August 28th, Jack Kirby's birthday. It should be a national holiday.
Showing posts with label Jack Kirby Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Kirby Day. Show all posts
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Friday, August 30, 2013
Fantastic Four #29: It's not just Yancy Street that needs help!
Yancy Street is in a bad way, with young hoodlums tossing garbage at our friends, the Fantastic Four. The heroes have only come to help. This is how it begins on Yancy Street, but before it's over the FF have wandered all the way to the moon where they fight cosmonaut apes produced by the dastardly Red Ghost, a dome-headed, long-haired mad scientist of the Commie persuasion. More important than that to Marvel history, it's in Fantastic Four #29 (August 1964) our adventuresome quartet meets the Watcher, who has a dome head of his own.
It doesn't take the ever-curious Reed Richards to run afoul of the Watcher's outlandishly futuristic devices, the likes of which no sane species would create outside of a Marvel comic. Like this little baby:
Whoops! Turn that off right now, Reed! Is it just me, or does the Watcher look like Orson Welles with a shaved head in the first panel?
Sorry. Forget that noise. Look at how Jack Kirby views the future of human evolution in the third frame. Since our brains are responsible for most of what we've accomplished, they will enlarge along with our skulls-- and our ears? It's a little throwaway gag to establish how far above humanity the Watcher and his people are. And it's just like Reed to pick something up out of scientific curiosity and activate it, damn the consequences.
But no, it's not Yancy Street that needs your help. Comic creators do, too. That's why I finally got off my butt and donated to the Heroes Initiative in the name of Kirby4Heroes, the fund-raising campaign run by Jack Kirby's granddaughter Jillian, who explains it in this video courtesy of Nerdist.
What I did-- and I still don't think it was nearly enough-- was donate a bit more than the amount I've spent this year on Fantastic Four comics at the Comixology site. Comixology sells them for 1.99, and as far as I know, the Kirbys get nothing from this. So while it's well and good to honor Jack Kirby's accomplishments and legacy by reading his works, I felt I really needed to do something for the campaign run by an actual Kirby to help Hero Initiative aid artists and writers whose stories I've also enjoyed. People like John Ostrander, Bill Mantlo and one of my super-faves, Russ Heath. This is going to be an annual thing for me from now on, every August 28th.
It doesn't take the ever-curious Reed Richards to run afoul of the Watcher's outlandishly futuristic devices, the likes of which no sane species would create outside of a Marvel comic. Like this little baby:
Whoops! Turn that off right now, Reed! Is it just me, or does the Watcher look like Orson Welles with a shaved head in the first panel?
Sorry. Forget that noise. Look at how Jack Kirby views the future of human evolution in the third frame. Since our brains are responsible for most of what we've accomplished, they will enlarge along with our skulls-- and our ears? It's a little throwaway gag to establish how far above humanity the Watcher and his people are. And it's just like Reed to pick something up out of scientific curiosity and activate it, damn the consequences.
But no, it's not Yancy Street that needs your help. Comic creators do, too. That's why I finally got off my butt and donated to the Heroes Initiative in the name of Kirby4Heroes, the fund-raising campaign run by Jack Kirby's granddaughter Jillian, who explains it in this video courtesy of Nerdist.
What I did-- and I still don't think it was nearly enough-- was donate a bit more than the amount I've spent this year on Fantastic Four comics at the Comixology site. Comixology sells them for 1.99, and as far as I know, the Kirbys get nothing from this. So while it's well and good to honor Jack Kirby's accomplishments and legacy by reading his works, I felt I really needed to do something for the campaign run by an actual Kirby to help Hero Initiative aid artists and writers whose stories I've also enjoyed. People like John Ostrander, Bill Mantlo and one of my super-faves, Russ Heath. This is going to be an annual thing for me from now on, every August 28th.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
So how did you spend your Jack Kirby Day?
Maybe this has been building for a while and I'm just now noticing it, but it seems there was a lot more Jack Kirby celebration this week than in the past. This isn't timely merely because it would have been his 96th birthday. Currently, the Kirby influence rules at the box office where movies featuring his creations are all the rage. This is why it is important now more than ever to make sure people recognize the guy who made all this entertainment possible, the mighty creative mind and spirit that willed this into existence. It's the least we can do as fans of his work when it looks as if his family will not share even in a small way in the billions of dollars Kirby has earned for media corporations that jerked him around.
But let's not give into bitterness. Let's take a little look at the festivities instead and honor our favorite comic book creator! Here goes...
Time ran a nice appreciation of Kirby online last week (avoid the comments after the first two, though), this week MTV celebrated his work and even the A.V. Club website added a "beginner's guide to the King of Comics, Jack Kirby." I'd love to link you to those, but I'm writing this at work and I can only dare so much.
My Facebook feed lit up with Kirby messages. The best, I think, was and is the Kirby4Heroes Hero Initiative campaign. Run by Kirby's family, this organization posted some of his art and asked comic book readers to donate to the Hero Initiative. The charity drive also featured something called "Wake Up and Draw," where pros woke up and drew a lot of wonderful Kirby-inspired art.
