Starlin did complete four OMAC back-ups that would eventually see the light of day in Warlord a couple years later (in issues 37-40, to be exact). And yep, Ol' Groove'll have 'em for you over the course of the next few Thursdays. Who loves ya, baby?
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Bring On the Back-ups: "The Return of OMAC!" by Starlin and Rubinstein
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! One of the most potentially cool-yet-ultimately-disappointing things about the DC ExImplosion was the glimpse of Jim Starlin's revamp of Jack Kirby's OMAC in the back of Kamandi #59 (June 1978). Potentially cool 'cause, hey, it was Jim-freakin'-Starlin (finished and inked by a young Joe Rubinstein) picking up the dangling threads and cliff-hanger ending from OMAC's long-deceased mag. Ultimately disappointing because that one 8 pager was all we got, 'cause that was the final ish of Kamandi. Sigh. It was a pretty amazing back-up feature, though, don'tcha think...?
Starlin did complete four OMAC back-ups that would eventually see the light of day in Warlord a couple years later (in issues 37-40, to be exact). And yep, Ol' Groove'll have 'em for you over the course of the next few Thursdays. Who loves ya, baby?
Starlin did complete four OMAC back-ups that would eventually see the light of day in Warlord a couple years later (in issues 37-40, to be exact). And yep, Ol' Groove'll have 'em for you over the course of the next few Thursdays. Who loves ya, baby?
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There are 3 pencillers who teamed with Joe Rubinstein always made comic book magic: Alan Weiss, Mike Nasser/Netzer and Judo Jim Starlin. This latter team provided some of the best memories of the Bronze age for me, producing such classics as Avengers Annual # 7, Marvel Two-In-One Annual # 2, Super-Team Family # 11 and Superboy and the LSH # 239. The powers that be must have felt so too as this wonder team popped up in DC, Marvel, Warren and Valiant. Thanks for this entry. 8 pages of sheer beauty doing OMAC in a way Kirby never could.
ReplyDeleteFoolish me. Super-Team Family # 11 was Weiss/Rubinstein. Guess my 60 year old memory isn't as great as it used to be.
DeleteA Kirby-less Kamandi and OMAC in the same comic..!? C'mon, thats a double dose of disappointment.
ReplyDeleteThe original run of OMAC by Kirby was stupendous, the greatest US monthly of the 70s.
Jim Starlin, John Byrne... whoever they got to rework it was never able to pull it off.
-sean
My first issue of Kamandi was #59, and both the Kamandi and Omac features were exciting and promised a lot more to come. I was ready for it, and then, of course, the next issue never came out!
ReplyDeleteYep, I saw the Omac stories in the Warlord, but by then my excitement for it had lost a lot of steam, and I knew that Starlin was unlikely to pick up where *he* left off. And then we got new writers Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn (nicknamed "The Two-Headed Writer") on the Omac series, with art by newcomer Greg Larocque (with Vince Colletta inking, natch!), and while kind of interesting, it was far from Kirby and Starlin.
And the Kamandi follow-up in The Brave and the Bold was a real letdown from the hype of the ending in #59.
The OMAC backup series by Starlin was, of course, a casualty of the aDC Implosion of Oct 1978. The 3 part story eventually saw print as a backup series in WARLORD 37-39 (37 reprinting the OMAC 8-pager from KAMANDI 59).
ReplyDeleteAll three Starlin OMAC stories were reprinted as a COUNTDOWN SPECIAL: OMAC, in April 2008. Along wwith the Kirby origin story from OMAC 1 (Sept-Oct 1974), and another OMAC story from DC COMICS PRESENTS 61 (Sept 1983) by Wein and Perez/Marcos.
I loved that BRAVE AND THE BOLD 120 story (July 1975) by Aparo, and kind of hoped Aparo would do the KAMANDI series after Kirby left with issue 40. But at least we have the one issue. The later BRAVE AND THE BOLD 157 (Dec 1979) was as you say, a disappointment. But across many issues of BRAVE AND THE BOLD, Aparo's work on many Kirby characters was about the best you could ask for, outside of Kirby himself. I have the complete hardcover Kirby runs of THE DEMON, KAMANDI, OMAC, THE LOSERS (reprinting OUR FIGHTING FORCES 151-162), KIRBY OMNIBUS vol 2 (reprinting Kirby's SANDMAN issues), DAYS OF THE MOB hardcover, and SPIRIT WORLD hardcover. And JIMMY OLSEN two-volume paperbacks (a new complete JIMMY OLSEN hardcover is either just out or will be in a few months.)
The Fourth World reprints DC keeps screwing up, and I prefer them in their original form.
Starlin was doing a lot of exciting stuff in that period. A two-part Batman story in DETECTIVE 481-482, stories in DC COMICS presents, three LEGION stories, some covers for a lot of DC titles, DARKLON THE MYSTIC for the Warren magazines (collected in color by Pacific Comics in a single issue, in 1983, Starlin's WARLOCK and CAPTAIN MARVEL runs reprinted in nicer Baxter-reprint series in 1982-1984, and best of all for me, Starlin's "Metaamorphosis Odyssey" series in EPIC ILLUSTRATED 1-9, THE PRICE graphic novel, and DREADSTAR graphic novel. And Starlin's DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, Marvel's first graphic novel.
That's quite an unbroken run of really outstanding work.