Our Fighting Forces #162 [1975] – Gung-Ho

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The last of Kirby’s dozen issues of OUR FIGHTING FORCES sees the Losers stationed in occupied France, trying to get some information on German troop movements. Gunner has taken the oppurtunity to train four young orphaned French boys how to be marines, sort of playing Rip Carter to their Boy Commandos. While impressed with the boys’ skills, Cloud and Storm order them out of the village just as a German attack starts.

OurFightingForces1621975.jpg

While the other Losers are pinned back from the fighting in the village, Gunner and the boys keep advancing bit by bit until they get the German attack to break off. The issue ends with the Losers driving off into the distance, saying they’ve “stayed here too long”, which is hard not to read as Kirby’s own statement, given that this was the last of the books he wrote in his 5-year stint at DC (a few other books came out later, mostly stuff he just drew or which were heavily modified).

A nice little slice of wartime story. If anyone ever does a Boy Commandos revival they should do a story where they meet these four French kids.

D. Bruce Berry inks the 18-page story.

Published 1975

Devil Dinosaur #3 [1978] – Giant

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An intruder enters the Valley of Flame in this issue, a giant human-like being wearing the skull of a thunder-horn and rampaging through the forests.

DevilDinosaur31978.jpg

Moon-Boy goes to find out what kind of creature this is, and gets captured by the object of the giant’s search, his son who had wandered into the valley. Of course, neither father or son, despite their giant frames, are any match for the cunning of Devil and Moon-Boy. Fortunately for them, Moon-Boy puts everything together in the end and convinces Devil to rescue the Giant and re-unite the pair to leave the Valley in peace.

This is my favourite issue of the short run of this series, a good solid complete adventure with a lot of action, some clever planning by Moon-Boy and a nice ending.

Mike Royer inks the 17-page story and cover.

Kirby also writes a one-page text piece, “The X Age… A Comic Book Bonanza”, about how filling in the blanks on pre-history is a fertile ground for comic book creators, or “Comic Bookeroos” as Kirby calls them. I’m surprised that name never caught on…

Published 1978

Upcoming Kirby – October 2006

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Two big Kirby books in the latest solicitations. COLLECTOR #47 has a really nice cover and should have some interesting stuff, starting with the 1950s reprint. And the recent TALES TO ASTONISH Masterworks volume gets a companion piece with the first ten issues of TALES OF SUSPENSE. This one features 8 Kirby stories, several never reprinted, and 7 Kirby covers. JACK KIRBY’S GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS also continues, though no Kirby cover on the third issue.


jkc47.jpgJACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #47

In JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #47, we explore Jack’s group mentality, as we focus on Kirby’s SUPER TEAMS! From kid gangs and the Challengers of the Unknown, to big guns like the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers, and even Super Powers, we’ll cover them all, and present plenty of never-seen 1960s Marvel pencil art! Also included is a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s regular column, two pencil art galleries, a complete never-reprinted 1950s story, an interview with “The Disappointment Artist” author Jonathan Lethem about Kirby’s influence on him, and an interview with JOHN ROMITA, JR. on his work with NEIL GAIMAN revamping Kirby’s ETERNALS! It’s all sandwiched between an obscure 1960s Marvelmania front cover inked by Kirby himself, and a rare Super Powers back cover inked by MIKE ROYER! Edited by John Morrow.


tos.jpgMARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA TALES OF SUSPENSE VOL. 1
Written by STAN LEE, LARRY LIEBER & VARIOUS
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, DON HECK, JOE SINNOTT, AL WILLIAMSON, BILL EVERETT, JOHN BUSCEMA, RUSS HEATH & MORE
Cover by JACK KIRBY

What’s Halloween without a little scare? Well, how about a big scare?! A big scare in the form of monsters galore, and another awesome Atlas Era addition to the Marvel Masterworks!

In 1958 Atlas Comics Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee was joined by two titanic talents: Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Together this trio of storytellers launched Tales of Suspense and its sister title, Tales to Astonish, and along with them the beginnings of a creative revival that would change comics forever. With startling twist-enders featuring Martians, killer robots, and massive monsters like Diablo, Cyclops and Monstro they, hand in hand with a growing group of artists including Don Heck, Joe Sinnott and John Buscema, began to burn up the racks with a style and creativity that comics hadn’t seen in years.

With artwork by an absolute who’s who of comic-book talents, this volume is an absolute must-have for fans with a desire to dig into the foundation would be built into the Marvel Age of Comics! So strap on your tin-foil hat, grab your ray gun, and get ready to dive into one of the most amazing eras of comics history!

Featuring an introduction by noted Atlas Era historian, Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.

Collecting TALES OF SUSPENSE #1-10.
272 PGS $49.99

–Link– San Diego Kirby news

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Posted in Links.

A brief overview of the Kirby panel on Friday (full transcript as usual will be in an upcoming JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR) is available here:


http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=005389

Some news about the just-announced plans to “finish” the the story published as FANTASTIC FOUR #108, probably sometime next year in an edition with a newly inked and scripted version, the Kirby pencils, a reprint of the published #108 and an article by John Morrow, is available here:


http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=7933

New Kirby – Galactic Bounty Hunters #1

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The first issue of GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS, based on some 1980s concepts by Jack Kirby and written by Lisa Kirby, is out now. You can see a preview of several pages, including Kirby’s original designs, over here.

