Daily Archives: July 4, 2005

Speed Comics #23 [1942] – Cover

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When I talk about Jack Kirby artwork on WWII flag-draped super-heroes of military rank, you know I’m talking about…

Captain Freedom?

Yep. Kirby did a bunch of covers in 1942 for this Harvey Comics character who appeared in SPEED COMICS. Don’t know too much about the character, he was apparently a newspaper publisher named Don Hudson who sometimes had a kid gang group the Young Defenders helping him. The handful of covers Kirby did were certainly good (though there’s some disagreement over which are S&K and which are Simon solo).

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The original art for this cover was up for auction a while ago. Check out the scan here.

Published 1942

Star Spangled Comics #33 [1944] – Cover

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The Guardian and the Newsboy Legion take some time to help out the troops from all branches of the service in this patriotic wartime cover by Simon&Kirby.

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Stay tuned, one more cover, featuring a patriotic-garbed Captain, coming up later tonight.

Published 1944

Sgt. Fury #10 [1964] – Cover

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Posted in Genre, War.

What’s the Fourth without a look at Kirby’s tribute to the fighting men of WWII, the Howling Commandos? Great Kirby/Ayers cover of one of their forays into the Pacific on this issue (and I like the characters addressing the change of venue in the dialogue), with those huge guns and action in every corner, circling around to the classic splayed hand that leaps off the page.

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Published 1964

Tales of Suspense #76 [1966] – Cover

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John Romita stepped in to draw the Cap story in this issue, so the only Kirby art is the cover, also inked by Romita.

Yes, Cap at the mercy of the evil frenchman Batroc zee Leaper. I always liked Batroc, such an absurd character, and charmingly over-written with random french expressions and accents.

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Published 1966

Captain America #126 [1970] – Cover

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This Kirby/Everett credited cover always looked a little odd to me for some reason. The Captain America figure almost looks like it’s pasted on from some other source, and the inks seem oddly heavy in places, maybe not over Kirby at all. Still not bad looking.

I do wonder how this cover came about, over a year after Kirby had last drawn the book. [See the comments for some additional speculation on the origin and composition]

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Published 1970

The Invaders #7 [1976] – Cover

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For a Fourth of July special, I’m going to be posting a number of Kirby covers with star-spangled, patriotic or US armed forces themes (couldn’t find anything for Canada Day…). Quite a bit of Captain America, as you can imagine. Stay tuned later in the day for more.

Let’s start with an INVADERS cover, inked by Frank Giacoia, which features the sentinel of Liberty up against the nazi vampire.

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Published 1976