Category Archives: Featured Work

Featured Cover, Adventure Comics #95

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Posted in 2007/01, 4 DC (early), Featured Work, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Adventure Comics #95
Adventure Comics #95 (December 1944) by Jack Kirby

It was late in the war and both Jack Kirby and Joe Simon were performing their military service. Nonetheless the cover for Adventure #95 was clearly penciled by Jack. Earlier while working for DC and knowing that they would be called to duty, Simon and Kirby had backlogged art for DC to publish while they were gone. It is an indication of the importance that S&K gave toward covers that the stories they provided for Adventure Comics ran out months ago (the last in April 1944) while they still left enough covers to last a few more months to come (the last would be for April 1945).

Jack was under a lot of pressure to produce his art quickly before entering the service. However you could not tell it by looking at this cover. The cover was both beautifully composed and drawn. I use the term ‘beautifully’ to describe the manner of execution not the subject matter. One would hardly use that term to describe either the Japanese or the German officer. Today such depictions would not be considered politically correct. During World War II what was considered correct was politically something very different. Germany and Japan were our mortal enemies and as such their appearance were meant to reflect their “brutal nature”. Certainly Kirby has captured that quality in this cover. In order to be truly patriotic it was not enough to depict the enemy negatively, one also had to make fun of him and show the superiority of Americans. The Japanese officer smugly shows his German counterpart an announcement of the capture of Sandman. But of course this was obviously all part of Sandman’s plan because there he is with Sandy ready to pounce on the as yet clueless pair.

That this scene was supposed to be taken place in Japan can be shown by the soldier that Sandman has so quietly subdued. Another clue is the woodwork on our left. I am no more a student of Japanese architecture then apparently Jack Kirby was. But I strongly suspect you would find nothing like this woodwork in Japan. Even so the unusual nature of this wooden frame was meant to suggest the orient and therefore Japan and not America or even Germany. As if their appearances alone are not enough to label the officers as foreign, Jack provides a monocle for the German and cigarette holder for the Japanese. I find it interesting that the same symbol, in this case the cigarette holder, was used to identify someone as foreign and at the same time be such an important part of the image of that American icon, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Genesis of a Cover, Captain America #105

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Posted in 2007/01, 8 Marvel, Featured Work, Marvel Kirby, Periods, z Archive.

Captain America #105
Captain America #105 (September 1968) by Jack Kirby, John Romita and Dan Adkins?

Usually I confine myself in this blog to the time of Simon and Kirby’s collaboration. Occasionally I venture outside that period, for example in a series of posts I once did on Kirby margin notes. Generally I leave the Kirby’s more recent work to the Jack Kirby Blog where Bob does such a great job with it. But I thought it might be fun to discuss the silver age cover to Captain America #105 (September 1968) and some of its influences back to the beginning of the golden age of comics.

Detective Comics #27
Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) by Bob Kane

You can really go back to the dawn of the golden age of comics and find the motif of a hero arriving via a rope. Heck that is how Batman made his first appearance on the cover for Detective Comics #27. Such use of a rope is a natural for any hero who lacks the power of flight. Of course this sort of transportation can only have a restricted use. It would really be stretching the limits of believability for a hero to travel great distances like a city version of Tarzan. Some early heroes overcome that difficulty by having a gun that could shoot out the wire to swing on. That has always seemed a rather crude technique. It was only years later that Steve Ditko would give Spiderman a more elegant solution to this problem.

Mystery Men Comics #11
Mystery Men Comics #11 (June 1940) by Joe Simon

Even looking for a more immediate influence on Jack Kirby will take us pretty much into the early part of the golden age. Joe Simon’s cover to Mystery Men #11 was done while he was editor at Fox Comics. At that same time Kirby was also there doing the Blue Beetle syndication strip. Joe’s cover has the Blue Beetle using a rope or wire for moving between buildings. Our hero has exited one building just in time to avoid an adversary. However his destination seems if anything even more perilously filled with enemies. I presume the Blue Beetle is using something like a telephone wire that connects the two buildings, that may seem more realistic then a rope that just happens to be conveniently available. Unfortunately it does make it harder to understand how the hero manages to use the wire. With one arm being used to both hold the swooning woman and fire a gun, the Blue Beetle has only one arm to move along the support. It would seem a rather daunting challenge, but then again that what heroes are for.


