Friday, April 20, 2018

The Grooviest Covers of All Time: Jack Kirby's Fourth World

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! In Ol' Groove's eyes, Jack Kirby's Fourth World universe at DC in the early 1970s is one of the greatest comicbook creations ever. New Gods. Mister Miracle. Forever People. The return of The Guardian and The Newsboy Legion in Jimmy Olsen. Those comics were a huge part of my turn from comicbook reader to comicbook fanatic. Naturally, especially when you consider that King Kirby was inked by the likes of Vinnie Colletta, Mike Royer, Frank Giacoia, and Neal Adams (!), among others, the art was gonna rock and there would be a passel of spectacular covers. Today we're gonna dig on some'a those spectacular covers! These are some of my favorites! What are yours?















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14 comments:

  1. BuddyApril 20, 2018 at 2:20 AM

    The current run of Mister Miracle is getting rave reviews, and apparently the woman who directed 'A Wrinkle in Time' is going to be making a Fourth World film. There's definitely a lot to draw on from these comics.

    ReplyDelete
  2. keythd23April 20, 2018 at 4:44 AM

    I liked New Gods # 1 and Mr. Miracle # 1 the best. The handful of Jimmy Olsen covers where Neal Adams inked Kirby were masterpieces. Imagine the 2 best in the business combined!

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  3. Kevin LakeApril 20, 2018 at 8:07 AM

    Forever People #9 has always been a favorite of mine.

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  4. Charlie Horse 47April 20, 2018 at 11:44 AM

    Kirby's last great works before his style became a parody of itself . Wonderful stuff!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousApril 20, 2018 at 7:54 PM

      Aren't you forgetting the Dingbats Charlie?

      -sean

      Delete
    2. Charlie Horse 47April 22, 2018 at 3:02 PM

      Sean, LOL, thank you for refreshing my aging (addled?) mind. Dingbats is a tweener!

      Delete
    3. AnonymousApril 23, 2018 at 7:35 PM

      You're welcome Charlie, although personally I rate Kamandi, OMAC and The Losers even more highly than the Dingbats - call me crazy, eh?

      -sean

      Delete
  5. hobbyfanApril 20, 2018 at 4:24 PM

    I obtained most of these through secondary markets in the 80's. My brother has a few of these now. It's too bad DC has to overprice the hardcover reprint collections. This was awesome stuff.

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  6. Dave BlanchardApril 20, 2018 at 6:34 PM

    You left out the greatest cover Kirby ever drew (in my opinion, at least): Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen # 141. Don't ask -- just buy it!

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  7. AnonymousApril 20, 2018 at 7:52 PM

    Big Bonus! Big Surprise! Big Barda!
    The words alone make that a great cover.
    Fantastic post Groove.

    -sean

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownApril 20, 2018 at 8:57 PM

    What an amazing bunch of covers. The art was fantastic in these books as well. Unfortunately Kirby's writing skills were not as incredible as his art. The line would have lasted much longer if he used different writers.

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  9. UnknownApril 20, 2018 at 9:00 PM

    Kirby created a great universe and the art was incredible. Unfortunately he had no business writing. Stiff dialog, meandering plots. The line would have lasted longer had he used professional writers.

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  10. BentonGreyApril 21, 2018 at 10:10 AM

    For however much a lot of his 4th World covers were flawed, those Mr. Miracle covers are fantastic. Great post!

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  11. Rip JaggerApril 23, 2018 at 3:42 AM

    I love these covers for what they were, ads for the story underneath. So many modern covers are just pretty pieces of artwork, but fail to communicate what the comic is about. There's little of that with the Kirby 4th World books. It's in your face!

    Rip Off

    ReplyDelete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.

As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!