Category Archives: Genre

Captain Victory And The Galactic Rangers #2 [1982]

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

The first half of this issue is most of the original proposed CAPTAIN VICTORY #1 from the 1970s (except a few pages that were in #1), and the second half is from the pages that were added when the story was expanded to a proposed 50-page graphic novel, before finally being published by Pacific for the then-emerging direct market. Pick up the CAPTAIN VICTORY GRAPHITE EDITION for more details.

It’s interesting to read this imagining it as a first issue, without the background that was in the first issue. It does seem Kirby originally planned to jump right into the story, with the Insecton invasion already underway and starting with Victory’s first encounter with the law on Earth.

In this story, Victory goes with the local sheriff to check out an Insecton body they have at the morgue, which promptly self destructs. Meanwhile, the other Rangers face a small Insecton force, while in Spartanville the Insecton’s use their devices to take mental control of the population to use as workers and hostages.

Captain Victory And The Galactic Rangers #2 [1982]

Victory orders the Tiger to seal off the area with an experimental negative barrier, which the Insectons manage to weaken by sacrificing some hostages and soldiers in a frontal assault while the Lightning Lady prepares a new type of Insecton.

Mike Royer inks the 25-page story and Mike Thibodeaux inks the front cover and backcover, which has headshots and brief blurbs on the major members of the main Rangers. The Kirby checklist credits Royer with inks on the alternate cover on the inside cover, but it looks a little flat to me compared to the other Royer inks.

Published 1982

Star Spangled Comics #38 [1944] – Cover

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Posted in Genre, Kid Gang.

STAR SPANGLED COMICS #38, 1944, was from the era when Simon and Kirby were in the army, and only did covers for the DC/National books. STAR SPANGLED was still running the Newsboy Legion as the main feature, as it has been since #7, and many of the covers were these kind of wartime propaganda style cover, usually these playful kinds obviously designed to appeal to the kids on the homefront. The enthusiastic looks on the kids’ faces are a nice touch.

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Published 1944

Rawhide Kid #33 [1963] – Cover

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Posted in Genre, Western.

RAWHIDE KID #33, 1963, is the first issue Kirby did just the cover for, after introducing the new Kid in #17. That’s quite the ambush he’s wandering into. Good western cover, I like the texture on the rocks in particular. Dick Ayers inks.

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Nova #5 [1977] – Cover

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

NOVA #5, 1977, inked by Frank Giacoia, another one of those covers done in that era for non-Kirby characters. I kind of like Nova’s design, it’s very compatible with the Kirby look. The “Earth-Shaker” villain seems a bit ridiculous, though. I always think “robo-clown” when I first see this cover rather than “drilling machine”. Looks like good goofy fun, I guess, especially with the crowds fleeing / crowds in peril look so common in the old monster books.

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World of Fantasy #19 [1959] – Cover

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

One of the not quite so long-lived Marvel monster books, this issue at least had a pretty cool Kirby monster, apparently inked by Christopher Rule. Very weird look on the monster’s face, he looks a bit tired of this rampaging lifestyle he finds himself trapped in.

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Published 1959

Mystic Comics #7 [1941] – Cover

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Posted in Superhero.

One of Simon&Kirby’s non-Captain America covers at Timely, with some cool monsters coming out of the Trunk of Terror. And Hitler, too. The Destroyer is one of those characters who didn’t seem to catch on, though he did last for a while in various wartime books. I think it was the striped pants, makes it hard to take him seriously.

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Published 1941

Love Romances #91 [1961] – Cover

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Posted in Genre, Romance.

Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta provide the cover for this Marvel romance comic. I really like the movie poster style on this one, with just a hint of what the actual story might be about. A nice change from the exposition and blurb heavy usual style. This is one of my favourite of the roughly two dozen romance covers Kirby did at Marvel.

Update from the comments, the background figure is actually taken from Kirby’s cover to LR #85, and it’s not clear if the foreground figures are original or modified from a Kirby drawing or from elsewhere. Let us know what you think.

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Published 1961

Marvel’s Greatest Comics #29 [1970]

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

Marvel's Greatest Comics #29 [1970]aWith this issue MGC went from a general Marvel reprint title to all FF all the time, two stories per issue. Bit of an oddity in the transition, instead of continuing chronologically from where #28 left off (FF #36) this one goes back and reprints FF #12 (which had somehow skipped being reprinted before this) and FF #31 (which had just been reprinted in MGC #23 a year before). The chronological reprints resume next issue.

