Day Two: The “New” Newsboy Legion!

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Posted in Day Entries, Earth, Heroes, Jimmy Olsen #133, Supporting Characters.

Jacob Kurtzberg (the birth name of Jack “The King” Kirby) grew up in the rough ’n’ tumble streets of New York City’s Lower East Side, living a hard-scrabble childhood where kids survived by their wits and fists. The ghetto was rife with real-life gangsters and kid gangs, and (as seen in Jack’s superb autobiographical tale, “Street Code” [remastered in Streetwise, co-edited by yours truly and John Morrow, esteemed TJKC editor/publisher]) life was anything but idyllic. Perhaps the two most idolized local sons were, tellingly, Hollywood actor James “Public Enemy” Cagney and real-life hoodlum Charles “Lucky” Luciano (considered the “father” of organized crime). Early on, Jake was determined to flee the ghetto and to pursue life as an artist by any means necessary. His dream was one of escape.

Kid gangs were most often distinguished by ethnicity, with an Italian crew on one block, a band of Irish punks on another, but certain areas were often mixed, where Jews mixed with Irish and Italian families. The common bond that cut across all types was living in poverty. In 1935, when Jake was in his late teens, the play Dead End by Sidney Kingsley premiered on Broadway and, within two years, the social commentary was adapted as a Hollywood movie. Dead End was a scathing indictment of East Side poverty and, of interest to us, it featured a group of teenage boys who would be immediately designated as “The Dead End Kids.” The gang appeared in seven Warner Brothers movies (including the Cagney vehicle Angels With Dirty Faces) and, remarkably, were spun off in three other film series, The East Side Kids (21 movies), Tough Little Guys (12 movies, three 12-chapter serials), and The Bowery Boys (an astounding 48 movies, called by Wikipedia, “the longest feature-film series in motion picture history,” a run that ended in 1958). Kid gangs were obviously a Hollywood sensation.

Leave it to Simon & Kirby to adapt the movie genre to the medium as, fresh from creating Captain America, the renowned team originated the first kid gang in comics, The Young Allies, a group which included a pugnacious streetfighter, a genius boy inventor, a chubby boy, a token (and reprehensible racial stereotype) black kid, and two super-hero sidekicks, Cap’s Bucky Barnes and the Human Torch’s Toro. The first issue of their same-named title [cover date Summer 1941] was an immediate hit and S&K had another notch on their creative belt. Naturally, upon their move to National (DC) Comics, they would immediately establish two new kid gangs, The Boy Commandos and The Newsboy Legion.

The original Newsboy Legion first appeared in Star Spangled Comics #7 [cover date Apr. ’42] and their turf was Metropolis’s “Suicide Slum,” the same beat as young police officer Jim Harper, a do-gooder determined to improve the lives of the ghetto kids. The gang was a somewhat stereotypical bunch, mostly derived from Hollywood clichés: Scrapper, pretty much the crew’s leader, was the back-alley brawler, complete with prerequisite Brooklyn accent; Tommy, the nondescript good-looking, level-headed All-American teenager; Big Words, the bespectacled genius with overblown vocabulary; and Gabby, little tough guy with endless big talk. The lads, each one an orphan, hawked newspapers for a living and, of course, were embroiled in an endless string of crime-fighting adventures, told with the indomitable S&K gusto and verve. (We’ll leave a description of their illustrious co-star, The Guardian, and that vigilante’s relationship with rookie cop Harper, for the appropriate future entry.)

The original Newsboy Legion would sell their last edition in 1947 [SSC #64, Jan.] and be all but forgotten until…

Perhaps Jack recalled the ’40s kid gang had lived in the same city as Superman — that metropolis called, umm, Metropolis — when planning his run on Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (reportedly one of DC’s lowest-selling titles at that time), with the intention to (of course) dramatically reverse the title’s fortunes. [VERY important to note, as Mike Hill notes in a reply, whether low-selling or not, as Mark Evanier points out in the JK4WO v.1 Afterword, Jack’s motivation for choosing JO was because there was no regular creative team assigned to the title and the King was loathe to push anyone out of a regular gig.] (It is difficult, sometimes, to imagine Jack planning anything as he seemed to approach the drawing table and spontaneously unleash his incredible imagination onto Bristol board, just allowing the epic to flow from his pencil unrestrained… like his characters, taking the adventure as it comes.) Assuredly he had affection for the group as he featured them as permanent co-stars in his debut effort at DC in 1970… well, not “them” exactly:

I guess the “introducing” blurb on JO #133’s cover was technically correct (though I’m still wary), as this ’70s version of the Newsboy Legion actually was comprised of (excepting one new addition) the sons of the original group, but they looked and acted precisely like their namesakes (albeit with “junior” attached to each name). The new member? Well, one might dismiss “Flipper Dipper” (or is it “Flippa Dippa”?) as a token black character but, whatever, the youthful frogman was a typically wonky Kirby concept: delightfully idiosyncratic and not without charm. When Jack got weird, he did it like he did everything else: He got weird in a big way!

(Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman’s text page, “The Newsboy Legion Returns” (JO #141) says there was a change made between Golden-Age character and Bronze-Age counterpart: “Gabby [Jr.]’s face has been slightly altered so that he no longer resembles a youthful version of President [Richard M.] Nixon, who had not yet entered public life when [the original] Gabby was designed.”)

The “new” Newsboy Legion are out to make news themselves, as they enlist Jimmy Olsen’s help to explore the “Wild Area,” to fly into a danger zone in the Big Words-designed “Whiz Wagon” [see Day One post]. Join us tomorrow as we focus on J.O.’s duplicitous new employer, Morgan Edge and his Galaxy Broadcast System! It’ll be, as James puts it, “Garooveee!”

Day One: The Whiz Wagon!

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Posted in Day Entries, Earth, Jimmy Olsen #133, Vehicles.

The Whiz Wagon is the super-cool, silver-coated, flying (sporting vertical-takeoff capability), TV camera-mounted “Miracle Car” designed by Newsboy Legionnaire Big-Words and piloted by Superman’s pal, Jimmy Olsen for much of Jack’s run on the title [#133-139, 141-148]. It sure looks like the “Hot Wheels” vehicle of the dreams of many a kid… Remember, Jack made up his own real version out of Matchbox toys for use in the photo collages in subsequent issues of JO.

The comics creator is firing on all cylinders with his futuristic vehicle, finally giving the non-super-hero cub reporter some stylish wheels, which we learn in this issue is financed by the suspicious new owner of The Daily Planet, media mogul Morgan Edge (who is also — gasp! — an agent for the evil Darkseid, dastardly ruler of Apokolips), with a nefarious intention!

Let’s hear from the creator himself, in the JO #134 text page essay, “The Whiz Wagons Are Coming!” excerpt following:

“…The age of the multi-purpose vehicle is rapidly ‘fleshing out’ — and not even the sky can be termed as the limit. Add enough accessories to the average car and it would take you anywhere, to the submerged canyons off the Continental Shelf or outwards to the ‘deeps’ of space. This would take heaps of money to accomplish, at present, fanatical dedication on temper-tantrum level, and the readiness of universal acceptance.

“Nobody owns a Whiz Wagon yet. But we’ve got a proxy model at National Periodicals [DC Comics] and it’s being tested by young, enthusiastic superstars like Jimmy Olsen and the Newsboy Legion. The ‘miracle’ car is real in their realm and they’re having a wild, wild whirl at it. It’s an experience in true projection. Each successive story situation becomes another hurdle for the Whiz Wagon to overcome its spectacular drive towards eventual reality. It is bound to enrich us in some manner, whether we wreck the consarn multi-gadget or refine it to function in the most extreme conditions. The idea is to theorize, analyze, explore and modify, accept or reject a variety of materials, create the schematics and fluid designs which change in many intricate ways to satisfy our individual vision of what a Whiz Wagon should be.

“After all, it is part of man’s dream to do whatever he lawfully wishes, to go wherever his fancy takes him, to enjoy an unfettered freedom he cannot yet experience.

“We invite your involvement with the Whiz Wagon. What the heck, the professional engineers will produce it in time, but it won’t look as groovy as ours. Not if we have a kind of ‘Create-In,’ take what we know about anything which is relative to the subject, pour it into practical channels, and zero in on the developing image.

“At worst, the results will certainly separate the pragmatists from the visionaries. At best, there will be something in your effort that the next individual can use. something he didn’t think about, something which could open up newer, wider, constructive avenues.

“At present, the Whiz Wagon is no more than life in search of stimulating ZONK and ZAP. It may be its happiest stage. There are no standard models. Each individual has the opportunity to ‘roll his own.’

“National’s Whiz Wagon was designed by myself, put through some wild initial paces on a ‘Hairie’ Zoomway specifically created for that purpose. […]

“But the point is that with each successive test of the National Whiz Wagon, a newer and greater experience for the reader must materialize from it. It’s a kind of ‘Kirby’s Law,’ if you will: label it best as the ‘Super-bonus Effect.’ In real life, the principle would still hold. The multi-purpose vehicle must produce the multi-effectual experience. If you have a car which can tunnel its way to the center of the Earth, the Super-bonus Effect must ensue. The trip will far from parallel a drive through Main Street.

“At this junction, we must eternally pause, for the eternal wiseacre to counter with the quixotic: ‘After the Whiz Wagon, — what?’ And the answer is, ‘That’s all there is’ — unless you find the roads you can’t see — listen for the traffic you can’t hear — and take all the turns not shown on the map. Take a positive step in any of these directions — and you’ve got a brand new Whiz Wagon!”

