Here’s a nice late 1962 cover, from shortly before all of the Atlas fantasy books were taken over by the super-heroes. Very pretty cover, I like the police-officer and the car. Inker unknown, but some speculation down in the comments that it might be one of the Kirby inked covers of the era. The interior art for this story is by Don Heck.
A Kirby/Ayers reprint spectacular issue of WMD this time. First up is a reprint of “From Out of the Black Pit Came… Grogg”, from STRANGE TALES #83. Note that his reprint seems to have some lettering changes from the original. I’m guessing the “small dictatorship in central Europe” was more explicitly the USSR first time around. Anyway, a freedom-loving scientist is captured in said dictatorship, and forced or work on a bomb test in Asia. The test ends up waking up Grogg, who seems to be the bigger, non-speaking brother of Fin Fang Foom. The scientist eventually manages to escape to America, leaving Grogg to take care of the commies, and we find out that he knew about Grogg, and it turns out he knew about Grogg, and he had earlier found proof that the Great Wall of China was built to keep out dragons. Who knew? Very cool panel of a bunch of monsters attacking the wall. Grogg’s a very fun looking monster, so much so that he’s one of the handful of the monsters to get a sequel, four issues later.
![Where Monsters Dwell #27 [1974]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2004/12/Where-Monsters-Dwell-27-1974.jpg)
Also in this issue, “Follow the Leader” from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #76, which has a story that would have fit in Kirby’s 1950s sci-fi work like RACE FOR THE MOON (and some of the art looks a lot like the Kirby/Ayers SKY MASTERS strips), with a group of explorers finding a planet that turns out to be populated by a variety of monsters. Over the protests of the peace-loving member of the expedition, they kill the lead monster, only to find out that he was the only thing keeping the other monsters in check, so they flee the planet.
The cover is from the Kirby/Ayers cover of STRANGE TALES #83, with a bunch of figures added clinging to and falling from Grogg’s hands. It’s kind of weird, since some of the figures don’t seem like the kind you’d find in the Chinese countryside (like the blonde woman in a green mini-skirt and heels).
Published 1974
This is one of those big cosmic issues of the Fourth World books, with a bunch of splash pages establishing New Genesis and Apokolips, their history and relationship. The double page spread of young gods playing on some sort of techno-cosmic device on the surface of New Genesis is gorgeous. There are also full pages plugging storylines that were appearing in FOREVER PEOPLE and JIMMY OLSEN.
In “O’ Deadly Darkseid”, the main storyline focuses on Orion’s first adventure on Earth, bringing back the humans he rescued from Apokolips the previous issue, briefly confronting Darkseid and then foiling one of his schemes.
We also meet DeSaad this issue, one of several great villains among the minions of Darkseid. We get a nice Kirby extreme close-up of him here:
![The New Gods #2 [1971]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2004/12/The-New-Gods-2-1971.jpg)
I kind of like the clues about Orion’s true identity in this issue. By the time I first read them I already knew the secret, so I always wonder how quickly people reading it off the shelf picked up on the clues. I’m also amused by how one of the humans suggests that Orion use “O’Ryan” as a human identity. How exactly did he know that it wasn’t “O’Ryan” having just heard the name?
Inks by Colletta. Yeah, I know…
Published May 1971
Of the handful of Kirby’s books with other writers that he did to fulfill his page quota in his final days at DC, my favourites are the ones that Denny O’Neil wrote, including three issues of JUSTICE, INC, based on the pulp hero Richard Benson, The Avenger. Kirby’s style works well with the fast moving pulp action, with the toughs in suits harkening back to the classic S&K crime comics.
This issue features the men of Justice, Inc. investigating some planes that are mysteriously blowing up, tracing it to exploding birds. They trace the explosives back to the owner of the airline, who takes them prisoner aboard a blimp, which, as all blimps in comic books eventually must, ends up blowing up. Along the way you get a battle aboard a bi-plane and a mid-air rescue. All good pulp stuff.
Mike Royer inks, doing a good job of bringing out the period feel, at times looking quite like a 1950s era inker.
Published 1975
Ah, the second half of the Don Rickles / Goody Rickels story from the middle of Kirby’s JIMMY OLSEN run in “Will the Real Don Rickles Panic?”. Mark Evanier has discussed how this came about at various times, growing from a planned brief cameo by Rickles, who I guess was inexplicably popular at the time, to a two issue story featuring Rickles, his twin Goody, so I’ll assume everyone knows that.
It’s a fun story, although a trifle disjointed thanks to its genesis. You have one thread where Clark Kent is captured in a ship going to Apokolips (with three pages of collages by Kirby at the start of the issue), only to be met on the way by Lightray who sends him back to Earth. On the more exciting part of the story, you have Jimmy, Goody and the Guardian about to spontaneously combust, with the Guardian racing for a cure while Jimmy and Goody head back to Morgan Edge’s office, where Edge has a meeting with Don Rickles.
![Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #141 [1971]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2004/12/Supermans-Pal-Jimmy-Olsen-141-1971.jpg)
The Rickles/Edge interplay is surprisingly good (“You can hide a platoon of assassins in a complex deal” is probably one of the most intelligent phrases ever to be put in Rickle’s mouth), and the whole Goody Rickels thing is silly, but in a charming way.
