Fully $9.95 Authorized THE NEW By The In The US Kirby Estate

SPOTLIGHTING KIRBY’S LEAST- KNOWN WORK! In The Days Of The Mob ISSUE #32, JULY 2001 Collector Dingbats of Danger Street Soul Love True Divorce Cases The Black Hole The Prisoner Marvel Westerns The Horde and more!

A Long-Lost Kirby Interview Mark Evanier on the Fourth World Kirby Checklist UPDATE Unpublished Art including published pages Before They Were Inked, And Much More!! Contents

OPENING SHOT ...... 2 THE NEW (to those who say “We don’t need no stinkin’ unknown Kirby work”, the editor politely says “Phooey”) UNDER THE COVERS ...... 4 (the story behind the somewhat Glen Campbell-looking fellow on our covers) JACK F.A.Q. s ...... 6 (Mark Evanier answers a reader’s ISSUE #32, JULY 2001 Collector Frequently Asked Questions about the Fourth World) ANIMATED GESTURES ...... 11 (Eric Nolen-Weathington begins his ongoing crusade to make sense of some of the animation art Kirby drew) IN HIS OWN WORDS ...... 12 (Kirby speaks in this long-lost interview from France—oui!) CREDIT CHECK ...... 22 (Kirby sets a new record, as we present the long-awaited update to the Kirby Checklist, courtesy of Richard Kolkman) GALLERY ...... 32 (some of Kirby’s least-known and/or never-seen art gets its day in the sun) KIRBY AS A GENRE ...... 44 (Adam McGovern takes another swat at those pesky Kirby homages that are swarming around his mailbox) INTERNATIONALITIES ...... 46 (this issue’s look at Jack’s international influence finds Jean-Marie Arnon owes the King a huge debt) TRIVIA ...... 50 (an impossibly hard quiz with absolutely no prizes! What could be more fun?) JACK RUBY STORY ...... 51 (pages from the impossible-to-find Esquire Magazine story) RETROSPECTIVE ...... 52 (we take aim at Kirby’s Mighty Marvel Western Gunfighters—plus present an index of his cowboy books!) UNEARTHED ...... 64 (Jack’s son Neal Kirby clues us in on the Original Teen Agent) GALLERY EXTRA! ...... 66 (additional True Divorce pages) NOVELTY ...... 68 (the scoop on Kirby’s unfinished novel The Horde , courtesy of Janet Berliner, Ray Wyman, and Peter Burke) COLLECTOR COMMENTS ...... 76 (a whopping four-page lettercol this ish, dealing largely with our largesse!) PARTING SHOT ...... 80 Front cover painting: LADRONN Back cover inks: DAVID ROACH Back cover color: TOM ZIUKO Photocopies of Jack’s uninked pencils from published comics are reproduced here courtesy of the Kirby Estate, which has our thanks for their continued support.

This issue dedicated to the memory of Rich Morrissey, a real challenger of the unknown

COPYRIGHTS: Big Barda, Black Racer, Darkseid, Dingbats of Danger Street, Funky Flashman, Glorious Godfrey, Guardian, In The Days Of The Mob, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, Manhunter, Morgan Edge, Newsboy Legion, Orion, Perry White, Phantom of the Sewers, Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter, Scott Free, Soul Love, Spirit World, Superman, Terry Dean, True Divorce Cases © DC Comics • 2001: A Space Odyssey art, Avengers, Black Panther, Black Rider, Captain America, Daredevil, Devil Dinosaur, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Giant-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, Kid Colt, Leader, Machine Man, Montana Brown, Moonboy, Rawhide Kid, Scarlet Witch, Sgt. Fury, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Thor, Two-Gun Kid, Vision, Wasp, Wonder Man, Wyatt Earp © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Capt. Victory, Flesh Crawl, Killer Bee, Silver Star, Sundance of Mars, Teen Pencils from Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter #3 (Aug. 1975), probably Kirby’s least-known published work for DC Comics in the 1970s. Agent, The Horde, Tiger 21, Unknown Hero © Jack Kirby Estate • Stuntman © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby • Planet of the Apes is a trademark of 20th Century Fox. Art is © Ruby-Spears • Prime8 TM The Jack Kirby Collector , Vol. 9, No. 32, July 2001. Published quarterly by & © TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092. & © Jon B. Cooke • Prisoner © ITV • Jack Ruby art © Esquire John Morrow, Editor. Pamela Morrow, Asst. Editor. Eric Nolen-Weathington, Production Assistant. Single issues: $13 postpaid ($15 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Four- Magazine • Black Hole TM & © Walt Disney Productions, Inc. • Dinosaur Bop, Eddy Bochrane © Jean-Marie Arnon • Socko the issue subscriptions: $36.00 US, $60.00 Canada, $64.00 elsewhere. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby unless Seadog, Abdul Jones, Lone Rider, and Detective Riley are © their otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA. respective copyright holders 1 Opening Shot

(background) Pages from the never-published Soul was never the same after. Still others grew up on Golden Age work, or Love b-&-w magazine, his ’70s Marvel series, and feel that’s the primo work.) mostly inked by Vinnie Challenges Of I think that when DC abandoned the idea of True Divorce Cases in Colletta (with one Tony favor of pursuing the Soul Love concept, they missed the boat. My personal Dezuniga-inked story). opinion, after having read most of both books, is that True Divorce was a The Unknown really exceptional assembly of stories and art, whereas Soul Love is about as far from being Kirby’s best work as Fantastic Four is from being his worst...... but why should you give a flying fig what I think? (Hey, I’m the guy or, “Should Kirby’s Least-Known Work Stay That who’s been lobbying DC Comics for years to finally print the two unused Way?” by John Morrow, Editor Dingbats of Danger Street stories Kirby drew.) The fun of being a Kirby fan to me is discovering (or rediscovering) all of Jack’s work, good and bad. I hen Jim Amash interviewed Carmine hate the thought of anyone keeping me from even the least of it. Infantino about his work with Simon & So, should Kirby’s least-known work stay that way? Since Jack obviously WW Kirby in the 1950s (an interview that had to won’t be producing any new work, I think anything— anything —unseen be cut from this issue for space reasons, but will by Kirby deserves to be published if possible. Sure, Jack had his share of appear in TJKC #34), Carmine mentioned Jack’s clunkers (it’s bound to happen in a 50-year career), but sweeping them proposed 1970s book Soul Love, saying simply, “It under the rug doesn’t serve anyone, least of all Jack. There’s a wealth of wasn’t that good and we didn’t publish it.” amazing Kirby material still to be published, and this issue’s dedicated to In hindsight, it looks like that was one of it. You may not like it all—you may not like any of it—but at least you can Carmine’s better calls as DC’s publisher. Based on be the judge of whether it’s good or not. I’m sure Jack poured as much of reader response to the story “The Teacher” we his heart and (dare I say it) soul into it as he did on your favorite Kirby ran in TJKC #23, Soul Love, if it’d been published, work. From Soul Love and True Divorce Cases, to In The Days Of The Mob could easily stand out as Kirby’s biggest turkey of and The Prisoner, to the Black Hole strip and Dingbats of Danger Street , it’s the 1970s (or maybe any decade)—and frankly, I probably somebody’s favorite (okay, maybe not Soul Love —sheesh!) and can’t get enough of it! As one reader put it, the I’m dedicated to making sure as much of it as possible gets seen. # story was “just awful, and not to be missed!” While it’s mind-boggling to see a guy of Jack’s caliber producing such an awkward, ill-conceived strip at the same time he was producing some - thing of the quality of his Fourth World series, I’ve gotta hand it to Kirby for trying (and for the really nice art job he turned in), even if the plots and dialogue left a lot to be desired. Kirby aficionados will recall the concept for Soul Love spun off from “Old Fires” (previously printed in the Kirby Masterworks portfolio), a two-page filler created for an earlier unused book, True Divorce Cases. We ran a story from TDC back in TJKC #20, and reader response was exactly the opposite; they overall loved it! So there’s the dilemma: Does Jack’s least- known work deserve to be seen? I’ve gotten a handful of vaguely-similar letters from readers over the announcement of this issue’s theme, basically saying, “There’s a reason this stuff hasn’t been published; it’s terrible!” Yeah, well, sez you! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and it was never truer than when applied to Kirby’s work. What’s so amazing about Kirby fans is how they focus on a certain series or time period that’s their favorite, and they’ll proclaim Kirby was at his absolute peak then; but unlike most other artists, you won’t get a consensus. (My favorite is his 1970s DC work, probably because that’s when I first was exposed to him. Legions of fans swear he peaked in the mid-1960s on Fantastic Four, and

