{"id":26696,"date":"2022-10-14T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T08:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=26696"},"modified":"2022-10-13T17:32:34","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T17:32:34","slug":"jack-kirbys-spirit-world-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/10\/14\/jack-kirbys-spirit-world-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Kirby\u2019s Spirit World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Jack Kirby<\/strong> with Mark Evanier<\/strong>, Steve Sherman<\/strong>, Sergio Aragon\u00e9s<\/strong>, Vince Colletta<\/strong>, Mike Royer<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-3418-8 (HB)<\/p>\n

Jack Kirby was – and remains long after his passing – the master imagineer of American comics. His collected works provide a vast rich trove of astounding narrative delights for any possible occasion. An ideal and seasonably timely tome is this magnificent compendium re-presenting the complete \u201cKing\u2019s Canon\u201d of one of his least known, most misunderstood and mishandled DC creations. Regrettably, it\u2019s still not a book you can read digitally, but hope springs eternal\u2026<\/p>\n

Famed for larger than life characters and gigantic, cosmic imaginings, Kirby was an astute, spiritual man who had lived through poverty, gangsterism, the Depression, World War II and the rise and stall of the Space Age. He\u2019d seen and survived Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. Above all else, he was open-minded and utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject.<\/p>\n

On returning from valiant service in World War II, Jack – reunited with long-term creative partner Joe Simon – began producing genre material for older audiences and famously invented the genre of Romance comics. Amongst the dynamic duo\u2019s other concoctions for Prize\/Crestwood\/Essankay Publications was a noir-esque anthology, supernatural-themed and psychologically underscored, reflecting the tone and trends of those rapidly-changing, globally Post-Traumatic times.<\/p>\n

Black Magic<\/strong> (and short-lived companion title Strange World of Your Dreams<\/strong>) eschewed traditionally gory, heavy-handed morality plays and simplistic cautionary tales seen in other comics and concentrated on deeper, stranger fare. They were – until EC comics hit their peak – far and away the best horror and mystery titles on the market.<\/p>\n

Changing tastes and an anti-crime, anti-horror witch-hunt quashed the comics industry, so under a doctrinaire, self-inflicted conduct code, publishers stopped innovating and moved into more anodyne areas. This established holding pattern persisted until the rebirth of superheroes and triggered the demise of many smaller publishers\u2026<\/p>\n

From 1956, at a little outfit using the name \u201cAtlas\u201d, Kirby partnered with Stan Lee and, when superheroes were revived, changed the world with a salvo of new concepts and characters that revitalised if not actually saved the comics business. Kirby always understood the fundamentals of pleasing an audience and toiled diligently to combat the appalling prejudice about the word-&-picture medium – especially from insiders and professionals who despised the \u201ckiddies\u2019 world\u201d they felt trapped in.<\/p>\n

However, after a decade or so, costumed characters began to wane again as public interest in the supernatural grew. With books, television and movies all exploring The Unknown in gripping and stylish new ways, the Comics Code Authority sought to slacken its censorious choke-hold on horror titles, hoping to save the industry from implosion when the superhero boom busted\u2026<\/p>\n

Experiencing increasing editorial stonewalling and creative ennui at Marvel, in 1970 Kirby (after breaking ground with a few horror shorts for the House of Ideas\u2019 new anthology titles) accepted a long-standing offer from arch rival DC Comics\u2026<\/p>\n

Promised freedom to innovate, one of the first projects he tackled was a new magazine format carrying material targeting adult readerships. For the full story of how that worked out, you can read Mark Evanier\u2019s acerbic article at the centre of this glorious – but inexplicably still not available in digital editions – oversized (282 x 212 mm) hardback compilation. He was there and knows a lot of the secrets\u2026<\/p>\n

Reflecting and rechannelling the mature experimentation of Black Magic<\/strong> in a superb yet poorly received – and largely undistributed – monochrome magazine, Spirit World<\/strong> #1 and only launched in the summer of 1971, but, as happened all too often, editorial cowardice and back-sliding scuppered the project before it could get going. At least when the original 1940s-1950s Black Magic<\/strong> was revived as a DC reprint anthology in 1973, it got a few years to properly test the waters\u2026<\/p>\n

Material from a second, never-to-be published, Spirit World<\/strong> issue eventually appeared in various colour comic books, but with most of his ideas misunderstood, ignored or side-lined by the company, Kirby opted to return to more traditional formats.<\/p>\n

Never truly defeated, he cannily blended his belief in the marketability of supernature with flamboyant super-heroics to create another unique and lasting mainstay for the DC universe: one that lesser talents later made a pivotal figure of the company\u2019s continuity: Etrigan the Demon<\/strong>. There\u2019s a complete Kirby compendium of the Hellish hero\u2019s deeds out there too if you\u2019re interested, as well as many subsequent reinterpretations by creators infernally inspired by the original\u2026<\/p>\n

