Pencils by Gene Colan. Inks by Bill Everett. “Captain America” #137, 1971.

Crowds

Christmas Morning

Galactus by Jack Kirby and George Klein. Detail from “Thor” #168.

"Cosmic" Jack Kirby stories for Marvel, 1966-1970, are a pretty narrow slice of all his work in that period. His "Thor" work contains most of what was not contained in his "Fantastic Four." His 1970-onward attempts to invent new iterations of his cosmic universe (with DC Comics and a new cast of characters, and later, again, Marvel Comics with a new cast of characters), were half-baked and sometimes thrice-over-baked. Which is to say that Galactus reaching toward us in the late 1960s potentially captures the closest Jack Kirby ever got to presenting the comic book reading audience with something comparable to a credible, Lovecraftian threat.

Robots aren't really thrilling anymore, are they? They are giant server farms outputting dubious information via AI. They are humanoid and doglike physical weapons, driven by remote human controllers. They are drones that might be executing humans based on AI-generated kill permissions. The age of the potentially-lovable and the potentially-good robot concept is over, right? It's all techno-dystopia now?

MAD #21: Cover by Harvey Kurtzman (1955). See all the tiny ads blown up at 4CP’s main joint. 

IMO, one of the greatest (or at least most notable) comic book covers. The red and green spot color are all that's needed to turn a parody of a page of comic book ads into a stand-alone piece of art. If you're intrigued by this cover, click through to the webpage that enlarges all the individual ads.

From a comic book ad for a lamp that wasn't a lava lamp, but that had a shade with this pattern. I think I've searched for photos of the lamp IRL and never found them. Regardless, I love this example of 4CP printing, and I even adapted it for mixtape cover art: https://saveyourface.posthaven.com/grateful-dead-may-1977-dancin-in-the-streets-jams