Let's talk about Jack Kirby

But seriously, the Jimmy Olsen stuff is utterly insane and is prime Kirby lunacy. Underground civilizations, four armed mutants, the Newsboy Legion and a visceral understanding of Superman that few other creators can ever hope to muster. You won't regret it.

There's a chance that you might like his later work on Thor, which is somewhat more refined in terms of artwork and cosmic in scope, but it's still Kirby. It's also hard to track down, since it's never been officially collected.

anyone remember the Comics Journal interview with Art Spiegelman where he and Gary Groth got into a heated argument over the merits of JK? if i recall, Spiegelman describes Kirby's work as "unpleasantly exuberant, like being sprayed with spit by a chattering teenager."

(who are the other four, Tom?)

I do wish they'd reprint the complete FF with the original colors (the Marvel Masterworks versions look pretty muddy and unattractive to me). I saw a few panels from the Galactus trilogy (FF 48-50, the pinnacle of all superhero comics ever) in a coffee table Marvel book at the library a while ago and it left me wishing I could afford to buy the original issues.

http://www.lordoflight.com/art.html

I shook his hand once. I felt hugely honoured to meet him.

(My other favourite writers: Morrison, Gerber, Barks, Kurtzman, probably Gilbert ahead of Jaime, Moore.)

I think you're too hard on his draftsmanship. He didn't strive for realism. He was much more expressionistic. Kind of like some painters. Max Beckman comes to mind. At his best, he was probably the most powerful comic artist I've ever seen.

Also, I don't disagree with the mythmaking line, but I think that sometimes masked the substantial thematic content - this is especially obvious in the Fourth World, since he didn't have a Stan Lee there trying to change and dilute his meanings, as it is said Stan did on the FF and other Marvel titles.

but then look at the recently published Essential FF Vol 4, esp the earlier issues where Kirby was still drawing at the larger 'twice up' size. this was marvel's flagship title, and kirby gives it his all - character, action, romance, da woiks - PLUS he gets a shiny-slick finish from joe sinnott, poss. his best ever inker. there's nothing crude or inelegant abt kirby when he's at the top of his game.

I used to sorta like Vince Colletta's work until I found out what he did to Kirby's pencils.

no love for these fantastic Fourth World Omnibus editions?!?

for shame

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180175859789

See here.

I've been on a tremendous Kirbykick, as various recent scattered posts may attest to (and, of course, the title of the most recent SHIP thread I conjured up).

It's fun to finally get ahold of these oft-mythologized works and realize that the hype is in no way forced.

ALSO: I desperately need a Showcase: Kamandi. NOW.

It's fun to finally get ahold of these oft-mythologized works and realize that the hype is in no way forced.

My reaction exactly. I was expecting the first volume to lead in slowly with more "normal" stuff but right off the bat it's Newsboy Legion! Whiz Wagon! Wild Area! Crazy high-tech biker civilization! MOUNTAIN OF JUDGMENT! All in the first damn issue. Needless to say I am enjoying this tremendously.

Those two Archive Kamandi editions are worth springing for, the reproduction on them is REALLY beautiful

yeah I'd never really sat down and read the Jimmy Olsen stuff before - just ridiculously great.

MONSTERS!

WOW! I had loads of this stuff reprinted in FEAR and MONSTERS ON THE PROWL when I was five, and it's all still indelibly burned on my brain - great to see it again, and more of the same!

I've been curious about Kamandi. One of the first comics I ever had when I was about five or six years old was an issue of Kamandi and it kind of weirded me out at the time.

LCS had a giant sale this weekend, and I got the first two Kirby Omnibi. I HAVE HEARD THE WORD--IT IS BATTLE!

2nd one will have to wait for me, I recently blew most of my comics money on the Thor reprints.

HELLO? GET ME THE SECRET INTERGANG MISSILE SITE!

I hated Kirby's work when I was little. At the time I thought it was flat-out bad, but in retrospect I was just freaked-out and overwhelmed by the energy.

I'm sure we've discussed this before, maybe in this very thread, but can you explain this "energy" to me? On a basic aesthetic level, I have a hard time seeing past the blocky shapes of his figures.

Ooo, a Jack Kirby thread. I don't get Jack Kirby. Acromegaly and Wagnerian shtick; what's the attraction? Maybe I'd appreciate it more if I wore a trenchcoat.

http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=4051

Read "The Strange World of Your Dreams" free online!

Just in case people don't know about them, DC is printing a Demon Omnibus in November and a Losers Omnibus sometime in early 2009.

I finished up reading the first Essential Fantastic Four Vol. 1 and for the past week or so I have been going through Essential Captain America Vol. 1. It takes a while for Jack and Stan to decide what they want to do with Cap, but once Nick Fury and the Red Skull show up in current Marvel time with the cosmic cube, it is some good 60s Marvel comics.

It makes me wish Marvel would do an Essential Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD. I've read the Steranko issues but would love to read that one from the start.

Cosmic Cube! Man I totally forgot about that. I think I could spend the rest of my life poring over Kirby's prime 60s-70s stuff. Made it through Thor and New Gods stuff last year... where is Kamandi reprint!

QUOTES FROM THE LETTER PAGES OF OMAC (I.E. Mocking people who may very well be dead):

The art's good. I don't think you'll ever be another Neal Adams but I like your style.
- Richard Petkiewicz (from OMAC #3)

...OMAC is the worst you have ever made. Why don't you bring back BOY'S RANCH? But put them in space.
- Cham Holmes (from OMAC #4)

I was just reading Kirby's mid-70s Black Panther run last night, and it's some pretty tired Mister Miracle recycling. He even brought in a dwarf for the Oberon role.

Yes and no. If you read it as Kirby as T'Challa, outwitting his corporate superiors at every turn, you might wring a little more enjoyment from it. But it's no JIMMY OLSEN. His Cap run from the same period is pretty wonderful, though it does tail off after "Madbomb."

ahh no, best 70s kirby/cap story has just gotta be 'the swine', which comes some time after 'madbomb' - close second = 'cap's bicentennial battles' (treasury edition, obv)

i recently read the demon by kirby for the first time ever, not one of his 'major' works maybe but super enjoyable - its kinda like kirby's version of a universal horror movie, complete with grotesques, crones and mitteleuropean policeman and villages - great inking from mike royer, too

But Kirby never outwitted anyone ever in his working life -- Evanier's book is pretty depressing in detailing that. Everybody he worked for used him like a rented mule.
xpost

Ooo, a Jack Kirby thread. I don't get Jack Kirby. Acromegaly and Wagnerian shtick; what's the attraction? Maybe I'd appreciate it more if I wore a trenchcoat.

― Rich Smörgasbord, Sunday, December 9, 2007 3:41 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

decent troll attempt, C- at best since nobody bit

anyway how bout some kamandi yall

http://doubledamagemedia.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/kamandi2.jpg

fuckin love kamandi & that map is the shit

http://monsterblog.oneroom.org/stories/taxcollector1.jpg

xp Just taking it one day at a time here in the Expanding Tiger Empire

in a white room with jack kirby, peter parker...

