STRANGE TALES 144
cover by Jack Kirby & Mike Esposito
Synopsis:
A mysterious villain called The Druid, using "mystic rites" to disguise "modern, sinister science", sends another deadly flying egg, to kill Nick Fury! Meanwhile, at the crash site of the downed jet, Fury races thru the fire to shut down the plane's nuclear reactor before it can explode and take out half the countryside. Dugan refuses to enter the "Mobile Fallout Shelter", and waits for Fury-- thinking for a moment he's just died, then overjoyed to find his old friend alive and ornery as ever. On the road in his Porche 904, Fury & Dugan are attacked by the egg. The car dodges a flame-thrower, strikes back with a "Borer-Bomb", then falls victim to plastic self-forming tank traps. As the car flips over, its "Air Sacs" activate, then Fury uses its jet fans to fly away and land safely. The pair finally use "Grenade Guns" to take out the offensive omelette. Back at the SHIELD barber shop, clean-cut new recruit Jasper Sitwell has a hard time convincing the barber he's really a SHIELD agent. He tells Fury he's been assigned to help him against the flying eggs, which remain a mystery.
Indexer notes:
Part 1 of 2. The opening sequence of a mystic rite above-ground while technos supply the goods bears a striking resemblance to the "graveyard" scene in the film LIVE AND LET DIE (1973). The car chase in this episode stands out as one of the most exciting (and fun) action scenes in the series. The "Air Sacs", which "airlines are experimenting with now", predate air bags in cars by decades! 1st appearance of Jasper Sitwell (based on Roy Thomas!).
(8-3-2007)
"THE DAY OF THE DRUID!"
NICK FURY is targetted by ANOTHER terrorist outfit, this one with "ancient" trappings masking hi-tech (an idea later reused in the Roger Moore 007 flick "LIVE AND LET DIE"). JACK KIRBY supplies story & layouts, ye "editor" does dialogue, and the team of Howard Purcell & Mike Esposito do pencils & inks for their 2nd and final time. Purcell apparently lived outside the NYC metropolitan area, and allegedly this was the reason said "editor" didn't give him much work. A shame, his 2 episodes were MUCH better-looking than the ones done by John Severin, Joe Sinnott, Don Heck, or Ogden Whitney.
This episode also introduces crew-cutted over-eager rookie agent "Jasper Sitwell", who was Kirby's blatent parody of Marvel newbie writer Roy Thomas!
(2-3-2014)
"WHERE MAN HATH NEVER TROD!"
Synopsis:
Dormammu uses Asti to lure Strange into an alien dimension where he will be under no vow to spare him. The Ancient One takes Strange to the ruler of a dimension who has senses one of Dormammu's spells in a far-off corner of infinity. There, Dormammu contacts Tazza, and claims that Strange is coming there to kill him. The two battle to a standstill, until Strange convinces Tazza he only seeks information-- and forces the release of Tazza's various prisoners, who are grateful for his help. Both Dormammu & Strange mentally prepare for a coming "final combat" between them.
Indexer notes:
Part 15 of 17.
(8-3-2007)
FANTASTIC FOUR 50
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
The Watcher sends Johnny on a journey to the far reaches of space, to retrieve a device from Galactus' home-world spaceship that STOPS him dead in his tracks with fear. He vows never to return to Earth, but for his part in defying his master, The Surfer has his space-time powers removed, and is exiled to Earth. And then Johnny starts college. HUH?
The structure of this story is what always gets me. It's part 3 of 3, except, Part 1 started halfway into #48, and Part 3-- really-- ends halfway thru #50. So, page-wise, it's really a 2-parter.
JACK KIRBY supplies story & art, ye "editor" writes words and claims credit for all of it, and JOE SINNOTT dazzles the eyes with his inks.
(3-3-2014)
TALES TO ASTONISH 79
cover by Jack Kirby & Bill Everett
WHAT a COVER!!! Gene Colan & Jack Kirby have done their share of great ones on this run, but this time Kirby has out-done himself. And Bill Everett proves he's one of Kirby's BEST inkers yet! Wow.
