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BATMAN, FLASH, ROBIN, ORION, SUPERMAN, WONDER WOMAN TM & ©2003 DC COMICS • TARZAN TM & ©2003 ERB INC.CAPTAIN AMERICA, VISION, WASP, THOR, IRON MAN TM & ©2003 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.
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Pencil art byJack Kirby!
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December 2003
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ARVE
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time and experience. Being on the other end when
people are now showing you their more amateurish,
untrained, underdeveloped stuff, you have to also
find that same means of encouraging them to get
better. And sometimes, you do have to be a
little cruel to be kind.
MW: I had gone to the High School of Art
and Design to be an artist and in fact,
became an art teacher. My Bachelor’s
Degree in college is Bachelor of Fine Arts.
And that was exactly what they did. You
would present a drawing and they’d rip it
apart—only the parts that are bad because
every teacher in Art and Design, unlike most
schools, had to have been professional
artists. I mean, Bernie Krigstein was one of
my teachers. That’s the level of craftsmanship
at the school at that time. And because of
that, they had no patience for ego getting in
the way. They know that, certainly, at fifteen,
you ain’t got it. (laughs) And they pushed and
pushed and pushed, and the people who give
up don’t deserve to be in the business
because they’re never going to make it. The
first time you get criticism, if you fold,
“Goodbye.”
GP: For me, it was a bit of a jolt since I
never had an art lesson. So other than the
rah-rah complimentary cheers of my friends
and family, I never really got the critique
from a professional artist. I mean, before
8 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
“The people who give up
don’t deserve to be in the business
because they’re never going to make
it. The first time you get criticism,
if you fold, ‘Goodbye.’”
—Marv Wolfman
D C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 9
Marv, I guess, I took my stuff to a convention and Neal
Adams was the first person to, basically, put me up on
the cross. And as Marv pointed out about not letting
ego get in the way, when I saw Neal a year after I
turned pro, he was the first one to say,
“Congratulations. You made it. If you could take what
I dish out, then you’ve got, at least, the heart to take
the next step further.” Obviously, he can’t predict the
amount of improvement in the artist, but [he saw] that I
want[ed] to improve as an artist.
MW: Exactly, and that’s the vital part of it all, is the
willingness to go back and say, “Okay, either I’m going
to show him because he’s an idiot, or I’m going to show
him because I can do it.” And either way, it gets the
job done. It really doesn’t matter which way you do it
(laughs), it gets the job done. And the stuff I remember
that was wrong about his work—I mean, George can
probably tell you a lot better because it was on his side
—the stuff I remember were fairly simple things, like
perspective and anatomy. Those were learnable things,
and those were the parts that I saw were wrong. It
wasn’t, “Well, this story is all wrong.” I recall just the
straightforward things that there are rules for.
AM: Perspective and backgrounds.
GP: That’s it. Like he was probably after me in the
anatomy of the human body in a perspective shot.
One of the things which I also admire in any person
when they show a portfolio is at least to attempt a
difficult shot, as opposed to taking the easy one. I
might have gotten it wrong, but that, as Marv pointed
out, can be fixed with a simple knowledge of the
mechanics of it. But the fact that if you tried for a
down shot or an up shot, difficult angles, which some-
times are greater than you can achieve as far as your
graphic ability at the time, that shows that you’re
thinking, you’re telling a story the most dynamic way
possible, as Marv said. I mean, I don’t know why it’s
Marv Wolfman - Man of CharactersA portrait by George of his frequent collaborator
shows Marv alongside several icons to which he
helped to give distinctive voice.
Superman, Titans characters, Omega Men characters, Vigilante, Baron WintersTM & © 2003 DC Comics. Nova, Black Cat TM & © 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.Sable TM & © 2003 Mike Grell.
A Spooky Little Girl Like You! (left)
Raven billows from a plume of smoke, courtesy of
this fan-commissioned drawing.
Raven TM & © 2003 DC Comics
1 0 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
easy, because it is an instinct with me, but it is some-
thing—which I thank Marv and all the other people
who pointed out what kept my career glowing—
that the art will come, the drawing ability will come.
The storytelling is what makes comic books distinctive
from the other art forms.
