Most comics readers are pretty familiar with Jack Kirby and Joe Simon from their work in superhero comics -- they were, after all, the team that created Captain America and gave Marvel its first and most enduring hit character -- but in the period between the Golden Age and Kirby's work building the Marvel Universe with Stan Lee, they dabbled in all sorts of different genres. Working as a team, Simon and Kirby not only created the first romance comics, but they also tried their hand at classic comic book horror -- and if you've never read any of that stuff, today is your lucky day.

While the 1950s Simon and Kirby stories are often overlooked, Titan Books is putting the spotlight back on them in a series of beautiful hardcovers under the banner of The Simon and Kirby Library. To mark release of the volume focused on their horror stories, they've offered CA the chance to bring you eight pages of sheer terror (or at least rad artwork of Kirby drawing creepy skeletons) in a complete story with the slightly unfortunate title "Dead Man's Lode!"

 

Dead Man's Lode by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
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Dead Man's Lode by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
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Dead Man's Lode by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
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Dead Man's Lode by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
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Dead Man's Lode by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
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Dead Man's Lode by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
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Dead Man's Lode by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
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Dead Man's Lode by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
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CHILLING! That story and fifty-one others can be found in full-color in the pages of The Simon and Kirby Library: Horror! The cover price is $49.95, but Amazon has it (along with the Crime, Science Fiction and Superheroes installments) at a tidy discount. They're definitely worth checking out for fans of the King, which, really, ought to be everyone who reads comics.

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