Several years ago, it was revealed that various artists or letterers had added messages or letters to drawings (artwork) with hidden messages.
One famous one celebrated the firing of an editor or manager (I won't bother going into it here.)
Another time in a spider-man newspaper strip, an inker lettered background signs to say something like "Backgrounds by Jack Smith" just so there was some credit in the strip that HE was doing all the back grounds and not getting credit for it.
But other times, Jack Kirby drew scenes, and for realism, added a license plate number or part of a sign that was wrecked or crumbling. Usually these letters or signs had no significance. But I have wondered when they are so prominent, if some of these had some meaning.
Recently, a fan shared the original artwork for a page of Journey into Mystery #109, when Thor meets Magneto. All things metal go floating, including an auto. The license plate on this car prominently says "K-1351".
The job number on the splash page is no help: It reads x765.
So what could this number be from? What could it mean?
I thought it might be K for Kirby... or Kristine.... and then I thought it might be a date... perhaps January 3rd, 1951?
What could this be the significance of the date?
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I think sometimes, a banana is just a banana. It might mean something to him personally, or it could just be random. The only comics creator born that day was Andreas Martens, and I doubt that was the reference.
There are a lot of instances of artists and inkers writing their names in on signs, since they needed something. So you get the Sinnott Dry Cleaners and such. There probably are lots of cases of artists putting in relatives or friends, too. Figuring all those out would take a lot of time.
-- MSA
I had wondered if it was perhaps a coded reference to the birthdate of a child, or maybe a significant date in comics...but a brief glimpse at Kirby's bio and the Timely-Atlas-Marvel timeline fails to turn up anything significant for that supposed date...1-3-51. I also looked for 1-3-57 in case I was misreading it, but again, nothing.
You may be right. Sometimes, it's just a license plate.
Anyone else who has any more significant names, IDs or other sightings... please chime in.
OH yes, I just recalled one. In the later or last few Thor's that Jack drew in 1970, I had heard that he slipped some girl's initials into the pattern of the clothing/cape for Loki, and a few other spots. No fewer than four sightings of that in one issue alone, but I'll be darned if I can recall what the initials were or the exact issue number or pages. I scan of the Essential Thor may turn a few of them up. They are letters hidden in hems or repeating patterns.