The Rude Road To Apokalips!

I knew I had to have it the moment I clasped eyes on this magnificent Steve Rude cover for the twelfth is Comic Book Creator from Twomorrows Publishing.

Stunning Original Commission by Steve "The Dude" Rude

Apparently this stunning piece started life as a commission piece by Rude to create a "what if" twelfth issue of the brutally truncated New Gods series that ended its too-brief original run with its eleventh issue in 1971. (Of course a New Gods #12 does exist but it didn't come out until many years later in 1977 and was produced by a whole new team long after Kirby had vacated the premises.)

(Al Milgrom Cover - Gerry Conway and Don Newton Story)

The article beneath this memorable artwork is an essay by Jon B. Cooke titled "The Road From Apokalips". The article, which traces Kirby's career from Marvel to his move to DC and the turmoil that caused in the personal lives of those involved and throughout the comics community, does a grand job of laying out what I think happened and why. Cooke is fair-minded when it comes to Kirby, giving Stan Lee his due and recognizing that Kirby's nature was often responsible a bit for the issues which erupted between the two creators.

The article is advertised as a companion to one from the debut issue of Comic Book Creator about Kirby's years at Marvel. The majority of this book is about important underground artist Howard Cruse, but I wouldn't have bought it for that. This is what I came for, some essential Fourth World imagineering by arguably the best pure artist to lay his hands on Kirby's creations.

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