Atlas and Kirby
In a rare formal credit in a comic of that period, Rule is listed as "art associate" in the Atlas Comics title Girls' Life #4 (July 1954), under "editorial and art director" Stan Lee. In that or a similar staff capacity throughout the 1950s, Rule inked in a variety of genres and forms, with known work that includes medieval adventure, inking Syd Shores' Black Knight and Crusader stories in Black Knight #5 (Dec. 1955); Westerns, inking Shores in Six-Gun Western #2 (March 1957); biography, drawing the feature "Famous Explorers of Space" in the successively named Space Squadron / Space Worlds; and science fiction/fantasy, drawing a story each in Strange Tales #49 (Aug. 1956) and World of Fantasy #9 & #15 (Dec. 1957 & Dec. 1958), and inking Shores yet again in World of Suspense #6 (Feb. 1957). In a rare switch, Rule penciled a story that someone else (Vince Colletta) inked, in My Own Romance #63 (May 1958).
Rule inked the first stories of industry great Jack Kirby when Kirby returned to the company for a long-term stay for the first time since 1941, when he had co-created Captain America with Joe Simon. Rule inked Kirby's premiere Atlas/Marvel cover and the accompanying seven-page story "I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers" in Strange Worlds #1 (Dec. 1958), the first of dozens of much-reprinted Kirby science-fiction and monster stories that preceded Kirby and writer-editor Lee's industry-changing superhero series The Fantastic Four. Rule would remain Kirby's regular, nearly exclusive inker as Atlas Comics segued into Marvel Comics, at which point Dick Ayers would become Kirby's most frequent inker during the company's early years.
Rule inked several Kirby "pre-superhero Marvel" stories, many of them reprinted in subsequent decades, in such comics as:
- Journey into Mystery # 51-52, 54 & 56 (March–May, Sept. 1959 & Jan. 1960)
- Strange Tales # 67-70 (Feb.-Aug. 1959)
- Strange Worlds # 3 (Aug. 1959)
- Tales of Suspense # 2-4 & 6 (March–July & Nov. 1959)
- Tales to Astonish # 1 & 5-6 (Jan. & Sept.-Nov. 1959), and
- World of Fantasy # 15-16 & 18 (Dec. 1958 - Feb. & June 1959)
Rule as well inked the prolific Kirby on Western stories in Gunsmoke Western #51 and Kid Colt: Outlaw #86 (Sept. 1959), romance stories in Love Romances #85 (Jan. 1960), and war stories in Battle #66-67 (Oct.-Dec. 1959), plus many covers across all genres.
Rule's last known confirmed credit is inking Kirby on the five-page story "What Was the Strange Power of Simon Drudd?" in Tales to Astonish #10 (Jan. 1960).
Some comics historians theorize he may have been an inker on some portion of Kirby's landmark comic The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961), for which George Klein is the generally recognized, uncredited inker. The standard Grand Comics Database, for example, lists the inker credit as "George Klein?; Christopher Rule? ... George Klein, or Chris Rule have been suggested as the inker but there is no consensus." Others note the long lag time between Rule's last confirmed credit and the Fantastic Four premiere.
Read more about this topic: Christopher Rule
Famous quotes containing the words atlas and/or kirby:
“A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razorstrap. A thin book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Well, on the official record you’re my son. But on this post you’re just another trooper. You heard me tell the recruits what I need from them. Twice that I will expect from you.... You’ve chosen my way of life. I hope you have the guts enough to endure it. But put outa your mind any romantic ideas that it’s a way to glory. It’s a life of suffering and of hardship and uncompromising devotion to your oath and your duty.”
—James Kevin McGuinness, and John Ford. Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke (John Wayne)