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Why Kirby left Marvel in 1970 (with a timeline)
Patrick Ford
20 April 2017
I probably saw this before I knew who Kirby was. My real introduction to comic books came about because I was searching the newsstands for a CONAN comic book I had seen announced in a Robert E. Howard fanzine. If it were not for Robert E. Howard I probably would never have discovered Kirby.
Ken Lupoff: As a kid, Kirby's move to DC seemed unexpected. Of course, now, we know that his departure was anything but unexpected, given the terrible treatment he suffered.
Patrick Ford: And actually Ken without Edgar Rice Burroughs I never would have discovered Robert E. Howard or Jack Kirby, The "Masters of Adventure." And in fact a lot more than that. There was an element in common in their work. It was a world view. The sage advice of a man with a honest and straightforward code.
Patrick Ford: I'm not sure why Stan Lee wrote that he received news from Kirby in March of 1970. It's known that Kirby informed Lee in January.
David Lawrence: Not much of a send-off, is it? Irving Forush gets more ink.
Dave Rawlins: They still had the Kirby reprints and artists working in a watered down Kirby style. Couldn't replace his creative genius though.
Patrick Ford: Joseph Campbell: "The storyteller succeeds of fails in proportion the amusement he affords. In the best stories there is more than amusement. The craft of the tale is not simply to fill a vacant hour, but to fill it with symbolic fare."
Aaron Noble: Read between the lines: absolute panic.
Patrick Ford: Count me as someone who is skeptical of the common claim that there was panic when Kirby left. That's the official story.
Based on what I have read Kirby's decision to leave was not sudden or rash and would have been no surprise to Marvel management. The evidence suggests to me that Marvel (and I don't mean freelancers or lower level office staff) wanted Kirby to sign away any rights he might have to the copyrights, or to leave the company.
Patrick Ford: Here's a timeline I put together. I may revise this and make a new post out of it.
https://whatifkirby.com/forums/dubious-and-strange-tales#comment-4539
Patrick Ford: This is the heart of it.
EVANIER: Jack left Marvel in early ’70 because they handed him a terrible, insulting contract and said, “Sign this or get out.” He did not see a third choice and he could not sign the contract. When he returned in ’75, he received a slightly more mature contract but it was still basically the same deal everyone else got…and again, it was take-it-or-leave-it.
Evanier also described how Kirby’s final months at Marvel played out. Again most of this is quoted, but I’ve pieced it together, and added some comment of my own.
MARK EVANIER: Jack went to New York in December of 1969 to try and work out a new deal with Marvel. He didn’t succeed at that but while there, he agreed to write and draw two issues of a proposed Inhumans comic and draw the first issue of a planned Ka-Zar comic. He went home and did them. In late January, he was asked to revise them into ten-pagers and he did whatever was necessary to make that happen. He did Silver Surfer #18 around the middle of February. In between these, of course, he did issues of Thor and Fantastic Four. The last three stories Jack did for Marvel were — in this order — the “Janus” story that ran later in FF, then Thor #179 and then, in early March, FF #102. After he mailed in FF #102, he phoned Stan and told him it would be his last.
Based on this we can see that Kirby made a concerted effort to work things out by going to New York in Dec. 1969, but was repaid only a couple of weeks later in Jan. 1970 by Perfect Film insisting that if he wished to remain at Marvel it would be only on their terms. According to Evanier, even after receiving an “onerous contract” proposal in early January, Kirby continued working through March, and had his attorney contact Perfect Film in one last attempt to work out a contract.
EVANIER: Jack absolutely attempted to negotiate after being offered the contract he didn’t like. He sent his lawyer to do that and Marvel refused to talk to his lawyer. Instead, they told Jack the offer was “take it or leave it.”
It was in June 1970 over three months after Kirby had left Marvel when he signed “under duress” the agreement with Marvel which offered him the same settlement given to Joe Simon.
As reported in TJKC #24.
Kirby was unaware Marvel had arranged to pay most of Simon’s settlement to his attorney. The sum was then passed on to Simon confidentially. In this way Marvel was obligated to pay Kirby only a fraction of Simon’s settlement, the portion which had been paid directly to him rather than the larger amount laundered through his attorney. Two years later in 1972 Simon and Kirby met, and Kirby told Simon Marvel had still not paid him.
A bit later Perfect Film decided to make Marvel a separate corporation.
Clearly concerned about Kirby’s role in the creation of the companies characters, and the fact Kirby had worked from 1959 through the early ’60s without a contract of any kind, Perfect Film wanted Kirby to waive his rights to reclaim copyright on any characters he created while at Marvel.
Perfect Film claimed Kirby was paid for signing the waiver. Kirby said he was paid only the money owed him since 1970 for the Captain America settlement (an amount far less than what Simon was paid through his lawyer).
If Perfect Film was confident Kirby had waived his copyright on the characters in 1972, a person might wonder why in Aug. 1984 they sent Kirby a four page contract full of legal clauses aimed at any claim Kirby might make on copyright. The contract concerned the return of 88 pages of Kirby’s Silver Age original art, and was unlike the contract sent to every other artist. The contract was so restrictive that while waiving all rights to copyright, Kirby according to the terms of the contract was placed in the position of storing the art for Marvel until such time as they chose to reclaim it.
It’s my opinion that Perfect Film had become concerned about Kirby from the moment they became aware of his role at Marvel.
Martin Goodman had sold Marvel to Perfect Film with the understanding that Stan Lee (a salaried employee; clearly work for hire) was the sole creator of the characters. Once Perfect Film became aware of Kirby’s role, and found he had worked without even the simplest kind of freelance contract they saw Kirby as a threat. As seen with the recent purchase of Marvel by Disney companies tend to value the creations of creators far more than they do the creators.
Martin Goodman had shown this trait as early as 1941 when he valued Captain America far more than he did the services of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Having started out in the pulp magazine industry, Goodman knew owning The Shadow was a bonanza for Street and Smith, while All-Story got nothing from having serialized Tarzan because Edgar Rice Burroughs had sold only first publication rights. Goodman failed to pay S&K the percentage of sales he had agreed to, and S&K went to work at DC.
Patrick Ford: I see reviewing this that Lee was accurate in saying he was informed in March. However, IIRC Kirby signed with DC in January after his attorney was rebuffed by Marvel. Kirby likely did not inform Lee he had signed with DC so as to maintain a revenue stream until his assignments from DC were flowing.
Aaron Noble: Perhaps it just seemed to Stan that a natural cycle of exploitation was coming to a close... the superhero trend would probably be winding down any day now, and there were all these naive young guys around eager to work on the sword and sorcery and satanic horror books that looked like the next thing.
Patrick Ford: After seeing Romita replace Wood and then Ditko why wouldn't Lee think Romita could replace Kirby? He likely thought he had a following of True Believers who felt Marvel could do no wrong and Kirby was just a replaceable part.
Kirby himself said Marvel made no effort to keep him.
Tim Bateman: 'Lesson one: How to fill a page when you've nothing to say.'
Kirby ceasing to provide work to Marvel is 'nothing,' is it, Stan?
Tim Bateman: 'Lesson one: How to fill a page when you've nothing to say.'
Has there been any news of when Lee's going to move on to Lesson Two?
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