The next issue of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR is coming in a few months.  Great cover on that, and I’m really looking forward to the look at Gerber’s scripts for DESTROYER DUCK among other things.

Summer 2013 – 104 page magazine with COLOR
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #61’s theme is JACK KIRBY: WRITER! Whether creating stories while drawing, or pecking away at a typewriter, Kirby gave his work a unique voice which fans either love or hate. Don’t miss this examination of the quirks of Kirby’s conceptualizing and wordsmithing, from the operatic FOURTH WORLD to melodramatic ROMANCE work, and beyond! There’s a feature-length Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, NORRIS BURROUGHS on Larry Lieber’s scripting for Jack at Marvel Comics in the 1960s, the late RAY ZONE detailing his 3-D collaborations with Kirby, a comparison of STEVE GERBER’s Destroyer Duck scripts to Jack’s pencils, Kirby’s best promotional blurbs, galleries of pencil art including NEW GODS, DESTROYER DUCK, 2001, and more, plus an unseen Kirby cover painting! Edited by John Morrow.

An upcoming hardcover horror anthology from Titan, MONSTER MASSACRE, will feature the story “The Greatest Horror Of Them All” from BLACK MAGIC #29 [v4n5] [1954]. More on the book over here. This story will presumably also be in the S&K Library HORROR volume out a few weeks later from the same publisher, so don’t pick up the book just for that, but it’ll be good to get the S&K work in front of some eyes that wouldn’t normally see it.

The next volume of Titan’s SIMON & KIRBY LIBRARY has shown up on various bookseller sites, scheduled for October 2013. HORROR is set to include stories from BLACK MAGIC and STRANGE WORLD OF YOUR DREAMS published from 1950 to 1954. At 320 pages, it should be enough to include all of Kirby’s artwork from the two titles, so you know what that means: look out for the “Lone Shark”!

(thanks to John S. for catching the listing over in this comment thread, check it out for some more discussion about S&K reprints)

This is currently scheduled for March 2013 from DC:

Jack Kirby Omnibus Vol. 2 HC
Writers: Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Dennis O’Neil, Michael Fleischer, Steve Sherman, Martin Pasko, Bob Rozakis, Joey Cavalieri and Paul Kupperberg
Artists: Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bruno Premiani, George Roussos, Mort Meskin, John Prentice, Bill Draut, Bob McCarty, Leonard Starr, Wally Wood, Mike Royer, D. Bruce Berry, Pablo Marcos, Alex Toth, Greg Theakston, Adrian Gonzales, Alan Kupperberg and Bill Wray
Collects: BLACK MAGIC #1-9, 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #1, 5 and 6, RICHARD DRAGON: KUNG FU FIGHTER #3, THE SANDMAN #1-6, KOBRA #1, DC COMICS PRESENTS #84, SUPER POWERS #1-5 and SUPER POWERS VOL. 2 #1-6
$39.99 US, 624 pg

Contents subject to change, naturally. Catches many of the strays not already accounted for among other already released or scheduled books from Kirby’s post Golden Age work published by DC (still need a Manhunter and a lot more Boy Commandos and some Newsboy Legion there). I’ll update with a list of what’s missing in a bit.  IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB, obviously, but that’ll probably get its own oversized book like SPIRIT WORLD.  JUSTICE, INC. is probably out as it’s a licensed character. Lots of non-Kirby stuff in the BLACK MAGIC book, and it’s all 1950s reprints which would be better served in Titan’s S&K Library series, which would free up some pages in here to make sure stuff like the unpublished Dingbats stories, the story intended for SANDMAN #7 (printed in the digest THE BEST OF DC #22 [1982]) and all of Kirby’s non-Fourth World WHO’S WHO pages get included.

More details on the next volume of Titan’s S&K Library, scheduled for October 2012.  For comic shops, it’ll be in the next Diamond Previews with an order code JUL121228, for bookstores it can be ordered with  ISBN-10: 1848569610 or ISBN-13: 978-1848569614

THE SIMON & KIRBY LIBRARY: SCIENCE-FICTION HC
Joe Simon, Jack Kirby

The Simon and Kirby Library: Science Fiction spans more than 20 years, beginning with the first stories Joe Simon and Jack Kirby ever produced together (beginning in June 1940)–their ten-issue run of Blue Bolt adventures. Then the Cold War years will be represented by Race For the Moon, featuring pencils by Kirby and inked artwork by comic book legends Reed Crandall, Angelo Torres, and Al Williamson.

“Joe was one of the industry’s greatest innovators–he commissioned stories from some of the greatest talents of the time,” series editor Steve Saffel notes. “Thanks to his efforts, we have exclusive access to more than 80 pages of original artwork from the 1950s. Stories by all four artists appear in all of their stunning detail. This was a book Joe wanted the world to see.”

Other rarities from both decades are included, and as a bonus for readers, the volume features stories illustrated by Crandall, Torres, and Williamson–without Kirby.

Including an introduction by Dave Gibbons, the award-winning co-creator and illustrator of Watchmen, this is an historic volume no comic book aficionado will be able to live without.

7×11, 320pgs, FC $49.95

Coming this summer from DC, a big black and white collection of the first 21 issues of SHOWCASE from the 1950s in the redundantly titled SHOWCASE PRESENTS SHOWCASE VOL. 1, so including the first four Challengers of the Unknown stories.  Oddly it’s currently scheduled to come out the same day as the hardcover that will reprint those four issues and the first eight issues of the regular series by Kirby.  That’s a lot of Challengers to come out in one day…

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SHOWCASE VOL. 1 TP
Written by VARIOUS • Art by VARIOUS
Cover by GIL KANE and BERNARD SACHS
On sale JUNE 20 • 544 pg, B&W, $19.99 US
• DC’s legendary try-out title is reprinted from the start for the first time!
• Includes the debuts of the Silver Age FLASH, THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and ADAM STRANGE!
• Collects SHOWCASE #1-21!

Coming in June from DC, a single volume hardcover of Kirby’s 1950s run on CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN in a format to match the other recent Kirby reprints from DC.  The stories were previously collected in two Archives hardcovers and in the black and white Showcase Presents format.

CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN OMNIBUS BY JACK KIRBY HC
Written by DAVE WOOD and JACK KIRBY • Art by JACK KIRBY, WALLACE WOOD, MARVIN STEIN and others • Cover by JACK KIRBY
On sale JUNE 20 • 320 pg, FC, $39.99 US
Now in one amazing volume collecting SHOWCASE 6, 7, 11 and 12 and CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #1-8, these are the original 1950s tales of four death defying adventurers and their incredible exploits.

Titan has just announced the next two volumes in their SIMON & KIRBY LIBRARY series, with SCIENCE FICTION scheduled for the fall of 2012 and HORROR in 2013.

The science fiction volume will include Blue Bolt and various other 1940s and 1950s material.  The RACE FOR THE MOON stuff is especially good.  The horror book will have stories from BLACK MAGIC and STRANGE WORLD OF YOUR DREAMS.  Should be a great pair of books to go with the existing books.

Some discussion in the comments to the previous post about YOUNG ROMANCE: THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S 1940S-’50S ROMANCE COMICS, an upcoming book from Fantagraphics, including a link to some comments from editor Michel Gagné on the history of the project and some sample panels.