January previews stuff

Hi, Everybody!

Comicslink is here!

The Kickstarter for the birthday card.

The Vark Wars continue. If you want in: thevarkwars@gmail.com, ya got less than a week...

And Then:

Travis Pelkie returns with his regular monthly selection for Cerebus fans of comics and books featured in the latest Diamond Previews catalog. Travis is co-founder of the Atomic Junk Shop, a site about comics and other fun pop culture. To see your comics featured here or at the Atomic Junk Shop feel free to send an email to Travis at: atomicjunkshoptravis [at] outlook [dot] com.

GIANT SIZE JINGLES #1

NOV181389

(W) Dave Sim (A) Gustave Dore, Dave Sim (CA) Benjamin Hobbs

Giant-Size Firsts! First Overstreet Price Guide "Take Note" Note! First appearance of Fiendix Cosplay Cerebus and zer Silicone implants! First All-Jingles, comics' only CGC-graded dog comics collector, issue! Find out what Jingles has to say about: Underdog No.1 (May, 2017); Jughead's Pal Hot Dog (1990); Krypto The Super-Dog (2006); The original Hot Dog (1954); blatant "Dogism" in DC's flagship title vs. the "canine friendly" Adventure Comics; Dog Face Dooley (1951); Scooby-DooNo.26; Why you really don't want to mention Heckle & Jeckle to Jingles; Pluto vs. Goofy; and more!

Travis sez: It's that book set in hell with the talking dog and stuff.  You may have heard of it before.  It should be funny.

DC THE NEW FRONTIER TP NEW ED BLACK LABEL

NOV180550

(W) Darwyn Cooke (A/CA) Darwyn Cooke

The masked mystery men who fought for freedom in the Second World War have been outlawed. The soldiers and spies who conducted top-secret missions into the unknown now work in the shadows. And those icons who do still fight on -- Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman -- operate under hidden agendas and dueling ideologies. Yet this America needs its heroes more than ever. With darkness gathering on the horizon once more, only a bold new generation of adventurers -- young, daring, and dedicated to the better angels of our nature -- is equal to the challenge of the New Frontier.

This edition collects the original 6-issue miniseries together with the Justice League: New Frontier Special, and features over 50 pages of designs, sketches and preliminary artwork from the author.

Travis sez: A new edition of Darwyn Cooke's ode to the Silver Age.

DC UNIVERSE BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS BY JACK KIRBY HC

NOV180560

(W) Jack Kirby, Dennis O'Neil, Joe Simon, Joey Cavaleri, Michael Fleisher, Paul Kupperberg (A) Vince Colletta, D. Bruce Berry, Adrian Gonzales, Others (A/CA) Jack Kirby, Mike Royer

Legendary comics creator Jack Kirby's mind-boggling imagination is on full display in this massive hardcover that includes tales of super hero adventure, mystery, war, fantasy, science fiction and even kung fu action from the 1970s and 1980s. These stories introduced important characters, including the Demon and OMAC, and this collection features a run of 12 stories of the Losers from OUR FIGHTING FORCES that includes some of Kirby's most personal tales from his own experiences in World War II. Collects stories from IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB #1, SPIRIT WORLD #1, THE DEMON #1-16, THE SANDMAN #1-6, OMAC #1-8, OUR FIGHTING FORCES #151-162, SUPER POWERS #1-5 (1984), SUPER POWERS #1-6 (1985), 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #1, 5 and 6, DC COMICS PRESENTS #84, RICHARD DRAGON, KUNG FU FIGHTER #3, WEIRD MYSTERY TALES #1-3 and FORBIDDEN TALES OF DARK MANSION #6.

Travis sez: Kirby.  DC.  Bronze Age.  Basically everything that's not Fourth World or Kamandi, I believe.  Also, it comes out on my birthday next year, in case any of y'all want to get me a present.

TRUE BELIEVERS CONAN SWORDS IN NIGHT #1

NOV180764

Reprinting Conan the Barbarian (1970) #23

Travis sez: With the new Conan series at Marvel, they are reprinting a selection of Marvel Conan books from the past in their True Believers dollar books.  The most interesting is this one, reprinting Conan 23, which is the first appearance of Red Sonja.  Who is currently published by Dynamite, so I'm not sure why or how Marvel can reprint this.  We'll find out if they cancel it!

