DC's Batman of 1959 Meets Thor?! On Thunder Gods and the Gift of Jack Kirby.

7/30/2019 DC's Batman of 1959 Meets Thor?! On Thunder Gods and the Gift of Jack Kirby.

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DCs Batman of 1959 Meets Thor?!On Thunder Gods and the Gift of Jack Kirby.

Paul Hampton Crockettgrowingintothemystery.net

Lest the somewhat rambling exploration to follow lack any context whatsoever, I will

briefly explain that the love for everything aboutcomic books that in some ways definedmy childhood between the ages of 12 and (about) 14, has mysteriously burst back intoflame. The event took me completely by surprise; I had not known that a passion soheartfelt and intense could slumber for decades as if put away upon a shelf (neverforgotten, but definitely in the past tense), and then suddenly reawaken as if cued bysome distant signal, with a sirens call as irresistible and compelling as ever.

So there is a mystery surrounding the whole phenomenon, and at its heart. In coming toterms with the frequently incomprehensible events of life, I have found useful thepractice of taking a little deeper any given question, with the idea that its not theexperience thats so important, as the needs of the soul behind it.Since Ive come to afundamental working belief that we are each of us souls upon a journey, and since itseems that the events of the day tend always toward chaos as the nature of things, the

principle is universally applicable and bears a quiet power of its own, promising ofclarity. It is often less about providing neat and tidy answers than helping to maintain astate ofopenness, bracing us with a readiness to live with the great questions thatinevitably accompany any path of true growth. Meanwhile, I cannot doubt that I am

walking my path.

There is something of a grounding feeling in having stumbled so unexpectedly into thecompletion of so full a circle, yet its also quite interesting as an experience because I am

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no longer a young boy. As is said of the one who, returning, again dips fingers into arivers flowing current, you cant touch the same river twice.Not only has the boy

become a man (though I think the kids still definitely in here, somewhere!), but thehobby has changed in so many ways that at times I feel the disorientation that theawakening Rip Van Winkle must have felt upon sleepy-stumbling back into town! That

water keeps on a flowing.

Anyway, back to the point. Along the course of my journeys way, I have occasionallybought and sold on that most bizarre and wonderful of virtual international

marketplaces known as eBay. And Wow! have I had an experience! Ive met all kinds ofpeople, and cultivated relationships with trading partners the world over. There seemsnothing generally true about those who love comic art unreasonably as a group; weseem a nearly perfect cross-section of Humanity, for better and for worse, living and

working and doing our thing wherever it may be that we call home.

But even so, I have always felt blessed to be part of a unique community, in equalmeasures both wholly unlikely and brimming over with potential. It seems a very specialthing when people of all ages, the whole world over, are drawn by their own variouspersonal and private passions (of greatest variety, and yet often at the source havingsomething to do withjoy!), to seek out and take their own places, together, in a greatmosaic forever taking shape, forming, and re-forming as a kaleidoscope, in a spirit of

devotion to some shared Greater Dream. There is something about us, though for thelife of me I could not say what it might be, that helps give me Hope.

All of which is intended as brief background for the piece to follow. The core idea of theessay came about as part of a rather unorthodox (and some might justly say, ridiculous!)listing done in the process of selling my copy of the above Batman comic book.

Whenever I sell, I have made it a point to learn and share some ofthe stories behind thestories, for they are without number. And they interest me deeply. (Hey, I saidI was acomics geek!)

Yet at times there come moments of huge doubt as to whether I am wasting my time, orbeing plain foolish, because after all I am on eBay to sell comic books, not engage in

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creative writing. You know how life is these days; time is precious, calls and e-mailsneed returning, and a small mountain of other projects and deadlines seems to alwaysawait, threatening avalanche. And then theres the fact that, at least as far as I have seen,no one else on all of eBay lacks the sense to engage in such an endeavor. Yet I persist.

And no small part of the reason why, has to do with messages Ive received from others

writing from various ports of call, both older and younger, all similarly afflicted with alunatic fancy for comic art, thanking me for deepening their knowledge of that whichthey love, and offering encouragement to keep it up. (And lest you might ever be

weighing the prospect of sending anybody such encouragement for anything he or shemight be doing that makes a difference to you in the slightest, yet hesitate for whateverreason, dont. I am here to tell you: even small encouragements can make a realdifference. And theydo.)