Daring Mystery #6 (September 1940) by Jack Kirby

I presume Jack Kirby liked the idea of the hero using a rope or wire to aid transportation. But he may have been uncomfortable with Joe’s solution of a wire already attached to the source and destination. Certainly rope swinging was both faster and more dramatic then going hand over hand. I believe that the cover for Daring Mystery #6 might have been Jack’s first use of a rope swinging hero.

Captain America Comics #7
Captain America Comics #7 (October 1941) by Jack Kirby

Not that terribly long after Daring Mystery #6 Jack would return to a swinging hero with the cover of Captain America #7. But what a difference a year can make. Cap’s pose, with his arched body and legs spread wide, is a little surprising but there is no denying the rope swinging brings high drama to the cover. Since Cap is taking his sidekick along and not some “helpless female” the hero’s hands are both free to hold the rope while Bucky clings in turn to Cap. Captain America does have one problem that heroes like Batman and Marvel Boy did not share. Generally Cap makes great use of his shield for things such as protection against bullets. Here with rope swinging it just seems to get in the way.


Adventures of the Fly #2 (September 1959) by Joe Simon and another?

I do not think that Kirby used rope swinging that often but it was one of his “tools” that he would pull out and use from time to time. It is hard to be sure about what Joe Simon may have brought to the creation of a particular Simon and Kirby piece. Did Joe provide layouts for the cover for Captain America #7? I will not suggest an answer to that question here. I will say that Joe seems very attached to Captain America’s pose for that cover. It turns up again years later in the cover for Adventures of the Fly #2. Some have attributed this cover to Jack but I am certain that the figure of the Fly was actually done by Joe.

Captain America #105
Unused pencils for Captain America #105 by Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko

I am sure that most, no make that all, of my readers know that Jack Kirby would return to drawing Captain America this time collaborating with Stan Lee. Jack would do some exciting covers for Marvel Comics. Sometimes Stan, as the editor, would request changes to a cover. Perhaps because I am such a Kirby fanboy, I generally do not understand what Stan found so objectionable. This was the fate for Kirby’s pencils for Captain America #105 cover . I will discuss what was done to the pencil version and by whom below. First let us discuss Jack’s return to the rope motif.

Captain America #105
Unused pencils for Captain America #105 Batroc and the Swordsman by Jack Kirby

Yes Jack has once again has the hero travel via a rope but it is not by means of swinging. Instead Kirby has returned to using an attached rope essentially like Joe Simon had used for Mystery Men #11 so many years previously. However Kirby overcame both the awkward questions of how to travel on such a rope and what to do with Cap’s shield. No longer is the shield an impediment but is now the means by which Cap can quickly slide along the rope! This is one of the solutions that only seems obvious once it has been done.

Captain America #105
Unused pencils for Captain America #105 The Living Laser by Jack Kirby

This was one of those cases mentioned above, where Stan had some problems with Jack’s take on the Cap #105 cover. The good news is that this led to Jack’s pencils never being inked. The bad news is the pencil version of the cover as it exists today is not all by Kirby. Basically everything other then the figure of Captain America is pure Kirby, untouched by any other hand.

Captain America #105
Unused pencils for Captain America #105 by Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko with Photoshop adjustments

Cap was modified both by penciling over what was already there, as well as erasing some of Jack’s pencils and adding new ones. Unfortunately there really is nothing that can be done to restore the pencils to the way Jack did it. Instead I have adjusted the scan using Photoshop. While this causes most of the image to deteriorate it helps brings out parts of the drawing that had been erased. Unfortunately it may still be hard to make out but it is the best that I can do. The important point is that Cap’s left leg was flexed and occupied the section that on the pencil version is now open sky.

