Kirby's CIA Connection
July 16, 2012 4:49 PM   Subscribe

How Jack Kirby helped the CIA rescue diplomats in 1979

I got the idea for this post from this book that I am currently devouring.
posted by wittgenstein (13 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Soon to be a major motion picture!
posted by Strange Interlude at 5:02 PM on July 16, 2012


Wow. I'm not that interested in Jack Kirby, but I'd love to have seen that film version of Zelazny's Lord of Light.

(Although I'm not sure how they would have filmed the long shaggy-dog wind-up to "Then the fit hit the Shan.")
posted by McCoy Pauley at 5:03 PM on July 16, 2012 [2 favorites]




That is awesome.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:13 PM on July 16, 2012


Please please motherbox boomtube
posted by klangklangston at 5:43 PM on July 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


I remember all that very clearly. I remember noticing that the news coverage never mentioned how many hostages there were. Then when the six escaped it was obvious why. Media reports talk about how the six were "spirited" out, or how they were snuck out but I've always wondered about what actually happened there. What did that actually look like? So yeah, thanks for this. How did I never hear this story before?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:53 PM on July 16, 2012


I had no idea it was an upcoming movie! I just read the story in the book mentioned above, and thought "How have I never heard this story?"
posted by wittgenstein at 6:22 PM on July 16, 2012


Previously

I had not heard they were making a movie, but that looks interesting.
posted by dumbland at 6:52 PM on July 16, 2012


Kubrick and Kirby present...

Zelazny's

LORD OF LIGHT!

(Stock footage of Bogart)

BOGEY: "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake..."

Black and white footage of Sidney Poirtier, behind a piano, dressed as Kirby's Bhoddavista...

SAM: A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh...

AGRI, with Kirby-designed goggles, glove and death-ray, aims a deadly beam at the camera, as people tumble and scatter out of its way! Buildings topple, and mountains melt!

Sudden cut to black!

JUNE 1981.

LORD.

OF.

LIGHT.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:58 PM on July 16, 2012


The spy museum in DC has an exhibit about this. Very cool!
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:42 PM on July 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


Wait. There was almost a Kirby designed THEME PARK?!

I don't want to live in this world anymore.
posted by Bonzai at 10:19 PM on July 16, 2012 [3 favorites]


It's worth mentioning that The Canadian Government manufactured real Canadian passports and other ID documents for the six persons holed up in the Ambassador's house. It took a very special meeting of the PM and Privy Council for the order to do it.

I really hope they don't fuck this movie up. I personally know one of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs staffers who couriered the Canadian IDs into Tehran in the diplomatic bag. At that time he was a junior DFAIT staffer assigned to another country's embassy, and most definitely not a spy...
posted by thewalrus at 11:33 PM on July 16, 2012 [2 favorites]


It's worth mentioning that The Canadian Government manufactured real Canadian passports and other ID documents for the six persons holed up in the Ambassador's house.

Well I know that the next time I'm with a group of North Americans being taken hostage by Islamic radicals and a few Canadians indignantly point out that they're not American, but Canadian, I'll be snickering when the militants question the authenticity of their passports.

"Dude, we're like Canadian."

"Keep your hands up, infidel. Do you think we are stupid? We've seen the movie about Kirby."
posted by three blind mice at 1:54 AM on July 17, 2012


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