Well, then: anybody out there ready to venture forth on a little journey? Shall we off?Good!

NO, you are nothallucinating with regard to the comic book shown above, at leastinsofar as you might see upon its 1959 cover the mighty Thor, armed and complete withlegendary hammer! And this is no extraordinary early cross-over; the Thor that wehave come to know and love would not yet exist for another couple of years.

Here is a classicBatman comic, in fact an excellent representative period piece withstalwarts Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff at the typewriter and behind the drawing

board, respectively. Yet its true historical importance, it seems to me, is in its roughlycontemporaneous featuring of Thor in comic book format (and on the cover, yet!) withMarvels.

The synchronicity raises a few interesting and ultimately unanswerable questions: Whatexactly so set this old God apart from all of his long-forgotten, dust-covered peers? Hislegend was both documented and truly ancient: his exploits had been spoken of aloud

before ancient communal fires, and passed along between numberless generations, wellbefore the practice of inscribing symbols in ink upon parchment had even first becomenew. So why was he showing up in modern American pop culture?

Thor, above, and Odin, below,Icelandic Manuscripts, ca. 1760

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As depicted in 2011 film, Thor.

And might his featured appearance here, on one of the lead titles in the closely watchedcompetition, have played even the slightest role in what was shortly to come at Marvel?

What particularly excites me about the book is not really the book itself. Its more whatit tells us about myths that will not die, the creation of comic books, and most of all,about the artist named Jack Kirby.

Jack Kirby(28 Aug. 1917 6 Feb. 1994)

It provides a most unlikely and certainly rare window of clarity upon the real scope of themans creative contribution to Marvel, generally, and the extreme power of that greatgolden gift. As some of you may be aware, clear answers to questions about exactly howthe creative partnership between Stan Lee and Jack Kirbymight have actually workedare nearly impossible to find.

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With one-time simple comic book characters having evolved over time (somehow!) intopowerhousefranchises, Disney having acquired ownership of the Marvel dream in itsentirety in exchange for stock and cash worth over four billion dollars, and litigationhaving been undertaken by the Kirby family on behalf of his Estate throwing intolegitimate question true ownership of the heart of the corporate assets Disney had

bought and paid for, any matters that might have once had simple answers have now

become anything but. The entire painful subject has devolved into the legal equivalent ofa nude mud-wrestling match, except for sloppier and without all the dignity.

And a most unfortunate dynamic has arisen, in which any positive recognition oracknowledgment about the contributions of one, is seen as necessarily diminishing theother. As if it were a competition of sorts, or from the entire body of their work togetherthere exists only enough goodness and glory enough to award one full share.

In happier times. Stan and Jack out for drinks, sharing a light moment, 1965.

Credit:Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

The issue remains sensitive because it is becoming ever more clear, even as the historyon the dynamic period only begins to cool and harden, that the credits traditionallyassigned by Lee in so jaunty and playful a manner Stan Lee, Writer, and Jack Kirby,

Artist paint an actively misleading picture ofwhat was actually happening, and doKirby a grave injustice.And they always have.

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Quote From Interview by Alex Pappademas,On the (surprisingly complicated) legacy of Stan Lee

Stan Lee always completed the finished dialogue in their joint projects, it is true. Thatwas one of hisfortes. But even completely setting aside for the moment Kirbys crediblecontentions that he played a much larger role than has everbeen acknowledged in firstcreating and conceptualizing nearly all of the characters that would so quickly come tomean Marvel, and do still to this day, lets focus on that which is agreed upon as fact.

What we know is that Jack Kirby, on every single story that he and Lee ever didtogether, took a root idea, most often reached through active creative collaboration

between the pair, and drew out the story completely on his own. He alone made all thedecisions as to how a saga might best fit into an allotted number of pages, and proceededto get busy drawing. In the course of that process, he unilaterally decided what eachcharacter hero and villain alike would look like, and wear, and (importantly) howtheyd move, singly and in relationship (Ker-POW or otherwise!) to one another.

With a true masters touch, he made all the critical decisions as to the pacing of a story,its dramatic presentation, and all the rest. And so it was that Kirby page upon pageafterpage told the stories that we so loved, and do still to this day.

