Fourth World, Part 17

(Continued from Part 16)

Anyone who remembers what happened to FANTASTIC FOUR the moment Jack Kirby left the book probably could have predicted what was coming as soon as Kirby left DC.  To put it simply, an awful lot of AWFUL comics came out, featuring characters he created.  Nevertheless, I intend to present the best-looking cover images I can manage.

Amazingly, Darkseid appeared in 2 different books with the same cover date (Apr'76).  The first was an aborted revival of NEW GODS, which tried to do too much in too few pages and did it all badly.  The 2nd had him as a central character, albeit mostly out-of-character, in a story that was completely rejected and redone before the final version was published 2 months later!

The post-Kirby era begins...

1ST ISSUE SPECIAL 13  /
art by DICK GIORDANO   (April 1976)

AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS 11  /
art by DICK DILLIN   (April 1976)

KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH 41  /
art by JOE KUBERT   (May 1976)

I couldn't find a single decent image of KOBRA #2 anywhere online, so I just did a minor clean-up of the one that everyone seems to be using, from the GCD.  However, I did find an image of the original line-art, so I'm posting that here as well.  Personally, I think this gets my vote for one of the WORST-looking covers I've posted here.  I'm kinda wondering about the text at the top of the original art image-- was this some kind of hand-drawn recreation?

KOBRA 2  /
art by ERNIE CHAN   (May 1976)

KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH 42  /
art by JOSE LUIS GARCIA-LOPEZ   (June 1976)

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS 1  /
art by ERNIE CHAN   (June 1976)

BRAVE & THE BOLD 128  /
art by JIM APARO   (July 1976)

KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH 43  /
art by ERNIE CHAN   (July 1976)

KOBRA 3  /
art by ERNIE CHAN   (July 1976)

KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH 44  /
art by ERNIE CHAN   (August 1976)

(Continued in Part 18)

For in-depth reviews and a fascinating discussion of these issues,
go to the CAPTAIN COMICS message board...

See Erik Larsen's KAMANDI article at Comic Book Resources
Read He Who Wanders' SSoSV thread at Legion World
Read the rejected version of SSoSV #1 at the Amazing Blog Of DC Comics

Artwork (C) DC Comics Inc.

Raw scans of KAMANDI #41-44,
     KOBRA #2 (inks) and KOBRA #3
     from Heritage Auctions site
Raw scan of KOBRA #2 from the Grand Comics Database site

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa