Close Shaves in the Comics, Part 2: Storm Gets a Mohawk!

 by BK Munn

Now it can be told: the terrifying tale of talcum, tufts, and trimming that is shaving in the comics!

Let's talk about some of the most famous and important shaves in the history of comics.

2. Uncanny X-Men #173. Storm gets a mohawk!

This was the shave that shook all mutantkind! 

Never had a shave had such shocking ramifications for a character in a superhero comic, let alone a woman character! 

Storm was a groundbreaking character: one of the first prominent characters of African descent in U.S. comics, and one of the most powerful woman characters in the Marvel Universe. Storm was born Ororo Munroe, the daughter of a Kenyan princess and an African-American photographer, and raised on the streets of Harlem and Cairo, Egypt before assuming the mantle of an African weather goddess when her mutant powers manifested. When she is first introduced in comic books, in Giant Size X-Men #1, created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, she is depicted as serene royalty. Her superhero costume includes a cape, and her trademark regal hairstyle is a mane of shockingly white, long, flowing hair, accessorized with a crown-like tiara. Storm quickly established herself as one of the most powerful X-Men as well as a gentle voice of reason, a leader, a teacher, and a mentor to student mutants at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the secret headquarters of The X-Men. Her beauty, highlighted by the contrast between her black skin and white hair, set her apart from the other, decidedly less-glamorous mutants. 

But all this changed in 1983's X-Men #173, "To Have and Have Not!"

After spending a week in Japan in the company of Wolverine's crazy mutant ninja girlfriend Yukio, Ororo finds herself revelling in the down-and-dirty violence that is Yukio's specialty. After using a lightning bolt to knock out a Yakuza thug, Storm notes, "I have never used my powers to deliberately inflict pain." She concludes, "This madness of yours has infected me ---I welcome it!"

Cut to a week later, and the arrival of the rest of the X-Men for Wolverine's wedding. Storm makes one of the most dramatic reveals in X-Men history, debuting her all-leather street punk uniform, topped off by a spectacular feathery mohawk hairstyle. Her "new look" is as shocking as a lightning bolt, electrifying her colleagues, and provoking an emotional response.

“Your clothes! Your…hair! What have you done?!” gasps young Kitty Pryde, while Professor Xavier speculates privately whether the change is “indicative of a deeper, more serious metamorphosis.”

The new look does indeed prove to be indicative of big changes in Storm's character. In the issues that follow, she becomes more calculating, aggressive and self-assured, winning a knife-fight against the Morlock leader Callisto and becoming leader of the X-Men even after losing her powers. Originally intended as a joke by the series artist Paul Smith, writer Chris Claremont quickly seized on the implications of the punk look for the character's development.

The change had an effect on the readership as well, galvanizing interest and making Storm a fan favourite. Through the act of shaving most of her head, Storm became a comic book style icon, her punk look shaking up the staid world of superhero comics and making radical change one of the hallmarks of Reagan 80s Marvel, heralding the new wave of team shake-ups, costume and character redesigns, and universe-rattling crises and secret wars. Her leather uniform also created a template for more "realistic" superhero costuming, especially in film design.

What Was the Best Comic of 1961?

by BK Munn

I've seen some press for an upcoming repackaging of Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #1, the comic book that arguably launched the Marvel brand of superheroes. The new book tries to place FF1 in its historical context by reprinting it alongside the other Marvel/Atlas comics that were published in the same month, presumably to show what a major departure the title was. Of course, comics historians who have studied the period know that the Fantastic Four is not really a major departure for Kirby, being an extension and articulation of several themes from his previous superhero, science fiction, and romance comics work. Far from being revolutionary, there's a case to be made that the Fantastic Four isn't even the most interesting comic book Kirby himself created that year! Sure, its importance in paving the way for the revival of superheroes at Marvel can't be understated, but most would agree it's not the greatest comic book, even for a kids' comic, and it would be awhile before the title of "World's Greatest Comic Magazine" would even be remotely applicable. Which leads me to ask, what was the best comic of 1961?

In the sphere of U.S. children's comic books, there were many contenders in 1961. Dell published all-time classic stories by John Stanley and Carl Barks (Stanley's "Around the Block with Dunc and Loo" premiered the same month as FF #1), and had many good-looking adventure comics like Tarzan. National was cranking out handsome and entertaining comics drawn by the likes of Curt Swan, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth and Carmine Infantino. Archie had Dan DeCarlo and Harry Lucey. The list goes on.

And what about comics intended for an older or more general audience? There weren't many graphic novels published in 1961 (although there were some), but the world of U.S. magazine and newspaper comic strips was having a banner year. Harvey Kurtzman's Help! magazine was going strong in '61 and you could walk into any bookstore and buy a collection of great comics by immortals like Charles Schulz (Peanuts Every Sunday) and Walt Kelly (Pogo a la Sundae). Any daily newspaper was chock-full of masterful soap opera and adventure storylines by greats like Milt Canniff, Frank Robbins, Harold Gray, Chester Gould, and many more. Johnny Hart's "B.C." had just started to hit its stride and Jules Feiffer, a graphic novel pioneer, had just published a new collection of his decidedly-adult Village Voice strips, "Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl." And don't forget, Jack Kirby was winding up his "Sky Masters" sci-fi strip at the same time as FF#1 was hitting the stands.

Looking further afield, Franco-Belgian comics were having a good year. The first Asterix album by Goscinny & Uderzo came out in 1961. Herge was serializing masterwork "The Castafiore Emerald" in his Tintin magazine, having just released the sublime children's classic "Tintin in Tibet" the previous year. Franquin had put out a new Spirou: "Z comme Zorglub." There were also a ton of lush adventure strip albums by the likes of Uderzo, Jijé (assisted by Jean Giraud), Jean Graton, and others. Elsewhere, Argentine artists like Alberto Breccia, Solano Lopez, and Hugo Pratt were breaking new ground in work for various UK and Spanish-language publishers. In Japan, the gekiga movement was underway, with Yoshihiro Tatsumi creating gritty noirish manga in a new style. Hideko Mizuno published her breakthrough shojo manga “Gin no habira” (Silver Petals), Leiji Matsumoto published his first sci-fi epic, "Denko Ozma," and among many other things Tezuka published his "Captain Ozma" (no relation!) in 1961.

