2018.047 Jack Kirby 100th Celebration Collection

Jack Kirby 100th Celebration Collection
Written by: Howard Chaykin, Shane Davis, Dan Didio, Mark Evanier, Keith Giffin, Reginald Hudlin, Sam Humphries, Dan Jurgens, Paul Levitz, Steve Orlando, Walter Simonson
Illustrated by: Ryan Benjamin, Jon Bogdanove, Mark Buchingham, Howard Chaykin, Denys Cowan, Shane Davis, Michelle Delecki, Richard Friend, Keith Giffen, Dan Green, Phil Hester, Scott Kolins, Rick Leonardi, Ande Parks, Steve Rude, Bill Sienkiewicz, Walter Simonson
DC Comics

161 The Demon By Jack Kirby

I've gone on record before stating I'm not a Kirby fan.  I did read his Mister Miracle recently and actually enjoyed it.  Mister Miracle is probably my favorite Kirby creation ever.  The Demon has always been another Kirby creation that I've always liked.  I figured that if I enjoyed Mister Miracle as much as I did, the same could be said for the Demon.

I was wrong.  I really didn't like very much of this.  It was just way too Kirby for my tastes.  Maybe it's because, according to the forward, he created the book, planned to do a little bit with it and pass it off to other creators.  DC didn't let that happen, though, so maybe he didn't put the right kind of energy in the book?  I don't know.  I do know that I only ever recall reading the first issue of this before, so this was all new to me.  I see the base he tried to lay down for the series, but he mostly neglected it.  Other writers took the seeds he planted and worked with them the way they needed to be worked.

I still love the Demon.  I think just about everyone who has touched him since Kirby did a great job with him.  I need to look into more post-Kirby Demon.

The Demon By Jack Kirby

Writer: Jack Kirby

Artist: Jack Kirby, Mike Royer

DC Comics

139 Mister Miracle By Jack Kirby

I'm going to say something very controversial.  I don't like Jack Kirby.  I don't think he's the shit like everyone else does.  I'm not a huge fan of his writing.  I'm not a huge fan of his art.  I appreciate that he's a creative behemoth and he's responsible for some of the most well loved and most enduring properties in comics, but I'm just not a fan.

However, Mister Miracle may be my absolute favorite Kirby creation.  Everything about his sings to me.  His costume is simple, yet complex.  It's bright and shiny and happy.  His back story is tragic but his current story is positive.  He's a fun character and he has great adventures.

Sure, most of the stories in here are kind of awful, but they're fun awful.  And we get all 18 fun but awful action packed issues of Kirby's run.  We get a lot of Kirby's Fourth World characters showing up for different stories, which is neat.  He was writing, drawing and editing the whole Fourth World set of books for a number of years.  I don't know how he did it.  Granted, they weren't monthly books.  Bi-monthly at best, but that's a lot of pages to be putting out on a regular basis.

Anyway, if I was going to pick on Kirby book to love on for his 100th anniversary celebration, it would be this book.

Mister Miracle By Jack Kirby

Writer: Jack Kirby

Artist: Jack Kirby, Mike Royer

DC Comics