Comics legend Jack Kirby is responsible for some of the most iconic comic book creations of all time, and some of it helped to smuggle six Americans out of Iran as part of Operation Argo. Now you’ll finally get a chance to see this artwork in color for the first time, courtesy of Heavy Metal’s August issue.
As those who saw the recent Oscar-winning movie adaptation Argo know, Jack Kirby was hired by producer Barry Geller to create concept art for an adaptation of the Roger Zelazny novel Lord of Light. Kirby produced the art, but plans for the film fell apart shortly after and production ceased. However, when the U.S. Embassy was stormed in 1979 and American citizens taken hostage, the CIA used Kirby’s art and the concept of the Lord of Light film to set up a cover of filming a new sci-fi film, Argo, in Iran — allowing CIA agents to infiltrate the country in disguise as movie makers, and extract all six hostages.
This August, Heavy Metal magazine will print some of the Lord of Light artwork in color for the first time, emphasizing the trippy cosmic spectacle that only Kirby could have imagined.
Besides being the first time the art has been printed in color, it’s apparently also the first time that Kirby’s art has been featured in Heavy Metal. But if you can’t wait to see it, you can check out some of the uncolorized concept art here.
[Bleeding Cool via Blastr]