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Jiggety Jig.

Just back from the 2014 London Film & Comic Convention, a packed but worthwhile weekend of chatting, sketching and free books. I love free books. Especially free vintage science fiction books.....

Most of the weekend I was sitting behind a table - so this was what I saw of the con-

..but I did get a few breaks and got to hang out in the green room, so met lots of interesting writing/acting folk - had a quick chat with the sartorially resplendent Robert Rankin, author of the Brentford Trilogy, a series of books I absolutely loved years ago, and the actor Milo Ventimiglia who very kindly recorded a quick video hello for my daughter, he seemed like really nice guy. Had cheese and biscuits sat with Billy Dee Williams and Kenny Baker and a bunch of people from Game of Thrones, which I've never seen but is apparently very popular..... met Curtis Armstrong too and got a bit starstruck....I'm in danger of this just being a namedropping exercise so.... more later. Need sleep.

London Film & Comic Convention Friday 11th to Sunday 13th July 2014

Stan Lee, Carrie Fisher, John Hurt, Bernard Cribbins, Malorie Blackman, Charlie Higson .....and me will all be appearing at the London Film & Comic Convention this weekend. I'll be on a table in the Comic Zone and doing a panel about Jack Kirby on the Sunday.

I'll be plugging membership of the Jack Kirby Museum and will sign anything you bring to me that isn't legally binding.

Tickets will be available on the door, if you get chance, come along and say hello, it's an amazing lineup of guests and promises to be a great weekend. A photo with Carrie Fisher is £65, I'm prepared to have my photo taken with you for the knockdown price of 65p, just 1% of the price of Carrie, this special offer only available at LFCC this weekend.

I'll be sitting next to Marvel & DC artist John Watson, who will have some pretty great original art for sale, see his blog for details.

Marvel Comics vs Jack Kirby - Could Marvel lose?

In the next few days the US Supreme Court should decide what they are going to do about a legal dispute involving the 1976 Copyright Act, the outcome of which could have an unprecedented impact on creative/entertainment industries. It’s the long running, possibly cosmic, definitely epic battle between the Jack Kirby Estate and Marvel/Disney.

During a career that spanned seven decades Jack Kirby created or co-created so many of the characters that appear on our movie screens, t-shirts, lunchboxes & novelty bathrobes today. Captain America, Thor, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, the Silver Surfer, Galactus, Black Panther, the Inhumans, New Gods … I could go on all day, Kirby was behind them all. He was the most influential artist in comics history & his properties have made more money over the years than the work of any other single person, alive or dead.

Jack Kirby died in 1994.

Before his death, there was bitterness between Kirby and his former employers. As soon as left Marvel, he tried to sue them for ownership of the characters he'd created, the legal dispute lasted years and ended in Marvel’s favour. He saw others making fortunes from his creations while he felt treated like a hired gun, not given the recognition, respect, or financial reward, that he deserved.

Today, Kirby continues to lack recognition for the work he did, the characters he created and the incredible influence he has on so much of our modern media.

His four children (Barbara J. Kirby, Lisa R. Kirby, Neal L. Kirby, Susan N. Kirby) have tried a few times to take legal action to reclaim some of the copyrights on characters their father created. With the help of intellectual property attorney Marc Toberoff, they filed 45 copyright-termination notices in 2009. Marvel countered with a lawsuit, which all led to the 2011 ruling that the Jack Kirby creations in question were defined as work for hire and not subject to copyright reclamation. In August 2013 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this decision. Rounds one and two to Marvel. Kirby down but not out.
It is hard to imagine a monopoly like Marvel/Disney ever losing a legal battle, but maybe this time the Kirby Estate have a chance. Why? Because this time round they have the backing of some powerful allies in their corner-

• Bruce Lehman - Former chief adviser to President Bill Clinton on intellectual property rights, he was responsible for significant changes to United States patent laws.
• Ralph Oman - Former U.S. Register of Copyrights and Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent Law
• The Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)
• The Writers Guild of America (WGA)
• The Directors Guild of America (DGA)
• Marc Toberoff – He’s still here. Attorney specializing in copyright and entertainment litigation. He was the guy who represented Superman’s co-creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster against Warner and DC Comics over the original copyright to Superman. 

Toberoff has tried before for the Kirby Estate a few times over the last decade, with Marvel coming out on top each time, but now it seems like the tide is turning. The Hollywood guilds, unhappy that the 2013 appeal court ruling that favoured Marvel sets a dangerous precedent and could have repercussions across the creative industries, want this case to be heard by the Supreme Court.


If the case gets upheld, potentially Marvel could lose the rights to key characters like the Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Characters that are the foundation of just about every successful movie they have ever done. Without Jack Kirby characters, the Disney/Marvel superhero franchise falls apart. Even if Guardians of the Galaxy does well, see if you can guess who co-created Groot?

