Kirby Insanity

Simon & Kirby swept in and out of Charlton in 1955 with a handful of comics—some out of inventory from Prize, but some original. With From Here to Insanity Jack Kirby took over an established title for its final issue as a four-color comic.

 

On Black Magic, earlier, Bill Draut's art doesn't let much of Kirby's putative layouts show through, but on this story (above) it does—even more so on later pages.

"Dorothy and Digby" is left over from the previous issue's staff. Fred Ottenheimer did "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch House" and "Cristofer Clumsiness" in #10 as well as stories in earlier issues. He initialed the splash page detailed below.

 

The Kirby-pencilled features in this issue where I don't see enough to identify the writer are the one-pagers. If they're not by Kirby, though, I'd be surprised. He drew the cover, too. Unindexed here: the inside front cover uses mostly found art; the text 2-pager is one whose writer I can't ID. Inkers on the Kirby pencils? I can't tell. The inker on "Rex Mortgage" tries to bring something of the comic strip's look to the faces; the inker on "Tweetie Piper" and "90-Pound Weakling" just about obliterates Kirby's pencils.

From Here to Insanity—the S&K issue

Aug/55	11	Old Love	w, layouts: Jack Kirby  a: Bill Draut
		Expressions...	w: ?  p: Kirby
		Line 'Em Up	w, p: Kirby
		The Psycho News	w: ?  p: Kirby
		Dorothy and Digby	w: ?  a: Fred Ottenheimer
		Rex Mortgage M.D.?	w, p: Kirby
		Walt Chisely's 20,000 Lugs under the Sea	w, p: Kirby
		Build It Yourself	w, p: Kirby
		Comet Feldmeyer, the Ace of Space	w, p: Kirby
		Foreign Intrigues	w, p: Kirby
		Tweetie Piper	w: ?  p: Kirby
		Be a Successful 90-Pound Weakling	w: ?  p: Kirby