This will be a quickly annotated list of Kirby items in print to supplement the list found on the sidebar of the main pages of the weblog. For a visual look at some of them, check out the Kirby Aisle for books available from Amazon.com (and purchase from which gives a small percentage to the Kirby Museum).
Of course most of these in print are also available from most comic shops, and any decent bookstore should be able to order an in-print book with an ISBN.
Recommended Key Books
TwoMorrows Publications
Fourth World in B&W
70s Kirby in Colour
Marvel Essentials
Marvel Masterworks
DC Archives
Misc books with Kirby content
Biographical Books
Out of Print
Highly Recommended Key Books
Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby (Vol. 1) ISBN - 0785115749
Marvel's major 2004 hardcover collection of Kirby's work through the ages, 352 pages of some great work, slightly oversized (7.5x11). You can check out my quick review from when it came out. A great book for those getting into Kirby and wanting to sample a bit of almost everything from his various stints at Marvel.
Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby (Vol. 2) ISBN - 0785120947
Coming soon, the follow-up volume, with more of the same, now with added Devil Dinosaur.
Jack Kirby Reader v1 ISBN - 1566850169
Jack Kirby Reader v2 ISBN - 1566850266
Greg Theakston's Pure Imaginations published these two volumes in 2003 and 2004, each with 160 pages of some of the best public domain Kirby work from the 1940s and 1950s. You can read my initial thoughts on v2 over here. Highly recommended to the more experience Kirby fan looking for samples of his non-superhero work, with a good sampling of crime and romance. Unfortunately not available through most on-line sellers, you can order them from Last Gasp or from Midnight Enterprises. Most of PI's COMPLETE KIRBY seem to be out of print (the fifth volume should be out soon), though Last Gasp appears to have one of the hardcovers right now.
Fantastic Four Omnibus ISBN - 0785118705
Marvel's latest reprint format, this slightly oversized (7.5x11) massive hardcover reprints FF #1 - #30 and Annual #1 with all the original letter columns and some other features in one fat 848 page book. If you don't otherwise have this material in a permanent format and really want the colour, this is a reasonable way to get it in one shot.
The Comics Journal Library: Jack Kirby ISBN - 1560974346
A collection of various Kirby related interviews and articles which appeared in THE COMICS JOURNAL over the years, including his long and controversial late 1980s interview. While a bit of a flawed book in a lot of ways (with an over-emphasis on his disagreements with Marvel over art returns, and a generally weak selection of articles) it gives a good overview of Kirby's career and contains a wealth of great artwork (in particular a few colour reproductions of Kirby's letters home from the war).
TwoMorrowsThe Jack Kirby Collector
TwoMorrows' magazine devoted to Kirby is still going strong after over a decade, starting as a small 16-page magazine with black and white covers, getting colour covers with #8 and moving to tabloid size with #31, that format continuing to today, and they've probably done more than anyone else in keeping Kirby's name and art in the spotlight. The early issues are sold out, but reprinted in the collections listed below. Most of the others are available for ordering at the above site, as are subscriptions and the books listed below. Their other fanzines (ALTER EGO, COMIC BOOK ARTIST v1, BACK ISSUE) also frequently had Kirby related content.
Collected Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 1 ISBN - 1893905004
Collected Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 2 ISBN - 1893905012
Collected Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 3 ISBN - 1893905020
Collected Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 4 ISBN - 1893905322
Collected Jack Kirby Collector, Vol. 5 ISBN - 1893905578
Collectively reprinting the first 22 sold-out issues of the magazine, each with a few dozen additional images not included in the original issues.
Kirby Unleashed
This tabloid sized 2004 re-issue of the early 1970s portfolio (with a lot of additional and updated material) is beautiful and a bargain at the price they're asking for it.
Kirby Checklist
A massive undertaking from 1998, indexing nearly all of Kirby's work, an essential guide for Kirby fans, and with a lot of great spot illustrations.
Captain Victory Graphite Edition
Reprinted from copies of the pencils, this is the original 1970s CAPTAIN VICTORY graphic novel that was modified to form the first few issues of the on-going series.
Silver Star Graphite Edition ISBN - 1893905551
Reprinting the complete six issue mini-series from the 1980s, direct from copies of Kirby's pencils, plus Kirby's screenplay treatment for a film version of the story and other artwork in a 160-page book.
Streetwise ISBN - 1893905047
Reprints the great Kirby autobiographical short story "Street Code", which also serves as the springboard for other cartoonists doing autobio shorts.
Fourth World in b&wDC's current version of the Fourth World books collects the contents of the three main books in four tradepaperbacks. These books are black and white with greytones added, which got a mixed at best reaction from most fans. I thought they were okay but could have been better. They're still a very affordable way to get some great comics, but I hope the rumour that DC will issue new colour editions after these fall out of print is true.
Jack Kirby's New Gods ISBN - 1563893851
Jack Kirby's Forever People ISBN - 1563895102
Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle ISBN - 1563894572
Jack Kirby's Fourth World (MM v2) ISBN - 1563897237
1970s Kirby in ColourThe last two years have seen a decent number of quality releases of Kirby's 70s work in paperback from both DC and Marvel in full colour standard comic size (6.5x10).
Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby v1 ISBN - 1563899841
SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #133 - #141
plus unusd cover inked by Steve Rude and introduction by Mark Evanier
Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby v2 ISBN - 1401202594
SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #142 - #148
plus unused cover inked by Al Milgrom, three pencil pages before the Superman/Jimmy heads were changed and introduction by Mark Evanier
Captain America and the Falcon: Madbomb ISBN - 0785115579
CAPTAIN AMERICA #193 - #200
plus several uninked covers from those issues
Captain America: Bicentennial Battles ISBN - 0785117261
CAPTAIN AMERICA #201 - #205
BICENTENNIAL BATTLES tabloid
Black Panther by Jack Kirby v1 ISBN - 0785116877
BLACK PANTHER #1 - #7
plus various unused covers/pages
Black Panther by Jack Kirby v2 ISBN - 0785120696
BLACK PANTHER #8 - #13
Finishing Kirby's run, the last issue is the non-Kirby conclusion to the story.
Marvel Essentials"Essentials" are Marvel's name for their thick black and white tradepaperbacks (originally about 528 pages each, new editions routinely over 600) collecting largre runs of various books/characters from the beginning. These are regular comic sized (6.5x10) books. The reproduction quality varies. Generally sharp, but then sometimes for anywhere from a page to a whole story you'll get something that looks like a photocopy of a printed comic. Anyway, they're the most affordable way to read most of Kirby's 1960s material. The books tend to fall out of print for long periods sometimes, but most are currently available.
These volumes have substantial (sometimes all) Kirby art.
Essential Ant-Man ISBN - 078510822X
Essential Avengers v1 ISBN - 0785107010
Essential Captain America v1 ISBN - 0785107401
Essential Captain America v2 ISBN - 0785108270
Essential Daredevil v1 ISBN - 0785109498
Essential Fantastic Four v1 ISBN - 0785106669
Essential Fantastic Four v2 ISBN - 0785107312
Essential Fantastic Four v3 ISBN - 0785107827
Essential Fantastic Four v4 ISBN - 078511484X
Essential Human Torch ISBN - 0785113096
Essential Incredible Hulk v1 ISBN - 0785109935
Essential Incredible Hulk v2 ISBN - 0785107959
Essential Iron Man v1 ISBN - 0785118608
Essential Silver Surfer ISBN - 078510271X
Essential Thor v1 ISBN - 0785107614
Essential Thor v2 ISBN - 0785115919
Essential Uncanny X-Men v1 ISBN - 0785109919
The following have trivial amounts of Kirby (covers, under two dozen story pages)
Essential Avengers v2 ISBN - 078510741X
Essential Daredevil v2 ISBN - 0785114629
Essential Doctor Strange v1 ISBN - 0785108165
Essential Iron Man v2 ISBN - 0785114874
Essential Marvel Two-in-One v1 ISBN - 0785117296
Essential Moon Knight v1 ISBN - 0785120920
Essential Spider-Man v1 ISBN - 0785109889
Essential Spider-Man v2 ISBN - 078510299X
More Essentials
Online vendor Tales of Wonder's selection of Essentials, including non-Kirby ones.
Marvel MasterworksThis has been Marvel's primary hardcover reprint vehicle for the past two decades, with over 50 volumes, about half with substantial Kirby content (over a dozen story pages). These are colour hardcover books, regular comic sized (about 7x10). They re-issued and slightly revamped all the volumes in the past few years. It's kind of hard to explain, I suggest checking http://marvelmasterworks.com/library.html for details.
