Even The 'King' Swiped From Time To Time

Playboy Jack Kirby

I've always been a big fan of Jack Kirby so this post is by no means any type of put down.  On the contrary, it shows that even the greatest, most influential comic artist lifted or swiped a reference image from time to time.

Before the internet where any reference image can be brought up in seconds, back in the day, artists had to collect files of reference images from books, magazines, photos and store them in filing cabinets called -- swipe files.  I'm sure Jack was no exception.  Case in point; Sue Storm.

In the early to mid-sixties, Kirby always portrayed Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four as a glamorous public hero always seeking the current fashion trends.  When she wasn't getting herself captured (at least in the early issues) she was out shopping for the trendiest wardrobes or the newest hairstyles.  So it is no surprise that Jack Kirby would reference Sue Storm with only the glamorous of imagery (when his characters weren't exploding off the pages)

Click to embiggen this NSFW picture.

Above on the left you will see the splash page from Fantastic Four issue 22 (late 1963) while on the right you will see an image from the artist Vargas published in Playboy (1963).  Kirby's perfect swipe from Playboy to give Sue Storm that extra glamor including the kookie hat (customized by Reed Richards).

Even the King swipes from time to time.

That's not saying he couldn't draw circles around these swipe happy artists of today, he can.  In fact, there is no one before or since that can blow the borders off of a comic page as Jack Kirby.  So when he slips in a little swipe from time to time to give Sue Storm a bit of glamor, cut the King some slack, will'ya?

This ain't a swipe, it's pure Kirby!

The Avengers Go Old School

Click to make Hulk size!

Happy New Year From The Warlock

Greetings my followers! It has been many cycles since I have spoken as I have been traveling the Outer Rings of Alpha Space and return with tidings of 2012!

I feel that for me, 2012 is going to be a super year and by super I mean in the heroic sense! It seems that the ICONS campaign (which I'm calling Universe) will be moving forward with rotating GMs and all. Sessions beginning in 1942 and working their way up to the present day, whatever that may look like. I'm looking forward to being a GM as well as a player.

Great movies coming out this year including Ridley Scott's Prometheus, The Hobbit (part the first), and the highly anticipated Avengers! Don't forget John Carter too (I wish I can get past that flippin' Disney logo). Thankfully there won't be any new cinematic Conan debacle this year!

Our Swords & Wizardry campaign is still moving forward, clocking in at over two and half years and over 40 sessions now. I wonder if my players will finally come face to face with Zenopus? We'll see, but knowing this lot, they may end up on the other side of the universe before that happens!

So, 2012 looks to be shaping up nicely! Remember, however, there's less then a year until the Eater of Worlds arrives to really f-things up! So until then, Merry New Year and Game On!

My First Comics...

Over at Steve Does Comics he posted about the first comic he remembers reading. Of course that got me thinking about the first comics that I had. I don't remember actually 'reading' them but I flipped through them constantly. This was back when we could buy comics from actual corner news-stands in Chicago for 20 cents! Either my mom or grandma would buy my brother and I a comic each. I was around 6 at the time and these first issues left quite an impression on me. I still have most of these comics to this day too. Ah, the memories they bring back....
Bat-man, Joker and a killer shark in a tank that Bat-man kills with his bare hands. Awesome! Nothing like the television show.
A little Romita Spider-man action with Medusa no less! The coolest thing about this issue is Norman Osbourn has a flashback pulling off Spidey's mask. I was like "WTF is that all about!!??" It took me 20 years to find out.
Typical crazy Superman storys. I was impressed by the art even back then.
A lesser hero but a fun comic with a fantastic cover. They don't make covers like this one any more.

My first introduction to Jack Kirby. Still one of my favorite comic covers of all time.

Another Spidey tale. I was starting to wonder what was up with the Osbourn's hair styles! And who the heck was this Gwen Stacy??

The most colorful array of heroes I ever laid eyes upon. The Vision became one of my favorites. Nobody knew who the heck I was talking about!

And finally....

This one appeared a bit later but I always consider it part of that original handful. Very thankful I had this one. Crazy flippin' stories and BWS art!

With Great Power Comes Great Humility

I'm not going to write a review of the movie Thor as there are countless other reviews posted about the interwebs. Needless to say, it is as great as everyone says it is. Marvel Studios keeps knocking their properties out of the park! Even before Marvel studios took over the productions of their superhero films, the Spider-man and Hulk movies showed that the Marvel characters and stories are full of pathos and depth that are perfect for the big screen.

The Thor movie is pure entertainment which captures the Marvel concepts of the characters and situations amazingly well. Jack Kirby would be proud of the cosmic drama that unfolds in this picture filled with the depth and grandeur of the Gods of Asgard.

Oh and there's plenty of eye candy for the ladies in Chris Hemsworth's thunder god so your wives/girlfriends will enjoy this geek outing as well.

