marshall Kafka since he’s abducted by a they’re pre-programmed to do so, suggesting they themselves may mindless “god of war” whose very molecules are controlled by an be artificial intelligences as well. They all wear the same bulky uniomnipotent artificial intelligence program orbiting the Earth like a form which renders their identities anonymous even to one another, tireless prison guard. Kafka has taken the precaution of surrounding serving the same function as the scramble suit in Philip K. Dick’s A himself with a hundred thousand guards and weapons, and one Scanner Darkly (1977). OMAC, like A Scanner Darkly, might be called can’t blame him. If freedom means being assigned “test parents” a “mundane dystopia,” in the sense that the people living in the sociand having one’s body transformed by remote control against one’s ety don’t seem to find their oppression to be the least bit disturbing will, then perhaps Kafka is perfectly reasonable to resist OMAC and or extraordinary. (One wonders, in fact, if Philip Dick read OMAC his faceless masters. when the series was first released.) The cover of the first issue alone should be enough of a tip-off It becomes clear as the series progresses that OMAC’s mission that this is no normal super hero comic. Cartoonist Scott Shaw! 33
Fascism in the Fourth World
Boydisms
More comparisons between Naziism and Kirby’s godwar, by Jerry Boyd (A continuation of themes from TJKC #22)
(top) Doom and destruction are the legacies of dictators. Apokolips lay in ruins at the end of Kirby’s Hunger Dogs (pencils shown below), and this is the wrecked hall of Hitler’s Chancellory in 1945.
t was said about Adolph Hitler in his days as a homeless, unkempt Vienna street tramp, that despite all the failures he suffered in his youth, his eyes would blaze and his rhetoric would cower any dissenters when politics became the discussion. He had become a voracious reader, concentrating on the Europe of centuries past, with it Caesars, kings, prime ministers, and absolute rulers. It was with the latter that he felt a strange kinship. Absolute authority in the hands of the Nietzschean superman or “ubermensch” found a permanent place in the littered mind of the failed young architect, and shortly after WWI and the chaotic Germany to come, this principle would be part of a tragic doctrine to justify the end for millions of gypsies, Jews, Russians, Slavs, and Poles. If the superman wishes to amuse himself, then the niceties of polite society vanish, according to Friedrich Nietzsche. The rights of the superior man to pursue, exercise, and administer power come first and were even inherent. In this 19th century philosopher’s book, The Will to Power, Nietzsche proclaimed that “A daring and ruler race is building itself up... The aim should be to prepare a transvaluation of values for a particularly strong kind of man, most highly gifted in intellect and will. This man and the elite around him will become the ‘lords of the earth’.” As the Fuehrer’s elite—the S.S.—fanned out over the Nazi-occupied lands, so too did Darkseid’s elite explode through Boom Tubes on Earth in order to become its “lords.” As recounted in TJKC #22, there were more than a few likenesses between National Socialist Germany and the shadow planet, Apokolips. Interestingly, there are more.
I
Dictator Gods... “Whoever wants to understand National Socialist Germany must know (Richard) Wagner,” Hitler used to say. The Fuehrer adored Wagner’s towering operas, with its heroic myths of German antiquity. The barbaric, pagan Nibelungs and their mystic, heroic world beset by demons, violence, treachery, and blood continued to hold a fascination for the German people even up to the early part of the 20th Century. The twilight of the gods, ‘Goetterdaemmerung’, was another part of the primitive Germanic mythos (and likewise put to music by Wagner) and in it, Valhalla is set on fire by the warrior-god Wotan, in an orgy of selfwilled destruction. Jack Kirby’s Hunger Dogs, while clearly not the last word on the “twilight of the New Gods,” ended up in a scenario resembling Hitler (as Wotan). The incredible destruction Darkseid has visited upon New Genesis (with Micro-Mark) and even at home with his own subjects (the lowlies) is rebounded upon him, his devices, and loyal subjects. Like Hitler in the war’s final days, Darkseid is seen in his headquarters safely positioned below the ground (akin to the Fuehrerbunker). For the first time, Kirby has him refer to himself as an “old” man. Esak calls him an “aging, quaking Darkseid.” Hitler, by this time, was quickly deteriorating. The lack of fresh air (in the bunker), bouts of giddiness (brought on by the bomb attempt on his life in 1944), and the shock of defeats had greatly undermined his health. More and more, reason had given way to 60
