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Home , Black Magic (comics), Buzz Dixon, Charles Band, Eric Powell (comics), Fin Fang Foom, Forager (character)

the Break out DDT and RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! It’s the

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JACK KIRBY #77•SUMMER 2019•$10.95 with •MICHAEL CHO••SEAN KLEEFELD•BARRY FORSHAW•ADAM McGOVERN•NORRIS BURROUGHS•SHANE FOLEY•JERRY BOYD 4 5 6 3 0 0 8 5 6 2 8

1 STARRING •DIRECTED BY JOHN MORROW•FEATURING RARE KIRBY ARTWORK•A TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING RELEASE

Monster, TM & © DC ComicsNew • Gods TM TM & ©& Marvel © DC Characters,Comics. Inc. • Lightning Lady TM & © Jack Kirby Estate Contents THE

Monsters & Bugs! OPENING SHOT ...... 2 (something’s bugging the editor) FOUNDATIONS ...... 4 (S&K show the monsters inside us) ISSUE #77, SUMMER 2019 RETROSPECTIVE ...... 12 Collector (from Vandoom to Von Doom) INCIDENTAL ICONOGRAPHY . . . 23 (you recall , don’t you?) KIRBY KINETICS ...... 25 (the FF’s strange evolution) INFLUENCEES ...... 30 (cover Eric Powell speaks) GALLERY 1 ...... 34 (monsters, in pencil) HORRORFLIK ...... 42 (Jack’s ill-fated Empire Pictures deal) KIRBY OBSCURA ...... 46 (vintage 1950s monster stories) JACK KIRBY MUSEUM . . . . . 48 (visit & join www.kirbymuseum.org) POW!ER ...... 49 (two monster Kirby techniques) UNEXPLAINED ...... 51 (three major myths of Kirby’s) BOYDISMS...... 54 (monsters, all the way back to the ’40s) KIRBY AS A GENRE ...... 64 (Michael Cho on his Kirby influences) ANTI-MAN ...... 68 (we go foraging for bugs) GALLERY 2 ...... 72 (the bugs attack!) UNDISCOVERED ...... 78 (a blue bug in Sweden) JACK F.A.Q.s ...... 79 (Mark Evanier moderates a panel on Kirby’s monster influence) COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . 94 PARTING SHOT ...... 96 Cover inks & color: ERIC POWELL

COPYRIGHTS: All-Widow, Dragorin, , Demon, Dingbats of Danger Street, Farley Fairfax, Forever People, , , Kliklak, , Lupek, Man Who Collected Planets, Mantis, Mister Miracle, My Greatest Adventure, , , , Prime One, The Bug/Forager, The Howler, The Negative Man TM & © DC Comics • Ant-Man, , Black Talon, Blip, , , Challengers of the Unknown, , Creature from Krogarr, , , , Dr. Doom, Dragoom, , , Gargantus, Giant-Man, Giganto, , Gomdulla, Goom, Gor-Kill, Grogg, , , , Invisible Girl, , It, Klagg, , , Man in the Bee-Hive, Metallo, Modok, Mongu, Monster at My Window, Monster in the Iron Mask, Monsters on Mercury, Monsters on the Prowl, Monstrollo, Moonboy, Mr. Fantastic, Mr. Morgan’s Monster, Mummex, Ninth Wonder of the World, Orogo, , Scarecrow, Shagg, Sporr, Spragg, Sub- Mariner, Queen, Taboo, The Weed, Thing, Thing From the Hidden Swamp, , , Trull, Vandoom, Where Monsters Dwell, X The Thing That Lived, Xemnu TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. • Creature from the Black Lagoon, , Frankenstein, Mummy, Phantom of the Opera, Six Million Dollar Man, Wolf Man, TM & © Universal • Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, Island of Lost Souls TM & © Paramount • Avenger, Justice Inc. TM & © Street & Smith or successors in interest • , , “A Husband for Tracy!” © and Jack Kirby Estates • Chimichanga , Lulu the Bearded Girl, The From Demon #13 comes this incredible pencil page, showing that even as Kirby was relying on old monster films for inspiration, the Goon TM & © Eric Powell • The TM & © Joe Simon series was anything but a copycat. Thanks to Eric Powell for his stunning inking and coloring on our cover! Estate • Green Hornet TM & © Green Hornet, Inc. • Tales from the Danksyde TM & © Rick Becker & Vince Dugar • Close Encounters of the Third Kind TM &© Columbia The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 26, No. 77, Summer 2019. Published quarterly by and © TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Pictures • Damon Hunter/The Raven TM & © Ruby- 919-449-0344. John Morrow, Editor/Publisher. Single issues: $12 postpaid US ($18 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $48 Economy US, $70 International, $20 Spears • Thunderfoot, “”, Unknown Insect Digital. Editorial package © TwoMorrows Publishing, a division of TwoMorrows Inc. All characters are trademarks of their respective companies. All Kirby artwork Man, Captain Victory, , Dr. Mortalis, Mindmaster, Lightning Lady, Insectons, Moon-Bear, Secret City Saga is © Jack Kirby Estate unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. Views expressed here are those of the respective authors, and not TM & © Jack Kirby Estate • Blue Bolt, Gorgo, Heaven’s necessarily those of TwoMorrows Publishing or the Jack Kirby Estate. First printing. PRINTED IN CHINA. ISSN 1932-6912 Gate, Legend of Bigfoot TM & © the respective owners 1 here were giants corporation names: Zenith, Vista, Retrospective in those days, back and Atlas, and had no umbrella com- T around 1961—real pany logo. And Marvel wasn’t the giants, and their only comic outfit cashing in on the names were Thorr, Oog, B-movie- Grottu, Gorgolla, Shagg, Fin Fang Foom, Lee, Kirby, and Ditko.