Thor was never one of my favorite Marvel characters and rereading the Marvel Essentials of the 1960's stories validates my feelings. I love him as an Avenger but on his own, I never really clicked with those godly tales. For the most part, from '66 on it seemed that Kirby was pushing the book and stories in what would become his iconic bombastic cosmic tradmark and define his books when he moved to DC in the early 70's.

Still, the movie captured all this to a perfection and I enjoyed the film immensely (as did the wife for the reason mentioned above).

Now all these Marvel films are building up to the penultimate Avengers movie, which I have to say I'm pretty excited about especially if what I've heard about the direction of the plot is true. Growing up I was all about Captain America, Spider-man and the Avengers. Those were the super-hero characters / stories I resonated with (this was still before the rebirth of the X-Men). Seeing the Avengers on screen in the near future will be quite spectacular. Marvel studio's concept of tying in all their films is very reminiscent of their comic concept of the intertwined Marvel universe that they developed in their earliest superhero books in the beginning of the 1960's. It was something that was never seen before in comics. It was exciting then and it just as exciting now in the movies they're bringing to the screen.

Excelsior indeed!

One other thing to note is that the previews they ran before the feature. I love previews, BTW and if any of you have a Roku box be sure to activate the Flixter app. Plenty of movie previews to keep you busy for quite a while.

Anyways, there played a preview for Conan the Barbarian movie. The preview did look much better on the big screen than on a computer screen but it still just looked like a swords and fantasy movie and not much of a Conan story especially since the title character is only shown very briefly. Audience reaction? Not much.

The big preview if you haven't seen it yet is for Captain America: The First Avenger. Now that's a preview! Coming out later this summer it is the final prequel to the Avengers movie. You can read about my thoughts of the preview here but needless to say, this is one I'm looking forward to. Howling Commandos, WWII, Red Skull and the Cosmic Cube! Nuff Said!

The Peak Of The Marvel Silver Age

It would be hard to argue that the Marvel Silver Age of comics was the best for the superhero genre. The stories and artwork exploded off the pages especially with the artwork of Jack Kirby, John Romita, Steve Ditko and John Buscema and with inspired dialogue by Stan Lee.

Beginning in in the early 60's with the Fantastic Four and soon after with Spider-man, The Hulk, Thor and the Avengers, the stories progressed in a linear fashion with events having far reaching consequences upon the characters and situations throughout the new and expanding Marvel Universe. Character deaths were, at that time, permanent and character change, even for their main characters and supporting cast evolved throughout this era.

This lasted until about 1968 when Marvel was sold and the characters began to become marketable iconic images of the day. Story-lines began to be repeated and cause had only temporary effects.

There might be many arguments when the actual peek of this era was, but for me I would say that it was December 1966 with this story here:


All the issues of the Fantastic Four lead up to this moment of spectacular greatness!

The ongoing battles with the infamous Doctor Doom, the baddest of the bad of marvel villains who had been out of action for more than a year after his hands were crushed by an out of control Ben Grimm!

The cosmic power of Galactus was unleashed upon the earth for the first time and the power of the Silver Surfer was demonstrated when he fought The Thing a couple of issue earlier. All the elements were in place for the battle royal! Here we have the Shakespearean tragedy at it's greatest!

The unsuspecting three-some (Johnny was out seeking the hidden refuge of the Inhumans and his love Crystal) get called into stop a prison escape of their old enemies the Sandman and the Wizard.


But this is all small potatoes as the Silver Surfer answers a royal summons from the ruler of Latveria...
After a brief friendly display of power between the two Doc Doom almost lets the cat out of the bag as one of his servants inadvertently bumps into his fearful master!

Doom is quick to seize control of his explosive anger in front of the wary Surfer.


And now begins the ultimate peek of the Marvel Universe...

One of the greatest, if not the greatest splash pages brought to you by Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, and Stan Lee.


So what does Doctor Doom do with his new found power cosmic? Begins to conquer the world starting with his own hapless Latverian villagers before moving on to the Defeat of the Fantastic Four in issue 58!

This storyline would continue on for another 4 issues after that. This was the very first time in the Marvel Universe that the power cosmic was stolen by an the diabolical Doctor Doom and went head to head, no holds barred against the heroes of the earth.

It would only be a few short years later that Kirby would bitterly leave marvel and the creativity would stagnate (for the most part). Unfortunately, this exact storyline would be revisited again and again in the 70's, 80's and 90's and adapted into a less than satisfactory movie with each time being watered down in it's power and grandeur.

Just thought I'd share....

Fantasy Friday

This Friday I'm taking a step slightly outside of classic D&D.

I've been reading the rules for the original Gamma World and taking a look at Goblinoid Games' Mutant Future. There's a lot of interesting things there that I'll chat about in future posts. Anyway, theses images head in that Mutant Future, Gamma World direction featuring the infinite creative mind of Jack (The King) Kirby. And if you're looking for any mutant world inspiration, Kamandi is a great place to start!

You can probably find many of the back issues on the interwebz but DC comics has put together a nice Kamandi collection of Kirby's far-out stories.