Jack Kirby's aborted adaption of The Prisoner (six pages)

[Perry Holley]

(apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere)

linky linky (http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/4444804.html)

Ah, what might have been...

[Sabrinaset]

maaaan, I so love Kirby's work.

Except for the arms on that first page ... yow!

[scratchie]

Most excellent. Thanks for the post.

Has anyone else read the Prisoner sequel "Shattered Visage" that DC published? I read it once a couple of years ago, and found it interesting, although it didn't provide any more clarification (that I can recall) than the final two episodes of the TV show (which is to say, none whatsoever).

Be seeing you.

[MWGallaher]

Kirby did a great job of capturing the likeness of McGoohan while still keeping him a Kirby character. But while I really wish I had this book in print, I can understand Marvel pulling the plug. Despite the sometimes-nice visuals, the pages do fall rather flat, I think. Unfortunately, a faithful "origin" issue is inevitably going to have a sedate opening, in great contrast to the Marvel standards of the day. Jack's trying to inject some dynamism where he can, but it's not enough. I sure wish someone could resurrect these pages in full, as well as Gil Kane's stab at it, and publish them in a special. It'd be a must-have, if only as a novelty.
I bet later issues, with Jack free to tell his own stories, would have been a lot more fun. Yeah, it might have turned into a rehash of Mr. Miracle, but I loved Mr. Miracle, too.

[MWGallaher]

Scratchie, I absolutely loved "Shattered Visage" (well, I didn't much like the title, but the comics, those I loved. I thought that it did provide some clarification--although Prisoner fans may argue against Motter's interpretation. A very careful read will show show what (Motter thinks) was real and what was hallucinatory in the final episodes. And his interpretation of No. 6's life after the series concluded was evocative: I think he wanted us to ask ourselves "Why would the No. 6 we saw in the series live like this after his 'escape'?" In pondering that sort of justification, the events of the original series take on a particular tone which, while not explicitly contrary to the knowledge-poor interpretation viewers were forced to make, does run slightly askew of the most popular and easy interpretations that viewers gravitated to.
Now I'm gonna have to dig it out and read it again!

[Simon Garth]

That couple of pages really illustrates some of the things that are really good about Kirby, and a lot of the things that annoy the hell out of me.

Page 1 - the weird facial shadows are a typical Kirby trope - he used them all over the place, and they never look right to me. Oh, and the mysterious orang-utan arm :)

Page 2 - magnificent spread - this kind of thing (and weird / huge machines) is what Kirby does so well, even for someone like me, who doesn't like his art much. There's something not quite right about the perspective, but it works - it feels panoramic, like looking though a fish-eye lens. There's bits that don't really come across - there's something distorted about the car, and the twin fountain looks like arches instead of water, but it's still a great dramatic spread.

Page 4 - the faces in the first 2 panels are diabolically poor, particularly panel 2. Where is the light-source for this, that gives shadows under the eyes and in the middle of the forehead? What's happening with the eyes - why's he looking up at a character seated below him. He's supposed to be throwing a letter, but the pose just doesn't work (it actually looks like he's trying to catch a letter thrown at him!)

[Pól Rua]

Patrick McGoohan IS a Kirby Character.
That second page is so nice. Kirby's such a natural for the architecture of The Village. I'd love to have seen his Rover.

[Perry Holley]

Patrick McGoohan IS a Kirby Character.
That second page is so nice. Kirby's such a natural for the architecture of The Village. I'd love to have seen his Rover.My wife and I both agreed that Kirby's visual rendition of high-tech doodads fit in well with the Prisoner.

Of course, because she just likes the word Kirbytech, she kept using it long after we looked at those pages ("Kirbytech - next on Modern Marvels!").

[Babylon23]

As obsessed as I am with Kirby's art, and as amazing as those pages are, I think Kane would have been better suited to the sensibilities of The Prisoner.