12/13/22: NEW GOD SMELL

The Drawl on Kirby's New Gods: parts 1 & 2

It has occurred to me that given the fractured nature of social media, a lot of the work I do with THE DRAWL on other platforms might just be flat out missed by people subscribed to this Newsletter. So in an effort to share a subject that has genuinely inspired and educated my approach to telling stories, here’s links to the first two parts of my look at Kirby’s NEW GODS.

Links to both videos, as well as a transcription provided below. The latter for those of you who prefer not to hear the sound of gargling molasses that is my voice.

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By the mid-1960s, the superheroes Jack Kirby had worked for three decades to define were finally thriving at Marvel comics.

But the creative energies which pushed Kirby would not stand still in success. As his work grew more self-actualized, it began to chafe at the demands of commerce and genre.

The success of 1966’s GALACTUS TRILOGY galvanized Kirby’s ambitions— His long run on THOR had repurposed myths distant and removed, but GALACTUS and his herald THE SILVER SURFER opened Kirby’s eyes to the potential of creating GODS of his own. 

By most accounts, Stan Lee seemed to pick up what Kirby was putting down— but argued that a new title full of uncut Kirby mythology would melt more brains than opening the arc of the covenant. Any new pantheon would have to be soft-launched in existing series like THOR. A character whom Lee argued should remain unchanged. 

This grated at Kirby.  Most of the Marvel Universe began at Jack’s drafting board— telling the story as he saw fit, with art— and notes in the margins for Stan to reinterpret.  How could Stan, or anyone have the audacity to ask him to reign in the creative ambition that built the “House of Ideas”? 

Stan’s reason, of course, was business. Specifically that of an in-production THOR cartoon. One that it turns out— offered Kirby no input, consent or royalty.

And if that insult wasn’t bad enough— injury soon followed in Lee and art John Buscema’s SILVER SURFER #1, which cut Kirby’s plans for one of his most personal characters off at the knees.

Burned for the last time, Kirby slowly withdrew. Until such time he could find greener pastures, he'd keep his good ideas to, and for himself.  

But by 1968 that was a moot point— As Stan Lee’s uncle Martin Goodman sold Marvel to the, so evil sounding you couldn’t make it up— PERFECT FILM AND CHEMICAL CORPORATION.

Believing he was every bit the solitary genius they’d read about— Stan was promoted. While a curt phone call offered Kirby a take it or leave it deal—

Jack hung up the phone and called DC Comics’ new art director Carmine Infantino—

RAGNAROK had FINALLY arrived.

(continued below image)

It is unclear whether DC COMICS acquired Jack Kirby for the merit of his work, or as a strategy to weaken their rivals at Marvel. But for Kirby, this was no rebound love affair.

As artist, editor, AND writer— Kirby would at last voice his own work. A whole line of it, on which he was eager to experiment. With new publishing formats, new genres— and most vitally stories that could challenge the perpetual tidiness of the superhero status quo.

Yet for all the stars in his eyes, Kirby knew his new bosses wanted his boots on the ground. He decided his first job would be the only existing DC title that wouldn’t steal anyone else’s.

With its cloning labs and tiny monster movies worshipping planets and Don Rickles cameos— Kirby’s SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN would plant the odd, inventive, and experimental seeds of his NEW GODS. 

But Superman’s inclusion meant oversight. The faces re-drawn to match the corporate model were the first of many frustrating bureaucratic paper cuts. Still, With 3 more interwoven bi-monthly titles to add to his FOURTH WORLD SAGA, he didn’t have time to bleed.

In THE FOREVER PEOPLE, Kirby saw the new teen gods he’d  envisioned to replace the pantheon of THOR find new life. 

-In MISTER MIRACLE, he channeled his feelings of confinement to the comics industry through an exiled New God royal turned escape artist. And his love for his wife Roz through the unconquerable BIG BARDA. 

But perhaps most importantly there was NEW GODS— Where with his RAGNAROK finally realized, Kirby consolidated, entangled, and re-envisioned the very nature of good and evil.

Raised in the paradise of NEW GENESIS, as the greatest weapon of a peaceful society— his ORION is the secret son of great and terrible, DARKSEID. A haunted outcast, forced to hide his true face and nature.  A soldier whose capacity for war is both a grim burden and a violent thrill.

If Captain America was how Kirby prepared for war, ORION was how he intended to reckon with it.

Unshackled— Uncut, Direct from the source. Kirby delivered an abstracted, operatic visual AND written language designed to somehow both distill and transcend reality.  The Cosmic Curb Your Enthusiasm to The Fantastic Four’s Seinfeld— For some THE FOURTH WORLD is almost too imaginative, too inventive, and as Kirby would soon find out…

Too ambitious… (TO BE CONTINUED)

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Hope you enjoyed. If you’d like me to repost more stuff like this, please let me know in the comments. Either way, look for the conclusion in the next newsletter.

Hope you’re well. More soon..