Formerly Known As The Justice League #3, November 2003
Mary Marvel beats the nuclear daylights out of Captain Atom in this innovative, and terrific action page, by Kevin Maguire.
Everything about this page works for me: Storytelling, composition, movement, and the absolute rage on Mary’s face.
She’s pissed.
Of course, since it’s comics, and we know Mary is an otherwise lovely person, she’s clearly under some sort of mind control. Everything will eventually be fine, yes? Well, in this reunion of the classic 80s JLA creative team (Writers J.M. Dematteis and Keith Giffen, Maguire, and inker Joe Rubenstein) who can say?
Or maybe she’s just upset that the collection of this Eisner-winning series is unavailable. That annoys me, too.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, #3, December 1992 (& A Topps Gallery, 1992-1995)
Better late than never — Topps Comics actually launched its first title, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in October, not November of 1992. By mid 1993, we had film adaptions, SF anthologies, Kirby superheroes and dozens more under our belt.
It was a wild ride.
In early 2023, we will have a more extensive look back with some new art, photos, memorabilia, etc. In the meantime, here’s a gallery of previously posted art. (Each piece links to the original post.)
We conclude our celebration of Jack Kirby’s legacy at DC Comics with one more look at Jack’s characters and concepts as envisioned by other creators.
Keith Giffen gets an opportunity to play in the DC Kirbyverse with O.M.A.C., based on Jack’s short-lived series at DC about a future that was closer than we realized. Critically acclaimed, it was cancelled after just eight issues. (Coincidentally, Jack’s original series was cancelled after eight issues as well.)
“OMAC was my favorite title of DC’s initial New 52 relaunch, but being based on a Jack Kirby character that’s more obscure than Kamandi and Devil Dinosaur combined probably didn’t help when it came time for DC to trim its first wave of underperforming titles. The fact that it was written by fan rage magnet DiDio made for marketplace kryptonite. You could’ve lined the interior of the book with 20-dollar bills and nobody would’ve bought it.”—Tom Scioli, writer, artist and author of Jack Kirby: The Epic Life Of The King Of Comics.
Giffen, a legendary Kirby fanatic, also wrote and drew a Forever People series and the first issue of the Kamandi Challenge, all with co-conspirator DiDio, who happened to be DC’s publisher at the time.
*Purists will note that some of the characters and titles actually made it onto newsstands before the close of 1970, but the fully integrated series (Jimmy Olsen, Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle) — doesn’t fully materialize until the following year.
It was February 6, 1994. As we put the first (and it turned
out, last) issue of Victory to bed at Topps Comics, the sad phone call came
into our offices. The King had moved on — Jack Kirby had passed away at age
76.
Victory was supposed to be a monumental crossover project between
all of Jack’s creator owned characters; the new ones we had already developed,
and the previously existing ones that included Silverstar, and of course
Captain Victory. It was going to be the event that shook the “Kirbyverse.” (I
can’t remember who thought of that – EIC Jim Salicrup or myself, so we will
each take have to take co-credit.)
Since the issue had not yet gone to press, we were able to include this lovely art memorial to Jack by Keith Giffen and Jimmy Palmiotti in the published issue, as well as a two-page editorial tribute written affectionately by Charlie Novinskie.
Although Jack was not directly involved in character or story development, he did enjoy being kept in the loop and, from the feedback we received, he enjoyed our efforts.
The challenge at the time of course, is that the marketplace didn’t enjoy our efforts quite as much as he OR we did. A year prior, we had launched the Kirbyverse with a bang. Four titles launched in April 1993, plus a freebie. Total circulation of the group: More than one million copies. (That is not a typo.)
But our titles launched with mostly retro styling, and the market was not interested in classic storytelling and clean draftsmanship. The market wanted the dynamism and styling of Image-type comics (preferably from Image itself; remember this was 1993). And the younger readers gobbling up Cyberforce and Spawn weren’t that interested in Jack Kirby.
From the moment we launched, sales of the Kirby titles dropped each month. By the time Victory project came to fruition, it was too late. Despite that issues #2 and #3 of the crossover were drawn, they never saw the light of day.
So ironically, and most definitely not intentionally, this
version of the Kirbyverse was laid to rest at about the same Jack was.
But… did the King really die?
Captain America. The Hulk. The Avengers. The X-Men. The Eternals. Darkseid. The Black Panther. The Silver Surfer. Add a few hundred more, and you will just about scratch the surface of Kirby’s creative output.
The King lives on.
Long live the King.
Topps Comics sponsored a memorial event at Pro-Con (tied in to Wonder-Con, back in the day) and attendees were provided with a small program book. I flew out to pay my respects to Jack’s wife Roz — who liked me in part because her maiden name was Goldstein.
Main cover by Keith Giffen, variant by Rob Liefeld