KIRBY IS FANTASTIC HC KING SIZE

NOV181009

(W) Stan Lee (A/CA) Jack Kirby

Kirby is the greatest storytelling mind in comic book history. Kirby is an architect of the world's most-famous universe of characters. Kirby is...Fantastic!
The first in a line of super-giant "King-Size" hardcovers celebrating the incomparable talent of Jack "The King" Kirby, Kirby is...Fantastic! brings together a selection of all-time great issues from his tenure on Fantastic Four.
Featuring the 1960s debut of the Sub-Mariner, knitting together Marvel's Silver and Golden Ages; earth-shaking battles between the Thing and the Hulk; the debut of the Black Panther; the unveiling of the utopian man-god "Him" (a.k.a. Adam Warlock); a life-or-death epic battle with Doctor Doom in the heart of Latveria; and a deadly trip into the Negative Zone topped off by the history-making birth of Franklin Richards.
Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #4, #12, #25-26, #52-53, #66-67, #84-87 & ANNUAL #6.

Travis sez: Another Kirby book, although I'm not sure if this one's physical dimensions are actually big.  It's great stuff, though, of course, because it's Stan and Jack on the FF!!!

HEY KIDS COMICS TP (MR)

NOV180061

(W) Howard Victor Chaykin (A) Howard Victor Chaykin (CA) Don Cameron

HEY KIDS! COMICS! takes its cue from nearly a century of turbulence and triumph, despair and drama in the comics racket.
  
Artists and writers, con men and clowns, ganefs and gangsters create the foundations of today's biggest entertainment business-or at least the tail that wags the dog.
  
Some of it really happened, and the names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty... 
...although in the end, everyone was guilty of something.
Collects HEY KIDS! COMICS! #1-5

Travis sez: Howard Chaykin with some of the dirty little secrets behind the making of the business of comics.  Should be good!
Matt says: I've read the first two issues, it is so far.

BERNIE WRIGHTSON ARTIFACT ED HC NEW PTG

NOV180729

(W) Bernie Wrightson (A/CA) Bernie Wrightson

Bernie Wrightson began his career in the late 1960s, just barely out of his teens, and within a decade, rose to prominence as the preeminent horror artist of his generation. This loving tribute to comics' Master of the Macabre will showcase Wrightson's groundbreaking work in the DC Comics Mystery books and his legendary artistic turn on Swamp Thing. Additionally, we have assembled a number of rarely seen and completely (until now) unseen treasures.

New Printing!
152 pages plus THREE foldouts with SIX oversized pieces of art! Includes NINE Swamp Thing covers (House of Secrets #92 and Swamp Thing #1, #3-6, #9, and others) and tons of Mystery covers, frontis pieces, and pages.

Travis sez: It's a new printing of one of IDW's beautiful looking art books featuring Bernie Wrightson art on DC mystery comics and on Swamp Thing.  So atmospheric!

AM ARCHIVES THREE STOOGES #1 1953 SAINT JOHN EDITION
NOV181463

(W) Joe Kubert, Norman Mauer (A/CA) Joe Kubert, Norman Mauer

Remember when comics were a dime and you could get that first issue of Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer's Three Stooges #1 from the local newsstand? We don't either! It costs a couple hundred bucks now to get that issue from an auction site, and it ain't fair! So, we are bringing back this classic from 1953 in all its original eye-poking glory for today's readers to enjoy. This is the first collaboration of The Stooges and the classic comics duo of Kubert and Maurer and you can get it for 399 cents!

Travis sez: It's the Three Stooges in comics from the early '50s, and it's got art by Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer.  Of course you want to get it!

