Tag Archives: Comic Book

The Jack Kirby Omnibus Sampler #1

review by VJ Miller, Sr.

A Little Personal History

I know this comic book of Jack Kirby illustrations is a publication of DC but I want to take you back to 1959 when I first saw a comic book with Jack Kirby art. It was a collaboration of Joe Simon writing and Jack’s renderings. The First issue of The Fly by Red Circle Comics got to my 11 year old curiosity.

I had been reading Superman and Batman comics since I was five, penciled by Wayne Boring and Dick Sprang, respectively. Jack Kirby’s rendering had something much different with the bold lines and the action scenes with larger than life characters. there was a darkness to the style that impressed my young mind. One should realize that credits were not given to who worked on any issue; I never found that out until years later. But I soon learned that I could recognize my fav artists in whatever book they were rendering even when the inkers were not always the same person.

To my disadvantage, I had never heard of Captain America that was also drawn by Jack. My only excuse was that after WW2 CA disappeared for several years. Comics back then were only a dime but I hadn’t enough dimes to keep up with all the other issues that caught my eye. Continue reading The Jack Kirby Omnibus Sampler #1

Spaceship for long distance travel

Rod Serling-Planet of the Apes Visionaries

Review by VJ Miller, Sr.
Script: Dana Gould interior art: Chad Lewis Cover: Paolo Revira

Rod Serling-Planet of the Apes,

Original screenplay by Rod Serling

Rod Serling Planet of the Apes Visionaries coverUntil I read Rod Serling- Planet of the Apes Visionaries, I thought I’d learned everything I needed to know about, the movie, Planet of the Apes until I came across this Graphic Novel.  Somehow, I missed the fact that the original manuscript was written by Rod Serling, but then I was 17 at the time and was more into comic books than what was going on in Hollywood.

The artwork in this book is superb. Because it tells the story as much as the captions and dialog especially the pages that had little or no dialog or captions.

Rod Serling’s original vision of Planet of the Apes was a society that was somewhat normal. They dressed in suits, drove cars, worked in office buildings and did those things that day to day citizens always did–they were just apes instead. Hollywood took Serling’s story and turned it into what we all watched with Charlton Heston and the ensemble cast of humans in ape suits. I doubt Mr. Serling was pleased. Continue reading Rod Serling-Planet of the Apes Visionaries