Jack Kirby: Red Raven Comics #1 - August 1940

Let the centenary celebration begin! Okay, I know Jack Kirby wasn't born until August 1917, but what's a few months when it comes to commemorating the Kirbyversary. We'll take a look at two or three Kirby covers a week. 

August 1940: Red Raven Comics #1

Scarlet Witch and Ava Gardner

I'm sure we've all read about how much Jack Kirby loved the movies. But had he seen these Ava Gardner images when coming up with the Scarlet Witch's look? Take a look: tousled chestnut tresses, check. Chiseled bone structure, check. Shapely figure, check. And yeah, even a dimpled chin. 😉

Wanda the Scarlet Witch in X-Men #4 - Jack Kirby

And check out the poster for the 1960 MGM film The Angel Wore Red, starring guess who? 

It Was 55 Years Ago Today...

...when this unassuming lttle comic hit the stands*** 

***On sale date of 8/8/61 is given by various sources including the utterly invaluable Mike's Newsstand.

A Great Pair of Jeans! By Jack Kirby and Barry Windsor-Smith

                     

X-Men #9 (1965) Jack Kirby natch!

X-Men #53 (1969) Barry W-Smith 

One of My Favorite Jack Kirby Covers

Now that's a Kirbyesque face!  ;)

Jack "King" Kirby  

August 28 1917- February 6 1994

Psst: betcha can't guess who the lanky figure in black is ;)

Angry Young Men: Incredible Hulk #1 and...

I've long wondered if Kirby's fine-featured, brooding Hulk was based--facially, anyway--on a certain fine-featured, brooding actor. And yeah, I first posted this on a comic book forum a while back but I'm re-posting it here just 'cause I like these images. So there! 

(l.) Brando as Antony in the 1953 film Julius Caesar         (r.)  Incredible Hulk #1 by Kirby-Reinman                   

Fun fact: In 1969 Jack Kirby designed the costumes and posters for a production of Julius Caesar at the University of California at Santa Cruz. More info at the  Kirby Museum. 

Update: check out August 2015 Time magazine on Kirby!  

Scarlet Witch's Hair Color Part 4

Last time we established that Wanda's hair color reverted to brown way back in 1970's Avengers #75 (click here for details). For the most part her hair's remained rich brown aka red aka auburn aka chestnut aka marsala ever since....though there've been a few variations along the way. 

Black or brown? Scarlet Witch by John Buscema (l)...and by Bob Hall channeling his teacher Buscema (r)

1990s: Yeah I know Wanda's hair color is the kind of brown that can be called "red"; but it's criminal to depict Wanda with bright tomato-red hair--you know, the shade that's normally associated with Medusa or Matt Murdock or Jean Grey. Wanda should never be depicted as a Jean-clone as she was back in the late '90s (leave that sort of stuff for Madelyne Pryor). That's Jean in the first panel and Wanda in the third--I think. 

X-Men #335 (1996)

2000s: Ultimate Wanda had black patent leather tresses.   

2005: Basic brown at the conclusion of House of M.

2007: The lighter, gingery red-brown hair she sported as Wandjelina  was wrong. Just. Wrong.    

New Avengers #26

     

There you have it, a look at Wanda the Scarlet Witch's hair hues. If you want a refresher you can check here and here and here. So, which do you prefer, the brown or black? I must confess that while I find Wanda's deep brown hair lovely, I've always preferred the black as it's a great counterpoint to Pietro's white hair. Plus I feel Wanda's black hair is a better complement to her usual red attire, it's got that le rouge et le noir thing going on. Ah well, c'est la vie...  ;)

And for good measure, here's the hex-tossing, long-tressed Elizabeth Olsen!

      

Scarlet Witch's Hair Color Part 3

We've reached Avengers #75 (1970), the issue in Wanda and Pietro returned to the Avengers. As noted last time, on #75's cover Wanda's hair was blue-black, which was her the hair color she'd sported since she'd joined the Avengers back in #16 (for details, click here).

But wait! Inside #75 it's a different story. Not only does Wanda sport a slightly modified costume--it's now strapless and she has shorter gloves and simpler boots--but her hair is back to brown. By this time Marvel's color palette/technology had changed and her brown hair seemed a bit lighter, more redder, and less heavily inked than it had during her X-Men days. Quicksilver also received a makeover; his costume was now primarily light blue (silvery?) instead of green.

Avengers #75 (1970) Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Toad

But why the change back to brown? A reader asked that very question in Avengers #81's letter column, calling Wanda's hair color in #75 "a ghastly mistake" and demanding to know why "Tom [Palmer] inked it auburn." (Marvel likely tweaked the letter; I mean, how many teenage/twentysomething comic book readers would describe hair color as "auburn?") The letter writer concluded by imploring Marvel to "PLEASE bring back Wanda's lovely black hair!!!"

