The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #66 $10.95 FALL 2015 0 2 1 82658 23978 7 Character TM & © Jack Kirby Estate. THE ISSUE #66, FALL 2015 C o l l e c t o r Contents DOUBLE TAKES! OPENING SHOT . .2 (double vision on Cap and Spidey) HEAD-TO-HEAD . .5 (it’s Kirby, without words) GALLERY 1 . .9 (seeing double?) KIRBY OBSCURA . .22 (the claw!) JACK F.A.Q.s . .24 (the Curator Talk at the big CSUN Kirby Exhibit, with Mark Evanier) This issue’s cover art first saw KIRBY KINETICS . .36 publication on (Norris Burroughs on the Hulk at the envelope that midnight) held the four JACK KIRBY MUSEUM PAGE . .39 plates in Jack’s (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) GODS Portfolio (above) in the INNERVIEW . .40 early 1970s. (a 1986 interview with Jack) Turns out there was an unused DUAL DUEL . .55 (Ditko vs. Kirby on Spider-Man) Thor page, still in pencil form in INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . .60 Jack’s files, (taking command of the Boy which got used Commandos) as a plate in the Marvelmania BOYDISMS . .62 (Jerry Boyd assembles an all-star Portfolio. So Jack line-up to weigh in on Kirby as had Mike Royer writer) ink it, altering it to turn Galactus GLEN GOLD . .75 into a more (more on Galactus’ origin) generic character, and completely . .76 GALLERY 2 eliminating a Thor (ReWrite or ReWrong?) figure that was COLLECTOR COMMENTS . .87 lurking in the background. Joe PARTING SHOT . .95 Rubinstein did this fantastic Front Cover inks: MIKE ROYER inked version of Front Cover color: TOM ZIUKO the original This issue dedicated to our pal Adam pencils in 2007 McGovern. Hang in there, buddy! for Ferran Delgado, and Ferran inked and added the If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication, erased Thor back PLEASE READ THIS: in. Enjoy this double-take of This is copyrighted material, NOT intended two great inkers! for downloading anywhere except our website or Apps. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal down- Captain Victory, Gin Seng, Gods character, Jupiter Plaque characters, Tribes Trilogy TM & © Jack Kirby Estate • load, or a printed copy. Otherwise, DELETE The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 22, No. 66, Fall 2015. Published as COPYRIGHTS: Destroyer Duck TM & © Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby Estate • Ant Extract, Stuntman TM & © Simon and Kirby Estates • 2001: IT FROM YOUR DEVICE and DO NOT often as possible by and © TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 A Space Odyssey TM & © Warner Bros. • Richard Dragon TM & © Dennis O'Neil and Jim Berry • Justice Inc./The Avenger TM SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. 919-449-0344. & © Street and Smith Publications • The Black Hole TM & ©Walt Disney Productions • Bruce Lee TM & © Bruce Lee Enterprises, ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. 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All characters are trademarks of their Galactus, Giant-Man, Goliath, Hawkeye, Hercules, Him, Hulk, Human Torch, Ikaris, Inhumans, Invisible Girl, Iron Man, Jack Kirby www.twomorrows.com respective companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby Estate unless Crash Course, Ka-Zar, Kang, Loki, Mad Thinker, Man-Thing, Midnight Monster, Mole Man, Mr. Fantastic, Mr. Hyde, Nick Fury, otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. Phoenix, Psycho-Man, Puppet Master, Quicksilver, Rawhide Kid, Recorder, Scarlet Witch, Scorpion, Shanna the She-Devil, Sif, First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912 Silver Surfer, Skrulls, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Super-Adaptoid, Swordsman, Thing, Thor, Vulture, Wasp, Wizard, Wrecker, Yellow Claw, Zabu, Zeus TM & © Marvel Characters Inc. Stan Lee told stories with words. Jack Kirby told stories with pictures. The two didn’t always agree. If you look closely at early Marvel comics, there are moments when the words and pictures aren’t telling the same story. HEAD-To-HEAD Kirby Without Words by Kate Willaert, excerpted from the original online examination of the same name, found at: http://kirbywithoutwords.tumblr.com/tagged/kirbywithoutwords/chrono tan Lee and Jack Kirby were the chief architects of the Marvel universe. Like most collaborations, there were times when the two disagreed. Unlike most collaborations, their disagreements sometimes made it onto the printed S page. The purpose of this article is to document and analyze these instances of Lee-Kirby Dissonance. Tight dead- lines meant there wasn’t always time for Lee to get an art correction when it didn’t match his sensibilities, so he’d try to change it with text. In later years, the two sometimes just willfully ignored each other’s ideas, which they were able to do because they collaborated using the Marvel Method. WHAT’S THE MARVEL METHOD? Originally a writer would write a script and the artist would draw it. Since Jack Kirby and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko were accomplished storytellers rather than just illustrators, Stan Lee devised a way to hand off some of the story creation to them so that he could write more books. In the Marvel Method (also called working “Marvel Style”), the writer gives the artist a basic plot summary, and the artist fleshes it out into a story. Once the pages are drawn, the writer then adds dialogue to each panel. It’s important to note that the writer was not always the one coming up with the initial plot. Lee and Kirby would often discuss the plot together before Kirby went off to draw it. Steve Ditko went one step fur- ther, eventually plotting his own stories and leav- ing the dialogue to Lee. (above & below) Can you spot the typos in each example? These Fantastic Four and more can be found on Kate’s blog. #1 (Page 13) The first time the Human Torch uses his powers, he accidentally starts a forest fire! Stan Lee attempts to downplay it, describing it as a “small fire he had started in the underbrush.” Also note how the thought balloon is strategically placed to try and obscure the burning trees and smoke in the sky. Fantastic Four #1 (Page 25) On their Baxter Building podcast, Jeff Lester and Graeme McMillan wondered whether Jack Kirby might have intended the explosion in the second to last panel to have been caused by the Human Torch. The team do appear to be trying to get out of there fast, as if they’re anticipating something. Stan’s text is saying, 5 Gallery 1 Commentary by Shane Foley There are many exam- ples of artists’ work being editorially altered for pub- lication, and Kirby was no exception. Whether the changes were for better or worse was the editor’s subjective call. Here are some examples from Marvel in the ’60s of Kirby work being “fixed.” It seems many of the changes occurred late in the production process, with copies of the work having already been made before final editing, because most of the examples shown here come from Marvel itself using unaltered masters when issuing reprint material. Here are 15 examples, in roughly chronological order: Avengers #19 cover (Aug. 1965): I think this change is a good call—but it’s not because of a subjective feeling about a cover. It’s all about a design element that Kirby probably did which Stan or someone felt needed to be improved on. In the reprint of this issue in Essential Avengers #1, we see the Swordsman with really different, clunky headgear. I remember see- ing this version in an Aussie reprint somewhere years ago and being mystified by it, since I knew these issues well in their original form. Could Don Heck have made Kirby’s helmet version work? Was it Lee or Heck who wanted a more straightfor- ward hood? And look—he’s even smiling in the revised version, maybe to appear more like the mocking, swashbuckler type. 9 Tales of Suspense #84 cover (Dec. 1966): This wonderful Kirby cover went through both artistic and lettering changes. Preserved in Essential Iron Man #2 (and in the first printing of Essential Cap #1, though not in the second) is the cover as first prepared. Apart from changing how the caption was (why change that? The first version with the jagged outline looks fine to me), it was decided one of the Adaptoid’s wings should be repositioned, and that both wings should be without their blacks. Talk about being pedantic! In the end, I think the first version, shown in the reprint, is best. Fantastic Four #57, page 14, panel 1 (Dec. 1966): Another interior panel—here, the same artist who inked that final Thor panel in Thor #133 a month earlier is at work. Look at the Surfer’s hands! They are not Kirby/Sinnott. It seems Kirby had only the Surfer’s face. Adding those hands works well. 14 Barry Forshaw Obscura brief tale have all the dynamism of A regular Kirby at his best, and page layout is column focusing more innovative than virtually any on Kirby’s least other artist was doing for Stan Lee at known work, the time.