John Morrow (1)

The Jack Kirby Collector # 75 is a special book-sized issue entitled ‘Kirby And Lee: Stuf’ Said!’ It’s an attempt by publisher John Morrow to tell the history of the creation of Marvel Comics in their words, mostly, of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

There are lots of other words included, not least those of Mister Morrow himself who interjects comments throughout to put the quotations in context. Any speculations on his part are accompanied by a diagram of a salt shaker to warn that, in the interests of fairness, they should be taken with that condiment added.

Naturally, Kirby’s quotes give his point of view that he created everything and Stan just put in the word balloons later. In many interviews, Stan gives Jack credit as co-creator of the characters. To be fair, he accurately describes the Marvel Method which goes like this: A writer and artist get together and discuss the plot. The artist goes off and draws the story so he’s in charge of the visuals, the pacing and making the whole thing concrete on paper.

The artist then hands the drawn pages back to the writer who scripts the captions and word balloons. Lee admits to working this way but is inclined to downplay the role of the artist and the credits, which he wrote, said ‘Written by Stan Lee’. Later he condescended reluctantly to call a book a Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Production.

The Marvel Method worked well for Stan Lee. It saved him the tedious chore of writing a full script with panel by panel descriptions of the story, such as John Broome and Gardner Fox were doing over at DC comics. As he said, it’s a lot easier to write dialogue with a picture in front of you. It also saved him the labour of detailed plotting. In fact, he preferred not to bother with plotting at all and often insisted that the artist come up with something.

He fell out with Wally Wood over this and shouted at Dick Ayers when he dared demand plotting credit for a ‘Sgt. Fury’ story. Stan Lee could do this because he was the boss and the owner’s cousin and there wasn’t much work about in comics at that time so artists were reluctant to fall out with the boss. It should also be noted that Stan got the writer’s fee for the book and the artist got no more than the usual page rate for drawing, doing the plotting for free. Wally Wood said: ‘I want the credit (and the money) for everything I do! And I resent guys like Stan Lee more than I can say! He’s my reason for living…I want to see that no-talent bum get his…’

Wood’s ambition was never realised. Instead, Stan Lee rose to fame and glory as the creator of Marvel Comics. This started in the 1960s when college students began to read the stuff and Marvel became a pop culture phenomenon. Newspapers and magazines wanted to interview someone and, as writer and editor, Stan was the frontman for the company. He was also charming and witty and came across well, a reporter’s dream. This role increased and his star grew brighter. Meanwhile, Jack Kirby was at home in his basement creating new characters, turning out great stories and fuming. Stan tried to give Jack credit but newspapers simplify things, his photo was on the cover and Stan Lee was Marvel.

Jack Kirby burst on the comics scene like a supernova with the early issues of ‘Captain America’ and stayed a star for the next two decades inventing great characters and whole new genres until silly censorious senate hearings put the whole industry in a slump. Stan Lee was writer and editor of a small, second-rate company that copied every trend, published any old rubbish and nearly folded in the late 1950s.

When Kirby came along, Stan suddenly metamorphosed into a creative genius who came up with a bunch of great new characters and concepts that changed the world of comics. After Kirby left, Stan created very little, certainly not without some ‘co-creator’ whose name came second. On the other hand, Jack never had real commercial success after he left Stan, though he did create the ‘Fourth World’ pantheon which DC exploits heavily to this day.

They both worked hard. Jack was bent over a drawing board for twelve hours a day while Stan ran the office from nine to five then went home and wrote scripts. He wrote wonderful, witty scripts and definitely made the characters more interesting and dramatic. Partly, it was via the gimmick of giving them some physical disability like Tony Stark’s weak heart, Don Blake’s lameness and Matt Murdock’s blindness. Partly it was by adding soap opera elements whereby love was always being discovered, lost and regained.

The DC super-heroes just had a girlfriend or wife and cruised along in a pleasant relationship with occasional minor tiffs. The Marvel heroes also had problems with money, work and so on just like real people. That was Stan Lee’s innovation and he deserves credit for it. It’s not entirely his fault that as the frontman for the company he got credit for everything else, too. That’s how the media works. As Jimmy Stewart said in ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence’, ‘newspapers print the legend.’

This is a work of solid scholarship and ends with a ‘Verdict’ in which Morrow reveals his perfectly fair and rational conclusions based on the evidence. The recent death of Stan Lee makes the book more poignant.

Although I think he should have given the artists more credit on page one of the comics, Stan wasn’t a super-villain or even a villain. He had to work under publisher Martin Goodman and, although he ended up on a big salary, he never owned any rights to the characters himself. Kirby’s main concern was being a breadwinner, earning enough to look after his family. After the recent out of court settlement with Marvel’s new owners, I imagine they are all doing very nicely, thank you so he can rest easy.

There are no real surprises for long-time readers of ‘The Jack Kirby Collector’ as many of the quotes have been cited therein before but it’s nice to have them all gathered together in one place and put in chronological order. The book is a significant contribution to the history of those comic books that have now been translated into films and conquered the whole world, yea even unto Disneyland.

