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Mark Evanier is not a "Kirby partisan"
Patrick Ford 10 June 2016 There are a lot of fans who characterize Mark Evanier as a "Kirby partisan." In my opinion that is unfair to Mark and completely inaccurate. The fact is that Mark is as much a Stan Lee partisan and he is a Kirby partisan. To put it another way Mark tends to report things as he is told by Lee and Kirby. Keep in mind that when it comes to events from the '50s and '60s and through 1970 Mark is like all the rest of us in the sense that: "He wasn't there." This means that when Mark writes about Marvel he is reporting things told to him by Stan Lee in many cases. Here's an excellent example. The only caveat I would have on the following is Mark should have begun by saying, "Stan told me he initially" Rather than writing, "Stan initially..." MARK EVANIER (ASK MARK EVANIER, Jan. 2010): "Stan initially took Jack off the Cap strip in Tales of Suspense because he thought Gil Kane could take it over. Kane didn't work out -- he and Stan just didn't get along well enough -- so Jack came back. When Syd Shores came along, Stan thought that if Shores inked a few issues over Kirby, he'd "catch on" to the Marvel storytelling style and be able to take over the whole art job...but Shores did some never-published penciling samples during this period and Stan didn't like them. So Jack stayed on the book and Shores kept inking for a while. Then Steranko did his three issues (with an interruption by a quickie issue Jack knocked out over a weekend) and George Tuska was supposed to take over. Tuska pencilled one issue from a plot either by Stan or by someone who was then assisting Stan with plots. Stan found he couldn't dialogue Tuska's pages. They were well-drawn but Stan didn't like the way things had been developed from the plot so he shelved that issue, left Tuska on Iron Man, and had a few quick fill-ins done by, as I recall, John Romita and John Buscema. (Some of the Tuska pages were later incorporated into an issue of The Avengers when Steve Englehart was on that book.) Stan found he was more comfortable working with others so Gene Colan did it for what I gather was much longer than Stan intended. He kept Gene on it because he didn't have anyone else available he liked working with as much. (There were a lot of artists who drew for Marvel that Stan thought were terrific but he personally didn't want to work with them.)" Tim Bateman: 'Kane didn't work out -- he and Stan just didn't get along well enough.' What, another one who won't do half your job for no credit or pay, Stan? Patrick Ford: I'd say Kirby gave Lee a house and furnishings. Lee just painted the exterior and moved the refrigerator into the attic.

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