Category Archives: 2007/04

Credit Where Credit Is Due

The recent edition of Time magazine (May 7) has a very short article about a new Hulk movie. It provides a time line which starts with:

MARVEL COMICS: Created in 1962 by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby …

It is nice to see a national publication take the time to get the credits correct. Too often in the past Stan Lee alone would have been called the creator.

Bill Draut And His Imitator, Jack Kirby

First Love #69
First Love #69 (October 1956) “Remember, I’m Your Girl”, page 1, pencils and inks by Bill Draut

With the period having 1956 cover dates Kirby was pretty much the only artist working on the Prize romance titles (Young Romance, Young Love and Young Brides). During this time Bill Draut and John Prentice who had previously been doing work for those titles began to appear regularly in the Harvey romance books instead. “Remember, I’m Your Girl” is typical of the work Draut did for Harvey. Bill still had an distinct style particularly characterized by simple but prominent eyebrows.

This a story about a man (Joe), his sister (Annie), and a former friend (Phil). Joe is now a successful politician and his sister is enjoying the financial fruits of that success. There is an approaching election and his position is being threatened by Phil, a rival candidate. Years before all three were good friends so Joe asks Annie to reconnect with Phil in order to find some weakness. His sister refuses but runs into Phil by accident and a romance develops. Joe wins the election but the sister continues her romance. When Joe confronts Annie to choose between her previous financial rewards or the rival, she chooses Phil.

First Love #69
First Love #69 (October 1956) contents page, pencils by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, inks by Joe Simon?

Joe Simon was probably working for Harvey as an editor at this time. I generally do not consider works such as “Remember, I’m Your Girl” as Simon and Kirby productions. The format and length match Harvey romance stories from well before Joe’s time as Harvey editor. However something unusual happened in FL #68 and FL #69. Generally Harvey romances has a content page with at most a portion of the splash for each story. In FL #68 and #69 the content pages had a short original art that served as an introduction to the featured story.

For First Love #69 the feature story was Bill Draut’s “Remember, I’m Your Girl”. The same characters that appear in the feature story are presented here. The text makes it clear that the trio are shown in the earlier days while they were all still friends. A casual glance at the introduction story could result in attributing it to Bill as well. What particularly stands out are the simple but prominent eyebrows, which as I said was a Draut trait. A close examination reveals that the faces are not quite like Draut would do them, particularly in the story panels. There is not much to go but the spot inking does not look like Draut’s either. But I do not think it is just the case of some other artist inking Draut’s pencils. The layouts in the introduction story are not quite like Bill’s.

It is the layouts that provide a suggestion who the real artist was. In the first panel Joe is shown lighting up a cigarette. This is a typical Kirby theme and pose. In panels 2 to 4 the main speakers are placed in the front while those not speaking are placed in the background. This is a typical Kirby layout. Even the way Annie looks over Phil’s shoulder as they embrace is a typical Kirby pose. Although the artist tried to draw the characters like Bill Draut did he really could not completely adopt Bill’s more stylized pencils. Keeping in mind that he is imitating Draut, a close look at the faces suggests Kirby was the penciler.

First Love #69
First Love #69 (October 1956) “Remember, I’m Your Girl”, page 4 panel 1, pencils and inks by Bill Draut

In the past I have often warned about using some Kirby-esque features for attributing a work to Jack. Joe Simon was also familiar with Kirby’s techniques and was pretty good at mimicking most of them. If you ignore the attempt to copy Draut’s style, the number of Kirby-isms seems rather high even for Joe. But look at the drawing of Annie that appears in the bottom of the contents panel. It appears to be the done by yet another artist. A search of the actual story shows that the contents drawing was swiped the first panel of page 4. It would seem to be a reasonable deduction that Joe Simon did the contents drawing. If that is true then he was not have been responsible for the penciling of the introduction story.

The possibility of Kirby ghosting another artist was brought up recently by Bob H. in a comment to All-Star Western #99. I do not know if what Jack did for FL #69 introduction story would properly be called ghosting. It was not a case of fooling the editor, Joe was also involved in copying Draut on the content page. Nor was Draut a regular artist recognized by the reading public. Harvey romances are all unsigned and the artist used for the feature story would change. This was just a case of trying to maintain visual continuity between the contents page and the feature story. Imitating another artist was not something Jack did very often. Although his Draut was not perfect, it was good enough to fool many.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 4, Prize Covers

Simon and Kirby always seem to put special effort into their covers. So it is on the covers that we are most likely to find the use of techniques such as picket fence or drop strings. In the last chapter we saw how in the Prize romance interior art these Studio Style methods disappeared by the end of 1956. What occurred on the covers was a bit more complicated.