MW: As a fan, before I even knew the first thing about
any of that, I looked at the early Barry Smith stuff and
could not understand why Marvel was using him
(chuckles) until I saw Barry’s pencils at Roy Thomas’
house one day. And I went, “Oh, my God. This is a
completely different artist.” They were able to spot
why those early Daredevils and such had a professional
quality to them.
GP: Yeah, before [Smith] had even started on Conan,
there was something there, and there aren’t a lot of
people who have that. There are people, every so often,
that you look at and you go, “This guy’s going to be
phenomenal.” And the only thing that stops them
from being phenomenal is themselves because no matter
what is told to you by anyone else, if you’re going to be
good, you have to believe in yourself, and nothing else
matters. And all the editors who put you down, if they
actually succeed in putting you down, then you
never really wanted it in the first place.
AM: George, I know in many of your early pre-comicsIt’s Clobberin’ Time!George Pérez began to emerge as a fan favorite
during his late 1970s stint on Fantastic Four.
Fantastic Four TM & © 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.
“No matter what is told toyou by anyone else, if you’re goingto be good, you have to believe inyourself, and nothing else matters.”—George Pérez
D C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 1 1
work, you did, for instance, Teen Titans sample pages
and things like that. So had you read Marv’s work before?
Did you know him as anything other than just the
editor who ripped your work to shreds? (chuckles)
GP: Of course. I had read Marv’s work before. And
again, when I did the Teen Titans sample pages, I was
just drawing for my pleasure because I just drew. So they
were never meant as samples to show to anyone as a
job interview, just something I enjoyed drawing. And,
of course, I remember Marv and Len [Wein] when
they were breaking into the industry. I remember I was
a big fan of Marv’s [Tomb of] Dracula work later and
truth to tell, a lot of the super-hero stuff kind of blurs
in my mind because people were kind of jumping
around a lot there. But I was quite intimate—I knew as
far as, like, who the Teen Titans were. I think I might
have seen one of Marv’s first works, I don’t know.
MW: It was one of my earlier jobs.
GP: Was it? I just remembered the one story. I think it
was drawn by Bill Draut.
MW: Yeah, it was.
GP: And it was a bore. These characters got beat easy.
(laughs) Yeah, but obviously, when I finally got into
comics, Marv was already established as both a writer
and an editor. So he definitely was one of the elite, to
me. I mean, I was working across the street from DC
Comics as a bank teller and I think he just wrote articles.
Allan Asherman came in and he gave me his bank book
to make a withdrawal, or whatever, and I said, “Are
you the Allan Asherman?” Everyone that worked at
comics was a god (laughs), and I reacted that way.
MW: Allan’s still working up at DC.
GP: He is still at DC? Well, I didn’t know that.
MW: He’s run the library for the last God-knows-how-
many years. Fifteen years, maybe more.
GP: Oh, God. I’ve got to go into those offices again.
(laughs)
AM: And he still banks across the street. (laughs) You
mentioned the Dracula material and it strikes a chord
in my memory that maybe the two of you actually
talked about working on some horror material
together at some point.
GP: Oh, not formally that I can remember. After we
had both started doing the [New Teen] Titans, we
had talked about doing something in the
supernatural vein as an independent [comic]. But
I don’t think Marvel ever really approached us on
working on something specifically horrific, or horrible,
in the horror genre. I don’t think I was right for it at
the time. I mean, at that point, I wouldn’t have
known how to draw a shadowy scene if I spilled my
page with ink. (laughs)
MW: The closest we ever came to talking about any-
thing that had a horror bent to it was a graphic novel
which was as much super-hero as horror, called Janus.
GP: Janus, right.
MW: And that was, essentially, the closest that we
had ever discussed that. But that combined horror and
sword-and-sorcery, more than anything.
AM: Now, beyond editor and artist, you eventually
worked together on Fantastic Four. What about that,
Marv? Did you ask for George as the artist at that point?
MW: I have no memory. George might.
GP: At that point, I was already a regular artist on
Fantastic Four. I think it was one of those things that
they were assigning the annuals and Marv got that
particular one. Until DC, that and a short chapter of
What If? with Nova was the only time Marv and I ever
worked as writer-artist.
Kid Flash TM & © 2003 DC Comics.
