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Next Year Would Have Been Jack Kirby's 100th Birthday – Memories From San Diego Comic Con

By Mike Sangregorio

There was no better way to close a week at San Diego Comic-Con than by taking time to remember, and reminisce fondly, about Jack Kirby, the King of Comics. An annual tradition, the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel is moderated by Mark Evanier.

If you know anything about Evanier then you probably know him as a) Jack Kirby's former assistant, b) a comic creator in his own right, or c) a very tall man. Probably some combination of those. What is often difficult to contextualize about Evanier is just how key he is to understanding the history of superhero comics.

Yes, he worked with Kirby but more often than not his stories about Kirby, including those told this day, included phrasing that provide the audience with an experience akin to actually being around Kirby. Evanier's anecdotes include facts and quotes that stretch the length of Kirby's career and he is usually the first one to admit when someone could have very well misremembered something.

Evanier was clearly Kirby's friend but more than that he is a storyteller in his own right, almost a "Speaker for the Dead," to borrow a term from a different sci-fi author. Each time I have a chance to listen to him it is a rare treat to hear about one of my heroes in the way he lived and not just about any fights he had with his many employers.

Evanier was joined this year by Kevin Eastman ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"), Ray Wyman, Jr. ("The Art of Jack Kirby"), Scott Dunbier (IDW), and attorney Paul S. Levine. Due to circumstances beyond control I missed the first half of the panel but what I was able to catch was still a wealth of Kirby related knowledge and history.

Coming into the panel during a discussion about infamous Kirby inker Vince Colletta the conversation was directed towards the latter's legacy. Known for taking shortcuts with pencilled work it was mentioned by Evanier that the recent Artist Edition of Walt Simonson's "Thor" included a mention of how Simonson, who worked on Kirby's New Gods long after the King had stopped, felt about the inker.

When the panelists discussed how they would feel about Kirby's work being recolored one responded that he did not believe it was worth doing because there would not be enough input from the original penciller and inker. He emphasized that the original work was as much a product of the time and context in which it was created and that it was "not always good to to make a decision that an artist did not intend or could not, due to the different technology available at the time."

Evanier added that he believed that Kirby "hated the coloring on the original Fourth World titles" ("Jimmy Olsen," "The New Gods," "Forever People," and "Mister Miracle") and might have actually welcomed a chance to see them recolored today. He further added that when asked who his favorite inker was in his career Kirby had answer "they're all the best" when asked early on and "they're all terrible" towards the end of his career.

An audience question asked about what Kirby might think about some of his work being remade into "3-D" and Evanier was quick to point out that Kirby was always interested in the technology (going back to his work with creator Ray Zone and Kirby's own "Captain 3-D"). Evanier added that this made sense due to the fact that "Kirby was always 3D, going back to Captain America #1."

An audience member took some time to discuss the production design work that Kirby did for Roger Zelazny's "Lord of Light." He mentioned that while it is known that some of the work was used during the Iranian hostage crisis (see the film "Argo" for more) he added that he believed the Iranians, to whom much of the artwork was provided, believed its bombastic nature actually "heralded an end to the Shah." The audience member also revealed that there will be statues made based on Kirby's designs for "Lord of Light" by "Heavy Metal," to be released next year.

Eastman, Publisher of "Heavy Metal," added to his previously professed appreciation for Kirby's artwork, stating that "I love all of the work, from beginning, to the middle, and right to the end."

Returning to the topic of inkers Evanier recounted a story of Kirby discussing with him who was inking him. When Evanier informed Kirby that creators such as Bill Everett and Wally Wood were inking his pages Kirby was startled and asked "why would you waste guys like that to ink my pages?" It was agreed that in a perfect world the best inker for Kirby would have been Kirby himself. Due to the restrictions of time while Kirby was at his peak it had never been feasible.

Evanier mentioned that Kirby himself was not aware of the actions of the aforementioned Colletta until he and Steve Sherman (Kirby's other assistant who often worked with Evanier) were able to show Kirby photocopies of the original pencils as compared to the final product. Evanier said that Kirby was mad mostly because he expected an "inker to work as hard as he did."

Evanier added that he believed it was Colletta who provided Marvel with photocopies of Kirby's "The New Gods" pages before DC editor Julie Schwartz even saw them. This was during a particularly contentious time when Kirby had left Marvel and was beginning to work for DC during the late seventies. This was one of the reasons that Kirby then insisted on a West Coast based inker.

Kirby had relocated to Southern California before leaving Marvel and at DC he was credited as Editor on his New Gods' books. Evanier said that to Kirby this meant "if it was good I'll get most of the credit but if it's bad then I'll get all of the blame."

Concerning the question of who "really" created which characters and stories at Marvel, Evanier repeated something that legendary Marvel bullpen creator Sol Brodsky once told him, "each work should be credited as 'Lee and Kirby,' period."

The panel closed with a reminder from Evanier that next year, 2017, would have been Kirby's 100th birthday and that he intended to do all he could to ensure that Comic Con reflected that momentous event. He added that if anyone in the audience has a suggestion, or wishes to contribute, they should contact him via social media.

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