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Who created Nick Fury, agent of SHIELD? (And why did Marvel erase the evidence?) Patrick Ford 18 October 2016 The Man called D.E.A.T.H. [broken link to a Facebook post, have included later post and comments] Patrick Ford: Ferran Delgado, Here are examples of Kirby's text on the Man Called D.E.A.T.H. presentation. Thanks to Andrew McAdams for posting them. Patrick Ford: J David Spurlock informed me there are copious Kirby notes on the three S.H.I.E.L.D. stories Kirby plotted for Steranko. Ferran Delgado: From Marvel Vision #14 Patrick Ford: It's interesting the degree to which Marvel Visions #14 faked-up the way they presented the art. They obscured all of Kirby's text and for some reason they superimposed the art onto the preprinted '70s style art-boards. Dave Rawlins: I agree. Of course if Marvel were to be asked about the reasons it would play dumb. Ferran Delgado: Yes, but the general design of VISION was an absolute disaster. It was done at an age when designers discovered many tools and used ALL of them with no criteria. I don't think that there's a goal to hide Kirby's notes, it's simply that designers didn't control themselves in the Image age. You should see the rest of the mag, it hurts the eyes! Patrick Ford: Since it was published prior to the settlement Marvel would be interested in not revealing Kirby's notes. Ferran Delgado: I understand, but according the overall design of the mag, I think it was done without malice. I checked out other mags and this section uses the same design each times, although there's no similar pages like those. But it's just my feelings. Patrick Ford: That makes sense. However if they had tried to publish Kirby's notes someone higher up would have stopped it unless it slipped by. Patrick Ford Ferran Delgado, You mean in other story pages the space for the original captions is used for the text written for the article about the pages? Ferran Delgado: The other cases just shows drawings, not full pages, but the graphic elements and the lack of respect for the original stuff are similar. Ferran Delgado: Marvel Vision presented the unseen FF poster with no info. http://ferrandelgado.blogspot.com/2012/08/poster-inedito-de-los-fantastic-four.html J David Spurlock: I pointed out to Jim that the plot notes were in Jack's handwriting! I contend that the only thing Stan wrote for Jim was the romance story. Jim agreed to keep his eye peeled for any old plot notes from Marvel - if any Patrick Ford: J David, Are you saying Steranko had thought the Kirby notes were Lee's? Patrick Ford: This would be very interesting if Steranko had a recollection of asking Lee about the notes and Lee told Steranko that Lee had written them. J David Spurlock: I don't think he had thought about it since 1966 until I brought it up Patrick Ford: Could you ask him, "When you saw the pages in 1966 did you believe those were Stan's notes? Did Stan tell you they were his notes?" Patrick Ford: In this caption Kirby says Fury was in command of a unit called "The Howlers." A variation on "Howling Commandos." Lee is on record as saying he came up with the name "Howling Commandos" because he wanted a purposefully awful name to apply to a noncommercial so that he could prove to Martin Goodman he could "shoot someone on 5th Ave. and not lose any readers." The fact is combat units during WWII frequently had colorful nicknames and even official code names. There would not be anything strange about "The Howlers" or even "Howling Commandos." In his essay "Stan Lee-Martin Goodman" Steve Ditko wrote about Lee's tendency to claim he was often butting heads with Martin Goodman and that Goodman often published comic book which Lee says Goodman hated. In addition to Spider-Man, Ditko wrote that he once asked Lee what Goodman was adding a war book and Ditko says Lee told him, "Martin wanted it." In comments about Spider-Man Ditko said that Spider-Man was going to be the first of a line of insect based super heroes. So in both cases no mention of Goodman hating an idea. Just the opposite. Patrick Ford (27 November 2017): 2015 Tom Brevoort: -Jack Kirby first broached the idea of doing a modern day strip with Nick Fury, and he produced a two-page - pilot sequence' to show to Stan Lee, titled - The Man Called D.E.A.T.H." 2015 Mark Waid: I knew these pages existed--they were penciled by Kirby as his original pitch for what became S.H.I.E.L.D. and later inked by Jim Steranko as a try-out-- 1997 Mark Waid Kirby list comment: I was going through the latest edition of the Marvel Comics catalog/in-house fanzine and discovered a gem in their "Greatest Comics Never Seen" section. They printed two pages that Steranko inked over Kirby as a try-out for Nick Fury. The accompanying text indicates that these Kirby/Steranko pages have never seen print before. I suppose the pages could have seen print inked by someone else, but they do not look familiar. The look of the pages has me thinking that they were breakdowns and not anything like full pencils. Page one of the sequence is a splash panel, with Nick looking at a file while two nasties sneak in behind him. It also shows the hand of an otherwise unseen Hydra agent clutching at Nick's coat. Obviously Nick has just dispatched said Hydra agent and taken the file from him. The second page shows Nick escaping the ambush. His hat falls off his head and gets a bullet zinging through it; two panels later Nick is wearing it as he runs through some corridors, evidently following a strip of tape he left on the walls to find his way out. The final panel has him using a "fire around the corner" gadget on his pistol. That part sounds familiar, but I can't place it. Does anyone have any idea on where these pages may have been intended to go? Patrick Ford: See the difference? Patrick Ford: Waid on the Kirby list was unaware (or didn't speak about) of Kirby's lettering or the fact the pages were a presentation. Tom Breevort also recently called them Kirby's presentation to Lee for the series. Steranko had published them back in the '70s in MEDIASCENE without Kirby's text and without any mention of it. So let's say there are pages of Kirby art with notes on the back which say something like "Stan, here's the story. If you have any questions call me." What are the odds Stan Lee would allow anyone to see that? I would say in Vegas there would be "no line." Patrick Ford: https://news.marvel.com/comics/24510/c2e2_2015_shield/ [broken] TOM BREEVORT: -Jack Kirby first broached the idea of doing a modern day strip with Nick Fury, and he produced a two-page - pilot sequence' to show to Stan Lee, titled - The Man Called D.E.A.T.H.,' he says. -Stan liked the idea of a modern day Fury strip, but reworked the basic concept with Kirby to create NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. And that two-page pilot story was never used. In fact, when Jim Steranko turned up at Marvel looking for work, Stan gave it to him as an inking test, which is why those pages are inked by Steranko. So, for our anniversary story in S.H.I.E.L.D. #9, Mark Waid is incorporating those two unused pages into the narrative- and readers will finally find out who The Man Called D.E.A.T.H. really is!- Joe Zierman: Thank goodness Jack wrote margin notes. Great find! Patrick Ford: It's interesting the Breevort totally discredits Lee's sworn deposition testimony. Patrick Ford: Lee continues. Patrick Ford: This is typical of Lee. Lee always says he created the characters and Kirby's tremendous imagination is confined to "weapons and things." Patrick Ford: Stan Lee's high praise for Kirby: Patrick Ford: I'm pretty sure the art was first published by Steranko in the '70s? J David Spurlock would probably know for certain. J David Spurlock: Yes -- in the rare STERANKO PORTFOLIO ONE circa 1970/71 Patrick Ford: Just read this comment by Breevort again: "Jack Kirby first broached the idea of doing a modern day strip with Nick Fury, and he produced a two-page - pilot sequence' to show to Stan Lee" J David Spurlock: It was a pitch. Not asked for by Marvel. Not under their instance or expense. Patrick Ford: Just as when Wood pitched NoMan to Lee. Patrick Ford: That is a two handed slam dunk right in Lee's face with the ball bouncing off his J David Spurlock: I doubt either Kirby nor Steranko were paid for it Patrick Ford: Supposedly it was Steranko's inking test. J David Spurlock: After it was shelved, it later became Steranko's inking test, I doubt Kirby or Steranko were paid for the work which has now been published about 5 times. Patrick Ford Nick Fury...Hydra...

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