The 4th World 0

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[Duffman_Comics]

Here's the complete series as originally published in the early 1970s (with a few exceptions -- see below), sorted (quickly) into a rough approximation of publication order by cover date. Any corrections to this order would be very much appreciated -- I really do believe it's best to read these in the order in which they first appeared on the newsstand, even though the individual title runs do hold up very well when read on their own.

 

I've excluded several non-Kirby comics featuring his Fourth World characters in issues of Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane, and at least one post-Kirby issue of Jimmy Olsen. Also not pictured is Kirby's somewhat anticlimactic Hunger Dogs graphic novel, published in 1985. However, I have included issue #6 of the 1984 New Gods reprint series, which features a (then) new conclusion to the storyline (by Kirby, naturally).

 

What's pictured below represents (to me at least) the canonical original "Fourth World" saga in its entirety:

 

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Forever People: 1 - 11

 

Mister Miracle: 1 - 18

 

New Gods: 1 - 11; reprint series (1984) 6

 

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen: 133 - 139, 141-148

 

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What a fantastic effort, scanning and organising this lot

 

As an aside, I bought (and kept) almost all of these back in the day, but I still get a "tingle" seeing them like this.

 

Kudos (thumbs u <--- the good one

[Monstro]

Thanks vaillant.

 

Wrightson Fan, what year is the Mustang?

 

 

It is an '83 GT, early 4 speed car with T-Tops, original tires...and less than 13K miles.

 

White body with black GT accents. It is the car I wanted when I was 16.

 

[Zonker]

Looking at Mikey's cover gallery reminds me that it was forumite ft88 who recently brought it to the attention of the boards that in all of Kirby's original 4th world series, Darkseid makes a single cover appearance: New Gods #2. (Unless you count the shadow cast on the cover of the final original 4th world book, Mr. Miracle #18).

[vaillant]

Looking at Mikey's cover gallery reminds me that it was forumite ft88 who recently brought it to the attention of the boards that in all of Kirby's original 4th world series, Darkseid makes a single cover appearance: New Gods #2. (Unless you count the shadow cast on the cover of the final original 4th world book, Mr. Miracle #18).

 

That was probably intentional, Darkseid was meant to be in the shadows…

[telerites]

Not that anyone cares but Darkseid is in my top 3 mainstream comic book villains of all time. Doctor Doom and Ra's Al Ghul being my other two favorites.

 

 

[vaillant]

Not that anyone cares but Darkseid is in my top 3 mainstream comic book villains of all time. Doctor Doom and Ra's Al Ghul being my other two favorites.

 

Two out of three created by Jack Kirby (well, with some help from Stan, that is… ).

 

BTW tele, did you finish the National Comics run? Forgot to ask you?

[telerites]

Not that anyone cares but Darkseid is in my top 3 mainstream comic book villains of all time. Doctor Doom and Ra's Al Ghul being my other two favorites.

 

Two out of three created by Jack Kirby (well, with some help from Stan, that is… ).

 

BTW tele, did you finish the National Comics run? Forgot to ask you?

 

Hi Claudio - yes I did. I was only after the ones with Uncle Sam on the cover and managed to finish it although wouldn't mind a few upgrades. I also have the 8 issue run of Uncle Sam Quarterly.

 

 

[sharkbait]

I'm in the process of collecting a raw low grade run of Mister Miracle. Some of my favorite covers in all of comics. I was able to pick up a reader #1 for 2 bucks today.

[jools&jim]

 

Quick update:

 

I'm about mid-way through re-reading the entire saga in publication order (for probably the 3rd of 4th time since the 1980s!), and am once again amazed by how gripping, powerful, energetic, incendiary, and thought-provoking it all is.

 

There are moments when it seems like Jack is making it all up on the fly, and moments when it feels very much like he knows (and has known all along) exactly where he's going and exactly how to get there. And it's precisely this monthly/bi-monthly tension between aspiration and execution which is both exhilarating and, sometimes, frustrating. But great art is often like that, or so I'm told.

 

And then there's the matter of Jack's "writing", which is often understood to be synonymous with "dialogue" (as if that were somehow more important than plot, narrative structure, and the larger creative vision which fuels the entire work), and which is often (unfairly in my view) maligned by critics as "stilted" or "unrealistic".

