Here's the first in a series of declarations from the Marvel vs Jack Kirby 's estate court case .  Over the next few days I'll be posting all of the declarations - in no particular order, you'll read from Dick Ayers, Gene Colan, Joe Sinnott and Jim Steranko, but to kick things off, here's Neal Adams. You might have heard of Neal Adams, but if not then I'm not going into all of his credits here.  Suffice to say that he's one of the most influential comic book artists of all time, and would only be shaded by Kirby himself as an artist cited by others.  Neal also has a healthy respect for Jack Kirby, both as an artist and as a person.  Adams might not have as large a body of work as what Kirby has, but he cannot be dismissed easily.  The other aspect of Neal is his sense of fair play - he was there at the forefront when Siegel & Shuster first came out to expose how shabbily DC Comics had treated them over the years, and such is his worth to companies, b

Several dozen documents and testimonies were released today in the from the Marvel vs Jack Kirby 's estate court case , including declarations from Dick Ayers, Gene Colan, Joe Sinnott, Jim Steranko and Neal Adams, but those will follow this posting. Amongst the many documents and attachments are some absolute gems, including the first document here - a note that is labeled 'a true and correct copy of handwritten notes signed by Jack Kirby'.  But this is more than just an undated note, if you read it carefully you'll find Kirby detailing what level of involvement that he had in the creation of several of the Marvel characters, from Captain America through to the early days of Marvel, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor and Sgt Fury.  And therein lies a hidden beauty of such a court case - the little gems that evidence brings forward into the public eye.  Documents such as this are generally coveted by a select few, or the one, and are rarely seen.  In a way it&#

Last week we looked at yet more art from Kraven’s Last Hunt and read comments from artist Mike Zeck . Today it’s yet another issue, and this time the comments come from the series writer J.M. DeMatties. So I'm not going to waste any time, let's get into it, and then see some REAL art! Kraven's Last Hunt – The Concept The seed of the idea, believe it or not, began with a Wonder Man mini-series that I pitched to Tom DeFalco, three or four years before KLH , in which Wonder Man was apparently murdered, and buried, by his brother, the Grim Reaper. Tom turned the story down. I took the seeds of that and developed it into a Batman graphic novel in which the Joker kills Batman in the same way Kraven would eventually kill Spider-Man. As a result, the Joker's mind snaps and he goes sane. Len Wein, who was the Batman editor at the time, turned it down because he had Alan Moore's THE KILLING JOKE in development and thought they were too similar. (A few years later,

Fake Joker by Rob Granito vs real Joker by Norm Breyfogle Possibly the best comment about the growing Rob Granito saga comes from Terry Beatty, via Facebook  Before you read it though, a small note for Norm Breyfogle collectors - amongst the many artists that Rob has been stealing from (and it is a long list indeed), Rob has been selling 'original' paintings that are merely poor copies of the Joker image from Norm's Batman #451 cover art.  Be aware, if it's not signed by Norm then it's a fake, and if it's signed by Granito, then it's a copy of Norm's work.  As Norm did the cover as work for hire for DC Comics, Rob might want to cease pumping out copies as DC might just decide to come after him for copyright violation - after all, copying a commission is one thing, but selling copies of original cover art without permission is another, no matter what Jay Diddilo and John Quesada might want to say... Now, over to Terry. Dear comics fans, You'v

The Inkwell Ballot Goes LIVE w/ a SITE RELAUNCH on  April 1st!  Awards CEREMONY at Heroes Con in June!  It's that time of year again to vote and show some appreciation for your favorite ink artists when the 2011 online ballot goes live from April 1st until April 30th on their website homepage ( http://www.inkwellawards.com ) so please bookmark the address! The annual Inkwell Awards recognizes the best work by comic book ink artists, both from material from the previous year and for two noteworthy recipients from our Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame awards. Previous Hall of Fame recipients include Terry Austin, Dick Giordano, Klaus Janson and Al Williamson. The other categories include Favorite Inker, Most-Adaptable Inker, The Props Awards for inkers deserving of more attention, The S.PA.M.I. (Small Press And Mainstream Independent) for non-Marvel or DC material, and the All-in-One Award for artists who ink their own pencils. Anyone is allowed to vote on the online ballot, wh

Last time we looked at the original art for the Amazing Spider-Man #293 , which was actually Part II of Kraven’s Last Hunt .  You can see that art here .  Today I want to focus on Part II: Descent (Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #131), which is another complete issue, sans cover art, in original art form.  But before we hit the art, I have another special treat in the form of exclusive comments from the artist of the series, Michael Zeck! Kraven's Last Hunt: full script or Marvel Method? Marvel method. I was strictly a 'plot style' guy at both Marvel and DC. Made all the sense in the world to me to let the penciler tell the story visually first. I would think that a writer should have an easier time with dialogue having the art in front of them as opposed to a blank page, and I think it would allow them to limit their captions or balloons in areas where the art conveys the story just fine by itself? That's a penciler saying that though. For all I know, many w