I also really liked what we saw of the Guardian (or Golden Guardian, but that name didn’t really stick) in this issue. He’s a clone of the original, and had some story potential that didn’t really get realized. And unfortunately, some combination of Kirby, the inker and the colourist never could quite figure out how his helmet was designed.
One odd thing this issue is that Superman never appears in costume. He’s dressed as Clark Kent throughout, which I’m not sure ever happened in any of the Superman family books up until then.
The story is inked by Colletta, with Murphy Anderson handling certain parts.
This issue reprints the first Newsboy Legion story from STAR-SPANGLED COMICS #7 from 1942, with the cover for that issue. That story has rookie cop Harper being ambushed, putting together his Guardian costume, because, I guess, that’s was the style at the time, and later arresting and being appointed guardian of four orphan boys. Pretty much lays out the groundwork for the series, where Kirby captures the look and feel of his childhood neighbourhoods perfectly.
The cover to this issue is Kirby inked by Neal Adams, with an inset photo of Rickles, and the epitome of Kirby cover catchphrases, “Kirby Says: Don’t Ask! Just Buy It!”. Also in this issue is the Kirby self-portrait that appeared in all the Fourth World books that month, introducing the reprints, and a one page text about the updating of the Newsboy Legion by Evanier and Sherman.
Published 1971
This is Kirby’s final issue of KAMANDI. He didn’t write the last handful at all (and was heavily rescripted on the few before that), so it doesn’t really feel right in the story, and that comes through a bit in the art as well.
Before his encounter with “The Lizard Lords of Los Lorraine”, I did like Kamandi’s battle with a giant parrot in the opening pages, though.
![Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth #40 [1976]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2004/12/Kamandi-The-Last-Boy-On-Earth-40-1976.jpg)
It’s mostly downhill from there, with the new character Arna being a little annoying and a race of lizard men who are pretty blandly designed compared to the earlier animal races. One odd thing is the talking burros, physically unchanged from pre-Great Disaster animals. Horses were always one of the types of animals unchanged, still used as riding animals, in the earlier stories.
Mike Royer was back on the inks for the last few issues, so that was okay, while Joe Kubert drew the cover.
Published 1976
Here’s a neat rarity. In 1973 one of the earliest and longest running fanzines, THE COMIC READER, at that point edited by Paul Levitz (though not for much longer), reached #100, and ran front and back colour covers by Jack Kirby to celebrate (at the time they usually had black and white covers, art on the front only). The front had Superman and Captain Marvel, while the backcover had, well, these guys:
This issue of BLACK PANTHER brings to a close T’Challa’s adventures with Abner Little and his society of “Collectors”, putting him on the road back to Wakanda. Little was a pretty funny character, bringing a lot of charm to the first half of this series. It’s also nice how Kirby has T’Challa acting very much as a king in this story.
![Black Panther #7 [1978]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2004/12/Black-Panther-7-1978.jpg "Black Panther #7 [1978]")
This issue also gives some background of the history of Wakanda and the Vibranium Mound which forms the basis of the Panther Cult and the Wakandan royal family, also introducing some more of the family and setting up the next story.
Mike Royer inks the story while Ernie Chan (or is the proper name Ernie Chua? I never could remember) inks the cover.
Published January 1978
Leaping out of the pages of his origin in the last three issues of 2001 – A SPACE ODYSSEY, X-51 got a new name and his own series in 1978 (though the 2001 connection isn’t mentioned anywhere in #1, despite it being footnote-happy 1970s Marvel, presumably for some sort of trademark or copyright reason).
“Machine Man” opens up with Machine Man rescuing a hiker who somehow wound up hanging on a cliff. I like this page, which is a layout one doesn’t associate with Kirby, but which works nicely here.
![Machine Man #1 [1978]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2004/12/Machine-Man-1-1978.jpg)
It’s a layout that doesn’t work if overused, but it does fit the situation here, and gives a nice feeling of vertigo in the first panel, and danger in the next two.
Anyway, after the events of 2001, Machine Man is walking the Earth, like Cain in Kung Fu. Oddly people don’t seem that shocked by his abilities like flight, extendable arms, superhuman strength and all that, accepting that it’s all experimental equipment he’s wearing. Whatever. He gets a ride from a psychiatrist who asks too many questions, so he takes off, only to be attacked by the army, still under the command of Colonel Kragg.
Fun start to what would be an uneven, but interesting, short-lived series. Royer inks the 17 page story (and really, man, 17 pages of story in a 36 page book? Who thought that was a good idea?), Giacoia inks the cover and Kirby provides a text page about some of the themes of machine sentience he plans to explore in the series.
Published 1978
This is Kirby’s second last issue of THOR (with a fill-in before the last one), featuring the story “To End in Flames”, ending an epic where Loki had managed to get rid of Odin and unleashed Surtur upon Asgard. In this issue, Loki flees to Earth, while Balder and Sif go to rescue Odin while Thor and the other warriors of Asgard attempt to defeat Surtur.
A very exciting action based issue, with lots of great scenes of Thor and his army fighting against impossible odds. The ending is a bit of an almost literal deus ex machina, but when you’ve got a character like Odin that’s going to happen from time to time.
The story is a page short, as this is from that period when Marvel was running two pages with half page ads. Annoying. Colletta inks the story, but it mostly looks good for Colletta. John Verpoorten inks the cover, which is nicer.
Published 1970