Monthly Archives: March 2007

Surfer book confirmation

by
Posted in Admin.

Thanks to Glen for answering the previous post about reprint editions of the 1978 SILVER SURFER book, and sending this scan of the cover of a 1997 paperback reprint (ISBN #0-7851-0652-9) that he has. I was into Kirby and going to comic shops on a pretty regular basis back then and I don’t think I saw a copy of it. And searching that ISBN on the usual places online shows either no record of the book, or a Masterworks edition of the early Buscema issues or this book, just as the ISBN for the hardcover is as likely to come up with some other book entirely. I suspect that Marvel might have mistakenly slapped duplicate ISBNs on some books.

surf97.jpg

For the record, Galactus face from page 43, Galactus hands from page 29, Earth from page 18, Surfer from page 30 and some of that Kirby crackle and the tech around the edge from some other source. You know, Kirby did a perfectly fine cover for this book (see TJKC #9 backcover). And bad enough that this was hard to find when it was re-released in 1997, why is there no edition in-print now that the Surfer is going to be in, y’know, a movie?

Surfer book query

by
Posted in Admin.

I’ve been trying to definitively establish some sort of reprinting history for Kirby’s 1978 SILVER SURFER book published by Fireside. I know there was a hardcover edition dated March 1995, officially titled MARVEL LIMITED: SILVER SURFER, with an ISBN of 0785101179 and with a print run of 742 copies according to the enclosed note. What I’d like to know is, was there ever a mass-market reprint (hardcover or softcover) from Marvel at that time or since? The internets are proving no help as that ISBN also seems to refer to some 2001 book by Paul Jenkins, and I’m never sure if any other listing I see is for the original 1978 hardcover or softcover, the “Marvel Limited” book or some other printing that I don’t know of or some other book entirely. So if you have any printing of the book other than the original Fireside hardcover or softcover or the Marvel Limited hardcover, or know for sure that they don’t exist, let me know. If there is any other edition, a scan of the cover would be useful so I know what to look for.

Fantastic Four #236 [1981]

by
Posted in Genre, Superhero.

FF #236 was the the 20th anniversary of the book (it was bi-monthly for the first few issues). To have some Kirby in the issue they took some storyboards he did for the FF cartoon series a few years earlier (though apparently not with Kirby’s “consent and cooperation” as they claim) and adapted it to a 14-page comic book story. For the inks they rounded up most of the available inkers who had worked with Kirby on the 1960s series (Joe Sinnott, Chic Stone, Dick Ayers, George Roussos, Sol Brodsky, Frank Giacoia, Vince Colletta) plus a few later artists (Al Milgrom, Pablo Marcos and John Byrne) and split the pages among them. This page was one of Chic Stone’s.

FantasticFour2361981.jpg

As you can see, the story was “The Challenge of Dr. Doom”, adapted from FF #5, most notably changed to substitute the Human Torch with the robotic Herbie. Other than that it pretty much follows the original, with Doom attacking the Baxter Building, sending the boys back to get “Blackbeard’s treasure chest” and getting tricked by his exact wording, as well as a rescue effort from Sue. Still a lot of goofy fun even in this form.

Despite various misgivings on the genesis and quality of this story, it was an interesting glimpse into what Kirby was up after his comic book years, and it was nice to see some of the classic inker combinations one more time. Of course, these days we’ve had a much better chance to see Kirby’s storyboard work in its pure form, including his notes (the recent KIRBY COLLECTOR #47 printed the boards for a full episode).

Published 1981

The Avengers #350 [1992]

by
Posted in Genre, Superhero.

Fifteen years ago AVENGERS made it to #350. These days there isn’t even a single AVENGERS book within reach of #100. Funny how that works.

For this particular milestone they celebrated with some reprints in this flipbook with gatefold covers on both sides. Of note for this weblog are the cover galleries that adorned the covers. A full page was given to the Kirby/Ayers cover of AVENGERS #1, a great start to the series and probably one of the five or six most swiped/homaged Kirby images.

AvengersThe3501992.jpg

Two more Kirby covers get quarter page reprints. AVENGERS #11, the Kirby/Stone cover featuring Spider-Man, and #25, the Kirby/Ayers cover with Doctor Doom. Good choices, but kind of odd not to include #4 and #16 in a roundup of milestone issues of the series.

Published 1992

Fantastic Four #224 [1980]

by
Posted in Genre, Superhero.

