Tag: Jack Kirby

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Brainiac On Banjo: Thumbs In Your Hot Dog

Brainiac On Banjo: Thumbs In Your Hot Dog

Posted on by Mike Gold

“Would you have mansions of gold in the sky… and live in a shack, way in the back? Would you have wings up in heaven to fly… and starve here with rags on your back?” From There is Power in a Union, written by Joe Hill.

“We are the workers that make Dark Horse a home to the unique comics, creators, and creative principles known around the world.” From the statement issued last week by the Dark Horse Workers United (DHWU).

Forty years ago comics store owner Mike Richardson decided to take some of the loot that passed through his cash registers and start up a comic book company (Dark Horse Comics). It was the thing to do in the Eighties, but Richardson became the guy who actually pulled it off.

By 1986, most of the so-called independent publishers were coughing up blood and the distribution system looked like it was designed by M.C. Escher after he took LSD. They say timing is everything, but there might not have been a worse time to enter the racket since the paper shortages of World War II.

But Mike did it right, and of the American publishers alive at that time Mike was the only new guy to make it. He did so at a time when Marvel Comics and, particularly, DC Comics were booming. They controlled about three-quarters of the market at the time. Archie Comics was still on the stands, but that was the year Charlton went blooie. Harvey Comics was still around, kind of, flickering in and out of business while changing hands a couple times. They finally gave up the ghosts in 2003. Fun fact: what’s left of Harvey is now owned by NBC/Universal.

Screenshot

So much for ancient history. Richardson slowly expanded the company into film and television production, bringing Dark Horse published properties such as Hellboy and The Mask to screens large and small — as well as a really solid documentary about Don Rickles. Don briefly was also a comic book character.

In March of 2022, Mike decided he had enough of tending to the tubes and wires of industry and he sold the operation to video game holding company Embracer Group, retaining (as is common) his positions as publisher and CEO. He was fired four years later — for the math-challenged, that’s nearly three months ago. Jay Komas became the interim CEO. I believe Mike was the longest-serving publisher in American comics history.

So it goes. As Jack Kirby said, “Comics will break your heart.” Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: Thumbs In Your Hot Dog” →

Brainiac On Banjo: Damn! The Source IS With Us!

Brainiac On Banjo: Damn! The Source IS With Us!

Posted on by Mike Gold

 

artwork: Tom Raney & Marco Santucci

“I like to do just like the rest; you know, I like my sugar sweet. But jumping queues and making haste, you know, it ain’t my cup of meat. Everybody’s out there feeding pigeons on a limb, but when Quinn the Eskimo gets here the pigeons gonna run to him.” From The Mighty Quinn, written by Bob Dylan.

Artwork: Jim Starlin

Three days before Christmas 1970, Jack Kirby introduced the Source to a bevy of anxiously awaiting fans in The New Gods #1, a gaggle of fans that, at the time, included me. The Source was the “wall” surrounding the Promethean Galaxy where the gods of the DC Universe both old and new power up their cosmic gifts. The Promethean Galaxy is guarded by the Source Wall which traps all those who attempt to get through it by turning them into stone and trapping them in the Source to be seen as a warning to those who might wish to escape our intergalactic confines.

And, really, who doesn’t?

Like just about everything worthy in the DC Comics universe, the Source has played a continuing and important role in their stories over the subsequent fifty-five years… and impacted (Fun Fact: that’s not really a verb) plenty of DC stories, even those few without the words “crisis” and/or “absolute” in the title. When Tom Raney and Marco Santucci needed a corporeal visualization for the Source they chose the visage of Jack Kirby, which was both fitting and appropriate for their story.

The New Gods started six years before George Lucas told us about the Force and explained how said Force always was with us. Lucas was, and remains, a fan of comics and comics art and, shortly after the time of New Gods, had been co-owner of a comic book art gallery in Manhattan’s upper east side.

The comics art form long has been seen as a predictive force in storytelling. For example, Buck Rogers’ interstellar gizmos influenced generations of NASA scientists, and Milton Caniff predicted both the atom bomb in Terry and the Pirates and, later, the kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst in his Steve Canyon strip. Of course, Flash Gordon predicted the election of our current president way back in 1934. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: Damn! The Source IS With Us!” →

Brainiac On Banjo: The King’s Heritage

Brainiac On Banjo: The King’s Heritage

Posted on by Mike Gold

“Sue Storm commands the light, Johnny’s flames burn blazing bright, Ben is rockin’ the world with might, and Reed bends science left and right!” — From The Fantastic Four First Steps, written by Michael Giacchino.

Like most Ashkenazi-Americans, some if not all of my forefathers lived in New York City’s Lower East Side when they got off the boat from Europe. Specifically, their city of embarkment was Liverpool, but that was during a different sort of British Invasion.

Back in the late 19th Century, the Lower East Side was a land of tenements and slums. The immigrant groups of the time — Jews, Italians, Asians, Croatians — lived in dangerously overcrowded conditions with, maybe, one toilet per floor to serve a dozen families squeezed into ramshackle subdivided apartments too small for Clark Kent to change costumes. Kids poured out onto the streets to play among the rats, the garbage and the horse manure and, later, to run errands for mobsters only a bit older than themselves.

