Below are scans of three OMAC pencil art photocopies in our holdings. I can’t recall this first piece ever having been printed, presented or mentioned anywhere before: It’s become a favorite of mine, and I dream that the original pencil art piece will be found, to be scanned for the OADA. Also, we have photocopies of Kirby’s OMAC presentation from 1973.

OMAC pinup pencil art photocopy

1973 – OMAC presentation page 1 pencil art photocopy

1973 – OMAC presentation page 2 pencil art photocopy

There are quite few more scans of OMAC pencil art photocopies in our Gallery.

Also included in the exhibits for the Marvel Worldwide, Inc. et al v. Kirby et al legal proceedings is a scan of an unused page of Kirby Fantastic Four art. This looks like an unused page from “The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man!” – first published in Marvel Comics’ October 1964 Fantastic Four 31 – where Sue Storm finds out her father has escaped from jail and visits him without revealing she is his daughter.

1964 – Fantastic Four 31 unused pencil art

Up till now, three pages were known, which were presented in TwoMorrows’ Fall 2004 The Jack Kirby Collector 41.

John Morrow’s TJKC 41 article stated that the pages were “in Larry Lieber’s closet all these years.” Interestingly, all five Hulk pages are included in a filing that includes Larry Lieber’s testimony for the Marvel Worldwide, Inc. et al v. Kirby et al legal proceedings.

1962 – Newly discovered Hulk 6 unused page 8 pencil art

1962 – Newly discovered Hulk 6 unused page 9 pencil art

1962 – Hulk 6 unused page 11 pencil art

1962 – Hulk 6 unused page 12 pencil art

1962 – Hulk 6 unused page 13 pencil art

In his testimony, Larry says:

“… Jack Kirby came out of Stan’s office from — and from the direction of Stan’s office. He may, probably, he had come out of Stan’s office, and he seemed upset. And he took the drawings, he had these drawings, he took them and he tore them in half and he threw them in a trash can, a large trash can.

“And I, since I was such a big fan of his, I knew that at the end of the day, they would be discarded, you know, and would be trash. And I — I saw it as an opportunity to have some of his originals to keep, to look at and study, and so I took them out of the trash can.

“And there were other people in the office, but nobody else seemed to have noticed this, which I was glad about, and I just took them, walked over to where I was sitting and put them in my case. And I took them home and I taped them together, you know, I taped them all, and I kept them and I’ve kept them all these years to look at them and, as I say, to study them.”

The two “new” pages appear to be numbered pages 8 & 9, leaving page 10 unaccounted for in the sequence. John Morrow wonders if it was a Hulk-only page that was used in a subsequently published story.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to scan these pages for our Original Art Digital Archive.

Thanks to John Morrow, the eagle eye of Glen David Gold, and the quick-thinking Larry Lieber!

Thanks to the generosity of designer Alex Jay, the Kirby Museum now has a copy of Ragnarok 2 in its collection.

1972 New York Comic Art Convention – Joe Sinnott and Jack Kirby

1972 New York Comic Art Convention – Jack Kirby and Mr. Miracle cosplayer

1972 – Ragnarok 2 cover

Among other features, this fanzine contains Tom Fagan’s review of the 1972 New York Comicart Convention, which Jack Kirby attended, with accompanying photos.

Click here to view Ragnarok 2(17 M pdf)

Ragnarok 2. Publisher – Mark Collins: Orange, New Jersey, USA.

I recently came across this one-sheet in my personal files, in a folder called “Kirby Interview” – from 1992 when Andrew Mayer and I interviewed Jack Kirby at the San Diego Comic-Con.

1992 – The Unpublished Works Of Jack Kirby one-sheet

The lithographs are featured in Jim Cardillo’s gallery at Comic Art Fans.

Inspired by some of the recent activity on Jon B. Cooke’s blog, 365 days of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, here are some pieces related to the cover of the first issue of The Forever People.

First is a photostat of Kirby’s pencil art with a logo. This photostat was gifted to the Museum by Greg Theakston.

Second is the inked original art that was scanned at New York Comic Con 2010 thanks to Joe and Nadia Mannarino as part of the Museum’s Original Art Digital Archive project. The Forever People’s figures are on a separate piece of paper that has been glued onto a larger piece with an added Superman. Frank Giacoia inked the piece. If you are registered at the What If Kirby website, you can zoom in to see more details of this piece.

Note that Big Bear’s mustache, which Kirby indicated in the pencils, is not inked. Super City also became Super Town.

1972 – Forever People 1 cover pencil art photostat

1972 – Forever People 1 cover original art

Comparison of Big Bear’s face between Kirby’s pencil art and Giacoia’s ink art

1971 – Forever People 1 cover color guide

1972 – Forever People 1 cover

1999 – Jack Kirby’s Forever People – trade paperback cover

Third is the color guide taken from the recent Jack Kirby Collector 55, where John Morrow notes that since this was from Kirby’s files, Kirby would have done the color work.

Fourth is the printed cover. Although dated March on the cover, the interior indicia state February-March 1971; this comicbook was on the stands in November or December 1970, with Kirby and DC doing most of the production a month or two before that.

Last is the cover to 1999’s “Jack Kirby’s Forever People” trade paperback, with color and a different Beautiful Dreamer by Digital Chameleon.

