Sky Masters by Jack Kirby and Wally Wood

[ferrandelgado]

I am a letterer and graphic designer, and I work for a company called Glenat here, in Spain. This company is going to publish "The complete Sky Masters".

The problem we have is that some of the strips included in that compilation were bad reproduced. Because of that, I am seeking for published strips in order to rescan them and improve quality.

I recently purchased a pack with 300+ strips, but I still need more.

Because of that I post this thread. Do you have any sugestion to solve my problem? Do you own them? Do you know someone who own them? Do you know any forum to contact comic strip collectors? Another option?

If I found someone who owns them, I could propose him/her to sell them, to to exchange them with mine, to lend them (I would pay for it, too), to scan them at high resollution and high quality (but it consumes time, and I need dozens of reproductions...), any possibility.

Also, I can offer anyone who can help me, to be included in the acknowledgements, and I would send a free copy of the published strips.

This is my own initiative (no help from my boss), but I love this artwork and I find it is a pity that readers can't enjoy the strips at high quality.

Thank you for your attention,
Ferran Delgado

[TheHistorian]

A couple mailing lists where you may be able to find someone to help:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Classic_Adventure_Comic_Strips/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comic-strip-classics/


I think you'll need to register to join those groups, but it's pretty easy. If you have trouble, let me know, and I'd be happy to repost your request there.


Good luck!

[Sir Tim Drake]

John Morrow, who publishes The Jack Kirby Collector, might be able to help you. His company's contact information can be found at http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=contact_us&zenid=0ca6a0a793b1e1b684a19ffbe3ca20ff

[MilkManX]

I will take 1 preorder for that book if you get it made.

Thanks!

[Sir Tim Drake]

I will take 1 preorder for that book if you get it made.

Thanks!

?Puedes leer espanol?

[hondobrode]

i too would buy that once it gets published.

[berk]

It's a guaranteed buy for me as well. I love the look of the art whenever I see it anywhere. I never would have thought that that combination - Wood's inks over Kirby's pencils - would work, but the result is beautiful.

[hondobrode]

Will they acknowledge the work of the Wood Brothers, Dick & Dave, who wrote the strip, and are no relation to Wally Wood ? I hope so.

[MilkManX]

Will they acknowledge the work of the Wood Brothers, Dick & Dave, who wrote the strip, and are no relation to Wally Wood ? I hope so.

That was quite a strange set up.

Not only did Dick and Dave write but they also inked some of the Skymasters strips.

There was one interview with Kirby where he has to clarify that there were 3 Woods working in this at one time lol. He also said the Wood bros were sometimes very hard to get ahold of and that made deadlines frustrating.

[ferrandelgado]

Hi!

Thank you all of you for your tips and good willings!

Right now I am awfully busy, but as soon I can, I will try these mailing list.

About John Morrow, I contacted him indirectly to ask him for his support and permission to use some text and/or pictures from his Jack Kirby Collector, and I was told that John Morrow and the Kirbies were discussing about it and I would get an answer soon... I cross the fingers (all of them!)!!

The spanish edition will be released by june, and it will be more or less like the hardcover that Pure Imagination published (signed by Greg Theakston), with all the extras (text and pictures). We intend to include 4 or 8 color pages to print some samples I bought of sundays in order the readers get an idea about how Jack Kirby colored them. Also, I would like to include the wonderful image published in The art of Jack Kirby, that showed a space station not included in the published strip. And a sunday colored directly by Kirby himself (a guide to color it).

Also, we'll include extensive biographies of the authors, a checklist with all the works by Kirby/Wood, a new intro and a new article by experts from Spain, an article to promote the Kirby's museum, a making of the book (how some strips were improved in comparation from the original edition), and more surprises still in construction stage!

Milkmanx: I think you are talking about the interviews included in The Comics Journal Library dedicated to Jack Kirby. We intend to talk about all of this in the new articles, and we'll give the acknowledge to the Wood Brothers (not Wally included) they deserve. In fact, we'll include them in the bios section like they did in the hardcover of Challengers of the Unknown or in the Green Arrow collection. Jack told they were very eccentric, and he blames them about the strip didn't succed. But I'm not sure they inked any strip (in fact, I doubt it). Jack inked some strips between Wood and Ayers. I'd like to contact mr. Ayers and a Wally's assistant to ask for details about inking.

By the way, if you want to know the story behind Sky Masters, check this page: http://twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/15skymasters.html

Regards,
Ferran Delgado

[MilkManX]

Yeah that was the one. It has been a long time since I read it!