Marvel gets monstrous in October with Kirby variants

What’s more Halloween-appropriate than a few monsters? Make ’em in the Jack Kirby style, and slap ’em on some Marvel books as variant covers, and you’ve got a pretty neat treat for the spookiest month.

“Before helping to create the Marvel Universe we all know and love, Kirby lent his genius to creating all manner of creatures for titles like Tales to Astonish, Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales and more,” says Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso. “We’re beyond thrilled to celebrate him and bring these characters back to the fore this October for the KIRBY MONSTER VARIANT program.”

Well this one should being a smile to anyone who’s a student of the art form of comic books. It really can’t be understated how big of an influence that Jack ‘King’ Kirby was to the industry. He was such a luminary that some of the greatest talents in the biz still very much revere his name today.

One of the main reasons for that is that he was able to pencil pretty much anything, and in any genre. Superheroes were the bread and butter for him, but Kirby did westerns equally well, sci-fi too, and… horror. And it’s that last category that Marvel Comics will be celebrating this coming Halloween season with a gloriously old school look at some of the greatest beasties in the Marvel U, all of which will be done int eh Kirby style and serve as variant covers to some of the publisher’s biggest books.

Here’s the list of what to watch for, complete with the monster to be featured, as well as the artist who’ll be re-creating it:

• A-Force #5 The Crawling Creature Variant by MARGUERITE SAUVAGE
• Avengers #0 Devil Dinosaur Variant by DAVID MARQUEZ
• All-New, All-Different Point One #1 Nezarr, the Calculator Variant by PAUL POPE
• All-New Hawkeye #1 Elektro Variant by JEFF LEMIRE
• Amazing Spider-Man #2 Infant Terrible Variant by PAOLO RIVERA
• Ant-Man #1 Scarlet Beetle Variant by TRADD MOORE
• Captain America: White #3 Jinni Demon Variant by GLENN FABRY
• Civil War #5 Lo-Karr, Bringer of Doom Variant by JOHN CASSADAY
• Contest of Champions #1 Xemnu the Titan Variant by DAN BRERETON
• Doctor Strange #1 Awesome Android Variant by ERICA HENDERSON
• Extraordinary X-Men #2 Yeti Variant by PHIL NOTO
• Groot #5 Quonian Variant by CHRISTIAN WARD
• Guardians of the Galaxy #1 Groot Variant by MIKE ALLRED
• House of M #4 Kraa the Unhuman Variant by DAVE JOHNSON
• Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 Orrgo Variant by MICHAEL DEL MUNDO
• Invincible Iron Man #2 Fin Fang Foom Variant by MARK BROOKS
• Karnak #1 Rommbu Variant by ERIC POWELL
• Ms. Marvel #19 Wrecker’s Robot Variant by CLIFF CHIANG
• New Avengers #2 The Blip Variant by SIMON BISLEY
• S.H.I.E.L.D. #11 Poker Face Variant by JAMES STOKOE
• Sam Wilson, Captain America #2 Zetora Variant by TONY MOORE
• Spider-Gwen #1 Hypno-Creature Variant by FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA
• Spider-Man 2099 #2 Ulvar Variant by CHRIS SAMNEE
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 Thorr Variant by CHRIS BACHALO
• Uncanny Avengers #1 Mangog Variant by GEOF DARROW
• Uncanny Inhumans #1 Vandoom’s Monster Variant by ART ADAMS