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August 28, 2006
Celebrate King Kirby's Birthday
Today should be declared a national holiday for comic-book fans: it's Jack Kirby's birthday! He would have been 89 years old today (thanks to Newsarama Blog for the info). Funny enough, when I was a kid, I really didn't care for Kirby's artwork or writing. I much preferred Neal Adams drawing Superman, John Buscema on Silver Surfer, or John Romita Sr. on Captain America. Only in my 20s did I gather an appreciation for his incredible artistic style and his unlimited imagination. Now my Kirby mania has extended to all my computer names (Silver Surfer, Black Bolt, Lightray, Metreon, Galactus) as well as this new domain name I've registered (www.attilan.com, more on that later). This particular cover on Fantastic Four #72 has one of my favorite Silver Surfer images.
Having started reading Marvel Comics in 1970, I was mystified by the DC house ads that announced "The King Is Coming!" The New Gods were unlike anything I'd ever read on the comic book newsstands. I didn't really know what to make of it. One concept I really dug was "The Black Racer", a harbinger of death who arrives on flying skis. His touch can kill even a New God. When he's not killing people, he lies comatose in a hospital ward as Sergeant Willie Walker. It was Kirby's contribution to the blaxploitation era, but it was really far out. In many ways, Grant Morrison reminds of me of Kirby, with his wild imagination and out of the box concepts.
Kirby returned to Marvel in the late 70s after his DC contract was terminated. He resisted returning to any of his old characters, except for Captain America, he did grace a number of Marvel covers. This particular cover to Iron Man #80 had a wonderful depiction of Tony Stark in outer space--I think I bought the issue just for this image. I was terribly disappointed with the same old George Tuska art inside--how could anything match a Kirby cover!
Celebrate King Kirby's birthday. Dig out his old comics and read them. Or better yet, create something original. Nuff said.
