Sgt. Fury Annual #5 [1969]

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Posted in Genre, War.

This late-1960s annual collects two 1964 issues of SGT. FURY by Kirby, both inked by George Roussos (as George Bell). While I really preferred the Dick Ayers inked issues, Roussos does pretty good here, and suits the material much more than he did on FANTASTIC FOUR.

“The Fangs of the Desert Fox” from SGT. FURY #6 features the Howlers given a mission to kill Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox in charge of the German campaign in North Africa. Unfortunately, Dino Manelli is injured in a practice jump, and replaced by George Stonewall, who turns out to be a bigot, with particular problems with the black and jewish members of the team, Gabe and Izzy. So of course those two are the ones who end up saving him during the mission. Stonewall is still cool towards them after they return, but quietly leaves his forwarding address to Gabe and Izzy.

A little preachy, but well-intentioned, and a great war comic, with lots of firefights, hand-to-hand combat, loving renditions of tanks and planes and more.

That story was also the SGT. FURY selection for the recent MARVEL VISIONARIES – JACK KIRBY

Some special features between the two reprints, one of them from Kirby, the single page “Weapons of War” from SGT. FURY #5, showing various machine guns used in WWII.

Next up is “The Court-Martial of Sgt. Fury”, from SGT. FURY #7. In France now, the Howlers are given a mission to help the French resistance attack a German ammo depot. The American lieutenant in charge turns out to be an old school-mate of Fury. Just as they’re about to attack, Fury tries to stop the attack, and they get caught in an explosion.

Sgt. Fury Annual #5 [1969]

Fury wakes up back in England, with no memory of why he tried to stop the attack, and is put on trial. This gives us some background on Fury from before the war. Some very interesting writing in there. On the sidelines, the Howlers of course wind up in the guard-house after defending Fury’s honour from slurs by rival Sgt. Bull McGiveney. Eventually Fury gets his memory back and realizes that he stopped the attack because it was a trap, as he knew from questioning a German prisoner earlier (but for some reason didn’t pass on the information at the time. Whatever).

The story works a lot better this issue than the other one, and the art is just as good, if a bit less action filled, with all the court-martial scenes. That does give a rare chance to see Sgt. Fury in his dress uniform.

There have been occasional rumours that we might see an ESSENTIAL SGT. FURY at some point for a while now. I certainly hope so, as they’re a lot of fun, with art as good or better than Kirby’s super-hero art of there era, with some really fun stories, and most haven’t been reprinted in well over 30 years.

Published 1969

New Kirby – Black Panther & Marvel Visionaries – Stan Lee

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Posted in New Kirby.

Two Marvel releases featuring Kirby art now published

BLACK PANTHER BY JACK KIRBY v1 collects the first 7 issues of the 1970s series, with some nice stuff in the back like the unused cover and character design from the 1960s and some unused pencil pages.

MARVEL VISIONARIES – STAN LEE features a few stories drawn by Kirby, most notably the never before reprinted final Kirby issue of THOR.

Who’s Who – The Definitive Directory Of The DC Universe #22 [1986] – Steppenwolf

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

Only one Kirby entry in this issue, Steppenwolf, uncle of Darkseid. I think the main figure is mostly based on a re-design of the character for the toyline or SUPER POWERS series, but still looks nice. The classic Steppenwolf can be seen in the background images, including a scene from “The Pact”.

steppen

Terry Austin handles the inking chores this time around, so that looks sharp.

Published 1986

Young Romance #87 [v10n3] [1957]

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Posted in Genre, Romance.

Ten years after launching, the first S&K romance comic was still going strong in 1957, with #87 (v10#3) featuring three stories drawn by Kirby. While not quite as good as the earlier romance stories that have been reprinted, they’re still fun and really well drawn. The biggest problem is that they’re too short, at only 5 to 7 pages each, to really develop the characters and multiple plot complications that the longer earlier stories did. The less complicated stories also make for few opportunities for the Kirby action sequences that frequently highlighted the early stories.

To place this issue in Kirby’s career, this is from around the time he began working at DC again, with the first few Challenger issues of SHOWCASE being dated just before this.

“Girl With Possibilities” is the lead story in the issue, and easily the best. It features Sid, a failing young theatrical producer who has been unable to put together a hit since his first few early successes. Then he meets Alice, a girl from his hometown, who he recognizes as a sure hit. He quickly sets up a new show to feature her, but becomes afraid that she’ll be signed by a bigger producer, and tries to sign her to an exclusive contract, which she says they don’t need because she’s in love with him. Sid later proposes to her in an attempt to make sure she stays with him, and we get a very clever twist at the end.