D C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 1 9
pull you back creatively. And once you start being pulled
back, you stop thinking as wildly, and as abstractly, as
you would have otherwise. I know that certainly hap-
pened to me later on in The Titans when I was no longer
the editor. Eventually, George and I—fairly quickly, actu-
ally—became the editors of the book.
GP: Right. And to give Marv full credit there, Marv was
actually offered editorship of the book, but he didn’t
want to be in a situation where instead of being part-
ners, he was my boss. And he offered me the editorship
because of that and I always appreciated that incredible
feeling of solidarity and friendship that we had during
the course of the book, which when you consider the
history of comics, is not as common as we’d like it to be.
Beyond the creative, this was a friction-free existence,
as partners on the Teen Titans book. Even when I
resigned off the book, it was definitely not because
of any personal problems, but the fact I needed to
go on to other things. Marv was sitting next to me
when I announced my resignation from the series.
And I cherish the amount of growth that I had,
working with Marv.
MW: Well, thank you. You know, it’s fairly simple
when you’re working with someone you both like per-
sonally and believe in, in terms of the quality of
their work. Maybe it wasn’t common at the time—
maybe it’s a little bit more now—but I believed George
was a true partner in creating the Titans, as opposed to
a partner in name only. Sometimes it takes a while to
think past systems that have always been in place to
do the right thing. I know the very first time that I
“George so imprinted a physical presencefor each character…by the time he was done with the book, nobody
else was able to make the Titans actually feel like
they were the Titans,” observes Marv Wolfman.
Teen Titans and all associated characters TM & © 2003 DC Comics.
2 0 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
started to do that was with Ross Andru, where we
split the plotting fees later.
AM: And that was on what book?
MW: [The Amazing] Spider-Man. In the old days, the
writer would take all the credit and all the money, and
I don’t think that’s fair if you’re splitting the work-
load. If the writer is doing the entire plot, and just sub-
mitting it to the artist, that’s different. But if you’re
actually working the stories out together, as George
and I did, then the money should be split. And
therefore, the editing should be split as well. You
know, the whole thing should be a partnership, rather
than one person calling the shots. If you’re doing it
right, and if you’re doing it with the right person...
GP: And thanks to Marv, as Marv said, he would get
his plotting fee and give half of it, obviously, to Ross
[on Spider-Man], or often to me. Since then, that
particular bookkeeping breakdown has been applied
in the industry. But Marv did it before there was a
structure. And again, as much as this sounds like we’re
just two guys, a mutual admiration society here, it is
genuine. I mean, Marv did stuff that in this industry,
you don’t hear as much about. Obviously, the
negative stuff is always the fun stuff you hear about.
MW: Oh, yeah.
GP: But Marv has been a true mensch in every endeavor
I’ve ever worked with him. Even during times we
both had our personal problems because we both had
gone through divorces.
MW: Oh, yeah. And painful ones.
GP: And those were the hard times when we stayed
friends the entire time.
MW: Yes.
“If the character’s speaking…and [Marv] can’t see himself saying those words
out loud, he doesn’t have him say it,” notes the
artist of his New Teen Titans partner.
Teen Titans and all associated characters TM & © 2003 DC Comics.
5 0 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
feature
rdThis section: Avengers and all associated characters TM & © 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. Justice League and all associated characters TM & ©2003 DC Comics.
D C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 5 1
When TitansClash!The Original JLA/Avengers Crossover
When TitansClash!by Michae l Eury
r
It was a Friday evening in 1976, during my freshman year at East
Carolina University (alma mater of Sandra Bullock and Scream scribe/Dawson’s
Creek creator Kevin Williamson) in Greenville, North Carolina (go Pirates!).