When Stan was dissatisfied with Kirby efforts on this cover he turned to Jim Steranko to make corrections. Now I am a great admirer of Steranko. Even so I still shudder every time I think of Jim erasing Kirby’s pencils. After removing Jack’s version of Cap’s left leg Jim added his own. Presumable to make the whole figure uniform and to make some small adjustments, Steranko also penciled over the rest of the figure. Although I said the background was pure Kirby when Jim re-positioned the leg an area of the building previously covered by that leg had to be added. Jim kept to Jack’s type of architecture. The only difference that can be detected is that Jim’s pencils are slightly lighter then those by Jack. It is Steranko’s alterations to Kirby’s cover that is the state of the pencil version that exists today.

Lee still was not happy with the Kirby/Steranko version of the cover. But now things get complicated. There exists two rough sketches on tracing paper. Someone has written in blue pencil the names John Romita on one and Dan Adkins on the other. Which came first? To decide this I used Occam’s razor, “all things being equal, the simplest solution is the best one”. The paper used was chosen because it would allow desired portions to be traced. The order I provide here gives the fewest changes to each step keeping particular attention to what tracing was done. Without any claim that this is absolutely correct, I am fairly confident in the sequence I provide here.

Captain America #105
Captain America #105 rough on tracing paper by Dan Adkins?

The Adkins sketch is the most rough one. So much so that I suspect we are just going to have to take the attribution on faith alone. Adkins has redrawn Captain America, swinging his legs around so that they are away from the viewer. In doing so, Adkins has shifted the center of the image to our left. Although done very crudely, the Swordsman, the Living Laser and the building the stand on were traced as one piece. Batroc was also probably traced but so roughly that it is hard to be certain. In any case Batroc’s position was shifted up and toward our left relative to his two companions.

Captain America #105
Captain America #105 rough on tracing paper by John Romita?

Now John Romita (senior) worked on it. Romita traced in regular pencil Cap’s torso from Adkins. He followed Adkins closely for the left elbow, the left side of the left forearm, the left side of the torso, the upper right shoulder area, the belt, the shorts and the right thigh. The upper edge of the shield is pretty close to Adkins placement. Romita lowered Cap’s left leg, moved the right lower leg to the right, and moved Cap’s right forearm out a bit. As can be seen, Romita tightened up the entire figure. (Here I must confess that I have not closely studied Romita’s work so I am counting on the silver age scholars among my readers to express their opinion on whether this attribution to John Romita is accurate.) Captain America is pretty close to the published version. With Cap’s new pose, clearly something had to be done about the background. Using blue pencil Romita has traced portions of Kirby’s architecture but shifting their locations. John did redraw the tall building on the right making it more angular relative to the horizon. Cap’s foes have also been trace from Kirby’s pencils. Batroc was moved a little bit higher then even Adkin’s placement. Romita switched the relative locations of the Swordsman and the Living Laser. I suspect that was done because he felt that the Swordsman would otherwise be too crowded. Batroc and the Living Laser adhere pretty close to Kirby’s pencil. The upper half of the Swordsman was traced while the pose for the lower body was altered.

At this point work must have begun on regular Strathmore paper, I am sure they would not want to end up inking on tracing paper. But further alterations were made from Romita’s rough. As I said previously the figure of Cap on the finished cover is pretty close to Romita’s drawing. The main differences are that both lower legs were made a little longer and the forearms placed a little further out. The lower rope follows both Dan’s and John’s path closely. But the upper portion is more faithful to Dan’s, leaving at the same place on Cap’s shield but angling a little more sharply. The rest of the background was rearrange once again, using Kirby’s pencils to trace from. Batroc’s position shifted down compared to Romita’s placement and his final placement is closest to that indicated by Adkins. The Swordsman and the Living Laser switch positions once again.

In the end on the published cover the buildings details follow Kirby, Cap’s foes are close traces from Jack, Cap himself is close to Romita’s drawing, and the overall background compositions is closest (but by no means matches) Adkins’ sketch. Of course the whole idea of using the shield to slide down a rope was Kirby’s. The Jack Kirby Checklist attributes the Cap #105 cover to “Kirby/Romita/Adkins” which sounds like an accurate description to me.

Captain America #105
Sketch on back of pencils for the cover for Captain America #105 by unidentified artist

If that was not complicated enough, on the back of the Kirby/Steranko pencils is a small sketch. What part did it play in creation of the cover for Cap #105? I do not have a clue, but I will say I do not believe that this was done by Jack. I have never seen any evidence of Jack using crude sketches such as this one. Even in some work stopped at the very early stages Kirby had better placed lines and none of this pencil swirling.

