THE $5.95 In The US ISSUE #23, FEB. 1999 COLLEC A 68-PAGE COLLEC IISSUE WHERE ANYTHING GOES! A RARELY-SEEN,, FEATURE-LENGTH Kirby Interview UNINKED PENCILS TO Fantastic Four #49 FEATURING THE Silver Surfer COMPARING KIRBY’’S MARGIN NOTES TO Stan Lee’s Words INTERVIEW WITH . y e l r o H Denny O’Neil x e l A & y REMINISCENCE BY b REMINISCENCE BY r i K GRANDDAUGHTER GRANDDAUGHTER k c a J © k Tracy Kirby r o w t r A . c UNPUBLISHED n I , s STORY FROM c i m o C Soul Love C D M T n o m e A Kirby Contest D AND Fan Art Unpublished Art INCLUDING PENCIL PAGES BEFORE THEY WERE INKED,, AND MUCH MORE!! NOMINATED FOR TWO 1998 EISNER AWARDS INCLUDING “BEST COMICS-RELATED PUBLICATION” 1998 HARVEY AWARDS NOMINEE “BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION” THE ONLY ’ZINE AUTHORIZED BY THE Issue #23 Contents: THE KIRBY ESTATE Keeping The Light On ........................4 (Tracy Kirby remembers her grandpa and an old school project) The “What If?” Kirby Never Did ........6 (make way for Darkseid, True Believer!) Questions & Answers Odditorium .....7 ISSUE #23, FEB. 1999 (mysteries of the new Kirby Checklist) COLLECTOR Kirby Contest! .....................................9 (Uncle Giveaway wants you to enter!) A Nice Story .....................................12 (behind the scenes with Captain Nice) Fan Art ..............................................14 (our readers share their talents) Car & Driver .....................................18 (why the Whiz Wagon is up on blocks) Jack’s pencils to the Black Bolt pin-up in Jack Kirby Interview .........................19 FF Annual #5. (a feature-length chat from 1987, complete with plenty of war stories) Centerfold: FF #49 Pencils! ...............34 (Jack’s early Silver Surfer in pencil!) A Failure To Communicate ...............36 (Part Three of our series comparing Jack’s margin notes to Stan’s dialogue, featuring the Silver Surfer) The Kirby Kronicles .........................42 (a fan’s encounter with the King) Two Letters To Jack ..........................43 A Kirby Memory ..............................43 (a couple of fans in search of Jack’s autograph) Talking With Jack Kirby ...................43 (the strangest, shortest interview ever) O’Neil On Kirby ...............................44 (Denny O’Neil on Justice Inc. and Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter) Heart & Soul .....................................48 (True Divorce Cases and Soul Love examined in detail) “The Teacher” ...................................54 (a previously unpublished Kirby story) Classifieds .........................................64 Collector Comments .........................65 Front cover painting: Alex Horley Back cover inks, collage, and color: Jack Kirby 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. COPYRIGHTS: Atlas, Big Barda, Big Words, Brute, Captain Marvel, Chagra, Demon, Flippa Dippa, Gabby, Glob, Guardian, Henry Jones, In The Days Of The Mob, Jed, Jimmy Olsen, Lightray, Losers, Metron, Mother Box, Mr. Miracle, Mr. Scarlet, Newsboy Legion, Orion, Richard Dragon, Sandman, Scrapper, Soul Love, Spirit World, Superman, Tommy, True Divorce Cases, Whiz Wagon TM & © DC Comics, Inc. • Alicia Masters, Amphibian, Angel, Atlas Monsters, Beast, Black Bolt, Captain America, Cyclops, Daredevil, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Dum- Dum Dugan, Enforcers, Fantastic Four, Franklin, Gorgilla, Hawkeye, This issue’s front cover is a painting by Alex Horley of a Demon pencil drawing we ran back in TJKC #17. Hulk, Human Torch, Iceman, Ikaris, Impossible Man, Indestructible, Invisible Girl, Iron Man, Marvel Girl, Mole Man, Molecule Man, Mr. Our back cover this issue is the original Metron concept drawing, in ink, watercolor, and collage by Jack himself! Fantastic, Nick Fury, Odin, Pepper, Professor X, Punisher, Puppet Master, Quicksilver, Replicus, Scarlet Witch, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Thing, Thor, Watcher, X-Men TM & © Marvel Entertainment, Inc. • Alien, Humanoid, Sky Masters, Spaceship © Jack The Jack Kirby Collector , Vol. 6, No. 23, Feb. 1999. Published bi-monthly by & © TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Kirby • Destroyer Duck and all associated characters © Jack Kirby and Steve Gerber • Bullseye, Don Daring, Stuntman, Uncle Giveaway © Joe 919-833-8092. John Morrow, Editor. Pamela Morrow, Asst. Editor. Jon B. Cooke, Assoc. Editor. Single issues: $5.95 ($6.40 Canada, $8.40 elsewhere). Simon & Jack Kirby • Captain Nice and all associated characters TM & Six-issue subscriptions: $24.00 US, $32.00 Canada and Mexico, $44.00 outside North America. First printing. All characters are trademarks of their respec - © NBC-TV • Black Hole and all associated characters TM & © Walt Disney Productions • “The Unexplained Phenomenon of the UFO” © tive companies. All artwork is © Jack Kirby unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter is © the