Allow me to share my adventure regarding a unique piece of Jack Kirby work from the early 1970s.
A while ago, I was digging through a number of 11″ by 17″ photocopies that Greg Theakston had gifted to the Museum for its archives. One photocopy of a pencil art panel page was just plain odd. It had no word balloons or sound effects, only rhyming captions along the top of each panel. All in Kirby’s hand, the lunar imagery evoked both cartoony fantasy and the Apollo moon landings.
I had no idea what this work was. Maybe Kirby was adapting something, so I Googled some of the key words, but got no hits. Asked some Kirby friends and scholars. Nothing.
Around the same time, James Romberger pointed out an anecdote by Alan Kupperberg about some Kirby space pages he saw Wallace Wood inking in the DC offices in the early 1970s. (Look in the bottom half of the article.) There, Alan mentioned the pages were for Michel Choquette’s 1960s project.
So I searched the web and found an email address for Michel, who didn’t respond to my query. No worries, who knows whether the address I found was active. I don’t know the timing of this next aspect of this story, but I did eventually find the first page of the story in a loose leaf binder of 8.5″ by 11″ photocopies the Museum also received from Greg. Later I learned through James again, I believe, that the Comics Journal was promoting an article by Bob Levin about Michel Choquette’s Someday Funnies project. I reached out to Bob, who put me in touch with Michel. A preview of the Kirby piece illustrated the Comics Journal 299 article.
Nevertheless, this was a moment when the stars aligned, as it were, something John Morrow has said happened to him many times producing the Jack Kirby Collector. Two unknown pieces – what is this mysterious photocopy? and what is that Choquette space piece that Alan Kupperberg saw Wally Wood ink? – the two mysteries merge to become one, but there’s one important difference. Michel, a man with meticulous records of his project, tells me that he paid Joe Sinnott to ink the pages.
So, I reached out to Alan and sent him details from one of the photocopies – he was sure he saw Wood ink those very pages. Maybe some photocopies or vellum were involved and there indeed was a Wood inked version, too.
Well, The Someday Funnies has just been published by the fine folk at Abrams Comicarts (who brought us Mark Evanier’s wonderful Kirby: King of Comics), and editor Charles Kochman generously gifted a copy to the Museum at NYCC. Charles mentioned that the Kirby originals exist. It would be interesting to see them (and scan them for our OADA, of course).
So what is this two page piece? Briefly, in 1965, Beardsley Bullfeather escapes earthly troubles and heads to the moon, where, alone, he dances across the moonscape, reads novels and drinks martinis. The later Apollo mission finds no evidence of him.
In the last panel of the first page, Kirby writes that Bullfeather expresses “emotions inspired by Ayn Rand!” as he exclaims, “Get yours!” in one of only three word balloons in the piece.
Could Kirby’s poetic comic book vignette be a comment on Ditko having left Martin Goodman and Stan Lee’s Marvel five years before Kirby? Ditko’s last Spider-man comic was cover dated July 1966. My understanding is that this would mean the comic was on the stands in May, with Ditko’s work taking place in March or so. It makes sense to me that 1965 would have been a serious breaking point between Ditko and Goodman and Lee. I’m concerned that this is an insular comic book take on the piece, but, nevertheless, with Funky Flashman as my witness, I offer it for your consideration.
After having compared the pencil work with the published work, I discovered significant changes to the captions (see the scans illustrating this piece). Kirby isn’t known as someone who revised his work once it left his board. Also, the book’s endpaper collage includes an apologetic note from Kirby. More mysteries afoot.
Absolutely fascinating find Rand. So apparently the version in the book has a completely different text? Or is it just the one panel you showed?
Reads like a poem. Here’s a transcript.
Bullfeather Or Tune in–Cop-Out. And Drop Up
In Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-Five.
The World was lucky to be alive.
Mid shot, and shell, and protest hell,
Beardsley Bullfeather left that hell.
Past Sputnik, and Lunik, and Echo, and Telestar,
Past all Earthly drama that got out of hand…
Lone Beardsley had made it beyond all expectations,
And gave vent to emotions inspired by Ayn Rand, “Get yours!”
By superior, practical fiscal ability…
Above the disturbance that troubles the soul…
Go to the satellite asleep in it’s vacuum…
Bask in the silence of each gaping hole…
Then Moonwalk, and skim past the gritty horizons…
Dance in the Earthlight that shines so serene…
See it glisten on novels, and cooling martinis.
As time dims the vision of blood on the green.
By Virtue of “Apollo” that project most vaunted.
The trip that came later found nothing upon,
That gray lifeless surface to betray a lost presence.
Bullfeather, his soul, and the Sixties, had gone.
Who steps across history?
Whose mark stamps the years?
Whose image leaps forward, and the disappears?
Who lives and who dies in the turbulent scheme?
The questions grow moot, as facts fade into dreams.
Found a few blips in your transcript, Pat, so I’m re-presenting it here, as well as that of the published version
In pencil:
(“The Ballad of Beardsley” cropped off of photocopy)
Bullfeather Or
Tune in! — Cop-Out! And
Drop-Up!
