Monthly Archives: October 2004

This Post, This Cover Gallery

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Sorry, but I’ve got a lot of these already scanned, so it’s easier doing these than actual stories.

TALES OF SUSPENSE #52, 1964. Kirby only drew a handful of the early Iron Man stories, but of course did draw the covers for quite a while. The Crimson Dynamo is a pretty goofy looking villain, but doesn’t the Black Widow look nice. Inked by George Roussos.

GIANT-SIZE CONAN #5, 1975. Inked by Joe Sinnott, with some corrections on Conan’s face, probably by John Romita. Not sure why the correction, since Kirby’s version was fine, recognizably Conan. Sometimes I think they just meddle with the art for the sake of meddling. The only Conan art Kirby did for Marvel, although he did draw the character a few more times that have appeared in fanzines and other books.

WESTERN FIGHTERS #1, 1948. A nice S&K cover from one of the Hillman books. Love the inking on those, and the folds on the clothes.



More covers

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Another trio of covers from through the years

STAR SPANGLED COMICS #49, 1945. More of the S&K DC books done during the time Kirby was in the army, so others were doing the interior Newsboy Legion stories. This one is a bit loose, but captures the fun nature of the feature.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #96, 1963. During the first year of Thor, there were a number of issues where other artists did the feature, before Kirby permanently took over the feature with #101. Of course, he still did all the covers, including this one inked by Dick Ayers, with a nice trademark Kirby shocked crowd scene.

INVADERS, THE #15, 1977. Inked by Joe Sinnott. Kirby did a lot of covers for this WWII set super-hero book, which frequently featured new “retro” characters as well as real Golden Age characters. I doubt Kirby had a hand in designing them, but they were well done and he handled them very nicely.



Another Cover Gallery

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Yet more covers. I’ll get to another book with an actual Kirby story soon.

SGT. FURY #8, 1964, inked by Dick Ayers, who also took over the art on the title this issue. The newest Howler menioned on the cover is Percival ‘Pinky’ Pinkerton, of course. Also introducing Zemo, who debuts in AVENGERS the same month.

CHARLIE CHAN #4, 1948. One of several Charlie Chan covers done by Simon&Kirby for Prize/Crestwood (with apparently only come minor Kirby work on the interiors of some issues, a few splash pages and panels). This one has some especially nice work, with lots of trademark Kirby touches, on the statue in the foreground.

WHAT IF #9, 1978, Joe Sinnott inks. Boy, would that have been an exciting Avengers line-up. Gorilla-Man and the Human Robot. Seriously, were they even trying?