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Kirby's notes were erased and his inked signature was painted over Patrick Ford 28 October 2016 GUNSMOKE WESTERN #67, cover date Nov. 1961. Published the same month as FANTASTIC FOUR #1. One again Kirby's penciled lettering can be seen in the balloons on a story which is signed on the splash page by Stan Lee. The issue contains four stories all of which are signed by Lee. Two of the stories were penciled and inked by Dick Ayers and are signed by Ayers. One story was penciled and inked by Jack Keller and is signed by Keller. The story penciled by Kirby and inked by Ayers is unsigned. Ayers noticed that Lee had begun covering the "Kirby & Ayers" signature with white paint. Lee only did that on stories penciled by Kirby. The penciled lettering is faint and would be much easier to see if Rand Hoppe or Tom Kraft made available a larger scan and adjusted the levels to bring up the penciled lettering. Kirby's lettering is most evident in panel four where the word "hurry" is not overwritten by the inked lettering. Log-in and "zoom" the scan at the link: https://whatifKirby.com/gallery/comic-art-listings/gunsmoke-western-issue-67-page-5 Patrick Ford: So three of four stories are signed by Lee and either Ayers or Keller. The story by Kirby is signed only by Lee and if the story fits the 1961 pattern of other stories penciled by Kirby and inked by Ayers the Kirby/Ayers signature was covered with white paint by Stan Lee. Ferran Delgado: Which I find curious is the most of Kiby's writing is erased, the rest of the drawing is not. The inker has the duty to erase any trace of pencils so they don't get reproduced but you can see that mostly of the drawing is still there, but rulers for lettering disappeared. Ferran Delgado: This issue was released at the same time than FF #1, when Kirby was removed of the credits with the exception of FF #1 and a romance title. -------------11/1961 Amazing Adventures (1961) #6 - Unsigned Fantastic Four (1961) #1 - Unsigned Gunsmoke Western (1955) #67 - Unsigned Journey Into Mystery (1952) #74 - Unsigned Kid Colt Outlaw (1948) #101 - Cover unsigned Love Romances (1949) #96 - Signed Lee+Kirby Strange Tales (1951) #90 - Unsigned Tales of Suspense (1959) #23 - Unsigned Tales to Astonish (1959) #25 - Unsigned Teen-Age Romance (1960) #84 - Unsigned. Just Lee. Ferran Delgado: Kirby's writing matches with the lettering. Patrick Ford: There is a shift from stories signed "Kirby/Ayers" to stories where Lee has signed but the Kirby/Ayers signature has been covered with paint. To they "Stan Lee & J. Kirby" signature. And during the time where the Kirby/Ayers signature was being covered with white paint we also have stories by Ayers alone (pencils and inks) where the Ayers signature is not whited out. Ferran Delgado: Ok, Kirby must be doing the same than Byrne, writing the copy to save time drawing for nothing. But why do it in a blank background? Ferran Delgado: I wish we could find a sample of the signatures covered from these months. Patrick Ford: I posted an example in another thread. As Michael Hill pointed out Ayers himself noticed what was going on and commented on it. And he commented because someone else on the Kirby-List had asked him about it. Ferran Delgado: I remember a sample of white out but then if was signed in another part. The key would be to find a sample with white out where Stan didn't write Kirby's name anywhere [Edited to remove discussion of John Byrne, already covered in another thread] Patrick Ford: The difficulty with the 1958-1961 text is it does not shout Kirby or Lee. I think it's wise to keep in mind that in a typical story by Kirby there are not page after page of text examples which shout Kirby. A lot of the writing is straight forward. Just a few instances of rewritten text could make a huge difference. Patrick Ford: There is one example of a story written by Kirby where Kirby didn't write his story on the art board. It's the Silver Surfer graphic novel. Kirby typed a script which he sent to Lee. The art didn't contain any text. Patrick Ford: http://twomorrows.com/Kirby/media/21surferpg.gif Norris Burroughs: I've got Photoshop, so if you've got the scan I can darken it. Patrick Ford: Norris, The scan is at the link. The trouble is that while it's possible to zoom in on the scan at Tom's WHAT IF Kirby site, it is not possible for me to download or otherwise capture the larger image. Doing that is easy for people who have some sort of "clipping tool" but the computer I'm using does not have that tool.

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