SERIOCOMIC (39)

By: Seth
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.

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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!

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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.

MORE ENTHUSIASM at HILOBROW

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Categories

Comics, Enthusiasms