Wmc, of course evanier's bk is largely correct, but the situation re: kirby & business is slightly more complicated than just Kirby's Konstant Exploitation. Remember that Kirby - in partnership with Joe Simon - was himself an owner/publisher, running an extremely successful and lucrative 'shop' throughout the 1940s and 50s (until, of course, the whole industry collapsed circa 1955). Even Kirby's dispute w/ DC/National in the late 1950s involves seem pretty murky (and dull) questions about ownership, contractual agreements, copyright etc. For large parts of his career, Kirby was almost certainly the highest paid comic book artist working in America - tho' of course he received only a tiny, tiny fraction of the income that his ideas generated for other, more ruthless or self-aggrandizing business types.

thanking you Kamandi map

I'm sure I've said this elsewhere, but I'm pretty sure the pinnacle of Kirby for me is the middle of his run on Thor

EGO! so awesome

iirc the end of his Thor run has yet to be reprinted as a Marvel Masterworks volume, no...?

ooh I see Volumes 7 and 8 are out now shut my mouth

next mongrel thread title: KANGA RAT MURDER SOCIETY

is there a TPB of Kamandi? I've never read the whole thing, only bits and pieces

Looks like the only collections are pricey Archive hardcovers with the first 20 issues. CBRs of the whole series took about 10 seconds to locate if you're down with that method.

I'm such a luddite I don't even know what a CBR is

scans, basically

eh I kinda hate reading books on a computer screen

but... it;s the future

I can't decide which Kamandi map legend to make my new screen name.

http://nerdcityonline.com/2010/01/22/jack-kirbys-visual-interpretations-of-god/

Amazing. A Kirby adaptation of the Old Testament would've been something.

this one is more than a little o_O
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4296011324_6331b65011_o.jpg

I've been rereading some Captain Americas from 1968 and really enjoying Syd Shores' inking. Tempted to put him in my top 5 Kirby inkers.

I used to own a Kirby/Shores Cap America page but sold it cos the inking was SO horrible - muddy, brushy, heavyhanded and not at all faithful to Kirby's pencils (compare to similar vintage Cap stories inked by the far superior Frank Giacoia or Joe Sinnott to see just how much style/detail/power that Shores obliterated). I even prefer Colletta over Kirby to Shores.

Shores' career goes back to the 1940s, and prior to the 1960s he was regarded as one of the top artists at Marvel. I don't think he ever really found a 'modern' inking style that suited Kirby's 60s artwork - again, compare this to Bill Everett, another 'lost' Atlas superstar who did some utterly gorgeous inking on Kirby (and Colan) in the 60s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/business/21marvel.html?8dpc

the new TCJ site just posted the journal's 1990 interview with kirby:

http://www.tcj.com/jack-kirby-interview/

lots of hilariously splenetic quotes about stan lee, unsurprisingly!

GROTH; When did you meet Stan Lee for the first time?

KIRBY: I met Stan Lee when I first went to work for Marvel. He was a little boy. When Joe and I were doing Captain America. He was about 13 years old. He’s about five years younger than me.

GROTH: Did you keep in touch with him at all?

KIRBY: No, I thought Stan Lee was a bother.

GROTH: [Laughter.]

KIRBY: I did!

GROTH: What do you mean by “bother”?

KIRBY: You know he was the kind of kid that liked to fool around — open and close doors on you. Yeah. In fact, once I told Joe to throw him out of the room.

GROTH; Because he was a pest?

KIRBY: Yes, he was a pest. Stan Lee was a pest. He liked to irk people and it was one thing I couldn’t take.

lol

GROTH: You were drafted?

KIRBY: I was drafted.

GROTH: What year would that have been?

ROZ KIRBY: We were married in ’42.

KIRBY: Yeah, I was drafted in ’42.

ROZ KIRBY: I was married to you…

KIRBY: Yeah, I know you were married to me!

I have that issue - was just re-reading it last week

its real interesting but boy he comes off like a crank! do people take the stuff he was saying at face value? i mean this has to be bullshit right:

GROTH: Can I ask what your involvement in Spider-Man was?
KIRBY: I created Spider-Man. We decided to give it to Steve Ditko. I drew the first Spider-Man cover. I created the character. I created the costume. I created all those books, but I couldn’t do them all. We decided to give the book to Steve Ditko who was the right man for the job. He did a wonderful job on that.

:/

that is not bullshit and other people have confirmed it

he did draw the first cover, had previously done The Spider, and was an old man who got somewhat confused. Roz was there basically to be extra memory and nudge him back onto the rails.

that he designed the character/costume/drew the first cover is not disputed

isn't there more material out there confirming ditko designed the costume?

like kirby designed *A* spider-man costume, but not THE spider-man costume

there's at least like five different accounts - Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Simon, Evanier, etc. - they all agree that he created the costume and drew the image that appears on the cover of Spider-man's first comic appearance

not according to ditko, dude.

Steve Ditko: "Kirby had penciled five pages of his Spider-Man. How much pure Kirby, how much Lee is for them to resolve. The splash was the only one with a drawing of Spider-Man. A typical Kirby hero/action shot. But the costume is what is important. I'm uncertain about the abstract chest design. The closest thing to it is the one on Ant-man."

Steve Ditko: "Kirby's Spider-Man had a web gun, never seen in use. The only connection to the spider theme was the name. The other four pages showed a teenager living with his aunt and uncle. The aunt was a kindly old woman, the uncle was a retired police captain, hard, gruff, the General Thunderbolt Ross type (from Hulk), and he was down on the teenager. Next door or somewhere in the neighborhood there was a whiskered scientist-type involved in some kind of experiment or project. The end of the five pages depicted the kid going toward the scientists darkened house."

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AZaPyN-5kD4/TAz3D1FXQSI/AAAAAAAABaU/Lzh4l7ZI3ks/s1600/2010-06-07_094113.png

http://www.povonline.com/jackfaq/JackFaq4.htm

Did Jack design Spider-Man's costume?

No. Steve Ditko designed the distinctive costume we all know and love. Jack did claim to have presented the idea to Stan Lee of doing a hero named Spiderman (no hyphen) who walked on walls and had other spider-themed powers — a claim which Stan vociferously denies.

But for all the things Jack did well, he was not great at being interviewed. He occasionally got carried away or confused. There was one interview where, without realizing what he was saying, he said he'd created Superman. Needless to say, he never really believed that but somehow, that's what came out of his mouth.

