Monthly Archives: March 2007

Who’s Who – The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #3 [1985]

Posted on March 13, 2007 by Bob

Two Kirby drawn entries in this issue of DC’s character index series, both inked by Greg Theakston.

First up is Willie Walker in his largely unexplained guise as the spirit of death among the New Gods, the Black Racer. Pretty good collage of images, although, yeah, that cosmic skier thing still looks weird.

Going back a generation we get the Boy Commandos and their adult sidekick Rip Carter, with a wartime action pose and headshots of all the members, including the lesser known post-war replacements Tex and Percy (oddly appearing in the war scene, as if they helped liberate us from the axis powers).

ww3boyc.jpg

Published 1985

Posted in Genre, Kid Gang, Superhero, War | 1 Comment

Showcase Presents The House of Mystery #2 [2007]

Posted on March 13, 2007 by Bob

As mentioned recently, this thick new book from DC reprints HOUSE OF MYSTERY #195 – #211, including the version of the Kirby story “I Doomed the World” from MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #17 [1957] that was reprinted in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #199 [1972], retitled “He Doomed the World” to go with the Cain introduction added to the first page.

The story has a rich inventor with a thing for ham radio getting a mysterious transmission which puts him in a hypnotic state, where he creates four metal rods to exact specifications and hires various experts to place them at the hottest, coldest, highest and lowest points on the Earth.

SPHoM22007.jpg

You know, if he’d tried to hire the Challengers of the Unknown they’d probably have picked up on the whole glassy eyed hypnotized trance thing.

Coming out of the trance days later, he’s mystified by what he’s done, until he gets another transmission explaining that this is part of a plan by alien invaders to destroy life on Earth. But fortunately, turns out the so called “expert diver” they hired went nowhere near the lowest point on Earth, as the photo of him shows. He claims he was “dazed down in the depths”, but I suspect he was just lazy.

Kind of a goofy story, especially there at the end, but with some great artwork that looks really snappy in this printing.

Published 2007

Posted in Genre, Science Fiction | 2 Comments

New Kirby – Sandman and House of Mystery

Posted on March 10, 2007 by Bob

Pair of new releases with Kirby content. SPIDER-MAN: SAGA OF THE SANDMAN TPB reprints FF #61 among the stories chronicling the adventures of the Spider-Man villain who’s in the upcoming movie. ToW link

SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY VOL. 2, one I missed in my upcoming Kirby round-up, has a reprint of HOUSE OF MYSTERY #199, which in turn reprinted Kirby’s “He Doomed the World” from MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #17. Not a lot of Kirby, of course, but you get some Mayer, Redondo, Aragones, Wrightson, Toth, Cardy and a few dozen more in the 550 page book. ToW link

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-Link- TJKC behind the scenes

Posted on March 9, 2007 by Bob

Over on the TwoMorrows blog, publisher and THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR editor John Morrow mentions that he’s begun work on putting together #48 of that publication, and says he’ll try to give some behind the scenes info and previews over the next few weeks, so keep your browsers pointed here.

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-Link- Fourth World Omnibus interview

Posted on March 9, 2007 by Bob

KirbyOmni1.jpgNewsarama has a brief interview with DC’s Georg Brewer about the upcoming FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS series of chronological reprints of Kirby’s work, including the 1980s material (which they apparently haven’t made a final decision about how to handle yet). Also the cover design for the first volume and the projected schedule (every three months).

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