Break time

You know what the mushroom soup means. Going to be busy for the next few days or weeks, might show up with a few quick entries or cover galleries if possible, but don't bet on it.

I'm going to be updating an old Kirby FAQ that I had to add to the sidebar. Anyone have any suggestions for questions that should be on it? Also, I'm curious, what's the favourite Kirby era of regular visitors here? The early golden age with Simon at Marvel and DC? The later S&K for various publishers? The post-Simon stuff at DC and Marvel? Early Marvel silver age heroes? Later silver age? 1970-1975 at DC? 1976-1978 at Marvel? The 1980s stuff? (those are, by the way, roughly how I divide the eras when deciding what to post, trying to keep at least one representitive of each era on the "recent posts" list)

Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers Special #1 - The Space Musketeers

"Victory is Sacrifice". Truer words were never spoke. It can be quite a sacrifice to read Captain Victory sometimes. While obviously I'm a big fan of Jack Kirby (for those of you who haven't picked up on that yet), no one can do 25,000+ pages of comics and hit everytime, and I'd say this special is one of those rare mis-steps (I do like some other CV stuff, of course).

Normally I'd recount the plot of this issue here, but I'm not sure that's possible. Something about PFC Egghead inventing a time-travel device that takes some of the crew back to an Dumas-inspired France where there's a bomb of some sort. There's also something about Egghead playing the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I dunno, look at the art.



That is a pretty cool gargoyle, and some of the other art in here is nice. It's just all very strange. Plus it's the first issue printed on upscale paper stock, and there were still some bugs in the system, so that looks weird.

25-page lead story plus three pin-up/profile pages on different Ranger sections and how they might have inspired Earth myths. All that and the cover inked by Mike Thibodeaux. The text page by the publisher mentions the unpublished MIDNIGHT MEN book that Kirby was working on with Roger McKenzie (Kirby was supposed to do the 48 page first issue before another artist took over the series).

Published 1983

New Kirby - Marvel Milestones with Hercules

The second in the new series of Marvel Milestone one-shots has been released, MARVEL MILESTONES: VENOM & HERCULES. The Hercules half of the book is the first Thor/Hercules story from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY ANNUAL #1 (1965), along with the cover and map of Asgard from that issue. The cover was really badly reprinted, but the story looked okay. The other half of the book is an out of context chapter from a 1980s mini-series and various 1980s Spider-Man covers.

Fighting American [Harvey] #1

Harvey comics published a single issue of FIGHTING AMERICAN in 1966, with a few reprints of the mid-1950s series as well as a few unused stories from that time by Simon & Kirby, including a new cover.

Bit pressedfor time, so I'll write more on this later. For now here's a page from "The Secret of Yafata's Moustache".



Published 1966

Prize Cover Gallery

Another cover gallery, this time scattered genres by S&K published by Prize in the early 1950s.

PRIZE COMICS WESTERN #83, 1950. A very nice detailed cover, with a nice dynamic layout.

JUSTICE TRAPS THE GUILTY #22, 1951. And some good violent fun on this one, with some nice inking.

BLACK MAGIC #12[v2n6], 1952. Sorry the scan isn't so good for this one, but still a nice cover, especially with the typical Kirby scientist type.

Upcoming Kirby - Marvel digests

Marvel is starting a line of digests that will sell for $1 each, 64 page black and white books, some of them will be edited for the format. The first set are out in July and there's Kirby artwork in four or five of them (depending on if they include covers)

SPIDER-MAN: AMAZING FANTASY DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AMAZING FANTASY #15, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1, #2

FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FAMILY DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects FANTASTIC FOUR #1-#3

AVENGERS: ASSEMBLE DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AVENGERS #1-#3

SPIDER-MAN: DOCTOR OCTOPUS DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3,#4,#5

HULK: HULK SMASH DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects HULK #1-#3

X-MEN: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM
Collects X-MEN #1-#3

Harvey Cover Gallery

Here are a trio of covers that Kirby did published by Harvey over the years.

CHAMP COMICS #23, 1942. In the early 1940s, around the same time the DC work was launching, Kirby did a bunch of covers published on various Harvey books, signed "Jon Henri" when they were signed. No interiors, though. The CHAMP covers feature a pair of kids who I think are the "Liberty Lads", going heavy on the war propaganda patriotism. Anyone know who did the stories for those characters?

FIRST LOVE ILLUSTRATED #69, 1956. This is a nice goofy romance cover, probably the only comic to have a pirate, rabbit, knight and cowgirl.

WARFRONT #30, 1957. Very intense war cover, with an interesting inking style.

My Greatest Adventure #28 - We Battled the Microscopic Menace

This is one of the stories Kirby did for the DC fantasy/sci-fi books in the late 1950s, the same era he was also doing Green Arrow, Challengers of the Unknown and the Sky Masters comic strip.

In this 8 page story, two scientists discover a destructive microbe in their lab. To destroy it, they try a positive ion beam on it. Unfortunately, the next day they find it has grown to huge proportions, destroying everything in its path and continuing to grow, threatening untold havoc if unchecked.



They notice that the creature doesn't seem to be able to affect glass, leading to some lovely pseudo-science revealing that a negative ion charge will shrink the creature.

A fairly standard story, but some nice art like the image of a hypothetical city-sized microbe on the loose.

Published 1959

Forever People #3 - Life vs Anti-Life

Interestingly, Kirby decides to open this issue with a quote from Hitler, about how the members of his movement are uniform in both ideas and facial expression. This is an ideal sought by another minion of Darkseid, Glorious Godfrey, who Mark Evanier explains was somewhat based on evangelist Billy Graham. Some great Kirby writing Godfrey's extolling the virtues of "anti-life" in the service Darkseid and being a faceless "Justifier". "The right to point the finger or the gun".

One of those "Justifiers" attempts to kill the Forever People, who then use Mother Box to trace them back to their "revelation tent" lair. Meanwhile the "Justifiers" are on the loose, rounding up undesirables and burning libraries, painting offending stores with an "S" for scapegoat. The Forever People transform to the Infinity Man to destroy Godfrey's equipment. Unfortunately, he runs into a more powerful force.



Darkseid is able to easily bring back the Forever People easily enough, and DeSaad knocks them out to take to his prison camp. There's some interesting interplay between Darkseid and two of his chief minions at the end, with onen of Darkseid's classic lines, "when you cry out in your dreams -- it is Darkseid that you see!"

The villains definitely have the best scenes in this issue, and it's interesting to see how Kirby modified and interpreted things he saw around him to use in his fantasy setting.

Vince Colletta inks the cover and 22-page story.

Published 1971

Upcoming Kirby - July 2005

Looks like only a few things to mention, one fanzine, one Marvel book with two short stories and two comics from AC, one with a lot of Kirby. Weird how Marvel goes from a half-dozen books for the past two months to one almost trivial book this time.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #43
80 pages - Tabloid Format
It’s an Extended Family Affair in JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #43, spotlighting the recipients of the Jack Kirby Award at the 2004 San Diego Comicon! Behind sterling Kirby covers featuring the Silver Surfer (inked by Joe Sinnott) and Silver Star (the original presentation drawing, never-seen and hand-colored by Kirby himself), we present our most personal issue yet, as those closest to the Kirbys share memories, anecdotes, momentos, photos, and never-seen art from Jack and Roz! Included are former Kirby assistant STEVE SHERMAN and his brother GARY in an uproarious feature interview, plus contributions from RAY WYMAN, MIKE THIBODEAUX, and many others! Plus: A never-published 1966 interview with KIRBY himself! Our regular columnists and features, including MARK EVANIER answering Frequently Asked Questions about Jack! A SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT that will change Kirby collecting forever! And a special 1960s Gallery showcasing a Kirby pencils-to-Sinnott inks comparison of TALES OF SUSPENSE #93, featuring Kirby in his penciling prime, and at whopping TABLOID SIZE!

Sounds like some good stuff. Anyone know what the "surprise announcement" is going to be? Hopefully something regarding reprints of Kirby's work.


AC COMICS

AMERICA'S GREATEST COMICS #12
by Various
Special Kirby Heroes, Monsters & that 'ol Black Magic issue! This month, the America's Greatest focus is on the 1950's efforts of the classic Simon & Kirby creative team, with three fantasy stories from Prize Comics' Black Magic title; Davey Crockett, Stuntman Revisited, sci-fi rarities, and more.
52pgs, B&W SRP: $6.95

BEST OF THE WEST #52
by Various
The finest Western stories of the 1950's, starting off with Davey Crockett, as drawn by Jack Kirby. Then, it's Redmask, by Frank Bolle; The Haunted Horseman by Dick Ayers, Wild Bill Pecos, The Durango Kid, and more. Top quality reprints of the best of the era.
44pgs, B&W SRP: $6.95

Hopefully the AMERICA'S GREATEST issue will have some stuff that hasn't been included in other reprints. Lots of good stuff from that era that hasn't seen print since.


MARVEL MILESTONES: DR. STRANGE, SILVER SURFER, SUB-MARINER & HULK
Written by STAN LEE & BILL EVERETT
Penciled by BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, JACK KIRBY & BILL EVERETT
Cover by BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH
The Defenders have their day! In honor of this month’s DEFENDERS #1, Dr. Strange faces death in the unreal dream world of Nightmare in a story from MARVEL PREMIERE #3! Plus: the Silver Surfer vs. Quasimodo from FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #5, the first appearance of the Sub-Mariner from MARVEL COMICS #1 and the origin of the Hulk from HULK #3.
48 PGS. / $3.99

No, that Hulk story hasn't been reprinted too much, not at all. I think this will only be the 11th or 12th time it was reprinted. The Surfer story will be nice to have, and Bill Everett reprints are always good.