FRANK THORNES LANN LTD HC GN (MR)

NOV181818

(W) Frank Thorne (A/CA) Frank Thorne

Move over Barbarella, here comes Lann! While Frank Thorne is known primarily for his works Ghita (with a deluxe archival reprint by Hermes Press in 2017 and Volume 2 coming in 2019) and Red Sonja, he also created the sexy cyber heroine Lann! Lann spends 98% of her time solving crime while naked, so it's a special kind of fantasy for sure! This space comic features guns, salacious scantily clad ladies, comedy (her sidekick often fights unarmed...due to his arms falling off!), and more! This deluxe limited edition is limited to 1,000 copies! It will also contain a historical essay and never before seen Frank Thorne art!

Travis sez: Friend of Cerebus Frank Thorne has this collection of Lann, who apparently solves crime while naked, as one does.  I'm sure it's classy.

MIDWAY FROM PAGES OF COMBAT ONE SHOT GLANZMAN CVR

NOV181836

(W) Paul S. Newman (A/CA) Sam Glanzman

Each Combat one shot features true stories from World War II, illustrated by comic book legend, WWII vet, and Eisner Award-nominee Sam Glanzman! This Midway issue features the main story: "Battle of Midway" plus the back-up story "Out the Gate", 1-page story "High Ground," and essays about General George Patton, Jr. and Sam Glanzman. Incentive cover by comic book legend Russ Heath!

Travis sez: Friend of Cerebus Drew Ford has another one shot from Sam Glanzman coming out from his It's Alive imprint.  Should be good like usual!

JUMBO MUMBO SC (JUL189042) (MR)

NOV181985

(W) David Tosh (A) R. Crumb, Walt Kelly, Jay Lynch (CA) Denis Kitchen

Mumbo has delighted comics fans for many years. Containing interviews, sketchbook pages, classic comics and comic strips from the likes of famous artists like R. Crumb, Denis Kitchen, Jay Lynch and Walt Kelly among others, Jumbo Mumbo collects David Tosh's personal comics journal, for the first time. In addition, covering history, personal stories and commentary on comics of the past, this volume presents work you won't see anywhere else. As a Heritage Auctions employee, David has had access to rare collections and unique and interesting work previously unavailable. Jumbo Mumbo is a must-have for anyone with a love for the history of comics and a desire to learn more.

Travis sez: I'm not entirely sure what this is, but the dude is a Heritage Auctions employee and he's gotten some cool underground comix artists to contribute to his book.

"Image coming soon"

MARVEL ACTION BLACK PANTHER #1 BAKER

NOV180605

(W) Kyle Baker (A/CA) Kyle Baker

Readers of all ages can get lost in the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda as they follow the adventures of its monarch, the Black Panther! King T'Challa is responsible for defending his people-and the world-from any threats. And he gets plenty of help-and sass-from his genius sister Shuri. A Marvelous new era begins here!  A bold new era for Black Panther begins here! From the mind of multiple Eisner and Harvey award winner Kyle Baker!

Travis sez: Because Marvel can't do their own kid friendly comics, IDW has to, and they enlisted the great Kyle Baker to do Black Panther, so it should be awesome.

Next Time: Dave discusses that guy who discussed Genesis.

Dave Sim's "Declaration Of Independence"

Hi, Everybody!

Look what Tim found:

The Comics Journal #105 (February 1986)

Next time: What did Tim find in the couch cushions?

Weekly Update #201: Jack Kirby 100 - Part 2

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

EBAY AUCTION
JACK KIRBY 100 (Limited Hard-Cover Edition)
*signed* by DAVE SIM

Weekly Update #200: Jack Kirby 100

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

Featuring TwoMorrows Publishing's Kirby 100!

L to R: Dave Sim, Jack Kirby, Colleen Doran & Julie Schwartz in 1981

Read the full story behind this photo here...

"Don’t Do Comics. Comics Will Break Your Heart."

Jack Kirby (1992)

Photo by Susan Sakar 

THE ATLANTIC:

(from "Marvel, Jack Kirby, & The Comic-Book Artist's Plight" by Asher Elbein, 1 September 2016)

...The long battle between Kirby and Marvel had -- for now -- been laid to rest. While the details of the 2014 settlement between Marvel and the Kirby family are secret, it's likely -- given the amount Marvel stood to lose if the case went to trial -- that the terms were generous. But while Kirby's family may have finally gotten some measure of compensation, they are very much the exception....