inspired nuclear monster fad. Even and Tomahawk They roamed were tan- the four-colored forests of Tales of gling with Suspense, , Strange aliens and other-dimensional Tales, and with impunity, towering creatures in their own magazines. Well, maybe Dell over their peers, hurling their bombastic challenges to and Gold Key ignored the trend; and over at the Amer- (above) The cover for Tales to Astonish a frightened, insignificant humanity until, one by one, ican Comics Group, where Richard Hughes suffered in #34’s “Monster At they died out; those atomic dinosaurs, supplanted by the same writer/editor position enjoyed by at My Window”, and the the new masters of the jungle, the Marvel Marvel, the focus was on the supernatural with a sprin- [spoiler alert] twist super-heroes. kling of aliens and dinosaurs. No monsters allowed. ending to the tale, are a prime example It was an older, more simple time before the Mar- In truth, it wasn’t until 1959 that the true Marvel of the best of Kirby’s vel Universe had taken over the global consciousness–– Monsters began materializing. Marvel at the time was Atlas monster stories. yes, even before the fabled Marvel Age of Comics. This on shaky ground, its super-heroes long gone, and was was a formative era unto itself, long after the Golden sustained by the likes of , Outlaw; Millie the (next page, bottom) Age of Comics, which might be called the Marvel Age of Model; and a number of colorless supernatural titles It’s Von Doom... er... Monsters. Of its glory I will sing. written by Stan Lee and others and drawn by a train Vandoom himself! Of course, wasn’t called Marvel of obscure artists. A company purge in the summer of Comics back in the early Sixties. Publisher Martin Good- 1957 killed off most of the supernatural comics, including man copyrighted his titles under a maze of different the company’s first title,Marvel Tales.

12 Then Jack Kirby wandered over from DC, where he had changing and the pace kept accelerating. With an eye to increasingly produced Challengers of the Unknown (who battled countless giant alarming headlines, Kirby used all of this for story fodder. monsters), and began doing some of the science-fiction stories for “The monster phenomenon got started primarily just because and Journey into Mystery (two survivors dating back to people were concerned about science,” he recalled. “People were the early 1950s) as well as Strange Worlds, Tales to Astonish and Tales concerned about radiation and what would happen to animals and of Suspense (all three of which were launched in September 1958). people who were exposed to that kind of thing.” Next thing you know, the four-color pages were bursting with “I But Kirby wasn’t alone. That same year, a self-effacing young Unleashed Shagg Upon the World” (in which the Sphinx comes to artist named came over from Charlton and lent his life), “I Created Sporr! The Thing that Could Not Die!” (about a veerry unique talents to the revitalization of several titles by drawing big amoeba), and the unforgettable “Creature From Krogarr!” Stan solidly imaginative short features. Initially, he also inked many Kirby Lee never stories, and for decades afterward, Stan Lee would tell fans Ditko showed was his favorite inker on The King. When Lee set Western artist Dick this kind of Ayers to inking Kirby, he found a perfect match, as far as style and imagina- efficiency was concerned, freeing up Kirby to turn in more simplified tion in his pencils which Ayers would embellish as co-artist. This also freed up pre-1959 Ditko to concentrate on his own stuff. And it saved the career of , who was about to leave comics for the post office. “I enjoyed the monsters,” Ayers told me. “They had names––Sporr and Fin Fang Foom and all that.” “An inker like Dick Ayers would be bold and stark,” Kirby once observed, “and you’d find the style in a bold and stark attitude, and of course, that’s interesting.” Another new recruit was , who stepped in to fill the empty shoes of the prolific and versatile , who had just died, and whose covers had given Marvel its house look scripts, so I would guess it was prior to Kirby taking over cover chores. Kirby, whose mother was born near Tran- “It was the summer of ’58 or sylvania and who told him some pretty wild somewhere around there,” Heck told me. when he was a kid, on whose doorstep “I can remember the first job I did and we can lay the credit—or blame. For Kirby it was tough after having not done any had been doing stuff like this for DC’s mystery comics for over a year. It was one of these titles, occasionally recycling concepts and plots for Marvel. Mysteries. I used to call [Stan] all the time “I always enjoyed doing monster books,” he told . [about] these five-page stories, you know? “Monster books gave me the opportunity to draw things out of the Some of that Mystery stuff was really poorly written. Oh, God. How ordinary. Monster books were a challenge––what kind of monster do I get intrigued enough to get this thing off the ground?” would fascinate people? I couldn’t draw anything that was too By the beginning of 1960, Stan Lee had weeded out the also-rans outlandish or too horrible. I never did that. What I did draw was from his stable, trained a small something intriguing. There was something about this monster that group of replacements to work you could live with. If you saw him, you wouldn’t faint dead away. from his plots and brother There was nothing disgusting in his demeanor. There was nothing ’s scripts, and about him that repelled you. My monsters were lovable monsters. I established a new house look gave them names—some were evil and some were good.” to his four surviving fantasy This was a time when the Universal monster movies were first titles, Strange Tales, Tales to showing on TV, leading to the launch of Famous Monsters of Filmland Astonish, Journey into Mystery, early in ’58. Baby Boomers liker myself were discovering the unbri- , and a new dled charm of monsters. In day-to-day reality, the Cold War, the nu- entry begun in 1961, Amazing clear arms race, and the Space Age were converging. The world was Adventures. Lee didn’t bother I Remember... Vandoom, Master of Marvel Monsters by Will Murray • This article originally appeared in Comics Collector #3, Spring, 1984, and is revised and expanded for this appearance. 13 Influencees Eric Powell Interview The creator of The Goon talks with Eric Nolen-Weathington

[These days, many comic book artists have an almost homogeneous style; intricately rendered, but lacking the stylistic panache of a (right) Powell’s 2005 Monsters on the Prowl Walter Simonson, Mike Mignola, or—yes—Jack Kirby. So when cover, featuring Kirby a talent like Nashville-based cartoonist Eric Powell burst onto the super-heroes vs. Kirby scene in 2002, it didn’t take long for the industry to take notice. monsters. After winning the 2004 Comic Industry Award for (below) One of Kirby’s “Best Single Issue/Single Story” for The Goon #1, Eric’s gone on to own MotP covers numerous other awards in both the comics and horror fields. (actually a 1974 Powell wears many hats, from creator to self-publisher, and John Romita-altered even a breathtaking inker over Kirby’s pencils on this issue’s cover. version of Kirby’s The Kirby influence is always there, as you’ll see in this e-mail cover to Tales to Astonish #34), along interview conducted in May 2019.] with Eric himself, and his creator-owned THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: You’ve been into comics Lulu the Bearded Girl and scary stuff since you were a little kid, to the point you and her pet monster Chimichanga. wanted to be a special f/x make-up artist when you were in your teens. What is it about monsters, and horror in gen- eral, that grabbed your attention? And why do you think there’s been such a resurgence of horror comics the past (next page, left) few years? Pencils for the cover of Arkham Asylum: Living ERIC POWELL: That’s a hard to answer. What Hell #6, featuring Eric’s makes people like Justin Bieber? That’s truly horrifying. I favorite Kirby monster: dunno. I’ve always liked monsters. I’ve always been drawn Etrigan! to sci-fi and horror fiction. It’s just in my blood, I guess. (next page, right) Page And I feel like we horror comic fans have been lucky one of Marvel Mon- recently, because it seems to me that comics of all genres sters: Devil Dinosaur are kind of taking off right #1, which Eric drew as now. Pretty sure that, in an homage to Kirby’s my lifetime, this is the cover for Devil Dino- saur #1 (bottom).

30 HorrorFLIK The Empire Strikes out Interview with Michael Zuccaro

ack in TJKC #11, we ran a short feature on (right) A letter Jack sent Kirby’s work with film producer to Michael Zuccaro, two years prior to their first B at Empire Entertainment. In May 1995, I had meeting at the 1975 sent a letter to Mr. Band, asking for background Miami Comic-Con. on two Jack Kirby concepts that had apparently evolved into renamed films at his later company, (below) The Stephen Full Moon Productions. In response, he briefly Spielberg-produced visited the TwoMorrows booth at the 1995 Comic- got an Empire Con International saying in passing, “Sometime I knock-off called . need to tell you what happened with those,” but he never responded to our repeated attempts to get details on the situation. (bottom) Head of the Family is a 1996 So we asked Michael Zuccaro, who was Jack’s B-movie black com- initial contact with Band, to offer up his own edy released by Full recollections of the experience. Moon. The similarities to the Simon & Kirby “My ill-fated two-pic deal with Jack Kirby at story from 1954’s Empire Pictures started with my subscription copy Black Magic 30 (V4#6, of The Hollywood Reporter, where I read a 1986 reprinted in 1973 by DC Comics with a front page story about film producer Charles Band. new In it, he was quoted as having a love for comic cover) are unmistak- books—and if you love comics, you can’t not love able. Jack Kirby. “While Mr. Band liked Forever Amore, he didn’t have “Therefore, I took it upon myself to approach the budget for it, but wanted Jack and me to produce a Mr. Band in hopes of him doing my script couple of Jack’s ideas: Mindmaster and Doctor Mortalis. NOCTVRNVS that “Mr. Band is known for producing his low-budget Jack embellished B-movies in reverse, which apparently by sheer volume (formerly entitled has served him well. He starts with the last step, the Forever Amore—see movie’s poster (i.e. 1985 Gremlins knock-off Ghoulies, TJKC #11 for my story with a creature head popping up from a toilet seat, and behind that project). the tagline “They’ll Get You In The End!”) and seeks Band was very much financing by talking up the poster. intrigued and requested “He proceeded to do just that after getting Jack and a meeting at his Empire me some ‘good faith’ money, and following another front Entertainment office in page Hollywood Reporter article announcing the deal, he Hollywood. Jack and I took out full-page ads there and in Variety. took the meeting with “The plan was for Jack and me to go to his film him and his girlfriend/ studio in Rome to produce the two films. After months of producer/then-wife (now delays, Empire Pictures filed bankruptcy[in 1988]. Years ex-) Debra Dion. later, Band re-emerged, his new company re-Banded as Full Moon Productions. In 1992 and 1993, it released what to our eyes were identical projects to ours, renamed Mandroid and Doctor Mordrid—with no creative input from us or money from Mr. Band. “I felt bad and responsible for Jack’s name being exploited, because if not for me, he and I wouldn’t have felt fleeced. I asked Jack if he wanted to sue, and if so, I would split legal fees. “Scrapper that Jack was, he said, ‘Let’s get the bastard!’ “I got an attorney that said it was a slam dunk because it wasn’t

42 Unexplained Monster Myths by John Morrow

ythological beasts abound throughout history: Highlands. The Kraken, , Manticore, Basilisk, Roc, and earliest report of a many others. But Kirby, always on the search for monster there dates back to the year 565. (below) Pencils from M ’s Pal new fodder for inspiration in his stories, took two that In 1933, road construction on the north shore of Jimmy Olsen #144, as had made their way into pop culture, and turned them Loch Ness involved a lot of drilling and blasting, which prepares to into characters in his own comics. some think forced the monster to come out of hiding, summon Jack’s ver- and into the open waters. Around this time, there sion of the Loch Ness were numerous reported sightings. In 1934, a London Monster. The Loch Ness Monster surgeon took a photograph that seems to show Nessie In Scottish folklore, the Loch Ness Monster (or above the surface of the water, and it’s kept the creature “Nessie”) allegedly inhabits Loch Ness in the Scottish in the headlines ever since. (That “surgeon’s photo- graph” of 1934, above, is now known to have been part of a hoax.) From 1962–1972, the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau conducted a ten-year study, and documented an average of 20 sightings per year. By the end of the 1960s, sonar was used unsuccessfully in trying to track the creature, but in the mid-1970s, underwater photographs that appeared to show a ‘flipper’ were made public, further helping keep the legend alive.

