The Enduring Legacy of Jack Kirby: Kamandi, Fantastic Four, Conan, and Much More
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Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth by Jack Kirby (DC Comics,
October 1972 and February 1973). Covers by Jack Kirby
Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth, written and illustrated by Jack “King” Kirby (1917-1994), has long been an inspiration to my creative works. The tone, the setting, the characters and creatures — pure brilliance. Highly recommended.
Kamandi #16 is a fascinating issue. An ape doctor who encounters Kamandi knows of Cortexin, the chemical which stimulated evolution and intelligence in animals and turned them into parahumans. The Last Boy on Earth discovers more about the post-cataclysmic Earth, in which men have devolved to beasts, and beasts have evolved to higher intelligence.
[Click the images for Kirby-sized versions.]
Jack Kirby was such a visionary and innovator, and Kamandi is such a treasure. Every time I flip through a random issue, I’m filled with joy.
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Kamandi art by Jack Kirby. Left: a look at Kamandi’s world. Right: splash page for issue #3, February 1973
Below is a panel from Fantastic Four #34, from 1965, written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Kirby. Kirby as usual peered into his crystal ball and came up with a billionaire just as evil and corrupt as any Marvel costume baddie, smacking of today’s headlines.
Gregory Gideon tried to use his money to destroy the FF, but his son got in the middle and almost died, Daddy repented and the story had a happy ending. The lust for money at any cost is the Root of all Evil.
There is an incredible array of fascinating characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, not the least of which is Medusa, a member of the Inhumans. Pictured below is a rendition of Medusa by Jack for Marvel’s line of black light posters.
Medusa, inspired in part by the creature of same name from Greek Mythology, has prehensile hair that can lift thousands of pounds, can extend to great lengths, and strangle an enemy with ease. The wife of Black Bolt, she is a stunning beauty whom Jack illustrated magnificently. Her first appearance was in Fantastic Four #36, but I best remember her from the Kree-Skrull War, which took place in the pages of The Avengers.
Anyone else a fan of this lesser known character, or any of the other Inhumans for that matter?
Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would do well to look into the character Adam Warlock, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. His original name was “Him,” a being created by a group called Enclave to be the next step in human evolution (Fantastic Four #66-67). It was an interesting storyline, but not very significant as compared to other characters and stories being developed at that time.
It was years later, when Roy Thomas and Jim Starlin really brought the character to life as Warlock, renamed and rebirthed by the High Evolutionary. The Marvel Comics Database explains it well.
The High Evolutionary gave Warlock purpose, direction, and the vampiric Soul Gem. Soon afterward, Warlock journeyed to the planet called Counter-Earth, one of the High Evolutionary’s experiments, that had recently been contaminated. Counter-Earth had been an attempt to create a Utopian society, and it had been so till the evil Man-Beast, a renegade creation of the High Evolutionary, had corrupted it; the Man-Beast was to become Warlock’s greatest enemy.
Warlock’s later involvement versus Thanos — and that one’s obsession with the accumulation of power — gave rise to the original mini-series, The Infinity Gauntlet. While it was nice that the MCU afforded Warlock a bit role in the films, satisfying (to some degree) fans like me, it is still worth pointing out that major aspects of that spectacular MCU run were derived from content that Adam Warlock was the star of in the comic books.
Any other Adam Warlock fans in the house?
I’ll close with a few sketches of other Marvel characters, starting with Conan the Barbarian, by Jack Kirby. Jack was not known for many Conan illustrations, but by Crom, this one is incredible.
Although Walt Simonson wrote my favorite Thor story arc, no one, IMO, drew the thunder god better than Kirby. If you have a favorite Thor picture, feel free to mention it in the comments! Make sure to cite the artist.
Finally, here’s a rendering of the Silver Surfer by Jack.
Jeffrey P. Talanian’s last article for Black Gate was a look at the Fifty Years of Gary Gygax’s Greyhawk. Jeffrey is the creator and publisher of the Hyperborea sword-and-sorcery and weird science-fantasy RPG from North Wind Adventures. He was the co-author, with E. Gary Gygax, of the Castle Zagyg releases, including several Yggsburgh city supplements, Castle Zagyg: The East Mark Gazetteer, and Castle Zagyg: The Upper Works. Read Gabe Gybing’s interview with Jeffrey here, and follow his latest projects on Facebook and at www.hyperborea.tv.
I’ve read very little of Kirby’s DC work (only the Demon) but it always looks amazing. I’ll get around to it someday.
Jim Starlin’s Warlock run is a top 10 Marvel series for me. I don’t care for the earlier Roy Thomas issues much.
John Buscema is one of the slightly under-appreciated Thor artists because he’s sandwiched between Kirby and Simonson.
His cover of Thor #370 and Silverlake Surfer #4 are two standouts.
I can’t remembers the issues but there is a Thor run Buscema does in the 70s with beautiful artwork.
Glenn,
Hear hear! I’m a huge fan of Kirby’s Thor, but John Buscema did some outstanding work on Thor for six years (issues #182–259).
Buscema of course is remembered these days for his groundbreaking work on The Avengers and especially the 200+ issues of Conan he illustrated for Marvel. But to me, he will always be the guy who drew Thor, the post-Kirby Fantastic Four, and the almost every single issue of the first run of The Silver Surfer.
While we’re on the topic of John Buscema… the excellent Twomorrows Publishing has just released Comic Creator 43, focused on Buscema’s career. with four long articles. Here’s the brief description from the website.
“Big” John Buscema basks in the spotlight of CBC #43, with a one-on-one interview with the legendary artist conducted by editor Jon B. Cooke — where the Marvel stalwart reveals the moment when comics broke his heart — plus a in-depth biographical essay on the artist along with a gallery of his fabled behind-the-original-art pages amazing “warm up” artwork.”
Copies are just $10.95 at finer comic shops everywhere!
For me, the two great Conan artists are Barry Windsor-Smith, whose work improved in leaps and bounds in the 24 issues he did (#1-24) and it looked even better when he coloured it himself. And John Buscema, who brought a consistent look to Howard’s Hyborian Age. Interestingly, BWS’s early art looked like a Jim Steranko/Jack Kirby hybrid; he quickly developed into a competent superhero illustrator but it’s with Conan that he really hit his stride.
As for Kirby, his career was marked by the vast range of his imagination, the skill with which he composed elements within panels and panels on a page, the breadth of his vision in his Fourth World magnum opus at DC and his willingness to go beyond the superhero work he was comfortable with (such as his Marvel Treasury Edition adaptation of Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the romance stories he drew). I don’t believe any comics creator has done as much nor worked as broadly as King Kirby.
When I was in my early comic book collecting years, I was really intrigued by Kamandi. I didn’t buy any myself, -the topless woman with hair just long enough to get past the comics’s would never be allowed in my house – but I did get to read some of my friend’s issue, and I was really intrigued. Kamandi came out on the tail end of the Planet of the Apes fad, and we were hungry for these kind of stories.
Recently started reading them via DC Universe Infinate and they are really fun.
Remember DC’s Hercules Unbound? I was thinking that series or at least some of it, took place in Kamadi’s world. Anyone know if that was the case?