Sunday Mail call - The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus & OSR Commentary

 "When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel in the 1970s, scores of amazing concepts would spring forth from his limitless imagination - and THE ETERNALS was his mind-blowing masterpiece! Kirby unveiled a secret history of humanity, races known as Eternals and Deviants, and a host of towering Celestials come to bear judgment on the Earth! It was a jaw-dropping saga that could have only come from the King of comics. And after Kirby's tenure ended, creators including Peter B. Gillis, Sal Buscema, Walter Simonson, Roy Thomas and Mark Texeira continued to weave stories within the epic mythology that he created! Now, thrill to the complete classic saga of the Eternals!"

Thank God for an understanding & wonderful wife that graces my side. She's been on the look out on Amazon for The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus. And it came today! Which I wasn't expecting this book.  So this was a complete surprise! And The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus is a beast!  So what's in this omnibus well everything I've been looking for for years folks; "ETERNALS (1976) #1-19, ETERNALS ANNUAL (1977) #1; ETERNALS (1985) #1-12; ETERNALS: THE HEROD FACTOR (1991) #1; NEW ETERNALS: APOCALYPSE NOW (2000) #1; IRON MAN ANNUAL (1971) #6; AVENGERS (1963) #246-248; material from WHAT IF? (1977) #23-30". And Amazon packed it in a box! A God damn box folks! Why is this important?! Because of the number of horror stories of books & graphic novels ruined by Amazon & its sellers packing books in bags, sleeves, etc.. You can't imagine how happy I was when I saw the box. 

Since Nineties I've waited for an Eternals Omibus to come along like this. Ages ago I was privaliged enough to own almost the entire run of ETERNALS (1976) #1-19. And then almost all of the follow up issues. An apartment fire in Boston turned those Jack Kirby King of Comics of Eternals run into. Now gaze upon the Alex Ross cover goodness. 

By the omni mind I've been lusting after this collection for years now. But who are the Eternals?! Well according to their Wiki entry; "The Eternals are a fictional race of humanoids appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are described as an offshoot of the evolutionary process that created sentient life on Earth. The original instigators of this process, the alien Celestials, intended the Eternals to be the defenders of Earth, which leads to the inevitability of war against their destructive counterparts, the Deviants. The Eternals were created by Jack Kirby, and made their first appearance in The Eternals #1 (July 1976)."
And before Disney releases the new Eternals Marvel Cinematic universe film soon. Disney is already screwing with the cinematic counterparts because the Celestials created the Eternals from early man. In the film the Eternals were created thousands of years ago & sent to the primitive world of Earth by the Celestials. A minor point but.. I wanted to dive in & grab this run. But my lovely wife beat me too the punch! And this beast is the result! The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus is a full two inches thick! 

This sucker has all of the Eternals vs Deviant Marvel mayhem to be had! I can't wait to dive into this sucker! The entire run covered is listed in the back of the The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus. And this is a huge lot of Eternals Marvel goodness. 

  My own childhood connection was Ikaris whose the Eternals guardian of the  Pyramid of the Winds – a mysterious structure that Valkin and Phastos had built deep below the ice of the Arctic for storage of deadly weapons. Jack Kirby's redition of his creation is the definite version of the character. 

Write up.org has a really good indepth look into Irakis but the important point is how the Eternals are often woven into Marvel's human mythology. And in Irakis case it extents to his mythological namesake; "But Ikaris used his powers to do much more than simply guard the Pyramid. When the Celestials destroyed the Deviant city of Lemuria and devastated the planet with a flood, he led a number of humans to safety in a giant ark."

"Years later, Ikaris defended Crete from the Deviant hordes. He married a human woman there, who bore him a child. Because the young boy loved to fly in his father’s arms, Ikaris constructed a flying harness for him. Unfortunately, the Eternal was called away before he could instruct his son on the use of the device." You can read more about Ikaris within the character study on Write up. There are several OSR connections between The Eternals & several OSR games including Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. 
There is a hard core connection between Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & the Celestials is  woven throughout several  North Wind Adventures modules as a sort of gaming Easter Egg . Within the old school Judges Guilds  'The Wilderlands of High Fantasy' has eluded to several Marvel ties in with the Eternals having been mentioned in passing in several modules. For Lamentations of the Flame Princess Carcosa of course is the venue where the Celestials are most likely to be encountered. And Jack Kirby's creations were a major influence on the LoFP's most infamous Lovecraftian world according to Carcosa's author leading to even more OSR goodness. 

