The current flood of Kirby reprints and publications continued in the past year, with slightly fewer items than the last few years, but a lot of thick ones keeping the volume up there. 38 items listed below, and I know I missed a few (anyone have details on the Disney digest which reprinted some Black Hole strips?).
Highlight of the year, I’d have to go with the FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS, with the promise of having finally having the whole epic in four matching volumes available in a few months.
TwoMorrows got out just two issues of their regular Kirby fix this year, but it was some choice stuff, including some reprints of old S&K classics.
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #48
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #49
The big news from DC was the FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS line. In 2007 they reprinted most of the 1970s material, some of it reprinted in colour for the first time, and early 2008 will see the rest of that, plus the 1980s material.
JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS VOL. 1
JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS VOL. 2
JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS VOL. 3
Some Kirby in DC’s regular reprint lines, one high-end hardcover book full of Kirby and one low-end black and white book with one reprint of a reprint among its 500+ pages
KAMANDI ARCHIVES VOL. 2 HC
SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY VOL. 2
And for a more inexpensive taste of Kirby, one special tying in with a current crossover.
COUNTDOWN SPECIAL: JIMMY OLSEN 80-PAGE GIANT
Marvel, of course, had the bulk of the Kirby printed for the year. Most of the material in BOUNTY HUNTERS was non-Kirby, but a few covers and pages were Kirby.
JACK KIRBY’S GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS #4
JACK KIRBY’S GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS #5
JACK KIRBY’S GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS #6
JACK KIRBY’S GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS HC
Marvel’s Omnibus format really took off this year, for those who like big thick books. Some never before reprinted stuff in AMAZING FANTASY and DEVIL DINOSAUR, too.
AMAZING FANTASY OMNIBUS HC
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC
DEVIL DINOSAUR BY JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS HC
FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS VOL. 2 HC
SILVER SURFER OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC
Kirby was well-represented in the old Masterworks line as well, with three volumes being primarily Kirby work, and three more with minor bits of Kirby.
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: DAREDEVIL VOL. 4 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: GOLDEN AGE USA COMICS VOL. 1 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. VOL. 1 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: RAWHIDE KID VOL. 2 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE MIGHTY THOR VOL. 6 HC
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE SUB-MARINER VOL. 2 HC
Not as good a year for Kirby on the black and white Essential line, with just a few stray covers in two volumes.
ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS VOL. 3
ESSENTIAL GHOST RIDER VOL. 2
And a few more stray bits of Kirby in primarily non-Kirby books.
INVADERS CLASSIC VOL. 1 TPB
SPIDER-MAN: SAGA OF THE SANDMAN TPB
STAN LEE MEETS HC
And wrapping up Marvel’s Kirby year with some stuff showing up in that classic old stapled comic book format we all know and love.
AVENGERS CLASSIC #1 – #7
HULK VS. FIN FANG FOOM
Meanwhile, Image provided a hardcover collection of some later Kirby.
JACK KIRBY’S SILVER STAR HC
And the current copyright holder of the old Gilberton comics, Jack Lake Productions, reprinted one of Kirby’s contributions to the line.
CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED SPECIAL: THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES SC
2008 is looking good already. Evanier’s KING OF COMICS, several publications from TwoMorrows (the double sized TJKC #50, more COLLECTED KIRBY COLLECTOR, and updated Kirby checklist and more), FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS wrapping up, OMAC, hopefully another COMPLETE KIRBY, and some other golden age stuff from Joe Simon, quite a few more Omnibus and Masterworks books from Marvel, and FF – THE LOST ADVENTURE as well, hopefully some more 1980s stuff from Image.
Nice nod to the 2001 Space Odyssey Comic that Jack did at Marvel.
Yeah — your title reminded me of the 2001 comic, also. That’s something that’s missing in the wave of reprints. I’d really love to see it.
2001 and the subsequent MACHINE MAN series are, with the SILVER SURFER book, the last hold-outs from Kirby’s 1975-1978 stint at Marvel not to be reprinted recently. Which is pretty amazing, really. Five years ago who would have expected ETERNALS, DEVIL DINOSAUR, BLACK PANTHER, CAPTAIN AMERICA and Kirby’s WHAT IF issue all to be reprinted and available, some of them in larger hardcovers? Anyway, I’d be surprised if we don’t at least see a MACHINE MAN book this year, with or without the “Mister Machine” issues of 2001. 2001 itself, both the adaptation and the series, might be trickier. I doubt whoever owns the rights would say no to free money, but who knows if Marvel will offer it.
I also wouldn’t say no to a book of all of Kirby’s covers from that era, a lot of which are showing up in other collections. There are about 100 of them, maybe throw in some of the pencils as they’ve been in TJKC, some commentary by the likes of Marie Severin (with some of her layouts), Roy Thomas and others to bump it up to a 200 page book.
The Disney publication was called “Disney Adventures Presents Comic Zone,” dated Fall 2007. It features High School Musical, Cars and Ratatouille on the cover. It has six pages of a (fragment of a) Black Hole story, made from the strips (colored). There’s no credit for Kirby. I have to admit, it felt pretty neat to grab a comic in the checkout of my local grocery store which contained Jack Kirby stuff I hadn’t read (of course, I was on the lookout for it just because of the Kirby element). Very “old school” to buy a comic in a regular store rather than a comics shop, bookstore or online. And neat to see Kirby presented along with the current fads. (Made me think of the earliest comics — conglomorations of uncredited stuff pasted together by the Eisner-Iger shop or whoever.) I think the magazine may have been discontinued though — I seem to remember hearing that that would be the last issue.
Well let’s see, the rights to 2001, are currently with Warner Brothers, as well as with Sir Arthur C. Clarke, I guess Marvel would have to work out some sort of deal with one or both of them. I assume maybe both.
Marvel also published a comic book version of the movie 2010, which I belive was written and drawn by Walt Simonson.
But regretfully since 2001 is now owned by Warner Brothers (who are Marvel’s biggest rivals in business) I am doubtful if we will ever see that aspect of Jack’s work reprinted anytime soon.
Too bad! It seems to me like it would be a great opportunity to do the “Marvel and DC Present” thing — there have been a lot of those over the years. Most of them pretty forgettable.
Yes, but then again, these days Marvel and Dc want as little to do with each other as possible.
I just read this strand, and I am crestfallen. The 2001 series is the one I’ve most wanted to see reprinted – after the Fourth World and Eternals. I was figuring it would have to come out soon, since all the other Kirby series have. Is there nothing we can do?