Comics artist’s ‘World’ revived

The 1960s mattered. Absolutely. It was a time of pushing the envelope in all things, not the least of which was popular culture. In any other era, the Beatles might have been content to take it easy, outrun paparazzi and make gear-fab tunes. But no. Or the EarthFirsters would have scuttled the moon landings. But no, deaux.

And Jack Kirby might have been content to simply draw comic books. But no to the nth power. The Marvel Comics team of Kirby and partner Stan Lee blazed a trail of creativity in the humble medium over the arc of the '60s that has never been equaled and still draws gasps. It was a hell of a ride.

Kirby, "The King," was a competent draftsman who drew with a certain original style. Under the creative freedom of the exploding comics industry, however, Kirby created a singular and totally unique look that defined the New Comic -- kind of Aztec, shiny, with crackling bursts of wandering electricity, gothic, Grand and Guignol, with a literary and artistic canvas that the humble pulp comic could barely contain. The zeitgeist, always, was that the gods walk among us, and the universe is a remorseless, terrifying and strangely beautiful place. There weren't many comics that literally took your breath away; Kirby did it monthly.

His work for Marvel set the stage. But when Kirby made the highly publicized jump to rival DC Comics -- a shocking event as intensively covered as major-league sports -- he was to share in the profits and find his writing voice as well. He created a whole new world, called the "Fourth Universe," a landscape absolutely chockablock with grand mythology and slam-bang action. Alas, the concept never really took off and didn't make Kirby a rich or artistically satisfied man. Eventually, he returned to Marvel.

At the time, Kirby predicted that the pulp comics would someday be reprinted in deluxe, high-quality editions. Yep, he was laughed at.

And now, 40 years later and 13 years after his death, the "Fourth Universe" is seeing the light of day again in swelligant new printings by DC. The first volume of "Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus" collects his first works for the company when he, of all things, reinvented the lame also-ran title "Jimmy Olsen -- Superman's Pal" as a parable of the shifting forces of nature and destiny, played out in startling, vivid style. It was dense, packed comics-izations, like eating a whole pizza.

The book and Kirby's work gets the full treatment here, and the printing is extraordinarily good. DC must have kept the original artwork. The colors are so densely printed they seem as solid as poster paints.

The book is not just a blast from the past, but a blast of the future.

And oh, by the way, the way filmmakers depicted the Kirby-created character Galactus in the recent "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" wasn't a patch on the King's version. They should have read the comics.