Author Archives: Bob

Comics Revue #185 [2001]

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Comics Revue #185 continues the final “Sky Masters” Sunday storyline with covers featuring two strips from January 3 and 10, 1960, with art by Kirby and Ayers. Sky finds some promise for the space program in Roland Aly’s yoga techniques that he’s being trained in, but two reporter take footage of the training and use it to cast doubts on how the space program is spending taxpayer money. After some public backlash based on the news report the General is forced to pull Sky off the yoga research.

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Published 2001

Marvel Super Action #7 [1978] – In the Name of Batroc

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This issue has an edited reprint of CAPTAIN AMERICA #105 [1968], with some very nice inking by Dan Adkins. Unfortunately, despite the fine look that Adkins brings to the art, this isn’t one of my favourite of Kirby’s Cap stories. The art is fine, but the story isn’t too memorable, mostly by the numbers. Following a prelude where Cap watches some old footage of himself and Bucky during WWII, Cap is given a mission to find a hidden seismo-bomb, just as three second-string villains, Batroc, the Swordsman and the Living Laser, are also on the search.

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Cap is able to defeat the villains, as the seismo-bombs perliminary quakes go off around them, finally disabling the bomb (including a very odd line about “another who gave his life for the masses, many centuries ago”. There are a few Marvel comics from that era with odd religious asides, I’m not sure what’s up with that).

The two pages edited out (bringing this down to 18 pages) are from a very striking but pretty superflous two-page spread of Cap and Bucky in WWII.

Published 1978

New Kirby – Recent releases

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Fell behind a bit and just updated the New Kirby page with some recent releases, a few of them pretty major. I’d also missed in the original solicitations that two of the STAN LEE MEETS… one-shots have Kirby FF reprints. Also, the MARVEL SPOTLIGHT on Lee and Kirby was pretty good, with a long interview with Lisa Kirby and her GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS collaborators, a short Evanier interview, an article about the upcoming FF #108 re-construction and a short article about the S&K years.

And a reminder that buying these books through the Amazon.com links kicks back a few percentage points to the Kirby Museum.


October 25, 2006 – MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA TALES OF SUSPENSE VOL. 1

October 25, 2006 – STAN LEE MEETS THE THING #1 (reprints FF #79)

October 18, 2006 – SHOWCASE PRESENTS: CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN VOL. 1 (Kirby’s dozen issues and beyond)

September 27, 2006 – ESSENTIAL THOR VOL. 3 TPB

September 20, 2006 – MARVEL SPOTLIGHT: STAN LEE/JACK KIRBY

September 20, 2006 – MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE HUMAN TORCH VOL. 1

–Link– Marvel Stamps (several with Kirby art)

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July 2007 sees the Marvel version of the superhero stamps to go with the DC stamps this past summer. As you’d expect, a lot more Kirby on the Marvel versions, with Kirby art on seven of the twenty stamps.

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http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=8740

UPDATE: Mark Evanier has more on the art used in the stamps in the linked post and some later ones, looking at the sources of the artwork and mistakes in the art credits, which bring the Kirby count up to eight.

Black Panther #2 [1977] – The Six-Million Year Man

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Kirby continues his series-opening adventure of T’Challa, now fighting against a strange being from millions of years in the future. After he subdues the creature he realizes that he must find the tomb of King Solomon and the second brass frog that completes the time-travel device that will allow them to send the creature from “Hatch 22” back to his time (which they get a glimpse of thanks to his powerful mental powers).

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Good goofy fun, as are most issues of the series. The look at the far future is the usual bit of bold Kirby creation, and Abner Little is a pretty funny sidekick to the Panther in this storyline.

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

Published 1977

Upcoming Kirby – January 2007

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bounty5.jpgJust a few minor Kirby items in the latest solicitations, both from Marvel.

JACK KIRBY’S GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS #5
Written by LISA KIRBY & STEVE ROBERTSON
Penciled by MIKE THIBODEAUX
Cover by JACK KIRBY
At the heart of Dangerland, Mainframe must fight a death-duel with Slugg, for the life of his son, Garrett! But if Mainframe should fall, must the child become the man?
32 PGS. $2.99

