Colorful Ben Grimm by Jack Kirby

The Thing is, as you may know, the Cap'n luvs him some double entende, so when onea comicdom's most colorful characters is also onea the most colorful splash pages, I start to chortle and rub my hands together like a villian using a hot-air dryer VS a paper towel

 

Buster (Flash Gordon) Crabbe by John Fantucchio

Sometimes I amaze myself at what I've forgotten to post.  Love Flash, in fact, I believe right behind Conan, Flash Gordon is the most prolific character on here.  Love Fantucchio, so kinda weird this wasn't already on here.  Love Larry Crabbe, even though the extent of our "friendship" is a few minutes we sat and talked at a table of nutritional supplements set up in a hallway in a shopping mall in Phoenix around 1980

 

The Bob Kline Self-Portrait

From the pages of onea the all-time great fanzines, MCR  (Modern Comics Review) #4

 

The Unknown Ones Splash Page by Al Williamson

...and I gotta assume a touch of Roy Krenkel.  I was one years old when this came out, and even then I was smil'n with delight.  Reminds me of the comedian who saw a couple at a rodeo with their newborn, and realized "It WAS his first rodeo, and he WAS born yesterday"

 

Prince Valiant by Hal Foster

In the wayback, I got into the colorful Prince Val sundays, so take a gander again, but this daily got neglected, and I dig it so much

 

Russ Manning and Larry Todd

Finally!  Only been doing this blog for 16 years, so of course this is the first Manning up here (endless great Tarzans to choose from, Cap'n, you might say with a snort, but the heart wants what the...)!  Russ did that image as a sci-fi fanzine cover in 1948,  and if you squint and look sideways, you can catch a glimpse of Todd's organic space voyager twenty sump'n years later

 

And In This Corner Part Tres

As I said before, onea my fav corner boxes was Conan by Barry Smith.  The young charg'n barbarian of the first 11 issues was ah-ite, but the guy on the last 13 issues was che cool.  Designed for the box, and then think'n outside the box, this mature Conan with an axe to grind really resonated

 

And In This Corner Part Deux

As Russ mentioned on the last post, Marvel's corner boxes mostly started out as headshots, and Jim Steranko inherited a corner box with a Kirby headshot of Nick Fury.  But this beauty full figure from Strange Tales 166 helped pump the premiere of Fury's own title.  Obviously, I really dug the black'n white corner box on Shield #4

 

And In This Corner

Onea the great innovations at Marvel was the corner box, and Gil Kane did an amazeballs job on Cap'n Marvel, I think.  I can't be sure, cause the tiny print'n is so poor.  If you know of a biggerbetterfasterstronger, please holla.  The second image is what I wish was the corner box

 

Nick Fury Hoists Old Glory by Jim Steranko

Only the first image is new on here, a colorization of the second image that had everything but.  Course, the guys at Iwo Jima will always be number one in hoist'n the red, white, 'n blue, but Fury was not too shabby