This was a lot of fun, and really well drawn. Only 7 pages, I’d have loved for this to go longer, with some very good story possibilities suggested.

Young Romance #87 [v10n3] [1957]

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Sweetheart” is a quick story, only 5 pages, and really doesn’t have a chance to get started before it ends. It features Judy, an orphaned young lady living with her father’s family. She’s considered a bit wild, and considers her cousin Harold a square, preferring to party with local rocker Happy Jenkins. Then at the end Harold announces he loves her, and there isn’t any real set-up for her turnaround. A shame, as the story looks nice (look at that shading on the last panel of page four), and has some hints of interesting characterization, but as it is comes across as lecturing about making responsible choices. Like, uh, marrying your cousin…

“Make Me Beautiful” is the story of Ruth, and I’m not sure I really get it. Maybe you have to be more familiar with the era. Anyway, she’s a plain girl who never gets any dates, and thinks it’s because she’s not flashy enough. Her mother lectures her about reaching out for false happiness, and she listens but still doesn’t find happiness. Finally she goes out in her fancy dress and meets Kevin, a sailor friend of her friend David, and they hit it off, only she’s sure he only loves her for surface appearances and breaks up with him. Of course he returns in the end. Again, there’s the hint of a really good story, but with only six pages it comes across as preaching about not being too flashy and being yourself. And again, it looks great, as good as any

A non-Kirby story, “Was I Too Possessive?”, and two text pages on romance advice and fashion round out the issue.

Published 1957

OMAC #2 [1974] – Blood-Brother Eye

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

Following his first adventure, where Buddy Black was changed to OMAC by Brother Eye, OMAC went to Electric City to meet the designer of Project OMAC, Professor Forest. He found the city closed, rented for the night by criminal mastermind Mister Big for a party, actually a cover to kill Forest and destroy Project OMAC. OMAC manages to fail in a spectacular fashion, and Forest is killed by agents of Mister Big in costume.

OMAC #2 [1974]

You’d have to wonder about why criminals would be so afraid of Project OMAC when guys in those get-ups can carry out an assassination right under his nose. Anyway, OMAC continues into the city, and after a few more fights winds up dead and brought to Mister Big, only to reveal that his death was a ruse to allow Brother Eye to gather evidence.

OMAC was one of those books where it felt Kirby never quite managed to get all the ideas in his head down on paper, which is a shame. I’m sure he had some interesting things to do with the whole Buddy Blank identity, which were never realized. What was published was still fun.

Inked by D. Bruce Berry, one of his first inking jobs over Kirby (so early that Royer was still the letterer at this point).

Silver Star #2 [1983] – Darius Drumm

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

The “Visual Novel” continues this issue, where the main focus is on the villain, Darius Drumm. But first we catch up with Morgan Miller, ten years later, and how his powers of atomic manipulation have developed. They’re then attacked by projections of Drumm, who also attacks Silver Star’s government minder in his car.

Silver Star #2 [1983]

This issue gives us the origin of Drumm, the first born of those with the genetic gifts from Bradford Miller’s experiments. Kind of creepy, as we find he was talking and evil at birth, his father was head of some cult, the “Foundation for Self-Denial”, until Darius turned the cult on him. Drumm attacks the Miller home again, and we find out that Tracy Coleman has been in “stasis” for the last ten years, and there are others among the Homo Geneticus that Drumm fears.

Still a lot of set-up, but Drumm is an effective character, if a bit over the top, and his story is among the creepiest things Kirby ever wrote.

Mike Royer inks the 20-page story, while Mike Thibodeaux inks the cover. Back-up story has the Mocker by Ditko.

Published 1983

3 Publishers, 3 Covers (Two-Gun, Secrets, Love)

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Posted in Gallery.

A trio of 1950s Kirby covers

I LOVE YOU #7, 1955. Published by Charlton, another of the remnants of Mainline’s collapse (I don’t think Kirby ever worked for Charlton directly, unless the humour stories in FROM HERE TO INSANITY and CRAZY, MAN, CRAZY were done for them. I suspect even those might have done for a Mainline humour book which never launched). This series took over the numbering from IN LOVE. Very strong cover, hinting at an interesting story, but really, you two, do you want to get caught?

HOUSE OF SECRETS #11, 1958. This looks like it might have been intended as a Challengers of the Unknown cover or splash at some point, and for some reason used as a cover here instead. Or perhaps not. Anyway, it’s one of the few DC books of the era he just did the cover for, and I think is a Kirby inked cover. Great image, I especially like the collapsing bridge.

