Upgrade In Progress

Computer systems here a tied up for another day or so. It takes an insanely long time to mirror a couple of Terabytes to two external drives before the clearing begins. But, if all goes well, i'll be able to upgrade the software and get back into some artwork this weekend.

Meanwhile - a quick promotional blurb:

The latest edition of Jack Kirby Collector (#73) is out!

Oddly enough, 73 is one of my primary use numbers. I have several of them, not just 3. There is 27 (3 to the 3rd power), and then 73 (the balancing percentile to 27). You'll find these numbers embedded throughout my artwork, though often in unseen ways.

But why would one of my primary numbers trigger an "Oddly enough"? This is the first time anything from me appears in the magazine. Remember the King Kirby 100 Challenge crossword puzzle from the KK100 celebration in August? It gets a nice 2 page spread in this issue. And they were even kind enough to observe my personal obsessions and give me the #3 slot in the table of contents. (Thanks, John!)

The issue looks terrific, but i can't really tell you much about it - because i just found it in my mail and i'm savoring it. I haven't seen a new edition of JKC in a few years, and i'm stretching this one out as much as i can. But, to let you know what's in it, here's a primary excerpt from the issue details on the TwoMorrows website:
"In it, we cover Kirby’s best (and worst) short spurts on his wildest concepts: ANIMATION IDEAS, DINGBATS, JUSTICE INC., MANHUNTER, ATLAS, THE PRISONER, and more! There’s also an interview with MIKE ROYER on his work with Jack and elsewhere, a rare Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, panels from the 2017 Kirby Centennial celebration, pencil art galleries, and some one-shot surprises!" 

One surprise for me was that they managed to find a few Valley Girl comic strips i hadn't seen to accompany their piece on Kirby & Zappa, including the full interview with Ahmed from which my KK100 piece on the topic was excerpted. Definitely a cool surprise - but there always is when a new issue is released.


And, of course, here's a link to the book on TwoMorrows.com.

I'll be back soon with more posts after the computers are freed up for use. Hopefully early tomorrow.

cover from Jack Kirby Collector #73 (2018)

King Kirby 101

Got knocked down with dental infection and abscessed tooth for the holiday weekend, so wasn't able to prepare this planned final post on Saturday as planned. But, we're here now thanks to the miracle of Clyndamycin Hydrochloride and Hydrocodone.

If you're a Jack Kirby collector, there's a magazine named for you. The most useful reference for the King Kirby 100 comes from the same people. If you're not already familiar with TwoMorrows publishing, you'll definitely want to visit their site. For comics collecting in general, they're great. For Jack Kirby fans, they're uniquely unparalleled. For almost a quarter century, since the year we lost The King, they've published  the Jack Kirby Collector magazine. It's packed with Kirby features, art, interviews, essays, strips, and surprises on a constant basis. Assuming the site layout hasn't changed by the time you're reading this, here's a direct jump to the magazine.
And then there's this beauty:

If you're looking to collect Kirby, this Jack Kirby Checklist not only lists what comics he worked on, but also indicates which covers, stories, features, etc.,. It denotes when Jack is writing, it lists & cross-references reprints and other related appearances. Here - take a look at the basic entry Key:

There are appendixes with listings of other works by and about Kirby in other media. There are historical annotations to individual issues/stories. They even attempt to index all of Jack's unpublished work.
If you're hunting Jack Kirby, this is your treasure map.

If you're a Kirby Fan and not already familiar with it, there's a Jack Kirby Museum. It's a small organization, but quite dedicated to archiving the history of King Kirby, and are a good way to track ongoing events, such as the recent New York show for Jack's birthday. The site also hosts a few Jack Kirby blogs focusing on different aspects of his career and influence. Being a small organization means they are generally in constant need of funding. That means that you can find new and unique Kirby merchandise offered up for your support. So even if you don't want to study Kirby's effect on modern comics, you still might want to direct a little attention their way.

If you're looking to go hunting through old golden age comics to find your own Kirby treasures, there are a couple of digital archives on the web that may be of interest to you. Comic Book Plus and The Digital Comic Museum. Both archive and index public domain comics with free access to any who register. There are also the un-curated wilds of the Internet Archive, which is a general knowledge pool in which the comics are a small splash. On the other hand, they also archive things like old half-dime pre-pulps from the 19th century, so the digging can pay off nicely if you're interests are eclectic enough.

To close things out, and - for those not really aware - give an idea of the impact that The King had upon the comics industry as a whole, let's go back 21 years to 1986. Amazing Heroes magazine was having their 100th issue and decided to dedicate the entire issue to Jack, creating the first King Kirby 100. They asked industry pros for their thoughts on Kirby, and these next 17 pages are only a part of the response:

(For anyone seeking to track information in that last credits box, 22 was the number of the first page in this sequence.)

We may have lost Jack, but he's still with us, shaping influencing and shaping our dreams through his influence on others. And as we move into the future, he'll be waiting for us there, too.

Jack Kirby Tribute pages from Amazing Heroes #100 (1986), Captain America pin-up by Jack Kirby for Marvel Treasury Special #1 (1976)

Mainlining Kirby (King Kirby 100)

In 1954, Jack Kirby and his long time partner, Joe Simon, were tired of making other people rich while getting screwed on their agreements. The two of them were THE superstars of comics, consistently producing some of the highest selling titles on the market. Simon & Kirby was the first byline to be plastered on covers to increase sales. They were creative and market gold, but saw only a tiny fraction of the wealth they produced.
So together they formed Mainline and started publishing their own books.

