$49.

99
(Different in Canada)
ip Kirby, the suave gentleman detective, is the right man
for his times as 1960s culture reflects a new fascination with
sophisticated stories featuring James Bond and other agents,
both secret and otherwise.
In this seventh volume Fred Dickenson continues to write
the adventures and Al Williamson takes on a larger role as John
Prentices art assistant. The award-winning Prentice is justly
praised for both his own considerable skills and for successfully
continuing the photorealistic approach pioneered by his
predecessor, Alex Raymond. Included are nine complete stories
in more than 800 sequential comics from February 12, 1962 to
October 10, 1964reproduced from the original King Features
Syndicate proofs, insuring that every daily will look even better
than when they were first published in newspapers more than
fifty years ago.
JOHN PRENTICE (19201999) was born in Whitney, Texas.
After joining the Navy in 1939, he survived the bombing of
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, served on two destroyers
in eight combat campaigns, and was honorably discharged in
1945. After the war he enrolled in the Art Institute of
Pittsburgh and then moved to New York, where he eventually
became a successful freelancer, illustrating paperback book
covers; comic books for the Joe Simon/Jack Kirby studio,
DC Comics, and others; as well as being a regular contributor
to major magazines before taking over RIP KIRBY in 1956. He
received the National Cartoonists Society award for Best
Story Strip Cartoonist in 1966, 1967, and 1986.
RIP
KIRBY
19621964
JOHN
PRENTICE
HARVEY AWARD NOMINEE
:
BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT
EDITED AND DESIGNED BY EISNER AND HARVEY AWARD WINNER DEAN MULLANEY
WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAY BY BRIAN WALKER
R
PRAISE FOR ALEX RAYMOND AND JOHN PRENTICE:
RIP KIRBY is an absolute feast. Before now, one largely had to take on faith the
view that Raymonds dramatic storytelling skills were almost on the level of his illustrative
prowess. The evidence is at last back with us, and it doesnt disappoint. Pol Culture
John Prentices work is superb. He's one of the few cartoonists who took
an important strip by a great cartoonist and did it not only justice, but in some ways,
was as good asand in some cases better thanthe originator."
Tom De Haven, author of the DERBY DUGAN trilogy
LibraryofAmericanComics.com idwpublishing.com
$
4
9
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9
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MORE THAN 800 SEQUENTIAL COMICS
FEBRUARY 1962 TO OCTOBER 1964
JOHN PRENTICE TAKES RIP KIRBY
FROM MID-CENTURY COOL
TO THE SWINGING EARLY SIXTIES
IN THESE CLASSIC ADVENTURES
WRITTEN BY FRED DICKENSON.
J
J
T HE FI RST MODERN DET ECT I VE
C O M P L E T E C O M I C S T R I P S 1 9 6 2 1 9 6 4
JOHN PRENTICE
FRED DICKENSON
RIP KIRBY
VOLUME SEVEN 19621964

THE FIRST MODERN DETECTIVE

COMPLETE COMI C STRI PS 19621964
RIP KIRBY
RIP KIRBY VOLUME SEVEN
ARTWORK BY JOHN PRENTICE
STORIES BY FRED DICKENSON
ISBN: 978-1-63140-034-6
First Printing, June 2014
Distributed by Diamond Book Distributors
1-410-560-7100
Published by:
IDW Publishing
a Division of Idea and Design Works, LLC
5080 Santa Fe Street
San Diego, CA 92109
www.idwpublishing.com
Ted Adams, Chief Executive Officer/Publisher
Greg Goldstein, Chief Operating Officer/President
Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist
Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief
Matthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial Officer
Alan Payne, VP of Sales
Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing
Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services
The following people and institutions have been helpful in the preparation
of this volume: Randall Scott and the Michigan State University Comic
Art Collection (King Features collection), Ita Golzman, Whitney Prentice,
Priscilla Prentice, Neal Walker, Frank and Lori Bolle, Jon Ingersoll, Justin
Eisinger, and Alonzo Simon.
Copyright 2014 King Features Syndicate.
TM
Hearst Holdings, Inc.
THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN COMICS
www.LibraryofAmericanComics.com
EDITED AND DESIGNED BY Dean Mullaney
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Bruce Canwell
ART DIRECTOR Lorraine Turner
INTRODUCTION Brian Walker
MARKETING DIRECTOR Beau Smith
The Library of American Comics is a trademark of The Library of American Comics LLC. All rights reserved.
Introduction 2014 Brian Walker. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents
of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Korea.
OPPOSITE: A pencil portrait of John Prentice drawn by his son Whitney in the 1980s.
(courtesy Whitney Prentice)
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
BY BRIAN WALKER
Y5
Its so nice that these books are coming out now so I can read
collections of my fathers work. Whitney Prentice (from an
interview with Brian Walker on April 2, 2014)
John Prentice married his second wife, Catherine Carty, on December 19, 1957.
Their first child, Whitney, was born on October 25, 1958 at Womans Hospital (now
St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center) in New York City. The family moved to Mexico
on April 8, 1960.
Whitney has some vague recollections from this early period in his life. His father
arrived in Mexico first by car. Catherine and Whitney followed on a commercial flight
and were held up in customs after they landed at the airport. Their local friends told
them in advance to use the name of a prominent general if they encountered any trouble.
When Catherine dropped the name the customs officials became visibly nervous and
whisked them through the checkpoint.
The house the Prentices rented was in the upscale neighborhood of El Pedregal in the
southern part of Mexico City. They were on the bottom floor and the owners were above
them. It was a modern structure with flat ceilings and a big picture window in the living
room that looked out over a garden with volcanic rocks and exotic plants. The family
upstairs had two German shepherds, Juniper and Petunia. Whitney learned an important
lesson about dogs when he was bitten after he poured water into a garbage can while
Juniper was drinking out of it.
Whitneys sister, Cathy Anna, arrived on April 17, 1962. Her hips were dislocated at
birth and, to correct the problem, she was put in a cast that went from her waist to both feet.
The cast came off after about a year but she still had to wear a brace for some time after.
John and his assistant, Al Williamson, worked in a separate studio that was walking
distance from their homes. It was in a large, cavernous building and, except for two
drawing boards, was sparsely furnished. Whitney recalls a model helicopter hanging from
the ceiling that his father wouldnt let him play with because it was being used as reference
for the strip [see the sequence from November 2-8, 1962 on pages 91-93]. As he did
throughout his entire life, John put in long hours at the studio.
Howie Post, a cartoonist friend, came to visit the Prentices in Mexico and went on
a duck-hunting trip with John in the mountains. Whitney has memories of a picnic with
Howie, his wife, and their daughter Andee in an old abandoned hacienda.
The Prentices returned from Mexico on September 24, 1962 and moved into a
penthouse apartment on 173 West 78th Street at Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan.
Whitney shared the second bedroom with his sister. He enjoyed the view from the terrace
outside and spent many hours in the candy store on the ground floor.
Whitney went to nearby P.S. 87 and fondly remembers having lunch with his father
on certain designated days. His studio was across from the south side of the Museum of
Natural History and at lunchtime he would come to meet me at school and we would go
to his studio. I liked liverwurst and he would have liverwurst sandwiches from a restaurant
downstairs. He shared his studio with two other guys [possibly Howie Post and Leonard
Starr] who were nice to me. It was in an apartment and on the wall was a big copy of
Picassos Guernica. There were three drawing boards in a row by the windows and ink
bottles, a couch, and a separate room they used for cutting board to draw on.
The Prentices were the first of their group of New York City cartoonists to make
the move to Connecticut in 1967. They rented a house on Lowlyn Drive in Westport
for a year while they looked for a home to purchase. It was a split-level with a pond in the
backyard. Johns studio was on the second floor of the house in what would have been the
master bedroom. Whitney started sleeping in a small room with a closet, adjacent to his
fathers studio, because he was getting too old to share a room with his sister.
When we first moved out to Connecticut from New York City I didnt like it,
Whitney recalled. It was too quiet and I couldnt sleep because I was used to the traffic
noise. I got used to it and liked it.