I'm really looking forward to diving into the The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus folks! Thanks honey for a fantastic & unexpected present! We will continue with Eternals commentary coming up on this blog! 

A Selection of Jack Kirby Comic Art As Inspiration For Your Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers Campaign

A quick selection of the sanity shattering artwork of Jack Kirby as inspiration for your AS&SH campaigns.
Right Over 

HERE

Seven Jack Kirby Maps As Rpg Inspiration For Your OSR Campaigns

Just some of the wonderful works of comics master Jack Kirby as inspiration for your old school super hero rpging. I don't own these images and I'm posting them with the links to the blogs where I originally found them. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful.

A map of Asgard. Map of Asgard Journey Into Mystery Annual #1. July 1965
Visit The Original Image
HERE

Original Image Right Over
HERE

These were part of the movie concept art from a movie called Argo that Mr.Kirby was hired for.
According to the article right over HERE
"journalist Joshua Bearman, who wrote the original article that was the basis for Affleck's film, explained the story behind the real Argo, which was titled Lord of Light at first: "Argo was the name Tony [Mendez] gave to a script that was in turnaround and sitting in a pile at [makeup artist John] Chambers' house," he said. "That script was... adapted from a successful Roger Zelazny science-fantasy novel of the same name."

From Fantastic Four #6 (September 1962), art by Jack Kirby

From Fantastic Four #3 (March 1962), art by Jack Kirby

For even more Baxter Building Inspired Madness go right over HERE

Hartford Betamax Black Book Edition Stars Without Number Campaign Influence- Marvel Treasury Edition - 2001 A Space Odyssey Comic Book

Introduction 

Back when I was a kid this book was given to me. The 1968 space epic '2001 A Space Odyssey' was and is one of my all time favorite movies.
This comic was given to me by one of my all time favorite movies. I'm a devotee of Diversions Of The Groovy Kind Blog and found that those wonderful folks posted the entire comic for us fans! They go into a brief history of the comic with the following: "Yeah, the all-time, art-house, critically-acclaimed 1968 sci-fi epic from MGM was, to put it mildly, a BIG THING during the Groovy Age (especially pre-Star Wars). And so, natch, was Jack Kirby. When Jack returned to Marvel Comics in 1976, one of the most spectacular announcements was the fact that the King was going to adapt 2001 for Marvel's tabloid-sized Treasury Edition line. Dunno how it came about, seeing that this adaptation was 8 years after the flick premiered, but Marvel and MGM got it all together, turned Jack loose (aided and abetted by inker Frank Giacoia, letterer John Costanza, and colorist Marie Severin)."

Since they paid it forward to me I'm paying it forward to you folks!
You see the whole thing right over
HERE

This is pretty much the look of my Stars Without Numbers campaign right there in one shot. The comic dynamic, the concepts mind blowing, and whole thing cosmic weird! 
Big thanks to Marvel and 'The Diversions of The Groovy Kind' Blog! 

