Daily Archives: December 31, 2004

New Kirby – Smithsonian Book…

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Just confirming the recent release of the previously mentioned anthology, THE NEW SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC BOOK STORIES: FROM CRUMB TO CLOWES (ISBN 1588341836). As promised, it has a reprint of “The Hate-Monger” from FF #21, in black and white. Looks very sharp, though I again question the choice given the less than stellar story and one of the lesser Kirby inkers

Amazon and presumably other online sellers have a pretty decent discount on it right now, and it should be showing up in most library systems.

Year-end weblog tally

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I know I’ve gotten some new readers recently thanks to plugs at Fred Hembeck’s site and others, and I wanted a quick reference page for posts I’d made, so here it is. To date, for those who care about such things:
178 posts in 111 days
204 Kirby books posted about
(plus two card sets)
116 of those books Kirby just did covers for
88 had Kirby interior content
15 posts announcing new/upcoming publications
19 posts of links to other sites
7 assorted administrative posts, like this one

Main Posts
100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-15
1st Issue Special #6 – Dingbats of Danger Street
2001: A Space Odyssey #7 – The New Seed
A DC Universe Christmas – Santa Fronts For The Mob
Adventures of the Fly TPB
Amazing Heroes #100
Best of DC #22 – The Seal-Men’s War on Santa Claus
Black Magic (DC) #7 – “The Cloak” and “Freak!”
Black Magic (DC) #9 – The Woman in the Tower
Black Panther #10 – This World Shall Die
Black Panther #7 – Drums
Blast-Off #1
Brave and the Bold “Annual, No 1” – The Invasion of America
Buried Treasure #1 – The Mad White God of Palm Island
Buried Treasure v1#2 – “Inky” – proposed S&K strip
Captain America #112 – Lest We Forget
Captain America Collectors’ Preview #1 – The Case of the Hollow Men
Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #1
Challengers of the Unknown #79
Chamber of Darkness #7 – I Found the Abominable Snowman
Classics Illustrated #35 – Last Days of Pompeii
Comic Reader #100
Dead of Night #10 – I Dream of Doom
Demon #4 – The Creature From the Beyond
Destroyer Duck #1 – It’s Got the Whole World…in Its Hand!
Devil Dinosaur #1 – Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy
Eternals #1 – Day of the Gods
Fantastic Four #51 – This Man, This Monster
Fantastic Four #78 – The Thing No More
Fantasy Masterpieces #2 – Fin Fang Foom
Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #6 – The Psychic Blood-Hound
Forever People #4 – The Kingdom of the Damned
Giant-Size Chillers #3 – The Monster
Giant-Size Defenders #1 – Surfer / Hulk reprints
Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #3
Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 – On The Trail Of The Amazing Spider-Man
Gunslingers #1
House of Mystery #199 – He Doomed the World
Jack Kirby Checklist
Jack Kirby’s Heroes and Villains
Jimmy Olsen #141 – Will the Real Don Rickles Panic?
Jimmy Olsen #144
Journey Into Mystery #59 – I Unleashed Shagg Upon the World
Journey into Mystery v2 #18
Journey into Mystery v2 #19 – When the Mummy Walks
Justice, Inc. #4 – Slay Ride in the Sky
Kamandi #32 – Me
Kamandi #40 – The Lizard Lords of Los Lorraine
Ka-Zar #2
Kirbyverse cards
Kobra #1 – Fangs of the Kobra
Machine Man #1 – Machine Man
Marvel Tales #123 – The Reason Why
Marvel Tales #193 – The Fabulous FF Meet Spider-Man
MGC #43 – Klaw – The Murderous Master of Sound
Mighty Marvel Western #44 – Doom in the Desert
Millennium Edition – Young Romance #1
Monster Menace #3 – Zzutak
Monsters on the Prowl #15 – The Thing Called… It!
New Gods #2 – O’ Deadly Darkseid
New Gods #7 – The Pact
Not Brand Echh #3 – The Origin of Sore
Our Fighting Forces #155 – The Partisans
Our Love Story #12 – He Was Perfect – But I Lost Him
Rawhide Kid Special #1
Sandman #1 – The Sandman
Satan’s Six #1
Shocking Tales Digest #1
Silver Surfer 1978 Graphic Novel
Strange Tales #120 – The Torch Meets the Iceman
Strange Tales #136 – Find Fury or Die
Strange Tales #145 – Lo! The Eggs Shall Hatch
Strange World of Your Dreams #3
Super Powers v1#1
Superman Gallery #1
Tales of Suspense #19 – The Green Thing
Thor #159 – The Answer at Last
Thor #177 – To End in Flames
Two-Gun Kid #55 – The Outlaw
Unpublished Archives trading cards
Wanted #9 – The Adventure of the Magic Forest
Weird Mystery Tales #2 – Toxl the World-Killer
What If #11 – The Fantastic Four Were the Original Marvel Bullpen
Where Monsters Dwell #27
Where Monsters Dwell #36 – The Impossible Tunnel
Who’s Who #15
Who’s Who #16
Who’s Who #17 – OMAC & Orion
Who’s Who #2
World’s Finest Comics #187 – The Green Arrow’s First Case