Young Romance #80
Young Romance #80 (December 1955) pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The YR #80 cover was the first cover that Jack did upon returning to working on Prize romances. At first look one might believe that Kirby had immediately jumped into the Austere Style. Nowhere do we find any picket fence brush work and only a limited use of a drop string like technique. However the absence or limited use of these special brush work was probably due to how complicated the image was. Without the colors this becomes a difficult image to read. Because the surface was already so busy it would have been difficult to add picket fences. So the absence of picket fences can be misleading. What spotting there is more closely resembles the use in the Studio style. Later in this post I will present another cover truly done in the Austere inking which will highlight the difference between that style and what was done for YR #80.

Young Romance #81
Young Romance #81 (February 1956) restored line art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

YR #81 is an cover inked by Jack not long after his returned to working on the Prize romances. In the previous chapter I gave examples from the interior art of this same issue for both Studio and Austere style inking. The cover seems a good example of Studio style work. In fact if you did not know what was coming it would be easy to overlook the ways that it deviates from previous work in this style. The picket fence patterns are done every so slightly in a finer manner. Some of the spatulate cloth folds on the man’s shoulder seem more typical of the Austere style. Note how they just seem to attach themselves to fine ink lines almost like they were leaves. Also there are some fine form lines used in the man’s forearm. The entire image has a lighter look to it without being anywhere near as light as the true Austere inking. But I want to repeat that none of this would be particularly surprising except in view of what is to come.

Young Romance #82
Young Romance #82 (April 1956) restored line art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Jack’s next cover for Young Romance looks rather different from the standard Studio style. It has the overall lighter look typical of an Austere piece. Yes there are blacks but they have been concentrated on the young man at the center. Elsewhere most of the spotting is rather sparse. In many respects it is a good candidate for showing the evolution from Studio to Austere inking. But look at all the drop strings and picket fences. It is not their presence that is surprising is the fact that they are now done with much finer brushings. This is the start of what I am going to refer to as the Fine Studio style. It might not warrant a special designation if it was limited to these Prize romance covers. However we are going to encounter it again when Kirby begins freelancing with Atlas.

Young Love #71
Young Love #71 (June 1956) pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

About midway through the year, Jack provides a cover that can easily be said to be done in the Austere style. Note the lighter look and the simpler treatment of clothing folds. When blacks are used they tend to flood the area as in the jacket of the man or the woman’s blouse. The ink lines are so fine that I originally thought they were done using a pen. However I have seen the original art for this cover in Joe Simon’s collection and it shows that a brush was used. Note how the folds in the jacket of the man dancing on our left seem concentrated in the elbow and shoulder regions leaving the other areas of the arm relatively plain. Although a complicated image with lots of background figures, this cover still looks very typical of the Austere style. It makes a good contrast to the Studio style used on the cover for YR #80 that I showed in the start of this chapter.

Young Brides #29
Young Brides #29 (September 1956) restored line art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

This is excellent example of Jack Kirby’s Austere style in inking a cover. The over all image has a very light appearance. Black is used, here in the blouse and hat of the lady on our left, by flooding the area with ink. Some of the brush work looks like a modified drop string but are for the most part done in an overlapping manner forming a ragged line.

Once again I cannot restrain myself from commenting about the art. The cover shows some celebrity surprised while signing an autograph by a kiss from an adoring fan. Very charming. But you can still see the celebrity signing the autograph book. So how did the attractive lady get into his arms? Of course she could not if we tried to interpret this cover as if it was done by a camera. But this is not a photograph nor should it try to act like one. Although not logical as a frozen moment in time, this cover makes perfect sense when view as presenting a story. Had it been more logical the story would probably have been less clear.

Young Romance #84
Young Romance #84 (October 1956) pencils by Jack Kirby inks by Bill Draut

This serial post is about Kirby inking Kirby. Still during this year Jack did not ink all of his pencils. So I like to include examples of other inkers of his drawings. The above image of YR #84 looks like it was inked by Bill Draut. It is interesting to see how Draut’s inking also has the lighter quality present in the Austere Style. While Kirby’s pencils did not provide any guides to the spotting, it did indicate where things like clothing folds should be placed. The more limited use of such folds gives the image the lighter look. Spotting was still up to the inker as indicated by Draut’s different handling of the woman’s jacket.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 1, Introduction
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 2, Mainline
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 3, A Lot of Romance

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 5, Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 6, Atlas
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 7, DC
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 8, More Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 9, More Prize
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, A Checklist and a Glossary

other post with Kirby inking Kirby:

Strange Tale Indeed
Battleground, Jack Kirby’s Return to Atlas
Captain 3D

Joe Simon on CNN

I do not have cable so I knew I would not see Joe Simon’s appearance on CNN. But through the magic of YouTube I can now view it as can you.

