Joe & Jack aka The King & I (King Kirby 010)

In 1990, Gary Groth ran an interview with Jack Kirby in The Comics Journal #134. We'll be taking a look at the interview, but not yet. It's pretty amazing, at over 40 pages(!) it's a lot to break down. But in that same issue, he also interviewed Jack's long-time partner, Joe Simon. Much of the interview is given to the business of comics and to Joe's new book, The Comic Book Makers. A fair chunk is, quite naturally, dedicated to his relationship and work with Jack. The rest is well worth reading for those interested in comics history, but this is King Kirby month, so let's just excerpt those bits of the conversation, eh?
(Yeah, i know the text images below are presented rather large, but if i scale them down the system here scales by height, not width, so they keep shifting sizes making reading even more awkward. I'll take that into account when prepping the next scanned text piece.)

Bonus Pic: Here's the 1941 photo of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby they used for the introductory image on the article:

Joe Simon interviewed by Gary Groth for The Comics Journal #134

Whence Came The Logo? (King Kirby 009)

Let's go bigger on the King Kirby 100 logo this time:


Some may be wondering where the logo came from.
Well, not so much. You probably figured it was from me. I mean, what was the source artwork for the logo?

Better question, with a much better answer. Before they were savagely butchered and maimed by my hand, two different paintings provided the artwork.
The first GOD, drawn and coloured by Jack Kirby with inks by Mike Royer:

The second is KIRBY DREAM MACHINE, painted by the King:

That colour seam in the middle is the result of being painted on two canvases. This painting is a bit large, over 5 foot wide. Obviously, i also mutilated the colours on this one.
For scale, here's Jack at work on the left panel of the painting :

Somehow it seems like that should be a shrine now...

GOD and KIRBY DREAM MACHINE by Jack Kirby, partially abetted by Mike Royer (1970&1975)

Gods of the King (King Kirby 008)

Back around 1972 this ad manifested from the higher planes:

This was just as Jack Kirby had left Marvel and was ramping up the start of the New Gods over at DC. To us it looked like a farewell to his old work, giving us updated figures from the Norse myths with just a little edge of the Space gods to come. We were wrong. It wasn't a farewell - they were actually paintings he had done years earlier, while actively working on the Thor comic.

Heimdall

Honir

Baldur

Sigurd

And all four plates, suitable for framing at almost 12"x18" size for only $2.95 (+.30 postage)
Can you even buy a comic for that money any more?

Jack Kirby's GODS by Jack Kirby, of course (1972)

Run, Kamandi, Run! (King Kirby 007)

Back when Kirby made the leap to DC, i devoured everything he put out. But the one that was my favorite was his take on Planet Of The Apes, starring the kid from Command D. It was a world where he could just go nuts and have fun with whatever concepts he felt like playing with at the time. And being almost completely separated from the rest of the DC universe, he was unconstrained by them.
Let's simply enjoy these pencils for now and i'm sure Kamandi will come up again this month.

pencils of Kamandi by Jack Kirby, stardate unknown

Romp'em, Stomp'em Robot - (King Kirby 006)

A Kirby Splash from Strange Tales #86.
I really love this guy. It would be another 30 years before i remember seeing evil robots looking like they're having this much fun again.*

*(in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey(1991))

I Created Mechano splash by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers from Strange Tales #86 (1961)

The Justice Principle (King Kirby 005)

Back in 1975, shortly before making the jump back to Marvel, Jack Kirby created three trial-run titles that ran in DC's 1st Issue Special (#s1,5,&6).

We'll wind up taking a look at each in turn, but first let's take a look at the text piece Jack wrote to accompany Manhunter in 1st Issue Special #5, entitled Manhunter ... The Justice Principle.
We didn't often get a chance to hear Jack speak directly to us. Here he offers a little philosophy while taking us behind the curtain to give some insight to the whys and wherefores that went in to creating this title.
When this book came out 42 years ago, this page of text was worth more than the rest of the book, even with The King (even then, we called him that) writing and drawing the tale, including a splash the literally mirrored the cover followed by one of his glorious 2-page single panel spreads.
I would start attending conventions just a year or so later, but back then a page like this was as close as we could get to meeting one of our heroes.
I use that term 'heroes' in a very literal sense for me. Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Kelly Freas, Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Al Capp* - these were names i conjured with, and reasons i became, and enjoyed a moderately successful career as, an artist.
Anyway, more than enough about me - let's listen to Jack:

Please remember that this was over 4 decades ago. Don't write to that address, it's not there any more. I merely left it there for future researchers.
Yeah. Like they can't read comics.

