Monthly Archives: November 2005

Who’s Who #13 – Lightray

Posted on November 21, 2005 by Bob

Kirby just did one entry in this issue, Lightray of the New Gods. I like the main pose a lot, it really shows the sunny optimism that Lightray brought to the original comics in general, contrasting with Orion.

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Greg Theakston inks.

Published 1986

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Upcoming Kirby – Visionaries v2

Posted on November 20, 2005 by Bob

Amazon is now listing a second MARVEL VISIONARIES: JACK KIRBY volume coming out in April of 2006. Contents are:

Captain America Comics #1; Marvel Mystery Comics #23; Yellow Claw #4; Strange Tales #89, 114; Two-Gun Kid #60; Love Romances #103; X-Men #9; Tales of Suspense #59; Sgt. Fury #13; Fantastic Four #57-60; Not Brand Echh #1; Thor #154-157; Devil Dinosaur #1.

Lots of choices from CAP #1. I’m guessing the Red Skull story. MMC #23 is a Vision story I don’t think has been reprinted before. Neither has that YELLOW CLAW issue (hopefully they’ll have the full book, not just one story, although running the page counts quickly they’re not going to manage all the Kirby content of all of these issues). STRANGE TALES #89 is the oft-reprinted “Fin Fang Foom”, but it deserves it. #114 is the Torch against the fake Captain America, which hasn’t been printed in colour in a long while. TWO-GUN KID #60 is the first issue of the new version of the Kid, hopefully they’ll have both stories. LOVE ROMANCES #103 had two Kirby shorts, hopefully both will be in here. I’ve heard good things about “The Dream World of Doris Wilson”. X-MEN #9 is the Avengers guest bit, so gets a sampling of both teams into the book. ToS #59 is the first of the Cap solo run, not really the best choice from that run. FURY #13 is of course the Captain America guest issue. That run of FF is the great Doom/Surfer storyline, which is fittingly enough parodied in NOT BRAND ECHH #1 (“I own one hundred pairs of stretch socks”), and that run of THOR is the Mangog story, also great stuff. DEVIL DINOSAUR #1, excellent.

So mostly really good choices. As usual I’d have liked a bit less super-hero, more other genre, but I can’t complain about most of what was picked. Good sampling of inkers, with some Sinnott, Royer, Ayers, Giacoia, Stone, Severin, Simon. I’d gladly lose the Cap story from ToS for a pair of early Tales of Asgard shorts, especially since Cap is already in a golden age story, the Torch story, the X-Men story and the Fury story, and Ayers inking is well represented even without it. And much as I love him, I’d gladly drop Devil D. for some more 1950s stuff. Except that the 1970s should be represented somewhere, and Devil is the least likely to ever have a dedicated volume (Cap and the Panther already do, the Eternals will soon, 2001 is probably off-limits and Machine Man is much more likely than Devil). Tough call. Maybe trade Devil for two 1950s shorts (lots of good 5-pagers there) and a 1970s cover gallery, including one DD cover? Tough call with those FF and Thor epics eating up half the page count. If it were up to me I’d replace them with shorter bits (maybe a single issue and two-issue bit each, from different points in the run. Or keep the FF and replace the Thor epic with two single issues, one from the Stone inked run, one from the Everett inked run), reclaiming about 40 pages for some more short stories. Oh well, that’s what volumes 3 to 10 will be for…

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Marvel Double Feature #17 – Into the Jaws of… AIM

Posted on November 19, 2005 by Bob

A reprint from TALES OF SUSPENSE #93 (1967), showcasing some of the great Kirby/Sinnott artwork of the era. Beautiful splash page of Cap swimming with a SHIELD-issue long distance mini-cruiser, the type of beautiful mechanical devices Kirby would casually throw in his work. Anyway, Cap goes off to rescue the still-nameless female SHIELD agent (oh, let’s just call her Sharon) from AIM, who have been reborn under the leadership of the mysterious MODOK.

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Much action ensues, leading to Cap being captured and Sharon being taken before MODOK.

As usual, love the AIM losers, and the various gadgets, all of which really some alive under Sinnott’s brush.

Various bits of action are cut to make the original 10-page story fit in 9 pages (that page in the scan was actually bits of two pages in the original). The cover is a bit of an oddity, as it’s based on the cover for what was originally the next issue, ToS #94. Same layout, but clearly redrawn with some major changes (most notably removing MODOK from the background). The updated Kirby checklist lists the cover as a Kirby/Giacoia piece, but I don’t know about that. I doubt Kirby had anything to do with the re-drawing, and the inking doesn’t seem much like the other Giacoia of the era (including some other MDF covers not traced from older versions).