Anyway, from FF #12 (1963) is “The Incredible Hulk”, first published the same month as HULK #6, the final issue of the series. Apparently there was some confusion going on, as Kirby draws the Hulk with less than the regulation number of fingers and toes throughout the story, perhaps thinking of the Thing.

The story opens with Ben and Alicia walking home from the symphony when Ben is attacked by the army, who for some reason were looking for the Hulk in New York, and obviously had a bad description. The army is called off when a captain realizes the mistake, and later Thunderbolt Ross recruits the FF to destroy the Hulk, who seems to be destroying various missile installations. The FF take the newly redesigned Fantasti-Car to the desert, where they meet Bruce Banner and Rick Jones. Rick is soon taken hostage by the real saboteur, forcing Banner to become the Hulk and try to drive the FF out of the area, leading to the first Hulk/Thing battle, which is unfortunately short and inconclusive thanks to outside interference.

Marvel's Greatest Comics #29 [1970]

Dick Ayers inks the 23-page story.

“The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man” is a 21-page Kirby/Stone reprint from FF #31 (1964), previously posted on from the original. Still a good story leading up to the best era of FF, although the reproduction of a few pages in this and the first story leaves a lot to be desired.

This issue also has a 6-page “photo album” feature, taking various pin-ups and panels from the history of the FF, with notes from “Sue”. The cover is the Kirby/Ayers cover from FF #12.

Published 1970

Fear #6 [1972] – The Midnight Monster

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

A 7-page Kirby/Ayers reprint from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #79 (1962) leads this collection of reprints. This is a variation on the Jekyll/Hyde story, with a brilliant but arrogant scientist developing a serum which makes plants and animals immortal, but also makes them huge and monstrous. When his affections are spurned by a young woman he vows revenge, and tries the serum on himself.

Fear #6 [1972]

For the record, this was originally published the month before HULK #1.

He goes on a cross-country rampage looking for that engineer who he thinks stole his woman, only to eventually fall into a trap, a deep hole constructed by that same engineer, not even realizing that he was being pursued (though you’d think he might have heard from either his old room-mate or teacher, who the monster threatened in pursuit of him, but maybe he actually killed them both between the panels).

Nice short story, both for the variation on the Hulk concept and some of the staging, like the final scene where the monster is falling down the pit.

Published 1972

Boy Commandos #1 [1973]

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Posted in Genre, Kid Gang, War.

A pair of 12-page S&K reprint BC stories from 1942 in this issue.

“The Sphinx Speaks” is the third BC story, from DETECTIVE #66 (1942), and opens with a framing sequence set in the future (just as the second BC story has a framing sequence in the past). A thousand years in the future, a reporter is sent to do a story on a recently unearthed mummy. The mummy comes to life, talking like a New Yorker from the 1940s, which means he must have met Brooklyn, and indeed he did. The Commandos were in Egypt, disguised as part of a trading caravan and invading a Nazi-held town.

Boy Commandos #1 [1973]a

During the attack, Brooklyn hides in the case of a mummy as part of an ambush, which is how the mummy of our framing sequence picked up the story and his accent. Not quite sure what the point of the framing bit was, other than to give S&K something else fanciful to draw, but it was worth it for that

“Heroes Never Die” is from a few months later, one of the stories from BOY COMMANDOS #1 (1942). Rip Carter and the boys find themselves in China, helping in the fight against the Japanese invaders. An old man recognizes Rip as the return of the legendary “White Dragon” from 100 years before, and tells Rip and the boys the story of an American marine who put together a rag-tag bunch of foreigners, including four young boys who resemble the Boy Commandos, and battled against bandits and warlords, finally dying and promising to return in a time of need.

Boy Commandos #1 [1973]b

The old man, who was the original Captain Carter’s lieutenant, dies after recounting his story, content that the “White Dragon” has returned, and Rip remembers that there was an ancestor of his who sailed across the Pacific and was never heard from again. Like his ancestor, Rip vows to free China, one city at a time.

One of the reasons Boy Commandos is my favourite of the S&K features from DC in the 1940s is the wide variety of stories and locales, and this is a good example.

The splash page claims this is fictionalized but based on a true historical figure, an American marine who was “the Chiang Kai-Shek of his time… who to this day is revered in China as a saint”. Anyone know if there really is such a story, or if this was all made up?

The cover is a modified version of the original BC #1 cover, with the original V-formation planes in the background removed and replaced with various Nazi guns pointing at the Commandos in the foreground.

Published 1973