Author Archives: Bob

Rawhide Kid #86 [1971]

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Three Kirby/Ayers reprints in this issue, all from RAWHIDE KID #17 (1960), the first issue of the revival of the series with a new lead (although they seem to have changed the order of the stories). The 7-page “Beware! The Rawhide Kid” tells the story of how the Johnny Bart was trained in gunplay and morals by his “Uncle” Ben, then taking revenge on two cowardly gunslingers who ambushed Ben in a shoot-out. The 5-page “When the Rawhide Kid Turned Outlaw” follows up on that, as the Kid investigates a cattle rustling, only to have the sheriff see part of a shooting, leading to the Kid running off rather than facing justice. Which doesn’t seem like what Uncle Ben would have wanted.

The third story, which was originally between those two, so actually occurred before the Kid was an outlaw, is the 6-page “Stagecoach to Shotgun Gap”. The splash page is a gorgeously detailed Kirby/Ayers piece of the Kid riding up behind a stagecoach. Turns out he was just trying to hitch a ride, and in the wild west bullets were used instead of thumbs.

RawhideKid861971.jpg

The other passengers are an old lady who makes it clear she’s carrying her life savings and a boy and his father, who are also carrying around a lot of money to pay for an operation. They’re suspicious of the Kid, until real outlaws ambush the stage and the Kid has to save them with his guns and his fists.

The last page of this seems to be edited in order to include a statement of ownership (207,000 average paid circulation), so there are probably a few panels missing, which might explain why the ending seems so abrupt (and some of the art seems to be not too expertly touched up). Still some very nice bits in the story, especially the horses and backgrounds.

–Link– MOCA comics exhibit in Milwaukee

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If you live around or plan to be in Milwaukee this summer, the Milwaukee Art Museum is hosting the first tour stop of the MOCA Masters of American Comics exhibition from April 29 to August 13 at the Baker/Rowland Exhibition Galleries. Kirby is one of fifteen featured artists, and if it’s the same as the Los Angeles show covered in the latest KIRBY COLLECTOR you’ll get a chance to see about 50 pages of Kirby artwork covering several decades of his career, and a lot more. The Yale University Press book that serves as the catalogue of the exhibit is also available. The show then moves to the New York / New Jersey area in the fall.

http://www.mam.org/exhibitions/exhibition_details.aspx?ID=66

Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #3 [1982]

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“Encounters of a Savage Kind” is the story this issue, continuing the Earth adventures of Captain Victory with new material after the first two issues had the originally proposed graphic novel (one page in this issue is also from the original graphic novel). Cap calls in the infantry to clean up the Insecton infestation, and the cosmic anomaly Egghead tags along, against orders.

CaptainVictory31982.jpg

Lucky for them that he does, since the Lightning Lady unleashes the biggest Insecton yet, specially bred for destruction, and Egghead is able to handily defeat it, and then is instrumental in the capture of the Lightning Lady when she tries to use some human kids as hostages. Really, he should be in charge, based on this issue.

Mike Thibodeaux takes over the inking on this issue, handling the cover, 25-page story and backcover (though I’m thinking Royer might have done the second page, or maybe it just looks different because it was produced well before the rest?).

Published 1982

2001 – A Space Odyssey #9 [1977] – Mister Machine

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The origin of Aaron Stack, aka X-51, now Mister Machine, eventually Machine Man, continues in this issue, as he’s imprisoned by the army, with his face removed. He uses his skills, including being able to impersonate voices, to escape his cell, and make short work of any forces sent against him, until Doctor Broadhurst orders he be given back his face and released (but not without a secret tracking device).
2001ASpaceOdyssey91977.jpg

Out in the woods, X-51 encounters the Monolith for a second time, and then meets a young boy, who compares him to the Marvel super-heroes, and the boy’s Aunt Olivia, who give him a ride to the nearest town, but not before they get attacked by the forces of the mysterious “Mister Hotline”, who has heard that one of the X-models escaped destruction.

Lot’s of weird later period Kirby concepts and very in-your-face artwork in this run of issues. The Monolith/2001 bits are pretty superflous to the bigger picture, kind of a shame their presence means we may never see reprints of these issues.

Mike Royer inks the cover and 17-page story.

Published 1977

–Link– Kirby nominated for Eisner Award

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Posted in Links.

Jack Kirby is nominated for a 2006 Eisner Award, for the FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS reprint.

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books

* Absolute Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (DC)
* Buddha, vols. 5-8, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
* The Contract with God Trilogy, by Will Eisner (Norton)
* DC Comics Rarities Archives, vol. 1 (DC)
* Fantastic Four Omnibus, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Marvel)


Complete list of nominees

Open Thread

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Thought it would be good to keep one thread open at all times for people to make general comments on Kirby and on the weblog, tips on Kirby links and news. After there are enough comments I’ll close this one and open a new thread. Suggested themes for this one:

The format of the weblog. Does it look okay on your browser? Is there anything you’d like to see?

What’s your favourite Kirby website (other than kirbymuseum.org)?

Feel free to plug your own website/blog, Kirby themed or not.

(permanent link for open threads)

The Demon #3 [1972] – Reincarnators

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Returning home from his adventure where he found out about his link to the Demon, Jason Blood is plagued by nightmares of his connection to Etrigan. He has little time to relax, as the Cult of Master Eye is using spells to kill the members of a UN taskforce investigating the supernatural, including Jason’s friend Randu Singh.

