Daredevil, Pt. 3

(Continued from Part 2)

IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

First, Bill Everett's more-than-full-time job got in the way.  Second, Joe Orlando very quickly got sick of the editor's twisted habit of trying to re-write other people's stories after the art had already been turned in.  Third, Wally Wood strongly objected to having "ye editor" steal credit AND PAY for Wood's writing, and having his own writing efforts be denigrated in print on top of that. After an offer from Samm Schawartz at Tower Comics, Wood quickly followed Everett & Orlando, leaving DAREDEVIL without a writer and artist for the 3rd time in only 11 issues!  You'd think this series was cursed or something...

It's pretty obvious that Wood, like Kirby, had a TON of ideas, as seen in these concept sketches.

"The Alien" turned up years later in the Dr. Doom series in ASTONISHING TALES, while "The Destroyer" apparently evolved into "Stilt Man".

I've heard that Stilt-Man was a Jack Kirby idea, but looking at this sketch,
I kinda wonder...

Both the concept and design here look like something Jim Steranko used in his Nick Fury run in STRANGE TALES.

The preliminary for the cover of DD #7!

Side-by-side, here's Wood's preliminary and finished art for DD #7, page 4.
I note that he switched a few panels around in the finish.

Another preliminary for DD #7, this time indicating color.

Check out this preliminary splash page for DD #9.  Wood's intended title "Knightmare!" was eventually changed by his editor to "That He May See!", while this ominous page was replaced by an action scene showing DD hanging underneath one of Manhattan's various bridges.

Another preliminary page from DD #9.
This is how Wood (and some other artists) write!

Here's a pair of "model sheets" done by Wood to maintain consistency.

Here's a cute sketch Wood apparently did just for Jack Kirby, related to the way Wood inked only the DD figures in FANTASTIC FOUR #39.

Meanwhile, Marvel's editor must have gone into a panic. Looking around to see who was available, he recruited Dick Ayers to do some try-out pages.  Here's one of the results. I kinda LIKE it! It makes me wonder why "ye editor" decided not to go with Ayers. Was he really unhappy with what Ayers did, or was Ayers' schedule on SGT. FURY and other books just too heavy?

Although the story in DD #12 does have Matt Murdock taking a sea voyage, the story does not feature a fight in the ship's engine rom as seen here.

"Ye editor" must have felt luck shined on him when 1950's CAPTAIN AMERICA alumni and then-recent DC romance artist John Romita came around looking for work.   Romita, feeling burnt out by too many years doing dull, tepid love stories over at DC, really wanted only to ink, as he did on AVENGERS #23 (Dec'65), interestingly enough, taking over from Wally Wood, who'd inked the 3 previous issues of that book.  But "ye editor" wanted a writer, though he never seemed to openly admit that in print, for professional and monetary reasons. Apparently, "ye editor" showed him Ayers' sample pages and asked, "What would YOU do with a character like this?"  Here's Romita's 1st DD sketch, presumably from sometime in late 1965. 

To get Romita into the swing of things, "ye editor" dragged Jack Kirby back in, Kirby only having designed the costume initially.  Perhaps over a weekend, Kirby did 2 entire issues worth of rough layouts (that means he he WROTE 2 full issues, uncredited and unpaid!).  Here's some samples of his work on DD #13.

While DD #13 does include a scene of Zabu, the sable-tooth tiger getting trapped in a pit, the published version does not show Ka-Zar getting him out of the pit, as seen here.

Foggy Nelson & Karen Page do travel by plane to England-- in DD #14-- but in the published story, only after being contacted by the previously-missing, thought-dead Matt. In Kirby's version, they still believed he was dead when they boarded the plane.

A scene similar to this does turn up in Romita's version of DD #13, but without Ka-Zar at the dining hall table.  Instead, he's kept in a dungeon as his brother continues to scheme.

Finally, here's Jack Kirby's original design for The Plunderer.  Romita totally ignored this, making him a far more "generic"-looking pirate at first, and later, an even more "generic"-looking super-villain!  It makes almost me wish Kirby had done the entire book himself.  Almost.

I've been a fan of John Romita's art since I first encountered it in late 1967, never dreaming for decades after that HE was the one writing all those issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN he worked on, rather than his editor, who was only responsible for the dialogue and what might be deemed after-the-fact "course corrections".

But when, in 2001, after loving both Everett's & Wood's DAREDEVIL, I finally got my first glimpse of Romita's version, I was horrified.  The art was 3rd-rate, but the stories were 5th-rate, if that.  His initial story, the 3-parter with Ka-Zar, that introduced his brother "Lord Parnival Plunder" and revealed the utterly convoluted "origin" of Marvel's answer to TARZAN, was one of the WORST stories I'd ever read in all of 60's Marvel... down there with those 3 Joe Orlando issues that "ye editor" butchered.

