Author Archives: Bob

Marvel Super-Heroes #32 [1972] – Trapped in the Lair of the Leader

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

This reprints the Hulk story from TALES TO ASTONISH #69 (1965), slightly out of sequence since the HULK SPECIAL that reprinted the following issues had already come out. Mike Esposito inks the 10-page story, using the “Demeo” pen-name. Typical Hulk story of the era, he gets captured by fellow gamma-green freak the Leader, who is stealing a military device which absorbs radiation, while the army is in pursuit. Fortunately the Hulk makes a timely rampage, knowing from the Banner part of his mind that he has to destroy the device, though he reverts to Banner and appears to die as the army closes in, despite Rick Jones’ attempt to stop them.

These are some great rampaging Hulk images on this page, aren’t they?

msh32

Published 1972

Heroes Against Hunger #1 [1986] – A Song of Pain and Sorrow

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

Jack Kirby did a 2-page segment featuring Superman and Lex Luthor in this benefit book for African famine relief efforts, inked by Al Milgrom and written by Ed Hannigan with a plot by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson. Some nice super-action against a cosmic menace.

hah

Published 1986

Upcoming Kirby – Collected Kirby Collector v5

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Posted in Upcoming Kirby.

TwoMorrows has just put this book up on their website, scheduled for April 2006.

Collected Jack Kirby Collector – Volume 5
224 page Trade Paperback – Edited by John Morrow

Reprints JKC #20, 21 & 22 plus 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published!

Kirby fans demanded more, so this fifth volume is a gargantuan 224-page trade paperback, reprinting the sold-out issues #20-22 of The Jack Kirby Collector, the critically-acclaimed magazine for Kirby fans! Included are the “Kirby’s Women,” “Wackiest Work,” and “Villains” issues, featuring three unseen interviews with Jack Kirby, plus new ones with Jack’s daughter LISA KIRBY, and industry pros DAVE STEVENS, GIL KANE, BRUCE TIMM STEVE RUDE, and MIKE MIGNOLA! PLUS: see a complete ten-page unpublished Kirby story still in pencil! Jack’s mind-blowing original pencils to FANTASTIC FOUR #49 (from the fabled Galactus trilogy)! An analysis comparing Kirby’s margin notes to Stan Lee’s dialogue on classic Marvel comics! And a NEW special section with over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published, including Jack’s uninked pencils from The Demon, Forever People, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, Eternals, Captain America, Black Panther, and more! With page after page of rare Kirby art (much in its original pencil form), and a dynamite KIRBY/DAVE STEVENS cover, it’s a celebration of the most prolific creator in comics history: Jack “King” Kirby!

New Kirby – All-Winners Masterworks

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Posted in New Kirby.

Oops, looks like I jumped the gun on closing the book on Kirby in 2005 a few posts back. Apparently the MARVEL MASTERWORKS – ALL-WINNERS v1 came out this week, with two S&K Captain America reprints. Not really recommended just for the Kirby, the first is just average and second is kind of weak, and are available in other cheaper places. Some of the other contents might be worth having, though.

Rawhide Kid #47 [1965] – Cover

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Posted in Genre, Western.

This is Kirby’s final RAWHIDE KID cover, and he definitely went out with a bang, an all-out brawl on a well rendered riverboat. All sorts of stuff to love on this one. Frank Giacoia inks, and I love the effect he gets on the splashing water.

RawhideKid47_582.jpg

Published 1965

Marvel Tales #126 [1981] – Triton

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

The back-up story in this issue is a reprint of the Inhumans story from the back of THOR #150 (1968), a 5-page Kirby/Sinnott story that starts the three part adventure of Triton’s first visit to the outside world. Triton’s a great character when drawn by Kirby/Sinnott, very powerful. In his initial outing, he comes across a creature who turns out to be a costumed man in a film production. He allows himself to be taken prisoner by the humans in order to find out more about them.

mt126

Published 1981

Giant-Size Man-Thing #1 [1974]

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

Two Kirby reprints in this issue. “I Was the Invisible Man” is from STRANGE TALES #67 (1959), a 7-page story inked by Christopher Rule. And there’s another one of those hands across the chin I mentioned a while back.

mt1

This story involved a young scientist coming up with a device that enables him to move at incredibly fast speeds, effectively invisible to the human eye. He craves fame, and decides to operate in secret for a while, creating a national sensation about an “Invisible Man”, before revealing himself. Unfortunately he doesn’t count on the side-effects of his untested process, which prematurely age him. A nice story, with a lot of inventive visual effects, and a nice change from the giant monster stories that dominate these reprints.

