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Kirby Cover Discovery!

It's always wonderful to not only discover something new when looking through old comics, but actually get conformation from someone who was there. I've been lucky to meet some of the creators of the early Marvel period in person and occasionally go over their work. As a student of comic art I examine covers and interiors and find alterations by other artists, or uncredited pencils and inks from time to time. Some changes are pretty clear cut, others puzzling. Not every artist is aware of corrections, or is unable to identify uncredited inkers. Drawing so many pages, they sometimes have a hard time identifying their own work if it was inked by a strong hand, or perhaps rushed out. I've discovered that it never hurts to ask a question, and this weekend proved the point.

I attended the New York ComicCon with "The Yancy Street Gang", that group of scallywags that includes my brother John, Barry Pearl and Michael Vassallo (AKA Doc V). We always have a delightful time, and this excursion was no exception. Aside from getting some tremendous bargains, I was able to speak to some wonderful talents, including meeting Timely artist Allen Bellman and revisiting old pros Jim Steranko, Joe Sinnott and Stan Goldberg. These are not only fine artists and storytellers, but entertaining and thoughtful gentleman. They all have wonderful stories to tell and enjoy talking to fans. The greatest compliment I can pay them is that my resepect for them has grown considerably after I met them in person.  

As I was going through the dealers room I discovered some wonderful bargains, including many obsucre comics; westerns, romance, mystery. I bought a nice stack, and, since we had stopped by Stan Goldberg's table earlier, decided to let him sign a copy of Modeling with Millie that he drew (it also happened to be one of the earliest stories that then-newcomer Roy Thomas wrote). Although I never had a chance to examine the cover up close before, I always had a suspicion that the Millie figure was not by Stan, even though he signed the cover. The huge face of Millie looled very much like Jack Kirby's work. As I handed the cover to Stan to  sign, I asked him if Millie's face had been drawn by someone else. He immediately shouted "Jack Kirby!" drew that face! It is one of those moments that always thrills me. My suspicion was confirmed by the guy who drew the cover!


Modeling With Millie # 45, Feb 1966


Stan G noted that Stan Lee probably wanted a change in Millie's face or pose and asked Jack to make the correction. We discussed how important the covers were, and how different artists wold make corections. Stan G also mentioned that Jack Kirby once inked one of HIS drawings on a Stan Lee Golf book that featured photos, captions and cartoons. Doc V has that book, and I mentioned to him that Kirby may have done some of the cartoons. In the future we'll have to show the book to Stan G and have him identify the drawing. 

As Stan looked inside the book he explained to me that he only inked the fashion pages in that period. The inker was not always identified in the romance and teen humor titles. As I was looking at the interior along with him I mentioned John Tartaglione might be the unidentified inker on the rest of the book. He confirmed that it was indeed Tartaglione (another discovery). As a GCD indexer I added the information to their site.    

Stan G is not only a gentlemen, he is also a funny guy and still extremely prolific. At the con he was drawing sketch after sketch for fans, and we discussed his latest job. The funniest moment was when he told me: "You know, I was thinking of you guys  (the Yancy Street Gang) when I was drawing the Three Stooges." Well, aside from getting poked in the eye from Stan G, what more could we ask for?

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More Kirby War: Battle

For my 50th post (I never thought I'd make it this far!) I will examine the 10 stories Jack Kirby produced for Battle , an Atlas comic that originated in 1951 and ceased publication in 1960.   In 1959, concurrent with his output on monster, western and romance stories, Kirby was assigned a number of compelling war stories. Based on a thorough reading it appears that Kirby scripted as well as drew many of the pre-1960 stories (an examination of possible scripts in other genre stories will appear at a later date). There are many similarities in style, tone, emphasis of words, phrases, use of quotation marks and sound effects that point to Kirby’s input. I will focus on these patterns as I go through each story.     "Action on Quemoy!" Battle # 64, June 1959, Jack Kirby story ? Kirby pencils; Christopher Rule inks, Job # T-266. The opening narration is similar to the style Kirby often employed; a long paragraph of exposition (which would be seen...

The OTHER Kirby Rawhide Kid cover

Following up on my last post I've found  another alternate Jack Kirby western cover, this time featuring the Rawhide Kid. Kirby and Lee created a new Rawhide Kid when  the title was revived with issue 17, August 1960. Aided greatly by the original Rawhide Kid's artist, Dick Ayers, on inks, the new Kid was a success - a veritable James Cagney tough-guy in the west. Kirby worked on the strip for 16 issues, pulled away once he became more important on the super-heroes. He was followed by Jack Davis, Dick Ayers, Jack Keller and, for the longest run, Larry Lieber, who wrote and drew the strip continuously (with occasional fill-in stories by Dick Ayers, Werner Roth, and Paul Reinman) from # 42, October 1964, until # 115, April 1973 when it went all-reprint. Rawhide Kid finally rode into the sunset with issue # 151, May 1979. Rawhide Kid # 20, Feb 1961, Kirby pencils; Dick Ayers inks Issue #20 ...

Just a short note:

Kid's Stuff RETURNS! That's right! Starting on Monday, The Crapbox begins its annual march to Christmas with twice a week (maybe more?) reviews of comics aimed squarely at the younger set. We'll put the FORGOTTEN HEROES back in the Crapbox, but something tells me they won't be in there for long. Too many good ones got away without a review for me to not revisit that stack sometime early 2019.  However, there will be a slight change to Kid's Stuff this year. In the past I've focused Kid's Stuff on toy tie-ins, but this year I thought I'd do something a little different. While there are still MOUNDS of toys and video game comics floating around in the Crapbox, I thought we could tackle a different set of books. As a change of pace, so to speak. That's why this year I'll be digging out comics that were spinoffs of new or old kid's cartoons. I'm dubbing this year's run up to Christmas " Kid's Stuff: Saturday Morning Cartoon Ed...