Young Kurtzberg - easy read version (King Kirby 041)

If you didn't read the previous post (King Kirby 040), you might wish to do so before reading this one. The interviews with Jack Kirby give background and perspective to this strip which was drawn back in 1983, and eventually published in Argosy #2 in 1990. The Kirby Museum lists this as being an 8 page story. I guess they skipped the two-page spread that brings the page count up to 10, as you can see here:

Street Code by Jack Kirby for Argosy magazine (1990)

Young Kurtzberg (King Kirby 040)

Let's return to the Jack Kirby interview in The Comics Journal #134. Last time, Kirby spoke of his early art career. This time, let's jump back before that to his days growing up before he started his career.

For a bit of extra perspective, here's an excerpt from the interview in The Jack Kirby Treasury, Vol. 1 covering the same period:

Here's a photo of the Boy's Brotherhood Republic that ran with both interviews:

 ...and a cartoon from the BBR Reporter's 3rd Anniversary:

And, lastly, we have a sample of young Jacob Kurtzberg's first weekly strip, K's Konceptions:

Jack Kirby interviews by Gary Groth and unknown (Greg Theakston?) for The Comics Journal #134 and The Jack Kirby Treasury Vol. 1 (1990, 1982)

Entertaining Headlines (King Kirby 039)

Y'know, the news must have been a lot more interesting back in the first half of the last century.
I mean, check out these Headlines:

Yep - that last one was out of numeric order. But it's such a great cover, it got saved for last. These Headline Comics covers are all Jack Kirby/Joe Simon pencil/inks.

covers by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon for Headline Comics (1947-1951)

Branding Kirby (King Kirby 038)

As we saw earlier today, Jack Kirby did cartoon parody art, too. One of the first places those who know that side of The King might think that ad we looked at came from Not Brand Echh!. Others might now be going Not Brand Wha-? To explain:
Back in the 1960s, Mad Magazine forged a market for a slew of comedy/parody comic magazines. (Cracked.com readers might be interested to know it used to be a cheap imitation print magazine that we didn't read back before the internet gave them new life) Marvel Comics, always eager to fill as much shelf space as possible ever since they got out of that distribution deal with National Periodicals, decided they needed a comedy parody book. For a fair bit they'd been calling the competition Brand Echh, and so a new title was born - Brand Echh! August 1967 Marvel titles like the Fantastic Four ran full page ads featuring the cover of the first issue, and it was proudly proclaimed in the top bulletion of the BBP that month:

Notice that it's called "Brand Echh!" while i referred above to "Not Brand Echh!" That's the fault of their title slogan on the cover...

Who says a comic book has to be good??
not Brand Echh
And everybody ignored the line at the top as intro and called the book Not Brand Echh. Take a look at the contents page for the first issue:

Note that it is listed as Brand Echh in the indicia at the bottom of the page. By issue #5, they gave up and changed it to Not Brand Echh (Possibly in issue #4. I don't have that issue)
For younger readers, PG is an abbreviation for 'page', not a movie rating. The ratings board wouldn't change the designation from M to PG for another 3 years at this point.
Of course, to lead off a parody of Marvel comics, you pretty much have to do a parody of Marvel's First Family, the book that embodies Marvel comics - the Fantastic Four. But who are you going to get to parody Jack Kirby? Well, Jack Kirby, of course. They brought in Frank Giacoia to ink Kirby's pencils and give them a different feel than Joe Sinnott's work over on the FF's home book, and - Presto!:

But, no - Comet Feldmeyer isn't from Not Brand Echh.

Cover & story art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia for Not) Brand Echh! #1 (1967)

Kirby's First Cover (King Kirby 037)

You know what we haven't looked at? Of course you do - it's in the title. One of those obvious things that gets completely overlooked most of the time. I can't remember seeing it featured in any piece on Jack Kirby, though it's probably in one of the many books & magazines still waiting for us to dig up and find.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Kirby's first comic book cover was a collaboration with Joe Simon. At this early stage, it was Jack on pencils and Joe on inks, for Champion Comics #9  cover dated July 1940, from Worth Publishing Co.:

That appears to be Duke O'Dowd, The Human Meteor (not Duke O'Dowd, The Champ as it first appeared to me. The Champ is a different character) having issues with the colourist on the cover.

Doesn't Liberty Lads sound like a Simon & Kirby creation? It focuses on "two hardy Colonial lads" in Revolutionary times in the American Colonies. Jack & Joe would certainly go for more than two, but they'd have run with that concept and title, all the way to glory.

Bonus Fun!
Here's two Simon & Kirby covers from Champ Comics:

Champ Comics is from a different company, Family Comics, Inc., located in St. Louis, Missouri. Champion Comics was published in Buffalo, New York. Did The Champ take over the comic and move across country? No clue. And yet, our Human Meteor is here, too. Now he's wearing red on the cover and green inside, while up there at Champion Comics he's wearing blue on the cover and red inside. I'm still not sure what color his outfit is supposed to be, or if he's just fashionable. 

Kirby/Simon cover for Champions Comics #9 (1940) and Champ Comics #s 19 & 21 (1942)

Niche Market Kirby (King Kirby 036)

A talent as widely diverse as Jack Kirby's will please nearly everyone once they find the right Kirby to match their own inner being. Over time, nearly every type of reader/viewer will find immense satisfaction with The King.
Here, for instance, one can find material designed to please "mentally disturbed readers with a flying saucer complex":

Kirby For EVERYBODY!

Comet Feldmeyer by Jack Kirby for [spoilers - come back tomorrow]

Best of Marvel's Best? (King Kirby 035)

I thought i'd try to pick out Jack Kirby's 10 best covers for his epic run on The Fantastic Four, Marvel's flagship title. I limited it to just the first 100 issues, no annuals, king-size specials, etc.,.

I've managed to narrow it down to about 30 so far. I don't know if narrowing it to ten is going to be possible for me. So, new idea! Here's an overview of all 100 for you to peruse and see if you can decide before i do.

 Some of the covers aren't in the best shape. I had to go with what i had on hand. As always, click for a closer view.
Meanwhile - I'll keep trying to narrow down my selection. Maybe it'll wind up being a Top 20 instead.

100 Covers by Jack Kirby for Fantastic Four #s 1-100 (1961-1970)