Why JACK KIRBY’s Magnum Opus is Powerful

Happy birthday, Jack. Read the video transcript here: witsendpod.com/podcast-episod...
Chaos Ensues begins here.
Special thanks to Steve Rude, John Morrow & J.M. DeMatteis.
CHAOS ENSUES:
-Website: witsendpod.com
-KZbin channel (subscribe): / @witsendpod
-Patreon: / witsendpodcast
-JACK KIRBY’S MONSTERS ESSAY: witsendpod.com/podcast-episod...
TIME CODES:
-0:00-Prologue (Jack “King” Kirby)
-3:17-The Marvel Years (60s)
-6:15-What is the Fourth World?
-16:03-Akira Kurosawa
-20:50-Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen
-43:45-New Gods
-48:29-Mister Miracle
-54:43-Forever People
-1:00:09-Fourth World Canceled
-1:14:15-The King of Comics
-1:17:58-Fourth World for New Readers (Where to start?)
#jackkirby
4th World box set: www.amazon.com/Fourth-World-B...
Jack Kirby's Fourth World, Steve Rude Interview, J.M. DeMatteis Interview, John Morrow Interview

[@witsendpod]

Be sure to set the quality to 1080p. Also, not sure why YT's compression spiked the audio of the outro section. In the meantime, check out the transcription and clean audio on my website: witsendpod.com/podcast-episodes/chaos-ensues-jack-kirbys-magnum-opus

[@rasheedknox2140]

Thanks for the links !! 🙏🏾

[@1971thedoctor]

My favorite fourth world comics are all 11 issues of the New Gods and the Hunger Dogs. I have grown to like and appreciate the 11 issues of the Forever People now that I’m older and have a better understanding of the series

[@jamescole7930]

I have personally been a Jack Kirby fan since I was 7, in 1973 I read my first reprint of the fantastic four it was the blastarr and sandman team up to fight the FF . I was hooked. Now I did not discover the new world stuff till I was in my teens. There were no comic book shops on every corner in the 70’s So my first experience of the new gods was from my friends dad who in his late 30’s would not only read the comics and share his comics with his son and I. But he in his kitchen would act out the story and even make up stories about jack’s characters. His son and I were captivated and it was his love for Kirby that to this day makes me to be not embarrassed being a comic book fan, but to be proud of it. I am now 58 and I still am a 12 year old boy being swept away by jack’s amazing imagination and talent to bring them to life. Thank you to both Mr Davis for being a free spirit and not afraid to share it. And to Jack that has given me more enjoyment in my life than I can reflect in any amount of words. Long live the king.

[@1980Triumph]

DC always did better by there creators than Marvel, even to this day. Kirby needed to come back to DC to finish his greatest work which has continued to grow to this day

[@witsendpod]

The Kirbys definitely spoke highly of Jenette Kahn (and co.) during Jack's later return to DC. At least someone wanted to look out for him.

[@1980Triumph]

@@roaringsteelmedia to their credit, they really pushed those characters in 85-86 which made Kirby a ton of money. They had him doing the Super Powers comic, he was making money from the associated toy line, cartoon and extended marketing ex. "Darkseid was a Halloween costume in 85/86." The original didn't pan out but they made sure to really give him major exposure and wealth before his death.

[@allenlovell1604]

I respectfully must disagree. Fact, the late Neal Adams fought DC to get a decent pension, health care and other benefits for Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel, the two legendary creators of Superman 🦸‍♂️! During that time when Neal went " Figuratively and Literally at Bat " for these two men ; one was blind I think 🤔 and both were living in poverty, and Neal also wanted them to get screen credits when the "Superman Movies " exploded into theaters with record profits for the studios. Neal succeeded at correcting what he and other artists at " Continuity Studios " felt was a disservice to these two creators. I'm not 100% sure, but I think 🤔 Neal Adams and others fought for the artists drawing comicbooks rights to retain their artworks after publication; prior to this the artist would have to relinquish all their rights away as a condition of working for Marvel or DC . For this effort alone, Neal Adams was a visionary artist, drew characters with more realism , and wasn't afraid to try something new 😉 ; I think 🤔 he helped launch the independent comicbook publishers [ Pacific, Vertigo, Image, and others ? ]

[@durellpowell3324]

​@@allenlovell1604 YOU SAID IT! SO TRUE!

[@TheChadTI]

/Agreed.

[@BlackAdam1231]

Jack Kirby is King still

[@witsendpod]

Always.

[@duaneramirez3571]

If you see how Kirby talks, it is less egotistical than Lee. Lee is about "me" and "I" in terms of creation while Kirby is more about "me" and "I in terms of questioning, thinking, and sharing.

[@martinabreu566]

Stan Lee was an egocentric man.