Comics in Film: Top Guns of the West in The Harder They Come (1972)

Comics in Film: The Harder They Come (1972). Top Guns of the West: Super DC Giant #14, 1970.

Reggae star Jimmy Cliff reads a comic about gunfighters in this movie about a wannabe reggae star who finally has a big hit on the radio and the sales charts when he becomes a gunfighting marijuana dealer. This comic is a reprint collection of classic western stories illustrated by well-known superhero artists like Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Kubert (who drew the cover). Also seen in the film, in a scene where Cliff's jealous preacher boss looks through the car, is another 1970 comic book, Two Gun Kid #95, featuring stories by the Holy Trinity of Marvel Comics westerns, John Severin, Dick Ayers, and Jack Kirby. Cliff's character later become something of a "two gun kid" himself when he embarks on his crime spree, killing a bunch of cops with a pair of pistols and then brazenly posing for a set of glamour shots in a photo studio brandishing the same guns like a comic book cowboy. These imported U.S. comics were part of the cultural mileu that ska and reggae emerged out of, along with crime movies and U.S. top 40 pop and jazz. The desperate life of serial unemployment and low-level drug dealing the film documents had a fantasy flipside in the music that could just as easily reference "James Bond" and "Al Capone" as well as romance or Rastafarianism.

Close Shaves in the Comics, Part 1: Shaving Subby!

by BK Munn

Now it can be told: the terrifying tale of talcum, tufts, and trimming that is shaving in the comics!

Let's talk about some of the most famous and important shaves in the history of comics.

1.  Fantastic Four #4, 1962. The Human Torch shaves The Submariner. 

This has got to be the most electrifying shave of them all! It's an historic shave. It's a shocking shave. It's a shave unique in the history of all media! This is the shave that launched the Silver Age of Comics in the USA! How was it done? What is the science of the thing? What kind of genius mind could invent such a shaving sequence that gives such delight? Only Jack Kirby, The King of Comics,  could have conceived of such a shave.

Just after Jack and Stan reinvigorated American superhero comics with their Fantastic Four, they reintroduced a character from Marvel's 1940s heyday, Prince Namor, The Submariner of Atlantis. Back in the Golden Age, The Submariner (created by Bill Everett) and The Human Torch (created by Carl Burgos) were arch-enemies, constantly fighting each other in the pages of each other's comic books throughout WWII. Fire and water don't mix, and the two characters were a perfect match. Jump forward almost 20 years, and both were almost forgotten. The Human Torch was revived as a totally new character, the teenage hothead Johnny Storm, kid brother of The Invisible Girl, and youngest member of The Fantastic Four. 

In this issue, Johnny wanders into the Bowery district of New York City and encounters a superstrong bearded hobo who looks vaguely familiar. After a quick shave and a dip in the East River, The Submariner is reborn! Having lost his memory, Prince Namor has been living as a Bowery Bum for years, among the other lost men. Once he regains his senses, the mutant Namor renews his war against the humans of the surface world, with a special hate-on for The Fantastic Four (partly because he falls in love with Johnny's sister, Sue, a big problem for her boyfriend and leader of the FF, Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards). This great story re-launches Namor as one of the major antiheroes of the comics, a key figure spanning two eras of Marvel history, a liminal figure with one foot in the past and another in the science fiction future.

And look at those panels! Kirby's superhero work is full of action and violence, with tons of jumping, flying and fighting figures zig-zagging at crazy angles, drawn with dynamic perspective, and most of his Fantastic Four work is just like that. Here we have a sequence of panels that are mesmerizing in their simplicity. The Human Torch, exhibiting great control of his flame power, methodically, almost tenderly, shaves off the beard of the nameless vagrant, revealing the regal, slightly alien face of his namesake's greatest enemy, The Submariner. Shocking! Beautiful! Eerie!

The reintroduction of Subby (and of the Torch, in a way) set a precedent for Marvel, leading to one of the most famous returns in comics when Jack Kirby repeated the trick a few years later and brought back his own character Captain America, found in a block of ice in Avengers #4 (1964). Marvel's competitors at DC had pioneered this sort of gimmick when they revamped some of their second-tier characters in the late-50s, kickstarting the so-called Silver Age of superheroes. These DC characters, while bearing the monickers and abilities of older characters, had new alter-egos and costumes, and were eventually explained as weird echoes of heroes from a parallel dimension, called Earth Two. The artists and writers at both companies had hit on a playful way to rejuvenate stale brands and old intellectual property for a new audience, injecting a bit of science fiction and youth into dusty comic books in a move I'm going to call "Shaving the Submariner"...

Jim Starlin on the Comics Guild, circa 1979

A great old interview with cartoonist Jim Starlin wherein he speaks directly about his involvement with organizing comic creators in the 1970s and his attitude towards Marvel at that time. The interview is from the program for the London Comicon. The full pdf of the program is here. I think the interview was conducted by one or more of the con organizers: Ian Starling, New (Blue) Ferris, and Ian Knox.

Comic Fan Project: Don Heck era Avengers

A new entry in the Comic Fan Project, the search for early Canadian comic book fans!

