Jack Kirby’s first stab at adapting Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey won’t even fit on our scanner. It’s the Marvel Treasury Edition of 2001 and stays pretty faithful to the movie. After its success, Marvel gave Jack Kirby free reign to continue the story in his own cosmic way.
For the first 7 issues, Kirby takes human beings and transforms them into “New Seeds,” the interstellar babies that Dave becomes at the end of the movie. At the Jack Kirby Museum, they theorize this was Kirby’s coming to grips with death as yet another stage of human transformation, rather than the pointless tragedy he witnessed first hand on the battlefields of World War II.
That may be the case. We don’t know for sure. But we do know that these 2001 stories rock! Where do we sign up for the monolith transformation?! And dig all these awesome prehistoric mammals Kirby threw into the mix in issue one! Enjoy “Beast Killer!”
Collector’s Guide:
- From 2001: A Space Odyssey; Marvel, 1976.
May 29th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
[...] With a brain-stunning 82 giant size pages by King Kirby, Marvel’s Treasury Edition format brings the most cerebrally cosmic epic of all time to the world of sequential illustration. It’s bigger than big, huger than huge, and Paul should like it because he has a monkey obsession! (Okay – GORILLA obsession…) This book won’t fit on our scanner, but you won’t regret buying it sight unseen. You might also enjoy the first issue of the ongoing Space Odyssey series Jack launched after this: READ MORE. [...]
June 26th, 2012 at 6:05 am
[...] Jack Kirby’s 2001 A Space Odyssey – First Issue – w h o a 2001 aaron+sorkin elokuva kuva los+angeles+times mad+men sarjakuva supercut tv video youtube [...]
October 8th, 2012 at 12:01 am
[...] last couple of months, but it made us happy to see io9 pick up our post about the first issue of Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Check out the io9 article on Jonathan Hickman’s plans for [...]