Presumably because Marvel had just recovered from their nadir of 17-page comics a few months before, this issue of FF had a 17-page lead story and room for a few more pages. They responded to that with some interesting Kirby content, including the first ever printing of the originally planned cover to FF #3, which is a pretty cool little piece of history. A nice little action shot from the interior story and a demonstration of the powers of the members of the team in the little inset vignettes, while the actual published cover shows off the new costumes better. It was probably a good switch to make, especially at this early issues, setting the book apart from the monster comics which Marvel was publishing.

FantasticFour2241980.jpg

But they had more pages to fill than that, so we also get the “Feature Page” on Mister Fantastic and what his powers are capable of from FF #16, a pin-up of the Invisible Girl in her section of the Fantasi-Car from FF #10 and two feature pages explaining the Torch’s powers from FF #8 and #9 (including his study of weather patterns to avoid rain). But oddly none of the available pin-up pages of the Thing were used. Poor Benjy…

The pin-up/feature pages are inked by Dick Ayers. The unused cover is also credited to Ayers here, but to Sol Brodsky in the Kirby Checklist. I think Brodsky seems more likely, though the printing here makes it hard to say with any confidence.

Published 1980

-Link- Marder’s “Think Kirby”

by
Posted in Links.

If you’ll forgive the self-link to another web project I’m working on, Gunk’l’dunk is a fan site for Larry Marder and his TALES OF THE BEANWORLD series, one of my favourite modern age comic (and a very Kirby-inspired one on a more fundamental level than most), and among the posts on the odd little bits of Marder’s published material I’m doing is this one, one of my favourites, a tribute to Jack Kirby that appeared in AMAZING HEROES #100.

Upcoming Kirby – Marvel in June

by
Posted in Upcoming Kirby.

Interesting set of books in the latest Marvel solicitations. The big one is obviously the second FF OMNIBUS, over 700 pages of Kirby, some of his best work ever, plus various special features (John Morrow mentioned on his blog that he’s writing a piece about “This Man, This Monster” for it).

AVENGERS CLASSIC begins an on-going reprint of the original AVENGERS comics, the first time Marvel’s done Kirby reprints in this format since X-MEN – THE EARLY YEARS in the mid-1990s (most of their comic magazine format reprints of Kirby material since then has been in the form of one-shots or back-up material to new comics). Not sure if the new material here will be a regular feature or just in the first issue, and I’m hoping that bit of nonsensical hype about the “re-mastering” just means it’ll be the more faithful to the original colouring that they use in the Masterworks line now.

ESSENTIAL MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE v2 and MARVEL MASTERWORKS – THE SUB-MARINER v2 are both just listed since they’ll have one Kirby reprint cover each (this and this, respectively).

ffo2.jpgFANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS VOL. 2 HC
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY
Cover by JACK KIRBY

With all that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby accomplished in their first 30 issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, who would have thought they were just warming up? Well, True Believers, now it’s time to jump into the fire because the second 30 are where they really start to turn up the heat!
Their achievements reflect the boundless energy of two creators at the top of their game with each issue, character and creation building upon and exceeding the scope of the last. It’s a list of accomplishments unparalleled in the history of comics: the origin of Dr. Doom; the Frightful Four; the Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm; the Inhumans; the first appearance of the Silver Surfer; the Galactus Saga; the debut of the world’s first black super hero, the Black Panther; the cosmic clash between the FF, the Surfer and Dr. Doom; and, of course, “This Man, This Monster!” – the story widely regarded as the greatest FF tale of all!

Collecting the greatest stories from the World’s Greatest Comics Magazine in one, massive collector’s edition that has been painstakingly restored and recolored from the sharpest material in the Marvel Archives. With critical essays on the Lee/Kirby collaboration and bonus features a-plenty, this book is nothing short of a cornerstone to the Marvel Universe!

Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR #31-60 and ANNUAL #2-4.
832 PGS. $99.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2403-9

AVENGERS CLASSIC #1
Written by STAN LEE & DWAYNE MCDUFFIE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, MIKE OEMING & KEVIN MAGUIRE
Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS

In the tradition of CLASSIC X-MEN, we’re re-presenting the original AVENGERS #1 digitally re-mastered with THX ™ surround sound and a brand spankin’ new cover by ARTHUR ADAMS! But that’s not all!!! We have not one, but TWO brand new short stories as well! DWAYNE McDUFFIE and painter MICHAEL AVON OEMING bring you a tale of the Avengers first tumultuous meeting and STAN “THE MAN” LEE (who started it all!) and artist extraordinaire KEVIN MAGUIRE bring you a compelling tale about how the Avengers REALLY formed!
Face it, this book is HOT!
48 PGS. $3.99
SPECIAL OVER-SIZED FIRST ISSUE!