"WHEN RISES THE BEHEMOTH"
After 9 consecutive issues of Gene Colan being inked by Vince Colletta, we get a new inker, in the form of-- BILL EVERETT! Returning to his creation 10 years and 7 months after the last 1950's issue of SUB-MARINER, the Colan-Everett combo is something to behold. You might not think 2 artists whose styles are so distinctive and so COMPLETELY different would be a good match for each other, but they are. It's like Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott, or Jackson Guice & Kelly Jones-- only different. The point is, in one installment, on inks alone, Namor's creator TOTALLY blows Vince Colletta's earlier work out of the (heh heh) water.
When an over-muscled half-naked hero is surrounded by trigger-happy army soldiers and he starts tearing up the landscape to fight them-- and it's happening in BOTH features in the same split mag, it might start to get confusing. I wonder if this might not be why HULK started getting dumber by the page around this point? Still, Namor isn't proving himnself much smarter, if being crowned ruler of Atlantis is gonna have this little effect on his standard M.O.
Gene introduces yet another giant-size menace in one of his comics. We've seen the seaweed-man, we've seen ULTIMO, now, the BEHEMOTH. Do you get the feeling it's too bad GIANT-MAN's series had bitten the big one by this point? It's notable than in the VERY brief run Gene did on THE AVENGERS sometime later, he introduced a new "GOLIATH"-- but I think it's a shame he didn't get to draw the REAL one in action. Anyway, this monster-- an Atlantean "doomsday machine" gone awry-- looks like it would have fit right in on an episode of Irwin Allen's VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.
Colan & Everett sure render s beautiful Lady Dorma. This is one more example of Namor's lack of excessive brains... HOW come he didn't MARRY this one A.S.A.P.?
"THE TITAN AND THE TORMENT!"
Readers preparing for a lengthy battle royal between greenskin & Dr. Zaxon must have had a shock-- almost a big a shock as Zaxon did, when he accidentally ELECTROCUTED himself on only the 2nd page of this installment. GOOD GRIEF! It's interesting to see Jack Kirby's story notes on the original art for page 3 (15). "Bruce realizes guy is dead-- he knows he will be blamed for the death--" Jack doesn't refer to greeny as "HULK"-- he refers to him as "BRUCE". My guess is, Jack wanted The Hulk to continue on with Bruce Banner's intelligence. After all, WHO wants to follow the adventures of a DUMB hero (other than Johnny Weismuller fans)? "Ye Editor", obviously. Not only is this the exact point where The Hulk became a DUMB ANIMAL (for all intents and purposes), but there's not even a HINT that it crossed his almost non-existent mind that he might be blamed for Zaxon's death. Which, he is, by the way, by the soldiers, who exclaim, "Now we know for SURE that he's a KILLER!" As I said-- GOOD GRIEF.
What follows, as far as the art goes, is so completely, entirely "Bill Everett" in look and feel, it wouldn't surprise me if Jack didn't do stick-figures for this installment. Why would he need to do more?
A bit of a crossover occurs here, as possibly the BIGGEST A**H*** in the Marvel Universe at the time who WASN'T a villain-- HERCULES, the Son of Zeus-- fresh from beating the CRAP out of THOR (Son of Odin), is on his way to HOLLLL-LYWOOD (you need 4 or 5 "L"s) to become a big movie star, by portraying-- get this-- "Hercules"-- in a big-budget epic feature film. En route, what are the odds? His train runs afoul of greenskin, who rips up the tracks to use as weapons against air force fighter-jets. Well, NOBODY interferes with HERCULES, so a battle royal proceeds to take place. (Hey, we got one anyway!)
Now, if anybody thought Hercules vs. Thor was the biggest clash of egos ever seen in the history of the 1960's Marvel Universe, this episode does its best to out-do it. Because on BOTH sides you've got guys who are TOO strong, TOO powerful, TOO arrogant, TOO DAMN STUPID to ever, ever give up under any circumstances whatsoever! And, since it's in the middle of the southwest desert, it goes on and on and on... until the army starts BOMBING the area with artillery shells. Actually figuring he can't fight the WHOLE ARMY, Hulk takes off, leaving Hercules amazed. Oh well, at least he didn't seem bothered by the fact that he didn't actually BEAT his opponent.
In an awesome display of strength that could have stepped right out of Greek mythology, Hercules CARRIES each railroad car over the gap and re-hooks them on the other side. For this, he is considered a hero. The Hulk, having displayed possibly even greater feats of strength, is considered a menace. And so, the only hero in the M.U. who's even more miserable than Spider-Man continues to be miserable. And the soap-opera goes on for another month.