This entry brings us a letter printed in Marvel's Avengers #31 from August 1966. The letter is a comment on the character and plot developments in the run of Avengers co-plotted and illustrated by cartoonist Don Heck who replaced Avengers co-creator Jack Kirby on the feature and was the other primary visual chronicler of the era before Big John Buscema and Neal Adams made their mark later in the "Silver Age":

Dear Stan and Don, 
No! No! You can't do this! You can't leave Henry Pym a ten-foot-tall freak!.You'll be rouing one of the most beautiful romances in comicdom. We Marvelites will never tolerate this man's being deprived of what he has needed most in life since the loss of his first wife --the love of Janet Van Dyne. On this we all stand firm. As a matter of fact I'm still amazed that he and the Wasp are not already married. They had plenty of time in which to be wed during their recent period of inactivity. Except for this weakness, the come-back of Giant-Man was rather spectacular. His new costume finally adds that last basic color that has been missing in the new Avengers, and that is yellow. Two things still puzzle me --one is his size. The 25-foot version is too big and too clumsy, as we frantic fans noticed as he struggled to squeeze through the corridors of the Collector's castle. In this state he more of a hindrance than a help to the Avengers. The ten-foot height is slightly undersized. Giant-Man always was and will ever be at his peak in mobility, strength, and power at his standard 12-foot combat height which is the height he displayed on the cover of issue #28. This is the way I and many other old-time Marvelites remember him and will always remember him. The other thing I find hard to accept is his new name. Somehow the name Goliath will never overshadow the glory tha was once in the name of he who we called Giant-Man, for this was how we grew to admire him. The old name sticks close to the heart of many of us. Should these few flaws be remedied, I am sure the new Avengers would reach a peak that might even surpass the glory of the old Avengers.
Claude Paquet5834 Molson St.Montreal 36Quebec, Canada

A great letter full of early fan entitlement and some size puns devoted to perennial nobody's favourite Hank Pym aka Ant-Man aka Giant-Man aka Goliath aka Yellowjacket. At this point in Marvel's development, it's interesting to read a reader self-identify as both a Giant-Man fan and as an "old-time Marvelite" --the Marvel U is at this point only 4 or 5 years old and the letter is written in response to Avengers #28! Also interesting that at this point, the Avengers was basically "The Adventures of Giant-Man"...

Thanks to Claude Paquet of Montreal!

It Was a Golden Age: Cracked, 1958

There Were Giants in Those Days





From the contents page of Cracked #5, October 1958. We see here half of the once-and-future Marvel Bullpen along with the once-and-future Mad Magazine "Usual Gang of Idiots". The creators of Superman, The Human Torch, and The Submariner rubbing elbows with the artists behind Little Annie Fannie and Torchy. And for all that, it still reads like any issue of Cracked from anytime during its 50-odd-year run.

The full list reads as follows.

Editor: Sol Brodsky.

Artists: Carl Burgos, John Severin, Bill McCartney, Joe Maneely, Bill Everett, Syd Shores, Bernard Bailey, Jack Davis, Bill Elder, Al Jaffee, Jerry Behar.

Writers: Paul Laikin, Bill Ward, Jerry Siegal(sic), Carl Memling, Dick Richards, Fernando West, Teddy Bee.



At this early date, John Severin is already the workhorse of the magazine, followed closely in term of pages by Bill Ward (who also appears here as "McCartney," I think). Severin does front and back covers and two strips.





Will Elder subscription ad



And is this a self-portrait of Human-Torch-creator Carl Burgos? Look closely:





Some nice post-EC early Jack Davis in this double-page spread. There is just so much going on here!





Lots of quality stuff here, the knowledge of which is bound to make you popular with the opposite sex.

Myra Breckinridge is a Marvel Comic Book?

“I’m quite happy with Raquel doing it,” recalls [Myra Breckinridge director Mike] Sarne, who nonetheless screen-tested her. “Because she has a marvelously artificial way of acting. And you could totally believe that she was a sex-change in a mad sort of way …. To me she fitted kind of stylistically into my Pop-art gallery. And Mae [West] fit into that, too; the pose, the walk —‘I’m Pop art, I’m a Marvel comic.” —quoted in ” Myra Breckinridge: Swinging Into Disaster” by Steven Daly, Vanity Fair’s Tales of Hollywood (Penguin, 2008)

Marvel Boycott Diary: Quick Update On Winning, Losing

As usual, and into the future, the Marvel Boycott continues. Just a quick note, not a real update or anything. I mostly wanted to share this scan from one of my local papers, The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, from last month. The article is a reprinting of James Sturm's boycott article from Slate that was picked up by a number of papers months after it was originally posted online, on the eve of the Avengers movie premiere. The K-W Record is owned by The Toronto Star and I believe the article was first reprinted there. No comment on the article, except to say that I agree with everything in it. My chief joy is the headline, which is the sort of thing I never expected to see in print outside of the comic fan press, nevermind the daily newspaper I used to deliver as a member of my own childhood newsboy legion.

I probably won't be posting Boycott updates here as frequently as I have over the past few months. In many ways, the dialogue started by "Steve Bissette when he made the initial call for action in the wake of the Kirby v Marvel court decision last summer has borne strange and wonderful fruit, and the boycotters have succeeded beyond their imaginings. Sure, Marvel and Disney haven't reversed their stance and suddenly sharing copyrights with the Kirby heirs and other creators, nor has one iota of the billions of dollars The Avengers has made been earmarked for comics creators, but I think the tiny noise we have made has had some positive effect.

First, comics readers and the general public alike have been made aware that all is not perfect in Marvel land. Blog posts, newspaper articles and twitter conversations have made sure that thousands of people discussed the historical injustices perpetrated by Marvel on Jack Kirby and other comics creators in terms of fair payment, copyright, royalties, merchandising, etc. As well, the conversation has expanded to a consideration of the larger comics industry, especially after the news of Before Watchmen and Alan Moore's objections to the continued use of the characters and stories he created.

Second, the boycott has led some people to think about their place in the system and how they want that system to look. Creators and fans have reevaluated their approach to working for Marvel and DC and buying the product from Marvel and DC. Fan favourite creators have seen shifts in their readership based on how they approach these questions. We have actually had discussions about ethics and morals in comics and some people have actually changed their behaviours based on those (ongoing) discussions!

By these standards I feel that the boycott has been a success. The whole enterprise has something of a quixotic feel to it and maybe most of those involved didn't even dream that a handful of disorganized, disillusioned and angry comic book fans could have an effect on the policies or profits of one of the largest entertainment corporations in the world, but students of boycotts will tell you that the process of calling for big changes often leads to important little changes in consciousness and action.

That being said, I don't intend to stop calling for big changes. And I don't plan on buying Marvel or DC comics anytime soon, either.





Until next time, please remember to Boycott Marvel!

Previous:

Cartoonist Seth on the Marvel Boycott

Should We Boycott Marvel?

