PART FOUR OF JACK KIRBY'S CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

By now, if you've seen the other three posts in this run and are really serious about collecting classic comicbooks, you'll want to add these iconic issues to your collection.  (Assuming that you don't already have them all, natch.)  Don't know where to start?  Panic not, O DC disciple.  Every one of JACK KIRBY's CHALLENGERS Of The UNKNOWN tales are available in an Omnibus Edition which should be available at your nearest comicbook store.  You might even be able to pick up the previous two volumes of the DC ARCHIVES books which featured these great tales.

Interestingly, the title was still going when Jack returned to DC in 1970, but was cancelled not too long afterwards.  A handful of reprint issues were subsequently published in the early '70s, and the series was later revived for a short time, but not 'til after JK had departed DC.  There seems to be debate over who created and wrote the strip; some sources credit Jack Kirby alone, but others say it was Jack and DAVE WOOD.  There always seems to be controversy of this kind around 'The King'.  JOE SIMON said he created CAPTAIN AMERICA on his own, Jack claimed to be solely responsible for every good thing at MARVEL, and even his best-known '50s DC work has a cloud of uncertainty over who did what.  Pattern or coincidence?

Meanwhile, it's poor ol' STAN LEE who carries the can for being a 'glory-hog'.  Hardly seems fair to me, I gotta say!