A Birthday Beyond Reason!

"Comics is a world of bad guys and good guys...
That is why Jack King is here."
--Will Eisner, The Dreamer.

Originally, I'd slated tonight for a review of American Born Chinese, Gene Yang's incredible new graphic novel from First Second Books--and I will be doing just that tomorrow--but as you probably know by now, Jack Kirby would've been 89 today.

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you know that I'm a fan of his work--how could you not be?--but like so many of us, it goes a little beyond that for me.

I've mentioned it before, but a few times when I was a kid, my dad told me bedtime stories about the New Gods. But the stories he told wouldn't just be about Orion and Darkseid--in fact, the main focus of what he used to tell me didn't involve them at all. Instead, he would tell me not just about the stories, but about the man who made them, a guy who created Thor and the Silver Surfer (his favorite characters), and then, after a dispute with Marvel, went to DC and decided that if he couldn't tell stories about the old gods, he was just going to have to create some new ones.

There's a lot to like in that story.

Happy Birthday, Jack. I made you a card.

---

BONUS FEATURE: OMAC - The Tributes

If you've been reading the ISB for any considerable length of time, you've probably latched onto two key factors in the way that I write:

1) The opening splash pages from Kirby's OMAC #2--one of the most fightin'est comics ever printed--is one of my favorite panels things of all time.

2) I physically cannot go a month without bringing it up.

Fortunately, today, it's somewhat appropriate. After all, last Thursday I mentioned that the opening splash of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men #16, wherein Ord of the Breakworld rampages through a squadron of SWORD agents, was an awesome homage to the scene from OMAC--and that I'd seen another.

So tonight, I invite you to celebrate the King by enjoying OMAC: The Tributes:

Kirby's original, totally awesome piece.
OMAC #2


The always-radical Paul Pope uses the scene in a re-telling of Buddy Blank's origin.
SOLO #3


Whedon and Cassaday take a more head-on approach.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #16


And finally, for the first time here on the ISB, I present...

Len Wein and Paris Cullins offer up the most unexpected "OMAGE" of all!
BLUE BEETLE #3

Got any others?