2 Mark evanier Jack F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby (below) Readers raved by Mark Evanier about Mike Royer’s re- inks of a Thor page last Andy Ihnatko is a fine writer whose work can be perused at www.ihnatko.com. issue, so here’s a recent He sent in our first letter: one from Jimmy Olsen #139 (originally inked by My Question for The Kirby Answer Man: “What’s the deal with Fourth World?” Oddly enough Vinnie Colletta for the that’s about as fine a point as I can put on the question. I—like many others—am aware that July 1971 issue). Kirby created this entire mythos, but am totally unclear on (a) what the basic story and theme is, (b) Thanks again to Tom why Darkseid is such a biggie, (c) who those other people are, (d) did Kirby have a clear plan for this or Kraft and his website was he just making it up as he went along, (e) was he kidding when he came up with this idea of Death as a www.whatifkirby.com medieval knight on skis, (f) no, seriously... he was going for a laugh by parodying the Silver Surfer, right? and finally (g) how does all of this matter for supplying this! in the larger creative world of DC? kay, I’m going to start with the easy parts of this septuple- OO barreled query and work my way towards the hard ones... (g) I have no idea how any of it matters in the larger creative world of DC. I suppose it depends on the extent to which the curators of that world choose to incorporate Jack’s characters and concepts. Personally, I was never entirely comfy with how the New Gods interfaced with the odd array of mortals and Martians that peopled the DC universe, just as it never seemed right to me that The God of Thunder palled around with The Avengers. Had creative purity been Jack’s only consideration, I believe he’d have preferred it all to be a stand-alone mythos. However, uppermost in Mr. Kirby’s concern was that he wanted the series to be successful—successful enough to expand into multiple books and to become as important to DC as, say, Superman. He also liked the notion that his new concepts would energize the Superman books. All of this meant having his characters intermingle with DC’s other characters and becoming a part of their universe. (d) By and large, Jack did not have a clear plan for anything he did. He had a bottomless supply of ideas and con - cepts, and he generally had a sense of the direction in which he wanted to move. But insofar as having a detailed outline which he would then follow, no, he did not have a clear plan. This is why, when folks ask me how Jack would have ended the New Gods saga, all I can do is tell them some of the things he said he had in mind. It would not have surprised me one bit if he’d cooked up something quite different. You have to understand how Jack worked. He would often plot out and draw a sequence—and it was this way at Marvel, as well—with only a “feel” for where he was going next. And he would sometimes change his mind in mid-creation and wind up as surprised as anyone at how his story had turned out. 6 In His Own Words The Lost Kirby Inte

by Annie Baron-Carvais (text and photograph ©2001 Annie Baron-Carvais) Transcribed by Eric Nolen-Weathington [Editor’s note: This interview, conducted over twenty years ago, was first published last year (in French) (right) A photo of by Sémic in the comic book DC Spécial #7 (March 2000). We’d like to thank Thierry Mornet and his Jack from the day of Sémic staff, particularly Jean-Marc Lainé and Jean-Francois Porcherot, for the authorization to publish this interview. it in TJKC. Thanks a lot, guys! By the way, the Sémic publications are great!]

(below) Annie’s Cap (As a French student in American Civilization in the late Seventies, I chose to work on the evolution of the drawing that adorned American super-heroes for my Ph.D. thesis. I was a friend of the late Bob Brown, artist of Daredevil . I told him the cover of her thesis. that I would love to meet Jack Kirby one day, and Bob gave me Jack’s phone number! I could only meet him a year-and-a-half after Bob’s death. It was in November 1978; I was then living in the States. It was shortly before Thanksgiving when I phoned and asked if I could visit him in Thousands Oaks, CA (not far from Los Angeles). We met on the afternoon of November 8th, 1978 at his house. With me that day came Danny, a sixteen-year-old enthusiastic comic book fan who happened to be my then-boyfriend’s kid brother and occasional chauffeur. Roz prepared tea, we discussed a lot, then con - ducted the interview. Then we visited his studio, filled with his material, where his drawing table stood. I asked him to draw a Captain America (which I later used for the cover of my thesis), and he nicely did it for me. I still keep the original as one of my most precious treasures. Unfortunately I can’t find the picture which was made of me standing next to Jack while he was drawing it. He autographed it to Isabelle, my real first name being Anne-Isabelle (I used only “Isabelle” for many years). He was really impressed that it was for a Ph.D.! He couldn’t understand I was studying comics and that his art could be so well-known in France: “Okay, sounds like you’re crazy, but if it makes you happy, why not?” It seemed to me that American comics were not as recognized in the States as they were in France. He was really happy during this session. You can even hear him laugh a few times on the tape. The questions dealt with sociology and civilization oriented for my research on super-heroes, and must be placed in the context of the late ’70s.

This interview has been known by a few French fans for a long time. I was often asked for it but always declined the offer. I wanted to keep it to myself until recently. My friend Jean-Marc Lainé had been telling me for years that I should publish it; when he started working with Sémic (French publisher specializing in the trans - lation of American comics), I finally agreed to give it away. I didn’t sell it to make money, but it took me quite some time to rework and translate it into French. This interview had been my secret treasure for many years; but today, Jack and Roz are gone. In retrospect, it was a real privilege meeting Jack, whom I consider my favorite American artist. This interview is the only testimony of that magical November afternoon I so fondly remember. I am very happy now to have it published in The Jack Kirby Collector for a wider American audience, 23 years after it happened.) 12 rview

JACK KIRBY: I began reading science- fiction, and that was happening all over the country, and I’m quite sure that Superman coming from another planet was part of that imaginative concept which Siegel and Shuster were engrossed in. ANNIE BARON-CARVAIS: In 1940—I’m not sure, I can’t remember his name—someone else drew Superman and changed Superman a lot; the way he looked. What was his name? JACK: Wayne Boring? ANNIE: Yes. JACK: Yeah, he had his own particu - lar style. It was a good style. There were quite a few artists who drew Superman. ANNIE: Why did he make the big muscles and...? JACK: Because that’s how he saw him. Each man has his own version of things. I drew Superman, too, and, of course, I drew him in my version. He looked quite different from Wayne Boring’s. ANNIE: There are so many drawings of Superman and Batman. They are very different. ANNIE: He has no brains; he doesn’t look like a JACK: Somehow, the company feels it’s incumbent to retain that man, and he has big muscles. That’s the only thing you see. one energy. There’s a point to that. You’re selling a certain product, JACK: That was demanded by the company at the time when you want the product to look the same. If somebody does too Superman came on the scene. As the years passed, in order to much of a departure from that product, they feel it might keep Superman sustained, they had to find new ways of doing it. be harmful, so they’ll give it to an artist who will You have to find new ways of sustaining a character. You say, draw it as closely as possible to the “What can I really do to bring some interest to the strip this image that the company week?” and you say, “Well, Superman must live somewhere. wants. Maybe he’s got a little room somewhere”, and they put this in New York or something like that. Of course, nobody ever thought of that. (this page) Some ANNIE: They wrote a new 17-page story about how samples of Kirby’s Superman came to Earth, because they started to 1930s comic strip think about how Superman came to Earth. work under various JACK: Oh, sure. I think when it becomes necessary to pseudonyms. From explore a product, that’s when it begins to grow. When top to bottom: Abdul Jones, Detective Superman began there was nothing more involved than Riley, The Lone Rider, him stopping trains or breaking chains or lifting cars. That’s ANNIE: and Socko the all he had to do and people would buy it on the stands. That’s Seadog. All were Something interesting: all the company had to do. Why do more? And then, of course, scanned from proofs If your heroes are normal and get the public got used to him lifting cars and performing these that have been in married, you know what they are made of. miracles. They said, “We know Superman can perform miracles. Kirby’s files for over But Superman or Batman—if you look at Superman, he So what?” There comes a time when the public says “so what?” 60 years. has no sex. It’s just big muscles. We can’t allow that; and you say, “Maybe they’d be interested if JACK: He’s an angel. they knew where Superman lived, or if Spider-Man lives next door.” ANNIE: Is it because of a sense of...? ANNIE: How about Spider-Man? Something that’s interesting— JACK: Well, at that time it wasn’t necessary, in order to sell a most super-heroes are always winning; Spider-Man wasn’t always comic, to make a complex character. winning. He loses sometimes.

13 JACK: That makes him interesting. That particular interesting to me. There isn’t one character I draw comic book that was published in 1954, you’re variation makes him interesting. I’m not fond of, and that goes for the villains, too. going to see 1954. You’re going to see the people, They’re all people to me, even the villains; and of the fashion, the automobiles, the houses. Everything ANNIE: What about the fascist aspect of the super- course, that’s why the villains have dimension; is going to be 1954, except when we would do hero? That is to say, to make people respect the law, that’s why the villains become people, because I see something that would take us in a far future, and they have to use a kind of.... A Superman places him - them as people. that would only be a vision of the far future. self above everybody. Do you see any fascist aspects? ANNIE: Do you think the evolution of the super- ANNIE: I think the comic strip that’s the biggest JACK: No. There’s no fascist aspect there concerning hero is related to the evolution of our society? We’re aberration—the way it looks and the gadgets—is a Superman, unless it’s deliberately done by whoever going further and further with atomic radiations Batman. Batman is adding many gadgets other peo - produces him. For instance, if it was a fascist source and things we can’t control. ple can use. that was producing a Superman, you’d see a fascist Superman. If it was JACK: Yes, because the super- a religious source hero, like any other person— that was producing ANNIE: You don’t see this a Superman, you with Superman. would see another type of Superman. JACK: You’ll see with the other super-heroes most of ANNIE: About reli - our advanced technology is gion: In Europe, we represented in comic books; have mythology, but possibly not in Superman America was a new because his own natural char - country and you acteristics are on an equal didn’t have myth- par with our technology. He ology. Do you think can hear in the next room the super-hero where we would have to use replaced American some kind of a gadget. He mythology? can see into the next room JACK: The American where we would have to use mythology was an X-ray. Superman doesn’t growing. We had need that technology; he mythology all along. already has it. It’s part of him. We had Paul ANNIE: Do you think that Bunyan; we had the advances of the comic Wild Bill Cody; we book will grow or decrease? had Paul Revere. JACK: I think they might ANNIE: Do you change in shape; they might think Superman is change in outlook, but under those same they’re still going to reflect rules? what we see all around us. JACK: Yes, he’s part ANNIE: And do you plan to of Americana. create some new super-heroes? Superman is as American as Wyatt JACK: If I’m asked to do it, I Earp. He’s a new always do my best. form of Americana. ANNIE: Okay, you’ll do it if In time, we’ll acquire you’re asked to do it. Will other symbols of you do it without anyone ask - what we are; other ing you? symbols of Americana. America will change JACK: I can do it; I’m capable in some ways and of doing it. she’ll need new sym - DANNY: Did you just create bols. The fascist Machine Man and Devil societies initiated a Dinosaur because you wanted change in their to or because Stan Lee came societies. All their up to you—? products began to look fascist. Their JACK: They needed two other paintings began to books, and of course, that’s look fascist. The way part of a job. Here I was look - they dressed; all the ing into a dinosaur and, of products are a reflection of a society and what we JACK: Yes, we’re headed for that. course, that was great because I had an interesting produce is American. Everything is going to look premise—it was man in the present during the ANNIE: Like Spider-Man was bitten by a radioac - American and be accepted as American. I like that same age as the dinosaur—and I began to think tive spider, and the Fantastic Four is the same, and kind of thing. I think that our own particular music about that and it began to shape up into a very, very the Hulk is the same. and our own particular type of dance and our own interesting situation. It was a good book. I came out particular type of expressions unify us in a way. JACK: Now remember, they were created in a period with a good book. I got good characters, I began to when the atom bomb was very visible. They reflect see the dinosaur as a person. [laughter] I got a good ANNIE: What are your favorite super-heroes? our fears; they reflect our tastes; they reflect our situation out of that, and I found that the reader JACK: My favorite super-heroes? Every character is thinking; they reflect our dress. If you look in a had an empathy with the dinosaur, just like I had 14 Credit Check Kirby Checklist Update

