Fourth World by Jack Kirby Omnibus (New Printing)

At 11 years of age and growing up in a small Southeastern Kansas town, the access to my obsession with comics was limited to a few local grocery stores. I remember the smell of these stores to this day. A mixture of fresh fruit, cardboard boxes, and most importantly…the scent of newsprint in, what I considered to be, the best comic book collections in existence for a town with a population of about 12,000. Marvel was my primary focus. At the heart of this love of comics was an unwavering loyalty to Jack Kirby. The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Thor, The Avengers, Captain America, to name but a few of the masterpieces this immortal icon brought to a youthful mind seeking excitement in a format that our Black and White TV could not hope to match. Then came 1970 and Jack was gone to the evil DC. Fortunately for me, Jack had a whole new adventure waiting in the wings…The Fourth World. Although this wasn't the initial terminology for the sweeping saga when introduced through Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, the day I walked into Olson's grocery store, (no relation), and found issue number 1 of New Gods, there was no turning back. Although I desperately searched for all issues of the interconnected storyline, I ended up with sporadic editions of New Gods, Mister Miracle, The Forever People, and Jimmy Olsen. Over the years I was never able to obtain all issues and felt a bit lost and incomplete. Kamandi and The Demon helped with my Kirby fix, but missing out on the fates of the characters of New Genesis and Apokolips left a void. Then came July 1, 2017. The announcement of a pre-order for The Fourth World Omnibus! The order was placed and the wait was on! December 12, 2017…the beast landed. Opening the box, I swear the grocery store smell hit me like a wall. 1,536 pages of pure Kirby joy. This book could easily serve as a blunt object murder weapon, but that would be a waste of indescribable proportions! The colors are fantastic. The pages are not pinched at the spine, and every brilliant panel is easily viewed. The weight of the paper assures me that I'll be enjoying this beautiful tome for years, AND passing it on to my brainwashed offspring and theirs for the future. The Omnibus presents the entire storyline of The Fourth World in sequential order. Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, The Forever People, and Mister Miracle all for your viewing and reading pleasure. The despicable villains like Mantis, and one of my personal favorite heroes, Forager, bring me back to all those original issue, newsprint discoveries of the 1970s. My hands will be thoroughly cleaned before each reading, but this is one sturdy volume that begs to be read, viewed, and read again. I've taken pretty good care of my originals. I've introduced my kids to the greatness of Jack Kirby with those issues, always with a bit of concern that a page would be torn or a cover smudged. Now, with this beautiful, epic volume, I can bring grandchildren into the fold without hesitation, and pass King Kirby onto new generations who may otherwise never have experienced the power of a Mother Box or traveling through a boom tube as it was meant to be. I would recommend The Fourth World Omnibus to any Jack Kirby fan. I predict no disappointment. Long live The King!

Nice big book. Beautiful art.

It’s a big book. But the reading is fun and I’m going through the issues (reading) faster than I thought. I already have read like 200 pages in less than a day. Enjoying it.

Initially I balked at the irresponsible size. I would have liked to have seen three tomes within a slipcase. Now that looks like so much pickiness. To quote reviewer, David Swan, perhaps the top review here, "Jack Kirby spent five years at DC Comics, from 1971 to 1975, but in that short period of time he managed to produce perhaps the single greatest explosion of creativity by any comic creator in history." This statement is not hyperbole. It has a truth that is difficult to appreciate. Consider this -- prior Kirby, with Joe Simon, introduced Captain America to the world, and were it not for the great Steve Ditko, Gentleman Jack Kirby, a genuine comics Big Brain who could "school" today's creators in originality essentially set the visual look of the post-timely Marvel Universe with The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Avengers, and since we now know that Mr. Ditko, mentioned above, the co-creator of Spider-man, as well as The Question, the Creeper, and far too many damned innovative characters to count, had a moody impasse in which he no longer spoke with Stan Lee, choosing to pen his own Spider-man scripts, leaving Lee with the author by-line, it becomes fungible whether Lee, at times, especially due to the notorious "Marvel Style," did not allow Kirby the reins to his visual creations. I also feel that Alex Toth is an greatly under-rated commodity in creativity, with more animated characters deserving of a full-blown universe that it is hard to believe that Hollywood is "leaving that untapped money on the table," as it were. The New Gods. The Forever People. A visual style that is WARHOL's POP ART IN EXCELSIS... Jack Kirby is the game-changer. His Superman will never look like that of Curt Swan. But his page will never look like "illustration." His page is, instead, a canvas -- a great well-spring of color, action, and tangible movement that outpaces Wassily Kandinsky for using the medium of space. Brian Michael Bendis, a writer I respect but do not love has recently come to DC. Thus far, we have not seen anything like that wild embrace, that seizing of the reins, now that the writer has been granted the keys to the kingdom. Bendis is, indeed, adding to DC lore in a way few more interesting writers have been allowed -- I am looking at you Kelly Thompson and Matt Fraction -- and still it feels like so many more useless additions rather than total world building. As novelist Jonathan Lethem puts into one character's interior POV in his great novel "Fortress of Solitude," in reference to Jack Kirby's move 'back to Marvel' after his sojourn at DC, "Jack “King” Kirby’s return to Marvel, from his exile at DC, was still building steam. Dylan pictured Kirby in a laboratory leaching the Superman toxins from his body, recovering from kryptonite poisoning." I like to imagine this scene in reverse: with Kirby losing his Marvel toxins, when he arrived to DC, pointed at the bleachers, and knocked the ball from the park, for Kirby is Kirby. Kirby is bigger than the companies for which he drew, and this man -- this man drew so much.

