KIRBY RESPONSIBLE FOR MUTANT POPULATION EXPLOSION

In 1963 Lee/Kirby came up with a reusable explanation for characters having unique powers. Mutation. They collaborated on the first twenty issues of X-MEN from 1963 to 1966 and created the first 17 Marvel Universe Homo Superiors: Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast, Marvel Girl, Magneto, Vanisher, Blob, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Toad, Mastermind, Unus, Lucifer, Juggernaut and Mimic.

A decade later Kirby created 5 more mutants for Marvel without Lee's input: Burner, Lifter, Peepers, Shocker and Slither.

After 7 years and 66 issues STRANGE TALES finally added Kirby to the title's rotating lineup of artists.

In 1958 with great power comes great irony! Details at:

BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY: The Invisible Man-A Marvel Hero That Never Was

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Lee's twenty years of scripting experience and Kirby's craft, honed by drawing nearly 9000 pages by this point in his career, combined to produce the perfect 13 page Giant Menace story. (and create one of the three best-known dragons after Smaug and Puff).

What is the Subtext?

From August 1961's JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #73

 9% of U.S. households (3,880,000) had a TV in 1950.

87.1% of U.S. households (45,750,000) had a TV in 1960.

from http://www.tvhistory.tv/

The REAL reason Disney settled with Kirby's human creations?

See, there's been this series of science-fiction movies, three in all, the last few years. Maybe you've seen one or all of them. I've only seen one of them, myself, and it seemed altogether Kirbyesque to me.

- Mark Evanier, THE SOURCE column (1986 NEW GODS #1 reprint

A 1972 triptych from issue 9 of the series that MIGHT have inspired STAR WARS.

KIRBY ROCKS!

"That’s why my book sold. Captain America was real. When Captain America got into a fight with a dozen guys he could lick those guys, and anybody who read the book can see how he did it." - Jack Kirby

State of the art Kirby/Rule machinery: 1959

from WORLD OF FANTASY #18

As pure a Kirby tribute as ANY you'll find in cyberspace!

http://kirbycovers.com/

AN EARLY HONING OF SYNOPSIS CRAFT WOULD BE A NECESSARY TOOL IN BUILDING THE HOUSE OF MARVEL.

This one-page retelling of the seven page "What was Gargantus"  from STRANGE TALES #80 is an early example.

From:

STRANGE TALES #85 - Kirby/Ayers cover - shipped March 1961

    "The Return of Gargantus" (13 Kirby/Ayers pages)

    "The Man Who Fell" (5 Reinman pages)

     "The Ape Man" (5 Ditko pages)

Reinman draws an impressive gypsy and a credible gypsy camp.

Ditko designs an entire prison island for his five-pager.

"KAMANDI was Jack's take on PLANET OF THE APES, a movie he'd heard much about about but had not seen. Asked for something to parallel that film, Jack conjured up what was left of Earth after a good, old-fashioned nuclear holocaust and populated the world with a young human protagonist and a lot of people with animal heads." - Mark Evanier KIRBY KING OF COMICS

"Kamandi's world is a premise of hope. It stems from a "Natural" disaster, not an atomic war." - Kirby (KAMANDI #3 letters page response)

This Kirby/Ditko full-pager first appeared in 1960.

It would be more than a decade before it would be reprinted. Nearly two decades later it was included in the Ancient Menaces section of MONSTER MASTERWORKS, a book that includes a text "treatment on the subject of monsters in storytelling" by King Kirby.

Nearly a year after Ditko depicted scary shadow creatures it was Kirby's turn.

From STRANGE TALES #79, one of many comics that had a Kirby/Ditko cover and interior art. 

HERE IS SOME CREDIT-BOX-CERTIFIED KIRBY/KLEIN ART FOR YOU TO COMPARE WITH YESTERDAY'S POSSIBLE KIRBY/KLEIN ART.

From THOR #168 and 169

"Some comics historians theorize he may have been an inker on some portion of Kirby's landmark comic Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961), for which George Klein is the generally recognized, uncredited inker. Others note the long lag time between Rule's last confirmed credit and the Fantastic Four premiere. The Jack Kirby Museum, singularly and with no specified corroboration, gives Rule credit for stories as late as "I Dream of Doom" in Strange Tales #96 (May 1962), and lists him as inker for one of three chapters in The Fantastic Four #1 (the 12-page "The Fantastic Four Meet the Moleman") and the 24-page entirety of The Fantastic Four #2 (Jan. 1962)"

            - http://marvel.wikia.com/Christopher_Rule

After presenting 60 stories by 15 different artists* in 13 issues, the 14th issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE was the first to have only two stories by two different artists.

Of course, one of those artists was Kirby, who also provided the cover. The other was Ditko.

*Kirby, Ayers, Burgos, Crandall, Ditko, Everett, Reinman, Heck, Buscema, Forgione, Sinnott, Williamson, Forte, Lieber and Heath.

From January 1956 to September 1958 15 issues of WORLD OF FANTASY were published. They presented 90 stories by 49 artists.

Talents as diverse as Bernard Krigstein

Gene Colan

Mort Meskin

Manny Stallman

and future Kirby inker, Chris Rule

 

Early November 1958 WORLD OF FANTASY #16 shipped. It had the debut appearances in that title of three men that many credit with saving Marvel Comics and possibly the entire industry from extinction in the next decade.

 Joe Sinnott, many fans' favorite Kirby inker.