The Jack Kirby Petition at change.org

Marvel Boycott Diary: Jumping Ship

The Marvel Boycott continues. If you are just joining us, the Boycott started after Steve Bissette's reaction to Marvel's victory against the Kirby family's lawsuit. Fans were upset that Marvel and its owner Disney wouldn't even try to settle with the family of Jack Kirby, the man responsible for designing most of Marvel's greatest characters (including The Avengers) and for co-writing and drawing many of their original adventures back in the 1960s. Here is all the latest news about the Marvel Boycott:

Item! The Jack Kirby petition at change.org is still going strong. The petition is called "Marvel Entertainment: Give credit and royalties to Jack Kirby and his family" and simply asks Marvel to properly credit Kirby as the creator and co-creator of all the stories and characters he had a hand in while working for Marvel, and to pay royalties for their use. Please check it out. Over 1,500 people have already signed the petition!!

Item! Classy: Comic book artist, painter and writer Alex Ross is interviewed by journalist Elliott Serrano for one of his hometown papers the Chicago Redeye about The Avengers movie and Jack Kirby's legacy:

ES: What do you think of the argument that Marvel Entertainment owes the estate of Jack Kirby for his contributions to creating these characters?

AR: Keep in mind that Kirby’s family does not receive anything for participation in all these countless characters of his creation or co-creation with Stan Lee making their way into films, merchandise, and other media. Whatever deal they worked out with Stan Lee, they never did with him. By right, with each one of these new projects that still hales back to the work and ideas of Jack’s, there should be some kind of honorable compensation for how much it’s benefiting the company today.

Item! One of the biggest stories to come out of the Marvel Boycott was the news that cartoonist Roger Langridge has publicly stated he will quit working for Marvel as a result of the Kirby controversy and the company's general treatment of creators and creator rights. Langridge was interviewed by Michael Cavna at the Washington Post about his decision and the background. (Cavna has also issued a modest proposal at the Washington Post suggesting that Disney should gift a settlement to the Kirby estate.) Langridge is very articulate about his decision to stop working for Marvel:

I was always something of a tourist at Marvel to begin with. Writing for Marvel was not something I ever set out to achieve; I came up through the alternative comics publishers like Fantagraphics and by self-publishing my own work, so doing the odd thing here and there for Marvel always felt like a crazy detour in terms of where I wanted my career to go. As a result, I wasn’t that hard to convince to jump off.

Marvel’s shabby treatment of its founding creators, particularly Jack Kirby, has been a bone of contention for a lot of people since the 1980s, at least, so that underlying sense of discomfort was always there. It was the legal decision against the heirs of Jack Kirby last year that was the thing that made me think, “You know, I probably shouldn’t be doing this.” (Note: Marvel tells Comic Riffs it can’t comment on matters involving Jack Kirby due to ongoing litigation.) The cartoonist Steve Bissette wrote a very articulate and passionate blogpost that was widely circulated at the time of that ruling, and I read it and nodded my head and thought: Yeah, it’s probably time to get out. I didn’t make a big noise about it at the time because the thing I’d just written for Marvel, “John Carter: A Princess of Mars,” hadn’t yet come out, and I didn’t think it was fair to drag my collaborator on that book, Filipe Andrade, down with me if there was a backlash. I didn’t feel it was my place to make that decision for him.

A few months later, there was the business with Marvel taking down Gary Friedrich over his selling of Ghost Rider prints at conventions, which I felt Marvel/Disney dealt with in a much more heavy-handed way than they had to, essentially crushing the guy’s only source of income. At that point I mentioned to my wife, “You know, I really don’t want to do business with these people,” and she very matter-of-factly said: “Well, don’t. You’ve got plenty of work without them.” To her eternal credit.

Item! Of course, bestselling novelist and comics writer Chris Roberson was the first big name to publicly quit working for a major comics company over the issue of creator rights. His interview with Tim Hodler of the Comics Journal covers his reasons for quitting and the backlash from the fan community, as well as some interesting points about Kirby, Alan Moore, and the movement away from Dc and Marvel:

if DC and Marvel were to grandfather their current equity deals back to 1938 that they would obviate the need for the lawsuits that many of the creators and their estates continue to bring and that also they would have a public relations bonanza on their hands because they would be able to show how they were taking care of the people that made these characters that people cherish now. In much the same way that Time Warner settled with Siegel and Shuster in the ’70s so they could trot them out for the premiere of the Superman movie. How great would it be if Time Warner could point to how they were helping pay for Tony DeZuniga’s hospital bills while they were promoting the Jonah Hex film, or whatever the case may be. I think if they took better care of the people who created the characters that other hands now service, that would do a great deal to engender fonder feelings on my part.

One other thing I would add is that if DC and Marvel did retroactively grant the creator-equity deals to their former creators, we wouldn’t need a Hero Initiative now, because those guys would be getting money. It would reduce the profits a miniscule amount for the larger corporations, but it would take care of entire generations of now dying old men and women who have gone on to see their creations continue to generate revenue they or their children don’t have any part of.

Item! One of the more touching things I've heard recently is listening to cartoonist and publisher Zak Sally talking to Robin McConnell on the Inkstuds podcast (around the 50-minute mark) about explaining Jack Kirby and the Avengers movie to his 6-year-old son and how his son understands the injustice of the situation better than some adult comic book fans. Sally has written a longer response to the issue on his own blog and his comments are worth reprinting here:

"actually, over the course of writing this, i think i DO have an answer– not THE answer, but an idea anyway: it’s somewhat presumptive on my part, and it is NOT what “should” happen, but it falls under the category of “the least you could do”.

i think Marvel comics should pay for the Jack Kirby Museum. they should fund the thing in its entirety, right now– and not a temporary, pop-up (which would still be awesome), but a permanent, brick and mortar space. what is that– 10, 20 million bucks to do it right? that’s a drop in the bucket. and all profit from the museum in perpetuity could go to the Kirby estate.

and there’s where the presumption comes on my part– what SHOULD happen is that Kirby is given some credit on all his creations and a commensurate slice of the action. but i don’t think that’s going to happen; do you? so, this would be a simple, classy way to honor the man and his contribution, without endangering their precious legal status as “creators” of the work in question (and, again, as i write this– all of you who are yelling about “well, they did it under a work-for hire contract”, which, yes, is legally binding– what you are then saying is that THE CORPORATION IS THE CREATOR OF THE WORK AND CHARACTERS, both morally and legally. that, effectively, NO ONE CREATED the stuff, just this amorphous, profit yielding, non-human entity. you’re ok with that, as an ongoing and seemingly perpetual situation? HAVE FUN.)"

