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Sky Masters of the Space Force was an American syndicated newspaper comic strip created on September 8, 1958, by writer/penciler Jack Kirby and writer Dave Wood, featuring the adventures of an American astronaut. The strip stars the titular Major Skylar Masters—an American astronaut—and features his adventures in a fictionalized Space Race, including rocket launches, space stations, Moon landings, and double agents.
In 1958, Harry Elmlark, "an agent from the George Matthew Adams Service", asked DC Comics editor Jack Schiff for a science fiction comic to be adapted into strip form, to capitalize on American interest in the Space race in the wake of the previous year's launch of Sputnik. Schiff rejected Space Busters and then either collaborated in the creation of a new strip, or simply encouraged Kirby and Wood to produce "a strip that dealt with rocket launchings, moon shots, and general story lines just a little ahead of current developments in the news".Schiff, quoted in: Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2004)
With art samples and story outline approved by Elmlark, Kirby penciled the strip, which was initially written by brothers Dick and Dave Wood and inked by the unrelated Wally Wood; at that same time, Dave Wood was also working with Kirby on the Showcase Comics issues of Kirby's "Challengers of the Unknown" feature for DC Comics, and Wally Wood would later ink issues #4-8 of Kirby's Challengers of the Unknown comic book series during the last half of 1958 and the first half of 1959. Once Kirby and Schiff got into a dispute, Wally Wood moved on to other projects. Later Sky Masters strips were written by Kirby, and inked by Dick Ayers, with the final month penciled and inked by Kirby alone.
Ayers described his participation in a 1996 interview:
On April 15, 1958, Schiff drew up a formal agreement documenting the royalty cuts between Kirby and Wood, and also Schiff himself (4%). By July, Schiff requested a higher percentage before the strip debuted on September 8, 1958, in "over three hundred newspapers". With the arrival of the first royalty checks, the Wood brothers sent money to Schiff, but Kirby refused, leading to tension between himself and DC. In an attempt to defuse the situation, Kirby attempted to buy Schiff out of the contract, reiterating the feeling that Schiff was only due a onetime payment rather than an ongoing percentage of the royalties.
Schiff's lawyer Myron Shapiro questioned Kirby at trial, and confirmed that Schiff had not verbalised such threats. Jack Liebowitz (executive vice president and general manager of National/DC) testified on Schiff's behalf, and the signed agreement promising Schiff an ongoing percentage led to Schiff being successful after a "very short trial at the supreme court in White Plains, New York". Kirby left then "market leader" DC, and returned to work for Atlas Comics, but continued to draw Sky Masters until early 1961.Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2004)Simon, Joe, with Jim Simon. The Comic Book Makers (Crestwood/II, 1990) ; reissued (Vanguard Productions, 2003)
Sunday stories (8 February 1959 – 7 February 1960)
In 1991, Pure Imagination reprinted the dailies from 8 September 1958 to 8 May 1959 and the eight color Sundays from February to March 1959 as Sky Masters of the Space Force #1. From 1996 to 1998 the daily strips were reprinted by Manuscript Press in Comics Revue (#124–142, 144–153, and Comics Revue Special #1), and from 1998 to 2002 the remaining Sundays were reprinted in color on the front and back covers of odd-numbered issues (#145–191). Almost all of the Sky Masters strips (774 dailies and 53 of 54 Sundays) are reprinted in The Complete Sky Masters of the Space Force (1991) from Pure Imagination. The book features the Sunday strips in black and white only, and includes one daily on the back cover only rather than in-sequence.
A remastered Spanish edition containing the complete dailies was published by Glénat in two volumes in 2008 and 2009, edited and designed by Ferran Delgado. A planned third volume containing the complete Sundays remained unpublished until a 2018 collaboration with Amigo Comics and the Jack Kirby Museum.
In late 2017, Hermes Press published Sky Masters of the Space Force: The Complete Dailies. This was followed in 2018 by the Eisner Awards nominated Sky Masters of the Space Force: The Complete Sunday Strips in Color from Amigo Comics, edited and designed by Ferran Delgado of the Spanish edition.
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