Welcome to the 922nd installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, a column where we examine three comic book myths, rumors and legends and confirm or debunk them. In the second legend of this installment, we see whether Jack Kirby was forced to return to Marvel because DC pushed him out. In 1970, one of the biggest moments in DC/Marvel history occurred, when Jack Kirby, following the creation of the Marvel Universe with Stan Lee at Marvel, left Marvel Comics for DC. Kirby launched the Fourth World line of comic books – three interconnected titles (Mister Miracle, New Gods, and The Forever People) telling an overall narrative, which was quite ambitious for the era. After the Fourth World line ended in 1973, Kirby did a number of other series for DC before returning to Marvel in 1975. Kirby would remain at Marvel until 1978, when he left to go work for Hanna-Barbera, which would be the end of his career as a mainstream comic book creator (he would do some creator-owned comic books in the 1980s when the direct market independent boom happened).An important part to remember about Kirby’s departure from Marvel to DC was that it wasn’t like DC gave Kirby some incredible contract. He certainly had HOPES to do new things at DC that could expand the comic book field. He didn’t want to do comic books PERIOD, at least not in the traditional sense. He wanted to try digests, magazines, graphic novels, all sorts of experimental ideas that he looked to this new move to DC as being the place where he could try out new ideas. DC did let him try SOME of those concepts out (before quickly canceling them), but in general, DC wanted him to do comic books, and as such, his deal with DC was just a general “Produce X amount of pages of comic books for Y salary.” It is very possible that Marvel might have even matched DC’s contract, but Kirby more wanted to leave Marvel, where he had been burned so many times, than he wanted to go TO DC.
Welcome to the 922nd installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, a column where we examine three comic book myths, rumors and legends and confirm or debunk them. In the second legend of this installment, we see whether Jack Kirby was forced to return to Marvel because DC pushed him out.
In 1970, one of the biggest moments in DC/Marvel history occurred, when Jack Kirby, following the creation of the Marvel Universe with Stan Lee at Marvel, left Marvel Comics for DC. Kirby launched the Fourth World line of comic books – three interconnected titles (Mister Miracle, New Gods, and The Forever People) telling an overall narrative, which was quite ambitious for the era. After the Fourth World line ended in 1973, Kirby did a number of other series for DC before returning to Marvel in 1975. Kirby would remain at Marvel until 1978, when he left to go work for Hanna-Barbera, which would be the end of his career as a mainstream comic book creator (he would do some creator-owned comic books in the 1980s when the direct market independent boom happened).
An important part to remember about Kirby’s departure from Marvel to DC was that it wasn’t like DC gave Kirby some incredible contract. He certainly had HOPES to do new things at DC that could expand the comic book field. He didn’t want to do comic books PERIOD, at least not in the traditional sense. He wanted to try digests, magazines, graphic novels, all sorts of experimental ideas that he looked to this new move to DC as being the place where he could try out new ideas. DC did let him try SOME of those concepts out (before quickly canceling them), but in general, DC wanted him to do comic books, and as such, his deal with DC was just a general “Produce X amount of pages of comic books for Y salary.” It is very possible that Marvel might have even matched DC’s contract, but Kirby more wanted to leave Marvel, where he had been burned so many times, than he wanted to go TO DC.
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