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seems a bit light, compared to the 108 pages in the SPIRIT WORLD book, so I guess some of the intended contents for the unpublished second issue might be lost or never completed.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 Now all we need is a book for the remaining unpublished stuff, TRUE DIVORCE CASES, SOUL LOVE, DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET and whatever else I’m forgetting.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the Amazon listing has been revised up to 108 pages, which should be enough for all the comic book content of the unpublished #2.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.

Sorry I haven’t updated much lately.  There’s a Kirby reprint I missed when it was solicited out now, SHOWCASE PRESENTS TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED VOL. 1 TPB, which has six Kirby stories and a few covers from 1957. All those were reprinted in colour last year, of course, but if you like your Kirby reprints in black and white or like the other DC artists of the era (including Mort Meskin, Nick Cardy, Leonard Starr and Ruben Moreira) then it’s a great deal.

A few other recent Kirby reprints that I’ve updated over here, including the softcover Fourth World continuing, with the final volume due out by the end of the year.

Out now from DC, a new hardcover of Kirby’s dozen issues of CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN from the 1950s (four Showcase tryouts and 1-8 of the ongoing series). Some great stuff in here.

So, apparently this is in stores this week:

SPIRIT WORLD: Hardcover edition of Kirby’s early 1970s horror/fantasy work for DC, including SPIRIT WORLD #1 and some stories intended for #2 but later published elsewhere after that was cancelled.  I’d be very curious to read a description of the book if anyone gets a copy right away, including the size of the book and if they attempt to replicate that sickly blue printing and ink wash of the the original comic.

Harry comes through with some scans here in his review.  #1 is in the blue ink wash, but better looking than the original printing, the stories intended for #2 are in glorious black and white.

Now available is SOMEDAY FUNNIES, Michel Choquette’s lost anthology about the 1960s, including among the many contents a previously unpublished 2-page story by Jack Kirby from the early 1970s.  You can see a sample of Kirby’s story, “The Ballad Of Beardsley Bullfeather Or Tune-In — Cop-Out And Drop-Up”, over here and read an interview with Choquette about the book (plus another sample of Kirby’s art) over here. Looks like an interesting book overall, in addition to the Kirby pages.

…and updating, Rand Hoppe shares photocopies of the pencils to the story (with some differences in the script) from the Kirby Museum files.

Just got my copy of THE SIMON AND KIRBY LIBRARY: CRIME hardcover published by Titan, with over 300 pages of vintage S&K comics, mostly published from 1947-1949 (with a pair of later Mainline stories).  Copies should be making their way through all standard channels, including comic shops and bookstores, in the next few weeks.  A gorgeous book, with a lot of action-packed and violent adventures of criminals and the law-enforcement professionals tasked with their capture.  Because as you know, “Commit a crime and the world is made of glass”.

Also apparently showing up in comic shops this week is DC’s DC COMICS PRESENTS THE JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS SAMPLER #1, for those who didn’t want to commit to the recent THE JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS VOL. 1 – STARRING GREEN ARROW hardcover sight unseen a marginally cheaper way to get a look at about a third of the book.  And Pure Imagination has the second and final volume of Greg Theakston’s JACK MAGIC biography of Jack Kirby.

And, since a couple of people asked, I’m currently not mentioning Marvel books in the new/upcoming Kirby posts, for the moment I’m still listing them on the announcement page if you’re curious about them.

Out now from DC, KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH OMNIBUS v1, collecting the first 20 issues of the series.  These were all reprinted a few  years ago in another format, but hopefully this time we’ll see a reprint of the balance of Kirby’s 40 issue run on the series.  Some great stuff in this one, in particular #7, “The Monster Fetish”, is among my favourite Kirby stories ever, and “The Hospital” in #16, presenting as much as we get of an origin for “Earth A. D.”, is clever and touching.

DC’s THE JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS VOL. 1, a collection of Kirby’s non-Challengers 1950s material for the company (Green Arrow and various short stories and covers for the genre anthologies), plus a handful of pages from the 1940s, is now available.  Lots of stuff which has never been reprinted before.

Also, if you didn’t pick up Dynamite’s KIRBY GENESIS #0 a few months ago, you can read it for free on-line right now. The series is based on Kirby Estate owned characters, and the “#0” issue features Kirby’s Pioneer plaque as a story element, and the back-matter has several of the original Kirby character designs, plus Kirby’s text that originally accompanied the plaque in the LA Times.  Nothing too new in there if you’re a regular reader of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, but some good stuff none the less.

And, can anyone verify whether Greg Theakston’s JACK MAGIC VOL. 1 biography of Kirby came out recently? [Since verified, it came out July 6]

Looks like Joe Simon’s new autobiography is shipping to comic shops this week, and they went with the MY LIFE IN COMICS title and the cover with Captain America punching Hitler and a photo of Simon.  It should be available from other sources soon (odd, I got my copy of the Titan FIGHTING AMERICAN book long before it got to comic shops, but my copy of this from the same source hasn’t shipped yet).  Looks like there’s also an e-book version for the Kindle available on Amazon, for those into such things.

As mentioned, that FIGHTING AMERICAN book should be available just about everywhere you’d expect now.  Marvel has also had a bunch of recent reprints, lots of Captain America and Thor as you’d expect.  One book I didn’t mention before came out a few months ago with some Kirby, SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE WITCHING HOUR VOL. 1 reprints “The Face Behind The Mask” from WITCHING HOUR #18 [1971], originally from TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #13 [1957].  A bit trivial, true, since a colour hardcover reprint of all of those 1950s short DC stories by Kirby is coming out soon enough.  As usual, all releases are listed here.

Doesn’t look like it’s shipped through all channels yet, but I just got a copy of FIGHTING AMERICAN, the new softcover book from Titan reprinting the 1950s Simon&Kirby classic, so comic shops and retailers like Amazon should have it within weeks.

The 200-page book mostly duplicates the middle section of last year’s hardcover THE SIMON AND KIRBY SUPERHEROES, slightly smaller and softcover, so much more affordable, and with a short new introduction by Joe Simon.  It’s a definite upgrade from the 1989 hardcover version of the book from Marvel.