The next month box screams "TYRANNUS", but the way it looks, I almost wonder if that wasn't pasted in at the last moment. I wonder if anyone had other plans in mind when the pages were drawn?
As amazing as Bill Everett's art is here, as sharp and crisp and perfectly precise are all the lines (mind-bogglingly so, I'd say), I can't help but think maybe he would have been better-suited NOT following Jack Kirby's almost non-existent panel break-downs. There's so many SMALL panels, and in them, so many TEENY-TINY figures, you almost need a magnifying glass to see everything Everett drew here. It gets ironic when one of Jack's hand-written story notes describes "Herc's muscles bulge like balloons"-- and he's drawn SO TINY, you can barely see him at all! I get the feeling that's not QUITE what Jack had in mind.
(12-31-2010)
One thing you can say about Everett, he was the first guy to stick around on the series since Mike Esposito. Only he was like 20 times better.
I wish I could see PENCILS for these pages. I bet it'd be a riot to see how much-- or LITTLE-- Kirby did in the visuals, or, if he did any dialogue at all. (I suspect not.)
(12-4-13)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 36
cover by STEVE DITKO
TALES OF SUSPENSE 77
cover by Gene Colan & Jack Abel
THOR 128
cover by Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta
from the GCD: "Synopsis: Thor recovers from his injuries last issue and goes looking for a rematch with Hercules who has been tricked into signing a contract with Pluto."
Following Hercules' train ride to HOLLLL-lywood (as detailed in TALES TO ASTONISH #79), we see the studio where the big budget epic "Hercules" movie is about to made... "ALLEGEDLY!!!" As it turns out, the sneaky, devious, conniving-looking shark who's running the show is not what he seems-- and far, far more so than usual, even for Tinsel Town. One of the funniest scenes in all of 60's Marvel is when the big-time producer (NOT-- REALLY!!) hands Hercules a contract to sign, and the BIG, DUMB OAF, who never seems to take anything serious except for his own pleasure and his own overblown ego, notices something isn't kosher.
"If you will sign this contract... a mere formality... a trifle to be quickly disposed of..."
"But what nonsense is this? This doth say Hercules must rule the Netherworld for all eternity."
But in this case, we're not talking about anything hidden in the fine print. It's right there, quite plainly. And IT ISN'T A JOKE. Which Hercules finds out the instant AFTER he signs it! For the "producer" is none other than PLUTO, Lord of the Netherworld, one of the gods of Olympus, who has been cast out and condemned to rule the dark regions until Zeus feels he's ready to say otherwise-- OR, unless Pluto can get someone else to agree to do it in his place. But who would be FOOLISH enough to agree to such a thing? Why-- Zeus' MORON of a son, THAT's who!!!
JACK KIRBY doth supplyeth the story & art, in overblown, epic, bombastic and hilarious glory! Ye "sneaky, devious, conniving-looking shark who's running the show" filleth in the word balloons, and Vince "Who moved my pens?" Colletta turns clear images into hard-to-reproduce fine lines. AN EPIC FOR OUR TIMES!!!
As with the rest of this story, I read it in MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #3 (1974)
(3-13-2014)
"AFTERMATH!"
from the GCD: "Synopsis: The tale of Ragnarok reveals Loki as the cause."
A bit understated, but then it's only 5 pages. As it turns out, between my copies of MARVEL TALES, MARVEL SPECTACULAR, MARVEL TREASURY EDITION, MARVEL MASTERWORKS and ESSENTIAL THOR, plus the growing number of original comics I've picked up over the last 15 years, THIS episode is one of the FEW I had never gotten ahold of, and thus, never read. Until, that is, I found all 5 pages posted online. The first 3 were at the "Bullys Comics" website, the 4th was at "The Jack Kirby Fan Page" Facebook group, and the last at the "Daily Kirby" website. Talk about piecing together something.
This is an INCREDIBLY important episode to be missing, as it details, in vivid visual detail, the COMPLETE DESTRUCTION of Asgard, and its subsequent rebirth as part of the cycle of the gods. The only question is, is this a prediction of events to come-- or a look back at what happened to a PREVIOUS incarnation of the Norse gods? Given the VAST differences between "traditional" Norse mythology and that contained in the Marvel Universe version, I'd say the latter-- especially as the brief view we have of the reborn Asgard looks more like the one seen in Marvel's THOR comics than in any other version ever seen. Thus, this story actually "explains" the seeming discrepencies which some readers continue to complain about, to this day.