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Once the artwork had been completed for each book, each of those beautifully penciledpages were then sent back to Lee (along with the artists notations, thoughts, andobservations in the sidelines about dialogue, plot twists, etc. Or, in short, any ideas thatmight be relevant to the storys final form, thus bearing on dialogue.) Thats simply the

way it was done, and I do not believe there to be controversy or disagreement upon the

point. And considering the nature of the comic book medium, as (essentially) a marriageof words and pictures for the purpose of telling stories on paper, that is all I need knowto conclude beyond doubt that Kirby was given the short end of the stick.

The bottom line is that, of the two, it is Kirby that was fully fluent in the two occasionallyintersecting but very different languages we might label in shorthand as story and art.Though certainly not as verbal as Lee (then again, who is?), nor quite as highly skilledin the art of putting words into the mouths of the characters to bring them so fully tolife, neither was Kirby to be mistaken for a slouch in that arena, or as anything less thanthoroughly competent. He just wasnt, Thank God, Stan Lee. And yet I am grateful for

Stan Lee, as well.

They were a team, damn it. No matter what the nature of the personal biases broughtalong as we begin engaging in an outsiders analysis of aMarvel Age of Comics nownearly fifty years passed to try and figure out what might have made it tick, I feel itimportant to acknowledge, and even celebrate, the extraordinary gifts that each of thesetwo men brought to the table from the very beginning. So if Stan Lee said of Jack Kirby

with specific reference to the Fantastic Four, as he once did, that [Kirby] was prettymuch able to keep the book up and running by himself, that need not necessarily beheard as diminishing Lees importance. Because the pair had built up the FabulousFoursome very much together, from the ground up. It also seems that whenever onemight have the rare good fortune of having a creative force of Kirbys caliber on the job,

wisdom calls for staying the Hellout of his way!

Jack Kirby was very much at home not onlyupon the page, but in all that helped informand give it structure: he was fully fluent in the realms of storytelling, characterization,and plot development. And not just from page to page, singly, but with each seen fromthe perspective of its place in a complete story, in relation with, and reference to, everyother. And then, all of that in relation (as well) to the issue that was to follow, beginning

with the next months cover. A little more like a chess match than a free and unrestrainedexercise in creative artistry, but more textured and challenging,

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And it was unquestionably he and notLee, just for a couple of examples, that single-handedly conceptualized and created some of the most memorable characters giving theseries such vivid drama and color. He gave birth to the Silver Surfer, as well as that

breakaway group of unlikely characters generally known as The Inhumans. With thatcredit undeniably under his belt as a matter of historical fact, how do you imagine that

Kirby might have felt to see the credits as set forth below forever superimposed upon hisartwork?

Lee, on the other hand, could not draw a stick figure, on a good day. Perhaps that is whyhe tended to so consistently minimalize the contribution of his artists, generally.No, upon further thought about the above, I think it might more fairly be said of Lee thathe at least seemedpro-artist, in many respects. But never at his own perceived expense.Otherwise put: singing the artists praises, forever bestowing endearing monikers uponeach as part of a bullpen that (sadly) did not actually exist, and thus building brandloyalty in his huge fan base toward his finest, could all be seen as the marketing genius at

work, tooting (indirectly) his own horn.

But Jack Kirby, through absolutely no fault of his own, was different from all of the rest.He was the only artist at Marvel that posed a genuine threat to the story Stan Lee had

begun telling the world about what had happened, and his primary role in the process.Not only had Kirby actuallybeen there from (since before) Day One, but Lee knew thatall the right people would have been inclined to listen to, and believe Kirby whenever hespoke a more complete truth. His lifetime body of work spoke for itself, unimpeachably,and the unrivaled esteem in which he was held by nearly all of his peers (as it would beforevermore, for all those to follow) lent him a credibility, and his word a gravitas, thatLee might for good reason have found threatening.

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Though the signs were all around Kirby for him to see, and only becoming clearer, it was

just not his nature to see them until it was much too late. To use a somewhatsensationalistic but sadly apt analogy, Kirby was like the Indians in his dealings

with Marvel Management, and the latter, the White Man. He was doomed. The lessonsthat would be his to learn about the darker capacity of Man, there in the offices of

Marvel, would strip him of his innocence and finally undo him.__________________________

Yet if Stan Lee indeed made presumptuous claims at Kirbys great expense, perhaps weought ask ourselves why we all so quickly fell for it, and continue to, even now. In allfairness to Stan Lee, it might well behoove us all to stop, take a breath, and ponderexactly why it might be that we are so quick to read Writer/ Artistas True Creator/

Hired Illustrator, even before he has opened his mouth. And the answer is quite simple.

