<<Am I the only one who thinks Eternals is the best Kirby series? I mean, New Gods are cool, The Pact is the very best individual story Kirby did and all that. But as a whole I think The Eternals is stronger.>>

I tend to agree. I wondered if it was because I read so many issues of The Eternals as it was being published originally, and the eight- and nine-year-old inside me remembered it too fondly as a result.

Then my copy of the hardback omnibus showed up in the mail last week and I found myself reading it from the beginning, including issues that I had never seen, and I still feel that way.

No disrespect to the Fourth World material, which I also love, but this is primal Kirby, fettered somewhat by editorial dictates to shoehorn it into the Marvel Universe, but still mindblowing. And yes, it incorporates a lot of pseudo-scientific pop culture junk that was selling millions of paperbacks at the time, but so what? It was pure comic book magic.

I like what Gaiman is doing, too, but that is largely immaterial. It won't eclipse or change the considerable charms of the original.

Dare we hope that collections of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Machine Man, and Devil Dinosaur are on the horizon? (I would have rated the chances for 2001 to be slim to none a year ago because of the licensing, but Marvel proved willing to reprint its Godzilla series a few months back, so I can always hope...)

Karl Bollers:

"So yes, had SANDMAN been published as a regular DC title, it would have crashed, burned, and been cancelled inside of a year."

I'm not so sure about this. One thing to remember is that the Vertigo imprint didn't exist when SANDMAN started (late 1988, I believe). Vertigo came five years later, so it's quite probable that SANDMAN survived its first year (as a regular DC title) because sales were healthy in relation to other DC books.

Rodrigo
http://rodrigobaeza.blog-city.com

Chris Schillig: Dare we hope that collections of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Machine Man, and Devil Dinosaur are on the horizon?

* * * * *

I dare hope!  I freakin' loved Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur.

Karl:

QUOTE: So yes, had SANDMAN been published as a regular DC title, it would have crashed, burned, and been cancelled inside of a year.

Marvel title, maybe.  DC's cut off point for cancellations tends to be lower, particularly if the series is getting a good buzz.  But I think time period plays a factor as well.  Minimum sales requirements were a lot higher back then.

Gaiman has not been quoted out of context. Plus, he is a writer. He has some skill with words. Presumably, when he chooses words, he chooses them based on his understanding of what they mean, not at random. There have been occasions when the creator of a character "didn't get it right" -- Frank Miller proved that with Bullseye -- but it takes a special kind of arrogance to say such a thing about Jack Kirby. I do not believe Kirby should be given one iota more credit and respect than is his due -- but his due is a mountain greater than Everest. I am sure, after all his years in the business, THE ETERNALS was just what he wanted it to be, and anyone who does not want to pick up precisely the threads he left -- that is the one who is in danger of "getting it wrong".

JB: I am sure, after all his years in the business, THE ETERNALS was just what he wanted it to be

Was Kirby given cart blanche to do what he wanted at that time?  I thought I remember reading that he wasn't treated that great when he came back to Marvel in the mid-70's.  Would the editorial PTB at the time have had any say in the book?  I ask because ETERNALS, to me, never grabbed me like 97% of Kirby's other works and I always wondered why.