365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 95: The Fantastic Four's Telephone

In the Baxter Building, even the telephones aren't from Ma Bell...they're made of KirbyTech.


Panel from Fantastic Four (1961 series) #55 (October 1966), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Sam Rosen
So remember: when you dial (212) 444-4444, you get to talk to the one and only Benjamin J. Grimm! (Don't call during his stories.)

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Update notification!

• I've added a look at Enclave Island HQ and the Killer Kelp to the entry on The Murder Chair of Franz Cadavus (Day 89)!
• There's two additions to Reed Richards's Heat-Image Tracer (Day 10): an earlier prototype of the device as well as a look at Kirby's Superman using the same psuedoscience to make a sports car out of cherry Jell-O!
• A brand-new appearance in one of those darn Inhumanity crossovers of The Enclave's Transfer-Grid (Day 13)!

Remember, edited and added text is in green!

The Marvel Universe's most dramatic zoom-in ever

Panels from Marvel Team-Up Annual #4 (August 1981), script by Frank Miller, breakdowns by Herb Trimpe, finishes by Mike Esposito, colors by George Roussos, letters by Diana Albers

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 94: The Ruler of Earth

Behold...The Ruler of the Earth!


Splash page from "The Ruler of Earth" in Journey into Mystery #81 (June 1962), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers

At 13th Dimension: Jim Steranko's Captain America!

All this week on 13th Dimension, it's Captain America Week! Gosh, you'd think the dude has a movie comin' out or something. My bestest pal John (he's going to take me to the movies, hooray!) has written about the three amazing issues of Captain America by Jim Steranko! Say, I wonder why John didn't include this moment?:


Panels from Strange Tales (August 1967); script, pencils, inks, and colors by Jim Steranko, letters by Jerry Feldmann
WHOA NICK FURY PUT YOUR SHIRT BACK ON MAN IT'S NOT THAT KINDA COMIC BOOK

Once again, that's Captain America Week at 13th Dimension! (And don't forget to enter 13th Dimension's contest to win a pair of Hasbro action figures, because I can't!) It's All-American, dudes!

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 93: Agent 13's Miniaturized Flame-Thrower (In a Case)

Panel from Captain America (1968 series) #100 (April 1968), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Syd Shores, letters by Artie Simek

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 92: The Fantastic Four's Washing Machine

Panel from Fantastic Four (1998 series) #61/490 (November 2002), script by Mark Waid, pencils by Mike Wieringo, inks by Karl Kesel, colors by Paul Mounts, letters by Richard Starkings and Albert Deschesne
Say, I wonder what brand of detergent Sue uses to keep those whites whiter than white blues bluer than blue?

Obsessive much?

Page from "Fight for the One You Love" in Girls' Love Stories #125 (February 1967), pencils and inks by Jerry Grandenetti

Today in Comics History, April 1: The instructions for suggested use of ketchup are disregarded

from The Spirit Section (Register and Tribune Syndicate, March 30 (not 20), 1947), script by Will Eisner, pencils and inks by Will Eisner and Jerry Grandenetti, letters by Martin DeMuth

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 91: SHIELD*'s Shoulder-Mounted Double-Gun Harness

In the words of an old Marvel Comics humor book, Not Brand Echh What the--?!:


Panel from Captain America #112 (April 1969), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by George Tuska, letters by Artie Simek
Naw, I'm just kiddin' ya. April Fool! I mean, do you think even Jack Kirby would come up with something that bizarre and weird?!?

*Spring Has Incoming Elements of Lying Day

Can you paint with all the colors of the Bifrost?

IS THIS THE GREATEST COLORING BOOK EVER MADE?

WHY YES. YES IT IS.

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 90: Miss Thing's Thing Rings

The beauty of comic books is that occasionally a comic book creator will take the world's most horrible thing...



...and turn it into the most wonderful thing.



Panels from FF (2013 series) #8 (August 2013), script by Matt Fraction, pencils and inks by Michael Allred, colors by Laura Allred, letters by Clayton Cowles

Ten of a Kind: Good night, hawks

(More Ten of a Kind here.)

Well, that'll happen.

Panel from "The Stronghold of Dr. Strange!" in Tales of Suspense #41 (May 1963), plot by Stan Lee, script by Robert Bernstein, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, letters by Marty Epp

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 89: The Murder Chair of Franz Cadavus

Even Nazi supervillains like The Red Skull like to have a few pals over to shoot the breeze and watch the game! And here they are...the Exiles! Clockwise from top left: Sprawly Legsapart, Earth-3 Winston Churchill, Big Bear MacCaber, The 5,000 Hats of Jack Kirby Guy, Evil Mirror Universe Spock After a Shave, The Red Skull, and Moe "Professor H" Howard of the H-Men!