Which I admit I have not done, but I will as soon as I get home tonight. Despite this deplorable lapse on my part, the outpouring of Kirby love was a joy to witness. Of course, my sudden realization here is more than likely a case of confirmation bias, since I recently added a lot of pro-Kirby feeds to my social media. It stands to reason they'd be popping on August 28th.
On this blog, just about every day is Jack Kirby Day.
But let's not give into bitterness. Let's take a little look at the festivities instead and honor our favorite comic book creator! Here goes...
Time ran a nice appreciation of Kirby online last week (avoid the comments after the first two, though), this week MTV celebrated his work and even the A.V. Club website added a "beginner's guide to the King of Comics, Jack Kirby." I'd love to link you to those, but I'm writing this at work and I can only dare so much.
My Facebook feed lit up with Kirby messages. The best, I think, was and is the Kirby4Heroes Hero Initiative campaign. Run by Kirby's family, this organization posted some of his art and asked comic book readers to donate to the Hero Initiative. The charity drive also featured something called "Wake Up and Draw," where pros woke up and drew a lot of wonderful Kirby-inspired art.
Which I admit I have not done, but I will as soon as I get home tonight. Despite this deplorable lapse on my part, the outpouring of Kirby love was a joy to witness. Of course, my sudden realization here is more than likely a case of confirmation bias, since I recently added a lot of pro-Kirby feeds to my social media. It stands to reason they'd be popping on August 28th.
On this blog, just about every day is Jack Kirby Day.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Happy Jack Kirby Day!
It's Jack Kirby's birthday (he would have been 96!), which, around here, is a major holiday. For me, anyway. And if I have my way, one day it will be a holiday for everyone. I don't care if it becomes a national holiday with government offices and schools closed or anything like that. I'd just love to buy a calendar and see August 28th labeled Jack Kirby Day.
And maybe some parades in his honor or fireworks shows. Here's a favorite splash page of mine, from the classic Fantastic Four #29 (August 1964).
I'd tell you the credits right here, but they're already in the artwork!
This color recreation is probably pretty close to the originals. Some of it is a bit too intense, but I'm happy they didn't try to model a lot of shadows and light effects on the figures. But what I like best about this isn't the Thing having stepped in gum (although that is a nice touch); it's the way Mr. Fantastic plants his feet on the concrete and then uses just his torso to dodge the tossed garbage. There's a strong contrast between Reed's sturdy, pre-Vietnam-America-can-do legs and his swirling mid-section that draws my eyes. I keep imagining Mr. Fantastic's texture as sometimes like taffy, and at others, like in this instance, almost a liquid.
And there's Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl, in the center, saying something completely sensible. Call the police, not the superheroes. It's not fear talking. Sue isn't playing the dithery, do-nothing citizen trying to stay out of trouble at all costs. Sue's objection has to do with prioritization. She knows the team has more important things to worry about, like communism and Dr. Doom. She probably also has practical concerns. While I'm sure she'd agree the crime rate on Yancy Street is something of a concern, and it's admirable the FF want to pitch in, what can they realistically do about it? Burn the Yancy Street Gang to death? Bully them with the Thing's strength? Build a community center with the wealth generated by Reed Richards' patents? Psssh. This isn't for the Fantastic Four to bother themselves over. It's more a Spider-Man-level situation.
But I agree with Sue. What's truly needed is police involvement. Those lazy bums.
And maybe some parades in his honor or fireworks shows. Here's a favorite splash page of mine, from the classic Fantastic Four #29 (August 1964).
I'd tell you the credits right here, but they're already in the artwork!
This color recreation is probably pretty close to the originals. Some of it is a bit too intense, but I'm happy they didn't try to model a lot of shadows and light effects on the figures. But what I like best about this isn't the Thing having stepped in gum (although that is a nice touch); it's the way Mr. Fantastic plants his feet on the concrete and then uses just his torso to dodge the tossed garbage. There's a strong contrast between Reed's sturdy, pre-Vietnam-America-can-do legs and his swirling mid-section that draws my eyes. I keep imagining Mr. Fantastic's texture as sometimes like taffy, and at others, like in this instance, almost a liquid.
And there's Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl, in the center, saying something completely sensible. Call the police, not the superheroes. It's not fear talking. Sue isn't playing the dithery, do-nothing citizen trying to stay out of trouble at all costs. Sue's objection has to do with prioritization. She knows the team has more important things to worry about, like communism and Dr. Doom. She probably also has practical concerns. While I'm sure she'd agree the crime rate on Yancy Street is something of a concern, and it's admirable the FF want to pitch in, what can they realistically do about it? Burn the Yancy Street Gang to death? Bully them with the Thing's strength? Build a community center with the wealth generated by Reed Richards' patents? Psssh. This isn't for the Fantastic Four to bother themselves over. It's more a Spider-Man-level situation.
But I agree with Sue. What's truly needed is police involvement. Those lazy bums.
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