Pure Imagination is doing a new edition of the 1988 REAL LOVE collection that Eclipse published.  The original had 13 stories, most of them Simon&Kirby, and also some Bruno Premiani, Mort Meskin and Leonard Starr.  One difference, at least, instead of the photo cover from YOUNG LOVE #5 that the Eclipse edition used there’s this cover:

I don’t know the source of this one.

[Thanks to John in the comments, it’s the splash to “Dance Hall Pickup!” from YOUNG ROMANCE #16]

Anyway, page 317 of the May 2010 Previews, MAY101084 if you want to order it, or I’m sure you’ll be able to get it direct from PI.  It’s an excellent set of stories and, at least for one more year the only substantial collection of S&K romance work available.

Pair of upcoming reprints from Marvel.  The Marvel Masterworks THOR v9 finishes up Kirby’s classic run on the character, including a few very nice Bill Everett inked issues.  This will be the first-ever colour reprint of most of these stories, and I think is pretty much the last Silver Age super-hero material from Kirby to appear in the Masterworks format (there’s still a lot of western, fantasy/sci-fi and romance stuff to go).

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE MIGHTY THOR VOL. 9 HC
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, JOHN BUSCEMA & NEAL ADAMS
Cover by JACK KIRBY

The mountain giants are on the march! Surtur has broken free! Odin sleeps, while Loki has claimed the throne of Asgard! In short, all Ragnarok is about to break loose! Stan Lee and Jack Kirby bring you another set of adventures with all the power and majesty that one of comics’ most-famous runs can bring. Even across their many epics of the Eternal Realm, none can match the build-up and battle that Stan and Jack have for you in these pages! When the dust settles, Loki’s evil spells lead to a body-swap between the God of Thunder and his mischievous half-brother that brings Thor to the gates of hell. With Kirby backed by none other than comics legend Neal Adams, it’s a comic-art lover’s dream! Then Big John Buscema steps up to carry the hammer and wastes no time making history when Thor journeys to Latveria. It’s a fight for the ages, and you’ll witness Dr. Doom’s horrible face revealed to boot! Also featuring Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime, Ulik the Troll, the Crypto-Man, the cosmic Stranger and earth-shaking Abomination and Mephisto! It’s page after page of action and adventure in the manner that made Marvel a household name. Collecting THOR #173-183

240 PGS/All Ages …$54.99

ISBN: 978-0-7851-4220-1

X-MEN: WE ARE THE X-MEN TPB

Written by STAN LEE, LEN WEIN, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JIM LEE, SCOTT LOBDELL, GRANT MORRISON & MIKE CAREY
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, DAVE COCKRUM, JOHN BYRNE, ALAN DAVIS, WALT SIMONSON, JOHN ROMITA JR, JIM LEE, FRANK QUITELY & GREG LAND

Cover by GREG LAND

Ever since Charles Xavier opened his school’s doors to the mutants of the world, his X-Men have welcomed those from all walks of life into their ranks! Collected here for the first time, see how your favorite mutants joined your favorite mutant team! Witness the initiations of Marvel Girl! Wolverine! Colossus! Nightcrawler! Banshee! Storm! Kitty Pryde! Rogue! Magneto! Gambit! Bishop! And Pixie! Featuring the threats of the Hellfire Club, Fenris, Fitzroy, the N’Garai and the Shadow King! Collecting X-MEN (1963) #1 & #129, GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1, UNCANNY X-MEN #171, #200, #213, #267 & #287, NEW X-MEN (2001) #116 and FREE COMIC BOOK DAY: X-MEN 2008

272 PGS./Rated T+ …$24.99

ISBN: 978-0-7851-4914-9

Pair of major Kirby reprints in the latest solicitations.  Big news is of course the S&K SUPERHEROES book, with a lot of great material in 480 pages.  The 7.5×11 size is a bit smaller than the BEST OF S&K book, but bigger than the standard Marvel or DC reprint, the images should be close to their original golden age print size.  Most sources are still listing it as coming out later this year (October, it seems), but that’s subject to change, and if you’re planning to get it from a comic book store now is a good time to let them know you’re interested.  Page 315 of the April 2010 Previews, item APR101071.

And from Marvel, the Essential reprints get to Kirby’s 1970s run on CAPTAIN AMERICA, starting a few issues prior to his arrival and ending a few issues prior to his departure.  Man, if they had made previous volumes a little bit thicker this would be so much better as an all-Kirby volume, running right to his last issue.  Oh, well, still a good looking book if you don’t have the originals or the three volumes that reprint the stories in colour.  Includes the delightful Bicentennial Battles.