Kirby appears in the following volumes (note new editions don't have the series number on the left on the cover, except, um, when they do):
2 -- Fantastic Four #1-10
3 -- X-Men #1-10
4 -- Avengers #1-10
6 -- Fantastic Four #11-20, Annual #1
7 -- X-Men #11-21
8 -- Incredible Hulk #1-6
9 -- Avengers #11-20
13 -- Fantastic Four #21-30
14 -- Captain America - Tales of Suspense #59-81
18 -- Thor - Journey Into Mystery #83-100
19 -- Silver Surfer #7-18
20 -- Iron Man - Tales of Suspense #39-50
21 -- Fantastic Four #31-40, Annual #2
25 -- Fantastic Four #41-50, Annual #3
26 -- Thor - Journey Into Mystery #101-110
28 -- Fantastic Four #51-60, Annual #4
29 -- Daredevil #12-21
30 -- Thor - Journey Into Mystery #111-120, Annual #1
32 -- Sub-Mariner - Tales to Astonish #70-87
34 -- Fantastic Four #61-71, Annual #5
39 -- Hulk - Tales to Astonish #59-79
42 -- Fantastic Four #72-81, Annual #6
43 -- [Golden Age] Captain America Comics #1-4
46 -- Captain America - Tales of Suspense #82-99, Captain America #100
52 -- Thor - JiM/Thor #121-130
53 -- Fantastic Four #82-93
55 -- [Golden Age] All-Winners Comics #1-4
56 -- Hulk - Tales to Astonish #80-101, Incredible Hulk #102
57 -- [Atlas Era] Tales to Astonish #1-#10
58 -- Sgt. Fury #1 - #13
59 -- Ant-Man/Giant-Man - Tales to Astonish #27, #35-#52
In addition, trivial amounts of Kirby (covers, under a dozen story pages or layouts) appear in these:
1 -- Spider-Man #1-10
15 -- Silver Surfer #1-6, FF Annual #5 backup
16 -- Spider-Man #31-40, Annual #2
17 -- Daredevil #1-11
27 -- Avengers #21-30
31 -- X-Men #22-31
35 -- X-Men #32-42
38 -- Avengers #31-40
45 -- Iron Man - Tales of Suspense #51-65
49 -- Doctor Strange - Strange Tales #142-168 (plus earlier covers)
My understanding is that the new editions aren't available directly from Amazon, so if you order from them its kind of hit-or-miss exactly what edition you'll get. Online vendor Tales of Wonder seems to be a good source for current editions. Use this page to get the relevent links.
Of related interest
Maximum Fantastic Four ISBN - 078511792X
Coffeetable book which reprints FF #1, blowing up each panel to full or double page size, and including some extras. Got mixed reviews.
DC ArchivesDC's Archives series are colour hardcover books, similar in format to the Masterworks.
Challengers Archives v1 ISBN - 1563899973
the SHOWCASE tryout issues (#6 - #7, #11 - #12) and CotU #1 - #2
Challengers Archives v2 ISBN - 1401201539
CotU #3 - #8 (last Kirby issue)
Kamandi Archives v1 ISBN 1401204147
KAMANDI #1 - #10
Shazam Archives v2 ISBN - 1563895218
includes CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #1 by Simon&Kirby
All-Star Archives v3 ISBN - 1563893703
includes the S&K Sandman short story from ALL-STAR #14
All-Star Archives v4 ISBN - 1563894335
includes the S&K Sandman short stories from ALL-STAR #15 - #17
All-Star Archives v5 ISBN - 1563894971
includes the S&K Sandman short story from ALL-STAR #19
Misc partial Kirby books
Marvel
Marvel Romance TPB ISBN - 0785120890
Five short stories from around 1960
Best of the Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 ISBN - 0785117822
About a third of this 350 page hardcover is Kirby, including FANTASTIC FOUR #1, #39 - 40, #51, #100
Fantastic Firsts ISBN - 0785108238
A thick tradepaperback collecting various first appearances, about half of this book is by Jack Kirby. Mostly familiar standards, but notable as the only modern reprints of the first issue of SGT. FURY and the first SHIELD story from STRANGE TALES #135.
Fantastic Four - The Movie ISBN - 0785118098
The movie adaptation and some reprints, including FF #5 (first Doctor Doom)
Marvel Monsters (hardcover) ISBN - 0785121412
Four monster reprints among various new revivals of the characters.
Marvel Visionaries: Stan Lee (Vol. 1) ISBN - 0785116931
Kirby's represented by three stories in this issue, most notably his final issue of THOR which has yet to be reprinted anywhere else.
Marvel Weddings ISBN - 0785116869
This collection includes the wedding of Reed and Sue from FF ANNUAL #3.
What If Classic Vol. 2 ISBN - 0785118438
Reprints six issues of the 1970s series, including Kirby's full issue (#11) and his one other cover (#9).
Incredible Hulk - Transformations ISBN - 0785102620
This includes the oft-reprinted 3-page Hulk origin from THE INCREDIBLE HULK #3.
Marvel Visionaries - Gil Kane ISBN - 0785108882
Includes Gil Kane's first work at Marvel, a Hulk story from TALES TO ASTONISH #76 where he worked over Kirby layouts. No other Kirby, but hey, over 200 pages of Gil Kane.
Bring Back the Bad Guys ISBN - 0785105913
About one-third Kirby reprints including X-MEN #4, AVENGERS #8, STRANGE TALES #89 and THOR #169 (origins of Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Kang, Fin Fang Foom and Galactus).
