X-men – The Early Years #5 [1994]

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A reprint of X-MEN #5 (1964) in this issue, the 24-page Kirby/Reinman story “Trapped: One X-Man”, with the second round of the ongoing battle with Magneto’s Evil Mutants. As we begin, they’re recovering from their last encounter, which has left Professor X without his powers. A few odd scenes follow, with a visit from Jean’s parents and Cyclops accidentally left in the Danger Room to provide an action sequence.

Shortly thereafter, Magneto has the Toad pose as a competitor in a track meet showing mutant powers in order to lure in the X-Men, hoping to reveal their headquarters.

X-men - The Early Years #5 [1994]

They unmask him in time, leading to a battle on the subway, and then the Angel is taken prisoner aboard Magneto’s Asteroid M headquarters. The X-Men follow, and are able to prevail and escape thanks to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch being reluctant to follow Magneto’s commands to the point of murdering the X-Men. I wonder at what point it was decided they would join the Avengers? Anyway, the X-Men return home and find out that, among other things, Professor X is a jerk.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of Reinman’s inks compared to some of the other inkers of the era, but he does preserve most of the interesting things in Kirby’s art.

Published 1994

Upcoming Kirby – Marvel in 2006

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Marvel apparently announced a general overview of some of their plans for 2006 at a retailers thing this past weekend. All plans are tentative at this point, of course. Most notable surprise is the plan for a hardcover reprint of Kirby’s THE ETERNALS series of the 1970s. Also, an X-MEN OMNIBUS to come out when the next X-Men movie does, so presumably like the FF book about the first 30 issues, with letter columns.

Plans also for 24 volumes in the ESSENTIAL series and 18 in the MASTERWORKS, almost sure to be a few in each with Kirby (if I were betting I’d say the final Kirby FF volume for each of those is certain, and volumes of THOR in each are likely).

Tales to Astonish #4 [1959] – Cover

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Chris Rule inks Jack Kirby on this early cover on the series. Amusing looking tease for the story, with everyone looking on not knowing what they’re seeing is real. Nice alien robots, too.

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Joe Sinnott drew the interior story that goes with this cover.

Published 1959

Young Love #50 [v5n8] [1953]

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Two S&K stories in this issue, both fairly short so lacking a bit in the complexity of their early romance classics, but with some good points.

“Wedding Present” is a 6-page story about Hank, a young man who falls for Kay and then plans to ask her to marry him just as he gets his draft notice. Unfortunately for him, Kay has been getting serious about another man and Hank reacts poorly to the news.

Young Love #50 [v5n8] [1953]

The action then shifts to Korea, where Hank still has trouble accepting his rejection, even to the point of ignoring obvious advances from a pretty nurse. His rival, Charlie, shows up wounded, and a lecture and blood transfusion later and Hank is ready to move on with his life and finally notices the nurse’s attentions.

This could have been a really good story with a few more pages, and still has some nice scenes, but comes across as more of a summary of a story with just six pages.

“Norma, The Queen of the Hot Dogs” is a 4-page story with a pretty odd title and premise. Norma, a fashion model, is unsure of what to do with her life, wanting to live the high-life but unwilling to marry her rich boss. She ends up going into business with a local hot dog vendor after he remarks that business picks up whenever she hangs around his stand. The new concept for the stand is successful, and they franchise it to more stands with other pretty girls. Yes, S&K predicted Hooters… Of course she still wants more and marries their accountant. Bit of a let-down ending, where it turns out all she really wanted was a strong man and beautiful babies.

As the “anniversary” issue, this also has a page with a short note from the editors and a small reproduction of the classic first issue of YL from 1949.

Published 1953

Star Spangled Comics #48 [1945] – Cover

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Some more late wartime cover artwork with the Newsboys from S&K while others were handling the interiors. This is a fun one (should have used this one on the anniversary of the weblog…), although Scrapper looks a bit off.

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Published 1945

Marvel Tales #125 [1981] – Silence or Death

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The reprints of the Inhumans back-ups from THOR continue in this issue, which reprints the 5-page Kirby/Sinnott story from THOR #149 (1968). Black Bolt is now 19 years old, and being trusted to leave his sound-proof quarters which protected Attilan from his destructive voice. Some of the other familiar Inhumans of the Royal Family come to meet him, including young Crystal. Of course, brother Maximus comes along and wants to prove that Black Bolt can’t be trusted to control his powers, and thus claim the throne.mt125

Of course Black Bolt passes the test, and the other Inhumans take care of Maximus. A nice short story, interesting to see the younger versions of the characters, and always a great way to see Kirby/Sinnott drawing the characters using their powers, like Medusa’s hair and Karnak’s martial arts.

Published 1981

Rawhide Kid #134 [1976]

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Three Kirby/Ayers stories and one cover reprinted from 1962 in this issue.

The cover and lead story are from RAWHIDE KID #30. “When the Kid Went Wild” features a favourite plot device of comics of that era, the hypnotist (there were a lot in the super-hero books). The hypnotist in question is Spade Desmond, who comes to town and uses his powers to get free drinks and embarrass people. When the guns come out he’s too distracted to use his powers, so the Kid helps him out. Desmond is pretty ungrateful, though, and decides to bring the Kid under his powers.

Rawhide Kid #134 [1976]

I love that middle panel. Those Kirby extreme close-ups are always fun, and this one especially so. He uses the Kid’s reputation to do some robbing, until finally he tries to force the Kid to cross the one line he refuses to.

The other two stories are from RAWHIDE KID #27, “The Man Who Caught the Kid” and “The Girl, The Gunmen, and the Apaches”, which I talked about from a prior reprint. A good variety of the types of adventures the Kid encounters in this issue.

Published 1976

New Kirby – Marvel Masterworks Doctor Strange

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Boy, been a while since the last New Kirby announcement. Trivial one this time. Marvel just released MARVEL MASTERWORKS – DOCTOR STRANGE v2, collecting the last few Ditko stories and the rest of the STRANGE TALES run. This wouldn’t be relevent to this weblog except that v1 contained no covers, so this one includes all the covers featuring Doctor Strange that should have been in v1, several by Kirby. Exactly how many depends on how loosely they interpret “Doctor Strange’s cover appearances”.

Nova #4 [1976] – Cover

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The new kid on the Marvel block meets one of the veterans in this Kirby/Sinnott cover from early in the run of NOVA. Good stuff, of the non-Kirby 1970s characters I think that Nova looks most at home drawn in Kirby’s style, so fits nicely on a Kirby cover fighting Thor.

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Published 1976

The Avengers #13 [1965] – Cover

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That’s a great absurd looking Kirby weapon of doom on that cover, and some really nice Chic Stone inking. I also like the colouring effect of the green rays

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Published 1965