Lee & Kirby & Steranko & Lieber: The Birth of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Man Called D.E.A.T.H.

Marvel veteran Larry Lieber has been divesting himself of portions of his collection, and the bounty, listed at Heritage Auctions, has uncovered some amazingly wonderful things. Most recently, a heretofore-undiscovered third penciled page for Jack Kirby’s pitch story for what became the NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. strip in STRANGE TALES. The first two pages had been kicking around for some time–they had been given over to a young Jim Steranko as an inking/finishing test when he first showed up at Marvel, and they’ve been reproduced in one of Scott Dunbier’s excellent Artist Editions. But this third page shows us a couple more details that allow us to learn a few more things about the development of the strip. So I figure that it’s worth compiling what we now know about it all here.

The first thing to know is that it appears that the idea to feature WWII-era character Sgt. Nick Fury in a modern day spy context originated with Jack Kirby. Kirby apparently produced a three-page proof-of-concept strip that he both penciled and wrote himself. This wasn’t intended for publication necessarily, but it showcased his vision for what this series might be about. Kirby’s pitch was titled THE MAN CALLED D.E.A.T.H., with D.E.A.T.H. apparently standing for Director of External Atomic Threat Headquarters, whatever that means. Spies were big business at that time, with the James Bond films pulling in big bucks at the theater and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. a hit on television. So Lee was interested in pursuing the strip, but a few changes needed to be made. Starting with the title. I suspect, though I have no proof of this, that Lee felt that the Comics Code would object to Kirby’s death-laden title, so the organization to which Fury would report was instead christened S.H.I.E.L.D., the Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage Law-enforcement Division. The three tryout pages were never used, and two of them wound up being given to Steranko as a try-out, while Lieber ended up with the third.

As was typical of the manner in which he worked with Lee at this time, Kirby added detailed border notes in addition to his proposed copy. For the sake of clarity, I’m going to reproduce these as we go. This splash page has very little in addition to the title blurbs that Steranko has lettered. The assumption is that Kirby wrote those words, though there’s now perhaps reason to think that Steranko may have made some changes of his own while producing these inks.

There is one stray border note from Jack at the top that mysteriously reads:

ANTI-MEMORY CAPSULE

On this second page, Kirby begins to lay out his concept for the strip and its themes:

PANEL 1

THIS MAN’S NAME IS NICK FURY. HE HAS JUST INVADED A “CELL” OF “HYDRA”, A SECRET ORGANIZATION–AND READ THE ORDER FOR HIS OWN DEATH

NICK HEARS SOUND. KNOWS HE’S BEEN DISCOVERED

PANEL 2

BUT DEATH HOLDS NO FEAR FOR MEN LIKE FURY. IT’S MERELY A WORD–MOLDED INTO A TITLE WHICH HE BEARS WITH HONOR AND SERVICE…

FIRES AT ASSAILANT AS HE DIVES

PANEL 3

HIS HONOR IS HIS RECORD! HIS SERVICE IS IN THE CAUSE OF ALL FREE MANKIND…

MAN IS HIT–OTHER MAN FIRES

PANEL 4

NICK ONCE FOUGHT WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS A BIG WAR. HE WAS SERGEANT OF THE FAMOUS COMMANDO UNIT KNOWN AS THE “HOWLERS!” AND SCORES OF NAZIS CALLED HIM OTHER NAMES–BEFORE THEY DIED…

FURY BURSTS THROUGH DOOR AND GRABS TAPE OFF WALL WHICH HE PULLS OFF AS HE RUNS

PANEL 5

THEN CAME PEACE–AND THE “BOMB” AND BIGGER, BIGGER BOMBS–AND THE BIGGER, SECRET WAR TO KEEP THE BOMBS FROM GOING OFF. IN THIS WAR, NICK IS STIL FIGHTING–AGAINST SILENT BUT DEADLY ENEMIES

HE HAS TAPED WALL ON WAY INTO HIDEOUT–NOW BY PULLING IT OFF, HE CAN FIND HIS WAY OUT OF MAZE OF CORRIDORS QUICKLY…

PANEL 6

IT IS INDEED A NEW WORLD OF MEGATON AND OVERKILL–OF WEAPONS MADE TO FIT THE AGE

HE FIXES GUN-PART WHICH CAN HELP HIM FIRE AROUND CORNER AT PURSUER

This third page is the newly-discovered one, and it immediately shows that Kirby was penciling Fury as he had appeared in WWII: with two good eyes. Presumably when he inked the initial two pages, Steranko took it upon himself to update Fury to his one-eyed look. And looking ahead to Panel 4, Jim may also have changed the acronym of D.E.A.T.H. as he inked that opening page. Additionally, it’s clear that this penciled page has somebody else’s hand on it, going over Kirby’s lines and tweaking or modifying what Kirby has drawn. This all looks too unskilled to me to have been Lieber, so the perpetrator remains a mystery at this point. The top of the page has been trimmed off as well, likely obliterating more of Kirby’s border notes.

PANEL 3

THEN NICK WALKS INTO BUSY STREET THOROUGHFARE WHERE PURSUIT WOULD BE RISKY

PANEL 4

MISSION COMPLETED. HAVE DISCOVERED HYDRA’S PURPOSE IN THIS AREA

LATER IN DIRECTOR’S OFFICE HE MAKES REPORT TO GOV’T ON RECORDER

DIRECTOR ENTIRE A(illegible) THE H…

PANEL 5

IN DOING SO–HAVE ELIMINATED THREE OF THEIR AGENTS–THE ONE KNOWN AS “LEG OF STEEL”–HERMAN KORTZ AND TILLIG, A NEW MAN WHO RECENTLY LEFT A SECRET POLICE JOB TO JOIN “HYDRA”

PANEL 6

I AM LISTED IN “HYDRA’S” “HATE-FILE”. THEY KNOW MY NAME AND SERIAL NUMBER–BUT NOT MY TRUE RANK! THEY DON’T KNOW I AM “THE MAN CALLED DEATH!”

One gets the impression from this vignette that, rather than the sprawling military outfit that S.H.I.E.L.D. was, Kirby’s initial remit was to have Fury operating largely on his own as a lonely soldier in a covert cold war. So it would have been conversations with Lee and the influence of media like THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. that shifted the eventual strip more in that direction.

There’s also been this page floating around, on which some aspiring inker took some practice. From context, it appears to be a last page discarded from the NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. story in STRANGE TALES #135, the opening installment of the feature. But it doesn’t appear to originate with the MAN CALLED D.E.A.T.H. pilot strip. If nothing else, Kirby clearly pencils Fury with his eyepatch on this page, unlike in the D.E.A.T.H. samples.

PANEL 1

THEN GET ALL INFO YOU CAN OUT OF THEM. THIS IS A ROUGH GAME–EVEN FOR HYDRA MEN.

THEY WON’T LAST LONG ANY WAY–HYDRA DOESN’T TOLERATE FAILURE

PANEL 2

HYDRA CHIEF GETS REPORT–CURSES FURY

PANEL 3

REMIND FURY THAT HYDRA CAN STILL STRIKE ANYWHERE IN WORLD

I’LL INITIATE AFRICA PLAN

PANEL 4

HYDRA BLOWS VALUABLE OIL PIPELINE IN AFRICA

PANEL 5

WE’D BETTER TELL FURY ABOUT THIS

PANEL 6

FURY GETS REPORT

PANEL 7

THE FIGHT NEVER ENDS–IT’S A LONELY JOB

There’s also this page, which was part of that initial S.H.I.E.L.D. story in STRANGE TALES #135. As you can see, that caption in the upper left was originally shaped like the title logo to the strip, and a comment at the top from Lee indicates:

CHANGE TO TITLE STYLE SHIELD

Which seems like it was done, then reversed before the strip sent to print. it makes me wonder if there was some point where Lee was considering making this splash image the opening page of the story.

There’s also a faded partial border note from Kirby at the upper left that reads:

CHAIR BLOWS UP