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Welcome to an 'Omnibus Edition' of covers compiled from three separate posts about The Eternals, featuring Jack Kirby's issues from the '70s and the Sal Buscema-drawn issues from the '80s. Having all 32 images together in one post saves you from having to trawl through the blog's 'back-catalogue' in order to find them, so it's a lot handier. The Eternals was the longest-lasting title Jack did when he returned to Marvel, but at only 19 issues plus an Annual, it hardly set the comics-buying world alight. (Nor did the recent movie.)
Jack was still full of ideas, of course, but this series seemed curiously unconnected from the rest of the Marvel Universe. Did the cosmic-powered android Hulk exist only because there was a fictional Hulk TV show, or was there a 'real' Hulk that the android was based on? It was all slightly ambiguous. Yeah, Shield Agents made an appearance or two, but there were no established names or characters you'd actually recognise - and did the initials of Shield stand for the same name of the agency in the MU? Who knew?
It's a funny old world when comics by the co-architect of Marvel seemed like 'second-banana' mags and not the main and major titles published by the company, but Jack failed to make much of an impact on his return to Marvel. Had he lost his touch? Probably not, but Kirby was still producing comics of the kind he'd been doing in the '50s and '60s and, sadly for him, comics had moved on since then, being a tad more sophisticated and relevant than in his heyday. The 'King' may still have held an honorary crown, but the 'monarchy' had been abolished and he no longer dominated the world of comicbooks in the way he once had.
Anyway, enjoy browsing through Jack's 'last gasp' at Marvel, and if you see things differently from me, don't be afraid to say so in our comments section. Remember, click on images to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.
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(As far as I remember, I only ever had the first four [possibly five] issues and the Annual when they first came out [the ones seen here are my originals], not acquiring the remainder of the run until sometime in the early or mid-'90s. Note that #19 is a cents copy, as is the Annual.)
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And just for the sake of completeness, below is the 12-issue limited series from around the mid-'80s. I think The Eternals may've had other series down through the years since then (not sure), but if so, as I don't have them, I can't show them. I could never get too invested in the characters, so it's unlikely I'd buy any new issues if they were to be revived in the future.
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16 comments:
Thanks for posting this, Kid, as it's interesting to see all the covers together. For me, The Eternals are in the category of "faux nostalgia" that I mentioned recently. I completely missed them the first time around, as I stopped buying comics in summer 1976 when I was getting ready to go to university. But I discovered them retrospectively in the early 1990s, when they appealed to me for the "ancient alien" theme which is something that's always fascinated me. Kirby Marvel comics of this era have really wacky storylines and great layouts (both of which are good), but I can't say I like the finished art as it looks too ugly and heavy to my eyes. I wasn't aware of the 1980s mini-series, but those covers are all really great!
It's a real shame that he didn't have an inker on the series who could dilute his 'idiosyncrasies' and enhance his strengths, AM, but I think his art was probably beyond being improved to any great level by this period in his career, so abstract and cartoonish had it become. I've tried re-reading these comics from time-to-time, but I find them somewhat tedious because of Kirby's clunky scripting.
I'd include The Eternals #1 in my top 20 favourite Marvel covers.
Which one, CJ - Kirby or Simonson?
Kirby.
And what are the other 19?
I really enjoyed Kirby's work on this series and until very recently I had every issue ( I still have issues 1 -3, 15 and the annual) - I always felt Kirby's return to Marvel was pretty good and his art , while not being what it was in his prime in the 1960s, was still pretty strong. I also enjoyed his frankly insane run on the Black Panther, and some of 2001 was pretty decent in places.
As much as I like Sal Buscema I never picked up his run on the Eternals' I remember looking at them hoping it would improve, but it wasn't his best work (and I a big fan of Sals) awful lettering on the (non Kirby) Eternals logo as well.
I would guess that Kirby probably didn't want to come back and do things like FF or THOR, any more than Ditko wanted to do SPIDEY or DOC STRANGE. In both cases they probably felt they'd helped create those successful features but got frozen out of profit participation by Martin Goodman, who MAY have made some false promises to Ditko at least. And such returns probably would have hemmed them in creatively, so both of them wanted to go off and do their own things, preferably without being dragged into mainstream continuity. I have the impression that as working professionals both artists thought the continuity thing was a lot of bother, and they did it only because editor Lee was calling the shots. MAYBE Kirby got into the spirit of the idea more than Ditko, but that may be because so many of the crossovers (Thor meets Super-Skrull) had come from his design-sense.
Back in the day, ETERNALS was a letdown after the Fourth World, and I've never seen anyone, even Neil Gaiman, do much with the characters. The best thing to come of the concept appeared in Grant Morrison's JUSTICE LEAGUE, where a villain mocks Orion by calling him "Mister 'Was God a Spaceman.'" At least I thought that was directed less at Orion than at Ikaris or someone from ETERNALS.
I like #2 too but mostly I agree with yours and Andrew's criticisms of the covers, Kid. I recall that Kirby's art was much better INSIDE the comics though, wasn't it?
Sal was drawing in the style of Walter Simonson at this time, McS, so it wasn't his usual style of artwork. To me, Kirby's artwork was too 'blocky' and cartoonish on his mid-'70s Marvel stuff, but it had been for a while, sadly.
May I direct you to AM's post before this one? I'm sure you'll find it interesting.
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That's probably so, GP, but he didn't have a problem doing covers for the FF and Thor mags. I suspect Marvel considered his interior art 'out-of-sync' with what fans of the two series would've expected at the time so didn't really want him on the mags anyway. A rare case of Kirby and Marvel both wanting the same thing - or not wanting to be more precise.
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I wouldn't say much better, CJ - or any better in fact. He just wasn't the visual storyteller he'd once been. His art looked 'rushed' and had for some time by this period in his career.
Kid, I forgot to mention that I searched for Caramac bars in Tesco but I couldn't find any so I suppose that explains why I was unfamiliar with the brand when I heard they were being discontinued.
People have been buying them up since it was announced they were being discontinued, CJ. There were probably loads of them in the shops the day before the news was broken.
I have a random issue of the Kirby run - #8 - but nothing has compelled me yet to seek out other back issues. Somehow the Kirby composition and power was diminished, even from the latter part of the seventies when he returned to Marvel. It seemed that his heart wasn't in it. There are some strange gems to be found in his final work at DC - the Super Powers comics and his final Superman/Challengers team up have some merit, but a pale shadow of his work from the late sixties at Marvel into the early seventies at DC.
I think his Super Powers series are awful, B, and do his rep no favours. Like you say, his heart didn't seem to be in it any more, nor was his drawing hand. A sad end to a once-grand career. When are you doing a new post, or will I find one once I finish typing this reply?
Kid, thanks for the nudge. The SuperStuff blog has been dormant for far longer than intended. I suppose just a mixture of other pursuits getting in the way and writer's block on finding something new to blog about. A lot of my ideas end up requiring more research than anticipated. Plus I've been helping pal Nigel Brown on an upcoming project that you should see a post about before too long. That said, I do have a number of blogs half-finished on the back boiler, so you've given me the impetus to get something done! Thanks again.
Nae bother, B. Blogger land has been sadly impoverished without your renewed presence.
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