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)
