56 YEARS AGO TODAY

Proto-Marvel was still transitioning from a multitude of diverse artists to Kirby and the favored few.

 Kirby's 20th TALES OF SUSPENSE cover. (Ditko inks)

Not only was there 13 Kirby story pages, there was also 6 pages by Steve Ditko and 5 by Paul Reinman.

77 YEARS AGO TODAY

Kirby's 5th cover, since his first appeared 3 months earlier, went on sale. It was his second bondage cover.

His first cover would have already been pulled from the racks and returned since it was cover-dated July 1940. That means that there would have been four different Kirby covers on display - just like the previous month!

39 YEARS AGO TODAY

A visit to your local comic shop would have rewarded you with two Kirby covered comics with 17 pages of Kirby words and pictures each.

Sadly, it was the final Kirby BLACK PANTHER and his penultimate DEVIL DINOSAUR.

59 YEARS AGO TODAY

Kirby's 4th consecutive cover for CHALLENGERS was his 14th cover contribution to the 1958 spinner-rack zeitgeist.

72 YEARS AGO TODAY

Possibly Kirby's 100th published cover 

(or maybe his 113th depending on which comic historians you adhere to.)

74 YEARS AGO TODAY

The 19th consecutive Kirby covered STAR SPANGLED was available for purchase. At this point in history a quarter of his published covers were for that title.

Like the previous 18 issues it also had interior Kirby art.

53 YEARS AGO TODAY

Guess which villain is making his 5th Marvel appearance. All of which were drawn by Kirby.

from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #109