Number 861


Jack the Giant Killer x 2


Jack the Giant Killer, drawn by H. C. (Henry Carl) Kiefer, was a one-shot comic book from 1953. Jack is a modern boy who ends up in King Arthur's time and kills the giants, following basically the fairy tale of the same name. I'm not sure what the intent for this comic was; apparently Jack would end up in various times doing various things...but killing giants? That limits his story potential. Maybe that's why it was a one-shot. Or maybe it just didn't sell.

Kiefer was an artist whose work was in a lot of publications in the '40s and '50s. He drew several Classics Illustrated editions from 1947-53, and worked around the field for several publishers. He was one of the older artists I've mentioned before: H. G. Peter, Harold Delay, Alex Blum, George Carlson, etc., men who had more classical art training from before the age of comic books, who ended up in the field in its early days. Kiefer, who was born in 1890, died in 1957.

There's another Jack the Giant Killer version, this time drawn by Walt Kelly in 1942. It was done for Fairy Tale Parade #2. I've shown it before, but these are new scans.