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Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

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Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Old 08-28-17, 11:41 AM
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Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Nice words from Mark Evanier.

http://www.newsfromme.com/2017/08/28/kirby-at-100/

Trying to decide what Kirby to read today. Either some Fantastic Four or Kamandi most likely.
Old 08-28-17, 02:50 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

The older I get, the more I appreciate Kirby's contributions to the comic book medium. I never really liked his art style as a youngster but it has grown on me over the years.

I do resent Stan Lee a bit for stealing a lot of Kirby's thunder with casual audiences. Marvel's films never happen if Jack Kirby hadn't been born.

I was thinking of getting that huge Jack Kirby Adamantium hardcover, reproducing key issues in their original drawn size.
Old 08-29-17, 12:08 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

I should resume my New Gods omnibus trek one of these days. I'd had only passing familiarity with the series, so I blind-bought the books and have enjoyed the chronological reading order that would be a clumsy experience in digital.

Old 08-29-17, 12:36 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Originally Posted by PhantomStranger
The older I get, the more I appreciate Kirby's contributions to the comic book medium. I never really liked his art style as a youngster but it has grown on me over the years.
Same here. I would collect tons of Adams stuff and laughed at Kirby's art. I appreciate it now. I recently completed his run on Mr. Miracle. I loved Marshall Roger's art when the book was continued and I never bothered with Kirby's prior run on the series.
Old 08-29-17, 03:04 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Originally Posted by PhantomStranger

I do resent Stan Lee a bit for stealing a lot of Kirby's thunder with casual audiences. Marvel's films never happen if Jack Kirby hadn't been born.
Stan has the personality and charisma to represent Marvel as an embassador. Kirby was a bit of a grumpy guy from what I've seen in interviews. Their egos (I mean it in a good way) complimented each other and that's why their work together was fruitful.

My favorite Jack Kirby run was on Fantastic Four. It's probably the most influential comic book era of all time IMO.
Old 08-29-17, 03:33 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Fantastic Four #44-93 are still my all time favorite books.
Old 08-29-17, 04:21 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Originally Posted by PhantomStranger
I never really liked his art style as a youngster but it has grown on me over the years.
Same here. Still not a real fan, but I do appreciate him more, particularly his energy and imagination.



Originally Posted by Trevor
Trying to decide what Kirby to read today.
I've become addicted to the big $2 dealers at C2E2, and I've picked up a lot of great reading copies of terrific books that way. One of my finds from a few years back was Thor Annual #4, which reprints Thor #131-132. I was never much of a Thor fan, but this book has completely turned me around.

It's glorious Kirby insanity.

A big-headed alien chick claims the Earth in the name of her race. She insists that no one can withstand the might of her mental power. Thor says, "Fuck you, I'm Thor!" and kicks her ass. Then she says while Thor may have beaten her, no one can stand up to the might of her battle cruiser. Thor says, "Fuck you, I'm Thor!" and kicks the battle cruiser's ass. Then she says that while Thor may have beaten her battle cruiser, no one can stand up to the indestructible robot her people have sent to defeat him. Thor says, "Fuck you, I'm Thor!" and kicks the robot's ass. Then she says that while Thor may have beaten the robot, her planet will still eventually overcome him. Thor says, "Fuck you, I'm Thor!" and forces her to drive him to her home planet. On the way there, Thor discovers Ego, the Living Planet in a LSD-OMG-turn-on-the-black-light final page and the annual ends.

I hunted down a softcover copy of Thor Marvel Masterworks #5 to get the rest of the story. I think tonight I'll finally get around to reading it.
Old 08-29-17, 06:17 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Count me in the group who never really appreciated Kirby until later in life. Part of the problem was that I never read any of the *really* classic Kirby stuff from the latter half of the 60's until recently. Over the years I'd dip my toes into the silver age, but only the really early Marvel stuff when he was doing 7 books a month with an endless rotation of inkers of varying quality. I'd always come away wondering what the big deal was.

After getting into original art collecting a couple of years ago, I was introduced to more and more of the good stuff and now I totally get it. I've been slowly going through his back catalog and loving every minute of it. Today I decided to start in on The Eternals. I know his best years were probably behind him at that point, but I love kooky late 70's Kirby inked by Mike Royer. The stories are a little hit or miss, but the art and all the crazy ideas just radiate off the page.
Old 08-29-17, 08:27 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

I grew up in an era when both Marvel and DC were at odds with Kirby but the indy scene love him. The first time I saw his stuff was with the Super Powers comic book and then I saw some of the Fourth World creations he did and loved it. I started reading his Marvel stuff in the the late 80's/ early 90's when some of his most famous stories were reprinted in milestone issues.

I heard so many stories as how many of the 70's and 80's staff of writers, artists, editors and inkers at Marvel and DC didn't like Kirby's artwork at all, calling him Hack Kirby behind his back. DC editors in particular didn't like the way he drew Superman and his cast of characters. They felt that Superman could only have the look that guys like Curt Swan had established and that the way Kirby drew his face was disturbing. They had other artists like Neal Adams and Gil Kane re-draw Superman face on the books he did.

His impact in the business is bigger than anyone else in my opinion. Stan Lee is up there with him, but Kirby's imagination in his art is what gave the visuals of the characters we still see today.
Old 08-30-17, 07:18 AM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Originally Posted by Red Hood
I grew up in an era when both Marvel and DC were at odds with Kirby but the indy scene love him. The first time I saw his stuff was with the Super Powers comic book and then I saw some of the Fourth World creations he did and loved it. I started reading his Marvel stuff in the the late 80's/ early 90's when some of his most famous stories were reprinted in milestone issues.