by Kirby Checklist compiler Richard Kolkman at one point, until vetoed by a collector’s first-hand viewing (the art in question is probably by Syd Shores). hen the Jack Kirby Checklist was published in December Among the Overstreet queries which produced positive hits 1998, there were bound to be some omissions and errors were: Archie Comics Digest #32, Crazy #85, and Real Clue Crime WW in a compilation of its size. Despite Jack Kirby’s modesty, Stories V.2#4. The jury may always be out on the cover of Mystic he had a pretty big career! In the last three years, we have been Comics #6—is it Kirby/Schomburg, or just Schomburg? Who steadily compiling submissions from Kirby fans around the other than these two gentlemen could’ve solved this mystery? world in an effort to update and clarify the Checklist. The updated Well-meaning fans are still submitting comic cover house information is presented here, in a format designed to be ads (such as Marvel’s), which if included, would open too many removed, folded and added to the ’98 Checklist (but you might avenues to list. Likewise, any cover smaller than full page is not want to photocopy it if you don’t have the strength of will to mar listed (ex: early Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics covers). Exceptions this beautiful treasury-sized mag). include alternate cover art, or art specifically drawn for a particular house ad, such as in Captain America #192. Also, we’ve listed Copies of the 100-page First, the five Checklist deletions: individual panel repros from older issues such as those in Avengers Kirby Checklist are still 1) Journey into Mystery #55 “I Found The Giant In The Sky” turns Special #1 and Fantastic Four #124, just because fans need to know available (see the inside out to be by Ditko. these things. The confusing cover to Marvel Collectors’ Item back cover of this issue for 2) Spidey Super Stories #24 cover is by Romita, not Kirby (this was Classics #12 has finally been traced to its multiple sources. Anyone ordering info). It lists every my very own error in judgment). who can find the source material to “Ben Doing The Twist” in Kirby comic in the level of 3) Adventures of the Fly #4 is sans Kirby according to reputable detail you see here, plus Marvel’s Greatest Comics #29 deserves a gold-plated No-Prize! sources. books, portfolios, unpub - Among the fantastic finds from Kirby Collector readers are: 4) X-Men #31 cover is decidedly a pure Adkins cover (regardless lished work, it cross- Complete Detective Cases #1 “Mystery (Of The Bashful Bride- of swipes), and lastly— references reprints, and Butcher)”, Fantastic Four #35 cover inker (confirmed by Dick 5) X-Men #79—no cover on #31 means no full page reprint of more—a must-have item Ayers), Golden Record Comic Set #SLP-188 (correction), In Love #4 TM that cover in this issue. for eBay shoppers! cover, dozens of 1970s Marvel Western cover reprints (unearthed A meticulous item-by-item comparison with the Overstreet by Nick Caputo), and Showcase #15 “Space Ships Of The Past” (2 This Checklist Update Comic Book Price Guide turns up over a hundred Kirby comics listed pages). We’ve also re-listed Marvel Mystery Comics #12-27 story was compiled by in the Checklist but not in Overstreet. While we’re not concerned synopses featuring The Vision, to clarify these otherwise untitled Richard Kolkman, with contributions with that disparity, we did take notice of the 59 comics listed in stories. since 1998 from: Overstreet which purportedly contain Kirby art, but were not in There are plenty of new items added to the periodicals, ani - the Checklist. Upon solicited inspection by die-hard Kirby collectors, mation, miscellaneous, and unpublished sections to keep Kirby Ger Apeldoorn virtually all were confirmed to not contain Kirby art. Notorious collectors everywhere busy reading for years, and the key to Blake Bell examples included: Daredevil #136 cover, Journey into Mystery abbreviations and notations is at the end of it. Enjoy! # Derrick Bostrum #50, 51, Iron Man #13 cover, Thor #178 cover, and more of the Jerry Boyd Nicholas Caputo usual suspects. Super Rabbit #1 (Atlas) was added to the Checklist Daryl Coats Jean Depelley Jean-Pierre Dupont Shane Foley William Gee Paul Gravett Kirby Sets New Record! Chris Green Christopher Harder by Mark Alexander Annual #1. Add that to the rest Ed Hatton of Kirby’s 9/63 canon and Bob Heer ven after his death King Kirby keeps setting all-time records here’s what you get: Frank R. Johnson in the annals of comic history. A new study shows the King Axel Kahlstorff E has topped the previously assumed record for the most pro - E BOOK PAGE COUNT Gene Kehoe Ted Krasniewski lific month of published work by a comics artist. Dig this: Avengers #1 22 John Libertine Having received my mail-order copy of FF Annual #1 the other Fantastic Four #18 21 Geoffrey H. Mahfuz day, I noticed the ads in it cross-reference with the ads in Avengers FF Annual #1 57 Clifton Marley #1. Knowing that X-Men #1 came out the same month as Avengers Sgt. Fury #3 23 (22 pages & 1 pg. special feature) Rich Mayone #1 (actually July 1963, but postdated Sept. ’63), I started thinking X-Men #1 23 Harry Mendryk what a banner month that had been for Marvel, and how prodi - TOTAL 146 PAGES Tom Morehouse giously hard Kirby must have worked during that period. John Morrow However, when I checked the Sept. ’63 “publication time - In addition, that same month Kirby drew the covers for Rick Norwood line” in The Art of Jack Kirby, there was no mention of FF Annual Journey Into Mystery #96, Kid Colt #112, Strange Tales #112, Tales Andrew Smith #1. The book gives it no definite publication date other than of Suspense #45, Tales to Astonish #47, and Two-Gun Kid #65—six Fred Smith “Summer 1963.” (Note: This is not to fault author Ray Wyman covers in all. Dr. Thomas Sodano Jr., because nowhere on the cover or indicia of FF Annual #1 is Most books list Kirby’s all-time monthly output as 142 pages Jim Steranko Greg Stomberg any month mentioned.) and 5 covers, published in Sept. 1947. This assumption, although Carl Taylor In any event, it was fairly simple to nail down a release date staggering, is incorrect. Kirby’s all-time blitzkrieg month was Stan Taylor for this book. Besides the aforementioned cross reference of the actually Sept. 1963. The Count: 146 pages and 6 covers! Also, during Daniel Tesmoingt ads (i.e. Avengers #1 advertises FF Annual #1 and vice-versa), The the month Kirby did his biggest page count, no fewer than three Greg Theakston Official Index to the Fantastic Four and The Official Index to the of the books ( FF Annual #1, Avengers #1, and X-Men #1) rank Joel Thingvall Avengers both confirm that FF Annual #1 was indeed released the among the greatest comics of all time. In other words, even R.J. Vitone same month as Avengers #1, X-Men #1, and all other Marvel comics under the most staggering workload imaginable, the man was Jamie Wilson dated Sept. 1963. Here’s why that’s important: producing books of the highest quality. This, to my mind, is what Bruce Younger There are a whopping 57 pages of original material in FF makes the accomplishment so dazzling. # 22 U 2 ,

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Hey Kids! Photocopy these pages, trim on the dotted lines, and fold them in half—they’ll fit perfectly in your Kirby Checklist! 23 Gallery On the next five pages, we present art from Kirby’s still unpublished In The Days Of The Mob #2, with inks and letters by Mike Royer.

32 33 Internationalities He Who Pays His De Jean-Marie Arnon Interviewed by Jean Depelley (Jean Marie Arnon was born on July 28th, 1956 in Argentat, France. After working as a woodcutter between (below) A page for 1979 and 1984, and a technician in a Parisian theater for five years, he finally became a comic book artist Arnon’s Dinosaur Bop for Zenda Publishing in 1989 with his first graphic novel L’odeur des Filles from the Dinosaur Bop series, showing Eddy series. Five graphic albums and a one-shot comic book Exobiologie have since completed the series. Two Bochran, who was more contemporary-situated graphic novels, Les furies (1999) and L’invasion (2000) were also pub - inspired by Lux lished by Albin Michel. Arnon is currently working on a new and still untitled series dealing with witch - Interior, lead singer craft which will hit the stands next Fall in the French monthly L’Ècho des Savanes. Jean-Marie Arnon’s for The Cramps (see art style can be defined as a mixture of Kirby’s powerful idiosyncrasy, eroticism, and cartoony elements. inset). This interview was conducted by phone on July 11, 2000 and was copy-edited by Jean-Marie Arnon who provided the final title. We wish to thank Mona Fatoui and especially Jean-Marie Arnon for their time and kindness. The art was really appreciated, Jean-Marie. Thanks!)

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: How were you first exposed to US comics? JEAN-MARIE ARNON: I think I was with the French publication Fantask, which then [circa 1969] published the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer and Spider-Man! I used to read Prince Valiant before but it was Fantask, as far as comics are concerned! TJKC: So it was a direct exposure to Kirby’s work? ARNON: Well, as a matter of fact, the first Fantastic Four s were not my favorites! I was more into Buscema’s Silver Surfer. I started to pay attention to Kirby’s work later on and he eventually became the essential artist for me without my noticing it! At that time, Buscema’s pencils seemed at first sight easier to me, with their obvious elegance, while the first Fantastic Four published in Fantask were not Kirby’s graphic masterpieces! Now that I remember, my first exposure to US comics might have occurred earlier. When I was a five- or six-year- old kid, my father bought me pocket comics now and then, titles like Aventures Fiction and Sidral that were published by Artima. There were short stories from DC with the occasional Kirby work [episodes from the Challengers of the Unknown series, ’50s sci-fi shorts from Tales of the Unexpected, House of Secrets, House of Mystery ]. So I was already a Kirby fan even if I didn’t know it myself! I’ve only realized that fact recently. As a child, I didn’t pay close attention to the artist! TJKC: You were not interested in the credit boxes? ARNON: Not at all! (Laughs) TJKC: Can you explain what you like in Kirby’s art? ARNON: Oh, there are so many things I like! At first, I think his graphic art was the most modern in the comic field this end of the century. I naturally like the energy and creativity. I think Kirby never lingered too long on aesthetics. I happen to realize that fact as an artist myself. Aesthetics were not his goal: The energy and the pace of the story always came first! I can’t remember one of his pencil works on which you can say, “He did that line here to have a pretty composition.” There is a kind of primitive and unsurpassable strength in his art, something really vital! It is very modern and incredibly efficient. I think he opened a new way to draw that had been unexplored before. As a matter of fact, I owe Kirby so much that giving him tribute is too small a word! 46 ebt Becomes Richer TJKC: Could you introduce your Dinosaur Bop series to American readers? ARNON: The original idea came to me at a time when I was not a comic book artist. I was then a wood - cutter and I used to draw in the evening in my spare time. At that time, I was more into Rock music: I was a big Cramps fan! You’ll find many references to the band in my books! The French comics dedicated to Rock ’n Roll that were published then were not to my tastes because too many things were missing inside, and it came to me one day. I thought to myself that only one art could express the energy that I liked in that some - what prehistoric music, and it was Kirby’s! That was not something artificial, but the two major influences I had that helped in the creation of the Dinosaur Bop universe. I also wanted to blend the sensations I had as a woodcutter working in forests with the music I listened to and the comics I read. Therefore, Dinosaur Bop is a sort of osmosis that grew by itself: One idea anchored all my influences and everything could amalgamate! Concerning the series’ characters, you’ve got Eddy Bochrane (a play on the words Eddy Cochrane and the French equivalent for “nice skull”) who’s a real double of the Cramps’ singer, Lux Interior. I remember it gave me quite a turn when I saw the band on stage! Lux Interior has that sort of funny and frightening attitude at the same time. That’s what I wanted to do with Eddy! As for Wanda, she is a kind of remembrance of Shalla Bal, the Surfer’s girlfriend. TJKC: Those characters live in a prehistoric but post-atomic world! ARNON: To tell the truth, I’m not

