GREAT

ESCAPES

84

THE NEW

BIG pages
DONT TAKE LESS!
O N LY

995

84 PAGES $9.95

NO. 35
SPRING
2002

BIGGER AND BETTER

TWOMORROWS
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR

Its the
great Kirby

84 PAGES $9.95

Mister Miracle TM & 2002 DC Comics.

BUSTOUT!!

BIGGER AND BETTER

Contents
OPENING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
(why was Kirby always running from
something or another?)

THE NEW

UNDER THE COVERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

(Steve Rude and Marshall Rogers outline their respective covers this issue)
JACK F.A.Q.s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
(regular columnist Mark Evanier
answers a pair of Frequently Asked
Questions about Kirby)

#35, SPRING 2002

BAD GUISE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

(just who was Kirbys greatest villain?)
WRITERS BLOC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
(author Michael Chabon offers up a few
words on Kirby)
HOUDINI & KIRBY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
(a brief look at each mans approach to
the artistry of escape)
KIRBY AS A GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
(Adam McGovern finds the Kirby in a
few of his favorite things)
INNERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
(Marshall Rogers chats about Mister
Miracle, Kirby, and Batman)
GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
(death traps, dwarfs, and bathing
Bardas, all shown in pencil)
TRIBUTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
(the 2001 Kirby Tribute Panel, featuring
the late John Buscema, John Romita,
Mike Royer, Will Eisner, and some guy
named Carson)
DECONSTRUCTING HIMON . . . . . . . . .58
(three different writers take apart one of
Kirbys finest tales: Himon)
IN CLOSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
(an examination of Kirbys second
Mister Miracle series)
COLLECTOR COMMENTS . . . . . . . . . . .76
(escape the humdrum letter columns of
other mags by perusing these missives
about our last issue)
PARTING SHOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
(on the way out, take a quick look at
Jacks final Mister Miracle page)
Front cover inks: MARSHALL ROGERS
Back cover pastel art: STEVE RUDE
Front cover color: TOM ZIUKO

Photocopies of Jacks uninked pencils

from published comics are reproduced
here courtesy of the Kirby Estate, which
has our thanks for their continued support.
COPYRIGHTS: Batman, Bekka, Ben Boxer, Bernadeth,
Big Barda, Bruce Wayne, Darkseid, Female Furies,
Forever People, Funky Flashman, Granny Goodness,
Himon, Houseroy, In The Days of the Mob, Jimmy Olsen,
Joker, Kamandi, Kanto, Komodo, Lashina, Losers, Mad
Harriet, Madame Evil Eye, Metron, Mister Miracle,
Morgan Edge, Oberon, Orion, Renzi, Scott Free, Shilo
Norman, Silver St. Cloud, Stompa, Superman, The Lump,
Tigra, Virmin Vundabar, Young Scott Free TM & 2002
DC Comics. Annihilus, Black Panther, Captain America,
Daredevil, Devil Dinosaur, Eternals, Falcon, Fantastic
Four, Galactus, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Jasper
Sitwell, Moonboy, Mr. Fantastic, Nick Fury, Dum-Dum
Dugan, Silver Surfer, Thing, Thor, Ultron TM & 2002
Marvel Characters, Inc. Jacob & The Angel, Jupiter
Plaque, Stereon, Street Code TM & 2002 Jack Kirby
Estate.

The Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 10, No. 35, Spring

2002. Published quarterly by & 2002
TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Drive,
Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. 919-833-8092.
John Morrow, Editor. Pamela Morrow, Asst. Editor.
Eric Nolen-Weathington, Production Assistant.
Single issues: $13 postpaid ($15 Canada, $16
elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $36.00 US,
$60.00 Canada, $64.00 elsewhere. All characters
are trademarks of their respective companies. All
artwork is 2002 Jack Kirby unless otherwise
noted. All editorial matter is 2002 the respective authors. First printing. PRINTED IN CANADA.

(above) Uninked pencils from Mister Miracle #5, page 4.

Characters TM & 2002 DC Comics.

heard a war story or two) can

attestand unlike a stage
magicians act, his death-defying feats were the real thing.

Opening Shot

Escape from a dying industry

(1950s).
After the end of his
Mainline company (and parting
ways with Joe Simon) as the
comics industry looked to be
collapsing, Jack picked up whatever work he could find. He
may have seen the writing on

(inset) Convention sketches of

Barda and Mister Miracle
done for Al Milgrom.

The Great
Kirby
Bust
J
(next page, bottom) The final
panels of several comics Jack
ran from (usually not of his
own choice): Eternals, Forever
People, Jimmy Olsen, Our
Fighting Forces, Captain
America (in pencil), and Devil
Dinosaur.

Celestials, Capt. America, Falcon, Devil

Dinosaur, Moonboy TM & 2002
Marvel Characters, Inc. Forever People,
Superman, Jimmy Olsen, the Losers
TM & 2002 DC Comics.

(background) A map of New

Yorks East Village, highlighting where celebrities grew up,
including Kirby (as shown
below).
(top) An artists representation
of Kirbys neighborhood (at the
corner of Suffolk and Delancy
streets) as it stands today;
Jacks home wouldve been to
the left, where a parking lot is
today.

ack Kirby was running from something all his life.

Okay, I know that statement might sound strange to any
number of longtime Kirby fans, but bear with me a
minute, and Ill explain what I mean.
This issue is all about the theme of escape in
Jacks work, and so it naturally will feature lots of
Mister Miracle, Kirbys super escape artist; but
while the rest of the issue will deal with some of
the close calls that character experienced on
the comics page, I want to delve into what may
have made Jack so inclined to submerge himself in this particular brand of escapism called
comic bookswhat I term The Great Kirby
Bust-Out! (to borrow a line from the cover of
Mister Miracle #9).
Escape was a part of Jacks life, from
beginning to end. To demonstrate my
point, Ive compiled a list of what I consider to be Kirbys top ten biggest real-life
escapes, in chronological order:

Escape from the Lower East Side (1930s).

As a son of Jewish immigrants, Kirby spent
his childhood in one of the poorest neighborhoods
in New York. Daily gang fights were the norm, as few
kids on his block had much else to live for; but Kirby surreptitiously kept his imagination and artistic talent alive and
flourishing through reading, movies, and drawing, and instead
of following in his fathers blue collar footsteps, used his talents
to find a way out of the slum.
Escaping anti-Semitism (1940s).
Early in his career, Jack chose to legally
change his name from Kurtzberg to Kirby (much
to his parents dismay). Although he never
turned his back on his faith and ancestry, he
opted for the new name for commercial
reasons, undoubtedly feeling it could
help him avoid any anti-Semitic backlash in his search for work.
Escape from death (World War II).
After enlisting in the Army,
PFC Jack Kirby was assigned to
numerous life-threatening situations as an advance scout.
The experience would be great fodder for
future comics stories, but he barely lived to
tell them. After scraping by alive in Pattons
army, he was discharged with frozen feet, and
nearly had them amputated. WWII was a profound
influence on his lifeas anyone who met Jack in person (and

the wall much earlier, because from the late 1940sonward, he was constantly pursuing his dream of landing a coveted syndicated newspaper comic strip. The
opportunity finally arose with Sky Masters, and its
promise of a better, more secure living and greater
prestige; but the strip waned after an impressive
start, and Jack found himself trapped back
working for a comics page rate just to survive.
Arguably, the desperation of the situation led
to the development of the Marvel Universe,
which in turn helped save a dying industry,
but it also propelled Kirby squarely
back into it. So in some ways, his
escape to newspaper syndication led
him right back to a trap of
his own making.

