 |
| Copyright DC COMICS |
NEW GODS was arguably JACK KIRBY's greatest achievement at DC COMICS - and also his biggest failure. How so? Achievement in that it brought a whole new dimension to the DC universe which still survives in some form-or-other to this very day; failure in that it never really caught on with the comics-buying public and was cancelled after 11 issues.
Being inextricably connected to Kirby's 'FOURTH WORLD' concept, perhaps it was sadly inevitable that The FOREVER PEOPLE, MISTER MIRACLE, and JIMMY OLSEN would sadly suffer from a 'knock-on' effect as a result of readers' seeming lack of interest in the whole NEW GENESIS/APOKOLIPS scenario. On SUPERMAN'S PAL, the 'King' lasted 15 issues, MARK MOONRIDER and his team shared the same fate as ORION & Co (cancellation after 11 issues), and SCOTT FREE changed direction and managed to escape publishing oblivion - at least for another 7 issues.
I remember, one day during my school lunch hour, thumbing through New Gods #3 in the neighbourhood newsagent's and being singularly unimpressed by the contents. The dialogue seemed leaden, the colours (despite the gaudy apparel of The BLACK RACER) murky and unattractive and the other various characters unappealing. I didn't buy it at the time, but acquired it later when I finally entered Kirby's Fourth World through the pages of Jimmy Olsen.
Although it was a brave try by Kirby to reshape DC Comics in MARVEL's image, DC had miscalculated in assuming that Jack was the man mainly responsible for Marvel's success. Had they also lured STAN LEE away with Jack (an unlikely possibility - Stan was perfectly happy with his lot at Marvel), they might have been onto something. Unfortunately, 'free and unfettered', Kirby was not quite the force he had been with Lee, and he returned to Marvel five years later.
That said, however, New Gods is now a firmly-established and fondly-recalled part of my vanished boyhood, so let's celebrate that ol' JACK MAGIC with all 11 covers to the short-lived series. Kirby never really produced a 'bad' comicbook in his life - it's just that some were better than others. And even if New Gods wasn't one of the better ones - let's face it - it was still well-worth reading. (Though, if I'm being totally honest - give me THOR The MIGHTY anytime!)
12 comments:
New Gods was simply too sophisticated for most readers but the biggest problem was DC raising cover prices to 25cents.By the time they knew it was it mistake they had lost valuable numbers of readers.
I don't think that was the main problem, otherwise a whole slew of other comics would've been affected. The primary cause, I believe, was that Marvel fans who picked up Jack's DC titles didn't like them because they weren't 'Marvel' enough. And DC fans didn't think they were 'DC' enough. The higher price wouldn't have helped 'though.
I also have to say that Jack's DC output didn't strike me as 'sophisticated' - then or now. (And certainly not by the standard of some mags available at the time.)
DC later went back to 32 pages at 20 cents, so their 48-pages-at-25-cents format evidently did not work out, although it probably was not any more of a problem for the Kirby titles than for, say, Superman or Batman. (I know those prices sound like a steal today, but, back then, most comic book fans were kids, not physicists and engineers. Their income was from allowances and/or kids' jobs, like paper routes and yard work. And for the price of four DC comics, you could have bought five or six Marvels at that time.) Also, today, first issues of new series get snapped up by collectors and investors. Back then, new series did not always sell, because they were an unknown quantity. Comics were bought to be read, and a lot of fans preferred to buy the latest issue of an older series that they already knew and liked. And, as you say, the Fourth World was too DC for Marvel fans and vice versa. DC probably hoped that Kirby's fans would follow him, but Marvelites had been conditioned to assume that anything published by Marvel was inherently cool, and anything by any other publisher was inherently uncool, regardless of artist or writer. -TC, aka Anon
Over in Britain, the 25c mags sold for 7 1/2 pence, which was only 2 1/2 pence more than the standard-sized mags at 5 pence. Personally, I never let the extra cost deter me from buying a comic I wanted, and I only got 25 pence pocket money per week at the time. I think a lot of Kirby's fans did follow him - but when they saw what was on offer they jumped back to Marvel again. Thanks for commenting.
I've read arguments suggesting that the New World stuff actually sold better than is typically suggested. Somehow the numbers were better than were reported to Kirby. I find it hard to believe that DC would turn its back on any book which sold reasonably well regardless if the powers that be didn't quite "grok" it.
There's always been some hint that Carmine Infantino didn't really cotton to what Kirby cooked up and just let the books die off. That's seems far-fetched to me frankly. Carmine effectively hired Kirby, you'd think he'd want that to pay off. Maybe when the books didn't blast off, he thought he ought to be more in the middle of things.
Perhaps Kirby's timing was just miserable as his books did fall right on the line when the malicious twenty-five cent pricing struck. I loved those hefty books full of cool reprints, but apparently not so the broader comics public.
