These are side-by-side comparisons of original art and finished pages from Fantastic Four #61, from the latest issue of The Jack Kirby Collector. Im presenting them to illustrate a point that Ive tried to make numerous times, here and elsewhere. I have looked at countless pages of original Kirby pencil art in The Collector. I have looked at the notes that Jack put in the page and panel margins, and I have compared them to the actual lettered, printed dialogue and captions in the finished comic books. There is absolutely nothing anywhere to support the notion that Jack wrote any words for those comics but those notes in the margins of the original art, and there is simply no comparison between those words and the words on the final pages. None at all. Going back a few issues from FF #61, are we really to believe that Stan was doing nothing but polishing words that Jack Kirby scribbled in the margins of Fantastic Four #58 when Dr. Doom ranted to the Thing, You insufferable, unspeakable blot on the escutcheon of humanity, prepare to meet the fate you so sorely deserve! Feel--feel the limitless cosmic power in the hands which you once nearly crushed, and know that it is surely the last thing you will ever feel in your worthless, soon-to-be-ended life! How can anyone think for a minute that Stan polished Jacks margin notes into such a thing? Id be willing to bet that the note that Jack actually wrote for that panel was something more to the effect of, Doom says to the Thing, This is my revenge for the way you broke my hand. From an earlier issue, are we really to think that notes in the margins of the art for Fantastic Four #50 and exercises of editing and polishing by Stan produced a speech like (Silver Surfer to Galactus), Betray you? Never! But in truth I should betray myself if I did not fight to prevent the annihilation of a people! For here on this lonely little world, I have found what men call...conscience! Or one like, Emulate the Watcher. Stand and observe. Try to fathom the cataclysmic forces which have been unleashed. For you shall never see their like again. As for me, I do not stand silent, motionless, due to lack of concern. Long have I cherished the stumbling, bumbling, but always aspiring human race. Yea, even as I utter these words I am in mental contact with the Human Torch. I am guiding him through a maze of endless galaxies, protecting him from the ravages of infinite space. I can believe a lot of things, but I dont swallow the idea that verbiage like that came from notes scribbled between the panels of penciled comic book pages. There is a sense of word craft and language in those comic books that came, as Stan himself might have written, from one man and one man alone. This man served as more than just an editor. He crafted language and character voices for comic books that no one before him had ever applied to this medium. This compulsion to deny Stan Lee any credit whatsoever for the skill and craft that he applied to his writing doesnt hold up. I understand the way Jack Kirby was treated and his work and ideas misused, both by Stan himself and by Marvel, and it was wrong. But its just as wrong to try to build Jack up by tearing Stan down. Jack didnt get--and still continues not to get--his due. But taking props from Stan solves nothing. Stan Lee did with words what Jack Kirby did with pictures. The two men complemented each other. If anything, Stan rose to the occasion of the incredibly powerful stories that Jack provided him with his imagery. To suggest otherwise is to try to right one wrong with another.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 16:24:49 +0000
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