Tuesday, August 27, 2013

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 239: Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week, Day 3: Giant Rats, Dingbats, and a Most Magnificent Hat



Welcome back, my friends, to the Jack Kirby House Ad fun that never ends! (Until Saturday.) Here's some house ads from Jack Kirby's post-Fourth World work at DC:


House ad for Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth #2 (December 1972-January 1973);
printed in Weird Mystery Tales #3 (November-December 1972)
Comic cover art: pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Mike Royer

Wow, the typography in that ad isn't very good. Was Gaspar Saladino on vacation that week?


In 1975, Kirby would pencil three issues (out of the four printed) of DC's adaptation of the Kenneth Robeson pulp character The Avenger. Hey, wait, then, why wasn't this comic book called The Avenger?...oh wait, no, it couldn't. Well, then, considering he didn't fight crime but instead, according to the ad copy, chose to check off the little box marked "destroy" on his job application, why wasn't this book called The Destroyer? Oh. That's right. Hmmm...well, I guess it was better than titling the book This Guy Punches People. (Altho' I woulda bought that!)


House ad for Justice, Inc. #2 (July-August 1975); printed in The Brave and the Bold #120 (July 1975)
Ad art: pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Mike Royer (from a panel in Justice, Inc. #2)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

In 1989, DC published a two-issue Justice, Inc. limited series in the "Dark Knight" (perfectbound 52-page) format, with a script by Andy Welfer and magnificent art by Kyle Baker, one of this little stuffed bull's favorite comics artists. The Avenger was also included in the Justice, Inc. backups of DC's 2010 Doc Savage "First Wave" comic series Now, with so many pulp heroes like The Shadow over at Dynamite, we may see yet The Avenger yet again on the comic book page.



House ad for The Demon #1 (August-September 1972); printed in World's Finest Comics #213 (August-September 1972)
Comic cover art: pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Mike Royer, letters by Gaspar Saladino
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Y'all know the story of how the appearance of the Demon's face was based on a goose-masked Val masquerading as a devil in Hal Foster's classic Prince Valiant comic strip, right? (Gosh, I know what I'm gonna do at this Christmas dinner when we make a roast goose!)


Panels from Prince Valiant (December 25, 1937), by Hal Foster
Reprinted in Prince Valiant, Volume 1: 1937-1938, published by Fantagraphics Books

(And here's a fine article on The Demon by Kirby scholar Richard Volkman in The Jack Kirby Collector.)



House ad for 1st Issue Special #1 [Atlas] (April 1975); printed in Shazam! #17 (March-April 1975)
Ad art: pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by D. Bruce Berry (from a panel in 1st Issue Special #1)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Hmm, y'know, that Atlas house ad has odd dimensions, especially when you look at the original page layout. What the Sam Scratch is going on here? What's up with all that white space?


Ah ha! It's that header! DC used headers like this on most of the pages of its 1970s-era "100 Page Spectaculars," especially on reprint stories (this one comes from 1949's The Marvel Family #41). Just in case you'd forgotten what comic book you'd gotten for a mere sixty cents and were holding in your little hooves right there and then. Hmm, let's do a little of the patented Bully paste-up magic and see what happens when we delete the header and re-size the ad:


Hooray! That's better! Call me, DC of the 1970s! I'm available for time-travelling page layout and design work. And! I'll work for 1970s comic books.

From 1st Issue Special #1, a sense-shattering, eye-delighting two-page Kirby spread:

Two-page spread from 1st Issue Special #1 [Atlas] (April 1975), script and pencils by Jack Kirby,
inks and letters by D. Bruce Berry

(Click picture to holdin'-up-the-earth-size)


Spotted in the pages of Atlas: another sporty model in the collection of The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby:


And from the same ish, here's a text page explaining the origin and mythology of Atlas:


Sadly, I can't find any house ads for Kirby's next two 1st Issue Specials, "Manhunter" and (ahem) "The Dingbats of Danger Street."


Covers of 1st Issue Special #5-6 [Manhunter, Dingbats of Danger Street] (August-September 1975), pencils by Jack Kirby; inks by D. Bruce Berry (Manhunter) and Mike Royer (Dingbats)

But here is a Kirby-penned text page for "Manhunter!"


So...Kirby, won't you?

1 comment:

Jason Glor said...

So Etrigan's ears are actually goose feet? I will never look at him the same way again.