Небесные Мастера Космических Сил: История Комикса

American comic strip by Jack Kirby and Dave Wood

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.

Sky Masters of the Space Force began life as a science fiction strip created by artist Jack Kirby and writer Dave Wood called Space Busters, which was designed to be sold to a newspaper syndicate. This strip did not sell, however. 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."

Dave Wood promised Schiff "a percentage for arranging the deal," which Kirby allegedly assumed was a one time payment but that Schiff understood to be on going. Kirby claimed that Schiff was merely an editor who had "assigned him, the Wood brothers, and Eddie Herron freelance work," that Kirby and the Woods had visited Elmlark without Schiff, that Schiff was not involved in the agency agreement, but that he and the Woods had offered Schiff a gift. Kirby further alleged that Schiff had implied that not paying his demands would lead to Kirby losing work at DC.

A 1980 collection, Sky Masters of the Space Force: Book One, published by Quality Comic Art Productions of Buffalo, New York, reprinted the beginning of the strip and, while smaller in format, often featured artwork less modified by artists involved in the reprint production than the later Pure Imagination publications. 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 Award 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.