Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got four new comics plus a giant hard cover collection:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

“Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus: Volume 3” by Jack Kirby

It’s been a while since I read volume two of this series. This is actually my first go at reading the entire “Fourth World” series in order. For those of you who don’t know Kirby’s “Fourth World” consists of four comic book series from the early 1970’s: “Jimmy Olsen”, “Mister Miracle”, “The Forever People”, and “The New Gods”.

Kirby was always ahead of his time and with these four series he attempted to create a whole large universe filled with super powered beings both heroic and villainous. It only lasted a few years but upon reading it now I can see that it has been the model for creating comic book universes ever since. It’s both epic in scope and filled with small personal stories.

With this volume, number three of four, Kirby is really hitting his stride. It presents about issue numbers seven through ten of most of the series and by then Kirby really had a grasp on what he was doing. All of the characters and worlds had been established and he no longer had to do set up. He was free to just tell stories in the universe that he created.

Kirby even went back in time to tell some of the stories. I like how he told of pivotal moments in the making of the “Fourth World” universe and pivotal moments in the lives of some of the characters. I appreciate that there are no “Origin stories” here because I hate origin stories, but there are stories about how things came to be. There is definitely a distinction.

I was in awe reading this volume. It’s really good. Kirby is regarded as one of the giants of the comic book world and this volume really shows why. The drawing, writing, stories, and story telling is all top shelf. I’ve heard people say they really don’t “Get” Kirby and I understand why. His work is both simple and complicated at the same time. There is always a simple story taking place in immediate view yet it exists within a larger complicated framework. If you never stand back you can miss the framework. That’s what I think people don’t get sometimes.

I’m glad DC is reprinting these as they are. Instead of giving us separate volumes for each series we get them all together as they appeared on the news stands. First and issue of “Jimmy Olsen” then and issue of “The New Gods” then an issue of “The Forever People” and so on. That way the whole “Fourth World” is treated as one story. It makes it a lot easier to see and appreciate the framework. Grand stuff!