Showing posts with label Jack Kirby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Kirby. Show all posts
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Monday, January 19, 2026
Jack Kirby's Memories of New York Tenement Life
A panel from Jack Kirby's late-in-life autobiographical story "Street Code", showing the claustrophobic tenement family room he grew up in, alongside a panel from an early '40s Newsboy Legion story he wrote. Kirby was always drawing upon his life experiences in his work.
Monday, March 31, 2025
Friday, January 10, 2025
Recently Read: Apes and Lasers: The Art of Ian Laser Higginbotham
Apes and Lasers, a collection of art pieces drawn from 2019 to 2024, is a remarkable calling card for this animator and cartoonist's talents. 162 pages of full-color cartoony fantasy, the book features a gallery of caricatured, beautifully drawn protagonists. While most are, I suspect, new creations, some wearing Kirby-tech armor, old standbys make appearances, too: Ninja Turtles, Wolverine, Judge Dredd, Dracula, Nosferatu, Ultraman, Tarzan and more.
Being more of a comic book guy than an animation diehard, I can only guess at Ian's inspirations. I see the quick, busy spontaneity of Mort Drucker and the propulsive action and foreshortening emblematic of the best anime (Hayato Date's work for Naruto comes to mind). Higginbotham's a superior colorist, too, with some backgrounds and color schemes reminding me of Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack. Somewhat contradictorily, these still drawings often have more action and convulsive energy than I see on the screen when watching animation (from any country) and I look forward to some of these creations making their debuts on screens big or small.
The two big takeaways I get from this collection are: extraordinary talent and drawing as fun. As with the best caricaturists, the artist has empathy for these creations in all their splendor - or lack of it - even the villainous-looking and not quite trustworthy among them.
Apes and Lasers and Ian's companion book, F-Yeah Frankenstein, can be purchased at Stuart NG Books: ian higginbotham - Stuart Ng Books
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Recently Read: Kirby & Lee: Stuf' Said, by John Morrow
Publisher, editor and author John Morrow's chronological compendium of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's publicly spoken words concerning their decade-long collaborations is a handy document. It's liberally illustrated with examples of the art processes discussed. It's also a good reference guide for what was said when, even when the later pronouncements become (very) repetitive as both comics creator's memories calcified. Especially insightful (and surprising to me in their depth) was the prodigious number of examples of Lee either passively/aggressively - or just aggressively - denigrating Kirby, Steve Ditko and Wally Wood in the letters pages of Marvel comics. One might believe Lee was, at heart, insecure in his writing skills.
I believe the book does come with some prejudices and presumptions. For example, Ditko is described by Morrow as a "talented artist", disregarding the fact that Ditko was a writer for most of the last fifty years (at least), personally authoring his most important published work during that time. When pages from the Disney Legends program book are reproduced, no mention is made of Kirby being a writer (before, during or after his work at Marvel) - an outrageous designation that gets no pushback from Morrow. Little to no mention is made in Stuf' Said of the plethora of comics Kirby wrote before the Marvel age. Likewise, the same Disney book states that Lee "dreamed up an endless number of new characters and worlds", a boast that is demonstrably untrue. The best evidence to decide the verdict Morrow could have presented (but didn't) is Dr. Michael J. Vassallo's definitive essay detailing everything Lee wrote before he teamed up with Kirby (and Ditko): "Stan Lee (1922-2018) - The Timely Years". It's a damning document that makes clear Lee did not create the cosmic concepts Kirby had already been creating since the early '40s (if not earlier). https://timely-atlas-comics.blogspot.com/2018/12/stan-lee-1922-2018-timely-years.html
Lastly, the book's cover, with psychedelic Captain Victory art blown up out of context and covered with large digital fonts, is ugly. While conveying some of the anger expressed by Kirby, the cover could have looked more welcoming and it's noteworthy that nowhere is the book's designer listed.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Recently Read: Jack Kirby's Dingbat Love
TwoMorrow Publishing's book Jack Kirby's Dingbat Love is an historic event, the last collection of previously unpublished 1970s Jack Kirby stories which will ever be published. Comprising stories from the cancelled magazines True-Life Divorce and Soul Love, along with two Dingbats of Danger Street stories, the book confirms (if it was ever in doubt) that the DC editorial hierarchy had no idea what they possessed in the hiring and in the talents of Jack Kirby. Characters he created then which were shortly cancelled live on nearly half a century later in movies, comic books, TV shows and toys.
