The Avengers #27 [2000]

by
Posted in Genre, Superhero.

For a brief period a few years back, Marvel had a format they called the “100 Page Monster”, where they’d back up a regular monthly book with a whole lot of reprints. In this example, they included a reprint of AVENGERS #150, which in turn reprinted part of AVENGERS #16 from 1965 (I expect in 20 years we’ll get a reprint of AVENGERS v3#27 in AVENGERS v5#32, and so the cycle of life continues).

This story is of course “The Old Order Changeth”, the first major change in the team line-up, with all the founding members taking a break, leaving Captain America to lead the team with three reformed villains, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. While the departing members do the recruiting (which involved going through the mail to select two of the members. I wonder who else wrote in and didn’t make the cut), Cap and Rick Jones make their way back from foiling Zemo’s plans in the Amazon.

av27

This scene always cracks me up, as they have Cap rush ahead as an excuse for a few action panels, and then it turns out he decided to wait for Rick anyway.

This reprints 12 of the original 20 pages, with the first few pages (wrapping up the battle with the Masters of Evil) cut, as well as some later pages/panels. This issue was Dick Ayers doing finishes over Kirby layouts.

Published 2000

Ms. Tree #50 [1989] – Captain Victory pinup

by
Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

Max Collins and Terry Beatty finished up the first run of their detective series in this issue, including several dozen illustrations of congratulations on their “fiftieth issue” from various artists. Kirby was among them, sending in a note featuring Captain Victory.

mstree

I think Terry Beatty inked the drawing. At least it looks like his style, and I vaguely remember hearing that he did.

Published 1989

Upcoming Kirby – Marvel in May 2005

by
Posted in Upcoming Kirby.

Kirby in a whole bunch of Marvel releases for May 2005, in a variety of formats. The most interesting is ESSENTIAL THOR v2, almost 600 pages of Kirby, most not reprinted in 30 years. Some good stuff in the BEST OF THE FF book, even some of the non-Kirby stuff which makes up the bulk of the book. And it’s good to see those two Tuk stories, although I still think the MARVEL MILESTONE selection is a bit unfocused. The MAXIMUM FF book is a bit odd to see. I suspect Evanier will post more on his site, and I’ll link to that when he does.

ESSENTIAL THOR VOL. 2 TPB
AVENGERS: KANG – TIME AND TIME AGAIN TPB (one story)
BEST OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 1 HC (five stories)
GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #3 (two stories)
MARVEL MILESTONES: WOLVERINE, X-MEN AND TUK THE CAVE BOY (two short stories)
MAXIMUM FANTASTIC FOUR (see details below)
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN VOL. 2 (covers of the ToS issues)

ESSENTIAL THOR VOL. 2 TPB
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY
Cover by JACK KIRBY
Witness classic cosmic clashes between the God of Thunder and his evil stepbrother, Loki; the Absorbing Man, the Destroyer; and more of his most fearsome foes! Plus: Thor’s first journey into the Black Galaxy and a reporter’s firsthand account of Asgard! Guest-starring the Avengers and featuring the first appearance of Hercules! Collects THOR #113-136 and Annual #1-2.
584 PGS./ALL AGES/BLACK & WHITE …$16.99
ISBN: 0-7851-1591-9)

AVENGERS: KANG – TIME AND TIME AGAIN TPB
Written by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS & ROGER STERN
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, SAL BUSCEMA, HERB TRIMPE & JOHN BUSCEMA
Cover by JOHN BUSCEMA
The super-villainy of Kang the Conqueror…unleashed at last! You’ve seen his true colors in YOUNG AVENGERS; now, see what came before! In a classic contest, the Grandmaster and Kang pit the Avengers against the Squadron Sinister and the wartime Invaders! And when the self-proclaimed “Ultimate Kang” sets outs to conquer his alternate-reality counterparts, only one force can possibly halt his mad march: himself!? Plus: Kang takes on Thor and the Hulk! Collecting AVENGERS #69-71 and #267-269, THOR #140, and HULK #135.
176 PGS./MARVEL PSR …$19.99
ISBN: 0-7851-1820-9

