Time Capsule: "Top of the Pops," Feb. 15, 1968


Jack Kirby's Black Panther


More than a half-century after Marvel Comics introduced the first black superhero in issue 52 of The Fantastic Four, the media is heralding the arrival of the first black superhero on the big screen: And it's the same character.

This is a reflection of two things, how painfully slow we make progress in the United States (if we make it at all), and how ahead of the curve Jack Kirby was.

Kirby, with Stan Lee, created the Black Panther in the mid 1960s acknowledging that Marvel had black readers, but no black characters.


Kirby, in his own gruff manner (he was  a World War II combat vet who chain-smoked Roi-Tan cigars), put it this way:

"I came up with the Black Panther because I realized I had no blacks in my strip. I’d never drawn a black. I needed a black. I suddenly discovered that I had a lot of black readers. My first friend was a black! And here I was ignoring them because I was associating with everybody else. It suddenly dawned on me — believe me, it was for human reasons — I suddenly discovered nobody was doing blacks. And here I am a leading cartoonist and I wasn’t doing a black."



“I really think my father created and introduced the Black Panther because it was the right thing to do at the time,” said Kirby's son Neal“It broke all the stereotypes—a black super hero with a scientific brain. It’s no secret that my father was very socially liberal, and I think he saw this as his personal way of making a statement and ‘joining’ the civil rights movement.”

Kirby initially named the character the Coal Tiger and did this character design. However, this was quickly changed to Black Panther - a name that pre-dates the black rights movement group of the late 1960s.




Black Panther made his first appearance in Fantastic Four #51 in a story plotted and penciled by the artist and scripted and edited by Lee. 

The character made appearances in Captain America and The Avengers and in a solo, backup strip in Daredevil before landing his own series, in Jungle Action, starting in 1973. This was a memorable run, not created by Kirby, but scripted by Don McGregor with art from Rich Buckler, Gil Kane, (not that) Billy Graham and others.



Kirby, who'd been working for DC Comics for several years, returned to Marvel in the mid-1970s and did a 12-issue stint on a new Black Panther series, which he wrote, drew and edited, from 1977-78.

Here's a selection of art from that series and from Kirby's 1960s work on the character.



















   

Coming Up: The Who Live at The Fillmore East: Saturday April 6, 1968


Out April 20. This is listed on Amazon UK right now, but not yet in the U.S. It'll be nice to have a pre-Tommy Who show from the 60s out on an official release. Available on CD and vinyl.

Details:

The 50th anniversary of these legendary unreleased recordings from the Fillmore East, New York City, Friday April 5 & Saturday April 6, 1968. 

Both nights were recorded by Who manager Kit Lambert with the intention of releasing as the Who’s fourth album after Sell Out and before Tommy.

Songs from the second night have been restored and mixed by Who sound engineer Bob Pridden (who was there in 1968). Remastered for optimum sound quality, this will enhance The Who’s reputation as the best live act of the time, regarded by fans as something of a ‘holy grail’ in live shows.

Features stunning extended versions of My Generation, A Quick One…, Shakin’ All Over and many other Who classics. Features two ripping versions of Eddie Cochran numbers – Summertime Blues and C’mon Everybody (the latter unavailable elsewhere), Fortune Teller played at these shows for the first time and unique live versions of Tattoo and Relax from ‘Who Sell Out’."

Disc: 1

  1. Summertime Blues
  2. Fortune Teller
  3. Tattoo
  4. Little Billy
  5. I Can't Explain
  6. Happy Jack
  7. Relax
  8. I'm A Boy
  9. A Quick One
  10. My Way
  11. C'mon Everybody
  12. Shakin' All Over
  13. Boris The Spider

Disc: 2

  1. My Generation

Video find: 1966: Our Lives Through TV Commercials


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