100 Years, 100 Creators – Part 5

Over a few posts, I’m choosing different creators or creative teams–novelist, composer, scriptwriter, comic book artist, etc–who have influenced or inspired me, and in most cases brought me a lot of enjoyment.

Weekly Geeky Question #31: More Comic Book Wishes

Every week in 2018, the plan is that my friend Rod is going to ask me some geeky question that will answer in a post. This week is Week #31, and this week’s question is really the same last time.

What are my three comic book wishes?

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World: Mister Miracle

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World – simultaneously a cosmic, multi-series, comic book epic that was ahead of its time and was a huge influence upon a multitude of subsequent stories across a wide range of media forms…and a massive exercise in unfulfilled expectations thanks to the concept’s inability to catch on with enough of an audience to continue to justify its existence in the 1970’s comic book market.

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World: The Forever People

When I first read my four Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus books, I guess I’d have picked The Forever People as the least memorable of the four interlocking titles.  Upon re-reading just that one stream of the epic, I guess I have to say that might still be true.  But of course, when the playing field is the fertile and slightly overwhelming imagination of Jack Kirby, than that’s not such a criticism.  Something has to be the least memorable.

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen

When I first heard that Jack Kirby had done a stint on Jimmy Olsen, my reaction was akin to what it would be if I’d discovered that Alan Moore had done a run on Jughead in the early 90’s.  Basically, something like, “What the–?!?!?!”  Or in other words, “That’s crazy!”  Well, it turns out that I’m right.  Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen is absolutely out-of-this-world insane.  Now, of course, we’re talking about Jimmy Olsen here, whose title was always insane, it seems like.  So maybe Kirby was just doing what he needed to to keep up.

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World: New Gods

As any comic afficionado knows, Jack Kirby is the in-the-comics-world-legendary artist-writer who basically co-created the vast majority of superhero characters that the average movie viewer is familiar with – Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men – and many more that they aren’t familiar with (at least not yet) – eg Machine Man, Kamandi, and the Black Panther.

One of his most critically-acclaimed but popularly little known creations was his Fourth World Saga, a series of four interlocking titles that he wrote and drew when he shifted from long-time employer Marvel Comics over to competitor DC Comics in the early 1970’s.  The Fourth World saga was grand, epic, daringly imaginative, but ultimately unsuccessful.  The series only lasted for about 3-4 years (it varied from title to title) and failed to reach its hinted-at grand, epic conclusion.