Doesn’t look like any more Kirby is due out in the last two weeks of the year, so here’s an overview of 2008 in Kirby publications. You can probably still get some of them in time for Hanukkah gift giving. Busy year again, with 41 publications listed below, some trivial but a fair number of major works as well.

Highlight of the year, that’s a tough one. Evanier’s KIRBY: KING OF COMICS is a strong contender. The latest COMPLETE KIRBY has some amazing material. All 16-issues of THE DEMON in one big book. Plus several of the TwoMorrows publications. Today I’d go with COMPLETE KIRBY v5.

As usual, lists of stuff announced and released, and some links, are over here.

First up, from TwoMorrows:

KIRBY FIVE-OH: 50 YEARS OF KING OF COMICS
KIRBY FIVE-OH: 50 YEARS OF KING OF COMICS [Hardcover]
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #51
COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR - VOLUME 6
COMICS GO HOLLYWOOD—FCBD 2008 EDITION
JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST GOLD EDITION
Only two issues of TJKC, but one was double-sized (and #52 should be out early in 2009). As usual some new art to go with the reprints in the COLLECTED JKC book. The updated checklist was a treat, especially if you get the searchable PDF version as well. Very good year overall.

I’m sure that some of their other magazines, especially ALTER EGO, had some Kirby content throughout the year, though I haven’t seen them all. Anyone know if there was anything more than spot illustrations, enough to warrant being included on this list?

Looking forward to 2009, more of the same, v7 of COLLECTED already scheduled, finishing up the issues in the original pre-tabloid format.

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DC reprinted the following:

JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS VOL. 4
JACK KIRBY’S OMAC: ONE MAN ARMY CORPS
JACK KIRBY’S THE DEMON
Some nice matching hardcovers of Kirby’s 1970s and 1980s work, a lot of it reprinted for the first time ever and sometimes including stuff not in the originals (the original version of HUNGER DOGS, a few unused pages from THE DEMON and OMAC).

COUNTDOWN SPECIAL: KAMANDI
COUNTDOWN SPECIAL: OMAC
COUNTDOWN SPECIAL: THE NEW GODS
A few one-shot comics reprinting some 1970s Kirby with tangential connections to then-current new DC comics. Only one Kirby story in the OMAC one, the other two are all Kirby, and the KAMANDI one includes one of the issues not yet reprinted elsewhere.

SHAZAM: THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD TP
One of the stories from CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #1, the only issue of the series produced by S&K back in 1940.

In 2009, look for more 1970s material, starting with The Losers, and probably some 1940s S&K, plus some stray bits like the 1970s Atlas issue of FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL in a reprint of some current Superman comics.

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Marvel, as usual, had a lot of Kirby in various formats:

JACK KIRBY’S GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS VOL. 1 TPB
A third chance to buy the material based on Kirby’s concepts (with some of his art) done by Lisa Kirby, Mike Thibodeaux and others.

FANTASTIC FOUR: THE LOST ADVENTURE
FANTASTIC FOUR: LOST ADVENTURES BY STAN LEE HC
The reconstruction of the story that was chopped up to become FF #108, newly inked by Joe Sinnott. The one-shot comic includes the pencils and the version printed in FF #108, not sure of the hardcover (which includes other later-day returns to the FF by the writer) includes those. There’s also one page which turned up later which I don’t think is included in the above.

ETERNALS BY JACK KIRBY BOOK 1 TPB
ETERNALS BY JACK KIRBY BOOK 2 TPB
The complete 1970s series gets collected in a pair of softcovers for those who didn’t get the one-volume hardcover a few years back.

ANNIHILATION CLASSIC HC
HULK VS. THE MARVEL UNIVERSE TPB
SECRET INVASION: THE INFILTRATION TPB
Some Kirby is included among various non-Kirby stories in these reprints that tie into current Marvel events.

