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Underground > Comic Books >

Krushed by the Kirby Kavalkade

MattShepherd: LARGELY ABSENT!

19:43 / 30.01.07

Okay, you people. You've sold me on some dang Kirby already. But other than Essential Avengers and Essential FF, I don't have any Kirby, and when I look at the only real source I have for buying it, it's ... overwhelming.

I'm not crazy about the "Collector" compendiums... too esoteric, I prefer stories... but I'm a bit overwhelmed, tempted by the New Gods and Jimmy Olsen and good ol' Stan the Man and ... whoa. Too much Kirby.

Where does a fella begin?

20:07 / 30.01.07

Of the Marvel work, Kirby's THOR is probably the best for raw dynamism, crazy design, and mad energy. There are four volumes of "Essentials"—big, thick, phonebooks, black-and-white on cheap paper—500+ pages for less than 18 bucks Canadian. If you're looking to play catch-up, that's probably the way to go.

DC did a similar treatment for most of the "Fourth World" books—NEW GODS, THE FOREVER PEOPLE, and MISTER MIRACLE. His JIMMY OLSEN work (which is actually pretty essential to the Fourth World stuff) is also collected, but in a more expensive, full-color/glossy-paper format.

That's the Kirby you need.

20:23 / 30.01.07

Fourth World stuff is great - I can vouch for that. I have very little to add, I'm affraid, save that this stuff is a lot more influential than many people realise.

Decadent Daytripper in Love
(prev. Decadent Daytripper Falls Up)

20:44 / 30.01.07

Some of the Fourth World stuff can also be found in cheap B&W trades that are not color-remove, but just gray-scaled. Still, fun books and useful if you can't afford the other route(s).

21:28 / 30.01.07

If you want the pure Kirby Krack, I suggest THOR, FANTASTIC FOUR, and MISTER MIRACLE, & NEW GODS.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

21:57 / 30.01.07

Kirby's Eternals was excellent crazy fun. Had the giant machines older then time vibe going for it, which Kirby excelled at.

Decadent Daytripper in Love
(prev. Decadent Daytripper Falls Up)

22:01 / 30.01.07

If there's an 'OMAC' trade, get that immediately. Pure supercomics. It's like everything Grant Morrison ever wrote condensed into a few issues through the lens o' Kirby. Virtual kill-yer-boss stress-relief room, robot comfort, info-beaming superpower-bestowing satellite of militant love, identity politics, worldwide organization of orange-mask-skin superagents trying to save us all... and a guy with a mohawk fucking up the superrich and smashing tanks. And the best cancelled-before-done single panel wrap-up ever accomplished in the history of the medium.

22:05 / 30.01.07

There is no OMAC trade, but there should be.

If you want the awesome Fourth World stuff, I'd wait for the deluxe hardcover Fourth World Omnibus that will collect them all in order. The first volume is out May 31st. I want it now.

I am a bat. I am a man.
(prev. Triplets)

01:25 / 31.01.07

There's also this thread I started two years ago on Kirby. Sadly, it does not have the better title.

Papers, anyone, anywhere?
(prev. Papers @ 21C !)

01:42 / 31.01.07

worldwide organization of orange-mask-skin superagents trying to save us all...

Man! The Global Peace Agency! Each agent's identity disguised by bizarre chemicals to look like blank orange expanses (in a perfect world I'd love if they were derived from the technology of Tot Rodor), so that no one may deduce which nation they come from.

04:04 / 31.01.07

FF's gotta be on the list.

I second the recccy for ETERNALS. BLACK PANTHER is ace and whacky until the final issue or two. And do not forget DEVIL DINSOSAUR!

THOR gets REALLY good in the 2nd Essential.

You MUST buy the New Gods/4th World HC Omnibuses (Omnibusi) so that DC will like the sales and reprint DEMON & OMAC too.

KAMANDI is pretty neat-o, keen-o too. Bruce Timm wrote the intro to the 1st Archive. Wish to heck he'd do a KAMANDI mini as well!

