The cover for Where Monster’s Dwell # 26 (Jan 1974). Terrific example of how Kirby’s 60s artwork was repackaged and reprinted for audiences in the 1970s. At this point in time, Jack was working at DC Comics where he had to compete with Marvel reprints of his old material. Art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.
This story originally appeared in Tales of Suspense# 16 (April 1961). Below is the original cover, followed by some examples of interior pages from the reprint. The Metallo character reminds me a lot of the popular Transformers.
I love the details on the fish in panel one. The octopus in that panel is also fairly realistic. I wonder if Jack checked out a wildlife magazine for photo reference. Great example of goofy ultra-self-explanatory comic book dialogue in panel 3 “He’s loosening his grip — he can’t hold the suit! It’s too powerful for him!”
In my opinion, it’s around this period in 1961 that Jack’s artwork really starts to become more explosive. Not to say it wasn’t before – you can see plenty of innovative action sequences as early as Jack’s work on Captain America # 1 (Mar 1941) – but I think because Stan Lee was adding the captions to the stories, Jack might have started to focus a little more on making his images jump out of the panels and off the page; since Jack couldn’t express himself through text, maybe he focused a little more on producing unique, distinctive, dynamic imagery. For example, in the page above, every panel is charged with the kind of energy and filled with the kind of action Jack would become so famous for on his superhero work. Panel 1: the character tearing through the metal wall like it’s made of paper mache. Panel 2: the cop firing a shot at the giant robot, the woman fleeing, screaming in terror. Panel 3: classic Kirby crowd shot; I love the look of panic on the face of the kid in the foreground. Panel 4: the robot surrounded by cops, and panel 5: awesome shot of Metallo lifting up the police car.
I wonder if readers reacted favorably to these books, sent in fan mail, and this may have been one of the reasons Lee started assigning Jack to do superhero books — the most notable example being published seven months after this story: Fantastic Four # 1 (1961). It seems that at the time this monster/science-fiction story was published, Jack was ready to take a fairly substantial artistic leap from his earlier superhero work towards a more dramatic storytelling style which would lead to the so-called Marvel age of comics where with editor Lee, Jack would go on to create a line of comics that would amazingly eclipse the sales of the iconic DC universe of characters in the mid-1960s.