Steve Ditko

 
 and the savior of superhero comics - Kirby.

Fin Fang Foom marked the end of 13 page Giant Menace Era. Starting with STRANGE TALES #90 Kirby's lead stories were cut back to seven pages.

Coincidence-filled alien invader stories with twist endings supplied by unlikely heroes filled the void. 

There isn't a story that can't be made better by setting it at a circus.

No sense setting a giant monster story in China and not destroying the Great Wall!

Lee and Kirby hit the ball and touched them all with their lead story for STRANGE TALES #89.

"When I was a kid, I loved going to the movies. When I say a kid, I mean 10, 11, 12 years old. And there was one movie I'd seen. I remember nothing about it except the name. It took place in China, I believe, and the name of the movie was Chu Chin Chow. Now I have no idea what it meant — I don't know if it was somebody's name or a country or a city, but I never forgot that name. Those three words just stuck in my memory: Chu Chin Chow. So when I was looking for the name of a monster, I remember Chu Chin Chow ... and that particular meter, that beat, somehow led to Fin Fang Foom."  Stan Lee (from ALTER EGO #3)

KIRBY FED MY PRETEEN EPINEPHRINE ADDICTION BY PROVIDING REGULAR DOSES OF CONSEQUENCE-FREE VIOLENCE. MY NEED FOR NOSTALGIA IN MY SENIOR YEARS KEEPS ME COMING BACK.

Was the CCG the reason that the Kirby Estate didn't think the Supreme Court would give them a blank check and infinite credit ruling?!?!

Am I the only one who thinks that there will soon be a Kirby Museum at every Disney Theme Park with an animatronic Kirby drawing purchasable art in a recreation of his basement studio complete with the appropriate shows on a vintage television?!?

88 YEARS AGO TODAY Another master craftsman who would use his skills to embellish Kirby (and others) was born

Fun fact: Joe Sinnott has been working for Marvel for 64 years, he has been inking the Sunday Spider-Man newspaper strip for the last 22 years!

39 YEARS AGO TODAY

Not only did Marvel finess the cover...

they only reprinted 90% of the story!

50 YEARS AGO TODAY when you read this FANTASTIC FOUR were you disappointed that it was the first issue without a costumed villain?

And do you remember what iconic symbol of the 1964 zeitgeist was in the box?

BREAKING NEWS...BREAKING NEWS...BREAKING NEWS (well, that's what Nancy Grace would call it!)

CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY FROM REUTERS

Marvel introduces a 3rd generation of children to the Kirby magic (or is that 4th?)

from HISTORY OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE (2011)

NEW OLD KIRBY IN THE SHOPS TODAY

MMW ATLAS ERA TALES OF SUSPENSE TP VOL 01 $29.99

(W/A) Various (CA) Don Heck
    In 1958, Stan Lee stood before the decimated Atlas line. Having gone from editor of a line of dozens of titles to just eight, Stan refocused his efforts on only biggest and best: enter TALES OF SUSPENSE! Anchored by the visual talents Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck, this new "big monster" book became part of a creative revival that would change comics forever. Their twist-ending tales featuring Martians, killer robots and massive monsters were the very foundation for what would become Marvel's super-hero House of Ideas. So strap on your tin-foil hat, grab your ray gun, and get ready to dive into one of the most amazing eras of comics' history! Collecting TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #1-10. Reprints 8 Kirby-drawn stories totaling 45 pages of art and 7 Kirby covers

MMW MARVEL RARITIES HC VOL 01 $75.00

(W/A) Various (CA) Larry Lieber
    Experience classic tales featuring mystic hero Dr. Droom, arch-villain Dr. Doom and the cosmic Watcher in one must-have Masterworks collection! Featuring some of the era's greatest talents - Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas and Gene Colan - it's a perfect Masterworks pedigree! This volume will also include a host of amazing extras from the 1960s peak of the Marvel Age - original Marvel Merry Marching Society memorabilia; rare pinups, posters and prints; and more! It's the volume you've dreamed of, so reserve your copy today! Collecting material from AMAZING ADVENTURES (1961) #1-5 (16 Kirby pages), TALES OF SUSPENSE #49-58, SILVER SURFER (1968) #1-7, MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1967) #20 and #23, and ASTONISHING TALES (1970) #1-8.

In the summer of 1961 if you saw this Kirby-rendered human transforming into an orange monster in TALES OF SUSPENSE #22...

you probably experienced DeJack Vu when you read FANTASTIC FOUR #1 a month later.

Kirby/Ditko Vs Kirby/Ayers

Do you know what is special about this issue? In 1972 OVERSTREET didn't.

 Williamson and Steranko rate a mention but not Kirby or Ditko!?

Kirby denied credit for Marvel work.

"The Human Torch (joined by the Thing with ST 125, Oct 1964) received even less attention from its creator; Lieber wrote it and Dick Ayers who was most prominent as an inker, drew it from the beginning."

      - THE COMIC BOOK HEROES by Jacobs & Jones (1985)

 Maybe they hadn't bought an OVERSTREET in 9 years. OVERSTREET began crediting Kirby with the art for this story in  the 5th edition (1974) of the comic guide that changed the focus of the hobby by monetizing it.

"Given time I could be Paderewski, but I have no inclination to play the piano." Jack Kirby HOT TIPS FROM TOP COMIC CREATORS

Hippies were mainstream enough by 1971 for DC to allow Kirby to portray them sympathetically.