Funky is 50!

50 years ago today, the first appearance of Funky Flashman. Funky was Jack Kirby's thinly-veiled parody of his old boss Stan Lee. Kirby had just spent a decade working under Lee at Marvel Comics, having Lee take the writing pay and credit for all the characters and stories Kirby wrote and drew. Before Kirby started working for Lee, Lee was known, if he was known at all, for writing a handful of humour titles at his cousin's comic book company. After Kirby arrived, Lee began applying his gift for chatty dialogue and self-promotion to the line of superhero comics Kirby created, and the rest is history. When Kirby left Marvel to create his New Gods series of titles for DC in 1970, he took with him 10 years of resentment that he poured into the darkly humourous portrait of Funky and Funky's manservant House Roy, a parody of Stan Lee's real life assistant (and current Stan Lee apologist and hagiographer) Roy Thomas. Kirby only used the character once, but the nicknames stuck among fans and comics historians, and other creators revived Funky, off and on, most notably for the aptly-named Secret Society of Supervillains later in the 1970s. Panels from Mr. Miracle #6, published November 11, 1971, written and drawn by Jack Kirby.