Sentry 459 wrote:
KOBE27 wrote:
As such, the book (which tries to feel like Kirby sense of wonder circa mid-1960s) actually makes me think of late Bronze Age Kirby, that is, a bunch of cool ideas tossed scattershot all over the place and not particularly focused.

That's a good summary, KOBE!  Emot_yes

I’m not necessarily sure Casey was trying to emulate the silver age Kirby style in the first place. Sure, the Archer clan, their past as astronauts, Adam’s vaguely Silver Surferish appearance brings to mind the Fantastic Four, but I don’t think the tone was ever going for that. More than a few people have noticed that Godland is closer to bronze age Kirby than silver age Kirby. A critical article in the back matter of second Celestial Edition specifically references the Pacific Comics era, and some of the interviews and such with Casey and Scioli also mentioned Silver Star and Captain Victory (“pure Kirby,” they call it) as influences.

Really though, while visually and conceptually Kirby is all over Godland, along with Starlin’s Warlock and Steve Englehart’s cosmic Avengers stories and such, I don’t feel like Godland is a simple rip-off.

Someone once referred to Godland (as well as the Umbrella Academy) as being the first “silver age” comics of the 00’s. In the sense that the silver age superhero books were all about taking the old concepts that the golden age left them and took them in a completely different direction, wearing that influence while being its own thing. The same goes with Godland (and Umbrella Academy), the stuff that influenced these comics (Kirby in general and 70’s Marvel cosmic comics in the case of Godland and stuff like Morrison’s Doom Patrol, Mike Mignola, Kirby again, The Royal Tenanbaums for Umbrella Academy) is very apparent, it’s not so much slavish devotion as it is a firm jumping off point for the creators to do their own thing. Godland looks like Kirby, especially early on, but it doesn’t read like Kirby. 

For what it's worth, if people dig Godland they might want to look up Charlatan Ball. It's another Casey does Kirby-tripping-balls type of comic, this time with artist Andy Suriano (who worked on the Samurai Jack cartoon) about a deadbeat stage magician being dragged into a cosmic/magic tournament. Funny, though it's a different vibe from Godland and it's another comic that definitely recalls Kirby in some of the character designs and concepts, but the actual story doesn't read like Kirby. 

Also, I kinda wish I could still find the old Basil Cronus "Violence is the new black!" t-shirt that was out years ago. Seriously, Basil Cronus (or Basil Discordia, whichever) is one of my favorite villains of the last decade or so.