Lesser Villains of the early 1960s

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Posted in Gallery.

A trio of Kirby-on-the-outside books from the early Marvel Universe, showing not everyone was a Doctor Doom, Magneto or Modok.

STRANGE TALES #112, 1963. Inker unknown, possibly Ayers? Nicely drawn figure, but the Eel has one of the dullest costumes ever. Which I guess is fine for his profession, but doesn’t make for splashy comics.

TALES OF SUSPENSE #45, 1963. Don Heck inks. I dunno, I just find it amusing that Happy and Pepper got such a big build-up on their first appearance. Well, they probably did deserve it more than Jack Frost.

TALES TO ASTONISH #47, 1963. Dick Ayers inks. Ah, menaced by a giant piano playing hand. Is it any wonder that they added growing powers just a few issues later?



Super Powers #1 [1984]

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

The first SUPER POWERS mini-series was five issues, with Kirby doing all the covers, plotting the first four and writing and penciling the last issue. In a bit of an coincidence, when this series came out, Kenner released a line of action figures that had the same eight heroes and four villains that are featured in this book. What are the odds.

In addition to the cover of this issue, Kirby also drew an ad for the series that, kind of redundantly  appears in the first issue. Both cover and ad are inked by Mike Royer.

Super Powers #1 [1984]

I like how the play it coy about who the master villain is in the ad and in this first issue. It’s pretty subtle, that shadowing figure in blue and grey whose minions appear with a loud “Boom”.

I’d be curious to read what Kirby’s actual plot for this issue was. It’s not a bad first issue, given the extended ad nature of the book. Pretty much just Darkseid sending his minions to give extra powers to various Earth villains. The art by Adrian Gonzales and Pablo Marcos is nice, except that there’s too much of an attempt to make it look like Kirby on the surface elements. Lots of squiqqles and cosmic energy dots, while shades of their own style seem to bubble through at times.

Worth a look, but not too long a look.

Published 1984

2004 – A Kirby Odyssey

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Posted in Admin.

A quick survey of Kirby related releases in 2004. I still have to pick up a few of them, and I don’t get the Marvel Masterworks volumes, but I think I can safely say my personal pick of the year is THE JACK KIRBY READER v2, for its volume and variety of choice material I haven’t read before in a nice format. Second place, and more recommended for casual fans for whom more of it will be new-to-them, is MARVEL VISIONARIES – JACK KIRBY.

Archie’s entry in the Kirby derby was ADVENTURES OF THE FLY. Mostly excellent reproduction, some questionable layout choices, fun late 1950s material.

DC had two entries, finishing up the Kirby runs of two major series, JIMMY OLSEN BY JACK KIRBY v2 and CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN ARCHIVES v2. I prefer the format of the JIMMY OLSEN book, and hope they do more like that in the future. The only semi-concrete Kirby on their future schedule seems to be KAMANDI, in the Archives format.

Greg Theakston’s Pure Imagination published THE JACK KIRBY READER v2, an excellent selection of pre-1960 material from a variety of publishers, showcasing the various genres Kirby worked in nicely. Possibly more books from Theakston will follow in 2005.

Marvel had some nice stuff this year.

In the trivial department, only two new books in the Essential line had any Kirby, both trivial. One cover and an FF crossover issue (#73) in ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL v2 and several covers and 10 pages of a Namor crossover issue (from TtA #82) in ESSENTIAL IRON MAN v2 (the covers duplicating those already in ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA v1). Next year should be better, with new Thor and FF volumes likely.

The Marvel Masterworks line finally finished re-releasing old volumes (often with some corrections, additions and shuffling from the original printings, plus some being released in softcovers exclusively to Barnes&Noble) and added some new ones. Trivial Kirby content in AVENGERS v4 (one partial cover) and X-MEN v4 (three covers), major Kirby content in FF v7 (everything) and HULK v2 (about half the book in pencils or layouts). Next year should see more FF, Golden Age CAPTAIN AMERICA and maybe more.

Marvel also did a paperback reprint of the MADBOMB storyline from Kirby’s mid-1970s return to CAPTAIN AMERICA. At least a BLACK PANTHER book will follow in this format next year.

The big one from Marvel was MARVEL VISIONARIES – JACK KIRBY, of course. Good format, excellent price, mostly good reproduction, fair story selection. Future volumes in the series will include Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (with some Kirby art in the Lee volume).

Fan publisher TwoMorrows had a good selection, with two tabloid issues of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, a fourth volume of THE COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR reprinting earlier issues and the re-issue of KIRBY UNLEASHED. Also of note from TwoMorrows, ALTER EGO #36 had a section on Joe Simon, with some Kirby art and information, and #39 had a page with some of the DC S&K stuff, including a neat house ad from 1943 touting the team and their various features. I suspect some other fan publications like COMIC BOOK ARTIST or BACK ISSUE might have had some minor Kirby content, but I didn’t get those. Same with any AC Comics publications. Feel free to follow-up with any info on those if you got them. Nothing too minor to warrent a mention.