Avengers - Kang Time and Time Again ISBN - 0785118209
Includes THOR #140, where Thor battles Kang's minion the Growing Man.
DC Comics
Showcase Presents Green Arrow v1 ISBN - 1401207855
All eleven of Kirby's GA stories from the 1950s, and the next decade worth of stories after that, mostly by Lee Elias, in black and white.
Superman in the Seventies ISBN - 1563896389
Contains JIMMY OLSEN #133, Kirby's first issue
DC Universe Christmas ISBN - 1563896400
This 2000 collection from DC reprints various Christmas stories, of course, with S&K being represented by the Sandman story "Santa Fronts for the Mob".
Pulp Fiction Library - Mystery In Space ISBN - 1563894947
This volume published by DC in 1999 contains 33 science-fiction stories from their long publishing history. Kirby is represented twice, you can read about it in this post.
Showcase Presents - House of Mystery v1 ISBN - 1401207863
One black-and-white reprint from the 1950s, as reprinted in the early 1970s run of the anthology.
Other Publishers
Adventures of the Fly v1 ISBN - 1879794187
Reprints the first four issues of the 1959 Archie series, with most of the Kirby work in those issues and the Fly teaser from DOUBLE LIFE OF PRIVATE STRONG #1.
New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories - From Crumb to Clowes ISBN - 1588341836
This 2004 collection is a massive survey of American comic books from the 1960s on. It seems to have gotten mixed at best reviews, but anyway, it includes FANTASTIC FOUR #21 in black and white.
Modern Arf ISBN - 1560976292
The first of Craig Yoe's anthologies of modern art themes in the comics features Kirby's 1950s story "The Fourth Dimension is a Many Splattered Thing", reprinted from the original art, in crisp clean black-and-white, among other things.
Biographical
The Comic Book Makers (Joe Simon autobio) ISBN - 1887591354Written with his son Jim Simon, this is a great collection of reflections on Simon's long career in comics and the many people he knew. As you'd expect, the bulk of the book is about work done with Jack Kirby over their decades of partnership, with a lot of artwork and related material printed, some of it previously unpublished, including an unpublished Boy Explorers story, unused Stuntman double page splashes and a reprint from BLACK MAGIC. The first edition was published in 1990 by Crestwood II, this link is the revised edition published in 2003 by Vanguard.
Will Eisner's Shop Talk ISBN - 156971536X
A collection of Will Eisner's discussions with fellow creators, mostly reprinted from his WILL EISNER QUARTERLY or SPIRIT MAGAZINE, including Jack Kirby and Joe Simon in seperate interviews from the early 1980s.
Tales to Astonish (Ronin Ro bio, HC) ISBN - 1582343454
Tales to Astonish (Ronin Ro bio, TPB) ISBN - 158234566X
The 2004 pop biography of Kirby, a useful collection of anecdotes put in order, with some flaws. Worth reading, you can check out my quick review.
Out of PrintHere are a few books that are currently out of print. You may be able to order copies second-hand.
Art of Jack Kirby ISBN - 0963446703
Blue Bolt ISBN - 1885730403
Boys' Ranch ISBN - 087135859X
Bring On The Bad Guys (revised) ISBN - 0785105972
Captain America - The Classic Years v1 ISBN - 078510660X
Captain America - The Classic Years v2 ISBN - 0785107436
Complete Jack Kirby v1 ISBN - 1566850061
Complete Jack Kirby v2 ISBN - 1566850063
Complete Jack Kirby v3 ISBN - unknown
Complete Jack Kirby v4 ISBN - 1566850088
David Copperfield's Tales of the Impossible ISBN - 0061052280
Fighting American - ISBN 0871356007
Golden Age of Marvel v1 ISBN - 0785105646
Golden Age of Marvel v2 ISBN - 0785107134
Grandson of Origins ISBN - 078510593X
Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told ISBN - 0930289390
Greatest Villains of the Fantastic Four ISBN - 0785100792
Hulk - Beauty and the Behemoth ISBN - 0785106596
Jack Kirby Treasury v2 ISBN - 1560601345
Jack Kirby's Heroes and Villains Black Magic Edition ISBN - 1566850029
Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD ISBN - 0785107479
Origins of Marvel Comics (revised) ISBN - 0785105794
Real Love: The Best of the Simon and Kirby Love Comics ISBN - 0913035637
Silver Surfer - The Coming of Galactus ISBN - 087135957X
Sky Masters of the Space Force ISBN - 1566850096
Son of Origins of Marvel Comics (revised) ISBN - 078510559X
Villainy of Doctor Doom ISBN - 0785107320
