Surprisingly, I really like Chic Stone’s inks on the Thing on this cover. I usually think his Thing inking is the weakest part of his FF inks from this era, but on this example (and a lot of the other covers) it seems to work better. Good cover overall, not the greatest villains ever, but the layout gives even them a nice sense of menace. I also really like the sense of depth Kirby gives the layouts.

Published 1965

Dated July 1940 CHAMPION COMICS #9 from Harvey features Duke O’Dowd as the Human Meteor. More importantly, it has the distinction of being the first Jack Kirby penciled cover (when it was reprinted in THE COMPLETE JACK KIRBY v1 Greg Theakston described it as “mostly penciled by Kirby”) and tied with BLUE BOLT #2 from Novelty Press as his first collaboration with Joe Simon, who inked this cover.

It’s a nice dynamic piece, very open and clear, you can already see hints of the later trademark S&K style of clothing folds and muscles.

Published 1940

Another Thor cover from before Kirby took over the interiors for the series full-time. I always like the way Kirby poses Loki, always very confident and sinister.

The Kirby Checklist credits this one to George Roussos, but I’m not sure about that one. I’m going to have to compare it to some other Roussos from the period.

(Ayers with some retouching by another hand seems to be the consensus from the comments)

Published 1963

Another of Kirby’s many covers for various Marvel books in the mid-1970s, this one inked by John Verpoorten with some Romita credited as well. Ulik is a pretty cool villain from the 1960s, so it’s good to see him again, especially with those crazy eyes. And the good old “ominous shadow” layout is nice, especially with that texture on the rocky surface.

Published 1976