Jack Kirby, one of the cornerstones of the House of Ideas, would have turned 92 today.
The above image — from “This Man… This Monster!” from Fantastic Four #51 — is probably my favorite Kirby story ever. What about you, Rama readers? When did you decide to bow before the King of Comics?
August 28th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Trying to pin down which is my favorite Kirby comic would be really tough, but I think when I really started to “get” what made The King “The King” was when I read NEW GODS in reprint form. Not sure when these particular reprints were originally released, but I personally happened upon them sometime in the 1990′s. Not that I hadn’t been exposed to his work before. Certainly I’d seen and read some of his classic Marvel work. NEW GODS, however, showed Kirby in his most epic form and through that, I was able to look back at the other stuff he did, draw comparisons, and see the magic inbetween the lines.
I guess if you held a gun to my head, I’d tell you that his Tales of Asgard back-ups (which, coincidentally, are being reprinted right now by Marvel in a six issue mini) are my favorite Jack Kirby comics. Even though he created my favorite super-hero, the Silver Surfer, I honestly couldn’t hold up any of his actual Surfer work as my favorite of his. It was great, no doubt, but still not my favorite (probably because I love the work Buscema did with Stan on Surfer’s solo book so much).
August 28th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I bowed to the King when I read a Orion story where an organic computer brain that transmuted into a giant steeple/missle playing the music of God with Lightray riding atop it(Slim Pickins-style), was going straight for a gigantic sea monster that looked like it had a fist for a chin, all to avenge the death of an innocent bystander. Whose body also was atop the music playing missle. That was Kirbys idea of a Viking funeral; having a body strapped to a nuclear missle (a missle imbued/endorsed by God no less)and launching it at a monster. It was one of the most craziest and most beautiful things I ever seen.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I know this is going to get me kicked out of the union, but I never got the appeal of Kirby as an artist. His poses and blocking are dynamic, sure, but with notable exceptions like The Thing, most of his designs varied from bleh to awful.
At some point, I think his popularity hit critical mass, where people like him because he’s Jack Effing Kirby, and he’s The King, and don’t you ever forget it.
I’m not trying to slag him for his contributions to the medium, but his artwork just left me cold.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Jack Kirby is the king! He modeled Big Barda after a playboy model.Nuff said! All jokes aside he was a pioneer in his day and a legend in history of comics.
August 30th, 2009 at 7:46 am
I know that I had read Kirby stories in Kamandi and OMAC before this, but for some reason the story that made me a believer was Eternals #15, where Ikaris and Makarri fight the robot Hulk infused with cosmic power. Not a high point for Jack (or for the series, still my all-time favorite comic series) but something about it made me want to read more, and I spent the next year going to comic shops and cons buying up the whole series (which was cancelled four months after I discovered it.)
Now, thirty years later, I own more than three hundred comics with Kirby art, ranging from Fantastic Four #14 all the way to his Kirbyverse comics of the 90′s, and a few dozen books of reprints and three or four pages of original art, and Jack Kirby is perhaps my favorite creator in any field ever. He may not have always hit a home run, but he was always swinging for the fences and had the most incredible, multifaceted and astonishing imagination I have ever encountered. Not a day goes by that something Kirby doesnt impact my world. Happy Birthday Jack!!!!