365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 243: Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week, Day 7: Hunger Dogs and Super-Gorillas

I'm going to wrap up Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week with some house ads for a couple of Jack's final projects over at DC, starting with the long-awaited "conclusion" (not that DC ever lets anything remain "concluded") of his epic Fourth World saga, the graphic novel The Hunger Dogs!


House ad for DC Graphic Novel #4 [The Hunger Dogs] (1985); artwork by Jack Kirby, printed in DC Sampler #3 (Late Fall 1984)

Hey Lobo!

Hey Lobo! What's your favorite internet search engine?


Page from L.E.G.I.O.N. '93 Annual #4 (December 1993); script by Mark Waid; pencils by Tom Tenney; inks by one or more of the following: Scott Hanna, Andrew Pepoy, Mark McKenna, Tom McQueeney; colors by Gene D'Angelo, letters by Kevin Cunninghamand Gaspar Saladino
Funny! I would have pegged him for a Bing kinda guy.

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 242: Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week, Day 6: Don't be chicken! Read about Jack Kirby's DC House Ads!

House ad for Jack Kirby's Fourth World titles (1972); printed in The Brave and the Bold #101 (April-May 1972)



House ad for Jimmy Olsen #138 (June 1971); printed in Superman #239 (June-July 1971)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

That muddy reproduction above doesn't give you a good look at the cover of Jimmy Olsen #138, so here 'tis:


Cover of Jimmy Olsen #138 (June 1971); pencils and photomontage by Jack Kirby, inks by Neal Adams,
letters by Gaspar Saladino (?)
Now around this time the Duke boys were in a mess o' trouble the DC house ads start to look less stylized and frankly, a lot more rushed than the heyday of gorgeous ads by Ira Schnapp or the early Gaspar Saladino period. Typography is beginning to replace hand lettering in some cases (see the '72 Kamandi ad in my previous post). I'm not as impressed by most of the house ads of the early to mid-=seventies (which is why you're seeing so few of them on this feature). We're also at a point where the ads began to be oddly placed, putting a third-page ad where a half-page was needed, or only putting two of them where three would fit, resulting in a lot of uncomfortable-looking white space on the comic book page. Here's the two ads above, in context:


Tomorrow, I'll wrap up Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week with a look at ads for a couple of Kirby's final DC works! And remember...

Today in Comics History, August 30, 1959: Jon Osterman is declared dead ten days after his body was vaporized

So, as we saw here, Jon "Dr. Manhattan" Osterman "died" on August 20, 1959.


from Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan #1 (DC, October 2012), script by J. Michael Straczynski, pencils and inks by Adam Hughes, colors by Laura Martin, letters by Steve Wands
Which means, of course, that since his body was atomized on August 20th, his tombstone will of course read that he died on August 20th. Right, comics? Wrong.


from Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan #4 (DC, April 2013), script by J. Michael Straczynski, pencils and inks by Adam Hughes, colors by Laura Martin, letters by Steve Wands
That's one slow-ass coroner.

Today in Comics History, August 30, 1949: Man who doesn't know how to spell "the" shows an otherwise skilled knowledge of contractions

from "The Diary of a Desperado" in Adventure Comics #145 (DC, October 1949), script by Otto Binder, pencils and inks by George Papp

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 241: Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week, Day 5: Big shots, dirty rats, ESP, and JFK

House ad for In the Days of the Mob magazine (Fall 1971); printed in Detective Comics #413 (July 1971)
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino, inset art by Jack Kirby

Today in Comics History, August 29, 1986: A bad day for Astrid Olafson

from World's Finest Comics #322 (DC, December 1985), script by Dwight J. Zimmerman, pencils by Keith Giffen,inks by Karl Kesel, colors by Nansi Hoolahan, letters by Duncan Andrews

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 240: Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week, Day 4: KIRBY UNLEASHED!!!

House ads for Kirby Unleashed: A "King Kirby" Portfolio (1971); printed in (top) Jimmy Olsen #147 (March 1972) and (bottom) Forbidden Tales of the Dark Mansion #5 (May-June 1972 )
Not technically a DC publication (but since it was advertised in DC Comics, why not include it here!), Kirby Unleashed was republished in large-format book form (with additional material) by TwoMorrows in 2004. If you're a Kirby fan, this is well worth picking up (if you spot a copy anywhere!). Or, you can buy a digital version of Kirby Unleashed from TwoMorrows, here!

Today in Comics History, August 28, 1949: The Spirit makes a funny face and it freezes like that

from "Fan Mail" in The Spirit Section (Register and Tribune Syndicate, January 1, 1950); script, pencils, and inks by Will Eisner, letters by Abe Kanegson

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?

A Golden Age Fast Fact! Why Superman is bemused by Zatanna

Tonight's Golden Age Fast Fact:

Clark Kent...

...can't do palindromes.

Panels from "The Conquest of a City" in Superman (1939 series) #18 (September-October 1942), script by Jerry Siegel, pencils and inks by John Sikela

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 238: Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week, Day 2: Ho, ho, ho / It's magic, you know

I mentioned The Magic of Kirby yesterday, and whoo boy, I weren't kiddin'! And neither was DC!:


House ad for The Forever People #1; The New Gods #1 (both February-March 1971),
and Mister Miracle #1 (April 1971) printed in Jimmy Olsen #134 (December 1970)
Comic cover art: Forever People and The New Gods: pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Frank Giacoia (Forever People and New Gods) and Vince Colletta (Mister Miracle), letters by Gaspar Saladino, [Superman face redrawn by ???] Gaspar Saladino
Ad designed and lettered by Gaspar Saladino

Today in Comics History, August 26, 1998: A very happy day, as Wally and Linda get marri...wait a minute, Wally's middle name is Rudolph?!?

from The Flash (1987 series) #142 (October 1998), script by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, pencils by Pop Mhan, inks by Chris Ivy, colors by Tom McCraw, letters by Gaspar Saladino

Ten of a Kind: I don't know where I'm a-gonna go / When the volcano blow

Hey, I found another comic book panel to attach to today's earlier post about the eruption of Krakatoa! Mind you, it's out of a Charlton comic book, I had to go deep into Bully's Underground Comic Vault...much further than Marvel and DC, waaaaay past Fantagraphics and Dark Horse...but not as deep as Atlas/Seaboard. If I ever have to go down there again, I'll alert you ahead of time, and if I'm not back within ten days, Chris Sims gets my blog.

Anyways!


from "Volcano" in Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #48 (Charlton, September 1965), pencils and inks by Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio
Anyway, this made my little stuffed brain of needles and oatmeal spin around and I thought why not do a Ten of a Kind about volcanos? And then I thought naw, that trick never works. And then I did it. Hey, can you spot the included Same Story, Different Cover? (It's not hard.)












(More Ten of a Kind here.)

365 Days of DC House Ads, Day 237: Jack Kirby DC House Ad Week, Day 1: Somebody get me my crown cuz I'm feeling it now / You might be a lord; but here comes the King

This week, all week, we celebrate the work of the King of Comics through house ads advertising his titanic work at DC! Can your heart stand the excitement?!? (takes medication and breathes into a paper bag first just to be sure)

So, you're sitting in 1970, reading your Superman comic, and you get to this page...


Page from "Superman Meets Super-Houdini!" in Action Comics #393 (October 1970), script by Leo Dorfman, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Murphy Anderson

Today in Comics History, August 25, 1883: Boom Comics are invented

Yesterday I promised you more hot volcanic action! (Didn't I?) Well, here it is...sorta.


"The Nightmare That Came True" from Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #4 (DC, March 1972), writer uncredited and unknown