Image Comics has announced a fictionalised tribute to comics legend Jack Kirby, The Man Who Dreamt the Impossible, hitting shelves this August.
Jack Kirby is one of the most esteemed names in all of comics. Dreaming up the impossible, his works include some of the most iconic heroes of all-time. We’re talking the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men. Kirby’s journey began in the Bronze Age of comics, reaching peak influence in the Silver Age, laying the foundations that would continue to drive the industry to where it is today.
The upcoming, fictionalised tribute is published by Image Comics. Titled The Man Who Dreamt the Impossible, the project comes from writer Mário Freitas and artist Lucas Pereira. The official synopsis reads: “Jack King is the eldest in the care home. A prodigy of imagination, always telling fascinating stories, but recently suffering from extreme fatigue and lack of motivation. Then comes Mike, a young orderly who will help restore Jack’s spirit and his much-loved library, a place fallen into disarray and near abandonment, certainly not unrelated to the sinister pestilence lurking on its shelves…”
“This book is huge. In format. In scope. In ambition. Just like Jack did. But this is not a biography. It is more of a classic ‘what if?’ scenario: what if Jack Kirby had lived well beyond the age of 76? What if he had survived his Roz; if he had spent his last years in a care home, reunited with his old creative pals from the days of the ‘House of Ideas’ (a term so well spread by propaganda, as if American comics hadn’t been a house of ideas since the days of McCay, King, or Herriman),” said Freitas. “It is, above all, a narrative corollary to the great strengths of Kirby’s career: the complexity of human relations and the relentless pursuit of the impossible that lies hidden in the Cosmos. But different. Original. Just like Jack did.”
“A textual and visual exploration of what could have been—but also of what truly was,” Pereira added. “Kirby suffered greatly in real life from what was done to him and to his work, and this story is no different. We don’t sugarcoat what needs to be said or shy away from reflecting on what actually happened. Jack is a genius, but his creations were, over time, distorted and rearranged at the whim of a former caretaker at the nursing home. Now, with Mike’s help, Jack King will set everything back in its rightful place—where it never should have ceased to be.”
The Man Who Dreamt the Impossible releases August 27 in comic book stores, which just so happens to be the eve of Jack Kirby’s birthday.
