Compiled, researched, and edited by John Morrow
With contributions by Jon B. Cooke
Published by TwoMorrows
First of all, you have to understand that I wouldn’t even be here writing this if it hadn’t been for Jack Kirby’s Fourth World books—in particular, Forever People # 1.
Long story short, I was nearly 12 years old, had discovered girls, and was swaying toward giving in to peer pressure to give up comic books. I had bought a stack and as I sat on the couch one night reading them, I realized I just wasn’t enjoying them the way I used to.
In fact, I didn’t even finish all the ones I bought that day. A few of them slipped down the side of the couch.
That was it. I was done with comics!
A week or so later, while cleaning, my mother rescued those comics that had slipped. I figured I’d go ahead and read ‘em.
One of them happened to be Forever People # 1.
After that, I was a changed boy. I headed back to the various stores where I bought my comics, returning to my usual route, seeking out any and all Kirby DC product!
I became obsessed with the New Gods saga!
So much so that I started writing the reading order on the title page in great big numbers, in a circle, in ink, next to my initials. (I was a kid! Gimme a break!)
Eventually I would poke holes in the edges of all my issues and put them in three ring binders so I could just take them and read them at my leisure. And I did just that! I read them a lot! Other comics just didn’t seem to do it for me in that period but as far as I was concerned, Jack could do no wrong!
Well, at least until his books suddenly started getting canceled. What th…!?
Now, at long last, comes the book I would have given anything to read way back then.
Technically, this is the 80th issue of John Morrow’s wonderfully obsessive magazine, The Jack Kirby Collector, but no, this is a book! Old Gods and New: A Companion to Kirby’s Fourth World, by John Morrow with Jon B. Cooke, is a deep dive into every aspect of the New Gods saga, from its ties to actual myths to exploring Kirby’s own seemingly psychological need to tell the tale.
By way of full disclosure, I do a lot of work for TwoMorrows. I just did some transcription work for Mr. Morrow himself and I have a regular column starting this month in Mr. Cooke’s magazine Comic Book Creator (plug).
That said, if this book sucked, I would tell you. Instead, it’s just the opposite.
Not being able to afford any of DC’s many highly praised reprints of the original Fourth World stories,
I haven’t read any of them in years now but I was amazed at how much detail kept coming back to me as I read along in this book. John’s overall narrative is perfectly augmented by sometimes long oral history “soundbites” (all helpfully color-coded) from Mark Evanier, Steve Sherman, Mike Royer, Carmine Infantino, and others, as well as, of course, lots of interview clips from the much-interviewed King Kirby, himself.
Jon B. Cooke suggested that Kirby’s vast imagination had come up with so many totally new concepts and characters in the saga that someone could write about one a day for an entire year and still have some left over. He proves this in a fun 12-page section highlighting 365 unique Kirby Koncepts, one of my favorite sections of this volume.
This is not the place to start with the Fourth World books, though.
As it says in its title, this book is a companion, to be read after you’ve become familiar with Kirby’s stories. If you read it then, you’ll absolutely love it! If you read it first, you’ll be so confused!
So, go buy one of DC’s reprint collections, then purchase Old Gods and New: A Companion to Kirby’s Fourth World, for maximum enjoyment.
Booksteve recommends.
