Berkley alumnus sees his characters on big screen
Comic book artist Al Milgrom was thrilled to follow in the footsteps of the late Jack Kirby, who created or co-created such iconic characters as Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, the XMen and more — characters that went on to reach mass audiences on the big screen.
“I’m an inveterate Kirby fan. He’s my all-time favorite,” says Milgrom, who grew up in Oakland County and now lives in upstate New York. “He’s the single most creative force in the history of comic books.
“Kirby, through decades and decades, has created stuff that has had legs and gone on to incredible success for a long, long, long time,” Milgrom says. “How many other creators have movies based on stuff they’ve created at two to three different companies? It’s astonishing.”
Milgrom, an alumnus of Norup Middle School in Oak Park and Berkley High School, graduated alongside fellow artist Jim Starlin, who created Thanos, the villain in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.” After graduating from the University of Michigan, Milgrom has worked as a comic book artist, writer and editor for about 45 years, primarily at Marvel.
Milgrom’s artwork is featured in a new paperback, “The Eternals: The Dreaming Celestial Saga.” In this lesser-known Kirby creation, the Eternals are an immortal offshoot of humanity that’s been around since the dawn of civilization, often confused with Greek gods. For instance, Sersi is based on Circe, the sorceress of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”
“Anything based on a Kirby character, I’m always happy to be part of,” Milgrom says. “I recently reread a ‘Captain America’ story I drew, where Cap needs to disguise himself and goes to Sersi — ‘Can you turn me into a teenager?’ She intimates (that) to return the favor, she wants to have sex with him down the line. It was a little more subtle than that, being Marvel Comics in that period.”
An “Eternals” movie will be released Nov. 5 as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring Oscar winner Angelina Jolie and Gemma Chan (“Crazy Rich Asians”) as Sersi.
Milgrom praised Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige for his ability to bring background characters to the forefront.
“He’s incredibly adept at taking characters the general public knows nothing about and figuring out a way to make them popular,” he says. “You know what? Good for him. It’s amazing to me. I just don’t grasp how he’s capable of doing such successful stuff.”
Milgrom also drew “The Avengers,” which featured the Vision, Scarlet Witch — another Kirby creation — and Monica Rambeau, who became the second Captain Marvel.
Those characters are featured in the Disney+ network series “WandaVision,” which debuted to acclaim in January and whose series finale aired on March 5.
In “WandaVision,” Elizabeth Olsen plays Wanda (alias the Scarlet Witch) and Paul Bettany is Vision, both reprising their roles from the “Avengers” movies. They are a couple living in a warped reality based on classic sitcom tropes. Monica (Teyonah Parris) infiltrates their idyllic fantasy world to determine its cause.
“Again, these are characters the general public knows nothing about,” says Milgrom, one of the first artists to draw Monica, who was created by his “Avengers” collaborator, Roger Stern.
“I’d worked on the previous Captain Marvel,” he recalls, noting the shift in creating Monica, a new Captain Marvel who was both Black and female. “I tried to … give her the features appropriate for a Black woman. She had very different powers — she could transform her whole body into various forms of energy — which made her pretty darn powerful. I had a good time drawing her. Stern-o called me and told me I did a good job of approaching her visually.”
Stern recalls how much he enjoyed their collaboration.
“It was always fun to work with Al,” he says. “Besides being a great guy and a witty raconteur, he’s a wonderful visual storyteller, producing art that is fun to script. … Al drew a great Monica Rambeau. One of his many talents is that he can draw people of many different ethnicities. His Monica looked like a strong, beautiful Black woman.”
Both Milgrom and Stern agreed that Parris was a good choice to play Monica.
“I’ve quite enjoyed the Marvel movies that I’ve seen — some of them, multiple times in the theater,” Stern says. “I think it’s great that special effects have progressed to the point where they can finally reproduce on the big screen what artists like (Kirby) and Steve Ditko were creating for the printed page over 50 years ago.
“The MCU movies are basically classic Marvel Comics translated and transformed into cinema.”