Kirby Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "There Dwells a Dragon"

We wind up our week of never-reprinted Kirby Klassics...

...with one that was an original idea and not a reworking of an earlier tale!

Penciled by Jack Kirby, and inked by Dick Ayers, this writer of story from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #81 (1962) is, so far, anonymous.

Pity, because the tale is pretty darn good.
Hope someday, one of the many dilligent souls who are constantly researching such things can come up with the answer...

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Kirby: 
King of Comics

Kirby Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Genie with the Light Brown Hair

I Dream of Jeannie this ain't...

...as Jack Kirby once again takes us where another artist has gone before, and puts his own distinctive stamp on it!

Yes, this never-reprinted cover story from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #76 (1962) is another reworking of an earlier tale!

Plotter Stan Lee took the concept from "Forever is a Long Time", which appeared in Atlas' Adventures into Weird Worlds #14 (1953) and reworked it.

Scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers did a commendable job, giving the story several touches that make it different from the original, giving it a poetic touch lacking in the 1953 version.

If you want to compare them, "Forever is a Long Time" was reprinted in Marvel's Beware! #4, 1973.

But, if you don't have that almost-as-difficult-to-find-as-AiWW #14-issue, don't worry!

It'll be popping up at our "brother" RetroBlog, Seduction of the Innocent before September is over!
BTW, note the difference between the cover and interior versions of the genie.
The cover genie is evil, malaevolent, sinister.
The genie in the tale, while a little pissed-off, is really the victim, and Mike Morgan is the villain of the piece.
Makes you wonder what the time-frame was between the creation of the cover and the interior art.
Which came first?
Guess we'll never know...

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Kirby: 
King of Comics

Kirby Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Sorcerer"

Behind a never-reprinted Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers cover...

...lurks a never-reprinted tale rendered by Jack (King) Kirby!

Enjoy...

Was this tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #78 (1962) originally a seven-page story?
The fight between the dragon and the knight that begins on the bottom of page 5 ends in a flash in the first panel of page 6!
Considering that battle is the focus of the splash page, I really expected a bit more!
Was there a page between 5 and the last page?
Only plotter Stan Lee, writer Larry Leiber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers could tell us.

Trivia: The story is the same as "Handyman", illustrated by Gray Morrow, from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #48 (1956), which was also the cover-featured story for that book, with a Bill Everett-rendered cover!
It's also never been reprinted!

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Hand of Fire:

The Comics Art of Jack Kirby

Kirby Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Midnight in the Wax Museum"

To celebrate Jack Kirby's 99th Birthday...

..we're re-presenting never-reprinted tales by the King, so the odds are, unless you're over 60, or have a really-large back issue collection, you've never seen these stories!

Let's begin with a tale of a comic book artist and some of the koolest Kirby Kreatures you've ever laid eyes on...

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber, penciled by Jack Kirby, and inked by Dick Ayers, this fun little tale was one of two featured on the cover by Kirby and Ayers on Atlas' Journey into Mystery #74 (1961)!

BTW, the other tale, "Thing in the Black Box", has been reprinted in Marvel's Where Monsters Dwell #30 (1974) under a new cover by Larry Lieber and John Romita, so we're not running that one this week!

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available in a variety of formats, including e-book!

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Somewhere Hides a...Thing!"

Though the Mighty Thor tales from Journey into Mystery have been reprinted over and over...

...the stories that filled the back pages have rarely, if ever, been seen since the early 1960s!

This never-reprinted Stan Lee/Steve Ditko tale from Marvel's Journey into Mystery #84 (1962) is one of those hidden treasures!

Watch for more of them...

Reading Room FANTASY MASTERPIECES "I Found the Things from Nowhere"

"Not only is Jolly Jack Kirby the undisputed king of superhero artwork..."

"...from The Fantastic Four to long-haired Thor, but he is equally without peer in almost every type of imaginative, far-out fantasy!" --Stan Lee

This tale from Marvel's Fantasy Masterpieces #1 (1965) originally-appeared in Journey into Mystery #60 (1960), and was reprinted, again, in Where Monsters Dwell #9 (1971), but hasn't appeared anywhere in the last 44 years.

That's a pity, since this Jack Kirby-penciled/Steve Ditko-inked story predates both the Kirby-rendered "The Man in the Ant Hill" (Tales to Astonish #27) which introduced Henry Pym who would become...

...aw, you guessed...ANT-MAN...

(Wonder what ever became of him?)

...and Amazing Fantasy #15, featuring Steve Ditko's most famous co-creation...

..your friendly, neighborhood SPIDER-MAN!

BTW, has anyone ever noticed that Ant-Man's and Spider-Man's costumes have opposite/reversed red/blue color schemes?

As for who wrote this tale, the experts believe it's a Stan Lee-plotted, Larry Lieber-scripted story, but I think Lee scripted it as well.

Tomorrow: Another Silver Age artist struts his stuff in a long-unseen short!