“Benny” (I’ll call him “Benny” because that’s his name), a dorm buddy from the
cockroach-infested campus prison appropriately named Aycock Hall, and I, then
known as “Mickey,” traipsed down “the hill” to the nearby Qwik-Pik store. Benny’s
mission was clear: Buy a six-pack and par-tay, but my taste buds were craving the
week’s latest comics—or at least as many as I could find. Back then, comics shops
were a rarity (there was a comics/sci-fi specialty shop in town, a pulpy wonderland
owned by Charles Lawrence, but I had yet to locate it), and readers embarked upon
weekly scavenger hunts through convenience marts, drugstores, Mom ‘n’ Pop
groceries, and newsstands in hopes of finding their four-color favorites. I meticu-
lously examined each row of the Qwik-Pik’s comic-book spin rack, its new releases
interspersed between titles from a week or two ago, already dog-eared and
mangled by kids and yellowed by sun exposure through a nearby window. As I
dug for the latest treasures, Benny found a gold mine of his own—a sale on Pabst
Blue Ribbon!—and scanned the magazines while waiting for me to complete
my inspection.
“Hey, Mick, there’s a big funnybook over here,” he called.
I glanced across the aisle to see what he was talking about, and my jaw dropped.
Oh.
My.
God.
It was Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man!
This tabloid-sized best-seller co-published by DC and Marvel Comics, cover-
blurbed as “The Greatest Superhero Team-Up of All Time,” was the comics biz’s
first major event, making headlines as it united two fierce publishing rivals and
their two flagship characters. Today, cross-company crossovers are common-
place—we’ve seen Batman/Daredevil, Hulk vs. Superman, Batman/Tarzan, Spider-
Man/Gen13, and JLA/Witchblade, to name just a few (heck, I even co-edited two
Dark Horse/DC mini-series, Batman vs. Predator II and Superman vs. Aliens)—but in
1976, nothing could top the excitement of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.
Benny was left to his own devices that evening—I had reading to do!
© 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. ©2003 DC Comics.
f
d5 2 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
Despite the runaway success of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, it took five
years before the companies reconnected. In 1981, Marvel and DC released two
additional crossovers, both published in the same oversized format as the 1976
Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man book: a Superman/Spider-Man sequel handled
by Marvel, and the DC-steered Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk. Both were greeted by
overwhelming commercial and critical acclaim, and DC and Marvel—then edito-
rially helmed by Dick Giordano and Jim Shooter, respectively—launched plans to
do more. The result: Marvel and DC Present, a comic-book-sized, irregularly pub-
lished series utilizing then-emerging offset printing, providing richer, more vivid
colors on a brighter paper stock. It was agreed that the production of each of the
crossovers would alternate between one publisher and the other, with each com-
pany appointing a co-editor; the company not producing the given crossover
would distribute the project. Instead of continuing single-character pairings with
their next outings, the publishers targeted meetings (and clashes) between their
most popular super-teams: the Justice League of America and the Avengers, and
the New Teen Titans and the X-Men.
The Only Man for the Job
At the time, artist George Pérez had ascended to fan-favorite status through his
detailed rendering of DC’s hottest book, The New Teen Titans. He’d gotten his start
at Marvel in the 1970s, cutting his teeth on minor strips like “Man-Wolf” in
Creatures on the Loose and “Sons of the Tiger” in The Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu before
graduating to Fantastic Four and The Avengers, the latter of which experienced a
renaissance of quality and popularity thanks to George’s enthusiastic pencils. By
1980, Pérez was illustrating DC’s Justice League of America as well as Marvel’s
She-Pow!Panel detail from Pérez’s original JLA/Avengers pencils. © 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.
ti
me
li
ne
s
A particularly
energetic battle
page. This truly
bizarre issue revolved
around a world
(micro-sized)
inhabited completely by Universal Studios’
monsters of the 1930s and ’40s: Frankenstein,
the Wolfman, Dracula, the Mummy, and the
like. Special note should be made of Jack’s
version of Olsen’s and Superman’s faces;
both looking pretty dang
fantastic to me.
DC had them redrawn
by Murphy Anderson (as
shown at left). Which do
you think is better?
Kirby was always
ahead of his time, and while he couldn’t
get the hang of drawing Superman’s “S”
symbol (requiring it to be redrawn as well),
his highly stylized version appears to be a
precursor to the version Alex Ross used in
the 1990s hit Kingdom Come.
6 2 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
by David “Hambone” Hamilton wi th John Morrow
JIM
MY
OL
SE
N #
14
31
971
feature
Superman, Jim
my O
lsen TM &
© 2003 D
C C
omics.
D C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 6 3
ti
me
li
ne
s
Here’s Jack in the late 1970s; to his right is his one-tim
e assistant M
ark Evanier, and peeking over his head is Teen Titans
scribe Marv W
olfman.
