Monthly Archives: September 2006

Cracked #14 [1960] – Old Ideas For New Panel Shows

Posted on September 24, 2006 by Bob

Cracked141960a.jpg

Kirby only did a single story for the long running humour magazine CRACKED, this 5-page story which he apparently both pencilled and inked (with doutone shading). This is a TV parody based on the premise of using classic children’s games as the basis for the celebrity panel shows popular at the time, so it has some of the famous people of the era playing games like Hide and Seek, Tug of War, Spin the Bottle and Hopscotch. There aren’t a lot of actual working jokes in the script beyond the premise, but Kirby does a surprisingly good job on the celebrity faces, of those I recognize, and throws in a few funny bits with the body language. Humour comics were only a small fraction of the comics that Kirby did in his career, but he did have an interesting touch with them.

Cracked141960.jpg

Published 1960

Posted in Genre, Humour | 1 Comment

X-Men – The Early Years #9 [1995] – Enter, The Avengers

Posted on September 20, 2006 by Bob

This issue has a reprint from X-MEN #9 [1965], wherein the X-Men are summoned to Europe by Professor X, who is hunting down the villain Lucifer, the man who cost him the use of his legs in some hinted-at story that wouldn’t be told until after Kirby stopped drawing the book. The Avengers also wind up in the same region, apparently thanks to Thor’s hammer detecting evil rays or something. Yeah, I don’t know what that’s all about, but it was the Mighty Marvel Age of crossovers.

The Professor finds Lucifer, but finds out that he’s rigged a bomb to explode if his heartbeat stops, so he mentally orders the X-Men to stop the Avengers from interfering. So of course, they fight…

XMenTheEarlyYears91995.jpg

There’s a classic Marvel panel of the era, ten heroes, each with some dialogue or thought balloons.

Eventually Professor X communicates with Thor and convinces him that they should let the X-Men handle this, and the team re-joines the Professor to defuse the bomb. And for some reason the Professor then lets Lucifer go now that he knows he can be defeated. So much for Xavier’s vow earlier to make sure he never menace humanity again.

The fight with the Avengers is a bit formulaic, and the end a bit abrupt, but otherwise a solid story with a few funny scenes (like the American tourist who runs in the Avengers and the X-Men).

Chic Stone inks the 20-page story, and the original Kirby/Stone cover is also reprinted as a pin-up in the back of the book.

Published 1995

Posted in Genre, Superhero | Leave a comment

Upcoming Kirby – Kamandi Archives v2

Posted on September 19, 2006 by Bob

Hey, this was kind of unexpected. Maybe they’ll actually get around to doing the full Kirby run on the book in this format.

Some Kirby stuff I should mention further in the future, DC recently announced that they’ll do a multi-volume colour hardcover series of Kirby’s Fourth World stuff, including all of the Kirby NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE and MISTER MIRACLE issues from the 1970s, only some of the JIMMY OLSEN issues and the 1980s “Even Gods Must Die” and “Hunger Dogs” stories. Exact plans are still up in the air, they may be in original published order instead of split by series. Hopefully they’ll manage to make this go-round definitive (a few previous reprints have had a few odd modifications, like some sound effects obviously changed for a previous foreign reprint). More details when the first volume is actually on the schedule.

kamandiv2.jpgTHE KAMANDI ARCHIVES VOL. 2 HC
Written by Jack Kirby
Art by Kirby, Mike Royer and D. Bruce Berry
Cover by Kirby

The incredible adventures of the Last Boy on Earth continue in this 228-page volume collecting KAMANDI #11-20! This volume features such classic doses of dystopian future-shock by Kirby as “Hell at Hialeah!”, “The Human Gophers of Ohio!” and “The Last Gang in Chicago” plus an introduction by KAMANDI inker Mike Royer.

on sale February 28 – 228 pg, Full Colour, $49.99 US

Posted in Upcoming Kirby | 5 Comments

–Link– NYT on Kirby

Posted on September 18, 2006 by Bob

In conjunction with the Masters of American Comics exhibit now moving to Manhatten’s Jewish Museum and The Newark Museum in New Jersey (with the Kirby content at the Jewish Museum), the New York Times has a brief look at a few images from a classic FANTASTIC FOUR issue (Flash plugin required).

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006…

Posted in Links | Leave a comment

The Demon #8 [1973] – The Phantom of the Sewers

Posted on September 12, 2006 by Bob

Kirby opens up up the issue with a nice look at Jason Blood’s collection of ancient artifacts, which is doubly impressive when you consider that he keeps them in an apartment. Rent there must be killer.

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Gotta say, Etrigan’s face in that third panel seems off. Anyway, finding some weapons missing, they find a tunnel where he confronts the thief, the Phantom of the Sewers, presumably inspired by one of the movies with a similar theme. Etrigan recovers Merlin’s sword, but loses the Phantom, who we see has a hidden lair where he worships a statue that looks a lot like Glenda. Back home, Jason Blood decides to use the Philosopher’s Stone to freeze out Etrigan, which appears to work. Bad timing, though, as the Phantom kidnaps Glenda at a party, convinced she’s the one who betrayed him, and plans revenge. Being able to turn into a demon is useful under those circumstances.

Not one of my favourite issues of the series, as a few bits of the art seem a bit clumsy, and a few bits of the story are abrupt (Jason’s decision to try to kill Etrigan at that particular point, the party they decide to throw). A lot of the visuals are nice, in particular all the stuff around Jason’s apartment.

Mike Royer inks the 23-page story and cover.

Published 1973

Posted in Genre, Horror/Fantasy | 1 Comment