48 YEARS AGO TODAY the transporter/teleporter device providing the dramatic entrance of THOR #135's villain was NOT a Star Trek influence. The first episode was broadcast less than a month before so this issue would already be on the way to the printers when Kirby first watched the show in his home studio.

It IS possible that the High Evolutionary's transporter and Star Trek's teleporter were inspired by the first episode of the OUTER LIMITS from two years earlier. A similar device is reponsible for bringing the titular "Galaxy Being" to Earth.

Remember the great 3-D comic revival of 1982?

 

Yeah. Me neither.

The 1983 SILVER STAR visual novel was based on a screenplay written by Jack Kirby and Steve Sherman 7 years earlier. The first draft story treatment was printed in the 21st issue of the Kirby-Estate authorized 'zine THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR.

For a digital copy of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #21 click here!

WHEN YOU READ A LEE/KIRBY COMIC YOU USUALLY HAVE A BLAST!

The last CAPTAIN VICTORY triptych of 1983 featured two recurring Kirby Archetypes - the blonde hero (visual shorthand adopted from the white-hat-wearing heroes from the Westerns of his youth?) and the sentient machine.

IN THE SHOPS ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

Cover by Kirby and Larsen?!

IN THE SHOPS TODAY - Schoolin' the Newbies! 'Nuff said True Believer?

from ULTIMATES #2

(the one with the Michelangelo-inspired cover)

71 YEARS AGO TODAY - Kirby or Cazeneuve/Brodie cover?

LAST YEAR'S MUST-HAVE ITEM ON KIRBY FANS' GIFT LISTS

CLICK HERE

ANOTHER KIRBY MYSTERY

THOR #165 was released when the U.S.A. was divided by the Vietnam War. Was it plotter Lee, penciler Kirby or inker Colletta that put the footprints of the American chicken on the uniforms of the soldiers?

NEW/OLD KIRBY IN THE SHOPS THIS WEDNESDAY

BOY COMMANDOS BY SIMON AND KIRBY HC VOL 02

   Jack Kirby & Joe Simon
   Stories from THE BOY COMMANDOS #3-5, WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #10-13 and DETECTIVE COMICS #74-83 and 85, the Boy Commandos must escape enemy kidnappers, encounter a mystical monk looking for items that exemplify modern civilization, set up a pirate radio station behind enemy lines, and stand accused of treason.

KIRBY FULL PAGE PANEL TRIVIA

FANTASTIC FOUR #89 had the same amount of full page panels as the first 11 issues of that title combined. (5)

TALES TO ASTONISH #9, which shipped Christmas week of 1959, was the first issue to have a character make a return appearance. The character was a Kirby-drawn genie.

      Kirby's cover was for the Heck-drawn story in the anthology title though.

THREE AND A HALF YEARS AGO TODAY the first THOR movie was finishing up a #1 weekend at the American box office by taking in $65 million. Kirby did the visual design for the threat for that movie.

KIRBY HOMAGE IN THE SHOPS ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

Groot & Rocket Raccoon variant cover now on sale.

49 YEARS AGO TODAY: 71 pages of Kirby art for 50 cents!

39 YEARS AGO TODAY Is this really an improvement?

 Over this?

47 YEARS AGO TODAY

If you had been a FANTASTIC FOUR reader for less than five years the never-before-reprinted story in MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #18 would be new to you.

Part of the fun of rereading Silver Age Marvels is knowing now that Lee would provide the beginning and ending and task the artist/co-plotter with supplying  the middle. Superhero stories being formulaic that was frequently as simple as choreographing fight sequences. Having the alien interact with gangsters was probably a Kirby contribution.

51 YEARS AGO TODAY

 Kirby gets Stoned!

All nine of the Kirby covers that shipped September 1964 were inked by Chic Stone.

37 YEARS AGO TODAY

 An example of why Seventies comic fans were less impressed with Lee/Kirby than Sixties comic fans.

The reprinting of Captain America's origin from CAPTAIN AMERICA #109 in MARVEL SUPER ACTION #11 didn't include the action-packed second page.

73 YEARS AGO TODAY a retailer that sold both Harvey and National comics would have five Kirby-covered comics on display: ADVENTURE COMICS #79, CHAMP #23, GREEN HORNET #9, SPEED COMICS #23 and STAR SPANGLED COMICS #14.

Only two of them also had Kirby interior art. 

Kirby Urban renewal. (from STAR SPANGLED COMICS #14)

74 YEARS AGO TODAY

MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #24 didn't have a Kirby cover but it DID have 7 pages of Kirby/Simon art making Kirby's third year drawing funny books his most successful so far.  He had 14 covers published and 616 interior pages! If THAT wasn't enough to satisfy that era's Kirby fans he also had 19 pages of story illustrations in three different Goodman pulps!!!

LESS THAN 48 HOURS UNTIL NEW KIRBY/STERANKO HITS YOUR LCS...!!!

from SHIELD #9

   A commemorative 50th Anniversary story that spans the past and the present, and unites Phil Coulson and Nick Fury, Sr. in a unique cross-time adventure to answer a riddle that lies at the heart of the origins of SHIELD: who is The Man Called D.E.A.T.H.? Includes a sequence penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Jim Steranko that has never seen print as part of a story before!
    Plus: The return of Dum Dum Dugan and the birth of the new Howling Commandos! The very first SHIELD story from 1965! And the pilot presentation sequence that inspired the series!!!

48 YEARS AGO TODAY: And you thought your father was strict!

from THOR #145

54 YEARS AGO TODAY: is this why some critics call Kirby's characters two dimensional?

From TALES OF SUSPENSE #23 

45 YEARS AGO TODAY

Pity poor Sal Buscema. Tasked with creating a cover for a comic that not only reprinted two classic Kirby-rendered AVENGERS comics from six years earlier (for a total of 46 pages)...

It also had a gallery of Kirby's first six AVENGERS covers!

39 YEARS AGO TODAY Not only does CAPTAIN AMERICA #206 introduce a dictator in need of punching.

It also introduces a new strong brunette Kirby babe.

49 YEARS AGO TODAY: The End of an Era!

The final two Lee/Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR pamphlets to begin with a symbolic splash were distributed: FANTASTIC FOUR #56

and 
FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #4

IN THE SHOPS TODAY - NEW KIRBY/STERANKO POSTER

$8.99

55 YEARS AGO TODAY Kirby draws yet another panicked crowd.

from TALES TO ASTONISH #14

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

If Daniel Acuña's homage to the King introduces just one more child to Kirby's Legacy it will be worth the effort

Cover to UNCANNY AVENGERS #22

39 YEARS AGO TODAY Kirby builds up one of "his" characters by tearing down a character that had been popular for seven centuries...

43 YEARS AGO TODAY your retailer would have four Kirby comics for you to choose from. Two of them, DEMON #1 and MISTER MIRACLE #10, would be DC comics with new Kirby covers and new Kirby interior art.

The other two would be Marvels. MONSTERS ON THE PROWL #19 (reprinting two Kirby stories from the early Sixties) and

reprinting the Kirby story from

The new cover for the old Kirby story is by the younger of the talented Buscema brothers, Sal. As if it was not already unfair to task Sal with creating a composition that would inevitably be compared with Jack's it was further hampered by unnecessary word balloons. 

47 YEARS AGO TODAY for the second month in a row Steve Rogers spends part of CAPTAIN AMERICA watching a movie about himself and Bucky.

The movie date is in the comfort of his apartment with a male S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

NEW KIRBY IN YOUR FUTURE!!!

SHIELD #9

(W) Mark Waid, Various (A) Lee Ferguson, Jack Kirby (CA) Julian Totino Tedesco

   A commemorative 50th Anniversary story that spans the past and the present, and unites Phil Coulson and Nick Fury, Sr. in a unique cross-time adventure to answer a riddle that lies at the heart of the origins of SHIELD: who is The Man Called D.E.A.T.H.? Includes a sequence penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Jim Steranko that has never seen print as part of a story before!

    Plus: The return of Dum Dum Dugan and the birth of the new Howling Commandos! The very first SHIELD story from 1965! And the pilot presentation sequence that inspired the creation of SHIELD!

    In the shops August 26 - $5.99

1 in 50 KIRBY AND STERANKO VARIANT COVER

53 YEARS AGO

      The Marvel Universe consisted of four titles. FANTASTIC FOUR would prosper. TALES TO ASTONISH and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (the half superhero and half fantasy anthologies) succeeded. INCREDIBLE HULK did not generate enough sales to survive.  After the cancellation of his series it would be six months before the Hulk would make another appearance.
     I thought that it would illuminating to compare the sales of a successful Lee/Kirby concept to an unsuccessful one from the same year. Unfortunately the only Marvel titles I was able to find the average monthly 1962 sales for were MODELING WITH MILLIE (143,476), PATSY & HEDY (139,855), TALES TO ASTONISH (139,167), STRANGE TALES  (136,637), JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (132,113), GUNSMOKE WESTERN (126,475) and TALES OF SUSPENSE (126,140).

     At least 43 comics were outselling Marvel's titles in 1962 including CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN (195,000), BETTY AND VERONICA  (302,820), BATMAN (410,000), CASPER (436,153) and SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN (470,000).  

Even a crossover with the FANTASTIC FOUR couldn't save the INCREDIBLE HULK.

42 YEARS AGO TODAY if you were boycotting DC's product because of their swindling Siegel and Shuster and you had been buying comics for less than seven years you could still find some new-to-you Kirby art at the marketplace.

42 YEARS AGO TODAY what else do these two comics have in common besides being on sale at the same time; having Kirby/Royer covers; being written, drawn and edited by Kirby and being published by DC?

Neither was reprinted until after Kirby's death.

46 YEARS AGO TODAY once you got past the John Buscema/Giacoia cover...

You were rewarded with 53 pages of Kirby-drawn classic (more than 4 years old) Captain America stories.  20 of the pages were embellished by Giacoia providing a veneer of artistic continuity with the cover.