1d30 Random Marvel Asgardian Finds - After The Battles Are Over

1d30 Random Marvel Asgardian Finds

1. Lock of Blond hair & +1 sword 
2. Ice Mace frost giant sized with a dragon leather clad hilt 
3. Piece of urn metal from armor broken in 2 places 
4. Broken shield, mace, pieces of  Viking style armor 
5. Eternal unmelting ice crystal sphere acts as a crystal ball. 
6. One horned helm with very large horns. Right horn broken, golden in color. A strong sense of arrogance issues from it.. Almost dripping 
7. Small human sized suit of armor but to wide for a human. Embossing work all over the entire suit. Strong magic or high technology 
8. 12 broken spears only 3 are salvageable. +2 spear heads must be fixed to spears 
9. Broken pieces of a wooden boat with weird runes across each part of the wood that you find. 
10. Blood splattered wooden shields or wood like material. There is a lattice of circuits running around the inside edge of  these relics. 
11. Map of Asgard, 300 hundred years out of date. Edges burnt & pitted.. 
12. Black Hammer very plain style. Radiates evil & power from within. +2 war hammer 
13. A set of electronic data pads covered in green slime like material. Actually runes for casting fate. One screen cracked yet it still works 
14. Another set of runes but these are made from alien bones & painted with alien blood 
15. A black silver glove missing three key pieces. Strong magic 
16. A Thor Marvel comic from the 60s covered in magic marker with the words,"Its all true" on every single page 
17. Eighteen identical Asgardian figures  of  warriors & swordsmen. Very detailed with individual faces & exacting details. Did one just wink at you? 
18. A strange techno organic device that responses to the name "mother" Box like in shape about the size of a paperback 
19. A rusted pitted child's sized sword very, very sharp & dangerous looking 
20. A glowing golden torc that seems to whisper & sing to itself & its owner.
21. Apple golden in color & made of metal. A metal worm crawls in & out of the thing. 
22. A strange armored glove twice as big as a man's hand. Very cold to the touch & seemly alien in appearance 
23. A set of arrow head made from ice & snow. There seems to be a darkness to these things that radiates out of the corner of your eye. 
24. "Puny god" tee shirt green in color  extra large size. Actually armor class 4 armor tee 
25. A piece of glowing stone like material rain bow in color. Heavy material & nigh indestructible 
26. Ruined chain mail bikini. The owner was well endowed. Magical in nature 
27. "I love Loki" fan club button from the 60s 
28. Crooked walking can very old & almost fossilized 
29.  Black Mace ancient  & pitted with age. Some of the flanges have been broken. The head is covered with bright green rust. 
30. A living raven in an iron cage. The bird has a very strange look in its eye. Does not need to eat or be bothered in any way. Just stares menacingly. Occasionally croaks & almost talks to itself. Almost. 
    
    
    
    

Saturday Tribute Jack Kirby -The Eternals

I was talking to my friend Larry yesterday mostly about Stormbringer & I mentioned Carcosa (again). We talked about alien technology & how to approach it in science fantasy gaming. We both agreed that it should be mysterious more then slightly menacing & very,very eerie. We both agreed that Promethean has the look & feel of where we want to go. Then we started talking about Marvel's Eternals. The original Jack Kirby run. There were so many ideas from that book. We both agreed that players should be scared as hell of artifacts. Then we talked about Eternals #1 where we learn the history of the human race. This book introduces some of the core concepts of the Eternals. The Eternals themselves, the Deviants, The Celestials, & the cosmic spanning history of the race. In case you need some background. From Wiki :  In 1970, Jack Kirby left Marvel Comics to work at DC Comics, where he began the saga of the New Gods, an epic story involving mythological and science fiction concepts, and planned to have a definite ending. However, the saga was left incomplete after the cancellation of the titles involved. Kirby began The Eternals when he returned to Marvel. The Eternals' saga was thematically similar to the New Gods', but the series was eventually canceled as well without resolving many of its plots, particularly the Celestials' judgment over humanity (see Fictional Biography below). Initially, the comic book was not intended to be part of the normal Marvel continuity, but a stand-alone publication.

  We talked about how when Exalted by White Wolf first came out we were both hoping for something that was a bit more like this series. Yet it seems that the writers & designers filled in every last little corner of the map of those worlds. Jack Kirby created mega-dungeon for Eternals #1 bits & pieces of it can be seen in this issue. I'm surprised about the number of reviews of the new edition of Carcosa who don't get this style of dungeon crawling. There were endless variations of this in products that were out & came after this series. Booty & The Beasts, Arduin, Expedition To The Barrier Peaks, Temple of the Frog, etc. all of them had elements of science fantasy artifacts that could rip your character's face off or turn them into a far more alien form. With the release of John Carter coming up the science fantasy scene is set to explode or fizzle. The results will depend on the fickle finger of fate that is gamer's tastes. Me? I'm already planning my own copy right free space gods that will exist in the public domain. 

 Now of course its kind of retro & interesting these days yet the number of folks who won't mix fantasy & science fantasy elements remains very high. Anyhow bask in the genius that is this series. We still haven't caught up to Jack Kirby. 

CLICK TO ENLARGE & READ

Jack explains what it's all about:

Page 4 from The Eternals #4

From Jack Kirby Collector #18

Eternals ™ Marvel Characters Inc.

Art © Jack Kirby.
You can read more about the Eternals  Here

The Eternals & all works mentioned within this blog entry are the copy rights of their respective copyright holders. This is a work of fan appreciation & in no way a challenge to said copy rights. 

 While I couldn't find any External videos I was able to find some of Kirby's other wonderful creations. I hope you enjoy these.