Happy Birthday to Me!

Taking the day off to celebrate...

...despite the temperature hitting record highs!
But,what could even the Man of Steel do about the menace of...
Climate Change???

See you tomorrow...

Happy Birthday to Me!

Taking the day off to celebrate...

...being finally able to receive a lot more discounts!

See you tomorrow...

Oh, yeah, it's Father's Day, too!

Celebrate...

Or Else!

Space Hero Saturdays SPACEHAWK "Passion of Haba"

We Have Already Seen...
...smitten with SpaceHawk (who rescued her in the previous tale), Queen Haba of Noom (a country on Neptune) allows her desires to control her actions!

Sadly, the couple were never reunited!

You may have noted the references to a "war-torn Earth" "Uncle Sam" and "America" in this story from Novelty's Target Comics V2N1 (1941).

The series is about to make a serious change in concept...as you'll see in two weeks!
Hint, though this comic was published in 1941, it was before December 7th, 1941!

BTW, I usually take the day off to celebrate...

...but I felt this SpaceHawk tale's conclusion shouldn't wait another week...

Friday Fun HOT DOG "Harry Hotdog in Alarm! Alarm!"

It's my birthday, so I thought I'd present a never-reprinted tale about a birthday present...

... from Magazine Enterprises' Hot Dog #1 (1954) which utilized then-state of the art tech!

I bet you thought Siri and Alexa were terrible as alarm clocks!

At least that's what i hear from those who utilize them as such!

Harry Hotdog was Magazine Enterprises' primary attempt at creating a funny animal series, running four issues.

It wasn't bad, by any means, but it wasn't really distinctive, either

Happy 60th Birthday to Me!

Taking the day off to celebrate...

Born the year the Dodgers left Brooklyn!
See you tomorrow...

Happy 100th, Jack Kirby!

To celebrate his centennial, here's a Kirby piece that's never been reprinted in color!

Appearing in the September, 1966 issue of Esquire magazine...this art was later reused, in pieces, as clip art for various projects including MarvelMania publications.

The Spider-Man was retouched by John Romita to keep him "on-model".

The art (probably photostats) was hand-colored with Dr Martins dyes used for decades by comics colorists for their color guides.

Inking on this spread looks like Joe Sinnott. (The Thing is a dead-giveaway. Nobody inked him like Sinnott!)

These two pages were b/w in the original publication, though the art was probably provided in color.

(In b/w publishing, blues and greens print as light gray, reds and oranges print as dark gray.)

Note the unusual, never-seen-again leg-webbing above on Spider-Man!

The inking on these two pages looks, to my eye, like Frank Giacoia.

Wonder who has the originals?

Are they in the Esquire art archives, or were they returned to Marvel?

On a side note: the best way to appreciate Jack Kirby the creative person is to read/hear his own words.
For those who want to understand Kirby the man, a fairly-complete list of interviews with The King thanks to the Kirby Museum...HERE!

LONG LIVE THE KING!

It's Jack Kirby's 99th Birthday...

...now re-read his final Marvel project, unseen by the general public since 1980...

...Marvel's first original graphic novel.

It starts as a retelling of the "Coming of Galactus" storyline from Fantastic Four #48-50, but set in a reality without any of the myriad characters that inhabit Earth and the solar system of the Marvel Universe.

No Fantastic Four.

No Watcher.

No Alicia Masters.

However, there is Norrin Radd, who becomes the Silver Surfer, as well as Shalla Bal, his true love, and their home world, Zenn-La, and of course, Galactus!

After stranding the Surfer on Earth, the story goes off on a totally-new tangent and introduces new characters, the golden Ardina (whom Galactus uses to emotionally-manipulate the Surfer), and Master of Guile, a manifestation of Galactus' "Dark Side" who advises the planet-eating alien!

It's a unique take on the character, and, as we said, the last joint project by the two guys who co-created most of the Marvel Universe!

As to how and why it came about...

According to Bill Bagnall at T'aint the Meat... It's the Humanity, the basis of the graphic novel was a never-used story for a Silver Surfer movie rock musical that would've featured Olivia Newton-John as Ardina!
Unusual note, the copyright to the graphic novel is not Marvel's, but jointly-held by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby!
As of January, 2016, it's only available as a HTF, expensive, limited-edition hardcover or paperback.
But, in the interest of historical research, we've re-presented the entire tale starting HERE.