Bigfoot/ Bigfoot (or “Sasquatch”) are said to be hairy, upright-walking, ape-like creatures that dwell in the wilderness (particularly the US Pacific Northwest) and leave large, otherwise unexplained footprints behind. On September 21, 1958, journalist Andrew Genzoli of the Humboldt Times ran a letter about loggers in northern California who’d discovered mysteriously large foot- prints. In his column, he joked, “Maybe we have a relative of the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas.” Due to interest from read- ers, he published follow-up articles about the footprints, stating loggers had named the creature “Big Foot,” and a legend was born. A 1976 faux-documentary titled The Legend of Bigfoot catapulted the creature to pop culture stardom. That same year, the highly watched first installment of a two-part 51 Boydisms

by Jerry Boyd

onsters have been a part of popular culture ever Romita splash for the latter knocked me out! I’d never since writers, artists, painters, and sculptors seen a copy of either, and while the adults chatted, my M found an audience for things that go bump in the brother and I (he got two 25¢ Harvey comics) were lost night. Most nations have their demons, witches, , in our grandparents’ den. animal-men, and so on as I knew there’d been some time on Earth long ago part of their lore. because I had grandparents and parents, but these old In the US, Lee and Captain America and Bucky stories—what was this?! Kirby made Comics Code- I was glued to the pages—crudely drawn (though I approved creatures (with wasn’t old enough to really know “crude”), but filled briefs on, a lot of the time) with passion, and wildly intriguing. a staple of their pre-hero Stan and Jack had an “It!” story inside—closer to line-up, and the many his current style in the Fantastic Four, but less crude imaginative space aliens, than the two Captain America tales (and look—Bucky man-made creatures, Barnes, the youngster referred to in more than a few swamp and plant things, Tales of Suspense yarns—wowwwweee…). I had to and revived evil giants of devour this, and though I was only an almost-third- legend kept readers glued grader, I had to figure out the words I didn’t know. I to Journey Into Mystery, had to get into this stuff—and the Spider-Man, as well! Strange Tales, Tales to The first Captain America story dealt with “The Astonish, and Tales of Menace of Dr. Grimm” and the moody, dark splash Suspense, among others. page said a lot about the events to come—a foreboding For this young fan, building with strange underlings bringing a victim to it Kirby’s monsters and in the darkness. Cap and Bucky were standing nearby, heroes came together taking it all in. I’d take it all in, also. The afternoon in one moment in the was set—monsters from a 1940s story and another Summer of 1966. My monster from the early 1960s. It was all new to me and parents went away for I’d love it and more of the same from issues of Fantasy a short vacation, and Masterpieces to come! I’ll examine the monsters the my brother and I were Star-Spangled Sentinels battled first. left with our maternal grandparents in Durham, North Carolina. When my The Monsters That parents returned to get us, the hugs and kisses were added to by two comics they’d Camp Lehigh! gotten me: Fantasy Masterpieces #4 and Amazing Spider- In those less sophisticated days, enthusiastic Man Special #3. The Kirby cover for the former and the comics readers didn’t do a lot of questioning (because most comics houses didn’t have letters columns, for one thing) or stop reading their heroes’ adventures because they instantly (and impossibly, really) became superb sleuths right after first donning their colorful outfits. But Cap and Bucky always “had a clue” and used the mounting evidence they gathered to its best advan- tage. They found out who would strike next, where, and how, and by the story’s end, Cap would stand victori- ously over the beaten enemies and reveal their insidious plot. Sometimes the duo went aboard ship or over- seas to combat the Japanese militarists or fascists in Europe in their strong- holds. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby provided plenty of “human monsters” like the , the Chessman, the White Death, and the Killers of the Bund to

54 That by Jerry Boyd Menaced The World (Of Marvel)!

The chief antagonist was the Hollywood Hunchback, a nice Kirby rendering not too (above) The far from Lon Chaney Sr.’s classic portrayal Hunchback of from the Universal Studios’ hit of 1923, The Hollywood (Captain America Comics Hunchback of Notre Dame. In Joe and Jack’s #3) gave readers a take, a filmmaker who was messaging the monster derived from fight against fascism was mysteriously mur- the success of Lon dered on the set of a medieval-era adventure. Chaney’s grotesquerie Suspects were lined up. All had reason to from 1923. get rid of the deceased, of course. The local (previous page, bottom) “Goris police questioned them all, including one Barloff” was one of actor who looked a lot like Boris Karloff, one the suspects in the of Universal’s kings of horror (who shared Hunchback story. S&K the throne with Bela Lugosi). Jack did a nice did a solid likeness of likeness, and the name “Goris Barloff” said Boris Karloff (pictured). the rest. (bottom) Our heroes also had to contend The Sentinels of Liberty had to keep the with the plundering homicidal hunchback from doing more dam- Butterfly in their third age, and in the end, they unmasked the killer issue. and saved the day. Spoiler Alert: It wasn’t (below) Undated Joe challenge the adventurous twosome. Barloff… Simon commission. But we’re concerned with real monsters here, or Another ‘monster’ showed up in the same issue. A those who presented themselves as actual monsters for plundering, murdering Butterfly (!) soared about the this offering. And some of Joe and Jack’s probable inspi- confines of a museum. rations for said monsters came from the bustling dream Captain America Comics #4 saw factory of Southern California’s Hollywood. the first all-out monster cover. Axis aggressors started Cap and Bucky off, with Bucky was strapped to the the youngster drop-kicking Hitler and Goering in the type of table nine out of ten second issue (!), but it was the third issue that placed demented doctors prefer the powerfully built Private Rogers into a knight’s to use for hapless vic- armor on a film production conveniently photographed tims. A barely controlled near… Camp Lehigh. green monster (!) is at (Aside from Steve and Bucky’s “instant deductive the camp mascot’s right, powers”, Camp Lehigh was placed where a lot of the and a twisted, grinning action was!) scientist (or assistant) is near our hero, holding a