This kind of thing most often occurred when the topic veered near an instance where Jack felt he'd been undercredited and undercompensated, and Spider-Man was such a case. In at least one such conversation, he misspoke and claimed he'd designed the costume for the final version of Spider-Man. I'm guessing the gaffe had something to do with the fact that he did pencil the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 with the first appearance of that costume. There were a number of cases where Jack designed a character on a cover, and then Don Heck or Dick Ayers or someone else drew the interior story, following his design. In this case, however, the cover was drawn after Stan had rejected one drawn wholly by Ditko

Jack knew that. And he also knew what it was like to have someone else claim credit for your ideas. So he very much regretted the error.

hmm well I'll defer to Evanier and claim I'm only half-right then (ie, drawing the cover, doing a rough draft, etc)

Spider-man does bear an uncanny resemblance to the Fly blah blah blah

Happy 94th Birthday Mr Kirby

http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads//2011/08/thor-158-page18-kirby-original-art.jpg

Lot's more great original Kirby pages here (nice to see Jack's pencil notes at the top of the Odin pic):

http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads//2011/08/thor-158-page18-kirby-original-art.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GnMPF.jpg

Happy Birthday to the King!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6hX21EYFyY

Love that pointy-hatted dude behind Odin. He looks MEAN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A1yJZKDwIRE

^^^interview w Jack Kirby on his 70th bday. amazingly, Stan Lee calls in at the end and they argue about who did what

also lol at Lee big upping Watchmen and Dark Knight (and uh John Byrne)

really y'all should listen to this, it's very illuminating and kind of heartbreaking

I can not relate how wonderful this is, and I'm only about a third through.

pretty amazing interview

I own a Kirby (and Royer) "Kamandi" page. I could seriously part with everything I own in a heartbeat but never my Kirby page.

also touches briefly on Spiderman creation controversy

love that stan is all like "and i guess people will argue who did what forever"
um motherfucker, the two of you are on the phone. TELL US

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/426184_10150513246450834_127661820833_8941204_1439079736_n.jpg

Woah, that's just great. Where'd you find it?

I got it from Brian Clevinger (the Atomic Robo guy) on twitter. He got it from novelist Adam Christopher. Not sure where it originated beyond that.

That shot is so good that if it didn't exist, we'd have to make it up.

facebook'd btw

aw!

Has anyone ever did a rough estimate of exactly how many comics Kirby did? Just with what he did at Marvel in the 60s FF-on has to be a couple of long boxes in itself.

The first thing that popped into my head was "probably roughly 100 pages of pencils a month." From 1940 to 1976 or whenever he moved to animation, that would be 43,000+ pages JEEEEEZ.

I doubt he kept up that pace the whole time, but still...

kirby's most productive years as a penciller were, roughly, 1960-1978, when, for some of the time, he might've been pencilling close to 100 pages a month, if you include covers, promotional pieces, basic layouts for other artists etc. but that still strikes me as a slightly high estimate (kirby really only had two 'regular' comic books at marvel for most of the 60s, FF and Thor, tho' of course he started off most of their big titles before others took over.0 during the 40s kirby's career was interrupted by the war, and up to the mid-1950s he was running the simon-kirby shop with joe simon, so for a lot of that time he was working in a more piecemeal fashion - supplying roughs/layouts to be finished in the house style, collaborating with other pencillers, writing scripts etc etc - tho' the 'pure' kirby pages still tend to stand out, esp. when inked by simon himself. by the mid-1950s, and the downturn in the comic bk industry, kirby was actually struggling to keep himself busy - he was drawing less than a comic a month for DC, and so tried his hand at A newspaper strip, with fairly unhappy results. as we know that kirby could, if pushed, pencil an entire comic book in a weekend (as he did with the first issue of Pvt Strong) he was actually UNDER-productive for much of his career!

oh, and great photo - never seen it before

Found this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kirby_bibliography

Adding just the Marvel stuff in my head counting layout issues, I got like 515 issues there.

That is a whole lot of drawing.

There are probably not too many if any artists in the whole Marvel history that more issues than Jack Kirby. 500+ issues is like doing one a month for 40 odd years.

I'd think John Buscema would maybe be the closest, as he usually had 2 titles going most of the time for years.

Sal Buscema would have worked on a ton too, although probably not as many pencils issues, as he did much more inking in the early days.

i dunno, sal was a pretty regular penciller for marvel for 30 years plus (68-98), that's a lot of pages, maybe even more than kirby

jrjr must've drawn a lot of pages for marvel, by now

http://i.imgur.com/XSmdV.jpg

Love how the Silver Age guys produced all their crazy trippy shit while constantly wearing sharp pinstripes.

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/04/09/growing-up-kirby-the-marvel-memories-of-jack-kirbys-son/#/0

Best dad ever, sounds like.

Really nice article here about Kirby Kollages, including lots of examples shot from the original art:

http://imprint.printmag.com/illustration/jack-kirby%E2%80%99s-collages-in-context/

That's a nice article. Love that Metron piece.

Whoa! Those are amazing.

never seen (or even heard of) those Spirit World ones. Days of the Mob I've seen referenced at least.

Kirby Couture:

http://www.fashionising.com/runway/b--romance-was-born-aw-12-23407.html

Yikes

the one with the "cosmic energy" pants is, um, special.

if you look at expression on model's face, there's a subtle shift from aloof stoicsm to despairing claustrophobia between outfits.

anybody got any opinions on Kirby's 70s Captain America run...? I am considering getting the big omnibus for father's day

I love a couple of the stories ("Madbomb" and "The Swine"), but there's about a years worth of filler in there as well. But you do get the first stories with Arnim Zola, maybe the last amazing WTF character Kirby created. And of course the artwork is top notch.

It's prime stuff IMO. Besides the storylines EZ just mentioned there is the absolutely unforgettable energy being from the future that possesses a hollow-eyed corpse.

I'm kinda torn between getting this or asking for the two Carl Barks'/Scrooge Fantagraphics books

There's only a Donald volume so far, first Scrooge comes out soonish but not sure if they'll make it to a second this year

hope that collection includes the all-original, all-fantastic 'Bicentennial Battles' Treasury, complete w/ Barry Windsor-Smith inks and this scene where Benjamin Franklin designs the American flag based on Captain America's costume:

http://www.littlestuffedbull.com/images/comics/capflag2.jpg

lol @ "There, MY MAN!"

ok I am totally getting this

Those Kirby CAPs are a treasure. How I wish *that* Captain America had showed up in THE AVENGERS.

from mark evanier's blog (and collection), an envelope sent by stan lee to jack kirby in 1968:

http://www.newsfromme.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/stanleeenvelope.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjcuxSl991s

I don't know what to say.

can you tell me if that's worth actually watching? I got to the first punchline and... i dunno.

It's horrible. I sorta watched it out of the corner of my eye while doing some audio editing and still it wasted my time.

reading an old Theakston interview - he alleges that all those changes to the Marvel Universe around the time of Secret Wars (new black spidey costume, rearrangement of FF, other new costumes etc) were all part of an effort to change the characters enough so that Jack would not be able to launch a successful copyright ownership claim in the event that he secured the rights to his original pages in his court. never heard of this before and maybe it's a bit conspiracy theory-ish but otoh...

seems perfectly reasonable to me

It has the ring of truth. Isn't that also about when Captain America became The Captain, and donned that black, red & white outfit? And Thor went all beardo in chainmail? Interesting to think of those changes through that prism.

Related: I was out of comics for most of the 90s. Was Electric Blue Superman in response to S&S legal wins?

I remember hearing about that theory of Kirby's back in the day -- it definitely passed the smell test for me.

Related: I was out of comics for most of the 90s. Was Electric Blue Superman in response to S&S legal wins?

would have had to be pre-emptive - Joanne's termination wasn't served until 1999.