It wasn’t that the rents were cheap. I mean, they were compared to those in the rest of Manhattan, but they were higher than most slum dwellers could afford for any length of time. However, they stayed in the neighborhood where they could speak in their native tongues, maintain some of their cultural heritage, and, in the case of the children, annoy their parents.

This is where Jack Kirby grew up. Even a casual glance at Lower East Side history would reveal how that neighborhood formed Jack’s worldview, his need to tell stories that start out on his Dead End streets but wind up in overwhelming dimensions of unimaginable fantasy. Jack Kirby, with the power of his imagination, his heritage, and his ability to squeeze a ton of energy into a shoebox, conquered those limitations while showing us we have the wherewithal to overcome those very limitations imposed by society and circumstance. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: The King’s Heritage” →

With Further Ado #339: Sky Masters: Take #2

With Further Ado #339: Sky Masters: Take #2

Posted on by Ed Catto

The Jack Kirby Museum, in association with crowdfunding platform ZOOP, just released a new edition of Jack Kirby’s Sky Masters Sunday comic strips. It’s glorious.

To help celebrated this publishing triumph, here’s an interview I conducted with Ferran Delgado about this initiative back in 2017.

More Kirby at 100: Sky Masters
Originally published November 6, 2017

Today it’s easy to understand fans and creatives admire and envy the career of a guy like Robert Kirkman, who published his comic, The Walking Dead and then achieved great success as it became a top TV show. Or fans might think about how Thor was a 60s Marvel comic, and now it just dominated the box office this weekend. [This was 2017, remember.]

But for a prior generation, Charles Schultz, Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond and Hal Foster were the success stories. Their efforts on Peanuts, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon, Flash Gordon, Rip Kirby, Tarzan, and Prince Valiant were all in newspaper comic strips, not comic books. It wasn’t that long ago that a comic book artist would have yearned for a successful newspaper comic strip.

Jack Kirby, one of the greatest comic artists, was born 100 years ago this year, and geek culture has reflected extensively on his comics career. A relentless entrepreneur with an indefatigable work ethic, Kirby was always trying new things. As you’d expect, he tried the newspaper comic route too.

Kirby’s Sky Masters was his foray into the world comic strips. It’s a gorgeous looking strip with a crazy backstory. And another legendary artist, Wallace Wood, is part of the tale too. Amigo Comics is bringing it back to the world for us all to enjoy. I caught up with Ferran Delgado to learn more.

Ed Catto: Sky Masters is one of those legendary series that fans have read, and read about, from time to time. Can you remind us all of just what Sky Masters was? Continue reading “With Further Ado #339: Sky Masters: Take #2” →

With Further Ado #318: The Mythmakers – The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix

With Further Ado #318: The Mythmakers – The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix

Posted on by Ed Catto

Item #1 :
I was surprised to find myself reading a Vanity Fair article with Jennifer Lopez discussing her life after a few professional misfires and her break-up with Ben Affleck. That’s not really my thing, and I don’t really know much about either celebrity.

It’s called “Jennifer Lopez Says ‘My Whole Fucking World Exploded’ with Ben Affleck Split”, and it’s from a conversation in Interview with Nikki Glaser although the article is by Kase Wickman.

Item #2 :
The ongoing battle between passionate fans of Stan Lee and passionate fans of Jack Kirby just cranked up a notch with the publication of both  Origins of Marvel Comics Deluxe Edition by Stan Lee, a project shepherded by my friend Chris Ryall. and the Stan Lee Lied: Your Guide to Every Lie in ‘The Origins of Marvels Comics’ by Chad Gower.

Who was the real hero of Marvel Comics? Lee or Kirby? Who was the villain? Why did they do what they did?

WHY are we all so curious about who did what? Why are we adamant about giving credit to folks who deserve it and scorn those who mislead it? And why, with creatiive partnerships, do we want to know so much about how they worked? Are we all just truth seekers? Or are we just gossips? Continue reading “With Further Ado #318: The Mythmakers – The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix” →

Brainiac On Banjo: To Ramona

Brainiac On Banjo: To Ramona

Posted on by Mike Gold

I’ve heard you say many times that you’re better than no one and no one is better than you. If you really believe that you know you have nothing to win and nothing to lose, from fixtures and forces and friends your sorrow does stem that hype you and type you, making you feel that you gotta be just like them. “To Ramona,” written by Bob Dylan

Back in the post-WWII days when 10 cent comics cost a mere 10 cents, there were but a handful of ongoing superheroes, all of them were published by DC Comics, and each had a very distinctive look. Not the razor-sharp nearly photogenic linework of artists like Curt Swan and Carmine Infantino, but highly stylized and not quite real-world: Wayne Boring’s Superman, Dick Sprang’s Batman and Robin, Russ Andru’s Wonder Woman, George Papp (and, briefly, Jack Kirby’s) Green Arrow, and Ramona Fradon’s Aquaman. They maintained and advanced the standard for comics’ most enduring characters.

