May 28, 2011

Kirby: Genesis #0

May 28, 2011/ Dave

More than just the most prolific and influential creative mind in comics history, Jack Kirby is pretty much a genre unto himself these days. Entire series have been devoted to trying to capture and distill his technomythological superhero adventure style (like Joe Casey and Tom Scioli’s Godland and Scioli’s own self-published The Myth Of 8-Opus), memorable issues of comics have paid loving tribute to his achievements (Supreme: The Return #6 by Alan Moore and Rick Veitch is probably the finest example), and his depictions of action, energy, and technology in superhero comics have led to entirely new terminologies being named after him (Kirby Krackle, Kirbytech). Of course, the entire Marvel Universe as we know it wouldn’t have existed without him, not to mention various still-viable sub-sections of the DC Universe. Now, in the new series Kirby: Genesis, Dynamite Publishing is laying claim to pretty much everything else that doesn’t fall under the purview of the Big Two—lesser-known Kirby creations like Captain Victory, Silver Star, Galaxy Green, and a whole host of other concepts still owned by the Kirby estate—and folding them all into a shared-universe adventure that kicked off with a $1 Issue Zero this past week. One might be tempted to accuse Dynamite of trying to cash in on the Kirby name, re-heating some leftovers that may not have been all that fresh to begin with (as fun as Kirby’s 1980s output was—his Super Powers series was my first exposure to his work as a kid—you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that would call that period their favourite). Even the announcement of Kurt Busiek as writer and Alex Ross as cover artist/art director wasn’t enough to dissuade my skepticism, initially at least. But if the Zero issue is any indication, Kirby: Genesis looks to be a fun, heartfelt tribute to the King of Comics, one that successfully captures the style and feeling of Kirby at his most cosmic.

The series begins in a universe somewhat parallel to our own, where, in 1972, the Pioneer 10 Space Probe ventures out into the cosmos bearing a plaque illustrated by a familiar comics craftsman—a plaque that depicts humanity in the form of a male/female duo of Kirbyesque superbeings offering a friendly wave to whomever might greet the spacecraft (an afterword by Busiek explains this story point—Kirby was one of several artists asked by the Los Angeles Times how they might convey humanity to extraterrestrial beings via the Jupiter Probe, and this exact illustration was Kirby’s response). Reaching deep space, the Probe is sucked into a wormhole, and proceeds to zoom through a series of distant galaxies occupied by godlike superbeings engaged in various life-or-death struggles, all bearing the distinctive design tropes of the King of Comics. Among these are the aforementioned Captain Victory, Galaxy Green, and Silver Star, but eagle-eyed Kirby acolytes will also be able to pick out Destroyer Duck and several characters from the short-lived Kirbyverse of the early Nineties as well (not to mention various other unused Kirby concepts straight out of his sketchbooks, some of which were originally intended for his magnum opus, The New Gods). As the Probe finally begins making its way back to Earth, its passage is noted and followed by a pair of divine beings named Jerek and Spring, setting the stage for Kirby: Genesis #1.

More than anything, this book positively glows with affection for the life and work of Jack Kirby, and for a devotee like myself, that goes a long way. However, Busiek’s script uses that anecdote about the Pioneer Probe to hang an intriguing story idea on, one that is appropriately, wildly cosmic, but has a human element to ground it (after the Probe’s launch, we are briefly introduced to the series’ human protagonists, a couple of stargazing inner-city youths named Bobbi and—of course—Kirby). This melding of the fantastic and the real was the key to the success of both of Busiek and Ross’s previous collaborations, Marvels and Astro City, and it’s a formula that seems to bring out the best in both creators. The paintings of Alex Ross have always done a remarkable job of adding a patina of believability to Kirby’s designs, and his work here is no exception. While Ross mainly provides covers and art direction, the lion’s share of the interior artwork is handled by newcomer Jack Herbert, whose solid work here recalls the art of Astro City penciller Brent Anderson (with just a hint of Norm Breyfogle). The lead story feels fairly packed, despite being only 12 pages, but it’s hopefully a good indication of what’s to come. I’m fairly excited to see where this story goes, but I’m hoping it will stay contained to the pages of Kirby: Genesis—rapid overexpansion seems to be a fatal mistake for the comics industry in general and Dynamite Publishing in particular (Green Hornet, anyone? Project: Superpowers?). I’d hate to see this promising series diluted by a slew of spinoffs; the onslaught of variant covers promised for issue #1 is overkill enough. Still, if the quality of this Zero issue can be maintained into the regular series, it’ll make for a welcome return of the King.

May 18, 2011

Adscape: Wildroot Cream Oil

May 18, 2011/ Johnathan

Here are several facts about Wildroot Cream Oil:

1) Roughly zero people use Wildroot Cream Oil today.

2) If one goes by the ads alone, approximately one hundred percent of people used to use Wildroot Cream Oil.

3) This is possibly because Wildroot Cream Oil had one of the greatest jingles of all time. If I had the opportunity and/or the hair, I would be sporting a cream-oiled coiffure this very moment. I sometimes find myself singing it while going about my day, and I cannot help that I am doing so.

4) Not content to rest on their musical laurels, the folks down at Wildroot had their fingers in a multitude of advertising pies, and evidently comic books were a fertile source of cream oil customers, because they sport such ads up until at least the mid-Sixties.

4a)The most basic of these ads took the form of one- or three-panel gag strips, wherein users of Wildroot Cream Oil might get the girl:

Or non-users might be set up as an unflattering mirror to the un-cream oiled reader. How will you every get the girl if you look like this, after all?

Or - and perhaps more disturbingly than intended - Wildroot Cream Oil could be portrayed as more important than the girl, as a necessity of life to be considered before all other things.

4b) About the time that Wildroot was sponsoring the Sam Spade radio program, the company's print advertising started featuring the detective as well. The number of crimes solved due to the absence, application or in one case aerial bombardment of hair tonic reached levels unheard-of before or since.

Notably, however, since this was the radio Sam Spade and not the novel or movie version, there was never an instance of Sam ruthlessly manipulating a collection of colourful underworld characters into betraying and murdering one another over a bottle of Wildroot. Which is a shame, because advertising needs more melancholy tales of moral ambiguity and bittersweet revenge.

4c) And then, presumably, Wildroot's Sam Spade contract ran out, because there was a new perfectly groomed detective in town: Charlie Wild.

Charlie Wild's adventures tended to be a bit more abbreviated than Sam Spade's, but they conveyed the same basic message: if your hair is messy then you have two basic career paths, criminal...

... or loser. Conversely, of course, an application of a certain popular name-brand hair tonic both signified virtue and raised esteem.

Even Charlie Wild, however, was not immune to the eerily addictive effects of Wildroot.

4d) And finally, there's Fearless Fosdick.

Fosdick, of course, was Al Capp's parody of Dick Tracy that existed as a comic-within-a-comic in the strip Lil' Abner - which is possibly the most convoluted explanation of a licensed property that I have ever had to give - and as such was probably the source of some of the most absurdly entertaining of the Wildroot ads.

His most endearing feature as a corporate shill, though, is that he's just as dang fond of the jingle as I am.

(Get Wildroot Cream Oil, Charlie...)

May 14, 2011

The Unfunnies: Shorty vs. Facial Hair

May 14, 2011/ Johnathan

Did I ever mention that Shorty was in the Navy during WWII? Yes, he went from office boy to Ordinary Seaman and then to high school student in the 50s, so evidently he was able to lie not only about his height but also the fact that he was roughly 12, thus his problems in keeping up with the Navy Hipsters that seemingly infest his ship: