A few updates on the Kirby Museum website, including a short video of Kirby’s cameo on the 1970s Hulk TV show and the start of their Original Art Digital Archive. Pass the word on the latter to anyone you know who owns any Kirby original art.
Daredevil #5 [1964] – Cover
DAREDEVIL #5, 1964. Wallace Wood took over (and slightly redesigned, before the big redesign) DD with this issue, and inked Jack Kirby’s cover. The Matador looks cool, although like a lot of DD villains he seems to be a result of trying too hard to create a memorable villain like Spidey and the FF had.
Upcoming Kirby – Marvel in June 2006
Crazy month for Marvel on Kirby reprints, with lots of early 1960s westerns in various formats (presumably lots of overlap), the last ESSENTIAL FF and a rather expensive complete ETERNALS hardcover. And that CHAMPIONS collection should have a single Kirby cover, for a more trivial entry.
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: RAWHIDE KID VOL. 1
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, DON HECK, DICK AYERS & PAUL REINMAN
Cover by JACK KIRBY
Saddle up, buckaroos! It’s time for the Marvel Masterworks to tame the wild, wild West with the one and only Rawhide Kid! Back before Stan “The Man” and “King” Kirby spun stories of sensational super heroes, they told the tale of a young man who bore two Colt six-shooters and his mission to bring law to the American frontier. After his Uncle Ben Bart was killed at the hands of outlaws, Johnny Bart made it his personal mission to bring justice to the town of Rawhide.
Packed full of shootouts and showdowns, renegades and rustlers, guns and girls galore, these Western yarns will be sure to please you in the Mighty Marvel Manner! We guarantee you won’t be able to hold on to your ten-gallon hat when you read the tale of the Terrible Totem, the Kid’s battle against the bank robbing Bat, and the war with Wolf Waco! Lasso your copy today, True Believer!
Collecting RAWHIDE KID #17-25.
248 PGS $49.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2117-X
ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 5 TPB
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA, JOHN BUSCEMA
Cover by JACK KIRBY
Lee and Kirby spin the classics with characters and concepts that remain among Marvel’s mainstays today! After being lorded over in Latveria by Doctor Doom, the FF face a new level of grudge match when the Thing is tapped for the fighting arena of gangster Skrulls! Featuring the enigmatic Inhumans, the Frightful Four, the Mad Thinker and other enduring opponents! Guest-starring Magneto and the Sub-Mariner! Plus: classic invasions from under the earth and under the sea!
Collects FANTASTIC FOUR #84-110 and ANNUAL #7-8.
568 PGS $16.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2162-5
ETERNALS BY JACK KIRBY HC
Written by JACK KIRBY
Penciled by JACK KIRBY
Cover by JACK KIRBY
“The Gods Are Coming Back!” Jack Kirby reveals a secret history of heroes and horrors as humanity’s cousins, the Eternals and the Deviants, vie to inherit the Earth! It’s a time of Titans, Terror and Time Travel – as only the King could conceive! Guest-starring the Incredible Hulk (or at least an unreasoning facsimile thereof)! Collects ETERNALS #1-19 and ANNUAL #1.
392 PGS. $75.00
ISBN: 0-7851-2205-2
Trim Size: Oversize
MARVEL MILESTONES: RAWHIDE KID & TWO-GUN KID
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY & DON HECK
Cover by JACK KIRBY
Is the Rawhide Kid really a cold-blooded killer? Why do they fear his guns from Abiline to Tombstone? See how the Kid became an “outlaw” in RAWHIDE KID #17 (August 1960). Plus: What is the strange secret of Matt Hawk? Find out in TWO-GUN KID #60 (November 1962).
48 PGS. $3.99
MARVEL WESTERNS: THE TWO-GUN KID
Written by DAN SLOTT
Penciled by EDUARDO BARRETO
Cover by ERIC POWELL
“TOOTH & CLAW”
A modern day adventure with SHE-HULK reminds the TWO-GUN KID of one of his most fraught-filled yarns of yesteryear! So saddle up, pards, and ride with the Wild West Avenger as he sets his sights on some rustlers, but finds himself face-to-fang with critters that are neither man nor beast! It’s a timeless twin-barreled tale a’ terror comin’ your way courtesy a’ Dan Slott and Eduardo Barreto! Plus! A classic Kirby RAWHIDE KID tale!
