Digitally Speaking...#12 "American Barbarian"

American Barbarian #1
From 2013.

Well, here's another great comiXology find.  I've been talking recently about creators like Alan Moore, Mark Waid, and Jack Kirby, how I see them comparing to each other.  By sheer coincidence, I end up reading a comic from a Kirby disciple soon after.  And Tom Scioli is proving my point all over again.  Out of those three, it's The King whose legacy rightfully will continue to loom largest.

Scioli has just completed Godland with Joe Casey over at Image, which I've never read but found obviously at least influenced by Kirby.  But as it turns out, it's probably safe to say that Scioli is definitely inspired by Kirby.  So I'll have to read me some Godland at some point.  (Not to mention read more Kirby.)

American Barbarian evokes Kirby material like Kamandi, the so-called Last Boy on Earth.  It's a futuristic landscape that actually strongly evokes Beowulf, with a father charged with extending a family legacy of guardianship over a kingdom and the seven sons who are meant to continue it.

This is a story packed with fun ideas.  It's easier and easier to see the huge debt Grant Morrison owes to Kirby (and why Final Crisis is so much more integral to his career than even diehard Morrison fans who left scratching their heads care to admit), when there are such easy comparisons to be made between Scioli and Morrison.  Both of them share Kirby's ability to synthesize material.

The other thing Scioli takes from Kirby is art style.  It's very easy to tell that Scioli is a fan just from that, which is also what made it easy to assume Godland was somehow related to Kirby appreciation.  It's the kind of style that is plainly evocative and indebted, but still unique enough to Scioli that it doesn't feel like aping or stealing.  It's what Kevin Smith used to call an homage (only, he said the word all douchy, which for the longest time had me wondering if I had it wrong myself, but no, it's totally Smith's bad), except it's more like Scioli using a template that clearly still has a lot more mileage on it to explore new stories.

It may seem familiar, whether you're thinking Kirby as much as I am, or '80s cartoons, like one Amazon critic said.  (Hey, is it possible that '80s cartoons really are another form of Kirby hero worship?)  But it's just good storytelling.

This is one I'll be reading more of, definitely.