===

*(I know someone very important & obvious is/are being forgotten, and i'm going to be so embarrassed when it hits me)

Manhunter ... The Justice Principle by Jack Kirby from 1st Issue Special #5 (1975)

Dang thing stood on edge (King Kirby 004)

I couldn't make up my mind - Kirby Cover or Kirby Splash?
Let's do both!

From Tales To Astonish #10, a great old Kirby Splash from the Marvel Age of Monsters:

Now jump ahead a few years as we shift gears into the Marvel Age of Superheroes for a Fantastic Four cover not on the Fantastic Four, but on Strange Tales #108:

Ah, those golden days when Marvel still loved their first, best team and still published the World's Greatest Comic Magazine.

art by Jack Kirby from Tales To Astonish #10 (1959) and Strange Tales #108 (1963)

The Origin Of King Kirby v.F11 (King Kirby 003)

 The year was 1975. Jack Kirby had just won the Academy of Comic Book Arts Hall of Fame Award and was returning to Marvel comics. Marvelites rejoiced, and the members only fan magazine FOOM dedicated an issue to celebrate the Return of  The King. FOOM #11 featured a John Byrne aping Jack Kirby cover (with Joe Sinnott's inks) that we'll come back to take a look at, along with other parts of the issue.
Right now, let's just concern ourselves with beginnings. Here's Charley Parker's behind-the-scenes secrets-revealed Origin of King Kirby:

And now you know.

The Origin of King Kirby by Charley Parker from FOOM #11 (1975)

Genesis Two - S&K (King Kirby 002)

Dateline: 1940

Welcome to our ongoing King Kirby 100 celebration. This time out, the beginning of his first great collaborative partnership. Jack and Joe, of course, helped define and establish the comic book as a form, and created a host of enduring characters, not least of which was Chris Evans Captain America, the man who punched Hitler while America was trying to decide whether or not he was a bad guy.

Way back in the dawn of comics, Jack Kirby met Joe Simon. Joe was working on a new book called Blue Bolt and he brought Jack in to join him with issue #2. By issue #5 they were fully collaborating and for (as far as i can determine) for the very first time the famous Joe Simon & Jack Kirby byline appeared:

The Green Sorceress has been plaguing our hero and his civilization since Blue Bolt was struck by lightning in his first issue. As always, she plots and seeks a way to... well, you read the intro caption, right?
Her infernal hench has delivered an arcane volume she hopes will contain the knowledge she needs to succeed...

She summons her master builder and gives him the plans for an incomprehensible (and huge) device - a gateway through the flame. Weeks later, the machine is constructed and troops are ready.
Ever vigilant, the Blue Bolt inspects the perimeter before reporting back in to "the Scientist Bertoff," and makes a startling discovery.

Blue Bolt goes on the offensive, "alone, he repulses wave upon wave of the attacking Green Infantry-"

Hey! Let's take another look at that last panel...

Damn. Right there from the beginning Kirby was already working out his trademark Kirby Crackle. It's not quite there yet, but he's obviously establishing the basics way back in 1940! On an entirely unrelated note, it's quite interesting to see that they were using not just dots, but stripes in varying directions to create their mid-tone colors.
Okay. I digress - let's continue.
Immediately upon crossing over, things get weird for our hero...

With the goggles restraining the sensory input (much like Spider-Man's A:CW goggles?), Blue Bolt can proceed through a disturbing landscape littered with Green Infantry skeletal remains. While trying to determine what killed them, he encounters the Green Sorceress again - now calling him Darling, and pleading to not fight any more...

Being crushed to death by a plant really is not how he wants to die. Blue bolt struggles furiously and finally "breaks the great tentacles' crushing grip"...

While Doctor Bertoff continues to fight a slowly losing battle to defend his "huge laboratories" from the seemingly endless invaders, Blue Bolt manages to hook up with his troops.

 They rapidly launch an assault from the rear on the Green Sorceress's troops:

Realizing that her plan has failed, the Green Sorceress flees in an armored counter-dymaxian car, but hits a mine placed by her own troops, destroying the vehicle and killing her guards...

And so ends our first co-credited tale. The duo continued with the book for another 5 issues, and continued to create together for another 20 years. Later Jack started working with another partner, and they turned out some pretty good stuff, too.

Blue Bolt story by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby from Blue Bolt #5 (1940)