Monthly Archives: March 2007

Who’s Who – The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #3 [1985]

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Two Kirby drawn entries in this issue of DC’s character index series, both inked by Greg Theakston.

First up is Willie Walker in his largely unexplained guise as the spirit of death among the New Gods, the Black Racer. Pretty good collage of images, although, yeah, that cosmic skier thing still looks weird.

Going back a generation we get the Boy Commandos and their adult sidekick Rip Carter, with a wartime action pose and headshots of all the members, including the lesser known post-war replacements Tex and Percy (oddly appearing in the war scene, as if they helped liberate us from the axis powers).

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Published 1985

Showcase Presents The House of Mystery #2 [2007]

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As mentioned recently, this thick new book from DC reprints HOUSE OF MYSTERY #195 – #211, including the version of the Kirby story “I Doomed the World” from MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #17 [1957] that was reprinted in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #199 [1972], retitled “He Doomed the World” to go with the Cain introduction added to the first page.

The story has a rich inventor with a thing for ham radio getting a mysterious transmission which puts him in a hypnotic state, where he creates four metal rods to exact specifications and hires various experts to place them at the hottest, coldest, highest and lowest points on the Earth.

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You know, if he’d tried to hire the Challengers of the Unknown they’d probably have picked up on the whole glassy eyed hypnotized trance thing.

Coming out of the trance days later, he’s mystified by what he’s done, until he gets another transmission explaining that this is part of a plan by alien invaders to destroy life on Earth. But fortunately, turns out the so called “expert diver” they hired went nowhere near the lowest point on Earth, as the photo of him shows. He claims he was “dazed down in the depths”, but I suspect he was just lazy.

Kind of a goofy story, especially there at the end, but with some great artwork that looks really snappy in this printing.

Published 2007

New Kirby – Sandman and House of Mystery

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Pair of new releases with Kirby content. SPIDER-MAN: SAGA OF THE SANDMAN TPB reprints FF #61 among the stories chronicling the adventures of the Spider-Man villain who’s in the upcoming movie. ToW link

SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY VOL. 2, one I missed in my upcoming Kirby round-up, has a reprint of HOUSE OF MYSTERY #199, which in turn reprinted Kirby’s “He Doomed the World” from MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #17. Not a lot of Kirby, of course, but you get some Mayer, Redondo, Aragones, Wrightson, Toth, Cardy and a few dozen more in the 550 page book. ToW link

-Link- TJKC behind the scenes

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Posted in Links.

Over on the TwoMorrows blog, publisher and THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR editor John Morrow mentions that he’s begun work on putting together #48 of that publication, and says he’ll try to give some behind the scenes info and previews over the next few weeks, so keep your browsers pointed here.

-Link- Fourth World Omnibus interview

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Posted in Links.

KirbyOmni1.jpgNewsarama has a brief interview with DC’s Georg Brewer about the upcoming FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS series of chronological reprints of Kirby’s work, including the 1980s material (which they apparently haven’t made a final decision about how to handle yet). Also the cover design for the first volume and the projected schedule (every three months).

Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth! #23 [1974] – Kamandi and Goliath

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Kamandi’s adventure among the dolphins concludes this issue. Following one battle with the “Red Baron” of the other side, Kamandi recovers in the underwater base, where several other humans die in an attack, much to the sorrow of their dolphin overlords.

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Ben and his mutant pals go on the offensive, and Kamandi insists on going along. They take out the Baron, but Kamandi’s ship is rammed by the killer whale master of the Baron, angry about losing his prized pet. Kamandi’s impassioned rant about the futility and waste of war saves his life but leaves him floating on debris in the open sea.

One of the weaker Kamandi storylines, I thought, but there were a few interesting things in Kirby’s continued explorations of all sorts of variations on intelligent animal life (but why couldn’t Kam have headed into the Pacific to meet the Orangutan Surfing Civilization, or Australia and the Kangarat Murder Society?).

D. Bruce Berry inks the cover and 20-page story.

Published 1974

Marvel’s Greatest Comics #79 [1978] – Mystery on the Moon

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An edited reprint of FANTASTIC FOUR #98 [1970] in this issue, wherein Reed intercepts a message from the Kree that indicates they have another Sentry on Earth, determined to foil the Apollo moon landing and humanity’s outreach into space. Nice of Reed not to rub it in that he beat them by almost half a decade. As the moon shot launches, Reed tracks the Sentry to a simulated moonscape island in the Pacific, where it’s started some mysterious device which links to something under the Sea of Tranquillity. The boys have to race against time to defeat the Sentry and disable the device before the lunar module lands. Fortunately they make it, and Neil Armstrong becomes the fifth first man on the Moon.

A nice simple done-in-one story with some spectacular visuals. I especially like that panel of Ben carrying Reed and Johnny away from the exploding Kree device.

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Two pages are edited out, one showing the Torch coming back from sulking over Crystal, and explaining why he’s brushing his teeth when we first see him here, and another showing the reactions around the world to the Apollo launch. Joe Sinnott inks the now 18-page story and cover, with the cover being flipped from the original.

New Kirby – Stan Lee Meets HC

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Out this past week, the STAN LEE MEETS… hardcover collection of the five one-shots from last year, including reprints of FANTASTIC FOUR #79 and #87 by Kirby. Also available from Tales of Wonder.

Not Brand Echh #6 [1968] – The Human Scorch Has to Meet the Family

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One of Kirby’s contributions to the Marvel self-parody comic, this 8-page story is inked by Tom Sutton, over what I’m guessing are relatively loose Kirby pencils for the period. I tend to prefer Kirby’s stories in NBE when they’re inked by Frank Giacoia, since those tend to look more like Marvel comics of the era, making the parody that much richer.

In this story, the Scorch marries his long-time love Gristle and takes her home where they encounter her Unhuman familly, and insanity ensues.

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Eventually the Scorch taunts Sandyman to attack, hoping to drive off the in-laws. Hey, makes as much sense as anything else in here.

The NBE school of humour does tend to be a bit much for me at times, but by virtue of sheer volume there is some worthwhile stuff in here. Frighten (Triton) punching the Scorch out of the tub is pretty good, and of course as a Lockjaw fan you have to like the even more goofy Loosejaw.

Published 1968