...It's a well known fact in the comics industry and fandom that while superhero films make hundreds of millions at the box office, many creators of classic characters rarely see a dime for their work. They often have to rely on charity organizations like the Hero Initiative -- founded to help comic artists in financial need -- if they're alive, and they have little to leave to their families after they're dead. This is, of course, completely legal under current definitions of copyright law, regulations that have been repeatedly altered to help protect the corporations that hoard intellectual property. But it’s also the sort of thing the companies in question largely prefer not to talk about. Marvel's "Kirby Week" content all links to Kirby4Heroes, a program created by Kirby's granddaughter Jillian that raises money for the Hero Initiative while neglecting to discuss why such a program might need to exist.

All of which makes Marvel's celebration of "Kirby Week" so bittersweet. Kirby's vast legacy marches on. So, unfortunately, does its shadow: the long history of the industry using up artists and tossing them aside like so much crumpled paper. There’s a famous anecdote told by James Romberger, the artist of the graphic novel Seven Miles a Second. In the 1980s, Romberger met Kirby at a convention and showed him some of his work. "Kid, you’re one of the best," The King said, looking over the portfolio. "Don’t do comics. Comics will break your heart."

Jack Kirby

by Dylan Horrocks

Influences

DAVE SIM:
(from a reply to J. Hagey in Aardvark Comments, Cerebus #192, March 1995)

...You can mention the names that you have as 'inspirations' for my work. This is an error of scholarship - the assumption that others' ideas are the building blocks from which a creative work is constructed. Scholars are always stopped dead in their tracks by the denial of influence. How can such a thing be? The ideas presented have so much in common with the influence, it simply isn't POSSIBLE that there is no direct cause and effect. I am put in mind of Larry Marder as a fan-boy tad, much enamoured and well read on the subject of the Hopi Indians - a Hopi fanatic - who saw whole pieces of the big Hopi cloth writ large - nay, gargantuan - in Kirby's Fourth World series. When the opportunity presented itself at a comic-book convention to inquire about this, Kirby proved to be completely unwitting of anything having to do with the Hopi Indians. Fortunately Larry was and is a creative individual, so the answer didn't bring any ersatz-scholar castle crashing to ruins, but instead fed his reverance, delight and satisfaction with the Funny Way These Things Are (you see? Not being scholars, we have no words for this. It just Is).

Out of your list, I have read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Curiosity finally overcame me - so many earnest individuals had insisted that I must be a major Rand fan (MUST be). When I assured them that this was not the case, to a one they were insistent that I MUST read Rand's work. If my castle was not built on their foundation, at least a kind of after-the-fact, closing-the-barn-door cause and effect could be hoped for.

Your world and my world are diametrically opposed. You don't accept this. Well and good. I am documenting the Funny Way These Things Are. I find many of my same views and the views which are in opposition to them. If I had a nickel for every classical theme, universal myth, philosophy and icon which has been hitched to Cerebus in the minds of its readers, I would have many, many nickels.

I have yet to read anything about Ayn Rand and The Fountainhead that has anything to do with the book I read. I have only infrequently read anything about myself or Cerebus that has anything to do with the work I am writing. Scholarship about creativity is important only to scholars. Analysis is important only to analysts. Criticism is important only to critics. You attempt to label and classify that which is important because it cannot be successfully labeled and cannot successfully be classified...

Colleen Doran: Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

If there's one thing I can't stand in comics is how many young creators benefit from who came before and show nothing but contempt for 'em.

— Colleen Doran (@ColleenDoran) May 13, 2015

COLLEEN DORAN:
(via Twitter, 13 May 2015)

If there's one thing I can't stand in comics is how many young creators benefit from who came before and show nothing but contempt for 'em. There's almost nothing many of us enjoy about working in comics now that someone else didn't have to fight really hard to make happen first. 

Remember Junior, when you scoff at that dated comic art, that out of touch oldster: you're next. Everyone praises him now, but young creators used to make prank calls to Kirby and call him a hack. No kidding. Have a little compassion. 

