Genre Cover Six-Pack

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Posted in Gallery.

Six great covers from six different genres, all of which Kirby did classic work in for many years.

FOXHOLE #1, 1954. – This is just an amazingly brutal war cover. Very strong concept, amazingly detailed rendering, and very good colour (I’m not sure if Kirby had a hand in the colouring, but the watercolour stuff from the late 1960s and 1970s that he apparently did solo show a similar colour sense to this).

POLICE TRAP #3, 1954. I wonder if an alternate name for this title was POLICE BRUTALITY? Anyway, a nice real-world version of the hard hitting action that Kirby pretty much defined in the super-hero books. Man, all those Mainline books look nice. It would have been interesting to see what they’d have become if the timing was better (as discussed in TJKC #25).

FIRST LOVE ILLUSTRATED #70, 1956. Here’s a nice quiet romance cover, with the usual tension under the surface. I want to draw particular attention on this one to the rendering on the woman’s hair and the flowers.

KID COLT OUTLAW #83, 1959. Unlike some other major western stars of the Marvel/Atlas line, Kid Colt continued on without a Kirby re-design. Kirby did draw a whole bunch of covers for the book (including on GUNSMOKE WESTERN which also featured Kid Colt), though, starting with this one. Inked by Christopher Rule according to the Kirby checklist.

WORLD OF FANTASY #17, 1959. More Rule. A fun science-fantasy scene designed to draw you in. An amusing looking robot, and I like the cape the guy is wearing.

AMAZING FANTASY #15, 1962. Almost certainly the most famous cover-only Kirby book, it’s well known that Steve Ditko did a similar cover solo first, from an angle above the action. Both are great covers, but I prefer this one. It just leaps right out. I do wonder why Spidey is announcing his secret identity to that guy he’s carrying (which is a problem on both versions).

Fantastic Four #101 [1970]

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

The story this issue is”Bedlam In The Baxter Building”. As opposed to “Bedlam AT The Baxter Building”, which was from FF ANNUAL #3. This is of course the second last issue of Kirby’s FF fun, and the last complete story (as #102 begins a continued story).

The issue opens up strong, with some downtime for the FF and Ben showing off some dance moves. And yes, that is Alicia. I’m not sure exactly what happened to her hair in this issue. Anyway, Kirby/Sinnott drawing the Thing dancing. Cool.

Fantastic Four #101 [1970]

There’s another good scene later where Ben is showing off for some kids in a park.

The main story isn’t as good as those scenes, and I think they’d have been better off spending another 17 pages of Ben showing his moves. It’s a trifle involving the Maggia, Marvel’s clever name for an organized crime gang, buying the Baxter Building, evicting the FF, hoping to steal their technology. The Maggia goons manage to defeat the FF rather easily but of course they come back and win in the end. While the plots for the last handful of issues aren’t as good, the action scene are good, and Kirby was still clearly having a lot of fun with scenes like the first one.

Published 1970

Giant-Size Master Of Kung Fu #4 [1975] – Yellow Claw reprints

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Posted in Genre, Other.

Two short reprints from YELLOW CLAW #2 in the back-up slot this issue, the first of three issues of the series Kirby had drawn during his brief stint at Atlas in 1956. It’s possible that these are among the stories Kirby inked himself. Whoever inked them did a great job. The stories are, as is typical for the YELLOW CLAW stories, too short and formulaic to really develop much, but have great visuals.

“Temujai the Golden Goliath” has a couple of naming connections. “Temujai” is an oddly similar name to “Tegujai”, the conqueror of Kirby’s unfinished novel THE HORDE (presumably both based on Temujin). And even odder, Jimmy Woo’s pilot is named “Rocky Davis”, published just before the Challengers debut. Anyway, in this story the Yellow Claw has constructed a giant robot in the form of of Temujai, hoping to use it to take control of Asia using people’s superstitions.

mokf4

Jimmy Woo is sent to investigate, gets captured and thrown in with the scientist who invented the artificial skin on the robot, and with the Claw’s traitorous neice Suwan takes control of the robot. At the end we find out that the fake skin only lasts a short while anyway, so I guess the Claw’s plan was futile.

The next story is “The Mystery of Cabin 361”. I guess a page was edited out here, but the plotting on these stories is so jumpy that I can’t tell where. In this one, Jimmy spots the Claw and Suwan boarding a cruise ship and goes undercover as a steward. He gets captured again (not the best agent, is he, although I guess it’s a genre standard from James Bond or Maxwell Smart), but manages to foil the Claw’s plan. In an entertaining variation, the Claw takes the effort to drug Suwan so she can’t betray him, but even in that state she’s instrumental in his defeat.

As usual in these reprints, lettering is changed so Jimmy Woo is changed from an FBI agent to SHIELD.

