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Post by berkley on Aug 28, 2022 23:34:36 GMT -5
Kirby returned to Marvel in 1958 after his comic line with Joe Simon didn't work out and a short stint at DC creating Challengers and Green Arrow. His first work was Strange Worlds #1  And was followed by all those Monster books we love. But the important thing is he was there for Martin Goodman to tell Stan to launch a Super Hero Team book, unleashing one the greatest period of comic book creativity we have seen. It was the right person in the right place at the right time. But it was very serendipitous. If.. If Joe Maneely hadn't died in that train accident, Stan would have used him instead of Kirby. If Mainline Comics survived, Jack would have stayed with his own books. If DC kept Kirby on, he would have been constrained by their more writer-centric production. The stars really did align for the Marvel Silver Age and it's co-creator.
Missed this before but the spaceship shown here reminds me a little of the big green one shown in a double-page spread in an early issue of the Eternals - I think #1 or #2.
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Post by kirby101 on Aug 29, 2022 18:30:29 GMT -5
Eternals #2, and it does.  |
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Post by berkley on Aug 29, 2022 18:43:04 GMT -5
One of my favourite 2-page spreads - not only for the amazing spacehip design but also the setting with the Inca ruins, etc.
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 17, 2023 10:34:12 GMT -5
On a whim, my wife recently made an interlibrary loan request and got The Collected Jack Kirby Collector volume 5, which contains issues 20-22 of TJKC. The letters page in issue #21 has an interesting missive from one of our own. Here it is (ignore the name at the top, that's the signature of the previous letter):   So, Cei-U!, have your views on Kirby's inkers changed at all since then? I imagine that your esteem for the man and the fondness of the memory of meeting him haven't changed. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 17, 2023 10:54:52 GMT -5
Wow, talk about a blast from the past! No, my opinions on Kirby's inkers haven't changed except that I've come to have a greater appreciation of Mike Royer since that long-ago letter. What I found particularly interesting is my claiming that Kirby approached me at SDCC when it was actually the other way around. I wonder why I did that? Huh.
Cei-U!
I summon the tsunami of nostalgia!
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 17, 2023 12:00:46 GMT -5
The thought that crossed my mind was, with Royer and Berry, Jack wasn't just the artist, he was the editor. They inked him that way because he told them to.
That issue or the previous one had Mike Royer's original version of the splash page that introduced Barda. He made her face prettier. So he was certainly capable of embellishing the pencils. But in this case Jack changed it back and told Mike not to do that. Another editor might have gone with Mike's version.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Feb 6, 2024 14:23:55 GMT -5
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the passing of Jack "King" Kirby. Aug 17, 1917-Feb 6, 1994.  -M |
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Post by kirby101 on Jun 15, 2024 11:13:54 GMT -5
Bringing this here as not to continue the non-Thor discussion in the Thor review thread. While getting that art for the Captain Victory cover, (showing the awkward pose was due to a paste up, not Kirby's drawing) I came upon the art for this Captain Victory cover. I think this is a pretty cool cover. Even getting on in years and ailing, his work still was strong.  |
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Post by kirby101 on Jun 15, 2024 11:16:11 GMT -5
Also in Captain Victory, he was still delivering those wonder two page spreads that became his trademark in his post Silver Age work. Sometimes fun.  Sometimes cosmic.  |
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Post by kirby101 on Jun 15, 2024 11:23:09 GMT -5
I will add, that if Kirby and Simon did not create the Double Page Spread (calling historians!) they certainly made it a mainstay in the Golden Age Captain America.  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 15, 2024 11:32:25 GMT -5
There’s no shame in Kirby losing a step at advanced age. He also started to develop vision problems. I think that CV #1 cover is great.
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Post by kirby101 on Jun 15, 2024 11:42:25 GMT -5
There’s no shame in Kirby losing a step at advanced age. He also started to develop vision problems. I think that CV #1 cover is great. I agree, but the evidence from these books that he was far from "not having it anymore". Was it his best work? Of course not, but still eminently readable and still art with strong storytelling ans good to look at.
That said, criticizing Kirby based on Captain Victory is kind of silly. It's like saying Robert Wise was a bad director because of Star Trek The Motion Picture.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 15, 2024 12:08:10 GMT -5
There aren’t many comic Artists that still were at peak 40 years into their career. Even Neal Adams didn’t look as good in his last years. Nobody beats Father Time.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 15, 2024 12:21:14 GMT -5
I was slow to appreciate Jack's work, I confess... but I always thought that his Kirby crackle looked awesome. Nobody ever managed to make it look as good, either, although Byrne gave it a good shot.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 15, 2024 13:22:29 GMT -5
I think that his choreography of a battle is unmatched and his main strength. He expressed power off the pages.
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