The Eternals continues to be all the rage this summer, with select issues selling for all-time record high prices. Currently the Eternals is one of the most sought after Marvel Bronze Age comic books. Yet, there was another cosmic saga penned and drawn by Jack Kirby for Marvel in the late 1970s. Although less coveted today by collectors, I would argue that, artistically and stylistically, it was actually a much more accomplished epic. I’m talking about Kirby’s version of the Arthur C. Clarke/Stanley Kubrick Sci-Fi phenomenon 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In 1970 Kirby had left Marvel and taken on work for DC. He produced some great (The New Gods) and also some weird (Jimmy Olsen) and less than great comics for DC. However, six years later was able to put aside his apprehensions and go back to work for the House of Ideas.

One of his first assignments upon his return to Marvel was the comic book adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke book written to accompany the 1968 film by Stanley Kubrick: ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. First, Kirby adapted the Clarke story in an over-sized treasury edition. Subsequently, a few months later, the first of the 10 issues of the comic book continuation of the adaptation of the story would appear from 1976-1977.

 

 

2001: A Space Odyssey – Treasury Edition (November 1975) – Kirby’s adaptation of the Kubrick film

This is Kirby’s take on the original story, with some great art and additional dialogue –some drawn directly from Clarke’s novel. The 72-page book Treasury is an oversize book and these tend to be highly sought by some collectors (see my post on these Oversized Fun: Marvel Treasury and DC Collectors’ Edition Comics). They are also very hard to find in high grade. Written and drawn by Kirby with inks by Frank Giacoia. The adaptation was part of the agreement of Kirby’s return to Marvel and it contains some great splash pages and a psychedelic rendering of the transformation of Dave Bowman into the star child that’s absolutely awesome. Not enough sales data on this book on GoCollect.com, but current eBay sales of raw copies range from $15.00 in Good condition to $35.00 in Fine plus.

 

 

 

2001: A Space Odyssey #1 (November 1976) – First issue of the ongoing Series

In the first few issues of the Kirby comic, the stories are told of the monolith having little to do with the film. In the first two issues, the monolith finds primitive hunters and then teaches them to use stone tools and other techniques to advance human evolution. The early issues were also divided into two-part stories. In the first half we take a look at individuals from early human history and in


the second we encounter their descendants in the future. The descendants would be travelling in space or on some expedition on the moons of Jupiter and the monolith would pull a Dave Bowman on them and turn them into super-evolved Zarathustra babies. Then the comic would end by saying, ‘no human mind can understand the workings of the alien intelligence.’ No human mind, except Kirby’s!

A 9.8 certified blue label copy of this comic currently sells for a FMV of around $110.00. Long term returns are strong in high grades, mixed to negative in the lower grades. The last three sales, on ComicLink (04/03/2019) and eBay (06/27/2019 and 07/12/2019) sold for the respective prices of: $136.00; $179.99; and $149.95. That gives the first issue of 2001 a short term (3 month) roi of negative -16% on 9.8 grade after the last 2 sales. Over the last three months, however, there have also been four 9.6’s sold and two 9.4 grades- in these cases roi is positive and up by +80.3% on 9.6 copies (last sale: eBay on 07/04/2019 for $67.83) and positive +66.8% for 9.4 (last sale: eBay on 06/29/2019 for $26.00).

 

2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (July 1977) – First Appearance and Origin of X-51 (aka Machine Man)

As the 2001 series went on it only got weirder, issue #8 is the most collectible issue in the Kirby run and that’s largely because it contains the first appearance of the purple cyborg later known as 'Machine Man'. MM would later also get his own Marvel comic, but his was the last story line of the original 2001 saga. If he ever makes an MCU live action appearance, although it’s unlikely, I can’t even begin to guess how prices on this comic would spike. Right now, without any movie or television appearances, 2001 #8 has a FMV in certified 9.8 condition of $400.00. Long term returns over the last 15 years are mixed but quite strong in higher and mid grades. Short term returns mirror the situation with issue #1: down in 9.8 after 4 sales (minus -10.6%), but positive +22% in 9.6 after 5 sales [last sale: eBay; 06/25/2019 for $199.00 and +18.8% in 9.4 after 2 sales [last sale: eBay, 07/01/2019 for $123.50].

[*****Shout out to my good friend Alex R. for inspiring this post by reminding me how much fun these Kirby Bronze Age sci-fi comics were].