From JIMMY OLSEN 137, April 1971 :
Dear Editor:
It's incredible that Jack Kirby could, in only the first two DC comic mags he's produced, do no less than shatter the limits of imagination within the bounds of 44 comic pages. I reckon he has had this stuff bottled up for so long that we can expect a veritable avalanche of originality and pace-setting in the coming years. Last ish [JO 133] he said he left his former employers because he was being forced into a static state, that in order to create, he had to come to the original creators themselves, DC. And you, like any sane person, gave him full reign to do what he wanted and to just run free.
If these two issues are only the beginning, then your confidence is well-founded, and any fears you may have had, baseless. When Jack's new books come out, I intend to buy at least 10 copies of each, so you guys had better print up an extra big batch of those first issues.
Looking to JIMMY OLSEN # 134, I find that again he has handled things exceptionally well for someone who hasn't had any association with Superman for ten years.
And still, though he adhered to the familiar Superman style, he broke loose with surge after surge of new and unprecedented things and ideas, one following the other. The Outsiders. The Wild Area. Habitat. The Mountain of Judgement. The Hairies. Fantastic, if you'll forgive me. It was really something to see the course they had to travel in order to find the Hairies, but when we got two full pages of legendary Kirby magic (12 and 13) I was struck dumb. How in the world can he do something like this? Will you tell me please, before I burst?
The explanation about the Hairies was skilled, yet it fit so well with everything you established before Jack's arrival. Though Jimmy will defy him when he thinks he is right, Superman usually knows what he is doing. The Man of Steel was aware of the Hairies' secret from the first, as was the government, and Superman stepped in with his usual wisdom and straightened things out without a fight or even an ill feeling. Some people would waste ten pages on a senseless fight. I'm sure Jack can be trusted to use things like aggression and hate only where and when necessary, and with discretion. In other words, he is sure to produce some of the finest comic art in a decade in his stay here, which I hope will be for the duration of his artistic career.
The best is yet to come? Baby, you know it!
--Gary Skinner, Columbus, Ohio
( How did Jarring Jack produce those pages you mention? By collages, created by combining parts of photos. You'll find it explained more fully in the text page of NEW GODS # 2, now on sale. --E.N.B.)
Kirby did 15 issues total of Jimmy Olsen, issues 133-139, and 141-148 (issue 140 was an all reprint issue). Kirby was just kicking into high gear when his JIMMY OLSEN run ended, and the rest of his DC work included FOREVER PEOPLE 1-11, NEW GODS 1-11, MISTER MIRACLE 1-18, DAYS OF THE MOB 1, SPIRIT WORLD 1, WEIRD MYSTERY 1-3, FORBIDDEN TALES OF DARK MANSION 6, THE DEMON 1-16, KAMANDI 1-40, O.M.A.C. 1-8, OUR FIGHTING FORCES 151-162, FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL 1, 5 and 6, JUSTICE INC. 2-4, RICHARD DRAGON KUNG FU FIGHTER 3, and KOBRA 1.
After that, he went back to Marvel from 1976-1978 and did CAPTAIN AMERICA 193-214, ETERNALS 1-19, 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY treasury movie adaptation, and series issues 1-10, BLACK PANTHER 1-12, DEVIL DINOSAUR 1-9, and MACHINE MAN 1-9.
Then a few years in Hollywood cartoon animation on Thundarr, the Fantastic Four cartoon series, and so forth.
And a few final ventures back into comics from 1981-1991, on CAPTAIN VICTORY, SILVER STAR with the launch of creator-owned Pacific Comics.
And a few more projects, such as DC's SUPER POWERS miniseries, an issue of DC COMICS PRESENTS with the Challengers, and a few other scattered pin-up pages, for SUPERMAN 400, ANYTHING GOES 2, and DC's OFFICIAL HANDBOOK TO THE DC UNIVERSE.
So Kirby's DC work wasn't exactly "till the end of his career", but I still enjoyed Mr. Skinner's eloquence, and share his enduring enthusiasm for Kirby's Fourth World and other DC work.
