Boy, Oh, Boy! (King Kirby 082)

As you may well know, Jack Kirby and his long-time partner Joe Simon, popularized the Kid Gang genre in comics. The 1970s revival of the Newsboy Legion and reprints of Boy Commandos brought an awareness of them to a new generation of readers. There were other titles, like Boy's Ranch giving the genre a western slant, but around here we like things Odd. So Boy Explorers was the one i liked best.
Boy Explorers were featured in text pages in the first couple issues of Stuntman before appearing in their own title. But that lasted only two issues before Terry And The Pirates took over (picking up the numbering at 3). Boy Explorers stuck around for another two issues there.
Here we find them a little earlier, hiding out over in Joe Palooka's book-

Okay. I know. Dream sequences aren't really all that odd since they're excused from normality by virtue of being a dream. But with the Boy Explorers, you never knew. They're regular adventures were odd enough - after all, they'd already been to The Edge Of The World in their second issue!
Let's jump over to Terry & The Pirates, the second half of the two-parter that ran in 3&4. Here they've found an Isle Where Women Rule -

Not the sort of adventure one might expect for the Boy Commandos. On the other hand, they get to be rescued by superheroes, so i guess it evens out...

Boy Explorers by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon from Joe Palooka #5 (1946) and Terry & The Pirates #4 (1947)

Right On Target (King Kirby 081)

Over the years, Jack Kirby worked on a lot of westerns, as he did most every other genre. His best known work in the genre is probably his Kid Colt, Outlaw covers for Marvel in the early 60s, and Boy's Ranch, produced with long-time partner Joe Simon.
For me, the greatest western work from The King was, again, partnered with Joe Simon for their Mainline publishing company, and later Charlton - Bulls Eye. For primary evidence, allow me to submit the fabulously designed covers for the 7 issue run. #5 is probably one of my all time favorite designs for any cover.

Simon & Kirby were rocking the west with this series. If those covers aren't enough to convince you, let's go to issue #3 (as we so often do) and take a look at the lead tale. Let me say right up front, this should be a genre, not just something we get on very rare occasions, like here and Valley Of Gwangi.
But, moving right along...

Bulls-Eye - the cowboy equivalent of a superhero, from fashion sense to story encounters. Only seven issues, and Jack didn't draw as much as i'd like - sometimes just the splash for a story - but i just dug him. And Kirby seemed to have fun with him, as in this sketch:

Now, here - go have some fun and color that groove-tastic cover from #5 yourself:

BullsEye by Simon & Kirby (1954-1955)

Splashing & Making Waves (King Kirby 071)

I've been pretty clear on my love for those big double-page splashes from Jack Kirby (& sometimes Joe Simon, like today). Back when Simon & Kirby were just getting started on Captain America, they weren't really doing those yet. But they still had some very cool single pagers:

Okay - Queer Case of the Mudering Butterfly and the Ancient Mummies is a winner all by itself. And even way back in 1941, they were already creating villains for the Marvel universe for heroes other than Captain America, like-

And if you don't already love this splash...

...how about the extra in-story splash showing off its innards:

In issue #6 they started using the centerfold of the comic for those glorious 2-page spreads. They left after #10, so they only did five for Captain America Comics:

Some of the wild, edge-of-surreal, fun of their later design layouts is starting to show here, but it feels like they're still testing the waters, seeing what works for them.
It's one of those situations that leaves me wondering - what if they hadn't gotten screwed on their arrangement for Captain America and had stayed with the book & company back then? Besides how that would likely have reshaped Jack & Joe's financial fortunes over the years, how would it have shaped Timely? When they left, the kid they let write the text pages for Captain America as of #3 wound up running the place. You have to think the company's history would have followed a significantly different path.

But, more to the point, what kind of terrific Captain America art would we have seen if they had stayed on the book for a few years? All the great work they did with the Stuntman spreads and such leave me wanting that cross-continuum viewer to peek at artwork from alternate histories.
I know. I should just be grateful for what we got. But Jack taught me to imagine more...

all art by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon from Captain America Comics #s 1-10 (1941-2)