THE SIMON AND KIRBY SUPERHEROES HC
(W) Joe Simon (A) Jack Kirby
Beginning with Blue Bolt in June 1940, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby set the standard for costumed heroes. Their creation Captain America, remains one of the most famous heroes in comic book history, and their work for Timely and DC Comics raised the bar. This volume introduces some of their most exciting characters: Fighting American, The Fly, Lancelot Strong, and the Hollywood swashbuckler known as Stuntman. Presenting the complete Fighting American, their first collaboration, “The Black Owl,” and Captain 3-D, lavishly restored and presented in full-color for the first time, this is the only edition authorized by both Joe Simon and the estate of Jack Kirby, gathered from the official Simon and Kirby archives. With an introduction from comics legend Neil Gaiman!

HC, 7.5×11, 480pgs, FC    SRP: $49.95

ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 5 TPB
Written by JACK KIRBY, JOHN WARNER, TONY ISABELLA,
BILL MANTLO & MARV WOLFMAN
Penciled by JACK KIRBY & FRANK ROBBINS
Cover by JACK KIRBY

Captain America and the Falcon, two unlikely partners, united in battle against threats domestic, extraterrestrial, and extradimensional; evil psychiatrists, druids, and scientists; monsters, super-villains, and armies; and all the while balancing their love lives with Sharon Carter and Leila Davis! Featuring the threats of the Druid, the Alchemoid, Deadly Nightshade and her robot assassin, Stilt-Man, Dr. Faustus, the Secret Empire, the Night-People, and Agron! Plus, the first appearance of Karla Sofen, the future Moonstone and Ms. Marvel! And the mysterious Mister Buda leads Cap on a tour of the world’s wars!

Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #187-205, CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL #3 and MARVEL TREASURY SPECIAL: CAPTAIN AMERICA’S BICENTENNIAL BATTLES.

480 PGS $19.99

Quite a few Kirby books for later this year to catch up on.

First off, a way in the future (November 2010 by the latest schedule), but most interesting of the new books, DC will as expected add BOY COMMANDOS BY JOE SIMON AND JACK KIRBY VOL. 1 to the hardcover set that already includes SANDMAN BY S&K and the soon-to-be-released NEWSBOY LEGION BY S&K. There were a lot of Boy Commando stories, so even if they keep it at just the stories that Kirby had a hand in they could fill four volumes like this, which I guess would be the plan. If they tried to make it a complete set (which would include some early work by the likes of Curt Swan and Carmine Infantino) that would be about 10 books. Anyway, big year for S&K fans, especially if the Titan published S&K SUPERHEROES book comes out this year.

Greg Theakston is publishing TEEN-AGED DOPE SLAVES AND REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS, a book of crime comics that came out from Eclipse in 1989. If the contents are the same as the original, two S&K stories, “The Bobby Sox Bandit Queen” (HEADLINE COMICS #27 [1947]) and “I Worked For The Fence” (HEADLINE COMICS #28 [1948]).

And from Marvel, as usual, lots of stuff. MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA TALES OF SUSPENSE VOL. 3 HC is about half-Kirby, with covers and one or two stories every issue. MARVEL MASTERWORKS: SGT. FURY VOL. 3 HC is one of those trivial Kirby reprints, with just one cover by Kirby in this run, but a good one (and the one they chose for the cover of the book). AVENGERS: I AM AN AVENGER VOL. 1 TPB includes reprints of the origin of the team from #1 and the line-up shifting #16. ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 8 TPB gets to the period of Kirby’s return to Marvel, where he did most of the covers for the series. Should be about 15 Kirby covers in total.

THE BOY COMMANDOS BY JOE SIMON AND JACK KIRBY VOL. 1 HC

Writers: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

Artists: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

Collects: Stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #64-73 and WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #8-9, and BOY COMMANDOS #1-2

$49.99 US, 256 pg

November 2010

TEEN-AGED DOPE SLAVES AND REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS TP

(W/A) Various

Pre-Code comics at their worst! Teens run wild, get “hooked,” and more often than not wind up dead. Drugs, sex, and death. Top it off with a Kurtzman venereal disease story, and it must be on your coffee table. Impress your friends. Make them want what you have.

