KK100 Xword Challenge (King Kirby 088)

Welcome, once again, to our regular way of avoiding participation in Friday Night Fights.
Today we've got a very special edition of-

What's so special about it?
Well, i actually worked on this one. Today's puzzle is designed to celebrate Jack Kirby's birthday in 3 days, and you're really going to have to know your Kirby to complete it. This is no simple Kirby word search, it's the

You'll need to click & enlarge this beastie to read the numbers, and might want to print instead of writing on your monitors. To commemorate 100 years of Jack Kirby, there's 100 clues & answers to challenge your knowledge of The King. Reading the previous 87 entries in the King Kirby 100 will help some, but it won't give you all the answers. Good luck!

Across
  2    Kirby newsstand magazine. (six words)
  5    Kirby's Fourth World epic began in the comic starring this guy. (two words)
  7    X-51's Human name (two words)
  9    One of the comics that Kirby drew for Punch & Judy was Earl, The __________. (two words)
10    Kirby gave teasing hints of the Evil Factory, Kamandi, and the Mobius Chair in the first issue of this
        1957 comic. (two words)
12    Kirby's partner (two words)
13    OMAC, without Brother Eye. (two words)
14    The Boy Explorers' mentor must have done awful things in the past, because his name is Commodore
         ________.
18    Pen Name used before settling on Jack Kirby
19    Fred Drake is ________
21    Blue Bolt's sexy opponent. (two words)
23    Kirby newsstand magazine (two words)
24    In a March, 1963, story drawn by Jack Kirby & Don Heck "_______ Is Born" (two words)
30    Name of the first romantic hero in Young Romance Comics. (two words)
32    He just wanted to make Orion smile.
33    First Mister Miracle story. (three words)
35    Boy __________
36    Kirby signed his first Green Hornet cover as ________. (two words)
39    Devil's pal (two words)
43    This famous comic redhead wanted desperately to model for Jack Kirby. (two words)
45    First Fighting American story - "_____ the Spy-Ring"
48    The only story Kirby drew for Science Comics. (two words)
50    First superhero Simon & Kirby created for DC comics.
51    Better use this name, since The Watcher just doesn't quite work any more.
53    First title Simon & Kirby worked on for DC - "________ Comics"
54    Jack Kirby's name before his Origin.
56    According to Jack Kirby, this hero was him. (two words)
57    "I Was A Come-On Girl For Broken Bones, Inc." was Simon & Kirby's debut story for this title. (four
        words)
61    Jack Kirby & Joe Simon published war comic written & drawn by veterans.
66    35 Across tale that appeared in Joe Palooka - three times! (five words)
67    That other guy. (two words)
68    _______ of Danger Street
69    _________ Western Scout
73    He battled for a Three Dimensional World
74    Romance comic published by Simon & Kirby. (two words)
77    Kirby's first work for Timely/Marvel was in ______ Comics. (two words)
78    What to call if the Infinity Man is needed.
80    35 Across found "The Isle Where ________." (two words)
82    Two different Simon & Kirby stories with this same title ran in the first few issues of My Date Comics.
        (five words)
84    Kirby's Inker on Space Force
85    Kirby worked as a tweener on this character.
86    First Simon & Kirby story for DC comics "Riddle of the ________" (two words)
89    Unpublished 70s Black Romance comic, (two words)
90    Pen Name used before settling on Jack Kirby
91    Simon & Kirby owned comic about cops (two words)
92    He was High Father.
93    Novel written by Jack Kirby. (two words)
94    Kirby's first use of collage art for comics was in _________. (two words)
95    Pen Name used before settling on Jack Kirby
96    Alias used for Jack Kirby in Wordsmith (two words)
97    This Kirby superhero was born from a movie adaptation. (two words)
98    25 Down first appeared in ________ Comics.