sure of that myself! (laughs) The original (above) The classic idea was to create a more realistic prehistoric background—where no dinosaurs cover to Kamandi #1 would have lived [at the time of man]—with funny parameters. In fact, my editor suggested (Oct. 1972). that I put in dinosaurs just for the fun of it! It has ruined the prehistoric angle somewhat, so I decided to add those sci-fi aspects and it has finally become completely timeless. TJKC: A Russian colony on Mars has survived our planet’s cataclysm. Planet of the Apes and Kamandi are not far! ARNON: In fact, when the series stopped, I was thinking of possible developments for the

47 Trivia The “You Don’t Know Jack” Quiz

(Editor’s Note: On Saturday, July 22, 2000, the San 10. Just as Sky Masters was ending, what was Jack 4. What’s the name of Darkseid’s mother? Diego Comicon held its annual Fan vs. Pro Trivia beginning to draw? 5. What is the identity used by Orion on Earth? Quiz, but this time the entire quiz was about all 11. Jack laid out a newspaper strip for an artist 6. Where did Kamandi get his name? things Kirby. The organizers called on me to come up friend in the Fifties; name the strip and the artist. 7. What was the first species of talking animal with the questions, and since they wanted five cate - 12. In which 1960s title did the 3 Rocketeers make Kamandi encountered? gories, I decided to break it up by the five main their comeback? 8. What’s the name of OMAC’s organization? decades of Jack’s career. I put out an appeal for 13. What is the title of the book Captain 3-D jumped 9. Where did Machine Man/X-51 first appear, and questions to a few Kirby buddies, and contributions out of in Captain 3-D #1? what was his original name? were received from Mike Gartland, Jean Depelley, 14. Give the 3 Romance titles produced for Prize by 10. Kirby only drew one piece of art for Marvel’s Steve Robertson, and John Simpson, while quiz Simon & Kirby in order of their debut. Conan series; what was the piece and what other moderator James Hay added some of his own to 15. What is Private Strong’s other identity? important character is in it? complete the following Kirby Kwiz. 16. Name Jack’s first silver-age super-hero team. 11. Name the two humans who possessed and used Frankly, I don’t remember who won, but I—and 17. Name the four Challengers of the Unknown. the Anti-Life Equation during Kirby’s original run on the rest of the audience—was laughing so hard, it 18. What was the title of the first Challengers of the the Fourth World? didn’t really matter. It was a rollicking good time, Unknown story? 12. What was the name of Lonar’s horse? made even more so by many of the incorrect 13. Who invented the Boom Tube? answers both sides came up with! 14. The first story published in Spirit World revolved For the record, the best quote of the quiz 1960s: around what tragedy? occurred when Mark Waid, a perennial contestant for 1. What was Kirby’s first series produced when he the Pro team, decided to sit this year out. From the came back to Atlas/Marvel? audience, Waid cried out, “I’ve never been so relaxed 2. In which title and issue did Thor and Loki first 1980s: in my life during this quiz,” to which the ever-quick clash? 1. On what series did Kirby finally get to draw Kurt Busiek responded, “And Mark, we’ve never 3. What is Two-Gun Kid’s real name? Batman? been this far ahead.”) 4. In what issues did Kirby produce his two battles 2. Who caused a breakout of cosmic diarrhea? between the Torch and Spider-Man? 3. How many episodes of Thundarr were produced 5. What happened to Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish during Kirby’s tenure at Ruby Spears? 1940s: #49? 4. Name the four inkers (not counting Kirby) who 1. What was Kirby’s first Timely (Marvel) work? 6. What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for? were involved on Jack’s 1980s return to New Gods. 2. What was Kirby’s first National (DC) work? 7. When did the Thing first revert back to Ben 5. What was the name of the Fighting Fetus? 3. What’s the name of Blue Bolt’s feminine enemy? Grimm? 6. Who was Captain Victory’s arch nemesis? 4. When Mercury (from Red Raven Comics #1) was 8. Which Golden Age hero came back in X-Men #10? 7. What characters made up the Fantastic Four when published in Captain America Comics, what was his 9. In a Fantastic Four Special #5 pin-up, Galactus is Jack was doing storyboards for their cartoon series? name changed to? really absent-minded. What did he forget? 8. Who was the furriest member of Thundarr the 5. What is the common link between the Golden Age 10. Which Kirby series appeared as a back-up in Barbarian’s cast? Captain America’s and the Hulk’s supporting casts? Thor after Tales of Asgard? 9. When Darkseid made a guest appearance in 6. Who was Stuntman’s love interest? 11. What was the last Kirby-penciled story inked by Captain Victory, what was he called? 7. How many issues of Stuntman were published? Ditko? 10. What was Captain Victory’s motto? 8. Name the five lead characters from the Boy 12. What was the only major hero series in Silver 11. Name the dirtiest member of the Wonder Explorers. Age Marvel for which Jack drew no stories? Warriors. 9. How many tasks did the Boy Explorers set out to 13. Name 10 of Kirby’s “Atlas” monsters. 12. Who was Silver Star’s arch enemy? complete? 14. Where did The Leader steal the Asorbatron from? 13. This two-faced wizard was the only one to return 10. How many complete stories did Kirby do for the 15. Which of the following was not a Kirby collabora - in a second episode to plague Thundarr the Charlie Chan comic book? tion from Tales to Astonish?: “I Found Monstrum”, “I Barbarian. 11. What is Manhunter’s secret identity? Discovered Gorgilla”, “I Challenged Groot”, “I 12. What were the nationalities of the Boy Created Krang”, “I Fought Throng”. BONUS QUESTION: Name 10 Kirby inkers. Commandos? 16. Who was the Human Torch’s first girlfriend? 13. What was the first-name of Boy Commandos’ 17. What are the words inscribed on the top of ANSWERS ON PAGE 73! French member? Thor’s hammer? 14. In the Boy Commandoes Story in World’s Finest 18. Nick Fury started life as a Dead-End kid. Whose #15 “Iss Ve Not Der Supermen?”, the Nazi’s ran a guidance turned his life around? competition to find a Nazi Superman. Who won? 19. Sgt. Fury #18 was titled “Killed in Action”. Who was killed? 20. In what organization did Reed Richards serve in 1950s: WWII? 1. How many issues of Bullseye were published by 21. Who sent The Thing a Beatle wig for a present? Charlton Comics? 22. Bull Brogan, Handsome Harry Philips, and Yogi 2. Who massacred Bulleye’s family? Dakor were enhanced by Doctor Doom using what 3. What are the gang from Boys’ Ranch doing in the invention? last panel of their last story? 23. Charles Xavier debated Dr. Bolivar Trask on what 4. Who are the two secret identities of Fighting network? American? 24. In the first appearance of the Super Skrull, The 5. What was the true identity of Fighting American’s Thing is about to be featured on the evening news partner Speedboy? but is preempted by a commercial for what product? 6. Who were “The Crestwood Five” who appeared in a line-up on the cover of Justice Traps the Guilty #56? 1970s: 7. How many Woods worked on Sky Masters ? Name 1. What was the secret identity of Kirby’s 1970s them. Manhunter? 8. Name the newspaper syndicate that bought 2. Give the magic spell transforming Jason Blood Kirby’s Sky Masters strip. into Etrigan. 9. Other than Kirby, who inked Sky Masters after 3. Which famous person is on the In the Days of the Wally Wood’s departure? Mob #1 poster?

