#issue151

#JackedKirby - The Losers for D-Day... 💥💥💥 Today is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, a day that is super important in the military history of the United States as well as something that Jack Kirby was directly effected by. 💥💥💥 Jack was drafted into the US ARMY in June of 1943 and landed on Omaha Beach in August of 1944, just 2.5 months after the great D-Day invasion. Jack’s military experiences have made their way into many of his comic works, but none were more apparent than his 11 issue run on Our Fighting Forces for DC Comics featuring The Losers! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 The Losers were a ragtag group of soldiers stuck behind enemy lines. In the opening splash of his first issue of the book (pic 1) we see the four man crew: Captain Storm, Johnny Cloud, Sgt. Clay and Gunnar McKay. This splash (pics 1/2/3) appears early in #Issue151 of Our Fighting Forces (August of 1974) and features the whole team! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Kirby’s run on the series was loaded with action and infused his personal military experience into the stories, but the best example of this is the open letter he penned to the readers telling them what he had planned for the book (Pic 4). Jack was candid and forthcoming about WHAT he wanted the book to be and WHY he wanted to do it... and one paragraph he even mentions D-Day specifically (Pic 5). 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 I strongly recommend this series for anyone who wants to see Jack’s version of WWII on the comics page... especially on a patriotic day like today!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 #JackKirby #KingKirby #Kirby #TheLosers #OurFightingForces #KirbyInTheMilitary #USArmy #DDay #75thAnniversary #Comic #Comics #ComicBook #ComicBooks #70sComics #ComicsOfThe70s #igcomicbookcommunity #igcomics https://www.instagram.com/p/ByYrQjXhyJ0/?igshid=rdkhvjcg4el5

#JackedKirby - For Endgame... The Big 3!!! 💥💥💥 I’m not going to spoil anything, nor am I gonna bring anything about Avengers: Endgame in this post just one day after it is out... but as one can imagine the Big 3 Avengers of Thor, Cap and Iron Man play a HUGE role in the revolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So I thought this was a fitting post for today!!! 💥💥💥 Although Jack drew the Avengers MANY times in his career at Marvel I live this cover because of the focus in the Big 3... the mainstays of the team since DAY 1!!! Thor, Cap and Iron Man have always been involved with the team in one way or another... and in this issue (Avengers #Issue151 from September of 1976) we can see the Big 3 rallying the team... 💥💥💥 This Book was penciled on the interior by the great George Perez, but features this iconic cover from the King. It was one of his earlier assignments upon his return to Marvel from DC, and it is one of his most powerful renditions of the Big 3 I can think of. Perfectly suited for this week... enjoy the movie, it was awesome!!! 💥💥💥 #JackKirby #KingKirby #Kirby #Avengers #TheMightyAvengers #Big3 #CaptainAmerica #IronMan #Thor #70sComics #ComicsOfThe70s #Comic #Comics #ComicBook #ComicBooks #KirbyPencils #AvengersAssemble #AvengersEndgame #Endgame #KirbyCovers #ComicCovers https://www.instagram.com/p/BwviJo0hOjV/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=17scpafx6e3vx

#JackedKirby - The Sub-Machine Guns Of World War II... 💥💥💥 While Jack was winding down his time at DC before returning to Marvel in 1974 he was fulfilling contractual obligations by creating random issues of books and small runs here or there. Some of these were Justice Inc, Kobra and few more... but one that was a bit special to him was The Loser stories in Our Fighting Forces. The Losers were a rag tag group of soldiers that were behind the lines of WWII, something Kirby had first hand experience with. So when he had the opportunity to take over the book as both writer and pencilled, he jumped at the chance!!!! 💥💥💥 Kirby took over the book with #Issue151 and continued until he turned it back over to the original creator Bob Kahniger. While Kirby was on the book he changed the tone of the series to make it a bit more serious... properly reflecting on a war that he had the displeasure of fighting in himself. At the time people criticized this tonal shift, but now the run is looked back upon fondly as some of Jack’s more intricate work while at DC that wasn’t involving the 4th World. Many of his personal touches found a way into the stories and material... like in #Issue152 from December of 1974!!! 💥💥💥 In the main story the Losers find themselves pinned down in a supposedly friendly town by Nazi’s... and they are almost done for until they are saved by General Patton himself!!! (Pic 1) This is a cool tidbit cause Kirby actually served under Patton in WWII... so it’s a bit of life finding it’s way into the art! He also did this really cool two page reference feature on the sub-machine guns of WWII, highlighting the different types of guns the various countries in the war used in actual combat (Pic 2/3). Its little touches like this that make Kirby’s war comics that much more authentic... he lived it, not just imagined it!!! 💥💥💥 #JackKirby #KingKirby #Kirby #TheLosers #OurFightingForces #Comic #Comics #ComicBook #ComicBooks #70sComics #ComicsOfThe70s #igcomiccommunity #WarComics #GeneralPatton #GunsOfWWII #igcomicfamily #igcomics 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Thanks to all the veterans for all the years of service for our great country!!!! https://www.instagram.com/p/BqImRmVhnk9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=3x38vuf47kfc