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uncontrollable rage hammered with the harsher reality that his dreams of world conquest had eluded him. Kirby keeps Darkseid lucid in the Hunger Dogs. He remains just canny and elusive enough to further frustrate his enemies. (I liked this touch. After all, Jack never allowed Dr. Doom, Magneto, or the Red Skull to ever be completely beaten or captured. It seemed only appropriate that his “ultimate menace” escape to plot and menace anew.) Still, it’s plain that, like Hitler, the master of the holocaust has failed in his attempts to conquer “all.” He doesn’t have the Anti-Life Equation, he’s failed to subdue the warriors of Highfather, and his enemies—Himon, Lightray, and especially Orion—are in his own backyard, taking the war... to him. In Forever People #6, Darkseid slyly praised the New Agers of Supertown, explaining to his chief lieutenant, “The pups have angered me, Desaad! Put me on the defensive! A great feat!” With Orion the fierce decimating his elite guard and destroying his war machinery, he doesn’t even have the time (in the Hunger Dogs) to make that type of brief assessment. There is only time... to run. With his kingdom crumbling around him (and Lightray and Orion making like the invading Russian Army), the lord of the dark planet moves quickly to pay off an old debt... to Himon. His slaying of the great visionary is a final, futile act in a swirling series of events that have gotten out of hand. The larger goals of the war having been denied him, Darkseid seeks a small victory in his final reckoning with Scott Free’s old mentor. In Hitler’s final days, he rarely left the bomb-proof Fuehrerbunker. Fearful of being captured alive by the Russians, wracked with worry and fatigue, and a broken figure to all, the supreme warlord continued to wage war on those he could. The victorious allies were beyond his reach, but after learning that Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler had betrayed him (by assuming all military control of German forces in the west and attempting to negotiate their surrender to Eisenhower), the mad dictator had Himmler’s top S.S. liaison man, Hermann Fegelein, stripped of his rank and shot. (Fegelein was the brother-in-law of Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, but that fact didn’t save him.) The deepseated need to inflict pain and destruction upon others is still paramount in the minds of the two dictators up to the end.
portraying the Axis militarists in as gruesome a fashion as possible. Covers/stories by Kirby, Al Avison, Alex Schomburg, Bill Everett, and others often depicted the enemy as drooling, wild-eyed, sharpfanged caricatures of humanity. Sometimes they were giants or misshapen dwarves. Some reeked with so much evil that they were colored a bloody red (Captain America Comics #5) or even a pale blue (USA Comics #1). Unknowingly, art imitated life. The torture devices and destructive “wonder weapons” dreamed up by the artists weren’t far from the real horrors going on overseas. For Jack’s “new-age gods,” the King (either consciously or unconsciously) reached back into his Forties’ repertoire and some of the denizens of Apokolips would look suspiciously like the baddies of yore. Desaad, Granny Goodness, Kalibak, Dr. Bedlam, and (especially) Virman Vundabar could’ve fit in easily on Simon and Kirby’s old Timely covers. (Jack’s cover for Amazing Heroes #47 incorporates the same type of pulp torture elements as his USA Comics #1.)
...and Monsters During the Golden Age of comics, Timely (more than any other publisher) took great delight in
Look at the Mister Miracle #7 pencils on page 24 of this issue, then view this Hunger Dogs page right after. Though drawn ten years later, this is the logical next step of Darkseid’s oppression.
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The Source?
Challenging The Unknown by Mike Breen
(below) Before Lee & Kirby shrunk the Fantastic Four down to size in FF #16 (July 1963), Kirby reduced the Challs to miniscularity in Challengers of the Unknown #7 (April 1959).
Challengers of the Unknown (Showcase #6, February 1957) Four men survive a jet crash and, deciding they are living on borrowed time, band together to face any challenge, however risky, in service to mankind. In short order they find themselves confronting mad scientists, monsters, aliens and criminals, and are faced with time-travel, shrinking and various other physical changes. They adopt single-colour jumpsuits to function as a recognisable unit. Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #1, November 1961) Three men and one woman survive a rocket crash and, using the powers granted them by the accident, band together to face any challenge, however risky, in service to mankind. In short order they find themselves confronting mad scientists, monsters, aliens and criminals, and are faced with time-travel, shrinking and various other physical changes. They adopt single-colour jumpsuits to function as a recognisable unit. And yes, I did cut-and-paste the same paragraph twice with very minor amendments. The summary of these two groups, at least for the FF’s first couple of years, is that similar. robably the single most important area of debate surrounding Jack Kirby’s entire 40-year plus career is the extent to which he created and/or authored the characters that formed the Marvel Universe (and, incidentally, several current series of blockbuster films). The law has weighed in to support the official company
line—Stan Lee created and wrote these stories, with Jack Kirby relegated to the role of nothing more than hired artist. The phrase ‘The law is a ass’ springs instantly to mind, and a significant percentage of TJKC’s audience remain unconvinced. Most people would agree that the debate really starts where the Marvel Universe is recognized as starting—with the Fantastic Four. Who created the FF? A much-touted apocryphal story relates how Publisher Martin Goodman returned from a golf game with a rival ‘high-up’ (damn those Kirby quote-phrases!) from National Periodicals, and tasked Editor Lee with the job of creating something to rival the success of the JLA’s premier appearance in The Brave & The Bold #28. I find this tale dubious in the extreme, given that the two series have very little in common. The only similarity, really, is in the covers to those first issues—the fledgling JLA arrayed around Starro the Conqueror, and the FF similarly surrounding one of the Mole Man’s gargantuan creatures. There the resemblance ends, and maybe it’s true that the cover idea for FF #1 came from just such a notion, but I very much doubt that anything else in that issue did. Stan Lee, with typical self-effacing modesty and a copy of the script for FF #1 (which, even if genuine, might have been written at any stage of the creative process and not necessarily at the beginning), tells how he spent long hours carefully crafting the characters who would become Marvel’s first family. Umm... that would be all well and good, Stan, but perhaps you might also explain how these characters (and the stories that formed the first couple of years of their history), bear such a marked and oft-noted resemblance to National’s previously-published Challengers of the Unknown, a series which Jack Kirby had worked on only a few years before? Jack Kirby, who is accepted as principal author of the Challengers, and who was never shy about recycling his existing ideas into new and [ahem] challenging forms? Even if Stan Lee created and ‘wrote’ the FF, how much of it was plagiarised from the Challengers? Jack Kirby left National because of the now well-documented rift between himself and editor Jack Schiff, and his work on the Challengers was the main casualty. How possible is it that he might recreate those characters and their
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(above) Showcase #12, B&B #28, FF #1, and 1997’s Challengers of the Fantastic DC/Marvel crossover. (below) Kirby summed up his feelings about Stan Lee at the end of Mister Miracle #5 (Nov. 1971). Have you ever noticed that Jack chose an alliterative “FF” when naming the “con’s con-man”? Hmmm...
milieu for his new publisher, particularly if it meant he could thumb his nose at his old employer? This last possibility should not be readily dismissed. Although Kirby was usually renowned for his generosity of spirit, he was not shy a decade later in creating a cutting portrayal of Lee and ‘second-in-command’ Roy Thomas (as Funky Flashman and Houseroy in Mister Miracle #6, 1972), when he left Marvel on less than ideal terms to return to what had become DC Comics. The thought that he might create a duplicate Challengers to vex Schiff is, at least to me, entirely plausible. Over the years a lot of similarities have been pointed out between these two series, something which was highlighted in the 1997 DC/Marvel crossover Challengers of the Fantastic, and which I intend to document here. I make no promises, but I will try as much as possible to resist cheap shots at Stan Lee. I’ve said before that I’m not a fan of his, but what follows will hopefully be confined to documenting what can be shown without personal comments—we are going to try not to concern ourselves with who said what, or who (mis)remembers what, and look only at the evidence of the printed pages. Let’s deal with some specifics, starting with the characters themselves.
The Challengers
The Fantastic Four
Ace Morgan: Ace fighter pilot and archetypal hero with sweptback/crew-cut blond hair. Very little else to distinguish him as he has little or no defined personality. One notable trait is his skill at hypnotism—in Showcase #11 (“The Day The Earth Blew Up!”), he hypnotises the alien scientist Garnat, and in Challengers #2 (“The Monster Maker!”) does the same for the arch-criminal Roc. Smokes a pipe1.
Reed Richards: Although apparently originally a rocket scientist, his scientific knowledge very definitely expands to suit the needs of the plot. In the first few issues, to suit the brainy type, he is lean to the point of being gaunt. Around FF #5 (with Sinnott inks), he starts to look more like Ace Morgan—more typically heroic with a sweptback hair style. One notable trait is his skill at hypnotism—in FF #2, he hypnotises the alien Skrulls who are left on Earth. Smokes a pipe.
Prof Haley: Another ‘type’—although billed as an oceanographer, his scientific knowledge seems to expand to suit the needs of the plot. He is obviously skilled in several branches of physics and understands at least one ancient language—Greek, in Showcase #6. To suit the brainy type, he is lean to the point of being gaunt, with a flat fringe plastered to one side of his face.