Marvel Super Action #7
Marvel Super Action #7 (April 1978) by Mike Zeck

But that still is not the end of the story. Years later Mike Zeck did the cover for Marvel Super Action #7. Is it a homage to Kirby/Romita/Adkins or a swipe? You can make your own decision. What do I think? I think I have written a long enough post as it is.

Featured Cover, Fighting American #3

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Posted in 2007/01, 7 Freelance, Featured Work, Periods, Prize, Topic, z Archive.

Fighting American #3
Fighting American #3 (August 1954) by Jack Kirby

In a comment recently, Mike made a request for post on Fighting American. Well it happens that I just finished restoring the cover to Fighting American #3. The first two issues of FA were pretty much the standard action hero format. Fighting America and Speedboy were Simon and Kirby’s remake of their own patriotic heroes Captain America and Bucky. Atlas Comics had recently brought out a cold war version of Captain America along with the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner. However the times had changed and despite Joe McCarthy, or perhaps because of him, the public did not consider the Communists as quite the same threat as the Nazis. Atlas Comic’s Captain America did not last long but Simon and Kirby adjusted to the times. With issue #3, Fighting American adopted a more humorous approach. Yes the Commies were still the villains, but nobody was meant to take Poison Ivan and Hotsky Trotski seriously.

Featured Story, The Vision from Marvel Mystery #25

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Posted in 2007/01, 3 Timely, Assorted, Featured Work, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Marvel Mystery Comics #25
Marvel Mystery Comics #25 (November 1941) The Vision, page 1 by Jack Kirby

Professor Enric Zagnar is the leading authority of metaphysics in the country. But he is forced to resign because of his predictions that man will one day be able to control the forces of nature. He retreats from the town vowing revenge and dedicates himself to uncovering the secrets that would make his predictions come true. A short while later a storm hits the town. This is no ordinary storm but one with much fury and persistence. Smoke from a lightning strike of a tree allows the Vision to enter to save the people of the town. He directs the townsmen to climb the nearby mountain in order avoid the flood that forms. But before the people can reach the top a blast from dynamite prevents them from going further. It is Zagner at the peak, relishing his revenge. Zagner urges the storm on using a spell that he reads from a book entitled “Black Magic”. The Vision proceeds to climb in an attempt to stop Zagner. Seeing the Vision, Zagner in turn rolls down a large boulder and when that is unsuccessful throws more dynamite. Despite all this the Vision reaches the top and a fight with Zagnar ensues. Though a dirty trick Zagnar defeats the Vision. Just when he is about to deliver the coup de grace with a large rock, Zagnar gets hit by a bolt of lightning from his own storm! The Vision recovers and reads out the counter spell from the Black Magic book to end the storm and save the day.

Marvel Mystery Comics #25
Marvel Mystery Comics #25 (November 1941) The Vision, page 6 by Jack Kirby

As with the Vision story from Marvel Mystery #24 this splash page makes use of over sized figures. Note the small houses being washed away by the rushing water. I really like the way the title separates the Vision from his foe. The only fault I find with this exciting splash, and it is a minor one, is the “pinning” of the “The” in the title. It seems so unnecessary for this splash. Further it really fails as trompe l’oeil. Not only does the pin not look realistic but also the sharp end is visible so how is the title “pinned” down?

The title of the book that Zagnar uses, Black Magic, is a common enough term. Still it seems interesting that of all the possible titles that Simon and Kirby could have chosen they picked one that they would use again for a comic book that they would launch about nine years later.

The Vision is an unusual hero for a comic book. Comic book art depends on the visual image to provide an indication of the character. Heroes are handsome, heroines beautiful and villains ugly. Although the hero, the Vision is anything but handsome. Of course what Simon and Kirby are doing is to use the Visions unnatural appearance as an indication that he is not of this world. I was just simplifying things when I said villains are ugly, a good comic book artist will go well beyond just making the foe ugly. With his name, Enric Zagnar, is marked as different. Although foreign sounding the origin of the name was probably purposely left ambiguous. Notice that in the first two story panels at the bottom Kirby provides Zagnar with what was then considered long hair. Such hair length was the mark of an intellectual and appropriate for the then Professor Zagnar. In the first panel Zagnar looks fairly normal (but there are those big ears that Kirby would often draw with heads viewed from the back). The next panel provides a glimpse of Zagnar’s already disturbed personality heightened by being partly cut off with the panel edges. The splash panel provides what Zagnar will look like when he becomes at the end of his transformation. You do not need the eyes or the grotesque mouth, the hair alone reveals that Zagnar has gone way past the edge of sanity.

Featured Story, The Vision from Marvel Mystery #24

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Posted in 2007/01, 3 Timely, Assorted, Featured Work, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

In my serial post on “Early Jack Kirby” I commented that I regretted that I only had a few scans of The Vision from Marvel Mystery Comics. I find those that I have very enjoyable provided that to do not let some of the logical inconsistencies bother you. I believe the only way to enjoy any superhero story is to not take them too seriously. Actually I rather enjoy the inconsistencies.

Marvel Mystery Comics #24
Marvel Mystery Comics #24 (October 1941) The Vision by Jack Kirby page 1

The Vision lives in another dimension, entering and exiting this one through smoke. The sole purpose of his visits to Earth seems to be fight evil, which despite the war going on in Europe and Asia, somehow only occurs in America. In this story his foe is someone the Vision is already familiar with. It is Grosso from the war-dust world who has a similar mode of transportation as the Vision only instead of smoke uses metal dust. Grosso comes from a world that relishes war and he has decided that our dust free world would be a suitable place for his people to live and easy to conquer. Grosso method is to enter a weapon factory via the metal dust they produce and destroy it. The Vision soon detects the presence of Grosso’s evil and enters into battle with him. Grosso does seem to have some advantages. One is that he is able to control how fully he is in this dimension. When Grosso is only partly in our world the Vision is unable to touch him. Grosso is also able to use metal dust as a weapon or even a poison.

But the biggest difficulty that the Vision faces is that he does not know where Grosso is going to attach next. The Vision puts on a hood and some glasses as a disguise and gets hired at the largest factory expecting that Grosso will turn up. He tells his employer that he hides his face because it was disfigured when a factory was destroyed by Grosso. The ability of the Vision to appear as a normal mortal that was seen in the first Vision story now seems gone. Also surprising is that nobody seems to make any comment about the disguised Vision’s green hands. Of course in the end the Vision soundly defeats Grosso. It would even appear that Grosso was killed, but we all know how often a good villain stays dead.

This Vision story came out toward the end of Simon and Kirby’s stay at Timely and it shows. Included are lots of irregularly shaped panels, figures that extend beyond the panel edges, running figures with legs stretch out to an unrealistic degree, and square fists. The splash page is particularly effective. Note how over large the figures of the Vision and Grosso are. Such use of over sized figures was not typical for Kirby through most of his career. On the other hand Joe Simon did use large figures from time to time both before teaming up with Jack and after their split. Covers create by Simon and Kirby at Timely never used this motif but over sized figures occur often in their Timely splashes.

Marvel Mystery Comics #24
Marvel Mystery Comics #24 (October 1941) The Vision by Jack Kirby page 7

Check out the dialog from the third panel on page eight.

Vision: Now, Grosso, we face each other for the last time! One of us is not going to leave this factory alive!

Grosso: And it isn’t going to be me!

I have to admit I had to read it several times before I could convince myself that they got it right. It reminds me very much of the script in another story that Jack drew about years later from Tales of Suspense #92

on last panel of page 9

Cap: Okay mister, I’m ready for you! So let’s wrap it up. Only one of us is gonna walk out of here under his own steam…

on first panel of next page

Cap: and it won’t be me!

In this case comes out wrong no matter how many times you read it. Because the story was done by the Marvel method it is not clear whether this snafu should be blamed on Jack Kirby or Stan Lee. Despite the fact that the Vision and Cap stories were done about 20 years apart, the similarity between these two scripts make me suspect that it was Jack who came up with Cap’s goof-up.