The complete absence of the name "Superboy" from all ten years of the Smallville TV show ar definitely down to legal shenanigans, though - Siegel has always had a stronger, and frequently court-supported, claim to have created and owned the IP of Superboy separately.

wtf was this

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cup1T2Y03ls/ULaWHH0tH9I/AAAAAAAAuLA/fgxJq3zUUq8/s1600/6038.jpg

im the guy in the flying chair

Kirby's New Gods : Return of the New Gods :: 2001 : Kirby's 2001

i've seen issues of that in the dollar bin here and there, flipping through it did not convince me it was worth the dollar

Kirby's 2001

His adaptation or the original series he did afterwards? 'Cause that original series is awesome.

I just mean in terms of faithfulness to the source material. The 2001 series is fun, and the adaptation is one of my single favorite comics of all time.

first issue special was one of DC's 'showcase' title (ie a different character(s) in every issue) - this was prob the first time that DC had revived the Fourth World characters post-Kirby, and may have even been launched as a slight spoiler for Kirby's return to Marvel (i'm not quite sure of the dates, here) - of course, they have been revived, killed, revised etc ever since

the cover is pencilled and inked by dick giordano, btw

Weird how Darkseid gets a namecheck on that cover but Lightray doesn't, even though he's pictured on it. Also, Barda's going to catch a cold travelling through space dressed like that.

thx for info Ward, was mystified by this cover

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1059/1439535323_2ac5581a1a.jpg

im the guy in the flying chair

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Friday, December 7, 2012 7:34 PM

Although he possesses the powers of a god, Metron is typically depicted as a passive observer in the DC Universe rather than an active participant. He wanders in search of greater knowledge beyond his own, riding on his Mobius Chair, which can traverse time and space instantaneously.

http://www.fadisation.at/images/smileys/smiley_biggrin.gif

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8SoarbbccWE/UBzbeGL9OTI/AAAAAAAADds/APdwD-qclSs/s1600/kirbygrimmmmmmm.jpg

missed this when i saw argo:

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0283442/

I was looking for it, and amused that it was Parks

shame all the art was completely non-Kirby-esque and contrary to facts in all other ways too

http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/freaky-obscure-jack-kirby-comics-from.html

very rad, this page in particular
http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1161/1439534877_f9d81ece0c_b.jpg

Wow Bob, wow!

Kirby double-page spreads: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65185095@N00/sets/72157623444242645/

Those are amazing. This one is like 2000AD scorpion cover levels of thrillpower: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65185095@N00/4611056070/in/set-72157623444242645

That giant dying cricket monster has amazing levels of pathos.

excellent

totally breathtaking.

This link made my week. Thanks WilliamC!

On a side note - one of the main things I enjoyed in the new Supes movie is how Kirbeyesque it is in places : the Krypton sets and costume designs, the-almost-too-much visceralness of the fight scenes, the extreme closeups of gritted teeth hero and villains. I think they beat the Marvel films (so far) in that regard.

(though I love the Cap film for how close it stuck to the Simon/Kirby semse of surreal fun)

i'm not really seeing the kirbyness of the superman movie. it seemed more like a sword and sworcery RPG. more elfquest than 4th world.

Yikes! Having never read Elfquest I can't say I see the similarities but...yeah...I saw Kirby in there.

was there a screenshot in particular that evoked kirby for you?

No I don't have one handy but it's what I saw. Been a Kirby fan for many,many years if that helps.

Don't see any Kirby in Man of Steel either, what partic Kirby comics are you thinking of?

Closest Jack came to doing any kind of science fiction movie design was prob the Lord of Light stuff

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jVk_kKrK-ks/UH-cXYwhptI/AAAAAAAAXAQ/3XFqWINtBBo/s1600/Image+(10).jpg

This link made my week. Thanks WilliamC!

― That elusive North American wood-ape (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, July 4, 2013 4:29 PM

My pleasure! The hat-tip goes to Mark Evanier, who posted the link on his (recommended) blog.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=570053796374487&set=a.109630362416835.4868.108944192485452&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

looks like young kubrick

bought a copy of his autobiographical comic 'street code' at the kirby museum booth at comic-con. looks pretty great.

did they do a mini or...? it's only an eight-pager

i have it in that twomorrows streetwise anthology, but i think there was a (p scarce) magazine publication prior to that

yeah, it's just a mini. this is what i got:

http://kirbymuseum.org/jack-kirbys-street-code-at-mocca/

I have Streetwise too but that does look cool

I just got the four Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus TPBs off of the EBay. They are pretty stylin'. I've read some of them, as I used to have a near full set of the New Gods and Mister Miracle both in my old collection, but it has been years since I read them all.

FYI, on that 1st Issue Special version of the New Gods, DC did do some other New Gods related comics in the later 70s. Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers then Steve Gerber and Michael Golden did a few issues of Mister Miracle that are worth tracking down.

http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/1096071.jpg

Saw one of those gerber-golden issues on the diversions of the groovy kind blog awhile ago. Pretty weird

those post-kirby mister miracles are not gerber's finest hour (and englehart wrote some of them under an assumed name cos of editorial fuckery iirc)

that street code mini looks p sweet, gd score J.D.

Commission from Jack Kirby for Paul and Linda McCartney

didn't kirby do an album sleeve for wings or something?

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/02/16/the-line-it-is-drawn-28-album-cover-homages/

Stevie ate you thinking of the mighty groundhogs sleeve by neal adams....?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magneto_and_Titanium_Man

Shakey - no, i think i was thinking of the photos of kirby drawings that were projected behind wings on the inner gatefold to the wings across america lp, which ward's link above refers to.

though i never knew it was actually neal adams behind that ace groundhogs sleeve!

new family page on Facebook with tons of photos:

https://www.facebook.com/kirby4heroes

KirbyGerber!

I finally got a copy of the softcover Kirby's Fourth World all four volumes. I'm into the latter part of the first one. It's really amazing and I love the reading order being as the issues come out. Going back and forth between the various comics really makes it read so much more EPIC!

Got to say I really love the printing that DC did on this one too, as that paper stock is quality but the texture is just right to print those old 70s colors but not have that total nasty glare that kinda ruins a lot of these period reprints. I like this paper better than the Marvel Masterwork pages, which look better than some of the bronze color reprints. I definitely think the Miller Daredevil, Byrne F4 and Simonson Thor looked as good to me in the modern reprints. This may be for two reasons: one, I know those issues and read them a couple of times on the original comics and two the new ones are just so bright.

This article on Barry Windsor-Smith is pretty cool on how the modern colors really change the look of some artwork. I don't think the modern colors look bad, but it totally changes the feel of the artwork. I suppose it could be a kin to pasting that digital new backgrounds on the earlier Star Wars movies.

http://comicsalliance.com/whatever-happened-to-barry-windsor-smith-in-the-comics-conversation/

i have some love for BWS' art but jesus his writing is so bad.

good article earl

I haven't really read any of BWS 90s comics. He did quite a few on the original Valiant run, if I recall. His comics are so visual, I think issues with his writing are probably dialog based I'd figure. The couple of X-men he did in the 80s were pretty good, but I mostly know him from the early 70s Marvel stuff. I love 70s Conan, it's some of my favorite comics.

gary groth once compared bws' self-written comics for valiant to p g wodehouse!

Groth is insane then.

Happy Birthday Jack!