Kirby's initial early '70s conception for a line of slick, ad-selling genre magazines, which also would contain comics (not all by him) was scaled down by DC into B&W, pulp paper mags with Kirby doing all the writing and art - only two of which were ever published, and then promptly cancelled. Dingbat Love (couldn't TwoMorrows have thought of a better title?) prints all the existing romance stories Kirby wrote and drew for True Life Divorce and Soul Love, in all their various stages of completion. These stories were created by the man who created the genre in comics nearly a quarter of a century earlier, and these more adult tales are explosive, dynamic and inherently compelling, every one of them. Only some dry and unnecessary narration/forwards threaten to impede the greatness of these.
The Dingbat stories, continuing both Kirby's long line of kid gang comics (dating back to 1942) and, specifically, the introduction of Dingbats of Danger Street in 1st Issue Special No. 6, are likewise fun, giving origin stories for two of the gang's members, Krunch and Good Looks. These are top-of-his-game Kirby efforts, beautifully inked by Mike Royer and D. Bruce Berry. While it's sad to know, while reading them, that these are the last '70s Kirby stories we'll ever experience, the presentation and superior printing give them a more than respectful send-off.
The collection is also packed with extras: fold out pages for the two-page spreads, essays by John Morrow, Mark Evanier, Jerry Boyd and Steve Sherman, new painting for the cover of Soul Love by Alex Ross, new coloring by Tom Ziuko, rare advertising and page mock-ups for the books and more. Highly recommended.
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Recently Read: Cozmic Taco Volume 1, by Joseph Morris
Joseph Morris' Cozmic Taco Vol. 1 features nearly 200 pages of some of the best and most fun cartooning being produced today. Taco is only one of the strips Morris has written and drawn over many years and its influences are wonderfully apparent, some of which are: David Lynch, Vaughn Bodē, Jack Kirby, Buddhist philosophy, H.P. Lovecraft and the early 20th century works of Floyd Gottfredson, E.C. Segar and the Fleischer brothers.
This shouldn't imply that Morris isn't his own artist. The collection, encompassing several full-length stories and various shorts and ruminations, are personal, even autobiographical, both cosmic and intimate, whimsical and at the same time profound. The variety of characters (some pulled in from some of his other projects, Quixote Coyote and the Dolphin Bros) are drawn in an imaginative, seemingly carefree style, useful for fast efficiency and emotional expression. Like the best cartoonists, you can practically feel the emotions and energy of the creator drawing the work on the page.
Like all Morris' work, this collection is highly recommended.
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Saturday, December 10, 2022
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Monday, November 14, 2022
Recently Read: Fantastic Four: Full Circle, by Alex Ross
Alex Ross finally gets the opportunity to write and draw classic Marvel characters in Fantastic Four: Full Circle, an oversized, hardbound production from Marvel and Abrams. A sequel to the classic "This Man, This Monster" published in 1966 in The Fantastic Four No. 51, Full Circle finds the FF journeying back into the Negative Zone, a dimension which allows Ross to indulge in trippy, psychedelic visuals. Using a more ink-based art style here, with experimental color palettes, the book has a unique and visionary feel.
Though it doesn't have the cohesiveness or poignancy of Kirby and Lee's original story, it does lay the groundwork for future story ideas to be exploited, and consistently pays heartfelt homage to a stupendous time in cartooning history.
Along with Barry Windsor-Smith's recent Monsters graphic novel (originally proposed as a Hulk story), Full Circle confirms (again) that there's much to be gained by mainstream publishers allowing top-notch cartoonists to create their own stories using the publisher's properties. Steve Rude, long left out in the cold, is another amazing talent Marvel could invite in for project or two.
