Two new Kirby reprints out this week.
SHOWCASE PRESENTS – GREEN ARROW VOL. 1 has all of Kirby’s 1950s GA stories, in black and white, plus another decade of GA stories after that.
MARVEL MASTERWORKS – THE INCREDIBLE HULK VOL. 3 has the last few stories that Kirby did layouts for the Hulk in TALES TO ASTONISH, plus a few covers beyond that.
I recently started a Ditko weblog to go with this Kirby one, and now that I have enough entries to give a feel for the variety of material I figured I’d announce it officially. I’ll probably only post one or two entries on it a week until I exhaust my supply of material for this weblog.
To keep this on-topic here, this entry is about a Kirby/Ditko collaboration.
I’d love to see a straight FF story where Doc Doom just suddenly attacks with that pose. That goes on my list of funniest Kirby panels ever.
NOT BRAND ECHH #10 reprints some of the highlights from the first few issues of the series, including three 8-page Kirby stories from 1967. The first two are inked by Frank Giacoia and the third is by Tom Sutton.
“The Silver Burper”, from the debut issue of NOT BRAND ECHH, is the strongest of the three stories, primarily a parody of the Doom/Surfer story that run in FF not long before its initial publication. Kirby’s art is pretty out-there and absurd in self-parody, in particular anything with “Doctor Bloom”, such as the scenes where he’s trying to convince the Burper that he’s a good guy. And of course the face-off between Weed and Bloom, with the classic “I own a hundred pair of stretch socks”.
Both this story and the one it parodies are going to be in the upcoming VISIONARIES JACK KIRBY v2 collection.
“The Origin of Sore, Son of Shmodin” is from ECHH #3, which I covered before. Still funny stuff, this time around I was most amused by Shmodin, in particular the last scene of him coming to Earth and dancing.
Finally, from ECHH #5, “The Origin of Forbush-Man the Way-Out Wonder”. I’m not as fond of this one. Looks like either Kirby’s contribution is a lot looser, or Tom Sutton takes a lot more liberties with it, but either way the styles don’t really compliment each other. And the jokes still come a mile-a-minute but the laughs at a much slower pace. I’m not sure why anyone ever thought the name “Forbush” was inherently interesting, but then I never quite got Kurtzman’s fascination with the name “Melvin”.
Published 1968
Klarion the Witchboy, along with his pet cat Teekl return to make Jason Blood’s life miserable in this first of a two-part story. First they invade his dreams, making him have a horrific vision of Etrigan in Hell, including a great two page spread of Gargora, a Medusa-like demon of a thousand heads. After Blood awakens, Klarion gathers together six undead witnesses for his spell which creates a doppelganger of Blood, who plans to take his place.
![The Demon #14 [1973]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2006/01/The-Demon-14-1973.jpg)
The rest of the issue has Blood, changed to Etrigan, going out and saving his friends from attacks by the false Blood, while slowly fading away from existence, until finally he’s no more than a phantom.
Mike Royer inks the 20-page story and cover, with some uncredited assistance from Bill Stout that Royer mentioned in a few interviews.
Published 1973
Oddly, despite the title of the story, “The Dilemma of Dr. Blake”, Thor is Thor throughout the tale, never changing to Blake once. Anyway, he continues his battle with the Destroyer, not realizing that Sif’s life-force is powering the creature. Fortunately, Balder’s able to get Norn Queen to release Sif in exchange for battling Ulik, and then Thor is brought in for the rest of the battle, winning in the end but losing his hammer to Loki. As for the Destroyer, Odin goes down to Earth and picks him up from the police station. No real reason given for why he’d do that personally, but it does give the amusing spectacle of Odin in a suit for a few panels.
Ulik is a great villain, very much in the “pure savagery” style that Kirby would perfect with Kalibak a few years later. Great to see him and Thor in a knock-down fight.