Escape from New York

(1969).
After more than 50 years
living in the city of his birth,
Kirby uprooted his family
and moved to the
other side of the
country. Jack
claimed the
California
clime was
better
for his
daughter
Lisas
asthma,
but no
doubt the
freedom of
being 3000 miles
away from an editor made the
decision all the
easier. The
change in
scenery
appears to have started new ideas brewing in his mind,
which would lead to some of his most mind-boggling
concepts making their way to the comics page.
Escape from Marvel and Stan Lee (1970).
Perhaps the biggest career move he ever made, the
switch to DC Comics meant he was leaving behind the
success of 1960s Marvel Comics, for a chance to prove

himself without a collaborator to share the credit with. From this point on, with rare
exceptions, Jack wrote and edited his own stories (usually sending in completely lettered
and inked work), and never again worked Marvel method.
Escaping DC (1975).
Although what waited for him back at Marvel ended up no better than
what he was leaving behind, Jack chose not to renew his contract at
DC Comics when it expired. The failed Fourth World experiment and a string of unsatisfying post-New Gods series left
him looking for somewhere, anywhere else to ply his
trade. For better or worse, Marvel Comics was the only
other game in town, so he jumped ship yet again in
hopes of a better situation.

-Out!
Escaping the comics industry entirely (1978).
Just when things seemed hopeless in the comics field he helped
pioneer four decades earlier, the animation industry came calling.
With higher pay, more respect, and much-needed health benefits as he
entered his declining years, Jack ironically ended his career where it began;
only instead of doing in-betweening for Popeye cartoons, he was a much
sought-after concept man (creating thousands of ideas that will likely never be
seen by the public), and scoring a major hit with Thundarr the Barbarian.
Escaping the Big Two (1980s).
Jacks final major foray into comics, rather than for DC and Marvel, wound
up being for independent publishers. Freed of the constraints of company-wide
continuity and editorial dictates (which he experienced one last time on DCs 1984
Hunger Dogs Graphic Novel), Kirby produced wild, frenetic work like never before.
Some loved it, some hated it, but no one could deny his unchained imagination was working at full speed on such projects as
Captain Victory and Silver Star.
Escape from obscurity (1990s).
After years of no new Kirby work on the stands, and a gradual lessening of attention being paid to Jack (including smaller
crowds at conventions, where younger readers flocked to the Image creators), Jack experienced a resurgence of popularity in the
1990s. The debut of Phantom Force (with Kirby
concepts combined with Image inkers) and the Topps Secret City Saga
books, as well as the release of The Art of Jack Kirby (and not one, but two
fanzines devoted to Kirby) helped bring him back to the forefront of fans
minds (although his place in comics history was undoubtedly assured
anyway).
Is it any wonder then, that Jack was destined to make his mark in a
field of escapist entertainment? While he may never have mastered the
intricate escape techniques of a prestidigitator like Houdini, he certainly
worked his own brand of magic in comics; and the personal chains that
encumbered him throughout his life and career were every bit as difficult
to surmount as anything David Copperfield and co. have ever dreamed
up for their acts.

Under The Covers

teve Rude didnt waste a second when we asked him if

hed ever done a Mister Miracle #1 cover recreation that we
could run on this issues back cover. Although he hadnt, he
immediately offered to give it a shot. (We thought Steve was a
particularly appropriate choice since, on the the original cover of
#1, Mister Miracle is saying the villains are in for a RUDE shock.)
We assumed The Dude would do a traditional pen-&-ink
version, and were totally stunned
when a gorgeous pastel drawing
arrived less than a week later.
Steve had this to say about the
creation of the piece:
Some of you may be
familiar with a magazine
called Step-by-Step. Though
I collected it solely for
Methods of the Masters, a
section devoted to vintage
illustrators, I have yet to
learn a thing from any of the
Step-by-Step articles. Maybe
Id have to be there watching
over the artists shoulder, or
physically work alongside them,
but for me these articles just dont
seem to work.
With that in mind, Ill describe the process of the Mister Miracle
#1 recreation. It was rendered
in Nupastel, a hard, sticklike chalk, and done on orange Canson paper. I began by enlarging a copy of the actual Kirby
cover and transferring it onto the pastel paper. I juggled some elements around since there were
no logo or word balloons to worry about, and began to apply the main colors throughout.
Pastel is a new medium for me and is best suited to painting large images where you can
use broad, suggestive strokes. Eventually, you hone-in on details with smaller and smaller
strokes. This is more difficult than it sounds. Pastel smears easily. Like
all mediums, its drawbacks work side-by-side with its charms. At one
point I dragged my sleeve along an area Id spent an hour on and smeared
the whole thing. I finally realized the baggy sleeves I was wearing were
the culprit. Instant wipeout. Pastelists have a thing against fixative for
some reason, but its the
only sane way to work
with the stuff. (I rolled
up my sleeve after that
incident.)
For the budding
illustrators out there, know
that mediums dont make an
artist. Practice and accumulated
knowledge do. As Andrew Loomis once
said, the principles apply to all art regardless of the
medium used; be it oil, acrylic, watercolor, or
a stick dipped in mud.
Problems arise in all mediums as an
artist struggles to improve. This situation
usually applies throughout our entire lives.
Our job is to become smarter than the medium, and
not let technical things interfere with the fundamentals
that make a good picture.

(left) Kirby cover for

Mister Miracle #1, inked
by Vince Colletta, and a
detail of the word balloon
that provoked us to get
Steve Rude to recreate it.
Mr. Miracle TM & 2002 DC
Comics.

(below) For those who

didnt get enough Rude
in Steves pastel interpretation, here are a couple
of fan commissions he
did in the 1990s.
Mr. Miracle, Big Barda TM &
2002 DC Comics. Artwork
Steve Rude.

Marshall Rogers took the more conventional route for this issues front cover, inking a xerox
of the Kirby pencils shown on the previous page. He had this to say about the experience:
How does one approach a legends work? Jack is so definitive in his linework that there
is little room for interpretation, and yet I consider his style to be representative of form
rather than absolute.
I also feel an artist should bring something of himself to his work. With this in mind,
and a personal preference to an organic rather than plastic look to inks (as I talked about during
this books interview), I inked the cover you see on this issue.
We originally toyed with the idea of adding one of Jacks photo-collages to the front
covers background, but after seeing the color work Tom Ziuko added to it (not to mention
the spiffy planet detailing by Toms pal Scott Lemien), we thought the white background
aided our goal of making it look like the cover of one of those 25 1970s DC 52-pagers
(think Jimmy Olsen #148, among others).
5

Mark evanier

Jack F.A.Q.s

A column answering Frequently Asked Questions about Kirby

by Mark Evanier
Once again, we attempt the seemingly-impossible: We shall
endeavor to answer not one but two Kirby-related queries in one
long, rambling reply. The first comes from Kirk Groeneveld, who
writes:

(below) A 1980s fan

commission drawing,
featuring Galactus.
Galactus, Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four
TM & 2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Im not Jewish, but I wonder how Jack Kirbys faith interfaced with
his continuing theme of hidden races being genetically manipulated.
How did he feel about the assignment to Have the FF meet God in
Fantastic Four #48-50?
And the second comes from someone who signs their e-mail
Washing2000lb, which I guess means their name or their locale
is Washington. Anyway, he, she or it writes:
Whats the deal with Mister Miracle? Everyone says it was based on
Steranko but that Big Barda was based on Roz taking care of Kirby.
Wouldnt that make Jack Mister Miracle?
irst, to Kirk: Ive always been skeptical about that meet
God anecdote, as I see absolutely nothing in those issues to
suggest that Galactus represented a view of the Almighty on
the part of either Mr. Lee or Mr. Kirby. Think about it: Galactus
was an intergalactic force who created nothing, gave life to no one
and left each world he visited a barren, lifeless wasteland. How

(next page, top) Photo of

Roy Thomas and Flo
Steinberg, circa 1965,
shortly after Roy started
working at the House of
Ideas. The similarities
between the Rascally
One and Jasper Sitwell
(see inset) are pretty
evident. Photo courtesy
of Flo Steinberg.
Jasper Sitwell, Nick Fury, DumDum Dugan TM & 2002
Marvel Characters, Inc.

(next page, bottom)

Jack did a later, less
flattering parody of Roy
as Houseroy, flunky to
Funky (Stan Lee)
Flashman.
Funky Flashman, Houseroy
TM & 2002 DC Comics.

does he
relate to
any interpretation of
God that has
ever been
enshrined in any
book, any teaching,
any religion? Last I
heardand I doubt this has
changedGod was supposed to foster life, not destroy it for his
own enrichment.
Yes, I know a few scholarly essays have sought to read
between the panels and make the case, but I remain unconvinced. My suspicion is that Stan said to Jackor maybe Jack
said to StanLets have the FF fight someone whos supremely
powerful and somehow, that suggestion was later recalled as,
Lets have them meet God. Obviously, just because a comic
book character has awesome might, it does not mean that he in
any way corresponds to his authors vision of you-know-who.
Just what was on Stans mind, I cant say. He does not recall
individual issues well and the one time he and I discussed that
story arc, he didnt have much to say about it. Neither did Jack,
but I did come up with a theory as to what he was thinking at the
time he worked on
that little epic. To
explain it, I need to
detour and answer
the question from
Washing2000lb....
Almost everything Jack wrote
(or plotted) had
autobiographical
elements. In some
cases, they were so
obscure and disguised that even he
didnt recognize
them in the final mix.
But just as an actor
utilizes personal
sense memories in
acting, Jack used his
own emotional experiences throughout
his work. When he
drew a scene that
involved anger, he
was usually thinking
about something that
had once angered
him, and so forth. In
some cases, the reference points are
even slightly visible.
Heres one example
of many: Last issue
in this magazine,
there was a mention
of Jasper Sitwell, the
young, collegeeducated S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent, as clearly
being based on
Dudley Do-Right.

Writers Bloc

(next page, left) Photo of

Michael Chabon by Patricia
Williams.
Patricia Williams.

(this page) Mister Miracle

battles the Lump from
Mister Miracle #8, the
issue that made Chabon a
lifelong Kirby fan.
Mister Miracle, The Lump TM &
2002 DC Comics.

(next page, top) Dust jacket for the hardback version

of Michael Chabons The
Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier & Clay, featuring
his character The
Escapista character
who, according to published reports, is getting
his own series from DC
Comics soon (gee, maybe
theyll team him up with
Mister Miracle!).
2002 Michael Chabon.

(next page, bottom) Panel

from Kirbys autobiographical story Street Code,
done in pencil. Kirby fans
whove never experienced
this remarkable 10-page
story can read it as part of
TwoMorrows trade paperback Streetwise, available
elsewhere in this issue.
2002 Jack Kirby Estate.

12

A Few Words From

(Acclaimed author Michael Chabon was born in 1963, and grew up

reading comic books. Hes penned several books, but the one of most
interest to Kirby fans is undoubtedly The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier & Clay, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel dealing with the
Golden Age of Comics and escape artistry as its themes. In the midst
of his extremely hectic schedule these days, Michael took time out to
conduct the following interview in March 2002, via e-mail.)

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: What were the first Kirby comics
you read? Did you read Mister Miracle when Kirby was working
on it in the 1970s?
MICHAEL CHABON: Absolutely. Mister Miracle was my favorite
of the Fourth World books. I was a devoted reader of DC books
in the very early 70s, as a seven- or eight-year-old. I really didnt
care for the Marvel books. I suppose they went over my head.

Michael Chabon
They had a frenetic, sweaty quality to them. The DC
books were cool and mannered and the values
were easy to comprehend. Little kids really
do believe in truth and justice and the
American way.
So I didnt know from Kirby. Then
all of a sudden those banners started
appearing in the DC books: Kirby Is
Coming! and then, finally, Kirby Is
Here! I had no idea who Kirby was. I
thought it might be a charactersome
vague association chiming in my mind
with the Rip Kirby newspaper strip. Then
my dad brought me home the first few
Kirby Jimmy Olsen books. That was always a
book prone to bizarre flights of fancy, but
whoa. I dont think I knew quite what to make of
Kirby at first.
The book that really, truly, permanently blew my mind was the issue of Mister
Miracle in which he fights the creature from the Id [#8]; a big, pink, comatose but
sentient wad of bubblegum. Theres this incredible double-page spread of the
Female Furies killing time in their barracks. That panel just completely unhinged
me. The dynamic layout, the wealth of figures and the variety of their costumes,
the air of violence and sexuality, the bizarrely stilted dialogue. From that point on
I was a confirmed Kirbyite.
TJKC: Did any characters or scenes from Mister Miracle influence your novel? For
instance, could a parallel be drawn between Joe Kavaliers mentor Bernard
Kornblum, and Himon from Mister Miracle? How about between Joe Kavaliers
own escape from Nazi-occupied Prague, and Scott Frees escape from Apokolips?
MICHAEL: There may very well be underpinnings of Mister Miracle in my book.
Im sure there are; but if so, I was totally unaware of them at the time. You could
toss in that the fictional character of Max Mayflower who trains the Escapist is a
bit like Thaddeus Brown, the original Mister Miracle. And I guess that makes
Sammy Oberon!
The surest connection, and the one that I really was conscious of, was between
my guy and Jim Steranko. It was reading about Sterankos first career as an escape
artist that encouraged me to develop the motif of Houdini and escape artistry that
was very lightly emphasized in the first few drafts. And Steranko also underlies
Mister Miracle. So thats the strongest link, I think, between my book and JKs.
TJKC: Your novel features a whos who of Golden Age comics creators making
cameo appearances, from Stan Lee, Joe Simon, and Gil Kane to Will Eisner and
others; but Kirby seems conspicuous by his absence, not actually appearing as a
character in the novel. Was this intentional, and if so, why?

