Editing Jack Kirby (section)

===After Simon (1956–1957)===
At the urging of a Crestwood salesman, Kirby and Simon launched their own comics company, [[Mainline Publications]],{{sfn|Ro|2004|page=54}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Beerbohm |first=Robert Lee |title=The Mainline Story |journal=The Jack Kirby Collector |issue=25 |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |date=August 1999 |location=Raleigh, North Carolina |url=http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/25mainline.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526101151/http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/25mainline.html |archive-date=May 26, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=March 26, 2008}}</ref> securing a distribution deal with Leader News<ref>{{cite book|last=Theakston|first=Greg|author-link= Greg Theakston|title=The Complete Jack Kirby|year=1997|publisher=Pure Imagination Publishing, Inc.|isbn=1-56685-006-1|page=29}}</ref> in late 1953 or early 1954, subletting space from their friend [[Al Harvey]]'s [[Harvey Publications]] at 1860 Broadway.<ref name=autobio1990p151>{{cite book|author-link=Joe Simon|last1=Simon|first1=Joe|last2=with Simon|first2=Jim | title=The Comic Book Makers|publisher=Crestwood/II Publications|year= 1990|page= 151|isbn=978-1-887591-35-5}} Reissued (Vanguard Productions, 2003) {{ISBN|978-1-887591-35-5}}. Page numbers refer to 1990 edition.</ref> Mainline, which existed from 1954 to 1955, published four titles: the Western ''Bullseye: Western Scout''; the [[war comics|war comic]] ''Foxhole'' because [[EC Comics]] and [[Atlas Comics (1950s)|Atlas Comics]] were having success with war comics, but promoting theirs as being written and drawn by actual veterans; ''In Love'' because their earlier [[romance comic]] ''[[Young Love (comic)|Young Love]]'' was still being widely imitated; and the [[crime comic]] ''Police Trap'', which claimed to be based on genuine accounts by law-enforcement officials.<ref>[http://www.comics.org/publisher/2515/ Mainline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101112074533/http://www.comics.org/publisher/2515/ |date=November 12, 2010 }} at the Grand Comics Database.</ref> After the duo rearranged and republished artwork from an old Crestwood story in ''In Love'', Crestwood refused to pay the team,{{sfn|Ro|2004|page=55}} who sought an audit of Crestwood's finances. Upon review, the pair's attorneys stated the company owed them $130,000 for work done over the past seven years. Crestwood paid them $10,000 in addition to their recent delayed payments. The partnership between Kirby and Simon had become strained.{{sfn|Ro|2004|page=56}} Simon left the industry for a career in advertising, while Kirby continued to freelance. "He wanted to do other things and I stuck with comics," Kirby recalled in 1971. "It was fine. There was no reason to continue the partnership and we parted friends."<ref>{{cite news|title='I Created an Army of Characters, and Now My Connection with Them Is Lost|publisher=interview, The Great Electric Bird radio show, [[WNUR-FM]], [[Northwestern University]]|location= Evanston, Illinois| date= May 14, 1971}} Transcribed in ''[[The Comics Journal|The Nostalgia Journal]]'' (27) August 1976. Reprinted in George 2002, p. 16</ref>