Of course, this was seven decades ago. Time seems to move on and, now, the last of these famous artists has left the building. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: To Ramona” →

Brainiac On Banjo: Five Comics Tropes I Want Back!

Brainiac On Banjo: Five Comics Tropes I Want Back!

Posted on by Mike Gold

Get out your white suit, your tap shoes and tails, let’s go backwards when forward fail, and movie stars you thought were alone then now are framed beside your bed — “Everything Old Is New Again,” written by Peter Allen and Carole Bayer Sager

Every commercial storytelling medium that achieves any sort of longevity finds itself inventing recurring themes and concepts, often inadvertently. The kids today call them “tropes” but I’m old enough to remember when they were simply called “do that again so we can pay our bills.”

This is not to suggest comics have abandoned the trope motif. Nothing could be further from the truth — except Donald Trump. If we stopped using all the contemporary comics tropes we’d have nothing but panel borders and staples. But I miss the occasional use of a number of little used or ignored formats and concepts. I’m going to list a mere five; I’d do more if I had a functional attention-span and this wasn’t a holiday weekend.

5. Backgrounds

There was a time when most comics stories had backgrounds, unless they were inked by Vinnie Colletta. You know, stuff going on or simply being there to establish environment or allow for some foreshadowing. Some artists would drop “eyeball kicks” into their backgrounds to lighten the mood. Let us not forget that minimizing or not drawing backgrounds is a great way to pick up deadline time.

Now we have computers that deploy palettes that contain three million more colors than the naked eye can distinguish. We can go apeshit with our computers and the color artists have a lot more range and so it is intuited that the need for filling space with backgrounds isn’t necessary. Well, not to this guy. Let’s cut back on the cutting back on backgrounds. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: Five Comics Tropes I Want Back!” →

Brainiac On Banjo: A.I. Swiping Honored By Government!

Brainiac On Banjo: A.I. Swiping Honored By Government!

Posted on by Mike Gold

I’m a substitute for another guy. I look pretty tall but my heels are high. The simple things you see are all complicated. I look pretty young, but I’m just back-dated. — Pete Townshend, “Substitute”

I’ve just done a couple of conventions over the past several weeks — C2E2 in Chicago and the always-fantastic Ithacon in – surprise! – Ithaca, New York. As always, I enjoyed pressing the flesh (in a neighborly way), signing a shitload of comics, including the ones I forgot I worked on, and talking with a lot of friends old and new. Even though my life has been one massive comic book convention that has lasted 54 years and counting, it’s a collegial environment chock full of swell folks.

Whereas I did not conduct a formal survey, it is safe to say the major topic of general conversation was “Artificial Intelligence.” No, not the type commonly used by our politicians in the southern states, nor the type often used in the corporate suites of many publishers. I’m referring to the computer devices that create imitations of the works of artists and writers all over this rapidly-boiling planet of ours. I suspect if some binary-workers created software that provided abortion care, our governments would be all over that as well, but ramming some people’s religious “values” such as matricide down the throats of those with differing religious values is a well-known diversion for our nation’s judicial systems. But, I think I digress… therefore I am. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: A.I. Swiping Honored By Government!” →

With Further Ado #238: Red, White, and Nostalgic

With Further Ado #238: Red, White, and Nostalgic

Posted on by Ed Catto

When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel Comics in the mid-70s, it was a big deal. Marvel Comics told me, and my friends, it was a big deal, and our local comic shop owner, Kim Draheim, told us too.

And it’s almost pop-culture heresy to write this, but at that time – we just didn’t get Kirby.

• Black Panther, with the Golden Frog and all that, was a nutty book and nothing like the Don McGregor Panther series we had so thoroughly enjoyed.

• The Eternals was kind of fun, but it seemed so set apart from the rest of the Marvel Universe. And when one hero finally showed up, the Hulk, it was a just robot. What a rip-off!

• Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy kind of turned into a punchline in our comic shop too.

• Most disappointing was Captain America. For years were riding along with Steve Englehart, exploring big ideas about patriotism and forgotten corners of the Marvel Universe. Sal Buscema’s Sharon Carter was the very best super-hero girlfriend at that time, and we grew to love her too. And the Nomad saga, despite swapping artists at the end, was the first (and still the best) of many super-hero identity fake outs.

At first, when Kirby burst back onto the Marvel scene, especially with the Madbomb issues in Captain America, we were intrigued. It made sense that Jack Kirby should get another crack at the character he co-created (with Joe Simon) all those years ago.

But oh, so quickly, we lost interest. Why did Cap all of a sudden talk like my grandfather? Who was this new female lead, revolutionary Donna Maria Puentes, anyway? Where was Sharon? And although I’ve come to really enjoy it, Kirby’s bombastic art – at that time – just wasn’t doing it for me. My friends and I weren’t mature enough to get it. “Why couldn’t he draw more like Neal Adams?”, we wondered. Continue reading “With Further Ado #238: Red, White, and Nostalgic” →