Today on The Dissolve, Noel Murray takes a long look at one of the more intriguing cultural convergences of the last few decades: namely, the fact that Jack Kirby adapted 2001: A Space Odyssey for comics.

Murray looks into both the adaptation and the series that resulted — which seemed to shift from stories that echoed the film’s structure to more original science fiction stories. Along the way, he also explains why 2001 was adapted by Kirby almost a decade after Kubrick’s film was released. And in the midst of comparing the styles of Kubrick and Kirby — especially in terms of why it may have made the latter ill-suited to adapt the former’s work — Murray notes that:

In some ways, Kirby was more respected in his field when he tackled 2001 in 1976 than Kubrick was in 1968—even though Kirby was ultimately less successful. Critics initially scoffed at Kubrick, but audiences turned out for his 2001, while Kirby in the 1970s was regarded as the best in the business by people who didn’t actually buy his comics.

Between the interesting facts revealed about Kirby’s career and the look at the state of comics in the mid-1970s, the whole thing is definitely worth reading. And in terms of other visionary-filmmakers-meet-comics news, it’s also worth mentioning that two new works written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, After the Incal and Final Incal , are set to be released in the US later this year.

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