That was then: Bring on the Back Ups: Tales of the New Gods

Monday, August 28, 2023

Bring on the Back Ups: Tales of the New Gods - Frank Miller

To many comic book fans Jack Kirby's New Gods series (February 1971 – October 1972) was the peak of his many artistic endeavours and is considered to be one of the most important comic book series of all time. However, from the few issues I managed to pick up at the time these stories really didn’t interest me, perhaps as an 10-11 year old its deeper concepts went over my head (I wasn’t the smartest kid) or maybe it was because I was just more interested in “traditional” superhero type comics. Rip Jaggers blog has just completed an excellent series of articles on Kirby’s classic series that are worth reading (if you haven’t already). For myself, my first real interest in the New Gods characters came many years later when Walt Simonson took on the adventures of Kirby’s brooding New Gods protagonist Orion in an excellent series that ran for 25 issues between 2000 and 2002. As good as the main story was (and it was ) there were several interesting back-up strips that appeared under the title “Tales of the New Gods” (a series that began in John Byrne's “Jack Kirby's Fourth World” comic in 1997-1998). Below is one of my favourites formthe Orion comic by Frank Miller:

Below the cover to "Orion" issue 3 where this tale is taken from.

4 comments:

Rip JaggerAugust 28, 2023 at 3:18 AM
Orion's mom Tigra was largely an unknown in the original Kirby stories. We knew she was ferocious, but little else. The stories by later talents really give us an insight and give her the opportunity to not be just a victim. Thanks for the plug by the way.
ReplyDelete
Replies
KidAugust 29, 2023 at 4:47 AM
I've got Simonson's run on Orion, plus Byrne's run on the Fourth World and I suppose I enjoyed them at the time. However, for the life of me, I don't remember much about either of them. Despite the claims by some readers, in the main, these Jack Kirby characters didn't strike me as particularly memorable. Given the original JK mags' short runs in the '70s, most people (DC bigwigs included) seem to have agreed with me.
ReplyDelete
Replies
McSCOTTYAugust 29, 2023 at 8:51 AM
Personally , I think in the case of the New God's the story and concept were more important and perhaps more memorable (better) than the characters who weren't your traditional caped avenger types. I recall the Simomson Orion as it was a good comic and it was one of the very last DC \ Marvel comics I read for many years.
ReplyDelete
Replies