The Black Rider Rides Again, And Again

Gunsmoke Western #47
Gunsmode Western #47 (July 1958) “Trouble In Leadville” page 1 pencils by Jack Kirby

Like “The Raiders Strike” in Gunsmoke Western #51 this Black Rider story with an “M” job number is probably inventory left over from before the Atlas Implosion. One reason that I have been reviewing some of Kirby’s work that might have been done before the Implosion is the hope of finding more examples of Kirby inking Kirby. Alas GW #47 is not inked by Jack but instead looks like the same inker as GW #51. I check Atlas Tales and they do not list the inker for GW #47. Because I forgot to do so in my previous post, I also check Atlas Tales for GW #51 and they list Dick Ayers as the inker. A check of GCD gives Ayers as the inker of both stories, but surprisingly says Dick also penciled “Trouble In Leadville”. Sigh, what can I say, the GCD is such a mixer of accurate and, in this case, widely off mark attributions. Anyway I really do not know enough about Ayers to voice an opinion on the inking attribution. Whoever the inker for GW #47, he did a good job and did not overwhelm Jack’s pencils. As with GW #51, I feel that inker’s more detailed style is a poor match for Kirby’s pencils. Jack’s pencils in these Black Rider stories are stylized and the inker’s style make the figures look somewhat freakish. It may seem odd to say the inker did a good job but a poor match for Kirby’s pencils. With Black Rider Rides Again #1 I felt that Kirby’s inks complimented his pencils. Jack’s pencils would suffer from any inker not following that style, which would be pretty much any other inker. That being the case the most one could expect is that at least the line inking be sensitive to Jack’s pencils.

In the very beginning of “Trouble In Leadville” the Black Rider is involved in a shoot out against a number of opponents. He proves too much for them and the ride away. We then find that he has saved Marie (the recurring female character) and her father from Dan Basset’s gang. The gang came asking a lot of questions about Leadville and became angry when the pair refused to answer. Suspicious that the gang was up to no good the Black Rider tries to go after them but the trail goes cold. But he asks Marie to go to the sheriff and warn him about the gang’s presence. Back in town and having resumed his identity as the local doctor, we find out the sheriff has left with a posse. Basset and his gang arrive to find the town is unprotected and make for the bank. But the doctor does a quick change to the Black Rider and saves the day.

I have to admit I am really not a big fan of these Black Rider stories. Of course Kirby’s art is nice but the stories themselves leave a lot to be desired. They seem very formalistic. The stories often seem to start with action where either the Black Rider prevents the bad guys from whatever they are doing but is unable to capture them, or the Black Rider arrives too late to and the bad guys are already gone. The Black Rider resumes his identity as the town doctor. Later when the bad guys show up, he dons his Black Rider outfit and almost effortlessly saves the day. The repetitive nature of the plots indicates to me that they were not by Kirby who, if anything, had an overly active imagination.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 3, A Lot of Romance

I coined the term Austere Style because in its purist form the inking is characterized by a lack of embellishments. However Kirby’s inking after the failure of the Mainline titles was not limited to an evolution into a simpler method of inking. Jack used other inking techniques as well. Although the title of this serial post is “Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking”, I will also be covering Kirby’s other inking styles. In an effort to keep this discussion from getting too confusion I will be divide the material with 1956 cover dates into three chapters. This one will concentrate on the interior art for the Prize romances. The next chapter will be about the Prize romance covers. Chapter 5 will be on work Jack did for Harvey.

It would be really nice to know when the S&K studio actually disbanded. I covered this issue in my End of Simon and Kirby serial post and I have not changed my beliefs. The earliest possible date for the end of the studio would be February 1955 (cover date) with the last publication by Mainline. The latest possible date would be December 1956 when Jack’s first freelance work was released. My preference would be shortly after October 1955 when the last S&K work was published by Charlton. If true this would mean all the work done by Jack during cover date 1956 was executed at home.

Once Jack began working in his own house I doubt finances would have allowed him to have an assistant. In theory Joe might have been available to do the line inking. But that would mean the art would have to go from Jack, to the letterer, to Joe and back to Jack. It would make much more sense for whoever did the spot inking to do the outline work as well. This would mean the work would have a single inker, very much like what was already typical in the industry.

