The Fourth World by Jack "King" Kirby is my favorite comic book work. Nick Cuti's and Joe Staton's charming E-Man steals my heart as favorite character, but as a story in its total I have always admired the saga of the New Gods. I was almost there from the start. I was a fan of Marvel beginning in early 1968, a time when Kirby was already keeping his creativity on a low boil since he didn't think he was being treated fairly by Martin Goodman. He also felt that Stan Lee was getting too much of the credit for the success of Marvel Comics. I'm not here to litigate that yet again. But that's how the "King" felt and so he began secret negotiations to switch to the "Distinguished Competition". Carmine Infantino was eager to get Jack Kirby into his fold. He was an artist and had made artists into editors when he was elevated to take control of DC's dwindling empire.
So, after months of talks, suddenly Jack Kirby quits Marvel. No single move by any artist before or since has had the impact on the comic book industry that this one did. It was a true blockbuster. And it got my attention. I had taken Kirby for granted on Thor and Fantastic Four. I had come in after Kirby had decided to cool his jets creatively so I was only seeing his storytelling which could be a tad confusing sometimes, if the reader wasn't keen. But when I saw the debut issue of New Gods on the spinner rack, I knew something different was brewing. I'd missed out on the earlier Jimmy Olsen issues and had not seen Forever People, but I did find New Gods and the comic made me an instant Kirby madman.
In the issues within this mammoth Absolute tome with its nifty slipcover protector, we see the Fourth World unfold. We follow Jimmy Olsen and his new allies the Newsboy Legion into the depths beneath Metropolis where we find Outsiders, Hairies, and DNAliens. We are charmed by the Forever People, super-hippies from New Genesis who come to Earth to find their lost member Beautiful Dreamer and find a world worth protecting. We meet the grand Highfather, the beaming Lightray, and the grim Orion and learn that he's a warrior born, ferocious and willing to do what it takes to win the day and defeat the foe. We meet that foe, the deadly Darkseid, the ultimate enemy who seeks nothing less than total control of everyone everywhere. Mister Miracle leaps onto the scene with is assistant Oberon and later his impressive girlfriend Barda to battle the minions of Darkseid who seek to return him to Apokolips, the darkest land ever conceived for comics. This is a story which grows out of Ragnarok, the death of the old gods, making way for these new ones. Kirby told that story while still at Marvel in the back pages of Thor in the Tales of Asgard feature. Kirby stopped the story there and waited for his chance.
We encounter these creations as they were first presented, in the order of publication. For this is not four stories, but one. That notion is what elevates the Fourth World. This is a saga too large for one comic book, this is an epic which like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings derived from the imagination of one man -- the late and exceedingly great Jack "King" Kirby.
Below are the covers of the comics in this collection. Most of the stories in this set were inked by Vince Colletta. I'm a fan of Colletta's work, though I understand why many hold it in low regard. One sees a lot of evidence that while Infantino was happy to have Jack aboard, the longtime DC workers were sometimes less than thrilled. You'll see Al Plastino and later Murphy Anderson alter the heads of Superman and others in these issues, creating a sometimes quite jarring effect. I like the Neal Adams cover work, but it speaks to a lack of confidence in what Kirby could do. "Kirby is Here!" the first Jimmy Olsen cover announces, but one would be hard pressed to see it on some of those subsequent issues. I love the collage work that Kirby does on some of these early covers as well. Enjoy these once again.
After the comics themselves this book offers up the Who's Who entries Kirby illustrated over a decade later when he returned to DC. Sadly, his skills had diminished as had his eyesight. These drawings, mostly inked by Greg Theakston are mere echoes of what might have been in an earlier time.
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I've got all the original issues, the four volume Fourth World Omnibus books, and various other reprints of many of the stories, so I'll be giving these Absolute Editions a miss. 'The Magic Of Kirby'? The trouble with magic, RJ, is that it's illusory, consists of smoke and mirrors, deception, and has no basis in reality. Just like the inflated reputation of Kirby's Fourth World in my view. Sure, competent and entertaining tales (Jimmy Olsen being the best), some great art by Jack, but lacking the clout of his Marvel output. A promise unfulfilled, sadly. I like to look through these stories from time to time, but mainly to recapture a cherished and long-vanished period of my life, not because I consider them masterpieces, which I don't.
ReplyDeleteWe profoundly disagree on that last point, but that's a matter of taste. But on the point of comic book art, it's all illusion. I was reading some essays on Kirby and one artist (I forget who but I'll try to look it up) said that what impressed him about Kirby's work of this period was the way he could with a few lines create the illusion of metal, stone, fabric, or whatever. He said that Kirby was becoming more and more abstract with his work, and on that I absolutely agree. The tighter realism of the earlier work at Marvel was giving way to something less representational. Like his operatic dialogue, not for everyone.
DeleteColletta was a truly great inker as people have acknowledged. Production art, particularly inking, is a difficult business for a layman to understand. Balancing good art with a deadline isn't easy and, naturally, to the publisher, the deadline better win or the artist will soon be selling vacuum cleaners.
ReplyDeleteColletta gets slammed often because he changed artwork. But that's an inker's job, to make pencils fit to publish. Some of the changes Colletta made to Kirby's work was a mistake, but some of it improved the storytelling in my opinion.
DeleteEvery cover here is brilliant. Although this is all about Kirby I do love that Neal Adams "Jimmy Olsen" (issue 135) cover . I liked Colletta inking Kirby but on others, I felt his style overpowered their pencils ( Tuska , Robbins, Sal Buscema etc).
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the Neal Adams covers. They are totally effective. It's just odd that they sign Kirby to a much ballyhooed contract and then hide his work. There was a lot of push back against Kirby in DC at the time.
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