Tuesday, July 8, 2008

JACK'S BACK — AND WE GOT HIM!

ITEM! That’s right, pilgrims! Jolly Jack Kirby is back from the Great Beyond, and someday soon we may all see new art and stories from the King. At least that’s the story according to the late, lamented Weekly World News (April 16, 1996 issue). Many thanks to MMMS member-in-good-standing J. Sitwell for sending this in, which originally appeared in John “There’s Always To” Morrow’s always excellent Jack Kirby Collector (ish #13, Dec. 1996, or The Collected Jack Kirby Collector Vol. 3). Click on the image at right to embiggen it for your reading pleasure.

By my calculations, the subject of the story, 10-year-old Roger Falmaton, should be about 22 these days. It’s probably just a matter of time before he pops up at the Marvel offices with a portfolio full of even-Newer Gods or more Fantastic Fours ready to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting public! The mind boggles at the possibilities! Let’s all just hope that Vince Colletta’s ghost isn’t out there somewhere teaching some poor kid how to erase penciled backgrounds!

It’s also given your Uncle Stanley a great idea. While I’m still walking around in the mortal world, I really should be auctioning off the haunting rights to my nearly-departed ghost so that the next Stan Lee can have a helping hand writing the swingingest soliloquies and creating the craziest comic characters conceptually possible in the next century! Kind of like the Ghost and Mrs. Muir only with a typewriter instead of a telescope. The floor is officially open, True Believers! I’m now accepting any and all bids to see who I’ll be haunting in the next life! The ebays probably has some kind of bizarre policy against this sort of thing, but I’ll figure something out. Avi Arad... no need for you to bid. I plan on haunting you for free anyway! 

Excelsior!
Smiley

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