Jack KIRBY at Dynamite

[Chiclo]

Every time I see promotional imagery, especially that first image with the hundreds of Kirby characters with all those psychadelic colours presented in the photorealistic painting of Alex Ross, I just feel like it is a jarring mis-combination of styles. Kirby designed some neat characters but the colours and styles don't really lend well to Alex Ross' style. It is like one time at a thai restaurant, they had a menu item that featured shrimp covered in a peanut butter sauce. I would not have thought of combining shrimp and peanut butter even though I like both.

[positronic]

That initial promotional piece does look a bit like an explosion at the paint factory, doesn't it?

And I agree, probably it'd be hard to find a couple of mainstream comic artists with more dissimilar styles than Kirby and Ross (though I love them both).

BUT, you must admit that Alex Ross is a huge selling point that Dynamite has in its favor -- his covers, even just having his name associated with a project, sort of compels people to pay attention. And beyond that, while he's not really a writer, he IS a great conceptualizer, and in that respect he and Kirby ARE similar. In short, both Kirby and Ross are great "idea men".

[positronic]

Since reading the article in last week's COMIC SHOP NEWS, I'm really excited by the prospects of Kirby: Genesis. Not only does this series feature Captain Victory, Silver Star, (formerly published by Pacific Comics in the early 1980s) and all of the characters from Topps Comics' Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga, Satan's Six, and TeenAgents, but virtually every other character Kirby ever created after leaving Marvel in the mid-1970s, including unused proposals for characters created for Ruby-Spears in the 1980s. Enough to fill an entire universe of Kirby characters. Granted, some of these are merely concept sketches that have never appeared in print or been fleshed out in story terms, but I have a lot of faith in Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek.

[comixfan1980]

2 pages worth of advertisments for this title in this months Previews magazine, I'm getting more pumped up than ever to have this book in my hands once it comes out!

[Captain Craig]

I think this is bad for PSP

I see it as an opportunity to create a larger DEU to explore. After the introduction and establishment of Genesis the PSP and this could be the cornerstone of building a new Universe for comic fans to explore. Assuming of course DE has longterm rights or outright owns the PSP and Genesis rights or use of for some lenthy time?

[comixfan1980]

Now imagine if the Kirbyverse was merged with the PSP universe to create one giant cohiesive universe of heroes and villains to explore, it would probably be larger in scope than either DC or Marvel and there would be a slew of ideas that could be explored. Still, I would rather keep them seperate but it's a thought at least.

[positronic]

I doubt you'll see a "merging" (or even a crossover) between the PSP universe (based on public-domain Golden Age comic book characters, the specific versions in PSP being owned by Dynamite Entertainment) and the "Kirbyverse" (all characters being the property of and copyrighted by the Kirby Estate).

Besides, each of these universes already has dozens of characters in it, and people have already noted that the PSP universe may be overloaded with "new" and unfamiliar characters; that is kind of a turn-off to some new readers. Most (if not all) of the Kirbyverse characters will be unfamiliar to the majority of the comics-reading public (except for the serious Kirbyheads), too.

[comixfan1980]

I doubt you'll see a "merging" (or even a crossover) between the PSP universe (based on public-domain Golden Age comic book characters, the specific versions in PSP being owned by Dynamite Entertainment) and the "Kirbyverse" (all characters being the property of and copyrighted by the Kirby Estate).

Besides, each of these universes already has dozens of characters in it, and people have already noted that the PSP universe may be overloaded with "new" and unfamiliar characters; that is kind of a turn-off to some new readers. Most (if not all) of the Kirbyverse characters will be unfamiliar to the majority of the comics-reading public (except for the serious Kirbyheads), too.

True, but I was talking as in a "What if" situation, imagine all the possible relationships and rivalries that could come out of something like that, not to mention the team-ups and other such instances. Still, I'd rather keep them seperate from eachother and contain them within 2 seperate universes.

[Chiclo]

I can rather easily imagine a scenario where they crossover the Kirby and the PSU characters. Sort of a Crisis on Dynamite Earths thing. Or maybe a "we can do a big crossover too" kind of thing.

Couldn't be any worse than Infestation.

[Captain Canuck]

It's an interesting thought.

It's hard to evaluate without having seen the Kirbyverse structure yet, but I would prefer such a thing done with a few main characters from either side and in a separate series. The 2nd Superpowers books juggle so many characters already that I wouldn't the Kirbyverse ones to appear in there too.

They might want to do such a thing in the old JSA/JLA style where characters from each side pair up. One set up issue, 4-5 team up issues, one closer issue, badabing, badaboom.