Topps Comics - The Kirbyverse

The Kirbyverse

The "Kirbyverse" comics, launched simultaneously with April 1993 cover-dates, stemmed from character designs and story concepts that the prolific Kirby, at this very late point in his life, had in his files of unrealized projects and preliminary sketches (some for Pacific Comics, which went defunct in the 1980s). Topps licensed them for an eight-title, interrelated mythos based around what became Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga. That flagship title was written by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, with an issue #0 prequel drawn by artist Walt Simonson and the remainder of the series by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko.

Kirby himself wrote and drew eight pages of the Satan's Six premiere, interlaced with story pages by writer Tony Isabella, penciler John Cleary and inker Armando Gil. Kirby's contribution may have been drawn in the 1970s, wrote one historian: "The 1970s was the flowering of Jack's interest in the paranormal. Freed from the restraints of more conservative collaborators, Jack delved into these themes with gusto. ... developed 'Satan's Six' around this time, although it didn't see the light of day until the Topps Kirbyverse campaign in the 1990s." As well, the covers of the Bombast, Captain Glory, and NightGlider one-shot comics noted below were built around preexisting Kirby character designs.

Along with Secret City Saga and Satan's Six, the Kirbyverse titles were:

• Bombast, by plotter Thomas, scripter Gary Friedrich and artists Dick Ayers & John Severin
• Captain Glory, by writer Thomas and artist Ditko
• Jack Kirby's TeenAgents, by writer Kurt Busiek, penciler Neil Vokes, and inkers John Beatty and Jordi Ensign
• Jack Kirby's Silver Star, by writer Busiek, penciler James W. Fry III, and inker Terry Austin
• NightGlider, by plotter Thomas, scripter Gerry Conway, and artist Don Heck
• Victory, by writer Busiek, penciler Keith Giffen, and inker Jimmy Palmiotti

Kurt Busiek, in an undated interview, gave some background on the comics line:

Silver Star is a Jack Kirby character, originally done as a miniseries for Pacific . Back when I was writing for the Topps Kirbyverse, I started two miniseries that were never completed, Victory and Silver Star, both of which got one issue published before the line collapsed. Victory was a crossover, bringing together all the established Kirbyverse characters and reintroducing Captain Victory ... but Silver Star was a standalone project, one that was completely plotted and mostly scripted.

In 2000, the Kirby estate said Dark Horse Entertainment had optioned Satan's Six as a film property.