Category Archives: New Kirby

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”