So, the story goes, Jim Steranko takes over CAPTAIN AMERICA from Kirby with #110. Shortly thereafter, for whatever reason, Kirby’s asked to draw #112 on an extremely tight deadline. He’s told the cliffhanger to #111 had Captain America dying. Did they want him to bring Cap back to life? No, they wanted him to keep Cap dead.

And thus was created the Kirby comic that most closely resembles modern Marvel comics, a full issue where almost nothing happens.

The story is pretty much that Cap’s mask is fished out of the water, and he’s presumed dead, so Iron Man is informed. Iron Man then goes over Cap’s file, so we get short vignettes of Cap’s original WWII adventures and villains, the classic retro-fitted “death of Bucky” bit with Zemo, Cap’s thawing out courtesy of Namor and scenes from his adventures of the previous few years. I have a soft spot for this particular page:

as it features Modok, one of the Kirbyest of the Kirby villains of the 1960s, and those wacky bee-keeper minions of AIM.

So the story is light, it does at least look really good. George Tuska inks, I think the only other work he did with Kirby was finishes on some Cap stories a few years before this, but he does a good job here, presumably on as tight a deadline as Kirby was. Frank Giacoia inks Kirby on the cover, which is unfortunately Modok-free.

Published 1969

The last new project Kirby initiated during his 1970s stay at DC was KOBRA (originally KING KOBRA). Unlike the trio of concepts thrown into FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL, this one was given an on-going book, with the first issue Kirby delivered (with Steve Sherman co-writing and D. Bruce Berry inking) re-scripted, re-arranged and partly re-drawn(the faces of some of the characters). It lasted an impressive six more issues post-Kirby.

Pretty much all set-up this issue. Kobra is the head of a criminal cult, and we find out that he was born with a conjoined twin, kidnapped by the Cobra Cult shortly after being separated and presumed dead, while his brother Jason Burr grew up unaware of his brother’s fate. Now, years later, they find that they have a psychic link to feel the other’s pain. Kobra attacks his brother, who’s also been contacted by the police.

It’s an okay start, nothing special. I’m sure that given a few issues and a free hand, Kirby could have done some interesting stuff with the concept, either as presented here or, ideally, as it was originally written, and Kobra does have a neat design.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #22 had several pages devoted to KOBRA, with an article by Steve Sherman on the evolution of the character (note that Sherman’s timeline doesn’t quite jibe with the version in the text page of #1), the original splash page and some some other unaltered pages (showing that the brother was originally a much older Philip Snow, Interpol agent, rather than Jason Burr, university student) and Sherman’s first tries at an outline and script for the first issue (not the script for the actual art Kirby drew).

Published 1976

Kirby did four pieces for this issue of WHO’S WHO, all inked by Greg Theakston.

Beautiful Dreamer of the Forever People is up first, and is the best looking one this issue, with some nice images of her, including one of her conjuring up one of her illusions.

Ben Boxer from Kamandi is up next, showing how he transforms with his cyclo-heart.

Big Barda from Mister Miracle is here, too, although I would have expected a stronger image given some of the great Barda art from the 1970s. This one is just okay.

Another Forever Person, Big Bear, is the last Kirby entry in this issue, with some nice images of him and the super-cycle, one of those great Kirby vehicles.

Kirby drew this 100 page graphic novel on his return to Marvel in the 1970s, re-uniting with his long-time FANTASTIC FOUR collaborative team. It’s an interesting book, and well worth hunting down a copy for the Kirby/Sinnott art alone. There’s something just so elegant and powerful about the way Kirby draws the Surfer, and Sinnott brings it out as good as anyone.

The final panel of this page, of a Surfer monument made by a tribe he passed by one his travels, is one of my favourite images from that entire era of Kirby’s career.

The story re-tells the coming of Galactus story, without the Fantastic Four. In this version, the Surfer finds Earth, decides to defy Galactus, who exiles him to Earth. The Surfer explores humanity, and then Galactus attempts to win him back, using a golden female creation of his, Ardina, who both seduces him and tries to convince him of the worthlessness of humanity. Also in the mix is an interesting character, Galactus’ Master of Guile (called the “Devil’s Advocate” in Kirby’s character design printed in THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #22), who represents the dark side of Galactus.

The biggest problem in this book is probably that the structure of the story seems to require Kirby’s original concept of the Surfer, as a creation of Galactus, while the whole Zenn-La, Shalla Bal nonsense is shoe-horned in (in a two page flashback sequence that doesn’t make much sense and constantly in the dialogue). It just doesn’t work. Taking that out and mentally adjusting, and taking out some of the more flowery excesses of the script, and it works a lot better.

This book also has a non-Kirby cover painting, which isn’t too good, based on a far better Kirby image, printed in THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #9. Also in here are bios of the creators, with a great photo of Kirby, oddly with a pipe rather than the cigar he’s usually associated with.

The book was reprinted by Marvel in the late 1990s, I think with a different cover based on one of the interior images, but I don’t have a copy to verify that.