Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: jack kirby, Romance Comics, Silver Age
Jack Kirby provided 7 of the 8 covers for Marvel’s July 1960 cover-dated releases, with his romance work sometimes overlooked by collectors.
If there’s such a thing as overlooked Jack Kirby covers, his Silver Age romance work for Marvel might just fit the bill. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had pioneered the romance genre in comics with Young Romance in 1947, so it should come as no surprise that Kirby had romance work mixed in among the monsters, war, westerns, weird tales, and eventual superhero covers of the Marvel Silver Age that he helped to define. The month that Marvel published Love Romances #88 (Atlas, July 1960 cover date) Condition: FN, which is up for auction in the 2023 October 26 – 27 Romance Comics Featuring L. B. Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions, is a good example of his range of assignments within a single month during this period.
Marvel published eight comic titles with July 1960 cover dates, with Kirby providing covers for seven of them: Gunsmoke Western, Journey into Mystery, Kid Colt Outlaw, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, My Own Romance, and Love Romances. Stan Goldberg provided the eighth cover of that month for Millie the Model. The cover featured story of Love Romances #88, Yesterday’s Kisses, was drawn by Dick Giordano. Interestingly, GCD tentatively credits the inks for this cover to both Vince Colletta and Giordano. But it would appear that either Kirby saw Giordano’s art before drawing his cover, or Giordano played a significant role in the inks, as the main characters of the story are very consistent between the cover and interior story.
That aside, this cover has all the earmarks of Jack Kirby’s style and composition from his Silver Age Marvel era — right down to the contemplative, pipe-smoking Reed Richards lookalike in the background. An underappreciated Silver Age Marvel Jack Kirby cover, there’s a Love Romances #88 (Atlas, July 1960 cover date) Condition: FN, up for auction in the 2023 October 26 – 27 Romance Comics Featuring L. B. Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions.
Love Romances #88 (Atlas, 1960) Condition: FN. Jack Kirby cover. Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta, and Jay Scott Pike art. This copy has some light foxing. Overstreet 2023 FN 6.0 value = $30.
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