Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle

I remember the day I bought Mister Miracle #1 off the rack at my neighborhood Guardian Pharmacy. I looked forward to every Jack Kirby DC comic much the same way as a dog will sit drooling and wagging his tail as his master fetches a hunk of steak for him out of the icebox.

Many young whippersnappers these days probably don't know that the escape artist aspect of the Mister Miracle character was based on the illusionist days of the ever-dapper Jim Steranko. And, whereas Jack Kirby's Darkseid made a big splash in the closing season of Smallville, Darkseid's 'adopted' son Mister Miracle is virtually unknown outside the pages of his comic book appearances. That's why I was very pleased with something that Patrick McDonnell did this week.

I have told you previously that Mutts by Patrick McDonnell is my favorite strip currently running in any newspaper. This is at least the second year that Mr. McDonnell has tipped his hat to the San Diego Comicon by devoting a week of strips to what he titles Comic Cons. Each day he dresses his characters as well-known superheroes and builds a gag off of it.

So far this week Mr. McDonnell has invoked The Flash and Aquaman and The Riddler. Those names are well known in most households, I would say. But this great comic strip artist went ahead and dug a little bit deeper. One of this week's Comic Cons introduced Mister Miracle to the world. You can read it for yourself over here, and I hope everybody will start following Mutts every day. Hooray for Patrick McDonnell!