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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The Marvel Legacy of Jack Kirby

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Reading Room CAPTAIN JOHNER AND THE ALIENS "Crystal Crawler"

We Have Already Seen...

...alien-controlled humans kidnapped Captain Jay Johner and brought him to Venus.

Friendly aliens led by Commander Zarz, along with M'Reema (the un-possessed sister of one of the "False-Men") free Johner, but they're stranded on Venus...

Side note: this book was selling 250,000 (a quarter of a million copies) per issue, and Gold Key was only issuing it quarterly?
What were the sales figures for their monthly books?
These days, if a book sells 25,000 (one tenth of that), it's considered successful!
The mind boggles...
In Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter #18 (1967) creator/writer/artist Russ Manning not only reveals a previously-unknown weakness of the aliens, but their name, "Ploorans", as well!
Is it the name they give inhabitants of their world (like "Earthmen", "Terrans", or "Earthers") or is it also their species' name (like "humans" or "homo sapiens")?
Every time we learn something new, there's an additional mystery to go along with it!
Several friendly aliens, a former girlfriend (whose brother is one of the leaders of the conspiracy) and Johner, trapped on a hostile world where the nearest Earth forces don't know where they are!
What could go wrong?
Find out next Monday!

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Captain Johner and the Aliens
Mini-Series

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.

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Silver Surfer

The Ultimate Cosmic Experience

by

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Last Week on RetroBlogs...

There was only one mini-marathon, but it was a "goodie"...

...the never-reprinted adventures of Davy Crockett from 1955...

...pencilled and inked by Jack (King) Kirby (whose 99th birthday is tomorrow) at Western Comics Adventures!

Sadly, next week is the finale for the RetroBlogs mini-marathons, but the festival ends with a BANG!

Check out...

Seduction of the Innocent!! as we re-present never-reprinted horror tales from the short-lived Devilina, Seaboard's attempt to beat Warren's Vamiprella at her own game in 1975!

Plus, one more World War I crossover between Hero Histories and War: Past Present and Future as we re-present the unseen-for-50-years adventure of G-8 and His Battle Aces!

Be here for the fun!

Reading Room CONQUEST "Beowolf the Mighty"

How do you liven up those boring, tired old ancient myths?

...why, turn one of the characters into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, of course!

Usually, Grendel is a demonic or ape-like beast.
Certainly, he's never been portrayed as a dinosaur before (or since)!
This 1955 one-shot from Eastern Color featured tales of real-life adventurers...except for Beowolf (which is usually spelled "Beowulf").
We don't know who the writer is so there's no way to tell if it was his/her idea or artist Bill Ely's to make Grendel a dinosaur!
BTW, Ely had a lot of experience rendering dinosaurs in sci-fi tales for almost every comics company of the 1950s and 60s, including a stint as the artist for DC's Rip Hunter: Time Master, who now leads the team on the CW's Legends of Tomorrow TV series!