Needless to say, I loved the whole Fourth World better than you did at the time. For me the saga struck a chord that still hums all these decades later.
Beautiful gallery! Thanks.
Rip Off
Hi, Rip. Actually, I did grew to like Kirby's DC stuff within a very short space of time. It's just that I was initially resistant to New Gods and Forever People for whatever reason. Also, I just don't regard the Fourth World mags as Jack's 'magnum opus', 'though they might have been in terms of aspiration, if not accomplishment.
As regards your observations, I'd agree with you. Carmine Infantino has always claimed that Jack's books were cancelled due to low sales, and he's stuck to that explanation in the face of modern-day attempts to cast doubt on its veracity. "No one cancels a book that's making money!" is his assertion, and I see no reason not to believe him.
I loved the idea of the 4th World comics (and Kirbys output and great covers ) but not the actual books themselves - I didn't think they were (imho) sophisticated as such (but understand the comment) but more just a wee bit weird/strange for the time (as they probably were meant to be) - My main issue was that there were no really strong main hero characters (except the villain Darkseid , you need a strong character in the hero role to counteract the a big bad guy) but just loads (to many?) excellent secondary characters - saying that the characters and concepts are pretty key to DCs universe which just reinforces Kirbys vision - strangely whilst I do like New Gods I much preferred his Eternals book that he did for Marvel - McScotty
Although Kirby's New Gods elements are a key part of the DC Universe, I think that's come about as a result as them being promoted out of respect and admiration for Kirby, rather than because they were particularly great ideas. Kirby fans-turned-creators wanted to work on anything connected to Jack, so his DC characters and concepts were 'revived' and given a bit of a push at a later date.
Like you, with the possible exception of Mister Miracle, I never felt that most of Jack's other characters were ever anything more than second-stringers. I think that's why the mags never quite took off at the time.
As for the Eternals, although I enjoyed it, again, I felt that the characters were Kirby on auto-pilot. Perhaps more natural-sounding dialogue would have helped the characters seem more real, instead of the rather one-dimensional people they came across as.
All I can say is thank goodness Jack didn't dialogue Thor and the FF in the '60s. They'd probably have been cancelled.
Reading between the lines it's reasonable to assert that Kirby's timing in the move was unfortunate. DC had just lost their control over distribution and the 43% dip in sales would have seen a few headless chickens running around. In that circumstance a little blame shifting might cause unwarranted casualties. That's speculation of course so take it with a pinch of salt. My first encounter with Kirby's 4th world was a copy of Turpin's Terrible... handed round the back of an English class, if my reaction and that of my peers is any indicator of consumer approval then it's probably safe to say reaction to the New Gods might be favourable. Bare in mind that this is a town where a single newsagent picked up the odd Marvel, DC and Charlton, occasionally. You should've seen the drawings in the next art class, lol. It's interesting to see the reaction of someone who was more familiar with US comics. The unfavourable comparison between Kirby's dialogue and Lee's is quite common and it's one that goes over my head a bit, sure I can see the difference but for me Kirby is much less tedious and I quite like his cadence. Anyway I haven't read any of these in quite a while so I'd better dig 'em out before my eyesight is completely shot.
The awful thing is, DC has been built on nothing but Darseid and Apokolips since Jack's time at DC. All of the Bruce Timm cartoons, right up to Grant Morrison's Crisis and the the New 52 Justice League. If I was Kirby's Family, I'd be maybe more pissed at DC than Marvel ... nothing has come out of DC since the 70s that doesn't involve the 4th World themes. Once again, Jack created a whole economy for someone else other than his own family. That's cosmically sad and tragic.
DSE, to me Stan's scripting sings and dances, whereas Jack's stumbles and staggers a bit by comparison. It usually takes me a couple of pages or so to adjust to it, but I enjoy Jack's stuff as well. It's just that I prefer Stan's, and being so used to reading comics drawn by Jack that were scripted by Stan, that's how I expect mags drawn by Jack to flow. Anything else doesn't seem quite 'right' somehow.
******
Anon, right after Jack left DC, it seems to me that his Fourth World concepts were downplayed, if not ignored, in most DC mags - apart from a brief revival of New Gods by Mark Evanier (in Adventure Comics I think). I have the impression that it wasn't until Jack returned to DC and 'completed' his New Gods saga, that the concepts started to be re-incorporated into the DC universe on a much larger scale. Also, as I said, by that time fans who had read the series as kids and had since turned professional, wanted to play with Kirby's 'toys' and started to use the characters again in the various Superman titles.
However, at least DC gave Jack royalties on the characters he'd created from the Super Powers toy line, even if, legally, they weren't obliged to do so.
"I did grew..."? Obviously I meant " I did grow..." in one of my above comments.
Post a Comment