This is great.

thanks fit, that was a great read

i remember roy thomas saying that sometimes Lee would deliberately write 'against' kirby's pencils, so as not to be seen to be slavishly following jack's storytelling - but that article excellently demonstrates why Stan's choices were often the wrong ones

that is the most exhaustive analysis of a single page I've ever read

fwiw, the spiegelman et al analysis of 'master race', reproduced at the link below along with the original strip, is p much the gold standard original for 'close reading' of comics pages/panels. the kirby piece is much less exhaustive, but as an act of footnoting its excellent:

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3185

unfortunate url there

i think he really is called michael sporn

i remember roy thomas saying that sometimes Lee would deliberately write 'against' kirby's pencils

remember reading a l/k hulk story in the uni library at 17, when I was making an effort to crack early Marvel*, that made me write off Lee forever: action sequence magnificently, clearly laid out of Hulk atop a train. Bridge is nearing, Hulk estimates, braces; grabs bridge & flips himself over to land on the other side. Thrilling, direct storytelling.

Then Lee shits up the page with hundreds of words about how Hulk is dumb and can't tell what's going on but somehow his brain is super-strong and makes him levitate over the bridge. Fuuuuuck off, you useless parasite.

*bar Spider-Man, which clicked for me just fine as a kid when Kirby was weird and off-putting

I've probably ranted that rant on ILC before.

it does sound familiar

That's pretty disgusting!

lol you've posted it before but its still cool. do you know what hulk issue it was

no idea

http://www.daveburd.net/comicsgifs/Kirby_Tech.gif

Ha, cool. ZS should see that, if he normally doesn't look at ILC.

there should be more gif oriented stuff for classic comics. if marvel's head wasn't fully lodged up its ass...

That is awesome. Now I really wish there was a Fantastic Four animated series done in Kirby's style.

Yeah that would be amazing. Set in the 60s please.

The Thing voiced by John C Reilly.

Guy who does brak voicing mole man

lol forks

The Thing voiced by John C Reilly

using the Steve Brule voice! "It's cobblerin' time!"

Rupert Everett as Sub Mariner
Sasha Baron Cohen as Doctor Doom

Bill Murray as Galactus

george lowe as reed, natch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PdFil2AD6I

Bill Murray was on a Fantastic Four radio show in the 70s

he was the human torch iirc

Yup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKUp3lP2jSc

Ha, that's great.

Larry David as The Watcher

Stephen Colbert as Dr. Impossible sealed it

dang, i guess murray still hadn't shed his chicago accent cuz its crazy thick

http://images.tcj.com/2014/02/5-KirbyPulpSplash3-650x684.jpg
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/the-secret-history-of-marvel-comics-jack-kirby-and-the-moonlighting-artists-at-martin-goodmans-empire/

short version: he was a greedy man but that's forgivable because something good came out of his evil

Marvel and the Kirby estate have settled out of court.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/marvel-jack-kirby-estate-settlement-735921

Frustrating. I wanted to see some legal ripples from this.

Yeah, me too. But both sides had reason to be nervous.

yeah, disappointing altho I suppose it's better than a ruling in favor of Marvel (imo)

I'd guess the billions being made off those movies pretty much made it a good investment to make right and end this business risk. It's kind of sad it took Marvel (and others) making a few billion dollars off those Kirby characters in movies for it to happen, but better late than never.

Marvel was pretty short sided with Jack Kirby in the early 70 when they ran him out the door, but the comic industry of that time was pretty similar to the recording industry in that it was greasy as you could get. If they would have made Jack Kirby some type of limited partner back then, they would have ended up owning a ton more properties.

If we use the super hero multiple Earth's analogy, I kind of hope there is one out there where Jack Kirby got to do everything he ever wanted and made a ton of cash. I read his Marvel and DC comics and wonder how cool it would it be to have Kirby be able to have the Fantastic Four and Thor be able to interact with the Fourth World characters. The story ideas that could have happened are kind of endless.

I have to assume marvel made an eight figure payment + court costs to pacify the family; resolving this probably makes funding for future films much easier to secure
/talking out of my ass would be curious to hear from anyone who is close enough to the case to share better informed opinions

Evanier: "If you're coming to this page in search of details and commentary, you've come to the wrong place. I will be saying nothing about it other that I am real, real happy. And I'm sure Jack and his wife Roz, if they're watching this from wherever they are, are real, real, real happy."

So yeah, way into eight figures.

to make evanier happy on that level, i'd have to think so.

Lol yup

resolving this probably makes funding for future films much easier to secure

how will poor Disney scrape together pennies for their next low-budget Avengers flick

aw, you know that's not what i mean. They're moving hundreds of millions of dollars in financing against potential return of films that won't be on screen until 2018; removing any potential variables that could give a bank even the slightest pause has gotta be considered a major priority. without that leverage, i can't imagine this suit ending the same way; i assume marvel would just tie it up in litigation for another decade and roll the dice.

Kurt Busiek laying it down on the background to the ruling.

Bah, let's try that again

That rings true.

Interesting post, thanks

Yeah, thanks for the link. That's the most lucid summation of the situation I've read.

anyone know what's up with vol 2 of the fourth world omnibus? been on a bit of a kirby kick recently so i picked up the other three for reasonable prices but vol 2 is going for crazy money everywhere. did dc only print six copies or something?

I was obsessively monitoring the used prices on Amazon until I found a copy that was less insanely-priced than has become the norm. But still insanely-priced.

I don't know why this happens and it drives me nuts (currently fighting the fight with one of the Peanuts slipcase collections that's going for like $400 even though both of the individual books are still in print). Like, no one is going to pay $200 for this collection of old and rare comics that you can purchase individually for <$200, so just stop it.

Might be because vol 2 is the best/has the most famous stories in it (eg the Pact etc.)?

Been super entertained by the Kirby Thors lately - it goes without saying, but they are *crazed*.

Also - I have to admit, outside of Fantastic Four, I tend to skip the dialogue and just look at the pretty pictures for Kirby stuff. Am I missing anything?

Also - this is a nice collection of stuff - especially this

mark evanier's kirby book has a bunch of lovely reproductions of little-seen-but-amazing work like that 'galactic head' painting.

I'm always weirded out by things like this too. Like, if the entire series is OOP why just that one... but it happens surprisingly often, like perhaps there was a lower print run of a certain volume or something.

At least it's a fairly safe bet the omnibuses (or at least the material within) will be reprinted at some point...

Spirit Archive #14 is the same way. I hate that shit.

dying at this:
http://40.media.tumblr.com/f239068e19bc3498e0cf50ddfd9398ac/tumblr_mtc7tcaAnw1qzoglfo3_500.jpg

There were single Dungeon collections (almost pocket size, <100 pages) going for two to three hundred quid last year.

Just grabbed Evanier's Kirby book online for cheap, on a whim after reading Bizzaro G's post. Thanks!

