“There came a time when the old gods died…” So begins the first issue of Jack Kirby’s NEW GODS #1, the centerpiece of what many consider the crowning work of his career, the “Fourth World” saga of interconnecting titles for DC Comics. But in a way, that opening also served as notice to comics fans […]
Even as the San Diego Comic-Con becomes more and more of a pop-culture/movie-and -TV/ glitzy Hollywood event with each passing year, I always make sure to attend a few of the strictly comics-focused panels, just to keep alive that spirit of what I originally fell in love with about Comic-Con. A few years back, one […]
Check out this interview with Jack Kirby from the long-out-of-print documentary The Masters of Comic Book Art!
August 28th marks the 100th birthday of the most influential artist and creator to ever grace our industry, Jack Kirby. We’ll be spending the rest of the month looking at and talking about some of the King’s amazing contributions to the culture, and we’re kicking things off with a tribute to the King’s greatest creations […]
Five issues into The Fantastic Four, the heroes meet the supervillain that will become their arch-nemesis. (And, er, also the guy who kinda becomes Iron Man in 2017.) Introducing the dastardly, the deadly, the diabolical, the douchey… Doctor Doom. While the Fantastic Four are horsing around in the Baxter Building, a mysterious foe tosses an […]
The Marvel Age of Comics was firing on all cylinders by 1963. So much so, in fact, that legend has it that Marvel Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee and then-Marvel publisher Martin Goodman got a little wager going. Stan, heady with Marvel’s success, put forth that they could put out any kind of comic book, not just […]
Jack Kirby did everything in comics, staying with comics in its darkest days and brightest nights. He covered every genre, including romance, which he co-invented. He developed new comics techniques like the Kirby krackle and the use of photo collage. He created a dynamism to characters that was later called the Marvel style. Jack Kirby […]
For my money, the best Silver Surfer story ever told is the 1978 original graphic novel THE SILVER SURFER by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. By 1978, the acrimonious Kirby/Marvel split was already history, as was his much-publicized stint at DC. Around 1976, Kirby had returned to Marvel, and had created books like THE ETERNALS, […]
In 1953, Atlas tried to revive Captain America and Bucky. It didn’t work, and it annoyed Simon and Kirby because they thought it infringed on their work on Captain America. So they went out to outdo Atlas’ version. What they came up with was Fighting American and Speedboy. Initially, Fighting American fought Communists the […]
Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko are the comic-book artists best known for “other” worlds. But where Steve Ditko’s “other” was strange (pun intended), Kirby’s was overwhelming. Ditko’s Eternity was ethereal, literally a doorway in humanoid form. By contrast, Kirby’s Galactus is overwhelming, almost a burden on the page. But Kirby had a polar opposite […]
In the late 1960s, DC wasn’t much known for innovation. That is, until the arrival of Marvel co-creator Jack “King” Kirby in 1970, who in short order injected the DC Universe with more new blood than it had seen in decades, characters and concepts like Darkseid, Orion, the New Gods, the Forever People, Kamandi, the […]
When I first tread into the world of big two superhero comics, I had plenty to wrap my head around. Time lines, crossover events, reboots, 5,000 different Batman stories, decades of history. Comic books are intense and a touch intimidating in that way. But that wasn’t all. It absolutely blew my mind – and still […]
Even as the San Diego Comic-Con becomes more and more of a pop-culture/movie-and -TV/ glitzy Hollywood event with each passing year, I always make sure to attend a few of the strictly comics-focused panels, just to keep alive that spirit of what I originally fell in love with about Comic-Con. Back in 2007, one of […]
