Alternative covers - JLA #81 - A pivotal issue at the end of the Silver Age

A while back we highlighted a rejected Batman cover by Irv Novick that was re-drawn by Neal Adams. You can read the blog here.

This week a rejected Gil Kane cover for Justice League of America #81 (June 1970) is up for auction on Heritage Auctions, a cover subsequently re-drawn by Neal Adams after editor Julie Schwartz rejected the original. At first glance they are very similar, but Adams’ rendition (in my biased view) is undeniably superior. Small differences add up to a huge difference ; there is now movement in the image as Flash and Batman are visibly struggling ; Superman’s frustration and sadness through the change of an open palm to a clenched fist; Atom on his knees and not on his back makes him more heroic.  The Hawkman figure is more clearly delineated. 

And the biggest change - Batman’s cowl is now rendered in the new long-eared Adams style, rather than the old short-eared cowl of previous years. This brought consistency to the other DC covers featuring Batman on the cover that month (Batman #222, Detective Comics #400 and Brave and Bold #90).

©DC. Published cover to JLA #81

I took the opportunity of a quick re-read of JLA #81 (“Plague of the Galactic Jest-Master”,  written by Denny O’Neil), and realized that it was quite a pivotal issue in the transition from DC’s Silver Age to Bronze Age.  The JLA come up against the Jest-Master, an alien with the ability to turn his enemies into fools.

Of course, the scene on the cover is nowhere to be found within the comic. Quite a bait-and-switch to disappoint the buyer with a Dick Dillin and Joe Giella interior. The story does briefly feature Jean Loring (former wife of The Atom) under a madness spell at the start, as the story ties up threads from both O'Neil's previous issue of JLA (#80) and his final issue of the abruptly cancelled The Atom and Hawkman #45 “Queen Jean - Why Must We Die?” from nine months earlier (Oct/Nov 1969).

The issue also ties into the highly regarded O’Neil/Adams run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, providing a full page featuring the Guardians on OA, highlighting Hal Jordan, Ollie Queen and one of the Guardians camping in the wilderness in their quest to find America. 

©DC.  Linking to the Green Lantern #77

It is a shame that Neal Adams was not given the chance to draw page 8 in a cameo appearance, in much the same way that he was given the opportunity to draw the Deadman scenes in JLA #94, or Green Arrow's flashback appearance in World’s Finest #210.

Unless you're a big Justice League fan I wouldn't suggest you go out of your way to pick up a copy of JLA #81, but as a curiosity-item pulling together the story threads of JLA, The Atom & Hawkman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow it's worth a read.

This was a month of high productivity for Adams ; in addition to drawing all (interiors and cover) of Green Lantern/Green Arrow #77, he drew the covers to House of Secrets #86, Superboy #166, Witching Hour #9 that same month.  What a great set of covers. Take a look below and enjoy the master at work.

©DC. Batman #222

©DC. Brave & Bold #90

©DC. Detective Comics #400

©DC. Green Lantern/Green Arrow #77

©DC. House of Secrets 86

©DC. Superboy #166

©DC. Witching Hour #9

The promise of Steranko's Comixscene in 1972

© Supergraphics and Steranko

Back in 1972, I had no concept of comics fandom, and was unaware of the British fanzines focused on American comics that were available through the classified ads of Exchange & Mart. I was even less aware of US fanzines, and really had no way of finding out about their existence as an adolescent schoolboy on Portsea Island.

So it’s quite an enjoyable experience to read comics news zines from that period for the first time, fifty or so years after publication. They encapsulate the hopes, dreams, excitement and aspirations we all had for the world of comics, where every tidbit of information about upcoming events was greeted with wonder.

This week I obtained a copy of issue #1 of Steranko’s “Comixscene” from November 1972, Jim Steranko's attempt to create a regular comics-focused newspaper that had high production values and had access to comics professsionals for news of upcoming events, as well as being a platform to promote Steranko’s own Supergraphics publications. I subsequently bought later issues a few years after, once I had visited Dark They Were & Golden Eyed in London, but back in 1972 Comixscene was an unknown quantity to me. 

Reading the issue now immediately takes me back to 1972.

The first issue focuses on Doc Savage and other pulp heroes soon to make an appearance in comics at both Marvel and DC. The highlights of this issue (for me) is the publication of Steranko's full-page rendition of The Shadow that he did as a pitch for DC, as well as a two page spread of Doc Savage and his crew as rendered by Steranko and fellow artists. I especially like the Gene Colon version, although the machine gun is out of place.

© Steranko. This would make a great poster

© Supergraphics and Steranko

© Supergraphics and Gene Colan

The cover of this first issue was subsequently used as the cover of the second issue of the Marvel colour comic. I prefer the version published on Comixscene.

© Marvel and Conde Nast.  Compare this with the Comixscene #1 cover

Did any of our regular readers collect Comixscene, or have recommendations for old fanzines to look out for?

What if......Spirit World #2

Ever wonder what Jack Kirby’s  Spirit World issue #2 would have looked like had DC not cancelled it after one issue?

Well, wonder no further.

