Larry Lieber, the last surviving member of the original Marvel Bullpen, has been recently divesting himself of some of his possessions, selling off artwork and mementos that he’s carried with him for decades. And among what he put up for auction at Heritage Auction House recently is a pair of discarded pages intended for a story in INCREDIBLE HULK #4. I reproduced these pages and gave the backstory on them as part of a longer article on the early development of the Hulk that can still be read here:
But the key things to know for our purposes is that Jack Kirby came out of a meeting with editor Stan Lee and proceeded to rip five pages of an unpublished INCREDIBLE HULK story in half and discard them. I speak about what I believe caused this to happen in the earlier article, so you can look it up there. But Larry Lieber, who happened to be in the office that day, was himself a huge fan of Kirby’s, and so he fished those torn pages out of the garbage and taped them back together so that he could study them and learn how to improve his craft. These pages didn’t come to light again until a lawsuit in the 2000s, when they were presented into evidence. That’s where the original scans came from. But the ones that Heritage has put up are a lot larger and a lot clearer. so much clearer, in fact, that they permit us to decipher some of the border notes that Stan has written to himself while going over the story with Kirby so that he’d remember what was meant to be going on when it was time for him to dialogue the story.
At the time when this story was produced, a short-lived status quo had been set up in which the Hulk was mindless, controlled from afar telepathically by Rick Jones, with whom he’d been mentally linked. This status quo was discarded at the very beginning of INCREDIBLE HULK #4, which is why it makes sense that this story had originally been intended for these pages. The plot of this story involved Rick Jones being the star player for his high school basketball team and running afoul of an underworld figure who wanted to put a fix on the big game. Lieber only put two of the five pages that we know about for this story up for auction, so we’ll only be able to look at those two. But there are copious notes from Stan about what is meant to be going on.
PANEL 1
A GUY LIKE YOU CAN AFFORD A NEWER RIDE (?)
I’M JUST AN OLD FASHIONED THINKER
PANEL 2
I SEE YOU BEAT ME HOME! DIDN’T I TELL YOU NOT TO WASTE MONEY ON TAXIS?
2’9″ TALL. WORLD’S SMALLEST MAN
PANEL 3
CARDMAN (?) THEN BLOW WHOLE SYSTEM
PUT LENSES ON MIC. FILL WITH SOME WATER
PANEL 5
(Obscured by tape)
PANEL 6
HOMING DEVICE–BALL SHOULD COME TO BAT
DEVICE SMASHES ON CONTACT SO COULDN’T PROVE
PANEL 7
REMEMBER WHEN WE BET ON PUNY PARKER TO WIN CHAMPIONSHIP
PANEL 8
SLEEPING GAS
PANEL 1
I ALWAYS COUNT IN CASH–PRETTIEST SIGHT IN WORLD–ANYONE WHO’D SPEND IT IS CRAZY
PANEL 2
THIS IS $50 MIL
PANEL 3
SO HOW COME YOU AIN’T PAID ME IN MONTHS
(There’s a second note here that’s obscured by the tape)
PANEL 5
ASKS RICK TO FIX WAGER
PANEL 6
I’VE INVESTIGATED YOU–YOU’RE SEARCHING FOR SOMEONE–I’LL HELP YOU FIND HIM IF YOU THROW GAME
PANEL 7
JUST PRESS BUTTON DURING TRYING FOR BASKET SHOT
NO
(Thought) BUT I’D SURE LIKE TO FIND HULK
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
And the reason Kirby ripped up the pages?
Because Marvel didn’t pay for rejected art. Meaning Kirby wasted several days work.
And obviously not due to any problems with the art. Lee was rejecting Kirby’s story.
Tell me again who wrote Kirby’s Marvel comics.
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I came to Marvel late (with Walt Simonson’s Thor) and only started reading the early issues when they reprinted them in Marvel Masterworks. However, I never got Hulk and have never read his solo titles. However, I have always loved learning about behind the scenes making of stuff, be it movies, TV series, or comic books. It’sgreat to be able to see unused/discarded artwork from so long ago.
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Not a couple of Kirby’s greatest pages, but there’s still so much to enjoy in these modest, quiet pages:
The horse and carriage at the top of the first page are so solid — the perspective of those wheels, the weight of that horse.
The fact that in that wall of money on the second page, Jack drew little bill details on every single bill!
The little guy peeking around the wall to get a look at Rick.
The delicate, spare penciling of Rick’s face in close-up at the bottom of page.
Good stuff!
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The bills blew me away when I noticed them too. What a chore before cut and paste…
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Jack Kirby’s drawing is so beautiful. I’m always grateful to see his pencils, even with more limited efforts like this.
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To bad Stan Lee didn’t think to turn this story from the mob fixing a basketball game and into the early introduction of the Maggia [ The Avengers#13 ( February 1965 ) ] whose plan was to kidnap Rick Jones as bait to get their hands on the Hulk( Maybe they plan to mind-control him through hypnosis or mind-control tech ). Sure they could have grabbed Rick before or after the basketball game but this way it should still be possible to use what Jack already drew. Plus if the Maggia are given advance technology they have in later stories a blast from one of their weapons could sever Rick Jones’ telepathic link with the Hulk and restore him to normal.
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PANEL 6 : I’VE INVESTIGATED YOU-YOU’RE SEARCHING FOR SOMEONE-I’LL HELP YOU FIND HIM IF YOU THROW GAME. So was the HIM his Father/Grandfather/Uncle/Male Cousin/Younger Brother/Twin Brother( identical or Fraternal ) who was adopted or kidnapped ( Older Brother would be looking for him ) or a Friend? For MY mob was to get their hands on the Hulk panel 6 changes to: I’ve investigated you-you’re searching for someone-I’ll help find him if you set up a meeting with the Hulk. By grabbing Rick then the game would have been fixed.
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Nice pages.
And look! It’s the Funky Flashman and Houseroy of Earth-Marvel! And Roy wasn’t even there yet!
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It seems hard to believe, but I’m now the proud owner of that second page above. I think Heritage might have gotten more for it — not that was it cheap — if they’d noted this historical Hulk background you provide and which has been written about before … and not said that it came from a “Rick Jones story”!
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That panel of the horse and carriage on the city street is so good, you wish it was a larger part of the page.
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