55 Kirby As A Genre Covering Fire Columnist Adam McGovern talks with King of cover-art Michael Cho on what meets the eye and burns beneath the surface of Kirby

(right) The mark of Kirby ichael Cho has given the guess that he’s a connoisseurial “becomes overt when comics artform a brand Kirby fan, though the breadth of I’m drawing Kirby char- new past. The dynamic thought he’s put into Kirby’s art- acters,” Cho says. “I’ll M draw Captain America drama and elegant, endearing istry, and the extent of the mark with Kirby pencils and mood he brings to the medium, Kirby has made on Cho’s own Giacoia inks in mind, like a pulp storybook, makes you work, were two of many pleasant because that’s the ver- feel as if the optimistic, exhila- surprises from this most modest sion of that character I see in my head.” rating heyday of North American of virtuosos. We soon sat down pop culture is unfolding afresh, to share his story, and to see how a timeline do-over with many his artistic eye casts Kirby’s own (below center) “I love all eras of Kirby,” Cho says. of the mercenary and malicious saga in a highly original light. tendencies of mass entertainment “People draw the line at THE JACK KIRBY different points. Some filtered out and the creativity, COLLECTOR: Looking at your people don’t like Captain common hope and social daring Victory. I love Captain art I could easily guess you brought forth all the farther. A Victory!”—and this were a Kirby fan, but I’d never distinguished book-cover and image inked over Kirby’s call you a Kirby disciple. How sketch makes that truer magazine illustrator (The New does an artist as distinctive than ever. Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, as you are incorporate and Random House, Penguin advance from a model as Classics), Cho’s first love was definitive as Kirby? comics, and comics loved him MICHAEL CHO: I’m not a back, first gaining him acclaim Kirby imitator in the sense for his webcomic Papercut and that I try to draw exactly like then for his Times Kirby; there have been a lot bestselling debut graphic novel, of those in history. Nobody Shoplifter (, 2014). can really be Kirby, but a lot He’s now one of the most in-de- of people can copy the surface mand cover artists for both Marvel and DC, where his mannerisms. I do consider [Kirby] the single greatest images are welcoming in a new generation of comics fans influence; if you boil down all the influences that have and steering classic super-hero mythos to its next future. become distilled in me, the biggest piece When we first met at New Jersey’s East Coast Comic of the pie-chart, Con this May, it didn’t take a or Wall to (next page, top) Before and beyond: Cho says it was common for cartoonists in his home base of Toronto to practice their inking over images scanned from (blush) The Jack Kirby Collector; this diptych shows his “translations” of Kirby, in which Cho preserves the King’s personality while making the image even more his own.

(next page, bottom) One giant step for the classic Hulk (with a look back to the 1960s Marvelmania t-shirt and Aurora model?) in this art for the Marvel Style Guide by Cho.