AVENGERS CLASSIC #8
AVENGERS CLASSIC #9
AVENGERS CLASSIC #10
AVENGERS CLASSIC #11
AVENGERS CLASSIC #12
HULK VS. HERCULES - WHEN TITANS COLLIDE
A few reprints in more traditional comic book format. Just minor Kirby reprints in those AVENGERS CLASSIC issues after #8, and a short back-up reprint in that HULK VS. HERCULES one-shot.

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ANT-MAN/GIANT-MAN VOL. 2 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA TALES OF SUSPENSE VOL. 2 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA TALES TO ASTONISH VOL. 2 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: GOLDEN AGE CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 2 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: SGT. FURY VOL. 2 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 11 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE MIGHTY THOR VOL. 7 HC
Various eras of Kirby continue in this line of books, with mostly just covers in the ANT-MAN/GIANT-MAN and SGT. FURY books, a half-issue (since reconstructed in that LOST ADVENTURE book above) in the FF book, but lots of Kirby in the others.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC
THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC
The bigger and thicker versions books that usually accompany theatrical releases of the characters, these two include pretty much all of Kirby’s 1960s work on these series, plus lots of others.

For 2009, the big news is the re-release of the MASTERWORKS books in $25 softcovers, monthly and following the original release order, so expect two books each of FF, Avengers and X-Men and one each of Spider-Man and Hulk. The hardcover line continues, several already on tap to include some Kirby, including a few 1940s Vision stories never before reprinted. The X-MEN OMNIBUS will include close to all of Kirby’s contribution to that series.

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And from other publishers:

KIRBY - KING OF COMICS
Mark Evanier’s long-awaited art book survey of Kirby’s career. Very pretty, though not without various minor quibbles. I wouldn’t expect the even longer-awaited detailed biography for a while.

JACK KIRBY QUARTERLY #15
The original Kirby fanzine from England returns with one more issue. I haven’t seen it, but the various preview images I saw looked nice.

THE COMPLETE JACK KIRBY v5
SEX, DRUGS, AND VIOLENCE IN THE COMICS
Two new books from Greg Theakston’s Pure Imagination, with the first volume of COMPLETE in six years continuing with Kirby’s 1947 material, filling a 172-page book with just two months of his publishing output, some great stuff there. SEX, DRUGS… features three S&K crime stories among other such comics of the era, good choices, though all three available in other books as well (but I guess those old Eclipse reprints aren’t easy to find).

THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST CRIME COMICS
A single S&K Kirby, “The Money-Making Machine Swindlers” from JUSTICE TRAPS THE GUILTY #6 [1948], is included in this thick collection of crime comics from around the world, but it’s a really good one, and hasn’t been reprinted elsewhere.

The big release for 2009 should be at least the first of many new Joe Simon books reprinting some S&K material, possibly Greg Theakston’s JACK MAGIC biography of Kirby, which should be interesting, and some other stuff. I’m still hoping Image gets the 1980s Kirby material back on the schedule.

Couple of upcoming Kirby reprints announced recently. The issues of MARVEL MYSTERY in the Masterworks edition has the first four Vision stories, a few never reprinted before. Looks like the current plan is for the softcover Masterworks to follow the release order of the hardcover series, running monthly, so expect two volumes each of FF, X-Men and Avengers and one of the Hulk in 2009. Not sure what’s in that Fantagraphics SUPERMEN book, a few things could qualify under the premise. And that reprint of Atlas in the back of a book of recent Superman stories is out of left field.

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SUPERMAN: THE COMING OF ATLAS HC
Written by James Robinson and Jack Kirby
Art by Renado Guedes, Jack Kirby, Jose Wilson Magalhaes and D. Bruce Berry
Cover by Alex Ross

Titans clash in this first hardcover collection of SUPERMAN tales from fan-favorite writer James Robinson (STARMAN)! Featuring SUPERMAN #677-680, this is the battle to end all others as Superman faces off with Atlas, lost god of myth. And when Atlas stakes a claim on Metropolis, it’s up to Superman and Krypto to take Atlas down.