Kirby Museum at San Diego

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Over on the front page of the Kirby Museum site, Rand has the details on where to catch up with the Museum at the San Diego Comic Convention, including the Kirby Museum Panel on Saturday, July 22. Check them out if you’re attending the convention.

Admin – Scanner issues…

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Posted in Admin.

Been having some scanner issues and no time to address them this past week, which have kept me from getting back to regular posting. Should be fixed up soon, but if anyone has some advice on models of decent and inexpensive flatbed scanners, feel free to comment.

–Link– Evanier SDCC Panels

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Posted in Links.

If you’re going to be at the San Diego Comic Convention, Mark Evanier has posted a schedule of the panels he’s moderating this year, including of course the Kirby panel (with Mike Royer, John Romita, George Perez, Neal Adams and others) on Friday July 21, right between a Jim Mooney spotlight and a John Romita spotlight in the same room, so there’s your afternoon right there.

http://www.povonline.com/CCISked2006.htm

New Kirby – FF #52 reprint

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Missed one new Kirby reprint from last week’s stuff. MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS: FANTASTIC FOUR #52, a reprint of the first Black Panther story shot directly from a copy of the original comic book, came out. No further books in that format have been scheduled for the next few months, so looks like this might just be a one-shot deal. I haven’t seen a copy yet, but Mike Sterling of Progressive Ruin suggests that it printed a bit dark.

Upcoming Kirby – September 2006

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Marvel’s got a trio of Kirby publications scheduled for September. I’m most looking forward to the third ESSENTIAL THOR, which has some spectacular stuff, bring us a half-book from the end of Kirby’s run. I’m sure some people will enjoy the HUMAN TORCH MASTERWORKS, which is about half-Kirby, with all but one of the Kirby illustrated Torch solo stories (he came back for #120 which will be in volume 2). I’m not quite sure what I think of the MARVEL SPOTLIGHT thing yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get it.

And from AC Comics is MEN OF MYSTERY: CHAMPIONS COLLECTION VOLUME 1 TP, a big tradepaperback with various reprints, including some undefined amount of Kirby.


ESSENTIAL THOR VOL. 3 TPB
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY
Cover by JACK KIRBY
Trolls, giants, aliens and clowns await in the third thunderous anthology of Thor! The Mighty One faces a god of death! A living planet! Ragnarok itself and…a jail term!? Kang the Conqueror, the Super-Skrull and more! Featuring the first appearance of the scintillating Sif! Plus: the origin of that perennial perilous party crasher, the Wrecker! Guest-starring Adam Warlock and Galactus! Collects THOR #137-166.
616 PGS. $16.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2149-8
Black & White


MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE HUMAN TORCH VOL. 1
Written by STAN LEE, LARRY LIEBER, JERRY SIEGEL, ROBERT BERNSTEIN & ERNIE HART
Penciled by JACK KIRBY & DICK AYERS
Cover by JACK KIRBY
Turn back the clock to 1962. After the debut of a quiet little magazine called The Fantastic Four and a relatively unknown teen hero named Spider-Man, Mighty Marvel decided to go out on a limb and put these two risky ideas together into a featuring starring…The Human Torch. With Jack Kirby on art, man, talk about yer risky business, True Believers.
But, believe it or not, yes, even with that kind of pedigree it was a sure-fire hit! Johnny Storm the thrill-seeking, impulsive teen wonder of the Fantastic Four set the world on fire in these scorchin’ solo stories!
He’s going to head-to-head against none other than Namor the Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man, Captain America, Paste-Pot Pete, the Wizard, the Sandman and the Living Bomb! If that ain’t diagnosis teenage angst, than you can call me Freud!
Collecting Strange Tales #101-117 and ANNUAL #2.
272 PGS $49.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2070-X


spotlight.jpgMARVEL SPOTLIGHT: STAN LEE/JACK KIRBY
Written by JOHN RHETT THOMAS
Right now, you’re leafing through this issue of MARVEL PREVIEWS, looking at all the vibrant, exciting and electrifying comics due to come your way in September. There’s a lot of great stuff in here, isn’t there? Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, the X-Men, Daredevil, Black Panther, the Eternals…and that short list is truly only the start! And you can be sure that all the phenomenal writers and artists putting their creative muscle behind the stories of Marvel’s great cast of characters have three words that they utter whenever they pledge allegiance to the Mighty Marvel: STAN AND JACK! The fall of 2006 might as well be the Marvel Age of Comics all over again, as Jack is represented well with Lisa Kirby and Mike Thibodeaux’ GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS #1, a story based on one of the King’s last creative concepts. And Stan is involved in a new Marvel project that will have the Man come face-to-face with some of this greatest creations! MARVEL SPOTLIGHT meets Stan and Jack! ‘Nuff said!
32 PGS. NO ADS $2.99


MEN OF MYSTERY: CHAMPIONS COLLECTION VOLUME 1 TP
by Various
Superb collection of 24 authentic Golden Age stories, highlighting the most popular features fom the 1940’s & 1950’s. Featured are 15 different costumed heroes – including Bulletman, Eagle, Dyanamic Man, Miss Victory, Spy Smasher, Flagman, Commando Yank, Phantom Lady, Dart, Minuteman, Dollman, and Target — as drawn by top artists such as Jack Kirby, Lou Fine, Bob Powell, Matt Baker and Joe Kubert!
SC, 192pgs, B&W SRP: $24.95