MICHAEL: Well,
I guess I just sort
of felt as if this
book was, in a
way, for Jack
Kirby, or of
himas much
as, in a very
different way, it
was for and of
my dad (to whom
I dedicated it).
Having him also
appear in it
might have
seemed like too much, somehow.
TJKC: On page 100 of the hardcover edition, its revealed that Sammy Clays
mother fell in love with Sammys father in Kurtzburgs Saloon on New Yorks
Lower East Side in 1919. In what other ways was the novel inspired by Kirbys
own escape from his Lower East Side upbringing?
MICHAEL: There was no direct inspiration from Kirbys life; not really, except
insofar as Kirbys history mirrored so closely the history of my own grandparents
and great-grandparents, many of whom settled in the Lower East Side, too.
TJKC: An underlying theme of Kavalier & Clay seems to be Comics are escapism,
but theres no getting away from real life. Is that an accurate assessment, and is
there a message there for comics fans?
MICHAEL: I dont see it that way. I might restate it thus: Comics are escapism,
and thank God, because without escapist art there really would be no getting
away from real life. By the way, I believe that all great literature is, in part,
escapist. When you inhabit the life of a fictional character or characters, you are
given a taste of what it might feel like to be somebody elseto escape, if only for
a moment, the prison of your own consciousness.
TJKC: Can you elaborate on the theme of escape in the novel? An example that
seems to fall under the theme is Joe Kavaliers journey to Antarctica during the
war to escape his past and his brothers death.
MICHAEL: I read this sequence as more in the nature of an escape in itself; that
is, Joe is locked away in this great frozen box of death, a trap that kills everyone
but him, and he alone escapes; and yet, at the same time, learns that the trap of
memory, of guilt and remorse and shame, is one that he cannot escape, not even
by taking revenge.
TJKC: Another is the Escapists secret identity of Tom Mayflower; of course, the
Pilgrims escaped persecution on their ship, the Mayflower.
MICHAEL: Interesting. I just wanted
something that sounded super-WASPy.
TJKC: Help us get into your mind as a
writer. Are those types of occurrences
coincidental or planned? Do you consciously set out to develop these ideas
from the start, or do they evolve, and
come to you as you write? What are
some other areas in the novel that tie
into the escape theme?
MICHAEL: Theme is absolutely the
very last thing I consider. I start with a
character, a setting, or a story idea; an
interesting event or episode or sequence
of events. Then I start writing, and I try
to use my ability to manipulate language
to the utmost, hoping to make these
characters, this setting, this story, come
13

Adam M c Govern

As A Genre

Know of some Kirby-inspired work

that should be covered here? Send to:
Adam McGovern
PO Box 257
Mt. Tabor, NJ 07878

A regular feature examining Kirby-inspired work, by Adam McGovern

GREAT EVASIONS
(right) Simonson splash
page from Orion #5. Ahh,
Walter, how well miss ye.
Characters TM & 2002 DC
Comics.

(below) Chapter splash for

Modern Myths.
2002 Juan Gonzalez.

(next page, top) Example of

recent Black Panther art by
Jorge Lucas.
Characters TM & 2002
Marvel Characters, Inc.

(next page, bottom) Lucas

pays homage to Kirbys
Annihilus (right) in this
panel from The Ultron
Imperative (inked by Mike
Royer).
Characters TM & 2002 Marvel
Characters, Inc.

16

hose keeping score will remember that an all-humor column

was promised for this space; the amount of material to go
through, and the small avalanche of other verbiage I have
unloaded on this issue (check out my Simon/Cap summation
and my Mister Miracle discourse, plug, plug), have pushed that
theme to next time. So this issue well revisit some favorite
types of comics, and particularly-admired specific series,
covered in our run to date. The timing was right as these
books came to my attention, came to a sad close, or ran very
pertinent current story arcsand if my previously-announced
timing was off, well, its a poorly-kept secret that I aspire to
professional comics scripting, and if Im really serious about
pursuing that career I gotta start missing some deadlines.

Wonders Never Cease

As we did in our inaugural column examining Tom
Sciolis 8-Opus, we begin our return to roots by spotlighting
some of the indie newcomers whose emulation of the King
shows how fundamental his style is to the vocabulary of
comics, and how spontaneous is the positive reaction to it
not only in the halls of entertainment giants mindful of its
salability, but the hearts and home studios from which the
next generation of creators will come.
A fan counterpart to the professional cast-of-thousands
Kirby tribute Fantastic Four: Worlds Greatest Comics
Magazine, Modern
Myths is an exuberant
and enjoyable homage
to the Lee/Kirby heyday masterminded
by California-based
writer and artist
Juan Gonzalez. As
Erik Larsen did
with the WGCM
project,
Gonzalez laid
out the entire
first issue
for himself
and other artists
to complete; like Larsen
and then some, he plotted and wrote the whole
thing himself, without a
collaborator. The result
is an introductory tale
of the Wonder
Warders, an FF-like
team of superscientists protecting
humble human
lives in struggles
of cosmic scale.
Characters walk
a line between
postmodern
archetype and
too-recognizable pastiche,
but all are done with love and
some hit the heights of Kirbys own wordplay

(like the Thing-esque enforcer David

Goliath). Some of the artists are more ready-for-prime-time than
others, but the design is inspired throughout, with many a close
approximation of Kirbys great sense of psychedelic tech and spaceoperatic costumery. Gonzalez chooses the exhilarating, joined-inprogress narrative structure of a Lee or Kirby talewe feel as if
were coming in on issue #15 of a classic seriesand while this
sometimes makes the smoothness of the exposition slip out of his
hands, it necessitates a brevity which is usually executed well.
Gonzalezs storytelling instincts, while action-packed, tend more
toward dramatic reconciliation than bombastic fisticuffs, and this is
one of many refreshing approaches that make him and most of his
cohorts talents to watch. (For a copy, please send $2.50 [$3.70 in
Canada] to: Juan Gonzalez Publishing, 1112 Orchard St. #1, Santa
Rosa, CA 95404 [email: modmyth@hotmail.com].)

Goodnight, Bitter Prince

Welcomed in our very first column, we must now bid a fond
farewell to Walter Simonsons take on Kirbys Fourth World saga,
Orion. Fourth World continuations seem to be as short-lived as they
are frequent, and thats too bad in the case of this elegant and

INNERVIEW

Marshall Rogers Inte

Conducted by Jon B. Cooke, transcribed by LongBox.com Staff
(Marshall Rogers burst on the otherwise dull comic book
scene of the mid- to late 1970s, and caused a sensation
with his work on Batman in Detective Comics, Dr.
Strange for Marvel Comics, and others; but it was his
4-issue revival of Mister Miracle that impressed Kirby
fans, and is still fondly remembered. This interview
took place by telephone in March 2002, and was copyedited by the artist.)
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR: How far back do
you recall Jack Kirbys work?
MARSHALL ROGERS: I grew up with Kirbys work.
Hes probably the reason I wanted to get into comic
books.
TJKC: What work
specifically?

(above) Photo of
Marshall Rogers from
the late 1970s.
(right) Rogers pencils
and Terry Austin inks
on a page from
Detective Comics
#468, featuring Bruce
Waynes encounter
with an old Kirby
character, Morgan
Edge.
Morgan Edge, Batman,
Bruce Wayne TM & 2002
DC Comics.

(next page) Kirby

pencils from Mister
Miracle #6, featuring
Jacks thinly veiled
parodies of Stan Lee
and Roy Thomas.
All characters TM & 2002
DC Comics.