(Photo courtesy of Shel Dorf.)
Splash page from “The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin” (actually page five of the issue),
showcasing one of Jack’s more endearing creations, Lightray (with Orion). This story brought back a lot
of humanistic qualities of self-sacrifice and courage—echoing back to Jack and Stan’s (Lee) Fantastic Four
#51, “This Man... This Monster,” one of the ten favorite Lee/Kirby stories ever published at the House of
Ideas (as often voted upon in fan polls since the 1960s). Jack’s plotting/writing shined like a super-nova
when approaching such storylines—with and without the input of others. ‘Nuff said!
NE
W G
OD
S
#81
97
2
New
Gods TM
& ©
2003 DC
Com
ics.
by Tom “The Comics Savant”
S tewart
Problems...
Bob Hodes had a problem. As the representative for Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., Robert
M. Hodes oversaw the Burroughs estate and its literary legacies: Tarzan, John Carter of
Mars, Carson of Venus, David Innes, the Moon Men and Red Hawk—the vast galaxy
author Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB) left behind him upon his death in 1950. The
properties had languished after the passing of the founder, falling prey to pirated copies
of the Burroughs originals and unauthorized comics (the first time pirates got the better
of Tarzan!). Funny thing was, the very pirated novels that caused the problem helped
spur a Burroughs revival. ERB Inc. started tending to business. At the end of the 1960s,
the House of Burroughs was back in order, overseeing worldwide rights for movies, books,
reprints, comic strips, and, of course, comic books, especially Tarzan comic books.
Since 1912, when Burroughs, a man who had famously failed at almost everything
he put a hand to, borrowed someone else’s stationery and wrote Tarzan of the Apes,
Tarzan had been a phenomenon, and a very valuable property. More books followed,
pushing Tarzan into publishing-empire status (before Amazon.com, mind you). Movies
both silent and sound, radio, gasoline (well, Tarzan endorsed it), and comic strips all
came spilling out to meet the demand—he even got his own town, Tarzana,
California. And again, the comic books.
Ah, comics. It was a small, but not unimportant part of ERB Inc. Tarzan was popular
all over the world, one of the most recognizable fictional characters in history, and his
comics were just as popular. Tarzan comic books started with comic-strip reprints in the
1930s, then in 1947 Tarzan began appearing regularly in new stories written especially
for Dell Comics. Tarzan soon got his own title. For years the Dell Tarzans were written
by the very prolific Gaylord DuBoise and drawn by Jesse Marsh (the Mike Sekowsky of
Tarzan: either you loved him or hated him; or hated him, then loved him). DuBoise and
Marsh strayed far from Burroughs original (maybe not as far as the “Me, Tarzan” MGM
7 4 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
Tarzan, Tarzan and Tarzan:The Lord of the Jungle’s
long, strangeJourney
Through the Jungles of Three Publishers
featurefeature
D C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 7 5
movies did), making many Burroughs
purists cringe, but they kept the title a
popular one right up until Marsh’s retire-
ment in 1965, when artist Russ Manning
took over. Manning restored Burroughs
source material to the title and helped it
regain popularity for the comic book (and
newspaper strip, which he later took over,
as well), especially in the overseas foreign
markets.
This was the problem.
The foreign markets were printing and
reprinting all the Tarzan material they had.
Forty years’ worth of comic strips (by Hal
Foster, Burne Hogarth, and Rex Maxon) and
over twenty years of comic books published
by Dell and later Gold Key Comics, all went
to feed the foreign annuals, monthlies, and
weeklies, translated and sold all over the
world. It was a sweet deal. Gold Key paid
the writers, artists, editors, and all the
overhead, ERB Inc. kept the negatives of all
the stories, sold them for set page rates to
South America, Europe, Africa, wherever
Tarzan was needed and wanted. Sweet. There
was only one thing wrong: The reprints were
running out. They needed more. Much more.
The Russ Manning stories that Gold Key
was printing were very popular with the overseas publishers—so popular, in fact, that
when the art wasn’t coming in fast enough, they hired their own “Russ Mannings”
and set them to aping (yes, that was intentional) the Manning style on new pages
(something that didn’t make Russ happy, but why would it?). More was needed, and
ERB Inc. felt that Western Publishing (owner of Gold Key Comics) should provide it.
