DC’s THE JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS VOL. 1, a collection of Kirby’s non-Challengers 1950s material for the company (Green Arrow and various short stories and covers for the genre anthologies), plus a handful of pages from the 1940s, is now available.  Lots of stuff which has never been reprinted before.

Also, if you didn’t pick up Dynamite’s KIRBY GENESIS #0 a few months ago, you can read it for free on-line right now. The series is based on Kirby Estate owned characters, and the “#0″ issue features Kirby’s Pioneer plaque as a story element, and the back-matter has several of the original Kirby character designs, plus Kirby’s text that originally accompanied the plaque in the LA Times.  Nothing too new in there if you’re a regular reader of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, but some good stuff none the less.

And, can anyone verify whether Greg Theakston’s JACK MAGIC VOL. 1 biography of Kirby came out recently? [Since verified, it came out July 6]

Looks like Joe Simon’s new autobiography is shipping to comic shops this week, and they went with the MY LIFE IN COMICS title and the cover with Captain America punching Hitler and a photo of Simon.  It should be available from other sources soon (odd, I got my copy of the Titan FIGHTING AMERICAN book long before it got to comic shops, but my copy of this from the same source hasn’t shipped yet).  Looks like there’s also an e-book version for the Kindle available on Amazon, for those into such things.

As mentioned, that FIGHTING AMERICAN book should be available just about everywhere you’d expect now.  Marvel has also had a bunch of recent reprints, lots of Captain America and Thor as you’d expect.  One book I didn’t mention before came out a few months ago with some Kirby, SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE WITCHING HOUR VOL. 1 reprints “The Face Behind The Mask” from WITCHING HOUR #18 [1971], originally from TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #13 [1957].  A bit trivial, true, since a colour hardcover reprint of all of those 1950s short DC stories by Kirby is coming out soon enough.  As usual, all releases are listed here.

Doesn’t look like it’s shipped through all channels yet, but I just got a copy of FIGHTING AMERICAN, the new softcover book from Titan reprinting the 1950s Simon&Kirby classic, so comic shops and retailers like Amazon should have it within weeks.

The 200-page book mostly duplicates the middle section of last year’s hardcover THE SIMON AND KIRBY SUPERHEROES, slightly smaller and softcover, so much more affordable, and with a short new introduction by Joe Simon.  It’s a definite upgrade from the 1989 hardcover version of the book from Marvel.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #56 is out now out, look for the bold and more than slightly strange early 1970s Galaxy Green cover:

There have also been a lot of Marvel releases with Kirby reprints in the last few months.  A lot of Thor and Captain America for some reason…  Most notable is ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 6, which reprints the balance of Kirby’s 1970s run picking up where v5 left off.  So Kirby’s full 1970s run on Cap, including the tabloid, has now been reprinted three times. Who’d have predicted that a decade back?

Probably the last major Kirby publication of the year, DC’s first volume of the S&K classic BOY COMMANDOS is out this week, featuring the early adventures of the team from their debut in Detective through the first two issues of their solo series.  Over two-thirds of this book has material never reprinted since it was first published.

Also out recently, THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #55 has the usual selection of art and articles, with an emphasis on Kirby’s Hollywood related material, including his later animation work.  Also included is a reprint of “The Thing In The Fog” from BLACK MAGIC #7 [1951].

We’ve also had the usual assortment of Marvel reprints lately, all listed here. Most notably, the last few issues of Kirby’s run on THOR are now available in the hardcover Masterworks series.  I think that’s the last of the Silver Age super-hero stuff from Kirby to appear in that format.  Still a lot of sci-fi/fantasy, western and romance work to go, of course.

Some people may have had it in advance, but this past week saw the official release of THE SIMON & KIRBY SUPERHEROES 480-page hardcover.  Got my copy on Wednesday, and it’s a gorgeous book as you’d expect from the precedent Titan set with THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY last year.

A lot of details on the contents of the book from Harry Mendryk over here.  Harry did the art restoration for the book, and if you compare this to things like the 1989 Marvel FIGHTING AMERICAN book or the 2004 Archie reprint of THE ADVENTURES OF THE FLY you’ll see the quality of his work.  Better than having the original comics, and at a fraction of the price.

Several sites on-line have been given sample stories from the book to share:

Captain 3-D in “The Man From The World Of D”
Stuntman in “Curtain Call For Death”
The Fly in “The Strange New World Of The Fly”
Stuntman in “Rest Camp For Criminals” and Private Strong in “Ultra-Sonic Spies”

The 480-page Titan hardcover THE SIMON & KIRBY SUPERHEROES, featuring Fighting American, Stuntman, The Fly, Captain 3-D, Private Strong, The Black Owl and The Vagabond Prince (and a Neil Gaiman introduction), should be available in comic book stores this Thursday. Hopefully it’ll show up sooner rather than later from other sources (especially since that includes my order…), but it should be everywhere by the end of the month, at least.