The answer at last! Marvel--presumably Roy Thomas, then the Avengers writer--responded by stating that first, inkers aren't the ones who color comics, but that coincidentally inker Tom Palmer also happened to be the colorist for the Avengers at the time; and second, that both Tom and "Rascally Roy discovered that, in the early issues of The X-Men...wistful Wanda's hair was indeed auburn...Thus, since Tom and Roy both prefer auburn to the gray and blue highlights applied since then, they decided to change her back to her original shade." And there you have it: it was none other than Roy Thomas--with input from Avengers inker/colorist Palmer--who determined that Wanda should return to her roots.

As an aside, whoever colored Hulk #128 must not have gotten Roy's memo. Hulk #128 was on sale the same time as Avengers #76, was written by Roy Thomas, and marked the first instance of the post-#76 core team--Clint as Goliath, Vision, Black Panther and the newly-returned Wanda and Pietro--in action. Yet despite all this, in the Hulk issue Wanda's hair was colored its old blue-black hue. 

Scarlet Witch in Hulk #128 (1970)

Anyway, despite Hulk #128--and even though Wanda's hair would continue to be colored blue-black on quite a few Avengers covers...and also sometimes miscolored black within the stories themselves (example: Avengers #104-5)...and occasionally her hair would even change colors in the middle of story arcs--for the most part Wanda's hair has remained a beautiful brown shade to this very day.

Scarlet Witch  in 1970-2

Now I know some consider Wanda's brown hair "red"--she is the Scarlet Witch after all--and her hair at times has been been described as auburn...or chestnut...or mahogany or...To prove I'm willing to compromise, what say we call her hair color marsala. According to the Pantone Color Institute, which named it the 2015 Color of the Year, marsala is a "rich and full-bodied red-brown." That pretty much says it all, doesn't it? 

Next, part 4 of the Scarlet Witch Hair Chronicles: tones and highlights.  

Scarlet Witch's Hair Color Part 2

As we saw last time, Wanda and Pietro left the X-Men comic (X-Men #11) and immediately showed up that same month's Avengers comic. Her hair was still brown on the cover of Avengers #16...

Scarlet Witch on the cover of Avengers #16 (1965)

...however in the story itself, we come across a Stan Lee caption describing a certain "graceful black-haired beauty."  Yep, instead of a brown base color Wanda's wavy windswept hair now has a grey base, again with a lot of black inking.

Wanda and Pietro in Avengers #16 (1965)

The million dollar question: why the change in Wanda's hair color? Was Stan Lee merely being poetic when he called her black-haired--after all many describe dark brown hair as "black"-- and did the colorist mistakenly take him literally? Or if the change to black hair was an editorial decision, did showman Stan hope to invoke an association with a certain ebon hair'd, headline-grabbing movie queen?

Maybe Stan felt that since Wanda was now a newly-minted heroine she needed to have her own unique hair color. At that time Marvel's lead super-heroines--so few in number you could count 'em on one hand with fingers to spare--all had different hair colors: Sue Storm was the blonde, Jean Grey was the redhead, and Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp, had brown hair. Perhaps Stan thought two Marvel "brownettes" would confuse the kiddies (never mind that Jan and Hank's feature in Tales to Astonish would only last a couple of months after they departed the Avengers).  

Sue Storm, Jean Grey and Janet Van Dyne

But guess what, the new Sub-Mariner series that replaced Jan and Hank's in Astonish included the return of a character, Lady Dorma, who--though non-powered--had always had an exotic look similar to Wanda's...including wavy, tousled brown hair with black shading!

Dorma in Tales to Astonish #70 (1965)

In any event, here's the black-haired Wanda with her Kooky Quartet cohorts: 

Scarlet Witch in 1965-6

Wanda and Pietro left the Avengers active roster for a few issues (Avengers #30-35) but while they were on team leave they popped up in Thor #134  and X-Men #27.  

                  left: Thor #134 (Kirby)                                   right: X-Men #27   (Roth)                                               

When Wanda and Pietro returned to the Avengers in Avengers #36 the team had grown beyond the Kooky Quartet and Wanda traded in her big ol' headgear for a much sleeker model (though a reader wrote in and complained that the new design looked like it would puncture Wanda's cheeks every time she spoke). A couple of issues later, Marvel expanded its color palette and began to use blue as her hair's base color, instead of the grey.

1967: shades of grey in Avengers #36...and dark blue in Avengers #38 

Here's Wanda by John Buscema, Don Heck, George Tuska and Werner Roth. 

