Sky Masters of the Space Force: the Complete Dailies 1958-1961

Sky Masters of the Space Force: the Complete Dailies 1958-1961; Jack Kirby; Dick and Dave Wood; Wallace Wood and Dick Ayers; $49.99; ISBN 978-1-61345-211-0; softcover with flaps and endleaves; color and black and white; 272 pages; 9 x 10 landscape; matte coated stock paper; essays and documentary material.

Jack Kirby’s comic strip masterpiece is presented in an archival version featuring the complete dailies from Sky Masters of the Space Force. Veteran scripters Dick and Dave Wood provided these late-1950s space/action adventure stories starring Sky Masters of the Space Force and his gang of intrepid followers which closely resemble Kirby’s work on Challengers of the Unknown (which was being published at the same time). Kirby’s artwork is embellished by Wallace Wood and later by Marvel inker extraordinaire Dick Ayers.

Sky Masters was created at the beginning of the space race — when who would get into space and to the moon first —was a national obsession. The strip takes place in the not to distant future where the United States sends men into space but hasn’t ventured much further yet. The series in clearly anchored in the late 1950s/early1960s so it serves as a highly stylized period piece that still holds up very nicely. The material used in this second edition of our reprint ranges from original art, to press proofs, to tear sheets, and boasts the best reproduction of the strip ever.