This issue has one of the few times that Doctor Strange got equal billing on a STRANGE TALES cover while he was sharing the book with the Human Torch. Of course, the Torch’s star was obviously fading a bit, as the Thing was his permanent co-star for the final year of the last year of the feature.

My favourite bit of this cover is the Loki figure, always one of my favourite Kirby villain designs, you can see the menace on his face even in that edge of it you get in this angle. The Doctor Strange figure is good, although I thought Kirby did better with Doc’s new outfit in a few later issues.

The Beetle, meanwhile, is a pretty goofy villain, can’t help but pale in comparison with Loki. Kind of funny how awkward and ill-fitting his outfit seems.

Frank Giacoia inks this cover (or possibly Sol Brodsky, see comments).

Published 1964

This was Kirby’s first cover for FF on his return after five years at DC, also re-uniting with definitive FF inker Joe Sinnott.

Not really a noteworthy cover otherwise, with a second-string character (the 1950s Marvel Boy, renamed the Crusader here) taking up most of the cover (though he is well drawn, although his powers could use some more crackly dots), but it is good to see Kirby’s version of Ben Grimm in particular.

Published 1975

The focus in this issue switches mostly to the Deviants side of the vast cosmology Kirby was creating in this book, as we open with their leader Tode confronting the issue of a freak among the Deviants, known as the Reject, whose deformity is that he could pass for an Eternal or a human. Meanwhile, back in New York, Kro invites Thena to the Deviant city (while making some more comments about their past), while the other Eternals deal with Doctor Samuel’s curiosity about what’s he’s learning about the real nature of humanity. Kirby provides a few great views of the old Deviant city destroyed in an earlier battle with the Second Host of Space Gods as Kro and Thena approach the new Lemuria.

Thena is horrified by a lot of what she sees about how Deviant’s live, in particular how they treat those of their people who show instability in their genetic make-up. As the issue ends, the Reject is brought before the Deviant royalty to face combat with the monstrous Karkas.

It really is amazing the variety of characters Kirby was creating for this series, with some new twists in almost every issue. It’s a shame he didn’t get nearly enough time to explore it all.

Mike Royer inks the 17-page story and the cover.

Published 1977

For some odd reason Marvel published a one-shot reprinting most of the main story from FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1 [1963]. Not really one of my favourite of the early Kirby FF stories, but it does have its moments, starting with the first few pages showing Namor in Atlantis, in all its grandeur. That looks really good. Then we switch to the FF, with Johnny and Ben and one of their fights, which leads to Reed deciding to take the team on a vacation cruise. Of course that puts them in the sights of Namor, who captures them, sends them back to New York and then leads an invasion of the surface world. Reed is able to come up with a device to repel the invasion by evaporating the water in the invaders’ helmets, and then Namor takes Sue prisoner.

The rest of the team pursue, and the battle continues until Sue is almost drowning, so Namor rushes her to a hospital in New York. His decision leads to his people abandoning him and their city.

As I said, not really a favourite, especially as it’s one of the stories where Sue is pretty much just a designated hostage (I don’t think she uses her powers once in the story). Some of the visuals are good though, especially with the longer page count allowing for a few longer scenes than you usually got at the time.

One page from the original story, recapping Namor’s origin, is edited out, replaced by a longer origin by another artist, so this story now has 36 pages of Kirby/Ayers art, plus the main image from the original cover is reprinted as a credits page inside the front cover.

Published 1984