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Recently Read: Golden Age Captain America Vol. 4
Speaking of Lee, his "whimsical" series The Imp, he who lives in an ear, is plain unreadable. The series is fleshed out with the stories of a kid superhero, the U.S. war bond and stamp-selling Secret Stamp. It's enjoyable as an example of rousing WWII propaganda.
Golden Age Captain America Comics Vol. 4 has little redeeming or incidental qualities in terms of storytelling, as Simon and Kirby's issues did. As such, it's mainly for completists or those interested in the day-to-day, average product of Timely at the time.
Friday, April 29, 2022
R.I.P. Neal Adams
Adams was not only a great cartoonist, but an important defender of cartoonist's rights.
Friday, April 22, 2022
Sunday, February 20, 2022
Friday, February 4, 2022
Recently Read: The Newsboy Legion, Vol. 1, by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon
The Newsboy Legion, created in 1942 for DC, may not be one of Jack Kirby's greatest comic book series (though don't count that out), but it's surely one of his most personal. The Legion are a kid gang trying to survive in a rotting tenement neighborhood called Suicide Slum, selling newspapers and trying to avoid mob activity as Kirby himself did growing up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Like the Legion, Kirby found camaraderie and support in a local boy's club (which still exists today) and the exploits of Tommy, Scrapper, Gabby and "Big Woids", juvenile delinquents under threat of being sent to reform school, were pure Kirby; he knew this world. The idealized figure of "copper" and advocate Jim Harper/The Guardian, an adult and part-time vigilante who not only cares about the kids but actively argues in court to protect them, has a poignancy that still resonates eighty years later. Kirby loved these characters so much, he brought descendants of the group back in the first issue he created of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, when Kirby returned to DC in 1970.
Unlike his other WWII kid gang series for DC, the Boy Commandos, which could whimsically swerve into science fiction, the Newsboy Legion is grounded in the streets and a world of poverty (one scene of a sick lady in bed takes place in a run-down room quite like the one Kirby and his family lived in), though one story imagines what New York would be like if the Nazis took control of it (a real threat when these stories were being written and drawn).
The Newsboy Legion Vol. 1 covers half of the Legion stories created in the '40s. They're printed on wonderfully non-glare paper and, if slightly too dark in places, are perfectly readable. Kirby was drafted into the U.S. Army about halfway through the volume, and so the last stories in the volume reflect the inventory Kirby and partner Joe Simon were tasked by DC with creating, knowing that WWII drafting was imminent. Kirby has only partial involvement with the last story he draws in the book and a still awkward and green Gil Kane takes over for the last two stories. Vol. II continues with stories drawn by Kane, Joe Kubert and others until Kirby returned from the warfront.
Sunday, November 21, 2021
Recently Read: Golden Age Captain America Vol. 2
As with Vol. 1, Golden Age Captain America Vol. 2, reprinting issues 5-8, pairs Jack Kirby penciled stories with various and lackluster backup series (the most ludicrous being the scythe-bearing Father Time, who stops crime in the nick of..you know). As the issues progress, Kirby's attention (or the time he had to devote to the stories) begins to diminish. He's most strong on the book's covers and especially the splash pages and story openings (including at least two double-page spreads) which are expansively cinematic in nature, and utilize more careful, elaborate inking. Though the stories are often rote, some single images powerful in their nascent form stand out. A full-page diorama drawing of a submarine shaped like a sea-dragon could be mistaken for a page from Nick Fury, Agent of Shield twenty-five years later. In the book's first tale, "Captain America and the Ringmaster of Death" (the Ringmaster being one of two Marvel villains of the same name and temperament), Cap is knocked unconscious, his head banging into a brick wall. The fury shown in his bruised and battered face when he awakens ("Captain America's eyes gleam with a strange light. His face muscles tighten as his words hiss from between his bared teeth") is a prototype of Kirby's 1970s Orion, when his Apokoliptean nature takes hold. Kirby was at his best when he tapped into his own real emotions and I'm feelin' it here.
Monday, November 8, 2021
Jack Kirby's Balletic Violence
Jack Kirby was known in the '60s and '70s for breaking down pages into six panels of balletic, propulsive action/violence. Here's an early template for the method (maybe the first example) from 1941. So much of what Kirby did later in his career was there in nascent form right from the beginning.
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