What had happened?  How did work THAT BAD come from people I knew had so much talent?

The answer came to me-- in a FLASH-- when I saw the following at Steve Thompson's "HORRAY FOR WALLY WOOD" blog...

I'd heard for ages that Wally Wood was tentatively scheduled to do the revival of SUB-MARINER scheduled for TALES TO ASTONISH.  It should have been no surprise to anyone who read DD #7.  But instead, Wood had his falling-out with "ye editor" over pay & credit, and wound up going to Tower where he got both.

But before he left, he does this sketch of SUB-MARINER in some "lost world", fighting dinosaurs.  Wood quits the company, John Romita arrives, suddenly, DAREDEVIL finds himself in "The Savage Land". HOW can this be a COINCIDENCE? The timing is too close.

They all say "ye editor" got Kirby to "lay out" the first 2 issues because "ye editor" thought Romita's work "wasn't exciting enough". Could this possibly be true, or could it be "ye editor" didn't like the STORY Romita was trying to tell?

I can NOW picture this scenario. Wood tells "ye editor" he's gonna start the SUB-MARINER strip off with an adventure in the Savage Land, featuring Ka-Zar.  (Perhaps Kirby suggested it, since Ka-Zar was his character?)  "Ye editor" calls Kirby in, tells him what he needs, and mentions Wood's "Savage Land" idea. Kirby whips out 2 issues worth of layouts over a weekend.  "Ye editor" gives them to Romita, who says, "Oh-- I GET it!!!"  Romita then TOTALLY IGNORES everything Kirby did except for the Savage Land angle.

So what we have is a story several times removed from its original source of inspiration.  (Or, "creation by committee".)  And once "ye editor" writes the dialogue, add another step away (as always).  It's like THUNDERBALL-- or HALLOWEEN 6.  Too many script drafts, each one worse than the one before.

And if anyone wants any further "proof" that this is exactly what happened, compare Wood's sketch against Romita's initial D.D. cover.  Namor's pose is ALMOST identical to Ka-Zar's!  (I didn't even notice that until last night.)

My God, that is one TERRIBLE cover!

DAREDEVIL 12  /
art by JOHN ROMITA (touch-ups by Vince Colletta)   (January 1966)

DAREDEVIL 13  /  art by Jack Kirby & John Romita   (February 1966)

DAREDEVIL 14  /  art by John Romita & Frank Giacoia   (March 1966)

Sadly, it has since occured to me that had Wood done SUB-MARINER meeting KA-ZAR, it would have worked "thematically". Namor, who had recently assumed the throne of Atlantis, KNEW what it was like to be disenfranchised from his own origins for many years. He could relate to Ka-Zar's not knowing if he had any family or not.

But sticking a BLIND MAN in a dinosaur-infested jungle just DOESN'T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE.

No wonder Romita's later D.D. episodes were-- if not actually "good" (I certainly don't think so), at least, nowhere near as bad.

Took me a long time to figure this one out. I ask again (and this never crossed my mind until recently)... considering Hollywood "dumbed down" Frankenstein (THE HULK) and Tarzan (KA-ZAR), is it even possible that Kirby ever meant for KA-ZAR to be so mind-numbingly mentally retarded? It's not just that he speaks like a 3-year-old-- he acts like one, too.

Sure, maybe Kirby was doing a Johnny Weismuller tribute... but more likely, judging from evidence seen with THE HULK-- Kirby meant for KA-ZAR to be intelligent, and "ye editor" was the one who "dumbed him down".

He stayed that way until Bruce Jones came along. Jones said he made a conscious effort to "ignore" every previous KA-ZAR appearance and treat the guy he was writing as if he was a completely different character. (There were fleeting references to his having "pretended" to talk dumb all those years... but none of this was ever obvious, or even hinted at, UNTIL Jones' stories.)
  
Finally, here's a SUB-MARINER parody by Roy Thomas & Wally Wood, showing what might have been if Wood had been treated with more honesty and integrity by his editor.

(Continued in Part 4)

Read about the Golden Age Daredevil at Wikipedia
Read the Wally Wood page at Wikipedia
Visit Booksteve's Horray For Wally Wood blog!
  (But beware-- it goes on forever! You may never wanna leave.)
Read the Dick Ayers page at Wikipedia
See Dick Ayers' Ghost Rider covers from the early 1950's!
Read the John Romita page at Wikipedia

Artwork Copyright (C) Marvel Comics

Wally Wood sketches & Sub-Marine Man parody
     from Horray For Wally Wood blog
John Romita sketch & Jack Kirby layouts from Daredevil Masterworks Vol.2
Raw scans of DAREDEVIL #12-13 from Heritage Auctions
Raw scan of DAREDEVIL #14 from WWComic.com

Restorations by Henry Kujawa