Sadly, what could have been the greatest comics enterprise in history was killed by timing and random chance. It really all boils down to their choice of distributor - Leader News, and a power hungry attention whore named Wertham. You may have heard of him. He was one of those particularly venal evil types who decided to screw society by making up facts and selling fear. You know, like most modern public figures.
His goal - destroy one of only two art forms created in America. So, obviously some sort of anti-American type, too. Probably a terrorist...

Anyway, he triggered a social meltdown which centered, in part, on EC, one of the largest publishers of the day. EC was distributed by Leader News When EC collapsed, it took the distributor and many smaller publishers with them as their payments were not forthcoming and yet, all the bills showed up just fine.
Mainline was suddenly bankrupt. With the Fates seemingly against them, Joe Simon called it quits with the comics business, and Jack Kirby wound up taking work at what would become Marvel Comics.

But... What if they'd chosen a different distributor? What if Mainline hadn't close down just as it was getting started?

First - without Jack Kirby's input to revitalize the company (and one meeting with Martin Goodman in particular that forstalled the event), Marvel comics would likely have closed its doors as the 60s began.
No Fantastic Four. No Thor. No Hulk, Iron-Man, Spider-Man, Avengers, Etc.,. No Marvel Age.

Meanwhile, over at Mainline...
Jack wouldn't have taken his Challengers Of The Unknown to DC, Mainline would have put out the title. With BullsEye already one step removed from a cowboy superhero, and the Challengers basically non-superheroes, odds are that Simon & Kirby would have soon launched into full superhero action before long.
I noted before that in their first months at Timely (Marvel) back in 1940, they launched The Vision, Marvel Boy, and Mercury - a mythological god brought down to Earth and recast as a Superhero. With Marvel Comics shut down, odds are good that Mainline could have re-acquired, either through legal contest or outright purchase, the rights to Captain America, their first superstar creation. They might even have picked up the rights to some of their other old characters at the same time, if it's a cash deal. Martin Goodman might likely have offered them to up the buyout value.

Oddly enough, they might even have given a job to the kid who got his first writing break from them, churning out the Postal Permit required text pages for Captain America, starting back in #3. That's unlikely though, as we've been told he would left comics have gone on to write the great American novel when Goodman closed up shop. It's more likely that Steve Ditko would have found himself working there, as Mainline offered better money and better deals for the creators, as Simon & Kirby had always done with their previous shop.

The early 60s would very likely have seen some very familiar seeming comics - an Earthbound god, an elemental based quartet, the return of Captain America, possibly The Vision (maybe with Ditko artwork, if we were lucky?), and a host of others - since they would not have been trapped in the bad distribution deal with National, as Marvel was.
Jack & Joe were already setting their eyes on older audiences in the late 50s. Their revived superhero titles would likely have followed this path as well. Their willingness, even eagerness, to experiment would have provided dynamic contrast to the set & staid house style at DC, and we could very likely have seen the Mainline Age of comics in the 60.

Kirby's Fourth World work would have come sooner (as evidenced by his paintings & designs of the late 60s), and at Mainline. (Best part about that - Jack Kirby would have no connection at all to Batman Vs. Superman & what follows in the DC movies) The New Gods & Apokolips would likely have been a part of the ongoing Mainline universe, very likely encountering their 'old god' superhero.

It's really impossible to guess what things would have been like, because even if we were possessed of Kirby's boundless imagination, who can say where it would have gone. That's kind of the whole point of "boundless".
But there's one of which we can be certain...

"It could've been ... Glorious."

Ah, well...   let's look at a couple other What If notions. Back in 1995, Darcy Sullivan was pondering in The Comics Journal...

WHAT IF JACK KIRBY HAD OWNED HIS OWN MARVEL CHARACTERS?

Lastly, we have a series of Bullpen Bulletin notices from a different reality. One which asks, What If Jack Kirby Hadn't Left Marvel In 1970?

Want to hear Craig McNamara's logic and alternate history behind these Bulletins? He elaborated in Jack Kirby Collector #53.

It's been 100 posts, and we've barely scratched the surface of Jack Kirby and his artistic legacy. This ends the King Kirby 100 commemoration, but Jack will continue to be a frequent subject for quite some time to come. We may have lost the man, but The King will always be with us...

page images from The Comics Journal #181 (1995), Jack Kirby Collector #53 (2009), and Weekly World News (1996)

What'd He Say? (King Kirby 059)

We all know about the famous Marvel Method that led to the artists co-plotting/writing their books by default, right? But, even knowing this we don't know if we read what Jack Kirby was 'writing'.
Mike Gartland wrote a very interesting 4-part series for the Jack Kirby Collector, starting in #21, entitled A Failure To Communicate. In these articles Gartland covered some of the differences between Jack's margin notes explaining the story and the final story as printed. It's a nice series that covers some potential reasons leading to The King's exit from Marvel to DC and worth reading.
The example strip he used in the first part was the Origin Of The Inhumans back-up feature from The Mighty Thor #147. To allow you to more easily track the differences, i've eliminated the text from the lettered pencils and cleaned up Kirby's notes for easy reading. (Don't try to correlate descriptions to word balloons - it won't work) Read through this 5 page story with Kirby's notes to follow the story.
The published version appears below so you can compare, contrast, and critique at your leisure.

There you have Kirby's tale of failure of expectations and predictions for a dark future for the Inhumans.

Pretty much the exact opposite slant of what Jack had intended. One can only guess how annoying that might have been for him.

art from The Mighty Thor #147 by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott (1967)