Category Archives: Gallery

Kirby on non-Kirby Characters Gallery

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A trio of 1970s covers that Kirby was called on to do that featured characters he didn’t create back in the sixties (except one villain).

MARVEL CHILLERS #7, 1976. Dan Adkins inks. I dunno, Tigra is a hard character to take seriously, which probably means we’ll see an ESSENTIAL TIGRA long before we get another ESSENTIAL THOR. Anyway, the Super-Skrull is always cool.

NOVA #7, 1977. Joe Sinnott inks. As I mentioned before, I did like Nova’s costume, and thoght it was one of the more compatible with Kirby’s style among the later Marvel characters. Plus of course Joe Sinnott is always good to see (check his site for a health update on his shoulder).

GHOST RIDER #23, 1977. Frank Giacoia inks. Not a bad character, but a bit of an odd fit for Kirby. Bit of a goofy cover, very 1970s.

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Prize Cover Gallery

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Another cover gallery, this time scattered genres by S&K published by Prize in the early 1950s.

PRIZE COMICS WESTERN #83, 1950. A very nice detailed cover, with a nice dynamic layout.

JUSTICE TRAPS THE GUILTY #22, 1951. And some good violent fun on this one, with some nice inking.

BLACK MAGIC #12[v2n6], 1952. Sorry the scan isn’t so good for this one, but still a nice cover, especially with the typical Kirby scientist type.

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Harvey Cover Gallery

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Here are a trio of covers that Kirby did published by Harvey over the years.

CHAMP COMICS #23, 1942. In the early 1940s, around the same time the DC work was launching, Kirby did a bunch of covers published on various Harvey books, signed “Jon Henri” when they were signed. No interiors, though. The CHAMP covers feature a pair of kids who I think are the “Liberty Lads”, going heavy on the war propaganda patriotism. Anyone know who did the stories for those characters?

FIRST LOVE ILLUSTRATED #69, 1956. This is a nice goofy romance cover, probably the only comic to have a pirate, rabbit, knight and cowgirl.

WARFRONT #30, 1957. Very intense war cover, with an interesting inking style.

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More 1970s Covers (IM, FF, Invaders)

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Sorry, been a bit busy, so I’m resorting to another cover gallery. 1970s Marvel this time.

IRON MAN #90, 1976. Jack Abel inks. That’s an interesting composition (remembering that most of these covers were done from layouts sent to Kirby from New York). It really works well with Kirby’s style.

FANTASTIC FOUR #175, 1976. Joe Sinnott inks. Two big cosmic types from the 1960s doing battle in the city. I like those cars fleeing down by the bottom of the page.

INVADERS #32, 1978. More Sinnott. Hitler using Thor to fight the Invaders. There’s some good high concept work. As usual, stuff like this makes me wish Sinnott had inked some more Thor back in the 1960s. He really seems to get the character.

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Western reprint covers 1973

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Marvel used a lot of Kirby’s western covers in the 1970s reprints of their 1960s issues, sometimes with minor alterations and usually with new much brighter colors. I’ve always found it interesting that a lot of late 1950s and early 1960s Marvel covers have some detailed sophisticated colouring that you never see on 1970s books. Anyway, here are three for the big three Marvel western stars.

RAWHIDE KID #111, 1973. From RK #41 (1964). The fence in the back is new, and the speech balloon is completely redrawn (with the same dialogue). That’s a beautifully dynamic cover.

KID COLT OUTLAW #173, 1973. From KCO #99 (1961). Again a new fence, plus that coach in the background is added. Actually in this case I think the additions add some nice balance. I liked how they played around with the settings and angles to provide a variety of strong images within the genre.

TWO-GUN KID #112, 1973. From TGK #65 (1963). Yay! This one was pretty much left alone. A very powerful cover with a nice background and a character who would have fit right in on the super-hero books that were taking off when it was first published. My favourite of these three.

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Themeless Cover Gallery (BoyC, Fury, Defenders)

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BOY COMMANDOS #7, 1944. After six issues doing interiors, Kirby is off to the army, with just covers for the next two years. A great vintage S&K cover, lots of movement, nice details on the motorcycles.

