Monthly Archives: July 2010

Upcoming Kirby – Thor, Thor and more Thor

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Bob

For some reason you can expect a lot of Thor books from Marvel in the next year.  Here are a pair that include a few Kirby stories along with a variety of later stuff.

THOR VS. HERCULES TPB
Written by STAN LEE, GERRY CONWAY, TOM DEFALCO, RON FRENZ, MICHAEL AVON OEMING, BOB HARRAS, GREG PAK, FRED VAN LENTE & STEVE ENGLEHART
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, JOHN BUSCEMA, GARY HARTLE, SCOTT KOLINS, JACKSON GUICE, REILLY BROWN & RON FRENZ
Cover by JOHN BUSCEMA
Greatest friends or greatest rivals? Asgard or Olympus? Hammer or mace? God of Thunder or Prince of Power? When two half-human gods such as Thor and Hercules meet up, they come to blows as often as they join forces against threats such as Pluto and Ares! No matter the world, no matter the stakes, no matter the property destruction, see these two demigods seek to prove who is the strongest—even when they switch costumes! Women and mead not provided. Collecting JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY ANNUAL #1, THOR (1966) #126, #221, #356 & #437, THOR ANNUAL #5, THOR: BLOOD OATH #3-4, INCREDIBLE HERCULES #136 and material from THOR #400.
208 PGS./Rated A …$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4974-3

THOR: WORLDENGINE PREMIERE HC
Written by WARREN ELLIS & STAN LEE
Penciled by MIKE DEODATO JR. & JACK KIRBY
Cover by MIKE DEODATO JR.
Thor and Beta Ray Bill have taken ill! Yggdrassil, the World Tree, has been grafted with an engine to hasten its destruction and bring about Ragnarok and the end of the world! What mysterious villain is behind it all, and can Thor figure it out in time to save all of existence? And when the God of Thunder finds an unlikely ally in the form of Amora, the Enchantress, his longtime foe, could there be romance blossoming between these age-old enemies? Plus: the first appearance of the Enchantress and the Executioner! Collecting THOR (1966) #491-494 and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #103.
112 PGS./Rated A …$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4982-8

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New Kirby – S&K SUPERHEROES [in San Diego only]

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Bob

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.

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.
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Upcoming Kirby – Kirby owned concepts return

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Bob

As you may have heard, it’s just been announced that Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross will do something called KIRBY: GENESIS for Dynamite.  Links and a large copy of the promotional poster by Ross over here.  As Busiek mentions, and as seen in the poster, this will include not just previously published Kirby Estate owned concepts like Captain Victory, Silver Star, Satan’s Six, Phantom Force and The Ninth Men but also a lot of things never published or seen in single illustrations.  Galaxy Green (from the proposed “Fat City Comix”) is there on the bottom middle next to Egghead.  Honir and Sigurd (from the “Gods” portfolio) are there on the right, near Paranex the Fighting Fetus.  A couple of those aliens to the right of what I assume is the grasping hand of Darius Drumm are from a 1972 piece seen in the centerfold of the 2004 TwoMorrows KIRBY UNLEASHED portfolio.  On the other side of the hand, I’m not even sure that guy has a name, but he was on a recent KIRBY COLLECTOR cover and apparently done the same time as Kirby’s original New Gods proposal.  A few of the other characters are vaguely familiar (I think one of the small figures is Ramses), probably from issues of the KIRBY COLLECTOR, a few others are complete mysteries.

Anyway, hopefully in the publication we’ll see a lot of pages of the Kirby designs, and maybe this will help expedite the publication of the long-delayed Captain Victory collection and maybe some books of all the other Kirby-owned comics (haven’t heard anything about the Destroyer Duck collection in a while, either, although those characters probably aren’t part of this deal, being co-owned by Steve Gerber, just as it seems the Joe Simon co-owned characters aren’t involved).

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New Kirby – Mid-year update

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Bob

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.

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