Demon31972.jpg

Their spells involve switching people with identities from their past life to use them as untraceable assassins. Unfortunately for them, Randu is able to transform Jason to Etrigan in time, and he goes to the cult’s headquarters, cleaning house and reducing their leader to a lower life form.

I’ve mentioned before that I kind of wish on the early DEMON issues that Kirby had stayed with the Merlin/Morgaine storyline rather than move quickly to villain of the month. That’s the case here, although the visuals in here, including the monster in Jason’s dreams and the cult symbols (I wonder if that was something that Kirby had planned for SPIRIT WORLD and used here when that mag didn’t continue).

Mike Royer inks the 22-page story and cover.

Published 1972

New Kirby – Silver Star Graphite Edition

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Showing up in comic stores today, SILVER STAR GRAPHITE EDITION from TwoMorrows.

silverstar.jpgSILVER STAR – GRAPHITE EDITION
160 page 7×10 Trade Paperback – by Jack Kirby
Legendary artist Jack Kirby first conceptualized Silver Star in the mid-1970s as a movie screenplay, complete with illustrations to sell the idea to Hollywood. Too far ahead of its time for Tinseltown, Jack instead adapted his “Visual Novel” as a six- issue mini-series for Pacific Comics in the early 1980s, making it the last original creation of his career. Now, in SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION, “King” Kirby’s final, great series is collected at last, this time reproduced from his powerful, uninked pencil art! Read the complete story of Homo-Geneticus, the New Breed of humanity that spawns both hero (Silver Star) and villain (the nefarious Darius Drumm), leading to one of the most action- packed narratives and spellbinding climaxes ever conceived on a comics page! And as a special bonus, read Kirby’s provocative screenplay, reproduced in its entirety, including illustrations and never-published character sketches! Plus there’s pin-ups and other rare Kirby art, and an historical overview to put it all in perspective. A percentage of profits from this book go to the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center, so don’t ask, just buy it! $20.00 cover price.

(note that an additional percentage goes to the Kirby Museum through the Amazon.com link)

Black Magic #33[v5n3] [1954] – Lone Shark

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The cover story in this issue is “Lone Shark”, a brilliant 7-page story about a shark who, as a result of undersea atomic explosions, grows a tumor that serves as a second brain, giving it human level intelligence. What really makes the story special is that it’s told from the perspective of the shark.
Lone Shark

I fell in love with this story based on the splash page when it was covered in a “Kirby Obscura” column a few issues back in THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR. I couldn’t not buy it when I saw a copy for sale. It doesn’t disappoint. From the punny title on, it’s a masterpiece, with a nice sense of humour in the shark’s “voice”, complaining about the scavenger fish that follow him around, expressing curiousity, complaining about those damn headaches. He becomes almost sympathetic by the end. And the artwork looks great, following his undersea roamings.

The Kirby Checklist also credits him with the one page “The Strangest Facts” feature, a sort of “Ripley’s” collection of stories. It’s printed kind of dark in my copy, but the half-page of a “Juoslavian Amazon” soldier from 1915 is really nice, as is the odd drawing of a swearing parrot.

Kirby also draws the cover to this issue.

This was the final issue of BLACK MAGIC produced by Simon&Kirby, though the book would be revived by Prize a few years later, and then eventually resurrected by Simon as a reprint vehicle for DC in the 1970s.

Welcome (reprise)

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Posted in Admin.

Welcome one and all to the new Jack Kirby Comics Weblog, now hosted by the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center. If you’ve read the BlogSpot hosted version of the site you know what to expect, and all the old posts from there have been imported here as well (check the pages on the sidebar for alphabetical and chronological links to previous posts).

A bit of background, I started the weblog back on September 12, 2004, shortly after I’d been unable to find a good sample on-line of Kirby’s romance or western work (other than covers). I figured I had more than enough Kirby comics to fill several years worth of content on a weblog, and figured it would also be a good excuse to do a random re-reading of all my Kirby comics. In the year and a half since, I posted some brief words and at least one image from 590 different Kirby comics, covering every genre and era of his career. I also started monitoring and reporting on newly announced and released Kirby reprints, which thankfully have gotten quite plentiful since I started the weblog (pure coincidence, I’m sure).

Moving the site here, I plan on continuing more of the same, with at least another two years of daily posting before I exhaust my own collection. Over the next few months I’ll also be revising the earlier posts, mostly to improve the scans (which were somewhat constrained by bandwidth and server space considerations early on) and update a few links. After I get done with that I have a few other plans for some fun stuff I’d like to try.

A few other things. Generally I avoid posting the covers of books, unless that’s the only Kirby art in there. I highly recommend the Grand Comics Database as a source for covers.

I usually defer to the Jack Kirby Checklist, which is also the source of the Kirby Catalogue Raisonné on this site, for inking credits. However, it’s far from definitive, so feel free to comment if you disagree.

I’m leaving commenting open, no registration required, for now. That might change if the usual comment spam gets to be a problem.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Museum site, and consider getting a membership if you want to help with some of their future plans.

And thanks again to James Burns for the Kirby-tech weblog logo.

I think we got all the bugs in the format worked out, but comment if something looks screwy on your browser, or you have any thoughts on the site (I still haven’t decided exactly how to use the categories for regular posts. What would be most useful, company (Marvel, DC, Prize, Other)? Genre (Romance, Super-Hero, Western, Horror)? Note that I can have multiple categories for each post).