Ultimately, most Kirby is fun Kirby, even CAPTAIN VICTORY. I went to the Masters of Comic Art show when it was in LA and seeing a two page BLACK PANTHER spread and two separate pages of CV was eye opening. Even this "non-essential" work just leaped off the page and had an awesomely surreal look, almost like an undergroundish primitive strip that could have been in RAW. (Eisner, Crumb & Kurtzman were also wonder to stare at too).

If you get a chnace to see this traveling exhibit I stronly reccomend it. It's worth a long drive and an overnight stay too.

04:04 / 31.01.07

So i guess I sort of failed to help you KULL THE KROP, but I do love it all.

Papers, anyone, anywhere?
(prev. Papers @ 21C !)

19:53 / 03.01.08

It isn't a trade, it isn't a collection or a big ass hardback of lovely, but:

OMAC Eighty-Page Giant coming out on February 6, 2008!

I've only ever been able to get my hands on the very first issue and I crave some Kirby OMAC! Plus, beautiful Sook cover.

20:12 / 03.01.08

Actually, they're coming out with a deluxe hardcover OMAC Omnibus in May, so skip the mostly-non-Kirby one-shot and just buy the good shit.

Spyder Todd 2008

03:01 / 05.01.08

The Fourth World Omnibuses have made me Kirby obsessed like crazy, especially for the more obscure stuff. The Fantastic Four stuff isn't nearly as cool as the zany stuff. So I had my dealer order me a the Devil Dinosaur Omnibus last week. It came in today, and I am hella excited...

04:09 / 05.01.08

Those Fourth World omnibuses are the crack. It's going to be sad to see the saga end/get cut off in the next one. I'm looking forward to the OMAC after that though, judging by the response here.

Papers, anyone, anywhere?
(prev. Papers @ 21C !)

04:34 / 05.01.08

I've got Devil Dinosaur ordered, actually, for pretty cheap. And OMAC! I'm excited about OMAC.

08:13 / 05.01.08

I think THE DEMON will be next up on the omnibus horizon and I would LOVE DC to do an hc of THE LOSERS (1970s), which I only discovered at the last SDCC when Gaiman said one of the issues was his fave Kirby story, thenb Darwyn Cooke changed his answer to the same issue. Panel host Mark Evanier indicated that most of Kirby's output will be in print within the next 2 years.

Papers, anyone, anywhere?
(prev. Papers @ 21C !)

21:56 / 05.01.08

THE DEMON? That means some original weird Puritan Klarion monster action. Witch-World. Klarion before he sold out and did "Sins of Youth."

I haven't actually seen the OMAC omni solicited yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I've never read past the first issue with it's creepy "woman in a box" opening -- THIS IS THE WORLD YET TO COME! -- and those orange-faced Peace Agents. United Nations as Weird, Hiveminded Super-People? "They must never know our nationality."

Which LOSERS story was this famous one?

04:40 / 06.01.08

DO not have it at hand, but it's about a pulp fiction/comics fan who helps the Losers out with tragic results.

05:54 / 06.01.08

Devil Dinosaur is the best comic about a dinosaur kicking other dinosaurs to death ever. It sounds superficial and dumb, but remember, this is KIRBY, so it becomes a massive saga with a bizarre, dino-laden sci-fi take on the Garden of Eden story interlaced with some awesome dinosaur action adventures, some of which get quite brutal for a 70s kids comic. Marvelous stuff.

Papers, anyone, anywhere?
(prev. Papers @ 21C !)

23:25 / 09.01.08

So, obviously Doom Patrol trade #6 isn't out until next week, and you'd think that would place me into a suicidal trance, immobilizing most of my fine motor skills-- but when I got home from lunch, what was in the mail box for me? The Devil Dinosaur Omnibus.

Wow!

Now, I read the opening pages and then I flipped around it a bit, but! Our Heroes encountering a gigantic man with a weird Triceratops plushie suit! Bizarre Kirby Spacemen firing upon the world! Old-ass letter pages and house ads for the Beatles(?)!