Image Comics will publish The Man Who Dreamt the Impossible, by writer Mário Freitas and artist Lucas Pereira, a fictionalized story that imagines what would have happened if Kirby had lived into old age and spent his last years in a care home with his comics colleagues.  In the story, Kirby begins to feel tired and lose motivation until one of the workers in the home helps him restore his library and excise something evil that’s lurking within.  The one-shot treasury edition will be published on August 27, the eve of Kirby’s birthday, with an MSRP of $9.99.

“This book is huge,” Freitas said in a statement accompanying the announcement.  “In format.  In scope.  In ambition.  Just like Jack did.  But this is not a biography.  It is more of a classic 'what if?' scenario: what if Jack Kirby had lived well beyond the age of 76?  What if he had survived his Roz; if he had spent his last years in a care home, reunited with his old creative pals from the days of the ‘House of Ideas’ (a term so well spread by propaganda, as if American comics hadn't been a house of ideas since the days of McCay, King, or Herriman).  It is, above all, a narrative corollary to the great strengths of Kirby's career: the complexity of human relations and the relentless pursuit of the impossible that lies hidden in the Cosmos.  But different.  Original. Just like Jack did.”

“Kirby suffered greatly in real life from what was done to him and to his work, and this story is no different,” Pereira said.  “We don’t sugarcoat what needs to be said or shy away from reflecting on what actually happened.  Jack is a genius, but his creations were, over time, distorted and rearranged at the whim of a former caretaker at the nursing home.  Now, with Mike’s help, Jack King will set everything back in its rightful place—where it never should have ceased to be.”

Dark Horse will publish an archival collection of five of Kirby’s Fantastic Four stories (see “Exclusive: Dark Horse to Publish ‘The Art of the Fantastic Four’”).