Diamond Comics is listing THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY hardcover (DEC084249) as shipping this week. From experience, I can tell you that books like this sometimes have a several-week-long roll-out as different warehouses receive and ship it out across the country, so check with your vendor of choice before you make a special trip down for it.
Amazon is still listing May 12, but presumably they and other mail-order places will start shipping out orders as soon as they actually have the book.
Couple of recent releases with Kirby reprints..
CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1 70TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL includes an S&K reprint. Not sure which, I think I heard it would be a Red Skull story, I should know by this weekend and will update here.
SUPERMEN! THE FIRST WAVE OF COMIC-BOOK HEROES (1939-41), unless it’s been revised since the table of contents was put on Amazon, has the Cosmic Carson story from SCIENCE COMICS #4 and the final S&K Blue Bolt story from BLUE BOLT #10. Plus a bunch of Jack Cole, Bill Everett, Lou Fine, Basil Wolverton and others.
Newest KIRBY COLLECTOR is out soon, the digital edition is available already for $3.95, or free if you also order the print edition.
Catching up on some Kirby release info, stuff’s been coming out steadily this year. One I missed on solicitations was that THOR #600 reprinted several “Tales of Asgard” shorts as backups, but more on that in a bit. Biggest release of the year so far is tomorrow, a collection of Kirby’s dozen OUR FIGHTING FORCES issues.
March 11, 2009 – THE LOSERS BY JACK KIRBY HC
March 4, 2009 – COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR – Volume 7
February 25, 2009 – MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 1 TPB
February 25, 2009 – MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE MIGHTY THOR VOL. 8 HC
February 11, 2009 – THOR #600 (several Tales of Asgard short stories)
February 4, 2009 – MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1 TPB (a few covers and a short back-up)
January 28, 2009 – MARVEL MASTERWORKS: GOLDEN AGE CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 3 HC
And a few new things announced from Marvel. The TALES OF ASGARD mini-series will presumably include all 49 five-pagers from JIM/THOR #97-#145, and probably six rather than five issues as listed, but with Marvel you never know. I’m guessing a collection of them soon after is likely, if not certain, and hopefully the “modern coloring” won’t be that bad. I assume that recent THOR #600 was a sample of what to expect, so if anyone picked that up and wants to comment, feel free. And all three of Kirby’s YELLOW CLAW issues from the 1950s are included with some other fine stuff , much of it never reprinted before, in one expensive book.
THOR: TALES OF ASGARD BY STAN LEE & JACK KIRBY #1 (of 5[?])
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY
Cover by OLIVIER COIPEL
The legend has come true! By the will of the gods, I am alive! I am invincible! I am — THOR!!! And so began the very first epic tale of Marvel’s most revered hero, the mighty Thor, whose legend would grow alongside the success of Marvel comics, making him the most exciting super hero of all time! Never has Thor been more sensational than during these early tales, crafted by Marvel’s greatest, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Re-live classic Norse mythology in the mighty Marvel manner as well as Stan and Jack’s stories of the Norse Gods and Thor before he came to Earth as Don Blake. Witness as these masters breathe life into the thunder god and some of Marvel’s most enduring characters: Helmdall, Balder, Loki, Odin and Hela. Read these stories as never before with all-new, modern coloring and six extraordinary interlocking covers by current THOR artist Olivier Coipel. Collecting the “Tales of Asgard” backup stories from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #97-104
48 PGS./$3.99
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA BLACK KNIGHT/YELLOW CLAW VOL. 1 HC
Written by STAN LEE, AL FELDSTEIN & VARIOUS
Penciled by JOE MANEELY, JACK KIRBY, JOHN SEVERIN, FRED KIDA & VARIOUS
Cover by JOE MANEELY
From the heroic times of King Arthur to the dangers of the Cold War, the Atlas Era brings you the greatest adventure stories from the 1950s. Presenting the original series of two legendary characters that have bridged the decades – all the way from the Atlas Era to the Avengers and Agents of Atlas – Black Knight and Yellow Claw are must-haves for every Marvel maniac! Sir Percy of Scandia may appear to be a foppish weakling, too timid to fight and the scorn of Camelot, but only Merlin knows the truth: Sir Percy is the gallant Black Knight! Come to drive Modred de Monfort from King Arthur’s court, he wields the ebony blade against Norman invaders, dragons, imposters and usurpers to the throne. With the pencil of Atlas great, Joe Maneely, delineating the action,Black Knight is a sure-fire classic! Then comes Cold War tales of mystery, espionage and world domination from the pages of Yellow Claw! Illustrated by the incomparable trio of Joe Maneely, John Severin and –in a rare mid-50s Atlas appearance– Jack Kirby, F.B.I. Agent Jimmy Woo’s mission to capture the century-old mystic from the root of the Himalayas is packed with gritty crime and unimaginable adversaries, from mind-bending mutants and UFO the Lightning Man to Temujai the Golden Goliath and the Living Shadows! Collecting BLACK KNIGHT #1-5 & YELLOW CLAW #1-4.