Not that I don’t loves me some giant monsters, as seen in the second Kirby reprint, the Kirby/Ayers “Goom, The Thing from Planet X”, a 13-page story from TALES OF SUSPENSE #15 (1961). A scientist mocked for his theories about life on hidden nearby worlds experiments in a secluded area, getting the attention of the monstrous Goom, who plans to conquer the Earth. The scientist returns to his lab and contacts more of Goom’s people, and is branded a traitor to humanity, only to be saved as it’s revealed Goom is an outcast from his otherwise peaceful race. Rather odd ending speech, about how humanity has nothing to fear from alien contact, since any species advanced enough will surely be peaceful, considering how many Kirby stories and essays run counter to that, in fact are based on the opposite view.

Published 1974

1st Issue Special #5 [1975] – Manhunter

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

Another debut issue without a follow-up (although parts of the story were later integrated into the greater DC Manhunter mythos by other creators). The story opens up with a bang, as the Manhunter confronts Chopper, a killer obsessed with his cave of disembodied heads and masks. Some weird images in those pages.

We find out that this Manhunter is aging, and fears he might be the end of a long line of Manhunters, but fate intervenes, giving public defender Mark Shaw an ancient lion medallion, so he becomes the new Manhunter and plans to take care of mob boss The Hog.

1st Issue Special #5 [1975]

D. Bruce Berry inks the 18-page story, and the cover is a modified version of the splash page (flipped and with a few other changes). Kirby also writes a text page for the back.

Published 1975

2005 – A Kirby Odyssey

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Posted in Admin.

Doesn’t look like any more Kirby publications are coming out in 2005, so here’s an overview of what we got, at least 49 separate print items (some quite trivial, of course, but others up to 800 pages of Kirby), up from 17 in 2004 and 8 in 2003, plus 2 major digital publications. Good year, overall, lots of fun stuff. Book of the year, not including the KIRBY COLLECTOR, is probably ESSENTIAL FF v4, but maybe KAMANDI ARCHIVES when I get around to picking it up (and, ahem, at least it pays royalties). Unfortunately we didn’t get the scheduled COMPLETE KIRBY v5, which would have been a contender. Anyone heard an update on that?

And of course 2005 saw the announcement of the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center, now accepting PayPal donations for future projects and exhibitions, and already hosting a great Kirby checklist, a few stories and a short video.

Some good stuff coming up in 2006 as well. As usual, updates will be posted on the weblog as I get them, and available here, and general Kirby in-print information is kept here.

The most important and essential of the Kirby publications was this trio of issues from TwoMorrows. All the usual great stuff, amazing art finds, pencilled pages, columns and the like, plus they started reprinting some well restored full stories from the S&K days, including some romance, horror and crime in these issues. Look for more of the same in 2006, plus their publication of SILVER STAR from the pencils.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #42
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #43
JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #44

DC only had one Kirby publication this year, but it was major, the first ten issues of KAMANDI in one hardcover volume.

KAMANDI ARCHIVES VOL. 1 HC

AC included a few Kirby short stories in their various reprint anthologies, one or two in each of these issue.

AMERICA’’S GREATEST COMICS #11
AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS #12
AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS #13
BEST OF THE WEST #52

Craig Yoe included a 1950s Kirby story, “The Fourth Dimension is a Many Splattered Thing”, reprinted from the original artwork, in this collection from Fantagraphics.

MODERN ARF VOLUME 1 GN

Marvel of course went to the Kirby reprint well most often in 2005, most importantly for me with some long-awaited additions to their ESSENTIAL line, each collecting over 500 pages of 1960s Kirby, some of it for the first time in decades, in black and white.

ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 4 TPB
ESSENTIAL THOR VOL. 2 TPB

Good Kirby year for those who like Marvel’s hardcover reprints as well, with two FF volumes (bringing it one volume left to the end), some good Thor work, a few previously unreprinted stories in the Golden Age Captain America, plus finishing off the TALES OF SUSPENSE run of Cap and starting his solo series for the Silver Age volume (with some great art in that run, and of course MODOK). And some Iron Man and Doc Strange covers. Add to that the latest variation on Marvel’s reprints, an over 800 page OMNIBUS collecting the FF up to #30.

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 2
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: DOCTOR STRANGE VOL. 2
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: GOLDEN AGE ALL-WINNERS COMICS VOL. 1
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: GOLDEN AGE CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 1
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 8
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 9
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN VOL. 2
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THOR VOL. 4
FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS Vol. 1 HC

The 1970s Kirby also got a taste of the limelight in two dedicated volumes, including the hard-to-find original tabloid Cap story, with hopefully more to follow (ETERNALS is also likely for 2006).

BLACK PANTHER BY JACK KIRBY v1 TPB
CAPTAIN AMERICA BY JACK KIRBY v2: BICENTENNIAL BATTLES TPB

Kirby also figures into a few mostly non-Kirby collections from Marvel in 2005:

AVENGERS: KANG – TIME AND TIME AGAIN TPB – one story
BEST OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 1 HC – five stories
FANTASTIC FOUR – THE MOVIE TPB – one story
MARVEL VISIONARIES – STAN LEE – three stories
MARVEL WEDDINGS – one story
WHAT IF? CLASSIC VOL. 2 TPB – one story, one other cover

Marvel also mixed a few reprints into their regular comics during the year, either all reprint books (the MILESTONES specials) or mixing new stories with reprint backups (the rest of these). Each of these has one or more Kirby story.

FANTASTIC FOUR: THE WEDDING SPECIAL
GIANT-SIZE INVADERS #2
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #3
MARVEL MILESTONES: DR STRANGE, SILVER SURFER, SUB-MARINER & THE HULK
MARVEL MILESTONES: DR. DOOM, SUB-MARINER & THE RED SKULL
MARVEL MILESTONES: IRON MAN, ANT-MAN & CAPTAIN AMERICA
MARVEL MILESTONES: VENOM & HERCULES
MARVEL MILESTONES: WOLVERINE, X-MEN & TUK THE CAVE BOY
MARVEL MONSTERS: DEVIL DINOSAUR #1
MARVEL MONSTERS: FIN FANG FOUR #1
MARVEL MONSTERS: MONSTERS ON THE PROWL
MARVEL MONSTERS: WHERE MONSTERS DWELL #1

There was apparently some never followed up on “Dollar Digest” experiment that reprinted some Kirby stuff in small black and white volumes. I never did see them.

AVENGERS: ASSEMBLE DOLLAR DIGEST
FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FAMILY DOLLAR DIGEST
HULK: HULK SMASH DOLLAR DIGEST
SPIDER-MAN: AMAZING FANTASY DOLLAR DIGEST
X-MEN: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM DOLLAR DIGEST

And a few trivial bits from Marvel:

ESSENTIAL MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE VOL. 1 TPB – five covers
MARVEL VISIONARIES: STEVE DITKO – one cover (SPIDEY #1)
SPIDER-MAN / FANTASTIC FOUR CLASSIC – one cover (SPIDEY #1)

Plus there was MAXIMUM FANTASTIC FOUR, which I don’t know what to make of, except that I’m sure the Evanier introduction was interesting.

On the digital front, for those into that, there was a DVD-ROM volume of every issue of FF, so lots of Kirby there, some not yet ever reprinted, and Greg Theakston released the first two volumes of his COMPLETE KIRBY on CD-ROM, apparently including some comic strip and interview material not found in the print versions. Expect a few more Marvel volumes like that in 2006 and beyond.

There was also a documentary produced about Kirby, related to a film featuring characters he created, but it won’t be released until later. Bootlegs will be discretely accepted, hint hint.

Strange Tales #130 [1965] – Cover

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

This is one of my favourite of Kirby’s attempts to draw Doctor Strange. Still very Kirby, without question, but also using Ditko’s designs well. I love that look on Baron Mordo’s face. And of course the added bonus of the funnier half of the FF in Beatle wigs, well, there’s a book worth 12 cents just for the cover. Some fine Chic Stone inking on this one.

StrangeTales130_576.jpg

Published 1965