Kid Colt Outlaw #123 [1965] – Cover

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Kirby’s contributions to the interiors in the Marvel westerns dropped off in early 1963, after all the super-hero books were launched, with just a few short bits after that. He stayed as the artist as most of the covers until mid-1965, though. This is the last issue of KID COLT OUTLAW to have a new Kirby cover, and he went out with a bang, pitting KC against over a dozen fully rendered bad guys.

No agreement on the inker of this one.  Dick Ayers is sometimes credited, but that doesn’t seem to fit.  The GCD entry has apparently had Ayers, Jim Mooney and Carl Hubbell at various times.  Don’t think I know of any credited examples of the latter two inking Kirby to compare, and 1965 seems a bit early for Mooney to be inking at Marvel, since he was artist on Supergirl for a while.

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9 thoughts on “Kid Colt Outlaw #123 [1965] – Cover

  1. nick caputo

    I’m the guilty party who did some of the id-ing on the GCD. I believe I switched from Mooney to Hubbel, but can’t be 100% certain. It is true that Mooney appeared at Marvel a few years later, but he was friends with Stan Lee and I believe his name appeared (under a pseudonym) once or twice on interior stories pre-1968.

    I’m pretty familiar with Ston’s inks, and don’t think it’s his work here.

    Nick C.

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  2. Rodan57

    I don’t think it’s Stone as it lacks his distinctive thicker outline inks and characteristic colouring highlights.

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  3. Jim

    Chic Stone, without a doubt. The cover is for the July 1965 issue, which is right at the end of Stone’s mid-Sixties Marvel run. The brushwork in the hands clearly point to Stone. Check out the cover of X-Men 11 (May 1965), for some telling comparisons.

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  4. Rodan57

    Hi, Jim,
    I’m looking at the covers of both side by side and I may be stubborn but I am not convinced that KKO 123 is Stone. Compare the feathering in the clothing of the cowboys in the foreground with the the feathering on Jean’s and the Professor’s heads and the Professor’s jacket. I don’t see the same fine brush control. And, as Stone coloured his own work, compare the tonal palette on the XM with KCO. There’s a far greater value range on the XM. I’d be tempted to go with Sol Brodsky as inker for the KKO, especially in the way that the faces are rendered with thin lines.

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  5. John Palmer

    I’d stick with Dick Ayers.
    By 1965, he was only very occasionally inking Jack Kirby pencils.
    Check out his inking on the Captain America Sgt.Fury comic (#11, I think) and you’ll see it’s much sharper and less muddy than his earlier work.

    Failing that, I’d go with Sol Brodsky. Definitely not Chic Stone

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