42) April 26, 2016

These are pages 1, 2 & 5 from a story board for a proposed series called “Roxie’s Raiders”, done by Jack Kirby for the Ruby-Spears animation studio, some time in the early ‘80’s. My set of copies has many gaps; I invited anyone who is able to fill those gaps. I’m missing pages 3,4,6,12, 14 through 29, and 36 through 46.

For more on the project, follow this link. http://comicsalliance.com/10-amazing-jack-kirby-designs-that-need-to-happen/

I acquired this set of copies during my brief tenure at Ruby-Spears as a storyboard artist in April-June of 1983. Jack Kirby was a staff artist (or a free-lancer, I’m not sure which). He dropped by the studio at least twice in the slightly less than two months I worked there, to pick up and drop off assignments and to shoot the shit with the director, John Dorman. They were both into boxing, as I recall.

I was a comic book fanboy on the make to be pro, so I tried to cozy up to “The King”. He answered my questions politely but tersely, basically giving me no space to extend the conversation. Apparently the days of the early 70’s, when Jack would mentor younger artist or writers such as Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman, were passed. I found this out in no uncertain terms after I was fired from my staff board artist gig. I tried calling his home number to see if he needed an assistant. Ros Kirby answered the phone and made clear that I wasn’t going to get anywhere near her husband.

The thing was, I wasn’t a particular fan of Kirby anyway, not at that time (1983). I was into the realists, like Neal Adams, Doug Wildey, Al Williamson, Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Eisner, Herge’, Moebius. Kirby was…it wasn’t that he was too weird; I was a big fan of underground comis and the stuff that was coming out of Europe, as seen in Heavy Metal Magazine. Independent Comics, such as Elf Quest, Cerebus and Love and Rockets were also highly inspiring.

My problem with Kirby, in 1983, was that he was OLD. He smelled like my grandmother in spite of his cigars. And his comics were old too, even the ones he had done recently, like Destroyer Duck, Captain Victory, and Silver Star. He shared the same fault, in my 23-year-old mind, as John Buscema. Gene Colan, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Jim Aparo, Curt Swan, Joe Kubert and others of that generation; endless repetition with ever diminishing emotional involvement. The only interest I found in their work was generated by seeing what different inkers did with their pencils. (To be continued)