Kirby The Prophet

This story is a good example of Kirby's prophetic power, and how it's undermined by Lee.  A prophet, you will recall, is someone who speaks eternal truths. Those truths typically feature enemies and the future, and typically tell us to hold our nerve and do the right thing even when faced with terrifying threats. See for example the Old Testament prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, etc.). Here Kirby is telling us that, if we cannot reach a threat, don't worry: if it is evil then the evil will destroy itself from within eventually. This is because what we call "good" is simply what works in the long run. Our ancestors called theft and violence and aggressive isolation evil because they weaken the tribe. So anybody who relies on theft and violence and aggressive isolation will inevitably be weaker. In this example, a man who cuts himself off from society finds he needs healthcare. And to emphasise the point, his disease is almost certainly caused b...

We are back to classic Kirby, and the prophet does it again, though probably not intentionally. Grog is slang for alcohol. Russia has a history of alcoholism : 20 percent of Russian men die from alcohol related causes, compared with 6% globally. Kirby wrote this story in 1961, and Russia had just made a great attempt to defeat alcoholism in 1958. But when life is hard, people turn to drink. So just as in the story, in the real wold the harsh Russian life brought the demon Grogg back to life. This ends up helping the west maintain technological superiority: a workforce with a serious drink problem will find it harder to develop world class industries. Grogg makes the men weaken and give up one by one, just as with alcohol. This story is also full of those other Kirby pleasures, science and culture. He shows us the scientific method: in placing plants in a test region to see how they fare. He expands the mind: until I researched this story I didn't even know atomic gardening exist...

It's been a while since we saw Stan Lee's fingerprints on a story. But there are all over this one. Take Lee's trademark repetition, which appears whenever tension is high. Here the tension beings on page 6: (p.6): "None of you shall escape the mighty hulk! None of you!" (p.8) "Where did it go? Where?" (p.10) "I was wrong! Deadly wrong!" (p.11) "My plan must work! It must!!" (p.12) "Which one would it be? Which one?" There is also Lee's trademark redundancy, describing what we can already see (e.g. p.7), or explaining a word for younger readers (e.g. "disintegrated, reduced to nothing" on p. 12), without adding anything to the drama or plot. The broad outline (hypnotist monster comes back, he is defeated with a mirror) fails when we think about it: the monster has to be much weaker than before and the mirror is tiny and can only be used for a second. In contrast, the details are dramatic and plausible ...

Kirby the prophet does it again! A story about planet X, a large hidden planet beyond the orbit of Jupiter. 55 years layer it appears to have come true . "The mythical "Planet X" may actually be real, and scientists are calling it 'Planet Nine.' Astronomers have found evidence for a planet 10 times more massive than Earth in the far outer solar system, orbiting about 20 times farther from the sun than distant Neptune does." It was a little further out than Kirby expected, but he may have been thinking of the closer "planet ten" predicted in 2017 .

Another superb tale. The hero's desperation! The chase through a funfair (I suspect inspired by a movie or two?) But this time I want to draw attention to the moral complexity of the story. This is a fairly typical Kirby monster book, At his rate of working at the time, he probably wrote and drew the entire two parter in three days or so, before writing another and another and another. It's aimed at a much younger audience, and nobody could call it Kirby's best. Yet even here there is such nuance, such moral ambiguity. And a superb chase sequence, you can really feel the emotion for each character!  In the story the hero makes mistakes, then he does bad things in the heat of the moment, he gets himself into a bad situation and keeps going. The hero wins at the end by lying to the authorities and to his girlfriend about some extremely important stuff (she would not be his girlfriend if she knew the truth!). It makes the reader think. Remember, the initial situati...

This is a lovely morality tale. A symbol of how attempts to do bad ultimately fail, and the good takes over. This is true by definition: if morality did not ultimately aid our survival then why would anyone want it? Morality is nothing but cost in the short term, but survives because those who care for others and for truth find they can work more efficiently, so their tribe is more likely to win in any crisis. So Kirby the prophet has another great sermon. Also note the details: Nature: Man's attempts to thwart nature do not work (the start of the story). But nature works: in that slime and ooze was the source of primordial life! The creature is only alive because the completely artificial (man's plastic) permanently merges with the natural ooze. Science: Unlike regular comics, a Kirby comic knows that scientific experiments usually fail to give the hoped for response, and often must be discarded: clearly this is a familiar experience for the villain. Sophistication: t...

Kirby the Prophet does it again. This parable came true: the Soviet Union created a colossus to its own glory, in the form of a gigantic military industrial complex. And that giant proved too big to support, and forced change. At the end of the story we see the Soviet leaders coming t agreement with the west, just as Gorbechev was forced to. Historical significance This is the first full length story. I have noted before how Kirby was pushing for longer stories, and would soon get his way with Fantastic Four issue 1. And note how the splash page to part 3 is like the cover to FF 1. Pacing I love the pacing of Kirby's monster stories. Note how it took all night for the alien to make the colossus move. This is like something from a Victorian sci fi story: the slow pace adds to the impact. Kirby's writing, like his art, is unrivalled in its ability to convey scale and power.