A few pre-Silver Age gems.
ADVENTURE COMICS #92, 1944. Look out behind you Sandman, it’s a trap! Where’s Sandy when you need him…
HEADLINE COMICS #44, 1951. Nice to see them cracking down on some of those white-collar criminals for a change. Very eye-catching covers on these old crime books. I like that lackey off to the left.
WARFRONT #29, 1956. Man, those Harvey war comics could get violent.
In 2005, Mecca Comics Group has scheduled two autobiographical graphic novels by Dick Ayers in February and May. Presumably his time as one of Kirby’s main inkers in the early 1960s will figure into the middle of the second volume, which covers 1951 to 1986.
They’re also publishing a new Ayers western comic, CHIPS WILDE – THE WILD ONE in March.
Quite a few preview pages from all those books at the link.
This six page Kirby/Ditko story is reprinted from FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1 (1963) (not AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1, as it’s mistakenly cited on the first page of this reprint). A bit of an oddity, as it retells a scene done in two pages in the first issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN earlier that year, with full Ditko art, where Spidey breaks into the Baxter Building, thinking he could get a job with them. He was a bit unclear on the concept early on, I guess. The Avengers might have been a better bet if they’d formed by then.
It does feel a bit stretched, with the attack from each FF member (taken straight from the original) being followed by another attack newly revealed for this telling. It’s still interesting, especially the way Kirby draws the Spider-Man / Mr. Fantastic battle.
Published 1986
For about a year in the mid-1970s, Marvel added a bunch of “Giant Size” specials to their schedule, with a mix of new and reprint contents. As the editorial in this one explains, the plans for the line were often in flux in terms of price and page counts, which is how this early one wound up with four reprints, three of them tied together with a new framing story.
Two Kirby stories made it in here. The first is “Banished to Outer Space”, the first half of INCREDIBLE HULK #3 from 1962, inked by Dick Ayers. It’s a fun story if you don’t think about it too much, since that early Marvel stuff is clearly very seat-of-the-pants type plotting, and especially with the Hulk, where they didn’t seem to know where they wanted to go during that short original run. I kind of like how charmingly stupid Rick Jones is as he’s tricked into luring the Hulk into a rocket, and the blank look on the Hulk’s face when he inexplicably falls under the mental control of Rick.
Later in the book, outside the framing story, is “The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer”, from FF ANNUAL #5 (1967), inked by Frank Giacoia.
In this one, during his wandering days on Earth between major FF stories he comes across the Mad Thinker’s leftover construct from an earlier FF story, Quasimodo (Quasi-Motivational Destruct Organ). The Surfer uses his powers to give Quasimodo a body, not realizing that whole Destruct Organ thing, and eventually has to turn the rampaging Quasimodo into a statue.
A bit of an iffy story, I guess, but great art, with the Surfer looking as elegant as always, and Quasimodo being a great Kirby monster type, with his body or without.
Published 1974
Joe Sinnott, Kirby inker extraordinaire, has some fun stuff on his website, including a new sketchbook offered for sale, and this 1972 photo of Sinnott with Kirby:
Thanks to Fred Hembeck for pointing it out, and check out his site for an account of a signing for the sketchbook.
WANTED. THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS VILLAINS was a short-lived reprint anthology from DC with a focus on super-villains. This was the final issue, and featured a reprint of the S&K Sandman story from WORLD’S FINEST #6 (1942).
The villain in this case is the Nightshade, a demonic looking green criminal who has used a variety of technological and biological terrors to take control of his “magic forest” where, for a price, he’ll offer other criminals a place to hide until the heat dies down. Sandman and Sandy get involved when the parents of a boy whose party Sandy is attending go missing in the forest, and battle Nightshade’s deadly plants.
Fun story, but the bit that cracks me up is the last page, when Sandy and Wes Dodds return to the party, where birthday boy Toby says “Hi’ya Sandy! Did ya hear what happened? The Sandman and Sandy saved my mom and dad!”. Yeah, you know Sandy, right Sandy? That crimefighter sidekick, about your height, curly blonde hair, kind of like yours…
Published 1973
Back in 1986, the Fantagraphics published fan magazine AMAZING HEROES celebrated its 100th issue in style, devoting most of the magazine (except for regular features like the upcoming release list and letter column) to Jack Kirby. Over 60 pages of material on the Kirby, from today’s perspective, with over 50 issues of Kirby dedicated fanzines and several books available it might not seem much, but back then it was pretty unique, and still holds up well, giving an overview of his whole career. The biggest weakness compared to the more recent Kirby publications is that they didn’t have access to the copious amounts of uninked and/or unpublished material, so the visuals are mostly taken directly from printed comics.