Also this year, Ronin Ro’s biography of Kirby, TALES TO ASTONISH, was published. Still haven’t read it so no opinion offered. The only Kirby art in it was the cover with detail sections of an early 1970s Kirby drawing that’s been printed in TJKC.

And editing to add a late edition here, THE NEW SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC BOOK STORIES also came out in 2004, with a black and white reprint of FF #21.

And, I only just found this looking for other Kirby publications, Graphitti Designs did a t-shirt with some Kirby/Royer art, featuring the Galactic Bounty Hunters, which apparently someone might be doing as a series for Dark Horse in the future.

New Kirby – Unleashed, Collector, Hulk

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Posted in New Kirby.

More when I actually get copies, but just a quick note that within the last few weeks the following Kirby items were released:

KIRBY UNLEASHED, a new edition of the early 1970s volume that had a biography of Kirby (updated for this release), along with various rare artwork, and the plates from the GODS portfolio and other extras.

THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #41, focussing on the 1970s Marvel period, and you know what that means: Devil Dinosaur!

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE HULK v2 (which oddly I can’t seem to find on any of the major on-line bookseller sites). Collecting Hulk stories from TALES TO ASTONISH #59 – #79, so a lot of Kirby covers (17 of the 21 assuming they include non-Hulk covers which they usually do), plus three stories he did the pencils for, nine others he did layouts, with Esposito/Kane/Powell/Everett/Romita finishing. Plus work by Steve Ditko and Dick Ayers.

Later, 2004 in review for the Kirby fan. At least 12 major releases. Feel free to post your favourites.

Black Magic #7 [1975] – “The Cloak” and “Freak!”

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Posted in Genre, Horror/Fantasy.

More reprints from the S&K Prize horror series of the 1950s in this issue. Starting off with the cover, a reprint of the cover to the original #17 (v2#11), a moody piece with one of the classic horror set-pieces, a dark attic, with a chained freak. The 8-page story from that issue, “Freak!”, is reprinted in here, featuring art credited to Kirby/Meskin in the updated Kirby checklist. The Meskin part is heavy, which is probably why the story was missing from earlier Kirby checklists, but the Kirby parts are definitely there, especially in how some of the characters hands are posed. A decent short story, although the cover kind of gives away too much.

Also in this issue is “The Cloak”, a 7 pager from the original BM #2.
This is sort of a modern urban gothic horror story. An unemployed man in Budapest gets a chance at a job, but needs to look good for the occasion. He has one good suit left, and goes out to rent a cloak to wear for it (this is back when men wore cloaks. And hats). It gets delivered to him by a mysterious guy, it has a label “Asmodeus”, and still he doesn’t get the hint. He wears it, and it attempts to kill him several times before he ditches it, giving it to a derelict. Our man Paul then calls the tailor offering to pay for the cloak, and finds out it wasn’t from the tailor, the cloak he ordered is still waiting to be picked up. Now he looks up “Asmodeus”, realizes the guy he gave the cloak is in danger, and tries to save him. He fails, and the cloak vanishes. And that’s it. Dead vagrant, and no idea if Paul got a job.

bm7

A good, if simple, story. And the art just has to be seen. The various accidents that Paul runs into with the cloak are great, like being dragged by a train. And the backgrounds are excellent. I don’t know if Budapest actually looked like this, but it should have.

Published 1975

Upcoming Kirby – Modern Arf

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Posted in Upcoming Kirby.

Amazon has more details on the previously mentioned MODERN ARF from Fantagraphics. It will have a complete Kirby story. To add to the details below, it’s a 5 page story from Harvey’s ALARMING TALES #1, 1957. The bit about not being reprinted isn’t strictly true, but that was just a digest and not that easy to find. The added incentive about it being reprinted from the original art (not clear if it’ll be colour or not, I’d be happy with either) in a large 9×12 format makes this very attractive.

Modern Arf
by Craig Yoe

About the Author
Craig Yoe operates YOE! Studio from a mountaintop castle overlooking the Hudson River with his partner, Clizia Gussoni. YOE! creates toys to theme parks, animation to advertising for MTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Microsoft, and MAD Magazine.

Product Description:
An irreverent new journal devoted to the art of the comics.

Modern Arf is the first in a series of volumes in which the award-winning artist and editor, Craig Yoe, explores the unholy marriage of Modern Art and the Funnies in a bombastic and entertaining way.

The first blast features material created just for this book as well as classic material by Rube Goldberg, Jack Kirby, Hy Mayer, Winsor McCay, and Patrick McDonnell at the zenith of their wacky, surreal, and innovative best.

Patrick McDonnell rarely draws outside popular daily strip Mutts, but for the first volume of Arf he has contributed an exclusive four page strip of of surreal comics. They’re fun, they’re cool, they’re wordless, and they’re sublime.

Jack Kirby’s story, “The Fourth Dimension is a Many Splattered Thing,” reprinted from the original art, is Kirby at his most surreal, surely informed by cubism and certainly the inspiration for Steve Ditko’s later work on the exotic 1960s comic, Dr. Strange. It is published here for the first time since its original publication in the mid 1950s.

