Jack Kirby

Skip to 1:09 for the King’s adorably straightforward summation of the power of superheroes.

Today would have been Jack Kirby’s 95th birthday. As good a time as any to revisit this interview with him which is, by turns, great and indicative of how comics are always covered.

I always liked Kirby’s work, but it wasn’t until the woman I love got me the first Fourth World Omnibus that I realized just how transcendant him and all his crazy shit could be. It isn’t that I think the Fourth World stuff is better than the Fantastic Four and all those other things he and Stan created, but it was the first time I came across something so purely Kirby that I finally got the worship that was heaped upon him. It’s hard to explain why I love those books so much. In fact, I once wrote an academic paper about the Fourth World, specifically discussing the indescribable sublime in them – so it really is hard to put into words. But I tell you, they’re some of the best comics you could ever find.

Happy birthday, King. I’m sorry that you’re gone, but I look forward to all the retrospectives we’ll get five years from now.

P.S. And eff the Tesla Museum, there’s already one of those. We need our Kirby Museum.

“Epilogue” was how he began the FIRST ISSUE of New Gods.