I mentioned in this recent post that back when I worked for Jack Kirby in the early seventies and he had to draw Superman, I sometimes drew Superman's emblem for him. A relic of that time has just resurfaced.
Carmine Infantino was running DC Comics. I don't think he had the actual title of "Publisher" yet but he was the guy in charge. He was the person who persuaded Jack to leave Marvel and join DC…although given the way Marvel was treating Jack then, that didn't take a whole lot of persuading. Mostly, it took a certain amount of "bait-and-switch," promising Jack one deal and then, when he didn't think he had any viable alternatives, forcing a different deal on him. But Jack was relatively happy there…for a little while.
In early 1971 (I believe it was), Infantino visited Los Angeles on business and to make an appearance on The Virginia Graham Show, a syndicated talk show hosted by Ms. Graham. She hosted a lot of talk shows, mostly of the daytime variety, in her long career.
I may be remembering another show Carmine did but my recollection is that Telly Savalas was a guest on the same episode and that he started lambasting Infantino for selling comic books full of violence to children. This would be the same Telly Savalas who had appeared in The Dirty Dozen, The Assassination Bureau, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Kelly's Heroes and a number of other movies in which lots of people were shot and killed. There at least was some program around then on which Infantino and Savalas debated violence in the media and Carmine did not do well in that discussion.
Prior to his appearance with Ms. Graham, Carmine asked Jack to whip up a drawing which he could take on the show and present to Virginia. Jack did one and Carmine didn't like it so Jack did another. I helped a little with both but I do not recall which one made it to air. I do recall that there was also a drawing by Joe Orlando which Infantino took on the program with him.
Here are the two drawings. The one at left has been around for a while but the one on the right just turned up in an online art auction…
For the drawing on the left, I did the lettering and I'm not sure but I think I inked the buildings in the background and pasted-in the stat of Jack's signature. For the drawing on the right, I again did the lettering — though Jack drew the balloons around that lettering — and I penciled in Superman's emblem and inked the sound effects that he roughed-in. Jack, of course, penciled in everything, wrote the copy, indicated where I should letter it and how large, and inked whatever I didn't ink.
It should be noted that at the time this was done, DC was horrified by the way Jack drew Superman and wouldn't allow it in their comics without considerable redrawing. But they were fine with a Kirby Superman drawing being shown on national television. If you click on the above image, you can see an enlarged version of the one on the right. It's now being offered in that auction with a minimum bid of $6000, which by coincidence is $6000 more than Jack ever received for drawing it.