Around the time the original Star Wars was packin' 'em into theaters, a group of entrepreneurs approached Jack Kirby about starting a comic book company to be called Kirby Comics. They had some money and expected to soon have enough to launch such a business, and they offered Jack what on paper was really the only great deal ever presented to him in comics, post-Marvel. He would do a series of graphic novels that would be the company's initial offering, to be followed by more books, some by him, some by others. The pay was good, Jack would have an ownership position in the company and, most important, he could retain clear, uncontested title to his new creations. But of course, there were downsides — one small, one big. The small one was that they insisted the first book be not unlike Star Wars. Jack was torn by this. He never liked to feel like he was "following" someone else, and he had a minor resentment of the whole Star Wars phenomenon, feeling that some key elements of the film were inspired by his own work. On the other hand, Jack had a certain pride in being able to do something good with any premise. To him, there was no such thing as an idea that he couldn't make work in a fresh, innovative way. The other downside of the project was that when Jack was about two-thirds of the way through his first graphic novel, which he called Captain Victory and the Galactic Warriors, the entrepreneurs ran out of loot and the whole project collapsed.
The almost-finished Captain Victory story languished in Jack's closet until San Diego comic book dealers Steve and Bill Schanes decided to launch a comic book company that would, among other innovations, allow creators to retain copyright to that which they created. They approached Kirby, and he decided to unleash Captain Victory. Pacific Comics, as the Schanes brothers dubbed their new firm, would be publishing not graphic novels but conventional-sized 32-page comics, so Jack chopped up the first Captain Victory story to fit that format, and thereafter continued the saga with new stories. While at the time I didn't think it was the best thing Jack ever did, I've met an awful lot of people who count it among their favorite Kirby comics. Having found that Jack's work only improves with time, I keep meaning to haul out my copies of the series and re-read them.
Even better, I'll probably experience them anew with Captain Victory: The Graphite Edition, which is a new book from TwoMorrows, publishers of The Jack Kirby Collector. This volume reprints the first story in its "graphic novel" form. More importantly, it is reproduced from Xeroxes of Jack's original pencil art, not from the version that was lettered and inked by others, thereby giving you Kirby in its purest form. Jack had Xerox copies of many of his stories in the pencil phase, and the TwoMorrows company is now engaged in a most worthwhile project, which is to preserve and restore those Xeroxes. All proceeds from this new book are going to that effort, and that alone would be well worth your patronage. But the "Graphite Edition" is also a treasure, in and of itself, packed as it is with raw Kirby and many special features, including a screenplay of the material that Jack once wrote. For fans of Jack, it's a must-own.
Captain Victory: The Graphite Edition is not available in stores. You can only get it directly from TwoMorrows, and you can get it at this website. If you're familiar with Jack Kirby's work, you're there already.