Wizards, Workings and Walk-Ins: Grey Magic

In the realm of the Leprechauns. Note giant mushroom.

This series cuts to the core of what The Secret Sun is all about, and where it all originally came from.

The Avengers, or Jack Kirby Conquers the World

Now do you understand?

I've burned a lot of bandwidth on this blog -- too much, in some people's eyes -- obsessing on Jack Kirby, the visionary madman who unwittingly changed the face of popular culture. 

Jack Kirby, Psychedelic Shaman

Jack Kirby may not be a household name, but we all are immersed in his visions. So many of the Hollywood wizards people celebrate today - not to mention video game makers - were raised on his comics. 

Mindbomb: The Source of the Force

We've talked about the spiritual sources of the Force before, and I've touched upon Jack Kirby's influence as well, but I thought it deserves a much closer look. 

Jack Kirby, Mindbomb: Iran, the CIA and the Lord of Light

Given Kirby's long history of prescience and myth-making, it was inevitable that those in the cloak-and-dagger community would eventually catch on to him. 

Jack Kirby, Mindbomb: Prophecies of a AstroGnostic

We've looked at Jack Kirby several times in the past here, most notably in his startlingly accurate (if not often allegorical) predictions of the Face on Mars in 1959, 9/11 in 1984, and the Gulf War and Iraq War in 1974 and 1975. 

There's also a foreshadowing of the plot of 2001: A Space Odyssey, possible Apollo mission footage chicanery, and the suppressed discovery of obelisks on the Moon by American and Russian surveying missions in the mid-60s. 

Stan Lee & The Twilight of the Immortals

One of the big recent stories was Stan Lee passing away at the enviable age of 95. I can't properly size up the effect Stan had on my own life and certainly not the influence he had on the culture at large. He, more than anyone, is responsible for the development of the superhero as icon and the rise of fan culture today. 

Jack Kirby, Mindbomb: Rocket to the Tombs

We looked at Jack Kirby several times in the past here, most notably in his startlingly accurate yet allegorical predictions of the Face on Mars in 1959, 9/11 in 1984, and the Gulf War and Iraq War in 1974 and 1975. 

There's also a foreshadowing of the plot of 2001: A Space Odyssey, possible Apollo mission footage chicanery, and the suppressed discovery of obelisks on the Moon by American and Russian surveying missions in the mid-60s.

Jack Kirby, Stanley Kubrick and the SynchroSpace Odyssey

The first installment of this series dealt with the plasticity of memory, centered on the fact that my most vivid memories from my childhood were either nightmares or hallucinations, many of which had strands of commonality with abduction experiences.

Jack Kirby, Astro-Gnostic: The Devil Enters Eden

Hey Kids- A Tech-Gnostic Alien Eden!

Apparently, two 70s titles about ancient astronaut theory were not enough for Jack Kirby. Aside from 2001:A Space Odyssey and The Eternals, Kirby managed to work some alien-based Biblical revisionism into a title that would seem to be completely inhospitable to it.

Mindbomb: Break on Through to the Inner Side

 From 2001: A Space Odyssey #2

I realized I left this series hanging and didn't adequately wrap it all up. Seeing as how Synchronicity insisted I do so- in its own inimitable way- here's the coup de grace for what was an unexpectedly popular breakthrough series.

"Children of the Flaming Wheel"

I could try to preface or frame this photocomic somehow, but there's no way I could make it any less strange and wacked out than it already is. 

Longtime Secret Sun readers know all about Jack Kirby and the absolute incongruity of his obsessions with the highest weirdness imaginable contrasted with his almost stultifying suburbanite life. I'd argue that the latter not only enabled but fueled the former.

Sorry, Eternals. The Spell's Already Been Broken.

 

I haven't seen the Eternals movie yet, meaning I haven't yet seen the movie coming out today called Eternals. But I've seen The Eternals onscreen time and time and time again, and so have you. 

The Eternals: "Will the Gods Return One Day?"

Kirby was just warming up with The New Gods...

I stumbled across an interesting editorial Jack Kirby wrote for the first issue of his mid-70s comic series The Eternals. This is one of the few comics from my childhood that I still remember buying and reading for the first time.

Wizards, Workings and Walk-Ins

I don't get asked much who my favorite superhero is, but the answer's a no-brainer: it's Doctor Strange. 

Doctors, Doorways and Dimensions, Part One

One of the main tenets of my research is that our most resonant pop culture is a kind of lucid dreaming, in which the creator acts as a guide for a shared visionary experience with the audience. 99.9% of the crap out there is immune to this process and is produced for reasons that are entirely mundane or cynical. 

Troubled by Gods: Full Livestream

A momentous milestone in the history of this blog: Help us bid farewell to the gods, angels and demons unleashed on the world by visionary madman, Jack Kirby. This hits all of those Secret Sun sweet spots, believe it.

Jack Kirby, Mindbomb: Silver Star, Heroes and 9/11

This past July, Image Comics released a gorgeous hardcover volume of Jack Kirby's 1983 mini-series Silver Star. Though not one of Kirby's more celebrated works (his drafting skills were beginning to wane by this point), to me it's one of his more fascinating creations. It's also rife with unsettlingly specific 9/11 signifiers that strain the definition of "coincidence."

 

The Eternals: Pyramid Power

Radiohead's 2001 classic "The Pyramid Song"- 

the future Atlantis in a year of Revelation. 

 

My two biggest influences from the pop art world are Jack Kirby and Chris Carter. 

Not so much stylistic influences that I want to emulate, but artists who completely changed the filters on my life-lens. And both of whom deeply explored Astronaut Theology (aka "Ancient Astronaut Theory") to the point that it's a fair bet that they believed in it. So what does that say about me? 

The Eternals: Jacob Wrestles the Angels

As uncomfortable as it is for some of his fans and friends to admit, Jack Kirby was a true believer in AAT and intervention theory. The scope of his comics work from the early 70s to his retirement is unequivocal in this regard - the man was obsessed with gods from space.