Category Archives: Genre

Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #3 [1982]

by

“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

by

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

The Demon #3 [1972] – Reincarnators

by

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

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

by

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.

Strange Tales #129 [1965] – Cover

by

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.

StrangeTales129_697.jpg

Published 1965

Champion Comics #9 [1940] – Cover

by

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.

ChampionComics9_695.jpg

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

Journey Into Mystery #92 [1963] – Cover

by

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.

JourneyIntoMystery92_694.jpg

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

Showcase Presents The House of Mystery #1 [2006]

by

First published in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #84 [1959], then reprinted in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #194 [1971], now the 8-page “The Negative Man” is reprinted in SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1, along with 538 other pages of comics from the first 21 issues of the series edited by Joe Orlando from 1968 to 1971.

In this story, two scientists build a miniature town to test their power transmission through radio waves device. A loose watch straps makes all the energy go through one of the men, creating a negative energy duplicate of him.

The negative being goes on a rampage, until the original scientist plans to sacrifice himself to destroy it. Fortunately for him, what he didn’t know was the secret of the negative being which made it afraid of him.

I really like what I’ve read of the Kirby stories from DC in this period, and it looks really sharp in this book (except for the enlarged gutters they would put in reprints back in the early 1970s). That first panel in the scan is just really evocative and does a great job of capturing movement on a comic page.

Great book overall, too, maybe my favourite book in DC’s new SHOWCASE PRESENTS line so far, thanks to the sheer variety of great artists from that era, with much better reproduction than the stories got the first time around.

Published 2006

My Own Romance #75 [1960] – Cover

by

I think there was some rule that said Kirby had to do at least one artist/model themed romance cover for every publisher he did romance comics for. This is the one from Marvel, featuring a very leggy model making a play for the artist in the background, who seems to fill his studio with a lot of sexy women. What would Roz have thought if Kirby tried that?

MyOwnRomance75_691.jpg

Inked by Colletta.

Published 1960

Thor #253 [1976] – Cover

by

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.

Thor253_690.jpg

Published 1976