A Kid and His King: My top 20 Kirby catches in the 1960s (Jack Kirby art)

[@thecollector616]

That feeling of being a kid going to the store and seeing your new favorite comic heroes on a cover man I love it

[@1971thedoctor]

Some of my first Kirby comics were in the late 1970s when I was 6 to 9 years old, My favorite was Captain America and the Falcon starting with issue 201 all the way to 214 when Kirby left the comic. honorable mention to the Eternals #8,9, and 10 for the action packed Reject/Karkas story line.

[@themanfromphoto]

I turned 10 in '68 just when all the Premier Issues came out. My mom bought them all for my birthday. She was a commercial illustrator so she wanted to spark my interest in art as I had been copying Kirby stuff from Avengers comics. Great memories

[@cha5]

Those were beautiful, I was born in 1964 and didn’t really get into comics until the early seventies, and my first exposure to Kirby was an issue of Kamandi which I saw at the same time as an issue of Berni Wrightsen’s Swamp Thing #1 in our local barbershop. Getting a haircut was my favorite thing because of all the comics that our barber kept for the kids to read.

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

We come to Kirby in our own time, cha5, and that time is never wrong. By the way, I go back so far that I remember reading Spidey #5 in a barbershop in 1963 and the barber let me take it home!

[@JayWoods483]

Thanks for all the effort you put into this video. Your comic collection must be insurable at this stage with so many Silver Age Keys. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see your sweetest picks of all. Two comics that shaped Marvel with after-shocks for years to come. Cap begins his lengthy run in Avengers, and the consummate Hulk vs Thing battle. It would take Marvel eight more years before ever thinking about another. And for us fans, eight very long years.

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

I hate to admit it, Jay, but I've sold my collection multiple times through the years. I had gorgeous, high-grade copies of many of them. But, alas, finances forced sell-offs. I've been replacing what I can through the years, but they are in the lower grades and therefore the value isn't there. And this is totally beside the point, but you mentioned the third Thing-Hulk battle, issue #112 of the FF. Now note: Subby in FF 4 and 104. Hulk in 12 and 112. Dr. Doom 16 and 116. Gideon 34 and 134. Dragon Man 35 and 135. So, obviously, the Marvel crew, without Jack, were combing the back issues looking for ideas, and bringing back the same foes exactly 100 issues later.

[@JayWoods483]

@@kirbycontinuum5700 I cannot begin to estimate how much has been lost in Hockey/Football/Baseball cards between the spokes of my bike. Your lower-grades are still gems to these eyes. What an incredible web of intricate re-visits the FF were occupied with post-Kirby. As memory would serve me, FF #126 is a tribute to Stan & Jack's work on FF #1 (yet felt more like FF #31 tribute). FF #128 had that beautiful four-page layout by Big John and Joe of classic FF friends and foes Jack created.

[@picard714]

Fred, your comic collecting childhood was the very definition of the phrase, "What a time to be alive!"

[@FredFlix]

You said it, picard!

[@BogWraith1]

I'm 4 years younger then you, so we grew up with the same cultural references. Scoring any bonus comics from my parents or relatives was always a highlight of the year for me. Those 72 page Marvel Giant comics for a quarter and later in the 70's, the DC Super Spectacular 100 page comics for fifty cents were always my favourite comics to buy off the rack and later, from the bins at comic stores! Thanks again for putting out the content that you create. Anything that brings me closer to The King is the best part of my week!😎

[@FredFlix]

Happy to hear that, BW. Yeah, those square-bound annuals were a joy.

[@rundoetx]

Whooo. Great video. You had chills running up my spine. I knew Avengers 4 had to be number one. One of the best ever. Thanks for sharing

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

Glad you enjoyed it, rundoetx.

[@Deephouse_Gent66]

That Sgt Fury #13 cover is excellent. I assume that's Kirby inked by Chic Stone. FF #25-26: Doesn't get more epic and mythic than that. And yeah, I had the same reaction to that Iron Man/Subby battle when I saw it in the Marvel Superheroes reprint of the TOS story. I still have yet to get my hands on that FF Annual #2 with that uber-classic DOOM cover. I don't believe I've ever even seen it out in the wild. I think it's insane how some of these purchases were just books that you found laying around all-but-forgotten in store racks. Thank you for sharing such wonderful memories!

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

You're welcome, skull00dark. At the time, few people were aware how monumental these books were. I was usually able to find them until around FF #35 (late 1964). As they started to catch on with the public, I began missing issues. Missed 35, 36, 39, 41 and 48.

[@Deephouse_Gent66]

@@kirbycontinuum5700 Fascinating! I am 57, so I began reading comics in the early 70s, so it was drugstores and spinner racks for me until I discovered comic retail shops in 1978. I can remember buying Kirby FF and THOR issues for like $3.00-to-$4.50 a pop and thinking to myself, "Wow, that's a LOT of money for a single comic book!"

