Although Jack Kirby has managed to develop a certain level of synonymy with Marvel, owing to the raft of characters he co-created along with Stan Lee, John Romita and Steve Ditko, the writer/artist truly excelled while at DC.
Having switched sides in 1970, dissatisfied with his treatment at Marvel, Kirby set about unleashing his full artistic potential. Creating what would later be called 'The Fourth World Saga', Kirby introduced us all to a world of New Gods, cosmic architecture and a bevy of brilliant characters that are still making waves today.
Every DC fan should know who Darkseid is, but it's not just the villainous lord of Apokolips who's worthy of attention. Orion, Mister Miracle and Big Barda were all conceptualised in this saga too, and while Kirby's time at DC tends to get overlooked by mainstream narratives, his time spent with the New Gods in particular made for one of the most influential story-arcs of all time.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
