** This year is the 100 anniversary of Jack Kirby’s death. I have been reading and rereading much of the King’s (this was Kirby’s nickname) classic comic work lately. I adore his 1950s collaboration with Joe Simon, Fighting American, which effectively parodied both the red scare and their former creation, Captain America.
The British comic company Titan (they put out Tank Girl and many noir titles) has acquired the rights to the character, and they will soon put out a new Fighting American comic created by Terry and Rachel Dobson, who are not exactly slouches in the writing/drawing department.
Marvel has been putting out many cheap reprints for a buck apiece (including an early Groot story in which he is a villain, one of the first Thor/Hulk battles and the debuts of Antman and Wasp.) which are still good reads.
Concurrently D. C. is putting out 5-dollar volumes of works (actually they go for 4.99) combining original material featuring some of the characters Kirby created for D.C. (such as the New Gods, Mr. Miracle, and the Sandman etc.) In addition to reprints of Kirby material.
The Kirby co- created Black Panther and Inhumans are getting much attention. They both currently are featured in multiple comic series, Black Panther (the first black superhero) is getting his own film, and the Inhumans are getting their own TV series, which will tie into the SHIELD series.
Everyone knows that there was a big feud between Stan Lee (who was also a genius despite what anyone says) and Kirby. Kirby believed Lee stole his thunder, and that he was never given the proper credit for creating Marvel’s most iconic characters (such as Captain America, the Hulk, Ironman, the FF, the Avengers, Xmen and countless others).
One of the biggest disputes was over one of my favorite Lee/Kirby creations, the Silver Surfer. Kirby claims that Lee and Kirby discussed the plot of the epic FF# 48-50 on the phone including Galactus who was a space god character who ate whole planets.
Kirby thought that a character as powerful as Galactus would have a herald or angel like character who would do his bidding so he just added the Silver Surfer to the drawings and he claims the initial ideas for the character were all his. Lee fleshed out the character and made him talk and act in a way that went with Kirby’s depictions.
Ultimately, Kirby and Lee disagreed on how the surfer should be treated and Lee’s version won out. Lee wanted to reveal his origin, and Kirby thought the surfer’s past should remain a mystery. Lee then went behind Kirby’s back and created a new Silver Surfer solo comic with John Buscema (who did do a great job) and revealed the surfer’s origin in the first issue. The Christ like surfer agreed to become Galactus’s herald if the space god would spare his planet Zenn La from the space God’s ravenous appetite (he also had to leave his long time love Shalla Bal) and Galactus gave him his powers and shiny metallic skin covering so that he could scout planets for him to consume.
The comic was one of Lee’s most ambitious and most sophisticated works and every issue was double sized. Unfortunately, the series failed to catch on in a big way, and it was cancelled before it reached its 20th issue. At the end of the run Lee tried to save the series by having the surfer fight Spiderman (the battle should have lasted 20 seconds) and he made the surfer less contemplative and more aggressive (Kirby had been the one to suggest this direction to begin with). Lastly he brought in Jack Kirby to do the last issue, but it was too little and too late.
Obviously, some permanent resentment remained between the two former friends. When Kirby went to DC in the early 70s he introduced the black racer his own slant on the surfer which he did more in the style he wanted to use for the original surfer.
In addition, one of the villains Kirby made up for his Fourth World series (New Gods, Forever People and Mr. Miracle) was Funky Flashman, a fast talking talented mustached conman who was good at exploiting other people’s talents for his own benefit. Funky was obviously a parody of Stan Lee.
Check it out. Here are some Mr. Miracle panels, which spotlight the character.
** 2017 was a bad year for horror cinema. Both George Romero (director of Night of the Living Dead) and Tobe Hooper (who made Texas Chainsaw Massacre) passed away. There are many parallels between the two. Both made grisly no budget classic horror films that initially received mixed reviews before they became considered classics. In addition, both filmmakers inspired countless imitators and never made anything quite as great, revolutionary, or brilliant (although I liked Martin, Salem’s Lot, Poltergeist and Creepshow just fine).
There was recently a fine interview with the late filmmaker recently on NPR’s All Things Considered. There is a text version of the interview here and it is worth reading. Surprisingly Hooper originally envisioned his film as a PG movie and he consulted with the MPAA while he was making the film so that he would have less trouble later.
