Dateline: 1940
Welcome to our ongoing King Kirby 100 celebration. This time out, the beginning of his first great collaborative partnership. Jack and Joe, of course, helped define and establish the comic book as a form, and created a host of enduring characters, not least of which was
Way back in the dawn of comics, Jack Kirby met Joe Simon. Joe was working on a new book called Blue Bolt and he brought Jack in to join him with issue #2. By issue #5 they were fully collaborating and for (as far as i can determine) for the very first time the famous Joe Simon & Jack Kirby byline appeared:
The Green Sorceress has been plaguing our hero and his civilization since Blue Bolt was struck by lightning in his first issue. As always, she plots and seeks a way to... well, you read the intro caption, right?
Her infernal hench has delivered an arcane volume she hopes will contain the knowledge she needs to succeed...
She summons her master builder and gives him the plans for an incomprehensible (and huge) device - a gateway through the flame. Weeks later, the machine is constructed and troops are ready.
Ever vigilant, the Blue Bolt inspects the perimeter before reporting back in to "the Scientist Bertoff," and makes a startling discovery.
Blue Bolt goes on the offensive, "alone, he repulses wave upon wave of the attacking Green Infantry-"
Hey! Let's take another look at that last panel...
Damn. Right there from the beginning Kirby was already working out his trademark Kirby Crackle. It's not quite there yet, but he's obviously establishing the basics way back in 1940! On an entirely unrelated note, it's quite interesting to see that they were using not just dots, but stripes in varying directions to create their mid-tone colors.
Okay. I digress - let's continue.
Immediately upon crossing over, things get weird for our hero...
With the goggles restraining the sensory input (much like Spider-Man's A:CW goggles?), Blue Bolt can proceed through a disturbing landscape littered with Green Infantry skeletal remains. While trying to determine what killed them, he encounters the Green Sorceress again - now calling him Darling, and pleading to not fight any more...
Being crushed to death by a plant really is not how he wants to die. Blue bolt struggles furiously and finally "breaks the great tentacles' crushing grip"...
While Doctor Bertoff continues to fight a slowly losing battle to defend his "huge laboratories" from the seemingly endless invaders, Blue Bolt manages to hook up with his troops.
They rapidly launch an assault from the rear on the Green Sorceress's troops:
Realizing that her plan has failed, the Green Sorceress flees in an armored counter-dymaxian car, but hits a mine placed by her own troops, destroying the vehicle and killing her guards...
And so ends our first co-credited tale. The duo continued with the book for another 5 issues, and continued to create together for another 20 years. Later Jack started working with another partner, and they turned out some pretty good stuff, too.
Blue Bolt story by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby from Blue Bolt #5 (1940)
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