BEST OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 1 HC
Written by STAN LEE, ARCHIE GOODWIN, ROY THOMAS, JOHN BYRNE, KARL KESEL, MARK WAID, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH & ROBERTO AGUIRRE-SACASA
Penciled by JACK KIRBY, JOHN BUSCEMA, GEORGE PEREZ, JOHN BYRNE, STUART IMMONEN, MIKE WIERINGO, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH & STEVE MCNIVEN
Follow the FF from their original adventure to the height of their success! Caught in a mental maelstrom of alien enemies! Trips into the Negative Zone, Subterranea and the soul of Ben Grimm! The triumph and tragedy of Mr. Fantastic! The Thing vs. the Thing! And who will be the last hero standing in the ultimate war…of practical jokes? Featuring Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, the Impossible Man, Daredevil and more! Collects FANTASTIC FOUR #1, #39-40, #51, #100, #116, #176, #236, and #267; FANTASTIC FOUR (Vol. 3) #56 and #60; MARVEL FANFARE #15; MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #50; and MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #4.
360 PGS./MARVEL PSR …$29.99
ISBN: 0-7851-1782-2

GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #3
Written by JOSS WHEDON
Pencils by DAVE COCKRUM
New Cover by DAVE COCKRUM
Featuring Classic Reprints by STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY & WERNER ROTH
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of 1975’s GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1 and #2 comes a colossal collection of the X-Men’s greatest team-ups – plus a brand-new untold tale of the All-New, All-Different X-Men by JOSS WHEDON and DAVE COCKRUM! The X-Men tangle with the FF in FANTASTIC FOUR #28 (July 1964), the Might Avengers guest-star in X-MEN #9 (January 1964) and along comes a Spider-Man in X-MEN #35 (August 1967)!
80 Pgs/ Marvel PSR… 4.99

MARVEL MILESTONES: WOLVERINE, X-MEN AND TUK THE CAVE BOY
Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY
Penciled by JOHN BUSCEMA, RICK LEORNARDI, JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY
Cover by WALTER SIMONSON
Celebrating 65 years of titanic tomes from the House of Ideas, MARVEL MILESTONES makes its triumphant return to the comics scene! Experience the highs, lows and in-betweens of Marvel’s finest — monthly — in full color! This issue: In a special preview of next month’s MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS: WOLVERINE VOL. 1 TPB, Logan makes his first foray as Patch into Madripoor — an island nation where anything goes, and everything is for sale — in a story from MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #1! Plus: Storm and Cyclops battle for leadership of the X-Men in UNCANNY X-MEN #201, and Tuk the Caveboy stars in stories from the Dark Ages from CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1 and #2.
48 PGS./Marvel PSR …$3.99

MAXIMUM FANTASTIC FOUR
Introduction and afterword by WALTER MOSLEY
Commentary by MARK EVANIER
Designed by PAUL SAHRE
FANTASTIC FOUR #1 Written by STAN LEE & Illustrated by JACK KIRBY
Ushering in momentous change in comic-book illustration and ingenuity, Jack Kirby’s immense artistic contribution to FANTASTIC FOUR #1 revolutionized visual storytelling and brought the art of reality to the extraordinary lives of super heroes. The ripple effects of that single issue continue to influence comic-book art to this day. As a tribute to Kirby’s rendering of Marvel’s First Family and their first adventure, MAXIMUM FANTASTIC FOUR re-presents FANTASTIC FOUR #1 AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE – highlighted by a super-size, digitally remastered, panel-by-panel exploration of the entire issue that captures every single detail and nuance of Kirby’s groundbreaking artwork. The book also contains a substantial introduction and afterword by bestselling author and comic-book enthusiast Walter Mosley; art commentary by Kirby expert Mark Evanier; the stunning design of Paul Sahre; and a scale-sized, high-resolution reproduction of FF #1. This immaculately packaged coffee-table masterpiece is must-have for any Jack Kirby enthusiast, Fantastic Four fanatic, or sequential art fan!
224 PGS./All Ages …$49.99
Format: Jacketed hardcover
Trim size: 8 7/8″ x 11 7/8″
Special effects: four-color matte lamination, spot UV gloss jacket with embossing and foil, four-color matte lamination, spot UV case.
ISBN: 0-7851-1792-X