Item! Finally, writing for Detroit's Metro Times, journalist W. Kim Heron ponders the Marvel Boycott and has some choice words about Jack Kirby:

"if you’re touched by The Avengers, or any of the cavalcade of Marvel movies, you owe it to yourself to learn who this Kirby guy was. The Marvel industrial-promotional complex certainly won’t tell you."

Until next time, please remember to Boycott Marvel!

Previous:

Cartoonist Seth on the Marvel Boycott

Should We Boycott Marvel?

The Jack Kirby Petition at change.org

Jack Kirby Petition Reaches 1,500 Signatures

Congratulations to everyone who has participated in this petition. I'm really quite happy with the response it has generated! 1,500 was the original goal of the petition --something attainable to demonstrate that there was wider support for the idea that comic book creators like Jack Kirby should be justly compensated for their creations by Disney and Marvel. And while there has been zero response from the corporation, the discussion of creator rights in the fan community and in the general media (Wall Street Journal, Slate, ESPN, AOL) since Steve Bissette first called for a boycott of Marvel last summer has been extremely gratifying. Here's hoping the petition will continue to play a role in that discussion and that people will continue to use it as a forum to stand and be counted. Jennifer Starkman from Canada was the 1500th person to sign the petition. Thanks to Jennifer and thanks the 1,499 other people who have so far taken the time to sign the petition, to comment and to share it. The petition will remain open...

Jack Kirby is one of the most important and influential artists in the history of U.S. comic books and popular culture. Along with writers Joe Simon, Stan Lee, and Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby created the characters and stories on which Marvel Comics has built a very successful business over the past 60 years. Kirby created or co-created Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The X-Men, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, and many more. For his efforts, Kirby was paid a few dollars a page and never shared in the billions of dollars in profits his characters have made in various media, including print, film, and video games. We strongly urge Marvel Entertainment and its owner Disney to acknowledge Jack Kirby's authorship and primary role in the creation of these characters. As well, we urge Marvel to pay Kirby's family royalties or other just compensation for the use of these characters and stories. Until such a time as Marvel can make things right with Kirby's legacy and Kirby's family and heirs, we may refuse to purchase any Marvel product, including comic books, movies, toys, or games. We ask Marvel, Disney, and its shareholders to act ethically and morally in this situation, just as their characters would.

Marvel Boycott Diary: Jack Kirby Co-Created The Avengers

The Marvel Boycott continues. If you are just joining us, the Boycott started after Steve Bissette's reaction to Marvel's victory against the Kirby family's lawsuit. Fans were upset that Marvel and its owner Disney wouldn't even try to settle with the family of Jack Kirby, the man responsible for designing most of Marvel's greatest characters and for co-writing and drawing many of their original adventures back in the 1960s.

Item! The Jack Kirby petition at change.org is still going strong. The petition is called "Marvel Entertainment: Give credit and royalties to Jack Kirby and his family" and simply asks Marvel to properly credit Kirby as the creator and co-creator of all the stories and characters he had a hand in while working for Marvel, and to pay royalties for their use. Please check it out. 1,475 people have already signed the petition!!

Item! In the wake of the Avengers movie success, some large media organizations have begun to pay closer attention to Kirby and how he has been left out in the cold by Marvel/Disney. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Bruce Bennett, entitled "Fighting to Rescue the Lost Avenger", notes that things may be changing:

"With so many of Kirby's creations now firmly embedded in the popular consciousness, one might assume his contributions to the canon would be widely known. Yet few outside the Comic-Con velvet rope know his name. Even a shared screen credit with Mr. Lee and Captain America co-creator Joe Simon did not prevent CNN.com from attributing success of the The Avengers to 'the imagination of one man—Stan Lee' on Monday. But sky-rocketing auction prices and a new museum in his honor are signaling that Jack Kirby may finally have arrived. Randolph Hoppe, the director of the Hoboken-based nonprofit Jack Kirby Museum, said the man born Jacob Kurtzburg in 1917 remains 'one of the most underappreciated geniuses of the 20th century.'"

Item! Elsewhere, the Marvel version of reality, as presented by surviving Kirby collaborator and Marvel spokesperson Stan Lee, has come under fire from a website owned by Disney. Writing for the ESPN sports site Grantland, journalist Alex Pappademas quizzed Stan the Man about the recent controversy and asks Stan, who still gets paid about $1.25 million per year from Marvel, about creator rights:

I ask him if he feels, in general, that the comic-book industry has been fair to comic-book creators. "I don't know," Stan says. "I haven't had reason to think about it that much." Five-second pause. "I think, if somebody creates something, and it becomes highly successful, whoever is reaping the rewards should let the person [who] created it share in it, certainly. But so much of it is — it goes beyond creating. A lot of people put something together, and nobody really knows who created it, they're just working on it, y'know? But little by little, the artists and the writers now are a different breed than they were, and most of them, if they create anything new, they insist that they be part owners of it. Because they know what happened to Siegel and Shuster, and to me, and to people like that. I don't think it's a problem anymore. They make much more money than they used to make, when I was there. Proportionately. "Everybody thought that I was the only one that was getting paid off, but I never received any royalties from the characters. I made a good living, because I was the editor, the art director, and the head writer. So I got a nice salary. That was all I got. I was a salaried guy. But it was a good salary. And I was happy."

Item! Instead of boycotting The Avengers, alot of people are going to see it, and then donating some money, usually the price of the movie ticket, to a charity like the Hero Initiative, which helps out older comics creators with healthcare emergencies, and The Kirby Museum, which exists to educate the world about the life and work of King Kirby. These are both great charities and I would urge boycotters to donate to them as well. They do great work and you can send a message by mentioning that you are donating in memory of Jack or as part of the boycott. Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter has found out that $3000 in donations have already been made in reaction to the Avengers controversy. Ultimately, I feel that the fans shouldn't have to resort to charity to support ailing creators and things like a museum for one of the greatest comics creators ever. Ultimately, these creators should receive fair compensation and royalties for their creations so that they can spend their golden years in peace and good health, and share their legacies with the world.

