Kirby was an astounding artist and creative genius, but his explosive, dynamic art - and decidedly thunderous prose - were hardly sympatico with Kubrick's stark visual style and leisurely storytelling. Also, the film really didn't seem to lead naturally into any sort of traditional continuation, so the Marvel Comic had to blaze its own, bizarre path in building on the film's narrative.
In any case, after an oversized "Treasury Edition" adaptation of the film in 1976, the subsequent ongoing 2001 comic ran for ten issues, all produced by the legendary Kirby, who explored the movies themes and concepts in his own unique manner. The stories were wild, colorful and bugnuts crazy, but they did make one lasting contribution to the sprawling Marvel universe in the form of Kirby's robotic creation, Mister Machine/Machine Man, who was introduced and featured in the final issues of the book.
Here are Kirby's covers for the ten-issue run:
Of Kirby adaptions, I never heard the full story behind his unfinished adaption of THE PRISONER-- another title that doesn't lend itself to King Kirby's flash.
ReplyDeleteFreaking awesome, I was not even aware these existed! Proceeding to look them up and aquiring them! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGood stuff, I figure the reason for doing the series was money and to keep Kirby busy.
ReplyDeleteWow, I've never encountered these... how very, very odd... and potentially cool! Off to eBay I go!
ReplyDeleteSo MGM forgot to include a "review and approve" clause in their licensing agreement with Marvel? Because much as I love Kirby (and I was the only kid of my era who actually had a Machine Man collection), those covers (and the stories they promise within) look just terrible.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU. I thought it was just me being picky. My reaction to these covers (besides "There was a 2001 *comic*? By KIRBY?!") was "Yeesh, everybody's a blockhead with a gaping mouth, and the inking is straight up blotchy". Ah, well... they can't all be "New Gods", I suppose.
DeleteBut thank you, good Mr. Mills, for posting these; my husband is a HUGE fan of both Clarke and "2001", and he has just about every (affordable) thing one can buy concerning either, which makes him hard to shop for. I know for a fact he doesn't have these, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't know about them. So, now I know what to get him for Yule. You're aces, dude-man!
Your Pal,
Storm
About as true to 2001 as the Conan comics are were the original Howard stories
ReplyDeleteI have a few of the issues and they're awesome. Kirby added a cosmic shot of dynamism to the concepts introduced in the rather cerebral, leisurely paced (but of course great) movie and created something offbeat and wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThe movie was re-released some time in 1975/1976 (my freshman year of high school), which was when I first saw it. Do you think that was why the comic book series was sold?
ReplyDeleteMaybe - if the re-release was popular with college kids, maybe Marvel would have seen that as a reason to adapt it. But it's still a very odd fit - even for 70s Marvel!
DeleteI know that Marvel lured Kirby back from DC with a promise of a certain number of pages per/month, but still, the decision to give the book to Kirby was a weird one. I love Kirby - but this one's a head-scratcher.
Wellll, I like the fact, as Alex mentioned, that Kirby at least 'went somewhere' with the concept, like Perez on 'Logans Run', instead of sticking strictly to the script with only minor deviations.
ReplyDeleteThe pick of Kirby as artist was obviously very political/business-oriented as you described, Christopher. They were throwing him projects; it of course was Kirby's plan to launch his own ideas within the confines (no one was really in a position to tell him 'no'..), which if sales warranted, would branch off onto his own stuff securing both a paycheck and his ego.. A smart plan if it would have worked. Luckily Kirby wasn't given Fantastic Four (we had to settle for him nearly ruining Captain America..).
On that note, I still wish Starlin would have said yes to FF when he was offered it (wonder how Thanos would have been woven in there instead of Mar-Vell and Avengers...) but reportedly he didn't want to be saddled with one of the top titles..
Like Mego buying the Trek license a few years earlier for only a meager $2,000 reportedly, Marvel was busy buying rights to anything that might sell, just to see what stuck on the wall and what didn't.
Agreeing with Alex, it was certainly 'off-beat', but hey, that was the glory of Bronze Age Marvel mags..... Vampires, zombies, kungfu, Howard the Duck, it was awesome.
I just have the movie issue. The rest seemed to be a bit gonzo. I don't know if I knew the word gonzo back then.
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