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.

One of the sillier concepts of all time, this features Kirby and others from Marvel in the 1960s transformed into the Fantastic Four, with the on-the-nose title of “What If… The Fantastic Four Were the Original Marvel Bullpen?”. Kirby is cast as The Thing, of course.

It’s all delightfully goofy, with a few gentle shots taken at the man playing Mr. Fantastic. And it was good to see Kirby getting one last pseudo-shot at writing and drawing a Fantastic Four story.

Joe Sinnott inked the cover, while Mike Royer and Bill Wray inked the 34 interior pages.

The recently released collection of the first four issues of ADVENTURES OF THE FLY from 1959/1960. The first issue is all Simon&Kirby, as is half of #2.

Mostly very good reproduction on the Kirby stories, except for one story which is clearly taken from a printed copy and is a bit wanting. The covers (only the first by Kirby) are also taken from printed copies, but look pretty good since obviously they were on better paper.

“The Hide-Out”
A quick two-page feature from THE DOUBLE LIFE OF PRIVATE STRONG #1, introducing the character. Nice preview (the first of two, the second by Joe Simon is also in here), where Kirby gets to draw his trademark thugs getting punched by a briefly seen Fly.

“The Strange New World Of The Fly”
The origin of the Fly, which is about as silly as you’d expect, with orphan Tommy Troy getting sent to live with an old couple, finding a ring which summons Turan, emissary of the Fly People, and transforms him to a super-hero. Fun stuff.

“The Fly Strikes”
The conclusion of the origin, with the Fly rounding up the bad guys who were shaking down the orphanage.

“The Fly Discovers His Buzz Gun”
Hard to believe it took him this long to discover it, it’s right there strapped to his leg. Also introduces Tommy’s neighbour, Dolly Lake.

“Come Into My Parlor”
Great opening, which would have been a centerfold page in the original, but is printed on a single page sideways here. Not sure about that display choice, but it still looks nice. This is the best story in here overall, with great art and the introduction of Spider Spry, a great looking deformed Kirby villain.

“Magic Eye”
Very silly and quick story about a fight with a robot, and I’m still not sure what the title means, but this has some great fighting

“Marco’s Eyes”
The only weak reproduction of a Kirby story in this collection. Still not too bad, just a bit splotchy with the linework and lettering after the double page spread (again printed sideways on one page) that opens the story is great, and it does appear to be from the original art, fortunately. Anyway, it’s a nice story about a hypnotist turned evil, very much with the feel of old Fawcett Captain Marvel stories, I thought.

“The Master Of Junk-Ri-La”
This time the Fly takes on Hans Yunkman, a junkman inventor who makes a safe robbing plane out of junk. Yeah, it looks that silly, too.

Non-Kirby work includes Joe Simon (including a new introduction), Dick Ayers, Al Williamson and others, a cover by Joe Staton and Bob Smith.

Published 2004

Some people seem to have a problem with the fact that, on launching the new BLACK PANTHER series in 1977, Kirby mostly went in a completely different direction from what was done with the character in the previous years. I never quite got that, but then I haven’t read much of that non-Kirby stuff.

What Kirby did was a fast-paced action-adventure book, a bit silly at times, but enjoyable.

I like the middle panel on this page, it has a very nice Kirby dynamic and sense of playfulness. Plus those other members of the Wakanda royal family can be pretty funny.

Joe Sinnott inked the cover while Mike Royer inked the story.

Published 1978

Note, this is the 100th Kirby book featured on this weblog. Of course, a disproportionate number of them (67) have been books where Kirby just did the covers, because they’re easier (I’ve got scans of about 300 other such books ready to go). I figured for #100 it should be one of the best.

NEW GODS #7 featured “The Pact”, a powerhouse 24 page story which fills in the mythology of the Fourth World. I can only imagine how much more powerful it was to people who read it not knowing the secrets it reveals. This is full of amazing scenes that flesh out what was in the first few issues and raising more questions and possibilities. The best of these scenes is the one that the page above is in the middle of, where Izaya rejects the ways of Darkseid to find his destiny as Highfather. It’s a thing of beauty. Thank god Mike Royer was the inker at this point, so the scene has its full weight.

Interesting side note, there was an unused unfinished splash page, apparently meant for this issue, published in JACK KIRBY QUARTERLY #11, which featured an intriguing scene of pre-transformation Izaya confronting Darkseid. No dialogue on the page, unfortunately, so no clue as to exactly what this scene would have entailed.

Also in this issue, a two-page Young Gods story featuring Vykin of the Forever People, quickly looking at some of the remnants of the “Great Clash” on New Genesis, inked by Vince Colletta, a reprint of the Manhunter story “The Legend of the Silent Bear” from ADVENTURE #76 from 1942, which has some interesting moments (such as the hero being led through a forest by a boy scout), although Manhunter is definitely the most minor of the S&K DC features (they only did seven short stories). Also a two page S&K reprint from REAL FACT #2, “A World of Thinking Machines”, projecting such things as robot secretaries, robot athletes and multi-armed robots for housework. Okay, not the best predictions ever…

Published March 1972

Kirby’s first new series on his return to Marvel, a few months after he re-took the reins of CAPTAIN AMERICA, was THE ETERNALS. It also had the most complex set-up, with two hidden races emerging, the god-like Eternals and the monstrous Deviants.

The first issue eases into the concepts, with just one of the Eternals, Ikaris, leading a father and daughter archaeologist team to a chamber of alien beings in South America, explaining the basis of the Eternals/Deviant setup, and then being attacked by a group of Deviants led by Kro.

Kirby really goes all out in the art for this. He opens big, with two full page splashes and a double page splash making up the first four pages, with detailed images of the huge constructs in the chamber. He continues with such nice images as the underwater Deviant city, the mountain home of the Eternals and more, all well inked by John Verpoorten (with a cover inked by Frank Giacoia). All in all it’s a good set up to what would be an entertaining and fairly long-lived series (19 issues and a double sized annual).

Published 1976.

Since I had it out to compare the pencils with the just released Milgrom inked version (and Milgrom did a great job with it), here’s the unused cover to JIMMY OLSEN #133, as published in THE SUPERMAN GALLERY #1 in 1993.

A fairly minor entry in the Kirby bibliography, even moreso now that the inked version has been published and so many pages of Kirby pencils have been published in fanzines in the past decade, but there’s some other good stuff in here, including images by Joe Shuster, Curt Swan, Wayne Boring, some decent modern images (some not quite so much, depending on your tastes).