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)
