Neil Gaiman's Journal The Bill Willingham Experience. Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times. Comic Book Artwork by Eliot R. Brown July 2010 Kirby dialogue from Eternals # 5 (Nov 1976), pg. 1 Kirby scholars, historians, fans, and critics love to argue. One of the more contentious debates tends to revolve around Jack's text. On the Jack Kirby-l Discussion forum, I asked the members what they thought were some memorable examples of Kirby text (good or bad) so we could understand what specifically they either liked or disliked about Kirby's comic book prose. The first response came from Peter Sattler commenting on Forever People # 8 (April 1972). Peter Sattler: I don’t know whether it’s good or bad to say anything about two pages selected out of hundreds, but in my opinion, the FOREVER PEOPLE selection doesn’t seem particularly well "dialogued." "A pistol in my plate! How many of these lines mere reiterate the image or repeat the content of the scene? Maybe it's just me, but pronouns ("it") and word choice ("loaded") could have streamlined it. It's almost like Jack picked up some of Lee's worst habits. "Rattling gonads."
Jim Shooter Failing Better The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators (Many thanks to Barry Pearl for re-writing this section with additional info that I did not have.) There was no rating of comics before the Comic Code Authority was installed in 1955. Starting then, all of Marvel's comics had to be approved by the CCA or they could not be distributed to dealers. When the rebirth of Marvel's super hero comics began with Fantastic Four #1 in 1961 the CCA stamp was on all Marvel comics. Until the "anti-drug use issues" in Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 published in 1971. At this time any references to drugs, even if they were shown to be harmful, were not allowed. Nudity, Zombies and other "adult" themes were still barred by the CCA, but Marvel started a Black and White line of publications that were not subjected to the CCA. Stan Lee said once in a "Stan's Soapbox" that he sees no problem with the Comic Code, because it is very similar to the internal policy of Marvel. Marvel submitted not all comics to the CCA.
Neal Adams