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

@@Deephouse_Gent66 We had no idea! I paid $11 for a VF X-Men 1 and $7 for the same with Daredevil 1. A fortune, I thought! Ended up selling them. The value now would be off the charts.

[@dougbrowne9890]

I can just hear Jackie Gleason yelling out, "How sweet it is!" I am glad your dad was onboard with your love of comics. Pop (my dad) took a long time to get onboard with my collecting them. He wasn't against comics (he was a huge fan of Blackhawk growing up). He just thought that spending money on them was a waste. For the longest time he'd rather I spent my money on collecting stamps (I collected German stamps). But by 1980 (I was 15), I had stopped buying stamps altogether. By 1991, he was in business with me selling baseball cards and comic books. Such is life. Thanks Fred!

[@FredFlix]

Nice story, Doug.

[@purplebondsaiyan2987]

A Gem 💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎 Love it!!! Imagine those Books How Much they are Now!!!!!

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

Glad you enjoyed the video, Mr. Purple.

[@purplebondsaiyan2987]

@@kirbycontinuum5700 you're welcome thank You!!!

[@tonysantiago255]

WoweeWow wowwow! Fred. You loaded this video with so much Kirby greatness it took me 20+ minutes to get through it, having to freeze-frame each image. Braincells (Spidey-sence equivalent) set a' tingling. Comic book artists in training should be required to study Jack's compositional elements alone. His figures where incredibly balanced and moving in perfectly opposing angles when in action. I actually was behind in my comic collecting, so I would have been too young to buy my own comics until 1967? So these images are almost always relatively new for me and ALWAYS exciting to see. George Tuska was on Iron Man in his first few issues of his own book, so I recognized his illustration on that only non-Kirby cover. I found that Wedding of Reed&Sue Annual in a box at a flea market back around 1993 and I grabbed it like the gold I knew it was. Boy, was the guy that was there with me PISSED that I found it first! I actually preferred the blue-grey color of the F.F.'s uniforms in those early books. The inking had so much shading and subtle detail that they helped to make the covers Pop! and gave them depth. Gorgeous. Wow! F.F.#17! That was the first exposure I had to the Fantastic Four and it haunted my little prepubescent brain and dreams for days. Make Mine Marvel! in the 60s! Excellent music choice using pieces from Bernard Herrmann's score from Journey to the Center of the Earth. Very satisfying video, Fred. Excelsior!

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

Another beautiful, heartfelt comment, Tony. But, hey, there are absolutely NO non-Kirby covers in this video, not by Tuska or anyone else. So what cover are you referring to? Check again. You mentioned Iron man in his own book, but that didn't happen until 1968 and this video covers through 1966 only.

[@lanehowell605]

He's referring to the Gene Colan cover to the Iron Man vs Subby issue... Colan, not G Tuska...

[@tonysantiago255]

@lanehowell65 - Youch! Your right! It's Tales to Astonish #82. That's definitely Gene Colin's feet and legs on the Submariner. Good spot, Lane.

[@FredFlix]

@@tonysantiago255 I goofed, too, Tony. There is not only the Colan cover shown, but also the Ditko cover for Spidey #8, so they're not ALL Kirby covers, as I mistakenly commented.

[@ovalvox7888]

Marvel really knew how to wow back In the 60’s. Hulk vs Thing and the return of Captain America in the same month.

[@FredFlix]

Along with X-Men 4 (first Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch) and Tales of Suspense 52 (first Black Widow).

[@emilywhitfield2780]

Your Dad and Granny were two great people encouraging your love of comics❤❤❤❤

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

Well, Emily, I wouldn't say they encouraged it. They allowed it, which was good enough for me!

[@TimWescott-ov4jx]

Great memories....thanks Fred!!

[@FredFlix]

You're welcome, Tim.

[@watchword1354]

Awesome. Great memories. Thanks.

[@FredFlix]

You're welcome, watchword. (KC)

[@victorsixtythree]

Awesome video! Sounds like your Dad was a good guy!

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

He tried to be, although his father died when he was 5 so he no template on how to raise and react to a child. But he did his best during a very hard life. He ended up killing himself in 1984 when I was 30.

[@tonysantiago255]

Wow. So sorry to hear about your father. Try to remember the good memories and allow the lesser ones to fade. Most people do the best they know how and parenting is a serious learning curve.

[@kirbycontinuum5700]

@@tonysantiago255 I don't blame my father one bit, Tony. He loved me and I loved him. That's the good part. The bad part is I didn't support him enough in his final years. Looking back, he was reaching out for help but I was too into myself and my own seemingly insurmountable problems at the time. God, life can be so heartbreaking.

[@silverageguy3344]

Great story on #10, Fred. So funny!

[@FredFlix]

Much appreciated, SAG.

[@felixmaldonado7511]

Excelsior!

[@angelmanfredy]

FF 23 is my oldest FF comic! ❤

[@iOnRX9]