Out in comic stores this week is FANTASTIC FOUR: THE LOST ADVENTURE, the long awaited reconstruction of the story intended for FF #102, newly inked and scripted by Kirby’s regular collaborators of the era, Joe Sinnott and Stan Lee, along with reproductions of the Kirby pencils and margin notes, commentary by John Morrow and a reprint of the version of the story (with additional pages by John Buscema) that saw print in FF #108.
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #49 is available now, no doubt the usual compliment of great features. It’s also the first issue available as a PDF download from the publisher.
I missed it before, but Craig Yoe’s latest book, CLEAN CARTOONIST’S DIRTY DRAWINGS, apparently features a bit of Kirby, some early gag cartoon work, among its contents.
AVENGERS CLASSIC #5 continues reprinting the original series in order.
Over at ComicMix, Mike Gold notes that the latest issue of Disney’s COMIC ZONE digest includes a reprint of the first part of Jack Kirby’s run on the comic strip BLACK HOLE, based on the movie of the same name, from 1979. More info on that soon.
Now available is the AMAZING FANTASY OMNIBUS, collecting AMAZING ADVENTURES #1-6, AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #7-14 and AMAZING FANTASY #15. Mostly Ditko, of course, especially the later issues, but lots of Kirby in the first six issues, including the adventures of Doctor Droom.
Two hardcover collections of some of Kirby’s later work hit the stores this week. From Image comes JACK KIRBY’S SILVER STAR, collecting the 6-issue Pacific Comics series of the 1980s. And Marvel brings us DEVIL DINOSAUR OMNIBUS, the 9-issue series from 1978 that finished off his last stint at the company.
And in more trivial news, I missed this one before, but a few weeks back ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS VOL. 3 was released, which includes the four issues of the series (#42 – #45) with Kirby covers.
Break out the wallets, it’s a big day for Kirby reprints, including work in two eras considered by many fans to be among the peaks of Kirby’s career. As always, links below, or purchase from Tales of Wonder, gives a small kickback to this site.
JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS v1 is the first of four volumes to be released quarterly that will collect Kirby’s chronicles of the New Gods, including the new 1980s material. in publication order.
FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS v2 collects the heart of Kirby’s longest run on a title, including the introduction of dozens of new characters (a few about to make their silver screen debut) and some of the most exciting comics ever produced.
Also, AVENGERS CLASSIC #1 reprints, naturally enough, AVENGERS #1 (along with some new material), a welcome return of Kirby reprints to relatively inexpensive monthly comics. The reproductions in these is supposed to be a step up from the existing reprints of this material.
Now available, in time for some movie, SILVER SURFER OMNIBUS VOL. 1, with the character’s creator represented by SURFER #18 and the backup from FF ANNUAL #5. Lot’s of earlier Surfer stuff to follow in this format soon, in FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS VOL. 2.
Also available from Tales of Wonder.
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #48, featuring Machine Man on the cover, is now available from all the usual sources, including direct from the publisher and Tales of Wonder.
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #48
We get technical in this issue, spotlighting “Kirbytech”—Jack’s knack for creating high-tech gizmos, gadgets, and concepts, from Iron Man’s armor and Machine Man, to the Negative Zone and beyond! Included is a rare KIRBY interview, Mark EVANIER’s regular column, two pencil art galleries, a complete 1950s story, interviews with Godland’s Tom SCIOLI and Dark Horse publisher Mike RICHARDSON, the 2006 Kirby Tribute Panel (with Neal ADAMS, George PÉREZ, John ROMITA SR., Mike ROYER, and Kirby lawyer Paul LEVINE), Kirby covers inked by Terry AUSTIN and Tom SCIOLI, and more! Edited by John MORROW.
Out this week, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN OMNIBUS. In addition to every Ditko Spider-Man story there are a number of Kirby/Ditko collaborations (several covers, the back-up stories from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8 and FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1 and the Spidey/Torch story from STRANGE TALES ANNUAL #2), plus various extras bringing it up to 1088 pages total.
See your local comic shop or bookstore, or various on-line vendors, including amazon.com above or Tales of Wonder.
Pair of new releases with Kirby content. SPIDER-MAN: SAGA OF THE SANDMAN TPB reprints FF #61 among the stories chronicling the adventures of the Spider-Man villain who’s in the upcoming movie. ToW link
SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY VOL. 2, one I missed in my upcoming Kirby round-up, has a reprint of HOUSE OF MYSTERY #199, which in turn reprinted Kirby’s “He Doomed the World” from MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #17. Not a lot of Kirby, of course, but you get some Mayer, Redondo, Aragones, Wrightson, Toth, Cardy and a few dozen more in the 550 page book. ToW link