Hodes went to Gold Key.
At this time, Gold Key wasn’t in the expanding vein. After years of supplying mate-
rial to Dell Comics, Western split with Dell and entered publishing on its own by putting
a
Infantino’s “Perfect Guy”DC publisher Carmine Infantino chose Joe Kubert
as his Tarzan artist.
Tarzan © 2003 ERB Inc.
7 6 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
its leg in the water, but only up to the knee. Hodes asked that
the publishing be stepped up, and that other Burroughs
properties be looked at also (John Carter?). Their schedule
was fixed. Tarzan sold well at eight times a year, why
change it? Gold Key said no. After two hundred issues, the
Gold Key Tarzans ended. ERB Inc. would have to look else-
where (Western lost the Hanna-Barbera books the same way:
not putting out enough issues to satisfy the foreign markets).
But where? Why not ERB Inc. itself? Why not an entire
line of wholly owned Burroughs comics, published by the
people who knew the properties best? Hodes had it all
priced out: so much for scripts, for artists, paper, printing.
All he needed was a distributor.
That was a problem. In the early 1970s, no distributor wanted to take on a new
comics publisher, even one waving the flag of Tarzan before him. Comics were seen
as a low-profit medium with not a lot of future (even then!). The biggest comics dis-
tributor, Independent News Corp. (INC), told Hodes to go down the hall to DC Comics
(owner of INC), maybe they could help him. In 1971, going to DC meant going to
see Carmine Infantino, former artist, then art director, then editorial director, and, at
the time, publisher.
“I Choose Who I Choose”
DC Comics under Infantino was willing to try new things. New titles, new takes on old
characters, new blood, and Kirby was coming! DC was also no stranger to licensed
properties, having had a long run of Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis comics, among others,
but would it make sense to take up the Burroughs deal, under the terms that ERB Inc.
wanted? To Carmine Infantino, it was about the numbers:
“Tarzan was doing well in Europe at the time. In fact, our European
publishers talked to me about doing it here in the states, and I said,
‘If the numbers are right.’ We had a meeting with the California
people, out there in Tarzana, with Bob Hodes. We worked out
the deal. The best things happen simply!”
The numbers were good. Infantino must have thought that a gift had fallen into
his lap. Right at the start of comics’ sword-and-sorcery fad, here comes some of the
properties that defined the genre: John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, David Innes,
and most important, Tarzan, a character more popular in more countries than even
that DC flagship hero, Superman. And Infantino had the perfect man for it: Joe
Kubert. Carmine reveals, “They wanted their artists on it. But I insisted on Kubert. I
think I was right. He was the perfect guy for the strip. I told them, ‘I choose who I a
Tarzan © 2003 ERB Inc.
D C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 8 7
From there to…Infantino
We never tried to parallel Marvel. Once you copy someone, you’re
always second best. I wanted us to be individual, and we were, with the
mystery books, and the war books that Joe Kubert did so beautifully.
When he was working at Marvel, Jack Kirby would call me regularly
to say hello. We’d talk and kid around. One time when I was in California
on business, we went to dinner, and Jack said, “I’d like to show you
something.” He showed me three covers: New Gods, Mister Miracle, and
Forever People. I said, “They’re wonderful. Good luck.” He said, “No, no,
you don’t understand. I want to do them for you. My Marvel contract is
up. I want a contract with you.” I said, “I’ve got no problem with that.”
It was as simple as that, and in 1970 Jack Kirby came to DC.
Jack wanted the whole Superman line to do. I couldn’t give him
that—with that property, you have to be very careful. So I decided to
try him out on Jimmy Olsen. But it didn’t work. We later discovered why:
Jimmy Olsen was really made for little kids, and Jack made it very sophis-
ticated, which was the wrong thing for that book.
Unfortunately, Forever People, Mister Miracle, and New Gods didn’t sell.
Jack became unhappy because of this. The Demon did fairly well, however,
and so did Kamandi. Kirby did one book, The Sandman, with his original
partner Joe Simon, and the sales just went through the roof. So I called
Jack and asked him to do more books with Joe, but Jack said, “I want to
move on.” He went back to Marvel at that point.