As a bonus, this collection also includes FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL #1, the 1975 tale by Jack “King” Kirby that introduced Atlas!

on sale April 8 - 128 pg, FC, $19.99 US

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MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 1 TPB
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY
Covers by JACK KIRBY & DEAN WHITE

In 1961 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby lit the fuse on the greatest revolution in comic book history, the Marvel Age of Comics, and right here in the pages of The Fantastic Four, you can experience it from page one. With the space race, on Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Sue Storm and Johnny Storm shoot for the stars, but after their craft is bombarded by cosmic rays, they return to Earth with the startling powers of the Fantastic Four! These weren’t just any super heroes, though, they were a realistic, relatable, bickering and loveable family that couldn’t float their rent and didn’t always enjoy their superpowers. So come join the Marvel Masterworks and witness the first appearance of such Marvel U. cornerstones as the Skrulls and Dr. Doom, the Sub-Mariner’s return, the debut of the Mole Man and his many monsters, Miracle Man, the Puppet Master and more! Collecting THE FANTASTIC FOUR #1-10.

272 PGS/All Ages …$24.99

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MARVEL MASTERWORKS: GOLDEN AGE MARVEL COMICS VOL. 4 HC
Written by JOE SIMON, RAY GILL, ANDREW MCWHINEY & VARIOUS
Penciled by CARL BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, JACK KIRBY, PAUL GUSTAVSON, STEVE DAHLMAN, BOB OKSNER & BEN THOMPSON
Cover by ALEX SCHOMBURG

And now the flagship title of Marvel’s Golden Age REALLY heats up! From day one Marvel Comics brought you CarlBurgos’ blazing Human Torch and Bill Everett’s undersea powerhouse Sub-Mariner, but two of the Golden Age’s most thrilling characters just wasn’t enough for MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS–Enter, the Vision! Created by Timely’s titanic team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the Vision, burst into the Earthly world via Professor Enoch Mason’s dimension smasher and brought to MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS an eerie crime-noir serial that sealed the comic’s place at the very top of the Golden Age’s greatest! Joined by the crime-fighting Angel, boy-adventurer Terry Vance, the caterwauling science fiction tales of Electro, and Ka-Zar’s jungle action, there’s no comparison for variety and excitement, so celebrate Marvel’s 70th anniversary and reserve your copy today! Collecting MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #13-16.
280 PGS/All Ages …$59.99

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SUPERMEN! THE FIRST WAVE OF COMIC-BOOK HEROES (1939-41)
Edited by Greg Sadowski; Introduction by Jonathan Lethem

Of the 22 stories appearing in SUPERMEN! the vast majority haven’t seen print since first publication, including the notorious 1939 Wonder Man debut by Will Eisner. Wonder Man lasted one issue after a successful DC Comics lawsuit cited the similarity to its son of Krypton.

This lawsuit inspired more individual and offbeat approaches, and it’s on these mavericks and oddballs we focus this collection. The roster features such notables as Basil Wolverton, Jack Kirby, Jack Cole, Fletcher Hanks, Ogden Whitney, Lou Fine, Charles Biro, Fred Guardineer, and Dick Briefer. Fighting villainy is hard work and in SUPERMEN! it’s downright ruthless.

SC, 8 1/2 x 11, 176 pages, FC, $24.99

Available now, JACK KIRBY’S THE DEMON OMNIBUS collects the entire 16 issue series by Kirby from the early 1970s in one volume. Great stuff, and with the exception of one digest-sized reprinting of the first issue the first time any of that stuff was been reprinted.

