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Kirby's best '70s DC series?

Started by jools&jim,

63 posts in this topic

vaillant

vaillant

Posted
Posted
I actually think Kirby's best 1970s DC work was spread through several titles. Part of the writer/editor syndrome, Kirby would hit a home run one issue, then produce something :screwy: in the very next issue (see: Goody Rickles, the Deadman crossover, Funky Flashman).

 

So here's what I think of as the best of Kirby's DC work (haven't include the Losers, not sure I ever read that run; or Omac, as I don't really recall the particular standout issues of that title)

 

Forever People:

#3 "Life vs. Anti-Life" - I wrote a review of this issue years ago as a defense of what Kirby was trying to do in his Fourth World series.

#8 "Prisoners of the Power" - Darkseid finds the human whose mind stores the Anti-Life Equation. In many ways, this is the culmination of the original arc launched in FP #1 and NG#1.

 

Jimmy Olsen:

#133-#138 - the initial return to DC, including all the ideas Kirby had been bottling up for the last few years, unwilling to give to Stan: beginning with the introduction of Morgan Edge, the new Newsboy Legion, the Whiz Wagon, the Wild Area, the Outsiders, then the Zoomway, the Hairies, Darkseid himself, the Project, the DNAliens, the Evil Factory, whew!

 

New Gods:

#6 "Glory Boat" - Kirby, as WWII vet, works out his thoughts on the then-current anti-Vietnam War pacifist position.

#7 "The Pact" - the whole series backstory, dropped right in the middle of the run, without any framing sequence, or "remember when" flashbacks. The Fourth World Bible, if you will.

 

Mr. Miracle:

#9 "Himon" the follow up to "The Pact," telling the origin of Scott Free. Intentionally borrows a lot from Dickens' Oliver Twist.

 

The Demon:

#1 & #2 - As I recall, the first two issues formed a two-parter, telling a story spanning the present day back to the fall of King Arthur's Camelot. IMHO none of the rest of the series lived up to the premise outlined in these initial couple of issues.

 

Kamandi:

#5 - can't remember why this issue stood out, but whenever I see the cover, I remember this as "one of the good ones." I think it may be related to Kamandi forming an alliance with the tigers (Prince Tuftan?) against the gorilla tribe.

#16 - as close to a secret origin of the Great Disaster as we ever got

#29 - the "Mighty One"

 

Wow, Zonker, a great quick analysis. I may want to get in touch with you as I am very interested in how Kirby & Simon, as experienced men and writers, dealt with the counterculture and many other issues of so-called "social awareness" in the 1970s. The Kamandi story alluding to the Watergate scandal was also a nice surprise.

I may be the only one on this, but I think the following writer & artists did a great job on Kamandi, introducing elements even more attuned to a "global utopy" feeling, related to the youth unrestlesness at the time. There are a tribe of cats actually sniffing catnip. What? And that canine Holmes-Watson pair were something. I’d really love they would end up reprinting all of the non-Kirby issues, including Kamandi #60 and #61. The source of the great disaster approaching…

 

And, yes, Frank Robbins was a great storyteller. He just didn't fit the typical Marvel stereotype, and fan-boys still haven't forgiven him for this.

+10

To be honest, as a kid, and with little preconception, I did not like it so much. It seemed hurried up, but I do agree: he was a storyteller indeed. A thing very little of today artists are unable to even understand.

 

As for J&J initial question, my personal favourites are along the lines of Zonker: specific issues of Kamandi (really awesome) or early New Gods, Jimmy Olsens and other 4th world issues.

As for the Marvel work: his Cap has always absolutely a constantly refreshing and renewing vision: after all, he created Cap, and I don’t think he "trashed" all the work built up by previous writers, he simply gave air to an impending sense of "other-worldness" which was rarifying because of some excessive "subjectiveness" of the 1970s storytelling. An excessively reflecting Steve Rogers was brought in dramatic action. When I read "the Tiger and the Swine", and saw Arnim Zola I told myself: we are on another plane, and Cap is doing just wonderful!

 

Finally, a praise for the Vibranium storyline of Kiber the cruel: Jack showed the Black Panther’s african kingdom wonders were far than having been made obvious, after the wonderful McGregor series, and the ending (not by Kirby) is equally great. One of my favorites. (thumbs u

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vaillant

vaillant

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Posted

Covers are partly Neal Adams, partly Kirby (either one or the other).

Inks on the insides are often by Vince Colletta, and Superman's visage and expressions were often softened and made more conventional.

The best illustrated series is the New Gods, mostly inked by Mike Royer, I seem to recall most of the Forever People were inked by Colletta, which was good but did not fit so much Kirby’s style. I seem to recall also Mister Miracle is pretty nicely inked.

Anyway, most of these informations are available on the Grand Comics Database (GCD) site.

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Zonker

Zonker

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Colletta started out inking everything Kirby did at DC. As I recall the changeover to Royer occurred between FP 5 and NG 5. So the first 4 issues of each series were Colletta plus the 5th only of FP.

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vaillant

vaillant

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Yes, it’s a pity since Colletta was actually good but not suited to the drawing "devices" Jack already refined so much, with which inkers like Joe Sinnott were perfectly familiar. Royer tended too much to abstraction, but it was perfect for the unheartly atmosphere of the early issues of the New Gods.

 

I recal a scene where Orion and Lightray meet a girl in an elevator, it has something absolutely quintessential about the Fourth World as Jack probably meant. :)

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Crimebuster

Crimebuster

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I've only dabbled in Kirby's 70's stuff, with a few random issues of each of his titles, but for me it's hands down Our Fighting Forces featuring The Losers, particularly #152, "A Small Place in Hell." One of the greatest war comics ever for my money:

 

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namisgr

namisgr

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Posted
I've only dabbled in Kirby's 70's stuff, with a few random issues of each of his titles, but for me it's hands down Our Fighting Forces featuring The Losers, particularly #152, "A Small Place in Hell." One of the greatest war comics ever for my money:

 

page1.jpg

 

 

While at the time they were published I most enjoyed Kamandi and Demon, the OFF series has held up well over time and remains an underappreciated Bronze gem of a series. Tense stories. (thumbs u

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rjpb

rjpb

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I haven't reread any of this stuff since the 1970s ( except for a partial MM run I picked up 25 years ago), and I've never read any of the return to Marvel books, but as a young teenager it was definitely Kamandi, Mister Miracle and The Demon in that order. My least favorite was the JO run, which felt too messy with Kirby trying to stuff his 4th world material and his affection for GA style kid gangs into a Superman family book. I used to buy these only for the Newsboy Legion reprints.

 

While not a series, In The Days of The Mob, is probably the BA Kirby book I most like now. Rereading the Mister Miracle as an adult, I thought it was okay, but didn't recapture the magic it had when I was 13. I've been kicking around the idea of picking up the Kamandi Omnibuses, maybe if I can get them cheap on ebay.

 

 

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