While the rest of us will have to wait a few weeks, if you’re in San Diego this weekend Titan Books will have copies of the new SIMON AND KIRBY SUPERHEROES book, with a special signed bookplate.  If you get it, feel free to gloat and such in the comments.  For those not getting a copy there, very hefty pre-order discount right now at that previous link and from other retailers.

Booth 5537 will also be the only place you can get hold of a copy of the brand new TANK GIRL: SKIDMARKS trade paperback, signed by Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo, and signed advance copies of the gorgeous SIMON AND KIRBY SUPERHEROES! With a specially designed bookplate featuring Fighting American and Speedboy, these copies are signed by Joe Simon himself; plus a limited number are also signed by Neil Gaiman, who provided the introduction to the book, giving fans two autographs for the price of one! Outside of their work for Marvel and DC, this hardback compendium features all of the duo’s finest superhero stories and characters, including Fighting American, The Fly, Lancelot Strong and The Stuntman, fully restored to their original glory.

Busy half-year for Kirby publications. Highlight of the half-year is the Newsboy Legion reprint of golden age S&K material from DC.

Only one issue of TwoMorrows’s long running fan magazine, with some interesting stuff on 1960s Marvel, plus some stories from Kirby’s work for Gilberton’s WORLD AROUND US.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

A few reprints from DC. Obviously the Newsboy Legion one is the most important. Really good stuff, and their reproduction from printed comics improves with every book.  A few of Kirby’s more obscure 1970s creations with only one published story each get reprinted in books collecting later appearances of the characters.

THE NEWSBOY LEGION BY SIMON & KIRBY HC
KOBRA: RESURRECTION TPB
SUPERMAN: THE COMING OF ATLAS TPB

A few reprints of public domain material, Lockjaw and Earl the Rich Rabbit in the IDW book and a few crime stories in the Pure Imagination re-issue of the 1980s Eclipse collection.

GOLDEN COLLECTION OF KLASSIC KRAZY KOOL KIDS COMICS [IDW]
TEEN-AGED DOPE SLAVES AND REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS TPB [Pure Imagination]

And of course a raft of reprints from Marvel in various formats. The recent re-coloured reprints of the Tales of Asgard back-ups get collected. The old hardcover Masterworks line has one volume with a lot of Kirby monsters, while the softcover line has a whole lot of his super-heroes. The black-and-white Essentials line gets to some 1970s material where Kirby did the covers, and a few other reprints had single Kirby stories.

THOR: TALES OF ASGARD BY STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA TALES TO ASTONISH VOL. 3 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 1 TPB
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: DAREDEVIL VOL. 1 TPB
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: IRON MAN VOL. 1 TPB
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: SILVER SURFER VOL. 1 TPB
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 4 TPB
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 3 TPB
ESSENTIAL AVENGERS VOL. 7 TPB
ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 8 TPB
AVENGERS: I AM AN AVENGER TPB
X-MEN VS. AVENGERS PREMIERE HC
X-MEN VS. FANTASTIC FOUR PREMIERE HC

No slowdown in the second half of the year.  The highlight should be the second book Joe Simon is doing through Titan, THE SIMON AND KIRBY SUPERHEROES, a 480 page hardcover including just about all the non-DC/Marvel superhero work the duo did, including the complete Fighting American, Stuntman and a lot more.  Last I heard the hope was to have some copies out for the San Diego Con in a few weeks, and general release soon after.  Also highly anticipated from DC is THE BOY COMMANDOS BY SIMON & KIRBY HC, the first book of one of the great kid-gang feature.  Also one more issue of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR this year, probably some more public domain reprints and of course a bunch of stuff from Marvel, heavy on the Thor for obvious reasons.  Updates over here, as usual.

The new Pure Imagination edition of the 1989 Eclipse collection TEEN-AGED DOPE SLAVES AND REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS is now available.  I assume the same two S&K stories that were in the original, “The Bobby Sox Bandit Queen” (HEADLINE COMICS #27 [1947]) and “I Worked For The Fence” (HEADLINE COMICS #28 [1948]), are included, but if anyone can confirm I’d appreciate it.

For some more substantial S&K, Harry Mendryk has a sampling of some of the work that will be in the 480 page SIMON & KIRBY SUPERHEROES book.  Looks like it should be out in late summer, with the hope of having copies in time for the San Diego Comicon.