respective authors. PRINTED IN CANADA. Tracy Kirby 3 Keeping The Light On by Jack and Roz’s granddaughter Tracy Kirby edtime was my favorite part of the day BB at my grandparents’ house because I knew Grandpa would be in full swing at the drawing table. Each time I fought to sleep on the big, yellow, “smushy” couch in the living room so I could easily sneak into Grandpa’s studio. Now, I’ll admit, I was afraid of the dark. However, I never needed a nightlight because the glow from his studio would always pre - vail over the evil, threaten - ing shadows. This was the time I had Grandpa all to myself. I would just look through the crack of the door and watch him draw. In my early years, a pen would be in one hand, a pipe in the other. What a wonderful smell! Many times, I came into the studio, sat on the couch, quietly watching. If I was really lucky, he would take a break and tell me one of his amazing mystery or World War Two stories (in the style of Boy Commandos , of course!). Those were the nights I could stay awake forever, just listening and watching. At my age he wasn’t a famous comics artist. I never knew how truly impor - tant he was to the world until much later. To me he was magical, my own personal Merlin. He was the greatest storyteller a kid could ask for—and a great grandpa. While duking it out in Hollywood to put Grandpa’s name on the big screen and try writing myself, all the stories and memories keep flooding into my mind. I don’t see the images of Captain America, the Thing (well, except maybe for the “Jewish Thing” on the wall in the studio), Thor, or even the original Boy Commandos page they had on the kitchen wall. I see his beaten-up drawing table, his pipe tray, his entire National Geographic collection and sci-fi books on the shelves, a really dorky picture with him and costumed characters, the Yankee baseball cap he always wore, and the glorious backyard. (The back - yard itself requires a separate novel regarding all the wonderful and funny things that happened back there over the years. The UFO story pops into my mind vividly.) So as I start writing and developing the Kirby stories, I can’t help but think back to those precious moments when staying up late was a reward. For me, in those starlit hours, dreams became real and imagina - tion was allowed to run free. I will always thank him for letting me lis - ten and be a part of his creations, and not to mention... for keeping the light on. Tracy Kirby August 13, 1998 4 rying to compile the definitive Jack Kirby Kirby mis-remembering his involvement on The Checklist is like trying to enumerate pí ; the Fawcett’s Wow Comics as occurring five years TTcloser one gets to the end, the farther away earlier, and with a different publisher? It seems it gets. The solid foundation upon which the as though Kirby would at the least remember the additions and corrections were added was first comic that he had worked on. It’s known Jack Kirby Catherine Hohlfeld and Ray Wyman’s The Art of that Eisner and Iger were involved with work on Jack Kirby list. The largest volume of work had this comic book. Does someone out there have already been done. New information added to the answer? Checklist: the list appears to lessen the number of “holes” or One of the ways to economize on room in questions, but it often creates more labyrinths the Checklist was to list reprints that were not and avenues on which to chase down and cross- featured in their entirety as “partial.” Without reference everything to everything else. going into too much detail, the reader can figure Through the research and involvement of out what’s been carved from the Kirby/Lee a number of knowledgeable Kirby fans around masterpiece. For example, in Marvel Treasury the world, the Kirby Checklist was updated, tiny Edition #11 (which features a new Kirby/Giacoia mistakes and all, to 1998. The road to compiling front and back cover), the reprint of Fantastic the updated 1998 edition of the Checklist is littered Four #51 (“This Man, This Monster”) is reduced with good submissions, bad recollections, and to 16 pages from 20 by eliminating pages 10, 11 a lot of detective work—not to mention having and 14. Marvel cropped page 9 and added one to leap-frog over every Sserpo, Zzutak, Vandoom, tier of panels from page 12. The missing material and Googam that pops up during a spelling check. is Johnny Storm and Wyatt Wingfoot (pages 10- Sometimes there is a sobering shock, like dis - 12), and a photo collage (page 14). This goes to covering that my Strange Tales #127 is missing show that no matter how alluring reprints are, the pin-up page! ( Choke!) Jean Depelley of France it’s still wiser to stick to the “originals.” sent the information in on Strange Tales #127, A big question about the Checklist was and now we all know that there is a dynamic raised regarding the designation of “Kirby - a(l)”; Thing pin-up page by Kirby in that issue.