The story behind Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers is almost as convoluted as that of Jack Kirby's Hunger Dogs graphic novel. It started out as a screenplay by Jack Kirby and Steve Sherman; when that didn't pan out, it was repurposed as a 17-page standalone story to launch "Jack Kirby Comics"; after that, it became an (unpublished) 50-page graphic novel; it finanlly saw print as the first two issues of an ongoing series by the fledgling Pacific Comics. Considering how much of Kirby's output, spanning his entire career, has seen print in collected archival editions over the years, Captain Victory is conspicuous in its absence. And if there was ever a series that cries out to be reprinted, it is is Captain Victory. Although the printing quality improved as the series progressed, the paper stock and coloring of the early issues is simply atrocious.
In 2003, TwoMorrows Publishing released a "Graphite Edition" of the ininked pencils of the graphic novel (which eventually became the first two issues of the ongoing series). There are two reasons why so many uninked pages of Kirby's art exist. First, many of his comics were inked on velum overlays, thus preserving the original artboards; second, in the '70s, Kirby made it a habit to photocopy his penciled pages before they were inked. Unfortunately, many of these early photocopies aren't "clean." Although I would think that more modern technology would be able to clean them up today, apparently that wasn't possible 20 years ago. Another problem with this edition is that Kirby's penciled lettering doesn't reproduce clearly, making it difficult to read. In more recent years, Two Morrows has improved upon the process by reproducing other Kirby graphite editions (a Silver Star tpb and a Destroyer Duck hardcover) with inked lettering.
The "next issue" blurb which would have appeared in the graphic novel indicates that it was supposed to have been the first chapter in a three-part saga, and indeed, the first storyline of the Pacific Comics run lasted six issues. The first storyline dealt with the Galactic Rangers defending Earth from invasion by a race of "Insectons" but, IMO, the series doesn't really start to get good until after that. After that the action shifts to outer space, and issues #7-10 introduce the villainous "Wonder Warriors": Finarkin the Fearless, Bloody Marrien, Ursan the Unclean, and (most infamously) Paranex the Fighting Fetus. They are working for a disembodied entiry known as "The Voice" who has (unofficial) ties to DC's "Fourth World" characters. This directly into a three-part "Origin Trilogy" in #11-13. Finally, there was a Captain Victory Special which introduced the "Space Musketeers" (similar to the "Black Musketeers" from Kirby's run on Black Panther).
Since then, Captain Victory was an integral part of Dynamite's "Kirby: Genesis" project (2011) and a standalone series written by Joe Casey in 2014), but still no collected editon, from Dynamite or anyone else. (In 2007, Image Comics released a very nice hardcover of Kirby's Silver Star.)
Before that, though, even before Tomorrow's graphite edition, Jack Kirby's family released two issues (the third was available online) of a "new" Captain Victory series "written" by Jeremy Kirby, Jack's grandson. Actually it was nothing more than a completely redialogued version of select pages of the original series, chopped up and reassembled worse than DC did with Jack's pages of Hunger Dogs. The first issue was so murky it looked like a black and white photocopy of the actual Pacific comic books themselves rather than original art. Issue two was better (in terms of reproduction). Kirby has taken some heat over the years (perhaps rightly so) for his dialogue, but get a load of his grandson's.
JACK KIRBY
FEMALE: "Kiss me, damn you! --or can't you handle it?"
VICTORY: "Sure you wouldn't rather rub noses instead?"
JEREMY KIRBY
FEMALE: "Goodbye now, Captain. Heaven is calling."
VICTORY: "I can see the heavens when I dream. You'll like it there."
Ugh.
IIRC, these comics were available via mail order only. One thing I will say about "Jack Kirby Comics" is that they offered five different posters for purchase. I wanted (and paid for) only two of them, but they sent me all five. The two I wanted I had framed and are hanging in my house today. Maybe one of these days I'll get the Captain Victory collection I've been waiting for for so long.
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