Ben Grimm: Ace fighter pilot and wannabe champion wrestler (first mentioned as early as FF #15). The ‘bruiser’ of the group, smokes cigars and has a broken nose. Could be Rocky’s twin, especially in the first few FFs, but his hairstyle (when he is not the Thing) seems to evolve to match Prof Haley’s flat, plastered fringe. Johnny Storm: Youthful, reckless, hot-tempered, wants to join circus (at least in FF #15).
Red Ryan: Circus daredevil/acrobat and/or mountaineer (depends which intro you are looking at). When he shows any individual personality, he’s what, youthful and reckless? It would be nice to describe him as hot-tempered but he is no more so than any other challenger when the plot requires.
Sue Storm: Swept-back blond hair (first fourteen issues). Very little else to distinguish her as she has little or no defined personality. Coincidence? Seems to me that we have a selection of very straightforward character traits, many of which can be easily rendered in a visual shorthand (the ‘tough’, the ‘thinker’), and which have been shuffled only slightly to create an apparently new team. Jack Kirby, it seems apparent, was fond of those two character types anyway—remember the Newsboy Legion’s Scrapper and Big Words?
Rocky Davis: Champion wrestler (Olympic champion in at least one intro), explorer2. The ‘bruiser’ of the group, smokes cigars and has a broken nose.
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TRIBUTE
2013 Kirby Tribute Panel
Held at Comic-Con International: San Diego at 10:00am on July 21st, 2013. Moderated by Mark Evanier, with guests Paul S. Levine, Neil Gaiman, and Tony Isabella. Transcribed by Jon Knutson, and edited by Mark Evanier and John Morrow • Photos by Chris Ng
(this page, top) The Black Racer’s first appearance from the cover of New Gods #3, and (below) Jack’s reimagined version for DC’s Super Powers toy line in the 1980s. (next page) Kirby pitched art for a Big Barda & Her Female Furies series prior to Barda’s first published appearance in Mister Miracle #4. Having based her image on a Playboy feature on actress/singer Lainie Kazan (shown here), Jack may’ve originally had some mildly racy themes in mind for her (Lashina and Gilotina could certainly be considered a little kinky). The character “The Head”, the shirtless “Apollo”, even “Beauty Rock” headquarters (which doesn’t in any way fit how Jack eventually used the concept) don’t seem to be exactly mainstream comics fodder. And who knows where “The Lump” came from, but his visual (colored fleshy pink) could be construed as something more fitting in Galaxy Green than Mister Miracle. Whatever the original idea was before being abandoned, other characters from the concept drawings were also worked into Jack’s strips later (“The Lump” in Mister Miracle #7, “The Head” in Mister Miracle #10, and “Apollo” in OMAC #7).
MARK EVANIER: If you never believe anything I tell you, believe the following: I’m on my way here, I am limping from knee surgery I had three weeks ago, the crowds out there are terrible, I got detained by the Westboro Baptist Church Klingons outside. (laughter) I get to this door, there’s one line of people trying to get in—it’s about an hour line to get in. I go to a door that’s closed, it’s exit only, and the man says, “You can’t come in here.” I said, “I’m a Guest of Honor of the convention.” He says, “You can’t come in here.” I said, “I’ve had knee surgery, I’m limping, I can’t wait.” He says, “You can’t come in here.” I said, “I’m hosting a panel that starts in ten minutes.” He says, “You can’t come in here.” I said, “Please, I’ve got a whole room full of Jack Kirby fans up there waiting to hear this panel,” and he says, “Jack Kirby? Come on in!” (laughter) There are occasional perks to being around Jack. (laughter) I am Mark Evanier, obviously. Who else would be running a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel at this convention? The gentleman to my right, your left, is the Kirby family attorney— full disclosure, he is also my attorney—this is Mr. Paul S. Levine. (applause) For legal reasons, Neil [Gaiman] has every moment of his life videotaped, and I have my attorney constantly at my side. (laughter) Over on the other side there is one of my best friends, one of the top writers in the comic book business; will you welcome Mr. Tony Isabella. (applause) To my left is my friend of lesser years, but still valuable ones. A New York Times best-selling author, Mr. Neil Gaiman. (applause) Let me introduce a few people in the audience; you are all subscribers and dutiful readers of The Jack Kirby Collector, published by Mr. John Morrow. (applause) My partner at the time I worked for Jack Kirby... Steve Sherman, ladies and gentlemen! (applause) Those of you who’ve read of Steve’s problems on Facebook recently will be very pleased to see that he’s here, he looks as