Number 2384: The Face on Mars

Race For the Moon, a scant three issues from Harvey Comics, is something beloved by me as relics of my pre-teen years. Especially issues numbers 2 and 3, illustrated, and presumably written, by Jack Kirby,  perhaps with his partner, Joe Simon. The stories showed how Kirby, later famous for his epics stretching over many issues of comic books, could also craft a story of a few pages. “The Face on Mars” by Kirby is what I immediately thought of when I saw the NASA photo of a face on Mars. (Note: I am a skeptic by nature, and I also know about pattern recognition. Random objects can contain faces, but by coincidence.  It’s the way our brains are wired.) 

But, I am here to talk about Kirby’s big Martian face. A Mars explorer goes in through an eyehole and is given a lifelike vision of the former occupants of Mars. It is drawn using the Kirby dynamics (action, and science fiction devices that he did so well) and inked by Al Williamson. Their drawing styles may have been different, but in this way they complemented each other.   

Face front, true Martian face believers and even non-believers! From Race For the Moon #2 (1958).

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