Quick, gang, throw out something for me to top five next week.
This week, since I’ve been making my way through TwoMorrows enjoyable Kirby Five-Oh! and Jack’s on my brain, I’m going with my top five favorite Jack Kirby comic book series. Admittedly, I haven’t read them all (Marvel’s two-volume Eternals set and DC’s Demon Omnibus are on my nightstand, and I should be reading both in the next few weeks), but I’ve read a fair share and I just adore Jack’s work. Each series is a whole set of new challenges; Jack was always creating new ideas and characters, and I frequently wish that his creative spirit was honored the way his characters are.
But that’s another rant entirely, so without further ado, my top five Jack Kirby series:
5. OMAC (DC; 1974-1975) – Wage slave Buddy Blank loses his anonymous life when the A.I. satellite Brother Eye empowers him to become OMAC, the One Man Army Corps. OMAC is a sardonic commentary on the direction of mankind, full of faceless beings slotted into society’s cogs, and it was cancelled far too soon, before Kirby could fully develop the concept.
4. Mister Miracle (DC; 1971-1974) – The greatest escape artist on three worlds, Scott Free is bound by his legacy. The son of New Genesis’s Highfather, raised under the brutal thumb of Darkseid, Scott seeks out challenges of his own, but it constantly hounded by Darkseid’s forces. Kirby got to create lots of inventive traps, and provided us the best and creepiest versions of Granny Goodness and Vermin Vundabar in Mister Miracle. Plus, Scott was inspired by comics creator Jim Steranko.
3. Fantastic Four (Marvel; 1961-1970) – Paired with Stan Lee’s scripting, Jack balanced the squabbling, loving family dynamic of the Fantastic Four against the outlandish adventures that came from encounters with Dr. Doom, the Inhumans, Black Panther, Galactus and a planet full of Skrulls dressed as 30s mobsters! The series peaks from “This Man, The Monster” in #51 through the Inhumans/Black Panther stories that run until #63 or so.
2. Journey into Mystery/Thor (Marvel; 1962-1970) – Thor never had the family core that the FF had, but Kirby had a more powerful weapon in Asgard, and he took full advantage. In JiM and Thor, Kirby was able to open the book to any manner of science fiction or mythologic adventure, and many of the series’ best stories didn’t touch on Midgard. In fact, Thor’s secret identity, lame surgeon Dr. Donald Blake became such an afterthought that he was eventually written out of the series.
1. New Gods (DC; 1971-1972) – If Thor was epic, New Gods created a new standard for the term. The father/son conflicts, the tormented hero burdened by his ancestry, the brilliance of “The Pact” and “The Deathwish of Terrible Turpin,” it all made New Gods endlessly compelling. The material is ripe with conflict and pathos, and Kirby managed to wring it all out amid the most glorious carnage in comics history.
What are your favorite Jack Kirby comics, and why?
Oh, and if you’re itching for some great Kirby material, check out The Jack Kirby Collector and Kirby Five-Oh!. As soon as I catch up a few things, I’ll be taking Mark Evanier’s Kirby: The King of Comics out of the library and reporting on it for you all. Give me a month or so!
January 10th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
1. Fantastic Four
2. Kamandi
3. Omac
4. Demon
5. Eternals
January 10th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
For me, it’s all about Kamandi and Omac, and here’s why.
As a kid growing up in Searcy, Arkansas, the store where I got my comics only carried the best-selling Marvel and DC titles. At the time, DC ran house ads showing the covers to several titles currently on sale.
The two that most intrigued me every time I saw them were Kamandi and Omac. I always looked for them at the store but they were never there. That just increased the level of intrigue and mystery I associated with those titles.
So, when I finally got Kirby’s complete run on both Kamandi and Omac a few years back, my experience reading them was colored by my memory of how much I wanted to read them as a kid. I even tried to put myself into the mindset of myself as a child, to somehow approximate what it would have been like had I been fortunate enough to read these books as a kid.
I’m pretty sure they would have absolutely blown my mind. Because even reading them as an adult, they hold up remarkably well and provide so much of what I love about comics in the first place.
January 10th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
1.OMAC all the way!
2.New Gods
3.Demon
4.Forever People
5.Captain Victory
I’m only counting stuff Kirby wrote and drew otherwise, Fantastic Four would top the list.
January 10th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Rob, that’s a fair statement. Personally, I give Jack a lot of credit for the plotting and structure of the Marvel stuff, which is part of why I feel their inclusion is warranted. No dis to Stan, because I feel that they each brought something unique to the creative partnership, but Jack’s creative fingerprints are all over FF and Thor and they would’ve been vastly different series without him.
I was really surprised by how great OMAC is. I just read it for the first time a few months ago when DC put out the hardcover collection. After I’ve re-read it a few times and absorbed it more, it may start to climb up the list.
Fredd and Elton,
KAMANDI is currently #1 on my need-to-read Kirby list. Hopefully I’ll pick up the two Archives in a month or two. I felt a little odd making this list without having read KAMANDI, DEMON or ETERNALS yet (the latter two of which are purchased, but unread as of yet), but I needed a Top Five subject and KIRBY FIVE-OH! had me in the right frame of mind.
January 11th, 2009 at 4:16 am
I got original copies of New Gods #1 and The Demon #1 several years ago and I just remember thinking how the spread of New Genesis in New Gods #1 was just so incredible! And here was a man doing so many books at once and putting that much into each one!
Jack Kirby was one of a kind and we will never see his ilk again, I fear.
January 11th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Fantastic Four – with Stan Lee.
Omac
New Gods-Forever People- Mr. Miracle – 3 way tie as must be read together.
Kamandi
Thundarr the Barbarian – with Steve Gerber (cartoon I know but awesome)
January 11th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Kamandi–for sentimental reasons; it was my first Kirby, discovered at age 3 on a table at the barbershop
Fantastic Four–unavoidable
Captain America Comics–the 40s original; the characters leap off the page
Thor–particularly the Tales of Asgard backup strips
Jimmy Olsen–the weird tension between Kirby ideas and one of DC’s most buttoned-down properties made this series extra-enjoyable, at least for the first half of the run; it contains my favorite nutball 4th World concepts, from The Mountain of Judgment to the Hairies.