Kirby Reading Room SECRET CITY SAGA "Let Sleeping Boojums Lie!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Cover by penciler Steve Ditko and inker George Perez

...actually, this scene hasn't happened...yet!

But, rather than recap, since this is the final chapter, let's jump into action...

And they did return!

Unfortunately, their comeback was cut short, with only a single issue appearing before the project was cancelled.

The KirbyVerse didn't sell well, due to changing audience tastes, and despite a revamp after this premiere mini-series, it failed to grab sufficient readers to warrant continuing.

The second mini-series, entitled Victory! was written and drawn, but, as we said, only the first issue saw publication.
There were a couple of semi-related mini-series TeenAgents and Satan's Six, also based on Kirby's concepts.
If you want to see them, we'll re-present them, so let us know!

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Kirby: Genesis

A retelling of elements of the Secret City Saga which also combines other Kirby projects like Galaxy Green, Captain Victory and Silver Star!

Perez Reading Room HOT STUF' "Uncle Sal and Cousin John Go Planet-Tripping"

This illustration by the late George Perez is not related to the story below...

...it's just incredibly-kool.

Note that the above was created only four years after the tale below was produced for Sal Quartuccio's fanzine/prozine Hot Stuf' #1 (1974).
Before websites like DeviantArt, such zines (sold at conventions and the then-new comic book stores) were the primary way for fans-turning-pros like George Perez to get their work out into the public's eye!

Written by Hot Stuf' editor Bob Keenan and inked by Bob Garrison, this was one of George Perez's earliest published tales.
And, to answer an obvious question, there was never a sequel to this "Harold and Kumar Meet Conan the Barbarian"-type story!

Perez was working as an assistant to already-established artist Rich Buckler (who also had a story in this issue) at the time, and George's first Marvel work, the final Gullivar Jones of Mars story (shown HERE) was published a couple of months after this!

The rest, as they say, is history...

Perez Reading Room VANGUARD ILLUSTRATED "The Trains Belong to Us"

It's said that a good graphic story can be told without captions or dialogue!

This never-reprinted, cover-featured tale from Pacific's Vanguard Illustrated #6 (1984) is a damn (in more ways than one) good graphic story!

And you thought those who complained graffiti made cities look like hell were exaggerating...

Though both Cavaleri and Perez worked for DC for years before doing this short, this was their first (and, I believe, only) collaboration!

Thursday:

One of George's first published stories

George Perez (1954-2022)

One of the most-successful of the second wave of fans-turned-pros...

...George Perez became his generation's Jack Kirby*, producing a massive (and magnificent) body of work spanning decades and genres**, yet never losing his modesty about his accomplishments...

...or his fanboy sense of humor, as this piece, done during his run on the Logan's Run comic demonstrates!
Besides super-heroes and tv/movie adaptations, George drew almost anything he was asked to do...including the massive JLA/Avengers crossover (two different versions) and the continuity-redefining Crisis on Infinite Earths!
He even did two Beatles-themed projects...

...The Beatles Story and the unreleased-in-America Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band**!

We've presented a few of his lesser-known stories...

Frank (Dune) Herbert's thought-provoking "Occupation Force"

The post-apocalyptic "Ride the Blue Bus"

Gullivar Jones "Martian Genesis"

...and next Tuesday and Thursday we'll present a couple more rarely-seen tales illustrated by George.

*To be fair, Kirby created far more characters than Perez, who specialized in revamping/revitalizing characters!
**Curiously, though he did numerous super-hero tales involving romantic relationships, George never did an actual romance comic story!
***Sgt Pepper was released in Europe (including England) and Asia.

Reading Room UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "Occupation Force"

From the mind of Frank Herbert, creator/author of the Dune series...

...comes a tale of how the concept of a screwed-up government bureaucracy is literally, universal!

This never-reprinted tale from Marvel's sci-fi anthology magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #3 (1975) is an extremely-faithful adaptation by writer Gerry Conway, penciler George Perez, and inker Klaus Janson of the Frank Herbert short story that originally appeared in Ziff-Davis' sci-fi pulp Fantastic #V4N5 (1955).

In a kool touch, the creatives took the originally all-Caucasian Krolians...

...and made them an inclusive, interracial group.

Humans are humans, no matter their skin color, after all...

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Frank Herbert's Dune Saga

(Box Set of the Original Six Books written by Herbert himself)

Trump Reading Room ALIEN WORLDS "Ride the Blue Bus"

Was this the future Don the Con had in mind for us?

Thanks to him, we were edging ever closer and closer to it.
But next week, we reverse course...

This never-reprinted post-apocalyptic tale by writer Bruce Jones and artist George Perez from Pacific's Alien Worlds #7 (1984) has an odd quirk.

Both Toby's friend, Juke, and the unnamed bus driver are illustrated as black/ethnic.

Yet neither is colored differently than the blond/blue-eyed Toby!

Was this deliberate?

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George Perez

StoryTeller