DINGBAT LOVE (hardcover, Two Morrows, 160p, released Jan 21 2020)
https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Kirbys-Dingb...83515925&sr=8-1


The last of Kirby's 1970-1976 DC material, released in a new edition.

The "Dingbat" part comes from a Kirby tryout series in FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL issue 6, a kid gang title called DINGBATS. I found out from speaking to John Morrow at Orlandocon in 1998 that there was a lot of Kirby material created for DC that was never released, including 2 additional issues of DINGBATS. I have xeroxes of the unpublished DINGBATS issues I purchased about 15 years ago.

The "Love" part of the title comes from two other unpublished Kirby projects. Similar to Kirby's IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB and SPIRIT WORLD magazines published in 1971, there was a huge volume of Kirby anthology stories created for two other proposed magazines, TRUE DIVORCE CASES, and a black-audience-targeted romance magazine SOUL LOVE.
Given the way Kirby was jerked around with DAYS OF THE MOB and SPIRIT WORLD (both of which DC published only the first issue of each, despite that Kirby created 2 complete issues of both series) Kirby shelved the romance titles.
Over the last 25 years or so, Two Morrows has published many pages and complete stories from these lost issues in their fan press magazine THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR. But this book marks the first time they've been released in one publication in their entirety, finally, roughly 50 years later.

SPIRIT WORLD was also released in 2012 in magazine-sized hardcover form, with both complete issues for the first time. (the second issue material was split up and published across DC's color comics DARK MANSION 6 and WEIRD MYSTERY 1-3 in 1972, but in the hardcover is reprinted together for the first time in its original black and white form. The 1972 comics also include Kirby photo-collage and text features for the aborted issue 2 that are not in the collected hardcover. I actually prefer the issue 2 stuff in the color comics.)

And DAYS OF THE MOB likewise was released in hardcover in 2013 with the complete issues 1 and 2. (Only one story from issue 2 was ever published before this hardcover, in AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS fanzine issue 1, in 1974. The rest all is published here for the first time.)

It's amazing to me that all this material, unpublished for decades, is finally all in print.



The only other unpublished story I mentioned earlier, what would have been SANDMAN 7 in 1975 if the title was not prematurely cancelled (and what would have later seen print in KAMANDI 61 in 1978, if that title likewise had not been prematurely cancelled, that was printed as xeroxes in CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE in 1978, that finally saw print in some mainstream form in THE BEST OF DC digest issue 22 in March 1982) finally saw print in KIRBY OMNIBUS, VOLUME 2 hardcover in 2013, and again more recently in JACK KIRBY BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS hardcover in 2019.

Leaving only Kirby's JUSTICE INC. issues 2-4 his only remaining 1970's DC material not re-released in hardcover or trade form.

Kirby's Fourth World material also has been released in several new hardcovers and trades. I like the material best as it was separated into four trades of:
JIMMY OLSEN 133-139,141-148
NEW GODS 1-11, NEW GODS 6 (1984), and HUNGER DOGS (1985)
MISTER MIRACLE 1-18

and soon to be released
FOREVER PEOPLE 1-11 (July 2020).

In addition to an 8" X 11" hardcover JACK KIRBY FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS, at an unweildy 1,500-plus pages. Beware on this version, the first edition has printing errors, and DC did a later printing that buyers could trade for a corrected version.
(earlier Fourth World hardcovers (2007-2008) and trade paperbacks (2011-2012) collected this material across 4 volumes each, in an odd canonization that didn't give you a complete story in any single volume. I much prefer the new trades that collect each individual series in a separate volume)