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and order the HTF & OOP...

Silver Surfer

The Ultimate Cosmic Experience

by

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Happy Birthday to Me!

Taking the day off to celebrate...

See you tomorrow...

Happy 98th Birthday to Jack "King" Kirby!

"It is said that when Man reaches The Edge of the Universe, he'll find 'Jack Kirby' signed in the lower right-hand corner."

Why was Jack Kirby "The King"?

Because he didn't whine, he didn't make excuses, he "did it" better than anyone else on a frighteningly-regular basis!

(Look! "Kirby Quotes"!)

In a Bleeding Cool column, illustrator Kaare Andrews sez...

Let me admit that I’m not the fastest artist in the world.
It can take a long time to draw a page.
In the olden days, you had inkers basically ‘finishing breakdowns’ over Jack Kirby.
"Breakdowns" like this, which was typical of Kirby's "2-4 page a day" period (and he was writing the book as well)...?

From Secret Sanctum of Captain Video™

That’s how he could push through 4-6 pages in a day.
Kirby’s art was bold.
It was beautiful. 
It was awesome. 
But I’m not sure he would have as much success in today’s climate.
Which explains why Jack Kirby's art is used on so much of Marvel's licensed product output, and why sales of reprints of Kirby's work equal or exceed a large number of Marvel's new-material titles!
The truth is that the level of detail demanded on a page has risen dramatically.
Comics aren’t 10 cent disposable newsprints anymore.
They are a legitimate art form.
They always were a "legitimate" art form.
Ask any European or Asian art aficionado.
Paper stock is slick, coloring is high tech, and you can now print as many tones, in as many shades, with as much detail as you can imagine.
It’s expected from the fans.
Which "fans"?
Not me!
Must be the same "fans" who aren't buying the current output of Marvel and DC at even the same sales levels as five years ago, and not like 15 years ago, when I was working on-staff, and sales at 50,000 or below were a reason for cancellation, not celebration!

One other point, Andrews is an illustrator, not a comic book artist.
He's a decent cover artist, but his interior work is average at best, mediocre at worst.
Curiously, it also appears to be uncollectable or unwanted.
Every gallery I see online features his heavily-photo-referenced covers or pin-ups, not his panel pages!
Want proof?
Google "Kaare Andrews", then Google "Jack Kirby".
How many interior pages or panels do you see in each case?
That's why we'll still be celebrating Kirby decades from now when Karre is long forgotten...

It's My Birthday!

Taking the day off to celebrate...

See you tomorrow...

Happy Birthday to the REAL Captain Kirk!

Chris Pine is a decent replacement, but...

...as Sean Connery IS the one, true James Bond, William Shatner IS Captain James T Kirk!

If any proof be needed...

BTW, Trivia Point: The photo above features Captain Kirk vs...Captain Midnight!
Richard Webb (Finney in "Court Martial" was tv's Captain Midnight in the 1950s)

Excelsior! Happy 91st Birthday to Stan Lee!

Co-Creator of the Marvel Comics universe...although "Catalyst" might be a better term to describe him.

Together with an astounding group of artists (some, like Jack Kirby, already legends in the field), he produced a memorable lineup of characters and stories which, to this day, form the backbone both of the comics line and various film and tv spinoffs.
Even the characters Lee didn't co-create (like Captain America and the Silver Surfer) were guided and shaped by Lee in his role as Editor into the versions we know and love today.

And credit where credit is due...Lee couldn't have done it without Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Gene Colan, and the rest; while they, who had all done superb work without him, did their best work with him!
(C'mon, what post-Stan Lee Marvel characters have had any real success, outside of the 1975 revival of the X-Men, itself based on core characters created by Lee and Kirby?)

So, EXCELSIOR! to you, Stan the Man!

I'm Having a SUPER Birthday!

And, no, I'm not telling you how many candles are on the cake.

See you tomorrow!

Taking the day off because...

...it's my birthday!

Actually, I'm older than this... ;-(

...but not by much! :-)