18

MARSHALL:
Everything, but it wasnt
until he started working
with Marvel that I knew
what the mans name
was. Then, once I realized who the guy was
drawing that work, I
realized I had probably
first read him when he
had done either the
Shield or the Fly. I dont
remember exactly which
of the two, but Jacks
work was so distinctive
that even as a young kid,
I recognized it: Hey,
this is the same guy that
did the Fly. I went back
and I checked it out and
looked at the art and
realized, yeah, this was
the same guy.
TJKC: What was it about
Jacks work that was
compelling?
MARSHALL: The
dynamics, I guess, would
be the best way to say it.
Jack brought the work
to life for me. It made it
seem more than twodimensional to me. One
thing that I remember
noticing was when some
villain would uproot a
building from a New
York City block, the pipes
and the guts of the
building underneath
were dangling down, as
compared to Superman;
when he lifted a building
up, it had this nice clean
flat surface, you know
as if it was a toy placed

on a chess board or somethingbut there was always rubble and

junk coming out of Jacks buildings whenever they were lifted up.
TJKC: Were you into his Atlas monster work? Did you look at
thoselike Tales of Suspense, Strange Tales, you knowthe preMarvel hero stuff?
MARSHALL: A little bit, but I dont honestly remember seeing it
straight off the shelves. I was collecting comic books as a youngster, but I didnt get right in on the very beginning of Marvel. I
ended up running around the neighborhood trading to get back
issues, so I dont remember exactly if I started out with some of
the monster books and had seen them, or had picked them up
during trades, etc.
TJKC: Have you looked at the monster stuff since? Did you find
anything of interest in there to this day?

rview
MARSHALL: I guess, really, the monster genre was not my favorite genre,
but I looked at everything and anything that Jack did at one point, that I
could lay my hands on.
TJKC: You were born in 1950, right?
MARSHALL: Thats right.
TJKC: So, generally speaking, you
started picking them up around 62?
Were you about 11 or 12 years old?
MARSHALL: No, I was reading comic
books earlier than that.
TJKC: I meant the Marvel stuff specifically. You said you didnt get in on the
ground floor necessarily.
MARSHALL: I just missed it because a
friend of mine had Amazing Fantasy
#15 that Spider-Man first appeared in.
Then I ended up buying the second
issue of Spider-Man, but it wasnt like
I was hitting the newsstand every
week to get them, so it was hit and
miss in the beginning.
TJKC: Did you find Fantastic Four
compelling the minute you encountered it?
MARSHALL: Yeah, and actually X-Men
was one of my favorite titles. That was
the one I think I really glommed onto
because I always felt I had large feet
and I really related to the Beast.
(laughter) I wanted to be able to walk
up the sides of a building. That was
one of the things about Jacks work,
particularly in the beginning, that I
think was the most attractive thing to
me. The situations were more downto-earth. They werent as fantastic as
the DC stuff. It was Jack creating
characters that would walk up the
side of a building or shrink to the size
of an ant. It was more basic fantasy
elements rather than the fantastical
type of elements. The Fantastic Four
was certainly a departure from that,
but his other stuff was even more compelling to me,
and Thor would not necessarily be included in that.
I think the work of his I found most compelling
were the simple fantasy elements, like shrinking
down to a real small size or being able to swing
around a building as if you were on a jungle vine.
TJKC: Did you also clue into Stan Lees contributions
to it?
MARSHALL: In the beginning I was attracted to the
artwork. I realized Stans name from the signatures.
When I got a comic book, I would basically flip
though the pages just to see the artwork and then
go back and read the story later on. Particularly
with Jacks work, you could tell what the story was
without having to read the captions.

TJKC: The X-Men was a title on which he later did

quite loose breakdowns. Could you still see the
Kirby through the guys who inked and finished the
penciled stuff?
MARSHALL: I could, and I was able to quickly tell
as soon as Jack stopped contributing to it as a
ghost, because the layout and dynamics just took a
vast turn, and became very different.
TJKC: Prior to Marvel, did you collect comics? Did
you save them or were you a reader?
MARSHALL: I was a reader.
TJKC: And once you got bit by the Marvel bug, did
you continue to read DC comics or did you pass
them by?

MARSHALL: I always went back to Batman, hoping

to see that something that Id always wanted to
see, but.
TJKC: You didnt see it.
MARSHALL: No, I never did, youre right.
TJKC: So did you remain with Marvel pretty much
throughout your teen years?
MARSHALL: Well, I dont know; about 15 or 16 I
started getting interested in girls and losing interest
in comics. Then once I got into college, I started to
take up the interest again. It coincided with a serious
interest in getting into the business.
TJKC: Were you losing interest in the comics just as
Jack was getting into the Galactus trilogy, for
19

Gallery

On the following pages are a plethora of pencils from various Mister Miracle issues, as follows: Issue #5 (pages 26-28),
#6 (pages 29-33), #7 (pages 34-37, including a Young Scott Free story), and #8 (pages 38-39 and 42-43).
Our centerfold (pages 40-41) features the two-page spread from Mister Miracle #11, inked by Mike Royer.
All characters TM & 2002 DC Comics.

26

27

TRIBUTE

2001 Kirby Tribute Panel

Held at Comicon International: San Diego on July 22, 2001
(Featuring Will Eisner, John Buscema, John Romita, and
Mike Royer, moderated by Mark Evanier, transcribed by
Brian K. Morris)
MARK EVANIER: Good afternoon. Welcome to the
Eighth Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, and my eleventh panel
of this convention. (applause) Im probably Mark Evanier
and Ive made a rule that I do not go to any convention
that will not let me host a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel.
Actually, in some cases, thats superfluous because weve
been talking about Jack on half the panels Ive done here

(top to bottom) The panelists:

the late John Buscema, John
Romita, Mike Royer, and (next
page) Will Eisner.
(right) Pencil page from Mister
Miracle #6.
All characters TM & 2002 DC Comics.

44

so far. I just did a Russell Myers panel and we brought

him up in there, too. Jack was an amazing gentleman.
You all know that, and many of you had the pleasure of
knowing him and meeting him. Let me introduce the
dais of people we have assembled and Ill talk to them
about Jack for a while, then were going to show a videotape that is not one of the happier moments of Jacks life,
unfortunately, but which is part of the historical record.
It is a two-part tape, the first part of which is Johnny
Carson libeling Jack Kirby, and the second half is Johnny
Carson apologizing to Jack Kirby. (applause)
Jack liked pretty much everybody in comics. I dont

WILL EISNER: I hate to tell you what it took to get one. (laughs)
JOHN ROMITA: You didnt know the right people. (laughs)
EVANIER: So youve finally done work that lives up to the standards of Will
Eisner. (laughs)
EISNER: I lied about my age. (laughs)
EVANIER: And here to my left is a gentleman that Jack handpicked as his favorite
inker for the last twenty years of his life. I dont think people realize how hard this
man worked. To ink everything Jack Kirby did, alone... well, a lot of people could
not have done that, even badly. To ink it and letter it so well under those time
constraints for that rotten money was an amazing achievement. We owe an awful
lot of thanks to Mr. Mike Royer. (applause) Let me also introduce in the audience
a couple of people very briefly. When I was working for Jack, I had the pleasure of
having as my friend and colleague and partner and co-conspirator, a gentleman
who did an awful lot of work for Jack personally and professionally, and was a
lifelong friend of the family, Mr. Steve Sherman. (applause) And Jacks other
favorite inker in the last decade or two of his life, and a very close member of the
Kirby familyI mean family in the very best sense of the word because he was
practically almost blood over there, Mr. Mike Thibodeaux. (applause) I also do
see one other person here. Jack had an amazing ability to get into trouble, usually
not of his own making, and he had two attorneys throughout most of the Eighties
and Nineties who were dealing with these problems. One was a man by the name
of Steve Rohde who is now a high muck-a-muck in the ACLU. He spends one hour
a week making money as a lawyer and fifty hours a week protecting civil rights.
His former collaborator and partner is now in his own practice and I knew him
mostly as a voice on the phone, dealing with all of Jacks problems, calling me in
exasperation at whatever stupid thing Marvel was claiming this week. This is Mr.
Paul Levine over here. (applause) Im going to start with Mr. Eisnerand, by the
way, you all bought this, right? (holds up Eisners book Shop Talk to wild applause) I
know youve told this story before but you never told it at one of these panels,
about hiring Jack Kirby and his coming to work for your studioand at some
point, youve got to tell the towel story. (laughs) Tell us about the operation that
Jack came into.
EISNER: Well, the company was Eisner and Iger. I former a company with Jerry
Iger whod been formerly the editor of Wow, What A Magazine that collapsed after
two issues. We owned a shop producing, or packaging, comics. In those days, the
pulp magazines were dying and the publishers who were still trying to survive,
were looking for other things to publish. They were publishing comic magazines,
as we called them in those days. They werent called comic books. Then, as it
came to pass, into my shop comes this kid named Jacob Kurtzberg. Whatever
happened to him, I dont know. (laughs) He kind of looked like John Garfield to

