HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

ITEM! I know... I know. It may seem a tad bit immodest of your ol’ Uncle Stan to be wishing himself a happy birthday, but what the hey! One of the great things about getting to be my age is you can pretty much do as you please and no one says boo to you about it! The Spider-Phone was practically ringing off the wall yesterday with birthday well-wishers. Well technically, it was ringing off my belt clip, but you get the idea. As I said to Madcap Mark Evanier, “When 86 years old you reach, look as good you will not!” Late last night Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada even called to wish me a happy-happy. Man-alive! I guess it’s time to get my number changed again.

Excelsior!

Smiley

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #51 OUT AT LAST!

ITEM! Hey there, Heroes! My favorite tabloid-sized doesn’t-fit-in-a-long-box-or-on-any-shelf-in-my-house comics magazine, John “There’s Always To” Morrow’s Jack Kirby Collector #51, finally came out this week. It features on the cover, oddly enough, one of the many character designs that probably would’ve shown up in the Fantastic Four one day if Uncle Marty hadn’t broken so many promises to Jolly Jack back in the day. You’ll note that Jack even left a whole kaboodle of white space above his name so that Yours Truly could sign his name to it, as I was prone to do. But I digress...

Besides the usual assortment of artful articles and articulate art, including Madcap Mark Evanier’s always insightful Jack F.A.Q.s column (all you ever wanted to know and more about Kirby’s falling out with Brand Ecch Editor Jack Schiff over the Sky Masters syndicated strip), JCK has the best letters column this side of the New York Times. This month Kirby correspondent Angel Gabriele (what a great name for a super heroine... I might have to use that some day) writes in to point out that the house ad that ran in Tales To Astonish #59 (Sept. 1964) probably resulted in the destruction of the original cover art for Hulk #1 (May 1962), and sends in a pic of the original house ad art to show what happened (see below). You can easily tell where the figure of Bruce Banner and most of the Hulk’s clothes were whited-out or pasted-over. Yup, True Believers, now you know one of the reasons why so much of Jack’s original art from those days is no longer around. I know what you’re thinking — the original art to the cover of Hulk #1 would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars today. Or make a wonderful anonymous donation to the Library of Congress. But sadly, we just didn’t assign any value to the original art back then once the film had been shot for the individual books.

So, for this and zillions of other Kirby insights and in-fights, go get yourself a copy of the Jack Kirby Collector #51 before your local comic book shop runs out, or you can order both print and digital versions directly from Tomorrows Publishing! Tell ‘em your Uncle Stanley sent yah!

Excelsior!

Smiley

MADCAP MARK EVANIER TALKS KIRBY AT GOOGLE

ITEM! In case you didn’t already catch this one on the Intrawebs, pilgrims, MMMS member-in-good-standing Madcap Mark Evanier recently gave his Jack Kirby talk for the famous Authors@Google series! If you’ve never been able to attend one of the Comi-Cons at which Mark often speaks, then this is your chance to hear him wax eloquently for over 45 minutes about the King of Comics. Your Uncle Stanley always enjoys his Kirby keynotes because they help kick-start my memory-impaired medulla oblongata on what just did happen back in Ye Olden Days. After watching this vid, my only critical comment to the Madcap One is a desperate plea — please give me a call as soon as possible, Mark. I can tell yah exactly who to go see about the perilously un-plentiful pelage! Trust me on this one, Tiger. I know whereof I speak!

Excelsior!

Smiley

THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF STEVE DITKO'S ART

ITEM! Welcome back to “Things You Must Buy At Your Local Comic Shop This Week, Part III.” Next up is the best up! Though not featuring Yours Truly per se, there’s lots to read about how ol’ Sturdy Steve and I collaborated, co-plotted and collided in Blake Bell’s scholarly study, Strange and Stranger: The Worlds of Steve Ditko!

This well-researched recount of the life and times of everyone’s favorite raconteur and randy Randian makes an ideal coffee table companion to Mark Evanier’s Kirby: King of Comics. And it’s in comparison to Madcap Mark’s Kirby book that Blake Bells’ work really shines! As much as I enjoyed Evanier’s Kirby book, it contained little that I hadn’t read, heard or seen before. Blake’s Ditko book is a much denser and more complete essay on its subject than Evanier’s. (That's review pull-out quote #42 in a series, by the way... collect 'em all! — Studious Stan) Bashful Blake really delivers the goods on Sterling Steve Ditko, including details of the Lee-Ditko collaboration that even Yours Truly had either forgotten or never knew. For example, I never knew that when Ditko quit Marvel he wrote Kirby a letter trying to get him to leave at the same time! Fascinating.

My only nits were the ones that you’d expect from an editor-type like moi. At one point in the story, Marvel apparently released a “title wave” of books onto the newsstands, which is either a typo or one really titanic pun! And speaking of titles, I kinda wish Sturdy Steve hadn’t thrown a fit and more-or-less forced Mr. Bell to change the title from his original “The Mysterious Traveler: The World of Steve Ditko.” Steve Ditko was a mysterious traveller, and Blake Bell’s doctoral dissection of the Ditko dichotomy is well worth your discretionary-income dollars! Go get this one pilgrims!

Excelsior!

Smiley

JACK'S ONE MAN SUPER-SOLDIER CORPS

ITEM! Hey there, Heroes! It’s time once again for your Uncle Stan to prove that he isn’t just a soulless corporate shill who’ll pimp any project with the name “Marvel” stamped on it! Heck, I’ll even promote products published by the professed opposition if the money is right. But I kid, I kid. I’m a kidder. What are yah gonna do? Sue me? Good luck with that one... but I digress.

Out this week from the Distinguished Conglomerate is the deluxe omnibus edition of Jack "King" Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps, and it’s a better read today than it was in the mid-70s! The most shocking revelation for Yours Truly came when I read Madcap Mark Evanier’s inevitable introduction to this Kirby collection. Apparently OMAC is another one of those ideas that Jolly Jack originally had back during the late-60s at Marvel, but which he chose to keep to himself. According to Ever-ready Mark, OMAC was originally conceived by Jack as a version of Captain America that took place in the future. Let that sink in for a moment, kids. That means that sometime in 1968 Jack envisioned an entire alternate line of Marvel Comics that took place in a future timeline. On our own, Marvel wouldn’t come up with that idea until Johnny Byrne and I cooked up the Marvel 2099 imprint in 1993! And as always, Jack was there way ahead of us mere mortals...

Sometimes it makes me dizzy thinking what would’ve happened if my publisher-uncle-in-law Marty Goodman hadn’t been such a puerile putz and treated Jolly Jack better while he was at Marvel. Jack was banking ideas like crazy after Marty went back on his word to salary the King and make him a company employee with bennies! Imagine a Merry Marvel Multiverse where Doc Doom mixed it up with Mister Miracle, where the Demon and Doctor Strange confronted Dormammu, or where Darkseid takes out Thanos for being a copy-cat trademark infringer! Not to mention a future-Marvel universe where a successor to Steve Rogers gets his super-soldier powers from a orbiting computer in the sky called Brother Eye! I guess if the quantum theory sciencey guys are right and there are an infinite number of parallel universes out there where every possible scenario is played out, then there are places in the multiverse where that’s exactly what happened. In those universes, your Uncle Stan probably has twice as much to be humble about! It boggles the mind, pilgrims...

Excelsior!

Smiley