Jack Kirby - All Hail the King

            Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to draw like Jack Kirby. I mean, those who know the man’s work know that’s an impossible task, right? If you’ve ever sat down and tried to copy out the lines off one of those brain-blasting splash pages Kirby did in the 1970s for DC or Marvel – something out of, say, OMAC or Eternals – you’re aware of the power and scope of the man’s vision. They call this man the King for a reason – he was the best and most inspired and inspiring artist of not only his but every generation of comics creators. Nobody else could do what he did, do it longer, or with such incredible consistency over a half-century or so of output for nearly every major American comic book company. The man simply defined the medium.

            I liken Jack’s reach to what Jimi Hendrix’s might’ve been on the guitar had the latter not passed from this Earth all too soon. But such comparisons don’t quite describe the full arc of his work. Because a funny thing about Jack Kirby is not simply the impact of what he did in comics – he also transcended the printed page of four-color inks on poor paper stock, expanding out into the larger realm of American culture itself.

            First there are all the characters he created. You know Captain America, right? What about Marvel’s Thor, its Fantastic Four, its Silver Surfer? The original X-Men team, anyone? You know how all these and other characters have leapt from the comic-book page and onto the big screen in the last two decades, resulting in literally BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in the pockets of the companies that released them? None of that happens if Jack doesn’t sit down at his drawing board decades earlier to create or co-create these heroes and villains. Without his guiding vision writ large through his unmistakable pencils, they never see the light of day.

            There’s more. Familiar with the Star Wars franchise? Perhaps you’ve seen a film or TV show, played a video game, or bought an action figure of Luke or Leia or Rey or whomever. Go to a Disney theme park and they have a whole section on Star Wars including life-size mock-ups of the Millennium Falcon along with actors dressed as the characters; at Disneyland, you can get your picture taken with R2-D2.

            You know this stuff, right?

            You probably also know that auteur George Lucas created the world of Star Wars and the initial characters that breathed the franchise into existence. Perhaps your blood’s been chilled by the sinister presence of the armored, masked villain Darth Vader, or the incomprehensible menace of the Death Star. Maybe you’ve cheered on Luke Skywalker’s heroics or laughed along with the antics of Chewbacca. And if you’re a hardcore Star Wars fan, you’ve quite possibly pondered the mysteries of the Force.

            Let’s give the credit where it’s due – for the breadth of his imagination, Lucas is rightly regarded as having impacted the way Americans in particular think about and enjoy entertainment.

            Interesting thing, though, is that if you delve into the work of Jack Kirby, you find ideas and characters that are oddly similar to those of Lucas’s signature achievement. Specifically, check out Kirby’s early ‘70s DC run on something that’s referred to among comic fans as his “Fourth World” series of interrelated tales involving a group of superhuman beings the New Gods. Among others, Kirby included the following into this mythos:

·         Introduced the Forever People, a group of teen demigods whose ranks included a lead hero named Mark Moonrider and a huge guy with a furry headpiece on his head called Big Bear.

·         Created Darkseid, an ultra-villain with tremendous physical strength and intellect who’s obsessed with something called the Anti-Life Equation, something he can use to destroy all independent thought in the universe. He has a troubled son named Orion who was raised by his chief antagonist High-Father, a bearded holy man who is forever communicating with something called the Source.

·         Darkseid rules a planet called Apokolips, world whose surface appears to be covered in craggy metal, further disfigured with several energy-emitting gaping holes.

Notice any similarities to stuff from the wider culture from the last fifty years?

Is Mark Moonrider a dead ringer for Luke Skywalker, or perhaps Orion? What about Big Bear and Chewbacca? High-Father and Obi-Wan Kenobi? Can a comparison be made between the Source and the Force? Is Apokolips the Death Star, or Darth Vader himself a knock-off of another, pre-Fourth World Kirby Marvel character called Dr. Doom?

Is it of any significance that all of the above Fourth World ideas were things the King constructed whole-cloth out of his head at least five years before the first Star Wars movie came out?

Now, don’t get the wrong idea here. George Lucas came up with his own mythos and characters and, again, rightly should be celebrated for those accomplishments. But a funny thing about the creative process are the influences you absorb when you’re in the process of creating.

Based on the above evidence, you can’t tell me Lucas didn’t crack open a couple of Jack Kirby comics before charting the adventures of Luke Skywalker and his crew.

Jack Kirby belongs right up there with the greatest American artists, musicians, poets and others who’ve shaped our culture. He taught us about the gods, and about the grit and pluck of guys like Steve Rogers who could challenge divinity. He was a futurist who predicted things like AI and robotics and questioned the very nature of existence itself.

And I haven’t even touched his contributions to romance comics, boy-team-adventurer stories, magic, or any of the other genres he either invented or had a heavy influence on.

Please, if you’ve never done so, go on Amazon or go to Barnes & Noble or just for Pete’s sake drop by your local comics store (who need your business), and get something of this man’s work. It really doesn’t matter what you pick up – OMAC or Boy’s Ranch or Devil Dinosaur are all amazing. The best thing about his work is anybody, literally anybody, can enjoy a Jack Kirby comic – he created something for just about any taste as long as you have a thrill for discovery, adventure, and wonder.

None of us would have the same dreams we have if it weren’t for Jack Kirby.

All hail the King.