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ART Lauren Bon POETRY Kate Broad, Elisa Gabbert, Paige Taggart URBAN FOLK RELAUNCH INSIDE Reviews of Club Mate, Creaky Boards, Tamara Hey, BOOG CITY Frank Hoier, M. Lamar, and More New Releases A COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER FROM A GROUP OF ARTISTS AND WRITERS BASED IN AND AROUND NEW YORK CITY’S EAST VILLAGE ISSUE 54 FREE Long Live the King Jack Kirby’s Trip from the L.E.S. to Comics’ Icon BY MARK LAMOUREUX Kirby: King of Comics Mark Evanier Harry N. Abrams Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus (Volumes 1-4) DC Comics ver wonder why the Marvel superhero films seem, for the most part, to be soulless CGI spectacles somehow Eentirely divorced from the heart and soul of the classic print stories? The reason for this is because the real-life heart and soul of the characters, Lower East Side-born and bred Jacob Kurtzberg (who got his start as a teen drawing cartoons for the Superman’s Pal is also the work of a man approaching middle age and a man struggling to deal with the extensive social changes that were taking place in the world in the late sixties and early seventies; Kirby’s reaction was surprising and fascinating. Boys Brotherhood Republic’s mimeograph newspaper, just a block away from where the Nuyorican Poets Cafe now stands), better known to all as Jack “The King” Kirby, departed for worlds unknown in 1994. What remained was clever marketing, showmanship, and pithy one-liners—the domain of Kirby’s former assistant-turned-boss Stan Lee. For a glimpse into the story behind this Shakespearean role-reversal and some of the other Courtesy DC Comics Courtesy DC Comics semi-tragic details of The King’s reign, check out the recently to take on. What initially transpired is a testament to the man that Kirby Orphanage on Apokolips and master escape artist, could published biography Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier. was: since he didn’t want to cost any of the existing DC guys a job, be seen as Kirby in the present, having escaped the fetters of What Evanier, also a former Kirby assistant, gives us is a wide- he took control of the only DC title without a consistent creative team, Marvel for a better deal (the tale’s most poignant moments eyed timeline with embellishments, never straying too far from the a laughable Superman spin-off called Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olson. happen between Mr. Miracle and his companion, reputedly surface of things, and never straying too far from borderline hero- He could have taken anything, but, like many of his characters, Kirby based on Kirby’s wife, Big Barda, a ham-fisted female warrior worship. That’s an understandable flaw given that Kirby was a himself had an almost messianic commitment to doing the right thing. who subverted the mold of female comics protagonists of heroic man and artist relentlessly exploited by a young and quickly In his inaugural issue of Superman’s Pal, Kirby laid the foundation the day, and who is constantly bailing Mr. M out of trouble.) growing industry with all of the attendant snakes that slither toward for what would be a multi-issue epic, and, arguably, his masterpiece. Much of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World may seem dated to the the smell of easy money. Of this, With complete creative contemporary reader (Kirby was by no means a racist, but his jive- Evanier provides an adequate The highlight is Kirby’s self-proclaimed control, the saga he produced talking depiction of black characters is archaic. He meant well, but account; it is clear he is bent was 100% Kirby: full of his suffered from the biases of his generation), and Kirby’s innocence on setting the record straight. favorite piece, ‘Street Code,’ in its uninked unique vision and his unique and enthusiasm could be misinterpreted in a post-Alan Moore’s Kirby: King of Comics is entirety, with a full-page centerfold of idiosyncrasies. It is also the Watchmen world as dumb in the head, but Kirby was a man of essentially a coffee-table book. work of a man approaching ideals and an eternal optimist. These two qualities offer the modern It is the right size and contains urban blight that stops the heart. middle age, a man struggling reader a glimpse into the fascinating psyche of an exceptional artist the requisite amount of eye- to deal with the extensive social and writer during a time in which it was thought that writers and candy. That none other than the King of Comics provides this eye- changes that were taking place in the world in the late sixties and artists could realistically change the world for the better. candy is the text’s greatest strength, which, like most other aspects early seventies. Kirby’s reaction to these changes was surprising and of Kirby’s legacy, comes straight from the man himself. Evanier has fascinating. Like everything ahead of its time, however, Kirby’s epic assembled a formidable array of classic artwork, strips, covers, did not sell and reached a premature end, never to be completed in and little-known Kirby stories (the highlight is Kirby’s self-proclaimed Kirby’s lifetime, just another tragic turn in Kirby’s roller-coaster life. Jeff Downey favorite piece, “Street Code,” in its uninked entirety, with a full-page Some of the saga’s lack of success could be that Kirby was Amherst, Mass. centerfold of urban blight that stops the heart) that are well worth telling an older man’s tale in a format that was geared toward from Pasture the price of admission. With this kind of material as his backdrop, adolescent boys. The gravitas and subtlety of the story went far Evanier barely beyond the bounds of what was common in the medium at that needed to write a time. Also in Superman’s Pal, Kirby made significant changes to the Will repair to parts thing. Man of Steel in connection to his overall story, portraying him as a Unknown this time tomorrow Fans looking sort of ultimate square, the straight man to his new cosmic hippies Read the mountebank’s note for a glimpse into and ethnically diverse “kid gang” (Kirby was the progenitor of Kirby’s private mind some of the first African-American characters in comics history). If you dun and the intricacies Superman is lonely and isolated, at times unable to adapt to the Converge upon me and peculiarities of changing world around him. He visits “Supertown,” a city in New Armed and allege his character will be Genesis, Kirby’s Valhalla for the tale, and attacks a misshapen The heat kept in better served turning giant he believes to be an adversary, but is, in reality, a simple An oven is asbestos, hollowed ash to the work itself, automaton helping a sculptor move his artwork around. The aged such as DC Comics’ sculptor chastises him that “Just because protonoids aren’t things For soap I made do with running recently released of beauty is poor reason to persecute them.” Fingers through Mark Evanier and Jack Kirby. four-volume omnibus Superman could be seen as Kirby facing the agonistic nature The hair of citizens of Jack Kirby’s Fourth of the comics medium, and the limitations of its usual morality. Before agency entered them World saga. Always ahead of his time, Kirby said this project would Many of the protagonists of the tale can be seen as a facet Bills in a bad way be best suited by being bound like a book and sold in a “regular of Kirby himself: Orion, the grizzled veteran of the cosmic war bookstore,” decades before the graphic novel format took hold. between Apokolips and New Genesis, the son of the epic’s Realized that future In 1970 Marvel had finally pushed Kirby too far, and, in primary villain, and a hideous monster beneath his helmet due Security meant lackaday response to a lousy contract with no raise in salary, benefits, to the savagery of his heart could be seen as Kirby now at An elixir at least to moonlight or job security, he left for the competition, DC, who offered peace with the war; Mr. Miracle, escaped from a sinister him complete creative control of whatever titles he desired Paige Taggart POETRY Ditmas Park, Brooklyn ligaments inside the Kate Broad light room arched up clouds underneath your Prospect Heights, Brooklyn umbrella hood shook the whole stillness into Girlfish merriment and rocked Salvador, Brazil the hinge open into a belly mostly In the motel mirror on the ceiling it’s a towel and a lithograph starfish arms radiate yellowed and dead. the two swung empty onto Sad mutant fish! Everyone touches you. the day bed Your tubes wriggle obligingly in mirrors and museums. he rides memory When you go down on me, back home puts I think about Marx—short bearded man his back against telling me what to do! a long wall and Starfish project their stomachs spreads his portrait to capture larger prey, but I into making alone don’t have enough. Sliding change home is inside under bulletproof glass, think the girl who what can be done to me. wants to be there I can only see light and dark, I protect only small, unlikely things: another hand, a missing leg, a sea of epithets unraveling in my hair. Maybe all bodies are really other bodies, the poem a poem of debris. Of motorcyclists Elisa Gabbert and coffee carts, homeless and chameleons Boston and sweepers in the park who don’t care about curtains Poem With a Mind Game or how many limbs however many My heart doesn’t hurt, it just feels people make together, over like it hurts.

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