Daily Archives: December 26, 2004

2004 – A Kirby Odyssey

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Posted in Admin.

A quick survey of Kirby related releases in 2004. I still have to pick up a few of them, and I don’t get the Marvel Masterworks volumes, but I think I can safely say my personal pick of the year is THE JACK KIRBY READER v2, for its volume and variety of choice material I haven’t read before in a nice format. Second place, and more recommended for casual fans for whom more of it will be new-to-them, is MARVEL VISIONARIES – JACK KIRBY.

Archie’s entry in the Kirby derby was ADVENTURES OF THE FLY. Mostly excellent reproduction, some questionable layout choices, fun late 1950s material.

DC had two entries, finishing up the Kirby runs of two major series, JIMMY OLSEN BY JACK KIRBY v2 and CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN ARCHIVES v2. I prefer the format of the JIMMY OLSEN book, and hope they do more like that in the future. The only semi-concrete Kirby on their future schedule seems to be KAMANDI, in the Archives format.

Greg Theakston’s Pure Imagination published THE JACK KIRBY READER v2, an excellent selection of pre-1960 material from a variety of publishers, showcasing the various genres Kirby worked in nicely. Possibly more books from Theakston will follow in 2005.

Marvel had some nice stuff this year.

In the trivial department, only two new books in the Essential line had any Kirby, both trivial. One cover and an FF crossover issue (#73) in ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL v2 and several covers and 10 pages of a Namor crossover issue (from TtA #82) in ESSENTIAL IRON MAN v2 (the covers duplicating those already in ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA v1). Next year should be better, with new Thor and FF volumes likely.

The Marvel Masterworks line finally finished re-releasing old volumes (often with some corrections, additions and shuffling from the original printings, plus some being released in softcovers exclusively to Barnes&Noble) and added some new ones. Trivial Kirby content in AVENGERS v4 (one partial cover) and X-MEN v4 (three covers), major Kirby content in FF v7 (everything) and HULK v2 (about half the book in pencils or layouts). Next year should see more FF, Golden Age CAPTAIN AMERICA and maybe more.

Marvel also did a paperback reprint of the MADBOMB storyline from Kirby’s mid-1970s return to CAPTAIN AMERICA. At least a BLACK PANTHER book will follow in this format next year.

The big one from Marvel was MARVEL VISIONARIES – JACK KIRBY, of course. Good format, excellent price, mostly good reproduction, fair story selection. Future volumes in the series will include Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (with some Kirby art in the Lee volume).

Fan publisher TwoMorrows had a good selection, with two tabloid issues of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, a fourth volume of THE COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR reprinting earlier issues and the re-issue of KIRBY UNLEASHED. Also of note from TwoMorrows, ALTER EGO #36 had a section on Joe Simon, with some Kirby art and information, and #39 had a page with some of the DC S&K stuff, including a neat house ad from 1943 touting the team and their various features. I suspect some other fan publications like COMIC BOOK ARTIST or BACK ISSUE might have had some minor Kirby content, but I didn’t get those. Same with any AC Comics publications. Feel free to follow-up with any info on those if you got them. Nothing too minor to warrent a mention.

Also this year, Ronin Ro’s biography of Kirby, TALES TO ASTONISH, was published. Still haven’t read it so no opinion offered. The only Kirby art in it was the cover with detail sections of an early 1970s Kirby drawing that’s been printed in TJKC.

And editing to add a late edition here, THE NEW SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC BOOK STORIES also came out in 2004, with a black and white reprint of FF #21.

And, I only just found this looking for other Kirby publications, Graphitti Designs did a t-shirt with some Kirby/Royer art, featuring the Galactic Bounty Hunters, which apparently someone might be doing as a series for Dark Horse in the future.

New Kirby – Unleashed, Collector, Hulk

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Posted in New Kirby.

More when I actually get copies, but just a quick note that within the last few weeks the following Kirby items were released:

KIRBY UNLEASHED, a new edition of the early 1970s volume that had a biography of Kirby (updated for this release), along with various rare artwork, and the plates from the GODS portfolio and other extras.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #41, focussing on the 1970s Marvel period, and you know what that means: Devil Dinosaur!

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE HULK v2 (which oddly I can’t seem to find on any of the major on-line bookseller sites). Collecting Hulk stories from TALES TO ASTONISH #59 – #79, so a lot of Kirby covers (17 of the 21 assuming they include non-Hulk covers which they usually do), plus three stories he did the pencils for, nine others he did layouts, with Esposito/Kane/Powell/Everett/Romita finishing. Plus work by Steve Ditko and Dick Ayers.

Later, 2004 in review for the Kirby fan. At least 12 major releases. Feel free to post your favourites.

Black Magic #7 [1975] – “The Cloak” and “Freak!”

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Posted in Genre, Horror/Fantasy.

More reprints from the S&K Prize horror series of the 1950s in this issue. Starting off with the cover, a reprint of the cover to the original #17 (v2#11), a moody piece with one of the classic horror set-pieces, a dark attic, with a chained freak. The 8-page story from that issue, “Freak!”, is reprinted in here, featuring art credited to Kirby/Meskin in the updated Kirby checklist. The Meskin part is heavy, which is probably why the story was missing from earlier Kirby checklists, but the Kirby parts are definitely there, especially in how some of the characters hands are posed. A decent short story, although the cover kind of gives away too much.

Also in this issue is “The Cloak”, a 7 pager from the original BM #2.
This is sort of a modern urban gothic horror story. An unemployed man in Budapest gets a chance at a job, but needs to look good for the occasion. He has one good suit left, and goes out to rent a cloak to wear for it (this is back when men wore cloaks. And hats). It gets delivered to him by a mysterious guy, it has a label “Asmodeus”, and still he doesn’t get the hint. He wears it, and it attempts to kill him several times before he ditches it, giving it to a derelict. Our man Paul then calls the tailor offering to pay for the cloak, and finds out it wasn’t from the tailor, the cloak he ordered is still waiting to be picked up. Now he looks up “Asmodeus”, realizes the guy he gave the cloak is in danger, and tries to save him. He fails, and the cloak vanishes. And that’s it. Dead vagrant, and no idea if Paul got a job.

bm7

A good, if simple, story. And the art just has to be seen. The various accidents that Paul runs into with the cloak are great, like being dragged by a train. And the backgrounds are excellent. I don’t know if Budapest actually looked like this, but it should have.

Published 1975