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Face of mars cominc 19585/10/2023 ![]() Race For The Moon #2 (September 1958) “The Face On Mars” page 3, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Al Williamson Williamson knew, or should have known, that much of his efforts would be lost in the final published results. This work was done early in Al’s career but by this time he certainly should have been aware of the limitations of the primitive printing that was used in the publication of comic books of his day. The dots are another example of the care Williamson took in inking Kirby’s pencils. However these dots are all the same size and are not found either in the gutters between the panels or inside areas of crosshatching. So the reader could be forgiven if they assumed that was what was happening here. It is not unusual to find small ink drops on original comic book art although usually not as densely as here. Perhaps the reader noticed the small ink dots scattered around the image. So above I also give a close-up to show the care taken in the pen work. The low resolution image of the art that I provide just cannot give it justice. ![]() A lot of it was done using a pen, in fact the splash panel was done almost entirely in pen. The inking is detailed but not at all dry. The rest was up to the inker to provide and in the case of Williamson’s inking with spectacular results. It was Kirby’s practice at that time to just provide the outlines indicate everything else with simple lines. Not that I believe Al ignored Jack’s directions. It is true that Williamson followed Kirby’s pencils very accurately and I am sure Jack’s pencils were very tight. And Williamson is wrong about having “just traced what he penciled”. I have examined all the original art in question with the exception of one story (“The Long, Long Years” from RFTM #3) and none of the art has been altered, at least not after inking. Once again I have to disagree with Williamson. The drawing is there, because it’s Jack Kirby’s drawing, but I just traced what he penciled. I never really thought I did him justice, though. Somebody went over it and changed some things, like a monster or something to make it more pleasing to the eye, which bothered the hell outta me. There’s parts that I didn’t ink, because it’s not my drawing or Jack’s drawing. Some of it was redrawn by somebody there, I guess because it didn’t pass the Comics Code or something. There’s some beautiful stuff there.ĪL: Well, he did a beautiful job. TJKC: I was just reading some of those Race For The Moons. One of his statements from the interview: In the interview Williamson gave for the Jack Kirby Collector #15 he says he did about four or five stories, although I think he may have done a little more than that. I have discussed this work recently and why I believe it was inked by Al Williamson ( Kirby Inkers, Al Williamson). Joe was really fond of the inking that was done on these and other Kirby pencils from Race For The Moon and Blast-Off titles. This is another group of pieces from the late Joe Simon’s collection. Race For The Moon #2 (September 1958) “The Face On Mars”, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Al Williamson
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