Skull the Slayer #8 [1976] – Cover

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The Kirby Checklist credits this to Kirby/M. Severin/Giacoia, so I’m guessing Marie Severin did some touch-ups to bring it closer to model for the book. Might explain why Skull’s head doesn’t seem to quite fit right on his body. No, I’m not sure why, when given Kirby available to do comic covers, somebody decided that him drawing Skull would be a good idea….

SkulltheSlayer8_37.jpg

Published 1976

3 thoughts on “Skull the Slayer #8 [1976] – Cover

  1. Anonymous

    Bob,

    This cover was designed by Marie Severin, and she made some alterations in the background (the flying birds), but Skulls face is all-Kirby. The pencilled page was printed in JKC some time ago, with Marie’s cover sketch.

    Nick Caputo

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  2. John S.

    The Skull face is mostly Kirby. It may have been retouched slightly by Romita — to make it look a bit more fierce — but it’s hard to say for certain, since Kirby pencils inked by Giacoia always looked a lot like Romita’s work even when Romita never touched them. In volume 8B of the Marvel Comics Index, George Olshevsky has it listed as Kirby and Giacoia, with touch-ups by Romita. The issue of The Kirby Collector that Nick mentions — containing Jack’s original pencil drawing and Marie’s sketch — is number 18.

    On the subject of Kirby’s seventies Marvel covers done for other people’s books, I have to say personally that I quite like a lot of them and I think Marie usually did very good storytelling designs. I’m not saying they were all great, but a number of them were outstanding (like the Iron Man covers, for example). Jack could’ve easily knocked out two or three of them over any given weekend in order to make a few extra bucks, and if they helped sell the books, why not? I know as a kid reading comics during that time period that if I saw a mag on the spinner with a Kirby cover, I was a lot more likely to pick it up and have a look at it than I would be if it had a cover by some other, more generic artist…so again, why not? That was the real reason for having Kirby pencil those covers, after all. And let’s face it, with a bomb like Skull the Slayer, they were probably willing to try just about anything to sell a few extra copies!

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