#The Book
A LOST KIRBY MASTERPIECE, COMPLETE AND IN REMASTERED COLOR!
The Sky Masters of the Space Force newspaper strip is one of the most fascinating and obscure works by comics legend Jack Kirby. The strip narrates, with a realistic approach, the adventures of Major Sky Masters during the early days of space exploration in the late 1950s, just as a new front opened in the Cold War between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.: a frenzied space race. Now fans and scholars can experience this lost piece of Kirby history as never before, with Sky Masters of the Space Force - The Complete Sunday Strips in Color.
Created and developed by Kirby with writer Dave Wood at the beginning of 1958 while Kirby was working for National (DC), the Sky Masters daily strip debuted on September 8 of that year. Five months later, on February 8, 1959, the color Sunday strips arrived featuring a totally independent storyline from the dailies.
Sky Masters features spectacular art from two of the comics industry’s leading lights of the era. Kirby and embellisher Wallace Wood were both at the peak of their careers, and brought the art of the strip to unprecedented levels. Compared to the Sky Masters dailies, the Sunday strips were the maximum expression of the team’s artistic prowess.
While the Sky Masters Sundays have seen print before, they’ve never been presented in their complete form or in color. Spanish designer Ferran Delgado, who compiled and produced the Eisner Award-nominated first edition of this book published in 2015, found all the best source material, including an extra 100 panels that were created to allow for the various formats of Sunday newspaper sections. Some of these panels hadn’t been seen in any reprint editions. Delgado also featured the first re-printing of strip #52, which hadn’t been printed since its original publication in newspapers. Sky Masters of the Space Force - The Complete Sunday Strips in Color contains all 54 complete Sunday strips, including the extra panels, compiled in color, all painstakingly remastered in this deluxe volume.
“The color of the Sky Masters Sundays is especially fantastic since it was prepared by Kirby himself,” Rand Hoppe, Jack Kirby Museum Director, said. “These are rare and certified samples of published ‘Kirby Kolor.’” The volume contains 13 beautiful color guides painted by him over pristine stats highlighting Wallace Wood's delicate ink work.
The daily strip continued until February 25, 1961, but the Sundays only lasted for a year, abruptly ending after Kirby received the negative verdict of a Sky Masters-related lawsuit brought by National editor Jack Schiff. Comic Book Creator editor Jon B. Cooke’s article, “The Story Behind Sky Masters” from The Jack Kirby Collector is included in the book to provide more detail on this difficult period in Kirby’s career.
Sky Masters of the Space Force - The Complete Sunday Strips in Color also includes plenty of extras, like articles by comics scholars, samples of stunning original art, and many other surprises.
THE CLIMAX OF THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN TWO TITANS OF THE COMIC FIELD:
JACK KIRBY AND WALLACE WOOD!
This book marks two historic firsts:
• The first publication by Kirby Museum Press
• The first official crowdfunding campaign for a Jack Kirby book!
#Preview
Comparison between a fragment of the first panel of strip #15 and the remastered image with color correction to look closer to the color guide:
#About
The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center is organized exclusively for educational purposes; more specifically, to promote and encourage the study, understanding, preservation and appreciation of the work of Jack Kirby by:
illustrating the scope of Kirby’s multi-faceted career,
communicating the stories, inspirations and influences of Jack Kirby,
celebrating the life of Jack Kirby and his creations, and
building understanding of comic books and comic book creators.
To this end, the Museum will sponsor and otherwise support study, teaching, conferences, discussion groups, exhibitions, displays, publications and cinematic, theatrical or multimedia productions.
#Stretch Goals
$20,000 - Book Upgrade - printed endsheets (UNLOCKED)
$30,000 - 8 more pages of backmatter will be added to the book! (UNLOCKED)
$40,000 - Another 8 pages of backmatter will be added to the book! (UNLOCKED)
$50,000 - Every supporter of a physical reward gets a free sticker! (UNLOCKED)
$60,000 - Every supporter of a physical reward gets a second free sticker!
$70,000 - Cover upgrade - Spot UV gloss
#Timeline
The book is completely finished and the only thing left to do is format the files for the printer. We expect it to be ready to start printing a month after the campaign is over. Printing and shipping should take around three more months, so delivery of rewards is expected to be done in late Summer 2024.
Zoop will communicate with supporters should any delays occur, if there’s confusion about delivery, or if any other concerns pop up.