I'm just as glad to see bad, sexist racist attitudes in comics die off as the next person, but a lot of the people in comics have worked long and hard to make the industry better. 

Didn't happen overnight, didn't happen easy, and there's lots more to improve. None of this happened without one person at a time who came before you making the right decisions and taking actions. So, give credit where its due. 

And as awful as some people have been, we can forgive where we can, move on where we can, & get justice where we can to make comics better. And if we cant get justice from people who did harm, we can get justice for ourselves by doing our best for comics as individuals & creators.

Personally, I do not want to put any more emotional energy into trying to get anything out of people who did me harm in this business. They are all entrenched and desperate to protect their "legacies". They have no incentive to do the right thing because admitting harm would tarnish their "legacy". 

"Legacy" is something a lot of comics creators put stock in, whereas before, we were all just a bunch of schmucks doing comics for fun and a little cash. I can't change anyone. I can only change how I frame the past and how to make the experiences work to better the future.

 YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME.

I have the power. I will outlive all of you. And do better comics. That's all.

Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil was a frontrunner of the '80s indie comics scene. The sci-fi/adventure series originally broke several barriers: Colleen was one of the first women in the indie comics scene to write and draw creator-owned comics and A Distant Soil broke ground by featuring openly gay characters as series stars. After a recent hiatus, Colleen returned to complete A Distant Soil (with publisher Image Comics/Shadowline) and the series is scheduled to conclude at #50. The restored collections A Distant Soil Vol 1: The Gathering and Vol 2: The Ascendant are available directly from Colleen Doran.

Cerebus TV Reruns: Sim & Steranko on Kirby!

Now showing on Cerebus TV:

Dave Sim & Jim Steranko discuss Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby

by Drew Friedman

(From Heroes Of The Comics, Fantagraphics , 2014)

Cover Parodies: Dave 'n' Ger's

Original: Avengers #4 (Marvel Comics, March 1964) by Jack Kirby & George Roussos
Tribute: Following Cerebus #3 (Win-Mill Productions, February 2006) by Dave Sim & Gerhard
(Click image to enlarge)

FOLLOWING CEREBUS:
(from Following Cerebus #3, February 2006)

The Jack Kirby / George Roussos cover for Avengers #4 (Marvel Comics, March 1964) featured the return of Captain America (he'd disappeared from the comics scene for a decade) and was such a powerful image that the design has been used over and over (including a nice version recently by Alex Ross for a deluxe print).

Avengers #23

Cerebus #272 (November 2001) by Dave Sim & Gerhard
Avengers #23 (December 1965) by Jacob Kurtzberg
(Click image to enlarge)

DAVE SIM:
(from Cerebus #272, November 2001)
After Jacob Kurtzberg's original cover to Avengers #23... (or 'Jack Kirby' if you prefer) (By me? He is Jacob Kurtzberg) (May God rest his soul)

Judas Goats

Editorial Cartoon from WAP! (1988)
by Dave Sim
(Click image to enlarge)

DAVE SIM:
(from the Comics Forum interview, 1993)

On a percentage basis, to me, one Jeff Smith is worth a hundred Frank Millers... the companies have realised that they have to elevate someone to an exalted plane to represent the thing that everyone else shoots for. Neil Gaiman is in that position and Alan Moore and Frank Miller were in that position. They've been functioning as Judas Goats, leading twenty-year-old kids to their doom thinking, "I'm going to be the next Neil Gaiman." Well, no, there's only one at a time, and he's up there to persuade you that if you tie your fortunes with them, then you too can be Neil Gaiman.

I like Neil... But I never lose sight of the fact that in my medium, he's... over on the other side of the fence. Frank Miller's making great hay out of introducing Jack Kirby in San Diago and saying, "Go out to the Marvel Comics booth and say two words to them... pay up!" There's a nice standing ovation, and what does Frank do? He goes back and does Daredevil for Marvel.

That's not establishing a lesson. There's no moral center there. That's a career move, an opportunity to be one of the good guys and then go and sign a contract with the enemy. I ignore those people... You don't change multinational corporations from within...