I stupidly sold all of my Abnett & Lanning cosmic Marvel trades a couple years back when I was broke, and they naturally all skyrocketed in price around the time that Guardians of the Galaxy came out because Marvel is ridiculously awful at taking full advantage of their successes. Thankfully, they've slowly been catching up with new reprints, and an omnibus of Annihilation: Conquest (the storyline that introduced the new Guardians) will be coming out next summer (one year after the film was released...).

what's up with these new Marvel reprints (Epics? I think they're called?) I saw one for Kirby-era Silver Surfer stuff and one for Kirby-era Thor and they looked pretty nice, full color, etc.

this spread
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/2/27500/952073-new_gods__v1__3___page_5.jpg

got me thinking about artists reproducing/referencing other panels - is this one of the most reproduced panels ever or what? Close homages to it appear in Swamp Thing:
http://files1.comics.org//img/gcd/covers_by_id/16/w200/16032.jpg?5767558948402809120

in this issue of the New Gods revival:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lu9YYYF_A2s/VLRg9pdfQDI/AAAAAAABG3k/dXEOxn0WLJI/s1600/newgods18-08.jpg

and iirc it also shows up in one of Morrison's JLA issues(?)

what other iconic panels have received this treatment, where it seems like the artists just get a kick out of replicating the original?

well swamp thing link is broken and I can't find a scan of it but that's supposed to be the double-page spread from no. 62

Veitch has knowingly (and subconsciously, via Rare Bit Fiends) copped Kirby a number of times, but he does it really well imo.

Veitch named his son Kirby.

A comics historian of my acquaintance once told me that this the most-swiped comics image of all time:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/35/3a/d9/353ad94bbfc5d0a0974bc89ebf946f9c.jpg

Certain Marvel artists were definitely told to copy Kirby's work as closely as possible

yeah I'm more interested in the wholesale swiping of images/panels, esp if it was done as an obvious homage (less interested in things like Giffen getting caught out for swiping Munoz and Sampayo for ex.). Obviously artists ape styles all the time, but that's not what I was getting at.

I've never seen that Triton thing, would love to see some examples of where that got reproduced - it certainly doesn't look that spectacular to me

similar to how Spider-Man's first cover appearance and Action Comics #1 or Fantastic Four #1 have been endlessly referenced, but in the context of panels

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/uncanny-x-men-132-pic1-wolverine.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/60/172675035_1eeb365615_o.jpg

i'm sure there are lots of others but i'm blanking right now

other homages to the byrne panel I mean

ooh good call

yeah def

I think Superman holding somebody dead has got to be the most homaged image ever. DC did that so many times as well as other publishers.

https://nicfoley.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/homage-overkill-crisis-on-infinite-earths-7/
http://comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2007/04/comic_book_cove.html
Some of them aren't homages but there has been overkill for sure. I've seen more ones they haven't included.

cover images are a different thing

famous interior homaged as a cover:

http://geek-news.mtv.com//wp-content/uploads/geek/2013/02/spiderman-no-more-romita-a.jpg
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/77/121024-129520-homage-covers.jpg

feel like covers lend themselves more to homage as they're subject more to a grab-reader's-attention-w-a-gimmick dynamic, whereas interior art single panel homages are more like fan service, or more the artists just enjoying themselves

xp

xps interesting that there are so many Pieta refs long before that Crisis cover came out anyway....

Also quite a few monsters carrying women. In the John Landis monster book there is a list of movie monsters that carried women like that.

I guess there's something attractive/arresting about that setup

In the case of the crying Superman I think it looks increasingly ridiculous somehow when you have that sort of emotional outburst repeated in that way.

Kinda reminds me of the manly tears trope in stuff like Fist Of The Northstar and Crying Freeman that Paranoia Agent parodied.

heh

still think the x-men/dark phoenix cover is the best version of that trope

Doesn't the Dark Phoenix cover predate the Crisis on Infinite Earths by several years? Which would make it the original one that later covers are homaging, even if they are doing by proxy via referencing the CoIE cover... I'm pretty sure Perez was intentionally homaging Byrne there, if you look at the two covers, the positioning of Cyclops/Phoenix and Superman/Supergirl in the two is almost identical, and both of them also feature mourning heroes in the background:

http://www.uncannyxmen.net/sites/default/files/images/covers/uncanny/uncanny136.jpg

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070226142252/marvel_dc/images/7/71/Crisis_on_Infinite_Earths_7.jpg

Of course there are earlier examples of the Pieta pose in comic book covers, but they don't look quite the same:

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/4/5963-796-6523-1-batman.jpg

IIRC the cover for X-Men #136 was quite iconic back in the day, so a lot of readers would've recognized the CoIE #7 cover as homage to it, and I don't think Perez was trying to hide it. But at some point CoIE #7 has replaced X-Men #136 as the original Pieta cover in people's minds, maybe because CoIE was more "important" as a story (though not necessarily more popular?), and because Supergirl actually stayed dead while Jean Grey didn't.

Doesn't the Dark Phoenix cover predate the Crisis on Infinite Earths by several years? Which would make it the original one that later covers are homaging

it does, but aren't they all referencing the Michaelangelo sculpture? As that link above says:

One of the most prevalent homage cover themes is sometimes referred to as the Pieta Cover, a reference to Michelangelo’s famed Pieta sculpture. Depicting the body of Jesus Christ in the arms of his mother Mary, the Pieta conveys a sense of quiet grief and profound helplessness in the face of death.

The Pieta differs from the X-Men and Crisis covers tho, in that in the sculpture, the dead Christ is resting in Mary's lap - neither figure is standing. I'm sure that both images are routinely described as Pieta Covers, but it doesn't seem entirely accurate - are we certain that Byrne was referencing Michaelangelo?

xp Are you straight-facedly suggesting that Perez thought "I'll reference the Pieta, lots of people like that", then accidentally drew the figures in a different pose, but the same pose as the Byrne X-Men?

well no - i mean, i didn't know pieta was the reference until reading the link above, tbh. and of course the x-men cover ran first, i didn't say it didn't.

Yeah, these covers are usually called Pieta homages, but the actual statue looks quite different from most of them, so it's a bit of misnomer. The only cover I can think of that that clearly homages the statue itself (instead of Byrne or Perez) is Jim Starlin's cover for The Death of Captain Marvel:

http://files1.comics.org//img/gcd/covers_by_id/26/w400/26145.jpg

Tuomas otm

If you want basically the same pose (instead of the Batman mirror image) Neal Adams did it on a Lois Lane cover in 1968.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/supermankills4.jpg

Was Perez citing the X-Men cover? I assume so. Was he also citing this Superman image, and several related ones from the 60s, as well as the pieta? I assume so.

lois lane comics always so dark and fucked up

That Lois Lane cover isn't by Adams (smart money seems to be on the great Bob Oksner, tho to my eyes it looks like Dick Giordano inked it, which maybe accounts for the Adams confusion)

Fair enough.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10968396_903519399678788_9150567400233186763_n.jpg?oh=78246e338f2da7ed0f06f2eca33fc8f4&oe=5585C118&__gda__=1431532448_23b27d882136e93b2b44927a12adb930

A v v gd friend of mine did this recently, as part of his 'Dodgy Drawings for Red Nose Day 2015' project (you can donate here: http://my.rednoseday.com/sponsor/worldofagwu)

http://41.media.tumblr.com/ddce01a41e0229dba2f398d07bdaf1cc/tumblr_mtqzyuUdpr1qemxfbo1_1280.jpg

http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/dynamics/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/03/captain-america1.jpg

http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/comicsalliance.com/files/2011/03/gctnhmlpm.jpg

omg yessss

Kirby's 98th birthday. Lots of stuff on the interweb - I liked this pic of him and Joe Sinnott

https://www.facebook.com/joltin.joe.sinnott/photos/a.474329875913076.113315.474329302579800/1030244710321587/?type=1

Good piece by Evanier, today, too.

