Martinex1: As you probably know, today is the 100th anniversary of Jack Kirby's birth. Born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28th, 1917, he would grow to be perhaps the most influential comic artist of all time. In 1936 he started in the comic field and he worked nearly continuously until his death in 1994. With an unparalleled imagination and a style all his own, he carved his way into modern comic lore, leaving behind countless pages of unbridled creativity.
I think it fitting, as much as possible, to let the art and photographs speak for themselves today. So here are various examples of cover work throughout his professional years (covers starting with his first cover
Red Raven in 1940 and running through 1989*), examples of his most dynamic two-page spreads, a couple collages, self-portraits of the man, photographs through the ages, and a few more special selections.
*I apologize that some of the covers are out of order - the system was giving me trouble arranging the items.
I have grown to really appreciate Jack Kirby's art and influence, and even as I pulled together today's artwork I was astounded at how much he created. There were books I had never seen before. And I spent hours just looking at collections of pages. People talk about the "Kirby Krackle" and it seems fitting because energy seemed to run rampant through every panel Kirby touched.
Happy Birthday Jack Kirby! Thanks for influencing a whole art form.
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11 comments:
To paraphrase Samuel Johnson :
Jack Kirby, sir, is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can.
Hope you all enjoyed the Kirby art.
Cheers
Incredible selection of Kirby Kreativity, Marti! Particularly love Ben Grimm with a Beatles Wig.
Fascinating to see how his artwork progressed over the years. Personally, I find his Silver Age work at Marvel to be his apex. Great stuff earlier and later, but he did get a bit blocky towards he end. The 2001 Treasury Edition was a beauty...
Thanks for the photos! I would just paraphrase / quote Steranko's dedication to Kirby for Steranko's History of Comics Volume 1:
"This book is dedicated to Jack Kirby without whom there might not be a history of comics."
To be perfectly honest, (and at the risk of alienating comics fans everywhere) I've never been a huge Kirby fan. His art always seemed too ... homogenous, I guess? All his characters tend to look alike. And his writing isn't all that good either. His plotting is brilliant, but I think he needed someone else on dialogue to really make things work.
For me, the best thing about Kirby's art (going right back to the beginning) was how dynamic it was; his characters didn't stand around and talk, they MOVED, which was rather innovative at the time. And every artist since then incorporated that dynamism into their own work. So, for me, that's Kirby's biggest legacy. But as I said, I'm not a huge fan of his solo stuff.
Mike W, I think a lot of people feel that way. I tend to look at it within its timeframe of influence. I also look at the complexity and imagination and energy in those two page spreads I posted and can see that nobody was doing it like Kirby. I imagine it must have been pretty incredible when people saw the photo collage pages. Now they may look dated, odd, or indulgent ... but at the time that had to be very exciting. Everybody was following him and trying to do what he did with the FF and other Marvel titles.
I agree that his faces, characters, and women may have all looked the same but I don't think that is what people are mimicking. It is the other crazy stuff.
But I also have to admit it took me a long time to appreciate it. When he worked on Captain America I hated it - so there you go. But now I think Kirby was an artist in the true sense of the word.
I was late coming to Jack Kirby......my first real exposure to him was via Kamandi when I was nine or ten. I mostly read DC and he had actually left Marvel by the time I started reading comics in earnest and the Fourth World books were fading or had faded away. I loved those double page and full page spreads he would do for Kamandi. They were just bursting with action and activity. He was just bursting himself with ideas and I really wish he had been given more of an opportunity to develop his series with DC. It was fun backtracking with the reprints of of his stories dating back to the 40's.
I love Jack Kirby more and more the older I get and I am about 52 now and liked JK also as a kid from the beginning. There was a timespan between Neal Adams and Todd McFarlane, when I admired their detailed artwork. But then I more and more started to love more abstract art and compositions.
To me, Jack is very special and I am still waiting to discover a "new" Jack Kirby every time I walk into my comic book store. But until today, I haven't met him.
My perception is, that Kirby penciled without much planning, without a script, but in a mindset of "flow" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology) - I am not native english, so this is what I mean). So yes, there are a lot of "flaws" and incorrectness and often characters looked rushed, but there is still this energy and this craziness.
I am missing this energy in most of todays comics. They all feel scripted and planned. And this is todays working modus in the comic industry. The writer does a script, that often has very detailed information about the picture composition. The art is in average very good today, but it is missing this special spark that someone as Jack Kirby has.
If anyone knows any of todays artist comparable in some way with Jack Kirby's energy please post their names here! I will be very grateful to check them out for myself.
@Martinex1. Thank you for the collage picture of Hunger Dogs. This story was new to me! I haven't finished Fourth World Part 4 yet. And also all the covers from before FF #1.
OK Kirby had his detractors and not everyone loved his art but no one can dispute his influence and impact on the comic book scene. To me, no one could convey a sense of power and kinetic action like the King. Sure, his plotting was kooky at times and I agree he worked best with a good writer to make a cohesive narrative for a story, but man no one made comic book art 'pop' like he did.
- Mike 'hail to the 100th anniversary of the King baby!' from Trinidad & Tobago.
What's all this group hemming and hawing on the one-hundredth year of the King of Comics!! Let's just celebrate the man and the impact! This was a fantastic post with new images (especially of the man himself) that I had never seen before. Thank you to Martinex1 for that. Happy Belated Jack Kirby Day 100!!
Thanks for posting all these images and photos! I hadn't seen the DC characters with Kirby at his drawing board, or the Thing with hair. Love the drawing of himself in the army. Mystic comics with the Destroyer- I'd like to read more of his 1940s work. Kirby was a powerhouse right from the get-go!
I always liked Kamandi, but really only clicked with Kirby about 5 years ago. First Thor, then Captain America, then the floodgates opened and I couldn't get enough! He has a creative power like no one else in comics. You can pretty up the surface, which is what his followers did in the Bronze age. But that explosive, dynamic feeling you get from his art- no one has matched that.
Also I think he's underrated as a writer. Love his DC Stories! If you're stuck on the Stan Lee style of writing, yeah Kirby doesn'the have his slippery charm. What he does have is ideas galore and the unexpected, and excitement, and even a direct toughness to his scripting that I appreciate.
Great inspiration!
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