Until next time, please remember to Boycott Marvel!

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Should We Boycott Marvel?

Cartoonist Seth on the Marvel Boycott

The Jack Kirby Petition at change.org

7 Things Journalists Should Know When Writing About the Avengers Movie

1. The Avengers were created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in 1963.

Although the characters in the comic book had appeared elsewhere, they were first brought together as a team in the The Avengers #1, published by Marvel Comics. Stan Lee, cousin of Marvel's publisher, was the salaried editor and senior writer at the company, while Kirby worked as a freelancer, being paid a flat rate for every page of art that was published. Although the exact division of labour is not known, Lee and Kirby shared co-plotting duties, with Kirby drawing the story in comics form, and Lee adding dialogue from Kirby's notes afterword.

2. Neither Lee or Kirby ever received any royalties or copyrights for their creations or stories.

The Avengers comic book series has been almost continuously published by Marvel for close to 50 years. The original stories by Kirby and Lee have been reprinted in different comics and books hundreds of times, and there have been spin-offs, foreign translations, toys, videogames, and animated cartoons, but not one cent of the millions of dollars collected by Marvel has gone to paying royalties to the original creators.

3. Jack Kirby died in 1994 without ever receiving royalties for the Avengers or any of the other characters or stories he co-created while working for Marvel, including Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Nick Fury, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and many others.

4. Stan Lee has continued to work as a spokesman for Marvel and currently earns a million dollars per year from the company and is credited as an Executive Producer on the Avengers movie.

While acting in this capacity, Lee testified in court that he was the sole creator of the Marvel characters and that Kirby acted only on Lee's instructions in illustrating the stories.

5. The family of Jack Kirby is currently engaged in a lawsuit with Marvel Entertainment and its owner Disney for control of the copyrights of the characters and stories Kirby had a hand in creating, including The Avengers.

6. Although Kirby is mentioned in the closing credits of The Avengers, and although the basic plot of the film follows the original Avengers comic book, Kirby receives no story credit and his heirs do not receive any compensation for the use of the characters.

7. Over the last year there has been a growing backlash against Marvel and The Avengers movie, with many fans and comic book creators lobbying for a change in Marvel's policy towards crediting and compensating Jack Kirby.

Comic book artists Stephen Bissette and James Sturm have urged a boycott of the Avengers film and so far 1,400 people have signed a petition on change.org asking Marvel to pay royalties to the family.

Marvel Boycott Diary: Jack Kirby Petition Playlist

The Jack Kirby Petition Soundtrack. 1,400 signatures and growing.

It's always a delicate balance with these Kirby playlists. I want to capture something of the fury and frustration of the Jack Kirby petition, and the growing movement to abandon Marvel, but at the same time I have this fantasy that Kirby should actually be able to relate to the music? Dunno. It's tough. On the one hand, Kirby was a visionary whose gaze took in galaxies and the far future. He was a political liberal who nevertheless had a super-strong work ethic, having survived the Depression, the streets of New York, World War II, and the comic book industry. He saw a lot, loved a lot of what he saw, was philosophical, but was also fairly embittered by many of his experiences. So, what kind of music did he listen to? Surely he was immersed in the pop music of his youth: jazz, blues, swing and the ballads of the 20, 30s, and 40s? Later, his son Neal had a rock band. Would the creator of the Hairies, OMAC, and Captain Victory hate punk and new wave? What about hip-hop? I like to imagine Kirby working in his studio through the 80s and 90s with MTV blaring in the background, chomping on a cigar, cartooning cosmic conflicts. But was he also thinking about how he wasn't going to get any credit or royalties for all the characters and stories he created for Marvel, and how he might not be able to leave a legacy for his kids?

5. Feel The Pain, Dinosaur Jr.

Fun video, but I really like the lyric, "I feel the pain of everyone/Then I feel nothing/Is it up to me?/You won't wait to see/Screwed us both again/About as close as you dare."


4. Dunkin Bagel, Slim Gaillard.

Like to think that Jack could have seen Slim and Slam back in the day (he could be in the audience of this video!) or maybe owned one of their records. Goofy fun with wonderful jazz instrumentation and since Kirby was Jewish thought he would enjoy this tribute to a New York City Jewish delicacy (hey, it was either this, or Gaillard's "Matzo Ball").


3. New York City, The Demics.

Thought about maybe something by The Diodes here, maybe Time Damaged (kind of futuristic, with a pallor) or their cover of Shape of Things to Come (ditto), or maybe Tired of Waking Up Tired ('cause Kirby pushed himself but never got enough credit or money and he was tired of it), but decided on The Demics' New York City. Thought the lyric could be about trekking downtown for another story conference with Stan the Man: "I'm getting pretty tired/Of going downtown/You know the same trip everyday/It's kinda bringing me down/Will I get out/Well I wonder how/I gotta get it movin' Man/I gotta move it right now..."


2. Just a Little Bit, Van Morrison and Them.

Garage-y R&B with killer organ. Van the Man sings, "I don't want it all/I just want a little bit." Why can't Marvel give just a little bit of their love to Kirby and fam?


1. Brother Can You Spare a Dime? by E. Y. "Yip" Harburg and Jay Gorney (performed by T. Waits)

Is it just me or is this song about Jack Kirby? From the depths of the Depression, through the days of the mob, through war, he built a tower up to the sun: "They used to tell me I was building a dream/And so I followed the mob/When there was earth to plow or guns to bear/I was always there, right on the job/They used to tell me I was building a dream/With peace and glory ahead/Why should I be standing in line Just waiting for bread?"


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Playlist: The Jack Kirby Petition is a Missile Hurled by History

Playlist: Top 10 Songs the Jack Kirby Petition Would Be

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Until next time, please remember to Boycott Marvel!

Previous:

Should We Boycott Marvel?

