The Kirby Collector begins!

I’m liable to be a bit slow posting to this forum over the next three weeks or so, as I’m in the midst of what I affectionately refer to as “Kirby Hell.” It’s that exhilarating, but demanding, and occasionally frustrating time every three months or so, when I try fruitlessly to put aside my day-to-day tasks of running TwoMorrows, to work on the new issue of The Jack Kirby Collector (in this case, #48, cover shown here).
tjkc48.jpg

Don’t get me wrong; doing TJKC is still the highlight of my worklife. Each issue I produce is something that is so satisfying, I wish I could do nothing but this. Alas, it doesn’t pay the bills, and so my labor of love often gets pushed aside for more menial tasks, like cutting checks to our printer and contributors, and making sure Diamond Distributors has enough copies of our stuff to fill their orders.

Anyway, as time permits, I’ll try to use this blog to give you fine folks an idea of the day-to-day process of putting together an issue of TJKC, and give sneak peeks at some of the art. It’s generally a three-to-four week process from start to finish on an issue, which is considerably less than it used to be, thanks to having so much art scanned and archived. (It does vary though, depending on how many other things keep me from working on it.) As it stands now, I’ve got all the articles, and all but one of our columns in. Also, I’ve got a wealth of great Kirby art, much of it already scanned, accumulated through years of doing the mag, and from the wonderful Kirby Pencil Archives on loan to me from the Kirby family.

Stay tuned!