A French Kirby Exhibition (or nearly)!

by Jean Depelley and Philippe Jecker
The 2002 Angoulme International Comics Festival (which took place
last January 24th-27th) was a nice opportunity for European comics fans to
admire a wonderful display of originals from the greatest US comics artists,
and the King was not forgotten!
The CNBDI (standing for National Center for International Comics) is a
one-of-a-kind museum in France, since it presents original comics art only
and has been doing so
these past twelve
years, as well as organizing important thematic exhibitions
focused on the nominated artists once every
year during the Festival.
Although it usually displays a wonderful collection of classic French
Belgium bande dessine (including art from
Herg, Jij, Franquin, and Moebius), US comics are also well-represented,
with samples from the Golden Age of comic strips, EC, underground, and
mainstream super-hero comics. The 2002
edition celebrated nominated artist Martin
Veyrons sophisticated, Parisian humor, but it
was the US artists exhibition that definitely
caught the public interest.
The museum authorities (around
Jean-Pierre Mercier and Thierry Groensteen)
decided to open their holdings, and displayed a fantastic selection of art made in
the USA, with a very original scenography
created by Marie-Annick Beauvery which
occupied two floors of the CNBDI. First, the
visitor was introduced to American comics
by a comic book store reconstruction (much
different than our French shops!), before
admiring samples of modern independent
artists (featuring art by Jill Thomson, Jeff Smith, Mike Mignola, and others).
Then, upstairs began a real feast for the eyes: a wonderful Kirby Torch poster
(statted from a Kirby original)
welcomed the fan! The tone was
set; pages of the greatest artists
were showcased under the
moody lights of the museum,
including George Herriman,
Charles M. Schulz, George
McManus, Robert Crumb, Hal
Foster, Alex Raymond, Burne
Hogarth, Joe Kubert, Jack Davis,
Barry Smith, Jeff Jones, as well
as a special exhibition of Will
Eisners Spirit! (Will was attending the Festival as guest of
honor and, by the way, he likes
TJKC! ) In the middle of these
treasures, three wonderful Kirby
pages, intelligently chosen to
show different inkers on Jacks
work, were presented:

All characters in these images TM & 2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

remember ever hearing of a writer or artist he didnt

like, the lowest being those people whose books
he felt were highly derivative or who he felt were
just imitating or tracing other peoples works.
That certainly did not apply to any of these
gentlemen. He could not mention Johnny
Romita without the phrase, the guy who
saved Spider-Man. When Jack went over to
DC, one of the things he very much wanted to
do was a very sophisticated romance comic.
Eventually, the idea got dumbed down into that
True Divorce Cases/Soul Love thing which we did
that Jack never really understood. Through it all, he
kept mentioning how much he wanted to get this man
to work with him. He truly admired his work; Mr. Johnny
Romita, ladies and gentlemen. (applause)
Another artist for whom Jack never had anything but the highest regard was
the gentleman who followed him on the Fantastic Four and Thor. My first question, when we get to him, will be, Just whats it like to follow Jack Kirby on
Fantastic Four and Thor? (laughs) Those of us who felt a certain loss when Jack
left those books were more than delighted to see the expert handiwork of
Marvels supreme penciler, Mr. John Buscema. (applause) And if you said to Jack,
Who do you really admire in comics?, the first two names heard would be Bill
Everett or this gentleman, whom he especially admired, not only as an artist but
as a role model. I think Will was almost a father figure, in a way. He was in the
business about an hour before Jack. (laughs) And were going to talk about that a
little bit. But actually, this man finally achieved something the other night when
he actually won an Eisner Award. (laughs, applause) Is that your first Eisner? Ive
got three of them, and thats your first?

Fantastic Four Annual #1, page 28 from the Sub-Mariner Vs. The Human
Race story, inked by Dick Ayers (from which the Torch art had been
swiped for the poster)
Thor #130 page 5, (not too badly) inked by Colletta
Fantastic Four #97, page 4, inked by Frank Giacoia
One complaint: the frames made it impossible to read Jacks margin notes
and give a clear shot on the Marvel method, but the art spoke for itself: brilliant, energetic and inspiring! If consideration was proportional to the amount
of art displayed, Kirby was really honored in Angoulme as he had as many
pages displayed as Foster or Hogarth, and actually more than anyone else!

45

me at the time. I think he thought he was John

Garfield, and he got to working in the shop. He
was one of the hardest-working guys in the shop,
very serious, and... the towel story. (laughs)
EVANIER: The story that Jack told me was that
he saw Wow and he wanted to be part of it. He
went to the address in the magazine and it was
out of business. Someone there told him about
Eisner and Iger and sent him up there.
EISNER: And actually, the shop resembled an
Egyptian slave galley. We were out in the Nile,
guys are sitting all around and Im sitting at the
head, beating the drums, (laughs) but it was such
a new field that, really, anything you did was
innovative. Jack sat on the right-hand side of the
wall and drew in some miniature room. The penciling guys were sitting alongside the wallBob
Powell, Chuck Mazoujian, and George Tuska. At
my big desk, I would sit down and rough out the
initial characters and pass them down the line
and back up, almost like an animation studio.
We were trying very hard to make it profitable
because we were getting five dollars a page for
the work. I was being very innovative from a
production point of view because, in those days,
people were working on salary. They were not
working freelance because I reasoned that if I
was going to get any quality work out of them, I
had to have them on salary. Its very difficult to
tell a freelancer to change panel three and move
it over to panel five because its going to cost
money. The guy whos getting salary, hed be very
happy to change it. Jack was very accommodating,
very easy to work with. A lot was going on and
the shop grew. It started out with, maybe, five
people. We were up to about ten or fifteen people
at the time. We got to move to a larger office on
42nd Street, right across the street from the
News Building, and we had two offices, two
rooms; one great, wide one where all the artists
worked and a little front room. For the artists, it
was a big office building. Therefore, we decided
we needed a towel service. So we subscribed to a
company that would bring in towels every two or
three days, changing them. Of course, we didnt
ask questions. Well, one day, I was in the office
and Iger, who was my partner at the time, came
in to me and he said, Hey, theres this guy out
there who wants to come in and talk about the
towel service. He said, Youre in charge of
production, meaning I
was the partner
in charge of producing. Iger was
the businessman.
He was maybe
thirteen years older
than me. Therefore,
he was the businessman. So I went out
and there stands this
guy, straight out of a
Mickey Spillane movie,
with a black hat and a
white tie and a black
shirt, looking like he broke
a nose, speaking like dis.
He said, Im in charge of
the towel service, and I
said, Well, we want to change
the towel service. Were not
46