Did I fuck that up? I am Lex-level bad at this shit.

Those IDW Kamandi and Mister Miracle and New Gods original art reprint books torment me every fucking time I go into Forbidden Planet in Glasgow.

just saw the Kirby-ponies for the first time, that's great

genuine Kirby horse:

http://www.writeups.org/img/inset/Lonar_h3.jpg

Yes, he is great on horses, animals in general - it's why kamandi is sooo good

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11913880_1030244710321587_119517387468542795_n.jpg?oh=030311100d74b3863ecc451321d06876&oe=56844FE3

It was worth waiting for wasn't it! TY

I think that was taken in 1975 and it was the first (and last?) time they ever met in person

can someone recommend a good cosmic/psych Kirby collection? folks are hitting me up for xmas ideas and it would be nice to have some cool 60s/70s comics to read. Dr. Strange? i haven't read much of any of it so whatever is taken to be his "best". i prefer it erring on the side of weird/cosmic rather than superhero teams....

Dr. Strange is Steve Ditko dood.

FF Omnibus vol 2, Marvel Masterworks Thor Vol. 6, all the 4th World omnibuses

Celestials is also great. Kamandi.

Reading "Hand Of Fire:The Comics Art Of Jack Kirby" at the moment and I can't recommend it enough.

2001 is fairly cosmic/psych of high regard

I think by 'Celestials' Shakey means The Eternals, which is def the high point of Kirby's 70s freaky unfettered cosmic shit, if not necessarily the most coherent or complete.

The Omac collection is pleasingly compact (just six issues) and I've always felt that The Demon is a bit underrated - Kirby's mad version of Universal Monster horror

Haha yes wtf me

2001 for sure

2001 has not been collected though has it?

Eternals is a good call.

Heh, checked my Omac collection and it's actually eight issues not six, and most of 'em are unfortunately inked by D. Bruce Berry rather than Mike Royer, so visually they are not quite as primo as some other seventies Kirby. They were also pretty much the last things Kirby drew for DC before moving back to Marvel, and at times they feel a bit half-hearted. Still, Buddy Blank!

2001 has not been collected but I snagged the lot for pretty cheap a few years back.

Far too many of the collections mentioned itt are out of print (and selling for ridiculous cash, natch).

Mr. Big can "Rent-a-city" for ASSASSINATION!!!

Torrents have been a boon for my kirby exploration

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/genius-in-a-box/

also: Nadel has beef w Evanier apparently

The text is tiny & grey on phone but I can't see Nadel saying anything about Evanier there?

(unless yr suggesting that he's implicitly poo-pooing Evanier's 1/3 of a biography on its merits, rather than talking abt the larger culture?)

((Generally I can't see their aesthetics getting close enough to even have a disagreement - Picturebox vs a guy who doesn't seem to have read a comic book or seen a fictional TV show since the minute he first got paid to write either, as a teenager))

http://www.tcj.com/88491-2/

Link on that page to a beautiful tom hart interview.

i worked with tom tangentially on a project where he was teaching animation to a group of teenagers. they loved him. he's a sweetheart of a guy and rosalie lightning is heartbreaking.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/09/marvel-jack-kirby-and-the-plight-of-the-comic-book-artist/498299/

glad they mention Mantlo, that guy's story is a real tragedy

anybody wanna go with me?

Crossing Kirby: The “King of Comics” in context of social issues and “fine” art
The groundbreaking exhibition “Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby” at California State University, Northridge in summer 2015 and its accompanying catalog advanced interesting ideas about this visionary pop artist’s cultural significance and his intersection with issues of commercial creativity, representations of otherness, personal trauma and more.

Panelists include the exhibition’s curator Charles Hatfield (CSUN), the catalog’s co-editor Ben Saunders (University of Oregon), artist and “Black Kirby” co-founder John Jennings (UC Riverside), playwright Crystal Skillman and writer/comics historian Fred Van Lente (who collaborated on the play King Kirby), designer Rand Hoppe (curator, Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center), writer/filmmaker Ann Nocenti (catalog contributor, legendary scripter of Daredevil and, recently, the Kirby-created Klarion), artist, activist and Kirby scholar James Romberger, and artist/writer Amy Reeder (currently co-scripting the Kirby-inspired Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur). Moderated by catalog contributor, cultural critic and comic writer Adam McGovern.

WHEN - Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 7pm

WHERE - The 165th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, The New School, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public.

I cannot make this date, but if you get the chance, can you ask the panel why there has yet to be a single substantial biography of Kirby (I sort've know the answer, but am pruriently interested in the politics of American Kirby scholarship)?

I've wondered that as well - Evanier thing was cool but slight

Wasn't that Evanier book (King Of Comics) supposed to be a preview of a much larger book?

I think I recall Evanier saying he is working on the definitive bio. (xp)

i'm friends with Charles H and I can ask his opinion on that q if I go. His book seems like the best 'about Kirby' thing out there at this point but it is nothing like a bio.

(Hand of Fire)

I’ve been working since Jack passed away, which is 14 years now, on a humongous-sized book about his life. It’s still a few years off in the future, so when the Harry N. Abrams Company asked me to do an interim book to tide people over, I took a look at what I was doing and realized the massive book I was writing was getting too mired in minutia to the point where I thought a lot of ordinary civilians wouldn’t be able to make their way through it. So I thought I’d do a sort of simplified version first.

I know about the Evanier biog, which I guess is semi-official. But that was first announced a very long time ago; I'm surprised that nobody else has really gone for it in the meantime. I will devour the Evanier biography, if and when it appears, and can see it being the standard work; but there are many other biographies and books about Kirby still to be written.

Are there that many good bios of comic creators?

I like Blake Bell's Ditko book a lot but there will probably be another in the future by someone else.
Bell's Everett book was a bit disappointing because the actual bio and art examination couldnt fill up much room and the rest was only of interest to really serious Marvel historians. This is after Bell promised that people will wonder why there haven't been more books on Everett. I love some of Everett's phases and his life was interesting but it seemed like hardly anyone knew enough about him to fill out a proper book.

I think most who made a living from constant comics output don't get to have very interesting lives.

Steranko and Kirby's lives are both p fascinating imo

Definitely Kirby. I don't know much about Steranko but he does seem more colorful and outspoken than most of his peers.

There's been bios of Marston within Wonder Woman books but it'd be great if there was enough to gather for a full book.

Bill Schelly's Kurtzman bio and Robert Harvey's Caniff bio are both excellent.

Yep those are both very very good books.

Yeah, I was going to mention the Kurtzman and Caniff books, both great reads. There's a Herriman bio coming out in December that looks pretty interesting.