Much of the problem is that the rare kind of actual teamwork and/or joint and dynamiccreativity put to specific use by Kirby and Lee in the process of their storytelling is offour radar screen altogether. We have no place for it within our frame of reference.

Quite on the other hand, however, we haveplenty of experience with the notion that, forthe most part,artists are hired by authors(or their publishing houses) to help illuminateand make more appealing to readers the written story. There is just no question aboutthe reason for the season, or who is intended to shine. Lets first illustrate the rule witha notable exception. Many of us might at least recognize the name of this man:

John Tenniel

and that would be because he was so very extraordinary an illustrator, and because (as ithappened) it was he that was tapped to draw the pictures for one of the most perpetually

beloved storybooks, ever: Lewis CarrollsAlice in Wonderland.

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Many more of us might know of the man below, if not by his actual name of CharlesLutwidge Dodgson:

Lewis Carroll

And quite a few of us are likely to know of this author, or more likely, the boy seated onhis lap (or, more likely still, the namesake stuffed bear by his side):

A.A. and Christopher Robin Milne, with Friend Winnie the Pooh

Yet what of the man who brought the bear and his friends so unforgettably and joyfullyto life, with his pen on paper?

His name was E.H. Sheppard, and he was once a young artist with plans and ambitionsof his own. Though finally knighted by the Queen and well beloved by millions, he had

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privately come to the bittersweet realization that when one has been tapped to breathelife into a character like Pooh, that will be his artistic legacy. The people simply wouldnot have it be otherwise. So perhaps we reallyshouldremember his name, after all.It seems only fair.Shepard.E. H. Shepard.

Ernest Howard (E.H.) Shepard, OBE, MC (10 Dec. 1879- 24 Mar. 1976)

One more for the road: we have loved the Narnian Chronicles by C.S. Lewis, including

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and thenumerous others. If you are among the many millions whove had the good fortune toturn those pages, you might have indelibly etched upon your memory some of theseimages:

They are by Pauline Baynes, an English illustrator who over the course of a long andincredible lifetime career contributed not only to the works of C.S. Lewis, but also J.R.R.Tolkien and many others. Tolkien, who became a longtime friend, was utterly delighted

by her work on their first project together, his bookFarmer Giles of Ham. Heobservedthat her drawings are more than illustrations, they are a collateral theme. He alsoapparently took the greatest pleasure in reporting that friends had told him that herpictures had succeeded in reducing [his] text to a commentary on the drawings. She also

wrote and illustrated books of her own.

Beyond those mentioned above, the multitude of projects she tackled over the yearsincluded one of Mary Nortons immensely popular The Borrowers series (The

Borrowers Avenged), theKoran and the Book of Job, and some quite-elaborateimagined texts of the Middle Ages (embellished extravagantly in the Medieval style afterprodigious research, but more playful). The evening she passed peacefully away at home,

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she had strewn all about her neat studio a number of lush, colorful illustrations forAesops Fables. Though the ink had recently dried upon them even when found, thelegends that they so brilliantly depict will survive as long as Humankind, and each timetold anew take shape and form in colors that are alwaysfresh.

Finally, as she had requested, the ashes of her remains were scattered amongst theshades of living green making up the English garden just outside her studio window,created for her several years before by the loving hands of her late husband.

Pauline Diana Baynes (9 Sept. 1922 1 Aug. 2008)

_______________________________One can only hope to be forgiven for so very wide and shameless a digression, but Ihave ventured there purposefully in the hope of shedding some light on why we mighthave been, and remain even still, so ready to accept as unvarnished truth Stan Leesterritorial claims ofauthorship. His position has never needed any real hard sell; weare all quite prepared by our experience to fill in all of the blanks with what we (think

we) know of the relationship between authors with stories, and their illustrators.

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What is the sense in raising such a ruckus,we might have thought on a level likely justbeneath our conscious awareness, when we all know perfectly well that Jack Kirby hadonly been the illustrator? It said as much, right there on each page of credits in thecomic books!What?,we have silently exclaimed, an illustrator claimingpart ownership of a

someone elses story? It was downright unseemly.It just wasnt done.

But then again, there has ever, in all of time, been onlyone Jack Kirby. Lets return ourattention to him, and to the longing for simple recognition that after so many years ofdiligently helping make Marvel happen must have at last burst into flame and begunraging inside of him. More than anything else, he yearned simply for fundamentalfairness. He wanted to see the right thing happen in real life, for once, and not just uponanother Goddamn fanciful page in a comic book yarn. He wanted, needed, onlycreditfor that which he had unquestionably co-created. The notion that he was to be assigneda place of importance in history only as a footnote to the glowingly triumphantaccomplishments of Stan Lee, burned in his craw and violated much of that he believedand knew in his heartof fairness, justice, and right.

And whatever we might think, feel, or say of that complex man and legend known as StanLee, and no matter the spin that might be put on the immutable fact and shamefuldisgrace that Kirbylay on his deathbed essentially unacknowledged, it will always betrue that with respect to this matter, Stan Lee is not innocent.

It is easy to imagine how smothering it must have felt, for one of Kirbys extreme talent,practical makeup and somewhat gentle disposition, to feel his hard-earned professionalreputation evaporating, or running like sand from between even tightly-clenchedfingers. The man himself must have felt lost, somewhere within the considerable gloomof Smilin Stans huge and seemingly boundless shadow. Lee, after all, lost noopportunity to leap directly in front of the nearest spotlights, where- and whenever, andthe brighter the better, to put on his Im just a regular fella,[but]Just look at what Idid!soft-shoe routine.

And with Kirbys passing on Feb, 6, 1994, aged 76, his voice would be forever silenced,leaving in the hands of Stan Lee alone whatever story would forevermore be told aboutthe making of Marvel, and the creation of recorded modern history. And at that point,the venerated comic book creator emeritus, who after all was eminently experienced in

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both storytelling and the creation of Legends, had really onlybegun to refine his spinupon the tale.

And he appeared to find this one particularly engaging.________________________________

In a sense, Kirby wanted only one word. Thats it. Asingle and solitary word, perhaps,but nevertheless one of huge importance in his chosen field of endeavor. If you have readthe comic books and seen the credits, you may have observed that in allof the Marvelcredits, his name is followed byartist.And that was certainly true, but also painfullyincomplete. He wantedthe title artist/writeras a matter of fairness and accuracy,professional and personal dignity, and pay scale. And he wanted it badly. He was not thekind that is forever making additional demand, or asking for more. So when he did onoccasion make request, those that knew him must have taken note accordingly.

They apparently indeed took note. They just never listened.

It must be borne in mind that, in the comic book publishing world of the day, artistswere generally given precious little respect, viewed and treated essentially as the hiredhelp somewhat regrettably necessary to fulfill the creative impulses of the higher casteof writer/editor. They both subservient in position to the higher caste, and almostalways seen as quite replaceable.Because Jack Kirby had a family to provide for, and because hed put in the time and

given his all, undertaking faithfully the extraordinary task of helping to build the Dream,from the ground up, and perhaps most of all just because it was actually so, he wantedthe recognition. Sometimes a word is so much more than just that, rarely more so than

when the bestowing of a single one translates into justice and fairness, and itswithholding the precise opposite.

Demands were made by Kirby to that effect, of partner Stan Lee and his cousin-in-law, publisher and manipulatorpar excellence Martin Goodman. Promises were made

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and broken, time and again. All assistance was promptly rendered, short of actual help.Excuses were given freely. Later, just as soon as,and Soon!Awww, come on,

Jack. You know we love ya, baby!And so forth.

But the day would never come. Kirby never stopped trusting, or believing. It seemed thathe couldnt; it was like a life force running through the very core of him. In the end, it

broke his heart. Yet all the same, he had been the one whod boughtthe Brooklyn Bridge,and not one of those that sold it.

There is just no credible way, with regard to the particular phenomenon of Thor, thatStan Lee can say, I did this.(Even though he does, repeatedly, and always has.) Do youknow why? Just take a look at the Thor of the Batman comic back up at the top, andthere is your answer. Bear in mind that, as of the date published, DC Comics had no realcompetition, and with its pool of remarkable talent, reputation, and sales records wasunquestionably held up and viewed as the gold standard of the day, the singular bluechip publisher of comic books that mattered. And yet for all of that: this was the bestthey had been able to come up with. And in all fairness, it is no small or easy task tosuccessfully breathe new life into so ancient a legend, making the story relevant to andembraceable by a modern readership.

