Super Stuff in the Bronze Age: Jack Kirby on Daredevil

by Ian Baker

I have always liked Daredevil - most probably as he was “Red Batman” ( a term coined by Mark Waid in his fun run of Daredevil back in 2013), and so as a Daredevil fan I bought my first ever Fantastic Four comic (back issue #73) this week for the princely sum of five bucks (four quid at current exchange rates) because Daredevil was featured on the front cover. What a bargain! I was intrigued to see how Jack Kirby had rendered Daredevil on the inside pages of a comic. I’d been vaguely aware that he’d done layouts of Daredevil for John Romita in the early days, and had drawn a cover or two as well in the mid sixties.

The received wisdom is that Daredevil had its origins as a standard Stan Lee-style Marvel superhero comic back in 1964. Jack Kirby provided character design assistance. After the first few issues, Wally Wood designed his stylized double-D chest insignia and streamlined his getup in devilish red, and Kirby had no further influence on the character.

So I thought I’d track the various Daredevil appearances as rendered by King Kirby, and try to determine what influence Jack had on the design and presentation of Ol' Hornhead in the relatively short period of his involvement with the character.

In fact, Kirby's influence can be seen in five distinct phases over the period 1964-1968.

Wave 1: April 1964-October 1964 - Design and early Covers

According to Tom Brevoort, the impetus for the creation of Daredevil came from Martin Goodman, who told Stan Lee that he’d made some investigations and that the trademark and copyright to the old Lev Gleason DAREDEVIL had been allowed to lapse. Goodman gave Stan instructions to create a Spider-Man knock-off to capitalize on the Web-Slinger's success.

Lee turned to Jack Kirby to at least design the new character. Kirby’s design sheet was ultimately reworked into the bulk of the final cover image, albeit with many alterations made to it. And so Kirby's initial involvement with DD was limited to cover renditions of Daredevil in the first five issues, the interior artwork being done initially by Bill Everett, and then put in the hands of Joe Orlando and Vince Colletta, before being passed to the team of Wally Wood & Bob Powell.

Kirby's initial Daredevil design very much reflected a circus trapeze artist, bright and colourful in red and yellow. The billy-club holster was in the initial design.

©Marvel. Daredevil #1. April 1964 . Credit Kirby and Bill Everett

The cover to Daredevil #1 was very much a mash-up of various design elements, with Kirby's rendition of Daredevil seemingly pasted on to a crowd scene, inked by Bill Everett. The pose is classic Kirby, DD's arm outstretched to the reader. This image has subsequently remained the design touchstone for the character despite the costume changes over the subsequent years.

©Marvel. Daredevil #2. June 1964. Credit Kirby & Colletta

©Marvel. Daredevil #3. August 1964. Credit Kirby & Colletta

The covers for Daredevil #2 and #3 , credited to Kirby and Vince Colletta, have far less power. In #2 the rendition of Daredevil is awkward, and the drawing of Electro is very static ; I wonder if Kirby was really involved at all. Similarly, the drawing of DD running in from left-field on the cover of #3 bears none of Kirby's hallmarks ; no foreshortening of perspective, no threat from the villains, who seem very static.

©Marvel. Daredevil #4. October 1964. Credit Kirby & Colletta.

The cover of Daredevil #4 is a return to form of sorts, with DD in a classic design pose (perhaps lifted from initial design sketches) with a woman on his arm, which seems to have been added subsequently. The Purple Man stands in the far background, again posing no real threat.

My overriding impression of these first four covers is of work that has been developed by committee, with very little design influence from Kirby other than the costume of the main character.

By issue #7, the creative reins had been handed over to Wally Wood, who redefined DD with new all-red costume, and a smaller, more lithe, less bulky build.

Wave 2: May 1965-Sep 1965 - Crossover appearances, emulating Wally Wood

With Wally Wood now taking over DD with the April 1965 issue, there was to be a concerted push to get DD appearing in the pages of other Marvel comic books, to raise awareness of the hero and drive sales. The editorial decision was made to ensure that DD looked as much like the Wally Wood version as possible in all appearances to ensure consistency. Renditions of DD were to reflect the Wood design ethos, which were more about athleticism than muscular power.

We all know that Murphy Anderson redrew Superman’s face in Kirby’s run on Jimmy Olsen over at DC, but Wally Wood (and later Romita) redrew DD’s face on top of Kirby.

And so Kirby, inked by Colletta, next rendered Daredevil in Journey Into Mystery #116 - May 1965 . Daredevil only appears in 2 panels!! The first instance is of a tiny stick figure balancing on a wire, and the second panel looks very much like Wally Wood's version. This second panel does not seem to look like a Kirby pencil, or even Colletta inks. My bet is that Bob Powell both pencilled and inked DD in these panels.