Featured Cover, The Sandman #1

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Posted in 2006/12, 9 DC (late), Featured Work, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

The Sandman #1
The Sandman #1 (Winter 1974) by Jack Kirby

This is my last post about Simon and Kirby covers selected as their favorite by participants of my recent contest. I saved this particular one for last because it was, at least for me, the most unexpected. When I think about the Simon and Kirby collaboration I think about the period from when they first teamed up in 1940 until the work they did for the Adventures of the Fly in 1959. There were some S&K work published later like Blast Off and Harvey’s Fighting American. However this was not new truly new work but earlier work that just had not been published before. From 1960 on Joe and Jack had gone their separate ways, that is until Sandman #1 in 1974.

In 1970 Kirby, dissatisfied with his treatment by Marvel, had signed up to work for DC. Here he started to create his New Gods opus. But Jack wanted more then just to draw these comics. He desired to initiate new titles and then hand them over to other artists. What Jack wanted was to produce these comics. In effect to return to the type of business arrangement he had during his collaboration with Joe Simon, but to do this by himself. However Jack was not successful in this endeavor. He never managed to pass the drawing chore to anyone else and worse yet some of his titles were cancelled. Jack continued to work for DC but the arrangement was not the same. Although he still was more then just another artist, he started to receive direction from DC’s Carmine Infantino. It must have been a bitter disappointment for Jack. Even more so when Joe Simon started to also work for DC in an arrangement very much like the one Jack had failed to development. Joe was more then just an editor, he was producing his comics for DC.

With both Joe and Jack now working for DC, it must have been an obvious idea to Carmine to have them team up once again. After all Simon and Kirby had a number of great successes in the past, why not see if they could re-create their old magic? Of course with Jack living in California and Joe in New York, there was no question of the same type of collaboration that they had previously. I have been told that there is a cover proposal for the Sandman drawn by Jerry Grandenetti. If that is true it would suggest that originally Sandman was Joe Simon’s idea as Jerry was one of the artists doing work for Joe. (I have seen another Sandman cover reported to be by Joe Simon, but that is clearly a misattribution because it is not in Joe’s style.) The credits for the comic give Joe as the scripter and Jack as editor and drawer. You can see that the cover for Sandman #1 has a job number, SK-2. The same job number was used on the first page. Well the SK obviously stands for Simon and Kirby. But if that is true why the ‘2’? Does that suggest there was a previous piece of artwork given the job number SK-1?

The Sandman #1
The Sandman #1, unpublished cover by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon

There is another version of this cover that was actually inked by Joe Simon. Joe has said that this the original cover that was rejected by DC because of all the “hay” (crosshatching). That may very well be true, but I also wonder if perhaps Jack was unhappy with some of the liberties that Joe took. For instance Jack’s square finger tips were rounded off in Joe’s inking?

With the type of distribution at the time it is hard to be absolutely sure how well comic books really sold. But it appeared, at least to Carmine, that The Sandman had been a big success. However issue #2 had a cover date of April 1975. This suggest that the original was planned as a one shot but that with its success more were published. However succeeding Sandman issues were not Simon and Kirby collaborations. After a brief revival for one issue, the Simon and Kirby team had again ended and would not produce any further comics.

Featured Cover, Adventures of the Fly #1

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Posted in 2006/12, 7 Freelance, Archie, Featured Work, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Adventures of the Fly #1
Adventures of the Fly #1 (April 1954) by Jack Kirby

One of my contestents in my recent contest picked The Adventures of the Fly #1 as their favorite Simon and Kirby cover. I have previously written about Adventures of the Fly in Chapter 10 of The End of Simon and Kirby. There my main conclusion was that the Fly comics were not true Simon and Kirby productions. Joe seemed the main driving force in constructing these comics and he made use of other artists besides Jack. Having said this I hasten to add that Jack seemed to be primarily responsible for the final appearance of the Fly. The costume is very different from the Silver Spider by C. C. Beck whose story was the basis for the creation of the Fly. Rather the Fly seems largely based on Night Fighter, an unused creation that was probably originally considered for S&K’s publishing company Mainline. Although the origin story for the Fly was largely based on Beck’s penciled version that Joe provided Jack, the other stories Jack did seem to be his own. Included in one was a double page splash. The original art for this wide splash is still in Joe’s personal collection. It a beautiful piece of work with no signs of any cut and paste. That being the case along with the fact that the splash has one extra figure, the cover must somehow be based on the splash.

