Posted in: Comics | Tagged: captain victory, Comics, dragonsbane, dynamite, entertainment, jack kirby, silver star

Kirby Genesis: When Jack Kirby Created Captain Victory, Silver Star And More

Published Sun, 03 Sep 2017 13:00:53 -0500

Lots of folks have been talking about Jack Kirby for the last week because of his 100th birthday and the focus has been on his Marvel and DC work. But that's not all of his legacy. In the early 1980's Jack made a deal with Pacific Comics to publish a creator-owned series, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers and a six-issue miniseries Silver Star. It was part of a push by the King to help end the monopoly by publishers over the rights to the characters created by freelancers and through the work for hire system. Kirby's work and the work of the other talented creators were making a fortune for publishers while the freelancers scrambled to keep food on the table and cover medical expenses. It was a practice that needed to change and through the efforts of Kirby, Neal Adams and many many more, they have.

Those characters and other Kirbyverse creations ended up at Topps in 1993 through a licensing deal that would become the Jack Kirby's Secret City Saga.

In 2011, Dynamite Entertainment started a new series called Kirby: Genesis, an eight-issue miniseries by writer Kurt Busiek and artists Jack Herbert and Alex Ross. It featured Kirby-0wned characters Captain Victory, Silver Star and Dragonsbane among others. It would spin off three series, A six-issue Captain Victory series, a six-issue Silver Star series and a four-issue Dragonsbane series. After that the publisher tapped Joe Casey and a variety of artists to do a Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers six-issue series in 2014.

These characters never reached the popularity of his Marvel and DC creations. But they are just as beloved by Kirby fans as Captain America, The Fantasic Four or the Forth World Saga.

To go with his birthday, Dynamite is having a sale on digital copies of the Kirby Genesis and Captain Victory series until September 5th. Each issue is $.99 cents. You cane see them all here.