Cartoonist Seth on the Marvel Boycott

The Jack Kirby Petition at change.org

Marvel Boycott Diary: Avengers vs Buffy

So, I bought the first issue of Peter Bagge's new comic book Reset this week and enjoyed it. The book is published by Dark Horse Comics as part of their DarkHorse Originals line of creator-owned genre work. Other creators being published by this line include Gilbert Hernandez and Matt Kindt. The company has a good track record of publishing quite a few creator-owned series that have become big hits and benefited both creators and publisher enormously, most notably Mike Mignola and his Hellboy empire, but also including Eric Powell's The Goon, and series by John Byrne, Frank Miller, and many others.

I don't buy too many Dark Horse books beyond the very occasional Hellboy or Hernandez Bros side-project so it's been awhile since I've had a chance to peruse one of their periodicals. Besides some modern and progressive publishing deals in the creator-owned field, I believe the bread-and-butter of Dark Horse is in the realm of licensed and branded comics series like Star Wars and Conan. One of the "brands" that they publish are comics based on characters and media properties created and developed by director-writer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its various "Buffy-verse" spin-offs).

My copy of Bagge's Reset features the April 2012 edition of the company's Horsepower column, a monthly hype-advertorial page like the old Marvel Bullpen Bulletins, and this month's column is devoted to Joss Whedon, or rather, "a slew of great Joss Whedon-related titles" that will be arriving in comic shops over the coming months. All well and good. The company is doing its job hyping the books they publish. My problem is a short blurb for the Avengers movie that is stuck into the 3rd paragraph of the column, urging Whedon fans to see a movie produced by a Dark Horse competitor, in the same breath that they hype the various Whedon-related product on offer for Free Comic Book Day:

"May is rather a full month for Whedon goodies. Joss Whedon's blockbuster extravaganza The Avengers opens May 4 (so go see the movie and support Joss), and then on Saturday, May 5, head over to your local comics shop to buy some great comics --and take home some free comics, too..."

Now, my problem with this is not the good-natured cross-company promotion but rather the matter of credit. Of course, Whedon is credited as writer and director of the film, which nevertheless the producers (ie, Marvel/Disney) are calling "Marvel's The Avengers." But Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created the Avengers and Kirby had a hand in the creation of the majority of the main characters who will be featured in the film, including Captain America, Nick Fury, Thor, and Iron Man. So here we have an example of a company known as the anti-Marvel for its pioneering work with promoting creator-owned genre material, shilling for Marvel, and helping to erase the name of Jack Kirby from a movie based on his work that is generating tons of money for other people. Besides his million dollars per year from Marvel, even Stan Lee is getting a cameo in the film and I believe may also get a writer credit (or something like "based on the comic book by ..."). Everyone except Kirby and his family seems set to get credit and profit from the film. Kind of gross that Dark Horse has to help promote it.

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[Yes, I am aware that most of the Whedon-verse comics are produced using work-for-hire contracts. And no, I don't know who the writer of the Horsepower column is, although it is signed "editor" below an illegible signature.]

Until next time, please remember to Boycott Marvel!

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Should We Boycott Marvel?

Cartoonist Seth on the Marvel Boycott

The Jack Kirby Petition at change.org

Marvel Boycott Diary: Jack Kirby Fans Speak Out

Around the world with the Marvel Boycott:

Item! The Jack Kirby petition is still going strong and is approaching 1,400 signatures! If you disagree with Marvel's treatment of Jack Kirby's legacy and think that Kirby should share in the credit for the stories and characters he created, please go to change.org and sign the petition. Please share it with your friends, share it at your local comic shop, tweet about it, link to it on Facebook, anything. Just please help get the word out.

We strongly urge Marvel Entertainment and its owner Disney to acknowledge Jack Kirby's authorship and primary role in the creation of these characters. As well, we urge Marvel to pay Kirby's family royalties or other just compensation for the use of these characters and stories.

Item! The best piece of writing this week about how Marvel Comics and DC have mistreated the artists who work from them comes from journalist and critic David Brothers. Brothers' essay on Comic Alliance, The Ethical Rot Behind 'Before Watchmen' & 'The Avengers' is a heartfelt, blistering analysis of the history of DC's mistreatment of Alan Moore and his Watchmen graphic novel and Marvel's attempt to erase Jack Kirby from the history of the company and from the upcoming Avengers movie, all while continuing to fight the family of Jack Kirby in court. After reading it you may understand why Brothers has given up buying and reading all comics from both companies:

"Why doesn't Marvel honor Kirby's legacy by making his work available to the people of the future and giving him what he's due, after years of screwing him over? You call him "King." Treat him like one."

Item! Lastly, the best thing last week was this wonderful memoir by Jack Kirby's son, Neal Kirby, about growing up in the house where The King was creating the Marvel Universe. A very touching article in the Los Angeles Times that really gets at the heart of what Kirby did and what he was like as a human being. Everybody should read Growing Up Kirby: The Marvel Memories of Jack Kirby's Son:

"My father drew comics in six different decades and filled the skies of our collective imagination with heroes, gods, monsters, robots and aliens; most of the truly iconic ones are out of the first half of the 1960s, when he delivered masterpieces on a monthly basis. I treasure the fact that I had a front-row seat for that cosmic event."

Until next time, please remember to Boycott Marvel!

Previous:

Should We Boycott Marvel?

Cartoonist Seth on the Marvel Boycott

Marvel Boycott Diary: Passover Edition

Catching up with some links about the ongoing Avengers movie protests.

Item! First things first, please sign and share the Jack Kirby petition at change.org. Over 1300 people from all over the world have already signed this letter asking Marvel Entertainment and its owner Disney to start paying royalties and giving credit for characters and stories co-created by Jack Kirby.

Item! It's worth reading the comments section to this episode of the Savage Critics "Wait, What?" podcast, hosted by Jeff Lester and Graeme McMillan. The discussion concerns Lester's struggle with buying comics from Marvel. He wonders if he is really taking part in a formal boycott or if his only making an individual ethical choice, sort of like the decision to become a vegetarian. What makes a boycott? Is it, as one anonymous poster claims, "an actual organized campaign to presshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifure a target to cave into a demand or a set of demands"? Or can a boycott include simply the decision not to give Marvel money, as long as many other people have come to the same decision (a sort of "de facto" boycott), as commenter Kevin Huxford argues?

