Wally Wood And Jack Kirby


by

Friday, November 13, 2009






I read Jeet’s post about Jack Kirby and Dave Sim and thought about Kirby in the early ’70s. Specifically, his transition to DC from Marvel. So, I went down into my basement and dug out a DC comic from 1971. It’s a “Super DC Giant” reprint of all the Kirby Challengers of the Unknown material inked by Wally Wood. When were they first published, the late ’50s? And then I tried to imagine Wood being part of the Fourth World material, just inking one of the books like Vince Colletta did for Forever People. And then I smoked a cigarette. Man, that would have been amazing. For me, anyhow. They could have really turned up the romance angle. Look at those girls. Hubba Hubba.

Can you imagine Big Barda inked by Wood? Oof.

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18 Responses to “Wally Wood And Jack Kirby”
  1. Inkstuds says:

    Thats a great issue. those Challengers are amazing.

  2. Edgewood says:

    Nice art but Colletta's women were a heck of a lot sexier.

  3. Alan David Doane says:

    The women in the third panel down remind me of the women in Barry Windsor-Smith's STORYTELLER series.

  4. Frank Santoro says:

    I dunno Mr. Edgewood, Wood's early 70's girlie art was pretty sexy. I think I'm dreaming of a dream team of inkers: Wood, Royer and Coletta each assigned to a particular Fourth World book.

  5. Dan Nadel says:

    Charles Burns wins the best Big Barda drawing of all time contest. It, I think, was in a recent "Free Shit" zine of his.

    I also love Wood and Kirby on Skymasters of the Space Force. Wood was in a great, clean line phase then and rendered Kirby's machinery with a grace and precision no one else ever managed. What a duo. Also good: Ditko and Wood; even better: Kane and Wood on Teen Titans.

  6. sdestefano says:

    While I naturally find Wood a masterful inker, I gotta say I never really liked him on guys like Kirby, Ditko and Kane. Wood's technique is extraordinary, but also overpowering. It's sort of like, "well, I know Jack's under all that rim lighting somewhere!"—but that's just me. Then again, I first encountered Woody's stuff as a kid, when he was inking Ric Estrada and Keith Giffen on ALL-STAR COMICS, and you won't find me complaining about any of that. Particularly not about how beautifully he rendered Power Girl's features. Oh no, I will not complain.

  7. Andrei says:

    I'm pretty sure those are not Wood inks on the Super DC Giant cover you posted, Frank.

    Umm… just checked, GCD has the inker listed simply as "?":
    http://www.comics.org/issue/75451/

    But it's pretty clear it's not Wood.

  8. Andrei says:

    While I'm at it–just checked the contents on GCD and that Super DC Giant actually reprints only about half of the Kirby/Wood material…

  9. Frank Santoro says:

    Hunh. Well, I've been lead to believe those are Wood inks for more than 20 years, so I'll do some cross checking, thanks. Bill Boichel will know. Hold on.

  10. Jason T. Miles says:

    You guys are stoned. That's Wood inking Kirby. Check out the black and white phone book collection of Challengers Vol. 1, it's all there properly credited.

  11. Dan Nadel says:

    I think Andrei is saying that Wood didn't ink the cover Frank shows, but I don't think Frank was talking about the cover. Wood did, however, ink all the interiors in that comic. Does the comic contain ALL of the Wood/Kirby Challengers? No. There's a fat hardcover collection (among other books) of that stuff. So… I dunno. I agree with Jason, I guess?

  12. Andrei says:

    Like Dan said, I just meant the cover wasn't Wood, that's all. Of course the contents are all Wood. But if you want *all* the Kirby/Wood Challengers, they're in the DC Showcase presents. And if you want more Kirby/Wood–well, maybe someday someone will reprint Sky Masters. Hey, it could be PictureBox's first Kirby project–Dan?

  13. Dan Nadel says:

    "Oh my jeeezy!" I didn't know that my beloved Sky Masters was out of print. Surely someone else is doing this? I mean, isn't IDW basically doing anything we can think of even before we've thought it? Anyone….? Anyone?

  14. Frank Santoro says:

    Oh I missed Andrei saying the cover. I thought he meant the interior. Whoops.

    I wish I was stoned. Anyone…? Little help.

  15. Andrei says:

    I should add–for anyone with deep pockets–that Sky Masters strips tend to be some of the most affordable original Kirby art on eBay, and they show up for sale pretty often. (I don't have any myself–I tend to be attracted more by Royer inks, but those generally are much more expensive.)

  16. Rodrigo Baeza says:

    The cover inks are by Vince Colletta.

  17. Andrei says:

    Synchronicity… Looking for something completely different, I landed on this excellent post on Kirby and Wood, here:
    http://kirbymuseum.org/node/194

  18. Andrei says:

    One more link I just found–it looks like Greg Theakston may be planning to reprint "Sky Masters." At least there is a section of his website titled that, though it's just a place holder at this moment:
    http://www.pureimagination.info/skymasters.html

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