We hear so often that Jack Kirby was such a consistent 3-to-5 page-a-day comic book artist that I think the full impact of such a produce-or-starve work ethic starts to lose its luster after awhile. Sometimes I try to picture myself illustrating three pages of artwork a day and in my mind’s eye it doesn’t seem that difficult. But then I sit down to actually try to do it and I find the results are far, far different.

There have been times when -- after reading a stack of The Eternals for example – that I’m so pumped up and motivated that I’ll grab a few sheets of paper and a pencil and sit down at the ‘ol drawing board with the full intent of illustrating non-stop for one Herculean 10-hour stretch. If I’m lucky, I may get a cover penciled. Maybe a pin-up. If I’m real lucky I may get a few pages of simple layouts sketched out. But then reality hits me in the head and I have to mow the lawn or take my daughter somewhere or repair a leaky Fawcett. I’m pretty positive that even if I was just drawing 20 pages of stickmen I still wouldn’t get very far.

Which brings me back to Jack Kirby. The man was a virtual production line when it comes to making great comic books. And I urge anyone to attempt at even faking what Jack did -- regardless of your level of talent. While I write this I’m glancing over at my light table and seeing the same handful of drawings staring back at me. They’ve been sitting there in various stages of completion for about two weeks now and I’m not really sweating it. I wonder if Jack ever wished he had that type of flexibility in his schedule -- to choose not to pencil anything if he so desired. Apart from the fact that he probably couldn’t, I wonder some times if he would have blown off a day at his drawing table even if he had the chance. I’m more convinced than ever that Jack had to draw. Much in the same way that gamblers have to play cards or smokers need another cigarette. All of us fans are the ones who benefited the most from this “vice” of Jacks. But maybe if Kirby was making a lot more money and had some kind of ownership in his creations he would have been a little easier on himself.

Before I wrap I want to point out some way-cool news that I just stumbled across: A Newsarama article states that Eric Larsen is going to be penciling a new Silver Star on-going series. Silver Star -- as you may or may not know – was one of Jack’s last major undertakings before he more or less retired from penciling. Here’s an excerpt from Eric Larsen:

“…It will be two books to begin with. Silver Star covers Earth - Captain Victory covers all space and both will be packed with awesome Kirby characters and concepts many of which have only appeared as sketches. The idea is to introduce these characters one after another the same way that characters were introduced in other Kirby books over the years. What I'd like to do is feature Jack's original drawings and whatever notes he might have had in the back of the books to give readers insight into what Jack drew and what we had to work with. In the Silver Star book, for example, there are a few drawings that feature characters that didn't make it into the book. In Jack's original Silver Star pitch there was a whole gang of guys that wound up on the cutting room floor and Jack redesigned his "Angel of Death" character so much that he doesn't look like the same guy. That original design was cool as all hell and I want to put that design to good use. Jack has numerous cosmic characters that would fit right in to Captain Victory and Earthbound characters would be right at home in Silver Star and we can mix and match as well, having cosmic characters appearing in Silver Star and non-cosmic characters popping into Captain Victory…”

You can read the entire interview/article by clicking here!.

Eric Larsen is one artist who is keeping the Kirby flame alive with his unbridled enthusiasm for the medium.

I think Mark Evanier was once quoted as saying that a person’s favorite Jack Kirby comics are the ones they grew up reading. Meaning that for many of us who grew up in the 1960’s the Fantastic Four, Thor and Captain America represent the watermarks of Jack Kirby’s career. For others who grew up a few years later it was Jack’s work on the Kamandi and The Demon. For others still, the yardstick for measuring Jack Kirby’s creativity is with the books he produced during his second stint at Marvel -- books like Devil Dinosaur, The Black Panther and The Eternals to just name a few. The important thread here -- and actually there are many -- is that Jack Kirby produced a heck of a lot of comic books and comics characters during his illustrious career. And because of that -- in my humble opinion anyway -- you can’t just pigeon-hole one specific time period showcasing “the best work” Jack Kirby ever did.What I find even more interesting is that for lots of fans -- me included -- we may have grown up reading Jack’s work in one decade, but actually prefer his work from another.

For example, I grew up in the mid-to-late 60’s with 3 brothers, and the four of us were completely immersed with Jack’s run on the FF, Thor and any thing else he happened to produce. By the time I finally got my hands on one of Jack’s books there usually wasn’t much left to it. It had literally been devoured during the shared reading of my siblings. But the period I really enjoyed -- call me silly -- is the body of work Jack produced during his second tenure at Marvel (1975 - 1978). I thoroughly enjoyed The Eternals and Captain America and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Maybe I was a little older and not quite so in need of substance per se, so I just took Jack’s writing in stride. I tuned in to the elements I liked and tuned out the stuff that annoyed me (like Jack’s constant use of quotation marks) and just had a great time.

But the joyride didn’t stop there -- a few years later I chanced upon Captain Victory and felt like I was enjoying a sci-fi adventure from the 1940’s. The only thing missing was the popcorn.I’d like to think that for most of us fans it’s the same. We all grew up reading specific Jack Kirby books but deep down in our heart-of-hearts we enjoy other Kirby titles. When you want to impress your friends you mention the literary merits of The New Gods. But when no one is watching you’re a sucker for adventures of Machine Man or Devil Dinosaur.Jack’s books have never gone out of style. Whether it’s the Boy Explorers from the 1940’s or Jack’s Romance titles from the 1950’s, there is something for everyone. Great artwork and great writing from on of America’s least known (outside of comics anyway) but most talented artist-writer-editors.

As long as I’m basking in the glow of so much of Jack Kirby’s work, allow me to provide a free plug for Greg Theakston’s fantastic series of books entitled “The Complete Jack Kirby” from Pure Imagination Publishing. Greg has been systematically publishing Jack’s work beginning with his early strip work and I believe he is up to volume 5 by now. The Complete Jack Kirby is a great way to get to know the art of Jack Kirby and like I mentioned earlier, after reading a volume or two of this great series you’ll understand why I said that you can’t possibly pigeon-hole Jack’s work to one specific decade or genre.

Jack of all Trades

You know -- I've been meaning to start this Jack Kirby blog for quite a while but I never could find the time. Hopefully that has changed. At any rate, before another day/month/year goes by, I figured I needed to get some words down on paper regarding one of the -- if not the most creative, talented and dynamic comic book creator the industry has ever known -- Jack Kirby. And if you don't know who Jack Kirby is then shame on you.

So just who is Jack Kirby? For starters he's not "just" anyone. He was/is a real "jack of all trades" (hence te name of this blog). A comic book writer, artist, editor and creator whose career spanned about 50 years and encompassed pretty much the birth of the comic book medum itself! Not only that, Jack Kirby was the creator or co-creator of some of the most popular and widely read comic book characters the world has ever known -- namely the lion's share of characters that make up what is better known as the Marvel Universe. Plus a whole bunch of other creations for DC Comics and a host of other publishers.

Don't believe me? If you've ever thrilled to any of the Hollywood blockbusters that deal with the X-Men, The Hulk, the Fantastic Four or any of a dozen other Marvel comic book properties that have hit the screen in the last few yars, then you have enjoyed some of the characters created by Jack Kirby. Or if you you've ever enjoyed the four-color adventures of these same characters within the pages of a comic bok than chances are you read a story that was either written, illustrated or both by Jack Kirby.

I'm not sure if I can add anything new to the Kirby mythology that hasn't already been said or hasn't already been written, but at the very least I can offer a fan's point of view on JK and also turn you on to some other cool links that will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about my favorite comic book creator.

For starters you can check out The Jack Kirby Collector at http://www.twomorrows.com/. Publisher John Morrow has been producing the JKC -- a real labor of love -- for about the last 10 years or so and this king-sized magazine offers insights and artwork on Jack Kirby. Also at the top of the list is Mark Evanier's suberb site http://www.newsfromme.com/ which has a seperate link for Jack Kirby. Mark had the enviable position of actually working as Kirby's assistant back in the early 1970's and is currently finishing up a long-awaited biography on the artist many in the industry still refer to as "the king." And certainly I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center -- run by the Jack Kirby Estate and which exists as a way cool venue to keep Jack's name in circulation and educate people on Kirb's many contributions to Marvel Comics and the comics industry in general. And before I forgot, you may want to join in the fun on the Kirby-L chat forum, where more often than not a whole bunch of like-minded (at least I think they're like-minded) Jack Kirby fans post questions and generally argue about who is the best and worst inker to ever embellish a Jack Kirby page of art or which story was the best that Jack ever wrote, etc. There's a great bunch of folks on Kirby-L and there's always room for more.

Heck, if all you do is take a few minutes to check out the above links then you'll be off and running.In the meantime join me when you can as I wax poetic about Jack Kirby and the exciting four-color worlds he was able to create with the use of a simple pencil and a blank sheet of paper!