Kirby Is God, and Scioli Is His Prophet

Over on Newsarama.com, of which the Mole is a member, there has been something of a debate raging about the art of one Tom Scioli, who has taken it upon himself to continue in the tradition of Jack Kirby, especially the cosmically-powered Jack Kirby of the '70's. I first ran into Tom a couple of years ago on the Yahoo Jack Kirby discussion group, where he was plugging his very-Kirby-influenced and self-published work, The Myth of 8-Opus, which I later was able to read some of. Tom (I write as though I know him - I dont) is unabashedly Kirbyesque in style, which fuels the message board debate: is it homage, is it ripoff, is it something else?

My own argument sez that it is something beyond all that -- more like the work done by the talented painters we see in the Renaissance who toiled in the "Schools of..." whoever. Kirby is, as Twomorrow's Jack Kirby Collector reminds us, a genre unto him / itself, and Tom is the chief purveyor of that genre. My ultimate criteria is that it aint a ripoff because it works.

Case in point: Mr. Scioli has teamed up with writer Joe Casey to produce a new series for Image Comics called Godland, a comic book that, were Mike Royer to ink it, would be almost indistinguishable from the best of Mr. Kirby's Fourth World and Eternals work. It is a breath of fresh air, packing tons of story, color, visuals, dialogue into every issue (two so far) and a real joy to read. There are few comics that provide me with the "Holy Moly!" sense of wonder that Kirby once did, and does, but Godland (and another great independent book, Atomika from Speakeasy Press - see the link) really comes close. I wont bore you with story details, but suffice it to say there is Kirby Krackle, there are cool aliens, there is slam bang action, and there is a lot going on on every page (a couple of which I have taken the liberty of displaying here.) There's even a guy with a disembodied green skull in a tank for a head -- what more do you want out of life???

Godland #3 will be out in September -- the first two issues may be available on the stands yet. For those of use weaned on the Marvel of the '70's, this manages to capture the spirit of those jampacked and funfilled days without being too derivative and even bringing a more modern sensibility to the proceedings.