I’ve made it here to Day 25 of this year’s Jack Kirby Tribute Month, curated by Howard Simpson. Today’s prompt is Avia, wife of Izaya the Inheritor (better known in Jack’s Fourth World saga as Highfather).
First, a word about the Fourth World saga. Promotions at the time were that this was “Kirby Unleashed,” and that was truth in advertising. You can find a lot of great stories and characters in the whole body of Kirby’s work, and the Fourth World saga stands out as a singular work among that body. And contained within the saga, there are individual issues that are standouts. New Gods #7, where we meet Avia, is one of them.
We don’t get to see a lot of Avia, but her role in the Fourth World saga is no less significant for that, or for her effect on others, and on events. I don’t want to say more for fear of spoiling a great story. If you haven’t read it, you’re missing out!
It was fun to try to come up with my version of this quiet moment between Avia and Izaya. Hope you enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure I was going to get this up in time, so I’m really glad I made it! Please feel free to swing by again tomorrow to see who’s next!
This may be my favorite rendering so far. A really nice depiction of both characters in a quiet moment.
I recognize that many fans feel that New Gods #6 is the issue with the best art, but I firmly believe that it is this issue, New Gods #7 in which everything comes together, art/story/dialogue. It is easy to say that of the eleven issues of New Gods that Jack did, #6–7 are the pinnacle. I really wish that editorial at DC caught the vision of the Fourth World and let Jack continue working on it. But if that happens then we might not get The Demon or Kamandi.
Glad you like this one. Stepping back and looking at it after I was done, I was quite happy with it myself. That doesn’t always happen.
New Gods #7 is an amazing piece of work in amongst an amazing body of work, no question. I think Jack was just ahead of his time, as he was with so many of his ideas and concepts. They weren’t yet ready for the idea of a limited series that had a definitive ending, so we never got Jack’s original vision of how that was going to wrap up. But as you also point out, if things had been different, we might also not have gotten The Demon or Kamandi. Kamandi especially was a book that grabbed a lot of fans, myself included.
Wow. That is a terrfic takeoff on Jack’s opening page. Both Izaya and Avia are entuned to the moment. You extend that moment in “Jack time” wonderfully. No doubt unlike the flow of book 7, there are many moments like that which were not featured but certainly could be, as you do with this one panel. Thank you. I agree, limited stories are much better than a series so drawn out that it falls apart.
Very glad you like this one.
I think the problem was that DC at the time was just not ready for the idea of a limited series that had a locked-in ending. If a book was selling, they wanted it to go on and on as long for as possible. So in effect, it was like Jack got stuck in the middle of a novel he wasn’t going to be allowed to bring to a climax.
In the late ’70s after Jack had gone back to Marvel, DC actually did do a miniseries (I think it was called World of Krypton), and when it did well, they became more open to that idea. But like with many things, Jack was just too far out in front initially for people to get what he wanted to do. They just weren’t ready yet.