50 Retrospective Mighty Marvel

(right) A very by Keith 1950s, it became apparent that Westerns sold, Atlas published Kirbyesque Rawhide Hammond Westerns, Westerns, and more Westerns. As Stan Lee himself put Kid by Larry Lieber. it in Origins of Marvel Comics, “if cowboy films were the rage, we produced a lot of Westerns.” (Lee, p.13)—and he wasn’t kidding! (below) Some of the Fans have remarked on the large number of X-Men related series singing cowboys of in modern times, but at one point, Stan Lee published a line of Kirby’s day: Roy Rogers (with wife Westerns that dwarfed and outnumbered the X-books. There Dale Evans) and Gene was: Kid Colt, Outlaw; Outlaw Kid; Two-Gun Western; Quick Trigger Autry. Western; Wild Western; Gunsmoke Western; Rawhide Kid; Two-Gun Kid; Black Rider; Kid Slade; Apache Kid; and Western Outlaws, to (next page) The Black merely name a few bullets in the Atlas gun. With so many, it’s Rider’s origin, from not surprising to find that Jack Kirby had the opportunity to nce upon a time, The Black Rider Rides draw six-shooters and horses. Jack Kirby, of course, was far from before the obses- Again! #1 (Sept. a stranger to the genre. Bulls-Eye and Boys’ Ranch are just O sion with the final 1957). O a couple of the Western frontier, there was a deep and abiding interest in the Western frontier. Horses, six- guns, ghost towns, stagecoaches, etc. were a popular way to be entertained for many a generation. The genre was popular in music with Western Swing like Bob Wills and the Sons of the Pioneers. The Silver Screen showed rugged, he-man cowboys like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and later on, John Wayne. Comic books, never to be left behind in a trend, had Western titles like a fistful of dollars. In today’s market of super-heroes, Buffy, and Star Wars, it’s hard to imagine, but in the 1950s, some comic companies devoted over half their lines to Westerns. Media cowboys like Tim Holt and Lash Larue had comics devoted to their adventures. Fictional cowpokes like Johnny Thunder and the Ghost Rider were regulars at the newsstands. At one point, the Lone Ranger had his own book, as did his partner Tonto, and even Silver the horse had his own comic! Martin Goodman and Stan Lee at Atlas Comics in the 1950s did not begin trying to duplicate the success of others with Fantastic Four #1. Nay, they were at it long before that, and, when in the (center) Splash panel from Quick Trigger Western #16 (Feb. comics to which 1957), and (below) Kirby lent his peerless pencil to. The goal of Two-Gun Western this article will be to examine Jack Kirby’s astounding, #12 (Sept. 1957), little-known, and underappreciated Western works featuring a head - line that definitely for the Atlas/ Marvel company. applied to Jack. Driftin’ Along With The Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds In 1957, Jack Kirby was involved in a number of ventures. This was, of course, before the period of time where the King went back to Marvel to start a super-hero revolution. Kirby was doing a lot of work with DC, and DC editor Jack Schiff, in particular. There was My Greatest Adventure, House of Secrets, and the Challengers of the Unknown were just getting underway. The Sky Masters syndicated strip had been launched. Still, Kirby had time to draw some stories for Stan Lee and Atlas. Kirby did two Western stories of five pages each, which ended up being published in Quick Trigger Western and Two-Gun Western. Perhaps on the basis of those two, Stan Lee gave Jack Kirby the job of reviving the Black Rider.

52 Stan Lee became the only employee and some twenty Western titles bit the dust. By the time everything settled, the only remaining titles from the glory days of Atlas were Kid Colt, Outlaw; Wyatt Earp; Gunsmoke Western Gunfighters Western; and the Two-Gun Kid. Dick Ayers remarked that during that stressful period Stan continued to supply him with war and Western stories, but not enough that he could work exclusively for Lee. With less work to go around, many artists of the time sought assignments elsewhere. Kirby, not lacking for work, continued on to the Sky Masters syndicated strip and moved on to Green Arrow backups in Adventure Comics and World’s Finest Comics at DC. Also, right at this time, the Challengers of the Unknown were undergoing a second trial run in Showcase #11 (Nov./Dec. 1957) and #12 (Jan./Feb. 1958), and the start of a title for the “men living on borrowed time” was not far away. Incidentally, all the contents of The Black Rider Rides Again! #1 are featured in Western Gunfighters #10-12, the 1970s reprint title. I’m speculating that there would be a second issue, but I believe it’s likely, because companies didn’t spend the money needed to launch a first issue to meet postal requirements back then, unless they were quite certain there would be a second issue. Also, there are indeed three Kirby Black Rider stories that would likely fit a second issue. The contents of the intended second issue were not lost, but appeared as filler strips in Kid Colt, Outlaw #86, and Gunsmoke Western #47 and #64. See the accompanying index for details. It’s interesting fare, but better things were to come. Oh, What A Difference A Year Can Make This may be a bit tedious, but the explanation helps one to understand later parts of this article. I cobbled much of this story together from a Stan Lee interview in Comic Book Artist #2 (published by those wonderful folks at TwoMorrows—buy every - thing they publish!). For those who don’t know, in 1957 Martin Goodman, Atlas publisher, cut a deal for a different distributor of the Atlas line, American News Company. It looked like a good deal, until that distributor folded. Atlas Comics was left with no way to get its product to the newsstands. The bridges were apparently terribly burned with the old distributor, so going back was not an option. Scrambling like a quarterback down in the last two minutes of the Super Bowl, Goodman found a new distributor. The deal was cut with National Periodicals (a.k.a. DC Comics), to use their distributor, Independent News Distributors. DC allowed Atlas to publish again, but limited them to a small number of titles per month. The Black Rider was a Western character pub - 1957, a revival of the Black Rider was attempted. Jack Atlas went from 40-60 comic books per month to 8- lished by Atlas for many a moon, and a favorite of Kirby did art on the three Black Rider stories in The 12 per month. With this limit, if Stan Lee wanted to Stan Lee’s (Stan once posed as the Black Rider on a Black Rider Rides Again! #1, published in September, publish a new comic he had to cancel an established photo cover). He wore an all black outfit, including 1957 (though John Severin did the cover). There’s title to make room for it. Doing the math, when you cape, hat, and full-length mask. He rode a horse no nice way to put this, but the new Black Rider lose 80% of your line, you suddenly need a lot less named Satan, and was really mild-mannered town wore a blue-gray outfit, with white hat and domino writers and artists. physician Doc Masters. The Black Rider had been mask, and, had he an Indian companion, would Why would DC allow the company to be known published in his own comic until issue #27. With #28, have been a dead ringer for the Lone Ranger! Had as Marvel back in the game? I’ve read articles where the book was retitled to Western Tales of the Black Rider there been further issues, the owners of the Lone Roy Thomas speculated it was to get a financial cut (one wonders that maybe Stan thought kids weren’t Ranger might have sued—these are the same folks of Martin Goodman’s “men’s sweat” magazines, able to figure out the Black Rider was a Western, who litigated Clayton Moore (TV’s Lone Ranger) non-comic magazines published by Goodman that what with the super-hero fighting togs he wore). from wearing a mask in his public appearances! made a tidy profit. Second, as J.R. Ewing said on Finally, with issue #32, the book was re-christened A second issue was likely planned, and Kirby Dallas, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies Gunsmoke Western, and began to cover-feature the would’ve drawn at least three stories for it. Sadly, it closer.” This deal allowed DC to limit the virtual more popular Kid Colt (and the much less popular went to Boot Hill, as in Summer of 1957, Atlas flood of comic magazines that Goodman and Lee Billy Buckskin—for a whole issue or three). In mid- imploded due to a bad deal by Martin Goodman. inundated the newsstands with in the decade of the