I heard so many stories as how many of the 70's and 80's staff of writers, artists, editors and inkers at Marvel and DC didn't like Kirby's artwork at all, calling him Hack Kirby behind his back. DC editors in particular didn't like the way he drew Superman and his cast of characters. They felt that Superman could only have the look that guys like Curt Swan had established and that the way Kirby drew his face was disturbing. They had other artists like Neal Adams and Gil Kane re-draw Superman face on the books he did.

His impact in the business is bigger than anyone else in my opinion. Stan Lee is up there with him, but Kirby's imagination in his art is what gave the visuals of the characters we still see today.
To be fair, Kirby's faces were pretty ugly. It's like he learned facial anatomy from studying neanderthals. In certain contexts and with certain inkers, it worked. Other times? Not so much. I get why DC might have been a little protective when it came to their flagship character.
Old 08-30-17, 08:29 AM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Originally Posted by Red Hood
They had other artists like Neal Adams and Gil Kane re-draw Superman face on the books he did.
You can really tell on the Jimmy Olsen covers.
Old 08-31-17, 06:23 AM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Originally Posted by Red Hood
They had other artists like Neal Adams and Gil Kane re-draw Superman face on the books he did.
My recollection is Murphy Anderson & Al Plastino. IIRC, Neal Adams inked some covers and probably redrew faces there.

From a quick image search:


And not just Superman:


Let's hire Kirby and then publish work that doesn't look like Kirby. Makes no sense, Carmine.
Old 08-31-17, 06:57 AM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Kirby wasn't the only one having his faces redrawn. It was more about Superman than it was about Kirby. And it's not like John Romita wasn't doing the same thing to a certain extent at Marvel.
Old 08-31-17, 09:43 AM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

I started reading Marvel Comics in the summer of 1965 and Kirby's work was fantastic, a real revelation. Marvel Comics was the anime of its time. I even made a film in college where I filmed the images from a Fantastic Four comic (#51: This Man, This Monster) and added voices, sound FX and music. I've been meaning to post it on YouTube but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I was in Midtown Comics yesterday and found a series called True Believers #1, reprints of the first issues or first stories of multiple Kirby-created characters, including Captain America, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Thor and Ant-Man and Wasp. They were $1 each, so I bought them all. Then I saw a card advertising an exhibition devoted to his centennial down at the Jack Kirby Museum, the last day being August 30, so I had only a few hours left to see it, so downtown I went.

They had biographical text positioned around the walls along with reproductions of covers and drawings and photos of Kirby and associates. I didn't notice any original drawings, although there may have been a few. There wasn't a lot of material, but it is a small place. Here are some pix:











Plus a cover from one of the True Believers series:


Last edited by Ash Ketchum; 08-31-17 at 09:55 AM.
Old 08-31-17, 10:44 AM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Originally Posted by rw2516
Fantastic Four #44-93 are still my all time favorite books.
It's one of the greatest runs in comics. I bought them all digitally in the Amazon blowout to make them easy to revisit.

Originally Posted by Preterite
I've become addicted to the big $2 dealers at C2E2, and I've picked up a lot of great reading copies of terrific books that way. One of my finds from a few years back was Thor Annual #4, which reprints Thor #131-132. I was never much of a Thor fan, but this book has completely turned me around.

It's glorious Kirby insanity.

A big-headed alien chick claims the Earth in the name of her race. She insists that no one can withstand the might of her mental power. Thor says, "Fuck you, I'm Thor!" and kicks her ass. Then she says while Thor may have beaten her, no one can stand up to the might of her battle cruiser. Thor says, "Fuck you, I'm Thor!" and kicks the battle cruiser's ass. Then she says that while Thor may have beaten her battle cruiser, no one can stand up to the indestructible robot her people have sent to defeat him. Thor says, "Fuck you, I'm Thor!" and kicks the robot's ass. Then she says that while Thor may have beaten the robot, her planet will still eventually overcome him. Thor says, "Fuck you, I'm Thor!" and forces her to drive him to her home planet. On the way there, Thor discovers Ego, the Living Planet in a LSD-OMG-turn-on-the-black-light final page and the annual ends.

I hunted down a softcover copy of Thor Marvel Masterworks #5 to get the rest of the story. I think tonight I'll finally get around to reading it.
Old 08-31-17, 04:25 PM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

Originally Posted by Ash Ketchum
I started reading Marvel Comics in the summer of 1965 and Kirby's work was fantastic, a real revelation.
We started right about the same time. September 1965 I was 7. Was with my dad at the drug store and discovered the spinner rack. I was fascinated by them. He let me get four, an even 50 cents with tax. All had Nov/Dec cover dates. FF #45, TTA #73, JIM/Thor #121 and Mystery in Space #102.

The first one I read was FF #45. At first I was confused because it started in the middle of the story. I got to the end and it was a cliffhanger "to be continued". I quickly figured out that these things were numbered and had a cover date. To get the whole story you bought the next one each month. I thought that was the neatest concept ever. I was hooked for life.

About a week later Lost in Space premiered on CBS. I was watching the very first episode and at the end, "To Be Continued Next Week" happened. I thought "Wow! Just like the comics!"

A few months later Batman premiered. Again, "Tune in Tomorrow!"

Ever since I've been fascinated by things that come in a series or sets.
Old 04-11-18, 08:49 AM
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Re: Happy 100th birthday Jack Kirby!

I would definitely consider myself a Jack Kirby fan. My earliest memories of his comics were going to a Kay-bee toy store in the late '70's/very early '80's & getting some back issues of Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth. Even at the time, I thought it was odd that a toy store was selling comic books.

I also have fond memories of getting the reprint line of The New Gods printed on the high quality paper, in the then-new direct market stores - circa Fall 1984. Great stuff - especially since I hadn't read these when they were first released (too young).

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