Just got a copy of the Abrams published THE ART OF THE SIMON AND KIRBY STUDIO, a big 384-page book jammed with reproductions of the original artwork Joe Simon (and others) saved from the 1940s and 1950s, most of it by Jack Kirby, some by others in the studio like Mort Meskin, Leonard Starr and Bill Draut. Looking forward to going through it, but it’s already pretty clearly the Kirby book of the year, in what’s been a pretty good year. It’s especially good to see a lot of western (about 70 pages of BOYS’ RANCH and others) and romance work.

Here are a few additional images of the book from the publisher’s site.

Just got a copy of JACK KIRBY: A PERSONAL LOOK, the recent book by Jack Kirby’s grandson Jeremy. It’s available print-on-demand from Amazon, and I have to say, print-on-demand has come a long way in the last few years, especially in reproducing images. It looks a lot sharper than I expected.

There are two main components to the book. First it’s a photo album, with dozens of family photos, from the earliest photo of Jack Kirby they have through the war years and early days of comics through to photos with the grandchildren in the 1980s. You can see a sample of the photos on the original Kickstarter page for the book.

The bulk of the book is the original typewritten manuscript to a screenplay that Jack Kirby wrote, “Frog Prince”, a 99-page 3-act drama. There’s no hint about when it was written, I’m guessing maybe the 1950s, when you might see a one-hour standalone drama done for TV. Bits of it feel like WEST SIDE STORY, combined with what you’d expect one of Kirby’s romance or crime comics might be if he had more than a dozen pages to develop them. There are a few thematic connections you could make with some other Kirby work, especially Orion. I’m guessing the cigar-chomping diner owner is the role Kirby saw himself in. It’s definitely something different, but very Kirby, and it’s good to see it in a pure form (I think every excerpt of Kirby’s novel “The Horde” made public has been filtered and adapted by others instead of being Kirby’s original).

In other news, I just got shipping notification for my copy of THE ART OF THE SIMON AND KIRBY STUDIO, so hopefully that’ll be in my hands sometime next week.

Apparently out in comic stores this week and shipping direct from the publisher now is the NEW GODS ARTIST’S EDITION, reproducing the artwork for six issues of NEW GODS (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Apparently the first issue was added sometime after the original solicitation) at the originally drawn size. If you want your comic shop to get it, use the order code DEC130371, or you can get it direct from the publisher over here for US$125 plus shipping. I think IDW also sells them direct at major conventions. Note that “A variant cover edition of this title will be made available at a later date”, according to the publisher page. I don’t know what that means, either. Generally the variant editions seem to be signed versions, which in this case I guess would have to be by Mike Royer, inker of four of the issues included, but it could be something else.

The latest in Titan’s series of hardcover reprints, THE SIMON & KIRBY LIBRARY: HORROR, is out now, comic stores should be getting it in tomorrow (DEC131287) and the various other usual sources should have it now or soon (ISBN 978-1848569591). This reprints Kirby’s work from BLACK MAGIC and STRANGE WORLD OF YOUR DREAMS, some great imaginative and sometimes disturbing work. Check out Harry Mendryk’s series of posts about BLACK MAGIC for more about the stories.

And don’t forget, still available are:
S&K LIBRARY: CRIME
S&K LIBRARY: SCIENCE FICTION
S&K SUPER-HEROES
BEST OF S&K
FIGHTING AMERICAN (softcover)

Two major Kirby releases in comic book stores this week.  DC has the IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB hardcover collection, which should have some stuff excellent Kirby/Royer work that has never been publicly seen in any form from the unpublished second issue.  Read more about the first issue here.

And from TwoMorrows is the latest JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR.

Apparently the long awaited new volume of Titan’s SIMON & KIRBY LIBRARY line, SCIENCE FICTION, is out now, featuring the team’s work on Blue Bolt, Race For The Moon and some great stand-alone science fiction stories like “The Cadmus Seed”. Should be good. There’s a sample Blue Bolt story over here.