happy with your company because the towels

are not coming out white, and so forth. Well,
you know, he said, we got the franchise
here. (laughs) So I said, Well, I know you
have but I called a couple of other companies
and none of them wanted to take on our
account. They said, Its not our territory.
So he said, Look, we dont want to have
no trouble with you. We want everything
to go nice, see? (laughs) So he says,
You tell me what your problem is, Ill
try to fix it. So I said, Well, I want
more towels. He said, I cant get you
more towels. Only four towels. By
the way, his voice is getting a little
stronger and Im getting a little
worked up. I was getting a little angry
and suddenly, out of the back,
comes Jack. This guy is about 6' 2"
and Jacks about 4' 3". (laughs)
Jack says to me, Hey, boss. He
always called me boss. Even
through all of his life he always called

me boss. He said, Both of you, just a minute. Ill

take care of this, and he looks at this guy and said,
What do you want, you big ox? The guy looks with
terror at this little guy. Jack says, Look, we dont
want any of your crap from you. We dont like your
damn towel service. Now, get the hell out of here.
(laughs) Now I figure Im going to be mopping up
the blood off the floor. (laughs) To my amazement,
to my astonishment, this big guy turned around
and walked out. (laughs) Jack says to me, He comes
back again, call me. Ill take care of him. (laughs)
That was Jack. He changed his name very shortly
from Jacob Kurtzberg, or whatever it was, to Jack
Curtiss. He was doing the Count of Monte Cristo
story at the time. Then he changed it later on to
another one and became Jack Kirby, but it was
always a joy to work with this guy. I always enjoyed
working with him. I didnt see him after he left and
joined up with Joe Simon, I didnt see him until
many years later, here at this convention, where we
were really going to talk to each other; and this
interview that I tried to do with him [for Spirit
Magazine #39, conducted circa 1982], more than any-

Thanks to Adrian Day for the logo treatment!

Himontary

How Do You Kill The Man

Whos Died A Thousand Deaths?
Surely he couldnt be dispatched as easily as
Darkseid did in the Hunger Dogs graphic novel
(and with as pedestrian a means as a gun; talk
about a scene that rang hollow. Himon would
certainly have utilized a follower to stand in
for him, as he did so many times before).
Regardless, its amazing that a character who

only appeared in one Fourth World issueand

nearly two years after the epic begancould be
such an important part of the tapestry. So for this
issue, we resurrect the lovable old rascal who
taught Scott Free his craft by having three writers
give their take on one of Kirbys most personal (and
fan favorite) sagas: Mister Miracle #9s Himon.

59

Charles Hatfield
(throughout this article)
Scenes from Mister Miracle
#9s story Himon in pencil.
All characters TM & 2002
DC Comics.

60

imonmaster of disguise, escape artist par excellence, and

\
above all the master of theoriesis Kirbys embodiment
of imagination. A protean genius, Himon has a disconcerting
tendency to phase in and out of everywhere, and the power to
shake off bodies like dry husks, thus to sidestep death again and
again. Kirby suggests a prosaic explanation for Himons impossible
escapes (apparently he can create convincing replicas or standins for his own body), but, finally, Himon is a metaphor; every
literal-minded explanation of his powers falls short. He is imagination personifiedthe inspiration for designers, craftsmen,
dancers, artistsand his visionary energy threatens Darkseids

suffocating, totalitarian world order.

On Apokolips the free exercise of the imagination carries
terrible risks: Himons students often die for dreaming. When
young Scott Free witnesses this firsthand, when he sees dreamers
tortured and destroyed, he cracks, and finally, fully, commits
himself to breaking free. For him Himon becomes no longer
merely a source of furtive escapism, but a genuine means of
escape. The story of Himon, then, is about the horrors that
break Scotts conformism and harden his resolve for imaginative
freedomas the cover says, the great bust-out.
The tale is unpleasant, yet exhilarating. Its setting is a nightmare, and its pervasive violence is cold,
appalling. After decades of reuse, Apokolips
remains one of Kirbys best and most frightening ideas: a blotted, smoking, industrialized
hell that makes mythology out of the authors
formative experiences, fusing Lower East Side
squalor with visions of a thumping, jackbooted
technocracy. Himon depicts this worldscape
without much grandeur but with an astringent,
unsentimental, and brutal clarity. (There are
few dark places in Kirbys oeuvre that can match
it: the City of Toads, perhaps, from Eternals
#8-10, or the chilly dystopia of OMAC #1.)
The story metes out torment and death,
indeed a surplus of outrageous violence, with
steely matter-of-factness.
When I look at the pages of Himon,
these are some of the things I see:
I see signs of Kirbys overarching ambitions
for the Fourth World saga. Page 1s explanatory
caption links this story with The Pact (New
Gods #7) and assumes a knowing audience
that is following Mister Miracle and New Gods
at the same time. At several points, Kirby
foreshadows how Scotts escape from Apokolips
will factor into, perhaps spark, a new war; the
darkly prophetic dialogue of Himon and
Metron hints that Scotts moment of decision
may also be a decisive turning point in the
whole saga. These hints suggest just how
much narrative and thematic material Kirby
was holding in his head at the time, and how
meaningful the larger tapestry of the Fourth
World had become for him at this decisive
point in his career. This was a new and complex
undertaking for a yarn-spinner whose work
had most often been driven by the tyranny of
frequent deadlines, and whose degree of
engagement (not his work ethic, which was
tireless, but his artistic interest) would so
often vary even within a single month, waxing
and waning according to his imaginative
sympathy with the material. Here his engagement was at its fiercest, and his maintenance
of continuity (so often a trouble spot for
Kirby) most deliberate.
I also see effective scripting. Admittedly,
Kirbys pounding urgency is often hard to
takehis scripting is prone to overkilland
even here there are times when his captions
are momentarily confusing; but Himon
boasts an elegance and compression that are
rare in Kirbys scriptwriting, and the cadences
of the text are hypnotic (dig the incantatory
rhythms of pages 1 through 3, or the relentless

Adam McGovern
concentration camp inmates, or the Darwinian
strife of Kirbys own childhood in the ethnic ghettos
of early 20th-century America.
That last point is central in distinguishing this
story from much of adventure fiction. The tale is so
riveting that the reader might not at first realize how
decisively it diverges from the conventions of its
genre. It is stunning to note, for instance, how little
action the story containsor at least how little in
the forms pop-culture consumers are conditioned

here came a time when the Fourth

World cycle, Jack Kirbys symbolic war
of cosmic forces, benefited from a
much more mundane contest. A battle for
newsstand supremacy between Kirbys
then-publisher DC and the other industry
giant of those days, Marvel, led to an
increased page-count for several issues of
each series in Kirbys trilogy. This gave his
saga the space it seemed most suited for.
Himon in Mister Miracle was one of the
longest episodes of that titles run (though
it appeared in the first issue after the pagecounts came back down, presumably produced by Kirby before he saw this coming).
However, this most momentous and moving
story of his career is remarkable not for
spectacular sprawl but expressive economy.
Like The Pact in New Gods, Himon
flashed back in Kirbys modern-day mythos
to give the nightmare-fairytale background
of how the sagas apocalyptic celestial conflictwhich mirrored the real-life superpower struggle of the timecame to pass.
The enlargement of the preceding few
issues had serendipitously created the most
favorable conditions for this tour de force,
carving out pages for some establishing
chapters in the life of Young Scott Free
(though in a sure sign of Kirbys concision,
these three installments themselves totaled
10 pages). While lacking the poetry of the
full-length conclusion, their mise en scne is
thoroughly imagined, and they let Kirby
dispense with all needed exposition before
the psychodramatic main event.
That finale reads as Kirbys most
poignant and personal tale, and it can
scarcely be coincidental that it is his most
distinctly Jewish. Himon is a sympathetic
reinvention of a literary icon with infamous
anti-Semitic overtones (Fagin), and his name
is a phonetic equivalent of the Hebrew one
most ridiculed in English (Hyman, a.k.a.
Hymie), though it translates as Life. Scotts
story is clearly a Moses narrative, though
in keeping with the corrupted times it
reflects, the hero is not saved by his family,
nurtured by their enemy, and destined to
become a prophetic liberator, but is instead
sacrificed by his own kind, brutalized by his
foster society, and consumed with rebuilding
his own life as a haunted refugee. The
entire casts dog-eat-dog relations recall the
dehumanized pecking order among WWII
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to expect it. There is violence aplenty, but mostly

