Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Kirby Firsts (1940-1970)!


Here are some fantastic number one comic book covers from the years 1940 to 1970. They are all covers by Jack Kirby, many with the assistance of his longtime partner Joe Simon. Simon in fact might well have designed many of them and certainly inked even more. The covers here begin with first only issue of Red Raven  and work through the war years at Marvel and DC with Captain America and Boy Commandos. Right after the war and Kirby's return from overseas, the team took on many projects for Harvey Comics, Prize Comics and their own Mainline Comics. Also here are some covers for Jack's second stints at both DC with Challengers of the Unknown and Marvel with Fantastic Four, Hulk and many others after his partnership with Simon had ended. Look for the rest of Kirby's number one issues from his later career later this year.































More to come.

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3 comments:

  1. I am amazed about how great that Tales of Asgard
    cover is every time I see it. One of Kirby's (and
    by extension comics') best ever.
    D.D.Degg (maybe I was the right age in 1968)

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    1. You and me both. I picked that one up early and it burned a hole in my brain. I loved mythology and was busy reading Greek and Norse myth at school when I found them in the library and here was that stuff made vivid and exciting and potent. I think I even managed to write a paper in college on Thor and that was back when that sort of thing wasn't that common. It wasn't a very good paper but still and all.

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    2. I imagine you've probably seen the pencil 'rough' of the Tales Of Asgard Special that Stan wanted some changes to, so Jack simply redrew it. I think the Thor figure in the 'rough' is actually less stiff and more fluid than in the published cover.

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