Joe Simon and Fly splash
Photo of Joe Simon with splash page at Big Apple Con (4/3/04)

As far as I know the original art for the cover no longer exists. This is unfortunate because it might provide hints what method was used to transfer the art from the splash and rearrange it for the cover. As pointed out by Kirby scholar Stan Taylor the Fly comics contain a number of swipes from figures originally drawn by Kirby. Some of the original art for these still exist and clearly they were not done by using stats or any similar photocopying device. However when the line art for the Fly on the cover is compared to the splash page much of the inking, including some rather fine spotting, is the same. There does not appear to be any inking present on the splash that is absent on the cover. On the other hand the cover Fly has some spotting that does not appear on the splash. In particular the outlines have been made thicker on the cover. A lot of the lines for the web and the background do not actually touch the figure. I present a close-up of the cover line art (red) over the splash. The alignment and size adjustment are not perfect but it should give you the idea. From all this I have little doubt that Jack did the splash page, it was inked (not by Kirby), then Joe had some stats made, assembled the cover, and finally retouched and expanded the inking. Joe had previously used stats to help create covers, but for the Fly #1 cover it was a much more intricate procedure.

Adventures of the Fly #1
Part of the splash overlaid with the cover line art (in red)

Featured Cover, Bullseye #5

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Posted in 2006/12, 6 Mainline, Assorted, Featured Work, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Bullseye #5
Bullseye #5 (April 1955)

This is another selection made by a participant of my recent Featured Cover Contest as their favorite Simon and Kirby cover. I had provided an image of it before in my serial post The End of Simon and Kirby but it is such a great cover that it warrants repeating. When discussing Boys’ Ranch #4 (see my previous post) I said that all the covers for that title were so good that I would be hard pressed to pick my favorite. Well S&K did a good job on the Bullseye covers but there is no doubt in my mind that issue #5 is the best.

In the origin story we learn that Bullseye got his name not just because of his skill with weapons but because of a target pattern that an Indian foe had branded onto his chest. All but one cover (#6) featured this target pattern prominently as part of the design of the cover. But for issue #5 S&K took it even further by turning the pattern into an Indian theme, as if it was some sort of flattened decorated teepee. Then added to this was one of the dramatic hand-to-hand combats that Jack had ever drawn. Clearly this unique cover is one of Simon and Kirby’s greatest masterpieces.

Boys’ Ranch and the Fighting American were probably the most obvious Simon and Kirby titles to reprint. But beyond a doubt Bullseye is a title that deserves the same honor. An interesting hero, great stories and lots of Kirby. Unfortunately it has not received the treatment that Marvel gave the other mentioned titles. But hey, I have not given up hope that some publisher will recognize what a classic Bullseye was.

Featured Cover, Boys’ Ranch #4

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Posted in 2006/12, 5 Studio, Featured Work, Harvey, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Boys' Ranch #4
Boys’ Ranch (April 1951) by Jack Kirby

I lament so often about the fact that various Simon and Kirby productions have not been reprinted that is nice to be able to write about Boys’ Ranch. Although there are other comics I sure wish would be available again, if I had to pick a single S&K title as most worthy of the reprint honor it would be Boys’ Ranch. Fortunately Marvel already has published it in a nice volume. It is out of print but shows up often on eBay and at comic conventions. It has not gotten too pricey and deserves to be in the library of any Kirby fan. Not all Simon and Kirby productions were actually drawn by Jack as the studio used a number of talented artists. However a lot of Boys’ Ranch truly was penciled by Kirby, although not as much as claimed by many authorities. We can blame the failure of Stuntman and Boy Explorers on the comic glut. The downfall of the Mainline titles can be laid at the anti-comic sentiments among many adults at that time. For Boys’ Ranch we have no similar explanations and we must accept the fact that they just did not sell well enough. That reflects on the times not, in my opinion, the product.