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN VOL. 2
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by DON HECK
Cover by DON HECK
Marvel’s Man of Metal makes his triumphant return to the Masterworks! Yes, it’s time to fess up and Face Front, True Believers: After a thirteen-year vacation, the iron-clad Avenger’s back with his sophomore effort at long last. But it’s guaranteed to be one harrowing homecoming!
This tome’s classic tales pit Tony Stark against a virtual who’s who of adversaries in the mighty Marvel manner that could only be brought to you by Stan Lee and the lavish pen of “Dashing” Don Heck! There’s the return of Iron Man’s arch-nemesis, the Mandarin, and said vile villain’s origin, followed up by the first appearance of the long-loved Avenger, Hawkeye — but he’s not playing on the side of angels here. No, he’s teamed-up with the Black Widow against ol’ Iron Boots! And finally, Iron Man must test his mettle against no less than Captain America and his own Iron Man armor as the new Iron Man fights the old! It’s a slam-bang barrage of Marvel classics with drama galore and a little ’60s Russkie “Red Scare” that can’t be beat. Reserve your copy today! Collecting TALES OF SUSPENSE #51-65.
240 PGS./ALL AGES …$49.99
ISBN: 0-7851-1771-7

Monsters On The Prowl #28 [1974] – The Escape of Monsteroso

by
Posted in Genre, Science Fiction.

A 13-page Kirby/Ayers reprint from AMAZING ADVENTURES #5 (1961) leads off this issue. In this one, the owner of a failing circus hears about a report of a space-ship crashing in Africa (with some rather racist comments from the news announcer mentioning it). He decides to go down and see if he can find a lead attraction for his circus out there, and finds a giant monster, apparently dead, which he ships to New York to sell to a museum, using all his showman talents to come up with the name “Monsteroso” (now we know why his circus was failing). In the museum, Monsteroso suddenly comes to life and goes through New York, including a trip through Central Park, digging from the lake to the zoo, where he examines (and puts down unharmed) several animals.

Monsters On The Prowl #28 [1974]

(I love those weird panels Kirby would throw in, where he had the word balloons coming out of a shot of the Earth, which in his world-view apparently had many other planets, including ringed giants, in close proximity)

As the police use try to use gas on him, he climbs the UN building and sits up there, until they manage to shoot him down with a drugged harpoon and he falls into the river. They’re quite proud of their ability to defeat the alien menace. Then, in an “ironic twist” (as the caption calls it), a giant space-ship comes down and out emerge mountain sized aliens, revealing Monsteroso to be a lost curious infant.

Decent story, the plot works a lot better here than it did when it was re-cycled for one of the weakest issues of FF a few years later.

The cover is also taken from AMAZING ADVENTURES #5, a modified version of the splash page, with the added art on the right side being done by Steve Ditko.

Published 1974

Gallery of the Obscure (Shield-Wizard, KO, Chan)

by
Posted in Gallery.

Some covers to publishers Kirby didn’t do too much work for.

SHIELD-WIZARD COMICS #7, 1942. The Kirby checklist credits this to Kirby/Novick, which seems plausible, but a bit surprising. It would be the only Kirby work for MLJ in the era (after they became Archie he seems to have done a short story in 1947, then of course the late 1950s super-hero stuff). It’s a very nice cover, very much in the spirit of the Captain America covers Kirby had done the previous year.

KO COMICS #1, 1945. Not sure what the story with this cover is. The publisher is Geronoa (or possibly Gerona), and the cover has a “JCA” signature, but does appear to be partly by Kirby, certainly having some traits of his work of the era. Not sure the name of the character, could be “The Duke of Darkness” or “The Menace”, which are listed in Overstreet as characters in here. Any more info would be appreciated.

CHARLIE CHAN #6, 1955. Published by Charlton, presumably picking up some unused inventory material from the Prize series of 1948. This is a great dynamic cover, my favourite of these three.

Superman #400 [1984] – Pin-up

by
Posted in Genre, Superhero.

For their big 400th issue, SUPERMAN featured many artists doing short stories and pin-ups. Jack Kirby was among them, doing a pin-up of Superman outracing a space shuttle. Terry Austin inked the piece.

superman400

It’s a very nice piece, a good mix of Kirby’s style with the classic Superman look, unlike what we got when Kirby was drawing an actual Superman book in the 1970s.

