At Too Busy Thinking About My Comics, Colin Smith begins an in-depth look at Jack Kirby’s most anti-life creation, Darkseid. “What follows is my attempt to work out the character of Kirby’s Darkseid during those two wonderful years in the early 1970s, when DC Comics had handed The King four spaces in their publishing schedule and essentially trusted him to do as he pleased. (Disappointed at first by the sales figures, the company has since reaped untold riches through the exploitation of Kirby’s world-building. Who knows what other Fourth World properties he might have created for the company, and what other profits DC might have secured, if only Carmine Infantino’s administration had kept faith with Kirby?) In what follows, I’ll discuss each of Kirby’s New Gods titles from 1970 to 1985 and note, as best I can, how Darkseid was portrayed. It’ll take awhile, of course, but what’s a comics blog for? Future instalments will appear each Tuesday until the far-from-onerous task is done.”