Zero - He's Our Hero (King Kirby 015)

Jack Kirby, as most know, was incredibly prolific. With all the amazing thing he created, both alone and with partners, there's still the tantalizing appeal of the things almost created - those many gems left unpolished due to time and monetary constraints.
One of those potentially great looking projects was Starman Zero, created by the famous Simon & Kirby team back in 1947. The proposed series never went into production, but the concept sheets look terrific:

So cool looking. Check out that sleekly modern space suit design and then remember - this was 1947 when they were attempting to sell this strip! Great styling on the tech, plus time jumps, "atomic knights" and far out aliens. This two page concept art just begs the classic question - What If?

What If Jack & Joe had produced a Starman Zero comic? What would it be like?
Let's look and see, shall we?

For those of you WTFing at the monitor, wondering how this exists when there was no Starman Zero comic - it's a trick!

This tale actually comes from Fighting American #4. The story opens with him going to bed and he promptly drops into this "dream of the future" where we switch to an unused Starman Zero story, then come back to wake up on the next page following the above. I just cut out the first caption transitioning from dream to story in the presentation above and added the story credits to fill the space.

The story has a full page splash introduction, using mostly Starman Zero artwork, with the Fighting American overlooking:

It's nice to have those What If?s answered on occasion.

Starman Zero concept art by Simon & Kirby (1947), Homecoming by the same culprits in Fighting American #4 (1954)