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I’ve got a jammed packed show for you this week on the show. As I promised, the feature is Jack Kirby’s Silver Star (Image Comics), but I also throw in a bonus review of his O.M.A.C.: One Man Army Corps (DC Comics). I did so because the two main characters, Morgan Miller (SS) and Buddy Black (OMAC) are very similar and both were modeled after one of Jack Kirbys’ and Joe Simons’ most famous creation Captain America; OMAC even more so. As I state in the podcast, both books are not for a first time Kirby reader. The OMAC series was canceled after issue #6 and is left on a huge cliffhanger while Silver Star is just plain convoluted and difficult to comprehend. Both books however are excellent resources for the Kirby enthusiast and they include many pencil sketches supplied by John Morrow of TwoMorrows Publishing.
If you read my column from Monday on the situation with All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #10, then you’ll be primed for a follow-up segment where I call myself out as a hypocrite (of sorts). I also go over all the Collected Edition related news coming out of the Diamond Retailer Summit and I list the sales estimates for the top 10 graphic novels and collected editions for August 2008. On a side note, I’ll be recording with John Mayo in the next week or so and will post the link to the podcast (as I always do) when it is published. All this including the New Releases of the Week.
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Chris Discuss this topic on the CCL forum
You’re a harder man than I am Chris! I consider myself somewhat of a Kirby fan, but this later stuff, in my opinion, is pretty much unreadable. I can barely get through the Eternals and after that, it’s all downhill for me (but that’s just MY opinion!).
I think the later inkers who didn’t deviate one line from Jack’s pencils did him an injustice because as you said, his facial (and body for that matter) features were very “hard.” A great artist like Joe Sinnott was able to make Kirby look really good. I will remind folks that Kirby was doing SO many books in the later 60′s that even he didn’t have time to do finished work, which left a lot for the inker to clean up. Even Colletta, who took great liberties with Jack’s art when inking it, managed to soften the rough edges. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Having a guy that could layout such incredible pages so dynamically must have been quite a boon to Marvel. Too bad the “suits” didn’t realize that he was part of he equation that made Marvel great in the Silver Age.
Mike Royer seemed to be Kirby’s #1 guy in the later years. Having done not only a few OMAC issues and Silver Star but also The Eternals and Captain Victory.
I’m guessing (as I stated in the podcast) that Kirby had 100% control over his work and no editor could tell him otherwise.
A genius? Yes Kirby was. But his work near the end of his career was much different from when he hit his stride from his time with The Challengers and Atlas Era through the 1960′s end (at Marvel).
Collected Comics Library Podcast #187
or the Kirby enthusiast and they include many pencil sketches supplied by John Morrow of TwoMorrows Publishing.
You’re a harder man than I am Chris! I consider myself somewhat of a Kirby fan, but this later stuff, in my opinion, is pretty much unreadable. I can barely get through the Eternals and after that, it’s all downhill for me (but that’s just MY opinion!).
I think the later inkers who didn’t deviate one line from Jack’s pencils did him an injustice because as you said, his facial (and body for that matter) features were very “hard.” A great artist like Joe Sinnott was able to make Kirby look really good. I will remind folks that Kirby was doing SO many books in the later 60′s that even he didn’t have time to do finished work, which left a lot for the inker to clean up. Even Colletta, who took great liberties with Jack’s art when inking it, managed to soften the rough edges. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Having a guy that could layout such incredible pages so dynamically must have been quite a boon to Marvel. Too bad the “suits” didn’t realize that he was part of he equation that made Marvel great in the Silver Age.
Mike Royer seemed to be Kirby’s #1 guy in the later years. Having done not only a few OMAC issues and Silver Star but also The Eternals and Captain Victory.
I’m guessing (as I stated in the podcast) that Kirby had 100% control over his work and no editor could tell him otherwise.
A genius? Yes Kirby was. But his work near the end of his career was much different from when he hit his stride from his time with The Challengers and Atlas Era through the 1960′s end (at Marvel).