Scarlet Witch in 1967-8

Wanda and Pietro left the team in Avengers #53 (1968) and didn't rejoin until nearly two years later in Avengers #75 (1970). During her time away she was shown in Avengers Annual #2, Avengers # 58, Spider-Man #71 and X-Men #59-60, always with black hair. The black hair was even present in Silver Surfer #5, in a Buscema recreation of a Kirby X-Men #11 panel from her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants days.  

On hiatus from the Avengers: Scarlet Witch in 1968-9

As mentioned above, Wanda and Pietro returned to the team in Avengers #75. On the cover she has blue-black hair...

On the cover of  Avengers #75 (1970)

...but as with #16, inside it's a different story! Next: The Scarlet Witch returns to her roots. 

Scarlet Witch's Hair Color Part 1

At long last! The answer to the number one question about the Scarlet Witch! No, it's not whether Elizabeth Olsen can fill out Wanda's costume...or what the heck does Wanda's hex power actually do...or how did she conceive kids with the Vision...or is she or isn't she Magneto's daughter...or more recently, is she a mutant or Inhuman...or...

Forget about all that. The burning question is: what color is the Scarlet Witch's hair--is it black or is it brown? Over the years I've posted Wanda hair chronologies including at the CBR forums (though from what I understand, since their reboot older posts are stored in their archives). Anyway, here 's my handy-dandy overview of Wanda's Silver Age/Bronze Age hair color. Note, the following is based on how Wanda appeared in the actual Silver Age issues at the time these comics were first published, and not in reprints! 

Let's begin. As many Marvelites know, Wanda first appeared in 1964's X-Men #4. In her first appearance she had brown hair. Her hair color is not the same brown color as, say, Reed Richards, Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Jane Foster or Betty Ross had; Wanda's hair is darker than theirs and there's a lot of black linework--inking--to accentuate her hair's curly/wavy texture; but Wanda's base color is undeniably brown. 

Wanda makes a point in X-Men #4 (1965)

Here are some more images of Wanda during her original stint with Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (X-Men #4-7, X-Men #11)  plus a shot of her in Strange Tales #128 (Jan. 1965). The brown-haired Wanda, Magneto and the rest of the Brotherhood also made an appearance in Journey Into Mystery/Thor #109 (Oct. 1964).

Wanda in  X-Men  4, 5, 6, 7 and 11;

plus Strange Tales 128 (Torch-Thing story)

As many Marvelites also know, Wanda and Pietro left Magneto's Brotherhood in X-Men #11 and immediately showed up in that same month's (in terms of release/publication date) Avengers comic, the famous Avengers #16. In both X-Men #11 and on the cover of Avengers #16 the base color of Wanda's hair is still brown. But inside #16 it's a different story, as we'll see next time in the Scarlet Witch Hair Color Chronicles - Part 2!

Avengers #16. 
Like X-Men #11, it's cover dated May 1965

The brown-haired Wanda

on the Avengers #16 cover

The Medusa Effect...and the Prime of Ms. Jean Grey

We all know that Barry Windsor-Smith's early Marvel work was undeniably Kirbyesque, but here's more evidence that Marvel Girl aka Jean Grey was a Medusa manquée ;) 
They're both great, kick-ass characters--love 'em both!

1967 Fantastic Four Annual #5 Kirby

1969 X-Men #53 Barry Smith (Windsor-Smith) 

Jack Kirby's 97th Birthday

In honor of what would have been Jack Kirby's 97th birthday, let's take a look at--ahem-- Fantastic Four #97 (1970), one of the later Lee-Kirby collaborations from that comic's historic run. 

FF #97's  "The Creature From the Lost Lagoon!" features a sympathetic alien "monster" who adopts a human guise for much of the story.  To illustrate the obvious, check out these panels (l. and r.) of that human form:

But check out these pages from Fantastic Four #97, Kirby-Giacoia art: 

To achieve freedom, he busts loose in true Kirby style.  

Was  #97 Kirby's way of expressing his dissatisfaction and frustration with the House of Ideas? As we know, less than 6 months later and as officially announced in Fantastic Four #102, the King left Marvel (though he'd return in 1975). Why was the alien silent in his human form? Did Stan notice the resemblance? 

Jack "King" Kirby  

August 28 1917- February 6 1994

If you'd like to read more of FF #97, you can purchase it from an online vendor or check your LCS, they may have this classic issue. Plus the story's been reprinted in Essential Fantastic Four Volume 5 and Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four Volume 10. 

By the way, when this same alien creature made another appearance a few years later in Fantastic Four #124-5, in the flashback scenes John Buscema drew the creature's human identity with a longer, ess stocky body instead of the more compact Kirby physique shown in #97.