Ellis on Kirby

Warren Ellis retells Jack Kirby's move to DC in a way only Warren Ellis can.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

The King's Birthday

Happy birthday, Jack! Here's a video from last year's tribute panel at New York Comic Con:

Why Kirby Will Always Be The King
Bully's 24 hours with Jack Kirby tribute

The King Speaks

Pre-Kirby Etrigan

This week Comic Book Legends reveals the true origins of the Demon!

Peace Agents vs. Death Ray

While reading Jack Kirby's OMAC: One Man Army Corps, I realized that Death Ray from Eightball #23 bears a bit of a resemblance to the Peace Agents who choose Buddy Blank for his transformation.

Alt/Cap/Delete

via

The King's Turtles

Peter Laird on this Blast from the Past:

I don't know the exact process by which it came to be, but my understanding is that some time in the late 1980's or early 1990's, Jack Kirby did this 10 inch by 15 inch pencil drawing -- his interpretation of the TMNT -- at Kevin's request, and some years later, Kevin (who knew I loved this piece) graciously gave it to me.

As far as I know, this is the only time "The King" ever drew the TMNT... and it's SO Kirby. I love it!

via

Ryan Sook Countdown Covers

Ryan Sook has done some incredible covers for DC comics' Countdown Specials. While his type treatment might be unusable for an ongoing series, it is a striking and smart way of visually tying these one-shots together. I especially like his take on the Kirby characters. Usually comic artists fall back on the "it's-a-Kirby-character-so-I'll-do-a-Kirby-knock-off" approach, while Sook applies his own aesthetics.This Flash cover is another example of how Sook is able to reference the past (below) without being a slave to it. He's come a long way from his days as a Mignola look-a-like- but, hey, we all have to start somewhere.

This image was found over on Todd Klein's blog where he did a logo study on the Flash's logo- part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

Sunday @ New York Comic Con

Peter Laird

Laird, Jim Lawson and Steve Lavigne signed the only copy of Planet Racers seen at the con

Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers and Irwin Hasen

Costumes: Jessica Drew Spider-Woman, Ben Reilly Spider-Man, anime character (Battle for the Planets?) and the obligatory Storm Trooper

Keith Giffen

signed by Giffen and Kevin Maguire

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Series II (Superman's head even looks like it was redrawn by Curt Swan!)

Grant Morrison gets swarmed at the DC booth

The Incredible Hulk

Peter David and Jason Aaron (no last names allowed at this table)

signed by David

All Star Batman and All Star Superman Toys

JLU toyline continues to expand

signed by Louise Simonson

behind the scenes at The Stack

Through the looking glass: Mike Mignola and Mike Richardson

signed by Bryan Hitch

signed by Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines

Surprisingly, the most surreal sight of the day wasn't at the New York Comic Con...




(special thanks to Sara for the passes!)

Morrison: "The New Gods recreated superheroes"

art by Kirby (right) and Pasqual Ferry (left)

Grant Morrison on Jack Kirby and Final Crisis.New Gods wiki here.

2nd Kirby book by Evanier

"The next [book] is a much more exhaustive biography, due out in a couple of years. It'll have half a million words, some of them repeated." -Mark Evanier

"Jack Kirby: The King of Comics" excerpts

Don't ask--Just click it!

Dial B for Blog runs down the top 10 Kirby blurbs.

Lost Kirby found at Best Buy

Fantastic Four #108 (art by John Buscema)

Jack Kirby's art for Fantastic Four #102 was shelved by Stan Lee- although parts were used as flashbacks in issue #108 (above). Marvel has released the lost issue as a Best Buy DVD exclusive (with Silver Surfer figurine, natch).

More info here.

Beyond beyond...

Blogs to be bookmarked-
"Beyond the Groovy Age of Horror" features an interview with Richard Sala as well as some great scans and synopses of pulp novels.

"Datajunkie" (discovered by Nick) does some analysis of the work of Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Wally Wood and Jack Kirby. It takes a while to load but it's worth it.

Is it just me or...

...does this villain from 1975's Omega the Unknown look alot like DC's revamped OMAC?

art by Jim Mooney

Right down to the hands that morph into weapons...

(click image to see in context)

art by Ladrönn

For my money, there's only one OMAC anyway- and it doesn't stand for "Observational Meta-human Activity Construct" or 'Omni Mind And Community." It stands for "One Man Army Corps."

art by Jack Kirby

Fatalists, not Losers

Coming down from all of the royal celebrating yesterday? Get a dose of reality with Scott Tipton's analysis of Kirby's run on "The Losers."

Happy Birthday, Jack!

My all-time favorite Kirby cover, Kamandi #10 (October 1973):


Another favorite... it's so weird... Strange Tales #143 (April 1966):
[Don't mind the polybag glare!]


The following are Kirby images that I swiped from other sites so long ago that I can't properly credit them. Sorry.


This next image is the original rear cover artwork for the Fantastic Four Treasury - I swiped this one from www.romitaman.com, I think...


Pre-order the definitive Kirby biography now!
Kirby: King of Comics here

and if you have some more dough to blow, check out original (Kirby) comic art at Romita Man here

Kamandi here

Don't forget to check out the groovy links in Jashar's post below!