Dear Jack Kirby fans,
As the founder of TwoMorrows Publishing, I understand the importance of starting small and dreaming big. From a xeroxed 16-page Jack Kirby fanzine in 1994, I’ve gone on to publish nearly 60 issues of the ongoing Jack Kirby Collector magazine, as well as other publications devoted to Kirby and his legacy. In addition to my duties as publisher at TwoMorrows, I am proud to be a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center.

The Jack Kirby Museum, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational corporation, was established in 2005 with the blessing of the Kirby family. The Museum’s overall efforts are focused on promoting the study of Jack Kirby and his work, and educating the general public about his artistic legacy. Our website (www.kirbymuseum.org) features scholarly articles, galleries of Kirby’s work, and regularly updated Kirby-related blogs. The Museum also is building an archive with high resolution scans of more than 1700 pages of original Kirby art, plus thousands of pages of personal documents, photocopies of Jack’s pencil work, and other artifacts from Kirby’s life and career. The Museum’s physical Kirby art collection continues to grow, and we’ve had a presence at a number of comic book conventions and participated in panels, lectures, and discussions dedicated to Jack and related subjects, such as creator’s rights.

Inspired by recent events, most notably the legal battle between the Kirby family and Marvel/Disney regarding ownership of Jack’s work, we believe that it’s time for the Jack Kirby Museum to step out of the digital realm and into the physical. We intend to open a physical space on the Lower East Side of New York City, in the same neighborhood where Kirby grew up. Economic realities being what they are, this initial effort will be a “Pop-Up” space of approximately 1,000 square feet that will remain open for roughly three months. Having such a space in one of New York City’s most vibrant neighborhoods will allow us to showcase educational programs, lectures, exhibits and more to pay tribute to one of the greatest storytellers of the 20th Century. We are already reaching out to art collectors and educators in anticipation of opening. Our target for seed money to support basic rent, legal, insurance, and general expenses for the space is $30,000. Once we reach that goal, we’ll raise more funds for specific exhibits and programs as well, and move toward our ultimate goal of opening a permanent museum location.

Given the Jack Kirby Museum’s mission, we would be honored to have your support for our “Brick and Mortar Fund.” To raise the needed funds for a physical museum, we wondered: Could we find 1000 Kirby fans to donate $30 each? Or maybe 500 Kirby fans to donate $60? Even better, how about 100 Kirby fans to donate $300 each? Whatever donation you can make, as soon as we reach that $30,000 goal, we’ll be on our way towards a real, true, physical Jack Kirby Museum.

Everyone who donates $20 or more will have free admission to the Pop-Up Museum. If you’re already a Museum Member, a donation of $20 or more allows you to bring a friend for free. (And every donor, regardless of the amount, will receive some great Kirby Museum postcards and stickers.)

Please, if you’re interested in supporting this effort, head over to the Kirby Museum website. On the right side of home page is a graphic that, when clicked, will present you with a secure form to make a donation to the Brick & Mortar fund, using any major credit card or Paypal. Or, you can send a check to Jack Kirby Museum, PO Box 5236, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Your donation may even be tax-deductible. (Please consult your tax advisor or accountant.)

Thanks for your kind attention to this message. With your help, a physical Jack Kirby Museum will soon be a reality. If you have any questions about the Museum and its future aims, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Warm Regards,

John Morrow
Founding Trustee
Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center
www.kirbymuseum.org

After a few days with our Internet connection down, and a month dealing with shipping the tremendous number of orders that came in during our 40% off sale, we’re now as caught up as we ever get around Casa de Dos Morrows. If you ordered during the last week of October, we were several days behind on shipping all those sale orders, but you should be getting your order in the mail any day now.

We’re still way behind on email (not like that ever changes), and working overtime to get new publications to press for shipping before the New Year, but thanks for everyone’s patience lately.

Shipping now is Back Issue #52 (in full-color!).

Shipping in the next week or so? The STAN LEE UNIVERSE and BrickJournal #16. (Just waiting on the final delivery schedule from our shipper.)

Going to press this week and next? The Quality Companion (it’s a hum-dinger of a book), Back Issue #53, BrickJournal #17, and Kirby Collector #58 (entitled “Lee & Kirby: The Wonder Years”). If all goes well, you’ll see these for the holidays. Never a dull moment around here for sure, and I’ll be scrambling to get it all done from now till end of November.

And yes, to all who’ve asked, we will be offering some kind of sale on BOOKS in late November, so we can work off all those extra calories we’ll be consuming at Thanksgiving by packing dozens of shipments daily till we’re back down to fighting trim. Details are still being worked out, but the sale should be available in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping; I hate going to shopping malls, so this’ll hopefully give you a simpler way to spend all your hard-earned holiday cash. 🙂

Remember a few months back, when our regular TwoMorrows colorist (and longime DC/Marvel colorist) Tom Ziuko was battling kidney failure (due to a long string of medical incompetence, and not anything related to his genetics or lifestyle)? Well, he’s still dealing with the ramifications of such a long hospitalization and recovery period, and can still use our help. You can hear it in Tom’s own words at the HERO INITIATIVE website, where I hope you’ll make a donation to help Tom and other comics greats like him.

