72 YEARS AGO TODAY

The final Kirby covered comic of at least 11 that were released in 1945 was on the racks.

The reason I say at least 11 is because experts disagree on these 6 comics - so it could be as many as 17.

STAR SPANGLED #43 - Kirby or Swan/Brodie? - shipped Feb 2, 1945
BOY COMMANDOS #11 - Cazeneuve or Kirby? - shipped April 27, 1945 
STAR SPANGLED #48 - Kirby or Swan/Kaye? - shipped July 3, 1945
STAR SPANGLED #49 - Kirby or Swan/Brodie? - shipped August 2, 1945
STAR SPANGLED #50 - Kirby or Ray? - shipped September 4, 1945
STAR SPANGLED #51 -  Kirby or Swan? - shipped October 3, 1945

I'm surprised Jack Kirby didn't create THE WALKING DEAD.

Kirby's genius was converting pop culture into comic book gold. He created an entire series based on a popular Science Fiction movie he had never even seen. He was inspired by the Depression Era pulp sensation Doc Savage to create two series, one in the 1950s and one in the 1960s. When he noticed in the 1940s that women were buying true romance magazines Kirby created the romance comics genre. He even had Captain America punch Hitler before America entered World War II.

Halloween 1968 the movie that was the template for THE WALKING DEAD comic, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was in the theaters. Fortunately for Robert Kirkman Kirby must have been too busy creating his Fourth World mythology while simultaneously free-lancing at Marvel to notice.

24 YEARS AGO TODAY if you were lucky you would have been still able to purchase Kirby's penultimate comic at your local shop. It had shipped less than a week before.

Originally intended to be published by Genesis West, PHANTOM FORCE #1 was published by Image with eight inkers finishing the 22 pages of interior Kirby art. 

Does anything exemplify 1993 more than Rob Liefeld inking an Image Kirby cover?

37 YEARS AGO TODAY

1980 was another of those Holiday shopping seasons when there wasn't any new Kirby comics for Santa to bring to the good little boys and girls. Marvel DID reprint X-MEN #8 (for the second time) in AMAZING ADVENTURES #14 six weeks earlier.

39 YEARS AGO TODAY

The 1978 Holiday Season found the shops devoid of any new Kirby comics. His most recent books, DEVIL DINOSAUR #9 and MACHINE MAN #9  had been released 3 months earlier. 

The only "new" Kirby in the shops was MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS #82, which reprinted all but one page of FANTASTIC FOUR #102 from eight years earlier.