Trimpe and Kirby (Pt 5) Incredible Hulk #122 and Fantastic Four #83 - Reed and Johnny

Feb. 1969: Fantastic Four #83 Kirby

Dec. 1969: Hulk #122 Herb Trimpe

Trimpe and Kirby (Pt 4) Incredible Hulk #122 and Fantastic Four #83 - Human Torch

Dec. 1969 Hulk #122 Herb Trimpe

Feb. 1969: Fantastic Four #83 Jack Kirby

Pssst--in the Trimpe panel, Sue and Crystal are again modeled after a Kirby panel from an FF issue we've seen already. Guess which issue!  

Trimpe and Kirby (Pt 3) Incredible Hulk #122 and Fantastic Four #85 - Ben Gets Blasted

April 1969: Fantastic Four #85 Kirby

Dec. 1969: Hulk #122  Herb Trimpe

Trimpe and Kirby (Pt 2) Incredible Hulk #122 and Fantastic Four #88 - Ben's Broad Back

July 1969: Fantastic Four #89 Jack Kirby

Dec. 1969: Hulk #122 Herb Trimpe

The full Trimpe panel in Hulk #122.

Hulk #122  Trimpe

Trimpe and Kirby (Pt 1) Incredible Hulk #122 and Fantastic Four #89

The late great Herb Trimpe's artwork was often called "Kirbyesque" so here we'll take a look at Trimpe's work on Hulk #122 and #123, which featured the Fantastic Four as guest stars. I never read Hulk back then but I was an FF fan, so for me it's fun to see these FF recalls. 

Trimpe was not used to drawing the FF and it was important to keep such well-known characters on model. It's pretty apparent Trimpe used several then-recent Fantastic Four issues, chiefly #83-#89, for inspiration/reference.These issues were probably on hand in the Marvel offices--remember, Trimpe was part of the Marvel production staff. 

Anyway, as we'll see in the next few posts Trimpe took some Kirby poses but added his own distinctive style to them. All in all, some great work by Mr. T!

Let's start with these covers, Fantastic Four #89 and Hulk #122. Both issues are from 1969: FF #89 was published in May 1969, around the time when Hulk #122 was being created, given a 4 month production lead time. Sure, there's Reed's fist in the forefront, but let's face it, that's a pretty common--and expected--Reed shot. Here I'm more interested in Sue and Crystal. 

Aug. 1969: Fantastic Four #89  Jack Kirby                            Dec. 1969: Incredible Hulk #122 Herb Trimpe                 

A closer look at the two covers: 

Here's a close-up of Sue and Crystal on the FF #89 cover...

...and on the Hulk #122 cover.

Popular Thing Pose by Kirby, Kane, Buscema, Buckler and Perez

Classic Benjamin J. Grimm: standard shots of Ben as punching bag. 

Feb. 1968: Fantastic Four #71  Jack Kirby

Jan. 1973: Marvel Team-Up #6  Gil Kane

Dec. 1973: Fantastic Four #141 John Buscema

March 1974: Fantastic Four #144 Rich Buckler

Dec. 1976: Fantastic Four #177 George Perez
Perez changes the legs and adopts Buscema's open mouth expression 

 If Buscema's and Buckler's panels look familiar, it's because we've seen them before here and here.  How do Kane's and Perez's stack up?