On his My Rant Blog, Steve Bissette details the content and historical context of the 9 issues of WAP!, "the forgotten activist pro-zine", published between 1988-1989, which included contributions from Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Dave Sim and other comics creators.

This Man... This Monster!

Fantastic Four #51 (1966), art by Jack Kirby
Marvel Fanfare #15 (1984), art by Barry Windsor-Smith

DAVE SIM:
(from The Jack Kirby Collector #27, February 2000)

I'm not sure what issue the FF was up to at the time I finally started reading it. I think around #70 or #75 and, as I said, you could pick them all up for a dollar or two at the time - most of them for a quarter, so I had a run in pretty short order except for the first ten or so which I had seen and read. I don't know if you're allowed to say this in The Jack Kirby Collector, but I thought the quality had tailed off pretty dramatically by the time of Wyatt Wingfoot and the Negative Zone and stuff. The first Inhumans storyline - #44 or #45 and leading into #51's This Man, This Monster, which I really thought was the high point of Stan and Jack's run on the book - I guess that I'm really thinking about the Thing here. When you consider what Kirby did in developing the look of the character in a little more than four years - when Barry Windsor-Smith did his Thing story in Marvel Fanfare, I got the sense that he responded to the character in the same way and had to do his This Man, This Monster take at some point or die a lesser man for not having done so. I've never been that way about corporate characters or I would probably have to do a Thing story myself at some point. I think Jack Kirby put a lot of himself into the Thing. I think Stan Lee was a mix of Reed Richards and Johnny Storm the way Jack Kirby saw him, but Jack was just this irresistible force of nature who saw himself as a big pile of orange rocks.

Barry Windsor-Smith vs Jack Kirby

Young Gods (2003) and The Freebooters (2005)
By Barry Windsor-Smith 
Available from Fantagraphics Books

DAVE SIM:
(from a letter to Barry Windsor-Smith on 16 March 2004, Dave Sim's Collected Letters Vol 1)

I think the colouring on Storyteller may prove to be one of it's greatest legacies: I have no aptitude and consequently, very little interest but I think it will serve as a textbook of how accomplished on-the-fly water-colouring can be in capturing the mood and tempo of the early Marvel Comics while bringing the look to a more adult level. With that many elements to pull together on a monthly basis, you certainly explored the outer realms of go-GO-GO which I think many people underestimate as a critical element of Kirby's own manifold successes. At one level, of course, it would be described as 'hacking'. But to me, at the deeper and more important level it is an inherent quality of 'this end' of the comic book medium. Kirby didn't really become KIRBY until he was producing eight to ten pages of finished pencils a day. It made him and arguably it broke him as well when he tried to make the transition to DC and to do it without Stan [Lee]. You shouldn't underestimate, I don't think, your own unique composition of being Jack and Stan rolled into one. No one has ever suggested seriously that Barry Smith lost his way when he didn't have Roy Thomas to write his cations and word balloons anymore. This is no small thing, no small advantage that you hold. Kirby was out of his depth almost immediately and what was worse I don't think that he ever understood how out of his depth he was. It must have been maddening to realise that what Stan Lee did effortlessly, Kirby couldn't do in a month of Sundays. As I just wrote to someone recently, Stan Lee was a more deferential collaborator than he's given credit for. He worked around other people's pencils, he tailored his story to the images on the pages in front of him. The story not only flowed, but the captions and word balloons fit comfortably. Contrast that with the many who came after who filled every square inch with verbiage. You have that skill. Your stories read very smoothly. The awkward transition from one balloon to another where you read them out of sequence (which happens to all of us) is very much below the industry average in your work and the reader always works with you in those situations. The narrative flow is sufficiently compelling that it doesn't pull us out of the story. I wish I could find a way to really emphasis this to you (maybe italics?): you have a structural benefit to your work that Jack Kirby completely lacked. A very rare combination. At the same time, I think it must be said, that you and Kirby share a blind spot: the belief  that if your work is profitable for a company that the benefits will accrue to you. And you both experienced very hard lessons in that end of things. How much of Kirby's work was in print when he died? How much was he being compensated for it? How much of his work was tied up in petty legalisms and red tape - or just plain gone because no one knew where the negatives were or who owned the reprint rights to them?

