As usual, we recommend the new issue of The Jack Kirby Collector, and not just because we have a column inside. Editor-Publisher John Morrow does his customary fine job of assembling articles and artwork about The Man, and the tabloid format enhances the latter so much that you won't mind (much) the hassle of storing the thing. The cover is something of a gem. In 1969, Jack was snookered into producing a ton of artwork for a Los Angeles-based company called Marvelmania International — a mail order firm that had licensed the right to manufacture Marvel merchandise in the guise of a fan club. The fellow who operated Marvelmania was not the most honest guy in the world. I worked there a while and quit when the full magnitude of his duplicity became apparent. Many of us were either never paid, or paid way less than we were owed.
Jack was promised hefty sums of cash to draw dozens of things, including eight posters of Marvel heroes that the guy at Marvelmania promised to market. The eight drawings represented some of Jack's finest work, and he actually inked them himself, which was something he rarely did.
Only four of the eight were ever issued and, though poorly printed, they sold well…which, of course, did not mean that Jack received the promised hefty sums. He got only a few bucks for the four that were released and nothing at all for the others. The Captain America drawing that adorns the above cover was one of those that weren't printed as posters — and what a terrific, dynamic piece of work it is. So are all the lost Kirby treasures you'll find in The Jack Kirby Collector, which you can find at your local funnybook shop or order direct from www.twomorrows.com.
It'll run you $9.95 and if that strikes you as high, just remember it's $9.95 more than Jack got for drawing the Captain America poster. Einstein supposedly once said there was a compensating rule of talents. That is, if you were very, very good at playing the violin, you'd turn out to be very, very bad at something else to balance. Jack Kirby was very, very good at creating comic book art and very, very bad at getting paid for it.