Next Issue -- A Weblog Dies!!!

Stay tuned, true believers!

Just when you thought it was safe...

Strange Tales #129 - Cover

Surprisingly, I really like Chic Stone's inks on the Thing on this cover. I usually think his Thing inking is the weakest part of his FF inks from this era, but on this example (and a lot of the other covers) it seems to work better. Good cover overall, not the greatest villains ever, but the layout gives even them a nice sense of menace. I also really like the sense of depth Kirby gives the layouts.



Published 1965

--Link-- Spirit World review

Steve Thompson takes a look at Jack Kirby's SPIRIT WORLD, one of the two black and white (or blue and white in this case) magazines that DC released in the early 1970s.

http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2006/03/jack-kirbys-spirit-world.html

Champion Comics #9 - Cover

Dated July 1940 CHAMPION COMICS #9 from Harvey features Duke O'Dowd as the Human Meteor. More importantly, it has the distinction of being the first Jack Kirby penciled cover (when it was reprinted in THE COMPLETE JACK KIRBY v1 Greg Theakston described it as "mostly penciled by Kirby") and tied with BLUE BOLT #2 from Novelty Press as his first collaboration with Joe Simon, who inked this cover.




It's a nice dynamic piece, very open and clear, you can already see hints of the later trademark S&K style of clothing folds and muscles.

Published 1940

Journey Into Mystery #92 - Cover

Another Thor cover from before Kirby took over the interiors for the series full-time. I always like the way Kirby poses Loki, always very confident and sinister.



The Kirby Checklist credits this one to George Roussos, but I'm not sure about that one. I'm going to have to compare it to some other Roussos from the period.

Published 1963

Stupid question

Was Fin Fang Foom coloured orange or green in the first printing of his story in STRANGE TALES #89? I know he's green on the cover, but can anyone confirm the interior?

Showcase Presents The House of Mystery #1 - The Negative Man

First published in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #84 [1959], then reprinted in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #194 [1971], now the 8-page "The Negative Man" is reprinted in SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1, along with 538 other pages of comics from the first 21 issues of the series edited by Joe Orlando from 1968 to 1971.

In this story, two scientists build a miniature town to test their power transmission through radio waves device. A loose watch straps makes all the energy go through one of the men, creating a negative energy duplicate of him.



The negative being goes on a rampage, until the original scientist plans to sacrifice himself to destroy it. Fortunately for him, what he didn't know was the secret of the negative being which made it afraid of him.

I really like what I've read of the Kirby stories from DC in this period, and it looks really sharp in this book (except for the enlarged gutters they would put in reprints back in the early 1970s). That first panel in the scan is just really evocative and does a great job of capturing movement on a comic page.

Great book overall, too, maybe my favourite book in DC's new SHOWCASE PRESENTS line so far, thanks to the sheer variety of great artists from that era, with much better reproduction than the stories got the first time around.

Published 2006

My Own Romance #75 - Cover

I think there was some rule that said Kirby had to do at least one artist/model themed romance cover for every publisher he did romance comics for. This is the one from Marvel, featuring a very leggy model making a play for the artist in the background, who seems to fill his studio with a lot of sexy women. What would Roz have thought if Kirby tried that?



Inked by Colletta.

Published 1960

Thor #253 - Cover

Another of Kirby's many covers for various Marvel books in the mid-1970s, this one inked by John Verpoorten with some Romita credited as well. Ulik is a pretty cool villain from the 1960s, so it's good to see him again, epecially with those crazy eyes. And the good old "ominous shadow" layout is nice, especially with that texture on the rocky surface.



Published 1976