SERIOCOMIC (39)
By:
September 25, 2019
One in a weekly series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of our favorite comic books, comic strips, and graphic novels.
THE ETERNALS ANNUAL
The first comic that I sought out, the one that set me on the path of being a comic book artist, was Marvel Tales No. 67, purchased at the Big V drugstore in May 1976. R. Crumb’s 1969 solo title Despair changed my thinking about what a comic could be. Love and Rockets No. 3 was the first comic I felt was written for my generation alone. But the comic I want to single out, somewhat arbitrarily, for this series, is Jack Kirby’s Eternals Annual No. 1 (August 1977). I vividly recall purchasing it, as a teenager; and I can still read it with pleasure and respect — not simply nostalgia.
Kirby’s The Eternals series (1976–1978) bowled me over. It’s simultaneously a more brilliant, bold, sophisticated version of Chariots of the Gods and yet it’s also more naive. Kirby was always a sophisticated genius and an excited kid at the same time. He absorbed pop culture junk — not only Chariots of the Gods but 2001, Planet of the Apes, whatever — and transformed it into new and wonderful forms. His 1970s comics in particular have great visual and narrative power. No one, and I mean no one since Picasso, has drawn with such such confidence. His drawings are so monumental they feel practically carved out of stone; his writing is vivid, too.
At age 56, I can still read the first (and last) Eternals Annual and lose myself in Kirby’s tale. Thena, Karkas, and the Reject travel from Olympia to a hotel in San Francisco to unlock the mystery of menaces from the ancient past who have recently reappeared: Jack the Ripper, Attila the Hun, a neanderthal; later, they fight a giant monster named Tutinax. If The Eternals had carried on, Karkas and the Reject — a hideous monster with the soul of a gentleman, and a handsome beauty with the soul of a remorseless killer — would have been the breakout characters. Kirby’s dialectic of noble/ugly and savage/beautiful isn’t truly profound, I know. But this story is epic, striking, moving, cosmic… and at the same time, silly. Maybe even stupid, but the right kind of stupid. Let’s call it: teenage profundity. It works for me.
I’m moved by the story of Kirby himself: a working-class hero robbed by the industry he practically created from his own genius. This humble man cranked out tens of thousands of comic-book pages — each one marked by his enthusiasm for the work. I love how straightforwardly, unashamedly, he poured his inner life onto the page. He was so big, and the comic industry was so small. Long live the King!
SERIOCOMIC: Mimi Lipson on LITTLE LULU | Sara Ryan on AMPHIGOREY | Gary Panter on THE NUT BROS./THE SQUIRREL CAGE | Gordon Dahlquist on POGO | Robert Wringham on VIZ | Matthew De Abaitua on CAPTAIN BRITAIN | Jessamyn West on FUN HOME | Bradley Peterson on HELLBOY | Stephanie Burt on KITTY PRYDE RETURNS | Jenny Davidson on OOR WULLIE | Luc Sante on MARSUPILAMI | Susan Roe on BLOOM COUNTY | Marilyn Berlin Snell on CHARLES ADDAMS | Deb Chachra on ARKHAM ASYLUM | Judith Zissman on ERNIE POOK’S COMEEK | Alexandra Lange on BETTY (ARCHIE) | Catherine Newman on VERONICA (ARCHIE) | Josh Glenn on SPIRE CHRISTIAN COMICS | Adam McGovern on THE CREW | William Nericcio on ERRATA STIGMATA | Chelsey Johnson on DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR | Sherri Wasserman on TANK GIRL | Tom Nealon on MEGATON MAN | Erin M. Routson on THE WEDDING OF SCOTT SUMMERS & JEAN GREY | Douglas Wolk on FRANK IN THE RIVER | Annie Nocenti on DICK TRACY | James Parker on 2000 AD | Adrienne Crew on NUTS | Vanessa Berry on MEAT CAKE | John Holbo on WITZEND | Michael Campochiaro on SPIDER-WOMAN | Miranda Mellis on RED SONJA & BÊLIT | Michael Grasso on THE NEW MUTANTS | Ty Burr on BINKY BROWN | Bishakh Som on AMAR CHITRA KATHA | Mark Kingwell on CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED | Brian Berger on JIMBO | Kenya (Robinson) on AGENT 355 | Seth on THE ETERNALS ANNUAL | Susannah Breslin on SLASHER | Lisa Kahlden on JACK CHICK TRACTS | Mandy Keifetz on KRAZY KAT | Tom Devlin on DUM-DUM POSSE READER | Eric Reynolds on ACTION COMICS #460 | Rick Pinchera on EIGHTBALL #16 | Juan Recondo on DAYTRIPPER | Elizabeth Foy Larsen on ROZ CHAST | J.E. Anckorn on HALO JONES | Deborah Wassertzug on GREAT POP THINGS | Peggy Nelson on MAD MOVIE SATIRES | Holly Interlandi on ANGEL SANCTUARY | Karen Green on THE SMITHSONIAN COLLECTION OF NEWSPAPER COMICS.
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