![Thor #152 [1968]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2006/01/Thor-152-1968.jpg)
In the back-up is the final 5-page Inhumans story, “While the City Shrieks”, Triton arrives in New York, only to see the city respond with fear and violence. He returns home and convinces Black Bolt that they’ll have to move from their island home or risk eventual discovery, hence the mountain location of the “Great Refuge” in then-modern stories.
Colletta inks the 16-page lead story and cover, Sinnott inks the back-up.
Published 1968
Via Tom Spurgeon, Bud Plant has a warehouse find of the 1982 F.O.O.G. Portfolio (Friends of Old Gerber), which comes wrapped in a Kirby/Alcala Destroyer Duck envelope, on sale for just $10.
Over on the Marvel Masterworks Message Board a Marvel editor has posted the contents of the upcoming MARVEL ROMANCE collection. A little bit less Kirby than I was hoping for (since they only include a Colan story from LOVE ROMANCES #101, none of the three Kirby stories), but still five stories, four never reprinted, one not in over 30 years, so that’s okay, as is the healthy amount of Colan and Buscema work. And apparently some of this art is taken from some recently discovered original art, so it should look sharp.
“The Summer Must End!”
From Teen-Age Romance #84 (November 1961)
“By Love Betrayed!”
“Give Back My Heart!”
From Love Romances #102 (November 1962)
“The Dream World of Doris Wilson!”
“If Your Heart I Break—”
From Love Romances #103 (January 1963)
After just providing covers and plots for the first four issues, Kirby writes and draws the finale of this series that promoted the line of action figures. In his Kirby-like way, though, the story that promises “final combat with Darkseid” on the cover never actually has the heroes face Darkseid. Instead, as Darkseid prepares to unleash his four armies on Earth, out heroes and villains are whisked through various worlds by Metron, including one interesting one in a two-page spread where the skeletal remains of some giants lie, in order to evade Darkseid’s detection. Finally he places them all (including Robin, who was yanked in from the JLA satellite at the last minute to make sure everyone with an action figure was present) in a brain booster powered by the mysterious Worlogog…
![Super Powers #5 [1984]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2006/01/Super-Powers-5-1984.jpg)
…which enables him to use the remains of the extra powers Darkseid gave the villains to divert and destroy Darkseid’s armies. I wonder if the Brain Booster™ playset comes with a Worlogog™ or you have to buy it separately?
So not the big battle climax you’d expect, which is nice, although in all this series is just a bit of a diversion, a little bit better than you have a right to expect from a toy tie-in, but still a trifle.
Greg Theakston inks the cover and 25-page story.
Published 1984
This issue concludes the battle with alien robot invader Ten-For, as Machine Man is convinced to fight for Earth by a cab driver, Barney Bates, thanks to some words of wisdom about pie. I’m sure Kirby meant something more profound by it, but I can never read that scene (“I’m not tellin’ you your business, Machine Man, but if you save the pie, you’ve got the thanks of Barney Bates”) and not think I’m reading the world’s longest Hostess ad. A lot of the dialogue in this issue is pretty strange, actually. “I never dance at funerals — especially when the corpse is still warm”, “I’ve a right to singe their ears with napalm”
![Machine Man #6 [1978]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2006/01/Machine-Man-6-1978.jpg)
Mike Royer inks the 17-page story. Kirby’s cover for the issue wasn’t used, it appears in KIRBY COLLECTOR #15, and Walt Simonson does a good job on the published cover, I think the only non-Kirby cover to appear on one of Kirby’s new 1970s Marvel comics.
Published 1978
Another of the almost two dozen Harvey covers from the early 1940s attributed to Kirby, this one featuring the Liberty Lads on the attack. I’m not sure about the extent of the Kirby involvement in some of those (after I’ve posted them all I’ll do a post about those whole set of them), but this one definitely seems to have a heavy Kirby hand, especially on the foreground Lad. I also really like both the inking and colouring effects on the water.
Published 1942