ESSENTIAL GHOST RIDER VOL. 2 TPB
Written by GERRY CONWAY, DON GLUT, JIM SHOOTER, ROGER MCKENZIE, DON PERLIN, JIM STARLIN & MICHAEL FLEISHER
Penciled by GIL KANE, SAM GRAINGER, DON HECK, DON PERLIN, TOM SUTTON, STEVE LEIALOHA & CARMINE INFANTINO
Cover by DON PERLIN
Demons, vampires, cults, actors – nothing’s too intense for the Sizzling Cyclist of the Seventies! After mowing down a mob of motorcycling miscreants, the Ghost Rider faces what waits in the Wild West of the Phantom Rider and the Two-Gun Kid! Plus: See Johnny Blaze and Zarathos separated for the first time! Guest-starring Doctor Strange, Professor X and more! Collecting GHOST RIDER #21-50.
568 PGS. $16.99
[Kirby covers on #21 – #23]

Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #134 [1970] – The Mountain of Judgment

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Kirby’s second issue of JIMMY OLSEN is mostly one wild ride, with Jimmy and the Newsboy Legion being taken in their Whiz Wagon to “Habitat”, the tree city that houses the drop-out motorcycle gang the “Outsiders”, and then leading them on the “Zoomway” to find the “Mountain of Judgment” of the mysterious “Hairies”. Yeah, really. Not your dad’s Jimmy Olsen…

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The Mountain turns out to be a converted missile-carrier used to scare away intruders, and it turns out that hidden on the Whiz Wagon is a bomb designed to blow up the Hairies and their ultra-advanced scientific society.

The end of the issue has Morgan Edge on a video phone with his mysterious master, Darkseid, marking the villain’s first published appearance (although job codes and comments in interviews with people there make it clear that Kirby had actually already drawn a few full stories with Darkseid before this, though they were released later).

Kirby also includes three collages in one two-page segment. As usual the reproduction doesn’t do them justice, you can see better copies of a part of two of these on the cover of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #31. They also look a bit clearer in the recent collection of these issues.

Colletta inks the 22-page story, with Al Plastino doing some of the “corrections”. This issue also includes a text page by Kirby, “The Whiz Wagons are Coming”, about the futuristic car he created, and also includes a small self-portrait by Kirby, and a full page ad for the upcoming Kirby first issues, with slightly different versions of the NEW GODS #1 and FOREVER PEOPLE #1 covers.

Published 1970

Captain America Annual #3 [1976] – The Thing from the Black Hole Star

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Cap battles aliens out in the country in this issue, called by a farmer who, in an odd throw-away set-up line, called Cap after seeing him on a talk-show debating the topic of super-heroes, fantasies and UFOs. So that’s what Cap does between battling super-villains. Anyway, the first alien, called only the Captive, is being pursued by others, and manages to convince Cap and the farmer that he was an innocent being held in a black hole for a million years. Seems to me Cap is being unusually trusting, until the farmer is killed, as the Captive reveals himself to be the last of an evil race of life-energy sucking parasites.

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Cap doesn’t take well to being duped, and is able to disable the Captive, allowing the aliens to take him and shoot him out into a nova. Later Cap makes a report to the government, who decide to hush up the incident. There’s even a reference to Cap fighting the Kree and the Skrulls, which I’m guessing was added by someone in New York.

A pretty decent story, overall, although depending a bit on Cap being overly trusting. A lot of very neat bits of art, from the various alien designs and spaceships, and an interesting precursor to some of the themes in Captain Victory in the 1980s.

Inking on the 35-page story is by Frank Giacoia and John Verpoorten, the cover is inked by Giacoia.

Published 1976

Happy Birthday Joe Simon

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Over on the S&K Blog, Harry mentions that it’s Joe Simon’s birthday. Many happy returns to Jack Kirby’s longtime partner, and check the last few weeks of Harry’s blog for some great examples of Simon’s early work.

Black Magic #4 [1974] – Last Second of Life

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The S&K reprint for this issue is the 10-page “Last Second of Life” from BLACK MAGIC #1[v1n1] [1950], the first issue of the horror series. It’s the story of businessman Matthew Crane, who sees his business partner die, showing panic in his eyes during his last seconds. Crane then gets curious about death. At first his assistant thinks that Crane is showing some signs of compassion for the ill, but it soon becomes obvious that he’s just interested in being around when someone dies so that he can find out what they see that so spooked his partner.

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He finally gets his wish, getting a dying young woman to describe what she sees, and of course it drives him insane, and he’s been locked up and screaming ever since.

Great job on this story, it was a strong way to launch the series back in 1950. I especially like how Crane gets increasingly rougher and more beast-like as he gets more desperate through the story, and a lot of the background details, like the elaborate statues in Crane’s house, really add to the mood.

The cover for this issue is an unused Kirby cover for “Last Second” from 1950. There were several tries at the cover before they decided to go with another story for the cover of #1.

Published 1974