Down
  1    Pen Name used before settling on Jack Kirby
  3    Kirby's Inker on first Marvel Silver Age Superhero
  4    __________ of the Space Force (two words)
  6    "The Buzzard's Revenge" - First Simon & Kirby story featuring ________
  8    Jack Kirby's Industry Nickname (two words)
11    Jack & ___
15    First Marvel Silver Age Superhero (two word)
16    Dan Turpin's nickname did NOT mean he was bad at his job.
17    First Superhero Jack Kirby & Joe Simon worked on together (two words)
20    83 Down was also known as "Witch Queen Of ________". (two words)
22    Jack Kirby's first story as Jack Kirby was a titled ________. (two words)
23    Simon & Kirby's Newsboy Legion first appeared in _________ Comics. (two words)
25    Boy ________
26    Jack Kirby's first cover art was for ________ Comics
27    Dark Side of the Eternals.
28    Name of The Demon
29    Dr. Vundabar's first name.
31    Jason's naughty brother.
34    Name that Kirby signed on Wing Turner. (two words)
37    Home for the Last Boy On Earth (two words)
38    Two Jack Kirby newspaper strips were collected in the first three issues of _______ Comics.
40    Kirby much preferred this book title to the 'disrespectful' team name they plastered on the covers. (three
        words)
41    The first Romance Comic was Simon & Kirby's _________ Comics. (two words)
42    ________ Comics - Publishing house owned by Simon & Kirby
44    Many years before George R.R. Martin was writing his first fan letters to the Fantastic Four, Jack
        Kirby was already having his own Red Wedding in the first issue of this 1949 comic. (two words)
46    Teen Kirby's mimeographed weekly comic was Kurtzberg's (or K's) ________.
47    "46 Hours and 36 Minutes in the Life of __________" (two words)
49    Original concept name for the Black Panther. (two words)
52    Special Investigator who delivered his TRUE crime reports to Simon & Kirby for Headline Comics.
        (three words)
55    Kirby was a ghost artist for Charles Nicholas on this hero's newspaper strip. (two words)
56    Title of Jack & Rosalind Kirby's favorite Kirby story. (two words)
58    Leader of the Howlers. (two words)
59    He was created for issue #48 of the Fantastic Four. (two words)
60    Kirby Inker on The Demon (two words)
62    First appearance of The Demon - "Unleash The __________" (three words)
63    Longest running Kirby Inker on Fantastic Four (two words)
64    Orion's ugly brother.
65    Scott might be a showman, but She always stole the show. (two words)
70    This movie renamed The Source. (two words)
71    Simon & Kirby did Guys & Dolls for _______
72    First Jack Kirby comic featuring Thor - "The Villain From _______"
75    Mister Miracle's ________ is absolutely not, in any way, based on any real person. (two words)
76    He was Simon & Kirby's character in the first issue of Wow Comics. (two words)
79    This modern day MCU Avenger is a Silver Age re-invention of the Simon & Kirby character of the
        same name from 1940. (two words)
81    Pen Name used before settling on Jack Kirby
83    Kirby's first story for Weird Mystery Tales was "_________ Phenomenon"
87    comics genre created & popularized by Simon & Kirby
88    Young Kirby drew cartoons and strips for _______ Newspaper Features.


You might need a little extra time with this one...

King Kirby 100 Crossword Challenge puzzle by -3-, with the aid of Eclipse Crossword Puzzle Maker (2017)
Background image for puzzle from Jack Kirby's painting Dream Machine

Prophecies from the Spirit World (King Kirby 087)

We looked briefly at a collage story from Jack Kirby's newsstand magazine Spirit World - let's go back for another look. But first, here's a better look at the cover since we ran a small sized version last time:

Jack also opened the magazine with his collage work acting as a 3-page prologue to the cover story:

As you may recall, In The Days Of The Mob used the character of the Warden to act as a framing device linking together the stories of the book. Spirit World also used this classic storyteller/host tradition. Meet Dr. E. Leopold Maas...

The end of the magazine leaves us with this dire prediction:

Oddly enough, had one visited Paris in the middle of 1983, they might have arrived for the Orly Airport Attack in July.
Just precisely ambiguous enough for the end page of a piece on Nostradamus.

All pages from Spirit World (1971)

Space Age Kirby (King Kirby 086)

Back before the Space Race triggered a cosmic ray incident, Jack Kirby was already involved in the action.

Joe Simon launched Race For The Moon in 1958 at Harvey Comics with the help of Bob Powell. Kirby provided "5" stories each for issues two and three. Besides the fun of seeing Kirby drawing space race era science fiction, this title also marked the first time that Al Williamson worked with The King. Williamson's inks are particularly well suited to the genre, though his style seems to lightly conflict with the pencils at times - inevitable with two distinctive styles finding their best blend.
You may have noted the quotes around the above number of stories that appear in these two issues. That's because i don't quite agree with the official story count. If one actually looks at the books, you'll find that two of those ten stories look like this:

The more astute among you may have already discerned that this is not a story, but rather a table of contents. Nonetheless, it's usually credited as a one page 'story'.  The first story is the intriguingly titled...

Next up was...

Lunar Trap took place on a moon with both American & Soviet space colonies, a basic can't-we-all-get-along tale that left me thinking of Moon Zero Two.
That was followed by the cover story - the cover being just a rework of the first panel...

It turns out that poor old Bill had a thing about the red spot on Jupiter.... always felt it was watching him. The cover, as you may have noticed, rather obscures the whole notion of Jupiter and the red spot.Odd since that's the story focus.
For our fourth & final tale, we get one of the first pop culture mentions of a phenomenon that would get culturally noticed decades later -

Kirby & Williamson drew one more issue, and then the book was cancelled. Harvey turned its attentions fully to the Funny Animal market and Simon & Kirby moved on.

all pages by Jack Kirby and Al Williamson from Race For The Moon #2 (1958)

Modern Living (King Kirby 085)

We've seen how rough justice could be in some of those old crime comics. It's a good thing for us that we live in the 21st Century with our modern criminal system...

Of course, back in the '90s someone convinced people they'd be made into batteries if this happened, so the system was abandoned. Odds are that they were a bit more accurate in their predictions for robotics and artificial intelligence:

Yeah, that's more believable to anyone who watches modern corporate CEOs.

