Jack Kirby meets Vincent Price?

Growing up I saw The Abombinable Dr. Phibes and it's sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again several times on the CBS Late Movie (probably on Friday Night). In both films Vincent Price plays a "dead" man avenging the surgical team that lost his wife on the operating table. Nine doctors in all (one of them a nurse) are treated to nine of the most innovative, creative, outlandish deaths imaginable.


The American International movie was released in May of 1971. Which makes this piece of concept art currently up fpr grabs on eBay all the more curious. Jolly Jack's take on a little character called ...The Sinister Dr. Phibes.



According to the seller (Jack's Grandson Jeremy) this piece conceptual art was drawn up (and inked, too) by Jack during the period when he was considering making the move from Marvel to DC.
Hmmmm... I ain't got my calculator, but wouldn't that make this piece sorta... pre-date the film version by a year or so? Even if it was supposed to be a comic version/tie-in with the first movie, it's still pretty freaking bizarre, I tell ya whut...
...And if the concept piece was somehow the inspiration for the movies --even weirder.
(I wonder if Jack had anything to do with that crazy Kirby-lookin' organ ol' Phibes played in the movies?)



Thanks and a tip of the fedora for this post go out to Jeremy Kirby, John Miller, The estates of Jack Kirby and Vincent Price and American International Pictures.