©Marvel. DD in Journey Into Mystery #116

©Marvel. DD (rendered by Bob Powell?) in Journey Into Mystery #116

DD's next appearance was in Fantastic Four #39 - cover dated the following month, June 1965. This was the first part of a two-part story (continued in Fantastic Four #40) which finds our hero teamed with the Fantastic Four against Dr Doom. Kirby pencilled both issues, #39 inked by Frank Giacoia (as Frank Ray), and #40 inked by Vince Colletta. It is pretty obvious that Wally Wood was brought in to re-draw or re--ink DD to ensure consistency, but in doing so the figure is often awkwardly rendered to fit into the existing Kirby artwork.

On the front cover of #39, DD is rendered differently to the Fantastic Four. Is he using his billy club as a walking stick? This cover looks to be a paste-up job. Looking at the action panels, I wonder if Kirby did more than the faintest pencil outlines for DD, as they have obviously been rendered by someone else.

The panel examples below from FF #39 and FF #40 give a good idea of the rendering of DD. In the panel from FF #39 the DD figure has none of the Kirby clothes-folds found in the FF costumes, or the famous Kirby renditions of cheekbones.

©Marvel. FF #39. DD has no trademark Kirby clothes creases or cheekbones

This page from Fantastic Four #40 shows DD in a Kirby pose in panel #1, although re-inked. The picture on the bottom left with DD firing his rifle is simply very awkward. The gloves have crease lines, but not the costume, indicating that Kirby perhaps drew the original figure. (And why the heck does DD need a SIGHT on the rifle???).

©Marvel FF #40. Why does DD need a rifle sight?

If we take a look at Daredevil rendered in his own comic Daredevil #8 , which was published between FF #39 and FF #40, we see that the DD is the FF comic is virtually identical to one both penciled and inked by Wally Wood.

©Marvel. Daredevil #8 penciled and inked by Wally Wood.

Daredevil's next crossover appearance was the following month, in the famous Fantastic Four Annual #3, published July 1965. This story - "Bedlam in the Baxter Building" - features the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, and features pretty much every Marvel character and Stan & Jack for good measure.

Daredevil appears on page 11, both as Matt Murdoch and DD, and the rendering of DD appears very much as Kirby pencils inked by Vince Colletta. The clothes creases are in evidence on DD's costume, as are Kirby poses. Matt Murdoch's cheekbones are in evidence, and Foggy Nelson look nothing like the Foggy Nelson as drawn by Wally Wood.

The final cross-over appearance by DD is a single panel of Matt Murdoch in a trial setting in X-Men #13 - Sep 1965. This issue of X-Men was drawn by Werner Roth (billed as Jay Gavin) based on Kirby layouts. I can see no evidence of Wally Wood in the rendition of Matt Murdoch, so probably all the work of Werner Roth.

Wave 3: Jan 1966-Mar 1966 - Layouts

The next involvement of Kirby with Daredevil were Daredevil issues #12 and #13, the first to be drawn by John Romita following the sudden departure of Wally Wood and Bob Powell from Marvel.

The story behind this was described by Miked Garland on "Jack Kirby Museum.org".

"Daredevil was, up until that time, in the creative hands of Wally Wood, who made the character more dynamic, visually stunning, and marketable than he ever was previously. Wood was, however, slated to begin work on the new “Sub- Mariner” series debuting in Astonish #70, which is probably why the character last appeared in Daredevil (#7). The Daredevil book was being handled by Wood associate Bob Powell, who was preserving the Wood “look.” In the interim, however, Wood had a huge disagreement with Lee and refused to do any more stories ......... By the cover date of Dec. ’65, Wood was gone, and Powell with him. Stan was initially going to bring in Dick Ayers to take over the book, but really didn’t want to take Dick away from his other drawing assignments; as Dick was preparing some pages for the Daredevil book (of which he still has a few), enter John Romita. Romita had just returned to Marvel, having known Stan from the “Timely” days; previous to his return he was grinding out romance work for DC. Stan immediately gave John the Daredevil assignment, but unlike Ayers, John was not used to working Marvel method, so… enter Jack Kirby. Jack laid-out issues #12-13, and by #14 Romita was well on his way, staying on the title until issue #19 when he leaves in order to take over the artistic seat in Spider-Man."