The eerily eclectic Spirit World<\/strong> collection, however, eschews costume continuity in favour of plot and mood-driven tales, opening with the published premier issue: combining primarily comics tales (because DC wouldn\u2019t spring for colour photography illustrations) with prose and black-&-white \u201cFoto-Features\u201d, all driven by the King\u2019s voracious, questing imagination and unique perspectives\u2026<\/p>\n

Printed in spooky blue tones, the arcane explorations unfold with Jack & Vince Colletta\u2019s pictorial investigation of the power of precognition. Preceded by a stunning 3-page Kirby photo-collage, \u2018The President Must Die!\u2019<\/em> – narrated by erudite host\/parapsychologist Dr. E. Leopold Maas<\/em> – recounts and interprets the chilling dreams of an unnamed woman in the days leading up to the assassination of JFK.<\/p>\n

Again sporting a collage intro, \u2018House of Horror!\u2019 <\/em>grippingly relates what happened when Dr. Maas was invited to visit the phantom-plagued Calder House\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Children of the Flaming Wheel!\u2019 <\/em>is a fumetti-work (photographic comic strips that were huge in Europe and an area of storytelling Jack was desperate to develop) depicting the astral journey of a supposed modern cultist, after which tireless Dr. Maas shares his discoveries on the nature of reincarnation by opening \u2018The Lorca File!\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

As \u201ctranscribed\u201d by Kirby\u2019s editorial assistants Steve Sherman & Mark Evanier, \u2018The Spirit of Vengeance!\u2019 <\/em>relates in a terse prose piece Maas\u2019 interaction with a most unquiet and petty revenant before Kirby & Colletta illuminate the astounding accomplishments and warnings of \u2018Nostrodamus!\u2019<\/em> – including all those predictions still pending confirmation\u2026<\/p>\n

The magazine concluded with a page of \u2018Weird Humor\u2019 <\/em>strips by Sergio Aragon\u00e9s (and possibly Dave Manak) and came with a free wallposter. It\u2019s included here for veracity\u2019s sake and because they\u2019re still pretty damn cool\u2026<\/p>\n

Following that tell-all article from Evanier, the majority of the proposed second issue follows in standard monochrome. The strips are taken from their eventual last resting place in DC\u2019s anthologies Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion<\/strong> #6 and Weird Mystery Tales<\/strong> #1-3, and still have insets and copy from other hosts such as Destiny <\/em>(yes!… latterly of the Endless<\/em>!), but the art, plots and most of the scripting is pure Kirby\u2026<\/p>\n

With Mike Royer inking all these later yarns, \u2018Horoscope Phenomenon or The Witch Queen of Ancient Sumeria\u2019 <\/em>opens the fearsome festivities as a bizarre regal apparition visits many modern men and women to change their fates forever, after which the lugubrious Dr. Maas probes a primordial artefact and speculates upon the barbaric life and cataclysmic demise of \u2018Toxl, the World Killer\u2019 <\/em>– a rousing fantasy warrior yarn co-plotted and scripted by Evanier.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by photomontage inserts, \u2018The Burners\u2019<\/em> confounds Maas with a spate of deaths by spontaneous combustion and possible alien incursion – before the mystery-&-imagination moments culminate with uncanny cases of \u2018The Psychic Bloodhound\u2019<\/em>. Co-plotted by Evanier & Sherman, this graphic fictionalisation of a detective with extra-sensory perception is probably based on the exploits of controversial Dutch celebrity sleuth Peter Hurkos<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

Jack Kirby remains a unique and uncompromising artistic force of nature: his words and pictures an unparalleled, hearts-&-minds grabbing delight no comics lover could resist. If you\u2019re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t alter the fact that Kirby\u2019s work from 1937 to his death in 1994 shaped the entire American scene and indeed the entire comics planet – affecting the lives of billions of readers and thousands of creators in all areas of artistic endeavour for generations. He\u2019s still winning new fans and apostles, from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. Jack\u2019s work is instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral, deceptively deep whilst simultaneously mythic and human.<\/p>\n

Wherever your tastes take you, his creations will be there ready and waiting. So, if fear and mystery are your meat, you can wonderfully upset your complacent equilibrium with this classy classic\u2026
\n\u00a9 1971, 1972, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jack Kirby with Mark Evanier, Steve Sherman, Sergio Aragon\u00e9s, Vince Colletta, Mike Royer & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-3418-8 (HB) Jack Kirby was – and remains long after his passing – the master imagineer of American comics. His collected works provide a vast rich trove of astounding narrative delights for any possible occasion. An … <\/p>\n

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