Bunches of recently announced upcoming Kirby. TwoMorrows brings the COLLECTED KIRBY COLLECTOR up to the end of the standard magazine format issues. All the tabloid issues are still available, so no idea if they’ll ever collect those in some format. And of course they continue with #52 (#51 should be out in a few weeks). DC collects Kirby’s dozen issues of OUR FIGHTING FORCES featuring The Losers, some great stuff in there. Marvel starts a softcover version of their Masterworks line. A few pages of Kirby inked by Ditko in that first release, obviously expect much more Kirby in other probable releases. The old Masterworks hardcover line is still catching some strays, like one Kirby story and a bunch of covers in the second Human Torch volume. And the original X-Men get a thick OMNIBUS volume collecting all of the issues with Kirby pencils and layouts and beyond, including almost all the covers he had a hand in.

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COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR - Volume 7
288 page Trade Paperback - Edited by John Morrow

This seventh trade paperback completes the compilations of the first thirty regular-size issues of The Jack Kirby Collector, the critically acclaimed magazine about Kirby’s life and career. This volume reprints Jack Kirby Collector #27-30, with in-depth looks at Jack’s 1970s Marvel Comics work, and his ’80s work in comics and animation, plus a special two-part focus on how widespread Kirby’s influence is! It features rare interviews with Kirby himself, plus new interviews with Watchmen’s ALAN MOORE and DAVE GIBBONS, NEIL GAIMAN, Bone’s JEFF SMITH, MARK “Luke Skywalker” HAMILL, and others! See page after page of rare Kirby art, including a NEW special section with over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, and more! Edited by John Morrow.
ISBN-13: 978-1-605490-12-0
ISBN-10: 1-605490-12-1
$29.95 US

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THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #52
Winter 2009 - 84 pages - Tabloid Format

This issue spotlights Kirby Obscura, uncovering some of Jack’s most obscure work! Learn about such little-known projects as an unused Thor story, his unseen Bruce Lee comic, his animation work, his stage play, and see original unaltered versions of pages from Kamandi, Demon, Destroyer Duck, and more! It also includes a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series before editorial tampering (complete with lots of surprises)! There’s also Mark Evanier’s regular column about his former boss, two huge Kirby pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, a color Kirby front cover inked by DON HECK, and a color back cover inked by PAUL SMITH! Edited by John Morrow.
$10 US

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THE LOSERS BY JACK KIRBY HC
Written by Jack Kirby
Art by Jack Kirby, D. Bruce Berry & Mike Royer
Cover by Jack Kirby & Mike Royer

For the first time, Jack Kirby’s tales of World War II are collected! In 1974, while Jack Kirby was hard at work on such mind-bending epics as MISTER MIRACLE and KAMANDI, he also created a series of stories that drew on his own experiences in World War II. Starring DC war heroes Johnny Cloud, Captain Storm, Gunner and Sarge, this volume features stories in which The Losers stop a German attack using a tactic found in a comic book, German and American athletes who faced each other at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin meet again on the field of combat, and much more! Don’t miss this amazing collection of tales from OUR FIGHTING FORCES #151-162, and featuring a foreword by best-selling author Neil Gaiman (THE SANDMAN).

on sale March 11
240 pg, FC, $39.99 US

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THE X-MEN OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC
Written by STAN LEE & ROY THOMAS
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, JAY GAVIN,
WERNER ROTH & JACK SPARLING
Covers by JACK KIRBY & ALEX ROSS

In 1963 the slow boil of the Marvel super-hero revolution exploded in a full eruption with a slate of new heroic adventurers that redefined comic-book adventure forever. Joining the Fantastic Four, the Amazing Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Dr. Strange came the Avengers and an odd sister book featuring a weird assortment of brand new characters: Cyclops, the Beast, Iceman, the Angel, Marvel Girl, and the mysteriously-named Professor X. They were the X-Men, and little did anyone know that they would come to take the comic book business by storm. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby billed their new creations “The Strangest Super-Heroes of All!” and while their mutant powers were certainly weird, the binding concept of this band of heroes, a group feared, hunted and hated because the of prejudice of their fellow man was pure Marvel relevance, striking at the heart of Civil Rights battles of the time. So join us as we collect in this massive, painstakingly restored, archival volume as we recount the earliest adventures of the world’s most-famous super-hero team as they encounter for the very first time their nemesis Magneto, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Juggernaut, Ka-Zar and the Savage Land, Master Mold and the Sentinels, and many more of Marvel’s greatest heroes and villains. Supplemented with a bevy of behind-the-scenes bonus material, critical and historical essays, and original artwork, this volume is a bona fide must-have for each and every X-addict! Collecting THE X-MEN #1-31.
768 PGS./All Ages …$99.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2958-5