The two part story in Daredevil #12 and #13 introduced Ka-Zar into the DD universe. This was the first time that Kirby got to illustrate - or at least map out - a complete Daredevil story. Kirby's layouts could range from fully-penciled panels to simply descriptive text. Certainly Kirby's layouts always followed the dominant 4, 5 or 6 panel page designs that he employed in the 1960s.

Page 4 from issue #12 (below) shows a strong Kirby design influence and layout in Romita's artwork. Some of this multiple action-oriented panel design would be adopted by Gene Colan when he took subsequently over the strip from Romita.

With the second part of the story in Daredevil #13, the front cover was given over to a Kirby-drawn Daredevil overlaid on a Romita background. This Kirby-drawn Daredevil was to become an iconic rendition of the character.

Kirby's panel design influence continues to be seen in the interior of Daredevil #13, although the panel content is more recognizable as later Romita. One example of Kirby design influence is the "looking through the legs" shot, which he used many times through his drawing career.

Although Kirby is only credited on layouts for DD #12 and #13, the first issue that Romita received sole artistic credits still shows Kirby layout influence on page 2 in a standard 6-panel page, before Romita adopting different sized panels and combinations in the remainder of the comic.

Following the layouts in Daredevil #12-#13 (and perhaps #14), there then began a two-year gap where there was no overt Kirby influence on Daredevil

Wave 4: April 1968 - Emulating Gene Colan

John Romita’s last issue of Daredevil was #19 (Aug 1966 issue) with Gene Conan taking over with #20 (Oct 1966). It must be said that by issue #19 Romita had made his mark on the comic, and Gene Colan's picking up of the reins had a strong sense of continuity while injecting a strong dose of adrenaline into the artwork, expanding into a far more innovative use of panel design.

Once Gene Colan had introduced energy and dynamism, Kirby’s rendition was more in keeping with the current version. And so Kirby's next (and final) take on the character on interior pages in Fantastic Four #73 (April 1968) had much in common with the Colon version while retaining the Kirby style. This FF issue was a continuation of the story from Daredevil #38, and so some attention was presumably paid to some level of artistic continuity. The artwork in FF #73 was Kirby inked by Joe Sinnott. There seems to be no intent to modify the figure, although I suspect that DD's face may have been retouched in places by John Romita (who was Stan Lee's go-to guy for re-touching in those years).

In this example of original artwork from page 14 of Fantastic Four #73 DD's face in the middle panel has been clearly "fixed" subsequent to Sinnott's inks:

Page 2 shows DD's face in a typically Kirby rendition, whereas DD facial close-up on page 4 is clearly the work of another artist.

And that was pretty much Kirby's final brush with Daredevil, save for one final cover:

Wave 5: August 1968 - Kirby Un-retouched - maybe.

Kirby's final rendition of Daredevil was the cover of Daredevil #43 - August 1968 , in which he fights Captain America. Interior artwork was by Gene Colan. This is a classic Kirby cover, foreshortened perspective and full of power.

The cover was penciled by Kirby, inked by Joe Sinnott. Comparing the published cover to the original artwork, there appears to have been no corrections made to the original art by other hands. So at least Kirby's final rendition of Daredevil was as close to his vision as possible, given that Sinnott was Kirby's favourite inker.

In conclusion, I believe that the relative lack of Kirby work on Daredevil was an opportunity missed, given that he co-created the original costume, and that he produced a very small quantity of un-retouched dynamic imagery. It would have been a treat to see at least one solo Kirby issue of Daredevil, but it was not to be.

2 comments:

McSCOTTYJanuary 3, 2023 at 6:21 PM
Interesting stuff Ian. I never really associated Kirby with DD apart from the odd covers I have seen and although I remember seeing Kirby credited as the layout artist in issues 12 and (especially) 13 of DD (in the Mighty World of Marvel) they seemed very much to my untrained eye to be all the work of John Romita. However, I can see from the panels that you have noted that Kirby was certainly involved and DD’s original red and yellow outfit does look to me like it was a Kirby creation - it is similar to his X-Men’s blue/yellow costumes (looking back Kirby seemed to like using yellow as can be seen on the Demon, Sandman, Captain 3D, Mr Miracle etc) .

I always thought that DD looked VERY awkward and out of place on the cover of FF 39 and looked like it had either been added after Kirby drew the FF as an afterthought or was left to Wally Wood to insert (poorly it has to be said) as DD looks like a feeble blind man squeezed into that cover.

All the talent that went into the creation of DD (up until the relatively recent excellent Waid / Samnee run) has resulted in one of the comics richest and coolest characters ever (certainly he was/is one of my all time favs) his all red costume is a classic .

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Jack Kirby on Daredevil