Here's a vintage gem, a 1951 Jack Kirby and Joe Simon cover featuring what must be one of Kirby's earliest renditions of a demon. This seems safely ensconced inside the candle-surrounded circle, but of course we know that won't last.
In fact it reminded me of this classic Berni Wrightson cover from twenty years later. I can almost imagine this scene as what might've happened one minute after the earlier cover.
Here are some details from the Black Magic issue, one that Kirby only did the cover for.
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Two different styles, two great covers!
ReplyDeleteSo different, but oddly similar.
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Can recall DC reprinting about 8 issues of Black Magic in the 1970’s…Even though it was older material there was nothing else like it on the newsstands at the time…I remember picking up that along with Plop (which had some cool Basil Wolverton in it)…That Weird Mystery Tales #4 (Super Spectacular) looks really sweet too.
ReplyDeleteI picked up a few of those Black Magic comics, and it was a revelation. I'd not seen that kind of stuff before at that time. Really different.
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Some of the stories in those '70s BLACK MAGIC reprints had to have panels redrawn (apparently by Simon himself) in order to suit the Comics Code.
ReplyDeleteDoubtless. The Code is the double-edged sword of comics history. With it we see ludicrous limits and absurd changes, but without it, there might not have been comics beyond the scourge of the 50's.
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