When the Prentice family lived in Westport, Whitney was in third grade at the local
public school. I didnt do very well in school and when I came home, I would sit at one
of my fathers drawing boards and do my homework.
In 1968 they purchased a house on Lyons Plain Road in Weston, Connecticut, right
on the Saugatuck River. We had a little boat and wed take it out, row it around, and
capsize it over and over. It had flotation so it wouldnt sink. Weston was not very built
up and we could run around; there were still woods and fields. It was a really nice
childhood, Whitney reminisced.
The main house was built in the 1920s and Johns studio was in an apartment above
a separate garage across the driveway. Whitney could watch his father working. He had
a drawing board by the window and from my bedroom I would look across our driveway
and see him sitting at the drawing board.
Whitney recollected many details about Johns studio in Weston. He had a picture
file he bought from an illustrator for reference. It was four or five stacked file cabinets
of images, photographs, and clippings from magazineseverything from A to Zcars,
costumes from different time periods, and airplanes.
He had a little model of a Mercury Cougar that the company had sent him because
he had used one in the strip. He constantly had piles of files out for reference. Whatever
he drew in the strip had to be accurate or he would get letters from readers pointing out
his mistakes. He would take a lot of Polaroids of other cartoonists, their families, or
friends posing for scenes in the strip.
He had cast-metal pistolsa realistic looking Luger and Colt revolveras well as
some real pistols and revolvers. He had many interesting things on the shelves, including
a miniature covered wagon made of wood, canvas, and metal with working partsbrakes,
steering, a removable water barrel, anvil, and rifle. There were two foot-long models of
Brahma bulls, metal models of 1930s cars, a big sombrero, a black wooden sculpture of
a Mayan head, and a flintlock pistol from Napoleonic times.
I remember looking through the files and seeing photographs. There were pictures
of Mississippi river boats. They must have been from an archive. I used to make plastic
models and I made a model of a Mississippi river boat that he used for reference. He
found that useful.
In the story Peril in Paradise, John used himself as the model for the villain,
Jack [who first appears on September 4, 1962, page 74]. My father was a gentle man,
ABOVE: A preliminary color study for an unfinished painting
by John Prentice of his son Whitney, 1972.
6 Y
THIS PAGE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Proud papa John with
baby Whitney, 1958; Young Whitney at his fathers drawing board in
New York City, February 1964; Whitney and sister Cathy, 1968;
Prentice unlocking his studio in Mexico City, early 1960s; and
Catherine Prentice holding newborn Whitney, 1958.
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Whitney observed, but he drew this character as a very dangerous and vicious s.o.b..
Its kind of strange to see my fathers face in such an evil guise.
Whitney described Johns daily routine. He put in long hours at the studio
always did throughout his whole life. He would go in at nine or ten in the morning
and come over for lunch and dinner but would work until eleven at night. He was
always on deadline, trying to get a few days ahead so he could have some time off to
play golf or do errands or appointments. It was always a concern. I think that is true
with many cartoonists.
I would come home from school and my father would be workingit seemed
like he was constantly workingand my mother would be home and hed come over
for dinner. After dinner he would watch TV a little while and then he would go back
to the studio and work and sit with the radio on. I remember him listening to talk
radioJean Shepherd; Bob and Ray the comedians
Whitneys second sister, Priscilla Maggie, was born on January 21, 1970. I
remember the night my mother went into labor. Cartoonist Gill Fox came over
he also worked with my fatherand watched us when my father and mother went
to the hospital. It was about three in the morning.
Catherine went back to work after Priscilla began going to school. Johns salary
from King Features was based on how many papers Rip Kirby appeared in and it had,
like many continuity and adventure strips during the 1970s, lost subscribers. Inflation
was also eating into the family income.
Whitney drew a lot when he was younger and his father taught him about
linear perspective and head construction but he eventually lost interest in Johns
work. His life was heading in a different direction. I kind of checked out. I had
trouble in school because of learning disabilities and then I got into drugs and
alcohol. I really went downhill from there. I dropped out of school and stopped
drawing.