Spirit World #2 facsimile - elements © DC - with apologies to Jack Kirby

I was reading through my old copy of Jack Kirby’s Spirit World #1 a few days back and wondered what issue #2 would have looked like had DC not cancelled the Black & White magazine after the first issue. For those of you who can remember 1971, Spirit World was to be the first of a series of experimental comics from Jack Kirby that took a more mature approach to story-telling and gave Kirby the space to experiment with new types of artwork. DC adopted a fictitious distributor persona “Hampshire Distributors” to distance the new magazine from DC’s usual fare.

The original Spirit World magazine was very poorly distributed within the US (Kirby associate Mark Evanier relates that he could not find it in his native California environs at the time), yet there seemed to be no issue in finding a copy in UK spinner racks, priced at the princely sum of 12-and-a half pence (UK) by importers Thorpe & Porter.

Here are a few pages of the original Spirit World #1, which contains a few “Strange but True”-type stories hosted by Dr. E. Leopold Maas (who to my mind looks like a variation on Stan Lee/Funky Flashman). The front cover (redrawn before publication by Neal Adams) looks rather like the cover of a sleazy tabloid in the National Enquirer vein.

©DC. Spirit World #1 Cover by Neal Adams.  Note T&P price!

©DC. The hyperbolic intro to Spirit World #1 by our host E. Leopold Maas

Anyway, I thought I’d grab a copy of the 2012 hardback reprint of Spirit World #1 ($39.95), which is said to contain the stories scheduled for the cancelled issue #2.  Imagine my shock that Amazon has copies priced at $79 and up, and eb*y has copies for sale at well over $100 each!  [ For a more complete assessment of the Spirit World reprint hardback, head over to read Kid’s blog at Crivens! Comics and Stuff!.  Kid - looks like you made a wise investment decision back in 2012! ]

So, with no ready access to the reprint book, I set out to find the missing stories, when they were subsequently printed in some of DC’s mystery titles in the early 1970s. Guess what? I had them all along, bought for a song on one of my LCS’s half-price back-issue days and filed away and quietly forgotten.

The issues containing the missing content are (in order of publication):

Forbidden Tales of  Dark Mansion #6 “The Psychic Blood-Hound”

    with additional content: 

• A text page with collage border originally intended as the contents page for Spirit World #2
• A two page text story of re-incarnation called 'The Strange Story of Devi'. No author is given.

Weird Mystery #1 "Horoscope Phenomenon or Witch Queen of Ancient Sumeria?"

    with additional content:

• A two page text story of communicating with the dead called 'Special Delivery', written by Kirby's assistants Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman

Weird Mystery #2 "Toxl the World Killer!" 

    with additional content:

• A two page article on UFOs "They're Still Up There" illustrated with four Kirby collages.

Weird Mystery #3 "The Burners!"

    with additional content:

• A one-page Kirby UFO collage inserted into the story

The stories as printed in these four comics each appear to have had some artwork adjustments in addition to adding colour to images which would have probably been printed in monochrome if published as originally intended.

Let's take a closer look at these four issues.

Dark Mansion #6

©DC.  My copy of Dark Mansion #6, complete with torn cover

©DC. Page 1 of the story. Intro page omitted and text paste-ups not in Mike Royer's distinctive hand

©DC. Collage page originally intended to frame the contents page of Spirit World #2

©DC. Page 1 of a text story about re-incarnation

“The Psychic Blood-Hound” in Forbidden Tales of  Dark Mansion #6 has probably omitted a introductory page featuring the host E. Leopold Maas, and there are obvious textual paste-ups on the splash page in a hand very unlike that of Kirby inker and letterer Mike Royer.  But host Maas does appear inexplicably appear on the final page of the story.

A sample comparison of the final page of the story reveals these differences:

1. The artwork has not been extended vertically to fill the 4-color comic book page - rather a text banner “MIND BENDING TALES” fills the white space at the top of the page
2. Thin border lines have been drawn around each panel, limiting Kirby’s deliberate use of negative space.
3. The final speech of Mass breaking the fourth wall, and talking to the reader has a line replaced. What was “THE SPIRIT WORLD !!!?” reads “A WORLD BEYOND !!!?” 
4. Page numbering inserted on color version.

© DC. Original Artwork

©DC. Artwork as appeared in Dark Mansion #6

Weird Mystery #1

In Weird Mystery #1, Maas is replaced by a new host - Destiny - cooked up by Marv Wolfman (working as assistant editor to newly-appointed editor E Nelson Bridwell).  

A review of the splash page quickly identifies the original Kirby and Royer content on the right hand side, with the new picture of Destiny by Berni Wrightson. The text at the top is obviously not by Royer.  Plus the credits have been omitted.

This is a great story, which features some great Kirby artwork which manages to combine his best action/gangster work with science-fiction concepts.

Plus a two page text story by Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman.

©DC First page of text story

Weird Mystery #2

By issue #2 of Weird Mystery, the host Destiny has been ditched from introducing the story, which bears very little evidence of being altered for publication, other than coloured, and a brief superfluous insert of host Destiny in the final panel.  