We’re scrambling to get everything packed and ready for this week’s New York Comic-Con, where we’ll be offering two specials to attendees:

1) We’ll be continuing our webstore’s current 40% off sale on magazines at our booth (#2839, just outside Artists’ Alley), and

2) We’ll have a limited number of pre-release copies of THE STAN LEE UNIVERSE (which doesn’t official ship till November 9).

So if you’re at the con, stop by!

Our own Joe Meno, editor of BrickJournal, took time out to talk to our local news crew about his lifelong passion for things LEGO.

(Our pal, and BACK ISSUE editor, Michael Eury, was just featured on the cover of Hearing Loss magazine! The official PR is below. Gotta love that cover; great work, ME!)

CONCORD RESIDENT COVER-FEATURED ON NATIONAL MAGAZINE

Concord native Michael Eury, executive director of Historic Cabarrus Association and author of the recent book Images of America: Concord, is cover-featured in the Sept.–Oct. 2011 issue of Hearing Loss Magazine. The bimonthly publication is produced for members of the Hearing Loss Association of America, the nation’s foremost membership and advocacy organization for people with hearing loss.

Featured in the issue is an article written by Eury, “How My Hearing Loss Made Me a Superhero.” A former editor and writer for DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics, Eury describes how his adult-onset progressive hearing loss contributed to his loss of his self-confidence and career and led him into depression. After being inspired by movie Superman Christopher Reeve, who became paralyzed after a horseback-riding accident, Eury eventually took ownership of his disability and became an advocate and spokesperson for people with hearing loss and later, a community servant—a “superhero.”

“Sharing my failures and weaknesses in print was the most difficult thing I’ve ever written,” Eury said. “I hope that others are motivated by my story.”

People with hearing loss often face numerous challenges with personal and professional relationships. Eury’s message to them is to never give up, no matter how insurmountable the odds, and to seek guidance and resources to help them communicate and participate in life.

His article can be read online on Hearing Loss Magazine designer Cindy Dyer’s blog, at http://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/michael-eury-superhero/.

An estimated 36 million (17 percent of) Americans suffer from hearing loss. To learn more about the condition and how to deal with it, visit the Hearing Loss Association of America’s website at www.hearingloss.org.

Why the long delay between issue #15 and #16 of BrickJournal, our mondo mag for LEGO fans? Well, editor Joe Meno’s not to blame, as he had #16 completed right on time, so it’d ship last July. Unfortunately, our good friends at LEGO went through some major personnel changes in their ordering department, resulting is a really long lag time before they could finally place their order for issue #16 (and without their order, we didn’t know how many copies to print).

I’m delighted to annouce that we just got their order on #16, and it’s off to the printer, and will be shipping November 16. A free preview (it’s an awesome LEGO STEAMPUNK theme; wait’ll you see the Rocketeer minifigure!) is available HERE.

And you can order the issue HERE., either as a single issue, or as a “Brick O’Journals” bundle of 25 copies of the new issue (great for LEGO clubs, school groups, or trick-or-treat giveaways).

Plus: A big THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to our buddy Tom (The Comics Savant) Stewart, for again this year manning our table at BrickCon in Seattle, Washington last weekend.

Now through October 31, ALL TWOMORROWS MAGAZINES are 40% OFF for the Print Edition, and 10% OFF Digital Editions!

ALTER EGO
BACK ISSUE!
BRICKJOURNAL
COMIC BOOK ARTIST
DRAW!
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR
ROUGH STUFF
WRITE NOW!

Plus HUMOR AND ONE-SHOT MAGS!

This offer applies to all in-stock print magazines (and get the free Digital Edition included) or the Digital Edition alone! (The discount will be reflected after you add each item to your shopping cart.)

This offer is for MAGAZINES ONLY (not books), and does not include new and upcoming issues that ship after the start of the sale.

Some print issues are in low stock, so go get ’em before they’re gone!

The response to issue #50 of Back Issue was overwhelming positive, in both commentary and sales. So we’re bumping the mag up to full-color permanently starting with #52, shipping Oct. 26. Editor Michael Eury and all his contributors consistently deliver the goods with fascinating articles and great art from comics of the 1970s to today, and this issue’s no exception; full of great mystery work we all grew up with, from BERNIE WRIGHTSON, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, GERRY TALAOC, even DC mystery writer LORE SHOBERG—plus MARK EVANIER and DAN SPIEGLE on their Scooby-Doo comics. Check out the free PDF preview HERE, and ordering details can be found HERE.

In ALTER EGO #105, editor Roy Thomas looks at the rise and fall of the Comics Code! The coming of the CCA in 1954-55 changed comics greatly—and this issue shows some of the weird (and downright stupid) changes required by the Code, including a complete 1950s story, both before and after Len Darvin and Co. got through with it! Plus we’ve got the usual goodies: FCA (“Fawcett Collectors of America”), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, JIM AMASH’s interview with Timely/Atlas artist CAL MASSEY, and lots more, with a new cover by JOSH MEDORS!

It ships Oct. 26, and you can download a FREE PDF preview of the issue HERE, and order the print or digital edition HERE.