Marvel-ous Monday: "Norton of New York 2040 A.D." by Kirby with Royer

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Here's another sci-fi shocker by Jack "King" Kirby (with inks and letters by Mike Royer, natch) from Marvel's continuation of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ish #4 (January 1977) is a special fave, 'cause the first chunk of "Norton of New York 2040 A.D." is a comicbook fan's dream world. A world where super-heroes are real, and anyone can be one--IF they get to visit...Comicsville! (Hey, with our comicbook cons and cosplay, we're getting there!) After that, we get another of Kirby's patented looks into the future--and, as usual, he gets awfully close to nailing things that would come between 1977 and now. The King truly was a visionary.

Marvel-ous Monday: "Vira the She-Demon!" by Kirby and Royer

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! More kosmik Jack King Kirby from 2001: A Space Odyssey #2 (October 1977) with "Vira the She-Demon!" Kirby exploring the rise of civilization in his own unique and action-packed way looks better to me now than it did back in the Groovy Age! The parallel/second half of the story (set in the "future", natch) gets downright psychedelic, keeping in the spirit of the flick that inspired it. Many cringe at Jack's scripting, but lemme tell ya, his plotting and art here can't be beat--at least that's Ol' Groove's most humble opinion!

Marvel-ous Monday: "Beast-Killer!" by Kirby and Royer

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Spinning off from our fabulous 1500th post (one of the top posts of all time here on DotGK, by the way), here, finally, is the first standard-comic issue of Jack Kirby's mind-staggering 2001: A Space Odyssey (September 1976)! This slice of sparkling sci-fi is inked by Mike Royer, natch. Buckle in and get ready to blast off as we meet..."Beast-Killer!"

Cover art by Kirby and John Verpoorten