Showing posts with label Solar Legion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Solar Legion. Show all posts

15 August 2017

Proto-Kirby Tales (King Kirby 058)


I know we already mention Jack Curtiss as one of the names that Jacob Kurtzberg used for his artwork before settling on Jack Kirby. Have we mentioned Floyd Kelly? I'm not sure, but if not we're mentioning it now.
I gotta say... I'm glad he didn't decide to keep that one. While that Pretty Boy Floyd - Machine Gun Kelly mash-up would work real well for his crime comics work that we were looking at yesterday, it just doesn't match up with his artwork nearly as well as Jack Kirby, or Jack Curtiss, or even Lance Kirby.
(Again - all of these ramblings/ponderings upon names is coming from someone who goes by a number. Take that into consideration)
Anyway - Floyd Kelly did a little piece in Mystery Men Comics #10 starring Wing Turner. It's quite short - only 3 pages. This is from early 1940, just about the time Jack & Joe Simon were starting their first work for Timely/Marvel.


Wing may have returned in the next exciting issue, but Jack (Floyd) did not. He and Joe headed off to make history and fortunes for others. Within the year, Captain America was punching Hitler in the face and making superstars of Simon & Kirby.
But, since that was so short and we mentioned the Jack Curtiss alias a couple times above, here's the first episode of Solar Legion by Jack Curtis from Crash Comics #1:


There were two more 5 page Solar Legion stories in the following issues, and then Jack was gone. I have no clue if the series continued after his departure. This, too, was early 1940 as Jack & Joe were getting started at Timely.

Wing Turner and Solar Legion by Jack "Alias" Kirby for Mystery Men Comics #10 and Crash Comics #1 (1940)