#JackedKirby - Floating Heads, a double page splash and Krackle filled title page... oh my!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 The Losers was a special comic from DC because it combined a slew of random characters from earlier war comics throughout the 60s into one big team looking back on World War II. Nostalgia for the “Great War” was alive and well in the 70s and DC dug deep in their well of past characters to create this unlikely team that always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time together... hence the name they get, The Losers! 🇺🇸💥🇺🇸 Writer Robert Kahniger first teamed the crew up in #Issue123 of Our Fighting Forces (published in Jan/Feb 1970). The team consisted of Captain Johnny Cloud, Captain Storm and the duo of Gunnar & Sarge. It was a relatively obscure feature, steadily chugging along in publication until Jack grabbed the writing/art reigns of the book with #Issue151 of Our Fighting Forces (published in August of 1974) and would continue on the book until #Issue162 in December of 1975). Despite being one of the last regular series Jack would work on during this tenure at DC, he took the process and subject matter very series... and created an amazing look back at WWII!!! 🇺🇸💥🇺🇸 This series of pages opens up Jack’s first issue on the run... and sums it up perfectly. This is some first four pages! We get on opening title page with some great paneled action and Kirby’s signature floating heads, we get a double splash page next that is struggling to be contained by the borders of the page, and then he finishes up this strong open with another single page splash of our 4 intended heroes in all there Kirby glory ! Just look at all that Krackle... it’s awesome! I also included that columns letters page, which instead of printing readers letters did something a bit different: Jack penned a page long letter to the book’s readers detailing what to expect and what he was trying to bring to make this war comic unique!!! 🇺🇸💥🇺🇸 Jack was proud of his service in the military, and he made sure to do it justice whenever he depicted it in his work. This is a prime example of that.... and it’s one of the most underrated things Jack ever did!!! 💥🇺🇸💥

#JackedKirby - Sound Effect Sunday anyone??? A few days ago @markschmidtz asked us to highlight some of Kirby's work on The Losers, so I thought I should look into it... The team The Losers has been around as separate individual characters that appeared in numerous war books from 1945-68 for DC. In 1969 they appeared as a team in GI Combat #Issue138 for the first time. A rag tag group of soldiers who had failed in their mission to get rid of a Nazi radar base, they eventually worked together to complete the mission and take out the Nazi base. The title of that story was The Losers, so that became the team name! They began to be the main feature in Our Fighting Forces #Issue123 in early 1970, drawn by a group of artists featuring Jonny Severin and Joe Kubert. But in #Issue151, which was published in August of 1974, Jack Kirby took over the writing & penciling duties on the feature. Kubert continued on covers, but Jack began writing and drawing the team's adventures. This page comes from that issue and shows one of the members of the team, Gunnar, being ambushed by the Nazi's in the jungle. I chose this page because of the awesome use of visual sound effects in EVERY panel on the page!!! Kirby was never shy about adding sound effects into his art to convey the feeling of the panel, but 5 out of 5 panels with DIFFERENT sound effects in each one is a lot... even for The King! #JackKirby #KingKirby #Kirby #TheLosers #DCComics #WarComics #70sComics #ComicsOfThe70s #KirbySoundEffects #Comic #Comics #ComicBook #ComicBooks #IGComicCommunity #FanSuggestions #OurFightingForces #GIcombat #JoeKubert #JonnySeverin