Kirby Comics

Upcoming Kirby

2007-05-18T17:17:00.001-04:00

Was cleaning up a few things on the old site, and figured since I still get a fair level of traffic here thanks to old links and search engines I'd quickly mention that Mark Evanier has a coffee-table style artbook on Kirby coming out this fall, KIRBY: KING OF COMICS. This is not the comprehensive biography he's long promised, that is still in progress and will follow in a few years, but an art-heavy book designed to appeal to both established and casual fans.

As always, check the new home of the Kirby Weblog for updates and more details. It's a big year for Kirby reprints (massive hardcovers of the heart of the FF run and most of the Fourth World will be available by years end, plus a lot more).

And So It Begins...

2006-04-05T06:24:00.000-04:00

Come on, no one ever dies forever in comics....

Thanks to the kind invitation of Randolph Hoppe, the Jack Kirby Comics Weblog will now be hosted by The Jack Kirby Museum. So I guess I can call it "The Official Kirby Weblog" now. Hopefully this will bring more traffic to both the weblog and the museum site (and there are some big plans for that site). There'll be some changes, as I figure out WordPress and the options it provides, but for the most part more of the same, an almost daily dose of Kirby from his long career (actually, I was just curious and it looks like I've posted about 590 Kirby publications in 566 days, so I slightly beat the daily goal I set for myself, though I did have to resort to a lot of covers to fill in the fallow times).

I'll probably pop by here for the next little while to post the occasional reminder and update, and leave the archives here for posterity (although old posts and comments have been imported to the new site, and I'll be upgrading some of the earlier scans over time). And a tip of the hat to Blogger/BlogSpot (still the home of my other two weblogs) for a year and a half of remarkably solid performance for a free service. I highly recommend it if you want to start a weblog of your own. Also to PhotoBucket and ImageShack for image hosting.

And thanks to everyone who read, linked, e-mailed and commented, and I hope to see you all at the new digs. Update your bookmarks and links to:

http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby/

The Destiny of Blog and Man Alike

2006-04-05T00:38:00.000-04:00

This might be my favourite Kirby page from Marvel in the 1960s. So much so I don't have the heart to tamper with the lettering.

That's the last one, I promise. Announcement (which some of you have figured out, in general terms at least) later today.

Hi No Tori

2006-04-04T20:31:00.000-04:00

as the Japanese say.

Hey, did I hear right, someone decided to bring Bucky back? Funny, that...

Did you ever notice...

2006-04-04T12:33:00.000-04:00

...the more pre-hyped a death in comics is, the less permanent it's likely to be?

I have.

BUCKY!!!!

2006-04-03T22:56:00.000-04:00

R.I.P. Bucky Barnes. ::sniff::

Odin hath spoketh...

2006-04-02T21:18:00.000-04:00

Epilogue

2006-04-02T12:13:00.000-04:00

In the final analysis...

2006-04-01T19:36:00.000-05:00

The Word From High Is...

2006-04-01T13:07:00.000-05:00

Not an April Fool's Day prank!

It is written that this month, a "weblog" must die!

The Black Racer is riding! Who will feel his touch?

Next Issue -- A Weblog Dies!!!

2006-03-31T21:50:00.000-05:00

Stay tuned, true believers!

Just when you thought it was safe...

2006-03-29T12:31:00.000-05:00

Strange Tales #129 - Cover

2006-03-28T23:52:00.000-05:00

Surprisingly, I really like Chic Stone's inks on the Thing on this cover. I usually think his Thing inking is the weakest part of his FF inks from this era, but on this example (and a lot of the other covers) it seems to work better. Good cover overall, not the greatest villains ever, but the layout gives even them a nice sense of menace. I also really like the sense of depth Kirby gives the layouts.

Published 1965

--Link-- Spirit World review

2006-03-27T20:58:00.000-05:00

Steve Thompson takes a look at Jack Kirby's SPIRIT WORLD, one of the two black and white (or blue and white in this case) magazines that DC released in the early 1970s.

http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2006/03/jack-kirbys-spirit-world.html

Champion Comics #9 - Cover

2006-03-27T18:17:00.000-05:00

Dated July 1940 CHAMPION COMICS #9 from Harvey features Duke O'Dowd as the Human Meteor. More importantly, it has the distinction of being the first Jack Kirby penciled cover (when it was reprinted in THE COMPLETE JACK KIRBY v1 Greg Theakston described it as "mostly penciled by Kirby") and tied with BLUE BOLT #2 from Novelty Press as his first collaboration with Joe Simon, who inked this cover.

It's a nice dynamic piece, very open and clear, you can already see hints of the later trademark S&K style of clothing folds and muscles.

Published 1940

Journey Into Mystery #92 - Cover

2006-03-26T00:04:00.000-05:00

Another Thor cover from before Kirby took over the interiors for the series full-time. I always like the way Kirby poses Loki, always very confident and sinister.

The Kirby Checklist credits this one to George Roussos, but I'm not sure about that one. I'm going to have to compare it to some other Roussos from the period.

Published 1963

Stupid question

2006-03-25T01:52:00.000-05:00

Was Fin Fang Foom coloured orange or green in the first printing of his story in STRANGE TALES #89? I know he's green on the cover, but can anyone confirm the interior?