Eamonn Murphy… (altro)

To celebrate the centennial of Jack Kirby’s birth in 1917, TwoMorrows Publishing asked one hundred stars of comics and animation to praise and critique their favourite piece of Kirby art. The result is this fine, big, colourful book, ‘Kirby 100’. The essays are arranged with the art in chronological order so the early pages feature Jack’s 1940s art and the later ones his last work.

As individual reviews of over one hundred essays would be silly, I’ve picked out those creators with whose work I am familiar and checked what they had to say. I imagine this is what most readers will do before perusing the other pages. Another route is to scan it for interesting art, see who picked it and read their comments. Essentially, this is a coffee table book, not one to sit and read cover to cover so there are several approaches.

The one hundred contributors are numbered. Number 11 is Rich Buckler, Sr. who tells us how he sent art samples to Kirby just after Jack had left Marvel. Jack liked them and told him, ‘Go see Stan Lee and tell him I said to give you a job.’ Stan did. Buckler’s chosen work is a cover he hired Kirby to do that features Lancelot Strong. Buckler was famous and infamous in the Kirby household I think for his pastiche of Jack’s work when he drew Thor and the Fantastic Four, frequently copying Kirby layouts if not the style. More homage than theft, surely, as he was a big fan.

Number 13 is Dave ‘Watchmen’ Gibbons, once known, long ago, as Dave Gibbons. He picked an obscure five-page story from Alarming Tales # 5 that Simon and Kirby did for Harvey Comics. Dave theorises that this kind of five-page adventure may have inspired Erik Von Daniken. In any case, they inspired him.

Number 22, Sal Buscema, tells how he got into comics through his brother John and was familiar with Kirby’s Marvel work. He started out trying to imitate ‘The King’ but John said, ‘Don’t do that. This guy is in a class by himself’.’ He advised Sal to emulate the power and energy but do it in his own way. Sal picked an Incredible Hulk pin-up from Fantastic Four Annual # 1.

The comments of Walter Simonson, number 32, are surprisingly brief given the number of Kirby characters he’s drawn. If I had to pick an artist who best gets the guts of Kirby’s style it would be Simonson but he doesn’t have a lot to say. His chosen art is the opening battle scene from Journey Into Mystery # 113.

Meanwhile, at number 34, is P. Craig Russell who doesn’t draw at all like Kirby but is full of admiration and analysis. He loved Jack’s work but never tried to copy it. Russell reckons that our hero went from a fluid style in the 40s to a blocky style in the 80s and the high point in this evolution, combining grace and power, was the 60s. Most people would agree with that. He picked Fantastic Four # 40-70 as his favourite, a broad swathe of Kirby that must be in most fans’ top ten.

Number 37 is John Romita, Sr. of Spider-Man fame. He picks Tales Of Suspense # 77 featuring Captain America against the Red Skull but also tells how Captain America # 1 impressed him when he was a kid. Modestly, Romita didn’t rate himself highly as an artist when he was younger but he learned dynamic storytelling by going over Kirby’s layouts, basic though they were. Turning the page, number 38 caught my eye. I don’t know Paul Smith’s work but his favourite Kirby inker was Vince Colletta. He also states that Dick Ayers was Kirby’s best inker. Controversial.

Fellow Brit, Barry Windsor-Smith fills the 44th slot. Smith said he was on the verge of giving up comics when he came across Kirby. Older fans will remember Barry’s early work on ‘Daredevil’ and ‘The Avengers’, clearly inspired by Kirby and Steranko. I still love that stuff. Barry thinks someone should make a docu-drama about the early days of Marvel, with actors playing Lee and Kirby. Well, it’s an idea.

Unsurprisingly, Jim Starlin liked Kirby’s cosmic stuff and he chose a picture of Metron to fill his slot at number 65. Surprisingly, he says it was Metron that inspired the appearance of Thanos and not Darkseid as so many think.

On to 67, 68 and 69. Veteran Kirby inker Mike Royer’s choice is a splash page that embodies heroism, honour, courage, valour and struggle. It’s page 25 of New Gods # 6 featuring the Glory Boat. That issue was definitely one of Kirby’s best for both story and art. New Gods # 7 was even better and it was picked by both Tom Scioli and Giorgio Comolo. I admire their taste.

And so on. At the back there are thirteen pages of ‘One Hundred Years Of Kirby: A Chronology Of The King’s Reign.’ Jack passed away on 6 February 1994 but there have been developments concerning his work to this day. Kings never really die. Ask Elvis fans.

TwoMorrows Publishing has been clever here. They could have simply done a bigger, splashier issue of ‘Jack Kirby Collector’ but getting a hundred artists to give an opinion has more weight. It’s like the Nebula awards in Science Fiction. Winning a Hugo is nice because it means the fans like you. Winning a Nebula is class because your fellow professionals like you. ‘Kirby 100’ is probably a must-have for Kirby fans.

Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/… (altro)