Saturday, August 14, 2021

Jack Kirby's Adaptation of THE BLACK HOLE (1979)


Following on from my last post, here is a look the second comic version of THE BLACK HOLE written by Carl Fallberg with fantastic art by the legendary Jack Kirby. This was published as a series of single page comic strips giving the story  an interesting, episodic structure. I think Kirby's version was first published in France and then later reprinted here in the states in 'Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales', but the dates I can find online seem to indicate that they might have been released almost at the same time. It seems odd to have two completely different comic adaptations and it may have been done to get the film's publicity out as fast as possible and in as many formats as could be covered. You could buy it off the comic book spinner rack or read it serialized in newspapers! 


As you would expect, the ending of the Kirby drawn version differs from the film but it is pretty similar to the Whitman comic - only better realized! Below are the last two strips and to read the entire series of 26 you can go to this fine webpage HERE





1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think there was a US comics page version - perhaps Sunday only - starting around when the film was released. several disney films of the 60s/70s had a comic strip adaptation.