Inked by Joe Sinnott. “Even if thou canst reach me, Thunder God — Thou darest not strike Odin!” I love that. “Canst”. That makes it poetry…
Published 1976
Iron Man #80 [1975] – Cover
Inked by Al Milgrom. Solid enough job, and some nice stuff in the background space scene, but I have to say, this may be the most boring Kirby cover of all time. There are only a handful of Kirby covers I can think of where the character isn’t doing anything, and this may be the most dull of them. I think it’s the almost symmetrical pose that really does it.
On the other hand, you see covers like this almost every week on books published now.
Published 1975
The Defenders #44 [1977] – Cover
Inked by Al Milgrom. Milgrom inked over a dozen of these 1970s covers, and did did a nice job on most of them. I kind of wish he’d gotten a chance to do a full story, just to see what it would have looked like. This one is nice, except for Luke Cage’s face, which seems off. Still, lots of crackling energy to make up for any other flaws.
Published February 1977
Gunslingers #1 [2000]
Marvel sometimes, far too infrequently for my liking, throws out a reprint one-shot with some Kirby. Usually tied into some then-current storyline, I think GUNSLINGERS #1 came out around the time of some mini-series that had all of Marvel’s western characters.
Two Kirby stories are reprinted in it, both inked by Dick Ayers. “Beware!! The Terrible Totem!!” is a reprint of RAWHIDE KID #22, a full issue story where the Kid fights a giant walking totem pole. While there’s an undeniable pleasure in the way Kirby draws Totem, it’s just a bit too silly. In fact, the actual western story in here, involving the Kid being chased by lawmen and mine safety issues, were a lot more entertaining, and would have made a far stronger story if the Totem was replaced by a more related obstacle.
The second Kirby story in here is “I Hate the Two-Gun Kid”, a five-pager from TWO-GUN KID #60. The story is pretty straight-forward and cliched, with the Kid (no, another Kid) finding his masked identity blamed for some wrong-doing while trying to do the right thing, thus earning the animosity of pretty blonde schoolmarm Nancy Carter, who utters the title of the story. I think the original printing of this was in the first issue of the Earth-One Two-Gun Kid (masked lawyer Matt Hawk version), so it’s setting up the on-going conflicts.
Kirby’s western comics always show a lot of love for the subject matter, clearly learned through the movies and books on the subject from his youth. Lots of action, great background scenery, and I especially love the way he draws horses.
Published February 2000
Weird Mystery Tales #2 [1972] – Toxl the World-Killer
This 12 page story is one of four that were intended for SPIRIT WORLD #2 and then published in various DC horror anthology books. This story is inked by Mike Royer, and, though he’s uncredited, written with Mark Evanier (see the article linked to below for details).
“Toxl” is visually the best of those, with some great images, including one of the best two-page spreads I think Kirby ever did. Lot’s of amazing action in here, with the story of Toxl, the leader of a primitive tribe leading a rebellion against a group of technologically advanced conquerors. A little bit of a strange story, but lots of fun to read.
A JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR article on SPIRIT WORLD, including a penciled page from this story and comments by Mark Evanier is available here.
This issue also includes a two page article by Kirby on the topic of UFOs, “They’re Still Up There”, illustrated with four Kirby collages. Fun enough, although I always thought that Kirby’s collages looked to be too much work for stuff he could more effectively do with a pencil, and were never done enough justice by the mediocre printing of the era.
Published October 1972
–Link– Kirby’s Monsters
Posted in Links.
A listing of some of the Atlas-era monsters that Kirby drew, along with some details of where their stories have been reprinted and where they’ve subsequently appeared in Marvel super-hero comics. Boy, that Fin Fang Foom really got around…
The Avengers #157 [1977] – Cover
Inked by Joe Sinnott. Not much to comment on, except that I do love Sinnott’s inking on these 1970s covers. And they sometimes have too many blurbs on the covers…
Published March, 1977
The Demon #4 [1972] – The Creature From the Beyond
THE DEMON was a bit of an uneven book, but had some clever stories with great artwork (inked by Mike Royer) throughout.
This fourth issue is the first of a two-part story pitting Etrigan against some foes of his master Merlin. As is typical in Demon stories, the more interesting stuff occurs with the Jason Blood and friends (Randu and Harry in this issue) sequences, while the Etrigan segments provide some great action.
One of the interesting concepts that Kirby introduces here is the Kamara, a “Fear-Monster” that feeds on terror while disguising itself in the form of a meek white monkey. Of course, the Moore/Bissette/Totleben team would clearly find some possibilities in that a decade later and use the character in an early issue of their SWAMP THING run.
Published 1972
Blast Off #1 [1965]
Published by Harvey Comics, this book has two five page Jack Kirby stories, both inked by Al Williamson. They were originally done circa 1958 for the short lived RACE FOR THE MOON title, and feature the “3 Rocketeers” characters who had appeared in RACE FOR THE MOON #3. This is around the same time that Kirby was doing the Sky Masters comic strip, so clearly space was on his mind in this era. Whereas the comic strip was more of a near-future space race as seen from 1958, the Rocketeers stuff is more fanciful sci-fi, with moonbases, space stations, aliens and journeys to Jupiter.
The first story is “Lunar Goliaths”, which features the Rocketeers of Moon Base 4 pitting their giant boxing robot against a similar robot from a space station, aboard a floating space platform. Those astronauts have too much time on their hands.
![Blast Off #1 [1965]](http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2004/09/Blast-Off-1-1965.jpg "Blast Off #1 [1965]")
I guess this is like Battlebots 40 years early.
The second story, “The Great Moon Mystery”, is kind of interesting for its connections with 2001 – A Space Odyssey. It features the Rocketeers going off on a rescue mission on the moon, coming across a giant rock spire and being taken on an inter-galactic out-of-body trip, and conclude it was left by an ancient alien race. I know that Clarke’s original short story was published prior to when this would have been written, but I don’t know how many of the elements that this story shares with 2001 were in the original short. And was Clarke’s story common enough that Kirby or whoever else might have written this would be familiar with it?
Williamson in one of those inkers who has a bit of an overpowering style, so while the end result is pleasing, I’m glad that he didn’t ink that much more of Kirby’s work.
The cover of this issue is a rather odd mix of several interior panels.
Published October 1965
–Link– Kirby’s NCS bio
Posted in Links.
This page from the International Museum of Cartoon Art website features Kirby’s illustrated autobiographical rundown prepared for the National Cartoonists Society.