Published 1975

Fear #5 [1971] – “Gorilla-Man” and “Channel X”

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

Three Kirby/Ayers reprints in this double-sized issue, which begins and ends with the two “Gorilla-Man” stories from TALES TO ASTONISH #28 and #30.

“I Am the Gorilla-Man” features evil scientist Radzik, first exiled from his home country for forbidden experiments, then perfecting a machine which lets him switch bodies with animals. After a test experiment switching with a cat, he decides the most logical use of this invention would be to switch to a gorilla body to commit crimes. Must have been a comic fan. So he steals a gorilla, placates him with bananas and switches bodies. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that gorillas were evolved enough to be able to control his body, and the gorilla has Radzik in the gorilla body send to the zoo, where he gradually become more beast-like.

Two issues later (far too soon to actually be by popular demand), the sequel “The Return of the Gorilla-Man”. After a short recap, we see Radzik, apparently not so far descended into bestial state, gets hold of a crayon, and writes a note to a guard promising a reward for his freedom. Yes, the guard actually falls for this. Eventually Radzik finds himself among scientists, but his hands get burned on the way so he can’t write. He does prove his intelligence in other ways, such as doing puzzles, playing poker, playing ping-pong and driving.

Fear #5 [1971]And yes, I know that all those require more use of hands than is required for writing….

Confident that the scientists would find a way to restore his humanity so he can resume his planned life of crime, Radzik is surprised to find himself herded onto a rocket, where he’s sent on a trip to the stars, something the scientists were reluctant to sacrifice a human volunteer on.

Two fun goofball stories, and I love the way way Kirby draws gorillas.

Also in this issue, “What Lurks on Channel X?” from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #73. In this story, a couple with a cranky landlord is given a free experimental TV. The TV begins to hypnotize them, and tell them of the conquest plot this is part of. Fortunately, the landlord comes to the rescue when he takes down their antenna as a violation of apartment rules. The aliens give up at this point. I love how poorly all these alien would-be conquerors take even the smallest set-back in these stories. Not a great story, but it does have a brilliant splash page, which can be seen on the Monster Blog (as can, by the way, splash pages and covers from most of the Atlas stories I mention here, if you ever want to check out more).

The cover is also Kirby/Ayers from the cover of TtA #28, which is an unusual panel layout cover, with a different take on the Gorilla-Man story.

Published 1971

Captain America #208 [1977] – The River of Death

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

Kirby’s final stint on Captain America was one of his longest of the 1970s, behind only KAMANDI, with 22 issues, 2 double-sized annuals and a big tabloid comic. 553 pages in all. It was an uneven run in some ways, but it had a lot of fun stuff.

#208 had one of those fun moments with the introduction of Arnim Zola, the Bio-Fanatic. He’s just one of those crazy Kirby villain designs, like Modok, that just make me smile.

While it ended on an incredible up note, this otherwise isn’t one of the highlights of the run. It features Cap in South America, having just escaped from the Swine’s prison. He’s attacked by a large red monster we get to know as the Man-Fish, which is the (at this point in Kirby’s career) obligatory two-page splash, which is one of the weaker ones. I generally like the ones with detailed backgrounds you can get lost in rather than just two figures fighting. Cap then gets recaptured by the Swine and his men, and is about to be killed in a pit along with the Swine’s cousin Donna Maria when the Man-Fish returns, killing the Swine (which seems like a rather anti-climactic end to his story) and then fighting Cap until his master, Zola, shows up and calls him off. In the middle is a short subplot about SHIELD and the Falcon looking for Cap. While it mostly looks good, the story is just a bit light and unfocused.

Frank Giacoia inked the story, while Joe Sinnott inked the cover.

Published 1977

R.I.P. Will Eisner

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Posted in Admin.

Will Eisner, who Kirby worked for in the Eisner/Iger shop in the 1930s, has passed away at age 87.

You can read a 1997 interview with Eisner about Kirby from TJKC #16, and an early 1980s conversation between Kirby and Eisner is available in WILL EISNER’S SHOP TALK.

There is another thing I can tell you. I did a book called The Dreamer [Kitchen Sink, 1986], in which I showed Jack Kirby, and Jack said to somebody, “I didn’t think Will liked me that much!” (laughter) He always called me “boss.” (laughter) I said, “Jack, we’re old men now, you don’t have to call me boss anymore.” “No,” he said, “you’re still my boss.” (laughter)

[Video] Thundarr – Wizard Wars

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Posted in Video.

Probably the animation property most associated with Kirby in the 1980s is THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN, which had 21 episodes produced by Ruby-Spears from 1980-82. Alex Toth designed the main characters, and Kirby was brought in later to do character design, so many of the villains and vehicles were based on his work, sometimes quite obviously. He also worked on such things as an unsold proposal for a Thundarr newspaper strip. On the writing side, head writer was Steve Gerber, who Kirby worked with on DESTROYER DUCK around this time, and Mark Evanier was also on the writing staff.

