Kirby In Comics, continued (King Kirby 070)

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)

Friday Fun & Games 005 (King Kirby 069)

It's Friday, so it's once again time (in case the title hadn't clued you in already) for -

This week, it's time to test your editorial skills, or something like that. Whatever cheap excuse we need to play Spot The Difference. Below are two images, the first is Jack Kirby's cover for Fantastic Four Annual #3. I've done terrible things to the second image. You know how this game is played, right?
Spot the 27* Differences between the two images:

You're probably going to want to click & enlarge for easier spotting. Join us tomorrow for Saturday Solutions to see the answers if  you haven't found them already.

glorious cover by Jack Kirby and Mike Esposito for Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965)

===

*(Because 27 is 3 to the 3rd power, of course)

not to be confused with The 100 (King Kirby 068)

It seems customary to note the 100th post in a new blog, but here we are two thirds through the King Kirby 100. Confusion aside, how to mark the occasion while keeping the focus on Jack Kirby?
Y'know... The King had a few 100s of his own, his first way back in 1945:

Of course, it was monster covers in the 50s...

 ...even on the cowboy books:

But Jack also hit a #100 cover for the genre he and Joe Simon invented:

As you'd expect, superheroes returned in the 60s...

This is surely the #100 that thrilled me the most when it hit the stands. We were all waiting for the 100th issue of Fantastic Four, and man did that cover deliver the goods-

Oddly enough, his Captain America #100 was actually the first issue of Cap's solo title, picking up the numbering from Tales Of Suspense where he'd been sharing the book..

 Don't say that doesn't count - Jack was there 100 issues later for #200's cover, too:

A feat he managed to duplicate with the Fantastic Four:

There's a frustrating number of times when Kirby stopped drawing covers during the 90s, then returned just after #100. This list would have doubled in size were it not so. Scanning through his output to find these leaves me even more amazed at the sheer volume of work he produced. Consider that at his output rate, for 40 years he would have reached his 100th page about every 36 days. It seems like half the artists working these days can't turn out 100 pages a year. Jack Kirby was turning out 1000 pages a year for four straight decades.

And he ruled through Quality, not quantity.

What's on Your wall? (King Kirby 067)

Very simple post this morning, just one piece by Jack Kirby. This one is a bit different than most for the simple fact that it wasn't drawn & painted for anything other than personal pleasure. Jack drew it and then Mike Thibodeaux inked the piece, after which Jack returned to the piece with his water colours. The painting hung on Kirby's wall at home where he and the family could enjoy it.
Eventually it wound up with art collector Vince Oliva, who offers much of his collection for viewing via an online gallery at Comic Art Fans.
Both a Bravo! and a personal thanks to Mr. Oliva for letting the superb work in his collection be seen.

As always, click on the image to enjoy a larger view of Kirby goodness:

Hulk gets lost for Jack Kirby's personal amusement (1982)

Earth Owes Jack! (King Kirby 066)

We've seen Jack Kirby appearing in various comics, but it's nigh impossible to catalog his appearances.
In part, that's because he isn't always mentioned in the script, even when it's clearly Jack playing the character that Jack is drawing.

As you might suspect, one good example of this type of situation is in Tales Of Suspense #25 (at right).
It's actually that cover story, in fact.
But, before we get to the story, let's jump over for another excerpt from the interview with Jack Kirby in The Jack Kirby Treasury (vol. 1), when Jack is talking about his early days in comics, just over 75 years ago.

Think about that. Can you imagine the kind of films Jack Kirby might have made had he gone the movie director route?
Thankfully, we can get a glimpse through the magic of Kirbyvision-

Y'know... I love Jack sitting there triumphant above that blurb announcing the new Fantastic Four comic.

page art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers from Tales Of Suspense #25 (1962)

Millie Had Her Chance (King Kirby 065)

We've seen previously how Jack Kirby was viewed in Patsy Walker's comics as a Romance superstar for whose attention everyone was willing to fight.

What about over at Millie The Model's place? (Yes, kids - once upon a time, comics were created for girls, too) Millie was Patsy's competition, put out by another company called Vista Publications.

Really.

So ignore that little MC over on the right side of the cover. And definitely ignore the fact that the address for Vista Publications is 655 Madison Avenue, the same as the address at the time for Marvel Comics. And, of course, pay no attention to the fact that they're both written by the same person. It's probably just a generic pen name for the industry or something. Nothing more.
So let's see how they treated Jack in this 6 page short, eh?

Well. I guess we can see that Patsy Walker clearly had the better book. No wonder she's the one on TV these days while Millie is all but forgotten.

Jack Kirby guest stars in Millie The Model #107 (1962)