The story "Toxl the World Killer!" is closest in tone to Kirby’s New Gods saga of an ancient(or future) civilization, and is a cracking good read.

Also included is a two-page text article "They're Still Up There" about UFOs, which includes four Kirby collages. Obviously destined for Spirit World #2.

©DC.  The cover refers to the non-Kirby backup story

©DC. 

© DC. Final panel of story with superfluous appearance of Destiny

©DC.  Text article on UFOs intended for Spirit World #2

Weird Mystery #3

In Weird Mystery issue #3 “The Burners”, spontaneous combustion is the topic. By this time Destiny has been dropped completely as the story host, and the story appears unchanged from Kirby's original artwork, except for borders being added to the comic panels. 

The story contains a one-page Kirby collage which I suspect was inserted into the story to increase the page count. The text does not look to be in the distinctive lettering style of Mike Royer. It looks more like Artie Simek (although unlikely) or Jack himself. The initial letter "T" is not Royer's style.

©DC. A gruesome splash page from Weird Mystery #3 - love it!!

© DC.  Kirby collage inserted part way through the story. 

Unused Content

A final piece of collage artwork intended for the inside back cover of Spirit World #2 was not published in these issues, but it shown below, courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

©DC. Unused interior of back cover for Spirit World #2

Was that all?

The reasoning of the publication of the stories reflects the editorial upheaval at the time of DC reducing the price and size of comic books in the middle of 1971 from 52-page 25 cents to 36-page 20 cents.

So what's the story behind burning off these Kirby treasures in a new Weird Mystery book, rather than holding the material back for a later collection?

At the time of publication of Dark Mansion #6, that comic was in the process of being transformed from a "gothic romance" book to a "supernatural mystery" book. Dorothy Woolfolk is credited as the editor on issue #6, which with issue #7 would be transferred to Joe Orlando, for whom light supernatural books were his forte, and was in process of obtaining editorship of all of DC’s light-horror magazines. In the lettercol of #9, Orlando was quite forthright in explaining why the Spirit World stories had been raided for issue #6.

Joe Orlando explains the background to the inclusion of the Kirby story.

Over at Weird Mystery Tales, E Nelson Bridwell was the editor on issue #1, assisted by Marc Wolfman. ENB continued as editor for the two following issues containing Kirby reprints, before turning over the editorial reins to Joe Orlando with issue #4.

The lettercols of issues #3,#4 and #5 were all praiseworthy of the Kirby stories, and all letter writers had divined that the content had been originally written for Spirit World #2.

So if the remaining stories appeared here, had Kirby written any other material before Spirit World #1 in this supernatural vein? Certainly he had pencilled Monster books in the 1950s and worked on Black Magic horror comics before that, but where did this 1970s run start? Did Jack already have the idea for Spirit World before coming to DC?

The answer can be found in Marvel’s Chamber of Darkness, a late sixties supernatural anthology comic from Marvel. It does appear to me that the material in Spirit World is an extension of the ideas that Jack dabbled with in the Marvel book the previous year.  I wonder if Jack already had the concept of Spirit World in mind when he produced two stories for Stan Lee?

The first story - written and drawn by Jack was in Chamber of Darkness #4 “The Monster”  (1970-01-20) . The splash page heralds “A very special voyage into the Worlds of Weird”, about a man afflicted by facial dysplasia (like The Elehpant Man) who appreciates fine music and is killed by the mob. I believe this was a story written by Kirby straight from the heart. There is no Leopold Mass to host the story, but there is an unseen  narrator who ends the story with “BUT WHAT OF MAN’s ANCIENT FEARS—HAVE THEY GONE AS WELL?”  It is only a 6 page story, but the first writing credit at Marvel since “This is a plot?” in FF Annual #5 from 8/1967, and only the 3rd time he was credited as writer in all of the sixties at Marvel (the first time being Strange Tales #148 - Nick Fury “Death Before Dishonor” (Stan on vacation - Kirby layouts and script ; Don Heck pencils AND inks) hitting the stands in June 1966.

©DC Splash page for The Monster

In the June 1970 (1970-03-24) edition of Chamber of Darkness #5 (Jack Kirby wrote and drew the tale with inks by John Verpoorten)  a pilot flying a U-2 plane crashes over Red China - eludes capture - and finds his way to a monastery when a mysterious stranger meets him to take him to the hereafter, as they both walk as ghosts through walls. I blogged about this story in an earlier post http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2023/03/play-it-again-stan.html

This story was the last Kirby supernatural story before Spirit World #1.  

© Marvel

© Marvel. Final page of "And Fear Shall Follow!"

Kirby's stories as they appeared in Weird Mystery were to be the last supernatural genre material that Kirby produced in his lifetime. If you're a completist (like me), I urge you to track down these four issues plus the two previous Chamber of Darkness issues and savour Kirby's last trek to the Spirit World.

And if you have the time and inclination (and photoshop) you can probably create your own facsimile copy of Spirit World #2!

Incidentally there is a interesting video by the Jack Kirby Museum about Spirit World at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXli_YPo8Q

© Ian Baker