Let's talk about Jack Kirby

Kirby double-page spreads: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65185095@N00/sets/72157623444242645/

Those are amazing. This one is like 2000AD scorpion cover levels of thrillpower: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65185095@N00/4611056070/in/set-72157623444242645

That giant dying cricket monster has amazing levels of pathos.

excellent

totally breathtaking.

This link made my week. Thanks WilliamC!

On a side note - one of the main things I enjoyed in the new Supes movie is how Kirbeyesque it is in places : the Krypton sets and costume designs, the-almost-too-much visceralness of the fight scenes, the extreme closeups of gritted teeth hero and villains. I think they beat the Marvel films (so far) in that regard.

(though I love the Cap film for how close it stuck to the Simon/Kirby semse of surreal fun)

i'm not really seeing the kirbyness of the superman movie. it seemed more like a sword and sworcery RPG. more elfquest than 4th world.

Yikes! Having never read Elfquest I can't say I see the similarities but...yeah...I saw Kirby in there.

was there a screenshot in particular that evoked kirby for you?

No I don't have one handy but it's what I saw. Been a Kirby fan for many,many years if that helps.

Don't see any Kirby in Man of Steel either, what partic Kirby comics are you thinking of?

Closest Jack came to doing any kind of science fiction movie design was prob the Lord of Light stuff

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jVk_kKrK-ks/UH-cXYwhptI/AAAAAAAAXAQ/3XFqWINtBBo/s1600/Image+(10).jpg

This link made my week. Thanks WilliamC!

― That elusive North American wood-ape (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, July 4, 2013 4:29 PM

My pleasure! The hat-tip goes to Mark Evanier, who posted the link on his (recommended) blog.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=570053796374487&set=a.109630362416835.4868.108944192485452&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

looks like young kubrick

bought a copy of his autobiographical comic 'street code' at the kirby museum booth at comic-con. looks pretty great.

did they do a mini or...? it's only an eight-pager

i have it in that twomorrows streetwise anthology, but i think there was a (p scarce) magazine publication prior to that

yeah, it's just a mini. this is what i got:

http://kirbymuseum.org/jack-kirbys-street-code-at-mocca/

I have Streetwise too but that does look cool

I just got the four Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus TPBs off of the EBay. They are pretty stylin'. I've read some of them, as I used to have a near full set of the New Gods and Mister Miracle both in my old collection, but it has been years since I read them all.

FYI, on that 1st Issue Special version of the New Gods, DC did do some other New Gods related comics in the later 70s. Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers then Steve Gerber and Michael Golden did a few issues of Mister Miracle that are worth tracking down.

http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/1096071.jpg

Saw one of those gerber-golden issues on the diversions of the groovy kind blog awhile ago. Pretty weird

those post-kirby mister miracles are not gerber's finest hour (and englehart wrote some of them under an assumed name cos of editorial fuckery iirc)

that street code mini looks p sweet, gd score J.D.

Commission from Jack Kirby for Paul and Linda McCartney

didn't kirby do an album sleeve for wings or something?

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/02/16/the-line-it-is-drawn-28-album-cover-homages/

Stevie ate you thinking of the mighty groundhogs sleeve by neal adams....?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magneto_and_Titanium_Man

Shakey - no, i think i was thinking of the photos of kirby drawings that were projected behind wings on the inner gatefold to the wings across america lp, which ward's link above refers to.

though i never knew it was actually neal adams behind that ace groundhogs sleeve!

new family page on Facebook with tons of photos:

https://www.facebook.com/kirby4heroes

KirbyGerber!

I finally got a copy of the softcover Kirby's Fourth World all four volumes. I'm into the latter part of the first one. It's really amazing and I love the reading order being as the issues come out. Going back and forth between the various comics really makes it read so much more EPIC!

Got to say I really love the printing that DC did on this one too, as that paper stock is quality but the texture is just right to print those old 70s colors but not have that total nasty glare that kinda ruins a lot of these period reprints. I like this paper better than the Marvel Masterwork pages, which look better than some of the bronze color reprints. I definitely think the Miller Daredevil, Byrne F4 and Simonson Thor looked as good to me in the modern reprints. This may be for two reasons: one, I know those issues and read them a couple of times on the original comics and two the new ones are just so bright.

This article on Barry Windsor-Smith is pretty cool on how the modern colors really change the look of some artwork. I don't think the modern colors look bad, but it totally changes the feel of the artwork. I suppose it could be a kin to pasting that digital new backgrounds on the earlier Star Wars movies.

http://comicsalliance.com/whatever-happened-to-barry-windsor-smith-in-the-comics-conversation/

i have some love for BWS' art but jesus his writing is so bad.

good article earl

I haven't really read any of BWS 90s comics. He did quite a few on the original Valiant run, if I recall. His comics are so visual, I think issues with his writing are probably dialog based I'd figure. The couple of X-men he did in the 80s were pretty good, but I mostly know him from the early 70s Marvel stuff. I love 70s Conan, it's some of my favorite comics.

gary groth once compared bws' self-written comics for valiant to p g wodehouse!

Groth is insane then.

Happy Birthday Jack!

This is great.

thanks fit, that was a great read

i remember roy thomas saying that sometimes Lee would deliberately write 'against' kirby's pencils, so as not to be seen to be slavishly following jack's storytelling - but that article excellently demonstrates why Stan's choices were often the wrong ones

that is the most exhaustive analysis of a single page I've ever read

fwiw, the spiegelman et al analysis of 'master race', reproduced at the link below along with the original strip, is p much the gold standard original for 'close reading' of comics pages/panels. the kirby piece is much less exhaustive, but as an act of footnoting its excellent:

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3185

unfortunate url there

i think he really is called michael sporn

i remember roy thomas saying that sometimes Lee would deliberately write 'against' kirby's pencils

remember reading a l/k hulk story in the uni library at 17, when I was making an effort to crack early Marvel*, that made me write off Lee forever: action sequence magnificently, clearly laid out of Hulk atop a train. Bridge is nearing, Hulk estimates, braces; grabs bridge & flips himself over to land on the other side. Thrilling, direct storytelling.

Then Lee shits up the page with hundreds of words about how Hulk is dumb and can't tell what's going on but somehow his brain is super-strong and makes him levitate over the bridge. Fuuuuuck off, you useless parasite.

*bar Spider-Man, which clicked for me just fine as a kid when Kirby was weird and off-putting

I've probably ranted that rant on ILC before.

it does sound familiar

That's pretty disgusting!

lol you've posted it before but its still cool. do you know what hulk issue it was