I was in Europe and the Edgar Rice Burroughs people approached me
about DC publishing Tarzan. But they wanted their creative people on the
project, and I said, “No, no, I want my guys on the book.” I put Joe Kubert
on Tarzan. When the Burroughs people saw Kubert’s work, they were
delighted. Joe was made for that character. At first, Tarzan sold very well.
Then I went out and got Captain Marvel [for the Shazam!] series and
the Quality Comics characters like the Ray and Black Condor [who, with
other heroes, spun out of Justice League of America into their own title, Freedom
Fighters]. We started to refurbish the super-hero line.
Success No “Mystery”DC caught Marvel
off guard by “quietly”
releasing its inventive
line of mystery titles.
(far right)
© 2003 DC Comics.
From there to…Infantino
a guest editorial by Carmine Infantino
All characters TM & ©2003DC Comics.
Stan Lee and I were fairly friendly. We didn’t see each other
very often, but when we did, we were very cordial. We had
known each other for years. Stan and I were old friends.
When Superman vs. Spider-Man was proposed, I was opposed to
it. The person in charge of Marvel at that time came to DC with
the crossover idea. He met with my superior, and they called me
upstairs and said, “We want it done.” I thought we’d be enhanc-
ing the Marvel line by bridging them with DC, but since I had no
choice, I insisted, “Let us do it properly.” I picked the artist I
wanted, Ross Andru, and I created and designed the cover. The
book was a lot of hard work but it did very well.
DC was privy to Marvel’s numbers. Our distributor would get us
copies of their sales reports, and they got copies of our numbers. There
were no secrets there. Marvel had been moving ahead by leaps and bounds,
but we caught up, because we produced quality comics. There was one year
when we won every award possible. I knew we were on the right track then.
Toward my last year at DC, Marvel decided to do to us something that DC
had done many years earlier to Western Publishing: They dramatically increased
their output, and this threatened to push us off the stands, where the shelf space
was limited. I had to combat that, so I met Marvel book to book. I knew it was
going to cost us a lot of money, which it did, but it cost them a
fortune. The people upstairs did not appreciate my posture, so it
was better that we part ways. We did, in 1976, and that was the end of it.
My position at DC was a lot of work. I worked long hours and didn’t take a
vacation in ten years. It’s a tough job if you do it properly.
I learned that you’ve got to take chances. Not everything DC did back then
worked, but we produced some great material. I had some wonderful guys to
work with: Kubert, Orlando, Giordano, and of course, the old faithfuls, the
terrific Murray Boltinoff and the wonderful Julie Schwartz.
We had a good group of guys. They meshed well.
We were neck and neck with Marvel when I left DC. We made money and
changes. I gave back original art to the artists and raises to all personnel.
It was a memorable time.
I highly recommend Mr. Infantino’s lushly illustrated autobiography
(co-written by J. David Spurlock), The Amazing World of Carmine
Infantino, published in 2000 by Vanguard Productions. It’s a
captivating read and deserves a place of honor on the bookshelf
of every comics fan.—Michael
Kirby is Here!Jack “King” Kirby, who
epitomized Marvel’s
1960s art style,
was hired by
Carmine Infantino
in 1970 to work
his magic at DC.
(above and top right)
Characters TM & © 2003 DC Comics.
end
Team Supreme!Murphy Anderson inks
over Infantino pencils
on a 1960s Mystery In
Space cover.
(top and right)
Adam Strange TM & © 2003 DC Comics.
8 8 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
DC Comics, 2003 • 192 pages, color, $19.95
Only One ThingMissing from the Kirby MagicGood news for fans of Jack “King” Kirby and his
expansive Fourth World: In late July 2003, DC
Comics released Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby, a
trade-paperback collection of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy
Olsen #133 (October 1970) through #139 (July 1971)
and #141 (September 1971)—issue #140 was a reprint
giant, in case you’re wondering. These landmark
stories, written and penciled by Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta, are important for two
reasons: They signaled the King’s triumphant return to DC, after months of teasers proclaiming “Kirby is
Coming,” and they introduced story elements that would appear in some of Kirby’s other series, as well
as in DC’s ongoing continuity for decades to come.