Hy Mayer, a forgotten cartoon surrealist, is represented with an astonishing series of mind-blowing “worm’s eye views.” It’s M.C. Escher meets Charles Schulz! Antonio Rubino is an early 20th century Italian cartooning master, whose breathtaking work was infused by cubism, futurism and art deco. Modern Arf will present a rich sampling of his work, including bookplates, paintings, and comics.

Did you know Salvador Dalí drew comics? You’ll be able to see them in this first volume of Modern Arf accompanying an essay exploring his influence on comics, his animated cartoon, and examples of comic artists such as Steranko and Crepax who paid homage to the Spanish surrealist. Modern Arf is stunningly designed in an oversized format to give justice to the incredible art collected between its covers. The Arf series will delight both comic and fine art lovers. Both will be sure to exclaim, “I don’t know much about Arf, but this is what I like!” 120 pages black-and-white illustrations throughout and 48 pages in full color, 9″ x 12″.

Buried Treasure #2 [1986] – “Inky” – proposed comic strip

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Posted in Genre, Romance.

In the late 1940s, while they were working on the successful line of romance comics, Simon&Kirby put together a six week proposal for a comic strip, Inky, featuring cartoonist Inky Spotts and his struggles to establish himself. The strip didn’t sell, although a few years later they did make use of parts of it for the romance comic IN LOVE #3. In 1986, Greg Theakston published BURIED TREASURE v1#2 and included the 36 strips in nine pages.

The story is incomplete, unfortunately, just the first chapter in a longer story. As it begins, Inky is an assistant to a successful older cartoonist, who dies (killing his character in the process). After that he tries to pitch his own strip, but while he’s technically good the syndicate editor says his work lacks soul. Eventually he gets suckered into working with Donna Dreame, a society columnist who plans to use him to make a fortune (in comics?), but passes off a stolen concept as her own. As the six-week sample closes, Inky has a confrontation with the editor, who knows the strip was stolen and wants to find out who’s responsible.

I’m not sure I can disagree with the syndicates for not buying, since I have trouble seeing the set-up, at least based on what was done, holding up a strip for the years that would be required for a daily strip after the initial storyline was over. How many action-filled adventures could you credibly put a cartoonist into? Still, it would have made a good extended opening story, and the art is spectacular.

inky1 inky2

Also in this issue, a short essay with quotes from Joe Simon about the history of romance comics, plus a colour backcover with the cover of IN LOVE #3 reprinted. Non-Kirby work includes reprints of Alex Toth and Bill Ward comics.

Published 1986

More 1970s Marvel covers

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Posted in Gallery.

JUNGLE ACTION #18, 1975. Klaus Janson inks, which works better than I expected (but then I’m mostly familiar with Janson from a few years later). This is shortly before Kirby would re-claim the character for his solo series.

AVENGERS, THE #148, 1976. Al Milgrom inks, and Kirby’s chance to draw the Squadron Supreme. I’m kind of disappointed they didn’t get Murphy Anderson to re-draw Hyperion’s face…

THOR #250, 1976. Joe Sinnott inks. Ah, Balder, Sif, the Warriors Three and Mangog. That’s some good stuff. Makes me very grateful that Marvel got Kirby to draw all these covers in the 1970s.



Devil Dinosaur #1 [1978]

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Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

Ah, one of Kirby’s final contributions to the Marvel Universe, Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy. The brief nine-issue run of the book, ending when Kirby left Marvel to devote his time to animation, is often maligned, mostly by those who haven’t read it. Certainly I didn’t really approach it with any expectations when I got around to getting the back issues. Turns out it’s a fun adventure comic, where Kirby was free to let his imagination roam, with some genuine heart. One of the charming things about Kirby comics is his almost complete lack of pretension and his obvious enthusiasm for the work, which manages to sell some of the wildest concepts that wouldn’t work with less.

In this debut issue, we meet Devil Dinosaur, a bright red dino, presumably a T. Rex (although Kirby wisely doesn’t use actual dino names for most of the series), and his young companion, Moon-Boy of the Small-Folk, residents of the dangerous Valley of Flame, a heavily volcanic area. After a battle with Thunder-Horn, Moon-Boy remembers how he first met Devil, when the Killer-Folk killed Devil’s family and seared his flesh, and they rescued each other. After that, Moon-Boy’s people fled in fear of Devil, while the Killer-Folk plot revenge.

This all works a lot better in comics form, of course, and later issues got even weirder, as Kirby threw in science-fiction concepts with wild abandon.

Devil Dinosaur #1 [1978]

Mike Royer inks the story, Frank Giacoia inks the cover and Kirby also writes a text page introducing the series.

Published 1978

A DC Universe Christmas [2000]

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Posted in Genre, Superhero.

DC did a collection of Christmas stories a few years ago, including this 10-page S&K reprint from ADVENTURE #82, “Santa Fronts For The Mob”

santa

Some mobsters get the questionably great idea to hire a wrestler to play Santa at a mall in order to rob the place. Fortunately, the wrestler finds the Christmas spirit and helps out Sandman and Sandy in the end. A light but decent holiday story.

Published 2000