I collected comics as a pre-teen up to my late 20's. My favorite series was Jack Kirby's 4th World sage of New Gods, Forever People, Mr. Miracle, and Jimmy Olsen. Jack Kirby was my favorite artist. I am about a 1/3 of the way thru it and I am enjoying it. I loved the story line. I believe Kirby was a truly amazing artist and storyteller. He had a vivid imagination. Reading these stories helped spark my love for reading science fiction, history, biographies, etc. I will say the only drawback to this mammoth work is its weight of 10#. I have to read it at desk. But it is worth the price.

I am a Kirby fan and I enjoyed his work at Marvel and DC. I can give this my unequivocal highest recommendation. In my estimation, except for his work on Fantastic Four, this is the greatest series of stories he told. The quality of the printing and the fact that the whole series of books is here make this better (for actually reading) than having all the originals (although I do). The only downside to this Omnibus volume is that it is very physically heavy. It’s definitely a laptop read, no laying in bed and reading it at arms-length or on your back. I still like it because I can actually trust myself to read it, as opposed to getting my bagged originals out to read. Some other Omnibus editions are kind of pricey (multiple hundreds of dollars and in excess of list price), but this one is still fairly reasonably priced at Amazon. I have no idea if collectors are trying to drive prices up or not, but usually compendiums don’t really become collectibles, so I am unsure why other books have been bid up way past cover price. I don’t think you can go wrong if you can get it for list or less. I wouldn’t waste time on books going for more than list, though. Since by nature all compendiums aren’t original, there ought to be no collector value to these simulacrums and they should be going for list or less.

I have gone my whole comic life never having read Jack Kirby's Fourth World untill now. And while the art is fantastic and the ideas presented are great the writing just isn't for me. Especially the Jimmy Olsen books which I wish were not part of this Omnibus. I feel it would read and be better. The other 3 books are good and then the Jimmy Olsen stuff is just so boring to me and I dreaded whenever I flipped a page and saw it was a issue of that series. My only complaint about the Omnibus is the fact that instead of putting all New Gods issues together than all Mr. Miracale, ect. It instead goes from when they where published and while they are in the same "Fourth World" banner it doesn't read well. And I know that is how they where published, but it doesn't matter at all or beneficial to the story being told to be read that way. Overall though though these stories are good, but not as great as many people hype them up to be in my opinion.

Hi Everyone, As You Prob. Know, Jack Kirby's Forth World Saga is Mind-Blowingly Fantastic. This Omnibus presents the Comics in a High Quality Book printed in Canada in 2021. But there is one prob. This Omnibus of more than 1400 pages weighs in at nearly 10 pounds. I have found a solution that You can consider. Place the Book on a Table or Desk. A small folding Table is in the Picture. Get a portable Book stand, because this Book is so thick, I added a strip of heavy duty cardboard to the lip of the stand. This way makes this Beautiful Omnibus or any heavy Book a pleasure to read. Take Care, John, Missouri P.S. > I removed the Dust Cover...

The stories, the art, and the characters take you to another world. A treasure trove of beautiful colour pages. You get to see the genius of Jack Kirby in these wonderful pages.

A massive and varied collection by the great Jack Kirby. There is no doubt this is a quality product by the best ever comic book artist, yet there is one caveat: The Kirby of Marvel in the late 60s would have used twice the pencil strokes, hence twice the detail. There is also evidence in some parts of figures being rushed. While Fourth World Omnibus is a triumph in many ways, with quirky and interesting characterizations, it appears that DC pushed the king a bit too hard in its desperate bid for market ascendency, making him draw, write and edit all four comics: a monumental task, while expecting his very best: rather unfair in my estimation. Nonetheless, the depth of writing and brilliant connected themes, along with that famous Kirby art, makes it an automatic 5 stars.

Super imaginative the is Jack Kirby's Masterpeice. Great reproduction. Sadly too big and heavy to read comfortably. I put ot on a table to read it. On good paper, a larger size, and clear 7úprofessional printing even Vinnie Colletta's inks look great and Mike Royers inks look even better. The later (80s) material.produced while Jack was in ill health is still fasinating HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Cool!

Esse grande encadernado em capa dura tem mais de mil páginas de aventuras. Aqui é a gênese de personagens muito importantes criados pelo grande Jack Kirby quando estava trabalhando na DC. É contada a história de Apokolips e Nova Gênese que foram criadas a partir de um mundo de Deuses após uma grande guerra que seria um Ragnarok. Jack queria ter feito essa trama nas histórias do Thor, porém, a Marvel não aprovou. Então na DC ele colocou em prática suas idéias. Foram criados os personagens Darksaid, Órion, Metron, Sr. Milagre, Grande Barda, Lobo da Estepe, entre outros. Aqui é compilada em ordem cronológica todas as aventuras relativas ao Quarto Mundo onde Darksaid busca a equação antivida para alcançar seus objetivos de dominar o universo, que foram publicadas em diversos títulos da DC. Obra completa.