The presentation of these classics is superb. Unlike DC’s earlier black-and-white collections of Kirby’s
New Gods, Forever People, and Mister Miracle tales, the Jimmy Olsen stories are reprinted in glorious color
(featuring “reconstruction” by David Tanguay), and the cover—by Kirby and “the Dude” Steve Rude,
colored by Richard and Tanya Horie—is absolutely wonderful, an eye-catching blend of the King’s raw
energy and the Dude’s pristine polish. The Introduction by Kirby protégé and historian Mark Evanier
offers valuable insight into his mentor’s migration from Marvel Comics to DC, dispelling some urban
JimmyOlsen:
adventuresby Jack Kirby
by Michae l Eury
D C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 8 9
colle
cted
edi
tion
rev
iew
Supe
rman
, Jim
my
Olse
n, D
ubbi
lex
TM &
© 2
003
DC
Com
ics
9 0 • B A C K I S S U E • D C v s . M a r v e l
myths along the way, while designer
Peter Hamboussi evokes the 1970s with
a vibrant, reader-friendly text layout that
warmly embraces shades of orange—the
color of Olsen’s hair and a popular hue
of the era (remember the kitchen on
The Brady Bunch?).
When reading Jimmy Olsen: Adventures
by Jack Kirby, it’s clear that prior to his jump
to DC the architect of the Fourth World had
felt creatively stifled by Marvel: These Olsen
tales explode with a staggering array of new
concepts, including, but certainly not limited
to, Darkseid and Apokolips, Metropolis’ high-
tech mob Intergang, the Whiz Wagon (the
DC Universe’s first SUV?), and the freakish
Four-Armed Terror. Kirby’s fascination with
science borders on prophecy, with cloning
a common theme throughout, and Jack
admirably tries to be hip by peppering his
epic with anarchic bikers and contemporary
lingo (some of which falls flat: Superman
was still too square in 1970 to spout dialogue
like “I can’t play by your scene!” and
“Something you should dig—but fast!”).
Amid this ocean of new ideas are waves of
nostalgia, through the reintroduction of Kirby’s
(and Joe Simon’s) Golden Age DC creations the
Newsboy Legion and the Guardian and through the
inclusion of Jimmy Olsen the DNAlien, a nod to the
ubiquitous Olsen mutations of earlier continuity. To
top it all off, comedian Don Rickles guest stars in the
last two stories of the volume—and for you newbies
The Cover, Pre-DudeKirby’s pencils from an unused Jimmy Olsen #145 cover were inked
by Steve Rude for the cover of the Olsen trade.
Superman, Jimmy Olsen, Dubbilex TM & © 2003 DC Comics
who find the notion of a Jimmy Olsen/Don Rickles
crossover puzzling, I can only quote the King’s own
gutsy cover blurb: “Don’t Ask! Just Buy It!”
Kirby fans are aware that the King’s tenure on
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen was short-lived. Carmine
Infantino, DC Comics’ editorial director when Kirby
produced these wild tales for DC, postulates in his “Off
My Chest” guest editorial in this edition of
BACK ISSUE that Jack’s material was too
“sophisticated” for DC’s readers of the time,
particularly fans of Jimmy Olsen,
traditionally the entry-level book of the
Superman line. Upon reading Kirby’s
stories in this trade paperback—revisiting
them for the first time in many years—
I stumbled across another possible reason
for their commercial failure: The demotion
of Olsen to supporting-cast status.
For 16 years prior to Kirby’s coming,
the nucleus of the Superman’s Pal, Jimmy
Olsen universe was Jimmy himself. Once
Jack jumped on board, Jimmy took a back
seat in his own magazine to the King’s
imagination. This abrupt change
presumably unsettled readers accustomed
to Jimmy as their accessible “ticket” to
Superman’s action-filled world.
That observation aside, Jimmy Olsen:
Adventures by Jack Kirby is a fun read and a
glimpse into the inventive mind of one of
comics’ most influential creative forces.
endD C v s . M a r v e l • B A C K I S S U E • 9 1
Kirby Cuts LooseJimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby includes
some of the King’s wildest work.
Superman, Jimmy Olsen, Guardian, Newsboy Legion TM & © 2003 DC Comics