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.
― Not That Chuck, Wednesday, 4 August 2004 18:25 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 4 August 2004 19:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 5 August 2004 02:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Thursday, 5 August 2004 02:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 5 August 2004 09:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Not That Chuck, Thursday, 5 August 2004 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― the food has a top snake of 1 (ex machina), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 16:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― chap who would dare to thwart the revolution (chap), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 18:51 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link
I used to sorta like Vince Colletta's work until I found out what he did to Kirby's pencils.
― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 21:56 (eighteen years ago) link
no love for these fantastic Fourth World Omnibus editions?!?
for shame
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 2 November 2007 21:55 (sixteen years ago) link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180175859789
― Oilyrags, Saturday, 3 November 2007 14:32 (sixteen years ago) link
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).
― R Baez, Saturday, 3 November 2007 20:17 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― R Baez, Saturday, 3 November 2007 20:49 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Telephone thing, Thursday, 8 November 2007 09:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Those two Archive Kamandi editions are worth springing for, the reproduction on them is REALLY beautiful
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 8 November 2007 13:04 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah I'd never really sat down and read the Jimmy Olsen stuff before - just ridiculously great.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 8 November 2007 18:45 (sixteen years ago) link
MONSTERS!
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 12 November 2007 21:35 (sixteen years ago) link
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!
― Soukesian, Tuesday, 13 November 2007 23:01 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 14 November 2007 03:17 (sixteen years ago) link
LCS had a giant sale this weekend, and I got the first two Kirby Omnibi. I HAVE HEARD THE WORD--IT IS BATTLE!
― Dr. Superman, Monday, 19 November 2007 18:49 (sixteen years ago) link
2nd one will have to wait for me, I recently blew most of my comics money on the Thor reprints.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 19 November 2007 22:10 (sixteen years ago) link
HELLO? GET ME THE SECRET INTERGANG MISSILE SITE!
― Dr. Superman, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 19:47 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 19:52 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Leee, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 19:56 (sixteen years ago) link
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 (sixteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
― 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
― NEW YORK DESERVED 9-11 (cankles), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 16:55 (fourteen years ago) link
fuckin love kamandi & that map is the shit
― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 17:00 (fourteen years ago) link
http://monsterblog.oneroom.org/stories/taxcollector1.jpg
― NEW YORK DESERVED 9-11 (cankles), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 17:15 (fourteen years ago) link
xp Just taking it one day at a time here in the Expanding Tiger Empire
― Brad C., Wednesday, 18 November 2009 17:26 (fourteen years ago) link
in a white room with jack kirby, peter parker...
― ian, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 19:13 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
thanking you Kamandi map
― Jack Kirby's Orangutan Surfing Civilization (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 20:32 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
next mongrel thread title: KANGA RAT MURDER SOCIETY
― BACH STARKER (sic), Wednesday, 18 November 2009 22:44 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
scans, basically
― WmC, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 23:18 (fourteen years ago) link
"Jacob and the Angel"
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 16:37 (six years ago) link
The composition is amazing in that drawing
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 29 November 2017 04:02 (six years ago) link
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/6/62047/1293342-fighting_american_v2__1___page_1.jpg
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 30 November 2017 18:33 (six years ago) link
Anybody got the "don't dangle your gonads in my ear" panel?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 November 2017 19:26 (six years ago) link
holy shit at jacob and the angel, that is gorgeous
― hi i’m darren and i’m a bouncer from bendigo (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 30 November 2017 19:31 (six years ago) link
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
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 24 May 2018 22:38 (five years ago) link
is it real or is it algorithmic
also presumably you get lurid colour reconstruction and bad repro or tracing in that version
― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Thursday, 24 May 2018 23:53 (five years ago) link
Eh i like the 4th World omnibuses just fine
― Οὖτις, Friday, 25 May 2018 01:35 (five years ago) link
hopefully we get a reprint
btw this has been pretty great, not sure if anyone mentioned it yethttps://www.instagram.com/kirbycomic/?hl=en
― Nhex, Friday, 25 May 2018 01:42 (five years ago) link
Ah! Heard about that but also forgot about it. I love scioli
― Οὖτις, Friday, 25 May 2018 02:04 (five years ago) link
i like the 4th World omnibuses just fine
those are DC, Eternals is Marvel
― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Friday, 25 May 2018 02:23 (five years ago) link
Duh
― Οὖτις, Friday, 25 May 2018 02:27 (five years ago) link
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.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 25 May 2018 02:29 (five years ago) link
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 really like the acting, dialogue and especially the scenes (Old Lunch), Friday, 25 May 2018 03:17 (five years ago) link
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.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 25 May 2018 08:16 (five years ago) link
Are u telling me marvel is worse w this stuffwell yeah, prima facie. no idea about this hardcover in particular, but iirc DC gave up Theakstonising after three or four Archives.
― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Friday, 25 May 2018 08:26 (five years ago) link
We saw this at the Marvel exhibit at the Seattle Pop Culture Museum:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1936/43064874440_c3cdde2088.jpg
― DJI, Monday, 24 September 2018 18:38 (five years ago) link
LOL, that's awesome
― growing up in publix (morrisp), Monday, 24 September 2018 22:27 (five years ago) link
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.”
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 26 February 2019 16:09 (five years ago) link
The article you linked to seems to acknowledge Kirby (and Lee) pretty extensively, though(?)
― yuh yuh (morrisp), Tuesday, 26 February 2019 21:19 (five years ago) link
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.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 26 February 2019 21:24 (five years ago) link
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
― RUSSIA’S SEXIEST POKER STAR ELECTROCUTED BY HAIRDRYER (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 18 June 2019 13:18 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/pQ24sZG.png
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 2 September 2019 11:48 (four years ago) link
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/34/9a/6f/349a6f2e2346fd4f1485160a26ae6c91.jpg
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 14 January 2020 22:41 (four years ago) link
that Lainie Kazan!
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 15 January 2020 01:22 (four years ago) link
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
― Dr. Teeth and the Women (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 15 January 2020 01:35 (four years ago) link
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.
― Dr. Teeth and the Women (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 15 January 2020 01:39 (four years ago) link
Jack Kirby left Marvel 50 years ago. pic.twitter.com/axYHfshGmO— Sean Howe (@louchelarue) March 6, 2020
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 6 March 2020 20:40 (four years ago) link
my first reaction - "in 1950? is that right?"
my second reaction - "oh god how did it become 2020 already"
― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Friday, 6 March 2020 22:00 (four years ago) link
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
― Panic! At The Costco (morrisp), Sunday, 8 March 2020 06:36 (four years ago) link