healthy as he’s ever looked, even better! You look terrific. (applause) VOICE IN CROWD: Live long and prosper to Steve. MARK: Live long and prosper to Steve. Yes. May you last longer than Star Trek. (laughter) I want Steve to stay healthy for two reasons: one is he’s a hell of a great guy, one of my best friends, and secondly, I need a witness when I tell people some of the things Jack said. They look at me like, “He didn’t say that,” and I have Steve to corroborate most of them, because he was present. Steve was present, I believe, the time that Jack attended the second or third San Diego Comic-Con, and as huge as it was—I think there were a thousand people there— Jack said, “Some day, that convention’s going to take over the city of San Diego.” And, he said—I swear to you, this is almost a direct quote—he said, “It’s going to be the place where Hollywood comes every year to sell what they made last year, and find out what they’re going to make next year.” (laughter) Remember that, Steve? And Steve remembers this too; we gave him a look like, “Yeah, sure, Jack. Is this anything like the Black Racer, a black paraplegic guy on skis?” He was serious about it, and once 80
again, we find ourselves shaking our heads, and going, “We should’ve listened more to the guy.” Is Tracy Kirby here? Tracy is supposed to be on her way here. Who else should I introduce in the audience? Is Rand here? What is your title in the Museum?
job description in his head, and he did it very well. Jack’s job description when he was doing Fantastic Four was, “How do I turn this into a new dynasty? How do I reinvent comics? How do I take Marvel Comics to a new era?” And he approached it that way. He didn’t think of himself as competitive with the Don Hecks, the Gene Colans and so on. He loved those people. He never spoke ill of any of them. Steve, did you ever hear Jack speak ill of another artist?
RANDOLPH HOPPE: I am the director/curator of the Jack Kirby Museum. MARK: This is Rand Hoppe. (applause) Two must-stops in the convention hall are the TwoMorrows table and the Jack Kirby Museum table, which are right near each other. What’s your booth number?
STEVE SHERMAN: Uh... as long as they weren’t a Nazi, no. (laughter) MARK: Okay, that lets out five. (laughter) Let’s take our cue from that. Don’t get angry when someone says that they didn’t like Jack Kirby’s work. Nobody’s work is loved by everyone. Don’t get incensed... yes, there are some very, grandiose, fact-free claims made by some people. There are stupid stories that come to me. Sometimes they’re attributed to me. I’ve Googled myself as we all secretly do on the Internet, and I find someone saying, “Mark Evanier said that Jack Kirby would only eat radishes on a Tuesday,” or something like that. Where did that come from? But there are these twisted, unpleasant stories, people trying to make their case against Jack. Take a look at how other people approach politics on the Internet, how they will make up just about anything to support their cause. Well, people who want to support
JOHN MORROW: 1301.
MARK: 1301, and from there, they can direct you to Rand. If you have any Jack Kirby original art in your possession, even if you don’t have it here, talk to Rand if it’s never been scanned for posterity. He’s doing a wonderful job of it. He’s so good at this. He puts on gloves like he’s doing surgery. He’s got this scanner and he takes such good care of the artwork. He takes better care of the art than anybody at Marvel Comics ever did. (laughter) The thing I want to talk about, just very briefly this year, is this. There’s a lot of arguing going on over the Internet; there’s a lot of people furious, there’s a lot of flame wars going on. There’s a certain amount of people who start belittling Jack, I think partly because it’s an attention-getting device, and partly because they don’t like being told what’s wonderful, and you know, “You have to love this man,” and it’s true. And I want to just impart to you all one thing that I learned from Jack. He was a very selfless man in that regard. If you came up to Jack, as I once saw someone do, and say, “Mr. Kirby, I think you’re the second-best artist in the business. My favorite is Gil Kane,” Jack was not bothered by that at all. He’d go, “Yeah, Gil is great.” He did not feel he was competitive with other artists, for two reasons. One is, other artists in comics didn’t do exactly the same thing Jack Kirby did. Not to belittle them, but when John Buscema sat down to draw his issues of Fantastic Four, he was concerned with drawing a good issue of Fantastic Four, so Stan Lee would say, “Fine, here’s the next one.” John had great pride in his work, he was a lovely (left to right) Paul Levine, Mark Evanier, Tony Isabella, and Neil Gaiman at Comic-Con. man, he was a brilliant and fantastic artist, but that was his 81