Recently Read: Kirby & Lee: Stuf' Said, by John Morrow

Publisher, editor and author John Morrow's chronological compendium of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's publicly spoken words concerning their decade-long collaborations is a handy document. It's liberally illustrated with examples of the art processes discussed. It's also a good reference guide for what was said when, even when the later pronouncements become (very) repetitive as both comics creator's memories calcified. Especially insightful (and surprising to me in their depth) was the prodigious number of examples of Lee either passively/aggressively - or just aggressively - denigrating Kirby, Steve Ditko and Wally Wood in the letters pages of Marvel comics. One might believe Lee was, at heart, insecure in his writing skills.

I believe the book does come with some prejudices and presumptions. For example, Ditko is described by Morrow as a "talented artist", disregarding the fact that Ditko was a writer for most of the last fifty years (at least), personally authoring his most important published work during that time. When pages from the Disney Legends program book are reproduced, no mention is made of Kirby being a writer (before, during or after his work at Marvel) - an outrageous designation that gets no pushback from Morrow. Little to no mention is made in Stuf' Said of the plethora of comics Kirby wrote before the Marvel age. Likewise, the same Disney book states that Lee "dreamed up an endless number of new characters and worlds", a boast that is demonstrably untrue. The best evidence to decide the verdict Morrow could have presented (but didn't) is Dr. Michael J. Vassallo's definitive essay detailing everything Lee wrote before he teamed up with Kirby (and Ditko): "Stan Lee (1922-2018) - The Timely Years". It's a damning document that makes clear Lee did not create the cosmic concepts Kirby had already been creating since the early '40s (if not earlier). https://timely-atlas-comics.blogspot.com/2018/12/stan-lee-1922-2018-timely-years.html

Lastly, the book's cover, with psychedelic Captain Victory art blown up out of context and covered with large digital fonts, is ugly. While conveying some of the anger expressed by Kirby, the cover could have looked more welcoming and it's noteworthy that nowhere is the book's designer listed.

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Recently Read: Old Gods & New: A Companion to Jack Kirby's Fourth World

Author and publisher John Morrow's 160-page book on the origins, publication and aftermath of Jack Kirby's Fourth World series for DC Comics is as complete a picture of the chronology as we'll probably ever get. Liberally and beautifully illustrated and packed with quotes from those close to the project at the time, Old Gods & New tells the tale of how one of the most visionary and audacious comic book ventures was shot down midstream.

Especially nice is the reproduction of the eighteen concept drawings Kirby drew while still in Marvel's employ, in the late '60s, printed in color on - as with the rest of the book - non-glare paper. Also appreciated in a deep delve into the '80s series Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers, in which Kirby deliberately yet surreptitiously brought some of the Fourth World's character conflicts to a resolution. New to me was information on Kirby's attempt to negotiate a return to Marvel halfway through his contract with DC.

For readers of Kirby's New Gods, Forever People, Mister Miracle and Jimmy Olson series, this trade paperback is essential for your library.

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Comics I've Read Recently October 15, 2014

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Recently Read: The Best of Simon and Kirby

The Best of Simon and Kirby is a 2009 sampler of the comic book work Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created; the publisher, Titan, has continued publishing in-depth Simon and Kirby collections, each centered on a different genre.

This is possible because, beginning in the early '40s, Simon and Kirby published work in nearly every comic book genre and, in the case of romance comics, created the genre themselves. They weren't first on the ground with superhero comics, but the high energy and high impact work by Kirby on the duo's Captain America made Superman's art look anemic and it set the tone for superhero comics for the next seventy years.

Joe Simon wrote a foreward for the book (he died not long after the book was published) and historian and friend of Kirby Mark Evanier wrote informative introductions to each chapter. This large (nearly 240 pages), beautifully designed and printed book is helped immeasurably by the painstaking restoration work of Harry Mendryk who, along with Michael Gagne,is doing the best Kirby restoration work for print. The coloring is faithful to the original comics and the book is published on matte paper, not the hideous, glossy, light-reflecting stuff used for so many years in reprints published by DC and Marvel.

Genres represented are superheroes, war, crime, romance, humor, horror and science fiction. As fans of Simon and Kirby know, the crime and romance stories are nearly always strong, reflecting the hard-hitting, raw and passionate emotions displayed in the early '30s Warner Bros. movies Kirby loved.

The only genre in which Simon and Kirby aren't successful is humor; their work geared for that market just isn't very funny. That's an odd fact when you consider how funny Kirby could be within the context of more serious comics, from Boy's Ranch to The Fantastic Four to Captain Victory.

It's also clear that Joe Simon on his own just doesn't hold up in this context. A Runyonesque story he created on his own, "His Highness the Duke of Broadway", is painfully illustrated and the work printed here from his '60s Mad Magazine ripoff, Sick, is flat and embarrassing. In over forty years, I've yet to read a funny issue of Sick.

Still, there's lots of good work to plow through here (it took me weeks to read it) and if you're unfamiliar with the team's work of this period, I recommend this sampler as an entryway into their world.

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Comics I've Read Recently, June 28, 2014

 

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Comics I've Read Recently, April 3, 2014

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