Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Tag: OMAC

Keith Giffen — Beyond The Fourth World

Original Art and The Artists

O.M.A.C. #1, November 2011

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.

Jack Kirby — The Future Is Now

Original Art and The Artists

Omac #3, January 1975

“Technology is fire in the hands of children, and (Jack) Kirby easily foresaw what the world would look like with wealth, corporations, and technology operating simply for human profit and power, without accountability to any Rule of Law.” — Rob Walton, Slings and Arrows Graphic Novel Guide.

Jack Kirby brought his fertile imagination (back) to DC fifty years ago, and the results, while not always commercially successful, were typically fascinating.

OMAC was one of my personal favorites. It felt vastly different than anything else Jack had done, with one wild futuristic technology idea after another thrown into the mix. (And of course, many of these technologies have come to fruition in the subsequent 50 years. But, as always, we digress.) Ultimately Jack never had chance to fully develop many of these ideas, as he jumped ship and returned to Marvel after just eight issues.

This great “chapter splash” checks off many Kirby flourishes. (Many of Jack’s books had multiple chapters, meaning more great splash pages in each issue.)

Why is this page great?

It features the title character, a personal rocket ship, and the Kirby cosmos — in all its glory! (Earth’s atmosphere never looked this trippy.)

It features the title character’s name prominently in a flashy hand-lettered headline.

And, of course, it has great Kirby Crackle.

We celebrate the King’s reign at DC all this week. Stay tuned.