Forever Fifty

Fifty years ago this month, my friend Steve Sherman and I were of very little help in assisting the editor who had hired us as his assistant editors on his new line of comics for DC. That editor was, of course, Jack Kirby and the line of comics he was launching would for reasons no one has ever been sure of, come to be known as his "Fourth World" comics. Don't try to tell me you know where that name came from. I didn't know, Steve didn't know and Jack didn't know, If we didn't know, you didn't know.

The first couple issues of Jimmy Olsen by Jack had already hit newsstands. I don't think Jimmy Olsen was considered one of the "Fourth World" books and Jack didn't but if you want to, fine. Doesn't bother me any. The inarguable first one to make it to the racks was Forever People #1 that December and I think the last parts of it went to press in October of 1970, a half-century ago. The last thing in was a text page that Steve and I wrote in our capacity as Jack's assistants. Jack approved it, sent it in for inclusion and then a certain person back in the New York office threw it away.

This Person — there's a reason I'm not identifying him — decided that though Jack was contractually the editor of his comics and it said he was the editor on his comics, he wasn't really the editor of his comics. Anything he (This Person) wanted to change, he could change without consulting or even informing Jack. So a number of things were changed on Jack's comics and Kirby was among the last to know. One of them was that This Person decided the text pages for Jack's comics should be done in New York. He tossed our page and had Marv Wolfman write a new one…as Jack, Steve and I found out when Forever People #1 appeared on newsstands here in Southern California.

Jack complained. This Person back there at first blamed Marv for the decision, which was ridiculous. At that point, Marv didn't have the power at DC to correct a spelling error. But after some arguing, This Person agreed that Steve and I would henceforth do the text pages. He had also ignored Jack's request to put our names in the indicia as assistant editors. (The indicia is that little block of text they used to have at the bottom of page one where among other vital info, the editor was credited.) Jack demanded he do it, T.P. said he would and then he didn't do it. This went on for around two years of Jack reminding him constantly and him saying he would and then it never getting done. This Person finally gave in and did it…and with my superb timing, it was the month after I stopped working for Jack.

These particular things didn't bother me. Honest. They didn't and they don't and I'm only telling you about them for your amusement…and to make the point that things were done to Jack's work behind his back. Those things bother me still…like the redrawing of his drawings of Jimmy Olsen and Superman.

I am very proud of my itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, microscopic connection to such fine, oft-reprinted comic books as Forever People, New Gods and Mister Miracle. They were cancelled well before they should have been, dismissed as low sellers because they weren't putting Marvel out of business…and I guess because some people in the office just didn't like them. I do not know how many times they've been reprinted since in this country and others — someone count it up and let me know — but they've made DC a whole lot more money than some comics of the day Jack was told he should be emulating because they sold better.

A new series of reprints of the Fourth World books is just beginning with the release of a paperback of the issues Jack did of Forever People. If you've never experienced this material, here's a link where you can order this book. But I should warn you of a couple of things. One is that at the moment, the Amazon page says — and this is a cut-and-paste…

For the first time in 20 years, Jack Kirby's Forever People reprints the amazing comic book writer and artist's fantastical black-and-white tales of a group of young, otherworldly adventurers.

It's not the first time in twenty years these stories have been reprinted. They were all in the Fourth World Omnibus series issued in 2007-2008 and some of them are in the lovely Absolute Fourth World book that DC issued recently and which is still very much in print. And I don't know about the copy you'll be able to get when this new Forever People book is released on November 10…but the advance copy they sent me is in full-color and very nicely done full-color.

Also, when you get it: It says on the Table of Contents page that the covers of #2 and #6 were inked by Mike Royer when they were actually inked by Vince Colletta.

This is a great time to revisit and celebrate this work. Tomorrow here, I'll tell you about an online interview I'm doing on Wednesday evening all about Mr. Kirby's Fourth World and about an online visual lecture about it that you can enjoy on Thursday evening. And I still can't believe it's been fifty (five-oh) years.