Whatever it might have been that DC had, they lacked completely one Jack Kirby. Andhow might a creator of such relentless and dynamic creativity be even imagined, until he

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shows up at last to fill a huge void that has always been, and therefore cannot be seen?

That, in my view, is the power of the book: it pinpoints for us exactly where we wouldhave been left at the relevant point in history, without the singular contributions of JackKirby. No imagination required.

But for a man named Kirby,the vision of Thor as captured by DC (or something quitelikely dreadfully similar) would have remained the state of the Thunder Godin Americanpopular culture in 1962, and quite probably forever thereafter. And who would havereally cared? Or even given the entire unlikely matter a thought?

Once in a more innocent time, back in 1968, long before the cold frosts had first set in sobiting and sharp and the litigation papers finally been served, Stan Lee had been askedby young fans about his creative partnership with Kirby in the course of an interviewdone for publication in their FanzineExcelsior!

Was it you or Jack that conceived of the F.F.?, they inquired. Both, replied Lee. It

was mainly my idea, but Jack created characters visually.

Since unlike Hulk, Spider-man, and all the others, Marvel had not been the first to tellThors story, and the basics of the myth were long in place, this one is really all aboutJacks great gift ofcreating visually, and on an epic scale. Without Kirby wed have noThor approaching the quality of the one we know. Theres just no way. Had the Universe

been somehow tragically short one Jack Kirby, wed have nothing to be talking about.

NoKirby, no Thor. Not such that anyone would really give a damn. All of which isexactly the point driven home by this oldBatman comic, and its claim to meaning in the

present tense.

________________________________________

In taking a very brief look at the striking similarities at the heart of these two comic bookstories of Thor, one important and obvious difference must first be noted. The earlierdepiction, if a bit cartoony, is nevertheless more accurate in the truth-to-historicallegendsense than he to follow. The Thunder God of legend was stout, heavily bearded,and notably redheaded. And indeed, at the beginning Kirby and Lee had taken some grief

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from purists expressing righteous indignation at the liberties theyd taken in re-envisioning an ancient God, for Petes sake!Thor, they were sternly advised, is certainly NOT blond, long-haired, andpretty.Kirby (Im sure) carefully pretended to listen, fully empathized, and kept right onfollowing his vision! His reasoning? As he and Stan were heard to say in interviews,

Today, blondes have more fun! He also said in another interview, more seriously, Amythology that is not relevant to its times, that fails to really speak to the people, i s noreal mythology.

Mythologymatteredto Jack Kirby. Urgently. He felt that everyday people suffer everyday for lack of good and worthy and sufficient ones. And he could not standto see peoplesuffer. The mans heart washuge.

The DC and Marvel stories also both humanize the Norse God and Prince of Asgard bybestowing upon him a secret identity, the single most significant modification/ characterdevelopment along the path from GodtoSuperhero, and certainly that most essential forcomic book purposes. Consider the center panel below fromBatman #127, flanked by acouple of classic Kirby images. Note the archetypal similarity in the nerd, or gimp

factor between the meek museum curator here transformed into the mighty, barrelingThunder God, and the crippled Dr. Don Blake, accompanied by his suitably raggedy

walking stick, on either side.

As a keen and life-long student of mythology, Kirby understood that true nobility almostalways masks itself, and that anything or anyone proclaiming its own nobility, in truthnever really is.

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The stories also share as a central focus the perpetual lure of Thors mighty hammer.Consider Batmans typically cornball observation made in closing, below. Hmmm,hiseditors might have thought, interesting enough even to hold together a comic book?Naaah. Remember: at that point they didnt have Jack Kirby on their team.

.

Despite all the confusion surrounding the creative relationship between the larger-than-life pair, there can be absolutely no question but that it was Kirby alone who

brought new life, visually speaking, to this particular ancient vision on paper. Only hehandled the art, ever, and only he could! And so it was that a legend slumbering only asmere epic idea, throughout the long centuries and in and out of millenia, was now at lastready to become something much, much more.

A legendlives! Splash page of first Thorstory, by Kirby. Right, modern Marvel variant cover.

And, to the extent movies are be assessed visually, every film that will ever be madeabout Marvels Thor will be heavily indebted for its very being to its well-spring source of

Kirbys imagination, and to his outrageous insistence upon quality, with no shortcutspermitted.