53 Unearthed The Original TeenAgent

by John Morrow words “Teen Agent” since I was 16 (36 years ago—you do the math). This idea was based on the early James Bond movies with Sean Connery fter finding the two collage covers shown here in a batch of which were immensely popular at the time. Obviously the storyline art loaned to me by the Kirby family last Summer, I was (this page and next) was based on your average high school kid (me) who doubled as a AA amazed to discover the name “Teen-Agent” on one of them. Unused Teen Agent secret agent for some super-secret government agency which would Just what were these covers for? My first guess was that they had cover concepts. It’s actually let a teenager use a gun (go figure). something to do with the Uncle Carmine’s Fat City Comix proposal doomsville, baby! “The original part of the concept was that the entire story or book, that Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman helped Jack with in the whichever it might pan out to be, would be done in photo collage, not early 1970s. Queries to both these gents proved my hunch to be (next page, lower left) pencil art. We shot two covers in the basement of our house in East wrong, and led me instead to e-mail Jack’s son Neal Kirby, who Captain America Williston, NY on a Saturday afternoon. Now that I think about it, I #199 pencils, confirmed they were from even earlier than that: The mid-1960s! can’t believe my father actually figured out how to showing the “Big Neal responded: “Haven’t heard the Daddy” madbomb. use a camera! He wasn’t very mechanical. “I don’t know if the concept was ever presented to Marvel or not, but I never heard anything about it again.” Another curiosity associated with these unused covers is the title “Big Daddy of Death” on the second Teen Agent cover. That phrase was scribbled in Jack’s handwriting on the back of a stat of an Avengers #13 Don Heck page (which Marvel probably sent Jack so he could do the layouts for Heck on #14). Also on the back of that stat were other scribbles, and a bunch of warm-up brush strokes done as Jack was preparing to watercolor something. Apparently as ideas came to Jack’s mind while he was working, he would jot them down on whatever paper he had handy— in this case, the Avengers stat. This would seem to date the idea of “Big Daddy of Death” sometime around late 1964, so it was probably sparked by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, who was well known in the late 1950s and ’60s for his hot rod cartoons, and made a mark on popular culture with his “Rat Fink” character. Roth, who passed away last April, inspired many of the underground comix artists of the 1960s, and it appears he was an inspiration to Kirby as well. Although these Teen Agent covers were never published, Jack used the “Big Daddy” concept in his 1970s “Madbomb” storyline in Captain America #193-200. Jack finally found a use for the Teen Agent title for the charac - ters that became Jack Kirby’s TeenAgents, the 1990s Topps Comics series—but the super - heroics therein must’ve been a far cry from what he had planned nearly 30 years earlier. Though we’ll never know what a story for the original Teen Agent series would’ve been like, with imagery of mummies, hieroglyphics, and Eastern European soldiers on the covers, it’s a safe bet it would’ve been an interesting book. # 64 NOVELTY “The Horde Is Coming,

FOREWORD: him, a fallen gateway which once held firm what we understand, the scene there is a replay “The Last Time against the threat of conquest. ” of what you see on your screen. People, in You ’ll See Paris .” Whitfield pauses once again, this time in countless thousands, have made the terminal retrospect. His mouth curls slightly upward at inoperable and the runways impassable. We DATE: Tuesday, Nov. 21, Three Years From Today the edges and he allows himself a soft, hollow hear that there are ships at the coast, but we’ll laugh. “ Please, remember me for that. Remember never get there by railroad. The system ceased A Telecast On All Channels, Transmitted To North that Harry Whitfield could still be eloquent while to function weeks ago. King Richard the Third And South America And Facilities Existing the plug was being pulled. still couldn’t trade his kingdom for a horse in Elsewhere... “My father stood here once, taping a broad - these parts. Transportation is a forgotten word. ” he large home-screen does not glow cast before the Nazis showed up. He described The viewers now see what Whitfield does Tbrightly in the spacious, suburban family the empty streets and the tense silence in a city not. The crowd in the background has subtly but room. The “reception” is good and the picture is waiting for the sound of stamping jackboots. Well, perceptibly thickened. It not only presses in well-defined, but it’s bathed in colors of stress, as you can see, it’s a different ballgame, now. upon the newscaster but completely encircles colors drained of their true pigment by the Paris is veritably sinking beneath the weight of the sound truck behind him. There is a flurry of corrosive ingestion of anxiety and fear. people! You can’t tell a resident from a refugee. activity at the door of the cab and a few of the What can be seen of the sky is a filthy, gray Life, here, has become a battle for space, and spectators have climbed to its roof. They can be blend of soot and rain cloud. Endless rows of I’ve seen men die, here, in desperate attempts seen prying at the cab door with makeshift structures rush by like speeding trains. They tilt. to find shelter for their families. Any structure crowbars. Whitfield turns about in startled They reel drunkenly. The viewers wonder if the that will shield people from this brutal weather apprehension and shouts to companions off- camera projecting these mad images is perched is solidly packed. ‘Standing room only’ is as screen. “ Tony, Jake, Carl! Do something about on the shoulder of some ungainly animal. But valid for the garage, warehouse and department that! Fire some shots if you have to! ” There is a most disconcerting and almost unnerving to the store as it is for the theater. Vehicles no longer rush of movement and signs of struggle within viewers is the constant presence, on ground level, move. Their passengers have become tenants. the human mass. To Whitfield’s right, the crash of human mass in a state of severe agitation. It Pitched battles are being fought to possess of metal can be heard. “ Look out for that equip - fills the picture’s background and courses them and at this very moment they are burning ment! ” he shouts. Several people dash by, steadily down each side of the screen, darting, by the thousands in every part of town. ” momentarily cutting him off from view. One of jerking, palpitating with the movement of dark A series of tremors shake the television them is a girl in her teens who frenziedly protects and blurry marionettes, deprived of their strings. picture, splitting it into multiple images which some sort of package from being seized by her Pitifully disoriented, cut adrift by a sudden loss flip disturbingly until stability returns and they pursuers. Then they are gone. Whitfield speaks of purpose, they stare frantically in all directions, unify into proper focus. The wind has driven against the backdrop of a swaying human sea. unable to comprehend the reason for their plight. Harry Whitfield’s face deep into his flapping coat Sensing the urgency to sum up his feelings, he The very sight of them is a poignant but explicit collar, his hands fumble wildly with his hat which shouts, “ Don’t you see? We’ve played the devil’s message to the viewers that makes them crawl tears from their grasp and is whipped away. As game too often! It’s time to cash in our chips! ” with uncertainty and ponder the dimensions of his blond hair flutters like a ragged flag, the More people rush by the camera. Whitfield is their own safety. picture blanches a dull gray, flashes white and jostled and almost pushed to his knees. He “This is Harry Whitfield! ” shouts the large returns to its initial focus. It is marred by waves quickly regains his balance. “ The Horde is coming man at center screen, “ Reporting to you, live, by and streaks and then tilts unexpectedly. The and it can’t be stopped! We’ve lit the fuse to satellite from Paris—no longer a fun town, but a viewers erupt in anxious whispers. mankind and that flame is racing ’round the city about to die! ” His voice forces itself into the “I’ve only revealed the tip of the iceberg. ” world! God help us all if it can’t be stopped! ” At handheld microphone in a struggle to overcome Whitfield is now seen with reasonable clarity. that moment, the dam breaks, the screen is a harsh winter wind and the unquenchable “The rest of it is uglier and made of the blood filled with a continuous flow of people. As the intrusion of human sound. “ My God! I can’t and tissue of despair! Emotion is winning over picture tilts violently in all directions, Whitfield believe I’ve said it! But that’s the truth of the reason! Humanity is fading in favor of the barest can still be seen making a monumental try for a matter; the bottom line of a worldwide agony is essentials! I won’t recount the sights I’ve seen, final word. “ The Horde!—It’ll wipe out everything finally being felt here, the last free territory in they’re part of a scenario that’s terribly old—and we’ve ever said and done!—Nothing left— the path of the Horde. Every sovereign state, always terribly new. ” The pinched features Nothing—! ” north, east and south of France is gone! The hope struggle to form additional words, the pale eyes The television screen goes blank with a slight that Britain could stem the human tide vanished glisten and water; Whitfield, at the mercy of the pop. The set emits a steady electronic drone. with the passing of this week. ” Whitfield’s voice bitter cold and projecting the debilitating effects of Ever so slowly, the hand of a viewer approaches seems to go off track at that moment. He quickly lost hope, still braces himself against adversity one of the dials like the drifting object of a dream, clears his throat in a professional manner and to retain the presence that has won him rapport then, ever so slowly, it withdraws without making resumes talking. “ This generation may never with an audience. contact, leaving the weird sound of “picture know if that mighty lion will ever roar again—he “My crew and I are stranded, here. And cut-off” as the sole measure of reality in a room stopped last night—facing the sea that failed we’ll never catch that plane at Orly Field. From grown dark. #

