Some random stuff

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Feel free to use this as an open thread for comments on any of the topics below, or any other Kirby topic.

Alex Toth passed away this past weekend. His comic book collaborations with Kirby were infrequent and of mixed quality, of course (a mostly disastrous attempt to have Toth finish Kirby’s layouts, and then have Colletta ink it, in an early X-MEN, a Superman/Challengers crossover in the 1980s which was really just fitting an unused and unfinished Toth story as a flashback chapter and a Boys’ Ranch pin-up page which appeared on the back of a KIRBY COLLECTOR). However, Kirby doing additional designs for THUNDARR after Toth did the main characters worked well. There was also a 1972 convention panel with the two of them (and Jim Steranko moderating) which appared in KIRBY COLLECTOR #8, that’s a lot of fun. Kirby is very loose and funny, having to interpret both Toth and Steranko at times (“What Alex is trying to say is ….”, “He said you were slick”) and there’s a lot of mutual admiration between them, despite their different approaches to the work. Anyway, I posted a short bit about Toth on my general interest weblog and I’m going to post a few more things in the next week.

I’ll be heading off to a vacation in the UK in a few weeks, with stops in Birmingham, London and Glasgow (just a half day free there) at least, possibly a day in Paris and a few other nearby destinations. Feel free to comment or e-mail me if you have any recommendations of what to see and maybe where to buy any comics (my main interest would be in cheap back issues of COMMANDO from the 1970s, maybe a few of those old black and white reprints of the pre-hero Marvel/Atlas fantasy/sci-fi stories. Also always interested in any store that has whatever the UK equivilant of a quarter bin would be).

Sorry I’ve been behind on general posting on the weblog in the last few weeks. I’ll catch up soon (and get a few posts ready to auto-post while I’m away). I have some stuff I think you’ll all enjoy that I want to get around to when I have time. In the meantime, if you haven’t been reading the “End of S&K” posts over on Harry’s blog you’re really missing out.

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