of the kind we turn to fiction to forget: guerrilla
war-style peasant slaughters; attempted political
executions; senseless torture; petty assassinations;
haggard fugitive flights. In an acute understanding
of the essence of terror, we are given scares by much
more than we actually witness: we dont see the
shocks administered to Auralie; we dont see Williks
club connect with Kreetin; we see few of Himons
sentences carried out to the end, and Williks fate

Adrian Day
Darkseid, Highfather and the rest of the cast have always been sincere
expressions of my feelingsreactions to all the things I knew were out
there in the night, like the scrabbling of an unseen army of claws, or
the beating of wings in nocturnal vigilance over sleepers in repose.
Jack Kirby
m a survivor, Jack once said of
himself, then thinking for a
moment quickly revised his statement. Im a master survivor! It was
a defining statement for a man who, in
the latter part of his career, saw survival
as the theme of his most serious work.
It should be no surprise then that when
Jack chose to align himself with one
of his own creations, the character he
chose was also a master survivor, or
in Jacks words, the master technician, the master of swiftness and temperatures, the ultimate escape artist.
To the best of my knowledge, Jack
never acknowledged any kinship
between himself and the central figure
of Mister Miracle #9, yet the similarities
are striking. They are so striking, in
fact, that not even a quote from Kirby
to the contrary could convince me otherwise. Himon vacillates
between a caricature and a serious portrait of Jack, both physically
and spiritually. Even within the context of the story, the references
made to Himon are equally fitting as epithets for Jack.
Our introduction to Himon has a wonderful mixture of the
farcical and the dramatic. When an attempt is made to exterminate
him in the slums of Armagetto, he appears as a formidable shadowy figure in a wall of flame. His humorous side is quickly
revealed when his escape attempt, via Mother Box, lands him
inside a wall due to faulty circuitry. Scott Free comes to his aid and
saves him from being imbedded there permanently. Their relationship in this scene is reminiscent of W.C. Fields and Freddie
Bartholomew in Cukors David Copperfield, a story that also played
no small part in the inspiration for the Mister Miracle series.
Even Himons most serious moments are tempered by the
mischievous pranks of the trickster. His escapes are underscored
with a sense of humor, when Himon resurfaces in a crowd as a
spectator to his own execution. The elimination of Wonderful
Willik by way of an exploding dinner tray, when Himon avenges
the deaths of his pupils, is something out of Looney Tunes.
Through all this, it is an image of Jack that
we see in this unlikely hero.
The meeting between Himon and
Metron, near the storys climax, reads
like some imagined exchange between
Jack and a young Roy Thomas. Metron
greets Himon as the master of theories,
an appropriate title for Kirby. Himon
calls Metron the master of elements
which Roy unquestionably was in his
heyday at Marvel, when the best of his
efforts involved a masterful weaving of
storylines previously established by Jack.
When Metron declares, the wonders I
build are born in your brain! The roads
that I travel are opened by your massive
perception!, he makes a statement to
which every writer and artist following
Jack in the field of comics is heir.

(above) Next-issue blurb

from Mister Miracle #8.
(below) The master of
theories meets the
master of elements.
(next page) Himon made
his final appearance in
the Hunger Dogs
graphic novel, to plague
Darkseid one last time
before his eventual
demise.
All characters TM & 2002 DC
Comics.

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Symbols of Duality in the Fourth World

Of all the stories within Jacks Fourth World series, Himon
is the most mature and central to the greater theme concerning
the duality of God in the consciousness of man. Himon is a
masterful allegory about making a choice of which God or power
we will attach ourselves to and the rewards and consequences
that come with either choice. These ideas, which are subtext
throughout Jacks other tales, are the focal point of the plot here.
Himon and Darkseid represent the opposite sides of that
duality. Scott Free is in the middle, finally confronted with his
moment of decision. This is the theme laid out for us since New
Gods #1 where the setting for the Fourth World conflict was
established with New Genesis and Apokolips on either side and
Earth (man) as their battleground at the center. The internal
struggle represented by this duality and the dark side of human
nature are very much at the heart of Jacks story and a key to
understanding Darkseid and what he symbolizes.
As Jack explains, Darkseid never told a lie. He never deserted
his son. When he meets this old man with his grandson in
Happyland, he says, When youre asleep and you have a nightmare,
Im the guy youre seeingthe other side of yourself. Because the
other side of yourself is insecure. Its villainous, its treacherous
and dont tell me that there may not come a time, in considering
your life against someone elses, you would betray him.
Himon, in counterpoint to Darkseid, is all that is noble within
us. He is an indomitable spirit that, to the frustration of Darkseids
minions, proves indestructible. He dares to have an imagination.
He dreams beyond Darkseid, an act that on Apokolips is
unthinkable and perilous. The freedom that he shows Scott Free
is in reality an internal one. Scotts physical escape is merely that
final act of commitment to a choice he has already made.

The Source of Inspiration

Many understand the New Gods books to be stories about
war and to be Jacks statement on the nature of war. Certainly,
those elements are there. When the series was produced, the
Vietnam War was still raging and much of the sentiment of the
times filtered through Jacks stories. His views on the futility of
war can be found throughout the New Gods. Kirby, himself a
veteran of World War II, had seen firsthand the worst in human
nature. Apokolips, without question, is the logical extension of
the Nazi Death Camp, encompassing an entire planet. Kirby was
also well aware that Scott Frees infraction of military guidelines
for aero-troopers in growing his hair long would resonate within
the culture of American youth who were in opposition to government and war. These examples notwithstanding, Jacks vision was much broader and the
evils he was attempting to uncover were more
subtle; indeed, more personal.
Kirby saw the fires that feed an Apokolips or
an Auschwitz burning in the normal situations
of everyday life. He saw destroyers like Darkseid,
seeking an equivalent of the Anti-life Equation,
operating at every level of our existence. These
were the themes and convictions closest to
Jacks heart when he embarked on his Fourth
World series. Said Jack, I felt there was a time
that a man has to tell a story in which he felt,
not anybody else, in which he felt there was
no bullsh*t. There was absolute truth.
In Himon and the like, Jack had an
opportunity to tell that truth. It is the conviction that Jack didnt pull any punches with
these tales that convinces me the inspiration

Parting Shot

Kirbys final Mister Miracle page (from #18), still in pencil form. Other than some statues, and the flashback scenes in issue #9s
Himon story, this was Darkseids only actual appearance in Mister Miracleon the last page of the final issue of the series.

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