So don't say I didn't warn you. If you want to know a bit more about the story behind the story see the text after the end this comic!
I know I don't normally make much of a statement about the comics I make but this comic does deserve some clarification
It was in January 2017 that I finished recreating by hand the art of Silver Surfer Volume 1, issue 18. I first heard of this comic long before that and when I finally saw it reprinted in Marvel Uk's "The Super heroes" I knew I had to re contextualise the story to be that of Jack Kirby himself especially on seeing the final page. So I had the idea of launching "The Super heroes" as a monthly comic. I asked Martin Hand to create a cover and to provide a one page strip (The X-men which was also reprinted in "The Super heroes") and I started building up material with "Doc Savage" to be the proposed back up feature. But then several things happened.
Firstly the story that was telling me it needed to be told, the words and the situations that the silver Surfer went through as one of Jack Kirby's own creations demanded its owns space. It didn't seem to fit in with anything else, it had to be a stand alone story and not a monthly series
Also the adoration for Stan Lee by this point having had a cameo in many Marvel Movies was a force of nature, and to create any material to suggest otherwise appeared to be swimming against the tide
More time passed until it became clear that Stan lee was ill and before I had typed a single word Stan passed on
There never seems to be a right time for this story to be told, at least not the one that had been in the back of my mind in all this time
Maybe even now isn't the right time, but having finally written the dialogue I came to realise it's not about what I think.
These kinds stories I do from time to time never really are, they are observations of two or more sides of a story presented in the context of the original art. With hopefully the audience left to make their own decisions as to what or who is right or wrong
As always my emphasis is on the original intent of the art, a hope to entertain and possibly have one person stop and wonder is this really how it was, and have a look and maybe decide for themselves
This is a historical piece in that the history of the factual creation of the Marvel universe as very much a team effort should truly be part of history. But I do wonder as a generation goes by seeing the movies and maybe only slightly familiar with the comics if they even know the names of Kirby, Ditko et all and what they mean other than that they appear in tiny credits about 3 or 4 minutes into the end credits of the last marvel movie blockbuster
Maybe I am being unfair and unreasonable, but this is the story I felt that had to be told. You may have different point of view and that's fine