[@djbigphill]

I didn't like the later Kirby artwork as a kid, but I learned to appreciate it as I got older. His OMAC series was exceptional...well the first story arc was exceptional. It ended kinda weak, but it started out so strong

[@Bobbybillybillbob]

Jack Kirby GOAT Jack Cole is also incredible! His Plastic Man work is incredible

[@ninoindigo]

Steve Rude "These are part of my soul"

[@azaanyasir2811]

Fantastic video! I think young Justice also did an excellent job at adapting Kirby's ideas

[@therussiancomicbookgeek]

All hail to the King

[@ohdannyboy4727]

Rest in power to him. He was that guy. Legend

[@brainawayfilms1687]

Beautiful work, sir. These are the comics I grew up with and always knew were special. But Mike Royer is still better than Colletta on these books, despite The Dude's protestations :)

[@witsendpod]

That's the beauty of these comics, everyone can have a "favorite" :) Thanks for watching.

[@jakeproven256]

Say what you want about Vince Colletta, I have bigger issues with Mike Royer as a person, royer has made his own sexist views public, so I suggest we don't give him too much credit.

[@SamSterlingSpaceStories]

DC still don't know how to deal with visionary Kirby's work. Kirby is a monster of comics.

[@SmoothLife.]

I’m just happy that DC was the one to get New Gods. Not Marvel.

[@therussiancomicbookgeek]

This was an awesome video and from what I can see an even better channel 🤙

[@TheChadTI]

11:37 This would continue into current year, not just comics all representations of their characters in all media.

[@isajoha9962]

Kirby & Colletta combo was my first taste of FF. 😍

[@antoniovitor5096]

The best!!!

[@witsendpod]

Agreed.

[@starquack]

Nice overview and it was particularly good to hear from the other creators. I’m curious though whether or not the term “fearmonger“ in regard to Billy Graham was your choice or Jack’s? Anyone who listens to a Billy Graham sermon would see that he was definitely all about the love of God

[@Vintage-Bob]

Where can I find the pencils for that unpublished Thor story ((#69) teaming up with Galactus? I GOTTA find those!

[@GRWelsh7]

I have to admit when I was a kid in the 1970's I took Kirby for granted. I did not appreciate him as much as I should have, and I preferred the art of others like Neal Adams, George Perez and John Byrne. It is only in retrospect that I learned what a hard working and creative genius Jack Kirby was, and how much others were standing on his shoulders. Kirby was absolutely the King!

[@mikebelbin]

When are we going to get the movie?

[@TheChadTI]

14:53 That's awesome. The king.

[@bottomtiercollector]

For context I'm 34 and I just read the Fourth World Omnibus within the last 2 years. It's my introduction to Jack Kirby and the bronze age... I could have done without the Jimmy Olsen books at all. I found those books to be painfully boring and hard to follow. It was almost a punishment to read them. What makes it worse is Jack Kirby wasn't allowed the time needed to bring all the books together... New Gods and Mister Miracle are some of my favorite comics and characters of all time though. Fantastic concepts.

[@thumbsaloft]

DC/WB are BRAINDEAD! They have these ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC JACK KIRBY CHARACTERS and they're basically not doing anything with them?! They are sitting on a goldmine, A NEW GODS MOVIE is WAY WAY WAY OVERDUE! Snyder was going to feature more New Gods in his JL trilogy but again DC/WB went BRAINDEAD! I would hire Snyder in a heartbeat and get him to work on a NEW GODS MOVIE immediately!

[@tylerbertram7065]

Yeah how about crossing Snyder off the list and make it George Miller instead how about that.

[@thumbsaloft]

@@tylerbertram7065Nope, Snyder proved himself with his excellent version of Darkseid, Steppenwolf, The parademons, Desaad, and Granny Goodness. He would make THE NEW GODS the SERIOUS, HARDCORE, ACTION PACKED COSMIC EPIC it should be!

[@tylerbertram7065]

@@thumbsaloft you mean by making it a super violent, depressing, gritty, sexual, nihilistic, edgelord fest something that a bunch 14 year old dude bros are into.

[@thumbsaloft]

@@tylerbertram7065Stop making up RIDICULOUS NONSENSE, that wasn't Snyder's Justice League!

[@tylerbertram7065]

@thumbsaloft really all I saw was a 4 hour long pretentious slugfest of a movie.

[@angelmanfredy]

Jack Kirby is my favorite artist and creator of all time, but as usual it is Lee vs Kirby and Lee is a “fraud”. Jack did NOT have the ability to write for the masses. When he wrote at DC and his return to Marvel his work was mostly clunky and almost always too wordy. Marvel would have failed without Stan interpreting Jack’s panels and writing it in a way to be clear and thrill the reader. It was a team effort. Jack did the heavy lifting but without Stan we would only be talking about DC.

[@patrickmiano7901]

Kirby was a great artist, but his writing could be ponderous and his dialogue pretentious. HIs stories were often unreadable and his plotlines pointless and directionless. Nothing really happened and conflicts went unresolved.