64 Anti-Man Bugs In The System by Shane Foley

ho were the “Bugs”? When they of Supertown). But this desire is not shared by the were first introduced in New Gods #9 and 10 in colony’s supreme , the All-Widow. She wants a W 1972, the Bug society that Jack invented was real- more violent approach, preferring that of Mantis from ly violent and inter- , who stirs the colonists to rebellion and esting, while at the invasion. same time really con- This all smacks of a story that has deep and unex- fusing to 15-year-old plained thinking behind it, and one that I believe Jack me. Why? Because was going to explore further but never could. these Bugs lived on I see three distinct story elements in the situation New Genesis—the of the Bugs. planet of the comic’s 1) The Bugs themselves are a strange, science- good guys. Yet they fiction society, enlarging on one Jack introduced years were despised and earlier in “Tales of ” (Journey Into Mystery #124- even killed by those 125), based loosely on the way insect colonies seem to good guys! work. It is a violent society, complete with the death So what sort of ritual forced upon the Prime One, and all the strange- goodies were these ness that encircles that—perfect sci-fi fodder for Kirby New Gods? Why are to visualize! they trying to exter- 2) There is the clear notion that Forager is not minate these Bugs, as though they were bad guys living really a Bug at all, but something different. As Orion on their planet? And if these Bugs really were baddies, was not from New Genesis, and Scott Free was not from why were they on New Genesis at all? Shouldn’t they be Apokolips, neither does it seem that Forager is from part of Apokolips? And it got more mystifying! As the the Bug society. (See pages 10 and 18 in New Gods #9). story progressed, we saw some of these Bugs weren’t Where was Kirby going to go with this? Editor John really bad guys at all—particularly the Prime One and Morrow has this recollection: Forager himself. Were there more like them? And then, “Richard Kyle long ago told me his theory, after talking (below) Panels from to complicate matters more, suddenly Mantis—defi- to Jack, was that Forager was Orion’s son from an affair “Tales of Asgard” in nitely a big-gun bad guy—was there in the Bug society! with someone, and that’s why he didn’t fit in; he got shuttled Journey Into Mystery What goes on here? #124 and #125, off to the Bug colony to keep it secret. It was just his theory, As the story further unfolds, we see that the Bugs’ showing the Swarm not something specific Jack said, but based on conversations Queen and her swarm society is multi-layered. There is desire amongst some with Jack, and his own reading of the Fourth World stuff.” in action. (Prime One and Forager at least) to be on equal foot- Orion having a child from an affair? Wow! ’70s ing with the “” (their name for the New Gods super-hero comics under Kirby certainly went places no

68 A Blue Bug in Sweden Mark Evanier Jack F.A.Q.s A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby

the early ’60s. Jack used to take Jack Kirby’s Monster Influence Panel his son Neal to every matinée that had “The Amazing Held Saturday, April 21, 2018 at Colossal Anything” in it. [laughter] As a the San Diego Comic Fest. result, if you’ll look at the first issue of The Featuring Mike Royer, Tom Kraft, Hulk, and you watch The Amazing Colossal and Mark Evanier. Man, you see certain similarities. Transcribed by Tom Kraft. For years, there was a guy who’d come Copyedited by Mark Evanier. to these conventions, and would lecture Photo by Phil Geiger. about the influences of monster movies on Jack. And his big finale, his big coup d’état, the big moment when he made like he’d liberated the entirety of comic book research, was to compare the character Ray Milland played in The Man with X-Ray Eyes, to in the X-Men, and he did this for years and years until some of us point- ed out that X-Men #1 came out two years before The Man with X-Ray Eyes. [laughter] We destroyed that theory completely, whereupon he developed the theory that the movie was inspired by the comic book. MIKE ROYER: You know Mark, at first I [laughter] thought this “Jack Kirby, Monster Influence” “Whatever movie I was So, Tom, this panel was your idea. panel would be about all the guys who tried to Would you tell us the thesis on which you watching I would see it draw like him. operate here? about seven times, and my MARK EVANIER: No, it’s all the guys who TOM KRAFT: The thesis is monster influ- mother would have to get employed him. [laughter] Not everyone who ence—it takes him from being a young person me out of the theater. employed Jack cheated him badly. and being influenced by comics, and by the I believe the naturalism I’m Mark Evanier, this is Mike Royer, that’s monster movies, mostly Universal films, which and the drama that were Tom Kraft. In the audience, we have another were Frankenstein and Phantom of the Opera and inherent in the pictures person who worked with Jack Kirby when Jack so forth. So it’s comparing the two, and how he left an impression on me worked for the Ruby-Spears cartoon studio on was influenced as a young person. 1 Because . Buzz Dixon is sitting he grew up on the Lower East Side in the slums that I wanted to duplicate. back there. [applause] Buzz worked on the fighting, his only I tried to duplicate that comic book as well and he has escape from all faithfully.” got a spotlight in this room in two hours? that reality Jack Kirby interviewed by Will Eisner, BUZZ DIXON: I believe so. was to go February 1983 to the EVANIER: Alright, Buzz will correct all the stuff movies. we get wrong. The premise here is, Monster Influence. Jack Kirby was influ- enced by monsters. One of the fascinating things which I’m sure we’ll be talking about in the next hour, is that if you look at the early Marvel super-heroes, an awful lot of scenes in there, are very similar to scenes that were in horror and mostly science-fiction movies that came out in

