One of the more obscure of his characters Kirby was called upon to illustrate for DC’s first WHO’S WHO series was Crazy Quilt, a villain who first appeared in a few post-war BOY COMMANDOS issues with some different costumes.

From the write-up, he appears to have returned as a semi-regular Batman villain at some point, which I didn’t know, hence Batman and Robin appearing in the drawing rather than the Boy Commandos. It’s a pretty good drawing, although the main image is a bit plain, but the background drawings are nice.

Greg Theakston inked this piece.

Published 1985

One of Kirby’s few full-scripting jobs at Marvel during his longest stay there was the Inhumans half of AMAZING ADVENTURES for the first four issues. In this one, the Inhumans are observed by the Iron Man villain the Mandarin as they attack a digging site too close to the Great Refuge. The Mandarin attacks them and is defeated by Black Bolt, but the attack raises his curiosity about the site, as the Mandarin (who actually sent in a robot version of himself) planned.

The Inhumans finish the excavation, finding an ancient statue containing the Eye of Yin, which the Mandarin wants to use to rule the world, and the Eye comes to life.

This is pretty good, although as people would learn soon enough Kirby had much more imaginative ideas that he was waiting for the right venue to explore at the time.
When I first read this I wondered if maybe Kirby intended the villain to be Doctor Doom originally (did the Mandarin ever use robot doubles before this?) and wasn’t allowed to use the character, who was just given a solo series in the other half-book ASTONISHING TALES.

Chic Stone inks the 10-page story, and does a good job, although I didn’t like it quite as much as some of the work he did when he was briefly inking almost all of Kirby’s output for a few months back in the mid-1960s.

Published 1970

In the middle of the big Inhumans introductory story in this issue, starting with Ben going head-to-head with Black Bolt, being slightly unnerved by Black Bolt’s silence. In the middle of the fight Triton is forced to retreat to the water, where he’s taken prisoner by the Seeker, who also breaks into the Baxter Building to capture the sedated Dragon Man, who he mistakenly thinks might be an Inhuman.

After Black Bolt depletes his energy with one big shot at Ben, Karnak calls up Lockjaw to hold Ben back while they retreat, and of course any scene with both Ben and Lockjaw is worth seeing.

The Inhumans escape, and returning to the Baxter Building the FF see that the Dragon Man was taken and follow the trail to the Seeker’s lair. He gives them a quick and not entirely reliable history of the Inhumans, then the Dragon Man wakes up, enraged, and escapes, with Triton’s water-filled cage collapsing leaving him dying without water.

Some quick mile-a-minute plotting going on here, and lots of new characters being introduced. It’s interesting seeing how minor changes would be made in the Inhumans from one story to the next, really streamlining and improving their looks. Joe Sinnott inks story, on his third issue as regular inker, definitely settling in quickly. The Kirby Checklist lists the cover as Kirby/Giacoia/Sinnott (it’s Black Bolt surrounded by floating heads of the FF and other Inhumans), not sure what the division there is, but Ben’s almost definitely inked by Sinnott, and I’m pretty sure about the rest of the FF too.

Published 1966

More Kirby plots for others to finish, topped off by a Kirby/Thibodeaux cover. Not one of my favourites, honestly, as the faces seem a bit off.

For the story, the last of the villains given a power boost, Brainiac, attacks the Amazons on Paradise Island, making them regress to a more primitive warlike state (oddly, one scene showing their more peaceful pursuits shows an Amazon caring for a baby, which makes me think someone was unclear on the concept). Brainiac then blows up a nuclear plant close to where Paradise Island would be in the real world to prompt them to attack, under the leadership of Wonder Woman who returned to the island and regressed with everyone else. A meeting of the Justice League (or those members who were part of the toyline) convenes and decides to put a stop to this, while Superman goes to contain the nuclear plant. Brainiac then decides to shift his powers from the Amazons to Superman, regressing him to a barbaric state and sending him to attack the others.

I don’t know about you, but at this point I’m getting impatient for Darkseid to show up.

Published 1984