What I’m Reading, Part 4 (The King)
Thursday, January 10th, 2008Okay, I’m going to start this post off with a shocking revelation: When I was a kid I wasn’t a fan of Jack Kirby. In my defense, he was just a little bit before my time so most of my exposure to him was in reprints, but that’s not much of a defense.
One of the coolest presents I got for Christmas was some copies of the really nice Marvel Masterworks books that Marvel has been publishing for quite awhile now. They were always a little pricey for me to buy for myself, but as Christmas presents, they kick butt! I got the first couple copies of the X-Men, and the first couple copies of the Fantastic Four. I’d read, or was familiar with, a lot of the stories already, but to read them all together on really nice paper with nice bright colors, they’re beyond awesome.
So back to King Kirby, as a kid I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Better late than never, right? Looking at his work now that I’ve got a little perspective on it, I realize how truly great a storyteller he was. Somehow he manages to draw all these dynamic figures leaping and flying all around but it’s always in service to the story. I’m never ever unclear about what’s happening. It’s a very bold contrast with a lot of superhero comics I’ve seen where the characters look like they’re posing, or just jumping around and I have absolutely no clue what’s going on, sometimes even after I’ve read the story.
Now I’ve always known that Kirby was the foundation for almost a whole generation of comics artists. I think one of my favorite artists, Barry Windsor Smith, started out his work at Marvel trying to emulate Kirby’s style before developing his own elegant look. It’s great that they’ve got these Masterworks books because it feels a bit like I’m discovering The King for the first time. When I was a kid I always wanted to draw comics for Marvel. I kind of feel that way again.
Any advice or suggestions would be totally welcome. If you don’t want to leave a comment, send me an email. I’d totally appreciate it.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I don’t have any specific suggestions, other than almost all of his stuff is good, in my opinion. I’ve been trying to collect the stuff from the 70′s I used to have but sold at some point. I had all of the DC stuff – New Gods, Forever People, Jimmy Olsen (first appearance of Darkseid!), Demon, Kamandi – and the Marvel stuff – Captain America, Black Panther, Eternals, Machine Man. Also, The independent ones, like Captain Victory and Silver Star. Many of these now come in TP form. For instance, you can get JK’s Forth World Omnibus volumes 1-3, with 4 coming out soon. It has all the New Gods/FP/Mr. Miracle/JO story arc in it. Great stuff. I got Silver Star and Devil Dinosaur from Amazon as well. You might like Devil Dinosaur, because it was aimed at being turned into a Saturday morning cartoon show (thus aimed more at ‘kids’). Even so, it’s not “dumbed down” at all. I loved Kamandi, but they only have 2 reprint books out so far. And OMAC is coming out soon. IIRC from ComicCon, they plan on release most all of his stuff in TP form.
If you have a decent comic store somewhere close, you might be able to pick up some of these series in the original form, and except for the first few issues, probably won’t cost too much. I’ve seen some of them on eBay. Of course, the FF masterworks are about $20 in a TP, and I think 5 of them cover most of Kirby’s run (1-103, at the time, the longest run of a single artist/team on a book).
Do avoid the 1990′s stuff that others tried to do, like from his drawings or whatever. Things like Galactic Bountyhunters, or Satan’s Six only had a smattering of his work, and were not well done otherwise.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I would have to add a suggestion to grab Kirby’s earlier work. For instance, some of his monster stories for Timely are out in TPB form. I’d also suggest Boy’s Ranch or the 1950s romance stories by Simon & Kirby. If you get a chance, take a look around the Jack Kirby Museum site run by Randy Hoppe. Lots of great Kirby eye candy:
http://kirbymuseum.org/
It’s too bad that DC doesn’t produce their 100 Page Super Spectaculars any more. There was that time in the 1970s when all the titles went to 100 pages (and a price increase). The books would have a new 20 page storiy, and the rest were reprints. It was thru them that I learned about a lot of the early (pre Marvel) Kirby work — and I also first saw work by Bernard Sachs, Lou Fine, Mort Meskin, etc.
January 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Thanks, David. I was just checking out the Fourth World stuff on Amazon. As soon as I can save up some loot, I’ll have to check those out. I completely forgot about Machine Man. I remember liking that one when I was a kid. I know I had a lot of the Captain America’s that Kirby did in the ’70s but just really didn’t like them that much. Next time I’m back home I’ll have to dig around in my Mom’s attic and give those another try.
The FF Masterworks are great. I’m really, REALLY enjoying them. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get all of his run on there. It’s really cool to see how his work gets interpreted by different inkers. Joe Sinnott’s work is so good.
Mike, as usual I am in awe of your knowledge. The Kirby Museum Site is a nice one. I remember reading all the reprinted stuff that would be the second and third story of Giant-Size comics or whatever and just never being that impressed with the artists. Of course, I’d still re-read them over and over. I wish I would have known you back then so you could’ve straightened me out. I’d have been a way smarter person.