No Candlesticks

Slowly finding my body again. While bod & brain get reacquainted, how about a little quick Jack to get the day rolling.

First, a couple of one-pagers from Jack Kirby - a bit different than one might be used to seeing, from the pages of My Date Comics...

In an entirely different vein, we've got another caveman comic, though this one is a bit younger than most, being both a boy and from way back in Captain America Comics #1 from 1941. Tuk, Caveboy appeared in four out of the first five issues of Captain America before going extinct. All were written by Simon & Kirby, but only the first installment was drawn by Kirby -

Damn. I'd have liked to seen Kirby drawing Atlantis here.
Ah, well...

I expect we'll be seeing more Kirby later today, if the ol' peripatetic mind can be herded. Otherwise, we'll continue our King Kirby Weekend on the morrow. But for now, i've got this overwhelming urge to read the run of Jack Kirby's Black Panther comics...

page art by Jack Kirby from My Date #s 1 & 2 and Captain America Comics #1 (1941, 1947)

As Usual, Jack Was There Before Us

I'm awake! First time i've gotten more than 2-3 hours of sleep in a single block in weeks. Kinda forgot what that was like.
 Others are busy not forgetting.

A lot of folks in this country (the USA) got their first introduction to Guy Fawkes, or "Guy Fox" as many seem to believe, in the movie V For Vendetta. And most of those folks don't seem to realize that he was an actual person from history, and one of your more bizarre holidays.

Fortunately, Jack Kirby is here to educate as well as entertain. Let's jump back almost 75 years to Headline Comics #23 and Jack & Joe Simon will learn ya some -

Remember, remember, the 5th of November
The gunpowder treason and plot...

page art by Simon & Kirby from Headline Comics #23 (1947)

Can Termites Be Romantic?

I like to say that Jack Kirby is the reason that this blog's lifespan is measured in years instead of weeks, but that seems kind of like laying blame. He might have been the reason, but it's not his fault.

You see, i started this blog in late July, and then a few days later i realized that The King's 100th birthday was just a month later in late August. That realization begat the King Kirby 100 - 100 (+2) post on Jack Kirby in his centennial month. That period of intense posting kind of ingrained this blog in the patterns of my life. 

Another, unintentional, result was that we don't do Jack very often. In no small part because it's sometimes very hard to sort out what i've already done.

Tomorrow, August 28th, is Jack's birthday - so let's work on rectifying that a bit and have a King Kirby Weekend, eh? And since Jack is about the only one who saw and predicted comics dominating the movies the way they do these days (when we actually have movies, that is), let's do it Hollywood style and start the weekend early for the extra numbers. (Of course, i'm just talking Number Of Posts, not them yummy box office dollars) And let's try to lean into some of what might be termed Odder works - or, at least less familiar and expected.

Now, you might not know it, but Swifty Chase is known for his unique automobiles. But i think i prefer the one he built for that "romantic termite" House-Date Harry. Here's Jack & Joe Simon to tell you all about it -

Here's the cover for the tale -
 

Swifty starred in the four issues of My Date Comics that were published, and Harry got one short tale of his own. Odds are good we'll catch a bit more with them this weekend.

page art by Simon & Kirby from My Date Comics #3 (1947)

Connie's Curious Cousin Ken?

As you may recall, one of the very first Fly Girls was Connie Kurridge, debuting way back in 1927.

Just over a dozen years later, another guy came along with a similar name. Perhaps, as was often the case, the same family name was given different spelling as they immigrated, and Kurridge became Kurage? Perhaps this is all a bit of damnfoolery?

Perhaps.

But, Joe Simon brought us Ken Kurage and the Solar Patrol in the second issue of Silver Streak Comics at the beginning of 1940 -

But, Ken didn't have Connie's staying power. In his second tale, Kurage became Keen as he downsized from Solar Patrol to Planet Patrol...

(Sorry - I don't have this one, and microfiche was the best i could find)

...and the following issue he lost both Joe Simon and the colours blue & yellow...

A couple issues later he faded into the aether, another hero lost in space...

page art by Joe Simon and ??? for Silver Streak Comics #s 2-4 (1940)

Saturday Night Romance

As mentioned earlier, our main feature tonight is a romance tale - from the guys who invented the genre.
We haven't seen Jack Kirby since the King Kirby 100 celebration back in August. Seemed like we should give everyone else a chance before getting back to him.
 It's been long enough.

So tonight we've got The Man I Loved Was A Mama's Boy! from Jack, with inks from his old partner Joe Simon, from their Young Romance comic.
But, before that, we've got Jet Dream and her Stunt-Girl Counter-Spies (when did that get hyphenated?) encountering a jade tiger - Ting-A-Ling...

To wrap up, a little romance - Jet Dream style (without the hyphen) -

Jet Dream takes a break and we'll be visiting with more old friends for Sunday Morning Funnies. But Jet & the team will be back for the afternoon matinee.

Jet Dream pages by ?? and Joe Certa for The Man From UNCLE #s 10 & 13, Mama's Boy by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon for Young Romance #10 (1967, 1949)