Seats six and is equipped with magnetic repulsion and the GPS-like Computi-Pilot, but I’m betting the mileage is awful… and, please, no trying to “roll your own” while driving, as you need to stay alert and keep your eyes on the Zoomway!

Tomorrow: The “New” Newsboy Legion!

Forty Years of the Fourth World

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Posted in Bonus, Introduction.

Welcome to Jon B. Cooke’s attempt at a year-long blog on (in this writer’s humble opinion) the greatest of Jack Kirby’s creations, the Fourth World, which debuted in the summer of 1970 with the release of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 [cover dated Oct. 1970]. I initially began this project in late September, on the Facebook “community page,” 365 Days of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, and Kirby Museum head honcho Rand Hoppe asked me to share it with all Kirbyheads, so here I am!

As prologue, let me tell you who I am and about my intentions. I am former associate editor of The Jack Kirby Collector, editor of Comic Book Artist magazine, and author/editor/designer of a number of books on the history of American sequential art. I am also co-producer and writer of a full-length feature film documentary, Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist (now available on DVD and Blu-ray! End of plug), and, by day, a graphic designer, husband and father (at night, things change…).

It was picking up JO #133 in a London newsagent shop — I was likely 12, as it was no doubt a few months after its U.S. release — when I instantaneously changed from a comic book reader to a full-fledged “All In Color For a Dime (and a Half)” fanatic. Quite truthfully, my young mind was blown away with the riot of concepts and unhinged energy  exploding from those pages. Up to then I liked the rather sedate and non-threatening style of Mort Weisinger’s line of Superman family titles, as well as Classics Illustrated, Dennis the Menace, various Gold Key titles, and Harvey Comics. The stories they featured were pat, self-contained, geared for children and, well, safe. The Marvel Comics my oldest brother Richie so avidly had collected in the 1960s, were threatening and grotesque to me and, frankly, I despised the “To Be Hulk-inued,” multiple-issue story lines. The Kirby and Ditko art wasn’t slick like Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson (the “Swanderson” team, my faves at the time and just ascending as the official art pairing (Swan pencils, Anderson inks) on the revamped Superman)… Jack and Steve’s work was gritty, bombastic and strange…

(I confess that I did, a few years earlier, pick up an issue of Captain America #108 when it was on the stands and, for some reason, I distinctly recall the day: drinking a bottle of Coke, chewing on Carmel Creams, and picking out that issue by Jack Kirby, with Cap smashing through the Dec. 8, 1941, newspaper front page… that was impressive…)

Before JO #133, blurbs appeared in the DC Books: “Kirby is Coming!” and I honestly had no idea what or who Kirby was. (I was vaguely familiar with his work, but I pretty much found it… I dunno… vulgar or mildly distasteful, and I didn’t link his name to the work.) But, as my interest in the Superman books was on the rise, and I was getting excited  because of the hype. My younger brother, Andy, and I, were on a year-long visit to Europe with our mom, and comics were becoming an important touchstone to help ease the tinge of homesickness we’d have. We were starting to draw and create our own comics (Andy had Mighty Boy and I had Atomic Man), so we avidly read and started to collect American (as well as the British weekly) comics.

So then came that spectacular orange cover of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133. Like I said, it had a profound effect on me, and I was instantaneously hooked. Obviously, I will pontificate at length about why I think the Fourth World is so resonant, thus suffice to say I remain, at 51, as enthusiastic and appreciative of Jack’s magnum opus as I was as a snotty 12-year-old.

My thesis, this blog’s raison d’etre, is to attempt to confirm my suspicion that there are enough unique characters, concepts, notions, etc., to respectively discuss for 365 days, one Kirby Fourth World Koncept, one day at a time. I’ll probably stretch it out by including a synopsis for each issue, but I probably won’t do that to start.

I will be primarily be using the actual comics as canon, aided and abetted by DC Comics’ spectacular four-volume Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, maybe with limited outside research to start. (I tend to get anal about passions like this, so my delving beyond the actual comics might increase… we’ll see.) I intend to go pretty much page-by-page, zeroing in on the subjects as they come.

I hope 365 Days of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World will generate interest and discussion. I remain in awe of the subject and am still somewhat uncertain exactly why the epic continues to retain such a grip on both my intellect and my id… maybe, with a very close reading of the original series and daily scribing about the subject, I’ll finally get an inkling. Maybe that doesn’t matter. Whatever the outcome, I’m betting this will be a fun drive… Please, buckle up, and come along!

Before I go, just one more thing: As mentioned, I started this examination on a Facebook community page with the same name as our blog. Since I’ve initiated that a few days before starting this Kirby Museum blog, those entries will be unpolished first drafts and, time permitting, I will try to refine and expand them here as needed.

All strapped into the Whiz Wagon? Well, then, off to the Zoomway!