Jack Kirby's New Gods

Rating:
Summary: Must-have for the Kirby fan
Review: This book collects Jack Kirby's ground-breaking New Gods series in an affordable format. Many consider this 1970's DC series to be his most imaginative and original work, in which he had the opportunity to both write the stories as well as draw the art. The artwork is in black and white with gray tones. I'm trying hard to avoid the phrase 'epic modern fantasy' without much success. Jack Kirby was creator or co-creator of some of the most important characters in comics, including Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, the Silver Surfer, and the Challengers of the Unknown.

Rating:
Summary: Jack Kirby's Finest Hour
Review: This is the centerpiece of Kirby's Fourth World Series and the best work of his career. There is power and intensity, especially in stories such as The Pact, The Death Wish Of Terrible Turpin, and The Deep Six. This set of stories pre-dated Star Wars by almost a decade and I also believe that a lot of the New Gods inspired George Lucas. In fact, after being used to comics such as this, I was not surprised by revalations in the Star Wars saga. The New Gods was groundbreaking for its time. It was originally released as a tetralogy with Forever People, Mister Miracle, and Jimmy Olsen (three parts of the tetralogy are available in this format). Jack was one of the pioneers of the writer-artist in comics and, to this day, many comics professionals acknowledge a great debt to Mr Kirby.

Rating:
Summary: Kirby usually needed a scripter
Review: When Jack Kirby left Marvel to work for DC in the seventies, I was devastated. The Fantastic Four was(and still is)my special comic title. How could he leave at the height of his work? However, I understand now that he had his own ideas to flesh out and try. Unfortunately, his characters always seemed somewhat flat. They had catchy names and were drawn very well but did not seem motivated by anything. Perhaps the task of developing so many titles at one time did not permit him to really develop them. The exception was probably Darkseid. Once again the villain was more interesting than the heroes! At the time I bought all the titles-New Gods, Mister Miracle, Forever People-am I forgetting any? They were beautiful to look at but just lacked in the characterization department. This was probably due to vast amount of material that Jack was pouring forth for DC at that time. Probably the first example of an artist thinking that the art mattered more than the story; certainly not the last. The theory that this story line inspired the Star Wars movies is certainly intriguing and I would not have thought of it.