48 PGS. $3.99
CHAMPIONS CLASSIC VOL. 1 TPB
Written by TONY ISABELLA, BILL MANTLO & CHRIS CLAREMONT
Penciled by DON HECK, GEORGE TUSKA, VINCE COLLETTA, BOB HALL & JOHN BYRNE
Cover by GIL KANE
Okay, a god, a demon, a spy and two mutants walk into… resulting in some of the strangest scenarios of the ’70s! It’s gods vs. heroes in the City of Angels! With mad scientists, Russian super-spies, and guest-stars from Marvel’s western and horror eras! Plus: the secrets of the Black Widow! Featuring Hawkeye! Collects CHAMPIONS #1-11.
208 PGS. $19.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2097-1
Tales to Astonish #64 [1965] – Cover
TALES TO ASTONISH #64, 1965. Dick Ayers inks on this one. I’m not a big fan of the split-cover design in general, so I’m not surprised that it only lasted for a year on ASTONISH and SUSPENSE before going to alternating leads. This is one of the more effective ones, the Giant-Man half in particular is a nice bit of Kirby foreshortening and taking advantage of the tall narrow space, and I always like Attuma.
Published 1965
The Avengers #22 [1965] – Cover
AVENGERS #22, 1965. A nice Wallace Wood inked cover, from when Wood was briefly the interior inker on the book over Don Heck pencils. Great image of the Enchantress there. Not a lot of major female villains from Marvel in the 1960s, but she’s probably the best of them.
Police Trap #4 [1955] – Cover
POLICE TRAP #4, 1955. Boy, that looks dangerous position for a cop to find himself in, doesn’t it? One of the books of S&K’s Mainline company. I always wondered why they didn’t add that “Another Simon/Kirby Smash Hit” stamp until several issues in (and on issues where they didn’t draw any interiors). Also, that giant comics code stamp blocking the logo sure is an eyesore.
True Bride-To-Be Romances #17 [1956] – Cover
TRUE BRIDE-TO-BE ROMANCE #17, 1956. A Harvey romance comic. That guy in the backgound looks like he’s going to cause some trouble. Not one of my favourites among the Harvey covers Kirby did, a lot of them seem a bit dull and pretty much by-the-book, though a few work well.
Black Magic #9[v2n3] [1952] – Cover
There’s an untrustworthy guy if I ever saw one. A nice dramatic cover to contrast with the more explicit horror that’s more common on these BLACK MAGIC covers, showing the variety of fantasy stories the book held, and a good showcase for the inking on the S&K covers. A bit heavy on the text, though.
Published 1952
Captain America #203 [1976] – Alamo II
In “Alamo II” Cap’s search for the missing Falcon and Leila brings him and Texas Jack Muldoon to an asylum transported to another dimension, where he finds his friends without their memories and the small human colony on an asteroid under attack from alien monsters. Brother Wonderful and the Inquisitor, leaders of the Night People, open up a portal to Earth, planning to send the monsters there, but Cap is able to trick them and return the humans to Earth and blow up the asteroid as the creatures approach.
A minor story during Kirby’s final run on Cap, but the art is really pretty, including the alien creatures who look like something out of a 1950s Marvel monsterwork.
Frank Giacoia inks the 17-page story and cover.
Published 1976
This whole story, and much more, was recently reprinted in Captain America: Bicentennial Battles.
Upcoming Kirby – Check it out
The things that come up when you look up Kirby on Amazon…
I’ll post a link to the TwoMorrows site when they have something on that book.
Also, not yet mentioned here, Marvel has ESSENTIAL FF #5, finishing Kirby’s run and beyond, the complete ETERNALS (#1-#19 and Annual) in a $75 book, and a second volume completing Kirby’s BLACK PANTHER (plus the post-Kirby issue wrapping up the Kiber story) in the coming months.