JACK "KING" KIRBY CONAN GIANT # 5

It is Jack Kirby's birthday....here is one of my favorite covers with a drawing by JACK albeit a little touched up by John Romita but still...awesome KIRBY dynamics throughout.

Hey...today August 28 is also my Dad's birthday too....and I share a birthday with the ICON Frank Frazetta....Feb 9th...Hmmm...

SGT ROCK ~ SHOWCASE TRADES

Well...as we all know on the East coast there is a Hurricane coming through here...so many of the things I was going to do on my vacation are cancelled. Atlantic city , JETS AT GIANTS , JETS FAMILY DAY at HOFSTRA ( It rained for 10 minutes big deal ) Oh I can still go to the game but guess what? I gotta go back to work on the day of the postponed game. SHIT!

Well...as everyone has probably guessed by now I'm a bit pissed off. BUT there was a light at the end of the tunnel. BORDERS BOOKS is going out of business. So...I was there and guess what? I found 3 volumes of SHOWCASE PRESENTS SGT. ROCK! I bought them all at 50% off

30 bucks for three awesome trade collections of one of the greatest comic book icons this side of SUPERMAN , TARZAN and CONAN! I already have 3 volumes of the archives but...they're still sealed....and I do have about 40 issues of OUR ARMY AT WAR....but I don't take them out and handle them for GOD sakes! Now I can pick up the trade and read the most awesome war stories drawn by my former mentor and a man who taught me a lot about sequential comic art.

JOE KUBERT is a true Master a man who can literally draw anything...he served in the BIG ONE and still writes and draws comics. He's a legend and his indelible ink is inked into my mind and life in an indelible fashion...I sometimes look at my work and see tiny little KUBERT -ism's right in the middle of my BUSCEMA - ism's.

If anything good came out of this weekend...it's these 3 books.....I can pick them up and read them at any damned time I want! Go get your own...I recommend it.

JOE JUSKO WARLORD of MARS!

Joe Jusko has been doing superb work with his covers for the John Carter comic books. Each and every cover a serious masterpiece. The particular thrill to seeing Joe doing John Carter comes not only from the fact that he's busting them out so quickly but he's not losing a step in quality in any way shape or form. Like Frazetta , Jones , Boris or any of his other contemporaries or any other fantasy artist Jusko's skill and style are legendary. He already has about 2 dozen John Carter , Dejah Thoris covers in print and on shelves and in collections! I cannot wait for one whole collection of Joes work ( All these covers in one book ) I used to think you can't get any better than those Joe Jusko savage sword covers...each one a stand alone masterpiece...then he goes and blows all our minds with these genius pieces of work. Keep making us HAPPY JOE! We will always be here to enjoy your work! Continue to continuously blow our minds with your skill.

More to come...I want to see if I can cram all his covers on the blog in the days to come!

John Carter WARLORD of MARS

DO YOU REMEMBER MY HAVING TOLD YOU OF THE MANY TIMES I SPENT IN THE HOSPITAL AS A CHILD DUE TO A SERIOUS KIDNEY DISEASE? Well I may not have explained to you why I was in the hospital but I did say I was there. I told you in several posts that my Mom and Dad used to come and visit me and bring me a stack of comics...sometimes just 1. In this case my Dad picked out the comic book because Tarzan was mentioned on the cover and he knew how much I loved me some Tarzan! Well...as everyone knows John Carter WARLORD of MARS and TARZAN are brothers of a sort...in that their creator EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS was also in essence their Dad.

My Dad probably did not know how much of a thrill giving me JCWOM # 1 was to me...first of all it was a first issue , then the cover was drawn by Gil Kane who I recognized Johnny on the spot from his CONAN contributions. I knew of John Carter from the Tarzan family comics by DC comics a couple of years prior and to see him with Marvel comics drawn by a CONAN artist I was in heaven. I mmediately got lost in the story and eagerly awaited the following issue. I made sure I was down at the candy store every week with my allowance looking for each issue as it came out. I am happy to say that I saw the trailer for the upcoming JOHN CARTER movie and cannot wait. One of the greatest adventure characters of all time is getting the attention he deserves.

B'wana Beast!

As a kid one of the coolest characters I ever came across was this guy. He had a cool helmet and ran around the jungle like Tarzan and had a Gorilla sidekick...everyone else had a dog or cat or horse of tiger or lion but not almighty B'wana! He had a cool power too. He could meld two animals together and make one big giant super beast. Of course he can communicate with wild animals and all that good stuff. Something about this cool Mike Sekowsky/Joe Giella cover mesmerised me. I always loved the way Mike drew super heroes...he really had a knack for it.
One of the coolest things about this issue was the CAPTAIN ACTION ad ...It looks like Curt Swan's art in the ad...I always wondered just who did draw that. I'd appreciate any input anyone could give me. In the coming weeks I'll see if I can post that ad.