Like a lot of British comics fans, I don't hold US comics legend Jack Kirby in as vast esteem as virtually all American comics fans do. Of course I recognise Kirby's contributions to the medium, both in terms of the dynamism and energy that Kirby introduced to the superhero comic, as well as the many characters and concepts he was involved in the creation of. I'm just not overly enamoured with the art itself, those gawping, square-faced characters and anatomically unlikely figures. Partially I think this relative indifference is due to the different tradition of British comics, a line of descent from illustrators like Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy where nuance and detail were as important as, if not more important than, hyperbolically dramatic panel layouts. Perhaps it's that hyperbole itself that is slightly off-putting to the British eye - Kirby's 'cosmic' stories are straightforwardly bombastic without the slightest hint of under-cutting irony or distance, especially in the relentlessly pompous worlds of the New Gods, or Galactus and his minions.

On the other hand, 'Jersey Gods' is a comic that's clearly enamoured with Kirby's work, but I really like it. Go figure.

What sets apart 'Jersey Gods' from other Kirby-influenced books such as the recent 'G0dland' (a title I found easy to admire but virtually impossible to like), and even Alan Moore's overwrought Kirby pastiches in '1963', is that the 'Jersey' aspect of the story is as important as the 'Gods'. When cosmic bruisers Minog (nasty) and Barock (heroic) bring their battle to a New Jersey mall, it throws Barock into the path of fashion journo Zoe, a girl so hard to please and so difficult to live with that she inadvertently drives most men fleeing for the hills. Can a god live up to her standards?

So it's a cosmos-crossing culture-clash romance, with Glen Brunswick's script bouncing between Barock's adventures on Nebulon, where herds of Juggernoth (eight-eyed giant mammoths) live on the plains and war with the cloud-dwellers of Cumulus looms, while Zoe deals with pushy parents, objectionable editors and pretentious fashion designers. By juxtaposing their lives like this, it's made clear that the rules and challenges of Zoe's world are no less absurd and surreal than those of Barock's, and that they're both constrained by the expectations of others.

Good as Brunswick's story and dialogue are - and there's some laugh-out-loud lines here, mainly due to the juxtaposition of everyday colloquialisms with the gods' outrageous appearances and powers - it's the art by Dan McDaid that ties the two worlds of the story together. McDaid's frantic, expressive lines sit somewhere between the classic Marvel style of Kirby and the richly characterised contemporary cartooning of many a hip Oni Press comic. For every exagerrated cosmic punch or overblown landscape there's a subtle glance or facial expression, like the almost-concealed smile on Barock's face as he flies away from Earth after meeting Zoe, or Zoe's queasy expression as she takes her first ride in a glowy energy bubble. McDaid is an obvious rising star, and annoyingly multi-talented - he's the regular writer on the 'Doctor Who Magazine' comic strip, and his virtual one-man strip 'Hotel Historia' last year was the best drawn 'DWM' strip since John Ridgeway left in the late 1980s. McDaid ploughs a similar clean, cartoony furrow to Mike Allred and Darwyn Cooke without imitating either - a kinship that no doubt helped persuade both artists to contribute covers to 'Jersey Gods'.

In fact, 'Jersey Gods' seems to be winning friends all over, with issue #3 due to have a cover by Paul Pope and a back-up strip written by Mark Waid. It's not surprising such high-profile talents are finding themselves charmed, as 'Jersey Gods' is, more than anything else, a charming comic, with an involving world and huggaby appealing lead characters. It's an adorable cosmic superhero romance, what more could you possibly want from a comic?

Mark Clapham's story 'Crime and Punishment in Switchertronia', illustrated by Stu Chapman, is published in the anthology 'Robots' from Accent UK.