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MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1 TPB
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by STEVE DITKO with JACK KIRBY
Cover by JACK KIRBY & STEVE DITKO

Celebrate Marvel’s 70th anniversary by experiencing the tales of the world’s most-famous super heroes from the very beginning! The Marvel Masterworks have brought readers deluxe hardcover collections of Marvel’s classics from the Golden Age, Atlas Era, and the mighty Marvel Age, and now you can join in the Masterworks excitement with our new, monthly Marvel Masterworks trade paperbacks. And where better to start than where comics’ most robust line of archival comic collections began-the Amazing Spider-Man! In 1962 in the pages of a comic book slated for cancellation, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko gave birth to one of the most-enduring icons in American popular culture-the one and only Amazing Spider-Man! Turning the concept of a super hero on its head, they imbued the young, guilt-ridden Peter Parker with the fantastic powers of an arachnid and the fantastic pressures of an everyday teenager. The combination was pure magic. So join us in the following pages as we present stories of spectacular web-slinging adventure from Spidey’s very beginning including, the tragic origin that started it all, the first appearances of the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson, Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, the Vulture, Electro, and guest-star nods by the Fantastic Four and Human Torch. And to top it off, we’ve packed this volume full of bonuses galore, including the complete original artwork to Spider-Man’s Amazing Fantasy #15 origin from the Library of Congress archives! Collecting AMAZING FANTASY #15 & THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1-10.
272 PGS/All Ages …$24.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3692-7
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1 TPB - DM ONLY
272 PGS/All Ages …$24.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3693-4

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MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE HUMAN TORCH VOL. 2 HC
Written by STAN LEE & LARRY IVIE
Penciled by DICK AYERS, BOB POWELL, CARL BURGOS & JACK KIRBY
Cover by JACK KIRBY

Hot dog! It’s a treat, the swingin’ ’60s solo adventures of the Human Torch come to cacophonous conclusion in this much-demanded Masterworks milestone! Written by the one-and-only sultan of the Silver Age, Stan Lee, and illustrated by the Bullen’s professor of penciling, Darlin’ Dick Ayers, these tales of the Torch (and his odd-couple partner, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing) are bona fide and certified cover-to-cover fun! Join in as the Torch tests his mettle against the Wizard, the riotous Rabble Rouser and Plantman. Then, place your bets in the battle of fire and ice between Johnny Storm and the X-Men’s Iceman, illustrated by Jack Kirby! After that we waste no time because it’s team-up time. The Thing joins the show and wastes no time getting down to clobberin’ time vs. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, Paste-Pot Pete, the Beetle (not those Beatles, they come later), the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master. And before we close it all down comes…the Watcher! Guest-staring the Amazing Spider-Man, the X-Men, four guys named John, Paul, George and Ringo, and if that doesn’t sell you on it, then I’ve got five words that will: “Thing in a Beatle wig.” That’s it! We stuck a fork in ya. So reserve that copy today, True Believer! Collecting STRANGE TALES #118-134
256 PGS./All Ages …$54.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3505-0
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE HUMAN TORCH VOL. 2 HC - VARIANT EDITION VOL. 113
256 PGS./All Ages …$54.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3506-7

Congratulations to Joe Simon, born 95 years ago today.

As usual for all your Joe Simon needs I refer you to Harry Mendryk’s S&K Blog, and look out for several books by Simon in the next year.