Starman Zero/ Tiger 21 Episode 1

This is the first of six boards that Kirby wrote and pencilled around 1948 as samples for a proposed syndicated Sci-Fi strip called Starman Zero. Tiger 21 is a star system that features in the strip, which became the overall name of the project when it was reworked in the '50s as a pitch to NBC for a TV show. The Tiger 21 logo visible here is sketchy compared to the mostly very finished pencils, which leads me to think that it may have been drawn later, perhaps with the idea of using this board in the TV pitch. This (rather large: 20"x30", image area 18"x27") board comes from the Joe Simon estate, but it's unclear whether Joe had creative input. Kirby's own handwriting is visible under the inked lettering.
In any case, it's a remarkable, deeply Kirbyesque work which introduces themes that Jack would later develop in characters like the Silver Surfer, Metron, and Machine Man. In this first episode the protagonist is given a new, invulnerable body, suited for cosmic exploration. Had a syndicate picked this up in 1949, its easy to imagine that the epic imaginative expanses of Jack's mid-'60s work might have started to open ten years earlier, in the Sunday papers instead of FF and Thor.
See additional images for close-ups of some of the nicer panels.