Page from Captain America (1968 series) #104 (August 1968), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dan Adkins, letters by Artie Simek

Psylocke Psaturday #25: Then all this stuff happened

Yikes! We haven't pspent Psaturday night with Psylocke for a longgggg time. Maybe it's because I've been psrocratinating this era in our purple-haired heroine's life because it's all just hanging around in Australia waiting for the inevitable reboot. So why don't we take a rapid recap approach to Ms. Elisabeth Braddocks' life by quickly summing up all the stuff that happened in X-Men #240-251, inclusive! I may have left our your favorite part, and if so, let me know. Note: Jubilee's original costume does not count as anyone's favorite part.

Also, I sure hope you like Marc Silvestri's artwork if you're gonna study this period!

Let's recap! During this period Psylocke posed a la Rose Dewitt-Bukater for Colossus. I'm not quite certain why Peter is drawing while armored up and in his underwear, but hey! Put your legs together, Peter! we don't sit like that around here!


Panel from Uncanny X-Men #240 (January 1989), script by Chris Claremont, pencils by Marc Silvestri, inks by Dan Green, colors by Glynis Oliver, letters by Tom Orzechowski

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 88: The Tesseract Box

So if there's one thing we learned from the Avengers movie, it's that everybody loves Loki (which is also the name of his popular Asgard-TV sitcom). Another thing we learned is that tesseract means cube. A...Cosmic cube, if I make take the liberty.


Which helps us identify this next piece of KirbyTech, the Tesseract Box. Since tesseract means cube and box means cube, what you have here is a cube cube.


Panels from Fantastic Four/Fantastic 4 [Annual] '98 (December 1998), script by Karl Kesel, pencils by Stuart Immonen, inks by Cam Smith, colors by Gloria Vasquez, letters by Jon Babcock
Not certain if Reed Richards created and built this (so he doesn't get credit for it in the post title!), but what it appears to do is keep food fresh, which means maybe Sue bought it at one of Janet van Dyne's frequent Tupperware™ parties. Actually, from the context it appears to not only keep the delicious, pungent scent of stinky cheese out of the kitchen, it may also be bigger on the inside and hold it within a time-space lock to keep it from aging.


So i'm guessing the tesseract box is a cross between...quite possibly the intelligent offspring of...the TARDIS...



...and a Thrint/Slaver Stasis Box.



And you can keep cheese in it. Now I know what I'm getting my pal John for his birthday!

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 87: Kanjar Ro's Crypto-Portal

Green Lantern archnemesis Kanjar Ro's Crypto-Portal can look into all the events of Earth's past! Big whoop. I've got one of those, too. It's called The History Channel.


Panels from "The Silver Age" in Silver Age Secret Files one-shot (July 2000), script by D. Curtis Johnson, pencils by Mike Collins, inks by Vince Russell, colors by Tom McCraw, color separations by Digital Chameleon, letters by Kurt Hathaway
In order to show world-conqueror wanna-be Agamemno of the resistance he'll face on Earth and also the reason Kanjar Ro has failed every time, he has the Crypto-Portal show Agamemno the big-name superheroes of Earth! And Aquaman.




Yep, all that plus Superman, Batman, Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. A pretty impressive line-up. But I can't help but think that the whole invasion plot of Agamemno could have been averted, and the whole Silver Age miniseries wouldn't have needed to be published, if only Kanjar Ro had shown off Earth's Mightiest Heroes:







Right, yeah? Well, if you don't agree, then you make one to scare off Agamemno!:


6,900.

I sure hope J. Jonah Jameson fired somebody over that typo

So, within the first two minutes of the new Marvel Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher direct-to-DVD animated movie, we see a newspaper website displayed on a computer monitor:


Oh, for Pete's sake, movie. If you're going to take time to show us exposition on a screen, at least ensure it makes grammatical sense, huh? Also...


I'm pretty sure he doesn't have that symbol trademarked. And if he does, he's got a better lawyer than Matt Murdock.

365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 86: Annihilus' Gyro-Saw

The Gyro-Saw! The only free-wheelin' giant saw blade with the great taste of tzatziki sauce!


Panel from Fantastic Four Annual #6 (November 1968), script by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Sinnott, letters by Sam Rosen
It's not KirbyTech, but I couldn't pass up showing you what appears in the very next panel: The All-Engulfing Sonic Sponge.


The Sonic Sponge, everyone.

Today in Comics History, March 26: Zatanna cancels her show because of the money

from Zatanna: Everyday Magic one-shot (DC/Vertigo, May 2003), script by Paul Dini, pencils and inks by Rick Mays, colors by Brian Miller, letters by Comicraft