Item! Lastly, at the Jack Kirby Museum, Rob Steibel has been using his Kirby Dynamics blog for the past week for a series where he pretends to interview Stan Lee about his collaborations with Jack. It's a great series. Rob's premise is twofold. He argues that since the judge's decision in Kirby family's case against Marvel hinged entirely on Stan's testimony and claims that he created Marvel, and because nobody ever seems to ask Stan any hard questions about the conflicting stories he's told over the years, there are a lot of unanswered questions. The whole thing is done with a sense of humour since thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Stan/Jack credit question is such a tired debate for so many fans. Rob summarizes the series in his last post but there are many diversions including a debate with Greg Theakston and a summary of the debate on facebook. Along the way, much is made of the infamous "synopsis" of Fantastic Four #1, which Stan and Marvel claim is proof of Stan's arguments. If you are at all interested in these matters, you should really read everything here.

Please send me your links and comments about the Marvel boycott and Jack Kirby.

Marvel Boycott Diary: The Jack Kirby Petition is a Missile Hurtled by History

"Put ya guns up, tell your crew don’t front."

Jack Kirby Petition weekly soundtrack. 1,200 signatures and growing.

5. Black Betty, by Leadbelly (traditional arrangement)



4. Armalite Rifle, Gang of Four



3. 212, Azealia Banks



2. Good Guys (Don't Wear White), Minor Threat (Standells Cover)



1. Underdog, Dirtbombs

Marvel Boycott Diary: Please Help Boycott the Avengers Movie

So here are a few links from the ongoing protest against Marvel Entertainment and Disney's treatment of Jack Kirby and his family:

ITEM! The Jack Kirby petition now has 1,200 signatures! Comics fans from all over the world have already signed the petition asking Marvel Entertainment to give credit and compensation to Jack Kirby's family for the characters and stories Kirby created and co-created during the 1960s at Marvel Comics. Please, if you haven't already, read the petition and sign it if you agree with it. Also, if it's not too much to ask, please share it with your friends online, local comic book shops, and media --help to get the word out about this issue that strikes at the heart of creator rights, the comic book industry, and Hollywood.


ITEM! The man who started all this talk of boycotting Marvel last summer, Steve Bissette, has a new post up at his blog about the basic issues of the campaign (and he's found a killer Captain America image to illustrate his argument). Now that the hype for the Avengers movie has really started to gear up, with blogs, newspapers, and networks mindlessly posting every press release and trailer about the film, it's time for those who believe in justice for Jack Kirby and his family to kick things up a notch as well. As Bissette notes, "The thought of sitting through another bloated multi-million dollar-budgeted charade about how “it’s right to fight for justice” when Marvel/Disney can’t cough up the equivalent of, say, one day’s shooting budget for catering or grips to toss a bone to Jack’s heirs—well, that act of enduring that film isn’t at all attractive or appealing to me any longer on any level." Check it out!

ITEM! Finally, the court case that really started this, involving the Kirby children's attempt to reassert copyright over the characters Jack Kirby created and co-created for Marvel, is now under appeal. Daniel Best has posted the actual legal document submitted by the Kirby lawyer here. It's a fairly long document with some legal language, but it argues some points about the original judgement and the evidence the judge ignored, in addition to introducing new arguments about the behavior of Marvel and Stan Lee. Well worth reading!

Marvel Boycott Diary: Top Ten Songs The Jack Kirby Petition Would Be

So I had a few drinks and listened to some hurtin' songs. Then I wondered about the soundtrack that would play when Jack Kirby finally gets his due.

Please sign the Kirby petition.

#10. Waylon Jennings, Mental Revenge. "I hope that the friend that you find yourself with gets drunk and loses his job/and that the road that you're traveling on gets rough, rocky and hard/you never really loved me, you only made me blue/and all in all if the curtain should fall, I hope it falls on you."

#9 Blondie, One Way Or Another. I like to picture Kirby listening to Blondie records while penciling The Eternals. Thena and Kro teaming up against The Celestials? Totally a Debbie Harry moment.

#8. Destiny's Child, Survivor. Maybe Beyonce could be one of Kirby's zaftig amazons?

#7. Big Maybelle, One Monkey Don't Stop the Show. Blues diva Big Maybelle (1924-1972) had a storied career and many hits, the last in 1967. Born in Jackson, Tenessee, she toured the entire U.S., including the Apollo Theater in New York City. She recorded "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" two years before Jerry Lee Lewis. This rendition of the Rose McCoy-penned classic "fuck you" song is a great hard-boiled jilted lover tune.

#6. Kate Bush, The Wedding List. A song based on the 'La Mariee Etait En Noir' or 'The Bride Wore Black' by Francois Truffaut. Revenge melodrama. Kirby could have seen it in a matinee in 1969 or so.

#5. Rocky Racoon by Lena Horne. I like to think that Jack could have heard this version of the Beatles country-blues themed murder ballad, originally presented on Charles Manson's favourite record, here recorded by that most classy of dames, Miss Lena Horne, sometime in the 1960s or 70s on a late-night FM broadcast or maybe on some 80s variety show with jokes written by Mark Evanier.

#4. Nazi Rock by Serge Gainsbourg. Born Lucien Ginsburg in Paris, France, the son of Russian Jewish emigrants, Serge Gainsburg survived the Nazi occupation to become once of France's biggest pop stars and sex symbols. Cartoonist Joann Sfar has recently directed a film of his career, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.

#3. Magnetic Fields, Yeah Oh Yeah. I love this song and decided to throw it in here since it seems to be an oblique criticism of an incompetent "lesser" artist. It kind of has a quirkiness and enunciation that I associate with Kirby.

#2. The Clash, Ghetto Defendant. As seen in his classic "Street Code" comic book short story, Kirby was the original ghetto defendant. Here, Alan Ginsberg updates the Kirby experience to the 1970s.

#1 what else?

Woody Guthrie Tear the Fascists Down. Kirby as Depression-era scrabbler, Captain America creator, World War II veteran.