CBR: CCI: Kirby Lives In San Diego!

[CBR News]

A new universe of superhero books based on Jack Kirby's creator-owned work lands at Dynamite to solidify Kirby's title as the "King."


Full article here.

[shamus]

The Kirby-verse is not Kirby's creation. I don't have any idea what he would think of this project to freeze his characters like stiffs. The Kirby I recall was about innovation, imagination and creation, not replaying the same thing ad infinitum.

Reading about the proposed Kirby-verse I get the idea that we have some vampirism going on. As in blood-sucking. The tone of the project sounds a little too self righteous to be fun, and if Kirby was anything he was dynamite fun. My opinion.

The first comic book I can remember reading was New Gods #4. NEW being the key word here.

[aphterbuck]

I can't be the only person that would like to personally walk up and say loud, obnoxious things to Alex Ross. That dude really seems to think his purrrdy paintings entitle him to be the caretaker of old school comic book purity.

Newsflash: The Fourth World characters were never popular. Not really. Revered? Yes. Influential and groundbreaking? Sure. Popular? No. They've lasted this long because they're critical darlings, not because they sell.

They needed redesigning and badly.

[Leocomix]

All redesigns of the Fourth World made them worse. The best interpretations were the ones close to Kirby (by Simonson, Evanier and Byrne)

Krby's original designs are eternal. Nobody would say that Galactus should be redesigned. Now, it's true that the FF costume gets continually redesigned and that characters like Hulk are continually redesigned too. Thor was redesigned to great effect. But it is because these characters have been continually exposed and this is needed.Thpough Cap America has been redesigned in Ultimates and Brubaker, they are reverting to the original design.
As an example, there was no need to redesign Kamandi tomae it the most succesful strip in Wednesday Comics. Yet the character isn't that known despite a couple appearance in the animated Batman.
The New Gods were aborted while it was still in a formative phase. Kirby was still creating characters and expanding it. Infantino made a mistake in canceling it. He expected sales like at Marvel forgetting that it took several years before Marvel took off in sales.
New Gods have sold enough that DC reprint them every ten years (mini-series in the 80s), in black and white in the late 90s, in Omnibus in the 2000s, not counting the new series going back to the 70s.

Giffen was going to redesign the Kirbyverse but the series was cancelled after one issue. I wished I could see more of what was planned.

[Grapeweasel]

A new universe of superhero books based on Jack Kirby's creator-owned work lands at Dynamite to solidify Kirby's title as the "King."


Full article here.

Yeah, because it really needed solidifying....


:rolleyes:

[djcoffman]

I think it's great Dynamite will be putting out a new KirbyVerse. I'd give some of my left fingers to work on ANY of those titles. Nobody will do it as great as Jack did, but it sure would be fun to have his "energy" out there again in readers hands.

[hondobrode]

Kirby may be gone but I can't wait to get this.

[BugsySig]

Since Dynamite also just got the rights to Fighting American, will those characters be a part of this new "Kirby-verse" as well?

Also, wasn't Erik Larsen supposed to be doing something with these characters (Silver Star and Captain Victory) a while back? What ever happened there, rights issues? I think I would have liked that better as Larsen's style is much in the same mold as Kirby's fun/sci-fi 60's and 70s work. I cringe at the thought of Alex Ross messing with anything Kirby that was done after 1945...that would be like Newt Gingrich editing a speech for Nanci Pelosi...two more polar opposite styles there could not be.

[aphterbuck]

All redesigns of the Fourth World made them worse. The best interpretations were the ones close to Kirby (by Simonson, Evanier and Byrne)

Krby's original designs are eternal. Nobody would say that Galactus should be redesigned. Now, it's true that the FF costume gets continually redesigned and that characters like Hulk are continually redesigned too. Thor was redesigned to great effect. But it is because these characters have been continually exposed and this is needed.Thpough Cap America has been redesigned in Ultimates and Brubaker, they are reverting to the original design.
As an example, there was no need to redesign Kamandi tomae it the most succesful strip in Wednesday Comics. Yet the character isn't that known despite a couple appearance in the animated Batman.
The New Gods were aborted while it was still in a formative phase. Kirby was still creating characters and expanding it. Infantino made a mistake in canceling it. He expected sales like at Marvel forgetting that it took several years before Marvel took off in sales.
New Gods have sold enough that DC reprint them every ten years (mini-series in the 80s), in black and white in the late 90s, in Omnibus in the 2000s, not counting the new series going back to the 70s.

Giffen was going to redesign the Kirbyverse but the series was cancelled after one issue. I wished I could see more of what was planned.

Darkseid's design is better now. There's no reason that dude should be walking around in a bikini. The original was good, this one's improved. Metron's better. Orion, bout the same. Mr. Miracle is iffy. Mostly it's just similar idea, remixed. The designs aren't that different, but I think they're better with the new tweaks.

As far as the New Gods, I'll say it again: not really that popular. The reprints sell because of Kirby and no other reason. The ongoings can't support themselves and never could.

[md62]

Since Dynamite also just got the rights to Fighting American, will those characters be a part of this new "Kirby-verse" as well?

Also, wasn't Erik Larsen supposed to be doing something with these characters (Silver Star and Captain Victory) a while back?

1. No Fighting American at Dynamite. The deal fell apart. The Kirby estate approved it but Joe Simon did not ... so no FA.

2. I think this only applies to the original series that Larsen wants to reprint.