home

Marvel said they could not return Kirby's art. But gave it to other people. Patrick Ford 17 October 2016 Kirby inked by George Roussos. JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #97. Splash page from the very first "Tales of Asgard" story. At the bottom right there is a note reading, "To my favorite Editor, Jim Salicrup! Best wishes, George Roussos 1985." This strikes me as odd. As far as I know Marvel didn't begin institutional art returns until 1986. So assuming the page was given to Roussos at some point that means there is yet another person who was being given Kirby art during a time when Marvel claimed they could not return the art due to legal issues. Another possibility is the written statement isn't by Roussos and was added by someone in an attempt to legitimize the page. Patrick Ford: According to the Irene Vartanoff inventory all 20 pages from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #97 were in Marvel's possession as of 1980. If the page was given to Roussos then Marvel was handing out pages of Kirby original art to various people before it became Marvel company policy to return the art. In addition to that one of the excuses Marvel made for not returning art was legal concerns and when they did officially begin returning art they did it only after a contract was signed. Patrick Ford: Kirby did receive 9 pages of artwork from J.I.M. #97 in August of 1987. A few of those pages can be found online. They are all from the lead Thor story which was inked by Don Heck. Patrick Ford: BTW. This is the very first "Tales of Asgard" page ever published. J David Spurlock: Handwriting analysis with other Roussos writing could help. Could also ask Jim via his blog Patrick Ford: In my experience asking anyone that is or was an employee of Marvel anything about Marvel (that's controversial) is a complete waste of time. Patrick Ford: Let's say the page was given to Roussos for some reason and a couple of years later he gave it to Salicrup for some reason. In my opinion anyone who accepted Kirby artwork from Marvel or from an employee of Marvel during the time when Marvel was withholding Kirby's artwork should have immediately given the art to Kirby so that Kirby would have it and so Kirby could make his attorneys aware of the situation. There is no other action which would be ethical.

home