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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 17, 2021 19:02:45 GMT -5
Do we already have an appreciation thread for the Fourth World?
I’ve been reading Kirby’s original epic Fourth World stories, and my comments are popping up on several threads. I decided to make a separate thread for any and all comments on the Fourth World.
And while we’re at it, let’s expand the theme to cover all of Kirby’s 1970s comics at both Marvel and DC. And all further adventures of Kirbys’s 1970s character and concepts.
The first thing I’m wondering is: How many people have read all of Kirby’s Fourth World series, Jimmy Olsen, The Forever People, The New Gods and Mister Miracle.
I’ve read over half of it. I’m hoping to read them all in the next few weeks.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 17, 2021 19:09:41 GMT -5
I wrote a poem about Metron.
All I Want for X-mas Is a Mobius Chair
Riding along in my Mobius Chair
Seeing the spaceways Cruising the time stream A cosmos tourist In an alley of stars
Do I ever stop and think about the people there?
Living their dumb lives Eating at McDonalds Staring at their phones Trimming their toenails
A little They kinda scare me. Not for what they can do to me But for what they can do to each other FOR NO REASON
But I got a mission, I’m on a schedule, I have messages to deliver and destinies to steer.
I am Metron.
Bam!
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Post by kirby101 on Dec 17, 2021 19:23:24 GMT -5
The only one I didn't read was Jimmy Olsen. Loved New Gods and Mister Miracle. In Forever People, I liked the concepts more than the characters.
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Post by Ricky Jackson on Dec 17, 2021 21:52:49 GMT -5
I've read all the Fourth World books. I read New Gods, Mister Miracle and Forever People around 20 years ago in those black and white reprints DC put out back then. Didn't read Olsen until last year. Also last year, I skimmed the post-Fourth World Mister Miracle and finally read the new story included in the 1980s Baxter reprints of New Gods, plus the graphic novel conclusion, Hunger Dogs. I'm a huge Kirby fan but I'm not a gigantic Fourth World fan. Mister Miracle is my favorite. New Gods has some really good peaks but I'm not really into the characters so much. Honestly, I dont remember much about Forever People. Olsen was a lot of fun for the first half, but the second half is forgettable. Overall, a lot of good stuff and amazing art but far from my favorite Kirby
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 18, 2021 0:05:55 GMT -5
Do we already have an appreciation thread for the Fourth World? I’ve been reading Kirby’s original epic Fourth World stories, and my comments are popping up on several threads. I decided to make a separate thread for any and all comments on the Fourth World. And while we’re at it, let’s expand the theme to cover all of Kirby’s 1970s comics at both Marvel and DC. And all further adventures of Kirbys’s 1970s character and concepts. The first thing I’m wondering is: How many people have read all of Kirby’s Fourth World series, Jimmy Olsen, The Forever People, The New Gods and Mister Miracle. I’ve read over half of it. I’m hoping to read them all in the next few weeks. Wrote a thread about it. Like to hear it, here it goes!
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Post by profh0011 on Dec 18, 2021 0:19:52 GMT -5
My intro was Steve Englehart's MM revival, where I came in on the 2nd (of his 4) issues. Englehart was the main reason I decided to start checking out current DCs in the late 70s. I then also started getting the revived NEW GODS, but it wasn't one-tenth as good as MM. Thanks to an article in AMAZING HEROES with a checklist, I was able to buy MOST of the original comics as back-issues, which, back then, were pretty cheap. But I had some holes, some of which took decades to fill. The early-80s NEW GODS reprints helped. I thought THE HUNGER DOGS was one of the best stories Jack Kirby ever wrote. Decades later, I found out how it had been screwed over ten times to Sunday by editorial, and how an egomaniacal inker had nearly ruined the finished art. OY. When DC reprinted the JIMMY OLSEN run in color, I got those, and was FINALLY able to read the entire initial 6-parter in one go (it reads LIKE A FEATURE FILM!). About 10 or 15 years back, I decided to do a massive chronological Kirby re-reading project, most of which were reprints (which are not the easiest thing to keep track of-- thank goodness I have my own indexes, with a column for reprint info down the right side). I expanded this to re-read all my Marvels in the 60s, and continued up to early 1973... when I stopped, and went back to when Kirby went to DC. I then read EVERY early-70s Kirby DC book I had (and some more I found posted online). I wrote extensive reviews of these, and was posting them as I went on another message board. But there were some really PSYCHOTIC people posting at that board, and eventually, things exploded. However, I do have all the reviews saved in WORD. In case anybody would like to read them. In the re-reading, I got 2 issues into Gerry Conway's NEW GODS revival, when I just had to STOP, DEAD. Even I didn't believe HOW AWFUL those books really were. Nice art, but some of the worst writing I've ever seen in all of the 1970s. It was clear Conway was trying to imitate the style and tone of the late-60s SILVER SURFER. (Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!)
