Coming soon: The Marvel Love and War by Jack Kirby Omnibus… OK, OK. We all know Jack Kirby’s superheroic creations. So much of the Marvel Universe can be traced directly back to him. But a lot of readers forget that Kirby was a major contributor to war comics and that he and Joe Simon launched the romance-comic genre with 1947’s Young Romance for Prize Comics. Now, Marvel is planning a hefty volume in 2020 highlighting war and romance comics the King produced for the publisher, according to an Amazon listing. Check out the official description of the Marvel Love and War by Jack Kirby Omnibus: King of the comics art form, Jack Kirby needs no introduction. He was an architect of the Marvel Universe, but his contributions to Marvel extended far beyond just super heroes. Highlighting two sides of the human condition, Kirby’s war and romance work finally gets its due in this omnibus edition. A combat soldier during World War II, Kirby brings hard-earned realism to stories from BATTLEGROUND and BATTLE. Atlas-era Cold War intrigue manifests in the adventure comic YELLOW CLAW, while Kirby and Stan Lee bring the war genre into the Marvel Age with SGT. FURY. On the other end of the spectrum are tales from vintage Marvel romance titles-many restored directly from Kirby’s original art-that prove that love is war! COLLECTING: MATERIAL FROM BATTLE (1951) 64-70; BATTLEGROUND (1954) 14; SGT. FURY (1963) 1-8, 10-20, 25; YELLOW CLAW (1956) 2-4; LOVE ROMANCES (1949) 83-85, 87-88, 96-106; MY OWN ROMANCE (1949) 71-76; TEEN-AGE ROMANCE (1960) 84-86 — A few thoughts: — The 592-page hardcover lists for $125 and is due in the bookseller market Dec. 22. (That usually means earlier in comics shops.) — Standard caveat: The book has not been solicited by Marvel yet, so nothing is official until it’s official. At the same time, the comics industry is in crisis right now because of the coronavirus pandemic, so this is subject to substantial change. Just keep coming back to 13th Dimension for updates. — The listing didn’t include any artwork, so I just picked these covers to illustrate this post. Dig? — MORE — KIRBY’S ETERNALS to Get Gigantic MONSTER-SIZE Edition. Click here. — A History of JACK KIRBY’s FOURTH WORLD Coming in 2020. Click...
One of comics’ all-time greats was born April 6, 1926… When I think of the late Gil Kane — who was born 94 years ago — I immediately think of Green Lantern, the Atom and Spider-Man. But Kane, who had a brilliant grasp on anatomy and a certain genius for dynamic layouts and dramatic perspectives, accomplished so much more than that. For one thing, it seems like Kane churned out every other Marvel cover in the ’70s. He was also a pioneer of the original graphic novel. You name it, he pretty much did it. He was so prolific in the Silver and Bronze Ages that it’s easy to forget just how many characters he worked on — and one of his best was Batgirl. Kane, usually paired with inker Murphy Anderson, was the first penciller to chronicle the Dominoed Daredoll’s solo adventures, a run that ran intermittently from 1968’s Detective Comics #384 to 1970’s Detective #407. (Don Heck picked up the pencil after that.) Thing is, Kane never did a solo Batgirl cover because she was a back-up feature. And the way we usually salute artists on their birthdays is with a 13 COVERS gallery. So this year, we’re going off script with 13 GROOVY BATGIRL PAGES: A GIL KANE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION. Dig it. — MORE — 13 COVERS: A GIL KANE Birthday Celebration — 2019 Edition: GREEN LANTERN. Click here. — 13 COVERS: A GIL KANE Birthday Celebration — 2018 Edition: SPIDER-MAN. Click...
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