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The Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998) #8
Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby, Vol. 1
In celebration of its 65th anniversary, the House of Ideas proudly presents a timeless testament to a true Marvel visionary Comics' premier storyteller for more than 40 years, Jack "King" Kirby brought new vitality and imagination to the medium, and set the standard for every artist to follow. This deluxe keepsake edition collects some of the most monumental moments, created in concert with the likes of legendary writers such as Joe Simon and Stan Lee - some never before reprinted: "Mercury in the 20th Century," RED RAVEN COMICS #1, Kirby's first work for Marvel; "The Vision," MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #13, Kirby's first regular Marvel series; "Meet Captain America," CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1, the first Captain America story; "UFO the Lightning Man," YELLOW CLAW #3, from a strip Kirby wrote and drew during the '50s; "I Defied Pildorr, the Plunderer from Outer Space ," STRANGE TALES #94, from the moster era; the first time Joe Sinnott inked the King; "I Am the Amazing Dr. Droom ," AMAZING ADVENTURES #1, the origin of Stan and Jack's first super-heroic character of the '60s; "Beware the RawhideKid ," RAWHIDE KID #17, the first revamped Rawhide Kid story and the beginnings of the Marvel style; Plus: "The Origin of the Hulk," HULK #3; "Spidey Tackles the Torch," AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8; "Captain America Joins the Avengers ," AVENGERS #4; "The Fangs of the Fox,"SGT. FURY #6; "The Coming of Galactus," FANTASTIC FOUR #48-50; "This Man. This Monster," FANTASTIC FOUR #51; "The People Breeders," THOR #134-135; "To Become an Immortal," THOR #136; "This Is A Plot?," FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #5; "The Inhumans " AMAZING ADVENTURES v.2 #1-2' "America Will Die ," CAPTAIN AMERICA #200; "The Fourth Host," ETERNALS #7 and "What If the Original Marvel Bullpen Was the Fantastic Four?," WHAT IF #11.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Jack Kirby
2,801 books475 followersJack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 9, 2024
A great collection of classic Marvel stories drawn by the incomparable Jack "King" Kirby. This book covers Jack's career from Timely Comics to Marvel with stories about Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The Rawhide Kid, the Incredible Hulk, Sgt Fury & His Howling Commandos and more.
November 8, 2008
Some of the writing in these comics is terrible, schlocky, and instructive in the kind of racism and sexism that could fly in mainstream publications read by children throughout America in the 1960's. But some of the artwork is fantastic - well composed, abstracted, and wondrous.
October 6, 2013
It's nice to read an older comic - they speak in a way that is reminiscent of decades past. Not that I would know exactly, but people just don't talk like this anymore. At first I was a bit put out by the classic illustration style, but eventually I gained a new appreciation for it.
September 27, 2014
Great selected anthology. Great news today, of a settlement between the Kirby estate or heirs and Marvel, now Disney... Give it a little while, and read Kirby.
May 19, 2021
MAN am I glad I'm done with that. I really want to give this two stars (one for me is "did not finish" .. but I did finish... just barely, so that's two, and for the historical importance I'll add a star, so three! Feels like too many).
But let's start with the good first. Kirby was clearly a talented artist. There are a lot of good panels and pages in this book. (And I assume this was especially true when compared to his contemporaries, but I don't have enough experience to judge this.) Marvel characters today are hugely popular and commercially successful, and that's down in great measure to Kirby and Lee. They had something. Creativity, tenacity, skill, a knack for making popular books. And so it's interesting to see 'where it all started' so to speak. The book itself is well made -- good binding, good paper, good reproductions of old material. There were two or three stories that I almost liked.
That's it!
The rest of it I really did not like.
Caveat first: I am a well-aged adult reading in 2021. I like books that are written for contemporary people, and for adults in particular (but not exclusively!). The comics in this book were written, I assume, primarily for children around 9-14? Somewhere around there, and published in the 40s to the 70s. I acknowledge that these comics were not written for me or for my time.
With that in mind, here's what really bugged me.
The characters are constantly speaking their thoughts, even when nobody is around to hear them talk. At one point we get a character who says aloud to no one for no apparent story reason who he is, where he is, and why. At another there is a bad guy who says aloud his history and motives where the only person present is unconscious . There's so much narration and exposition in the dialog. I'm sure the creators were dealing with space and pacing constraints, and I assume the young readers needed the story to be spoon-fed to them in this way. OK fine, but for me it was annoying and lazy.
The stories and characters have no depth.
Stan Lee's writing is so over-the-top. Corny, bombastic.
The female characters are awful. The Fantastic Four's Sue Storm / Richards is wifely and entirely subservient to Reed. Thor's Jane Foster has these lines in The Mighty Thor 135:
"Thor! What is it? What's happening?"
Thought bubble... "It looks like some impossible cross between a man and a wolf! But, how can it dare challenge Thor??"
"Thor! Is it -- really that serious?"
(to Thor) "Whatever you do, my darling -- take me with you! Whether you find triumph or tragedy, let us share it together!"
... and a couple more equally as lame
But that's not all... there are countless inexplicable and lame details. Like in one issue The Thing is upset about his girlfriend so he smashes a huge hole in a random building's brick wall and just walks away. Alrighty then.
There's more, but I need to stop. It's not enjoyable. I'm glad I'm done. (And also, I'm glad I read it. Now I know.)
But let's start with the good first. Kirby was clearly a talented artist. There are a lot of good panels and pages in this book. (And I assume this was especially true when compared to his contemporaries, but I don't have enough experience to judge this.) Marvel characters today are hugely popular and commercially successful, and that's down in great measure to Kirby and Lee. They had something. Creativity, tenacity, skill, a knack for making popular books. And so it's interesting to see 'where it all started' so to speak. The book itself is well made -- good binding, good paper, good reproductions of old material. There were two or three stories that I almost liked.
