What the hell is with the Don Rickles covers?

The ROM and Micronauts comics were way better and lasted longer than most likely anyone expected them to be when they first started. I don't think I knew anyone who had the ROM figure, even as a sci-fi obsessed kid, this figure was never something I desired to have, other than the electronics it looked pretty lame. Not in scale with my other figures, kind of goofy looking proportions and it looked quite fragile.

Here is the summary of the two issues. I plan to read them after I am done with the Wraith War event.

Issue #139 - Morgan Edge's latest scheme involves Don Rickles look-alike Goody Rickles, a UFO that traps Superman as Clark Kent and sends him into space, and an Inter-Gang kidnapping plot involving Jimmy Olsen, Guardian, and the Newsboy Legion.

Issue #140 skips over the "Goody Rickles" plot, I assume, going by him not being mentioned in its summary since Supes got sent to space, I guess - Superman and Jimmy Olsen travel to Kandor to discover how normal sized Kandorians are on Earth and why they are attacking Superman. The Dynamic Duo of Kandor! [Superman in Kandor part 2]; Superman and Jimmy Olsen take the secret identites of Nightwing and Flamebird so they can track down Than-Ol's raiders and stop his scheme to enlarge Kandor. The City of Super-People! [Superman in Kandor part 3]; Than Ol succeeds in enlarging Kandor, but Superman must re-shrink it before Than-Ol's process destroys it completely.

Then back to Rickles for issue #141 - Lightray helps Superman escape the UFO, while Jimmy, Goody Rickles, and the Guardian foil Ugly Mannheim's plot to kill them.

Kirby was scripting the Rickles stories. Maybe he was packing something a little special in his cigars.

Those stories sound crazy, what the hell was Kirby smoking?

Continuing the reading event: Jack Kirby's The Fourth World!

I had the first below comic as a kid. A friend's granddad gave it to me along with a lot of other comics (mostly old War comics). I always wondered why Dracula and The Wolf Man looked so freaking weird.











HOMO-DISASTROUS!!!!

I had been collecting Jimmy Olsen (being a Superman geek) for about three years when Kirby took over the title. I liked Kirby's Marvel stuff, but this run was a bit too strange for my adolescent mind to enjoy. I really was not a fan of Kirby's DC stuff at all, although I now see how well it has matured under other writers/artists.

I had no idea that Kirby was doing these crazy Jimmy Olsen comics.

The thing about Kirby's DC work that has always fascinated me is that editorial had Superman's face redrawn because Kirby couldn't draw him on-model.

That is correct. It appears that Murphy Anderson is the credited artists for redrawing the majority of Superman's and Jimmy Olsen's heads, at least in these issues I am posting. That just goes to show you that even DC, who was excited to get Kirby from Marvel, recognized his artwork and faces could look petty funky. I appreciate Kirby's stuff now, but I hated his art as a kid. I would actually skip issues or not buy stuff if I looked and saw he drew it back then. Hey, I was a kid and I only had so much money to spend on comics.

Even now, I still find it jarring at times, but his imagination and experimentation was boundless, which has to be admired.

Jack Kirby's Fourth World reading event continues...

Jack Kirby's Fourth World reading event continues...

Jack Kirby's Fourth World reading event continues...

You can't say Kirby wasn't going for something completely different and unique at the time.

Jack Kirby's Fourth World reading event continues...

I'm getting some Al Feldstein vibes from that cover (it's not his artwork though).

It is Jim McLaughlin according to various credits I see.

Seems like a "daring" cover for 1953!

^ Kinda gives off some Jane Russell vibes . . .

Jack Kirby's Fourth World reading event continues...

Jack Kirby's Fourth World reading event continues...

Pre-code, baby, anything goes!

Jack Kirby's Fourth World reading event continues...











Mister Miracle gets tied up a lot.