Whatever the status of the S&K studio, from October 1955 until February 1956 Jack’s work would only be published by Prize and Harvey. While Mainline and Charlton titles were running Jack did not do any work for the Prize romance comics. Afterwards not only did Jack return to providing work for Young Romance, Young Love and Young Brides, he would pretty much draw the entire issues. This was unusual to say the least. Except for the first few issues of Young Romance, Jack would generally only provide the romances with one or two stories, sometimes none. For about the entire cover date for 1956 Jack would do 58 out of 65 stories and all the covers. The deal that Simon and Kirby had made with Prize was that S&K would pay all costs for producing the art in return for a share of the profits. By doing all the penciling himself, Kirby would save on overhead costs and therefore increase earnings. It is also possible that Jack was hoping to revitalize the Prize romance comics which seem to have been doing poorly. These are not mutually exclusive explanations.

Young Love #69
Young Love #69 (February 1956) “How’s The Family” page 1 splash panel pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The interior art for the Prize romances provides the most uncomplicated examples of the transition from the S&K Studio inking to the Austere Style. Early in the year there can be found a number of typical Studio inking. The splash panel from “How’s The Family” is a perfect example of the Studio Style. Lots of picket fence and drop strings and even a collar blot. Note the drapery along the top of the panel. Although providing a very dark tone it was made using very broad ink areas that still leave areas without ink. We shall see later that with the Austere inking this sort of dark areas will be more often made by completely flooding with ink. All of the standard Studio Style inking techniques combine to give the entire image a darker tone. The only hint of things to come is the handling of the drop strings. In this splash the drops are overlapped so as to construct a continuous line. This type of drop string was used previously but it was not then the predominant technique but it would become so in the future.

Young Love #69
Young Love #69 (February 1956) “Secrets Of The Girls Next Door” page 1 splash panel pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

This splash panel is from the same issue as “How’s The Family” and it provides another good example of the S&K Studio Style of inking. Note the use of elongated drop strings and also picket fence brush work on the sleeves of the lady on our left. Elsewhere there a typical spatulate and frond shaped clothing folds. There does seem to be a more sparing use of ink in the panel that gives the splash a lighter look. This is also typical of much of the inking early in 1956. But it is hard to place too much significance on this lightness because there was always some variation in the amount of ink used.

Young Romance #81
Young Romance 81 (February 1956) “A Match For Linda” panels from page 3 pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Much of the art from early in the year was done with S&K Studio inking. But there are also some work that begins to have a simpler and lighter look. “A Match For Linda” provides a good example of a lighter inking. In this case picket fence and drop strings are both abandoned throughout the story. The lightness of the first panel can be attributed to the fact that there is no background. While the second panel has a background very little spotting was applied to it.

Young Romance #81
Young Romance 81 (February 1956) “A Match For Linda” page 1 pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Bill Draut.

When I had previously discussed the inking of “A Match For Linda” in Chapter 5 of The End of Simon and Kirby I had concluded that Bill Draut had done the outline inking and Jack the spotting. I now realize that that is not quite correct. Bill Draut did the entire inking, both line and spotting, for pages 1 and 5. Jack seemed to have done all of the inking for pages 2 to 4. If you look at the cloth folding of the man in the splash page they are done in a manner quite unlike what Kirby was doing and more in line with Draut’s brush work. Draut’s cloth folds have a rough appearance because they show the remnants of closely spaced lines from which they developed. On the other hand the contours of Kirby’s cloth folds are smooth almost as if the ink was not brushed on but poured. YR #81 is one of the few issues with something not done by Kirby, “He Had Only Me” by Bill Draut. I suspect that when Bill dropped off his artwork, Jack gave him some inking to do. Because Jack was doing almost all the artwork for the Prize romances, artists like Draut who had previously provided work for those titles were probably happy to get any work from S&K that they could.

Young Brides #27
Young Brides #27 (March 1956) “Good Marriage” splash panel from page 1, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The “Good Marriage” splash is another example of progress made toward the Austere Style. So much so that it deserves to be called Austere rather then Studio Style. Without the picket fences, and with a limited use of drop strings the art has the lightness typical of this style. That is not to say that blacks were not present. When black areas are used they generally are done by flooding an area with ink, as for instance the ceiling in the above image.

I know that this serial post is about Jack’s inking technique but I just cannot pass this splash with a comment about the art in general. What a great composition, the way the three couples are placed serial across the panel with increasing depths. Kirby is renown for his exciting artwork, but this very simple panel shows that he could do very subtle art when he wanted. Jack was a master of providing just the correct amount of detail with faces in a crowd. Note how nicely Kirby gives each character with their own emotions using small nuances in their eyes, eyebrows and mouths. It is just things like this splash that make me appreciate Kirby inking Kirby. I am sure some of the magic qualities of this splash would have been lost under some other inker’s brush.