256 PGS. $59.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3515-9
Available now, JACK KIRBY’S THE DEMON OMNIBUS collects the entire 16 issue series by Kirby from the early 1970s in one volume. Great stuff, and with the exception of one digest-sized reprinting of the first issue the first time any of that stuff was been reprinted.
Apparently there’s something by Simon&Kirby in the new MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST CRIME COMICS, edited by Paul Gravett. Anyone got a copy to elaborate?
Thanks to Tim in the comments. It’s a 14-page story from JUSTICE TRAPS THE GUILTY #6 [1948], “The Money-Making Machine Swindlers”. Never before reprinted, as far as I know.
The 22-page story “The Eye of the Falcon”, previously twice scheduled for other books that didn’t come out, finally saw print in a recently published anthology, FRONT LINES.
This story is the third published “extrapolation” from Kirby’s unfinished novel THE HORDE! that Janet Berliner has written and had published (the previous two were “Shadow Of The Falcon” and “The Conversion Of Tegujai Batir“). You can read more about THE HORDE in this article from TJKC #32.
HULK VS. THE MARVEL UNIVERSE collects, as you would guess from the title, the Hulk fighting people in stories including FF #25 and #26 and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #112.
SEX, DRUGS, AND VIOLENCE IN THE COMICS is a new book from Pure Imagination, with three S&K stories on those timeless themes, plus other creators. From S&K :
I Was a Come-On Girl for Broken Bones, Inc. (JUSTICE TRAPS THE GUILTY #1, 1947) 8pg
The Bobby Sox Bandit Queen (HEADLINE COMICS #27, 1947) 13pg
Gang Sweetheart (YOUNG ROMANCE #23[V3N11], 1950) 15pg
And apparently THE COMPLETE JACK KIRBY v5, continuing the 1947 reprints, came out recently, though I don’t think it’s shipped to comic shops through Diamond yet. Both can be ordered direct from Pure Imagination, along with numerous earlier and upcoming PI publications, print and on CD, a few on sale.
Just updating the New Kirby page, so a quick note that the OMAC collection (which has a few pages restored to how Kirby drew them from how they were published) is out this week, and the last few weeks have seen a few big books, including the HULK OMNIBUS which is about half Kirby (some pages just layouts).
A trio of Kirby reprints this week. The Kamandi book is a great sampler of the series. The other two are single Kirby stories in the context of larger books, and both oft-reprinted so most Kirby fans probably have them already, but still good to see. Can anyone confirm which Captain Marvel story they chose?
COUNTDOWN SPECIAL: KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH 80-PAGE GIANT (reprints #1, #10 and #29)
SECRET INVASION: THE INFILTRATION TPB (reprints FF #2)
SHAZAM: THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD TP (probably only one of the four CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #1 stories by Kirby)
I also got my copy of KIRBY – KING OF COMICS yesterday. No surprise it’s a gorgeous book, and good to see two complete stories (“Street Code” and a Fighting American tale) reprinted along with all of the other great artwork.
Shipping to comic stores this week is JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS v4, finishing up with the remaining 1970s work and then the new work done in the 1980s (“Even Gods Must Die”, “The Hunger Dogs” and the Who’s Who profile pages of the characters). Some of that material, in particular “The Hunger Dogs” is going to look quite different from the originally published versions. It might be a few weeks before I get my copy, so feel free to weigh in with a comment on how the new version looks.