Meeting Jack Kirby

1981 Chicago Comicon:

L to R: Dave Sim, Jack Kirby, Colleen Doran, Julie Schwartz

DAVE SIM:
(from the 'Virtual Kirby Panel', The Jack Kirby Collector #27, February 2000)

Okay, before I go, I have to tell you about meeting Jack Kirby at the 1981 Chicago Comicon - I think it was 1981. I was sitting with Bill Sienkiewicz by the pool at this party and I saw Jack Kirby a dozen yards away or so on the other side of a bunch of table and chairs. Bill says to me, "Have you met Kirby?" And I say "No, but I'd sure like to." And Bill says, "Well, come on - I'll introduce you." So we're moving aside the chairs which are sort of jumbled together and making some progress to where Jack is standing and I hear off to one side somebody yelling "Jack! Jack!" which Kirby doesn't hear. I look over and I see Julie Schwartz, and he's got his arm around Colleen Doran (who is like 12 in 1981 - I'm kidding, I think she was 19 or something) in that Julie Schwartz way of his that, for reasons I've never been able to fathom, some feminists like Cat Yronwode find really endearing and other feminists like Colleen Doran find really creepy, and he's bringing her over to meet Jack Kirby. So. It turns into this really strange kind of footrace with Bill and I moving all of these chairs out of our way and Julie Schwartz and Colleen moving the chairs out of their way and I'm thinking, "I have got to get their before Colleen does or I'll never meet Kirby" (because Jack Kirby, whatever you might have heard, was flesh-and-blood and a manly guy and Colleen was about the cutest little thing you ever laid eyes on when she was 19 - not that she isn't now - and from my own experience I have to tell you that if one guy that I know is bringing another guy to meet me at a con and another guy I know is bringing a nineteen-year-old girl to meet me, I can tell you who is going to get the lion's share of the attention and for that I don't apologise one bit). So Julie is going "Jack! Jack!" and just as Bill and I get there, Kirby hears him and he turns that way and Julie pushes Colleen towards him and says, "Jack, I'd like you to meet this lovely goil" (Julie Schwatrz is the only New Yorker I know who actually pronounces it that way) "this lovely young goil, Colleen." And Colleen was charming and starstruck and Kirby was charming and grinning from ear-to-ear and I'm standing behind Bill thinking, "Oh well," but still pretty jazzed that Jack Kirby is only two feet away and that was pretty amazing in itself, let me tell you - and I'm watching Jack Kirby talking to Colleen when suddenly Bill lunges forward and says, "Jack! I'd like you to meet Dave Sim!" And Jack says, "I admire your philosophy." To which I said something like "Abth dahbt bladda thadda thut" and Julie - like any good poker player who knows he has a winning hand - suggests that Bill take a picture of Julie and Jack and "this lovely goil, Colleen." Well, Bill pushed me into the picture, flash. Julie edged me out of the picture and I sort of staggered away leaving Kirby to enjoy the rest of his chat with Julie and the "lovely goil."

Philosophy? Philosophy?

I puzzled over that one for a while and then I remembered that the Comics Journal had just published a piece of mine called "A Declaration Of Independence," which was to be one of a series of pieces by various publishers about their ideas on publishing comic books (or, in my case, a comic book). I had talked about as much as I thought I dare to for a punk kid who had only been in the business for a few years about Kirby's situation at Marvel and what I saw as the origins of the unfair treatment he got. Anyway, it was very reassuring to find out that he had read it and not thought that I didn't know my place. And then to find out that he admired it - well, wow!

Jack Kirby (1917-1994), with writer-editor Stan Lee, co-created many of Marvel Comics' major characters in the 1960s, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Hulk. Kirby left Marvel in 1970 for rival DC, where he created his Fourth World saga.

Julie Schwartz (1915-2004) was long-time editor at DC Comics, where he was primary editor over the company's flagship superheroes, Superman and Batman. He was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1997. 

