Jack Kirby’s ‘I Died a Thousand Times’

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« Great Scott! What a mess! Did we walk away from that? » — Rocky Davis

A couple of years after our big move, I’m still going through boxes, here at WOT? Headquarters. The other day, I came upon a stack of the long-running French anthology digest Big Boss (and its sidekick series, ‘Big Boy’), acquired who knows when and where… but surely for a song. Big Boss and ‘Big Boy’ (the quotation marks were part of the title!) were a most affordable source of vintage second-tier DC material like Roy Raymond, TV Detective; J’onn J’onzz, Martian Manhunter; Detective Chimp… and standalone tales from My Greatest Adventure, Tales of the Unexpected, House of Mystery and House of Secrets… essentially infamous editor Jack Schiff‘s row to hoe in the DC plantation.

This is Big Boss no. 6 (Oct. 1971, Arédit-Artima); cover by Ruben Moreira.

One might be inclined to say that, with its themes of adventurers cheating death or living on borrowed time, I Died a Thousand Times inspired Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown, except that Ace, Rocky, Prof and Red had burst into print a few months earlier. Suffice it to say that they sprang from the same fertile well. It’s always intriguing to observe how the particular seed of an idea can be grown in a myriad of directions.

If you’ll forgive me the intrusion, this is how the opening panel appeared in the Big Boss reprint. In order to make things more readable in the digest format — and in black and white — Arédit‘s in-house art department routinely reframed and even augmented the artwork, with varying degrees of competence and success. This is one of the more accomplished efforts.

The story’s writer is unknown (though it features a most Kirbyesque plot); it was pencilled and likely inked by King Kirby, and originally appeared in My Greatest Adventure no. 16 (July-Aug. 1957, DC); edited by Whitney Ellsworth; Jack Schiff; Murray Boltinoff and George Kashdan… let’s just say DC *was* a tad heavy on the management side in those days.

Though Kirby’s standalone short stories of this period are as charming and inventive as you’d expect, this modest trove of material has by and large been neglected. While a handful of these tales (The Thief of Thoughts; The Creatures from Nowhere!; The Cats Who Knew Too Much!; The Man Who Betrayed Earth; The Negative Man; and The Stone Sentinels of Giant Island) were semi-randomly reprinted in the early 1970s when DC had lots of pages to fill, this one didn’t resurface in North America until 2011’s pricey-then-and-pricier-now hardcover Jack Kirby Omnibus no. 1.

– RG

One thought on “Jack Kirby’s ‘I Died a Thousand Times’”

  1. Ellen's avatar Ellen February 1, 2025 / 20:44

    Ah, Kirby art from Way Back When (which is a silly thing to say about Kirby since he goes a decade or two earlier than that). He still could draw people in clothing that had been pressed.. I’ve never been able to draw wrinkled clothing properly. By the end of his career, that was all Kirby could do.

    It’s amazing how reading stories with a particular writer or illustrator over decades can make you build up an opinion on their little tics. After a while, I was so down on Jim Mooney’s flight posture for Supergirl. I liked John Rosenberger’s art, but that man couldn’t draw monster teeth for anything. I couldn’t stand Bill Vigoda’s letterer. On the other hand,, I grew fonder of John Forte over the years. His art was stiff, but give him the right story and it was perfect. I didn’t like Ross Andru’s art until I saw some of his pencils, which were beautiful and flowing – gave me a whole new appreciation for him. And I’ve never felt anything but awe over Alex Toth.

    I fear my appreciation for Kirby went downhill after the Sixties. Besides wrinkles, his faces – especially the mouths – are the worst. I’ve been reading comics for well over forty years, and familiarity breeds all kinds of emotions and opinions.

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