vaillant

I have both bought and sold to Jim, and he’s a serious person and very honest – I hope the book I sold him (a FF#52) grades better than expected.

That I wish to share it, it’s out of doubt – I was just wondering about Facebook. I might try to email Jeremy once again and see… In the meanwhile I could post some other excerpt – will let you board fans know in which thread if I do. (thumbs u

No, but Jeremy Kirby (Jack’s nephew) showed interest in possibly posting snippets of it on his Kirby Facebook profile, but I am still undecided as I don’t like Facebook. I had also to send it to John Morrow for a new transcription and possible re-publication in the Jack Kirby collector but haven’t done nothing so far…

Just out of curiosity, here’s the italian edition of #48, which uses a different color scheme (I quite like it):

May I ask you why the #9 is cracked out, if you collected all others and kept them slabbed? Just a curiosity, anyway. I would never be able to keep my "keepers" slabbed!

This actually depends on how much the magenta ink (or any other ink) is possibly "charged" a bit too much while printing a run (it may change several times, each time inks are re-filled or so). That is particularly problematic with browns, which are composed from all process colours. I am noticing it with my Fantastic Four #65, which I still prefer over a CGC I picked because the colors look "colder". P.S. The picture is very large, so now this VF 8.0 is your "keeper"?

I’ve been scanning some of my italian FFs under #100 – a number of issues I am still undecided whether I should keep them or not…

The stickers I have should be in mint condition, and in this case you can easily put them back in a book, as they were stapled within the centerfold. Here’s a picture from the above auction: The book is not so tough, later issues are scarce and costly but #1 should be affordable, and not difficult to find. Graphic design and adaptations on the cover of these ones were good indeed.

Just completed my second purchase from Andrew, a low grade JiM #99 with the first appearance of Mr. Hyde, nicely priced so I can have it without spending a fortune! I have had it shipped to US, but Andy is always willing to work the best shipping solution based on your needs. (thumbs u

You are missing the italian one, Matt, which we already talked about. It’s also a #1: the #1 of the second Uomo Ragno series (third, if we count the Settimanale), and more difficult to find than the first series. Originally came with stickers, here’s an auction recently ended on eBay.it for a copy with stickers: http://www.ebay.it/itm/UOMO-RAGNO-SETTIMANALE-SECONDA-2-SERIE-N-1-EDICOLA-CON-ADESIVI-NO-zagor-/111124488507 As I told you, I have the stickers which came with it, so if you decide to go for it, I can give them to you. I have also a lower grade copy but it’s glued together with issues #2-6…

I have changed the mp3 picture with a more classic New Gods cover, here’s the Bendian album cover, anyway:

BTW; the small picture is the cover of a Jazz-flavored album from Gregg Bendian, titled "Requiem for Jack Kirby". Songs homage Kirby’s work. There is even a song about the 4th World.

Nice! I've never heard that one before. After all, it was Earthlings who possessed the Anti-Life Equation, right? I'm glad that Kirby didn't explain everything, and--whether intentional or not--left at least some of it open to interpretation. I'm guessing that's one reason among many why these stories have aged better than more concrete, topical fare from the same period (for example, the GL/GA stories by O'Neil and Adams), and probably why many post-Kirby treatments of the same characters have been (to me at least, and to varying degrees) unsatisfying. Kirby's soaring imagination routinely opened the door to new worlds, but also provided our imaginations with some tantalizing open spaces to fill. Right, Zonker is right, but more than saying it was meant as a "synthesis of dark & light" is a theatre where contrasting forces are balanced (Orion and Lightray visits to Earth are very significant, in this sense – they quite struck me as a kid). On the contrary, I don’t think it’s entirely correct to see the characters as being on a stage: Orion and Lightray just speak in that "godlike" language (in pagan sense) because they are indeed not human, but most humans speak in an ordinary way. Since I have been talking about here and there and never posted anything, here’s an excerpt from my interview with Jack Kirby from 1991. The female voice asking the question first is my cousin-in-law which graciously hosted me when I came to the US. The question revolves mostly around Orion and Darkseid’s relationship.

Thank you! It’s a VG, with very minor color touch in the purple lettering blurb. I decided to "downgrade" from my CGC 3.0 (according to most US collectors, which despise color rouch) since I couldn’t care less and this copy is beautiful!