I straightened out when I was twenty-one but by then I had moved out
of the house. During my twenties I did mostly manual labor in boat yards. I got
an apartment in South Norwalk, Connecticut and then went to live in northern
California for about three years. An opportunity came for me to go to art school
much later, after my mother and father were divorced.
When I started art school in 1990 I did drawings of boats and sailing ships
but once I got into life class I got more interested in doing the figure and landscapes.
Whitney went to Paier College of Art, Lyme Academy of Fine Art, and the Graduate
School of Figurative Art at the New York Academy of Art. He has a Masters Degree
and is currently teaching at Paier College of Art in Hamden, Connecticut.
When I told my father I was going to art school he tried to dissuade me from
studying illustration, which was what I was going to major in. He said, Study graphic
design. Even I can barely get illustration work any more. The field is kind of dried
up. But I wanted to draw, so I didnt listen to him.
One of my teachers in art school came up and asked me, Are you John
Prentices son? Another said, I learned how to draw hands from reading his strip.
Whitney talked about his art in relation to his fathers work. My specialty is oil
paint and I draw with charcoal, pencil, and graphite. Id like to do more watercolor
and pen and ink. Pen and ink is so direct. Each brush stroke is kind of a statement.
I liked how my father used light and dark. He had to use extreme light and dark with
pen and ink because it is so limited. Its hard to do a lot of grays.
Whitney admitted, Ive tried to copy my fathers drawings and I cant draw a
head like that. I have trouble getting a likeness when I have someone to look at to
draw. He, and artists like him, could draw a head from memory and create a character
from their imaginations and then draw the character from different angles. I used to
say, Thats fantastic, I couldnt do that. My father would reply, If you practiced
enough, you could.
He showed me how he made up characters. He used a lot of tracing overlays.
One I remember was the head for a big tough guy. He drew the head first and then
the featureseyes, nose, mouth, and eyebrowson different pieces of tracing paper.
Then he would adjust the position of the features on the face in relation to each
LEFT: John Prentice won his second award for Best Story
Strip Artist in 1967, the same year that Rube Goldberg
(right) won his namesake, the Reuben Award.
OPPOSITE: Prentice at his drawing board in his
Connecticut studio, 1960s.
LEFT: John Prentice won his second award for Best Story
Strip Artist in 1967, the same year that Rube Goldberg
(right) won his namesake, the Reuben Award.
OPPOSITE: Prentice at his drawing board in his
Connecticut studio, 1960s.
8 Y
other to get what he wanted for that particular caricature.
I remember when he would do layouts for a week of strips. That was a
busy day for him. It was hard. He would lay out every daily and then spend
the rest of the week drawing them in pencil and then hed ink them.
Sometimes John would pay Whitney to clean up his strips with an
eraser after they had been inked. He also hired specialists like Ben Oda from
King Features to do the lettering. Among his other assistants over the years
were Al Williamson, Alden McWilliams, Gray Morrow, and Frank Bolle.
Leonard Starr and his wife, Betty, moved to Westport in 1970.
Leonard came over to Johns studio regularly to use the autograph machine,
which was an overhead projector for tracing drawings and photographs.
Leonard and John and their wives frequently socialized with other
cartoonists who lived in the area.
John never had time to do much sketching or painting on the side.
In the 1970s he started taking freelance jobs and did some color illustrations
for Golf Digest. These were done in a style much different than his comic
strip work.
John never turned down work because he needed the money.
Illustration assignments could be frustrating. Art directors frequently told
him they wanted the illustrations done immediately and he would often
have to work overnight to complete a job. There were times when he saw
his art sitting in the production room days after he had finished it.
Rip Kirby provided regular income, but was also a mixed blessing.
I think he was happy to get it in the beginning, his son claimed. It was
a great strip and it was steady work. He felt kind of trapped by it after a
while.
He always wanted to paintdo oil paintingand we talked about it
but he said he just couldnt afford to because it wouldnt be steady income,
Whitney explained. He didnt have the time while he was doing the strip.
He couldnt stop because he wouldnt be able to pay the bills.
He was from Texas and there was still a lot of the cowboy in him.
He loved to see western art. We went to an exhibit of Harold Von Schmidts
drawings and paintings at Green Farms School in Westport. He and I were
amazed looking at his work.
When I started art school I would bring my painting and work to
him and he always had really helpful comments about drawing, composition,
and color, Whitney continued. He didnt work with color that much but he
really knew it. He was a perfectionist. He used to say that with a work of art
you are never completely happy with it. You always see something you could
have done better.
He talked so much about how he wanted to paint that I think some
people thought he was disappointed with life, that he felt that he hadnt
fulfilled his potential by not painting. He probably, as an artist, just wanted
to try something new, just keep advancing or branching out and to paint
was a way of expressing himself but I know he felt trapped financially.
He always worked hard and was dedicated. He used to say television was
killing the story strips. And [the newspapers] printed them smaller. He finally
started drawing them smaller. Its hard to get as much action going on. I noticed
later that there were more headshots. In the end he was writing it, too.
When asked about his fathers legacy Whitney said occasionally John
would get a little bitter when he heard someone say he wasnt as good as Alex
Raymond. The Raymond family once sent John a letter letting him know
how happy they were when the syndicate chose him to continue the strip
and that he was doing a good job. Other cartoonists also respected Johns
work and he got satisfaction from that.
He developed his own style, which you can see over time, Whitney
pointed out. I was proud for him when he won the awards from the N.C.S.
He had them up on the wall in his studio.
There are many things Whitney admires about his fathers work. I
liked how he used light and dark shapes, negative space in the compositions,
rhythms in the brush strokes and line work in the faces, clothes, hair, and
backgrounds. There is assertiveness in the way he drew. If one looks at each
brushstroke or pen line as similar to one instrument in a piece of music, the
rhythms and variety are delightful. The way he did eyebrows was masterful.
John once tried to develop a humorous comic strip in collaboration
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with Howie Post. They would bounce ideas around, but nothing ever came of it. It
was a much different challenge than creating dramatic continuity.
When he was in the Navy during World War II, John worked in the fire rooms
of two destroyers, the Conyngham and the Rooks. Whitney loved listening to his
fathers war stories and recounted one in detail during the interview conducted for
this book.
My fathers ship, the Conyngham, was rammed once off Guadalcanal. They had
been bombarding enemy positions and they were supposed to leave by dark. At night
the Japanese came down. They called it the Tokyo Express. Japanese war ships would
drop off supplies and leave by daylight because our planes would bomb them. An
American transport rammed my fathers destroyer when they were maneuvering to
leave. He told me there was a guy in the fire room where the boilers were and he was
hanging up laundry to dry since it was so hot in there. All of a sudden the guy saw the
prow of a ship coming through the side of his ship. He took off out of there as water
came in. The collision knocked down one of the destroyers two smoke stacks on which
the fellow bumped his head as he came up the escape hatch. One of the fire rooms was
flooded and if another compartment flooded it would have sunk the ship. Damage
control shored up the bulkheadsthe big walls between compartmentswith timbers.
The water was coming in from underneath the floor plates and my father was down
under the boiler blowing out the water so it wouldnt get into the boiler and cause the
ship to lose power. While they were pumping out the ship, they hid behind an island
and were just limping along at a slow speed. When the Japanese came down they could
see the searchlights of the Japanese ships. They were sitting ducks if they were spotted
and if they couldnt control the flooding they were going to have to abandon ship.
Fortunately, the Japanese didnt see them and they managed to limp away the next day.
In addition to seeing combat during World War II, John and the other engineers
would periodically have to overhaul the fire rooms machinery when their ship was in
dry dock. They would go into the fireboxes of the boilers, little compartments lined
with asbestos and brick, with just a rag wrapped around their faces. They would rip
out all the asbestos until the air was filled with dust. No one knew about the effects of
asbestos then and they breathed in a lot of it.
In 1999, John got a bad case of pneumonia that he couldnt get rid of. It was
winter and every morning he would head off to the studio he shared with cartoonist
Stan Drake in downtown Westport. He couldnt stay home because he had deadlines