BEARDSLEY: “FAR OUT!”
In nineteen hundred and sixty-five,
The world was lucky to be alive…
Mid shot and shell and protest yell,
Beardsley Bullfeather left that hell!
BEARDSLEY: “PISH AND TUSH TO ALL THAT SLUSH!”
Past Sputnik, and Lunik, and Echo, and Telestar,
Past all Earthly dramas that got out of hand…
Lone Beardsley had made it beyond all expectations…
And, gave vent to emotions inspired by Ayn Rand!
BEARDSLEY: “GET YOURS!”
(Illegible) by superior, practical fiscal ability…
Above the disturbance that troubles the soul…
Go to the satellite asleep in it’s vaccuum…
Bask in the silence of each gaping hole…
Then “Moonwalk” and skim ‘cross the gritty horizons…
Dance in the Earthlight that shines so serene…
See it glisten on novels and cooling martinis
As, time, dims the vision of blood on the green..
By virtue of “Apollo”, that project most vaunted,
The trip that came later, found nothing upon,
That gray, lifeless surface, to betray a lost presence.
Bullfeather, his soul, and the Sixties, had gone.
Who steps across history? Who’s mark stamps the years?
Whose image leaps forward and then disappears?
Who lives and who dies in the turbulent scheme?
The questions grow moot as fact fades into dream…
As published:
The Ballad of Beardsley Bullfeather
or
Tune In — Cop Out and
Drop-Up!
BEARDSLEY: “FAR OUT!”
In nineteen hundred and sixty-five,
When the world was lucky to be alive,
Though middle-aged and far from hip
Beardsley Bullfeather took a trip.
BEARDSLEY: “PISH AND TISH TO ALL THAT SLUSH!”
Past Sputnik and Lunik and Telstar and Echo
The rocket Bullfeather alone built and manned
Flew him free of the laws of both Newton and Congress
To indulge in emotions inspired by Ayn Rand.
BEARDSLEY: “GET YOURS!”
“So ‘do-it-yourself’ and a little ambition
Pay off in the end!” chuckles Beardsley, and soon
Lands his ship, his visage as calm
As the smile on the face of the Man in the Moon.
He moonwalks and skims ‘cross the gritty horizons
And dances by earthlight that shines so serene
By its glow he reads novels and sips cool martinis
As time dims his visions of blood on the green
Apollo explorers, as might be expected,
Found boulders and pebbles, no trace upon
That gray lifeless surface of Beardsley Bullfeather.
His skeleton, soul, and the sixties were gone
Who steps into history? What’s in a name?
If a plot has a hero, who stars in a scheme?
Does it matter whose footprint officially marks
The start of an era, the end of a dream?
I just took a look at Someday Funnies at Strand here in NYC and I have to say that the best of Kirby’s work is here on this site. His pencils are lovely and by the time Joe Sinnott inked the pages, he no longer understood how to ink Jack. The cartooniness of Kirby’s late style threw him completely, ergo the pencil version is more aesthetically satisfying not to mention being a more pure pre-rewrite version. The worst is that the printed version is colored garishly, in fact the entire book is colored very nastily in a way that recalls the ugly comics reprints of the 1970s or maybe the Boy’s Ranch volume that Marvel did. I’m sure the colorist did their best but the package itself is, um, tacky— why someone would feel that Vaughn Bode’s work should be colored by someone other than Bode, for instance, is a mystery…and the design is hodgepodge. For instance there are lots of little sketches, like faux-Aragones marginalia cartoons, but these are actually inserted into people’s art, such as in panel 2 of the first page of Kirby’s contribution, there is a doodle inserted into a bit of white space Kirby left, as if the “real estate” of the page needed to be filled up. Yuck.
Wait a minute, the guy from the Times Square Two? Man, they were great! I just never knew their names, so I had no reason to associate one of them with the Lampoon et al. The idea there’s a connection between my favorite obscure neo-vaudevillean musical acts and a newly uncovered Kirby work is the sort of thing that probably should surprise me anymore, but does…
Of course I mean to say, “it probably shouldn’t surprise me anymore.” (Neither should typos and grammatical errors in comments made at one in the morning while under the influence of cold medicine…)
I fell bad about beating on the coloring. Perhaps it is less about the actual color than how it is printed—the harsh solid colors printed on super slick paper may be what gives it that gad seventies look. Then, I often think that most comics were never intended to be printed as if they were a Tiffany’s catalog. Holding lines themselves were developed for shitty newsprint runs which were often off-register. These type of super slick printing jobs on paper made of the pulp of the rarest of trees will no doubt last a lot longer than their bindings will, but they also make it so the wonderful books coming out are all so expensive that only the top 1%ers can afford them.
Just amazing. Thanks!
James, an introduction notes that Choquette asked many of the artists to provide space for “continuity drawings” – although he had no idea what would end up there. So it was part of a plan, not an after-the-fact “must fill this space” compulsion.