Silver Star (Jack Kirby's Silver Star)

I didn’t know Jack Kirby made this comic until very recently. I knew this came later on in his life and it feels like his creativity was running out of steam. That’s not to say the story was boring, we’ve seen it before but it’s still good. The paper stock and the hard cover does the King’s work proud.

First of all - any work by Jack Kirby gets 5 stars automatically. It's always that good and he's just that good. Even when not at his best, he makes some of the best comics ever made.The drawing and inking in this book are as best as comics gets. You can see that Kirby never stopped loving his art, and by this point in his career, he was a grandmaster. It shows. Silver Star is beautiful to look at, dazzling and crazy, full of bright ideas and imagination.The print complements this by being of a high quality, and I absolutely loved the hardcover. The paper is great and the colors look lovely.As far as writing goes, I personally liked it, coming to it as a Kirby fan. However, it might not sit well with non-fans, as it is indeed very incoherent, and its characters (Darius Drumm aside) are not as memorable as his other stuff.Furthermore, like all his post-Marvel work, it's too short for its own good. Another 10 or 20 books could've fulfill the potential of these great concepts, which end far too soon.For Kirby fans - do buy it. You can't go wrong here.For Kirby newcomers, you should probably start with New Gods, Mister Miracle, or any of his Marvel works (Captain America in particular). But keep this one in mind for later, after you've fallen in love with the King.

I'll admit that Kirby's writing prowess was not quite the equal of his artistic skill and imagination. However, his writing worked for his art. I have a modest & slowly-growing Kirby collection. I have various collections of his work for both Marvel and DC as well as The Fighting American. I'm glad to add Silver Star to that collection.From what I can tell, both Silver Star and his archfoe, Darius Drumm, are far more powerful than any of Kirby's other creations. I'm comparing them to Marvel's Thor, The New Gods, and even The Eternals. I haven't been able to get ahold of the Captain Victory collection, so the jury's still out on that one. I agree with some of the other reviewers that the story for Silver Star was better fleshed out in the movie script. Even though the ending wasn't what I wished it could've been, I prefer it to the non-ending in the OMAC series. It's just as well that Silver Star didn't end up at Marvel or DC because I honestly don't think they really would've done this character justice. DC probably would've incorporated Silver Star and Darius Drumm in the New Gods tapestry and Marvel probably would've folded them into The Eternals. I'd prefer to remember these characters as Kirby left them.I got the full-color version (not the graphite edition) for a sweet price and I'm happy with my purchase. If you are a Kirby fan (like myself) or completist, add this book to your collection before the price goes up. I wouldn't bet on this book getting another print run.

Jack Kirby is a legend in American comic books. He created or co-created Captain America, Thor, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. In the 70s he went on to create less-famous but still prominent characters like the New Gods and the Demon.In the 80s he worked with Pacific Comics to publish creator-owned titles, finally realizing his dream of comic creators owning their own works, just like ordinary authors. His move to Pacific comics also saw one of the first times a publisher upgraded the paper stock for better printing.Silver Star continues some of the themes he'd developed earlier, Silver Star, like Captain America, is the product of military experiments. But he is far more powerful than any hero who preceded him, able to rearrange matter with his mind, creating castles, vehicles and anything else he can imagine. Against him is the evil Darius Drumm, a cult leader and product of the same experiments. Between them are other products of the experiments including Great Masai 'the Goliath of the Ghetto'. The conflict builds towards a suitably epic climax with whole cities being destroyed but then ends abruptly, as if someone told Kirby he only had one page to wrap everything up.The book raises deep issues of humanity becoming obsolete as the supermen emerge and of battles where the human race is nothing but a bystander.But the work is seriously flawed. It lacks subtlety, the characters rant and rave and act like, well, comic book characters. Plot points are introduced and dropped quickly. And the ending is very unfulfilling.In the introduction, we learn that Kirby wrote the book with little or no input from editors or the publisher and even asked them not to publish negative letters. Even the publishers admit the work was rough.So Silver Star is an interesting piece of comic book history and of Jack Kirby's body of work, but not a particularly great comic.

I admit it. I bought every issue of Silver Star, but never really followed the plots too well. Perhaps like Jack's oddball Galactic Rangers title, the word balloons were filled with "word jazz" that made little sense. Besides, how was Captain Victory the superior officer to a Major? But I digress...This is a excellent collection of Silver Star! The best part is the BRIGHT WHITE HEAVYWEIGHT paper, like the Baxter paper Pacific printed these on on originally. Well worth the pittance this hardcover costs.The only downside? No dust jacket...which I always remove and press flat anyway...so no foul!

This is classic Jack Kirby with vibrant, colourful artwork and characters that are larger than life. The kid me didn't appreciate the brilliance of Kirby but as an adult i'm quickly falling in love with his work. I would have given this book a full five stars for it's beautiful construction and lavish artwork, but unfortunately I was expecting a 336 page book as opposed to the 144 pages that the book actually is. If i'd known beforehand what I was actually getting then I would have been satisfied but it's a bit disappointing to get less than what you ordered regardless of the quality. The book seems to cover all six issues of the series but be aware that the information is incorrect on the page. It's about 144 pages of story and a small amount of afterwords and concept art. Regardless it's still worth the buy if you can get it at a price befitting the actual page count.

This is a great book.Any fans of Kirby should own a copy of this Hardcover.Bold artwork. Very colorful.Everything you can expect from a Kirby comic.

This book is amazing. If youre a fan of Kirby's later Fourth World stuff, like me, you'll love this. Top notch writing and artwork from the master of action! A little bit on the expensive side though. The recolouring job is pretty good. Ive never read the original comics so cant comment how different they are, but theyre brighter and more shiny than newsprint could ever be.

"Silver Star-homo geneticus" est l'une des dernières séries de Jack Kirby. Le King y reprend de nombreux thèmes récurrents dans son œuvre : les conséquences des responsabilités, la manipulation de l'atome, la solitude et la souffrance intérieure...Kirby avait conçu Silver Star comme un personnage de dessin animé ; aucun studio n'ayant accueilli favorablement ce projet, il décide de lui donner vie en BD. Cette édition inclut la BD, mais aussi le projet original avec un synopsis et les premiers crayonnages.L'encrage a échappé au massacre : Vince Colletta ne travaillait alors plus avec Kirby, et les couleurs du compère Mike Royer sont tout à fait agréables. Pour ma part j'estime que le travail de Kirby ne gagne rien au coloriage et que les éditions en N&B mettent au mieux son travail en valeur.A mes yeux, Silver Star a davantage une valeur historique qu'artistique : même si les héros crèvent toujours la page et que le mouvement transcende la feuille-support en deux dimensions, les limitations de Kirby (difficultés à tenir le crayon vers la fin de sa carrière) sont apparentes à de nombreuses reprises.Trois étoiles à cause de tous ces éléments qui limitent le plaisir de lecture.

Je ne pensais pas dire cela un jour mais c'est du très très très mauvais Kirby. Ce livre est à fuir. Malheureusement peu inspiré.