I love "Hand Of Fire"

Harry Thompson's Herge bio is not as good or researched or capable of conveying the wonder of his art as the same author's Peter Cook bio, but it's still delightful

Bob Levin's Most Outrageous is naturally more concerned with investigation than telling the story of Tinsley's life, but it gets that in there, as well as a lot of critical assessment of his art and career, and you'd be hard pressed to find a more intriguing subject for a cartoonist's bio

That book about Charles Schulz from a couple years back was supposed to be good - did anyone read?

Yes, I did. A bit of a curate's egg - good on the early years of the strip, not so good thereafter. At times, it felt that the writer was much more interested in Schulz's wealth, his celebrity, his extra-marital affair, than with the work itself (tho there was interesting stuff about the similarities between Lucy and Schulz' first wife, and the way that their sometimes tempestuous relationship played itself out in the comic strip). The family were heavily critical of it. Again, there are other books still to be written about Schulz.

FWIW, I wrote a review of it here:

http://comiczine-fa.com/reviews/schulz-and-peanuts

Great review!

Yeah! I looked at the Spiegleman thing you mentioned too - that's so sweet

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/17311135_1344860888893770_8287228737704679659_o.jpg?oh=241e8bc2e26ed9663edf6e13393ef207&oe=5963AF53
https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/17434672_1344861425560383_5597327123918912369_o.jpg?oh=3596e19747e79d52a63eff60edd908a8&oe=59622A37

I read a story recently (when "punching Nazis" was a hot topic), saying that when Kirby was doing Cap-vs.-Hitler stuff in the early '40s, a couple of white power dudes called up to the Timely offices from the bldg's lobby and demanded to see the guy writing that stuff. Simon or other staffers cautioned him not to go, but Kirby rolled up his sleeves and went right down to the lobby (...only to find the guys had left). True?

yes that is true

or at least several ppl have corroborated it (so it's as true as we could possibly know)

I got the Simon/Kirby Science Fiction omnibus out of the library. Some rough early stuff but man some really great work too.

speaking of scrappin' jack:

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-0/p480x480/17435992_1346050352108157_6971083734769542342_o.jpg?oh=8acad64ef2f43050084a92092488a7f0&oe=59562972

(these pix are from the 'jack kirby: king of comics' facebook page run by kirby's grandson btw)

dude is so much like my prone-to-screaming-argument jewish veteran gpa it's a little frightening

guys should i get this as a full-length back tattoo y/n

http://comicsalliance.com/files/2016/06/EB04f.jpg

My dumb work is blocking that image for some reason but it's presumably Kirby art so my gut says yes.

First page of The Dingbats of Danger St? That's one for the more season Kirby reader.

seasoned

it's like a kirby bingo full house

true heads go for back tats of Baron Von Evilstein imo

The weirdest stuff always has an element of comedy.

y

tho it is missing kirby krackle so not entirely complete

I'm always thinking that opening line in my head while walking around doing chores etc

THIS IS HOW FAST THINGS HAPPEN ON DANGER ST

If you get it as a tat, maybe exclude the racist Asian caricature in the lower right corner?

you mean Bananas?

Born 100 years ago today.

facing front, pilgrim

Hail To The King!

Don't Ask! Just Buy It!

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F24.media.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_m493v3Zzrs1r846jso1_1280.jpg&f=1

"Jacob and the Angel"

The composition is amazing in that drawing

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/6/62047/1293342-fighting_american_v2__1___page_1.jpg

Anybody got the "don't dangle your gonads in my ear" panel?

holy shit at jacob and the angel, that is gorgeous

jfc I have a half dozen OG issues and would like the rest but this is insane

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0785122052/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1527201431&sr=1-4

is it real or is it algorithmic

also presumably you get lurid colour reconstruction and bad repro or tracing in that version

Eh i like the 4th World omnibuses just fine

hopefully we get a reprint

btw this has been pretty great, not sure if anyone mentioned it yet
https://www.instagram.com/kirbycomic/?hl=en

Ah! Heard about that but also forgot about it. I love scioli

i like the 4th World omnibuses just fine

those are DC, Eternals is Marvel

Duh

Are u telling me marvel is worse w this stuff? I like the Thor and FF masterworks volumes i have too. Yes the colors are brighter/more garish than the individual issues i have, but those issues also dont look that great themselves (color separations are often super-sloppy) and of course are also falling apart.

Speculators who fix the prices of comics reprint collections at about the range of a large kitchen appliance should probably be, I dunno, arrested or deported or something. Branded, on the face, maybe? Nagh, that might be too much.

Trades of that Eternals material were available at reasonable prices when I acquired them a few years back. And it'll almost certainly be reprinted again prior to the release of the movie.

I have that Eternals hardcover, gotta say that the repro and colour on it are just fine as far as these things go. By the 1970s, Marvel had started to keep decent film of the original art, so there's less 'reconstruction' going on. TBH, the last few issues of Kirby's Eternals are fairly dispiriting - we get the 'Cosmic Powered Hulk', and the feeling that Kirby has somewhat lost interest or focus in the material. The first paperback collection of issues 1-8 is probably all really you need.

Are u telling me marvel is worse w this stuff

well yeah, prima facie. no idea about this hardcover in particular, but iirc DC gave up Theakstonising after three or four Archives.

We saw this at the Marvel exhibit at the Seattle Pop Culture Museum:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1936/43064874440_c3cdde2088.jpg

LOL, that's awesome

https://www.inverse.com/article/53550-black-panther-2019-oscars-means-wakanda-won-not-the-movie

The first victory on Sunday night belonged to Carter, who won Best Costume Design. “Marvel may have created the first black superhero,” she said in her speech, “but through costume design, we turned him into an African king.”

The article you linked to seems to acknowledge Kirby (and Lee) pretty extensively, though(?)

Sure, my beef is moreso with the costume/design team which i have never heard acknowledge kirby's input at all? I'm aware there was a concerted effort to truly Africanize the look and feel and I get that but Kirby is at the root and that's not something to be ashamed of.

fkn love this

https://scontent-amt2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/64333845_2328049190574930_38307706666221568_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-amt2-1.xx&oh=f4386a5346bb46cc544b7485f0d6bd02&oe=5D8FC941

https://i.imgur.com/pQ24sZG.png

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/34/9a/6f/349a6f2e2346fd4f1485160a26ae6c91.jpg

that Lainie Kazan!

Wish I could find the precise + persuasive illustration used in the comparison I saw the other day but (and perhaps I'm just the last person to be hipped to the notion) it seems not unlikely that Ben Grimm is modeled after Jack's father, Ben.

https://kirbymuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/19201.jpg

Anyone read that Stuf' Said! book yet? With the chronological interview snippets from Lee & Kirby discussing who created what at Marvel (and which apparently and unsurprisingly favors Kirby)? Curious if anything new or interesting was revealed.

Jack Kirby left Marvel 50 years ago. pic.twitter.com/axYHfshGmO

— Sean Howe (@louchelarue) March 6, 2020

my first reaction - "in 1950? is that right?"

my second reaction - "oh god how did it become 2020 already"

I had this comic as a kid; wish I still did. I remember it was pretty weird.

https://pm1.narvii.com/6672/447dd72c6ad54ef179bc8e6f8033308af0408bc0_00.jpg