John Hodgman, best known for his book The Areas of My Expertise, his appearances on The Daily Show, the “I’m a PC” half of Apple commercials, and to a lesser extent the voice of the credits in the You Look Nice Today podcast, has written an article reviewing Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus, Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier, Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, and Age of Bronze by Eric Shanwower

The review of three comics collections are tied together by Evanier’s biography of Kirby.

Kirby imagined a different future for comics, one in which creators would own their own work. One in which they could tell ambitious personal stories with beginnings, middles and ends. And one in which the individual issues would be collected into books, which would be sold in bookstores, and kept forever. Indeed, that is exactly the success that both “Age of Bronze” and “Y: The Last Man” have enjoyed.

While many believe this final chapter is something of a rushed failure, it contains elements that are bravely, authentically tragic. And as Evanier points out, the very fact that it is being reprinted now, alongside successful works like “Age of Bronze” and “Y: The Last Man,” makes it a strangely happy ending.