68 And It Can’t Be Stopped!”

A look at Kirby’s novel The Horde, by John Morrow took place during the time period he was writing this book. Matthieu Maret, a French Union soldier in Vietnam who is taken prisoner by Tegujai’s forces, will eventually be forced into a pivotal role in the conflict (and serves as the focus for some thought- (left) Kirby at his provoking commentary on Christianity). drawing board in the If none of this sounds like a typical Kirby comic book, there’s early 1980s. Photo by a reason. The Horde is not a book for 12-year-old kids. The plot is James Van Hise. well-crafted and frighteningly believable. Jack appears to have approached this novel with a considerable amount of historical background information, as the settings seem totally real; perhaps (below) Photo of too real. Roz Kirby told me in 1995 (in an interview published in Horde collaborator TJKC #10) that Jack stopped writing The Horde because certain Janet Berliner, events in it were happening in real life, and it frightened him to courtesy of the writer. write the ending. “He got scared, because he said every time he was writing something, it was coming true in the newspapers,” Roz said, “and he was so sure that he was going to end the world!” While I was unable to pinpoint particular events in the edited ack Kirby first started work on his unfinished novel The manuscript that might’ve caused this sense of reverse deja vu, the Horde— perhaps the least-known artifact of his career—in version I read does remain unfinished (and it isn’t the original JJ 1969. To some, the idea of Kirby writing a novel might seem manuscript), and in fact stops at a pivotal moment in the story; anathema. Many fans, while agreeing that Kirby could draw and but thanks to a simple five-page outline that was included, there is plot as well (or better) than anyone in comics, subscribe to the a record of how Jack—at least at the time of this 1979 manuscript— notion that “Jack couldn’t write.” But write he did, over the course would’ve ended it. I won’t divulge the ending, since ongoing of many years, continually revising and editing his novel, enlisting work is being done to finally bring The Horde to publication, but the help of others, but having only minimal success getting it I’ll just say that, were it to happen in real life, you wouldn’t want before the public. This novel is not languishing, however; even to be around to see it. today, work is being done to give new life to a project that, as you’ll see, left Kirby feeling immensely satisfied, frustrated, and even at times, afraid. Enter: Janet Berliner I had the opportunity to read the entire 1979 version of his “Everything Jack created was larger than 224-page manuscript, edited by Janet Berliner (from which the life,” said Janet Berliner, editor and collaborator preceding Foreword was excerpted). As stated in the biography on the 1979 manuscript. “His unfinished novel that accompanied it, to Jack it seemed that “great calamities are The Horde was no exception. I was fascinated by generated in left field, in places far removed from our thoughts, its energy, its color, its characters. It should where unwatched pots are permitted to simmer and boil with the come as absolutely no surprise that he created seeds of grievance until their contents explode in our midst.” new sets of super-heroes and super-villains, and Inspired by the Vietnam War and his own experiences in World that beneath the dynamic of a novel that set out War II, he set out to tell the story of civilization’s next big conflict. to depict the end of the world as we knew it, lay a complex philosophy.” Berliner first became involved with Jack and The The Story As We Know It Horde in the late 1970s. “I was agenting, ghosting, editing, Having seen for himself the rise and fall of Hitler in WWII and writing my first novel. At some point, I went to LA for a and studied many of the would-be world conquerors before him, weekend. Ed Bryant and I were staying at Harlan [Ellison ] ’s Jack approached the novel with two questions in mind: Who will house. Somehow, Ed and I ended up visiting Roz and Jack. We saw be the next catalyst for war, and where is the place his ideas and his private collection and watched him at work in his studio—an aggressions will bear fruit? awesome experience.” Jack had written several versions of the For Jack, that place ended up being Red China—and the per - manuscript at that point (dated 1970, 1972, 1976, and 1977), son, a Mongol warrior named Tegujai Batir. and not long after their first meeting, he contacted Berliner and In the 1979 Berliner-edited manuscript, Tegujai is driven by asked if she would agent his unfinished novel. “I felt that the a mystical dream to spend his life creating a vast series of under - work needed discipline and crafting, that it was more like notes ground tunnels throughout Europe and Asia, from which he’ll end (or verbal sketches) for a novel, but I agreed to send it out to a the white man’s domination of the world structure. We glimpse few editors to get initial responses.” Those responses confirmed the early upbringing that shaped him, and see over time as he Janet’s reaction to the novel, and Jack agreed to have her do major amasses an army that includes other Mongols (known as the editing and rewriting. Feathers of the Falcon) and forced laborers taken as prisoners of The changes she made were extensive. “Artistic genius though war from his battles. The “horde” refers to the mass exodus of he was, Jack was not a writer. He had no idea of how to structure people that starts the day Tegujai’s troops erupt from their a novel, so I restructured heavily. He also tended to write in underground tunnels, and grows as each new territory is overrun. undisciplined bursts of language which had to be properly structured Of course, it would take more than a single army to create the and toned down. In addition, I provided heavy doses of transitions. human tidal wave that engulfs anything in its path as described in Remember, this was a rough, unfinished novel by a man of genius. the Foreword, and early chapters alternate between Tegujai and I did everything with a view to maintaining his unique voice.” the two other main characters who play important roles in making Berliner wrote a lengthy outline, redid the first few chapters, that happen. Hardy Jackman is an African-American who finds and put together a pitch package to try to sell it to potential himself trapped in Tegujai’s army (and enjoying it), and Kirby puts publishers. However, this was Jack Kirby, who, for better or worse, him to good use in exploring some of the racial tensions that had repeatedly refused to work with an editor or co-writer on his 69 The final page from one of this magazine’s editor’s guilty pleasures, Parting Shot Kirby’s never-published Dingbats of Danger Street #2; inks by Mike Royer.

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