2001: A Space Odyssey #1 (1976)

Written by Jack Kirby. Art by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer. Cover by Jack Kirby and John Verpoorten.  Based on concepts from the film by Stanley Kubrick & Arthur C. Clarke.   The issue starts in the distant past where the monolith instructs a hunter on how to craft a spear and then shifts to the future where two astronauts discover an alien ruin. One of the astronauts is killed by a creature, but the other, Woodrow Decker, is transported into a pastoral countryside by the monolith. Here he rapidly ages until he dies and is converted by the monolith into an embryo-type creature referred to as a 'new seed' to explore the galaxy. Key book; premiere issue, series based on the classic Sci-Fi film by Stanley Kubrick.  Very good/Fine condition.