The very firstcostume in which Kirby first envisioned Thor is essentially identical to thathe is still seen wearing, on the printed page and in the movies. And yet the credits willprobably always say, Writer: Stan Lee.

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Chris Hemsworth as Thor, in the eponymous film of 2011. Director: Kenneth Branagh___________________________________________

SO, just for the moment, lets celebrate Jack the King Kirbys immense contributions,

and his unwavering commitment to Grand ideals, and the size of one legendary heart.And, if only in a spirit of respect to his memory, let it never be said that one personcannot make a real difference, or bring forth a vision that will touch and enrich anentire world, outlasting easily lifetimes.

A younger Jack Kirby, Bright Star in the Comic Book Creator Heavens.

At the time this Kirby fellow undertook this particular commission, he had been in thebusiness about as long as any. Few indeed could match either the sheer quantity of workhe had produced over the course of decades, in any number of genres and for severaldifferent publishers, or anywhere near its consistent quality.In terms of lifetimeachievement, the man stood alone.

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Kirby and partner Joe Simon at work, undated

At a very early age, he had helped partner Joe Simon bring into being one of the mostexplosive and phenomenally successful comic book characters of the Golden Age, orever, Captain America! His hands had been the first to bring that star-spangled dynamoto life. In March of 1941, scarcely three months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor,

here he was, all dressed-up and ready for action, even giving the top dog Nazi himself thewhat for,American style!

Thereafter, outside of a stint of military service in WW II (in which he saw combat withthe Nazi field forces, on the front lines), he never left the comic book field.

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Letterhead Stationery, Simon & Kirby Studios, Late 1940s. From SterankosHistory of the

Comics, Vol. 1

It was a hard time to be a comic book creator, but he just kept on keeping on. He actedexactly as if his work in the funny books actuallymattered, even during the long, cold

years when no one else thought that it did. As he lived out the days of his life, tended tohis business, undertaking to do his work dignity followed always closely behind,stubbornly refusing to ever desert. He knew what he knew, and until the day he took hisGreat Leap into the hereafter, kept on building up a legacy.

______________________________

At long last and in closing, I thought you might enjoy hearing directly from the onlyknown personal eyewitness to the actual creation of the Mighty Thor of Marvel Comicfame. So, here is Jacks son, Neal:

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I WONDER if Michelangelo had a kid watching him paint? Wasthere a little Luigi watching the ceiling from a quiet corner of theSistine Chapel? Extreme example, maybe, but the emotionwould have been the same that I experienced watching myfather at the drawing board. I had to stand on his left, lookingover his shoulder. Starting with a clean piece of Bristol board, he

would first draw his panel lines with an old wood and plastic T-square. Then the page would start to come alive. He told methat once he had the story framed in his mind, he would startdrawing at the middle, then go back to the beginning, and thenfinish it up. Everything seemed to come naturally; he didnt evenneed a compass to draw a perfect circle. He worked fast butsmooth, too, no wasted movement or hesitation.

Watching him work gave us a chance to talk about science andhistory, subjects we both loved, but it also gave me a chance tosee history being made. In the spring of 1962, for instance, Iremember standing over the drawing board as Dad created a

truly cosmic hero it was a brand new character but I wasconfused when I heard his name. Thor? The story was TheStone Men from Saturn. My first reaction, before opening mymouth, was Why the hell is a Norse god fighting rock-pilealiens? Dad explained the whole origin story to me and how hewould work in the entire pantheon of Norse deities in the future.Having either read or at least browsed through every book in hislibrary, I thought I was pretty smart when I scoffed and askedhim how Thor could even hold his head up with two big, ironwings attached to his helmet. Dont forget, Dad said, noddingtoward his creation, Superhero.

Growing up Kirby: The Marvel memories of Jack Kirbys son

And it is here that this particular flight of fancy, having wound down at last, finally oncereaches its end and gently touches ground.

Thank you for coming along on the journey.
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/comics/growing-up-kirby-the-marvel-memories-of-jack-kirbys-son/#/0http://herocomplex.latimes.com/comics/growing-up-kirby-the-marvel-memories-of-jack-kirbys-son/#/0

DC's Batman of 1959 Meets Thor?! On Thunder Gods and the Gift of Jack Kirby.

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Transcript of DC's Batman of 1959 Meets Thor?! On Thunder Gods and the Gift of Jack Kirby.