KIRBY'S VICTORY - PART ONE...

Copyright relevant owner

It was in the VIRGIN MEGASTORE in Glasgow where I first laid eyes on the debut issue of a brand-new comic by an equally brand-new publisher in 1981.  I just loved the splash page (aside from that seriously dodgy left shoulder and the underwhelming masthead), as there was just something about the colouring that reminded me of MARVEL mags from the 1960s.

Unfortunately, the series never really grabbed me - it was Kirby on autopilot doing just another riff on things he'd done before.  I bought the first three issues (I think I got #3 a little while after it had come out, if I recall correctly) and later bought the 1983 Special Edition a year or two after it was released. 

CAPTAIN VICTORY & The GALACTIC RANGERS lasted 13 issues and one special between 1981-'84.  It failed to set the comics world on fire, like so many of Jack's post-Marvel comicbooks, proving to many that STAN LEE was not just an important factor, but also an essential one in Kirby's success at the 'House of Ideas' during his first tenure there in the '60s.

Interestingly, in Cap's final issue (#13), it was strongly indicated that he was the son of ORION Of The NEW GODS.  Given that the new gods had arisen from the twilight of the old (Asgardian) gods, it suggests that Kirby had a predilection for keeping things connected. 

Anyway, Crivs, here's a brief look at several images from the first couple of issues.  Unfortunately, the margin of a name and address label (mine) obscures a small part of the art on the left-hand lower corners of the back pages, but hopefully it won't upset you too much.

Part Two coming soon! 

  

FAREWELL To A HERO! The FINAL FANTASTIC JOHNNY FUTURE - SUPER SPECIAL SEVEN PAGE SAGA...

Copyright REBELLION

There's no point in delaying the sad moment any longer.  It's time to break out the black armbands and shed a tear or two for the demise of JOHNNY FUTURE.  This was his final weekly appearance in FANTASTIC, the fondly-recalled comic for boys back in the 1960s.  He had one final fling in the pages of the Fantastic Annual for 1969 and then it was curtains for ol' JOHN FOSTER.  (Given just how far in advance Annuals were prepared, the story could've been drawn before the last weekly episode.)

And so we look upon Senor LUIS BERMEJO's awesome and astounding art for the final time - except for occasional revisits to this blog, or in back issues of the periodical in which he originally appeared.  Hopefully, some enterprising publisher will see these posts, and decide to reprint the complete collection* of ODHAMS PRESS' Power-Pack classics - sensitively coloured for modern readers, with copious notes on the origins and history of the character.

Well, we can but dream, can't we?

Farewell, Johnny - see you in the future!

(*Update: Which REBELLION have now done since this post was first published.)