Surfer book confirmation

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Thanks to Glen for answering the previous post about reprint editions of the 1978 SILVER SURFER book, and sending this scan of the cover of a 1997 paperback reprint (ISBN #0-7851-0652-9) that he has. I was into Kirby and going to comic shops on a pretty regular basis back then and I don’t think I saw a copy of it. And searching that ISBN on the usual places online shows either no record of the book, or a Masterworks edition of the early Buscema issues or this book, just as the ISBN for the hardcover is as likely to come up with some other book entirely. I suspect that Marvel might have mistakenly slapped duplicate ISBNs on some books.

surf97.jpg

For the record, Galactus face from page 43, Galactus hands from page 29, Earth from page 18, Surfer from page 30 and some of that Kirby crackle and the tech around the edge from some other source. You know, Kirby did a perfectly fine cover for this book (see TJKC #9 backcover). And bad enough that this was hard to find when it was re-released in 1997, why is there no edition in-print now that the Surfer is going to be in, y’know, a movie?

6 thoughts on “Surfer book confirmation

  1. dave

    …why is there no edition in-print now that the Surfer is going to be in, y’know, a movie?

    I’ll bet Marvel would have to pay the Kirby estate REAL royalties if they did a reprint, which is probably why they aren’t re-issuing it.

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  2. Bob Post author

    Marvel of a few years ago I would have thought that, but though far from perfect they do seem willing to pay the Kirby estate money these days (GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS, the upcoming FF #108 reconstruction) so that wouldn’t seem to be a major stumbling block (the copyright on graphic novel belonging to Kirby and Lee might be).

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  3. Luke Blanchard

    I bought a paperback reprint with the painted cover for a relative in the mid 80s, but I can’t give you a date.

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  4. Bob Post author

    If it was mid-80s with the painted cover I assume that was just a later printing (there were at least three, I think) of the Fireside edition.

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  5. Harry Mendryk

    Bob,

    I give up, how did Lee and Kirby end up with copyrights to the book version of Silver Surfer? It is hard to believe that Marvel did this out of the goodness of their heart.

    Harry

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  6. Bob Post author

    Harry, not sure how it happened. I think it might have been some combination of it being done for a third-party publisher, and maybe Lee insisting on it on his own behalf (especially since at the time he was pushing hard for a Surfer movie).

    One interesting consequence, mentioned in an issue of the Kirby Collector, was that in the 1990s Kirby’s contract with Topps gave them publishing rights to everything he owned the copyright to, so Marvel had to get Topps to sign off on the reprints they did. That’s why I speculated that the copyright might be the reason it’s not being reprinted now (don’t know what contracts the Kirby estate still has in effect, and who knows what Stan Lee signed with the various companies and bankruptcies he’s been involved in).

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