Young Romance #84
Your Romance #84 (October 1956) “Poison Ivy” from page 2 pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

By the time we get toward the end of the year pretty much all typical features of the Studio Style disappear. Everything now seems done in the Austere Style. The panel shown above from “Poison Ivy” is a great example. No drop strings or picket fences. The folds of the clothing are simple and the entire image looks light. Note the effective use of negative folds on his left arm. I believe that one of the reasons that Jack adopted this inking style was because it took less time. Well it might have speeded up the inking process but that by no ways means the art was rushed. What a great characterization Jack gives the soda-jerk here and throughout the story.

Young Romance #84
Your Romance #84 (October 1956) “Much Ado About Love” splash panel from page 1 pencils and inks by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon?

I am as confident as I can get about the inking attributions for the images I have provided in this chapter so far. I am not as sure about my last image the splash panel from “Much Ado About Love”. Most of the inking seems to be by Jack using simple and broad clothing folds. In contrast is the torso of the lady in the red dress where narrow folds prevail. There is not much to go on, but I believe the other inker was Joe Simon. I include this image because it is a good example of a change in the rendering of the folds on sleeves. Notice how there are a number of folds in the elbow region and again near the shoulder. The rest of the arm is plain without any folds, if you ignore the single longitudinal fold on the upper arm. This sort of arrangement of sleeve folds will become predominant. This may represent a adjustment in Jack’s penciling resulting from his new Austere inking.

I started this chapter with a splash that depicted drapery along the top of the panel. In conformity with the S&K Studio Style of inking that drapery was depicted with broadly inked folds that still left strips of “white”. A similar drapery is found on the top of “Much Ado About Love” only now the area is completely flooded with black and no folds are indicated. This is typical of the Austere Style. The interior art for the Prize romance comics provides a relatively simple progression from the Studio to the Austere inking. There is some variation but it all falls somewhere in the spectrum between the two styles. In the next chapter on the cover art for the Prize romances we shall see the influence of another style not hinted at in the interior art.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 1, Introduction
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 2, Mainline

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 4, Prize Covers
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 5, Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 6, Atlas
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 7, DC
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 8, More Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 9, More Prize
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, A Checklist and a Glossary

other post with Kirby inking Kirby:

Strange Tale Indeed
Battleground, Jack Kirby’s Return to Atlas
Captain 3D

Joe Simon to Appear on CNN

JOE SIMON – LIFE LESSONS, is scheduled to be on CNN Monday, April 16 at 10 am and 2 pm. The interview was conducted by CNN’s chief medical correspondant, so I assume it will be covering more then just the recent death of Captain America. At 93 Joe is still active and in good health. I know that they filmed Joe working on a Captain America piece so you might get a chance to see him at work. He still has very steady hands. They also know that they took Joe out for a visit to one of his old work places.

The Black Rider Rides Again, Again

Gunsmoke Western #51
Gunsmode Western #51 (march 1959) “The Raiders Strike” page 1 art by Jack Kirby

I recently posted on the Black Rider Rides Again #1 that Jack Kirby did for Atlas prior to the Implosion. I find this period fascinating because the work Jack did seems a mixture of material that he had a good deal of creative control and others which he did not. Jack’s efforts after the Implosion seem to me to decidedly fall in the latter category. Tom Lammers in his “Tales of the Implosion” discusses job numbers and the existence of an inventory of pre-Implosion work that was published after the Implosion. Among these are work with a job number starting with an “M”. This would include “The Raiders Strike” from Gunsmoke Western #51 (March 1959). Actually job numbers are not the only reason to believe that this story was pre-Implosion. Three Black Rider stories were published after the Implosion as back-up features. This is just the right number for a Black Rider Rides Again #2 but that title and did not survive the Implosion.

“The Raiders Strike” is very much like the older Black Rider stories. A gang of thieves rob the receipts from a county fair. The Black Rider is present and manages to wound one, but is without his horse so he cannot follow. Still he vows to recover the money. Resuming his secret identity as the local doctor he frets that since he has no lead he will be unable to fulfill his promise. Some of the thieves arrive and take the doctor at gun point to treat their wounded partner. The doctor is hit after he performs his services. When he recovers he pursues the gang as the Black Rider. He catches up with the thieves and of course recovers the money.

This is a repeated plot with the Black Rider wounding a villain, the doctor tending the wounds, followed by the Black Rider saving the day. In my opinion, the writing style does not sound like Kirby did it. That Jack probably was not the writer is not too surprising. I did not believe he was the scripter for the earlier stories either.