 

To each his own, I guess. But last night, I ran across this sequence in Forever People #7, in which the younger residents of New Genesis are petitioning Highfather on behalf of the wayward Forever People who, against all sound advice to the contrary, have become embroiled in the war of the Gods, and whose fate (death or worse) is still very much up in the air after their encounter with Darkseid's "Omega Force"...

 

 

It has been said (justifiably) that Kirby's dialogue in this series is "operatic", by which (I think) it is meant that it conveys big ideas broadly and simply, but not simplistically.

 

In the case of the last 3 panels on this page in particular, I think "Biblical" or "poetic" is much closer to the mark:

 

"Darkseid is the fire-pit of destruction!! Highfather is the tranquil green of morning!! -- the time when the song of life begins!!!

 

******

 

"TRUE! But power to which the lightning dances on the infinite roads of time…"

These lines say as much about the temporal and the eternal as anything I've ever read in Wordsworth, Eliot, or Yeats, and should get extra credit for appearing, unvarnished, in such a debased medium as comic books. They do Homer & Tolkien proud as well. In another setting, I also can't imagine Stan Lee writing a single word of it.

 

May YHWH bless you Jack...you were and still are the real thing...

 

 

 

[Zonker]

That's a great example, Mikey. Here is another sequence I've posted several times on the forum that echoes some of these same themes:

 

 

[bronze johnny]

Looking at The Fourth World, I can't help but wonder what would have been had Kirby finished his magnum opus. Jack's work was classic and ahead of his time.

[Prince Namor]

Quick update:

 

I'm about mid-way through re-reading the entire saga in publication order (for probably the 3rd of 4th time since the 1980s!), and am once again amazed by how gripping, powerful, energetic, incendiary, and thought-provoking it all is.

 

Yes! I read it every couple of years and I enjoy it even more now. It's all of those things, but the energy behind it is amazing to me.

 

There are moments when it seems like Jack is making it all up on the fly, and moments when it feels very much like he knows (and has known all along) exactly where he's going and exactly how to get there. And it's precisely this monthly/bi-monthly tension between aspiration and execution which is both exhilarating and, sometimes, frustrating. But great art is often like that, or so I'm told.

 

Completely feel this way, and it probably is a little of both!

 

I sometimes think Jack, like many creative people, went with ideas and got them out there as fast as he could, created stories from it, and then let the characters sometimes dictate direction. I'm sure he had an overall idea where it would end up, but he let the soup create some of it's own flavor...

 

And then there's the matter of Jack's "writing", which is often understood to be synonymous with "dialogue" (as if that were somehow more important than plot, narrative structure, and the larger creative vision which fuels the entire work), and which is often (unfairly in my view) maligned by critics as "stilted" or "unrealistic".

 

Agree. The dialogue really doesn't bother me either.

I guess some people just got spoiled by that Marvel House writing style.

 

"Darkseid is the fire-pit of destruction!! Highfather is the tranquil green of morning!! -- the time when the song of life begins!!!

 

******

 

"TRUE! But power to which the lightning dances on the infinite roads of time…"

 

These lines say as much about the temporal and the eternal as anything I've ever read in Wordsworth, Eliot, or Yeats, and should get extra credit for appearing, unvarnished, in such a debased medium as comic books. They do Homer & Tolkien proud as well. In another setting, I also can't imagine Stan Lee writing a single word of it.

 

+1

Stan helped give some of those books a greater crossover appeal, but it can also be argued that he tainted the purity of it. Can you imagine Tolkien being edited and re-dialogued by Stan Lee?

Might've generated some excitement back in the day, but.... oh the crime of it...

 

Not only that but in many ways Stan Lee actually dumbed down the readers ability to follow sequential storytelling.

 

May YHWH bless you Jack...you were and still are the real thing...

 

Absolutely....

[Prince Namor]

Looking at The Fourth World, I can't help but wonder what would have been had Kirby finished his magnum opus. Jack's work was classic and ahead of his time.

 

When people make the argument that it just isn't as good as the Fantastic Four, I point out to them that if the Fantastic Four had been cancelled after issue #12, would we even begin to remember it as we did?

 

The Fourth World could've been huge!

 

[Prince Namor]

New Jack Kirby Collector came out this week:

 

 

[jools&jim]

 

New Jack Kirby Collector came out this week:

 

 

Awesome...! Are these regular magazines, or oversized (like a treasury)? I haven't bought a copy in years, but I seem to remember them going to a larger format at some point.

 

And...just my luck...I'm bogged down this week and can't get to a comics store...