Published 1976

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Mister Miracle #1 [1971] – Murder Missile Trap

Posted on November 19, 2005 by Bob

The debut issue of MISTER MIRACLE, this story has young Scott Free come across Thaddeus Brown, the original Mister Miracle, a retired escape artist on the comeback trail, and his assistant Oberon. Scott gets drawn into their world, and shows he has a few tricks up his sleeves as well, thanks to his mysterious orphanage past and inexhaustible supply of gadgets. Unfortunately, Brown isn’t long for the world, as he gets killed by mobster Steel Hand, leaving Scott to take his place.

I’m not terribly fond of this story (which, as it happened, was the last issue of the series I read, some years after finding the rest), although it does have many good features, especially in the art, and it would have been nice to find out more about Thaddeus. I thought the series didn’t really pick up until the Apokolips elements were introduced (including and especially Barda).

Colletta inks the 22 page story and cover. Marv Wolfman writes the text page (used in all the Fourth World first issues), about a visit he and Len Wein had with Kirby some years earlier, where among other things they heard of some ideas that would eventually evolve into Kirby’s then-current work.

Published 1971

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Upcoming Kirby – February 2006

Posted on November 19, 2005 by Bob

[updated to include the AC reprint book]

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usA couple of big things from in February. TwoMorrows has a new KIRBY COLLECTOR (#44 should be out soon). AC has some unspecified Kirby in a big book of old sci-fi reprints. Marvel gives SGT. FURY a hardcover, running all the way to #13, so it has all of Kirby’s full stories for the series. Should be worth a look. Also, the MARVEL ROMANCE TPB should be about one third Kirby, the first time any of those have seen print in a long while (there’s also a comic coming out where they re-script some old romance stories, including a Kirby one, but the less said about that the better). The recent MARVEL MONSTERS one shots get an oversized hardcover for some reason, including the reprint backups by Kirby. And in the trivial, ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT will have one cover by Kirby. DC’s SHOWCASE PRESENTS HOUSE OF MYSTERY volume should have one Kirby reprint, “The Negative Man” (originally from #84, as reprinted in #194).

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #45
Tabloid FormatThere’s no time like the present in JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #45, as we take a trip in the KIRBY TIME MACHINE for Jack’s views of the past and future! There’s a never-published interview with KING KIRBY! A heartfelt new interview with Jack’s son NEAL KIRBY! MARK EVANIER’s regular column, plus our other regular columnists! Two Kirby pencil art galleries—THE PAST and THE FUTURE (both at whopping TABLOID SIZE)! Two rare, complete 1950s Kirby stories! An interview with Kirby Award winner and family friend MARK MILLER! Kirby’s first script, from the 1930s! Looks at Jack’s 3-D work, the Eternals, Devil Dinosaur, Justice Inc., war and gangster stories, and the 2005 Kirby Tribute Panel (with Evanier, nephew Robert Katz, Scott Shaw!, and Steve Sherman)! All behind a new Kirby/Royer montage cover, plus the unpublished Kirby cover to CAPTAIN 3-D #2, inked by BILL BLACK and converted into actual 3-D by RAY ZONE!

AC Comics
GOLDEN AGE SCIENCE FICTION TREASURY VOL 1 TP
by Various
The biggest reprint volume EVER focusing on classic science-fiction comics of the ’40s & ’50s, featuring stories originally appearing in Planet Comics, Strange Worlds, Space Detective, Space Adventures, Science Comics, and others! Super artists—Wally Wood, Al Williamson, George Evans, Jack Kirby, Reed Crandall, Steve Ditko, and Joe Orlando, working their sweet science (fiction) on such characters as Mysta, Mars, Gale Allen, Captain Science, Hunt Bowman, Auro, Star Pirate, and more!
SC, 216pgs, B&W SRP: $29.95
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: SGT. FURY VOL. 1
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY & DICK AYERS
Cover by JACK KIRBY
WHA-HOOO! It’s time for Marvel’s first-ever war Masterworks with tales of Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howlin’ Commandos in thick of ol’ WWII! And for the icing on the cake, it’s a titanic team-up of the mighty talents of Sgt. Stan Lee and Infantryman Jack Kirby! That’s a pair storytellers so explosive you better make sure you keep your lid on when you read this one, soldier! Prepare yourself for drama, intrigue, humor and action galore as Fury, Dum Dum Dugan and the rest of the Howlers as they battle more Nazis than you can shake a bayonet at, team-up with Captain America and Bucky, battle the nefarious Baron Strucker and Zemo, and set out to capture Adolf Hitler himself! With a pedigree like that, get off your duff and reserve your copy today, goldbrick! That’s an order! Collecting SGT. FURY #1-13
320 PGS $49.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2039-4