That's it!
The rest of it I really did not like.
Caveat first: I am a well-aged adult reading in 2021. I like books that are written for contemporary people, and for adults in particular (but not exclusively!). The comics in this book were written, I assume, primarily for children around 9-14? Somewhere around there, and published in the 40s to the 70s. I acknowledge that these comics were not written for me or for my time.
With that in mind, here's what really bugged me.
The characters are constantly speaking their thoughts, even when nobody is around to hear them talk. At one point we get a character who says aloud to no one for no apparent story reason who he is, where he is, and why. At another there is a bad guy who says aloud his history and motives where the only person present is unconscious . There's so much narration and exposition in the dialog. I'm sure the creators were dealing with space and pacing constraints, and I assume the young readers needed the story to be spoon-fed to them in this way. OK fine, but for me it was annoying and lazy.
The stories and characters have no depth.
Stan Lee's writing is so over-the-top. Corny, bombastic.
The female characters are awful. The Fantastic Four's Sue Storm / Richards is wifely and entirely subservient to Reed. Thor's Jane Foster has these lines in The Mighty Thor 135:
"Thor! What is it? What's happening?"
Thought bubble... "It looks like some impossible cross between a man and a wolf! But, how can it dare challenge Thor??"
"Thor! Is it -- really that serious?"
(to Thor) "Whatever you do, my darling -- take me with you! Whether you find triumph or tragedy, let us share it together!"
... and a couple more equally as lame
But that's not all... there are countless inexplicable and lame details. Like in one issue The Thing is upset about his girlfriend so he smashes a huge hole in a random building's brick wall and just walks away. Alrighty then.
There's more, but I need to stop. It's not enjoyable. I'm glad I'm done. (And also, I'm glad I read it. Now I know.)
Want to read
February 23, 2025 "Mercury in the 20th Century," RED RAVEN COMICS #1:
"The Vision," MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #13:
"Meet Captain America," CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1:
"UFO the Lightning Man," YELLOW CLAW #3:
"I Defied Pildorr, the Plunderer from Outer Space ," STRANGE TALES #94,
"I Am the Amazing Dr. Droom ," AMAZING ADVENTURES #1,
"Beware the RawhideKid ," RAWHIDE KID #17,
"The Origin of the Hulk," HULK #3;
"Spidey Tackles the Torch," AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8;
"Captain America Joins the Avengers ," AVENGERS #4;
"The Fangs of the Fox,"SGT. FURY #6;
"The Coming of Galactus," FANTASTIC FOUR #48-50;
"This Man. This Monster," FANTASTIC FOUR #51;
"The People Breeders," THOR #134-135;
"To Become an Immortal," THOR #136;
"This Is A Plot?," FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #5;
"The Inhumans " AMAZING ADVENTURES v.2 #1-2'
"America Will Die ," CAPTAIN AMERICA #200;
"The Fourth Host," ETERNALS #7 and
"What If the Original Marvel Bullpen Was the Fantastic Four?," WHAT IF #11.
"The Vision," MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #13:
"Meet Captain America," CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #1:
"UFO the Lightning Man," YELLOW CLAW #3:
"I Defied Pildorr, the Plunderer from Outer Space ," STRANGE TALES #94,
"I Am the Amazing Dr. Droom ," AMAZING ADVENTURES #1,
"Beware the RawhideKid ," RAWHIDE KID #17,
"The Origin of the Hulk," HULK #3;
"Spidey Tackles the Torch," AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8;
"Captain America Joins the Avengers ," AVENGERS #4;
"The Fangs of the Fox,"SGT. FURY #6;
"The Coming of Galactus," FANTASTIC FOUR #48-50;
"This Man. This Monster," FANTASTIC FOUR #51;
"The People Breeders," THOR #134-135;
"To Become an Immortal," THOR #136;
"This Is A Plot?," FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #5;
"The Inhumans " AMAZING ADVENTURES v.2 #1-2'
"America Will Die ," CAPTAIN AMERICA #200;
"The Fourth Host," ETERNALS #7 and
"What If the Original Marvel Bullpen Was the Fantastic Four?," WHAT IF #11.
February 15, 2024
A sample of some of the great classics from across Jack Kirby's tenure at Marvel. From the early Golden-Age Timely comics stuff and wartime Captain America, to the Silver Age classics of Fantastic Four, Thor, and the Inhumans, to his return back to Marvel with The Eternals, you can really see his style evolve alongside the comics industry as a whole. From the fantastic collage work of Galactus' craft and the Negative Zone to the techno-Mayan intricacies of his alien technologies, Jack Kirby's art is consistently dynamic, impactful, and legendary.
July 4, 2024
Great art by Jack Kirby, but... a lot of the recolouring is ugly. And the reproduction is bad as well. Thin lines often disappear. The art actually looks better in the black and white Essential books.
May 30, 2022
I enjoyed a few of the stories but most of them didn’t grab me. I look forward to reading more from Kirby in the future.
October 28, 2007
It can be argued that Jack “the King” Kirby is one of the most influential pop culture artists of the 20th century. In that vein, Marvel published a large hardback volume celebrating the King. The book reprints the expected (Fantastic Four #48-51 with the first appearances of Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Arguably the finest work of Kirby's long career), historical (“Mercury in the 20th Century” from Red Raven Comics #1, August, 1940), the obscure (“I Defied Pildorr, The Plunderer from Outer Space”), and the ugly (pretty much anything inked by Chic Stone). Marvel could have picked some better 70s tales (like a Black Panther issue instead of a hideous Inhumans story), but as demonstrated in this collection no one does/did comics like Jack Kirby. The King is dead, long live the King!
Read
April 13, 2008I need to pick this one up.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews