Johnny Mack Brown - Educational Cowboy

Once upon a time there was a cowboy star named Johnny Mack Brown.
JMB had him some comic books, and he didn't seem to be quite like the other cowboy movie stars...

Ah, yeah - exciting adventures in boot polishing!

Really, he did have some good adventures (stay tuned) but he surely didn't seem to be all in-your-face about being the man's man cowboy, now did he? And, as noted above, his comics were Educational type publications. Learn the history and culture of the Old West, one page at a time!

And, of course, what's Cowboy Westerns without the music?

pages from Johnny Mack Brown #s 541, 834 & 922 (1954, 1957, 1958)

Planting Seeds (King Kirby 097)

You know Jack Kirby's work passingly well by now, yes? So if we encounter Cadmus, post-apocalyptic evolved animals, and a scientist's chair that travels at unfathomable speeds between worlds you've probably got a fair idea of when & where we are in The King's career, right?

Are you thinking 1950s at Harvey or 1970s at DC?

When we talk about that flying chair, which are you picturing?

Alarming Tales #1 was quite the little atemporal oddity. We've looked at it before, and this is why i promised to come back to it. This one issue seems to reflect the future in little ways. First, we have a Cadmus project...

...then, instead of a last survivor of the old world, we have a time traveler transported to an evolved animal future...

...and lastly we have that cover story, with which my mind was happily playing tricks on me. At first, his name appeared to me as Donnovan -

That's what happens when fresh deities leave their toys laying around...

all pages drawn by Jack Kirby for Alarming Tales #1 (1957), Metron by Kirby from The Hunger Dogs (1985)

The King gets Odd (King Kirby 013)

For this outing, we've got a strange little tale from Alarming Tales #1. Black Cat Mystic was seemingly selling well, and Harvey decided on a second title for the genre, utilizing the Simon & Kirby team. (Good call there)

The first issue was fairly jam-packed with Kirby goodness, and we'll be getting another taste in a bit. Best not to bite off too much at one time.
Trust me. Your Granny knows best what's good for you...

So, for today we're just going to run an entire story - it's only 5 pages. The King gets to play and get odd with the art (inking his own pencils) in this reality bending tale, delightfully entitled The Fourth Dimension Is A Many Splattered Thing.

The Fourth Dimension Is A Many Splattered Thing from Alarming Adventures #1 (1957)

Extraordinary Gents (King Kirby 011)

Okay, you've got a great idea. But what are you going to call it?
Sometimes first thoughts aren't the way to go...



WTF? I don't think you'll see me rushing out to buy that first issue of League Of Death-Cheaters! I'm not sure how to carry something that clunky home all by myself.

Wait -what?
Oh. OH!
Well, that's different then:

 

At least they had a better name by the time they reached the cover.

I'll really enjoyed King Kirby's the-industry-isn't-doing-superheroes?-fine!-i'll-give'em-non-superheroes!-HA! title, Challengers Of The Unknown. But,damn... LeagueOf Death-Cheaters is a bad name, no matter how descriptive of the concept it may be.

League of Death-Cheaters ad from My Greatest Adventure #13 (1957)