I would love to present more iterations of this Kirby-Giacoia artwork. If you have editions in other languages, or any version with notable production differences, please contact me at rhoppe@kirbymuseum.org, and I’ll add them to this entry.

– Rand HOPPE

A photocopy of pencil art.

11″ by 17″

Kamandi In Yoke At Sacker’s pencil art photocopy

Well, this may be the only long-form capture of Jack Kirby drawing.

A little blurry, but still a treasure. Enjoy.

Jack Kirby was known for many things but one of the more obscure is his unique sense of color. This is in evidence in the artwork he is known to have hand colored, presentation pieces and personal work.

2010 – Kirby color palate by Steven Brower

He is also known to have provided color guides to printers for various covers, which also feature the same idiosyncratic range of colors. In question are myriad other covers and interiors that feature the same limited range, but there is no way of verifying his hand.

Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to create a Kirby color palette. I’ve created palettes like this when I’ve redesigned magazines and illustrator friends have their own. I only used as a guide known Kirby colored personal and presentation pieces. Kirby uses a pretty limited color palate, comprised mostly of secondary and some tertiary colors. The absence of primary colors makes me wonder if his approach wasn’t a reaction to the limitations of the CMYK comic book printing, where so many primaries were used.

I started with scanned art and then compared it to printed pieces. There would be a range within a tone, and I picked the middle hue. I was able to boil it all down to 36 colors, although if pushed I think it could be reduced further.

This could be used as a reference guide when trying to discern if something might be colored by Kirby. However one would need to explore whether anyone else at the time used a similar color palette. It also offers yet another aspect of what made Jack unique.

—Steven Brower
http://stevenbrowerdesign.wordpress.com/

Index by Kenn THOMAS

Amash, Jim, 59
Animal Hospital, 109-110
Animation, 104-112
Argentina, 138
Australia, 130
Battle For A Three Dimensional World, 114
Belly dancer, 59
Black Hole, 96-97
Boyd, Jerry, 59
Brazil, 138-139
Byrne, John, 128-129
Captain Marvel, 62-63
Captain Nice, 86
Caputo, Nick, 60, 117
Carson, Johnny, 114
Comic-Con International Kirby Panel (7/6/96), 144-153
Conan, 19
Crimson Tide movie reference, 114
Dark Water, 111
Demon sketch (last DC work), 28
Destroyer Duck, 72-75
Disneyland comic convention, early 70s, 80
Doctor Mortalis, 11113
Dorf, Shel, 46, 48
Earl the Rabbitt, 37
Empire Pictures, 112-113
England, 124
Evanier, Mark, 144-153
Fantastic Four (animated) 104-106
Fighting American, 35, 36, 64, 65
Fleisher cartoons, 112
Fleming, Glenn B., (British fan), 6-34, 25, 29, 30
Forever Amore, 115, 119
France, 154-158
From Here To Insanity, 37, 38
Geller, Ira, 98-103
Gerber, Steve, 72-75
Germany, 140
Goldie Gold and Action Jack, 107-108
Goozlebobber, 38
Greece, 143
Green Hornet, 80
Hamilton, Richard, 67
Harper, Chris, 127
Hawkman, 111
Hippies in Thor, 61
Holland, 141
Humor, 35-77
Incredible Hulk TV show appearance, 114
Ireland, 126
Italian interview, 121-123
Italy, 121-123, 32-137 143
Jack Kirby Quarterly, 127
Jack Kirby: The Unpublished Archives (trading cards), 110-111
Joshua at the Walls of Jericho, 20
Kirby, Roz, 40-51
Kubrick, Stanley, 90
Langridge, Roger, 126
Lichtenstein, Roy, 67
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (reference), 114
Lone Ranger, 55
Lords of Light, 19, 98103
Lockjaw (alligator), 53
Lucca, Italy, 121-123, 132- 137
Malaysia, 142
Mattel Game Cards, 55
May, Harold, 58
Merry Marvel Marching Society, 76
Mind Master, 112-113
Modern sculpture, 66
Moses, 20
Morrisey, Rich, 117
Morrow, Pamela, 5
My Date, 52
Not Brand Echh, 70-71
Patsy and Hedy (cameo), 63
Phillipines, 143
Picasso, 67
Pop Art, 67
Popeye, 112
Portugal, 143
Princess of Power, 111
Prisoner, 8-9, 91-95
Punch and Judy, 53
Rickels, Goody, 39, 48, 49
Ruby-Spears, 108-111
Rude, Steve, 117, 159
Scotland, 125
Shaw!, Scott, 37-39, 59-60
Sherman, Steve, 60-61, 85
Silver Star, 85
Singapore, 142-143
Sinnott, Joe, 117
Spain, 141
Sports, 68-69, 77
Spurlock, David, 144-153
Star Wars (compared to New Gods), 87-89
Starman Zero, 85
Stern, Roger, 144-153
Stuntman, 78-84
Super Friends, 107
Superman, 55-57
Tarantino, Quention, 114
Tarzan, 55
Taylor, Stanm, 118
Thundarr the Barbarian, 34, 106-111
Tiger 21, 85
Tonight Show, 114
Turkey, 143
2001 A Space Odyssey, 90
Von Sholly, Peter, 58
Washington, Denzel, 114
Win-A-Prize, 53, 54
Wolfman, Marv, 144-153
Wood, Wally, 71