The Return of the King-Kirby

Tucked into the comic from last week’s Hulk/Loch Fear Monster/Beans post was this edition of Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletins feature, heralding the 1970s return of none other than Jack Kirby. The Bulletins are always nice little microcosmic artifacts of old-timey comic book fandom, and this one has the added benefit of the King’s square-fisted aura. Left unsaid in Stan Lee’s bombastic trumpeting, however, is any soul-searching of why Kirby left Marvel in the first place, where he’s been, or why he’s back — nothing about how he never quite fit in with the DC crowd, despite developing a number of characters that would be enduring fixtures in that company’s pantheon. (The best? Big Barda, of course.) Neither the time nor the place, but still.

You have to love Stan’s description of the Kirby reveal at Marvel’s tchotchke-laden 1975 Comic Con. After reading accounts of the doings in San Diego this past year (and every other year, for that matter), the “the more things change” adage rings truer than ever.