Published 1984

Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #3 [1975] – Claws of the Dragon

by
Posted in Genre, Other.

Another of the books Kirby just penciled in the last days of his DC contract. At this point the comic Dennis O’Neil was still adapting the RICHARD DRAGON novel written by O’Neil and Jim Berry under the name “Jim Dennis”. The series apparently couldn’t hold an artist, with five pencilers in the first four issues (the last, Ric Estrada, did stick with the book).

As you’d expect in a martial arts book, this is pretty much just a series of fights. First Dragon fights a mob to rescue Carolyn from men of the Swiss, who wants some information from her. Carolyn manages to get captured again while Dragon is distracted fighting three guys who think they have martial arts training. We get a flashback to Dragon’s teacher, the O-Sensei, who gave him the Dragon’s Claw pendant for Finally the Swiss lures him into a trap, where he fights various hired weapon-masters.

rd

I suspect that a few pages were cut here, as there are a few hired hands show up in the initial scene that Dragon doesn’t actually fight. Anyway, Dragon is able to defeat them all, but the Swiss still manages to blow up the place and escape with Carolyn.

Obviously a bit of a trivial entry in the Kirby career, but he has a pretty funny way of drawing martial arts, very kinetic. D. Bruce Berry inks the 18-page story.

Published 1975

Weird Wonder Tales #4 [1974]

by
Posted in Genre, Horror/Fantasy.

Reprint of TALES TO ASTONISH #1 (1959), inks attributed to Chris Rule.

A ship encounters a giant lobster, just one in a series of giant sea life they’ve encountered as Professor Briggs leads them on an expedition following the map of Doctor Parker. The ship is capsized by what seems to be a giant moving island, and Briggs and Captain Kane wind up on the shore of another island, where they find Parker. Turns out he’d been conducting experiments on hormone regulating systems, but hadn’t yet found a way to control it, leading to the giant turtle currently escaping from behind a huge gate. As they flee, Kane considers the potential wealth and problems of taking such a giant beast to civilization.

Weird Wonder Tales #4 [1974]

Ultimately he decides not to, and on the way out they encounter an even bigger turtle from an earlier experiment, the very “island” that had capsized the ship.

A hodge-podge of ideas already cliche as the time, borrowing heavily from KING KONG of course. The monsters in this are also a let-down, being just large versions of real animals. I did like the odd perspective shot of the stockades that the turtle was held in, though.

The cover is also from TALES TO ASTONISH #1, also Kirby/Rule, but heavily modified for the reprint. In the original the monster shown through the gates is clearly a large turtle, just walking out, as in the story, in the reprint it’s completely redrawn as some huge snarling clawed beast.

Published 1974

Fantastic Four #31 [1964] – The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man

by
Posted in Genre, Superhero.

The original FF villain, the Mole Man, returns for a third go-round, this time sinking whole city blocks out of New York to his subterranean domain. While the rest of the FF go to investigate, Sue sees a photo of an escaped convict and goes to the police station. The block she’s on is sunk by the Mole Man and she’s taken hostage, and the rest of the team have to rescue her, including a brief side-track of having to keep the Avengers from interfering (as the “Marvel Universe” concept became more common in this era).

Fantastic Four #31 [1964]

The FF escape, only Sue somehow gets injured in an explosion, and only one doctor can save her. It turns out to be the fugitive whose photo Sue was looking at earlier, who it turns out is Franklin Storm, father of Sue and Johnny, believed by most people to be dead. He’s able to save Sue, and we’re promised more on him next issue.

FF was a pretty good book at this point, just on the verge of a big leap in quality to the peak material. I especially like how Kirby was drawing the tech stuff at this time, like the scooters the Mole Man’s army uses, and Reed’s various devices.

Chic Stone inks the cover and story, a few issues into his run as FF inker. While I love Stone’s Thor and X-Men work of the period, his FF didn’t quite work for me (although he was better than the regular inkers right before and after him). For some reason his FF just doesn’t seem as bold as those other book. The big problem is how Ben Grimm looks in here. Seems a bit sparse, cartoony, without the texture that Sinnott would be bringing a year later. Actually, ignoring how he inks Ben, most of the rest looks pretty decent.

Published 1964