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79 So, when he was very young he would go to these movies. 2 This is an image from Frankenstein when it came out in 1931, and these are the types of theaters that he would 2 3 go to. 3 In interviews, he would talk about seeing these moviesIF YOU seven ENJOYED times in THISa row, PREVIEW, and he wouldn’t leave, and hisCLICK mother THE had LINK to come TO inORDER to the theaterTHIS and drag him out, ISSUEcause INhe justPRINT wouldn’t OR DIGITAL leave. FORMAT! Mike, you’ve had a lot of influence on The Demon and other comics that Jack did, plus you have a lot of experience in the movies, theater and so forth. ROYER: Well, I was a Saturday matinée kid. I lived in a very small town and theaters were operated by an old time exhibitor who every chance he could get, whatever the occasion was, he would rent the inexpensive, old Universal and Columbia and Paramount horror movies. So I was raised in a different time on the same kind of movies that inspired Jack, but if you think about Jack and everything he run there, that Mr. Infantino, who brought him into the company, did, every one of his life experiences was channeled into his creative might not be there very long unless the company had a dramatic endeavors. And these films obviously had a great influence on him. turnabout. So, the frustrations Jack had, were that he didn’t think There were people who write about sitting with Jack and talking DC knew how to sell a book, and they didn’t think he knew how KIRBY COLLECTOR #77 to do the right kind of comics, and it was not a very good match, MONSTERSabout his & BUGS! war Jack’sexperiences; monster-movie we influences never in talkedThe about war experiences. Demon,Maybe Forever it’s People,because Black IMagic, had Fantastic a young Four, family, Jimmy he had a family and we had because the company was operating out of desperation, doing, I Olsen, and Atlas monster stories; Kirby’s work with “B” horror think, some very foolish things. filmthose producer things CHARLES to BANDtalk ;about, interview withbut “The when Goon” we cre did- talk about movies it was atorWarner ERIC POWELL Brothers; Kirby’s filmsuse of insect from characters the ’30s.(especially And even they did a couple of Well, at one point, the office more or less decided that the as villains); MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, Goldenpseudo-horror Age Kirby story, movies, and a Kirby pencilstarring art gallery! Humphrey Bogart, etc. coming trend in comics was not super-heroes, but monster books. But(100-page I think FULL-COLOR the films magazine) definitely $10.95 had a tremendous influence on Ghoulish things, -type comics, and Infantino asked him and it may(Digital not Edition) have $5.95 shown as much in a lot of his early work as Jack to come out with a ghoulish monster book of some sort. I think ithttp://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_57&products_id=1416 did in his Demon, but I think in doing The Demon, it just opened Carmine claimed he said to come up with some sort of “demon,” up that reservoir of memories, and the experience of seeing some- and Jack said he was the one who applied the word “demon” to it. thing seven times in a row. And then he put on paper his version That’s one of those arguments you can never resolve, and both peo- of it. And it became something in its own way, totally unique, but ple went to their graves believing that they said “demon” first. based in his experience of sitting in that But we went to dinner that night: Steve Sherman, myself, Jack, darkened theater watching Roz, and the kids. I remember this more vividly than anyone should; those images on the Mike will tell you I have a real good memory. screen. ROYER: Oh boy. EVANIER: We went to a Howard Johnson’s restaurant where I had a hot turkey sandwich, and for dessert, a scoop of orange sherbet with a cookie in it. Usually when we went to dinner with Jack, he’d look at the menu and decide what he wanted and then Roz would tell him what he was going to eat. And he’d go, “Okay, fine.” And he’d eat whatever she said. This time he was absorbed in thought and she ordered for him and we were just sitting there talking, and Jack was com-

Well, I may be crazy as a loon. pletely quiet, like he was in another EVANIER: No, you’re right. plane of existence. He just sat there think- Actually, you’re crazy as a loon, but ing and thinking and thinking. And then the waiter you’re right about that. [laughter] I was brought the entrées. We stopped talking and Jack said, “The actually present at the moment of the cre- character’s named The Demon. His name is Jason Blood.” He ation of The Demon. Jack had been working went on to tell us the whole first issue, the whole premise. If it was with DC and the New Gods was selling decently, somebody else you would have thought he must have spent a month but those books were not the Marvel destroying working out all those details, cause he had the next issue, and the hits that DC was hoping for. I am trying to finish up my big giant next issue. He had villains, some of which I don’t think he used. He huge biography of Jack this year, and one of the points I’m trying to had storylines already figured out. And we just kind of sat there make to people about that era, is that DC was a company that was in chewing and listening to this thing. deep trouble when Jack joined it. Jack was aware fairly early on in his 80