ESSENTIAL MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE VOL. 2 TPB
Written by MARV WOLFMAN, ROGER SLIFER, TOM DEFALCO, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, RALPH MACCHIO, JOHN BYRNE, PETER GILLIS, ALAN KUPPERBERG, BILL MANTLO, MARY JO DUFFY, STEVEN GRANT & JIM STARLIN
Penciled by RON WILSON, JOHN BUSCEMA, ERNIE CHAN, SAL BUSCEMA, BOB HALL, ALAN KUPPERBERG, CHIC STONE, FRANK MILLER & JIM CRAIG
Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ

Cosmic calamities, espionage, black magic, time travel, alien gangsters and martial-arts madness: Benjamin J. Grimm can handle it all, but he won’t have to face it alone! Stars old and new shine when the thunderous Thing joins them against many of the most magnificent menaces the Marvel Universe can offer! Invasions, impersonations, assassinations and transformations! Plus: when heroes play poker! Guest-starring Captain America, Daredevil, Ms. Marvel, the Black Panther, Moon Knight, Spider-Woman and more! Collecting MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #26-52 and ANNUAL #2-3.

568 PGS. $16.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2758-5

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE SUB-MARINER VOL. 2 HC
Written by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS, ARCHIE GOODWIN & RAYMOND MARAIS
Penciled by BILL EVERETT, DAN ADKINS, GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN & WERNER ROTH
Cover by JOHN BUSCEMA

After a five-year drought, it’s time for Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner to come ashore with a second spectacular Masterworks offering. One of Marvel’s oldest and most storied characters, the Sub-Mariner protects the undersea kingdom of Atlantis from the threats of the murky deep, and from those pesky pink-skinned land lubbers!

In this volume, you’ll be treated to the amazing illustration of Namor’s creator, Bill Everett, as he brings his unmatched ability to craft action and adventure in all things aquatic. You’ll also be graced by the first scripts of heir apparent to the scripting crown of Atlantis, Roy Thomas, as he builds the foundation for the Sub-Mariner’s leap into his very own solo series! With head-to-head battles with the Hulk, guest art by Gene Colan and the first of John Buscema’s classic run on the character, you’ll need an aqualung not to be drowned out by the majesty of this Masterworks!

Collecting TALES TO ASTONISH #88-101, IRON MAN & SUB-MARINER #1 and SUB-MARINER #1.
240 PGS. $54.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2688-0

Upcoming Kirby – Fourth World Omnibus v2

by
Posted in Upcoming Kirby.

Still two months before the first book comes out, but it seems the lead time for solicitations gets longer every year, so here’s the info on the second FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS. At this rate you’ll be able to get a four volume full colour hardcover set of the Fourth World by this time next year (and no, I don’t know which cover mockup will actually be on which book either).

fwo2.jpgJACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS VOL. 2
Written by Jack Kirby; Art and Cover by Kirby and Mike Royer

Continuing the 4-book series collecting the work of Jack Kirby! DC collects four series — THE NEW GODS, THE FOREVER PEOPLE, MISTER MIRACLE and SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN — in chronological order as they originally appeared. These comics spanned galaxies, from the streets of Metropolis to the far-flung worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips, as cosmic-powered heroes and villains struggled for supremacy.

In this second volume, collecting NEW GODS #4-6 ,FOREVER PEOPLE #4-6, JIMMY OLSEN #141-145 and MISTER MIRACLE #4-6 , the evil Darkseid’s schemes continue to unfold while the New Gods, Forever People, Mr. Miracle and other heroes battle his many minions!

396pg. $49.99 US
On Sale August 22, 2007

The Avengers #24 [1966] – Cover

by
Posted in Genre, Superhero.

Cute little Kirby/Ayers cover showing how little the villains of the Marvel universe believe in fair play. Although, you have to admit, it’s nice of them to make sure that the only three guys actually shooting their weapons are those facing the guy with the indestructible shield.

AvengersThe241966C.jpg

Published 1966

-Link- Kirby documentary news

by
Posted in Links.

John Morrow has news on the inclusion on an hour-long documentary about Jack Kirby in an upcoming extended DVD release of a FANTASTIC FOUR film based on his creations. Also a great colour image of a Kirby collage from SPIRIT WORLD which will appear in black and white in an upcoming JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR.