Kirby In Comics, continued (King Kirby 070)

As we've seen, Jack Kirby not only created comics, but appeared in them as well. It's inevitable that one who was so influential to the industry and who is such a "character" himself would wind up being translated into comic reality by others as well as himself. Of course, anyone writing about the early days of comics will have to work hard to not include him, no matter what he's called. Like Jake Corby in Wordsmith:

...or, more simply Jack King in Will Eisner's autobiographical book The Dreamer:

Sometimes he's not mentioned at all by name, but you know who he is...

And sometimes it's nothing more than a little shout-out in the crowd (emphasis added):

Of course, it's always fun to see Jack showing up in a book he helped create...

 ...but even more fun when he shows up in the stories, whether in a parody, as in FF Annual #5...

...or in the main story, as in FF #176...

 At that point, the Human Torch arrived to rescue Jack & John, and the Fantastic Four do brief battle with the Impossible Man, leading to...

SPOILER: It wasn't so terrible - it was the Frightful Four, most inept of FF villains, holding new member tryouts at the Baxter Building.

Those appearances were always lots of fun, but don't be thinking they were created in the Marvel Age - Jack Kirby & Joe Simon were doing that sort of thing decades earlier, as in Boy Commandos #1 when their heroes are in trouble:

Damn, that was a cool little bit, bringing in their character from another book. 1942 - was that the first cross-over? Probably not, but it was a fun break in the middle of the tale.

This post is getting long, and it's not going to end soon. We'll return to Kirby In Comics on Sunday. Join us then, if you haven't already done so, readers from the future.

Jack Kirby appears in Wordsmith #12 (1988), The Dreamer (1986), Captain America: The Legend (1996), Orion #5 (2000), X-Men #98 (1976), Fantastic Four Annual #5 (1967), Fantastic Four #176 (1976), and Boy Commandos #1 (1942)

That's a Fact, Jack? (King Kirby 063)

Back in 1946 & '47, Jack Kirby and his partner in creation, Joe Simon, did a few strips for Real Fact Comics. Just a couple 2-pagers, and a couple 4-pagers. The first of the 4-page strips is a fairly straightforward "Real Facts" kind of comic, offering a little lesson in American History:

(SPOILER: He was Both)

The 2-pagers, however, were less Real Fact and more...  well, they say it right there at the top - Just Imagine-

Those stories came from the first 2 issues of Real Fact Comics, and were all reprinted during Kirby's time at DC in the 70s. (Pirate Or Patriot was reprinted in Mr. Miracle #4 if you're dying to read it) Jack returned without Joe in issue #9 to pencil another Real Fact based story which, to my knowledge, has never been reprinted. (My knowledge ends about the end of the last century)
So here's Backseat Driver from Real Fact Comics #9 (1946):

That's another Kirby biography of a woman with whom i was quite unfamiliar. This story came out about the same time as 48 Famous Americans, too. After all those one page bios, having four pages to cover this short period of McKay's life must have seemed quite leisurely to Jack.

pages from Real Facts Comics drawn by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon (1946) and Jack Kirby & ??? (1947)

Still Rad, After All These Years (King Kirby 061)

Snell, over at Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep!, has a regular reminder that the Vision Is Radder Than You Think. And he's not wrong. In fact, i'll go one further and say that the Vision has been Radder than you think for Longer than you think. As evidence, i submit these Jack Kirby & (usually) Joe Simon splash pages from over 75 years ago for the courts' consideration:

If those don't convince you, how about when the Vision battled Satan himself?

Now that you are doubtlessly convinced in this matter, enjoy the radness of Simon & Kirby's Vision vs. Dinosaurs, depicted by Jack Kirby (inker unknown):

Boom. Boom. Out go the lights...

the vision by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon (mostly) from Marvel Mystery Comics 14-27 (1941)

Double Kirby (King Kirby 055)

I believe that my enjoyment of Jack Kirby's 2-page spreads, both with & without Joe Simon. There's a distinct difference between those big spreads when he's working alone or with his old partner. That fact that both can be so gloriously good just makes me appreciate those differences even more. (And then i get all gooey Vulcan feelings inside for the IDIC, but let's move along) Those big double page spreads have a Kirby trademark at points in his career, but did you know that his very first job for Timely (Marvel) was a double page spread?
Yup. Way back in 1939 for the very short lived pulp magazine, ironically named Marvel Tales. Even before he was doing comics for them, he was already doing the doubles:

Okay, none of that is quite true. This is actually from Marvel Stories, which came out in 1940. But i bumped into this in The Jack Kirby Treasury, and they had mistaken Marvel Stories for Marvel Tales, published by Western Fiction Publishing Co., which alters the timeline just a few months. But in those few months Simon & Kirby worked on their first three issues for Timely - Red Raven #1, Daring Mystery #6, and Marvel Mystery Stories #13. In those first three issues, they brought a god down to Earth to be the hero (Mercury), introduced Marvel Boy, and introduced The Vision. So they were already off to a rocking start, foreshadowing the Marvel Age that followed a couple decades later.
Nonetheless, i do think that this is the first double pager done for Marvel-to-be. I haven't dug out that issue of Red Raven yet to be sure, but it seems likely this was the first.

Now that we've worked that out, let's enjoy 10 double-splash spreads from The King. Not a Top 10, just a Ten 10. I've still got massive piles of Kirby comics to read through and pull to the gallery piles. Can't evaluate from a partial selection, now can we? (Well, according the people at the Miss Universe pageant, my opinion is wrong, wrong, oh, so wrong.)

Please do take time to read the caption on this one:

I really loved what Jack (and Joe) did with all that space in which to play.

2-page glory by Jack Kirby & friends from 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Demon, Devil Dinosaur, Stuntman, Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, Headline Comics, and Forever People. Oh, and Marvel Stories. If you want to know the issue #, ask