Did Jack Kirby Work on an Indiana Jones Cartoon?

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Jun 4, 2020

In the 15th anniversary of Comic Book Legends Revealed, learn whether Jack Kirby worked on an Indiana Jones cartoon for Ruby-Spears in the 1980s.

Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and eighty-third installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false.

As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for Part 1 of this week's legends.

NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I'll do a bonus edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, right? So go follow my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!

COMIC LEGEND:

Jack Kirby worked on an Indiana Jones cartoon for Ruby-Spears.

STATUS:

False

NOTE: Today is, oddly enough, the 15th anniversary of this particular column. That is way too old.

John Cimino has a really cool bit at his site, "Hero Envy," where he details the Roy Thomas comics characters, concepts and creations. It's an awesome resource.

Anyhow, reader Jim S. was reading it and he wrote to me about a bit he saw there where Thomas was talking about working on the Ruby-Spears Plastic Man animated series in the 1980s. Thomas noted, "I didn't apply to write any more episodes after that for them, although I was part of a group coming up with possible notions in the early 80s for a Jack Kirby-designed Indiana Jones copy."

Jim wanted to know what the deal was with this - he wanted to know if Kirby seriously worked on an Indiana Jones cartoon.

No, what Thomas was referring to was a cartoon idea that Kirby developed for Ruby-Spears (who Kirby went to work for in the late 1970s) called Roxie's Raiders, about a female Indiana Jones riff (it was designed for a possible action figure tie-in line, as well)...

Kirby and Steve Gerber (who also worked on the pitch) even did a comic book that was never published. TwoMorrows' Jack Kirby Collector #55 has a few pages from the never completed first issue by Gerber and Kirby. Here are a few pages (be sure to check out the issue for more pages).