Revisiting NEW GODS 0

[Prince Namor]

On 12/29/2023 at 8:45 PM, Zonker said:

The last appearance of the Apokolips villains until the finale in #18.  Apart from cameo appearances by the Furies, Mister Miracle essentially stops being a Fourth World book after this issue.  

I think this tagline is significant:

Likely mandated by Infantino-- Kirby can keep doing Mister Miracle, but only as a series of done-in-one single issue stories.  

Yeah, Infantino deserves a great deal of blame for what happened to DC, but he deserves tremendous blame for not letting Kirby's Epic run its course.

[Zonker]

On 12/29/2023 at 2:34 PM, Prince Namor said:

Yeah, Infantino deserves a great deal of blame for what happened to DC, but he deserves tremendous blame for not letting Kirby's Epic run its course.

I have mixed feelings about the man as publisher.  On the one hand, I admire the spirit of experimentation at DC during his 1968-1974 years, as he tried to respond to Marvel's emerging success.  Elevating artists like Kubert, Sekowsky, Orlando and yes Kirby to editorial positions gave the DC books a more dynamic look than they had before. Bringing over the Charlton creators (Skeates, Aparo, O'Neil, Giordano) provided a shot in the arm to previously languishing series like Aquaman & Teen Titans.  And opening up the files to reprint all that classic Golden Age material made me a fan of DC's history, extending decades before my birth.  

But he never gave those experiments room to breathe, cancelling so many books before they could really find their audience.  And he alienated some of his artist/editors like Giordano and eventually Kirby.  I think it likely it was difficult for him to manage upward, that is, to keep the suits from demanding ill-advised course corrections in search of immediate results.  I'd be willing to bet his successor Jenette Kahn was more successful in that regard, as she came from outside the comics world, and could credibly threaten to quit if she wasn't given room to do her job as she saw fit.  The guys at the top of National Periodical Publications in those days probably saw Infantino as a comic-book-lifer with limited options outside the field, and so walked all over him.  

[Dr. Haydn]

A race of Silver Surfers, and display lettering reminiscent of Simek and Rosen. I wonder if Jack and Mike were attempting a Marvel vibe to hook some of the Zombies?

[Prince Namor]

On 12/30/2023 at 3:02 AM, Zonker said:

I have mixed feelings about the man as publisher.  On the one hand, I admire the spirit of experimentation at DC during his 1968-1974 years, as he tried to respond to Marvel's emerging success.  Elevating artists like Kubert, Sekowsky, Orlando and yes Kirby to editorial positions gave the DC books a more dynamic look than they had before. Bringing over the Charlton creators (Skeates, Aparo, O'Neil, Giordano) provided a shot in the arm to previously languishing series like Aquaman & Teen Titans.  And opening up the files to reprint all that classic Golden Age material made me a fan of DC's history, extending decades before my birth.  

But he never gave those experiments room to breathe, cancelling so many books before they could really find their audience.  And he alienated some of his artist/editors like Giordano and eventually Kirby.  I think it likely it was difficult for him to manage upward, that is, to keep the suits from demanding ill-advised course corrections in search of immediate results.  I'd be willing to bet his successor Jenette Kahn was more successful in that regard, as she came from outside the comics world, and could credibly threaten to quit if she wasn't given room to do her job as she saw fit.  The guys at the top of National Periodical Publications in those days probably saw Infantino as a comic-book-lifer with limited options outside the field, and so walked all over him.  

I'd buy a collected book of those Nick Cardy Aquaman or Teen Titans covers in heartbeat! I was even a fan of the Giordano Lois Lane covers!  

[Prince Namor]

On 1/2/2024 at 12:59 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

A race of Silver Surfers, and display lettering reminiscent of Simek and Rosen. I wonder if Jack and Mike were attempting a Marvel vibe to hook some of the Zombies?

Maybe.

But to be fair, Kirby had a handle on that look before the Silver Age ever got started. When, of course, he had control of it...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS NOVEMBER 1972

Mister Miracle #12 - Written, Drawn and Edited by Jack Kirby (inked by Mike Royer)

Cover by Jack Kirby (inks by Mike Royer)

And now... Mystivac! With the infamous Snick! panel!

Part ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS NOVEMBER 1972

Mister Miracle #12 - Written, Drawn and Edited by Jack Kirby (inked by Mike Royer)

Cover by Jack Kirby (inks by Mike Royer)

And now... Mystivac! With the infamous Snick! panel!

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS NOVEMBER 1972

Mister Miracle #12 - Written, Drawn and Edited by Jack Kirby (inked by Mike Royer)

[Zonker]

"We promise-- you won't have to read any other issue to understand this one..."

 

[Dr. Haydn]

On 1/2/2024 at 10:03 PM, Prince Namor said:

Maybe.

But to be fair, Kirby had a handle on that look before the Silver Age ever got started. When, of course, he had control of it...

Ben Oda lettering, it appears, at his mid-1950s peak. Jack and Joe could afford the best personnel back in the day!

[Prince Namor]

On 1/4/2024 at 10:08 AM, Zonker said:

"We promise-- you won't have to read any other issue to understand this one..."

 

That's messed up. DC really screwed it up.

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JANUARY 1973

Mister Miracle #13 - Written, Drawn and Edited by Jack Kirby (inked by Mike Royer)

Cover by Jack Kirby (inks by Mike Royer)

Part ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JANUARY 1973

Mister Miracle #13 - Written, Drawn and Edited by Jack Kirby (inked by Mike Royer)

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JANUARY 1973

Mister Miracle #13 - Letters Page

[Dr. Haydn]

And so it ends?

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MARCH 1973

Mister Miracle #14 (with ADs!) - Written, Drawn and Edited by Jack Kirby (inked by Mike Royer)

Cover by Jack Kirby (inks by Mike Royer)

DC was falling apart and it was taking everything down with them. 

Batman had gone from 400,000+ copies a month (it jumped to almost 900,000 during the TV show) down to 185,000 in 1972.

Superman, a consistant 750,000+ monthly seller was down to 317,000 a month.

Over at Marvel WITHOUT Jack Kirby, the Fantastic Four had slumped from 340,000 with Kirby down to 245,000 without (it would do less every month from the time Kirby left, for the next decade, finally bottoming out at 177,000 in 1979).

We don't have any numbers for the New Gods books, but we know that Kirby's Jimmy Olsen outsold Marvel's FF in 1972 with 300,000 monthly copies that year. 

Part ONE:

[Prince Namor]

Mister Miracle #14 (with ADs!) - Written, Drawn and Edited by Jack Kirby (inked by Mike Royer)

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

Mister Miracle #14 (with ADs!) - Written, Drawn and Edited by Jack Kirby (inked by Mike Royer)

Added Bonus: MR SigS has provided his original art from this issue!

Much appreciated, these are some great pages to own!

[Zonker]

For a while, I have been wondering about the blurb at the end of issue #14. 

Had Jack originally planned to do another flashback story (similar the "The Pact" or "Himon"), this time filling in some more of Barda's history?  But reading this issue's lettercol seems to squash that idea.  If the plan had been to do such a flashback, this would have been the perfect opportunity to promote it.

For whatever reason, the planned Barda-centric story for #15 was shelved in favor of introducing a new character (as we'll see here soon enough).  They did keep "The Real Big Barda" as one of the interior chapter headings for #15, but it doesn't really fit the narrative at that point.  

 

[Prince Namor]

On 2/19/2024 at 2:32 AM, Zonker said:

For a while, I have been wondering about the blurb at the end of issue #14. 

Had Jack originally planned to do another flashback story (similar the "The Pact" or "Himon"), this time filling in some more of Barda's history?  But reading this issue's lettercol seems to squash that idea.  If the plan had been to do such a flashback, this would have been the perfect opportunity to promote it.

For whatever reason, the planned Barda-centric story for #15 was shelved in favor of introducing a new character (as we'll see here soon enough).  They did keep "The Real Big Barda" as one of the interior chapter headings for #15, but it doesn't really fit the narrative at that point.  

 

It sucks that Kirby couldn't continue doing it the way he wanted to do it. It's clear DC was interfering because THEY thought they knew best. Meanwhile, all of their biggest titles were in a sales nosedive thanks to a year of pricing their books at 25 cents.