At this point in the mid-1950s, Kirby made a temporary return to the former [[Timely Comics]], now known as Atlas Comics, the direct predecessor of [[Marvel Comics]]. Inker [[Frank Giacoia]] had approached editor-in-chief Stan Lee for work and suggested he could "get Kirby back here to pencil some stuff.{{sfn|Ro|2004|page=60}} While freelancing for National Comics Publications, the future [[DC Comics]], Kirby drew 20 stories for Atlas from 1956 to 1957: Beginning with the five-page "Mine Field" in ''Battleground'' #14 (Nov. 1956), Kirby penciled and in some cases inked (with his wife, [[Jack Kirby#Personal life|Roz]]) and wrote stories of the [[Western comics|Western]] hero [[Black Rider (comics)|Black Rider]], the [[Fu Manchu]]-like [[Yellow Claw (comics)|Yellow Claw]], and more.<ref name=gcdjack /><ref>Kirby's 1956–57 Atlas work appeared in nine issues, plus three more published later after being held in inventory, per {{cite web|url=http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/simonandkirby/archives/1086 |title=Another Pre-Implosion Atlas Kirby |publisher=Jack Kirby Museum |date=November 3, 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709112725/http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/simonandkirby/archives/1086 |archive-date=July 9, 2012 |url-status=live }} In roughly chronological order: ''Battleground'' #14 (Nov. 1956; 5 pp.), ''Astonishing'' #56 (Dec. 1956; 4 pp.), ''Strange Tales of the Unusual'' #7 (Dec. 1956; 4 pp.), ''Quick-Trigger Western'' #16 (Feb. 1957; 5 pp.), ''[[Yellow Claw (comics)|Yellow Claw]]'' #2–4 (Dec. 1956 – April 1957; 19 pp. each), ''Black Rider Rides Again'' #1, a.k.a. ''Black Rider'' vol. 2, #1 (Sept. 1957; 19 pp.), and ''Two Gun Western'' #12 (Sept. 1957; 5 pp.), plus the inventoried ''[[Gunsmoke Western]]'' #47 (July 1958; 4 pp.) and #51 (March 1959; 5 pp. plus cover) and ''[[Kid Colt Outlaw]]'' #86 (Sept. 1959; 5 pp.)</ref> But in 1957, distribution troubles caused the "Atlas implosion" that resulted in several series being dropped and no new material being assigned for many months. The next year Kirby returned to the nascent Marvel.

For DC around that time, Kirby co-created with writers Dick and Dave Wood the non-superpowered adventuring quartet the [[Challengers of the Unknown]] in ''[[Showcase (comics)|Showcase]]'' #6 (Feb. 1957),<ref>[[Alexander C. Irvine|Irvine, Alex]] "1950s" in Dolan, p. 84: "Kirby's first solo project was a test run of a non-super hero adventure team called Challengers of the Unknown. Appearing for the first time in ''Showcase'' #6, the team would make a few more ''Showcase'' appearances before springing into their own title in May 1958."</ref> while contributing to such anthologies as ''[[House of Mystery]]''.<ref name=gcdjack /> During 30 months freelancing for DC, Kirby drew slightly more than 600 pages, which included 11 six-page [[Green Arrow]] stories in ''[[World's Finest Comics]]'' and ''[[Adventure Comics]]'' that in a rarity, Kirby inked himself.<ref>{{cite book|last= Evanier|first= Mark|author-link= Mark Evanier|chapter= Introduction|title= The Green Arrow|publisher= DC Comics|year= 2001|location= New York, New York|quote= All were inked by Jack with the aid of his dear spouse, Rosalind. She would trace his pencil work with a static pen line; he would then take a brush, put in all the shadows and bold areas and, where necessary, heavy-up the lines she'd laid down. (Jack hated inking and only did it because he needed the money. After departing DC this time, he almost never inked his own work again.)}}</ref> Kirby recast the archer as a science-fiction hero, moving him away from his Batman-formula roots, but, in the process, alienating Green Arrow co-creator [[Mort Weisinger]].{{sfn|Ro|2004|page=61}}

He began drawing ''[[Sky Masters of the Space Force]],'' a newspaper comic strip, written by the Wood brothers and initially inked by the unrelated [[Wally Wood]].<ref>Evanier 2008, pp. 103–106 "The artwork was exquisite, in no small part because Dave Wood had the idea to hire Wally Wood (no relation) to handle the inking."</ref> Kirby left National Comics Publications due largely to a contractual dispute in which editor [[Jack Schiff]], who had been involved in getting Kirby and the Wood brothers the ''Sky Masters'' contract, claimed he was due royalties from Kirby's share of the strip's profits. Schiff successfully sued Kirby.{{sfn|Evanier|2008|page=109}} Some DC editors had criticized him over art details, such as not drawing "the shoelaces on a cavalryman's boots" and showing a Native American "mounting his horse from the wrong side."{{sfn|Ro|2004|page=91}}