How much did Kirby create/work on Devil Dinosaur? I was thinking of hunting down the 70s series (after reading Fallen Angels), and ebay says he was invloved. Is it any good?

Kirby's adaptation and continuation  of 2001: A Space Odyssey is quite a significant piece of work, and also one of the strangest sci-fi franchise comics ever published.

The adaptation Treasury came out in 1976, eight years after the film debuted. Think about this for a second. That was a very strange time to release an adaptation for a movie, especially when it wasn't playing in theaters and the sequel was still six years away. This was also before the movie gained the critical acclaim that it has today. This was a movie that took a good while for people to get, and suffered from negative press and mixed reviews due to it's slow pace.

But Kirby got it. This was one of his favorite movies, which is interesting because Stanley Kubrick and Jack Kirby could not be any more different artistically. Where Kirby's visual style is wild, explosive and in your face, Kubrick's style is minimal, ambient and subtle. So it was unusual to see Kirby's adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey because, on one hand, a movie like that is hard to adapt, but also because his visual style is so different.

And here's where the greatness of Kirby comes into play. The film inspired him so much so that he was able to get Marvel to back a new 2001 comic series going beyond the movie. No small order. Now I'm not sure how much material Jack used from Arthur C. Clarke's novels because I haven't read them, but from reading the series I'm guessing many of the concepts came from Jack himself. I mean, who else could think up a monstrosity such as Vira the She-Demon? (side note: while his women may have been ugly, THIS is how you draw a scary, intimidating female savage):


The subsequent 2001: A Space Odyssey comic series took the film's ideas to a whole new level. While each comic at first presented the same premise of both prehistoric and futuristic descendants discovering the Monolith, the stories were tailored to fit Kirby's exuberant flair for fantastic and imaginative science fiction set pieces.

And then there's Issue #7. A brilliant take on the whole concept, period. If you have not read this comic yet, you must. In reading this issue, I saw Kirby questioning life, death, humanity and the universe. It's really quite something to behold.


"The end of love is the end of all things. For this world, the drama is almost over..." - Jack Kirby, A Space Odyssey #7 (1977)

In the end, all we have is a machine. Machine Man, that is. The last three issues focused on X-51, an advanced robot that has achieved sentience and must be destroyed. His creator Dr. Abel Stack helps him escape and then endures a metamorphosis of sorts through the Monolith. As X-51 attempts to blend in with humanity, his creator dies, and the military is on his tail.

These last few issues may have been standard Kirby fare, but the way he entwined the whole series together was something special. I've not see many artists, let alone writers, take a concept from a movie and turn it into a whole new entity all together. This is going well beyond just art. Kirby was a mastermind, and we all got to swim in his wild imagination for a bit.

Yeah, Devil Dinosaur and Moon-Boy.

I too liked it Brian.

It's a fun romp.

A boy and his dog dinosaur.

         

Wow, so do you mean original art or the actual comics when you say you have every Kirby page from 1965?

Something that came to mind that impressed me, when I finally could see the full images, was the collages that Kirby started doing in the 60's. With modern reprints you can now fully see all the details and I'm stunned at how bizarre and creative they were. Kirby obviously had a great deal more knowledge of surrealism than most people suspected.

More Kirby Art ...


Inhumans - Medusa







Inhumans - Crystal







Had these pictures for 5 years now.

Ha definitely the latter. The actual comics. I would be super rich if it was the former, though I would also probably have suffered great losses as well since I would ruined much by drooling all over the pages!

I did pick up IDW's New God's Artist Edition which does give you a good sense of original Kirby art. Mister Miracle will follow next year.

Regarding the Kirby collages. I again agree with you. In modern reprints you can finally see the details that composed the works. Some of the collages didn't quite work as well as others IMO, but I am always filled with respect and awe for the attempt at experimentation Kirby brought to the field of comics, even as he worked within more conservative constraints.

Here is my in depth take on Devil Dinosaur.

At it's core, Devil Dinosaur is an adventure story. It's also a companion story, about a boy and his dinosaur, against all odds. It's set in a prehistoric era chock full of hungry dinosaurs. A story about a boy that saves a dinosaur who in turn becomes a powerful ally and friend. Together they get into various escapades, battling other dinosaurs, cave men, giant insects, alien invaders, witches and more. The dialogue is lighthearted throughout, and resembles comics from the Silver Age.

Devil was the star. A giant red dinosaur that had been baptized in the primordial fires of hell. Jack's work in drawing Devil was extraordinary. To see this thing rampaging among the pages, attacking his foes with savage fury was something else. On the other hand, Devil was a thinking dinosaur. He couldn't talk, but Kirby was able to work him through the story in a way that made it easy on the reader to take in his emotions.


It's unfortunate, but there was a lot of nit-picking by assistant editors, stupid arguments made about how prehistoric man never existed with dinosaurs. They also disliked Jack's writing. They wrote the whole project off as silly and insulted Kirby enough to leave Marvel, and ultimately the medium, for good.

Through those last days, however dark they were, Kirby never wavered. The comic never changed. He continued to write the story and draw his giant red dinosaur the way he wanted. Devil Dinosaur represented everything Kirby stood for. It was just him, against all odds, just like the companions in the story. From that aspect, it's an important book.


The folks at kirbymuseum.org said it best: