The first time I noticed Jack using quotation marks to make a point I thought to myself -- “What the heck is THIS?” Oddly enough, my dottering father does the same thing whenever he writes a letter but the similarity ends there. I think. All I know is that (what I call) those “crazy Kirby quotation marks” were being put to (over) use by the time Pacific Comics started publishing Captain Victory and Silver Star. And if my memory serves me, they were STILL being used when Jack went back to DC to do the Hunger Dogs graphic novel and the Super Powers maxi-series.
So why did Jack use “quotation marks” to put emphasis on “specific words and phrases” when plain old bold face type would have worked just fine? I’m not exactly sure. I am confident about one thing: Jack the “editor” wasn’t about to interfere with anything that Jack the “writer” put down on the printed page. And that rule-of-thumb also applied to whoever lettered Jack’s books (we certainly know it was true when it came to inking – just ask Mike Royer).
We’ll never know if the use of “crazy Kirby quotation marks” ever existed when Jack was at Marvel in the 1960’s because Jack never “wrote”. Let me clarify -- Kirby never wrote in the sense of turning in scripts and certainly wasn’t writing word balloons on the art boards. If Jack was “quote-happy” when he returned to Marvel in the mid’70’s we never saw them because even if they were present, because Archie Goodwin or whoever else was managing editor t the time no doubt politely whited those silly “quotes” out or erased them altogether.
Looking back now after all these years, I accept those “quotation marks” as part of Jack Kirby’s unique, inimitable writing shorthand. Much the same way as Jack’s use of certain words. Ever notice that to Jack it always a “blowup” and never an “explosion?” Look back on some of Kirby’s more diversified works from 1975 on – and I swear you’ll never find the word “explosion”. Just a little pet peeve on my part -- but in the sense of words “sounding good” and reading “better” a powerful explosion just sounds easier on the ear and a bit more literary than “powerful blowup.”
Which brings me back to Jack Kirby’s use of quotation marks. Maybe Jack felt that by using quotes on certain words and phrases they stood out more than by using bold face type. Kind of like Mike Meyers/Austin Powers using his fingers to put everything into quotes.
Silly? Absolutely. Annoying? You bet! But Kirby comics wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable without those crazy Kirby quotation marks.
And you can quote me on that!
So why did Jack use “quotation marks” to put emphasis on “specific words and phrases” when plain old bold face type would have worked just fine? I’m not exactly sure. I am confident about one thing: Jack the “editor” wasn’t about to interfere with anything that Jack the “writer” put down on the printed page. And that rule-of-thumb also applied to whoever lettered Jack’s books (we certainly know it was true when it came to inking – just ask Mike Royer).
We’ll never know if the use of “crazy Kirby quotation marks” ever existed when Jack was at Marvel in the 1960’s because Jack never “wrote”. Let me clarify -- Kirby never wrote in the sense of turning in scripts and certainly wasn’t writing word balloons on the art boards. If Jack was “quote-happy” when he returned to Marvel in the mid’70’s we never saw them because even if they were present, because Archie Goodwin or whoever else was managing editor t the time no doubt politely whited those silly “quotes” out or erased them altogether.
Looking back now after all these years, I accept those “quotation marks” as part of Jack Kirby’s unique, inimitable writing shorthand. Much the same way as Jack’s use of certain words. Ever notice that to Jack it always a “blowup” and never an “explosion?” Look back on some of Kirby’s more diversified works from 1975 on – and I swear you’ll never find the word “explosion”. Just a little pet peeve on my part -- but in the sense of words “sounding good” and reading “better” a powerful explosion just sounds easier on the ear and a bit more literary than “powerful blowup.”
Which brings me back to Jack Kirby’s use of quotation marks. Maybe Jack felt that by using quotes on certain words and phrases they stood out more than by using bold face type. Kind of like Mike Meyers/Austin Powers using his fingers to put everything into quotes.
Silly? Absolutely. Annoying? You bet! But Kirby comics wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable without those crazy Kirby quotation marks.
And you can quote me on that!
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