Let's talk about Jack Kirby

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (79 of them)

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, 9 December 2007 20:41 (2 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

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

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

Oilyrags, Tuesday, 5 August 2008 01:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

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.

Telephone thing, Tuesday, 5 August 2008 02:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

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.

earlnash, Thursday, 5 March 2009 01:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

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!

One of the Most High Profile Comedy Directors of the 90s (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 5 March 2009 22:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

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)

R Baez, Monday, 16 November 2009 20:21 (9 months ago) Permalink

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.

WmC, Monday, 16 November 2009 22:11 (9 months ago) Permalink

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."

Matt M., Wednesday, 18 November 2009 16:17 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 16:35 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

WmC, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 16:44 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

NEW YORK DESERVED 9-11 (cankles), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 16:55 (9 months ago) Permalink

fuckin love kamandi & that map is the shit

a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 17:00 (9 months ago) Permalink

NEW YORK DESERVED 9-11 (cankles), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 17:15 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

Brad C., Wednesday, 18 November 2009 17:26 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

ian, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 19:13 (9 months ago) Permalink

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.

Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 19:25 (9 months ago) Permalink

thanking you Kamandi map

Jack Kirby's Orangutan Surfing Civilization (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 20:32 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

fifteen minutes of iguana time famous (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 20:39 (9 months ago) Permalink

EGO! so awesome

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

Jack Kirby's Orangutan Surfing Civilization (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 21:21 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

Jack Kirby's Orangutan Surfing Civilization (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 21:22 (9 months ago) Permalink

next mongrel thread title: KANGA RAT MURDER SOCIETY

BACH STARKER (sic), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 22:44 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

Jack Kirby's Orangutan Surfing Civilization (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 22:46 (9 months ago) Permalink

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.

WmC, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 22:52 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

Jack Kirby's Orangutan Surfing Civilization (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 23:14 (9 months ago) Permalink

scans, basically

WmC, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 23:18 (9 months ago) Permalink

eh I kinda hate reading books on a computer screen

Jack Kirby's Orangutan Surfing Civilization (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 23:23 (9 months ago) Permalink

but... it;s the future

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 23:24 (9 months ago) Permalink

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

I am flesh and blood. You are software and circuitry. (chap), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 23:52 (9 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

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

BTW, I'm frightfully middle-class (chap), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:13 (7 months ago) Permalink

this one is more than a little o_O

forksclovetofu, Friday, 29 January 2010 06:36 (7 months ago) Permalink

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.

the end times are coming, but they're just the beginning (WmC), Sunday, 31 January 2010 17:27 (7 months ago) Permalink

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.

Ward Fowler, Monday, 1 February 2010 10:21 (7 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.