The big difference between this and the earlier Black Rider stories is that Kirby was not the inker. This inker provides a more detailed and realistic inking then Jack’s. Unfortunately I find it a poor marriage between the pencils and inks. Jack drew this Western and “No Man Can Outdraw Him” with a elongated figure style. This seemed quite interesting to me when inked by Jack’s more abstract Austere Style (the subject of a current serial post). This story’s more realistic inking sometimes makes the figures come off rather freakish looking. Still the inker was sensitive to many of Kirby’s nuances and he does not overwhelm the pencils.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 2, Mainline

In my last chapter I described the penciling and inking stages that the art went through in the Simon and Kirby studio. Now I would like to provide some examples of the S&K studio style of inking from when they were creating comics for Mainline, their own publishing company. This is the inking style from which Kirby’s Austere Style developed. Artistically, Simon and Kirby were at their peak. Jack’s penciling was bold and assured. Spotting, particularly when done by Kirby, had both nuanced and muscle. The development of the S&K shop style was probably greatly influenced by the poor printing processes used for comics at the time. Fine inking techniques such as the standard crosshatching could look great on the original art. Yet when these same fine inking was printed it often fail to fully print leaving the area unnaturally light. Or it might fill with ink resulting in large black splotches. But it would have to be a truly bad printing to completely ruin S&K shop inking.

Because I want to describe the evolution of Jack’s Austere Style, I want to provide examples that I believe Jack did the spotting. The rub is that there is not a single Simon and Kirby piece of art that provides credits identifying the inker. It is hard enough to recognize individual hands involved in the inking, how do you go about applying actual names to these hands? I have asked people who provide inking attributions for the S&K period how they got around this difficulty, but I have never received a good answer. One person seriously suggested using intuition!

Well here is my solution to this naming problem. In my last chapter I summarized why I believe Jack was the actual inker for the Austere Style. Working my way backwards from that style to earlier inking works I then picked out works that looked like they were done by the same hand. If I am correct to attribute the Austere Style to Jack, then I am probably also correct about the earlier work. I realize that my readers may not yet have a good idea of what the Austere Style is like but hopefully they will be the end of this serial post.

Bullseye #3
Bullseye #3 (December 1954) from “Devil Bird” page 5, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

One spotting technique frequently used in the S&K studio style is what I refer to as picket fence pattern. Two lines following a roughly (sometimes very roughly) parallel tract are connected by a series of more or less evenly spaced lines. The upper arm of the rifle holder in the image above shows what I mean. This inking technique is not too common outside of the S&K studio. But I have seen other artist use it as for example Will Eisner. Its use in the S&K studio style is unusual in the thickness of the lines used for the pickets.

Bullseye #3
Bullseye #3 (December 1954) from “Ghosts of Dead Center” page 1, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

A row of short dashes, or as I like to refer to them as a string of drops, is common in the studio inking. The size of the drops often varies along the string. As the size varies they occasionally become more like short lines then drops. Sometimes the string of drops is placed on top of a simple line and sometimes not. The Bullseye splash (see above image) provides good examples of some of these variations.

Police Trap #2
Police Trap #2 (November 1954) “Desk Sergeant” from the original art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

I wanted to provide another example of the studio style and its use of the techniques I have been describing. Generally inking was more elaborate when done for a cover or a full page splash. The inking for “Desk Sergeant” is, in my opinion, particularly nice. I just love the way the inking provides bold statements in the use of picket fence and drop strings brush work while still being very sensitive to facial features. Although I have been describing some of the brush patterns used in the S&K studio style it is important to remember that these were not restricted techniques. Note how some of the picket fences have one rail that is not a line but rather a drop string.

In my last chapter I provided an example of outline inking done with very uniform lines as if made by bending a wire. These simple lines could later be modified by adding thickness in parts. The outlines in “Desk Sergeant” are very variable but this was probably done that way right from the start. Note the sleeve in the area of the wrist in the man on our lower left. The outline disappears for short distances. Because there is no whiteout used, we can be sure this reflects the original state of the outline. The outline work so matches the rest of the inking that I believe Jack did both line and spot inking in this splash.

Police Trap #4
Police Trap #4 (March 1955) cover pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Picket fence and drop strings are not always used especially in the case of panel art. They are most effective when used on a large image such as a cover or a close-up in story art. Otherwise more simple inking patterns are used. The folds in clothing are variations of simple patterns. Many of the smaller folds are recorded as simple spatulate shapes. With an increase in size and length they assume a shape like the frond of a palm leaf. Or the spatulate form can be increased in size without lengthening to become a sort of rounded rectangle. The spatulate and frond shapes often bend slightly to suggest the form of the underlying figure. The above image from the cover for Police Trap #4 gives some good examples of spatulates, fronds and rectoids as well as showing how they morph into one another.

