RESTORING THE KING...

"Where's Cagney? I'll moider da bum!"

Being incredibly talented - as well as witty, charming and handsome (not to mention modest and with a self-deprecating sense of humour) - it should come as no surprise to anyone to learn that I once inked (or re-inked, to be precise) the artwork of JACK "KING" KIRBY - while he was still alive yet, making it even more of a thrill for me. To see my name listed alomgside (well, not quite alongside - more like underneath) some of the greats of the comicbook biz like STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, VINCE COLLETTA, etc., was a big deal for me, and one that I'm immensely proud of. How did this monumental accomplishment occur, you are perhaps asking - so here's the scoop.

MARVEL were still producing their first run of MASTERWORKS volumes, when the then-editor, TOM BREVOORT, asked me if I could supply some of the pages missing from their files. As it happened, I was in a position to be able to help, utilising some of my comic collection featuring MARVEL reprints in British publications from the '60s. However, things were a lot more complex than simply photocopying pages from old comicbooks and sending them over to the States - and here's why:

Back in the '60s, ODHAMS PRESS - who were publishing comics such as WHAM!, SMASH!, POW!, FANTASTIC, and TERRIFIC (as well as EAGLE and others) - made all sorts of alterations to the MARVEL strips they reprinted. Credit boxes were deleted, American references were changed, colloquial speech was altered, characters names were revised, and pages were - in the case of WHAM!, SMASH!, and POW! - resized to fit the standard British comic dimensions. However, rather than whitter on about it let me show you. Below is a THOR page as it appeared in FANTASTIC.

And here's how the page looked once I had restored it to its original appearance.



Next up is a poorly printed ad featuring the cover art from FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #3 - as you can see, most of the linework has dropped out and a couple of characters have been deleted.

Here's the cover once I had re-inked it. Nothing too elaborate - merely the application of a MARSMATIC drawing pen to a photocopy of the above image, and a combination of recreated and photocopied lettering from the original comic.

Here are a few more "before" and "after" illustrations for your perusal. As you can see below, the figure of the THING lost most of his body when the image was resized to fit the larger page. With the aid of reference as to how the page should have looked, I soon restored the missing details and returned the page to its former state.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And finally, a THOR pic, before and after restoration.

Remember - the images can be enlarged by clicking on them - and then clicking again on the enlarged pic to make it larger yet. (These two are a little blurred - although the preceeding pictures can be seen to their best advantage by this process.)

And that's how one restores royalty. Simple, really - but immensely satisfying.