How is it that First Kingdom by Jack Katz has never been successfully reprinted? One of the comic book industry's rare true "graphic novels", this is a for real saga, expanding over twenty-four issues and countless years. This is the opus that Katz spent much of career creating and getting into print at great cost to himself and ultimately through the largesse of others.
But surely this achievement should be admired, collected and made available to the larger audience it has always deserved. How is it possible when one sees every gram of comics material produced by Marvel and DC material, no matter sometimes how trivial get a fancy reprint, that something this significant and important remains mostly unknown. It's a shame, and hopefully it will be eventually corrected. I'd love to read this saga all the way through in a handsome trade or series of them.
A company dubbed Century Comics tried to reprint this material, but only two volumes emerged reprinting about half of the story. That's been several years ago now. It's time for some company to step up and give this material the production it deserves.
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I admired what Jack Katz did with THE FIRST KINGDOM tremendously and I bought most of the issues. I eventually dropped it, though, because the art was often so dense that I couldn't figure out what was going on! And his characters were so stylized as to be unattractive. Looking at these great covers now for the first time in decades makes me want to revisit the series...but then I remember the insides and change my mind.
ReplyDeleteI followed this a bit at the time, but lost track of it in the early 80's. I've recently seen some pretty back issues, but I don't want to start gathering up stuff like this when I could have them in handy dandy trades. Perhaps printing on better stock would clarify the images.
ReplyDeleteThis is an accomplishment that should be recognized in comics. When I look at some of the crap Marvel is currently reprinting (Atlantis Attacks! Really!) I know we need better collections. It's out there.
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Cool stuff, I dig it.
ReplyDeleteThis is the sort of thing KickStarter was conceived for!
ReplyDeleteCheck out Jack Katz's website...
http://www.jackatz.com
I loved Kats' ZANGAR character in the old skywald comics too...I have 7 FIRST KINGDOM issues...and not only was the art and storytelling some of the best I'd ever seen...but the writing was astounding as well.
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