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Product Description
Product Description
In the future, a world ravaged by war and controlled by hyper-rich overlords needs a saviour - now OMAC, the One Man Army Corps, lives - so that man may live!Mild-mannered scientist Buddy Blank is transformed by the secret satellite Brother Eye, given superhuman strength and near-invulnerability, in order to fight for humanity's survival. But with an entire city of enemies to fight, not to mention legions of soldiers, killer robots and much, much more, can even a One Man Army Corps save the day?The long out-of-print visionary epic by Jack "King" Kirby, co-creator of the "Incredible Hulk", "Fantastic Four" and "X-Men", and creator of the "New Gods", is collected in its entirety in this gorgeous hardback edition, also featuring Kirby's pencils - a must for comic fans!
About the Author
Jack Kirby is perhaps the most important artist ever to have worked in superhero comics. A creative and design genius, the "King" co-created household names such as The Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men for Marvel Comics, later moving to DC where he wrote Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, the epic saga of the New Gods, Kamandi - Last Boy on Earth and OMAC. His action-packed panels and pages and brilliant use of foreshortening make him perhaps the pre-eminent action comic artist.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When the New Gods series failed Jack Kirby started several new comics to fulfill his contract with DC for so many pages a week, giving us Kamandi, The Demon and Omac -One Man Army Corps. This is a pretty thin volume, just eight issues, and there are signs of tiredness in the old man. Double page spreads on page 2 and 3, 'chapters' to give an excuse for one panel pages and so on. Omac is a really brilliant concept and there are a lot of good ideas in 'The World That's Coming' but not much is done with them. Jack's art still has its charm but for my money D.Bruce Berry is not as good an inker as Mike Royer. Really this is for completists only but acquisition is not too painful at this price. Possibly the best thing is the original art generously scattered through it, showing how powerful Kirby's pencils were in their original state.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book gathers together, between hardcovers, the complete eight issue run of Jack Kirby's OMAC from his stint at DC comics in the mid-1970s.
OMAC is a symbol in the same way that Captain America and Fighting American are symbols. This makes him significant - even important - in terms of Kirby's oeuvre, but he doesn't have much in the way of a personal life, personal relationships or vulnerabilities. And this makes him difficult to relate to or care about as a character. Kirby is perhaps better at big concepts and big ideas (not to mention Big Art - of which there is plenty in OMAC) than he is at purely human characterisation. You don't really care very much about OMAC as a character because, beyond the symbol, you never really get to know him. You could even ask: "Is there anybody there?" He is almost like a machine, with a job to do. This is all well and good in terms of spectacle and fisticuffs and unusually creative ideas, but at the emotional level the strip leaves you cold because the character himself appears to lack...a character.
If OMAC had some kind of an inner life, some sort of personal angst or even a meaningful relationship with another character - so that his personal vulnerabilities might be contrasted against his enormous physical power - then we might come to care more about him. But Kirby - left to his own devices - much prefers to function at the levels of myth, symbol, epic and spectacle; at all of which he is good, perhaps even great. But at the end of the day do you really care about OMAC, the character, or about what happens to him?
To be fair, Kirby does partly address this towards the end of the run (issue seven, I think it is) by showing us that the most important relationship in the book is that between OMAC and "Brother Eye" - the autonomous computer satellite which generated him in the first place. I was grateful for this injection of feeling when it arrived, but it does arrive late.
In terms of the aesthetics of the book, I would like to add my support to those who say that DC have got the production and the paper right. These comics look better when reprinted on matt white paper (of good stock) than they do when reprinted on the glossy variety for which, in any case, they were never intended.
OMAC is a symbol in the same way that Captain America and Fighting American are symbols. This makes him significant - even important - in terms of Kirby's oeuvre, but he doesn't have much in the way of a personal life, personal relationships or vulnerabilities. And this makes him difficult to relate to or care about as a character. Kirby is perhaps better at big concepts and big ideas (not to mention Big Art - of which there is plenty in OMAC) than he is at purely human characterisation. You don't really care very much about OMAC as a character because, beyond the symbol, you never really get to know him. You could even ask: "Is there anybody there?" He is almost like a machine, with a job to do. This is all well and good in terms of spectacle and fisticuffs and unusually creative ideas, but at the emotional level the strip leaves you cold because the character himself appears to lack...a character.
If OMAC had some kind of an inner life, some sort of personal angst or even a meaningful relationship with another character - so that his personal vulnerabilities might be contrasted against his enormous physical power - then we might come to care more about him. But Kirby - left to his own devices - much prefers to function at the levels of myth, symbol, epic and spectacle; at all of which he is good, perhaps even great. But at the end of the day do you really care about OMAC, the character, or about what happens to him?
To be fair, Kirby does partly address this towards the end of the run (issue seven, I think it is) by showing us that the most important relationship in the book is that between OMAC and "Brother Eye" - the autonomous computer satellite which generated him in the first place. I was grateful for this injection of feeling when it arrived, but it does arrive late.
In terms of the aesthetics of the book, I would like to add my support to those who say that DC have got the production and the paper right. These comics look better when reprinted on matt white paper (of good stock) than they do when reprinted on the glossy variety for which, in any case, they were never intended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Quite extraordinary. Only eight issues were written, with the final issue tossed over a cliffedge when Jack decided to leave the series and DC to return to Marvel. It's got mindbending concepts ("Build-A-Friend", "Rent-A-City", "New Bodies for Old", the Super-Court at the top of Mount Everest) and Kirby's trademark ugly-beautiful comic art. The mohawked OMAC and his alter ego, corporate schmoe Buddy Blank, are memorable creations, made more so by their all-too-brief run. This is the future, seen from the past, and through Kirby's eyes it looks just fantastic.
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