'70s Kirby Mags -- IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB...SPIRIT WORLD...and now SOUL LOVE!!!! 0

[jools&jim]

TwoMorrows Publishing is calling this incredibly cool "new" '70s Kirby mag a "Facsimile Edition", but it's really more like an oxymoronic re-creation of a long-lost gem which never truly existed in the first place!

Unlike the original "Speak-Out Series" mags conceptualized and produced by Kirby for DC in 1971 (Spirit World and In the Days of the Mob, released by Hampshire Distribution -- a "dummy" corporate name ginned up by the suits at National Periodical Publications), this modern version of "the one that got away" is printed in full color on glossy stock, and is only 32 pages (including covers), instead of the originals' 48 pp.  And, despite what the cover states, it does not include a pull-put poster of a (Kirby-collaged?) Roberta Flack!  

But...the overall attention to detail, inside and out, is absolutely superb, especially the period ads & text pieces, period indicia, a full-color cover which has been beautifully and tastefully embellished from Kirby's original pencils by Alex Ross, and no internal references whatsoever to TwoMorrows or any modern signifiers like URLs or e-mail addresses for the modern publisher.  It very much looks like the real thing.

And of course the comics content is 100% Kirby: four unpublished and fully-rendered stories drawn by The King specifically for this mag...four stories, now augmented by traditional coloring techniques, which never saw the light of day in its creator's intended format until a very short time ago.

My two copies arrived in the mail yesterday, and I am beyond thrilled with them! 

I found my current copy of In the Days of the Mob at a flea market in 1977, and Spirit World a year or two later at a comic book store in central PA -- they are both underrated and underappreciated cornerstones of Kirby's visionary approach to comics in (then) non-traditional formats, and TwoMorrows has VERY much done them justice in this lovingly and painstakingly well-produced and highly satisfying addition to the line, nearly 50 years after the fact.  Bravo!!!

Edited January 29, 2020 by jools&jim

[MisterX]

Glad to hear you liked it. I also ordered a copy and look forward to reading it when it arrives!

[lordbyroncomics]

I dig everything TwoMorrows is doing with the recent Kirby books and support them wholeheartedly. The only slightly related issue I had was that they released an updated 'Stuf' Said!' shortly after Stan's death but didn't provide the updated content for free to people who had bought the first edition, which had come out not that long before that event. Otherwise they're doing so many cool things and these replica editions are fascinating.