MARVEL ROMANCE TPB
Written by STAN LEE, GARY FRIEDRICH & MORE
Penciled by DICK GIORDANO, JACK KIRBY, GRAY MORROW, SOL BRODSKY & MORE
Cover by JACK KIRBY
MY LOVE. TEEN-AGE ROMANCE. LOVE ROMANCE. Picking up a theme? The romance genre spanned nearly half a century, and now Marvel’s picked some of its best from the sixties and seventies! “It Happened at Woodstock!” “My Heart Broke in Hollywood!” “Love on the Rebound!” Featuring Smart Styles and Heavenly Hairdos with Patsy Walker in a pre-Hellcat tale! Collects LOVE ROMANCE #89 and #101-104; MY LOVE #2, #14, #16 and #18-20; TEEN-AGE ROMANCE #77 and #84; OUR LOVE STORY #5; and PATSY WALKER #119.
176 PGS. $19.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2089-0

MARVEL MONSTERS HC
Written by STEVE NILES, ERIC POWELL, TOM SNEIGOSKI, ROGER LANGRIDGE, MICK GRAY, PETER DAVID, JEFF PARKER & KEITH GIFFEN
Penciled by DUNCAN FEGRADO, ERIC POWELL, MARK FARMER, ROGER LANGRIDGE, ARNOLD PANDER, RUSSELL BRAUN & KEITH GIFFEN
Cover by ERIC POWELL
Marvel’s monsters unleashed in four timeless tales by today’s hottest creators! In MONSTERS ON THE PROWL, it’s the Hulk, the Thing, Giant-Man and the Beast vs. a tidal wave of classic creatures when the Collector inadvertently lets loose Droom, Grogg, Goom, Rombuu, Grattu and more on New York City! In DEVIL DINOSAUR, two young Celestials debate prehistoric Earth’s superior life form. But when the ferocity of Devil Dinosaur proves no match for the opposition, a savage from the future is brought back for a battle you thought you’d never see: Hulk vs. Devil Dino! In FIN FANG FOUR, four giant monsters — incarcerated for years for their crimes against humanity — now find themselves shrunk to human size and working at the home of the very people who captured them: the Fantastic Four! Meet Googam, Son of Goom; Elektro; Gorgilla; and Fin Fang Foom! But when Goom’s mad plan to rescue his father goes awry, the quartet must put aside their differences and become — the Fin Fang Four! And in WHERE MONSTERS DWELL, witness the terror of Monstrollo, the horror of Manoo and the fright of Bombu! Also collects classic stories from TALES TO ASTONISH #1, JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #62, STRANGE TALES #89 and TALES TO ASTONISH #10 – and the MARVEL MONSTERS: FROM THE FILES OF ULYSSES BLOODSTONE(AND THE MONSTER HUNTERS) handbook!
216 PGS. $20.99
ISBN: 0-7851-1893-4
Trim size: Oversized

ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT VOL. 1 TPB
Written by DOUG MOENCH, BILL MANTLO, STEVEN GRANT & FRANK MILLER
Penciled by DON PERLIN, MIKE ZECK, JIM MOONEY, JIM CRAIG, PABLO MARCUS, GENE COLAN, KEITH POLLARD, BILL SIENKIEWICZ, HERB TRIMPE & MIKE ESPOSITO
Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Debuting as both enemy and ally of the Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight’s three personalities equaled one eerie adventure after another by Moench, Miller and more! Earning enemies like the brutal Bushman and the macabre Morpheus early in his career, Moon Knight also teamed up with Spider-Man, the Thing, and others against well-known and forgotten villains alike! Spun by Cyclone! Caught by Crossfire! Plus: an early fight with the Purple Man alongside Luke Cage! Featuring Topaz from WITCHES and the original White Tiger! Includes black-and-white stories not reprinted in more than two decades! Collects WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #32-33, MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #28-29, PETER PARKER, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #22-23, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #52, HULK MAGAZINE #11-15, 17-18 & 20, MARVEL PREVIEW #21, MOON KNIGHT #1-12 and MARVEL TEAM-UP ANNUAL #4.
528 PGS. $16.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2092-0

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: HOUSE OF MYSTERY VOL. 1 TP
Written by Len Wein, Robert Kanigher, Gerry Conway and others, art by Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, Alex Toth and others, cover by Joe Orlando.
Do you dare to enterŠthe House of Mystery? Everyone who does will find a full 22 issues of this classic DC series. Beginning with editor Joe Orlando’s first issue (#174), this 552-page black-and-white trade paperback features a wealth of art from macabre masters.
552 pages, black and white, $16.99, in stores on Feb. 8.

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