  | Book Details Title: Jack Kirby’s Dingbat Love |
Book DescriptionIn cooperation with DC Comics, TwoMorrows compiles a tempestuous trio of never-seen 1970s Kirby projects! These are the final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence, presented here for the first time! Included are: Two unused Dingbats of Danger Street tales (Kirby’s final Kid Gang group, inked by Mike Royer and D. Bruce Berry, and newly colored for this book)! True-Life Divorce, the abandoned newsstand magazine that was too hot for its time (reproduced from Jack’s pencil art―and as a bonus, we’ve commissioned Mike Royer to ink one of the stories)! And Soul Love, the unseen ’70s romance book so funky, even a jive turkey will dig the unretouched inks by Vince Colletta and Tony DeZuniga. PLUS: There’s Kirby historian John Morrow’s in-depth examination of why these projects got left back, concept art and uninked pencils from Dingbats, and a Foreword by ’70s Kirby assistant Mark Evanier! Customers Review:Man, this book is a must-have if you’re a Kirby fan. Good binding, heavy-stock paper, four fold-out pages for the double-page Dingbat spreads that are as good as anything Jack did at DC. In fact, ALL the pages are solid as heck. I mean, yeah, Colletta does his expected butchery on the romance pages, and Berry does his usual flat, workman-like job inking and lettering one of the Dingbat stories (which, thank goodness, is supplemented by the pencil copies), but, hey, Royer’s in there doing his faithful-as-ever inks (including a NEW 3-pager commissioned by John Morrow!); there’s a DeZuniga-inked story that’s not half-bad; there’s even an Alex Ross cover based on Kirby’s ink-wash rough for the cover of Soul Love, which is shown in its entirety as it MIGHT have looked in COLOR (the Dingbats get the full-color treatment too), with ads and articles reflective of the time period. This is one massive labor of love, folks, and it’s chock-full of articles on projects whose history is as interesting and goofy as the stories themselves. Briefly, Jack, all-seeing visionary that he was, had a whole slew of high-quality magazines planned on a whole slew of topics relevant to the turbulent ‘70s and directed at a college-age-and-older audience. And while his own work would’ve been featured, the books were supposed to be a mix of comics and articles drawn by other artists and written by big literary names like Truman Capote and Hunter S. Thompson. DC, however, said, “Nope, you do it all, Jack; they’re gonna be black-and-white; and here are the themes we want: crime, ghosts, and romance—preferably romance about young black people dating,” which made the Jewish, middle-aged, long-and-happily-married King go, “Say WHAT?” But dedicated professional that he was, he had his assistants pick up Ebony magazine for reference and did his best. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately in Jack’s eyes, lol), those stories—along with True-Life Divorce—went unpublished till now. And sure, the Soul Love dialogue is clunky as heck even by Kirby standards, but the drawing, especially on the faces and even through the godawful Colletta inks, shine through. The divorce stories are only partially inked, and they are wonders to behold. Mark Evanier (one of Jack’s Ebony-buying assistants, lol) has always said that if you really want to understand just how good a storyteller Jack was, look at his romance stories—the genre he and Joe Simon created. Yeah, we all know nobody did action and excitement like the King, but when it came to simple human drama between two people just talking to each other? He was, in my humble opinion, the best. But don’t take my word for it. Open up Dingbat Love and see for yourself! | |
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