The ruling would also set an interesting precedent, especially for all those artists whose pre-1976 works continue to make a lot of money for companies while they see little revenue from them. Whatever happens, it’s one to watch. Unsurprisingly, I’m rooting for the Kirby kids, if this case gets heard, and if the Kirby kids win, it will rock the foundations of Marvel and Disney in a way that would make their father proud.

To find out more about Jack Kirby visit The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Centre

Car Boot Comics

In a bid to rid my house of decades of accumulated junk, I attempted a car boot sale at the weekend. For the right person, my stall was a treasure trove of old science fiction novels, comicbook memorabilia, Dr Who toys and several misprinted copies of the best-seller “Morris Telford’s Salopian Odyssey”. Correctly printed copies are still available in all good book shops.

I also brought along a small box of comics, mostly DC, mostly of little value, but a nice run of Starman was in there, some Animal Man with Bolland covers, a couple of dog-eared Graphic Novels, even the odd signed issue picked up at conventions over the years. There was a real mixed bag in there, I hadn’t really looked through it properly but I was confident there were no Golden Age gems in there, I’d have been able to smell them.

Sadly there was little interest in the comics until a dark haired boy and what I presumed were his grandparents came over and the boy started rummaging through them with all the enthusiasm of a starving man at an eat-all-you-can buffet. He spent ages looking through them, making a little pile and pestered the cash. I think he bought 5, and he was gone, another happy customer.

The day went on, I sold the hamster cage, the old sci-fi novels, the broken laptop that’s probably got all my Ebay and Paypal passwords on it, the Daleks and a surprising number of items I’d never even seen before that my children will probably be looking for next week. Not much interest in the Morris Telford books though.

Then it happened. The Grandfather and Grandmother from earlier came back. Without the boy this time. Had I sold an unsuitable comic to his grandson? Had that copy of Sexy Zombie Mutant Slavegirl I thought I’d thrown away found it’s way into the box and he’d come back to chastise me like a modern day Fredric Wertham? No. He’d got home and his Grandson had sat straight down and started devouring the comics, getting very excited about them, telling his Grandad after reading the first couple that he wished he’d bought some more.

So, and this is the moment of awesomeness,  the Grandparents had left him at their house, and without telling him driven back to me at the Car Boot sale to buy the whole box. The whole box. To give to him as a surprise. I gave them it for a few quid, it was an act of generosity and fantastic Grandparenting that deserved to be facilitated.

I wish I’d noticed which 5 comics the kid bought, but it was good to see someone getting genuinely excited about comics, and great to help someone start what could be a lifetime’s obsession. Maybe in 30 years he’ll sell them on to some other kid….. I hope so.

If you have a house full of comics you never read – Share them. Give them to kids you know, donate them to your local library and make sure they don’t just rot away in your attic. Just think about what a kick YOU would have got as a kid if someone gave you a whole box of comics.

Was Star Wars based on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World?

There are, it has to be said, some striking similarities between the two. New Gods #1 was published in 1971, Star Wars came out 6 years and 3 months later in 1977. Here’s a  few facts – 

The FOURTH WORLD is a space opera, a Greek tragedy played out among the stars with epic scope, an overshadowing war caused by previous events, complicated families & lots of zooming around in space.

STAR WARS is a completely different space opera, a Greek tragedy played out among the stars with epic scope, an overshadowing war caused by previous events, complicated families & lots of zooming around in space.

The FOURTH  WORLD has “The Source” a mysterious almost religious energy. Characters use the Source to draw power from.

STAR WARS has the completely different “The Force” a mysterious almost religious energy. Characters “Use the Force” to draw power.

The FOURTH WORLD has a  hero, Orion, who is accompanied by a happy-go-lucky, reckless companion called Lightray and trained by Highfather, an old man with incredible powers.

STAR WARS  has a completely different hero, Luke, who is accompanied by a happy-go-lucky, reckless companion called Han Solo and trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi, an old man with incredible powers.

FOURTH WORLD’s main villain is Darkseid (pronounced Dark Side) whose real son was brought up by one of the good guys.

STAR WARS main villain is the completely different Darth Vader (who uses the Dark Side) whose real son was brought up by one of the good guys.

The FOURTH WORLD has Apokolips, an incredibly oppressive planet-sized regime watched over by hordes of masked soldiers. Basically it looks like a planetoid with big circles on the surface.

STAR WARS has the completely different Death Star, an incredibly oppressive planet-sized regime watched over by hordes of masked soldiers. Basically it looks like a completely different planetoid with completely different big circles on the surface.

The FOURTH WORLD has “Mother Box” an electronic device that communicates by making “ping ping” noises.

STAR WARS has the completely different R2-D2 a robot that communicates by making ping ping, beep & whistle noises.

Jack Kirby’s the FOURTH WORLD has great character names like Mark Moonrider,

STAR WARS has completely different great character names like…. Luke Skywalker.

I could go on. Was Star Wars based on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World? 

Kirby says - Don’t ask! Decide for yourself! May the Source be with you.

For more info, see a video of me talking about this at a BettaKultcha event.


....and to the person who commented saying Orion looks nothing like Luke, you were looking at a drawing of him with his helmet on. Here's Orion without his helmet next to a photo of Luke, you decide....

The Thin Black Line – Perspectives on Vince Colletta

The tired Colletta clichés are – “you either love him or hate him”, “he polarizes opinion”. You hate him for ignoring Kirby’s pencils and leaving out stuff or you love him for his fine feathered work on Thor, you hate him for not caring enough about the art and employing “assistants”, or you love him for the letter he wrote to Marvel when Jim Shooter left.

I certainly started out in the anti-Colletta camp, a few years ago I even took a side swipe at Vinnie on a BBC blog I wrote –

“I met a man called Hans today. Hans looks like Jack Kirby drew him. He has a large head, a brow overhang that juts way over his eyebrows leaving his eyes in permanent shade, a thickset square jaw, wide mouth and hands like industrial shovels. He must have been inked by Vince Coletta though as his left thumb is missing.”

Now, as well as learning to spell his name correctly, I’ve learned to appreciate him slightly more, but I’d actually say I still agree with all those opinions above to some extent, deleting-bad, Thor-good, assistants-bad, funny letter-good, so I approached the book with mixed feelings and an open mind.

It’s quite a slim volume, you’ll easily finish it in a couple of sittings, and there’s not really a massive amount of biographical detail, some interesting quotes from his family I hadn't seen before, lots of online stuff I had seen before. Art examples, and decent panel comparisons, most pages have an example panel or two, examples good and bad from across the span of his career, so giving a fair and rounded view, which I liked. Not a hatchet job that just laughed at his lazy deleting, or a love letter that ignored the negatives, it was balanced by examples of his work that showed he could be great when he had time, and gave some insights into why he often didn’t have time.

The book is split up more or less chronologically, covering stages in his career. The early chapters and the ones covering his time as art director for DC probably interested me most, nothing really new in the Kirby section, and this is a personal bias, but I would have loved to see a more detailed breakdown of what exactly happened between him and Kirby, it’s covered, but I wanted nitty gritty detail.

The titbits of information from actress and model ladyfriends are fascinating, as are the quotes from his family and insights into how his massive mortgage overshadowed his life. His family mafia connections one generation removed that he played up, and the affection with which just about everyone who worked with him has.

If you’re expecting a biography, this isn’t it, if you’re expecting a thick coffee-table book devoted to Colletta art, this isn’t it either, but neither of those things exist, so this is the best you’ll get for now, it’s a collection of anecdotes collected via phone, email, and from online forums, peppered liberally with art examples. That’s not a criticism of the research, nothing wrong with getting your source material from phones calls and emails, the title of the book isn’t misleading, it’s exactly what this is – people’s perspectives on Colletta. I’d just have liked to see more personal information on the man himself, more biographical details we don’t know, more photos from his life, more pages. In saying that though, even a hardened comic lover who has spent the last 40 years obsessing over Colletta’s inks will find something in here to enjoy, and it’s a great springboard to use as a way to open up a fresh debate with any Coletta hating/loving friends you have.

Most disappointing omission is Jim Shooter, he declined to comment on the book because he felt it would not give Colletta a fair shout, he was wrong, it does, and it left me with a renewed admiration for the man. The best bits, like the letter he wrote to Marvel and most of the Kirby panel comparisons, I'd already seen, so that probably lessened my enjoyment, still well worth reading though, I'd recommend it. An absolute must buy if you’re a Colletta fan, but also highly recommended if you’re not, maybe you’ll learn to appreciate Vinnie for what he was, the most prolific inker of all time, the man who discovered Frank Miller, a complicated man who met his deadlines even if it meant staying up all night in the poolhouse, working till he dropped, because of that he cut corners and despite that produced some work that was outstanding.

Should you buy it? You know what Kirby said –“Don’t ask.” It's available now from TwoMorrows publishing.

Comic Lettering, Logos and Titles

The very latest Infinite Timelines commission has been posted on ComicArtFans! This is Infinite Timelines: Primetime Paradox Chapter 11, just one of literally hundreds of commissions the incomparable Aidan “Re-Legion” Lacy has posted. MC Wyman pencilled and inked this one, I did logos, titles and added the lightening background.

If you need any comicbook lettering, logos, titles or digital manipulation, get in touch. Price depends on the volume and complexity of the job. I’ll have availability to take on larger projects from 31^st July 2014.

Plenty of examples of my work can be found by searching under Russell Payne or Russ Payne on the Comicartfans website.