Featured

Jack Kirby...All Hail to the King

There are many talented artist/writers in the comic book industry, and they deserve their due praise for bringing us the stories, characters, adventures we enjoy still today. But one name stands out in that crowd. One creator that truly deserves the title "The King of Comics"….and that's Jack Kirby.

When you look at the feature films like the Avengers, Captain America, Ant-Man, or even the upcoming Black Panther movie that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is pumping out one thing they have in common is that Jack Kirby created or Co-Created many of the superheroes you see in them. Some people accuse Stan Lee of merely riding Jack's coat tails. They say that Lee didn't do much at all but edit. Personally I don't believe that. You can easily tell the difference in style of writing when you read a book that Kirby wrote as well as drew from one that Stan did. But that doesn't take away from Jack.

The man was a powerhouse when it came to production. Mark Evanier, who worked for Marvel Comics in the Silver Age, has said that Kirby could crank out 20 pages a week. This was before any computers or digital artwork could be done…he did it by hand. That's why Jack Kirby is our Featured 'tooner in this issue. Let's take a look at some of the characters he's created.

Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created Captain America in 1941. It would be a long list to document all of Kirby's work until the Silver Age, but when he got there he also co-created Ant-Man, and Iron Man, Hulk and Thor. When all of them combined to form the Avengers Kirby was part of that team too.

Of course Kirby is well known for co-creating Marvel's Fantastic Four. While Marvel has ceased publishing the FF for the time being (over a dispute with Sony Studios over movie rights), the Fantastic Four are one of the most popular superhero teams in comics. That is almost certainly due to Kirby's artwork and imagination. Using the "Marvel Method" Stan Lee would give Jack an outline of what would happen in a story, Jack would draw it, adding his touches and Lee would later write the dialogue to match the images. It sounds crazy, but it worked….and with Stan Lee during his tenure on the Fantastic Four Kirby is responsible for co-creating the characters of Galactus, devourer or worlds, the Silver Surfer, Black Bolt and the Inhumans, The Black Panther and the ultimate villain, Doctor Doom. These are characters that still are mainstays in the Marvel Universe and many of them have been featured on Marvel's TV shows like "Agents of SHIELD", and the feature films. The Black Panther is to appear in his own Feature Film in 2017. (The Panther seems to have been one of Jack's favorites. He created a successful run of his comic book in the late 70's where the Panther aided archeological treasure hunters in a science-fiction, Indiana Jones type adventure….years before Raiders of the Lost Ark)

Not limiting himself to work for Marvel only, Jack Kirby also produced many works for DC Comics in the Silver Age. Starting off originally in Jimmy Olsen magazine, Kirby introduced the Forever People and the Fourth World stories. The protagonist of those stories, Darkseid is currently a popular major enemy of Superman. Kirby's knack for creating awe-inspiring, grandiose characters and weird settings also gave us characters like Etrigan the Demon, the post-apocalyptic world of Kamandi, and Mister Miracle. He did further work for Marvel writing and drawing Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur and the Eternals. He also created Captain Victory for the now defunct Pacific Comics. In truth there are many other Kirby works, too many to mention here. Luckily most can be found in collections which you can search for on this link to Amazon.

There is one other thing Kirby is responsible for…Kirby Dots. The overlapping circles used in art to convey energy and power. Kirby started it, and many artists use it. When you have an entire method of portraying something named after you, you've earned the title, The King of Comics.

All images used are properties and trademarks of Marvel Comics©and DC Comics™