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!!!