The Police Trap #4 cover also shows a technique that had become more frequent. This is the careful placement of a number of rectoids near one another leaving only small strips of white between. This is used to suggest the clothing folds in areas of shadow. The lower right leg of the man handing from the hock is a good example of this which I call negative folds.

Win A Prize #1
Win A Prize #1 (February 1955) from “That Giveaway Guy” page 2, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The above image of a close up from Win A Prize #1 provides further examples of both picket fences and drop strings. The shoulders of man on our left features another spotting technique which I think of as a collar blot. I “get” the picket fence and drop string, they are means of suggesting grays in a black and white world of pure ink. Similarly the spatulate and frond shapes are used to suggest the shadows cast be folds in the clothes. But I am not clear at just what the collar blot is meant to portray. Unlike the other brush methods, I have only seen the collar blot used in S&K productions. I refer to it as a blot, but actually it is not at all unusually for the shape to be formed by ink strips that are kind of like the pickets only wider leaving very narrow white strips in between.

Police Trap #6
Police Trap #6 (September 1955) from “Only The Guilty Run” page 1, pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Mort Meskin

All the examples that I have provided above are ones that I believe that Kirby did at least the spot inking. But I do not want to leave the impression that this inking style was used by Jack alone. I refer to it as the S&K studio style because it was used by other inkers as well when working on Kirby pencils. The image I provide above is from a half page splash panel. The pencils look like Kirby’s and I do not mean just the layouts. Even the fine details have Jack’s “fingerprints”. Look at the pointing hand of the of the man that yells “stop that man”. Although the faces look like they were drawn by Kirby they also suggest Mort Meskin, particularly the face of the running thief. I am sure Mort did the outline inking.

But what about the spot inking? A close examination of the spotting convinces me that it was not done by Kirby. The picket fence seems very meticulous while Jack’s usually has a more spontaneous feel. Some of the clothing folds are narrower then Jack would use for the same length. Also look at the use of negative folds on the left arm of the guy with the blue jacket. It is the same type of handling that the leg from the Police Trap #4 cover shown earlier. It is hard to put into words, but the “Only The Guilty Run” version does seems more mechanical and less convincing then those done by Kirby.

Having come to the conclusion that the spot inking was not done by Kirby I end up with that same problem of applying a name to that inking hand. I do not feel that this is the place to explore this matter nor have I conducted my own careful check. I will say that currently I suspect that the spotting was done by Mesking as well. The actual attribution of the spotter is not that important for this post. The point I am trying to make now with “Only The Guilty Run” is that the S&K studio style was not used solely by Jack.

Police Trap #6 was the last of the Simon and Kirby Mainline titles to be published. All the studio style of inking from this period is pretty consistent. This style continued afterwards, as for instance Western Tales #31 (October 1955) and #32 (March 1956). However starting in 1956 works appear where the inking style began to be change. This will be the subject of my next chapter.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 1, Introduction

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 3, A Lot of Romance
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 4, Prize Covers
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 5, Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 6, Atlas
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 7, DC
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 8, More Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 9, More Prize
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, A Checklist and a Glossary

other post with Kirby inking Kirby:

Strange Tale Indeed
Battleground, Jack Kirby’s Return to Atlas
Captain 3D

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 1, Introduction

Most of the work by Jack Kirby that people admire they only know second hand. They know Kirby inked by Dick Ayers, or Kirby inked by Joe Sinnott, or Kirby inked by Mike Royer, and so on. By its very nature this means we are seeing various artists’ interpretations of Kirby’s pencils. Even in his late years when Jack pencil’s provided indications of how the spotting should be done and inkers tried to be faithful to the pencils, it is still an inker’s interpretation. This is the state of affairs during Jack’s more recent career when he did extremely little inking.

Earlier, during the Simon and Kirby years, things were very different. Most, if not all, of the S&K studio artists inked their own work. The inking style for each artist seem unique and consistent. Most did not produce enough output to support heavy use of assistants. Mort Meskin was more prolific so perhaps he was an exception. However for Jack Kirby we have some eye witnesses such as Martin Thall who have reported group inking sessions at the S&K studio. Examinations of the finished product adds support to this because often different hands seem involved. However other observers such as Carmine Infantino have reported Kirby providing the final inking touches to his own work. Who inked what is often the subject of contentious debate since the comics do not provide credits and comic book experts rarely provide explanations for their attributions. Someday I may wade in with my own inking attributions, and even explain why, but this is not that day.