Bill Sienkiewicz is the Eisner Award-winning American artist and writer best known for Moon Knight, New Mutants, Stray Toasters and Elektra: Assassin.  

Colleen Doran is the writer/artist of the fantasy series A Distant Soil and illustrator of many other comics and graphic novels. Please support Colleen's restoration project to complete 'A Distant Soil'.

The Kirby Influence

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Vols 1-4

DAVE SIM:
(from 'The 2000 Virtual Kirby Tribute Panel' in The Jack Kirby Collector #27, February 2000)

If I'm not mistaken there was about seven or eight years between the time Jack Kirby went to DC and when I started Cerebus, so I would have to say that we both got caught up in the idea of what you could do with the comic book form on either side of the ground zero point where the direct market came into existence. That is, with the 1966 Batman fad and comic books becoming a collectible and Pop Art and the Esquire "Comics on Campus" thing, there was a sense that comic books not only could be something else but were inevitably going to turn into something else. Meaning no disparagement - okay, maybe a little - I think Stan Lee saw that it could be a very big, fun, lucrative carnival which could be taken seriously and taken as camp and both hands could grab the dough. Not only could you run away and join the circus, you could run away and be the circus. Kirby, on the other hand, looked on it as a chance to tell epic stories and really didn't think much of the carnival side, which only makes sense. However much time Stan spent writing the stories, he had time left over and a carnival sounds like a great idea. Jack Kirby obviously slaved like a Trojan from early morning of one day to early morning of the next. He was probably more concerned about finding time to shave than where he was going to find a good carnival to hang out in. Also, he could look back at 2000+ pages of FF in 1969 and he had started considering what he was going to do on his next 2000 pages and, more importantly, how many thousand more pages in had left in him. Had he known that the direct market was only six or seven yeas away from coming into existence, he might have bided his time - or divided his time between his Marvel workload and his Fourth World epic, using the former to keep food on the table and getting the latter ready to sell to the comic book stores on a non-returnable basis. 20-20 hindsight. I knew enough not to trust any company to have Cerebus' or my best interests at heart when I decided to turn it into an epic 26-year story. Kirby didn't have that option. At the time he started the Fourth World epic he had to trust somebody and the only somebody besides the company he was working for was DC. He trusted that he would make enough money for them that they would see financing the whole epic from start to finish and then keeping it in print to be a smart idea. Of course what he didn't take into account was that a corporate motivation in hiring him away from Marvel had as much to do with hurting Marvel as it did with helping their own bottom line. From DC's standpoint, I think, Jack's departure didn't hurt Marvel enough to warrant seeing the Fourth World through - as Mark Evanier had pointed out and I believe him, the books were still profitable. It was a tragedy and it was very, very regrettable, but that is what corporations are like.

From where I sit it seems even more regrettable because, had DC seen the project through and released the first "phone books" in 1976 - a 500-page New Gods, a 500-page Mister Miracle, etc. - it would have been timed perfectly with the arrival of the direct market and, presumably, Jack Kirby would have gone on to produce another 500-page story or two before he was done with this vale of tears.

I also have a very large twinge of regret that, through self-publishing, I've been able to make a very good living doing my epic just the way I want to do it and without interference, when I consider that Jack Kirby laboured for forty years in the comic book vineyards and missed being able to do the same thing by a piddling period of time like four or five years or so when I started Cerebus. Of course DC finally recognised that it is worth treating token creators better, so that Neil Gaiman did get to finish Sandman, and with what he makes year after year off of the Sandman collections, he probably leaves larger tips than I make a year. So I guess fair is where you find it. I still wouldn't trust DC and further than I could throw the Time-Warner executive washroom.

Anyway, that's my answer to what effect Jack Kirby had on my doing Cerebus.

In the 1960s Jack Kirby (1917-1994), with writer-editor Stan Lee, co-created many of Marvel Comics' major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Hulk. Kirby left Marvel in 1970 for rival DC, where he created his Fourth World saga spanning several comic titles (New Gods, Mister Miracle, The Forever People and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen), but which were prematurely cancelled before the saga was completed.