SGT. FURY #15, 1965. Dick Ayers inks. Fury and the Howlers taking care of business in Holland, in a nice dramatic cover. I don’t usually mention anything about the non-Kirby interiors of these things, but this one has a gorgeous unusual combination of Dick Ayers pencils with Steve Ditko inks.

DEFENDERS #42, 1976. Klaus Janson inks. Hulk versus the Rhino. That’s okay. I also always like the way that Kirby draws Doc Strange for some reason.

Gallery of the Obscure (Shield-Wizard, KO, Chan)

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Some covers to publishers Kirby didn’t do too much work for.

SHIELD-WIZARD COMICS #7, 1942. The Kirby checklist credits this to Kirby/Novick, which seems plausible, but a bit surprising. It would be the only Kirby work for MLJ in the era (after they became Archie he seems to have done a short story in 1947, then of course the late 1950s super-hero stuff). It’s a very nice cover, very much in the spirit of the Captain America covers Kirby had done the previous year.

KO COMICS #1, 1945. Not sure what the story with this cover is. The publisher is Geronoa (or possibly Gerona), and the cover has a “JCA” signature, but does appear to be partly by Kirby, certainly having some traits of his work of the era. Not sure the name of the character, could be “The Duke of Darkness” or “The Menace”, which are listed in Overstreet as characters in here. Any more info would be appreciated.

CHARLIE CHAN #6, 1955. Published by Charlton, presumably picking up some unused inventory material from the Prize series of 1948. This is a great dynamic cover, my favourite of these three.

1976 Annual covers

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Kirby was used heavily as a cover artist for the 1976 Marvel annuals.

THOR ANNUAL #5, 1976. John Verpoorten inks. You know, Odin and Zeus really should just fight their own battles rather than pitting their sons against each other.

AVENGERS ANNUAL #6, 1976. Frank Giacoia inks. Nice, but a bit cluttered. And Captain America fighting the US Army, that’s just wrong…

FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #11, 1976. Joe Sinnott. The FF face off against the Invaders. That’s a fun looking cover, especially Ben vs. Namor and the battling Torches.

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #1, 1976. Joe Sinnott again. The Thing teams up with the Invaders spin-off group The Liberty Legion. I always like how Kirby draws those Golden Age and faux-Golden Age characters, and of course Ben Grimm is his signature character.

Kirby did two other covers for 1976 Marvel annuals, HULK, which was covered here, and CAPTAIN AMERICA, for which he also did the interiors.

3 Publishers, 3 Covers (Two-Gun, Secrets, Love)

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A trio of 1950s Kirby covers

I LOVE YOU #7, 1955. Published by Charlton, another of the remnants of Mainline’s collapse (I don’t think Kirby ever worked for Charlton directly, unless the humour stories in FROM HERE TO INSANITY and CRAZY, MAN, CRAZY were done for them. I suspect even those might have done for a Mainline humour book which never launched). This series took over the numbering from IN LOVE. Very strong cover, hinting at an interesting story, but really, you two, do you want to get caught?

HOUSE OF SECRETS #11, 1958. This looks like it might have been intended as a Challengers of the Unknown cover or splash at some point, and for some reason used as a cover here instead. Or perhaps not. Anyway, it’s one of the few DC books of the era he just did the cover for, and I think is a Kirby inked cover. Great image, I especially like the collapsing bridge.

TWO-GUN KID #48, 1959. Kirby’s first cover for the series, long before the re-design of the character. Nice drawings, although the vignettes look keeps it from having the strong central image, and the design is a bit blurb-happy.

1970s Team Covers

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AVENGERS #158, 1977. Joe Sinnott inks. Boy, that Wonder Man costume is quite an eye-sore, isn’t it?

FANTASTIC FOUR #173, 1976. Joe Sinnott inks. Very nice image of the FF and one of their greatest foes.

MARVEL PREMIERE #29, 1976. Frank Giacoia inks. Spinning out of the pages of the Invaders, a very nice cover of the various golden age and pseudo-golden age second stringers.