JACK KIRBY supplies story & art on this installment of "Tales of Asgard", ye “editor" does dialogue & Vince "What the hell IS all this?" Colletta does inks.
FEAST YOUR EYES.
(3-13-2014)
THE AVENGERS 28
cover by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia
Jack Kirby redesigns GIANT-MAN's costume (again!) and gives him a new name in the process (his 3rd so far). The story gets complicated, as Hawkeye's lady-love, The Black Widow, has been subjected to brainwashing by her COMMIE-RAT supervisors, and has hired some freelance help to take on the team-- The Swordsman, and Power Man! DON HECK supplies story & art, ye "editor" does dialogue, and Frank Giacoia does inks. I really LOVE this line-up on this book, and dearly wish it had lasted a LOT longer than it did.
Among other things, the Heck-Giacoia versions of The Scarlet Witch, The Wasp, and The Black Widow all never looked prettier!
(2-13-2014)
SGT. FURY & HIS HOWLING SAVAGES 30
cover by DICK AYERS
"INCIDENT IN ITALY"
The GCD site lists Roy Thomas as writer on SGT. FURY #29-38, and DICK AYERS as penciller on every one of those. But starting with #39, they list DICK AYERS as having supplied the "plot". That means he WROTE THE STORIES. Now, since Ayers was clearly writing the stories before Thomas arrived, isn't it possible he CONTINUED to do so even after Thomas replaced his "editor"? I think so. In an interview, Thomas once said he had "little interest" in SGT. FURY or NICK FURY. I think the truth is more likely that he left those series (NICK FURY after only 2 episodes) because he WASN'T NEEDED there, as someone else was actually doing the stories. John Tartaglione continues on inks.
(2-3-2014)
DAREDEVIL 16
cover by John Romita & Frank Giacoia
Legend has it Steve Ditko was getting fed up with Martin Goodman's lies & duplicity, having promised royalties on future licensing and then NOT following thru on it, especially when THE MARVEL SUPER-HEROES SHOW made its debut. Ditko was already doing a lot of work for other publishers, and it looked like he might leave Marvel. So, Marvel's "editor", getting desperate, looked around and decided JOHN ROMITA might be the guy to take over WRITING Spidey, and had him make a guest-appearance in 2 issues of D.D. As usual, Romita does story & art, ye "editor" does dialogue, and Frank Giacoia does inks. This was fans' 1st view of what would really become Romita's "signature" character for the remainder of his entire career.
(2-3-2014)
X-MEN 20
cover by Werner Roth & Dick Ayers
The 3rd-rate baddie responsible for Professor X becoming a cripple and stuck in a wheelchair returns for his 2nd and final unmemorable appearance. Hmm. The big news is, ROY THOMAS makes his debut on the book as writer. He recently revealed in an interview-- perhaps inadvetently-- that when he was given the assignment, he was told he would just be filling in the word balloons for WERNER ROTH. But unlike his boss, Thomas wanted to write, and objected! Roth, a longtime veteran of DC romance books, was happy to step back and let someone else do that part of the job. But the implication was clear. If Thomas was expected to ONLY write dialogue-- and for Werner Roth-- it can only be because that's what his "editor" had been doing ALL ALONG-- with Roth, and with JACK KIRBY before him! I wonder if Thomas even realized what he allowed into that article? Dick Ayers continues on inks, as usual.
(2-3-2014)
EERIE 3
cover by FRANK FRAZETTA (Warren / May’66)
Sadly, another one I don’t have, and as it happens, I have ONE story from here reprinted…
“SOUL OF HORROR” – Archie Goodwin & ANGELO TORRES seem to be doing a bizarre variation on “Charles Dexter Ward” (or, Corman’s “The Haunted Palace”). It begins with some townsfolks killing a warlock, and includes the superstitution that blackbirds sometimes “capture” souls of the dead. A woman dies in childbirth, and her son grows quickly and in a bizarre, mutated way. Those who killed the warlock begin dying one by one in horrible fashions, and the town doctor eventually learns that the warlock has been reborn. Tragically, things don’t get any better when the doctor kills the young man in self-defense.
I have this reprinted in CREEPY #142 (1982), the all-Torres issue.
(7-10-2021)
(Continued in June 1966)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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