SC, 8×11, 112pgs, B&W $20.00

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA TALES OF SUSPENSE VOL. 3 HC

Written by STAN LEE & LARRY LIEBER

Penciled by JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, DON HECK & PAUL REINMAN

Cover by JACK KIRBY

It’s a jam-packed Tales of Suspense monster bonanza! And you know you can’t keep a good monster down. No way, no how, and before they revolutionized the super hero set, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made monsters their daily diet. Klaag. Oog. Bruttu. Monstrollo. Skyscraper-tall lumbering beasts from outer space; muck-covered monsters from the Savannah swamps; lost world anachronisms from beyond time; and they were all here to teach humanity a lesson, whether we liked it or not. And after Kirby scares you with his creatures from the id, Steve Ditko will tear at your conscience—from the inside out—in tense suspense-thrillers cast with nervous-eyed dreamers and sweaty-palmed schemers, none of whom make it out with getting theirs. Each and every tale is executed by a master of storytelling—by the talents that defined the comic book medium for a generation—and each one is brought to you, gleamingly restored, in the fan-favorite Marvel Masterworks line! Collecting TALES OF SUSPENSE #21-31.

304 PGS. $59.99

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: SGT. FURY VOL. 3 HC

Written by STAN LEE & ROY THOMAS

Penciled by DICK AYERS

Cover by JACK KIRBY

Report for duty! It’s time for another Marvel Masterworks mission with Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos! It’s all-out action against the Axis powers, done in the Mighty Marvel Method as Fury and the Howlers protect the Manhattan Project and the atom bomb against Nazi spies and saboteurs; uproot an undercover agent who is none other than Red Skull; confront a traitor in their own ranks; and go mano-a-mano with Baron Strucker in a knock-down, drag-out fight battle in war-torn France. You’ll also see revealed—for the first time—the origin of Nick Fury’s eye-patch, follow Dum Dum Dugan as he goes it alone behind enemy lines, and experience the Allied push when Operation Overlord comes together on D-Day! Illustrated by the fightin’ man’s penciller, Dick Ayers, and scripted by Stan “The Man” and his armed-forces heir apparent, Roy Thomas, it’s an all-out classic. Reserve your copy today or it’s gonna be K.P. duty for you! Collecting SGT. FURY #24-32 & ANNUAL #2.

224 PGS $54.99

AVENGERS: I AM AN AVENGER VOL. 1 TPB

Written by STAN LEE, STEVE ENGLEHART, GERRY CONWAY, JIM SHOOTER, DAVID MICHELINIE, WALT SIMONSON & LARRY HAMA

Penciled by JACK KIRBY, DICK AYERS, GEORGE TUSKA, GEORGE PEREZ, JOHN BYRNE, GENE DAY, GENE COLAN, BOB HALL, JOHN BUSCEMA & PAUL RYAN

Cover by PAUL RYAN

The Boisterious Beast! Tigra the Were-Woman! The Sensational She-Hulk! And of course, the Amazing Spider-Man! Avengers recruitment drives brought in all of them, and it’s a day unlike any other when those tales are teamed together for the first time! Plus: a member who comes back from the dead to rejoin and a literal trial by fire when two of Marvel’s most enduring characters – and one of mythdom’s most heralded heroes – join the team during the Inferno crisis! Also featuring the team’s first gathering and its first lineup revision into Cap’s Kooky Quartet! Guest-starring X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy and more! Collecting AVENGERS (1963) 1, #16, #137, #151, #181, #211, #221, #300 & #329.

216 PGS. $24.99

ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 8 TPB

Written by ROY THOMAS, BILL MANTLO, GERRY CONWAY, LEN WEIN & JIM SHOOTER

Penciled by JOHN BUSCEMA, RICH BUCKLER, GEORGE PEREZ, RON WILSON & SAL BUSCEMA

Cover by JACK KIRBY

With works by fan favorites such as Roy Thomas, John Buscema and George Perez, the Fantastic Four embark on some of their craziest adventures yet! Our heroes battle alternate versions of themselves across the dimensions, fight alongside the Invaders and the Liberty Legion during World War II, and team up with multiple allies to aid in their adventures — including Power Man, the Impossible Man, the Hulk, Thundra and Tigra! Also featuring some of the Fantastic Four’s greatest foes — including the Frightful Four, the Brute, Annihilus, Torgo, Gorr the Golden Gorilla, the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker! Plus: the High Evolutionary vs. Galactus, with his new herald, the Asgardian Destroyer! And the first modern-age appearance of Marvel Boy, future member of the Agents of Atlas! Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #160-179 & #181-183, FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #11, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #20 AND MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #1.

520 PGS. $19.99