Thursday, January 12, 2012

Captain's Library: THE PRISONER Conclusion

The Prisoner awakens to find himself in...The Village.
He plies a waitress at an outdoor cafe with questions (closely paraphrased from the tv show's pilot episode), but learns nothing.
A flashback (Jack Kirby's version of the tv series' main title sequence, cleverly interpolated) reveals how the Prisoner resigned from his position, summarily kidnapped, and transported to The Village.
He leaves the cafe and takes a taxi ride, which, again, reveals almost nothing.
Back in his appointed cottage, he receives and accepts a telephoned invitation from Number Two to meet him at "the Georgian House" (aka "the Green Dome").
As you may have noticed, some pages are completed, some are lettered and partially-inked, some are lettered, some are partially-lettered, and some are only penciled.
As to what happened, TwoMorrows, publisher of the amazing magazine Jack Kirby Collector, did a feature piece on the project in #11, which was reprinted in the trade paperback Jack Kirby Collector Volume 2 and posted HERE.
Presumably, the second issue would have adapted the remainder of the pilot episode, "Arrival".
After that, Kirby might have gone off on his own, the way he did with his adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In the mid-1990s, Topps Comics, who had done a series of books called the Kirbyverse, using previously-unpublished Kirby material along with new stories by other writers and artists, planned to publish a Prisoner trade paperback combining this story with the other unpublished Marvel Prisoner adaptation by Steve Englehart and Gil Kane.
But the comic division's demise prevented it from happening. (The rest of Topps is still chugging along 15 years later.)

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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Captain's Library: THE PRISONER Part 1

There are numerous projects that never got off the ground...
This is one of the most famous ones...Jack (King) Kirby's adaptation of The Prisoner!
They are indeed, sir.
If you want to be as well-informed as those who run The Village, come back tomorrow to learn more about this never-completed Marvel Comics project (and read the second half of this never-published story)!

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Thursday, January 5, 2012

Captain's Library: CAPTAIN VIDEO "Project X" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...
Captain Video and his aide, the Video Ranger, present world leaders with a way to build bridges across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with the same metal alloys used in constructing the evil robot Makano.
The United Nations agrees to finance a several-mile-long test bridge between two Pacific islands.
But Bundello Britt, wealthy munitions manufacturer, has other ideas.
Several weeks later, as construction proceeds, the site is attacked by an amphibious assault force.
Captain Video pursues the enemy, but, though he sinks a couple of them, most escape.
Video devises a speedy two-man submarine to ambush the attackers when they reappear.
When the fiends attack again, he destroys most of them and pursues them to their underwater base, which he damages heavily.
Bundello Britt self-destructs the base to destroy the evidence of his participation.
With the enemy base gone, and Video vigilant and ready for another attack, things settle down at the test bridge site...
Now that was epic!
We're starting to see a move away from stories that follow the tv series format in terms of scale.
A tale like this would've made a great feature film version had the show survived a year or two longer.
Art by George Evans & Martin Thal.

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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Captain's Library: CAPTAIN VIDEO "Project X" Part 1

Captain Video doesn't do anything small, even when saving the world...
...as seen in the final story from Captain Video #3 (1951)
What Awaits Our Heroes at Project X?
Is the danger over?
Find out tomorrow!

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