One of these days I’m actually going to finish a pet project of mine -- that being a Kirby-l internet forum “anniversary” recollection. Trust me -- it’s a lot easier said then done. Until then, I offer up a bit of nostalgia about Kirby-l and salute everyone who has ever taken the time to post a question and add to the never ending discussion about why Jack Kirby was the greatest comic book creator the industry ever knew.
So let’s take a trip back…
It was 1995 or there about, but it seems like yesterday: I was on my computer, killing a few minutes while on a short break from work and enjoying a moment or two surfing the World Wide Web.
Just for kicks I’d decided to type in “comic book artists” on the Yahoo search engine to see what would come up. To my surprise a whole list of talented folks revealed themselves before my very eyes. But the name that shined the most brightly just happened to be Jack Kirby! I was in heaven! Not one, not two, but four websites dedicated to Jack! Hey, life doesn’t get any better than this!
Now you have to understand, back then -- in my mind anyway -- there wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the concept of the “internet” and the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey! To me, they were practically one and the same! It’s only been 10 years or so, but this whole internet thing was new to me. How the heck all this information was available at the touch of a finger was almost more than I could handle. So when I noticed Jack Kirby on the ‘net, who was I to ask questions?
If my memory serves me well, one Kirby site I found was a biography of sorts and linked to Hogan’s Alley, another was for the newly-started Jack Kirby Collector, a third was for a British Kirby fanzine – the name of which escapes me at the moment -- and the last internet Kirby listing was for a discussion forum for what is now affectionately known as Kirby-l..! I gotta say it again: when I discovered this I felt like I’d just won the lottery. In short order, I’d subscribed to the Jack Kirby Collector and joined the Kirby-l forum. And that ladies and gentlemen is when the fun started!
Kirby-L was and still is a great meeting place for Kirby fans.
The original driving force for the original version of Kirby-l was a gentleman by the name of Matt Gore. At some point he let go of the reigns and another individual named Chrissie Harper took over. Seeing as how my memory is at least as bad as Stan Lee’s it wouldn’t surprise me if I got the order wrong. But no matter. With Kirby-l it was as if Jack’s concept of the Uni-Mind was realized at long last. On Kirby-L I’d found a place where anyone could pose a question about Jack and talk about it at length with other like-minded individuals. And it wasn’t just the average Joe who participated in this daily sparring. Such Kirby luminaries as Mark Evanier, Mark Sherman, Greg Theakston and others including Bob Heer, Doug Rockstead, Bob Rivard, Mark Mayerson, George Kesidis, Richard Bensam, Olivier Toublan, Ron Evry, Charles Hatfield, Barney Dannelke, Chris Bailey, Ray Owens, Kirk Groeneveld, Gene Kannenberg, John Morrow, Colin Stuart, Mike Rhode, Steve Jones, Mike Manley, Harold May, Rodrigo Baeza, Cord Wiljes, Lou Smith, Glen Gold, Mark Justice, Jon B. Cooke, Keith Lee, Steve Taylor, Steve Chaput, Carlos Benvenutti, J. Kevin Carrier and a whole lot more folks whose names I’ve long since forgot often joined in and added their thoughts and recollections to all things Kirby.
Kirby-L quickly became one of my favorite vices. Back then it was great listening to Mark Evanier wax philosophic about his years spent working as Jack’s assistant. We postulated who may have been the inker on the first issue of Fantastic Fourwhy Vince Colletta was Jack’s worst inker, in addition to great tidbits about the Fourth World Trilogy. Not to mention seeing scans of Jack Kirby artwork that fellow fans shared on line.
It all seems a bit ant-climactic recalling this in 2007. But back in 1995 everything about Kirby-l smacked of a certain “newness”. Funny enough, although the original core group of Kirby-l contributors has either moved on, lost interest or passed away, the same kinds of questions are still being debated today.
These days the Kirby-l forum is moderated by Randy Hoppe and is sponsored by the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center. I have no doubt that 10 years from now, it’ll still be going strong. Just like the legacy of Jack Kirby!
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1 comment:
"Here's a brief summary of how I became involved in the Kirby-l. For me it was also around 1995, and I was looking through the newsgroups (remember those?) when I stumbled across something to the effect of rec.arts.comics.kirby or something like that. I had been reading most of the rec.arts.comics groups and this one was new and I can't remember who the moderator was. I do know that they made a suggestion that we start an e-mail list to discuss Kirby and if we were interested to leave our e-mail address and we would be contacted. I can't remember if I had to leave that address on the newsgroup or go to a web-site to do that, but I do remember getting that first e-mail and back then there were about 12 of us. I remember being amazed at how quickly the list grew AND how much I did not know about Kirby. I had no idea that he worked on the Jimmy olsen books for example. Anyway I've come and gone from the kirby-l a few times for one reason or another but I always come back. I like you can never get enough info when it comes to the KING.
Thanks for the great blog. It was fun reading it.
Doug Rockstead
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