After the screening (which went over well with the audience, thanks!), Bernard, Reed and I had a moment to chat, and, naturally, we discussed Kirby and the checklist. Bernard told us he remembered an obscure Kirby Western that came out in the late 1960s. As we weren’t familiar with it, two days later Bernard sent me the exact references of the French digest “Zoom” #15 (October 1968, published by Jeunesse et Vacances), and its content. The Kirby piece in it was a Davy Crockett story. Naturally, I associated it with the comic book series published in Harvey’s Western Tales #31 and #32 (October 1955 and March 1956). But Joubert was not convinced: “No, I really think it was a daily strip. It reads like one… Kirby just took over someone else’s strip for a while… There is a copyright to a syndicate and some dated credit boxes.”
When I started collecting comics in the 1960’s part of my facination was the unknown element of comic book history. Back then it was not certain that we would ever know all the comics published in the past, or any of the creators that created them. After nearly 50 years so much has come to light, but its good to know that footnotes like this remain to be discovered. Vive la Kirby!
This would be art from the Davy Crockett, Frontiersman newspaper strip, created by Jim McCardle and Ed Herron, for Columbia Features. Kirby is known to have ghosted two Sundays of the strip — 2/24 and 3/3/1957.
Best, Allan