Milestones: The last Jack Kirby Fantastic Four comic

Fantastic Four #102 (September 1970) was a comic book that I picked up around 1987 in the back issue section of the now long gone Glasgow comic store Futureshock. My hope was that the book contained John Romita Seniors art but as it turned out I missed that by one issue and this issue only featured his art on the cover. On the plus side this issue featured the final collaboration of the legendary team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Marvels flagship title before Kirby left to join DC comics.

A lot has been written about Jack Kirby's decision to leave Marvel by commentators with more insight and knowledge than I have. However, having read many of the Lee/Kirby stories (in weekly instalments via Marvel UK titles ) it was clear to me that the series was struggling with the Lee/ Kirby team running out of steam and ideas. Certainly to my eyes Kirby seemed to be holding back on his art and ideas that were always his trademark. Despite this, issue 102 is a good comic it just didn't have the feeling that this was the end of comics greatest ever artistic team .

Below, Stans Soapbox focuses on Jack Kirby leaving Marvel but makes no mention of the fact that he is leaving to join the Distinctive Competition.

Below , the issue I meant to buy, Fantastic Four # 103 featuring John Romita Seniors first Fantastic Four art ( image from Marvel Fandom) . By issue 107 John Buscema would take over the art chores and the FF would go from strength to strength.

Top tens: Gil Kane

Gil Kane (1926 - 2000) was a major force in comics during the 1960s and 1970s and remained active producing excellent art up until his death in 2000. Kane ( born Eli Katz in Latvia) worked for almost every major comic book company and charater during his career creating not only amazing interior art but also stunning covers . Some of my favourite Gil Kane covers are shown below ( and not a single "up the nose" one among them!).

Some of Kanes best covers were for Western comics. He created a series of stunning covers for Marvels reprints of the Rawhide Kid and Kid Colt that I just had to pick up even although Westerns aren't my favourite genre

Although not known as a Superman artist, the comics I have featuring his Superman art ( cover and interior art) are fantastic and worth picking up.

Gil Kane was always looking for new formats for his art and produced one of the first graphic novel "His name is Savage".

Kane also worked on the newspaper strip Star Hawks from 1977 - 1981. This series has been reprinted several times in various collections. The above is the cover to an early paperback ( book 1, of 2) version .

Bring on the back-ups: The last Green Lantern by Neal Adams & Denny O'Neil

One of my favourite comic book series of all time is Green Lantern/Green Arrow (# 76 -89 - 1970/72) by the legendary team of Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil. However, the first time I actually read an Adams\O'Neil Green Lantern tale was when the strip moved over to the Flash comic (#217 - 219) in 1972 after the GL\GA comic was cancelled with # 89. Until recently I thought that was the last time that the Adams \ O'Neil team worked together on Green Lantern. Well that was until I picked up Flash #226 (December 1973) which to my surprise contained the story below which I think may have been the last time that Adams/O'Neil worked together on the character.

4

Below the Flash #226 (cover by Nick Cardy) The Green Lantern back -up strip would last until #244 in 1976 when a new Green Lantern \Green Arrow comic by O'Neil\Grell was published.

Favourite comics: Challengers of the Unknown #82: Mike Nasser, Joe Rubinstein, Gerry Conway

One of my favourite comics from the mid/late 1970s was DC's revamp of the Challengers of the Unknown which featured art by then comic book newcomers Keith Giffen, Jim Sherman, Mike Nasser ( Netzer) , and Joe Rubinstein. Nasser only drew 2 issues (82 & 83) before taking a break from regular comic work, but his two Challengers issues contained some of his best art and one of his best covers.

The cover blurb was a bit misleading in noting that it featured the Swamp Thing as the character only appeared in a flashback sequence. However, it did feature a single panel inked by Swamp Things co-creator Bernie Wrightson ( below), which at the time I found fascinating.

Mike Nasser (later changing his name to Netzer) left regular comics work in late 1977 and moved to Israel. In 1991 he began working with Neal Adams Continuity Comics which would later result in Netzer taking legal action against Adams over the intellectual property rights of Ms Mystic , a character created in 1977. The lawsuit was dismissed in 1995.

Alan Moores World Cup football comic strip

With the 2026 Football World Cup currently underway I thought it would be fun to take a look at some UK football comic strips. In order to make this more interesting for the many non footy fans out there, I thought I would start with a strange strip written by the legendary Alan Moore. Written in 1982, at a time when Moore was working in UK comics, this 3 page tongue-in-cheek strip appeared in the Marvel UK one shot "Not the World Cup". Its not one of his best but it is a fun tale nicely illustrated by the then Roy of the Rovers artist Barrie Mitchell ( above - cover to "Not the World Cup" by John Higgins).

For those interested Italy won the 1982 World Cup with England finishing 6th. Scotland as usual failed to get out of their tsection despite a good performance only losing 1 of their 3 games to Brazil. Next up my top 10 favourite UK football comic strips.

Favourite comics: Dr Strange #178 - Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, Roy Thomas

I first read the above Dr Strange tale in the UK Avengers weekly comic (issues 74-76) and was blown away by Colan and Palmers artwork which at the time was going from strength to strength. So when I saw an original US copy for sale at around 9 US dollars (£8 UK) during a recent holiday, I had to pick it up. The strip in colour is even better than the UK black and white version.

Future postings and replies to any comments may be limited due to personal family issues.