Dee Dhara
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby:
The Coming of Galactus!!
Comics are often seen as childish stories represented by a series of simple pictures. Characters are either ‘goodies’ or ‘baddies’, without deeper qualities. The art is straightforward and the stories are adopted from purely fictitious places. What people fail to see, however, is the intricacy behind them. Creators spend years developing characters, scenarios, history and visual effects. Each panel, colour, line and style is carefully planned in order to deliver a specific impact. Not only this, but many well known comics are inspired by ideas surrounding philosophy and theology; some reflect cultural features and societal issues. I am going to discuss a piece from Fantastic Four. The Coming of Galactus, written by Stan Lee, introduces Galactus as an almighty being ready to demolish worlds and the Surfer as a solitary wanderer who is misunderstood and feared by humanity. The piece is illustrated by Jack Kirby who became popular for creating visually bold comics. There are many levels existing behind the characters, particularly due to different artists having taken different perspectives on them and the art, however, I will focus on Kirby’s interpretation.
In order to enable his sustainability, Galactus; a god-like super-villain from outer space, is about to convert all elements on earth into pure energy using a deadly energy converter, destroying the world and all that exists on it. The Silver Surfer; his angelic herald, is looking down on a helpless, distraught city, slowly realising the repercussions. Suddenly the ‘Thing’, who possesses superhuman strength and endurance, also known as Ben Grimm, jumps in, in a valiant attempt to take Galactus and his fatal weapon down.
There is a clear division of anticipation turning into aggression, which Kirby creates through lines representing motion. In their early days, comics used motion lines that poorly represented moving objects, however, over the years, these lines became increasingly stylised. Jack Kirby became renowned for bringing comics to life through his expressive motion lines.
Colour influences visual impact. Kirby uses flat colours which emphasize the shape of objects adding to their bold, dynamic nature. They also hold symbolic power as costume colours and logos remain the same throughout their history; becoming iconic.
The panel shape and size influences the reader’s perception of time. Here, most panels are of equal size; Kirby uses larger panels to communicate increased action and time. Despite the low panel count on each half of the spread, Kirby’s expressive pictures effectively communicate the situation. The genuine action occurs ‘between’ the panels. The reader uses the illustrations like a guide, to help fill in these gaps.
The cartoonlike style is heightened by onomatopoeic words which add to the excitement; the scenes within those panels are taken to another level; which the picture would not do alone. Like in many comics, Kirby draws simplistic cartoonlike characters enabling the reader to easily identify with them, the surrounding scene is kept quite realistic and three dimensional so the reader stays immersed in an environment full of texture and depth.
Stan Lee’s inspiration for the characters came from the Bible. Galactus’ name is derived from the terms God and Galaxy; before his arrival on Earth, he had attempted to devour Zenn-La; prior to his arrival here, the Zenn-Lavians experienced the ‘Golden Age of Reason’, where they overcame many social difficulties. However, Zenn-La was then run by machines which the inhabitants grew idle to. Their boldness deteriorated which disabled them from Galactus. One inhabitant, Norrin Radd, then sacrifice himself to Galactus, becoming his herald. In return, Galactus would not harm Zenn-La. Radd joined Galactus on his quest and transformed into the Silver Surfer.
Galactus’ arrival can be seen as a kind of epiphany as all of Zenn-La’s technological advancements proved worthless in an instant. This is when Radd sacrificed himself for Zenn-La’s salvation.
Taking a Gnostic approach; humans are believed to be divine souls trapped in a world ruined by material possessions; this portrayal coincides with certain Judeo-Christian beliefs. Gnostics associated the God of the Christian Old Testament with an evil creator who produced materialism in the world; it was this corrupt ruler that the Hebrews had formed their belief system around. It is this ‘Old Testament’ deity that Galactus represents.
According to Gnosticism, angels are manifestations of one’s spiritual self. They believe in radical dualism where the lower part o self is merely a fleshy illusion known as an eidolon, the higher part is the spiritual essence of the being, known as a Daemon. Norrin Radd discards this outer illusive eidolon and takes on his Daemonic form as the Silver Surfer.
In theology, heraldry is associated with spreading the word of God. Similarly, here the Silver Surfer takes on classic functions of a herald. He discovers new worlds and announces the coming of his master.
Comic art such as this is important for its time as it has influenced other artists such as Roy Lichtenstein - One of the earliest known examples of pop-art ‘Whaam!’, was adapted from a DC Comic, ‘All American Men of War’. In fact many of Lichtenstein’s pieces were very close copies of comic book panels. Some of these panels were originally drawn by artists like Jack Kirby who received little recognition.
‘The Coming of Galactus’ may seem quite generic comic art; however, by marrying the childish fun of traditional comics with ambitious elements which reflect social and cultural issues, Lee and Kirby manage to also reach out to more mature readers. The numerous connotations and visual elements that lie beneath suggest that they have taken an academic stance towards the characters and scenario, thus creating a piece full of intellectual ideas and vivid imagination.
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