The theme for this serial post is that Joe did swipes, he could adopt another artist style pretty successfully, and he had plenty of opportunity and motive to study Kirby’s style. Yes the cover has furniture similar to what Kirby used, but hey it was period furniture and Simon inked it plenty of times. The guy with the hand may look like a Kirby gesture but the hand is not drawn like Jack would but is like Joe would. If you look for things easily swiped Joe is going to fool you all the time.

I don’t see any Kirby touches. I looked at a couple of Kirby issues of Not Brand Echh and find nothing similar to Cockeyed. If you really think there is something similar there please be specific.

To me the bird chewing on Sinatra’s hat is pure Joe. Sinatra’s cloths are also typical Simon. I could go on and
on I see Joe all over this work. I see no evidence to bring Jack into this work.

The cover to Black Cat Mystic 60 appears, to my eye, to have elements of Kirby, The design of the background elements in particular (the lamp, chair and clock). As regards the story, the only figure that is “possible” Kirby to me is the figure in the splash page; the hand touching the face is a Kirby signature, I believe, although I admit this could be a Simon swipe.

I would disagree with the Cockeyed art not having any Kirby touches. Having recently bought the book I’ve had occasion to examine it closely, and many of the figures and postures (for instance the showgirls in the background)remind me of the humor work he did later at Marvel in Not Brand Echh.

Is it not possible that Kirby did some of the penciling and Simon inked and airbrushed to complete the art?