Covers
Amazing Spider-Man #35 – Cover
Avengers #157 – Cover
Black Cat Mystery #57 – Cover
Black Goliath #4 – Cover
Defenders #44 – Cover
First Romance Magazine #42 – Cover
Hi-School Romance #54 – Cover
Iron Man #80 – Cover
Marvel Mystery Comics #12 – Cover
Sandman #2 – Cover
Skull the Slayer #8 – Cover
Tales of Suspense #36 – Cover
Tales to Astonish #52 – Cover
Thor #249 – Cover
1940s Covers
1940s Kirby covers
1950s Covers
1960s Covers
1970s Covers
1970s retro covers
A half century of Covers
Ancient Cover Gallery
Another Cover Gallery
Cover Gallery
Cover Gallery – Airboy, Two-Gun Kid, Hulk, Bombast
Cover Gallery – FF, Ghost Rider, 3-D Man
Cover Gallery Decision 2004
Covers to go
Horror/Monster Covers
Late Period Covers
Lesser Villains of the early 1960s
More 1970s Marvel covers
More 70s Marvel Covers
More covers
Number One Cover Gallery
Random Covers
Romance Covers
This Hostage Cover
This Post, This Cover Gallery
Three Covers
Trio of Cover
Various 1960s covers
Various genre covers
War Cover Gallery
Wartime cover gallery
Western covers
Yet Another Cover Gallery

Links
–Link– 1977 Kirby con program art
–Link– Ben Grimm and Religion
–Link– Evanier’s Kirby stuff
–Link– Fin Fang Foom day
–Link– Fred Hembeck
–Link– Joe Sinnott website
–Link– Kirby and Judaism
–Link– Kirby Collector
–Link– Kirby in the Marvel Universe
–Link– Kirby interview video
–Link– Kirby tribute site
–Link– Kirby’s Legacy at Slate
–Link– Kirby’s Monsters
–Link– Kirby’s NCS bio
–Link– Kirby’s Superman
–Link– Lords of Light
–Link– Monster Blog
–Link– Oddball Comics by Shaw!
–Link– Upcoming Ayers autobio comic

New/Upcoming book announcements
New Kirby – Adventures of the Fly
New Kirby – Essential Iron Man #2 etc
New Kirby – Jack Kirby Reader Volume 2
New Kirby – Jimmy Olsen v2
New Kirby – Marvel Masterworks Avengers v4
New Kirby – Marvel Visionaries Jack Kirby
New Kirby – Unleashed, Collector, Hulk
New Royer – Radioactive Man #9 [#197]
Upcoming Kirby – March 2005
Upcoming Kirby – March 2005 Marvel
Upcoming Kirby – Marvel early 2005
Upcoming Kirby – Marvel Visionaries Stan Lee
Upcoming Kirby – Modern Arf
Upcoming Kirby – Panther and FF reprints
Upcoming Kirby – Smithsonian Book…

Admin posts
2004 – A Kirby Odyssey
Cheap Attention-Grabbing Contest
Comments
Kirby inking
Taking a break
Welcome

1st Issue Special #6 [1975] – Dingbats of Danger Street

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What better way to end a year?

Definitely the oddest piece to come out of Kirby’s five year stay at DC in the 1970s (at least among the published works) is his try at an updated kid gang, the Dingbats of Danger Street. This is strange by Kirby standards, and this is a guy who created a flying cosmic surfer.

The Dingbats are Good Looks, Krunch, Non-Fat and Bananas, as they announce to us on the first page. Orphans all, who have formed their own gang to get by on Danger Street. In their debut adventure, they unintentionally help cop Terry Mullins capture the villain Jumping Jack, and in the process Non-Fat almost chokes on the film strip canister Jack was smuggling and hid in his hot dog. And then Jack’s partner the Gasser shows up, and things get really kooky.

It all has an odd charm, but I think it does deserve some of the mockery that’s been heaped on it over the years. I did find Lt. Mullins kind of interesting, and wonder if he’d have become a gruffer version of Jim Harper to the Dingbats with time.

Mike Royer inks on this one, so that always looks nice.

The job codes (as documented in the JACK KIRBY CHECKLIST) suggest that Kirby drew the first issue shortly after MISTER MIRACLE and THE DEMON were canceled, while he was also working on the middle issues of KAMANDI and the early issues of OMAC, and he drew at least three issues in a few months (some have suggested even more exist, but I don’t think pages have ever turned up). For some reason DC didn’t rush it into print, and only published the first issue as one of the “1st Issue Special” one-shots some time later. About half the pages from the other two known issues have seen print in the various fanzines, mostly THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (including the full 2-page spread meant for this story, modified to a single page as published), and are actually even more fun than the first, if you can judge based on such a random sampling of pages scattered across a half-dozen books. The second issue had a great two-page spread. I’m sure someday soon we’ll see a deluxe hardcover collecting all three issues.

Published September 1975.