Showcase Presents The House of Mystery #1 - The Negative Man

2006-03-24T21:06:00.000-05:00

First published in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #84 [1959], then reprinted in HOUSE OF MYSTERY #194 [1971], now the 8-page "The Negative Man" is reprinted in SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1, along with 538 other pages of comics from the first 21 issues of the series edited by Joe Orlando from 1968 to 1971.

In this story, two scientists build a miniature town to test their power transmission through radio waves device. A loose watch straps makes all the energy go through one of the men, creating a negative energy duplicate of him.

The negative being goes on a rampage, until the original scientist plans to sacrifice himself to destroy it. Fortunately for him, what he didn't know was the secret of the negative being which made it afraid of him.

I really like what I've read of the Kirby stories from DC in this period, and it looks really sharp in this book (except for the enlarged gutters they would put in reprints back in the early 1970s). That first panel in the scan is just really evocative and does a great job of capturing movement on a comic page.

Great book overall, too, maybe my favourite book in DC's new SHOWCASE PRESENTS line so far, thanks to the sheer variety of great artists from that era, with much better reproduction than the stories got the first time around.

Published 2006

My Own Romance #75 - Cover

2006-03-23T22:56:00.000-05:00

I think there was some rule that said Kirby had to do at least one artist/model themed romance cover for every publisher he did romance comics for. This is the one from Marvel, featuring a very leggy model making a play for the artist in the background, who seems to fill his studio with a lot of sexy women. What would Roz have thought if Kirby tried that?

Inked by Colletta.

Published 1960

Thor #253 - Cover

2006-03-22T23:28:00.000-05:00

Another of Kirby's many covers for various Marvel books in the mid-1970s, this one inked by John Verpoorten with some Romita credited as well. Ulik is a pretty cool villain from the 1960s, so it's good to see him again, epecially with those crazy eyes. And the good old "ominous shadow" layout is nice, especially with that texture on the rocky surface.

Published 1976

New Kirby - Marvel Visionaries Jack Kirby v2

2006-03-22T12:34:00.000-05:00

Shipping to comic stores this week is MARVEL VISIONARIES - JACK KIRBY v2, almost 350 pages of Kirby reprints, some never seen since their original publication. Contains selections from:

Captain America Comics #1; Marvel Mystery Comics #23; Yellow Claw #4; Strange Tales #89, 114; Two-Gun Kid #60; Love Romances #103; X-Men #9; Tales of Suspense #59; Sgt. Fury #13; Fantastic Four #57-60; Not Brand Echh #1; Thor #154-157; Devil Dinosaur #1.

My impression of the choice of contents was posted here.

--Link-- Self promotion

2006-03-21T23:32:00.000-05:00

Yeah, linking to my own other weblog, how gauche.

Inspired by comments on a recent post, I've started a little gallery of creators being credited on comic book covers prior to 1980. Of course, most of the examples I know off-hand are Kirby (Don't Ask! Just Buy It!) and S&K, but there are some other interesting ones. Let me know about the many I probably missed.

http://fourrealities.blogspot.com/2006/03/credits-on-comic-book-covers.html

Mister Miracle #17 - Murder Lodge

2006-03-21T13:39:00.000-05:00

Scott, Barda and Shilo stop by an out-of-the-way lodge while their car is being repaired, and it turns out to be filled with death-traps, trick-beds that flip you into trap doors and the like. Fortunately, while Scott and Barda are caught unawares, Shilo manages to escape the traps and use some of the training he's gotten from Scott and Barda to rescue them.

Then it gets weird as we find out the intended targets of the trap were "The Tricky Trio", mobsters who look a lot like out heroes, so Scott&Co. have to take out both the innkeeper (who makes a business of offering sanctuary to criminals on the run and then double-crossing them) and their doppelgangers before calling in the police.

A nice diversion, the series was mostly treading water for a few issues right before the end, and I thought having Scott and Barda getting taken so easily was a kind of transparent excuse to give Shilo the spotlight, but otherwise it has some good bits, in particular the weird twist with the doppelgangers.

Mike Royer inks the cover and 20-page story.

Published 1974

Marvel Two-In-One #25 - Cover

2006-03-20T22:45:00.000-05:00

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #25, 1977. Inked by Joe Sinnott. Great to see a few more Kirby Thing drawings on these TWO-IN-ONE covers. That was always one of his defining characters, and is fun to see him with all those other mostly non-Kirby characters he was teamed with.

I have to say, though, that's some awkward positioning on the rope bridge, with Fist and Ben having their legs crossing. I do like the Kirby flames, with the obligatory crackling energy bits.

Upcoming Kirby - The Artist Within

2006-03-20T09:37:00.000-05:00

Thought this would be worth at least a mention, although obviously the Kirby is only 1% of the book. He is there on the cover, though.

THE ARTIST WITHIN hardcover
by Greg Preston

The culmination of more than fifteen years of photography by renowned photographer Greg Preston, this book is a living history of the men and women who have shaped the imaginations of countless millions of people around the world through their work in the fields of animated cartoons, comic books, comic strips, and editorial cartooning. The list of artists includes such luminaries as Frank Miller, Al Hirschfeld, Joe Barbera, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Moebius, Walter and Louise Simonson, and many more, all in photographs exclusive and shot expressly for this book.

Publication Date: Jul 12, 2006
Format: Hard cover, 216 pages, b&w, 100 photographs, 100 illustrations, 12 1/2" x 11 1/2"
Price: $39.95
ISBN: 1-59307-561-8