The premise of the series is a hodge-podge of fantasy/sci-fi elements. Apparently, and I don’t know if you noticed this, about 10 years in the past (well, it says 1994) a rogue planet zoomed between the Earth and Moon, ripping the moon in half and wrecking havoc on Earth. The series is set 2000 years later, in a land of ruined cities, “savagery, super science, and sorcery”, with a group of three companions, Thundarr, Ookla and Princess Ariel, riding from town to town, righting wrongs.

I have a tape with several-generation-down copies of a bunch of the episodes, so every now and then I’ll just post a few words on them, mostly on what seems to be the Kirbyest aspect.

“Wizard Wars” was the first episode of the second season. Thundarr and company get in the middle of a battle between two wizards, the first of whom, Skullus, pretty much has to be pure Kirby. He’s a head in a glass dome, controlling four-armed magical robots. It’s not so clear in the graphic here, but he even has Kirby squiggles on his head.

That’s the clearest Kirby moment in this episode. The other wizard, Octagon, isn’t as distinctive, although he does have Doctor Octopus style arms, both on himself and on his headquarters, which look neat.

Image lifted from the Thundarr fan website, www.thundarr.com, where you can also find an episode guide with a detailed summary of this episode and more. It also has a petition to get a DVD release of the series, which seems inevitable given almost everything else is getting released on DVD these days. Hopefully if they do one, they’ll find some way to incorporate Kirby’s raw design work (and Toth’s as well), maybe as part of an insert booklet, or a video feature or DVD-ROM extra.

Broadcast circa 1981

Atlas Cover Gallery [World of Fantasy, Tales to Astonish, Strange Worlds]

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Posted in Gallery.

A trio of Kirby’s covers to Atlas books from shortly after his return, all three inked by Christopher Rule according to the Kirby Checklist.

TALES TO ASTONISH #3, 1959. Typical Kirby fleeing crowds, and good details on the buildings.

STRANGE WORLDS #5, 1959. A nice break from the giant monster and alien themes that dominate these covers, this looks like a good horror/sci-fi cover, reminds me a bit of the BLACK MAGIC stuff from earlier in the decade. Very nice face on the foreground figure.

WORLD OF FANTASY #15, 1958. And here we get some nice Kirby machinery, though not as elaborate as he would soon get. And the scan doesn’t really show it, but the aliens are neat, and there’s some good linework on the foreground scientist’s face.

Upcoming Kirby – Bicentennial Battles TPB

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Posted in Upcoming Kirby.

Just a quick note that while looking through Amazon’s listings, they have a book called CAPTAIN AMERICA: BICENTENNIAL BATTLES due next summer. These early listings on Amazon are always subject to change, and there are no content listings, but I would imagine this will include the tabloid format book of that title, along with some issues of the regular run of CAP from that era (maybe ANNUAL #3).

Other upcoming books noticed that hadn’t been announced elsewhere, ESSENTIAL FF v4 and a paperback edition of Ronin Ro’s TALES TO ASTONISH.

The Greatest Golden-Age Stories Ever Told [1990]

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Posted in Genre, Kid Gang, War.

THE GREATEST GOLDEN-AGE STORIES EVER TOLD was a 1990 DC hardcover collection various stories from the 1930s to the 1950s DC comics, plus those of other publishers they acquired. Simon&Kirby are represented by a reprint of the 12-page Boy Commandos story from DETECTIVE COMICS #69 (1942), “The Siege of Krovka”.

After a great opening splash of the Commandos on a fanciful ice sled (and I have to say, the splash-page logo use for BC stories is excellent), we get the mood of the times with a scene of Hitler ordering his troops to take Russia, never mind the cold. This speech is nicely delivered as Hitler exits “Der Fuehrer’s Steam Bath”. We’re then told that “the fear of their Fuehrer’s wrath drives the brutal, moronic Nazi legions forward”. Moving from the Nazis, we see the brave Russian defenders, as epitomized by one particular group, the Vanin family. FDR also makes a cameo, with a radio speech. When the town is under siege, young Tanya sneaks out to send a message, getting shot in the process. Struggling on, she gets found by Rip Carter and the Boy Commandos with their sled. After getting her message, Rip and three of the boys go off with a plane and glider to help hold Krovka until reinforcements can arrive, while Brooklyn and Tanya get left behind and take the sled, blowing up some German munitions convoy.

krovka

Tanya earns Brooklyn’s respect thanks to her skill with a tommy-gun on the way over, and she seems taken with him as well, although she does give him language instruction book so she can understand him. A book on learning English, that is.

Very fun story, although focusing a little bit less on the boys than usual. The art is excellent, very well rendered and fast-moving.

Author bios in the back also have a short blurb about S&K as well.

As far as I know, there was only a hardcover edition of this book, unlike most of the books in DC’s GREATEST… STORIES EVER TOLD series.

Published 1990