After the breakup of the S&K Studio Jack began to do freelance work. We find Kirby work published by DC, Atlas and Prize. Among the early freelance period I see some consistencies in the inking that indicate one hand at work, I think we can rule out Joe Simon since there is no evidence that he ever did any work at this time for DC or Atlas. Further the style is dissimilar to the inking found on some of Simon’s own work of the period. Nor does the inking style match that by artists who in the past did work for S&K such as Mort Meskin, Bill Draut or Marvin Stein. The spotting is done with enough talent that I think we can rule out some new, unknown inker. Besides which although at times Jack might have been doing enough penciling to support an inking assistant this changed. Kirby began to supply DC and Atlas with just penciled art with the publisher assigning the inking to others. After that this inking style only appears in Prize’s Young Romance and that was not enough work for Jack to support any inking help. My conclusion is that this inking style was Kirby doing his own inking. As such it provides a rare opportunity to see Kirby first hand.

I have mentioned this inking style previously. Once when I was discussing the break up of Simon and Kirby. Again more recently when I posted on The Black Rider Rides Again. I think it might be interesting to examine the evolution of this inking style. To do so I needed to give it some sort of designation. I thought of referring to it as Kirby’s late inking style but I suspect that is too confusing. The inking may be late in his inking career since it was the last style that Jack used while he still commonly had a hand in inking his own work. But Kirby had a long career and using a term such as “late” to describe a period that ended in 1959 just seems inappropriate. So I am going to call it Kirby’s Austere Style of inking because of its typical lack of embellishments.

To understand the development of the Austere Style is really helps to go back to what it evolved from. I think the best place to start is toward the end of the Simon and Kirby studio. But like an old adage, to tell that story I have to tell another story. I need to describe how inking of Kirby pencils was done in the S&K studio. This is a very different topic from who did the inking.

Pages of S&K art went through distinct stages. These stages are known because sometimes comics book titles were unexpectedly cancelled. When this happened work on future issues was already in progress. Work on any of these cancelled titles would immediately stopped no matter what stage it was in. Sometimes the art could be salvaged for other projects, but not always. Not a lot of these unfinished pages survived but what has tells a consistent story.

The first stage was, of course, the penciling. This included rough placement for the work balloons and captions. Some covers in this stage have been published in The Jack Kirby Collector. But the rough placing of balloons can be observed even when a page has advanced to further stages because it often was not completely erased.

Unpublished Boy Explorers
Boys Explorers (unpublished) art by Jack Kirby

Next the lettering was done along with inking of the word balloons and the panel borders. It is in this stage that most unfinished pages are found and it is the stage that I can provide an image. Note that Kirby’s pencils are still uninked. Jack’s drawing is pretty tight but he does not shown any indication of how blacks are to be arranged. Outlines are provided and the folds of the clothing is indicated by simple lines. On one hand the inker was given clear indications of where ink lines should be applied. On the other hand application of black areas, what is called spotting, was completely left up to the inker.

Unpublished Boy Explorers
Boys Explorers (unpublished) art by Jack Kirby

For the third stage line inking was done. Since for the most part Kirby’s pencils were tight this required little more then the ability to carefully follow Jack’s lines. This meant that finesse with the inking pen or brush was more important then artistic ability. I suspect that often the outline inking was done by studio assistants and after the studio breakup even by Kirby’s wife Roz. Sometimes there seems to have been no real attempt to adjust the width of the inked lines. In the example I provide above it is almost as if the outlines were made by bending wire. If the outline required any emphasis it could be introduced in the next stage. We shall see in the next chapter that a more artistic inking of the outlines would sometimes be done.

The final stage, known as spotting, supplied the blacks to the image. As remarked above there really was nothing in the pencils to indicate how this should be done. For good results a talented inker would be required. But it is a simplification to call this one stage. Particular spotting chores, such as foliage or backgrounds, could be assigned to different artists. However there did not seem to be any fixed procedure for how or by whom this was done. Jack, Joe or both could do the final touch ups.

S&K studio inking was a different thing altogether then how inking was handled in the Silver Age and beyond. Then the penciler’s work was handed over to another artist who would provide all the inking. Under such a system it makes sense to say a particular piece was drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by say Dick Ayers. Unfortunately people apply the same terminology to Simon and Kirby art. When they say a Kirby piece was inked by say Joe Simon what do they really mean? That the Joe did all the work, both outline and spotting? Or that he did just the spotting? Or could it be that Joe’s did some spotting along with others? Generally I try to be specific about what type of inking I am talking about.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 2, Mainline
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 3, A Lot of Romance
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 4, Prize Covers
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 5, Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 6, Atlas
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 7, DC
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 8, More Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 9, More Prize
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, A Checklist and a Glossary

other post with Kirby inking Kirby:

Strange Tale Indeed
Battleground, Jack Kirby’s Return to Atlas
Captain 3D