Steve Rude opens up the show by inking a Kirby cover featuring Kirby and many of his most famous characters, from the golden age right up to Captain Victory. Very eye-catching cover, coloured by Tom Luth.
Several dozen comic creators then supply a few (or sometimes many) words and/or images about Kirby. I especially liked the contributions of Scott Shaw!, Michael T. Gilbert and Larry Marder.
Greg Potter then has a long article, starting with a quick biographical sketch of Kirby (with a few odd errors, like treating CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN as a golden age S&K book), then looking in-depth at “The Pact”, with a dozen pages from the story reproduced at half-size in glorious black and white, the best art reproduction in this magazine.
Mark Evanier supplies the interview for the issue, a nice casual conversation with Jack and Roz Kirby touching on many aspects of his career, including the classic Kirby line “I’ve always found that naked women never paid any attention to me”.
Richard Howell provides the highlight of the issue, a look at 10 great Kirby stories from throughout his career. A good selection, and fortunately, unlike when this was published most of them have seen a reprint in recent years (or will soon in the case of the “Tales of Asgard” sequence he cites), so more people can now compare their opinions with his. Some interesting insights. I did wonder about his reference to George Papp as the inker on SHOWCASE #12, since this is the only place I’ve seen that credit. I’ve seen that credited to Stein or Premiani or Kirby himself, and those sound more likely than Papp. He also says nice things about Colletta inks, and regular readers can guess how that makes me feel, but I forgive for the interesting comments about the romance stories and Boys’ Ranch.
Greg Theakston is up next with a closer look at Kirby’s art, with some interesting insights into both his page composition and his use contrast and lineweight to lead the eye. Some interesting comments about the Don heck inked figure of Heimdall from the Gods Portfolio.
Finally their then-regular reviewer R.A. Jones provides his own overview of Kirby’s work, which isn’t nearly as good as Howell’s, and can be safely skipped. He also says good things about Colletta, among many other incorrect things he says, but I’m far less forgiving.
Well worth digging up if you have a copy buried somewhere, or picking up if you’re lucky enough to find one.
Published 1986
A few 1970s pieces that bring back some old heroes, villains and costumes.
IRON MAN #92, 1976. Inked by Al Milgrom. I like this one, with Kirby drawing the original armour one more time, and a nice general silver age look to the layout.
AVENGERS, THE #154, 1976. Milgrom again. I like Attuma, he’s one of the better minor villains of the 1960s books, although the disembodied talking heads of the Avengers are a little creepy.
INVADERS, THE #33, 1978. Dave Cockrum inks, which I think is one of the few, if not only, time we saw that combination. Cockrum is, to my mind, one of the best of the mainstream artists to come out of the 1970s, so that’s nice to see.
As mentioned before, two books with Kirby from Marvel in February, just officially solicited in the latest Diamond Comics catalog.
BLACK PANTHER BY JACK KIRBY VOL. 1 TPB
ISBN: 0-7851-1687-7
$19.99
136 Pages Trade Paperback Color
Collects: Black Panther (1977) 1-7
MARVEL WEDDINGS TPB
ISBN: 0-7851-1686-9
$19.99
200 Pages Trade Paperback Color
Collects: FF Annual 3; Incredible Hulk 319; Avengers 59-60, 127; FF 150; ASM Ann 21; X-Men 30
(Note that that same FF Annual is also going to be in the MARVEL VISIONARIES volume that’ll be out the month before this, so you’ll probably only want this if the other stories sound enticing)
Mike Sterling points to an old article about the story that revealed Ben Grimm is Jewish (one of my favourite modern FF stories), and other matters of religion in comics, including an odd comment by the Watcher in FF#72. A couple of errors in the article, including the year of Kirby’s death. And for those interested, the drawing of Ben with a yarmulke is printed in The Jack Kirby Checklist). I just wanted to take the oppurtunity to post my favourite statement about Ben’s religion.