I’ve recently confirmed my keepers of #65-66. #65 must be my favorite FF story ever. My lowest is still the #3… hope to improve this some day…

Yeah, I get it. I guess what I meant is that whatever Kirby's personal political views were at the the time (as mentioned in an earlier post), there wasn't much overtly political or contemporary/social content in the books, other than some very broad (Glorious Godfrey) or very pointed (Funky Flashman) satire. He was working with bigger ideas, and on a much bigger canvas than that. So yeah, man, we're on the same page! (thumbs u More precisely, I think Kirby was not an "idealist" in the sense of despising and/or being disinterested in how politics were "played": he just had a more substantial view, and I think each & every person which have appreciated his work can easily tell this. So, in this sense, I see what you say more the other way around: every possible reference to real-world facts was formulated from a realistic and yet more ideal perspective, and just got in the story as a simple "detail" element (see for example the Kamandi story about the Watergate scandal, or when he finds the Superman costume). Sorry but it’s difficult for me to articulate these concepts in a foreign language…

But that’s the point, Jim – I did not even think remotely the sense you are saying: Jack was certainly no contemptuous person, and thus he did not despise people and institutions, but for him the respect for the person was a non-negotiable value – that’s precisely the sense in which I saw the 4th world. While everyone was worried about "real-life politics" he proposed to "go beyond" the often petty and degrading elements (which were in some ways even more violent and conflictual after WW2). The historians subdivision of the world in "worlds" is something which sounds presumptuous, although they felt it adequately described the situation after the end of the war. The 4th world is something completely "apart", that rises above the narrowness of the degradation which could have been witnessed in politics and refers to a higher vision of communal life – the reference to a myth-tinged ancientness (to which you alluded with Tolkien) which has also obvious biblical elements in it.

Well, each and every number has a specific significance in the Scripture, and in general in both Hebrew and Islamic culture, so with some fantasy you can also charge numbers of a significance that may not be specifically there. Although the judaic heritage is obvious, considered Jack was of both european and hebrew descent, I think the Erich von Däniken fascination is a prominent element in both the Fourth World and the Eternals, but of course as a good artist, Jack goes beyond that. In the beginning the Eternals is a bit "suffocating", it has a "deterministic" feel to it (with the whole idea between the Eternals and the Deviants, which I think is played better in the 4th World), but then it manages to get more interesting.

That’s it, that’s what the 4th World is ultimately about – and those who despise it, or criticize it for being "trashy" or "not accomplished" are entirely missing that. The 4th World has been a highly experimental series, where the slant was on the characters, rather than the single stories, and of course the drama between Orion and Darkseid has a special, central place in it. I have a french comics' criticism magazine of the 1980s with a long feature article on the series. I don’t know french, but the analysis appears great, and involves the juxtaposition of the genres of Tragedy and Comedy, as in ancient Greece.

The reference to the theories of Erich von Däniken seems perfectly reasonable to me, since they would have been pretty much the basis for the Eternals, after the New Gods. I also find intriguing the idea that «Jack meant it to be beyond the First, Second, and Third Worlds of then-modern politics», as I often thought about it myself without even knowing… It‘s probably a combination of these things.

I have kept the second print only because the insides are printed better than the first, but the negative cover pretty much nullifies the idea behind the cover composition (shadows in a lighter color than the background). I still prefer the first printing, for a million reasons.

Movie just gave an ambiguous popularity, that’s all. Both for good and for bad…

While language remains elastic, each term has a specific meaning. Speaking in general (not only comics), in publishing, "edition" means the specific editorial and publishing form in which the book comes to be. Since the foreign editions are translated books, they not only have editing in terms of text content (from which the term derives), but they also have translation, which is almost never a mere adaptation, as you always lose something in a translation. For these reasons, the term "reprints" is unnecessarily ambiguous, considered we have a correct term to use. "Reprint" means that it’s printed again, but an edition is another language is not effectively "printed again", but printed *for the first time* in that form and in that language. These concepts have always been the technical ones used in publishing, and I see no reason for which one should choose arbitrarily (and occasionally deceptive) chosen words instead of the descriptive ones, which are also already there. These are italian first editions, but the german ones you showed are different. The italian books were structured this way: they used the story from a main title (i.e. Spider-Man) which also gave the name to the italian title, and then featured backup stories from another character, taken from additional US titles. While I think these recent german adaptations try to mimic the original US book also in its editorial form, and thus they should be slim books with a single story featured (and are not, in general, the first edition in german of that title).

My namesake goes for SA. So there it is. I AM believable I was kidding of course, but it is curious: although I would not be willing to spend on them, I would love me some Timelys…

But these aren’t "variants" Jop, I think they are german editions made following the original graphic design, but are full reprint editions in german language.