TWO-GUN KID #48, 1959. Kirby’s first cover for the series, long before the re-design of the character. Nice drawings, although the vignettes look keeps it from having the strong central image, and the design is a bit blurb-happy.

–Link– 1966 Marvel Article

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Posted in Links.

Fred Hembeck has been sharing various bits of 1960s newspaper articles about comics from an old scrapbook, and has just posted the 1966 Herald-Tribune article that Kirby felt minimized his contributions to Marvel. I think the article was also reprinted in TJKC a while back, but don’t remember the issue. However, look towards the bottom of this Romita interview for Kirby’s reaction to the article.

Golden Age Of Marvel #2 [1999]

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction, Superhero.

Six 1940s Kirby reprints, a total of 52 pages, among the stories in this volume, a few never otherwise reprinted.

First up is the first Vision story, from MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #13 (1940). I’m not sure if there ever was a coherent origin or explanation for the Vision, but he was apparently an extra-dimensional being who pursues justice. In this story he comes to Earth, apparently as the result of a scientist’s experiment, and takes care of a mobster who was planning some revenge against scientists for laughing at his stupidity back in school.

A trio of stories from CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 (1941) follow, beginning with “Meet Captain America”, the classic and oft-reprint origin of Cap.

More interesting, “Murder Ltd.”, featuring Hurricane. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard an explanation for exactly why Mercury from RED RAVEN #1 became Hurricane in CAPTAIN AMERICA, but it led to some odd mix of mythologies, as you have Hurricane, son of Thor, yet called a Greek immortals, fighting Pluto and using the the identity “Mark Cury”. Anyway, it’s a neat story, if a bit haphazarly written, with a nice scene in the beginning of Hurricane taking a cab and a fight at a masquerade party.

Also from CA #1, the first Tuk, Caveboy story, “Stories From the Dark Age”. In this one, we meet Tuk, living in 50,000 BC, as he hears the story of how his dying guardian Ak, last of the Shaggy Ones, witnessed his parents being exiled from the island of Attilan. All of which begs for a connection to the Inhumans, doesn’t it? Anyway, at the end of the short story, Tuk gets rescued by another man who seems to be of his species, Tanir the Hunter. Very fun story, I’m curious about what the Atlantis promised in the next issue is like.

Later is the previously discussed “The Case of the Hollow Men” from ALL-WINNERS COMICS #1 (1941). Different colouring from the previous reprint, I like it slightly better.

Another Vision story rounds up the book, with the story from MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #23 (1941)

vision2

Interesting story about a tribe in Africa which worships a killer man-shark as a god, sacrificing people to it. As a group of explorers are captured, the Vision appears from the smoke and battles the shark, who looks neat.

The cover is a painting by Greg Theakston, mixing Kirby character poses from various sources for a new image.

Published 1999

Rawhide Kid #92 [1971]

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Posted in Genre, Western.

Two Kirby/Ayers reprints in this issue, both from RAWHIDE KID #18 (1960).

“At the Mercy of Wolf Waco” is a 13-page story, wherein the Kid is run out of town, doing that usual lame trick of shooting the guns out of everyone’s hands (this time fully a dozen men at once) and then running into the Wolf Waco gang, who were hiding out of town. They recruit him to try to rob a mail-train, which leads to a nice scene where he’s sent with a stack of dynamite to the train, throws it back and boards the train in a hail of gunfire.

Rawhide Kid #92 [1971]

Eventually he confronts Waco, who falls off the edge of a cliff. Because you can’t have the Kid actually kill someone.

“A Legend is Born” is a 5-pager takes care of the western comic set-piece missing from the previous story, the saloon, as the Kid, now apparently not recognized by anyone, listening in as various men talk about what they’ve heard about the Rawhide Kid, none of it resembling him. Then the Kid is hassled by Hammer Hogan, who claims to have defeated the Kid, so the Kid finally reveals himself, and mops up the bar with Hogan before fleeing. Even having just seen him, everyone in the bar gives a description of him as tall, with four huge guns and fists the size of hammers, when in fact we’re told he was only five foot three inches, 125 pounds, regular, maybe even small, size hands and two colt .45s.

It’s odd how it alternated in the RK stories. One story he’s recognized on sight by just about everyone, the next he’s not, and he has to prove his identity with his prowess with a gun.

They’re both attractive stories, with the usual Kirby/Ayers flair for drawing the classic western sets and clothing, and full of really good action scenes. I especially liked the horseback action on the two splash pages of the first story.

Published 1971