King Size Kirby Hardcover – July 28, 2015

I received a replacement copy, so now updating this rating. Overall, this is a handsomely packaged edition with a broad selection of Jack's Marvel work. It's nice to have the comics reproduced in a large size (similar to the Treasury edition reprints Marvel issued in the late 70's) but the weight of this edition makes it difficult to hold for reading. I give this 4 rather than 5 stars because it lacks any commentary text or other 'bonus' features other than a brief forward. Any fan of Jack already owns much or all of this material in other reprint volumes. But it is an excellent survey of Jack's Marvel carrer for newcomers who know him solely from the opening credits on Marvel movies. My copy arrived today -- with the cover bound upside down! Nice cover of Captain America, but when I open the book I see page 816, Devil Dinosaur upside down. I will return this copy for a replacement, will update this review when that arrives.

Dude! Heads up that the box the book comes in will be stickered to death. And when I say death it’s because no matter how careful I was I couldn’t save the back from tearing some cover off when removing these hinderences. It’s a shame that a book this expensive has these issues. Just FYI.

I had some of these comics as a kid. OK, Silver Age, not Golden Age, but still when some cost only one thin dime. Wish I still had them; but this is a glorious step back to the late fifties/early sixties. Only one word can describe it: Stunning!

Bought as a gift for husband. He loves it.

This book is king-size and great-looking. The book and slipcase weigh 19.6 lbs (Taschen 75 Years of Marvel with case is 15.8 lbs. The comparisons are inevitable). The book alone is 17.8 lbs. For comparison, the Taschen book is 14.6 lbs. The case is very sturdy with gorgeous Eternals artwork on the back.Reading the stories this size takes me back to the Treasury Editions. I remember my first exposure to the Mangog story was through Treasury Edition #10. Similarly with the Galactus Trilogy and TE #2 and the Captain America Bicentennial Stories in the Treasury Special Edition. This publication is 13x20 with a thin 1.25" colored border in Kirby Krackle (Treasury Editions were 10x14). I measure the artwork area to be 10x15 in King-Size.Another flourish I love with this collection are the color coded page borders (see images). From the top, bottom or side, it makes this huge tome easy to navigate and select a story arc or time period (Fantastic Four stories have a border in FF Blue, Sgt Fury has olive drab, Atlas Monsters are in Atomic Orange, Golden Age are in Gold, etc.) The border is thin and does not take away from the artwork while making navigation very easy. (though, unlike the Taschen book, there is no bookmark sewn in.)Most of the artwork looks fantastic and really showcases Kirby's powerful, "bursting out of the panel" artwork. For the most part, the selection is excellent.Of course, everyone will have a story or two they wish was included: I wish that the Vision story, "The Werewolf!" from Marvel Mystery #14 was included. Also the Hurricane story from Captain America Comics 1 and 2 to contrast with Mercury. Kirby did such fantastic art on his war stories; I would've liked some of his work from Battle included ("Action on Quemoy" or "Ring of Steel") or even better his first post-war Marvel work from Battlefront "Mine Field" which is likely written, penciled and inked by Kirby.I liked the two Strange Tales additions not Masterworked and they look great to my eyes. For stories already Masterworked, I would like to see Colossus in "It Lives Again" in King-Size format. Yellow Claw stories would have been nice as well (like from Marvel Visionaries).It's hard to argue with the material that was selected though. This material is a subset of the stories collected in the two volumes of Marvel Visionaries. Missing are stories from Yellow Claw 3 & 4, and Marvel Mystery #23 Vision vs Kai-Mak the Shark God story.Added to this collection are great stories from Tales to Astonish 1, 5, 13, including covers, Captain America Bicentennial Battles (a huge story at 83 pages), a story and cover from Teen-age Romances #84, and the Red Skull story from Captain America Comics #7.I enjoyed the fact that they only have self-contained stories. The stories also provide a good cross-section of different inkers and their impact on Kirby's art.Oddly, there are some panels and pages that appear to be scaled up (notably some panels in FF 57-60, Eternals #7, from what I could see), but I think this is a problem with the Masterworks files they used to build this collection. I checked my FF omnibus #2 (BTP) and the jagged lines are in that edition as well. (I added zoom in detail of FF 57 showing the speed lines and board of Silver Surfer, the splash text to Eternals "Fourth Host" showing jagged lines). For comparison, I added cover detail to Thor 157, the NBE splash and the two-page spread from Devil Dinosaur to show how well the rest of the linework was reproduced.This pixelated linework doesn't plague the entire four-issue Doomsday arc, just certain panels, especially hair detail on Sue and Johnny. It's unfortunate, because this is an incredible saga with Dr Doom stealing the Silver Surfer's cosmic power with the Inhumans guest-starring, even if the idea of Doom building such a transference machine is a bit ludicrous.Thor "To Wake the Mangog" is one of my favorite Kirby stories and it looks exceptional in this format to my eyes. The washes on the covers look amazingly reconstructed at this size. This four issue saga is a larger-than-life end-of-the-universe story and perfectly suited for the King-Size format.Mark Beazley is the collection editor and the book is printed by R R Donnelly Asia. I don't know how small the print run is for this collection, but I'm sure when it goes Out of Print, the reseller prices will be quite high. I hope anyone that decides to purchase this King-Size Collection enjoys it as much as I have, having pre-ordered it a few weeks ago.

You know, I really wanted to be overwhelmed with how awesome this book was. The printing and everything is beautiful. The problem is that this is merely a collected reprint of the already oversized Jack Kirby Marvel Visionaries Volume 1 and 2. I wanted stories that I couldn't get there. I mean, Eternals and Devil Dinosaur and the What If issue have already been printed oversize. And in light of the omnibuses, so have many of the stories intros collection. That's my gripe. Clearly this is the finest and most overwhelming collection of these stories, but I would have liked some things that we've never seen oversized.

Apesar de caro, vale a compra. Se trata de um livro gigante que vem dentro de uma caixa protetora muito linda com as principais histórias desenhadas pelo grande Jack Kirby. São mais de 800 páginas. Pra quem é fã da Marvel é item obrigatório. É um livro histórico pra se guardar no melhor lugar da sua instante, pra mostrar para os amigos. Tem histórias das décadas de 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970 e 1980, Os personagens: Red Raven; Visão (o orignial); Capitão América(contando sua origem, primeira história); histórias de romances; histórias sobre monstros; Quarteto Fantástico; Vingadores; Eternos; etc. É um livro super especial.

O que se pode falar de uma obra prima do maior desenhista de super-heróis de todos os tempos !!!Livro maravilhoso, edição somente para pessoas de bom gosto e colecionadores !!Obrigado AMAZON ,Ricardo

A fantastic look at some of Kirby's most important work at Marvel. This book is gigantic like an Artist's Edition but about 5 times as thick. All the issues are presented in color, with a colorized border to identify what book it is on the edge. If you are fan of Kirby this is a must own. Just don't throw out your back when lifting it.

Hier gibt es die fantastischen Kirby Splashpages in einer atemberaubenden Größe. Die Auswahl der Storys ist okay, man erhält einen Überblick über seine Zeiten bei Marvel. Das Buch wurde in den USA mit einem bedruckten Schutzkarton verschickt, in dem der Schuber und das ziemlich schwere Buch gut geschütz war. Amazon Deutschland verpackt mit nur einer zusammengeknüllten Papierrolle - das ist völliger Unsinn und hat auch bei meinem Exemplar zu einer Delle geführt. Das zusammen mit dem fehlenden Schutzkarton ist schon irgendwie eine Frechheit