These two stories were drawn for World Of Fantasy by Jack Kirby and Christopher Rule. Rule seems mostly forgotten now - it's been over 50 years since he retired. But he was one of Kirby's primary Inkers back in the Atlas era, starting with the returning Kirby's first cover & story for Strange Worlds #1 in 1958. Rule inked most of Kirby's earlier works at Atlas, and was later joined by Dick Ayers. Ayers continued working into the Marvel superhero years and was better remembered for the earlier work because of it. Both artists had a fluid ink line that well suited Kirby's pencils, and in those uncredited days it's often hard to know who's work you're admiring. In the beginning, it was almost exclusively Rule.
Besides these two tales, the Kirby & Rule duo also produced four covers for World Of Fantasy:

stories & covers drawn by Jack Kirby & Christopher Rule for World Of Fantasy #s 15 - 19 (1958-59)

Kirby Is HERE! (King Kirby 084)

In 1970, after a mostly cryptic ad campaign heralding his arrival, Jack Kirby quietly appeared in one little corner of the DC universe. It would be almost half a year before The Forever People and New Gods would kick off the new Kirby titles, with Mr. Miracle, The Demon and Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth following in their wake.
The DC execs wanted to have Jack do a pre-existing book, both to integrate him into the company and to give him an immediate paycheck while developing his own books. Jack, being Jack, didn't want to take work from another artist, so he chose a minor book without a regular creative team assigned - Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy Olsen was a title that had run on inertia for quite a while, primarily selling simply by virtue of being a member of the Superman family. (Younger readers may be interested to know there was a time when DC viewed Superman as their flagship character, featuring him at every opportunity)
Then Jack kicked the door down and walked into the place like he owned it...

...and he did. KIRBY IS HERE! we're warned at the top of the cover - Jimmy presiding over a buttkicking for Superman, and you just knew it wasn't one of those old Silver Age tales that would have a full page of exposition to explain the convoluted circumstances that made their confrontation a twisted necessity. And what the hell are those bikers riding down off of...?

Olsen walks in on the first page, as confused as the readers in his new situation...

...and when we turn the page, Jack hits us with our first 2-page splash in his new reign at DC, and the techno beast that is the Whiz Wagon. (That's what happens when it gets named by a group of kids (Reed's just a big kid)) ...

In half a dozen panels (some rather big) Kirby has already changed the dynamic of nearly everything. He's introduced a new science fiction flavor that will build exponentially over the next few issues. He re-introduced the Kid Gang genre to modern comics. Perhaps the most dramatic new element - Olsen's new boss, Morgan Edge - a change that would affect all the Superman titles for years to come. Morgan Edge and Galaxy Broadcasting instead of Perry White and the Daily Planet was so jarring to many readers, that a few months later this page ran in some titles just to say 'Change Happens, Relax.' (Also - Buy Our Comics!)

Meanwhile, back in Jimmy Olsen 133...  Morgan Edge has decided that Clark Kent's connection to Superman makes him a potential liablity his plans with Olsen and ordered someone/thing called Intergang to get rid of him. Somehow Clark survives being run down, and decides to take some sick time, allowing Superman to follow after Jimmy to protect him from the secrets of the Wild Area. But with the Whiz Wagon, the boys have already arrived...

In short order, the gang finds themselves under attack and pinned down - mostly...

The Newsboys charge during the confusion, and a full on rumble breaks out...

Of course, now that Jimmy has defeated their leader in combat, he is their new leader.

A short while later, Superman finds the hidden entrance to the Wild Area...

Superman in Weird Wonderland continues for a short bit, until ...

Of course, Jimmy Olsen is now leading the Outsiders (sorry, Batman - he got here first), and so...

The King serves up warning - yeah, it's nice to be Kryptonian, but that'll only get you so far. Technology has a habit of moving beyond the old 'gods'. Eventually, Kal El wakes up in the Habitat...

...and is soon reunited with Olsen...

Kirby exploded onto the scene and nothing about Jimmy Olsen's book was the same as before. Almost nothing. Just a moment on that...

In the next issue, Jack continued to shake things up and introduce the new readers to KIRBY, with his bold splashes and dynamic layouts...

 ...his two-page splash panels...

...he took his trademark collages to new level...

...ladled in plenty of Kirbytech eye candy...

...and in the last panels, gave the first indications of the war to come...

(Unfortunately, the colourist had no idea about Darkseid)

Jack Kirby was making huge changes, rapidly building a new mythology hiding behind the scenes, and making Jimmy Olsen the most exciting Superman book of the day to read. He was working as a Master Creator and Storyteller, and through it all we got one consistent message from the editors at DC -
Jack's not really good enough to be here.

In a slavish devotion to house style, Superman & Jimmy Olsen were routinely redrawn to look nothing like Jack Kirby's work. It was jarring and constant, and it continually sent that subliminal message to the readers - Kirby's just not good enough for DC. I can't help but think that it hurt the perception of Kirby's work and titles during his time at DC - i know very well that some of my friends at the time were affected by it, and pointed it out in arguments/debates. And worse - that desperate lock on house style was slowly killing DC in the market. Of course, it was hardly the first nor the last time that corporate stupidity would make the world less than it might have been.

Okay, i'm getting downbeat here. Let's let The King end things on a more optimistic note:

all pages by Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta from Jimmy Olsen #s 133 & 134 (1970)