Order from Amazon here, or from any bookseller using ISBN-10: 1848569610 or ISBN-13: 978-1848569614. I don’t believe comic book stores ordering from Diamond have it yet, but should soon, and they can use order code DEC121235 to get more.

The next volume, HORROR, featuring stories from Black Magic and Strange World Of Your Dreams, is currently listed as scheduled for March of next year.

DC’s THE JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS v2 is out today, collecting most of the published Kirby material from DC from the 1970s and 1980s not already covered by other recent or upcoming collections. The biggest part of that would be the two 1980s SUPER POWERS toy tie-in books, as featured on the cover. The best bits are probably the three FIRST ISSUE SPECIALS included, featuring an update on Manhunter (one of my first exposures to Kirby) and original concepts Atlas and the Dingbats of Danger Street. It’ll be a few weeks before I get a copy, so feel free to outline the contents in the comments if you get one before that. I’m especially curious if they include any of the unpublished Dingbats stuff, the story intended for SANDMAN #7 or a restored version of KOBRA #1, and if they went ahead and included all the non-Kirby 1950s reprint material from BLACK MAGIC as the solicitations indicated they planned to.

The digital version of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #60 is available now, the print will follow in the mail and in stores soon enough. Some nice stuff in here, including two long Evanier-moderated convention panels, one with Dick Ayers and Joe Sinnott and the other including Stan Goldberg, a 5-page Jim Bowie story from 1956 (the issue attribution seems to be wrong, it says #55, I think it should be #33), a gallery of pencils from later issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, another one of pencils related to the Black Panther, and quite a bit on the 1978 SILVER SURFER book, with many pages of Kirby’s pencils and his typed notes to the scripter.

Out now from DC, a reprint of the balance of Kirby’s 1970s KAMANDI series.  Some great stuff here. Here are some posts on specific issues:

Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth! #23 [1974]
Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth! #25 [1975]
Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth! #26 [1975]
Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth! #29 [1975]
Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth! #32 [1975]
Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth! #40 [1976]

Coming next summer from DC, IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB hardcover, Jack Kirby’s 1971 magazine for “Hampshire Distributors” Speak-Out Series.

Release Date: August 13, 2013

After leaving Marvel Comics at the end of the 1960s, Jack Kirby came to DC, where he soon created the series of super-hero comics known collectively as “The Fourth World.” One of his first projects for DC was the black and white magazine IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB, which featured on stories of organized crime in the 1930s in the style of the TV series “The Untouchables” and “The Godfather” movies.

Hardcover: 80 pages[*]
ISBN-10: 1401240798
ISBN-13: 978-1401240790

Note despite what you might think from that description, the comic book predated the release of the film THE GODFATHER, but does come after the Mario Puzo novel. And as Harry Mendryk demonstrated, Kirby’s work on such stories pre-dated both that novel and  the UNTOUCHABLES TV show. Pick up THE SIMON & KIRBY LIBRARY: CRIME to read during the long wait for this reprint.

Presumably it’s in the same format as the SPIRIT WORLD book from earlier this year. The page count seems a bit light, compared to the 108 pages in the SPIRIT WORLD book, so I guess some of the intended contents for the unpublished second issue might be lost or never completed. I’d have to double check, but I think even the known contents for #2 should push it over 80 pages, especially when you allow for the usual introductory, biographical and indicia pages.  Still, that’ll be the last major piece of published DC work by Kirby after the golden age to get a reprint. Now all we need is a book for the remaining unpublished stuff, TRUE DIVORCE CASES, SOUL LOVE, DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET and whatever else I’m forgetting.

[*] See the comments, the Amazon listing has been revised up to 108 pages, which should be enough for all the comic book content of the unpublished #2. So get ready for “The Ride”, “Ladies Of The Gang” and “A Room For Kid Twist”.  And as usual, Amazon links kickback a percentage that goes to the Kirby Museum, so if you’re buying from there anyway, go there from here.

Oh, looks like we’re getting OMAC in softcover, too.