In commemoration of the currently-running AVENGERS VS X-MEN series, here’s the first battle between the X-Men and the Avengers from X-MEN #9, by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
A few fragments of Kirby’s border notes remain:
BATTLE RAGES
YOU CAN’T MOVE
I.M.
Here’s a page from X-MEN #11, the last issue for which Jack Kirby did full pencils. Inks by Chic Stone.
A few of Kirby’s erased border notes remain:
THIS IS WHY—TO COMBINE OUR POWERS FOR GAIN!
YAK-YAK! WHAT SPORT!
ILLUSION CHANGE TO ONE (word missing) LOOMING OUT OF
Crazy dramatic splash page from the Inhumans story in AMAZING ADVENTURES #4 by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone.
This is the last page from X-MEN #8 by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone. Stan’s note instructs production man Sol Brodsky to black in the shadowed area of Beast’s mask in the center panel—Stone must have missed it.
Splash page from the Thor story in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #113 by Jack Kirby and Chic Stone. A Stan Lee note at the top reads:
KEEP CHIC STONE BUSY
presumably because Stan thinks that this will be a difficult splash image to execute.
This page from SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #13 includes one of Jack Kirby’s early experiments with incorporating collages of photographs into his work. Reportedly, many of the photos cannibalized for these pieces came from the pages of Martin Goodman’s many sleazy men’s magazines.
At the top, Kirby writes:
C.A. FOUND THE DETONATOR! THE TUNNEL’S BLOWING!
UP THE HATCH!
GO! GO! GO!
On the right:
END OF OPERATION EINFALL
And at the bottom:
NEXT DAY IN HOSPITAL
CAP SAWYER
IT’S YOU BUMS!
The earliest border notes I can find on an issue of AVENGERS are on the art for issue #6—before this, there are none to be found. Over time, as the firm became more successful and the work process became more standardized, more and more of the page-to-page plotting for the Marvel books was handled by the artists, especially the more facile ones such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. This process began as a way of keeping the overstretched staff able to keep working, but it yielded such good results that it became standard operating procedure.
The artists would write notes in the margins describing the nuances of what was going on in the art. Stan Lee would then add the final copy once the artwork was drawn, sometimes diverging wildly from what was being described.
At the top of this page, Jack Kirby writes:
TRIGGER OPERATES ON RADIATION. RELEASES WINDING TAPE AT R.A. MAN
TAPE WITH LEAD COATING BINDS R.A. MAN
REST OF GADGET HELD BY IRON MAN INFLATES LIKE RAFT BUT ITS BALLOON
And at the bottom:
L. POST IN SOFT CONDITION
ZOOMS OUT AS
Stan also makes a note to production man Sol Brodsky to change the seam on Iron Man’s helmet to the then-current rivets.
