Author: Ronin Ro
Published by Bloomsbury
Price: £8.90

 

 

Reading more like a novel, and therefore all the more anecdotal, Tales to Astonish covers the career of the most talented and creative comics writer/artist Jack Kirby and his Editor and sometime dialoguer, Stan Lee.

The narrative traces both Kirby and Lee as they aspire change the ‘look’ of comic books and bring it to a more mature audience, their efforts to bring the medium back from the ashes of New York psychiatrist Frederic Wertham’s comics witch hunt of the mid 1950s (mirroring that of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s attack on the so called ‘Communist threat’ in the United States at the same time), with Kirby and Lee ending up the most creative duo in the history of the comic book industry

The continuing debate of ‘who did what’ in that Kirby/Lee creative partnership is prevalent throughout the entire book and though author Ronin Ro reveals nothing new in that area, the points Ro raises are relevant; Kirby’s fight to have his original art returned to him, his battle for copyrights of the characters Kirby alone created (which have made billions of dollars for others) and Stan Lee’s sudden rise to power from ‘gofer’ to publisher are all well researched and documented.

Mixed with fact and hearsay, Tales to Astonish is well-written, in-depth and well worth the read. And that is all the recommendation you will need to pick up a copy.

 

Reviewer: Glenn Fleming
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker