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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2014 1:48:15 GMT -5
 "Perfectionists are their own devils" - Jack KirbyThis is a thread to honor and celebrate the work of one of the most influential creators in comic book history: Jack "King" Kirby! Share your favorite Kirby artwork, comics, stories, history. Anything Kirby goes! Some interesting facts: - From 1938 up until his death in 1994, Kirby illustrated over 20,000 pages of art, over 1500 covers, hundreds of pages of layouts, and hundreds more of unpublished material and commission pieces. - As a child, when he could not afford them Jack would take newspapers from his neighbors’ trash to read comics and practice drawing on the paper. - Kirby was in a gang growing up called the Suffolk Street Gang and, according to Kirby, would get in lots of fights with other gangs of kids. Kirby would go on to create a number of kid gang comics including “Boy Commandos”, “Newsboy Legion” and “Young Allies” inspired by this experience. - While many comic book creators were able to take positions in the army making propaganda posters and instruction pamphlets, Kirby served in World War II as a combat Infantryman. He left the military with the rank of private first class and a Combat Infantry Badge as well as the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with a bronze battle star. - After World War II the superhero comics market faltered due to a decline in interest and an overabundance of superhero comics. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon then revolutionized the industry with “ Young Romance” a wildly popular comic which sold “millions of copies” sparking a booming new comics genre. - Beginning in the early 60's he couldn’t drive anymore without being distracted because he was thinking about his stories! - Kirby had a very distinct way of talking, often pausing and changing the subject mid-sentence. Comics historian Mark Evanier attributes Kirby’s poor business negotiation skills in part to this verbal idiosyncrasy. I'll be periodically posting Jack's best stuff in an effort to keep the spirit of Kirby alive on the CCF. Let's see that Kirby Krackle fellas!
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 11, 2014 1:56:34 GMT -5
I'm a huge Kirby fan, with his FF, Thor and New Gods taking top spots as my favorites, but this image from Street Code is the best thing he ever did, which is saying a lot.  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2014 2:18:06 GMT -5
There is so much going on in that one. I probably spent a good 10 minutes checking that out when I first laid eyes on it. A great glimpse into Kirby's experience on the streets of New York's Lower East Side. Here's one of my favorites, “The Promethean Galaxy” from New Gods vol.1 #5 (DC, 1971) by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer. This is one of my all time favorite Kirby drawings. I mean, LOOK at it!!  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2014 6:51:08 GMT -5
I just loved his work on the Fantastic Four And, this special treat ... I will do anything to get my hands on this Kirby Masterpiece here.  He draws Captain America just beautifully! |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,197 
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Post by Confessor on Dec 11, 2014 11:24:38 GMT -5
I hope I won't get lynched for saying this in this thread, but I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Jack Kirby's artwork. I like the dynamism of Kirby's art, the way that his action scenes really "pop" and "zing" off of the page, but on the other hand his lumpy anatomy and musculature tend to make his characters look deformed. I like his square jawed and highly emotive male faces, but his glamorous females usually look like butch bruisers. I do enjoy seeing a good bit of "Kirby Crackle" on the comics page though, like all sensible folk. But what I like best about the Silver Age work Kirby did at Marvel is his "Kirby tech". I love the bizarre and fantastical equipment that you see in Reed Richard's lab and elsewhere. Panels like these are what I love most about Jack Kirby's work...    I'm not a fan of his DC stuff though, particularly the stuff he scripted. I tried to read OMAC once and getting through the dialogue was like wading through treacle. It also seems that his figures got even more deformed when he went to DC. *(runs out of the thread before somebody throws something heavy at him)* |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2014 11:44:46 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2014 11:48:40 GMT -5
Few more storyboards "Lord of Light":   |
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Post by badwolf on Dec 11, 2014 11:56:18 GMT -5
I pretty much agree with Confessor; all due respect for his place in comics history, and I do love his tech and "cosmic" scenes, but his characters are just so unappealing. The shiny faces in his later work always bugged me.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2014 11:58:06 GMT -5
I hope I won't get lynched for saying this in this thread, but I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Jack Kirby's artwork. I like the dynamism of Kirby's art, the way that his action scenes really "pop" and "zing" off of the page, but on the other hand his lumpy anatomy and musculature tend to make his characters look deformed. I like his square jawed and highly emotive male faces, but his glamorous females usually look like butch bruisers. I do enjoy seeing a good bit of "Kirby Crackle" on the comics page though, like all sensible folk. But what I like best about the Silver Age work Kirby did at Marvel is his "Kirby tech". I love the bizarre and fantastical equipment that you see in Reed Richard's lab and elsewhere. Panels like these are what I love most about Jack Kirby's work... I'm not a fan of his DC stuff though, particularly the stuff he scripted. I tried to read OMAC once and getting through the dialogue was like wading through treacle. It also seems that his figures got even more deformed when he went to DC. *(runs out of the thread before somebody throws something heavy at him)* I think a lot of people have a love/hate thing with Kirby's stuff. Truth be told, I hated his artwork when I was just a wee lad. I thought it was ugly, blocky art and all of the faces looked the same. It wasn't until my late 20's that I read through a majority of Kirby's work and discovered just how special his artwork truly was. It had to sink in, and now I appreciate his work from a completely different aspect. Jack Kirby eventually became my favorite artist of all time. Weird how that happens. But I totally respect those that are either on the fence or don't enjoy his artwork as much. Completely understand. |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 11, 2014 19:57:42 GMT -5
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 11, 2014 20:02:45 GMT -5
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Post by fanboystranger on Dec 11, 2014 21:50:47 GMT -5
I think a lot of people have a love/hate thing with Kirby's stuff. Truth be told, I hated his artwork when I was just a wee lad. I thought it was ugly, blocky art and all of the faces looked the same. It wasn't until my late 20's that I read through a majority of Kirby's work and discovered just how special his artwork truly was. It had to sink in, and now I appreciate his work from a completely different aspect. Jack Kirby eventually became my favorite artist of all time. Weird how that happens. But I totally respect those that are either on the fence or don't enjoy his artwork as much. Completely understand. I had a very similiar experience with Kirby's work. When I was younger, I was getting a lot of it secondhand from books like Marvel Saga and the like, and to be honest, the panels didn't intrigue me as much as the text parts. I thought his art was actually ugly and garish. Then, when I returned to comics in the '90s and branched out into things beyond superheroes and Marvel in particular, I was exposed to a lot of different styles, and I think that opened my mind to what comics art could be. So, when I went back and took a second look at Kirby's stuff as an adult, I absolutely fell in love with its energy and his weird techno-mythic designs. I will honestly stare at a Kirby splash page for fifteen minutes just to take in the detail. (Other artists whose work I hated when I first saw it but now love: Richard Corben, Simon Bisley, David Lloyd, Eddie Campbell...)
My dream Kirby project would be for DC to release OMAC Mad Libs with no text or dialogue beyond a few suggestive phrases, and see what people would come up with. It would be absolutely crazy.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Dec 11, 2014 22:01:26 GMT -5
I'm pleased to say I never hated Kirby's art, though it sometimes frightened me. Those mid-70s Captain America issues with the Night People were particularly scary:
And apart from the awe-inspiring, sweeping, cosmic tableaus that this thread rightly celebrates, there are the Kirby pieces that are small, personal, poignant, and undeniably human:
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2014 2:06:59 GMT -5
Some DC Comics Work that he did ...   Excels in drawing ORION ... one of my favorites!  A Masterpiece! |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 12, 2014 9:05:01 GMT -5
I think a lot of us share a "used to hate/now love" Kirby experience. When I got into comics seriously around 1986, I thought the sun rose and set on John Byrne and George Perez; if it wasn't generally in that style, I didn't like it. As my tastes improved and expanded, I started to appreciate the older artists, like Kirby, that I just didn't get as a ignorant, snot-nosed little punk. Now I find Kirby much more interesting than Byrne and Perez (though I'm still a huge fan of their classic stuff). There are many great artists that work and have worked in the comic field, but Kirby was something different. He's sort of like the Picasso of comics.
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