Boys’ Ranch followed the general practice of S&K productions in having Jack Kirby pencil all the covers for the title. As far as I am concerned not a single cover for the title is anything short of a masterpiece. I am not sure how I would manage to pick my favorite, but one of my Featured Cover Contests participants did and he choose issue #4. With a main cast of three boys and an adult it is not an easy achievement to give them all prominence on a cover. But then add some soldiers and Indians to the mix and it might be an insurmountable task for many artists. But Jack was not a typical comic book artist and he overcomes these challenges with such ease as to make the viewer unaware how hard it really is. What exciting action Jack has provided. Although only four Indians are actually presented we are made aware of the fierce struggle that is occurring. One soldier is on his back, obviously seriously wounded, while another continues fighting but is unable to stand. A third soldier in the background has entered hand to hand combat with an Indian foe and appears about to loose. This is all in midst of a cloud of smoke from all the shooting. It all brings to mind Custer’s last battle. Actually in the cover for issue #4 one boy, Dandy, does get special treatment. He appears prominently on the left while the other three form a triangle on the right. Dandy stands pausing from his firing to blow the bugle. This is the reason for his prominence because it is a reference to the story title “The Bugle Blows as Bloody Knife”. Our heroes are defiant but will they face an end similar to Custer? Of course originally you were meant to buy the comic to find out. I will give a subtle hint, the Boys’ Ranch title ran for two more issues.

Featured Cover, Foxhole #5

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Posted in 2006/12, 6 Mainline, Featured Work, Foxhole, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Foxhole #5
Foxhole #5 (April 1954) by Jack Kirby

This was another cover selected by someone in the recent Featured Cover Contest as their favorite Simon and Kirby cover. I have previously commented on the general excellence of Mainline’s Foxhole covers. I noted that these covers particularly showed exceptional coloring and suggested that Simon or Kirby may have been more directly involved in producing the color guides. Foxhole #5 was published by Charlton but shares these characteristics. Although I describe it as a water coloring effect, Foxhole #5 looks like it was actually done by airbrush. Now if the color separation from the color guide was done by a photographic technique, this would suggest that perhaps Joe might have been responsible since he was adept at using the airbrush while Jack was not. However for comic books color separation was usually done by hand by someone at the printers. So the use of airbrush for the coloring of Foxhole #5 was likely not to have been done by Joe.

Foxhole was the only real war genre that Simon and Kirby had produced. I exclude Boy Commandos because that is really more of a kid gang comic. It is regrettable that Mainline had failed as Foxhole along with Bullseye were really exceptional comics. That is not to disparage In Love or Police Trap, but S&K had done a lot of crime and romance work so the loss of those two titles is not as significant. Regrettably the original Foxhole and Bullseye comics are pricey so it is unfortunate that they have not received the sort of reprinting that Boys’ Ranch and Fighting American had. Super Comics did do reprints of both in the 60’s but without the original covers. Some of these are still be found at reasonable prices and are well worth it even if there are not a lot stories actually drawn by Jack Kirby.

Warfront #28 original art
Warfront #28 (January 1956) original art

Although S&K did not produce any war comics other then Foxhole, they were involved in covers for some of Harvey’s Warfront. I have posted on two of these covers (#28 and #29) in a chapter of The End of Simon and Kirby. Some believe that Warfront #30 and #34 were also drawn by Jack Kirby, but I am inclined to disagree. I have seen the original art for #30 and #34 and, like the cover art done by Kirby for Harvey romances, the art was done on Bristol board. This board is rather thin, unlike the thicker Illustration board that were previously used for Simon and Kirby productions. Interestingly the original art for Warfront #28 was also done on Illustration board. Further the art and especially the inking style is much closer to Foxhole and other Mainline comics. Particularly look how the lower leg and both forearms are spotted by large puddles of black that leave just small un-inked areas. Finally the #28 cover depicts a scene from a story called “Hot Box” published in Foxhole #2. Because of this I believe that the art for the cover of Warfront #28 was an originally unused one meant for Foxhole #2.

The red lines on the original art were used to indicate limits to a colored area. The red lines were not supposed to show up as line art on the black plate, but somehow this was ignored when the cover was actually published. The positions of the two right planes and one bullet shell were shifted on the published cover. The brown stain is from rubber cement which suggests that the art once had something pasted in that position.