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 18, 2021 0:21:53 GMT -5
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 19, 2021 10:23:52 GMT -5
I have copies of all the Fourth World material, most of which I bought as they were published in the '70s. I also have complete runs of The Demon and Justice, Inc. plus two issues of OMAC. Of his '70s Marvel stuff, I only have his Machine Man run. I do, howver, have all his work from that era in digital form, so I've read (and indexed) everything but his Losers stories.
Cei-U! I summon King Kirby!
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 19, 2021 22:06:48 GMT -5
I have copies of all the Fourth World material, most of which I bought as they were published in the '70s. I also have complete runs of The Demon and Justice, Inc. plus two issues of OMAC. Of his '70s Marvel stuff, I only have his Machine Man run. I do, howver, have all his work from that era in digital form, so I've read (and indexed) everything but his Losers stories. Cei-U! I summon King Kirby! The Losers material is great; some real gems in there, because Kirby's combat experience comes through, in several of the stories. There is one that involves house-to-house fighting, which probably resurrected some of Jack's nightmares. He's told some stories, publicly, of close-quarters combat... (WARNING: Jack isn't shy about his language, at one point)
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 20, 2021 20:26:54 GMT -5
Hoosier X, it's okay to have your own Fourth World thread. No one has the copyright on this subject. I have the complete Mister Miracle run, which is my favorite of the set. I don't expect to ever get the pricey books like Forever People # 1 and Jimmy Olsen # 134 but I have most of the rest. The concepts were amazing but Kirby needed a scripter.
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Post by commond on Dec 25, 2021 20:07:24 GMT -5
I've read it. It's typical of Kirby's 70s work -- strong concepts, strong characters, average writing, unfinished.
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Post by kirby101 on Dec 25, 2021 20:18:13 GMT -5
Unfinished because they didn't let him. Anyway, what does finish mean to an ongoing title. Did the FF or Superman finish?
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Post by berkley2 on Dec 25, 2021 20:34:53 GMT -5
I missed it when it first came out since I wasn't reading comics regularly those years. I gradually became more and more interested in the Fourth World stuff as I got more and more into Kirby's work after his mid-70s return to Marvel, which happened to coincide with my return to comics in a big way. The short-lived Mister Miracle revival written by Englehart, then Gerber also played a part.
But back issues were few and far between where i was living at the time so I had only read a few scattered issues of the three main series until tbd baxter reprints of tne New Gods in the early 1980s. It probably wasnt u til tbe early 90s that I managed to complete the Mister Miracle and Forever People runs and i didnt read anyJimmy Olsen until those black and white reprints Ricky Jackson mentioned came out.
I think it was an absolute masterpiece, unfinished though it was, and underappreciated to this day, as unlikely as that might seem given all the acclaim it's received. But IMO, very little of that has been made manifest in new comics, most of which show show no appreciation of tne original concept or the characters that embody it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2021 20:45:19 GMT -5
Unfinished because they didn't let him. Anyway, what does finish mean to an ongoing title. Did the FF or Superman finish? Kirby did return to DC in the 80s to "finish" the Fourth World stuff the way he wanted. There was a 12th New Gods story added to the Baxter reprint series (it appeared in issue #6 along with issue #11 of the New Gods 1st series) and then he did the Hunger Dogs GN. A lot of collectors ignore those two stories because they ignore everything that was done with the Fourth World characters after Kirby left, but that was kind of the point of doing those stories. What was the ending Kirby had in mind. Now, I don't know if that is what Jack would have done in the early 7os had he not left, but it was the way he chose to write the ending when he had the chance. -M
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 25, 2021 20:47:22 GMT -5
Unfinished because they didn't let him. Anyway, what does finish mean to an ongoing title. Did the FF or Superman finish? Kirby did return to DC in the 80s to "finish" the Fourth World stuff the way he wanted. There was a 12th New Gods story added to the Baxter reprint series (it appeared in issue #6 along with issue #11 of the New Gods 1st series) and then he did the Hunger Dogs GN. A lot of collectors ignore those two stories because they ignore everything that was done with the Fourth World characters after Kirby left, but that was kind of the point of doing those stories. What was the ending Kirby had in mind. Now, I don't know if that is what Jack would have done in the early 7os had he not left, but it was the way he chose to write the ending when he had the chance. -M Mark Evanier has said no and that there was a lot of revision to the Hunger Dogs before it was printed.
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