Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got four new comics.

This week’s comic book cover to look at and examine is Iron Man #94 by Jack Kirby and Al Milgrom. In looking through some of my Marvel comics I came across this cover that caught my eye. I’m not sure if I bought this one right of the stands or got it a little while later but it’s one I had during my childhood. Jack Kirby has drawn a lot of good covers and a lot of famous covers but this is one of his lesser known good ones.

Kraken isn’t exactly a familiar Marvel villain but the pirate motif makes for good imagery anyway. This is a busy cover but I think all the elements work well together. It’s not a usual heroic shot of Iron Man as he’s being knocked down by a sword blow to the neck but his armor sure does look good. I think Kirby’s 1970’s style lends itself well to strange metal reflections in armor. Plus I like the sharp eyes, mouth, and faceplate that he gave to Iron Man. Kirby makes me believe it’s a man wrapped in shiny metal even if it looks like nothing I’ve ever seen.

There is not much to Kraken besides the whole pirate thing but he’s drawn powerfully. Kirby does that great comic book thing where he shows the aftermath of a strong hit rather than the hit itself. That way we get reactions from the characters and their reactions give us the previous actions. We can follow Kraken as he swings his sword even though it’s already happened.

The weird thing about this cover is that water is filling up the room they’re in yet we can barely tell. The color of Iron man and Kraken remains the same on the bottom where they are in the water and on the top where they are in air. The background color changes but not the foreground. Plus the white color of the water level indicator looks like it might be energy coming from Kraken’s sword. It’s fairly superfluous anyway since the danger of Kraken to Iron Man and the two background people seems more than enough to carry the cover. Or it could just give us a little more to look at.

I even think all that busy type works this time around. There are a lot of words to read on this cover but they settle down nicely and the art has so much action going on that they fit right in. Even that unusual narration box above the UPC seems to blend in on this cover. Jack Kirby sure could draw some nice covers. That’s for sure.